Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

Umm, what's that you say?  An Everybody's Linking for the Weekend on a Saturday?  This is madness!  However, in what is traditionally the weekend where I try to figure out what I want to do with the next month of my life (planning is highly-underrated), I figured I might as well start out November with a bang and scare you (see, Halloween) into thinking that I might get everything on-time this month.  Without further adieu...

In Entertainment...

-For those of you who are devoted YouTubers, nothing this week could quell your excitement over a second film from the Holy Trinity of the site, Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, and Mamrie Hart.  The trio made Camp Takota last year, and unlike almost every other YouTube film that followed, it didn't endure horrific reviews as a result (cough Not Cool cough).  I personally am excited to see what these three bring as they're amongst my favorite YouTube content creators, particularly since the title (Dirty Thirty) seems to be about them owning their age a little bit more, which is rare on YouTube where everyone tries to be fourteen.

-I am so bummed that I missed the Leah Remini 20/20 interview last night.  I'm not wild about Remini (she was funny on an average sitcom and her brash persona occasionally rubs me the wrong way) and I find that most celebrity gossip is kind of boring these days, but man am I weirdly excited to hear the juice about Remini and her break from Scientology, considering it's one of the oddest and strangest things in Hollywood over the past several decades, and continues to be a really interesting topic considering stars like Tom Cruise and John Travolta are still involved with the church.  Remini is the biggest star to leave the organization, of course, and so likely had more access to the higher-ups in the Church.  The interview is chronicled pretty heavily in the article I linked above, so if you didn't record it or don't have access to a TV, read through as it's a fascinating look at Remini's involvement with the church and her relationships (that have spilled into the press) with Katie Holmes and Kirstie Alley.

-Every week I find Lady Gaga more and more phony and infuriating, and this week was no exception. Gaga apparently said a couple of years ago she wanted to quit music because she was tired of being treated as a "commodity."  This would potentially resonate (I'm sure celebrities get sick of being a product when they want to just create art), but Gaga made a point in her first album and every album after that about wanting to be a celebrity, and that was her primary goal.  One of her earliest hits was a song called "Paparazzi" and she demanded at the Grammys "take my picture Hollywood, I want to be a star."  Her latest sorts of comments feel just as manufactured as everything else about the singer-turned-actress, and seem to be launched more because her music career left her and not the other way around.  This sort of crap is what turned me off to her in the first place, and it isn't helping right now, and no amount of Julie Andrews musical moments are going to make me change my mind.

In Politics...

-One of the larger questions this past week has been around whether or not Sen. Marco Rubio should resign from the Senate.  I initially was going to do an article about this, but Smart Politics beat me to the punch, and it was so thorough I figured I'd just link.  I think Rubio himself did, in fact, quell this discussion with his epic takedown of Jeb Bush earlier last week, but the reality is that it's a question worth having. Rubio isn't running for reelection like Rand Paul, so it's not like he's going to be using the Senate seat anytime soon, and there is limited precedent but it's there for giving up his seat (Sen. Bob Dole resigned his seat in 1996, as the article points out).  I think it's a pragmatic question as well-look at Sen. Dean Heller who managed to gain a great leg-up in 2012 by being a temporary but real incumbent (it's likely he would have lost had it been a true open seat race, giving the Democrats a vital seat headed into 2016 where they're looking for anything they can grab to get five more).  Rubio, from a pragmatic side probably should give up his seat then, but doing so could invite comparisons to Sarah Palin when she resigned the Alaskan governorship and he wants to avoid that at all costs so I cannot fathom he will do so.  Expect Hillary Clinton to be eyeing how many votes he missed in comparison to her voting record in 2007, though, as this will be fodder in 2016 for certain as they appear to be the likely nominees.

-Speaking of the former senator, Mark Halperin did an epic takedown of the Republicans in a piece this past week for Bloomberg where he highlights that Republicans are stuck in an echo chamber on Hillary Clinton.  This is something, I think, we all are stuck in, quite frankly.  I talk with Democrats who are petrified of Clinton being the nominee because they don't think enough people like her, and yet every Democrat (and some lay people as well) seem to be willing to cast their votes for her, albeit with great fervor or a pinched nose (at the end of the day, though, they count the same).  Halperin correctly points out that Clinton's team is better at debates, and has a party that is much less likely to demand things of their nominee that could be deemed general election poison (it seems impossible, for example, for next year's RNC to not have speeches about Benghazi and email servers, which will not play well outside of a primary considering public polling on the matters).  It's also worth noting that, using the past four elections as a guide, the Democrats have more electoral college votes that seem likely to be in their corner than the Republicans (the Democrats don't need states like Florida and Ohio, for example, but the Republicans can't afford to lose them).  All-in-all, Clinton has an upperhand if you throw away the fact that historically she should have a tougher race.

-And we'll finish out the political portion of this link roundup with an excellent profile of Al Gore and his look at An Inconvenient Truth ten years later from Politico.  The article is interesting not just because of a few choice little anecdotes in the write-up (how is it possible that Al Gore has never met Jeb Bush considering they've both been on the national stage for decades and considering Al Gore is very well-acquainted with his brother).  While he didn't endorse his former rival for the President's attention (Hillary Clinton and Al Gore are hardly good friends), he did point out the Democrats have his support more than the Republicans in 2016.  It's an interesting read, particularly for those who were inspired by his powerpoint ten years ago, so check it out.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week..

-Democrats can hug Republicans-it'll be all right, Freedom Caucus.  You can't catch liberalism.

YouTube Video of the Week...

-I feel a little guilty every year that I don't really celebrate Halloween, particularly since I feel like I'm abandoning the quintessential gay holiday, so in deference to that, I shall put perhaps the gayest moment in all Halloween movies below.  Check it out, and I dare you to not want to change your costume to match Bette's:

Just One More...

-If there's a name you need to memorize immediately before next summer's Olympic Games, it's Simone Biles, who became the first gymnast ever to win three consecutive world championships this past week, besting Olympic champion Gabby Douglas (who became the first Olympic champion to make a medals stand since 1981 at the world championships).  At this rate, it seems Team USA will be the ones to beat come next Summer, and expect a lot of NBC promos touting a rivalry between Biles and reigning Olympic champ Douglas, who is looking to become the first woman since Nadia Comaneci to medal in two consecutive All-Arounds, and potentially the first since Vera Caslavska to win the title back-to-back.