Alex Pretti Is Still Dead

And so is Renee Good.

But who can remember?

So is that kid in the photo from Kent State, lying in the street, shot  by National Guard on campus. That kid was not even in the protest, just walking by.

(For that matter, so was the black man in the photo of the the police dog which became famous.)

This is what state terrorism, in other words, state totalitarianism, looks like.

Sieg!

Heil!

At the Democratic "forum" in Portsmouth last week no questions were asked of the six Democrats seeking the nomination to run for Congress about Alex Pretti or Renee Good. Last month's news. (Actually, February's news.) So, ICE, government murders caught on video, not really a topic any more. That was so last February. "Qualified immunity," they call it. Police are above the law. Police are the law. They were just following orders. The Democrats do not debate any of this in their "forums." The Democrats here in New Hampshire do not debate. They have forums, which sounds less confrontational. And the last thing we want in New Hampshire is confrontation. Or discord. Or to be reminded that maybe, just down the road, ICE will construct a "detention center." Arbeit Macht Frie. Nobody's seen ICE round these parts lately, anyway. No way they might come back. And for damn sure, nobody wants to be reminded of all that unpleasantness.

Or, for that matter: Remember Ukraine? Remember when we were upset about the Russians trying to do to Ukraine what the Israelis did to Gaza? So unpleasant. Better to not talk about it. 

Remember her?

 

You May Say That I Ain't Free

So, oh, well. Move on to the next outrage. The CDC refuses to publish a report showing the most recent COVID vaccine reduced hospitalizations. The US Navy is stopping ships as part of the war against Iran nobody voted for. Secretary of Treasury defends bribes from Qatar to the Trump family. What are a couple of deaths of some Midwestern middle class people, really? 

But It Don't Worry Me

Just bury my heart at Minneapolis and move on.

What?

Custer died for our sins. Who did Alex Pretti and Renee Good die for?

Me Worry?

Don't be a martyr.

As the Bard said,

Don't follow leaders

Watch the parkin' meters.

Look out kid

They keep it all hid

Better jump down a manhole

Light yourself a candle.

The price of bread may worry some
But it don’t worry me
Tax relief may never come
But it don’t worry me

Economy’s depressed, not me
My spirit’s high as it can be
And you may say that I ain’t free
But it don’t worry me

It don’t worry me
It don’t worry me
You may say that I ain’t free
But it don’t worry me

They say this train don’t give out rides
Well, it don’t worry me
The whole world is taking sides
But it don’t worry me

'Cause in my empire life is sweet
Oh, just ask any beau you meet
And life may be a one-way street
But it don’t worry me

It don’t worry me
It don’t worry me
You may say that I ain’t free
But it don’t worry me

--Keith Carradine, "Nashville" (the movie)

Guillermo Rodriguez Cringe

 

As a bone fide Youtube addict and a fan (mostly) of Jimmy Kimmel, who is the most effective Trump defiant late night comedian left standing, now that Stephen Colbert has been run out of town, the Phantom finds himself in a peculiar and disorienting position.

Kimmel is wonderful when skewering Trump, but he has this bizarre, disturbing twitch in the form of a short, portly, determinedly vapid "sidesick," whose range of responses whenever Kimmel turns to him and asks, "Isn't that right, Guillermo?" covers the space all the way from A to B.  

Guillermo responds, almost no matter what the question, with a sprightly, "That's right, Jimmy!" and claps his hands and beams brightly as if he has just been told he has won the nursery school prize for precocious behavior. 

What is most disturbing is the look behind his eyes which clearly tells you he has no idea what is going on and he is desperate to cover up that void of understanding with a laugh so pathetic it could deflate blimps. 

When I first started watching Kimmel, years ago, I thought Guillermo was one of those Down's syndrome kids who load up groceries into cars outside supermarkets, but he clearly does not have Down's and most Down's kids function at an intellectual level way higher than Guillermo. And, in any case, those kids are doing useful service, and nobody feels sorry for them because they are doing a service, most often cheerfully, and we are all happy to see them thriving.

But Guillermo is an object of pity, or should be, and his incongruous laugh, as he clearly is almost never in on the joke, is so pitiable it is dreadfully sad. 

It's as if Kimmel has found a really low functioning mentally retarded (--oh, sorry, politically incorrect--cognitively challenged) child and Kimmel is making him the butt of jokes by asking him if he gets Jimmy's point, which poor Guillermo never does, but then responds with a bright faced, "Thaaat's right, Jimmy!" and everyone in the audience laughs and claps and Guillermo thinks he's done good, and is very pleased with himself.

It is beyond cringe worthy, and it is completely baffling.

Why is Guillermo on that stage?

Why is it okay we are laughing at him, not with him?

On Reddit, people describe this as "racist," but the Phantom thinks they are wrong. We are not laughing at Guillermo because he is  Hispanic, or because he speaks with an accent. He's not funny because he is representing some idea of a stupid Mexican. Spanish accents are not stupid. Sophia Vergara has a Spanish accent, but she is sly, funny and enormously attractive. Guillermo is not sly, or funny or even attractive. He is just lost at sea, every night, clinging to a stool on the stage, wondering when the roof will fall in on him. He is perpetually confused, and unable to get the joke. We are not seeing him as a representative of Mexico. We are seeing him as a representative of a person of no intelligence, but his dumb and dumber affect is not sharp enough to be funny. 

He is more like a cuddly Labrador. No, he doesn't have a Lab's intelligence. He is more like an eager to please, anxious, child.  So he desperately clings to Jimmy, hoping Jimmy will never turn on him.

We are asked to laugh at him because he is not smart enough to get the joke, which strikes the Phantom as simply cruel, the ultimate in what mean girls do to the outsider, as they all laugh as someone or something, and the outsider laughs too, hoping to be accepted as part of the group, but everyone can see the outsider hasn't the foggiest about what is funny, and can never be accepted as anything but the stupid kid. So the mean girls get to ridicule the object of their scorn and they get to ridicule the object which tries to join the scorn club, but never can. 

Very disturbing.