When you decide to watch a film on TV, there are so many choices. How can you possibly select a good one? Last night we selected a good one. We only knew about it because it was one of the five films named last week in the New York Times as films that were leaving Netflix by the end of the month. We had previously watched one of the five, namely Blackhat, which I mentioned earlier. It was a good film, if not a great one, about CIA and Chinese intelligence agents cooperating to solve a problem evidenced by a number of major facility explosions in both countries, clearly done by the same criminals.

Last night, we watched another of the five, one that I thought was even better, called 21 Bridges, filmed in 2019 and starring the late and great Chadwick Boseman as a New York Police Department detective. I only glanced at its ratings before we decided to watch, and was a bit confused because Rotten Tomatoes critics only gave it a 55% rating, while Rotten Tomatoes viewers gave it 91%. We were obviously viewers, not critics.

Boseman is a detective called in to investigate the murder of eight (I think it was eight) police officers by two men who entered a bar in Manhattan to steal 30 kilos of cocaine, the bar also being a front for drugs. How the police knew that the bar was being robbed started out as quite a mystery (the kind of “what did I miss?” mystery), but it all becomes clear as the film goes on. It is a shoot and die film, with a lot of (in fact, probably too many) chase scenes, but it has a very interesting story line, ending with (stop here if you don’t want to know) the involvement of virtually an entire precinct of New York’s finest as being heavily involved in the distribution of illegal drugs. Yes, at the end the good guys (I’m sorry, the good guy) won, and, boy, there were a lot of dead cops. It’s not a gory, violent film in that there is little blood (and by the way no sex at all) and little fighting. Just bang bang, and they’re dead. I’d recommend it. You have until the 28th.

Oh, the 21 bridges? That’s the number of bridges that connect Manhattan to the rest of the world.

From this film about lawmen gone astray, we turned on Rachel Maddow and learned about real life lawmen gone astray. These were the fellas she called “Elon Musk’s juvenile delinquents”, and that seems to be an apt title. I had lunch with my daughter today and we were talking about the 19-25 year olds holding all the country’s secrets on (perhaps) their smart phones, and she said that, although they don’t know it, they are probably going to spend the rest of their lives in jail. She may be right.

So far, it is reassuring to see the courts doing their job generally with regards to the bevy of illegal DJ/BigE actions, but what we really don’t know for sure is if the courts’ decisions are going to be taken seriously by the GOP bigwigs.

This is a big question, and even if they do comply, some of the things they are doing will be hard to undo. And, although I really doubt that DJ will remain president for the next four years, I don’t have any confidence that JD has either the ability or desire to right the ship.

As usual, there are so many problems, you don’t know where to start (part of the plan, as we know). But let’s do air controllers. Young Ms. Leavitt, has, I believe, said two conflicting things: (1) US air control systems are obsolete and need to be, and will be, totally overhauled, and (2) US air travel is as safe as it can be. I guess it’s her job to speak out of both sides of her mouth (that’s a saying, no?).

In the meantime, I heard our president talk about the air control system this morning at the National Prayer breakfast. Our air control system, he said and I paraphrase, is old, creaky, falling apart, second rate, hard to maintain, etc. etc. Other countries have much better systems.  But have no fear. We are going to replace it, top to bottom,  with a new system. Coming soon to your neighborhood airport.

But then, as usual, he went off the rails. The captain of his private plane does not even use the American air control system. It is so unsafe and bad. He uses a system from another country.

Okay, what does that even mean? How can you land at an American airport using an air control system from another country? Oh, Donald.

Last point of the day. Explain this to me. Russell Vought has now been confirmed as OMB director. He believes (no lie or exaggeration here) that laws against the impoundment of appropriated funds are of no effect, and that OMB and the president can decide, say, to not provide funds to a Congressionally created program, and no one can tell them otherwise.

Now, we have a hard date (March 14, I think) that the government will shut down if we don’t have a budget approved, and the debt ceiling limit increased. I have my doubts (that’s an understatement) that Congress will have a budget by then and maybe they will simply agree to another extension to avoid a shutdown, and maybe (considering the administration wants to shut down the country anyway) they won’t. But assume they do.

Forget the Democrats for a minute, and assume that the Republicans will put together a budget and that Congress will approve it. Since the Republican Congress and OMB are theoretically on the same page, does this mean that whatever is passed by Congress will be permitted to be spent by OMG without impounding funds? Or will the Republican Congress put together a budget and then find that OMB will now permit part of their budgeted funds to be spent? And if the latter is true, will the Congressional Republicans just be surprised when OMB impounds, or – as they say – is the fix in? Will OMB and Congressional Republicans discuss the impoundments before the budget is prepared and passed, so that the members of Congress won’t be surprised? And, if that is the case (which I suspect it will be), will whatever budget that is placed for Congressional approval be a Potemkin budget, having nothing to do with the plans of the administration?

See you on Saturday.