A story of male friendship

My weekend movie was last evening. I went to Detroit Film Theater, an actual theater, to see The Eight Mountains, an Italian film. It is a story of male friendship. Pietro and Bruno meet when both are 11. Pietro lives in Turin and his parents have rented an apartment in the little mountain town where Bruno lives. The town has lost so many people Bruno is the only child, so is delighted to have a playmate. And the two take full advantage of the surrounding mountains as their playground. Pietro’s father Giovanni, when he gets away from the office takes, the boys on hikes up to mountain peaks. This is special for Bruno because his father is always away on construction jobs. The next summer Pietro’s parent propose that Bruno live with them and attend school in the city. Bruno’s dad objects and takes his son on his jobs. In their 30s the friends reunite. Pietro’s father has died. While Pietro had become estranged from Giovanni Bruno has treated him as a surrogate father. And Giovanni had a wish to build a cottage in the mountains. Bruno, now a good construction worker, intends to fill that wish. Pietro helps. That rekindles their friendship and there is a great deal of movie left. Bruno knows who he is – a mountain man, though that has problems. Pietro hasn’t figured out who he is and what he wants, a different kind of problem. The friendship, with bumps, endures. One reviewer said friendship between men is rarely portrayed in film. This is quite different from the well-known buddy movies. And it is so rare the reviewer said all teenage boys should see it. This is a good one. In addition to the story there is a great deal of spectacular mountain scenery. The title doesn’t refer to the Alps around the village. Rather it comes from Nepal, which Pietro visits. That folk tale says there are eight mountains and eight seas in the world. Then it asks is it better to visit all eight mountains or is it enough to visit the biggest one? I’ve got a few articles open in browser tabs to document the latest ways the far right members of the House are forcing a shutdown and Speaker McCarthy seems to not have enough power – or spine – to prevent that from happening. When we last had lunch together, almost two weeks ago, my friend and debate partner was sure McCarthy would prevent a shutdown. I was quite skeptical and my posts (and open browser tabs) reinforced my belief. So I’ll say right here my friend was right. And I’m glad he was right. As reported in an Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos about noon yesterday McCarthy found some spine. He decided to be the adult in the Republican caucus and put country ahead of party(!). He crafted a spending deal with Democrats to keep the government functioning for another 45 days (extra money for FEMA is there but, alas, money for Ukraine isn’t). Joan McCarter of Kos liveblogged about what happened after that AP article was posted. Most of it is a series of updates, so perhaps read from the bottom up. The major points: Hakeem Jeffries slammed McCarthy for dumping the bill on them with minutes to evaluate it (and scan it for Republican gotchas – like a pay raise). Even so Democrats saved McCarthy’s butt and approved it 335-91. That includes 90 Republicans voting against it, a far larger group than the Freedom Caucus. Many more Democrats – 209, nearly all of them – than Republicans voted for it. Because Democrats wanted to actually read what they were voting for, McCarthy complained about them stalling. Such thanks for saving his butt. Senators got a bit cranky over other delays, a few missing their last flight home. But the delay was a good one – Michael Bennet (D-CO) wanted to get promises from leadership – though mostly from Moscow Mitch – to hold a separate vote on Ukraine funding. The Senate passed it 88-9 just three hours before the deadline. And we get to do this all over again in 45 days. How that plays out depends on depends on, as reported in another AP article, whether Matt Gaetz’ threat to call a vote to oust McCarthy turns into action, and whether that can actually remove him. At the moment McCarthy’s response is: “So be it. Bring it on. Let’s get over with it and let’s start governing.”