I've got my mind made up

I'm just going to come right out and say it. My White House choice for 2024 is...Vice President Kamala Harris. Okay...I've probably lost some followers for making this decision. Here's my reasoning: 1. If Harris wins on 11-5-2024, it's the one way that all Americans of voting age, regardless of their party affiliation (or lack of one), will be able to cast future ballots. 2. The former US senator from California wants to end the filibuster so that (among other things) the Roe vs. Wade precedent (1973-2022) on abortion can be restored. (Okay...how would you like it if a politician got between you and your doctor when you needed to make a decision that could save your own life?) 3. She doesn't want to raise taxes on those Americans who earn less than $400,000 a year. In addition, she'd roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest US citizens...cuts that were signed into law in 2017. And the tax rate for long-term capital gains for millionaires would go to 28%. 4. Harris would sign the bipartisan border security bill into law...you know, the Senate deal that fell by the wayside after Donald Trump told House Republicans to abandon it so that he'd have something to campaign on. 5. I like her proposal to get 3 million new rental units/affordable homes built...and her proposal to provide first-time homebuyers with $25,000 each for down payments (as well as legislation to outlaw new forms of price fixing by corporate landlords). 6. Harris is also in favor of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (to prevent states from passing laws that make it harder for non-White people to cast ballots), the Freedom to Vote Act (designed to set standards for early voting and voting by mail...as well as to curb gerrymandering), and the Equality Act (extending the 1964 Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation). 7. And the former California attorney general advocates term limits for Supreme Court justices as well as a code of ethics for SCOTUS members. What's more, Harris wants to end America's record as the only major country without a national paid-family-and-medical-leave policy. You can check this and more out by going to politifact.com and checking out its article on Harris' 2024 campaign promises. I don't want to sit this one out...and if you're a voting-age American, I hope you won't sit this one out, either.

Repeat! Repeat!

Nope...I haven't abandoned my "shoulda-woulda-coulda" NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs, where I run a 24-team field through Dave Koch Sports' Action! PC Football game.

Something special happened with the 2022 playoffs...and here goes:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Clemson (9) 31, Toledo (24) 7/Kansas State (16) 34, Oregon State (17) 15/Washington (13) 52, UCLA (20) 28/Alabama (12) 27, Cincinnati (21) 19/Florida State (19) 52, South Alabama (14) 30/Tennessee (11) 42, Coastal Carolina (22) 21/Oregon (18) 45, Utah (15) 30/Penn State (10) 41, Fresno State (23) 21

SECOND ROUND: Michigan (1) 38, Clemson 21/Kansas State 42, Troy (8) 21/Washington 49, USC (5) 35/Alabama 44, Ohio State (4) 41/Tulane (6) 48, Florida State 45/TCU (3) 50, Tennessee 35/Oregon 52, UTSA (7) 28/Georgia (2) 31, Penn State 24

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Michigan 34, Kansas State 32/Alabama 59, Washington 31/TCU 49, Tulane 27/Georgia 31, Oregon 14

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Michigan 44, Alabama 28/Georgia 44, TCU 33

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Michigan 55, Georgia 49 (2 OT)

PLAYOFF MVP: Michigan RB Blake Corum

HIGHLIGHTS: FIRST ROUND- Will Shipley's 174 rushing yards and two TDs help Tigers ground Rockets; Wildcats' 335 rushing yards and seven sacks doom Beavers; five TD tosses by Michael Penix Jr. (on 26-34-385 passing) let Huskies advance over Bruins; Jahmyr Gibbs' five-yard TD run with 4:53 to go in third quarter wins it for Crimson Tide; Seminoles outgain Jaguars, 626-329 (484 yards belong to FSU's Jordan Travis); Hendon Hooker runs for 199 yards and four TDs (and throws for 349 yards and two scores) to lift Volunteers; Bo Nix throws for three scores and runs for another three to awaken Ducks after they trail Utes, 10-0; Kaytron Allen's three ground scores lead Nittany Lions to victory.

SECOND ROUND- Wolverines boot Tigers out on J.J. McCarthy's two rush TDs and two air TDs; Wildcats score 35 unanswered points after spotting Sun Belt's Trojans a 7-0 lead; Huskies' two fourth-quarter TDs oust Pac-12's Trojans in a game where Penix and USC's Caleb Williams fire four air scores apiece; Will Reichard's 53-yard field goal with no time left in the fourth quarter sidelines Buckeyes; Valentino Ambrosio boots the game winner from 34 yards out with 56 ticks to go in the fourth to lift Green Wave; Max Duggan's five TD runs (25 trips for 154 yards- twice as many ground yards as Vols) team up with Horned Frogs' eight sacks of Hooker to send Vols home; Nix' three TD passes and three TD runs foil Roadrunners; Stetson Bennett (two TD passes) and Kenny McIntosh (two TD runs) key Bulldogs' second-half comeback.

QUARTERFINAL ROUND- Corum's third TD and Donovan Edwards' second one lift Wolverines...who thwart a K-State two-point conversion try that would've tied the game with 50 seconds to play in regulation; Tide's Bryce Young outdoes Penix by running for three scores and throwing for another three (and going 23-24-313 in the air department); Frogs' strong defense (seven sacks) and Duggan's strong running (two TDs by land and two by air) overcome Green Wave; Bennett's three air scores (and rush TD) shoot down Ducks.

SEMIFINAL ROUND- McCarthy throws for three TDs and runs for another to let Wolverines advance; Bennett accounts for six scores (throws for three and runs for three) to set up a rematch of the 2021 title test.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME- Bennett and McIntosh help Dawgs rack up a 35-21 lead with 12:28 left in the fourth...but McCarthy and Corum lead Wolverines' comeback. Makari Paige's 34-yard scoop-and-score gives Michigan its first lead...but Bennett's 28-yard TD toss to Ladd McConkey (and the PAT) force overtime. Corum's eight-yard TD run makes Michigan the first team to win back-to-back "shoulda-coulda-woulda" D-1-A playoffs since USC in 2003-04.

Can't wait to find out if the Wolverines pulled off a three-peat in 2023!

I'd never been in a parade before...

Until 7-13-2024, that is.

Seen parades on TV and in person in the past...but I'd never marched in one until last week.

I'm on a couple of committees at our church, and one of the things we wanted to do was take part in this year's Heartland Pride Parade.

And I'm glad I participated alongside thousands of other people.

I mean, for all the many, many things that make us unique individuals, we're still one...we're still members of the human race.

Two milestones!

Within the last five weeks, two unexpected things happened in my online life.

I first got on YouTube in 2009; four years later, I started putting my own videos there...most of them turned out to be music videos (olay, me doing the music on most of them).

Nothing spectacular...nothing viral. For the next ten years, I was content with having 40-50 subscribers to my YouTube channel.

All this time, I'd wanted to digitize my VHS tapes...tons and tons of VHS tapes. And do it without tying up my TV set.

So...this past March, I sent in for a VHS-to-DVD converter in order to do the work at my computer. Then I started going through my VHS videocassettes to see which old TV shows I'd taped would be suitable to put on YouTube.

Well, late last month, after putting up six telecasts from the 1990s (one a rerun of a 1970s show), I received an email from YouTube saying I'd reached a hundred subscribers.

No, it's not a thousand...but I'm still very happy with a hundred.

In October 2019 (nine months after I joined Stage 32), I joined CJ Walley's outstanding screenwriting/TV writing platform, Script Revolution. (The philosophy was: "It really shouldn't hurt to get as many eyeballs on these scripts I've written as possible.")

At the time I joined up, I'd written four feature-length screenplays. I'm now up to 27 full-length scripts and a TV pilot.

I'm proud to follow 298 other Script Revolution writers...and I'm humbled to say that earlier this week, I gained my 200th follower.

Thank you so very much, YouTube subscribers and Script Revolution followers.

And I'm going to continue to try my best to come through for you.

Too close to call...well, I like to think so!

Screenwriting has kept me away from posting more blogs all this time.

Speaking of screenwriting...you can't really write a better script than the way this season's two NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments have been turning out.

Okay...I'm cheating...I'm typing this during the third quarter of the North Carolina State-South Carolina women's basketball game. But I'm still going to go out on a limb and make predictions for how college hoops' final six games of 2023-24 will turn out.

Here goes: WOMEN: South Carolina over North Carolina State, Connecticut over Iowa (but I smell a Hawkeye victory tonight over the Huskies), then the Gamecocks staying unbeaten at the expense of the Huskies...whose 2015-16 team was the last D-1 squad, men's or women's, to get through unscathed.

MEN: Connecticut over Alabama, North Carolina State over Purdue...followed by the Huskies taking the Wolfpack down on 4-8-2024 for a second consecutive title (something not done in D-1 men's hoops since Florida doubled up in 2005-06 and 2006-07).

But what a season it's been...especially with Iowa's Caitlin Clark breaking records left and right and Purdue's Zach Edey picking up where he left off.

And we're at a point in the season where any of those eight teams could win it all.

Well...time for me to get back to the South Carolina-NC State game. But before I go...I can't help but ask:

Which teams do YOU think will win it all here in 2023-24?

Take a good, good look...

That's right...take a good, good look at these photos...photos of some of Big Media's biggest powers at the top.

Netflix founder Reed Hastings...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav...

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts...

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish...

Disney CEO Bob Iger...

Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch...

Yes, I'm going to ruffle a bunch of feathers for saying this...but I'm going to say it:

If it weren't for (let's face it) corporate greed and for complacency at the top (in other words, the studios' tremendous reliance on movie franchises, movie remakes, and TV reboots), the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists wouldn't be out on strike. It's the first time since 1960 that both unions shut down.

Not all actors are wealthy. Matter of fact, the average California actor earned $27.73 per hour in 2022, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. And movie-TV performers aren't paid full-time year-'round. And, per a 7-17-2023 post on cnn.com on why the writers and performers are picketing, 12.7% of all SAG-AFTRA members make an annual salary of $26,470...the minimum amount that qualifies an entertainer for health insurance.

160,000 SAG-AFTRA members...11,000 people in the WGA.

I still think that there's more than enough money out there to satisfy all sides in the matter. How about you?

The strike must continue

The Writers Guild of America began its current strike on Tuesday, 5-2-2023...after a three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers ended. Weeks of negotiations fell through because the AMPTP failed to come up with a pact that would satisfy the 11,500 WGA members. WGA leaders sought to gain increased compensation for TV-and-movie writers, guaranteed duration of employment for writers who get gigs in the industry, better residuals, and (of course!) the assurance that human writers wouldn't get replaced by artificial intelligence. Streaming has become a major factor since the previous WGA strike. Because of streaming, residuals for writers have become less frequent...and smaller, too. We've now got minirooms (with only a few writers instead of the usual seven or more), shorter seasons for TV series, and no rerun residuals for countless series. The money's there to give WGA writers what they want. Writers would've gained an extra $429 million per year had AMPTP leaders come through for the folks who cook up scripts. Instead, AMPTP bigwigs offered an annual increase of $86 million. Some people have questioned the WGA's decision to shut it down. One of them's even on the creatives' platform I joined in January 2019. If you've questioned the first writers' shutdown since 2007-08, think about this: Shows like "This Is Us" and "Abbott Elementary" wouldn't have come on the air if somebody hadn't thought them up...and movies such as "Avatar" and "Tar" came about because someone wrote a script. And why shouldn't writers be compensated decently for what they come up with? They've got bills to pay, too.