Unsightly Mental Blemishes

When it comes to the United States kidnapping of Venezuelan leader Maduro, which I look at as simply one bad guy knocking off another bad guy, I’m starting to see flags that my thought that this is a distraction from the Epstein Files is true.

The lack of details about what comes next led some U.S. officials to question why there was no detailed plan in place well before deposing Maduro. [Wall Street Journal/MSN]

While extremists on the right apparently do not plan much, this report is also congruent with a panicky attempt to distract from the Epstein Files. And I see Senator Murphy agrees:

This is about satisfying Trump’s vanity, making good on the long-standing neoconservative grudge against Maduro, enriching Trump’s oil industry backers, and distracting voters from Epstein and rising costs.

Assuming the email is authentic, of course.

In case you’ve run across one or more articles claiming fascism can’t be stopped once it’s underway, Daily Kos‘ GoodNewsRoundup has a diary entry purporting to refute the claim. I’d seen, but not read, one or two such claims on DK of late, but the author struck me as new, so I hadn’t paid much attention; GoodNewsRoundup’s article I skimmed. If you’re alarmed or depressed, this might serve to lift you out of a hole. Money quote:

Someone reposted an old post on here arguing that no one has ever stopped fascism.

Good lord. How is that helpful?

Or at all true?

It is useless and inaccurate doomerism.

I am dismayed and disappointed to see, this morning, that we’ve invaded Venezuela overnight. A lot can be said about this, from both news and opinion perspectives, but here I’ll address the three issues that came immediately to mind on hearing that the United States and its government is making a horse’s ass of itself.

1. The putative problem for which this action is promulgated is not effectively addressed in my mind. We’re talking supply and demand, the supply of drugs, allegedly, by Venezuela in order to satisfy demand, the demand of American consumers, who continue to self-administer recreational drugs which consume their time, their minds, their families, and their wealth. Stipulating to Venezuelan drugs, destroying Venezuelan drugs does not destroy American demand; they’ll just switch to, say, Honduran drugs, or Chilean drugs. American demand is not caused by the presence of drugs, foreign or domestic. At this juncture, the common continuation might be A defect in American society causes American demand, but that suggests it’s a fixable problem, and I am unconvinced of the possibility. I think it’s a byproduct of how we run our society, an inevitable byproduct, and fixing it might cause a different problem involving excess timidity. Or perhaps not, it’s a difficult question.
2. Venezuelan President Maduro simply did not properly manage President Trump. Readers should remember Juan Orlando Hernández, former President of Honduras, who, being convicted in an American court of drug smuggling, was pardoned by President Trump in November of last year. GovFacts suggests this was a reward for supporting Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2021, and for signing an Asylum Cooperative Agreement. GovFacts also suggests Trump’s fear of leftist governments motivated this action, in combination with a recent Honduras Presidential election and a dismayed National Party (conservative); I should not doubt that some dollars from Hernández were also involved. Maduro should have arranged to support Trump, making it difficult for Trump to use the justification of drug smuggling, an unproven accusation, for attacking Venezuela, even if the Venezuelan nationalization of the oil  industry (1976) is of overwhelming importance to the Republicans, who are still outraged at the Cuban nationalization of various American properties in Cuba.
3. How long will Trump hide behind Venezuela in order to avoid the Epstein Files issue? Historians must be licking their lips.

Whatever else I think, this’ll have knock-on effects for years to come, and that those may be unmanageable is what President Trump and his minions don’t get, an inevitable conclusion in light of issue #1, above. Confusing supply and demand is a simple mistake that should not have been made, and that they did….

Well, the future should be fascinating, but dreadful if you’re Venezuelan.

Doc, I can tell you just ate a popsicle.

Hands of a Murderer (1990) is an odd case. A good, twisted story from the Sherlock Holmes extended canon, by which I mean no source story by Doyle himself; technical aspects of the movie seem to lack nothing; brother Mycroft appears in what seems an authentic and substantial role, which I enjoyed; Professor Moriarty is in a critical role; and, yet, I saw it a week or two ago and am finding I have to view it again to compose this review.

Perhaps it is the presence of what many consider magic: hypnosis. In a series popularized by an adherence to close observation and application of logic, the power of hypnosis, magnified as it is in this story, bypasses logic and enables the story while obscuring audience deduction.

Or it may be that the semi-regular character of Inspector Lestrade is played as a buffoon, and an annoying buffoon at that. It’s one thing to be outclassed by an outré mystery, but when mystified that a lack of dust in an empty house means anything, one has to wonder how this Inspector earned the description … the pick of a bad lot.

Another source of irritation is that of the character Sophie DeVere, possibly a Baroness, who has sunk into the depths of evil and has a romantic fascination with Professor Moriarty. An inquiry is forced into either point: evil requires a monstrous ego and arrogance that often denies romantic fascination with others.

Colonel Gould, too, falls into the magical category in that too little is known of him to predict his later actions. He is … convenient to the storytellers.

In the end, it’s simply too twisted, with too little logic, to fix one’s attention. It’s not awful, or even bad. But for many viewers, it will not reach the established standards.

The hand continues to heal, and normal typing may soon be possible. Back to work on Monday.

In other news, I’ve taken up Mystery and Manners, a collection of odd bits of prose by the late Flannery O’Connor. I had read her novel, The Violent Bear It Away, years ago, but either forgot her gift for writing a simple sentence that affects all out of scale, or she does not employ that talent in her fiction. I am fascinated, whatever might be the case.

If my readers decide my prose has improved, credit Miss O’Connor and not myself. If no improvement is discernible, credit my chronically disordered mind.

Seen in MSN/Newsweek:

A former Iranian Air Force pilot on Thursday urged those in the country’s military to safeguard Iranian citizens and not the interests of the government, as protests turned deadly.

In a video shared by Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran, Colonel Fereydoun Ezzedasti said that while he wore a military uniform many years ago, his service never ended.

“A soldier is responsible for safeguarding the life, security and honor of his own nation until his last breath,” Ezzedasti said in the clip. “Today, the noble nation of Iran, weary yet steadfast, has pinned its hopes on you. You have donned this uniform to defend your fellow countrymen; not to suppress them.”

The video message came as protests erupted across Iran over a failing economy, with Iranian forces seeking to end the unrest, while President Masoud Pezeshkian said earlier Thursday that officials needed to listen to the concerns of Iranians or face going to hell.

All year, Iran has not been covered on the front page by the American press unless it’s a military target of the Administration, until yesterday, when CNN began noting uproar in Tehran. I’ve been seeing reports of a water shortage, political repression, and economic degradation for years.

It’s the latter issue that’ll trigger the Administration to proclaim it as a Trumpian accomplishment, strutting about with their chests prominent due to the military strike on Iranian nuclear sites this year, but the truth of the matter is that multiple Administrations have contributed to the suppression of the toxic Iranian regime which may now be collapsing. Call it all softening it up.

Whether this means the restoration of the monarchy or some sort of democracy is unclear, and I have no idea of the preferences of the Iranian people.

Me staring at You staring at Her. Uh oh.

The Magic Flute (2022) is based on the opera of the same name, but it is not presented in the same way. Instead, we follow the story of Tim Walker, British music student, who is sent to a legendary music school in Switzerland, where they apparently speak American English, called … I forget. Not important.

He encounters various students, barely sketched in, the headmaster, and a magical book case that, properly cued, spirits him away to … the land of The Magic Flute.

And Tim is now Prince Tamino.

This has the flavor of a Harry Potter movie, an inevitability given the trope of heading out of town for school, but a little work will push it to the rear and let you decide if the presentation of The Magic Flute, with which I had no experience, is to your taste or not.

I enjoyed it, even as I was given to understand it was fragmentary. It could have been better, as certain characters seemed wasted, but it remained fun.

I don’t know if the numbers are true, but this can be disturbing:

The AI bubble will pop, and take the economy down with it.

— LisaLisa (@lisalisa42.bsky.social) 2025-12-27T05:13:09.930Z

Which makes the numbers for the Trump economy, as we label this composite and heterogenuous effort, suspect and opaque. But is it true?

Michelle Singletary tangentially confirms:

This movie was an excuse for showing off captive polar bears, wasn’t it?

Cthulhu (2007) gets off to a good start as young history professor Dannie Marsh returns home to a small town in Oregon to bury his mother and not begin the process of re-establishing ties with his family. It’s the year of big, clunky AT&T phones, and so his homosexuality doesn’t play well in the town.

But father and cult leader Rev Marsh is convinced Dannie, his son, is the key to eternal life, and this isn’t the Christian eternal life, either. From here the movie begins to drain off into the usual dips of the horror genre into the river of irrationality and magic, and, for someone like me, the movie becomes a crime, a duty to finish but not enjoy. There’s not even a Cthulhu to enjoy. Too bad, there was a bit of scenery-chewing, but the acting wasn’t too bad.

But I must admit that, at some point, I figured it was time to call in Hellboy to settle the situation. Cross-referencing to another, unrelated story is not a good sign.

In the end, at least for me, this was a waste of time. May it not be for you.

Exclaustration:

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, exclaustration is the official authorization for a member of a religious order (known as a religious) bound by perpetual vows to live for a limited time outside their religious institute, usually with a view to discerning whether to depart definitively. [Wikipedia]

Noted in the video The legendary ‘miracle’ rings of Ourense, by the BBC.

As Bitcoin labors under the shadow of $TRUMP, the year comes to an end. Here’s the 1 year chart from CoinMarketCap:

That’s about a 30% drop from high to today, and volatility not really viable for a currency-pretender, especially over 2-3 months. I remain skeptical of Bitcoin’s long-term viability.

Earlier this year the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts abruptly became the The Trump Kennedy Center. How has this gross expression of ego and incompetence worked out for them? Here’s ticket sales:

2020 & 2021 drops were due to the pandemic, of course, and 2022’s recovery due to the efficacy of the vaccine. 2025?

Trump’s unpopularity, his public displays of unearned ego, and his abuse of democracy. Artists are canceling, see above link, as they run from Trump’s diseased estimates of himself and his worth.

But all this is obvious.

Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971) is a brisk look at the role of a witch, located in Pepperinge Eye near the Dorset coast, in World War II, caring for young orphans and helping to repulse a German probe of British defenses. Roles of witch, orphans, raiders, and headmaster of the Witches’ Academy are well-delineated and filled, the result being a rather fun little romp.

Enjoy, as did we.

Less than two weeks ago, DJT (Trump Media & Technology Group Corp) announced a deal to merge with fusion power company TAE Technologies, and DJT’s price jumped to $16.09/sh, more than a 40% gain – certainly nowhere near its peak of $97/sh, but perhaps a step towards it, or so many investors who are underwater are hoping. Any progress? Here’s a 1 month chart:

Nope. In fact, from that local high to today’s close of $12.57, it’s declined by 21%. Investors are not confident.

Perhaps in an effort to boost the price, DJT announced an addition to its, errr, menagerie of offerings:

Yorkville America Equities, sponsor and investment advisor for the Truth Social exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), announced that the first five Truth Social ETFs are launching today on the New York Stock Exchange.

The ETFs are part of the Truth.Fi fintech brand from Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (Nasdaq, NYSE Texas: DJT) (“Trump Media”), operator of the social media platform Truth Social and the streaming platform Truth+. [Truth Social press release via yahoo!finance]

Their reasoning is a red flag:

Trump Media CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes said, “We’re gratified to make available a slate of ETFs for patriotic investors who want to invest in American ingenuity. These unique funds provide an excellent way for Americans to express their optimism about the strength, resiliency, and immense future prospects of the American economy.”

Designed to appeal to the inexperienced investor who has not yet learned to disconnect emotion from investing.

I have never learned the difference between mutual funds and ETFs, so I have little to offer on that front, but these instruments’ association with DJT are, for me, another red flag.

And, if meant to boost DJT’s price, it’s not having immediate success, see above. The next few business days should prove interesting.

Denise: Mob boss.

Death on the Tyne (2018) is set on the ferry Tyne, I think it was, Newcastle to Amsterdam. Multiple dramas are occurring: a hen party, it’s the horny old Captain’s last cruise, his successor is engaged to the ship’s singer, and Draper’s Tours is shepherding a group of 55 assisted living residents to Amsterdam, while trying to propose marriage.

Sadly, only three residents actually make the tour, as the rest, uh, maybe died?

Oh, and the ferry’s mascot, Dippy the Dolphin, is murdering random victims.

Sounds silly? It is, it had my Arts Editor muttering.

But it has a saving grace: the dialog is not stilted and tired. It reveals the often self-centered thoughts of those delivering it – and some of it is hilarious.

Don’t get me wrong, you won’t recall this movie on your deathbed. I hope.

But if you like biting dialog, this may be worth a look.

Gnosis:

Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge (γνῶσις, gnōsis, f.). The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it signifies a spiritual knowledge or insight into humanity‘s real nature as divine, leading to the deliverance of the divine spark within humanity from the constraints of earthly existence. [Wikipedia]

Noted in “How a Private Conversation about Gender Got Me Fired from My Dream Job“, anonymous, LGB: Courage Coalition:

When I carefully, painstakingly pointed this out—like walking on eggshells—the pushback was swift and severe. Hell hath no fury like a woke woman mildly disagreed with by a “cis white man.” The women in the training absolutely piled on me. One Black woman from South Carolina told me that my anger was “blinding” me and that I needed to “listen” more. I’m fairly certain that she meant “listen” to her, because, as a woman of color—or better yet, a “Black femme”—she is in possession of a kind of wisdom, a gnosis if you will, or at least a vantage point atop the woke hierarchy that I, a “white cis gay,” will never fathom.

Reject compromise, become more extreme, even in sense of humor.

A Republican lawmaker raised eyebrows after posting AI-generated images on Christmas Day that depicted him beating up Santa Claus.

Indiana state Sen. Chris Garten’s post on the morning of December 25, where he was pictured body-slamming Santa in front of the state capitol building, did not go down well with his followers on social media. [The Independent]

Nor did he react well when his vicious incoherence was criticized:

“With everything going on in the world, I struggle to understand why my evidently humorous post is considered news,” Garten told The Independent. “The fake outrage online is a stark reminder of how overly sensitive society has become, and maybe some self-reflection is in order,” he added.

A few hours after posting, Garten acknowledged the backlash in a follow-up message where he labeled his critics “snowflakes.”

While self-reflection is often in order in politics, abusing the big S Claus did not come off as humorous. I wonder how many calls for his resignation will result.

And if the Democrats will overperform, given the chance.

The venerable Freddie deBoer, self-aware leftist, has some remarks on the following lefty generations (partial paywall, gives you a taste):

The idea that “the personal is political” has proven to be one of the worst intellectual developments in the history of the left. I would argue that, more than any other ideological influence, this idea has underpinned the social justice turn in American liberalism, which has transformed the language and norms of contemporary left-of-center people and briefly the politics of the Democratic party. That famous little nostrum has ruled over a period of time in which any sense of politics as an exercise beyond and outside of the self has collapsed, leaving us with generations of progressive people who think that doing politics is all about feeling and not doing, who mistake posting black squares on Instagram and liking Frank Ocean for doing politics. “The personal is political” is why people think that crying until the other person stops talking is an appropriate way to debate, why the representation of Black woman in the next season of Love is Blind is treated as a bigger deal than lead in the drinking water in Black communities, why autism and ADHD have become lifestyle trends with vague activist connotations, why an entire generation of culture writers churn out pieces about how Inspector Gadget is propaganda for white supremacy, why left-of-center American politics is so horribly immaterial, why feelings have utterly eaten actual material oppression as the concern of the left. I’m not a fan.

I had not thought about, nor observed, this. In a sense, the personal is political is anti-compromise; it admits no error as there is no appeal to shared thoughts, and so becomes anti-intellectual; as a failure to explore options, the left, like the right, becomes obdurate and arrogant in its pitiful world.

This may require some meditation.

“Parkinson’s is a preventable disease. It’s not a natural consequence of aging. Eighty-seven percent of Americans have no known genetic cause,” [Dr. Ray] Dorsey said. [WaPo]

We usually call it sex and get on with it.

The Sign of Four (1983) is from the Sherlock Holmes canon and concerns an immense fortune, stolen from India, and what members of a certain group will do to get it. Competently told, this is a middle of the roader.

There are at least three other films of this Holmes story out there.

Gastrocolic reflex:

If you’ve noticed that you often have to poop right after you eat, you might wonder if food just goes straight through you. It’s not that: It’s your gastrocolic reflex. It’s an automatic trigger in your digestive system that tells your bowels to move old food out to make room for the new. It’s perfectly normal, but it can differ between people. [Cleveland Clinic]

I shan’t share. Noted in “What you put in your coffee can have an outsize impact on your health,” Trisha Pasricha, MD (WaPo):

Senator Mullin (R-OK) is today’s contestant!

Mullin: President Trump is our champion. We’re the players. He’s the coach.

Clearly not conversant with our style of government.

From WaPo (paywall?):

Scanning a loyalty card might be costing you money.

Companies say they’re rewarding your devotion with points, discounts and perks. But behind the scenes, many are using these programs to monitor your behavior and build a profile — then charge you what they think you’ll pay.

I discovered evidence of this in my Starbucks app. Using California’s privacy law, I asked the company to send me the data its rewards program had collected about me.

Then I shared that data with two former Federal Trade Commission officials who spent careers defending consumers. They spotted a startling pattern in the numbers: During months when I bought more coffee, the app offered me fewer promotions. Sure, I was still collecting “stars” I could use for freebies. But the more loyal I was, the fewer discounts I got.

For the record, Starbucks denies it.

Look, call them by their most accurate name: identification cards. They let retailers identify and leverage individual buying habits, maximizing profits on your back.

I’m fortunate, I don’t think I’ve ever had such a card, but for unrelated reasons, not because I’m paranoid. Keeping life simple pays off.

The shark tip-toed into the room. The door creaked, and Kolossus turned, startled. He didn’t remember that door!

Mega Shark vs. Kolossus (2015), the fourth in a series unfamiliar to me, is a wretched piece of work, but at least it has the basics of a plot – attempt to kill the eponymous shark, fail, losses, another attempt, more payment, that sort of thing. All logical in context.

But details matter, and here the details are silly. We could compare to an old favorite, Pacific Rim (2013), which also features sea monsters and robots – and is way beyond this. But the latter had believable characters, and this does not. It’s populated by tired cliches.

Don’t waste your time.