The Mueller “Russian” Indictment: The Prohibition on Foreign Participation in Elections is Unconstitutional (and a Mess)

So, previously I wrote a piece explaining how the Foreign Agents Registration Act is Unconstitutional, as part of a promised series on the Mueller indictment of thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian companies.  Once again, you can read the indictment, here, and you can search through its text, here, and, bluntly, you might want to read that prior piece on the Foreign Registration Act, because this piece is going to build off of that analysis.  In other words, you really might not get what I am trying to tell you unless you read that other piece.

And yes, this will be a long one.

Black Panther Review: Double Plus Secret Societies

So last night I took a break from work and writing my next post dealing with the Mueller indictment and saw Black Panther.  And I want to talk about it.  As per usual, I’ll keep things spoiler-free above the fold and warn you before I get spoilerific.  Without spoilers, I remember getting a very “Wonder Woman” vibe when reading the reviews.  Now, I liked Wonder Woman.  I own a copy of it and have watched and enjoyed it several times.  It is a legitimately good movie.  But it was much better reviewed than it deserved to be.  And you got the suspicion that people were worried about being called sexist if they dare to be insufficiently exuberant in their praise.

It took me a while to think of what this reminded me of, and then I remembered this video.  Watch it to the end.  It’s pretty amazing/horrifying:

Now, in this video, I am not sure there was any genuine enthusiasm for Stalin.  I mean, if they are that scared of him, how much can they really like him?  On the other hand, I absolutely believe that there is a lot that is genuinely good about Wonder Woman, so I presume that a large part of the praise it got was entirely genuine.  But there was also an element where I wondered if they were going massively over the top just because they were afraid of being “the first one to stop clapping.”  And I began to get the sense that the same thing was happening with Black Panther.

And I was right.  It was good.  I recommend it.  But the praise is waaaaaay over the top.  For instance, I saw reviews comparing Michael B. Jordan’s turn as Killmonger as being like Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight.  If they mean he is as scary as that iconic character, no, he’s not even close and he’s not meant to be.  If they mean well-acted, yeah, Jordan did a pretty damn good job, but in a contest I think I’d still give the win to Ledger.  Although to be fair to Jordan, it’s a bit of comparing apples to oranges.  A good scary performance is much different than what Jordan was giving us.  Jordan’s Killmonger actually more resembles Michael Shannon’s depiction of Zod, in Man of Steel, in that he is shown to be a determined and ruthless follower of comprehensible ideology.  I’m not saying you necessarily agree with their ideology, but it was an ideology that seemed pretty logically consistent and worked out.

(Well, Zod’s ideology was consistent at least until Superman screwed up his plans so thoroughly that Zod completely flipped his sh*t and decided to go on a killing spree, but in that movie’s context it made sense that events would completely break his mind and drive him insane.)

That being said, Killmonger, despite having a silly name (that was surprisingly well-justified in the movie) was really one of the best villains in the Marvel Universe.  And Andy Sirkis is actually pretty awesome as secondary returning villain Klaw.

Also, toward the end, there is a character death that was surprisingly moving—really probably the most moving moment since the funeral at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

And finally, before we get really spoilerish, let me point out that you don’t need to stay for the final after credits scene.  As we all know, Marvel really loves to put in those mid- and post-credits scenes, sometimes setting up sequels, sometimes tying up a loose end, sometimes schmucking around (I’m looking at you, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but with affection).  So there is a mid-credits scene that I won’t reveal, but I will say I think it should have just been part of the movie.  And then when all the credits are done, they have an after credits scene that you frankly didn’t need to see (although there are some kids who are pretty funny, so maybe it is worth seeing it for that).  Why you don’t need to see it is...

The Mueller Indictment: The Foreign Agents Registration Act is Unconstitutional

Update: For some reason a video didn't embed properly.  I am updating to fix.  If that doesn't work, I will cut it out for a picture.

So, after another long break, I am back with another post.  In fact, I am planning a series of posts dealing with different issues related to the indictment of thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian companies.  You can read the indictment, here, and you can search through its text, here.  But if you have been following me on twitter, you are seeing me suggest that I see some very serious First Amendment problems in this indictment.

Strap yourself in, dear reader, this is a long one.  We’re going to go very deep into some dense statutes.