The Grouchy Editor

Administration from Hell

War in the Middle East, invasion at our southern border, stratospheric inflation, and endless culture wars.

I can’t decide if Biden and pals are escalating all these nightmares to advance their “great reset,” or to ensure that there are so many monumental crises that future President Trump — or any future president — will never be able to fix them all.

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Yeah, the actress pictured above misses the point of criticism of the latest season of Fargo — whether deliberately or through her ignorance, I couldn’t say.

No one is objecting to Fargo’s “strong, independent woman,” in this case the heroine portrayed by Juno Temple. The objections to this season are twofold: Temple’s character isn’t so much strong and independent as she is physically absurd. Small and frail, she routinely bests young, healthy males in physical confrontations. She isn’t human; she is a superhero.

But worse is the depiction of males in the show. Jon Hamm’s villain is so ridiculously heinous that he might as well have a mustache to twirl after his every despicable act. And then there is the heroine’s husband, who is whiny and more helpless than a two-year-old.

And so, we are presented with a god-like woman and utterly worthless males. It’s virtue signaling and political correctness run amok. I stopped watching after the fourth episode, which is a shame because I used to like this show.

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Rewriting History

I watched this video and realized there is an attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of Christopher Columbus.

I saw the thumbnail below and realized someone is trying to find something good to say about Richard Nixon.

Could Benedict Arnold be next on the rehab list?

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Looks like “tough guy” Joe Biden is about to abandon Texas the same way he abandoned Afghanistan, with his tail between his legs.

In this case, let’s hope that’s what he does.

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Biden’s position on Supreme Court rulings when it comes to student-loan payments, or contracts between landlords and tenants: Screw the Supreme Court. Find a loophole or just ignore the court’s ruling.

Texas’s position on its border dispute with Biden: Screw the Supreme Court. Just ignore the court’s ruling.

So much for the power of the Supreme Court.

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It does seem as if Biden is trying to poke, poke, poke the conservative bear, hoping to goad it into doing something rash so that his administration has an excuse to crack down (again) on the civil liberties of the right — before Trump gets back in power.

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Chick on the Daily Mail going to town No. 1:

Callahan’s much too tough on Trump in this column, but otherwise, you go girl.

Chick on the Daily Mail going to town No. 2:

Kennedy’s much funnier in print, like in this column, than she is on TV.

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Bill Maher’s false equivalences

Bill Maher recently topped a “most trusted media personality” list.

I guess that makes sense. Unlike so many progressive pundits, Maher’s a long-time liberal who at least acknowledges leftist lunacies.

But he’s blinded by his hatred of Trump and a desire to maintain his liberal bona fides by continually making false equivalences between the left and the right.

In recent years, on nearly every major issue — border security, inflation, LGBTQ demands, censorship — the madness is generated by the left.

It’s tiresome to hear Maher preface every (correct) criticism of left-wing lunacy by telling us that “both sides” are influenced by extremists. That’s bullshit. Only one side is constantly pushing to change or destroy social norms and laws.

One more thing: Jake Tapper is trusted by anyone?

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Sean Strickland

Mixed-martial-arts champ Sean Strickland doesn’t strike me as the brightest bulb on anyone’s Christmas tree, and some of his recent press-conference comments seemed unduly homophobic. However …

Strickland’s larger point — that liberals in general and the corporate press in particular, are sheep (“weak men”) marching in lockstep to whatever progressive crap is being pushed — is absolutely spot on.

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Funny Video 1

Click here to watch the video.

Funny Video 2

Click here to watch the video.

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Reality TV Bare Ass of the Week

Julie Theis of Netflix’s The Trust

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Da’Vine Joy Randolph investigates a murder in the building

To Woke, or Not to Woke

As I (finally) watched season 1 of the acclaimed Hulu show Only Murders in the Building, I thought about “wokeness.” Early in the season, we learn that the investigating detective is a lesbian black woman who is expecting a child with her female partner.

At this point, I had questions: Was this virtue signaling, an attempt by the producers to pre-empt criticism from the left about yet another high-profile show starring two straight white males (Steve Martin and Martin Short)? Or was it organic storytelling? Hmmm.

I was reminded how tired I am of cop shows about grizzled, white, middle-aged men solving crimes and battling the world at large. You know, like Martin’s character-within-a-character in Murders, the TV detective “Brazzos.”

When showrunners finally introduced non-white, non-male actors in these cop roles some years ago, it didn’t feel woke; it came as refreshing, welcome relief from the same-old, same-old.

The problem, it seems to me, arises when non-traditional roles and concepts are paired with heavy-handed preaching, and when the only acceptable villains are straight white males.

It’s a fine line. You succeed when the story feels natural, not woke. I think Only Murders succeeds in walking that line — at least so far.

“Brazzos”

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As if we needed more evidence about the bottomless greed of the NFL. 

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We are starting out the new year by being under the weather. Sicky-poo.

Please dry your tears by enjoying these quotes and a picture:

“Me and Mike, ve vork in mine,

Holy shit, ve have good time.

Vunce a veek ve get our pay,

Holy shit, no vork next day.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

“And the lips that touch liquor must never touch mine.”

— George W. Young

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It’s not often — maybe unprecedented — that you can confidently predict that the coming year will be a momentous one in American history — or even world history.

In January 1941, no one thought the coming year would see Japan bombing Pearl Harbor. In January 2001, no one envisioned terrorist planes crashing into the World Trade Center. (OK, conspiracy theorists, maybe some people saw these things coming.)

But 2024? It’s going to be momentous. The only question is about the details.

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Maybe my expectations were too high, because the premise (and cast) of The Holdovers had me hoping the movie would be, as some reviewers claim, an “instant holiday classic.”

Don’t get me wrong. Alexander Payne’s comedy-drama is fine. It’s funny and touching and Paul Giamatti is, well, Paul Giamatti.

But “fine” is how I’d describe it.

I doubt that I’ll be planning to watch it every Christmas season.

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Happy New Year.

If possible.

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It’s hard to imagine a bigger “threat to democracy” than a handful of liberal judges telling the electorate that it is not allowed to vote for the presidential frontrunner.

Once again, the left engages in classic projection, accusing its political foes of the very sin the left itself is guilty of perpetrating.

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I live in Minnesota. Come over and have some hot chocolate, Kat. I feel bad for you.

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Dee found love and a million dollars by winning Survivor. “Boyfriend” Austin found reality-TV infamy by epitomizing the word “simp,” or what we old-timers used to call a “sucker.”

Unless, of course, Austin is actually a modern gold-digger, hoping to siphon off as much of Dee’s million bucks as possible. That would be a fitting revenge, would it not?

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Maybe they will turn out to be very different cinematic animals, but if The Holdovers is anything like 2000’s Wonder Boys, I can’t wait to see it. I love Wonder Boys (my review here), and Holdovers is projecting similar vibes.

A problematic college professor bonds with a male student? Check. Nice mixture of comedy and drama? Check. Top-notch actor playing the professor? Check.

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Oh, boy. I am so looking forward to 2024.

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Last but not least, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. At some point over the holidays, do yourself a favor and watch one of the two scariest movies ever made: Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. 

In 1974, a girl I was sweet on named Laurie Schaefer (forgive my spelling if you read this, Laurie) and I drove to Willmar, Minnesota to see a movie on a date. The movie we hoped to see, Earthquake, was sold out. The only other option was something called Black Christmas, playing on an adjacent screen. Neither of us had heard of it. I can’t speak for Laurie, but it scared the crap out of me.

Forty-nine years later, as far as I’m concerned, it remains one of the best, most frightening movies I’ve ever seen (the other would be The Exorcist).

I suggest you watch it. Happy holidays from me, Billy.

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Final thoughts on The Crown

• Caveat: I still have one episode to watch — but deadlines are deadlines.
• Here’s the thing about this series: It’s true that there’s been a drop-off in quality, from the first few seasons to the last few. And yet, individual scenes and episodes from the later seasons at times equal anything we saw in the early years. Case in point: episode 8 this year, titled “Ritz,” which explores (again) the relationship between Elizabeth and Margaret. I got goosebumps watching it. Much as I rarely “laugh out loud,” I don’t typically get goosebumps.
• The Crown has always tested my ability to hold two contradictory ideas in my head. I do believe that Britain’s monarchy is a ridiculous holdover from the past. I also believe that Britain’s monarchy is (probably) an invaluable asset to the country. It’s this tug-of-war about the institution that makes the show so compelling.

“Ritz”

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Who the hell knows what Christmas 2024 will be like? I’ve seen others make this prediction, and I’ve decided to join them: A year from now we won’t know who the president of the United States is. The election results will be tied up in the courts, with both sides refusing to budge.

Won’t that be fun?

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Lex Fridman spent more than two hours chatting with Amazon honcho Jeff Bezos. There was much talk about space travel, much time devoted to Amazon’s customer satisfaction.

But unless I missed it (I did fast-forward a bit during the space conversation), there was no time devoted to employee (dis)satisfaction at Amazon workplaces.

This stuck out to me because I just finished reading On the Clock, in which the author exposes the nightmare of working in an Amazon warehouse. (Granted, the book is five years old; but have Amazon working conditions improved since then?)

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Listen, I don’t want the draft reinstated for anyone.

However … in recent decades, women have enjoyed pretty much every benefit made possible to them by feminism.

Isn’t it about time they experienced some of the downsides of equality to men? 

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Leave the World Behind

Netflix Notes

Leave the World Behind 

Netflix’s new thriller takes a kitchen-sink approach to the apocalypse: Something is knocking out power and threatening everyday life for two families on Long Island, but what is it? Could the culprit be solar flares? Could it be the North Koreans, or the Chinese, or the Iranians? Our own government?

Leave the World Behind explores existential dread in 2023. If there is a fear it can tap into, it does. (It’s also just political enough to aggravate the left and the right, with a few pointed jabs at both sides.)

Mostly, it’s very good at tension building. I recommend it.

May December (pictured above)

This is a (mostly) well-acted, well-produced drama with one glaring flaw: The actor who plays “Joe Yoo,” Charles Melton, cannot act his way out of a paper bag. When the poor guy is called upon to display heavy emotion, well … he tries.

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I’ve been watching Elon Musk interviews on the Lex Fridman podcast. The more I listen to Musk, the more I like him.

I like his acquisition of Twitter, but I suspect he has the same problem that Trump had as president: He has too many snakes working for him, all of them secretly trying to undermine him.

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Gotta love the early stages of artificial intelligence on the Internet. I wanted to know who was going to star in Big Brother Reindeer Games:

I am guessing that Paul Giamatti was quite surprised to see that his agent got him cast on this CBS reality show.

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One reason I stopped watching Fox News was the reaction by on-air talent to the firing of Tucker Carlson — there wasn’t any.

So, kudos to Greg Gutfeld for having the balls to take a none-too-subtle jab at his employer for firing its most popular host, allegedly because advertisers wanted it to happen.

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There seems to be a bit of love for Japan’s new Godzilla movie. See critic blurbs above and below.

I’ll admit I am intrigued. Then again, should we really get excited about “the best Godzilla movie ever!” when the bar for Godzilla movies is, face it, so low?

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TV Updates

Squid Game: The Challenge (reality version)

So many things are wrong with this show, which is an offshoot of Netflix’s monster-hit fictional series:

• The reality version panders to all of our baser instincts. It dangles a multi-million-dollar prize in front of contestants, then asks them to indulge their selfish sides to win the money.
• The challenges and tests are random and frequently unfair.
• The game design is often mean-spirited.

But oh, yes, the damn thing is also gripping and addictive.

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Lady Ballers

From watching the trailer (not the film itself), this Daily Wire production looks like it might be quite the lame, stupid movie.

But I’m happy it exists.

Anything that triggers “snowflakes” on the left has to be a good thing.

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