the groundhog day project

Allow a bit of paranoia. Perhaps I will manage to be hopeful another day soon, but not today. Watching V for Vendetta today, I found it far too easy to imagine it's world as our own. One specific thought that occurred to me: We're lucky that neither Trump nor any of his have the charisma or wit of Prothero or Sutler . But, as it echoes 1984 and that sort of Big Man version of dictatorship is all too possible. This sort of dystopian story writes itself a bit. The problem with the world today... A problem with the world today is that one voice cannot ring out as clearly, not without extremist rhetoric or a back-up army. A call to revolution or what have you--it would be harder to hear and quite difficult to take seriously. The cacophony of the web distracts and diffuses, degrades and dismisses... And, I was going to talk about Colin Kaepernick and Kathy Griffin, maybe throw in a little Madonna. But, I feel like adding my voice to that chorus will do very little. Like I...

Headline today: Highly educated women are freezing their eggs due to shortage of equally educated men . They should probably start breeding with the stupid men because a) gotta avoid the eugenics implications of the opening sequence of Idiocracy , and b) all men are pretty stupid, in one way or another. I was thinking about starting with a rant about sexism regarding that opening sequence, actually. It's labeled as "Trevor & Carol" vs "Clevon" because, I guess Trish doesn't get to have her name on screen, because Clevon is also breeding with Britney and Brandy... Except I'm not even sure in which direction that is sexist. Sexist toward the women on Clevon's side for not including them? Or sexist toward Carol for the suggestion that maybe it's her fault that she and Trevor can't have kids? Or sexist toward Clevon for putting all the blame on one side of this lopsided equation on him and him alone, while Trevor gets some of his blame miti...

"Nearly everything predicted in Idiocracy has come true, and more," writes Joel Stein in Time , 11 May 2016. Stein talked to Mike Judge, director and co-writer of the film. "I'm no prophet," Judge said, "I was off by 490 years." i.e. This stuff is already happening. Judge called writing the film, "following your id. Now unfortunately our id has become our [then] candidate for president." Now, of course, that id has become president, politics has devolved to Twitter exchanges, insults, right and left backing further away from one another. It would be a bit like the British parliament, with the way they go at each other, except it's not as clever and hardly ever fun. At least half of this country has become Idiocracy . Of course, someone on the right is going to say it's the left that has turned so stupid, and it's time to unite. Someone on the left is going to say it's the right. We all like to imagine we're Luke Wilson...

Sometimes, stuff just doesn't get into the blog, even when I have it bookmarked. For example, Disneyland is changing the Pirates of the Caribbean ride again, this time to change the auction so they're no longer selling women but stolen goods. I had two articles bookmarked, one in favor of the change, one against. I was going to come down solidly in the middle someplace. Solidly. Instead, I'm watching Idiocracy because it's a new month and I need a new direction. I figured a documentary about present day America to, you know, prime the pump.                     I imagine Trump's rallies start with some music and lights and smoke and "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!" And, pretty soon his super long time is going to be replaced with a red, white, and blue sleeveless vest. And Red, white, and blue pants. Except, Trump's promises aren't nearly as good as President Camacho's.