Deranged In the Membrane

For today's political themed post, I have a plethora of fuckery by Donald Trump and his snivelling synchophants to pontificate about.

• The war with Iran.
• Rising prices for gas, groceries and some other 3rd thing.
• Donald Trump's perpetual denial that rising prices for gas, groceries and some other 3rd thing is actually a problem.
• Pay attention, people: it's a Golden Age for America. Why are we not impressed? Because we are not impressed with rising prices for gas, groceries and some other 3rd thing.
• Acts of censorship against those who dare speak against der Führer.
• Cuts to programs that help people with disabilities.
• Invoking religion as governmental policy.
• Continued cover up of the Epstein files. 
• Trump and other MAGA faithful benefiting financially from Trump's chaotic impulses.
• Election interference through a compromised judiciary and rampant gerrymandering. 
• Trump and his synchophants putting his fucking picture on every damn thing.  
• The goddam ballroom that no one wanted or asked for.

I could keep going as the list of incompetence, cruelty, grift, etc etc etc is quite extensive.

Or maybe all these problems are not problems at all.

Maybe it's just me.

Maybe I have (dramatic pause) Trump derangement syndrome!

Trump derangement syndrome is invoked by Trump and his minions to undermine those who speak out against Li'l Donnie and those things he do. 

So if I say that Donald Trump is a lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, small minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit, well, that's my problem for being crazy! 

I'm just deranged for refusing to see the obvious power and wisdom that is Donald J. Trump.  

ME: Trump has been reckless and incoherent in this war he started with Iran.

DONALD TRUMP: Dave-El has Trump derangement syndrome! The War is going GREAT!  The war is WON! We won it on DAY ONE!  AND we're going to keep winning it!   So much winning!! Dave-El said mean things about TRUMP!! I'm not a fan of Dave-El! NOT A FAN!! "I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You"! He does not know suffering! I have SUFFERED!!! MORE THAN JESUS!! I have survived 100 assassinations!  The Russia Hoax! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! I WON 3 ELECTIONS!!! Dave-El is a LOSER!! He doesn't have a ballroom! Only Trump can build the BIGGEST, the BEST, the GOLDEST Ballroom EVER! Dave-El is WEAK ON CRIME and BAD FOR AMERICA! 

There's an entire article about this on Wikipedia. 

From that article, here are a couple of bills introduced by Republican legislators to codify Trump derangement syndrome as a real and actual thing.

• Minnesota Senate Republicans introduced a bill in March 2025 that seeks to classify "Trump Derangement Syndrome" as a mental illness and incorporate it into the state's legal definition through amended statutes.
• U.S. Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio introduced a bill in May 2025 that would require the National Institutes of Health to study Trump derangement syndrome and report annually to Congress. 

The truth is there is so much going to shit in this country and in this world and the sewer line leads right back to Donald Trump.

The evidence of that is readibly apparent to our eyes and ears.

But we are being told to not accept the reality of what we can see and hear.  Our perception of that reality is dismissed as hysteria, deranged crazy talk. 

The truly deranged are the ones who cannot or will not accept what reality clearly demonstrates.   

Unless it is just me? 

Star Trekking: Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny!

 

Today's installment of Star Trekking is NOT about Star Trek.

But it is Star Trek adjacent.

Today I'm going to post about my current favorite podcast! 

Hosted by Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner, Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny takes place in a warm and comfy library/den set where these vets of Star Trek: The Next Generation sit around and bullshit with each other and engage in friendly chats with people they know.

This is NOT a Star Trek podcast but yeah, Star Trek stuff comes up. 

Hell, their first guest was Levar Burton so yeah, Trek ain't too far away.   

The "Dropping Names" in the title is a challenge for Brent, Jonny and their guests to drop as many names of famous people as they can into their conversations.

Sitting on a table next to Frakes is a bell which he rings every time someone drops the name of a notable actor, director, writer, relatively famous person they personally know and/or have worked with. 

Frakes thinks the bell is funny as hell.

Spiner is somewhat annoyed by it.  

I tend to agree with Spiner because Brent and Jonny know a LOT of famous people.  So that's a lot of bell ringing.  

But Frake's joyful reaction to Spiner's annoyance is amusing.

I realize Dropping Names may not be for you, that these free wheeling discussions may be too insular, too "inside baseball" to be interesting to everyone.  

Brent Spiner was in this play with that actress who was in a movie with some guy who once co-starred with the guest in a TV episode directed by Jonathan Frakes. Stuff like that.  

And Brent, Jonny and guests are too gracious and cordial to drop any real tea on anyone.  Everyone on this show is still actively working on something somewhere in the entertainment industry and can ill afford to burn any bridges.   

When Joel McHale was a guest, they couldn't bring themselve to trash talk Joel's former Community star Chevy Chase. And no one in Hollywood likes Chevy Chase so if there was anyone to talk shit about, it's him.  

Other than a reluctance to expose any real dirt or juicy gossip, these discussions are mostly candid and usually a lot of fun. To me, anyway. 

So that is that for this side trek from StarTrekking.

Next week, we're up to season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

Mother's Day 2026

Today is Mother's Day so to my son Dean, remember to say "Hi!" to your mom.

Dean and I communicate via blog.

Yesterday I ventured forth to Target to get my wife Andrea a Mother's Day card.  

There are Mother's Day cards from husbands to their wives but these are mostly filled with treacly Hallmark sentimentality that is very much out of character for me.  

One time I gave Andrea a card that was kind of sweet and heartfelt.  She was worried. "Are you going to die?"  

Finally I spied a card with a dog on it. Nailed it!

Andrea likes cards with cute dogs on them. 

I was standing next to a young woman who was having some difficulty finding a card for her mother. She was goingthrough the cards with this repeated refrain: 

• "No, not that one!" 
• "No, not that one!" 
• "No, not that one!" 

Taylor Tomlinson did some stand up on the problems for adults buying a greeting card for a parent.  Too much water under the bridge.

• "Thank you for always being there for me! Nope!"
• "Thank you for accepting me as I am! Nah, that's not gonna work." 
• "Is there a card that simply says 'You are my mom" and full stop?"

I used to struggle with getting cards for my mom and dad for similar reasons. Thankfully, I don't have to do that anymore because they're both dead.

Wait! "Thankfully"? 

Really, my parents are dead and I'm seeing an upside in not giving the folks at Hallmark any of my money to express empty platitudes?

I admittedly had complicated relationships with my parents.  

And perhaps I have some reasons to be angry with them for decisions they made when I was young that affected the course of my life.

But they hardly seem to matter now.

Here is a photo I recently found on Facebook of me with my mother and my brother.  

This was taken about a year or so before she died.

I am struck by how small and frail she is in this picture.  At this point, she was in assisted living, in the early stages of the Alzheimer's that would claim her life.  

She was such a strong woman, fierce and passionate about things that were important to her.  

She was my strongest advocate even when perhaps I didn't deserve it.  

Sometimes I dream she is still alive and then I wake up to chastise myself for not calling her more often, then remembering I can't.  

Is the primary function of Mother's Day to instill feelings of guilt?

Now I'm missing the stuggle of finding her a card.

Like me, she wasn't big on sentimentality.

So it would have to be funny. Or have a picture of a cat.

Here's to Mother's Day for all our mothers still with us today and to those who loved so long ago. 

Movie Time: Peppermint

 It’s….Movie Time! 

Since tomorrow is Mother’s Day, today’s movie post is about a movie I happened to catch on television several months ago about a mom on a mission. 

 

Is it a movie about the warm kindness and caring gentleness that only a mother can give? ❤❤❤

 

No, this is a mama going batshit violent on a quest for vengeance against those who killed her family! 💢💢💢

 

From 2018, it’s Peppermint and it stars that woman from the Capital One credit card commercials, Jennifer Garner.

 Riley North is a vigilante on a mission of revenge.  She didn’t ask for this.

 

Five years ago, she was a wife and mother to 10 year old girl, as well as holding down a bank job.  Her husband Chris owned a mechanic shop that was flailing.

 

They needed money and a friend of Chris suggested they could get some by robbing drug lord Diego Garcia.

 

Chris and Riley needed money but not bad enough to cross a drug lord like Diego Garcia.  So Chris passed on the deal.

 

But Garcia doesn’t know or care that Chris is NOT going to rob him now and decides to make an example of him for enen thinking about it. 💣

 

After an evening out for pizza and going to a carnival, the North family is targeted by Garcia’s thugs in a drive by shooting that leaves Riley severely wounded and her husband and daughter dead.😧

Riley can I.D. the shooters but damn! There is a LOT of bullshit arrayed against her.

The cops don't wanna take on Diego Garcia because the last cops who went after him wound up dead.🙈🙉🙊

Not to mention who knows which cops are on Garcia's payroll.

Riley still insists on testifying against the shooters but Garcia's lawyer discredits Riley as a credible witness. 

And the judge who is in Garcia's pocket dismissed the case due to a "lack of evidence".

Which causes Riley to lose her shit and attacks the killers in court which gives the judge an excuse to order Riley be put under a psychiatric hold. 😢

Well, you know how women get hysterical over the slightest thing like having a drug cartel murder her husband and daughter. 

While being transported to a psychiatric hospital, Riley North escapes and vanishes.

Five years later...

Certain people start dying. 

Diego Garcia's henchmen who shot Riley's family? DEAD! 

The henchmen's attorney? DEAD!

The corrupt prosecutor? DEAD! 

The corrupt judge? DEAD!

Riley North is back in town. 😠😠😠😠

Riley's living in a van down on Skid Row, loaded up with stolen weapons.  In addition to her quest for vengeance against Diego Garcia's drug cartel, she's been interventing to help protect the poor people on Skid Row.  They view Riley as a guardian angel, keepong them safe.

The cops go to the media to put out the word about Riley North: she's armed, she's dangerous, everyone beware! 

She's a hysterical woman! Watch out! 😡

Riley's media exposure causes some debate in the city. Some people see her as a murderous threat, breaking the law.  For others, Riley has become a cause célèbre for her one woman war against a viscious drug gang and the corrupt officials in their employ.  

For Riley, she has one goal. For each corrupt authority figure and feach criminal thug she kills, she's tightening the circle around Diego Garcia.  

The engame is putting an end to the monster himself. 

Riley's journey to her ultimate revenge is brutal.  As she eliminates target after target, she takes a lot of damage, broken, bruised, bloodied. 

And Diego Garcia is pushing back against Riley with a army arrayed against her.

Garcia sets up a trap for Riley.

Riley decides to walk into it, all the better to put a bullet in this motherfucker's brain.

But first she makes a phone call.

Media outlets throughout the city know where Riley North is gonna be.

Riley North vs. Diego Garcia.  The press and the police will have a front row seat.💥💥💥

Diego thinks the odds are in his favor.  He's bigger, meaner, stronger and he has a fully armed army at his command. 

And Riley is just one woman. 

She's also a mother who is holding on to a lot of rage over what Diego Garcia did to her family.

Advantage: Riley North.

Riley shoots Diego in the head.

Even though surrounded by police, Riley pulls a Batman and vanishes.   

She's ultimately found at her family's gravesite, bleeding out, ready to die.  

Riley's arrested for all the murders she did and taken to the hospital despite her protests, saying she is ready to die now.

But a police detective who was NOT on Diego Garcia's payroll helps her escape from the hospital and we have reach the end.

The blessed merciful end.

Oh, dear Lord, this movie! 😩

Peppermint is so ladened down with cliches and thread bare tropes.

All we're missing is "it was a dark and stormy night!" 

Diego Garcia is the overworn archetype of the Mexican drug lord, right down to his name.  Gee, did someone put a bunch of Hispanic type names in a hat and randomly drew "Garcia" and "Diego"?  

Credit where credit is due.  Jennifer Garner delivers a strong and ferocious performance as Riley North. I know we're so used to her gentle nature in those Capitol One ads, it's easy to forget what she's capable of.   

The Golden Rasberry Awards disagreed with me, nominating Garner for "Worst Actress" at their 2019 awards.   Fuck them! What do they know? 🙍

Hey, why is this movie called Peppermint?  It's the flavor of ice-cream Riley's daughter was eating when she was murdered.  It's also the alias Riley uses when she starts her quest for revenge. Mostly, everyone knows it's Riley and just calls her that. 

When the movie was released in South Korea, it was called I Am Mother. 💔

But Garner is too good for this slight 1980's throwback revenge flick.   And I am not alone in this assessment.

  

Rotten Tomatoes:  13% approval rating of 13% and an average rating of 3.6 out of 10. 

Metacritic:  score of 29 out of 100.

Audiences polled by CinemaScore were a bit kinder, giving the film an average grade of "B+".

Peppermint may be lacking in originality and anything resembling nuance but I suppose if you need to turn your brain off and watch corrupted authority figures and crass criminals get theirs in the most violent way possible, there are worse ways than spending time with Jennifer Garner doling out some righteous revenge.

Like a good seriously jacked, gun wielding mother would.

Happy Mother's Day! ❤❤❤❤

 

A Very Ryan Gosling Your Friday Video Link

To follow up on last weekend's Movie Time post about Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling, this week's edition of Your Friday Video Link features Ryan Gosling.

Specifically his turns guest hosting Saturday Night Live!

First up is the legendary Alien Abduction sketch where Ryan can barely hold it together while Kate McKinnon steals the show.

Ryan returned to SNL a few weeks ago to promote Project Hail Mary and stars in a sketch about a couple checking out of a hotel and dealing with some questionable charges relating to... the Goo-Goo Man!

Last year, Ryan hosted SNL and joined Mikey Day as a couple of dudes who look like Beavis and Butthead. 

And it's Heidi Gardner's turn to be rattled. 

And that is that for this week's Your Friday Video Link.

Until next time, remember to good to one another.

And never overpay for the Goo-Goo Man.   

Dave-El's Spinner Rack:Justice League Unlimited

 In the aftermath of the DC K.O. event, the Justice League is dealing with getting the world back to something resembling normalcy.  

Which is kind of a tricky thing to do:

• When the planet was nearly completely evacuated.
• Those that didn't get evacuated were preyed on by demons from Hell.
• Darkseid showed up and devastated the planet.
• And all that is here is still here because Superman used the power of King Omega (AND Alpha) to re-write time and reality.
• And for all that, Darkseid's attack was merely an opening round. The worst is yet to come.
• And Superman is missing. 
• And Batman still can't find his socks in the morning.*

*In the 1989 Batman film, Bruce Wayne tells Vicki Vale he can't find his socks in the morning without Alfred.  And Alfred is still dead. So I'm assuming Bruce is still having trouble finding his socks. And I've gone way too far with this. 

With Darkseid coming to Earth and shaking it upside down like a kid shaking a cereal box looking for the prize inside, returning to the status quo may not be in the cards.

It almost seems like just another day in the DC Universe when a couple of super villians, Tarpit and Girder, appear to be trying to destroy a bridge in Keystone City.

Stargirl, Air Wave and Kid Flash (Wallace West) are dispatched to stop them but the civilians on the scene intervene.  Tarpit and Girder  are actually stabilizing the bridge to keep it from collapsing.

Once the bridge crisis is in check, Tarpit and Girder give the Justice Leaguers an earful. Before the King Omega Tournament, super villains were rounded up and zapped temporarily into the Phantom Zone.  

Tarpit and Girder think that was bogus. They assert that super villains had a stake in saving the Earth and having their chance at redemption.  

Batman is monitoring this interaction.  He knows that Superman's defeat of Darkseid was a mere holding action, that Darkseid will attack Earth again and will be stronger than ever.

Batman also knows that the Justice League will need EVERY hand on deck to counter that threat.  

Batman has a lot to think about.  With Superman missing, he needs guidance and counsel and seeks the input of two Justice Leaguers who have wisdom bestowed by the gods.

The topic: amnesty for super villains.   

SIDE BAR: Hey, we're calling that guy with the wisdom of Solomon "Captain Marvel" again?

When both DC and Marvel were pushing their respective versions of Captain Marvel into the movies, DC opted to not call him that. Sobriquets like "Shazam" (even though it meant he never could say his own name) or simply "The Captain" were run up the flagpole but nobody saluted.  

Look, the guy Billy Batson transformed into by saying "Shazam!" has been Captain Marvel since 1939 and calling him anything else never made any sense.

Yeah, Marvel has their own Captain Marvel and DC's concession to that is not to call their version that on the covers, just in the interior stories and art. And that I think is enought! 

Hooray for Captain Marvel being Captain Marvel again. 

OK, back to Justice League Unlimited.  

Props to writer Mark Waid for dealing with the aftermath of a big event by addressing the logical fallout and consequences of such an event.  

And kudos to broaching the idea that the super villains taken off the board before the KIng Omega Tournament resent being excluded from fighting for their planet. 

Even Batman sees their point and from a practical standpoint, when Darkseid makes his inevitable follow up attack on Earth, the Justice League is going to need everybody on board.  

So the amnesty plan is a daring idea but one born of necessity. It is also fraught with risks.  Like how perpetual ego maniac Lex Luthor threatens to screw up things.  Like Luthor would denigrate himself to accept someone else's so called amnesty.

Interior art for this arc is by Clayton Henry, giving the ridicously overworked Dan Mora a break. Henry has a clean bold line that works well with a variety of character styles.  

I will note that Mark Waid does seem to be spending a lot of time playing clean up for big events elsewhere in the DC Universe and I look forward to see Waid and Justice League Unlimited getting to a storyline for this title and not in support of someone else's project.

Next week on the Spinner Rack: Make Mine Marvel AND Destination DC! It's a new titanic team up of Spider-Man and Superman! 

That's Just Bananas!

 A couple of things about Monday's Ballroom Blitz post.

1) The video that opened the post, a parody of the song "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet, was AI generated.

I do not condone or endorse AI generated stuff and I'll try to be more mindful of that in the future.

2) The $400 million dollar price tag? Yeah, that's old news.

Try $1 billion! Yep, billion with a "B".

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released a proposal confiring Senate Republicans are seeking $1 billion from taxpayers for the project.

You know, the same ballroom project that Donald Trump insisted would be privately funded?

And the same Republicans who slashed safety net programs for food and healthcare assistance because we can't afford them? 

But there's enough spare change lying around to fund Trump's gilded albatross.

You know, I just can't cope with this right now.

Put up the damn bananas!

I'm not dealing with this today.

There's a comic book post locked and loaded for tomorrow.

And Your Friday Video Link post for Friday is in the chute with some comedy gold from Ryan Gosling.

But today..... Nope!

$1 billion for a ballroom?

That's just bananas!