Is Everyone Gone

I'm not really a fan of Chock/Bates. They seem like lovely people and all that, but their programs are just sort of ... okay. I don't know why they've been pushed to the top of the podium. To me, they're not a cut above the field the way Papadakis/Cizeron or Virtue/Moir were.

Actually, Harris won the Asian vote. But Asia is a huge continent. I've found East Asians (in general) more politically liberal than many South Asians.

The trad-wife thing is concerning because of the polished veneer trad-fluencers now have on their SM. So many young women just see their "perfect" life on IG and aspire to be trad-wives. My favorite line about trad wives comes from Rosalynn Carter: “I can’t stay at home and do Cokes and teas, although I think that for those people who want to do that, then that’s surely important to them.” Heh. I loved her. Such a no-nonsense, progressive lady.

JD Vance's family history is complicated. His family wasn't poor, in the socioeconomic sense. He wasn't like Clinton, Obama, Lincoln, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, who actually grew up poor as in their families had no money. His family was very dysfunctional, with a lot of instability. Substance abuse, mom was in and out of his life, etc. With that being said, my empathy for him is very little because his shitty childhood didn't seem to give him any sympathy for other people going through shitty situations.

Injury fans are feasting. Kevin Durant, Ja Morant and Tyrese Maxey are all out.

Zion is a weird case. Kawhi has degenerative knees. I think Zion's issue is that he starts the season out of shape, which leads to injuries.

Hillary is fun, funny and engaging ... when she's not running for office. when she is running for office, she seems to memorize a few talking points and she repeats them endlessly. She comes across as frosty and robotic. Then the MINUTE she's not running anymore (like literally you can see the transformation even in the concession speeches), she's chill and funny again. I've never seen anything like it.

While I have my issues with Bernie, I think 2016 was an example of what's wrong with the Democratic selection process. It was just Hillary's "turn," so they went full steam ahead with Hillary, even though behind the scenes there were a lot of complaints about what a poor orator Hillary was, her somewhat lazy campaigning, and her chaotic management style which led to open infighting in her staff. The emails issue was also something everyone knew about. I like Hillary a lot, but every time I see her interviewed I think how remarkable it is that someone who is so obviously intelligent, funny and discerning can also come across so robotically when actually campaigning.

Maureen Dowd has a good column on this. (Gifted article) Meh. For a public figure, I feel like distancing yourself publicly is good enough. No one knows how much these people vote at the ballot box (or if they vote at all).

According to Trump, he isn't anymore. Trump said that he distanced himself almost immediately and Trump was hurt. Antonio Brown is the big Buccaneers MAGA. He actually campaigned with Trump.

The thing the Cavs have to worry about is injury. They have a rather injury-prone roster.

it's also weird that the people in the NFL who actually took a stand against Trump weren't actually the people you'd expect. Tom Brady and the Pats declined an invite to the Trump WH, and later on lifelong Republican Bill Belichick also declined an award from Trump.

Idk if you're into the NBA, but the NBA is a relatively MAGA-free zone. Most NBA fans tend to skew liberal, and so do the players and coaches. It's not like NFL, where the face of a league is a charming, generous young man who ... happens to be very MAGA. (Patrick Mahomes)

About "tolerating" Obama, I distinctly remember de-friending someone on FB after he made about 20 "Michelle Obama and her daughters are chimps" memes. Spare me.

Giannis was very angry after yet another blowout loss to the Knicks. At one point he seems to tell someone "if you don't want to be here, you can leave." Apparently it was to a member of the media.