Vee

I've seen some of Babe before. She is definitely a moustache twirler but I think Badland plays it with great gusto. I don't understand her motivation though, unless all her misdeeds are about ingratiating herself to the family. I am 50/50 on either of those options with Glenda and I think it will be one or the other, which I find tiresome. I don't know why EE always has to go the grim route. I like the new Michelle when they frame her in shots with Sharon because it reminds me of the past, but that's about it. Her trying to play Meredith Vieira to Phil and whoever else just doesn't make sense to me. I prefer her with the people Michelle used to know because then I can pretend there is a plan for this character beyond strange, middle-aged pervy housewife wandering through the streets in search of dignity. Stacey alternately chafing around Michelle and sympathizing with her is relatable material for the both of them, even if I don't buy Michelle going all Martha Stewart on the household.

I thought the Trainspotting-esque POV shots were a bit silly. Haven't seen the last one post-crash yet. Are we supposed to think the bus driver was one of Babe's customers? (I know people hate this scheming character but I still love Annette Badland from Doctor Who and I think she plays this petty evil to the hilt) They've really leaned on the actress playing Denise recently much more than I can remember EE doing with a black character in a long time, but then I haven't watched regularly in years. She's carrying a lot well, but I imagine when the issue of Phil's baby is less prevalent she'll be shifted to the sidelines again. I don't know why NuMichelle is basically around to play matronly, placid, slightly goggle-eyed (and now apparently sexually predatory) talk-to to everyone and anyone, from people she doesn't know to nemesis Phil. That's not Michelle IMO. They need to work on her, a lot. I understand there's some tragic domestic malaise there (there always is on this show) but I really like the new Martin with Stacey. She fits there like a glove IMO, even when she seems long-suffering. She's incredibly compelling in just day-to-day family stuff. The actress playing Glenda Mitchell is excellent but the character has quite a history and on this show leopards, to paraphrase Babe and Whitney, almost never change spots. EE is too often about letting the least of human nature win out, and its treatment of vulnerability vs. masculine energy or personal reformation is regularly schizophrenic. I don't anticipate her having a good end, though it would be refreshing for this show. That kid playing the son of Phil's transplant was awful. They're really going to bring him back?

Come ask questions:

I saw EE was trending and had to post this gem:

Both Greenwald and Tracey are insane.

After a rambling litany of procedural nonsense, Spicer opens his first press briefing with questions - first questioners are the NY Post and the Christian Broadcasting Network. Now the Fox Business Channel! Jonathan Karl of ABC is easing Spicer into admitting he was lying about the inauguration on Saturday. Spicer is rambling about how everyone makes mistakes, and they had other stats from "an outside agency," but it was definitely the most watched inaugural! "Do you want to dispute that? Well, I do! If you're questioning my integrity..." Oh, my God. They're laughing at him. Spicer is rambling about Nielsen ratings and streaming. And still raging about the MLK bust thing. "Where was the apology to the president of the United States?" They're reminding him he accepted the apology. "I'm just saying!" And now he's bitching about John Lewis. This has now devolved into him arguing with journalists about his behavior and with the administration. He's rambling about the majesty of the fake CIA audience. Now back to the fifth-string journalists...

Trump's speech to the CIA gets more mortifying the more I read of it, and the CIA is not happy.

Meanwhile, Trump is struggling. Another piece from the NYT about his aides getting scared:

The takeaway from that march was not that some celebrities were there, or that one or two, like Madonna, were desperate to be shocking in their old age - those were just side notes. The major takeaway in every publication and in most circles on the marches was that they were (apparently?) the biggest protests in American history and a huge event. That's it. Just because celebrities happen to be behind it does not make that or any event immediately compromised, and I think it does a disservice to the magnitude of the event and the millions of people attending across the country - and the effect it's already having not only on the media but clearly on the White House - to automatically suggest otherwise. No one even remembered the Bernie people behind it, or their attempt to snub Clinton. It never came up. People were out there marching for America, for her, for each other. That was it. We can be practical without writing the dismissals the right wing will try and fail to put over for them ahead of time.

Those are harmless compared to some of the suspicions I've seen floated about poor Barron (and which I cannot entirely dismiss).

This morning:

Yes, that's Riley. IIRC he was a PA or assistant director or something, and may have had a bit part as well. These pix and others were floating around last year. Second pic has Balthazar Getty, Dana Ashbrook (Bobby) and Amanda Seyfried. First two and last are from filming in and around the Double R Diner a.k.a. Twede's Cafe in North Bend, WA; the third pic is Kyle filming in L.A.

My father lost a wing of his family in the camps and both my grandfathers served; my grandmother was an Army nurse. They saw it all. You don't need a roadmap to see where this goes when left unchecked.

You sure have, buddy! (more apropos image)

So you're not even from here? Why is it always the clueless guys from overseas who love to preach about the magic of America's bigoted, homicidal right wing? Is it like a tourist thing for you? Do you think there's Dixieland parades?

Please go take your complaints about spotlighting Russian collusion and high treason up with every single American intelligence agency. As for the right or wrong ways to handle Nazis, I will do that and more if I have to, just as my grandparents did. We live in a culture where angry, confused men of the right wing are killing people like me and so many others in the streets every month of the year. Naming, shaming and occasionally beating the loudest one to a pulp is the very least we can do. If you have a problem with how we treat bigoted maniacs in this country, go ask your parents' parents how high we hung them before we were through.

There's a difference between letting him dictate the coverage and countering it. Ignoring his first press secretary's briefing opening with this would be normalizing his behavior and letting it become a matter of day-to-day course. That cannot be allowed to happen. And no, not all the media wants to feel cool - some are genuinely shocked and appalled by this behavior, as we are, and want to shine a light on it. If we don't call it what it was, we don't combat it. In Russia, Putin and his people's boldfaced lies are now just a daily occurrence. We can't let that happen. We don't have to follow the tail that wags the dog on his other stunts, but this is not an engineered cover, this is Trump being Trump and him and his people not knowing when to stop.

Why are we supposed to move on when Trump can't? His press secretary's first press conference was devoted entirely to screaming about the wet grass and magnetometers as excuses for a smaller crowd! If this is how they choose to conduct themselves and what he chooses to obsess on, he will be publicly shamed and mocked for it. What the media should do is report on all of that and hold him to the fire on policy, not get distracted. Some will do this, some won't. But it is important to keep naming and shaming this behavior as abnormal, outrageous, ridiculous and hilarious - that keeps Trump from falling into any kind of normalized space in the American mind as being "business as usual". That, above all, is what we cannot afford.

Even Tokyo Rose is getting annoyed:

As long as a Nazi gets punched I can only cross so many T's. Meanwhile: Cakegate. Incredible.

Let us know when and how a Nazi getting punched becomes equivalent to a fraction of the public and private misdeeds of Donald Trump and the alt right.

Yes, shameful that anyone would punch a white supremacist just as our forefathers did.

Try harder to make it easier to tell you apart. Day 2 is going great. They're already a laughing stock with the media.

I get enough unfunny juvenile gag picture posts from Soapsuds as is.