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maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Woke Running Man?!?

Movie poster for The Running Man, dir. Edgar Wright

November 17, 2025 at 7:23 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

"Why was this a story worth telling?" is never a reaction you want when the credits roll but that's how I felt at the end of The Smashing Machine. What was the point? I understand that bald fraud Dwayne wants his Oscar but he ain't getting one for this.

Movie poster for The Smashing Machine, dir. Benny Safdie

November 10, 2025 at 4:50 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Norm Macdonald on Late Night with Conan O'Brien describing Carrot Top's movie Chairman of the Board as "box office poison"

November 9, 2025 at 8:03 PM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Amy has done the reading on feminism and she has thoughts

November 7, 2025 at 6:34 PM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Isgur is lying about the Florida drag show case. They did not "throw shade at Florida's law" (good lord imagine being an adult and writing like this). Kavanaugh and Barrett explicitly wrote they were *not* saying that the ban was unconstitutional.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, filed a short statement, explaining that the state did not raise the First Amendment issue in the case and the court's action on Thursday thus "indicates nothing about our view on whether Florida's new law violated the First Amendment."

November 7, 2025 at 5:52 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Spanberger's 15-point win is the biggest margin of victory for Democrats in Virginia since Albertis Harrison in 1961.

November 5, 2025 at 7:29 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Just didn't find the central dilemma of House of Dynamite that compelling. Obviously you wait to figure out who nuked you before blindly retaliating! The consequences of getting a retaliatory strike against Russia and China wrong are so much worse than the risks of waiting and seeing.

Movie poster for House of Dynamite (2025, dir. Kathryn Bigelow)

November 2, 2025 at 8:41 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

US falls to 27th in the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index, its lowest ranking in the 11-year history of the survey. Biggest declines were in constraints on govt powers, open govt, and fundamental rights.

worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-...

United States Overall Rule of Law Score Over Time, 2015-2025, showing a decline from a score of .74 in 2015 to .68 in 2025.

October 28, 2025 at 6:37 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc is filler, but goddamn is it beautiful, exciting filler. I haven't seen an anime in years that had it hooks in me this deep. Season 2 now, please.

October 27, 2025 at 3:43 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Eddington, or "Bothsides: The Movie," a film that draws a moral equivalence between anti-mask right-wing Qanon and mildly cringey liberals marching for Black Lives Matter for an agonizing 2 1/2 hours before their small town is attacked by antifa terrorists. Fuck this cynical trash.

October 19, 2025 at 2:06 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Highest 2 Lowest features some terrible ADR, constantly bizarre and wrong music in every scene, absolutely atrocious dialogue, and the worst acting I've seen in a major studio movie in years. Even Jeffrey Wright can't figure out how to act like a real human in a Spike Lee joint.

Movie poster for Highest 2 Lowest, dir. Spike Lee

October 18, 2025 at 7:44 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Mitch McConnell was (yes, was, it's not too soon, he's basically dead already) a sniveling, cowardly toad who lived every day of his life humiliating and debasing himself in any way he could to further his own power. Here he is admitting that he knew Trump was guilty as sin in his first impeachment.

Romney: A Reckoning (2023), by McKay Coppins, p. 244:

"At this stage, it is hard to imagine how the Defense might be able to reverse my conclusion," he wrote in his journal, "but I know that's always a possibility."

He wasn't the only one who seemed convinced of Trump's guilt. During a break in the proceedings that day, Romney walked by McConnell. "They nailed him," the Senate majority leader said.

Romney, taken aback by McConnell's candor, was careful not to give away too much. "Well, the defense will say that Trump was just investigating corruption by the Bidens," he said.

"If you believe that," McConnell replied, "I've got a bridge I can sell you."

Still, Romney hadn't heard the president's full defense yet, and he was determined to keep an open mind.

October 17, 2025 at 4:44 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Oprah Winfrey asked Mitt Romney to run for President as an independent in 2020, with her as his running mate.

Romney: A Reckoning (2023), by McKay Coppins, p. 237:

Perhaps the most surreal moment that fall came one day in November, when Ann received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey. The Romneys had known Winfrey since 2012, when she interviewed them during the campaign. Though she supported Barack Obama, she respect the couple and was especially fond of Ann. In the years since the election, the two women had seen each other a number of times at social events. Now Oprah was calling Ann with a question: Was there any chance Mitt would run for president in 2020 as an independent, with her as his running mate?

October 17, 2025 at 4:34 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

After the "47%" gaffe, Romney floated the idea of dropping out of the 2012 race and handing the nomination off to Chris Christie or Rob Portman.

Romney: A Reckoning (2023), by McKay Coppins, p. 143:

In the days after the leak of the 47 percent video, Newhouse had decided to temporarily shut down the campaign's polling operation. He knew the numbers would be terrible at first, but with any luck they'd rebound - no use in unnecessarily demoralizing the candidate. Nearly two weeks later, though, the campaign's internal polling was worse than it had ever been. Romney was trailing - in some cases, badly - in every battleground state. Down five in Florida; down eight in Ohio. Virginia, which had been a toss-up, was now looking solidly blue. The race, Romney began to think, was no longer within reach.

Late on the night of September 30, Romney called Stevens with a startling question: "Should I just drop out of the race?"

Romney reasoned that Republicans would have a better chance if they swapped him out for someone who wasn't so easily saddled with claims that he only cared about the rich. He suggested Chris Christie or Rob Portman.

The election was six weeks away, and the Republican presidential nominee was actively discussing resigning his candidacy.

October 15, 2025 at 3:20 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Mitt Romney reflected in his recent (and very good) biography by McKay Coppins that "A very large portion of my party really doesn't believe in the Constitution."

Romney: A Reckoning (2023), by McKay Coppins, p. 9:

"A very large portion of my party," he told me one day, "really doesn't believe in the Constitution." He'd realized this only recently, he said, and it came as a surprise. Romney had internalized the partisan idea that Democrats were the ones who abandoned Constitutional principles in the name of "progress," while Republicans were committed to conserving them. But it's hard to live through an attempted insurrection that was instigated by the leaders of your party and still believe they mean it when they talk about their reverence for American's founding documents.

Now he was wrestling with some difficult questions. Was the authoritarian element of his party a product of President Trump, or had it always been there, just waiting to be activated by a sufficiently shameless demagogue? Was the rot on the right new, or was it something very old just now bubbling to the surface? And what role had the members of the mainstream establishment - people like him, the reasonable Republicans - played in allowing that rot to fester?

October 15, 2025 at 3:02 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

I dunno, Tron: Ares was exactly what I wanted - paper thin plot that makes no sense, is barely explained, and is a vehicle for bright flashy colors, exciting chase scenes, and cool music to tap your foot to. It doesn't deserve to bomb, and I don't know what anyone was expecting.

October 13, 2025 at 6:10 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Also just not true that Trump won because of seniors. Trump lost ground among voters 65+ compared to 2020! If you want to blame a generation, blame the Gen X manbabies.

October 11, 2025 at 9:42 PM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Lots of folks gloating that Trump didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize today but the Venezuelan opposition figure they gave it to, María Corina Machado, actually seems kind of horrible and dedicated her win to him.

Regarding the Israel–Palestine conflict, Machado expressed her solidarity with Israel following the attacks of 7 October 2023.[117] She thanked Israel for its support of Edmundo González as president-elect,[118] and previously of Juan Guaidó as acting president.[119] Machado planned to reestablish diplomatic relations with Israel, which were cut in 2009 due to the 2008–2009 Gaza war.[119]

In February 2025, Machado addressed a Patriots.eu rally in Madrid.[120][121] Machado is a strong supporter of United States President Donald Trump, whom she described in 2025 as a "visionary" in relation to his opposition to the Maduro regime in Venezuela.[122][123] After he deployed the Navy to the Caribbean in 2025, Machado praised the Trump administration.[124] She has expressed support for the use of force to depose the Maduro regime; one of her advisors told the New York Times that she has coordinated with the Trump administration and that she has a plan for the first hundred hours after his deposition.[125]

October 11, 2025 at 3:10 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Checking our current ranking on the Global Peace Index, and... oh dear. 128th out of 163? That doesn't seem very peaceful.

2025 Global Peace Index - United States of America
Overall Score 2.44
Country Ranking 128/163

October 5, 2025 at 8:14 PM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

"Bongino, I want 10,000 tough guys, and 10,000 soft guys to make the tough guys look tougher!"

October 4, 2025 at 6:34 AM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

Another embarrassment for Trump's Justice Department, as a Virgin Islands jury deadlocks in the murder trial of Enock Cole and Jiovoni Smith for a robbery/homicide on St. Croix in 2018.

Mistrials happen, but DOJ tried to seek the death penalty in this case as recently as July.

DECLARATION OF MISTRIAL

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on the jury trial in this matter that began on September 8, 2025, and concluded on September 26, 2025. As detailed on the record on September 26, 2025, Defendants Cole and Smith moved for a mistrial on grounds of jury deadlock, which the Government opposed. The Court declared a mistrial over the Government’s objection based on manifest necessity and discharged the jury. Defendants Cole and Smith were remanded to the custody of the United States Marshals.

Dated: October 1, 2025

The motion for a mistrial, which the Court granted, occurred after the jurors advised the Court through four separate notes that they were unable to reach a unanimous decision. Supplemental instructions were given in response to the first two indications that a unanimous decision could not be reached, and the jury was sent back for further deliberations on each count. Following the third note reporting the lack of a unanimous decision, the Court inquired by note whether the providing of testimony, which the jurors had previously requested, would resolve the deadlock. The jurors responded in their fourth note that this information would not resolve the deadlock, and that they were hopelessly deadlocked. Following the fourth note, the jurors again advised—individually in open court—that they were hopelessly deadlocked. The Court understands that the Government intends to retry Defendants.

October 2, 2025 at 7:16 PM

maledicta

@maledicta.bsky.social

New Justice Dept. report finds that the rate of violent crime victimization in the U.S. in 2024 was largely unchanged from the previous two years, and the same as it was in 2018 and 2013.

bjs.ojp.gov/library/publ...