Social Insecurity

Today we're going to be talk about retirement.  

When I was in my 20's, I figured I had a lot of time to sort that out, no worries.

As I passed through my 30's and 40's, I realized my window for planning for my retirement was shrinking but no worries, I still have time. 

By the time I hit 50, I realized I had totally fucked up planning for retirement and my retirement plan began to look like this:

Me: "Well, today is my last day at work! Yep, it's the retired life for me! I'm going to kick back on my boat which I've named "The Never Gonna Die" and...and...  ARGHHH!  My heart!" 

And I would keel over and die.  

Now I'm 60 and I'm counting on social security on saving my dumb ass.  

Me: "OK, living off Social Security ain't much but my needs are simple so should be just fine. I'm just going to kick back in my old chair with my favorite blanket and watch episodes of Law & Order and Bones all day and that will be...  will be....  ARGHHH!  My heart!" 

And I would keel over and die.

But if you are in your 20's right now, even that modest dream might need to be deferred.  

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has what she thinks is a winning strategy to win her race to be President of the United States: raise the retirement age. 

Current federal regulations allow people to start receiving Social Security benefits at 62, but those born after 1960 are not eligible for full benefits until 67. People are eligible for Medicare coverage when they turn 65.

Now Haley isn't proposing to raise this on middle aged people and senior citizens like myself.  

Haley isn't going to piss off the old folks she thinks are likely to vote Republican. 

Now you young whippersnappers out there with your woke liberal agendas who are not likely to ever vote Republican, well, fuck you. You will see your Social Security retirement age raised.

Raised to what, Haley is not specific. She says the current Social Security guidelines are too low and do not take into account increases in longevity. 

Which is kind of funny in that the United States is not keeping pace with other developed nations when it comes to average life spans.    

Now if Congress were to re-allocate say 1/2 of 1% of our total defense spending budget to Social Security, that would solve the program's solvency issues for generations to come. 

But no, Haley would rather solve that on the backs of younger citizens who weren't going to vote for her anyway. 

Don't worry about this old guy. I'm going to be fine.

Me: "I'm glad I'm NOT some kind of Gen Z whippersnapper and still getting MY social security! I'm a getting what's coming to me! Now to kick back and enjoy my pudding cups and... and.... ARGHHH!  My heart!" 

The Wordle King

Yesterday, I achieved greatness!

Bow down before Dave-El!!   

ALL HAIL ME!!

ALL HAIL DAVE-EL!!!!!!

ALL HAIL THE WORDLE KING!!!!!!

BOW DOWN BEFORE YOUR GOD!!!!!!!!!!!

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

...

...

Sadly I think this is indeed the pinnacle of my existence! 

The Fire This Time: Jacksonville FL

This past Saturday, there was a shooting in Jacksonville FL at a Dollar General store.  The death toll was 2 men, 1 women and ultimately the gunman, 21-year-old Ryan Palmeter, took his own life. 

Four people dead which is not really all that bad for a mass shooting which is of course a horrible thing to say. But with mass shootings occurring so frequently, the best comfort we can find is "it could've been worse". 

And it could've been. Before firing upon innocent victims at the Dollar General, Palmeter attempted to gain entry to a local university but was turned back by campus security.  One can only imagine the horrific death toll if Palmeter turned his guns on a dorm full of students.  

But let's talk about means and motive for this horrendous killing.  

Ryan Palmeter obtained his guns legally and given he's from Florida, I'm hard pressed to determine how in hell in could've gotten them illegally.  In the wake of excessive gun violence and a public outcry for the government to do something about that, Florida has led the way in making it easier to obtain a gun. 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law legislation passed by a Republican led legislature to remove barriers to gun ownership.  

So Ryan Palmeter's means to commit mass murder had few if any roadblocks to slow him down. 

And as for motive...

Here are some hints:

• His victims at the Dollar General were all black.
• His intended victims at the historically black university were all black.   

21-year-old Ryan Palmeter was racist as fuck.  

Besides the Nazi symbol on his weapon, Palmeter helpfully left behind a racist manifesto.  Sheriff T.K. Waters said “The manifesto is, quite frankly, the diary of a madman.  He was just completely irrational. But with irrational thoughts, he knew what he was doing. He was 100% lucid.”

There was a vigil for the victims on Sunday night where Ron DeSantis decided to put in an appearance. Which is what governors should do in a time of tragedy. 

DeSantis got booed at the vigil which was what you get when you make it easier for madmen to get guns and fuel the fire of their racist ideology.  

Rudolph McKissick, senior pastor of the Bethel Church in Jacksonville, had this to say:  “This divide exists because of the ongoing disenfranchisement of Black people and a governor, who is really propelling himself forward through bigoted, racially motivated, misogynistic, xenophobic actions to throw red meat to a Republican base." 

Or to put it another way, Ron DeSantis, that's what you get, bitch! 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Outlander

Before we get this week's Touchbase underway, a brief word of acknowledgement on the passing of TV legend Bob Barker who hosted the long running game show The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007. While Drew Carey is the host of the current show on CBS, it's the classic run of the show our son has recently discovered on it's own streaming channel. 

Barker was a very affable and genial presence on TV who was enthusiastic in his support of every contestant.  

He played himself in the movie Happy Gilmore and had a memorable fight scene with Adam Sandler which will be this week's Friday Video Link. 

Bob Barker was a strong proponent of animal advocacy, donating his time and fortune to various animal care project and ending each episode of The Price Is Right with “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.”

This week's Tuesday TV Touchbase takes a look at the first half of season 7 of Outlander.  Starz gave us 8 episodes with 8 more to come sometime in 2024.  

Normally I found the parceling out of seasons like that to be annoying but given how much has been packed into season 7 of Outlander so far, I think it might be fair to say I ken we need a wee bit of a breather. 

The American Revolution has come! Jamie and Claire canna avoid it no longer, aye!  OK, I'll stop trying to write in a Scottish accent.  

Well, before we get into our star crossed lovers getting knee deep into the 18th centiury battlefields of the revolution, it's time to return to the 20th century.  

Brianna tells her dad Jamie about Disneyland and it's so funny to see Jamie trying to wrap his head around the concept of a theme park (!!) inhabited by a human sized rodent (!!!). 

Roger and Brianna McKenzie welcome their second child, a daughter named Mandy who Claire diagnoses has a congenital heart defect that will eventually kill the child in the 18th century but is completely treatable in the 20th. So Brianna, Roger, son Jemmy and Mandy go through the stones on North Carolina's Okrakoke Island.  

In the year 1980, all is well.Mandy's had her operation and is now a happy healthy toddler. Jemmy seems to have adjusted to living in a time 200 years after he was born although he gets in trouble cursing out kids in school in Welsh.  

Brianna and Roger buy the old Lollybroch estate in Scotland and engage in a refurbishment project of Jamie's ancient old homestead. Brianna gets to put her engineering degree to work at a nearby hydro electric dam where she meets a man named Ron Cameron who (through a variety of shenanigan and some truly stupid carelessness on Roger and Brianna's part) susses out their time travelling past and causes all sort of trouble.  

Meanwhile (or 200 years earlier), Jamie and Claire decide to make a break for back to Scotland to avoid the war. 

Nope! 

Jamie gets conscripted into the American Revolutionary Army with Claire coming along to provide medical aid and support.  Claire's knowledge from the future provides the broad strokes. Yes, America will win this damn thing but she's not up on every specific battle, who wins what and when to get there.  

Jamie is the good soldier and will fight for the American cause but damn it, he knows people over on the other side. 

There's his cousin Simon Fraser who is a general in the British army.  And there's William, Jamie's son who doesn't know he is Jamie's son.  In a pitched battle that the British lose, Jamie shoots William's hat off. It's a close call that saves William's life. 

Simon Fraser is not so lucky and is mortally wounded. His dying wish is to buried in Scotland and for his cousin Jamie to escort his body back to Scotland. 

So the halfway point of season 7 ends with Jamie and Claire just off the shores of Scotland which is where they wanted to go in the first place.  

And all that is not even touching on what's going with Ian McMurray, Jamie's Scottish nephew who is also a Mohawk Indian and his infatuation with the young Quaker girl Rachel and the mission of vengeance the ominous Mr. Bug is on against Ian for killing his wife and...

And Roger is gone back through the stones at Craigh na Dun to track Ron Cameron who has abducted his son Jemmy back through time to find a cache of lost gold and...

Yeah, we need to take a pause here.  

OK, Starz, just don't be too late into 2024 to serve up the 2nd half of season 7 of Outlander. '

Coming up on future editions of the Touchbase:  

• What We Do In the Shadows
• Justified: City Primeval
• Star Wars: Ahoska
• My Adventures With Superman

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.

The 215 Pound Elephant or Der Fuehrer's Face

So last week there were a lot of shenanigans involving the Republican Party and der Fuehrer Donald Trump so let's play catch up, shall we?    

There was a Republican presidential debate Wednesday night that may have mattered for a minute or so. I didn't see it all but I saw enough to determine what I consider to be a defining moment. 

The moderator asked asked the 8 candidates to raise their hands if they would support the eventual nominee even if that person was convicted of a crime? Two people did not raise their hands: Chris Christie and Ava Hutchinson.  

Well, for a moment there was a third: Ron DeSantis. After the question was asked, Ron looked to his left and his right and saw most of his fellow candidates were raising theirs. 

And the audience was cheering in support of this. 

So Ron DeSantis raised his hand to show his support if the eventual nominee is a convicted criminal.    

It was quite a telling moment for DeSantis and the party, their continued fealty to the lumbering monstrosity that is der Fuehrer Donald Trump. 

Who didn't even show up.  

To be blunt, there was no up side for Li'l Donnie to attend the debate. For a guy who is currently up with a 62% approval rating among the Republican candidates with everyone else polling in the single digits.  

Li'l Donnie made a cursory effort at counter programming by having an interview with Tucker Carlson that was released 5 minutes before the debate on Twitter. (Fuck you, Elon Musk! I am not not calling Twitter "X" because the idea is like you: stupid!) The interview was the usual Trumpian "blah blah blah" of the election was stolen, it wasn't fair, etc etc etc.  

Li'l Donnie needs some new material.  So the interview with Tucker was a dead duck and provided nothing to command attention.

But there are other ways to get the attention of the nation back. 

Such as getting arrested. 

Any interest or heat generated by the mostly tepid debate was quickly dissipated by Donald Trump the next day when he showed up in Fulton County, Georgia to be arraigned for the latest of his indictments and felony charges.  

There was a debate Wednesday? Fuck that! We've got to watch Trump and his fellow indicted co-conspirators show up to be fingerprinted, post bond to stay out of jail and get their picture taken.  

Where we got the mug shot seen 'round the world.

So did Nikki Haley make any headway at the debate to be considered a viable candidate? Is Ron DeSantis in free fall after the debate? 

Who cares? 

Donald Trump sucked up all the oxygen on Thursday being arrested.  

And Li'l Donnie was still drawing all the heat on Friday with what the motherfucker did while being arrested. 

Donald Trump told the officer writing up his arrest report he is 6' 3" tall and weighs 215 pounds.  

Below is a graphic comparing Donald Trump to various professional athletes who average 6' 3" in height and weight 210 to 225 pounds.  

Is Donald Trump really 6' 3" tall and weighs 215 pounds? 

The answers are...

• No!
• Hell no!! 
• Fuck no!!!

Take your pick. 

So while being arrested for among other things lying about shit, he continues to lie about stuff we can clearly see is a lie.  

The same shameless liar that most of the the shameless candidates for the Republican nomination vowed to support if he he get the nomination and convicted of any of the 91 crimes he has been charged with.  

The same shameless liar currently polling as the leader of the Republican presidential candidates. 

And raking in the campaign dough.  

Trump raised $7.1 million since he was booked on Thursday.  

Trump is ready to lead the way into Hell.

And a lot of people are willing to follow him there.

Even his rivals.  

Cinema Sunday: Night Nurse and Girl Missing

From 1934 to 1968, Hollywood films had to adhere to the Hays Code, also known as the Motion Picture Production Code overseen by Will H. Hays.  

The code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. 

Today, Cinema Sunday takes a look at a couple of movies made before that Hays Code got a stranglehold on Hollywood.

First up is Night Nurse, a 1931 film directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and in an early supporting role, Clark Gable. 

Barbara Stanwyck is Lora Hart who enters a nurse training program and becomes friends and a roommate with Miss Maloney.  Which affords us some pre-code scenes of the two young women in their lingerie as they change clothes.  

Lora gets stuck on night duty in the emergency room where she treats a bootlegger named Mortie for a gunshot wound. He persuades her to not report the wound to the police as required by law. 

After finishing her training, Lora is hired as a private nurse for two sick children, Desney and Nanny Ritchey. 

Their mother spends most of her time drunk and does not give  a single god damn about her kids. What Mrs. Ritchey does care about is her infatuation with her brutish chauffeur Nick (Clark Gable). 

The Ritchey family physician is "society doctor" and drug addict Milton Ranger whose "treatment" of the children is causing them to starve to death. 

Here's the skinny on what's going on: Nanny and Desney have a trust fund from their late father. Nick has already killed their older sister and with Dr. Ranger's help, he's going to kill  Nanny and Desney. When they're dead, the trust fund would go to their mom, Nick marries the mom, then he kills her...

Oh, this son of a bitch needs to be put down.

Mortie repays Lora's favor by running interference on Nick while Lora gets a trusted doctor friend to intervene and save the children. 

Mortie told his buddies what kind of a guy Nick is and gangsters don't like nobody who hurts kids.  We see an ambulance deliver a corpse dressed in a chauffeur's uniform to the hospital's morgue.

Lora and Mortie end the movie happy that they saved the kids and Nick ain't gonna hurt nobody no more.  

So what happens in Night Nurse that could not have happened after the Hays code went into effect. 

• People breaking the law with no consequences.  
• Seeing what women have on under the clothes. Oh, the horror! 
• A drunk on her ass mom who doesn't care about her kids. 
• Violent physical assaults, especially against women. 
• A disreputable doctor. 
• A gangster helps save the day and not being punished for his crimes. 

Night Nurse can be a hard film to watch, especially knowing those kids are being tortured and starved to death by alleged adults who they count on to care for them.  

But Night Nurse can also be a lot of fun, especially watching a young Barbara Stanwyck as Lora, strong and resilient against a world that is aligned against her but Lora is smart and resourceful and woe unto anyone who would underestimate her. 

Our next pre-Code classic is Girl Missing from 1933 about two women stranded in Palm Beach becoming involved in the case of a new bride who goes missing on her wedding night.

Kay Curtis (Glenda Farrell) and June Dale (Mary Brian) are two showgirls living in a Palm Beach hotel. A plan to finagle a millionaire into paying their hotel bill goes awry and leaves Kay & June with no money to pay the bill or get out of town.  

They spot Daisy, a fellow showgirl they used to know who is engaged to Henry, a young millionaire. They figure Daisy's hooked up well enough to do them a solid. 

But Daisy acts like she has no idea who Kay and June are. Oh she's married into money and now too good to remember she used to be a showgirl too? 

Raymond, a former boyfriend of Daisy's, shows up and offers to help the girls out, paying their hotel bill and springing for a pair of train tickets to get them out of town. Well, isn't that nice of him?

Except Kay & June miss the train.  

Later, Henry and Daisy get married but on their wedding night, Daisy disappears from their hotel room and in the hotel's garden outside is the dead body of a gangster named Jim Hendricks.  

Henry offers up a reward for Daisy's safe return. Kay & June figure to take on the case and collect that reward money.  

OK, to make a loooong story short, there's all sorts of shenanigans where Daisy reappears and we discover she's been up to no good with a convoluted scheme she cooked up with Raymond and Jim to get Henry's money.  

Daisy and Raymond are arrested, Henry gives Kay the reward money and a marriage proposal to June who he has fallen in love with or some damn thing.  

Whew! That's over. This film is riddled with plot holes and contrivances and well, damn it, it's a mess. There's not a lot of pre-code scandal going on although I believe there is at least one scene where Kay and June change clothes and we get to see their naughty unmentionables.  

And probably Kay and June would've given Hays a wheezing fit of the vapors with their hard drinking, fast partying ways. Other than June getting engaged at the end, these two women mostly escape the expectations of the way women are "supposed" to behave.  

Next week, Cinema Sunday continues with another post about 2 more movies that got made before the harsh limits of censorship took hold of Hollywood. 

Songs For Saturday Summer Road Trip: Yes, ZZ Top and 10,000 Maniacs

Our road trip must come to an end after 9 weeks as we pull into the driveway with the  Songs For Saturday Summer Road Trip play list organized by music artists in alphabetical order.  

We've got 2 more letters of the alphabet but 3 more songs. 

 "Y" is for Yes with "Leave It".  

What else could "Z" be but for ZZ Top. A lot of good stuff to pick from but I really kind of like "Sleeping Bag".

Having looped through all 26 letters of the English alphabet, let's roll into numbers with our last song for our Songs For Saturday Summer Road Trip play list.  

Finishing off our road trip is 10,000 Maniacs with "Because the Night".   

The Songs For Saturday Summer Road Trip is dedicated to my son Dean.  Here's to following the road to wherever it may take us.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.  

Your Friday Video Link: Tina Fey Eats Cake

While we were looking at some of the stories associated with all the indictments against Donald Trump, my wife Andrea noticed that Li'l Donnie is identified in those indictments as Donald John Trump.

"His middle name is 'John'?" she asked.

Yeah,it is and yeah, it's weird.

And Tina Fey thinks it is too.

Your Friday Video Link is a classic bit from SNL's Weekend Update where Tina offers some wicked commentary on the aftermath of the 2017 Charlottesville riot involving white supremacist marchers. 

It was the event where afterwards Donald Trump said there were good people on both sides. 

Even though one of those sides included NAZIS!  

Like Tina Fey says, I've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark and I wasn't confused by it. Nazis are bad!

In the wake of Trump's 4 indictments and 91 felony charges, he is still up in the polls for the Republican nomination for President.

Order your sheet cake now!  

Changes In Our Family

Nearly 23 years ago, I held a newborn baby in my arms. She was only a few hours old but I wanted to make sure she got this message early and from me before someone else told her.

"Hello! Let me say now that I most sincerely apologize for all the things I'm going to screw up from here on out. Whatever your future holds, know that you will always be loved." 

Life takes unexpected turns. Sometimes life presents us with changes that are easy to accept and sometimes those changes take some time to get used to.  

There have been changes in our family. Andrea and I are still learning how to adjust. 

But be that as it may...

Today, I want to take this opportunity to welcome to the family our son Dean. Dean is currently in what better be his last year of college.  😃

And I want to add this message: 

"Hello! Let me say now that I most sincerely apologize for all the things I'm going to screw up from here on out. Whatever your future holds, know that you will always be loved." 

Where's Dave?

Where's Dave?

Not doing the blogging thing today.

I will be back tomorrow with a Very Special Episode.

Got some life changes I need to share.

But today, I got nothing.  

See you tomorrow and we're back after that for the Friday Video Link, Songs for Saturday and Cinema Sunday for some really old movies. 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: FUBAR and Only Murders In the Building

For reasons I can't begin to explain, Andrea and I watched a rerun of America's Got Talent from their most recent audition show.

Just to demonstrate that we will watch almost anything. 

So I've mentioned a few times in previous posts that Andrea and I have been watching something called FUBAR.

What the hell is FUBAR? 

FUBAR is a series on Netflix starring  Arnold Schwarzenegger as a CIA agent ready to retire. It's a show that is part spy action thriller, part family drama and part comedy.  

Luke Brunner has completed his last mission for the CIA and is ready to call it a day, relaxing on his boat (that he insists on calling a ship and it's isn't, it's a boat) and trying to get back into the good graces of his family and the wife who divorced him 15 years ago.  

But Luke gets roped in for one more gig, to retrieve a deep cover operative from a mission that's about to go pear shaped. Luke is shocked to discover that the deep cover operative is his daughter Emma. 

Luke had NO idea his daughter Emma was a CIA agent. 

Emma had NO idea her father was a CIA agent. 

Awkward! 

Unfortunately, Luke and Emma are forced to work together to bring down Boro Polonia, a weapons dealing psychopath with a penchant for solving personnel problems with a gun shot to the head. Boro's current project is procuring the items needed to be suitcase sized nuclear bombs and sell 'em off to whatever nut case may want to blow shit up. 

Joining Luke and Emma are joined by other CIA operatives:

• Barry, tech support and prototypical black nerd whose references are all from Star Wars, comic books and anime. 
• Aldon, the kind of guy you think of as an undercover spy with chisel abs, a handsome face and an easy going confidence. 
• Roo, a butch lesbian with zero chill for anyone's drama. 
• Tina , an NSA data analyst brought in to support Luke's team.  She and Barry hit it off which is cool but Tina may be hiding a secret which is not cool.  

Then there is the family drama with Luke's ex wife Tally dating some really nice (but bland) guy named Donnie which doesn't stop her from having sex with Luke which may be leading to a reconciliation until Luke lies to her one time too many. 

There's Carter, a really nice (but bland) guy who is engaged to Emma but gets rattled when Emma lies to him one time too many.   

As much as Luke and Emma rag on each other about home much of a disappointment each has been to the other,  they are forced to realize they have more in common than they care to admit when it comes to how much their CIA careers fuck up their personal lives.  

The arc of the 1st season's 8 episodes involves the team's repeated efforts to capture or kill Boro and stop the development and proliferation of his suitcase nukes. 

There are various high level super spy plots to accomplish all this but then something goes off the rails due to dumb luck, an unanticipated variable or just plain stupidity. 

One mission goes awry because Luke's attention was divided between the mission at hand and his side project of spying on Donnie.   

What does FUBAR mean? It's an acronym used by the military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies that stands for "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition".   

The series FUBAR is not exactly ground breaking stuff. Anyone who has sat through a 1990's Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie can see the plot beats of the CIA teams efforts to take down Boro coming a mile away.  

What makes FUBAR worth watching is all the other stuff, the comedy, the family drama, the character interactions and growth over the 8 episodes. 

The series has been renewed for a 2nd season which we will need to resolve the season finale: instigated by Boro's final act of vengeance, Luke and Emma and their entire CIA crew have been "burned", their true identities exposed to the whole world with a network of killers and terrorists out to kill them and their families.  

As Luke exclaims in Arnold's Austrian accent, "It's all FOO-BAH!!"  

With the writer's strike still a thing, there is no telling when we'll get that resolution.  

From the spy thriller that is also a comedy, we turns to the murder mystery that is also a comedy with the season 3 return of Only Murders In the Building.   

 

At the very last scene of season 2, a flash forward to the opening night of Oliver Putnam's new murder mystery play Death Rattle, the play's leading man Ben Glenroy drops dead right in the middle of his opening monologue.  

OK, the name of the show is Only Murders In the Building and this building is NOT the Arconia but a theater. What gives?

At the after premier party that Oliver insists on still having, Ben Glenroy shows up. It seems he ALMOST died but then got better and left the hospital before anyone could determine what he almost died of. 

Later, Ben's dead body suddenly crashes down through the roof of an Arconia elevator, making this death permanent and very helpfully keeping it in the building. 

And yeah, it looks like murder.  

Oliver insists on doing Death Rattle despite the death of his leading man and decides it's time to rethink the whole damn thing and make it a musical. 

With Oliver obsessed with redeeming his play, it's up to Charles and Mabel to fire up the ol' podcast and figure out who the hell killed Ben Glenroy.

There are a lot options to choose from for suspects. Ben was a total asshat to a lot of people. Especially to Loretta Durkin. 

Ben wanted to have Loretta fired on day one. Loretta has been practicing her craft for decades but the big breaks eluded her until Oliver was entranced by her audition. 

Loretta Durkin is the role played by Meryl Streep and damn if Meryl doesn't just totally prove why she is such a good actress, exploring a character of many nuances. Loretta is many things but surely she couldn't be a killer. 

The idea what we even consider that possibility owes much to Meryl Streep's increbible range.

And she can sing too!  Here is the haunting ballad from Death Rattle: The Musical.

And Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez still have the incredible alchemy of strong performances and their continued uncanny chemistry.  

Only Murders In the Building is off to a very strong start for it's 3rd season.  

Coming up in next week on the Touchbase:  Outlander!

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.  

Trump and the 91 Felonies

While I was taking time off from ye olde blog thing, Donald Trump got handed his 4th indictment.   Between all 4 of these indictments, Li'l Donnie is now facing 91 felony charges. 

The 4th indictment came out of the investigation in Fulton County GA of Trump's fuckery there in trying to lie, cheat and steal his way to a victory in Georgia's electoral count in the 2020 election.   

Immediately in the aftermath of the indictment coming down, Donald Trump promised a news conference that would prove once and for all that the 2020 election was stolen. 

Look, since November 2020, Li'l Donnie and his cronies have been promising to provide absolute proof once and for all that Trump's victory was stolen.   

And time after time after time after ad infinitum, Li'l Donnie and his cronies have FAILED to provide absolute proof once and for all that Trump's victory was stolen.   

So here we are in August 2023 and what pray tell would be different this time?

The answer is absolutely nothing.

Immediately in the aftermath of promising a news conference that would prove once and for all that the 2020 election was stolen, Donald Trump chickened out like the gutless coward he is. 

It seems maybe Li'l Donnie did something unusual and listened to his lawyers and not hold any news conference that would likely just give more evidence to the prosecution of those 4 indictments.  

With most people faced with charges of committing 91 crimes over 4 separate investigations, you might think that bloom should be off the rose for the Trump faithful, right?

Of course not.   

Trump loyalists have reportedly made death threats against the citizens who were on the Fulton County grand jury.  

Trump remains the front runner for the Republican nomination for President in 2024. 

On the subject of the campaign, Trump chickened out of the first Republican presidential debate.  

Well, it's easier to call Chris Christie "fat" from a distance that to dare say it to his face on a debate stage.  

Yes, lard ass deluxe Donald Trump decided the best insult he could aim at Chris Christie is that he's fat. 

Trump's logic for not attending the debate that is self-assuredness that his record as President was great and he's ahead in the polls by a lot so why does he need to show up?

Considering he's a man charged with committing 91 felonies and yes, he is ahead in the polls by a significant amount, Li'l Donnie may have a point. 

It doesn't matter what he does.

Or does not do. 

Cinema Sunday: Haunted Mansion

Today's Cinema Sunday post is about yet another movie from THIS century, THIS summer even. 

Andrea is a big fan of nearly all things Disney and really wanted to see the new Haunted Mansion movie which is based on the famous Disney park attraction.   

So our Cinema Sunday post this week takes a look at Disney's horror/comedy, Haunted Mansion.

So let me confer with the crack writing staff for I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You. 

Yep, that's right! There is this mansion and it's haunted! 

And that my friends is Disney's horror/comedy, Haunted Mansion.

So that is that for this week's Cinema Sunday. I'll be back next week for another post about movies I have seen. 

Until then, remember to be good to one another.

...

...

Oh, I need to provide some more detail, eh?

OK, so here's the deal, Sparky.  Andrea and I saw Haunted Mansion the week after we saw Barbie and a week before we saw Oppenheimer.  

But I wrote about Oppenheimer before I started the post on Haunted Mansion and quite frankly Oppenheimer effectively erased my brain cells of most of my recollections of Haunted Mansion. 

So I am reaching really deep here to complete my post about Haunted Mansion. 

I am reasonably sure there was a mansion.

And I do remember it being haunted. 

So I've got that going for me. 

Oh yeah. There were people in the movie.  

Let's talk about them!

Ben Matthias, an astrophysicist developing a camera to detect dark matter, meets and marries Alyssa, lover of tater tots and a ghost tour guide in New Orleans. Ben is not a believer in ghosts (or tater tots?) but he and Alyssa still fall in love and get married.

Then she dies in a car accident. Lost and forelorn, Ben takes up her ghost tour guide route even though he still doesn't believe in ghosts.

This doesn't stop Father Kent, a rather quirky and unusual priest from calling upon Ben to use his special camera to look for ghosts at Gracey Manor.

Single mom Gabbie and her son Travis moved into Gracey Manor to only find it still occupied... by ghosts! Oooooh! And the ghosts will not let them leave.

It's a fate that befalls anyone that crosses the threshold into Gracey Manor.  You can leave but you will be forcibly compelled to return.  

Harriet the psychic gets lured into the house and ultimately stuck there. Harriet is a huckster but she does possess some legit supernatural gifts. 

Prof. Bruce Davis, an elderly historian also gets looped into this (I don't know) ... haunted mansion?  

And there is the legendary medium Madame Leota who is a hundred plus years old and exists as a ghostly head in a crystal ball.  Leota provides some much needed plot exposition. 

William Gracey bought the mansion and recruited Leota to try and contact the spirit of his dead wife. It didn't work so he insisted Leota try again.

And again.

And again.  

And every night for a full year, each time failing to reach William Gracey's beloved wife but drawing in a different ghost each time. The house is packed with ghosts when the evil entity arrives.   

The Hatbox Ghost tricks William Gracey into taking his own life and traps Leota into a crystal ball.  

Hatbox Ghost is the spirit of Alistair Crump, a rich heir who killed his fellow socialites out of revenge before being beheaded himself by his servants.

Crump is one death away from obtaining his 1,000th ghost which will break the curse and unleash the Hatbox Ghost on an unsuspecting world.  

Unless our motley cast of characters can banish him first. 

Then... stuff happens. 

Epic battle between good and evil, life and death that sort of thing.  

Does everything end well?

It's a Disney film! Of course it all ends well.

Except for Alistair Crump, the Hatbox Ghost who gets sucked into Hell where he joins Scar, Clayton and other assorted Disney villains. 

But otherwise...

It's all good.

Ben adopts a cat named Tater Tot.  

OK, it may seem like I'm making light of this movie. Haunted Mansion was quite an enjoyable film.  At the very least, the film did not leave me questioning the very nature of life and the purpose of existence like Barbie did.  

Haunted Mansion was not a great movie but it wasn't a bad one and certainly deserved better than the 41% rating it got on Rotten Tomatoes.   

In a run of thought provoking movies like Oppenheimer and Barbie, Haunted Mansion may be too light, too inconsequential. But maybe it doesn't need to be more than that.  

Sometimes a movie just needs to be good dumb fun. 

After three weeks of the newest movies, Cinema Sunday next will begin a series of post on the oldest movies as I post about pre-Hays Codes films made before 1934 that I have watched.  

Songs For Saturday Summer Road Trip: Vampire Weekend, Steve Winwood and XTC

It's time for the penultimate edition of the Songs For Saturday Summer Road Trip play list organized by music artists in alphabetical order.  

"V" is for Vampire Weekend with "Oxford Comma".   

For the letter "W", let's go with Steve Winwood with "While You See A Chance" (which also works for the letter "W".) 

"X" is for XTC with "Mayor of Simpleton". 

Next week, the Songs For Saturday Summer Road Trip comes to an end with 2 letters of the alphabet to go.

But the playlist will have 3 songs. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive and in alphabetical order.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Star Trek - Strange New Worlds

 So much TV and so little time! 

What to do? What to do?

Last week was the the premier of season 3 of Only Murders In the Building and I really want to talk about that! 

Also last week was the mid-season finale of Outlander and man, do I need to share what I thought of that!

And there's some major stuff going on with My Adventures With Superman and I really would like to talk about that! 

Not to mention whatever the hell is going with What We Do In the Shadows! 

And there's FUBAR! What the hell is FUBAR? I'm gonna tell you.  But not today.  

As you can see from the title, the roulette wheel of "so much TV and so little time" lands on the 2nd season finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

Today's Tuesday TV Touchbase will ask the question: "Is season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds the best Star Trek ever?"

OK, let's not oversell this.  The answer to the question "Is season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds the best Star Trek ever?" is...  maybe.  

Your mileage may vary. 

I will say that  season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the most daring Star Trek ever.  

I think that is a fair assessment for a series that did a crossover with an animated series AND a musical episode in the same season.

"Those Old Scientists" is about as near perfect as one might imagine a crossover between live action Star Trek and the animated Lower Decks.  

The episode kicks off with the opening titles and themes now accompanied by an animated sequence. That strange creature sucking on the Cerrito's warp nacelle in the Lower Decks opening? There it is attached the Enterprise's nacelle.

The episode opens in standard animated Lower Decks style with Boimler, Marriner, Tendi and Rutherford investigating an old portal that suddenly activates and portals Boimler back in time where a very much live action Jack Quaid pops out in front of the Enterprise crew.  

Boimler is trying to adhere to Starfleet rules and regs about time travel but damn, he is nerding the freak out!  The crew manages to technobabble a way to get the portal working again to send Boimler back to his own time but it's juiced up for only one more trip but before Boimler can make that trip, Marriner (Tawny Newsome)  hurtles through the portal to rescue Boimler.  

Now the Enterprise has TWO time travelers to contend with.   

As much fun as it is to throw these two different Star Trek series together, there is still some advancement of various plot lines and character arcs that we've been exploring in Strange New Worlds for Spock, Chapel, Uhura and La'an.    

Two weeks later when we get to the musical episode "Subspace Rhapsody", the inherent gimmick of the cast breaking out into song and dance numbers is not done at the expense of the show. Pike, Uhuru, Spoke, La'an and more experience significant changes in their status quo. Yeah so those changes occurred during Broadway worthy show tunes is beside the point.  

But while Strange New Worlds embraced the outer boundaries of what is possible in a Star Trek show, it could still deliver some really serious intense drama. And nowhere was that more apparent than in the 8th episode of the season, "Under the Cloak of War".  

Besides being a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, Strange New Worlds is also a sequel to the 1st season of Star Trek: Discovery which if you may recall from those long, long ago days was taken up with an especially violent war between the Federation and the Klingons.   

A Klingon ambassador who known as an especially brutal general during the war visits the Enterprise and some of the crew who witnessed that brutal handiwork on the front lines find that their trauma from that time has far from healed. 

Dr. M'Benga particularly is still damaged from his time in the Klingon war, something we got a look at in season 2's opening episode.  Here it wells up to the point that M'Benga kills the Klingon ambassador. Chapel was a witness and asserts it was self defense. Maybe but it also looked straight up to be a revenge killing. 

We haven't see a turns of events so dark since the depths of the Dominion War in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. 

The season ends with "Hegemony" which finds the Gorn overrunning a colony they insists is in their space and will kill any and all who dare to venture across the line that divides their space from the Federation. Captain Batel, Pike's girlfriend, are among those that are lost across that dividing line and Starfleet orders be damned as the Enterprise makes it's way to the doomed planet.  

There are a lot of technobabble reasons why the Enterprise can't just beam up a bunch of survivors on a quick fly so Pike leads a landing party with Ortegas maneuvering a shuttle to look like space debris.  

There's a lot of balls in the air that don't necessarily land where they're supposed to be but it looks like the crew's crazy fly by the seat of their pants strategies are going to work. 

Until they don't.

And everything that can do wrong goes wrong.

And we fade to black and...

TO BE CONTINUED! 

Well...

FUCK!!!!

There is some criticism from fans on how this series is playing fast and loose with canon. I find a lot of these complaints to be nitpicky, like complaining Batel can't be a captain after the TOS episode "Turnabout Intruder" established women can't be Starfleet captains which was stupid then and even more stupid now and needs to be overlooked.  

But SNW's use of the Gorn does a serious number on the events of the TOS episode "Arena" which completely re-writes everything we learned about the Gorn in that episode. I would like to see SNW's writers reconcile what's happening with the Gorn in SNW with "Arena".   

So....

"Is season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds the best Star Trek ever?" 

Well, over the course of 10 episodes, the season did not have what I would call a dud.  ("Charades" where in Spock is stripped of his Vulcan genetics and is left totally human just as T'Pring's judgmental parents are coming for a visits wobbles a bit with it's 1960's era sitcom shenanigans.)  

And where it swung for the fences like the Lower Decks crossover and the musical episode, Strange New Worlds exceeded expectations and dare I say set the standard for any future Star Trek projects to attain.  

I would pronounce season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as a whole as very good. 

Coming up in next week on the Touchbase:  

FUBAR and Only Murders In the Building!

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.  

*********BLOG BIDNESS**********
Taking time off from the blog.  

We'll be back on Saturday as the summer play list continues.