Movie Time: Lucy

What are the limits of the human mind?

What are the boundaries of what our minds are capable of?

What if... there were NO limits, NO boundaries?

Such are the heady inquiries we will address today.

It's... Movie Time! 

From Luc Besson, the French director of The Fifth Element and Valerian & The City Of a Thousand Planets, today's film is called Lucy,  a 2014 science fiction film starring Scarlett...

I always have trouble spelling her last name.

Let me get some help from her husband, Colin Jost.  

OK, thanks for sorting that out.

So Lucy stars Scarlett Johansson as the title character, a rather unremarkable young American college student in China who find herself having a REALLY bad day that leads to a most incredibly remarkable experience.   

While studying in Taipei, Lucy has hooked up with a new boyfriend named Richard. 

Richard is kinda sketchy and is up to sketchy shit. 

Richard handcuffs a briefcase to Lucy and forces her to go into a nearby hotel.  Don't worry, he assures her, it's a simple gig.

1. Go the front desk and ask for Mr. Jang.

2. Mr. Jang will unlock the cuffs to take possession of the case.

3. Mr. Jang will give her money for the delivery.

Well, that seems simple, right?

Except...

The men Mr. Jang send down are not pleased. Who is this woman? Everyone's chattering away at her in Korean and Lucy's getting really nervous.

Through the front window of the hotel lobby, she witnesses Richard getting shot in the head. Lucy has moved from "getting really nervous" to "totally freaking out".  

Being forced into a elevator by the Koreans is not helping Lucy's mental or emotional state.  

Confronted by Mr. Jang who is pissed off the case was not delivered by Richard but by this woman, Lucy learns the case is filled with 4 packets of a drug called CPH4.  The Koreans expect they're going to make a shit ton of money once this hits Europe.

Hey, what is CPH4?  In it's natural form, CPH4 is a hormone 

produced in tiny quantities by pregnant women during their sixth week of pregnancy to provide fetuses with the energy to develop. 

Along with 3 guys, Lucy is coerced into becoming a drug mule. The packets are sewn into their lower intestines.  

Each of the hapless mules are given plane tickets and instructions what to do when they arrive at their various locations.  Where they will be paid. (Or more likely killed.) 

While awaiting transport to the airport, one of Jang's henchmen decides he doesn't like Lucy's attitude or face or whatever it is about women that ticks off stupid men and he starts beating her. Which includes kicking her in the stomach.   

Which causes the bag of CPH4 in her intestine to rupture. 

A large amount of uncut, unprocessed CPH4 hits her bloodstream.  After twisting and writhing in pain, Lucy suddenly becomes calm, placid. 

Lucy feels... different.  

Her mind is opening up to...  possibilities? 

Lucy gets busy, using her new telekinetic and telepathic powers to do all sort of stuff.

• Lucy kills and escapes from her captors.
• She forces surgeons at a nearby hospital to remove what's left of the CPH4 bag from her abdomen. (She can understand Mandarin Chinese now. And Korean. And French. And... you get the idea.)  
• She returns to the hotel to confront Mr. Jang to read his mind where the other 3 drug mules are going. 
• Lucy then reads ALL of the internet and discovers there's a scientist, Samuel Norman, who may have a clue about what's happening to her.
• From China, she controls Norman's phone and TV set in Paris to introduce herself and he's weirded out.  His crazy theories about expanding brain capacity might be true?
• Reaching across the miles, she contacts Paris police captain Pierre Del Rio with info on how to intercept the drug mules.
• Lucy telekinetically scrambles her short wavy blonde hair to a long straight black 'do.  The shit she did at the hospital made the news and she's wanted by the police.

Lucy is also wanted by a very angry and vengeful  Mr. Jang who with an army of Korean mobsters is determined to make Lucy pay for... whatever it is she's doing.   

Lucy gets to Paris and pairs up with Pierre Del Rio to secure the CPH4 packets, just ahead of the Koreans.  There's a lot of violence and car chases.  

Lucy drives Pierre's car very fast the wrong way down one way streets. And she's never driven a car before.  But she's like unto a god or something so it's all good.  

She meets up with Norman and his colleagues in a university lab where she tells them everything, about who she is, what she is capable of now and where those capabilities are heading as her brain capacity expands. 

Her control of minds and matter will extend to time itself.  

Hey, let's take a look at the trailer for Lucy.

Trying to recount the plot is kind of beside the point.  Director Luc Besson has created a visually trippy excursion into expanding consciousness. Kinetic actions sequences intertwined with moments of intense horror and even more intense scenes of Lucy's increasing awareness.  Besson's examination of Lucy's expanding brain capacity calls to mind the mind bending scenes in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Oddessy.  

There's some criticism of Besson's story relying on the concept that humans only use 10% of our brain and who knows what abilities might unfold if we used more of it. A lot of scientists regard this concept as a myth.  

The science at the core of Luc Besson's story might be discredited but the philisophical truth of Lucy's experience is worth exploring. What happens when we look beyond our limits, when we reconsider our perceptions of the world around us and of time itself.

Maybe pop a gummie or two when you watch Lucy. 

A few words about Scarlett Johansson who is appropriately freaked out at the movie's start as Lucy finds herself in the clutches of the egnimatic and brutal Mr. Jang.  There is some bad shit going down and Lucy's fear and despair feel very real. 

But when the CPH4 takes hold, Scarlett morphs Lucy into someone who immediately understands she has changed and calmly and methodically uses her new found powers to head towards what's next.  Whatever that may be.

In a sort of "Flowers For Algernon" sort of way, Lucy is smart enough to know who she is now, what she can do and also smart enough to know it has to end.  

Or never end? 

Lucy's last words to Pierre Del Rio: "I am everywhere."

Her last words to Samuel Norman:   "Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it."

__________________________________

Well, what I'm going to do with it is write another blog post.

We're back tomorrow with Star Trekking as I wrap up my look back at the first season of Star Trek.   

Your Friday Video Link: OMG! Look At the CATS!

In addition to watching the canal in Duluth MN or the train station in LaPlata MO, Andrea and I have found another live stream to soak up what's left of our aging brain cells, Furball Farms in Faribault MN.  

Your Friday Video Link for this week starts with a 24 hour live stream of a whole bunch of cats.  

Furball Farm Cat Sanctuary is a sanctuary for feral cats. They do not accept owner surrenders but focus on cats who have no humans to provide care.  

The live stream shows cats playing, exploring, eating and sleeping in a safe environment. Feral cats are inherently distrustful of humans and may not make good pets until they learn to trust humans.   

After Andrea and I have checked to see if there are any ships in the canal entering or leaving Lake Superior or if the Southwest Chief has stopped in LaPlata, we'll go check on our cats.

On the subject of trains and cats, the next video link is of a model train that traverses a garden in Germany.  Follow the Gartenbahn as it navigates the garden past small houses and a very large cat.

Next up is a production of Romeo And Juliet... and a cat! 

The last cat my mom had before she went into assisted living was a dark grey and white cat named Oreo.

I thought a better name for the cat was Bonkers.

Because, well, he was.  Very... bonkers. 

So I annoited him with the full name of Oreo J.Bonkers.

Speaking cats being bonkers, our last video link for today is a compilation of cats being weird, funny, crazy, strange... you know, bonkers.   

I hope you enjoyed all the cats.

I'm back tomorrow with I presume a Movie Time post.  

I better get to writing that.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.  

"Guys! We gotta get started on
tomorrow's blog post!" 

Comic Book Retro 50: June 1976

 Welcome to another edition of Comic Book Retro 50, the monthly blog post that answers the question all of America wants to know: What comic books did Dave-El buy in June 1976?

More loose change in my pocket meant a wider mix of comics.

Still solely a loyal DC guy.  It's gonna take a couple of years before I loop in some Marvels into my comic book buying habit.

First up this month is Karate Kid#4 with Mike Grell's inks redeeming the otherwise atrocious pencils of DC's go to cover artist Ernie Chan.

Ernie Chan was not a bad artist, per se. It's just DC kept shoehorning him into super hero comic book covers where his style was ill suited. 

Click here for my previous post on the Karate Kid series.

What "The Rage of Yesterdays Lost" was about, I cannot recall in the slightest.  

I will say Google's AI Overview is a complete lie:  "Karate Kid #4: The Rage of Yesterday's Lost" is a classic DC comic book published in October 1976. Written by Steve Skeates with art by Mike Grell".   

This issue was by the regular creative team of Barry Jameson, Ric Estrada and Joe Staton and was published in June 1976.  

How the hell did AI even begin to think Steve Skeates wrote this book?

Freedom Fighters #4 was my first issue I bought of this series.

"The Left Hand of Oblivion" was by Martin Pasko, Ramona Fradon & Vince Colletta.  Wonder Woman is tasked with bringing in the Freedom Fighters who are perceived as enemies due to the machinations of the sinister Silver Ghost.

In a development straight out of a Marvel comic, heroes battle heroes over a misunderstanding. 

A rampaging man-monster called King Samson runs amuck and causes problems for everyone.  

Wonder Woman is... dead? To be continued in issue #5.  

Click here for my previous post about Freedom Fighters.  

I picked up Secret Society of Super-Villains #3.

I had started reading comics after Jack Kirby's Fourth World titles (New Gods, Mister Miracle, etc) had ended so "War for Earthdeath" was my first exposure to Darkseid.

David Anthony Kraft, Pablo Marcos & Vince Colletta brings us this installment of how assembled super villians have been brought together to further the schemes of the God of Apolokips.

But those villains don't like being fucked around by Darkseid.

Some of the villains were not villians. For example, there's Manhunter who takes center stage in the above image.  Turns out he's the clone of Paul Kirk who starred in the series created by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson for Detective Comics back in 1973.  

There was a lot going on in this comic that appealed to young Dave-El at the time.  Sadly, shifting creative teams would undermine whatever potential I saw in this series

Flash#244  by Cary Bates, Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin gives us a full length denouement of the death of The Top storyline.  

"The Last Day of June Is the Last Day of Central City" finds the Flash's rogues gallery in the unusual position of fighting against the Scarlet Speedster for a good cause.

Read the splash page below and let them explain it.  

The Top is dead but not not forgotten as the Flash and his enemies have a common goal to stop his last nefarious scheme.

Believe it or not, The Top will stay dead.  But his death will resonate in future issues of the Flash and the creation of a new super threat.   

Batman#279 brings us writer David V. Reed's first foray in pitting Batman against one of his costumed foes and the return of Robin. 

For Reed's time on Batman, he had focused on one and done crime mysteries pitting the Caped Crusader against non-costumed threats without the erstwhile Teen Wonder.  

Drawn by Ernie Chan & Tex Blaisdell, it's "Riddler On a Rampage".

In an era where Denny O'Neil and Frank Robbins had given us a darker, edgier Batman, Reed's tale in this issue would've felt at home in an episode of the 1960's Batman TV show.   

Over in Dectective Comics#463, Gerry Conway, Ernie Chan & Frank McLaughlin pit Batman against a new super villain, the Black Spider.

SPOILER: the Black Spider... is black! 

The Black Spider was not a lasting addition to the Caped Crusader's rogues gallery.  I think only Conway ever made use of him after this two parter.  

Of perhaps slightly more significant note is the back up featuring the Atom by Bob Rozakis, Mike Grell & Terry Austin.  

This slim 6 pager introduces the Calculator.  His schtick was that once a super hero caught him, he could never be defeated by that super hero again. 

In subsequent issues, Calculator would take on Black Canary, Elongated Man, Green Arrow and Hawkman before coming after the big man himself, Batman.    

Mike Grell kicks off the storyline but it will be finished by a newcomer who will have a signficant impact on Batman, Marshall Rogers.  

Batman Family#7 leads off with a brand new Batgirl/Robin team up by Elliot S! Maggin, Curt Swan & Vince Colletta againt the villainous duo from Earth 2, the Sportsmaster and the Huntress.

We've seen a lot of this fluidity of Earh 2 villains getting all muckity on Earth 1. The Wizard from Earth 2 in the Secret Society, Solomon Grundy toddling over from Earth 2 to cause trouble for Superman a few months back.  

The two reprints that round out Batman Family#7 are from the not so well remembered 1950's with cartoonish art and outlandish menaces like "The Amazing Dr. Double X" from Detective Comics #261.

Gerry Conway is once more trying to add his own super villain creations to the DC Universe with Thunder & Lightning in Superman#303. He even brings back another weather based villain he had created for Action Comics, the (I kid you not!) Whirlycane! 

After a couple of issues away, Curt Swan is back as penciller.

Conway has some fun with the Clark/Lois dynamic.

After being sidelined for two issues by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, I think Curt Swan upped his game for his return to Superman with some renewed dynamism.  

WHABOOM! indeed!

Action Comics#463 finally frees us from the interminable Karb-Brak storyline Cary Bates was inflicting on us.

Because it was the Bicentennial, of course Superman is present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Superboy#219 brings us a full length adventure of the Legion Of Super Heroes,  "The Plunder Ploy of the Fatal Five" by Jim Shooter and Mike Grell, now joined by inker Bob Wiacek. 

As if the Legion wasn't big enough, this story brings in non-Legion member Duplicate Boy.

Duplicate Boy could duplicate the super powers of other super powered beings.  

The Fatal Five are on a bit of a crime wave for unknown and presumably nefarious purposes.

Except that's not a weapon, it's a baby rattle.

Validus for all his power and size is fundementally a child.

Granted a child who once killed Legionaire Invisible Kid.

The culmination of the story reveals the Fatal Five's intent.

The Fatal Five just wanted a nice place to live and chill out.

It's more super team action with Justice League of America #134.

I gotta say I admire what Ernie Chan is going for with this cover design. I just wish it was drawn better.  

Gerry Conway pairs up with artists Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin to pit the JLA against the alien threat of Despero.

Love that we got some great use of Supergirl in this storyline. 

This would be Gerry Conway's last turn as JLA writer until issue #151.  What I didn't know at the time was that Conway had already ventured back to Marvel to take over writing Avengers and serve as Editor In Chief.  For one month. 

In addition to departing the Justice League, Gerry Conway was taking his leave of the Justice Society as well. 

Which brings us to All-Star Comics #62

We're dealing with the fallout of Doctor Fate's near death from last issue.  

Look at the Kirby like gear and energy crackle from Keith Giffen and Wally Wood.  Young Dave-El was really digging the art on this book.

Oh dear sweet Great Krypton!  After 50 years, I still get a thrill from this well crafted sequence with Clark Kent and Superman.

The menace to all of humankind on Earth 2: This guy! 

ZANADU! 

Not to be confused with XANADU! 

Paul Levitz scripts over Gerry Conway's plot and will become synomynous with the Justice Society going forward.  

Looking forward about 10 years, Levitz and Giffen would re-team for an extraordinary run on Legion of Super Heroes and the epic "Great Darkness Saga".   

For a more extensive review of All Star Comics#62, click here for Alan Stewart's blog post.   

The last book for today's post is Shazam#25 which is a significant issue.  

The issue leads off with the first comic book appearance of Isis

Isis was a TV companion series to the live action Shazam TV show on Saturday morning TV.  Denny O'Neil and Dick Giordano present her comic book debut.  

From here, Isis would get her own comic book series.  

Shazam#25 is also the first issue with new material in over a year.   Issues #21-#24 were published quarterly and with all reprints.   

Poor sales likely would have led to the book's cancelation but the success of the TV show prompted DC to keep some version of the comc going.  

The back up is an all new Captain Marvel story, "The Bicentennial Villain" by E. Nelson Bridwell and Kurt Schaffenberger that sets the stage for a new series of Shazam tales by bringing the comic in line with the TV show.  

Like the TV show, Billy Batson will set on a journey across America with his Uncle Dudley in the Mentor role.  

Oh yeah, that blurb at the end of the last page?

More on that when we get to Justice League of America #135.

And we'll do that with our next Comic Book Retro 50 when our journey through time brings a young Dave-El to the comic book racks of July 1976. 

________________________________________

Thanks to The Tom Breevort Experience, the Grand Comic Book Database and Mike's Amazing World of Comics.   

Thingies and Bananas

 

One of my co-workers posted this on our team chat yesterday.

I thought about announcing I was taking a blog break today using only this image of Thingies! 

But my OCD commands me to use the bananas graphic.

The blog break is just for today.

I'm back tomorrow with Comic Book Retro 50 as we dive into what comic books I bought back in June 1976.

And Your Friday Video Link the day after that is also good to go.

The Friday post will involve cats.

Until next time, remember...

You can buy 11 Thingies for the price of 10!

Yes, we have no bananas! 

And be good to one another. 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: My Adventures With Superman and The Vampire Lestat

Before I get into this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase, I need to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of James Burrows who passed away last Friday at age 85.

Burrows had a long and prolific career that spanned 6 decades as a sitcom director.   The Mary Tyler Moore Show,  Cheers , The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace,  Wings, NewsRadio, Caroline in the City and Mike Molly are just some of the shows he directed.  

Burrows directed over 1,000 episodes of television,

He was still directing as of last year with the Hulu series Mid-Century Modern

Burrows was regarded as the best in the business, known for his comic timing, expert actor blocking and use of sophisticated lighting.  

Whenever I saw the credit "Directed by James Burrows", the odds were really good I was going to experience plenty of laughs. He had a talent for making whatever he directed better.

Rest in peace, James. You will be missed

Last week brought back My Adventures With Superman for it's 3rd season, two full years since season 2. 

Holy crap! Has it really been TWO years? Yep, my post from the season 2 finale was in the summer of 2024.

The new season arrives with some new designs for Superman and Supergirl.  I haven't made up my mind how I feel about them yet.

Picking up from season 2 where Kara Zor-El extricated herself from the cold cruel control of Brainiac, Supergirl is trying to figure out life on Earth and get used to the idea that there are people who love her and she is worthy of being loved. She spent her formative years with Brainiac as her father figure so there's some work to be done.

Clark, Lois, Jimmy and Kara are on the trail of a super secret cabal known as Project Caliban.  And yeah, Lex Luthor is up to some fuckery.

I'm still enjoying the heck out of the idea that a show exists that has Jack Quaid as Superman.  That alone is enough to hold my attention to My Adventures With Superman. 

Moving from the bright and hopeful world of Superman, let's move to something completely different.

The show formerly known as Interview With a Vampire. 

Welcome to The Vampire Lestat.  

After two seasons of Daniel Malloy drawing out the confessional biography of Louis de Pointe du Lac with Louis' erstwhile lover and sometime enemy Lestat de Lioncourt as the antagonist, this new season, as you can tell from the title change, puts the focus on Lestat. 

After becoming a vampire at the end of season 2 and publishing his Interview With a Vampire book, Daniel Malloy has been enlisted to tell Lestat's side of the story.   

It may be that over two seasons, Louis was not a completely reliable narrator. Or as Lestat scrawls on his battered copy of Malloy's  book, "never fucking happened".  

Or perhaps Lestat himself is not a trustworthy teller of his own tale.  

We meet someone who did not come up during Louis' sessions with Malloy in seasons 1 and 2:  Gabriella de Lioncourt.

Lestat's mother and the first person Lestat converted into a vampire after his own conversion.

As his lover.

Yeah, you heard me.  

It's an Oedipus type of thing. 

As Lestat explains, "it's different for vampires".  

The vampire community is still in a tizzy of a snit over Louis talking to a reporter who in turn published a book detailing the existence of vampires. Apparently there are some rules against that?

Vampires are not happy with Lestat who has taken up the career of a rock musician fronting a band called... The Vampire Lestat.

Lestat is channelling centuries of love, lust, pain, longing, despair and angst into power ballads and hard rock anthems. 

Imagine your most gloomy pretencious poetry you may have written alone in your bedroom when you were 14 years old, desperately trying to give voice to your anger and your yearning for love.  Yeah, that's what we're dealing with here.  

The Vampire Lestat takes the aesthetic of Interview With a Vampire and cranks it up to 11 with an adrenaline boost.  

This show is off on a wild ride.

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Coming up on the Touchbase:

• I finally (FINALLY!) finish the most recent season of Invincible.
• The return of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

 

He Can Only Make Worse Happen

First some blog bidness: last week was INSANE! 

4 out of 5 posts over a two day period were political themed entries about Trump fuckery. 

You don't deserve that. Even though statistically you're likely to be a Russian bot.  

I don't deserve that.

So today's poltical themed entry about Trump fuckery is ONE post on ONE day.  Yeah, it might go on a bit (there is SO MUCH fuckery!) but it will be contained into ONE singular sensation of a blog post.

So let's get busy! 

By starting with the G7 economic summit for 2026.  Here's a photo of the gathered world leaders standing together to convince us they are one big happy family.

What was remarkable to me was this next photo taken after the gang broke out of formation to talk among themselves.

Except for one person.

Poor Li'l Donnie, unloved and friendless.  Nobody wants to talk to this motherfucker, do they? 

Well, years of insulting and berating allies will have the effect of making those allies not want to talk to an ignorant, fear mongering sociopath. 

Also, there is the smell.  Donald Trump does kind of look like he just filled his Depends. 

Main thing, did der Führer have a good time?  Trump said, “It’s been a very successful trip.  A lot of things have happened that have been very good.”

Then Trump also thought the boos he got at the 3rd Nicks/Spurs NBA Finals game were cheers so who can tell with this guy?

If Trump's assessment of his G7 experience seems vague and noncommital, that's pretty much Trump's "strategy".

He wanted to brag about how the United States kicked Iran's ass and how we got everything he wanted out of the deal to end the war he started. Without actually explaining the deal.  

He was vague on the details but insistent to cast the deal as Iran's surrender to America's awesome overwhelming might.

Once deets on the deal started coming out, it looked like a surrender all right. Just not Iran's. 

The Strait of Hormuz will eventually be opened by Iran which concedes that yes, it is Iran who has control over the Strait of Hormuz, a condition that did NOT exist before Trump started his war.

Which as of Saturday morning, Iran had closed the Strait again.

Among the line items of this "deal" (formally known as a "memorandum of understanding" or MOU) is $300 billion (yep, that is with a "B") to help Iran rebuild the shit we blew up.  

Ostensibly this fund will be contributed to by the United States AND our gulf state allies. But since our gulf state allies did NOT blow up Iran's shit and did in fact have their shit blown up by Iran, one has to wonder how much the American takepayers will be on the hook for damage caused by Trump's li'l excursion into Iran.   

While Trump was giving our erstwhile enemy a real sweetheart deal, he was pissing off an ally and potential friend.

During an interview Trump claimed that Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him during the G7 summit and that he conceded to the photo op because he felt sorry for her.

Wow! He showed restraint because the usual narrative of the "someone begged him for something and he gave in because he's a nice guy" lie that he loves to tell frequently includes the detail of "with tears in their eyes".   

SInce Italy's premier is a woman, maybe he just assumed we would know she had tears in her eyes. 

While we in America have grown bored with this overused "someone begged him for something" tall tale, Giorgia Meloni was NOT putting up with his bullshit and had this to say on the matter:

 

“Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned....   But there’s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.”

It should be noted that Giorgia Meloni is far from being any kind of progressive liberal.  As a member of Italy's right wing political party, she is a conservative whose policies would fall in line with Trump's.  

Meloni was the lone European head of state to attend his 2025 inauguration.

Why would she need to ask for a photo with Li'l Donnie? She already had one from October of last year.  

"Why are his hands so crusty?"
"Is this woman here to take my lunch order?"

Italy is taking this shit seriously.   Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy.

Why would Trump insult an ally with such an egregious and unneccessary lie? Because he's gotten away with it for so long. 

He's claimed repeatedly that various politicians have begged for his endorsement (and often with tears in their eyes) which he granted magnaminously out of the goodness of his heart.

Typically  der Führer goes with the "someone begged" lie when someone he supported doesn't capitulate to his whims. In the case of Premier Giorgia Meloni, she was on Team Trump until she failed to roll over when Trump asked... No, I'm going to say "begged"--- NATO leaders to help with his war with Iran. 

A war HE started with NO input from or consultation with those same leaders.  

Meloni made it clear (as did other NATO leaders) that Italy did not start the war and was not part of the war and would not join that effort.

Of course Trump would not miss a chance to diminish and demean her. And the fact that the leader of Italy is a woman, well, that's just gravy.  (Hmmmm! Gravy....)  

There's never been a woman Trump wasn't eager to diminish and demean.

And he's still at it.

Instead of leaving bad enough alone, Trump of course doubled down on this lie on his decaying moth eaten Truth Social that Meloni (who's name he misspelled) asked him over and over and over again for a photo op and he only relented because he felt sorry for her as she is not doing well in Italy.  

Here's what Meloni said in her pushback in response to Trump's pushback: "As for my popularity, being your friend has certainly not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you. My popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours."  

I really do not know what Meloni's poll numbers look like in Italy and neither does Donald Trump.  The accusation of governmental leaders sucking at their job is SOP for anyone who dares to challenge Grump Trump.  

Meanwhile (and I swear I am going to wrap this up), there is the matter of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

As I posted last week,  Trump's big plan to make the pool "American Flag Blue" ... oh, how can I put this?

Has not met the high expectations set out in Donald Trump's fever deam delusions.

Or...

Is royally fucked up!

Or maybe he's redefining the color blue as a pea soup or puke green?  

As I wrote before, the reflecting pool which was built in 1922 has been a pain in the ass to maintain since 1922.  

It is a shallow body of water in a hot and humid climate. Algae was always going to be a problem and has always been a problem as much as Li'l Donnie wants to petulantly blame Obama and Biden.  

Painting the pool dark blue only exacerbates the problem. 

Darker colors absorbs heat which makes the shallow water of the reflecting pool even hotter which exponentially increases the growth of algae.   

Trump awarded a supporter named Eddie Wood with a no bid contract that cost the American taxpayers nearly $14 billion. Trump insisted the contractor had done good work for him on swimming pools at his resorts.

• It's a reflecting pool, not a swimming pool.
• A review of Eddie Wood's businesses finds NO reference to working on pools, swimming, reflecting or limpid.
• Which may explain why the work that was done is breaking apart.

Sheets of blue paint are bubbling up to the surface of the emerald hued murk. 

The answer to this disaster is.... sabatoge! 

A MAGA supporter posted online that clearly his lord and savior did a GOOD job fixing the pool and the only explanation for the algae infestation is sabatoge by liberals who wanna make der Führer look bad.

Li'l Donnie likes that idea and ran with it on his decaying rat infested Truth Social that his good work on the pool is being undone by his enemies and even claims law enforcement will be looking into this.   

The National Parks Service is addressing the algae problem with:

1) manual labor.  Workers in hip waders and nets are scooping up large clumps of algae blooms. 

2) chemicals.  Bottles of hyrogen peroxide are being dumped into the pool.

3) lies. Posting pics on line taken at certain angles, the department declared the pool was crystal clear as the good lord Trump intended. Even though people can still go right up to the pool or see shots taken from above the pool and inequivicably see the pool is as green as fuck. And filled with floating pieces of blue paint.

You know, the thing is algae in the Reflecting Pool has always been a thing and we quite frankly wouldn't have cared. For over a century, the government has taken care of it and we moved on with our lives.

But with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence approaching and Donald Trump's own obsessive need to make everything about himself and his own delusional belief in his supposed abilities as an alleged builder, Li'l Donnie turned a minor but manageable irritation into a bigger problem.  And a national embarrassment.

The debacle of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pools epitomizes everything that is wrong with this motherfucking moron: the corruption, the narcissism, the delusions, the stupidity, the incompetence.   

Trump once said "Nothing bad can happen, it can only good happen."  But Trump embodies the exact opposite of his badly mangled syntax.

He can only make worse happen.

Don't forget why his idiot moron followers voted for his sorry ass in 2024.  Because shit cost too much.

Don't forget inflation is now at 4.2% which is higher than what it was when Trump was sworn in on January 2025.

And don't forget he said THIS! 

OK, that's a lot of typing and I'm tired.  

Are we done?

Oh dear God, no we're not.  What can I say? Hell has no limits.

But your patience and mine does. 

Let's call it a day!

We're back tomorrow for the Tuesday TV Touchbase.

I like television. It makes life simple somehow.  When I'm watching TV, it's as if nothing bad can happen, it can only good happen.

Or something. 

'Bye, y'all!