DRW50

I've seen some speculation Sinema is gearing up to join a third party. I wouldn't be surprised - she would fit right in with Andrew Yang, a man whose idea of a political position is an insipid grin.

I think by that point it was impossible to break up Mac and Rachel again, and then after Mac died and Rachel went through a period of mourning, Espy was leaving. If he had stayed I wonder if we would have had more with Rachel and Mitch. I think Felicia and Mitch were fine together, as he was a support for her yet not so heavy that he got in the way of her lighter moments (as Lucas did), but I think Felicia was really too much of a camp construct to ever fully work with a love interest. She was the closest soaps got to the old Crawford/Davis/Stanwyck type dames, who in their 40's tended to feel too rigidly defined to be viable with any love interest.

The court expansion commission Biden called released their findings several days ago. They essentially just mouth Stephen Breyer's position - we can't do what Republicans are already doing because that's wrong. I'm not surprised, there was no way we were getting any kind of expansion, but the framing is done in a way to further demoralize many who are already giving up.

The media has gone wild reinforcing to people that he died of COVID even with the vaccine (John Roberts giddily pointed out that this will make people more resistant to vaccines), so you're right, this will have a very bad impact.

Thanks @vetsoapfan. I can definitely imagine viewers being drawn to Mitch but not really wanting him to be with Rachel. I think Mitch was too dynamic a presence for the show at that time (or Espy was, anyway). It's a shame Beverlee had left as an Iris/Mitch pairing might have been compelling.

I thought I read somewhere that the ratings did improve in 1986, which helped stave off cancelation, but I guess that was from a low base. Did Rachel and Mitch have any fans at the time? I know it never would have happened, but I wonder if they would have had any success pairing Steve and Quinn. Was she ever meant to have feelings for him?

Manchin just keeps ruining lives, sending poor people past the point of no return, for his corporate donors.

I know I used to joke around a bit about Chandler Massey with you but I did appreciate your enthusiasm and you always kept the place going. I'm not going to ask you to stay unless you want to, because you should do what is right for you. If you do stay, that's great. If not, then, as Maeve Ryan said - have a good life.

Sorry, I meant the Lemay episodes you mentioned. I haven't watched this period because 1980 put me to sleep and I haven't rushed to go back.

I really cannot stomach the Val/Gary pairing. I don't think it's a coincidence that the strongest years of the show are when they are not together. Gary/Abby and Val/Ben are their ultimate pairings as they got to be more rounded people, instead of still pretending they were 20 years old.

Thanks for letting me know. I will, sadly, never be seeing any of this material, so when I read about the high production values Rauch insisted on, I had assumed they did not have Chromakey. That isn't fair of me, as I know it was an industry standard at that time. I just associate it with, frankly, Julia Hoffman screaming to Barnabas that the parallel time room is changing.

That reminds me - I saw this tweeted today. Even just the tweet looks awful (especially that Chromakey). I don't know, I haven't seen this story, maybe I am not being fair. I just don't know why they thought the remaining fans who knew Alice and Steve would want to see strangers.

Horrible man. He and that opportunistic headcase have ruined so much of this bill that we are reaching the point where even it does pass, most will just remember all the posturing and selling out that got to this point.

Politico is the most blatant, but they just draw attention away from these disinformation efforts all across the board. Here is another:

@Vee already posted it on the last page. Sorry. Stein and that ilk are who control the narrative in this country, or does their best to come close, anyway. It's both sad and deeply disturbing. They just won't stop. That they are also playing into the homophobia that !@#$%^&*] Carlson and others are pushing is not a surprise - they would have queer people in camps tomorrow if it got them one more Trump speech to cover.

This is a pretty decent (aside from a little at the end) episode of the Evil Touch co-starring Alfred Sandor, who was one of the fill-in Sheriff Pattersons.

After Jo Cox in 2016, another MP has been assassinated.

It's certainly time to stop kicking the can down the road - that time was many months ago. But I guess Manchin and Sinema's donors have gotten what they wanted, which is a lot of people suffering and dying at the feet of big business.

If they think Sinema won't vote down the bill, I am not sure why. That type of situation, with endless media attention, would be her dream come true.

Thanks. Good read there.

Given how many years it took Strictly, I could see it happening here as well, but both shows are completely hollowed out and overproduced to the point of parody at this point. The main difference is that Strictly at least had the decency to only spend one year trying to rehab a far right figure. DWTS doing this over and over and over and over is one of the reasons I quit.