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wvParticipantI would say it has the best-developed politics of any Sci-Fi show I’ve ever seen. There was ONE episode of Battlestar Galactica that dealt with oppression of Workers and it was a fantastic episode. But it was just one episode among a hundred or so episodes.
Now, i will also say there are plenty of scenes of Expanse that didnt work for me, and i dont think the dialogue is as good as on many shows. Special effects are just so-so, imho. But I dont care about any of that because the show goes where no sci-fi show has gone before — into the LEFT expanse.
wvParticipantOh crap! Now I can’t unsee the penis. Penises and bananas. Go Rams.
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Well i dont see a penis. Or a Banana. Or a dead cow skull among tumble-weeds, on the prairie.
I see…..a giant cavernous stadium…empty…except for strange klick-klacking and grunting sounds…while skeletons in helmets practice football plays in the sun.
And there’s wind. Rustling wind.
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vwvParticipantI dont see how the nation can avoid a major Depression, given the neoliberal-shit-policies we’ve been saddled with by the Dems and Reps for the last few decades.
The rich will cruise through it. The poor will die.
And as per usual, the poor will turn right around and vote for ones killing them.
Madhouse.
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vwvParticipantwvParticipantIts fine.
I assumed the corporate-idiots would have made it even worse. Ya know. Like having a McDonalds arches instead of horns, or maybe having the Ram eating a Wendi’s burger or something.
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vwvParticipantI am going to guess yes to a truncated football season but with the majority of those games having no fans in the stadium.
To Waterfield’s point, that would make it a good year to dump all your potential salary cap losses.
Go in strong the year after with the additional draft choices and some extra money.
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How surreal would it be,
to see that Multi-Billion-Dollar Kroenk-Stadium…empty, except for the players.Then again, it might be an advantage for the Rams to have NO fans in the stadium,
since often-times the opposing fans make more noise than the LA fans. 🙂w
vMarch 23, 2020 at 11:58 am in reply to: Senate Democrats block mammoth coronavirus stimulus package #112847wvParticipantSome talk about the bill in this:
wvParticipantIf the reports of people still gathering in public spaces are true, I don’t see anyway that the seasons starts on time. I wouldn’t be surprised if their is no season. At this point were I forced to bet I would bet against it happening.
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Well then what is our purpose on this planet ?
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“Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.”
― Czesław MiłoszwvParticipantI totally disagree and I haven’t even seen the video.
Bernie needs to stay in for ONE reason: If Bernie drops out, then the DNC could just have Biden give his delegates to anyone else and no one could say anything since technically no one would be running.
Bernie staying in prevents the DNC from simply appointing their candidate of choice.
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Well in the Vid, Krystal Ball says Bernie should drop out only IF, the DNC gives Bernie the role of Virus-Czar or somethin. Bernie would set virus-policy. Thats her view, anyway. Not mine.
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“…In times of economic crisis such as the Great Depression of 1929-38, government dumped millions into the economy to save it from its self-engendered, speculation-mad insolvency. In a word, business adventured, speculated, falsified, and corrupted while the going was good. When the profits were squeezed out of an area business pocketed its gains and moved on to greener pastures, leaving the government to foot the bill.
Muckrakers at the turn of the century described the putrid mess of waste, corruption, pillaging of public property, wholesale destruction, and mass murder that resulted from the greed and mad adventurism of private enterprise on-the-make.
….this era of self-criticism was cut short by the 1914-1918 war.
When the war ended in Novermber, 1918, veterans returning from Europe eagerly joined hands with corporate wealth and slum gangsterism to drive socialists from office and restore the rat race for wealth and power which had occupied the half century between 1865 and 1915…”
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Scott Nearing “Making of a Radical”wvParticipantDid Shake-speare have anything to say
about plagues?w
v“Tis the times’ plague, when madmen lead the blind.” From King Lear.
Actually he wrote Lear during a plague.
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Well thats fucking perfect. That should be way more famous than “Romeo! Romeo!”
Madmen leadin the Blind. Definitely. And the Blind leadin the Mad.
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vwvParticipantAs Hamlet said,
ay, there’s the rub!
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Did Shake-speare have anything to say
about plagues?w
vwvParticipantWell i cant argue that there is an ‘ignorance problem’ and
a ‘selfishness problem’ in America.
I’m not sure its worse in young people. Maybe.Many people have pointed out this kind of thing (like a Hurricane or Flood, etc) brings out the best in some folks and the worst in some folks, for various reasons.
I think things go better when theres a “sense of community” among people in an area. My neighborhood, for example has a strong sense of community. People are falling all over themselves to be helpful.
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vwvParticipant…is what the Fox News folks and rightwing-propaganda will focus on. Donald Trump valiantly tried to lead the nation, but the big-gubmunt-bureaucracy failed us….
That won’t fly. A president is in a position to streamline all that and get it running to face a crisis.
As it stands he’s still insisting that states buy their own supplies even while the Feds bid against them.
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Well it wont fly with people living in a reality-based-world.
How many people is that?
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vwvParticipant“Every six days that the country did not test, every six days that it did not act, the number of infected Americans doubled.”
—————And THIS…
“…His lab would end up being one of the fastest to set up testing, and become the most important early source of information about the growth of the outbreak. But initially he, too, found himself caught up in the bureaucratic gears…”…is what the Fox News folks and rightwing-propaganda will focus on. Donald Trump valiantly tried to lead the nation, but the big-gubmunt-bureaucracy failed us….
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vwvParticipant=======================
Analysis of outcomes in 50k chinese people with covid-19Posted by dan on March 20, 2020, 9:03 pm
Tweet from @Menon_Cambridge: Rigorous analysis of~50k Wuhan cases. Case fatality for COVID-19 =1.4% in symptomatic patients (below past estimates). OR for death 0.6 in those <30; and 5.1 in those >59 y. Risk of symptomatic infection increased ~4% per year between 30 & 60 years.
wvParticipantCuba doing a good job?
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wvParticipantPie
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wvParticipantso what do you think this portends?
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Well, its pretty F’ing obvious — You are THE ONE, Invader.
…either that…or Trump is a Super-Worm. I’m not sure.
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wvParticipantThis is just a martial arts guy that i have enjoyed over the years. Interestingly, he happens to live in China. He describes things here — “they take yer temperature everytime you go to the store…”
wvParticipantI’ll be 63 in April, but I’m purty healthy. I figure I’ll be alright if I get the evil chinese-communist-anti-american-virus.
Courthouses are mostly closed now, cept for emergency hearings, so I can spend as much time as i want at home. So thats what i do. Books, weeding, cleaning, internet, exercise…thats about it. The isolation hasnt gotten to me yet, but it might at some point.
I have an 89 year-old mom and an older sister with auto-immune issues. So thats where the worry lies.
Plus, most of my clients are poor and out of work now, and scared shitless of starving to death. They are not scared of the virus. Just starving or being homeless. Poverty is way scarier than the virus.
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vwvParticipantTrump will throw Burr under the thug-bus, I would think. If Trump wants to get re-elected, he’s gonna have to hammer Burr. I think Tucker Carlson has tipped us off to that approach.
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vwvParticipantJacobin on the scandal.
link:https://jacobinmag.com/2020/03/senate-scandal-congress-insider-trading-stocks-coronavirus-kelly-loeffler-richard-burr
Now Our Senate Overlords Are Making Money off Our Deaths“…
…….But these cases alone expose some uncomfortable realities.One is the way that today’s historic wealth inequality has manifested itself in this crisis. Why is it that Burr was giving false assurances to the public while telling his state’s business leaders the harsh truth about the virus? The simple answer is because, as a pair of professors determined six years ago, the United States has become a society where political leaders listen to and enact the wishes of the rich and generous, and systematically ignore those of the poor and middle class. Burr was straight with those few donors at a luncheon because it is they, not the voting public, whose opinions truly matter to members of Congress. One can’t help but wonder what other nuggets of honesty are being offered by the nation’s politicians behind similarly closed doors.
Secondly, why is it that sitting members of Congress are allowed to buy and sell millions in stocks at all, or even sit on powerful committees that may or may not impact their partners’ business dealings? On the one hand, it points to the need for stricter rules around conflicts of interest, including simply barring congresspeople and their spouses from gallivanting through the stock market as they help run the country.
On the other, it points to something much deeper: just as the Democratic Party requires its candidates to be able to raise at least $250,000 from just the contacts in their phones, the political process is closed off to anyone who isn’t already outrageously wealthy, or at least runs in circles that are. And a system like that will inherently create its own conflicts of interest, stocks or no stocks.” see link
wvParticipantRich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
they tried to half-measure it last year and it just didn’t work. I understand the public side of it. You can’t say, “We have a diminished Todd Gurley,” because you’ve got 13 opponents listening. So everyone came up with their own theory.=========================
Um…I dunno. I find it hard to believe the other teams were so dum they didnt know aboout Todd Gurley’s arthritic knee.
I also will never quite wrap my head around the fact that the media were full of talking heads who constantly wondered why McVay wasnt playing Gurley more.
Does the media have some sort of deal with the NFL NOT to talk about injuries or to downplay injuries?w
vMarch 20, 2020 at 5:23 pm in reply to: The historical record for capitalism is utterly appalling. #112713wvParticipantRe: “Lifting people out of poverty.”
I think the mistake people make…and it’s really dead easy to see why they make it…is that capitalism is obviously good because we have cars, air conditioning, microwave ovens, and smartphones.
Of course they attribute those products to capitalism because we didn’t have them prior to capitalism, and communist countries did not have widespread consumer goods available.
Why on earth would it ever occur to anybody that those things could have…WOULD have…been developed under another economic system. By and large, very few humans question the facts of their existences. You know…we have the entire human mindset to go up against (zn might disagree with that), but I just see humans as very limited creatures.
I was at a store yesterday purchasing a snake because my drains are clogged and we can’t shit or shower at home until I fix it, and I’m sick of renting them every year or two. Tree roots get in my lines, and as expensive as snakes are, long term it makes more sense to just buy one of ’em. Anyway, the 40-year old checker was talking to the 30-year old guy right in front of me in the checkout line, and they are both talking about how coronavirus is overblown and shutting down the country is a panic-stricken over-reaction.
And I’m just looking at two physically-fit single males with no dependents, and maybe no parents they care about, just believing that their world view is universal.
My musical director was under chemo last year, and has a heart something-thingie plugged into her chest. One of her sons has a respiratory weakness, and one of her daughters has immune deficiency. Three people in one house who could die if they catch covid-19 if the hospitals are full because the two fuckfaces in line in front of me won’t alter their behavior in any way.
Then there is all the doublethink and hypocrisy that is so common in humans. People just don’t think straight. They don’t question their assumptions. They are not even aware they HAVE assumptions. So…how are we supposed to get around when the entire culture shares an ideology and believes that they don’t?
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Every single time I’m in a store the conversations i overhear are all about how “people are panicking” and the shoppers all congratulate themselves on being brave consumers and “not giving in to panic.”
Part bravado, part whistling-in-the-dark, part ignorance of the carrier aspect,
part american-self-absorption….shall i go on 🙂I’m developing panic into an art, myself. I put hand-sanitizer on my pansies this morning. Who knows where they’ve been.
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vMarch 20, 2020 at 5:15 pm in reply to: The historical record for capitalism is utterly appalling. #112711wvParticipantA few Scott Nearing quotes, fwiw:
“…above all I had awakened to the quite obvious fact that the masters and shapers of the world and the possessors of the world’s riches were cleverly scattering crumbs of wealth and power among the masses. They gave just enough crumbs to divert, deceive and corrupt each generation to secure its adherence, and to keep it in line, serving the interests of masters and corrupters. This indeed was the essence of the social problem – the success of the Oligarchy in brainwashing the populace to the point where they believed that what is best for the Oligarchy is best for them. So long as the brainwashing worked the masses remained in line and the Oligarchy could follow its program of making the rich richer and the powerful, stronger. Whither mankind?”
Making of a Radical, Scott Nearing (1972)
—————–“By the middle 1930’s this brainwashing campaign had become so effective that controversial issues were termed subversive, against the public interest, unpatriotic, disloyal, even traitorous. Leftist speakers were neither encouraged or permitted to air their views. Often they were mobbed and leftist meetings were attacked and broken up by hundred-percent Americans frequently aided by the police.”
Making of a Radical, Scott Nearing (1972)
————–“Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, then a young, enthusiastic, fiery union organizer announced that she would speak in Paterson. Chief of Police Bimba stated publicly that she would not. “But I have a right under the Constitution to speak,” Elizabeth protested. “You may have the right,” the police chief rejoined, “but we have the power, and we will prevent you.” Elizabeth did not speak. That has been my situation for the past half century. I have had the ‘right’ to speak, write, print, publish but my words dropped into the well of oblivion. I have had the ‘right’ to teach, but no university or school in the country would accept me…”
Making of a Radical, Scott Nearing (1972)
————“Anything that squarely challenges The American Way or western civilization is suspect. After the War of 1914-1918, censorship, secret police and ‘voluntary discipline in the public interest’ took over. Step by step, year by year, war by war, the interests of big business were synchronized with the public interests until big business made the policy decisions which determined what was good for the people to hear, see and read – therefore good for the best interests of the United States Oligarchy and the American Empire.”
Making of a Radical, Scott Nearing (1972)wvParticipantI am not going to hit Play on that. There is no WAY you can make me watch that. I am offended that you brought this to the board.
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You watched it right? You GOTTA watch it. I’m serious. She…is…GOOD. Not kidding. And read the comments. Really.
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vMarch 20, 2020 at 11:19 am in reply to: The historical record for capitalism is utterly appalling. #112698wvParticipantWV,
I had never heard of Nearing before your post. Looked him up on Wiki, skimmed most of it, and, wow! He sounds like he was an amazing leftist. Lived to be 100, walked the walked. Courageous, etc.
I then looked him up via “Libby” to see if my local library systems had any of his work. They have his The American Empire (via project Gutenberg).
That’s on my virtual book shelf now.
You are a great resource, WV!!
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“The Making of a Radical” — one of the most enjoyable/infuriating books I’ve read in the last few years.
Nearing was involved in almost every socialist/commie organization in the US, during the Pre-WWI years and after. Firsthand knowledge of the people, the factions, the history.
The book was written in 1972 when he was about 80. He essentially lays out the ‘propaganda model’ long before Noam and Herman wrote their book.He was fired from his Professor jobs because of his anti-war notions, and then his publishers even refused to publish his books anymore, etc and so forth. He describes the learning-suffering-curve of being a radical in the US.
Later in his life he focused on the whole ‘homesteading’ ecology thing. Whats a radical to do, but eventually go off into the woods 🙂
But earlier in his life he was yer basic radical-anti-capitalist-commie.An awesome guy, and a must-read for any commie.
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wvParticipantWell, the entire Oligarchy is a Lie, Joe. Lies, upon lies, upon lies.
Been goin on a long time 🙂
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wvParticipantI dont pay much attention to the Bucs, but apparently they got a shitload of weapons on offense. Wouldnt that be somethin if Brady took em deep into the playoffs.
To me though, the more interesting situation is in New England. Whither the Pats?
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