That's a point I didn't get to. Yes, lots of 1980s pop culture references, but the hero is a kid who talks with other kids in the most cliched "how teenagers talk" manner. (There's a big discrepancy, I felt, between how Wade narrates and how he speaks; the former is much more intelligent than the latter.) Would…

Studies given to people reveal they don't know how government works. This is kind of a big problem! I don't know the state of high school civics classes in this country, but they should teach more than the basics of the three branches of government and how a bill becomes a law. A class getting into policy and how…

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Not terrible but not very good either. It keeps you reading, though there's nothing on the page. The prose is insipid when it's not chock full of exposition, and the dialogue between the teenage characters is bad. I didn't buy that in the 2040s, culture would be completely obsessed…

I didn't know people thinking government was an easy job was a pervasive thing until Trump got elected. It's related to disdain for experts, I guess, or maybe too many saw the Charles Grodin balancing the budget over bratwurst scene from Dave and though that looked right. But come on, it's incredible that Trump and…

I can't think of anyone, so I'll go with Rihanna, whose work I don't know and am indifferent to when I do hear it, but damn if "Love on the Brain" isn't a magnificent song.

I've read enough Murphy hate here to strenuously object, because while I haven't seen more than two and a half seasons of AHS (2,3, and half of 4), only the latter was at worst dull. But more importantly, I've seen his non-horror stuff like ACS and Feud, and they were both outstanding. I hate it when people dismiss…

Who happens to be a Muslim. Too bad Trump won't be there.

Those are all quite the lovely ladies on Handler's show. Ditch the men, and I'm finding out that Booker isn't as progressive as he appears.

Growing up, his family's church was Norman Vincent Peale's. Perhaps his positive thinking is aiding his stupidity, by making him think he can do anything. I think this could also work in our favor and he can shrug things off more easily, like health care reform, when he can't do them—including losing the presidency…

I thought Zoey's rejection of NYU was a little too fast and neat, not being realistic and for TV reasons. She'll have a lot of school vacations to see her new sibling and the rest of the family, and it's only going to be four years anyway. NYU is too good of a school (by brand name; I don't how how good it actually…

It's my contention that the country really isn't divided. Trump proved people want an activist government helping them. But partisanship has been ginned up by a Republican Party and business community that does not actually want there to be a social welfare state. And they've used the culture wars, including…

The Trump administration won't need legislation through Congress to do a lot of damage!

These next four years should be a pretty effective census on Americans who love authoritarianism.

Sounds like you've never been to you. United can't help you there.

Not a weird promo; the seemingly benign corporate commercial that hides the disturbing things really going on (too long to hyphenate) has been a trailer genre for years. But none have had a hot Tilda Swinton. Excuse me, I need to watch I Am Love, again. And I hear A Bigger Splash will also do.

In Werner Herzog's Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (on Netflix) there's a chapter on how society would survive if a big solar flare cut all the electricity out. I think Lawrence Krauss, the physicist, speculates civilization would be at great risk, because we're so dependent on tech in our society and…

My experience reading him has shown two of those three things: he's a Tory and occasionally a gasbag, but I haven't seen the racist. But I'll keep a more watchful eye, I guess.

I thought there was an excess of Minnesotans are stupid jokes, until I got that the show so far is going more for a Burn-After-Reading vibe than a tragic drama with depth. Though that of course will probably come later. I loved Nikki having having a specific rage for the painting of the donkey by misunderstanding it.…

Thanks for the links. The quotes in the Gawker story aren't good; why he wants to investigate "race" and intelligence together—he's pretty wrong about that. I remember some vague GamerGate thoughts now that you brought it up. He's also wrong about that. But I will continue to read him, because most of what he writes…

Pity there isn't a porn actress named Dawn Treader.