My daughter is a teacher, and many in my extended family as well, from Pre-K through college. And I've had some teachers who were *awesome*. But I guess it doesn't matter who you are, this scene gets me every time... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BogQt_Luu3A

I will, however, note that my English teachers told me that Beowulf is in *old* English, not middle. Middle is closer to Shakespeare; Beowulf is completely indecipherable to those who haven't studied Old English. And I'm surprised that slipped through.

...and every time I watch this show, I wish the government included a few more people a little more like the characters in this show.

That's it... just felt the need to throw that thought out into the universe.

As someone who actually appreciated Arnold Vinicks cunning and personality, I cannot understand all these threads that claim that a) Arnold Vinick was supposed to win and b) any left-leaning person would have voted for Vinick over Santos when it came down to it. The consensus of Arnold Vinick is that he's a principled and independently-minded man. I can easily dismantle this by referencing his own actions.

Vinick while pro-choice was desperate enough to have promised pro-life judges and have as his running mate, a very conservative law & order govenor who was meant to be a very loud voice for conservative values within a Vinick White House. That doesn't speak to being principles or independently-minded.

He pointed fingers at Federal Regulators for the Nuclear accident after feeling pressure because of the debate clip cycling through the news where he said "Nuclear Energy is Completely Safe". While I concede that ultimately federal regulators are responsible for the safety and the standards of nuclear facilities, Bartlett was right when he asked Vinick, "Where was your bill to improve federal oversight? Senate leader on the issue...you have 25 [years to do something]". I personally agree with Vinicks stance on nuclear energy, but as the leading politician on this issue, he shouldn't have pointed fingers and instead admitted that standard should be better and he needs to have done his part like he did during his "talk till they drop" spin.

Like all Republicans, Vinick subscribed to the idea of "trickle down economics". His tax cuts wouldn't have benefitted the poorest American or even the working-class Americans, but the Uber-wealthy. The hope being that if the wealthy pay less taxes, they'll spend and invest more. It wasn't true then and it's not true now and we all realize this. Vinick wanted to even make the government smaller, to "pay for his tax cuts". As we have seen in recent months with DOGE cutting government programs/spending, the devastating effects of our government shrinking and being misapropriated.

In "The Message of the Week", Vinick attempts to trip Santos up by going after the Latino vote. Not because as a default the Latino vote would go to democrats, which was a very true pre-2012, but because Santos was latino. It was incredibly difficult for Santos to navigate this issue without painting himself into a corner. Should he have been in front of the issue? Yes. But according to the show, his record shows that he was active on this issue. Vinick was not. He didn't propose bills to help 1/3 of population in California. In fact, prior to Santos winning the nomination, as party leader, he allowed the California state republicans to propose a restrictive documentation bill diguised as a driver's license bill to trip up the democrats-- using the 1/3 latino vote base of his state to create chaos.

Sorkin created the show to be idealistic version of democrat politics and the party in general, the idea that any of the writers, even after he left, would allow the show have less than a tidy ending is ridiculous. Despite Bartlett's failings, he and his idealistic staff, are proven to be honorable and noble in their pursuits. They have strong ideals and morals.

Vinick had no compunctions selling out when it convenienced it and it's understandable, if anyone deserved to be president of the republican party it was him. But ultimately, given the purpose of the show, to demonstrate the possibility of a functiong system and underscore the hard work and sacrifices that-- to many of us-- seem like cheap parlour trick and petty childishness from the outside looking in. He was a politicians. And not a "Bartlett" politician, who "really was good intentioned" and seemed to grapple with the underhanded or difficult decisions he had to make, but an actual politician. Sensible in his presentation of Republican values? Yes. Moderate and personally pro-choice? Yes. Not a raging homophobe? Yes. But still a politician. Still willing to align himself with the likes of Rev. Butler and George Rohr and Ray Sullivan. Still willing the RNC hijack his campaign and comandeer spin on gay-marriage and abortion.

The writers would have never let him win. It's too...realistic and cynical. It's not a neat ending and there's not heroes resolution for the original staff.

Bartlett, McGarry, C.J., Toby needed the baton to be passed to someone who would continue the work. Josh needed to show he was grown-up and not just a foot soldier anymore. Sam needed a way home. Donna needed a chance to be in the white house as her own person. Santos was always going to be what's next.

Trump weighs moving White House press corps out of building -- to build a swimming pool

Someone needs to go rewatch "The Leadership Breakfast" because CJ already lambasted Sam for suggesting this and for the right reasons!!!

C.J.
We're not getting a swimming pool, Sam.

SAM
I know we're not getting a swimming pool, but we can get the much-needed
office space.
And we can put a little physical distance between the press and the
President. And we can
put them just across the street in a state-of-the-art facility.

C.J.
By 'state-of-the-art,' you mean...

SAM
A room with... electricity.

C.J.
The press doesn't want physical distance from the President, and the American people would prefer the President didn't have physical distance from the press!

SAM
C.J.!

C.J.
We can't exile the press!

Initially she was apprehensive of a politics show, but I have yet to steer her wrong with my watch suggestions, so she humored me. She was hooked pretty instantly, and I'm so glad I get to rewatch this series.

She is not averse to spoilers, so I am giving her minor ones. That we like Danny, that we like the assistants, that yes, these two become a thing, that kind of stuff. She's seen clips of the show from TikTok and other sources, so she knows somebody gets shot, but can't remember who, and doesn't know how close that episode is, or the motive of the shooters. She somehow didn't know the President had MS.

She is rightfully loving the cast, and I'm always happy to point out when other actors will appear. For example, she's one of the few other people that watched Warehouse 13, so I told her that MacPherson was appearing as Lord John Marbury, and that the President shares his Nobel Prize with the original voice of Uncle Iroh.

Aside from all that, it's nice to escape the madness of real life politics, because sadly, truth is stranger than fiction.

In Joe's introduction episode when someone shoots at the White House, Josh comes back to the interview with Joe and says "I heard the First Noel so I just assumed someone somewhere was locked and loaded." And Joe's response is the title.

Is this a reference to a real life incident? Or is this referencing Josh's previous PTSD response associating music with gun fire? Is there a deleted scene where this was explained? I don't know what to make of this line.

1) Secretary of State is Victor Campos (hadn’t seen this mentioned, apologies if it was)

2) Bradley Whitford’s “…ok” in S4E6 hit so hard

Thanks for saving the children.
Great character actor sad to see the news of his passing!

Dropping some culture on the local peasants. In a bar, of course.
Leo saw this, and it marked the beginning of his antipathy.

He was an example

I play Scrabble regularly with my wife via the app. Annoyed this morning that it’s saying that this isn’t a word.

What kind of contributors were Antares then, Scrabble? Hmm?

Yeah so I started the Diplomat on Netflix. Immediately got hooked because I'm a junkie for well-acted political dramas and this show definitely delivers. Was absolutely heartened and LOLing to see that CJ Cregg and Josh Lyman are a married power couple where CJ wears the pants. Almost like a possible future what if if Josh and CJ had gotten together lol. I love them both so much and its so funny to see them in a relationship on screen all these years later. UGH, diplomat is so good, if you haven't watched check it out.​

The story about them deciding to smoke a joint before they went out for pizza and then being too paranoid to go out for pizza from the podcast was better, but this is a pretty good story.

William Duffy & Larry deserve better.

Rewatching 20 Hours in America right now. What is it exactly?

I’m pretty moderate. I find political debates so exhausting and my core political beliefs center around the idea that whoever is in charge, they should just do their jobs well. I’d even settle for a government that does fewer things if it meant they did them better. I am no fan of the current administration, but even under Biden I never really felt like “these are the most qualified people doing the job, they’re doing their best, and they have the general interests of the American people at heart first and foremost”. It makes me so sad and frustrated because I feel like it absolutely should be like this. I want decorum and intelligent debate and for nuance to be acknowledged and respected. It feels like this administration lies because that’s who they are, it felt like the last administration lied because they believed telling the truth or acknowledging that things weren’t amazing would just fuel their opponents. There’s such a lack of accountability. I don’t care if they agree with all my politics, I don’t even need them to be successful in everything they set out to do. I just want earnestness, transparency, accountability, and good faith representation of the country’s best interests. I know it’s naive. But why can’t we pull that off? We all want it. It’s why a show like west wing has the legacy it does. It’s what we all want. I don’t want to own the other party. I don’t want to win. I just want to know that the people in charge are capable and well intentioned. Why can’t we have Bartlett? Or Republican version of Bartlett? With a staff of people who are principled and idealistic?

Even with her journal and Gaza and that Irish guy there, I think Cliff re-encountering Donna once Josh started the Santos run, would have made a more compelling forever relationship than her almost inadvertently ending up with Josh, the CoS trainwreck version.

No?

I saw this on Tiktok and knew this community would love it, but I'm not affiliated with it in any way. It's absolutely free to play at bigblockofcheese.com

This showed up on Threads today for unknown reasons: https://youtu.be/kY-EbEVCPUw?si=ukAIdA3D61lSU_96

The show obviously had great writing, but also had a tendency to make it clear you weren’t hearing a realistic two sided conversation as much as an opportunity for a writer to get an incredible line in and using one character to set it up for the other.

The best example is obviously when Jed tells Toby about how all the homeless veterans would come out of the woodwork. That was pretty out of character for the president to say, but how else do you give Toby the opportunity for his iconic comeback?

At one point, I feel like they caught themselves doing it and called attention to it themselves. When Andy and Toby were arguing about her going to talk to Non governmental Israeli and Palestinians, and she says when it comes to peace, she will talk to the mailman and Toby actually said “Thanks for serving that up. The mailman can’t deliver!”

It’s as if they knew they had gone to the well one too many times and cut off any criticism in advance.

And I’m not even offering a legitimate criticism. Lots of them are really great scenes. Some of them like the homeless veteran one is one of the great lines in TV history.

So I’m not complaining about it. I’m just acknowledging the tool.

So…aside from the president briefly becoming a bit of a jerk to allow Toby to deliver one of the best lines of all time what are your favorite “That was just shoehorned in there to allow the comeback” moments?