Exciting, frightening film about the 900-pound gorilla that’s already in the kitchen

Written by David Marconi
Directed by Tony Scott
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer

Will Smith … Robert Clayton Dean
Gene Hackman … Edward ‘Brill’ Lyle
Jon Voight … Thomas Brian Reynolds
Regina King … Carla Dean
Lisa Bonet … Rachel F. Banks
Jake Busey … Krug
Scott Caan … Jones
Jamie Kennedy … Jamie Williams
Jason Lee … Daniel Leon Zavitz
Gabriel Byrne … Fake Brill
Stuart Wilson … Congressman Sam Albert
Jack Black … Fiedler
Jason Robards … Congressman Phillip Hammersley
Tom Sizemore … Boss Paulie Pintero
Loren Dean … Loren Hicks

When I first saw this movie—geez, hard to imagine this film being made nearly 10 years ago!—I was more moved by the technical wizardry than tuned into this jumbo-sized chronicle of the national security state gone awry. [And now, with this repost here in August 2017, and reformat, consider that it’s been nearly 20 years of surveillance-state growth and dominance of every inch of our lives.]

That, and I remember feeling so friggin’ irritated with Carla (Regina King) for bitching about Robert (Will Smith) doing business with Rachel Banks (Lisa Bonet):

The Claytons’ home has been broken into, the NSA has framed him, his high-powered legal firm has fired him, and his reputation has been trashed in the D.C. papers. So this stand-by-your-man wife throws him out of the house without giving him a chance to explain.

Keep in mind Carla is an ACLU attorney and has just the day before giving Robert a lecture about how our rights are being trampled by the state. Their lives are unraveling from some hostile agent, and she’s getting emotional about some old flame he still has to talk with occasionally? Women!

Turns out Carla’s bitching is the least of his troubles: Continue reading →

Jury Nullification and Why Ross Ulbricht’s Prosecutors Are Trying to Evade It

Editor’s Note: A microcosm of everything scary and wrong about the out of control criminal injustice system, but soon to be rectified by the people as they reassert their grand jury authority for indictment (presentment) against government and government-associated criminals–telling all the officers of the court what to do (instead of the other way around)–and, in this case, they fully empower themselves by understanding their inalienable rights to decide facts and law in any criminal prosecution. [Though they almost always have good reason, they can let a man go free for whatever reason they wish… because the prosecutor is inflicting them with bad breath. The people have the power, they’ve been fooled into thinking they do not.] — bw