netlyon2

There's also social pressure to ignore the science. I remember reading this article earlier in the month and feeling an amazing mix of anger, frustration, pity, and horror. Climate Science Meets a Stubborn Obstacle: Students This is why, as much as I rolled my eyes when he said it, John set aside the debate about whether coal hurts the environment. There are still people who believe that the science is made up and will shut down when presented with evidence to the contrary. So LWT's strategy was to look at a different, less triggering, aspect of the situation. Of course, I don't know that any science-denying coal miners were watching his show, but you never know, I guess. And, of course, as long as unscrupulous lawmakers and buisnesspeople can profit off of that ignorance, they will. After all, it's not like any politician on the national stage was "committed to meeting the climate change challenge . . . and making the United States a clean energy superpower" while "not allow[ing] coal communities to be left behind—or left out of our economic future" and put forward a plan to that dual end. *sigh* ETA - In re-reading the linked article, I was struck anew by this sadly illuminating passage:

Out of curiosity, I cross-referenced this list with the states that have joined (or expressed support for) the United States Climate Alliance--the group of states that have pledged to uphold the objectives of the Paris Agreement despite 45's withdrawal. Unsurprisingly, Virginia is the only state on both lists. Hopefully, this signals a commitment in VA to making greater strides in renewable energy. According to Wikipedia, the top 5 coal-mining states (totaling 71% of US coal production) are Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, and Pennsylvania; as @attica noted, these states are not on the "Throwing Shade" list. However, expanding the list to all 25 coal-producing states shows considerable overlap, 7/10 states that are wasting their potential to generate solar power. I, too, would not be surprised to discover that those states are (hopefully "were" in the case of VA) inclined to throw up barriers to renewable energy. Interestingly, 9 of the states on the "Throwing Shade" list have at least one city that is a member of the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, an organization that has also committed to upholding the Paris Agreement goals. Oklahoma is the only exception. I've decided to see that as a sign of hope that there will be pressure from the major cities to make change at the state level. Wow, these are things that I wouldn't even be thinking about if it weren't for LWT. I love this show!

Is anyone here a "Leverage" fan? During John's discussion of the coal industry, I kept thinking about "The Mine Job." For those of you who didn't watch the show, that episode is about a corrupt mine owner who got subsidies to improve his mine's safety, but instead keeps the money for himself. He uses some of it to bribe the local Attorney General to bury complaints against him. Yesterday (before LWT aired), one of the showrunners was tweeting about how people thought he was exaggerating how ruthless corporate executives could be. *sigh* Moving on, I'm glad that he opened the show with the AHCA. It is really difficult for me to wrap my mind around all of the shades of chicanery that we are being shown on a daily basis.

I strongly prefer Drew's home, but continue to be fascinated by their differing strategies. As a home intended for the rental market, Drew's two-story needs to be more "beachy" in its feel to appeal to an investor who will want to appeal to a wide range of short-term renters. Jonathan, OTOH, is more focused on appealing strongly to a specific buyer, someone with a style that they would want to replicate in their home away from home. It's not my style, but somebody will love it. It was cool to see that Brett could identify not only which house was done by which brother, but also the rationale behind each brother's design choices. I really need to catch up on the episodes of "Restored" currently cluttering up my DVR.

When I read the original post, I was thinking that this sounded like the KidzBop of movies. I wonder if that's their primary market/intent.

I'm not caught up yet (just watched this ep, but don't have time to watch the next), so this is just speculation. I assumed that it's because Paris (1) is a potentially powerful ally, who (2) can testify that Romeo tried to kill him and therefore (3) probably hates (or can be persuaded to hate) all of the Montagues. My impression is that Lady C is all-in on the Montague hate, especially after the "harlot" tag on Juliet's monument.*. If Lord C is willing to endorse this sham marriage to try and calm things down, then she might be worried that he will shut down her plans (or try to kill Paris outright) in order to keep the peace. Just my two cents. * I also acknowledge that Lady C is crazy and conniving enough to have defaced the statue herself so that something would pop off.

*giggles and rubs her hands together with glee* Rachel Maddow’s Return Crushed Fox News In The Ratings

I liked Drew's space the best, but thought that Jonathan's change to the back door was great. I'm intrigued by the different strategies they're employing: cosmetic reno vs. gut job, family home vs. rental property. I can't stand to watch their main shows, but for some reason I enjoy B vs. B. I've only seen the ones where they compete without teams, though. @suebee12, I couldn't even handle *watching* Jonathan on that thing. Amusement parks are for skeeball and funnel cake, as far as I'm concerned.

@AnimeMania, I'm sure others will add more detail, but I believe the central concept is a totem pole, resplendent with layers of traditional folklore/religion (old gods) and more modern/American concepts (newer gods). That last image, with the eagle at the top of the totem looming over a crucified astronaut, always fascinates me!

So, I can't stand Laura Moon. That being said, if they just had a Road-Runner-style side plot (or spinoff) of Mad Sweeney chasing her to get the coin, I would be so here for it! Like, a "Two Assholes" version of "Spy vs. Spy"

I'm moved to post some quick observations: - I will be so happy to get the finale over with so I can stop seeing Iris die. Seriously, show! I'm guessing we'll see it again at least twice next week (previouslies and flashback to whatever really happened this episode). Who am I kidding? They'll probably throw it into the introduction to next season, too! *sigh* - Hey, Joe, you know what would really show how much you love Iris? Giving her a damn gun instead of joking about how you told her to stay away from guns. - Hey, everyone, you know who has a gun AND lives on Earth 2? Iris West-Allen. Do the writers even remember that? Maybe Joe could call in some backup. (This would, of course, cause all sorts of feels since Earth-2 Joe is dead. Wow, that could make up a good bit of an episode, an episode that could have been much better than much of the wheel-spinning we've gotten to stretch this storyline out.) - Imagine that, at the beginning of the episode, Lyla can't be reached (deep cover or something) and her second-in-command gives no fucks and refuses to help. Cue Barry going back in time to recruit Snart, which gives us our fun caper without (a) making Lyla seem by turns horribly callous and irritatingly flighty or (b) rendering the whole caper pointless since she decided to give up the McGuffin anyway.

@SunnyBeBe, you might be thinking of Michelle Chamuel from Team Usher. Honestly, I enjoy Vanessa's style (as I did Michelle's) because it offers some variety from the endless parade of dresses/gowns that the other female contestants tend to sport. Points also for wearing flat shoes. Obvs, the contestants can and should wear what works best for them, so if someone loves dresses and heels, they should go for it. It's nice, though, to see female contestants who reflect a different style, especially when most of the male contestants get away with dressing far more casually (and comfortably).

For those who haven't read the books*, here's a non-spoilery explanation of the show's premise/what has happened so far (first two eps). It's pretty good; although the show has established that Bilquis is not a prostitute. She's using a dating app or something. What the Heck is American Gods Actually About? *Do we have a term for non-book-readers who are watching AG or is "Unsullied" now a blanket term? "Uninitiated"? "Shadow-watchers" ('cause he's easing into this, too)?

General Thoughts: Well, if Matt and Redmond were going to get first, it would be on a leg like this--one with a physical Detour option and a fairly lenient Roadblock judge. Redmond is still firmly on my "Ain't Shit" list, even though he managed to go the whole leg without making a disparaging remark about female racers (bonus points for not needing to rely on a female racer's insight to finish a task). Also remaining on my "Ain't Shit" list? Brooke, Brooke, Brooke. How Scott refrained from encouraging her to jump in the canal, I will never know. My strategy for dealing with watching her is to pretend that Scott is actually Stephen Amell and then imagine Brooke racing with Oliver Queen in his least patient Hood/Green Arrow mode. Of course, Mike remains the king of the list, with this episode just adding to his ickiness. Like Redmond, he's nice enough when things are going his way, but a little difficulty is all that's needed to rub away the facade. I'm generally of the "Free Liz" sentiment, and I was definitely picking up what she was putting down about Brooke needing to suck it up and deal, but I'm more than fine with them being eliminated ASAP. Since I can't have my FireCop2 win (seriously, I still mourn Seth and Olive when I see them in the intro), I'm down with Tara and Joey taking it all. No-nonsense, mutually respectful, and able to bounce back from errors? My kind of people! That said, I'm ready for them to leave Italy so Tara will quit showing how much Italian she knows. Lastly, I'm glad to see that LoLo finally got the old TWOP memo that this is not Amazing Kindergarten. I shed a tear of joyful pride when they decided not to help the others at the back of the pack. [Unless and until I see some receipts, I choose to believe that the "tons of times" that Mike and Liz have helped LoLo consists of answering questions like "Have you seen London?" and "Would you pass this to Logan, please?".] As I've resigned myself to Matt and Redmond making the finale, I'm hoping that this team rounds out the top three. They just need to (1) keep racing and not holding hands with other teams, (2) survive whatever version of the TwinHunt the other teams cook up, and (3) stop slipping into that SloLo mode where they bleed time for no real reason. or, say, marching *giggles uncontrollably*

And before both of those things there was the opening observation that their team didn't have any drama because they were the male team (#teamdicks). That elicited a very heartfelt "Fuck you" from this viewer. Especially when it came between shots of Shamir (aka WOWS), the biggest drama factory on the show. (I didn't even care enough to cackle when he got that splinter. I just rolled my eyes and said, "Of course!") I wonder if Seth's strategy of starting with the opposite task of what Matt and Redmond were doing--which sounded like a good idea at the time--actually backfired on them. M/R ended up doing the less familiar and more potentially stressful task first and in relative isolation, which allowed them to focus on learning the technique without distractions. Then, they were rejuvenated by finding a team still at the desk task, which was probably far more familiar and therefore easier to do quickly. OTOH, S/O were able to smoke the familiar task first, but they had to learn the weaving technique with the pressure of knowing just how close the other teams were to moving on past the Detour. This, combined with some perfectionist tendencies (I imagine) ended up slowing them down. If they had done the weaving first, there's a chance that M/R would have gotten too fired up and struggled with getting the technique. I don't think Seth could have foreseen this, though, so hindsight = 20/20 and all that . . .

@feelsfine Cool, yes? Also, (I'm not sure you know since the Hashed post didn't mention it) Captain Berringer was played by Toby's brother, Chris Larkin: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/smallscreen/exclusive-interview-with-chris-larkin-capt-berringer-in-black-sails/. Somewhere on the interwebs, there's also an interview with Toby where he talks about how they kept trying not to laugh when they shot the big confrontation in front of the gallows in Nassau.

@MaryMatts, Dooley played a fairly prominent role in the Walrus crew last season. He's the one who interrupted Madi and Silver flirting talking to tell Silver about Dobbs attacking one of Madi's men, as well as the one who beat Dobbs with the sap as a message from Silver. In fact, I'm pretty sure Dooley (or maybe Dobbs) was the one reinacting Dufresne's Demise for the crew, too. This season, he's the one who looked to Flint for confirmation of Silver's orders during the "You heard him" scene. At the time, I felt a bit betrayed, like "Dooley, I thought you were Silver's guy." Now, I see where that was headed.

I figured it was his imagination taking on a form that represented his training/purpose, kind of how someone might imagine an absent parent or mentor to help work through a problem (say, Luke Skywalker seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi). That gives us, the audience, a deeper understanding of the views and responsibility that have been drilled into Danny, so that it has greater impact when he rejects that teaching in order to follow his conscience. [Personally, I'm finding this aspect of the story to be distasteful when combined with Marvel's decision to keep Danny white, but we'll see where it goes.]

As @The Crazed Spruce mentions, a lot of what Madame Gao is doing now was first established in Daredevil S1 (this is from memory and I guess spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched DD S1 yet):

You make a good point about the coincidence, but they did set this up in Luke Cage, with Claire (mild Luke Cage spoilers)

I figured that the cache was already recovered when Silver, Flint, and company returned to the Maroon camp. Silver did send Kofi to retrieve it a week beforehand, and the queen said that she wouldn't let Kofi leave, not that she wouldn't let him dig up the chest. I'm really curious as to who Silver told the location and when he told them (I do believe that he told Madi). Related Note: To me, having Kofi guard the chest on the ship strongly suggests that Silver's Plan B has the queen's blessing, as well. For some reason (maybe we got a glimpse of it in Season 3), I think the chest contains a variety of gold and other high-value items, not just black pearls. Given the value in gold pieces of a single pearl, that chest is way too big (and heavy) to be just holding pearls. Max may have converted her entire share to pearls, though.

Max was threatened by the Ranger crew as a result of Eleanor revealing who was trying to sell the Urca schedule. She gave up the location of the meet when faced with the threat of Flint, Gates, and Billy beating it out of her. When Max ran (rather than stay under Eleanor's protection), Anne caught her and delivered her to the Ranger crew around the time that they discovered that Jack had lost their 5,000 in black pearls. It's unclear how she ended up in the hut, but it is clear that the crew is mollified by raping her and therefore willing to give Jack time to make amends for the money that he lost. Jack is perfectly fine with this arrangement until the prospect of sailing in consort with the Walrus makes it prudent for him to tie up loose ends. He suggests as much to Vane, who gives orders for Max to be released and spirited away. Jack replies that he wasn't suggesting her release, clearly (to me, anyway) implying that he meant for Vane to kill Max, not let her go. My view has always been that Jack and Anne were more directly (and uncaringly) responsible for Max's torment than Eleanor and Vane, which made it all the more galling when her gratitude at being freed led her to throw her lot in with them. She has done far more for Jack than he ever did for her. I've never been a fan of the Max/Anne pairing because it began with Anne adopting a typically male role of being physically threatening/abusive because she resents being attracted to Max. Then, Max is vilified as a scheming whore when she seduces Anne out of self-preservation (with a healthy dose of gratitude). Ugh! 1) The conversation that @Neurochick and I have been having relates to what Jack actually said earlier in the episode, when Max first comes to the beach: I have no patience for this self-entitled whining and am glad that Max immediately shut him down. Even allowing for the fact that he and Anne wouldn't know that Max did not lie to them about Jack being released unharmed, JACK is the one who created the situation by lying to and trying to best the Governor. His obsession with being famous and his arrogance led him to play a dangerous game that he eventually lost, with Vane paying the ultimate price for it. That's in addition to the fact that their relationship began with him trading her mental and physical well-being for his own personal gain. 2) Regarding the later conversation, a double-cross or betrayal requires someone to be on your side. For example, Featherstone and Idelle working for Max but secretly (so they think) aiding the pirates is an actual betrayal. Max intercepting the message about the ships is not a betrayal because she is not on the pirates' side (and they have never been on hers).* Did her action screw the pirates over? Sure, just as their invasion took everything that she had amassed. Since her ascendancy, Max has used her wealth/power to stabilize Nassau; like Varys on GOT, she has been on the side of the realm, not completely aligned with either faction. So, I have no problem with the pirates seeing Max as an enemy, but I call BS on Jack's entitled butthurt attitude and melodramatic cries of betrayal. No spin needed. * It occurs to me that the only pirate who has ever really been on Max's side was Silver, the one who told Eleanor that she needed to stop making decisions based on what Max does!

Wow, go Rachel! Rachel Maddow Makes History By Finishing In The Top 10 Most Viewed Shows On All TV

I was worried about this leading into the season, but I'm not as concerned now based on the story they're telling. Among other reasons, they've spent too much time setting up a "Madi chooses a life with John" scenario to kill her before the payoff: her conversation with Ruth ("build a wall and save those you can"), her conversation with John ("Would I be enough?"), and this episode's conversation with Eleanore ("being with someone you love and who loves you in return"). Now, if she had already made the choice and *then* apparently died, then I'd be worried. I think it's plausible that Eleanor found the will and strength to slowly drag herself out. That fire had been burning for a while. In my mind, the more important narrative purpose was for Flint to find her outside of the house, away from Madi, to carry the news that she's dead without confirming it for the audience. Now, onto the thing I've been holding in for a while: Shut up, Jack! How dare he act as though he was not a driving force for this very situation? As I recall, he was the one who decided that his mission, his claim to fame, would be denying Rogers the cache with "Nassau burns and a new pirate republic is born out of the ashes" as a desirable outcome. And now he's blaming Max for doing exactly what she has always been committed to doing: working to establish stability for herself and for Nassau? Whatever, dude, I will never forget that you sanctioned this woman's captivity and rape in order to help pay off your debts (losing the Ranger crew's pearls) and then urged Vane--not once, but twice--to kill her once you potentially had a deal with Eleanor and Flint. Who needs to be begging for whose forgiveness, now? I cheered when Max finally let her anger show and decided to go after Rogers. She's right about how you bring down civilization, and I'm hoping that her plan (historical info spoilers) I've never been a huge fan of the Max/Anne love story, mostly because it reinforces some icky sexist tropes that I would rather see die off. After this episode, however, I would be okay with an ending where Max sails off into the sunset with Anne. I can see her feeling guilty about her actual lie to Anne (that Jack was being tortured), but the show had better not forget that she did *not* lie about Jack being handed over to Spain; that decision was made after her conversation with Anne and without her knowledge. If that pairing is endgame, then they need to have a conversation to clear things up first. Gee, that was a lot of reaction! *goes back to lurking*

Oh, I'm with you there. I have long felt that Dorothy is the absolute second-worst (Frank still holds the ultimate dishonor). She's been pretty selfish for a while now, even taking her circumstances into account. This is the same woman who was totally planning to walk out on Lucas and Sylvie after building their little family and agreed to assassinate Glinda--who hadn't done anything to her--in exchange for that trip home. For me, she's the exact type of protagonist that I can never brook: self-righteous, reckless, and self-absorbed. (See also Stark, Arya and Fraser, Claire) Whew, apparently I needed to get that off of my chest! In other news, wow. I was really worried that they were fridging Langwidere so that Jack-as-Tin-Man would lose his heart metaphorically as well as physically. Yeesh, I'm not sure if the Westworld reveal was less yucky. I'm hoping against hope that Jane will put her back together again, but I think the actress was billed as a guest star, so . . . At this point, I'm pretty firmly Team Tip/West. I hope that they can reconcile with Glinda and take down ole Frankie in Season 2. I'm also hoping, of course, that there will be a Season 2.