Shall not the judge of all the Earth be sponsored by Rococo Coffee?

DOGE Terminates the Lease at Obama Presidential Library Site
March 5, 2025

Didn't hear much of Trump's speech.  Heard the first ten or fifteen minutes but my internet problems were backing up again, so I gave up.  No idea how long it ran but nobody's suggesting he set any new records for length.  Also don't hear much about him being as senile as Biden.  Right there is a plus.

Near as I can tell, and I haven't looked into the coverage either, he was pretty basic.  There were no surprising exposes, he didn't list the names of Epstein's closest friends or anything.  The parts I did hear was typical self-absorption, covering all his amazing accomplishments in the last six weeks.  There's reasons to be thrilled or annoyed by that stuff.  Going through a long list of examples of federal waste is something that deserved to be recognized.

Democrats made a point of not having any applause for anything.  Trump points to a black boy fighting brain cancer, they look stern and disgusted by what they see.  They'd rather that dark-skinned creature be late-term aborted right now rather than give him any support or approval.

Otherwise the main attention seemed to be going to the protestors.  There weren't that many.  A few made a point of leaving and showing off the word "resist" on the back of their shirts.  This sort of thing just seems pointless, why do you bother showing up if you're going to leave partway through?  Can't say you expected Trump to do something different, he's Trump.  You could have just skipped the entire speech, but then you wouldn't get any attention for walking out.  Democrat principles are worthless if they don't get attention for it.

The main protestor was right at the beginning, Al Green.  I never heard what he was yelling about, just that the House Speaker kept telling him to be quiet and finally sent in the Sergeant at Arms to remove the guy.  I'm not sure if it's better that he at least attempted to do something or worse that it's still completely pointless.

Otherwise, when I was still watching, the only thing that stood out was a very short clip of Nancy Pelosi, just after Trump cited "make America great again."  She just looked like her teeth were causing her big problems, or some equivalent reason to have that look on her face.  She was playing with her cane, as if she was trying to keep her emotions under control.  Don't know if it's true but I'd heard she had told her obedient party to not cause any problems tonight so she needed to impose her will on her subjects.

Anyway, no sign this speech was a big deal for anybody.  Just one of those things that occasionally happens.  I'm sure the polls say all sorts of things if you want to pick-and-choose from those, but I doubt it will mean much.  These things get more build-up than they really deserve.

Leftist Streamer Calls for Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) to be “Killed,” Twitter Bans Him for Less Than a Day
March 5, 2025

□ [“Supreme Court Orders Trump Administration to Immediately Unfreeze Foreign USAID Payments"]

I haven't found any reason why.  This is the case that Roberts intervened because the lower-level judge had no authority to include a deadline.  He immediately reacted to Trump's appeal and now voted against him on that case.  Not a good sign.

It's easy to accuse judges of being corrupt or blackmailed, but the Supreme Court has always been weird.  Like most people, I don't pay any attention to them, so the rare times they show up in my line of sight, it's often because they ruled on something in a way we wouldn't expect.  It almost doesn't matter what the case is, it's one justice or more ruling against something you'd expect them to support, or vice versa.

I'd need to look up which case it was, but the example that comes to mind was a few years ago.  The Biden administration was pushing standard leftism and lost 9-0.  Even his own appointees weren't putting up with it.  If the left can lose to leftists in a way that benefits the US, it's obviously a sign that the judges don't work in ways most of us could remotely comprehend.

Probably one of the difficult parts about being a judge, nobody understands your verdicts but, at least in theory, everyone is required to obey.  Until they don't.

D.C.’s Mayor Bowser Confirms Black Lives Matter Street Mural Will Be Removed
March 5, 2025

□ [“Macron Televised Address:  May Use Nukes to Protect Europe, Attacks US-Russia Peace Process"]

It's not just that leftism has little-if-any connection to reality, it's that leftists-in-power are surrounded by other leftists, the ones who provide them all the information.  As high-ranking politicians, it may go several levels down before you find anyone who actually gets information from someone in the real world.  Since France doesn't have a military, there's no one who's job it is to keep track of what could go wrong and get everybody killed.

He's talking about expanding France's nukes to protect the rest of Europe.  That's a major change and like everyone else, France still isn't at war.  At least not as far as normal people are concerned.  Macron and his ilk clearly believe they're in a live-or-die war right now, meaning that things will go wrong for them and they'll be left with nukes as the only option.

He's planning a meeting next week with all of Europe's "army chiefs."  A strange phrase to use, don't they have air forces or navies?  He's not using the term "summit" but otherwise what's the difference from any of the previous get-togethers these people have had in the last month or so?  They're just elites planning future meetings, promising that this will somehow create peace.

Yemeni Houthis Officially Re-Designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
March 5, 2025

□ [“John Fetterman Slams Democrats' ‘Unhinged Petulance’ at Trump’s Speech — Nobody Cares About Their Protests and Stunts"]

I still can't drop the theory that Fetterman was given intentional brain damage to make him a popular leftist and then surgery to restore some coherent sensibility.  He still stands with Democrats on almost everything, but can at least recognize their problems.  He even went to Mar-a-Lago a little while ago.

The people who run the party don't seem to realize that they're becoming an irrelevant minority.  The DEI agenda is almost completely past-tense almost everywhere in the country, and the few places it's not are struggling against their activist employees.  I would say the turning point was around the time Bud Lite got drunk and stupid, although it might be argued that the retreat had already begun.  But the people in charge still don't realize that.

It's all anecdotal, but it just seems like more and more people are turning away from leftism overall.  Blacks get most of the attention, especially black females, but I'd assume it's happening all through the spectrum.  At least I hope it is.  And the party is just making its problem worse with these antics.  They didn't have any solutions when they were in charge and they haven't learned anything by losing power.

Pro-Hamas Students Take Over Barnard Library, Police Called In
March 5, 2025

□ [“How Would Disney Even Sell Star Wars?"]

Rumor, speculation or some part of Disney thinking it can get something by leaking info about another part of Disney.  It might even be a complete lie being put out to try to convince Kathleen Kennedy to get the hell out.  She has made statements that she's absolutely not retiring from movies but made no mention of staying at Lucasfilm.

I can't imagine Disney selling the franchise even if they desperately wanted to.  There's just the obvious question, who would want to buy it given the complete mess Disney has made?  It's not just paying Disney for the rights, it's trying to figure out any remotely possible ways of fixing it.

Then there's the fact that Disney would still want the rights to their productions, as well as making money from the One True Trilogy with toys, Disneyworld and the like.  'You buy all the problems, I'll keep the parts that still work'?  It won't work that way.  I would think you'd have to pay potential buyers just to sit through opening negotiations, what other incentive do they have to even try?

So thinking about it, I'm guessing this is more a rumor to get rid of KK than anything else, although they're probably also just showing off their desperation which is very real at this point.  I would say they should generally reduce the brand, at least as far as movies go.  Probably stop doing other stuff too, but I don't know how else Disney uses it so I won't speculate there.

In movies, they should bring back the 7-minute serials, kinda like what inspired the franchise in the first place.  Make a single installment as stand-alone as possible, but putting ten or fifteen in a row would create an overall story.  If I were in charge, this would be the only use of the franchise itself, as a basic space adventure shown before movies in theaters, just as it used to be.

Then the movies used should also be space fantasy, but without the Star Wars logo.  These would actually be part of the franchise but hide that for as long as possible.  No Jedi, no storm troopers.  Stories set in their own time.  Eventually connections between the movies can be made clear.  I would say 'phase one' ends with an appearance by storm troopers.  Not as the actual villains, just a scene or two that starts revealing this is going on.

It's not just Star Wars and it's not just Disney, these companies have become too overwhelmed by the weight of the IPs.  They have to push this through all their sub-companies, making arrangements with manufacturers of toys and breakfast cereal.  There's no way to create a remotely-interesting story that way and the IPs make themselves worthless to the customers.  It's the only way to make something people actually want to buy, the opposite of what Disney's been doing all this time.

Biden Official Who Trump Fired and Was Reinstated by an Obama Judge Has Been Fired Again
March 5, 2025