Chairslinger

4 hours ago, outsida said:

 

His suit looks pretty “full” here..?

He really looks like a panel opens somewhere on his torso to reveal a Men in Black alien....

1 hour ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Man I look forward to Trump eviscerating this clown if he's stupid enough to run. DeSantis is an even bigger case of the emperor having no clothes than Trump is. He's a Rupert Murdoch creation that is basically an empty suit.

When people would say that DeSantis could be more dangerous than Trump because he's smarter I just laughed.

DeSantis is just as dumb as Trump, he's just less brash. Say less shit and more carefully and you are going to sound less dumb, usually.

He isn't smart Trump, he is just Trump without the charisma.

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

That only applies if you're Roman Catholic

Oh, I think personal revelation and whatever the hell their Pastor says on Sundays does the heavy lifting for most of Protestants, too.

Your average Protestant's understanding of what's in the Bible is about equivalent to someone's understanding of Grimm's Fairy Tales after watching Disney's Cinderella.

No, see, you're not supposed to actually read it.

You are just supposed to assert that within it's murky, unknowable depths lies the basis for your randomly cobbled together morals and world views constructed from your own personal environment and cultural upbringing.

12 hours ago, thewhyteboar said:

This meatball is cooked. He’s like a 15 year old dominating his little league but collapses at the first curve ball. This primary will be a massacre. 

It is fucking uncanny how the GOP goes from being Machiavelli when it comes to destroying Democratic opponents into being Charlie Brown with the football when trying to figure out how to sink Trump.

They seem to think they can tip toe past Trump to the nomination....

53 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

So, MSNB is already at “Maybe we shouldn’t put former presidents in prison”.

 

 

 

Laws for thee.

Yeah, why do these discussions always ignore the tiny little sticky whicket that the inverse means that being president means you can commit any crimes and get away with it?

This is an especially important point for Trump as he broke the law to help himself win.

So, much like his pardons for people who helped him win '16 illegitimately, are we saying we should just let him cheat to win, and then accept that the mere fact that he wins shields him from all crimes....including the ones he broke to help him win?!

Nothing slippery about that slope

18 hours ago, SoberChef said:

SO many emotional beats in this episode. LEGIT, now that TLoU is over, THIS SHOW is my most anticipated week to week (in all sincerity, after the inaugural episode of this season, I have felt this way but it only become more pronounced after watching this weeks' episode!) I absolutely got choked up & failed miserably at fighting back tears twice in this episode, those that  have seen will know which moments. JFC I don't know if I ever loved Trek THIS much or if the nostalgia is hitting me so fucking hard, either way I despise that this is the final season but what a way to go out right?

After episode 4 my opinion was basically that people need to stop worrying about whether s3 would be any good at all, and start considering how it might stack up against the best seasons of Star Trek ever. If it can end as strong as it started, I think I would put it up there somewhere with TNG s3-6 and DS9 s5-7.

18 hours ago, SoberChef said:

Also, let's give it up for Kirk Acevedo showing up as well, I've enjoyed this actors work since the first season of 'OZ', always awesome to see him pop up!

11 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

It just feels so good to have a season done by people who love trek and understand what made the cast of TNG great.

 

Also, Acevedo isn’t in nearly enough projects.

Has anyone else here watched the 12 Monkey's series? Terry Matalas was a showrunner for that, as well.

At this point s3 almost feels like an unofficial reunion for that show. Shaw, Sneed, and Krinn were all main cast members on the show(as was Picard's father from last season.). Really interested to see if Amanda Schull, Emily Hampshire, or Brooke Williams show up at some point.  Also, it is probably just convergent art/direction style from Matalas but the Red Forest from 12 Monkey's seems very reminiscent of whatever is happening to Jack, and tell me if this bad guy mask/outfit from 12 Monkey's doesn't look a little familiar......

And as a side note, that big guy behind Vadic is looking like he is going to be introduced next week(guess work from a close watch of some of the previews) as muscle. Looking like he might be the Beta to Vadic's Alpha. Will be funny if it turns out to be Tom Noonan as he played a similar role in 12 Monkeys and is also a very tall man.

To bring it back to what I said at the top. With such a strong start to the season I am pretty confident that we will get a strong ending. I think the endings for s1 and s2 were pretty good to begin with(the moments with Data and Q respectively are some of my favorites in all of New Trek....it was the getting there that had some questionable moments). Also, 12 Monkey's had a very strong ending, so that bodes well for the show, as well. Terry Matalas is giving me big Manny Coto season 4 of Enterprise vibes right now. I am really impressed with what he is doing and it should be a no brainer to put him in charge of at least one show going forward imho.

Lordy, there were more tapes.

Well, one more, at least.

Quote

A special grand jury that investigated whether Donald Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 election in Georgia heard a recording of the former president pushing a top state lawmaker to call a special session to overturn his loss in the state, according to a newspaper report.

 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday that it spoke to five members of the special grand jury who said they heard a recording of a phone call between Trump and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston that had not previously been reported and has not been made public. Ralston, who died in November, did not call a special session in the weeks after the November 2020 election.

Pretty impressive that they were able to keep this under wraps. I don't think even a hint of this has been leaked to reporters before now. 

I could see a valid argument about quibbling over lockdown, but the thing about Labour seems to be pure political coordination. 

Titan escaping the Nebula and hip checking the Shrike on the way out.....

That was a hell of an episode.

They really pulled off the tricky feat of making a great standalone episode situated within a heavily serialized season. You might miss a beat or two, but you could definitely watch that as a great standalone episode and appreciate it as one of the classic Star Trek Kobayashi Maru "escape" episodes like Booby Trap, Starship Down, Galaxy's Child, etc.

2 hours ago, Brian said:

I left my job after 15 years because I was tired of the excuses why my title and pay was not the same as my peers. They posted my old job at the pay and title I was asking for.  Fuck companies and management. 

For me it was that they would rather pay 2 or 3 people each the amount I was making rather than pay me a little more.

Hard to take the idea of a meritocracy seriously when you see such blatant examples of bad decision making based on pettiness and ego. By the end it almost felt like I was begging THEM to help me help them run their business better....

6 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

I mean, he had every right to kill Duras, he murdered the mother of his child, who Worf did love. Duras wasn't chancellor at the time, though, just in the running to be, so your theory falls flat. Only one chancellor. 

 

Also, killing Gowron probably saved the Empire. 

 

I'd like to find out what happened to his ambassadorship

 

I haven't watched the new episode yet, but the first two were very good. But then again, so were the first two episodes of S2. I'm very interested to see what Lore has to do with all this. I'm sure he's aboard the Shrike. 

 

But I dont think there was ever any question that Worf loves violence. He is a klingon, it's pretty much the standard. 

Third episode is as good, if not better than the first two. 

I don't think Lore is aboard the Shrike. In one of the previews before the season started there are some interactions with Geordi and Lore that makes me think that Lore might currently be a museum piece. It looks like maybe Lore is deactivated and on display somewhere. And he regains consciousness and starts blowing stuff up. Not sure where it goes from there.

Spoiler for ep3.

2 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

 

There's a handful of times that the show gets better, but it maybe gets to mid/late-Season 2 quality or Season 3 quality, never touching S4-S5 again, but that's only after they switch writers to someone competent that was clearly a fan of the show, and Kripke got (slightly) involved again. Don't ask me when the "real transition" actually happens, but I want to say it's maybe in the last 3-4ish seasons of the show. The finale it actually got is "fine", but the semi-downer finale from S5 would've been a near-perfect ending note, IMO. 

That Scooby Doo episode though... my god. 

I just rewatched X-Files and the two "reboot" seasons reminds me a lot of Supernatural after season 5. Which is to say that the ongoing mythology stuff is mostly blah. But the standalone, monster of the week episodes could still be quite good.

I went through the show back when only 9 seasons were out(I think) and then i had to stop and wait for a new season. My interest in the show at that point was so low that I just couldn't get back into it when the next season came out.

What I remember specifically is the lazy story telling of "Sam sacrifices himself for Dean then Dean sacrifices himself for Sam" ad infinitum. I was starting to suspect a meta storyline where they both were stuck in a Hell dimension since season 5 and were doomed to perpetually cause each other unending torment due to their loyalty to one another and the bad decision making that it necessitated.

7 hours ago, Jason said:

The heavy use of Hans Zimmer thwomp thwomp noises is not giving me good vibes for where this season is going.

 

I was initially put off by the very violent Worf entrance (thinking along the lines of that gratuitous Icheb scene from the start of season 2) but thinking back to DS9 I feel like it was probably actually accurate and that all that's changed is how explicitly violent they're allowed to make their portrayal of what's happening. Worf wasn't just thwacking baddies unconscious with that bat'leth in DS9 and they presumably just didn't have the budget for/weren't allowed to show him chopping heads off with it.

Yeah, one of the more glaring question marks for the Bat'Leth was the common move(especially in DS9) where they would use the center portion as an upward uppercut to the chin type attack. By all rights, unless that weapon is bafflingly dull at that section, Worf and others should have been shaving people's faces off like a bad Nick Cage 90's Action movie.

Also, my common response to Worf and how much he loves violence has went from flippant to almost conspiratorial. Check this out. Worf loves violence so much that he has killed 2 Klingon Chancellors, fought another one to the death. And been suspiciously involved in the death of 2 others. Which, unless I am miscounting, is literally every Chancellor we have ever seen depicted onscreen.

He murdered Duras when Picard was deciding whether Duras or Gowron should be  Chancellor. Then after singlehandedly handing Gowron the Chancellorship through his murder of Duras.....Worf killed Gowron. A year or two prior to killing Gowron, Worf fought the future Chancellor Martok to the death(and lost.....Martok declined to kill him). 

In hindsight, this regicide-happy individual may have not been the best person to be in charge of conducting the investigation into K'mpec's poisoning death(Worf totally unsuspiciously determined that his blood enemy Duras was the culprit).

My favorite though is that the one TOS movie where Micheal Dorn shows up and Chancellor Gorkon ends up murdered! Clearly a time travelling Worf was the one who actually stole the space boots......

Worf loves violence so much that he is the leading cause of death for, like, a century's worth of Klingon Chancellors. If I were Martok I would watch my back when Ambassador Worf is out Targ hunting with him.....

Obviously I am being facetious with some of these.....but the fact that Worf really did personally choose the last 2 Chancellors should probably motivate some election reform on Qo'noS......

13 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

So long as you don't remake the original LOTR trilogy, given how good Rings of Power turned out to be I'm down. Leave The Hobbit alone too, while not a great trilogy it's been done and it syncs with the LOTR trilogy well enough.

Yeah, that's the problem with the Hobbit. It's a relatively easier target to hit, but it's continuity with LotR makes it hard to try to match on a Tolkien playlist. Having Ian McKellen as Gandalf alone makes it a tough nut to crack.....

I think what you could do with the Hobbit is just do a complete departure from tone, style, and content of PJ's trilogy. Since the trilogy departed quite a bit from the book to be in line with LotR, circle back around and make a movie more in line with the book. Make a more whimsical and almost fairytale-ish version of the Hobbit. Make it one movie(as so many critics of the trilogy claimed it should have been). I can see the Hobbit, as a single "fun" film not replacing PJ's trilogy in a Tolkien rewatch.....but being a fun, quick side trip. Not to say that I would be particularly hyped for it, but I see it as at least a more feasible goal. And certainly more attainable than, say, a Lord of the Rings remake featuring Chris Pratt and Tom Hollins as Aragorn and Frodo 

My speculation on the show so far......

Crusher hid the boy from Picard because the association made her fear for his safety. Pretty good reason, too. Picard has so many enemies that one once fabricated a son for Jean Luc just so he could kill him as a way to hurt Picard. Also, Starfleet was kind of responsible for Jack being dead and Wesley winking out of existence for all she knows before he even hit 20. So, like a war parent who lost 5 sons in WWII, it might be understandable why Crusher isn't too gung ho on loyalty to Starfleet at this point.

After the first episode I was already heavily leaning towards the enemy being holographic, now I suspect it even more. We know Moriarty will be in this season which suggests something with holograms. What if the woman IS Moriarty? That would be no problem with holographic tech. What really made that click for me was how resentful she seemed about Picard and his brand new synthetic body. Both TNG Moriarty episodes revolved around him trying to get into the real world and Picard(from Moriarty's point of view) lying to him about how impossible that would be. Now Picard shows up in his new synthetic body....guess giving someone a real body wasn't as impossible as you made it seem Picard.

People were wondering why Beverly killed that person.....what if it wasn't a person? It might not have even been an individual hologram. It could have been Moriarty controlling a hologram on a mobile emitter. It would explain why they speak in clicks despite the UI rarely not being able to catch a language. All theatrics. In fact, all of her villainous theatrics at the end of ep. 2 were pretty reminiscent of Moriarty who himself is literally a villainous literary creation.

Would also explain why the ships are of unknown origin. All the way back on Enterprise we saw the tech to use holographic projectors to change how a ship looks. And, as per the first episode, why they come with "different faces" each time.

If you remember, Voyager really left holographic rights dangling out in the wind. The Doctor never got the rights Data did. Not even as a unique individual. They dabbled with the topic a couple times, but nothing even close to tackling the huge moral quandary that holodecks and holograms pose in a universe where someone like The Doctor exists. Maybe that's even how Lore ties in. We saw Lore try to hitch his wagon to the Borg at one time. Trying to become their savior and make them idolize him as the ideal goal of all artificial life. Maybe he is doing the same thing now with holograms.

Would be really cool if all of that buzz about a Robert Picardo role back around s2 was right, but just got it wrong on timing. If I am right about the villains, on top of the Doctor and Seven being the best duo on all of Voyager, it would be a really cool cameo to see the Doctor show up.

Also, I suspect Worf has been wanting to do that to a Ferengi since at least Looking for Par'Mach in all the Wrong Places. He may have beheaded Sneed, but he was fantasizing it was Quark.

I can think of few cinematic endeavors more futile than trying to redo the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

There is no way to match, let alone improve upon, the trilogy. It was lightning in a bottle. The perfect cast, at the perfect time, in the perfect situation.

I am trying to think of an analogy to express how bad of an idea it would be.....but I think LotR IS that analogy. There is literally nothing that would be a worse idea to try to remake.....

And that income is only a portion of money that makes up only one aspect of their dealings.

And it's not that all the other stuff isn't dirty, it's just that this is the only stuff we know about because it's the only stuff they have to report because Christian's don't really have to obey the law anymore.

But yeah, not to worry. If they are cheating with the financials that are actually reviewable I am sure the stuff that they know will never be scrutinized is on the up and up.

So if you thought the fine itself was an insult just keep in mind it's even way worse than that.

My first thought when reading this was a snarky, Onion-like headline. Something like....

"Netflix seeks to curtail account sharing by making content library extremely unappealing."

I get the feeling I am not the only one that basically pays attention to Netflix for Stranger Things and Cobrai Kai at this point. And not a great time for them that they are both on their final seasons.....

I think they should just be straight with the audience. Have Luanne and Lucky die in an accident of some kind rather then trying to work around Murphy and Petty being gone.

Have Hank and Peggy take in Gracie and raise them as their own. It would be the simple answer that made King of the Hill unique in it's good years. Would give the show a new dynamic, as well. They even had a thread in season 3 or 4 where they were thinking about trying for another kid.

I understand why they had to do it. Especially if we are still at the "there's still shit coming" stage of the scandal but this is definitely the kind of thing that will bug the hell out of me. Even if it does make sense in universe.

The show seems like it was kind of reaching series fatigue anyway, so not a huge loss.

10 hours ago, Jason said:

I guess Alito didn't want to fess up.

 

Supreme Court says it cannot determine who leaked draft Dobbs opinion - The Washington Post

WWW.WASHINGTONPOST.COM

---

The leak of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft opinion was an extraordinary breach of decorum and practice at the court.

 

8 hours ago, Jason said:

I mean, we don't have all the evidence that they do but it seems telling that when evidence surfaced that Alito had done this type of thing before that the extent of Robert's give a damn about it seemed to be, "Nuh uh, I askeded him and he said he dun do that".

Which is about equivalent to that frustrating moment halfway through a true crime story where you get, "But then came a break in the case as Martin Stabbingham's ex-wife came forward with a harrowing story of the night years earlier that he beat her up, threw her in the trunk of his car, and drove her to a secluded wooded area with a shallow grave where she narrowly escaped with her life by escaping into the woods. However authorities determined it had little relevance to the current case and so Martin would roam free for a further 5 years".

Hardcore History has an episode up; Twilight of the Aesir.

It looks to be something of a "sequel" to Thor's Angels. Psyched for this as Thor's Angels is one of my favorite HH episodes.

I've watched through it. Hard to say much without spoiling anything but I will say it's worth a watch through. It is a good show for what it is, but suffers most of the same drawbacks that a lot of the grey area, anti-hero shows that were all the rage in the '10's did.

4 hours ago, SoberChef said:

The beginning of the end of the company responsible for fostering the love & passion I have for pro-wrestling, truly a shame.

I always said the bit of understanding I had for Trump voters comes from how I feel about Vince. The two men are a lot a like, but I still have a bit of a soft spot for the guy because of what he did for wrestling and also the onscreen role he played during the Attitude Era.

That said, this has gone beyond farce at this point. Vince has looked physically terrible for years and his early 2022 time onscreen was like watching the sad last years of a punch drunk boxer. He could barely mumble his way through a fucking pre-tape.

Most of these rich guys with this pathological need to accumulate wealth do their damage in the shadows, but because Vince is in the public world of pro wrestling we get to see out in full view the sad and dangerous results of an overly ambitious billionaire who just does not know when to fucking quit. Vince is hurting himself as much as anyone else by coming back at this point.

You hear about some rich guys who want to work at their desk until the day they die and some aging wrestlers who would want to die in the ring. Vince seems bound and determined to do both.