Since Nobody Asked Me

I've been pretty quiet about the Dem primaries.  I supported Warren and Harris and, well, I'm really stumped as to why the former did so poorly in New Hampshire of all places.

So of course, now it's looking like Bernie.

I'm not ashamed to say I lost some friends in 2016 when my support of (and actual vote for) Killary made me A Literal Enemy of Humanity in the eyes of the B-Bros.

I guess I just feel a little helpless about the whole thing.  Four more years of Trump will see an ultra-right wing Supreme Court.  Roe will be overturned.  Hell, gay marriage might be overturned.  The earth will continue to burn.  Shitty little despots in Russia and Turkey and Hungary will continue to do as they will, all with Trump's approval.  North Korea will be even more nuclear capable than it is already.  Trump will have a bad day on Twitter and start a war with Iran just for the hell of it.

The point being, I don't fucking know what's going to happen come November and neither do you.  Whoever wins the Dem nomination will have my vote, except for Bloomberg who is a Republican.

I'm honestly shocked that Biden faded as quickly as he did.  He would have been a disaster, obviously, but I'm not convinced Bernie won't be either.

I have zero excitement for Buttigieg.  He has the calculated expertise and triangulation of Obama but none of the charm and certainly no ability to excite non-white voters.  I don't see how he outperforms Hillary, basically.

That's all I got.  All of this is dreadful and anxiety-inducing and it can't end soon enough.

"other countries have interior lives"

Alex Pareene doesn't hold back -- America is the first true "Psychopath Nation":

"But something grimmer has to explain the actions of the people responsible for devising and carrying out our foreign policy—in Congress, in dubiously funded think tanks, at the Pentagon, and on the National Security Council. It is not simple hypocrisy to talk of peace and democracy while knocking over democratically elected governments and propping up friendly authoritarian states. It is a deeper inability to conceive of people in other countries as fully real. Without a rival superpower to help us justify our actions, the way we conduct business abroad has gone from 'ironic,' to use Niebuhr’s diagnosis, to psychopathic. America is perhaps the first psychopath nation: It does not act as if it has considered that other countries have interior lives.

It is perhaps natural for an imperial state to behave as if other countries do not have the right to respond to its provocations, but the United States takes this absurd notion one step further: Our leaders not only fail to consider how other state actors might respond; they seem to be unable to predict how other state actors might respond."

I'm not in the mood for Google-fu, but I remember way back during the initial invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan when a Bush spokeswoman on CNN was congratulating her boss for recognizing "Hey, Iraqis and Afghans have children just like we do!"

I'll never forget the look of completely unearned accomplishment on her smug, ugly face.  We bomb the shit out of people whose lives were already unimaginably miserable but don't forget, we simultaneously recognize them as humans too!  Even the dead babies!

A Few Small Thoughts On Parasite

To say a little more about Parasite's victory, beyond the fact that it's a non-English film, it's truly shocking to me that the Academy has rewarded something that is so unavoidably about class conflict.  The typical move (and this comes to race as well) is to reward films that meekly split the difference -- "Sure, you're poor and I'm rich, but deep down we're the same!"  (Insert "you're black and I'm white," "you're gay and I'm straight," rinse and repeat.)

The point is, Hollywood almost never recognizes race and class conflict as deeply structural, embedded, and often invisible.  Race and class and gender politics are always just subjective annoyances, something you can just brush away with healthy doses of fond-feeling and gumption.  (A white guy being "saved" by a non-white guy also helps.)

So I guess I'm saying saying nice things about the Academy.  That's also shocking.

TL,DR:  Is 2020 the year the Academy stops ignoring films just because they confront class and race stuff in serious, structural, adult terms?  Or does it go back to being meaningless in 2021 when the next Green Book or Crash comes along?

Congrats to Bong Joon-ho!

If it's not clear, I loved Parasite.

Really didn't care for Snowpiercer though, which had a lot of similar class struggle allegory.#discuss

— 2020 Is Already Bullshit, James (@wetcasements) February 10, 2020

Divine Doggos

"Daegu Pet Beauty School"

Daegu, South Korea.

Just A Thought

Hey, you know how the Iowa caucuses are outdated bullshit on so many levels?

So is the State of the Union! Cancel it as well!

— 2020 Is Already Bullshit, James (@wetcasements) February 5, 2020

Stay Safe!

It's actually a doggo sculpture, not a real doggo.

This little guy along Kim Gwang-seok street is letting us all know we should be careful about the corona-virus.  Wear a mask!  Wash your hands!

Winner Winner!

Here's my friend, sam-gya-tang!  It's a small, whole boiled chicken stuffed with rice and jujubes, and prepared in a ginseng infused broth.

Since last week was the final one until March for teaching adults, I got a ton of free lunches and dinners.

Surprisingly to me, this soup is traditionally eaten in the summer to "restore energy" but I guess it's fine in winter as well.

And if you're doing it right, a shot of ginseng infused liquor makes it all go down smoothly.

"running in boxes like rats"

"'It was several years later when I next saw him; you'll know what year I mean.  I was still a lawyer, older and slouchier and tubbier than ever.  That was life in the old time -- the years in the boxes took it out of you fast.'  At that point Tom looked at me, as if to make sure I was listening.  'It was a stupid life really, and that's why I can't see it when people talk about fighting to get back to that.  People back then struggled at jobs in boxes, and they spent their whole lives running in boxes like rats.  I was doing it myself, and it made no sense.'"

-- Kim Stanley Robinson, The Wild Shore

RIP Andy Gill

Gang of Four live, Zagreb '81

They looked as good as they sounded.

Andy Gill knew what a Stratocaster was capable of (a uniquely biting treble) and pushed it to its sonic limits.  Beyond that, I don't think the rhythm section gets enough credit -- it was positively disco at times, but still somehow acidic.

That was the point, of course.

"Midwestern Values"

Fuck Iowa.

That's all I got.