In Matt Damon’s new Netflix thriller, “The Rip,” a bunch of cops and crooks fight over a $20 million cash stash.

Making the movie required fighting for an even more precious commodity: the viewer’s ever-dwindling attention span.

‘It wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times.’

Appearing with long-time friend and co-star Ben Affleck on the “Joe Rogan Experience” last week, Damon revealed what his first collaboration with a streamer taught him about the new economics of the movie biz — and how it affects storytelling.

Dumbed down

Damon said that the “different level of attention” audiences are giving at home has started to affect how films are being made.

“Like, for instance, Netflix. The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third,” Damon began.

“You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your kind of finale. And now they’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay tuned in,'” he continued.

Furthermore, the filmmaker explained that the reason dialogue has become simple and repetitive, in many cases, is that people are splitting their attention.

“‘It wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching,'” Damon laughed, relaying notes he might receive from the platform.

RELATED: Is real-life ‘Star Wars’ America’s manifest destiny?

‘Casual’ vacancy

These types of notes and guidelines could really “infringe” on how writers are telling their stories, Damon stressed.

This theory of “casual viewing” was popularized and widely discussed in 2025, with outlet CBR calling it a style of filmmaking that is “overly descriptive, breaking basic rules of cinema and contributing to a dumbing down of the art.”

Affleck cited British crime drama “Adolescence” as a show that “didn’t do any of that s**t,” and that’s what made it “f**king great,” he added.

“There’s long shots of the back of their head. They get in the car, nobody says anything. … My feeling is just that it demonstrates that you don’t need to do any of that s**t,” Affleck said.

RELATED: Almost half of Gen Z wants AI to run the government. You should be terrified.

Photo by Arturo Holmes/WireImage

Du cinéma au smartphone

Affleck’s clear position when it comes to filmmaking and technology throughout the episode was that there will always be an audience for quality films.

“It’s like supply and demand,” he said. “People want to look at their phone, they can look at TikTok, they’re going to do that. I think what you can do is make s**t the best you can. Make it really good.”

When it comes to making movies for mobile viewers, Damon joked that he likes to rile up directors that he works with by asking them if they are thinking about how their film will look on a cell phone.

“That’s a joke that I like to make with every director I work with. Like, when they’re really puzzling over a shot or really grinding out something, I go, ‘You know, it’s not going to look as good on the phone.’ … Everyone gets angry.”

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​Movies, Film, Align, Matt damon, Netflix, Retention, Cell phones, Tiktok, Attention span, Entertainment 

A 35-year-old Indian student says he was told that curry stinks, but sandwiches do not.

Aditya Prakash and his fiancée, Urmi Bhattacheryya, won a settlement of $200,000 from the University of Colorado Boulder in a story dripping with progressivism.

‘My food is my pride, and notions about what smells good or bad to someone are culturally determined.’

The BBC described the ordeal as a case of “food racism” while outlet Indian Express said Prakash was the “target of racism” over his microwaved food.

Ate crime

The couple reportedly claimed they faced a series of “microaggressions and retaliatory actions” after a staff member at the university — who was British, according to the BBC — complained about the “smell” of the food Prakash had in the microwave.

The staffer allegedly said the food was giving off a “pungent” odor and informed Prakash there was a rule against heating foods that have strong odors. Prakash reportedly claimed there was no such rule publicly stated and said, “It’s just food. I’m heating and leaving.”

The Indian also said he later inquired what foods were considered pungent. He was allegedly told that smelly foods included curry but not sandwiches.

In a pickle

The couple claimed they soon lost their research funding and teaching roles, and a lawsuit followed. Prakash claimed it was not about money, though.

“It was about making a point — that there are consequences to discriminating against Indians for their ‘Indianness,'” he said.

RELATED: Illegal alien truckers with California licenses accused of hauling $7M in cocaine across state lines

Photo by John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images

Prakash also claimed he was a victim of “systemic racism” because his department “refused to grant” his Master’s degree.

“That’s when we decided to seek legal recourse,” he said.

The May 2025 lawsuit alleged discriminatory treatment and a “pattern of escalating retaliation” but was settled with the university that September. The terms reportedly include giving the students their degrees while denying all liabilities and banning them from studying or working at the school in the future.

Paneer miss

The dish at the center of the controversy is called palak paneer, which, according to cooking website Hooked on Heat, contains some strong ingredients.

The main parts of the dish include spinach and paneer, a soft white cheese considered to be the Indian version of cottage cheese. Also added to the dish are onion, ginger, garlic, chili powder, garam masala (Indian spices), and more.

Prakash reportedly argued that his food only stinks according to some people.

“My food is my pride, and notions about what smells good or bad to someone are culturally determined,” he posited.

Cruciferous context

A counterargument he allegedly faced was that even broccoli is not allowed to be heated because of its odor, but Prakash claimed that “context matters,” before adding, “How many groups of people do you know who face racism because they eat broccoli?”

His fiancée says that President Trump’s re-election has caused a “narrowing of empathy” toward foreigners.

“Institutions talk a lot about inclusion, but there is less patience for discomfort, especially if that discomfort comes from immigrants or people of colour,” she claimed.

RELATED: Young white Americans want their own identity politics now — and conservatives shouldn’t be surprised

Currying favor

The university told BBC that while it cannot comment on the specifics of the claims due to privacy laws, it is “committed to fostering an inclusive environment for all students, faculty and staff regardless of national origin, religion, culture and other classes protected under U.S. laws and by university policies.”

“When these allegations arose in 2023, we took them seriously and adhered to established, robust processes to address them, as we do with all claims of discrimination and harassment,” the school continued. “We reached an agreement with the students in September [2025] and deny any liability in this case.”

The couple has reportedly not since returned to the United States, with Prakash saying he is willing to start over.

“If this case can send out a message that this (‘food racism’) cannot be practiced with impunity, that we, as Indians, will fight back, that would be the real victory,” he said, per Indian Express.

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​Align, Indian, India, Racism, Woke, University, Colorado, Lifestyle 

Liberals are incredibly excited about a recent study that accuses American-born U.S. citizens of committing more crimes than illegal immigrants — but BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales thinks they’re getting a little ahead of themselves.

“First of all, actually, 100% of them, if they’re here illegally, 100% of them are criminals already. But I digress,” Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“This is a talking point that they keep putting out there intentionally,” she adds, before playing clips of several prominent liberals, like Sunny Hostin from “The View,” making this claim.

In one clip, Hostin happily repeats the line, saying, “Undocumented immigrants are much less likely to have committed crimes than American citizens. American citizens commit more crimes than anyone who is undocumented.”

As she finishes her sentence, the crowd erupts in applause.

“Use your brains,” Gonzales scoffs.

The study these liberals are citing is from Northwestern and reads, “Using incarceration rates as a proxy for crime, a team of economists analyzed 150 years of U.S. Census data and found immigrants were consistently less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the U.S. They also found beginning in 1960, the incarceration gap widened such that immigrants today are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than the U.S.-born.”

“Let’s say it’s 1% of these people committing more crime than they already committed when they entered here illegally. Who cares if it’s 1%? It’s crime that we don’t need to have. But, like, when you start looking at their argument, it completely falls apart. We’re not under an obligation to take in any criminals,” Gonzales comments.

“Just let them flood in en masse because a Northwestern study said that they commit less crime,” she mocks.

“It’s so stupid,” she continues. “But this is the kind of thing that the mainstream media and all of these leftist hacks keep pushing. ‘Well, but like, only some of them are criminals.’”

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​Video phone, Free, Camera phone, Video, Sharing, Upload, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Illegal immigration, American citizens, Illegal immigrants, Immigration crisis, Sunny hostin, The view, Lefitsts, Left-wing media 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other law enforcement officers have been facing interference from the public, especially since the January 7 death of Renee Good after she nearly ran over an ICE officer with her vehicle during an immigration operation.

Not to be outdone with their spread of chaos and confusion, leftists have now apparently expanded their targets to non-ICE operations and putting other police investigations in jeopardy.

‘Deranged liberals are interrupting non-ICE police actions because Democratic leaders have whipped them into a frenzy.’

On Wednesday, the Brewer Police Department in Maine reported an incident in which a woman allegedly interfered with a police investigation into a threat at a school — an investigation that had nothing to do with immigration operations.

The investigation involved a threat involving a person of interest who “had communicated an intent to kill school staff and others.”

RELATED: More UNHINGED anti-ICE extremist footage: ‘I am a liberal, leftist, pagan, lesbian, transgender woman, and witch!’

Staff photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

According to the police department’s Facebook post, officers staged a meet-up at a residence to “safely contact the person of interest.”

However, “at approximately 8:16 a.m.,” an activist began interfering in the attempt to contact the person of interest, police claimed. She allegedly repeatedly sounded an air horn, refused lawful orders to leave, yelled expletives at the officers, and shouted that she “didn’t want ICE” in her neighborhood.

“Her actions interfered with legitimate law enforcement operations and created a real risk to the investigating officers,” the statement said.

Investigators later found that the person of interest was not responsible for the threats and that multiple schools had “received similar threats that morning, consistent with ‘swatting’ incidents.”

The Maine Wire’s Steve Robinson slammed the incident on X: “Deranged liberals are interrupting non-ICE police actions because Democratic leaders have whipped them into a frenzy. Today it was an unidentified white female using an air horn to disrupt an investigation into threats against a school.”

“When will these agitators get charged?” Robinson added.

In an update to the Brewer Police Department’s Facebook post, the woman suspected of interfering with the operation was identified as Mary Conmee, 63, of Orrington, a town just a few miles southwest of Brewer.

Conmee has been summonsed for the offenses of disorderly conduct and obstructing government administration.

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​Politics, Renee good, Brewer, Brewer maine, Brewer police department, Ice, Immigration and customs enforcement, Steve robinson, Maine wire, Mary conmee, Ice agitators, Police investigation 

An official of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration explained how they successfully performed a medical evacuation from space for the first time in space operations history.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman gave as many details as he could about the incident while being interviewed by Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on Wednesday.

‘It was a very serious situation, something we had not seen before in space.’

Four astronauts returned to Earth on Thursday, including the ailing member of the crew. They splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.

Isaacman touted the extraordinary training that U.S. astronauts undergo while offering some details about the historic incident.

“One of the greatest accomplishments that we’ve done at the International Space Station is the continuous human presence in space over a quarter of a century,” he told Beck.

He went on to say that the environment in space is extremely harsh on the human body and requires many safety precautions.

“This is why we do extensive training. Our astronauts are practically physicians; in fact, many of them are,” he explained.

“Everyone did an extraordinary job,” Isaacman said of the “unexpected health-related” incident.

“The Crew 11 astronauts, their other expedition mates on the International Space Station, the flight surgeons in mission control, they all responded accordingly. The incident was stabilized very quickly,” he added.

Isaacman was restricted by medical privacy rules from offering specific details on the incident.

“Clearly, it was a very serious situation, something we had not seen before in space but had accounted for the possibility. And that is why we put in motion the option to bring our astronauts home early, which I think really speaks to American leadership in space,” he continued.

RELATED: Director of Glenn Beck’s disaster response charity undermines Democrat attack on Trump admin’s response to Texas flood

“We can send our astronauts up more or less on command, which is what we’re going to do with Crew 12, is pull their mission forward,” Isaacman added. “And we can bring our astronauts home as required. And this is very important to President Trump and obviously his position on American supremacy in space.”

The four astronauts were transported to a medical facility in San Diego by NASA.

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​First ever medical evacuation from space, Nasa administrator jared isaacman, Glenn beck interview, Mystery space evacuation, Politics 

In his final hours as New Jersey governor, Democrat Phil Murphy issued 97 pardons and 51 commutations.

Among Murphy’s more controversial recipients of clemency was Harris Jacobs, the killer son of Democratic fundraiser and Atlantic City powerbroker Joe Jacobs. Jacobs is a friend of Murphy who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the failed 2024 Senate campaign of the then-governor’s wife, Tammy Murphy.

‘When politics pervades justice, the rule of law becomes subordinate to influence and power.’

Orlando Fraga — a Cuban who moved to the United States in 1980 in pursuit of a better life — was fatally struck by a vehicle when walking along Atlantic Avenue on Sept. 4, 2022.

Harris Jacobs knew he had struck Fraga. Jacobs reportedly can be seen in surveillance footage pulling into a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, then repeatedly inspecting his bloody victim before fleeing the scene.

Jacobs’ defense attorney Lou Barbone suggested to WCAU-TV that the recognition that Fraga “had expired” was “simply too much of an emotional trigger” for his client to stick around and face the music.

RELATED: ‘This is First Amendment activity’: Democrats give church-storming mobs their stamp of approval

Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Prosecutors noted during Harris’ first trial that between the time of the hit-and-run and Harris’ arrest, the killer had called his father 10 times after the crash but not the police.

Although jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision last May in Harris’ first trial, they reached a verdict on Tuesday, finding the 28-year-old guilty of second-degree knowingly leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident, reported WCAU. The conviction would have carried a sentence of five to 10 years.

Barbone revealed that his client knew in advance that the jury’s efforts to mete out justice were in vain.

“My client received a call from the governor’s counsel at 7:30 a.m.,” Barbone told BreakingAC. “The pardon was issued but not in our possession. We know it was issued before the verdict.”

Barbone indicated he is filing a motion to vacate the conviction on the basis that the pardon was granted prior to the jury’s verdict.

Murphy claimed that “each pardon and commutation represents a story of accountability, growth, and redemption.”

“By offering second chances to individuals who have demonstrated rehabilitation and a commitment to their communities, we have strengthened not only individual lives, but our entire state,” added Murphy.

A spokesperson for the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office told WCAU, “Unfortunately, when politics pervades justice, the rule of law becomes subordinate to influence and power. … A conviction can be rendered meaningless not by the verdict of a jury, but by the intervention of political power and connections.”

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​Crime, Hit and run, Harris jacobs, Phil murphy, New jersey, Atlantic city, Orlando fraga, Killer, Democrat, Pardon, Clemency, Joe jacobs, Politics 

The mullahs of Iran have resumed the familiar work of slaughtering their own people. (Again!) The United States can respond without firing a shot — and without waiting months for a traditional embargo to bite.

It can impose an electronic embargo.

An electro-embargo could do something sanctions often cannot: break the regime’s control quickly enough to matter while the killing is still underway.

Washington could pursue this approach unilaterally, or it could press the United Nations to authorize it under Article 41 of the U.N. Charter, which empowers the Security Council to order measures “not involving the use of armed force,” including the partial or complete interruption of “postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication.” The text already exists.

The question is whether anyone has the imagination — and the nerve — to use it.

The electronic advantage

In the context of Iran’s continuing humanitarian emergency, the United States, with a bit of diplomatic legerdemain from Ambassador to the U.N. Michael Waltz, could challenge the Security Council to act. China and Russia sit on the council. They will posture. They will threaten vetoes. But even a public debate would force them to explain why the world should tolerate a regime that murders civilian protesters in the streets.

If the Security Council approves an Article 41 action, the United States could then present its combatant commanders with something Iran has never faced at scale: an embargo not on goods but on electrons.

Physical embargoes remain a standard tool of statecraft. They also take time. Iran can evade, reroute, smuggle, barter, and stall. An electronic embargo moves at the speed of light.

Target Iran’s hardline regime — not the Iranian people — by degrading the communications infrastructure that allows the government to command and control its security forces and manage the extraction and export of oil, its primary source of hard currency.

Strike the regime’s hardened telephone and cellular systems, satellite communications, and broadcast television.

Cripple the internal nervous system that keeps the state coordinated, disciplined, and armed.

The effect would be immediate. A regime that cannot communicate cannot coordinate raids, deploy forces efficiently, jam dissident signals, or maintain operational tempo. It cannot manage a modern oil export apparatus without functioning networks. It cannot run a crackdown in real time if it loses the ability to issue orders and track compliance.

The ‘Venezuelan formula’

Just as important, an electronic embargo could reverse the regime’s favorite trick: cutting the Iranian people off from each other and from the outside world. Tehran has already tried to block the internet and throttle social media. A targeted electronic campaign could negate that control and unleash an information tsunami — one the mullahs cannot shape, censor, or contain.

That shift matters. When citizens can communicate, organize, document, and broadcast, repression becomes harder and riskier. The regime loses its monopoly on narrative. Fear starts to spread in the other direction.

RELATED: Memo to Hegseth: Our military’s problem isn’t only fitness. It’s bad education.

erhui1979 via iStock/Getty Images

One can imagine a greatly expanded “Venezuelan formula”: degrade internal communications, then use broadcast means to confuse and complicate the regime’s grip on what is happening — while simultaneously encouraging the population to resist theocratic authority. The goal would not be spectacle. The goal would be collapse: the steady unraveling of the regime’s confidence, coherence, and control.

In this mode, a combatant commander could employ SOFTWAR principles to engage and degrade the mullahs through coordinated, non-kinetic lines of operation. Properly executed, such a campaign would affect nearly every aspect of Iranian society — and it would do so without turning Iranian cities into ruins.

A greater strategic payoff: China

The strategic payoff for the United States extends beyond moral clarity. It comes down to oil — and to China.

The recent decapitation of the Maduro junta in Venezuela proved a point many analysts ignore. The key factor is not the quantity of oil in a given country. It is control of the flow of oil. Energy states matter because they can fuel, fund, and sustain adversaries.

If the mullahs fall, China loses a major energy supplier at a moment when it can least afford disruption. Beijing’s ambitions depend on stable inputs. Xi Jinping’s dream of Chinese communist hegemony runs on energy. Remove an important provider, and you squeeze China’s strategic bandwidth — again.

That result alone justifies exploring an electronic embargo.

This is not a call for war. It is a call to use power creatively, within the bounds of international law when possible, and in defense of a population being beaten, shot, and silenced by its rulers.

The mullahs survive by controlling the physical streets and the electronic space above them. Take away the second, and the first becomes harder to hold.

An electro-embargo would not solve every problem. But it could do something sanctions often cannot: break the regime’s control quickly enough to matter while the killing is still underway.

​Opinion & analysis, Iran, Donald trump, United nations, Un charter article 41, Electronic embargo, Softwar, Sanctions, Information warfare, Mullahs, Ayatollah, Theocracy, America first, China, Xi jinping, Revolution, Radio, Television, Internet, Venezuela, Nicolas maduro 

Last weekend, on Sunday, January 18, a group of roughly 40 anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters entered Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, during a morning worship service. They chanted “ICE out!” and demanded justice for Renee Good — the woman lethally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7 after she hit him with her vehicle while obstructing a federal immigration operation. The protesters targeted this particular church because one of its pastors, David Easterwood, is also the acting field director for the local ICE office.

The disruption deeply upset congregants and scared young children, resulting in multiple 911 calls. The U.S. Department of Justice is now investigating the incident for possible civil rights violations of the FACE Act, which makes it a federal crime to use force, the threat of force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, or interfere with someone exercising or seeking to exercise their First Amendment right to religious freedom at a place of worship.

When BlazeTV host Steve Deace saw the video footage of the protest, he was enraged — not just with the protesters themselves but with the congregation’s weak response.

On this episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace delivers a scathing critique of feeble churches and calls them to implement a four-step plan immediately to protect themselves from leftist revolutionaries.

For years now, Deace has been warning that if conservatives fail to develop a “mutually assured destruction deterrent” to defend themselves against the violent left, they will surely be wiped out.

“There is no trend line I am more concerned about in terms of where we are as a society than this one,” he says. “This is human nature 101: Whatever bad behavior you do not punish, you will get more of, and it will escalate, and it will get worse.”

For far too long, however, leftists’ growing extremism and violence have gone largely unchallenged, which only bolsters their confidence in continuing to push the line.

Comparing the left to a swarm of locusts, Deace says that “now that they have consumed every social institution … and civic institution that [matters], they will now go after the sacred ones,” which has always been the left’s “endgame.”

This is exactly what Satan wants, Deace says.

“He looks to our enemies on the left and says, ‘There’s no one here to stop you. You have no resistance. Do whatever you want. Fly every freak flag you have. Shove it right down their throats. No resistance. In fact, you are the resistance.”’

“And then he says to us, ‘Oh, look the people you vote for, look at what cowards they are. Look how treacherous and feckless they are. No one is coming to save you. When’s the shooting start?”’

And then Satan will revel in “the carnage of a once-great civilization.”

Deace warns that the clock to collapse is ticking — and Millennials and Zoomers will pay the highest price if older generations fail to “bring the sword of righteousness and be avenging angels against evildoers.”

What happened at Cities Church in St. Paul last weekend is evidence that our time is almost up. If we fail to act boldly now, the left will cross more lines until there are none left to cross.

“If they now feel emboldened to go into your churches, there’s nowhere they don’t feel emboldened, including your homes, and that will be next,” says Deace.

“So then what is a proper biblical response to [what happened in Cities Church]?” he asks.

“Number one: You need to teach people from the pulpit what power under control looks like — what Romans 13 really means. They have to be equipped with this in their hearts and minds, or they won’t act on it properly. We are not a rival lynch mob. … We’re not pushovers though either.”

“Number two: There should always be numerous armed men in the church every Sunday — numerous. There should be a sign posted outside: ‘There are men in this church who are weapons-trained, and if threatened, this congregation will use them.”’

“Number three: The men make a defensive posture between the radicals, the rioters, the criminals, the ne’er-do-wells, the knuckle-draggers, the shooters, and the women and children. And while doing so, the men make it known, ‘You are running out of time before we will act offensively.”’

Number four: “If that doesn’t work, you act — act!” Deace shouts.

“You have rights. You are an American. Paul used his rights as a Roman citizen. Use yours. That’s your land. Those are your loved ones. Those are your freedoms, your liberties. You have every right to defend them. In fact, I would argue you have a mandate to.”

To hear more of Deace’s fiery monologue, watch the video above.

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​Steve deace, Steve deace show, Minneosta, Anti-ice, Minnesota church protest, Anti ice protests, Renee good, Blazetv, Blaze media, Christianity, Weak pastors, Weak churches, Face act, Ice, Immigration, St. paul minnesota, Cities church