The Grouchy Editor

 

There’s only one presidential candidate on the left who interests me, and that’s Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

I like him. He seems like a decent guy. I need to read more about his positions.

Also, at the fresh, bloom-of-life age of 69, Kennedy is just a babe compared to four-score seniors like Biden and Trump.

 

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I was surfing YouTube and got sucked into a rabbit hole of dating-advice videos. Because that’s what YouTube is good at: sucking you into rabbit holes of trivial timewasters.

Anyway, I stumbled across a dating-site video of a middle-aged male critiquing a Gen Z girl’s post and … it was the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages.

And so, I want to share this three-minute clip:

 

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Dark Winds season two is coming to AMC in a few weeks. It’s a so-so cop show with a more-than-so-so hottie named Jessica Matten (above) in the cast. She plays a Native American cop. This is Matten in a scene from the first season:

 

(Click photos for larger views)

 

That’s our sexist post of the week.

You’re welcome.

 

 

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What the hell is wrong with Lindsey Graham? First, he did everything in his power to sabotage the Republican “red wave” in last year’s midterms by terrifying voters with his extreme anti-abortion stance. Now, he’s doing what he can to promote war with Russia.

South Carolina, why in hell do you keep sending this guy to D.C.?

 

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I don’t know what more to say about Joe Biden and his criminal clan. He is easily the worst thing to happen to this country … and yet he is still in the White House?

 

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QAnon!

 

 

I’ve been reading about this movement/ideology/whatever for years, and yet I still don’t understand it.

Here’s what I do understand: When the mainstream media, increasingly in the business of lying to the public, decries QAnon as a nest of liars, and when far-fetched “conspiracy theories” of the past continually turn out to be true, well … I’m not so quick to judge.

 

Which brings me to this week’s cultural battleground, the movie Sound of Freedom:

 

 

Great point, Charles from Brooklyn. Why should I bother to exercise my own critical thinking and judgment about anything when I can just rely on you?

 

 

 

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Damned if you do …

 

 

Damned if you don’t 

 

 

© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

 

The Revenge of Donald Trump 

 

 

 

 

Settle down, liberals. To quote your beloved Barack Obama, “elections have consequences.”

 

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Democrats keep voting for these people. Is it any wonder we call you “libtards”?

 

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TV Tidbits

 

 

Based on a True Story —

Cons: It’s a comic mystery set in Southern California. Must every show be set in Southern California?

The characters are universally stupid and/or spoiled liberals. Everyone is doing illegal drugs and/or involved in adulterous affairs. And yet, we are asked to relate to them.

Pros: It looks very nice, and Kaley Cuoco is a fine comic actress.

 

 

Sick —

Co-written by Kevin Williamson (Scream), the first half of the movie has the makings of a modern horror classic. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the second half, in which the good guys and the bad guys suddenly assume superhero-like physical powers. In other words, a smart thriller goes stupid.

 

NewsNation —

I thought I’d give it a shot, but then I noticed that Chris Cuomo hosts a primetime show. Nah … you can’t do that.

 

Newsmax —

The hosts remind me of Republican politicians. They say all the (angry) right things, but they don’t seem to have any actual clout.

 

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I don’t have a bucket list, but if I did, it would include a trip to Mont-Saint-Michel in France:

 

 

It reminds me of the abbey in The Name of the Rose — on steroids.

 

© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

Stars on Mars

 

Clearly, there is something wrong with me between the ears.

 

You can make a strong argument that all reality shows are stupid and fake — some more than others.

For some inexplicable reason, I am drawn to the dumbest of the dumb, the fakest of the fake reality shows. For example, I recently watched the reboot of The Surreal Life and enjoyed it. Now I am hooked on an even sillier reality show, Stars on Mars.

Stars was filmed in the Australian desert, where 12 celebrities are stranded in a fake habitat on landscape meant to resemble Mars. The “stars” are Marshawn Lynch, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Lance Armstrong, Natasha Leggero, Adam Rippon, Tallulah Willis, Tinashe, Richard Sherman, Ronda Rousey, Tom Schwartz, Ariel Winter, and Porsha Williams. Yeah, I don’t know half of them, either.

Everything is obviously staged. I’ve seen the first three episodes and plan to watch the rest.

I think I enjoy this type of nonsense largely because of the casting. It’s basically the odd couple — times six. William Shatner hosts and mocks a dozen bottom-feeding celebs who compete in pretend challenges on pretend Mars. Some of these people seem to take things very seriously. As if their careers depend on it — which might be the case.

It is all very entertaining.

I am clearly not right in the head.

 

 

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Sure does look to me like Trump’s guilty … of being a blowhard.

Sure does look to me like Biden’s guilty … of treason.

Of the two offenses, which do you think should be punishable by prison time?

 

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This must be what the critics mean when they say, “America is no longer a serious country.”

 

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Not sure if this is really a “tragedy” or something unfortunate that happened. Aside from the 19-year-old with a foolish father, it’s hard to imagine a less-sympathetic bunch of victims.

 

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So now we are expected to choose, I guess, between three egomaniacal jerks — Putin, Zelenskyy, and the latest contender, a scary-looking dude named Prigozhin.

You go first.

 

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Sure, why not? It’s not like we have any other uses for $6 billion.

 

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I can’t prove it because I don’t have any clout, but I suspect that — Elon Musk or no Elon Musk — I am being “shadow banned” on Twitter.

My Twitter engagements — likes, retweets, links to this site — although never all that impressive, are way down from what they used to be.

My politics haven’t changed. I suspect some closet liberal at Twitter doesn’t like me.

 

© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

 

The Squid Game Effect

 

 

I’ve watched the first two episodes of the latest season of Black Mirror (above), and I think … it’s a good show. That’s disappointing.

I say that because Black Mirror used to be a great show.

The problem, methinks, has its genesis in creator Charlie Brooker’s decision in 2016 to leave his British roots and find a new home with Netflix. In other words, Brooker’s Twilight Zone for the 2010s “went Hollywood.”

I think of this trend as “The Squid Game Effect.” Every country wants its own monster hit on Netflix, and so they favor global appeal over local flavor. In doing so, their shows lose charm and distinction.

Ten years ago, I’d watch something on Netflix from Argentina or France or South Korea and I’d love it. There were always parts of these shows that I could not understand, not because of the subtitles but because of my ignorance of foreign culture (this often involved scenes about local laws; why isn’t he allowed to call a lawyer?). But that was OK, because I was learning something new.

Now every country wants its own version of Money Heist. Something generic that everyone everywhere can relate to, all at the same time.

Maybe my attitude makes me a snob, or an anti-globalist. I don’t care. I miss the surprises and idiosyncracies of the old shows. And Black Mirror was better when it was strictly a product of Great Britain.

 

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At this point, I don’t care anymore. It’s my team against your team, and your team is full of shit.

 

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Speaking of teams … if you are a fan who supports pro baseball in general or the Dodgers specifically, you aren’t “part of the problem.” You are the problem.

 

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More of the talent at Fox News needs to follow Tucker Carlson’s lead and walk out the network door (OK, Carlson was shown the door; whatever).

It’s not as if these talking heads, many of them millionaires, are going to wind up living in a cardboard box beneath the freeway.

Show some balls and move to Newsmax or Timcast or Twitter or wherever. Either that or initiate a revolt at the Murdoch channel.

 

**

 

 

“Lazy fucking grifters” — has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

 

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Someday, after he’s gone, we’ll find out just how dependent Stephen King was on good editors.

Especially grouchy editors.

 

© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

 

Culture Wars Victory Tally:

 

Bud Light, Target, Twitter — Red States Winning

Everything Else — Blue States Winning

 

Heavy sigh. This shit is going to go on for years.

 

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UFOs

 

Is this flying-saucer stuff some kind of orchestrated distraction so that we don’t pay more attention to the crap taking place in politics?

If it’s not just a distraction, then What The Fuck Is It?

 

Perhaps the visitors from another world are just looking for someplace new to live.

With New York Mayor Eric Adams suggesting that New Yorkers find room for illegal aliens in their homes, maybe the rest of us should think about housing the space aliens in our spare bedrooms. Just a thought.

 

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Toronto pitcher Anthony Bass

 

If you are a celebrity and simply must weigh in with your political opinions, the worst thing you can do is waffle.

Bass is learning the hard way that trying to appease both sides will only make everyone dislike you.

 

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Cheesecake

 

If The New York Post persists in publishing stories like this one, about a cop who discovered that sex sells, then we feel duty-bound to publish at least one picture of her.

Even if, as in this shot, her butt looks enormous.

 

**

 

At this point, I don’t much care if Trump is “guilty” or “not guilty” of the charges in the indictments against him. Until Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, et al. are also facing charges, to me it’s all just election interference from the authoritarian left.

 

© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

 

 

I’ve felt for a long time that Donald Trump’s fatal flaw is a stubborn reluctance to recognize the traitors in his own orbit, the backstabbers who insinuate themselves into his inner circle. These modern-day Bruti* include most Republicans in D.C. — swamp creatures like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Mike Pence — and bureaucrats in his own administration, especially in the intelligence agencies.

And why on Earth does Trump persist in granting interviews to obvious (to most of us) foes like The New York Times? Does he really believe he can sway them to his way of thinking? Is the liberal media Trump’s equivalent of Citizen Kane’s “Rosebud,” something he once loved but lost a long time ago?

Trump is like a little boy who believes that if he’s nice to the schoolyard bully, the mean kid will eventually stop stealing his lunch. Not gonna happen.

Trump can trust a few people, like son Don Jr.

Ivanka and Jared? Not so much.

 

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Elon Musk continues to discover the same type of backstabbing at Twitter that Trump had in office. Thankfully, unlike Trump, once Musk learns the truth about the weasels, he stabs them before they can stab him.

 

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I love me some LandumC goes there on YouTube. The mysterious “LandumC” is a dude who posts short videos about old movies and TV shows, mostly from the 1960s-‘70s. The videos are entertaining, informative and, if you’re a geezer like me, nostalgic.

But LandumC goes a bit overboard in the thumbnails promoting his channel. He has discovered that sex = hits and is carrying this marketing ploy to the extreme. For example, take a look at this thumbnail/heading for the cop show Mannix: **

 

 

If you watch the video, you learn that the heading refers to Lucille Ball’s production company pleading with CBS to keep Mannix on the air — and not to sexual hanky-panky involving the actors in this picture.

Be honest (unlike LandumC): Are you thinking about production companies when you read that headline? 

 

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No idea who “Peach” is, but she’s got the right idea.

 

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Oops, he did it again

 

 

So let me get this straight. Biden falls on his scrawny ass — again — but we’re not supposed to laugh because he’s old and if we do, then we are “mean.”

Considering that this sick fuck is doing his best to tear down the country, and if there was any real justice he’d be sitting in a prison cell … getting laughed at for repeatedly humiliating yourself in public is the very mildest form of punishment.

 

**

 

Asterisks!

 

• * You say “Brutuses,” I say “Bruti.” They both seem to be acceptable. Look it up.

 

• ** Last week we received a comment from a reader who was unhappy that we haven’t posted enough gratuitous nudity of late. In watching the above Mannix video, we noticed a lovely lass with an amazing ass. Hence, we went down the Francine York rabbit hole. Turns out the actress is from a small town in our home state. Please enjoy this week’s gratuitous nudity, featuring the most famous of Aurora’s areolae:

 

 

Joe Mannix checking out Francine

 

 

George Peppard enjoying Francine in Cannon for Cordoba

 

 

(Click on pics for a larger view)

 

© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)

 

This Week on “Culture Wars”

 

 

To Boycott, or Not to Boycott

 

Bud Light was an easy boycott for me. Could have something to do with the fact that I quit drinking 14 years ago.

 

Target is also an easy boycott. I needed a new coffeemaker, something I might have purchased at Target two weeks ago. Yesterday I got one at my grocery store, instead.

 

 

Who needs fucking Bud Light? Who needs fucking Target?

 

*

 

 

I stopped watching Fox News a couple weeks ago. I’ve been getting my news fix from Newsmax, Tim Pool, YouTube and Twitter.

 

My advice: If you can’t bring yourself to boycott Budweiser, Target, Fox News, Disney, or professional sports, at least do the next best thing and cut back.

 

*

 

 

Mayors of sanctuary cities whining about immigrants and demanding taxpayer relief? Fuck them.

They’re getting what they asked for.

 

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Reparations that turn your black neighbors into instant millionaires — at your taxpaying-expense? The idea would have appealed to Charles Manson, who dreamed of instigating a race war.

 

*

 

 

Henry Kissinger still in the news at age 100? More evidence that only the good die young.

 

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Wish I had a better handle on who would do better in the general election, Trump or DeSantis.

I need a damn crystal ball.

 

*

 

Now that anyone who displeases the left is a racist — thinking of you, bicycle lady — does the word no longer have meaning?

 

*

 

 

FUBAR on Netflix: The most striking thing about the show, to me, is Arnold’s face.

Aging stars need to accept that wrinkles look much better on them than the freak-show number that plastic surgery does.

 

*

 

My ancestors lived in a village called Sunndalsora, located in central Norway.

I learned from this video that, during the Viking Age, the toughest Vikings in Scandinavia came from Norway. Not Sweden, not Denmark — Norway.

Within Norway, the toughest of the tough Vikings were from central Norway. You guessed it, the same region that includes Sunndalsora.

 

So don’t fuck with me. If you do, I might feel compelled to rape and pillage.

 

 

© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)