I watch this “short” on YouTube that I assume is along the lines of, oh, Jimmy Kimmel’s “Show Us Your Hellhole” — or even just mocking protesters at the ICE facility. It is an oh so scary visage, “what’s really going on in Portland”. And I suppose the guy who put this up — trying to counter-act the media frame of the wacky frog and etc protests, missed the lessons of Aisles or Atwater on campaign commercials, where he thanked the network news “Reagan campaign ad versus reality” producer for showing that gaudy commercial again, no one is paying any mind to the audio laying out damming statistics. Once I look at the comments and gander the man’s youtube work, I see he is a Trumpist “exposing” the criminality of these “antifa” frog costumed jerks, his sneering “Hi Antifa” to the chicken costumed guy a genuine sneer. And I have to watch to see what lawlessness he is even claiming, taken as second nature from the yah saying comments. Even here I have to watch a longer video from a “local activist with a YouTube channel” to grasp the forced perspective — along the lines of — The city is allowing Chicken Man to direct traffic, complicit in letting them yell at good ICE functionaries before they enter this building.

Another short pops into view, it is a doozy in messaging terms. “MAGA Destroys Antifa in Fist Fight in Portland”. Royal Rumble this, agitators spoiling for an eruption, a weird coda of incredulity washes past, inconsistent storylines blurring, an expression of raw power and no framework. Nah nah nah — we lift weights, you don’t. Again — so many of these declared “antifa” are wearing inflatable costumes, so they are kind of at a disadvantage when the bullies come in from out of town.

I am rooting for the Dodgers to sweep, or at least win in five. I think I have a pretty good reason or two to do so. A bandwagoner and homer for the Seattle Mariners, identifying them as a pretty pathetic franchise with its sad history and smattering of big stars and two years — 1995 where they are the big and up and coming team and wait until next year — a next year that never happens as instead poor pitching in particularly the bullpen upends them in 1996 and 1997. Then comes 2001 and a record tying season — and one where in anyone’s recollection of this year in baseball they don’t even get to be posited as also-runs — only three teams figure, the World Championship Diamondbacks, the Yabkees, and the Moneyball revolution of Oakland Athletics.

So. Having lost in seven to the Toronto Blue Jays, I go sour grapes, under the true Aesopean definition. Yeah, don’t get the grapes but they’d’ve been sour anyway. Yeah, don’t get into the World Series, but would gotten crushed anyway. The bonus reason is so I return to the sense of nihilism — the problem of baseball… Wow, the team that has the great payroll and pluck up a collection of he biggest generational superstars wins it all very easily, you don’t say and who cares? Like, even here in the case of The much mocked Mets I can point out the mismanaged money spree got them a floor — equivalent of the third most successful season for the Mariners of the last two decades.

So, maybe the “pieces” are in place for a World Series appearance over the next two years where the circumstances have them have a shot in one. Like, I am not terribly interested in the equivalent of the 1996 Sonics team, a team that if you could you would want to pluck over to 1995. Or maybe this is the equivalent of the 2017 Jacksonville Jaguars — flukish high point for a franchise and now back to sports irrelevance. I will join in progress in the last week’s of the season and see.

So. Yeah. Dodgers, yah! Not like I am even watching.

I watched the Superman movie, which was kind of as good and meaningful as a Superman movie could be.  And I don’t think that’s damming with faint praise.  (To refer Alan Moore on the appeal of Superman — you have Krypto the Superdog, and he wears a mask.)  And I think there was one superhero and special effects laden fight sequence which I cannot narrative follow — no clue what everyone is supposed to be limited to or has what great ability — close your eyes and wait two minutes, I guess.  Looking at it in the cultural zietgiest, I remember hearing ponderances of the superheroes at the time of the Heath Ledger as Joker Barman movie (having watched it for a second time, not since it was released, I don’t think much of that one now) — that Superman comes off flat in current times, we are too cynical for this depiction of a pile of goofy altruisms.  And somewhere after a bunch of dark depictions of a Superman breathing his words as heavily as Batman, the Joker movie which gets a pile of “story for our times” and alluded to as some character study of the Trump age (but which I squint at asking “Doesn’t everyone remember ‘Falling Down’?) — (I never saw The Joker, incidemtally, but all the commentary I saw seemed just a rehash of that for the 1993 Falling Down.)  I actually don’t know how extensive the right wing “Superman so woke!” commentary i , being that I stare at a liberal ecgo chamber ready with pithy lines for sources they are at the ready to seek out.  I was actually a little on guard for on the nose tie-ins.  But if you want to do “Orange Man Bad”, Lex Luther is not really the characterization.  And in this realm, a Putinish figure invading a Ukrainiish country is kind of a stock plot in history — if you want to read this into this, go nuts.  Likewise the rest.  Somewhere in the zietgiest you land on the immigrant fantasy from the eve of ww2 trying to bring light to the world as opposed to the warmed over pulp vigilante stalking the night — surprise twist from 2008 to now.

Meanwhile Disney / Marvel has its slate of movies which look as uninteresting as ever.

It is that place where the right wing conspiracy mongerers lose the script, or are too myopic and self-interested to proceed with the script. Remember that line about the black helicopters? Yeah. Here they are now. Flying about the city. And it is indeed the Feds. Because the President has declared war, or has a conception of war, or wants to enforce power. And he is able to cite visuals from five years back of a Quarantined and George Floyd protest era — no great truck with them, though I guess amusing to watch them scuffle forward to duplicate the stupid “police free city-state zone” of Seattle’s Capitol Hill — and more so some weird street scuffles before that between some weird trolls of Vancouver and … Indeed, there they, antifa — vegan shake dealing antifa.

Conservative journalist Andy Ngo pushed back early Friday morning by claiming the costumes in Portland “serve the function of masking the violent extremism to make the direct action appear like a family-friendly gathering on camera, and to whitewash the past ultraviolence.”

“Conservative journalist” does some heavy lifting. He knows of the ultra-violence. When last I thought of that guy, he was showing up on Fox News with a neck brace and talking of “quick drying cement” that the vegan shake thrown at him was masking.

The other place where your Alex Joneses fall away from their line — we get ourselves some new Reichstag Fires. Or apparently not. We have to enforce standards and law and order after Charlie Kirk’s shooting. In a prior era, before a political figure had glad-handed him, Jones might piece in a lightly non-partisan bit in Andover contradictory and partisan conspiracy on this. But now? — nah.

After Portland had become boring and moved off of being “cool”, and then moved into and then out of a pretty rough patch, the President has made Portland cool again.  He is at war with us — seemingly the one white city in a list of other cities with large black populations he is at war with.  Funny thing now — simply existing in a physical space has become a revolutionary act.  Hard to figure what to do with that.

And The problem with nodding at “rough spot” is it would give at least some credence of justification that if a situation were that — then answer: national guard, military. And welcome to a two front propaganda war. Like, there is more warrant for civil disobediance at the ice facilities now than six years ago — but what we are down to is just public opinion supported dozen or so keeping the vigil demonstrators shouting slogans at the feds there.

I am reminded of a sickening sensation of having to play that game in trying to put myself in parts of the electorate’s imagination on Kamala city centric “we’re detroit!” ” we’re philly! ” ads.  Yeah, as meth and then fety sweep through rural America, they seem to have a different idea on it there versus it here (and Detroit and Philly). 

Another thing is gritting my teeth at a distinctly “America Fuck Yeah!” undertones on some commercial I see in a baseball game – – trying to place it against, oh, post 9/11 into War on Terror “Madison avenue takes the pulse of the public and sells back to us” manner.  Curious this has not quite popped up on what limited ads I have seen in football — at this point broader public for that after all as against the stuck in the ways and holding baseball audience? Or it is probably just one car ad and I missed it in football.

“The guy we need, the guy I hope the Democrats put up next time, is that Department of Transportation head during Biden — uh– what’s his name? Buttigieg! Pete Buttigieg. Hopefully the Democrats have him running because what this country needs as president is a manager, and he is good as we get there. Now who should the Republicans put up? I think the best Republican for after Trump is — because they will need to by-pass Vance — he’s not going anywhere. No. The best option for the Republicans is — oh, I think Marjorie Taylor Greene. Very telegenic. Buttigieg versus Marjorie Taylor Greene. That will make a great race.”

“I fear reprisals and counter-reprisals we are maybe about to see with Charlie Kirk’s death. Because you know, my son — young conservative. He is on about it. Because I don’t feel it but him, he dash his guy their guy. And we are getting so much blather. From both sides. Now you know who’s good at highlighting who is horrible all around the political map on this? Bill O’Reilly!”

Shame that I have actually lost the point in place I am going to be hearing this train of conversation, losing one more facet of incomprehension on the political moment. Like, I would hope you could somehow hold him to Buttigieg vote, even as he takes various positions on, oh, college loan forgiveness and gets knived as a less than masculine commie by…