Website logo: Xennialist, Est. 2026

Thoughts on Things

  • CBS Under Fire: Scott Pelley’s 60 Minutes Exit Sparks Credibility Concerns

    CBS Under Fire: Scott Pelley’s 60 Minutes Exit Sparks Credibility Concerns

    Closing a long and storied history of great reporting

    Xen

    Inside the CBS News Credibility Crisis

    An era of solid news reporting at CBS has ended with the firing of Scott Pelley. A man of sound character built a career at one of the best-known news shops in the United States and was then unceremoniously terminated without cause. All because an inexperienced toady in Bari Weiss decided to eclipse principled journalism with sycophancy and compromised ethics.

    In an interview with the New York Times (below), Pelley explains how good journalism needed to be edited, clipped, cut, and changed to fit a narrative of a US presidential administration hell-bent on pushing a fiction to the American people.

    What does it mean going forward?

    This is all part of the direct assault on the First Amendment in our country. Full stop.

    We cannot hope to continue to believe that journalism is a fully functioning part of our society when decisions like this are made. This isn’t about one man, or indeed several people, losing their jobs or careers. Due to the changing headwinds of news media. “60 Minutes” wasn’t woefully out of touch, suffering from a lack of viewpoints, or a case of storytelling malpractice. The criticisms of the coverage from the new executive leadership have been fully without merit. Indeed, Pelley acknowledges this in his interview with the NYT. There were no facts or evidence to back up the pointed objections brought by CBS leader Weiss or Nick Bilton, the new chief executive for the broadcast. How are we as a society supposed to maintain faith that stories broadcast to our population are vetted and honest accounts of the events of the day?

    “There is no democracy without journalism. It can’t be done.”
    Scott Pelley

    Others decided to stay put at “60 Minutes”.

    News: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim have decided to remain at “60 Minutes.”

    — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy.bsky.social) 2026-06-05T15:56:27.271Z

    It is not surprising that some individuals would decide to remain with the CBS broadcast. However, I am unsure how they will succeed in maintaining an audience “loyal but [with a] critical eye”. With Pelley’s departure, it seems that the opportunity to address this issue has already passed.

    People need their livelihoods. They have families, bills to pay, and futures to plan. But keeping your wagon hitched to this kind of disloyal leadership is beyond me.

  • From Sysco to Tip Fatigue: The Real Reasons Americans Aren’t Dining Out

    Zac Rios tells it like it is: Sysco is taking over all the restaurants, and things taste the same

    Never frozen, always fresh

    Xen

    Americans are making hard choices with their dollars these days. And no other recession indicator is hitting quite as hard as the reduction in restaurant spending. The belt-tightening starts with larger durable goods, but then quickly trends to suddenly making your chicken tenders at home. And with these prices, who could blame someone for driving home to panfry some your tendies instead of hitting up KFC?

    Zac Rios breaks down another reason why this trend may be hitting hard: when sit-down restaurants are getting their food from a single source supplier, the taste profile of all these ostensibly “unique dining experiences” becomes flattened, and it makes less and less sense to spend your precious dollars on something you could buy at Costco or Sam’s Club.

    — Restaurant News | Restaurant Dive (@restaurantdive.com.web.brid.gy) 2026-04-24T12:51:57.000Z

    There are plenty of customer testimonials on YouTube about the declining quality of food, higher prices for less of that worse food, and, perhaps uniquely to the experience in the United States, tip fatigue. Americans are being squeezed from all sides, pressured to stretch their depreciating dollars further, and finding themselves in fewer situations where they can pay $20 for a meal at a fast-food chain.

    It would hardly be a Xennial blog unless we took a look at what other Xennials are saying:

    Do resturants just suck now?
    byu/OkApex0 inMillennials

  • Trump’s Latest Truth Social Rant Is Another Full-Blown Crashout

    Trump’s Latest Truth Social Rant Is Another Full-Blown Crashout

    4/9/2026

    Xen

    What do you think? Kinda looks like a certified crashout to me. Every twist and turn in the news cycle these days brings us a new Trump crashout. Whining about this person or that person. This news coverage is wrong or mean to him. That coverage doesn’t get enough of his ‘good angle’ on whatever lie he is trying to push. I think the firehose of bullshit is the typical strategy of the White House, but I don’t think they have any governor on Trump’s posting speed.

    Trump wasn't given a heads-up about Melania's public announcement on Epstein.Trump distracted the nation for 6 weeks w/ a disastrous, unwinnable war in Iran. MAGA is breaking over it & failed promises.So, Melania decides to bring it back in focus by distancing herself from Epstein.Love it.

    — Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) 2026-04-09T21:19:22.188Z
    There are an almost uncountable number of unforced errors for this White House.

    Some of the best comedy is playing out in real life. The tweets and nonsense is a contant stream that write themselves more ridiculous as the days pass. Epstein has never gone away, and the focus on those files will only continue to intensify. The lack of answers has caused endless speculation, and for good reason. Accountability has not found its way to Washington D.C.

  • How Mainstream Media Helped Protect Power, Not the Public

    How Mainstream Media Helped Protect Power, Not the Public

    Remember #Benghazi and the wall-to-wall coverage that got? The endless hearings in Congress. The talking heads on Fox News streaming coverage of an absolute travesty of an American policy failure?

    I remember. You remember. It seems now that this may have been an inoculation to a later revealed truth: the mainstream media was never on the side of the people and was always in the tank for powerful multinational corporations. “News entertainment” media conceived, constructed, and catapulted a seemingly rock-solid narrative into living rooms across the country that the Democratic presidency of Barack Obama was at the helm of an absolute catastrophic failure of governance and an immorally corrupt cover-up.

    All the while, the drumbeat against the “lamestream media” was the co-narrative cemented into the Republican playbook as default setting de jour. That co-narrative lay in place the challenge to the Left: when we (the GOP) are in control and use this same corporate powerhouse apparatus to push out our own agenda, denigrate these same networks at your own peril. We now find ourselves in a media landscape owned by the ever corruptible (and fewer by the day) billionaire class who care nothing for facts.

    We said, “No, no, we will not call out these media entertainment networks as bearing false witness; it’s just that the Republicans are making so much noise that it is profitable to cover them.” We reasoned away that the money must be in it, and that this is just the fair ‘both sides’ work of American media.

    Ah, how wrong we were. Now we see that the mask is off. There is no attempt to hide how in the tank these entertainment networks are for the Republican Party. Concern over the apparently invalid status of President Joe Biden was the subject of countless network segments and even books by talking heads. Such is not the case for President Trump. Oh, no. There’s no concern of any magnitude.

  • I wanted it recorded that I opposed whatever we end up doing in Iran tonight

    I wanted it recorded that I opposed whatever we end up doing in Iran tonight

    In this world of Trumps, be a not-Trump

    Xen

    Whatever the outcome is of this absolutely travesty of executive malicious decision-making, I want it recorded that I objected to it. I want it known that this decision went against all better judgment and reason.

    Donald Trump's threat to strike Iran's bridges and power plants has raised the prospect of war crimes. The EU insists all sides should respect international law and exercise "maximum restraint". #EuropeNews

    — Euronews (@euronews.com) 2026-04-07T14:33:03.000Z

    Our friends on the international stage are begging us to return to reason and sound decision-making. Who can blame them? The messages coming from the White House have been ripsaw and caused confusion among the markets and the American people alike. It is clear that the Trump administration has no interest in preserving our friendships with our allies. International diplomacy has deteriorated into parsing the president’s madness and responding in ways never thought necessary.

    The president’s penchant for claiming he is the victim is lampooned around the globe. (Bluesky)

    Best plausible option right now is Trump seizes on something, anything, as an excuse to save face while kicking the can down the road again and we're back to this point in a week or two.

    — Matthew Gertz (@mattgertz.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T19:51:39.177Z

    Market manipulation seems to be the name of the game

    I can only wonder at the sums of money being made on all of these insane geopolitical maneuverings. How many Polymarket bets have been placed on selectively released pre-information for the direct benefit of the hooked-in few? We can only wonder at such things in large part because our Department of Justice shows no real interest in prosecuting such underhanded dealings. We will need to trace all of these ill-gotten gains for later prosecution.

    In fact, I also believe that this level of market manipulation leads to the conclusion that Trump will actually back down from his threat to cause utter destruction in Iran. This has always been about money and pumping as much of it out of any crisis situation he causes.

    I’m not saying nothing will happen. But we have been ‘Lucy with the football’ one too many times to think it’s what he’s implying. The long and short of it is: we deserve better.

  • The Trump Unhinged Iran Post the Media Ignored or Sanewashed

    The Trump Unhinged Iran Post the Media Ignored or Sanewashed

    Mainstream media seems to turn a blind eye to the latest posting by Trump. This latest post is unhinged. It shows a complete failure of leadership by a president unconcerned with facts and reality.

    These little tirades evaporate when the markets open. He’s transparent and tiresome. And what’s with the “Praise be to Allah” bs? Using the “if any other president said this” argument, while accurate, is just as tiring.

    Even the phrase “saber-rattling” doesn’t convey the right sense of nausea about this post. This isn’t the projection of power. There’s no great lesson in leadership at work here. It sounds like a child bully, because he is a child bully.

    Mainstream media needs to take this seriously and treat this for what it is: the ravings of an unhinged president, untethered to reality.

  • Doors (2021): An interesting opening and a failed delivery

    Doors (2021): An interesting opening and a failed delivery

    When a film opens with like five production company animations, you know they are grasping at straws to pull something together. Doors is no exception.

    Split into three segments, the film lets us into a ‘situation’ of alien design. People report an alien presence on Earth in the form of ‘doors’ that appear all around the globe. The visual effect to create this alien threshold is a rather humdrum-looking black ferrofluid. The audio for this alien experience reminds me of another much better film Arrival. These elements carry through each of the three segments.

    Segment 1 – “Lockdown”

    The ‘kids’ are boring in, and the aliens don’t care.

    The first segment shows narrative construction that signals we won’t be seeing any incredible visuals. We are locked in a detention room for four misfits and given the impression that something is happening in the wider world. The script doesn’t need to do any heavy lifting here because the situation is all too familiar to anyone, vis-à-vis The Breakfast Club. One humorous moment had all four students crowded around a clock radio/tape player from the 90s. What may have been an interesting takeoff point was cut short by the segment’s end.

    Segment 2 – “Knockers”

    Josh Peck gives a weak performance in this some-kind-of love-interest segment that attempts to pull us in so we actually care about two (possibly three?) characters. We learn a bit more about our mysterious alien ‘doors’, but the rigid script that tries too hard to be edgy comes off as forced and ultimately fudges out an uninteresting terror that never materializes. Lina Esco‘s Becky tried to get us excited about her alien landscape exploration aid, “phaser,” which is just a single-stack magazine handgun.

    Segment 3 – “Lamaj”

    Finally, an exposition-heavy narrative tries (belatedly) to bring us up to speed on what it is that we’re supposed to be fearing in this film. Hamfisted writing reveals the lackluster nature of this threat. The lines are delivered with effort, so that’s admirable. I think there is some unintended humor here, but let’s not dish out the compliments so liberally. The feeble stab at underlining a mythos is late-breaking news and doesn’t flesh out why exactly we should care. It’s not lost on me that the writers really tried to work in some Star Trek references across the entire film. Tried.

    The film’s goofiness is just too much.

    Rating: 3/10

  • AG Pam Bondi Fired from Department Of Justice

    AG Pam Bondi Fired from Department Of Justice

    Politics before Easter

    Xen

    Just because something happens that changes the makeup of the current administration does not mean it’s a good thing. With the ouster of AG Pam Bondi, we now face a new level of uncertainty in the Trump administration.

    Todd Blanche does not represent an improvement in quality as the nation’s top “law enforcement officer”. As Trump’s former personal lawyer, we must consider how impartially he will apply U.S. law as he continues the work assigned to the Department by the president.

    We should aim to restore normalcy, a time when the Department of Justice based its prosecutorial decisions on the facts, free from external or political influences. I’m uncertain whether Pam Bondi’s departure brings us closer to this goal or pushes us further toward the apparent misuse of the DOJ for political purposes.

  • I did not watch the latest Trump speech

    I did not watch the latest Trump speech

    Feeling political, won’t delete later.

    Xen

    I don’t feel any particular need to keep active tabs on the day-to-day Trump-spewing from the White House. I’ve included this image of the White House from Getty because it looks kind of foreboding and captures a bit of how I feel about the whole thing.

    A war with Iran was never going to be a good thing, nor was it a smart move. We’ve imperiled ourselves as a nation, and more specifically, our troops, for seemingly no coherent reason. No rationale or Wednesday night quarterbacking on April Fools’ Day will bring any sanity to the situation.

    Labeling this current effort as a “distraction” from more significant issues facing our nation is accurate; however, it downplays the reality that we have several urgent matters to address.

    So the Strait of Hormuz isn't going to just open itself, and the US isn't going to just walk away, and a lot more damage will be done to energy infrastructure all around the Gulf, and the chatter of the past 48 hours was just that… talking down the markets. Buckle up! www.cnbc.com/2026/04/02/o…

    — Chris Nelder (@chrisnelder.bsky.social) 2026-04-02T03:10:19.720Z

    Gas prices continue to rise. The current military assault on Iran will drive them higher.

    I choose to eat a peanut butter egg and hope for saner minds to steer us in a better direction. It is not giving up so much as it is hoping for more, and the better that we all deserve in this moment.

  • Mercy on Trial: Flimsy Future Court and a Failed Format

    The clock starts; the film’s timer is set. At least we know how long we have before we can get dinner.

    Rotten Tomatoes

    Overview

    The face-on interview camera shot set the tone for a lot of the action to take place in one room and for the main actors to carry most of the film, perhaps a hallmark of director Timur Bekmambetov. The “screenlife format” puts a lot of pressure on the actor to deliver each individual plot point with maximum impact.

    The legal ramifications are kind of tricky and play for a weak case for an AI court. It’s rather flimsy for the court to conduct its business over a series of phone calls. This assumes that everyone will answer if they see a call from the Mercy Court.

    Acting

    Chris Pratt does a surprisingly decent job hacking it for this film. We, the viewing audience, are left to guess at the level of technological progression in the short hop into the future in which this film is set. Chris seems quite adept at using this future tech during his dystopian trial. Rebecca Ferguson, as the face of Mercy Court, navigates the script with skill. But the narrative choices written on the page and executed through digital glitching were choppy and disjointed. It must have been a chore for Ferguson to bring this performance to a place that would have been standout.

    “Writing, of course, is writing, acting comes from the theater, and cinematography comes from photography. Editing is unique to film. You can see something from different points of view almost simultaneously, and it creates a new experience.”

    Stanley Kubrick

    Production, Writing, and Filmmaking

    Ugh. The action scenes that happened outside the Mercy Court were as relevant as expected. When screenlife is used in filmmaking, we are often dialogue-splained through all of the major exposition with dreadfully few non-screen camera shots.

    Final Rating: 4/10

    I found the screenlife format overly cumbersome and lacking; the acting was unconvincing, and the script needed improvement.

    Spoilers

    Click to reveal thoughts on the ending …

    The partnership between Chris and the AI in the buddy cop scenario was quite predictable. Another thought I had was that Chris might lie to prolong the trial, or that the building’s emergency power would ultimately be insufficient to eliminate him, leading to a not-guilty verdict.

    I argue that we did not really get to see an AI court in action. There were choices made by the AI that felt overtly human, and the digital glitching left us to assume that even in the future, we won’t have hallucination-free AI.