Egg

I agree. It seemed like a disconnect for Rachel to introduce Jane O'Meara Sanders with her personal credentials, which showed that she was a woman of her own merits, and then proceed to treat her with kid gloves. This isn't Laura Bush. This is someone who would presume to be a sort of HRC/Eleanor Roosevelet first lady, and who has played a substantial role in her husband's career. She deserved, and we deserved, to see her face serious questioning and pushback when she said things that we know to be untrue.

"She got a badge for walking children in nature." *fainting gif*

Also, it can very easily be argued that while Bernie's wins are rightfully gotten according to the rules they both agreed on (with the exception of the crazy stuff going down in Nevada this weekend), but the majority of those wins were in caucus states, where the outcome is only tangentially related to the actual will of the voters. If I were a super delegate from Alaska, for example, and someone tried to pressure me to support Bernie because he won there, I would probably say "cool, six hundred people at a meeting support him. But I represent the entire state (or state party apparatus)." Also, if Hillary wins New York and California (which she has a good chance of), there is no manipulation of super delegate rules that would would allow Bernie a victory. Nothing. So whatever happens, he's got to win both of those states. The only people who talk about super delegates are people who are losing.

Can you imagine Pearl, Miss Fame, and Max doing a punk performance? God, this season is so much better even their filler rises above. I loved watching the New York queens troll the leftover queens, and then the young queens troll the New York queens. Amazing. I had three "yesssssss" *finger wave* moments this episode: when Chris Stein mentioned Chi Chi's shoes, when they announced the LSFYL song would be "Call Me" (seriously, I've been desperate for this song), and when Chi Chi kicked her leg up in the air before her death drop. Overall, I thought the lip sync was nothing special--Miss CuCu told us what a great dancer Naysha was, but we've only seen her do some basic stuff without heals--but there were definitely some great moments.

Yes! I love to watch this one and just repeat "what is that lady doing?" every time they show Magnolia. The weird twist-flute, the half-assed moonwalk, they're so bizarre that I can't look away.

So last week I expressed admiration for Chi Chi for having it so put together at 22. Turns out she's 29. Whoops! Oh well, I still think she's fabulous and hilarious. And I continue to be impressed at Naomi's maturity at 21. Bob and Thorgy were both hilarious, and I really like the way Thorgy does her runway make-up, black eyes and all. I wonder if Robbie Turner would be less insufferable and more snarky if he just changed his voice to sound less whiney. Because man, he seems really upset about everything, and I just can't take his complaining, although I appreciated him turning it out for the lip sync. I laughed my ass off in Untucked when Thorgy, discussing her accessory voodoo on Laila last week, said "how about these terrible cuffs?"

I disagree completely. Earlier in this cycle, during the brief period when Bernie was ahead in pledged delegates but the supers made it look like she was winning, Bernie and co were clamouring about how unfair the super delegate system was, and railing against machine politics. Then came his devastating losses last Tuesday, and all of a sudden Tad Devine and Jeff Weaver were talking about manipulating the rules to flip pledged delegates, and creating a narrative in which super delegates should switch their support to Bernie because he represented the will of "the people." I'm totally okay with Rachel trying to pin the candidate down on it, because when confronted with what Weaver and Devine said, many supporters insist that it doesn't mean anything because it didn't come from Saint Bernie himself. I appreciate her trying to get him to say it, because it reeks of the back room establishment politics he rails against.

I don't think anyone who was pure fish has made it very far. BeBe also had a fashion element to her (I don't think Bebe, as a drag queen, would ever think of herself as passing), and Tyra did some glamor. To me, someone who is fishy and fishy alone would be Rebecca, Vivianne, or Jade Jolie. No fashion or glamor there, just trying to make it on being pretty (I don't think Rebecca was pretty, but that was her thing).

I have to say I really appreciate both Naomi and Ch Chi for their maturity. They are 21 and 22 years old, and seem to be able to handle criticism incredibly well, and are open with their feelings but don't take the competition too personally. That's rare in anyone, let alone a person in their early 20s, and especially in a drag queen and reality show contestant! It shows the high caliber of queens this season that even the young queens like those two are still very polished.

I just watched the preview and I just am chock full of opinions! I really like Naomi Smalls so far. She has body and I appreciate what appears to be a good sense of self-awareness and quiet confidence that's rare in a 21 year-old performer. Naysha Lopez says she's all about the look. Really. The shape she created in her walk-in dress isn't particularly flattering, and the wig does not look good on her round face. Next. Bob still continues to be the most exciting thing this season. Laila is coming across as a charisma void so far. This Robbie Turner character--is she the one? I can't remember her name. The one complaining about the New York queens. She seems profoundly unhappy. Derrick Barry: I'm unimpressed so far. You better Do Something. OK, bye!

Chris was right - the people you need to pass new taxes are inside the beltway, so you do need to have something of a beltway strategy. Obama, too, thought you could change Congress' mind through people power. Many of us believed that until 2011 proved that decisively incorrect. Unfortunately, Sanders doesn't seem to have learned that lesson, and Chris's questions demonstrated that. If he is so effective, and knows how to bring about a revolution, why didn't he create this groundswell in favored Obama when the country needed it, in 2011? He was nowhere to be found until Elizabeth Warren came along. I think Chris demonstrated that Bernie is all hat and no cattle, and many undecideds will sour on him. The True Believers aren't going to change their minds based on this interview, but then, there were never as many True Believers as we've been led to believe (his bs answers on decreased turnout so far notwithstanding).

I follow Chris Hayes on Twitter and he is plenty willing to call out Sanders' mistakes during debates, and to parse and criticize problematic things his surrogates say. I'm sure Chris personally wants Bernie to win, but he has (at least on Twitter) been much more even-handed than I expected.

I think last night's show was more pro-Bernie compared to usually even-handed coverage, but it certainly wasn't the worst there is out there. I think Rachel may be overselling his position on Super Tuesday probably because of the desire for a horse race. She seemed to be quick to discount poll numbers in favor of their own cursory research. I guess it's just a thesis that will have to be tested on March 1.

I never knew this, but Wikipedia confirms that Hillary did, in fact, have nearly 300k votes more than Obama in 2008. So the arcane caucus rules were, in fact, what gave Obama the nomination.

Yeah, it's rare that one of these videos actually makes me cackle, but I had to keep pausing Bob's video so that my howling wouldn't make her next comments inaudible.

I think Rachel made it pretty clear last night, as Chris Hayes has in the past, that her preference was to NOT switch to live Trump coverage, but that MSNBC makes it happen. It was great to see her last night trying to bestow on us the power to make Trump shut up and go away. Although I do feel she covers him more than is necessary.

I don't normally watch this network, but today it was blaring in my gym locker room, and I caught who I think was Robyn Mead and an entertainment reporter. One of them intro'd a story with "I wonder if this has ever happened before" (a film getting nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie). Can't they do research on that? We don't watch the news to hear their anchors wonder about matters of fact. As if that wasn't enough, they played the "news" that Jimmy Fallon apparently does a great Bob Dylan impression. Cool. Great headline news. But then they referred to Dylan as "the Boss." What?? Seriously, what is the point of this network?

The new cast will be revealed on February 1 at some stupid award show. http://www.newnownext.com/the-cast-of-rupauls-drag-race-season-8-will-be-announced-at-new-now-next-honors/01/2016/?xrs=synd_facebook_rpdr

It was pretty interesting on Twitter during the show--Chris was tweeting about the Trump speech, but retweeting replies who were criticizing the decision to air the speech. Makes me think that Chris probably was trying to signal that he feels the same way that CNN personalities do about the wall-to-wall Trump coverage.

That answer, too, ugh. I'm open to whatever creative pursuits? Basically, she's saying that if someone hands it to her, she'll do it, but it's not like she'll go out of her way. Which is a pretty textbook Pearl answer, as far as I'm concerned.

This segment is great because I love Alaska and her interaction with Katya is great. But possibly the best part is when she talks with Miss Fame, because there are like ten cuts during the 40 seconds, suggesting that once again, Miss Fame is blabbing on and on saying things that no one cares to hear. Compare that to other queens, where their part is done in a single, fluid take.

I've had it with Ginger - officially. I don't like how she made it seem like she was forced to talk shit about her competitors, when in fact, she gave a very clear pass on criticizing Kennedy. Either say something and stand by it, or acknowledge you made a mistake. I don't like how she had to have it both ways, and then insisted to Pearl and Violet that she loves them and wishes she never said anything of the sort, and then told Pearl in private that she wished it would be them and Kennedy in the top three. She's just telling people what she thinks they want to hear and it's shady. I'll take unapologetic bitch Violet any day. She's what I wish everyone else was when they claim they're just "being real." She speaks her mind when it's time, but doesn't go out of her way to hurt people, nor does she find out what people are insecure about and go after them on that topic. I like that she encouraged Kennedy after Kennedy had just criticized her without remorse, because Violet doesn't really care about if she's being fair or if she's holding the right grudge. I'd still be okay with a Ginger win, but I think Violet is a much more interesting, sympathetic person. I also have to say that, despite Ginger's claims, there have been better singers and actors. Notably Jinkx Monsoon, who is more talented than Ginger in virtually every way.

OMG Q: If they do All Stars 2 like they did the first one, who is your dream partner? A: Alaska Best thing ever best thing ever! I'm opposed to teams, but I cannot imagine a team I would love more than these two.

I think part of my frustration with Pearl comes from seeing other people drool over how fabulous she is. It's that she's so overrated that I end up hating everything she does because it's nowhere near as cool as I'm told it's going to be. If she didn't have her ridiculous army of defenders (e.g. those who INSIST as fact, based on her word alone, that a scene was re-shot to slightly change RuPaul's wording), then I might find her to be an okay, Jade Jolie-level queen. As it is, I'm so frustrated trying to figure out where the "there" is with her.

With all due respect, I don't think Trixie's apparent lack of self-awareness is a good enough excuse to pull out this exhausted trope. It is more likely chalked up to her age, or that she built up a wall of confidence which protected her from the bullying she received as a child. Or maybe she thinks she's great because the most well-known drag queen in history selected her to be among the few to compete on the most famous, high-profile drag competition in history, and so she figured she must be good at something. Also, just like every other group of people, there are many drag queens and gay guys who view cattiness as a sport, and I'm sure Pearl and Trixie have received their fair share of earned and unearned criticism. Not everyone who performs at a club gets the same amount of money from the crowd for participating, and not every drag queen is booked at every show she wants. If Pearl thinks no one has ever said anything critical about her, she's either lying or a moron. It's certainly not generational.