I’m not saying Jodie Comer‘s Last Duel performance isn’t a lead — it is — but she’d have a better shot at winning if she was in the Best Supporting Actress category, and nobody would have an argument with her performance being so categorized.

With 83% of the Virginia vote tally, Greg Youngkin (R) has 53% (1,426,017) vs. 47% (1,263,758) for Terry McAuliffe (D). It’s a very bleak omen for what may happen in the 2022 midterms, and, in Virginia at least, a clear rejection of wokester policies as far as education (CRT) is concerned. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: Virginia women went roughly 50-50 in the 2020 Presidential race, but they voted against McAuliffe, 57% to 43%, on the race-education issue.

Friendo: “Democrats will probably not get the message. They should but they won’t. They have to stop listening to Twitter. Everything and everyone is racist to the wokester left (Thomas Jeffersons statue being removed from NYC’s city hall, etc.) and moderate Americans are finally pushing back. I was surprised it was such a decisive win though — 51.9% to 47.4%. They all said Virginia would be a squeaker.”

MSNBC exit polls say Terry McAuliffe‘s negatives are much higher than Glenn Youngkin‘s, and that probably means (unless MSNBC’s exit poll methodology is completely detached from logic and reality) that McAuliffe is going to lose the Virginia gubernatorial election. The legend is that McAuliffe basically committed suicide over the teaching of critical race theory in Virginia schools, and particularly by implying that parents who shared concerns along these lines were racist.

The implication is that other Democratic candidates who endorse CRT and the early instruction of non-binary gender studies in schools may be similarly threatened.

No question about it — woke terrorists have taken a serious hit. Speaking as a left-leaning moderate centrist, I’m feeling mixed emotions. I think McAuliffe asked for it and has no one to blame but himself. On the other hand I feel badly about any Republican winning anything in this godawful lunatic climate.

…that I couldn’t identify, and at the same time I couldn’t push it out of my head. It kept playing, over and over. I knew it was either Max Steiner or Miklos Rozsa, but I couldn’t remember the film. I figured if I stopped trying, the answer would come. But it didn’t. I tried going back to sleep. It was 2:15 am. I thought of ex-girlfriends and childhood traumas and the endless boredom of school, distant cities, riding on trains through Switzerland…couldn’t drop off. Then it hit me…Steiner! Whew, what a relief. I finally dropped off.

…but the paycheck. The paycheck matters. That and starring in the usual lightweight crap…Onward, Lego Movie 2, infinite Guardians, Jurassic whatever, toxic Passengers, a bullshit Magnificent Seven remake, a bullshit Tomorrow War…nothing matters, keep earning, keep eating…me and Dwayne Johnson, man…we own this kind of attitude. Fuck it all, you only live once.

Soon after embracing sobriety on 3.20.12, I realized that my laughter triggers has stopped functioning, and I’d never been much of a hah-hah guy to begin with. This was where alcohol came in, and why I loved succumbing to the rude, silly, sporadic kind of beer-buzz humor that I’d discovered in my mid teens….a cackling, mad-hatter laughter on the fly, depending on the joke or circumstance or how many sheets to the wind.

Well, that kind of vocal laughter had left my system. Sobriety had shown it the door. I’d always been an LQTM type but now I was really living deep in the well. And whenever a table of younger people (or middle-aged sillies on their second glass of wine) would break into gales of laughter, I would turn and glare daggers. I’ve been sober nine and a half years, and I still do that. Hearty chuckles and moderate laughter are fine, but shriekers are obnoxious. And if I’m in the vicinity, you can bet they’ll feel my silent condemnation..

…how the Supremes upholding a Mississippi abortion law that states an abortion has to happen with 15 weeks of conception…how exactly does that undermine a woman’s right to choose?

The Texas abortion law is ridiculous, and yes, the Mississippi law, passed in 2018, is restrictive and problematic for low-income women, especially in its refusal to make exceptions in cases of rape or incest. If it were my determination I would certainly uphold Roe v. Wade.

Under present Mississippi law, women who’ve made their decision simply have to terminate a given pregnancy within 105 days. Let’s say that an unwilling mom doesn’t learn that she’s pregnant until the six-week mark — that gives her nine weeks or 63 days to do something about it.

A woman’s right to choose is the central thing, of course, and no civilized person would disagree with this. A 15-week timeframe will obviously make it harder for low-income women, and I’m not oblivious to an element of cruelty in the Mississippi law. Which is why it’s better, I believe, all things considered, to stick with Roe.

But here’s an 11.1 Times op-ed piece that says Roe is “as good as gone.”

The Supremes will evaluate Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on 12.1.21.

Two big advance screenings this week — Ridley Scott‘s House of Gucci (UA Releasing, 11.24) on Wednesday and Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Licorice Pizza (UA releasing, 11.26) on Saturday. Scott’s film runs 157 minutes; Anderson’s runs 133 minutes with credits, 128 without.