A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
Conservatives amp up their mission to MAGA-fy America by overshadowing Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance with Turning Point USA’s own D-list halftime show, and Michael Kosta connects the dots between Trump’s call for Republicans to "nationalize" voting and the president's never-ending claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Plus, Troy Iwata explains why Trump’s pitch to cancel the midterms is peak comedy.
I've called "the president's never-ending claim that the 2020 election was stolen" the Big Lie.
Personally, I'd rather call it Trump's dangerous delusion, his fixed belief that the election was stolen from him despite allevidence, which I see as related to his vulnerabilitytoconspiracy theories, but "the Big Lie" is the established phrase used by CNBC and others, so I'm calling it that instead. It's a lie, too.
Mayer's reporting shows that Trump's delusion is not just dangerous but contagious. It's bad enough that there is one pandemic running around; we don't need another.
The delusion has continued to spread, infecting a lot of candidates in today's elections. Ugh.
And now he has an Administration dedicated to it.
I'm glad Michael Kosta and Troy Iwata can find the humor in it. I can't; I'm too scared to laugh.
Kid Rock is set to headline an unofficial Super Bowl halftime show for conservatives who don't like Bad Bunny, the mascots for the 2026 Winter Olympics have been revealed, and Chicago residents can visit http://Chicagoshovels.org to vote to name their new snow plow after Stephen Colbert.
My geology students do an exercise where they shade in the United States. I always instruct them to include Puerto Rico just to drive home the point that it's part of the U.S. If the NFL didn't disable embedding, I'd share Bad Bunny's halftime show on FlagDay. Instead, I'm looking forward to seeing how many Emmy nominations it earns this July. Bad Bunny has already earned two GRAMMYs this week. Follow over the jump for his acceptance speeches. Yes, this is now an awards show post.
Trump declares himself "absolved" by the latest release of Epstein files, while Elon Musk’s Christmas wish for a trip to the sex island is put on blast, and Jon Stewart finds himself on Epstein’s list… for documentary voiceovers. Plus, as MAGA continues to shield the president from all accountability, Jon Stewart shines a light on the double standard of sanctuary given to Trump vs. immigrants.
Yes, releasing these files in installments really does seem like Groundhog Day. Things repeat and they don't seem to change. Sigh. At least we got a funny, if puerile, image out of it and some schadenfreude out of Stewart making a cameo in the files. Hey, at least it wasn't his doing.
President Trump is referenced thousands of times and accused of hideous crimes in the latest release of documents from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the Department of Justice failed to redact the identities and personal information of many of Epstein's victims, and the DOJ announced that there will be no investigation into any of the prominent men implicated in the files.
Like Stewart, Stephen also mentioned Elon Musk emailing Epstein on Christmas morning — top of the next year's naughty list, indeed! Too bad Todd Blanche, who I haven't mentioned here before, declared there is no one new who could be prosecuted. No one Blanche, Pam Bondi, or Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump is willing to prosecute, that is. Again, sigh.
Today is Groundhog Day, the ironically-titled Department of Justice released about half of the Epstein files, there were many disturbing accounts about a lot of famous people including Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk is in there too - more than a thousand times, Donald Trump’s name was mentioned 4,896 times, Trump’s Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s name pops up 138 times, there appears to be an email to Ghislaine Maxwell from Melania, Trump had the audacity to play the old “Jeffrey who?” card pretending they weren’t actually friends, Trump went after Jimmy in a late night Truth Social post criticizing Trevor Noah who hosted the Grammys, Trump is suing the IRS for $10 Billion, he also announced that he's closing The Trump Kennedy Center for renovations, Melania the movie made $7 million over the weekend, and journalist Don Lemon was arrested on Thursday night for covering an anti-ICE protest at a church in St. Paul.
I can understand Jimmy K's kids not believing Groundhog Day is a thing; they're growing up, like me, in southern California. Winter is not the oppressive presence there that it is here in Michigan or much of the rest of the Midwest and Northeast; in fact, it's relatively pleasant. It's not too hot and the hills are green. Only after I moved here did I understand the appeal of the day.
Thanks to Jimmy K and the Epstein files, Howard Lutnick makes an appearance in my blog for the first time. Since he's both Commerce Secretary and Epstein's former next-door neighbor, I'm sure it won't be the last.
Seth takes a closer look at Trump and his family getting a large investment from an Abu Dhabi royal for their private crypto company as he's named in the new Epstein files along with many other wealthy and powerful people.
While Melania had a record opening for a documentary, I'm sure it won't save it from a Razzie nomination or two. Being the highest grossing documentary of 2016 didn't save Hillary's America from winning four Razzies. Here's to hoping that history rhymes.
Groundhog Day forecast: Punxsutawney Phil is said to have seen his shadow Monday morning, predicting 6 more weeks of winter weather.
That was an easy call. Here in southeast Michigan, which has a similar climate to western Pennsylvania, it was clear and cold with a foot of snow on the ground, so all signs pointed to six more weeks of winter. In fact, that's what Woody, our local woodchuck in Howell, Michigan, predicted: "Michigan's official groundhog, Woody the Woodchuck, predicted six more weeks of winter." On the one hand, no surprise. On the other, brr!
The verdict from Gobbler’s Knob is official: Punxsutawney Phil spotted his shadow and called for six more weeks of winter. Join Stephanie Abrams and The Weather Channel’s own Senior Shadow Analyst, Chuck Burrows, as they break down the "game film" from this morning’s prediction.
Like the anchor, I had never heard of most of these animal forecasters before. Count this as learning something new, and it's always a good day when I learn something new. By the way, while the average accuracy of the animal auguries is 36%, Woody boasts a record of 65%. That's worth paying attention to.
That's a wrap for today's holiday. Stay tuned for more closer looks from the late night talk show hosts tomorrow.
White House Border Czar Tom Homan (Pete Davidson) meets with ICE agents (Kenan Thompson, James Austin Johnson, Mikey Day, Ben Marshall, Andrew Dismukes, Jeremy Culhane) in Minneapolis.
This is only the second time I've mentioned Tom Homan, responsible for familyseparation and caught on camera taking $50,000 in a fast-foot restaurant bag, the first being two days ago. He's certainly making a splash replacing Greg Bovino, who I've never mentioned here before and hope never to do so in another entry unless it's about any legal troubles he might face. Speaking of legal trouble, I watched the incident involving Don Lemon, who I haven't cited since 2021, and he was just doing his job; he wasn't one of the protestors. The feds arresting him is turning him into a hero of the Resistance, if he isn't already.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like the FBI investigating Trump’s false claim the 2020 election was rigged.
Donald Trump is a self-help apostle. He always has tried to create his own reality by saying what he wants to be true. Where many see failure, Trump sees only success, and expresses it out loud, again and again.
His wish might just come true. This works on the social environment, but not the physical and biological environment; it failed to work on the virus during the pandemic. He couldn't bully a virus.
But he can bully the Department of Justice, particularly with Pam Bondi in charge. This is on top of his positive thinking reinforcing the Big Lie.
Personally, I'd rather call it Trump's dangerous delusion, his fixed belief that the election was stolen from him despite allevidence, which I see as related to his vulnerabilitytoconspiracy theories, but "the Big Lie" is the established phrase used by CNBC and others, so I'm calling it that instead. It's a lie, too.
Mayer's reporting shows that Trump's delusion is not just dangerous but contagious. It's bad enough that there is one pandemic running around; we don't need another.
The delusion has continued to spread, infecting a lot of candidates in today's elections. Ugh.
And now he has an Administration dedicated to it.
The first segment mentioned the Melania documentary, which alone qualifies this entry as the Sunday entertainment feature, but Kanye West made a cameo in Luigi Mangione Won’t Face Death Penalty, cementing its status.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like Ye publishing an apology in The Wall Street Journal.
"Unless you have a pre-existing condition" would be funnier if it weren't so true.
Follow over the jump for the rest of last night's highlights.
I told my readers, "Stay tuned" as "I'm returning to awards show coverage [today], because the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films released the Saturn Awards nominations." I'm kicking the post off with Deadline Hollywood's paragraphs about the leading movie nominees.
Warner Bros’ record-setting Oscar nomination juggernaut Sinners, James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash and Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps lead all film nominees for the 53rd Saturn Awards, which recognize the year’s best movies, TV programs and home video releases in the fantasy, science fiction, horror, superhero and action-adventure genres.
...
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which snagged a record 16 Oscar nominations last week, landed 12 Saturn nominations, as did Avatar: Fire and Ash and Fantastic Four: First Steps. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein followed with 11 noms, while Wicked: For Good picked up nine and Superman had eight.
The second paragraph sets my agenda for the order of the movie posts. All things being equal, which they are for three most nominated films, I'll break the tie in favor of science fiction, so it's going first.
Best Science Fiction Film:
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Bugonia
Jurassic World: Rebirth
Predator: Badlands
The Running Man
Tron: Ares
In addition to Avatar: Fire and Ash leading with 12 nominations, Predator: Badlands follows with five, Tron: Ares with three, Bugonia with two, then Jurassic World: Rebirth and The Running Man with one each in this category. I usually go with the expert/professional opinion when I vote in the Saturn Awards unless I have good reason to vote otherwise. My "good reason" is that Avatar: Fire and Ash is more science fiction than Bugonia, which is more of a dark thriller/comedy until the end, when the science fiction element is shown to be true instead of a character's delusion. It's also going to win, so I'm going with the flow. My vote: Avatar: Fire and Ash.
I'm re-examining my predictions for this category before I examine the acting, directing, writing, and craft nominations. As recently as November, I predicted "a match between Lilo & Stitch and Jurassic World: Rebirth" for this award, which I would have resolved in favor of the dinosaurs. Neither part of that will happen. First, Lilo & Stitch earned its nomination for Best Fantasy film. Second, the Academy extended its eligiblity period until about the end of 2025, making more films eligible. That's good news in that it allowed for higher quality fields with better comparisons with other awards. It's bad because the films released during November and December 2024 seemed to be dropped from consideration. No nominations for Wicked in film, just Wicked: For Good, for example. Hmph! In reaction/protest, I'm transferring the votes I would have cast for Wicked to Wicked: For Good.
Follow over the jump for the movie acting, directing, writing, and craft nominations and my votes.
Democrats express their outrage over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, with Chuck Schumer calling Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller "f**king liars" and Hakeem Jeffries on accidental mute. Plus, Desi Lydic plunges into the world of Melania ahead of her documentary debut, which was produced by Jeff Bezos, directed by disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner, and created by a crew too ashamed to have their names in the credits.
As for the Melania documentary itself, it's pretty transparently an attempt by Jeff Bezos and Amazon to curry favor with Hoover Harding Cleveland and a cash grab plus PR opportunity for the Trump family, as Michael Kosta and Ronny Chieng point out. Just for that, I hope it fails as PR/propaganda as well as at the box office, and earns a Razzie nomination or two next year.
Seth addresses Melania Trump's documentary Melania opening worldwide and more in his monologue for Thursday, January 29, before taking a closer look at Trump spreading lies after Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town hall event.
Hoover Harding Cleveland telling self-serving lies and insane takes on the news? What a surprise — not! Time to remind my readers that the voices in his head are not reliable sources. This includes Pam Bondi deceiving herself about all "the creative and correctly spelled signs" being a sign of outside influence. No, she's just dealing with a well-educated population in Minnesota, along with Democrats writing better than Republicans.
We are once again staring at another government shutdown, Trump has a new celebrity friend in Nicki Minaj, she is now in possession of a Trump Gold Card which she claims she got for free, Trump had another cabinet meeting today where he ranted about windmills and extolled the virtues of coal, Trump’s FBI has been raiding the elections office in Fulton County, Georgia as part of an investigation into “voter fraud” in the 2020 election, Tulsi Gabbard showed up to watch which isn’t suspicious at all, Border Czar Tom Homan is in Minneapolis doing his best to right the ship, a smattering of Republicans have stepped forward to criticize the damaged brains behind this operation, tonight was the much hyped premiere of Melania’s documentary, she has been doing rounds of press to promote it, and we ask folks passing by a movie theater what they think of it even though they haven’t seen it yet.
Jimmy K is right; gold card visas are actually issued by the government, not Hoover Harding Cleveland himself. The man has the worst case of "L'État, c'est moi" I've ever seen. As far as he's concerned, he is the country! At least when he says "boom," he doesn't sound like Crazy Frog.
In addition to blogging about the First Lady for the first time in a while, I'm mentioning Tulsi Gabbard for the first time in months. Despite what Jimmy K said, she does have some domestic jurisdiction, overseeing the FBI Intelligence Branch (IB), Coast Guard Intelligence, Office of National Security Intelligence (Part of the Drug Enforcement Agency), and the Offices of Intelligence and Analysis for both the Department of Homeland Security and Department of the Treasury. Those authorities make her presence even more ominous.
As for the men and women on the street interviews about Melania the documentary, those were hiliarious, even though a lot of them were reading cue cards instead of giving candid reactions.
The Boss dropped a fiery anti-ICE protest song, the people of Milan don't want Trump's DHS thugs to provide security at the Winter Olympics, the president's latest MAGA fundraising email is bizarrely threatening, and no one wants to see the First Lady's movie.
It's hard to protest Amazon by buying stuff on Amazon. Sigh.
Directed by Thom Zimny
Edited by Thom Zimny and Samuel Shapiro
Production Footage: Pam Springsteen and Thom Zimny
That's a wrap for today. I'm returning to awards show coverage tomorrow, because the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films released the Saturn Awards nominations. Stay tuned.
My planned "brief entry worth sharing next month" grew yesterday with two major artists releasing protest songs along with my original choice, the Marsh Family. The biggest artist and most popular song is Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio).
Lyrics:
Through the winter’s ice and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
‘Neath an occupier’s boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
Against smoke and rubber bullets
By the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Trump’s federal thugs beat up on
His face and his chest
Then we heard the gunshots
And Alex Pretti lay in the snow, dead
Their claim was self defense, sir
Just don’t believe your eyes
It’s our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight
In chants of ICE out now
Our city’s heart and soul persists
Through broken glass and bloody tears
On the streets of Minneapolis
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We hope the good people of San Francisco won’t mind us adapting this iconic track (about their city in the sixties, in the midst of protests and the counterculture movement) to treat the tragedies in recent days and weeks in Minneapolis. The original song was written by John Phillips (of "The Mamas & the Papas") and first released (sung by Scott McKenzie) in 1967, reaching number one in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand charts, though only fourth in the US. We chose it because of its link to protest, its soaring refrains, its simplicity, its earnestness, and its celebration of love and solidarity. In our arrangement we haven’t double tracked the vocals but have added harmonies and mandolin/violin lines.
Atomic scientists set their 'Doomsday Clock' closer than ever to midnight, citing aggressive behavior by nuclear powers Russia, China and the US, fraying nuclear arms control, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and AI worries among factors driving risks for global disaster.
Since 2012, the Doomsday Clock time has either shifted closer to midnight or stayed the same.
In 2012, the Clock was moved to 5 minutes to midnight.
In 2015, it was moved to 3 minutes.
In 2017, it was moved to 2 ½ minutes.
In 2018, it was moved to 2 minutes.
In 2020, it was moved to 100 seconds.
In 2023, it was moved to 90 seconds.
Last year, it was moved to 89 seconds.
Today, it was moved to 85 seconds to midnight.
Leading experts who study existential risks believe humanity is the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe.
In the Doomsday Clock statement, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board (SASB) releases side bars on each of the threats the Clock reflects—nuclear risk, climate change, disruptive technologies, and biological threats.
Across the board, excerpts from the SASB’s statement reflect a world that is failing to combat the most consequential threats humanity faces.
From the acceleration of a renewed nuclear arms race to the rise of nationalistic autocracies around the world, 2025 was an exceedingly dangerous year.
But what many don’t realize is that the Doomsday Clock can turn—and has turned—backwards. Eight times, to be exact.
Whether it does so again is up to humanity’s ability to learn from the past and to dedicate our time, effort, and resources to building a future where people can live free from the danger of existential threats.
In the Clock statement, the SASB notes that “national leaders–particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China–must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink” and that “citizens must insist they do so.”
Until that happens…
IT IS 85 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT.
Those are all the time changes since I began writing this blog in 2011. On the one hand, yay, we've survived this long! On the other, the steady movement of the hands of the clock to midnight since 2012 is depressing and alarming. It's certainly not scaring the people now in power into behaving better.
That's a wrap for today's post. Stay tuned for another brief entry worth sharing next month, which begins Sunday.
“Islands in the Stream” was written by the Bee Gees, named after an Ernest Hemingway novel, and first intended for Diana Ross … but it found its most famous home in the epic country rendition released by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton in 1983 which was Dolly’s second number one hit – knocking Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” off the top spot!
We had planned to do a cover of it to mark Dolly’s 80th birthday earlier this week. But with the bizarre episodes engineered by Donald Trump and some of his despicable false claims about NATO and track records dominating headlines this week, we determined to create a parody reflecting on his increasingly rambling, drivelling, narcissistic, and palpably untrue speeches – including notably the one he gave at Davos as he climbed down (for now) from his bullying of Greenland (not Iceland, as in the clip).
...
*Update 12 hours after upload: thanks for helpful people adding to our fact checking, and reminding that although Trump “taunted men who served as soldiers” there were also many female service people and sadly casualties in the Afghanistan operation.
I feel you, Marsh Family, and so do many other Americans.
Stay tuned for this year's unveiling of the Doomsday Clock. How many seconds to midnight are we now?
In this moving short documentary, a journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.
This is an expanded version of The Lost Class, a PSA about gun violence nominated for Outstanding Commercial at the 2022 Emmy Awards, showing all the empty chairs of students lost to gun violence who would have graduated from high school had they lived. That worked because of the sheer numbers, 3,044, but it wasn't about the individual victims; fellow Emmy nominee Teenage Dream did that for the survivors. All the Empty Rooms personalizes the issue for those who never came home.
Since the video has no description, I'm sharing the one from IMDB: "Israeli peace activists hold silent vigils in Tel Aviv, displaying photos of Gaza's young victims. Despite facing public backlash, their wordless demonstrations powerfully highlight war's human cost." This is another side of 'We Will Dance Again' leads Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary nominees at the News & Doc Emmy Awards. That was about the Israeli victims of the October 7th attack on the Nova Music Festival. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary, something I didn't acknowledge until now. Being interrupted by a hostile commenter trolling the entry will do that. This is about some Israelis' reaction to their government's response.
"Before I send them in, I look in their eyes. I say to them, 'you’re safe now.'"
#TheDevilsBusy offers an intimate look inside a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta, where Tracii leads security to ensure safety and care amid protests and restrictions.
'Perfectly A Strangeness' by Alison McAlpine official trailer, 2026 Oscar® Nominated in the best Documentary Short Film category.
Synopsis: In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.
This has the most science content of any of the nominees except for possibly The Devil Is Busy, which has some health content amongst the social commentary. Just the same, I doubt I'll recommend it to my students. Sometimes, blogging as professional development doesn't yield positive results.
As I wrote above, the nominees are in the same order in the Gold Derby odds as they are in the alphabet. What are the odds of that happening? All the Empty Rooms has the first place votes of 70.0% of experts, 66.7% of editors, and 81.0% of users. Armed Only With A Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud sits in second among all three groups as the choice of 20.0% of experts, 33.3% of editors, and 12.7% of users. No experts picked either Children No More: Were and Are Gone or The Devil Is Busy, the selections of 2.6% and 2.0% of users, respectively. Instead, the remaining expert is currently voting for Perfectly a Strangeness along with 1.7% of users. The film school students might like this last one, but everyone in the Motion Picture Academy votes for the winner, and I think they'll vote for one of the top two choices. Remember, electorates matter.
Again, that's a wrap for today's awards show coverage. Stay tuned for two brief entries worth sharing next month sandwiching this year's unveiling of the Doomsday Clock on Wednesday.
