I'm getting strong vibes of "tough love" from Agatha. She might be trying to steal Wanda's power, but she could also be trying to force Wanda to snap out of her breakdown. Her questions about Wanda's power rode the line between a greedy search for knowledge or power, and diagnostic questio...

What budget shortfall? Nobody's talking about whether we can afford to spend on defense budget or bailing out corporations. But when it's people, bollocks to the sheets. Haven't you heard? Dems are in charge again, so the Repubs are on deficits like stink on rice. The OP asked for an argument that ...

Corporate speech is a self-reinforcing cycle of blame separation and never wanting to seem out of the loop. Buzzwords are cowardly because one person coins a cute phrase to seem clever, and everyone copies it. It's one of the purest forms of memetic communication, synergistically pre-dating the inte...

I remember seeing something about private sector involvement making the student loan problem worse, but I'm probably misremembering/understanding. In that case, the issue would be that the federal government doesn't get money owed to them, worsening our budget shortfalls. I see benefit to loan forgi...

I'm not an economist, but in addition to Kyle's point about not fixing the actual problem, I think there will be knock-on effects that may wipe out the benefits. Everyone's debt is someone else's "investment". By wiping out this debt, you will immediately destroy wealth for a large chunk o...

But can Trump's actions fit the legal definition of incitement? And if the case isn't ironclad against him, what does that do 4-8 years from now? Are we destined to just keep litigating past Presidents? I'm personally stuck between "Do consequences for Trump merit the costs in precedent?" ...

I get that the financial sector is necessary to lubricate the engine of the economy. Mediate between people with money but no vital ideas for products or services and people with ideas but no money. But people are openly talking about how the real people that made money off the gold rush were the on...

This may lead to positive change. At the very least, this should teach hedge funds not to be that dumb and greedy for a while. The stock is currently overvalued by a lot, but the shorts were undervaluing them. Gamestop is hurting, but it's only dying in the form we know it . They've done the things ...

So I've been meaning to catch HBO's show Barry for a bit now, and I finally watched the first season. Bill Hader was one of my favorite SNL cast members while he was on and it's about a hit man that wants to become an actor. I thought it would be funny, and it is. But it got a lot darker than I was ...

One thing that irritates me in a lot of multiseason dramas is lack of growth. In that respect, McNulty is getting on my nerves too. That may be intentional with the Wire. The police either don't/can't change, or they do and the system pulls them back to start. [tube]https://youtu.be/aOXQpkUhZyc[/tu...

Is it anything to do with a movie being a one-off kind of thing, while TV and radio usually imply that it's ongoing? I'm pretty sure I've heard people refer to someone being on a show, but being in an episode of a show. The appliance/theater dichotomy sounds plausible, but you can be in a play on Br...

I have been assured many times by my libertarian friends that private companies cannot violate my rights because they do not have armies/have the authority to throw me in prison/etc. Let competition solve these minor issues.

I love that Republicans are fine with businesses refusing to make cakes for gay people, but think that companies refusing to do business with Trumpistas are the equivalent of the Holocaust. Nothing like feeling the consequences to make you rethink those principles. I hate living in interesting times.

I finally started watching the Jodie Whitaker Doctor Who seasons. So far not a fan, but I can't put my finger on it. There's an episode set against the Partition of India and Pakistan that was pretty good, but there's something about the tone of the episodes. It's heavy on horror-style cinematograph...

I thought Ariadne had something of an arc, though. At least more than JGL or Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy is barely in it, and JGL doesn't change or learn in any way. She at least gets to be the audience insert. I'll have to watch it again. Oh, darn. Mal, being dead at the start of the story, is a definite ...

Joining in on Tarantino, also because I got in when it was just Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Outside of that, though, I don't think I have the attention span to have seen all of a given director's work. I have directors I get more excited about, but there's usually at least a movie or two I have...

Hunh, I never noticed the woman issue. I thought Ariadne had a fair bit of agency in Inception, and had more depth than the other members of the team. I'll have to chew on that a bit, but it feels like it might be related to how concept-driven his movies are. What did you think about the future's mo...

I also don't think this changes much about what Georgians believe or want in their politics. It's more about relationship dynamics between the voters and the parties. Take Trump and the circus out of this year, it goes differently. I do, however, think the Dems have two years to accomplish what they...

Thank you, I've missed you guys too. Took me a bit to go back through the podcast to find the new address. I get what you're saying. But on the other hand, that confusion was what the protagonist was dealing with. So it made it both less and more immersive, for me. I'm used to movie mysteries being ...

Really thought this was going to be Old Gregg. Oh well.

The Schwarzenegger skin will only look slightly less realistic over this endoskeleton.

Also, forgot to say that I just finished the 3rd season of Cobra Kai, and I loved it. Great storytelling, and in most cases everyone has a character-based reason for the dumb things they do.

I didn't view it as Brad Pitt being some sort of super-stuntman. The Bruce Lee scene, to me, seemed more of a commentary on how overhyped Lee was... that he was ultimately more flash and camera work than an actual fighter. Similarly, I saw the defeat of the Manson Family as just a quirk of fate. Th...

I saw it, thought it was massively innovative. What are your thoughts?