cali1981

Whatever was going on with Franken he tried to steer Bill away from his "he won't leave" mantra. As Franken said after Biden is sworn in Trump will be escorted out of the White House. He would have no presidential authority and, besides, the Joint Chiefs are not likely big fans and would not react to any orders from the non-president. The other thing to consider is that Trump is a coward and a delicate flower ego-wise. He couldn't bear the optics of being thrown out of the White House so, yes, he will leave, maybe not graciously, but he will leave.

My DVR was still set to record the show so I watched some of Monday's show last night. I've never like Disney night anyway but after a about an hour I realized that I was paying more attention to my tablet than the TV. Tyra Banks for Tom Bergeron? Not hardly. As difficult as the format is this season due to Covid-19, Tom would have made this work. Tyra does not. Erin probably wouldn't have been involved with this season anyway since there are no Skybox interviews. As much as I like the judges, their presentation seems very forced. Again, it's understandable given the circumstances. So I've got the second hour of the show left to watch but I'll pass and probably won't watch the rest of the season. It will be the first full season that I've missed since the show went on the air but so be it. Anyway, I hope the rest of you enjoy the season and, more importantly, stay safe and healthy.

I am so tired of Bill's "he won't leave". Yes he will because at 12:01 pm on January 20th if Joe Biden is inauguratedTrump no longer has any power and the Secret Service and US Marshals will be ordered to escort Trump our of the White House. If the cockamamy plan to replace Biden electors with Trump electors actually happens, the House of Representatives has the final say on which electors are certified. Nancy Pelosi would dismiss the phony Trump electors in states that Biden won and his electors would be certified. End of story.

I just saw the "celebrity" lineup for this season. No thanks. C and D list contestants, no audience and the shabby treatment of Tom and Erin make this the first season of DWTS that I will have missed. Who knows if there will even be a full season. If there's even a small Covid outbreak whatever will they do?

Major Lance? Wow, who knew. Um, um, um, um,um, um.

I tend to cringe when Sullivan is a guest. He tries to dominate any discussion pounding everyone with his opinions as though they were brought down from the mount by Moses. He often presents himself as the ultimate expert on the American condition, which he certainly is not. I respect Malcolm Nance for engaging in a civil debate with Andrew although I suspect that if they were in the studio together, Nance might not have been so generous. When, in 2017, Nance was on with Milo Yiannopoulos after the latter was blathering on and on about the country, Malcolm asked him "are you an American?". When Milos said no, Malcolm just said "then go f&^k yourself". It was a classic.

I shut the TV off when Bill began the last new rule. It was the same old dogma that he rams down our throats every week. It really gets old.

The first interview was very good as was the panel. Larry Wilmore and Matt Welch are both very smart guys. As soon as the nutrition doc came on said, uh, oh and turned it off. I caught the new rules segment yesterday on HBO Go. They were OK but I think that Bill and his writers may be running out of steam. It's understandably difficult to keep writing A material in this situation but maybe it's time for Bill to go on a hiatus for a while. John Oliver's "One man behind a desk" format, is much better suited for the current times and the writing, even within the serious topics that he's covering every week, has been pretty sharp.

If I remember correctly didn't Mike also say that some destruction of property was OK because it was for a good cause? He's a bit of an idiot.

Last week's show was very good but tonight Bill is so far off the rails on Covid-19 that it's frightening. He is spouting the same crap that you hear from those who are Covid deniers. His trying to equate the 109,000 Covid deaths to the alleged 100,000 who die from hospital infections is absolute nonsense. Yeah Bill, even if the 100,00 number is true, it is spaced out over the course of a full year. Covid-19 has killed more people than that in a little over three months with no end in sight. His complaints about the lock downs are entirely self-serving. I'd like Bill to tell us how exactly he would have handled the situation once it it was known how deadly the virus was and how efficiently it was transmitted. Maybe he would have had the country conduct business as usual with, perhaps, some mild precautions. The death count would have probably been two to three times what it currently is. I'm just getting tired of Bill's oversized ego producing this kind of gibberish.

I actually shut it off not long into the interview with the doctor. Bill is using this shelter in home format to get on his soap box every week and grace us with his views on how and what we eat, how we live, etc. It began during the Tom Friedman interview and went on in the second interview. I'm tired of hearing it every week. Bill needs the live guest and panel format to keep him in line. Without it's become "why I believe everything is caused by.."

Bill just ignores some basic facts. Of course those with compromised immune systems are very vulnerable but this virus has killed many relatively healthy people in their 40s. It's also caused strokes in 20 and 30 year olds.

I don't know how many shows are left in this season but the more that I've watched, the more I feel that this remote interview only format really isn't working for Bill. As happened last night, some of the interviews get dragged out and sidetracked by Bill's grievances. By contrast John Oliver's non-interview based show has worked extremely well.

Then it will interesting to see where the numbers are next week. One problem with Georgia is that it's seeing a flood of out of state folks and what their Covid status is is gong to be largely unknown. Check this site out as well, https://covid19.topos.com/ I It's got highly detailed forensic/demographic info down to the county level in each state and may be doing a better tracking job than CDC right now.

The interview with Amash was 21 minute plus waste of time. Oh Justin became a hero to some when he bucked Trump and the Republican party but his ultra-conservative views are something out of the early 20th century. I'm surprised thast he doesn't support the gold standard. I say "begone with him"

My bad. It was broadcast on the cable news networks and was base on a Forbes article projecting the 40% increase that was eventually taken down. This chart was on a local news station in Georgia. The problem is that some of these states that are rushing to open haven't come close to meeting the very basic CDC guidelines and now that that Trump has pretty much emasculated the CDC, it's the wild west out there. There's a strong possibility that there will be spread of the virus in many of these states.

I was disturbed by the conversation with Amy Holmes. Bill, and to some degree, Amy seemed to be in a state of denial in regard to how deadly and easily transmitted Covid-19 really is. Maybe both of them should have looked at the latest numbers and how Georgia which couldn't wait to jump start its reopening is now showing a 40% spike in positive test results. I did agree with Bill's comments about Tara Reade and thought that the NY Times demanding that the DNC create a panel to "investigate " Reade's allegations was way out of line. Maybe the Times missed the fact that Reade was an ardent Bernie supporter who routinely bashed Biden during the primary run and, according to NY Magazine, is coordinating her public statements with a group of keyed in Bernie supporters the same ones who are calling on Biden to withdraw. Hmm...

I still enjoy the show but it sure has taken a bleak turn. Ed may have committed the first lunar murder. I'm hoping that he drained the airlock to disable the Russian rather than kill him but the latter did tacitly threaten Ed with his hammer when they met on the surface. The hard look on Ed's face while he watched the Russian gasping for air said a lot. You would also think the Russians would have sent up a cosmonaut who spoke some English since their module was so close to the American one. Obviously back home the cold war must be heating up and the two moon dwellers' paranoia reflects that. The dirtying up of Ted Kennedy is totally superfluous and unnecessary. Maybe one of the show runners has a political agenda here? Next week's episode is the finale so hopefully there will be a glimmer of optimism before the end. The only thing that I can think up is that, if Apollo 24 is lost (with the terrible irony of Deke Slayton, grounded for so many years, finally on a mission which may cost him his life) and the Russian is alive, that Ed goes back to Earth with him. It's probably asking too much though.

How infinite is the universe? Throw in Kellie and Derek and some others and the answer is "by about that much".

I'm sure that we can count on it but, hopefully, the show runners will have learned something about putting controversial political figures on the show. Probably not however. Maybe John Bolton will a "celebrity" dancer next season.

I wanted James to be in the finals and then win but after he was bounced, I felt that Kel would probably win. Hannah winning was OK but frankly, I thought that all of the freestyles were meh. I could picture Len inwardly cringing at all of the gimmicks and group routines. The most memorable freestyles in the show's history have always been the pro and his/her partner telling an emotional story by just dancing together on the floor. Think of Maks/Meryl, Derek/Kellie, Derek/Bindie and others where there were no gimmicks and no other dancers. In Kellie Pickler's case in particular, her freestyle clinched her win (remember Derek lifting her while she was "climbing" in perfect sync with the music and lyrics?) To me, a great lyrical, emotional contemporary routine is always a winner. The are exceptions, however. Val and Rumor's blazing hot Tango was great as was James and Sharna's contemporary where the supporting dancers worked perfectly.

Episode 5, Into the Abyss, was excellent with solid performances by Joel Kinnaman and Sonya Walger. The one weak spot in the series is the performance of Michael Harney as the network science guy who is the anchor for the mission broadcasts. Maybe this is what the show runners want but his delivery gives a new definition to boring. It is way too deliberate. I was in my early 20s when the Apollo program began and none of the network science/space program reporters spoke in this manner. Jay Barbree on NBC and ABC's Jules Bergman were firecrackers compared to Jack Broadstreet. A more realistic portrayal was done by Lane Smith in From The Earth To The Moon.

When I posted last week, I said that James would likely not win. I don't want to say that his elimination was pre-ordained but as soon as the judges low balled him with eights on his first dance, his fate was sealed. Does anyone think that the judges, on this show and SYTYCD, don't shape results with scores or critiques? To my old eyes, it's not exactly opaque. I suppose that the final result is up in the air but my suspicion is that Kel is going to win. His dancing, in the minds of the judges (and by extension, the voters) has been on an upward curve for a number of weeks now.

So Spicer is finally gone. His dancing looked like Peter Boyle's "Putting on the Ritz" in Young Frankenstein except that Boyle was ten times better. 😀 I wonder if a lot of right wing blog sites will be claiming that the vote was rigged. Oh well, Make America Glad Again! Last night may have saved DWTS from two consecutive final results debacles and insured its renewal. The semi-finals should shape up well with contestants ranging from good to very good. I have feeling that James is not going to get the Mirror Ball Trophy though. One thing that has struck me more this season is that maybe it's time to get a new judges panel. Len gets grumpier every season and more unfair and nit picky in some of his critiques and scores. Bruno's act has gotten old and Carrie Ann gets pretty loopy at times. Maybe she stays to insure continuity but some new blood wouldn't hurt. I'd like to see how Tom, the consummate professional, would interact with new faces. I'm sure that he would be as good as ever, maybe even better because his ever sharp wit would be aimed in different directions.

Maybe the best policy would be to have people who had not been active in the political world for a given time period, perhaps five years. This would tamp down some of the "passion" vote for or against them. It wouldn't necessarily eliminate it in the cases of very polarizing figures but, in that case, the best course of action would be not to cast them. The show, if it's to survive, needs a serious attitude adjustment by the production team.