My Thoughts on Trump 2.0

I thought I'd drop my thoughts here about Trump's second presidency instead of leaping into the polluted waters of social media.

Here goes.

As for Trump 1.0, Robert Reich has already given Trump the failing grade he deserves, not to mention Rick Wilson's scathing review, so I will refrain from giving my thoughts.

Instead, here is how a Discourse Analyst sees it.

1) Trump Winning Was Foreseeable (and Facilitated by the Left)

The past few weeks there was a serious uptick in left leaning sites gloating about Trump's 'worst day' and predicting a Harris victory. This is both a worrying signal of complacency as well as a media trend that conversely emboldens Trump-sympathetic Americans into voting for him to pwn the leftist elites.

The left (ie Harris) should have been focusing on issues that appeal to ALL Americans instead of laughing at one American (Trump) who appeals to many others. And who feel insulted along with him.

It reminded me of nothing else than the moment when Obama showed The Lion King at the correspondents dinner in 2011. Trump was in the audience, and Obama's response to the birther theory Trump espoused was witty, but also condescending. There is a shot during the exchange of Trump, sitting stock still while the room erupts with laughter at his expense.

If you ask me, this is the moment when Trump decides to become president. "You got me," his stiffness seems to convey, "But I will get you."

The Trump presidency was a spite presidency, the ultimate victory of a wounded male ego of epic proportions propped up by millions of smaller ego who resonated with similar hurt and hate.

Not understanding this sowed the seeds of the 2nd Trump presidency.

2) Donald Trump Isn't The Real Threat

As Reich noted, Trump was a dud as president, and only his inability to govern effectively saved America from worse. In many ways, he seems more cognitively impaired and in decline than ever.

Trump is no longer to be feared. It is instead the Project 2025 architects who surround him that will do the real damage. Although the real extent of Trump's decline is debatable, his followers have created their own playbook and have four years to ram as much of t through as they can, while supported by a base that is either indifferent or supportive of its extremist vision for America.

Here is what we can expect from 'murica 2024-2029

Increase in GDP (fueled by record corporate profits and lowered wages and worker protections)

Further dismantling of government organizations, such as what Trump did to the Covid response team (I suspect the EPA and education will go back on the chopping block)

Some sort of armed conflict in which America colludes or sides with tyranny (the end of Ukraine? Palestine)

Attempts to exonerate Trump for his crimes and possibly change the term limit for US presidents

So go out for a walk in the woods, hug your friends, and have a cup of tea. You'll need it.

Alien Romulus Review - Soulless Paint By Numbers (SPOILERS)

Saw this last night. Always been a big fan of the original films - Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus.

Romulus was close, but no cigar. You can tell that Fede loves the original films as much as anyone, and that he is a talented filmmaker. But he is interested in the spectacle, not the story. What we got was more of a cutscene than cinema. I wanted to love it, but came away only liking it.

Here is what it needed:

1 Give Us Characters We Give A Shit About

The original Alien gave us unforgettable characters. Without Googling I can name them off. Dallas. Ash. Kane. Parker. Ripley. Jonesy. Lambert. Brett.

We remember them because the original Alien lingered slowly on the characters so much that we knew and liked them. Even before there was any threat, we saw these working joes and empathisized with them stuck in their shitty jobs because we are equally stuck in ours. We could have watched two hours of them bitching about the shares in their contracts, hating on one another, and complaining about the food.

So when the alien shows up, we are scared and horrified for the people we know, the break from the routine. The chest burster scene isn't amazing because some puppeteer put his hand under John Hurt's shirt, but because we lost a friend in a horrifying way. (This is something Alien has in common with The Thing, another classic)

Ditto Aliens. We're not all soldiers, but getting to know Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, and Apone made us admire them and mourn when they get picked off. Except Burke, because fuck Burke.

Prometheus is where the series (I hate the marketing word franchaise) started giving us unloveable characters. We kind of like Shaw's pluckiness and are creeped out by David, we admire Captain and distrust Vickers. We may even remember Millburn and Fifield as the two idiots who get themselves killed petting dicksnakes.

But we don't really bond with the characters anymore. They're not working joes, they're meddlers in the unknown on a corporate mission that makes little sense.

Romulus gives us flat, one dimensional characters without much of a reason to like them, or care that they're in danger. I remember Rain is the last girl, Andy is the robot. Other than that is British prick guy, the ex boyfriend, bald Asian pilot, and pregnant girl. They aren't characters, they are types, and thus hard to bond with.

How could Fede have fixed this?

Cut out that silly, unnecessary scene of Weyland-Yutani staff finding the original alien. We learn about it later when the characters meet the science officer Rook anyway. Also, it is intended to make us hate the company, which we do already, and seeing the planet the characters are on gives us a taste of that.

Instead, give us 20 minutes hanging out with the kids. Let us see Rain's dad, how nice he was, then get the news he's been killed in the mines. Ditto British guy's mom. Add a few kids, give them all personalities and tragic backstories. Show us, don't just tell us.

That would have made us care when they start getting killed.

2 Let The World & Drama Unfold At Its Own Pace

Just as we are not given the time to know the characters, we are rushed through a Disneyworld like tour of the corporate space that is the real horror of Alien(s). It feels like Alvarez has a checklist of Shitty Dystopia tropes he is ticking off fast as he can so he can 'get to the good stuff.'

Unsafe work conditions? CHECK
Broken corporate promises? CHECK
Union agitators? CHECK
Senseless street crime? CHECK

But the universe of Weyland-Yutani IS the good stuff. We want to savour it, to see how different yet similar it is to our own. The Alien RPG knows this and spends pages of text and gives beautiful art to ground us in this.

Instead, show us how these kids are getting by in the corporate hellscape, how they have the life and tech hacking skills from navigating Elon Musk Space Prison to make us believe they have a chance of pulling off the caper. And this film is a caper movie, but doesn't seem to know that itself. 

The Asian chick is a pilot? Good, make her from a family of pilots, slightly higher in the food chain than her mine worker friends.
The Brit has a big lighter and likes to trash talk? Make him the son of a tough UK security guy devastated and drug addicted by his wife's death.
The boyfriend knows how to use guns from video games? Give us a shot of him in a VR headset destroying space beasts and customizing his guns.

So much could have been done.

And here is a related issue. In Alien we believe these are space truckers because time is spent showing their drudgery. We believe we are watching colonial marines in Aliens because we see them doing chin ups and shit talking one another. Once again, Prometheus gives us a weird science expedition briefing, but it is enough that we believe these people are on a mission.

Romulus gives us no one that seems real. Take the lady who denies Rain's request to leave the planet. She is just a grumpy office worker. Take a page from Neil Blompkamp, who would have made a stellar Alien film if allowed. In Elysium Matt Damon's character has to talk to a remorseless robot parole officer. THIS would have been excellent with Rain.

3 More New Stuff, Less Overt Old Stuff

Let's give Fede his due - he introduced some good new stuff. The final Alien? Stuff of nightmares. Hiding your heat signature from facehuggers? Meh, kind of like no teeth fillings as a tell from The Thing prequel. Using the black goo to go transhuman? Interesting if underdeveloped. But at least he is thinking and trying.

But at any rate, Fede has shown he can spice things up, and has the tech and knowhow to make a good action film.

As for his callbacks and easter eggs...

Listen, I appreciate the readout mirrored on a helmet. But someone should go through the film to count how many drinking birds are in it. We get it, its an Alien film, you don't need to signal every ten seconds. Easter eggs are less interesting than sly callbacks. The "Get away from her you bitch" line was cringecool, but would have been just cool if it hadn't been telegraphed so much.

Conclusion

B or B -, could have been an A or the coveted S had we gotten to know, like, and fear for the characters.

Spam Discourse

NOTE: This is an unfinished post from years ago I am posting to relieve my backlog and start afresh.

Spam Emails are a modern inconvenience. What are the discourses on display in spam emails?

This is the Email:

Message from sender: GOOD DAY

MY NAME IS MS BIANCA MORRIS WILLIAMS,WIFE OF LATE AMBASSADOR OF JAMAICA TO IVORY COAST,PLEASE I WANT YOU TO REPLY ME BACK AS SOON AS YOU READ THIS MESSAGE BECAUSE I WANT TO DISCUSS SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT WITH YOU,I AM A CANCER PATIENT WITH A VERY SHORT TIME TO LIVE AND I AM CONTACTING YOU BECAUSE I WANT TO ENTRUST THE SUM OF (USD$12.7MILLION)TO YOUR HAND AS A DONATION FOR CHARITY WORK., TO HELP THE ORPHANAGES, WIDOWS, AND MOTHERLESS CHILDREN AROUND YOU, THIS MONEY WAS DEPOSITED BY MY LATE HUSBAND IN ONE OF THE BANK HERE IN ABIDJAN AND OUR PLAN WAS TO USE IT FOR INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT BEFORE DEATH TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME ,,I AM WAITING YOUR URGENT REPLY FOR MORE INSTRUCTION AND INFORMATION ABOUT THIS FUND,

REGARDS
MS BIANCA MORRIS WILLIAMS 

Movimentos Micropolíticos em Saúde, Formação e Reabilitação


First, looking at pretext, the subject line "MS BIANCA M WILLIAMS" gives us three different aspects if identity. The all caps font can be both a sign of amateur, as well as a raised voice. Next, the use of 'MS', for unmarried female, suggests both availability and need of help. Last, the name in the header has two different discourses, that of the Caribbean 'Bianca' and the English 'MORRIS WILLIAMS.'

There are several attempts to exercise power of persuasion over the reader. The first is the identification of the speaker as 'A CANCER PATIENT', designed to curry sympathy. 

As for hypertext, the final line of the text is a hyperlink, as visible by its blue colour and underlined font.

Cultural Appropriation vs Cultural Appreciation

NOTE These are thoughts from an unfinished article from years ago. I am tying to empty out my backlog to start afresh.

I hesitated commenting on the native headdress photo shoot of a white media student who does modelling in Japan, where you can rent kimonos and get painted like a geisha.

The question:
How can we do good cultural appreciation vs bad cultural appropriation? Two prerequisites.

1) The community approves of it, ie has the power over their image and is happy to spread their unique culture for profit or goodwill
2) The community is involved in making it, ie not headdresses made in sweatshops for sporting fans or photo shoots

It is disingenuous to say "Who do I ask permission?" Like kimono shops in Kyoto, permission is everywhere. If you are asking this question seriously, then you should not do it.

The Japanese were insensitive to the use of the headdress because they see it just as a neutral cultural marker, like their kimonos. They were a colonial power and are still an economic one, unlike indigenous people in the USA.

Wakanda & Black on Black Violence Forever

NOTE - This is an unfinished post from years ago that I want to clear out as I re-orient myself towards scholarship.

I was in New York a few days ago, and had the chance to go see Black Panther in the cinema. I loved its subversive take on racial politics and afro-futurism.

I have also started watching the Black Panther animated series, the first two episodes of which Marvel has generously uploaded to YouTube. The series is replete with discourses, not surprising as it has become a central Marvel property, and one designed specifically with race and American politics as a selling point. I'd like to dive into some of these here.

Born in Violence

S1 E1 of the anime starts with invisible Wakandans massacring warriors from another tribe.

That the Wakandans are invisible and use technology instead of face-to-face battle sets up a curious analogy with modern US drone strikes. Also, Black on Black Violence (BoBV) is depicted graphically here in a way that white violence is not.

Wakanda, the Anti-America

Later, in the White House, presidential aide Everett Ross tells how Wakanda repulsed colonial powers, but this is not shown.

"Wakanda is a small country in Africa for never having been conquered in its entire history. When you consider the history of the region, the fact that the French, the English, the Belgians or any number of Christian or Islamic invaders were never able to defeat them in battle, well, it's unprecedented. The Wakandans have a warrior spirit that makes the Vietnamese look like, well, the French. They've also maintained a technological superiority that defies explanation." (4:09-4:36). 

Like ancient technology, black superiority is hard for Americans to believe. This requires an attempt to compare the Wakandans, but like the realworld colonial exception that is Japan, none of the analogies make sense or are useful. Wakanda, like Japan, is its own civilization, its own empire of supposed inferior people who suprisingly give America a run for its money. Ross goes on to deny Soviet or other influences, and mentions Wakanda's independence from oil and use of environmentally-friendly technology.

Wakanda is, in effect, an anti-America. It uses technological superiority to defeat foes like America, flips the demographics for a black supremacy, and stands freer than the US ever could of both opposing state and corporate interests.

When the 1941 Black Panther says to Captain America "We take our borders very seriously, and you have crossed ours" (8:20-8:25), this is a deliciously ironic reversal of American border policy discourse. White ubermensch Cap is now the illegal alien, and the black, technologically superior Panther the 

Revising Fantasy History

The anime is notable for the absence of blacks fighting white oppressors, a palpable absence in the tory of a character named after realworld fighters for black rights and independence.

First, white oppression cannot be shown, but BoBV is on full display. There is a flashback of Nazi solders (German) being slaughtered which is filmed like history. Wrong side of the history being vanquished in a sanitized fashion compared to the bloodshed of Wakandan self-defence against other Africans.

Next, the independence of Wakanda is stressed.

WWII Cap issues the ultimatum 8:16-8:19 "These are dangerous times. You need to choose a side. "

BP replies "We have. Our own." 

This is the struggle for vibranium for rockets on either side of the UK-German conflict. Paoints Wakanda as an Afro-futurist neutral power uninvolved in white imperialism and its conflicts.


Last, black is a racial identity, not a national one, except for Wakandans.

Lots of statements trying to put Wakanda in the context of 20th century US geopolitics.

"They're a rogue state."

"Before you go adding them to the Axis of Evil, I should point out that they have never invaded anyone. The only time they've taken hostile action is defending their own borders."

"But a regime change could bring about a change in that policy."

This villifies American foreign policy and meddling in sovereign states that leads to further tyranny.

There are also subtle comments on the present day America.

"There is no way that bonehead is taking the throne. They have a literacy requirement." (13:08-13:13). Is this a jab at Trump?

Conclusions

The live action movies have had to 'play it safe' and thus have gotten progressively more conservative / boring. The hint of questioning Wakanda's aloofness and supremacy while letting black people suffer was one of the refreshing highpoints of the first film that seems lost after the untimely death of Chaswick Boseman. The anime seems to have a lot more discursive range.

Sources

Gordon, Max. (2018). "Come Get Your Life, Come Get Your Death." Medium.com.
https://medium.com/s/story/come-get-your-life-come-get-your-death-on-ryan-cooglers-black-panther-616039d97e5d

Marvel Entertainment. (2018). "Marvel Knights Animation - Black Panther - Episode 1." YouTube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry8e5ldzLDQ

Saving The Lost Ones in Newfoundland

An unknown soldier from Newfoundland, whose body lay in France for a century, has been returned to St. John's. As I drove home through town yesterday, I was amazed to see Newfoundlanders out in uniform en masse, holding the Union Jack, and waiting for the procession.

I am conflicted about this.

On the one hand, it is only fitting we honour someone who laid their life on the line for their country. The show of sympathy for one poor, lost Newfoundlander coming home after a century in foreign soil was moving.

On the other hand, where was this mass outpouring of sympathy when other poor, lost Newfoundlanders shivered in tents in Bannerman Park for months? People insist we need to honour this fallen soldier who fought for our safety, but what would he think of us leaving fellow Newfoundlanders to freeze? He might even ask us how we could do such a callous, inhuman thing.

The answer is that it is easier to give premier Furey a free flight to France to bring home a poor, dead lost one, than to stay here and make an actual effort to save all the living lost ones in St. John's. History shows us that as a government gets more corrupt and ineffective, there is an uptick of parades and spectacle. Pane et circum writ large to distract from the shivering masses.

And flying the Union Jack, the flag of the country that ended Newfoundland's 79 years of self-government and essentially stole the country that this young soldier died for, is a bitter irony. 

In Newfoundland, we used to have a Memorial University to elevate the youth our soldiers sacrificed themselves for, so their deaths would not be in vain. Ditto a stadium. Now, all we have is a price-gouging corporate supermarket and a corporate university shilling out to mainland talent. This is the direction we are going in.

Would this young soldier be happy to know what we have become?

Consequences for Consequence Free Youth

Just had 5 kids who made my classes hell last year message me begging me to come back.

I take no joy in their pain at being with teachers they don't like. But in a world where kids have very little consequences anymore, maybe losing the people they learn to value (too late) will be a lesson to them to treat people better all the time in future.

CONSEQUENCES FREE GENERATION

Students today...

They cannot fail. They cannot be allowed to fail.

They cannot take being bored.

They cannot be punished.

That's the problem with this generation, or should I say their environment. Negative consequences have all been nerfed. Can't be bored, don't have to work, constant stimulation, can wheedle their way out of any tough situation they have caused themselves.

This is not a grumpy old man talking, this is a progressive educator who has dealt with these kids daily since returning to Canada.

Because they have no negative consequences for their incidental actions, they naturally push the envelope further and further and only face consequences when their actions become harmful or illegal.

This is a total breach of the social contract. It sets students up to fail, and creates a society of people inching towards a BIG screw up.

THE ONE GOOD POINT

The one thing I find laudable is the lessened importance of grades. Grades demotivate those who can't, and inflate the ego of those who easily can. And they are a misleading metric, with only a tenuous connection to what is really important in life.

TEACHERS

Go back a decade before the government slashed the number of assistants. Teaching was fun and mutual support was the way. Now, everyone is tired, burnt out, ready to chuck in the towel.

We just got a collective agreement where they pumped assistant numbers back up, nudged up our pay, and threw in half a million towards mental health because we're all driven. And they're happy to let us break down and fall into the EAP safety net rather than avoid damage altogether.

Teaching is the only profession that lets damage occur as a natural state of things.

There is a doctor in Confederation Building, but he isn't making the patients any better.

SUBBING

I've been out of fulltime teaching  months. I substitute when I want, how long I want. The money is good - I work a week and bills are paid for the month. Like other work under Neoliberalism, we are moving to a workforce made up of temps and freelancers. Students like my carefree attitude, the respect I give them, and the interesting off-topic things I teach them to pad out the time.

Sometimes they tell me they wish I were their fulltime teacher.

At these moments, I pause for a second, look them straight in the eye, then reply.

"Never again."