D. Hocking

I don't know if I have faith in humanity in general, but I do have faith in Vanimal during this trying time (unless he goes too long without coffee).

Yes - I did think the original Halloween and Nightmare were decent movies, but the Friday the 13th movies and most of the other slasher movies never did anything to me. I really did not care for them once the Hostel movies upped the torture aspect. I tend to like the suspense more than the gore - such as The Others, Six Sense, the Shining, even though Silence of the Lambs had gore - I thought it was more of a suspense movie as well. I would also throw the original Jaws in there as well. He was an unseen threat for much of the movie that was lurking at any moment. By the time he was cruising a water park for snacks in the third movie he was no longer scary. Most of those movies also had a believable factor to them. The supernatural aspect was either done in a believable way, or it was presented in an ambiguous way where you did not know if it was really happening and the supernatural was manipulating the person or the person was going insane (the movie version of the Shining - still need to read the book). Back to Netflix series that have a supernatural tinge, I did watch Penny Dreadful. I did not care for the third season as much or the finale, but was an interesting twist on the classic Victorian horror and had some good acting. Eva Green was incredible. [sorry that was a long and rambling...]

Hopefully you made it to morning and nothing came for you in the night.

I just watched the first season of Cheers (because, again, I am old). In addition to Hill House, I am watching Happy Valley (spoiler - it is not happy). It is a limited British series about a kidnapping gone wrong and is well done, but it is pretty dark, so it would not be for everyone. If you ever watched Grantchester on PBS, the lead is in it, but he is not exactly nice in his, although this show is better written than Grantchester. I watched Dark, a German series that was probably influenced by Stranger Things. First episode or two showed some potential, but by the end, I just wanted those hours back (and then it never answered anything leaving everything for a season 2 I did not realize was coming and do not intend to watch).

Anyone watching the Haunting of Hill House on Netflix? I am two episodes in and so far am liking the slow burn. The fact that the flashback father was the kid in ET does make me feel a little old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9OzG53VwIk

Yep - did it really quick - must have copied the wrong URL from the google images choices. The Democratic version is really kind of obnoxious as well. A few of the personalities would have definitely clashed and Wilson and Jackson would not have wanted to be at the same table as Obama.

Think they are all chuckling with Donald - telling him "good one" when he used his official twitter feed to gloat and call a woman "horse face". Sadly, the fact that this painting is actually hanging in the White House and the President of the United States is calling one woman "Horse Face" and another woman "Pocahontas" ignoring all of the requests by Native American tribes not to use that name in that fashion, and it is not some Onion article . Notice how he has come out much stronger against these women than the Saudis for their murder of an American resident (who he makes sure that you know is not an American citizen every time he can). I am pretty sure Teddy would have hated Trump, as would have most people in that painting.

What is the big deal of the murder of a journalist, who is a US resident writing for a US paper, by a foreign government when there is money at stake? Of course, he had no problem encouraging his crowd last night to chant "lock her up" about Diane Feinstein while he smiled smugly (while the gulf coast was getting decimated by a hurricane). She is much worse than a murdering dictator. Then there is the whole separate issue of how that military equipment being sold is being used by the Saudis - we might not want to be bragging and proud about how we are making money in this case.

Nice that the SCT was further politicized by Trump having a ceremonial swearing in at the White House that he treated as a partisan victory lap which most likely is going to be a blue print for what he will be spouting off at his MAGA rallies that he has almost every night the next week (except last night will seem in good taste from how he will probably be at the rallies). I wonder what Ford thinks every time he comments about how Kavanaugh has suffered when she does not even feel it is safe to return to her home and has seen the President of the United States basically call her a liar and mock on national TV.

This seems like a story that should be coming out if Wisconsin.

So it appears now the GOP has successfully pushed the narrative that women who don't report an incident when it happens are suspect, that the man should be treated as the victim and the women treated passive aggressively or patronizingly. They also made it clear that a man can lash out and act angry and spew threats and be rude to women firmly but politely asking him questions - and it just shows how strongly he feels and that he must be the wronged party. I am not sure I would recommend a woman act like that on the stand, I don't think it would take too much for revive the "women are emotional and not as rational as men" men for the same people who praise Kavenaugh for his strong, heart-felt response. Someone also needs to point out that while there has been no smoking gun, nothing was actually refuted, and that one of the reasons there was not as much corroborating evidence was the investigation was very limited and did not even talk to Kavenaugh and a number of key people. I saw the clip of Trump mocking Ford by jeeringly saying "I don't remember" multiple times, but saw far less coverage of people pointing out a number of things Trump claimed Ford did not remember - year - description of the house etc., she remembered quite well. That Trump's taunt was not only offensive, a large portion of it was untrue. I did hear someone discussing some of Colln's recent statements about how the standard for Brett was not matched and then compared them to some strong statements she made criticizing Franken and did not seem to have the same standard for Al. Collins actually probably would do better with her voters if she had voted no, so am not sure why she is so bulldogged about staying the party line. Her statements the past couple of days have had a Trumpian quality about cherry picking some facts and ignoring others, that I would imagine she is going to be vulnerable in 2020. Has Jeff Flake ever followed through with any substance in his posturing? He seemed to a little bit last week with calling for the investigation, but when all was said and done, he fell in line with pretending it was sufficient and not incredibly limited and ham-strung.

I just finished the second season on Netflix. I thought it had some funny moments at first, and then once I got into it I thought it was pretty funny and original, but then the concept started to wear thin and I am luke-warm about whether to try and watch season 3. It is a show seems to be a bit too focused on "look how clever and out there we are". There are also "character growth" moments that don't really seem earned or true to the characters. This is a good example of a show that should have just had a limited ten to 15 episode run. I do think the cast is talented and have had some funny moments, but now their actions have gotten a bit repetitive.

Then there is this: Um - how about the time when he was evasive at best lying at worst on the stand, confrontational and rude (esp to the women senators), and incredibly partisan while giving testimony. I think he was older than 18 at that time, since it was last week.

I just heard a more extended clip of his mocking. Not only does he sound more vile with the extended audio, but the crowd's cheering getting louder and louder with each taunt is incredibly disheartening (and disgusting).

Mocks Dr. Ford -- has now spoken multiple times about the poor boys who are victims of false accusations, never speaking of how hard it is for the women who are assaulted, which is much more likely to happen then false accusations. He once said Ford sounded credible, that is about his only statement on assault that is sympathetic to women, and even then he went on about how great Kavanaugh was. Almost everything out of his mouth is an ad for why women don't report - and he is our president. Couple this with his sneering, condescending "you never think?" to Cecilia Vega (which is so much worse when you hear the tone of his voice in the actual audio) with all the male sycophants grinning behind him when he said it, it is amazing he has any female support (or really any support in general). Not to minimize the sexual assault claims, but there are so many red flags with Kavanaugh, that he should be disqualified even if those were not a factor.

This seems to go with LENIII - Molitor was surprised: I am thinking there would have been some discussion with the Pohlads before last week - but maybe they wanted to have everything in order first. They certainly have not done the rip the band aid off quickly for this regime change. One year they fire much of Gardy's coaching staff but keep Gardy. The next year the fire Gardy, but keep Ryan. The next year Ryan leaves, but the new GM is made to keep Molitor as manager and not bring in their own person. Then the team plays just well enough where they end up extending Molitor only to finally fire him.

This was kind of cool:

Sometimes the most logical answers are the ones that get missed.

Yes -- both because it points to Lavine and Falvey wanting to put their own mark and move on from the old Twins and because Joe seemed to really like Paul. Whatever his flaws as manager he was probably the perfect manager for Joe (which obviously is not enough to keep the job). Joe is probably at the point - do I really want to play on another complete rebuild at this point. I remember seeing some national sports figure asked about who he thought would be a good player manager. Someone mentioned Mauer - and his reply was "he is too nice". I like Paul, I feel bad for him, and I think I would have given him one more year. While the season was a disappointment, I thought it could have been a bigger shipwreck at the end of the season, and he kept the team playing as well as the talent would provide. I tend managers tend to get the blame and the glory that largely lays elsewhere. That said, I can understand why the powers that be want to get their own guy.

Nice article. Yes -- I always thought a good portion of who was perceived as a leader largely hinged on being verbose when talking with the media. It actually sounds like Joe did more actively take a leadership role the last few years and his teammates do seem to look up to him. I think if you asked them, they would want him back next year. His even keeled -- stick to the routine and focus on the current game -- probably helped set an example that helped prevent the team from completely imploding when they dismantled everything in July. I suspect he was still getting to the ball park early and preparing for the game even when it was apparent that the front office had called it a season. The Twins did a nice job with this video: Watching him put on his catching gear you can see he is almost overwhelmed. https://twitter.com/Twins/status/1046876533313363969

While I am sure this is/was a very hard decision, it does seem like he will be at peace with it. In some ways he already had his big professional heartbreak when he gave up catching. He did a podcast with Corey Koskie about a month ago, where he said he went in a room and cried when made that decision. (the fact that he did that fairly long interview and was pretty open is when I began to think this might be it). I think he grieved when he had to give up the tools of ignorance, where this decision is one of his own making - and while hard, more bittersweet than just bitter. This was a nice gesture:

The way those two little girls ran and jumped into his arms makes me think that he will be just fine if he never plays another game.

Not that it mattered or would have ruined Joe's day, but I am glad they finished off Joe's career with a victory (and a pretty good final homestand, even if it was against sub-par teams).

Yes - I think technically he still has talent to be on a team, but since the last concussion I have been thinking it might be time to step down. Plus, I think the Twins need to fully embrace the rebuild mode (again - still) and play the younger players of the future. I think there are teams where he would be a good fit, but he really only wants to be a Twin. At least Joe's last game has had some dramatic moments. Hopefully he will end his career with a victory over the White Sox -- the big rival fora number of his seasons.

I think it is time for him to retire - but damn - I am kind of sad.... (and feel old). Glad he was able to get in one last double. The crowd sounds very supportive on the radio. Back to the pregame -- the moment with his twin girls at first base was a nice moment.