Happy Holidays

It's been very rainy in the early mornings the last few days. While I'm glad that it wasn't snow or ice, it is frequently loud and worrisome. Anyway, Christmas is done and the New Year is almost here. I wish for peace in Gaza and less Republican insanity in the US.

On Saturday, NBC aired a Night Court Christmas episode which I hadn't expected, and it was apparently without regard to continuity. Maybe the show just got pushed back due to the strikes, but NBC didn't want to waste the holiday episode, and that's why they aired it. Season 2 actually starts on January 2nd to resolve last year's story. I'll be glad to see Roz again.

Meanwhile, the Lawmen: Bass Reeves show ended somewhat disjointedly with many dropped storylines. Bass did defeat Esau aka Mr. Sundown, but there was no confrontation with the KKK at the Reeves farm. In addition, the slaveowner Rachel Reeves showed up out of nowhere to make sinister threats about reclaiming the Jennie and the kids as slaves. What was that all about? At least her dialogue wasn't as cryptic and nonsensical as Esau's; I've long since grown tired of him speaking in creepy riddles about knowing Bass "for centuries." It's disappointing. The show started out historically accurate, but the latter episodes kept fictionalizing more and more events to build up Esau as the villain haunting Bass. Screenrant has a list of historical facts omitted from Bass's life. Normally I'd be fine just having a few slices of Bass's life, but knowing we only had eight episodes, I would have preferred more real events to made up nonsense. If the show gets renewed at all, they'll move on to another lawman, not Bass Reeves, which is a pity. At least it was a happy ending, though.

Various Movies

I liked The Marvels, but I'm not really excited about end of the year movies like Wonka and Disney's Wish. I saw the soccer/football movie Next Goal Wins last month but I was disappointed. There was a nice trans character on the team, but overall the film wasn't as hilarious as Taika's previous comedies. Will Arnett has a cameo as the new boyfriend of the coach's ex-wife, but it was too little. There was a slight mystery/twist about the coach's daughter, but I didn't care that much by that point.

Meanwhile I did enjoy Godzilla Minus One recently. It's an excellent movie set in post-WWII Japan. The main character Koichi is a failed Kamikaze pilot, but he keeps encountering Godzilla attacks. He deals with war trauma and survivor's guilt while taking in a young woman and orphan baby into his home. People think that Noriko is his wife, and that he should enjoy the family that fate brought his way, but Koichi doesn't think he deserves to live or be happy. He gets a job helping to destroy sea mines off the coast of Japan, and becomes part of an amiable crew with the captain, scientist Doc, and the Kid who was too young for the recent war. When Godzilla becomes much bigger due to atomic testing, he destroys navy boats and then rampages on land in Ginza. Koichi gets to the point where he feels a personal stake in killing Godzilla and getting revenge for lost comrades and loved ones. The Japanese government (and the US) decline to solve the Godzilla problem, so a citizen-led effort of war veterans comes up with an intricate plan to trap and kill Godzilla. Koichi volunteers to be bait to lure Godzilla to the ocean trap, but he is secretly plotting to fly a true Kamikaze mission to blow up Godzilla. The movie really gets you invested in the emotional stakes while also showing off Godzilla's destructive rampages. I suppose the ending was setting up a sequel with a resurrected Godzilla. I wonder if the next sequel will continue to focus on Koichi and his family.

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

Looks like the Israeli settlers on the West Bank have been attacking Palestinians. These Palestinians have nothing to do with the war in Gaza, but the aggressive settlers want to punish them anyway. As for the Gaza war itself, Israel continues to exact its revenge on Gaza, while the US tries again to tell them not to commit war crimes.

Wonkette is continuing to have disagreements about how to cover the war in Israel. People are getting offended by others discussing Israel's apartheid, and people are claiming that we're minimizing the terror that Israelis went through on October 7th. But I'm not denying anything they suffered. Yes, they suffered immensely, and the remaining hostages continue to suffer! But Palestinians have been suffering too for a long time, and they continue to be targeted for undeserved revenge right now. Hamas are the terrorists, not the civilians. As I've said before, two wrongs don't make a right. Israel's apartheid against the Palestinians does not justify the rape, murder, and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on October 7th. But also, Hamas's crimes on October 7th do not justify Israel conducting their war so savagely and indiscriminately. They have "the right to defend themselves" of course, but they are doing much more than "defense" in any real sense; they are terrorizing civilians and trapping them in war zones. It's overkill, just as I predicted, and people can't get out of Gaza for any safety. The US government repeatedly tells Israel that it can't keep attacking civilians, but we have yet to see them punish Israel for crossing red lines. Why can't we stop funding Israel, or reduce the funding, at all? Why can't Israel punish those fucking settlers for actual crimes, instead of being complicit and supportive of them? Why the fuck couldn't Biden say "we don't know for sure who bombed that hospital; let's wait for the forensic evidence" instead of immediately taking Israel's side?

That's what's disillusioning some people from Biden. I'm disillusioned, though I'm not a young person anymore. I will still vote for Biden in the election, just as I voted for Hillary Clinton, but I don't know for sure if some of the younger people will go 3rd party or sit at home in protest. It depends on what happens in the war I guess. Centrist Democrats have to deal with their disconnect from progressives on Israel.

December Deaths

Well I'm sad that the ceasefire ended, but apparently Qatar is helping to still negotiate with Israel. I'd prefer a permanent end to the war, of course, and that all hostages be freed. There's more scandal about the intelligence failure, and I'm really hoping Netanyahu can be ousted permanently. We'll see.

I'm sad that Rosalyn Carter died recently too. I didn't know until her obituaries that she had been actively advising Jimmy Carter during his presidency. Not just a traditional First Lady tending the White House. I like marriages that are true partnerships.

Meanwhile Henry Kissinger died and George Santos finally got expelled from Congress. Good riddance. As a swing vote, Sandra Day O'Connor had some good and some bad decisions, but was at least a pioneer on the Supreme Court. I wish there were more reasonable conservatives there now, but they've only become more corrupt and extreme. Good luck enforcing the new ethics code.

I avoided shopping last week during the rush, so now I better get to buying stuff for Christmas.