The Ruinator - R30 Issue #10

I’m having trouble coming up with ideas for this week’s newsletter. Trump blots everything out like a black sun of shit. Like, seriously, why bother with anything else? It’s hard enough to keep track of his bullshit on a day-to-day basis. Read on for something else, I guess.

There’s one video I’ve been meaning to watch for weeks, South Korea is a dystopia. Sadly the whole world is playing catch-up, and I can’t even find the time for a deep dive into Dark Gothic Maga: How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America. If you’re wondering if the U.S. is turning into an oligarchy, economist Dr. Joeri Schasfoort has you covered.

Going back to my opening paragraph: If you feel overwhelmed by Trump & Maga, that is the point. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez references the “Flood the Zone"-tactic attributed to Steve Bannon, where you basically overwhelm the public sphere with so much controversy, it’s hard to keep track. Kinda like a distributed denial-of-service attack, but for discourse. Neat.

Anyway, guns. Guns? Las Vegas held its yearly Shot Show last month, and there was many a new hand-operated firearm on display. I won’t bother you with listing each and every one of them, but TFB TV found the top 5 budget guns, as well as the top 5 hand guns. Fun story, but all the shootings in the U.S. got me into gun culture. Yeah, I know AR-15 stands for ArmaLite 15.

Speaking of guns, Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945. And 13 years earlier, the NSDAP became the strongest fraction in the Bundestag. I talked about this last week, but this is the accompanying video. So go check that out. To prepare yourself mentally; personally it helps me out.

K-Pop. Jennie released the third preview track of her upcoming “Ruby” album, titled Love Hangover. I loved the video for Zen, and this is a bit whackier. It’s the type of “dark humor” that pops up in korean entertainment every now and then. Hey, at least it’s not Nazi shit.

Cars. If you hurry up, you can still bid on Michael Schumacher’s 1996 Ferrari F355 GTS, over at Sotheby’s. Bids close at 6pm UK time today.

If you’re feeling nostalgic for the old days, take a look at what record players used to look like: The Sony PS-F9 is some vertical sandwich for analog audiophiles. Only 41 years young.
Or buy a GKD Pixel 2 to replay games of yore, supports everything up to Playstation 1. Not like you’d want to play anything more complex on that tiny screen. But hey, $80 for thousands of 80s and 90s games in your pocket (erm, it doesn’t come with the games, but y’know). Alternatively, ditch electronics entirely and party like it’s 1939. Paper Apps offers a number of games that require nothing more than paper and dice. And you can play them all by yourself. Pretty cool!

Leftovers: R2-D2 Nuclear Shelter, WikiTok, O Say Can You Xi, The Ruinator (Blender Market)

Picture of Donald J. Trump based on the Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead

Want to receive this newsletter in your Inbox? Click here to find out how.

Spread the January spirit by buying something from my shop.