Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas. Photo by LoneStarMike (CC BY 3.0).
Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said famously, “There’s no such thing as society.” That was easy for her to say in the 1980s when she and Ronald Reagan held power. The claim is easy to refute in 2025 as we witness a society breaking down: ours.
The rest of that Thatcher quote goes, “There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.”
Let’s consider some people looking out for themselves but shirking their duty to look after the rest of us.
First up, would-be king Donald Trump.
Last week at Trump’s behest, Texas Republicans unveiled a highly unusual plan to redraw congressional districts mid-decade. The goal? To craft five new Republican congressional seats ahead of the 2026 elections and prevent Trump losing control of the U.S. House in 2027. Trump is so obsessed with appearances that he’s gilded the Oval Office to mimic the style of the Hapsburgs or the tsars. He means to maintain the appearance of constitutional rule too, for now, by rigging the outcome.
Next up, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). Texas Tribune, July 30:
Texas GOP lawmakers released their first draft of the state’s new congressional map Wednesday, proposing revamped district lines that attempt to flip five Democratic seats in next year’s midterm elections.
The new map targets Democratic U.S. House members in the Austin, Dallas and Houston metro areas and in South Texas. The draft, unveiled by state Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, will likely change before the final map is approved by both chambers and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Democrats have said they might try to thwart the process by fleeing the state.
Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus accused Abbott of “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.”
Abbott late Sunday threatened to remove Texas House Democrats from office if they do not return for the redistricting vote (Texas Tribune, Aug. 3):
The Republican governor’s late-night missive came after more than 50 Democrats left the state Sunday afternoon so the Texas House would not have a quorum — the number of lawmakers needed to consider and pass legislation under chamber rules — aiming to grind all legislative activity to a halt for the remainder of the special session, slated to end later this month.
Abbott issued an ultimatum:
“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said in a letter sent to each of the departed members. “The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025.”
If they are not back by then, Abbott said, he would initiate legal action to remove them from office. He cited a nonbinding 2021 legal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said it would be up to a court to decide whether a lawmaker who had left the state to deny quorum had forfeited their office. If a court were to decide that the legislators had vacated their offices, Abbott would be permitted to fill those seats with appointees of his choosing, Paxton’s opinion stated.
Goodbye Marquess of Queensberry. Hello bare knuckles.
Things get uglier.
Abbott further alleged members could face felony charges for fundraising to pay the $500 fine they will each accrue every day they are away from Austin during the session. Lawmakers who are “soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules” may be violating bribery laws, Abbott said, adding that anyone who donates to the cause could also be liable.
Never mind that Trump raised millions to fund his attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election and is taking bribes in broad daylight.
Abbott threatens to extradite “any potential out-of-state felons” the way the Department of Homeland Security threatens to deport potential undocumented immigrants, and any legal residents and naturalized citizens it doesn’t like by, potentially, stripping them of their legal status and citizenship.
In the eyes of the autocrat
Finally on this Monday morning, there is Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.
Crooks and Liars on Saturday spotlighted Roberts’ speech to the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Roberts advocates that state governments controlled by Republicans de-charter capitol cities “whose local government is not representative of the will of the people.” Meaning, controlled by duly elected Democrats. Such cities should be restructured as state municipal districts “in the name of common sense.”
The only thing American about such people is their birth certificates. Like Trump, they are keeping up the appearance of maintaining a republic they have abandoned in all but ceremony.
Margaret Thatcher was wrong. Society does exist. We’re watching ours break down. Rather, we are watching saboteurs demolish it before our eyes.
A number of high-profile Democratic governors are ready to fight — ardently throwing support behind their colleagues who have said they will draw new Congressional maps to favor Democrats before the 2026 midterm elections in order to directly counter Texas Republicans’ moves to do the same for their party.
Texas GOP lawmakers just this week released their first draft of the state’s new congressional map that could flip three to five Democratic seats in next year’s midterms.
On Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom promptly responded, saying he’d spoken with state legislators and members of Congress about holding a special statewide election on Nov. 4 for Californians to vote on new congressional maps — ones that would likely favor Democrats.
Convening later in the week for a summer policy retreat on the shores of Madison, Wisconsin, a number of leading Democratic governors have backed Newsom and any other blue state leaders who are taking an offensive position on redistricting.
The Democrats each did so reluctantly, calling Texas Republicans’ efforts “unconstitutional” and “un-American” with hopes that the courts intervene before any new maps steered by either party are implemented. In the meantime, they said it’s time to fight against the Trump-championed GOP redistricting, especially now that other Republican-led states, including Missouri, might follow suit.
“That is so un-American, and it’s a constant threat to our democracy,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said about Republican proposals. “So I’m really pissed, frankly, and we are going to do whatever we can do to stop this from happening.”
Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, the Chair of the Democratic Governors Association, explicitly got behind Newsom, Kathy Hochul of New York, JB Pritzker of Illinois and any other governors who are weighing counteraction through special elections, special sessions or additional means of redrawing congressional maps.
“I have never believed in unilateral disarmament, and so while I may not want to participate in certain activities, if I have to, in order to level the playing field, I would support my Democratic colleagues who decide to answer in kind,” Kelly said in an interview. “If the other side is going to pursue this, regardless of the obvious unconstitutionality of it, then I don’t think we have any other choice but to go there. You just don’t go to the front lines without your bullets,” Kelly said.
Kelly said her strong “preference” would still be for courts to intervene. “In fact, it might actually work to our benefit, you know, to play like this. Okay, we’ll play this game too, and we all go to court.”
It’s good to see this happening but I’m not sure they have enough legislative power in the states to outgun the Republicans if they get every red state to eliminate their Democratic seats. We’ll have to see how that pans out.
But I think that what Kelly says at the end could be the ultimate strategy. If both parties are doing this it will be impossible for the Supreme Court to give the Republicans the advantage, at least until they agree to hear the whole case.
Gerrymandering is legal unless it discriminates on the basis of race. All that is very much up in the air right now and Republicans are arguing that the only discrimination that exists in the world at the moment is toward white people and Jews. I’m honestly not sure what the courts are going to do with this but at least the Democrats aren’t going to be sitting ducks.
Still, this does raise one of my biggest fears about the 2026 election if the Democrats happen to win: a court intervention after the fact, invalidating it on some specious grounds. It’s pretty much what they did in 2000. Don’t think this Court would be any less willing.
The story of how Trump sells access to the White House – to benefit himself and his family financially and to benefit his political operation – is shocking and sordid.
No President has ever monetized access like Trump has. It’s a story you need to know.
The primary way to get to Trump is at his golf clubs. Reportedly, a $5 million donation to Trump’s political operation gets you a one-on-one meeting. $1 million will get you a group private dinner.
Putting a price on a one-on-one meeting isn’t normal.
One crypto CEO who paid the $1 million price explained to the @nytimes that after his meeting with Trump, his idea to make money off the federal government was suddenly “making the rounds…so mission accomplished from my view.”
Trump also sells access to him for those who send money directly to Trump’s wallet. This spring, he held a reception with the top buyers of his crypto coin. News of the opportunity immediately drove up the price of the coin, making Trump millions.
His family gets in on the grift too. His son is opening a new private club in DC – with a $500,000 entry fee. Donald Jr. markets it as the place to meet with his father’s Cabinet. They don’t even hide the access game, naming it “The Executive Branch”.
Of course big donors have always had access to politicians. But the scope and sophistication of this access operation is unprecedented.
And NEVER before has a President openly made money personally off selling access like this.
We shouldn’t accept any of it.
Then there’s the newest innovation of personally suing various companies and leveraging government policies over their heads unless they pay him millions of dollars. (See: CBS) This is actually extortion but nobody seems to think there’s anything to be done about it. Just like it’s no big deal if he accepts a “gift” of a luxury airplane from a foreign country, spends billions to retrofit it and then keeps it when he leaves office. What???
He is absolutely operating as a dictator without any limits, like Saddam or Khaddafi. It’s just stunning to see it happening and realize that there is nothing to stop it, not even public opinion which doesn’t seem to care about it either.
For months, the U.S. economy appeared to be weathering the disruptive effects of President Donald Trump’s trade and immigration policies. But over the course of 72 hours, that sunny outlook darkened, as the latest government data this week showed the president’s revolutionary remaking of the world’s largest economy had hit a snag
Friday’s disappointing jobs report revealed a labor market that is much weaker than either the White House or Federal Reserve understood. Inflation, the voter irritant that helped return Trump to the Oval Office, is proving newly stubborn. And consumers are growing more cautious with their spending.
After campaigning on a pledge to free business from worrying about Washington’s dictates, Trump has made public policy — and his own norm-busting behavior — the primary variables affecting the $30 trillion U.S. economy, economists said.
It all adds up to an economy that grew at an annual rate of 1.2 percent over the first half of the year, a notable downshift from its 2.4 percent pace at the end of 2024. The S&P 500 index, which has been on a tear since mid-April, reacted by shedding 2.5 percent of its value this week.
“We’re seeing dramatic changes in policy across multiple dimensions. Trump inherited an economy that was in very good shape, that was in balance. He is trying to move it to a different equilibrium. And the corporate sector and everyone else are in the process of adjusting,” said Eric Winograd, senior vice president of AllianceBernstein in New York.T hat adjustment grew even tougher on Friday, when the president ordered the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics fired over claims, presented without evidence, that she had tampered with employment figures to hurt him politically.
Even as the costs of his policies became more apparent, the action ignited worries that Trump’s volatile temperament could cause additional economic harm by undermining market confidence in the government data that investors, business executives and policymakers require to make decisions.
“Adjustment”? Really? No, Trump isn’t trying to “move the economy to a different equilibrium.” He’s not “trying” to do anything. He’s just convinced that anything that passes through what’s left of his mind must be genius and he orders it to be done. And he has a whole bunch of people running around happy to do it even though many of them know it’s batshit crazy.
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 2, 2025
It’s hideous. A colorless, cement slab. A perfect metaphor for what he’s turning this country into.
The garish, Trump Taj Majal Oval office and planned ballroom are even worse. I hope the next Democrat to take the White House tears it all out immediately. Maybe Oprah could pay for it. She owes us for Dr. Oz.
The world may never know what is inside the so-called “Epstein files.” What is clear is that the contents are damaging enough for the president and his human flak jackets to call the whole affair a “hoax”, recess Congress to prevent a vote on releasing the materials and send the deputy attorney general to visit Tallahassee, Florida, to speak to the convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, who was subsequently moved to a “cushy”, celebrity-riddled minimum security prison in Bryan, Texas.
As the conservative pundit Bill Kristol noted over the weekend: “[Richard Nixon] said of Watergate, ‘I gave them a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish.’ Trump may have given us a sword. We should use it.” Kristol is right, to a point. Liberals, progressives and never-Trump Republicans must not let voters forget Trump’s festering, open wound without neglecting the kitchen table, cost-of-living matters that hurt them last fall.
In 2007, a far sharper and far more spry Joe Biden delivered a quip so clever and cutting that it ended another man’s entire political career. Rudy Giuliani was never able to recover after Biden observed how it seemed “there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11”. The line was funny because it was true; it was lethal because it exposed the emptiness behind the former New York City mayor’s tragedy-fueled candidacy.
This is the challenge for Democrats: how do they maintain a spotlight on a scandal that reveals Trump for who he is in a way that finally resonates with his base without appearing to exploit a tragedy , à la Giuliani? They must ground the abstract conspiracy in everyday terms relatable to the average American.
It goes like this: Trump protects elites.
[…]
Mallory McMorrow of Michigan, a Democratic Senate candidate, is already reading from this script. In recent weeks, she has demonstrated mastery in pairing Epstein with broader anti‑elite rhetoric. In one vertical video, she emphatically declared:
This is exactly why there’s eroding trust in our institutions, because until we confront the rot that exists in our institutions, until we hold everyone, everyone accountable under the same set of rules and laws, we will keep living in a country where there are two systems of justice, one for the rich and powerful, and one for everybody else. We deserve better. Release the files now.
Trump’s friendship with Epstein is a proof point for elite favoritism and all of us who oppose the orange god king must use it to condemn inequality and unaccountable power within the GOP ecosystem.
It all seems obvious when you think about it. Republicans serve the rich at the expense of the rest of us. Stop the presses. What else is new?
But the Epstein scandal frames the story in a way that makes people pay attention and when you combine it with the fact that they are massively cutting taxes for the Epsteins and the Trumps while cutting Medicaid and other vital services for everyone else, it has a resonance that the simple “Oligarchy is bad” message doesn’t have
And, as Nixon said, Trump has handed the Democrats a sword and they need to use it.
I liked this picture from the US Senate today. They all stood before this poster as they made their speeches demanding that the files be released. The Republicans blocked it, of course:
BREAKING: Senate Democrats just took to the Senate floor to try to pass a bill requiring the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files.
“…it is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do and many of them are on the younger side.”
"She's 17 and doing great — Ivanka. She made me promise, swear to her, that I would never date a girl younger than her. As she grows older, the field is getting very limited." — Trump, talking to Howard Stern. pic.twitter.com/XsQ9qevbmN
— Hikyuu Mikado 🏳️🌈🪶🍱🏩🎠🍵🍑 (@Mikanojo) July 20, 2025
Grab another cup of coffee. MeidasTouch last week dropped some interviews with Michael Wolff. The Trump biographer deconstructs Trump’s false timeline for how, when, and why their friendship did (or didn’t) fall apart.
July 30
Wolff recounts a secondhand conversation in which Trump denies having Jeffrey Epstein killed. But Trump added, “A lot of people wanted him dead.” As you know, “a lot of people” does a lot of work for Trump. “Epstein was a clear threat to Trump,” Wolff says. But that worked both ways.
August 1
Trump’s lawyers, says Wolff, are not just loyalists but essentially broken people. “Stockholm Syndrome, I suppose.”
He is a man without a shred of empathy for other people and considers them disposable. disposable. “He assumes the worst of everyone and proceeds to treat them that way.”
August 2
I hate letting Trump live in my head, but take comfort in working to keep fear of the Epstein story living in his. He’s used to bending reality to his will. Don’t let him.
King Arrested Development threw another tantrum after the bad jobs report issued on Friday revealed the fabulous Donald Trump economy for a big, fat lie. He summarily fired Erika McEntarfer, the Biden-appointed Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner.
George A. Akerlof, a Nobel-winning economist, asks New York Times readers what do we do with a newly minted dictator with all the emotional maturity of a 5-year-old. It’s a rhetorical question for which Akerlof offers observations without answers. For that matter, what do we do about half the population of a superpower that handed unchecked power to a toddler?
Akerlof is as concise as a balance sheet in recounting the events surrounding the report and McEntarfer’s ouster. What happens with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he explains, may seem like inside baseball of importance only to economists, but it is not:
The credibility of American statistics is foundational. It undergirds investor trust. It guides fiscal and monetary policy. It tells businesses when to hire, when to expand and when to hold. When those numbers are tainted or appear to be, the ripple effects are vast. Markets can lose faith in the data and in the country that produces it.
It’s not simply markets that lose faith in this country when the 5-year-old throws over the board when he’s losing. The world does. The world has.
The deeper risk is cynicism, the quiet corrosion of faith in institutions. If we can’t believe the numbers, how do we believe anything?
Most children learn that flipping the board doesn’t make them the winner. It just means the game is over. In a democracy, the same lesson holds. We need our referees. We need our scorekeepers. And most of all, we need leaders who understand that losing the game fairly is far more honorable than winning by force.
Why so? Because when presidents flip the board, it’s not just a game that ends. It’s the pieces of democracy that get scattered to the floor.
We face not only a gilded toddler working to end democracy, but a major political party and Supreme Court prepared to flip the board on his behalf. The GOP has rejected democracy. It is supported by a coalition of Silicon Valley billionaire-demigods who see no use for popular sovereignty, Christian nationalists who want to institute a white-dominated theocracy, and ultra rich financiers who see the rest of us as the kiddie table in the corner. If you don’t stop them, who will?
In 2019, The New Yorker published a great piece by Salman Rushdie that was adapted from a lecture he delivered in April of that year, in Indianapolis, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut’s classic sci-fi novel “Slaughterhouse-Five.” He concludes with these thoughts:
Fifty years after its first publication, seventy-four years after Kurt Vonnegut was inside Slaughterhouse-Five during the firebombing of Dresden, what does his great novel have to say to us?
It doesn’t tell us how to stop wars.
It tells us that wars are hell, but we knew that already.
It tells us that most human beings are not so bad, except for the ones who are, and that’s valuable information. It tells us that human nature is the one great constant of life on earth, and it beautifully and truthfully shows us human nature neither at its best nor at its worst but how it mostly is, most of the time, even when the times are terrible.
It doesn’t tell us how to get to the planet Tralfamadore, but it does tell us how to communicate with its inhabitants. All we have to do is build something big, like the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China. Maybe the wall that some individual whom I will not name is planning to build between the United States and Mexico will be read as an urgent message on Tralfamadore. The person who wants to build the wall will not know what the message means, of course. He is a pawn, being manipulated by a power greater than his to send the message in this time of great emergency.
I hope the message reads, “Help.”
Rushdie’s essay is proving to be as evergreen as Vonnegut’s novel; especially in light of the fact that the “individual whom [Rushdie] will not name” has lumbered back onto the world stage, armed with an even bigger wrecking ball than previous (oy).
But the broader takeaway from Rushdie’s piece is that the most enduring “science fiction” stories are the ones that reveal more about human nature than they do about life on Mars. That said, he acknowledges the genre can also offer escapism for trying times.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had an increased craving for such escapism lately. Sometimes, I find myself wistfully gazing up at the night sky like Vonnegut’s Billy Pigrim, hoping to spot a Tralfamadorian craft. As the late great Marc Bolan once sang: Flying saucer, take me away.
With that in mind, tonight I thought I’d paw through the “sci-fi” section of my collection and share 25 favorites. Keep in mind that these are personalfavorites; I was careful not to title the post “Top 25 Sci-fi Movies of All Time” (there is no more surefire way to spark a virtual bare-knuckled fracas). 25 off-world adventures are awaiting you now…
Alien – Ridley Scott’s first (and best) entry in what has become a never-ending (albeit lucrative) franchise is the least bombastic and most character-driven of the series. This 1979 sci-fi thriller concerns the workaday crew of a space merchant vessel who are forced to deal with the, erm, complications that ensue after the discovery of an otherworldly stowaway on board. It’s a taut, nail-biting affair from start to finish, with outstanding production design. A top-notch cast helps: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerrit, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, and Harry Dean Stanton.
Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution -The first time I saw this uniquely atmospheric (if coldly detached) 1965 Jean-Luc Godard film I said to myself “WTF did I just watch?” I shrugged it off and forgot about it for about a decade. Then, several years ago I picked up a newly restored Blu-ray reissue and watched it a second time. This time, I said to myself, “Oh. I think I got it.” Then, after pausing a beat “No. I don’t got it.” Now bound and determined, I watched it AGAIN several days later.
This time, by George…I think I got it: Godard’s film, with its mashup of science fiction, film noir, dystopian nightmare and existential despair is a pre-cursor to Blade Runner, Dark City and Death and the Compass (sometimes it takes me a while…but I eventually get there). The film stars American actor Eddie Constantine and Godard’s muse Anna Karina. Sans special effects or any specially constructed sets, Godard used contemporaneous Parisian locations (beautifully shot by Raoul Coutard, mostly at night) to great effect.
The Andromeda Strain – What’s the scariest monster? The one you cannot see. Robert Wise directs this 1971 sci-fi thriller, adapted from Michael Crichton’s best-seller by Nelson Gidding. A team of scientists race the clock to save the world from a deadly virus from outer space that replicates with alarming efficiency. The team is restricted to a hermetically sealed environment until they can figure a way to destroy the microbial intruder, making this a nail-biter from start to finish. With Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne.
Another Earth – Writer-director Mike Cahill’s auspicious 2011 narrative feature debut concerns an M.I.T.-bound young woman (co-scripter Brit Marling) who makes a fateful decision to get behind the wheel after a few belts. The resultant tragedy kills two people, and leaves the life of the survivor, a music composer (William Mapother) in shambles. After serving prison time, the guilt-wracked young woman, determined to do penance, ingratiates herself into the widower’s life (he doesn’t realize who she is). Complications ensue.
Another Earth is a “sci-fi” film mostly in the academic sense; don’t expect to see CGI aliens in 3-D. Orbiting somewhere in proximity of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris, its concerns are more metaphysical than astrophysical. And not unlike a Tarkovsky film, it demands your full and undivided attention.
Blade Runner – What truly defines “being human”? Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that “existence precedes and rules essence”. One must assume that he was talking about human beings, because after all, he was one, offering his (“its”?) definition as to what “being human” is. Which begs this question: what sparks “existence”? To which people usually answer some “thing” or some “one”. Such questions and suppositions form the core of Blade Runner, which is based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi noir is set a dystopian near-future where the presence of commercially manufactured “replicants” (near-humans with specialized functions and a built-in 4-year life span) has become routine. The “blade runner” of note is Deckard (Harrison Ford), whose job is to hunt down and “retire” aberrant replicants.
Also in the cast: Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, M. Emmet Walsh, Edward James Olmos, Brion James and Daryl Hannah. The film’s amazing production design makes it one of cinema’s most immersive “speculative futures” this side of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Computer Chess – In his off-kilter 2013 “80s retro” mockumentary, Andrew Bujalski achieves verisimilitude via a vintage B&W video camera (which makes it appear you’re watching events unfold on closed-circuit TV), and “documents” a weekend-long tournament where nerdy computer chess programmers from all over North America assemble once a year to match algorithmic prowess.
Not unlike a Christopher Guest satire, Bujalski throws a bevy of idiosyncratic characters together, shakes the jar, and then steps back to watch what happens. However, just when you think you’ve got the film sussed as a gentle satirical jab at computer geek culture, things start to get weird…then weirder. The most original sci-fi movie I’ve seen in a while. (Full review)
The Day the Earth Caught Fire – This cerebral mix of conspiracy a-go-go and sci-fi (from 1961) was written and directed by Val Guest. Simultaneous nuclear testing by the U.S. and Soviets triggers an alarmingly rapid shift in the Earth’s climate. As London’s weather turns more tropical by the hour, a Daily Express reporter (Peter Stenning) begins to suspect that the British government is not being 100% forthcoming on the possible fate of the world. Along the way, Stenning has some steamy scenes with his love interest (sexy Janet Munro). The film is more noteworthy for its smart, snappy patter than its run-of-the-mill f/x, but has a compelling narrative. Co-starring veteran scene-stealer Leo McKern.
Escape From New York – John Carpenter directed this 1981 action-thriller set in the dystopian near-future of 1997 (ah, those were the days). N.Y.C. has been converted into a penal colony. Air Force One has been downed by terrorists, but not before the POTUS (Donald Pleasence) bails in his escape pod, which lands in Manhattan, where he is kidnapped by “inmates”. The police commissioner (ever squint-eyed Lee van Cleef) enlists the help of Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a fellow war vet who is now one of America’s most notorious criminals.
Imaginative, darkly funny and entertaining, despite an obviously limited budget. Carpenter and co-writer Nick Castle even slip in a little subtext of Nixonian paranoia. Also with Ernest Borgnine, Adrienne Barbeau, Isaac Hayes (the Duke of N.Y.!), and Harry Dean Stanton (stealing all his scenes as “Brain”). Carpenter also composed (and played) the memorable theme song.
Fantastic Planet – Director Rene Laloux’s imaginative 1973 animated fantasy (originally La planete sauvage) is about a race of mini-humans called Oms, who live on a distant planet and have been enslaved (or viewed and treated as dangerous pests) for generations by big, brainy, blue aliens called the Draags. We follow the saga of Terr, an Om who has been adopted as a house pet by a Draag youngster. Equal parts Spartacus, Planet of the Apes, and that night in the dorm you took too many mushrooms, it’s at once unnerving and mind-blowing. Mushrooms not included.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – The belated 2005 adaptation of satirist Douglas Adams’ classic sci-fi radio-to-book-to TV series made a few old school fans (like me) a little twitchy at first, but director Garth Jennings does an admirable job of condensing the story down to an entertaining feature length film. It’s the only “end of the world” scenario I know of where the human race buys it as the result of bureaucratic oversight (the Earth is to be “demolished” for construction of a hyperspace highway bypass; unfortunately, the requisite public notice is posted in an obscure basement-on a different planet).
Adams (who died in 2001) was credited as co-screenwriter (with Karey Kirkpatrick); but I wonder if he had final approval, as the wry “Britishness” of some of the key one liners from the original series have been dumbed down. Still, it’s a quite watchable affair, thanks to the enthusiastic cast, the imaginative special effects and (mostly) faithful adherence to the original ethos. I heartily recommend the original BBC series as well.
The Incredible Shrinking Man – Always remember, never mix your drinks. And, as we learn from Jack Arnold’s 1957 sci-fi classic, you should never mix radiation exposure with insecticide…because that will make you shrink, little by little, day by day. That’s what happens to Scott Carey (Grant Williams), much to the horror of his wife (Randy Stuart) and his stymied doctors.
Unique for its time in that it deals primarily with the emotional, rather than fantastical aspects of the hapless protagonist’s transformation. To be sure, the film has memorable set-pieces (particularly Scott’s chilling encounters with a spider and his own house cat), but there is more emphasis on how the dynamics of the couple’s relationship changes as Scott becomes more diminutive. The denouement presages the existential finale of The Quiet Earth.
In the fullness of time, some have gleaned sociopolitical subtext in Richard Matheson’s screenplay; or at least a subtle thumb in the eye of 1950s conformity. Matheson adapted from his novel. He also wrote the seminal zombie apocalypse thriller I Am Legend (adapted for the screen as The Last Man on Earth , The Omega Man and the eponymous 2007 film).
Invasion of the Body Snatchers – While there have been three remakes over the decades (Philip Kaufman’s 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Abel Ferrara’s 1993 Body Snatchers, and the one I have yet to see, Oliver Hirshbiegel’s 2007 The Invasion), I have a soft spot for the original 1956 version.
Directed by the versatile (and prolific) Don Siegel and adapted from Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers by Daniel Mainwaring, the story is set in a sleepy California burg, which gets seeded by extraterrestrial spores that quickly germinate into people-sized pods. Each pod is able to replicate a human being, provided it is in close proximity to someone who remains fast asleep during the process. Once the host body is sapped, it is discarded, leaving behind a perfect physical copy devoid of personality; essentially they become malleable automatons, serving the whims of the aliens.
Kevin McCarthy gives an iconic performance as a doctor who is the first person to realize what is happening (of course, nobody believes him, until it’s too late). The film is huge on atmosphere (nice night-by-night work from DP Ellsworth Fredricks helps sustain a mood of dread and paranoia). Genuine chills and thrills abound throughout.
What I like about the 1956 original is that is very much of its time, vis a vis the sociopolitical subtexts. The Cold War era was in full play; one gets a sense of allusions and commentary regarding the Red Scare and (not unlike The Incredible Shrinking Man) the bland “Leave it to Beaver” conformity of the era.
Last Night– A profoundly moving low-budget wonder from writer/director/star Don McKellar. The story intimately focuses on several Toronto residents and how they choose to spend (what they know to be) their final 6 hours. You may recognize McKellar from his work with director Atom Egoyan. He must have been taking notes, because McKellar employs a similar quiet, deliberate manner of drawing you straight into the emotional core of his characters.
Although generally somber in tone, there are plenty of wry touches (you know you’re watching a Canadian version of the Apocalypse when the #4 song on the “Top 500 of All Time” is by… Burton Cummings). The powerful denouement packs quite a wallop.
Fantastic ensemble work from Sandra Oh, Genevieve Bujold, Callum Keith Rennie and Tracy Wright. McKellar tosses fellow Canadian director David Cronenberg into the mix in a small role.
The Lathe of Heaven – Adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic novel by Roger Swaybill and Diane English, this film was produced by Thirteen/WNET-TV in New York and originally aired on PBS stations in 1979.
The story takes place in “near future” Portland, at a time when the Earth is suffering profound effects from global warming and pandemics are rampant (rather prescient, eh?) The film stars Bruce Davison as George Orr, a chronic insomniac who has become convinced that his nightly dreams are affecting reality. Depressed and sleep-deprived, he overdoses on medication and is forced by legal authorities to seek psychiatric help from Dr. William Haber (Kevin Conway), who specializes in experimental dream research.
When Dr. Haber realizes to his amazement that George is not delusional, and does in fact have the ability to literally change the world with his “affective dreams”, he begins to suggest reality-altering scenarios to his hypnotized patient. The good doctor’s motives are initially altruistic; but as George catches on that he is being used like a guinea pig, he rebels. A cat and mouse game of the subconscious ensues; every time Dr. Haber attempts to make his Utopian visions a reality, George finds a way to subvert the results.
The temptation to play God begins to consume Dr. Haber, and he feverishly begins to develop a technology that would make George’s participation superfluous. So begins a battle of wills between the two that could potentially rearrange the very fabric of reality. An intelligent and compelling story; one of the best “made-for-TV” sci-fi films ever produced.
Liquid Sky – Downtown 81 meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers in this deeply weird 1982 art-house sci-fi film. A diminutive, parasitic alien with a particular delectation for NYC club kids, models and performance artists lands on an East Village rooftop and starts mainlining off the limbic systems of junkies and sex addicts…right at the moment that they, you know…reach the maximum peak of pleasure center stimulation (the alien is a dopamine junkie?). Just don’t think about the science too hard.
The main attraction here is the inventive photography and the fascinatingly bizarre performance (or non-performance) by (co-screen writer) Anne Carlisle, who tackles two roles-a female fashion model who becomes the alien’s primary host, and a male model. Writer-director Slava Zsukerman also co-wrote the electronic music score.
Man Facing Southeast – Writer-director Eliseo Subiela’s drama is a deceptively simple tale of a mysterious mental patient (Hugo Soto) who no one on staff at the facility he is housed in can remember admitting. Yet, there he is; a soft-spoken yet oddly charismatic young man who claims to be an extra-terrestrial, sent to Earth to save humanity from themselves. He develops a complex relationship with the head psychiatrist (Lorenzo Quinteros) who becomes fascinated with his case.
While sold as a “sci-fi” tale, it’s hard to pigeonhole; the film is equal parts fable, family drama, and Christ allegory (think King of Hearts meets The Day the Earth Stood Still). Powerful and touching.
The Man Who Fell to Earth – If there was ever a film and a star that were made for each other, it was director Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 adaptation of Walter Tevis’ novel The Man Who Fell to Earth, and the late great David Bowie.
Several years after retiring his “Ziggy Stardust” persona, Bowie was coaxed back to the outer limits of the galaxy to play Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien from a drought-stricken planet who crash-lands on Earth. Gleaning Earth as a water source, Newton formulates a long-range plan for transporting the precious resource back to his home world. In the interim, he becomes an enigmatic hi-tech magnate. A one-of-a-kind film, with excellent supporting performances from Candy Clark, Rip Torn and Buck Henry.
Paprika – It’s no secret among fans of intelligent, adult sci-fi that some of the best genre films these days aren’t originating from Hollywood, but rather from the masters of Japanese anime. Films like Akira and Ghost in the Shell display a quality of writing and visual imagination that few live action productions can touch (well, post-Blade Runner).
One of the more adventurous anime directors was the late Satoshi Kon. In films like Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers, Kon displayed a unique flair for coupling complex characterization with photo-realistic visual style; making me forget that I’m watching an anime.
In this 2007 entry, a team of scientists develops an interface device called the “DC mini” that facilitates the transference of dreams from one person to another. This dream machine is designed primarily for use by psychotherapists; it allows them to literally experience a patient’s dreams and take a closer look under the hood. In the wrong hands, however, this could become a very dangerous tool.
As you have likely guessed, “someone” has hacked into a DC mini and begun to wreak havoc with people’s minds. One by one, members of the research team are driven to suicidal behavior after the dreams of patients are fed into their subconscious without their knowledge (akin to someone slipping acid into the punch).
Things get more complicated when these waking dreams take sentient form and spread like a virus, forming a pervasive matrix that threatens to supplant “reality”. A homicide detective joins forces with one of the researchers, whose alter-ego, Paprika, is literally a “dream girl”, a sort of super-heroine of the subconscious. It’s a Disney-on-acid/ sci-fi murder mystery, featuring Kon’s most stunning use of color and imagery. A must-see for anime and sci-fi fans.
Planet of the Apes – The original 1968 version of The Planet of the Apes had a lot going for it. It was based on an acclaimed sci-fi novel by Pierre Boulle (whose semi-autobiographical debut, The Bridge on the RiverKwai, had been adapted into a blockbuster film). It was helmed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton, Papillon, The Boys from Brazil). It had an intelligent script by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling. And, of course, it had Charlton Heston, at his hammy apex (“God DAMN you ALL to HELL!!”).
Most notably, it opened the same month as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both Kubrick’s and Schaffner’s films not only blew minds but raised the bar on film-goers’ expectations for science-fiction movies; each was groundbreaking in its own way.
The Quiet Earth – In this 1985 New Zealand import, Bruno Lawrence (Smash Palace) delivers a mesmerizing performance, playing a scientist who may (or may not) have had a hand in a government research project mishap that has apparently wiped out everyone on Earth except him. The plot thickens when he discovers that there are at least two other survivors-a man and a woman. The three-character dynamic is reminiscent of a 1959 nuclear holocaust tale called TheWorld, the Flesh and the Devil, but it’s safe to say that the similarities end there. The haunting finale will give you something to mull over long after credits roll. Director Geoff Murphy (who adapted the screenplay from Craig Harrison’s eponymous novel) never topped this effort; although his 1992 film Freejack, with Mick Jagger as a time-traveling bounty hunter (yes…that happened), is worth a peek on a slow night.
Repo Man – This 1984 punk-rock/sci-fi black comedy version of Rebel without a Cause is actually one of the more coherent efforts from mercurial U.K. filmmaker Alex Cox. Emilio Estevez is suitably sullen as disenfranchised L.A. punk Otto, who stumbles into a gig as a “repo man” after losing his job, getting dumped by his girlfriend and deciding to disown his parents. As he is indoctrinated into the samurai-like “code” of the repo man by sage veteran Bud (Harry Dean Stanton, in another masterful deadpan performance) Otto begins to realize that he’s found his true calling.
A subplot involving a mentally fried government scientist on the run, driving around with a mysterious, glowing “whatsit” in the trunk is an obvious homage to Robert Aldrich’s 1955 noir, Kiss Me Deadly. Cox tosses a UFO conspiracy into the mix, and makes excellent use of L.A. locations (thanks in no small part to master cinematographer Robby Muller’s lens work). The fabulous soundtrack includes Iggy Pop, Black Flag, and The Circle Jerks.
Silent Running – In space, no one can hear you trimming the verge! Bruce Dern is an agrarian antihero in this 1972 sci-fi adventure, directed by legendary special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull. Produced around the time “ecology” was a buzzword, its message may seem a little heavy-handed today, but the film remains a cult favorite.
Dern plays the gardener on a commercial space freighter that houses several bio-domes, each dedicated to preserving a species of vegetation (in this bleak future, the Earth is barren of organic growth).
While it’s a 9 to 5 drudge gig to his blue-collar shipmates, Dern sees his cultivating duties as a sacred mission. When the interests of commerce demand the crew jettison the domes to make room for more lucrative cargo, Dern goes off his nut, eventually ending up alone with two salvaged bio-domes and a trio of droids (Huey, Dewey and Louie) who play Man Friday to his Robinson Crusoe. Joan Baez contributes two songs on the soundtrack.
Slaughterhouse-Five – Film adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut stories have a checkered history; from downright awful (Slapstick of Another Kind) or campy misfires (Breakfast of Champions) to passable time killers (Happy Birthday, Wanda June and Mother Night). For my money, your best bets are Jonathan Demme’s 1982 PBS American Playhouse short Who Am I This Time?and this 1974 feature film by director George Roy Hill.
Michael Sacks stars as milquetoast daydreamer Billy Pilgrim, a WW2 vet who weathers the devastating Allied firebombing of Dresden as a POW. After the war, he marries his sweetheart, fathers a son and daughter and settles into a comfortable middle-class life, making a living as an optometrist.
A standard all-American postwar scenario…except for the part where a UFO lands on his nice, manicured lawn and spirits him off to the planet Tralfamadore, after which he becomes permanently “unstuck” in time, i.e., begins living (and re-living) his life in random order. Great performances from Valerie Perrine and Ron Leibman. Stephen Geller adapted the script.
2001: A Space Odyssey – The mathematician/cryptologist I.J. Good (an Alan Turing associate) once famously postulated:
Let an ultra-intelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man…however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultra-intelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion’, and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus, the first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.
Good raised this warning in 1965, about the same time director Stanley Kubrick and sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke were formulating the narrative that would evolve into both the novel and film versions of 2001: aSpace Odyssey. And it’s no coincidence that the “heavy” in 2001 was an ultra-intelligent machine that wreaks havoc once its human overseers lose “control” …Good was a consultant on the film.
Good was but one of the experts that Kubrick consulted, before and during production of this meticulously constructed masterpiece. Not only did he pick the brains of top futurists and NASA engineers, but enlisted some of the best primatologists, anthropologists, and uh, mimes of his day, to ensure that every detail, from the physicality of prehistoric humans living on the plains of Africa to the design of a moon base, passed with veracity. A true classic.
Zardoz – I suspect my inclusion of John Boorman’s 1974 spaced-out oddity will raise an eyebrow or two, but as I’ve admitted on more than one occasion-there’s no accounting for some people’s taste. Once you get past sniggering over star Sean Connery’s costume (a red loincloth/diaper accessorized by a double bandolier and thigh-high go-go boots), this is an imaginative fantasy-adventure for adults.
Set in the year 2293 (why not?), Boorman’s story centers on thuggish but natively intelligent Zed (Connery) who roams the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic Earth with his fellow “Brutals” killing and pillaging with impunity. This all-male club worships a “god” named Zardoz, who speaks to them via a large flying stone head, which occasionally touches down so they can fill it with stolen grain. In exchange, Zardoz spews out rifles like a giant Pez dispenser, while intoning his #1 tenet “The gun is good, the penis is evil.”
One day Zed manages to stow away in the head just before takeoff, and when it lands he finds himself in the invisible force-field protected “Vortex”, where the elite “Eternals” live a seemingly idyllic and Utopian life that is purely of the mind. Bemused and fascinated by this “specimen” from the outside world, one of the Eternals “adopts” Zed as his Man Friday while his fate is being debated. But who is really studying who?
Boorman’s story takes some inspiration from HG Wells’ The Time Machine, as well as another classic fantasy that becomes apparent in the fullness of the narrative, but it still stands out from the pack for sheer weirdness. There are also parallels to A Boy and His Dog (another film I’ve seen an unhealthy number of times).
In a way the “Eternals”-what with their crystals, pyramids, and hippy-dippy philosophical musings, presage the New Age Movement. Also, they pass judgement on anyone in their collective suspected of having “negative thoughts” with a telepathic vote; if found guilty the accused is “aged” to drooling dotage and banished from the community (that’s social media in a nutshell).
Trump can fake the numbers and fire the messengers all he wants but that won’t change this:
American families are struggling financially, and 6 in 10 place blame on Donald Trump for driving up their cost of living. Across a range of different questions, respondents report difficulty making ends meet and keeping up with bills, and were concerned with falling further behind. More than half believe that billionaires, corporations, and congressional Republicans have made their lives harder. Notably, 6 in 10 believe that after just six months on the job, the Trump administration has negatively impacted their cost of living.
To manage the high cost of living, Americans are turning to debt and other risky financial products and practices. While the federal government tears down programs such as Medicaid and food assistance and federal regulators give the green light to companies to rip off consumers, families are being forced to construct their own safety nets from a web of risky financial practices. In the past year, more than 40 percent of Americans have dipped into savings, 37 percent have turned to credit cards, and many report borrowing from friends and family and taking on debt just to pay the bills…
Americans think corporate interests, not government red tape, are the biggest obstacle to making change—and they think it should be a top priority of the government to hold companies accountable for unfairly hiking prices, driving up the cost of living, and taking advantage of people. While some policymakers and experts have emphasized bureaucracy and red tape as a primary barrier to big public projects that lower costs for average people, more than half of Americans believe that the influence of corporations and billionaires is the biggest obstacle, not red tape. Americans also see it as a top priority to not just lower costs, but to hold accountable those companies and individuals who unfairly drove costs up in the first place.
Please, please, no one tell me that I have to respect the 40% of people who see Trump bragging about the numbers when they’re good and then whining like a five year old that they’ve been rigged when they’re bad and can’t see through him. It’s impossible to make any excuses for people who support that kind of fatuous nonsense. They know what he’s doing and they either don’t care or they like it. Either way, those people are lost.
