20130824: Documentary Review--Patriocracy

Patriocracy

1. American live action feature length film, 2011, 90 minutes, documentary.


2. IMDB: 6.9/10.0 from 91 user ratings.


3. Rotten Tomatoes: from critics, 43% from 7 critics; 'no consensus yet'; from audience 81% from 95 ratings.


4. "People don't talk to each other, they talk at each other"


5. What do you fear?  After health disasters, it's loss of jobs, loss of house, loss of savings.  Many people have lost all of three.


6. Divisions between the two major parties are detailed.  Polarization among the members of the electorate is discussed.


7. In depth interviews with former senator Alan Simpson, veteran CBS reporter Bob Schieffer, Erskine Bowles, and a dozen or so current members of congress are included.


8. These days, there are fewer friendships among congressmen and senators than in previous decades. This makes it easier to demonize those of the opposite party, and harder to arrive at compromises.


9. Economic problems (2001 tech bubble, the 'war on terror', 2007 real estate bubble plus banking and auto industry problems) exasperated this.  The several bailouts (auto, bank, financial) plus two wars cost trillions of dollars with no additional revenues.  So we owe China a lot of money.


10. The commission appointed to study what to do with this growing problem published a report in 2010: need to handle debt, deficit, interest payment problems.  The study was respected on the surface, but both parties decided to not accept anything big enough to be useful.


11. Because of this inaction, the USA might lose credit ratings, which will make the debt harder to pay off.


12. The fall of newspapers and the rise of polarized websites makes the overall polarization more entrenched.  As opposed to the traditional newspapers, there are no longer rules of order and basic fact checking.  Would Walter Cronkite go on the air with a conjecture?  No, since fails news objectivity tests.  On internet sites, a story is good if a lot of people agree with it.


13. Several television 'news' shows are discussion of news uncovered by traditional news sources, such as Reuters, AP, BBC.  These shows are not actually news, but rather entertainment consisting of polemic about news.


14. Kent Collins from University of Missouri shows Fox and MSNBC discussing the same news story in totally different ways.  Both shows are polemic, often insulting, and usually polarizing, but not objective.  As Collins points out, neither are news shows; both are junk for already partisan zealot listeners.  It's all bovine scatology on both sides.


15. The zealots versus the moderates: the moderates seem to be losing to the extreme elements of either side.  That trend makes the gridlock in Congress worse.


16. Fundraising seems to be something done everyday of the congressmen's terms.  The fundraising comes with strings, and this makes for fewer bills passed, and worse bills passed.  Even worse, members of congress have their policies locked in my fundraising promises before the next term starts.


17. The Citizens United Supreme Court case is discussed in some depth, with overall agreement by those willing to speak.  Corporations now have unlimited ability to spend on fundraisers.  As Alan Simpson said, this is madness.  As a congressmen said, there are several corporations who could buy all the seats of congress in any given election.  As an example, the fundraising total for 2010 was ~4 billion USD, which many corporations could afford.


18. Pat Buchanan: we have to hear the roar of the falls before we change our ways.  Another commentator: only some event that is strongly horrific could change the way things are going.  Examples suggest that even that will not produce any change.


19. Five stars of five.

One line summary: Analyses gridlock in the Federal government of the USA.

Cinematography: 10/10 Just fine on fundamentals.

Sound: 10/10 Good on fundamentals.

Acting: N/A No one is acting here.

Screenplay: 10/10 Well crafted.  Many interviews from both democrats and republicans.  The implications are clear, but getting anything fixed seems to be unlikely.