Republicans really do believe that government can't solve problems

That's why they focus on manufactured issues like caravans, abortion, and CRT. It's hard to really tell if anything got done. They strayed into dangerous territory with the promises of a free border wall and great health care, and you see how that all turned out.

Contrast that with Biden's ambitious and testable Build Back Better Framework.

Interestingly, right-wingers tend to be big big supporters of the military. I've asked them why the military doesn't count as a government program which solves problems (this gets crickets). So how exactly is an aspiring right-winger to know which are the "good" government programs and which are the "bad" ones? Well you see, they generally can't work this out themselves with any sort of consistent conservative logic. They must wait for the relevant talking point to be developed by Those Who Decide Such Things.

Pet Sematary 2019 SPOILERS

Amazon has this in 4K for $2 so I was tempted to watch it last night. I am generally not a fan of reboots. I've read the book and seen the 1989 original. The runtime is about the same as the 1989 version. It tracks very closely for the first half or so, almost boringly so. There is a twist and then it diverges a bit. So there are some aspects there to keep it interesting.

The pacing feels a bit quicker than the original at first. Many elements are cut out like the dispute between Louis and Amy's parents and the nanny. Pascal is dialed back quite a bit.

It looks good, but is a bit dark and dreary and doesn't benefit much from the 4K resolution.

The reveal about Amy's sister is less dramatic, as is the death of the child on the highway. The sister is reimagined as mostly being thumping sounds coming from upstairs (and a bizarre scene involving a dumbwaiter?)

John Lithgow was solid, but I preferred Fred Gwynne as Jud. There was that important question and conversation about burying people that didn't make it into this version. Why cut that? Jud gets drugged in this version which seemed unnecessary.

There is a bit more time for the undead monsters at the end. It's no small task to turn these adorable children into fearsome ghouls.
In King's nightmarish vision, the resurrected are quite creepy and know things they shouldn't know. This aspect is lost in both movies. Both have them flash between cute and corrupted. This version also imparts the daughter with an upgraded brawling ability.

What would it be like living with a child who was raised from the dead? There are these moments between the father and the daughter which end up being mostly wasted opportunities to explore that more deeply. There is some creepiness here, but it just isn't King-sized.

So it's a mixed bag. The original was probably the best of the King movie adaptations, so the reboot seems mostly pointless.

Monster Mash - Geoff Castellucci

If you had SATV in the 90's, you were somebody!

I was envious of my friends who had DIRECTV back then. The guide was a wonder to behold. Cable TV was reasonably good at the time, too.

Fast-forward to today. SATV is lagging behind in 4K adoption. I believe DISH has like two 4K channels. Blackouts due to carriage disputes are commonplace. In just the past year, DISH has blacked out NBC and FOX in my area. The amount of time devoted to commercials has been steadily increasing, making live TV barely watchable. Many of these OTA/CATV/SATV channels seems to be glorified advertisements for the corresponding streaming services (and prescription drugs). CBS reserves their best shows like Star Trek: Picard for their CBS All Access subscriptions. AMC will broadcast one series of Creepshow, but withhold the others for AMC+. Disney is doing the same with Disney+.

So if you have SATV, you are not watching the premium content any longer. You are not the envy of your friends, and your costs for this service in decline have risen faster than inflation. It's a lose lose lose.

Grant miniseries

This 3-part miniseries was on the History Channel last year, and I just watched it. It's pretty decent, kind of like a Trader Joe's version of the Ken Burns documentary. There isn't nearly as much archival footage employed. There are a handful of photos of Grant that you will see again and again. The actor who plays Grant nails it. There are way, way too many shots of him smoking cigars, however. This is based on a book, and it is a kind of glorified book on tape. There are some recreated battle scenes that don't really capture the grandness of it all. Lincoln comes across as this dorky, irrelevant character. What's up with that? Jefferson Davis isn't even in it.

Grant is portrayed as this tactically brilliant uber-general, but the series doesn't completely demonstrate that. Mostly it seems like Grant wins a war of attrition through sheer relentlessness and total war tactics. He was certainly brilliant when compared to his bumbling predecessors. The timeline is longer than "The Civil War", so there are some interesting bits about West Point and his presidency in there.

3/5 stars

What tool do Trumpers use for the purpose of gaslighting?

MAGA-nesium fire starters!

I know the cause of China's coal shortage!

Santa is stockpiling coal at the North Pole for the stockings of all those naughty anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers on his list.

Ho Ho Ho!

I kind of hope La Brea blows

It's up my alley and I recorded the first two episodes but haven't watched them. The third is on today but I'm in an NBC blackout due to a dispute between Dish Network and Tegna. I could set up rabbit ears I guess but I don't think I even have a set anywhere?

Please tell me I'm not missing anything.

As a side note, these blackouts definitely blow. No NBC? How do I get my Lester Holt fix??

Vote on the pandemic article

I'm referring to English grammar articles. They are a type of determiner and go before a noun (a/an/the). Words matter!

The MSM seems to be clustering around poll option 1. Is that really the best characterization of our shared reality?

Not only might there be another corner, there's no guarantee that this corner loops back 180 degrees towards a better place. The UK turned a/the corner three months ago. That seems to have been a 90 degree corner.

The vaccine mandate religious exemptions are a Proof of Work system

Proof of Work (PoW) describes a system that requires a not-insignificant but feasible amount of effort in order to block frivolous attempts to access something. In this case, that something is an exemption from a vaccine mandate.

Few in America have genuine religious objections. Most objections seem to be partisan in nature, as misguided as that may be. There is also some good old-fashioned apathy at play here. If a PoW system was not in place, a much larger percentage of the population would take the exemption route. This is similar to how coupons at the supermarket work. If you want to shave 5 cents off a loaf of bread, you have to go get a newspaper, find the coupon, cut it out, bring it to the store, and annoy the people in line behind you. You can't just swipe your loyalty card. There's no work involved in that.

So there need to be some roadblocks in place for those who choose this road. Make them work for it. If the roadblocks are high and numerous enough, then we simply won't need the stubborn few who make it over all of them.