Tonight, I’m writing a letter – a physical, paper letter, with an envelope and a stamp – to the local Sinclair propaganda outlet, KOMO-4, over their continued blockade against Kimmel.
I’m not telling them I’m going to boycott them, no. They’re a free/over-the-air station. I don’t pay them. I don’t pay them a dime, why would they care if I boycott them?
Obviously, they wouldn’t.
So instead, I’m telling them I’m going to boycott their local sponsors, and I’m going to write those local sponsors a physical, paper letter, one with an ENVELOPE and a STAMP, and make sure those local sponsors know why.
For every obvious reason, I (and 50501 Seattle) encourage you to do the same. If you’re not in KOMO’s range, that’s fine, find your local Sinclair station and write them, instead.
(But write your own letter, don’t copy mine. They check for that.)
KOMO received enough protest calls today – Tuesday, September 23rd, as I write this – that they shut down their phone system. They went dark.
They can turn off their phones. They can delete their voicemail. And they have, and they did.
Eat a snack consisting of pretzels and water from a water bottle. Neglect to finish chewing and swallowing before sucking down some water. Have your cheek pulled in between your teeth as you continue chewing the remaining pretzel and masticate your cheek.
I would like to wish all the people who fought with me and sneered at me about how Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris were no better than Donald Trump and sat out the election and encouraged others to do the same a very happy DRINK SOME FUCKING BLEACH:
The Trump administration is preparing to designate transgender people as âviolent extremistsâ in the wake of Charlie Kirkâs murder, two national security officials tell me.
âŚ
Under the plan being discussed, the FBI would treat transgender suspects as a subset of the Bureauâs new threat category, âNihilistic Violent Extremistsâ (NVEs).
This is, yes, OBVIOUSLY, a duplication of Putin’s moves to designate target groups as “extremist organisations,” whether there’s an organisation or not, as “LGBT” was designated a couple of years ago, leading to the de facto re-illegialisation of LGBT people and large scale prosecutions.
Every other kind of queer is probably gonna be next.
I do not believe it’s a minor thing that Greg “let’s reclaim the word Nazi” Gutfield is repurposing Hitler’s “Jewish hypnotism” libel against trans people to transfer guilt from a cis white boy from a conservative family:
“[The shooter] was a patsy. He was under the hypnotic spell of a direct to consumer nihilism – the trans cult.”
There are plenty of other full-on-fascist declarations in this rant, too, not the least of which being the open declaration that they “don’t care” about “what-abouts,” which is to say, the overwhelming share of violence being from the right, or, in this case, the literal assassination of two Democratic state officials earlier this summer by a MAGA supporter with an extended list of targets. Those don’t count, because Democrats. Only MAGA are people, only MAGA have rights, only Trump can be king.
But it’s still important, and the one I think people may miss. This is, again, literally Hitler libel from a many who proposed “reclaiming” the word “Nazi” this summer.
If he wants the word so much, let’s apply it to him.
Laura Loomer, an important Trump confidante and aide, calls for a Trump dictatorship and mass arrests and prosecution of “leftists” (which for her absolutely includes liberals):
Trump and MAGA are following Putin’s playbook on the media, pushing it either into the hands of ideological compatriots or into silence:
Kimmel is about as controversial as a goldfish here. They arenât serious about it being a problem; the whole â˘point⢠is that itâs obviously â˘not⢠a problem.
They are using something extremely benign to test the waters of government repression of speech, to see just how much they can get away with â and ABC caved like 3rd-grade toothpick bridge.
Nexstar Media Group, which is seeking FCC approval for a multi-billion-dollar merger with Tegna, said its ABC affiliates would not air Kimmel’s show before ABC announced its own decision.
Earlier this week, responding to a conservative reporter who said that anti-war protesters near the White House âstill have their First Amendment right,â Trump replied, âYeah, well, Iâm not so sure.â
Itâs against this backdrop that Politico reported [that] the Justice Departmentâs No. 2 official said Tuesday that people noisily protesting President Donald Trump could face investigation if theyâre part of broader networks organizing such activities.
In the current environment I think itâs fair to say thereâs really no reason to believe anything weâre hearing from federal law enforcement, either formally or on background to reporters.
It is not just, for instance, that Kirk held disagreeable viewsâthat he was pro-life, that he believed in public executions, or that he rejected the separation of church and state. Itâs that Kirk reveled in open bigotry.
Not the violent rupture of 1861, but something else entirely. Blue states building parallel systems, withholding cooperation, and creating facts on the ground that render federal authority meaningless within their borders.
I went to stand on the street corner in front of the UU church in town, along with 16 other souls, holding signs. This is a weekly thing, from 5-6 on Wednesdays. Usually I have square dancing at a time that would make this inconvenient, so when it was canceled this week, and Ken was away, Valerie and I decided to go. It seemed like there was a smaller percentage of cars with positive honking than at previous events. I didn't see any middle fingers, though. Maybe the drivers are getting tired of us.
In other non-news, summer seems to be at a close. There was a ton of waterskiing in August. It's nice that we didn't have a big cyanobacteria bloom. In June the lake management committee had alum poured along the lake bottom to hopefully keep it at bay, and it appears to of work. There was a big flap about it, because people were like "we will all die of aluminum poisoning" even though the amount that you get is really small, and that's if it doesn't do what it's supposed to do and sit on the lake bottom and keep organic material from feeding the algae.
I did ski last weekend, but weekday skiing might be done with, mostly due to lack of personnel, because the neighbor, who is a schoolteacher, is back at work, and random guests are gone, and it's starting to get dark early enough that "after dinner ski" doesn't make any sense. Plus Ken's knee is bugging him so he's not really skiing.
The boat starter has been behaving better, perhaps Ken taking it apart and putting it back together was helpful. Sometimes it still craps out, but not often enough to be able to take it to the shop and say "fix it" because they will not be able to reproduce the problem.
This week I've had a weird health issue, which is that on Monday and Tuesday evening I had a mild fever, but I felt really fine in the morning. Maybe the ibuprofen was still in effect. Today it was a lot later in the day before I started to feel bad, and I'm just feeling vaguely mediocre as opposed to actually bad. I run low normally, so 98.6 is a fever for me, but even I'm hard-pressed to say that 98.1 is a fever, which was tonight's reading. I'm coughing a little bit. I took a nucleic Covid test Monday and it was negative.
Just like last year, I've managed to watch at least one
episode of every show nominated for a
Primetime Emmy Award, including the
specific episodes nominated in the writing and directing categories (but not counting the reality/variety
categories). Once again I don't have enough time left before the ceremony tonight to write up my opinions of each
show, but here are my rankings in each category from most to least favorite. (These are not predictions, just how
I would fill out my ballot if I were in the Television Academy.) I've indicated how many episodes I've watched of
each show; for the ones with no indication, I watched the full season. (For multiple-season shows that were new
to me, I watched the pilot episode first. In the case of Somebody Somewhere, I watched the first and
last episodes of the series, since the finale was nominated for Outstanding Writing, so it felt like I was on
Alan Sepinwall's Too Long; Didn't Watch podcast!)
Outstanding Comedy Series
The Bear (FX)
The Studio (Apple TV+) - 5 episodes
Hacks (HBO Max) - 4 episodes
Abbott Elementary (ABC) - 8 episodes
Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
Shrinking (Apple TV+)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX) - 2 episodes
While none of these shows were home runs (and not the best season for any of the returning shows), they were all
worth watching, and it's honestly hard to rank them.
Outstanding Drama Series
Andor (Disney+)
Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
Severance (Apple TV+)
The Pitt (HBO Max) - 4 episodes
The White Lotus (HBO)
The Diplomat (Netflix) - 1 episode
Paradise (Hulu) - 2 episodes
The Last of Us (HBO) - 1 episode
While I ranked Severance over Andor
in my best TV of 2022 list, it was a very close call. After
their second seasons, though, I'm ready to call Andor the clear winner, and the clear leader for best
show of the decade. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like it's going to win, but you should all watch it! Even if you
hate Star Wars!
Everyone says episode 7 of Paradise is the one to watch, but I haven't gotten there yet. Looking
forward to it, but from what I hear, the rest of the season is unlikely to change my rating. And I think the same
goes for episode 2 of The Last of Us, but I already was lukewarm on season 1 (ranking 49th
in my best TV of 2023 list), so you shouldn't be too
surprised to see it ranked last here.
Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
The Penguin (HBO)
Adolescence (Netflix)
Black Mirror (Netflix) - 2 episodes
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (Netflix)
Dying for Sex (FX) - 6 episodes
All worthy shows, and while Dying for Sex didn't totally land for me, I can see its appeal for many
others. I was skeptical about Monsters but after episode 5 I understood why it was nominated, and it's
worth watching the show just to see how it gets to that. I regret not getting around to the other Black
Mirror episodes, but the first two felt a little lower than average compared to past seasons.