Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

In after Baud. Damn.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / KULCHA! / Open Thread: Spoiler Free!

Open Thread: Spoiler Free!

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(Warning: continuous autoplay)

You’re welcome, totebaggers. Alyssa Rosenberg, at the Washington Post:

…[T]o honor the release of “The Force Awakens,” I recruited PostEverything’s Dan Drezner, Act Four columnist Sonny Bunch and Digital Opinions Editor James Downie to work with me and genius video editor Thomas LeGro to remake “The Civil War” “Star Wars”-style. This video is completely spoiler-free–we’ll discuss “The Force Awakens” in detail on the blog and in Monday’s chat. But in the mean time, I hope this makes the wait for your first glimpse of “Episode VII”– or the wait in between screenings — a little more bearable.

Reader Interactions

104Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’ve got one of these with the Star Wars fight footage cut into WW II battles. I’ll throw it up another day we don’t set off the bigfoot alarms.

  5. 5.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: If we’re lucky, there won’t be a yoooge number of news stories piling up over the next couple of weeks. It’ ll be nice to have some low-stress topics for new Open Threads!

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anne Laurie: I’ve got the standing rib roast and brisket one I’m going to put up later this evening.

    As for slow news weeks for the holidays: unfortunately if nothing much is going on, the corporate news media will just start making stuff up.

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m seeing it in about 2 hours but will be spending all day Saturday at Disneyland, so I probably won’t have time to post any spoilers between now and then. Especially since Bill clued me in to the 80 percent chance of rain tomorrow, so it’s a last-minute Target trip for me tonight so I can get some cheapo ponchos.

  10. 10.

    raven

    It’s my bride’s birthday in tomorrow so I ran out and got one of the $1 iPhone 6s’ they had a Best Buy. She told me I shouldn’t have told her how little I paid!

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    How fun. Thanks, AL.

    Not a SWars fan, but hearing this one is good. So maybe …. I am waiting on the new Quentin Tarantino movie, The Hateful Eight, due out in gorgeous 70 mm on Christmas Day.

  20. 20.

    John Cole

    That video is clever and everything, and I applaud them for it, but what it really demonstrated to me is how important and amazing good voicework is- Peter Coyote did the Civil War narration for Burns, and Keith David did the Great War. I’ve listened to them both all the way through a dozen times on Netflix while working.

  27. 27.

    khead

    So, the cat trapping continues. Coal is awesome and turned out to be a feral lap cat. After trapping cat #2 – Coal’s brother Boots – earlier this week though, I made the mistake of grabbing Boots without my cat mittens on. A Cole-like disaster occurred with the end result being a trip to Express Care for wound treatment.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    Yesterday I went to the University of Malaya Medical Centre, where I get my medical care, and checked in for my doctor’s appointment at 11:15am. The nurse who took my blood pressure looked at the number on my queue ticket, and said maybe I should go get lunch first. Which I did.

    I came back from lunch and waited. And waited. And waited. While I waited, at least one patient with a queue number higher than mine was called. I waited some more. Finally, instead of the queuing system displaying my number, the PA in the waiting room said, “Patient Amir Khalid bin Hussain to Room 38.” I checked my watch: 16:54.

    The doctor apologised for the delay. He told me that clinic typically sees 100 or so patients a day, but that day they had something like 250. Grumble.

  30. 30.

    David Koch

    This Sanders data espionage story, gets worse and worse

    For the record, I am a Sr. System Engineer for the IT wing of a global corporate real estate company. My focus is data protection, legal retention, and data storage.

    ***
    In many IT systems, like with ours, there are systems and networks technically accessible by anyone on the network. Users know they are not allowed to access HR, financial, and PeopleSoft systems. However, users are human and therefore we have firewalls in place and restrictive logins in place to prevent those without permission from accessing those files.

    This is not a case where Hillary’s modeling data just happened to pop up on the screen for a Sanders campaign staffer. He didn’t turn on his computer one morning, and it was on the screen. Someone knew there was patching, and during that period of patching accessed data they did not have permission to access.

    ***

    This was intentional.

    For all the talk that it is a setup, or that Bernie’s campaign reported the firewall hole numerous times I ask this question, ”If Bernie’s campaign KNEW that the data was accessible without the firewall, and it KNEW that it did not have permission to access it, then why did it do it anyways?”

    For those excusing the bad behavior of the IT staffer who was fired, you should be ashamed of yourselves. If a bank replaces the the door on a vault, and someone takes that time while it is open to steal money, you don’t say the bank “set up” the robber. Wrong is wrong. Even more wrong by the fact the there are those saying that the staff KNEW this was a problem, and DID IT ANYWAYS.

    With that being said, the Sanders entire campaign should not be punished for this so close to Iowa. When one user does something wrong, we do not fire or suspend the entire department. We do reviews, verify what was accessed, and how. In this case, the review should be quick, and Sanders should personally verify that all data downloaded from Hillary’s campaign has been deleted from his campaigns servers. Once that is done, full access should be restored as soon as possible.

    ****

    Update – Well.

    ‏@jeneps 8m8 minutes ago

    Sanders camp initially said this was 1 low-level staffer, but accts belonging to natl data dir & deputy involved

    ‏@jeneps 8m8 minutes ago

    Sanders campaign saved Clinton lists including “HFA Support” & “HFA Turnout” in various age ranges for key states bloom.bg/…

    @jeneps 3m3 minutes ago

    NEW a few mins ago: Sanders campaign SAVED Clinton data and was creating addl accts/sharing access during breach bloom.bg/…

    jasmine84

    Sanders’s campaign has sought to downplay the severity of the incident, initially saying that only a single “low-level” staffer accessed the Clinton data and that none of it was saved. But the audit of the database’s logs created by the vendor that manages the data, NGP VAN, show that four accounts associated with the Sanders team took advantage of the Wednesday morning breach. Staffers conducted searches that would be especially advantageous to the campaign, including lists of its likeliest supporters in 10 early voting states, including Iowa and New Hampshire.

    After one Sanders account gained access to the Clinton data, the audits show, that user began sharing permissions with other Sanders users. The staffers who secured access to the Clinton data included national data director Josh Uretsky, who was fired on Thursday, and his deputy, Russell Drapkin. The two other usernames that viewed Clinton information were “talani” and “csmith_bernie.”

    Though the Sanders campaign initially claimed that it had not saved Clinton data, the logs show that the Vermont senator’s team created at least 24 lists during the 40-minute breach, which started at 10:40 a.m., and saved those list to their personal folders.

  33. 33.

    schrodinger's cat

    So not interested in the Farce Awakens. These sequels and prequels remind me of an old Marathi saying, just because sugarcane is sweet, you shouldn’t try to eat it from the root.
    @khead: Did he bite you? I got a nasty infection from trying to separate two fighting cats once. One of them bit my finger really hard.

  43. 43.

    Schlemazel

    Just got home & saw the video, rusher here because it is too good not to share but of course I’m too late.

    On the insanity front I saw a post on fb that if Hilary gets the nom he is voting Republican. Thats some great genius right there.

  46. 46.

    David Koch

    @Elizabelle: The problem with “The Hateful Eight” is it will only be released in a 100 theaters on Xhristmas. That’s not a good sign. First of all, it means access will be limited with showing only to the top 100 populated cities. Second, Tarantino’s movies usually open big (Django opened at 3,000 screens, Basterds opened at 3,100 screens). But this is a very small opening, which means the movie houses don’t think it will sell. Do they think it’s esoteric with limited appeal to intellectuals or do they think it’s just a plain ole stinker.

  49. 49.

    Mike J

    @Elizabelle:

    I am waiting on the new Quentin Tarantino movie, The Hateful Eight, due out in gorgeous 70 mm on Christmas Day.

    The trailer made me think, “if Agatha Christie wrote westerns……”

  51. 51.

    PurpleGirl

    The video stopped too abruptly. I want more of the story in that manner. I also liked the music they used — very Ken Burns/Civi8l War type. Maybe I’d just be happy to have the soundtrack to that video.

  53. 53.

    Elizabelle

    @David Koch: Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is opening in 70 mm on Christmas Day, a special format requiring special projectors (film, not digital). That’s why the select number of theatres.

    Digital opening is December 31, on more screens.

    Here’s a list of theatres opening with 70 mm. Happily, many in the DC area.

    Film is over three hours long, with an overture and an intermission.

  57. 57.

    Anne Laurie

    @John Cole:

    That video is clever and everything, and I applaud them for it, but what it really demonstrated to me is how important and amazing good voicework is

    Ex-radio guy would say that, of course. :)

  59. 59.

    schrodinger's cat

    I really want to see Bajirao Mastani, but the closest theater is an hour away. I guess have to wait for the DVD release. Husband kitteh is not all that keen in going, don’t want to go alone.

  61. 61.

    Anne Laurie

    @khead:

    A Cole-like disaster occurred with the end result being a trip to Express Care for wound treatment.

    Kudos to you for doing the hard work with ferals, and I’m guessing the EC-doc was very specific about keeping an eye out for infection? Or did he just give you antibiotics as a precaution?

    (Yes you probably know already how dangerous cat bites can be, but spending three days on intravenous antibiotics has left me paranoid about animal-related puncture wounds!)

    ETA: Ne’mind, see you’re on top of it, thankfully.

  62. 62.

    Hungry Joe

    Not interested in “Star Wars,” but saw “In the Heart of the Sea” with a similarly Melville-obsessed buddy, and we pretty much loved it. There were blobs of schmaltz here and there, but it immerses you in early 19th-century whaling and tells a whale of a story. Ron Howard’s directing never gets in the way; he’s so goddam COMPETENT that it’s easy to take his frictionless work for granted. If you’re at all a Melville type, or just want to see a first-rate movie, ditch the “Star Wars” crowds and take in this one.

  63. 63.

    David Koch

    Sanders Campaign’s Breach of Clinton Data More Serious Than Disclosed

    Bernie Sanders’ campaign’s breach of Hillary Clinton’s voter data may have been more extensive than previously reported, according to a person with knowledge of investigation.

    According to data reviewed by TIME, the Sanders campaign appears to have obtained files with lists of voters that the Clinton campaign had cultivated in 10 early states including Iowa and New Hampshire.

    Beyond simply reviewing the data, the logs show the Sanders staffers took deliberate steps to harvest and store the information. According to the logs, the Sanders staff created from scratch no fewer than 24 lists—consisting entirely of data pulled down from the Clinton campaign’s database—and saved them to their personal folders.

    Andrew Britton ‏@drunkandfamous 18h18 hours ago Los Angeles, CA

    Turns out Hillary donors r starting to get Bernie emails from the list they stole from the DNC.

    Pretty shocking. They just spent 8 months screaming they’re pure as Vermont snow and Hillary and especially her fat cat donors are evil, then they steal her donor data and start milking them for cash.

    Imagine the blazing, all-consuming, firestorm if Clinton had did this.

  64. 64.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Hungry Joe:

    You say black I say white
    You say bark I say bite
    You say shark I say hey man
    Jaws was never my scene
    And I don’t like Star Wars

  65. 65.

    Anne Laurie

    @Amir Khalid: That’s why I always bring two books along to read when I have a medical appointment — one never knows how many other people will choose to be inconsiderately stricken with ‘more pressing’ ailments.

    P..S. I hope the appt went swimmingly and all your test results come back within best parameters!

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    @khead:

    When my brother’s cat bit me, they gave me a QUADRUPLE antibiotic that included Cipro. It worked and no infection resulted, though the irrigation they did at the ER hurt like hell.

  71. 71.

    PurpleGirl

    @Anne Laurie: Once when I was pet-sitting in Peekskill, the Doberman took out after one of the grayhounds. Somehow I ended up with a smallish puncture wound. Hugo’s doctor told me to call Animal Control and report the bite. I went to a local hospital for wound care. Everyone asked if I knew the dog, and why didn’t I turn a hose on him. “I’ve known the dog for 10-odd years and couldn’t turn a hose on him, we were in the kitchen/dining room of the house.” Anyway, the grayhound was hurt and the doctor sent a vet tech to bring the bring to the office since I don’t/didn’t drive. At the hospital they cleaned out the wound, gave me antibiotics to take for a few days and sent me home. There was no later infection or trouble. My dog bite story.

    khead: Did they talk about rapies? Is that why you’re in quarantine?

  72. 72.

    Anne Laurie

    @David Koch:

    Do they think it’s esoteric with limited appeal to intellectuals or do they think it’s just a plain ole stinker.

    Never seen a Tarantino film that I know of, but from the chatter I’ve seen in places like Vulture, the bookers are cautious about blowback. T’s got the recognition, when/if he wants it to go wider he’ll be able to find screens, and meanwhile if there’s some yoooge social-media kerfuffle about some particular political incorrectness the theatre owners aren’t stuck with empty shoeboxes because QT finally found his Bridge-Too-Far.

    Also, aren’t quite a few pics given “limited release” near the end of the year to qualify for the Oscars?

  74. 74.

    PurpleGirl

    @Hungry Joe: The Smithsonian Channel had a show on today about the story behind Melville’s novel and talked about his experiences when he worked as a whaler. Wasn’t sure I’d find it interesting but it was well done and I enjoyed watching it and leaning about whaling.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @PurpleGirl:

    The doc I saw for bite follow-up said that dog bites get infected less often than cat bites and that cat bites are much more dangerous. He didn’t really know why.

  77. 77.

    Anne Laurie

    @redshirt: Dude, has it occurred to you that “defending” me by insulting the guy who is (for practical purposes) MY BOSS does not do either of us any good?

    Especially during year-end-bonus season? (/snark)

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @Anne Laurie:

    It’s probably also because QT is really weird about digital and wanted it to be shown on celluloid. Since most theaters are all digital projection now, I think this is the compromise — limited run on celluloid and wide release in digital.

  80. 80.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mnemosyne:

    The doc I saw for bite follow-up said that dog bites get infected less often than cat bites and that cat bites are much more dangerous. He didn’t really know why.

    True fact, although it was a dog bite that got me in trouble. Possibly because I didn’t run out and demand antibiotics immediately, which I would’ve, for a cat bite.

    (And it wasn’t even the rescue dog that bites — it was an accident, when the other dog grabbed for the towel I was holding & nailed me by mistake.)

  81. 81.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne: I think it’s because of the chance of the cat having rabies, especially a feral or even semi-feral cat. Hugo’s doctor was able to tell me that he was up-to-date with all his shots and although this wasn’t the same doctor they took the grayhounds to, he was sure they were up-to-date also. But he still felt I should go to the ER for wound care, just to be safe.

  82. 82.

    schrodinger's cat

    I found a score that has topped Bajirao Mastani for me, its from the Marathi movie based on a musical from the 60s. Its about a multi-generation musical battle between two classical gharanas (families). The poetry and the classical music is out of the world.

    Songs are in Sankritized Hindi, Urdu and Marathi. The Qawwali, Yaar Ilahi (Yaar = friend, Ilahi = My Allah, God etc) is out of this world, the two singers are debating the nature of life and God. Even Jeebus is referred to in the song.

    Link to the Juke box for Katyar Kaljat Ghuslie (Dagger enters the heart)

  84. 84.

    ? Martin

    Maddow is digging in deep on this water/lead story out of Flint. Short story, Flint is one of the cities that Snyder has put under administrative control, in order to cut costs, the administrator switched the water supply to the Flint River and because they didn’t prepare the water system for the switch, the city water is now leeching lead. Kids are showing strongly elevated lead levels, while the Gov has been constantly denying that anything is wrong.

  85. 85.

    CaseyL

    @Mnemosyne: The way I’ve heard it, cat bits are worse because their teeth are narrower and sharper than dogs’ teeth, so the wound closes – not heals, closes – so it can’t drain, keeping all the bacteria in there to fester.

    I’m supposed to see SW with a friend over Christmas weekend (we’re both Christmas orphans). I’m not as excited as she is, but it’s still gonna be a neat trick to avoid spoilers for the next 7-10 days. All I want to know from people who’ve seen it is, it is any good? Early reports are promising.

  86. 86.

    David Koch

    National Poll — Fox News — (Post Debate, Dec 16-17)

    Trump…………………….39%
    Cruz……………………….18%
    Rubio………………………11%
    Carson………………………9%
    ¿Jeb ?……………………….3%◄

    HA! – It’s as if ¿Jeb?’s brother was a miserable failure with a poison brand who can’t show his face in public…. oh, wait.

  88. 88.

    khead

    @Mnemosyne:

    Healing is going well. If it hadn’t been an animal bite it would’ve required a few stitches. In my case the diagnosis was a good soaking in iodine, some strips to hold the cut, and a splint to keep my from bending the finger.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: @Anne Laurie: @David Koch: @Elizabelle: I think they’re worried about something else. Part of it is, as one of you all pointed out blowback from the subject matter. But the other is that every comment I’ve seen about Tarantino and his movies on websites that cater to firearms enthusiasts have been overwhelmingly negative towards Tarantino. This is, obviously, for his remarks about firearms. But the comments ranged from the miffed “don’t bite the hand that feeds you because you’ve made a ton of money off of writing about gun fights” to the voting with my wallet “I won’t shell out one damn cent for someone who doesn’t support our natural, constitutional, and civil rights” to the approaching meltdown “he damn sure better watch his back”. I can’t imagine the publicity and marketing folks, as well as whoever does his personal security is unaware of this.

  98. 98.

    Elizabelle

    @Adam L Silverman: I am thinking that those opening the Star Wars movie and the new Tarantino flick are mucho aware of theater security. Targets, they be.

    And screw the cops re QT movie. More seats for the rest of us. (Personally, I think the blowhards in the union do not speak for everyone.)

    Frightening, though, the veiled threats on gunhumpers’ threads.

    Adam: why are you looking at firearms enthusiasts’ threads?

  99. 99.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: I think the concern is less security and more that a demographic you would expect to go see the movie won’t, driving down the box office. As for reading firearms enthusiasts’ threads: I read far and wide. And I like to read through as no matter the topic of the post or article, things usually quickly move into the political. Nothing like reading a review about a backpack and by the tenth comment everything has shifted from “too pricey” or “to tacticool” to “FREEDDDOOOMMMM!!!!!”. If you want to get a good idea of what certain demographic blocks are thinking, or are at least willing to spout off using a pseudonym, you should give them a read. And some of the articles and posts are actually interesting. And the comment threads are always a hoot!

  101. 101.

    PsiFighter37

    Saw it in theaters this morning – got in a couple minutes before the trailers ended…massive lines. No spoilers, but definitely could see hardcore purists quibbling over some things. That said, it was honest-to-goodness FUN to watch.

    I think how it fits into the broader picture is contingent on where they go with Episode VIII. In a way, I’m glad that JJ is not directing the next one given that he kind of screwed the pooch on the second Star Trek movie (which I didn’t really find problematic on a standalone basis, but I also think he got incredibly lazy when you look at broader ST canon).

    Either way, there is no doubt that TFA surpasses any of the prequels by a mile, especially because there is actual acting and dialogue occurring, not painfully awkward ‘Anakin, hold me like you used to on Naboo’ garbage and the screen filled with CGI 95% of the time.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @David Koch:

    The problem with “The Hateful Eight” is it will only be released in a 100 theaters on Xhristmas. That’s not a good sign

    Not necessarily true. This may be to get the film into that “qualify for Oscar” window. And the film, particularly the screenplay, has won some end of year awards. Star Wars and other films are monopolizing available screens, and for some dumb reason there are more films opening on Xmas day than usual.

    Tarantino is also doing a lot of publicity for this film. Good interview in the LA Weekly (available online) and I think the Nerdist podcast.

  104. 104.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m sitting in my theater seat right now waiting for it to start, so I should be able to say if it’s any good in about 3 hours.

    Please try to avoid spoilers, even though reviews and the Internet are rife with them. Even though there was a ton of marketing and increasingly revelatory trailers, Disney still managed not to tell the entire story of the film. This allows for some pleasures of just seeing the story unfold.

    I liked the film, and yeah there are some flaws. The audience had fun, and even though costumes were discouraged (and masked not allowed), some folks found ways to adapt their street clothes into Star Wars themed outfits.

    Like the first Avengers movie, there is stuff here that reaches beyond the SF genre crowd, and I have heard some people who do not usually like Star Wars films say that they liked this one. And yet I am not sure if it will have the broad appeal of the Avengers movie.

    In the UK, the film is rated 12A and ratings are more strictly enforced, so this may have some small affect on box office. Some emailers to a UK film show said that they disagreed with the rating for older children.

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