Election 2024 Summary

Kamala Harris: “The American people are a good people who care for each other and want what is best for each other!”

American People: “No, we’re not!”

Too weird

The danger that is Project 2025

When Trump ran for re-election, the GOP had no platform for the first time in its history. They stood for nothing except supporting their cult leader.

This time, they have a plan, which they call “Project 2025.” Sounds innocent enough, but these are the things the Republicans will try to do if they get elected:

  • Make abortion illegal nationwide
  • Prohibit the sale of abortion drugs (“morning after” pill)
  • Ban contraceptions
  • Make pornography illegal
  • Allow the President to fire minor bureaucrats who aren’t “loyal” to him (This means experts in their fields who have non-political jobs who run the services we need can be fired if they aren’t Trump Republicans)
  • Eliminate the Department of Education
  • Slash corporate taxes and taxes on the very wealthy
  • Ban certain words from government documents, including “sexual orientation”, “diversity, equity, and inclusion”, “gender equality”, “abortion” and “reproductive rights”.
  • The military would be turned into a political group and sent to quell protests
  • “Traditional families” would be promoted over gay relationships, and gay marriage would cease to exist
  • Ban transgender people from the military and limit protections for LGBTQ members
  • Stop programs meant to curb global warming
  • Cancel government programs requiring diversity and inclusion
  • Dismantle the FBI and Homeland Security
  • Make it legal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation
  • Ban medicare and other federal health plans from covering abortions
  • Put the Christian religion in the forefront of policy-making, while funding Christian schools and programs
  • Ignore Congress and the Courts and allow the President to have practically unlimited power

There’s more, seriously, but, you know, if you think the Handmaid’s Tale would be a great way to run a country, and if you like the idea of having a dictator who can fire anyone who is not loyal to him, feel free to vote Republican in November. Or, instead, you could move to Iran. I understand they have a similar government there.

Best and worst animated films of 2023

In the 80s, I started a magazine called “Animato!” that later grew quite large and popular. I got to meet and interview great animators like Chuck Jones and Ralph Bakshi but later sold the magazine, and it went on to even bigger successes until the internet killed all magazines.

So I’m still an animation fan, but it’s basically impossible to see all the films and all the animated TV shows these days unless you’re a full-time animator or animation historian, I guess.

These days, with so much CGI, we can debate what an “animated film” even is, but generally the accepted definition is that the main characters must be animated — not just the monsters or effects. (And “motion capture” doesn’t count.)

So here’s my annual end-of-the-year list of best and worst animated films (based on their Rotten Tomatoes score). Ties are broken by number of reviews, and you have to have at least 10 reviews to make my list.

Interesting year: No one film dominated, and most received at least 50% (unlike previous years where a lot of films got very low scores). And look what’s at the bottom: Disney’s latest “Wish,” which was the poorest reviewed Disney film since 2005’s “Chicken Little.”

  1. The Boy and the Heron (97%)
  2. Suzume (96%)
  3. Merry Little Batman (96%)
  4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (96%)
  5. Spider Man: Across the Spider-verse (95%)
  6. Nimona (95%)
  7. The Venture Brothers: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (92%)
  8. Leo (82%)
  9. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (80%)
  10. Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (77%)
  11. The Inventor (76%)
  12. Elemental (73%)
  13. Migration (72%)
  14. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (71%)
  15. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (66%)
  16. The Magician’s Elephant (65%)
  17. They Shot the Piano Player (65%)
  18. Trolls Band Together (60%)
  19. The Super Marios Brothers Movie (59%)
  20. The Monkey King (59%)
  21. The Canterville Ghost (55%)
  22. Mummies (53%)
  23. Miraculous Ladybug and Cat Noir (50%)
  24. Wish (48%)

Who gets upset with “Merry Christmas”?

To those people sharing memes that say things like “I don’t care what people say, I’m going to say ‘Merry Christmas’ even if it makes people upset!”

Have you ever met one person who was upset when you said “Merry Christmas”? Even one?

You’ve been suckered by Fox News, which has managed to convince people that if you say “Happy holidays” then you’re against anyone else saying “Merry Christmas” if they want to. As if the two are opposed to each other in some way.

Don’t be so gullible, angry, and ridiculous.

Getting angry if someone says “Happy holidays” to you is the most anti-Christian and anti-Christmas attitude you could have at a time where you’re supposed to be loving each other and promoting good will. “I’m a Christian who believes in good will to everyone at Christmas UNLESS YOU SAY HAPPY HOLIDAYS IN WHICH CASE I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL” …. Because that’s exactly how Jesus would act, right?

Nobody is stopping you from saying “Merry Christmas” and no one is upset at you if you do say it.

So get into the holiday spirit and accept all greetings of goodwill for the intent in which they are given.

Election day 2023

“Those Democrats with their radical agenda! They want to allow women to make their own medical decisions without government oversight! They want gay people in love to be able to get married! They think you shouldn’t have to be rich to get health care! They think higher education should be available to everyone no matter their income! They even think that we shouldn’t punish transgendered people!”

Voters: “These terrible Democrats! What were their names again so we can recognize them when we go into the voting booth?”

The curse of conformity

So many problems in our world are caused simply because we try to force people to conform.

Men have to act this way, women have to act this way, you have to belong to the same religion, you have to love the opposite sex, you shouldn’t question authority, you can’t be unique.

If we’d stop trying to force everyone into categories, we’d sure have a more peaceful society.

Is Trump being treated special?

There’s a meme going around complaining that Trump was allowed to work out a time to turn himself in, and therefore was being treated differently than the average criminal.

However, I have had plenty of clients — black, white, rich and poor — accused of felonies where I talked to the judge and the officers and we worked out a time for them to turn themselves in.

So that part doesn’t bother me. What bothers me (as usual) are all the hypocrites on the right claiming this is no big deal while screaming that Hillary should have been locked up for not realizing she had three pages of documents that had later been classified. (And remember — Trump’s DOJ could have charged her and would have loved to do so, but there was nothing there.)

The tragedy of college these days

When I went to college, I took so many different courses, based on what interested me. Besides my political science major, I took courses in sociology, philosophy, history, astronomy, music, film, literature, and even a course in puppetry. I think I became a better educated, well-rounded person because of it.

But college didn’t cost much in those days. I even went a 5th year (partially because I was working part time to pay for it and didn’t take 16 credits each semester) but that allowed me to expand past the required courses a lot more.

Now, with college being so expensive, people see it as an investment toward a job instead of being “getting an education.” It’s work training.

And that’s quite sad.

Biden’s best lines from the Correspondence Dinner

I believe in the First Amendment — not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it.

I get that age is a completely reasonable issue. It’s on everybody’s mind. And by “everyone” I mean the New York Times.  Headline: “Biden’s advanced age is a big issue. Trump’s, however, is not.”

I want everybody to have fun tonight, but please be safe. If you find yourself disoriented or confused, it’s either you’re drunk or Marjorie Taylor Greene.  

I love NPR — because they whisper into the mic like I do. But not everybody loves NPR.  Elon Musk tweeted that it should be defunded. The best way to make NPR go away is for Elon Musk to buy it.

We really have a record to be proud of. We added 12 million jobs, and that’s just counting the lawyers who defended Trump.

I had a lot of Ron DeSantis jokes ready, but Mickey Mouse beat the hell out of me and got there first.   

It’s great the cable news networks are here tonight. MSNBC, owned by NBC Universal. Fox News, owned by Dominion Voting Systems. 

Last year, your favorite Fox News reporters were able to attend because they were fully vaccinated and boosted. This year, with that $787 million settlement, they’re here because they couldn’t say no to a free meal.