I think another factor is streaming blurring expectations around quality. I don't want to overly romanticize the past but my recollection is that something that got a wide release came with an implied promise of quality, compared to the direct to video market or the small number of independent theaters that in addition to foreign or art films might still run some exploitation and grindhouse fare. That started eroding once the Netflix streaming service went online, and they'd have an ok selection of A movies in a sea of stuff that once upon a time wouldn't have ever been reviewed. Now with even widely released films spending such a short time in the box office one really has no idea what is what, or what to make of the reviews. I've had a number of experiences on Prime in particular where I'll pick something that seems to be well rated but turns out to obviously be barely above a student film. Of course I then google it and pretty quickly find out it was some D level direct to TV effort for an obscure premium channel or other streaming service or something like that.
Despite being on the left, or at least significantly enough to your left to vote differently, I think this observation is true in a broad sense but doesn't make a lot of sense in this context. Israel has nukes, all the best American and European weapon systems, a high tech services economy, and a rich, first world standard of living.
The Palestinians have small arms, a home grown rocket program that's no match for Israeli missile defense, and a few shrinking occupied bantustans that under the best of circumstances arent a sufficient base of a war time economy. You can see the limitations in the rockets in the way Ukraine has used NATO systems to neutralize Iranian made drones over the last year or so, which are higher tech but from the same, inferior schools of design.
So of course the Palestinians use the press and other levers modern resistance movements have employed, at times successfully, but it's silly to treat that asymmetry as some kind of power advantage. To put a finer point on it, if the Palestinians could trade all the sympathetic press in the world for a few deployable nuclear weapons and a fraction of the American and German kit the Israelis have they would. I believe even Ghandi has a quote to this effect about the British.
Well, if you're in house you're salaried. Funnily enough I got asked to do exactly that back in February, and won a motion to dismiss at my first time in court (as a lawyer) in over a decade. So I suppose if you really wanted to make a point you could try to get a judgment against them if you wanted to (again, speaking in terms of how things work in the US, no idea on Canada).
Nevertheless, my recommendation would probably be to throw them out and let anything beyond that go. In my experience litigation rarely results in the moral vindication people expect and only makes sense when the stakes are high. Too much paperwork, too much wasted time for trifles.
I don't know how things work in Canada. In the US the cost of suing them would probably be more than what you could reasonably expect to recover. To me bothering with the police would be overly vindictive, and serve to give what they did more dignity than it deserves. But they've obviously shown that they're too immature to be in any sort of respectable, adult environment.
She is doing the right thing and should continue to do more. The more she seems like a boring, normal politician, with boring, normal views, the more the contrast will work in her favor.
I believe the technical term for the case I have seen made is motte and bailey. Anyone willing to tolerate narrowly tailored tort statutes for libel should he willing to accept prior restraint, jail for off color jokes, prosecution for tweets, etc. It's quite easy to understand why no one has found it convincing.
I don't know that it's quite dead letter but Roe has not been the only barrier. Based on current 1st Amendment jurisprudence I think many attempts at prosecution would fail. IIRC the W. Bush DOJ made some attempts to prosecute obscenity cases and couldn't get around Miller. Given advances in streaming technology it's probably even harder now than it was then, assuming SCOTUS isn't going to overturn the precedent.
I don't think it can be enforced. If the government can't keep out a bazillion of tons of fentanyl coming in from Mexico there's no way in hell it can keep mifepristone or whatever else from being mass manufactured in states where it's legal and sent to states where it isn't.
Yea, if I had to put money on it I would bet that the ultimate irony of overturning Roe is going to be that legal abortion becomes even more deeply entrenched than it was. Not today, not tomorrow, not with no casualties along the way, but eventually.
The best thing conservatives could do is push for referendums in all 50 states then when they lose every single one say 'well, we tried' and never speak of it again.
No, 1967 is never happening, it would be some approximation of the 2000 Camp David proposals but without the land swaps, so a more generous version to Israel than what they were apparently willing to accept and which they believed was, and I see no reason why wouldn't be, defensible. See also my comment to Pinky. There is no adversary in the ME capable of taking Israeli territory.
You're absolutely right about the sanity express as far as it goes, but this is where Tel Aviv is at risk of falling off the train. Look around the region. Egypt is stuck in a post failure of the Arab Spring stand off between the military and it's own Islamist movements. Iraq is still and will for the foreseeable future remain neutered as a regional power by the US invasion and its aftermath. Jordan's monarchy is in a state of never ending acrobatics to cling to power and legitimacy. Syria, Lebanon, and Libya are all mired in civil wars and political paralysis. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are distracted by their proxy wars with Iran.
Yet Israel still looks at the situation as if the tanks could come rolling over the border at any moment rather than an opportunity to impose a finality on extremely favorable terms.
Israel could annex and fortify all of the defensible territory immediately bulging from the green line, renounce forever all disputed claims east, and shoot any Palestinian man, woman, or child that comes within 1000 yards of the barricades. That is definitely not the behavior of saints, but the whole thing would be over as an issue. No, maybe not for grievance studies professors and their gentle students who write dissertations on the colonial settler origins of traffic signals. But as a political flashpoint that ever bleeds into the mainstream, normie debate? Gone.
There are a lot of parallels between what the Israeli settlers and government are doing to the Palestinians and hypothetical scenarios certain brands of conservatives will use to justify the 2nd Amendment.
One doesn't have to particularly like or respect the Palestinians to see that.
I can't speak for him but my read of Chris' comments is that he would indeed dispute Israel's right to exist, at least as currently constituted (that being an expressly ethnic homeland), and that he would do the same against any similar entity.
I've said before the reality is that this is a bottom tier issue for the American voter. It can easily be navigated by saying exactly the kind of things Harris said, to the extent anything has to be said at all.
I think it went very well. Tone was generally right, and most importantly everything seemed normal in a way that contrasted sharply and in a good way with what the GOP did. The entire situation looks and I think objectively is far better than a mere 6-8 weeks ago.
My only Debbie Downer comment is that latest polling has Harris ahead in national polling by less than Biden or Clinton in the same time period. It also has PA as a toss up and WI and MI within margin of error. That's still an improvement but the campaign really needs to go out and get aggressive over the next 2 months. It's far from over and complacency has a way of working in MAGAs favor.
I was one of the people still going to games during the '98-'11 seasons when they were not only terrible but setting records in being terrible. And not just in MLB but in all American sports. I know shame and embarrassment as a sports fan, and we aren't anywhere near it at the moment.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024”
I think another factor is streaming blurring expectations around quality. I don't want to overly romanticize the past but my recollection is that something that got a wide release came with an implied promise of quality, compared to the direct to video market or the small number of independent theaters that in addition to foreign or art films might still run some exploitation and grindhouse fare. That started eroding once the Netflix streaming service went online, and they'd have an ok selection of A movies in a sea of stuff that once upon a time wouldn't have ever been reviewed. Now with even widely released films spending such a short time in the box office one really has no idea what is what, or what to make of the reviews. I've had a number of experiences on Prime in particular where I'll pick something that seems to be well rated but turns out to obviously be barely above a student film. Of course I then google it and pretty quickly find out it was some D level direct to TV effort for an obscure premium channel or other streaming service or something like that.
"
Despite being on the left, or at least significantly enough to your left to vote differently, I think this observation is true in a broad sense but doesn't make a lot of sense in this context. Israel has nukes, all the best American and European weapon systems, a high tech services economy, and a rich, first world standard of living.
The Palestinians have small arms, a home grown rocket program that's no match for Israeli missile defense, and a few shrinking occupied bantustans that under the best of circumstances arent a sufficient base of a war time economy. You can see the limitations in the rockets in the way Ukraine has used NATO systems to neutralize Iranian made drones over the last year or so, which are higher tech but from the same, inferior schools of design.
So of course the Palestinians use the press and other levers modern resistance movements have employed, at times successfully, but it's silly to treat that asymmetry as some kind of power advantage. To put a finer point on it, if the Palestinians could trade all the sympathetic press in the world for a few deployable nuclear weapons and a fraction of the American and German kit the Israelis have they would. I believe even Ghandi has a quote to this effect about the British.
On “Open Mic for the week of 8/26/2024”
Well, if you're in house you're salaried. Funnily enough I got asked to do exactly that back in February, and won a motion to dismiss at my first time in court (as a lawyer) in over a decade. So I suppose if you really wanted to make a point you could try to get a judgment against them if you wanted to (again, speaking in terms of how things work in the US, no idea on Canada).
Nevertheless, my recommendation would probably be to throw them out and let anything beyond that go. In my experience litigation rarely results in the moral vindication people expect and only makes sense when the stakes are high. Too much paperwork, too much wasted time for trifles.
"
I don't know how things work in Canada. In the US the cost of suing them would probably be more than what you could reasonably expect to recover. To me bothering with the police would be overly vindictive, and serve to give what they did more dignity than it deserves. But they've obviously shown that they're too immature to be in any sort of respectable, adult environment.
"
Seems like they should just expel everyone involved.
"
She is doing the right thing and should continue to do more. The more she seems like a boring, normal politician, with boring, normal views, the more the contrast will work in her favor.
"
I believe the technical term for the case I have seen made is motte and bailey. Anyone willing to tolerate narrowly tailored tort statutes for libel should he willing to accept prior restraint, jail for off color jokes, prosecution for tweets, etc. It's quite easy to understand why no one has found it convincing.
"
I don't know that it's quite dead letter but Roe has not been the only barrier. Based on current 1st Amendment jurisprudence I think many attempts at prosecution would fail. IIRC the W. Bush DOJ made some attempts to prosecute obscenity cases and couldn't get around Miller. Given advances in streaming technology it's probably even harder now than it was then, assuming SCOTUS isn't going to overturn the precedent.
"
I don't think it can be enforced. If the government can't keep out a bazillion of tons of fentanyl coming in from Mexico there's no way in hell it can keep mifepristone or whatever else from being mass manufactured in states where it's legal and sent to states where it isn't.
"
Yea, if I had to put money on it I would bet that the ultimate irony of overturning Roe is going to be that legal abortion becomes even more deeply entrenched than it was. Not today, not tomorrow, not with no casualties along the way, but eventually.
The best thing conservatives could do is push for referendums in all 50 states then when they lose every single one say 'well, we tried' and never speak of it again.
On “Kamala Harris DNC Speech: Watch It For Yourself”
No, 1967 is never happening, it would be some approximation of the 2000 Camp David proposals but without the land swaps, so a more generous version to Israel than what they were apparently willing to accept and which they believed was, and I see no reason why wouldn't be, defensible. See also my comment to Pinky. There is no adversary in the ME capable of taking Israeli territory.
"
You're absolutely right about the sanity express as far as it goes, but this is where Tel Aviv is at risk of falling off the train. Look around the region. Egypt is stuck in a post failure of the Arab Spring stand off between the military and it's own Islamist movements. Iraq is still and will for the foreseeable future remain neutered as a regional power by the US invasion and its aftermath. Jordan's monarchy is in a state of never ending acrobatics to cling to power and legitimacy. Syria, Lebanon, and Libya are all mired in civil wars and political paralysis. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are distracted by their proxy wars with Iran.
Yet Israel still looks at the situation as if the tanks could come rolling over the border at any moment rather than an opportunity to impose a finality on extremely favorable terms.
On “Complicated Starbucks Orders Is A Language I Don’t Speak None To Good”
My understanding is that flair was ended as a direct result of being a punchline in Office Space. Maybe we just need Mike Judge to step in.
On “Kamala Harris DNC Speech: Watch It For Yourself”
Israel could annex and fortify all of the defensible territory immediately bulging from the green line, renounce forever all disputed claims east, and shoot any Palestinian man, woman, or child that comes within 1000 yards of the barricades. That is definitely not the behavior of saints, but the whole thing would be over as an issue. No, maybe not for grievance studies professors and their gentle students who write dissertations on the colonial settler origins of traffic signals. But as a political flashpoint that ever bleeds into the mainstream, normie debate? Gone.
"
Likewise. Except that I really don't care about the can. Not my monkey, not my circus, etc. I think the best the US can do is stay out of it.
"
I've said multiple times at OT what I'd do in their shoes.
"
There are a lot of parallels between what the Israeli settlers and government are doing to the Palestinians and hypothetical scenarios certain brands of conservatives will use to justify the 2nd Amendment.
One doesn't have to particularly like or respect the Palestinians to see that.
"
I'm not sure comparisons to Iraq serve to help the Israelis cause.
"
I can't speak for him but my read of Chris' comments is that he would indeed dispute Israel's right to exist, at least as currently constituted (that being an expressly ethnic homeland), and that he would do the same against any similar entity.
"
I've said before the reality is that this is a bottom tier issue for the American voter. It can easily be navigated by saying exactly the kind of things Harris said, to the extent anything has to be said at all.
"
Agree 100%. There's no reason for all this over 18 months.
"
Fingers crossed!
"
I think it went very well. Tone was generally right, and most importantly everything seemed normal in a way that contrasted sharply and in a good way with what the GOP did. The entire situation looks and I think objectively is far better than a mere 6-8 weeks ago.
My only Debbie Downer comment is that latest polling has Harris ahead in national polling by less than Biden or Clinton in the same time period. It also has PA as a toss up and WI and MI within margin of error. That's still an improvement but the campaign really needs to go out and get aggressive over the next 2 months. It's far from over and complacency has a way of working in MAGAs favor.
"
They can shut down the site for the weekend, you win the comments.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The New Grocery Store”
I was one of the people still going to games during the '98-'11 seasons when they were not only terrible but setting records in being terrible. And not just in MLB but in all American sports. I know shame and embarrassment as a sports fan, and we aren't anywhere near it at the moment.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.