Robot Jazz

  It’s a cliché, yes, but one that endures because it’s true: a picture is worth a thousand words. And this one? Behold the literal, physical destruction being wrought upon the White House, not by foreign invaders as in the War of 1812, but by the man who swore to protect it, President Donald Trump: There’s another cliché that asks, “How do you know when a politician is lying?” The punchline: “His mouth is moving.” With Donald Trump, it’s less a joke than a governing principle.  Do you recall that when Trump announced the plans for his ballroom abomination, he pledged not to harm the existing structure of the White House? “It won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it but not touching it.  And pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”  That was back in July. Now, after the damage has been wrought, he declares , with a monarch's contemptuous sneer, that: “In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing st...

  Once upon a time, the American right wing used to hold historical texts in high regard. Why, I recall countless rants by conservative talk radio hosts who were keeping lists of the number of times President Obama ran afoul of the Federalist Papers, the Constitution, or even Black's common law. Nowadays, not so much. Suddenly, the right has lost interest in the foundations of the American republic and is instead content to continue to implement the GOP convention platform of 2020, which read:  “RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” In other words, the putative conservative right represents only what Donald Trump says it represents, with its home, the once 'Grand Old Party', being reduced to a rubber-stamp plaything for Trump. But while the party of Lincoln and Reagan may have misplaced its historical texts, the American people have not. That enduring civic knowledge manifested itself ju...

  👄👄👄This is your regular reminder that we are 259 days into Donald Trump's Epstein cover-up. 👄👄👄👄 The last two weeks in my neck of the sprawl have been rather warm. This is not unusual. I recall one October a decade or so ago when it got so warm that the kids were passing out in their Halloween costumes! While it hasn't been quite that bad this October, it has definitely felt like we are suffering through Autumn's summer. As such, a weird sort of malaise has taken hold. For me, those cool, crisp days of fall bring with them a burst of energy, a need to fully and enthusiastically embrace the joys of indoor living, something I consider encompasses everything from scrubbing the house from top to bottom after a summer of neglect, to more frequently planting my butt in front of my electronic dream machines to imbibe the pleasures of a wired age. And while I have made some progress in those areas since Autumn has officially begun, it has felt like an uphill battle as the ...

  "Don’t feel bad. Your tutor was Noah Hawley.” “Everyone’s a critic!” So goes the complaint of creatives the world over. And in a world awash in social media, where monetized outrage can turn a hate channel into a revenue stream, it’s easy to see why. While I can be critical of entertainment, I like to think I’m forgiving with most creative efforts. Case in point: I recently watched a much-lauded Korean neo-noir that struck me as disappointingly cornball, with action sequences so outlandish they’d make Michael Bay blush. I didn’t care for it—but I could see why others might. Hence, no takedown from me. But every now and then, you encounter something so poorly made, so narratively botched, that silence would be a disservice to fandom at large. Like a pool of acid, it demands barriers, warning tape, and a hazmat suit. That spill is Noah Hawley’s Alien Earth . And this post is your warning to avoid it like the wreck of an otherworldly spaceship on LV-426.  👽👽👽👽👽 To be clear...

Readers of this blog—again, to all eight of you, a hearty “Thanks!”—are used to me beginning with a running tally of how many days President Trump has worked to cover up the Epstein files. Which is to say: every day of his second term. Today, I offer no such blurb. This dispatch is all about the day’s news: congressional Republicans and the Trump White House are actively conspiring to scuttle a House floor vote that would force the full release of the FBI’s Epstein files. Headline: Top GOP and White House allies working behind the scenes to prevent Epstein vote on House floor Top congressional Republicans and White House allies are working behind the scenes to prevent a politically charged floor vote to release the government’s Jeffrey Epstein case files next month, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. The intensifying effort to halt that floor vote comes as Reps. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, declared on Wednesday t...

💋💋💋  This is your friendly reminder that we are 246 days into Trump's cover-up of the Epstein Files.   💋💋💋 ⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬ Because I am that type of insufferable, I enjoy watching British television. A few years back, I came across a British stand-up comedian who was telling jokes about global stereotypes. As a provincial American, many of them were lost on me. 😀 However, what was not  lost on me was the stereotypical jab directed at America. When it came time to skewer my country, the comedian asked the audience what the stereotypical American was. The audience shouted, "Fat and stupid!"  At the time, I bristled—humor or not, it felt cheap. But after the 2024 election, where 49.5% of voters chose a convicted felon, a self-professed groper, and a man whose intellect is best described as “pre-literate,” I can’t help but concede: the caricature has teeth. This thought occurred to me as I watched Trump give a cringeworthy address at the United Nations today. As would be ex...

  It is now mid-September. In my neck of the woods, September is a type of seasonal purgatory, a period that isn't quite summer but also isn't quite fall.  As such, it is a month where it is easy to fall into a type of somnolence. After suffering through a summer of heat and humidity, who could blame anyone?   Sadly, this sleepiness hasn't carried over to America as the news has been nothing but bad, with the worst actors on the move. 💀💀💀💀💀 The most recent bit of evil is the murder of far-right polemicist Charlie Kirk. This is not surprising, seeing the country's ever-deepening divide.  I mentioned that one of my inspirations for chronicling these dark days was Mary Chesnut Boykin's A Diary from Dixie. As I wrote then, I found her chronicle of the slave-holding South's descent into madness and war to be reminiscent of the contemporary mood in America, a time when the nation is dividing along ideological lines. However, unlike then, where the very real...