Daily Archives: April 29, 2023

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Ariela Barer in How to Blow Up a Pipeline.

Even before I saw this movie, I thought it had a good chance of being the film of the year. Of the decade, even. I wondered if this might even feel like the first movie of the 21st century, zeitgeist-wise. Like, in 2099, when we start looking back at what the past hundred years had been about, the ideas that had shaped it, will historians and culture-watchers point to this movie and say, This is where things really kicked into gear?

I think this is entirely plausible. I also hate that it requires a shit-ton of optimism to even suggest that. And now that Ive seen the movie, I believe my pre-screening suppositions remain credible.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Its an incendiary title for an incendiary film. Its a little bit like a horror flick, in that its about a varied group of young people who get together and find themselves in a dangerous situation in which they might be killed. The situation is both of their making and not of their making. The nice green planet theyre living on, with its temperate climate and drinkable water and breathable atmosphere, is being trashed beyond all recognition by people older and more powerful than they are. So they decide to express their displeasure with their environmental inheritance being destroyed in the only way left to them: by fucking shit up, violently.

The planet is Earth, of course, in the here and now. I dont mean to suggest that the film pretends to be science fiction or that it withholds this information. It doesnt. It starts off feeling like a low-key drama about disaffected young people the likes of which weve seen plenty before, only not with the stakes this high. I am trying to impart to my global-warming-denying, or just plain inexcusably fucking complacent, Gen X peers and those older than us that, in many ways that really matter, we are bequeathing to future generations including those already alive, like the characters in this movie a planet that is already intrinsically alien to human life as it has existed since we evolved into something like our current form.

This was inspired by the 2021 book of the same name by Andreas Malm, which is not a novel but a nonfiction manifesto about how the time for nice gentle placid protest has passed, and now its time to violently let the fossil-fuel industry know that their vampire-capitalist bullshit is no longer welcome. So all the characters here are invented for the film, played by a deliciously diverse array of fab young actors: Ariela Barer (who also co-wrote the script), Forrest Goodluck; Jayme Lawson, Sasha Lane, Marcus Scribner. Beautifully, not a lot of infodumping is going on in this movie we are mostly left to figure it out but we can see that for the most part, these are young people from nonwhite backgrounds, some seemingly indigenous, who have not been served well by the supposed American dream. (The oil pipeline they are planning to blow up is in Texas.) Theres one character, a rancher played by Jake Weary, who is white, about whom it might be easy to assume that he is a Republican and maybe he is! though nothing is mentioned on this matter that I can recall but even he is unhappy with the oil company that wants to despoil his land with the pipeline These Kids Today are working together to blow up.

So, like, when carbon crimes hit home, there is little difference between left and right. And carbon crimes are hitting home everywhere now.

Pipeline is a heist drama, and an incredibly tense and intense one. But this is a movie that transcends mere entertainment, even while it is incredibly entertaining. It is about young people who are enormously desperate, and who have nothing to lose, because their elders have specifically engineered a cultural and physical environment that makes them desperate and that has left them no other options. We dont have time for divestment, one kid says. We need to show how vulnerable the oil industry is, another kid says.

I say kid, but only because Im old and theyre young. They are adults who fully comprehend the future they are facing. This is a movie about how nihilism is optimism. Are they gonna blow themselves up in the process of manufacturing their own improvised explosives, one kid wonders? I dont really care, another says with a resigned shrug. They have no other choice. Nihilism is optimism now.

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Review: In How to Blow Up a Pipeline, nihilism is optimism - Detroit Metro Times

Australian horror is known for its gore and overall nihilism. Similar to films in the New French Extremity, contemporary Australian horror is marked with a certain kind of meanness where the human body is ripped apart not by the supernatural, but by other human beings. Think of films like Wolf Creek, The Loved Ones, Hounds of Love, and The Nightingale. Sam Curtain is delivering another entry into this particularly disgusting subgenre, aptly titled Beaten To Death. And boy, does that title really say it all. Its a 90-minute excruciating journey where a man (Thomas Roach) goes through perhaps the worst series of events imaginable. This is extreme horror at its best/worst, depending on where you fall in your enjoyment of the subgenre.

The film opens on a bloody scene where the man, Jack, is being, well, beaten to death by another man (Justan Wagner) while a woman lies face down in the corner. Curtain immediately throws us into the wringer with absolutely no warm-up period. He tells us from the jump that this is not going to be a pleasant experience and he doesnt want it to be. While Jack is able to barely escape the beating, he discovers the woman, revealed to be his wife (Nicole Tudor), is dead. And this is just the beginning!

As he runs to find help, he meets neighbor Ned (David Tracy). Thinking hes found salvation, Jack breathes a sigh of relief. But, this is a movie called Beaten To Death and this is only the beginning. Lets just say Ned has other plans for our poor, already-pummeled protagonist. Its the perfect extreme horror twist that digs deep into the horrors that human beings are capable of. Curtain then begins to weave flashbacks with the present to explain how Jack got here, only deepening this tale of misery and the series of poor decisions that brought Jack to this fate.

Splitting the timelines is a smart way to help pad a runtime thats dominated by one man crawling through the Australian Outback while bleeding out and screaming in pain. However, this split does muddle the story a bit despite their attempts to provide more context. It slows the pacing of a film that, while short, could benefit from a shorter runtime. And thats not just because watching one man endure essentially non-stop mental and physical torture for that long is an endurance test. The violence and suffering become repetitive and lose their impact, making parts of Beaten To Death drag.

But no matter whats happening to him, Roach is giving it his all. And as hes on screen for almost the entire runtime, acting in this film seems to be its own kind of torture. Roach is constantly screaming, whimpering, pleading, and acting through enduring the worst pain imaginable, which is no small feat. Its an incredible performance and you almost feel bad for Roach as much as you respect his dedication to playing a man who has been, in fact, beaten to death.

Curtain and co-writer Benjamin Jung-Clarke truly deliver a piece of disturbing extreme horror. Fans of the subgenre will be pleased with the abjection and nihilism on display, but if gore isnt your thing, you wont get much out of Beaten To Death. Ultimately, the film delivers on its titles promise and gives you a non-stop nightmare where skin is ripped, bone is snapped, and spirits are broken.

Beaten To Death will be released later this year by Welcome Villain Films.

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Beaten To Death Review: Disturbing Australian Horror Lives Up To Its Title [Panic Fest 2023] - Dread Central

Joe Biden built his 2020 presidential campaign around the idea that were in a battle for the soul of America. I thought it was a marvelous slogan because it captured the idea that were in the middle of a moral struggle over who we are as a nation. In the video he released this week launching his reelection bid, he doubled down on that idea: Were still, he said, in a battle for the soul of America.

I want to dwell on the little word soul in that sentence, because I think it illuminates what the 2024 presidential election is all about.

What is a soul? Well, religious people have one answer to that question. But Biden is not using the word in a religious sense, but in a secular one. He is saying that people and nations have a moral essence, a soul.

Whether you believe in God or dont believe in God is not my department. But I do ask you to believe that every person you meet has this moral essence, this quality of soul.

Because humans have souls, each one is of infinite value and dignity. Because humans have souls, each one is equal to all the others. We are not equal in physical strength or IQ or net worth, but we are radically equal at the level of who we essentially are.

The soul is the name we can give to that part of our consciousness where moral life takes place. The soul is the place our moral sentiments flow from, the emotions that make us feel admiration at the sight of generosity and disgust at the sight of cruelty.

It is the place where our moral yearnings come from, too. Most people yearn to lead good lives. When they act with a spirit of cooperation, their souls sing and they are happy. On the other hand, when they feel their lives have no moral purpose, they experience a sickness of the soul a sense of lostness, pain and self-contempt.

Because we have souls, we are morally responsible for what we do. Hawks and cobras are not morally responsible for their actions; but humans, possessors of souls, are caught in a moral drama, either doing good or doing ill.

Political campaigns are not usually contests over the status of the soul. But Donald Trump, and Trumpism generally, is the embodiment of an ethos that covers up the soul. Or to be more precise, each is an ethos that deadens the soul under the reign of the ego.

Trump, and Trumpism generally, represents a kind of nihilism that you might call amoral realism. This ethos is built around the idea that we live in a dog-eat-dog world. The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must. Might makes right. Im justified in grabbing all that I can because if I dont, the other guy will. People are selfish; deal with it.

This ethos which is central to not only Trumps approach to life, but also Vladimir Putins and Xi Jinpings gives people a permission slip to be selfish. In an amoral world, cruelty, dishonesty, vainglory and arrogance are valorized as survival skills.

People who live according to the code of amoral realism tear through codes and customs that have built over the centuries to nurture goodness and foster cooperation. Putin is not restrained by notions of human rights. Trump is not restrained by the normal codes of honesty.

In the mind of an amoral realist, life is not a moral drama; its a competition for power and gain, red in tooth and claw. Other people are not possessors of souls, of infinite dignity and worth; they are objects to be utilized.

Biden talks a lot about the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. At its deepest level, that struggle is between systems that put the dignity of individual souls at the center and systems that operate by the logic of dominance and submission.

You may disagree with Biden on many issues. You may think he is too old. But thats not the primary issue in this election. The presidency, as Franklin D. Roosevelt put it, is preeminently a place of moral leadership.

One of the hardest, soul-wearying parts of living through the Trump presidency was that we had to endure a steady downpour of lies, transgressions and demoralizing behavior. We were all corroded by it. That era was a reminder that the soul of a person and the soul of a nation are always in flux, every day moving a bit in the direction of elevation or a bit in the direction of degradation.

A return to that ethos would bring about a social and moral disintegration that is hard to contemplate. Say what you will about Biden, but he has generally put human dignity at the center of his political vision. He treats people with charity and respect.

The contest between Biden and Trumpism is less Democrat versus Republican or liberal versus conservative than it is between an essentially moral vision and an essentially amoral one, a contest between decency and its opposite.

David Brooks (Twitter: @nytdavidbrooks) is a columnist for The New York Times, where this piece originally appeared.

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David Brooks: Joe Biden and the 'battle for the soul of America' l - Baltimore Sun

The iconic pop punk group reimagines their sound with their eighth studio album So Much (for) Stardust

Genre: Emo/Pop-Punk

On a Playlist With: Death of a Bachelor, Scaled and Icy, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

March 24 marked the release of Fall Out Boys (FOB) eighth studio album, So Much (for) Stardust, the first after a five-year hiatus. The band teased new music back in December 2022 with the launch of a website featuring a short clay animation of a Dobermann embarking on a colorful journey with strange creatures.

The band released the song Love From the Other Side along with an accompanying music video on Jan. 18. The song and video were an absolute hit, portraying an old Pete Wentz (bassist/lyricist) telling the story of FOB to his granddaughter. It also included nods to other bands in the pop-punk/emo genre such as Panic! At The Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Good Charlotte, Blink-182, The Plain White Ts, Weezer, My Chemical Romance, and Of Mice & Men.

In the music videos story, the band lives in a small town called Winnetkaland, where they dream of seeing the outside world but are forbidden by the mayor, who hates the bands music. The band escapes to Emo Island, where they are protected by the power of music. The emos of the island gift them a necklace depicting the bands new logo: a black-and-white half-smiling and half-frowning face. The video had a plot reminiscent of FOBs past musical film, The Young Blood Chronicles.

FOB also released the music video for Hold Me Like a Grudge on the same day their eighth studio album debuted. The music video is the third in a trilogy with the preceding music videos being Dance Dance and This Aint a Scene, Its an Arms Race.

FOB then posted the official cover for the new album, portraying an oil painting of a Dobermann opening its mouth to catch bubbles. The Dobermann is surrounded by a black border and stardust particles with the name of the album, So Much (for) Stardust, in bubble writing.

Following the release of the new music video and album announcement, the bands lead guitarist, Joe Trohman, released a statement on FOBs Instagram that he is taking a temporary break for mental health issues. Fans were saddened by his leave but wished him a speedy recovery while expressing their gratitude toward the bands openness regarding mental health.

On Jan. 25, a week after the first release, FOB revealed another song, Heartbreak Feels So Good, accompanied with a music video in which the band pulls a prank with River Cuomo, frontman of Weezer.

Six days later, FOB announced their tour with supporting performances from Bring Me The Horizon, New Found Glory, Four Year Strong, The Academy Is, and Royal & the Serpent.

The Pink Seashell embodies finding meaning in life while Baby Annihilation marks breaking out of nihilism.

FOB also released the music video for Hold Me Like a Grudge on the same day their eighth studio album debuted. The music video is the third in a trilogy with the preceding music videos being Dance Dance and This Aint a Scene, Its an Arms Race. The music video tells the tale of the band getting back together following their split due to an effort to save their music and prevent a space-time continuum. In this world, Wentz moves on to become a Flash-like superhero; Patrick Stump, lead vocalist and guitarist, becomes a buff wrestler; Andy Hurley, lead drummer, becomes a monk; and Trohman becomes a motion caption actor.

The fourth track on the album, Fake Out, takes influence from the punk rock band The Cure and is reminiscent of one of FOBs most-recognized songs, Dance Dance. Hurley revealed that his favorite off the album is track five, Heaven Iowa, because Stump absolutely captivates listeners with his powerful vocals. Track six, So Good Right Now, provides fans with a light melody and bittersweet lyrics, reminding them of FOBs early album Take This to Your Grave.

The one that intrigued me the most following its initial reveal was The Pink Seashell, the seventh track features actor Ethan Hawke reading a monologue his character gave in the movie Reality Bites. This particular monologue stood out to Wentz as it discusses death and the meaning of life. The album follows a similar pattern later with the track Baby Annihilation, originally titled A Little Annihilation, in which Wentz reads lyrics in a poetic tone.

With its authenticity, community and Wentzs genius lyrics, this new FOB era helped remind fans why the band is such a special group and one that many hold dear to their hearts.

FOBs new logo has relations to both tracks, as the halves in the logo are representative of two parts of the record. The Pink Seashell embodies finding meaning in life while Baby Annihilation marks breaking out of nihilism. The pure emotion and poetic thought emanating from these tracks remind me of the beauty of Jim Morrisons An American Prayer.

Personally, the songs I Am My Own Muse and Flu Game have been stuck in my head, with the latter referencing Michael Jordans iconic basketball game in which he played effortlessly while being sick with the flu.

Finally, the titular song So Much (for) Stardust, provided a nice closing to the album, a repitition of lyrics from the first track such as What would you trade the pain for?

Overall, the album was an absolute 10/10, and each song is a must-listen. These anthems are perfect for the upcoming summer. The band incorporated their authentic pop-punk sound from their old albums, contrasting from their last album, Mania, in which they explored a new sound.

With its authenticity, community and Wentzs genius lyrics, this new FOB era helped remind fans why the band is such a special group and one that many hold dear to their hearts.

The Bottom Line: So Much (for) Stardust is perfect for the summer and reminds listeners of the bands timelessness.

The Peaks: Hold Me Like a Grudge, Flu Game and Baby Annihilation

The Valleys: None

The Verdict: 10/10

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Ram Jams: Fall Out Boy, New Album and Era - Fordham Observer

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

Tucker Carlson is, for now, off the air and lying low. But his rapid slide from would-be journalist to venomous demagogue is the story of a generation of political commentators who found that inducing madness in the American public was better than the drudgery of working a job outside the conservative hothouses.

First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:

Pushing the Needle

Tucker Carlson has been fired, and youve probably already read a bushel of stories about his dismissal, his career, and his influence. Today, I want to share with you a more personal reflection. (Full disclosure: Carlson took a bizarre swipe at me toward the end of his time at Fox.) I always thought of Carlson as one of the worst things to happen to millions of Americans, and particularly to the working class. As Margaret Sullivan recently wrote, Despite his smarmy demeanor, and aging prep-school appearance, Carlson became a twisted kind of working-class hero.

Not to me. I grew up working-class, and I admit that I never much cared for Carlson, a son of remarkable privilege and wealth, even before he became this creepy version of himself. I am about a decade older than Carlson, and when he began his career in the 1990s, I was a young academic and a Republican whod worked in a city hall, a state legislature, and the U.S. Senate (as well as a number of other less glamorous jobs). Perhaps I should have liked him more because of his obvious desire to be taken seriously as an intellectual, but maybe that was also the problem: Carlson was too obvious, too effortful. I was already a fan of people such as George Will and Charles Krauthammer, and I didnt need a young, bow-tied, lightweight imitator.

But still, I read his writing in conservative magazines, and that of others in his cohort. After all, back in those days, they were my tribe. But the early 90s, I believe, is where things went wrong for this generation of young conservatives. Privileged, highly educated, stung by Bill Clintons winand, soon, boredthey decided that they were all slated for greater things in public life. The dull slog of high-paying professional jobs was not for them, not if it meant living outside the media or political ecosystems of New York and Washington.

A 1995 New York Times Magazine profile of this group, some of them soon to be Carlsons co-workers, was full of red flags, but it was Laura Ingraham, whose show now packages hot bile in dry ice, who presaged what Foxs prime-time lineup would look like. After a late dinner party in Washington, she took the Times writer for a drive:

You think were nuts, dont you? muttered Laura Ingraham, a former clerk for Clarence Thomas and now an attorney at the Washington offices of the power firm of Skadden, Arps. Ingraham, who is also a frequent guest on CNN, had had it with a particularly long-winded argument over some review in The New Republic. It could have been worse. They could have been the dweebs and nerds that liberals imagine young conservatives to be.

Or, more accurately, they could have been the dweebs and nerds they themselves feared they were. And in time, they realized that the way to dump their day jobs for better gigs in radio and television was to become more and more extremeand to sell their act to an audience that was nothing like them or the people at D.C. dinner parties. They would have their due, even if they had to poison the brains of ordinary Americans to get it.

Carlson joined this attention-seeking conservative generation and tried on various personas. At one point, he had a show on MSNBC that was canceled after a year. I never saw it. I do remember Carlson as the co-host of Crossfire; I didnt think he did a very good job representing thoughtful conservatives, and he ended up getting pantsed live on national television by Jon Stewart. He was soon let go from CNN.

When Carlson got his own show on Fox News in 2016, however, I noticed.

This new Tucker Carlson decided to throw off the pretense of intellectualism. (According to The New York Times, he was determined to avoid his fate at CNN and MSNBC.) He understood what Fox viewers wanted, and he took the old Tuckerthe one who claimed to care about truth and journalistic responsibilityand drove him to a farm upstate where he could run free with the other journalists. The guy who returned alone in his car to the studio in Manhattan was a stone-cold, cynical demagogue. By God, no one was going to fire that guy.

What concerned me was not that Carlson was selling political fentanyl; thats Foxs business model. It was that Carlson, unlike many people in his audience, knew better. He jammed the needle right into the arms of the Fox audience, spewing populist nonsense while running away from his own hyper-privileged background. I suppose I found this especially grating because for years Ive lived in Rhode Island, almost within sight of the spires of Carlsons pricey prep school, by the Newport beaches. (This area also produced Michael Flynn and Sean Spicer, but please dont judge usits actually lovely here.)

Every night, Carlson encouraged American citizens to join him in his angry nihilism, telling his fans that America and its institutions were hopelessly corrupt, and that they were essentially living in a failed state. He and his fellow Fox hosts, meanwhile, presented themselves as the guardians of the real America, crowing in ostensible solidarity with an audience that, as we would later learn from the Dominion lawsuit, they regarded with both contempt and fear.

An especially hateful aspect of Carlsons rants is that they often targeted the institutions and normscolleges, the U.S. military, capitalism itselfthat help so many Americans get a chance at a better life. No matter the issue, Carlson was able to find some resentful, angry, us-versus-them angle, tacking effortlessly from sounding like a pompous theocrat one day to a founding member of Code Pink the next. If you were trying to undermine a nation and dissolve its hopes for the future, you could hardly design a better vehicle than Tucker Carlson Tonight.

But give him credit: He was committed to the bit. A man who has never known a day of hard work in his life was soon posing in flannel and work pants in a remarkably pristine workshop, and inviting some of the worst people in American life to come to his redoubt to complain about how much America seems to irrationally hate Vladimir Putin, violent seditionists, and, by extension somehow, poor ordinary Joes such as Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson.

Carlson is emblematic of the entire conservative movement now, and especially the media millionaires who serve as its chief propagandists. The conservative world has become a kind of needle skyscraper with a tiny number of wealthy, superbly educated right-wing media and political elites in the penthouses, looking down at an expanse of angry Americans whose rage they themselves helped create. As one Fox staffer said in a text to the former CNN host Brian Stelter shortly after the January 6 insurrection, What have we done?

If only Carlson and others were capable of asking themselves the same question.

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Evening Read

How I Got Bamboo-zled by Baby Clothes

By Sarah Zhang

To be pregnant for the first time is to be the worlds most anxious, needy, and ignorant consumer all at once. Good luck buying a pile of stuff whose uses are still hypothetical to you! What, for instance, is the best sleep sack? When I was four months pregnant and still barely aware of the existence of sleep sacks, a mom giving recommendations handed me one made of bamboo. Feelsoooo soft, she said. I reached out to caress, and it really was soooo soft. This was my introduction to the cult of bamboo.

Read the full article.

More From The Atlantic

Culture Break

Read. The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley, a new biography of the poet that shows how she used poetry to criticize slavery.

Listen. Harry Belafontes legendary album Calypso. The late artist showed how popular songs could be a tool of the struggle for freedom.

Play our daily crossword.

P.S.

I am, strangely, revisiting some childhood memories while redecorating my home office. (Ive posted some pictures on Twitter.) For many years, I had something of a standard academics home office: a lot of books and maps, a bit of conference swag here and there. But Ive decided in my dotage to bring in some color from the 1960s, including a framed collection of Batman cards (the kind that came with that dusty-pink stick of gum), a Star Trek wall intercom, and an original poster from the Japanese sci-fi classic Destroy All Monsters, starring Godzilla and a cast of his buddies. While I was hanging the movie poster, I wondered: Why do we love those Godzilla movies? Theyre terrible. Are we just nostalgicas I sometimes amfor the old, velvet-draped movie palaces full of kids? I think its something more.

If youve never seen the original Godzilla, its actually kind of terrifying. Its way too intense for young kids; I cant remember when I first saw it on television, but it scared the pants off me. The stuff that came later, with the cheesy music and the cartoonish overacting by the guys in the rubber kaiju outfits, were versions that kids and adults could watch together. They answered all of your toughest kid questions: What if Godzilla fought aliens? (I am a King Ghidorah fan.) What if Godzilla duked it out with King Kong? (I thought Godzilla was robbed in that one.) I love scary monster movies, but now and then, you want more monsters and fewer scares. Maybe the analogy here is Heath Ledger and Cesar Romero: Both are great Jokers, but sometimes, youd like to enjoy the character with a shade fewer homicides. Being able to enjoy both is, perhaps, one of the subtle rewards of growing up.

Tom

Katherine Hu contributed to this newsletter.

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Tucker Carlson Is the Emblem of GOP Cynicism - The Atlantic

At the nondescript Admiral bar in Dupont Circle, there was no visible sign of the coming attraction, but maybe that was the point. He was marquee enough on his own, at least for a Wednesday night. A milieu of young conservatives, operatives, and House staffers were assembling to howl in the next-gen model of Donald Trumps societal wrecking ball, and the name on everybodys lips was George Santos.

I was challenged on entry for failing to register as press but quickly spoke with the event manager of the Washington, D.C., Young Republicans, Isaac Smith, who towered over me broad-shouldered and glistening. Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone, he smirked with William F. Buckley flare.

Smith, an EMT by trade, saw carnage a plenty in his day job, and seemed eager for more as night fell and the hour of Santoss appearance drew near. Following a national political trend, he confirmed, last year he and his cohort had successfully used the bylaws of the Young Republicans to wrest control from the moderate faction which had once governed the youth arm of the party. Their ranks include Florida Rep. Matt Gaetzs communications director, Joel Valdez; Ohio Sen. J.D. Vances legislative correspondent, Brian Oakes; and Colorado Rep. Ken Bucks chief counsel, Isabela Belchior.

Now, they were reveling in the chaotic bounty of their coup over the Paul Ryan faction, as one operative put it to me. For Smith and many of those gathered, Santos was the free-base alternative to the low-dose incumbents in the sundowning stages of their withered political careers. If corruption is the currency of Washington, why not celebrate the precision with which its most extravagant excesses cut through the noise, instead of shoving fingers in ears and turning a blind eye? Why not push the madness to its limits?

The accelerationist explanation was coherent, but there was another reason why Santos, whose list of lies and confabulations is too long to list here, was invited to speak. Among the political orientations of the club members I spoke with, I recorded anarcho-capitalist, feudalist, conservative, paleo-conservative, MAGA, and Nazbol. Staffers for Gaetz mingled among Catholic University students adorned in oversized crucifixes and sallow wool-suited evangelists. The so-called national Bolshevik told me that while he used to work for Dominion Energy, his current passion and career is the preservation of historic buildings. Nothing wrong with buildings, I offered, carefully.

For the crowd of assembled outcasts, Santos with his fabricated background and the bizarre videos shot from inside his Hill office embodied their own tormented psyches: noncommittal; confusing; sardonic; cut adrift from the guiding charter of a coherent national party and its grounding in historic continuity. They shifted now among various extreme ideologies, chasing the rush that Trumps authoritarian nihilism had first unleashed.

What united Gaetz who had attended a similar gathering just weeks before and Santos was not a shared extremist political position, but an extremist prioritization of spectacle over all else, cutting straight to the bone of our entertainment-addled polis.

People are concerned about him. They dont think hes a very good guy. There are calls for him to resign, Smith says, from a small raised stair. Well, without getting into the details of it, experience has taught me one thing, and that is anytime there is somebody in Washington that receives bipartisan condemnation, [theyre] at least worth meeting. And at least worth hearing from. And so, it is my honor and my pleasure to introduce to you the queen of New York City, congressman George Santos.

The crowd goes wild, and then hes there, microphone in hand, pink tie exploding. George Santos has entered the building.

Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., speaks at the Admiral bar in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on April 26, 2023.

Photo: Daniel Boguslaw

Hi everybody. Uh, I guess, yeah, bipartisan condemnation. Wow, thats strong words, Santos began. Thank you for inviting me to speak tonight. I thinkRep. Gaetz previously stated that he brought in the Florida weather, well, I brought New York weather, so no humidity tonight. Much nicer, better for your skin, better for your hair. Ladies, do we agree? Look, this is my first appearance speaking in Washington. God, I hate the swamp, but thanks all of you for coming out.

Santos is now in his element. He is shouting down Bryan Metzger, a Business Insider reporter hovering in the back aisles, for negative coverageMetzger put out days earlier. He is telling us to keep fighting for what you think is best and what you believe in. He tells us he is going off script. He is now offering advice like, When they tell you to go be a dog catcher be more the moment you hit 25, get moving. He is telling those in the peanut gallery, Im not going anywhere. Theyll have to drag my cold dead body out of this institution.

Most importantly, he is telling us the truth will set you free. Then, as soon as hes in, Santos is out. And thats the show. Applause erupts.

As the crowd reassumed its mingling, many of the attendees looked like they crawled from the wreckage of a Nixon campaign bus driven straight through a Crisco factory. At a wobbly beer-strewn table, a cyber contractor for one of the big four drawled on about his real estate holdings, making sure to note that trailer park denizens should be the easiest class to exploit. I listened to the challenges of rent-seeking for 20 minutes before peeling off to interrogate a cluster of Georgetown students whose high hopes for a competitive GOP primary seem as far-flung as the idea that they could meet girls at this event.

In the corner, a periwinkle-suited man with red hair peered aimlessly out at the crowd. He looked out of place. But he was, I learned, in the exact right place, at the exact right time. A former lobbyist for Qatar, he had left K Street to pursue a career in musical theater, and was drawn to Santos like an artist to a muse. He proceeded to play a track off his phone when I agreed to listen to a number from the upcoming show he was now working on full time.

The plot followed a young woman from the heartland who travels to Washington to lobby the government and change the world, only to become gravely disenchanted watching politicians failure to pass legislation. From memory, he recited lyrics about the depressing aura of the Longworth cafeteria, the lack of libidinal energy on the Hill, and general reflections on how miserable life is as a lobbyist. His love for musical theater, which he shared with Santos, was at least part of the reason he was here. Beside me, a young Republican made pseudo-famous by Trump retweeting his account of antifa kicking the shit out him explained to Smith the details of the groups Kentucky Derby party, where DJ MAGA Mikewould be performing. Ive had enough and made to leave.

On the way out, The truth will set you free kept bouncing around in my head. I had a sinking feeling that Id seen this show before. The inventions, the hilarity, (alleged) crime, and depravity of Santos is something that not only captures the attention of the mottled rejects and freaks who have gathered to see him speak, but also you, the girl reading this, and me the writer writing this. The queen of New York is an evolution of the irresistible pageant of Trump, which liberals and conservatives cannot and will not look away from, no matter how hard they try.

I feel like I just watched the second act of some national tragicomedy, where nobody can escape white-knuckling their playbill as the band goes down with the ship. The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway, Stephen Sondheim once said. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.

Originally posted here:

One Night in Washington, D.C., With George Santos - The Intercept

Don't look now, but a recent study claims that Blue Jays fans are among the worst-spelling MLB fans. Well, on Reddit, anyway. The study, which "analyzed thousands of comments and posts across 30 subreddits dedicated to the 30 MLB teams," was done by Matt Zajechowski of Preply.com.

Blue Jays fans are a passionate bunch, and the fervor with which they share their thoughts and opinions about their favorite team may lead to poorly spelled comments ending up in cyberspace.

Or, perhaps growing up, Blue Jays fans spent more time on the ball diamond than cracking open the books in English class.

Whatever the reason, Zajechowski lists Blue Jays fans as the second-worst spellers in the MLB, right behind Dodgers fans, for frequently misspelling words such as "their," "because," "reliever," "awkward" and "interest."

There is a silver lining, however.

Despite frequently misspelling everyday words, Blue Jays fans don't have trouble correctly spelling baseball terms. They know that "home run" is two words, not one, unlike Phillies fans. They also know that "fan base" is two separate words, which apparently the fan base out in Seattle does not.

Some of the other baseball terms that Blue Jays fans spell correctly more often than fans of the Guardians, Athletics and Red Sox include "walk-off," "game day" and "hot dog" (likely thanks to Loonie Dog nights and the over 444,000 hot dogs consumed last season).

According to the research, Blue Jays fans are among the most old-school, who use "terms and phrases that were common 20 years ago but may mean nothing to the sport's newest fans." Given such a vague description, how exactly these old-school words are classified is questionable. Still, Jays fans rank third in this category, behind the Rockies and Guardians, for frequently using words like "dingers" and "jabronis."

Jabronis? Really? That must be Cleveland.

While it's debatable how often Jays fans actually utter the word "jabroni," they can be forgiven for using the word "dinger" more than any other fan base. With leadoff man George Springer now up to 50 "Springer Dingers" as a Blue Jay, it's part of the official and required discourse for Jays fans.

Luckily, Blue Jays fans aren't on the leaderboard of fan bases that misspell "smarty pants" words, such as "bona fide" and "more so," to try and make themselves sound more intelligent. That honor falls to Orioles, Rangers and Padres fans. (Not sure what's going on in Texas, but that fan base frequently misspells "Nihilism." Someone should check in with our friends in the Lone Star state.)

While Blue Jays fans may bristle at being ranked as some of the worst spellers in the majors, it's not anything serious to be concerned about (unless you're an English teacher) and shouldn't stop them from continuing to be one of the more vocal and visible fan bases across the league.

More:

Reddit study finds interesting facts about typical Blue Jays fans - Jays Journal

Dr. Marci Shores speech, The War in Ukraine and the Problem of Evil, was the last installment of this years Bunting Peace and Justice Speaker Series at Loyola. Shore, a published author and associate professor of intellectual history at Yale University, covered the current war between Russia and Ukraine along with the long history that precedes it. The Yale professor spent several years living and studying in Eastern Europe, allowing her to weave her own personal perspective into the speech.

Shore shared her initial reaction to the news of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

It was one of three moments in my life where I was completely paralyzed with horror and terror. Something was happening on a world historic scale that I was unable to take in in real-time, Shore said. Shores shock at the invasion was shared by people all over the world, but the speaker mentioned that shock like this dissolves over time.

There are many moments in history where something seems absolutely impossible until it happens and then retrospectively seems inevitable, Shore said.

Russias invasion of Ukraine came on Feb. 24, 2022, and was a major escalation in the military conflict that began in 2014. Shore describes Russias actions and role in the war as systemic nihilism, as their violence towards Ukraine has shown little regard for the innocent lives of Ukrainian civilians.

The war has been so grotesquely brutal. From the very beginning they have been bombing residential buildings, maternity hospitals, kindergartens from the very beginning it has been a situation of moral blackmail, Shore said.

A lot of the speech detailed the violence and aggression of Russia towards Ukraine including torture methods used by Russian forces. Shore ends her speech with a quote from Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian journalist who spent a little over two years in a Russian prison where he was subjected to numerous forms of psychological and physical abuse. In Aseyevs book, The Torture Camp on Paradise Street, Aseyev points out how the people responsible for such evil actions were, and are, seemingly normal people.

Were talking about people who we share the same streets with people today who still walk the same streets without their balaclavas on, giving no indication that they tortured someone the day before. Are these people human? Without a doubt. The obviousness of this answer is terrifying, Aseyev wrote.

Events part of the Bunting Peace and Justice Speaker Series are meant to inform and raise awareness of current justice issues. Organized by Loyolas Office of Peace and Justice, speakers such as Shore are invited throughout the year to cover a variety of relevant topics. The President of the Office of Peace and Justice, Dr. Heidi Shaker, shared what their goal is.

Our goal is to explore the causes and consequences of violent conflict, as well as the conditions that promote conflict resolution, peace, and justice, Shaker said.

Throughout the year the office aims to promote awareness of a variety of issues by hosting events led by experts on the respective topics. The office has a steering committee that brainstorms potential speeches by analyzing timely events and discussing with professors at Loyola who teach peace and justice courses.

All four of our talks were very different this year. The hope is that we start to think about complex problems and understanding the context and nuances, and for students to start to be able to analyze and form an educated opinion of where they stand, Shaker said.

While topics such as the war between Russia and Ukraine are heavily covered by the media today, Shaker feels its important to hear from experts such as Shore who have studied the conflict for years.

I think its different to hear it from someone who studied it for years and years and can unpack things for us versus just reading the media and arriving to conclusions. Because this was such a timely topic, we wanted to hear from Dr. Shore and what she thought, Shaker said.

The Bunting speeches are an easy and accessible way for students at Loyola to educate themselves on modern topics of peace and justice from experts. Aiden Berkenkemper 26 has always taken advantage of such an opportunity as he attended his first speech back in middle school.

I love these speeches; I think this is the third one Ive been to. My mom used to work here so I would come when she was an employee, Berkenkemper said. I came and saw Arun Gandhi who is Gandhis grandson back in middle school and it still resonates in my head to this day.

Continued here:

Yale Professor Breaks Down Years of Violent Conflict Between ... - The Greyhound