https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQKeRghITZo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVzluL14mIQ&feature=iv&src_vid=rQKeRghITZo&annotation_id=annotation_2495435061
I previously discussed Bernie Sanders’ speech at the Jefferson Jackson dinner. The video has now been posted above.
The Woman Who Lived works as a stand alone episode of Doctor Who which did not really need to fall directly after last week’s episode, The Girl Who Died. Maise Williams’ character is seen eight hundred years later. It was strange that she remembered the Doctor and Clara and not her own name or village. She also had a colder attitude which can be seen in this exchange:
The Doctor: Anyone is that village would have died for you
Ashildr: Well, they’re all dead and here I am. I guess it all worked out
The show described the problems with immortality, and Ashildr’s frustration: “I have waited longer than I should ever have lived. I have lost more than I can even remember. Please Doctor, just get me out of this. I want more than this. I deserve more than this.”
While her life span was increased her memory was not so she had to resort to her journals, tearing out the pages of things she wanted to forget. She did keep the pages about her children dying of the plague, as a reminder to never have children again.
The Doctor did not take her with her, but did tell her , “I travelled with another immortal once. Captain Jack Harkness.” Will she ever meet up with Captain Jack (John Borrowman)? Plus Sam Swift may or may not also be immortal.
Nerdist reports that Maise Williams will return to Doctor Who:
Over the weekend, at London’s MCM Comic-Con, “Face the Raven” writer Sarah Dollard confirmed that Ashildr/Me would be back for her episode. During “The Woman Who Lived,” we find out that the character decided to be there for the people the Doctor leaves following his swoop-in/swoop-out style of day-saving. “Someone has to look out for the people you abandon, who better than me? I’ll be the patron saint of the Doctor’s leftovers,” she told him. She also says, “While you’re busy protecting this world, I’ll get busy protecting it from you.” When the Doctor expresses that he thinks he’s very glad he saved her life, she replies, rather ominously, “I think everyone will be.”
This could make her an interesting recurring character, and provides job security should she be killed off on Game of Thrones. She is present in the background of a picture at Clara’s school shown at the end of the episode. I’ll accept the coincidence that she is present in the first picture that Clara showed him after this encounter, but what about all the companions prior to Clara? While that probably cannot be shown on screen, she could be an interesting addition to books or fan fiction. With Jenna Coleman reportedly leaving after this season, possibly Maise Williams will play a part.
The above trailer announces that the long-awaited Victorian version of Sherlock will air on January 1 in both the UK and the Unites States and will be named The Abominable Bride.
I’m going to post this link without reading the article. I haven’t looked at the deleted scenes on the Blu Ray of Avengers: Age of Ultron yet, and will do so before reading this, but Den of Geek has a detailed description for those who might want to read about them without viewing.
After a bunch of teasers, Netflix has released a full trailer for Jessica Jones (video above).
I avoid watching Amazon pilots until a series is about to be released in full, but I am really looking forward to The Man In The High Castle. Reviews of the pilot have been fantastic. Now Amazon is going to make the first two episodes available, even to non-prime members, here from 12am Pacific on Friday, October 23rd until 11:59pm Pacific on Sunday, October 25th. The first two episodes will remain available to Prime members, with full release on November 20. While I already had an Amazon Prime membership for the free shipping, with streaming becoming a huge player, I now consider Amazon Prime, Hulu (commercial free subscription), and Netflix all essential (with HBO Go and comparable services from the other pay cable networks also available due to cable subscriptions). Many evenings I do not go beyond my Roku box for watching television.
This raised another thought. When traveling I prefer either a Roku box, or my Roku stick to travel more lightly, as it has all the streaming services I use set up conveniently. It includes Amazon Prime, while some competing devices do not. I also do have both a Google Chromecast and an Amazon Fire Stick. (This comes in handy when staying in friends’ condos in Florida which have televisions in the bedroom and living room). I have also found the Amazon Fire Stick essential when traveling to hotels which require a sign on to use their WiFi. Only the Amazon Fire Stick can handle this without resorting to making a hot spot with a travel router.
Danielle Panabaker of The Flash was on The Talk (video above). She discussed her transformation to the villain, Killer Frost.
All of the DC comic based shows have been off to a good start this season. Arrow, which just brought back Sara Lance to lead into Legends of Tomorrow, is much stronger this season, including a much bigger big bad. The flash backs are also more interesting with the return to the island. Plus someone will die in six months. Supergirl officially starts this upcoming week. The pilot, which has been available for months, was excellent and those who like The Flash and Arrow should also like this show. Over at Fox, Gotham has turned much darker, and is showing more potential than in the first season.
Also notable in the past week, You’re The Worst, while it has not been as good as the first season, has had many excellent moments. This included the revelation of what is wrong with Gretchen last week.
Hulu has renewed Casual for a second season. I highly recommend that show. I have not watched The Whispers, but I note that ABC has canceled it. CBS has ordered a full season pick up of Limitless. It is a lighter but entertaining show with a genre element.
I previously posted the video of Bernie Sanders on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week. Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) was also a guest, along with Michael J. Fox, for an opening skit for the date he came into the future in Back To The Future 2. Bernie Sanders posted the picture along with this caption on his web page:
“Tell me, future boy, who’s President of the United States in 2017?”
Bernie Sanders.
“Bernie Sanders?! From Vermont?”
So this our destiny. I think this is a fixed point in time which cannot be changed. The skit with Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox is below:
Speaking of time travel, Simon Berry has provided some information following the Continuum finale. I will hold off a little longer to discuss the finale a second time to allow more time to see if further material of interest becomes available.
Plus we have something else from the past to look forward to. Netflix is planning a revival of Gilmore Girls. The current plans are for four episodes, ninety minutes each, which take place in real time, eight years after the finale. We will finally see the final four words planned for the show by Amy Sherman Palladino. While not finalized, Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Kelly Bishop and Scott Patterson, along with many of Rory’s suitors, are expected to appear. Edward Herrmann obviously will not appear but perhaps the funeral for Richard Gilmore, taking place after the actor actually died, could be a good point at which to reunite the other characters. The series ended with Rory Gilmore covering Barack Obama’s campaign in Iowa. Might she now be covering Bernie Sanders?
This will not be the only case of Lauren Graham being united with a star from a previous show. She will reunite with Mae Whitman of Parenthood in an adaption of the The Royal We, a book on the courthouse of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Maureen O’Hara died at age 95. From The New York Times:
Maureen O’Hara, the spirited Irish-born actress who played strong-willed, tempestuous beauties opposite all manner of adventurers in escapist movies of the 1940s and ’50s, died on Saturday at her home in Boise, Idaho. She was 95…
Ms. O’Hara was called the Queen of Technicolor, because when that film process first came into use, nothing seemed to show off its splendor better than her rich red hair, bright green eyes and flawless peaches-and-cream complexion. One critic praised her in an otherwise negative review of the 1950 film “Comanche Territory” with the sentiment “Framed in Technicolor, Miss O’Hara somehow seems more significant than a setting sun.” Even the creators of the process claimed her as its best advertisement.
Yet many of the films that made the young Ms. O’Hara a star were in black and white. They included her first Hollywood movie, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939), in which she played the haunted Gypsy girl Esmeralda to Charles Laughton’s Quasimodo; the Oscar-winning “How Green Was My Valley” (1941), in which she was memorable as a Welsh mining family’s beautiful daughter who marries the wrong man; “This Land Is Mine” (1943), a war drama in which she was directed by Jean Renoir; and “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), the holiday classic in which she played a cynical, modern Macy’s executive who tries to prevent her daughter from believing in Santa Claus…
Hillary Clinton has had a very good month, especially with Joe Biden deciding not to run, which is starting to solidify her support among the Democratic mainstream. Therefore it is puzzling that she would decide to take the low road in the campaign, playing the sex card much like she played the race card against Barack Obama eight years ago. She not only continued her campaign strategy of distorting Sanders’ record on gun control, but twisted a statement to falsely accuse him of sexism. While some of Clinton’s supporters have frequently accused anyone who disagrees with Clinton’s views, or objects to her low ethical standards, of sexism, as far as I am aware this is the first time Hillary Clinton has stooped this low during this campaign.
During the recent Democratic debate, Sanders repeated a line he frequently uses in his stump speech, criticizing the shouting from both sides on the issue. Democrats who are seen as opposing the private ownership of guns under any circumstance do not have the credibility which Sanders has, having supported both sensible gun control and the rights of hunters to own guns, to bridge this issue. When talking about shouting on the issue, Sanders is talking about all parties. Clinton twisted this in her response: “I’m not shouting. It’s just that when women talk, some people think we’re shouting.”
Clinton is foolish to play dirty in the campaign when she has the lead as she already faced a challenge, should she go on to win the nomination, to get those independents who support Sanders but do not normally vote Democratic to turn out to vote for her in the general election. This will only make it harder. It is also foolish for Clinton to dwell on a single issue to make a bogus case of being more consistently liberal than Sanders when she has spent much of her career triangulating and undermining liberal principles.
Bernie Sanders responded to Clinton by bringing up just a small number of the many issues where Clinton has not been consistently liberal at the Democratic Jefferson-Jackson dinner. While he has mentioned some of these in the past, he was much more forceful in showing the differences between himself and Clinton, as I suggested he should do after the first debate. Sanders raised Clinton’s inconsistent views on trade, the Keystone XL Pipeline, campaign finance reform, the Iraq war, and gay rights. NBC News reported:
Without mentioning her by name, Sanders fired off a series of back-to-back jabs clearly aimed at the weakest parts of Clinton’s resume as he portrayed himself as the true progressive in the race who “will govern based on principle not poll numbers.”
His section of supporters roared at this key party event, which has a history of dislodging frontrunners — including Clinton in 2008 — in the state that holds the nation’s first nominating contest.
On the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Clinton recently opposed, Sanders said he was there first.
“I did not support it yesterday. I do not support it today. And I will not support it tomorrow,” he said. “It is not now, nor has it ever been, the gold standard of trade agreements.”
Clinton once called the TPP the “gold standard” of trade deals as she helped negotiate it as President Obama’s secretary of state.
On the Keystone XL pipeline, which Clinton seemed to favor as secretary of state but recently opposed, Sanders said he was there first too.
“If you agree with me about the urgent need to address the issue of climate change, then you would know immediately what to do about the Keystone pipeline. Honestly, it wasn’t that complicated,” he said. “To me, that was a no-brainer and that is why I have opposed the Keystone Pipeline from the beginning.”
On the Iraq War vote, where Clinton now says her “yes” vote was a mistake, Sanders said he was there first as well. “Let me tell you that I listened to what Bush had to say, to what Cheney had to say, to what Rumsfeld had to say. I didn’t believe them and I voted no,” he said.
And on the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law signed by Bill Clinton that banned the federal government from recognizing gay marriages — which Hillary Clinton now opposes — Sanders said he was there first once again.
“Today, some are trying to rewrite history by saying they voted for one anti-gay law to stop something worse. Let us be clear. That’s just not true,” he said. “There was a small minority opposed to discriminating against our gay brothers and sisters. Not everybody held that position in 1996.”
Clinton told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Friday that her husband supported DOMA as a “defensive action,” since something worse would have been passed in its stead.
On every issue, Sanders said he faced a “fork in the road.”
“I am proud to tell you when I came to that fork in the road I took the right road even though it was not the popular road at the time,” he said.
And one of his biggest applause lines, ostensibly on campaign finance, was also a veiled shot at Clinton. “I am the only Democratic candidate for president who does not have a Super PAC and we are going to prove them wrong,” he said. Clinton has two super PACs.
Sanders sought to position himself as the rightful heir to Obama, who stunned observers at this very event in 2007 by delivering an inspiring speech that drew clear contrasts with Clinton.
“Eight years ago the experts talked about how another Democratic candidate for president, Barack Obama, couldn’t win. How he was unelectable. Well Iowa, I think we’re going to prove the pundits wrong again. I believe we will make history,” he said.
In order to prove the pundits wrong, make history, and to win, Bernie Sanders will need to continue to draw a contrast between himself and Hillary Clinton on the issues, showing Democratic voters that he, and not Clinton, better represents Democratic values. Of course the Democratic Party is a big tent and Clinton’s generally center-right positions will appeal to many of those who vote in Democratic primaries. To win Sanders will also need to turn the independent support he is achieving into primary votes.
Many of his supporters are young voters who do not traditionally turn out in hight numbers. Sanders just might change this with positions which attract the young, including his more left-libertarian views on social/cultural issues, including legalization of marijuana, along with his proposal to make public college education free. His support for expanding Social Security also represents a policy difference with Hillary Clinton which could help Sanders make inroads at the other end of the age range.
Sanders repeated his criticism of Clinton on CNN Sunday Morning, this time mentioning Clinton by name:
“I have consistently been a critic of what is going on on Wall Street, the greed, the recklessness, the illegal behavior. I helped lead the effort to — against the deregulation of Wall Street. I believe that we should bring back Glass-Steagall legislation so that you do not have the absurd situation of commercial banks and investment banks and large insurance companies being together,” Sanders told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“You do not have six financial institutions having assets equivalent to 60 percent of the GDP,” he continued. “With all the economic and political power that these banks have, I think you’ve got to break them up. That has always — that has been my view for a very, very long time. That is not Hillary Clinton’s view.”
ABC News began their report of the Jefferson-Jackson dinner which an example which seems to represent the philosophical difference between Clinton and Sanders supporters:
On one half of the space, the Clinton fans looked organized and polished. They wore matching, glow-in-the-dark, blue t-shirts that read, “I’m fighting for her.” They held battery-operated foam lights that shone brightly when the lights dimmed and doubled as noise-makers.
Sanders’ fans had glow sticks, too, the kind that glow after being snapped. While many of his fans wore Bernie 2016 t-shirts, they were mismatched and different colors. His section also included several homemade signs.
I think this says a lot about the types of people who support Sanders as opposed to Clinton. Most importantly, Democratic voters need to keep in mind that, to paraphrase Sanders, when there has been a fork in the road on policy, throughout their careers Sanders has taken the right fork while Clinton has made the wrong decision. We need a president who makes the right choices at the time, not one who will admit her mistakes and change her views years down the road.
Update: Video posted here.
