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I haven't seen Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning yet.  But I'll hopefully see it in the next couple of weeks so I can read and respond.

It is fascinating, though.  I think most Sliders fans think that season 5 is better than season 4 from a storytelling perspective, but I don't think season 5 resembles the Torme years much more than season 4 did.  I feel like they had more artistic control - Peckinpah was less active (right? am I misremembering?) and Jerry's influence was gone.  They moved away from being Kromagg heavy, but they stayed with more Sci-Fi concepts and less alternate history concepts.

I think there was an opportunity to do what they wanted, but it feels like they made a conscious decision to just do more of the same.

(Disclaimer: it's been forever since I've seen any of Season 5).

My wife and I are pretty good about expenses.  We have a budget on a family spreadsheet, and every week we download our expenditures for the week (we have separate credit cards), and we compare our expenses to how we've performed.  We meet for 5 or so minutes a week to discuss, and if we've overspent on any category, we talk through any changes that we need to make.  It's basically a free version of what you might find with any budgeting apps. 

One thing we've done is give ourselves each a certain amount of money (we call it our "allowance") that we can use without any sort of reaction from the other person.  This is usually something that we're doing for fun without the other - if I go out to dinner with my friends or if she wants to get some sort of spa experience.  This usually makes us give second thoughts to purchases that might otherwise be made without conscious thought.  And I think the same applies to any of our categories - making the categories separate and as specific as possible makes you think about the purchases more often.  For example, we ate at more restaurants during mother's day weekend, and so we're going to do less eating out the rest of the month to compensate.

Interesting about your cash back cards.  The bank I use does 1% cash back for all purchases, and then 5% cash back for a rotating grouping of categories on a quarterly basis.  It might be grocery stores one quarter and gas stations another.  I agree that those cards seem to have value, and I think every little bit helps.

It can be hit or miss.  I recently rewatched Bandersnatch and think it was a fun concept.  The story itself isn't super Black Mirror-y.  I think some of it strays a bit from the stuff that I like the most ("how would people react if *insert technology* was introduced?") and that's what I liked about Common People.  If you wanted to try it again, there's probably some lists that would do better at picking which episodes to watch and which to skip than me.  But I think, since Bandersnatch, my favorites are:

Season 6
Beyond the Sea
Demon 79 (although technically this is "Red Mirror" - an attempt at horror)

Season 7
Common People
USS Callister: Into Infinity (if you've seen the original - obviously watch that one first)

In season 5 (which I didn't pick any), I think all three are pretty good but all flawed in their own way.  "Joan Is Awful" is very entertaining and I really wanted to like Bete Noire more than I ended up liking it.

SPOILERS FOR THUNDERBOLTS*

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I really liked Thunderbolts*.  I think the movie was a lot of fun, and I think the characters were really good.  I agree that Pullman's Bob is really good, and he did a good job of both being very scary and intimidating and being really vulnerable.  It's pretty incredible that Marvel was able to get all these huge stars to play, essentially, second-level characters and for a movie about them to be really fun.

We got a movie of:

- Captain America's Friend
- Three characters from the Black Widow movie
- The villain from a forgettable Ant-Man movie
- The secondary villain from the Falcon and the Winter Soldier streaming show

Some of that is a little reductive, but it's all true.  And it's a pretty great movie that I think will do well financially.

I would like to focus on a couple of things I didn't really like, though:

- The New Avengers.  I know it's played like it's a joke, but it bothered me for two reasons.  One, it's not a joke.  They are the Avengers, enough for it to really bother Sam Wilson.  I understand why Red Guardian would do this, and I think it makes a lot of sense for Yelena, Walker, and maybe Ava.  But what is Bucky doing?  He was already an Avenger, technically, and it doesn't seem like he ever wanted to be in the spotlight like this.  I think it would've been a better character move for him to turn it down.

And it shines a light on the fact that the Avengers are gone...for no reason?  I was about to write about how there are a handful of Avengers that are still active, but I guess that's not necessarily true.  In fact, I guess Phases 4-6 haven't done a terrible job at explaining where each of the Avengers is:

- Iron Man (Dead)
- Captain America (Retired)
- Hulk (Off world with his son?)
- Thor (Off world with his adopted daughter)
- Hawkeye (Retired?)
- War Machine (Replaced by a Skrull, Retired?)
- Falcon (now Captain America, working solo)
- Spider-Man (forgotten by the Avengers, working solo)
- Captain Marvel (off world)
- Black Panther (T'Challa is dead, Shuri is in Wakanda)
- Ant-Man (Not sure)
- Vison (dead)
- Black Widow (dead)
- Wanda (dead)
- Guardians (not really Avengers, off world)

Every one of those appeared in phases 4-6 or was dead in Endgame.  So they've actually done a better job than I thought at referencing why the Avengers aren't around, but they really haven't directly referenced it.  It's unclear to me if Hawkeye is actually retired, what the status is of War Machine and Ant-Man, and why none of the new characters have been recruited.  It's unclear to me why the Avengers were allowed to be over, even if I understand why individuals aren't active Avengers anymore.

And I think it all links to that scene at the end of Shang-Chi.  It seemed like Shang-Chi was in the fold, and it seemed like the Avengers existed in some form at that time.  I know Carol has space stuff to do, and Bruce was still around.  So when Bruce did his stuff from She-Hulk...did he just leave and the Avengers building was just empty?

I get that we're going to get a lot of this in Avengers: Doomsday, but it just feels super disorganized that it hasn't been referenced.  Why all these characters felt comfortable leaving the Earth defenseless, and no one thought that was a problem.  I think they've done an okay job of answering the job piecemeal, but like a lot of phases 4-6, it just doesn't feel cohesive.  And this random team being introduced as the New Avengers and then that just being okay just feels weird to me.

I also wish they'd gotten Sam to show up in the post-credits.  In fact, I wish Brave New World was more about this than what it was actually about.

Hey DMD!

I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp.  I really didn't remember anything about that movie, apparently, outside of the post-credits scene.  Which I maintain is one of the best ones that the MCU has done.  Great cliffhanger and great tie-in to Endgame.  I thought it was a pretty fun movie.  I think Ant-Man really works, and I'm sad that Quantumania ended up being such a disaster for the MCU (critically, financially, and even creatively).

******

I think Daredevil was pretty solid.  And when you understand the behind the scenes hodgepodge that it was, I think it's amazing that it's anywhere near as good as it was.  I'm still unsure of what the show as going to be, though.  If we basically got episodes 1-6 of the original concept as episodes 2-7, what was the real difference?  Would the original season, minus missing out on Foggy and Karen (which I know is important to ireactions) really have been so bad that they needed to overhaul it?  Unless they made changes, those shows were pretty good.  I didn't think there was an obvious jump in quality.

I understand they didn't have the Punisher right, and they needed Foggy and Karen to make the whole show feel more cohesive.  But I guess it didn't feel like a dumpster fire that had to be rewritten.

The China stuff is absolute nonsense.  Trump doesn't care about China, and tariffs wouldn't even be on the top 50 ways to hurt China if you thought they were a threat.  Tariffs are being placed to hurt American businesses so that Trump can get loyalty from CEOs in exchange for tariff relief.  It's always a grift with Trump, and it's never about the reasons he uses.  If you ask 10 Trump administration people, they're all going to give different reasons because it's all BS.

Trump wants to help Russia by destabilizing the West.  And again, the tariffs help China way more than it hurts them.  People are still going to buy goods from China so it doesn't affect China there.  Businesses can pass the price along to the consumers so it doesn't affect them (unless the price becomes untenable).  The only people hurt are American consumers.  And China not only will get the same business from Americans, but they'll get additional trading from people that want free trade agreements (so far, Japan and South Korea).

So the winners are:

1. Trump (for getting whatever he wants)
2. Russia
3. China

Again, the people hurt the worst are almost certainly poor Trump voters.  And since there's still a tariff on thoughts and prayers, good.

Oh dang, I meant to link to it.  Now all of this could be complete and utter BS because I tried to find the twitter chain and it's gone.  I haven't read the leaked script (if there is one) and I have no idea if this guy or his main source is reliable.  But if it's fanfic, I think its fun fanfic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SHeSUoN2ZM

I don't disagree.  I've generally liked everything that Marvel has released, even the stuff that probably won't go anywhere like Moon Knight.  I guess my biggest concern is that the process doesn't feel cohesive.  I don't know if it's not cohesive, but it doesn't feel that way.  And the whole universe sorta feels aimless.

Now if you're talking about a season of an anthology show like Black Mirror or a list of A24 films or whatever, it doesn't have to feel cohesive and you can enjoy something here or there.  But in a shared universe, I would like to hope that all the building blocks are setting something up that will reward me for my loyalty. 

Phase one is Tony and Steve's story.  They became heroes, became Avengers, fought, and came back together to save the world before their journeys ended.  But if T'Challa didn't have his journey, the Avengers couldn't have won against Thanos.  If Scott Lang didn't have his journey, the time heist wouldn't have been possible.  If Stephen Strange hadn't had his journey, maybe Tony dies before he could save the day.  Carol Danvers, the Guardians, Thor and Loki, Peter Parker, etc all had their parts to play.

Even small stuff.  Ant-Man (2015) may not feel super important, but Scott meeting Sam at the Avengers compound has a direct through-line to the time heist.  Thor: The Dark World is much maligned, but it introduces one of the infinity stones.  Even smaller stories contributed to the overall story.

Right now, it just feels like independent stories.  And some of that is okay.  They've done so many stories since Endgame, and not every one of them needs to be a puzzle piece.  Moon Knight doesn't need to contribute to defeating Doom for it to be enjoying or worth existing, but I just don't feel like any of it is building to anything.  And part of that is that we're not "checking in" on anyone.  I don't know what Dr. Strange is doing since he left with Charlize Theron.  We don't know what Spider-Man is up to.  We don't know what the Avengers are doing about the Ten Rings.  Brave New World implies there are no Avengers, but that didn't seem to be the case in Shang-Chi.

I think some of this could've been accomplished with a series of post-credit scenes that make the universe feel whole.  Sorta like a mini-movie that is being told via post-credit scenes to just keep our pulse on what's happening in the greater universe.  I think Sam would've been a great guy to put in a few of these movies, but it could've also been someone like Wong or Shang-Chi or someone like that.

But even if actor availability is a concern, they could simply catch us up with dialogue.  Sam could've told us what other Avengers were up to in Brave New World.  Daredevil could tell us what Spider-Man is doing.

And maybe all of this will work in retrospect.  It's unlikely the Sam/Scott fight in Ant-Man felt important at the time, and I'm not 100% sure that scene was even written to connect to Civil War.  But in retrospect, it works.  So maybe we'll look back and see more ties than we think there are now.  But I still think it doesn't feel like anyone is behind the wheel right now.

And I worry that they're going to have to devote time in Doomsday to catching us up.  And I think some of that could've been done in dialogue, in cameos, in crossovers, or even supplemental materials (One Shots or whatever).  It's just crazy to me that we've had so much content but so little continuity.

I'm still all in on Marvel.  My enthusiasm hasn't waned a ton.  But I just wish some of that cohesiveness was still there, and I worry that Doomsday is going to have to do so much heavy lifting instead of storytelling.

Did anyone see the casting for Avengers Doomsday?  Is that a spoiler?

I have no idea how they're going to manage adding the cast of (spoiler?) to this movie.  I think the multiverse is a cool concept (obviously), and it's fun to have worlds collide.  But I really think this was the wrong decision for phases 4-6, and I'm worried Marvel is doing a panic move.

Spoilers for Episode 5 of Daredevil

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So they did their first MCU crossover.  I remember hearing about this, but I'd completely forgotten.  And I'm unsure how I feel about it.  On one hand, it's exactly what I'm looking for, and it might be the perfect link for this particular show.  On the other...Kamala's dad??

I'll start with the positives.  They aren't bringing in a big movie star (editorial - I know the actor playing Mr. Khan is allegedly some sort of criminal, I don't know anything about it), nor are they bringing in someone who requires big time CGI.  In fact, it was someone who couldn't help Matt at all.  If it had been Sam Wilson in civilian clothes or Rhodey or Nick Fury, Matt would've had help.  In this case, it's an established MCU character (he's probably appeared in more MCU material than some people you wouldn't expect) that couldn't help Matt in any way.  And there was an on-screen reference to Ms. Marvel.

So in that minute, Matt felt connected to the universe.

But at the end of the day, its a little bizarre that they picked Mr. Khan.  This feels like the type of cameo where they'd go to Jon Favreau and get Happy Hogan to show up.  If you'd told me there would be an MCU crossover in episode 5 and gave me 1000 guesses, I might never have gotten to Kamala's dad.  I might've gone off the board and picked Iron Fist and assumed that was technically an MCU character.

But I asked for it, and I got it.  I don't need Spider-Man to show up (I know he can't) and have the two of them fight aliens, but it's nice to know that the show isn't ashamed of being in the MCU.

Yeah, I would think the same thing.  I tried to look but also didn't see anything.

Which is surprising to me because I think Rosenbaum is good about getting people to talk about controversial stuff.  But maybe Welling put his foot down or maybe he isn't legally allowed to talk about anything.

I just don't understand the disconnect between the universe now.  In the past, they'd throw Chris Evans in Thor: the Dark World for a sight gag.  Falcon would show up and fight Ant-Man.  Even if you don't want a direct crossover, dialogue is free.  Fisk should either acknowledge that Daredevil and White Tiger are different from government-sanctioned heroes like Captain America, or someone should be challenging him on that front.

I really thought that, following Endgame, the idea of fleshing out the universe via TV shows was a great idea.  The problem is that they've made the universe even more closed off.  And I wonder if the Snap was just too big of an event to follow up on.  Because the Snap/Blip is almost never mentioned outside of a few scenes.  Normal characters never mention it.  And the world seems to have completely rebounded to the point where nothing seems different.  I really liked that recovery from the Snap seemed to have been a huge part of Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

But think about the show/book "The Leftovers" - they made one of the best shows of all time based on the idea that 3% of people disappeared without a trace.  That happened in the MCU (and then they came back!) and now everyone in the MCU is the bullpen at the Daily Planet after Man of Steel.

Maybe they should've had Doctor Strange write a spell that compels people to return to their lives and forget about Thanos.  At least there would be a reason.  Or maybe they need to stay away from situations that would drastically affect society.

But...I went on a tangent.  I think, even if they wanted each show to live by itself, they could have people make references that make the universe feel cohesive.  If Fisk mentioned Captain America or the Avengers, it would feel like the MCU.  Making a shaded reference to Spider-Man is cool, but it feels like the references they'd make in the Netflix show (the big green guy.  the thing that happened in the city).

That's why I wonder if they needed a Nick Fury for Phases 4-6.  Someone who could pop into these shows and movies and make it feel connected.  I think Sam Wilson makes a lot of sense to be that guy, trying to hold the Avengers together in some way.  But they could really use anyone.  I mean, heck, use Coulson.  Say that Tony brought him back with the Snap and now he's the new Fury.  I know that might upset Agents of Shield people but it is what it is.

To me, Trump's biggest flaw isn't his incompetence.  If anything, I think it's the thing about him that I like the most.  If Trump were competent, I think he'd be much more dangerous.  The fact that the Hitler we're getting is really bad at his job might actually save the US because Trump is really really bad at getting things done.

My issue with Trump is that he doesn't seem to ever have the American people's best interests at heart.  I'm not sure he hates the United States, but he certainly does a lot of things to actively hurt it.  If Trump actually loved the United States and wanted it to be great, I wouldn't hate Trump as much (obviously, I still would).  But Trump is actively trying to sell the country out.  He's actively trying to diminish the country and make it less safe for my children.  He's attacking allies that we will need to placate powers we need to be standing up to.  And he's convincing my fellow countrymen that it's okay to do that.

I was thinking about what could get Americans united.  And if Russians actively attacked the US.  Let's say Russia invaded Alaska and secured some of our oil fields there.  Instead of rallying around a common enemy, I bet the narrative would be either that the Russians didn't really do it or that it's okay that they did.  If aliens attacked and we needed to unite as a species, it would either be that the alien invasion is fake or that it's good that they're taking over.

I think, with time, some of this will go away.  I thought it would need to be defeating Trump in a spectacular fashion.  At this point, it may need to be Trump failing in a spectacular fashion, even if it means the next president will need to dig us out of economic and social catastrophe.

I've started Daredevil: Born Again.  One problem, and it's a problem we've seen with the MCU in general with the additional output, is how does this connect to anything?  And it's not like "Daredevil lives in his own space" because he's appeared in two things in the MCU already.  I'm not fully done, but I'm not sure how Born Again ties in with She-Hulk.  When does this take place?  I don't think we need Sam Wilson to cameo, but it would be nice for this to feel like it exists in the MCU, unlike the original three seasons.

Okay so I saw Cap 4.

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Hmmm, I think you might be too hard on Captain America: Brave New World.  While I certainly agree that this is a Hulk movie acting like a Captain America movie, I do think a lot of it works as a Captain America movie.  I think it seems like it's trying to be the Winter Soldier (it feels as close to that as any movie since), and I think Captain America's relationship with the president is something that should be explored.  And then it's a natural extension, for me at least, to bring in Ross' supporting characters.

It could've been a purer Captain America movie if they'd Sidewinder the main villain (instead of the Leader) and made the president someone else.  But then I assume you lose the Red Hulk and the movie becomes something more potentially forgettable like Thor: The Dark World.

I think the movie probably would've been better served to have Bruce Banner in it, but I can see why they didn't want to go that route.  If Banner is there, he might overshadow Sam in his first movie.  It was okay to have Downey in Civil War and make that a mini-Avengers movie because it was Chris Evans' third movie.  If you make it a Hulk movie starring Captain America, it might be a bad look.  Especially for the first movie for a black Captain America.  You don't want that to turn into, on purpose or by accident, "The Hulk and his buddy Sam"

I think there were two natural stories for this movie.  One is perfect but logistically impossible.  The other I'm not sure why they didn't do, but it might have been too late to pivot.

1. Make it a Captain Hydra story.  What's the villain that would affect Sam the most: Steve.  What's the theme of this saga of MCU movies: the Multiverse.  If you bring back Chris Evans as Captain Hydra, brought into this universe by...something...and you have Sam having to face all his fears and hopes and dreams.  He gets to literally see if he's a better Captain America than Steve.  I think that movie is a better story for Sam, it's a better fit for the Multiverse Saga, and it's a bigger draw for people to have Chris Evans return.  But I think they're saving that for later, which is a shame.

2. Make it a "Putting the Avengers back together" story.  Maybe even some kind of Oceans 11 type movie where Sam spends the first act going to see Scott and Rhodey and Shuri and the other Earth-based heroes and trying to figure out who wants to join the team.  They'd all turn him down for one reason or another, but we'd also get to get status updates on everyone.  He tries to reach out to Captain Marvel or Thor or whoever.  Maybe it pivots into some kind of Young Avengers movie with Sam as the leader.  I don't know.  But I think it would make the universe feel cohesive again to have an understanding of what's going on in this universe because I think that's what we're missing. 

In so many ways, the world of the MCU is so much bigger, but we have no idea the state of the world right now.  Why aren't there any Avengers?  Even if most of the original Avengers died, retired, or moved on....there were a hundred Avengers at the fight in Endgame.  None of them wanted to stick around and keep doing good?  That's why I think phases 4-6 should've been about "what does it mean to be an Avenger?" "Can you have a life and be an Avenger or is being an Avenger your life?"  "Does the world need the Avengers" - stuff like that.  I think right now we don't understand what's going on, and that's the reason why the MCU is struggling to me.

But back to the movie we did get.  I think one of my other disappointments is that we didn't really get much of Sam's life.  Nando v Movies brought this up in his review, but Sam's life seems to be pretty changed from where he was in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.  Where's his family?  Where's his nephew(s)?  What is his deal - he seems to have some kind of headquarters.  Who's paying for that?  Who sends him on missions?  Is he a mercenary for good?  He seems to be enjoying being Captain America, but how's the rest of his life going?

Other than that, I thought the movie had good action.  I think the character moments we got with Sam were pretty good.  I still don't understand his position on the super soldier serum, but that doesn't bother me too much.  It was bizarre that we kept getting references to the Celestial but not a single reference to the Eternals.  I think the movie felt pretty unique - I didn't think it felt like any other MCU movie before.  I liked seeing the Leader, although I didn't love the look they gave him.  I think Giancarlo Esposito was wasted a bit, although he was good with what he was given.

All in all, I didn't hate it.  I think there were some wasted opportunities, but I can understand why they went the route they went.  I'm hoping that this can be considered the end of the "Covid era" of MCU because I do think Covid ruined a ton of the post-Endgame era.  With scheduling delays and changed storylines and altered release schedules and abandoned ideas, I think Covid messed with a lot of the master plan.  And I'm hoping Thunderbolts or Fantastic Four, which started development in the post-Covid era (at least FF did), can start to fix the heading of the ship.

Spoilers for Thunderbolts, probably.

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So the trailers for this movie have been pretty good, I think.  I think it will be a fun team, and I think the characters will have a chance to expand.  But we saw it with Suicide Squad, and we're seeing it with Thunderbolts.  The team being advertised is six people: Bucky, Yelena, Red Guardian, John Walker, Ghost, and Taskmaster.  Except all the major scenes only have five members.  In the elevator, it's five.  When they're walking down the street together, it's five.  When Red Guardian is giving his big speech, it's five.

Taskmaster clearly dies very early in this film, and the marketing isn't even trying to hide it.  Unlike when they hid Spider-Man in the Civil War trailer until their big reveal or hid Fat Thor in the Endgame marketing or they hid the Spider-Men in No Way Home or they added back in the Hulk for Infinity War...they aren't even doing any trickery.  They aren't going back in and adding Taskmaster to make it seem like she's in this movie.  In the Super Bowl spot (which I really like), she's essentially tacked on to the end of it to make it seem like she's in the movie even though she's barely in the trailer before that. 

Now the trailer mostly ignores Ghost as well, but at least she's involved in the action.  You can tell she's in the movie.  We know Taskmaster is in the big ambush sequence (I assume at the very beginning) but she's basically gone in every other shot.  So like Slipknot in the original Suicide Squad, I assume she's only in the movie to die and slightly raise the stakes.  Which is fine...but I would've preferred if Marvel wasn't openly parading that in all the trailers.

Especially since Taskmaster wears a mask.  They could've had a stuntperson in the Taskmaster costume for every shot and use those shots in the trailer.  When they're just standing around listening to Red Guardian's speech, throw in the Taskmaster double for the trailers.  In the car ride that Bucky attacks, throw Taskmaster in for the trailers.  If that's too expensive, throw her in in post.  Not in every shot but just enough for us to believe that she's in more than one scene.

It's no big deal at the end of the day, but I'd either prefer they ignore her completely or add her back in.  The way they're doing is a little awkward.

******

I'm seeing Captain America this week.  I've heard nothing but bad things but I'm hopeful it'll be entertaining.

Biden absolutely shouldn't have run for another term.  He ended up doing the right thing, but it was too late.  If you look the way the wind ended up blowing, it might not have mattered no matter who the candidate was.

I'm sorry, guys.  I had a rough day yesterday (no big deal, nothing consequential) and I don't have the heart to chime in here right now.  Maybe I will later.  I guess my half-hearted response would be some combination of the same argument I made in regard to Grizzlor (we can't afford to lose anyone and we need varied viewpoints) and "go back to your corners and cool down."  I don't want QuinnSlidr to leave, and I don't like the idea of any sort of temporary ban in this case, but I do agree that QuinnSlidr should probably voluntarily avoid this post for his own mental health.  And maybe do the same with the news.  It can be stressful and a break from it might help.

For my two cents, I'll say this:

1. Kamala wasn't directly elected by primary voters

2. Outside of Biden stepping down months earlier, I don't see how it's logistically possible for the voters to have done a second primary.  And I don't recall that ever being something that was on the table.  And I think if they did something like that, it would've gone exactly the way that Biden's primary went - a couple of random nobodies would have run against her and she would've easily won.

Would some kind of fake primary have helped Kamala win?  I can't imagine there's any chance of that.  So I think, in the end, that argument is invalid.  Biden "won a primary' but did he?  People voted for him, but (and I apologize for this comparison), Putin wins a lot of elections.  Because the elections aren't real elections but just rubber stamps to make us feel better.

The real problem is that we think that incumbents shouldn't be challenged.  We think challenging a sitting incumbent is a sign of weakness, and it will expose the incumbent to challenges in the general election.

And my response to that is "....good?"  If an incumbent can't beat a challenge in a primary, they probably can't win a challenge in a general election.  And if the point of a primary is to get the best possible candidate, then every primary should be an open primary.  The problem is that people assume all primaries are going to be dirty and negative.  I think if the Democrats had run a true open primary but kept it positive, it wouldn't have hurt anyone.  And if Biden was the best candidate, he'd win.  If not, then "....good?"

The problem with the Democrats in the two elections they lost to Trump is that they kept saying how important it was to defeat Trump, but they didn't make any effort to get the best Democrat.  Hillary didn't face a true primary and neither did Biden or Harris.  I'm not convinced that Newsom or Whitmer or Mayor Pete could've beaten Trump, especially with how things went.  It seems like Trump was always going to win.  But in 2016, Hillary was just so historically unpopular in her own party and then went out of her way to alienate the Bernie voters.  She was clearly the better candidate, but she wasn't electable because of all her baggage with voters.

And I'm guessing if anyone had joined in a primary against her, they would've beaten her and probably won the presidency.  Heck a super old crazy socialist (my own editorializing - I like Bernie but I think that description fits) made it way closer than it should've been, and no one had ever heard of him previously. A real candidate would've beaten her the same way Trump beat her.  Obviously if Biden's son hadn't died, I think he would've run and won.

So in summary, I don't think a primary would've mattered because I don't think a real primary would've happened.  Everyone lined up behind Kamala - that was the primary.  It would've been a waste of time to frantically throw together a process where people would put Kamala's name on a ballot just to check a box.  And they didn't have any time.

And again, I don't think anyone was going to beat Trump.  I think Kamala did as well as anyone else would've.

**************

So as a favor to me, everyone should calm down and take a breath.  Everything sucks right now, and as a favor to me, just drop it and let's move forward.

I have a friend who is a public school administrator in a mostly-Hispanic school in North Texas.  He's nervous because all the immigration rumor mill is driving everyone crazy at his school.  And now there's apparently some executive order that forces all schools to be patriotic (his words, I didn't read the order or look into it). 

Literally everything that's coming out of the White House makes my stomach churn.  This is why my head is going six feet into the sand.

If there's one thing that helps me not go crazy because of Trump's win, it's this: unless Trump takes the drastic step to eliminate elections (which could work because of the many ways its worked in the past or could blow up in his face), anything he does is reversible, some of which could be reversed four years from now.  Even if Trump ruins the economy or guts the government or gets 9 Republican members on the Supreme Court, it can be fixed.  The last one would obviously take decades, but it's all reversible.  Trump's presidency will fade.  His influence will fade.  His legacy will fade.  And unless he's infamous, before long he'll just be in a list of names that most people can't remember every name on.

Donald Trump wants to live forever and for his name to echo forever.  But some day, sooner than he'd like, he will be dead and his name will eventually be a footnote to most people that aren't presidential scholars.

I really thought Kamala had momentum, and I thought the math was on her side.  I thought she'd at least eke out a 270-268 win, and I was starting to really hope that the polls had it wrong enough that she could win overwhelmingly.  The fact that he won still blows my mind, and I probably haven't allowed myself to come to terms with it.  The fact that he won the popular vote really blows my mind.

So my opinion is worth nothing, it seems.

Ughhhh.  I know it can happen to anyone, but I'm really disappointed.  I'm interested to see what his response is on the podcast.  Or if the podcast continues, I suppose.

I've definitely misgendered you in the past.  At the risk of being woke, what are your pronouns?

I can't speak to anything that's happening because I'm actively not paying attention, but Grizzlor, I'm genuinely curious where you get your news.

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I do know that people here in Texas are either really excited or really nervous about the ICE raids.  I guess I'm just waiting on everything to get super expensive.  Illegal immigrants cook a lot of our food, wash our dishes, build a lot of stuff, work on our oil derricks, and take care of our lawns.  I don't know who people think are going to do all these jobs if we get rid of everyone here illegally, but I know that whoever takes the job is going to cost a lot more.  Gasoline and restaurant prices are definitely going to go up, and I assume yards in richer areas simply won't get taken care of because the labor will just be gone.

And of course the people who complain the most would never be willing to do any of these jobs themselves.

The day after the election, I cleaned out my phone.  I deleted the Apple News app, I got rid of the news widget on the far end of my home screen, and I made my browsers (at home and work) default to a blank screen instead of a "random news" screen.  I'm not withdrawing fully from the world - I don't go out of my way to avoid news - I find out plenty from my friends' group chat and just existing in the world.  And I'm not going to go out of my way to slam my head so far in the ground that I don't know about stuff like the LA wildfires or stuff like that.  Even trying to avoid inauguration stuff, I organically found out that it'd been moved inside.

But I'm off social media (I've been off twitter for a while and I haven't been on facebook since election night), and I've eliminated any way my phone can update me on stuff.  I am actively avoiding listening to the news when my wife has it on, and I will absolutely avoid when my in-laws have Fox News on (I'll go to a different room).  But I'll find out about stuff second hand and that's fine with me.

As far as what Trump's done, none of that is too unexpected.  And honestly, I know things are going to get bad but any executive order that Trump does can be undone by the next guy.  Now if Bolton gets killed that's obviously permanent, but the rest of it can be fixed in four years.  The Paris Accords will have lasting damage, but that was to be expected.  I expect things to be bad with Trump, and I'm prepared for a lot of bad stuff.  What scares me is stuff that can't be undone or we can't come back from.  And we won't really know that until we see if we have free and fair elections in 2026 and 2028.

I did talk with one of my friends the other day, and he said he's somewhat optimistic that the MAGA movement might schism in 2026.  After the midterms, Republicans don't have any use for Trump anymore.  He can't run again (assuming we have elections), and they're going to have to pivot to giving Vance credit for whatever is happening (like Democrats did with Harris).  That could fracture the base because there are people that aren't Republicans - they're only loyal to Trump.  So what do those people do when Trump is out of the picture?  Trump's endorsements obviously help, but they aren't foolproof.  And when I was monitoring this stuff online, they're just as quick to turn against Republicans that aren't fully loyal to Trump as they are Democrats.

I don't know.  Maybe something to keep an eye on.

I think both things can be true:

1. I think Democrats need to reform.  They needed to reform even if they'd won.  The current makeup of the party isn't sustainable and the people want different things.  They can't be the party of the working class and suburban educated people.  It doesn't work.  They need to shift back to what the party was trying to be under Obama, and that means winning back the MAGA people that voted for Obama.  That was a winning formula.  Clinton/Biden/Harris's route is too dangerous and relies exclusively on people hating Trump.

2. Things aren't that bad.  And Trump is going to immediately throw any goodwill he gets out.  His ideas are disastrous, and if he implements anything he wants, it will make the economy way worse than it was under Biden.

And pointing at the approval rating is pointless.  We are at a really polarized situation where the opposite party will say they disapprove no matter what the president is doing.  The maximum approval rating is 50%.  So unless you get everyone in your own party to approve, that's the best you can do.  Trump will have similar approval ratings no matter what he does, and I expect his to get much worse.

Okay I watched all of Skeleton Crew.  Overall it was a fun story and I'm glad it exists.  I do have two comments, one spoilery and one not.  If you don't want spoilers, just stop here.

1. I like that the people on At Attin refer to "The Great Work" - I'm confident that phase wasn't even original to Sliders when they did it two decades ago, but it definitely made me think of Sliders.

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2. So...Wim is definitely dead in canon?  Skeleton Crew takes place in 9 ABY and the Force Awakens is 25-30 years later.  The ending seems to imply that Wim's destiny is to work with the New Republic, possibly flying an X-Wing.  But if that's the case, Wim is going to put himself right into the middle of what we know is a losing fight.

Now obviously some people working for the New Republic survived and either went into hiding or joined the Resistance.  And I'm sure fan theories will pick a specific background actor who must be Wim to prove that he survived through Rise of Skywalker.  But that's the issue with dealing with this stuff at this time when we know how bad things get.

To me, if Star Wars starts again, they need to leave this era.  Either go 1000 years ahead or 1000 years behind.  I think this era is too bogged down.  Let's say that Rey and her friends finally defeated the evil and restarted a more modern Jedi and they thrived for 1000 years.  Now let's do something new.