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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Sunday Night Open Thread

Sunday Night Open Thread

by | 71 Comments

This post is in: 

WTF- I take a couple days off the website and Mistermix and his wife are hitting raves? YOLO, as the kids say. Maybe he’ll send us some fancy pics from coachella and burning man.

In other news, I have just been super busy with work work which is different from just work in that the former is for an organization and the latter is just shit I have to do to keep the house from collapsing on me and from Audrey in the backyard taking over. I apparently am getting more done at my job than the fucking house Republicans, who are dead set on letting Putin win and fucking Ukraine.

In other news, Netanyahu is still doing his level best to drag us into a war with Iran, something he has been trying to do since he was sabotaging the Iran deal a decade or more ago. At some point, we are going to have to decide to do something about Israel. Personally, I would have cut off all military a while back, and at the very least put some conditions on it- which they would have summarily ignored, and then I would have to do something more drastic. But this shit can not go on forever.

I’m starting to see the re-emergence of Trump stickers and paraphernalia around here, but not as much. Just the ones who do have something in their yard have like 40 things. The nutters are fully invested. He’ll win WV by 70%, and there are a number of straight up fascists running as “constitutional conservatives” in these here parts, and they’ll probably win, too. All of this is making my eventual exit from West Virginia easier.

Back to the last few episodes of Black Sails. I think I might let Fallout marinate for a little bit before I watch it

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  1. 1.

    Martin

    Heard Fallout is pretty good, against my expectations. Video game adaptations don’t really make a lot of sense as a concept.

  2. 2.

    bbleh

    Let’s see who gets out first.  Targeting 1 June but that’s optimistic.

    More than the average share of cultists here, but I think there’s also a big chunk who don’t know WTF and they’re just going along with the shouters or “playing it safe.”

    It’s funny though, when I make snarky remarks about TIFG’s lies in, say, the supermarket (fortunately I look like maybe not the best person to mess with), I always get a few bright, slightly ornery smiles, often from older women, and routinely from younger folks, eg cashiers.  I agree about the 70%, but the 30% aren’t just rolling over.

  3. 3.

    J.

    Netanyahu and his supporters are awful in the same or similar way that Trump and his supporters are. However, there are a lot of people in Israel who don’t support Netanyahu and his policies and want him out and don’t deserve to be bombed out of existence, which is what Iran and pick your Middle East terrorist organization will do the second the U.S. stops supporting Israel. Praying Israel gets rid of Netanyahu before it’s too late; ditto Trump going down in flames here.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Re: the Trump fanatics, the Post has a big article up about those who ‘invested’ in Truth Social and of course are in process of losing their shirts. Not at all surprisingly , they all Still Believe.

  7. 7.

    MattF

    @dmsilev: Investing in Truth Social is a test of faith. And Trump is well aware of that. Reports are that the last half hour or so of his recent rallies are straight out of evangelical revivals— although without the baptism and rebirth bits.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    @MattF: I think the right term is ‘affinity scam’. Multi-level marketers targeting Mormon communities and so forth.

  9. 9.

    Gin & Tonic

    The level of drone and missile attacks directed at Israel, that has all the talking heads and “serious” Washington so up in arms, has been daily life in Ukraine for two years. Ukrainians are not blind, and see the contrast.

  10. 10.

    Shalimar

    @Martin: The amount spent making video games now is far higher than the amount spent making movies, including to the writers of the big-budget titles.  I suspect they’re a lot more adaptable now than they used to be.

  13. 13.

    VFX Lurker

    @Martin: Heard Fallout is pretty good, against my expectations. Video game adaptations don’t really make a lot of sense as a concept.

    I know good video game adaptations are rare, but I’ve heard only good things about The Last of Us. I also enjoyed the Super Mario Bros 2023 film.

    I’ve watched the first six episodes of Fallout so far, and it’s a beautiful, weird show. The art direction looks amazeballs.

  15. 15.

    Ejoiner

    Almost through with Fallout and it is excellent – my wife is not a gamer and was reluctant to pick it up and she loves it. Great production, great characters, good story/mystery, etc. – a bit on the violent side, but with a heavy dose of dark humor that makes it watchable.

    Also, just finished “The Gentlemen” on Netflix and I was just gob smacked…eight stunningly fun and frisky episodes. Didn’t have it on my radar, but looooved it :)

  18. 18.

    Baud

    Trust nothing, but via reddit

    NYT’: Netanyahu dropped retaliation against Iran after Biden call
    The decision was made in part because Tehran’s drone and missile attacks “caused relatively minor damage.

  20. 20.

    Jay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Iran shot in one night, as many drones, cruise and ballistic missiles at Israel in one night, that ruZZia shoots at Ukraine in a week,

    not a single one got through because the US, Jordan and Israel shot them all down as they crossed into their engagement zones.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine is stretched out of air defenses and NATO doesn’t care that ruZZian missiles and drones cross their airspace to hit Ukraine and Israel provides no support to Ukraine.

  23. 23.

    RaflW

    I went snowboarding today (spring slush can be super fun in the Rockies), and managed to not think about politics, or Trump, or any of that sh*t for like 5 solid hours. It was bliss.

    Now, well, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Kudos to WaterGirl, the numbers over on the right for AZ & NV are looking good!

  25. 25.

    Kelly

    @Ejoiner: I second “The Gentlemen”. Director Guy Richie working the same vein as “Snatch” and “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”

  26. 26.

    RaflW

    @Baud: Republicans want to take on the attributes of Russia.

    Come to think of it, the way things are going already, the Boeing 737Max isn’t going to prove to be much more reliable than a Tupolev Tu-204.

  27. 27.

    MazeDancer

    Fallout is very, very violent. If you like violence, you’ll love Fallout.

    When they started experimenting on dogs in Episode 2, I shut it off.

  28. 28.

    RaflW

    @dmsilev: Okie dude: “I know good and well it’s in Trump’s hands, and he’s got plans,” he said. “I have no doubt it’s going to explode sometime.”

    Well, yes. As they say, be careful what you wish for.

  29. 29.

    Dan B

    @RaflW: There have been many scathing front page articles about Boeing in the Seattle Times.  I’m loving it.  They were a great company until the bean counters.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    GILBERT — It was Annie Lewis’ idea to put a “Republicans for Biden” sign in the front yard in the lead-up to 2020. For her, it came down to civility. As a teacher for over a decade, the mother of six little ones, and a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she felt then-President Trump did not show true leadership.
    “I was embarrassed anytime a clip of Trump, at that time, was on and my children were in the room,” Lewis said.
    Lewis was not alone in her thinking. In 2020, GOP residents of Maricopa County in Arizona banded together to stand up against Trump. The signs were created by Dan Barker, a leader in the Maricopa County LDS community and former GOP-appointed judge, who wanted to find a way to support Biden without giving up his lifelong Republican identity.
    His wife, Nan, was the one who pushed him to have a sign.
    “She probably got there quicker than I did,” said Barker, who in 2020 started the political action committee Arizona Republicans Who Believe in Treating Others with Respect. “I just wasn’t quite comfortable identifying with the Democratic Party. And so for me, I said, hey, well, I’d rather do something like, ‘Republicans for Biden.’ ”
    Barker doled out thousands of signs, picketing at busy street corners and standing them up on lawns. Sometimes they were torn down, and other times they created controversy on community Facebook pages. But Biden ultimately won the state by just over 10,000 votes and flipped Maricopa County, the county with the largest share of Arizona’s voters. Barker credits the win, in part, to his campaign.
    “That’s one of the main reasons we did it — so that people would know that you could be a conservative and vote for Biden because you did not find Trump acceptable,” Barker said. “And Biden was somebody that you can vote for, you don’t have to agree with every position he takes.”
    With Trump back in the GOP’s top seat, Barker hopes to reignite his PAC’s efforts.

  32. 32.

    Jackie

    @MattF: Last night he gave his MAGAts a history lesson on The Battle of Gettysburg:

    Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday went off on a tangent about the Battle of Gettysburg, prompting him to be ridiculed on social media.

    “Gettysburg. What an unbelievable battle. That was the battle of Gettysburg,” Trump said. “What an unbelievable I mean, it was so much and so interesting and so vicious and horrible and so beautiful and so many different ways… Gettysburg wow.”

     

    Several people posted their shock, combined with amusement, including one of our favorite Dem representatives:

    Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said, “Trump: Gettysburg, what an amazing, horrible, just incredible, classy, terrible thing, really beautiful. I kinda went there, but had the wrong address. Robert E Lee a war hero that wasn’t captured, loser on the hill, but we miss him, really a great guy, believe me.”

    rawstory.com/trump-mocked-gettysburg/

    Read the link to enjoy other comments!😁

  33. 33.

    Martin

    @VFX Lurker: The problem with video game adaptations is that video game are interactive. You have fairly linear stories which you have a very minor ability to influence (Last of Us) and you have world building stories where you have a lot of local influence but no material global influence (Fallout).

    But film is a linear medium and any story that would adapt well to it was probably better adapted to print than to video games. So exploring the world of Horizon is appealing, but finding a story that would include Aloy feels disruptive because the point of the games is that *I* get to be the protagonist and *I* get to advance the world narrative. In the case of Fallout, you have this background world and just shove random stories into it. That’s easier to execute, but also kind of misses why people play the games. How many players after emerging from vault 111 *actually* start looking for their son, and how many take this blank canvas and immediately shuffle that to the bottom of the deck? We like the canvas on which Fallout plays out, but are usually ambivalent to the story with NV being the strongest of the lot.

    I don’t know how you write Borderlands incorporating both played characters and the world where the played characters story arcs are pretty well established. Either you’re retelling a story I played, or you’re asking me to rewrite the world.

    TLOU provides an opportunity to tell the story leading up to this world. Fallout can do the same. Horizon begs for it. Tell the story of the last days of humanity. Those are bits of lore we have from the game but without the story fully being told.

    But the underlying problem is that video game storytelling is generally pretty trash and having compelling stories that lead to compelling game play is incredibly hard. So the things that would adapt well to film are usually the things being sacrificed to make the game good.

  34. 34.

    Jackie

    @Jay: I was about to ask who Audrey was, too; going by JC’s description, I was HOPING it was the willow! Otherwise, eeeks!

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    and from Audrey in the backyard taking over.

    I take this to mean the willow has acquired a nickname.

    Our willow had an intervention by a real arborist last month to the tune of $1600. Those are California dollars so probably a hunnert fiddy in WV dollars.

  36. 36.

    trollhattan

    @Jackie: Jesus Fucking Tapdancing Kombucha-brewing Christ that’s not made up!

    God help us all.

    Did you know Frederick Douglass nearly won Gettysburg? Really, people are talking about it more all the time lately.

  38. 38.

    bbleh

    @trollhattan: Lee.  What a great name, right?  Lee.  Like heroic-lee.  Know what I’m saying? Heroically.  And he was heroic, right?  Am I right?  Heroic Lee.  Boy that’s saying something, isn’t it?

    An AI could do this sh!t at this point.  In fact, probably better.  As has been observed widely, he’s mostly a symptom, an accelerant, a parasite.  The real problem is in the brains of his followers.

  39. 39.

    geg6

    @Kelly:

    That means I won’t be catching it.  Guy Ritchie makes disgustingly violent films.  Got roped into seeing the two you mentioned and that level of violence is unwatchable for me.

  40. 40.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jackie: You must see Little Shop of Horrors. Audrey is the cannibalistic plant that grows and grows and cries out, “Feed me!” And Seymour has to feed her.

  46. 46.

    marcopolo

    I enjoyed Fallout.  I played the game(s) so long ago I won’t say I remember them all all that well but the show did a few things right.  First, they nailed the dystopian/absurd/dark humor/anti-corporate tone/ambience of the game.  Second, they really just dive in and show the world.  There’s a lot of lore/history and creatures and things and the show is chock full of it.  Third, they gave the three leads compelling/decent character arcs with pretty good writing.  Last, everything is woven together really well so while watching you can have aha moments.  I think Amazon screwed up a little dropping all eight episodes at once–each one is rich enough that if they’d made them weekly I think they’d have built some interest from week to week with folks opining on what’s going to happen next.  In that vein, I’d recommend folks watching it to watch one episode at a time and spread them out a little if you can–and if you can avoid being spoiled by all the stuff that’s out there.  Oh, and don’t overthink the stuff happening.  It’s a tv show based on a video game where some really absurd/random/wacky stuff happens from time to time.  As for the comment about dogs up above, there was a scene where newborn pups were being weighed–I assume to gauge their viability, but I wouldn’t call that experimenting on them.  That is not to say that experimenting does not occur in Fallout–in fact, the morality of experimentation is one of the subjects the game explores.

  47. 47.

    geg6

    If anyone is Billy Joel fan, CBS has him doing his 100th sell-out concert during his residency at MSG.  It’s live!  And amazing.  This residency has gone on, once a month for the past ten years.  Highly recommend.

  48. 48.

    Mike in NC

    I played a few of the Fallout game franchise on PC, including the one set in Washington DC and the one set in Las Vegas. Watched the first episode of the series on Prime and it was pretty good.

    Hoping to turn on the TV tomorrow and seeing Fat Bastard in an orange jumpsuit while trussed up like Hannibal Lechter in “Silence of the Lambs”.

  50. 50.

    dexwood

    @MazeDancer: We watched the first episode. So bloody and gory. Found nothing entertaining or captivating in what we saw. We looked at each other after it ended and said “nah, fuck that” let’s find something else.

  51. 51.

    geg6

    “Hoping to turn on the TV tomorrow and seeing Fat Bastard in an orange jumpsuit while trussed up like Hannibal Lechter in “Silence of the Lambs”.

    Oh, if only!

  52. 52.

    Layer8Problem

    @geg6:  Too sinister.  Some kinda weird combination of M. R. James’ “The Ash Tree” and Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows”.  As well as that tree next to the window in Poltergeist.  I recommend that Cole move, safety first and all that.

  53. 53.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jay: NATO doesn’t care that ruZZian missiles and drones cross their airspace to hit Ukraine and Israel provides no support to Ukraine.​

    Just curious, but have you glanced at a map of Eastern Europe recently? I very clearly recall that there is no way Russki “missiles and drones cross NATO airspace to hit Ukraine” unless they’re launched from subs in the North Atlantic. Or unless they are deliberately violating NATO airspace & then making a U-turn to head back across the Ukrainian border before the NATO air defenses can drop them, which seems both wasteful and stupid, even by Putin’s standards, and which I have never heard a single accusation that stuck. (IIRC the rocket that killed a few in eastern Poland was later determined to be a Ukrainian interceptor that crossed the border by accident in pursuit of a target.)

    IOW, as distressingly often the case, you seem not to know WTF you’re talking about.

  54. 54.

    wjca

    @Shalimar: The contrast will only get more obvious when Johnson tries to bring a bill to the floor with aid for Israel but not Ukraine.

    I rather hope he does.  Because once it’s on the floor, it can be amended to put the Ukraine aid back in.  Guessing he’s too clueless about how Congress works to rwaluze that.

  55. 55.

    Jackie

    @geg6: THANK YOU!

    It’s only live ET, so your heads-up gave me, PT, time to record! We won’t see it until 9 pm PT.

  56. 56.

    wjca

    @bbleh:  he’s mostly a symptom, an accelerant, a parasite.  The real problem is in the utter lack of brains of his followers.

    FTFY

  57. 57.

    Jay

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    LMFAO,

    globalnews.ca/news/10380843/russia-missile-poland-ukraine/

    Keep up old man,

    Did you know that modern ballistic and cruse missiles, let alone drones, don’t have to fly in a straight line any more?

    bbc.com/news/world-europe-66727788

    washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/10/romania-moldova-russia-missiles-ukraine-nato/

    rferl.org/a/moldova-russian-cruise-missiles-air-space-ukraine-attacks/32073258.html

    On 5 December 2022, as Russia launched a wave of targeted missile strikes against Ukraine, a missile fell within the territory of Moldova, near the city of Briceni. Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov claimed that this and the incident at Przewodów were similar and that the missile in both cases originated from a S-300 missile system.[64] A third missile fell into the Moldovan village of Larga on 14 January 2023[65][66] and a fourth missile fell in the same village on 16 February 2023.[67] On 25 September, a missile crashed into Chițcani, for the first time in Moldovan territory controlled by Transnistria.[68] On 11 February 2024, fragments of a Russian drone were found in the Moldovan village of Etulia.[69] This happened again on 17 February in Etulia Nouă[70] and on 4 April again in Etulia.[71]

    In April 2023, the wreck of a Russian missile, likely a Kh-55 missile launched over Belarus on 16 December 2022, was discovered in forests near Bydgoszcz in Poland, after having crossed around 500km of Polish territory.[72][73][74][75]

    On 29 December 2023, during that day’s bombardment of Ukraine by Russia, a Russian missile travelled through Polish airspace for about 40km before turning back towards Ukraine.[76]

  58. 58.

    Jay

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    On 5 December 2022, as Russia launched a wave of targeted missile strikes against Ukraine, a missile fell within the territory of Moldova, near the city of Briceni. Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov claimed that this and the incident at Przewodów were similar and that the missile in both cases originated from a S-300 missile system.[64] A third missile fell into the Moldovan village of Larga on 14 January 2023[65][66] and a fourth missile fell in the same village on 16 February 2023.[67] On 25 September, a missile crashed into Chițcani, for the first time in Moldovan territory controlled by Transnistria.[68] On 11 February 2024, fragments of a Russian drone were found in the Moldovan village of Etulia.[69] This happened again on 17 February in Etulia Nouă[70] and on 4 April again in Etulia.[71]

    In April 2023, the wreck of a Russian missile, likely a Kh-55 missile launched over Belarus on 16 December 2022, was discovered in forests near Bydgoszcz in Poland, after having crossed around 500km of Polish territory.[72][73][74][75]

    On 29 December 2023, during that day’s bombardment of Ukraine by Russia, a Russian missile travelled through Polish airspace for about 40km before turning back towards Ukraine.[76]

    Keep up old man.

  59. 59.

    Jackie

    Jack Smith strikes again!

    Special Counsel Jack Smith Sunday smacked down Donald Trump’s effort to ask Judge Cannon to delay certain deadlines in his classified documents case, citing the criminal hush money trial he is facing.

    One day earlier, Trump moved to use his upcoming criminal case in New York to seek a delay on disclosure deadlines to reveal information to Smith. In Trump’s hush money trial set for Monday, the former president stands accused of falsifying business records to conceal a “catch-and-kill” scheme aimed at influencing the 2016 presidential election.

    Smith’s response to Trump’s delay bid came the next day.

    “This Court set the May 9 deadline fully apprised of defendant Trump’s New York trial. Although the defendants’ motion reads as though the Court were unaware of Trump’s other case, and as if the defendants had no forewarning that a Section 5 deadline would be set, those premises are plainly wrong,” Smith’s motion states. “The defendants have had ample notice that these deadlines would be scheduled and have already had months to complete the work. The cases the defendants cite to claim a constitutional right to postponement are inapposite for these reasons and others.”

    “Each time the Court sets a new deadline in this case and attempts to keep it moving toward trial, the defendants reflexively ask for an adjournment. “That must stop,” the brief says.

    “The Court should deny defendants’ motions to continue the May 9 expert witness disclosure and CIPA Section 5 notice deadlines.”

    National security attorney Bradley Moss used a fire emoji in describing the reply.

    “Smith’s team snaps back at Trump for trying to indefinitely postpone the [Mar-a-Lago] docs proceeding, saying that Trump has had months to prepare for the pending CIPA deadline, he has local counsel who can sub in while his primary lawyers are busy in the NYC trial, and basically begs Judge Cannon to put an end to Trump’s delay tactics,” he wrote.

    rawstory.com/jack-smith-2667771640/

    Go, Jack, go!

  60. 60.

    Marc

    @Uncle Cosmo: Or unless they are deliberately violating NATO airspace & then making a U-turn to head back across the Ukrainian border before the NATO air defenses can drop them, which seems both wasteful and stupid, even by Putin’s standards, and which I have never heard a single accusation that stuck.

    The most recent incursion of a Russian cruise missile into Polish airspace was in the vicinity of Oserdow, which is due north of Lviv and due south of Belarusian airspace.  Cruise missiles (and drones) do not need to fly a straight trajectory from the launch point to the target. Multiple missiles approaching a target from different directions and timed to arrive at the same time makes air defense that more more difficult.  When the target is near a border (like Lviv) I suspect the cruise missiles will be programmed with waypoints to stay in allegedly neutral airspace (Belarus) as long as possible, then hug the border with Poland so Ukraine will be hesitant to attempt an intercept. If insufficient waypoints are set (or the Russians just don’t care), a missile can easily cross through Polish airspace with no U-turns required.

  61. 61.

    wjca

    @Marc: I suspect the cruise missiles will be programmed with waypoints to stay in allegedly neutral airspace (Belarus) as long as possible, then hug the border with Poland so Ukraine will be hesitant to attempt an intercept. If insufficient waypoints are set, a missile can easily cross through Polish airspace with no U-turns required.

    I could see the Poles deciding to shoot down anything that even comes (not all that) close to their airspace.  And, if takes to task, respond: “Oops”.  Then keep doing it.

  62. 62.

    Marc

    @wjca:  I could see the Poles deciding to shoot down anything that even comes (not all that) close to their airspace.

    Not an easy choice if it’s a populated region.  I suspect there might be a bit of a political issue if Polish civilians are hit by the wreckage (and perhaps intact warhead) of a cruise missile shot down by Polish armed forces or a misfired Polish SAM.

  65. 65.

    Creature_NYC

    De-lurking to praise Fallout (never played the game). It had no right to be as good as it was by the end. It came together wonderfully. I applauded.

  67. 67.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay: ​
     

    the political action committee Arizona Republicans Who Believe in Treating Others with Respect

    Republicans who believe in treating others with respect – what a notion!

    Seems like an oxymoron these days, but I applaud the effort.

  68. 68.

    Joelle

    @NotMax: Thurston is thriving in AZ.  He loves it here.  I switched him to a high grade fish kibble and he only eats what I give him.  No more open feeding, stealing cat food and ADHD people’s salads. He is looking slimmer and his coat shines like a show pony.  He has lots of furniture to claim as his throne, plus cozy blankets to rutt under and what he assumes to be an endless supply of ladies panties to eat the crotch out of and toss with wild abandon on the floor next to the laundry hamper from whence they were pilfered.

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