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Twilight Zone

William Shatner, Captain Kirk, and Mike Pence: Together At Last

October 18, 2021
by Peter Feinman
William Shatner at 90

William Shatner, Captain Kirk, and Mike Pence were joined together on October 13, 2021 at 8:00 PM ET in an unprecedented combination of science fiction and history. Shatner was shown on CNN with obvious Trekkie Anderson Cooper who has been having the time of his life. At the same time on the cable network Heroes and Icons, was showing Star Trek as part of its normal six-day a week schedule of:

8:00 Star Trek
9:00 Star Trek: Next Generation
10:00 Deep Space Nine
11:00 Voyager
12:00 Enterprise.

It’s not only Friends and Law and Order which are on all the time!

The Mike Pence reference is to the Star Trek episode being shown that night.

STAR TREK KIRK AGED DIFFERENTLY THAN WILLIAM SHATNER

As is turns out, while William Shatner was boldly going where no 90-year old had gone before, he already had been old before. In the episode “The Deadly Years” shown on December 8, 1967, in the second season, the humans on a planet had experienced a rapid aging. When I say rapid, I mean rapid. People were growing old right before our eyes. Look at this picture of how the Hollywood make-up artists envisioned the old Captain Kirk.

Captain Kirk at 90

The entire episode is based on the aging officers of the Enterprise growing too old to fulfill their responsibilities.

The contrast between the actual actor at age 90 in 2021 and the aged character in the 1967 episode is truly remarkable. As you watched and listened to current version, you saw no one like the TV character. Of course, truth be told, in his physical mobility and mental necessities, he didn’t much resemble many people of his age today either. Imagine if back in 1967, he could have seen a picture of what he would really look like when he reached 90!

LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW

Shatner made an extremely casual comment in an interview with Cooper prior to the flight that is easy to overlook. He waxed poetic about his expectations of seeing the majesty of space and the oasis of earth from the rocket window. He would be like a kid with his face pressed against the window not wanting to miss a moment of the experience. Perhaps he was contrasting himself with people who never look up from their gadgets. Today, it’s only real if it is on a screen.

Then Shatner said, “I don’t want to see someone looking back at me” when I am looking out the window. Such an expression seems eminently reasonable. It would be quite shocking if when gazing out into the dark vastness of the universe, suddenly from outside the ship, there was someone looking back at you. While your faced was pressed against the window on one side, imagine the horror if someone or something also was pressed against the window but from the outside.

Nothing else was said about that comment during the interview. But Shatner the actor had had exactly that experience once before. It occurred not on Star Trek but on The Twilight Zone. The episode was “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” shown on October 11, 1963, four years prior to his becoming old before his time on Star Trek.  The episode has become one of the more famous ones in Twilight Zone lore. It even has been retold. Part of what is so fascinating now is to see the limitations in special effects compared to what exists today.

Another fascination is how the show becomes such a terrifying story. It was confined to the passenger section of a plane and the mind of a person recently released from a mental treatment facility following a nervous breakdown. Now he is seemingly recovered and being escorted home by his wife. All I can say about the episode, is that when I first saw it I was terrified. Kudos to Rod Sterling and company for crafting a tale that scared the hell out me. And the scariest moment of all [SPOLIER ALERT] occurred when William Shatner stared out the window on the wing of the plane and saw something staring back at him.

Once this Twilight Zone shot was terrifying

Kudos also to the 90-year old Shatner for joining together The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and his voyage into space.

CAPTAIN MERIK VERSUS VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE

The Mike Pence connection takes a little explaining. While Anderson Cooper was giggling, Heroes and Icon was showing the Star Trek episode “Bread and Circuses” which originally aired on March 15, 1968. In that show, Captain Merik and his crew from his spaceship are missing. The Starship Enterprise crew locates the crew on a planet governed by a 1960s version of the Roman Empire. So if you channel surfed, you could flip back and forth between Shatner and Cooper and Captain Kirk and a Roman Caesar in an earthlike world of 1960s technology where Rome never fell.

Mike Pence has been no Captain Merik from Star Trek “Bread and Circuses.” Will he be a hero now? (William Smithers)

Does this missing Captain look familiar to you? Does he bear a passing resemblance to anyone today?

Back on October 3, 2019, more than one year before the 2020 election and January 6, I wrote a blog entitled “Will Mike Pence Become a Profile in Courage?” The issue then was the second impeachment due to the attempted extortion of the Ukrainian President.

On the planet, Captain Merik sells his soul to the Roman Emperor, to Caesar and not to Christ. It is not an exact match to V.P. Mike selling his soul to his Lord and Savior, the chosen one, blessed be his name, but it is close enough.  Pence’s performance in the Cabinet meeting where he thanked God for enabling him to share the same space-time continuum as The Donald will forever define him. In its own way, it is even more pathetic than Captain Merik’s abject submission in the TV show.

 Be that as it may, both Mike and Merik have violated their oath. Merik has violated the Prime Directive by interfering in the planet and sharing knowledge of the existence of the Federation of Planets along with the awareness of a superior technology to that a 1960s country possessed. Vice President Brown Nose has been submissive in his behavior but whether he has crossed the line or not is another issue…until the current scandal

Now he faces a moment of truth. He was present during the violation of the Constitution and the cover-up. What will he do? He was part of it. Will he tell the truth? He has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution.

In the Star Trek episode, Merik redeems himself. In the moment of truth, Merik rescues Kirk and Co. enabling them to beam back to the Starship Enterprise and escape the clutches of the imperial order. He pays for that decision with his life. Sometimes being a profile in courage can be fatal. Just because you demonstrate the right stuff to go into the arena does not mean you will survive the ordeal and emerge a victor. In the TV show, Merik did not.

What will Mike Pence do? He prides himself on his Christian values. Will he tell the truth? He prides himself on never dining alone with a woman who is not his wife. Will he tell the truth? He prides himself on his integrity. Will he tell the truth? He thinks he is part of God’s plan. Will he tell the truth?

No.

He will not rise to the occasion.

He will not be a profile in courage.

I returned to this issue in blog from January 7, 2021, the day after the attempt to steal the election, overthrow the Constitution, and attempt to hang Mike Pence. I concluded that blog with the wishful thinking that “The country needs him to be the hero and not a zero” and hope that he would be one. True he did not go along with the 6-step program insisted on by the Hitman, but that is not enough. His last chance to be a profile in courage will occur when he is subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee about his involvement in January 6. The odds are Pence will remain true to character and fail his country once again.

What Tucker Carlson Meant to Say

June 15, 2020
by Peter Feinman
"My function is to destroy that which is not perfect." (Words from Star Trek, Image from the Twilight Zone)

Opening narration

This is the face of Ramos Clemente, a year ago a beardless, nameless worker of the dirt who plodded behind a mule, furrowing someone else’s land. And he looked up at a hot Central American sun and he pledged the impossible. He made a vow that he would lead an avenging army against the tyranny that put the ache in his back and the anguish in his eyes, and now one year later the dream of the impossible has become a fact. In just a moment we will look deep into this mirror and see the aftermath of a rebellion in the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone episode The Mirror was shown on October 20, 1961. In a Central American dictatorship, Ramos Clemente (modeled after Fidel Castro), and his four lifelong confidants, stage a successful revolution against the regime of General De Cruz. Clemente faces down De Cruz and revels in his victory, but the deposed general says that Clemente will soon learn the consequences of ruling by force. De Cruz also tells Clemente that his ornate mirror has the ability to reveal enemies in its reflection.

When Clemente begins using the same repressive tactics used by the deposed dictator De Cruz, a rift develops between him and his four friends, now the heads of the government. A particular point of contention is Clemente’s order for mass executions of prisoners he has declared to be enemies of the state. The purification of the new order requires the cleansing of the impure.

When Clemente looks into the mirror, he sees visions implying that all four of his confidantes are plotting to assassinate him. They are cleansed and the revolution is purified.

Finally, Clemente is approached by a priest who asks him to end the executions. Clemente refuses, saying that as long as he has enemies the executions will continue until the country is purified. Clemente takes one last, long look in the mirror…and sees only himself. He picks up his pistol and throws it at the mirror, smashing the glass. “The last assassin,” he says, “and they never learn…they never seem to learn.”  The country is purified at last.

Closing narration

Ramos Clemente, a would-be god in dungarees, strangled by an illusion, that will-o’-the-wisp mirage that dangles from the sky in front of the eyes of all ambitious men, all tyrants—and any resemblance to tyrants living or dead is hardly coincidental, whether it be here or in the Twilight Zone.

If there is a Twilight Zone episode about purification, then there must be a Star Trek one too. The episode is “The Changeling” first broadcast on September 29, 1967.

Plot

The Enterprise investigates a distress call. The cause of the distress is an object that identifies itself as “Nomad”, and refers to Captain Kirk as “the Creator”. It was a space probe launched from Earth during the early 21st Century. Its original mission was to explore the galaxy and seek out new life, but it had been reported destroyed.

Now Nomad’s new mission is to seek out and eliminate any “biological infestation” that it deems imperfect. The change occurred after Nomad had collided with a meteor, was severely damaged, and then wandered through space. It finally coming into contact and merged with a powerful alien probe designed to obtain and sterilize soil samples from other planets. Nomad partially integrated the agricultural mission directives, interpreting them to mean “sterilize imperfections”. When Nomad declares that its directive is to sterilize imperfections it allows no exceptions. Kirk points out that Nomad itself is imperfect, since it has mistaken Captain Kirk for its true creator Roykirk. Seconds after Nomad is transported from the ship, an explosion is detected and Nomad is no more.

In the Star Trek episode as in the Twilight Zone, the one who seeks destroy imperfections or who leads the revolution dies.

Once the purification process begins there is no real off switch. Consider the situation in the Peoples Republic of Seattle. The President of the United States had called upon people to liberate their states (from Democratic governors). He operated under the naturally short-sighted thinking that only his people would do the liberating and not the other side. Welcome to the real world.

One might think that the Seattle autonomous zone was about George Floyd. Perhaps it was at first but that is not how purification works. Moe’ Neyah Dene Holland, a Black Lives Matter activist in Seattle said:

We should focus on just this one thing first. The other things can follow suit. Because honestly, black men are dying and this is the thing we should be focusing on. 

The reference is to the expanded agenda of purifications which had been identified. First, three demands were posted on a wall. Then five were posted on a fence. Then there were 39 online. That’s the way the purification process works. Where does it end?

NEXT CONFEDERATES

The next target for purification has been the Confederates. With police reform, there has been a legal process at the local, state, and federal level to pass new laws and make changes. The same has applied to Confederates regarding the naming of military bases, the removal of statues, and the changing of street names. But some people also have taken the purification process into their own hands and acted independently of the law. Statues have been toppled. That’s the way the purification process works.

NEXT COLUMBUS

At first glance, Columbus would seem to have nothing to do with George Floyd or police reform. You are wrong. Once it is started, purification just keeps going and going and going. Columbus like the Confederates already has been under attack. Cleansing actions have been undertaken in multiple states to remove the presence of Columbus. The current situation provided an opportunity to further act to cleanse the country.

Ironically, in the village where I live, the march on May 25 to protest police brutality began in Columbus Park. The park is located not that far from Columbus Ave. The march against police brutality stayed focused on the issue of the police. To the best of my knowledge there was no call to rename the park or the street on which Spanish-speaking people live. Nor has there been any indication of traumatized people stressed out for living with the Columbus name. At some point, these people are going to have to be educated in the steps required to purify the village of Columbus. The questions of racism and genocide will be raised time and time again until every statue, every street, every building has been purified of the Columbus name. That’s the way the purification process works.

NEXT SLAVEOWNERS 

Albany, N.Y. Mayor Kathy Sheehan has announced that the city will be taking down the statue of Philip Schuyler because he was a slave owner. Dr. Alice Green, Executive Director at the Center for Law and Justice, said: “He enslaved them, he devalued them, and the lesson for young people is that: Why are we glorifying people who treated us that way?”  An objection was raised by former state legislator and city historian Jack McEneny:  “Philip Schuyler is one of the people who… if we didn’t have him, we would’ve lost the battle of Saratoga.” In response, Dr. Alice Green, said: “I don’t believe in censorship. I do believe if somebody wants to glorify Philip Schuyler… they should, but not on my government property.”

There are other examples glorifying Philip Schuyler. One is the nearby Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site located on state property and operated by the New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation. Another is the Schuyler House, Philip Schuyler’s country house, located near the Saratoga battlefield and owned and operated by the National Park Service.  What is the basis for removing the statue but keeping state and federal ownership of his houses? Why should taxpayer money be used to support the homes of a slave owner? Shouldn’t these houses be privatized? One thing always leads to another. That’s the way the purification process works.

What about Schuylerville, the village where the Schuyler House is located? Shouldn’t its name be changed?

What about the streets with the name of a slave owner? Just as the name “Columbus” must be purged as part of the purification process, so too must the names of all slave owners be eliminated from America’s streets and buildings. This process too is already underway especially at colleges where buildings have been renamed. However it has not yet been extended to the individual street names. Systemic racism means simply removing a statue is not enough. All vestiges of slavery need to be removed. Those street names have to go if the town is to be purified of the reminders of slavery. That’s the way the purification process works.

A reporter in Albany asked, do all the slave-owner named streets have to go along with Schuyler including those named after the founders of the city and the country.

Yes, said Derek Johnson, who is black and represents the South End on the Albany Common Council. “If we’re going to be consistent, all of them should be changed,” Johnson told [reporter Chris Churchill]. “Right is right.”

NEXT ALEXANDER HAMILTON

A bigger problem is Schuyler’s daughters. They appear in the musical Hamilton as one of them married Alexander Hamilton. The daughters were all beneficiaries of white privilege. What are they doing on Broadway in positive roles? Shouldn’t they be removed from the musical? If seeing a statue is traumatic what does that make seeing living examples of these daughters of white privilege singing and dancing before an appreciative audience? What does that make the people who pay to see them? “Who will the story?” the musical famously asks. The real story is one of slavery and not that of Hamilton. That’s the way the purification process works.

NEXT THE FOUNDING FATHERS

Then what about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington who also appear in the musical. Imagine the trauma experienced by the black actors performing in the role of an author of the Declaration of Independence and the father of the country. Doesn’t that qualify as cruel and unusual punishment? Both founding fathers already have been under attack. Seventy-five-per-cent-white Sally Hemmings has become a cause célèbre as a black person in the life of Jefferson. Washington has been attacked for tracking Ona Judge Staines. How can the country be purified if slave owners are the people who founded it? They and the country they created have to go. That’s the way the purification process works.

NEXT JULY 4

The birthday of the slave country is July 4. The Declaration of Independence was written by people who owned people. The purification of the United States demands that the people be liberated from a country based on racism. Indeed, The New York Times received a Pulitzer Prize for showing that America is a slave-based country. The newspaper also identified the birthday of the new country to be created: 1619.

NEXT THE CONSTITUTION

Just as the birthday of the country needs to be changed, so too the governing document needs to be scrapped. It is the product of racist slave owners. The purification of the United States demands that the people be liberated from a governing document based on race.

Systemic racism cannot be eliminated as long as the birthday and governing document of the country are based on racism. Instead of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States, the country needs to be cleansed of its sin. A new country based on 400 years should be created. Only then will the purification be completed. That’s the way the purification process works.

I am not saying this scenario will happen. I am not saying that people in Politically Correct Command Central have a plan and are deploying the politically correct people (PCPs) to implement it. I am not saying there even is such a command center. I am not saying that the people protesting for police reform [a subject to be addressed in a future blog] aren’t patriotic Americans who want the country they love to live up to its ideals. I am saying the purification process described here is a logical conclusion to the forces that now have been unleashed. There really is no way to tell where this process will stop. We need a new national narrative for the 21st century.

 

The Twilight Zone and the Coronavirus

April 8, 2020
by Peter Feinman
A White House Briefing (https://www.syfy.com)

The Twilight Zone and the coronavirus are not often linked together. However, sometimes it is amazing to realize how well Rod Sterling (and Gene Roddenberry) anticipated our present. In this blog, I will present three episodes of the Twilight Zone that easily could have been created now with some adjustments. One should keep in mind that back in the 60s, there was a greater fear of nuclear war destroying us than a virus. The comments and descriptions on the websites about the episode tell the tale we are now living. They come from imdb.com and Wikipedia mixed with some comments of my own.

The Old Man in the Cave

Twilight Zone Season 5 Episode 7 Original air date  November 8, 1963

They Went to Jared’s (https://2.bp.blogspot.com)

Opening narration

What you’re looking at is a legacy that man left to himself. A decade previous he pushed his buttons and a nightmarish moment later woke up to find that he had set the clock back a thousand years. His engines, his medicines, his science were buried in a mass tomb, covered over by the biggest gravedigger of them all—a bomb. And this is the earth 10 years later, a fragment of what was once a home, a remnant of what was once a race. The year is 1974 and this is The Twilight Zone.

The prediction of a nuclear war in 1964 went unfilled. In a time after the Cuban Missile Crisis but just before the assassination of an American president, the idea did not seem farfetched.

In a sparsely populated town in 1974, ten years after a nuclear war has devastated the US, the townspeople have discovered a supply of canned food. However, they are waiting for Mr. Goldsmith [Fauci], the town’s leader, to return with a message from the mysterious and unseen “old man in the cave” [science] who will tell them whether the food is contaminated with radiation. Some of the townsfolk want to take their chances and end social distancing and eat the food together, but they refrain from doing so after seeing the disastrous death totals when they failed to take the old man’s advice about which farming areas were contaminated. When Mr. Goldsmith returns, he informs them that the old man has declared the food is contaminated and that it should be destroyed.

Shortly thereafter, a group of soldiers led by Major French [aka Fox] enter the town and clash with Goldsmith as they try to establish their authority. The soldiers may or may not be representatives of the US government as its propaganda outlet…A clash of wills ensues and, frustrated by Goldsmith’s quiet and steadfast refusal to bend, French tries to dispel the townspeople’s strange beliefs about the seemingly infallible old man in the cave and take control of the area. French tempts the townspeople with some of snake-oil elixir his gut tells him he likes. Goldsmith claimed it was unproven. Many throw caution to the wind and partakes of. the food and drink.  After being bullied and threatened with his life, Goldsmith finally opens the cave door and it is ultimately revealed that in reality, the townsfolk have been using information from a computer [algorithms] the whole time. French rallies the townspeople into a frothing frenzy into destroying the machine, after which French leads the people into celebrating their new found freedom from this “tyranny” of social distancing. However, as Mr. Goldsmith had insisted, the “old man” was correct; without an authority figure to tell them which foods are safe, the entire human population of the town (including French and the soldiers) die—except for the lone survivor, Mr. Goldsmith, who somberly walks out of the now dead town.

Closing narration

Mr. Goldsmith, survivor. An eyewitness to man’s imperfection. An observer of the very human trait of greed. And a chronicler of the last chapter—the one reading “suicide”. Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been The Twilight Zone.

My prediction is that despite all the efforts of Fox and its friends, most governors will maintain the social distancing restrictions until June 1 based on the currently available information from reputable sources. They will be guided by the advice of Fauci and not the wartime President.

Hocus-Pocus and Frisby: Where Are the Martians When You Need Them?

Twilight Zone Season 3 Episode 30 [30!!!! episodes in a season!!! Is that possible?] Original air date April 13, 1962

He Never Tells the Truth (https://www.imdb.com)

Opening narration

The reluctant gentleman with the sizable mouth is Mr. Frisby. He has all the drive of a broken camshaft and the aggressive vinegar of a corpse. As you’ve no doubt gathered, his big stock in trade is the tall tale. Now, what he doesn’t know is that the visitors out front are a very special breed, destined to change his life beyond anything even his fertile imagination could manufacture. The place is Pitchville Flats, the time is the present. But Mr. Frisby’s on the first leg of a rather fanciful journey into the place we call the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Somerset Frisby has a general store/gas station in a small town, and the townsfolk know him well for the tall tales he spins of his experiences, from his heroism in war despite his bone spurs to his drug cures because of his super-genius uncle to his unsolicited advice via tweets to presidents and captains of industry, all of which he fabricates. His friends gather in the store to hear him spin his stories, which they find very entertaining, and he never tells the truth except by chance. But he means no harm and is not a horrid, nasty, cutie pie.

One evening, when he is alone at closing time, creatures from another planet lure him into their clutches while disguised as humans, then abduct him to their spaceship. They want to add Frisby to their collection of specimens from other planets. The aliens accept his tales at face value. They have heard Frisby claim eight doctoral degrees, being the greatest baseball player in New York City and a great athlete, and a very stable genius, the smartest person in the room. Naturally, they want him as the outstanding example of the human race. Ignoring his plea that he is late for supper, the aliens insist that Frisby accompany them to their planet.

Frisby pleads that he is simply a shameless liar, but the aliens have no concept of lying. He manages to escape. When he tries to tell his friends what happened, they enjoy a laugh at what they of course take to be another of Frisby’s tall tales.

Closing narration

Mr. Somerset Frisby, who might have profited by reading an Aesop fable about a boy who cried wolf. Tonight’s tall tale from the timberlands of the Twilight Zone.

If only the Martians would come so our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, would ascend to the heavens and save us from having to listen to any more tall tales instead of being regaled with them on a daily basis.

It’s a Good Life 

Twilight Zone Season 3 Episode 8 Originally broadcast Nov. 3, 1961

The White House staff at Work (https://www.imdb.com)

On an isolated family farm, a young boy with vast mental powers, but lacking emotional development, holds his terrified family in thrall to his every juvenile wish.

This is a portrayal of a nightmare. It’s one of those things where you hope you’ll wake up. It’s about an entire community that has been taken over by a child brat who is totally self-centered and sociopathic. He probably doesn’t realize the error of his ways. Any effort to educate him would result in being “sent to the cornfield.” This is a state of limbo. When your adversary has no conscience, he cannot be approached in a rational way. This story is about fear. Not only are the people under constant threat, the world the boy is creating is one that is becoming bleak and vacuous.

As you read the opening narration please keep in mind that the story is about an actual six-year old in mind and body and that he has actual supernatural powers. These two considerations mean the story is not an exact parallel to the real world but the fundamentals ring true as even in the real world an immature child can have great powers at his command.

Opening narration

Tonight’s story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a map of the United States, and there’s a little town there called Peaksville. On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village. Now I’d like to introduce you to some of the people in Peaksville, Ohio. And you’ll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio have to smile. They have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because, once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield or change them into a grotesque, walking horror. Oh yes, I did forget something, didn’t I? I forgot to introduce you to the monster. This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He’s six years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you’d better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge. This is the Twilight Zone.

Plot summary

At the beginning of the show, the child is playing with his animals. He loves playing with his animals. They are right out of central casting. And since he likes science fiction he can makes his animals into any form he wants. They can even speak out of both sides of their mouths if he wants them to just as he does. But eventually the child tires of his toys who sometimes have minds of their own and they are disposed of, banished to the cornfields where this field of dreams is a nightmare.

The people live in fear of him, of the uncertainty, of never knowing what the child will say next. They constantly tell him how everything he does is “good,” the best ever, the greatest ever whereas everything before him was the worst ever.

One night each week, the child gives the townsfolk one hour of television, which he creates and projects onto the family TV set. The adults gather around in his living room, squirming uncomfortably as child shows them a vision of Fox and Friends with screaming dinosaur talking heads engaged in a gory battle. Unable to voice their real feelings, they tell the child that it was far better than what used to be on TV. Everything now is the greatest ever.

His aunt Amy whose brain had been “fixed,” says “I kind of liked it a little better when we had cities outside and could get real television.”
The child’s mother replies, “The child’s television is much better than anything we used to get.”
The child’s father adds: “Why it’s fine. Why Fox television is the best thing we have ever seen.”

After the program is over, the adults celebrate Dan Hollis’ birthday. He gets a bottle of brandy. Getting drunk from the brandy, he starts complaining about the miserable state of the town. The child at first ignores him after telling him to be quiet. Dan eventually snaps with repressed rage surfacing and confronts the child.

You monster you, you dirty little monster…. maybe some man in this room; some Republican with guts, somebody who is so sick to death of living in this kind of a place and willing to take a chance will sneak up behind you and lay something heavy across your skull and end this once and for all.
Somebody sneak up behind him. Somebody end this now….
Will somebody take a lamp or a bottle or something and end this.

The printed word cannot capture the intensity of the anguish of this emotionally wrought person who can no longer endure the reign of the child, who only speaks in Happy Talk.  Aunt Amy tentatively reaches for a fireplace poker but no one has the courage to act. The child banishes him to the cornfield. The adults are horrified at what he had done but no one does anything,

The child then causes the stock market to drop and the coronavirus to spread needlessly killing far more than it would have if he could only read a report or manage people who were professional. The father then smiles and tells the child in a terrified voice, “…But it’s good you’re making the coronavirus spread unchecked for weeks. A real good thing. And tomorrow… tomorrow’s gonna be a… real good day!”

Is there anything more dangerous… than a spoiled, selfish, stuck-up little brat who always gets his way?

Closing narration

No comment here, no comment at all. We only wanted to introduce you to one of our very special citizens, little Anthony Fremont, age 6, who lives in a village called Peaksville, in a place that used to be Ohio. And, if by some strange chance, you should run across him, you had best think only good thoughts, talk happy talk, and profess loyalty as if you were Mike Pence himself and not that woman from Michigan.  Anything less than that is handled at your own risk and you will not get the medical equipment and supplies you need because the Federal Government is just a backup. If you have to deal with Anthony, you can be sure of one thing: you have entered The Twilight Zone.

How did Rod know?

Bullied by Ann, Stymied by Nancy: Deflating an Inflatable

January 29, 2019
by Peter Feinman
Credit: Trump Baby/Cover Images

The Twilight Zone nailed it. I have been waiting a long time to write about this episode. Now, finally, the time is right. Although the details are not an exact match, there is enough in common with the present situation to do so. It’s all about facing fears and then deflating a hot-air balloon.

The episode appropriately enough is entitled The Fear and was televised on May, 29, 1964. It was the second to last televised episode of the series. It has not ranked among the best of the Twilight Zone episodes but it still turns out to be useful today. (Information on The Fear from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734638/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt)

Opening Narration

The major ingredient for any recipe for fear is the unknown. And there are two characters about to partake of the meal: Miss Charlotte Scott, a fashion editor, and Mr. Robert Franklin, a state trooper. And the third member of the party: the unknown, that has just landed a few hundred yards away. This person or thing is soon to be met. This is a mountain cabin, but it is also a clearing in the shadows known as the Twilight Zone. 

A New York City fashion editor has sought refuge in the woods after suffering a nervous breakdown. She is full of anger and belittles the “hicks” that live in the area. She resents having to have any contact with these lesser beings but the necessities of food [drone delivery via online ordering had not yet been invented!] forces her to speak to them in person and exchange pleasantries. One such passing comment leads the state trooper out to the remote cabin 30 miles from the nearest village to investigate suspicious lights and sounds.

The conversation between the red-state male and blue-state female does not go well. But he manages to cut through her pretensions by quoting Shakespeare. Serling adds small details which are not essential to the storyline itself but have an importance in their own right. Even her accent is refined haughty. Just when it looks like there may be a communication breakthrough, the lights and sounds from the surrounding forest begin again this time even stronger. This one isolated patch of civilization in the midst the wilderness is about to have a close encounter of the first, second, and third kind.

The source of this disturbance to the cosmic is, WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT, ILLEGAL ALIENS.  They are not only illegal aliens to the United States, they are illegal aliens to the planet earth. During the course of the night they subject the puny humans to one fear-inducing moment after another. Communication with the civilized world is severed.  The illegal aliens seem to be everywhere even on the roof!

Somehow despite all this commotion, the two humans then go to sleep. When the state trooper awakes his clothes are unmussed and his face is clean-shaven. Her clothes similarly are unwrinkled and her makeup is still perfectly applied. Oh well, it is after all the Twilight Zone!

In the light of day, the two tiny humans go outside to confront their fears. As far as special effects, the illegal alien is not very special and not very effective…except in terms of the story. If you have been to or seen the Macys’ Thanksgiving parade you were not likely to have been frightened by the hot air balloon towering over you. Nonetheless, within the context of the story, we are to imagine these people in dread fear of the illegal alien standing before them.

Some of the dialog leaves a little to be desired.

He calls her a charter member of the insufferable snobs.

She replies that not only is a charter member she is founder of the society of frightened people who cannot face the world.

He responds that being frightened is a normal natural human function. It is how you react to fear that really counts.

Is that What You Were Afraid of? (https://m.media-amazon.com/images)

He reacts to seeing the illegal alien by firing his hand gun. He shoots the inflatable again and again and then is nearly blown away by the air rushing out of it.

It’s a balloon. It’s a balloon.

Is that what we have been frightened of?

The scene then shifts to the small alien saucer responsible for the hot-air balloon. Amazingly, even though the now larger humans tower over the spacecraft, they can now hear what is being said inside. And lo and behold, these illegal aliens speak English. They hear the illegal aliens reporting back to the home office on the failure of the entire operation. They were unsuccessful in getting the humans to be frightened. They request immediate permission to depart.

Saucer must report failure entire operation ended by earthman’s failure to be frightened. Request permission from Great Leader to depart from earth.

In fact there is a desperate urgency to their plea.

Oh please Great Leader, let us depart now.

And depart they do only to find jobs at the nearest Trump resort.

Closing Narration

Fear, of course, is extremely relative. It depends on who can look down and who must look up. It depends on other vagaries, like the time, the mood, the darkness. But it’s been said before, with great validity, that the worst thing there is to fear is fear itself. Tonight’s tale of terror and tiny people on the Twilight Zone.

No this episode is not about the illegal aliens from Central America in their caravans invading the United States. They are not the hot-air inflatable. The big bag of wind is THE DONALD, the professional wrestling persona Little Donnee Wanee created so people would think of him as a swaggering macho man, the world’s greatest negotiator, the world’s greatest deal maker, the world’s greatest manager, the smartest person in the room, a very stable genius, the only one who can solve our problems. And then Ann bullied him, Nancy stymied him, and the great lie was exposed. All the hot air dissipated until what was left a deflated balloon who had been exposed as Caveman.

There is a scene in Inherit the Wind where the William Jennings Bryan character experiences the same moment of comeuppance.  He had arrived in town to great fanfare and celebration. All the people praised him. Say Hallelujah! Then he faced something that never occurred during the Republican primary presidential debates or the presidential debates in 2016: a moment of truth when he had to go into the arena and battle 1:1 with an adult who knew his stuff. By the time the Clarence Darrow character was through with his cross-examination, the people in audience had laughed at him and then stood in shock as they witnessed their hero deflate. “They laughed at me. They laughed at me,” he said.

Can you imagine what would happen if Mueller cross-examined Person #1? By comparison Whittaker would seem prepared and polished.

The air has been let out of THE DONALD and all that is left is Little Donnee Wanee.

My prediction as I previously wrote was that the government Trumpdown would end when Republican Senators decided to end it by providing veto-proof legislation. In an interview (“Mitch McConnell Got Everything He Wanted,” by Charles Homans, New York Times Magazine, January 27, 2019), Homans

had asked him {McConnell] whether, if a hypothetical shutdown-ending compromise had landed on his desk that would command a veto-proof majority in both his Senate and Pelosi’s House, ending the standoff over the protests of Trump but without the need for his signature, he would bring it up for a vote. “No,” he said.

By the time the article was published that assertion had proven false. Six Republican Senators had voted to end the government Trumpdown and more were likely to. Game over.

Elected Republicans are starting to look ahead instead of over their shoulders. They know what another “red wave” and “great victory” as they just had in 2016 would mean for them in 2020. It’s no fun being in the minority in the House of Representatives. It’s no fun losing the Senate majority either. Every Republican candidate in 2020 will have the toxic Trump taint on them like a veritable mark of Cain. Even without Mueller, the deflated inflatable bullied by Ann and stymied by Nancy has been exposed as weak, as a loser. The world already laughed at him in the General Assembly; what happens if the Republican base catches on that it has been conned?

There is a narrow window of opportunity for the Republican Party to attempt to right the ship. A party based on Robert E. Lee will never become a national party. Nor will a party based on fear. The Republican Party came in second in the presidential races in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2016. It is gearing up to do so again in 2020. Even with Obama voters shifting to Republicans in 2016, Russian assistance, and a subpar Democratic candidate, the Republicans still lost by 2.8 million votes in 2016. Since then it has made no effort to expand its support and every effort to reduce it. There was an almost 9% spread in the House vote in 2018. Based on the House vote in 2018, the Electoral College vote would be 329 to 206 in 2020.  That is too big a gap to overcome for a minority candidate. Their Lord and Savior has been bullied by Ann, stymied by Nancy, and exposed by the Republican Senators who ended the government Trumpdown. Even rats know better than to stay on a sinking ship. But my prediction now as it always has been is that the Republicans will remain onboard even though THE DONALD has been exposed to be the Little Donnee Wanee he really is.

MAD DOG BANISHED TO THE CORNFIELDS: TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE BECOMES REAL

December 25, 2018
by Peter Feinman
Still Waiting! (For Better or Worse, December 15, 2018)

Rod Serling (and Gene Rodenberry) had an extraordinary ability to foretell our present situation. So many episodes seem to be about today it. In this blog, we turn to:

It’s a Good Life 

Written by Rod Serling
Directed by James Sheldon
Originally broadcast Nov. 3, 1961

The comments and descriptions on the websites about the episode tell the tale we are now living. They come from imdb.com and Wikipedia mixed with some comments of my own.

On an isolated family farm, a young boy with vast mental powers, but lacking emotional development, holds his terrified family in thrall to his every juvenile wish.

This is a portrayal of a nightmare. It’s one of those things where you hope you’ll wake up. It’s about an entire community that has been taken over by a child brat who is totally self-centered and sociopathic. He probably doesn’t realize the error of his ways. Any effort to educate him would result in being “sent to the cornfield.” This is a state of limbo. When your adversary has no conscience, he cannot be approached in a rational way. This story is about fear. Not only are the people under constant threat, the world the boy is creating is one that is becoming bleak and vacuous.

As you read the opening narration please keep in mind that the story is about an actual six-year old in mind and body and that he has actual supernatural powers. These two considerations mean the story is not an exact parallel to the real world but the fundamentals ring true as even in the real world an immature child can have great powers at his command.

Opening narration

Tonight’s story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a map of the United States, and there’s a little town there called Peaksville. On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines because they displeased him and he moved an entire community back into the dark ages just by using his mind. Now I’d like to introduce you to some of the people in Peaksville, Ohio. This is Mr. Fremont. It’s in his farmhouse that the monster resides. This is Mrs. Fremont. And this is Aunt Amy, who probably had more control over the monster in the beginning than almost anyone. But one day she forgot. She began to sing aloud. Now, the monster doesn’t like singing, so his mind snapped at her, turned her into the smiling, vacant thing you’re looking at now. She sings no more. And you’ll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio have to smile. They have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because, once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield or change them into a grotesque, walking horror. This particular monster can read minds, you see. He knows every thought, he can feel every emotion. Oh yes, I did forget something, didn’t I? I forgot to introduce you to the monster. This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He’s six years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you’d better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge. This is the Twilight Zone.

At the beginning of the show, the child is playing with his animals. He loves playing with his animals. They are right out of central casting. And since he likes science fiction he can makes his animals into any form he wants. They can even speak out of both sides of their mouths if he wants them to just as he does. But eventually the child tires of his toys who sometimes have minds of their own and they are disposed of, banished to the cornfields where this field of dreams is a nightmare.

The people live in fear of him, of the uncertainty, of never knowing what the child will say next. They constantly tell him how everything he does is “good,” the best ever, the greatest ever whereas everything before him was the worst ever. Never having experienced any form of effective discipline, the child does not even understand that his actions are wrong. He thinks everyone should want to play on his team and that he has his pick of the best and the brightest in the land. He is confused when his father tells him that the neighbors are reluctant to let their children play with him and join his team after he sent several of his playmates to the cornfield.

One night each week, the child gives the townsfolk one hour of television, which he creates and projects onto the family TV set. The adults gather around in his living room, squirming uncomfortably as child shows them a vision of Fox and Friends with screaming dinosaur talking heads engaged in a gory battle. Unable to voice their real feelings, they tell the child that it was far better than what used to be on TV. Everything now is the greatest ever.

His aunt Amy whose brain had been “fixed,” says “I kind of liked it a little better when we had cities outside and could get real television.”
The child’s mother replies, “The child’s television is much better than anything we used to get.”
The child’s father adds: “Why it’s fine. Why Fox television is the best thing we have ever seen.”

After the program is over, the adults celebrate Dan Hollis’ birthday. He gets two presents from his wife: a bottle of brandy – which is one of only five left in the village – and a Perry Como record. Dan is eager to listen to the record, but he’s reminded by everyone that the child does not like singing and he must listen to it at home. Getting drunk from the brandy, he starts complaining about the miserable state of the town, not listening to the record, and no one singing “Happy Birthday” to him. The child at first ignores him after telling him to be quiet. Dan eventually snaps with repressed rage surfacing and confronts the child.

You monster you, you dirty little monster…. maybe some man in this room; some Republican with guts, somebody who is so sick to death of living in this kind of a place and willing to take a chance will sneak up behind you and lay something heavy across your skull and end this once and for all.
Somebody sneak up behind him. Somebody end this now….
Will somebody take a lamp or a bottle or something and end this.

The printed word cannot capture the intensity of the anguish of this emotionally wrought person who can no longer endure the reign of the child, who does not act anonymously or after the fact but face to face.  Aunt Amy tentatively reaches for a fireplace poker but no one has the courage to act. The child banishes him to the cornfield. The adults are horrified at what he had done but no one does anything,

Then Thomas Friedman said, “I believe that the only responsible choice for the Republican Party today is an intervention with the president that makes clear that if there is not a radical change in how he conducts himself — and I think that is unlikely — the party’s leadership will have no choice but to press for his resignation or join calls for his impeachment.” But Friedman’s words were as flat as his world and everyone at Fox just laughed.

The child then causes the stock market to drop and the snow to fall even though it’s summer and the crops have not been harvested. The father then smiles and tells the child in a terrified voice, “…But it’s good you’re making it snow. A real good thing. And tomorrow… tomorrow’s gonna be a… real good day!”

Is there anything more dangerous… than a spoiled, selfish, stuck-up little brat who always gets his way?

Closing narration

No comment here, no comment at all. We only wanted to introduce you to one of our very special citizens, little Anthony Fremont, age 6, who lives in a village called Peaksville, in a place that used to be Ohio. And, if by some strange chance, you should run across him, you had best think only good thoughts. Anything less than that is handled at your own risk, because if you do meet Anthony, you can be sure of one thing: you have entered The Twilight Zone.

How did Rod know?