Today is Wednesday, December 13, 2023.   It’s late here since Elliot and I finished watching a dystopian thriller on Netflix ironically called Paradise.  The events depicted in this German/Lithuanian film were anything but.   More about the film later.

Today a shameful thing happened in the House:  the majority party there, the party of Dump, voted to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden for absolutely nothing.  In an egregious party-line vote of 221-212, all GOP members beholden to only one deranged man, supported the resolution to formalize the inquiry.  This despicable action is covered in an online CNN article by Annie Grayer entitled “House votes to formalize impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden with floor vote.”

Up until this point, House repugnicans had not had enough votes to legitimize their ongoing inquiry with a full chamber vote.  The probe has struggled to uncover wrongdoing by the president, which is why it hasn’t garnered the unified support of the full GOP conference.

Biden retorted to this meaningless, bullshit probe, by saying, “Instead of doing anything to help Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”

The shameful vote came after Hunter Biden defied Republican investigators’ subpoena for closed-door testimony and reiterated that he is willing to testify publicly as part of the GOP-led inquiry into the president.  He denounced repugnicans for their cowardice in not hearing his testimony publicly which would have exposed the ugly repugnicans’ political stunt for what it was:  a crass political stunt and nothing else.  Biden stated, “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say.”

And get this, folks, because of Hunter Biden’s refusal to play footsie with these bastards, the repugnican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, a clown known as Jim Comer from Kentucky, now says they will start contempt proceedings against the president’s son for not participating in the closed-door deposition.  Isn’t this ridiculous?  Isn’t this fucking absurd? 

Defending his father, Biden said, “Let me state as clearly as I can, my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with the Chinese private businessman, not in my investments home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist.”

Biden again admitted that his addiction was responsible for his financial irresponsibility.  He added, “But to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd.  It’s shameless.  There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen.” 

The real reason behind this absurd measure taken today in the House was stated by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, who indicated that repugnicans are trying to create a “dark cloud” that will follow the president into the election next year.  “That of course is the whole purpose of the impeachment inquiry,” Raskin said Monday.  He added, “There is not one particle linking Joe Biden to a crime, and yet they insist that there is going to be a Senate trial for impeachment of Joe Biden in the fall during the presidential campaign.”  Make no mistake, folks, these jerks representing you – supposedly – are still doing the bidding of one lone asshole who was a former president unbelievably.   This is why House repugnicans took this ridiculous action today, and I hope the American people will reject this vengeful action at the ballot box next November.   It’s just stupid, stupid, and plain stupid!

Don’t forget that these asshole repugnicans are going on holiday recess without passing an aid bill for Ukraine, but this is what they can do before they go home to their families without feeling a pang of conscience for their actions against a drug-addicted son of the president whom they hate because he’s a Democrat and is way more principled and moral than their buffoonish and craven Orange Turd.  I’m fucking angry over these clowns in the House and everyone should be too. 

As for the film we watched tonight, Paradise tells a story set in the not-too-distant future where one biotech company called Aeon Corp., run by its founder Sophie Theissen, has found a way for people to donate the years of their lives to others – for a fat fee.  As time is used now as a currency, the rich benefit from it because they can pay for years to their life and could possibly live forever.  It’s the vulnerable and the poor (mostly immigrants) that are talked into giving up their youth to pay for their bills.  There must be a DNA match, though, between buyer and donor before the process can be initiated. 

The film opens with its focus on one couple living in this dystopian society, Max and Elena, who are enjoying the fruits of Max’s success as a salesman for the aforementioned Aeon Corp. who is dubbed “Donor Manager of the Year” for his success in convincing immigrant clients to give up years of their lives for cash.  The couple live in a plush apartment in the city, which appears to be Berlin, but experience a spiral downward when one day they discover that their home is destroyed in a mysterious fire and that Elena is forced to pay back the 40 years of her life paid to the bank that was used as collateral to purchase their luxury house.  The insurance company refuses to reimburse them for the damages since “negligence” on the part of the owners is assumed in the fire. 

Then Elena is forced to undergo the procedure that robs her of about 40 years of her life and she begins to age quickly in front of Max.  The forlorn couple’s response to this tragedy is to try and reverse the aging process (which can only be done with a proper DNA match). This results in the kidnapping of the billionaire CEO of the corporation, Sophie Theissen, who is discovered to be the recipient of Elena’s years. She is now much younger than when we see her at the beginning of the film. 

All in all, the film becomes a low-budget action thriller as Theissen’s underlings follow the couple in their escape to Lithuania to go through with the procedure on Elena.  The movie subscribes to the usual trope that the rich are evil and the poor are saintly.  Oh, I forgot to mention there is a terorrist organization called “Adam” led by the mysterious Lilith who carry out murderous attacks on Aeon and its beneficiaries, as they are opposed to their methods of seizing years from the lives of the poor and refugees.   Max and Elena become entangled with this organization as well. 

The film boasts the efforts of three directors:  the German filmmaker Boris Kunz, Tomas Jonsgarden, and Indrie Juskute.   However, the acting, I thought, was basically flat and unemotional.   We had subtitles on, as the dialogue was dubbed throughout.  I thought the concept was interesting, but that’s that.  I am reminded that this idea of time being used for currency was used before, in a 2011 American film called In Time starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, and Cillian Murphy.  In that film, people can stop aging at 25, thanks to scientific advances, but it comes with a catch: after reaching 25, a person is genetically engineered to live only one more year.  I haven’t seen this movie, so I can’t rate how good it is compared with this German effort. 

Elliot mentioned the film reminded him of another sci-fi film from the 70s: Soylent Green and it somewhat does.  In that film, because of scarcity of food and ravages of overpopulation, people were ground into these nutritious cubes called Soylent, which is discovered at the end by Charlton Heston who plays a detective investigating a murder.  That film marked Edward J. Robinson’s last film role. 

Anyway, tomorrow I might be away from here because we’re meeting with Elliot’s first girlfriend “Deborah” in the afternoon to see a film and having dinner with her in Brooklyn.

Have a good Thursday.

Stay safe and be well.