Must Watch Clip

On why parents of trans children will fight to death on the issue. She is right. They will never accept what they have done which is irrevocably harmed their own children. 

They Have A Name for this in the US

It's called the suburbs. 

Right wing dude moves family to Budapest in order to discover Montessori schools. Loony. 

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TV: Alex Gibney Doc on the Sopranos E1

So far, great. My favorite bits are Chase's early days in LA.

And it reminds me -- this is so clearly the greatest tv show ever created. It's far better than The Wire or Deadwood, as great as those shows are. Only close competition is Seinfeld. 

Funny bit (not from the doc) by Chase:

It’s just very difficult to end a series. For example, ‘Seinfeld,’ they ended it with them all going to jail. Now that’s the ending we should have had. And they should have had ours, where it blacked out in a diner.

I Wonder...

What would happen if Hollywood just made normal movies that attempted to entertain the 1 billion or so English speaking adults in the world.

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Film: Godzilla: King of the Monsters

I've never heard anyone talk about the Godzilla and Kong cinematic universe, but this has managed to pay many bills for some decent actors and keep the trams at WB working, while at the same time showing the total lack of imagination and exhaustion of Hollywood. This is what you get for trying to make movies for 1 billion Chinese people you've never met or care to meet.

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Screenplay: The Killer 

I like my nihilism in art to avoid it in real life.

Kamala

My only real worry with Kamala becoming President is WW3 and nuclear holocaust. But if a supreme court justice retires and she can nominate a Democrat, those might cancel each other out.

Agree

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer the old school tech industry of navy blue suit / red tie IBM yes men and pocket protector autistic worker drones in beige cubicles. At least they didn't try to convince themselves they were cool visionary hippies

Also, they didn't feel the need to "change the world." They kinda sort of happened to (although are things so different, really?) but didn't go on and on about it. 

Random Memory

On 9/11, I was in central California at a PG&E office on a consulting assignment - my first post college job. For all intents and purposes, this was like being in a red state. They had set up a tv in the conference room where we were working. Everyone from my consulting team and the office were in and out all day watching the news. I remember an older white women was watching it unfold and she said "we gotta bomb them." I said "bomb who." She looked at me and said, "you know who."

The Case Against AI

Ladies and gents: an American politician:

In comments made on the forum of a porn website between 2008 and 2012, Mark Robinson called himself a "Black Nazi," said he supported reinstating slavery and -despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric - said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography.

and

On the porn website Nude Africa, Robinson also graphically described his own sexual arousal as an adult from the memory of secretly “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a teen, recounting the story as a memory he said he still fantasized about.

AI will never be able to come up with stuff and that's why there is a future for us.  

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Film: A Woman Under the Influence

Johnathan Haidt and his fellow "free range" parents ought to watch or rewatch this film. As much as I'm persuaded that we over-parent -- the sequence of Peter Falk dragging the kids out of school, taking them to the beach, throwing them in the back of a pick up truck, and giving them beer to get to sleep without eating dinner seems me maybe actually NOT better than the parents today all taking kids to soccer practice. I dunno. 

Rules Based Order

The same people who are saying the Western "rules based order" is dead because of the way Israel is fighting Hamas and Hezbollah also claim Israel stole land from Palestinians in 1948. So - I'm confused -when did this "rules based order" die. It seems like it never quite existed in their minds and yet, it has suddenly just died. They act as though there was some fair system before (that they of course, rejected) and now that fair system has somehow become worse? Incoherent people. 

Israel's Opponents

Tough to take seriously the moral condemnations of Israel's beeper attack by Hamas and Hezbollah supporters. 

Ugh

Watching some of these Republican Senators grilling Maya Berry - ugly. I have zero tolerance for Hamas apologists, but the hyperbole about Jewish students being in danger on campus is out of control. I agree the pro-Hamas stuff is gross, but what the hell are Lindsay Graham and Josh Hawley gonna do about it? Nothing but blow hot air. Do Senators need to be involving themselves in this? Cannot the campuses resolve these issues? Are Hawley and Graham gonna go around reading all the protest signs and distinguishing between free speech and hate speech. Don't they have more important things to be doing? This just furthers my suspicion that the vast majority of our so-called elites just enjoy their status and like pretending to be doing their jobs. What they should actually be doing is figuring out how to sort out this new world order that's growing in front of our eyes. Instead, they want to pick the low hanging fruit.

Man...I don't know...

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Film: Rebel Ridge

Rather enjoyable all things considered. Conceit of the action hero who wants to do no harm worked in the end. Casting all around not terribly exciting for me, though.

Book: Life's Work by David Milch

Fascinating he could write this thing while losing his mind. Tons of nuggets about life and writing along with some decent gossip. Quite a candid discussion of professional and personal failures. At rare moments, I get exhausted by his weighty approach to drama. Still, a singular voice and person - unlikely to have another like him.

Think For Yourself

The crazier the world gets, the more important it becomes to think and for yourself. Parent listened to the internet and the doctors and pretty is responsible for mutilating their child. Heinous. Tropes are often tropes for reasons - they are true.

"Putin Warns" 

NATO will be at war with Russia if Ukraine uses long range weapons. But according to Putin, he started the war to prevent NATO expansion into Ukraine. So...is anyone double checking his strategy...

Tyreek

Unpopular opinion over here...the issue isn't that Tyreek is a criminal or the cops are terrible racists...he's just dumb. Like really dumb. He's driving too fast, he gets pulled over. Why? Not because the world is racist, but the world doesn't want people driving 60 mph in a 40 mph zone. The community is going to want/have some type of police to enforce basic safety laws. He interprets this as racist, because he's dumb. And somehow doesn't understand that other people aren't cool with crazy drivers. So he starts protesting, acting a fool because he thinks he's a victim when in fact, he's being mildly irresponsible. Cops overreact because they are dumb too, just not quite as dumb as he. 

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Film: Predator 2

In honor of the heat wave in LA, decided to rewatch. Not a stand alone classic as the original film, yet holds up as a maniacal genre exercise. Gary Busey and Bill Paxon are both in this film. Also, the film deserves quite a bit of credit of expanding and elaborating the so-called Predator mythology. 

Could pair well with Marked for Death as entries in the Jamaican gangs as villains sub-subgenre. 

Good Line

From the Lady Bird script:

They perform the next night. 

No fun. It’s no fun because their boyfriends are gay.

Israel-Hamas War

I'd be sympathetic to the so-called pro-Palestinian position if they proposed neutering the Iranians and starving Hamas financially rather than taking it out on the Palestinian people. But I never hear such ideas or proposals. 

Georgia School Shooting

Boy does this sad story have something for everyone. It's like a Rorschach test.

Liberals can point blame at gun laws and trans/homophobia, two of their favorite topics.

Conservatives can point blame at the public schools and radical trans-ideology brainwashing the kid.

One thing we can probably all agree on...I would guess...the father is freaking nuts for giving a gun to the kid. 

America can probably to a 75-80% degree agree with what makes good parents. I wonder if that's a starting point.

My Politics

Could probably best be described with an image - a man somewhere outside Indiana or Iowa wearing a Caitlin Clark jersey while watching an NFL football game.

No Change

Hamas murders seven innocent hostages, violating every single international and moral law known to man. But it changes nothing to the ceasefire crowd. It only reconfirms their priors. I would like to understand how one is expected to make a ceasefire with such a group? All those who want to stop the war, should join along with the coalition to end Hamas as quickly as possible so that the war will stop. And stop it will when Hamas loses the will and support to fight.

A New Approach to Cold War 2.0

I'm sure Xi, Putin, and Sinwar will be dissuaded to rein in their evil plans by auntie Kamala's charming insistence on having a slice of cake.  

Individual Stocks

Strong article on why to avoid individual stocks, but this detail particularly compelling:

Even among the 30 stocks with the highest cumulative compound returns the results were relatively modest—the median annualized return across the 30 stocks was 13.03%, while the mean was 13.05% and the largest was Altria Group’s 16.29%. How many investors would have guessed that one?

Meaning even if you manage to pick a winner (not as easy as it looks), the annualized returns are not what I'd call spectacular.

Okay...

Now we're getting somewhere with ideas about how to deal with student loans. Rubio proposes a one-time financing fee to be paid over the life of the loan. Loan to be paid back based upon income. Not bad.  

Alien 3

Another note: committing to the suicide of your main character makes for an unsatisfying ending. A character who sacrifices for another, perhaps. But not for some abstract, corrupt world we do not care about.

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Film: Aliens and Alien 3 

Wow is Aliens an enjoyable film. So much wit. Humor. Full of small character moments. Full of life. In contrast, Aliens 3 incredibly dull and seems half-baked. A promising concept - crash landing into a prison environment where the inmates are devoutly religious, but boy the storytelling just doesn't work. They adopted an almost procedural element early on where Charles Dance (later to be Tywin Lannister) is a doctor who pairs with Ripley to try and figure out why strange deaths and events are occurring around the prison. Spoiler alert: it's an Alien. For some reason, each of them withhold quite a bit of information from each other, but they also sleep with each other. I'm watching the film on Hulu and think to myself has Hulu like skipped ahead on accident or done something weird with the cut? I'm honestly not sure. It feels like when you watch an airplane version of a movie. But maybe this is just the movie? I don't know. They have some other good ideas - back to one Alien, Ripley has an Alien inside her, and the prison has no weapons so they need to fight this Alien with primitive tools. But execution, not just ideas, matters. 

The most noticeable thing is how much less charming Ripley herself is in this film compared with the others.

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Film: Alien Romulus 

A movie! A real movie, this is. Patient. Cinematic. Was it shot on film? It certainly looked like it. The downsides of the film: writing and star power. Now let me clear, the acting isn't "bad" but it lacks charisma. Perhaps tied to the writing. There's a noticeable lack of charm in current films - when you go back and consider the original Alien, or even Jaws, the characters are funny, dimensional, human. The characters in Romulus are basically victimized, bummed out, sad monkey, or neurodivergent. But they are diverse of course (which ulimately is meaningless because surprise, surprise mostly they all die). Question: does an Asian audience member care more when an Asian character dies? I wouldn't think so, but what do I know. 

Another problem with films like this - they fall into the same storytelling patterns as the original, so the surprises don't really land as surprises. It becomes more ritual. Like the birthday cake at a party. I guess with my drama, I'd like something more.

Still worth, the cinematic experience in IMax 100%.

Amen

Vanderbilt college president:

The university would not divest from Israel. 

It would not banish provocative speakers. 

It would not issue statements in support or condemnation of Israeli or Palestinian causes. 

Before the hour was up on Monday, he added that Vanderbilt would not tolerate threats, harassment or protests “disrupting the learning environment.”

It's quite easy. Now enforce the rules.  

Ayso-ification of the US

In public, ASYO constantly reiterates "winning doesn't matter" at the young ages. But this is a lie that no one accepts. Even 4-5 year olds start playing for fun any game they want to win. The question they are trying to answer is how not to become overly competitive and focus more on development. But this is a false dichotomy. I believe if people compete and play hard to win, they better accept losing since they tried hard. And feel like they've learned for next time. Saying "winning doesn't matter" encourages what? It encourages nothing. It encourages not playing because it suggests it doesn't matter. 

We see this mentality in our current world. Most people in the US don't see winning in Ukraine or Israel as mattering. This is why we limit how the wars are being fought. We assertlame guardrails on the fight - like bowling with bumpers in the lane. We seem to think it we somehow leverage our "superpower" these wars will eventually just go away and we can return to the way things were in 2012 or something. But that time is over. There is no returning. We should've encouraged Israel to go to war and win quickly. A protracted situation over there is Vietnam-esque. Israel used to know this and fight like this. I don't know what's going on with those folks anymore. 

Putin crossed a red-line and revealed the Europeans won't fight. Which we basically already knew. Scary times. We should know that if Putin isn't stopped it's going to be 100 more years of Russian aggression.

In Hindsight

All the signs were there that at some point a candidate would dance their way to the Presidency.

Why?

We all talk about the JFK-Nixon debate playing on TV vs Radio. Well, we are post-TV. We are in a world of clips. So what plays well on clips? Dancing.

Sorority girls have figured it out.

Dancing with the Stars has it figured out.

Raygun knows, too.

If Kamala wins, it will be known as the election that was decided by dancing. 

Random Notes Reading The Odyssey Graphic Novel

-Odysseus a bit of a man-whore

-Story jumps around episodically and through time quite a bit more than I recalled.

-Outfoxing cyclops was not as "brilliant" as I remember it, but like a little bit clever.

-Filed in the library under non-fiction graphic novels which seems a bit weird

-Reading aloud, I have quite a bit of trouble with the names

Interesting But Similar Dilemmas 

Religious people are happier, but religious societies are poorly governed.

Being thrifty is good for your personal well-being and stability, but bad for the overall economy.

Big heavy SUVs are safer for the drivers in the car, but less safe for the folks outside the car. 

David Milch Wisdom

"Irony ultimately is not an adequate informing principle for long-term conduct. It can get you laid or it can get you through a short conversation, but that's about it."

Random Notes Watching Jaws

-death of first girl seemed unrealistic for a shark attack but it works as a movie set piece

-nice withholding of information - when Sheriff arrives he's only responding to the girl's disappearance, but his deputy finds the body while Sheriff is present in the scene to give the needed emotional trauma to get our story going. a lot of bad scripts will "radio in" this moment instead...

-the psychological coherence of characters and dynamics are not entirely realistic...but work as melodrama. the sheriff slapped in front of the mayor by the 2nd victims mother - a powerful and needed emotional moment for the story. of course, it makes no sense. sheriff wanted to close beaches. mayor refused. but woman blames sheriff and he takes it.

-sheriff's flaw is often reported in screenwriting books as his fear of water, but this is not the case. his flaw is being "new" to the community and wanting to fit in. this is why he takes bad advice early on and listens to others, ie gets himself in trouble. 

-well handled exposition re the shark. show brody reading shark books (where he got them - who knows or cares?). later, he runs through ideas of territoriality, etc with dreyfuss - having already taught himself the theories. a lot of "expo" happens off screen. like they realize it's a shark attack and share this info with brody off screen - we just learn it through him typing up the police report

-a good number of "altman" esque filmmaking with multiple characters talking in the background while some type of action is foregrounded, but not heard completely. keeps the frame "full" and we take in quite a bit of information simultaneously. for instance, we track brody's son enjoying/liking the water while brody gets reports about a missing girl. we sense businessmen in the town worried for their livelihoods while at the same time brody is worried about the shark. 

-now they're out on the boat. a nice detail - they don't plan stay the night - but rather only do so because they got a single barrel in the shark and now feel as though they can track him. 

-in case you missed it, quint delivered the bomb. when i was younger, i thought they helped with the targeting or something but now i realized they literally were the ship that carried the bomb from the us to wherever the planes were parked. funny how one can hold onto a small misconception for decades. 

UPDATE:

-many filmmakers would've made the section of the film on the boat the third act, but in Jaws it's like a whole movie-within-a movie. i've heard it said before Jaws is two movies - a movie about a sheriff trying to keep the town safe and then a movie with 3 guys on a boat. i think that is right. 

-the streaming service flowed right into the option of watching The Meg, which I had never seen before. So to be a good citizen of the cinematic world, I gave the movie a shot. I should mention that I also watched Only Angels Have Wings this week, the old Howard Hawks film. Not a bad trio of films by way of comparison. All deal with characters interacting with physical tasks and vehicles - boats, submersibles, etc in Jaws/The Meg and airplanes in OAHW. Some overlapping themes of duty, dealing with death and grief, etc. But all three movies seems as if they are from entirely different civilizations. The understanding of human nature in Only Angels Have Wings is so far beyond The Meg, you would think some type of alien AI made the film. Maybe it did for all I know. Jaws is legit tho and reflects on an underlying humanity of the characters, but I feel like it ultimately is more of a movie than anything else. Like a human element of the story is subordinate to some other thing entirely - I guess what you might call cinema. It doesn't offend me, yet I somehow feel this is "less" that the moments in OAHW even though from a movie/entertainment perspective Jaws is more impressive. The Meg I turned off and was laughing out loud at the film. Let me say this as kindly as possible - this is movie made by and for retarded people. And when I say retarded, I mean not those with down syndrome, but type of person who was called retarded as an insult on the playground. 

Charlie Munger

"I'm used to things not working perfectly. So why should I expect my society is always marching upwards because it has for a long time? I believe you just adjust to whatever society turns out to be. And you do the best you can and that's all any human being can do and it's all I'm going to do."

Silver Lining

While I keep reading about all these weird things they teach in public school like sex is "assigned at birth," there is one silver lining. Schools are so slow with material, you can easily teach basic mammal biology to a kid long before so they can spot the BS.

John From Cincinnati

Feels like the time to finally watch...  

Is it Cake...

Can only end in one way: Mikey Day cuts himself in half to reveal that in fact, he was cake the entire time.

Gonna Get Ugly

I have this lingering suspicion the economy is going to get ugly, but I can't tell which way to play it. We might have a melt up - a worse version of our present situation where inflation just continues upwards and envelopes start costing $50 a pack and coffee hits $9 a cup. In which case, it's smart to hold stocks and fixed mortgages. On the other hand, we might see a big ole bust in the stock market the result of the chickens coming home to roost on all the government fueled spending from COVID, etc. In which case it would be smart to hold short term bonds and pay down the mortgage with these inflated stock prices. 

Or I could do what I normally do: nothing.

The Biden Economy 

Caitlin Clark can't afford Caitlin Clark.

Also Not Surprising

Impact on savings of sports bettors.

So dumb to legalize sports betting and marijuana. People who like to smoke weed and bet suddenly become libertarians when it comes to these single issues and Dems see "harmless" ways to get more money in the public sector. Example of government exploitation of citizens.

Not Surprising

Given the confusion and dysfunction of Democratic policies during the COVID lockdown, none of this surprises me about our mixed up policies between Ukraine and Israel.

The result of believing in secular fantasies and lacking imagination. 

Thrifty Ice Cream

Took the kids last night. $2.79. Good deal, don't get me wrong. But I remember when it cost $1. Was that 20 years ago? Does it make sense that things from 20 years ago should cost 3x? Maybe? Or is it just ice cream?

UPDATE: VTI is about 5x since early 2000s, so had I invested that $1 in the SP, it would be now about $5 so maybe that Thrifty is a good deal still. 

Envelopes

For the first time in a decade of marriage, I needed to buy envelopes. One, we don't mail much stuff. And two, we had a big box. A box of 100 cost $27 at Office Depot. $27. For envelopes. I suppose if it lasts another decade, it'll be worth it. But still. Seems like a lot.

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Film: Trap

If there's a scale of madness to greatness, Shyamalan tilted mad long ago. In this film, he casts his daughter as an Olivia Rodrigo type pop star who around the midpoint decides to take it upon herself to trap the serial killer who was up until that point, the protagonist of the film.

I was entertained.

Age

An unpleasant aspect of getting older is getting injured doing things that were once routine. 

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Book: Pick-Up by Charles Willeford

One of the most depressing novels I've ever read. Still, wonderful writing. I'd read anything by the author if I had the time.

If This Is True...

And the Biden admin gave up Mossad agents to the Iranians, we should just give over world control to the Chinese. 

Trump - Musk

Listened to a good portion. Trump makes some good points. On foreign policy he's got this whole position that's compelling: Russia would've never invaded Ukraine. And Israel-Hamas wouldn't have gone as far as it has. Counterfactual impossible to prove, but he said something that rings true: Biden's managed to anger both the Palestinians and Israelis - something that's hard to do. Really remarkable -- only there are thinkers out there who predicted that's exactly what would happen. 

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TV: Bad Monkey Pilot

Hard to make Vince Vaughn and John Ortiz boring, but... 

Race

Any discussion of race ends up being full of half-truths and misleading representations. Take for instance Kamala Harris. Is she Black, Indian, or both? Or is she white? She has an ancestor who owned slaves. Quite a large number of black americans probably do. Would this mean paying reparations to themselves? 

Trigger Warnings

Should only be used ironically. 

Vibes

If the Dems plan to run on vibes and Republicans counter with this, Trump wins. 

Are you better off now than you were when I was president?

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TV: House of the Dragon S2

Nearly unforgivable error with this season - no climax. Are you f-ing kidding me? So ready to throw in towel with the show, but it's hard. I'm basically a GoT completist - I think I've read every single book published and seen every episode...

Horrible.

Astrology

Whenever I begin to think screenwriting is a sham or waste of time, remind me to consult this study on astrology. 

A few years ago, I walked into a class where some of my students were in class early discussing astrology...and I caught the tail end of their discussion and they were like "oh...do you ever get a reading?" And I said: "No. Let's start class."

Ah Ha Moment

On kids. 

I had a belief that if they feel better they’ll behave better, and I am now leaning towards if I guide them to behave better they’ll feel better.

Agreed. 

The Biggest Scam In America

Is either social security or student loans. 

I bet the majority of social security payments basically go to rich (millionaire plus) old folks who own homes and who wait until 70 to claim. These are paid by young working folks who can't afford homes and probably have very little assets themselves. Why do liberals never bring up this scam?

OMG

This lady needs to be hired for SNL immediately for her Kamala impressions, but she won't. This level of comic incisiveness is reserved for Republicans only. 

150%

On parenting today:

The vast majority of kids described as “anxious” “has big emotions” and “has meltdowns” (a term I never heard until about 10 years ago) who are referred to my practice simply need parents to be firmer and engage less when their kids tantrum and demand things.

In your home anyway, you will get what you tolerate.

Hilarious

Taleb says "peace without justice is just submission." 

He's so full of shit on this topic. Ask all the dissidents from the Islamic Republic about justice. Or the victims of the Chinese Communists. Or the people of Ukraine and Georgia. Nope. Only Israel is held to a standard. His allies on the Gaza issue are three regimes who only ask for submission from opponents: Iran, China, and Russia. Fraud.

Peak Irony

Trans activist complains about Hamas supporters hijacking their pride events.

Pot meet kettle.

Republicans

Some interesting takes on the "vibes" shift. If I were the Republicans, I would frame the election around the concept of builders vs. bureaucrats. Who do you want as President? The public school principal and DA? People who regulate or people who build? While Walz and Harris sit at desks and wait for incoming calls, we are the ones who go out into the world and do what it takes to build hotels, write books, and make money. So you pick - the CEOs or the school principals. 

Anyhow, that's what I would do.  

Masks

Is the thing we spend the majority of our energy on really just producing various masks, protecting us from acknowledging how fragile we and the world actually are?

I think what really freaks us out is when we get a glimpse of those fragilities.

Logging

TV Show: Sugar S1

Watched the entire thing over a few nights. Enjoyed it quite a bit. If I image pitching the idea anytime over the past 10 years, I could predict a response of howling laughter. And yet, the show is pretty good. Not great. 

 

Olympic Boxers

My prior statements on the matter stand even though there's been a lot more info released.

Olympic Boxer

So now I guess the debate is whether the Algerian boxer is a man or a woman? Anyone have suggestions about figuring this out? I propose the old fashioned test: was the Algerian born with a dick or a vagina? I'm open to other suggestions if they are more simple or clear. But if they end up being more complicated, I say lets stick with the original.

Batshit Crazy

Olympic female boxer surrenders after 46 seconds - she isn't gonna fight a man.  

Where are all the feminists now? So-called western feminists are not feminists and have never been feminists. They are careerists. The only issues they actually care about are those that help them achieve career success. That's it. They care about "equal pay" and freedom to abort pregnancies when they are inconvenient.

Their silence about women in the Muslim world for the past 25 years is the entire story. Now, the silence comes closer to home on how transgenders impact women in sport. 

Everyone sees you on zooms twirling your hair and cheering for Kamala and doing Tik Tok videos from your office while your supposed "sister" is being beaten up in the ring by a man. Under rules you support.

UPDATE: And that's my nice take. The more delusional folks are persuaded by all the female-centered action movies where little skinny girls beat the shit out of grown men. Or re-edited soccer advertisements suggesting women could play just like men. Folks...that's propaganda you fell for. These are fools who shouldn't be allowed in positions of any type of power.

Logging

Film: Deadpool and Wolverine

Will Ryan Reynolds cause the decline of Western civilization or is he merely the worst movie star of his generation? I can't decide. 

The movie's insufferable. I'm foolish to do so, but I can't help but make a connection with the nihilism in this "entertainment" and the chaos in the world brought on by our fecklessness as a world power.

A few points:

1) For all the insane gratuitous violence none of it matters because all the characters can regenerate themselves. Who cares about any of the fights when no one can actually be injured? I feel this bears some resemblance to how Americans view the wars in Gaza and Ukraine - that the very real violence is somehow just a stage before regeneration of those societies.

2) Deadpool very badly wants to be part of a "team" and to serve a cause greater than himself. The only problem: Marvel Studios can't come up with a cause! The cause is to prevent some squiggly lines on a screen from not going blank. They call this timelines. So apparently, Deadpool is preventing his timeline from being erased. This has about as much emotional impact as erasing a line on a piece of paper to the audience. Thankfully for Marvel, the audience for this film doesn't care. They just care about the gay sex jokes. I get it. I'm old and frumpy. But later on in the film, we're supposed to get even more worried about the bad girl erasing "all the timelines." So a lot more squiggly lines. Oh no! So Marvel here is either cultivating or aping young Americans desire for accomplishment and heroism. Audiences want to be heroes by serving a cause greater than themselves - but see - the cause no longer matters. The cause can be squiggly lines. Or Palestine. Or fill-in-the-blank.

The world of Deadpool is this: disgusting levels of violence but no one actually dies or even get hurt, flirtation with no actual sex or love, and not a single genuine human interaction. Its a long insult comedy routine disguised as a movie. Give me Andrew Dice Clay any day.

Chappelle's Competition

This is so funny and actually quite an act of jijitsu.

The journalist goes for the classic trap question: is Kamala a DEI candidate? Did she get the nomination because she is black?

So unwritten rule in America - everyone knows that her being black was a plus. But you can't say it, because if you say it, you're racist.

Trump knows this. He doesn't fall into the trap. To say "no" is what old Republican candidates would do. They would pretend to be race-neutral and want to avoid being called racist at all costs. So they lie. 

Trump takes a different tact. He lies BIGGER. He pretends that he didn't even know Kamala was black. He knows he's lying. Everyone knows he's lying. But on a different level: he's actually playing a game. He's refusing the terms of the question and communicating: if you want to dick around, I'll dick around in a more fun and amusing way. 

Don't count him out.

Democracy

So if both sides agree to no longer to practice Democracy - the party insiders of the Democrats get to choose their nominee and Trump gets to decide his nominee - then the cognitive test, winner-take-all Jeopardy contest for President is not the worst of all possible outcomes.

Israel

My uncouth thoughts:

Could 10k Palestinian children have been saved by the savage butchery of 1000 mullahs in Tehran on October 8th?

You know who was good at containing all these various anti-Israel actors like the Houthis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Iranians? The Hussein clan.

Ties to My Theory

LA Times owner's daughter shocks with pro Hamas statements. 

We have a real problem in America - the freako weird kids of billionaires. This is going to be a new and different problem for several reasons:

1) Old time rich families had lots of kids so power and money had to be distributed around. Nowadays the rich folks are having fewer kids, so it falls into fewer hands.

2) The money is A LOT more given the world is globalized. Rich folks serve 8 billion people nowadays, so the fortunes are quite a bit larger

3) Wokeism and NGOs gives these people a belief system and the means with which to feel relevant. Look, being the son or daughter of a billionaire is both great and shitty. Shitty in that...you can never really succeed. You can't - by traditional metrics - achieve more than your parents. So the area in which they can compete will be areas like arts (Ellison kids) or social justice (Abigail Disney, this LA Times girl).

A lot of money to slosh around in very sketchy world views is a dangerous mix. 

Female Politics

The move for the Dems this week is to cast the Republicans as "weird." 

The appropriate response by Republicans would be to go: fuck yeah.

Taleb Sort of Right

When he says nothing hurts the Palestinian cause more than burning the American flag. 

I'd say the tactic of terrorism hurts their cause the most. The celebration of terrorism the 2nd most.

But it's worth asking the question why your cause attracts unhinged American haters...

French Olympic Ceremony

I didn't watch and don't overly care. But the "you don't get all the French art references in there" crowd who are saying: this isn't about The Last Supper should contend with the artist of the piece saying he took inspiration from Da Vinci's The Last Supper.

Patricia Highsmith

Compelling interview.  

Notable part: how does she start a story? With an action.

Logging

Film: Remember the Titans

Sports movies good for kids.

Book: Writing the 3rd Act 

Another book about screenwriting - nothing terrific in here. 

Logging

Film: Down and Out in Beverly Hills

A great entry in the middle aged men experiencing existential crises films. Features of this genre: middle aged man superficially has things going well in life but nevertheless is unhappy. Having some type of major secret (usually an affair or desire for one) that reflects his weakness. Often beleaguered by his job/kids/wife and other symbols of a certain class attainment. Comes into contact with some type of "new world" or "alternative world" that existed right in front of his eyes before that surprisingly gives him joy or titillation - in this case, the world of the homeless! Other examples of this genre: Something Wild, Sideways, A Serious Man, Eyes Wide Shut, The Weather Man

Logging

Film: Twisters

Solid entertainment but I have not thought about the movie once since seeing it last week. On the other hand, it's entirely possible I'll recall the experience of seeing it with my extended family - nieces, nephews, kids, etc for the rest of my life.

Book: Ab the Caveman

Well, the story ends with Ab leading his tribe to defeating and enslaving another tribe so it's not exactly going on school curriculums these days. But boy - this is an awesome book for 6-7 year olds. And how many books can you say that about?

Why is Palestine Occupied and Not China?

Why do people say Israel is occupying Palestine but not that China is occupied by the Communist Party? Can someone explain this to me? Every single Communist country in history was brought forth by a violent revolution followed by an even more violent state crushing any resistance or dissent. The Republic of China still exists - in Taiwan. This was the government of China pre-Communists. The Communists literally stole China from the Chinese people. But no one characterizes it this way. Why not?

The Problem with "Meritocracy" and its bastard cousin, Affirmative Action/DEI

We replaced the WASPY privilege and the corresponding myths with meritocracy and its corresponding myths. One of the myths of meritocracy are that the people with power and positions hold those positions through their own grit and perseverance. This is why Chelsea Clinton can make a TV show called Gutsy with the theme of "Nevertheless She Persisted." You may recall, Chelsea was raised in the White House and is the closest thing we Americans have to a princess. Now, this myth has some good features. Namely, it gets people to work hard on their own career and not fall into the trap of self-pity, there is a downside: they have no sense of duty or honor.  

We see that with this secret service agent Kim Cheadle. She is a shameless, clueless figure without a shred of honor. Obviously, she must resign. Because whatever failure occurred is her fault. She can't see it, though. Because in her eyes, she followed the best practices she knew and this incident is "bad luck" for her. You saw the same with all these female college Presidents. Nothing, you see, is their fault. Because everything they've done in their entire lives has been against all odds in their own minds. They truly believe they have earned and accomplished these bureaucratic appointments through the sheer force of their own hard work and skill.

UPDATE: Cheadle resigned before I could finish my post. Note, she only resigned after literally everyone called for it. She started to feel unpopular and disliked and got the clue she wasn't welcome at the party anymore. Not because of what I outlined above...

Still...

All that said, I personally prefer Kamala to Gavin Newsom mostly because she's done less. Newsom however is electorally battle tested. Won two terms as Governor and Mayor and fended off a recall. He seems to know something about politics, much as I dislike how he governs.

Democrats Doing It Again

I know people think it's racist when you say Kamala Harris is a DEI candidate, but the real reason she's a problem: she's not battle tested. She's won one real election. She became a US Senator for 1 term running against another Democrat in California. This means she has literally never beaten a Republican candidate except as a VP candidate as part of a ticket. Democrats are doing the same thing as with Hillary - Hillary hadn't won real elections. They thought marrying into power meant something to voters. They though serving as Secretary of State was good experience for winning elections. These things only meant something to diehard democrats who really wanted to see a women in power. Even Young Obama had been both a State Senator and a US Senator and overperformed when he ran against Hillary in the primary. Harris has the opposite track record. She underperformed when running against other Democrats. 

Yes, there is a chance she overperforms in the same way there's a chance every season that Anthony Edwards or Devin Booker or someone rises from a behind position from pack to take an NBA championship. It's just rare and quite unlikely.

Maybe the Dems think this election is lost anyway, so get Kamala out of the way for the future. 

Good Question

Why didn't America use its world historical wealth to build beautiful cities? 

He Doesn't Want to be President

By signing this bill, Newsom signals he doesn't want to be President. 

For Example

An example of what I outlined below perfectly illustrated by this: True Detective Night Country emmys.  

I stopped watching the show. And yeah, fine the creator of the show casting shade on the remake was unprofessional and perhaps in poor taste. But celebrating what was so obviously inferior television. Come on now. Perfect example of sacrificing quality for the feelings of the people who worked on the show coupled with this bizarre obsession with boosting the self-esteem of marginalized groups.

The esteem of the people on the show more important now than the audience. 

Toxic

The toxic combination of DEI, safetyism, and bureaucracy almost got Trump killed. 

On ABC News, the director of the US Secret Service said the "sloped roof" of the building the would-be Trump assassin carried out his attack from was a safety hazard and that a decision was made not to have an agent on it.

Because the point of overly feminized workplaces is to serve the workplaces and not the mission. So here, they prioritized the safety of the Secret Service rather than the duty of protecting the President. This happens nearly everywhere now in America and it's why we're in decline. 

Tim Robbins

Used to be a poster child for deranged leftism, now he seems like a reasonable centrist. 

To anyone drawing a parallel between my film Bob Roberts and the attempted assassination of Trump, let’s be clear. What happened yesterday was a real attempt on a presidential candidate’s life. Those that are denying the assassination attempt was real are truly in a deranged mindset. A human being was shot yesterday. Another killed. They may not be human beings that you agree with politically but for shame folks. Get over your blind hatred of these people. They are fellow Americans. This collective hatred is killing our souls and consuming whatever is left of our humanity.

Time doing a number on us all. 

Assassin

Seems like he was a lonely, bullied kid. My guess: suicide by secret service. 

Sad all around.

Observation

I get these DEI workshop things from work sometimes. Latest one is let's learn resilience. In the past, they offered "coloring" sessions. Often about decompressing, destressing, etc. It feels to me like stuff kids do. I dunno what's going on with these people - it seems like they want to go back to kindergarten or something. 

Meloni Faces

This is my favorite ongoing bit in international news - Meloni faces. 

It started with her "death stare" to Macron.

Now, it's her Biden eye roll and scowl.

What I love about facial expressions - they harken back to childhood and even ancestors - I feel like some of these expressions obviously came from her own mother, father, or grandparents. It's like ghosts from the past reacting to the present.

Marlon Brando Once Quoted 48 Hrs. Back to Eddie Murphy During Dinner

Eddie Murphy is weird, but there's quite a number of glimpses into the old star in this interview. I laughed out loud at the joke toward the end. 

Logging

Film: Axel F

Turned off.

Film: Unfrosted

Okay, but finished.

TV: Presumed Innocent

Not as good as the film I remember, but I'll finish it.  

A Lesson From Joe Biden...

...you can ignore the noisy intellectuals because they have no real influence or power to make anyone do anything.

Israel

Seems to me the timing is right to come to some sort of a deal.

In fact, this Saudi position does not seem crazy.

One thing that needs to be explained to me: why can't Gaza and the West Bank have different statuses? Could a Palestinian State be formed in the West Bank with Gaza TBD after 5 years of disarmament or something along those lines? I can see why Israel cannot be seen to be rewarding Hamas. But at the same time, they don't seem to be able to "finish the job." Israel needs to fight quickly and remain flexible. So why not give the carrot to the West Bank and the PA since they've already given the stick to Gaza?

Ukraine

Fascinating video here of a young Ukrainian guy arguing with some young Russian babes over the internet. He makes such strong, compelling arguments. They are floundering between various innuendos and lies, none of which make any sense even to themselves. Oddly, they cannot even bring themselves to criticize the United States - it almost seems like they admire the US. 

Is there a Palestinian equivalent? And no...I do not mean some European or American leftist...an actual Palestinian who can make a similar argument? Probably not. One of his most compelling points is this: you attacked us. We started nothing. No Palestinian can make the same case. 

Uruguay

Is favored against the US in soccer today. The country has a population of 3.4 million.