Bet on a Winning Major

The Trump Administration has proposed a new rule for college loans and grants: if your proposed degree will not result in a higher income than no degree, the government will decline to fund your education.  That's a start.  In truth, the government shouldn't be funding education at all, especially college education.  However, this is a step in that direction.  There is no reason to get a degree in art history just to work as a barista at Starbucks.  Even before this new rule, many colleges have been pruning degrees that don't lead to high earnings.  The student debt crisis combined with the underemployment of recent grads is changing the education landscape.  The shrinking pool of students - a result of declining population - will lead to a reduction in the number of colleges.  Some have already closed.

The quickest way to resolve the student debt problem is to get the government out of it and then allow students to declare bankruptcy on their debt.  Watch the cost of college plummet, the number of worthless degrees vanish, banks demand that colleges provide proven value, and students take responsibility for the debt they incur rather than look to the government for a bail out.  As is, we have too many 'educated' people and not enough jobs that require that education.  Turns out that the blue-collar jobs like a welder or electrician are far more profitable than the white-collar jobs these days.

Starship's First Mission

Today, Flight 14 of the SpaceX Starship took place.  For the first time, it achieved orbit and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites.  This was no test flight, this was a successful deployment mission that saw both the booster and starship successfully maneuver back to earth and land relatively softly.  Yes, they could probably have caught them with the chopsticks if they had wanted to up the ante for the day.  However, enough success has been achieved.  Though there are still hurdles to overcome, the starship - as is - has become economically viable.

Uncharted (2022)

Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) returned to consciousness to find himself dangling out of an airplane far above the ocean.  A string of crates connected by cargo straps swing from the loading ramp of a plane.  As Nathan sought to climb back toward the plane, he found enemies among the crates who he must overcome.  Finally, he gets onto the loading ramp.  Ha!  Then a red car hit him!

Days earlier, Nathan Drake arrived at his job as a bartender in NYC.  In addition to mixing drinks, he had light fingers for a lady's jewelry.  However, Sully (Mark Wahlberg) spotted his pilfering and did some counter pilfering.  He also left a business card.  It turned out that Sully was something of a thief himself and suggested they team up on a heist of Ferdinand Magellan's hidden cache of gold.  Sully already has a map, but there is need for a key.  They go to an auction where Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) plans to purchase the key, unless Drake and Sully can steal it first.

Next, they go to Barcelona to find Chloe (Sophia Ali) who has the second key.  With the two keys, they must traverse through ruins that are both part of a church, the sewer system, a subterranean bar, and a fast food joint.  Wow, all this stayed intact for four centuries.  Yeah, not buying that.  Amazingly, they acquire yet another map, this one being an island in the Philippines.  Time to stowaway on Moncada's cargo plane and we've caught up to the opening act.

Drake, Sully, and Chloe are not likable people.  Tom Holland's natural charm is carrying the character.  Only the fact that Moncada and his goon squad are murderous villains justifies the unscrupulous actions of our 'heroes.'  Many of the action scenes are beyond ludicrous and even look like something out of a video game.  The duel between two 16th century sailing ships being carried by helicopters was just too much.

Mindless popcorn fun.  Entertaining in its parts but disappointing as far as story and characters.

Banned Media

Is it wrong for the president to eject certain media agencies from the White House press room?  CNN, MSNOW, and Politico certainly think so.  Many other news agencies agree.  However, there is only so much space in the press room.  Do certain agencies have a right to that limited space?  Do they have more right to the space than an obscure newspaper from Wyoming or Iowa?  Sure, it makes sense to have news agencies with the greatest reach to have access as that gives the easiest route to disseminate news.  Then again, that could be a detriment if those news agencies are consistently hostile.

In the early days of the republic, there were party papers.  Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet had a couple of friendly newspaper editors as members.  Jackson's message was printed as he wanted it printed.  Did the people only get government propaganda through such a system?  No, the Whigs controlled newspapers as well, blasting whatever message the Jacksonian papers delivered.

Supposing that there are 100 seats in the pressroom, why can't the administration choose which agencies get them?  If a thousand news agencies across the country and internationally apply, could the administration just pick the 100 least hostile?  Would that be censorious?

The media is overwhelmingly left leaning, which means it is reliably hostile to Republicans and cheerleaders to Democrats.  A quick request from ChatGPT came up with these numbers:

With such an obvious tilt in the coverage, why wouldn't the administration take some action to mitigate it?  Where the Trump Administration seeks to limit access to proven hostile news agencies - which he claims produce 'fake news' - the Obama DOJ was aggressive in law enforcement regarding reporters and their sources.  He was getting net positive coverage and still sought to muzzle the media.

The entire press corps apparatus in the White House is a convenience first extended by President Theodore Roosevelt, which means it did not exist for the first half of the country's history.  There is no requirement for it.  Besides, Trump is constantly out speaking.  In his first term, he had 88 press conferences, which averages to around 2 a month.  By contrast, Biden had 37, less than 1 per month.  Trump was interviewed 326 times, or nearly 7 times a month; Biden 125, or 2.6 times per month.  There is no dearth of Trump in the media.

Supergirl (2026)

Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is on a planetary pub crawl to celebrate her 23rd birthday when Ruthye (Eve Ridley) entered the bar.  The bar is one of those hives of wretched scum and villainy that abound in space settings and Ruthye is a teenaged girl who clearly does not belong.  Ruthye offers a bounty of a well-made sword for anyone who helps her avenge the murder of her family by Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts).  One rather large and thuggish monster that looks like an evil version of a teenaged mutant ninja turtle simply confiscated the sword.  With a resigned sigh, Kara intervened to recover the sword, demonstrating that she was a skilled combatant despite the vast size difference.

Though Ruthye followed Kara back to her starship, Kara declined to help on her quest for revenge.  However, by a miracle of bad luck, Krem appeared, poisoned Krypto - Kara's dog, and stole her starship.  Krypto had three days to live unless Kara could retrieve the antidote from Krem.  Now Kara was committed to finding Krem though she still wasn't keen on the revenge quest.

In order to even begin to chase Krem, Kara had to take public transport.  She waited at a galactic bus stop in the middle of a field until a rocket bus arrived.  Interesting.  Oh, yeah, this planet had a red sun so she didn't have powers.  Sounds awfully reckless.  On the other hand, she was incapable of getting drunk in systems with a yellow sun.  Though she had left Ruthye behind, Ruthye appeared on the space bus!  In fact, Ruthye proves to have a talent of stowing away on ships.  There follows fights with Sklarian Raiders, investigations, interrogations, false friends, rescues of slave girls, and more battles with brigands.

There are multiple flashbacks to detail Kara's past.  Her father, Zor-El, was the brother of Superman's father.  Zor-El had created a shield generator that allowed a city to escape the doomed planet of Krypton.  Kara was born and raised on this floating chunk of Krypton.  However, like Superman, she was sent to Earth.  Superman (David Corenswet) makes several appearances, both in flashback, on facetime calls, and a homecoming scene at the end of the movie.

Based on the graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which itself was a retelling of True Grit, the movie is a hodgepodge of action scenes that are poorly stitched together.  Kara tends to be a slovenly drunk, a woman who seems to be drinking away her sorrows rather than celebrating her birthday.  At one point, she plops onto the toilet while leaving the door open.  Um, okay.  On the other hand, Ruthye is sober and clearheaded but naive beyond belief.  Does this planet have no law enforcement to deal with the likes of Krem?  Does she expect noble behavior among the patrons of the bar?  But for the presence of Kara, Ruthye had walked into her likely enslavement by entering the bar.  Did she not know that?  Does not matter because Kara and Ruthye need to meet somehow.  About halfway through, the pair encountered Lobo (Jason Momoa), a bounty hunter who happened to be tracking one of Krem's associates.  He looks like some space Hells Angel with evil clown makeup.  Yeah, this movie needed a dark edge and this character doesn't really fit.  His inclusion comes off as nothing but fan service.  Krem is a lazy villain.  He's just competent enough to be a nuisance but not competent enough to be a threat.  Whenever he and Kara fight, one or the other pull up short from securing victory.  Kara could have snatched the poison cure in an early encounter, but doesn't.  No, let's have something distract her.  Krem has just poisoned Kara with Kryptonite, but pauses for a monologue.  Sigh.

Kara is not a likable character.  A woman doing a solo pub crawl is a big red flag.  That she would go to a planet with a red sun to do such makes her seem suicidal.  She certainly has cause to be depressed, but is drunkeness the cure?  Much of the time, she looks hungover and unkempt.  Even in the midst of the adventure, she is still somehow always less than 100% on account of this poison, that green sun, or those Kryptonite arrows.  And what is with all the primitive melee weapons?  Why are the villians running around with swords, axes, crossbows, and spiked chains?

Mediocre.  Skip.

Oikophobia

Oikophobia (noun)

1. Ecophobia; fear of a home environment.
2. Dislike of one's own culture or compatriots

This is the going thing.  For some decades now, the West has become oikophobic; there is no civilization worse than Western Civilization.  Indeed, the West has oppressed - and often enslaved - all other civilizations in the world.  Thus, the current reversal of fortune with hostile immigrants flooding into Western countries is an appropriate comeuppance.  Though the West is entirely capable of preventing this destructive influx, enough of the citizens have embraced oikophobia to not only tollerate it, but to encourage it.

In a video on YouTube, Joomi Kim discussed how this was not the first time that this has happened.  In fact, it appears to be a normal feature of powerful civilizations.  She starts off with the Ancient Greeks, who had risen to prominence.  Alexander the Great had conquered vast territory and left Hellenic dominance behind.  However, there arose among the Greeks those who attacked their culture.  She mentioned Diogenes in particular.  By the time the Romans arrived on the scene, the Greeks had already self-sabotaged.  The Romans followed a similar though slower pattern.  France ripped itself apart during the French Revolution, handing global dominance to England.  Modern England appears to hate its history and seeks to erase the English through mass migration.

After World War II, the United States stepped into England's shoes to become the dominant civilization.  The self-hatred soon followed.  US History is more often described as one long crime spree rather than the rise of a great and laudable nation.  Joomi suggests that the US has, since 1976, elected presidents who were either committed oikophobes (Carter & Obama) or sympathetic to oikophobia.  Only Reagan and Trump have been enthusiastic Americanophiles, which may explain their popularity outside the usual Republican demographics.

Excellent, though somewhat depressing, video.  Highly recommended.

My Latest Book

The next installment of Downland Tales.  There are the birthday stories that have been written since the last volume, a series of random character sketches, and a couple of other random stories.  The fifth book that takes place in Downland.