More Holmes lawsuits

It seems that the Conan Doyle Estate is back to suing people again. These extortionists regularly like to claim ownership of Sherlock Holmes in order to coerce TV, movie, and literary people to pay "license fees" for using the character. Back in 2013, Sherlockian Leslie Klinger learned that the Estate was trying to block one of his planned books, so he decided to sue the Estate to get Holmes declared a public domain character. The suit is chronicled on his Free Sherlock website, but basically Klinger won the case and the appeal, so Holmes and his related world are public domain.

Now in 2020, the Estate is trying to sue Netflix about a new Enola Holmes movie. This movie is based on a book series by Nancy Springer about Sherlock's younger sister Enola, but the Estate is only just now suing because it sees there's money in this. Also, they've changed tactics due to their previous defeat in court. The Estate used to argue that Sherlock evolved over time throughout all 60 stories, so because 10 of the original stories were still in copyright, the character as a whole should remain in copyright. This was rubbish because Conan Doyle was never that consistent in writing Sherlock. (The 10 cases are the Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, published after 1923. That's the cutoff year for copyright in the United States.)

In Klinger's lawsuit the judge ruled that while Holmes is public domain, the Casebook stories are still in copyright.  So any characteristic of Holmes found exclusively in this Casebook is not in public domain yet. That's what the Conan Doyle Estate is arguing now, claiming that Netflix's movie and Springer's books feature traits of Sherlock that are only found in the Casebook stories. It's flimsy, but they hope this will work based on the prior precedent. They're so greedy, trying to get as much money as they can before all the stories fall out of copyright in 2023.

Meanwhile, movie releases are getting shifted again, with Mulan going to August now. It's so frustrating because it did have a movie premiere in March just before theatres shut down, but most of the country hasn't seen it yet. We'll have to wait some more I guess.

I knew it

Not all Supreme Court rulings will be good, especially with this court. They already ruled to deport asylum seekers, and now they ruled against hearing the vote-by-mail case. Ignorant people are claiming that the Texas Democrats jumped the gun by trying to skip the 5th circuit. But we have primary elections in July, and it's kind of an emergency to get a definitive ruling NOW before we have a disastrous election as seen in other states.

I mean, the hospitals here are so overwhelmed with cases that Gov. Abbott finally decided to reimpose some restrictions, by closing bars and making restaurants go back to 50% capacity. If it's that bad, then why the fuck can't we vote by mail in July to prevent more infections? But I was always pessimistic, and it's probably too late anyway now to print up enough mail-in ballots for the primary. We just have to hope that the 5th Circuit doesn't slow-walk this case so that we don't have time to prepare for the November election.

This is all Abbott's fault for reopening in May instead of waiting until June, and then, continuing to reopen wider despite the huge spike in cases every single day. (He had claimed that with each phase, he would stop to evaluate the situation, but no, he never did pause until after it became a severe crisis.) It seems only after Trump threatened to pull federal funding for testing, that the governor and our motherfucker senators realized that "Hey, we need to do something!" "Maybe I should encourage people to wear masks. Maybe I should let the local cities and counties do stricter stay-at-home rules, instead of propping up Trump's shit narrative?"

So because of that, we have to reverse the reopening I guess. I wonder what July 4th is going to be like? I'm working that day so I won't be out and about. I wonder if the rightwing loonies are going to be out partying in defiance of new restrictions? What's it gonna take for Abbott and Paxton to voluntarily let us do vote-by-mail? A fucking disastrous July primary? Ugh.

Typical

So because Trump threatened to end federal funding for Covid testing sites, a bunch of Texas officials panicked and wanted that funding continued. That's all well and good, but Governor Abbott talked about how Texas is going through a severe crisis now. Even though he's the fucking one who pushed forward with reopening quickly, and he's been steadily claiming that the higher infection rates were just due to higher testing. He and the Lt. Governor even scolded local cities and counties for trying to enforce tighter stay-at-home restrictions. So now we end up with huge spikes in infections, and our hospitals will be overloaded. Fucking dumbass hypocrites! You're the ones who made this crisis, not the Black Lives Matter protestors.

Meanwhile, some animated shows wisely decided to stop having the white actors play black and biracial parts, and the Bojack creator reiterated his mea culpa bout casting Alison Brie as Diane Nguyen. Bastard knew that he was doing yellowface and felt guilty about it, but never stopped. Then he never had Vietnamese writers on staff, even after he realized the problem of ignoring her race. Stop whitewashing characters or relying on that stupid "cast the best actress for the part" colorblindness. Nobody believes white people who misguidedly talk about about "I don't see race." It's there. It's always there, no matter how you try to minimize the issue.

Also, apparently a surprising number of sitcoms had blackface episodes, which they now are ashamedly removing. Even if their intent in these episodes was satire, the fact that they kept going to the well again and again shows comic writers getting into lazy tropes and feeling morally superior about being avant-garde and defiant against "political correctness." How about you just be human? How about you think about your white privilege, sitting in a room of mostly white writers congratulating yourselves for not being as bad as "the real racists"? They'd rather get a tone-deaf laugh than be sensitive to their ignorance.

I did in the past enjoy Tropic Thunder, with RDJ as an Australian actor in blackface. Their defense has always been that it was done ironically to lampoon a crazy, pretentious, method actor who thinks that this is "what they're allowed to do on occasion." But if you have to go that far to explain the joke, doesn't that defeat the purpose a little? And isn't the excuse of "my black friends told me it was okay," a little too similar to "I'm not racist; I have black friends"?

I think about it a little like how Asian parts still get cast with white actors, and fucking Scarlett Johansson defiantly claimed that she's such an awesome actress that she should be allowed to play anybody and anything, ignoring the fact that Asian women aren't allowed to play anybody and anything. There's barely anything written for us that's a lead role. It's the theft we mind, stealing what few things even belong to us. That's what made Crazy Rich Asians such an important film, and what made Disney casting Mulan correctly so meaningful. Typical Hollywood would have rewritten Rachel Chu as a white woman, or written a white savior/love interest into Mulan. It's so rare that they let us have the whole experience without watering it down with a white point of view. Typical Hollywood is what that Bojack creator did to Diane Nguyen, trying so hard to not play to stereotypes that he erased her race, made her culture invisible. At least he owned up to his mistakes, however belatedly.

Happy Juneteenth

Suddenly a lot of companies are jumping on the bandwagon for Juneteenth, to try to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter. Some content will be free and there will be TV specials to celebrate. This may be an opportunistic move for these networks and brands, but at least they're trying not to be actively offensive like Trump and his Tulsa rally.

I was pleased also to hear about protesters tearing down statues of Christopher Columbus too. Maybe this might be the year that Columbus Day can really be universally changed to Indigenous Peoples Day? Meanwhile the Supreme Court decided to keep DACA for now. I know it's on a procedural technicality, but it does mean keep the Dreamers from being deported for now. Trump is really so incompetent, he'll not get it done correctly before the election. This ruling and the other one on LGBTQ discrimination helps give us hope and boost our morale, so we can keep fighting for more.

Meanwhile, some movie theaters are reopening today, though it looks to be Dallas and Plano first before the rest of Texas opens in July. Cinemark is going to show old classics like The Goonies and have low prices to attract people back. Then everything's riding on the new releases like Mulan and Tenet. I hope things won't get delayed again.

Happy Pride

The Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ discrimination was an unexpected bit of good news! Conservatives were raging and venting about the betrayal, and that only makes the victory sweeter.

Meanwhile the BLM protests continue, and more statues are coming down. Juneteenth is this Friday, and some companies are saying they'll make it a paid holiday. Trump also moved his Tulsa rally to Saturday instead. Couldn't handle the criticism, I guess. They don't want him there either, and it's sure to cause a spike in new infections.

I've been reading more mysteries, and then recently saw a recommendation for The Westing Game, which I read as a kid, but I've forgotten most of the plot. I'll have to reread it and see if I can figure it out more easily or not. Wonder if Raskin's other mystery/puzzle books are as good too.

Good riddance to Confederates

Ugh, Donald Trump came to Dallas yesterday for a fundraiser. I try to avoid news of him, so it was a shock when I read that he was in Dallas for some kind of stunt about race and police brutality. Totally useless of course, and excluding black voices. I guess the Republicans are panicking about Texas turning blue this year. (But he's going to go to an even more useless rally in Oklahoma next week on Juneteenth in Tulsa of all places! The gall. The fucking unmitigated gall.)

Meanwhile, some DFW counties have voted to take down some Confederate memorials this week. The local news says they want to get them dismantled and stored away before people vandalize or topple them. (It's been inspiring to see other statues come down with people power, and even NASCAR decided to ban Confederate flags and symbols.) I've been shocked that the Black Lives Matter protests have spread not just to Europe or Australia, but also Syria and Japan. Palestinians are even showing solidarity while they're suffering in Israel, and facing annexation in July.

Unfortunately LGBT pride month is getting overshadowed, and they can't have parades like normal. It will be virtual I guess, or in solidarity with the BLM protests. There's also a new acronym that I've been seeing lately, called BIPOC for Black, Indigenous, People of Color. I thought black and indigenous people were already included as people of color, but I guess they want further emphasis. Anyway, voting in Georgia's primary was a disaster, which makes me fear for what the elections in Texas will be if we don't get vote by mail. Republicans really want us to risk our lives in the middle of the pandemic.

I heard that voter registration was down due to COVID-19, but that the BLM protests created a surge. I hope that will continue. I haven't heard anything about the Census lately. Did they finish that?

Stay Safe

Texas Democrats have been holding a virtual convention this week. I haven't been able to watch because I'm back at work now. Even when I am home at night, I'm too fatigued from all the disturbing news lately about racism, coronavirus, and the militaristic response from the police to watch the Convention too. Of course I'll vote in November, and I've got to donate some funds for our candidates in runoffs. I think we should be able to vote by mail, but I think the Texas courts are going to continue ruling against us. Not like the Republicans are gonna help us out in time for the election.

George Floyd is going to have 3 different services in three different cities. Yesterday's memorial was Minneapolis, then he'll go to his place of birth in North Carolina Saturday, then he'll come to Houston where he lived most of his life. It's almost like a nationwide funeral, a high-ranking official lying in state. It's a tragedy that he was murdered, but his death has become a symbol of so much more than just himself, and there's hope that real change and police reform might come of these protests.

I do really hope that this movement succeeds, and that it's not just co-opted by the brands/franchises pretending that they really care. We hoped that we could get gun reform before due the school shootings, but we're still waiting on that until the election.

Disgusted

Some Texas water parks are now open, and there's been obnoxious commercials for them lately. How can that be safe? (Especially since gyms are supposed to keep their shower facilities closed right now.) Who's gonna wear a mask or keep social distancing in a water park? Even if they check people's temperature before allowing them in, they may be asymptomatic but passing on the virus through the water. This whole reopening thing is totally rushed and irrational. We don't have adequate testing and contract tracing for this, but Republicans are so eager to restart the economy rather than pass another stimulus bill to help people.

The economy's so damn precious, but not people's health. I keep seeing people in grocery stores not wearing masks either, apparently thinking everything's safe now. I guess it depends on which city you live in as well. Plus apparently troublemakers are taking advantage of the Floyd protests to loot and vandalize, and the police come out in riot gear rather than try to de-escalate the situation. It's a powder keg.

It's June now. We're only halfway through the year.