Vee

It won't make much of a difference to the final bill. The sturm and drang doesn't make me happy but that's the Senate, it's been pissing me off since high school. As for the actual bill, on balance a lot of it's pretty good and should be trumpeted on its merits. There's a number of concessions I don't care for, but most of them aren't that massive in the grand scheme of things. Both economically and politically we're going to need this bill, poor people are going to need this bill, and Dems are going to need the effects of this bill trumpeted out loudly in public to continue to get things done in '22 and beyond. When we pass decent legislation I generally opt for cussing out the Senate, grumbling about their foibles and then moving on and trumpeting the good stuff, and prepping for the next Senate fight. That's just how stuff often gets done and that's how I stay sane. The Senate is stupid, but we can and do still do good work.

He got his pointless concession at least. That's the Senate for you.

Thread: Psaki had to contend with a similar GOP-spin moment from lazy WH Press Corps members yesterday. She's very good at this.

House of M sucked.

I am amazed Weijia Jiang (from CBS) attempted to do a Trump-style "many people are saying" ploy. She was clearly flustered that she got called on it.

There's going to be misinformation from leftist twitter floating around today, so here's what actually is happening: This will be very useful for me and I'm sure many other people in this year's taxes. (I'm also not getting any more than $300 as a boost rn anyway.)

I just don't believe that at all. The Marvel rumor mill is full of idiots doing shít for clout and getting backed up by breathless commenters desperate for any info. If the Fantastic Four isn't radioactive after the complete disasters of their franchise attempts, the X-Men will be fine.

I have my serious doubts about any Marvel rumors no matter how "legit" the supposed source. The WV leaks were numerous and often very wrong. I don't believe for one second that any X-Men movie

They are never going to bring the Fox X-Men into the MCU. Never. The entire Fox continuity is a shitshow and the movies were on balance mostly a disaster. There will be winks and nods and probably an acknowledgement that that universe exists which they may call back to this series with (like saying Ralph is some sort of AU counterpart to Fox Pietro and that's why Agatha fixed on him), but he was never going to hang around as Pietro. It's just never going to happen nor would it IMO be a good idea.

Schumer trolls Ron Johnson:

More good news, since the GOP failed to keep their long 20 hours of stalling going:

We're not. For one thing, Fox had partial control over their Spider-Man release slate during that initial time, it was not entirely a Marvel choice. And Spider-Man is an important character, but Marvel has always been measured and careful in their rollout of new properties, not overloading them. They did not sideline Captain Marvel or BP for Spidey, they simply took their time and are still doing so. Spider-Man is a proven seller and they wanted to get him set in the universe without having to go through the arduous process of reestablishing a third Spidey in the public consciousness in recent years - they did that. And as for Black Widow, the only reason there wasn't a film sooner is because old right wing Ike Perlmutter vetoed it for years, until Feige got him thrown out of meddling in the MCU completely. I'm not seeing any evidence that they are "forgetting" the characters that got them here. CM2 and BP2 are both actively going forward. Both have a place on the slate. The X-Men don't, yet. I know these properties at least as well as you do and I'm simply not seeing what you are seeing. YMMV.

Incidentally, another tragedy of COVID-19 - originally, Doctor Strange 2 was slated to release in May right after this series.

A great, fun and heartbreaking finale. Definitely stay through the entire credits (and beyond).

I have not watched yet, but a friend has advised me: Stay for all the credits this time, as there are apparently multiple surprises.

I don't think Spidey eclipsed BP at all - it was a massive success and a huge awards winner, and hugely influential culturally. Plus, there was never any intention for Marvel to rush out CM2 or BP2 before the next Spidey film. Captain Marvel also came in much, much closer to the end. They were always planning for those characters and others to lead the next phase in their sequels, and I'm pretty sure that is still the plan. I don't think anyone ever eclipsed the original Cap in importance though. It was just how the choice in scheduling went. Ragnarok was very well received and beloved but no one was forgetting Steve Rogers. This series is almost certainly inspired heavily by a very specific storyline in the classic Mark Gruenwald Captain America run in the 1980s and early 90s, except it's missing Steve Rogers himself. I'm pretty sure Sam functions in Steve's role in that story. Same goes for the upcoming "Armor Wars" series, which is named for a classic Iron Man story but will almost certainly feature Rhodey/War Machine in Stark's role. It's actually ingenious that both classic stories still work minus both Steve and Tony with a few tweaks - they deal in legacy. I do think Mackie will remain central going forward.

I'd been perusing Ken Levine's blog lately for Cheers stuff and I thought this might interest you. I know he did a few entries on AP. (Way more than a few actually, if you search google properly.)

The Exorcist on FOX. As a hardcore fan of the book and original film and Blatty's third (a cult masterpiece), I expected total schlock from a network TV treatment. It ended up being a sleeper, a slow burn and very good. There was a somewhat silly running subplot about a conspiracy of possessed people within the church diocese or Vatican, but the show built and built and was deeply connected to Blatty's original work in surprising ways. The two seasons were largely self-contained despite carrying over the two lead priests (one of which, Ben Daniels, was an excommunicated gay priest who has a hot silverback romance with OLTL's Christopher Cousins in Season 2). The first featured Geena Davis, Alan Ruck, Sharon Gless and a twist that should not be spoiled. The second starred John Cho. tbh the show should've been on FX or streaming.

Sabotaging the GOP again: