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I cannot remember where I saw the article, but the Trump campaign has outsourced most of it's "ground game" to a number of third parties.  The most prominent one is funded by Elon Musk.  Their goal is to pay volunteers and whatnot in the battleground states to canvas very specifically.  This is not unique.  However, normally you would give canvassers a list of folks who are effectively "on your team."  The point is you know they are reliable votes, and you want to be 100% sure they physically vote.  These groups though are not really doing that much.  Instead, they are sifting through the edges, to attempt to pry Trump votes out of low participation voters.  Hence the push toward black and Hispanic men, and other groups who may be audible to the Trump platform, such as the Amish in PA.  They have done this in recent elections, including 2022, and were not particularly successful.   With how tight things are, it could be vital.

Trump doesn't have politics.  Just in the last month, he has invented new policies, backtracked, zig-zagged, everything under the sun.  He is currently aligned with an absolutely ridiculous program where Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr., Tulsi, and Vivek are marching through battleground states entertaining the sheep.  Those people have incredibly divergent stances on major issues.  Moreover, Trump is increasingly backed by Crypto morons, but his main backers in Super PAC's remain the tried and true corporations.  The GOP is lobbied massively by big Ag, big Pharma, big Oil, and big Insurance, as are the Democrats.  Yet you have MAGA now boasting how RFK Jr. is going to fire and hire a litany of federal watchdog agencies.  I poke the RFK crowd on Twitter all the time, because they are just delusional and lying to themselves.  Trump will drop that guy like an old rag if he wins. 

I beat you to the "I can sleep at night" GOP candidates being incredibly more palatable than Trump.

Anywho, another former pollster who I think really "gets" the numbers and the kinds of polls being dumped out there, is Adam Carlson (@admcrlsn).  He posts a LOT, but his analysis is pretty honest.  He gets into the weeds on the crosstabs, and also points out the massive dumping of online-driven polling.  He seems to be focusing on how the polling demographics are very, very, very similar to 2020's results.  Moreover, he says what I've been saying, that the MAGA insistence on comparing same-time polls with 2020 or 2016 is pointless, as the electorate shifts and the polling methodology surely has changed big time.  They do not reveal theirs so speculating is also fruitless.  My take on his analysis remains that Trump ***could*** be slightly stronger with Black and Hispanic men, and definitely with conservatives.  That likely results in slight advantages in AZ, GA, NV, and NC for him, as well as PA.  However, as always, it's a question of who votes?  Adam even lampooned polling some because human psychology gets involved, and many people apparently forget who they voted for, and also lie about whether they voted, and would they this time.

The Sienna/NYT polls have been all over the place.  The worst one I've seen though is ActiVote, who just put out a poll of 400LV which took them a MONTH to sample.  I mean, on the one they still were doing Biden vs. Trump!  It's a total joke.  Simon makes mention of this, but no matter the poll, you NEED to pay attention to the crosstabs.  What is the sample made up of?  Gender, party affiliation, how do they feel on certain issues, etc.  However, about a month from now, I would look at where Real Clear Politics has it's averages, and check sites like 538. 

Are there really any undecided's left?  I mean, come on now.  I'm very intrigued whether the dumpster fire Robinson down in North Carolina will harm Trump?  Might happen.  The polls are snapshots.  The betting markets are often a better check these days, because they are measuring intent.  It's going to be all about the turnout.

PS: Nebraska will NOT be altering their electoral vote procedure, so the likely victory in 2nd district for Harris will net her 1 vote.  That's huge obviously in attempting to get to 270.

Nate Silver just rehashed what everyone already knows, and what I've said for a year now.  The GOP continues to lose with Trump.  Haley or Desantis would be up and cruising at this point. 

I saw Trump's comments in Michigan, they were worse they you realize.  Firstly, the drilling answer is ridiculous, and every time he goes there, it makes him look dumber on the subject.  Secondly, he specifically said he would put tariffs on imported food!!!!  This is easily this stupidest and worst tariff idea yet!  I mean, how much coffee, bananas, avocados, coconuts, etc., are grown in the United States?  Some but most of that comes from central or south America.  Meaning your Starbucks would cost $30 a cup!!!  IDIOT!!!!  Again, anti-Trump PAC's should seize on these statements and lampoon him to no end.  He also told Michigan autoworkers that the state's move towards EV's was a waste of time and money.  He said "why should you compete with the Chinese who will do it better and cheaper."  WTF.  So if the US auto industry refuses to evolve, then what?  Again, complete IDIOT!

Inflation went down a bunch recently, and the FED's 0.5% point slash today will help stimulate the economy and bring inflation down, albeit not immediately.  Trump has basically spitballed his entire platform, to the point that his surrogates cannot even keep up with the daily brain droppings. 

Dave Wasserman, from New Jersey, is a good read.  He actually works with data, unlike Silver who's goal these days are to handicap elections for gamblers.  Dave has helped publish the Cook Political "Swingometer."  It's a genius tool, because you can see how turnout by demographics impacts the results.  In fact, Dave mentioned that in say, Wisconsin, if Kamala retains the 2020 Black voter edge, she wins, but Trump could flip the state if that moves in his direction by just a few points.  Likewise, demographic shifts in North Carolina have positioned the state to where if VP Harris retains the 2020 White voter numbers Biden had, she would flip the state.  Give it a try!

https://www.cookpolitical.com/swingometer

Well, another loon, with a gun, attempted to shoot Trump down.  This time it was at his local golf course, before USSS intervened.  This man has a history of run in's with the law, and neighbors described him essentially as a complete nutjob, and probably a dangerous one.  This followed a bizarre tweet by Trump "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT," earlier in the day.

A better print could emerge at some point.  I would definitely agree that most consumers would want the most technologically assisted/aided version.

Trump groups ran a pretty savage anti-immigration commercial that showed up during CNN post-debate coverage.  Harris now though, she really needs to start appearing on specific TV, and social media, programs.  I don't care if they are softball spots like Jimmy Fallon or The View or whatever.  Just to keep the narrative going.  "We're not going back."  Her campaign speeches, convention, and now this debate, have been tailored well, and her message has been largely focused.  Now they need to broadcast that far more frequently.  Fundraising broke records last night.  Well great.  She has to branch out.  She can deliver this message.  Trump is a blithering old fool.  If voters cannot perceive that by now, I really don't know what else to do or say to them.  I'm tapped out.  His ideas are terrible. 

PS: Did y'all notice how the supposed secret weapon MAGA have been touting for weeks, went unspoken???  Not one utterance of Trump's alliance with RFK Jr., nor his top issues like fighting "corporate capture," free speech, or a sudden "left turn" Trump promised to take.  Nadda.  Guess that goes to show the losers backing Kennedy how much Trump actually thinks or cares about them.  If he wins, Bobby K will be forgotten.

Afraid not, the last anime I watched, needed to force myself to get through it, which was the one for Supernatural.

What was it, three months ago, or longer, I was screaming and pleading to get Biden out of there.  THIS was why!!!!  I also don't know what affect this debate will have, but VP Harris completely decimated the old dope.  She ruthlessly, and I mean, ruthlessly, ripped him to shreds on her issues (including the abortion question which Biden was unable to).  I almost felt bad for Trump when she basically tore his clothes off on national TV by bashing his crazy rallies, then creamed him again on foreign dictators.  Trump naturally responded in idiotic fashion.  I literally could not believe he even brought up the stupid cats and dogs being eaten in Ohio baloney!!!!!!!  Then he quadrupled down on it, and FOUGHT the ABC co-host over it.  Trump looked old, stupid, mean, dumb, full of anger, and completely worthless.  Harris looked smart, young, vibrant, tough, coherent, and fearless. 

You know how bad it went for Trump, when every pundit of his bitched about the ABC moderators.  He lost, and lost BIGLY.  I mean, wow, completely ripped the veneer away from this orange schmuck on LIVE TV.  I don't wish to take anything away from Kamala's performance, which requires intense preparation and strength, but this was so EASY.  It should always have been this EASY.  Even in the GOP world.  This guy is a complete phony.  Substance wise, not a great debate for that, but who cares?  You weren't getting any from the old buffoon. "I have concepts to replace Obamacare."

PS: Taylor Swift announced she's voting for Kamala....

Yes, that's entirely my point!  Despecialized was fine when there was nothing else.  Now that actual prints can be made presentable, there's no need for it.  Star Wars had to be one of the few if only films which were rebuilt in that way, as a result of Lucas's hacking up the originals.  With other films, you find an original and just restore it.

The Sienna/NYT poll has a R+3 lean, it's not a bias, it's just based on their sample.  You cannot poll anybody under the age of 40, as they will not respond to unknown phone numbers and often emails.  I'm older than that, and I sure don't!!!

Yes I think it was Fanboy Expo Orlando, JRD and Rebecca Romijn were booked.  Jerry usually (not always) accompanies his wife, and this was the first time both he and John were at the same one.  I have implored Jerry to take convention bookings, people would line up for him.  Then you could have things like dual photo ops with him and John, probably a Sliders panel, etc.

But doesn't despecialized still use footage which was digitally enhanced?  I want something that has been cleaned up but I do NOT want even minimal stuff like painting glowing engines on X-wings.

There's still revenue to be had there, and the studios want it, particularly on new releases.  I still don't even own a 4K television!

Don't knock the CRT!  HA HA HA.  Oh there are entire communities, of which I am part of one on Fartbook, devoted to our oversized, aging, yet reliable friends.  Mainly their preservation, so when we find one on the curb or a curb-listing, we try to get them, and offer them up to others.  As with arcade monitors, there are no CRT factories remaining on the planet.  There is nothing quite like playing old school video games in front of the glow of the cathode ray tube!  Many of those aficionados watch literally everything on them, ha ha, something I myself would not dare.  But if you can find one of the "HD" CRT's that were sold in the 2000s, and were widescreen, they are very popular with those folks.

Well, the first thing to look at would be what "extras" are on the discs?  For several years, DVD's mostly were sold with simple audio commentary track(s), trailers, a limited menu, and maybe a few deleted scenes.  This required minimal disc space.  Some studios like Warner Brothers often printed double-sided discs, one for widescreen and one for pan & scan.  After that first "wave," studios decided that they could start releasing other editions like director's cut, blah blah blah.  Yet, these would need to be additional discs in the case, so really no change.  With the advent of the blu-ray, and its well over 5x capacity increase from DVD, you could fit a larger film file (1080p) encoded at a higher bit rate.  However, you could also offer additional cuts, extras, and newly produced bonus content like interviews and documentaries, all on a single disc.  Well, when the studios go to sell them early on, they can't simply sell a blu-ray release, especially of a new film, you had to release a DVD or you'd lose out on millions of customers.  Since the DVD now needed to fit some (not all) of the litany of BRD extras, the studio would often sacrifice DVD bit rate to squeeze it on there.   Granted, many releases simply put the extras onto a second disc, but that's a cost associated.  Frankly, producing new bonus content wound up being a waste of money, as studies found the vast majority of it went unwatched. 

Now, obviously how the particularly movie you bought on DVD 15 years ago was shipped, in terms of extras and # of discs, etc., varied on a case by case basis. 

There are videophiles complaining incessantly on Reddit about 4K releases, and the type of BluRay disc being used.  They go crazy about whether a studio compresses to fit on a cheaper disc, when in fact the human eye is never going to discern the difference.  Perhaps in a screen capture, but who cares?  In fact, when they came out, people were screaming about how the studios often just took the DVD stream, and upscaled it, and sold you a 1080p version of an old film that your TV probably could have upscaled similarly, ha ha ha. 

The other issue is that many of the old forums and websites have vanished, but here's one where a customer was annoyed that Disney cheaped out and stuck too much on a single disc, and fouled up the video quality.

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/disney … tby=newest

Just take the week off, nobody is paying attention to squat until the debate.

Most TV series were shot this way on film (edited in post on tape), except maybe sitcoms which were shot entirely on video.  Unfortunately, the process of obtaining the film, rescanning that, followed by a shot by shot reproduction of what was done in post, is never going to happen for this series.  It's still something that they did it for Star Trek and Next Gen.

Well Carville is a tad crass, and he generalized that to be, "don't eat hamburgers, don't watch football, don't drink beer."  Referring to the problem as ""The message is too feminine." 

Gina Carano is a prominent example.  She refused to conform to the pronoun police, and lost her job.  The backlash to corporate wokeness nearly put Bud Light out of business, and recently threatened to take Harley-Davidson of all things down, too.  It's not specific Democrat Party language but many of them have been caught in it.  The George Floyd/BLM demonstrations frequently turned violent, and Joe Biden was often the ONLY major party leader condemning it, that included Kamala who stupidly created bail programs which were used by violent criminals.  There was also a firing line, both by Democratic leaders, pundits, members of the press, pointing to anyone who attempted to suggest a lab leak on COVID, as well.  Then you have civic leaders of major cities, who hide tributes to Founding Fathers and other past American leaders, out of fear of the woke left, while they allow rampant mentally compromised homelessness, and continue to be blind to repeat violent criminals who seem to be unable to be kept in prison. 

Again, I felt like Kamala Harris spoke to some of this, but it's not where the larger party has been.  That's why I said it is difficult to argue with Robert Kennedy Jr.'s dismay with the left and its clamp down on free speech.  And yes, the party's platform has been a problem with blue collar men in this country.  It's soft on crime (bail reform, condoned shoplifting), far too supportive of migrants, and well too entrenched in the "equity" game.  Men see all this, and get very concerned over their collective future, especially economically.  That's at least how I can best explain it.  This is why I feel like a lot of men have gone to Trump.  I have many, many anecdotal examples of people I know.  And as Carville continues to harp, the identity politics from the far left have been a major burden to this party nationally.  Kept alive only by the far WORSE of the right.  These were principles that Bill Clinton led on decades ago, where have they gone?  The party has allowed the dumb left to hijack it.  Again, thank goodness for Kamala willing to go with American Exceptionalism in her speech.  Enough with the left's overt hatred of America because it keeps them in business, the business of racial identity politics.

In any event, it's really irrelevant at this point.  There's two months left, I'm not sure there's many minds left to change.  RFK Jr. probably should have been allowed to at least speak to Kamala.  His ideas on food safety, microplastics, and climate change are very critical to the Democratic agenda.  Unfortunately, because he questions the efficacy of the pharmaceutical industry, he is person non grata.  I still don't think it will matter much in this election, but it might.  Either way, it's something that is bubbling out there.  The FDA, USDA, CDC, and EPA are close to useless.  The American people are poisoned to death.  Just look at the incredible growth in cancer diagnoses among younger and younger age groups, who don't abuse alcohol or use tobacco products.  Something needs to be done.  It's an issue that I highly doubt Trump will give much oxygen to, which is why Kennedy is an idiot, but I do believe that if he did, that's a much stronger platform than he had a week ago.

Night 3 was pretty good.  Bubba went a bit off script and rambled.  Tim Walz was great. 

Night 4 was superb.  Steady stream of successful governors, Republicans, even cops.  Kamala gave what I would call a "I'll run through a brick wall for you" speech.  When I was screaming for Joe Biden to get off the train tracks, like most I really had no clue what to expect from the VP.  The instant super star rise in the polls was a massive surprise.  Really amazing just how many topics she covered in that speech, barely missing a beat.  There was something for everyone, but the most forceful I felt was when she spoke about keeping a "lethal military" and defending allies and standing up to dictators.  Wow, look out world, you do NOT want to mess with this woman!!!!!

I would say the theme coming from this convention is clear, Donald Trump is old, withered, and mentally bankrupt.  As it should be.  He is in serious trouble on September 10th.

Supposedly RFK Jr. is dumping his financially bankrupt campaign about an hour from now.  Most believe he will then appear alongside Trump in Phoenix, although this hasn't been confirmed.  If he does that, frankly, he will need a divorce lawyer.

Well, The Acolyte was canceled.  This has set off a wave of social media criticism from its defenders, who accuse Disney of silencing "people of color, women, LBGTQ, etc." from the body of Star Wars.  Yet again, what those folks fail to comprehend is that diversity and equity does not by itself mean success.  The actors and production staff on the series, who I felt were all top notch, were failed by the horrendous writing.  That comes directly from the top, where showrunner/creator Leslye Headland deserves full blame for producing such a disjointed pile of dung.  Frankly, I think the cancelation proves that good intentions cannot overcome bad results, especially when you spend $180 million to lay such a critical egg.  This comes on the tail of a string of really terrible story telling, and direction from Disney + on this franchise.  Obi-Wan, Mandalorian/Boba-Fett, and Ahsoka all featured tremendous characters that were muddied by increasingly slow-moving, vapid, and boring episodes, painfully stretched out to meet an artificial episode count.

After an atrociously poorly managed first night, featuring an embarrassing slight to the current President, night two was a bit less disjointed, and featured three terrific speeches by Doug, Michelle, and President O.  Michelle brought the house down with a one liner (as she's become famous for) about "Trump applying now for one of those 'black jobs'"  I nearly fell off my chair.  Obama himself was typically on a roll.  I'm not sure how many people on the East Coast saw them, as once again, they all went on it seemed past 10PM.  Truly hope the rest of this campaign is better managed than this.  Just hope eyeballs in WI, MI, AZ, and NV were watching, because most of PA were asleep, again.

Professional pro-Gaza protestors have literally been walled off from the proceedings outside, while more of the news yesterday was generated by Nichole Shanahan, Kennedy's running mate, complaining on a podcast that their campaign was effectively finished after Biden dropped out.  She even opined openly about whether to simply quit and endorse Trump.  For those who would immediately be freaked out by this, I'm not one of them.  RFK Jr., who is currently blaming Democratic PAC's for keeping him off state ballots for technicalities (has a point actually), has his remaining support with true independents, and those who refuse to support either party.  Yes, some supporters would wind up voting Trump, and might do so whether he stays in or not.  I would argue that most simply won't vote, largely feeling betrayed if Kennedy backs anyone else.  I'm unconvinced he would do that though.  Trump and Elon Musk has been babbling about making him "Secretary of Efficiency," a post that does not exist, cannot exist without Congress, and thus is completely meaningless.  Trump would never go through with an RJK Jr. appointment, despite railing against lobbyists the other day.  Trump is betrothed to a laundry list of billionaire CEO's that collectively would become targets for Kennedy's ideology.  I feel like Bobby knows this, he's not an idiot. 

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PS: Hillary is controversial (among Democrats) because of her backhanded tactics, not just political positions.  She drove millions of people to Donald Trump for Heaven's sake, because they viewed her as corrupt and conniving.  Even my old man, a life long Democrat, skipped that election due to how much she displeased him.  I understand having her speak, but at the expense of Biden, completely stupid.  BTW, despite my hatred of black women, I found the best, shorter speech of that night to have come from Texas representative Jasmine Crockett, who went viral for putting Marjorie Taylor Green in her place during a hearing.  Sorry, Warnock went TOO LONG and his preacher rabble rousing does nothing for independent voters.  Andy Beshear, a white guy, was also boring.  The point remains, the current President deserved to be given the primary speaking slot, and the DNC screwed up.

My opinions remain in line with my stated viewpoint since this election began, defeating Trump.  Had I had yours, Joe Biden would still be in this race and well on his way to a double digit loss.

LOST is one of those shows where they just simply ran out of good ideas.  It probably should have ended after like 3 seasons, but they wound up gaining cast members by constantly time shifting, and it became a convoluted mess.  The writer's strike really screwed things up with big hiatus.  I would put the first three seasons (pre-strike) up against any genre show there's been, especially anything with a mostly linear continuity.

Celebrity endorsements are completely worthless. 

To be honest, both campaign's plans this week to improve "affordability" could get major eyeroll's from voters.  Trump babbled about bringing down "energy prices," something the federal government has zero roll in.  He once again proposed 10-20% tariffs on imported goods, which would cause inflation to explode again.  He's an empty suit.  Harris is going to propose federally imposed price fixing on food and medication, which unfortunately for her, is unconstitutional and there's plenty of economists who will debate whether price controls work anyway.  You'll see aggressive negative tie-ins to say, Venezuela, which are infamous for them. 

Then we have the pair of them both pledging to ditch income taxes on tips/gratuities, which again, is not allowed under federal law, and plain pandering to voters in tip-heavy states like Nevada.  At least Harris' plan will not have loopholes for millionaires to latch onto, like Trump's.  She supports paid family leave and child tax credits, though, which are popular.

I guess dual pandering will just offset each other, although Kamala will start repeating her plan over and over.  That will at least push the narrative to the low information, less engaged swing voters, that she's "got something" to battle economically.  She's been comically criticized for giving the same speech everywhere she goes.  Isn't that the DEFINITION of a campaign?  Give the SAME promises wherever you go?  Her most effective line is "We're not going back," and that means looking forward.  There's continued slow trickle of positive news coming, and investments in clean energy continue nationwide.  Even though the facts/conditions favor a challenger to Biden's administration, the personality (Trump) is the WORST one to do it.  He can't even talk about the economy for more than 25 seconds before wandering into personal attacks.

The MSM are crying like babies because Kamala is mostly ignoring them.  GOOD.  Well technically it's not good, but the MSM vultures have lost all credibility.  When they are granted access, you just get screaming and chaos, and all they want to do are ask gotcha questions, or to discuss criticisms coming from the right.  They aren't looking to challenge a proposal with facts.

PS: Obviously thrilled that Trump would lose, but if Harris wins, her agenda is almost surely dead on arrival, given that the House may remain GOP, and the Senate is almost certainly going Red.  West Virginia is a goner, and while it looks good for Dems in swing states, and Sherrod Brown I feel will pull it off in OH, Montana is a tough one.  Tester has prevailed many times before, but it will be tough this time.

The key is that Trump voters actually get out and vote.  People have curtailed a lot of spending, on vacations, and other options, as expenses driven by inflation remain very high.  Not sure how anecdotal, but my gosh the number of brick and mortar chains of every kind that are closing or going bankrupt.  It's crazy, where are people working?  That's why I remain cautiously optimistic.  As dour and deranged as Trump will continue to be, he can very easily win.  I remain skeptical, because Harris could well accumulate the majority of late deciders, and STILL lose.  Trump's support is close to it's ceiling, but it's also rock solid, I do not expect slippage there.

The polls are surely moving into the blue corner, as well as the prediction models like Polymarket, Nate Silver, etc.  The RCP averages are still slightly in Trump's favor, though I expect that to change over the next few weeks.  Harris will be ahead; however, the reality is that unless Trump's numbers sink, it's going to be within the margin of error.  That means voter turnout, and voter enthusiasm, are going to decide this.  Harris-Walz seem to have supporters, and others, revved up.  There's a ways to go though. 

I think old timer Jeff Greenfield gets it right.  Then again, it's what many like myself have been shouting from the rooftops for over a year.  The polls could not have been more clear, Trump and Biden are TOO OLD to be President, according to the vast majority of voters.  That includes huge swaths that were fully committed to voting for either of them. 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ … d-00173406

Trump literally told someone the other day, "I am who I am," which means no, GOP backers will not be getting a disciplined candidate.

They'll be all over Chicago next week as well.  VP Harris actually MET with the leaders of the Michigan "non-committed" movement before the Detroit airport event.  Some then proceeded to repeatedly interrupt her, until she finally told them off as one should.  These people would have been completely barred from a Trump event.  Unfortunately these people are completely incorrigible, and they have literally no home in major American politics.  Another squad member got dumped, being Cori Bush in St. Louis, by a great candidate in DA Wesley Bell.  She proceeded to have an on-stage meltdown.  Sadly the cannot be said of Europe, where pro-Hamas factions are rampant.

I take no pleasure in it.  When you grow up in the Northeast, you see a lot of corruption.  You throw enough lawyers and money at something, it's going to crack holes in the system.  The problem with these Trump cases is that even though most people know he's culpable, to prove it is not that simple.  Sometimes it is, but you have to get to that point.  The Republican Party has made it clear, our team is more important than the country, so they're going to protect Trump at all costs. 

Harris selected Walz because she felt he was the best partner.  I think Shapiro, being another former AG, was probably too close to the background of Harris.  She wanted something different, where she was lacking.  Walz has a strong progressive record in Minnesota.  Some of it is potentially problematic on the social issue front.  But he has a long resume, much longer than Shapiro, and of course it's comical to compare to Vance LOL.  Also, let's not ignore that Kamala learned a LOT from Joe Biden.  Biden and she are very close, and she wants that kind of partnership.  There is a report now that Shapiro called the Harris team at some point over the weekend, and was "struggling" with leaving his post in Pennsylvania. 

That was a great slate of speeches.  Harris is a better story teller than stump speaker, I will say.  She's displayed authenticity.  Walz was as advertised.  What a great crowd.  The difference is so stark.  The crowd is energized the whole time, and Shapiro, Harris, Walz are all fired up.  Plus, they were SMILING, and really enjoying themselves.  This is such a stark contrast with the dour, doom and gloom, low energy, grievance-filled, anger session that Trump and Vance participate in.

I love war movies, because they are about people.  The director's goal is to lift these characters briefly out of the hell they find themselves in, and to give the audience a taste of their humanity, good and bad, despite the conflict.  I suppose that movie did some of that, but it was very violent.  I actually attended the NY premiere for this movie, ha ha.  May have been the lone time I watched it.  Without spoiling, there are some interesting "choices" regarding the Simian flu that evolves the apes, that kind of retcon this series back to what the original series began with.  I suppose like I said, I just wasn't fond of the portrayal of the apes.  Realizing this is fiction and all, but idk it just seemed more palatable with the kind of makeup and lack of CGI back in the late 60's.  Heston was the all-American who was imprisoned by the facist apes, that's the allegory I took from it.  In this series, humanity is so horrible that it's been virtually destroyed, because of what exactly?  Very dour, you watch the movie and where the series ended up, and you don't feel good about us.  I harken back to my complaints about the lack of national pride.  You have migration all over the world, and people come in, and do not feel as though they are part of their new home.  People are just very angry, all the time.

I revered the original Planet of the Apes movie, and to an extent the sequel "Beneath."  Great movies with incredible visuals and iconic actors.  The other films I was never into, but I did enjoy reruns of the TV show, which had more of the feel of the original film. 

The Burton film was an abomination that poor Tim should never have agreed to take.  As for the newer series, I felt the first one, Rise, was very hearty and just an overall fine movie.  Dawn was good as well.  "War" was flat out horrible, in fact, it was borderline disgusting, hated it.  I just don't care to see any more.  The Apes genre works with origin stories, but Apes fighting to dominate man is both weird and not very believable.  Frankly, the more we've learned about the great apes in nature, the less appealing these movies are.  All apes are majestic, sensitive, and amazing creatures.  They ought not be soiled by being given the worst aspects of man.  Frankly it would like trying to have the audience watch a movie about evolved dogs who are also evil.  Who wants to see that?