I finished this over the weekend. That is not my review below but it’s a fair shot at it. Moving on to “Landslide” now. Billed as “The final day of the Trump Presidency” Washington Post reporters Leonnig and Rucker return (after A Very Stable Genius) with a comprehensive if stilted rundown of the tweetstorms, turf wars, denialism, and desperation that roiled the Trump administration from January 2020 to January 2021. It’s a sweeping study of bureaucratic dysfunction caused by a “poisonous, disloyal atmosphere” that engulfed the White House and federal agencies tasked with dealing with Covid-19, protests over police brutality, and the transfer of power to a Biden administration. Among the plethora of galling anecdotes, Leonnig and Rucker reveal that Trump expected the FDA to approve remdesivir as a Covid-19 treatment because Oracle founder Larry Ellison said it worked, that chief of staff Mark Meadows considered Anthony Fauci a “fearmonger” and blocked his TV appearances, and that Rudy Giuliani’s advice to Trump on election night was to “just say we won.” Unfortunately, the book’s moment-by-moment accumulation of detail grows dull at times, and the desire of Leonnig and Rucker’s largely anonymous sources to shift blame and preserve their own reputations makes it hard to parse what actually happened during controversial events such as the violent removal of protestors from Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square for a Trump photo op. This deeply sourced first draft of history is long on access but short on definitive insights. (July)
Spent this last week on the couch and hammock at the cottage reading this series of essays/reviews about a variety of diverse concepts, events and items of the human era. Kinda the perfect thing for procrastinating building a fire while listening to young kids run around playing baseball in a forest. I give it four and a half stars.
https://ia803103.us.archive.org/15/items/TheRapeOfTheMind1961/1961 - Rape of the Mind - Joost Meerloo.pdf
Reading this as a followup to ‘I Alone Can Fix It’ totally different pace as he goes into the mindset of what Trumps sycophants do and feel behind his back. Nice bit of insider sleaze. The comments below work well describing the book and the author’s style.
These are really good too. Will help most people deprogram Ex Microsoft employee, before it was a popular term for cartoons, or the go to tool of Russian trolls
The Netflix series, Squid Games, isn't at all typical of what I would recommend, but I definitely recommend it (for mature audiences only). It is pretty profound on several different levels, despite the violence and it being so gory -- things which would typically turn me off and which, in the past, made me question the popularity of even highly acclaimed Quentin Tarantino films. Overall, even though on a few (in the scheme of things, minor) points, one might find faults and some flaws with the show, after spending the whole day watching the entire 9 part/hour series, I feel a bit more indebted to South Korea than I did in the past (notwithstanding all the Korean gadgets and appliances and a good bit of Korean series and movies I have watched). p.s. Another movie I would recommend is the Experimenter for some of the social research regarding authority, conformity (and a few other things) one is exposed to in a watchable format, although I am generally not a fan of movies that try to examine every, so-called "ethical", issue by reference to the Holocaust. (The 1997, comedy/drama, Life is Beautiful, nonetheless, remains one of my all time favorites).
I’m reading Daniel Silva’s latest The Cellist A fictional yet thinly disguised story of how Russia’s goal is to destabilize the west while accumulating an amazing amount of money for Putin’s (Name change here) favourite oligarchs. While backing right wing extremists In western governments. For Silva fans it moves right along. The book is stand alone but really helps if you know his past books.
I watched "Don't Look Up" on Netflix last night. Hysterical. I got some "Wag the Dog" vibes -- it does great job of channeling the incompetence and criminality of the Trump Administration with a little of the annoying hubris of Elon Musk thrown in. Check it out.
Agreed. Got a good chuckle out of it. They did a good job of the fake vilification of the Lawrence character as well.
All of the comedy and satire aside, it did make me think about what I'd do if faced with the same situation. I like the way they ended it -- for the Dr. Mindy character, et al.
Yup. I was thinking about that, too. Sometimes I wonder if I would just say "******** it" and particpiate in the anarchy. Other times I think I'd try to gather up my students, or maybe try to connect with a specific one of my exes. Agreed. Kinda surreal.
I watched this last night myself. While my need and desire for comedy has lessened in these past few years, you could do worse than this movie.
Not much in this thread for a while. If you’re into computers, Russian misinformation and bots. Then Britain’s response to a cyber attack and consequences. Then this “The Undeclared War” should entertain you. A six part TV series now on Peacock. I’m into episode 3 and enjoying it. Critical response[edit] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 11 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10.[6] Controversy[edit] The show's adverts were inspired by the panic-provoking 1938 radio adaption of The War of the Worlds, and subject to complaints to the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom due to the adverts being broadcast as if they were live news broadcasts.[7] Oops!
I enjoyed this. Some clever stuff, I liked they way show her way of problem solving computer problems. Abrupt end
I recommended Ventureland's FIFA: Uncovered, not mainly but partly because I'm in it; it's on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/us/title/80221113?s=a&trkid=13747225&t=cp&vlang=en&clip=81642059
If you're interested in what Dick and Jane, sans Spot are up to....... This time around, though, our straitlaced protagonists are venturing into some rather dark, twisted, and bawdy places. The images are perfectly rendered in warm, nostalgic shades, and the tone of the text is sweet and simple, but the content leans toward sex, drugs, and violence, with healthy doses of innuendo.