mormont

I can just about see the relevance of the Brand accusations to UK Politics, if I squint a bit, but US Politics?

Also, Putin is not the only person in Russia capable of ordering a hit on Kadyrov.

That's dog racism, that is!

ETA - the 'dog racism' hashtag is the funniest thing on Twitter for weeks.

'Suddenly deteriorated'.

We've been banning various breeds of dog since 1991. It's not been a notably successful approach to the issue. In this case, it seems it's necessary to first define what is, and is not, a dog of that particular breed. I'm guessing few owners would have bought one if we hadn't banned other similar breeds. The response to banning this breed will be to buy similar dogs of other breeds. Because the root problem is that some folks just want to own this type of dog.

It's like trying to get rid of boy racers by banning particular makes and models of car.

Complaining that there's too much SW content is not an emotion I can feel. Sorry, not sorry.

The Lando movie, I imagine, is a situation where Donald Glover got fed up with it being in development hell and persuaded Disney to let him do it himself. He has the chops: he was the showrunner and producer on four seasons of an award winning TV show, after all. I'm not convinced it won't be a theatre release: Disney have taken bigger gambles.

1 hour ago, SeanF said:

There’s a lot of bed-wetting about labour shortages pushing up wages in the UK, right now.  Which misses the point that capitalism depends, for its survival, on enough people having a stake in the system.

Yeah, been saying this for a long time. The issue is that capitalism rewards success, but that becomes cyclical, because the best way to win is to have a head start, so being successful leads to more success. Unregulated capitalism will therefore inevitably become unsustainable. What people like the guy in the clip forget is that capitalism not an unmutable law of how the universe works, it's only a social construct, a set of rules we all agree to use. If those rules aren't benefiting enough people, they will refuse to play by those rules. Changing the rules has enormous costs and is very difficult by design - but it's not impossible. History has shown us that economic and political systems can and do change. 

I'm sort of raising an eyebrow at the stereotyping and inverse snobbery, tbqh. 'Elderly well off toffs'? Is that who we imagine is in the LNotP audience? 'Middle aged middle class types' perhaps.

Thing is, it's not about whether Russia could conquer Poland or any other NATO country tomorrow. It's about the fact that there seems to be a genuine mindset among the senior echelons in Russia that this is a desirable goal.

Victory in Ukraine cements that mindset and those people in power. If they achieve that, they will start to believe they can do more. And even the attempt would be catastrophic. We, meaning NATO countries, would directly be at war with Russia. Every drawback of the current conflict to us, every economic and political impact, would scale up massively.

If this is genuinely what the Kremlin wants to do, it's absolutely vital to NATO countries that Ukraine wins, and wins definitively.

45 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

It's possible that the lack of anything building on the sequels has been just because Disney hasn't wanted it, but I find that hard to believe they want nothing considering how much other content they're churning out.

The alternative is that despite this being one of the biggest media properties in the world, one that internationally renowned creatives line up to work on, nobody has had a single idea inspired by characters that are extremely popular among younger fans. That's just silly. If there's no published material in a SW time period, it's because the publishers don't want to publish material in that period.

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Eight years since TFA and barely a peep. No side stories about the Knights of Ren, nothing about that weird alien lady from TFA (both of whom seem like Abrams intended them for expansion tbh), no interim stories about how the New Republic fucked it and let the New Order rise to power.

There are indeed such stories. Comics, novels, games, everything.

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Maybe I'm just projecting because as a wishful thinker/wannabe writer I've had many many many thoughts about stories that I think would work around the PT but none for the ST.

I think so, yeah.

[mod] Just to bring a side argument to an end:

Rape analogies are rarely if ever necessary or justified. Avoid them if it is at all possible to do so, and 99.999% of the time it will be. If you use one and someone says it was offensive, apologise rather than trying to justify a poor choice. That's just good board etiquette. Thanks. [/mod]

10 hours ago, polishgenius said:

The prequels are dogshit in themselves but they created unbelievable amount of space and interest for people to tell other stories in the universe. The sequels did the opposite.

I'm not sure there's any solid evidence for either part of this assertion.

2 hours ago, Ran said:

I think Lucas is kind of one of those all-time idea guys, but you have to sort through a lot of dross to pick out the gold.

I think also that the difference between a good writer and a great one is the ability to recognise the dross, either yourself or when an editor or collaborator points it out. Lucas struggled with that.

Look, I don't agree with Musk, but I do agree that he's perfectly entitled to a view that attacks on Crimean soil are something he wants no part of. The issue here is that it shouldn't matter what a private individual thinks, but in this situation it did.

I've been forthright in my views about Ukraine reclaiming Russia (and been criticised for it) and in my criticisms of Musk as an individual and a businessperson. But I'm not seeing a legitimate criticism here. He was entitled to refuse this. I wish he hadn't, but he had the right.

1 hour ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

 If he grew a conscience, why not, I dunno, take the side of the country being invaded?

Musk's always had a conscience. He just deploys it very selectively.

6 minutes ago, Relic said:

Gotta love how this series makes no sense haha

It never really did make sense. Star Wars as a property is all about the visuals and the feelings and the cool shit, not about being coherent. 

I very carefully curate my timeline, so I don't see a lot of the neo-Nazis etc. But there's no denying that a lot of the folks I did follow, have left. And that's a noticeable change. 

It doesn't have any free speech for those who have been driven off the platform by harassment. 

2 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

I maintain that there was simply nothing left on the table for JJ to do with Ep 9 that would tie it together as an actual saga, other than bringing Palpatine back. Regardless of where you land on Last Jedi, for me its worst crime is that it forgot to be part of the saga, it wanted to be its own movie and not a sequel to either TFA or anything that came before it.

Genuine question to those who hated Palps coming back; what would you have done with Ep 9 that would’ve been a fitting conclusion to the 8 films before it?

You're proceeding from a false premise here, because Last Jedi definitely sets up the last part of the sequel trilogy. It gets Snoke out of the way and leaves the final conflict to be between Kylo Ren (and Hux) and Rey (and Poe and Finn and the rest). 

And this is correct, and better than what we got, because the nine films as a whole are not about Palpatine. It's not Palpatine's story. (Which is one reason why having Rey being descended from Palpatine is a bad idea.) They are the Skywalker saga. And they start with Anakin, but the way TLJ sets it up: Snoke gone (he was always a distraction at best), Kylo Ren having rejected redemption, Rey being shown to be nobody, not related to the Skywalkers or Palpatine - a final film could have brought the Skywalker saga to an actual end with the death of Kylo Ren, the last remaining Skywalker descendant*. The SW universe could have continued with characters that don't have to tie in to the Skywalker saga all the time, characters that can be powerful in the Force just because, where ordinary people can do extraordinary things instead of because they are The Chosen One.

That's what TLJ sets up for episode 9. And that's what would have been a fitting conclusion in my eyes. Closing the Skywalker saga, and opening a vista of possibilities. 

*OK, apart from Leia, but Leia was always going to die in the last film too. 

2 hours ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

That said, as a force ghost having to hang out with Anakin when you're Yoda would be really, really shitty. Imagine spending all eternity with that asshole. 

'Force ghost you are, yes. But grant you the rank of Jedi Master, we do not.'

5 hours ago, Ran said:

Did he say he hates his trans daughter? Because if he didn't, then yeah, it's a conspiracy theory.

Per the original excerpt in WSJ, her estrangement from him is the second most painful event he's experienced as a father (the first being the loss of his first child. Nevada, to SIDS), and he still makes overtures to spend time with her and be part of her life, but she rejects it because (according to him) she sees him and other capitalists in his class as evil.

It doesn't sound like he hates his daughter at all. He hates her politics and that it has led her to cutting him out of her life, and he blames that on her schooling in an exclusive progressive private school and on social media.

Come on now. The 'conspiracy theory' HoI is referring to is not about whether Musk hates his daughter, hates her politics, or she hates him, or whatever. It's quite clear that by 'conspiracy theory' he means the idea that Musk bought Twitter because of his daughter, which Musk is explicitly saying he did. (It's not true, as others have pointed out. But he said it.)

You're trying to split hairs here over a minor correction.

14 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Still not watched the show, but talk of that ending made me curious so I had a look and man I really hope that Star Wars isn't still pretending

 

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that multiple genocide-committer and personal slaughterer of children younglings Anakin was redeemed coz he didn't want his son to die. The brief snatch of Imperial march makes me slightly hopeful they'll engage with that notion, but ultimately I'm not confident.

 

I mean, this has been the situation for the last forty years. 

I don't think it's a 'conspiracy theory' if Musk actually said it.

Now, you may want a good source on this, because it's so insane, so I'm quoting and linking to the speech direct:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/minister-jenricks-statement-on-illegal-migration#:~:text=Those lawyers found to be,immigration offenders on weekly flights
 

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Last month we announced the Professional Enablers Taskforce, which will increase enforcement action against those lawyers and legal representatives, who help migrants abuse the immigration system.

Those lawyers found to be coaching migrants on how to remain in the country by fraudulent means will face a sentence of up to life imprisonment.

Life imprisonment. For giving dodgy immigration advice.

You can commit literally any amount of burglaries (provided you don't go armed) and never get a life sentence. You can defraud a pension fund of any amount of money and never get a life sentence. You can launder money for a drug smuggler for decades and never get a life sentence. I could go on.

Yes, I understand that it's unlikely that this would ever be a default or even common sentence for this proposed offence. But the idea that this government is willing to stand up in Parliament and declare something that is, at worst, professional malpractice to be a crime equivalent to the most serious offences on the books - murder, armed robbery, rape, kidnapping - is fucking nuts.

A new low, even by the breathtaking standards of this absolute clown show of a government.

2 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Someone needs to tell Elmo that “Truth” is an absolute defense to defamation suits.

I'm sure his legal team have told him this, and equally sure that no such lawsuit will ever materialise.

The point is not to actually sue. The point is to try to scare the ADL off, and signal to the bigots that Musk has their back.

23 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

Seems to be mainly due to the equal pay compensation claims

To the poor management of those claims by the council, at any rate.