Today is Saturday, August 24, 2024. The strategy often used by the repugnican opponent who is running for president a third time has often worked – until now. His talent for seizing media attention and knocking opponents off-stride with insults, falsehoods, and demagoguery usually worked in his favor, but in a new column for the Los Angeles Times by Doyle McManus, entitled “Column: Donald Trump’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Convention Week,” that mode of striking against his foes and winning is failing right now, as McManus elucidates here.

As Kamala Harris launched her late-starting presidential campaign after July 21, it is Dump who has been the one who has appeared off-balance, seemingly unprepared to run against anyone younger than President Biden.

So as Democrats gathered in Chicago this week, Drumpf went back to regroup. He abandoned the already-frayed tradition of taking a break during the other party’s convention – and set out on a cross-country tour aiming to cut the surging Harris juggernaut down to size.

But Drumpf’s attempt to grab back the spotlight – his most frenetic week of campaigning in months – didn’t work.

Harris’s convention ratings were higher than his, something that will definitely have him seething. Even worse, Harris’s rally crowds were bigger than his. Worst of all, his old foe Barack Obama made fun of him over it.

The little toddler was already seething even before the week began, when Time magazine put a formal portrait of Harris on its cover.

This asshole actually was quoted as saying after his visage was rejected for Harris’s, “I’m a better-looking person than Kamala.” Can you believe that comment coming from a presidential candidate? You can, if it’s uttered by someone like Drumpf.

Dump was still seething when the week ended, when Martha MacCallum of Fox News had the temerity to note that Harris was “having some success” with attracting young and minority voters. “No, she’s not having success,” the toddler snapped.

It’s getting late here, and I really don’t want to repeat what was stated in the article. This gibberish from a leading presidential candidate only reinforces the impression that I received from any Aussie who asked how did we end up with this nightmare? And I couldn’t respond too clearly. The only thing this subhuman excels at is hurling insults at everyone and avoiding true discussion of any policy issues that should be discussed this late in the game. The real reason for this is that he has none. So let’s wait for the forum in September when Kamala has the opportunity to debate him on stage and wipe the floor with him.

Everyone should watch “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper” airing tonight on CNN in which Donie O’Sullivan investigates the role of misinformation in the 2020 election and his interview with Dump supporters and how stupid they come off. It’s truly maddening to know that there are people living here in these United States who are so ignorant. The program originally aired on April 28, 2024.

Today I coaxed Elliot out of his post-Australia blues into having breakfast at Jackson Hole and then seeing a film at the Kew Gardens Cinema, the new Alien movie. It’s called Alien: Romulus and it stars a relatively young cast, devoid of Sigourney Weaver who starred in many of its early predecessors. As this movie’s Ripley surrogate (the name of Weaver’s bad-ass character in the many Alien sequels), the honor goes to Cailee Spaeny who stars as Rain Caradine who works in the coal mines on some dark-looking, muddy planet, along with her closest companion, an android by the name of Andy (David Jonsson). This android was salvaged by Rain’s now-deceased dad who is then directed to look after her before he died. The fact that Rain has a bot who will do whatever she asks is at least one of the reasons her pals soon invite her along on their plan to break into a decommissioned orbiting space station to steal the hypersleep capsules that will allow them to snooze their way to some other planet where you can actually see a sun. Even though Andy is obsolete, he still has the codes that will permit him to interface with the supercomputer that manages the station which is split into sections christened Remus and Romulus.

When the space station is finally broken into, the fun truly begins. A nice feature of this latest entry into the franchise is the use of the late actor Ian Holm who is resurrected literally as the station’s decomposing android known as Rook. The late actor is made to give a CGI-zombie performance as the new android, whereas in the earlier films, Holm played the bot Ash. I learned that it was producer Ridley Scott’s idea to resurrect Holm, and Holm’s family gave writer-director Fede Alvarez (The Evil Dead) permission to digitally recreate the likeness of the thespian, who died in 2020. Actor David Betts impersonated Holm’s voice.

The crew trying desperately to escape the sunless mining colony Jackson’s Star is composed of Rain’s ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux), his pregnant sister, Kay (Isabela Merced), his angry cousin, Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Bjorn’s laconic girlfriend, Navarro (Aileen Wu), who’s also a pilot.

Soon the young crew is overtaken by the slimy face-hugging, chest-bursting aliens found in the deserted space station. The actor who portrays Rain’s android, David Jonsson (he’s British), gives a memorable performance as he originally wears a perpetual sad-eyed look of worry and puzzlement as he appears to be malfunctioning on old software, but when he meets Rook, he is newly directed to not act in Rain’s best interests but in the Company’s best interests. Now he takes command of the dire situation and even becomes more aggressive as he acts in the interest of the Company, even if it means sacrificing people’s lives in the bargain.

As a whole, I didn’t think this new entry was that tense or suspenseful as the first several Alien productions. The characters, except for Rain, all lacked dimension. So when they were attacked by the aliens, you didn’t really root for them at all.

However, there is a nice surprise for viewers at the end and I won’t give that away. This was handled quite effectively, I must say. But if you still haven’t seen the original by now, go see it and squirm. Remember the tagline from the original Alien: “No hears you scream in space.”

Stay safe and be well.