There’s a weird tendency to talk about “Harry Potter” as if it not only isn’t still extremely popular but also was never actually good/important to begin with, that it was actually bad and everybody who doesn’t like it now because of Rowling never liked it in the first place

It only undermines confidence because there are people stoking conspiracy theories about it!

It’s really striking how Trump has been the central figure of world politics for a literal decade and much of the system still operates on the assumption that he means what he says (but only the good parts)

So, the easiest way to achieve the main goal of the war would have been not to start the war

Love when a flight boards after it was originally scheduled to land

Wild to witness the “cannot be failed, can only be failed” mythology emerge in real time

I initially read this and assumed he was talking about one of his kids who’s like seven, which is questionable enough when it comes to parenting, and then I realized that he’s talking about a full-grown adult

There’s a lot of interesting discussion to be had about the biases of the International Film category, but making it sound like “Hind Rajab” had any chance of winning in a year where the category featured two Best Picture nominees is basically misinforming one’s readers

The state of modern politics is that we must have endless empathy for people who routinely demonstrate that they have none

this should have really just been stopped immediately at "Jared" and asked "why is the president's son-in-law conducting foreign diplomacy when he has no role in this administration and has not been confirmed by the Senate to any position permitting him to engage in it?"

It’s wild seeing people banking so hard on him as if Fetterman isn’t currently in the Senate pissing them off

Mueller pulled punches in some very important ways but ultimately the investigation he led uncovered clear evidence of a shocking conspiracy to undermine free and fair elections that the Trump administration tried to bury, with much of the media preferring to go along with them than to face facts

I miss having a president who doesn’t openly celebrate when Americans he doesn’t like die

it's hard not to keep coming back to the fact that they could simply have Not Done This they could have not bombed Iran! the strait would be open! we wouldn't be staring down a massive global economic crisis! none of this had to happen!

Putting yourself on money, renaming things after yourself, building monuments of yourself, and making your birthday a national holiday are all comically on-the-nose, as far as authoritarian tics go

Potential answers: -Spielberg (for “Schindler’s List”) -the Daniels (w/the caveat that their career so far is short) -Clint Eastwood (for “Unforgiven”) -Robbins and Wise (“West Side Story”) -Nolan (debatable) -Bong Joon Ho -Coen Bros (debatable) -Victor Fleming (“Gone With the Wind”)

Some people have extended “not all anti-Zionism is antisemitism” to an illogical extreme of “all anti-Zionism is not antisemitism” and it’s really worrisome

“Trying to help other countries is imperialism and therefore as bad as starting wars” is a counterproductive and in my opinion morally repugnant idea and one I sincerely hope the left is smart enough to reject

I think it’s notable that a whole lot of Jewish (and non-Jewish!) folks are saying that the antisemitism here is as bad as it’s ever been and getting worse maybe worth paying attention to the voices of people who live this stuff

Increasingly seems to me like the WH has *intentionally* taken out a "blame Israel" insurance policy as a kind of fallback/escape route when and if things go sideways.

Billion-dollar idea: Pew Pew Le Pep. He’s basically the same as Pepe Le Pew, but he does finger guns a lot.

you gotta admit venezuela winning that game is kind of poetic

Pretending like you are going to war instead of a baseball tournament and then losing at baseball is super funny

Look I think AIPAC has conducted itself in ways that are decidedly detrimental to American politics and Jewish people but I feel very uncomfortable with a) people’s willingness to describe races solely in terms of “AIPAC candidate” or not, and b) people ascribing wins and losses to AIPAC’s influence

I was just complaining earlier today about how so many phone/internet-enabled systems seem to be getting precipitously worse, e.g., how you now have to sign into like three different two-factor authentication services just to be able to access a bank app

Yes,the emerging line is wily, ruthless Israel tricked poor, trusting, naive Donald Trump into a stupid, reckless war. GMAFB. Israel has absolutely pushed for this but ultimately it’s DONALD TRUMP who decided to take the US to war. He likes war! He likes blowing things up! He literally says it’s fun

You proved he lied, Peter. Just go ahead and say it.

I really feel like American media settling on the “the story is opposing viewpoints don’t get space in medical discourse and research” is going to have decades long damage to public health in general.

I think people who don’t follow the Oscars largely haven’t updated their mental image of what wins awards from the 80s and 90s, when there very much was a type, so they still just assume it’s all sweeping historical dramas

A man after my own heart

The flip side of this is that “OBAA” winning the big awards could make it seem like actually there was no competition, when really it was a bunch of people all resolving their 55/45 close calls in the same direction

Maybe momentum was shifting from “OBAA” to “Sinners” toward the end, and it just happened a little too late. But I also think the way discourse cycles happen these days can dramatically overrepresent the degree of dissatisfaction with something that is actually broadly popular and acclaimed.

OK that's a pretty good reason.

It’s a general thing, I see it all the time in US media too and it drives me crazy

Show biz careers are hard to predict—maybe Michael B. Jordan will rack up a bunch more nominations—but given how often acting Oscars, for men especially, are basically long-overdue makeups, it’s cool to see an actor under 40 winning one for what immediately felt like a career-defining performance

Bad presenter banter, and technical problems, but good show overall. Conan is great, and the in memoriam was great.

Crossworld celebrating another Best Picture that’ll make great fill

“One Battle After Another” wasn’t particularly close to being my favorite movie of the year—I’ve always been relatively cool on PTA—but I think it’ll go down as another in a long series of good-to-great (except for “Green Book”) wins in the last ~decade

(The Chalamet thing basically happened too late to impact the voting)

Coogler and Jordan very much have the potential to go down as a Scorsese-and-De Niro type Hollywood partnership

I regret not putting down money on Kalshi for the prediction I made halfway through the in memoriam that it would end with Barbra Streisand coming out with “The Way We Were”

I’m guessing “One Battle” is going to end up probably with, what, 7 awards?

“Or didn’t want to” WHAT

OSCARS TIE LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO

I hope DelRoy Lindo wins so we can spend more time soaking in this incredible fit

My incredibly on-brand nitpick with this sequence is that I wish there had been tap dancing, an art form with incredibly rich historical roots in African-American culture

Nothing like a weird speech (complimentary) to start the night

Josh Groban is admirably willing to do any weird bit people ask of him

Did they get Matt Berry to do the voice for this bit

I like that Conan actually leads with liking movies as an art form