No AV Club retrospective on today's closure of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus after 146 years? It was only the single longest-lived pop-culture institution in American history. You'd think its death would merit a write-up on this site.

Yeah, that chapter was really illuminating. The U.S. justice system is a fucking joke.

Can't be sure what's going on. The only way to find out would be to allow the CIA's recent behavior to become normalized and routine and then see what they do with it in the future. Do you really want to run that experiment in real life? I'd rather not.

Ya sure, I bet you're one of those cognitive-dissonance poster children who claim FBI Director James Comey swung an election with one letter while simultaneously scoffing at the idea that a Deep State exists which tries to seize and exercise power.

Close enough to put a scare into certain people and get them thinking about contingency plans.

That's not the point. Power grabs historically start by targeting a disliked group or individual, in this case Donald Trump. Once the power is cemented and normalized it is subsequently available to use against other targets. You're naive if you think the CIA spooks and their ideological comrades aren't thinking…

Here the thing though: Schneider is not wrong on this issue. People on the Left have expressed the same opinion. We have unelected officials in the intelligence services anonymously leveling serious charges against the elected leadership of the country. Who knows how much of these charges are true. Democrats enjoy…

"More poise, less noise." Wow. "I'm with her" was the most vacuous political slogan ever, and it's already been topped. We're racing to the bottom at light speed.

Bullshit. I followed her story very closely back when she was still a he. Always a hero to me from day one. Snowden too.

I'd venture to say many of the punk rock legends adored by Thayil were at least as pretentious and self-important as Zeppelin. Posturing as anti-pretentiousness crusaders has always been an annoying red herring that punk rock fans cite to justify their preference for simplistic music while still maintaining their…

There are a few bands in rock history that make people say "Not many people bought their records, but everybody who did started a band." Budgie definitely qualifies.

Kinda think they wanted to be Budgie. Budgie's first record from the summer of 1971 was a straight-up grunge record that contained a fully-realized example of the Soundgarden sound in "Homicidal Suicidal."

If you take the other grunge singers and strip out anything quirky, flamboyant, or witty from their vocals and personalities, you get Eddie Vedder. He's like a human bowl of unflavored oatmeal.

Vedder is far and away my least favorite of the big grunge vocalists. He's always struck me as an utter dullard both as a singer and a frontman. It's unfortunate he had to be the one that's outlasted his peers.

You ever eat a stick of butter? It's pretty good.

I just checked the moon phase calendar and there is indeed a new moon occurring on Monday August 21st, 2017. Nice.

New moon on Monday? Idea has been taken.

It's the dark side of the moon.

On a side note — there are also plenty of former NFL players who miss those sweet NFL paychecks.

Inspirational quotes like that are why Putin singled out Boothe for termination. He's trying to break our morale.