[ a mirror of a review i posted on my letterboxd but i thought was cute enough to share here. lazy post. ]
* The End of the Tour
I only got any enjoyment in a second watch through where I just imagined they were both gay for each other.
Wallace
is so lonely and repeatedly doesn't want Lipsky to leave, when he gets
upset its when he feels like Lipsky is falling in between his fingers.
Wallace
doesn't want women to come between them both, but Lipsky insecure; wants
to prove himself socially adequate and not this shared trope they both
despise. Though ultimately fruitless as he's melts down taking his anger
out on his lover, but Wallace wanting to just take care of Lipsky makes
more room for him.
I didn't take notes, but if you watch it,
think about it. It's not perfect, but there's so many funny little
moments to Fujo out about.
** rating: ★★☆☆☆
But its like actually pretty miserable,
a terrible way to remember either writers. It's neither feels true or
vulnerable, to me at least.
On the first of October of Trump's second term the U.S. Government entered the longest shut down in history as of writing. Congress was unable to pass a new budget continuing resolution that would allow the government to work until the end of September. The democrats refused to vote on any new CR that wouldn't either preserve tax credits and ACA coverage for US citizens, which was threatened by every CR proposed by the GOP.
These demands only preserved the status quo. Cutting the two features was on the part of the Republicans to tidy up the deficit they built up with Trump's named Big Beautiful Bill. Which had cut revenues with an excessive amount of tax cuts.
In the breadth of the shutdown two major demographics were hurt. First dependents on Federal subsidies, notably SNAP (food stamps) recipients who relied on it to feed themselves and their families. Secondly federal worker, who did not receive pay throughout the shut down. Additionally Trump took advantage of the shut down to lay off 211,000 federal workers.
I have eagerly followed coverage from both halves of reporters and commentators, and I wanted to give an analysis on this topic. The narrative surrounding which I feel has become intrusively muddied by partisan narratives. In this piece I would like to analyze a lot of the arguments I came across on the part of Democratic[1] commentators.
** facts of the matter
But before getting to the arguments, I want to address some simple factual matters.
*** strategic voting
When the news broke that 6 Democrats(ish) had crossed the line to end the government shutdown, many were shocked as it had come seemingly out of nowhere. Until then Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had shown no shake in his resolve to continue the shutdown. When it happened prominent DNC figures like California's governor Newsom and Justice Dem AOC had both publicly shamed the senators who had cut the shutdown short.
But any review of the 6 who had voted with republicans shows the thinnest of veils hiding an organized attempt to pin the blame on a few sacrificial anodes. All the candidates were not seeking re-election in the coming midterms and so had nothing to lose.
...
*** yougov poll on how people are feeling right before the end of the shutdown
The biggest failure in the arguments is a complete lack of acknowledgement of the facts. Surveys are by no means a great metric, but none of the commentators I had listened to had bothered to review any poll work.
Here are some big points to take away from the YouGov poll:
A majority of people approved of the government opening again
Before the measure passed by the Senate to end the shutdown, 39% of Americans said they were personally being affected a great deal or somewhat by the shutdown — a high since we began asking at the start of the shutdown
( 39% isn't the number to pay attention to; it includes people who felt the worthlessly worded "somewhat". But the increase since the last polling is the interesting part. )
Americans were equally split (41 for and 39 against) on holding out for an ACA extension.
It definitely seemed like the consequences were just now starting to be felt on the average.
but clearly not enough to be divisive yet.
47% of democrats disapprove of the deal and 31% approve
It clearly wasn't a net popular move, but who's to say that it will be a thing that sticks in peoples mind. but to be clear the deal was not popular.
starting all the way back in October, trump annoyed by not making any progress demanded congress get rid of the filibuster.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” the president wrote on his social media site Thursday night.
* arguments
** take the foot off the pedal because there's a wall in front of us and we're gonna crash
This anxiety I feel animates most all of the arguments for having ended the shut down. I am partially sympathetic, because when it's too late we will have lost all of our good will the democrats fought so hard to claw back. But giving up without any signaling from our voters only signals to them that we're insecure.
Commentators claimed that the hurt felt by the voters was going to be blamed on the democrats. But these same commentators claimed to have whole heartedly believed that sensibly the republicans were responsible.
This reeks of insecurity to me. The polling that did exist at the time indicated that Americans were completely capable of identifying who was making the unreasonable claims. So this insincerity and infantilization I feel like really reflected an ugly picture on the commentary class.
*** SUBARGUMENT: we could of shook off the filibuster
(this argument is given by voices for keeping the shut down going)
I don't put a lot of weight behind this hypothesis, but Trumps indifference for a congress he won't have to deal with after his term is a very strong fault line. Even if Trump wasn't able to force their hand into destroying the filibuster (which I don't personally think the congressional republicans would ever let go of) it was a powerful way to antagonize their fragile caucus.
*** SUBARGUMENT: infinite torture wheel
[ imagine: picture of spiked wheel crushing poor government dependants ]
This really is more of a rhetorical argument aimed at voices who argue for having kept on with the shut down. Depicting them as privileged people uncaring for the victimized constituents pinned under the infinite torture wheel. All for their own selfish pleasure.
if we were not willing to take some hurt why did we pick this fight? I understand this could be used to justify an infinite torture wheel on the constituents, which is ugly and I don't endorse. But we did not win anything. I am just not sold that giving up and going home with nothing is better than admitting we fought an empty battle for nothing.
*** SUBARGUMENT: it was time to step off the brakes, we won
no we didnt?
Democrats got an extremely dubious oral promise from republican for a vote in the senate for a bill that would seek to extend ACA coverage. A bill that even if the republicans recognized their promise wouldn't matter. Because after it passes in the senate it goes to the house, where there is approximately a 0% chance that it will pass in the completely republican controlled house.
The fact we're relying on promises is nothing short of a humiliation ritual. My own personal dignity aside, I think this is worth keeping in mind, because another way that people articulate this skirmish as a win is as a rhetorical win. Demonstrating the disregard republicans have for their constituents.
The main win is that democrats creamed in the few off cycle elections during the shut down.
But I am skeptical of the importance of the shut down on those. Notably it was NYC, a race where Cuomo was never going to win Virginia, which while not 100% sold, there was no particular reason to think she would of lost going into it. PA which wasn't going to lose California passed prop 50 again something I don't really think was not going to pass, thought it was definitely the most contentious of this group.
I do value that the margins were high, this feeds into itself as momentum and confidence in the voters. but i also think as the pressure mounts, a perceived loss on this fight does nothing but disperse the crowd.
** the republicans were never going to give in
I am partial to this argument, but in its own way i think them not giving in is the win. we're not asking for anything unreasonable. We're asking them to have kept good on their word when Trump said he wasn't going to touch healthcare entitlements. I am also kind of conceding to the infinite torture wheel machine argument here.
“We’re not going to touch it. Now, we are going to look for fraud,” Trump said Wednesday when asked about Medicaid. – Washington Post (February 27, 2025)
*** non linear consequences.
Instead of the consequences steadily increasing through a shut down there will be exponential increases in problems. Right before the shut down the FAA had basically collapsed in on itself, and without reliable air transit there would be a whole new degree of pains. I am basically in agreeance with this point.
* ripples?
These aren't so much arguments as observations about the surrounding meta arguments and feelings.
** democratic weak leadership?
Despite the above concern, Chuck Schumer by all evidence did a good job on keeping the democrats together. Messaging coming out of blue senators was unanimous during the shutdown. Even (embarrassingly) the same senators who officially crossed the line, just the day before were talking about the maintaining the shutdown.
While I cast doubt on Newsom and AOC not seeing through the strategic voting when they called out those sacrificial anodes. I see clueless commentators sincerely pinning blame on those senators as clear evidence of the democratic leadership working effectively.
Lastly I feel like the democrats have done a really lacking job on selling us on this being a win.
* how do i feel?
I feel like coming out empty handed is really ugly for us democrats, and some of the weak arguments coming out of the pathetic commentator class reak of an insecurity that can be smelled by any voter.
Basically all of these skirmishes are orientated for the mid terms.
I put forth my arguments on why I don't think the democrats' actions helped hold onto the momentum built up in the off year elections. But I don't think my arguments are all encompassing, and I do think there's room for debate. But crucially I feel like a lot of the arguments put out are fully sincere and lack some factual basis.
I think a big loss was that the democrats didn't remind the public that we're just holding trump to his words.
* footnotes
There has been a lot of concern about the left wing media desire's not being shared with the actual Democrats. I share this concern, but for the purpose of clarity I will using the broadest and most inclusive definition of democratic commentators.
I got it in 2020ish and I purchased it off eBay for $40.
After 4 years sum of wear and tear on my part and any further acrewed by its previous owner I gave up on it. It had earned a lot of erratic behaviors with turning off randomly, speakers would only rarely work which made making phone calls impossible. I held off on buying a new phone because I really felt like there wasn't a new phone for a reasonable price for me. I don't want a big screen, and with 3aXL I really didn't want to go bigger, and yes I am aware of the irony of having bought the XL.
New phones are obsessed with features that don't concern me, namely the display and camera. While I do make frequent use of the camera I have so little care for the fidelity of the photos and video. I also really don't enjoy the overly sharp look and feel of a lot of phone cameras so if I was dead set on taking a photo I would just bust out a nice real camera.
## my perspective
I am looking for anew phone that is feature complete but not cluttered. Which is just to say, I really want to feel enabled by my phone. When I was briefly living in Japan, I could not use my phone as a payment method, which made my time a little bit less convenient. My pixel wasn't compatible with the pay stations half was because my phone was dated, and half because Japan has a very blatant preference for iPhones.
In the same breath I really value something being not in the way, and as I will discuss later I don't think that is fully achieved by this iPhone. I am really repulsed by the notion of needing to coddle your expensive luxury gee-gaw. In a literal way that would include needing to protect a delicate screen, fragile chasis, or other minute build features. But it also includes things like needing to constantly baby sit its' battery. For me I use my phone all day and charge over night, not unusual, but if I were to miss a day I really loathe the idea that my following day will revolve around nursing outlet to outlet.
With that out of the way here are my take aways a few weeks into owning my first iPhone...
# observations
Something that I came in worried about iphones is their battery life. I have known them to have a bit of a reputation for inconviently lasting just a little short of day. But to my suprise it has been completely fine, I haven't had it die on me once.
But my phone habits aren't particularly energy hungry. I don't like watching videos on my phone, and the only time I've had to deal with a low battery pop up was on a particularly dour day when I just layed around watching star trek clips.
So far most of my time has been spent in Apple's books app. On android I used Librera with few complaints. But I simply did not know how good I could have it. I love that the UI is out of the way, the font rendering looks strangely good (something I've learned I can't take for granted), and I can lock the orientation so I can read in bed (which for some reason I was having trouble in Librera).
I was also initially cringing at the idea that I would have to buy my books off Apple's own storefront, but I was pleasantly suprised that I was able to just add my PDFs and ePubs straight to the Apple Books app. Though Apple was sure to send me to their store for other features :P .
Something novel to me about using an iphone is how much the iphone wants to be my NANNY. From reminding me to read more, or that I have read TOO MUCH SHIT on discord. Android was always a kind of distant guardian in my life. They came home with fun toys, but they like were never there when I poked my eye out. Not that Apple to my knowledge has ever really helped anyone.
It has felt like having a teacher constantly in the room. Not even over my shoulder, just there.
Early on into my switch I was prompted to update my brand new iphone. Because I'm a slug, I thoughtlessly accepted it and after leaving my phone to do some work in my basement my phone much like living with a roommate was busy moving everything around into a new place. So when I returned I stumbled into the much talked about liquid glass update.
When I picked up my phone and found everything was changed I just sighed. I don't particularly hate it. The only thing that stirs in my cold hater heart is that it feels a little shallow in its' riding of nostalgia for old aero and aqua design language. It just came upon me frivolously. Like a small child trying to explain anything to me.
On my last phone I had set my ringtone to be a bleepy and bloopy version of Dragonquest's overture march. It's distinct flip phone quality makes the dread of having to pick up the phone just a little bit easier.
I didn't expect to have any problems setting it as a ringtone. I could perfectly imagine in settings being able to just select one of my many mp3s and using it. But sadly this remained in my imagination because out of the box you can only select from a short list of pre installed ring tones or you can go onto the itunes store and buy one.
While it did feel really stupid I wasn't totally against it. I felt like it would be appropriate to compensate the fine people and scum at SquareEnix their fair share. But the itunes store lacked an appropriately bleepy or bloopy rendition. Something surprising to me seeing as I got the track off an official CD.
So sure that there must be a way put a ringtone that I want on this thing I sought out some internet resources and found a few guides. They all included downloading Garage band, cropping, and exporting to a specific file format. So I sat at my desk waiting for 2 hours using my 3rd world country internet connection to download this audio workstation.
It was easy enough, but It felt so needless. Apple didn't even have the courtesy of forcing me to pay for a compromised product, they were going to make me walk to get it.
also
i miss gestures...
## face id
Something shocking to me was the iphone's complete omitting of a fingerprint sensor. Something that I had become so expecting of in a modern device. It's not the end of the world, but I don't exactly love what Apple replaced it with.
First the strength of Face ID: no matter whats on my fingies I can easily unlock my phone. This comes up in my life when I am cooking. On my pixel 3aXL any grease, water, mayo, or gunk would require that I peck in my PIN. With Face ID I can hands free unlock my device.
Now the downside of Face ID: it is dependent that my face look the same. While I am no changeling, I do make frequent use of the ugliest, squarest, and tackiest sunglasses of all time to help combat migraines. But these things make those old mustache n' glasses disguises seem like childs play in comparison, because as far as my iphone is concerned I am an intruder.
To a lesser but still prevalent extant I have this problem when I am not wearing my normal glasses or a hat. It's made all the more frustrating because it required that my PIN instead of being the normal 4 digits long be 6. Which I would appreciate if I had a more reliable way to easily get into my phone.
When I pull my phone up to my face (usually at a brightness so low that I can only see my hideous face) and I am lucky enough to have Face ID detect my face I still have to pull up the lock screen to get into my phone.
THIS IS NOT A FEATURE
I do not care if it is intentional behavior IT IS A BUG because the developers ARE ON CRACK!!!
## the hardware
I admit this nitpick to be particularly vein and self entitled. but i was really let down that my iphone didn't come with any case. if you're gonna use all this glassy surface but not offer me the courtesy of even the flimsiest case i feel like the all you're offering me is a burden. a little child i have to cradle.
When I got my pixel 3aXL it came with a a little fabricy case and I never replaced it and while I don't think every manufacturer should give a forever case i do think if you're gonna make such an indulgent shell for your very expensive device it feels like apple at that point is performing it's own vein gesture preferring the aesthetic value of their product to my ease of mind in being its new owner.
A small problem I was equipped to handle was the matter of charging the phone. For a while now Apple has enforced use of their own proprietary lightning connector. For my birthday my grandma bought me a pair of Airpod Pros that I wasn't able to charge. At the time I interpreted this to be an attack by my grandma on my lack of money to have previously bought an Apple product. So when Tim Apple maliciously attacked me with his lightning port I was ready.
Proof that whatever doesn't kill you does makes you stronger.
The phone gets really hot and pretty quickly. It's never been unpleasant, but it was shocking the first time it happened. So far it has mostly manifested as a cute and subtle reminder I’m doing too much with this thing.
I really enjoy the silent hard switch. In middle school I got to make regular use of an ipad and this little switch is what I remember most about it. To be honest I don't make frequent use of the switch. I find switching on Do not Disturb an inappropriate solution to an inappropriate amount of notifications. But when I have used it, I have enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing its a mechanical thing I have flipped off and its not gonna just get magically flipped back on (like how managing the wifi and bluetooth radio works :P)
### the tragedy
On the 8th of October. Just two days after receiving the device I felt a shattering tragedy. While walking to the grocer and thumbing on the damn phone, I was totally foxy jump scared by a dog. My neighbors dog ran at me and in the process of running away and shoving my fresh new perfect iphone 12 mini into my pocket it slipped and slammed onto the concrete. Thankfully face up, so it's back took the damage.
While it worked fine, I could hear the nefarious Tim Apple cackle every time I looked at my decrepit device. "Don't you love that we made it all out of glass?" no Tim, I don't love it. You set me up for failure. Tim Apple you crooked man, you ARE NOT ON MY SIDE.
The added tragedy is that I had not ordered a case when I ordered the phone so I was still waiting on a phone case that wouldn't arrive for another week. So until then I would occasionally cut and scratch up my fingers and palm using this bastard device.
Now that it is cradled in a competent Otterbox case I don't have to be constantly reminded of my failure to hold rectangles.
Look I accept blame for dropping it, but I feel like I have been in part been made a victim of the folly of men even greater than me chasing simple aesthetic pleasures. Seriously it being made of glass is so dumb.
## "luxury"
I spent a bit of money on this phone. Apple tries to make you feel ok about spending this much on a phone, but convincing you that it is a luxury item. This premise is not unfounded, but is unsatisfying in a few ways. While I revel in there being no ads in my news feed, it is obvious that apple would like me make it a habit to give them some more money (see the section on setting a ring tone).
Which is frustrating more when it happens because I feel like they are close to having something special. But the problem is when you do even a little bit of these nickel and dimings the illusion is completely shattered.
Even more frustrating is that some of Apple's money seeking behavior has reached out of my iphone into my real life. Like in my inbox where I have found multiple emails recommending I casually drop a few thousand SMACKAROOS on an APPLE VISION PRO. HOW ABOUT you apple VISION MY SHAFT YOU FUCK WADS!!!!!!!!
# conclusion
its ok.
I probably won't be getting another iphone. Partially because Apple has stopped making mini iphones, and I have no interest in chasing a massive price tag for take it or leave it software and cameras I will not use.
