Tidbits and GoT Predictions

1.)I’m a bit sad this morning over Bernie Sanders’ self-immolation of his brand. Bernie was on to something. His message resonated with me strongly. He made a strategic misstep when he identified too much with the more paranoid supporters in his constituency. Bernie supporters will always be welcome here. Your opinions *do* matter to us and your vote is still important if you haven’t had a chance to participate in a primary yet. You shouldn’t be ignored just because your champion temporarily lost his f&*(ing mind. (Just don’t expect us to argue every point with you. Our focus is forward, getting Hillary elected)

And anyway, no revolution is going to happen until we put more people like us in Congress, the Senate and statehouses. If Hillary is elected president, the tide of bad voting laws can be rolled back. That right there is a good reason to vote for her because you can’t change anything if you can’t vote. So, I hope we can concentrate on downticket Democrats that both sides of the party can get behind. (Yeah, we don’t like Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and her student body president types either)

2.) We had a sustained attack on this blog on Friday. I have reason to believe it was not just a Bernie Bros production. The Bernie Bros are occasionally more earnest burning swamp monsters flailing and broadcasting high anxiety to the blog. (Calm your tits, guys, Hillary isn’t nearly as Satanic as you think). But I don’t think they are the most destructive trolls. I mean, who has the most to lose this election really? Who is more motivated to try to diminish and marginalize the pro-Hillary contingent?

Let’s just say that I’ve been tracing some of the commenters to their original sources and my curiosity is piqued. Would there be a concerted effort to bombard Hillary positive blogs with comments that looked like they came from unhinged Bernie Bros but are actually right wing disrupters who got their hands on what should be defunct domain addresses? I wouldn’t be surprised. Someone with more time and network skills on their hands should look into this. I can provide the information if you interested.

3.) Jane Caro, my favorite Australian, is writing a trilogy of books about Queen Elizabeth I of England and what sacrifices women in power have to make. She touches briefly on what Hillary is going through at about the 35 minute mark when she talks about how men are ok with women playing second fiddle. But the minute a woman politician decides to go for the top spot, she suddenly morphs into a “heinous bitch” in the media. There’s some speculation that there is an ancient physical taboo involved. Donald Trump has already tapped into this. I’m really intrigued by Jane’s hypothesis here.

Jane used to be in advertising and she’s very perceptive about what motivates people as well as what turns them off. Jane talks about why virgins are more powerful. We should probably try to understand this if we ever expect to make progress. Is she on to something? Discuss.

The whole video is really good. If I were Hillary, I’d add Caro to the campaign advisors.

 

4.) Ok, who out there hates to clean? Don’t be shy, raise your hands. I have some podcast gold for you that are truly sponge worthy and will take your mind off the chores that never end and don’t seem to stay done. These are about Hollywood’s early years and they are fascinating.

Stuart Waterman has two amazing podcasts. Pick one depending on your mood.

Attaboy Clarence podcasts are about an hour long and feature biographies of the stars, old timey ads and Lux Theater rebroadcasts of movies, along with Stuart’s sardonic commentary delivered in a Jude Law drawl.

The Secret History of Hollywood is more like an ongoing deep dyve narrative. These podcasts must take months to put together but they are so well done you can’t wait for the next one to come out. He has podcasts that cover Alfred Hitchcock, Universal Pictures’ horror genre and the beginnings of Warner Bros. and their gangster film franchise. I’m on part two of Bullets and Blood. Start with Bullets and Blood part 1. You won’t be sorry.

You Must Remember This is Karina Longworth’s podcast on the history of Hollywood. Her podcast also has biographies of the stars starting with the silent screen right up to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. These podcasts are shorter, about 30 minutes long. Karina always finds an angle that you might not have thought about and leaves you thinking long after the podcast is over. Hollywood has had an enormous effect on our culture.

Both podcasters discuss the pre-code Hollywood era. That was a revelation to me and may explain why your grandparents were so much cooler than your parents.

5.) Alright, on to what you really wanted to talk about: Game of Thrones predictions. To recap this season (don’t read if you haven’t seen season 6 episodes yet. Spoilers ahead.):

Jon Snow is not dead. Melisandre brought him back with a sponge bath, haircut and some funky prayers in what sounds like Hebrew. He executed the Watch brothers who executed him, which just goes to show you that characters are not dead until you burn the bodies, assuming they can be burned (I’m getting to that).

Sansa escapes with Theon’s help. She and Theon are rescued in the woods by Brienne who offers her sword to Sansa. This time, Sansa has finally bought a clue and accepts the help. Theon departs for the Iron Islands where he offers to help make his sister queen after their father’s untimely murder at the hands of his brother.

Sansa reaches Jon at Castle Black and there is a touching reunion. Tormund Giantsbane locks eyes with Brienne. It’s love at first sight. (Bow-chicka-bow) Ramsay Bolton has Sansa and Jon’s(?) little brother and sends a taunting letter to Jon and Sansa at Castle Black saying “Come and get him”. Sansa channels her inner badass and tells Jon that if he doesn’t help her take back Winterfell, she’ll do it herself. Jon and the Wildlings are all in.

Arya is still in Braavos training to become a faceless man. But is she really “no one”? By the way, did anyone else notice that during the “beat the confession out of her” scene the Waif got Arya to reduce the number of brothers she has? Has Arya always known in some instinctive way that Jon wasn’t her brother even though both Arya and Jon are the most Stark like of all the Winterfell children?

Bran has greenseer visions with Bloodraven about the Tower of Joy. We still have no confirmation that R+L=J but, c’mon, what else can these visions mean? Unless there’s something we don’t yet know…

Cersei and Jaime hatch a plot to get the Tyrell’s to take on the High Sparrow and the Faith Militant. Sparrow has Margaery, King Tommen’s wife, and her brother Loras. The idea is to bring the Tyrell army to King’s Landing. What could *possibly* go wrong?

Dany escapes from the Dosh Khaleen and burns the right wing trolls and Bernie Bros, the worst collection of obnoxious, threatening, small minded barbarians that ever gave rape culture a bad name and emerges from the flames as an unburnt fiery demi-goddess.

Predictions:

High Sparrow got Loras to crack. Loras told Sparrow that is grandmother had King Joffrey poisoned. Then, Sparrow tells Tommen this, and he tells his mother Cersei. Cersei and Jaime hatch a plan to pit the Tyrell’s against the Faith Militant and hope to take both of them out at the same time by having the Lannisters show up and clean up the aftermath. Not sure how the much anticipated Cleganebowl comes out of this but expect to see Mountainstein take on The Hound in about episode 7.

Sansa is going to lead the army to Winterfell. She’s going to be the one to make herself a widow by slamming one of her embroidery needles into Ramsay’s brain. Being eaten by wolves is too good for him. He’s got to die by Sansa’s hands. Die, Die, Die, Ramsay, DIE! Ahem, got carried away there.

Arya took an antidote before she drank from the cup that Jaquen H’gar offered her. She’s still Arya under there.

Bran is going to go diving too deeply under the sea and almost loses himself. He sees The Others coming and Meera helps him sound the alarm. Will Howland Reed deliver Robb Stark’s will to the other bannermen of the North in time to take back and fortify Winterfell in time for the onslaught?

The wall will come down in episode 10.

Valar Morghulis.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday: Sit it out or mess with the DNC’s head?

I know what I choose.

Let me just say that to me, the path forward is clear: support true, progressive downticket Democrats.  You really can’t go wrong if you do that.  No matter who ends up in power, both the idiots in charge (Pelosi, Reid)) and the White House would have to deal with a more liberal, more partisan Congress.  If you think McCain/Palin are going to strip you of your right to choose, having more Linda Stenders in Congress would be a very good thing for you.  If you are onboard for universal heathcare, you will like Ed O’Reilly in the Senate.

Does it ultimately matter who is at the top of the ticket?  Well, I’m not going to go as far as Anglachel and tell you that the Republicans this year are evil incarnate.  No matter what you think of Republicans, this crop of them are not like the Bushies.  I don’t care what Anglachel says, McCain isn’t *that* bad.  Yes, we disagree on a lot of things and John McCain is not a moderate.  But he will bring some unexpected changes to the executive branch, of that I have no doubt.   That’s not an endorsement. But if we let it happen on purpose, we’re not all going to die, die, die!  I have no doubt that McCain can handle a crisis, calmly, cooly.

We knew that the Democrats screwed up again and Sarah Palin made us realize just how much material the Republicans have to work with.  The sarcasm and ridicule directed last night at our side was well deserved.  The progressive blogosphere 1.0 (PB 1.0) has lost all perspective.  Jeralyn Merrit at talkleft is spinning furiously to make Palin look bad.  Josh Marshall is Palin 24/7.  Kos is allowing the lunatics to run the asylum.  To them, there is nothing worse than a Republican.  (Or is that, nothing worse than a woman vying getting in the way of some man’s ambition?  Faux-feminism raises its ugly head)  PB1.0 is attempting to dehumanize these people just as the Republicans made an artform of dehumanizing them.  But who is the audience for these attacks?  Other Obamaphiles?  Such efforts would be wasted on them.  They’re already onboard.  So, one can only assume they are intended for us.  But we’ve been watching the generation of propaganda and oppo research from the other side for years now.  The reason we held out for Hillary for so long is because we are rather impervious to perception managment and manipulation.  What makes PB 1.0 think we’re going to suddenly check our brains at the door and fall for this stuff now?

I know!  How about treating us like sentient beings instead of brainless harpies with vaginas.  What a novel concept.  That way, PB 1.0 could stop writing ridiculous diatribes about Palin that only serve to discredit themselves in our eyes.  Instead, they could start writing the post-election circular firing squad diaries they’re all famous for whenever the Democrats lose.  No time like the present.

McCain gives his speech tonight and throughout this convention, we have seen a slow build up to winning us over.  The memes are clear: Palin is a “breath of fresh air”; McCain is a maverick who goes his own way.  We have a glimpse of how they are going to pull us to them in Fred Thompson’s speech.  He praised John McCain for his rebelliousness, independence.  He’s a regular James Dean.  That was aimed at US, guys.  Republicans in general don’t like rebels.  That’s why we call them conservatives and why McCain had such a devil of a time winning them over.  The only reason they’re pushing the rebellion theme is to snag us away from the Dems.

Expect to hear more mockery tonight, maybe even from McCain himself, though he will probably take more of a high road than Palin did.  Will the issue of the delegate count come up?  How Hillary was screwed by her own party?  Hypocrisy from the hypocrits?  Be on your guard because it will look very convincing and Republicans are masters at playing on your emotions.  But like I said, the Democrats have given them plenty of material to work with.

Don’t make up your mind yet.  There’s a lot of sucking up both parties have to do between now and November 4.  You’ve got a lot of power.  Put it to good use, give the Democrats fits.  Work for Ed O’Reilly and put Kerry out of our misery.  It’s a great short term goal that will have the DNC scared silly.  Bwahahahahahahahhhhhh!