Vee

Now I'm the one leading from behind! I am still in Season 7. I'll have a lot to catch up on with these comments in the months to come, lol.

And she was right to do it, no matter what anyone might say now to defend the honor of Marley Hudson. They tried to blame Zimmer for JVD's exit, which was bullshit. Honestly the way this was getting gassed up online I was expecting Mo, Laura or Steve. All of which I would be fine with lol, but I do think losing MB would be a serious body blow to the show's numbers no matter how much I personally would be happy to see Sonny go. You have to prep the show longer for an exit that big and reposition enough of the canvas. Whereas with Laura, I like her and I think she's done a good job but while I'd be shocked I wouldn't necessarily blink, not unless they intend to kill off Carly which would be a mistake. I would just say, fine, bring back Sarah Brown lol. I do think she is a legacy character, but they only made her one to anchor Sam deeper in the show. I do think she has a place there that is legitimate, I like her family relationships (it's probably the aspect of Sam I most like) and how they built up her place in Alexis and her sisters' lives, but I have also been tired of Sam since the late 2000s, and I wasn't exactly a fan of her to begin with. I think she had a slight new lease on life with Jason gone in 2012 and potentially with Billy Miller's Drew, but none of that lasted long. She has been cruising for decades.

FV should be fired for lots of things. Not for dumping Sam, lol. He has slit many people's throats over guarantees and money. When he tires of them he just waits for them to give him an excuse.

I remember the allegations that Frank wanted to keep LH more than once when Kelly allegedly was being difficult during COVID. There was an illness story to explain all that after but I still suspect it had to do at least in part with masking up as was rumored, and if so I'd have fired her for that permanently. But again, as both caroline and I have said, what is the point? For me Sam has been tired since before the 2010s. I do think Kelly worked very hard early this year when PM came aboard. She made me buy into the Dante stuff. But it was still a C-pairing, and Sam was still surplus to requirements.

Exactly. Sam has been spent IMO since at least 2016, though I probably would've cut her long before that. I think LH has done a good job and Kelly has tried in recent months/years, but what is the point?

I do hope they will do the story I suggested when @DRW50 and I discussed this exact eventuality a month or two ago: Have Jason and Alexis dive into a vicious custody battle. This would also likely push Alexis back to the bottle or close to it; she has not suffered a loss like this since Kristina Sr. That's something I'd commit to watching, despite having zero investment in this show long-term with the current creatives. I think the fallout from her death has more value at this point than keeping Sam herself. But yes, I'd cut half the cast.

Not surprising to me at this point. I was just saying Sam has been spent for years and should be killed off.

Lord. That explains a lot and I agree. Reminds me of FV's obsession with having lots of blondes at OLTL, and making Kassie DePaiva keep her hair super blonde vs. dark blonde/auburn (along with other actors, I suspect).

Finally, these guys are getting some heat: A good reason to stay vigilant, though I still don't believe it will end up being that close:

Not enough. But ducking the debate would be suicide.

Another trailer for Demi Moore's (Jackie Templeton, GH) big Cannes comeback, The Substance.

To that point, this is a panel straight from Hell (I could not believe my eyes when I saw who was next to Carville) but Collins' reporting here could be accurate.

I think Mansi carried the show for most of the spring tbh. She surprised me with how well she fit in, and I was not some big fan of hers from DAYS. The simple truth is I don't care about that endless surrogacy storyline so I don't really care about those scenes. Sure, she had a bad day from what I saw in those gravesite clips; most soap actors do. But I'd still rather watch her regularly than another ten interminable years of T.J. and Molly doing nothing. The time to make me invest in them was a minimum of five years ago. It's time to cut bait on this whole storyline, finally write them out and move on. Soap Twitter sees one mid set of actors have a few good days and then goes 'give them all the Emmys! Frontburner story!' They get all excited and think they're gonna move the needle and that everything they're saying has a massive impact. It's not reality.

An increasingly aggrieved Jonathan Martin, known for mocking the libs, vents the Beltway's frustration with Harris and the election narrative getting away from them. CNN may finally have to answer for their bullshit 'undecided voter' panels - this is damning at the link.

I agree. Perot dominated airtime he paid for, he was ubiquitous. I remember being baffled as a child that they gave him a half hour or whatever to ramble on, I couldn't understand it (and didn't know he'd bought it). Because of that he even made it into a ton of golden age SNL political coverage at the time. (Which just reminds me that I had the SNL inaugural/election special or whatever it was from '92/'93, where they showed like 20 years of SNL political sketches, recorded on my Mom's VCR to watch over and over for years.) But I don't think any third party candidate other than maybe Nader in 2000 has come even remotely close to Perot's actual impact since. When someone starts taking over huge chunks of nationwide TV time or appearing non-stop on SNL again, then I'll get nervous.

It's also not something only happening here. I know there used to be a troll on the Datalounge ranting away about SON and its poster base because a friend told me so some time ago. Why they went there I have no idea - I haven't really been to DL in over a decade or whenever they went pay to post, so it never came to my attention while it was happening. But I just assumed it's all the same longtime troll or trolls who have cultivated maybe half a dozen sockpuppet accounts on here, most of which have never been banned despite it being very obvious by their visual avatars alone what they are. If it's another active regular poster, I'm not aware of who it could be but IMO you should report it if it's a widespread suspicion.

Just as with his relentless attacks on Biden, Alex Thompson is now beyond desperate for anything to leave a mark on Harris/Walz, with considerably less result. His latest: Amplifying a nonsensical smear from the right-wing Washington Free Beacon.

But it won't be. Most people don't care about RFK. They find him creepy.

I think this thread may be of particular interest to @janea4old though it doesn't surprise me either:

Hilariously, CNN, CSPAN, Newsmax and Fox all cut away from both Trump and RFK's rambling speeches mid-stream today before they finished. Based on recent polling with him in or out of the race, it will actually hurt Trump. RFK was becoming a permission slip for stupid people to not have to vote for the Dem while avoiding Trump.

RFK has of course dropped out and endorsed Trump. I'm sure this tidal wave of charisma will be a massive boon to his campaign. JFC. No notes.