DRW50

That bit about Twitter Parlamentarians is especially typical of the smug Beltway, as, like someone said in the replies, Twitter Parlamentarians are as valid as the real one. They know Manchin is too much of a coward to end the filibuster. They love the GOP and would do anything to get them back in power. This is a very happy time for them.

Some like Matt Stoller, who unfortunately too often veers into hysteria about China which drowns out any positive points, have written a lot about the stupidity of the US moving the semiconductor industry out of the country, and how many of the supply chain issues that have slowed the recovery this year are down to the US moving so much overseas and relying on slave labor. Sadly I don't think this is likely to change - it is just going to get worse.

If they had a more famous moderator it might help, but I think with the pandemic over, and many of those appearing not really big names, they won't be likely to recover.

Yes. Mary Ellen seemed so eager to talk about the beach sequence, so they never went back.

He seemed to have more of a direct history with Melanie and Mary so I wonder if he was less restrained.

Yes.

In the interview she said she decided to leave the business to raise her son.

It was odd that no one (including Alan, of course) remembered another woman (Colleen McDermott) had played Emily not long before Melanie. I guess it's easy to forget unless you really look, as she wasn't very memorable.

It was a good time...a lot of personal mixed with some ATWT talk. I wish he'd asked more about ATWT stuff, but they got in more fan questions than I initially thought they would. Beyond the stuff about Beecroft (which Melanie has talked about before) and Rex Smith (which was new to me), Melanie also talked about her audition, which was a fun story. I had no idea that Melanie and Nancy McKeon are close friends...and they became close friends because they were in the same class or something and Nancy recognized her as Emily! She also said that's how Scott was cast on FoL - Nancy knew him as Craig. There are a few moments where Alan spins it around to himself a little too much, but overall it's worth watching. Mary and Melanie both look great. Melanie has barely aged, and if it's the Hollywood type age deterrent, then she's chosen well with said deterrents. They talked about wanting to do a musical together at some point. I doubt it will happen but it would be great seeing some alum together again in that style. Some poor person asked 500 times about Mary Ellen Stuart turning down the bully role in Carrie: The Musical. That question went unasked... I got the feeling Mary Ellen meant Rex Smith ad-libbed a lot rather than he didn't know his lines.

What a wonderful cast WKRP had - and such an underrated cast. Herb was a douchebag but a lot of fun to watch, thanks to how Frank Bonner played the part.

He was a paper thin candidate backed up by a cult who don't really exist outside of social media. Many of his big donors were conservative figures who seemed to jump to Eric Adams when he became a frontrunner. I'm tired of these cult figures. I saw a tweet earlier today literally comparing him with Jesus on the cross. In other SCOTUS news, as expected, the Catholic adoption charity in Philly that doesn't want to deal with lgbtq foster parents won. The ruling was unanimous, which was slightly more of a surprise, but was, as mentioned here, a hostage situation - Amy Covid Barrett and Kavanaugh both said they just want a better case to strike down the main law, and the other three hatemongers were already all for it.

The article mentions him saving someone on the roof of GH as his entrance. I had forgotten Sabrina even existed until I read the recap on Juan.

There was an SOD article around 1995 which even basically said Miguel had a memorable entrance and then got bogged down into nothing. The idea was meant to be, I guess, that things were now heating up for him with the Brenda pairing, but I don't remember that going anywhere either (and he then left for a tour, mostly forgotten aside from that pointless story with Mr. Becky Herbst).

This episode is listed as 1983. Dubbed, sadly, but still interesting to look through.

The usual hacks rushing to cradle their little baby was embarrassing beyond belief. She got what she wanted - a future show at Fox News - and the press get to tut-tut and wag their finger. They also got a quote the GOP will play to death from now on ("I'm not confident in anything"), and they exist to help Republicans at any cost.

Money is a factor, but it's also an ecosystem designed to believe Republicans, especially white male Republicans, are the ideal, are true thought leaders and noble warriors willing to talk tough. I remember the media being gleeful over being invited to gatherings by McCain, and by him remembering their favorite donut toppings. I remember a male reporter actually writing that even being in the same room with Mitt Romney sexually aroused him, because he was so masculine. More recently, there was endless media hype in alleged mainstream publications over the likes of Tim Pawlenty ("Sam's Club Republican"), Scott Walker, Josh Hawley (who was supposed to be the next Teddy Roosevelt), etc. Rand Paul got a glowing TIME cover story. Paul Ryan was supposed to cure poverty by...occasionally going to see poor people and looking sad (then cutting all their benefits). The vaccine situation has been so clouded and polarized, and the stimulus package will be over a year and half old by the time voting starts for the general midterm. I'm not going to downplay them, but I don't think they are going to be anywhere near enough. The only chance of breaking even in 2022 is to have decisions and leadership which I don't think we are seeing. That's nothing against people who call and volunteer and work their hardest. It's just when you have people like Kristen SInema, who seem to actively hate their base, or Joe Manchin, who would rather tell everyone how morally righteous they are than actually do anything, not to mention the other senators hiding behind these two, the power is out of their hands.

It's because the media loves Republicans. They see them as strong, funny, cool, and the fathers they need. McConnell provides lots of story for them because he can be written as a schemer, a badass who always wins. Even now he is seen as dominating the show, and I can't say people are wrong to feel that way. I think some of the criticism of Biden is unfair, and of the party as a whole, but I think some, like the backlash against Manchin and Sinema, or the confusion over the sluggish implementation and poor public selling (something the GOP and their media puppets are expert at doing, every time) on just how serious 1/6 was and how close it is to happening again, how close we are to losing our democracy for good, is warranted. The bad strategies with the ACA were the type of problem that initially people were hoping would not happen again - that we are back in that world, only with 9-10 less seats in the Senate and many less in the House, is likely another reason so many are frightened and angry. It feels like nothing is happening, and the most we get is baby steps to a little crumb here and there. Over and over we have stories like this: Once upon a time I might have believed that this made sense as a strategy - that moving on from Trump would let people heal - but Trump is still here, and so many Republicans are still making their party in his image. There's nothing to move on to. If they think voters will reward them for their charity and kindness, that won't happen.

I don't understand how this is going to work. What happens if Republicans refuse to vote for the first package and Manchin and Sinema then refuse to vote for reconciliation?

Yes, that is the main complaint I would have about Vigard's casting in that if you think about it too long, the pairing with Kelly is very questionable - I can't even remember if she was 18 when they first had sex (I know this was seen as no big deal at the time, but still...). I think the story would have worked more as a mistake on Kelly's part, with Morgan getting her heart broken and ending up together with Tim, or a new boy around her age. (with that said, I know the Morgan/Kelly/Nola story was very popular and Morgan and Kelly had a lot of fans - and I do think their wedding is lovely) I also liked Toby Poser as Amanda, I just thought they did her very dirty with the writing, especially the jabs at her hair.

I know it's common for soap writers to feel that way (some are more discreet than others), but talk about hubris. Would anyone really say that characters like Maeve or Miss Sally ended up being any less of "dead wood" than the characters they replaced?

Thanks. That makes sense, as Kathleen Cullen and Geraldine Court were let go around the same period. I always find the concept of the Richards women and their relationships more interesting than what we got onscreen. There's something very wan about the way Marland wrote for his central characters at GL - you have very serious, angst-ridden people with no real inner life, with panto baddies like Josh or Vanessa (or Nola before they made the character a heroine) on the other side. Vigard is the one who made Morgan feel more real to me. I will say that I do think Cullen was able to give Amanda more of an inner life when the Dobsons were writing the show. I've also heard some here say that Pat Falken Smith wrote well for Amanda.