@Alt_Human @hallmarc I agree with both of you about pretty much all of this. It's all very old. I remember all the nonsense reporting about the Tea Party being about economics and the federal debt. But they were no different from the John Birch Society of the late 50s. They only cared about the budget deficit in as much as it allowed them to yell at the Democratic president. And none of them cared about it once Trump was in office. Wash, rinse, repeat!

@Alt_Human Definitely. In many ways, he made moving further to the right a reasonable choice given how he claimed so much of the middle group. Not that I'm excusing them. They had been headed in that direction since Eisenhower

This is from a click-bait article about how AI pictures couples in every state. I refuse to click. But I love this Arkansas couple in the ad. They remind me of the hot dog couple from The Happening (played by Frank Collison and Victoria Clark), "You know hot dogs get a bad rap! They got a cool shape, they got protein. You like hot dogs, right?" They are the best thing in the movie. I've never had such a high opinion of Arkansas before!

@Tarnagh 100% I think it is not common *only* because so few cats are named Psycho!

Fun fact: I used to have a girlfriend whose cat's name was "Psycho." So I used to sing to him, "Psycho kitty. Qu'est-ce que c'est! Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow..." Dorky but true!

@Alt_Human Yeah, that surprised me. I only noticed it right after the 2016 election when Republicans suddenly thought the economy was great just because Trump had been elected!

This is interesting. Republicans' opinions on the state of the economy are almost entirely based on the answer to the question, "Is a Republican in the White House?" There is some partisan effect of Democrats' opinions but it is mostly driven by the actual state of the economy. How do you change opinions when half the nation is 90% resistent to fact?

The Onion: Conservatives Explain Why They Love 'Rich Men North Of Richmond' Singer Oliver Anthony

"If Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh like it, you know it’s a real working-class anthem."

Slide 14 is dark and brilliant

https://www.theonion.com/conservatives-explain-why-they-love-rich-men-north-of-r-1850752276

@Coctaanatis I see. Almost all the way to West Virginia. Thanks!

@Coctaanatis Good to know! So I guess the framing is meant to say "south good; north bad"?

Jamelle Bouie on Oliver Anthony and his song "Rich Men North of Richmond":

"I can’t help but think there’s something ironic about the fact that, despite sitting close to [where the biracial Readjuster movement was formed], the latest populist voice to come out of the commonwealth has chosen, in the end, to give comfort to those with the boot on his neck and scorn to those who might try to help lift it."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/opinion/rich-men-north-of-richmond-history.html

Excellent analysis by Matt Binder on Elon Musk's fake Twitter followers. Here's the most shocking finding, "The median number of followers for all 153 million accounts following Musk is just one (1) single follower."

https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-x-twitter-follower-data

@MovieNights Is this always done in a virtual room? Not really my thing but maybe it would be different if people were there. I'll try it next week. I use watch2gether for group viewing and that's more my speed. Of course: I'm old.

I've been watching the Sister Boniface Mysteries and it led me to the sketch comedy show Watson & Oliver. This is very amusing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBRBNm9fTPg

I just discovered a wonderful film out of the UK, Paul Dood's Deadly Lunch Break (2021). It's a revenge comedy but absolutely joyous and sweet. Of course, it has a bit of gore including a head being crushed. It's available free with commercials on Tubi. I can't recommend it enough -- but remember who's saying that!

https://tubitv.com/movies/100002101

NCAA has video commercials with audio that start automatically on all their web pages. The NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, and MLR all manage to avoid this *and pay their players*. Truly amazing!

I finished Creepshow (1982). It was really well made and largely presented the experience of reading EC horror. (I'm not that old. I discovered them in the 70s with the reprints.) I did think the first story was a bit off because I remember the stories all featuring people getting their due. But even it was good. Anyway, it's free on Archive. Volume is kind of low so you will need to crank it. It's also free on Kanopy if you have a library card.

https://archive.org/details/creepshow-1982-stephen-king-hd-1080p-blu-ray-full-movie

This is a shot from Creepshow (1982) that's only on the screen for a second or two. It's probably in the comic book. It's pretty funny...

Really nice Paul Reubens obituary here.

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/31/1191104833/pee-wee-herman-dead-paul-reubens

I just watched the first 45 minutes of Ant-Man (2015). I can't take any more. Even by Marvel standards, it's tedious. It's like it's written by an AI trained to pick the best next cliche at every moment.