Holiday in Veyshnoria

A country invented as part of military exercises in Belarus has caught the imagination of locals, who have created a foreign ministry, flag, history and even its own Wikipedia page for the fictional nation.

. . .

Tweeting in Belarusian and Russian, the ministry expressed concern over the "concentration of Belarusian military equipment outside Veyshnoria's borders", declared a partial mobilisation and exchanged pleasantries with the parody account of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

It also promised "stew, honey, bread and lard" to Belarusian soldiers who choose to surrender, and announced an entry ban on the Belarusian chief of the General Staff, Aleh Belakonew.

(link)

I don't care how you do it, just do it

With a One Minute Maniac running the country, my thoughts turned to a blog post I never finished, about one of the greatest fuck-yous ever delivered to a "shut up and do it" manager.

It was 2015, and according to The Washington Post,

It all apparently began with a simple demand from Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je. He reportedly asked the chairman of EasyCard to double the company’s business.

Easycard sells passes you use to get onto trains and buses.  Most people who need one, probably already have one.  And now the mayor wants you to double sales.  According to The Taipei Times, "Ko said he told Tai to increase EasyCard Corp’s business by 100 percent and left the details up to him."

What's an enterprising transit executive to do?  Well, Tai Chi-chuan, chairman of Easycard, mulled it over and came up with a simple, workable plan.

Japanese cultural icons are extremely popular in Taiwan. More than 3 million Taiwanese visited Japan last year, more than tourists from any other nation.

Now, he thought to himself, what Japanese cultural icon would bring a LOT of fresh interest to Easycard?  For reasons known only to himself, he thought of Yui Hatano, whom I have never heard of but I am given to understand is glamorous and beautiful and also a famous porn star.  A few phone calls, a a little negotiation, and in very little time they had printed up a very large number of Easycards with Yui Hatano's picture on them:

The photos, [company spokesman] Lin Hsiao-chi said, conveyed a “fresh, healthy and beautiful” image, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Who could argue with that?  I mean, look at her.  Anyway, part of the genius of this move is that, as every Chinese schoolboy knows but none will admit, Hatano resembles famous Chinese actress Lin Chi Ling:

I'm just speculating, but I imagine Hatano's representation was a little quicker to return Easycard's calls than Lin Chi Ling's, and I can't say Hatano is noticeably harder on the eyes.  So good business sense all around so far.

But did the gambit pay off?  Can you sell lots of bus passes with Japanese pornstars on them in Taiwan?  Well...

At midnight Monday, the phones started lighting up. Four hours later, the entire run of 15,000 two-card sets had been sold, each for about $15.40.

Tai Chi-chuan has not released his voicemails from this period, but I would buy the whole pack on iTunes and pay extra for the translations.  And then, as a final fuck you to his boss and everyone else who ever doubted or questioned him, he announced proceeds would be donated to charity, and,

In a statement, EasyCard apologized for the controversy and pledged an internal review of the decision.

He had to resign later, and the sex workers used the whole affair to call out everyone on the island for their hypocrisy about prostitution.

This is most praiseworthy.  I call this highest achievement.

(link)

West Baltimore in the early 2000's: a tourist's guide before visiting

The Wire by view count:

1. Key and Peele, 3.8 mm views (link)
2. Omar Coming' Supercut, 3.6 mm (link)
3. Shiiiiit Sheeeeeit Shit Sheeeit - Senator Clay Davis, 2.3 mm (link)
4. Omar Testifies Against Bird, 2.2 mm (link)
5. Avon and Marlo Meet, 1.5 mm (link)

Each of these is sublime, brilliant.  The Wire survives Youtube because of the amazing attention to detail.  Every scene I watch is constructed with care, full of subtle touches that I might never catch on a normal run-through of the episode.  

A current favorite - note that things tend to get very Leone-like when Mouzone shows up: 

• Brother Mouzone Confronts Avon (link)

The nice thing about coming late to something like this is that there is a lot of supportive secondary material.  In addition to the foundational texts (here and here) there are at least eight serious books about the series:

• The Wire and America's Dark Corners - 2015 (link)
• On The Wire - 2014 (link)
• The Wire and Philosophy - 2013 (link)
• Corners in the City of God:  Theology, Philosophy, and The Wire - 2013 (link)
• The Wire:  Race, Class, and Genre - 2012 (link)
• Tapping into TheWire:  The Real Urban Crisis - 2013 (link)
• The Wire:  Truth Be Told - 2010 (link)
• The Wire: Urban Decay and American Television - 2009 (link)

Some people say The Sopranos was a better show than The Wire, some prefer Breaking Bad.  But eight books, man. That's some Shakespeare shit right there.

When they aim a show right at you, watch it

Only one episode in, but I OMG you must

Or any work at all...

Trying to finish a script during the Trump presidency: pic.twitter.com/7Y2K2kFsAf

— Ally Maynard (@missmayn) August 13, 2017

This is how we take them down

"Eating Whoppers now is a strategy for financial prosperity tomorrow," the chain's Ivan Shestov said in one of the best press release quotes ever written.

(link)

I say megalomania, but people of goodwill can disagree

To the extent that the president’s supporters accepted expert opinion, they might be less resistant to the removal of a demented commander in chief than a narcissistic one.

(link)

Grant opines

Before we tear down all the monuments, this quote from Grant came to mind:

I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.

And this one:

The present difficulty, in bringing all parts of the United States to a happy unity and love of country grows out of the prejudice to color. The prejudice is a senseless one, but it exists.

(link)

"Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Works The Marks Again"

From the estimabable Burneko:

Match [Mayweather] against one of those wavy inflatable tube men they set up on the curb outside car dealerships and he will give the inflatable tube man two or three early rounds, wait out the last drops of the wavy inflatable tube man’s stamina and every last wisp of risk, and then land enough straight right hands to claim the fight at some point after the ninth round and probably after the final bell. “The wavy inflatable tube man, he’s a true champion,” Floyd will say. “He showed heart.” The wavy inflatable tube man’s fans will clamor for a rematch. 


(link)

Taken out of context, surely

“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Mr. Sater wrote in an email. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”

(link)

Think on that

“He’s composed,” McGregor, 29, said of Mayweather. “That’s it. He’s not fast. He’s not powerful. He’s just composed.”  (link)

"He has one edge, and that’s his cool. But that’s enough baby, ‘cause he’s thinking all the time, and if he wants your ass, he gets it."
-  Trouble Man.  (link)

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Watched it again tonight with a bunch of teenagers who had never seen it.  They loved it, as every teenager who sees it for the first time must.  But I loved it too, and not just for the fart jokes.  One thing I liked about it in 1997, and liked again tonight is that, amid the brilliant comedy, Myers sneaks in a genuinely subversive message:

No man. What we swingers were going against were uptight squares like you whose bag was money and world domination. We were innocent man. If we had known the consequences of our sexual liberation, we would've done things much differently but the spirit would remain the same. It's freedom baby. Yeah!

I saw an interview with Ringo Starr a few years ago, and he said something to the effect that he felt they really had something in the 60s, something that ultimately got lost.  Myer's Austin Powers goes through the same bewilderment at hyperspeed:

Jimi Hendrix deceased, drugs. Janis Joplin deceased, alcohol. Mama Cass deceased, ham sandwich... 

...and of course Jerry Garcia's name is next on the list.  (Yeah...)

The next two Austin Powers movies did not have this depth, but the question lingers over International Man of Mystery throughout.  If there were no gags, the film would mainly be a meditation on what we had lost amidst all the victories.  The gags sharpen the point:  Would it kill us to enjoy life more?  Laugh a little?  Be a little bit silly?

The Hollywood Reporter did a nice retrospective on the film in April, linked below.  In it Myers notes that he made the film with his late father in mind:  "I was taking stock of his influence on me as a person and his influence on me with comedy in general. So Austin Powers was a tribute to my father, who [introduced me to] James Bond, Peter Sellers, The Beatles, The Goodies, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore."

A few other choice bits:

One thing that is key is Jay [Roach] said all of Austin's world is primary colors, and it's fuzzy and soft. Dr. Evil's world is hard, dangerous, gray or brushed aluminum, black and white with a hint of red danger hither and yon, like a red, scary phone or a red radiation sign. - Mike Myers

I wrote "Soul Bossa Nova" in 20 minutes 55 years ago, and it just keeps resurrecting itself. I worked with Mike when I hosted SNL in 1990. We became friends, so when they reached out to ask for permission to use the song, I happily agreed.  - Quincy Jones

Once I got it, I presented storyboards for the fembots, based on the Castle Anthrax scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when Sir Galahad is nearly thwarted by a group of seductive-looking women. I got Shaye and De Luca laughing, and they said, "OK, we'll greenlight it for $16.5 million and not a penny more."  - Jay Roach

Mike was very kind and had always been appreciative of my music, apparently. His father had been a fan of my music, too. So he told me about this idea with Jay about shooting in Vegas and putting a piano on a double-decker bus, and you just say yes to something like that.  - Burt Bacharach

Yeah, let's hear that again...



(link)

Summers makes a good point

Maybe we need a provision for a no confidence vote?

[A]ll of this points up a challenge in our constitutional system. What happens when a democratically elected President is or becomes dangerous and incompetent but has not committed a “high crime or misdemeanor” and is not medically unfit to serve? Any corporate board would have removed a CEO as erratic as President Trump before now. A Cabinet member far out of bounds would be removed by the President. In a parliamentary system, a Head of government performing like President Trump would be removed by members of their own party as Margaret Thatcher was with much less provocation or would lose a vote no confidence. In an ordered authoritarian state like China, the Central Committee would act. American democracy stands out for lacking a rapid correction mechanism for egregious inability to properly function as President.

(link)

Texas: so much better than California

The state of the world, in four epigraphs from The Wire

The bigger the lie, the more they believe.

A lie ain’t a side of a story. It’s just a lie.

And it don't matter if some fool say different.

If you have a problem with this, I understand completely.

(link)

"Is it good? No. Is it fun? Yes!"

"We never left Los Angeles"

Hamidou and Nick's big adventure

On Tuesday morning, James boarded his private jet in Miami and flew north, where he met Durant, Anthony and a handful of other NBA players: Kanter, JR Smith, Lance Thomas, Marshall Plumlee and Dahntay Jones. Smith's younger brother, Chris (a former NBA player), Real Madrid's Dontaye Draper and University of Kentucky basketball players Hamidou Diallo and Nick Richards were brought in to help fill out the squads.

(link)

Smells like Rick

(link)

Thx Nina

Paul clarifies

So if Bannon is out, what’s left? It’s just reverse Robin Hood with extra racism.

(link)

Einstein: still smart

Scientists always seem to be finding new evidence of Albert Einstein "being right." The latest example comes from astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Astronomers there have been studying the stars that orbit dangerously close to the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy to find that – you guessed it! – Einstein's landmark theory of general relativity is holding strong, even at the doorstep of the most extreme gravitational field in our galaxy.

(link)

Current Candidates for Viewing

Dang that show was good

The opening of this episode is awesome!  Subsequent action includes a cat.

Mission Impossible S2 E09 - The Seal - Video Dailymotion

All Mission Impossible episodes, ranked

#1 son expressed the view that a Mission Impossible movie might be worth watching.  I told him that although I have never seen one I am sure he is wrong, and that he should instead watch episodes from the original series, most of which I have also never watched.

But it's good.  I know it's really good.

To facilitate the conversation I found this research tool by Christopher East:
EVERY EPISODE OF MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, RANKED

Now we're getting somewhere.  His top 12:

• Operation Rogosh (S1, E3 - pre-Peter Graves)
• The Heir Apparent (S3, E1)
• The Cardinal (S3, E6)
• Submarine (S4, E7)
• The Carriers (S1, E10 - also no Peter G)
• The Mind of Stefan Miklos (S3, E13)
• The Innocent (S5, E3)
• The Execution (S3, E5)
• The Exchange (S3, E12)
• Snowball in Hell (S1, E21 - no PG)
• The Mercenaries (S3, E4)
• The Diplomat (S3, E8)

...and then in the thirteenth ("The Memory") they kill someone to discredit a Balkan dictator, and the fourteenth is the original pilot...and I have just learned these are free if you have Amazon Prime (makes popcorn).

Your nominations welcome!

(link)

Our first National Review link, I believe

A Charlottesville protester named Nicholas J. Fuentes, raging against the “rootless transnational elite,” vows: “You will not replace us.” I have reviewed the passenger manifest of the Mayflower, and there is not a single “Fuentes” to be found. Indeed, the rowdier white-power element in Texas, where I live, would very much like to see every man bearing the name “Fuentes” set down on the southerly side of a muddy little river that runs through Laredo. Peter Cvjetanovic, the 20-year-old rage-monkey bellowing in one of the now-famous photos of the tiki-Nazi procession in Virginia, complains: “I’m not the angry racist they see in that photo.” One hopes not: “Cvjetanović” is a Croat name. Not a whole lot of Slavs on the Mayflower, either, and the originators of that swastika flag the angry white boys in Virginia like to fly would have put every Cvjetanović they could lay hands on in a camp, eventually.

. . .

What does an angry white boy really want? 

“A girlfriend,” comes the mocking answer, and there’s probably more to that than mockery. The proprietor of one of the nation’s premier websites for neo-Nazi knuckleheads advised his colleagues in Charlottesville that, after the protest — which included a murder — “random girls will want to have sex with you.” I ran this proposition past a few random girls, and I suspect that the apfelstrudelführers are going to go home disappointed. There are many shades of white, and Mom’s-basement white is the least popular crayon in the box.

. . .

A great many of these young men have an interest in evolutionary psychology and evolutionary sociology — they like to think of themselves as “alpha males,” as though they were living in a chimpanzee troop — but it never occurs to them to consider their own status as rejects and failed men in that context. Online fantasy lives notwithstanding, random girls do not want to have sex with them. How do we know this? Because they are carrying tiki torches in a giant dork parade in Charlottesville. 

(link)

We're all good then, right?

“I’m not a neo-Nazi. I don’t belong to a German workers’ party from 1933,” he told the paper. “... I’m a moderate Republican.”

(link)

Go on...

Creepiness in the feed

What could they be looking at?  My guess is this.

Catchy

Yeah, I'm going to that

Temptations musical - "Ain't Too Proud" - at Berkeley Rep.

(link)

The best album I'd never heard until very recently

Turn some mellow Memphis guys loose in New York, add a dash of funk and a sprinkle of Allman Brothers, and you get the driving, energetic "Melting Pot" by Booker T and the MG's.  It was the band's last album.  Bruce Eder at Allmusic reckons that it was also their best "with Jones in particular playing with an almost demonic intensity and range, backed ably by Donald 'Duck' Dunn's rocksteady bass in particular."



"Melting Pot" followed the very different, but also interesting "McLemore Avenue", which is worth a spin next time you're cruising aimlessly through the Mission at moderate speeds.

A rare but good recommendation from Mrs. Other Front

There's this other theory called karma...

Krylenko was an exponent of socialist legality and the theory that political considerations, rather than criminal guilt or innocence, should guide the application of punishment. Although a participant in the Show Trials and political repression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, Krylenko was ultimately arrested himself during the Great Purge. Following interrogation and torture by the NKVD, Krylenko confessed to extensive involvement in wrecking and anti-Soviet agitation. He was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Soviet Supreme Court, in a trial lasting 20 minutes, and executed immediately afterwards.

(link)

These kids today, they ain't so bad

Jay Cutler: miss me yet?

Bears' Mike Glennon throws pick-6 on third play of opener

(link)

Is it too late to mention that I disagree with the President's views?

More please

The music in the lobby of an office building in oil-rich Midland, Texas yesterday:

The lunatic is on the grass 

The lunatic is on the grass 

Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs 

Got to keep the loonies on the path

And in a bookstore in San Francisco today:

I have loved some ladies 

and I have loved Jim Beam 

And they both tried to kill me 

in 1973 

When that doctor asked me 

'son how'd you get in this condition?' 

I said 'hey Sawbones I'm just carrying on 

an old family tradition.'

I have no idea what shadowy clique is orchestrating these cultural subversions, these subtle jabs at the walls of our echo chambers, or what their agenda might be.  But whomever you are, please continue.

Wizards don't need encyclopedias

Claude [Shannon]’s gifts were of the Einsteinian variety: a strong intuitive feel for the dimensions of a problem, with less of a concern for the step-by-step details. As he put it, “I think I’m more visual than symbolic. I try to get a feeling of what’s going on. Equations come later.” Like Einstein, he needed a sounding board, a role that [his wife] Betty played perfectly. His colleague David Slepian said, “He didn’t know math very deeply. But he could invent whatever he needed.”

(link) <-- good book


See also Fortune's Formula.

He's matured, his head's in the game now...oh who am I kidding

Drew League action this week:

lol, classic Swaggy P. 😂😂😂@DrewLeague @shaqtin @SHAQ #TheDrew #DrewLeague pic.twitter.com/tyQQ12MVPC

— Tom Wadsworth (@TheyCallMeWads) July 22, 2017

This is the 8th or 9th best player on the Warriors.  On the other hand, he does stuff like this and you wonder why he isn't an all-star:



Oh, he got into an epic scoring duel with James Harden, too.  Lost, but still...

My views on the current administration

In an alternate reality I am re-mixing this movie to a soundtrack of Massive Attack and Fun Lovin Criminals

@ 1:20 -

"I'm saving your life Mister President."

KABLOOM

Oh Uber, don't ever change

• Uber's search for a female CEO has been narrowed down to 3 men (link)
• Uber Knowingly Leased Unsafe Cars To Its Drivers In Singapore, Report Says (link)
• Uber’s Alleged Plot To Take Google’s Tech Probably Began Sooner Than Anyone Thought (link)

The last sane man

Look football is great but I ain't dying for this s--t. Lol.
 - Martellus Bennett

(link)

Play this movie LOUD

I recommend seeing the whole thing, when you can.

Killed at the Diner

Here is a full list of Kojak episode titles. I don't know who came up with these, but I think they were going for a "tough" vibe, at least at first.  I include a few annotations, color-coded for your convenience - it's interesting to see the strong start, the battle for the show's soul, and then the tragic descent into effeminate incoherence:

• "Siege of Terror" - Excellent
• "Web of Death" - Well done
• "One for the Morgue" - Very good
• "Knockover" - Eh
• "Girl in the River" - That's the old fastball
• "Requiem for a Cop" - Every show has that one
• "The Corrupter" - Nah, too abstract
• "Dark Sunday" - A little better
• "Conspiracy of Fear" - Now you're talking
• "Cop in a Cage" - Tell me more!
• "Marker to a Dead Bookie" - Good
• "Last Rites for a Dead Priest" - Not tough enough
• "Death Is Not a Passing Grade" - Better
• "Die Before They Wake" - Death is always good
• "Deliver Us Some Evil" - Excellent
• "Eighteen Hours of Fear" - Now you're back on form
• "Before the Devil Knows" - Sidney Lumet liked it
• "Dead on His Feet" - Death is good
• "Down a Long and Lonely River" - What are you fucking Marlowe?!  I NEED A TITLE!
•  "Mojo" - Yeah
• "Therapy in Dynamite" - Extra snacks for you
• "The Only Way Out" - Good, good
• "The Chinatown Murders: Part 1" - A little descriptive, but why not
• "The Chinatown Murders: Part 2" - A little descriptive, but why not
• "Hush Now, Don't You Die" - Pretty good FOR A CHARLIE'S ANGELS EPISODE.  C'mon.
• "A Very Deadly Game" - Ok
• "Wall Street Gunslinger" - You're out of your element.
• "Slay Ride" - You go to Harvard?
• "Nursemaid" - We're losing it here people.
• "You Can't Tell a Hurt Man How to Holler" - What's this a minstrel show?
• "The Best Judge Money Can Buy" - Well, better than we've been having.
• "A Souvenir from Atlantic City" - What...?  I got your souvenir right here, a pink slip!
• "A Killing in the Second House" - That's the stuff.
• "The Best War in Town" - Much better.
• "Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die" - Yes
• "The Betrayal" - Ok, betrayal is good.
• "Loser Takes All" - Huh, eh why not.
• "Close Cover Before Killing" - Solid.
• "Acts of Desperate Men" - Yes, yes.
• "Queen of the Gypsies" - No, no!
• "Night of the Piraeus" - Night I killed a screenwriter with a piano wire.
• "Elegy in an Asphalt Graveyard" - YES [firstbump]
• "The Goodluck Bomber" - Yeah, yeah, good.
• "Unwanted Partners" - Oh the Murphy Brown very special episode?
• "Two-Four-Six for Two Hundred" - I was told there would be no math.
• "The Trade-Off" - Ew.
• "I Want to Report a Dream" - I dreamed a pansy was working for me.
• "A Question of Answers: Part 1" - Arg.
• "A Question of Answers: Part 2" - Arg, Part 2.
• "My Brother, My Enemy" - Average
• "Sweeter Than Life" - Yeah, ok, I kinda like that
• "Be Careful What You Pray For" - What, now we're doing consumer tips?
• "Secret Snow, Deadly Snow" - Death is good.
• "Life, Liberation, and the Pursuit of Death" - Very good.
• "Out of the Frying Pan…" - Nah
• "Over the Water" - How about DEATH Over the Water?
• "The Nicest Guys on the Block" - Nah
• "No Immunity for Murder" - Good
• "A Long Way from Times Square" - Nah
• "Money Back Guarantee" - Nah
• "A House of Prayer, a Den of Thieves" - Now we're disrespecting the Church?
• "How Cruel the Frost, How Bright the Stars" - How lame the title
• "The Forgotten Room" - Oh I hope Miss Marple solves it
• "On the Edge" - Average
• "A Wind from Corsica" - I'll allow it
• "Bad Dude" - There, better
• "A Grave Too Soon" - Yes, EXCELLENT
• "The Frame" - Nah
• "Deadly Innocence" - Ok, kind of a juxtaposition thing
• "Justice Deferred" - No no no
• "Both Sides of the Law" - SHE WAS A HOOKER!
• "Birthday Party" - No
• "A Summer Madness" - Yes
• "Law Dance" - I can't even
• "Out of the Shadows" - guest starring Barnabus Collins?  Fuck shadows.  Shadows suck.
• "A Need to Know" - Mannix.
• "An Unfair Trade" - Cannon.
• "A Hair-Trigger Away" - Gad.
• "By Silence Betrayed" - The Day the Poet Died
• "A Shield for Murder: Part 1" - Ok
• "A Shield for Murder: Part 2" - OK
• "The Pride and the Princess" - FUCK NO
• "Black Thorn" - Romance novel shit
• "Where Do You Go When You Have No Place To Go?" - Who can I turn to when you DON'T FUCKING GET IT?!
• "Dead Again" - Solid.
• "The Godson" - What's a Godson?  Was he on Carson?
• "The Condemned" - Yeah, kinda morbid, ok.
• "When You Hear the Beep, Drop Dead" - That's cool.
• "I Was Happy Where I Was" - This used to be a tough show.
• "Kojak's Days: Part 1" - I'm puking here.
• "Kojak's Days: Part 2" - Worse
• "Monkey on a String" - Hey, that's ok, I like that.
• "Kiss It All Goodbye" - Yeah, that's a Kojak title.
• "Lady in the Squadroom" - Someone dropping lady pills in the coffee here?
• "Sister Maria" - Apparently so
• "Another Gypsy Queen" - Another dead screenwriter.
• "The Queen of Hearts Is Wild" - This show is so dead.
• "A Strange Kind of Love" - The dirt is hitting our face
• "Laid Off" - Is what we will be
• "Cry for the Kids" - Is what we will do
• "Once More from Birdland" - With pretty ladies dancing
• "Caper on a Quiet Street" - Now we're fucking capering
• "Letters of Death" - Yes, for the love God YES
• "Tears for All Who Love Her" - Annnd back to The After-School Specials, very nice
• "The Summer of '69: Part 1" - I can smell the honey shampoo
• "The Summer of '69: Part 2" - and the dope
• "Case Without a File" - Episode without a title
• "I Could Kill My Wife's Lawyer" - Enough with the autobiography, Sid
• "Justice for All" - It's the fucking Pledge of Allegiance.  Maybe Death for All?
• "Mouse" - Rat. Poison.
• "Chain of Custody" - Ok, tough enough, maybe a little too smart, but ok.
• "The Captain's Brother's Wife" - ...who screwed the French Lieutenant's Woman.  FUCK that noise.
• "No License to Kill" - No one with a penis tuned in.
• "The Halls of Terror" - YEAH
• "May the Horse Be With You" - NO
• "Photo Must Credit Joe Paxton" - WHAT
• "60 Miles to Hell" - NOW YOU ARE TALKING
• "In Full Command" - And we're cancelled, nice working with you Morty.

Well I know who *I'm* rooting for

“You are going to have the [former] FBI director testify, and then the acting director, the chief of staff to the FBI director, the FBI’s general counsel, and then others, one right after another. This has never been the word of Trump against what [James Comey] has had to say. This is more like the Federal Bureau of Investigation versus Donald Trump.”

(link)

A very long time ago, before the rot set in, James Cramer wrote something to the effect that no matter how big and powerful you think you are, there is a serious man in a starched shirt in Washington DC, who doesn't make much money, and whose name is not a household word.  And some day that man is going to take you down.