Tuesday TV Touchbase: Law & Order and Our Flag Means Death

 Hello and welcome to I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You, a Downton Abbey blog bobbing along on the waves of a Top Gun internet.

I'm Dave-El,  he who is trapped in a world he is not designed to cope with. And for a the last few days, my poor coping skills were at a particularly low ebb. I wish I could be dramatic and plead something big ("Egads! I had COVID!") but no, I was brought low by the most common virulency of the common cold.

I have never denied it before and I will not now: I am a total wuss.

Hence no blog posts. So my apologies to my readers, all two of you as well as the Russian bots that periodically monitor this space.

OK, it's Tuesday. Let's talk TV.   

Law & Order finished off it's 21st season and the first season of it's revival. As I wrote here before, L&O did not get off to a great start with a poor conceived story and a cast that included what I described as the worst character not just in the history of Law & Order but in all of television, detective Frank Cosgrove, a blunt and crude representation of the political right.  

As much as I despise Cosgrove, the real weak link of the revived L&O is Nolan Price, the Executive Assistant District Attorney. He seriously lacks the intensity of previous Exec ADA's like Ben Stone, Jack McCoy and Michael Cutter.  Price seems uncertain of his own convictions as he seeks convictions of the accused.   

L&O has been renewed for a 22nd season but one cast member is not returning. Anthony Anderson as Detective Bernard is not returning for another season.  Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy is also still up in the air for coming back another season. 

And my returning to watch one more season of this revived series is also up in the air.  

As much I enjoy glomming reruns of classic Law & Order, this revival of the O.G. L&O is just not working for me.  

Moving from new episodes of something has been done before, let's move on a totally original concept that is unlike anything on TV.

My daughter Randie has been bugging me to watch Our Flag Means Death. Repeatedly.

Finally, Andrea and I acquiesced to watch Our Flag Means Death and let me say how much I hate this show. 

It's a stupid pirate show about stupid pirates and I hate it that it so damn funny and worse, I hate that I give a damn and care about these stupid pirates.  

Our Flag Means Death is set in the early 1700s during the Golden Age of Piracy, the series follows the misadventures of pirate Stede Bonnet and his crew aboard the Revenge.

Bonnet is far from the idea of who a pirate should be. Brutal, ruthless, tough are words what you would NOT use to describe Bonnet.  A fragile, sensitive person of aristocratic birth, Bonnet's story of how he finds himself on on the path of piracy unfolds in a series of flashbacks showing his humiliation at the hands of his father and his classmates and his unhappy subjugation to his own wife and children.   

Suffice to say Stede Bonnet has issues. Becoming a pirate captain is perhaps not the best way to cope with those issues.

The word "dysfunctional" can be applied not only to Bonnet but to his crew as well.   

And it applies to the infamous and most feared pirate of them all, Blackbeard, who has taken an interest in Bonnet, the self proclaimed "Gentleman Pirate".  Blackbeard, beat down by the same old same old of a pirate's life is quite intrigued by Bonnet's unique style of being a pirate. Bonnet's methods are stupid and incompetent but the outcomes are not exactly dull.   

Our Flag Means Death is at turns uproariously funny and uncannily thought provoking, often moving in unexpected directions.  

A show that makes me laugh and think? Who the hell needs that? So yeah, I hate Our Flag Means Death! 

Next week, the Tuesday TV Touchbase looks at the season 2 finale of The Flight Attendant.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here. 

Blog Bidness: Down Time

Taking a blog break.   No posts for the Memorial Day weekend.

I expect to be back by Tuesday.

The Fire This Time: Ulvalde TX

In yesterday's post, I may have used up my quota of "fucks" in a single post in my diatribe about Donald Trump coming to Greensboro NC in July. 

But I think I might need to dust off some extra "fucks" as I process my rage and grief over the latest gun violence tragedy to occur in America... again.

19 children and two teachers were killed after a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde TX on Tuesday.

<deep breath>

Fuck Fuck Fuckity Fuck Face from Fucktown, Fucktania!

FUCK! 

As President Biden more eloquently put it, “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone? It’s time to act. It’s time for those who obstruct or delay or block commonsense gun laws, to let you know: We will not forget. We can do so much more, we have to do more.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) made this impassioned please to his Republican colleagues:  “Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate ― why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority ― if your answer as the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, [is that] we do nothing? What are we doing? Why are you here, if not to solve a problem as existential as this?”

Well, per the Republicans, apparently 19 dead kids is just price we have to pay for the  right to have all the guns you want.  

“We’ve had guns forever and we’re gonna continue to have guns,” was the sage commentary Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). 

Of course, Ted Cruz rose up from whatever fetid stinking sewer he gestates in to say this:  “You know, inevitably, when there’s a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. That doesn’t work. It’s not effective. It doesn’t prevent crime.”

Allow me to take a moment to remind you of the long standing policy of I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You:

TED CRUZ IS A LYING FUCK BASTARD!

Can I get an amen, my children?

AMEN!

Thank you.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Az.) laid into Ted Cruz with this tweet:  “Fuck you @tedcruz you care about a fetus but you will let our children get slaughtered.  Just get your ass to Cancun. You are useless.”

Or to quote that notorious blogger Dave-El: 

Fuck Fuck Fuckity Fuck Face from Fucktown, Fucktania!

FUCK! 

<deep breath>

Sigh! 

So here we are again.

• A lot of people are dead. Children, for God's sake! 
• Something needs to be done.
• Republicans deeps in the pockets of the NRA will insure nothing gets done. 

Something can be done.

No other country in the world has to put with this kind of mass heinous violence of such a wide scale and with such frequency.

We don't have to live this way.

And if the Republican Party can't see reason and work towards a solution beyond their useless thoughts and prayers, we need show them the god damn door in November. 

The graphic from the home page of the Onion on Wednesday
with a headline first composed in 2018 by Jason Roeder.

Donald Trump Is Coming For A Visit

Before we get to today's pre-planned post, let's take a moment for yet another display of that uniquely American travesty, the mass shooting.

 At least 19 children and two teachers were killed after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas yesterday. 

I am outraged that this goddamn cycle of assault keeps repeating itself and children have to die for it.

I will have more to say in a future post.

______________________________

It was announced last week that Donald Trump was holding one of his circle jerk rallies here in Greensboro NC in July.

What do I think about that?

Well, fuck!

Fuck Fuck Fuckity Fuck Face from Fucktown, Fucktania!

FUCK! 

Seriously, why is this motherfucker coming to my home town?

I am under no delusions that he won't find supporters here. As much as I would like to think better of the old Gate City of North Carolina, I know those fucking morons who support this fucking asshole fucking live here and will attend his fucking rally as he spews his torrent of fucking hate, fucking lies and...

And...

FUCK!!!!

<deep breath>

Sigh!

OK, then...

Look, it's been seven years since I described Donald Trump as "The Dung Beetle of Democracy" and I'm still trying to figure out the continued hold he has on his supporters.  

His supporters praise him for his intelligence even though after seven years gone Donald Trump still rambles in a mishmash of mispronounced words and mangled syntax. And we don't know anything about his actual education because he has threatened to sue any school that releases his records. 

His supporters praise his business acumen despite a long line of failures such as Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks, Trump Casinos, Trump Vodka, Trump Mortgage, etc etc etc ad infinitum. 

His supporters praise him for his political skill but seriously, what exactly has he delivered for the Republican Party?

Let's take Georgia for example.  

Just under two years ago, Donald Trump intervened in the run off elections for the state's two Senate seats. Still smarting from Georgia's governor, secretary of state and the attorney general not acquiescing to his deranged view that the election was rigged and his victory was stolen from him, he basically ranted that the whole election process was rigged and why bother voting if your vote doesn't count.

So it was not a surprise when the Democrats won both Senate seats. Did Donald Trump care that in handing Georgia's two Senate seats to the Democrats, he also enabled the Democrats to take control of the Senate.

Donald Trump did not give one single damn about the Republican Party. All that mattered was his own selfish insistence on promulgating his big "the election was rigged and stolen" lie because being a loser hurts his feelings.

A couple of years later and he's still at, seeking to hurt the Republican Party's chances in Georgia in deference to his own selfish needs. 

Trump endorsed candidates against Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr in the state's Republican primary as revenge against them for certifying the results of the 2020 election.  The only attribute the candidates Trump has endorsed is their willingness to adhere to the big lie that the election was rigged and Trump's victory was stolen. 

The likelihood is that come to the general election, the Democratic challengers for these three positions are likely to win against either Trump's weaker slate of candidates or the surviving incumbents undercut with the Trump faithful to not reward those who failed their lord and master.  

Now get a load of this guy, Dave Slade, a 73-year-old retired Delta Air Lines pilot.“I like Trump. I’m a Trump supporter. But he’s got to give up his vendetta against Kemp. I think Trump is blowing it.”

If you think Trump's vendetta against Kemp is a mistake, please remember the guy you profess to like and support is just being himself and doing what he always and consistently does: putting his own selfish needs and desires above others. 

James Gisonna, a Republican Party chairperson in Hall County, said he hoped that if Kemp won the primary, Trump would back him in the general election. 

Which completely ignores Trump’s history of putting his grievances ahead of the interests of the party. Even to the point of preferring Democrat Stacey Abrams to Brian Kemp? Surely he wouldn't do that! 

He already did do that. On June 27, 2021, Donald Trump said this: “We might have been better if she did win for governor of Georgia, if you want to know the truth.  We might have had a better governor if she did win.”

While Trump demands total loyalty from the party to him, he has little to no inclination to give any loyalty back.

In Tuesday's primary, Brian Kemp did hold his own, winning with a overwhelming margin of victory over Trump's candidate, David Perdue, 73% to 22%.  

By the way, Chris Carr also won his race and it looks like Brad Raffensperger will win his primary election as well.

So much for Donald Trump's power and influence. And 0 for 3 whiff in Georgia is not a good look for the man whose greatest fear is looking like a loser. 

Still I expect many in the party will continue to suck up to Trump for the benevolence of his endorsement, still thinking he wields considerable power and influence.   

 Will Trump's devotion to his vendetta give way to helping his party hold on to the governor's mansion in Georgia? Based on everything Trump has ever done and said, we can expect his quest for revenge against Brian Kemp will continue. 

Trump's loyalty to his own personal needs and desires will win out over any loyalty to his followers. Even as he fully expects and demands loyalty from them. 

And they will supplicate themselves to him when he comes to Greensboro in July.

And my thoughts on that?

Well, fuck!

Fuck Fuck Fuckity Fuck Face from Fucktown, Fucktania!

FUCK!  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Young Sheldon and Naomi

 

Andrea and I watched the end of season 1 of Naomi.

It turns it was the end of season only for Naomi.

In a way, it's almost a relief. I really wanted to like this show. But the pacing was glacial, dragging out the development of Naomi McDuffie's character and unravelling the mysteries around her origin and her super powers. 

Naomi kind of fell into a tired repetition.

• Naomi: "I want answers!"  
• Some other character: "You're not ready!"

Next episode: 

• Naomi: "I want answers!"  
• Some other character: "You're not ready!"

Next episode: 

• Naomi: "I want answers!"  
• Some other character: "You're not ready!"

Sometimes they would shake things up a bit.

• Some character talking about Naomi: "Naomi needs answers!"  
• Some other character: "She's not ready!"

We even got this gem in episode 12:

• Some other character: "It's time to face your destiny!"
• Naomi: "But I'm not ready!"

Aw, dammit girl! 

The teens on this show talked funny to me. I'm not sure if teenagers really talk that way and I'm too old to get it or no, kids really don't talk that way. 

Naomi finally gets some answers: she's from Earth 29 which was devastated by some evil force named Brutus who is coming for Naomi...  very slowly, it seems. 

Naomi the character was very interesting but too much time was spent playing keep away with answers which bogged the show down and made it a drag to stay awake for.  

I suppose if Naomi had been renewed for a 2nd season, I'm not sure I would've stuck around. Pacing issues aside, I'm not saying it's a bad show. I just don't think it was made for me and I doubt I would've come back to watch a 2nd season. 

Well, maybe to find out what's up with her adoptive parents and the last second reveal that they didn't save Naomi as a baby when her birth parents were killed. No, the stole Naomi as a baby, killing her birth parents along the way. 

Well, that some serious shit to drop on us at the end of the final episode.  

And now with no option to resolve what that all means. 

At least in the final scene, Naomi finally learns how to fly. 

Reaching it's season finale last week was Young Sheldon which is renewed for next season. 

Damn, do we really want to do go there? The Cooper family is in some serious shit now.    

The downward spiral continues for patriarch George Cooper as laid out for us in The Big Bang Theory. Already feeling trapped and dissatisfied with where life has led him, even that is now under attack. He's out as coach of the Medford High football team. And he's at odds with wife Mary on what to do about Georgie.

Their 17 year old son has gotten his 29 year old girlfriend pregnant.  Mary's knee jerk reaction is the two need to get married and the baby's going to be raised Baptist.

George is not on board with that because Georgie's 17 years old, he's an idiot and...  and some other third thing that the senior Cooper would just as soon not give voice to.

That George got married to Mary because she was pregnant and they had to. 

Meanwhile, judgmental alleged Christian Mary is getting a taste of her own damn medicine, ostracized by the other judgmental alleged Christians of her church over Georgie's indiscretion and let go from her job at the church office by Pastor Jeff who is being quite a dick about this.  

Remember how in  The Big Bang Theory it was revealed that George Cooper Sr cheated on his wife? Well, that may not be the only potential marital infidelity going on with the very obvious to everyone attraction going on between Mary and Youth Pastor Rob.  

Man, I'm going on a lot about George and Mary Cooper. For a show called Young Sheldon, where is young Sheldon in all this?

It does seem that sometimes Sheldon gets sidelined in the show bearing his name. Being at college frequently puts Sheldon out of the orbit of his family.  

But the shenanigans brought on by Georgie getting his girlfriend pregnant can't help but intrude on Sheldon's awareness and cause some distractions in his school work. 

And then there is the monster called puberty.  It was going to happen sooner or later, no matter how much Sheldon willed it not to happen. (And certainly with Iain Armitage now almost as tall as the adults in the cast now.) And the end of the season, Sheldon embraces the changes that are to come by buying his  first Flash graphic tee-shirt.

By the way, there's a cool bit form the season finale where 

Iain plays versions of George, Mary, Georgie and his Mee Maw.  Check out the video below starting at the 3:11 mark.   

While there is certainly some funny stuff still going on in this show, Young Sheldon has morphed into more of a dramedy as the Cooper family spirals further into disintegration. Heading into next season, we can fully expect an even bumpier road ahead for everyone.  

OK, that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Next week, the original Law & Order reaches the end of it's first revival season and we take a look at Our Flag Means Death.

No, I did not see that one coming.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here. 

Corey Marion

Under the heading of "the wrong people keep dying", I found out that Corey Marion has died.

Corey was a guy I knew from church. We sang in the choir together. He had a great singing voice and having him sing next to me help me find my notes.  

Corey was a friend to me when I needed one. We went out to dinner a few times, just the two of us, just talking about life and stuff. He was a bit of a nerd so we could talk about Marvel movies, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars and more. 

We hadn't done that for a few years. Some shit got in the way. My fall and stroke in 2017 got in the way then his diagnosis of cancer after that. The COVID 19 pandemic fucked up things as well.

But the blunt truth was I let time get away from me and I didn't stay in touch as well as I should have.

Corey was a better friend to me than I ever was to him. 

Which has frequently been the way in most of my relationships.

As I write this, trying to process the cruel and almost unfathomable information that Corey Marion is no longer living in this world, I find myself wondering about the inequities of the world.

Why is a good man like Corey Marion dead?

Why are so many men who are not good still drawing breath in this world?

Corey was a good man who genuinely loved his wife, his children. He loved what he did for a living and he loved his hobbies of building Star Wars models and his passion for classic cars and his N C State Wolfpack football and basketball teams. 

Corey Marion is gone and I am not all right with that.

I do not expect I will ever be all right with that. 

We Won't Have Madison Cawthorn To Kick Around Anymore

Watching the Republican Party in it's race to the bottom, I have felt some relief that certain really profound idiots were not my problem.

• Marjorie Taylor Greene? Well, thank God I don't live in Georgia. 
• Lauren Boebert? Well, thank God I don't live in Colorado. 
• Ron Johnson? Well, thank God I don't live in Ohio. 
• Elise Stefanik?  Well, thank God I don't live in New York state. 
• Madison Cawthorn? Well, thank---oh fuck! I do live in North Carolina! 

In the Republican Party race to the bottom, Madison Cawthorn had his foot on the gas.

• Cawthorn was stopped on two separate occasions  trying to bring a gun onto a plane. 
• There are calls to investigate if Cawthorn is involved in an insider trading scheme.  
• Multiple women have accused him of sexual harassment.
• He accused Nancy Pelosi of being an alcoholic even though she doesn't drink.
• He called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug.”
• He claimed his colleagues take cocaine and hold orgies.

That last one really got the Republicans all stirred up in a tizzy. Everyone knows no Democrats were talking to this fucking idiot which means by default the only people talking to him were Republicans and that means it was Republicans inviting him over for sex and drugs.

Apparently the wives of Republican congressmen were all freaked out about these cocaine sex parties.

Ted Cruz was upset because he was never invited to the cocaine sex parties.  

Cawthorn later copped to Kevin McCarthy that it was all just bullshit.   

And speaking of bullshit, the voters in Cawthorn's district had enough of his and voted him out in last week's Republican primary in the 11th Congressional District.

An incumbent losing in their primary election is virtually unheard of.  This is how bad a fuck up Madison Cawthorn is to accomplish just that, losing to  N.C. state Sen. Chuck Edwards.

Cawthorn's loss came about because the Republican Party decided this fucker had to go.

Which means the Republican Party...

1) can recognize stupidity, 

2) knows crazy when they see it, 

3) and can do something about it.

Except when they don't. 

Yeah, I'm talking about Donald Trump.

Bad news, everyone. Trump post coming up later this week.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of Madison reacting to his election defeat.

Cinema Sunday: Airheads

In a world of streaming platforms that provide the option of watching whatever you want to watch whenever you want to watch it, the idea of cable movie channels programming their schedule throughout the day is intriguing to me.  

For example, a couple of weeks ago someone at HBO thought that at one given random Friday morning at 9 AM, someone might want to watch Airheads.  

I can't say I wanted to watch it but I had the day off, it was there and I wound up watching Airheads. 

From 1994, Airheads is a comedy about how a band of loser musicians hijack a radio station to force them to play their demo tape of their totally awesome song.

In Los Angeles, Chazz, Rex, and Pip start a band called  "The Lone Rangers".  How 3 people in a group can be called "lone" anything is a constant topic of confusion and ridicule with everyone who hears the name of their band. 

Besides issues with their name, the band can't get any record producers to hear their demo tape, they decide to get local rock station KPPX to play their reel to reel tape on the air. 

They manage to sneak into the station and make it the control room where DJ Ian "The Shark" decides to chat with the boys on the air. Shark's a pretty laid back dude but station manager Milo has a major stick up his ass and keeps insulting the band.

The guys pull out guns and hold the station hostage until the stations plays their demo reel.

Spoiler: the weapons are realistic looking water guns filled with hot sauce. 

Shark plays the demo reel but the song barely gets started when the reel begins to unspool and catches fire. 

OK, Chazz's girlfriend Kayla has another copy of the song on cassette. 

Except.... Kayla is pretty mad at Chazz right now, flings the cassette out of her car into a very busy street and disappears into the LA club scene somewhere.

Outside the station, a crowd of hard rock heavy metal heads have gather to cheer on the Lone Rangers. 

And the cops have shown up. There's the hostage negotiator trying to hold shit together while reaching a peaceful solution. And there's the SWAT leader who thinks the simple solution is a barrage of heavy artillery. 

Good news! A cop finds Kayla and Kayla recovers the cassette from the busy street. But in a kerfluffle inside the station, the control board is damaged beyond use.

A record producer arrives to actually offer the boys a contract and even sets up a stage on the roof of the radio station for the boys to perform. Except it's to lip sync to their song and the guys aren't happy about that. 

That ain't rock 'n' roll, bro! 

In protest, the band wrecks their instruments and dives into the crowd of metal heads.

The movie ends with the Lone Rangers playing a gig inside the prison which is shown live on MTV. Now their manager, Ian the Shark says the Lone Rangers will start touring in six months.

Or "three months if they behave themselves".

A postscript states that The Lone Rangers served three months for kidnapping, theft, and assault with hot pepper sauce with their album LIVE IN PRISON going triple platinum.

Brendan Fraser (Chazz),  Steve Buscemi (Rex)  and Adam Sandler (Pip) head up the movie as the Long Rangers. They are not that bright (they only have 1 copy of their demo and it's on a reel) but no so stupid to be unsympathetic. Yep, they are doing stupid stuff like holding a radio station hostage but they are aware it's stupid, it's just the situation as spun out of their control and they just have to go with where that situation takes them. 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department  

Ernie Hudson from Ghostbusters is Sergeant O'Malley, the police officer trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the hostage crisis.   

Michael McKean is Milo Jackson, the smarmy station manager of KPPX who is conspiring to change the format to easy listening.  McKean was on the other side of the rock 'n' roll equation in This Is Spinal Tap. He is the duplicirous witch hunter in Good Omens.  McKean is literally "That person who was in the thing" in hundreds of movies and TV shows. 

Yep, that is Kramer from Seinfeld.Michael Richards is Doug Beech, the KPPX accountant who spend the movie scurrying around the air vents.    

Joe Mantegna is the KPPX DJ Ian "The Shark".  Mantegna starred in Criminal Minds and is the voice of mob boss Fat Tony on The Simpsons.

Nina Siemaszko as Suzzi, the KPPX receptionist, had a recurring role on The West Wing and did an episode of Tales From the Crypt I once saw. 

MTV News guy Kurt Loder appears as himself.  

Mike Judge voices Beavis and Butt-Head who call in to the radio station.

When Airheads came out in 1994, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was something of an outlier giving the film a rare positive review "Fraser and Buscemi are deadpan delights. And Sandler, Opera Man on SNL, is a red-hot screen find."

Most other reviewers of the time came to the consensus Airheads was simply not a good movie with the film making various year end worst of lists.  

I would concur that Airheads is not a good movie but then what do I know? I was watching this thing from my sofa still in my pajamas on a Friday morning and what the hell, it killed approximately 90 minutes I otherwise had not made plans for.

Songs For Saturday: Tears For Fears, R.E,M. and Crosby, Stills & Nash

And we're back for another edition of Songs For Saturday.

No theme this week. Just truly random selections of stuff I like/

First up is Tears for Fears with "Sowing the Seeds of Love".   

Up next, it's "Shiny Happy People" by R.E.M. with guest vocals by Kate Pierson of the B-52s.

R.E.M. and the B-52s came up out of the college music scene of Athens GA.

OK, I've decided we do have a theme for today: song titles that start with the letter "S". 

Up next is "Southern Cross" by Crosby, Still and Nash. 

And that is that is for this week's Songs For Saturday.

Until next time:

• still remember to be good to one another
• surely always keep the music alive
• and some other 3rd thing that begins with the letter "S".

Flashback Friday: Yes, All Of Us

 This past Saturday, a racist son of a bitch caught in a right wing  white supremacist conspiracy theory called "the great replacement" decided to take out his misguided hatred for people of color not in nasty online trolling but through the barrel of a gun.  

Sadly, we have been here before.

For example, we were here on Monday, May 26, 2014 in the aftermath of another mass shooting prompted by the ravings of small minded person with a gun. 

Flashback Friday takes us back to a post I called...

Yes, All Of Us

It is always... I'm going to say "disturbing" but it lacks the power to convey how I really feel. But for now, lacking a better word, I'll go with that.

Let's start again

It is always disturbing to me when some nut case decides to take the lives of people with the rationale of righting some perceived wrong, of meting out some perverted sense of justice, to strike back against imagined oppressors. 


Several weeks ago, an old man with a mad on at Jews decides to go to a Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement home to take out some Jews. The fact that the three people this asshole killed weren't even Jewish only served to underscore just how out of touch this moron was. But no matter the religion of the victims, in the end, three people died suddenly and violently because this brainless twit decided that his perceived problems with society could be addressed with a gun.

Another anti-Semitic nut case raised his ugly head today in Belgium when people were shot and killed at a Jewish museum.

This weekend saw a horrible outburst of violence and death in Isla Vista, CA where a guy with a gun decided to use that gun (and a knife as well) to answer the perceived menace of a specific group of people: women. Yep, this idiot's hatred was for half the planet.

Per Elliot Rodger's manifesto, "My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger," he recorded every slight, insult and humiliation  he reportedly suffered "at the hands of humanity, particularly women." By the way, Rodger had spent nearly his whole life in therapy and being treated for mental illness. Well, duh! This guy had problems, let's be clear on that. But let's be clear on this too: this guy with problems was able to LEGALLY purchase the guns he had in his possession and used in his killing spree. 


(I'm sure the NRA will point out he was also able to legally procure the knife he used to stab his roommates. I'm sure some talking dickhead on Fox News will have made that point by the time I post this.) 

The fact is, whether the issue is anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry towards gays, misogyny or any other variety of fucked up ways of thinking that exist, it is too easy for people to put their darker impulses to action. It's too fucking easy to get a gun!

The father of one of the shooting victims of Isla Vista laid it square on the line when he asked between the tears shed for his fallen son, "When will this insanity stop?"  He forcefully accused "craven politicians" giving in to the NRA of complicity in his son's death.

So far, the NRA has kept its trap shut; trust me, that will not last long. And when a voice is raised for the gun lobby, it will be a demand for the usual:

• Better enforcement of the laws we have now, we don't need new laws.
• More people should have guns to defends themselves against people like Elliot Rodger.
• Gun laws don't stop people from being shot by guns. Look at Belgium.

Hey, let's look at Belgium. Yep, Belgium...and indeed, most of Europe...have way stronger gun regulations and laws than we do in the US. And yet people in Belgium were shot. So why bother with gun laws if people are going to get killed by guns anyway? Well, that argument was, is and will always be bullshit.  Why have laws against theft if people are going to steal anyway? Why have speed limits if people are going to drive too fast anyway?

No, strong gun laws do not guarantee safety from guns. We found that out today in Belgium.  Months ago, Norway found it out the hard way. But here's the thing: these are aberrations. I imagine those hurt by the loss of those killed in gun attacks in Europe will have a chance to bury their loved ones and mourn their loss before the next set of killings occur.

Meanwhile, here in the US, while we're still reeling from the horrific deaths in Isla Vista, CA, there this headline: Twelve Shot in Less Than 10 Hours in Chicago .  Meanwhile in Myrtle Beach SC, there are 3 dead and 5 others wounded. Americans have almost no chance to contemplate the horrors of violent death in one place before we have to deal with it somewhere else. Which would make sense if we were in a war zone. But we're not, are we?

Certainly the events of Isla Vista brought home in a very disturbing (there's that word again) fashion that women in 21st century America certainly seem to be under assault, both metaphorically and literally. Some of the more heated rants in Elliot Rodger's manifesto target women with a misogynist's unfettered rage and too many women recognized this twisted view, having seen it in too many other men who may not have expressed their warped opinions of women in a volley of bullets but with the back of a hand in the bedroom or the knife to the throat in an alleyway.

And too many times of late, it seems what isn't being done by violence is being done under the cover of law. Women denied control over their own health, having to describe if a rape was truly "forcible" or "legitimate".

In response to Elliot Rodger's rant and indeed under the pressure of some many other injustices women have had to endure, #YesAllWomen began trending on Twitter. It was an outpouring of rage and frustration but not in violence or hatred but in the very civilized act of having their voices heard. 

A lot of what was posted under this hashtag was eye opening to me. No, I wasn't unaware of the things women have to put up with but it was illuminating to see just how pervasive these frustrations are.  The idea of something as mundane as riding a subway or walking to your car is fraught with a very real sense of peril on an ongoing basis is a daunting thing to contemplate. 

Of course, as with most things on the internet, the honest expressions of pain and frustrations felt by women were met by the defensive retort that "all men are not like that".  No, all men are NOT like that. Not all white people are racists. Not all straight people have anti-gay bias. But there are those who do. And in the 21st century, even if that number is barely a percentage of a percentage, that's still enough to make someone's life a living hell. Or a deliver a sudden violent end.

And when any part of our society is threatened, we are all threatened. Remember the guy who hated Jews but wound up killing non-Jews. Elliot Rodger's hatred of women took the lives of men as well as women.  In a modern world, where the hate filled thoughts of small minded people have no place, we must stand together and stand up for each other. #YesAllWomen is a vitally important outlet of expression. But what hurts any one group of people hurts us all.

Yes, All Of Us.

Dave-El
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You


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Below is a famous poem that underscores more than ever how much it is vital we look out for each other because in doing so, we act to protect ourselves. 

"First They Came for the Jews"
By Pastor Niemoller

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

More than ever, guys and gals, please be good to one another.

Doctor Who: Unexpected Returns

While the swan song for Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall is a few months away, all eyes in the Doctor Who universe are looking beyond that into next year and the much anticipated 60th anniversary special and the return of Russell T Davies as head writer and show runner.

And who else is coming back?

Would you believe...?

David Tennant and Catherine Tate?!?!?

For reals, Whovians! Not a rumor but actual confirmed fact. Both have been seen on location with the TARDIS! 

And RTD has confirmed their return as well. 

Also seen on set? Bernard Cribbins! Old Wilf himself! 

Also returning to Doctor Who?  Rachel Talalay, arguably the best damn director of Doctor Who!  

Any news on anyone new coming to the show? Yasmin Finney is joining the cast of “Doctor Who” as a character named Rose, BBC announced Monday.  

Rose? Really? You guess is as good as mine. 

Finney is a fan-favorite on the hit Netflix series “Heartstopper" which I've never heard of until now. 

So what in the holy frickin' name of Rassilon is going on here? 

The TARDIS seen on the set with David Tennant is the one from Jodie's era, with white lettering on black sign on the front. 

Also David is not wearing one of his Doctor outfits from his time on the show. Oh, it's very Doctor-ish with a suit and tie matched up to a long overcoat but it's not the blue or brown pinstripe he wore during his time on the show and the over coat is a metallic grey and not the long flowing brown one he used to favor. 

I have thoughts. 

RTD is leaning into a multi-verse thing, a visit from a Doctor and Donna who never stopped travelling together. And Yasmin Finney's Rose could be from another universe?   

Evil twin? Or the Master regenerates and decides to wear one of the Doctor's old faces? 

Here's my wildest idea: Jodie regenerates but instead of the re-set rejuventating her to her Jodie look before she regenerates into Ncuti Gatwa, the reset kicks the Doctor back to the 10th Doctor.

And as the reset settles down and the Doctor morphs back into the 11th Doctor and the 12 Doctor and back to #13 before moving on to the 14th Doctor.  

Cool idea, I think but doesn't explain what Donna is doing there. 

There is a lot of excited chatter over the future of Doctor Who. Sadly, it's not directed to the near future of what happens to the 13th Doctor this fall but what is going to happen a year after that.   

The Fire This Time: Buffalo NY

 Once again, that most American of nightmares known as a mass shooting struck once more with terrible force on Saturday at a supermarket in Buffalo NY with 10 people shot dead.  

We could stop right there and have a story of sufficient tragedy and horror for anyone with a modicum of decency to recoil in shock. 

But then we start peeling away at the particulars and it just gets worse.

The supermarket was in a predominantly black neighborhood and most of the dead victims are black.  

We know who did it: 18 year old Payton S. Gendron.

And we know why he did it because Gendron was helpful enough to spell out his motives in his 180 page manifesto that white Americans are at risk of being replaced by people of color by immigration, interracial marriage and eventually violence.  

Gendron is referencing a long simmering right wing “great replacement” conspiracy theory.  For the particulars of which, you don't have to dig deep into the dark web.  No, it's right there on national television on any given weeknight in Tucker Carlson's show.  

Gendron's manifesto references “racial replacement” and “white genocide”.  The first page of his manifesto includes a symbol known as the sonnenrad, or black sun.  This symbol was once used  by German Nazis but has been dusted off by white supremacist neo-Nazis.  

Anyone who has seen the hate filled comments on a black actor being cast as Robert April in Star Trek or a black actor as the new Doctor Who knows these small minded, hate mongering people exist. 

And tragically there are those who are prepared to express their small minded, hate mongering bigotry through the barrel of a gun.   

And where pray tell could small minded, hate mongering like Payton Gendron be getting their damnable inspiration?

The “great replacement” rhetoric has moved from extreme-right belief toward the mainstream with outright support on right-wing TV pundits like Tucker Carlson.

Carlson repeatedly warns of invasions of “illegals” and has insisted that President Joe Biden wants to “change the racial mix” of the nation.

Media Matters reported that Carlson launched a “dedicated campaign to insert the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory … into mainstream Republican discourse.”

The conspiracy has been cited as motivation in several racist mass shootings such as the murder of 20 people in an El Paso store in 2019 and the killing of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.  

About 60% of extremist murders in the U.S. between 2009 and 2019 were committed by people espousing white supremacist ideologies like the replacement theory.   

Whatever the reason, 10 people are dead in Buffalo who didn't need to be because some idiot with a gun decided to express himself with bullets. 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Star Trek: Picard and Strange New Worlds

Two Star Trek series crossed paths recently over on Paramount+, the season finale of Star Trek: Picard and the series debut of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Within the space of one night, Star Trek left me with a lot of frustration and hopeful and excited about the future.

Let's get the negative out of the way first.

Star Trek: Picard, what the hell, man? 

OK, let's concede there is the framework for a good story here.

Picard and his gang from season 1 are in the crosshairs of time travel shenanigans. Someone fucked up something in the past and the Federation is now the fascist Confederation where the only good alien is a dead alien.  

Toss in a Picard connection: the person at the center of the altered historical event is Jean-Luc's ancestor, astronaut Renee Picard. OK, we have some personal stakes.

And add Q to the mix and now we have some cosmic level stakes and we're off to the races for what I imagine would make for a very effective two, maybe three part adventure maybe?

Or we can drag this out over 10 episodes and I do mean "drrrrraaaaaaaggggg" it out.  

We spend all of episode 1 of establishing a status quo that is immediately upended by the end of the episode.

Later, rinse, repeat.

We spend all of episode 2 of establishing a status quo that is immediately upended by the end of the episode.

When Picard and the intrepid crew of the La Sirena make it back in time to 2024 in episode 3, we establish a pattern that will help keep our cast busy, busy, busy chasing their tails until the season finale when Q snaps everyone back to episode 1 and quite frankly I've lost the will to live. 

Yeah, there's some cool fan boy shit to squee over. 

The trophy skulls in "General" Picard's library connect to Deep Space Nine.

The time travel method used to get back to 2024 is the slingshot effect used by Captain Kirk's Enterprise in the original series and again in The Voyage Home.

Chris Rios telling the female doctor, "I'm from Chile. I only work in outer space" calls back to Kirk's response to Gillian's "Are you from outer space?" in The Voyage Home.

Renee Picard's alien watcher is connected to Gary Seven who was introduced in the TOS episode "Assignment Earth".  

The alien beings Gary worked for are connected to the Travellers. We met a Traveller in Star Trek: The Next Generation who buggered off with Wesley Crusher in season 7 of TNG and...

OMG!!!! Wesley Crusher shows up! 

And he's a Traveller!!!!! 

And it's so frickin' COOL!!!! 

I know that TNG fans spent an inordinate amount of time hating on Wesley Crusher so to get excited about Wesley Crusher returning seems a bit hypcritical.

But....

Oh fuck it! It's so frickin' COOL!!!! 

But damn this season was filled with such padding. 

As if having a Picard ancestor was enough of a personal stake, we spend a lot of time in Picard's head as a long buried trauma starts to poke at him.

When Jean-Luc Picard was a child, his mother was mentally ill and subsequently killed herself.

OK, I'm not saying a TV show cannot have a serious conversation on the perils of mental illness and the desperate consequences that can result if not properly treated.

But shoving this into Picard's back story contradicts so much we know about the character of Jean-Luc Picard. And this back story is heavy handed and terribly dated. The story of Jean-Luc's mother's struggle with mental illness reads like some well intentioned but poorly researched tripe someone would've written in the 1970's or something. 

Most damning of all, Picard's family history with the perils of mental illness and the desperate consequences that can result if not properly treated really doesn't impact Picard's character in the past or going forward.  This story is there to make an otherwise respectable 2 or 3 part episode fill out a 10 episode season.  

OK, let's end the Picard section of this post with some positives.

Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati rocks out loud as she merges with the Borg Queen. The evolution of Agnes to a different kind of Borg Queen is an acting tour de force. 

Brent Spiner (formerly Data) is a complete and total bastard as Dr. Adam Soong in 2024. 

Seven and Raffi finally get an onscreen kiss. Too long to get so little but hell, I'm grasping for all the positive straws I can.  

Sigh!

Let's move on to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

For so long, it seemed Star Trek was stuck in the past with prequels like Enterprise and the first 2 seasons of Discovery and it annoyed me to no end that Star Trek was not moving forward. With that in mind, you might think I wouldn't be on board with one more damn prequel.  

Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn made me change my mind about that. 

Anson Mount as Capt. Christopher Pike filling in as captain of the Discovery just.... I can't think of another way to say this so I will just say it.... charmed the hell out of me. Personable and witty but still able to channel that classic Starfleet Captain gravitas, Pike was a most impressive captain and when his time on Discover was over, I didn't want to let this captain go.

Likewise Ethan Peck absolutely nailed his turn as Spock, effectively channeling Leonard Nimoy but establishing a unique take as well.  And in her brief appearances as Pike's Number One, Rebecca Romijn veritably demanded we have more time with her. 

And a lot of other people felt that way so thus begat Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

SNW gives us an Enterprise that is sleek and modern yet also retro. And with a classic mission, the one William Shatner and Patrick Stewart intoned over the opening of TOS and TNG and now here by Anson Mount: to seek out new life, new life and strange new worlds, to boldy go where no one has gone before.

As Uhura says in response to Pike's recitation of their mission, "Cool!"

In addition to Uhura, we also have another connection to TOS, nurse Christine Chapel.  And we have a Kirk on the Enterprise but not James T. Nope, it's Jim Kirk's older  brother Sam who serves as a life sciences office.  

While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is more episodic in design from other Paramount+ Star Trek series, there is still some continuity at least in terms of character development. Pike's flash forward in Discovery Season 2 where he sees his fate of being devastated by a radiation explosion (as shown in the TOS two parter, "The Menagerie") is still messing with Pike's head a bit. 

But the main thing we get from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is that it treks among the stars and is having fun doing it. 

OK, that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Next week, we look at the season finale of Young Sheldon and what turned out to be the series finale of Naomi. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here. 

Trump Is Still A Thing

Former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory is currently running in the Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate. 

He is currently running behind in the polls because he's been labeled as a liberal.

A little background on McCrory, if you will.   

In 2016, as governor, Pat McCrory signed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act ("HB2") which prevented local governing bodies from establishing their own anti-discrimination and declared individuals may use only the restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates.

In short, McCrory was fucking over transgender people six years before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott thought it was cool to fuck over transgender people. 

Today, Pat McCrory is running in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate where is currently losing in the polls. 

Because he's too liberal?

The person McCrory is losing to is Ted Budd.

And Ted Budd has something Pat McCrory does not.

The endorsement of Donald Trump. 

McCrory has tried to position himself as a sane and rational alternative to Donald Trump and his movement.   

Which would be great if the Republican Party was actually looking for a sane and rational alternative to Donald Trump and his movement. 

Back in 2016, the Republican Party made a proverbial deal with the devil and hitched their train to Donald Trump because Trump was going to give them everything they wanted, specifically conservative judges who would rule in favor of conservative causes. For example, restrictions or even bans on abortion.

In 2022 with the Supreme Court on the cusp of overturning Roe V. Wade, that deal with the devil 6 years ago is on the verge of bearing the fruit conservatives were looking for. 

And it's not just abortion rights on the line but virtually every thing that protects any one who is not white, not female and/or not straight.  

Why would would the Republican Party look for a sane and rational alternative to Donald Trump and his movement when following Donald Trump and his movement has gotten them everything they ever wanted?

Pat McCrory has not changed his political views since 2016. But since he will not kiss Donald Trump's ass, he has been deemed not Republican enough, not conservative enough. Ted Budd, his lips firmly affixed to Trump's ample posterior, has labeled McCrory a "liberal" and the label has stuck. 

Pat McCrory is falling behind Ted Budd in the polls for the Republican primary.  All because Ted Budd has Donald Trump's endorsement. 

This past week saw new revelations about what an incredibly stupid, selfish and petty man Donald Trump is with a new book from former Defense Secretary Mike Esper who revealed among other things:

• Trump thought China might be shooting hurricanes at us.
• Trump wanted to launch missiles at Mexico to blow up drug labs.  
• But first peeling labels off the missiles so Mexico wouldn't know it was us.
• Trump wanted the military to shoot protesters.
• Trump would vent at this senior advisors “You are losers! You are all fucking losers!” when anyone suggested things like it's against the law to shoot missiles at a neighboring nation that is one of our allies or for the army to shoot American civilians. 

Now most people with a modicum of sense would look at these allegation and think, "Hey, that sounds like a bad thing!" A wacko who thinks, talks and acts this way is not a good ideal for a President.

But the MAGA hat wearing faithful look at this same information and their reaction is "Oh HELL YEAH!" 

To the Trump faithful, these lacks of intelligence, morality and maturity are not bugs, they're features. 

Which is why Ted Budd is winning in the race for Senate simply for having Donald Trump on his side. 

Pat McCory is right about Donald Trump and he's going to lose because of that.