Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

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

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Everybody saw this coming.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

When we show up, we win.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Republicans don’t trust women.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Saturday Morning Open Thread: As Always, Proud to Be A Democrat

Saturday Morning Open Thread: As Always, Proud to Be A Democrat

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Click for the whole thread here.

And a little snark, concerning something worth celebrating…

Saturday Morning Open Thread 31
ETA: Gift link to the NYT article.

Reader Interactions

157Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    The plan was expanded amid pressure from advocates and Democrats who said the proposal didn’t do enough for struggling borrowers who don’t fit into one of the other cancellation categories.

    Whether any of the relief will materialize is a looming question as conservatives vow to challenge any attempt at mass student loan cancellation.

    How to get this distinction through to people?

  4. 4.

    TBone

    Still basking in winner glow, it was a great week for winning and I’m not tired of winning and I dreamed about winning and assorted orange puns last night.  But now I can’t remember the best ones!  I still feel like a winner winner chicken dinner!

  6. 6.

    BretH

    Great ad, love when Democrats go on offense. There’s literally no downside as long as they follow through to the best of their ability.

  8. 8.

    Chief Oshkosh

    I love it that the administration is going on a roadshow to highlight their accomplishments, but it wouldn’t be BJ without some whining:

    Not that they asked me, but a better poster would not include a sign about road work (who the fuck likes seeing that on their way to work?) and one of the dumpiest EVs ever made (even if it was a good card, it’s not a US maker and it’s very old. C’mon, Man! Show a Ford or Chevy!). Finally, as others have pointed out here, it’d have greater impact if they simply posted signs at every ARA-funded site (This cyclotron brought to you by Dark Brandon!)

  12. 12.

    Ken

    @TBone: To go off on a completely tangential rant, I see Crooks And Liars is one of those annoying sites where half the screen real estate is ads, floating ads pop up at intervals, and they still bring up a dialog asking if you’d like to support them with money. Makes me appreciate the Balloon Juice experience all the more.

  14. 14.

    EarthWindFire

    MTG and company just can’t keep their racism to themselves. Did Nazi that coming. Uh-huh.

  17. 17.

    TBone

    @Baud: I don’t know, it’s like the tides.  All I know is, I never, ever get pop up ads or any other bullshit.  Even on YouTube, my first watch of a video skips the ad.

  20. 20.

    Mousebumples

    @TBone: I use the Brave browser on my Android.

    Related – free pie filter has been broken ish for awhile (unable to pie new people, unable to toggle pied comments, etc.). Anyone else using Brave and having/not having these issues? WaterGirl is aware, but not easily fixable from what we’ve been able to determine. And I’m reluctant to change my browser since I can just skim past annoying spam/scam/trolls.

    Good morning, everyone!

  24. 24.

    schrodingers_cat

    Like I said in my comment yesterday. It would be difficult if not impossible for someone with Trump’s record to get a long term temporary visa for work or study let alone a greencard. And this man is the choice of the biggest demographic in this country. It was so in the 2020 election even after we witnessing the dumpster fire of his first term.

    As I see it, his voters are a bigger problem than he is.

  27. 27.

    hells littlest angel

    I feel lucky to be living in a country with a President and a Vice President who are just so fucking terrific.

  28. 28.

    Betty

    @Baud: The Boston Globe showing its bias with a headline about Biden not delivering on his promises to forgive student debt. The MSM continues to fail the public.

  31. 31.

    waspuppet

    See, what’s happening is House Republicans did what Trump told them to do, and it’s not working, so they need a two-week recess to ask him what to do next. Makes perfect sense.

    (And two weeks might seem like a long time to wait for advice from someone who proudly doesn’t think, but he’s a little busy right now, and he has to ask Putin what to do, and Putin’s a little busy right now too.

  32. 32.

    stinger

    @Baud: They do. But their “portfolios” are usually softer issues, not road construction and the like. And a movie poster doesn’t have the names of the actors’ spouses. So it just feels odd on both counts — the reality and the fun.

  35. 35.

    Another Scott

    @Mousebumples: I’ve not noticed any issues with the pie filter on Brave on Android recently.  It seems fine at the moment.  (But I only have a few old trolls in it presently.)

    There was some brief funkiness for me a few weeks/months ago, but I think a monthly update took care of it.

    S24 Ultra, etc., here.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  37. 37.

    stinger

    @Baud: I’m always happy to see them or even just their names, but in this instance it’s a bit like giving Melanoma and Mother Pence “credit” for TIFG administration actions.

  38. 38.

    Mousebumples

    @Another Scott: hmmm, same phone and browser, so now I might need to do a bit more checking on my end.

    I’ll liking my S24 Ultra. How about you? The biggest challenge is retraining my new Swype keyboard since SwiftKey isn’t compatible with the new OS. More typos, I guess, lol.

    Thanks!

  42. 42.

    waspuppet

    @Betty: As usual, the assumption that “Policy Goal X is something everybody wants” is a biased assumption when you try to say “Republicans are stopping us from getting Policy Goal X which we all want” but an unbiased statement of fact if you’re trying to say “Biden hasn’t delivered on Policy Goal X which we all want.”

    Once you see this dynamic in action, you see it everywhere.

  44. 44.

    dmsilev

    @waspuppet:

    See, what’s happening is House Republicans did what Trump told them to do, and it’s not working, so they need a two-week recess to ask him what to do next. Makes perfect sense.

    Also worth pointing out that the Continuing Resolutions keeping the government running expire less than a week after the House comes back from the GOP’s break. Have they made any real progress on that? Not much that’s visible.

  47. 47.

    Starfish

    @Chief Oshkosh: Some of the local east coast politicians very much have signs on the road work basically saying that the current mayor or governor is fixing the roads. I am always skeptical of this when it is an election year in which the mayor or governor is running because it feels like they are using public dollars to campaign because the signs are put up by the state.

  48. 48.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Finally watched Maestro last night and damn, that was a hell of a movie.  So much better than Oppenheimer!  Actually made us feel things and care about the characters.  Bradley Cooper’s performance was absolutely incredible, but Carey Mulligan still managed to steal the show with her performance, especially in the third act.  And that long scene of Bernstein conducting Mahler in that huge cathedral was one of the most riveting and moving scenes of all the Oscar contenders that we’ve seen so far.  If you love music, history, drama, complex characters, love, LGBTQ stories etc., definitely check out Maestro.  The choice of using a prosthetic was definitely bad given the history of anti-semitism, and an entirely valid criticism, but honestly after about five minutes I didn’t even really notice it much (though I can definitely understand that it would be totally off-putting to others, especially people with Jewish ancestry).  All in all, a really excellent film.  After Barbie, probably the best film of 2023 (still have yet to see Killers Of Flower Moon, American Fiction, The Holdovers and Nyad).  If Barbie doesn’t win Best Picture (which sadly, it probably won’t) Maestro should.  It was truly superb.

  50. 50.

    stinger

    @Betty Cracker:

    @Anne Laurie:

    Wow — I had only heard about a couple of those instances.  And this is Republican “leadership”, not just local yokels flying their Stars and Bars flags and hollering insults out of their pickup window.

  55. 55.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @schrodingers_cat:

    As I see it, his voters are a bigger problem than he is.

    They went looking for him.  He didn’t trick them, he’s what they already wanted.  He started out as their proof that the worst white man is better than the best black man.  Then they got a better look, and he is their primal scream that they are the greatest people in their world.  His white supremacy proves they can get their world where only white people matter back.  His pig-ignorant dishonesty proves that they are always right, smarter than people who actually know things.  His sleaze proves that women are supposed to be sex objects, not people.  His corruption proves they have a right to be given whatever they want, and rules don’t apply to them.  His attempts to be dictator prove that it is their right to always get their way.  The list goes on.

  56. 56.

    Starfish

    So I have this former coworker who is reasonably liberal. He moved to Indonesia because his significant other is there. He recently started writing me about the US election, and it was awkward because I didn’t know where he stood on this. He is down on Joe Biden because he is old and good with sending weapons to Israel, and I thought his world view makes sense because “Of course, you are in a Muslim majority country.” He wants Gavin Newsome to run, but I don’t think Newsome is going to run until the next election.

    Anyway, I can’t imagine Harris defending Palestine with the same enthusiasm she is using to defend Ukraine in the video in the original post.

  57. 57.

    eclare

    @zhena gogolia:

    That would be my concern, I’m not a classical music fan, and I honestly don’t know anything about Bernstein except that he was a conductor.  That’s it.

  60. 60.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @zhena gogolia: Interesting.  It felt fairly straight-forward to me.  My only gripe is that I would have loved for it to spend time on the writing of West Side Story (one of my all time favorite films, soundtracks) but I get why they didn’t since there was more important stuff with his affairs, marriage and late-life issues (trying to avoid spoilers for anyone reading along) that they needed to show.  I never saw A Star Is Born, but maybe I’ll have to check it out now.  I had no idea Cooper was this good of an actor, honestly.

  63. 63.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @eclare: All I knew was that he was a legendary conductor and that’s pretty much it.  But that didn’t really take away from the enjoyment for me.  The film tells most of what you need to know.  And unlike Tar, it was nice to have a film about a virtuoso in classical music who wasn’t a complete psychopath and was actually quite likable, though flawed.

  68. 68.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah I know.  It was kind of funny when that came out because the haters were very vocal.  I thought the make up was actually rather impressive.  They did an amazing job of aging Cooper and Mulligan in a way that looked much more realistic than usually seen in movies/tv.  Like I woulda sworn Cooper was actually in his 60s-70s, in real life.  I even mentioned it to my wife while we were watching.

  69. 69.

    TBone

    @OzarkHillbilly: OMG 😳

    The pastor at my former little country church once surprised hubby and I while we were in the middle of a full on long kiss in aisle 3.  He tapped me on the shoulder and wanted a hug too!  He got one. I can’t believe you made me remember that today ❤️

  70. 70.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @NotMax: I’ve heard that other than Lily Gladstone’s performance it wasn’t all that great.  I really wanna see her shine but three hours is a big commitment…

  76. 76.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @EarthWindFire:

    MTG and company just can’t keep their racism to themselves. Did Nazi that coming. Uh-huh.

    We occasionally comment on how blood-red districts are obviously a lost cost for candidates but how it’s important to have a candidate and how it’s hard to fathom what motivates somebody to go thru that windmill tilting exercise.

    And yet, there are actually 6 Dems who’ve filed to run in the primary in May:

    https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia%27s_14th_Congressional_District_election,_2024

    It’s heartening.  Shockingly, I know one of them.  He’s doing something I could never bring myself to do short of winning $500m in the lottery.  Nah, even then I’d probably be on the campaign trail against some clown like MTG and then start using fuck like a comma to describe her and it would all go downhill from there.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TBone: I’m not particularly romantic. I proposed while sitting on the stove. The most romantic thing I do is bring her coffee in bed every morning. Valentines Day? Fuhgedaboudit.

  82. 82.

    TBone

    @frosty: I downloaded it, but I’m so clueless I don’t know why it works so well.  I didn’t have to do anything special after downloading and setting it as primary search engine.

  85. 85.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @NotMax:

    Scorcese’s been making the same film for decades now.  It might have worked the first couple of times but since?  I do urge everybody to read the book, it’s great.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s by far the best iteration of that movie mainly because of those two.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Many, if not most, ads on the internet run though google, one way or another.

    So when using a different search engine like Duck Duck Go, well, I would be surprised if they do ads using their competitor’s ad service.

  87. 87.

    karen marie

    @Baud: You have to love the way Republicans are protected by the framing. Democrats support but conservatives oppose, not Republicans.

  88. 88.

    WaterGirl

    @waspuppet:

    See, what’s happening is House Republicans did what Trump told them to do, and it’s not working, so they need a two-week recess to ask him what to do next. Makes perfect sense.

    Not sure whether you’re being snarky there or not, but see no reason to discount that as an actual possibility.

  89. 89.

    TBone

    @OzarkHillbilly: I dated a union carpenter once. 100% Italian.  He betrayed me with exquisite panache.  All I can say is fuck that guy, but I’m 1000% a union girl.  He once gave me a rattlesnake T-shirt that says “Will strike if provoked!” and I actually wore it to work one day at law office 🤣 the best part of that relationship was the T-shirt.

  91. 91.

    eclare

    @Baud:

    And lost 66-34.  I wonder what he did with the millions that he raised.

    IIRC Sara Gideon also raised a ton of money and had a lot leftover.

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Negative partisanship is amplified in fundraising, and it becomes personal when someone like Rep. Greene is the target. The Democrat running against Rep. Greene can count on a good cash haul, like Marcus Flowers received two years ago. That’s not neccesarily a good thing, as the Gideon, Harrison and McGrath Senate campaigns showed in 2020, but it’s a fact.

  95. 95.

    Betty Cracker

    @Starfish: From what I’ve read, Harris is a strong advocate within the admin for a greater focus on protecting civilians and getting aid into Gaza. I’m not sure the comment about her tone in that clip is completely fair given that she’s addressing the historical significance of the U.S. response to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and its implications for alliances worldwide. I think the admin could do more to rein in Netanyahu, but the history and circumstances are entirely different in that conflict.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TBone: ​ Heh. I’ve worked with a lot of assholes over the years, more than a few sweethearts too. I could’ve used that t-shirt.

  101. 101.

    schrodingers_cat

    @UncleEbeneezer: Oppenheimer succeeded to a large extent in bringing the Manhattan project to life and what it must have been like being there. It managed to convey what those physicists  achieved in a short span of time. It was not an easy engineering problem to solve given the time they had.

    The second half felt disjointed and could have been another movie IMHO. But the ambivalence about nuclear weapons was not limited to Oppenheimer alone among the scientists at Las Alamos. Hans Bethe who headed the theoretical physics division and a Nobel Prize winner himself became an advocate of nuclear proliferation. I attended a talk of his where spoke about it rather passionately. This was in the 90s he was very old by then.

  102. 102.

    Another Scott

    @Mousebumples: It hasn’t made me more productive or more handsome or cut my risk of getting hit by an asteroid, but it’s a good phone.  ;-)  I wish it were a little narrower (it’s kinda hard to get in and out of my shirt pocket with a case), but it’s good.

    It’s substantially faster than my S20+ 5G in connecting to my Synology NAS on the network, but otherwise I haven’t really noticed any massive speedup.  But that’s fine – once something is fast enough, then it’s fast enough.  (I don’t play games.)

    I still have barely touched the pen – I probably would have been happier if there was an identical model without it (to make it narrower – the Plus didn’t seem as good this cycle).  I might change my mind if I ever start using the pen.

    Good luck with yours!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  104. 104.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TBone: ​ I am my father’s son. He was an inveterate flirt. Didn’t bother Ma at all. She liked to say, “He can look at the menu as long as he eats at home.” And he knew what was good for him.

  105. 105.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @prostratedragon:

    Good point.  I’ll need to watch it in full (I only caught a bit of it on an airplane flight once, didn’t make an impression but then, it was an airplane flight in steerage).

  108. 108.

    Mousebumples

    @Another Scott: I still have barely touched the pen – I probably would have been happier if there was an identical model without it (to make it narrower – the Plus didn’t seem as good this cycle). I might change my mind if I ever start using the pen.

    Agreed on both counts. I’ve barely used the pen, but the Ultra seemed like the best option, though I forget why now, lol.

  112. 112.

    Percysowner

     

    About a week and a half ago I posted that I was taking in three senior foster kitties, 10, 8 and 6. I thought I’d do a quick update. Two of them settled in almost right away. Goldie, the second oldest a big butterscotch boy was the biggest surprise because the rescue kept telling me that he was the shyest and most skittish and it might take a month or more before he would come near me. He was the first to come by and has made himself at home, sitting on his cat tree, coming for pets, sitting near me when I’m in the living room. Everyone was shocked. Smokey, the oldest cat, a large steel gray tom followed his buddy within minutes and is warming up. He sleeps with me at night. He spends time in the room with me. I’m not his the way I am Goldie’s, but he likes me.

    Then there is the little girl, Tinkerbell. I was told she was the most adventurous and would come around pretty quickly, Well, apparently not. She does come out once or twice a day, wants pets and has even sat next to me, but then she hides again. The bigger issue is that for the first time in 50 years of cat owning, she has set off an allergic reaction in me. I know it’s her because until she decided to snuggle up to me, I was fine. I have antihistamines and eye drops on order. I’m getting air purifiers tomorrow. My annual checkup is Thursday and I’ll ask my doctor about any allergy shots I can take. I am also planning on getting a Roomba to keep the dander down. I really hope I can make this work, because she is very sweet, just shy, and she needs a home. Stay Tuned for more details.

  114. 114.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Percysowner: You can always do what I did to get rid of my cat allergies: Sleep with the cat on top my head. That is actually how I got rid of them, tho tbh it wasn’t my doing. He belonged to my room mate and he just decided that was his spot.

  115. 115.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Percysowner: ​
     

    Is this happening every time? I ask b/c like you, I’ve owned cats for 50+ years and only in the last 1-2 years has one of ours, we’ve had her a dozen years, occasionally sets off a reaction like you describe.

    Doesn’t happen often or is there any pattern. I can pet/scritch her many times a day for months on end, then suddenly, one day, book, it happens.

  116. 116.

    Geminid

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Back in 2022, I knew (slightly) a Democrat who was running against Bob Good in the Virginia 5th CD. Real good guy. Then the new congressional district map came out, and the 5th went from R+5 to R+9. So the candidate suspended his campaign. He kept the ~$250,000 he had raised and formed a PAC with his wife in charge. They’re probably dishing the money out to other candidates. At least I hope so.

    Denver Riggleman, the Republican Bob Good replaced in 2020, ended up with over a million dollars in his campaign fund. Riggleman may be saving it for another run for political office. The charisma-free Riggleman will need a lot more than a million bucks though if he runs for statewide office.

  117. 117.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Chief Oshkosh: Having had an Aunt and Mom who both went through similar journeys, it was absolutely heartbreaking to watch but so well done.  So impressed with Mulligan’s performance.

  119. 119.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    I thought candidates could only use their fundraising for elections, either theirs or others.  They can’t simply transfer the funds to their personal account.

  121. 121.

    Alison Rose

    Jeez, that photo of Greece is beautiful. If I had ever been able to travel internationally, Greece would have been in my top 5, maybe top 3, destinations. It’s gorgeous, it has great weather, and it would have been an easier place than many others to figure out what I could eat as a vegetarian.

  124. 124.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Layer8Problem: And no matter how hard he tries, every Scorsese movie is just such a Dude Movie.  We tried watching The Departed (I had seen it but wife hadn’t) and ten minutes in I realized there was no way she was gonna be able to sit through it.  Same for Wolf of Wall St.  I absolutely loved Goodfellas and I can watch that one over and over again, but I think I’ve grown/matured out of the Scorsese, teenage-boy mindset.

  125. 125.

    Percysowner

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: ​
     It’s hard to say right now, she just came out for pets 2 days ago, so I may well adapt or it may be intermittent. I’m hoping for either. This has all been complicated by the fact that I caught a virus from my grandson, so I’m feeling yucky in general. The itchy eyes are definitely an allergy reaction, the rest of the bleh is the virus. I’m hoping it will sort itself out with meds and time.

  128. 128.

    eclare

    @Baud:

    They can make charitable donations, which I think is what Gideon mostly did.  But she did not “spread the wealth” to other candidates, IIRC.

  130. 130.

    Another Scott

    @Mousebumples: The camera setup is supposed to be better/more flexible, the titanium frame is supposed to be stronger, there’s the 1TB storage option on the Ultra (I got 512).  Some say WiFi 7 on the Ultra vs WiFi 6e on the Plus.  Some say stronger glass on the Ultra, and it apparently has better anti-reflection properties.   (There are lots of obvious errors in the tables of features on some stories on these things – I’m not sure how much to trust them.)

    And I assume the Ultra is more future-proof.

    I got the Ultra on Google Fi for half-off.  It was a no-brainer for me.  It’s worth spending an extra second or so getting it into and out of my shirt pocket.  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  131. 131.

    eclare

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    My issue with The Departed was that it was a remake of a Hong Kong film, and it wasn’t Scorsese’s take on the original, whole pieces of dialogue/action were lifted.  I quit after about twenty minutes figuring I’d already seen it.

    Not a big Scorsese fan.

  134. 134.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Speaking of fundraising, the FEC reports for the 2023 4th Quarter came out last month. The VA07 numbers got my attention, because we’re having an open primary to replace Abigail Spangerger. She’s running for Governor instead of reelection.

    The four top Democrats were former Delegate Elizabeth Guzman, who raised about $60,000; Delegate Brianna Sewell, ~$100,000; Prince William County Supervisor Margaret Franklin, ~`$140,000; and retired Army Colonel Eugene Vindman, a little over $2 million.

    Vindman is well networked nationally, and VoteVets is all in for him. So they and other allies like Rick Wilson coordinated a “shock and awe” campaign launch that netted him $1 million the first day.

    I’m a Sewell stan, but I’m suspect that Vindman will be our nominee. I just hope he’s a good campaigner; Abigail Spanberger is a formidable politician and a good fit for the district, and she won by only 4.2% last time.

  136. 136.

    Geminid

    @Baud: The guy who dropped out of the VA05 race put the money he raised into a PAC, so he cannot use it personally. I doubt if his wife is taking too much to run it either. They do not strike me as the grifter type. They both are known people within the Virginia Democratic Party, and she was a Clinton Elector in 2016.

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    @eclare: To me she’ll always be the star of the Doctor Who episode “Blink” (possibly the best single story in the history of the series).

  142. 142.

    Bill Arnold

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Richard L. Garwin is another. Worked on the H-Bomb in the 1950s, and has been a vigorous advocate for nuclear arms control since at least the 80s. (I saw him deliver an arms control lecture at a large university in the late 1980s related to the SDI.) Very intelligent man. (In his mid 90s now; hope his brain is in good health.)

  144. 144.

    Citizen Alan

    @schrodingers_cat:

    As I see it, his voters are a bigger problem than he is.

    Agreed. None of our efforts to defeat Shitgibbon address the horrific reality that 10s of millions of Americans want him or someone like him to be president.

  146. 146.

    Citizen Alan

    @Matt McIrvin: NuWho has consistently impressed me with the number of young actors who appeared on it in their early 20s and then exploded 6 ir so years afterwards.  Most notably Karen Gillan, who wasn’t even my favorite companion.

  147. 147.

    VFX Lurker

    @UncleEbeneezer: After Barbie, probably the best film of 2023 (still have yet to see Killers Of Flower Moon, American Fiction, The Holdovers and Nyad).

    I have not yet watched these films in full, but Killers of the Flower Moon and Nyad both have well-earned nominations for the Visual Effects Society Awards. The ocean VFX in Nyad was ASTONISHING.

  149. 149.

    Mousebumples

    @Another Scott: And I assume the Ultra is more future-proof.

    As your recounting all of that, it sounds familiar. I think I also liked the faster/newer processor. Don’t need it now, but my laptop from 2017 is still running strong, when I got way more RAM, faster processor, etc. I’d rather pay a little more now and have it last longer before it becomes obsolete.

    I went with 512GB too. My first phone without a separate microSD card…

  150. 150.

    Juju

    @Geminid: I’ll give you McGrath, but Gideon made Susan Collins spend money she wouldn’t have had to spend otherwise, and Harrison had Senator Pitty Pat Graham in a panic and falling to his fainting couch a few times.  If you don’t run, you definitely don’t win.

  152. 152.

    Matt McIrvin

    @VFX Lurker: I haven’t seen that many of the films of 2023, but my personal favorite was actually Godzilla Minus One.

    Barbie and the Spider-Verse sequel were strong too.

  153. 153.

    Geminid

    @Juju: I’m not much of a political donor myself, but if I were I hope I wouldn’t be too judgmental about other peoples decisions in that area. So I’ve got no big problem with those who pumped all that money into these three 2020 Senate campaigns. I was just making an observation on the power of negative partisanship when it comes to campaign fundraising. People really want to donate against Republicans they dislike intensely, even if they are running in an R+20 district like Rep. Greene was when Marcus Flowers challenged her.

    On the other hand, Adam Frisch raised a ton of money when he ran against Lauren Boebert, and he almost beat her. That district was not nearly as red as Greene’s, though and Boebert is an exceptionally crappy politician.

  155. 155.

    Juju

    @Geminid: I sent money to Adam Frisch, but not to Marcus Flowers. I still get texts and emails from both, but not as many from Frisch since Boebert said she was going to be a common carpetbagger.

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    @Juju: Frisch has a tougher race now that Boebert is gone. Some political scientists like to say that candidate quality cannot overcome district demographics, but Boebert almost provided a limiting case for that theorum. And candidate quality can make the difference in a close race, I think.

  157. 157.

    Quadrillipede

    @NotMax: I bumped into that video last night — well worth the 30 minutes or so… 👓🍿👍

    [Might put the channel on my “informative and wholesome YouTube channels” list as well.]

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