Rutherford Falls

I checked out this new Peacock show due to good reviews and its diversity on camera and behind the scenes. I had hoped that all the episodes would be free (like the Punky Brewster reboot is all free), but only the first 3 episodes are free. You have to sign up for Peacock Premium if you want to watch the whole season. So I have to try to decide if it's worth it to upgrade my account.

I actually did not find Rutherford Falls to be very funny; there is some humor there, but a lot of it is from awkward, cringey situations. I thought that the plot about moving the Big Larry statue would be resolved quickly, after Reagan gave a perfect solution, but no, Nathan reneged, so that the writers can apparently drag it out all season. So annoying. The pilot also suggested that Nathan Rutherford's brother discovered some really shocking document in the ancestral family house, but then the brother never explains what he found when Nathan comes to visit him. The show mentions that the house will be sold, but the brother still says "this wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about." So what did you want to talk about, buddy? When do we learn what the shocking documents were? I hate dropped threads like that. So yeah, I remain ambivalent and undecided about that show.

In contrast, I mostly like ABC's Home Economics sitcom about three adult siblings with different money and family issues. The only annoying part is how Tom's novel is supposed to be secret from the other siblings.

I also recently watched the Scoob! movie that came out last year. Although I love Scooby Doo, I avoided the movie because the promos made it look terrible. Whichever trailer showed Shaggy and Scooby being beamed aboard a ship made me think they were being kidnapped by aliens. Turns out, that's not true at all, but the misleading marketing sure turned me off. Anyway, the origin story starts out fine, with young Shaggy adopting Scooby, then meeting the rest of the gang on Halloween night. They solve a mystery, then we get a remake of the Scooby Doo, Where Are You? theme song, but after the time jump to the teens, it's no longer classic Scooby. Apparently it's not aliens who kidnap Shag and Scoob; it's the superhero Blue Falcon. Warner Brothers basically used this Scoob! movie to shoehorn in their old Hanna-Barbera franchises such as the Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, Dick Dastardly, and something called Captain Caveman. How self-serving can they be? The superhero adventure's okay, but I really would have preferred that the Scooby gang solve a traditional mystery by themselves. Guess I'll just have to keep watching the old toons on HBO Max.

Early Voting

Early voting began this week in Texas, and I forgot the first day, so I had to do more research on the League of Women Voters website before going out on Tuesday to vote. What a Tuesday, with Derek Chauvin being found guilty on all 3 counts! I was surprised and relieved, though we'll have to see how the sentencing goes later. Many reactions online emphasized that this was merely basic accountability, that we still had a long way to go for true justice in America. I see the point of the warnings, but still, celebrating small victories can keep up morale for the long fight ahead.

Anyway, the Senate finally confirmed Vanita Gupta to the DOJ position despite John Cornyn's opposition. She's great on civil rights, and she's one of the experts featured on Netflix's Amend show, where she discusses a lot of legal history around citizenship. Congress has been busy with hearings this week, and the Senate also passed the hate crimes bill on Thursday. Most of the Republicans realized how bad the optics would be to vote no on protecting Asian Americans. If only we could get them to pass the voting rights bill and infrastructure that easily.

It was a pretty good Earth Day yesterday, though I spent much of it feeling ill. Hope this weekend is better. If you are in Texas or in another state having elections, go vote while they still let you!

Infuriating

It's been a frustrating and exhausting week. Cops are still killing people, even kids, and lying about it so brazenly. The recent gunman at the Fedex facility means the return of regular mass shootings again, after I got used to the pause during COVID. Everything's reopening, so I guess we're going back to "normal" for gun-crazy America. Whoo-hoo!

I was even annoyed at Biden who decided to not lift the cap on refugees, but eventually he backtracked. I worry that he's not acting quick enough about immigrants still kept in camps; I know he's got a lot of things to do, but he needs to fill up more departments to deal with this.

Plus, PBS aired a Nova special called "Picture a Scientist", a documentary about harassment and discrimination against women scientists. When I think of #MeToo sexual harassment, I think of rape, Harvey Weinstein's grossness, and degrading acts like Anita Hill testified about. One woman does describe an overt case of the famous Francis Crick manhandling her; (he and Watson stole credit from Rosalind Franklin about the double helix, but that's another story). This "Picture a Scientist" special mainly talks about male scientists just being chauvinist pigs who belittle, undermine, and bully women to dominate them and chase them out of the profession. Some men do it by just consistently underpaying women or giving them less lab equipment and resources than male peers. Plus the whole system of how each scientist-in-training is dependent on a faculty advisor or other university boss to advance their career is broken; it encourages men to abuse their underlings and get away without repercussions. Checks and balances need to be put in place so that people have some recourse against intolerable behavior.

First Steps

Maryland recently overrode their Governor's veto to repeal the the "police bill of rights" that apparently gave them all kinds of special privileges. I really hope things are changing finally, to get rid of "qualified immunity" for cops. Just treat them like any other citizen, and make them accountable for their actions. Get them out of their militarized mindset and don't let them get away scot free.

Meanwhile, Will Smith's Emancipation movie is moving production out of Georgia due to the voter suppression law. I know that Stacey Abrams is against boycotting Georgia, but I think the Republicans won't change or back off at all until they suffer financial loss; all they understand is money and power. They act all outraged now about corporations getting political, but they still want all the money. I heard that 100 companies had a conference call discussion about whether to pause campaign contributions to officials that supported the January 6 insurrection. Notice they talk about "pausing" not ending altogether, and they never actually pledged to do anything yet. I hope they will actually follow through. If corporations continue to be "people" with free speech, then they ought to use it for something good for the rest of us.

Also I read that the book The Downstairs Girl is being adapted into a TV show. The protagonist is Chinese, but it's being done by a Korean studio, so I'm not sure if this will air in the US at all. I hope at least it is available streaming.

News

There's a field near my neighborhood that has bluebonnets blooming now. It's starting to feel like spring. I saw that Prince Philip died recently, but people are using it as an excuse to attack Meghan Markle again for the Oprah Winfrey interview, even though she and Harry stressed that the racism never came from the Queen and Prince Philip. Anyway, Meghan's pregnant and not going to travel to the funeral, probably because her doctor doesn't want to risk her having another miscarriage. I'm sure the racist UK tabloids are going to criticize her for it anyway.

The big Alabama union vote at Amazon failed, but that was probably due to their usual anti-union intimidation tactics. The union is appealing the results to the NLRB. Speaking of voter intimidation, the GOP are continuing to pass voter suppression bills. I contacted my useless Texas senators about H.R. 1, but as expected, Cornyn just replied with talking points about federal overreach and election security. I'm sick of the drama about the filibuster, but a recent report said that Biden is not stressed out about Manchin, so presumably he knows something or is negotiating some kind of deal to get Manchin on board. We'll see.

I read that there's another racist incident with a Black army lieutenant being brutalized by cops. It reminded me of the American Experience special about "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard" that recently aired. Black veterans returning from WWII were lynched by whites who felt that the soldiers had become uppity and no longer deferred to Southern racism. The NAACP used the outrage about Woodard's maiming to raise awareness and make Harry Truman sympathetic to civil rights. I watched the PBS special, but felt that it gave too much credit to Judge Waring and Harry Truman about desegregation. They act like Judge Waring talked Thurgood Marshall into making the Briggs v. Elliot case all about separate but equal. I mean, it's good to talk about white allies, like Orson Welles publicizing the attack on his radio show, but give the Black people credit too for fighting for their rights.

Kung Fu

The new CW reboot premiered tonight; the pilot felt a little exposition-heavy, and I was afraid that they were going to kill off the father played by Tzi Ma. But it's not clunkier than an average Supergirl episode, and the dead Shifu apparently will continue to give ghostly advice to Nicky. I was pleasantly surprised by Nicky's siblings who also wanted to help in the Tony Kang investigation. Will they be her team, like the team on the Equalizer? Anyway, the show clearly defined a mission for the season, to find eight magic weapons and defeat the villian Zhilan.

Meawhile I watched Godzilla vs Kong, and the fights were pretty good, though the plot was predictable once I saw the robot being constructed by Apex. I also found it hard to connect to the storyline of Benny and the kids even though I like Julian Dennison from Hunt for the Wilderpeople. I didn't know anything about Madison's backstory and I thought her group was on a HEAV going to meet the other plot in Antarctica; instead they were going on some kind of "pod" shipped by monorail from Florida to Hong Kong. Like, how could you construct that monorail, and why, if planes are available?

Locked Down

I got my second vaccine shot on Sunday, so I feel a little more secure to see the new Godzilla movie. I'll still keep wearing my mask though, in light of everything opening up so quickly.

All the political news sites have been obsessed with the sex scandal about Matt Gaetz. I'll be glad if it forces him to resign, but if it doesn't, then it's overshadowing a lot of bad things that also need attention, like Texas Republicans passing voter suppression and coming for our abortion rights. I did read, though, that Biden's Department of Transportation is putting a freeway expansion on hold due to civil rights issues, regarding all the residents that will be displaced in Houston. So it's good we have competent people in the administration who can pay attention to all the issues. I hope Deb Haaland is busy doing good things at Interior too.

Somebody rammed their car into a barricade at the Capitol! Scary, but I believe Congress is on Easter recess and that Joe Biden is at Camp David. Hope there's plenty of security for everybody who's still locked down in D.C.

Past and Present

I saw the news this week about a terrible attack on an Asian American woman in New York; it happened in broad daylight in front of witnesses who didn't help her. I haven't watched the video because the description sounds bad enough, and I worry for my elderly parents because parts of DFW can be redneck and intolerant. I will say, though, that people should not jump on the fact that Brandon Elliot is Black. He doesn't represent all Black people any more than Tou Thao, who helped Derek Chauvin murder George Floyd, represents all Asian Americans. Focus instead on the racist rhetoric that fueled this Anti-Asian violence. (And focus on the mentality of the police to kill with impunity.)

The Derek Chauvin trial has been televised this week, but I dread watching it, because I am really not sure that the verdict will be just. I remember years ago, when the LAPD beat up Rodney King, people really hoped that the video evidence would be enough to convict the police officers. When it wasn't, the fury exploded into riots in 1992. I do worry that the same thing could happen again. The world hasn't changed much since then despite numerous horrifying videos. (Hell, even all the video evidence of January 6th wasn't enough for the Senate Republicans who refused to convict Trump!)

I remember during the L.A. riots after Rodney King, there were also racial tensions between Asian immigrants and Black residents who resented them for past issues; rioters targeted Koreatown for destruction, and police abandoned the area. Pitting minorities against each other doesn't help any of us, and in fact it distracted from the problem about police brutality, which continues on, 30 years later, with still no end in sight. Wow, I'm old. But the racism in America is much older, of course.

Biden nominated some diverse candidates for judges this week. I hope he can keep nominating candidates to fill all the vacancies so we can reverse the Trump trend and possibly, finally, get more justice in our court system. But something's gotta be done about the police.