It wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but still, I’m satisfied.

You see there’s a bit too much plot. Too much story. Whereas the setup is what made the first season great, the relationships, the establishment of the landscape.

But the second season starts with a not so convoluted plot and you think you’re watching network TV, which is anathema, and then the soul of the series starts to shine.

The marriage of Kate and Hal, Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell, this is what we lack in most productions, an honest relationship. When Kate finds out Hal has been planning an over the top extravaganza and hasn’t clued her in on the details, she insists he sleep in the other bedroom.

I’ve lived this relationship. You know, where you have an argument and one or the other ends up sleeping on the couch. Thank god I’m not in that relationship anymore. I want my relationship to be bedrock, I don’t want it to be in question, I don’t want to go through every day wondering if a breakup is imminent and my whole life will be derailed.

Yet Kate is thinking of divorcing Hal.

And Hal knows Kate was about to sleep with David, the Foreign Secretary.

People know more than TV lets on. When Hal squeezes David to come to Scotland because he almost slept with his wife… That’s what you’re watching this series for, truth.

Not that this is the truth of the foreign service. In other words, the job is not as dynamic and thrilling as it is in this fictional depiction. Kind of like being a lawyer, which is oftentimes the most boring gig on the planet, but if you watch “Perry Mason”…

As for the issues at hand, the destabilization of the entire world, with an election looming within which our entire nation might be destabilized, it’s hard to get hard for some Russian doing dirty work akin to Prizgozhin. Now in real life, Putin took Prizgozhin’s life. But just like Bezos and Sion-Shiong are afraid to piss off Trump, the entertainment industry is afraid to piss off Putin so we’ve got this fakokta plot about Scottish secession that is just hard to get concerned about. Of course, the ultimate reveal, the ultimate payoff, is kind of worth it, then again, the last two episodes redeem the entire season, with the main plot points established, we can get back to the personal interactions, which make “The Diplomat” so great.

Keri Russell is 48, can you believe that? And here she plays against type, with her less than perfect hair. And when the VP brings this issue up…

And Russell can’t see the benefits of being married to Sewell, they have to be pointed out to her, which is the case in so many high-powered relationships, people are so focused on what they’re doing that they’ve got no perspective.

And the truth is if you live long enough you learn that you don’t get to the top by accident. I read that Kamala Harris took a briefcase to class at Howard. We would have laughed, but we aren’t running for President, we’re just at home pontificating. You’ve got to have sharp elbows, you’ve got to keep your eyes on the prize in order to have a chance to make it to the top, and odds are you won’t anyway.

And Kate and Hal are a typical power couple. Working their relationships, better in public than in the bedroom.

But when Kate says her marriage may not always work but it’s got a certain magic that sometimes does, that solves big problems… That’s the essence of the two of them, with no kids, with career and power key, sure there’s love involved, but in some ways their coming together was more like a merger.

And there’s the constant tension between Kate and Hal over the latter usurping her power. Can a man with experience be number two? And the strange thing is, in reality he’s doing it all for her. Then again, if it benefits her, it will ultimately benefit him.

And Allison Janney as the Vice President is perfect. She seems detached, like a classic #2, but slowly her power and manipulation shines through, as well as her need to get the right result, irrelevant of how you get there.

Morality. Choices. These are addressed well in this series. The truth is everybody at the top has to do things that are hard to live with. It takes a special kind of person to be able to live with themselves after taking these actions, can you sleep at night? Most people want to. But the “winners” are willing to be haunted, to compartmentalize, to march forward.

And favors are traded and the issue arises… To what degree are our governments telling us the truth? I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but when you watch “The Diplomat” you wonder…is the public out of the loop?

Russell holds the whole thing together. She plays against type. She doesn’t trade on her looks, but her intellect. And she occasionally gets it wrong, but she lives to be in the game.

We finished season 2 in two days. We started watching a series on Apple TV+ that I don’t want to talk about, because you’ll tell me what happened, and still we won’t get to the finale until Friday.

Which is why Netflix owns streaming television. The blueprint is there, yet all the competitors think they know better. They’re watching their dollars, MAX cut foreign production, they’re dribbling out product trying to create water cooler talk…that ultimately doesn’t occur. When was the last time someone brought up “The Old Man” to you? There was the premiere and then crickets.

Once again, we live in an on demand culture and if you don’t give the public all it wants, right away, people will go elsewhere. You can’t employ a twentieth century playbook in a twenty first century world.

And they never would have made this exact series for network.

And they never could have made “House of Cards” for network, not even pay cable wanted it. But that one series built Netflix. And further chances solidified it. No one can predict success in entertainment. And you can have the best intentions and still fail. Which is why you’ve got to take a lot of chances in different genres/fields. Something the record labels refuse to do.

Where do they go next with “The Diplomat”?

This is not “Ozark,” this is not “House of Cards,” maybe it’s the underlying comic tonality, the gravitas is not there. But let’s be clear, compared to the mindless drivel purveyed by the usual suspects, “The Diplomat” season 2″ is great.

If you liked the first season, watch the second.

It’s only six episodes. Enough to tell the story. You’re not bored, and you’re left wanting more.

I’m looking for a series that can intrigue me every night. Too often producers calculate how to appeal to the lowest common denominator, the widest audience, and the bland result appeals to few.

“The Diplomat” is trying. And it isn’t failing.

And in television, THAT’S A SUCCESS!

https://t.ly/4qyHV

This is a tough book to read. But I recommend it to anyone who needs to know that they are capable, that all they have to do is declare themselves competent, jump into the pool and act.

We expect this in entertainment. People come to Hollywood with no portfolio, only braggadocio, and they gladhand, puff themselves up, lie, intimidate and make it to the top.

But it’s not supposed to be this way in traditional business, is it?

Of course you should read this book for the definitive insight into Elon Musk. But these people starting companies in Silicon Valley, we see them as He-Men of the Universe, when oftentimes they had little more than an idea, or got to the Bay Area and cooked up an idea, and then convinced VCs and others to fund it.

And it’s not only the founders sucking on the tit. There are the banks, the lawyers… You too can do it, you’re as good as they are. Put your fears aside and step forward.

So what we’ve got here is a company with broad influence that is challenged financially. One could argue the world ran on Twitter, but that did not make it a gold mine. Everybody knowing your name is different from being rich.

Who could steer Twitter out of the wilderness? The golden boy creator back for a second time, Jack Dorsey… Or an engineer… Or was the task impossible?

Where was the revenue to come from? Advertising was not enough, where were the other revenue streams?

Meanwhile, there were thousands of employees, and all the attendant costs of running a major corporation. Twitter was a lumbering giant.

Until Elon Musk came along and cut it off at its knees.

So I followed the story of Musk’s purchase of Twitter very closely. I didn’t see a reason to read this book. But then when they got into Musk’s personality, his emotions, his choices, I couldn’t put it down, it called out to me, I just had to plow through it.

Musk had no idea what he was doing. He thought since he used Twitter, he could run it.

Even more astounding, he purchased the company with no due diligence. NO ONE would do this. But his bankers and lawyers and chums went along, because after all, he’s ELON MUSK!

So Musk lives for positive feedback. And can’t handle criticism. And believes he is unfettered. When the remaining Twitter employees tell him the company needs to file FTC reports, under the privacy consent decree, it doesn’t bother him a whit. He’ll fight and sue and do whatever he wants, he’ll stand up to anybody in the world. And sure, we can feel this in the news, but when you get right down to the real nitty-gritty…

The government is no match for Elon Musk. All you have to do is believe you can compete, and the truth is you can, assuming you’ve got the balls.

So Elon comes in and cuts costs.

Have you been following his statements ] recently? How Elon would act as Trump’s efficiency expert? That’s one of the best parts of the book, the endless layoffs, the endless reduction of costs. Too much rent? LET’S STOP PAYING IT! Yup, they’d wait until they were evicted. And then in Boulder they shipped some flat screens and servers to Musk, and sold everything else in a yard sale. As for layoffs… Paranoid Musk was unjustly convinced there were people on the payroll who weren’t working, he asked people to opt in to keep their jobs, even though just the opposite had been agreed to by his team, that you checked the box if you wanted to LEAVE! Mass confusion ensued, and people who had no intention of leaving, who did great work, were fired anyway, just because they didn’t understand they had to check the box.

Covid taught me that it’s a miracle the country runs at all. I thought someone was in control, but this is patently untrue.

And it’s the same in business. Regulation, schmegulation.

And you’ve got the kiss-asses, trying to keep their jobs with Elon.

And then there are those who need their gigs for the health care, or their visas.

You’ve put a decade into a company and you’re fired overnight. Maybe because you just didn’t deliver Elon an easy fix for his problem, even though one didn’t exist. How much pain are you wiling to endure to keep your job?

If you want a novelistic business book, one that cuts like butter, I’d recommend John Carreyrou’s “Bad Blood,” about Theranos.

If you just want story, “Character Limit” doesn’t shine. It does not have you on the edge of your seat.

But maybe the comparison to Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes is apt. She just said she knew what she was doing and raised millions and never ever delivered.

That’s all it takes.

I’m not saying there’s no skill involved at all these companies.

I’m just saying that my mother always told me I wasn’t the one, that someone else was the expert. Reading this book, I’m convinced otherwise.

As for the political implications…

Trump doesn’t read, never mind books. Musk is addicted to his phone, he rarely looks at a computer. They’re both so busy doing that they can’t think, see the big picture.

And that’s where the money is, the success. It’s in the thinking, the idea, the ability to assess the landscape.

So do I think this book will affect the outcome of the election? Not a bit. But if Trump wins, it’s a blueprint.

As for Walter Isaacson’s hagiographic biography…no wonder it was such idolatry, Musk reeled him in, asked him for business advice, AND TOOK IT!

Now you might think the two “Times” writers who authored this book were out to get Musk, but in truth Musk hangs himself, with his words and actions.

And if you’re someone who reads business books for tips, insights, I’d put “Character Limit” at the absolute top of the heap.

And if you’re someone who’s just looking for a job, to be part of the process…read this book and weep. You’re just a pawn in their game. Sure, the world needs worker bees, but it’s not run by them. 

You want to control your own life, you want to know the game, there are books that will tell you how to do it, which are really how the author did it, almost never replicable, but when you see the cast of characters in “Character Limit”…you can see where you fit in, or don’t.

And that’s very valuable information.

Tune in Saturday November 2nd to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

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Over 5%.

When everybody thought they’d go down.

I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max. Has a single person commented about it to me? NOT ONE! Because you can’t tell the difference physically, not unless you’re a super-student with excellent vision and you can zero in on the camera slide/button on the side.

So in a world where the exterior is more important than the interior, where it’s what shows is what counts, shouldn’t iPhone sales be DOWN?

Absolutely. That’s what all the Wall Street analysts said.

Now we can go deep into the details. Mention that the iPhone 16 was only on sale for a few days of the quarter, talk about mix of product, but… Absolutely everybody thought sales would go down. Another me-too product. Wait until 2025 for the great leap forward, with a new form factor.

But…

Actually, I expect the buzz on the iPhone 16 to increase. Because of AI. Which was just introduced to the public this Monday, with iOS 18.1.

Now if you read the reviews, each and every one of them said a day late and a dollar short. The AI introduction lagged the physical product by a month and right now it only does a fraction of what Apple says it will do eventually. Much ado about nothing, in fact.

Only that is untrue.

How much do I care about AI on my phone? Can’t say I really thought about it. I don’t need no summarization. However, I was stunned what I was delivered by the upgrade. Summarization of my most important emails at the top of the thread (which I turned off, because I’ve filtered out the junk and I live on e-mail and the content is just that important to me). All over the phone there are cool effects that remind me of…

Siri.

You remember the iPhone 4s, don’t you? It was a party trick, everybody who had one demonstrated it. YOU COULD TALK TO YOUR PHONE!

Not that it worked that well. But the iPhone 4s set sales records.

But the reason I’m mentioning all this, even referencing the iPhone in a world where the battle between Android and iOS is like red vs. blue, where the so-called elites don’t stop telling us to put our smartphones down is… If they can’t get it right on this, WHAT ELSE ARE THEY GETTING WRONG??

I’m sure you’ve been whipsawed by the election like me.

These Wall Street analysts live in the trenches, they get it right much more than they get it wrong. How could they miss consumer sentiment so completely?

In other words, has the momentum truly switched to Trump?

That’s what every Democrat has been afraid of for the last ten days. It’s what everybody is writing about. Nate Silver said he believed Trump had a better chance of winning than Harris.

My inbox has been freaking out.

And then there are those dyed-in-the-wool, this is where the right and the left are similar. Go against the orthodoxy and you’re excommunicated. If you say one negative thing about Harris you’re a hater who doesn’t understand the facts and must be silenced. It’s like no one went to college and learned how to hold two opposing thoughts in their brains at the same time. Or maybe they don’t teach that in college anymore, where the main goal is just to get a job, forget becoming a three-dimensional citizen.

So, let’s be clear, Harris has lost the mo. She peaked weeks ago, if not before that.

Then again, an incredible number of people have already voted.

Elon Musk is in the news 24/7 re Trump and Harris has no second on the left. It’s just Kamala and…

We just don’t know what people think.

On one hand, some say Harris has to win, because of abortion.

And then there are those who point to the Trump bros.

And one thing is for sure, Trump’s side has been trying to control the narrative with additional polls and endless pronouncements, setting up to challenge the results if he loses.

However…

What if the media has it wrong?

One thing the media has wrong is it thinks we still care. Hell, so many have already voted. There’s really nothing new being said. Enough already.

But every day there’s story after story, are the publications just playing to themselves? Let’s not forget, the media missed 2016, and to a great degree missed 2022 too, the Red Wave never arrived.

So…

We’re going to have to wait until Tuesday to find out, or maybe a while after that.

But if you’ve been pessimistic, thinking it’s over, know that you’re a victim of a disinformation campaign that has nothing to do with people voting.

And if people knew what they were doing would Jeff Bezos have refused to let the “Washington Post” endorse Kamala Harris?

Bezos was and still is out of touch. He had no idea who his customer was, I mean who’s paying for the “Post” to begin with? And now there is endless backlash, in excess of 200,000 have canceled their subscriptions.

All I am saying is it’s not over yet.

Furthermore, Trump has been losing momentum every day.

Then again, Taylor Lorenz pointed out that Harris is losing the war online because she’s gone short form instead of long:

https://www.usermag.co/p/trump-vs-kamala-whos-winning-online

Then again, Lorenz lives online and neither campaign team truly does.

No one has a lock on public sentiment, no one will know what people think until the election results are in.

AND THAT’S A GOOD THING!