Oscars As A Microcosm

I used to get all worked up just waiting for Oscar night. The folks used to let me stay up real late to watch them. I'd ooh and ahh at the gowns and the tuxedos, I'd listen closely to the speeches to see who they thanked...or missed. I'd applaud and boo accordingly as the statues were handed out. And I was watching the night everything changed...when Brando didn't show up and sent Sacheen Littlefeather to decline his Best Actor Oscar. We didn't know it at the time, but Sacheen Littlefeather was really Maria Louise Cruz of Salinas, California, and she had fabricated her Native American ancestry....according to her sisters. But that really didn't matter. Her performance opened the door to political commentary on the Oscar stage. 

Since then, lots of causes have made their way to Oscar. Some righteous, some dubious, some outright confusing. In an industry that has welcomed diversity with arms wide open, many members of Academy, red hand pins proudly on their lapels, have chosen to demonize a small group of indigenous people fighting for their right to live in peace on their land. A group that welcomes all communities to join in being part of a democratic nation. Members of the Academy refuse to work with members of this tiny group because they would rather support terrorism and the murder of civilians in their homes, on buses, in restaurants, or just on the streets while demanding those people have no right to defend themselves, their family, their nation. Which is odd because their military reflects the multicultural complexion of the country. Much the way once upon a time We, the People thought our country should. 

But in all the sanctimonious righteousness on that stage last night, not a word was mentioned about Iran, the people of Iran, or, for that matter, the debacle that is the war. Why was that? Are they all afraid of President Felon's reach? Did the desecration of The Kennedy Center cause them to pants poop? The closest anyone came to recognizing our supreme leader's stranglehold of American arts and culture was Jimmy Kimmel when he presented Oscars for best documentaries. In his intro, he said:

When he prepared to read the names of the nominees for feature film documentary, he quipped: 

Oh man, is he gonna be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this.

Full disclosure: when MELANIA became available on Prime Video, I girded up my loins to watch it. It took me 3 days to get through the whole thing. Once, I fell asleep because I was so bored. Twice, I just had to stop it. The only word that even comes close to describing the ordeal is VAPID.

Seriously. if I had to hear her say how she was laser focused  one more time, I was ready to throw something at the TV. Her Be Best bullshit is just that. Bullshit. The woman has no clue about anyone other than protecting herself. And to her credit, she might actually be protecting her own life from that degenerating monster she's married to. 

Once upon a time, I had great sympathy for Melania. Back in January, 2017, I wrote a whole blog about her, calling her a hostage:

Mellie is a hostage. She may have been complicit in her own hijacking, but she's clearly having buyer's remorse.  As caring, compassionate women, we cannot allow Donny to use Mellie as his whipping post. We are joining together to fight for access to health care, access to education, access to loving, let us not abandon Mellie Trump. Let us shout encouragement to her wherever she is. Let us stand beside and behind her...and let her know we have her back. 

Let her be our symbol for freedom. Here are the new rules:

• No picking on Mellie. She has  enough on her plate just trying to maintain her composure. 
• No picking on her kid, Barron. Bullying, cyber or otherwise. is evil. 
• No matter what she says, remember she is being manipulated. 

Donny practices on Mellie, therefore Mellie is the stand-in for us. But she is also in the room. When she feels  safe,  Mellie can be an ally. Let's give her that chance.

My heart goes out to Melania Trump. She has to see him naked with that dangling Tootsie Roll he believes is Excalibur. She gets to smell his morning breath. She has to actually talk to him. She doesn't have to be our hero, she is not. She doesn't have to be our object of derision, she should not. But she is, indeed, our metaphor.

After watching MELANIA, I'm positive she is a metaphor. I'm torn between thinking she really is his hostage, or than she has finally consumed the Kool-Aid. Only Jeffrey Epstein knows for sure. 

But why am I writing about this when I really want to be writing about Iran, Russian, and the incipient fall of world order? 

Truth is, I'm getting a bit screechy and tired of playing Cassandra. I keep harping on follow the money and this week, it's been like watching a Bill and Jeff Keane FAMILY CIRCUS cartoon. The path is so twisty-turny that you are left unsatisfied at the end. And every time you think you have some of it worked out so it makes sense, President Felon throws a monkey wrench at you. 

I think (for a change) Heath Cox Richardson gives the base argument to us in a very tidy little nutshell:

Despite reports that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence that permits it to target U.S. forces in the Middle East, late last night the Trump administration lifted sanctions on shipments of Russian oil until April 11, permitting it to be sold to buyers around the world for the next month. The U.S., along with the rest of the Group of Seven (G7) nations with advanced economies, has maintained sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has been eager to get those sanctions dropped because oil sales will help the flailing Russian economy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the move is necessary to help ease oil prices, which are skyrocketing because Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the attack by the U.S. and Israel. But German chancellor Friedrich Merz said the heads of the G7 had urged Trump not to ease the sanctions, saying “[t]here is currently a price problem, but not a supply problem.” He added that he “would like to know what additional motives led the US government to make this decision.”

After Trump lifted sanctions on Russian oil that was already in ships, Democrats cried foul. At a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting yesterday, Senator Angus King (I-ME) said: “There is a clear winner in this war. The clear winner is Vladimir Putin and Russia. Estimates released a few hours ago are that Russia has reaped $6 billion of benefit from this war since it began just two weeks ago. That’s about $400 million a day from the increase in oil prices and the easing of sanctions, which is somewhat puzzling to me…. I just think the record should show that the real winner so far is Vladimir Putin to the tune of $6 billion in two weeks.”

Meanwhile, Kim Barker of the New York Times reports that, at the request of the United States, Ukraine has sent interceptor drones and a team of drone experts to Jordan to protect U.S. military bases there. “We reacted immediately,” Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky told Barker. “I said, yes, of course, we will send our experts.” In a phone call to the Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox Radio this morning, President Donald J. Trump denied that Ukraine was helping the U.S. with drone defense, saying “we don’t need their help…. We know more about drones than anybody. We have the best drones in the world, actually.”

That sorta says it all. Why are we enriching Putin? Oh, I don't know. Maybe because President Felon views Putin as a brother dictator? That in reality, he's a role model? That maybe he's hoping Putin will divide up with world with him? 

Here's something worth noting: since Cox-Richardson wrote that, President Felon has repeatedly claimed the war is won. But is it? It's certainly not over.

I have this handy, dandy app on my phone called Tzfor. This app alerts me every time missiles are launched at the cities I've selected, followed by shelter warnings. It goes off all the time. It wakes me several times during the night. Why don't I shut it off? Because it tells me when my friends are running heading into the shelter. See this picture? It's a screenshot from my phone. Every one of those red droplets represents a place where a missile has headed over the course of 24 hours. Most are from Iran, but a lot comes from Hezbollah in Lebanon as well. Iron Dome knocks most of them out, but there are still hits. 

But maybe what you don't understand is that it's not just in "war" those red dots appear. It's been steady for the last 70+ years. It fucking never stops. Iran has funded Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others in an attempt to remove an indigenous people from their land, a place where they have been speaking the indigenous language continually for 3000 years, practicing the same religion for 3000+ years, living and working and farming as a single cultural identity. Sure, we are a rainbow of colors because that's the way genetics work, but we are one people: the indigenous people that area now known as Israel. 

So Javier Bardem can just go fuck himself when he cries "FREE PALESTINE" at the Oscars because he knows exactly nothing about what Palestine is, what Israel is, and why we are not moving one fucking inch away from our country. I would suggest he'd have better luck shouting Gora Euskal Herria askatuta! Free the Basque Country! because gee, isn't that what Spain is doing to them? Doesn't he have some meeting to go to or a worthy opinion about that?

I would strongly suggest that if he wants nothing to do with Israel and supporters of OUR right to live in OUR own homeland, he should just get the hell outta the film industry because there is not one aspect of that industry that has not benefited from Jewish creativity, drive, and technology. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

There is a huge push in Congress to pass the SAVE Act. If you haven't read it, follow the link and read the bill. It kinda sounds harmless, but it is not. It is open disenfranchisement of the less affluent and rural residents of this country. It will prevent voting, not save it. It takes the power of electoral governance away from the states and hands it over to the federal government, something the framers of the Constitution specifically did not want...and for good reason. IF the SAVE Act passes, it will alter the very structure of our elections. And to that end, if it passes, I doubt there will be midterms. 

There. I said it. You have me on record. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

In case you didn't hear, we had a blizzard on Sunday.

Yes, a real, honest-to-goodness blizzard. 

There is only one cure for that:

Yes, there was Spotted Cow involved.