The New Roaring 20s (Sign of the Beefcarver Fate II)

 

It is 2023, this is the roaring 20s of the 21st century, a where Anti-Abortion is the new prohibition and MAGA crazies with AR15s shooting up everything is the new Gangsters with Tommy Guns.

I am telling you right now, the Hammer is going to come down on all of this if the gun crowd does not get a grip. Oh and Prayer in Schools and all that assorted JesusCrap is not a solution. How did we get here to this point. It is easy Corporate Greed.

About 40 years ago hunting and sport shooting started to decline, now the GUN CULT would tell me "2A is not about hunting" they are right, but hunters and sport made up the bulk of gun sales and it was what dominated gun culture. Many reasons for the decline and its not because of liberal vegan animal rights and kids being indoctrinated against hunting by Bambi and Communist School Teachers or some other nonsense. 

One chud told me to 'GET A JOB" and buy a gun. I have a job I have the money. Not going to blow $600 on something that I will likely NEVER USE as even sport shooting is becoming impractical for me to get involved in anymore.

It is the result of a population becoming more urban and the sport becoming more expensive and inaccessible, then more and more places being turned into golf courses and resorts for wealthy corporate types. When you have a person in their 20s who is working two jobs and a side hustle can barely pay rent, buying a $1000 hunting rifle and then more on all the required gear is not going to happen let along get the days off needed to drive 200 miles away to hunt.

NRA and the gun makers had to find a new market so they started to push the Self Defense freedom against tyranny strategy. Then 9/11 happened and we got the Global War on Terror, then the entire culture went Spec Ops Tacticool. Boomers grew up with guns that were about hunting and westerns where it was six shooters and Winchesters. Its 2023 we had 20 years with kids being exposed to Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Battlefield, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and countless others I cannot name.

Result we have a gun culture that has become toxic and running off the rails, and it is also a sign that Gun Culture any gun culture in the USA is actually going to die. End result of all of this carnage and insanity is we have two generations that could care less about guns and want tougher laws in 2028 they will be the biggest bloc of voters.

Response I get from gun cult is "but I teach my kids to shoot, they not gunna be soy boys" Congrats Good for you, well guess what? Most Dads are not like you anymore. Then there is the MAGA CIVIL WAR fantasies. They got all the guns and will win, but blame all these mass shootings on Democrats. 

Democrats at the same time "dont believe in guns" and are soy boys who are obsessed with pronouns. All they need is MACHO AND GUNS. Brag they have all the veterans. Oh Really? then maybe they can all get together and get the rest squared away so they can stop looking like obese soup sandwiches in all the gun-fu videos I see. You know the ones with them doing things with firearms that would get one kicked off a military range by the NCOIC.

I will tell you right now the veterans who saw combat, were on the front lines. Last thing they want is a return to that hell. Tells me they are all wannabes who never enlisted or were POG FOBBITS who did more fuck all than I did when I was in the MIARNG. All of this is just over compensation as they enlisted and for one reason or another, and never became the Rambo Super Commando they wanted. So must get the glory they feel was denied to them.

This Civil War 2.0 will be a digital war, its the MACHO AR15 boys against the THEY/THEM operating drones turning MAGAs into WAS/WERE. The preppers, and MAGA Militia Alpha Males were also the first to lose the script two weeks into a pandemic because there was no live sports on TV, but these people are so ready for Civil War 2 or some Mad Max collapse of civilization.

No matter how things go form here the AR15 Tacticool Cult is a the death rattle of Gun Culture in America, it has mutated into a monster that we as a people are going to forced to finally put down like a mad beast. It either dies from the ballot box, withers away as the gun cultists die and there is no youth wanting to inherit their guns or from government bullets.

It is always the same excuses from the gun cult.

- We took GOD out of schools.

  That same GOD that all in the Indian Boarding School Horror shows and was DGAF when his own     priests were molesting kids? I think he should not be allowed within 1000ft from any school.

- We took "Discipline" out of school.

  Code word for corporal punishment, teens are violent because adults are not violent towards them.     Makes sense if you are a crack head.

- Breakdown of the Nuclear Family.

 Of course this is where they blame feminism and women. BTW the real TRAD family was the EXTENDED FAMILY, that Nuclear model the GOP thinks is the holy ideal is a post WW2 industrial age invention. 

- Its Mental Health.

Then why not fund mental health services, oh you don't want to do that.

By the way, we had most of that crap in the 1920s, a century ago and there was gangsters running around with tommy guns. It is the guns stupid.

Other nations have these problems, yet no weekly mass shootings, then bring up the Swiss, yes they have liberal gun laws, also regulations with them. A gun purchases require permits, everyone has to do 2 years of military conscription and they take marksman ship and training very seriously. If something like this happens in their country the Swiss government will law down the law real quick.

It will be Gen Z that will pull us out of this mess, as they are the majority of the victims of gun violence not surprisingly support tougher gun laws including bans on AR15s, and now in a recent poll 88% of them support labor Unions, huge increase from my Gen X at 60%. Because all of the gun violence is also tied into the GOP allowing Corporate Capitalism and Greed to run amok unchecked. Throw in the ROE reversal and you have a perfect storm for the GOP.  In 2028 this group and millennials will be the majority of the electorate. GEN Z knows the GOP is not serious about this issue or any issue they find of importance and are voting accordingly. Just like the gangsters of the 1920s public finally got sick of the carnage.

The GOP is scared wants to raise the voting age the party offers them nothing, refuses to and will share the same fate as the Sign of the Beefcarver.

Hollywood Meltdown

 2023 so far has been one of the WORST years for the film industry. Studios are dealing with a double writer and actors strike and so far many of their tentpole films had either barely broke even or outright flopped. Disney alone has lost one billion this year.  Some want to blame that on the MAGA boycotts over GROOMERS or something, but really this was a disaster that was a long time coming due to industry trends, changes in technology and culture.

Reasons - 

1. Overbloated Budgets 

 Movies cost too much money especially the big tent pole films. Most of these flops cost $250-300 million to make. A film needs to make 2.5x that much to just break even. $300 million is that thresh hold where the budget gets so big that it will get harder to get the butts in seats needed to make that money back and more.

Movie going has what I call for myself a  30-30-30 problem. Back in 2016 last time since I went to the theatre it cost me $30 to see a film (tix and food) 30 minutes to get there and I have to get 30 minutes early.. Its a hassle and Id rather just watch a film on whatever streaming service I am already paying for. Now in 2023 it is likely a $40-30-30 problem for me now.

2. Blockbuster Congestion 

There are too many of these tentpole blockbusters, when ever major release has to be a $300M event then none of them can make money, even before COVID movie going was in a decline. 1975 JAWS was the FIRST blockbuster and then Star Wars in 1977 blew up.  For like 30 years these event films were the big ones of the year and few and far between. March 2023 year we had 5 event films being released in a span of 4 weeks, Creed 3, Scream 6 sequel, John Wick 4, Shazam 2, and a new Dungeons & Dragons film that was not a sequel. 

When every film has to be a blockbuster no film can be a blockbuster. With the average person only seeing 4 movies at a theatre a year. They are going to real choosy.

3. COVID changed movie going habits

The Pandemic strained an already breaking system, movie going was already in decline, go back to my 30-30-30 problem, thus people are selective on what MAJOR EVENT they go and see. We are seeing the same with video games, the big AAA live service MMO grind fests are getting shut down left and right. There is just not enough people, with not enough time and money to support all of them.

What did the Atari Jaguar commercial say? "Do the Math"

4. Possible Franchise Fatigue

It is possible that after Infinity War the audience has gotten burned out on Super Heroes, other major franchises and the Remakes. Does not help after Marvels big hyped event the franchise is now left with the B and C Squad Heroes. RDJ, Chris Evans and ScarJo is gone. Now the product seems unerwhelming and drifting aimless.

So many of the flops and underperformers are all FRANCHISES. New Mission Impossible under performed, Little Mermaid Broke Even, Transformers rise of the Beasts did not make money and its trying to bring back GI JOE, another franchise that Hasbro cannot bring back after 3 movies. Shazam 2 lost WB $150M,  Newest Fast and the Furious tanked and Pixar had a string of flops.

Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania cost $250M and lost its debut weekend to a $35M movie about a Bear cranked out on Cocaine. But the biggest losers were Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Flash. The last Indy movie was not so great and this is a IP that Millennials and Gen Z just do not care about. Dial Of Destiny cost $300M for a series that should have stayed ended with Last Crusade.

Head of Lucasarts, Kathleen Kennedy wanted to push the Pheobe Waller-Bridge as some female Indy Jones acting like it is new and revolutionary. It was when it was called Lara Croft Tomb Raider on the PlayStation and led to film series with Angelina Jolie then a tepid reboot with Alicia Vikander. Oh....

https://www.ign.com/articles/phoebe-waller-bridge-resurrecting-tomb-raider-dangerous-new-tv-series

Same person is trying to do a Tomb Raider Amazon TV series, she is only producing, but still how clueless are these people? Disney did think having a fake space cruise Hotel that cost $6000 for two nights was a great idea when a real cruise on Royal Carribbean is $1400 for 5 nights. It closed down and knew this was going to be a future Defunctland Episode when I first saw it.

The Flash, the film was announced in 2014 went though 6 directors did not have a script written until 2018, the lead actor started becoming a criminal sex pest who was still at the movies premier instead of in prison. The movie itself was a complete mess with the entire multiverse premise which it seems like EVERY Super Hero movie is about now. Future does not look any better Blue Beetle looks to be DOA for WB and I have new clue the movie even existed until like two weeks ago. There is too much bad mojo around Disney's live action Snow White. Rachel Zegler has said some stupid things in public interviews and the Seven Dwarves look like Seven Ren Faire Rejects.

The Winners - Super Mario Bros animated dominated when the Pixar films and a movie about a Teenage Kraken sank. Held the record for the winning until....Barbie came out. It had right wingers losing their shit, the ones who cry Go Woke Go Broke cried about it being woke, but it did not go broke and knocked Super Mario Bros from its pedestal.

Reason why the did well is because Barbie and Mario are still active as IPs. Nintendo still makes Mario games, the movie until that live action flop from the 80s was tied to the video games and made references to the 35+ year history of the character. Donkey Kong, Mario Cart etc. Now the character has multi generational appeal, we have kids being raised by gamer dads now. Barbie, the toy is still active one of the few that still makes playsets. I see those $190 Malibu Dream Houses come through the Amazon facility I work at all the time. Other toys, ones aimed at boys no longer make playsets and Barbie as stood the test of time while most of the lines I grew up with were fads that never survived the 1980s.

GI JOE is MIA, mentioned the film franchise could not get off the ground after 3 movies. He-Man, Silverhawks, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors etc. Did not make it into the 90s a decade that a new wave of children went crazy for Pokemon, Digimon and other battle monster CCGs.

Oppenheimer, shows that movie goers might want more mature dramas and are sick of the infantile people in tights movies save the world for the 100,000th time.

In video games while the MMOs are shuttering, Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 soared. Two games that were expected to only appeal to a hardcore niche gamer, gamers are getting sick of the live service loot box micro transaction money grubbing.

Now the entire Blockbuster System has gotten so unsustainable that the studios needed to shortchange the talent in order to be somewhat viable and that broke the system as Actors and Writers went on strike and now the VFX artists are trying to unionize. Studios think they can get AI to just churn out more of their basic franchise comic book super hero movies that are already mostly computer generated.

The Hollywood Meltdown is just getting started.

American Gods (The Sign of the Beefcarver Fate)

 Ever watch the TV series American Gods, based on the Neil Gaiman book? It tells the tale of a war between the old gods of the ancient land and the new gods of the modern age, god of modern society, Highways, Media, Technology etc.

New GODS are winning because the modern age is winning, New gods get the old gods on their side by offering something other than worship, relevance. There was an episode in season one called Lemon Scented You, where Media portrayed by Lucille Ball played by Gillian Anderson, offering Odin to be represented by a space based weapon system. Vulcan turned sides to the New Gods by being offered to be the name of a gun manufacture as many America worship guns as their new god or at least a totem of traditional masculinity.

If you cannot be worshipped you can at least be culturally relevant.

What does this have to do with America now? Trump has become a new MAGA GOD, why? because Jesus became irrelevant, they still want a savior and someone to lead them to their promised land. But Jesus wants them to do things like love thy neighbor, care for the refugee etc. 

No they don't want that, they want a GOD to tell them they can be as disgusting as they want to be, for long time they just did mental gymnastics twisting Jesus to fit that mold until Trump came along. Because JESUS is not American, or likely white for that matter. I studied many beliefs of Native Americans and other indigenous cultures, one thing I see common with their beliefs. Belief systems are all natural and organic, born from their animals, streams and rivers.  Christianity in America is not, its a foreign import from an ancient land. that for the past 150 years has been retconned, rewritten and infused with Corporate Capitalism. 

It is no surprise that someone like Trump comes along and many run to him, if that is not grooming I don't know what is. Its boomers who want the 1950s Beaver Cleaver Jesus Land Back, except we are almost 1/4 into 21st Century. What we in the future will recognize as the 21st century is being born and so much of that they cling to will have no place in it.

Youth have already walked away as the largest and fastest religious identity among Millennials and Gen Z is NONE, what Trump offers their parents and grandparents is NOTHING they want. Trump was the product of the 1980s Greed is Good Era. Decade when the top rated programs were shows about wealth and power like Dynasty, Dallas and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous with Robin Leach, who ended each episode with the line "Champaign wishes and caviar dreams"

For Trump it is "Diet Coke Wishes and Big Mac Dreams" even after this MAGA still needs to create their own personal Trump to cover the reality he is a 76 year old obese man child who consumes fast food. So many bad AI art of Trump as a Astronaut, General, and other professions he could never do because they require oaths he could never abide to and muscles he does not have. 

Then I had a revelation, the GOP is the Sign of the Beefcarver of politcal parties and will share the same fate. What am I talking about? This place was a chain of cafeteria style restaruants that now in 2023 only has one location in Royal Oak MI. About 10 years ago I went to the location that was in Dearborn MI on Michigan Ave. Once there I knew this place was not long for this world. I was 36 at the time and the regulars were all my parents age. No one in their 20s ate there, they went the the spicey places down the street., Food also tasted like bland hospital cafeteria food. 

That placed closed down in 2018 and was demolished some time later.

Vivek talks about raising the voting age (which will be near impossible) because the 18-25 year olds do not care for their 50s nonsense as the 80s was ancient history to them. Fact is the 2020s are farther away from the 1980s than the 80s were to the 50s. You have to dig deep in the media landscape to even find a channel that plays those old tv programs. In the 80s Leave it to Beaver was on WXOM TV 20 on 1030am, I saw episodes when I was home from school sick. Nick at Nite broadcasted MR ED. Now? Daytime TV is just talk shows, court shows and Nick at Nite has Friends and Mike and Molly on. If a channel plays old tv shows they are from the 80s and 90s now, if they are not playing endless NCIS marathons, a show that has been on CBS for 20 years.

Ronald Reagan rode to landslide victories riding on that Nostalgia Wave, because it was still fresh in the minds of many adults. That generation is aging and giving way to Millennials and Gen Z who do not remember Saturday Morning Cartoons, Music on MTV and the SFX in Star Wars (1977) looks like crap to them.  

How do they even expect to bring back the mores and traditions from a era that has even faded into the background of our own media landscape? Even the big media producers try to reboot these same shows and they arrive DOA. "Go Woke Go Broke" the legacy fans cry when they did not like the changes and the youth outright ignore it because they have something new and original that is more relevant to them.

1980s there was a different version of that saying "They had to make it hip for the kids" Well there is nothing the GOP or MAGA has that can make what they have is HIP for the kids. Now back to that bland hospital food restaurant, one show I do watch occasionaly is Bar Rescue, I see so many places with the same Beefcarver problem trying to squeeze money out of aging and dying regulars and doing nothing to get the younger diners in.

Even after Taffer arrives they resist any changes and his biggest one is get the MILLENIALS and now Gen Z in. For the GOP that means listening to them and their needs but still want to serve the same bland menu and play the same old tunes.

Just like the Beefcarver, Gen Z and Millenials are going to eat somewhere else and go out of business and get demolished.

THEY/THEM Super Soldiers (Get with the Program II)

 Russia is now blaming their losses on Ukrainian Gay Super Soldiers. You read that right THEY/THEM super soldiers are turning the straight macho Russian Army into WAS/WERE. They are not super soldiers, just trained on NATO weapons and tactics and are not poorly fed and equipped conscripts. Then the Ukrainian government is unifying their forces with GAY SEX, what like the band of Thebes? Whose unit cohesion was such that even the Spartans did not want to face them, when they did LOST horribly.

Once again THEY/THEM army is turning the Russian Forces into WAS/WERE. When all fails Putin pulls out the homophobic propaganda as his great traditional values army takes loss after loss because his military for the past 20 years of his rule was allowed to be gutted by the corruption of his very inner circle of oligarchs. Russia cannot even land a probe on the moon but the MAGA GOP thinks this country is something to aspire to.

There is now news that Ukraine has female pilots being trained to fly F16s and Zelensky is looking to make a deal with Sweden to acquire a few Gripen jets, in some aspects are SUPERIOR to the F16. I cannot wait to see Putin and MAGA chuds like Michael Knowles lose it when there ends up being a Ukrainian Female Fighter Ace, bonus if that Ace is a Lesbian or Trans.

The right is obsessed with Gay Stuff more than Gay people are, I had an 8th grade teacher who had a reply when kids in class used gay as a slur. "Football players talk about football, basketball players talk about basketball  so people who talk about gay all the time...".

No surprise that so many of them get busted at some dive motel or gas station men's room off the free way engaging in meth and man ass.

This conspiracy theory is fueled by fear of their the masculine man becoming obsolete, and well he is. Technology is doing that. Wars are not longer dependent on hyper masculine heroics anymore, we no longer need 10 Rambos who enlisted because they did not get the college full ride athletic scholarship to destroy a target, just one geek piloting a drone with a off the shelf XBOX controller from a office building with AC. It is the same in our economy, those jobs that reinforced those traditional genders are going away. At my place I see women and men doing the SAME JOBS and many of those are leadership positions.

Recently two of Russia's nuclear capable long range bombers were taken out by Ukrainian Drones, this was as turned into a drone war which is a harbinger of a much larger Digital Age war to come. These are the madcap incoherent bigoted nonsense that a losing side cooks up to make excuses why they are losing to a smaller country that is equipped with NATO hand me down surplus weapons.

Education is going to start to reflect the 21st century reality, GOP and the evangelicals want to push homeschool, because something something parents rights or whatever. The same forget the system we have exists because 100 years ago those robber barons who were reshaping our economy and culture through the industrial revolution. Those Titans of Industry knew that the 20th century industrial sector needed workers educated with a set of skills and their the barely literate farmer parents were not up for the task. Today too many parents are not up to the task to educate their kids with the skills a 21st century Digital Age work force will require. Now those Titans of Industry are people like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.

In about 20 years School Administrators will look at the High School Concussion Ball teams and PE programs and think, this is no longer working. We cant have something that causes brain damage, less boys now have Dads that even encourage it, because they are gamer dads. Too many show up to PE never once held a Baseball bat in their entire life. School Sports were created to create the manly man for the mines, mills or Military. In these small towns the Mine and Mill were shut down 25 years ago and the Military needs them less and less. PE will have to be more about life long fitness and nutrition not sports that breeds life long fandom that results on couch surfing and getting beer, soda and junk food and online casino commercials beamed into their brains. It will happen because the 21st Century Economy will require it to function.

We are getting to a point there will be more GAMERS than Sports fans, even Sports Illustrated Online had an article about Baldur's Gate 3 tips.  

SI Baldurs Gate 3

We are almost 1/4 into the 21st Century time to get with the program.

Progress (Get with the Program)

One of my days off from work I went to a local Taco Bell, after hitting the nearby Dollar Tree. When I went to order at this particular Taco Bell, they no longer had a front menu board but a QR code to call up on a smartphone or have to use the self order touch screens. There was a nearby customer who had NO IDEA how to use one.

That is what happens with any social or technological change, that change gets to the point it takes over and you have to get with the program.

It happened with Telephones, Automobiles, Radio and Television. One day people needed to have a car to function in society, new towns and communities were built to be car centric. Everyone needs at least one TV in their home, everyone has a radio.

How we are heading fast into the digital age and more of these advances and changes are happening. I was looked at like some freak for being a NES junkie in the 1980s. Now a growing number of High Schools have E-SPORTS teams. First tweet I saw in 1/01/2020 as for a High School announcing the creation of their E Sports team.

Three years since then the number of such programs have grown, in around 2009 idea of a school video game team was something Penn and Teller used as a though experiment at the end of the Bullshit episode on video game violence., back then that very concept seemed absurd.

The gamer kids who were trash at PE were the outlier freaks until one day they are not. Next High Schools have to utterly revamp their Physical Education program, one away from being a sports club to find who the Varsity Studs will be, because for one their own concussion ball teams will be withering on the vine in some places over TBIs. Biggest reason more kids will have GAMER DADS. They come home Dad who is is not in his mancave watching a game but playing one. They don't spend money and sign their own kids up to the increasingly expensive organized sports organizations. They had a sports dad who did that and it was a garbage experience. Had to hear his Dad or other male adults go on about their HIGH SCHOOL GLORY while he watched YouTube vids of some 15 year old game streamer who was bringing more bank a week than his Dad or any of us do in a month. Making money at 15 sitting at home playing Fortnite blows High School Varsity Captain King of Prom out of the water.

Why MAGA happened and how they have a fantasy they can shoot their way out with the AR15s, Oh they are in for a shock because any Civil War 2 will be a DIGITAL WAR. Their side will not have anything digital on their side, because people who are religious fanatics who embrace Q Anon do not build, design or know how to operate Star Wars level Death Drones. They are all convinced that all they needs is guns and macho. Forgetting that most of their core "militia" is older than me (I'm 46) and obese with several health issues. Cry that the Military is WOKE because more and more of your newest recruits no longer fit that mold. Guess what most never did, MAGA veterans they do have all served at least 20+ years ago. What tactics can they teach? If they do that because too many of the gun fu training videos of them have them looking like total soup sandwiches.

Right now in Ukraine, there is NO news story about any hyper macho Rambo heroics, its all about the DRONES, javelins, NLAWS and other war tech, besides videos of reserve forces given Maxim Machine guns, MP40s and Mosin rifles. Military will not be on their side and one of them was already neutralized by the FBI without breaking a sweat. When they lose and lose BIG, more conspiracy theories will be made up to rationalize why. Because they are not paying attention.

21st Century as we will know it is Coming, we are all going to have to get with the program or get left behind.