Have You SEEN the Stock Market?

Usually on Monday I will reflect on whatever dumb, immortal, illegal shit Donald Trump said or did over the preceding week.

The problem I have is trying to narrow down which which dumb, immortal, illegal shit Donald Trump said or did because there is so much of it on any given day. 

It's hard to distill my thoughts to any one paticular issue when every single damn day, 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! 

But he has help.

Unlike in his first term when Li'l Donnie might have accidentally nominated people to positions of power who actually understood their jobs and had some level of competency to understand how to do them, Trump 2.0 is top heavy with syncophants who see loyalty to der Führer as their only consideration.

Does Donald Trump  want something? Well...

• Is it legal?
• Is it Constitutional?
• Is it etherical?
• Is it humane?

Fuck all that! Donald Trump wants something! Go do that thing!

Last week, Pam Bondi as ostensibly Attorney General, head of the alleged Department of Justice appeared before a U.S. Senate oversight committee prepared to discuss things that a DOJ should be doing and answer questions about those things.

Such as hey, what's up with those dang Epstein files.

Bondi brought a big ol' binder full of documents to show how seriously prepared she was to seriously discuss the serious business of the Department of----

Nah, I'm fucking with you! 

It was a binder full of insults.

Instead of actually answering any questions about whatever legal shit the DOJ has done, is doing or will be doing, Bondi would consult her oversized notebook of quips and zingers to attack any Democrats who dared think they had a right to ask a question or (get this temerity) dared to expect an answer.

She was also prepared with take downs of any Republicans deemed insufficiently loyal to der Führer.   

Bondi snippily snapped and snarled her way through her prepared put downs all the while refusing to answer any questions that might make Li'l Donnie feel bad.

Pam Bondi really went off the rails when she shouted over questions about the Epstein files with declarations about how well the goddam Stock Market is doing.

SIDE NOTE: The Stock Market is doing great! Mostly fueled by a big speculative bubble about A.I..  

Corporations are just giddy over the prospects of replacing those pesky annoying people with Chat Bots who don't demand annoying things like decent wages, health benefits and a work/life balance. 

A lot of economists are really worried that this bubble is about to burst and send us into a crash not unlike what hit the economy in 2008.

Who cares, the future is someone else's problem. 

As for those annoying Epstein victims and their advocates who just want shut the hell up, the past is also someone else's problem.

All that matters is RIGHT NOW everything is GREAT! 

Pam Bondi's abrupt swerve into wildly extolling the successes of the Stock Market in avoidance of actually addressing the question she was asked about the Jeffrey Epstein case is just a perfect distillation of the transactional attitudes expressed by Donald Trump and his acolytes.

Who cares about your injustice as long as my stocks are going up? 

SIDE NOTE: Trump's EPA last week rolled back years established guidelines on climate change that will make it easier for companies to pollute the air and water.  This move ignores the concensus of like 99.99% of all known science but hey, Donald Trump thinks climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese or some bullshit.  

Just like the DOJ, the EPA is prepared to ignore facts in deference to whims and selfishness of  der Führer.  

Without worrying about climate standards, cars will be cheaper so Li'l Donnie's rich friends can sell more cars and make more money.  

Well who the fuck cares if the fucking planet is on fire if I'm getting richer.

Damn it, where was I?

Oh yeah, Pam Bondi.

So Pam Bondi's meltdown to praise the Stock Market instead of addressing the crimes of Donald Trump's good buddy Jeffrey Epstein is of course an embarrassment to the DOJ and to this country.

Or it should be.

Ah who cares? My stock portfolio is going through the roof! 

Doctor Who: Absolute Maybes

 

It's been a minute since I've done a Doctor Who post.

Here's what we know:

Russel T Davies is absolutely out as show runner!

No, we do not know this but that doesn't stop people from speculating wildly online that this is a thing.

We know there is supposed to be a Christmas Special this year and last we heard, RJT was/is/will be writing it.

After that....

Who knows?

I would say that given how the Disney+ deal imploded and some of that was due to some questionable choices by RJT, I would speculate that Russell may well be on his way out. 

But ignore all that you're hearing because nobody knows nothing. 

Here's another one:  

David Tennant is absolutely returning as the Doctor! 

Again, this is just the rumor mill running amuck.

And as much as I am down for David Tennant in anything, I kind of hope this rumor remains unfounded. 

Doctor Who really needs to move forward and beyond this rutting around the moldering truffles of nostalgia including whatever Billie Piper is supposed to be.

Billie is most definitely OR most definitely NOT the Doctor!

The rumor mongerers cannot seem to wrap their heads around a consistent theory of Billie's role in the show.

My guess for what it's worth is Billie is some interim form of the Doctor owing to the unique circumstances of 15th Doctor's regeneration. Some manifestation of Bad Wolf or the Moment or some damn thing like that. 

CEO of BBC Studios Global Content Zai Bennet assured that the  BBC is committed to ensuring Doctor Who has a “long and flourishing life”.

Meaning... what exactly? 

Your guess is good as mine.

Which brings us to another rumor.

There will not be a NEW Doctor Who series until 2028.

Again, just wild speculation but it sadly makes sense.

Unless the BBC is ready to ramp up production of new episodes immediately in the wake of completing the 2026 Christmas special, it seems unlikely a Doctor Who series would be ready for 2027

The general concensus of everyone guessing on the internet is that the BBC will not make a decision on a Doctor Who series until after completion of the special or even waiting until after it airs. 

Particularly if there are pivotal decisions up in the air as to who will actually run the show or even star in it. 

Another thing that is still up in the air is the fate of The War Between the Land and the Sea outside the United Kingdom.

The UNIT based Doctor Who spin off mini-series was part of the Disney+ deal but Disney has made NO reference to when or even if the series will ever be presented on it's platform.   

Meanwhile, the series is available for sale in the U.K. on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Meanwhile, I have been catching up on classic Doctor Who on it's Roku channel and there will be a Doctor Who Is Classic post at some unspecified point in the future.

Just like the BBC, I too can be vague and uncertain about the future. 

Doctor Who has a future filled with absolute maybes. 

Movie Time: Les Diaboliques

Today is February 14th which means it's Valentine's Day.

Ah oui ! Saint Valentin! Quand nous offrons des expressions de romantisme et de passion à ceux que nous aimons.

Sorry, today's post is about a French film so I got caught up in the spirit of the thing.

Let's try that again.

Ah yes! Valentine's Day! When we offer expressions of romance and passion for those we love.

So the theme for today's movie post is....

How to murder your spouse!

So Happy Valentine's Day.

It's Movie Time!

The subject of today's movie post is Les Diaboliques, a 1955 French psychological thriller film co-written and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and starring Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, and Charles Vanel. 

No, you don't know who those people are but that's OK.

Neither do I. 

The movie is based on the 1952 novel Celle qui n'était plus (The One Who Was No More) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narceja 

What happens when a wife and her husband's mistress conspire to kill the husband? Let's find out! 

Our drama centers around Hauts-de-Seine, a less than high quality boys' boarding school the suburbs of Paris. 

The headmaster is Michel Delassalle, a cheap and malicious tyrant who hates the school and the boys in his charge. He is a miserable misanthrope who takes out his frustrations on the students, the staff and his wife.  

The school is owned by Michel's wife, Christina, a wealthy, devout Catholic émigrée from Venezuela. She is the school's  Spanish teacher. 

Christina is also in poor heal, frail and unstable from a chronic heart condition. 

Michel is totally contemptuous towards Christina, despising her  for her frail condition, her mortality, her dreams. He consistently mocks her, always piling on emotional abuse. 

Michel is having an affair with Nicole Horner, another teacher at the school. But Michel doesn't seem to treat Nicole any better than he does his wife. 

Which may explain while Christina and Nicole form a bond over their mutual abuse from Michel. 

(They may also might be in a lesbian affair but that is totally subtext. More on that later in the post.) 

So a plan is planned to make Michel unalive.

1) Drug Michel's wine.

2) Drown him in a bathtub.

3) Dump his dead ass into the pool at the school.

4) Wait for his pale bloated dead body to float up to the surface of the pool.

5) Authorities will assume Michel got drunk, stumbled outside and fell into the pool and drowned.

The plan goes according to plan through step 3 but runs into a hitch at step 4.

Michel's pale bloated dead body never floats up to the surface of the pool.

Nicole arranges to have the pool drained and nope, no body.

What the hell?

Christina is feeling a LOT of stress. 

Which is not good for her precariously weak heart.

Thumpity-thump!

So the stress gets worse.

There are reports of someone matching Michel's description showing up around Paris.

Thumpity-thumpity-thump!

Christina's wake heart is getting worse.

And some of the kids report seeing Michel around the school grounds.

Thumpity-thumpity-thump-thump!

A photo of the students and staff in front of the school shows someone in one of the windows of the building. That kinda sorta looks like Michel Delassalle.

Thumpity-thumpa-thumpity-thumpa-thump!

Doctors attending to Christina are worried that she's thisclose to dying of a heart attack so they tell her to stay in bed.

CAUTION: I am heading for a major SPOILER!! 

While trying to sleep one night, Christina hears a noise coming from the bathroom and she goes to investigate. 

Rising out of the a full tub of water is the body of Michel Delassalle?!?! 

Thumpity-thumpa-th-th-th--SPLUT!!!!

Sacre bleu! Christina is dead from a heart attack!

SPOILER!!!

Nicole rushes into the room to embrace her lover Michel as they celebrate success in their scheme to murder Christina via heart attack! 

What the hell! Really?!?!

Les Diaboliques is a masterful exercise in building tension and suspense. It feels like an Alfred Hitchcock movie.  But in French.

Reportedly Hitchcock wanted to get the rights to the book Celle qui n'était plus but was beat to the punch by  Henri-Georges Clouzot which royally pissed off ol' Hitch! 

Speaking of the book, the movie follows the book AND it doesn't.

In the book, it's the mistress and the husband who plot the death of the wife and it's her body that mysteriously does not show up in the pool where it was dumped. And it's the husband who has the weak heart who dies when the wife's body turns up to haunt him into a heart attack.

And the lesbian relationship between Nicole and Christina in the book is NOT subtext but text. As a French film, Les Diaboliques was not subject to the restrictions of the American film industry's Hays Office on the subject of homosexuality but French censors had their issues with the topic. 

Because much of the film hints as supernatural reasons for the absence of the body and the mysterious appearances of Michel after his "death", Les Diaboliques is frequently regarded as a horror film and certainly one can see how that assessment can be made given the rising levels of tension Christina feels due to Michel's mysterious appearances that haunt her guilt ridden mind.

And that scene of Michel rising ominously out of the bathtub dripping with water and unadulterated menace is definitely a classic horror trope.

But the horror tropes that are present are secondary to the main appeal of a tightly wound murder narrative that isn't all that it appears to be.

Les Diaboliques is about the murder of a spouse. The twist is which spouse is the actual victim.

So Happy Valentine's Day to my darling wife! 

This (Non) Sporting Life: Ice and Gold

Andrea and I were watching the ice dance competition Wednesday and caught the magnificient performance of Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

I may not know much about sports and that certainly includes any Winter Olympic events taking place on the ice but what Chcok and Bates did out there at the Milano Cortina Olympics looked pretty damn flawless to me.

It also looked flawless to the commentators on TV and the judges awarded them a very high score that reflected that assessment.

It looked like Madison Chock and Evan Bates had a date with destiny and a gold medal.

Instead they got a silver medal.

What the...?

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France performed next and got a slightly higher score to vault them ahead to 1st place.

Again, I know little about any ice thingy happens at the Olympics, be it skating or dancing or whatever but what Beaudry and Cizeron did out there looked... OK, I guess? Their performance was proficient and nobody fell down but I didn't feel the same spark I felt watching Chock and Bates out on the ice.

The commentators on TV seemed to feel the same way. 

Imagine all our surprise when the judges saw something different, something imperceptibly better.

In the hours and days since that performance, there has been quite the uproar. 

There's a petition on Change.org calling for the International Skating Union to review the scoring.

Well, God bless whoever's trying to make that happen but I think that ship has sailed.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates have been gracious about the whole thing.  

Madison said of this outpouring of support, “It really means a lot to us to have so many people just appreciate our performance and what we’ve worked so hard for.”

Madison said she and Evan are at peace with what they did on the ice and the results of that performance.  “A medal is a medal, the Olympic dream is alive, and it’s not something that is tangible. It’s something that lives within us, and really is the driving force for our motivation and intrinsic goals. And I think that’s what’s special about the Olympics. And that’s a real win for us.”

No matter the color of the medal, gold, silver or bronze, the Americans still got something that had eluded them in 3 previous Olympics, a win in ice dance. 

The Olympics are a roller coaster of emotions. Imagine being recognized as being better than 99.9% of the world at something and still feeling a bitter sting of defeat anyway.

That's way more pressure than I would ever want to deal with. 

Your Friday Video Link: EVEN MORE METRIC!!!

Your Friday Video Link this week returns to my recently acquired musical obsession, the Canadian rock group called Metric.

For the THIRD time, it's EVEN MORE METRIC!!!

Our first video is for "Combat Baby".  

The video employs  "Supermarionation", a form of electronic marionette puppetry employed in the 1960's by British producer Gerry Anderson for the TV series Thunderbirds.

I have become enchanted by Metric's Emily Haines.

Enchanted, enthralled, fascinated, mesmerized by her voice, her writing, her overall person. 

Where has she been all my life?

With her heart beating like a hammer, next up is "Help I'm Alive".  

If you go to the I Love Metric website, you can get Metric merch like this "Help I'm Alive" t-shirt! 

A big signature song for Metric is "Black Sheep" which appeared in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  The song was performed by the Clash at Demonhead with lead singer Envy Adams (played by Brie Larson). 

Emily Haines said Metric was asked by director Edgar Wright if they had any songs they might want to contribute to the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack. Emily described "Black Sheep" as a quickly toss together song for a recent album that Edgar thought was perfect for his move. 

Here is Metric  performing "Black Sheep"  LIVE! 

Head over to the   I Love Metric website to get a Metric Black Sheep plushie.

OK, I'm in love with the music of Metric and Emily Haines but $50 for a plushie seems a bit rich for my blood weight now

ONE LAST VIDEO for this post.

Metric is still making NEW music and this video dropped on February 3rd, "Victim of Luck".

This is in advance of their brand new album dropping on April 24th which is my birthday! 

So am I done with Metric on this blog after 3 different posts?

I'm still discovering even more songs I haven't heard before but I really like. 

I would not be surprised if there will be a 4th edition of Your Friday Video Link with EVEN MUCH MORE METRIC!!!

This (Non) Sporting Life At the Winter Olympics

This (Non) Sporting Life is my blog post where I, a guy who knows very little about sports, writes about sports.

For a guy who knows little about sports, there's been a lot of sports on this blog this week. 

Yep, 3 sports themed posts in one week?

You didn't come here for sports.

I would ask for my money back if I were you.

Anyway...

Andrea and I have been poking our heads into the Winter Olympics at random moments. 

In one of those moments, we bore witness to Lindsay Vonn's tragic wipeout on Sunday.  

Lindsay had torn her ACL the week before and the general wisdom on the matter was that she would not being able to participate with Team USA for the downhill ski event.

Lindsay decided she was good to go.

Man, if I tore my ACL, I would milk that for YEARS if I could to get out of shit.

But there's Lindsay Vonn, Olympic gold medal winner, pushing off one more time in pursuit of a dream for more Olympic gold.

13 seconds later and that dream died in as she came crashing down into the snow in excruciating pain.

The gallery down at the bottom of the slope fell into an eerie hushed silence as Lindsay lay twisted and broken in the snow.  

A helicopter airlifted her  off the side of the snow covered hill.  

She has been through 2 surgeries since that terrible fall.

It is such a mind blowing concept that a matter of seconds can undo a lifetime of training and preparation. 

Olympic events do ride on the razor's edge of mere inches or seconds standing between a date with an Olympic medal or failure. 

Andrea and I were watching an ice dancing routine by an American couple and the announcers declared their performance nearly flawless.

Nearly.

Their point total was a mere percentage point off the leader, changing their fortunes from gold to silver.

Apparently the woman skater moved her leg one inch out of position during a turn on the ice.

A lifetime of dreams, of plans and training and work done in by an inch.

This is getting too heavy.

Here's an SNL sketch involving Winter Olympic athletes getting ready for their big moment of glory filled with hope and enthusiasm and, in the case of the luge athlete, dread. 

"I hate the thing I'm good at!" 

Jane Wickline is too damn funny in this sketch, 

Back at the actual Olympics, I've become fascinated with ski jumping. 

Step 1: Ski down a slide

Step 2: Ski off the end of the slide.

Step 3: Fly! (Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!)  

Step 4: Land! 

Step 5: Don't fall down. 

I know there must be some kind of skill involved but I'm dumb enough to think I could do that.

As much as I want to keep this post about the purity of the sport, like every goddam thing these days, politics rears it's ugly orange misshapened head.

27 year old free style skier Hunter Hess made this statement:  "There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of.  For me it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S."

Seems like a fairly reasonable and measured response to balance national pride with concern about governmental policy.

What is the opposite of fairly reasonable and measured?

Yes, Donald Fucking Trump had to weigh in with this: “U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics. If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this."

Stay classy, Li'l Donnie! 

Hunter Hess had this response to Trump calling him a loser. “There are always things that could be better. One of the many things that makes this country so amazing is that we have the right and the freedom to point that out. The best part of the Olympics is that it brings people together, and when so many of us are divided we need that more than ever. I cannot wait to represent Team USA next week when I compete.”

Hunter Hess is a far better man than I am. My response to Trump would be along the lines of "Fuck off, you fat fuck!"

Which I think is a fairly reasonable and measured response to this goddam ego maniac moron.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah, the wonder of the Winter Olympics.

Sporting events that take years of dedication, training and commitment, an extraordinay amount of talent and skill.

Although I am dumb enough to think I could do this.

God, I am SO dumb!

-----------------------------------

BLOG BIDNESS: Taking off Thursday!

Back the day after with Your Friday Video Link with EVEN MORE METRIC!!! 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Brilliant Minds, St. Denis Medical, Wonder Man, The Muppet Show and Jeopardy

We got a LOT of ground to cover this week so...

COMMENCE LE TOUCHBASE! 

On Jeopardy last week, Paolo Pasco won the Tournament of Champions in a very decisive fashion,  in 3 straight games.  He totally dominated in points, being out of reach by Final Jeopardy in each round. He was fast on the buzzer and knew his shit cold. He kept finding the daily doubles, went in for big bets and came through with the correct responses. 

Paolo will go on to Jeopardy Masters where he is fully expected to dominate those proceedings as well. Which is fine by me. He's really super good and he's a likeable kind of guy.

Brilliant Minds reached a tipping point for Dr. Oliver Wolf heading into NBC's Olympic break. Wolf befriended Sophie, a woman who was a friend of his vanished father. They bonded over stories about his dad while Wolf treated Sophie for sleep deprivation.  He brought her into Bronx General off the books for a sleep study.

Or did he?

I made a guess that Sophie does not exist but is a figment of Wolf's imagination. 

When Dr. Alice Pierce (a psychiatrist at Bronx General and Wolf's best friend) reviewed the video recording of this sleep study, the room was empty except for Wolf who appeared to be talking to himself. 

Suggesting the mental break that will send Wolf to Hudson Oaks as we've witnessed in the flash forwards we've been seeing this season.

Well, I guess we'll learn more when Brilliant Minds returns after the Olympics are done.

Yeah, about that....

NBC is being rather unspecific on the fate of the rest of season 2.  The ratings for the show have not been great, nearly half of what the show attained in season 1. 

NBC may burn off the rest of the season 2 episodes this summer or worse yet, make them exclusive to Peacock which means Andrea and I won't see them as we do not want to pay for yet another streaming service.

The other medical show we follow on NBC, the comedy series St. Denis Medical does have an assured future. It's been renewed for season 3.

The episode before the break does not set up any kind of status quo change. The theme of the episode centers around honesty as when to be or not to be. Curmudgeonly Dr. Ron reflexively will share his negative opinions about things which has caused friction with his son. During his son's visit, Ron tries really hard to resist that impulse. Meanwhile, head nurse Alex is shocked (SHOCKED, I tells ya) to realize her nurses might be lying to her about why they need unscheduled time off.  

Next up on the Touchbase is Wonder Man on Disney+.  Yep, it's a Marvel TV series but this is most definitely NOT some CGI riddled slugfest.

Wonder Man tells the tale of Simon Williams whose fastidious attention to such actorly details as character motivations and backstory make him a pain in the ass to work with. And gets him fired from a small supporting role in American Horror Story.

He really really REALLY wants to land the lead is a big budget reboot of a beloved science fiction franchise from his childhood, Wonder Man.  

Simon is also hiding a secret: he has super powers. And super powers are a no-no in Hollywood after DeMarr Davis, aka the Doorman accidentally killed beloved comic actor Josh Gad with his dimenson warping abilities. 

Here's Josh Gad with the dance club mix of Olaf's "In Summer" from Frozen.

Meanwhile, Simon is being stalked by the Department of Damage Control which has blackmailed actor Trevor Slattery to spy on Simon for them.

Portrayed by Oscr winner Ben Kingsley, Trevor Slattery was the actor hired to pretend to be the terrorist known as "The Mandarin" in  Iron Man 3 (2013).  Trevor showed up again in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). 

Trevor with his John Lennon-esque cadence and his chill demeanor is not really into being a spy for the government but he's really also not into going back to prison. Still he's developing a rapport with Simon and doesn't want to see anything bad happen to him.  

Disney+ pulled a Netflix and dropped all 8 episodes of Wonder Man at once but Andrea and I are parsing this one out at 2 episodes a week. 

It's a strange ride but also a lot of fun with great character development.   

Finally, Andrea and I caught up with The Muppet Show special and both Andrea and I had a great time watching this show. 

With human guest stars Sabrina Carpenter, Seth Rogen and Maya Rudolph, this special captures the insane spirit of the original show with a decidedly modern energy.  

I really enjoyed the cover of "Islands In the Stream" with Sabrina and Kermit.... and Miss Piggy. And the big production number with Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now".

It was a lot of fun, even with Maya Rudolph's untimely death.

Oh good! She got better!

I hope this special does well enough because Andrea and I could really go for some more NEW Muppet Show.

And whew! 

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

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.   

This (Non) ) Sporting Life: Super Bowl LX

So Andrea and I ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to spend time with her dad watching the Super Bowl. My father in law cited a craving for KFC chicken so I got a bucket of that along with potato wedges for our Super Bowl party snacks. (It was I think an improvement over last year's surprisingly underwhelming Bojangles.) 

As for the game itself, it was for a long stretch a bit of a snooze with the Seattle Seahawks shutting out the New England Patriots through a series of 3 point field goals. Jason Myers set a super Bowl record by making all five of his field-goal tries.

By the third quarter, Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold threw a touchdown pass and Patriots quarterback Drake Maye answered with one of his own. Only then the did game itself start to get even remotely interesting to me. 

My wife and her dad were pulling for the Patriots because Drake Maye played college football for UNC. 

For what it's worth and I really didn't care that much about it but I guess I was rooting for the Seattle Seahawks. Because Seattle is Ken Jennings' home town, perhaps?

Well, I picked the winning team as the Seahawks defeated the Patriots 29-13 and won the Super Bowl.

So... yay me, I guess? 

Meanwhile, what about the much ballyhooed half time performance by Bad Bunny?

I will admit I didn't get it but hey, I'm not Bad Bunny's core demographic. But objectively speaking, what I saw was a visually engaging spectacle with a palatable positive energy.

Bad Bunny's set paid tribute to his native Puerto Rican culture. His performance included cameos from Cardi B, Alix Earle, Karol G as well as Pedro Pascal and Jessica Alba plus Lady Gaga (that's her in the photo above) and Ricky Martin. 

The show contained a wedding scene that was not a scene but an actual wedding for a couple of Bad Bunny fans. So that was cool! 

Bad Bunny was accompanied by violinists, trumpets and an entire horn section while surrounded by dancers representing a variety of generations.  

A giant screen projected the message “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

Did all of this piss off Donald Trump?  Of course it did.

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.”

Well, I think I get where Li'l Donnie's coming from.

Bad Bunny put on a show full of love with a warm and positive spirit. Of course something like "makes no sense" to someone like Donald Trump. 

Meanwhile and elsewhen, what about the other big draw for the Super Bowl, the commercials?

Here are my favorites from the evening. 

• Ben Affleck returns to shill for Dunkin' with an ad that turns the movie Good Will Hunting into a sitcom called Good Will Dunkin' featuring de-aged 1990's sitcom stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Alexander, Matt LeBlanc. Ted Danson, Alfonso Ribeiro, Jaleel White and Jasmine Guy as well as why the hell not Tom Brady.  
• Sabrina Carpenter is "tired of boys" and in need of a real man, Carpenter builds one out of Pringles.  Which she proceeds to eat.
• Appliance retailer Bosch turned beloved foodie Guy Fieri into just a regular guy without a goat or bleached tips and wearing drab shirts and slacks.  The horror! Oh, the horror!
• Two time Oscar winner Adrien Brody in an ad for  TurboTax? While "trying to tap into the pain of taxes", the ad's director tells him to dial it back a bit. To which Adrien replies, "If there's no drama, there's no Adrien Brody!" And he storms off in a huff.
• In an intense black & white ad, Emma Stone is angry and frustrated that the domain name of Emma Stone.com has been taken by some other Emma Stone and turns to Squarespace for help.
• Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key team up to present us with Halfway There Insurance while Hailee Steinfeld laments she should've gone with State Farm. Thankfully Jake from State Farm and Jon Bon Jovi is own damn self show up to save the day.  
• The Backstreet Boys are back and T-Mobile has got 'em even if the stage T-Mobile provides isn't quite big enough for all five of them.  Backstreet delivers a really funny ad.  
• Andy Samberg becomes "Meal Diamond" to sing about the wonder that is Hellmann's mayonnaise. 

So that is that for Super Bowl LX.

Which is "60" for the Roman Numeral impaired out there.

We're back tomorrow for the Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Until then, remember to be good to one another and “the only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

Race To the Bottom

 Warning sign of racism: When someone says, "I don't want to sound racist but..."  

Yeah, very likely some racist shit will follow.

Or how about this sentence: "I'm the least racist person you know."  

That sentiment is frequently espoused by Donald Trump.

So here's a spoiler: Donald Trump is racist as fuck! 

Since the days when Trump was a younger self professed real estate wunderkind, Li'l Donnie has made it clear his adversion to anyone with a darker skin than his.  

His whole rise to political prominence was fueled by his racist propagation of the lie Barack Obama was not born in the United States. 

His racism was not a bug but a feature with a large enough electorate who was fed up that a black man dared sully the White House with his mere presence for 8 years.  

Trump 2.0 has even more fully embraced the rhetoric and ideology of White Supremacists.  

So it should come as no surprise when Li'l Donnie posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

The video is ostensibly about the 2020 "election fraud" that poor widdle Donnie still thinks cheated him of his big win.

SIDE HASSLE:  After November 2020 when Donald Trump was whining and bitching that Joe Biden and the Democrats cheated and he really won and by a lot, a lot of Republicans in positions of power who supported Trump still remembered what their jobs were and that their loyalty was to the Constitution and not to der Führer.  Repeatedly and consistentlty, efforts to justify Trump's wild accusations of voter fraud were rebuffed by the Department of Justice and dozens of courts. 

For Trump 2.0,  a lot of Republicans in positions of power are in those positions for their loyalty to der Führer and not to the Constitution.

Which explains the raid on the Fulton County (Georgia) Elections Office by the FBI for private voter information to support Trump's delusions of fraud. 

Also on the scene was Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.  As DNI, Gabbard is in charge of international operations such as the CIA.  She had no business being on site for a domestic operation being carried out by the FBI. 

Gabbard was on the phone with Trump during the Fulton County raid and put der Führer on speaker so he could give the FBI agents a pep talk about what a great thing they were doing for the country. 

If all of that sounds suspicious, well, it is. Not only is Trump investing government resources paid for by your tax dollars to further is deranged dementia fueled delusions, but he's trying to stir up distrust in our voting systems ahead of the 2026 mid-terms.  

Which if the Republicans lose control of Congress, Trump and his cronies are in so much deep shit. 

But I digress. 

Where was I?

Oh yeah, Donald Trump is a racist.

Comparing African Americans to primates is a well-worn trope of your standard issue racism and it was so overtly wrong and inappropriate, yes, there was outrage.

No, there wasn't. The outrage was "fake".

Propoganda minister Press secretary Karoline Leavitt immediately leapt into action to defend der Führer. “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

The outrage is fake, you say, dear fraulein? 

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the sole Black Republican in the Senate might take issue with that assessment.  “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”

That just one guy, right? No wait! There's more. 

• Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said it’s “totally unacceptable.” 
• Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) went further by calling it “blatantly racist and inexcusable.” 
• Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said it shouldn’t have been posted, adding it is “not who we are as a nation.”
• Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) wrote "Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this. The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.”
• From the House, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) urged Trump to apologize to the former president and former first lady for his “incredibly offensive” post.
• Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) described it as “heartbreaking." 
• Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) dubbed it a “a grave failure of judgment.”

Reminder: Leavitt defended the racist post and claimed any complaints about it amount to fake outrage.  

And the post remained up and active for 12 hours.

After the complaints from erstwhile Trump supporting Republicans, only then was the post deleted with the following explanation: The video was “erroneously” posted by a staffer.

Who did what when to what now?  

Trump claimed he reviewed the first section of the video and passed it along to a staffer, who then failed to review the whole thing and did not catch the offensive content at the end. “Somebody slipped and missed a very small part."

By the way, for those Republicans who called on Trump to apologize? Well, fuck that option. Trump says he did nothing wrong and has nothing to apologize for.  

FUN FACT: President Harry Truman had a sign on this desk that read: "The buck stops here."  

I suppose if Li'l Donnie had a similar sign, it would read, "The buck stops over there." 

And yeah, Trump assures us once more of his lack of racism: "the least racist president you've had in a long time".

Again, if you have to SAY you're not racist, well...

SIDE HASSLE:  If you watched that clip above to the end, yeah, Trump is holding infrastructure funding hostage to his ego to get his name slapped on things.

There are no limits to his pettiness and his narcissm.  

OK, back to the topic at hand: Trump's a racist.

Anyway, the whole kerfluffle was just a simple misunderstanding caused by a mistake made by somebody else and hell no, we're not buying this.

1) The video is not that long and it's very unlikely Trump did not see it to the racist content at the end. Unless Li'l Donnie's attention deficit disorder is worse that we think.

2) Trump's adherence to racist themes and white supremacist ideology is well documented.  The depiction of the Obamas as apes to Trump would not be a bug but the whole damn point.

3) The offending video stayed up for 12 hours, long after objections to it were made known.

4) It was only when Trump allies in Congress called this damn thing out was the video taken down.  

Click here for a comment on this topic by Mark Evanier.  

The thing is Trump 2.0 has no limits or filters on his raging disdain for people who are not him and no reason to restrain is persistent racism.

Trump's on a race to the bottom to see how quickly he can drag us there with him. 

______________________

BLOG BIDNESS: The Super Bowl was yesterday. A blog post about that will be forthcoming later this morning. 

Winter Weather.... Geez, Enough Already!

 

Winter weather.... geez, enough already!

Here at the Fortress of Ineptiude, Andrea and I have reached the limits of our endurance of exile against the snow and ice.

It's not like we actually go out all that often in the first place.

When given a choice between going somewhere or staying home, we will opt for the more sedentary choice.

But it's one thing to not WANT to go somewhere.

It's another when you CAN'T go somewhere.

Two weekends ago,  several inches of snow and ice were dropped on us here in central North Carolina.

One weekend ago, several more inches of snow and ice were added to what was already there.

Wednesday brought us some more. 

And the snow and ice we were getting had little chance to melt with grey skies and even when the sun did get  a chance to shine, temperatures were below freezing or even in the single digits. 

Winter weather.... geez, enough already!

As I write this on Saturday, the sky is clear and sunny and the temperature is cold but just above freezing.

And the vast wastelands of snow and ice that surround the Fortress of Ineptitude are starting to recede.  

But we've got a big problem with wind.

Wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour. 

By the time this posts on Sunday, the wind is supposed slow down and temperatures will start to climb into the balmy 40's or 50's.  On Wednesday, one week after our last snow, we're supposed to get all the way to 60.

Break out the sun screen, y'all!

As interminable as this winter weather has been, I suppose it will be spring then summer soon enough and then we'll have something new to complain about.

Why is it so hot? When will this heat wave ever end?

And we'll all be feeling....

Summer weather.... geez, enough already!

This (Non) Sporting Life: Duke Vs. Carolina 2026 -Part 1

This is My (Non) Sporting Life, my blog post about sports from a guy who does not know much about sports.

Or care.

I do no care! 

Last night was the first match up between the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tarheels Men's Basketball teams.

My wife Andrea is a Carolina fan.  She really REALLY cares about her team.  It's a life long passion. Her Carolina fandom is a core component of her reason for living.

I am allegedly a Duke fan because.... why the hell not?

For 39 minutes, Duke was winning this damn thing.

Yay, Duke!

But college basketball games are not 39 minutes long.  

They last for 40 minutes.

And in the last minute...

Carolina ties up the game and with 4/10ths of a second, Seth Trimble launches a 3 pointer which goes in and...

And for the first time the entire game, Carolina has the lead.

And the win! 

You know, I tell you I don't care. I don't have the same depth of feeling for my team that Andrea has for her's but....

What the fuck! Duke was supposed to win this thing!

NO! 

I am not a sports guy and I do not care. 

Fine, let Carolina have their win in their little sportsball game thingy! See if I care.

'Cause I don't! 

Damn it! 

Movie Time: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

It's Movie Time!

Today's movie post is about a movie that came out in 2018 written and directed by Joel and Ethan Cohen.   

I've posted about movies by the Cohen brothers before such as Barton Fink and O Brother Where Art Thou?.  The Cohen make movies that are distinctive in their voice and aesthetic. Their films challenge the senses and the mind. 

The movie I watched last weekend is very much right in the Cohens' wheelhouse, daring you to follow where they lead and defying your expectations once you get there. 

From 2018, it's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. 

The full title as it appears on the title screen is The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Other Tales of the American Frontier. The movie is a collection of 6 separate stories with nothing in common  other than being set in the American western frontier.

And perhaps also there's this connective tissue: life is brutal and unfair. 

Well, that seems kind of dark, don't it?

A darkness that is belied by the appearance of Buster Scruggs in the film's first story. 

"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"

Decked out in white while singing and yodeling on the back of his horse, Buster is a genial, affable gent of wit and intelligence.  He conveys a sense of innocence against the harsh and brutal environs of the American west.

Until he deins to enter a saloon where he is not welcome and we discover that Buster Scruggs is quite the killer, fast, deadly and insanely accurate with a gun.  

A visit to a 2nd saloon goes badly there as well. 

And Scruggs proves to be quite deadly without a gun.

Here's a clip with the "Surly Joe" song 'n' dance number.

You might get an idea of what kind of movie you're getting from that clip.

And you would be right AND wrong.  

You might think you're in for some Blazing Saddles level of absurdity.

But (SPOILER) things do not end well for Buster Scruggs.

Or maybe they do as the toils and cares of this oh so brutal world are left behind. 

"Near Algodones"

Our next story concerns a bank robber for whom Murphy's Law seems to be a constant companion. Whatever can go wrong goes wrong and our erstwhile robber winds up in a hangman's noose.

He gets a temporary reprieve from his sentence but things still keep going wrong.

Good news! He's finally freed from the noose but damn it! More things keep going wrong until....

He winds up in a hangman's noose a second time. 

You might expect he might cheat death a 2nd time but...

Nah, we've moved on to our next story.

"Meal Ticket"

A somber story about an aging travelling impresario and a performer known as Harrison. When he draws back the curtain on his mobile stage, the audience is greeted by a pale dour looking young man.

With no arms and no legs.

But by God, he has a voice.

With a beautiful, powerful speaking voice, Harrison regales his audience with a variety of oratory ranging from Bible passages to Shakespeare to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  

These performances are working against the ever colder winter weather and competion from another travelling act. 

A chicken.

A chicken who does math. 

The impresario buys the chicken and now has a choice to make: kill the competition or keep the chicken and lose Harrison.

Given the dire and bizarre turns these stories have taken, I'll leave it to you to guess who wins out in a competion between humanity and poultry.

Because we're off to our 4th tale, as we follow a grizzled prospector into a lush, beautiful mountain valley.

"All Gold Canyon"

You know what this valley needs? Holes! 

Our prospector gets to diggin', lookin' for gold! 

After several days of hard working and constant digging, the prospector finds a mother lode of gold!

Success! 

But a young man with a gun shows up with other ideas. 

Given how these stories have played out so far, you might think you have an idea how this turns out.

And you would be right AND wrong.  

"The Gal Who Got Rattled"

The fifth story on our journey is one where the ending of this one hurts me the most.

Alice Longabaugh is on a wagon train heading to Oregon with her older brother, Gilbert.

Gilbert dies, leaving Alice alone with no family, no support and no prospects awaiting her in either Oregon or back east if she turns around.

Over time, Billy Knapp, one of the wagon train leaders, finds himself in the position of taking care of Alice and the two develop a strong bond with each other.  

Billy proposes and Alice accepts and hey, one of these damn stories ends on a happy....

Sorry... it does not.

The ending is exceedingly heartbreaking. 

"The Mortal Remains"

Our last story picks up in a stagecoach making a midnight run across the plains to Fort Morgan, Colorado.

There are five peope inside the stagecoach:

An Englishman (Thigpen) and an Irishman (Clarence) who are in business partners "ferrying cargo", meaning the wrapped up corpse on the roof of the stagecoach.

Frenchman René is a suave sophisticate as well as an invertebrate gambler. 

There is a nameless fur trapper rambling about his past relationship with a Hunkpapa woman in which neither knew the other's language but they got along just fine (wink! wink!)

Sitting between René and the Trapper is Mrs. Betjeman, a stern austere woman, a fine upstanding Christian who can't believe she's stuck in a stagecoach with all these sinners.

These 5 people engage in an intense and passionate discussion about the nature of humanity and differing views of morality.

Such a frank discussion is not something the morally uptight Mrs. Betjeman is prepared to cope with and she becomes apoplectic.

 René calls for the coach to be stopped and we get our first glimpse outside at the driver, a faceless man in a dark cloak swirling about him as the stagecoach rushes through the dark.

Thigpen explains that the stage company's policy is not to stop for any reason. 

Thigpen and Clarence clarify their line of work as "reapers", or bounty hunters. Wanted Dead or Alive? Dead works just fine for Thigpen. He describes his joy at watching his prey die,  especially the expression in their eyes as they "negotiate the passage" and "try to make sense of it".

The coach arrives in Fort Morgan and stops in front of the hotel, a dark and foreboding edifice. More funeral home than Holiday Inn. 

Thigpen and Clarence drag their "cargo" inside while  Mrs. Betjeman, René and the Trapper stand outside the doors of the... hotel, reluctant to go in. 

The stagecoach leaves without dropping off any luggage.  

Guys, I might be a bit slow here but I think this whole last story is some kind of metaphor for death or something.

Something for me to ponder when I try to go to sleep at night as the credits roll.

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department 

• Tim Blake Nelson was Buster Scruggs. He was Delmar O'Donnell in O Brother, Where Art Thou? .  Tim was the only actor in the  Soggy Bottom Boys to do his own singing.  
• One of my favorite character actors is Stephen Root who plays the bank teller.  Root was Milton in Office Space and Jimmy James in NewsRadio which is just two of the dozens and dozens of roles this man has played.  
• Liam Neeson is the Impresario who takes Harrison to his performances.  Hard to tell under that grizzled old western look.  
• That guy at the boarding house with Alice Longabaugh kinda looks like that weird train guy from Big Bang Theory and Kevin from Kevin Can Fuck Himself. Yep, it's Eric Petersen.  
• Underneath a thick mustache and a thick French accent is Saul Rubinek as René. Much like Stephen Root, Rubinek is an actor who is frequently in some damn thing or another. Right off the top of my head, I know him from roles in Frasier, Leverage and Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

Ballad of Buster Scruggs is challenging as most films by the Cohen brothers can be. In any given moment, in any scene, the comedy can come at you from an unexpected direction and likewise, so can the tragedy take surprising turns.  

The off kilter nature of the Cohens is accentuated by the chosen format of telling not one story over the course of a movie but rather exploring six distinctive narratives. The broad absurdity that begins the film with Buster Scraggs evolves through different tales before ending with a dark and disturbing meditation on morality and death.  

I may not have gotten what I expected from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs but what I did find in this film was something that was genuinely entertaining and thought provoking. I was in turns amused by what I saw and I was disturbed by it as well.

Which means mission accomplished  by Joel and Ethan Cohen.