Global
Obama . . . Trump.
Could there be a bigger contrast — in attitude, style, comportment, philosophy? What irony that the two names are now linked in history: Donald Trump forever the successor to Barack Obama, forever the orange-haired blot on his legacy, forever the surrealistic next chapter of the American narrative.
At the superficial level of news and understanding, this is never going to compute. And the way the Trump presidency has begun — white nationalism cozying up with the generals and Wall Street — seems to raise the worst fears possible.
Before this contrast disappears completely into the global chaos the Trump presidency seems bent on creating (that is to say, the new normal), I have a small, cautious observation to make: Maybe Trump is just what we need.
Until I remember that I, too, am a human being, I have been with increasing frequency drawn to the conclusion that human beings have evolved with such an obsession with other individual humans that they simply cannot attribute proper importance to far-reaching policies.
If you want to excite a crowd, you don't tell them that virtually every official in Washington is in complete and harmonious agreement on massive military spending, more nuclear weapons, occupying Afghanistan, bombing Iraqis, bombing Syrians, bombing the hell out of Yemenis, and drone murdering at will. That's about as interesting as subsidizing fossil fuels and rendering the earth uninhabitable. Who cares!
If you want some sign of life out of an audience, you tell them that a particular politician is an idiot or a clown or a racist or a sadist or a misunderstood saint. Now, that has value. That has meaning.
Ojibwe Nation tribal member Winona LaDuke - Ralph Nader’s vice presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket in 2000 - appeared Feb. 23 at the 4th Native Women in Film Film Festival, where an anti-pipeline documentary about LaDuke world premiered. Another indigenous rights movement notable - Pearl Means, widow of American Indian Movement leader Russell Means - flew in from North Dakota to co-present the documentary she executive produced, End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock at the filmfest at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, California.
Let’s just get this much out of the way: Yes, Logan is a really, really good movie. And it’s finally the movie the character deserves.
For most superheroes, for your Captain Americas and your Batmans, an explosion-laden PG-13 summer blockbuster is perfect. Most superheroes are best served by stories where they can punch some villains around a bit and then hand them over to the authorities – or watch, angst-filled, as they oh-so-tragically fall to their deaths.
But Wolverine, who first appeared as a villain for the Hulk, who was one of the original comic book anti-heroes, is not that kind of superhero. With unbreakable metal claws and a healing factor that makes him nearly impossible to kill, his power set is better suited to a slasher movie monster. He’s the best he is at what he does, and what he does is hunt people down and murder them, then struggle with the psychological fallout of being what he is.
ake news” as a denunciation peddled by Republican and Trump apparatchiks is an old-fashioned, fascist-style Big Lie with a neat capitalist twist. The obvious lie is that most of the media, accused of reporting “fake news,” actually report real news – with real corrections when they get something wrong. This is the antithesis of the way the “conservative” con machine has operated for decades. Among the world’s shortest books would be “Setting the Record Straight by Republican Senators” or “The Collected Corrections of Donald Trump.” These are people whose common currency is falsehood rooted in deceit for the good of themselves and not much of anyone else, certainly not most of the people that they were elected to represent, wink-wink. Chronic right-wing lying is hardly a new phenomenon. Lies about FDR and the Red Menace live on long after the imaginary threats have passed into history.
And the word of the moment is . . . opportunity:
“What unites our party is a belief in opportunity, the idea that however you started out, whatever you look like, whoever you love, America is the place you can make it if you try.”
Could you be any more tepid? The words were those of the former president the other day, giving his blessing to the naming of Tom Perez as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Perez is the safe, establishment choice to lead the party forward into the maelstrom of Trump, under a banner that seems garishly inoffensive: Tolerate our differences, give everyone a chance.