Clueless Northman

Exactly my opinion when I read earlier this major league asshole was saying "Safety is overrated, if you fear any risk, you'll never leave your bed". Well, he got exactly what he deserved. With luck, this will actually help push people to consider safety. and actual risk assessment. Some parts of the right-wing (though not only there of course) seemingly love Nassim Taleb, and I guess he must have a field day reading about this deadly debacle. Still, thankfully for them, it's probably been a very fast death, and hopefully they didn't see it coming (at least not for long). Had the CEO not been in the sub - which proves, imho, that he was actually terribly dumb as well -, the level of cheap cost-cutting and the ridiculous way they approached tech and went for making big bucks for grotesquely low cost would've made me consider this an even more brazen "let's steal from my fellow uber-wealthy" scheme than Madoff's.

Yup, but after the crash, they were on solid ground, with water and could breathe air without any support. I hope this terrible accident will make people take more seriously the risks of going to Mars, and even moreso of setting up a Martian base, specially all the suicidal fools who signed up for that one-way trip from that dodgy firm some years ago. Because this is how they're all going to end: either dying fast in some catastrophe or dying slowly and horrifically due to some sudden illness, food, water, air or power shortage. I wonder if those who paid for that kind of trip were aware of this. Odds are that they were fed some bullshit. Still, the CEO was in the sub; he was sharing the risks.

No way I would enter such a thing. Way too packed inside, with no way out, no communication. Pure madness imho. Then, they paid 250K $$ to do that tour. Sounds like a way to scam the 1% that went horribly (and expectedly) wrong. Still, I hope they died suddenly and fast, staying there for several days in such small space before slowly dying like those poor dudes in the Kursk way back then, that's horrible.

Which is the case of all 3 kids - they're terrible and make stupid decisions and moves as soon as they're trying to grab the crown, whatever their few qualities. Thinking of it, they could've done decent work, had they all been senior staff level but not the top dog, working together for someone with real brain and vision, that could rein them in. Something possible only if they're not billionaires due to dad's pile of $$. Or maybe, as Hearofice said, they're all pretending to know stuff and faking it all, and by sheer luck they manage to hit it sometimes. Sure. Still, Tom is by far the worst offender when it comes to word salad, imho. It always made me wonder what he'd actually done before meeting Shiv, but I have to assume he did have some serious office position in some serious place before.

Was it WaPo or NYT who basically stated their own "anonymous" inside official sources said Ukraine did it? For the record, I'm 99.9% sure Ukraine wasn't involved at all - makes no sense, they definitely didn't have the means or know-how.

Believing these dudes is like believing Chalabi back in 2003 that all of Iraq would greet the American army with flowers and gratitude. Indeed. First US official reactions were basically "We don't know how it happened or who did what there around". Mainstream media is still in "we're not 100% sure about it". Though obviously Ukraine and Russia blamed each other from the very first hour, and some other countries and people put the blame on Russia. The US is more careful than it's usually been during this war not to accuse Russia without some kind of evidence (might also be due to the fact US media announced, the day the dam broke, that US administration is convinced Ukraine did destroy Nordstream, which could make the administration and media a bit more cautious for now). It took a full day before rumors of "US agencies have some kind of proof Russia is behind it" appeared, and I don't think it's already the official position of the administration. Sure, but I tend to think top Russian leaders are quite close to considering that area as genuinely Russian territory. Though that's not a guarantee of safety obviously. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if half the people living there were pro-Russia - at least thos still living there, many pro-Ukraine ones probably left in the last 15 months. Bottom-line: I don't think any side considers this area as more expendable, they both want it as part of their country (notwithstanding the international legal status of the Southern part of Kherson province).

I've seen Russians arguing Ukraine could've done it so that it could ship several brigades to the offensive in the East. This is it, it works for both sides, which is why that's not a valid argument - if one side can reduce troops in Kherson and send them elsewhere, the other side can do it just as well. No gain at all. If someone did it, better look for something that advantages only one side. That's probably Soviet exaggeration. But then this only goes for the dam itself, and Russia obviously didn't nuke it. The upper installations built on top of the bottom dam - bridge, power station, sluices and the like - aren't made to resist a major bombing, they will suffer just like any random building in any city. Would be interesting to see if the water level plateaus soon and there's still a sizable lake left or if the berach goes to the bottom of the dam, would be indication of the damages. Though the lock might be way deeper and, if destroyed, might allow flow of water that would drain pretty much the whole lake.

Thinking about it, it was interesting and a nice touch that, unlike previous board votes in which Stewy and Sandy were on the same side and voted the same way, this last time, though the Sandyis went for the money-making scheme, Stewy fully backed Kendall. Ewan doing the same confirms him as a family man coupled with a "prefer the devil we know" tendency, as seen previously when, in Season 1, he backed his loathed brother instead of helping Ken to take over: even though the Roy kids would be as bad as Matsson, if not worse when it comes to the politics Waystar would promote, he still sides with the family.

Both ending up basically fighting next to the CEO room and board meeting was icing on the cake. Heck, for a second, I wondered how far Kendall would go being pissed off at Shiv. And Shiv then backpedalling twice in two days. So, yeah, as Logan said earlier, those are not serious people, totally unworthy of being CEO, or of having any serious responsibility - heck, unworth of their wealth as well, to be honest. Heck, considering their cooking mess the night before, I was even wondering if they would all get sick and food poisoning, keeping them away from the board meeting and flawlessly delivering Waystar to Matsson - because yes, all three are that stupid (granted, Connor isn't much better but has the good sense of not wanting to go into big business, though his own stupid hubris pushed him to imitate his siblings in the world ofp olitics.

"You said it, man. Nobody fucks with the Jesus!"

Yeah, even Shiv's mom congratulates Tom but didn't say a word to Shiv, merely acknowledging her situation... Specially because that's not exaggerated fiction for show but genuine typical regular boss behaviour and reactions. Saw it happening live with my boss some years ago - "Oh ok, go" then "Wait, WTF do you think you're doing?" then apart "He's fucking dumb, he won't make it there, he had it so much better her around". As for the ending, Matsson very probably knows that the Old Guard, Logan's underlings, is fully behind the deal, so I can see him picking Gerri. Which would also be the best outcome for the company, imho. It makes sense that both Mencken and Matsson are going to stab their helpers in the back and betray their hopes for smarter options.

A movie I liked (and like) a lot. Great acting (with special mention to John Turturro). When a friend told me "Well, next one is a movie about bowling" I went into full WTF mode, but still decided to get on with it and see it when it was released. Possibly my best decision of that entire month.

It just hit me that I didn't notice any mention of Congress electoral results. It's like the American democracy is already dead to them, no matter what they claim. I'm going to assume it's a close call there as well with just a thin margin in favour of GOP. As for Shiv and her pregnancy, 2 things: - I suppose one of the reasons why even Tom is oblivious is because it's supposed to happen just a week after Shiv got her test results, in the show - results who came right after Logan's death, when his funerals are yet to happen there. Of course, in production / shooting timeline, it takes months, so we all can see the physical signs on Shiv (well, Snook actually). But that's probably not just the characters being blind and self-centered but also some attempt at internal chronological consistency. - Like Zorral said, I fear for her outcome. Not for her life as such, but if they want to wrap up most of the key threads of this season (and of the show, since the pregnancy is a major point in the entire Shiv-Tom relationship), then they might well go for a miscarriage in the next episode or the final one - though that would be quite harsh to have her character go through so much, more than her siblings obviously.

Yeah, I'm really wondering if Mattson, who can be quite unhinged and doesn't look like your model progressive, wouldn't actually have made some alliance with Mencken, and Mencken just used the Roys, all of them, before dumping them, allowing GoJo to take over, at best proposing Somalia ambassadorship to Connor, if any, and Shiv is left to be loathed by her siblings yet having no power over Matsson since at the end of the day he used her and it's Mencken who greenlights the deal. I'm getting a bit suspicious about Mencken's reliability and will to actually help the Roys/Waystar, what with his (too early) victory speech highlighting him not wanting collusion, wanting to be clean from corporate and business influences and the like. At least, this would avoid having to deal with months of ballots-counting before knowing which president will allow or stop the deal, when there're just 2 episodes left, since then it means both presidents would allow GoJo to pick Waystar.

Oh come on, that's just silly. You can have several sidekicks very quickly, after all - at least if you need what to do, so on 2nd playthrough (unless you're role-playing a lot and decide not to deal with some misaligned people.

Dunno. It seems that arguably self-made uber-wealthy people having utterly worthless and shitty heirs is a nearly universal outcome. Besides, the kids' mom is quite a piece of work as well, though in a different way than Logan (eventually, you'll see her). But yes, the series gets better with every season. 3rd one is really good and the 4th is way better imho, with top acting and tense and moving moments, quite rewarding - though as Zorral said, you had to get through 3 seasons to go there. And I'm with you all the way that Logan is the only Roy worthy of running the company. The other capable people are the non-family top guys (Gerri, Frank, Karolina and the like). The friend who gave me the 3-seasons boxset late last year told me that it's the series with the crudest language she's ever watched. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it surely comes quite close. Whatever, another amazing episode. I too wondered if Tom would stay on the good side of the balcony, and if Ken and Matsson would end up getting actually physical. And Tom and Shiv lobbing truthbombs at each other - while Tom being still oblivious to Shiv's actual state...

That means you'll have to focus on what's most interesting to your tastes. Looks like you'll have to see the Prado in one day - thankfully it closes at 8PM usually, and it's Spain so people eat at 9 or even 10 Thyssen is basically 1/3 of Prado in size and can be visited in half a day, I'd say; same for Archaeological museum. Speaking of Prado, since time is of the essence, it's wise to book it in advance, because odds are that you'll have a 1 hour queue when you'll go there. I had a less than 30 min queue in March, pre-covid, but when I went back in October 2021, the queue was far bigger. I don't remember other Madrid museums having such big crowds. Also, if you start in Madrid, it might be wise to take into account jetlag. It probably depends on people, but I have a far harder time when going East than going West (probably because I'm more a night bird than an early morning person). So I wouldn't plan visiting at 9AM the day after my arrival, if I go from US East Coast to Spain. For instance, I wouldn't try to visit Prado from 10AM to 20PM. I'd probably go for some sightseeing and wandering across the city for the morning after my landing, going to the Plaza Mayor, or Cathedral and Royal Palace, or Retiro Park. And if that's your kind of things, the Bronx Zoo is absolutely amazing, and quite huge. Possibly the best I've seen (granted, I've never been to San Diego).

Take an adapter for the continental Europe sockets - so that you can plug your phone charger and the like. Or you'll have to buy one there. Good thing the Alhambra is already booked. You need to do this weeks if not months ahead, now that tourists are back in droves and covid disruptions are over. Prado, Thyssen and Queen Sofia museums are the big ones for art in Madrid. Prado specially for Bosch, Goya, Greco and Brughel's Triumph of Death. Now, Prado can easily take an entire day to visit, if not more. Queen Sofia is purely modern art so if it's not your thing, you can skip it (Guernica is impressive but you usually have to queue to see it even though it's not "Joconde" bad). Thyssen is really top-tier, but unlike Prado isn't focused on Spanish painters; it has the kind of wide scope you'd find in Louvre, National Gallery (London's or DC's), Met, though on a smaller scale. If you want to see ancient stuff, as said, Italica near Sevilla would be interesting, but that depends how much time you can spend outside Madrid and Granada. Barring that, there's the really good Archaeological museum in Madrid - but that's not ruins, just artefacts and statues. (Sevilla's Archaeological museum is still under renovation from what I see) Still, if you have time for a side-trip to Seville, you also should spend half a day in Cordoba on the way towards Granada; the Roman bridge is still there (granted, it's not 100% untouched from 1.800 years ago but still) and the mosque-cathedral is great and not to be missed (just like Seville's one). All in all, I'd say 2 days might be enough for Granada proper, unless you want to be really thorough (of course, you can also go up in the Sierra Nevada another day), and Seville should actually deserve 2 days as well; you'll probably not be unlucky like I was, and won't have the entire Plaza de Espana closed and walled off because they have a big spectacle going on all the week's evenings. You'll definitely need more than 2 days for Madrid, obviously.

Oh dear, it worked so well with Dynasty at the time... Season 2 finale, Logan tells Ken he could be good and take over, if he actually were a killer, which he is not. Then Kendall, ordered to take one for the team, goes on national TV and directly accuses his father. Didn't even Logan acknowledge that Kendall acted as Logan would and might have a bit of a killer instinct? And eventually Logan decides that indeed Kendall is the better choice available and (sloppily) underlines his name. Still, I suppose it's with dealing with Maatson and the "old guard" and board meetings that we'll see if Kendall is worth anything really - because his killer instincts were there for a few days and then he fell once again for his self-aggrandizing pity bullshit. Tom's takedown by Karl was great, but all 3 kids deserve one - and a bigger one than what Tom said about them, however true. But I suppose Logan himself did a lot of that in earlier seasons, and the kids did it to each other from time to time. Whatever, great acting all around. They really nailed it with this season.

Impressive. Every season was better than the previous one, S3 already ended up amazingly, but S4 is still way better, imho (I know, standing on the shoulders of giants, that kind of things).

He was a complete jerk and what I'm going to state is also a failure at parenting on his part, but I've felt since Season 2 that the non-Roy-related people in the company (Gerry, Frank and a few others) are most probably the only ones truly able to run it without crashing and burning it, once Logan is out. When Logan gave his big speech to his Fox News minions, I was nearly expecting him to have another heart attack, considering how loud and boisterous he went. I still expect the show to end with him basically incapacitated or dying this way, whatever mess he and his kids come up with in the next 7 episodes.

You mean, all the speeches and writings in which he clearly states USSR and Warsaw pact were mistakes that dragged down Russia, that Warsaw Pact was massive overreach and overstretched Soviet forces, and that even USSR as such was ruinous for the most productive and wealthy parts, Russia to begin with? There's an irredentist streak which is obvious. He'd like to re-assimilate all Eastern Slavs in his new Russia - so Belarus, Ukraine and either vassalize Kazakhstan and Baltic States or annex parts of them maybe. He's not going to annex farther than that. Extending the "sphere of influence" to make sure former Warsaw Pact countries stay basically neutral is clearly not the same as annexing them, though it's already a big imperialist move. So far, I still consider the Baltics deciding to ship some of their very own weaponry to Ukraine to be the craziest decision of the war (only topped by launching the initial invasion, obviously). Czechia or Romania doing it, I can understand, but countries who are the most at risk, are neighbours and pretty much targets of the bear, and whose only defenses are NATO membership and a modest amount of military stuff as deterrence and actual defense, that's really out there for me. I might be too gloomy because I'm still pissed off - in the first days of 2022, touring the Baltics was basically my plan for summer vacation that year... It indeed looks like the whole NE offensive (Kupyansk-Lyman) was supposed to be a mere distraction from major operations in Kherson, yet it turned out the whole area had been hollowed out and only had 3rd rate garrisons, with far less troops compared to the Donbas frontline, which enabled Ukraine to take back the towns and even to push the offensive beyond several rivers.

I suppose he is fully aware that he's quoting the Swiss govt just before Credit Suisse crashed and burned. Is he actually signalling to clever people it's time to sell and get out of DB?

It was quicker because there just was just another single big bank around in Switzerland. Other options were government taking over, or splitting it up in several parts - speculative investment arm would go bankrupt in a heartbeat, local depots and wealth management would become a successful smaller bank -, or sell it to a foreign big gun, like Blackrock, Barclay's or Deutsche Bank (that one was a joke). Selling abroad would be another political suicide for the government. So they just had to nudge UBS by making an offer they couldn't refuse. In the US, there's half a dozen (or most probably a dozen) banks that could buy First Republic.

Based on current ethics, there's no debate that they way they treated Ellie was totally wrong. Then, the way Joel reacted and how far he went was totally wrong as well. As far as I'm concerned, I'd say specially how he shot the doctor in a heartbeat because he wanted to debate with him or didn't obey him fast enough - it's not just the killing, it's how quite ruthless and rushed it is. I also agree with Raja: both episodes should've been longer. This might be the first time I see a finale which is by far the shortest episode of the season.