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I probably will write something about Trump’s attack on Iran. I have lots of opinions, none of which are that interesting or well-informed or important. More later.
The acclaimed Iranian director is interviewed on the Daily Show (note: through a translator). Offers perspective of what it is like to try to make movies in a country that forbids him from doing so. (I haven’t seen JUST AN ACCIDENT, but hope to do so in the next week or so). (YT, 20 minutes)
The 1990s TV comedy show provides alternate endings to Gone with the Wind. (YT)
“Donald Trump said he was going after criminals. He said he was going after people who were dangerous to Americans. Well, how is it that these two young men were good enough to perform at the United States Capitol at the invitation of their congresswoman? They were safe enough to tour the White House. And yet, the Trump administration has them sitting in a prison.” (Congressman Joaquin Castro about the detention of two prize-winning teenage mariachi musicians, whose family had applied lawfully on an asylum claim and were arrested when they were required to do a routine check in with ICE). Souce NYT.
PRO PUBLICA REPORT: In 2025 Trump officials dismantled a program to help the US military avoid civilian casualties. “Dismantling the fledgling harm-reduction effort, defense analysts say, is among several ways the Trump administration has reorganized national security around two principles: more aggression, less accountability.”
Interview with Gary Shandling (2 hours!): Part 1 and Part 2. Here’s an outtake from Judd Apatow. Here’s the official Gary Shandling channel.
QUOTE: “Iran was able to advance its nuclear programme to the point where it was before the 12 Day War last June not because of the JCPOA, but because President Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA,” (Laura Rockwood, disarmament expert and former IAEA official). (From Factcheck.org’s analysis).
I spent a good hour reading and re-reading the Wiki article about JCPOA and reminded just how senseless Trump’s withdrawal was. Actually though I think a lot of Republicans and even some Dems deserve blame for not passing a law approving of it. Charlie Rose had two excellent interviews with Iranians about the Iran nuclear deal (here and here)
Here’s a brilliant staging by Jerome Robbins of the opening number (YT) (“Comedy Tonight”) to a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Roman Forum. Bonus: It’s sung by Jason Alexander). The whole YT channel is replete with classic clips of Broadway numbers, often by the original performers.
Related: Here’s the Hello number from the Book of Mormon (YT)(original cast).
2025 presentation by Mark Z. Jacobson about the hows and why’s of transitioning to Wind Water and Solar (WWS). (YT, 40 minutes long, start at minute 4:30) In one slide, Jacobson estimated based on current trends the year at which each country will achieve a 100% WWS solution. Shockingly, the expected date for USA was the slowest and longest (2148) while China was expected to achieve it in 2048. (These estimates were based on pre-2025 data before Trump even had taken office). Jacobson estimates that the cost for USA to transition 100% to WWS by 2050 was about $6 trillion, but that is dwarfed by the extra cost of Business-As-Usual and the social cost of fossil fuels. The energy-cost-savings payback time to make the WWS transition was 6 years, while the social cost payback (savings resulting from improved mortality from air pollution) was only about 1 year. Startling, fascinating analysis.
BILL MCKIBBEN: “If you’ve been to any of the No Kings protests that have happened so far, you’ll see a lot of people with hairlines like mine, which is to say, scant. People of all kinds are outraged by what’s happening in the country right now, but older people have a particular role to play here…. There have been plenty of presidents in my lifetime I didn’t much like or didn’t agree with politically, but there’s never been any that I thought were fascist, and I think that that’s very clear what we’re now starting to deal with in this country.”
Actually I was at a No Kings protest earlier today.
Today, I heard GOP Senator Lankford say on TV that Iran has been attacking Americans for 47 years, so I asked Gemini AI to compare and contrast the scope and severity of Iranian attacks against USA with American attacks on Iran. Here’s a summary — and the actual verbatim answer here.
When some Trump supporter commented on my photo saying that I was ignoring Sleepy Joe’s inflation (a canard, not important now), I replied: “Wow, over the last decade you have explicitly approved of a lawless lying racist tax cheat as president, and the best you could come up with is that “gee, sometimes inflation can be bad”!? Or do you genuinely believe that there is value in ignoring depravity?” And that was my polite response!
RE: “Executive Orders.” I heard this on an Amicus legal podcast discussion with Dahlia Lithwick: “Margaret Sullivan has a good piece today, just sort of saying, ‘Every time we treat his executive orders as though they’re the law, we fall into the same trap. We report on these as though these things are the law.’ They’re not. I call them letters to Santa. They’re utterly devoid of meaning.” Source (In the same podcast Lithwick and Preet Bharara later ponder this comparison further, agreeing that the “letters to Santa” certainly have real world effects, but these letters to Santa could be called “both law and not law at the same time.” )
Legal scholar and podcaster Dahlia Lithwick said this on a podcast about presidential executive orders: “Margaret Sullivan has a good piece today, just sort of saying, ‘Every time we treat his executive orders as though they’re the law, we fall into the same trap. We report on these as though these things are the law.’ They’re not. I call them letters to Santa. They’re utterly devoid of meaning.”
Happy to see that Virginia passed the National Popular vote compact. As a Texas liberal, I would be elated if enough states voted to adopt it, and I don’t think support for this necessarily cuts along traditional partisan lines. After all, there are conservatives in Illinois and California who don’t have a voice in presidential election. The website advocating it has a comprehensive FAQ addressing many common concerns.
Here’s a profile of an incredible 49 year old artist who died recently
Here’s an incredible profile of 49 year old artist Celeste Dupuy-Spencer who died recently. She made vivid and sometimes haunting paintings with political and religious themes. Her paintings were loud, colorful, stylized and loaded with emotion and symbolism. Here’s a longer portrait.
Will Tavlin does a deep dive into how Netflix’s ascendancy has changed the movie industry. Among the complaints is that screenplay writers have too much dialogue explaining obvious plot points so the watcher who is barely paying attention can follow it.
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