Falling Down is the American Dream turned nightmare.

I’d submit that — in 1993 — the one that struck me as being the most similar was Demolition Man. Not the Sly Stallone character in comparison, tho. The Dennis Leary character was more a 1 to 1 analogue of the non-conformist pushing back on a system that deems him “not economically viable.”

Later, 1998, I’d say that The Way of the Gun (wri/dir Christopher McQuarrie) does this well. I know, I know, low scores on RT and iMDB, but this movie still works for me. Even the opening scene, which sets up a world of reprehensible characters perfectly. It’s a rock-solid neo-noir western helmed by a the writer of the Usual Suspects (and a long string of Tom Cruise projects including M:I 5,6,7&8.)

I’d also toss in Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. A man, who has a code, undertakes to address that which he sees as unjust while moving through a world that wants to exploit him. And, American Beauty (1999) (tw: Spacey)

By the late aughts and early '10s, in the wake of the total meltdown of the global economy, Margin Call (2010, only economic violence) and Killing Them Softly (2012). “Now fucking pay me.”

From TV: The Wire and Breaking Bad fit the bill.

John Lennon ‐ Working Class Hero

If you’re a bot, do better.

If you’re a person, outperform bots.

Continuity, governed by the script supervisor, is designed to be invisible.

“When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.” ~ God Entity, Futurama S03E20

• Genetic-level diagnoses and treatments.

• Inexpensive, rapid genome sequencing.

• Commonplace genetic counselling for more than just pregnancy.

• Laws in place to govern the collection, use, ownership, and patenting of human genes and genetic information.

• Cloned tissues (i.e. blood, skin), organs (i.e. heart, lungs, kidneys) for transplant or repair.

I graduated university the same year the Human Genome Project first published completion. Certainly, that project uncovered more questions than answers.

Also, we’ve done an absolutely garbage job of becoming appropriate stewards of this technology. Primarily, today, it would be used to identify, segregate, subjugate, and eventually kill a portion of the population.

Books/Magazines/Podcasts:

• No Logo by Naomi Klein

• Adbusters by Kalle Lasn

• Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev

• A New Train of Thought (though somewhat ham-fistedly) by Various Writers

• Ashes, Ashes by David Torcivia and Daniel Folkner

• Reset by Roland J. Diebert

Fitting the description of movie/show:

• Mr. Robot

• Utopia (UK version)

• Killing Them Softly

• The Big Short, Margin Call

• Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

• 3-Iron (Korean film)

• Parasite (Korean film)

There are several documentaries and short films

• The Corporation by Joel Bakan, Harold Crooks, Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott

• Who Killed the Electric Car?

• The End of Suburbia

• Man by Steve Cutts (3m47s)

• Nuggets by Andreas Hykade (5m06s)

• The Power of Nightmares and HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis

Also, you might search for films about “corporate malfeasance”.

• Michael Clayton (top pick)

• The Insider (top pick)

• Erin Brockovich

• Dark Waters

Send him to the Hague. Then, I’ll know he’s real.

I think there was a POW scene in Magnum P.I. that was a lot for little me. Not sure episode/season.

Honestly, though, coming to the realization at abput 13 that the “General Lee” and the prominent placement for Confederate flags the Dukes of Hazzard represent an American South that promotes white supremacy, Jim Crow laws, and segregation — all antithetical to my BIPOC existence.

The cognitive dissonance involved in the song, pre-programming me to lend them the excuse that they’re “just a good ol’ boys…” — yeah, my parents should’ve known better.

The thoughts I had for Daisy Duke would’ve had me lynched, like Emmitt Till, under that flag. Still might.

As an introvert, it’s actually easier for me to talk to strangers. Fewer attachments, lower risk thresholds, can bail when I need to. Mostly it’s jokes or insights, comisseration and comedy are easy roads in.

Ooh! OOH! Now do teachers!

Expecting, or pursuing the establishment of, human rights as a subjugate group or “subordinate” class.

deleted by creator

Um… has this series jumped the shark yet?

호박죽 (ho bak juk, pumpkin porridge). Many a cold morning in the ROK, this was my breakfast.

Actually, a lot of my comfort foods are porridge based: cream of wheat, corn meal porridge, steel-cut oats, rolled oat oatmeal, oatmeal and raisin cookies.

If it’s America… Again, the following:

• target practice

• cheap / unpaid labor

• scapegoating

• entertainment

• political wedge issue

• cannon fodder

• general purpose exploitation

• status symbols

• enemy images

That explosion may have caused hundreds of dollars worth of damage.

The damage to the reputation, the prestige, and the gold-plated hubris of “the greatest nation on Earth ever and for all time” is what’s at stake.

Fortunately, disaster capitalism will generate at least fourteen jobs, resulting in the fortification of this embassy — and all other embassies — at exorbitant cost. The US defense budget will far exceed the $1.5T requested for 2027.

Screw diplomacy, forget peace, pursue power.

At all costs. Until Empire falls.

See, in Seoul, to my eyes, drivers aren’t day-labourers, office workers, company people, or students. They are business developers, cab and bus drivers, delivery agents and the most affluent.

In a city of 45 million, car ownership is very, very low. Parking is very difficult to find — or own as city units must separately rent, lease, buy, or borrow a parking spot for a car.

If any large East Asian city could successfully ration gasoline, its Seoul. Public transportation is efficient and inexpensive. People remember the war and hardship. People respect tradition, unity in struggle, and are willing to fight together.

That’s the Seoul I remember anyway.

They imprisoned their Insurrectionist former President.

For life.

Six-hundred twenty-three days later.

“We cannot afford for Lebanon to become another Gaza,” António Guterres Secretary-General, United Nations, June 2024.

Greed. Ignorance. Intolerance.

Your workout, food, or personal hygiene regimen.

Exploitation, expropriation, or extortion.

Your subjective experience of opening a box, playing a video game, or viewing media.

Oh boy. Ill make this as short as I can because I really ought to be off to bed.

Nuclear weapons, since the beginning, foment distrust. Neocolonialism, the Red Scare, and Fuckiteering breeds enemies and blowback. And, Iran, having oil and a spotty history relating to the superpower/hegemon that is America, has denied and actively worked against the “Manifest Destiny” of American supremacy in the world and — regionally — Israeli supremacy in Palestine.

Since 1945, the United States has:

• developed nuclear weapons

• used nuclear weapons at war

• tested nuclear weapons at “peace”

• conducted a Cold War against “non-aligned” states — including Iran for a time — and communists and people who America regards as “other”

• supported Israel as an independent state despite the questionable (read: ethnic cleansing) methods employed to declare the state

• overthrown Iran’s democratically elected government and installed a Shah, “friendly” to US interests and brutal to Iranian people

• developed the Hydrogen bomb

• overthrown several other democratically elected governments, prosecuted wars and police actions across 4 continents…

And that barely gets us to the mid 1950s.

By 1979, Iran got fed up. JFK’s words, “those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable” apply here. There was a revolution, they booted the Shah and took some Americans hostage for 444 days. Somehow, an Islamist faction rose from the confusion and seized power. Marjane Sartapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, helped me with this part.

In the cocaine-addled '80s, the States said, “fuckit,” and started paying Saddam Hussein to go to war with Iran. Iran held the line for 8 years. After that, Hussein became the enemy instead of a friend, Iran sat back and watched the States undertake Gulf Wars I and II under the Bush family’s rule. Meanwhile, the Israeli people have lived in fear of Iran’s support for Hezbollah and Palestinians. Harsh words, and a few thousand rocket attacks, against the State of Israel and America’s support by AIPAC are part of the puzzle. And of course, Aljazeera conuterspinning the American narrative from its HQ in Qatar is also a threat.

In the end, Iran DID develop the capacity yo make nuclear energy which they claim is for electricity. US doesn’t trust anyone they don’t control, and haven’t since they achieved schoolyard bully status back in '45. Israel also has, but refuses to talk about, its nuclear weapons, which are a threat to all of the countries Israel has attacked (some of whom attacked Israel in the '50s abd '60s). Again, a paucity of trust.

Since about Y2K, Iran’s leadership has declared a Fatwa against nuclear weapons and swears they will never possess them.

There have been at least two Palestinian uprisings against Israel (2000-2005 and the Al-Aqsa Flood of 2023). There was a period of secular society-led protest that is often overlooked. Hamas changed the charter. All actions have been met with tacit or overt Iranian support for Palestinian resistance. That said, the heavy-handed actions of this Israeli government, and several governments back to 2000, have only made the prospect of peace in the region more distant from reality. Certainly, decimating the population of Gaza in 2 years under the Dahiya doctrine fits the phrase “the cruelty is the point.”

So, amid negotiations to not go to war, the children in the room decided to sneak attack and assassinate the Supreme Leader of Iran. This undermines resistance the Iranian people themselves were mounting against their government. It undermines International law and U.S. own laws about Presidency. It destabilizes the region and will impact the global economy.

Anyway. This took an hour and Im going to bed.

It’s in because, well, I was surprised that Grey’s Anatomy is in its 22nd season.

Its interesting that interactions here center on the one pop-culture element of my comment and none on the others. Yes, it’s a non-sequitur. It stands out.

Is it because the others are all self-evident? Flogged to death? Too controversial? Not controversial enough? Insurmountable?