Who Knew?

I noticed the origins of this story some time back, but hadn't really thought through the implications until the SCOTUS ruling broke:

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a lower court’s decision that allowed an undocumented immigrant teenager to obtain an abortion over the protests of the Trump administration. ... The Trump administration has enacted a policy of preventing access to abortion services -- even though the government is not asked to pay for the procedure -- for pregnant teens held in government-funded centers after crossing the border illegally.

So essentially the Trump administration is so pro-"anchor baby" that they insist on pregnant immigrants giving birth to shiny new birthright citizens even if those immigrants would rather have abortions and get deported. Or at the very least they're more anti-abortion than they are anti-"anchor baby."

Things that make go "hmmm ..."

What a Fun Take on the Nigerian Prince Scam!

From my spam folder:

From: "Christopher A. wray"
To: [address elided]
Subject: Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters

Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters
935 Pennsylvania Ave NW

COMPENSATION SETTLEMENT OF ESCROW ACCOUNTS US$6,000,000.00

Attn:Beneficiary,

It is a pleasure to write you that we have reconciled with our logistic department on the reimbursement of some fund spent by you during the cause of your inadequate dealings with some imposters who claim to be staff in banks and other regional payment centers.

Our reconciliation teams with the prospectus instrument of the United Nations after freezing suspected imposters account. This support was fully effective with the help of World Bank after a summit meeting in United States, on the financial analysis on financial stability issues fluctuating their economy with the international global standard. After gathering of this sum, our logistic department gave us a list of customers to be paid who fall victims to this imposters due to unawareness. And mode of payment was as well specified for proper conducts and financial regulations to kick against criminality during process of payment.

We have arranged your payment through our swift card centers, which is the latest instruction from federal bureau investigation Reconciliation Office. The card center will send you an ATM Debit card which you will use to withdraw your money in any ATM Center, Banks and Union Pay Credit outlets in the world, You are hereby selected as an honor for this payment approval, which you are to acknowledge the receipt of this mail in returning the required below to the Logistic Department by email listed below. Office of Reconciliation and Logistics Vaults, federal bureau investigation (FBI)

1. Full Name
2. Phone and Fax Number
3. Your age and Current Occupation
4. Contact Address where you want your ATM Card to be delivered to (P.O Box Not Acceptable)

For your information, you have to stop any further communication with any other person (s) or office (s) to avoid any hitches in receiving your payment because of Impostors, we hereby issued you our code of conduct, which is (ATM-7740) so you have to indicate this code when contacting the Card Center by using it as your subject.

Kindly be informed that recipients shall be liable to all cost arising for the delivery of the donation parcel.This is due to Legal law protecting all donation funds misappropriation.

Yours in Service,
Christopher A. wray
FBI Director

Film Theory

I haven't seen Solo: A Star Wars Story yet. No surprise there, as 1) it's not very often I catch a film on the big screen and 2) the only Star Wars film I've really, really, really liked since Return of the Jedi has been Rogue One (which I didn't expect to like and thus missed on the big screen).

I'm actually a fan of the idea of a Hans Solo spinoff. I might have to get out and see this one. But the point here is that I have a theory about why I'm seeing all these stories about it bombing at the box office. The theory:

It's really hard to separate the character from the actor who played him in the early films. Harrison Ford owns that face, that voice, those mannerisms. Anyone else trying to pull them off is going to be expected -- by many, at least -- to offer an inferior impression of the original actor playing the original character.

Personally I plan to give Alden Ehrenreich advance benefit of doubt if for no other reason than that I want to see whether or not he pulls it off by either doing a really good impression of Harrison Ford or convincingly taking possession of the character himself. If either, I predict the latter (I've seen the trailer and the voice, at least, is distinctly non-Fordish).

But I can understand why many Star Wars fans might decide to take a pass on it.