I liked it too, Zooey. Very important film. I think its flaws are far outweighed by its message, the quality of acting, directing, etc.

(Not a fan of the epilogue, but that’s a minor quibble for me)

The negative reviews? I think they miss the mark, pushing too much for “subtlety” when we’re drowning in it, at least when it comes to the big issues of the day. It’s as if certain powers that be decided Americans can’t handle the truth, so we have to spoon-feed them indirect indirections about massive crises, and that indirection, IMO, actually makes it far easier for the right to jump in and gaslight the masses directly. Ironic, aint it?

The film was great at showing this, and I think it was plenty subtle when it came to not naming at least two serious crises while suggesting them.

Anyway, I think it’s a must-see movie. Nathan Robinson posted a defense of the movie over at Current Affairs:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/12/critics-of-dont-look-up-are-missing-the-entire-point

I think that was one of the best team wins the Rams have had in a decade.

I could claim that I called this before hand, that I predicted the Rams would rally around the Horns and overcome the major losses due to injuries and Covid. I could just say I knew it! But, um, well, that would be false. In reality, when I heard about the last-minute losses, I couldn’t help but think of the likely lineup as something akin to a third exhibition game, with players “on the bubble” vying for a roster spot. It all seemed far too dark for me, but I watched the game anyway.

And, then it happened. The D stepped up big time. Great plays, especially, from the Front Seven. The O played great, including the call-ups at TE. Stafford was on fire, as were Kupp, OBJ, and Michel, and the line was stalwart.

McVay called a really good game.

Echoing WV, what couldn’t they do this when they were at or close to full strength?

Spoilers ahead, for those who want to watch the series but haven’t.

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I liked the introduction of the new Black Widow from the movie, and, before that, Kate’s attempt to help Hawkeye have a decent holiday time away from his family. Obviously, quite the contrast. But it worked for me. Knowing why BW wants to kill Hawkeye is key.

Still not exactly sure about the timeline, though. Don’t know if he’s missing Christmas with his family or if he’s about to. One of those “Be home in time for Xmas” dilemmas, etc. Seemed like the last two Avengers movies, using much less time, established a better connection between Hawkeye and his family. The series hasn’t utilized that yet, IMO.

Anyway, decent fight scenes, but a little bit dark. As in, not enough lighting, perhaps borrowed from GOT. Overall, seems to need a lot of fleshing out to rev up the intrigue. Doesn’t pull me in as quickly as Loki or Falcon/WS.

Still hoping they resurrect Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones.

Has anyone tweeted yet about McVay obviously reading my posts, finally, which led to his adding multiple sets like six linemen and extra TEs?

;>)

Quick caveat:

There’s an argument to be made that people who use capital to make capital are capitalists too. Those who skip right over the “make commodities for money” part of M-C-M, at least in a sense. But they trade stocks in companies that still produce commodities for money, so they’re not really escaping the M-C-M equation. Crypto-traders come closer to bypassing the C in M-C-M, cuz they’re almost literally just trading money for money. Though the trading structure itself requires workers, commodities, etc. etc.

To make a long story short, “capitalism” is the most elitist and exclusive “club” the world has ever known, when it comes to economic systems. It’s appalling how capitalists and their PR folks have managed to convince so many people that it’s “natural” and supposedly benefits everyone. It’s appalling that I saw so many “farmers for Youngkin” signs this past election. Youngkin was the CEO of the Carlisle Group before he entered the race.

I read the transcript. The video seemed to stop early.

A few observations: Stahl likely makes eight figures, and works for people who make nine or more. She isn’t going to tell the truth about capitalism, which is why she seemed intent on trashing China’s attempt to rein in its evil.

Capitalism killed off “free markets” on the way to becoming world hegemon — violently, thru slavery, genocide of Native peoples, and the mass theft of their lands and resources. I wish people would stop using that term as a synonym for it.

There is nothing capitalism produces than can’t be produced by a non-capitalist mode of production, and for far less, and with far better pay for the rank and file. It baffles me that so many people think that if we replace capitalism with economic democracy, suddenly all innovation dies and we’re living in caves again. Actually, the vast majority of innovation due to capitalism has been in the realm of squeezing more profits from workers, not in production of beneficial goods and services. Those have always come from the public sector.

No extra value is ever added by paying management or ownership hundreds of times more than the rank and file. In fact, and this is too obvious, all of that money hoovered up to the top radically reduces values for consumers, and dramatically suppresses rank and file wages. A company that pays its workers roughly the same amount, and its team leaders and management slightly more, has a ginormous amount of extra cash to invest in higher quality production, wages, etc. etc.

Every Bezos, Gates, or Musk is a horrible drag on the economy, on productivity, on consumer value, on wages, and inequality kills overall consumer demand, not to mention morale.

America has got to be the most gaslit nation in history, especially when it comes to capitalism, and we weren’t always that way. We used to know it was a terrible, immoral system. People just figured, “Well, we’ve got to make the best of it, right?” But roughly from Reagan on, that common sense/fatalism was replaced by a kind of religious devotion to a lie. No major party has the guts to tell the truth about it, tragically.

Agamemnon,

Is that site/link safe? No malware, etc.? No computer issues as a result? And can you watch the games “live” or just after the fact like the NFL Game Pass?

So far this year, I haven’t purchased any additional services to watch the Rams. They’ve been on TV often enough to enjoy, so I probably won’t. Yesterday, watched a few key drives (close to “live”) via the NFL Network channel, and I was okay with that. Late games are fewer in number, so the rotation between active games wasn’t so bad.

I miss the NFL Sunday Ticket, but gave up on it a coupla years ago when I could not longer get it for free.

Thanks in advance.

Agree with all of that, Zooey. What we should do, and how difficult it is to get there, etc.

Major frustration for me: Europe clearly gets far better results on all the matters discussed here. They have better health care, for half the price. Lower infant mortality, lower birth-mother mortality. People there live longer, happier, healthier lives. Heck, they even have lower incidences of abortions and SDTs due to their far more open sex ed, etc. On pretty much every quality of life metric, they kick our butts. Yet our “leaders” refuse to move in their direction. Quite the opposite, of course.

I know you know this. It also frustrates me that Europe is far from being “radical.” If only. They’ve had a mix of conservative and social democratic governance since WWII, but for too many Americans, they’re wild-eyed and “far left.” Ironically, social democrats there want to go much further and can’t seem to make that happen. They, too, are all too often jammed by conservatives.

(Personally, I think social democratic reforms, even if implemented fully, fall well short of what the world and planet earth need. Martin Hagglund speaks brilliantly about all of this in his This Life.)

Anyway, we’re so far from even half-way decent realities, and slipping further and further away by the hour . . . When I think about it, I hear the Stones “Paint it Black” again and again.

At least the Rams ended their skid.

Well, ya see . . .

So far, I think it’s missing the best of Marvel elements: myth. I’m partial to Asian geography in that case, because of the obvious martial arts aspects. But it can be anywhere. Then again, Marvel doesn’t always make that work so well, with, perhaps, the best (worst) example being the Iron Fist series. In 2021, it’s very difficult to stick the landing, culturally. Movies like Shang-Chi, which I really liked, except for the kinda lame dragons, don’t have to go through so many potential gauntlets to just be themselves.

If memory serves, Hawkeye as Rodin has the geography, but not really the cool origin myth. Maybe memory doesn’t serve.

I’m willing to listen to alternative views, but I wish Marvel had chosen Black Widow to survive Endgame instead of Hawkeye.

(I haven’t kept up with the comics themselves since I was a kid, so I don’t know how far the movies and series veer away from them . . .)

Zooey,

What’s your take?

Again, there is a huge difference between pre-Civil War American jurisprudence and post-Civil War. Amendments which came after it “nullify” the 10th for the most part (ironically), and the Tenther Movement is stuck in pre-1860 America, in my view.

Hoping Waterfield responds, but would also like to hear your take. Not only regarding interpretation of the Constitution, but also what we should do?

Waterfield,

Actually, contrary to conventional wisdom, the founders granted themselves massive powers in their constitution. Article One, Section Eight gives sweeping powers to the Federal government, for better or worse. I’ve never understood how anyone can read those four pages and come away thinking it was written by Ron Paul. The anti-federalists lost the argument. We don’t go by the Articles of Confederation, etc.

And, then there was the Civil War, and all those amendments after the Civil War. Like the 14th, which reads in part:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Zooey,

Was wondering about some things. I think I have a pretty good sense of humor — believe it or not. Friends and family say I do, anyway.

;>)

But I have to admit to struggling with more than a few of those twitter memes and photos you guys post. Just like New Yorker cartoons, I’m all too often perplexed and can’t see the humor. At all.

Like the one with the wine bottle. And most of those “guy who leers at other girl while walking with his now angry girlfriend” captions.

Is there a special decoder ring needed for twitter humor?

Hope all is well.

McVay’s rep and his performance strike me as being at odds recently. Initially hailed as a revolutionary mind on offense, from this fan’s perspective, their offense seems all too vanilla and predictable these days. It also strikes me as very “conservative” and rigid. Yes, as many a commentator has said over the last few years, he runs variants from a basic setup. But the rigidity when it comes to that one setup makes it easier for teams to counter.

Wouldn’t it be all the more difficult if he switched up packages and ran variants within several? That would confuse the hell out of DCs.

Use an extra lineman, move him to the backfield now and then. Do the same with extra tight ends. Activate Perkins and run the option with him. More variants. etc. etc.

And, yeah, I know injuries have limited him. But they can still try these things with the players they have. If they’re good enough to make an NFL team, they’re good enough to follow an enhanced playbook.

Things gotta change. As others have mentioned, this is really screwing up the Rams’ defense too. Keeps them on the field far too long, and they can’t pin their ears back and rush when they’re down two touchdowns, etc.

A bad offense makes for a mediocre D, even one with Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey on it.

That’s unconscionable. And incredibly stupid, cuz non-profit, truly public goods and services will always be cheaper for patients and consumers than for-profit, “private” goods and services. Recent estimates put the savings for M4A, for instance, at 600 billion dollars per year, just on admin costs!

But this move is also a part of the inexorable competitive “laws of motion” of capitalism, which David Harvey explains so well. Not only the pressure to colonize the future (debt, speculation, crypto-currencies, etc), but to forever expand markets spatially, geographically, and via “enclosures” of the Commons.

Going after Medicare and Social Security is a kind of reversal of reversals of those enclosures. As you guys know, enclosures happened primarily during the early rise of capitalism — and a bit before — as a way to kill off and privatize centuries-old common lands. FDR and LBJ took back some of that enclosed space, and now Dem moderates, centrists, conservadems, and the entire GOP are working double-time to take it back and then some.

The “then some” comes in by keeping taxpayers on the hook, regardless. The old “socialize the risk, privatize the gains” deal. Plus, prices will go up, so citizens will get screwed 8 days a week and twice on Sunday.

I really don’t know how much longer America will be able to hold together, with this grotesque combo of rising fascism, runaway “pragmatic” corporatism, cowardly leadership, pandemics, climate change, etc. etc.

Hey, but at least we have the surging Rams to take our minds off of things. Um, well, through the last 8 games, anyway.

Joemad,

I was against the trade from the jump. I thought it was way too much to give up for a QB his age, and I didn’t think the level of upgrade was sufficient to warrant all those picks. I would have preferred it if they had just kept Goff, worked on his throwing motion, and supported him when he was down. Lift him back up. Cuz, given what he had done for the Rams in the past, it had to be mostly an issue of confidence, which McVay wasn’t helping.

Of course, then you have to go back to the stupidity of that huge contract extension, which was — what? — two years before they had to worry about it? Gurley too. And, all of those picks they gave up to move up to draft him in the first place. I’m a diehard, going all the way back to 1966, but I hate when they botch things like this. Though, I have to admit, when they botch things, they do it with panache!

;>)

Anyway, I think if Stafford is healthy, he’s better than Goff. But he’s not healthy, and he likely has too much wear on his tires to ever be what he once was. I wouldn’t have made the trade**, but I support him now, etc.

**Maybe Goff and a 3rd. Maybe. Even that might be too much. And Detroit wasn’t going to agree to that, obviously, which would have been just fine with me.