-- चार हजार तीन सौ चौंतीस --

Well, it's a pretty dispiriting day for America today. Thanks, really, to fucking Mitch McConnell, who blocked the appointment of a new Supreme Court Justice for months under Obama so a deeply misogynist one could be appointed under President Fuckwit (this is really more the fault of our Senate than our current shit stain of a president himself), the Supreme Court has handed down three terrible decisions: upholding the Muslim travel ban; upholding gerrymandering of congressional districting maps that are clearly biased against racial minorities; and siding with plainly deceitful anti-abortion "pregnancy centers" in California.

I was interesting in the gerrymandering decision in particular. I told myself, If the Supreme Court rules in favor of gerrymandering, it's all over. Well, here we are. Upon reflection, maybe "it's all over" was hyperbole. Maybe. At this point, it's up to the Congress to pass actual law to turn things around. And what hope do we have of that, seriously? I do have high hopes for a so-called "Blue Wave" in the midterms this November, but have very little hope that even if that happens, we will gain enough of a majority in either house (let alone both) to make a real difference. There is every reason to impeach this president (as there was with George W. Bush), and that's never going to happen. Why? Simply because Democrats refuse to be as ruthless as Republicans -- who impeached Clinton over a fucking blowjob. We now have a president flagrantly disregarding the "rule of law" Republicans supposedly care about, and no one is doing shit. Republicans have no integrity, Democrats have no balls. And it's not exactly going to be easy to gain these majorities in the face of a gerrymandered system built to give unfair advantage to Republicans who enact policies actually opposed by a majority of the electorate. This is "democracy," apparently.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice," or so it is said. Long is a fucking understatement. This makeup of the Supreme Court, stacked under blatantly unjust circumstances, is setting us back not just years, but decades. And it's fucking depressing. That "bending toward justice" bit is little comfort when it appears not likely to take a visible turn in far too many critical matters until, well, I'll be nearing the end of my own life. If even then. And by then, these same people who have zero regard for the trashing of this planet will also have left humanity facing extinction.

But, whatever! By the time I do bite it, I'll no longer care anymore because I'll be dead. Until then, I remain fully dedicated to having as good a time as I can for as long as I can. Because what other way is there to make life worth living, regardless of world circumstances?

-- चार हजार तीन सौ चौंतीस --

-- चार हजार तीन सौ चौंतीस --

How about a lighten the mood a little now!

Yesterday Shobhit and I went to the Meridian downtown to see the 6:00 showing of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and it was . . . a blast! Insanely stupid, too. But also a blast. I had so much fun! Arguably even more than I did at the first Jurassic World, although I gave both movies a solid B for basically the same reasons: insanely dumb stories, but irresistible action set pieces. At this movie, though, I feel like the latter left me even more mesmerized than they did in the previous film, which relied too heavily on nostalgia for the original Jurassic Park -- which, frankly, to this day stands on its own to a truly amazing degree.

I'm tempted to say we barely made it, but there were so many trailers beforehand that we didn't even need to rush to the extent that we did. Shobhit stopped at Taco Del Mar to pick up dinner for us after work, and he originally texted his ETA was 5:48. We still needed to walk downtown after that, which usually takes twenty minutes! Then, he arrived nearly ten minutes earlier than that. And then, he insisted on changing his clothes and using the bathroom. When we finally left the building, it was . . . 5:47.

And we really hauled ass, even running a portion of the time. I'd say it was about 6:05 when we were finally there to purchase our tickets (mine with MoviePass; Shobhit's with one of two discount Costco tickets to Regal Cinemas I still had left in my wallet). We both used the bathroom again.

And then . . . even after probably getting into the theatre itself at about 6:10, there were so many more trailers even after that, that Shobhit and I had time to unpack, eat, and even finish our burritos (mine was delicious) before the movie itself even started. We honestly could have waited to leave home at 6:00 itself and we still would not have missed any part of the movie. It should be noted, however, that we could not always rely on that expectation: it really depends on the run time of the movie itself, which in this case is 128 minutes. When it comes to scheduling, the next showing in that same theatre was not until 9:10. So, they might as well run 25 minutes of trailers to fill up the time they have before then, just barely giving staff enough time to go through with brooms before the next set of moviegoers come in.

We wound up also getting dessert on our way home. We went to Old School Frozen Custard because I had a $5 off coupon, so I only spent about $5, with tip, for something for both of us. Shobhit had an Espresso ice cream (yuck) in a cake cone; I had a single scoop of Birthday Cake flavor in a cup, with Reese's Peanut Butter Cup topping (Shobhit would say: yuck). I don't think I'll ever do that combo again; it was too sweet even for me. I still finished it, of course. And without it, I'm almost certain my weight would have been down this morning. Instead it was up about half a pound. Oh well.

We came home, I wrote the movie review, went to bed.

-- चार हजार तीन सौ चौंतीस --

[posted 12:30 pm]