#(Mike would like to just get Walter Bob and run for it but he doesn’t want to wake any bad memory so :(

[kanene-yaaay-o-retorno]

Random au because I can't stop thinking about this:

On the doc Mike and Pac found in the prison said that if Walter Bob completed that specific task he would be free from the jail/no longer a prisoner, right? (MY memory isn't the best so maybe this is a bit wrong but that is what we have for today folks augstwfwywfrqcw)

So

What if one day he finishes the task and Cucorucho with a smile brings him to another federation building and asks him to get into a room

So

Days later Fit is asked to clean a room, no big deal, another day of honest work where he starts lurking around looking for anything that could be useful for him and his mission

And then, in another place that he isn't suppose to be, but that he got into anyway is a... something. In the corner. It's small, it's scared, maybe even trembling a little bit and tired, very tired.

It's an egg.

When he enters, it turns around to face him and Fit freezes for a second because now he can clearly read the name on top of the kid.

"Walter Bob"

Well, he isn't coming out of that building alone.

Also! For fluff purposes! Imagine he bringing him to show Pac and Mike, like, Walter Bob doesn't have the memories of Before but he can't help but feel at ease around those "strangers" and their vibrant, lively energy, especially because they seem to like be around him as well, always full of hugs and itens and new places to show around.

Ramon being a good older brother! Showing him how to explode things and being perfect to bring his more quiet and chaotic side.

The fact that before he couldn’t remember ever having a bed just the cold metal of the cell and the guards shouting and pain and experiments and cold cold cold

But now it's different! Now he has a family, people from everywhere smiling and talking to him and helping and saying strange, kind things like that their house is his as well and that if he ever ever need he could call

And then Forever reforms the NINHO to have another room and Bad calls him to chat while making his buildings and Baghera gives him a bunch of invisible potions so they can hang around listening to gossips and Philza is always chill in letting him visit and Foolish laugh and goof around like nothing could ever go wrong everytime he gets too anxious and Mike and Pac are there and...

And Richas gives him beautiful paintings to put in his room and Dapper show him all his cool animal collection and Leo take him to a train ride and Tallulah helps him to decorate his room and...

And and and

(And the hope is there, it hurts too much to bare sometimes, like it's a knife that already cut him before.

But little by little, with time, the wounds begins to heal)

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

1960: John F. Kennedy/Lyndon B. Johnson vs Richard Nixon/Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

1964: Lyndon B. Johnson/Hubert Humphrey vs Barry Goldwater/William E. Miller

1968: Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew vs Hubert Humphrey/Edmund Muskie vs George Wallace/Curtis Lemay

1972: Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew vs George McGovern/Sargent Shriver

1976: Jimmy Carter/Walter Mondale vs Gerald Ford/Bob Dole

1980: Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush vs Jimmy Carter/Walter Mondale

1984: Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush vs Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro

1988: George H.W. Bush/Dan Quayle vs Michael Dukakis/Lloyd Bentsen

1992: Bill Clinton/Al Gore vs George H.W. Bush/Dan Quayle vs Ross Perot/James Stockdale

1996: Bill Clinton/Al Gore vs Bob Dole/Jack Kemp vs Ross Perot/Pat Choate

2000: George W. Bush/Dick Cheney vs Al Gore/Joe Lieberman

2004: George W. Bush/Dick Cheney vs John Kerry/John Edwards

2008: Barack Obama/Joe Biden vs John McCain/Sarah Palin

2012: Barack Obama/Joe Biden vs Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan

2016: Donald Trump/Mike Pence vs Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine

2020: Joe Biden/Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump/Mike Pence

The same candidates tend to show up year after year. Not just President running for re-election, but Vice Presidents running for the top slot themselves, incumbents or candidates, successful or not; Richard Nixon (1952, 1956, 1960, 1968), Hubert Humphrey (1964, 1968), Walter Mondale (1976, 1980), Bob Dole (1976, 1996), Al Gore (1992, 1996, 2000)

I would expect John Edwards (D-2004) to try and make a comeback, though he was only a one term senator from North Carolina, so that’s looking increasingly unlikely. The state swung for Obama in 2008, but hasn’t voted blue since (except for governor, but he has no power because the Republicans control the state legislature)

Paul Ryan (R-2012) will be back for sure; he retired from the House in part over of disagreements with Trump, but one doesn’t just give up being Speaker and slink away into obscurity (just look at Newt Gingrich, he refuses to shut up or die), so I think Ryan is just biding his time and hoping the whole Trump thing blows over in the next decade. If the party shifts away from Trump, he might offer himself as a slightly more moderate (“moderate*”) alternative.

Or maybe Sarah Palin (R-2008) will try and reclaim the presidency for herself; she’s a hardcore right wing nutjob, she was a Bush supporter AND a Trump supporter, and she’s still relatively young, so I could see her stepping back into the spotlight to try and “being the country back” to the traditionalism of the early 2000s. Nostalgia is cyclical, so I figure around 2028 or 2032 people will start looking back fondly on the Clinton and Bush years (Clinton more so than Bush, what with 9/11 and the wars and such)

Tim Kaine isn’t even one of the famous senators; there are some senators that everybody knows, even if they’re not from your state, like Chuck Schumer, Joe Manchin, Lindsey Graham, Bitch McConnell, big names with big reputations. Tim Kaine is a nobody, just a bland and inoffensive white dude Clinton picked to be as uncontroversial as possible (she couldn’t pick a woman or a black person because then the ticket would have been “too diverse”). He’s not the future of the Democratic party, but I could see him trying to become part of the Senate leadership. Maybe the whip (vice leader), I don’t think he has what it takes to be leader outright.

I don’t think Mitt Romney (R-2012) will run for president again; that ship has sailed. Moderate Republicans are critically endangered, extinct in the wild, with single specimens in captivity (in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maryland). After back-to-back losses in 2008 and 2012, I don’t think Republicans will run a moderate candidate ever again. Romney could maybe just maybe become the whip if he so desired, he’s a big enough name with support enough to become their presidential nominee, though he’ll never be the leader; McConnell was their golden goose, he gave hem exactly what they wanted and changed the game to give them an advantage even in minority. They will only ever elect hardliners like him from now on. Romney is too soft; he cares too much about the other side (he’s not liberal by any stretch of the imagination, he’s a Mormon for Brigham’s sake, but he voted to impeach Trump twice which means he may as well be a liberal in the eyes of the public)

Mike Pence has committed political suicide. Democrats hate him for his homophobia, sexism, racism, classism, and weird relationship with his wife who he calls “mother.” Republicans hate him because he didn’t break the law to re-elect Trump. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. He’s ultraconservative and super religious, so under normal circumstances he’d be a shoo-in for the nomination, but after breaking with Trump in January he’s dead in the water (he didn’t even really break away, there was literally nothing legal he could do; if he had tried anything it would have been struck down by the courts). And besides that, Pence is boring as hell. He’s milquetoast, he’s a saltine cracker without the salt because it’s too spicy, he orders plain hamburgers with ketchup on the side, all his steaks are cooked well done, he gets a boner when he sees a woman’s ankle and has to self-flagellate for penance, he sends back water if it has too much ice because it makes his teeth hurt. He’s the sacrificial lamb they’d nominate specifically to lose so they can save a stronger candidate for later when there’s no incumbent.

Kamala Harris is basically president-in-waiting (or rather nominee-in-waiting; who knows if she can actually win?) Biden ran on the unspoken promise that he would step down in 2024, making her the front runner, but he has recently walked this back and says he plans on running for a second term himself, pushing Kamala back until 2028 at least. She has good PR and has convinced half the country that she’s a progressive instead of a cop, so if she runs she’ll definitely have an edge over Democratic challengers. The media picks the nominee, and in 24 or 28 they’ll pick her for sure.

It’s becoming increasingly harder for people to stay relevant over multiple decades. I can’t imagine any 2004 candidates running in 2024, but Bob Dole managed to get on as Ford’s #2 and come back as #1 himself twenty years later (he lost both times, but still). Richard Nixon beat the odds and actually got elected in 68 after losing the presidency in 60 and the governorship in 62; he was pretty much coasting on Eisenhower’s legacy, selling himself as the anti-Goldwater, who lost in 64 to LBJ in a landslide.

Trump is acting like he’s going to run again, but whether or not he’ll fully commit is up in the air. On the one hand, his least insane niece says that he doesn’t want to put himself in a position where he could lose again, his ego couldn’t take it, he’s so embarrassed he can’t even admit it happened the first time. On the other hand, he’s too proud to accept defeat and just let some other candidate take his spot as leader of the Republican Party; the Republicans haven’t had a leader since Eisenhower, every other president has disappeared after leaving office.

Nixon resigned in disgrace

Ford was elected out

Reagan disappeared in the 90s because he didn’t want the country to see him deteriorate from Alzheimer’s

Bush Sr was elected out

Bush Jr was despised with approval in the 20s (record low), and could potentially have been tried at The Hague if Obama had balls

Now Trump wants to stick around, even though he’s older than Reagan and FAR less healthy. He’ll probably be dead in 15 years anyway; no way he reaches 90. His mind may already be going, but unlike Reagan he isn’t self aware enough to know it, so he might try to stay in the spotlight even after the dementia sets in. Wo knows?

What his niece says, and what I think is most likely to happen, is that he will pretend like he’s running in order to scam donors out of millions of dollars to pay his exorbitant legal fees, but then bow out of the race before the primaries. Whichever candidate he personally endorses will become the nominee and go up against Biden. Biden will win the popular vote, but I don’t know if he’ll win the electoral college; if this happens for the third time in a quarter century, I expect nothing less than chaos in the streets, perhaps even civil war (well, I expected civil war after 2020, and we’re still standing, so again, who knows?). All I know is that congressional Democrats will throw a hissy fit but do nothing to stop the Republicans from sneaking their way into office without a mandate AGAIN.

The last Republican to legitimately win the presidency was George Bush Sr in 1988. Jr lost to Gore, and only got re-elected in 2004 because he invaded Iraq the year prior. Democrats have won 7 of the last 8 elections, including the last 4 in a row. There are more Democrats and left-leaning independents than Republicans and right-leaners. If the Republicans lose-but-win AGAIN, I don’t think the county could take it; there would be phony calls for secession on TV and legitimate whispers behind the scenes, there would be lawsuits, there would be an even bigger assault on the Capitol than January 6, people would riot, the National Guard would attack brown people with impunity while peacefully corralling the white ones with shields and loudspeakers.

There hasn’t been an assassination since 1963, and no assassination attempt resulting in injury since 1981. Someone threw a grenade at Bush Jr in 2005, but they wrapped a handkerchief around it so the lever didn’t release. I think multiple politicians on both sides of the aisle might be targeted in the event of another electoral college screw up.

Trump could face jail time for his tax crimes, though given his high profile I think he’d get off with a slap on the wrist. He has never faced consequences before, so why would they start now?

[jacquirebriggs]

My concept of a WarioWare version of “Everything You Know Is Wrong”

Got this idea after watching the latest episode of WarioWare Tooned which uses the chorus as the intro.

*music starting 13-Amp syncs up the DJ at the organ sounds. Following with 9-Volt, 18-Volt and 5-Volt when guitar music plays "I was driving on the freeway in the fast lane With a rabid wolverine in my underwear" Dribble showing his mad driving skills while Spitz keeps him in check while the "wolverine" is actually similar to Ralphie just hops in the backseat. "When suddenly a guy behind me in the backseat Popped right up and cupped his hands across my eyes" A customer they don't remember picking up mugs Spitz, hurts the "wolverine" and ties Spitz up and returns him to the assistant seat, leaving him helpless on his service and then cups Dribble's eyes. "I guessed is it Uncle Frank? or Cousin Louie? Is it Bob or Joe or Walter? Could it be Bill or Jim? or Ed Or Bernie or Steve? I probably would have kept on guessing But about that time we crashed into a truck" Dribble panics as he tries to stay concentrated on his driving, while swerving like what happens if you lose a microgame in Cruise Controls. However, he eventually crashes into an incoming truck, flinging him and Spitz out the road. "And as I'm laying bleeding there on the asphalt Finally I recognize the face of my Hibachi dealer Who takes off his prosthetic lips and tells me" As Dribble lays down with his right arm and left leg broken, bleeding with Spitz laying down next to him, dead. He gets a glimpse of who causes this disaster happens to be Mitzi the Alien. First chorus Along with scenes with the Nintendo Powers (what I nicknamed their garage band), It also features Mona speeding up to be right on time, when suddenly two Pizza Dinosaur employees set her motorcycle engine on fire with a well-aimed match, causing her motorcycle to explode and flinging her to the side-grass sideways of the highway. As she tries to limp around with one of her leg broken, a wolfish Ruffington starts chewing away her femur which happens to be chewy, because everything you know is wrong. (Don't worry, Mona isn't that affected.) "I was walking to the kitchen for some Golden Grahams When I accidentally stepped into an alternate dimension And soon I was abducted by some aliens from space who kinda looked like Jamie Farr" Features Dr. Crygor taking a midnight snack when suddenly he accidentally steps into one of his inventions and got transported to an alternate dimension and then got abducted by Shroob-like aliens while Orbulon cameos. "The sucked out my internal organs And they took some Polaroids And said I was a darn good sport " The aliens took pictures of Crygor while they dissect him. (He's still alive because this song's everything you know is wrong) and then they treated Crygor like a good sport. "And as a way of saying thank you They offered to transport me Back to any point in history that I would care to go And so I had them send me back to last Thursday night So I could pay my phone bill on time But then the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders started yelling " Crygor was transported back to his lab, but the impact somewhat made him unconscious. Then Penny and Mike heard the loud thud and then overreacted because they think Crygor drink something extremely poisonous that he passed out. Second chorus More scenes with the Nintendo Powers, plus Kat, Ana, Cricket, and Mantis star this segment. It was a normal moment of them battling each other until a pesky Splunk shove a boulder to a red button that drops the platform they are on and drops them into a abyss of weirdness. During their freefall, Mantis was captured by a Blargg. After Cricket, Kat, and Ana landed on the white land, they sped through the tunnel of weirdness in worry and fear until they found a little, innocent, orange turtle. However as Ana tries to pet it, the turtle transformed into a large dinosaur similar to Bowser and King Koopa from the Super Mario cartoon and it eats her which led Cricket and Kat sent scrambling away in fear from this monster as it chases after them. Music break Along with more Nintendo Powers scenes. The scene cuts to Ashley and Red pacing into the night looking for missing ingredients when a door appeared out of nowhere. Hoping it's a pathway to the missing ingredients, they both go inside. They did not foresaw this entrance being a alternate world of weirdness that they cannot even predict. *tuba sounds While they trot in the prehistoric-like area, they saw Cricket and Kat being chased by the dinosaur which they attempt to stop it only for the dinosaur to pull out a extendable hand to pull Ashley and Red inside its mouth scaring Cricket and Kat even more. Inside the dinosaur is not flesh and guts, but rather another twisted dimension. *guitar riffles After a twisted portal, they landed in an unfortunate area where people see witches and demons regardless of personality, evil is nearby. Thus, they tied up Ashley and Red to a wooden stake and set the fire to the sticks below and they both cries as they slowly burn away- or had no effect because, broken laws. *guitar strikes (5-Volt, 18-Volt) "I was just about to mail a letter to my evil twin When I got a nasty papercut" Jimmy T. planning to deliver a letter to his "evil twin" (Jimmy P.) But suddenly he got a papercut within the envelope. "And, well, to make a long story short It got infected and I died" Jimmy T. dies by the severely bleeding paper cut. "So now I'm up in heaven with St. Peter By the pearly gates And it's obvious he doesn't like The Nehru jacket that I'm wearing He tells me that they've got a dress code" Jimmy T. heads to join heaven, except "St. Peter" (recasted by the Sewer Guru) didn't accept Jimmy's red jacket due to a dress code. Jimmy looks at him with confusion. "Well, he lets me into heaven anyway But I get the room next to the noisy ice machine For all eternity And every day he runs by screaming" Jimmy was let into heaven, but he's forced to take the room next to the noisy ice machine which he's completely hurt in the ears by it due to not being his preferred dancing music while the Sewer Guru runs around hyperly in circles. Final chorus More Nintendo Powers scenes. Orbulon was floating in the sky when suddenly lightning strikes his Oinker, knocking him out from it. Atfter landing on his stomach, he was cariied by a stream of "WAAAAAs" yelled by a disembodied Wario head with lights of other WarioWare employees flickering as he streams ending with a messed-up Cricket, who got mauled by the faux dinosaur, kicking him to the stars. *another Nintendo Powers break. Orbulon went banging on bells and flippers like if he's in a pinball machine with the space between the flipper being the exits. The parody ends with the band yelling, "Everything You is Know Wrong" within the chorus, finishing the song with Orbulon falling from the ceiling right in front of them.

[aion-rsa]

The Most Intense Better Call Saul Moments

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At the beginning of the month, Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk picked up his fourth Golden Globe nomination for his lead role in the Breaking Bad spinoff series. In the midst of preparing for the sixth and final season of the AMC drama, Odenkirk found out about his nomination while walking his dog, and let slip to Deadline that filming for the new season will begin in March.

That’s not the only nugget of info that Odenkirk gave Deadline in regard to Better Call Saul season 6. In a phone interview, Odenkirk told fans to expect a combustible final batch of episodes. 

“I can’t wait for the fireworks, really,” Odenkirk said about the upcoming season, which is expected to feature more episodes than the usual 10. “Our show is a bit of a slow burn over the past few years, and [series creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould] build up. There’s certainly exciting moments throughout, but towards the end, it gets super supremely intense.”

“Slow burn” is a common phrase used to describe the prequel series that finds earnest lawyer and ex-con man Jimmy McGill slowly transform into the shameless criminal defense attorney and sleazeball Saul Goodman. In comparison to parent series Breaking Bad, which saw milquetoast chemistry teacher Walter White undergo a far more dramatic transformation into the drug kingpin Heisenberg, Better Call Saul is seen as a smaller stakes story far more focused on interpersonal relationships than thrilling set-pieces and explosive showdowns. 

However, that reputation betrays the fact that Better Call Saul also offers plenty of high-stakes thrills and hard-charged moments. Below we’ve compiled the five most intense moments of Better Call Saul so far. These scenes offer a different type of tension than Breaking Bad, but are nonetheless arresting in their own way.

Chuck’s Court Room Blow-Up 

Season 3 Episode 5 “Chicanery”

The relationship and struggle between the brothers McGill is the lifeblood of Better Call Saul. Even after Chuck’s death (which is itself quite the intense moment), the psychological impact of the jealousy experienced and their falling out still informs so many of Jimmy’s decisions. “Chicanery” features the moment that their relationship deteriorated beyond repair in a stunning courtroom sequence that found Chuck revealed to be the true villain in Jimmy’s story.

Without stunning scientific feats, shootouts, drug deals, or fiery explosions, Better Call Saul captivated audiences simply by showcasing two brothers destroying their relationship. No Machiavellian efforts necessary, just Jimmy’s accomplice Huell slipping a harmless battery in a pocket; no surprise hitman at the door, just an unannounced appearance by a concerned ex-wife. The stakes are significantly smaller than a Breaking Bad setpiece, but far more personal and more than capable of keeping viewers at the edge of their seats. 

Chuck’s unraveling takes place in one room, but director Daniel Sackheim keeps things interesting by utilizing the reflections in clocks or by keeping the background action in focus. Michael McKean stuns with an incredible, spiteful, and vulnerable performance, making Chuck utterly despicable yet somehow sympathetic at once. But only sympathetic to a point. 

Though Chuck’s mental condition is clearly something to worry about, his gross jealousy and resentment shown toward his brother, a brother who respected and selflessly helped Chuck time and time again, is unforgivable. In this tense courtroom blowup, the man that Jimmy looked up to as a monument is reduced to pitiful rubble.

Gene and the Cab Driver 

Season 4 Episode 1 “Smoke”

Prior to the beginning of season 4, co-creator Peter Gould said that Better Call Saul was envisioned as a “romp.” However, the first episode of the fourth season is most definitely not a romp. “Smoke” takes place in the immediate aftermath of Chuck’s death, with Jimmy seemingly trying to ignore his complicated feelings over his brother’s passing. But before we get to that, we spend a little time in the post-Breaking Bad timeline with Gene, Jimmy’s new alter ego living and working in Omaha, Nebraska, trying to exist under the radar and escape the fallout from his criminal past.

The time spent with Gene is the best part of the season premiere. Almost every season starts with a Gene check-in, but season 4 begins with a moment that almost scares Jimmy into abandoning his life in Omaha and starting over again. Jimmy has two close-calls, first at a hospital in the aftermath of a fainting spell. A nurse handling his registration says that his social security number is incorrect, causing the hair on the back of Gene’s neck to stand up. Before he starts hyperventilating, the nurse reveals she simply typed his information into the computer incorrectly, which gets a huge sigh of relief out of Gene. 

The second encounter isn’t as harmless. Gene is picked up at the hospital by a cab, and notices the cab driver staring at him uncomfortably. Finally, Gene notices that the cab driver has an Albuquerque air-freshener hanging from his rearview mirror. With just the thought of being recognized, we can see Gene’s blood run cold. It may not sound like a momentous moment, but director Minkie Spiro ratchets up the tension and makes us feel every bit of Jimmy’s intense fear of being discovered.

Mike Kills Werner 

Season 4 Episode 10 “Winner”

Most of Mike’s season 4 story revolves around him watching over the German team assembled to build Gus Fring’s super lab, the same lab that Walter White would use to perfect his meth cooks. It’s not the most exciting use of the hard-boiled hitman’s time, but it eventually leads to a moment that signifies Mike stepping over the morally grey line into full-blown villainy. This isn’t Mike’s only revealing moment of the series, as the sixth episode of Better Call Saul dives into Mike’s background and the revelation that he was directly responsible for his son’s death, but this is the moment of no return for Mike, the act that would solidify his involvement with Gus Fring’s operation and lead to his eventual demise. 

After Werner, the engineer lead, escapes the underground facility after specifically being forbidden to do so, Gus orders Mike to hunt Werner down and tie off the loose end. Mike must find Werner before Lalo does, as Gus doesn’t want the Salamanca heavy to learn of his plans. The search and capture of Werner harkens back to the hardboiled delights of Mike’s scenes in Breaking Bad.

Read more

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Also, the resolution of Mike’s search, ending with an expertly staged wideshot depicting Werner’s murder along with Mike’s wordless confirmation to Gus that the job had been done, shared some symmetry with Jimmy’s story. “Winner” finds Jimmy finally flashing the Saul Goodman seediness we’d come to know in Breaking Bad, so the episode depicts both characters seemingly shedding the last vestiges of their humanity.

Kim Faces Off Against Lalo

Season 5 Episode 9 “Bad Choice Road”

Lalo Salamanca was the big bad that Better Call Saul was missing. He’s the perfect villain and foil for Jimmy, someone that has as much swagger and charm as the slimy lawyer, but with a mean streak that rivals the best Breaking Bad villains. Lalo’s inclusion in the series has created nothing but chaos and danger, and the man has never felt more dangerous when showing up unexpectedly at Jimmy and Kim’s home.

 Jimmy’s near-death experience in the previous Season 5 episode “Bagman” may have been the most action-oriented episode of the series to date, but the follow-up features perhaps the most intense moment of Better Call Saul. In the middle of a fight after Kim abandons her position at Schweikart & Cokely, an argument that positions Jimmy as the selfish Chuck to Kim’s selfless Jimmy, the warring couple are interrupted by an urgent call from Mike; Lalo is at the door, and Mike demands that Jimmy keep his phone on so he can eavesdrop on the dangerous, impromptu visit. Lalo abandons his plans to return to Mexico after discovering Jimmy’s Esteem in the desert riddled with bullet holes and struts into their apartment to make himself comfortable. He’s ready to hear Jimmy’s story again, looking to catch him in a lie.

Throughout Lalo’s grilling, Jimmy gets noticeably more nervous and begs for Lalo to let Kim leave. During all of this, we watch Mike observing through a sniper scope on an adjacent building. Jimmy would typically have some sort of story ready to satiate Lalo, but he’s still in a fragile state and frankly appears shell shocked. His abilities as a bullshitter and impervious to Lalo. Fortunately, Kim steps up and speaks on his behalf, remaining tough with Lalo and poking holes in his concerns. 

The entire encounter is a nail-biter because Lalo is so unpredictable; if you come at him with the wrong tone, he won’t hesitate to display his disapproval. Fortunately, the bold strategy works, and Lalo promptly heads out. Still, this moment signifies that if Kim wasn’t already in the game before, she certainly is now, and that’s a terrifying prospect for the beloved character. We know that Jimmy won’t fall victim to Lalo’s violence, but the same can’t be said for Slippin’ Kimmy. 

Nacho’s Betrayal and Lalo’s Escape 

Season 5 Episode 10  “Something Unforgivable”

When creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould first floated the idea of a prequel series titled Better Call Saul, many fans salivated at the thought of getting to learn the backstories of two of the most popular characters from Breaking Bad, Saul Goodman and Mike Ehrmantraut. While Better Call Saul has certainly delivered on fleshing out the origins of the beloved antiheroes, it’s also been successful in creating its own memorable supporting cast. 

New to Gilligan’s New Mexico crime universe was a young Salamanca soldier and dealer, Nacho Varga, whose business frequently intersects with our familiar returning protagonists. Nacho’s story finds him struggling for survival as he’s caught between the warring Salamanca and Fring factions. Nacho is depicted as a smart character with a decent moral compass, but he’s gotten himself mixed up in a bad situation that frequently looks keen on making Nacho collateral damage in a cartel war.

Read more

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By Alec Bojalad

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By Alec Bojalad

With his family threatened, Nacho is coerced into working as something of a double agent for Gus Fring, which has led to plenty of tense moments, but none more nerve-racking than the final episode of season 5, when Nacho attempts to aide Gus’ men in assassinating acting Salamanca boss, Lalo. After an uneasy meeting with Don Eladio, Nacho has to wait until 3 AM and unlock a gate located on Lalo’s ranch. When he walks outside in the middle of the night to complete the deed, Lalo is waiting in front of the gate, holding court around the fire. The tension erupts when Nacho uses a sneaky decoy to distract Lalo and open the gate. He walks out of the estate trusting that the trained killers will do their job, but Salamancas aren’t so easy to dispatch. 

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In a thrilling sequence, Lalo out-maneuvers and decimates every would-be assassin. Lalo’s genial spirit is erased while surveying the damage. A rage boils inside of him seeing the bodies of the innocent people that Nacho was hoping would be protected. Lalo hobbles off-screen Terminator-style, looking to enact his revenge. If Lalo was a frustrating presence before, now he’ll return to Albuquerque like a plague.

The post The Most Intense Better Call Saul Moments appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[junker-town]

24 great books for quarantined sports fans

From ‘Ball Four’ to ‘Out of Sight’, here are a few books you can come back to over and over again

I love my books. They have traveled with me across the country and back again, prominently displayed in cheap bookcases throughout dozens of apartments around the Northeast. Currently, they are stretched out behind me in my home office where they will stay until the time comes to move off the grid. They will follow me there, as well.

I have read all of them at least once and several of them dozens of times. During periods of my life when I was without human companionship they were literally my only friends. That’s not said for sympathy. The life of a newspaper sportswriter in the 90s and early 2000s involved shitty hours and weekends, which pretty much negated any hopes of having a social life.

Through it all, my books were there for me. They demanded nothing but my time and gave me hours of entertainment.

I’m not particularly proud of my collection. There is very little literature to be found and only a handful of what one might refer to as great works. It mainly comprises sports books, rock star biographies, and a nearly complete set of Elmore Leonard novels.

Most of them are several decades old because I had to stop buying books at some point when I began to run out of room. I’m not linking to them because you can hopefully find an independent bookstore near you that would be thrilled for the business. Do them and humanity a favor.

Here are some of my favorites.

BASKETBALL

The Breaks of the Game: David Halberstam

This is the monster of all sports books, the one against which every basketball book is competing with in one way or another. If you know nothing of the NBA pre-LeBron James, this is where you should start. It’s a window into what feels like another universe, when pro basketball was a cult sport struggling for survival.

Loose Balls: Terry Pluto

I wrote about this one at length and won’t belabor the points I made back before the world came to a screeching halt. If you can’t get into the stories contained within these pages, I frankly don’t want to know you.

The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: The FreeDarko collective

It’s an exaggeration to say every person who heard the first Velvet Underground album went out and formed a band, just as it is to suggest that every writer who consumed FreeDarko wound up writing about basketball on the internet. But almost everyone who did was influenced by them.

The Miracle of St. Anthony: Adrian Wojnarowski

Long before he was the great and powerful Woj, the author spent an entire season with Bob Hurley’s St. Anthony Friars. It’s a masterful bit of storytelling that for my money is the absolute best of the surprisingly robust sub-genre of books about high school basketball.

Other contenders include The Last Shot by Darcy Frey, Fall River Dreams by Bill Reynolds and In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle by Madeleine Blais.

The Jordan Rules: Sam Smith

Judging from the early reactions to the gigantic Bulls documentary, it’s quite clear a lot of you should get familiar with the source material. Smith’s book was shocking upon its release because it dared show Michael Jordan as he really was, without the buffed out Nike shine. It holds up, clearly.

Halbertsam’s Playing for Keeps picks up the story in 1998 and provided much of the narrative structure of the first two episodes.

Heaven is a Playground: Rick Telander

An all-time classic set on the courts of mid-1970s Harlem during a long, hot summer. There are a lot of books that tried to get at the soul of basketball, but this is the standard bearer. I’d really like to know whatever became of Sgt. Rock.

Others in this vein include The City Game by Pete Axthelm, Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew and Big Game, Small World by Alexander Wolff.

Second Wind: Bill Russell

The best athlete autobiography of all time.

BASEBALL

Lords of the Realm: John Heylar

The inside story of how baseball owners conspired for almost a century to suppress salaries while refusing to integrate. It’s shocking how buffoonish management acted during the glory days of the national pastime. Required reading.

Marvin Miller’s A Whole New Ballgame is a worthy companion piece, as is Bill Veeck’s delightful, Veeck as in Wreck.

Ball Four: Jim Bouton

Scandalous upon its release in 1970, Ball Four contains the best line ever written in any sport book: “You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”

I read Ball Four for the first time in fifth grade and immediately taught my classmates the words to “Proud to be an Astro”:

Now, Harry Walker is the one who manages this crew

He doesn’t like it when we drink and fight and smoke and screw

But when we win our game each day,

Then what the fuck can Harry say?

It makes a fellow proud to be an Astro

Seasons in Hell: Mike Shropshire

There is nothing more soul-crushing than spending an entire season with a bad team. Shropshire covers three hilariously inept campaigns with the Texas Rangers, who as then-manager Whitey Herzog noted: “Defensively, these guys are really sub-standard, but with our pitching it really doesn’t matter.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning: Jonathan Mahler

An underrated late addition to the pantheon that tells the story of the 1977 Yankees amid the backdrop of a city gone to hell.

You will notice there are few books in my collection about modern baseball. There’s a reason for that. The vast majority of them are peans to the wonders of middle management and therefore boring as hell.

FOOTBALL

Playing For Keeps: Chris Mortsensen

The incredibly bizarre — and largely forgotten — story of how the mob tried to gain influence in pro football via a pair of shady agents named Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom. Good luck finding it.

Bringing the Heat: Mark Bowden

You may recognize Bowden from such masterworks as Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo. You probably don’t remember that he spent a year with the Eagles after the death of Jerome Brown. As honest and unflinching a look at pro football as you will ever find.

North Dallas Forty: Peter Gent

The only piece of sports fiction on my list is not so fictional at all. Gent’s thinly-veiled account of his own life as a receiver for Tom Landry’s Cowboys is shocking and brutal and sad and poignant. I make time to read it every year.

I used to have more football books, back when I cared about the sport.

MEDIA

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: Hunter S. Thompson

The Vegas one is more popular and Hell’s Angels is a stronger work of reportage, but for a dose of pure Gonzo insanity, this is the book I come back to more often than not.

The Boys on the Bus: Timothy Crouse

The companion piece to Thompson’s lurid account, Crouse plays it straight and lays bare the bullshit facade of campaign reporting. Almost 50 years later, we have still learned nothing.

The Franchise: Michael McCambridge

Details the glory days of Sports Illustrated, reading it now feels like an obituary. It was fun once, this business of writing about sports.

MUSIC

Heads, a Biography of Psychedelic America: Jesse Jarnow

My favorite book of the last few years, Jarnow takes us on a bizarre trip through the byzantine world of psychedelic drug networks connecting it through the career of the Grateful Dead and into modern-day Silicon Valley. I’m waiting for the followup on Dealer McDope.

Not music, but as a companion piece, Nicholas Schou’s Orange Sunshine tells the even-crazier tale of The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, who took over the LSD trade and invented hash smuggling by stuffing surfboards with primo Afghani hash and shipping them back to California.

The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones: Stanley Booth

Reported while on tour with the Stones at the height of their powers circa Let it Bleed, Booth took 15 years to write the damn thing. By then the Stones were already an anachronism. It’s all there, though. Sex, drugs, more drugs, and unbelievable access to the biggest rock ‘n roll band in the world.

This Wheel’s on Fire: Levon Helm with Stephen Davis

In which Brother Levon disembowels Robbie Robertson and exposes the lie at the heart of The Band. Robbie took the songwriting credit and all the money.

Satan is Real: Charlie Louvin

Astonishingly good read that is best consumed with Charlie and his brother Ira playing low in the background.

Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader

Lester is an acquired taste and not all of his ramblings hold up. I will always love him for despising Jim Morrison and completely nailing what made Black Sabbath important. Spoiler: They were moralists like William S. Burroughs.

Please Kill Me: Legs McNeil and Gillian Welch

The definitive oral history of punk rock, an essential document of a scene that launched a thousand mediocre bands and the Ramones, who ruled.

Shakey: Jimmy McDonough

A tour-de-force biography of Neil Young that loses steam toward the end when McDonough makes himself the subject. The stuff about Neil’s bizarre 80s period and his relationship with his son is heartbreaking.

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Michael Azerrad

Pretty much everything you need to know about bands like Mudhoney, Black Flag and Mission of Burma who wove together the musical underground through a patchwork collection of local scenes back when something like that was still possible.

ELMORE LEONARD

You can’t go wrong with anything Leonard writes, but Out of Sight is as good a place to start as any.

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: June 2017

Did you know the year is now 50% complete? It is.

……….FILM……….

Wonder Woman (2017) So so great and I can’t believe this is in the same world as Man of Steel and Batman v Superman! I also really appreciated the depiction of a healthy relationship that developed in a logical manner, but then again I suppose that’s a reflection on the director and actors.

Logan (2017) I missed this in theatres but hot damn did I enjoy this. I also dug all the video essays about it like this one and this one. It was so refreshing to get satisfying closure in a superhero film.

Fired Up! (2009) For a teen comedy that’s 8 years old, a lot of the humour holds up. It was silly and a little self aware and I’m always a fan of that.

Rough Night (2017) Oof. I’m not sure why some of these comedians agreed to this movie but it...it wasn’t good. It just feels like such a hurdle to build a comedy around accidental murderers who then make every wrong decision possible. The term “lazy feminism” was mentioned in discussing it afterwards and I couldn’t agree more. The film felt like it thought it was so progressive to put women in the roles played by shitty late 90s actors but it doesn’t feel like a step forward for anyone. Bad movies make me sad.  

……….TELEVISION……….

Glow (Episodes 1.01 to 1.02) So far, so good!

The Bachelorette (Episode 13.03 to 13.05) This dumpster fire really ramped up the garbage by discussing race via a racist troll; great job, producers. Now that he’s gone I hope we can get into some classic romance television in the vein of The Bachelorette Canada (seriously, watch it and you’ll remember a time when reality tv was a little nicer).

……….READING……….

Spider-Man: Fever by Brendan McCarthy & Steve Cook (Complete) I generally like my Spider-Man comics to be a bit lighter but the inclusion of Doctor Strange and crazy dimension-hopping stuff totally balances this moody story out. This book looks and feels like I imagined all superhero comics to be like before I started reading them (saturated colours, zany plots, hero team-ups, etc.) and it’s definitely worth the read.

Sandman Vol. 9 - The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman + countless excellent artists (Complete) So I’m not gonna lie, I found this one to be a chore. I don’t know if it’d been too long since I’d seen most of these characters, but the arc didn’t do enough to reintroduce me. I dunno it was more Morpheus but it never quite came together at the end.

Headlopper & The Island or a Plague of Beasts by Andrew MacLean (Complete) I suppose an easy comparison would be to the visual style of Mignola, but this feels pulpy and fun in a way very different from Hellboy. It’s so serious it’s silly and so violent that it’s beautiful. Go pick it up.

Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure by Walter Simonson, Mike Mignola, and Bob Wiacek (Complete) This was a fun short story featuring early Mignola. I always love Simonson’s writing and the whole thing feels very Conan-esque.

Vornheim: The Complete City Kit by Zak S (Complete) This is a stellar book for running a D&D game. It has a few adventures in it, but it also has a TON of tables and references for on-the-fly playing in a city! I can’t recommend this enough

A Red & Pleasant Land by Zak S (Complete) This is another D&D book but it’s more of a fully realized campaign and is so wonderfully imaginative! The Alice in Wonderland motif is so rich with content for adventure that I can’t help but want to set all of my games in this land. 

……….GAMING……….

Dungeons & Dragons Homebrew Campaign (Wizards of the Coast) Okay so the party figured out the source of the zombie uprising and are now on to new adventures! And I learned a big lesson with the most recent boss: don’t get too wordy. I had this elaborate plot figured out but got tripped up in communicating it. I should’ve just been more straightforward with the exposition! Live and learn. Anyway now they’re on to a colosseum-based adventure with the goal of saving a trapped sphinx!

Dungeons & Dragons Hexcrawl Campaign (Wizards of the Coast) My players read this and complained I didn’t give enough detail in the last update so here’s my big picture assessment: this party wants a pet SO BAD! Every creature becomes an attempt to befriend (with varying success) meanwhile I give them passive goblins and all they do is murder them every chance they get. It’s amazing. Oh also they’ve discovered a library that only opens during a full moon, a fort run by said goblins, and a cave filled with mysterious mushrooms!

And that’s it! As always, I love hearing recommendos for stuff to read/watch/play.

Happy Friday!

[andrewromanoyahoo]

Can Democratic ‘Wonder Woman’ Mai-Khanh Tran unseat one of the most powerful House Republicans in 2018?

Dr. Mai-Khanh Tran (Photo: Courtesy of Facebook)

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — In many ways, Dr. Mai-Khanh Tran isn’t all that different from millions of other Democrats who have been dismayed or depressed or indignant since Donald Trump was elected president.

On election night, Tran watched in shock as the returns rolled in. The next morning, she wept at work — Tran is a pediatrician — with her colleagues. Later, she joined the protesters shouting slogans and waving signs outside the Orange County offices of several Republican congressmen.

But Tran didn’t stop there. Last month, she actually decided to enter elected politics herself, launching a long-shot campaign to unseat 12-term Republican Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

While defeating Royce may seem like a tall order for a political novice, Tran, 51, has already spent her entire life overcoming impossible odds.

In 1975, Tran arrived in America as a 9-year-old refugee from war-torn Vietnam — without her parents. She spent her summers picking strawberries in rural Oregon, eventually working her way through college at Harvard as a janitor. And she survived two bouts of breast cancer and endured eight rounds of in vitro fertilization before finally getting pregnant at age 46.

“I think you’ve got to have total commitment to everything you do in life,” Tran said on a recent Thursday afternoon as she sipped from a bowl of bone-in kalbi soup on the patio of a new pan-Asian restaurant in Orange County’s Little Saigon. “You’ve got to do things for the right reasons. And when you have the right reasons — if what you’re doing is needed, on behalf of others — you will do it until you succeed. I truly believe that.”

Whether Tran can succeed her in mission to topple Royce remains to be seen. But if any place encapsulates the challenges facing Republicans in 2018, Orange County is it. And if any Democratic hopeful embodies the political crosscurrents that will likely define the coming midterms, Tran may be the one.

Topping the list of those forces? Health care.

The first patient Tran saw the morning after the election was a child with a brain tumor. The girl’s mother, a local nail salon worker, couldn’t get health insurance for her children until Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Realizing that her coverage might change under Republican rule — that “this was going to affect her daughter’s life soon” — the two women cried together in Tran’s examination room.

A few months later, the mother called Tran. The House had just passed the American Health Care Act — the GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill — and she was, according to Tran, “petrified.”

Dr. Mai-Khanh Tran currently works as a pediatrician in Orange County, Calif. (Photo: Courtesy of Facebook)

That’s when Tran decided to run for Congress.

“It was the speed of that vote, the secret way it was done, that just pushed me,” Tran told Yahoo News, noting that she had spent the previous three months appearing on local Vietnamese-language TV to explain what was at stake. “I thought, ‘We can do all the prep work, all the work to inform the public, but when it comes down to it, their voice just isn’t there where it matters. On the floor. In the caucuses. All of the meetings.’ It just made me so angry. And I said, ‘You know what? We need to have people who really understand health care in Washington. We need to be in the game.’”

As the Republican Senate struggles to pass its own version of a bill to repeal Obamacare, health care is shaping up to be the central issue in 2018.

In part, that’s because 217 GOP House members — including all four Orange County Republicans — voted for the AHCA, a deeply unpopular measure that even President Trump has called “mean.” Democrats plan to spend millions of dollars between now and next November reminding voters of this fact.

The so-called resistance to Trump — and, more specifically, the resistance to his party’s Obamacare repeal push — has inspired newcomers like Tran, many of whom are also doctors or scientists or women, to get off the sidelines and run for office themselves.

The result is a rookie class of grassroots candidates rallying around a potent message. The question is whether fresh faces and passionate resistance will be enough to flip the 24 seats Democrats need to regain control of the House.

Opportunity in Orange County

Despite its conservative past — Orange County voted for the GOP candidate in every presidential election from 1936 to 2012 — the O.C. now overlaps with the districts of four of the 25 most vulnerable Republicans in Congress: Darrell Issa, Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters and Ed Royce. Hillary Clinton captured all four of their districts in the 2016 presidential race — a first for a Democrat — and won the county as a whole by 9 percentage points. A growing minority population, a concentration of college-educated whites and a declining GOP registration advantage are making the area more and more treacherous for Republicans, especially with Trump in the White House. Democrats have taken notice, fielding several promising candidates, including multimillionaire stem-cell pioneer Hans Keirstead; real estate entrepreneur Harley Rouda; environmental activist Mike Levin; and retired U.S. Marine Col. Doug Applegate.

“It’s districts like these that will decide whether the Democrats can make a serious run at control of the House,” the New York Times’ Nate Cohn recently wrote.

Political novice

In person, Tran doesn’t seem like a politician. Petite, with a few gray hairs peeking through an otherwise black bob, she trembles slightly when she starts to answer a question, her soft voice starting and stopping and wavering as she struggles for the right words to express her views, none of which have yet been scripted for her by some cadre of consultants. She apologized for “not being good at this,” and teared up four times over the course of a two-hour conversation. At one point, she unleashes a few choice words about Donald Trump, then said, “This is off the record,” which prompts her sole campaign adviser to laugh and explain that “you have to say you’re off the record before you say something, Mai-Khanh.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Tran said.

But Tran’s outward gentleness masks a fierce inner strength that has been fostered by decades of unimaginable hardship and improbable success.

Of her childhood in Vietnam, the things Tran remembers most are the near-constant explosions. “Every night, every other night, there would be bombs going off,” she said. “We’d all go into a little space under staircase. We’d hear the bomb go by — zoom! — and we’d run in there.”

One day in early 1975, Tran’s father, a prominent Saigon judge, took her and her three siblings, the youngest of whom was still wearing diapers, to a local Catholic orphanage, leaving them behind without any explanation. Tran recalls that her father was wearing sunglasses, but only later did she realize that he must have been crying.

“It was an act of total desperation on my dad’s part,” Tran said. “A lot of people were giving up their children so they could get them out. This was their last resort.”

The U.S. military airlifted Tran and her siblings to San Francisco, where “big Marines” carried each of them off the plane. “I tell you, even today, if I see a guy in uniform, I really do get so emotional,” Tran said. “I still am so grateful and humble.”

Eventually, the children ended up at a convent in Salem, Ore. Six months later, their parents, who escaped Vietnam during the fall of Saigon, joined them. In America, Tran’s father could no longer work as a judge; the closest he came was a gig cleaning the local courthouse. To make ends meet, the Trans rented out their apartment’s single bedroom to a college student while the six of them slept together in the living room.

“My first Fourth of July celebration was in 1976 — the bicentennial,” Tran said. “The fireworks were huge. And I was cowering in fear. It was so loud, like bombs. Even to this day, I don’t like fireworks.”

Inspired by her grandfather, a traditional medicine man, Tran decided early on that she wanted to be a doctor. Every moment she wasn’t working was spent reading. After four years at an inner-city high school in Portland — she and her friends were bused in from the Vietnamese “ghetto” — Tran graduated first in her class and was accepted by Harvard.

“Maybe because I am an immigrant, I feel like I need to know more,” Tran said. “I need to know more and do more.”

Tran loved her college experience, but it wasn’t exactly easy. Without money for a hotel, her father was forced to request Freshman Weekend accommodations from random Vietnamese locals, and Tran paid her way through school with three simultaneous jobs — janitor, security guard and reader for the blind.

“I cleaned the jocks’ dorm,” she said. “The rich kids’ dorm. And, you know, they throw out a lot of things. I remember picking up things that we could use. I don’t think I ever felt like I belonged there.”

A stint as a health care analyst on Wall Street followed, then medical school at Brown-Dartmouth. After her residency at UCLA, Tran started her own practice in Fountain Valley, where she has spent the last 25 years treating working-class immigrants, educating the community and leading thrice-yearly medical missions to hot spots around the world — leper colonies in the Vietnamese jungle, typhoon-ravaged villages in the Philippines, impoverished neighborhoods in Tijuana.

That experience, she says, is what has convinced her she’s ready for Congress.

“We have to figure out how we’re going to feed these people,” Tran explained. “We help them with job training. We set up farms for them. We set up revolving loans for them. We do clean water. We make sure their kids get the education they need. As a congresswoman, I plan to bring that sort of comprehensive approach to my community and my constituents.”

Tran’s successful battles with breast cancer and infertility have convinced those around her that she can succeed in the political arena as well.

Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., at a news conference on Capitol Hill, Sept. 21, 2016. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

“She’s like Wonder Woman,” said adviser Courtni Pugh, whose other clients include Kevin de Leon, California Senate president pro tempore. “Everything Mai-Khanh has overcome in her life? We need to create, like, a meme. We’ll put her in a red cape.”

Uphill climb

Wonder Woman or not, Tran is still a serious underdog in the race against Royce. If she wins the Democratic primary — her opponent is former chemistry professor Phil Janowicz — she’ll be facing off against a politician who’s been winning elections for as long as she’s been a pediatrician.

Incumbency isn’t Royce’s only advantage either. Even though Clinton won CA-39, Royce was easily reelected with 57 percent of the vote, and he’s the most popular of the four vulnerable Orange County Republicans. He’s also a prodigious fundraiser, with $2.8 million already stockpiled for 2018.

Tran believes the same demographic shifts that boosted Clinton to victory throughout Orange County could work in her favor. CA-39, for example, is more than 60 percent Asian and Hispanic — and only 34 percent white. Many of these whites are exactly the sort of college-educated suburbanites Trump lost in November, and while older Vietnamese-Americans have voted Republican for decades — like older Cuban-Americans, they tend to be staunch anti-Communists — their children have been registering as Democrats or independents.

For now, Tran is focused on getting her fledging campaign up and running. She’s talking to potential hires. She’s sounding out local politicos. And she’s spending hours every afternoon in her garage, dialing for dollars.

The work can be grueling. Devastated after one particularly fruitless fundraising session, Tran looked up to see her aging mother leaning over her. “Do you need me to give you my last gold nugget?” her mother said, referring to the small bars that she and other refugees had brought with them to America more than four decades ago, just in case. “You know, to help your campaign?”

Tran had to remind herself that the road ahead would be long — and that she was running for the right reasons.

“It was my mom who, throughout the years, said, ‘You’ve got to help people, you’ve got to speak for people,” Tran explained. “So if there’s an opportunity here, it is for a Democrat who resonates and listens. And so I go back to what makes me a good candidate: I’m a good listener. As a physician, that’s all I do. I listen to my patients. I listen to their pain, their suffering, their concerns. That’s what I’m good at. Then hopefully I’ll try to find a solution that might alleviate their pain, their suffering, their concerns.

“I don’t think that’s what people are doing in the political sphere right now,” Tran continued. “They have agendas. They have ideas they’re trying to push. But they’re not listening to their constituents. More and more, their constituents in these districts have changed so much; their needs have changed so much. And it’s just not connecting with the people who are currently representing them.”

Read more from Yahoo News:

Senate Republicans suddenly delay health care vote

Why it’s so hard to ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare — or almost anything else

Hillary Clinton: Reading ‘Harry Potter’ builds compassion for immigrants, refugees

White House warns Syria may be readying chemical attack

Photos: Wild horses return to Mongolia’s steppes

[houstonlocalus-blog]

Element: The Best of The Week

Kendrick Lamar, Photo: Universal Music

  Last week we got to see what can happen when we try to navigate the heat in search of entertainment options. And while it’s not cooling down anytime soon, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of options on what to do this week. The likes of Kendrick Lamar, Elysia Crampton, and DJ Shadow will be in town while locals like MIEARS, Studded Left, and Jazz Radio will be on hand to fill the spaces in between. Houston, here’s how to map your week.

  Wednesday you can begin upstairs at White Oak Music Hall when the pop punk of Oakland’s Mt Eddy swings by to perform. Of course, this is Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day’s other son, Jakob, with a new name for the   four-piece originally called “Jakob Danger.” The band will be here in support of this year’s Chroma, which sounds more like an indie rock band than a pop punk outfit. Houston’s TURNAWAYS will bring their pop punk aesthetic on as direct support as the openers for the all-ages show, with doors at 7 pm and tickets between $8 and $11.

  The Improv will help you get your laugh on when Ku Egenti headlines a show at the iconic venue. Egenti has been going pretty strong in the Houston comedy scene since losing his day job at a Toyota dealership a couple of years ago, including dropping a comedy album, Your Favorite African, earlier this year. The show will also see a slew of comics like Rich Williams, Mike Rao, Crystal Powell and more on hand for the 18 & up show, with doors at 7 pm and tickets between $15 and $25.

  Azizi Gibson, Photo: Rogue Agency

  Over at Walter’s, hip hop artist Azizi Gibson will be on hand to drop a set. The German-born and LA-transplanted rapper has made quite the name for himself with his slow jam style and ironically energetic live shows. He’s here in support of his latest, this year’s Memoirs of the Reaper, and should bring plenty of fire to his show. There’s no word yet of support or openers for the all-ages show, with doors at 7 pm, but that could change. The tickets run between $15 and $50, the latter being a meet and greet option.

  On the patio at Raven Tower, the Will Van Horn Trio will be around to drop the twangy goodness they have become known for. Playing with Robert Ellis hasn’t hurt Van Horn’s street credibility one bit. And as one of the strongest pedal steel players in the state, he’s quite the hot commodity. Van Horn has a new solo record coming out any day now, and I promise you’ll be glad to catch him for the all-ages set that has doors at 7:30 pm and is free to attend.

  If you’d rather head to Stafford, you could make it over to The Redneck Country Club to hear Magnolia’s Folk Family Revival. This rock-fueled Americana four-piece is definitely a family, with three brothers in the band alone.  Their latest release, last year’s Water Walker, is pretty solid, and their live shows feel like a down-home hootenanny.  The 18 & up show has doors at 7:30 pm and tickets for $10.

  Today Is The Day, Photo: Southern Lord Records

  Thursday, Nashville’s Today Is The Day will bring their intense mix of metal and grindcore over to Walter’s.  Here in support of the twentieth anniversary of their album Temple Of The Morning Star, this technically proficient band has been around for twenty-five years and should no less than scare everyone with their intensity. Brooklyn’s Kayo Dot will bring their groggy, avant-goth sounds on as direct support, while the drone-heavy death metal of Houston’s KRVSHR will go on beforehand and show them how it’s done. The prog doom of Houston’s Crimson Void will open the all-ages show, with doors at 6:30 pm and tickets between $12 and $15.

  You could also swing by the upstairs of White Oak Music Hall to hear what A. Savage, the solo project of Andrew Savage from Parquet Courts, sounds like. He’ll be backed by the Peyton Andrew Green Band, and it could be pretty awesome to witness. Alex Dupree, of Alex Dupree and the Trapdoor Band, will be on hand to open the all-ages show, with doors at 7 pm and tickets between $10 and $13.

  Bob Schneider will bring his eclectic blend of funk, rock, soul and singer-songwriter vibes to Mucky Duck for two shows. Schneider is no stranger to fandom, and his latest release, Best Of Funk 2016, is as entertaining as his last regular release, Burden of Proof.  The 21 & up shows are at 7 pm and 9:30 pm, and the seats have since sold          out–making them both standing room only–with tickets between $28 and $30.

  Danger, Photo: UNI-T Production

  Stereo Live will host the mysterious and cold pop-electronic sounds of Paris’ Danger. The elusive and masked producer has become well known for his dark mask with bright white eyes, and his latest release is full of bangers. The 18 & up show has doors at 9 pm and appears to have since sold out.

  On Friday you could head out to the Woodlands Pavilion to catch a glimpse of nineties alt rockers, Third Eye Blind. While they aren’t really my thing, as they feel like manufactured pop rock, they did drop a pretty solid album no one seemed to care about called Out of The Vein. Being their twentieth anniversary tour, though, I’d guess it’ll be closer to just a set of “the hits.” Silversun Pickups will provide direct support and opening duties for the all-ages show, with doors at 6 pm and tickets between $25 and $95.

  Avant Garden will host the tape release show for Houston surf-rockers Total Nightmare. It’s definitely time for this band to drop some music, as it seems they’ve been riding on a single for a good while–though their live shows are fun and full of energy. The indie pop of Austin’s Indoor Creature will be on beforehand, while the fuzzy garage of Houston’s Acid Jacket will go on prior and Redpalms will be on before them. The Free show, with doors at 7 pm, has the dreamy, alt rock gaze of Houston’s Dimphonic on as openers.

  Over at Insomnia Gallery, they’ll host an album art show that’s worth making it out for.  Some of your favorite album covers–alongside some of your not so favorite–will be recreated by the likes of ACK!, Wizard of Barge, Brandon Bowers, Honeybones, Blake Jones and many, many more. The all-ages show will have a donation bar, a food truck and so much more. All of the particulars are here. It’s free, and it gets going around 7 pm.

  Ringo Deathstarr, Photo: Rocky Road Touring

  Satellite Bar will host Austin’s Ringo Deathstarr for a return performance. The band was originally formed in Beaumont, but they’ve called Austin home for a good while now. Their live shows are always fun, and their last album, Pure Mood, from 2015, is pretty legit. They’ll have the interesting sounds of Max Cherry on prior, while the trippy psych of Houston’s Frog Hair will go on before. NOLA’s Bantam Foxes will open the all-ages show that’s free for 21 & up ($10 for under 21), with doors at 8 pm.

  Walter’s will have a pretty intriguing show when Elysia Crampton swings by to perform her brand of experimental electronica. Known for almost reinventing things per release, her 2016 drop, Demon City, is a trip and definite ear candy. Houston’s Rabit will perform a set with San Antonio’s House of Kenzo prior, while the dystopian grime of B L A C K I E will swing by to drop a set as well. The dissonant, groove-heavy electronica of Studded Left will also perform, as will Austin’s Total Abuse and Houston’s Rough Sleepers. Disaro will spin records to get things started for the all-ages show, with doors at 9 pm and tickets for $10 to $15.

  MIEARS, Photo: Daniel Jackson

  Over at Continental Club, the Wallflower Records’ Pop Night shows continue with a headlining set from Velveteen Echo. It’ll be interesting to see what the electro-pop show is like, seeing how this is only the duo’s second show.  Houston’s Pearl Crush will also be on the bill, while MIEARS will bring her synth-pop sound on as opener. The 21 & up show gets going around 9 pm and has an $8 cover.

  On Saturday, you can begin with an in-store performance from Finger Guns over at Cactus. The melodic and emo four-piece dropped a pretty strong sophomore release this year with Life On The Floor, and their live sets are always entertaining. The all-ages event is free to attend–there’s gratis beer for the adults–and it gets going around 1 pm.

  I would guess that many of you would be at Toyota Center for Kendrick Lamar. While the Compton rapper has been around for a minute now, his 2015 album, To Pimp A Butterfly, made him a household name. This year he’s returned with the intriguing new album Damn., and his sets here in Houston have been nothing if not mesmerizing. Houston’s Travis Scott will be on hand as direct support, while D.R.A.M. will get things started. The all-ages show has doors at 6:30 pm and tickets between $49.50 and $179.50.

  Later on you could find yourself over at Warehouse Live in the studio for another installment of Kiki Maroon’s Burly Q Lounge. The vaudeville-style show will have burlesque, comedy, music and more. The 18 & up show has doors at 7 pm–it’s seated–and the tickets are $25.

  Get A Life, Photo: Daniel Jackson

  The upstairs and downstairs of White Oak Music Hall will be full of people trying to raise money for the UNT Health Science Center, with some of your favorite locals playing as some of your favorite bands at their PROM Event. Sets from Another Run as Duran Duran, MIEARS as Lucius, The Beans as Led Zeppelin, Get A Life as Third Eye Blind, Nathan Quick as Johnny Cash, thelastplaceyoulook as Prince and many more will be on hand. The         all-ages show will see the venue match every dollar raised, with doors at 7 pm and tickets for $10.

  Walter’s will get all trippy when Flower Graves, formerly Mikey & the Drags, will headline a show. The difference between the two bands is that it seems like Flower Graves is more psych and less garage. Hopefully they’ll drop more new music soon enough to tell, but their last live show was pretty entertaining. The psych pop of Austin’s The Rotten Mangos will be on as direct support, while the garage pop of Galveston’s India Tigers In Texas will get things started.  There also promises to be visuals from Midnight Oil Liquid at the all-ages show, with doors at 8 pm and an $8 cover.

  Over at Rudyard’s, Houston’s Adam Bricks will bring his lovely tunes to life. Bricks might be the most             under-appreciated singer-songwriter in town, as his last album, Relations, is one everyone should own. His live shows are a mix of beauty and sweetness. The guitar-squealing indie rock of Austin’s Growl will be on hand as openers and direct support for the 21 & up show, with doors at 9 pm and an $8 cover.

  B.o.B., Photo: Creative Artists Agency

  In the ballroom at Warehouse Live, Atlanta’s B.o.B. will be in town to drop a set. While he’s been going strong since his debut in 2009, his latest release, Ether, from earlier this year, is his best in a good while. London Jae will be on as direct support, while Georgia’s JAQUEBEATZ will go on prior. Havi will open the all-ages show with doors at 9 pm and tickets between $25 and $99, the latter being a meet and greet option. Hopefully the show goes on without him mentioning that he believes the earth is flat–hopefully.

  Continental Club will have the soulful blues of Austin’s Jai Malano. Malano not only has a strong set of pipes, but the energetic swagger to follow. And her debut album, Rocket Girl, has notes of rock, soul, blues and country intertwined throughout. The twangy country rock of Hard Luck Revival will be on as direct support, while Big E will drop a DJ set to open the 21 & up show that gets going around 10 pm with a $12 cover.

  DJ Shadow, Photo: William Morris Entertainment

  On Sunday, one of the best DJ’s to scratch a record, DJ Shadow, will return to town over at House of Blues.  When you’re looking for the link to modern day hip hop and the past, Shadow is a great place to start as he’s worked with so many artists. Not to mention, his last tour with Cut Chemist was one of the best hip hop shows without an MC I’ve ever seen. His latest release, last year’s The Mountain Will Fall, was a return to form for the DJ, with features from the likes of Run The Jewels, Ernie Fresh and more. There’s no word of support or openers, but that could change on the all-ages show, with doors at 7 pm and tickets for $25.

  On Monday, the indie-pop psych of Chicago’s Post Animal will bring their sounds to town upstairs at White Oak Music Hall. Essentially just a normal pop band, this five-piece could be worth checking out, as their new single “Special Moment” is definitely catchy. Houston’s Get A Life will be on as direct support, while Jazz Radio will open the all-ages show, with doors at 7 pm and a $10 cover.

  Tuesday you can get your laughs in when BooTown hosts their popular Grown-Up StoryTime shows at Rudyard’s.  The always hilarious shows have funny people read humorous stories, and they has become quite the tourist attraction as well. Now with two shows at 8 pm and 10 pm, the 21 & up events both have a $5 cover.

  That’s about all that’s happening around town this week. No matter what you decide to do, remember that a safe ride home is just an app away.

Element: The Best of The Week this is a repost

[junker-town]

The nonsense of caring about batting practice attire

What a huge, annoying waste of time this was.

A dumb diversion happened during Saturday’s game between the Dodgers and Braves in Atlanta, a case of “back in my day” gone awry.

Longtime Braves announcer Joe Simpson, who played six years in the Dodgers organization and was drafted by Los Angeles, took time during the fifth inning of the Fox Sports South broadcast to show a clip of Max Muncy, Justin Turner, and Chase Utley taking batting practice before the game. Simpson was irked by what he saw.

“I grew up in the Dodgers organization, and certainly taught to play professional baseball and do the right things,” Simpson said. “I want you to look at some things that were going on in batting practice here with the Dodgers. What do you see, t-shirts? You see Chase Utley with no socks and pants up over his knees. This was prevalent with their whole team.”

Simpson somehow not only delivered this with a straight face, but also with the gravity of Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s vault. With similar results, Simpson continued his rant.

“I think about fans that come to Sun Trust Park who were Dodgers fans and want to see their players. They had no idea who any of them were,” Simpson said, as if Turner’s red beard doesn’t set him apart. “Nobody had any kind of uniform or batting practice shirt on it with their name on the jersey. They looked very unprofessional.

“If I were a Dodger fan, I’d be embarrassed. I don’t know how Major League Baseball allows such attire when the gates are open and the fans were watching.”

The Dodgers don’t wear names on their official batting practice pullovers — the players in question weren’t wearing these on Saturday, but often don’t because it’s not mandatory — but they do have numbers on the sleeve, which is the norm around baseball as pointed out in 2017 by Paul Lukas at Uni Watch. The Braves are a rarity by having names on their normal pregame attire, not that they always adhere to it.

Just look at Ozzie Albies here, a mere eight days before the Dodgers’ apparent transgressions.

When baseball is back pic.twitter.com/IAvfOCbDr9

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 20, 2018

Wearing a t-shirt during batting practice is not unique to the Dodgers. Just look at a few examples, like new Astros catcher Martin Maldonado:

Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images

Even in the minors, shirt happens, though in fairness Tim Tebow was a football player for so long we can probably give him a pass here:

Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Jose Bautista is a 15-year major league veteran:

Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Trout is too busy being the best baseball player in the world to go out of his way to market himself, so his Angels teammates sometimes have to promote him, like at Dodger Stadium here just before the All-Star break:

Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images

Simpson has been in and around the game for more than four decades, but instead of embracing the many changes in baseball he has to have witnessed during that time Simpson still clings to the way things were during his playing days, which ended in 1983.

Simpson added later in the broadcast, “Walter Alston would be rolling over in his grave,” referring to the Hall of Fame Dodgers manager — Simpson’s first major league manager — who retired in 1976. Forty-two years ago.

To add to the absurdity of all of this, one of the shirts Simpson was complaining about was from major league reliever Jason Motte’s foundation, which raises money for cancer research.

If you want the most despicable batting practice tee ever and want to help @kikehndez and @JMotte30 fight cancer you can do so here https://t.co/qF0hKMMeUk pic.twitter.com/7iK2BARnBj

— 108 Stitches (@108Stitches) July 29, 2018

After seeing some backlash on Twitter after the game, Simpson’s partner Chip Caray, the longtime play-by-play broadcaster, had his partner’s back.

I’m not the guy taking BP in Capri-mimicking pants, no socks, and no ‘’uniform.’’ My partner merely pointed it out. Only mlb teamhesxseen be so non-‘’uniform.’’ Why not wear MLB-issued BP jerseys with names on road so paying customers know who’s who? Lighten up. https://t.co/s40vjMFbVP

— Chip Caray (@kapaya1234) July 29, 2018

Those “capri-mimicking pants” were worn by Utley, a 16-year veteran who will retire at season’s end. Current Braves pitcher Brandon McCarthy, a teammate of Utley for three seasons in Los Angeles, chimed in:

Chip, it was Chase Utley. The near universal choice for how to conduct yourself as a professional baseball player.

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) July 29, 2018

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took offense to his team getting labeled unprofessional, specifically the veteran Utley, calling it “a cheap shot.”

“The thing that is more bothersome is when you’re in the broadcast booth you have an opportunity to intentionally put a package together instead of calling the game, like you’re supposed to do,” Roberts said. “To talk about it in the fifth inning of a one-run ballgame and to take time from the viewers.”

Roberts said that Simpson on Sunday morning took time to talk to Utley before the series finale.

That Sunday being a day game meant there was no batting pregame practice, which potentially robbed us of a glorious response from the Dodgers, many of whom had some fun with this on Saturday night.

Tomorrow’s BP attire pic.twitter.com/cL5Yw8Hh3e

— Enrique Hernández (@kikehndez) July 29, 2018

Hey @kikehndez you got a pair of overalls i can borrow? pic.twitter.com/legFHeYENb

— Justin Turner (@redturn2) July 29, 2018

That this was even raised as an issue is laughable. It’s not a problem for Major League Baseball that players wear what they want during batting practice. What is a problem is announcers — the conduit through which this game is conveyed to fans — who spend more time pushing archaic nonsense on how today’s game isn’t as good as it was years ago, rather than embracing how great baseball actually is.