__
Via Paul Constant, with “this incredible photoshop that’s making the rounds“:
Back in January, I noted that the main villain of this summer’s The Dark Knight Rises is named Bane, which is a homophone for Mitt Romney’s former employer, Bain Capital. I predicted this would cause some trouble for Mitt Romney. And here comes the Big Republican Drama Queen, Rush Limbaugh, predicting a liberal conspiracy…
Laurence O’Donnell, last night, on “Sununu following Limbaugh’s advice“:
“So… Team Obama is following a campaign strategy devised by the same strategists who helped win the Presidency four years ago. And Team Romney is now following the strategy of a drug addict who dropped out of college. Anyone wanna bet on who’s gonna win this thing?”
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it! — Voltaire
Violet
Wow. That’s a really good photochop.
Matthew Reid Krell
“Your punishment must be more severe.”
rlrr
Obama clearly used his Magic Kenyan time machine to create the character Bane back in 1993…
Ash Can
LOL!
BGinCHI
If you give your predatory enterprise a provocative name, someone is just going to do the obvious.
There is still time for them to switch the name to Vulture Capital, or Layoff Capital, or Ha Ha You are Fucking Unemployed Capital.
Mike Goetz
He should do the debates in that get-up. He looks sort of badass.
gnomedad
Also, the new Superman no longer has his red (Republican!) Speedos. Rush is right!
JGabriel
__
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Severe weather here in NYC. Between 2:20 and 4:35 the temperature in East Village dropped 26 degrees, from 104F to 78F; the sky is as dark as 30 minutes after sunset, not completely black, but the dark gray of deep twilight; there’s nearly tropical force rain; and we had hail.
The hail was more or less pea/berry-size, so not too much damage — unless it comes back bigger. But it seems to have stopped now, and we’re just getting heavy rain, lightning, and nearly continuous thunder at the moment.
I’m kind of enjoying the spectacle of it, though I hope everyone is indoors and out of harm’s way.
.
redshirt
If you give Obama enough time to prepare, he can defeat anyone. His special weapon? Eleventy Dimensional Chess.
Linda Featheringill
@JGabriel:
Nice!
redshirt
@JGabriel: Check this out.
Steeplejack
@BGinCHI:
C’mon, the “provocative name” is that of the founder of Bain & Company, Bill Bain. You can’t read too much into that.
It’s like Johnny Carson’s unfortunately named law firm, Dewey, Cheatham & Howe.
Brachiator
@Anne Laurie:
Perfect.
As an aside, a little something from the Guardian for you about Edgar Rice Burroughs and Tarzan (Tarzan returns: from Edwardian swinger to hunky ecowarrior).
Also, by the way, some guys at my office are going to see the first two Batman films on Thursday, followed by a midnight IMAX showing of The Dark Knight Rises. Then they are going to play Diablo online until they fall out. Fortunately, they are going to take Friday as a vacation day.
Except for one guy who didn’t manage to get Friday off.
JGabriel
@Violet:
Yeah, the shadows from the mask on Romney’s face are a particularly nice and subtle detail. Kudos to the artist.
.
JGabriel
@redshirt: Wow. That photo is awesome. Thanks, redshirt.
.
mainmati
Superb Photoshopping alright. Gives a more Darth Vader-like aspect to the Mittbot now.
Tonal Crow
@rlrr:
Yessiree. He retroactively rewrote the story to boost his campaign.
Mino
Maybe the writers had a relative who was screwed by Bain back in 1993. It would be irresponsible not to speculate. Bain was up and running at that period.
Steeplejack
@JGabriel:
Could use some of that here in NoVa, even with the hail. We are suffering through the second straight day of 100° temps. Supposed to be 94° tomorrow and then down into the 80s for the weekend. Can’t come soon enough. My puny air conditioner is just going through the motions.
Hoodie
It’s Huffpo, but check this. The byline is Huntsman’s daughter. Is there a coup afoot before the convention?
Just One More Canuck
@redshirt: Holy crap!
redshirt
@JGabriel: You’re welcome. I assume you were somewhere in that deluge? Or close to it. Amazing to see a storm from that angle.
MattR
@redshirt: That is an amazing photo, though the FAA might have a little chat with Mr Jones about turning off all electronic devices during takeoff and landing.
Luckily no hail in my area of Jersey. Lost power but only for about 5 minutes.
JPL
He thought he could win by taking quotes out of context instead.. Unfortunately, he might.
redshirt
We got a line of big storms through Boston around 2ish, but I was deeply ensconced in the vault and barely noticed. Bummer.
Mino
Contemporary evidence that the American diet is toxic: Chinese, who eat at American chains when they can because they trust the foodstuff there, are twice as likely to have coronaries if they indulge even twice a week. Wow. Thanks ADM. What must Chinese food safety look like if they prefer to take their chances with heart disease. Their diabetes incidence increased, too.
http://www.theheart.org/article/1422355.do
JGabriel
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redshirt:
Yep. We got the hail in this neighborhood, about 10-20 minutes worth it seemed like, so I’m assuming the center of it must have passed right over us.
The vagueness on the time is because, when you’re staring at the computer screen, it takes a few minutes before you wonder, “Hey, where is that clanking sound coming from?”
.
MattR
@JGabriel:
Unless you work from home and have a canine early detection system. I had Ellie whining at my feet 15-20 minutes before the first drops hit.
(EDIT: Because of that warning, I made sure all to constantly save my work docs so I didn’t lose anything when the power went out)
HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist
Clearly Limbaugh has no fucking idea how movies are made.
gwangung
@redshirt:
Win.
On purpose, bat-god quote, right?
redshirt
@gwangung: I am a nerd, like my Father before me.
22over7
@Hoodie:
This is what Mitt’s up against, and his strategy is to go full wingnut? I’m boggled.
His money men must be demanding this. Didn’t think the dough would come without strings, did he?
Woodrowfan
and wasn’t the guy drawing Batman back in the 90s a rightie??
MikeJ
@redshirt: Obama’s parents are also dead.
Nutella
re Romney:
I guess he’s going for the attacks on Obama’s youth because he’s given up on campaigning on his own record (Bain/governor/Olympics) and has refused to do any campaigning on proposals for what he will do if he wins.
gwangung
@redshirt: I approve of such parenting.
Violet
@22over7: I think his money men sense on some level that unraveling Mitt means unraveling the whole system that keeps them so insulated and rich.
If the average person sees just how much Mitt paid in taxes for each of the twelve years in question, they’ll be angry at the way the system is rigged. Added to the general distrust and hatred of banksters, getting a good look at one very rich person’s tax returns could potentially make people so angry they demand proper regulation. The whole house of cards could come down.
Mitt is the wrong guy at the wrong time for the money guys, but at the moment they’re stuck with him. And they are terrified of what he might end up doing to them. He’s poison and at some level they know it.
JPL
@Tonal Crow: Anything is possible retroactively.
kindness
@redshirt:
Now with Kiss-Cam which makes it even more potent. It is the Anti-Via gra to Republicans much like Kryptonite is to Superman.
The Thin Black Duke
@Woodrowfan: Unfortunately, yeah. After 9/11, Frank Miller lost his fucking mind. And it’s goddamned tragic, because his Daredevil series was superb.
MattR
@Woodrowfan: Yep. Both Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan are conservatives.
Here is Chuck Dixon the day before Rush went on his rant (in response to someone posting a link to an Ace of Spades post)
WereBear
It makes tremendous sense for a villain to be named Bane; it’s like calling your Nemesis Dr. Nemesis (he has a PhD in eeeeeevil!)
But I must say the timing is delightful. And that is some excellent ‘shopping.
redshirt
@gwangung: I trust you got my reference? Anyways, I was never a DC person myself – MAKE MINE MARVEL! – so Bane the Batman villain is relatively new to me. For instance, I have no idea what that thing on his face is for (NO SPOILERS!!!). Excited to see the new movie though. That said, also kinda dreading the nearly 3 hour running time. Egads!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I try to stay confident about the presidential election. Then I remember what happened the last time an incumbent Democratic President whose wife went to the same Ivy League law school as he did ran. Makes me nervous, you know?
redshirt
@WereBear: Heh. Dr. Nemesis
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Hoodie: Mittens thinks it’s none of us dirty proles business, really?
MacsenMifune
@redshirt: Funny you should mention that. Mark Hamill: Mitt Romney is ‘not actually human’ Saw it on wonkette but here is the direct link.
gwangung
@redshirt: For other folks, the common trope about the Grant Morrison Batman was that, with sufficient prep time, he could defeat anyone. Hence, Bat-God.
Bane is a hard villain to handle (and the movie thing I have no idea about—in the comics, he’s dressed more like a Mexican wrestler, because of his Latin origins). He has a great deal of cunning, both animal and strategic, and is no slouch in the physical end of things. He’d be badly used as just a muscle man villain.
Tony J
@Woodrowfan:
Chuck Dixon was the writer, and yes, he’s pretty damn far to the Right.
To give him his due, though, he’s been pretty scathing about the whole farce.
JGabriel
@Steeplejack:
We had been getting that too — it was about 104F at 2:30 this afternoon. Supposed to cool off into the 80’s for a couple days after this storm passes through. Hope you get some relief from the heat soon.
.
Turgidson
@rlrr:
He barely worked up a sweat to bring this scheme to fruition. Remember, this is the same guy who cooked up a nefarious plot to dupe the country into wrongly believing he was born in the US while in utero. (but is too stupid to speak unless reading off a teleprompter, natch)
redshirt
@MacsenMifune: I read that earlier, and I squeed. Yay Luke! Also, voice of animated Joker!
Redshift
@Nutella:
And he, along with his top surrogates like Gillespie, keep doing this amazing projection by whining that Obama just attacks Romney because he can’t defend his record, when in fact Obama talks about his record at every campaign event, and Romney never talks about his. (Well, he does sometimes say “yes, I made a lot of money” to deflect attacks, but never on offense.)
JGabriel
@MattR:
Good for you. Fortunately we didn’t lose power in the city. I gotta give credit to Con Ed, power interruptions are really uncommon here.
.
Nutella
Commenter Aaron at LGM has a debate suggestion:
I can picture a debate one-liner, “Unlike my opponent, when I call myself President it means something.”
Ruckus
@HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist:
Clearly Limbaugh has no fucking idea
how movies are madeFixt for you
Jay in Oregon
@Woodrowfan:
Which one? There were at least half a dozen books with Batman in the title at any given time, each with its own creative team.
Chuck Dixon, who wrote the “Breaking of the Bat” storyarc that introduced Bane, is a self-described conservative, however.
MFA
Rush doesn’t even begin to realize how deep the Hollywood pro-Obama conspiracy goes; they’ve been at it since at least 1971:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067991/
Wiiiilllllaaaaarrrrrrdddd!
MattR
@JGabriel: Aren’t the power lines in NYC underground? That has to help tremendously. Weirdly, I am part of a lucky group of 6(ish) buildings in my condo complex that always lose power whenever there is a storm. None of the other buildings go out and we usually get power back in under 10 minutes. This is particularly annoying when it happens in the middle of the night and resets all my clocks. I have learned to always use my cell phone as a backup alarm clock, just in case.
The Thin Black Duke
O.K., because I’m a Grumpy Old Comics Fan, I can’t help thinking of President Obama as Crusher Creed, The Absorbing Man. The more the GOP attacks Obama, the stronger he gets…
WereBear
We had a serious storm last night, half the town lost power and all of us showed up at the same restaurant who kept it. We really needed the rain, even if it was all at once. Lots of trees came down, but we only lost the internet for several hours.
cckids
@WereBear:
Isn’t it just? Pair that with the line Catwoman/Anne Hathaway drops, “A storm is coming, Mr. Wayne. And you & your rich friends are going to wonder how you ever thought you could take so much & leave so little for the rest of us”.
Paraphrased from the trailer. Wingnut heads will explode.
Tho my daughter, who is a wage slave at a theater, says audiences regularly give a “f*ck yeah!” to that line.
Midnight premiere should be interesting.
redshirt
@The Thin Black Duke: Also the power of Sebastian Shaw, leader of the Hellfire Club, poorly portrayed by Kevin Bacon in the last X-Men movie – which I thought overall was pretty darn good.
General Stuck
This is very cool
Email from a conservative blogger to Putlizer prize winning journalist Connie Shultz on July 9, 2012.
Dear Ms. Shultz,
We are doing an expose on journalists in the elite media who socialize with elected officials they are assigned to cover. We have found numerous photos of you with Sen. Sherrod Brown. In one of them, you appear to be hugging him.
Care to comment?
Response on July 10, 2012:
Dear Mr. [Name Deleted]:
I am surprised you did not find a photo of me kissing U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown so hard he passes out from lack of oxygen. He’s really cute.
He’s also my husband.
You know that, right?
Connie Schultz.
Steeplejack
@redshirt, @Redshift:
Okay, this is too good to pass up–adjacent comments by you guys.
It has been blowing my mind for the last several days since I realized that there is both a redshirt and a Redshift on this blog. Never consciously noticed before. Trippy.
That is all. Carry on, severally and individually.
redshirt
@Steeplejack: I was thinking of changing my name to Blueshift, just for the LULZ.
The Other Chuck
@redshirt:
In the comics, it’s just a mask. In fact Bane looks like a goofy ‘roided-up luchador in the comics.
It does have a purpose in the movie, though its primary one is “to look super bad-ass”. It’s supposed to evoke a cross between Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter.
Turgidson
@Violet:
The only way I can conceive of that the GOP can try to reboot the tax debate is instead of letting the Obama campaign harp on the low marginal rate, to instead look at the actual dollar figure Mittens paid.
The guy made, what, 20mil in income (I forget, but it was more than 10 mil right?), just from investments, in 2010? 15% of that if 3 million dollars. $3,000,000. I can almost hear Sununununu and Fehrnstrom saying “the guy paid three million dollars in taxes. Let me repeat that. Three. Million. Dollars. How exactly does this show he’s not paying enough?”
I don’t think that would stick, but it’s the only thing I can think of that might.
jl
@General Stuck:
For a lot of politicians, especially GOPers, that IS odd and suspicious behavior.
I think it is irresponsible not a speculate about what an apparently very solid marriage is covering up. Don’t you agree?
MattR
@General Stuck: Saw that earlier, but still quite funny. Ms. Schultz is a much nicer person than I. I would have played along for a bit and asked what they thought was inappropriate about that behavior (or, preferably, something wittier). I’d like to think I would’ve withheld the name like she did, especially since she believes it is an intern/underling, but I probably would’ve vindictively posted it.
redshirt
@The Other Chuck: That’s all I’ve been seeing – Hannibal Lecter’s mask. Ergo, Bane is some sort of super cannibal, OR, has the ability to mesmerize people with his voice. I’ll find out soon!
The Thin Black Duke
@redshirt: Ah, excellent point. The biggest problem with the X-Men movies were that they weren’t as good as the Claremont/Bryne series, unfortunately.
Violet
@Turgidson: I agree it’s the only option they’ve got. I have no idea if they’re smart enough to take it. And like you said, it’s so easily turned around: “You guys paid 35% in taxes. Mitt Romney paid 3%. If 3% is 3 million dollars, just how much is he getting away with?” Or something like that. I have no idea if it’s 3%, just tossing a number out there.
I hope he eventually does release his returns–when it’s too late and the damage is done, of course–because I think it would be instructive for everyone to see just how much he does and doesn’t pay and how the truly rich organize their finances so they don’t have a pay a dime.
dmsilev
@redshirt: I have, somewhere, a bumper sticker that features a bright red background and the text “If this sticker is blue, you’re driving too fast”.
quannlace
Storms finally came thru my part of NJ around 4 pm. Katie has been tense since 1 o’clock. She seems to have an overly sensitive feel for ‘a disturbance in the Force.’
Course, she was at the vet this morning, so she was already a tad on edge.
BGinCHI
@General Stuck: If I kissed men, which I don’t, I would also kiss him.
The Other Chuck
@redshirt: A good part of that is of course Mitt’s eyes. Those weren’t photoshopped, he really does look like that all the time. :)
Violet
@quannlace: Animals just know, don’t they.
Anne Laurie
@redshirt:
Count your blessings. North of the city, we got an hour of almost non-stop thunder, during which my phobic 20-pound rescue dog kept attempting to climb onto my head and the a/c kept browning out, followed by a two-hour blackout. And I’m glad we’re just up the block from a bunch of light-industrial and truck-shipping facilities, or I’d probably still be in the dark.
Spousal Unit just called from Cambridge to say heavy downpours have brought traffic to a standstill, so you may yet get a chance to “enjoy”.
redshirt
@The Thin Black Duke: No doubt – but how could they have been? Still, very disappointed how they handled the Phoenix storyline, which was the pinnacle of my comics reading experience.
jl
via Brad DeLong’s blog, Mitt’s 2010 taxes not fully disclosed. Mitt has an FBAR problem. (Ha!)
Mitt Romney Taxes For 2010 Not Fully Disclosed
Posted: 07/18/2012
The Romney campaign did not respond to HuffPost’s request to view the document.
Tax experts say it is almost certain that Romney did file the form, known as a Report on Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or “FBAR” in accountant slang. The penalty for not filing an FBAR can be severe, and the IRS would have expected to receive the form since Romney listed the Swiss bank account on his tax return. Listing the account on his tax return and then failing to file the subsequent FBAR would have been asking for a hefty fine, and would probably have heightened IRS scrutiny of prior tax filings.
Nevertheless, Romney’s omission of the form from the earlier disclosure raises questions for tax policy experts about the function of his Swiss bank account, and whether or not Romney used other offshore bank accounts that did not generate interest.
“The campaign has never told us why he had a Swiss bank account,” said Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel for federal tax policy at Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit tax reform group. “It just looks bad.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/mitt-romney-taxes-2010_n_1683084.html
Edit: due to return of grammar and typo police at this blog, should probably have typed ‘Mitt has a FBAR problem’. My apologies.
redshirt
@dmsilev: Heh. Exactly! I’ll never tire of blueshift/redshift jokes.
El Cid
@The Other Chuck: I’m also going to guess the painful-looking and either non-removable or shouldn’t-be-removed-due-to-messed-up-face mask indicates a back story that the ‘venom’ drug he uses for increased strength is somehow tied into misfortune; most likely he was subject to some experiment or procedure by authorities or corporate leaders whom he now wishes to take revenge upon, by punishing Gotham.
Or that this was something he undertook knowing the pain and mask requirement in exchange for it helping him to avenge whatever that initial wrong was.
Tony J
@redshirt:
The writers of X-Men: First Class appear to have retained Sebastian Shaw’s name and social position (which I suppose played better into the 60’s/James Bond/super-espionage feel of the movie) while giving him (some of) the backstory of another X-Men villain, Mr Sinister. Plus, in the last shot where he appears he’s developed Sinister’s trademark diamond mark between his eyes.
@The Thin Black Duke:
Geek Mode: Intensify.
The Absorbing Man is Crusher Creel. Creed is Sabretooth’s surname. And his power isn’t to become stronger the more you hit him, it’s to take on the physical properties of any substance or material he touches.
Sorry, I’ll go now.
cckids
@Turgidson: I’ve thought that as well, because they do that with other stats as well; “10% of the taxpayers pay 40% of tax”, & so on. No mention of the fact that those 10% have 80% of the income/wealth in the country. But it fools lots of people.
btw, completely fabricated stats.
Raven
jet
lag
redshirt
@Anne Laurie: So looking forward to the drive home! Which is always a pleasure! Saw on boston.com that the Malden area got flooded.
The Thin Black Duke
@Tony J: Your Geek Fu is strong, my son. I am not worthy.
KG
@Violet: Judge Learned Hand (yes, that was his name) famously said in an opinion that you could say we have a patriotic duty to pay as little income tax as the law allows. And generally speaking, I agree with that idea. The problem isn’t so much that Romney did things to pay as little tax as possible – we all do that, to varying degrees of success – it’s how incredibly rigged the entire system is for the uber-wealthy. And I suspect that this is the sort of thing that would get my small business owning folks (who do really well but aren’t millionaires) to wonder WTF…
redshirt
@Tony J: Don’t go! Let’s nerd this shit up!
Great catch with the Dr. Sinister eyes. Saw it, but didn’t make the connection.
I was just bummed that Shaw wasn’t all “Olde English” in the movie, though I know why (doesn’t market well to the 14-20 demographic of some such).
I really liked “First Class” though, but then, I think Magneto is the most interesting X-Men character.
The Bobs
@rlrr: Yes, back when Bill Ayers was writing his book.
SatanicPanic
@redshirt: I too was bummed about this. I hope someday Marvel makes that story for real. Also too, Days of Future Past.
Tony J
@The Thin Black Duke: Yeah, I really should be filling my protein-based databanks with less useless information but, what can I say, I
wasam a very, very geekykid.Teenager. Adult.KG
@redshirt: ok, can some one help me out… I vaguely recall one of the X-Men movie having a scene where a concentration camp is liberated and Magneto is rescued. But I’ve never been able to find the clip. I’m only asking because I’m trying to recall if they hinted that it was Captain America liberating the camp.
ETA: I know this has happened explicitly in the cartoons and possibly books, but I swear I saw it in live action.
SFAW
@WereBear:
Doubly so if they have their own sing-along blog.
redshirt
@KG: I don’t recall seeing that in any of the X-Men movies, but I think we’ll have to wait for Tony J for final confirmation.
trollhattan
@JGabriel:
Reminds me of Spielburg’s “War of the Worlds.”
Would not want anything to do with that cloud or downpour.
The Thin Black Duke
@SatanicPanic: Ah, but what about the “Proteus” story arc? Jesus, back in the day, Claremont and Bryne were more addictive then cocaine-flavored Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Villago Delenda Est
Clearly, no one on the right has ever read anything about someone being “the bane of my existence”, which of course is what the villain’s name is all about. A foe. An irritant. A nemesis.
The name of the villain was inspired by this usage. Bain Capital had nothing to do with it.
But then again, these are the sort of total fucktards who demanded that the second movie in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy be retitled because they thought it was a reference to the World Trade Center…”The Two Towers”.
danielx
Back here in the great state of Indiana, we’ve had .09 inches of rain in the last 47 days, so I’m really truly hoping that we do get some rain of some sort. The weatherdroids keeping saying 30% chance of rain, 40% chance of rain and you just know they’re lying like Karl Rove…er, lying like rugs.
Unfortunately even if we get a shower or two, welcome though they would be, we’d need to get like five or six inches of rain over a week to really have any impact. The ground is baked so hard that the initial inch would just run off.
redshirt
@SatanicPanic: Yes, yes, and hell yes. That would be the kind of grittiness modern Hollywood could rally around.
SatanicPanic
@redshirt: I recall seeing this too. Was it in the Captain America movie?
redshirt
@The Thin Black Duke: Yes again! And don’t forget the whole Shi’ar arc. That stretch of X-Men was as good as any mainstream comic ever got. IMO. Although I have little familiarity with the past 20 years of comics either.
jl
@El Cid: I think comic book back stories involve too much sophistication and nuance for today’s wingnuts.
KG
@SatanicPanic: I was actually thinking it might have been in Wolverine
TTT
Now show “Baine” breaking America over his knee! With blood and money oozing out! I’ve been asking for that since the primaries.
redshirt
@KG: I don’t think so – I’ve watched that movie way too many times.
To my shame, I’ve yet to see the Cap’n America movie, so maybe it’s in there.
SatanicPanic
@The Thin Black Duke: That was a great one too. I’ll even take Mutant Massacre. As long as they never, ever make a movie with Arcade in it, pretty much anything from that time period is awesome.
The Thin Black Duke
@redshirt: Well, I thought Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan’s Tomb of Dracula was pretty intense. But yeah, I dunno what’s going on in the field lately. Sigh.
Cris (without an H)
Which is exactly how he was treated in Joel Schumacher’s Bat Travesty.
Rafer Janders
@Turgidson:
Yes, but then you start getting people thinking “wait a minute, the guy paid more in taxes in one single year than I’ll ever see in my life? That’s not right. How come he has so much while I have so little?”
And they don’t want that.
muddy
All this talk of X-Men makes me feel like rummaging in the boxes of comics and figures my son left here. Probably he would rather I didn’t. He used to be super careful about getting every tiny bit of equipment back into the original package after he used them.
Well, except the time when he was 11 and he wanted Wolverine to be in a trap, so he coated him with rubber cement, and then wanted to drip candle wax over it to seal him in. He wasn’t aware of how flammable rubber cement is, the hot wax set it on fire. I was in the other room until I heard, “Fire! Fire!” I ran in, there is a small bonfire in the middle of the bedroom, and he is using his zippered school notebook to put it out. But he keeps whipping it right back up to check how it’s doing, so he is essentially fanning the flames. I ran and grabbed the fire extinguisher and blasted the scene. Poor Wolverine was half melted.
I saved it because it was funny, but he would not allow it into his storage. It’s in my keepsakes instead, with the sweet things of his childhood. He thinks I’m a nut.
KG
@redshirt: I might be thinking of the opening scene from X-Men in 2000 and just conflating my background stories.
muddy
I’m not generally in favor of John McCain, but I thought this was well said and decent:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/john-mccain-defends-huma-abedin-against-accusations-shes-part-of-conspiracy/2012/07/18/gJQAFpxntW_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
redshirt
@KG: That scene just shows him getting seperated from this parents then pulling down the gate – which they essentially re-film and then expand in the First Class movie.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Just wait until Some Guy, some guy, and someguy all post in the same thread again.
scav
@muddy: Something in the water. Because there’s this too: (TPM)
PeakVT
@muddy: Every once in a while the guy does the right thing. This was one of those times, and he did a good job of it.
ETA: @scav: Ouch.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
What is great is we get one of those “there can be only one!” deathmatches.
SatanicPanic
@KG: So I googled it- Magneto and Wolverine were supposed to appear in Captain America, but couldn’t because Marvel didn’t have the film rights (?). Captain America does liberate a nazi concentration camp during the movie, so maybe it was implied. I can’t remember, I only saw it once when it first came out.
redshirt
@SatanicPanic: The Marvel film rights are a mess. Different studios own the rights to X-Men, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, then everyone else, respectively. Thus, no crossovers allowed for those characters from different studios. This also explains why there’s a new Spiderman movie out this summer, and no doubt why there will be new Fantastic Four movies too – The Avengers made so much money, they can’t help themselves.
Turgidson
@Rafer Janders:
Yes, there’s that risk. Like I said, I don’t know if it would work. But dragging their feet and leaving it to everyone’s imagination exactly what’s in those returns seems worse than that.
And at least trying to argue back by saying “he gave the IRS a whole shitload of money, so lay off” at least has a chance of steering the conversation towards slightly more friendly terms for them. A few of those same people who say “that’s more than I could even earn in 3 lifetimes” might, rather than be resentful, be like “WOW, that guy is doing his fair share if he’s paying that much!” and lose track of the fact that it’s a tiny share of the income Mittens earned from not even having to work because he’s already so rich.
MikeJ
@redshirt:
X Men Evolution.
Cris (without an H)
By the way, if you like Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies for the same reason I do (because you grew up in the ’70s and imprinted on that particular incarnation of the character, and Nolan writes the character like he did too), do check out this still-ongoing blog series: Batman in the 1970s. These guys are going through the whole decade, reading and reviewing every issue of Batman and Detective Comics.
JGabriel
@Violet:
They have fewer distractions — no internet, no chores, tv & radio don’t much interest them, books are only of value as chew toys, so they pay more attention to the environment.
We probably weren’t much different before technology ruled our attention.
.
PurpleGirl
@JGabriel: The storm passed over Woodside sometime after it hit your area. It was intense. The rain was even building up on my terrace — it usually just flows to the drain. It was hitting the living room windows, again something that doesn’t often happen. Luckily I was home around 4 p.m. from the dentist so I wasn’t out in the rain.
El Cid
Shakespeare could make even bane sexy.
Though the comic usage would be more along the lines of
WereBear
@JGabriel: There’s also the fact that dogs hear much much better than we do.
And cats are even better; they have superhero levels of hearing.
Tony J
@redshirt:
You asked for it.
I suppose the writers must have looked at the Hellfire Club’s outfits from the comics and thought “No way can we sell that as threatening. It’ll be like Casanova Frankenstein meets Army of Lovers meets Austin Powers”. Which may have been right (insofar as the men were concerned, at least. I notice Emma Frost and the other women around the Club retained the bondage underwear look), but IMHO they missed a trick.
The whole reason Shaw and Co dress like late 18th century dandies is because that’s what they consider themselves to be. Decadent, ancien regime aristocrats who can do whatever the hell they want because they’re super rich. The Bilberberg Group with more in your face hedonism if you will. They don’t – need – mutant powers to exert influence, that’s just part of the package. That part of the Club was barely touched upon, in favour of it just being the front for a conspiracy of Evil Mutant types barely different from Magneto’s later Brotherhood.
As to Magneto, one major theme of the Grant Morrison run that inspired the look of the first three X-films (godawful junk that they were) was that Morrison really, really hated the idea that a murderous terrorist with master-race fantasies and genocidal ambitions had been retconned by previous writers into a noble but deluded anti-hero figure. He did everything he could to deconstruct Magneto’s appeal and present him as a sick old has-been with nothing to offer the modern world but hoary cliches and mindless brutality. Suffice it to say that Marvel’s post-Morrison X-Editors agree with your assesment of the character’s potential, since they retconned the shit out of that storyline ASAP.
Fassbender, natch, was excellent. As was MacEvoy as Xavier.
Nutella
@scav:
Juan Cole points out that Michele Bachmann is throwing stones from a glass house: She’s got lots of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood herself.
The Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the House Intelligence Committee!
Maude
@PurpleGirl:
It hit here at 3:30. I wondered if you got home before the lightning.
We may get more storms. It’s upper 70’s, but still humid.
Valdivia
Apropos of that picture: Bane Capital, enjoy!
burnspbesq
@JGabriel:
Crazy weather everywhere. Orange, CA feels like Orange, NJ today; mid-80s and high humidity. Remnants of an Eastern Pacific hurricane may actually dump some rain on us later. I’ve lived here since 1979, except for two stretches totaling five years, and can’t ever remember a July with three days of rain.
Jay in Oregon
@redshirt:
Speaking of the Phoenix storyline, the current Avengers vs. X-Men mega-crossover focuses on the return of Phoenix.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that at least the big two comic publishers stopped caring about making an accessible storyline. Sure, if you’ve been reading Avengers and/or X-Men for the past couple of years you’ll understand why Magneto takes orders from Cyclops, or why Beast and Wolverine are on the “A” part of this mashup instead of the “X” side. Or why Colossus is wearing Juggernaut’s helmet, or why the Hulk is red, or why Spider-man is an Avenger along with 80% of the people in costumes these days, most of whom are in this story!
But if not, you’re out of luck; the next 6-8 months of Avengers and X-Men titles will be completely impenetrable to you. Which is exactly what you want when The Avengers is the third highest-grossing film OF ALL TIME. Sure, not everyone is going to run out and by Avengers comics now because of the movie, but the poor souls who might have been willing to give them a try will most likely be disappointed. I would be surprised if total sales on Avengers spike more than a couple of hundred issues.
karen marie
@JGabriel: I saw a photograph of the storm clouds over Manhattan a short while ago. We think of those buildings as being so gigantic, but viewed in the context of Nature they are really puny and insignificant.
Tony J
@KG:
It’s not in any of the movies, for the reasons already listed. Different movie rights, so they can’t even hint at it without stepping on copyright. I think in the comics it’s canon that Magneto escaped the camps under his own power. It is, however, used in the X-Men cartoon.
burnspbesq
@Turgidson:
I would be shocked to learn that there were one or more years in which Romney paid no US tax, and yet it’s awfully hard to figure out how he could pay over $80K of foreign taxes in 2009 and not use a dime of foreign tax credit (it’s twoo, look at the FTC carryover schedule attached to the 2010 return).
And then there are the six (!) listed-transaction disclosure forms.
PurpleGirl
@Maude: Yes, luckily I was home before the storm hit. Thanks for the thoughts.
Tony J
@Jay in Oregon:
You’re right, which is why Marvel threw their current top Avengers writer, Brian Bendis, yet another title in the form of Avengers Assemble that features the line up of the movie version facing off against the Big bad revealed at the end of the credits.
Will that work as a jumping on point for new readers? It’s doubtful, since it’s not in canon and the rest of the Marvel Universe is getting a post AvX makeover that has as its main Avengers title ‘Uncanny Avengers’, featuring a line up of Avengers and X-Men on the same team.
Hal
Speaking of Bane, Batman and Robin was playing on cable a couple of weeks ago, and hey-zeus chreesto, what a piece of shit that film was.
Uma Thurman must have it in her contract where she will do one really good film followed by a whole load of crap. The bat-american express, Chris O’donnell, and Arnold’s horribly over the top Mr Freeze. Schumacher should have been drawn and quartered for that travesty.
SatanicPanic
@burnspbesq: It’s been muggy down here in San Diego. Or what we consider muggy. I don’t ever remember it being like this either.
NotMax
Can’t decide whether I’m very impressed or very surprised that, 130+ comments in on a political blog, no one has brought up the name of the Batman villain Two-Face as a too easy slur against some politician or ‘pundit.’
Think I’ll go with impressed.
:)
trollhattan
Don’t know whether this has been covered already, but an enterprising “reporter” accused Sherrod Brown’s wife of kanoodling with…Sherrod Brown.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/connie-schultz-sherrod-brown-reporter-email.php
PopeRatzo
“Homophone”?
Leave it to you liberals to make everything about gays.
josefina
@JGabriel: It was bad today but not triple-digit bad. According to the Weather Channel, the high was 98 degrees. But yeah, intense storm. I’m grateful for the drop in temps, with more to come on Friday.
@Anne Laurie: during which my phobic 20-pound rescue dog kept attempting to climb onto my head
My two rescues (45 and 50 pounds) kept trying to burrow into my lap, both at the same time. It’s like they sensed the presence of a uterus, any uterus, and wanted to crawl in for security or at least get as close as possible. And yeah, they started well before the rain did — though it didn’t take much sensory or cognitive wattage to realize a storm was on its way.
Speaking of dogs’ predictive abilities: Remember Earthquake Dog?
trollhattan
@PopeRatzo:
Worser, ghey ET: “Homophone home.”
Steeplejack
@KG:
I think this is the case. There is the scene in X-Men (and X-Men: First Class where the young Erik bends the concentration-camp gate. Sebastian Shaw (in the latter movie) sees this and takes Erik into his research program. Cut to some other stuff, and then later Erik Lensherr as an adult appears in the movie’s present-day 1962. I don’t think it’s ever made explicit how Erik got out of the concentration camp. I assumed it was because he got placed in Shaw’s research program.
steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Are Balloon Juice nyms case-sensitive?
ETA: Apparently not: I posted this as “steeplejack,” and it went right through.
That would have been a FYWP too far.
burnspbesq
@burnspbesq:
ETA: Actually, it’s not that hard to figure out how it could happen. Capital gains are passive basket, so if all the foreign tax was paid with respect to interest and dividends, and there were enough foreign-source capital losses to zero out the passive basket, then the numerator of the limitation fraction for the passive basket would be zero.
Did that happen? We won’t know unless he releases the returns. Until he does, he’s going to continue to get whacked by the tax issue. And if you’re explaining, you’re losing. Which works for me.
burnspbesq
@Hal:
Uma Thurman has a lifetime pass from being slagged over being in bad movies, on account of Dangerous Liaisons and Kill Bill.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
TV series. Bah!
muddy
@burnspbesq: I would love to see the media discussing Rmoney’s “passive basket”.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
Those are hilarious.
Steeplejack
@Hal:
Schumacher is a serial offender. He also did Batman Forever, not to mention D.C. Cab, Flatliners, Dying Young, Phone Booth, The Number 23, etc.
Hal
@burnspbesq:
I agree, and I’ll throw in Gattaca, which I really liked. Funny thing is, The Avengers was such shit, but there were a few scenes with her that made me all tingly. That coulda been a contender.
burnspbesq
@muddy:
It’s a shame that Lee Sheppard works behind a very expensive subscription paywall. She could fucking eviscerate Romney on this stuff, and only the few thousand Tax Notes Today readers would ever know about it.
maya
I just got here.
What’s eating Mitt’s face?
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq:
Uma banked a lot of goodwill for Jennifer 8 (1992), a nice little movie, despite the somewhat unpromising premise (blind girl in danger). Good acting, excellent cinematography by Conrad L. Hall. Trailer here.
Huh. The director, Bruce Robinson, also did Withnail and I. Didn’t see that coming.
Steeplejack
@maya:
His vampire squid turned on him.
chopper
@JGabriel:
that rain was pretty badass, but the drop in temps is exactly what i needed.
redshirt
@Jay in Oregon: Ha! Great stuff. I have read a few recent titles thanks to a friend who buys the graphic novel collections then loans them to me when finished. Planet Hulk was great – I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, never having been a big Hulk fan back in the day. But then the events of this series are re-told in what seemed 5 other titles and I read them all, dutifully soon enough.
I started some crazy X-Men futuristic series featuring the last mutant child born on Earth, but then I think my friend ran out of money or something, cause, kaput for months. And I’m not interested enough to get them myself.
So, overall: Three Spidermans, mostly true.
Mnemosyne
@burnspbesq:
It rained on me as I was riding my bike home tonight. In the freakin’ San Fernando Valley. In July.
JR in WV
We’ve been having a kinda drought in WV, except for the storms that destroyed our power transmission systems twice last week.
So tonite it rained so hard that a spring popped up in my basement! This happens sometimes, but usually after it rains for 5 days straight.
A while ago I bought a couple of little sump pumps and built a little cofferdam around the spring, which is always in the same place. One is supposed to be plugged all the time, and it cycles occasionally and stays on if it senses water to pump.
The other is a little pump that runs on 3 D-Cell batteries. The plug-in pump crapped out, so I started the battery powered pump, and it was a champ. I also got a water alarm, it screams like a smoke detector when it’s little bottom gets wet, the water closes a circuit.
I can’t figure why when it usually takes days of solid rain to start the little spring in the basement, why did it take 19 minutes tonight? Must be a Republican storm!
And now I hear another cell coming from the NorthWest, we’re gonna get another storm. Those republicans! Gotta stop that stuff somehow!!
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Heads up: A batch of Barbara Stanwyck and other possible pre-Code stuff coming on TCM Friday, starting at 8:00 p.m. EDT: Shopworn (1932), Ten Cents a Dance (1931), Illicit (1931), Forbidden (1932).
(If someone would get their blog going, I would be able to consult it to refresh myself on the exact parameters of “pre-Code.”)