Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

All right, it is bright and early this morning (or at least it is at the moment-it always takes me forever to get the link posts written, so who knows what time it will be when this finishes).  Either way, let's get to it!

On Entertainment...

-Mark Harris has a wonderful piece dissecting the Tony Awards, and their weird sort of decay in recent decades.  Much of it could also be said for the Oscars, who are constantly trying to accommodate younger audiences when, like the Olympics, they should really just try to steep us in history and make us feel like we're watching something iconic, rather than something transient (Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber are not going to make you fall harder for an awards show).  The show should return to its awards-giving roots, and celebrate moments like Kelli O'Hara's worm and maybe some of the plays on Broadway (like those starring major movie star Bradley Cooper) rather than Finding Neverland for the second year in a row (despite it getting no nominations in the meantime-I don't care how many tickets to the ceremony Harvey Weinstein bought!).

-Nathaniel over at the Film Experience had a new entry in my favorite series on the internet, the Supporting Actress Smackdown, which covered 1979.  So head on over if you want a solid discussion surrounding Mariel Hemingway, Jane Alexander, Candice Bergen, Barbara Barrie, and how they all fell to a young up-and-comer named Meryl Streep.

-The second season teaser for the genius (if you haven't watched yet, I don't know what I can do with you) HBO series The Leftovers is finally out, and like the original season is creepy with a lot of questions hanging over it.  I'm so excited that they officially said fall at the tail end of that clip, since that means The Leftovers will soon be on my DVR.  Again-see it!

On Politics...

-The big news this week was coming out of the halls of Congress, with the Democrats shockingly defying the president over the TPP trade compact that he has been trumpeting for weeks.  The Democrats went so far as to stop the TAA, a program they have historically supported for decades, potentially risking it's extinction in hopes of slowing down the fast-track bill.  This has been a bit hard for me to understand, both because these acronyms are WAY too similar for my brain, but also because I'm conflicted on how I would have voted (I always think with bills of this complicated nature it's worth looking at how you would decide, at least to improve your opinion of Congress when you realize you aren't sure).  In many ways, I think that we need to pass some sort of trade bill to not give up economic advantage in Asia, but some of the environmental aspects of the bill inserted by Paul Ryan (which seems to be a principle reason why Nancy Pelosi didn't end up supporting the agreement) are very troubling, with a lot more credence placed on business than on environmental law. So I probably would have supported TAA (it's too important, and almost assuredly dead after the Democrats' actions on Friday) but not TPP (which I would have supported if Ryan hadn't made it more palatable to conservative Republicans).  Either way, this was a terrible week politically for the Democrats, particularly Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.  Pelosi couldn't get a bill that even she could back, showing her weakened hand with such a small caucus (it's hard to imagine she couldn't have had both TAA and a palatable TPP if she had ten more seats), and the President showed that only appearing every two years at Democratic caucus meetings (seriously-that's just appalling and embarrassing for POTUS-these are members of his team) means you can't call in for loyalty when it counts.

-The New Yorker chronicles why Joe Biden should consider a run for the White House.  Listen, I love Joe Biden more than almost any other politician in America, and have supported him for decades, but I usually greet these sorts of articles with a solid eye roll.  Biden doesn't have wide enough respect across the country after a series of gaffes and he's considered too old at 74 next year to be running for POTUS.  Still, it's worth at least looking into for a man who has wanted to be president for decades and is one heartbeat away at the moment.  After all, some of the other handicaps (like his link to the Obama administration) are also held by Hillary Clinton, and it's worth noting that Clinton has had a pretty lousy rollout of her campaign (the way she has completely zoned out the press has gone from interesting to quirky to downright dangerous, and if this is the sort of campaign that she's going to run, it might be worth looking at other candidates because it's a 90's-style campaign that completely ignores the social media age we live in, and shows too much of a tin ear).  Biden could eviscerate her on this front (get him a little more finesse and he could run the entire news and talk show circuit through the ringer), and based on polls that show Bernie Sanders is doing better than expected, one would imagine that Joe Biden could actually pick up that mantle as both a left-leaning champion AND a viable contender.

-John Sutter has been doing a fascinating study about the 2-degree number and what an enormous impact it will have on the environment.  This isn't what I'd call a feel-good number, but it's one that will make you want to rethink your carbon footprint, and it's full of some information even I hadn't heard of before, so take a look.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

-I may have hated the movie, but it's worth noting that this is the best scene of the movie.

YouTube Video of the Week...

-The funniest should-be-viral-but-isn't-quite-yet video of the week was surely the Jessica Chastain musical, which makes fun of the visual similarities between Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard which was acknowledged by Chastain on Twitter and has now become a "thing."  Also, can we all just acknowledge that Howard is totally killing on the press tour for Jurassic World?  I think she's aware her career has gone off the skids a bit and she needs this to reverberate, so she's not only commenting on this video, but also crying on cue on Conan in a GREAT clip (it was the runner-up this week).

Just One More...

-An absolute must-read this week is Fareed Zakaria's fascinating look at the Millennial generation, both the good and the bad.  It's a thoughtful, interesting, and not knee-jerk article about the so-called "Me, Me, Me" generation, which is hard to find so I encourage you to check it out.  I love the renewed focus on volunteerism amongst Millennials (PS-that's on my goal list to have a consistent volunteering organization that I support by end of year, so if you know any good ones, let me know), but also a discussion of their political apathy that doesn't break into condescension.