State of the Discussion

A few years ago, we went to the movie theater to see a Metropolitan Opera simulcast of Porgy and Bess. I don't remember how many cameras were used, but the sound was great. And I got to eat some popcorn.

Before his minions make the attempt. Plausible deniability, in the sense of "Well, if I had still been there it would have all gone smoothly."

No, that has to wait until 2028. It's the pattern. Republicans get into office by yelling that government is f****d up, spend their time proving it, and leaving the Democrats with an agenda hobbled by the need to make massive repairs.

Date Nite With Maribou was "Wicked". I'd never seen it, never seen the musical, never heard the soundtrack.

It was really good. I told Maribou that we could see Part II in the theater when it came out.

Seriously, if you like musicals/Oz at all, you should check this one out. It's on Peacock.

I don't see even the slightest connection to George Floyd. All reviews say the movie is a trainwreck.

The only hint of a reprieve is Zegler's singing.

I've seen Zegler's red carpet interview and it's more cringy-woke and dissing-the-original than is normally shown.

To be fair, faict "cringy-woke" was the Disney line at the time. For example none of the finalists for the part of Snow White were White.

I've also seen Zegler openly admit that she's a narcissist (that's since my last post).

Wiki claims that Zegler has supported Palestine since 2021 and that predates her involvement in Snow White by a few months.

That high level producer flying out to talk to Zegler happened. That's amazing when you think about it, apparently a phone call or lesser person wouldn't do (or more likely, didn't work). It's like the CEO flying over to talk to you about your bad behavior.

Narcissists really don't like being told they're wrong, they don't change their behavior, and they don't accept responsibility for their behavior.

I expect Miss Zegler will find it harder to get employment in these expensive shows. Whoever hires her needs to expect her to create lots of personal drama to overshadow the film.

I get to thinking "I need to get a cat" (because I am Exceptionally Alone and some evenings, the Horrors come for me) but then I think about them getting into all the stuff I have (I have a lot of stuff) and that either I have to get rid of like 3/4 of my stuff, or else they'd wreck so many thngs/get themselves trapped somewhere behind a storage box in a closet and I might have to try to rescue them.

and then a colleague brings in the absolutely adorable little orangeboy emotional support cat she has and I get to hang out with him. And he makes me feel better emotionally but I pay for it in allergies. So maybe no cat for me :(

but the little cat really is adorable, and for an orange and white boy he is surprisingly well behaved.

My plans this weekend are to get out of town, it's been an exceptionally long week, culminating with the Zoom meeting from (heck) about some new software coming in - scheduled for 1pm on a Friday
Normally in a week I can go home 2 days (Th/F) for lunch because I don't have an afternoon lab, this week, because of Meetings, I have had to eat a Sad Desk Lunch every day, so I feel like I deserve a treat.

Also, hopefully, Michaael's Framing has the painting (which I did myself) that I took in over a month ago done. They never called to say it was. They told me it would be done in 2 weeks. So I'm just going to go there; calling them never gets me a call back (big box stores, death of customer service). I am also going to the yarn shop despite not really needing anything (but fearing that tariffs will cut off the supply or render unaffordable any yarn from Europe, which is most of the nice yarn these days). And to Albertson's. I hadn't shopped at the Albertson's in that town for a literal decade because it had been kind of a dump, but about a month ago I happened in there and they had renovated. and it's REALLY nice now, nicer than any other grocery store I have access to (so: about as nice as a bottom-of-the-mid-range grocery for people in a more populous area) and I want to think about what I will need in the near future as "quick foods" and I also want to stock up on nonperishables - again, because inflation and such

yes that includes tp

Because Gal Gadot was insufficiently supportive of Zegler in the days that followed the disastrous red carpet interview that kicked more or less everything off.

Gal Gadot, as awful an actress as she is, knows which side her bread is buttered on and so, when she talks about the movie, she talks about her kids and her daughter making an "evil queen" joke and the joys of seeing a movie with her children and something that she hopes all families will enjoy.

"Is it because she's Israeli?"
No... well, kind of. It's because she was insufficiently supportive and the best way to strike back is to make a statement like "Free Palestine" that says "screw you" to Gal Gadot without even *MENTIONING* Gal Gadot.

People who know, will know.

If so, why doesn’t Zegler like that she’s Israeli?

Zegler doesn't *CARE* that she's Israeli.
The fact that she's Israeli provides surface area where the attack may be made.
Nothing more than that.

Or is saying “screw you” to Gadot part of the signaling?

It's the point. Well, Gadot and the producer.

You've never encountered something like this? Never seen it in your five-plus decades on God's green earth? Never saw it in the church? Never saw it in the socialist reading circles? You've never even once seen a game like this one?

I find that preposterous to the point where I'm going to need you to lie to my face about it before I drop it... and I assume you have too much self-respect to lie. So my expectation is something like a pivot to an attack or a hard change of the subject in order to avoid saying "of freaking course I know what the goddamn game is but that doesn't make Palestine a cause not worth supporting!"

Huh. Maybe that'd be the best play. "This is about *PALESTINE*. Not some privileged theater kid! How dare you! This is a *GENOCIDE*!"

This reminds me of something I've been wondering: What comes after Trump?

After Trump's first term, in which he was largely a bungling and ineffective president, my big worry was that what would come next would be a more competent far right candidate, like say DeSantis or Vance, and they would much more effectively implement a far right agenda. I've since come to realize that, at least to this point, all of the other far right candidates the Republican Party has put forward, particularly Vance and DeSantis, have the charisma of a rotting tree stump. This is important, because it's really difficult to implement a far right agenda with the charisma of a tree stump. You really need a charismatic strongman to be that authoritarian.

And of course, now I know the real threat was a Trump administration populated entirely by far right true believers and Trump sycophants, all of whom had 4 years to coach up Trump and plan their strategy, with Musk thrown in as an extra wild card. But what comes after Trump after this term? I mean, a lot of damage will have been done, but how does the MAGA movement, and the Republican Party it's completely taken over, maintain this without a cult of personality to lead it?

Obviously there are other relevant questions, like what happens to a Democratic Party that's shown itself to be utterly worthless in the face of everything that's happening, and that currently has favorability ratings in the low 30s? Is there still a Constitutional order in 4 years? To what extent will state Republicans have so thoroughly undermined the integrity of elections that Dems can't win elections in Red States anyway? Etc. But mostly I just wonder, who takes over from Trump, and how unpopular will that person have to be, as they inevitably will be unpopular, for this shi*t to fall apart?

The thing is, there was not one German far-right movements. There were multiple ones. Here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Revolution#Currents

I will try to summarized a very complicated thing I barely understand.

There were the Young Conservatives, which seemed to just be...anti-modernism in the sense they were anti-democratic and pro-authoritarianism. Often very corporatism, often harken back to Divine Right. Think Peter Thiel and all the other techbros that seem very sure the best system of government is one where someone Really Smart is eternally in charge.

There were National Revolutionaries, who embraced modernity and just wanted a revolution for some reason, after which they were sure we'd be happy people with modern technology but simple lives. These guys eventually argued _against_ the Na.zis. There's not really an analog here. Honestly, these guys do not sound too far from modern 'normal' conservatives except they were slightly anti-capitalist.

And there was the group I focused on, the Völkisch, who came up with the base-level horrific part of Na.zi ideology, the idea that German blood belonged to German land, and vis versa, and everyone was not 'volk' was the problem. And part of volk was an understanding of gender roles.

But, anyway, to the question: The far-right didn't really care about queer people in the 1920s. They were much more into ultra-nationalism and nativism.

No one actually cared about them. Yes, there were laws against them, laws that at various times and places were implemented or ignored, but no one actually _cared_. Berlin was incredibly gay. You want to be gay in some small German town...well, people would probably pretty strongly suggest you move to Berlin.

I can't find any real information about how the rest of the German right felt about this, I suspect logically the Young Conservatives saw that as part of the modernity they despised, but I don't think they really did anything.

And same with the rest of the world, who were increasingly seeing queer people as an oddity, not a threat. The acceptance of gay people isn't a slope, it's a cycle. Indeed, the entire cycle would cycle, during the Great Depression, going back to presenting queer people as dangerous.

The Völkisch were _out of cycle_. Like I said, they were a reactionary movement, at least partially in reaction to social rules about gender loosening, which had just sorta hit Germany at the end of WWI.

The exact same reactionary movement that, once integrated into Na.zism, resulted death camps.

Like, there's a hypothetical Germany without the Völkisch, where the left falls to infighting and ultranationalism still takes over and they go to war again because of their war debts, but they _aren't_ genocidal lunatics. The Völkisch are the thing that makes fascism _fascism_, and not just general totalitarianism.

Heh, my "enjoyment" of bowling is so marginal it'd easily tip it into a "nope, never wanna do it no matter how good the company is" mindset.

The options before auto-setters:

1. Rent a pin boy
2. Do it yourself

You'd only have to do it yourself for two frames before giving the pin boy a dime.

I mean, I'm sure she's not sitting around worrying about Gaza 24/7, but other than you just know it when you see it, why do you think she doesn't sincerely believe that Gaza should be free? Because she's a celebrity? Because she's young? I'm confused. Personally, I know nothing about her, and I don't think I've seen her in a movie (I'll catch Snow White when it hits Disney Plus), but what I see here is a person saying something that could affect her career prospects, and obviously this particular movie's success, and I respect that.