The Weekend of Foolish Attention

Bits and bytes of the week

WTF IS HAPPENING? Trump is going all in on his focus to dismantle, well, everything that has been established over the past fifteen years or so. What the fuck is he doing? So many of his executive orders will be null due to legal challenges and simply overreach in his own executive duties so what’s the fucking point of all of this?

Most of us on the Left prefer the He’s Too Stupid to Be Anything But a Force of Chaos but I think that’s a mistake. How does anyone strategize in the face of chaos? No, I think it’s a better approach to assume that he is not the luckiest motherfucker alive but savvy on a level we have yet to fully understand. Thus, he sits at a liminal space—both a chaotic evil politician and a savant genius. So, I ask again: WTF?

I have two theories that have their own Venn diagram intersecting:

I teach my staff that when dealing with angry, outraged audience members that a moment of confusion gives them about ten seconds to take control of the moment. One example I use is when a woman was almost screaming at me about her view of the stage and how much money she spent to see the show, I stopped for second, looked down, and exclaimed “Wait second! Those are the most fabulous shoes I’ve seen today!” She stopped her tirade for a second because that was not a prescribed piece of information in the exchange. She was confused and it gave me the moment to jump in and take care of her issue.

Trump is using his shock and awe to obfuscate his intentions to confuse those most upset about anything he does at all.

So, first is obfuscation.

The second is more about the culture of the moment. Why go after Canada and Mexico? Why go after China? Why focus on USAID, known for spending money on initiatives outside of our borders? Simple. America first. It is a signifying message that we are soft. That we need to start to see how exceptional Americans are and a banner ad against the prevailing commercial announcements that America sucks, that other nations are better, that America is in decline. It’s Reagan’s shining light on a hill optimistic rah-rah without the tender approach. It’s the in real life version of the Team America World Police theme song.

It is a two tined fork in the road approach to both confuse us and ram home the following perspective:

If you have a septum piercing or a tattoo sleeve, you’re advantaged. If you can scare up ten grand or more to modify your body, with or without insurance, you’re wealthy. If you’re bored with girls and boys and women and men, and prefer the sexless aesthetic of “agender” or “nonbinary,” you have leisure time on your hands, and you have the Internet.

You’ve dodged famine and disease, war and imprisonment. You are not preoccupied with survival; the needs of your body have been met. You now dwell in the world of ideas. You’re not just not oppressed; you’ve essentially hit the pinnacle.—Shannon Thrace

The statement is both true and dismissive of more pressing issues. Trump wants us to hear the truth part and be so confused by the onslaught that we forget the bigger picture. He is troll and is baiting us. Yes. America is an exceptional experiment and no, Americans on an individual level are not exclusively exceptional. This has never been a game of groups but an individual achievement sporting event because we each are all too self interested to subsume ourselves into a team. Trump is counting on us holding onto the identitarian memes promoted in the past fifteen years. If you want to resist, change your narrative.

“You don’t fight every fight. You don’t swing at every pitch,” as the former Democratic Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel told Politico. “And my view is—while I care about the USAID as a former ambassador—that’s not the hill I’m going to die on.”

GREAT MOVIE I MISSED THE FIRST TIME AROUND. Daddio is a cinematic gem that transforms a seemingly mundane taxi ride into a profound exploration of human connection. Written and directed by Christy Hall, this film showcases the exceptional talents of Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn, who deliver performances that are both nuanced and deeply affecting.

A buddy of mine likes to intone the morbid concept that “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore.” In this case, I’m glad they still do.

The story (?) centers on a young woman, portrayed by Johnson, who hails a cab driven by Penn’s character, Clark, upon her arrival at JFK Airport. What unfolds is a captivating conversation about life, love, and personal discovery. The confined setting of the taxi serves as an intimate backdrop, allowing the characters to peel back layers of their personas, revealing vulnerabilities and forging an unexpected bond. Never much of a Dakota Johnson fan up to this point, I am now. Always a Sean Penn fan, it’s thrilling to see him on screen.

PREDICTIONS. It’s February and I’m feeling prescient. Here are a few predictions of our near future:

• Anora, absent any controversy and combined with a phenomenal script and incredible performance by Mikey Madison, will win Best Picture. My third ex-wife will be thrilled.

• Elon Musk will soon begin to overshadow Trump and the president will get rid of him by end of March. The social media war between the two will be more entertaining than a dogfight in a back alley.

• The Democratic Party will continue to double down on extreme Left policies and ideology and a new, more centrist party will emerge lauding classic liberal values minus the land acknowledgements and insistence that transwomen should beat the shit out of women in sports.

• Blake Lively will leave Ryan Reynolds for Justin Baldoni. Candace Owens’s head will explode on her YouTube channel like that scene from Scanners.

WHY IT’S GOOD WE HAVE DRONES AND MISSILES. A recent study from the Pentagon shows that 77% of young Americans would not qualify for military service without a waiver due to being overweight, using drugs or having mental and physical health problems.

Maybe, if we get ourselves into a land war someday, the kids can protest, wheeze out their offense, and curl up into ball of anxiety. Not sure if we’d win but you work with what you got, amiright?

OH, YEAH. I REMEMBER THIS BEING A THING. At the very beginnings of that time when the Left went slightly off the rails, embracing any theory of how to progress into a better society and more effective stewards of the planet, a kid made up a number and the Fourth Estate ran with it without so much as a basic fact check. He called up straw manufacturers and calculated 500 million a day. “That’s a lot,’ he thought. That 500 million a day number was cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Suddenly the most important thing we could do for the environment was ban plastic straws.

So, we did. Based on a desire to do the right thing, the need to be right, and the crushing requirement to be seen being right and doing the right thing by everyone else, we adopted paper straws. Except that paper straws were and are bullshit. Also, the number was made up by a nine-year old and the effects of plastic straws on the environment were almost fictional in scope.

Well, thanks to the Supreme Leader, we are headed for what the most hysterical are calling a ‘constitutional crisis’ once he signed the following executive order: “Plastic straws are often replaced by paper straws, which are nonfunctional, use chemicals that may carry risks to human health, are more expensive to produce than plastic straws, and often force users to use multiple straws. Additionally, paper straws sometimes come individually wrapped in plastic, undermining the environmental argument for their use.”

These are the fights we will be remembered for, kids.

BOTH SIDES-ISM?

There were a number of people that I inherited in my administration. And I was trying to show Godly presentation that we can work with people who come from other administrations. … They don’t have to agree with me 100% to work within my administration … (but) if you ain’t with us, you just gotta go … because playing nice with other people who ain’t about us — it’s just a waste of exercise. … So there’s a whole bunch of people saying, “Oh, shoot. Who’s about to get fired?” Well, you about to find out. Stay tuned.—Mayor Brandon Johnson sounding suspiciously like the 47th president

CHECKING OUT THE CAP’N. Leading up to Thursday (the evening I went to the Alamo Drafthouse to catch the latest installment of the MCU’s Captain America series) I re-enlisted into Disney+ to rewatch those Marvel movies that, at the time, blew my tiny mind.

I caught all three Steve Rogers films, jumped to Infinity War and then Endgame. For me, these are the gold standard. Great movies, great characters, incredible moments all around. I don’t have much to say about the latest spate of MCU tv shows or films—they weren’t made for me so I avoided them. Thus, no Ms. Marvel, Marvels, Agatha All Along, Echo, or the upcoming Ironheart. No shade thrown—I didn’t see them and, like my nonplussed reaction to Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, not all stuff created is for me so I’m okay with it.

First, I love the Alamo Drafthouse. Cool vibes and funny pre-show stuff. I’ve been watching so many movies on my TV in my studio apartment that the very act of coming to a cool space to sit in the dark and watch is almost the best part of the night.

Second, I truly enjoyed Captain America: Brave New World. Anthony Mackie is winning and Harrison Ford is a good substitute for the late William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross. Once Endgame debuted, it was always gonna be a slog figuring how to continue the MCU game. That was the culmination of twenty-three movies all telling a connected story. What works in CAP4 is connecting the story to a film previous to that timeline and it’s fun. Sure, maybe you wouldn’t remember the Edward Norton Hulk movie but it ties into that storyline and it worked for me. It was never gonna be Endgame but it sure is better than Thor: The Dark World, Captain Marvel, and Thor: Love and Thunder so I’m in.

Quibbles: Giancarlo Esposito is wholly unnecessary and to squash him into a thankless role seems weird. The CGI is carrying over from Quantumania in looking pretty rough. The conclusion as Cap effectively ‘talks down’ the Red Hulk is weak.

Plusses: Mackie. Aerial fights. A couple of cameos I dug. Set up for Battleworld. It felt, story wise, like Marvel is wrapping up some loose ends (Eternals, Winter Soldier, some lip service to the Blip) and setting up a bunch of coming stuff (Secret Wars, adamantium and mutants, a new Avengers, the new FF film) so it’s a bit messy but I enjoyed the time. This and Thunderbolts* are the final two outings in Phase 5 which has been rough at best. Phase 6 is going to usher in some big tent poles that pretty much have to make big bank or the MCU is no longer the thing movie theaters are counting on to boost their viability.

If you like the Marvel thing Like I do, it’s worth your time. If not, wait for the Fantastic Four in July.

---

And that, my friends, is the week. Stay warm, avoid the news as much as possible, and calm down about the price of eggs already.