Lacking Candor

Last night as everyone was preparing for their weekend, Attorney General Jeff Sessions (likely following orders) fired retiring Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. McCabe left his position in January but was due to retire with full pension on Sunday. However, having been fired he has lost said pension after 21 years of service to this country. Many people cannot claim to have served our country for so long, including President Bone Spurs.

Sessions' reason were, unsurprisingly, vague. But chief among them was "lack of candor" during Congressional testimony with regards to his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Now, if Jeff Sessions wants to fire the guy and rob him of his retirement savings to help President Oompa Loompa settle a personal score and keep his own job (for another week), go ahead. If he wants to fire him to help further impede the investigation into Russia and join Congressman David Nunes in obstructing justice, go ahead. If he wants to fire the guy just because he doesn't like the color of his socks, go ahead!

But maybe the man who repeatedly told Congress like a broken record "I do not recall" whenever he was asked about contacts with Russia should have used a different reason other than lack of candor to fire one of his subordinates.

Just saying, that's all.

The Next Star Wars TV Series Should Be....

It may have taken a few years after their purchase of Lucasfilms to start churning out Star Wars productions, but now that they've started they're sure pumping them out now. Since December 2015, we've had two Skywalker Saga movies and one spin-off released with another spin-off due out this summer. To say the least, in addition to JJ Abrams' finale to the new trilogy next year, we also have a trilogy being developed by Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson as well as a "series of films" by the showrunners of Game of Thrones.

While the film projects may be getting most of the attention, it's Disney's TV plans that have me intrigued. Before selling his company (and the franchise) to Disney, George Lucas had already delievered two iterations of a Clone Wars animated series and had plans for a live-action series. However, Lucas felt that the limitations of a TV budget made such a series impossible to produce and abandoned the project.

Disney, however, is prepared to move forward. With their animated series Rebels soon wrapping up, they're looking to the future. Rumor has it that they've secured licensing for Star Wars: Resistance as they seek to develop another animated series. And thanks to shows like Game of Thrones and Star Trek: Discovery, epic Sci-Fi is much more feasible for TV which has led to the rumor that they're looking into a live-action series as well.

I haven't watched any of the TV series, though I am somewhat familiar with the concepts. The Clone Wars covers the namesake conflict that took place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith while Rebels covers the start of the Rebellion and leads up to the events of Rogue One, the first spin-off movie. It's easy to assume that Resistance will either lead up to the events of The Force Awakens or fill in the gap between The Last Jedi and the untitled Episode IX film. While I'm sure I'll end up watching all of these at some point as my kids get into Star Wars, there's one series that would definitely catch my attention; one that follows Luke, Han and Leia in the yeard between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

I'm torn on whether such a series should be live-action or animated. Obviously, live-action would require recasting these iconic characters which is an acceptable possibility. But perhaps animated would be the way to go since whoever is cast will be forever compared to Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. (The actor already cast as a young Han Solo for the spin-off Solo has pretty big shoes to fill.) It's doable but if one is miscast, you're stuck with them for an entire TV series, not just one two-hour movie. The Clone Wars already used different voice actors for Obi-Wan and Anakin, however, Mark Hamill is a proficient voice actor (see the 90s animated Batman series for his wonderful Joker) which means he could timelessly portray Luke Skywalker through voice.

Regardless of casting and if it's live or animated, the storytelling potential is vast. There's 30-plus years between the two trilogies with very few questions having been answered to fill in that gap. Not only would the fall of the Empire and rise of the New Republic be rich for potential, but we would also get to see Luke Skywalker at the height of his Jedi Knighthood training a new generation of Jedi. The relationship (and possible marriage?) of Han and Leia could be developed, and the fate of Lando revealed.

Those fans upset that decades worth of novels and comics were "erased" from cannon could be satisfied if some aspects of those books find their way into a new series. Grand Admiral Thrawn from Timothy Zahn's 90s book series that rejuvenated Star Wars has already been brought into Rebels, so there's no reason they can't harvest those books for story points or characters. If so desired, they could go as far as adapting some of what has been deemed the Legends material. Eventually, though, things can start to move towards The Force Awakens by chronicling the rise of the First Order, Supreme Leader Snoke and, of course, the tragic failing of Luke Skywalker that led to the fall of Ben Solo.

Who knows what Disney has planned and while they're slowly churning out novels that follow the aftermath of Return of the Jedi, I think those missing years would best be served on screen. Fans haven't had their fill yet of Luke, Han and Leia and most likely would like to see more of their adventures.

I, for one, would likely tune in.

Of Course the NRA Backs Arming Teachers

Following the recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida, the National Rifle Association and President Trump have tried to shift away from the wonderful job high schoolers have done if advocating for gun control onto arming teachers. While some of Trump's proposals (raising age limits on assault weapons, banning bump stocks) are reasonable, even if they don't go far enough to address our national gun violence problem, his idea of arming twenty percent of teachers is ridiculous.

Never mind that they don't want to do it, but that would require training and arming more than one million private and public school teachers around the country. That is a number larger than our armed infantry in the Army.

Of course, it's the one proposal the NRA backs. And why wouldn't they? That's over one million additional guns to be sold by their gun company sponsors, as well as whatever money would be made from gun ranges since teachers would likely have to maintain their training.

Raising the minimum age for assault rifle sales and banning bump stocks will hit the pockets of gun companies and the NRA. Meanwhile, they'll hit payday gold if one million guns are sold to teachers.

So it only makes sense that they'd back this ridiculous proposal that puts more guns into our schools and feet away from our students. Why? The NRA will get rich from it!

It's all about the money.