Monday, April 20, 2020
Farewell, Sarah Jane
During this frightening time we're currently living in while everyone (unless you live in fucking South Dakota) is holed up and bored and feeling alone and missing family and friends, the expanded world of Doctor Who has been putting out little surprises every week or so to keep us entertained. Community watch-alongs (which I can never seem to be a part of), new short stories featuring the current Doctor written by former showrunners, little videos of inspiration featuring Jodie Whitaker in character as the Doctor. And as a fan, it's been absolutely wonderful. But the latest surprise, a short story written by former showrunner Russell T. Davies concerning the passing of once and forever companion and show lead of her own Sarah Jane Smith, deserves special mention. If you're not a fan of the show it can be hard to understand just what Sarah Jane means to the fandom. As an audience identification figure, all of the companions hold some place of importance. Yes, even Mel, one of my least favorite companions. I can't hate Adric like everyone else, Matthew Waterhouse is gay so he gets a pass that's my final word lol. But Sarah Jane worked with numerous Doctors over the years, and through a combination of recurrence, the beautiful acting abilities of Lis Sladen herself, and one of the greatest comebacks in television history when RTD brought her back to NuWho, Sarah Jane became beloved. I watched her on Who and then on the Sarah Jane Adventures and loved her in both of them. I still get misty eyed when I watch David Tennant's final episode and he and Sarah Jane share a knowing look of grief before he walks off to regenerate, both for the fact that it's a lovely scene stunningly acted by both of them and for the fact that in a meta sort of way Sladen seems to be saying goodbye to Who as well. The fact is, we never got a proper goodbye in either show. That happens a lot, especially in a show like Doctor Who. We never got to say goodbye to the Brigadier either, only mourn him after the fact. But Sarah Jane deserved better. And Russell T. Davies decided to give it to her. Here is a new short story written by the man himself about the passing of Sarah Jane, narrated and acted out partially by some of the cast. I was in tears pretty much from minute one. And don't even get me started on the fact that he had Luke fall in love with and marry a man. Can we please get him back to the mothership program even if it's only for a visit? Simply put, this was beautiful. Enjoy.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
I'm Surrounded by Trumpers
It's been a long time since I talked politics on this blog which is sort of amazing considering the current state of our nation. The Orange Menace...or Der Trumper as I like to call him, or Donald Trump as the media calls him, has been running this shit show for almost four years now. I remember very clearly on election night texting with another liberal friend in shock wondering how this could happen. And wondering how bad things would get before he was done with his time in office. Well, pretty bad going by anybody's standards, although fans of Trump will certainly disagree. But let's take stock, shall we? Trump has:
1) Dismantled more than 60% of the government, including the pandemic response team which came to mean quite a bit in recent days.
2) Although he promised his braindead fanbase that he would "drain the swamp" he in fact merely fired most of the people in the swamp and replaced them with family members, sycophants, and former lobbyists who would swear fealty only to him, in essence creating way more of a swamp than was there before he took office.
3) He's rolled back every environmental check and balance that ever existed so his cronies in the fossil fuel industry can continue to pollute our waterways and poison the public for generations to come. Indeed, the man he placed in charge of the EPA is, in fact, a former lobbyist whose main job previously was fighting the EPA in court to roll back environmental restrictions.
4) He's been impeached, and only survived the political guillotine because Mitch McConnell, who is supposed to be impartial, swore he would do his best to clear him. Not to mention the countless associates and campaign members who have been indicted and convicted.
5) He's waged a war on the media as any self serving fascist would. And it's been successful. So much so that while 60% of Americans approve of Trump's response to the current Corona virus pandemic, only 40% approve of the media. This is alarming for many reasons. First, any sane person should be able to view the facts and realize that Trump has done a terrible job of handling the pandemic. From refusing to act and get doctors and nurses in states the necessary equipment they need, to pitting Governors against each other in a bidding war for supplies, to spreading daily misinformation every night in his execrable virus update conferences, to denying it was a problem until it was far too late. I could just go on and on. At one of the most recent virus press conferences he brought the Mr. Pillow Guy onstage to assure the crowd that God appointed Trump and wanted everyone to know that he was doing a fantastic job. Shit like this is dangerous. Especially in a country loaded with cult like religions, Catholicism being only one of the most irritating and prevalent in how they want to force everyone in the country to live under their rules and believe exactly as they do. But also, in a time like this when every asshole with a video phone and editing software can make a DeepFake of Obama sucking Joe Biden's dick, the public desperately needs to be smarter and more discerning as to what is really true and what isn't. And they just aren't. I feel pretty confident without even looking up statistics that the American public, right now, is the dumbest it's ever been. They can't discern truth from lies. They just can't. They just see something that aligns with their current worldview and they're immediately all in no matter who is saying it. So, essentially, once a Trump fan, always a Trump fan because he has convinced them that the media is spreading lies about him.
6) He's so lowered the bar for the office of President that I doubt it can ever recover at this point. From grabbing pussies to tweeting angry and false nonsense every day, he's left no stone unturned there.
7) He's done everything he can to give his billionaire cronies tax breaks and make it easier for them to cheat working people out of fair wages and compensation.
So why then do so many lower and working class people stan for him? My mother and step-father have been staunch supporters, much to my chagrin, from the very beginning. But when I ask my Mom what is it that they like about him, it's always nonsense. "He tells it like it is." No, no he doesn't. He lies incessantly. And he is incontrovertibly racist. Is that what they think is "telling it like it is"? Being racist? To prove his love for immigrants he posted a picture of himself eating a taco bowl in his office that a woman who I'm assuming was Mexican brought to him. Never mind that she probably gets paid $4.25 an hour to make him that taco bowl. I mean the disconnect from reality is palpable. Just today after taking my rent check to my landlady's house because of the virus (I usually pay at the business I live behind but it's closed now) I noticed that she has massive Trump flags in front of her house. This is not a rich woman. She's a bartender with kids. Why does someone like this keep supporting somebody who obviously doesn't give a fuck about her? Is it the religious thing? Undoubtedly there are a subset of the public that would follow whoever was being backed by the Catholic Church. But that can't explain all of his supporters away. Afterward I went to my favorite pizza place to pick up a pie where the owner began to lament that the media would not give Trump a break. "Let the guy try to give us some hope." Really? Is that what he thinks Trump has been doing at these press conferences? Giving everybody hope? When a reporter threw him a softball question like "What would you say to Americans who are scared right now?" he erupted in anger and took it as an attack on him and basically ignored the question. That's not hope. Just the opposite, in fact. And so it goes. Every day I seem to encounter somebody who loves Trump and how he's running the country and I'm perplexed beyond words at how they could possibly come to this conclusion. I feel like I'm William Shatner in that classic episode of the Twilight Zone imploring anybody who'll listen that there's a man on the wing of the plane and he's threatening all of our lives. Only in my case the man has orange hair and it's not just the plane he's threatening but the entire country. Let's hope things turn out better for our country than they did for William Shatner.
1) Dismantled more than 60% of the government, including the pandemic response team which came to mean quite a bit in recent days.
2) Although he promised his braindead fanbase that he would "drain the swamp" he in fact merely fired most of the people in the swamp and replaced them with family members, sycophants, and former lobbyists who would swear fealty only to him, in essence creating way more of a swamp than was there before he took office.
3) He's rolled back every environmental check and balance that ever existed so his cronies in the fossil fuel industry can continue to pollute our waterways and poison the public for generations to come. Indeed, the man he placed in charge of the EPA is, in fact, a former lobbyist whose main job previously was fighting the EPA in court to roll back environmental restrictions.
4) He's been impeached, and only survived the political guillotine because Mitch McConnell, who is supposed to be impartial, swore he would do his best to clear him. Not to mention the countless associates and campaign members who have been indicted and convicted.
5) He's waged a war on the media as any self serving fascist would. And it's been successful. So much so that while 60% of Americans approve of Trump's response to the current Corona virus pandemic, only 40% approve of the media. This is alarming for many reasons. First, any sane person should be able to view the facts and realize that Trump has done a terrible job of handling the pandemic. From refusing to act and get doctors and nurses in states the necessary equipment they need, to pitting Governors against each other in a bidding war for supplies, to spreading daily misinformation every night in his execrable virus update conferences, to denying it was a problem until it was far too late. I could just go on and on. At one of the most recent virus press conferences he brought the Mr. Pillow Guy onstage to assure the crowd that God appointed Trump and wanted everyone to know that he was doing a fantastic job. Shit like this is dangerous. Especially in a country loaded with cult like religions, Catholicism being only one of the most irritating and prevalent in how they want to force everyone in the country to live under their rules and believe exactly as they do. But also, in a time like this when every asshole with a video phone and editing software can make a DeepFake of Obama sucking Joe Biden's dick, the public desperately needs to be smarter and more discerning as to what is really true and what isn't. And they just aren't. I feel pretty confident without even looking up statistics that the American public, right now, is the dumbest it's ever been. They can't discern truth from lies. They just can't. They just see something that aligns with their current worldview and they're immediately all in no matter who is saying it. So, essentially, once a Trump fan, always a Trump fan because he has convinced them that the media is spreading lies about him.
6) He's so lowered the bar for the office of President that I doubt it can ever recover at this point. From grabbing pussies to tweeting angry and false nonsense every day, he's left no stone unturned there.
7) He's done everything he can to give his billionaire cronies tax breaks and make it easier for them to cheat working people out of fair wages and compensation.
So why then do so many lower and working class people stan for him? My mother and step-father have been staunch supporters, much to my chagrin, from the very beginning. But when I ask my Mom what is it that they like about him, it's always nonsense. "He tells it like it is." No, no he doesn't. He lies incessantly. And he is incontrovertibly racist. Is that what they think is "telling it like it is"? Being racist? To prove his love for immigrants he posted a picture of himself eating a taco bowl in his office that a woman who I'm assuming was Mexican brought to him. Never mind that she probably gets paid $4.25 an hour to make him that taco bowl. I mean the disconnect from reality is palpable. Just today after taking my rent check to my landlady's house because of the virus (I usually pay at the business I live behind but it's closed now) I noticed that she has massive Trump flags in front of her house. This is not a rich woman. She's a bartender with kids. Why does someone like this keep supporting somebody who obviously doesn't give a fuck about her? Is it the religious thing? Undoubtedly there are a subset of the public that would follow whoever was being backed by the Catholic Church. But that can't explain all of his supporters away. Afterward I went to my favorite pizza place to pick up a pie where the owner began to lament that the media would not give Trump a break. "Let the guy try to give us some hope." Really? Is that what he thinks Trump has been doing at these press conferences? Giving everybody hope? When a reporter threw him a softball question like "What would you say to Americans who are scared right now?" he erupted in anger and took it as an attack on him and basically ignored the question. That's not hope. Just the opposite, in fact. And so it goes. Every day I seem to encounter somebody who loves Trump and how he's running the country and I'm perplexed beyond words at how they could possibly come to this conclusion. I feel like I'm William Shatner in that classic episode of the Twilight Zone imploring anybody who'll listen that there's a man on the wing of the plane and he's threatening all of our lives. Only in my case the man has orange hair and it's not just the plane he's threatening but the entire country. Let's hope things turn out better for our country than they did for William Shatner.
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