Category Archives: Nihilism

Kurt Russell's best film is The Thing, but the movie was a box office diasaster when it was released.

By James Brizuela| Published 2 days ago

Sometimes certain movies come out that are way ahead of their time. Even though they arent appreciated when first released, they often achieve cult status and become far more popular. That is the case for the best Kurt Russell film. That film is the 1982 horror classic, The Thing. The Thing would go on to become Russells best film and helped to solidify John Carpenter as the king of suspense. However, though its a film that inspired many others, it was a complete box office disaster. The film had a budget of $15 million, it would only go on to secure $19.6 million at the North American box office. Even though $19 million is a lot of money in 1982, the movie flopped completely.

The Thing was released in 1982 right around the same time as E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Blade Runner. Many analysts wondered why the film wasnt accepted for how groundbreaking it was, but it could have been because of the time that it was released. The country was going through a recession, and the themes of mistrust, paranoia, and nihilism just didnt sit well with most audiences. However, years after its release, many filmmakers spoke about its influence on their own filmmaking. Big names directors like Edgar Wright, Guillermo Del Toro, and Quentin Tarantino all how important the movie was. In fact, Tarantino used The Thing as his inspiration for making The Hateful Eight, which also saw a group of strangers trapped with one another while dealing with deep fits of paranoia and mistrust. Coincidentally, Kurt Russell also had a starring role in The Hateful Eight.

The Thing follows a group of researchers at a station in Antarctica. They are frazzled when a strange man is following a dog while attempting to shoot it. The man is yelling at the dog in Norwegian while trying to kill it. The strange man is then shot dead by the research facility station manager, Gary. The station takes the dog in and places it with their sled dogs. The pilot for the research station, R.J. MacReady, takes Dr. Cooper and heads for the station where the Norwegian man came from. They discover the station is empty but find the remains of a deformed humanoid. They take this humanoid back to their station, and an autopsy is done, leaving the discovery that this humanoid has normal human organs. The dog that the man was attempting to shoot then comes alive and consumes the other sled dogs in the cage it is with. It is then determined that the being that consumed the dogs can also consume any animal or human being and assimilate itself as that animal or human. Blair then runs a test that determines that the being would assimilate all of Earth in a matter of years. Without ruining the rest of the film, everyone should go watch it at least once in their life.

The Thing became a culturally impactful movie simply based on the paranoia that is created by John Carpenters vision. The idea that everyone could be the monster without knowing it just added that suspense that made Carpenter a household name in the horror genre. The cast for the film was nothing to scoff at as well. Leading the way is Kurt Russell. He is joined by A. Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, Keith David, David Clennon, Richard Dysart, and many more.

The fallout when The Thing was initially released was massive. The movie had been called boring and critics were all in on speaking about how awful the gory special effects were. The poor performance at the box office led to John Carpenter being replaced to direct Firestarter. He had also a multi-movie deal with Universal, but they chose to buy him out instead. Sadly, those critics and Universal had to be kicking themselves, considering how successful The Thing became and Carpenter. Even Kurt Russell achieved superstardom after the film was released.

The Thing may have been a conundrum when it was first released, but the movie is now regarded as one of the best horror, sci-fi, and thriller movies ever made. Many have called the movie inspiration and there are plenty of people who turn out to theaters when it gets re-released. It may not have been the most profitable Kurt Russell film, but it is certainly his best. The Thing is streaming right now on Peacock.

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Kurt Russell's Best Movie Was A Critical And Box Office Disaster - Giant Freakin Robot

Twiggy enlists cult cartoon Rick and Morty to sell green hydrogen Join us on socialNewslettersGet Access Code.

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We would absolutely love to know how much Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Future Industries paid for What The Green Energy, a new website spruiking green hydrogen featuring Rick and Morty.

In a combination of words that has no right to make any sense, mining billionaire Andrew Twiggy Forrest has enlisted the help of Rick and Morty to educate the public about green hydrogen. For those whove forgotten, Rick and Morty is a cult cartoon that the most irritating people imaginable made their entire personality for a few months in 2017. Fortescue Future Industries, the green energy wing of Twiggys Fortescue, has put together a website called What The Green Hydrogen, using the main characters to put forward the idea of renewables. Its, well, about as strange as it sounds, filtering the surreal, nihilistic aesthetic of the show through PR speak for example:

Before we join forces to save the planet, theres something you should know about us.

Were owned by a mining company. A really big one. Called Fortescue.

News done fearlessly. Join us today and save 50%.

It is one of the largest iron ore extractors in the world, and it is also a heavy carbon emitter.

But the planet isnt going to be saved by a bamboo toothbrush company. Its a little late for that. Our only hope is change on an industrial scale.

Predictably, the website tones down the horrific gore and relentless nihilism of the show although there is a fight scene involving a giant worm, with a great snapping head of interlocking cavernous maws, which gets decapitated (if 12-second marketing videos made by mining companies require spoiler alerts then spoiler alert, I guess). The sequence sums up the weirdness of the whole enterprise. Rick is just there, fighting a big worm in a mechanised suit, which someone has clearly had a lot of fun putting together. But aside from depicting a battle to save the planet, were not sure were making the connection to the rest of the campaign.

We would give anything to know how much the company paid for all this though we note that while theyve sprung for the image, they havent secured the voice talents of Justin Roiland (as far as we can tell), who voices both characters. We guess even Twiggy money has its limits.

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Charlie Lewis

Tips and Murmurs Editor @theshufflediary

Charlie pens Crikey's daily Tips and Murmurs column and also writes on industrial relations, politics and culture. He previously worked across government and unions and was a researcher on RN's Daily Planet. He currently co-hosts Spin Cycle on Triple R radio.

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'A bamboo toothbrush won't save the planet': Twiggy enlists cult cartoon Rick and Morty to sell green hydrogen - Crikey

Pennsylvania is once again the stage for a political battle that will have lasting impacts on the partisan makeup of the Senate, and the power of each political party, for years to come.

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey announced in October of 2020 that he would not be seeking reelection. This made his seat available to a multitude of state politicians with dreams of taking on a larger role.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov John Fetterman is one such politician.

Fetterman is a lifelong Pennsylvania resident and the former Mayor of Braddock. He tried his hand running for Senate back in 2016, but was unable to advance past the primaries with his scant reputation among top Democrats.

This time, backed by his Lt. Gov. position and six more years of experience, Fetterman won the support of the states Democratic base and will represent the party in the general election.

His opponent is a different story.

Dr. Mehmet Oz (yes, that Dr. Oz) has quickly risen through the ranks of Republican leadership in Pennsylvania, thanks to a highly-coveted endorsement from former President Donald Trump.

Despite this endorsement, state Republicans have voiced concerns over Ozs lack of conservative principles and complete absence of political experience. Still, with enough money to run campaign ads, it seems as though there is no experiential barrier to entry in todays political realm.

Oz just barely managed to defeat former hedge fund CEO David McCormick in a tightly contested primary. This set the stage for what may be the most important race in this entire election cycle.

Lets take a step back to understand why this election is critical for both political parties.

The Senate is currently divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harriss tie-breaking vote giving Democrats the edge.

Despite this slim majority, it has long been assumed that Democrats would lose multiple seats in the 2022 midterm elections. Bidens approval rating had been hovering in the high 30s for most of the summer, and the Presidents party historically loses seats during this time.

However, with the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade and the recent passage of both the Inflation Reduction Act and Bidens student loan forgiveness package, its possible that the Democratic party just might hold on to its slight edge.

Following Toomeys retirement, Democrats pounced on the opportunity to gain a Senate seat they otherwise would have had no chance of winning. Conversely, Republicans see this race as a must-win in order to prevent a Democratic majority from carrying over into the next session of Congress.

This brings us back to Fetterman and Oz.

Both candidates have not been shy about slinging insults across the party line. Fetterman accused Oz of being a carpetbagger (Oz has lived in New Jersey for most of his life and is still a registered voter there).

Oz accused Fetterman of ducking debates and being unfit for office due a stroke Fetterman suffered this past May.

I have strong opinions of my own about the election, but my goal is to encourage the Lehigh community to educate and involve themselves in one of the most important elections we will see until 2024.

Im well aware of the political nihilism that seems almost universal among young Americans about the efficacy of our voices. But this time, your vote actually matters.

Even if you arent a registered voter in Pennsylvania Im registered in Massachusetts there is still much you can do to have an impact on the election.

Both candidates have sections on their websites dedicated to getting involved in the campaign process, whether it be by knocking on doors, making phone calls, organizing fundraisers or donating directly to a candidate you feel especially strongly about.

I urge everyone who has read this far to get informed and get involved. While we may only live in the Lehigh Valley for a short amount of time, we have the opportunity to make a tangible impact on our futures today.

Read more from the original source:

Column: This time your vote actually matters - The Brown and White

BYDaniel S. Mariaschin

On Sept. 13, 1993, I was among those invited to the signing of the Oslo Accords on the South Lawn of the White House. It was a bright, sunny day, so very appropriate for what many in the audience saw as the impossible: President Bill Clinton presiding over a historic breakthrough in relations between Israelis and Palestinians. I cant say I was sceptical about the signing, but I did harbour doubts. I began my career monitoring Middle East affairs in 1973 as a young professional just out of graduate school. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, was in full throttle as an international terrorist organization. Its principal enemy was Israel, but Jordan, led by King Hussein, was not far behind.

The PLO sought to topple the king in 1970 during what was called Black September. Had that challenge succeeded, who knows what havoc a radicalized Jordan under terrorist control might have inflicted on the Middle East heartland. Over these past 29 years, hopes surrounding the Oslo Accords have risen and then crashed time and again, as the Palestinian leadership has pursued a zero-sum policy regarding a two-state solution. By some counts, there have been four or five major international efforts to start serious negotiations with a view toward achieving a sustainable agreement. During that time, the terror organization Hamas, rejectionist from its inception, has taken control of Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), for its part, refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, insists on a right of return for millions of Palestinians, of whom only some 30,000 are original refugees, and offers stipends and payments to the families of those who have carried out acts of terror against Israeli citizens. As if that were not enough, the PA has led efforts at the United Nations to castigate Israel through dozens of biased resolutions, special rapporteurs and commissions. In sum, PA nihilism is not a policy. It suggests that its leaders would rather live as permanent victims than enjoy statehood. Which is why waiting for a two-state solution is not only frustrating. It begs the question: does the current Palestinian leadership really want peace with Israel? Fast forward to Sept. 15, 2020, at the signing of the Abraham Accords.

Once again, I was in attendance on the same South Lawn at the White House, with the same beautiful weather in the US capital, but with an entirely different vibe in the air. Instead of the 1993 doubts gnawing at some of us, there was a pervasive optimism that nearly 30 years after the Oslo Accords signing, diplomatic creativity had produced a full-fledged path for normal relations between Israel and its neighbours in the region.

Over the years of Middle East diplomacy, we have used terms like confidence-building measures, and roadmap for peace, which, though sounding constructive, wound up being merely hollow diplomatic talk. There can be no peace, no normalization without the will to bring them about.

That means people-to-people experiences, two-way trade and investment, tourism in both directions and academic exchange. In each of these and in other areas of mutual cooperation, the Abraham Accords have produced dozens of agreements. And the sense is, this is only the beginning.

Having normal ties means making serious efforts at understanding one another, on a personal basis. Over the past two years, the Abraham Accords have opened the way to pursuing that goal in earnest, promoting closer Muslim-Jewish relations, and open discussions about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.

Memo to the Palestinian leadership: take note. In the realm of the strategic, the Abraham Accords are already making a major contribution to the goal of achieving stability in the region through a collective worldview that places a high value on progress and mutual respect with ones neighbours. As a result, those destructive forces that have sown chaos, engage in malign behaviour and arm the terrorist organizations that lurk and act in the broader neighbourhood, are now even more exposed than ever before.

The Negev Summit (now called the Negev Forum), which brought together like-minded countries which share the same view of threat assessments in the region, is another early benefit brought forth by the Abraham Accords. In March, I led a group of leaders from our organization to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. We held a number of important, enlightening discussions about the region, and the role that the Abraham Accords can play in expanding both its ranks and its promise to bring better, more peaceful and productive lives to all peoples of the region.

We believe that the United States must play a pivotal role in this process, and together, create a dynamic that can transform this vital expanse of geography into a role model for genuine regional cooperation. Over the years, another diplomatic term has become part of our lexicon: present at the creation. As I watched the four principals sign the Abraham Accords that sunlit day in Washington, D.C. two years ago, I clearly realized that the term was no cliche. As we enter year three, let us hope that this auspicious beginning will continue to bear the fruits its architects so wisely considered.

Daniel S. Mariaschin is CEO of Bnai Brith International, a Washington, D.C.- based Jewish organization founded in New York in 1843 . The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Daily Tribune.

More here:

Why the Abraham Accords Matter | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN - News of Bahrain- DT News

Rare color photo of the first nuclear explosion at Trinity Site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Ever since, we have been living in the Atomic Age. (Credit: National Nuclear Security Administration / Public domain)

We tend to remember only the good things. That is why most 1980s nostalgia is rose-tinted. Rarely mentioned about that decade was the constant sense of dread, the ever-present knot in your stomach. Why? Because you knew that everything and everyone you knew could be over in a flash. So what, exactly, was the point of anything?

The nihilism of that age was nuclear-inspired. At the tail end of the Cold War, East and West pointed vast arsenals of atomic missiles at each other, powerful enough to destroy global civilization several times over.

Hanging over the world like an atomic Sword of Damocles was the military doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction MAD for short, and mad in essence. Its rather shaky foundation was that only a lunatic would start a nuclear war.

MAD had a few obvious flaws. What if one side made the rational calculation that the other side would not be fast enough to strike back? What if there was a system malfunction resulting in an accidental launch? Or a radar glitch falsely showing an attack? And what if a lunatic actually did seize power?

But then Boris Yeltsin climbed on a tank and the Soviet Union collapsed. With it, the nuclear nightmare vanished into thin air. Except that it didnt, really. Many happily confused the conclusion of the Cold War with the end of the Atomic Age. But that was wishful thinking. On July 16, 1945, when the first A-bomb went off in the New Mexico desert, humanity went nuclear, and we cant unring that bell.

We may not like to think about it, but the nuclear threat is here to stay. That became obvious after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Although as yet a conventional conflict, it has at least three atomic angles.

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First, there are Putins not-so-subtle hints that Russia may use nukes if the West gets too directly involved and/or the tide of war starts to turn against Moscow. Those threats may not be entirely credible, but nobody is in a hurry to find out. In other words, they have proved effective at limiting the shape and size of third-party responses to the war.

Second, there are the nuclear power stations on the front line being used as tactical chips in a high-stakes game of atomic poker. First Chernobyl, now Zaporizhzhia Europes largest such installation, reportedly used by Russians to store material and launch attacks, and which is regularly under fire (for which both sides hold the other responsible). A few days ago, according to Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelensky, a radiation accident was only narrowly avoided.

Finally, theres the sobering thought that this war might not have happened at all, had Ukraine not given up the nuclear stockpile it inherited from the Soviet Union. It did so in 1994, in return for security guarantees by the U.S., the UK, and Russia. Clearly, other countries now see what such guarantees are worth and may be considering going nuclear themselves as a precaution.

The worst solution to a seemingly intractable problem is to ignore it. A long, hard look is better at least the issue wont be trivialized, and perhaps there is hope behind the horror.

In that spirit, welcome to NUKEMAP. Using declassified info on the impact of various types of nuclear weapons, this web tool allows users to model a nuclear attack on a target of their choice. NUKEMAP was created in 2012 by Alex Wellerstein, a professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Professor Wellersteins particular field is the study of the history of nuclear weapons.

Talking to Newsweek, Professor Wellerstein said that NUKEMAP was meant to help people, himself included, understand the true impact of nuclear explosions: Some people think [nuclear bombs] destroy everything in the world all at once, some people think they are not very different from conventional bombs. The reality is somewhere in between.

He has described NUKEMAP as stomach-churning, but also as the most fun Ive had with Google Maps ever. Sounds a bit like your favorite rollercoaster ride, minus the long wait. Ready?

Go to NUKEMAP, pick a target location (the default is Lafayette Street in Manhattans Soho district), and then select your weapon of choice, with a variety of yields. The smallest is an unnamed North Korean weapon tested in 2006 (with a blast yield of a mere six tons that is, equivalent to six tons of TNT). You can also test the one that started it all, Little Boy (15 kilotons), which was dropped on Hiroshima, as well as the largest one, the Russian Tsar Bomba (100 megaton, but never used).

You can also pick whether youd like the bomb to explode in the air or on the ground and whether youd like to see the number of casualties and the fallout area (yes and yes, obviously). There are a bunch of more sophisticated settings, but by now your finger is itching to press DETONATE.

The effects are stomach-churning indeed: Large zones around ground zero are effectively vaporized. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions killed. Many more wounded.

Professor Wellersteins NUKEMAP has been around for more than a decade and has racked up more than 275 million detonations over that period. Unsurprisingly, there has been an uptick in visitor numbers since the start of the Ukraine War, with some days numbering more than 300,000 visitors.

But those visitors dont even see the worst effects of a potential nuclear war. Yes, they get a sense of the destruction and the casualties, but worse will come and were not even talking about radiation.

A recent study examining the climatic effects of nuclear war found that even a limited nuclear exchange say, an atomic war between India and Pakistan could send up enough soot into the atmosphere to reduce global calorie production by 50% and threaten more than two billion people with starvation. A worst-case scenario all out nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia would result in a 90% drop for up to four years, which could result in global famine killing more than five billion.

That feeling youve got now: thats what I call proper 1980s nostalgia.

Strange Maps #1167

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Nuke your city with this interactive map - Big Think

OPINION:

Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne of the British monarchy in 1953, and at 25 years of age, she assumed the authority of Queen Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith at a time when the world was spinning out of control.

Born in 1926, Elizabeth grew up with the threats of what British author, Os Guinness, calls the horror of the radical evil of the twentieth century its utter desecration The death camps, the killing fields, the simultaneous extermination of human beings, and the extermination of what it [meant] to even be human. This was the stuff of young Elizabeths daily news.

As a teen, she watched as her father and Winston Churchill fought to fend off the brutal, horrifying, and senseless carnage of warfare. She witnessed what Guinness describes as the end of both the European Enlightenment and Europe as the capital of world civilization. By the time Elizabeth became Queen, the Commonwealth over which she now ruled was already halfway through a century-long maelstrom of clashing views. This clash threatened not just the definition of the Faith but also many of the ideals and beliefs previously held in common by the people and culture she was pledged to defend.

The carnage of two world wars: Two hundred and thirty-one million men, women, and children [killed]; shot over open pits, murdered in secret police cellars, asphyxiated in Nazi gas ovens, worked to death in Arctic mines or timber camps, the victims of deliberately contrived famines or lunatic industrial experiments. (David Berlinski) The rise of political religions such as communism, national socialism, and fascism. The threats of totalitarianism. The Cold war. The arms race, the specter of nuclear Armageddon, the moral nihilism of the burgeoning counter-cultural movement. This was the world of the Queen in the mid-twentieth century.

Then came the twenty-first: The acceleration of science and technology. Artificial intelligence. Gene editing. Talk of trans-humanism and the possible redefinition of what it even means to be human. All seemed to validate the warnings of Huxley and Orwell. Or, in the words of C.S. Lewis: Mans conquest of Nature [was turning] out, in the moment of its consummation, to be Natures conquest of Man.

And all the while, as the Queen sat on her throne, the architects of this grand rebellion doubled down in their determination to rebuild their Tower of Babel. Guinness quotes one archetype of this nightmare, Stefan Zweig, who called for our old ancestor, [the] spirit which remains the same in all forms, all legends, that nameless builder of Babel, [that] genius of mankind, to rise again and strive against his Creator! Hubris, not humility, was the prescription for all that ailed us.

Now one might rightly ask, what was Elizabeths response to this arrogance?

At first, she seemed to sympathize, if not embrace it. Let us set out to build a truer knowledge of ourselves and our fellowmenand to use the tremendous forces of science and learning for the betterment of mans lot upon this earth, she said in 1953. And then, twenty years later, she echoed the same. Britain and these other European countries see in the Community a new opportunity for the future. [We] believethat if [we] work together the whole world will benefit. We are trying to create a wider family of nationsBut around the turn of the century, Queen Elizabeths focus shifted, and she seemed to be looking in the opposite direction. Rather than trusting more in man, she began trusting in her Maker. Rather than talking about a family of nations, she began to speak quite openly about the family of God.

For me, she said during Christmas of 2000, the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. And then, in 2014, she added, The life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace is an inspiration and an anchor A role model of reconciliation and forgiveness Christs example has taught me to seek to respect and value all people Billions of people now follow Christs teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them. And finally, in 2021, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, she concluded: The last few years have been particularly hard For many, it has been a time of anxiety, grief, and weariness. Yet the Gospel has brought hope, as it has done throughout the ages Christs teachings have been the bedrock of my faith.

The 70-year legacy of the Defender of the Faith is this: As she shifted her gaze from herself to her Savior, she found hope in the Gospel. Today the world may tell you that the Queen is dead, but dont believe it. Elizabeth II now reigns with her Sovereign in His Kingdom.

Long live the Queen!

Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.

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Long live the Queen! - Washington Times

Reuters:

Most Americans see Trump's MAGA as threat to democracy: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Days after Democratic President Joe Biden gave a fiery speech attacking former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies as an extremist threat, a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Wednesday found a majority of Americans believe Trump's movement is undermining democracy.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the two-day poll - including one in four Republicans - said Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement is threatening America's democratic foundations.

58%? That counts as most.

Tom Nichols/Atlantic:

The Nihilism of MAGA World

The president said something frightening and true.

Joe Bidens address to the American people last week was,as I wrote at the time, necessary and right. The staging was bizarre, and the speech had some of the hallmarks of a group product that hadnt been subjected to a final spackle-and-smooth by a chief writer. But Biden got one big thing right, and that one thing explains why Donald Trump and the MAGA World apologists are reacting withsuch fury. The president outed them as anti-American nihilists:

They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.

This, as Biden pointed out, is what makes the MAGA movement so dangerous. It has no functional compass and no set of actual preferences beyond a generalized resentment, a basket of gripes and grudges against others who the Trumpists think are looking down upon them or living better lives than they are. It is a movement composed of people who areeconomically comfortable and middle-class, who enjoy a relatively high standard of living, and yet who seethe with a sense that they have been done dirt, screwed over, betrayedand they are determined to get revenge.

Biden broke with tradition by saying what presidents are never supposed to say: He admitted that he was finally giving up on trying to accommodate a group of Americans, because he understands that they do not want to be accommodated. I know that some of my friends and colleagues believe that Biden, as president, must continue to reach out to MAGA voters because they are our neighbors and our fellow citizens. (The former GOP operative and my fellow Never Trumper Tim Miller made this point justthis morning.) My instinct is to agree with them. But how do we reach those voters? These citizens do not want a discussion or a compromise. They dont even want to win, in any traditional political sense of that word. They want to vent anger over their livestheir personal problems, their haunted sense of inferiority, and their fears aboutsocial statuson other Americans, as vehemently as possible, even to the point of violence.

Detroit News:

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's lead grows as fall campaign begins, new poll finds

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's lead over Republican Tudor Dixon has expanded to 13 percentage points with two months remaining before Election Day, according to anew poll from The Detroit Newsand WDIV-TV (Channel 4)...

In a similar July 5-8 poll commissioned by The News and WDIV before Dixonbecame the Republican nomineein the Aug. 2 primary election Whitmer was leading Dixon by 11 percentage points.

Detroit News:

Abortion drives Michigan governor's race as women turn against GOP, poll finds

When it came to which issue would motivate Michiganians to vote in November, 34% said abortion and women's rights the most popular answer ranking above inflation and the cost of living (26%), education (10%) and the economy and jobs (8%).

"This should be about (Democratic President Joe) Biden. And it's not. It's about abortion," Glengariff founder and pollster Richard Czuba said of the governor's race.

The current poll numbers for Whitmer were similar to the survey results from the same period before the 2018 election, when Democrats won all three of Michigan's top offices.

In early September 2018,Whitmer was up 14 percentage points over Republican Bill Schuette, who was then the state's attorney general. Whitmer ended up beating Schuette by 9 points.

"This looks exactly like the 2018 numbers right now," Czuba said. "The motivation to vote is as high."

The 2018 results have been tied to a so-called "pink wave" of female voters pushing back against the beginning of then-President Donald Trump's administration.

Czuba said he's now seeing signs of a "magenta wave" of female voters and independent voters beginning to form for November because of the abortion debate.

"Until someone can stop that conversation or override that conversation, that wave is going to keep building," the pollster said.

Ruy Teixeira/Substack:

The Democrats Shifting Coalition

Unlike Trump, They Love the Highly Educated

No doubt about it. The Democrats are doing better. They have enjoyed a stretch where the economy has done a bit better and, most importantly, other issues have come to the fore to take the focus off of the many ways voters are still quite unhappy with the Biden administration and the state of country (NBC poll: 68 percent say were now in recession; 74 percent say the country is off on the wrong track).

The key issue here is clearly the Dobbs decision on abortion rights. That decision put the Democrats on thepopular side of public opinionand they have taken full advantage of that (aided by Republicans inability to keep a leash on the most militant anti-abortion forces within their party).

19th News:

Why women are setting the new midterms conversation

Analysis | Two GOP women pollsters talk about abortion, democracy and the changing dynamics of this years elections.

My takeaway from what they shared: The 2022 midterms look different than they did six months or a year ago. Cost of living is still front of mind for many women, but issues of choice on abortion, on the freedom to vote have risen in relevance. The moment feels existential for many women, including independents and swing voters, and its all on their minds when they describe the country as headed in the wrong direction to pollsters.

View original post here:

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Abortion issue is changing everything for November - Daily Kos

Renowned Canadian psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson says young people, especially boys, are facing a "demoralization" in the world and he's urging the Christian church to become more involved in reaching the next generation.

In a recent YouTube video titled "Messages to Christian Churches," Peterson explained that when he took a "psychological approach" while talking about the Bible, the majority of his listeners turned out to be young men.

"That is not a phenomenon that can be easily accounted for, but let me try," Dr. Peterson said. "Now in the West, because of the weight of historical guilt that is upon us, a variant of the sense of original sin in a very real sense, and because of a very real attempt by those possessed by what might be described as unhelpful ideas to weaponize that guilt, our young people face a demoralization that is perhaps unparalleled."

"This is particularly true of young men, although anything that devastates young men will eventually do the same to young women," he added while referring to anti-natalism and nihilism.

Quick Start Podcast: The Facts on the Alleged Alzheimers Research Fraud

Peterson continued, "When they are children, boys are hectored for their toy preferences, which often include toy weapons, such as guns, and their more boisterous playing style, as boys require active rough and tumble play even more than girls, for whom it is also a necessity. When in grade school, boys are admonished, shamed and controlled in a very similar manner by those who think that play is unnecessary, particularly if it's competitive, and who value a docile, harmless obedience above all."

He said the indoctrination of such an "extremely damaging ideology" is accomplished with three accusations.

"Number one: human culture, particularly in the West, is best construed as an oppressive patriarchy motivated by the desire, willingness and the ability to use power to attain what are purely selfish and self-serving ends," he explained.

"Accusation number two: human activity, particularly that undertaken in the West, is fundamentally a planet despoiling enterprise. The human race is a threat to the ecological utopia that existed before us and could hypothetically exist after in our absence."

"Accusation number three: the prime contributor both to the tyranny that makes up the oppressive patriarchy and structures all of our social interactions past and present and the unforgivable despoiling of our beloved mother Earth is damnable male ambition, competitive and dominating, power-mad, selfish, exploitative, raping and pillaging," he said.The psychologist explained that people in the West are facing "an all-out assault at the deepest levels."He said young men who are "deeply conscientious, capable of guilt and regret," consider that "in pain, every deep impulse that moves them out into the world for the adventure of their life, even that impulse drawing them to women, is nothing but the manifestation of the spirit that is essentially satanic in nature."

This belief is not only wrong "theologically, morally, psychologically, practically and scientifically," but it is also "anti-true," he noted.

Peterson also pointed out that the Christian church is "there to remind people, especially young men, that they have a woman to find, a garden to walk in, a family to nurture, an ark to build, a land to conquer, a ladder to Heaven to build, and the utter terrible catastrophe of life, to face stalwartly in truth, devoted to love and without fear."

He continued, "Invite the young men back, say, literally, to those young men, 'You are welcome here. If no one else wants what you have to offer, we do. We want to call you to the highest purpose of your life. We want your time and energy and effort and your will and your goodwill. We want to work with you to make things better, to produce life more abundant for you, and for your wife and children and for your community, and your country, and the world.'"

Dr. Peterson then pointed out the problems within the Christian church.

"We are more abundant, sometimes, far too often, corrupt, and sometimes deeply so," he said. "We're outdated, as are all institutions with their roots in the dead but still often wise past."

He shifted attention towards Protestant churches, saying, "You're the worst at the moment." Catholic and Orthodox should also invite young men, Peterson said.

"Put up a billboard saying 'young men are welcome here.' Tell those who have never been in a church exactly what to do, how to dress, when to show up, who to contact and, most importantly, what they can do. Ask more, not less of those you are inviting. Ask more of them than anyone ever has. Remind them who they are in the deepest sense, and help them become that."

Peterson concluded the message by saying, "You're churches for God's sake. Quit fighting for social justice. Quit saving the bloody planet. Attend to some souls. That's what you're supposed to do. That's your holy duty. Do it now, before it's too late. The hour is nigh."

Thousands of viewers commented on the video and some even said they were motivated to go back to church.

***Please sign up forCBN Newslettersand download theCBN News appto ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

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Psychologist Jordan Peterson Says Society Is Harming Boys, and the Church Must Save Them: 'That's Your Holy Duty' - CBN.com

There are movies like Top Gun: Maverick so good that you only think about the insidious cultural forces that birthed them if you are an asshole like me. Then there are movies like The Gray Man, which are so boring that you cant help but see every weird drone shot and flat line of dialogue as a bellwether for where were at in the unfolding history of content creation, in all the worst ways. Pastes Jacob Oller hated The Gray Man a good deal more than I did. The movie manages a level of competence and craft that is the bare minimum for 2022 and certainly the bare minimum from the absurd amount of talent on offer: Besides headliners Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick shows up alongside freaking Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard. Its directed by the guys whove brought you most of the biggest Marvel movies. And yet a few decent moments from Gosling and Evans are about all we get for the two hours of our time.

Theres some inventiveness and color to the action scenes, but its hard to figure out what the hell is going on when the camera is cutting in the middle of every single beat in the fight. The actors arent great at selling their gnarly wounds. The gunfights want to be stylishand one that caps the movies second act is clearly trying to evoke the nihilism of a Grand Theft Auto rampage. It never quite gets there, just as nothing else in the filmits sentimental flashback, its gruesome torture scene, its aerial skydive combatquite gets to wherever it is its supposedly going, emotionally or dramatically.

Why did this thing get made? is a stupid question to ask of a studio film, because the answer is to make money. How the studio perceives it is making money is really the questionand in the case of The Gray Man, or Red Notice, or any of the other recent star-studded-but-undercooked offerings in Netflixs original film catalog, thats the most interesting thing about it by far.

B movie didnt used to mean a bad or shoddily made film, nor even one cranked out for a quick buck. It was fairly academic: Theaters used to sell a lot of double features, and the B movie was the feature meant to occupy the other half of the ticket opposite the more obvious draw. Back when talkies had hit theaters but television hadnt yet infiltrated every single American household, it made financial sense for studios to shell out for lower-budget movies. After all, every movie couldnt be The Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind, and the cheaper you made a movie, the sooner it made its budget back. All those actors and crew indentured to the old studio systems truly draconian contracts needed work to keep them busy, anyhow. It made sense to crank out B movies, and it gave the world some of its most incredible stars and directors. Some are even still very much alive and kicking.

It also gave the world a lot of forgettable junk, cynical sequels or truly bad cinema, and theres a reason the original model collapsed. That isnt because a dearth of artistic merit has ever had consequences, mind you: It was really because TV became ubiquitous in the 1950s, and suddenly moving images were no longer a thing you needed to pay a ticket to go to a theater to see. Suddenly, people werent as willing to throw their pocket money at B movies in theaters, so much of the studio infrastructure and talent that was brought to bear on them simply repurposed their craft for television productionswitness the migration of the Western from movie theaters to television shows (until the point the genre, once an uncontroversial B movie staple, became so overexposed that international directors were inspired to hijack the genre to create syncretic antiheros and bizarre subgenres.

The rise of the studio system during Hollywoods Golden Age created the conditions for those B movies, and it took a paradigm shift as earthshaking as the advent of TV (and, really, the downfall of the old studio system in the face of a growing labor movement and antitrust regulations) to change the nature of B movies. Looking at The Gray Man, which absolutely arises from some of the same motivations as those old features, I find myself wondering at the perverse incentives of the Streaming Wars that have gotten us here and pondering just what will inevitably bring an end to it.

Like the old studio system, streaming services are drowning in cash and interested in making sure their distribution models are as vertical as possible: The same Walt Disney who created the Buena Vista Film Distribution Company in part because RKO Pictures had pissed him off would have salivated at the idea of TV that only shows Disney productions that you need to pay monthly to watch. Netflix, a company that itself shook the pillars of the entertainment world with its streaming service, now finds itself flailing as its competitors have become the studios whose movies it used to exhibit. Every major production company has now leased its own massive server farms so that it can hoard its intellectual property and sell it back to us at $10 a month. It benefits Netflix (and Warner Brothers, and Disney, and Paramount, and on and on) to keep cranking out some content, any content, in the hopes itll make you and I watch a little longer and reconsider dropping our subscription so we can afford another half a gallon of gas or eighth of an insulin hypo this month.

Different paradigms in cinema history dont perfectly map onto each other, of course: Superhero movies kind of fill the role of big studio Westerns or musicals of yesteryear, but they also differ from them significantly. And these high-profile, star-studded movies that land lazily on Netflix in a bid to keep you from dropping the service certainly arent exactly the same as B movies during that other Golden Age. Those older movies were a place where younger players and behind the scenes talent or journeyman directors could get their start: These appear to be a place for well-established stars and crew to rest their laurels. Those older movies, cheaply made as they often were, could have flashes of gonzo inspiration or even define new subgenres. Stuff like The Gray Man is not serving up any new ideas.

The Gray Man ends with a credits sequence in which scenes of the movie are recreated with CGI sculptures of the individual characters that have the appearance of gray metalthey look like cheap pewter. It surely wasnt an intentional reminder that there wasnt a lot going on in this movie, which came out of its mold looking the right shape but utterly drab.

Kenneth Lowe is a regular contributor to Paste Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter and read more at his blog.

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The Gray Man Is the Nadir of Netflix's B-Movie Model - Paste Magazine

A24

Welcome to The Queue your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, were watching a video essay that looks at how the Daniels latest film, Everything Everywhere All At Once tackles the feeling of being Very Online all the time.

Rather fittingly, Everything Everywhere All At Oncemeans a lot of things to a lot of different people. Ive seen video essays from Asian creators that discuss how the film speaks to everything from the immigrant experience to the role of nihilism in Buddhism. The films co-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheiner, known collectively as Daniels have confirmed that the film resonating with the experience of having ADHD is no accident (Kwan was diagnosed during the making of the film).

And, if you are Very Online, you might have noticed something familiar about the chaos and exhausting maximalism of Evelyns multiverses. If you havent seenEverything Everywhere All At Onceyet, please do. Its easily one of the best films of 2022, and seeing it on the biggest screen possible is highly recommended. (Theres a good chance its still playing in theaters this babys got box office legs for days).

In any case, without giving too much away (not that such a thing is possible), the film follows Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), an overworked woman whose marriage, business, and relationship with her daughter are fraying at the seams. Then she learns that she is actually the only one who can save the Multiverse.

The internet is a place of endless curiosity and community. But its also overwhelming to be bombarded with a constant stream of information, political causes, and entertainment. The internet is silly, stupid, anarchic, tragic, and meaningful. And not all of it can matter equally to you. Our little monkey brains werent built for that. And part of whatDaniels film is saying, as the video essay below underlines, is that determining what does and doesnt matterto youin an attention economy is a life-saving step for surviving in the world post-Internet.

This video essay on why the DanielsEverything Everywhere All At Once is all about the overwhelming chaos of the internet isby Virginia-based filmmaker and video editorThomas Flight. He runs a YouTube channel under the same name. You can follow Thomas Flight and check out his back catalog of video essays on YouTubehere. You can follow him on Twitterhere.

Related Topics: Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Queue

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Everything Everywhere All At Once And How to Survive Being Very Online - Film School Rejects