House of Cards

[Mister Mets]

Spoilerish discussion below:

So, how the heck does America Works... work, anyway?  Annihilate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and plunge their funding into a massive government works program to wipe out unemployment?  I get the appeal of the latter, but what the hell kind of appeal does the former have, if there's apparently nothing to replace them?

I think, at least this is how he'd justify it, is the annihilating of those programs are to pay for American Works. It's pretty convoluted and makes little sense.

Annihilation wasn't exactly what was being proposed though. Gutting, yes, but not complete wipeout. Underwood's whole calculus is that those who receive a pension should receive less and investment in a younger generation is far more worth government money than paying it to out to pensions. His whole "You are entitled to nothing" crap is probably has its logical conclusions in "The money you're getting now is the money you would have gotten when you were retired, and when you do retire, you better have invested that money wisely." >_>

It exemplifies one aspect of the Democrats: They do see themselves as the party of the young, so it could make sense for an amoral Democrat to gut spending that benefits older voters, a traditionally Republican group (and also one with a higher percentage of white people).

[Mister Mets]

Mendoza was written out because the actor had other commitments (American Crime).

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It was still very abrupt. Couldn't he have at least finished the season? Or if they were going to write him out midseason, couldn't they at least have given him a proper departure rather than just a few throwaway lines?

So, how absurd is the 2016 map gonna be? We talking 2006 West Wing absurd, if you ask me.

Hey at least South Carolina going Dem would be somewhat plausible this time!

Only slightly more...Underwood's never won a statewide election.

There is one way to have fun with Mendoza's departure. It could be used to seed a big bad for Season 4: a Republican candidate just as vicious as Frank Underwood. Leaking dirt on the party's favorite for the presidential nomination is the kind of thing Frank would do.

[Mister Mets]

Was it just me, or did anyone else notice that Frank seems to "talk to the audience" less in this season? Subtle snubbing of us now that he's made it big?

I liked how the judge with alzheimers seemed to pick up on it.