JKane

Yeah, I got annoyed that I had heard more about Amber Hurd's turd than anything in-depth about this and went and looked it up, and it really amounts to almost nothing. It's not terribly easy to spread but close, intimate contact can work. Oh us promiscuous gays. Case counts are in the dozens and even without a smallpox vaccine this variant is a mild infection people get over pretty easily. So now that's two things being breathlessly reported in the news I don't give a damn about...

So, Picard Season 2 is a SLOOOG but the last episode kinda pays it off. Not sure it was worth it at all. Way better than Picard Season 1 but so's watching dogshit turn white on the curb. HOWEVER, Strange New Worlds has be EXCELENT so far! --Anson Mount ME. Station 11, eh, interesting. The Offer on Paramount Plus seems amazing, it's about the making of The Godfather and a great glimpse into Hollywood of the time.

I've seen Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and have to say, if you're going to see one "multiverse" movie this year... SEE Everything Everywhere All At Once! Preferably in theater if you still can! I have never laughed that hard in a movie.

Picard Season 2 seems better than 1 but still... meh. Starts in exactly the post-TNG era we wanted, THIS time suddenly without potty-mouthed admirals calling Picard a fuckwad and Starfleet Headquarters reception not knowing who he is... Yes! Nope, jumps the fuck outta that timeline as quick as possible. Still, pretty to look at, wish it was Star Trek. I mean, they're going to try to have some of the poignance of previous great time-travel episodes but the fact the show runners don't care about or understand ST will come through as clearly as THE MESSAGE they shove down our throats. Racism bad, mmmm'kay? Watched the first episode of Halo as well. Very underwhelmed. VFX were nothing special, whole lotta gameplayer fan service.

Maybe only a conservative celebrity. The left still tends to hold people accountable, sometimes to unreasonable standards, Al Franken as an example.

Yeah, don't want to turn this into a meme thread but this one is so fucking perfect: I mean I can never forgive her for "Who could've ever imagined?!". (You--it was YOUR JOB to imagine as fucking NSA and you'd been to a briefing where an airplane flying into a high-rise was the fucking clipart on the cover you worthless POS.) But this just proves how idiotic she is. Does anybody at Fox remember things that happened more than 72 hours ago? Do they even have object permanence? And the way Putin is now replaying our greatest hits, like Ukraine working on weapons of mass destruction and all... "This is different because it's being done to white people..." does seem to be prominent as well.

Good point, sorry, meant North Korea.

I think the Russian oligarchs are very much feeling the pinch, assets seized all over the world including their yachts and airplanes, inability to travel freely, domestic holdings down 50% or more in value so far... International business ventures falling apart. There are no oligarchs in North Vietnam or Cuba, and as Putin threatens to take Russia in that direction they'd do well to remember it. How valuable is fighting (and eventually loosing) an endless war of occupation in whatever former eastern-block countries *not* part of Nato remain compared against all that's being lost? Their civil aviation about to drop to below third-world as they're *stealing* the aircraft and will not have any ability to ever properly maintain them again, nor ever purchase new aircraft again.

Anybody suddenly not being able to pay rent or for basic necessities is a concern, especially our fellow gays already in a bad situation under a very anti-gay regime. Hopefully the citizens of Russia decide they've had enough and the oligarchs back them to oust Putin. But making average Russian citizens suffer and cutting them off from funds and non-state controlled news may be counter-productive.

Absolutely. Those safes aren't worth the cost of the coat of paint on them. 1) They are often left with a default bypass code that can be easily googled. If not, all the safes in the same hotel or likely chain have the same code. 2) There is a bypass keyway, usable without any indication by the safe and pickable under the metal nameplate on the safe. 3) A locked safe lets a thief know exactly where your valuables are. (Those locks to put on dressers/etc. are even worse for this.) Look up lockpickinglawyer or diviantolam on Youtube for more info. I'd suggest you're safer hiding the money in the room, possibly deep in your luggage or under the bottom drawer in the nightstand.

+1 to everything macaroni21 said above, which I basically just re-wrote then glanced up: It's actually much worse than suspended flights/airspace restrictions for Russia. They have practically no civilian aerospace industry left. Almost all of Aeroflot's aircraft are Boeing or Airbus. Half of them were leased. The leases have stipulations for return of the equipment for sanctions specifically (as well as non-payment) and they suddenly have zero replacement parts availability. Also no access to repair bases on foreign soil (one of Aeroflot's largest was in Germany).

Well since my content can't be worse than pretending not to understand that somebody who's been under direct physical bombardment and personal threat to his life for over a week might be sleep deprived, I guess I'll continue with it: re: Hmm...

Putin doesn't have to worry about old age, he has to worry about the oligarchs turning on him and encouraging/supporting a new, younger model to take his place. But it's not like they'd use polonium or Novichok... oh wait, yes they fucking would. Hence his obvious paranoia which is hopefully well founded. Even without a pre-mature and suspicious death, the second he's out of power he knows he'd lose all his hidden wealth as soon as his powerful and rich friends saw no benefit in maintaining association. They might also be about to fuck around and find out with democratic revolution, though I guess the citizens saw far more prosperity under Putin than their 5 minutes of democracy (am I remembering wrong that Yeltzin was elected...? And maybe Putin the first time or two?). The rampant kleptocracy is obvious to the west, but I also hear that many people believe that Putin isn't rich at all, since he keeps his mega yachts and villas out of his own name and publicly denies their existence on state media. I guess the first step will be the citizens realizing that state media is nothing but lies, which the Ukraine situation is helping with. IF ONLY the fucking vestiges of Voice of America/Freedom hadn't just been shut down by Trump/Pomptato on Putin's request...

Hmm... this brings up an interesting question... are there places that are unusual destinations for the US and West that are now particularly affordable? Are they worthwhile, safe, and are any especially gay friendly? I don't see Maldives or the Seychelles mentioned in the Africa forum...?

Sorry, I thought most were an amusing perspective but will try not to hijack existing threads in the future.

Did I officially overload it with memes? Did Russian hackers get to it? Sorry if I did something wrong there.