2025 Life Logs, Day 50: An Afternoon Movie
Date: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Weather: Still Sunny, Windy, and Cold; High Temp 31, Low 16 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Late morning, a friend picked me up and we drove to Dennis to Cape Cinema to see The Brutalist. It has 2025 Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Editing, Best Production Design, and my award for Best Lengthy Picture. With all those nominations, I felt it was worth spending an afternoon going to see it. It really is long at 3 hours and 35 minutes. It is not an uplifting movie, but worth watching. And Adrien Brody gets my vote for Best Actor.
Today in Robert Reich’s Office Hours column, he addressed the question many of us are asking: What the hell do we do to stop this madness?” I am copying it here because I think it does a good job of outlining some options.
Friends,
The Trump-Vance-Musk regime is destroying America faster than anyone had foreseen. The combination of a supine Republican Party in control of Congress and an authoritarian Supreme Court — and, behind them, an oligarchy that’s richer and more powerful than ever — is wreaking havoc.
Some Americans don’t seem to mind or are even pleased that “fraud, waste, and abuse” are apparently being rooted out. But many are beginning to worry that the regime is going too far — that the hostile takeover of America is jeopardizing the nation’s health and safety, essential programs such as Social Security and Medicare, our nation’s scientific expertise, our national security, our efforts to save the planet, and our democracy.
I’m fairly confident that the midterm elections will mark the end of this reign of terror as Democrats regain control over the House and Senate. But I’m not sure we can we afford to wait that long.
What, if anything, can be done to stop Trump, Vance, and Musk in the meantime? That’s the subject of today’s Office Hours.
Some wise hands tell me nothing can be done until the midterm elections, and that any mass effort of resistance before then will only play into the regime’s hands. The regime is eager to use the Insurrection Act against Americans, deploying the active military and summoning right-wing vigilantes.
Others tell me that we have no choice but to engage in massive civil disobedience — a general strike on April 19, for example, the day our forefathers began the American Revolution 250 years ago. None of us shows up for work. Everything stops. Scientists stop working for the government (let RFK Jr. run an empty NIH and CDC, let Gabbard try to run without CIA and NSA labs, and the whole world without NOAA).
Not to do so signals that we’re intimidated by the bullying, which invites even more of it.
A third view I hear is that the most important way to resist now is in our local communities, where we must protect undocumented families, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone else targeted by the regime.
So today’s Office Hours question: What if anything should we do now?
What’s your choice?
Nothing. Don’t provoke them.
Massive civil disobedience.
Protect the vulnerable.
Other
