To be fair, I get where @Erik Charles Nielsen:disqus is coming from. If you look at the numbers, the situation from, say, 2010 onward *doesn't* look that bad. Obama-era policy gave us notable gains, considering what it was up against. But the financial crisis—-which was the product of the deregulation of finance…

By "nightmare," I don't mean 2017. I mean the years and years across which jobs have dried up, standards of living have shot up, wages have stagnated, wealth's traveled to tiny segments of the population, billions of dollars have been shuttled into fruitless wars, politicians learned they didn't need to listen to…

I'm sympathetic to your point here, truly. But now that the Democratic status quo *has* failed, there is an opportunity for its failures—-and there ARE failures—-to be rectified. Put another way, both Republicans and Democrats contributed to the neoliberal nightmare we're living now. Only one of those parties has any…

You know… Speaking as a Sanders supporter, I don't know that Bernie could've won. He would likely have posed a credible challenge to Trump—-and perhaps a challenge more agenda-driven than personality-driven, as Clinton's became. But there is a deep conviction in America today, among left-leaning and right-leaning lay…

And…does anyone care enough about South Park today to engage in a witch hunt against it? Maybe they do. But my own sense is the political moment has outstripped the creators' (and most Americans') capacity for satire. Or that the creators have just lost interest in doing the show, which is totally understandable after…

"Ugh, people who care are annoying" is a good way to describe South Park's approach. And when you enter a political climate in which the consequences of not caring—-about wage stagnation, the rise of finance capital, deregulation, campaign finance, whatever—-are dead obvious, well, of course you're not going to be…

And I'm fairly sure Ramsey hams up his temper for American audiences in Hell's Kitchen and the like. Watch him in the British episodes of Kitchen Nightmares compared to the American ones; he's never as exasperated in the former as the latter. (Or confronted by as exasperating people, honestly.) And if you watch his…

I found myself wishing they'd asked everybody to speak in a non-American accent of some kind just so Rheon's wouldn't be so glaringly out of place.

You know, I get the sense he might be messy and unhinged more often than not when he's not acting or making an appearance somewhere. For example, there's that slightly strung-out vibe he gives off in his episode of "Ask a Grown Man" (though he's perfectly cogent when speaking): https://www.youtube.com/wat…

"Apparently whoever read the Preacher and came up with this show just saw
the craziness, where to me, the entire thing was a contemplation on
honor and what it means to be a good person in a fucked up world." I think you're on to something here. (It's also really well-put!) The latter message might in fact be why so…

Yes! French fries with mayonnaise and sriracha is my personal favorite.

Eh, I don't think the two stories share much beyond that detail (that God is for some reason no longer present in Heaven). Ennis certainly takes his in a different direction than Smith. In any case, the Preacher comics began running before Dogma came out.

I see your point, but I think your read's a little uncharitable. The 2016 election was a wake-up call for many on the left, too, that discounting electoral politics—-meaning down to the level of the municipal—-because it's slow-moving or too small-scale to pay attention to or not the locus of the revolution just won't…

Man, Joe Gilgun plays lovesick so well. Hoping Dominic Cooper's performance grows on me a bit—-that was the main thing keeping me from getting all the way into the show last year.

Yeah, I'm sorry—-put Erlich Bachman against Jonah Ryan and I pick Jonah every time

I discovered BADBADNOTGOOD a couple weeks ago and have been listening to IV almost nonstop since. The song "In Your Eyes," especially, feels just transcendent.

I've walked past the Melt in Berkeley—never been in it, though. If you're ever looking for a good grilled cheese in the East Bay, Sacred Wheel on Shattuck will have you covered.

I don't think we know the accusation was false, though. There an equal chance Hopkins is equivocating or even being mendacious. As another commenter puts it above, it's not like people often say they did exactly what they were being accused of. And hasn't Hopkins been billing himself as an avatar of a queer…

"Hey, play that George Michael song real quick"

Man, what an actor H. Jon Benjamin is. Archer, McGuirk, Bob, Jason, Jimmy Jr.—-every one is so incredibly distinct. I do get a vague hint of McGuirk from Bob when he's yelling, though.