Ranxerox

5 hours ago, Ragitsu said:

 

Oh, socially speaking? Yes, we've moved the needle left in a number of ways. I'm not ungrateful that people have put their reputations and lives on the line to ensure that the everyman isn't going to be discriminated against if they are gay or possess a skin tone darker than Morticia's Addam's...er...you know what.

 

The economic factor troubles me most. It is a trifling matter for a modern day politician or business to chant about diversity and "We're all in this together" and all that fuzzy-wuzzy kumbaya type pablum. No, what happens is that the social inequality which is invariably tied with dire economic straits gets focused on...but it's just the one angle: one facet. Minority populations (ethnic minorities, to be clear) that have been chronically disadvantaged for decades aren't necessarily going to get ahead if all you do is you tell people they're equal to everyone else. You can eradicate a good portion of this malignance if you address the underlying rot instead of dousing it with gallon upon gallon of perfume before declaring "Mission accomplished". "Socially liberal but economically conservative" (or any close enough description) quickly becomes a self-evident contradiction once you recognize that the latter attitude hinders or even outright reverses reconstructive attempts based around the former.

 

 

I agree.  For our corporate overlords, greater rights for LGBT and racial and ethnic minorities are cheap consolation prizes to hand out as they tighten their grip on our nation's money and power.  The ever growing income income divide that separates the rich from the rest of us has gone from being an disturbing and odious reality to an existential threat.  The climate scientist of the world have let us know that quick and drastic action is required to prevent the worst possible affects of climate change from coming to pass.  Yet, still the billionaire class and their political and media flunkies resist efforts to address climate change because to address it might in the short run make them a little bit less wealthy.

So we agree about the problem.  The question become how to solve it.  With the largely unfettered privilege of the rich, our current age if often likened to the Gilded Age of the late 1800s.  It was the 4 year depression known as the  Panic of 1893 that strengthened the Progressive Movement and allowed for the election of a Republican controlled House and Senate (back when Republicans were still kind of the good guys) and Teddy Roosevelt.  Although Teddy was born into wealth and supported corporations, he did believe that federal controls were needed to curb the excesses of corporations and extremely wealthy.  From this desire, Roosevelt's Square Deal was born.

I think that Biden might want to be Teddy Roosevelt (after all what US president doesn't want Teddy), but I don't really think he has the charisma to pull it off. He might surprise me though, or maybe in 2024 or 2028 we might get president that is up to the challenge.  It isn't enough though to get the right president. Republicans are no longer the good guys, and both houses of congress need to be flipped for any sort of progressive agenda to be passed.  Right now the electoral drubbing Democrats took in 2010 still weighs against that.  It gave Republicans control of state houses across the country in time to allow them to draw the electoral maps following the 2010 census and gerrymander the districts.  

With the 2020 census we have a chance to redraw the congressional maps, if we can win back the statehouses.  The current gerrymandered maps make that a tall order but not impossible.  The trick to gerrymandering is to win as many districts as possible with the fewest possible votes.  This is accomplished by creating a handful of districts which your opponent wins by landslide while creating bunch of districts that you have just enough voters to reliably win.  The downside to this is strategy is in sea change elections you can loose almost everything because you have created a large number of safe(ish) districts and no truly safe districts.  We need to make 2020 a sea change election, so that once we get our Teddy Roosevelt they have a congress willing to pass the Square/New/Green Deal.

tl;dr - If it bothers you, forget the White House. Just make sure that we win the state houses.  

6 minutes ago, GM Joe said:

 

I appreciate your perspective, but I've had this conversation too many times already.

 

Besides: not the point.

I appreciate the too many times already statement.  I think we all feel like we are stuck on wheels that we can't seem to get off of right now.

However, while it wasn't your main point, it was something that you threw into your post and a statement that I have heard of a lot.  Normally, when i hear statements about party elites and/or the media, I let them pass rather than wasting my breath refuting them.  This time I didn't.  

8 minutes ago, Ragitsu said:

 

I'd like to think Bernie Sanders' supporters favored him because of his policies and wouldn't unquestioningly obey him merely because he spoke.

Yes, and that was my point about the followers of Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Beto O'Roarke, Steyers and all the other centrist candidates that left the ring.  With their first choice gone they could have turned to Sanders.  They knew who Sanders was. They had plenty of opportunity to see him in the debates. He had ran advertisements in both new and traditional media.  Still, despite know Sanders and his positions, they decided picked Biden over Sanders.  They looked at Biden's policies made a decision that  better or at least more realistic.

4 hours ago, GM Joe said:

<snip>

I Every time someone even mildly progressive starts to gain traction in the presidential race, the party elites and media unite to put and end to their campaign.

<snip>

And how exactly did that happen this time around?

It seemed to me that that it was the voters of South Carolina, not party elites or the media, that put an end to Bernie Sander's campaign.  Prior to the South Carolina primary, there were a lot of centrist running on the theory that Joe Biden was a weak candidate and that they could steal centrist vote from him.  After South Carolina, it became apparent that beating Joe Biden wasn't as easy as they thought and that none of them were really up to the challenge.  Maybe party elites encouraged them to leave the race, but they would not have done so if the voters of South Carolina  had not made it clear that there was not reason for them to stay.

After the hoard of centrist candidates left the race, their centrist supporters chose Biden and not Bernie.  Yes, the candidates endorsed Biden, but such endorsements aren't binding.  If they were, Bernie Sander's supporters wouldn't be wrestling on whether to vote for Joe Biden.  After all, Bernie has endorsed Joe so the matter would already be decided for them.  But no, voters decide for themselves. On a national level in head to head competitions, a majority of Democrat voters prefer Joe Biden to Bernie Sanders and always have.  It was only the split field with so many centrist vying for the moderate vote, that ever made it look like the American people might feel differently.

A Biden Presidency Could Be Better Than Progressives Think

27 minutes ago, Mightybec said:

Half days for those who want to be here.  About a week before working from home, they spread us out all over the building for the required space.  I got my own office...  a 5 by 6 meeting room lol.

Hey, maybe you will get your office back!  You laugh at it but 5 by 6 is more space than I can claim where I work.

19 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

 

I know.  But that was deaths, not new cases, and that correction was, I believe, April 2nd.  That's the day they went from 509 deaths on the 1st, to 1355 a day later.  The death counts per day since have never been below 500...and 3 of the 5 days, have been over 1000.  

 

That's the other factor that makes me think it's possibly just very bad communication on their part.

Well, maybe like the deaths of the people in nursing home they had a group of positive screens they had not been reporting in their numbers and they belatedly factored them in.

1 hour ago, Mightybec said:

We may be able to work from the office for half days, starting next week.

So, what is the plan?  To have half of you work in morning  and the other half work in the afternoon to permit social distancing?

15 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

France....something's weird with them.  There's a MASSIVE spike on the 3rd...23,000 cases reported.  That's 3x any day around it.  Last 4 days, the approximate new case counts have been 7800, 2900, 5200...then over 11,000 today.  And that kind of reporting pattern shows up in earlier data to a degree.

France was not counting Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes.  Once they decided that deaths of old people are still deaths, they did a correction where they brought in bunch of nursing home deaths from previous days.

My top 10

1. Bruce Banner (Marvel Cinematic Universe): 90%
2. Leonard Hofstadter (The Big Bang Theory): 85%
3. Samwell Tarly (Game of Thrones): 84%
4. Nog (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine): 84%
5. Flynn White (Breaking Bad): 84%
6. Abed Nadir (Community): 84%
7. Glenn Rhee (The Walking Dead): 84%
8. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski (The Wire): 84%
9. Elsie Hughes (Westworld): 83%
10. C-3PO (Star Wars): 82%

To be honest, of those character that I am familiar with I can't really argue it much.  Though of MCU characters while Bruce Banner is a good choice, I think Scott Lang is a better match for me.  However, since he wasn't listed anywhere on my list, I'm thinking he is not one of the options.

1 hour ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

Nobody is allowed in her building except residents -- everyone is a senior citizen and the entire complex is effectively under quarantine.

 

Believe me, if I knew anyone in her building I could call I'd call them. The building management may be able to check on her in the morning.

 

Hopefully it's just a problem with her phone, but it's hard not to fear the worst at a time like this. Too many people are leaving this life alone these days.

Shoot. That is hard.  Were I the praying type I would pray for you and your mom.  As is I have my fingers crossed for both of you, and am hoping that it is just a technical difficulty.

2 hours ago, Spence said:

 

Well for those of you that liked it I hope it does well. 

But RT ceased to be a real source of info years ago.  Now they hype whatever they are paid to hype.

So I hear from some circles, but at least where the professional reviews are concerned, the number are the numbers.  You can go read the reviews in the original publications.

Also, I have watched BoP twice and enjoyed it both times. So, I have no difficulty believing that it would get 78% favorable reviews. 

Hmmm, I have noted that Birds of Prey at the top of RT's popular streaming movies list.  It cost $20 to stream it, so maybe it will wind up making a profit after all.  This thought makes me happy, because while I don't necessarily want a sequel with Harley Quin, I really liked BoP's Huntress, Black Canary and Renee Montoya.  If BoP acquires enough of a fan base, maybe they will set Batgirl, whenever they get around to making it, in the same universe.

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

The rush to put up attention-grabbing headlines before anyone else does, instead of fact-checking before publishing. I can hear a host of American journalists rolling in their graves.

 

If the media want the public's trust, they have to show they're earning it.

Some news sites handled it better than other and got comments from the senators involved before going press.  Ultimately, the quality of the news you receive varies widely depending upon the source you get it from.

11 hours ago, Iuz the Evil said:

At a local level, the emotional response is absolutely off the hook. I have zero (0) local cases, community transmission or otherwise. Schools just closed to April 14. Events closed through April, which will be absolutely devastating to the tourist based economy. Nonprofits closing to March 29. 

 

Okay, fine. Shut it all down. Whatever makes people happy. 

IIRC, you live in Sacramento.  I live a short way away in Modesto and work in a hospital lab.  At our hospital we have about a dozen rule out coronavirus cases.  Of the cases that we have sent out for testing, none have come back positive.  But here is the stinger, only three have come back so far.  We have been forced to send them to the health department for testing, and the health department has been incredibly slow getting back results.

I suspect that Sacramento is in the same boat we are, full of hospitals with lots of possible coronavirus cases and waiting on slow to come test results.  IOW, don't be surprised if the number goes from zero to a lot very quickly once testing ramps up.

5 hours ago, slikmar said:

I will have to check that out. I really enjoyed his Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes series.

Cool. I never heard of Jasper Fforde before listening to Early Riser, but now that I have I am interested in trying our some of his earlier stuff. 

Just finished listening to Jasper Fforde's (no, not a typo) book Early Riser.  It is set in an alternate Earth which is colder than our own an most people in the Northern Hemisphere hibernate during the 4 brutally cold winter months.  Our protagonist, Charlie Worthing, is not one of the hibernators.  Charlie has taken a job with the Winter Consulate where he must contend with brutal cold, zombie like nightwalkers, unimaginative but aptly named Villains, the mysterious winter folk, and the nefarious HiberTech corporation.

This was an enjoyable listen.  Even though this is British satire, the protagonist is not a twit.  Charlie is generally likable, and while he starts off extremely green to the job, he learns quickly.  Also, the world building is extremely neat.  It is filled with details both amusing and surprisingly sensible for people who spend 4 months a year hibernating.  

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

1 hour ago, slikmar said:

Saw it today. I enjoyed it. It was the movie I thought would be and many moments had me chuckling in the same way Ledgers pencil trick did. I found it fascinating watching McGregor channel Oldman's cop from The Professional as Sibonis. I echo Gale's disappointment in the Cassandra character and would have liked seeing at end Montoya become a version of the Question.

I think they may have been hinting at that with Renee's mask at the end of the movie, but I didn't get a good enough look at it to say for sure.  If I go back for a second watch, I will pay more attention to it.

7 minutes ago, Spence said:

 

I personally think that Rotten Tomatoes adjusts its ratings.  All of its ratings.

In the past I could ask around locally and get about the same opinions as the audience rating.  But these days the more the entertainment site and so called audience rating sites try to whip up interest the worse the movie seems to be. 

 

Yes it s just my opinion, and we know about opinions

It has let other big budget, Warner Brother movies have crappy audience ratings.  Why would it do any favors for BOP?

21 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

Opening weekend domestic box office:  $33,010,017.

 

That is garbage for a modern superhero flick.

True, but it has a very solid audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so presumably is getting positive word of mouth. Scott Ruggels take on it not withstanding.  Also, really it his no real competition in the action genre for the next month.  So it may be able to stay in the theaters long enough to break even or even make a profit.

6 hours ago, Badger said:

So, she liked before she saw it?

 

oookay

I think she was just saying that she like trailers and the director and cast interviews, and that is fair.

Gail Simone's thought on the Birds of Prey movie

1 hour ago, Cassandra said:

Let me get this straight.  They are remaking a movie that came out four years, but without the box office appeal Will Smith.

 

They are really out of ideas.

No, it is getting a sequel in August of 2021, but nobody associated with the production has said anything about a reboot.  Though, it new director, James Gunn, may choose to not honor every last thing from the 1st movie and they have already said that Margot Robbie will be dressed differently than the first movie.

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a837989/suicide-squad-2-cast-trailer-release-date-plot-news/

Just got back from seeing it.  This movie is the cinematic equivalent of twinkies drizzled with chocolate; absolutely no nutritional value but still fun.

Harley Quinn, Renee Montoya and the Huntress all made it onto the screen pretty much intact. All other characters are clearly the DC cinematic universe versions and share little in common with comic book counterparts.  Personally, I was willing to accept them as elseworld variants and enjoy them on there own terms.  YMMV.

I had a lot of fun at this movie.  Despite having a large ice tea right before the movie the movie I made no trips to the bathroom.  I always wanted to see what was going to happen next, so I just held it.  I would be willing to watch this movie a second time if I had someone to see it with.

👍👍