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2023-12-26 18:52:54

I actually always liked Home Alone 3, as well, granted the kid was a lot younger than Macauley in the first one. Physical comedy is very rare these days. The Hangover movies excelled in that, it still sells, but few wish to make any. Comedies in general, they don't take risks, due to potential "backlash." You couldn't get away with Home Alone as a "new franchise" now, but back then, it was considering perfectly silly fun to imagine such loving yet absentminded parents.

2023-12-26 13:03:54

TLJ was decent enough, I didn't have a big issue with it. Though old Leia turning into Superwoman was farcical. I certainly wouldn't rate it above any of the OT, good grief no way. They should have just allowed Johnson to direct the last one, but J.J. was brought back in. In typical Abrams fashion he had a great premise but couldn't get it to the finish line.

I personally like most fans, lament the extinguishing of Luke, Han, and ultimately Leia. They were never given a grand reunion on screen, and a LOT of older fans are angry at how they turned them into old hasbeens, most especially Luke, into a caricature of Yoda. Looking back, I also lament that George Lucas was basically lied to, and J.J. Abrams tossed whatever concepts he'd supplied for the evolution of the characters into the trash.

Now we've had Dave Filoni on this drunken journey to re-establish the Lucas-verse, if you will, over the franchise. They've canceled more projects than Amtrak.

2023-12-26 10:57:18

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Grizzlor wrote:
Yes, well the point is to WIN the war at the conclusion of whatever heroic story you're telling. Star Wars now is just wedging stories all over the place, in a war that was already "won."
Is it won? The Empire technically has superiority at the end of 2/3 of the trilogies (and the third isn't even all that definitive). At the end of the prequels, obviously the Empire wins. At the end of the original trilogy, the Empire appears to have lost, but all their victories are wiped away within 30 years. To the point where, at the end of episode 8, the Rebellion/New Republic/Resistance is entirely on one ship. It's implied during the sequel trilogy (and the Filoni stuff) that the Empire was still infecting the New Republic and biding its time.
And the Empire is able to essentially convert into the First Order and take over every bit of what the Empire held (I think, it's really unclear on how much they control). By the end of episode 9, the heroes have reformed some sort of new rebel alliance and they defeat Palpatine, but I can't even remember if they do anything about the actual First Order. I assume they still have tons of territory and ships and might actually have competent leadership from whoever is next in line.
That's what souring about all Star Wars with me. In three trilogies, they have a couple of wins (episodes 4, 6, and 9), but for the most part, the theme seems to be "keep fighting but the bad guys will always come back bigger and stronger"

I think it's clear to the viewer that the Empire has lost and the Rebellion victorious at the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. That's the conclusion of George Lucas's "Skywalker" timeline/narrative. What's come after then, as we all know, is more war, because that's literally the premise of the franchise. It was never conceived as an ongoing anthology or continuation like Star Trek of a variety of adventures and stories. The sequel trilogy was a colossal windfall for Disney, but a progressively disliked by fans. I figured it would be, when Mark Hamill basically crapped on Abrams and Johnson for writing trash. The movies are well made and outstanding "first watches," but they don't captivate like the originals, and the Rise of Skywalker is an utter disaster.

2023-12-26 10:52:55

QuinnSlidr wrote:

pilight wrote:
A substantial chunk of the Democratic base wants something done about the border. Greg Abbott calling the bluff of the "sanctuary" cities that are thousands of miles from the border with his busing has done a lot to turn the tide on the issue.
As for Giuliani, sure he'll still owe them their judgement but under bankruptcy he'll always be able to claim he doesn't have the money and won't face any further penalty for non-payment.
Actually, no we don't. The entire border BS is just that - BS. Another BS lie the rethuglicans tell you to make you think they know what they're talking about. They feed on republican racism and bigotry to get votes for their cause.
Democrats, we simply ignore it because we know they're all lies.

Lies? The City of New York is hemorrhaging budget due to massive unplanned (and unwanted) costs of housing and feeding migrants, providing healthcare, and sending their children to schools. That's coming from the mayor, a Democrat. It's urban voters who are increasingly turned off by all this. Again, I get NYC news programs, which are NOT conservative run, and people are pissed. I would have agreed that the crisis was overblown by Republicans for many years, and of course Trump, acerbated the problem. Biden has been in office for three years, he owns it now, you can't blame Trump forever. The perception has been he's made it worse, and the busing (illegal?) from Texas to northern cities was a stroke of genius by those Governors. It dropped the massive issues they've had with migrants on the doorstep of cities reeling from the pandemic, who do not have the resources to deal with them.

2023-12-26 10:40:51

I saw the first The Santa Clause and liked it, but had no interest in further endeavors which I presumed were just the same premise recycled.

Speaking of X-Mas movies, I opted for a back to back the other night of the classic Chris Columbus Home Alone movies. The first one being an all-time blockbuster, the first movie I saw multiple times in the theater. I can recall people just about rolling in the aisles at the physical comedy a la Three Stooges. There is little I could even nitpick about that film even three decades later. Well except one thing...I could never comprehend how the primary McAllister family had FOUR teenage children who appeared to be the same age? Were they quadruplets? HA HA HA. I suppose they could have been "Irish" quadruplets, but each actor was around 13 during filming, making it difficult to differentiate their ages.

That aside, I saw that Rotten Tomatoes only has this classic as 66% which is absurd! Then we had Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which remains one of the most well known "New York" films if you will. I think I was a freshman in high school when this was released, but it was still very funny. The Tiger Talkboy may well have been the biggest immediate "hit" from the film, as I got one, and making comedic skits and such on there was a lot of fun. The movie itself, I think hasn't held up quite as well as the original. Granted the story was largely the same, but the physical comedy became far too nonsensical, highlighted by Daniel Stern's electrocution scene and turning into a skeleton. The homeless "pigeon lady" was fairly ridiculous, and a strange turn for recent Oscar winner Brenda Fricker. I was actually surprised watching now, three decades later, at the number of problems I could spot with it.

2023-12-26 09:06:11

https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/21/240 … -elon-musk

Well, another Elon Musk backed company is dead.

2023-12-22 10:55:38

pilight wrote:

A substantial chunk of the Democratic base wants something done about the border. Greg Abbott calling the bluff of the "sanctuary" cities that are thousands of miles from the border with his busing has done a lot to turn the tide on the issue.
As for Giuliani, sure he'll still owe them their judgement but under bankruptcy he'll always be able to claim he doesn't have the money and won't face any further penalty for non-payment.

Giuliani won't pay a dime, like Alex Jones or OJ Simpson. Yes, Abbott had a stroke of genius tinged with cruelty, but it has worked. Mayor Adams of New York has started cutting major services because the city is tapped out by housing migrants, who complain about the free hotels and food they've been given. It's absolutely begun pissing the working class off, and when you see the videos from El Paso, again it's a major disaster for Biden.

Ukraine wise, he's begun to try to take seized Russian assets but that will take forever, because the money is held in banks, many not on US soil.

2023-12-22 10:51:16

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I get that it has to be about a war, but if the wars are endless and repetitive, then no action done by anyone has any impact. It makes winning any particular battle (or even war) meaningless if the cycle just repeats a few years later.

Yes, well the point is to WIN the war at the conclusion of whatever heroic story you're telling. Star Wars now is just wedging stories all over the place, in a war that was already "won." In any event, that is all really secondary to the awful production of these series. The stories could be about jilted lovers or Christmas, doesn't explain why they are so badly devised.

BTW, has anyone seen Netflix's Rebel Moon (Zack Snyder's purported Star Wars pitch)? I watched Part One last night, I thought it was okay for what it was. Not the normal over the top, in your face, Snyder stuff.

2023-12-21 09:10:37

The Supreme Court would be in a difficult spot on CO ruling. Do they stick up for their precious "state's rights" by upholding the ruling, or do they interfere? Personally, I don't see how you can "judge" if someone was an insurrection participant, without due process.

Will they fast track Smith's challenge to Trump's challenge to whether he can stand trial for Jan 6th?

Will Biden actually cut a deal on immigration, in order to fund Ukraine's war? To me these are the key issues to be decided I presume next month. The current news on the border is not good for the White House. Video of thousands of migrants standing around in the wilderness like they're waiting to get into a Taylor Swift show, very bad.

As an aside, there is no more disgusting predicament as the battle, largely in the South for the rights of women to their own medical decisions. The Texas case in particular. It has many Democrats demanding the party shift to abortion as their lead campaign rhetoric.

Polls, what do the polls say? They remain terrible for the President/VP. One sliver of "good" news is that a large percentage of folks who are down on them, and really want NEITHER party's front runners, are unlikely to vote. I've see more and more mention of that, without surprise. As with any other election, it's all about turnout. Can you turnout enough people sympathetic to your side?

2023-12-21 09:00:40

RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

Tracy hasn't appeared at his regular weekly appearance on the awake nation show for some time now (idk -- six weeks, two months?). I have concerns. It's not like he "departed" the show. Obviously, he has had some health issues over the years.

He seems to make "friends" with these crackpot internet folks, and then grows bored and dumps them. Cardinal Sin I'm sure was wondering where he went off to as well. Tracy is technologically backwards as well.

2023-12-21 08:58:35

Well WAR is in the title! My continued beef has been the ineptitude of the film making process. They don't allow them to just make the stuff, it's sanitized and controlled, ironically, like the Empire, by Disney overseers.

2023-12-11 11:28:47

QuinnSlidr wrote:

As is typical with most right wing propaganda, all the BS propaganda and lies above ignores several things:
1. Trumpers are less than 23% of the total electorate (not half of all voters as they like to claim),
2. The polling said exactly the same thing in 2020 (landslide victory for Trump),
3. Trump has to win over all independents as well as non-Trumper republicans (very unlikely).
4. The bottom 3 generations control all voting prowess in 2024 as the youngest and most progressive, liberal generation turns voting age. Locking out republicans and any hope of victory.
5. Polls don't win elections. Voters do.
But sure, you go screaming from the rooftops how Trump will win in 2024.
Nobody's buying your crap. It ain't over until the votes are counted - all mail-in and absentee votes too, by the way.

Trumper! I am the most anti-Trump member of this forum, and I believe ireactions would even vouch for that. I am a REALIST, and you are either enjoying the magic mushrooms, or so diverged from reality it's time for a wake up call. Do you think I WANT Trump to win???? Are you mad? I'm freaking out, because he mostly likely WILL win. Lies? Ignore the polls to your demise, I sure as hell did in 2016. Will never make that mistake again.

Firstly, I'm not relying on one or two polls, it's EVERY poll, and Biden gets trounced by Republicans. Yes, it's closer with Trump, but is still ahead in two-way, including in several battleground states. And Biden's approval rating, which should never be overlooked, is terrible. I truly am sick to my stomach. All they had to do was get this stubborn President to step aside, let other candidates step up. They would cruise over Trump, who remains hated passionately.

Secondly, I wouldn't trust the "younger generation" as far as I could throw it. They are not as "liberal" as you suggest for one, they are disconnected, self-adsorbed, and addicted to social media. Their opinion on Biden is atrocious, fostered by this psychotic WOKE agenda that even I thought was just a fad or innocuous but could not be more wrong. This garbage has eaten away at the progressive cause, and turned into a cesspool. One that actually takes Trump side (out of cowardice) against Ukraine and for dictator. One that takes the side of violent criminals, drug addicts, and thieves over 95% of us who know how to behave, and overlooks rioters and looters whenever they can. They promote "equity" instead of equality, and "diversity" over merit. They've pushed this out of control agenda, to the point where parents are furious and actually voted in GOP as a result. Either by sexualizing GRAMMAR school education in suburbs, and overloading urban schools with migrants. They've driven more away from Democrats than for.

And maybe worst of all, they view everything as oppressor/oppressed, a tenet of Communism, that has a generation so deluded by this immoral group think that they have taken the sides of terrorist murders/rapists over a democratic society. And poll after poll has the "young" showing terribly for Biden, and actually better for Trump, in critical battleground states. They have no knowledge of history, and are brainwashed by apps which are infiltrated by Russian and Chinese algorithms. Beyond that, while Biden continues to forgive student loans, his numbers are worse off. Why? Again, it's picking and choosing, and plenty of young folk who didn't go to college are pissed off by that.

You're free to call that "right wing propaganda," I call that a call for civility and voters preferring prosperity and order over chaos and anxiety. Biden has been level headed and an ADULT on this stuff, and gets little credit for it thanks to an out of control Woke social media that has destroyed his entire agenda. One last thing on the youth, I would remind you that the younger voter in Michigan or Arizona or Pennsylvania are NOT in lock step with those in California or New York. They trend more middle of the road, and they are trending AWAY from Biden.

Lastly, actually no, the polls did not call for a Trump landslide. By this point in 2019, Joe Biden was polling AHEAD of Trump, and had been on a consistent basis for most of that year. Thanks to Rep. James Clyburn, Biden was given a lifeline in a state's primary dominated by older, more rational voters, and thankfully knocked Bernie out of the lead, because he was going to lose to Trump without a doubt. Suburban voters would NOT have supported a socialist.

I will be the first to gladly celebrate being wrong on this matter, but I think I've had several more revolutions around the Sun, and have seen quite a lot of politics. So rather than cast me aside as right wing, maybe you should stop, and actually THINK or seek out who's saying these things. The youth vote failed to show up frequently. The bigger concern is losing the WORKING CLASS vote, followed by the suburban mom vote. You have several major Democratic Party loyalists sounding the alarm. They know elections, they know when a candidate is toast. Impeachment is a political tool, it's not a legal one. Mark my words, if Trump escapes conviction, he will win.

******************************************

SQ21, yes, on the surface, Biden has had a mountain of accomplishments, ones that any incumbent should be able to easily tout and do a victory lap with. You say he hasn't "campaigned yet" but WILL he? Seriously? Can he? These are legit concerns that a lot of Democratic analysts have. Biden campaign whined about David Axelrod, Obama's main man, for begging him to step down. Ax was right, I fear. The man is 81 years old, and looks 91, I'm afraid to say. Voters are seeing this, and are just simply dumbfounded how he's supposed to be capable of another term? Perception is an incredibly strong thing. The right track/wrong track numbers are horrendously bad for Biden.

Jack Kennedy famously appeared vibrant in the 1960 debate, while Nixon looked downtrodden, and that perception propelled JFK (Chicago shenanigans aside). In truth, Kennedy WAS more vibrant, with this astounding vision for the future of all humanity, not just Americans. That image combined with his words and later actions, transformed Kennedy into a mythic figure around the world, even before the right wing shot him up in Dallas. Trump has a monstrous image, in which he literally says he'll be DICTATOR on day one, and exact untold revenge on the institutions of government not seen since Julius Caesar.

2023-12-10 16:25:32

I disagree. The fans are let down by "fan service," which the franchise has been drowning in thanks to Disney. When you do not allow filmmakers to produce art which THEY want to see, you will let everyone down, each time. It's a continued strangling of creativity, and it is not the fault of the fans nor the Star Wars mythos either. It's the owners of the content. Seriously, what was the last creatively praised Disney product released theatrically? They don't care, just the $.

2023-12-10 16:20:08

QuinnSlidr wrote:

You're basically saying and repeating Trump's own words when he attacked impeachment: Impeachment is a joke.
Impeachment is not a joke.
Trump was impeached twice by the House - in a landmark testimony of our justice system in action.
And he deserved every single minute of it.
Dismissing impeachment as a joke just continues to cheapen its effects the more often it's repeated. And I don't think Trumps' behavior leading up to impeachment should be considered a joke at all.
But, Biden's impeachment is the one that's the joke. Especially when republicans are behind it and they have zero proof at all and have no clue what it's for yet either. I think they're making it up as they go along.

Impeachment is 100% a joke. It's been used for unwarranted political theater by Republicans. Or when I agree, warranted against Trump, Republicans refused to remove him from office, again, making it a joke. Impeachment has no teeth, and never will. The requirement to convict is to a point where no party will ever vote to convict a member of their own party. Trump has every reason to laugh about it, because the GOP are selfish cowards and he knows it. The fact that Trump could still remain in a position of dominance in a major party, and remains ahead of the opposing one, proves it.

https://abcnews4.com/news/local/haley-l … -wciv-2023

For the first time, Trump is ahead of Biden in the WSJ poll, by 4 points, with Biden approval 37/61, absolutely horrendous numbers. Nikki Haley, unsurprisingly, would beat Joe senseless, 51-37, which I think everyone knows at this point would be the case. Biden is done, cruising to a guaranteed defeat. Honestly, I think Trump would still prevail if he were still in a jail cell 11 months from now. I really do believe most Americans view Biden as senile. Economic conditions are continually improving, his approval goes down.

2023-12-08 13:53:44

One of the gimmicks used in Indy films is that often Indy gets pummeled by a giant villain, and resorts to trickery or maybe an obtuse weapon to get an edge, and then forces the villain to their in some Looney Tunes fashion. Mr. Kleen Nazi got shredded by the propeller, shooting the swordsman in Cairo in Raiders, having the giant Thugee strangled and crushed by the rock grinder in ToD, and he barely directly won any of his fights in TLC, while having the ants take the Russian tough guy away in KOTCS.

Didn't think Beckinsale was convincing ehhh? I gawked regardless! I think Selene tended to shoot most of the bad guys anyway.

2023-12-08 13:51:38

Impeachment is a joke, nobody even knows what it's for, I know I don't! Hunter nobody cares about, for or against. Trump's criminal trials only matter, as I said the other day, because if he's found guilty of felonies, and one were to give credence to polling, public support would flip pretty much on a dime. The vast majority of undecided vote would be against Trump, and he'd likely be sunk. The Georgia case, despite Fannie Willis getting one guilty plea after the other, sounds as though will not actually have Trump in a courtroom until after the election. We all know the Florida based documents case is tried by Trump fan Judge Cannon, who may give a wink wink, and allow the case to fester and be delayed as well.

That really puts it all on Jack Smith in the DC case, which I feel is the most pertinent anyway, since it accuses Trump (alone without co-conspirators on trial) of attempting a coup d'etat while sanctioning an insurrection. In fact, Colorado is currently seeing that case wind through its courts, and would likely wind up in front of the Supreme Court. Why? It banned those who “engaged in insurrection” against the United States from holding any civil, military, or elected office without the approval of two-thirds of the House and Senate. A CO district state judge already ruled that Trump did just that, which would be grounds under state law to BAR him from their ballot. Measures are being considered in other states should Trump find his way to the general ballot.

I hold firm that there is a strong possibility, as I said, that the % of people who supported Biden (or in reality voted against Trump) hasn't actually shifted. His actions in January 2021 will be a central point of the 2024 campaign blitz against him, make no mistake. DNC, liberal PACs, and Never Trump groups are all readying a massive campaign that will I think hit voters with a replay of the MAGA criminals, all overlaid with Trump voiceovers. If that doesn't all work, it will be time to open the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky Bridge....

2023-12-08 08:52:38

Hunter was indicted on tax fraud as well, 9 counts. Plus Ukraine aid seems unlikely to be passed, a huge win for Dictator Putin, and of course, Trump.

2023-12-08 08:51:19

I would rate Ahsoka as a C+ to a B-, although that grade may change over time (assuming) future seasons better guide where the story is going. Didn't work out for The Mandalorian, where an A first season meant little when the show later went off the rails. I LOVED this cast, despite not being that enamored with Rosario, who I felt was far too cerebral and lacked the bravado of the animated version. Natasha Liu Bordizzo, I'm in love with. Even the guy playing Ezra, looked and felt the part, which I thought would be the toughest. The production design and CGI artwork were extraordinary, award-worthy.

Sadly, that's about where my praise ends. The story, on its whole, is very compelling. The problem is, as has become standard with Disney+ Star Wars, is that the story is stretched out like pizza dough, and the interludes are incredibly boring and pointless. The action was great, but intermixed with so many pauses and drawn out silence, you have to ask WTH?!?! These are not bad directors, someone is making them do this, and it's putrid. The dialogue is beyond wretched, I wish there were an option to turn it off but keep the great musical score only!!! Filoni tried to push themes from his animated shows, in particular, Rebels, which was my favorite. It fell flat HARD. Even I was often thoroughly confused what was being referenced, visually, and watched that show intently.

PS: It was reported that due to the strike, LucasFilm is only releasing TWO series in 2024, The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew. Obviously I am so furious, because Andor will be delayed until 2025, and it's the only show they've done which is top notch. I guess hopes will be pinned on Jude Law, who until now, has been one of my favorite actors. Truly hope, like the miserable Obi-Wan, we aren't given another stellar performance by an English actor trapped in the Garbage Level of the Death Star.

2023-12-07 10:06:41

To ireactions comments, I agree the Helena character was clunky. I think more time should have been spent developing her motivations, and they probably could have completely cut the Teddy character. The script was rewritten many times, though nothing like the spaghetti that KOTCS' was. I think your criticism could be leveled on every action film that gets made now. They're incoherent, contradictory, lazy, disjointed, and whatever you do, do NOT stop and try to think about the story as it's exploding! I would counter that I thought Ford was terrific during the action segments, especially at his age. Although most of the actual stunts went to those performers, especially after he got injured.

To SQ21, I'm not sure what you desired would have made that much of an impact. One of the charms of the original Indy movies was Spielberg's ability to move the film's story and action along quickly. There are moments to catch your breath, but unlike the Connery Bond films he was so enamored with, they were far better. This movie was very long, and I totally agree, the boat/diving segment featuring Banderas was terrible. It is what it is. In general, Disney were not going to allow them to make a Zack Synder-esque Indiana Jones, the point was to restore the feel and pace of Raiders, which I think Mangold did. This was a very difficult assignment for him, I think he did as well as he could.

2023-12-07 09:55:16

Trump's numbers have barely moved. Biden's have fallen off a cliff. He's tried to assuage the public's economic fears. But they stared higher gas prices, higher food, and everything else prices in the face for some time. His student loan forgiveness, added to a series of those "COVID" checks have only exacerbated inflation. He's been on a Bidenomics tour most of the year. He's surrounded by woke idiots in the White House. They've out there protesting his Israel policy, and writing anonymous letters to the media about how the President won't listen to THEM.

Meanwhile the buffoons in the House GOP, who now have a 2 vote majority after McCarthy bailed, are moving forward on impeachment. Given that the public has zero interest in that, and an utter waste of time, should buoy Joe some.

2023-12-06 13:52:03

I have no explanation for that, a month is totally ridiculous. The other possibility which the actors kind of alluded to, is that they might have been filming the episodes at normal pace, but there were gaps in between. Perhaps Seth was re-writing taking his sweet old time? I doubt they were paid a ton to begin with, outside of MacFarlane, so for their sakes maybe the show ought to stay "grounded," which I expect to happen anyway.

2023-12-06 13:18:37

I wish I had your guys' optimism. SQ21 your proposal sounds like the opening plot for Bad News Bears in Breaking Training!

Biden's numbers are historically bad, nobody's ever been re-elected like this. I'm not looking at current polls and jumping off a cliff. My belief is they will get WORSE! For awhile I figured Trump hate would keep him afloat. The campaign will be ancient Biden, which people cannot conceive doing the job any longer, and Trump, showing signs of dementia and mostly screaming about rigged elections and how he's being railroaded in court. Millions will turn off this election, for sure.

Also, we're ignoring the potential 3rd party spoilers. RFK Jr., who is popular with MAGA, maybe Joe Manchin, who knows.

One bit of good news, Kevin McCarthy is retiring.

https://nypost.com/2023/12/06/news/form … d-of-2023/

2023-12-06 11:33:47

SQ21, everything you wrote is excellent and appropriate. HOWEVER, you are asking the American public to delve into topics and connect dots and understand nuance? Oh boy, that's going to be a big ask. That goes back to perception, and Biden loses that battle every time. His communicative skills don't exist anymore, and Kamala Harris is atrocious and more negatively viewed than he is! He absolutely BLEW it choosing her over Amy Klobuchar. Hell, Buttegieg would be more formidable than her, but she "checked" a box (minority female) instead of being evaluated for potential campaign performance. This is where Biden fails. He's plenty capable of being President, despite the jerks who make fun of his age, but he is totally incapable of campaigning. It's going to be an utter train wreck.

Biden is getting destroyed in polling on pocket book issues, and that is what drives people in national campaigns. It's "the economy stupid," and it always is, especially for the sliver of independent voters. The DNC have focused on the women of the suburbs with their messaging. They still despise Donald Trump, and I do not expect them to start moving en masse to him. That being said, when you question blue collar outreach, I think Biden has made inroads in the upper Midwest, but that has not helped him in AZ or GA, where he's now behind. He can win without them if he runs the table with WI, MI, PA, I think (haven't done the math in head). The perception, as each issue has arisen, is that Biden is feeble and has handled things badly. When in fact most of these issues were directly caused by TRUMP!!! It just doesn't take much to swing from the slight Biden state wins in 2020 to losing those states. Not much at all, and young minority men do not like him. Whether they vote is another story, of course. That doesn't even get into how badly Trump's clan will attempt to literally steal the election again, given how many of the barriers in 2020 have been whittled away.

QuinnSlidr, I will accept your explanation on gain of function. Tom Cotton is worthless. I appreciate the response, my anxiety on the subject is a lot less now. Unfortunately, I am NOT the general public, they are stubborn and lazy, and not as easily swayed by proof, to make the accusations go away.

I read that Fauci will testify before Congress. Sadly he will be grilled like he were "Michael Corleone," and is it will be opportunity for grandstanding by the elected officials only. I never believed Fauci lied to Congress in the first place. He was employed as a bureaucrat and spokesman, but like the legions of other officials, he stood by and watched Trump lie to the public. I would put him in with Gen Mattis or John Kelly, men who supposedly took an oath to the Constitution, and they all were in dereliction of duty. All of them. They should have each resigned and made such a public stink of it, that the public would have turned on Trump well before November 2020. Yeah, yeah, they all said staying was more important, to keep Trump in check. Nonsense, he went haywire regardless, and their silence (well after leaving) was cowardly, not heroic. I could be too hard on Fauci, not sure, but inject bleach into your veins or UV rays or whatever that nonsense was, he rolled his eyes. The government officials of yesteryear would have stepped down and berated a corrupt superior. The number of people who refused vaccines, and were in poor health, because of King MAGA, was unfortunate for them (many died/suffered), not for the rest of us. I guess he did the best he could, still, he was a spokesman, not a decision maker, and his "resignation" would have spoke volumes about how much of a ass hat Trump was during 2020. We "lucked out" that Biden won after all.

2023-12-06 10:56:00

I think Sec 31 is just a movie to stream on P+. I'm shocked that Yeoh agreed to go forward at all, after the Oscar win. I suppose Picard could return as a movie as well, and Matalas has been pushing for a "Legacy" show, which I would love to see, but who knows? Paramount is heavily in flux. They're essentially shutting down Showtime, and there's been talk of them selling pieces.

2023-12-06 08:55:37

SIX to SEVEN weeks to SHOOT an episode?!?!?!? Is that true? Seth's vaunted Star Trek TNG episodes were given barely TWO weeks to film, often less! That's outright lunacy. Also, effects mean nothing as most are done in post via CGI. The show has limited location filming, it's 90% on the ship set. I could see it taking seven weeks from first shot to post being completed, but not filming, that is horrendous.

In fairness, like I said, Seth asked to be allowed just to write the show, and be replaced on screen, the studio refused. I do not expect to see the series return. At this point, with whatever Discovery plans to spew onto peoples' wi-fi, this seems to leave SNW as the lone "outer space" TV series?

2023-12-06 07:40:02

TemporalFlux wrote:

But the real motivation is that he has some irrational hatred for the department. He wants to destroy it and re-make it so that it’s unrecognizable and a footnote in history.
He’s been leading up to all of this for over two years. They’ve been making it so hard that people quit and then not hiring people to replace them which makes it harder and makes more people quit, etc. He’s just been scared to pull the final trigger on the killing blow until the election was over.

I actually missed this, and I'm very sorry to hear that TF. The present GOP doesn't want government that doesn't include legislating the bedroom. They want to eliminate the rest of it, because it impedes their wealthy donors from taking advantage of the law and people, and impedes their ability to cheat. My father was forced to retire from teaching when the slovenly former governor of NJ once took a blow torch to public education, and eliminated hundreds of jobs and programs.

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

(Please note that I still fully support Joe Biden and will do everything I can to get him elected. My support hasn't wavered, and I think he's done a great job).
I'm starting to get nervous about 2024.
That being said, I'm still just surprised that we're here. Biden talked in 2020 about being a one-term president and passing the baton on to someone else. The Democrats won both chambers of Congress and the White House. They had big names in Congress and in the Cabinet that they could've lifted up and popularized. They could've given Kamala Harris work to make her more popular and likeable.
They had years to build a deep bench, and what do they have to show for it? Gretchen Whitmer? Gavin Newsom?
Scary times.

In the age of social media, a poor public perception is like a dagger through the heart. Biden has THREE major precption problems, and Hunter is not one of them...

1) Economy is expanding at record speed, BUT he gets no credit for it, because the public perception is he's to blame for the increased price of a Happy Meal. I really don't know how to get around that for Biden, other than to blindly HOPE that the polls, which are awful on that subject, do not translate at the actual polls. While it's true that Democrats have won some localized elections here and there, despite that, it's been against right wingers who are out to imprison women like it's 1669. Much of the cost increases in everyday lives are actually a result of point number 2. They have come out well in the labor strikes though, that's a positive.

2) General perception of his administration being less than competent, with chaos reigning throughout the country. Granted Trump's looked as buffoonish as they came. Biden did weather the fervor over the Afghan exit, which was messy but 100% needed to happen. He's currently being beaten up by the new age Left who equate Israel/Palestine as the struggle against apartheid was in South Africa, which is preposterous. This is a result of religious fanaticism. That will pass too. One thing that may not pass is the border. Biden has been IMO a complete and utter failure on the border. It's just seething with DISORDER, and voters do not like disorder. That brings nothing but anxiety, and he has refused to do anything about it, and has openly chastised critics that there's nothing wrong with the current mess. Lastly we have the "woke Left" on the coasts who have undermined him every step of the way. The endorsement of progressively violent and destructive BLM riots, Defund the Police resulting in untenable situations in Seattle and Portland akin to Escape from NY, to the rampant "zombie drug addict" filled streets of San Francisco, all the way to the utterly brainless bail reform of New York that's led to an explosion in VISIBLE crime. The cessation of arrests for assault, shop lifting, and vandalism has led to costs for such destruction being passed onto the consumer. That plus the seemingly inability to keep mentally ill violent people off the streets. DISORDER and more disorder. Will it pass? I really don't know, because it's nonstop. Even though crime is DOWN!!! That's the crazy part, but again, you are inundated with crazy videos on social media and it's all people see. They see the madness, they share it with friends/family, goes viral.

3) Last one is of course his age and overall fitness. He speaks, walks, and behaves like a very elderly man. I think his critical thinking and moral center are rock solid, but people just don't appear to have faith in him for another four years. He should have stepped aside 6 months ago. I have no good thoughts on this. He will be DESTROYED in the campaign next year. I cannot even imagine an on stage debate, whether it's Trump or some other GOP. I don't know how low his approval has to get before he caves and gets out. At that point, I don't know what Democrats would do? Their primary deadline rules are not grafted for that. Huge mess.

-- The only hope is that Trump gets convicted of felonies in one or more of these trials. The Jan 6th DC trial is first. He would need to lose that. As much as the voters do not want Biden at his age, they would abhor a convicted felon far more. At least you'd think. I think most of the state polls remain within the margin of error, and Trump's % is nowhere near 50% so really it's still undecided. However, if Trump comes out of the trials victorious or somewhat even, that's big trouble. Remember, his MAGA support is that of a deity, so he has that % confirmed. If a % either shifts to him from Joe, or they don't vote at all (prob better chance of that), BAD.

If I'm the DNC, I blanket and I mean blanket TV, radio, print, social media with clips from January 6th, plus the abortion stuff. Yes, it's usually poor strategy to promote what you're against rather than what you're for. They can do some of that too, as most of Biden's economic platform is a good one. Donald Trump is massively unpopular, and that may still prove to be his undoing, but I wouldn't take that bet right now. Ugh, I think Andrew Cuomo could have muscled Biden into getting out of the way, but he got taken down by what has appeared to be highly iffy claims of being inappropriate. The problem is a normal candidate could talk their way out of lower polls, but Biden is barely communicative without suffering gaffes and digging deeper holes. He was insulated and hidden in 2020 and that won't work this time.

2023-12-06 00:49:56

Moderator Note: This poster has made an error, claiming that 'healthy' people cannot become seriously ill with flu or COVID (although the latter was qualified with uncertainty). The moderator has consulted with some medical doctors and the consensus is that 'healthy' people can become severely sick and hospitalized with flu and COVID, and updated vaccinations significantly reduce the risk.

This poster has also made an error in evaluating mask studies, claiming that variable results in risk reduction mean masks should not be considered effective. Consultation with medical doctors has provided the view: given the proven mechanics of electrostatic filtration to catch viruses, mask studies with variable results are not no results, but rather a spectrum of results due to variables (whether or not the masks were ASTM/KF94/N95 certified and worn properly of consistently.

From a medical perspective, healthy people are encouraged to be within a spectrum of safety via vaccinations and wearing certified masks with a good seal. A medically-informed perspective does not disregard a range of results as no results or ignore the underlying principles of electrostatic masks.

While the BOTH of us might have considered an unvaccinated unmasked person in March 2021 a modern day "Typhoid Mary," there are massive Constitutional questions that arise from that. Public duty or not, I think had that case gone to the US Supreme Court, especially the Notre Dame infused one now, the government loses. Trampling a person's civil rights, in lieu of the public good, boy that is a slippery slope. It's Orwellian, particularly when dissent is silenced. Really doesn't matter now, in terms of 2020-2021. The problem is we still did not know how "dangerous" that person was, as bizarre as that sounds. I can recall the two dopes in NJ (we have many) who got arrested repeatedly for opening their gym against state laws. Could the state's Dept of Health prove running the gym (while masked by the way) was X.XXX a public health menace? Of course they couldn't. Now, you have more and more parents who refuse to allow their children to be vaccinated for measles or mumps, which is beyond stupid, as those vaccines are like 99.9% effective. I would concur, when the possibility existed that the vaccine might actually stop transmission, to refuse injection would have been a problem. Wound up not mattering.

I have always trusted your evaluation of masks. Still, we both know 90+% of people were not and will not wear the respirators that would "block all those particles." Even still, the question that was never fully answered by the CDC or anyone else, did the masking truly DO much of anything? Or did the virus beat the masks as it seemed to beat the vaccine in terms of transmission? They were supposed to evaluate this for the "next contagion" but as I referenced, they didn't. In the hoopla of the pandemic, procedures weren't accurately followed and most of the data is inconclusive. That's all I was getting at with I guess it's QuinnSldr who wears a mask frequently. That him wearing it versus not wearing it, if he's a healthy individual, may actually be of slight difference. Maybe you're 60% right, and I'm 40% right, I just don't think the data came out of COVID unscathed.

If the immune system is functioning properly, you're going to ward off most illness without an issue. Same with the flu, a healthy person unvaccinated is very unlikely to be hospitalized by the flu. It's been around forever, and there's herd immunity. I personally believe there is the same for COVID, though I wouldn't declare that at this point. Like I said, even medical professionals, well meaning, don't know what they don't know. Hence the opioid crisis, where a drug company lied for decades, to regulators and doctors, about what the substance did. I don't view the vaccine scientists nefariously as Purdue pharma, but we have to accept that they have financial reasons to push these products. They might be the right reasons. In the end, part of the reason vaccination was resistant was that the Biden campaign had badgered Trump about the virus numbers, won the election, then had to own their own numbers which wound up being worse. They should have stopped counting infections, and just focused on hospitalizations and deaths. The vaccines worked wonders on those numbers. This is what happens when you politicize a pandemic response, which the stupid Democrats did. All they needed to sink Trump was to focus on how he lied, and the number dead due to his chaotic response, including fucking over "blue states" because he didn't like the Governor's which he absolutely did.

I also feel strongly the gain of function debate, nor the lab leak in Wuhan, are settled. Thanks to the Chinese dictatorship, we may never know on the viral origin. Gain of function has been paused in the past, with continued highly respected critics asking to do it again. Some argue it actually isn't worthwhile research, even if it's overall safe, and serves little value in preparing for future pandemics. They question the ethics in conducting it simply to get research money. Misappropriated research in order to basically steal public funding has been getting worse and worse.

Unfortunately, these questions get politically loaded, and that's it. Republicans wish to ban (legally they really can't) gain of function. Is their reasoning sound? Them!>!> It's political, but there are still plenty of unbiased medical researchers who support that position. Dems will probably oppose, because the other side wants it, without I think really evaluating the subject. 30-40 years ago, these questions would be debated by experts first, then a Congressional report would be rendered with their consensus. Now, forget it, it's a unworkable disaster.

2023-12-05 23:31:10

ireactions wrote:

I'm not flippant about medical information that could, if put into practice, affect someone's health and well-being. I'm not flippant in discussing child abuse and trauma. I'm not flippant about sex trafficking. No one should be.
When you are cavalier and careless in posting about masks and vaccines, you are saying that human life doesn't matter to you and that the lives of the people on this board especially don't matter to you. That's what I find more insulting than any epithet or term of scorn.
To truly discuss something is to engage in earnest fashion by offering verified facts and honest perspectives for sincere discourse with standards of factuality and reason to genuinely engage with ideas and information. And by that standard, you were done a long time ago.

I did not know you were in the health profession, again, I don't read every post, I probably miss 75% of them. I honestly thought you just followed the subject passionately out of your own interests. I tried to rebut with actual examples, which I doubt you bothered reading or discussing, including studies on the efficacy of masks against COVID-19 on the larger society. You could have read my link, and explained how I misinterpreted something. Instead, you chose to call me a liar, and declared everything I think is wrong and untrue. Which is kind of impossible, since these concepts are not cut and dry, there is room for nuance and discussion, and even if we agree on facts, that doesn't mean we have to agree on what to do next. This is what public health officials do after all. You're arguing that certain masks work and work well, I am not denying that, nor have I ever questioned your research on individual mask types, have I not? Forget whether your mask, being worn at all times, around any human being(s), is going to stop viruses. That's never been my point. You can quote the effect in a lab on the number of particles that get stopped, etc. I was asking about long term studies on their effectiveness. It's like saying the seat belt will protect you. Okay, but you can still die in a crash wearing one. Obviously there's so much data available from decades of accidents that you can say the belts would save you in a high percent of the time. With masks, as the link I shared seemed to indicate, there's no consensus. It's possible the studies just plain had too many flaws as a result of poor controls. It's very possible you would be proven 99% correct, I just want to see better consensus and IMO we don't have it.

I would never claim a vaccine does nothing for any recipient, more words in my mouth. My parents got flu and pneumonia vaccines recently. I didn't tell them what I thought of that, it's their decision. I literally said how flu vaccines are decided on. I did not say RANDOM, I said HEDGE, and you said "forecasting" which is the same damn thing. But I'm the liar. Your series of COVID-19 shots may work terrific for you. For someone else, they may still get sick. As you said, the vaccine is supposed to charge up the immune system. It's not a guarantee, it's simply a choice you make, or that I don't make. I simply would like to see continued research on the efficacy, that's all. Vaccinated versus unvaccinated with these subsequent shots. Is that happening? I legitimately want to know. The drug companies said Sudafed Cold worked, until professionals decided to study it, and found it had no observable benefit, and the product got shelved. Medical science is far, far from certainty. I would repeat the question, if I take COVID vaccine after vaccine every 6 months or whatever the gap is, will I be 20x or whatever less likely to get serious COVID symptoms? NOT lab results, actual studies with a proper pool of candidates, over the course of the vaccine's period. You say no vaccines will ever get made then, I disagree. Many have been judged safe and effective for decades. mRNA work is very new, and though I don't fear them like true anti-vaxxers, I simply want to know if they are really up to snuff over time. The research should be done to disprove the Jenny McCarthy's, not ME! I'm not the one standing in the way.

Whether it's masks or vaccines, you keep putting words in my mouth. I never said they don't all work. Some work to a far lesser degree by admission of medical experts, and there comes a point at which you can argue, your protection is so low there is really little benefit. Even Fauci has said this! Continued COVID vaccines, will they boost your immune system? I would say probably yes. To what degree, do they know? If a person is void of compromised health/immune system, will that person greatly benefit from vaccine vs. the side effects or potential lack of individual's immune response? That's the efficacy equation is it not? You can call that "cavalier," but the vaccines have had negative reactions in people particularly younger people, vs. the extremely low risk of those under 30 to acquire serious COVID symptoms. I am not questioning if vaccines DO something for you, I am only questioning to what extent, and whether you NEED them to! COVID vaccinations and masking are at an all-time low, and the disease is what? Few even test for it. I could list 3-5 other viruses people I know have gotten sick of this fall so far, not that.

I don't think I should be silenced for being skeptical and simply asking these questions and asking for actual proof rather than take the drug company's word for it. I was given medication as a child, which resulted in permanent damage several years later. Again, because they did it without doing the God Damn research, and once they did, they pulled the drug!!!! All of which was based on misdiagnosis, so excuse me if I take most of what "professional medical policy officials" declare with a grain of salt. Not you, the ones in the lab coats. I would have loved to have THAT discussion, but instead I was called names and "moderated" as if I were My Pillow Guy spouted lies for the purpose of politics. That was my lament from the first response two weeks ago, and the same with masks. The public health strategy was handled unjustly in my view, and I was (as I'm sure old posts will show) in support of it at the time! People should not have been forced to take shots or wear masks, nor should the economy and education system been shut down for nearly a year. You can call that cavalier but I call that freedom. I did not come to that realization lightly. I saw a lot of people being vilified for their skepticism online, fired, had their lives ruined. Should never have happened. I was one of those with the pitchforks, too. Lot of guilt over that.

Hope I'm not in "violation" for expressing my viewpoint and continued medical/pharma skepticism in this post.

2023-12-05 20:17:39

This is not some widely read or distributed medical review. No one is reading anything here, what any of us say on this thread is not affecting public health policy. It's a tiny SCIENCE FICTION MESSAGE BOARD! You can post links, and I can post links in rebuttal, and you can once again put words in my mouth, and so and so on.

ireactions wrote:

Grizzlor, you've been informed repeatedly, by me, of Wil Wheaton's claims against his family in the STAR TREK thread on two separate occasions. You also confess to listening to Wheaton's claims in a podcast, so you were fully aware of his claims.
Yet, you claim you were ignorant of Wheaton's family issues in the same paragraph where you describe listening to them. You are lying. It's like you think I can't scroll up or re-read previous posts or previous sentences.

Here again, I said I FORGOT about what he said, because I heard it once and didn't recall. My GOD I forgot what I heard on a podcast, driving in my car, months and months ago. I listen to podcasts all the time, and yeah details fade. I suppose I should have been asking for your medical opinion on my memory recall. And SORRY but I originally meant the rest of his family, i.e. his siblings, who did not abuse him nor steal from him if I recall from the podcast. This I do recall, which was that he said because they still speak to the parents, he will not speak to them. I found that unfortunate and disagreed with that, but again, it's his life, so he's free to do what he pleases. Moreover, I never READ what you wrote on Wil in the Star Trek thread, since I was busy reading your diatribe in this thread. Again, I was lazy and not fully articulate, and before I even had the chance to clarify myself, I'm deemed a child abuser. Lovely.

ireactions wrote:

You are either a liar or you are so disordered and disoriented that you can't keep track of your own writing from sentence to sentence. Personally, I think you're a liar and you have used up any benefit of the doubt.
You are an egotistical fool who thinks it's up to you to tell people they are obligated to maintain relationships with abusive family members because you just "can't wrap" your head around cutting ties with abusers.
https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php … 921#p14921
You are an ignorant twit who accused me of "fake news" for mentioning that Allison Mack was being investigated for sex trafficking for her cult, and your accusation was based solely on the fact that Mack posed for a photo with you. (By the way, Mack recently finished her prison sentence after pleading guilty to all charges.)
https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?pid=6988#p6988
You are a hapless oaf who blames FOX executives for SLIDERS' mismanagement during a discussion of its seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel.
https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?pid=8381#p8381
Public health is not a subject for your fumbling incompetence. Public health isn't STAR TREK or JOHN WICK or MORTAL KOMBAT or SLIDERS. If you want to engage in inane rants on popular culture, you go right ahead, but public health actually matters.
Grizzlor, if you continue to falsely claim that vaccines don't work or masks don't work and discourage people from masks or vaccination, you will be banned for a week. A second violation will see you banned for 30 days. A third violation will be your last.
Moderation, like electrostatic filtration and spike protein recognition, doesn't require your respect in order to work.

Now this section here, this is absolutely insane. Bro, you really should seek help. I don't know what is worse, that you spent what had to be substantial time to look this crap up, or worse, these thoughts/feelings continue to simmer in your mind to where you had to basically spew them out like this. Good grief. You're so good at calling up everything I've ever written, please find the posts where I insulted you with name calling and abject disrespect and pent up venom like this? Good luck. I don't take message boards THAT seriously, and my comments on film and television are meant to be flippant, considering this is a FAN BOARD.

If I showed this thread to the co-creators of the series this forum is about, they would absolutely VOMIT. To say nothing of the fact that one of them is a full-on conspiracy believer who wouldn't agree with most of what you post here, not that it matters.

PS: There won't be a third violation because I already stated I am done discussing "public health." It also has no business being in an American Politics thread either, if you're such a strict moderator, it should have been put on its own thread which I could then IGNORE. If you would like to start a public health sub-forum or a board of your own, by all means.

I don't know what to say, had no idea you were THIS pissed off. I'm not here to fight, especially considering I go to sleep and forget what I even write here, until I check the board again days or a week or so later.

2023-12-05 19:54:40

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

ireactions wrote:
I have to say "pretty much" because a third movie did enter pre-production in 2005 and reportedly, the original cast of the first were set to reprise their roles, and I think there was to be some quick explanation for resurrecting Linden Ashby's Cage. Unfortunately, the production chose New Orleans for a filming location and then Hurricane Katrina rendered New Orleans unusable for filming. That apparently shuttered pre-production, the contracts ran out, and the third film in the series was never made.
Interesting! I didn't know that either. I would've been okay with another Kombat film with the original cast (again, mostly out of nostalgia). I need to watch that retrospective because now I'm intrigued by the making of that awful movie.

I'm not sure how far that New Orleans film was developed though. Midway went out of business around that time, as well, and that affected a third film's progress as well as the console's production as well. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was terrible, maybe one of the 3-5 worst films of the decade. We went to see it and one friend took his younger brother who was so disappointed he started weeping a bit.

New Line Cinema released that movie, and they went from having a string of surprise hits like TMNT, Mortal Kombat, The Mask, Dumber and Dumber, etc, to some of the biggest disasters ever like sequels for those franchises, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. The studio "lucked" out when Peter Jackson distributed The Lord of the Rings through New Line, and took over the world.

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Speaking of nostalgia, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hit Disney+ and I finally saw it. I think Ford has some great scenes, and I think it was made with love. But I'm surprised that Mangold, who obviously has a reverence for this character, made a movie that is essentially devoid of any big swings. It's about as vanilla as you can get, takes almost no risks, and adds very little to the series. I'm not saying it's bad, I liked a decent amount of it quite a bit. It's just...nothing?

What risks would/should it have taken? This has been leveled on Mangold quite a bit, and most that say that just stop there. In terms of adding to the series, I think the problem there was that you'd then have to feature his wife and son quite a bit, which the producers were not in favor of, and who can blame them? Ford wanted to portray the end of the character's career, show his age, and that he was effectively a washed up super hero, his life in shambles. To me that was pretty risky, to show a broken down Indiana Jones. As a fanatic of the series, his reunion with Marion was worth the film to me, I get choked up on every watch, and I've seen it a half dozen times now. I would agree that the set pieces and the puzzle aspect to the film were lame and barely mattered. It was a difficult film I think to write in 2020-21 featuring an old man. Perhaps if they set it during WWII and just de-aged the man throughout, it could have been something more fitting?

2023-12-05 19:38:07

pilight wrote:

The president under the Articles of Confederation wasn't like the president we know today. It was more akin to the president pro tempore of the senate, someone who presides but has very limited powers.

Exactly. We were "taught" this in school, ha ha. The Articles established a relationship between the 13 new states, but there was little Federalism there. The Congress worked on international matters, for instance, but in a few years, they all decided there was a need to call the first (and hopefully last) Constitutional Convention. That was brought on largely as a result of trade and tariff disagreements. From there, came the greatest document in the history of mankind, the FIRST of its kind to establish the separation of church and state, by prohibiting a nationally sanctioned religion, and allowing all religious observation. The late great Christopher Hitchens, a hero of mine, consistently presented that as America's most valued article. A secular, federal republic, the first and largely only example of it.

2023-12-05 19:27:18

There was a writing team, including Brannon Braga & Andre Bormanis, but Seth handled the majority. The reason for the impasse prior to season 3 was that Seth did not want to continue filming the series in his role. He offered to write it, but FOX declined, so it was shelved for awhile, before production was again halted from COVID halfway through S3. They released it on Hulu rather than the network, following the Disney acquisition. Seth is onto other things, but this is what he does, start and stop, shuffles to another property, etc.

I can commiserate with the actors on that show. I do not expect it to return, and if it, does probably would be something very very limited. Maybe a movie. The show was not a ratings hit, and frankly the third season was a bit of a slog compared to the exciting S2. Not to mention how I didn't understand why Halston Sage was replaced. I'd welcome its return, but doesn't sound likely.

2023-12-05 19:26:10

dylrichard02 wrote:

It's been a little while since anyone posted here, but I wanted to share on this thread! I found Sliders on Comet when it premiered in 2020, but I was starting a full time job and college so I didn't really have the time to watch it everyday at 4:00 PM. I got the Mill Creek DVD set as it was readily available and only $20. Needless to say, I've watched a lot of episodes now. But I didn't really deep dive until I graduated college this past May. I'm in the middle of season 3 and just finished The Exodus 2 part episode last night. I'm interested to see where it goes from here, but I am skeptical too!
I digress the show clicked with me almost instantly when I watched the pilot and Fever. I was pulled in by the slight similarities to Quantum Leap (an overlap that seems to be shared around here) but hooked by the writing, characters, and overall feel of the show. It's definitely become one of my favorite sci-fi series and TV series in general!

Ironically, I too was lured in by the similarities to Quantum Leap, originally. Additionally, ha ha, I also wasn't able to "deep dive" the show until The Sci-Fi Channel began playing reruns in 1998, and recorded them on like a dozen VHS tapes! There were no DVR's or DVD's back then.

2023-11-30 12:02:05

Yes ireactions, I did BOTHER to watch the first and second John Wick, and IMO they featured Keanu killing a ton of people. It's Neo-noir. I'm not seeing 3 or 4 or whatever, no interest. Granted Wick 4 is supposedly the least violent, it's runtime of nearly three hours is reason enough for me to pass.

My point on MK was that the 90s movie were cheesy, as a video game movie should be. The remake(s) though are nothing like those, and I saw it on HBO Max, and yes, it was very violent, and frankly, stunk.

2023-11-30 11:42:00

MODERATOR WARNING: This post contains misrepresentations of mRNA vaccines and false claims regarding electrostatic masks. The next time this poster makes false claims regarding public health and safety, they will be banned for a week. The next incident will lead to a one month ban. An incident after that will lead to a permanent ban.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize this forum about a television show was in reality a graduate level discussion board at Johns Hopkins. But I'll play along because you are putting words in my mouth.

1. I know how flu vaccines work, they are developed based on data from each hemisphere, because it's winter in one, and summer in the other. The vaccine companies then use this data to HEDGE repeat HEDGE on which flu strains they expect to be most prevalent. I've gotten plenty of flu shots, and I know that sometimes they guess wrong and you aren't very protected. Oh well, it is what it is.

MODERATOR NOTE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This poster is dismissing the value of flu shots as formulated by guesswork. Flu shots are formulated based on extensive surveillance and forecasting data across 114 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. It is not completely accurate forecasting, but it is not random guesswork. Due to numerous strains of influenza, the annual flu shot cannot offer complete protection, and strains not within the annual shot may arise. Statistically, a flu shot still reduces the risk of illness among the overall population by 40 to 60 percent and is worthwhile protection.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/vaccineeffect.htm

2. I never said anything about flu vaccines previoiusly, and those are NOT mRNA vaccines anyway. Now, when it comes to COVID vaccines, after the first vaccines were passed by FDA, subsequent iterations are tested only in a lab, that's called a PRECLINICAL trial. They are NOT tested on humans. Furthermore, they are tested on the "currently circulating" virus, and as we have seen with COVID, it mutates quickly, like any coronovirus does, and so the vaccine being administered are, ironically, like flu vaccines, just targeting what the researchers decide is their best guess. Again, this is fine, and anyone who wishes to take it is fine by me. In terms of efficacy of those vaccines, the only clinical trials were conducted on people and released back in December 2020, as I said before. At the time, the vaccines had tremendous performance against the pre-Delta/Omicron COVID strands. Once it mutated to those, the vaccines at the time had large drops in effectiveness, so out came the "boosters." Which by the way, is not my term, that is the term the media and even pharma uses on Covid vaccines! What you are currently being sold, by pharmaceuticals, is NOT clinically tested, and neither you nor I can actually claim efficacy because there has not been actual human research. Lab research IMO is not sufficient, because most things that work in a petri dish do not work in human trial. Any researcher would admit to this.

https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid … comparison

MODERATOR FACT CHECK: This poster has falsely characterized new mRNA vaccines as not responsive to current versions of COVID-19. This is false.

New mRNA vaccines are reformulated to target the lineage of recent COVID-19 variants, a lineage from which currently circulating variants of COVID-19 would have emerged. The original mRNA vaccine mechanism of spike protein generation for immune system response against the original COVID-19 virus has proven effective over the course of mass distribution beginning in 2021.

The reformulated vaccines, while not a perfect match to currently circulating variants, have sufficient efficiency from lineage targeting to recognize the new variants and create an immune system response.

While the immune response is imperfect, it is sufficient to ward off severe illness, hospitalization, and death.

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/what- … inter-2023

This poster's protest that the specific reformulated vaccine has not received full human trials is unreasonable for a vaccine that must be reformulated every 6 - 12 months and can practically receive only abbreviated clinical trials. The underlying mRNA vaccine technology has been tested since 2013, the underlying COVID-19 vaccine technology has been further reviewed during the urgent roll-out of 2021 and continues to this day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRNA_vaccine

3. You technically agreed with what I said about masks. If you're not wearing an N95, you are likely unprotected.
Secondly, you completely passed right over what I said about the other mitigating factors in regards to disease prevention and spread. People who are healthy, mask, vaccine, or not, have been proven to have an extremely lower level of risk from infectious disease. It's simple biology. Those who are not, probably should consider things like vaccines and/or masks. I could just as easily argue that COVID's "decrease" is due to "herd immunity," and the wearing of masks is now unnecessary. Given that mandates have stopped pretty much everywhere, I'd not be wrong, no?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10446908/

But to be "scientific," here is the NIH study of other studies on the subject of mask efficacy, in terms of wearing, types, and the mandates. They found that most of the studies were problematic, because they were observational rather than experimental. Now I HATED reading these kinds of materials in grad school, but the Results section you will find that the studies were flawed and the results were all across the board. So before you "moderate" me for saying the science is not settled on these things, perhaps you can admit the science is NOT settled? Which was my point. Do masks work? Obviously YES they work to some degree, I'm not an idiot. The science however, is simply not conclusively proven, because there are again, a multitude of environmental factors. It's called everyday life, and while anyone is free to wear a mask, I am also free to continue to doubt that choice. Same as those who shout about the undeniable health benefits of being a vegan, which again, not conclusive that fully eliminating meat products is the way to go.

MODERATOR FACT CHECK: This poster claims that only N95 masks offer protection. This is false.

Masks with electrostatic filtering and a good seal are effective in filtering viral particles from inhalation. Electrostatic filtration is a technology that has existed since 1907 and is used in surgical masks, KN95 masks, N95 masks and KF94 masks. Electrostatic filtration is not limited to N95 masks.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr … espirators

This poster cites "mitigating factors". These factors have no bearing on the proven filtration efficacy of well-sealed electrostatic masks in blocking particles, droplets and aerosols from being inhaled by a mask wearer.

4. We come to Mr. Wheaton, and you know what, yes, you are absolutely correct, I was LAZY, and didn't research his multitude of claims. I have in fact heard them all, because I heard him on Rosenbaum's podcast recount them all. Again, it was laziness. However, I would never discount child abuse and its lasting effects intentionally. I do apologize if that's how it came across, and that is the ONLY thing I'm apologizing for writing here.

In conclusion, you can "moderate" all you like, but in my opinion, pointing to an article which itself is merely a collection of best recommendations, as if that is scientific law, is acceptable? How is my questioning the lack of high level scientific consensus "misinformation?" When as I showed, the scientists themselves can't agree on most any of this. I really DON'T feel like discussing viruses and masks here regardless, but I also defend the first amendment, there is no more important human right.

QuinnSlidr wrote:

Sorry Grizzlor, but most of what you're spouting is right wing anti-vaxx propaganda. You might not be a crazy Trumper, but what you're saying is rooted in that propaganda. They aren't facts.
Dr. Fauci is a hero for everything he has done for us.

He was once a "hero" during the AIDS era. Since that point, he's been a bureaucrat, which is fine. He was in a no-win situation given the President was a complete moron. He DID preface most of what he advised as simply that, best-guesses. He tried to be optimistic.

Where Fauci was dead wrong was in directed massive funds to gain of function research, which was going on in Wuhan because you couldn't get that kind of madness passed a regulator in the USA or most of Europe. Was that the origin of COVID? Very possibly. He and even Trump tried to dispel that notion, when in reality there should have been immediate and loud criticism of China. They couldn't do that, because their hands were "dirty." Let me say this, I don't know when, but there will come a reckoning to which the "work" of Fauci's NIH gain of function research is placed right alongside garbage like MK Ultra. No one will ever be brought to justice over that, of course, that's the American way.

IMO, he failed in his role as chief bureaucrat of NIH. His ethical compass was compromised, at some point. He has been dismissive of actual medical criticism over the years, alleged by scores of reputable and unbiased researchers in his own field. You can call that conspiratorial if you like, but it's based on well-known public information. He's no hero. Not a fan of being labeled a propagandist when again, the science is not settled. Being anti-vaxx would be these people who scream about autism or that microchips are being implanted. Those have zero basis in fact.

2023-11-28 08:50:56

Wick movies are beyond violent to the point of being senseless. Then again, my feed is inundated by stupid friends lathering Mortal Kombat movies.

2023-11-27 10:29:46

ireactions wrote:

Tom Hardy is a brilliant actor and director Ruben Fleischer did an impressive job at reimagining Venom as a copyright that had to function without Spider-Man. I still don't understand what Sony is playing, creating a Spider-Man cinematic universe with his villains and supporting cast (VENOM, MORBIUS, KRAVEN, MADAME WEB), but... VENOM is a fun movie. Maybe it doesn't matter how tired or fragmented a copyright is so long as it's given to talents who really embrace the material?

Sony are making Spidey-Verse movies because they have little choice. Their agreement with Marvel from over two decades ago now is not expansive, but you also have the issue that Tom Holland is not going to do Venom movies. Why would he? He's done far better for himself as part of the MCU at Disney. The first Venom was well-received, but the sequel was not, and I shudder to imagine how bad the third one will be.

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

But the question has always been "why are they abandoning Kang when Majors is the problem?" I know the post-credits scene in Ant-Man showed that all Kangs look like Majors, but it's the Multiverse. Use Multiversal logic to say "these bad Kangs look like John David Washington now" or something. We've already established in the MCU that Peter Parker can look like Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield so why not recast?
The Weekly Planet apparently has surfaced the reason. When Majors signed his contract, due to the multiversal nature of the character, Marvel agreed that Majors would be the only one playing Kang on screen. Any variant of Kang has to be played by Majors. That way, they couldn't bring in different versions of Kang and have them compete with Majors for screen time (or see how each one of them played). If Kang is on screen, he's played by Majors. He cannot be recast.

Majors' issues are part of it, but his character/portrayal is just not very good. Frankly, he was somewhat charming as the whimsical "He Who Shall..." guy in Loki S1, but stunk up the joint in S2 and his Ant-Man 3 role was poorly received. Makes sense to cut and run, but MCU seems entirely listless and dead inside.

2023-11-24 11:58:39

Had the pleasure of watching Black Adam yesterday. Good Lord that was terrible.

2023-11-24 11:55:13

ireactions wrote:

However, I would simply note that BUFFY was a set of feminist themes written within a house style and many, many, many writers adopted this house style and made it their own. David Fury had a more fast-paced approach than Whedon, Ben Edlund was more horrific, Jane Espenson was more comedic, Marti Noxon was more melodramatic and Jeffrey Bell was more earnest, and a lot of writers could do a great job with the BUFFY property and not abuse or harrass anyone while doing it. But regardless, there is nothing wrong with not being interested in a BUFFY project that isn't coming from BUFFY's creator.

That's fair, Marti and David wrote most of the scripts anyway on Buffy & Angel. Either way, I find audio dramas boring. Granted some animation is terrible, like that awful anime Supernatural season from Japan!

2023-11-21 11:22:05

MODERATOR NOTE: ireactions here. This post contains misinformation about the efficacy of masks and vaccines. This is not acceptable. This poster is warned not to post further misinformation about masks and vaccines going forward.

This post further declares that only sexual abuse counts as child abuse. This minimization and dismissiveness of other forms of abuse is outrageous and unacceptable. This poster is warned not to minimize the experiences of abuse survivors going forward.

ireactions wrote:

I'm finding some of this baffling. I recognize that Wil Wheaton has offended you due to his behaviour at fan gatherings. You're someone who pays for the chance to meet actors, and I take it that Wheaton has failed to give you a good experience on at least one occasion. I have never met Wheaton and don't know what he's like in person, I've only read his books, and I've recently been informed that the writer is not their writing. I am sorry that you had a bad experience with Wheaton.
However, I don't see why you, someone who regularly declared the supremacy of N95s over all other masks, would take issue with a minor-league celebrity answering a question on his blog, explaining why he wears masks at indoor gatherings, and using his platform and near-non-existent fame to normalize wearing masks at public events to ward off illness. Note that the mask he was wearing, which looks to me like a KF94, is what I myself wear.
The thing about KF94 and KN95 masks: they block particles going in and out, unlike a surgical which only blocks particles going out. When you wear a surgical mask, you need everyone else to wear one too or you might as well not wear it at all. When you wear a KF94 or a KN95, you don't need anyone else around you to wear one; the protection is going both ways. To wear one of these masks is to tell everyone around you that your measures are for you and sufficient for you.
I'll respond to the other stuff in the STAR TREK thread when the Pfizer isn't hitting me as hard, but if you dislike Wil Wheaton, I am absolutely sure he did something to incur your wrath.

Celebrities are hypocrites, and hilariously bad ones at that. Wil Wheaton is at the top of this list. This really has nothing to do with his masking, it's just the person. He was once a working young actor, and when his career dried up, he pivoted to what he does over the last few decades and good for him. However, a large part of what he does now, career wise, is playing victim. He disowned his entire family, which in and of itself is something I personally can't wrap myself around. They didn't sexually abuse him. They had him work as an actor and supposedly took advantage of him finally, and for that he relates them all to the Devil, even his siblings who had nothing to do with that. Again, this is Wil's shtick. He charges a laughable price at conventions, where again, don't go near him. He's miserable even when you go to get his autograph.

MODERATOR FACT CHECK: This poster is falsely claiming that children are only truly abused if they are sexually abused. This is completely false. Children can be abused and exploited in many ways, from labour exploitation, financial exploitation, assault without sexual assault, emotional abuse, neglect, gaslighting, and more, and just because this poster can't wrap their head around it doesn't mean these forms of abuse don't exist. Furthermore, any survivor of abuse has the right to cut off contact from their abuser, and any survivor of abuse has the right to tell their stories, regardless of this poster's approval or disapproval.

Resources on forms of child abuse:

https://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/chil … hild-abuse

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241532

If one wishes to wear a mask everywhere, that's that person's choice, same as getting the vaccine. I truly have massive regret in how that was handled. I think the mandates were un-American, and frankly Dr. Fauci should have been fired by Trump but he was too afraid of being blamed for the virus. The "science" on masking as well as vaccines has progressively been less and less agreeable to the mandates on both. Even the vaunted N95 masks are not going to protect you over a reasonable period of time from airborne disease. It's great that QuinnSlidr has not been sick, but there are a multitude of factors beyond masking that may be the reason for that. Boosters IMO, ehhh, it's like the flu shot, probably worthwhile for the elderly or immune compromised but really of little benefit for the general public. The fact these CDC doctors continue to pronounce what is or is not advisable with what is still absolute questionable data is ridiculous.

Again, I am not some crazy Trumper here, but the way the pandemic was handled was an outright disaster. The damage done to children's schooling, the mentally ill and addicted, not to mention the economic repercussions. The massive inflation, which is now subsiding but still will cost Joe Biden in 2024, is a direct result of that. The problem was Trump was too hated and untrustworthy on the subject. China is still an economic disaster as the result of their policies. You cannot stop the world over a virus. There will be more of them. More and more. The level of pollution, treatment of animals, global warming, and idiotic garbage like "gain of function" research promoted by the medical elites (such as Fauci) will trigger additional epidemics. Pandemics happen due to public policy, there's really no actual reason to have them. Civilization was not at risk.

Personally, I'll wear a mask in a hospital, because the germs are out of control, nowhere else. Done with them, I threw them out. Done with boosters, their efficacy simply isn't proven.

MODERATOR FACT CHECK: Masks with electrostatic filtering and a good seal are effective in filtering viral particles from inhalation. It's a technology that's existed since 1907 and is used in surgical masks, KN95 masks, N95 masks and KF94 masks. Please rely on medically and scientifically verified sources for information on masks.

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-car … -work-best

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrost … ecipitator

COVID-19 and flu vaccines are effective at mitigating infection, symptoms, and preventiong hospitalization and death. Please rely on medically and scientifically verified sources for information on vaccines.

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/unders … avaccines/

https://www.nfid.org/news-updates/media … 24-season/

2023-11-19 17:55:02

Actor Peter Spellos, who played Jimmy Fountain in Eggheads, has died. He played the bookie/gangster in that show, and was immortalized by being chosen for a two page "interview" in Brad Linaweaver's episode guide.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a … ancer.html

For posterity here's Peter's interview from the Linaweaver book....

Transcript

INTERVIEW WITH PETER SPELLOS
This interview was conducted before I started work on the episode guide. Instead of winding up in Cult Movies, the film magazine for which I regularly write, this interview with a character actor who had a part on Sliders seems more appropriate for this book.
Peter Spellos has always been lucky. In TV Land, he has at least one role more famous than his stint on Sliders. He's the guy Teri Hatcher shoots on Lois and Clark. Fan translation: HE DID A SCENE WITH TERI HATCHER!
For this book, Peter Spellos organized his answers about Sliders into the following. So instead of the Q&A, here's something different.
∞ ∞ ∞
Coming onto a show as a guest star can sometimes be an alienating experience. The cast and crew have been working together for a while and have already bonded into a close-knit unit. When you spend twelve to fourteen hours a day with the same group on location or in a studio, you feel like an outsider at a family function, invited to partake... but not really part of the core. This was not the case with Sliders in one important respect. Everyone went out of their way to be warm and gracious. As a character actor who often does villains, I have only one thing to say: A bad guy never had it so good.
By the third day of shooting, I felt like one of the gang. With only one week to shoot each episode, there was much to be done every day, but the atmosphere around the set remained relaxed. This made it a very creative and productive environment. It was also a pleasure to spend a week in Vancouver, a beautiful city to which I'd never been (and on my birthday, no less).
I enjoyed playing Jimmy Fountain on the "Eggheads" episode. Villains have always been more enjoyable for me than "do-gooders." I've played mob bosses and henchmen, and they are often stereotypical "dems" and "dose" kind of guys. But Jimmy was different. As different as the alternate Earth he lived on. When trying to convince Quinn to throw the big game, in order to offset a million-dollar gambling debt he owed, Jimmy suggested that, "Desperati desperandum faciunt." (Desperate men do desperate deeds.)
We shot the climax of the show that evening on the roof of the Canadian Broadcasting Company. The Sliders (except for John Rhys-Davies) and I had worked the past hour on the chase scene prior to the rooftop scene. Nothing like a nice pinstripe suit and a pair of Italian loafers to do aerobics in! After we completed shooting that scene and finished our dinner break, John arrived to shoot the finale. He's a very impressive man, both in stature and in presence. His mellifluous voice echoed through the halls of the CBC. We were waiting for the elevator when we were introduced for the first time. He greeted me with a firm handshake and a warm smile. We exchanged pleasantries and entered the elevator.
John and I are both men of joyous quantity. As we stood side by side (with not too many others around) during our ascent to the scenic skyline set, John turned to me and spoke in his rich, metered, baritone voice. "So you're playing the villain in this episode?" I turned and responded, "Yes, I am, John." He put his arm around me and shook me in a fraternity brother-like fashion and bellowed, "Pound for pound, we're the best villains on the planet, aren't we?" I agreed wholeheartedly, with every ounce (and pound) of conviction and joy I had.

2023-11-17 09:31:20

I know FULLY well why they did the audio drama as opposed to anything else. It's still a missed opportunity, if you ask me, and I am NOT opposed to audio dramas. I simply wished this project were more than that. You get all these original actors, it would have been much cooler.

That being said, I know the guy was a jerk, but I have no reason to have any interest in a Buffy project not guided by Joss Whedon. It was his concept, and should end with him.

2023-11-17 09:29:19

so they'll be merging Hulu and Disney +?

2023-11-17 09:27:24

RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

It's kinda idiotic to me why people would question wearing a mask in a crowd at a hockey game.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/actor-wi … ll-a-thing
It's not like he was wearing it outdoors. Some people don't care if they don't get sick but some people do. If you do, then the time to still mask is in a large crowd.
I've heard of people getting sick after attending sporting events. I don't know really to what degree sporting events are places where transmission would be high because arenas/domes have huge ceilings and stadiums are open air. They are not small enclosed spaces. But if you are sitting next to the wrong person for 2 hours, well that might be an issue.
Anyway, it's weird that will wheaton had to explain himself but I do give him credit for the grace at which he answered this when the conversation shouldn't still be having to be had. And that's not to say one shouldn't respect those who do the opposite. Live and let live, make choices right for you. Anyway, I admire the way Wheaton handled this. He's a good guy.

COVID baloney. It's just simply Wil Wheaton. Forever, he was one of the biggest grouches at conventions, and had a 100% NO TOUCHING policy. He's parlayed his warped hatred towards his immediate family into his shtick. I could 1000% imagine Wil Wheaton not only doing the (now completely overdone) virtue signaled masking, but then never missing an opportunity to be Mr. Outrage and furthering his own cause, "grace" or otherwise. Honestly, I had to begrudgingly force myself through the Trek post-show's that he's hosted, as I'm sure most of his old co-stars have as well, with him there. He's not exactly part of that "family."

ireactions wrote:

Bit late, but PRODIGY has been picked up by Netflix which will stream the first season and then, in 2024, the second season.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv … 235615236/

Mehhh

2023-11-06 14:04:19

You couldn't pay me to listen to this Audible crap. They should have at least animated it!

2023-11-06 14:03:18

ireactions wrote:

Still reading Patrick Stewart's autobiography...
There's a story where the serious, dour Patrick Stewart was appalled by all the laughter and goofy quipping of his castmates during the first season of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION and then summoned them all to a meeting where he told them all off for blowing takes and cracking wise instead of solemnly and seriously performing the work of acting. "We are not here to have fun!" he roared at them.
Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden and Denise Crosby contemplated this thoughtfully and collectively laughed in his face and with each other, their uncontrollable giggling continuing for a prolonged period at which point Stewart fled for his trailer with his dignity in tatters, realizing that the gang just did not take him very seriously.
There's also a neat anecdote where during Season 3, the married Patrick Stewart was seeing very little of his wife due to his filming in LA and her being in England. Stewart found himself falling in love with guest-star Jennifer Hetrick (Caroline in "Last Days", Claire LeBeau in "The Seer") and dating her while realizing that he wasn't in love with his wife anymore and filing for divorce. Stewart and Hetrick dated for a little while, but the constant pursuit of tabloid photographers was too much for Hetrick, hitting a breaking point when, on a private island vacation, they had to travel separately to get there and lasted two days before Hetrick had simply had enough. Stewart spent five more days alone on the island knowing that his girlfriend was done with him, his ex-wife was furious with him, his children loathed him, and his castmates thought he was a joyless pain in the ass and a joke.
It's so bleak that it's funny. Stewart later recounts that in later years, his TNG castmates will regularly mock-snarl at him, "We are not here to have fun!" which he agrees is extremely well-deserved.

funny anecdotes. I have no reason to read his book as he's pretty much been highly open about his career and life over the decades.

2023-10-18 08:38:38

WGA's demands were FAR less costly to AMPTP, as opposed to the actors. That said, I have read that the SAG demands which AMPTP are not willing to budge on are not even about money. Again, the issue here is that the studios are no longer run by artists or artistic patrons, or even Wall Street types. No, it's far worse, it's Tech Bro's.

2023-10-18 08:35:58

Jordan doesn't have the votes either, it's absolutely pathetic. GOP are not interested in governing.

2023-10-18 08:34:55

Secret Invasion was so bad, Bob Iger has to be dumbfounded. The Marvels is going to follow right up along that path of trash.

2023-09-25 10:30:22

Well the actors are still striking.

2023-09-05 09:31:22

TemporalFlux wrote:

The studios won’t be able to re-start the engine quickly. Once they run out of things already filmed, they’ll need to film more and do post production on it.
Even if the strike ended tomorrow, we could right now see months with little to no new releases in theaters or even on scripted tv. That extends further the longer this goes.

Highlighted "post" because that usually includes ADR and potentially reshoots, and such, which they cannot do with the actors.

2023-09-02 23:06:07

ireactions wrote:

He means remastering projects that are only in standard definition right now, and re-releasing them as HD or 4K.

That's not happening, they require money, manpower and time, and I doubt the studios wish to be bothered on that. There's no ROI.

Meanwhile SAG-AFTRA may strike on the video game publishers next.

2023-08-14 20:23:14

To quote Bill Shatner, Get a Life, it's....it's just a TV show!"

I've been battling with people on the trekbbs boards on this, you cannot really expect this writing staff to be connecting everything they do with the minutia of TOS canon.

2023-08-13 15:23:42

Your entire missive on Chapel/Spock was SPOILER rendered moot as a result of the season finale. LOL

2023-08-06 19:57:08

I guess for a musical episode, it was fine, but just not necessary.

2023-08-01 09:01:04

Well what is a budget? Seriously, is there some standard to them? How do we know it's not enormous simply due to accounting practices? Anyway, I think the issue partly is COVID, and the higher costs of filming, but also, the crews on these series are massive. These are not the indie-style crews that Netflix used for their Marvel properties, shot entirely in New York City. They are gargantuan, and there is a huge reliance on expensive stunts and CGI work, just like the movies.

2023-08-01 08:59:09

Jim_Hall wrote:

It's crazy he doesn't have Tracy's number. I actually have it, but I was sworn to secrecy not to give it out. If Jerry DMs me I'd give it to him. Unless they have a beef against one another lol. According to the Awake Nation interview Cleavant and Tracy talk a lot so they should be able to reconnect that way.

I have no idea if he'll actually watch these videos. I'm kind of hesitant to send him the Cardinal Sin stuff, mainly because Gil is pompous, and Tracy has nothing but technical gremlins.

Jerry is fairly honest, and I also think very busy, like many dads, he probably hasn't put a lot of effort into finding Torme. It took him quite some time to reconnect with Cleavant.

2023-08-01 08:56:01

The canon is all over the place, but the feeling is that the Farragut incident already has happened, at this point. The cloud entity did not damage ships. Given that young Kirk survived, and the Farragut needing a large scale crew replacement, it would make sense that his time on that ship allowed him to be promoted very quickly, given the loss of many senior personnel. It might still be a Lt. but as Sam whined, he is the X.O. of that ship.

2023-07-29 22:57:10

Ran into Jerry once again today, he was at the Terrificon show in Connecticut with his wife, Rebecca who was a guest there. He was just greeting people in line all day, ha ha. Talked to him awhile, I mentioned the zoom stuff that Tracy has been doing with Cleavant and Bob Weiss and he had me DM him those videos. He seemed excited to have reconnected with Cleavant, but can't get ahold of Tracy, lol.

2023-07-28 22:00:35

I cannot believe a) the sheer amount of money they have dumped into MCU Disney+, and b) how outright boring they are. Secret Invasion was horrible. Emilia Clarke should be ashamed for taking that role. Moon Knight, awful. Hawkeye, Falcon, She-Hulk all so dull. Loki was pretty cool and funny, and Ms. Marvel was fun. But I find it hilarious that LucasFilm are panned for the money they spend on bad Star Wars or a fifth Indiana Jones, but these MCU entries are terrible.

Ant-Man 3 was really pointless, what a shame. Blackpanther II as well. They just serve no purpose. I mean, who cares about the B, C, D teams at this point?

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301 Reply by Grizzlor 2023-12-26 18:52:54

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Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,542 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

328 Reply by Grizzlor 2023-12-05 23:31:10

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335 Reply by Grizzlor 2023-11-30 11:42:00

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