May 2023 Current Events: Which Side Are You On?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > May 2023 Current Events: Which Side Are You On?

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

WA state governor Jay Inslee not going to seek fourth term. I thought he was doing a fine job, not perfect but competent & solid on environment. GOP ran a nobody in 2020 who got trounced, but I�m always worried a weak Dem and not obviously insane GOP candidate in a red year nationally could make WA the next Wisconsin, came awful close in 2004 by like 200 votes.

# ¿ May 2, 2023 03:34

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 09:28

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Arrath posted:

Having just given a big raise to teachers seems like an easy way to cruise to re-election, too. I'm surprised at his announcement.

Yeah, maybe because he�s 72? I was bummed his 2020 presidential primary went nowhere, he would have been good. Although if any WA politicians were to be president I�d want Patty Murray. Dang, just checked she�s also 72. Maybe Inslee leaving is intentional action by Dems to make room in prominent but pretty safe seats for the next generation? Lol, nah.

# ¿ May 2, 2023 04:07

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Cythereal posted:

In Florida news,

https://twitter.com/theplumlinegs/status/1653366284854214657?s=46&t=LuWlVigXSHv3TXi-WVRPYA

Lol it�s a soulless MegaCorp scientifically designed to break brains & extract wealth from cradle to grave, and don�t care about making their park employees sleep in cars or forcing laid off employees to train their replacements, yet enjoys incredible public goodwill. Maybe not the best choice for a feud?

# ¿ May 2, 2023 16:23

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

CBJSprague24 posted:

Maybe this will come up with some original Hollywood ideas as opposed to endless spin-offs and cash grab Marvel and Star Wars movies.

Because I'm not sure I will ever understand the people who created or watch Young Sheldon.

Those are just modern versions of cheap vaudeville, familiar stock characters doing simple things that occupy an audience for half an hour without requiring thought or engagement. Very few entertainment options on that scale, especially when they need to appeal to different cultures & languages, are going to take risks or challenge the viewer. Why do you think the Guardians of the Galaxy are always dancing or the Mandalorian is outnumbered but might just find a way to win for the 30th consecutive episode?

I�m just glad there is still oxygen for niche stuff like I think you should leave or Garth Marenghi, without being required to have a large audience to exist.

# ¿ May 2, 2023 21:25

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Crab Dad posted:

Reminds me of the time I went on a date with a little person who pounded 4 shots of whiskey and started a bar fight all within 15 minutes. About the same blood level I'd guess.
No we didnt go on a second date.

Oh dang, not fun to learn bar fights aren�t like movies where an orangutan breaks bottles over heads, way more likely someone falls on a curb and now has back pain that never heals.

bulletsponge13 posted:

A soldier I served with was a habitual Drunk Driver. He got away with a lot because Iraq was kicking, and he was good in the field.

Two years later, he was sentenced to 10 years for a DUI killing a College Professor in GA while he was assigned to be an Airborne School Instructor.

Two lives lost, two families ruined, two fathers lost to their kids. I told my Platoon mates that if any of them got a DUI, I'd catch an Article 15. There was literally no loving reason to have it happen in the Army. There are literally 25 people you could call, or just have CQ pay for a ride.

Yikes. Had a nice college prof whose mom, wife, and daughter got unlucky with a drunk driver coming from the other direction & he lost three generations of his family, and the drunk�s 8 month pregnant wife also died. The drunk lived of course.

# ¿ May 7, 2023 19:14

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Crab Dad posted:

It�s only comical because nobody really got hurt.
She declared she had to piss and dragged me to the door of the womens restroom and left me at the door. A few second later I heard screaming and I opened the door and she was squared off against two normal sized women with one of her heels in each hand. Before I could step in the bouncer, a giant Samoan I happened to have gone to high school with, dragged me out and demanded to know what I was doing. He mentioned he didn�t like dealing with girl fights so I dug a crisp Hamilton out of my wallet and said my girl is the short one. He took it and just walked up to the other pair and grabbed them by the hair and caveman dragged them to the side door then flicked them outside. He offered to escort us to my car. Best $10 I ever spent.
Took her little belligerent rear end home and we never spoke of it again(she was a coworker).

Whoa, good use of $10

# ¿ May 7, 2023 21:46

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

facialimpediment posted:

Yeah, that's probably why:

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1656078257416986626?t=8K0FJpO077sUNT24A6KXMQ&s=19

Although I'm not sure if Biden can just say "hey, I'm doing this now, come stop me" (your post) or if he has to first file some kind of lawsuit against Congress first (my post).

It still pisses me off that Senate Democrats were too big of weenies and passed on permanently killing off the debt ceiling last year.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1656021428955754496?t=UYK5xkZriHJ-R-ATmpw8Hw&s=19

He likely really needs glasses, but won't wear them because "I'd look weak", and so $5m he pays for having a vain puddingbrain

Oh yeah wasn�t that the conclusion when his handwritten notes are in giant font, and that he does wear glasses when he thinks cameras aren�t on him?

# ¿ May 10, 2023 01:16

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Milo and POTUS posted:

You want that to happen like a week before the election so we can get max humor and Desantis won't have the time to build momentum

We already got him a few weeks before an election on video bragging about sexual assault & not only did it not make him lose, his wife & evangelical VP stayed loyal. Keep him as far away from everything as possible.

# ¿ May 11, 2023 05:35

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Discussion Quorum posted:

Good Eats was like 90% of my early cooking instruction and that's exactly why it clicked with me.

Kenji Lopez-Alt is a good resource along those lines nowadays.

Oh yeah still annoyed last I checked there was no easy way to get classic Good Eats on a streaming platform. Such a relaxing educational show, I liked the books too.

Once was at Costco when they had Alton Brown for a book signing and the line was into the parking lot. I saw a sign that it was starting at like 11am and watched as on the dot he started on time and was happily greeting fans.

# ¿ May 11, 2023 19:06

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

armpit_enjoyer posted:

All I know of Magneto post-1990s is just him going around the globe murdering Nazis like he did in that one movie. Did they gently caress that up somehow?

In X-Men Apocalypse there�s a scene where he�s taken back to Auschwitz to get really riled up for the plan to, I dunno, float around the pyramids or something? It�s a clunky scene in a bad movie that was surprising they left in. He even destroys the buildings for no reason, at the time the movie is set in the early 80s it had been a museum for decades and a world heritage site.

# ¿ May 16, 2023 22:10

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Not great how in some states & districts they trend so far in one direction that elections are meaningless and they become lifetime appointments with zero accountability. Fundamentally the problems go far past Feinstein as it�s absurd a region ultra populous & with a colossal economy has half the senatorial delegation of the dakotas.

# ¿ May 19, 2023 13:52

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

facialimpediment posted:

One of the reasons why a January 6th-type event is less likely than it used to be:

https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1659551635096453123?t=iCdq-fs39E5OSqpad_rLJw&s=19

Lot more watchdog-type people taking a look and going "hmm, maybe the police department's proud boy liason should've been checked out to see if he was actually a proud boy or not".

https://twitter.com/AndyBCampbell/status/1659556928547168261?t=ZLbaSRIQybsTGxGGKCr9rA&s=19

I�m out of the loop but is there a reason groups like this that make and act on elaborate plans to attack the government haven�t been classified the same as ISIS, with membership being reason for immediate arrest? I know they have some protection from shithead members of Congress but would have thought once we�re at the point of Romney running down a hallway & the VPs� secret service detail being ready to open fire on insurrectionists, it would be ok to start freezing bank accounts.

# ¿ May 19, 2023 16:01

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

facialimpediment posted:

The non-cynical answer is that the First Amendment is a motherfucker. You can be an out-and-proud KKK member and not get into legal trouble until you cross the magical "true threat" doctrinal line. And until you can indeed prove that a group is doing the whole "make and act on elaborate plans to attack the government", ain't poo poo that the government can do about it. Vociferous dissent is an American thing and it's really difficult to legally prove that the dipshit at the end of the bar saying "I'm gonna kill that guy" is making a true threat or being a blowhard.

The cynical answer is that those groups are already classified as something already: Republican primary voters.

Makes sense, thanks for info. Thinking about what would have happened to an OKC or NYPD cop if it was uncovered they had provided elaborate support to the federal building or WTC attackers.

# ¿ May 19, 2023 16:21

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Nick Soapdish posted:

Excluding Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota

Yeah I�m not following it closely but seems like Michigan Dems got it together & after winning immediately began rolling back terrible laws. I�m sure there�s more to it but glad they aren�t wasting time like Congress Dems in 2008.

# ¿ May 19, 2023 21:58

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

TheWeedNumber posted:

I never watched the movies so I just assumed it was a prototype bazooka or some poo poo. I need to watch em.

First one is iconic, third is sillier but still fun.

# ¿ May 23, 2023 19:13

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Midjack posted:

It's just an unpleasant movie. Instead of beautiful settings it's in a dark cave. It has a bunch of adolescent "huh huh look at this" gross outs like weird bugs and dudes belching while eating ape brains. Indy and the future Mrs. Spielberg hate each other and she shrieks for about half the movie. Short Round is kind of annoying too. Watch the opening until they get on the plane and then watch the mine cart sequence, the rest of the movie is poo poo garbage. If it weren't for Last Crusade the first would be remembered as a good movie with a lovely sequel that killed the series.

Yeah it�s frustrating especially as Ford was still in his prime, but going from Marion who was brawling and keeping up fine to a shrieking nothing was a terrible downgrade.

On the plus side led to Ke Huy Quan and Ford having a nice moment after Quan�s Oscar win.

# ¿ May 24, 2023 03:04

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

ThisIsJohnWayne posted:

Indy 2 has extreme divorced dad-director-writer energy and it's way worse than OK. It's not worth watching imo

On that note, Robocop is one of my favorites & I finally got around to watching the sequel. Well, I bailed after 15 minutes. Everything was wrong wrong wrong. This director made Empire Strikes Back?

# ¿ May 24, 2023 05:45

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

ThisIsJohnWayne posted:

He'd be your Zelensky. Realtalk I kinda want that for you's

He�s low key smart as heck, he�s read a ton more than I have:

From 2002:

quote:

Meet Jackass the Sophisticated Dude; You Want Rowdy and Moronic? Johnny Knoxville Is Poised and Bookish, if You Please

Mr. Knoxville sipped a 1999 Baron'arques. He folded his napkin on his lap. He chose the correct fork.

He murmured ''merci,'' after the waiter, in black tie, recited the menu du jour to him in French. He took a polite bite of the house specialty cuisses de grenouille and did not spit out his escargots or gargle his ris de veau.

The much-concussed 31-year-old drama-school dropout, who was knocked unconscious by a 320-pound professional boxer named Butterbean in one segment of the movie and strapped rockets to his roller skates in another, prefers Flannery O'Connor to Hemingway (''too macho'').

quote:

When asked about Amsterdam, he described the Van Gogh Museum, not the legal marijuana bars. ''Pot makes me dizzy,'' he confided. In Paris, he prefers the Rodin Museum.

Giuseppe Tornatore's ''Cinema Paradiso'' and ''A Face in the Crowd,'' a 1957 film directed by Elia Kazan, written by Budd Schulberg and starring Andy Griffith and Lee Remick, are two of his favorite films.

He apologized for being late and confessed he jumped out of his limousine and ran nine blocks to avoid being any later.

quote:

Mr. Knoxville's shamefully bookish side has been a closely held secret. Midway through the meal, a middle-aged gentleman at the next table, taking furtive advantage of his elegant companion's retreat to the ladies' room, leaned over and said how much he and his nephews had enjoyed ''Jackass.'' Mr. Knoxville looked pleased and grateful. When the man said he had seen it in Albany, Mr. Knoxville nodded appreciatively and tossed out a name that sounded like Jimmy Fallon.

Asked to explain that ''Saturday Night Live'' comedian's link to Albany, Mr. Knoxville looked down and diffidently explained he had actually said ''Billy Phelan,'' a principal character from the novelist William Kennedy's Albany cycle.

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/04/...&smid=url-share

# ¿ May 25, 2023 16:59

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

pantslesswithwolves posted:

Better Knoxville than Bam. Everything I�ve read suggests that most of the Jackass crew ended up being good dudes- Wee-Man is beloved by his neighbors, Steve-O got clean and helps other people in recovery, etc. Bam is a huge piece of poo poo who recently was filmed drunkenly yelling at his family in a restaurant and had a warrant out for his arrest for assaulting his brother, IIRC.

Yeah glad Steve-O got it together. He had an interview where he mentioned everyone wanted Bam in the newest movie & all he had to do was not come to the set bombed out of his mind & couldn�t manage it. Even Tom Sizemore stayed sober for Saving Private Ryan.

# ¿ May 25, 2023 19:58

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Lol dang, I was surprised when I had OpenAI write a scene where someone is cursed to only be able to speak in Weezer lyrics, then did googling & found �I'm the kind of guy who will never settle down, where pretty girls are well, you know that I'm around!" and "I'm a punk rocker, but I'm also a scientist, I'm living in between the real and the surreal!" aren�t actual Weezer lyrics. Could have fooled me.

# ¿ May 27, 2023 16:34

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

In WA state they finally managed to enact a capital gains tax on high dollar amount transactions, after years of our plutocrats kicking and screaming and even involving the state Supreme Court. Let�s see how it�s going:

quote:

Early figures suggest Washington could bring in $849 million in its first year of collecting the state�s new capital gains tax, potentially sending hundreds of millions more than expected to schools across the state.

State lawmakers passed the 7% tax on the sale or exchange of stocks, bonds and certain other assets above $250,000 in 2021. It has faced legal challenges, but got the go-ahead from the state Supreme Court in March.

The Legislature passed a budget based on earlier projections indicating Washington could collect $248 million in capital gains tax payments in the 2023 fiscal year, which ends July 1.

Instead, as of May 9, the state has collected $601 million more.

quote:

But if that amount holds roughly the same it could mean significantly more money going toward K-12 schools, early childhood education and building and repairing schools.

The first $500 million collected from the capital gains tax annually goes into the state�s Education Legacy Trust Account, which can only be spent on public schools, said Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, the chair of the Senate�s budget committee.

Any excess above $500 million goes into the state�s construction budget, specifically for school construction projects. If the $849 million figure holds steady, more schools could get help with their construction projects, Rolfes said.

So that�s good news, I think the elites can spare it.

# ¿ May 28, 2023 16:53

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Mustang posted:

Do you have a link to the article that's from?

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/was-new-capital-gains-tax-brings-in-849-million-so-far-much-more-than-expected/?amp=1

It�s paywalled so I was reading it through the KCLS library�s free portal

# ¿ May 28, 2023 19:19

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Qtotonibudinibudet posted:

iirc from Zubok's Collapse, not very. the Soviet military industry was relatively efficient and produced goods that could find foreign buyers. the rest of Soviet industry not so much

Gorbachev bungled economic reforms horribly between waffling between competing advisors' reform proposals and slow-rolling changes. Chernobyl was also a massive economic hit at an already tenuous time

political reforms also contributed significantly to the growing power of individual SSR governments (Yeltsin in particular) and the loss of confidence among conversations party elites that led to the coup attempt

the Bush government at least did not want the USSR to split, since it was a known quantity

A small part of that I recently learned was when microchips were becoming a critical component for defense & well, everything, the USSR�s usual approach of copying western designs & making them internally simply didn�t work with the technology, as by the time they got a chip & reverse engineered it, it would be a few years out of date. That combined with the complexity of manufacturing advanced designs even if they had the plans was a huge issue.

# ¿ May 29, 2023 04:05

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

A friend�s work buddy is so absurdly bad with money he feels made up, so you can rest assured that when his third kid was about to arrive & he was already in debt up to his eyeballs he travelled two states to adopt three horses. I guess they hang out near the shipping crate in his yard used for their candlemaking side business.

# ¿ May 29, 2023 17:05

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 09:28

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

golden bubble posted:

Crossposting from A&T

Whoa those are interesting thank you for sharing. The slowness in confronting Germany pre-WWII was terrible but makes more sense in context with the horrific waste of WWI especially in France so the survivors weren�t thrilled to hear about why there was a call to fight again. The low motivation for Americans makes sense in a conflict where a treaty between Russia & France means thousands of New Zealanders must die fighting Turks because of a poorly thought out British diversionary plan.

# ¿ May 30, 2023 22:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > May 2023 Current Events: Which Side Are You On?