Mar-A-Lago Theory

Trump took docs, FBI wanted them back, Trump refused to give them back to provoke the FBI to act so he could play the victim.

Math

Legit question: what was wrong with the old way math was taught?

Logging

Film: Blackhat

Probably the worst Michael Mann film and I still prefer to rewatch over any MCU movie. I remember liking and defending the movie when it came out because there are parts that are memorable - the set pieces, in particular. But the casting in the film is off. Hemsworth seems to be playing some weird amalgam of Val Kilmer and DeNiro from Heat with hacking skills. And the first act has no flow or rhythm. The scenes just jump into each other. It's odd. Also, the 3rd act conceit of Hemsworth going it alone feels beyond implausible. But still...I fully plan to rewatch the directors cut at some point.

Film: Coda

The film grew on me. And I love, love, love the Academy voting for it for best picture. It was a completely subversive, fuck you move from within the Academy to the toxic combination of people now employed in the town - the strange bedfellows of the business school MBAs/careerists who are in tenuous alliance with the woke sociopaths. It was a call for help from within the house of sappy old movie lovers who were like: look, this is how you make a Hollywood movie. We are going to need a lot more of this type of political rebellion to make Hollywood great again.

TV: Selling the OC

Never again.

Amy Klobuchar 

Is smart, pragmatic, and solution-oriented which is precisely why the Democrats will never nominate her to be President.

Movies

The most obvious explanation for why movies feel like a dying form is the movie studios stopped prioritizing them. 

Filmmakers

It ought not escape our notice that many of the great filmmakers are Jewish or Catholic. Someone ought to study why this may be. I have some ideas.

Conspiracies Around 2020 Election

So, I'm pretty sure there are two demonstrable conspiracies that tipped the 2020 election away from Trump:

1) Democrats pressuring Pfizer to delay the announcement of vaccine readiness by needing "more testing" to post-election.

2) The FBI telling Facebook to censor election related information such as the Hunter Biden laptop story that would cast shade on - in this case - Joe Biden

But the weirdest irony of all - Trump contested the election using WORSE and UNTRUE arguments about voting machines and dumping ballots and all the rest. His instincts about the establishment corrupting our systems against him were correct, but his facts and evidence and understanding of those systems were incorrect. 

And yet, to me, the system was somewhat vindicated in their actions by how far Trump took his election denial. 

Student Loan Forgiveness / Badness

1) It will increase inflation

2) It is unfair to those who paid off loans before or didn't take loans to begin with

3) It is regressive - and mostly helps stressed out 20-somethings who will be able to pay these things off on their own, but just don't want to.

4) It perpetuates the problem of students taking on too much debt

5) It perpetuates the problem of increasing tuition costs

6) It creates a moral hazard and will encourage others to take loans in the future

7) It is terribly expensive and will increase our national debt

It's a straight out bribe to a core democratic constituency and it's this time of thing that causes societies to collapse.

Maybe Why We Ought to Study Art...

Because it helps explain contradictory beliefs that are nevertheless coherent--

Because all of this is simultaneously true: 

In the past, casting White actors as obviously Asian characters or Native American characters was pretty ludicrous and punctured our ability to suspend disbelief.

We are making a similar mistake today by every show and movie having a diversity mandate, so Black characters pop up in premodern England, every show features a gay romance, and Pam Anderson had an Asian friend (no way). 

And yet, I'm excited about James Franco playing Che Guevara and Ana De Armas playing Marilyn Monroe.

Better With Age

Strange to say, but I think Bon Jovi has gotten better with age. Maybe that's a reflection of bad taste, I have no clue.

Distinction

Perhaps a lot of our social conflicts are not so much about race, class, gender but those who view things from a long term perspective versus a short term perspective.

Weed and Psychedelic Use Soars For Young People

You may thank all those who favored legalization, by which I mean just about everyone I know.

We vastly underestimate the impact of what I'd call popular non-socially conservative policy reforms such as drug legalization, gay marriage, and sports betting. We operate under a presumption that anyone who makes these choices are all consenting, mature adults able to make their own decisions. But what in fact is happening: our society is sending a signal of approval for these behaviors, all of which will have major unintended consequences.

Student Loan Debt Cancellation

Anyone want to bet on there being an increase in 10K student loan applications for next year?

In related news, when the electric F150 became eligible for a tax rebate of $7500, Ford promptly increased the price of their electric F150 by $7500.

Great job, government.

Mask Policy

I notice a lot of employers still require masks. Maybe we should edit the mantra to read "Follow the science when it suits our emotional disposition." 

Robert DeNiro Fact

Casino and Heat both came out in 1995. 

My 2004 Self

I wonder what my 2004 self would be more surprised by:

1) In 2022 there will be a large swath of people who "identify" as a different sex and normal, everyday Americans will regard this as normal and not a psychological disorder.

or

2) In 2022, emotional support animals will be allowed in workplaces, on airplanes, and in classrooms - so in effect, people basically bring their pets everywhere.

or 

3) In 2022, Ben Affleck and JLo would just be tying the knot. 

Logging

Film: The Outlaws

Solid South Korean cop and robbers flick - watched mostly to get Don Lee vibes. 

Film: Top Gun

Unquestionably better than the sequel, as enjoyable as the sequel is. Actual real emotion - a strong love story. And wonderful supporting cast.

TV: House of the Dragon Pilot

First 30 minutes were rough. Really rough. Wanted to turn off the show during the c-section treated as action set piece. Got more interesting in the 2nd half. Like the faces of some of the cast. But it's fairly obvious to me from this early stage - has completely lost the best parts of GoT - the surprising plot twists, the uplifting character moments (and score), and the wit in dialog scenes. But they managed to keep the superficial elements of gore, nudity, and white hair...

Film: Coda

First 30 minutes or so. Decent stuff, but hardly best picture material. Feels like a scream for help from within the Academy.

Film: Drunken Master 2

First 30 minutes or so. Pleasurable action set pieces, but with much of the Hong Kong Jackie Chan films I find myself wanting to like the movies more than I actually do. 

Film: Karate Kid

Only the wax on and wax off sequence. But a brilliant sequence it is.

Can Quentin Tarantino Guess Movies by ONLY Hearing the VHS Box Description?

GOAT

Starbucks

While I'm generally pro-union, these Starbucks employees don't really pass the smell test.

The staff, made up of mainly college students, reached out to the corporation multiple times to bargain but have yet to hear back.

And then there's the old problem of what economists call substitutes. The fact that I can brew my own coffee for about .15 a cup instead of paying more than $3 for a cup.

Sorry kids, I think this is the wrong fight.

Oh My God

This is remarkable. She is saying nothing. Literally nothing. Meaningless word vomit. This is a Monty Python sketch. Or a joke uttered by a 4 year old. Anyone heard a 4 year old tell a joke? They're brilliant. They understand how a joke has a form, but miss the details and meaning. So they say, "What do you call a feather and a donkey mixed together?" "What?" "A dum-dum." Hahaha. They find it funny and they are proud of themselves because they mimicked what adults and older kids can do. 

The only weird part about this: it comes from our actual Vice President. And the thing it mimics is a leadership speech. Good god. 

Logging

Film: High and Low

My feeling is Kurosawa might've watched Pickpocket and said, "Hold my beer." 

Good lord, this catapulted into easily my top 50 and I could see it going higher if I ever get to see on a big screen. Most certainly falls into the category of - how the fuck hadn't I seen it before. Let's just say, Memories of Murder, Zodiac, the Onion Field, and the newest Robert Pattison's The Batman owe the film a debt of gratitude. 

Gifted and Talented

In 25 years when you die in the next pandemic because we couldn't invent a vaccine quick enough, you can thank all the people who want to scrap Gifted and Talented programs because of equity issues. 

“We need to teach all students, including those students who may not be gifted in math, but may be talented in art,” says Mr. McLean, president of Community Education Council 16 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. “We have to make sure that we’re tapping into all of those things.”

Why do I have the feeling these gifted art students aren't going to be updating the mRNA vaccines?

LAFC

What a crowd and environment. I can think of few things better to do on a warm summer evening in LA than an LAFC game. Don't spread the word. 

Yep

From Matt Yglesias:

There is nothing better we could do for equity and social justice in education than to convince schools to use effective reading instruction methods even if teachers find them tedious.

Teachers don't like teaching phonics even though it helps teach kids to read. So...they don't teach phonics. Downside to all the smart women getting careers is that society used to have a ton of overqualified, really smart teachers and now...less so. But on the upside, there are a lot of dual income households making more than 400k a year!

Glendale Central Library

A beautiful library that could be on a college campus. I heard they had a 3D printer, so I took my aspiring scientist boy there today only to find out they indeed have a 3D printer but no staff trained to work it right now. No one trained. 

But somehow they managed a huge art exhibit showcasing (what else) anti-colonialism art. They also seem very well staffed with dozens of female librarians who, from what I can tell, have spent a great deal of time reorganizing all the displays to feature endless books with POC characters and anti-racist themes.

Also - outside this same library, there are probably 20 or so homeless or close to homeless middle aged men just sitting around in the shade doing jack shit.

This is what it feels like to live in Blue America right now. Could not one of these homeless joes be trained on how to work a 3D printer and help people? Of course not. Could nobody in this library take any initiative to work a goddamn technology they possess so they might teach a curious young boy (and his dad) how to work this fascinating new technology? What are we even doing anymore in this country?

Logging

Film: Nope

Pretty dope movie.

TV: F Boy Island S2

Gavin Newsom would fit right in on this show. Too bad it didn't exist before his political career and we're stuck with him making laws. 

Book: Dream Hoarders by Richard Reeves 

The subtitle explains all: "How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It"

I'm predisposed to believing in the thesis, but after reading the majority of the book remain less-convinced by the author's arguments. Maybe I will expand in a larger post.

Founding Fathers

Why do I have the feeling that if the Founding Fathers met Americans of today they would be like, "Okay...never mind, we were wrong, let's stick with King George."

New Pronouns Or Maybe Not 

For the non-conforming, their gender seems to be both of paramount importance and not important at all.

Burning Books

Yep, the social progressives are burning books.

Notice all the people involved in the story are women.  

Interesting Piece

Friedman calls Pelosi's visit to Taiwan utterly reckless.  He makes good arguments, the central of which is that the Ukraine war is not won. My POV of the world is that China deterrence is our #1 priority, not winning Ukraine war, and so under this context, I kinda sorta like Pelosi's visit as a vague reminder the US is still an alpha dog. Could it backfire? Sure. But it's the first ballsy thing I remember a Democratic politician doing in a long ass time.  

Logging

TV: Slow Horses S1

Enjoyed more than the book although the "bad guy" plotline was pretty thin for a spy show. 

Democrats

Are funding Republican election deniers to make the Republicans seem more radical. 

So when they wonder why moderate and independents hate them -- maybe, once again, they ought to look in the mirror.