Vee

Those kind of responses are always going to be there from some, and Twitter is not real life. That doesn't mean messaging and targeting still can't substantially improve, because it definitely can within the Democratic machine. I think Biden was a good candidate, better than a lot of people were willing to admit (both media and on the left), and probably the only one who could've taken Trump in that field. I think he's a good man who I'm glad is there. I admire Pelosi immensely for a lot of the work she's done, and I know she'll spend the rest of her life taking the same ageist and misogynistic slings and arrows she's been taking for years while doing hard work. I'm never going to disrespect the whole of that establishment when my family worked down there most of my life, alongside many of those people, and knows it and some of them intimately - I know how much of the real work is just slow, boring and head-down stuff. And I think Democrats can and are able to be most of what the majority of people who are not Very Online need them to be. But I think the stated belief when entering into office that the GOP fever would break, and the current strategy of putting a band-aid on where we've been at and trying to rewind it back, has completely failed. And that's not all on Biden or his fault, it's systemic. A number of people in the party don't want to accept that we're at where we're at and can't just go back to the relative pre-Trump normalcy of hunting for purple seats with less urgency, just like you still have many burnout leftists still refusing to acknowledge that not engaging in '16 and claiming they 'can't be bullied by SCOTUS to vote for Clinton' helped get us to where we are now. 2016 was it for so many of these things. The truth is a lot of different elements bear different responsibilities and have made different mistakes, and both the responsibility and the urgency have to be acknowledged and reckoned with. The good news is, I think, is that Joe Biden is much more likely to do that than say, Dave Weigel or Will Stancil.

I agree with a great deal of what Valdez, etc. say but I think there's more room for nuance and also broad oversimplification on either side of this device than ever. Not everyone being supportive of the administration doesn't care about abortion, but not everyone very upset atm is a leftist deadender (and I'm not saying you're not very upset). The facts on this judge thing, for example, appear to be that there is a deal on the table for that anti-choice appointment the next time one becomes available. That is not going to be acceptable to Democratic voters in the current climate, and it shouldn't be. That potential deal needs to not exist yesterday. It's important that people screen signal to noise, and righteous anger in the wrong directions vs. complete irrationality - for example, Jude Doyle going around trying to claim that Biden has always been 'rumored' to be anti-choice when his pushing hard for the pro-choice Souter nomination before Republicans found out years ago is a matter of record. That's just flat wrong and needs to be refuted. I do not believe Biden is anti-choice. But pushing back on the WH weighing an anti-choice judge deal, or coming at the WH and party apparatus for its extremely weak and confused response to the last few weeks and months - I think that's fair. I frankly think it's been a rolling shítshow. I think they've been shellshocked since Manchin nuked BBB, as it upended virtually all of their conventional wisdom and have never fully recovered, and I think the overall Dem leadership response to Roe has been embarrassing so far. There's a few nice statements from Pelosi, etc. but that's not enough. Critics are correct IMO when they say the WH and the Dems must be specific about what seats need money where, why and what they specifically will pledge to do when they get them. Not platitudes and clucking about destabilizing the country - it's already destabilized. We are in an asymmetrical war. I think the WH can still do more to fix the problems, and I am very glad Biden finally got on the page of the base today re: the filibuster, but it's going to take a lot more. Which is why accurately parsing what is happening, vs. leaping to extremes of 'they don't care/are doing nothing/are shills' or 'they're doing fine and people are overreacting' is so important. I think both Valdez and say, Oliver Willis have legitimate strong points to make, when they're not demeaning each other and coming off like assholes in the process (or if Willis would stop going off on his stupid joke tangents). That's the box we're all in.

I hate that this isn't the first time I've seen this. Damn you, Faulkner!!

A bit of good news:

I liked a lot of the album as an experiment. Do I prefer it to the originals? Nope.

@DRW50

That track is even more relevant than it was then and still so good. I much prefer the original version to the remix from a few years ago.

Episode 3 (Nowhere to Run): Laura: Why do you stay with her? Gary: I said I loved her, I didn’t say I trusted her. Gary Ewing Enterprises is here! And so is "Westfork" (again, really, Gary?). Westfork is way more grand than Southfork AFAIC; Southfork is one chintzy pool/patio set and tacky yellow furniture from the '70s with a seemingly painted backdrop. This place, however, is vast, has multiple expansive vistas, a much larger pool (sorry, J.R.) and it's at the very least the match of our poor departed beach house. Abby seems less than enamored of it (but has real estate plans of her own), but you really can't ding the place in any way - I'm almost a little surprised Lorimar or whoever let them flex as much dough as this place looks like it cost to show a gigantic ranch on something other than the mothership soap. It makes Dallas look like a roadshow production. Diana’s turn towards Bonnie Parker/Squeaky Fromme didn’t wholly shock me due to spoilers, but I didn't know when or how it happened, or how intense it got here where she's actively committing crimes. I really didn’t think Ms. High School Dramaturgy Scourge '79-'83 could shrug off Chip's earlier behavior on the road so easily. What an idiot. It seems the turn must have come when Chip showed vulnerability, spun his story and allowed Diana to put herself into it as the maiden. What's more interesting is how Diana becomes the rock of the two when Chip begins to break down as they hit troubles. It leads one to suspect that Diana, the loud and obtuse overachiever, views this all as another grand adolescent rebellion, another brassy Fairgate ingenue project: Go on the lam, love her man, prove to the world she's a strong adult who can beat the odds and make grown-up choices. It’s completely nuts - it’s Karen's ethos curdled. That's the only way I can begin to understand and process what she's doing, that and Stockholm Syndrome. Folks over at Knots Blogging suggest that, just as with Karen's equal and opposite reaction to recent events, Diana is also reacting to the triple-blow of Sid, her mother's remarriage and now the Chip reveal. I think that could be true as well. Doesn't make me want to choke her out any less. That is Gary Grubbs as the cowboy auto dealer who rips the un-dynamic duo off btw, a prominent character actor in a zillion things. So this is not the first time they’ve shown it in the series so far, and I really, really want to try Valene’s chicken. Anyway. More Westfork real estate porn: I absolutely adore the rock garden courtyard. Laura gets off a great line as she greets Gary and Abby by the pool: "For us proletariats it’s the middle of a workday." As she runs down various real estate options, Gary the tycoon proves to still also be Gary the rancher and the man who loves nature, calm but forthright; his various selves seem increasingly more joined and synthesized this season ever since he got sober and chilled out a bit. Given his roots he’s doubtful about snapping up huge swaths of forestland (again, still relevant), but Abby just hears the cash register. Hmmm. More refreshing candor between the budding Gary and Laura relationship: Abby’s like high speed auto racing, Gary tells Laura, and he does love her. One could argue his passion for Abby, knowing how deceptive and controlling she can be, admitting to Laura he loves the risk, is how Gary sublimates and manages his own addiction drives when he's not drinking or gambling. I do think Shackelford and McCashin still have real, unexpected chemistry; that would be an unusual and fun pairing. Either way, I'm thrilled they'll be working together. There's a really sweet little scene with Eric and Karen as he punches through her perpetual edge of hysteria, reminding her she's not the only one who cares. Michele Lee, as almost always, picks the right moment to give ground to the kids in a scene, say Karen's been wrong and be tender with him. I don't know when exactly they write the boys out for awhile, or if they do with Michael at all (I've seen him in several main ensemble shots as he gets older) - I know both sons return as adults to play the story with Lar Park Lincoln from Friday the 13th Part 7, though I don't know all the details - but they should’ve kept them as long as possible. They may not be master thespians or central casting hunks, but they are talented and cute enough for their parts and they really ground so much of the show for me. (Diana can leave forever, and it's my understanding she does fairly soon.) I also really like Michael and Mack’s bond. Karen’s somewhat twee, play-to-the-house reaction to getting location news on Diana was a bit too coy for me. Either way, off she goes to try to apprehend Chip and Diana herself, leading to a scene of surreal pleasantries as Karen calls home on the wiretap she watched the cops set up, having gone rogue. She's just off the spool and I can't blame her, but I am glad to see Mack able to function as her support, quiet and easy, able to calm her down at least a little bit. A funny extended bit with just Michael and one of the cops back at the house bantering about guns is nestled in the hour here - another little grace moment they didn’t need to do but that this show excels at. Cute. From Chip and Diana’s hideout shack to the L.A. marina and a glorious new office space! Abby takes Westmont, her Iago (now played by the original actor again), to what is her gigantic new waterfront lair which I swear to God looks like something out of The Spy Who Loved Me or Octopussy. This is a stunning series of sets (if it's all sets) and it looks like some sort of Bond villain branch headquarters for Abby Inc. Abby's clearly already loving showing this off, and who can blame her? It’s another subliminal seduction of Westmont to get what she wants too, as she hangs off the winding staircase (“do you want to see the rest?”) which is both near-identical visually to how she slowly transformed her house at the cul-de-sac but also likely a redress of that living room set. Abby's clearly planning to build her own empire inside Gary’s, but this time her claims of doing it to protect his fortune from his rash choices ring totally false to me. Gary is free, sober, making moves and demonstrating entirely too much closeness to Val, and likely soon others Abby can’t control (Laura Avery, an old foe). So this is Abby's palace and we’re on her time now. I do wish/hope we could see more of the Abby who openly desired the aspirational Gary for the strength and passion he could express himself as a fully actualized Ewing, as opposed to the Abby trying to yoke him to fit her enterprises. Then again, it's possible Abby's just never fully made the distinction between the two herself - maybe that's the fatal flaw in her love. The standoff, as stage managed by Diana as another of her high school plays, starring her in every key role! Lord. Diana is now the aggressor and instigator as the state police arrive, while Chip is increasingly the inept, sniveling weasel. Ol' Chip’s starting to look like this whole thing has gone too apeshit even for him and he's begun to regret getting involved with a clear alumni of Broadway Kids. When they're finally apprehended though, Chip instantly comes back to life under the glare of the cameras, flourishing and vamping as press agent par excellence - I loved that, it happens with creeps like that all the time. And what do you say about the ending tag? "It's not Ms. Fairgate. It's Mrs. Tony Fenece!" Ship her to Mars!

Well, now I want to walk into the sea just looking at that place. So stunning.

I do too. But really, Westfork has more big, lavish exteriors than Southfork on Dallas, which looks rinky-dink by comparison. The new ranch is vast and gorgeous. Was it really a money issue?

Not entirely chronological, and not all of it, but enough. The NYT link lays out the rest.

This one's for you, @DRW50.

I never believed Trump would pay legally for anything beyond the ultimate humiliation of losing the election and being impeached twice, the shame of a nation. I know how things go in our bureaucracy and for a long time I was more than willing to accept that. Now I'm pretty livid. DOJ should act.

Steve looks rough as hell. I do like that his character may or may not be an actual villain here. Steve can play that but he's never really been allowed to.

"Confused" indeed! You don't have to worry about spoiling me, as I've said it's a 40 year old show, an all-purpose thread and I know a fair bit of major stuff. Make your own choices but it doesn't matter to me if you mention something from years later.

It's a troll, I think.

Episode 1 (The People vs. Gary Ewing): So, here we are. There's a scene I don't recognize from Season 4 in the recap at the opening of this episode: Laura in the cul-de-sac, hysterical over Richard leaving and telling Mack he killed Ciji. Did SoapNet cut it? I didn’t realize Baines would last into Season 5, but I'm happy to see Joanna Pettet even if the detective is increasingly ineffectual. Lankford/Houghton/Pleshette are gone but Claudia Lonow is in the (even more musically amped-up) opening credits now, which is probably an early warning sign of the end times in some other cultures who have more foreknowledge than the rest of us. Plus Doug Sheehan, a.k.a. GH's Joe Kelly! I've been waiting for this and I've heard a lot about him as Ben. I've always really, really liked Sheehan any time I saw him on classic GH episodes, and wondered why that show never made better use of him; others who are more versed in that era of GH can differ or correct me, I just was surprised it seems like they didn't go for supercoupling with him and say, Jackie Zeman or somebody, as opposed to keeping him yoked to Heather Webber and his lusty stepmom til his exit. Anyway, I'm very happy to see him; he's always both hunky and earnest, sexy and sweet. (Even if Sheehan did apparently complain his way off the show years later) Lord, Abby is really out here preaching her horny corporatist gospel about “a sense of destiny” (courtesy of J.R. Ewing, whose name she invokes to impress) in order to shine temp recast attorney Jim Westmont on, hoping to make him be her puppet lawyer to send Gary to the cracker barrel for what she deems His Own Good. She’s through the looking glass here, just like she was last time, and I’m pretty sure she believes at least half her bullshít about destiny too. She’s at her moral worst in this hour, right after her braying to the prison guards that '[Gary] never wants to see Val again!' in the S4 finale. When Gary's original, far more skilled layer Mitch Casey (played by cozy character actor Barry Primus, who I know best from recent MST3K '70s disaster campfest "Avalanche" with Mia Farrow and Rock Hudson) turns up at the hearing, Abby panics and starts literally begging Gary to fire Casey and take her fake shemp on instead. Embarrassing for her! How do they get married after this?! I am still down for more Gary/Abby but this is kind of A Lot. Val looks amazing at the courthouse BTW, all sleek jet-black glam with shades. She really has fully transformed and I'm all for it. The highlight midway through this episode is Val and Ben Gibson's meet cute as he helps her escape the reporters. Sheehan won me over here with his chemistry with JVA in about 15 seconds. What a hoot. They notably don't give his name in this episode, IIRC. Hot take: Laura and her incredible black and white power suit of marital vengeance should hook up with Baines. They look sporting together. But Karen and Laura's conflict over Richard is getting ugly fast, because Karen is completely losing it over Diana's vanishing act with Chip. The extreme close-ups of Mack and Karen's eyes as he shakes her back to some semblance of functionality are unsettling, as is Karen later coming apart at the dinner table in her bathrobe in front of the boys. I’ve never seen Karen like that and it’s sudden, jarring and scary, and very well-played by Michele Lee. We also see Laura alone in this episode with Jason, trying to carry the load without Richard. It's a nice little scene and the most we’ve ever seen them alone together, I think. I did think they were chemistry-testing her and Mitch Casey in that scene where she goes to visit him at his home and implicate Richard. I've no idea if we see him again. “Is there anything that we’ve done that [Gary] shouldn’t see?” Abby is really in it now, trying to cover her tracks with Westmont, but it turns out she hasn't done anything too nefarious with Gary's business (yet). While talking with him, she brings her overbearing scheme re: institutionalization and firing Casey back to Gary's drinking. I believe she partly believes that's the reason she has for doing these things, at least (in truth, it's about so much more than just his alcoholism), but she still comes off utterly brazen and off her railroad tracks. Westmont brings it back to putting a ring on it to protect her own position, an idea he first raised last season, and for Abby the wheels are turning once again. Karen asks Val about Lucy! Wow. It's lovely to see them reminiscing about the early days of Season 1; it's this connective tissue to the past that’s so different from the show in Seasons 4-5 that is important. I love the changes in the show but I think these kind of throughlines are essential, like any soap. And the devastating reveal at the end: Karen: Val. How long has it really been since you’ve talked with Lucy? Val: Not long. Seven or eight months. Anyway, Gary's hearing is great fun, though poor Baines is probably in for it with her boss for telling the truth about this cockeyed case. And the final shot is killer as Gary looks to Val, not Abby, over Abby’s shoulder on the freeze frame. The game with these three is still on, but in a much, much more interesting way than Val's brief relapse at the end of last season before she got her game face on in the finale. Episode 2 (Fugitives): After the Gary Ewing fail, Baines and the LAPD is still taking it hot from Karen over Diana. We have never seen Karen like this, even when Sid died and it is staggering to see her disintegrate. People are not doing enough for her right now. From Tommy Krasker's indispensable blog (I have not read all of this S5 entry; I am very judicious on carefully reading bits and pieces of these until I finish a season): Is this Karen reacting with a kind of PTSD to the double-whammy of Sid and Diana too close together, as Krasker suggests? I can buy that. It's really jolting and at times hard to watch, if spellbinding. I would love to say more about it but honestly I'm just in awe of the unhinged performance, which doesn't feel like too much to me, it's just incredibly disturbing because it's so unlike the Karen we know. Back at Gary and Abby's, it's also going bad! Once again the show makes wise use of the Cunningham kids as a kind of onstage audience, watching Gary and Abby go at it (not for the first time) over her insane machinations re: his case. She clearly lays out her reasons re: his drinking and depressive state and how it could've potentially landed him in prison for murder if she hadn't tried to intervene, but that's not the half of her motives vs. the Val and the empire-building of it all. Still, it's good for Abby and the audience to at least attempt to make them understand she is still a nuanced character, even if I think this is her worst move so far as a person. Gary's the one who finally points out the presence of the kids and takes them out of there. Abby got emotional during that confrontation, though - she believed what she's saying. Or at least part of it. I laughed at Ben trying to come off casual running into Val on the beach and jogging with her - I know who he is and it’s obvious he’s no runner. They’re really playing Sheehan for comedy, and he has great facility for it. I was also thinking Ben has a pretty remarkable home for a hustling reporter, but then we discover he’s actually a world-class globetrotting journalist. Everything's going great for these two til Val learns the truth. There's a great moment where JVA snaps, "I know now what I’m worth!" She won't put up with bullshít any longer. I know it doesn't stay this way forever with Val as a character, but I really love to see it. I also already quite like them together. Gary clownIng with Abby's kids, including the increasingly mischievous Bobby Jacoby as Brian (later to become an infamous troublemaker in a ton of classic '80s/early '90s film and TV such as Tremors), was sweet. We’ve never really seen Gary with them acting as a real parent before, it’s new and interesting to see how he relates to children in that role. He’s pretty straight up with them about what's gone on with him, which is an interesting tack to take, and smart work from Gary. They can sense he's no bullshít when he chooses not to; kids have a sixth sense for that. He could’ve been good for Lucy as a father, if Lucy had half the brain cells of Olivia and Brian combined. Another surprise combo this week: Gary and Laura, at a... ranch! This is apparently the much-touted future site of 'Westfork' (really, Gary?) which I’ve heard some about, and per the opening credits with Shackelford looking absolutely jacked in a nicely snug tee astride a horse on his own fertile land, this is Gary's next stop. I hear the amazing beach house set is leaving us and I will seriously miss it; it seems like a waste for it not to be kept by someone. What a set! But this also makes sense for Gary - it's a working ranch, just like he always wanted to be part of on Dallas, just like Miss Ellie longed for him to come back and do on the homestead like her father. I wonder if Miss Ellie ever visited Westfork offscreen and got to see it. I hope so. I hadn't realized at first this is Laura acting as the realtor again! (I wonder what happened to poor Scooter, they haven't mentioned him since his last episode which did not write him out.) Gary and Laura's connection is relatively new, and they both seem like a kind of a pair - wounded, damaged people with a kind of sardonic candor about their past mistakes and injuries. Their bonding over the shared fascination with Ciji was neat. I like watching them together, and even a hook-up might be interesting. Is Richard really calling Laura at the house? Eeesh. Olivia is becoming a real force; she’s distancing herself and sees through Abby, as was implied in last season’s finale, shrugging her off as she goes to bed after spending a day with Gary. Abby rolls with Gary's ranch news (and props to the writers for remembering the brief ranch beat with the both of them from last season, which Abby brings up) but looks almost as crushed to be saying goodbye to the beach house as I am. Uncle Joe calls Karen! Good for him. Meanwhile, Chip and Diana are on the lam at what initially seems to be an increasingly atmospheric series of neon and pastel roadside stops a la Wim Wenders' "Paris, Texas". Chip is already starting to deteriorate as he tries to cut off any points of outside access. Diana should not be this stupid but she never surprises me anymore. But hey, even she's got a limit because there he is on TV as Tony Fenece! Diana's lame attempt to cover for her obvious terror by making up something about a 'news story on baby seals' is one of the worst dodges I've ever seen. She's got zero poker face from then on, and Chip sees through her ruse to call home immediately, leading to a harrowing sequence with poor Diana (how often do I get to say that?) weeping in bed with her back to her deranged man as he keeps spewing increasingly objectifying Hallmark platitudes, “I knew right then and there that I had to make you a part of my life," Chip coos. "That you had something - " - then corrects himself - "that you were something that I had been looking for all my life.” While Karen talks about Diana's determination and strength since she was a baby with Mack in a really touching interlude, Diana is completely trapped. Even when he confesses to removing the car battery to prevent Diana's escape, Chip almost never lets his mask slip, not fully. As a person he is an unbroken, placid mask of cheerful, loving control and overbearing intimacy; he just keeps smiling and soothsaying, but almost seems to get off on glibly admitting his machinations to Diana (as he previously did at times with the exec he hoped to impress, or Ciji on occasion) while wrapping them around a syrupy rationale. Almost like challenging her, or Lilimae or Ciji before her, to break from the pleasantries and cordial, loving tone and see what happens. The only time he changes tactics is when Diana almost calls out to a passing cop on the road - he pulls over and bursts into tears, telling a tall tale about the circumstances and claiming "I killed Ciji for us to be together!" The end shot of Diana makes me wonder if she's even dumber than I thought. "Keep her on the line for five minutes"? Jesus, sign of the times. Also: I haven't read all of this given it reflects on her entire run, but I'm fascinated Camille Paglia interviewed Donna Mills. God knows Paglia is a polarizing and thorny figure, but there's a lot to unpack here in a great read.

Josh Duhamel (Leo, AMC) plays the player character, a convict in space, in upcoming space horror video game The Callisto Protocol.

We know how.