Unfit to command...in the eyes of his military commanders.

Pete Hegseth quotes fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction during sermon Hegseth said the prayer was supposed to reflect Ezekiel 25:17, but did not mention its striking similarities to a monologue in the beloved 1994 Quentin Tarantino movie

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

You CAN make this stuff up!

‘No Picnic’ Is a Walk Down Mean Street Memory Lane

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/m...

Neither a backhanded compliment nor a dis to say the film, shot by the great Peter Hutton, looks better than it sounds.

But wouldn't it be a kind of come to Jesus moment if she did take the plunge?

Living in Hell War crimes coming: A horrifying update

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/living-in-...

Trump has put himself in a corner. Now I'm really scared.

That too

White House Seeks $1.5 Trillion for Defense in New Budget Request

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/u...

What entities profit the most from the proposed $1.5 trillion? (And which congress people are most in their pocket?) Obvious questions but youth wants to know.

‘Star Spangled to Death’: Ken Jacobs’s History of the United States

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/m...
Ken Jacobs’s 6½-hour Star Spangled to Death is sui generis — a bargain- basement mash-up that variously evokes Greed, Howl and Moby Dick. MoMA's week-long installation inaugurates a 14-venue, three-borough Jacobs retrospective kenandflojacobscelebration.netlify.app

Thousands in NYC protest Trump administration as part of ‘No Kings’ demonstrations Saturday’s protests were the third iteration of the nationwide day of protest against the Trump administration.

gothamist.com/news/thousan...

Mid Manhattan march = protesters streaming down Bway, 7th & 6th Ave to converge on Herald Sq. Bway bottleneck (photo) produced stirring music--alas no salsa--but a 'Power to the People' call & response from beyond time & space... like last century. Cops negligible.

His Wife’s Lover (on 35mm) + Orchard Street : Jacob Burns Film Center Sidney M Goldin, Ken Jacobs, National Center for Jewish Film, His Wife's Lover, Orchard Street, JFF 2026, Ludwig Satz

burnsfilmcenter.org/booking/his-...

KenFest forshpayz (Sunday afternoon Westchester)

J. Hoberman Presents Return to Lecture Hall 6 Return to Lecture Hall 6Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 7pmLight Industry, 361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn Presented by J. Hoberman Scotch Tape, Jack Smith,...

buttondown.com/lightindustr...

Part of the April KenFest. More TK.

The Film Comment Podcast: The Films of Peter Watkins Living history: critic J. Hoberman joins to discuss the late British director’s utterly unique and invigoratingly political cinema

www.filmcomment.com/blog/the-fil...

Watkins convo with Devika Girish

us18.campaign-archive.com?e=68e7433329...
Taco Trump waist deep in the Big Muddy w Bibi clinging to his shoulder urging him on...

Iran War Live Updates: U.S. Lifts Sanctions on Iranian Oil as War Enters Fourth Week

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...
I'd say the brain's right hemisphere doesn't know what its left hemisphere is doing, if there were a brain that is.

Hegseth Invokes Divine Purpose to Justify Military Might

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/u...

In a word, he's a jihadist

Hard to know what I'd be saying in 2154 but I would like to know your strategy for achieving an independent (socialist? democratic?) Puerto Rico.

Thx for analysis. Still as independence is remote & potentially oligarchic, wouldn't statehood guarantee greater social benefits/economic justice? In any case, the contempt for PR implicit Trump's imperialist blather re Venezuela not to mention actions (or innaction) post Maria seems worth noting

What should I know other than it exists (and there are others who believe in independence or supporting the status quo)? My point was the idiocy of Trump's imperialist statement & the unaddressed crisis in Puerto Rico's infrastructure, to name one example of US injustice. What's your position?

Trump Says Newsom Shouldn’t Be President Because He Is Dyslexic

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/u...

Better dyslexic than demented

Trump Again Floats Idea of Venezuela Becoming America's 51st State Since returning to office, Trump has persistently spoken of his desire to annex other countries and territories, including Canada and Greenland.

time.com/article/2026...
Trump's idiotic Ubu-like speculation should spur to demands to make Puerto Rico the 51st state (and DC the 52nd).

Popcorn Pop Revisiting Hoberman’s 2011 essay on Orson Welles, Douglas Sirk, and Alfred Hitchcock as proto-Pop artists

www.artforum.com/columns/popc...

Artforum decided to post this 2011 piece to coincide with the Oscars (!?). In another coincidence, it's included in my post Village Voice anthology, Across the Movi-verse, due out from Film Desk later this year.

Can't say enough good thing about THE BELLBOY--unfortunately, the appreciation I wrote for Interview 25 years ago is unfindable. There's a bit of it here...

www.villagevoice.com/jerry-lewis-...

Lest we forget, culpable neo-confusion

indeed--and, if I recall correctly, something like 40 members of the royal family were immediately evacuated

Anyone remember that Iran expressed solidarity w US post 9/11? Citizens held vigils & officials condemnedi the attacks, aligned against Taliban & held backchannel talks on security. Ccooperation ended in 2002 after Bush, a near subsidiary of the House of Saud, labeled Iran part of the Axis of Evil.

Country Joe McDonald, Whose Antiwar Song Became an Anthem, Dies at 84

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/a...
A great electric acid folkie--proud Red Diaper Baby, lifelong anarcho activist, pure Berkeley. Fixin' to Die still www.reddit.com/r/psychedeli...
cracks me up. Fun fact: Kusama opened for Country Joe & the Fish at Filmore East Dec 68 & bombed (Everything is Now p321)

Report: Kurds expected to launch Iran ground offensive after receiving U.S. arms The Aim Would Be to Create Space for Iranians Opposed to the Islamic Regime to Rise After the Deaths of Its Leaders, Sources Said. Any Kurdish Operation From Iraq Would Likely Require Significant U.S....

www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

How many times are the Kurds going to be used and betrayed by Western powers?

The Joan Blondell vehicle BIG CITY BLUES is a nifty find as well. Uncredited Humphrey Bogart has a small but crucial perf as the Park Avenue punk he may actually have been.

A plug for Criterion's current pre-Code Mervyn LeRoy package.
LeRoy may be no one's idea of an auteur altho Andy S praised his "innate vulgarity." I knew most of them, love FIVE STAR FINAL & THREE ON A MATCH, but HEAT LIGHTNING is a small revelation w typically great work by Glenda Farrell.

‘Days and Nights in the Forest’: Into the Woods With Satyajit Ray

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/m...

An excellent Ray refresher