Losing My Perspicacity, July 11, 2025

Good morning and Happy Friday! Thanks for stopping by this morning, and congrats on surviving yet another week in Donald Trump’s America.

I had a whole host of things I planned to write about today, but I want to give you all some advice: If you haven’t, take your bleeding, broken, busted-up heart to the movies and see Superman.

I wasn't excited about this movie. I went with my youngest child because he was so excited for it, and no one wanted to see it with him. At this point, it feels we get either a Spiderman, Superman, or Batman movie every freakin’ year. Is there no one else worth making movies about? Do James Gunn, Zach Snyder, or Jon Favreau have to make every superhero movie? Do we have no other options? And frankly, after 2022’s The Batman (I hated it), I swore off superhero movies altogether.

But as I sat in a nearly-empty theater this afternoon, something strange happened: A rebooted superhero movie that I didn’t even plan on seeing touched me deep in my soul.

(I’m avoiding spoilers, but there are some plot points mentioned below, so proceed with caution.)

Gunn’s Superman isn’t as cold and detached as Snyder’s Man of Steel, nor is he as campy and comic-booky as Christopher Reeve’s iconic portrayal. David Corenswet, who has been called “Temu Henry Cavill” on social media, brings a humanity and warmth to Superman that I’m not sure we’ve seen before. The problem for this Superman is that he feels everything deeply. Too deeply. He hurts for everyone and everything that has ever been mistreated.

This Superman values life so intensely that it constitutes a weakness for him in a world where life is cheap. He’ll cause millions of dollars of property damage if it means saving a single life. Hell, he’ll cause millions of dollars of property damage if it means saving a squirrel. He’s so in love with the world that any loss hurts him profoundly. As Lois Lane says to him at one point, it’s like he thinks every single person he comes across is absolutely beautiful. He even sheds a tear over his broken droids, who aren’t human by any stretch of this imagination. This isn’t your dad’s emotionally stoic Superman. This is a Superman for all of us who can’t even bring ourselves to kill bugs (trap and release, people).

But the world our hero inhabits is more complex than his feelings. Nearly every move the US government makes ties back to some corporate interest. Days before the movie starts, our hero has stopped the fictional country of Boravia from invading neighboring Jahranpur. In his mind, this was unquestionably the right thing to do — as he tries desperately to explain to Lane, he stopped a war and saved lives. What did he do wrong? However, Lane points out that he acted unilaterally, disregarding factors such as allies, treaties, and the Geneva Convention. Both Superman and Clark Kent are equally befuddled by her probing questions about his actions.

There’s much-needed social commentary in Gunn’s take on the Man of Steel. Boravia and Jahranpur are pretty clearly avatars for Israel and Palestine, with one side using tanks and automatic weapons while the other fights back with pitchforks and stones. Then there’s the fact that Lex Luthor refers to Superman throughout as “The Alien,” even going so far as to call him an “it.” I watched this movie approximately two hours after I followed a hearing involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wherein an ICE official kept calling undocumented immigrants “the aliens.” This clearly wasn’t a coincidence on Gunn’s part. He’s reminding the audience that the way fascists get the masses to turn on a vulnerable group is to deny and challenge their humanity. Why should anyone feel for something that isn’t even human?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t credit the cast in this one. Rachel Brosnahan is the best Lois Lane we’ve had since Margot Kidder, Wendell Pierce is such a good Perry White that I wanted to ask if the Daily Planet was hiring (they actually showed an editor (gasp) editing!), and the always underrated Edi Gathegi (X-Men, For All Mankind) is a standout Mr. Terrific.

Nicholas Hoult, though, deserves special mention. His Lex Luthor gives off big Hank Scorpio vibes (a supervillain who’s also a great boss) at first. He credits his team when they succeed, his employees call him “Lex,” and they aren’t afraid to stand up to him when they disagree. But Lex is a deeply broken and hurt ubergenius who is hellbent on making everyone else feel as bad as he does. Somehow, Hoult manages to channel both Jeff Bezos (complete with the wrap-around shades) and Elon Musk (he wants to create a tech utopia for his cult of fanboy followers), while also imbuing Luthor with a depth and self-awareness none of our actual billionaire supervillains possess.

Other worthy mentions go out to Frank Grillo, who is on the wrong side of history yet again, and Skyler Gisondo (young Shawn on Psych) as a Jimmy Olsen who actually has some game with the ladies. We also get a good dose of Nathan Fillion, sporting the worst haircut known to man, and the adorable CGI superpup Krypto, as the world’s most lovable worst-behaved dog. And Gunn’s decision to go back to John Williams’ original score and the iconic Superman theme made my little Gen X heart sing. Thinking of you, Chris Reeve! (Reeve’s son, William, now 33 (!!) has a cameo.)

The theme of Superman as an immigrant runs through the entire film. The first bystander to come to his aid is Mali, the owner of a falafel stand. And just as ICE and the DOJ try to convince us each day that immigrants are the bad guys, Luthor, who is pulling strings with the media, does his best to get America to turn on Superman. But Superman’s biggest weakness — his love for humanity — is also his greatest strength. There’s a beautiful quote I really wanted to include here, but I don’t want to ruin it for you. If you see the movie, you’ll know it when you hear it.

When it comes to issues of war, of immigration, of crime and punishment, we often hear people say, “It’s not so simple” to do the right thing. Superman reminds us all that, much of the time, it is that simple. Hurting people is wrong. Standing by and not helping others is wrong. The willingness to sacrifice lives for what’s easier or more convenient is wrong. Telling ourselves lies to make this world bearable is wrong. Once you see this film, you know exactly why MAGA hates it. Superman hasn’t changed, but they have. And they don’t like being reminded that people are not expendable. Gunn’s movie squarely positions those who embrace cruelty or inhumanity as the villains.

I've seen numerous cynical reviews of this movie. Screw those guys. I desperately needed to see a superhero movie like this. And given that, despite the right’s attempt to downvote the movie, it currently has a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, I’m not alone.

So, hats off to James Gunn and the entire cast and crew for this one. I spent Thursday feeling like I couldn’t take one more bad news story or write one more post about Trump, ICE, or Elon Musk. Of course, watching a movie is no substitute for organizing, protesting, calling our reps, and making good trouble. But it sure was nice to sit in a dark theater and root for a superhero who isn’t morally gray, or an anti-hero, or a vigilante. Corenswet’s Man of Steel is a true superhero in every sense of the word. He is love and light and good embodied in a not-too-shabby package.

Superman is the best of what we aspire to be. The best of what we were told as kids about America. Now it’s up to us to live up to it.

Today: It’s almost like putting Kristi Noem in charge of FEMA was a bad idea; ICE is out of control; the DOJ is going after doctors who treat trans kids; and The High Note.

Real News for Real People — Not Partisans

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Here we go.

Bad news continues to trickle out of flooded-out Texas

Wow, it’s almost as if slashing and burning the federal budget to support tax cuts for the wealthy was a bad idea. Turns out, infrastructure is important.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is the latest Trump official to be outed as negligent (at the very least) in responding to the massive flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas, which has taken the lives of 120 people so far. One hundred and seventy-three people are still missing.

The details of incompetence from local government to the White House are beginning to trickle out. CNN is reporting that Noem’s “cost controls” at FEMA delayed search and rescue efforts:

Worse, while Texas was scrambling to deal with the tragedy on Monday, Noem was busy asking her Instagram followers to vote on which picture of her on horseback should be her official portrait as former governor of South Dakota.

If you’re wondering where FEMA is in all of this, you’re not alone. David Richardson, the agency’s head, hasn’t made a public appearance yet in the affected area. You probably remember Richardson best from not knowing there was such a thing as hurricane season.

ICE is completely out of control/dumb

If you spend any time at all on social media, you’re no doubt bombarded with horrific videos of ICE accosting brown people on a daily basis. Today, they put up a show of force against… (checks notes)…people who pick strawberries.

Here they are gassing migrant workers.

But don’t worry! Immigration Czar Tom Homan has plans for your aging parents and kids to pick America’s produce.

As I mentioned above, there was also a hearing in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case today, and if you want to know just how little the people who work for ICE care about “the aliens” they rip away from their families, I can’t suggest this thread from Anna Bower enough. Giles is an ICE officer brought in by the DOJ to answer Judge Xinis’ questions, per her order. Fam, he did not answer her questions.

He might as well have said, “I have no idea what happens to these people and I don’t care.” On a lighter note, at one point, Giles, who was getting pounded by Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, asked to use the bathroom. All I could think of was this:

If you’re wondering how bright ICE agents are, the answer is not very. Here in Chicago, they showed up at the National Puerto Rican Museum to look for people to deport, apparently not knowing that Puerto Ricans are American citizens. City officials quickly told them where to go. 

We also learned today that ICE investigations officers have been told to stop worrying about criminal cases and to focus on kidnapping more immigrants.

This is why I had to see Superman yesterday.

Pam Bondi sets her sights on doctors who treat trans kids

Now that the DOJ is going to firmly focus on putting immigrants in concentration camps instead of handling criminal cases, Attorney General Pam Bondi has even more time to terrorize trans kids and the doctors who treat them.

Nice to know that Pam has found a way to pass the time now that she’s decided the Jeffrey Epstein case needs no further attention. I’m sure no one will even remember the Epstein stuff.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

Let’s end our time together with some good news about women’s Euro, which is currently taking place across the pond.

Guys used to love to call into my radio show to tell me, “No one watches women’s sports.” Gosh guys, it kinda seems like everyone watches women’s sports. Switzerland and Finland yesterday was a banger!

Finally, please enjoy The Killer and Violent Femmes doing the theme from Laverne & Shirley.

Survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down. Report ICE. And above all, have a great weekend!