DRW50

I think Iva worked as a character in those early years because she was a more haunted contrast to the flashier people around her, like Meg or Lucinda. As the years passed and the Snyders, along with Lucinda and even Lily, became more somber, Iva just ended becoming even more depressed, to the point of near-catatonia. Still, I loved the character, and Lisa Brown's nuanced work. I agree with you about MDM and Ashe, although I think Ashe really only came into her own in her last year in the role. Meg as a vixen or as a rival to Lily didn't work for me.

Long and sobering.

Glenn Greenwald's hissy fit under the guise of righteous woke-anti-woke journalism is good for my funny bone.

The image of Matt Gaetz in a gas mask, mocking COVID, even as people in his own district were catching it, is one of the most disgusting I've ever seen from a politician. He's just the bottom of the barrel. He's also a fat drunk, so he won't be getting over those complications for a while. I knew it would be close (not as close as it could have been, thankfully), but a win is a win. I think he was one of the only Democrats, if not the only one, who could have won against such a unique cult figure as Trump. He and his campaign people, and Kamala Harris, deserve a lot of credit for this, above all else for not losing focus and not panicking. There's a lot of "what about downballot, it was supposed to be about downballot," and there are many conversations to be had there about polling, about poor management and strategic decisions, but truthfully, I think most of those districts were likely to flip anyway because of Trump being on the ballot, but I'm not surprised this has led to such huge open infighting. As I see AOC on Twitter ranting about the Lincoln Project (which is full of a number of untrustworthy people mostly just using this year as a means to an end, but, based on Trump's slump in support among white men, they did play a key part in the final outcome), I have to wonder how much the more vocal members of "The Squad" know their time of relevance is near an end. There is plenty of pain ahead, but I'm just trying to take the day to be happy about what so many managed to accomplish, and what seemed impossible for much of the last 4 years. And I know so many of you here sacrificed your time, money and health to help make this happen. Thank you. We made it through (with two months of horror to go...). Now if only we can find some path forward to save ourselves from the hatemongers, sociopaths and grifters all around us.

I'm sure it is not their call, but when these people play into the hype of being wonks and election experts, then they should have integrity. But that isn't what gets the big money, I guess. Anyway:

They are cowards, and also desperate for ratings. I won't link as it was a far right Twitter account, but one of them had the video of Steve Kornacki trying to justify why they haven't called PA and it was nonsensical, just pure word salad. The cable news version of this, only with khakis that are baggy in all the wrong places.

Enraging. And people in the replies have shared their own stories. I hope all the people making these threats are locked up.

Classic. Glad she is putting one of those odious grifters on blast.

I think camp can be fun if done right - it's just not usually done right, especially on soaps. I think Marland veered in that direction more early in his run at ATWT - 1986 had a number of wild fantasy sequences for Meg and for Sierra, including one for Sierra where she dreamt of Lucinda, Craig and Tonio in a sauna or somewhere and it was basically said she was having it off with both of them. I don't think they worked on ATWT. This is one of the last I remember (I don't know if it was intended as camp or not...)

Laurie Caso joined the show around mid or late-1989. I think he was one of the reasons Hillary Bailey Smith left, as he didn't work with her to keep her around the way his predecessor did, IIRC. I feel like Marland's writing changed after the strike. The presentation became much more somber and camp slowly but surely disappeared, as did some of the more natural weaving in of comedy. Incredibly depressing and character inappropriate stories like Shannon's pregnancy and miscarriage would not have happened before then. With that said, other than Rosanna, I mostly enjoyed his last year as headwriter - if that is the right word. (the Carolyn story went off the rails because he changed his mind about Darryl being the killer - I also think they rushed the early beats [her death and Darryl/Frannie] way too much compared to the later stalling out)

And finally, from a late, great woman with money scandals who had far more public support than our demented, depraved ex-President will ever have.

Loeffler in particular is such a disgusting human being that it's unfortunate how much of a pass she will get for being a Barbie. I see that Josh Kraushaar and other Beltway figures are trying to ramp up stuff about Warnock opposing Israel's occupation of the West Bank, so you can tell where this is going. If Democrats could just get people to see that the economic recovery will never happen without an end to gridlock, that might help in the races, but so many seem to fall for these press releases claiming that the economy is getting better and better. It needs to be shown, somehow, that Loeffler and Perdue are no better than Trump, even if he was more outwardly repulsive. At least there will be more momentum and money than the 2008 Senate runoff. That one was seen as meaningless when it really wasn't.

Look everybody, it's Mitch McConnell moving away from a stimulus package he never planned to pass - again. And unless Pelosi agrees to his likely package (no checks, bare bones unemployment, liability exemptions if employees get sick, cash to GOP donors), the Beltway will dogpile on her - again. I hope she tells them to eat [!@#$%^&*] and die.

Oh wow. That makes sense though, as she is very wonky.

Under 4,000 now. That's amazing. I don't want to get my hopes up but I can't believe it's this close.

I don't know if any more of Georgia will be counted tonight, but right now less than 9K separates Biden and Trump (and Perdue remains below the runoff threshold). If Biden does win, I am giving the credit to Stacey Abrams, but I will give a small tip of the hat to Jo Jorgensen for her services in Georgia and Wisconsin, even though that wasn't intended on her part. Let's just call it karma for Jill Stein.

I don't care for her, but Olivia Nouzzi, who tends to buddy up with far right figures, even called out Trump Jr because she said she knows a Trump campaign worker who just went out and bought an AK47 due to their rhetoric.

A month or so ago there was a puff piece on James Baker, as the guy who wrote it (Peter Baker - no relation I assume) had written a book about him. A lot of angst over how he voted for Trump, tried to give him advice (he recommended Rex Tillerson) had planned to again pre-COVID in spite of Trump's many sins, and now did not want to talk about his vote after he and his wife got COVID. I guess his name being thrown around so blatantly led him to finally say the bare minimum, which, for the GOP, is something. Let's take a look at two of our 2024 media darlings, Haley and Cotton, both showing just why they are unlikely to actually get the nomination.

Elsa I know best for playing Vinnie Terranova's mother on Wiseguy. I loathed her character, as she berated him at length for working with the mob, then ended up falling in love with a mobster herself, but she was a very good actress. She had a good comedy part on Tracey Takes On that I also enjoyed.

One of the problems is when any racial group is seen as a monolith or taken for granted. It's one of the reasons when I see white people on social media saying things like "black women are saving us again!" I end up cringing (I am white myself and probably no better at being tone deaf, I will admit), because it just comes across as cringey and pandering. It's another version of the 2016 stuff where a lot of people online attacked black men for not voting enough. You need better communication strategies, not trying to tell people what they should or shouldn't be doing. The Democrats were lucky that Trump's virulent racism prevented him from landing on a better strategy than having rappers shill for him. Before their coalition overreached and imploded in 2005-2006, Rove and W had a much more potent strategy. A few weeks ago I read this article about Qanon spreading in Europe, basically talking about how the reason it's so dangerous is because you can make it what you want it to be. It felt like a kick in the stomach, because that is one of the main reasons Trumpism is so dangerous, and why they are so easy to intertwine. https://www.politico.eu/article/qanon-europe-coronavirus-protests/ I saw some photo going around social media - who knows if it was real or another tedious attempt at edgelord humor - of some man's hand, which had a scrawl on it saying he had voted for Biden, but don't call him a traitor because he still believed in Qanon. That really threw me, because it just made me wonder how far this rot is going to end up going.

I agree, but then she won in 2018 with AOC and Pelosi both national figures. I think 2020 was just too much turnout. I hope she might run again.

OANN is the new Fox News. That and insane conspiracy videos and grifting circuits on Youtube - stuff like Daily Wire, Prager U, Joe Rogan. Right now there are mostly just a handful of personalities who keep the crazies happy on Fox, like Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson (many of them don't care for Sean Hannity). Once they're gone the channel is probably going to end up in some type of rebranding, I guess depending on what the Murdochs want. Whether that will be good or bad, I don't know. I have a feeling their election guy is going to end up being a scapegoat though. I don't quite trust him either, but I think he's a pretty good strategist and television presence. He manages to get the language right, which is difficult for Democrats.

I agree socialism is a terrible electoral strategy...the problem for me is that I think it doesn't really matter what Democrats do, it's still going to be hung over them, similar to how the word "liberal" was for many years. Due to hyperpartisanship and media bias, anything that anyone on the left does is thrown onto Democrats. There was breathless media hype that Minnesota and then Kenosha were 1968 moments. There were months of sustained attacks against BLM, disinformation campaigns everywhere online and on Fox News. The defunding the police suggestions were mostly from a minority of Democrats and activists and ignored or condemned by most of the party, and I think they managed to diffuse the issue overall, but it's an example of how something, somewhere, will always be used as a weapon against them - another version of death panels, Green New Deal, etc. I think the party has a lot of hard questions ahead, but I also think what they should realize - but obviously can't say out loud - is many of these races were going to be lost anyway. They let polling get to their heads. They should have focused more defensively and not fallen for the same trap many fell for in 2016 - that Trump was going to be a drag on the ticket for the GOP. A lot of Rose Twitter absolutely loathes Buttigieg. Generally that means the person is doing something right.

I'm glad to hear about Underwood, as I've seen nothing but praise for her work, even if she doesn't get the attention that the Squad or Katie Porter tend to get. Oberweis is an uber-rich moron who just runs for office anywhere and everywhere in Illinois until someone is dumb enough to vote him in. I hadn't expected the Senate (although there's still a chance), as I always had a bad feeling about ME and NC, but the loss of some of the people in the House is really dispiriting as many of them were very good reps who genuinely cared about their constituents. At least some are hanging on, and hopefully will be in good shape for 2022. I think Esper was one of the people Trump was going to fire if he won anyway. I don't think so. Paul Ryan had two huge chances and blew both of them. There's no real going back. His vision of the GOP, thin as it was, has no real place in the current party, as they can match his austerity fetish with a frenzied "OWN THE LIBS! OWN THE LIBS!!!" cocaine hysteria that he never could pull off. He'll stay on the sidelines, pontificating and practicing "serious" faces in the mirror. And skipping leg day.