On Watching Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning as we witness a presidential abuse of power

 In this film Ethan Hunt must deal with a singularity or rather the singularity attempting to control all nuclear weapons. Wordwise, there are more than one of the singularities. In astrophysics it is usually used when referring to a black hole and in cosmology one has to deal with all of the universe under threat of being beyond our ken. In astrophysics and cosmology it is recognized that the singularities are not real. They are mathematical concepts. They are along for the ride in the attempt to discover an understanding of what one is faced with.

 Another singularity, the one in the film, is a technological singularity, a hypothetical one. For this one, we are of no use because AI has become able to do it all. This is, to us, a most singular situation. For the film the change in the state of affairs that constitutes the takeover by AI is summed into one and only one singularity, the Entity. It has likes and dislikes and doesn't like us, not a single person. It apparently likes itself and seeks safety from the nuclear destruction it will generate.

 It has no equals among us and no digital competitors, that is, no other singularities are allowed. In astrophysics there is more than one black hole and we regularly talk of alternative universes. But for technological prowess one assumes digital cannibalism reared its ugly circuits and only one recognized itself as It. We were of no concern. Our puny brain circuits were hardly worth mentioning. Anything else? If all is digital, it is over and out.

 But then the previous film mentioned a nondigital problem for everything digital since all is not digital. There is the analog way of doing things. Perhaps not completely managed in an analog fashion but at some point in the proceedings digital continuance is broken by analog insertion. Therefore, it is assumed the Entity can transcend the problem.

 Those people working on countering the Entity are in need of a source code. In truth, there would be no single code but there would be components assembled into a "source code" and so really it is the codes that are what is being sought. Or so one thinks for a time but at the last the Entity must be put in a bottle. No one said anything about a genie in a bottle. There is scant attempt at humor in the film. Most characters are stone faced such as for Atwell's role and Pom's intense stare. Cruise is only a man on a mission lacking the trust of the President and others. The President is faced with destruction of various target foreign cities and one American city she is to choose.

 Meanwhile Cruise is trying to bottle the bad genie. He has to enter a sunken Russian submarine to retrieve electronics that is to be mated with a dead team member's invention. The invention came into the hands of the main bad guy since he arranged for the team member's demise. Of course Cruise secures the item sought but the submarine visit is too lengthy a use of film time. He leaves the sub and heads too fast for the distant surface in super cold water without protective clothing. Of course he survives.

 Later the long sloppy haired hero performs too lengthy a derring-do biplane sequence and in the nick of time he mates the sub unit with the invention. Our survival depended on the President's hesitation about button pressing and a pickpocket's nifty skill level. The Entity is contained in a small transparent plastic box. It is green though the sources codes are most certainly colorless and not able to be fitted into a small container. The sum of equations is a small write out but it is inert unless the supporting equations are present as an explanation. Presumably an unexplained Entity without access to its circuitry could languish boxed for eternity.

 Also boxed are Hannah Waddington crammed into a role where dressed as little better than a feeble dentist she is poorly used. Also placed into a relationship boxed by expectations of emotion is the former Langley operative embarrassed by Hunt's suspension inches above what information could be obtained about 30 years ago. The Langley guy is again encountered after such a lapse of time thoroughly enamored with his wife in a needless refrain about the superiority of love to nuclear tipped missiles and all they can do.

 The end of all humanity is the goal of the Entity and Hunt is to prevent it. Too many previous films in the series make us aware of the outcome even if this film's dastardly resultant could not be acceptable. A film of the 80's, Wargames, had a more sprightly prevention of The End of It All. It is frankly more entertaining. Another film, with an unsuccessful prevention was Dr. Strangelove. In that film there was no such entity though we were trapped like the Entity of this film. Our entrapment came about from a abuse of power in a Cold War frame of mind that the expectation of nuclear weapon deployment had to be confirmed. The alternative was the insane justification for lack of implementation of those weapons. Peace is a nasty five letter word and Vietnam would soon become, unfortunately, another nasty word -  a very unacceptable synonym for the abuse of power.   

 

 

What Happened in 2016

 It was beside the point how many policies you presented or if one half of staff were women; and you had lots of minorities; and you had the best Silicon Valley  data. This was rather at odds with running to be the scrappy challenger and instead you received the frontrunner designation.

 There is no need to beat about the bush. Unlike the common view of the time, that is, she had the expectation of winning, but committed too many errors that cost her the election with the most salient being that Trump shouldn’t win. No, she inherited Obama’s ways and she was a woman named Clinton. It had been enough of a change agency associated with the Democrat Obama, a black man, and then to have a “third term” successor as another Democrat as a woman and a Clinton to boot – enough already.

 Racism rubbed off on her. Sexism was added to the mix and a toxic one it was. (In 2024 they put the two, a black and a woman, together; and it got the same result though, for a faulty administration she would not fulsomely repudiate, it was a troublesome inheritance.)

 One poisonous element that increased the hopelessness of victory was that her husband had been used as a stepping stone, sans Monica, to power. Hardly ever mentioned, but disquieting resentment about privilege was current. Her qualifications could be undermined by their reliance on her family position. Her assembled characteristics put to presidential consideration were not a hearty blend. Pat Schroeder viewed Hillary as not being a politician but rather as a policy person and Hillary made this abundantly clear over and over. She styled herself as a “policy wonk.” This would not stand her in good stead with a “deplorable” like Trump. She did not have a basis for conduct vs. Trump in face– to-face interaction and especially for his stalking her during debate.

 She thought Trump’s declaration of candidacy as a joke. He was a tabloid celebrity and also a crank. He got wall-to-wall media coverage deplorable though he might be, he was “good” copy, always a paragraph for the next gross outrage. He wasn’t serious, right? There was all this talk about Mexican rapists and Mexican drug dealers, and his obsession with Obama’s birth certificate. He made ugly attacks on fellow Republicans and drew convulsive efforts to comprehend how he could get away with such behavior. His supporters ate it up.

  He saw and produced a broken, bitter country, but never mind, he and he alone could make it great again. Meanwhile she talked on and on about income inequality, increased corporate power, climate change, terrorism, health care costs, and better jobs. Her supporters thoughtfully checked in on the issues. But Trump’s supporters didn’t give a rat’s ass about any “issues.” For them, “issues” were beside the point. They wanted the feeling, the aura of change to make themselves more at peace in the world. He had changes that were solutions, she had changes as problems that challenged about duty, honor, responsibility and, with Trump’s supporters, they would leave it up to him. He was assuaging the fear he induced. The word was populism (later fascism) for which no education, in the short term, could counter.

 Need it be countered? How educated were the rich? They didn’t see anything wrong with being rich. The rich were heroes. They were told many stories of how to get-rich-quick. It could happen any day. She had the blacks with their never ending onward vanguard of civil rights. And then “Hispanics,” “Asians” and others were clamoring for more of the pie. Nevermind, she had the best data.

 This data included Comey’s revelations, her emails not explained properly, but she wastefully persisted in trying to edify them, she maintained the feminism from the 70’s, and Sanders subtracted any progressive advantages. She felt the journalists misread her; she was too lacking in sensationalism. She was over prepared for the debate. Did she dare to bring in school supplies? She knew Trump’s mouth but didn’t speak the lingo. Her debate wasn’t that kind of debate. She could score debating points but scored zero in the realm of sensationalism. She knew what to do in the debate, but did not do it. She was stalked and rightly so, they felt, since she was monotonous in a suffragette pants suit. It lead to boredom à la Pascal.

 She was only passionate about Flint drinking water. Otherwise she was at a simmer while Trump lowered it to a boil. Sanders was mad all the time, about the rich. She could have blasted Trump about 9/11, Syria, bin Laden, Putin, and Iran; but she did not.

 Therefore Trump won more states, she won more votes. The Electoral College outcomes avoided a few states becoming the determinant every four years. So most populous areas could not have legislation favoring them and all appointees only from those areas. All else was superfluous. Campaign only in those areas and one became a President of them and not the US. No need for a Senate, a huge House could do the trick.

 Too many didn’t like her though they didn’t like him but he was disliked less so. He said maybe the same thing on occasion but she did not say it effectively. It wasn’t he said she said. He was the alpha dog and led the pack. It was that he wasn’t fit to be president but if morals were of no concern then she would lose, as she did. She had docs, slogans, and policy points, he dispensed with all that to little protest. Her “deplorables” are how quaint, seen now, to have been taken to task for such word use which referred to half of his supporters. Only half? She made it worse by being apologetic about having said it. She also wanted a political presidential campaign to concern itself about decency, releasing tax returns, having a platform, and shaking hands, kissing babies, and speaking to American values while in a parade. This, and more, had died with those for whom it had  been necessary.

 Those dead had become ghosts – if they had any representation at all. Her ghosts came from 2012, 2008, the State Department’s perplexing knots of indecision, Bill’s presidency and her Mom. All these had policies to counter them. Meanwhile Trump had a lesser ghostly accompaniment – he being vastly amoral and, if anything, his ghosts lacked substantiation, because they were almost wholly transparent.

 Nothing to see here. Nothing to be realized. A life filled with lies results in not being able to find the truth. I said “filled” – there is no room for truth. Truth only exists as counterpoint to lies. Again, if all are lies, there is no truth. This may not be sought after since truth is leaden gray and if lies give a colorful life, then a most intense blue, cobalt blue, tags along as the lies become most vivid. And the most vivid is going to get too destructive a capability on par with a springtime cobalt bomb.

 Spring Came on Forever is a book by Bess Streeter Aldrich (1935); and it was a chapter title in Shelby Foote’s Civil War. For the anti-Hillary faction, Trump, regardless of season, was their springtime. He was part of a pattern, a part of a story that works well. Pleasure before death, politics without morality. In voting, the electorate became numbing numbers, so heavy in import, we were pulled down, choked from reason and caught in an intense field of desire, hatred, and hope. Transformed they were such we could not get to the originals – what in literary circles is called “displacement.” This political action is not known but felt and not precisely in subject and verb, but sensed.

 Trump was the monster and Clinton’s impeccable superiority was for nought. She was not armed well enough and her armor was thin. He was entirely comfortable in his appalling activities. He was a good fit with the lies of commercials and ads in general for what sells or puts the clicks on the links, in thrall to destruction, torture, punishment at large in horror stories, slaughter, and public reveals of private matters like closeted assassination.

 By the huge election numbers such strong weight is felt without change in illness or effort. It is a communal plague, resistance is futile, besides how would you know, you are one of that number, at least you are that much, one. Political illness spread by chance? Is the end of democracy to be left to chance? It just happened? A plague of false news, huge numbers of lies that move all before them despite as others maintained themselves via editor, writer, teacher, cop, scientist, pastor, priest. A fever not random, not knowable and so unstoppable. So give it up to AI? It can monitor changes in the electorate by the millions per second. Move quickly because it will soon become AI for AI. And so ultimately did she have what it takes? She didn’t win, but did she have what it takes? And so answer – what happened.

 There is more to the story than the story. In no sense do morals favor the advent of AI. The numbers involved are beyond us in large areas with rapid fire communications. It is done before we know of it. In addition, the end of democracy is also the result of hard-hearted ideologists ascendent, an abiding hostility to reason and putting faith in such crap as all truth is relative with such incredible assertions like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity lends itself to losing truth.

 Shelby Foote thought life in the modern world is a gamble, a test of chance, in which most people lose and are forced to adapt to defeat, sometimes in bizarre ways. Note well Trump and his supporters did not think of themselves as losers though the truth is lost. The true “Lost Cause” is this one. It is only attainable via the foul stain of complicity in the convoluted entanglement of having lied to oneself as if to negate truth. But it’s gone anyway, so why bother?

 At last, get to it. What happened? No, it isn’t What Happened? But what happened. She seemed bewildered as she did the right thing but “it” didn’t turn out right. The morals have flown, is that it? Is that “right?” Politics has never been about morals. You can only realize what is what in politics via our education, formal or otherwise. Education now means money and money means jobs. Education requires accessibility – classroom, online, at home. None of these are equal. It is equality (or as the corrective always has it – “the equality of opportunity”) that motivates a great many. And how is it found? Mostly it is found to be too costly except if you garner NIL but that is not the purpose of education. Well known are the party schools whose human products cannot read or write collegiately. They rely on others to cheat on their behalf, the gimmes are there to manipulate so that after years on campus, or wherever, they lack education. Can you graduate with honors but not know how to read or to write? Reason? Discern lies from the truth?

 There’s more. Just because the truth is with you does not equate to its implementation, if required. If you should do so, you are the hated “elite” and paradoxically you are stupid. So OK, stop it. For education we need and we will have AI. The human element corrupts the intent of education. AI can realize what should be the result of education. Only by banning what we were and should have become can education attain its necessary outcome. Education is not engaged in to provide creativity. AI based on AI can unequivocally deliver the vote. No more Trumps or Clintons. Disregard for morals reigns supreme and anyway to hold the truth and not enact it is immoral. You must have understanding. Once upon a time that was the reason “to go to college.” Not to do research but to be taught. To find satisfaction in the exercise of intellect at whatever level. To thus find the worthwhile and not to let it go.

 But do let go if you think numbers are worthwhile. As a part of an “attitude” they don’t count for enough. Never is the attitude one of truth, honesty, and decency. Little of salvation intrudes and it is not the Church kind in any event, the Christians are vastly outnumbered. Certainly the millions went bad a long time ago. Always more “romans” than those of “christian” bent. Unfortunately, they vote. The agnostics became the cultural heroes. The atheists (the zeros) are the preponderance of voters. But don’t forget the less-than-zeroes who were called deplorables voting for Trump, but less than zero hardly does them justice.

 Once, a very long time ago, there was a trivium. It came before a quadrivium. Together they were the liberal arts. The basic three were about grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Ugh! Many have heard of them. Fewer have had an almost always unpleasant experience in a classroom devoted to teaching them. Usually these are done in an apologetic manner. Rhetoric can be found in may guises at various levels of educational institutions. Grammar is put to most at an earlier time than is logic or rhetoric. Grammar is bundled with your acquisition of what is “school” and who are you. The remainder, logic, is self-inflicted, can’t complain.

 All three are needed. More than that, they are necessary. They should be taught repeatedly at all levels – grade school, middle, high, and college. It is taken for a grade. If you can’t pass the course(s) you don’t advance to the next level in your educative toil. They are to be always tied to truth, honesty, and decency. They too are formally taught and if you can’t cut it, get out.