The Red/Blue Divide

I have been fascinated for years by the red/blue divide in this country. One issue after another illustrates this divide, whether it be infant mortality, use of capital punishment, spending for education, and on and on.

But the most stiking illustration I have ever seen occurs when we look at CoVid vaccination rates by state. The top 21 states in vaccination rates are all blue (voted Democratic in the last Presidential election), and the bottom 16 are all red (voted GOP in last election). The top "red" state is Iowa at #22, and Iowa is really more purple than red. The lowest "blue" state is Nevada at #35, and, like Iowa, Nevada is really more purple than blue.

Of the fifteen lowest states, nine are from the old confederacy. The only exceptions among the eleven confederate states are Florida, which has turned purple due to the influx of retired northerners, and Virginia, which has turned blue in recent elections.

Of the seven lowest states not from the old confederacy, two are western mountain states (Idaho and Wyoming), and two are prairie states (Kansas and North Dakota). Then there is Missouri, which is southern in spirit but never actually seceded, and Oklahoma, which surely would have seceded had it then been a state. The oddest outlier is West Virginia, which had its origins in its desire to remain in the union (and how odd it is that the union thought it perfectly OK for West Virginia to secede from Virginia, but wrong for the southern states to secede from the U.S.), but in recent years has turned red, for reasons which are not clear to me.

If we look at states which have the death penalty, we see another strong red/blue correlation, though not quite as stiking as the vaccination correlation. Of the 24 states which voted for Biden, only three have the death penalty: Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. And of the 26 Trump states, only four don't have the death penalty: North Dakota, West Virginia, Iowa, and Alaska.

Had Lincoln done the right thing and allowed the seven confederate states who originally seceded to "go in peace", we woud have a much more unified country. Lincoln's war-mongering has led to the mess we're in today.

The Price of Adventurism

Here is a game I played today on chessbase. My higher-rated opponent gets duly punished for his materialism in the opening.

1 d4 d5 2 c4 Nf6 This is being played a lot against me recently. The point of it is unclear to me. 3 Nc3 I have not yet gone to the trouble of exploring the nuances of 3 cd. Consulting a database, I see now that 3 cd scores much better than 3 Nc3, with 73% wins for white! Normal play continues 3...Nxd5 4 e4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e6 6 Nf3 Be7 7 Bd3 0-0 8 0-0 and white's win percentage is now 95.5%!!

3...Bf5 This seems too adventurous, but it scores about as well as any other move except 3...g6. 4 e3? This is white's worst move. Best seems to be 4 Qb3, hitting the undefended pawn at b7. 4...e6 5 Nf3 Nc6 6 a3 Here I managed to find the most usual move for white.

6...h6 7 Bd3 BxB 8 QxB Na5 9 cd Nb3? Here is where black goes wrong. 10 de?! I miss 10 Qb5+, picking off the N/b3. Still, I have a 3-point advantage. 10...NxR 11 ef+ KxP 12 Nd2 c5 The engine now has it equal, but his next move gives me a slight advantage.

13 0-0 Be7 14 Qb1 cd 15 ed Re8 16 QxN The engine actually now has black slightly ahead. 16...Qxd4 17 Nf3 Qb6 18 Qa2+ Kf8?? This runs into mate. Correct is 18...Kg6 and the game goes on. 19 Ne5 Red8 20 Qf7#. An entertaining game.

Sanctions for Trump Lawyers

The other shoe is starting to drop for Trump lawyers who filed frivolous election lawsuits. In a hearing Monday in the Michigan case, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker chastised the Trump lawyers for filing a case that was "nothing but speculation and conjecture" . No decision yet, but severe sanctions seem likely.

In the UK the losing side is required to pay the winner's legal fees. I think this goes too far, since you can file a suit in perfectly good faith, but still lose for one reason or another. And how do you define "losing"? If you ask for $10,000 and get a verdict for $5,000, is that a win or a loss?

In the US attorneys can be sanctioned for filing a frivolous case, and you have a duty to investigate before making accusations in a petition initiating a lawsuit. Trump's lawsuits surely qualify as "frivolous", and filed in "bad faith", and I hope judges have the courage to impose appropriate sanctions. Hitting these unscrupulous lawyers where it counts, in their pocketbooks, is the only way, short of disbarment, to make the point properly.

Another motion for sanctions will be heard this morning in Colorado, and I'm excited to see how that turns out.

Lilyhammer

I recently binge-watched all three seasons of "Lillyhammer", and I can't believe how engrossing this Netflix series is. It never loses interest. Most of the people responsible for the series are Norwegian; in fact, pretty much all escept Steven van Zandt, who stars and is also given credit as a writer and executive producer.

The aspects of Norwegian culture featured in the series are realistic, as far as I can discern. For example, I had never heard of reindeer races, but it turns out that reindeer racing is quie popular in northern Norway, Finland, and Russia.

The winter scenes have always captivated me, as I much prefer winter weather to summer weather. This is one thing that has attracted me to movies like "Fargo" and "Beatutiful Girls", the great winter scenes, with lots of snow.

But what has most captivated me about this great series are the references, both direct and indirect, to great movies of the past. The opening scene in season two is right out of "The Godfather", where an aggrieved citizen is making a plea for help, and for a long time it shows his face without showing who he is talking to. Many of the lines are word for word from the opening scene in "The Godfather".

The first sheriff of Lillehammer is an exact takeoff of the female sheriff in "Fargo". There is a direct reference to "Goodfellas", where Johnny is berating a guy for saying he is funny, and Johnny then says he is mimicing Tommy from "Goodfellas". In another scene Johnny connects with an autistic boy by using lines from "Angels with Dirty Faces". The line "I'm the guy who's telling you the way it is" is taken from "Get Shorty", and possibly other movies as well. In two scenes right out of "Godfather II", a guy who is about to get whcked gets taken out on a boat for fishing.

When Johnny and his men are on a mission, Johnny's dim-witted assistant suggests they call themeselves by colors, like in "Reservoir Dogs". Johnny points out that the purpose of that was so they don't know each other's names. At one point the assistant says "I could have been a contender", right out of "On the Waterfront".

When the mob sends two men over to Norway to assassinate Johnny, the two bungle around just like the two thiefs in "Home Alone". And the girls in bikinis coming out of an RV to entice the two guys into partying with them are right out of "Dumb and Dumber".

The final episode, appropriately entitled "Loose Ends", is particularly noteworthy. The loose ends are indeed tied up, and the theme is developed of whether Frankie's time has come and gone, whether it is time for him to give way to a younger (and meaner) generation, as represented by the guy Tommy who refused to leave Norway when ordered to. Tommy gets his comeuppance,and the old guard survives intact. I was pleased that the Brazilian beauty has a big part in the finale, and many of her lines are quite poetic.