…welp…I tried…I really did…I mean the list of things I could be boring you people about is essentially infinite for all practical purposes…& yet…well…here we are again
…I mean, I know I was just bitching about this the other day…& only yesterday I was moaning & bemoaning the fact that I’m not spending my time…I dunno…trying to persuade you that I & only I really “get” Avenue 5, or something similarly inconsequential [I dunno, it’s not bad if you like Armando Iannucci more than you like sci-fi…& it’s got Hugh Laurie…so how bad can it be?] instead of banging the same tired old drum…but for real…that is one slack-cheeked sack of crap in a suit who in no way resembles an attorney for anyone but the GOP by way of DJT…that’s just one of the more obvious ways in which Justice is not served by the servant tasked with directing the Department. of. freaking.Justice.
…probably gonna need a new name for that shit
…however you look at it it’s not a good look
…because at the end of the day, that’s a pretty big slice of the fucking problem…the look of the thing is all these assholes are interested in selling…largely because they grasp neither the substance nor the context of either what they should be doing, what they need to be doing or the importance of why…evidently whatever form of rodent-like cunning keeps their eyes fixated on their own interests & their tail out of the crack just flat craps out beyond that & they reject the overwhelming weight of evidence that they are in fact the very definition of being the problem while claiming to be the solution
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/inside-trump-s-week-rage-retribution-n1136401
…I realize you must be getting pretty sick of me going on this way…hell, I’m sick of me going on this way…sick of sounding like I think politics functions like a second rate John Grisham novel…but let’s face it…what with the Opus Dei thing…it’s more like a Dan Brown book [maybe they’re right about this being the darkest timeline because as far as I can tell the only way to make a Dan Brown book look good is to compare it to another Dan Brown book…not that he cares what I think on account of so many people throwing money at him for them…so…uhh…yeah…still agnostic over here…]
https://www.salon.com/2020/01/03/bill-barr-warrior-for-theocracy-why-didnt-we-know-this-until-now/
…so here’s the thing…& I wasn’t going to mention it because I’m also sick of sounding like I take seriously ideas that ought by rights to be synonymous with the sorts of people who have their own full-length tin-foil onesie to match their collection of hats for when they leave the bunker/faraday cage in which they scratch out their meager off-grid existence while awaiting the end times…but for two things
…firstly the ladies on the Mueller She Wrote podcast were prepared to indulge it as a piece of reasonable conjecture…& in my experience those ladies are plenty shrewd…& I’m pretty sure better informed about this stuff than me…& secondly…the tangerine tantrum that is the Reality TV “president” may have been embarrassing himself & his nation with his usual shameful abandon these last few days…but there’s one fit he conspicuously failed to pitch
…now remember, this is a guy who tried to get his first AG to play ball about dropping the whole Russia “thing” before firing him & upgrading from “thing” to “hoax”…a guy who didn’t just fire a general
[because that general said entirely true but unflattering things about how entirely obvious the crudely criminal behavior of this cretinously corrupt corpulent carcass of a con artist has been in general & specifically with respect to the craven attempt to coerce conspiratorial confabulation out of the *cough*“perfect call”*cough*]
…but the general’s fucking twin brother…like some stroppy diva bitch demanding that “I don’t want to see that face any place I might even think of going”
…so when his boy billy goes – ON TV, no less – & talks smack about how all the tweeting makes it impossible to make with the Justice…& then – in direct contravention of the woefully-inappropriate-but-volubly-public express wishes of the man-baby-who-would-be-king – actually exonerates McCabe…you know what a lot of people might expect…the sort of twitter shitstorm that would make even the most misanthropic of captive monkeys give it props…except I don’t have an unhinged anti-billy-boy-barr tweet to paste in at this point
…see, if this was some shitty plot in a Dan Brown novel the explanation would be obvious – it’s all about the look of thing, remember?
…& if you’re looking down the road a ways…say…to around the end of March
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/12/politics/william-barr-testify-congress/index.html
…well, then a guy who supposedly went up against Orange Foolius over principle & voiced “sincere” concerns about an inability to do his job…well, maybe that guy might decide…sometime between now & sometime in March…that being AG (& liable to be compelled to testify) isn’t really his thing & it’s time he resigned himself back into the less-compel-able but equally-culpable ranks of the private citizenry
…because there’s a whole lot of “culpable” going around…and the smallest share does not in fact belong to the credulous turkeys aiming on voting for another four. god. damn. years. of this chump-ass christmas bullshit
…so what can I say…I’m sort of appalled…& just all sorts of incandescently angry that all of this shit is happening & it is literally just another Tuesday in America
…oh, & if that isn’t enough fodder to stoke up the fires of your righteous indignation for the day…LemmyKilmister was good enough to drop this off yesterday
https://www.stonekettle.com/2020/02/those-who-forget-history.html
…in which Jim Wright elucidates some of the ways in which what currently passes for an administration has done such a bang up job that of some 27 grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence the only one that they haven’t managed to emulate &/or surpass has to do with the press-ganging of citizens into enforced maritime service…so it’s no exaggeration to say that “the founders” would consider it a matter of life & death to rid themselves of this dyspeptic despot?
I haven’t watched American Gods yet, but that clip has me thinking I need to start.
I hate to add to the bad news but author Charles Portis has died.
…damn…RIP the father of Rooster Cogburn.
The first season of American Gods has some very strong episodes, but the second season is garbage. The showrunner left/was fired, there were huge fights over the budget, the writing fell apart, Gillian Anderson quit…. It’s been renewed for another season, but Orlando Jones quit in disgust and it’s hard to see it being any better.
…it’s a problem…& a shame…I tend to be predisposed to like Gaiman’s stuff & they had a great cast to work with so I’d hoped they’d pull it together…but the book it’s based on is itself weak in some places & much of what is intended to function as a “reveal” in the later stages of the narrative is heavily telegraphed to anyone familiar with his other stuff…
Orlando Jones was beyond fantastic as Anansi though…& Gaiman did write another book called Anansi Boys…so if anyone ever hooks that up I’m pretty sure I’d tune in?
The presence of Gillian Anderson (even though it’s not a big role) makes me think of American Gods in some of the sme ways as The X Files. There are some absolutely brilliant scenes and episodes, but the way they try to wrap it all together into a coherent story just doesn’t work. Both of them should have ditched the big story and focused on characters and smaller events.
I read one othe Gaiman book — The Graveyard Book — and thought the same thing. Individual chapters were brilliant, but he just couldn’t bring it all together and probably shouldn’t have bothered. Many stories don’t need closure.
…it’s always been a bit of a mystery to me…when he was writing The Sandman comics he was certainly capable of some deft touches & a satisfying overarching narrative…his prose stuff has always seemed peculiarly hamfisted about that sort of thing?
I’m liking Avenue 5 but I’m watching it as a disaster show and not sci-fi. As someone who enjoys cruises I really think they nailed the passenger sterotypes.
The Ship is a nice allegory for the current state of democracy around the globe and being off course because the maths are hard is too good. Plus acotrs playing the crew is also perfect for the current privatization of space we’re living in.
There are a ton of cringe worthy moments that Veep and Curb are known for and the idea that a barrier of shit keeps out the radiation really is genius.
…you’re right, I think…I saw an ad or two for it & was initially confused to find Hugh Laurie & Rebecca Front against a sci-fi backdrop but once Iannucci’s name showed up it made sense to me
…most (if not all) of his stuff has to do with the inner workings of big, important stuff being full of little people & everything fucking up all over the place (the thick of it/in the loop/death of stalin/&c) so I’ve been willing to roll with the bits that seem a little janky to someone who read way too much sci-fi growing up & appreciate the ways that (as you say) the metaphor does work
…the fact that I liked Zach Woods in Silicon Valley may have helped but I think the cast are great
…part of me is tempted to go see if any of the folks that spent so much time bitching about star trek discovery & the orville over at i09 & the AVClub made of it…or amazon’s picard show…but I’m not sure I can take that much irony all at once?
…could use a bit more malcolm tucker, though
In news that makes you wish Deadspin and Splinter were still around, Trump has pardoned Eddie DeBartolo, former owner of the 49ers.
It’s a gross political move benefitting a donor who doesn’t need to jump the line. The former players who are clapping for this ought to be ashamed.
yeah and he followed it up with a commute sentence for Blagojevich.
And then added Bernie Freaking Kerik to the list. This is a list of the kinds of thing Kerik did, including Kerik taking over a city owned apartment meant for 9/11 first responders so he could meet with his two mistresses.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/img-src-http-talkingpointsmemo-com-images-kerik-rudy-hug-jpg-vspace-5-hspace-5-align-left-tpm-s-ultimate-kerik-scandal-list
Sorry to add to today’s list of crappy news, but this needs some blasting from the goddamn rooftops:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/16/mike-pompeo-chris-stevens-benghazi-attack
Because we ALL knew that the only reason why those motherfuckers purported to care about the folks killed in Benghazi was to trash Hillary & the State Department**
The fact that they’re willing to strip out even *this* tiny (in the overall Federal budget) bit of funds, shows that all those “We will NEVER forget these sacred lives lost!!!” claims were 100% the bullshit we assumed them to be.🤬🤬🤬
(**Which, might I remind y’all, was CHRONICALLY underfunded, *for YEARS,* before the terrible incident that night in Benghazi: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R43721.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj_647G6NvnAhVbbc0KHRECBD0QFjADegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw1vppZn4DeCAjiqqWDuOphY)
…it’s a wonder these assholes don’t die of shame, to be honest
…how they live with themselves is quite literally beyond me