Pattern Ghost

I read that Stein raised $5 million for recounts. Will that be enough to cover Michigan and Pennsylvania as well?

I still say they'd be better off replacing the director than the writers. Strip the scene with the helmet gizmo down to the dialog, and it's hard to blame the writers. The director could have staged the scene in a lot more believable way without changing a word of the dialog, which is the bulk of the writer's contribution. For one, the director could have staged the thugs in a way that makes it harder for Supergirl to employ her known powers to safely rescue Mon El. For another, the director could have put Cyborg Hank in the scene to prevent Supergirl from getting any stupid ideas. Instead, we get Supergirl released from her cage with nobody even covering Mon El with a firearm. That's on the director. I'm not saying the writers are innocent, because there are plenty of times when the show suffers from conveniently forgetting Supergirls' powers, but not all of the tactical blunders are on the writers' side. And even if the writers turned in such a detailed script, the director has a responsibility to make it look right during shooting.

Time to dig down for some Fourth Party candidates. I nominate Darkseid.

Is that like Mortal Kombat?

He'll start seeing them once they explain to him that they don't only brief smart people.

Oh! LMAO, wasn't looking for that kind of an Easter Egg.

My geek fu is weak. Can you explain that one?

Why blame the Flash show runners? Supergirl's crew has proven inept from the word go. Also, I wouldn't lay that one on the writers. It's the job of the director to stage the scene. Even if the script did specify that they take Supergirl out of the cage, the director could have still ignored it and set up the scene however he or she wanted. (Of course, it's possible the writer and the director are the same person, but I didn't look it up.) What I would lay on the writers is the stupidity of fooling the Fortress of Solitude's security system by splashing some blood on Cyber-Hank's hand. So many better ways to handle that. Or maybe they wanted to have continuity of weak Kryptonian security systems with BvS.

I think that's true to a great degree. I'm sure if you rounded up a bunch of Trump voters whose primary concerns weren't the wall or Muslim immigration and asked them what the alt-right and white nationalism are . . . you'd get a lot of blank stares. Apparently, it's the second worst.

Mega, that was a thoughtful and reasoned post. It wasn't an emotional, accusatory rant, like the video linked. As for the idea that there's a certain level of guilt by association when someone votes for a candidate running on a racist platform who then selects racist appointees . . . I agree. There's a certain level of guilt by association, even if the voters were just holding their nose and voting because of Trump's promises to protect working class jobs, or whatever other rationale they used. But to do well in the mid term elections and to do well in 2020, some of those people will likely need to be won over.

I think there's a substantive difference between raised eyebrows and strident accusations. The latter is simply rolling around in the mud with the pig. I see that as less productive.

Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Mexicans are murderers and rapists. That lady would want us to hold these things true (and I do). But she sits there calling all Trump voters racists and homophobes. That's just a little hypocritical. Both sides ran their campaigns based on anger, fear and aggression. Let's hope the next two elections aren't also sponsored by the Dark Side.

I recently finished Working for Bigfoot by Jim Butcher. It's a collection of Dresden shorts. The tone in these tends to be on the lighter side, and the stories seem relegated to the sidelines of the Dresden universe, at least for the time being. The price is a bit high for the page count, so might be worth trying to borrow rather than buy unless you're a completionist.

http://www.chucklorre.com/index-bbt.php?p=542

I'd say it's wise to fact check Snopes' fact checkers, because the quality has dropped in recent years, regardless of their politics.

Two SNL clips from last night.

Don't worry, he has an unimpeachable character.

I think we should all take a moment to reflect on how far we've come as a nation, that we've finally elected our first orange president. And his pet tribble.

Gotcha. It's such a basic tactic, you'd have to be negligent to ignore it. Kind of like deflating footballs. Here's an article from 538 on some Democratic tactics: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-democrats-suppress-the-vote/

A little levity: At least we get four years of prime standup material. (Though so far it's been bordering on gallows humor.)

Both sides practice as much voter suppression as they can get away with.

You realize I agree that the ID requirement is bad, right? (Just checking.)