Harry

Prepare for Trump to win. I think that's quite likely at this point. Probably a 70% chance. Very regrettable that Bidens unpopular VP was the only possible choice able to be fielded by the late point at which Biden stepped aside.

The race is a coin toss. I think ultimately Trump will win. The covid backlash is coming for democrats who have not called out enough of the overreach and media excess that occurred, and continue to pretend that the only bad thing about the pandemic was Trump.

I don't know much about Red Bull. Why are they so disliked?

Good deal

I suspect Putin is waiting for the outcome of the US election, and will let the outcome dictate how much he tries to leverage to come away with something. I feel really sorry for Ukraine having their date decided by foreign countries elections.

I don't know anything other than Diddy=bad. Need to read up on this

I think people are less opinionated tbh. Think about how much people used to gossip about things that are just accepted today. A gay person. An affair. Marrying a person of a different race. Not going to church The overwhelming majority of people were judgy and opinionated about everything. Whilst the woke movement has flipped that on its head and is mostly just as dumb I think overall there is less opinion in our everyday world, if not the same amount.

Did anyone see the scandal about the NC governor candidate? Surely one of the most humiliating scandals out there. And one of the feature speakers at the GOP convention. His porn forum account was mined for posts, where he'd says some shit that is not going to go down well in the deep south.

Yeah he seems like a great human, and very authentic. However I wish she had just picked Josh Shapiro given the extent to which Pennsylvania will be the state that determines who wins the election.

It could be staged by 5 different parties for 5 different reasons. But more likely it is what it is. The media generate a lot of hysterical theories about Trump. I'll be careful not to believe anything that is too conveniently confirming my existing worldview. The "Trump is a KGB agent and is going to destroy America because Putin has a tape of him getting peed on by a hooker" was absolutely wild insane nonsense that caught on too easily last time.

Great performance and result for England. Great substitution from Southgate. I'd love to see him start Kane on the bench in the final but I won't hold my breath

The worst thing about it is the court have been vague about what official acts are, and which ones might not be on. And any specific case will likely end up referred to them and able to decide for a given president. You can bet that ruling would show partisan bias.

Joe Biden should never have decided to run again. He should have picked a more popular VP and spent 4 years setting up the next democratic administration.

100% agree. Unbelievable decision. Referees jam themselves up on a bullshit technicality when everyone just wants to see something that feels like common sense prevail. That whole refereeing team should be sidelined for the rest of the tournament.

...Unless they start making it like the Eurovision song contest, it'll be because we won't be competing

Far out it would shit me to be a Chelsea fan, and see that despite the ownership change the annual revolving door of the managers office stays the same.

There's a lot to be said for creative licence in cooking. I love doing things different and seeing what the result will be.

It's always crystal palace that fuck us

That sounds like me with Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.... Awesome game, I just lost momentum playing games for a couple of weeks with a busy work period, then couldn't wrap my head back around where I was in the plot, so started playing Wonder instead. I've googled "Mario trippy"and been confused by the results... You're talking about Mario wonder? Or something unofficial?

Do you really not get why MSNBC (and every other for-profit 24/7 news network) would hype up the challengers in a contested primary race?

I think there is nuance to people's reactions to a casting decision like that based on what they perceive the motive/context to be. Did Disney pick this actress regardless of the colour of her skin, or did they pick her because of it? One side is happy with the decision as perceived to be aligning with their view of what racial equality looks like. The other side is angered because in some cases they are white supremicists but for others it will be because they don't believe a decision by a film company to hire an actress "because she was black" as opposed to "regardless of whether she was black or white" aligns with their view of what racial equality looks like. The issue at heart of that is less about whether or not people support racial equality but rather whether or not affirmative action is aligned with racial equality or not. But the discourse is so reductive, and uncivil that a genuine discussion of that issue never plays out.

What's an entertainment company to do in this increasingly polarised world that's wading deeper and deeper into culture wars issues than ever before? Most likely they will continue to try to be as profitable as possible. A company like Disney wants to maximise the appeal of its products to as wide of an audience as possible, so it's strongly not in their interests to put off a big chunk of potential viewers by being unnecessarily polarising. However it suits politicians and partisan media to discuss, magnify and inflame any divides and get people more and more passionate angry or excited about it. And to a point it suits Disney if the plot/casting decision generates hype or attention and has more positive impact than negative on helping a film to achieve commercial success. But that will lead to them taking fairly safe positions like pro gun control, pro racial equality, etc. and any bigger risks if they are judged to have negatively impacted the films commercial impact are likely not to be repeated. Seriously, wokeness in the entertainment industry is a very minor issue. My biggest concerns are about how shit movies are these days. Movies seem to be engineered assemblies of moments and scenes based on focus group feedback of What Viewers Want with a story written afterwards to tie it all together. As opposed to a fluid story being turned into a film.

Merry Christmas all. Check out this wholesome a.f keyring I got from Santa this year. Best present ever!

Here's a photo from my daughter's 4 year old kindergarten/pre-school Christmas play. It was telling the Christmas Story, of the birth of Jesus, with the stable, angels, shepherds, wise men, etc What I found the most amusing was that my daughter was chosen to play the (inanimate) Star of Bethlehem (a.k.a Christmas Star), the one that the shepherds and wise men followed to Jesus. She was the only person playing an inanimate object and had no lines and just needed to stand at the back and twinkle. Despite that many people said she stole the show with her enthusiasm and beaming smile of delight at being the star.