swanpride

To be fair, the countries do keep changing. I had a hard enough time to keep track of the changing borders of Europe back in the day, I certainly had no interest to learn about the ones in Africa and Asia on top of it. Learning the history of the world during your school days is pretty unrealistic, it is just too much material to cover. But one should be aware of the history of your own country and in the case of the US, that includes a huge chunk of European history, too.

It's history in general which has been distorted, not just black history. How many Americans believe in the comfortable lie of the good white man who celebrated thanksgiving and the bad white man who killed natives, not realising how systemically their government stole their land? How many of them are not aware that the independence war was at least partly about the fact that the Brits wanted to respect the treaties they had with the natives and not pushing further into their land while the Americans wanted to take more land? How many of them believe the story about the US heroically sweeping in to "free" Europe from Hitler, happily ignoring that a lot of Americans were Hitler supporters, that the US was happy to let Jews die rather than give them shelter and that there was little intention to even get involved in the first place if not for Pearl Harbor? How many are aware how little fighting American soldiers actually did on European soil and how much they did in Asia? How many still believe the story about American soldiers which "vanished" in Vietnam and don't know that way, way more Vietnamese died in the conflict (during which the US supported a dictator) than Americans? How many have no idea that the Iranians have very good reasons to be p... off with the US?

Well, the US is still topping in military spending and number of citizens in prison. That is something to be proud of, right? Right? That is only tangible related, but part of the problem is also how those kind of rankings are made. They criteria tend to favour the US in the ranking. That's why the US is often higher ranked than it should. In any case, there is nothing as unpatriotic than thinking that your country is the best and denying its flaws. Because this way you are doing your country a great disservice. Someone truly patriotic wants their country to be the best version of itself.

Btw, the guy who wanted his child to be taught that any day in the US is better than in any other country...if he really believes that, I am feeling sorry for him. What a limited idea of how "good" a country can be.

It's not just the schools. The US itself is build on a giant mythos which is affirmed again and again in the media. From the motivation to colonize the country to the reasons for the independence war to what lead up to the civil war to America's role in WWI and WWII to Vietnam to the reasons for the ongoing conflict with Iran, everything has been mythologized into something which has little to do with reality. The Watchman episode which actually put some real history on the forefront is the exception, not the rule. The story about the apple tree is btw completely made-up too. I mean, it is not unusual to have some things glossed over in history class. Not even Germany gets this completely right. But what the US is doing is just ridiculous.

I found him pretty perfect in the role. I can imagine a young Garret being that way.

Sure, but do you disagree with any of the decisions? Thus said, I am pretty sure we will see priyanka in the finale. She is a hut contender for the victory, especially if she keeps delivering lip syncs like THAT. I am still completely in love with it.

Yes, she does, but he doesn't. I wouldn't mind getting rid of the villains next week and then spending the two hour season finale with fixing the timeline.

The Snatch Game wasn't my cup of tea, the only performance I liked was the Joan Rivers. Lemon was kind of funny, but I had no idea who she actually was, and I found her constant posing somewhat annoying. Edith Piaf was really a bad take on her. Going for drug addiction is kind of a low hanging fruit, and "haha she is old" also doesn't work for me. And was there even a reference to any of her actual songs? I at least expected Je ne regrette rien to come up at one point, but if it did, I missed it. Liza was pretty good, but it was kind of spoiled that there already was a really good Liza in the past, and this take was way too similar for my taste. And who was the big breasted character? Brooklyn did better with the moderation than I expected, but not great. Remember, she herself bombed her Snatch game, and part of the job of the moderator is to keep the flow going and to throw out hooks to the Queens. Thus said, what I liked was the lack of Ru's fake laughing. This is the first time for a long time that the laugh which did came felt genuine. I was really amused that the theme of the runway was the character Brooklyn failed to portray in Snatch game. And honestly, Pryanka's lip sync was the best I have seen for a long, long time!!!! She owed the stage from the first minute, he lip movements were spot on, she actually interpreted the song and she placed her more fancy moves perfectly. In this lip sync you could see what went wrong with lip syncs recently, by having Pryanka do a perfect performance and Kiara pulling out every move possible without really paying attention to the song itself. It reminded me of Kennedy vs. Katya, except that the right queen stayed this time around.

love that she does it, always makes me sad that I can't watch it live.

Derrich has a partner I think...wasn't the whole story with India about her screwing her partner out of a job in Las Vegas?

I was also all floored when the promo for next episode said "the last episode before the finale"...I was all "what, weren't there 13 episodes?" I look forward to a proper double parter in best AoS tradition. Though I suspect that it will be more like SOS, one big episode but would make one big movie if you added the episode beforehand into the mix. I am really nervous about the timeline, but the writers promised that it would make sense in the end, and so far they haven't let us down. With all the time they spend explaining the rules of time travel, I am pretty sure that they will find a solution to right the timeline. Oh, also glad that Sousa is still around! He isn't listed for the next episodes, I was so afraid that they would kill him off in best "suffer Daisy, suffer" tradition. Kind of glad that it hit her mother instead…..

Okay, this is not a ripple anymore. Beforehand I could see how you can get everything back on track, but with the involvement of young Garret that notion went right out of the window. So...what now? Not that I didn't enjoy his shit-eating grin. Really seems to be hereditary. It was really confusing though to have him saying the "best day ever" line. That kind of threw me off. Weirdly it really relieved me when Jemma started to talk about the possibility of Fitz being already dead. Because if he were, they would have sprung it on us, so he is most likely still alive...(unless they do a double twist...arrghh….this show....unpredictable till the end). No idea how the writers intend to solve the whole thing. I am wondering, though...is Jemma remembering the Snap somehow?

Sasha and Shea were both in the top three seven times back then. Shea had more wins, but Sasha kept being the runner up, and often it seemed that the decision was mostly made by the flip of a coin. With Sasha having the more unusual point of view, I saw her as clear forerunner back then, despite Shea having more wins. But no matter who one saw as forerunner, the idea the Shea was somehow the obvious winner of the season who then stumbled in the last minute is a rewrite of history. And again: It's not just the producers pushing this narrative. Unless someone stood beside Shea the whole season and kept advising her to add references to this narrative in every challenge, she pushed it on the forefront herself. Which is on the one hand quite clever, since providing some sort of narrative is part of the game. I don't begrudge her that in itself. But I really feels that this particular narrative did her a disservice. I think in the end, Juju is the winner of the season because she reminded everyone again which she is the queen who keeps getting robbed, and that without ever mentioning anything in the direction aside from pointing out once that she got her first win the third time she participated in the show, despite making it to the top three twice beforehand. I always wonder what Ru's issue with Jujube is. There are queens which seem to get the win the moment it can be argued that they deserve it, but Juju is the only one where I got the feeling that if possible the win goes to someone else.

Project insight was stopped and S.H.I.E.L.D. has no idea that Hydra was involved. A new take on project insight can still happen again just in time for the Winter Soldier.

Doubt that there is enough material for that...but if they ever do a proper wrap up for Agent Carter, it would be fun if they featured, too.

I am not too sure about that….It's hard to tell how much damage Nathaniel has done.

Those are not the same characters though. Gamora who never became a Guardian is not the same as a Gamora who was one. A Fitz who never had a mind break is not the same as a Fitz who did. And they can't constantly pick people from the past either, that will cause a wave, not a ripple.

The mother with her daughter was heart-breaking, but what really got to me was "If you're happy and you know it say "yes sir". That's just creepy!

We actually don't know that...he could have been a POW at one point and got the injury later on.

Gigi also had a lot of wins and still wasn't considered the forerunner. Being the forerunner is not just about winning, it is mostly about how often you are in the top three and how memorable your moments in the top war. Shea did well, but Sasha was right beside her the whole time (in the Morning Show challenge quite literally), AND she had the more distinctive drag. Shea was also popular, but not an absolute fan favourite. She was a possible candidate for the win, but the notion that she was a forerunner is mostly based on the fact that she was known to be a great dancer, while Sasha was an unknown regarding lip syncs. And Jujube is easily the queen which ended up in the top most often without winning. She is extremely popular with the audience, which shows yet again that success at drag race is not just about walking away with the crown.

Still no Eratica. Really disappointing. I was actually reading the list at Fox news (mostly because their texts tend to be hilariously inaccurate), and was already laughing when he pointed out that all those incidences were mostly about graffiti. Next they will call for a ban on spray cans! While still advocating against gun control, naturally. Yeah, the Martha Steward segment left me with one thought: This woman apparently spends her time with the worst people possible. Shoot out to the eyelash girl! That was savage! (btw, I have survived just fine with a eye lash curler so far and I don't intend to change this. Also, I will never see a camel with the same eyes again). The main segment was sobering, and frankly, I don't mind at all that he focussed on this over Portland, mostly because Portland has been covered extensively, but the Chinese Internment camps haven't. And honestly, if we are seeing the end of a culture, unable to help them, the very least we owe them is to watch and remember.

Yeah, if it were just something which got mentioned in the talking heads, I would say "okay, they asked her about it". But she specifically brought two runway look which referenced the rose petals and brought it up in the challenges pretty much at every opportunity. It was basically the cow pattern or the sponge of the season, and got old just as fast.

Honestly, I don't get the notion that Shea was somehow the forerunner for season 9, because I actually perceived Sasha as the forerunner, not her.

Exactly!!! And may I mention how much I still love Ongina's little hat? She should always wear a variation of it.