Dan North

That's not Roger Federer?

It may not be his fault: I'm sure it must feel like everyone is stupid when all the clever people know to avoid you.

Maybe it took one reporter to write about Mamdani's back, and two more to tell us how the presence of snow proves that climate change is a hoax.

"I don't! believe in astrology, but I use the position of stars to help me make predictions for the coming week and to form judgements about the twelve types of people I can expect to meet; stars also give me valuable information about my romantic prospects and the viability of potential partners."

And who’s not there: Putin and Netanyahu can’t go to Switzerland because they’re wanted for war crimes.

The US has had bases in the Philippines, Japan, Germany etc. over the same timespan. What next, does America get to "have" those countries, too?

Was "almost becoming a professional baseball player" also one of his listed accomplishments?

Alternatively, put him in an underground bunker and tell him there's a nuclear war. You can then make videos to play on his screens of a global conflict unfolding at his direction, distracting him while the world gets back on its Trumpless bullshit.

[Copyrighting this for a future movie idea...]

Hear me out: we could keep him looping his old stories at a permanent press conference - actors playing reporters can work in shifts to throw softball questions and compliments round the clock, and the rest of the planet can go about its business, de-Trumped.

I thought the video was looping.

a black bunny laying on the floor with the words bunny review disappointed Alt: a black bunny laying on the floor with the words bunny review disappointed 1/10

It sounds like the very definition of a fun fact to me! And then I remember that it means rabbits can die from hairballs.

Actor: "Who's my motivation? Should I dance like the breed I'm portraying, or like an 18th-century aristocrat? Am I dancing in defiance or fear of the guillotine? Should I dance in the style and time period of whatever song is playing? Am I a dog-like aristo or a sexy dog-person?"
Director: "Yes."

Good idea. There's another, bigger house to the North of that one, with hardly anyone living in it. You might as well take that one, too - it's serves them right for not having sufficient security. You can also use it to defend against the people who might be angry that you took the first house.

How to Watch Werckmeister Harmonies [You can now download a version of this post as a podcast here.] First of all a disclaimer. Despite the title of this post, I don’t want to suggest that what follows is a “correct&#8221…

FWIW, years ago I wrote an introduction for my students to Werckmeister Harmonies to help them engage with it. If it helps.... drnorth.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/h...

The opening scene of Bela Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies, in which János choreographs a dance by a roomful of sozzled barflies in imitation of the solar system.

Watching Werckmeister Harmonies and Sátántangó in particular was transformative for me. Thank you, Béla Tarr (1955 - 2026).

Maduro will say *one* nice thing about Trump’s hair in court and *bang* - all of a sudden he’s Prime Minister of Greenland.

It’s kind of adorable that you asked this question. Bless your heart.

It’s the “this is what we’ve always done and will keep doing until someone stops us” school of military planning.

I think it’s way beyond sarcasm. If there’s an exit strategy, it’ll probably just be shit. You’ll probably wake up tomorrow to read that Scott Baio’s now President of Venezuela.

I can only take comfort in the knowledge that the US must have some sort of rigorously thought out exit strategy and post-coup plan, otherwise they’d be crazy to pull something like this.

A mug in the shape of the White House being partially demolished by diggers.

A mug in the shape of the White House being partially demolished by diggers.

White House commemorative mug seen on sale on Taobao.

How many steps away are we from “You can’t disconnect or block our product because you’ll hurt its widdle feelings”?

I don’t know why this is funny but it is and now a need the whole Christmas album.

Lyrics would work, though, if my last delta experience is anything to go by:

“Transport, motorways, and tramlines
Starting and then stopping, taking off and landing
The emptiest of feelings, disappointed people
Clinging onto bottles
When it comes, it's so, so disappointing.”

Ah, that unique flavour of MAGAgian, bootlicking bullshit, both terrifying in its globestomping arrogance, and utterly infantile in every other way it’s possible to be infantile.

I just accidentally heard it. I can confirm that it’s worse than Ronan’s, which is quite an achievement.

Hey, I'm an average dipshit and I think all of this slop is bollocks.

Whatever smoking gun you're looking for, this ain't it.

If they start slinging around value-laden terms like "hero", "villain", "our boys" (!), etc., it's a steep and slippery slide into jingoism.

I don't actually know if this is unpopular or completely orthodox, but my "unpopular movie opinion" is that Spielberg should have broken from Janusz Kaminski about 30 years ago.

Bath thought: [immediately after the thought I wish we could stop doing discourse about trailers] If Orwell's novel smuggled a dark allegory into the form and tone of a contemporary children's story, what would it look like if someone smuggled that allegory into a modern animated kids movie?

Also, “childish” is too mild a descriptor for Trump’s full-bore sociopathy here, and he’s hardly the one to lecture others about how to conduct reasonable discourse.