This was one of my favorite photos from Paris. It was drizzling and they were just far enough ahead the best I could do was a grainy shot, but still I love it. Just after this, they inexplicably lost the balloons. Then there was this one on the Seine:
Believe it or not…it wasn’t until we got home and looked at the photos on the computer we realized that T-Rex was actually on a boat!
There are more photos here if you’re interested.
What’s everyone up to this afternoon? I’m on my way to the annual cookie bake. Did anyone hear from Betty Cracker, did she survive the Drunken Aunties Cookie Night?
Open thread.
TaMara (HFG)
The writing thread will be coming up shortly. I just wanted to make sure those not interested had somewhere to play.
SiubhanDuinne
Love the Paris photos!
MomSense
Beautiful photos, Tamara.
I just read this Botnik Studios predictive keyboard created Harry Potter chapter and I’m dying.
Botnik Studios Harry Potter
????
Jim, Foolish Literalist
reposting from below
Marble-headed stupe accuses fellow Republican Senator of accepting a massive bribe in exchange for vote
trollhattan
Went to a Christmas party last night at some neighbors where the crowd comprised mostly Republicans, connected ones. A former Pete Wilson staffer noted he said “fuck” a lot. Others had family members who worked for Reagan and even Nixon. All scrupulously avoided talking about the current White House occupant–whether by design or lack of anything to say shall remain a mystery. I felt like a field anthropologist.
donnah
Personal thanks to WaterGirl and JeffreyW for trying to help me post a link to my Christopher Robin and Pooh project. I got a link,
https://imgur.com/user/donnahook
but when I tried it at another site, they only went to the Imgur main page. I’ve never had so much trouble posting a daggoned link!
NotMax
A little sumthin’ quartetish with the Star Wars people in mind.
TaMara (HFG)
@donnah: I am running out the door, but if you want to send me the actual photos, I might be able to post them later in another thread if that link isn’t working.
donnah
@TaMara (HFG): thanks! That may save the day!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ma guess Jared, because always Jared, Slabhead Donnie, and hope for Kellyanne
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: All of them, Katie.
chris
@donnah: Imgur is overcapacity at the moment but I did pick this out of your “Submitted Images.” HTH
https://imgur.com/gallery/Zgemu
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It is just so perfect that all these people who gleefully either reported on the Clinton emails or colluded with Donald Trump to steal them are now OUTRAGED about an expectation of privacy and claims of a lack of process.
Privacy and process for me but not for thee! Bunch of frauds. The low quality Trump team got WAY more process and fairness than Clinton was ever given. These people don’t care about privacy and process. They threw it away in a heartbeat when they thought it gave them a political edge.
Actually, Americans should demand to see all of Team Trump’s communications. We saw Clintons and no one had a warrant or went thru any process channels at all. I want to see them. We have been given NO substantive information on any of these people and they all lie constantly. Release all the emails.
ericblair
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Some of the items in the GOP tax reform discussion are just “buying off” special interests and serve no other purpose, Republican Sen. Bob Corker told CNBC on Thursday [in Oct]. “Some of the things we’re doing, I’m sorry, are ridiculous,” Corker told “Squawk Box,” though he did not mention any specifics.
“But, hey, now I support it. To be fair, they gave me a shitpot full of money.”
Kay
We saw one exchange at one Trump judge confirmation.
How many low quality, unqualified cronies has Trump given lifetime appointments to? How many were rubberstamped?
DECADES we will be stuck with the least qualified people.
opiejeanne
Leaving in a few minutes to collect our son from SeaTac. He’s leaving on Christmas Eve but we have him here all week. YAY!!!
Just booked a shuttle online to take him to the airport on the 24th and had to swear on a stack of Bibles that our address is valid but there was no way to convince the program that my email address is valid, because it contains and underscore.
Kay
I hope Mueller requested communications from the low quality Trump team while at the same time obtaining the emails from another source without their consent.
That way we’ll be able to tell who withheld emails. Which ones lied in response to the request.
donnah
@chris:
Thanks, Chris!
The project is a hooked rug portrait of little Christopher Robin and his Pooh bear. I wanted to include the images of the other real stuffed animals who were portrayed in the Milne Winnie the Pooh books. I found photos of the animals at the New York City Public Library website and paid $50 royalty fee for permission to use them.
The medium is a hooked wool rug, which is my design drawn on linen and then the wool I dyed is cut into thin strips and pulled up in loops to create the image. I dyed the wool to match the colors of honey, so it will essentially be monochromatic.
My goal is to finish the rug and donate it to the children’s area of our own main branch of the public library. I hope to donate in my dad’s name, as he took me to that library when I was very young and got me started on a life-long love of reading.
PPCLI
@Kay: Very true. The way Wikileaks does it.
Because Trump loves Wikileaks. He said it over and over again on camera. Hannity too.
So they’ll be overjoyed about more emails being posted for everyone to see. And we’ll be happy too. It’s rare these days that everyone is happy about something.
PPCLI
@Kay: Especially because that will mean some of his lawyers will be in danger of being disbarred. Dishonestly holding back subpoenaed documents is very bad.
This also explains a certain pattern in the document requests, if I understand rightly what I’m hearing. (This is approximate, and I may have some details wrong.) Mueller had been requesting things of individuals, then at some point made requests for all transition emails containing certain keywords. This would be a way of learning which ones they chose to withhold, which would tip him off to the ones they thought were particularly damaging.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Only the ones smart enough to realize when they’ve been caught. IOW, non of them, Katie.
SiubhanDuinne
@donnah:
That is magnificent! And how generous of you to donate it to the library!
Did you happen to see the recent film Goodbye, Christopher Robin?
Barbara
@Kay: There is an answer, yes or no, on the status of information housed in the GSA. If, as I keep hearing, basically, the GSA was an alternate source for documents that the transition team members turned over to Mueller on an individual basis, I am trying to figure out how it would be illegal for the GSA to turn it over. There is something very bizarre going on, and it sounds like they are trying to say that they had some kind of private deal with the GSA, as if the GSA were Iron Mountain or some kind of private storage facility.
The other thing is the issue of privilege. If the team members did not claim privilege for documents that happened to be in both places, but just withheld them without stating why, then the lawyers who counseled that as a tactic are either incredibly incompetent or in on the conspiracy. And finally, who is the client for these supposed ACP documents? How was the attorney client relationship established and who holds the privilege? There is no entity called “transition team,” and if the privilege is being asserted by team members in their own capacity why would they share those documents with other team members? That would be a waiver.
So this is a bunch of bullshit being flung in all directions to avoid the conclusion that transition team members illegally withheld documents and probably lied their asses off to the FBI. And a private deal with the GSA? Even if Becker was that friendly, I have doubts he would be that stupid and he certainly would not have the authority override FOIA or other applicable laws. This is a LAW ENFORCEMENT request, not a request from a private citizen.
sukabi
@donnah: lol…hey Donna, clicking on the link takes me to a gif that has a lady failing miserably at stairs…not very Poohish…hope that’s a commentary on failing at posting a link to your project and not you falling down the stairs…
Barbara
@PPCLI: These people are such amateurs. I mean, seriously, if you want to hide things you hide them. You don’t put them in a dot gov email that is housed in a government database.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Barbara: I love it when a commenter knows what she’s talking about! This is great.
PPCLI
@Barbara: Hi Barbara: Since you seem to know what is going on and a) I don’t b) IANAL, I hope you can clear smth up for me. Doesn’t “executive privilege” — to the extent that it can be invoked at all — just pertain to requests for information from other branches of govt. (i.e. Congress or the courts). The idea being that the privilege is grounded in constitutional separation of powers.
But Mueller is officially in the Executive branch, so that wouldn’t apply. All that could be invoked is the much weaker “deliberative privilege”, that covers much less.
Am I understanding things correctly?
donnah
@SiubhanDuinne:
I read about the movie, but I haven’t seen it. It’s on my list, though, especially since tackling this project and doing a lot of research.
Roger Moore
@Barbara:
I wonder if any of them really believe it will do them any good. It seems to me that there are two kinds of trouble they need to worry about: legal and political. Making up bullshit theories about why the documents are theoretically privileged isn’t going to help them with either one. The judges aren’t going to buy it, and assertion of privilege won’t protect them from political damage any more than the arguments about the provenance of Hillary Clinton’s emails protected her.
Roger Moore
@Barbara:
I think the vast majority of their problems come from the same basic root: they honestly believed they would be immune once Trump was in power. They didn’t bother to cover their tracks because they never thought anyone with real power and authority would be trying to follow them.
Barbara
@PPCLI: The argument that seems to be made is that documents that predate the inauguration were private, and that transition team documents and correspondence are not government documents. I don’t know the answer to that, but if they were private then there was no executive privilege that adhered to them because they predated the inauguration — just like Trump’s business documents would not be subject to executive privilege. The problem with the argument that if they were private they should not have been turned over by GSA without involving lawyers to the team, is that if they are literally duplicates of what the team was under a subpoena to provide already it’s really hard to argue that there was any harm or any reason why GSA could not have turned them over. It sounds to me like they had tried to engineer some kind of private deal that would give them the ability to hide all copies of the transition team documents, even the ones that had been lawfully subpoenaed, and they are trying to hide behind this “deal” instead of saying the truth: We were counting on the GSA to help us withhold incriminating documents.
germy
@Roger Moore:
Or they honestly believed he would never win.
Instead, they thought they’d get jobs on his new, 24-Hour-A-Day anti-Hillary network, TrumpTV
Roger Moore
@germy:
That makes sense as an explanation during the campaign, but not during the transition.
PPCLI
@Barbara: Got it. Thanks!
germy
@Roger Moore: Ah yes. You’re right, I was thinking about the campaign.
Kay
This is kind of interesting. The public were told that there was Russian interference not just to get Trump elected, but to get a GOP Congress. It was never mentioned again after the initial reporting, but think about how weird that is- Putin didn’t just want Trump- he wanted Republicans, down to House members. That goes against the idea it was some “chaos” effort- really specific goal, right? “We need this House member in Florida and this one in Illinois” – that’s not chaos at all- it’s a preference and a plan.
frosty
@Kay:
I know nothing about the process, but I understand it’s possible to impeach and remove a judge. If so, we may have our hands full in the coming years.
tobie
@Barbara: What a great summary of the contradictions in their arguments. If the documents belong to the government, they can’t be subpoenaed because of executive privilege; but if they belong to Trump as a private citizen, they can’t be subpoenaed except through his lawyer, who has refused to release them because of executive privilege. Am I getting this right?
Another Scott
@chris: Wow. That’s impressive!
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@germy:
I’m not discounting the idea they never thought they’d win, BTW. I think, though, that a huge part of what was going on was that Trump had been getting away with shit for decades, possibly with the connivance of the NY FBI office. The feeling of impunity that engendered is what made the idea that there would never be any consequence for any of this stuff plausible.
chris
@Another Scott: haha
raven
@tobie:
I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
‘Cause he looks so fine upon that hill
They tell me he was lonely, he’s lonely still
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah
tobie
@raven: Thanks for the poetic version of kettle logic! I realize now the contradiction is even simpler than I made it out to be: if emails private, no executive privilege; and if emails subject to executive privilege, not private. Logic’s not my strong. Maybe I should look for Napoleon on a hill.
raven
@tobie: I bet you’d look so fine, up on that hill.
jeffreyw
@donnah: Are you on a PC running Windows? If so, log onto your Imgur account and click on your name in the upper right corner, then click “images” it should show you everything you have uploaded to the account. Click on an image, it should expand into a larger image with a row of copy options. For posting an image to BJ, use the button for “direct link” to copy the picture’s URL onto your clipboard. Then just right click in the comment box and choose “paste” to post a naked link.
Like so: https://i.imgur.com/K4csjQL.jpg
burnspbesq
@PPCLI:
On the other hand, withholding documents based on a colorable claim of privilege is mandatory, unless the client chooses to waive. As I understand it, GSA didn’t notify anyone that it was planning to produce, and didn’t afford anyone any opportunity to conduct a privilege review. If true, that’s a major fuckup, and if the Special Counsel tries to use any of this stuff (or any fruit of the poisonous tree) at trial, a motion to suppress would be in order.
efgoldman
@PPCLI:
If you don’t look at it sideways, these are all the same arguments that Nixon and his team tried, and lost, all the way to SCOTUS.
Either his legal team is incompetent, flailing, or counting on a more partisan, conservative court with no integrity, or a combination thereof.
Nixon was much smarter, a lawyer and an excellent politician with a superior legal team, and in the end he couldn’t stop it.
jeffreyw
@burnspbesq: It’s my understanding that the waiver was explicit when they signed off on the GSA’s disclaimer.
ericblair
Let me summarize the argument:
Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I’m a lawyer defending a major record company, and I’m talkin’ about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you’re in that jury room deliberatin’ and conjugatin’ the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.
Barbara
@burnspbesq: Who is the client? It’s not Trump. The “transition team” is a bunch of individuals who have individually been subpoenaed and if the request to the GSA was for the same set of documents and the individuals involved apparently didn’t claim privilege on any documents when they made their own submissions so how can they do so now? Let’s say they used the exact same search terms and thus should get the exact same documents. If there is any claim for ACP, they should have made it for whatever documents they wanted to. They apparently didn’t. This isn’t a game. There are supposed to be rules in how this is done. If you inadvertently sweep up ACP documents, you return them. This happens all the time.
P.S. — the problem with their argument is that if it is the individuals who are claiming ACP how can they not have waived the privilege if they put those documents in a “transition team” database? To state that these documents are “private” isn’t the same as saying that they are “personal” to each of the individuals.
MattF
@Barbara: You’re making the error of taking the arguments seriously. They’re legalistic word salad, intended to confuse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@burnspbesq: @jeffreyw: IANAL and obviously these are not objective observers, but…
efgoldman
@Roger Moore:
I’m sure Orangemandyas himself thought , as much as he thinks at all, that he’d be OK the same as he always would: by intimidation, bullying, burying the other side in paper, buying the other side off, or just plain stiffing them. Sorry big guy. That was against investors and contractors in civil court.
Barbara
@MattF: Sure, but I think it’s important that non-lawyers understand how much bullshit this really is. They waive around ACP as if it is a talisman that covers every utterance by a member of the bar. It isn’t, and even if you had it once upon a time it can be waived. If you want to protect something you have to protect it.
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They thought they had a special deal with Beckler. I can’t believe Beckler would have been that stupid. Even if he wanted to help them out he can’t supersede federal laws.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
can’t believe it took this long, and I’ll be surprised if this is the only story
1999… tweety’s voice was still hoarse from screeching about the disgrace Bill Clinton had brought down on “THE PEOPLE’S HOUSE” (the White House), and the Oval Office where Ronald Reagan WOULDN”T EVEN TAKE OFF HIS COAT!
I would love to see Joy Reid get his time slot, but I suspect wagons will circle unless more info comes to light
jeffreyw
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So the question isn’t of a right that was either waived or not, it’s that there was no right, period.
efgoldman
@Barbara:
Are their clerks not competent to research the Watergate trials? Are they too young? Or do they have nothing else?
tobie
Acronym help! What does ACP stand for?
EDIT: Got it…Attorney-Client Privilege. Never mind.
Cheryl Rofer
Good news from the CDC Director –
Another Scott
@Kay: I assume the Trumpists tried to segregate their obviously nefarious stuff from whatever e-mail accounts the GSA was running. They did, after all, set up “family” e-mail accounts for that purpose – Warning! Politico!! (from October):
(Emphasis added.)
No doubt Bobby’s team is looking at such things much more closely than whatever was on GSA servers.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
(twitter) area attorney unimpressed with trump claims of privilege
Another Scott
@donnah: It’s beautiful and obviously a real labor of love.
Thanks for sharing it (with help from chris!).
Cheers,
Scott.
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If the next Dem president appoint Preet as AG….
donnah
@jeffreyw:
I have an iPad, so it doesn’t seem to be working the same way. Some people can see the link I posted, but others can’t. TaMara might be able to help me. Sorry to be a pita.
Kathleen
@donnah: That is a lovely story. I remember going to the library with my Dad also. When we lived in Dayton our branch was a converted old house. I loved it.
Mnemosyne
For those who have seen The Last Jedi and are still mulling it over in their minds, Film Crit Hulk has a great analysis of it that IMO helps explains why the fanboys are yelping like doggies who didn’t get the treat they expected.
For those who haven’t seen it and like Star Wars, Rian Johnson basically takes the baton that JJ Abrams handed him and makes a sharp left off the track into unknown territory. The fanboys are meeping because they no longer know where the story is going and that frightens and confuses them.
Barbara
I can see how this could present some ambiguous issues, but by my assessment the “transition team” is not a client — how does one form a “client relationship” with the transition team as a whole? I would argue that virtually nothing is privileged in the way I think of privilege — basically, if you are a lawyer trying to advise the transition team you are interpreting the law for them but you aren’t giving them legal advice because the transition team isn’t an entity. If an individual seeks advice for their own personal concerns — e.g., do I have to disclose XYZ in a security clearance form? — they get their own lawyer and they don’t do that as part of the transition effort. If the question is being put to the lawyer in a way that affects someone else — we are considering so and so for XYZ position, but it appears that he might have disqualifying foreign investments, can you give me a quick and dirty about what the law is in this area?– that doesn’t constitute an ACP protected communication.
Matt McIrvin
@Mnemosyne: I haven’t seen it yet, but I noticed there was a first wave of reviews that were wildly laudatory and a second wave complaining that the movie was a little overrated by the first wave. If what you say is true, I’m more eager to see it.
Mnemosyne
@donnah:
I would just copy the link that Chris created and save it to the notes app on your iPad for now. You can figure out the other stuff later.
debbie
@burnspbesq:
And Mueller’s team would have overlooked that?
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
There’s always a second wave that feels the need to be contrarian. Plus there are people who absolutely hated the new characters in The Force Awakens and were never going to be interested in following their further adventures.
After seeing the film, I can see why Kathleen Kennedy immediately gave Rian Johnson a three-picture deal to make more movies in that universe. He breaks the Star Wars universe out of the shackles that Lucas put on it with the prequels and opens it up to new story possibilities.
Johnson even manages to give Kylo Ren an interesting arc. Ponder that for a minute.
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
i guess it ‘s generational, I love Star Wars, saw the original in ’77 when it came out, but I don’t understand the creation of a mythos which Must Not Be Contradicted in any way.
It’s as bad as having RWNJ relatives
It’s only a movie.
Heaven forfend you are entertained and are glad you went .
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
G is of the opinion that most of the haters are the generation that grew up with the prequels, where the ending was always pre-determined. They never had that Oh, shit, what’s going to happen next? feeling that us OG fans had in 1983 at the end of Empire Strikes Back. They’ve always gone into the series knowing what will happen next or what’s already happened.
And then Rian Johnson comes along and kicks that chair right out from under them just as they were getting ready to sit down. No wonder they hate him.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: When Halperin’s stuff came out, I predicted that Charlie Rose and Tweety would be next. They were two of Halperin’s biggest enablers.
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
I would say that’s a fair description. The Last Jedi doesn’t take things in any direction that undermines what we know about the universe, but it clearly doesn’t respect fan expectations for how the movie is “supposed” to go. I think there are about as many real surprises as there were in all of the other Star Wars movies put together.
debbie
Cornell, you’re such a dick.
Matt McIrvin
@Mnemosyne: I actually thought Kylo Ren was a character with a lot of potential, even in TFA. The prequels already gave us Darth Vader as a callow youth, but it was never really believable that that whiny git could evolve into the juggernaut that was the mature Vader from the original trilogy. To have a villain who is actually a Darth Vader fanboy, and wears a black mask for no reason other than that this other guy did, but who also genuinely seems to have a lot of raw power that he doesn’t know how to focus effectively… that’s pathetic, but also interesting.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Watching one of my favorite movies on Prime – The Right Stuff. Of course, those guys probably flirted heavily and were handsy when drunk, so I suppose I am obligated to hate them retroactively and need to go to a Womyn’s Rights and Empowerment Womynar by order of some tribunal….
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mnemosyne:
I have a few issues with the Star Wars universe, primarily on the extent of AI. There’s a lot of unnecessary human labor, particularly with flight operations. Plus, needless cruelty seems to almost be a currency within.
trollhattan
Vlad gives his besty Donny an early Christmas gift. How many sources did Donny burn this time?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: When I worked for the government, there was big banner that said everything you do and store on that computer belongs to the government and can be accessed or seized at any time. And you saw and acknowledged that banner every time you logged in, and on most of the websites you used.
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
Kylo is one of the characters who breaks free from audience expectations and yet remains true to the way they set him up in the first film. Lots of character growth all around for all of the main characters … including Luke Skywalker.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I hope the ghost of Pancho Barnes kicks you in the nuts.
burnspbesq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ownership is irrelevant. The 15 pages of boilerplate at the back of our standard engagement letter clearly states that we (the firm) own our workpapers. But if we get a subpoena or an IRS summons, we notify the client and allow them and their counsel to review our files, so that they can intervene to resist production based on any privilege they can assert. The privilege belongs to the client, and if they are denied an opportunity to assert it, they have a legitimate beef.
Mnemosyne
@burnspbesq:
How many of your clients have .gov email addresses?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@burnspbesq: Like I said, not a lawyer and I have no idea what the rules are or how Mueller got these emails.
I feel like I’m on an Aeroflot plane in the late 80s, riding through a thunderstorm with a drunken pilot and a wobbly wing. I’m just praying for a non-fiery landing. Just to choose a metaphor at random.
schrodingers_cat
I have resumed watching Samvidhaan, the making of the constitution of India, a ten part miniseries made in 2014. Its directed by Shyam Benegal and is pretty amazing. I have only two more parts to go. I cannot but compare it to Attenborough’s Gandhi, which was more of a fairy tale version of the freedom struggle through British eyes centered around one person.
ETA: This version is grounded in reality with no colonial or American narrators in sight.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mnemosyne:
*chuckle*
Just saw that Doug Jones committed an unpardonable sin and must be destroyed from the left.
Mnemosyne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Jones won without the votes of the sainted White Working Class. Of course he must be destroyed.
That is specifically highlighted and discussed in The Last Jedi, which is probably another reason the fanboys hate it.
Barbara
@burnspbesq: Who is the client here? You think there was a retention agreement between something called the transition team and they myriad lawyers who supposedly were giving advice? You think individuals who receive subpoenas for documents for work they did as part of the transition team formed an AC relationship with lawyers on the team who analyzed legal questions? Like I said, just because documents are private doesn’t mean that they were personal to the individuals whose documents were subpoenaed. And that’s apart from the fact that the documents had not been previously identified as being privileged when they were sought directly from the individuals. I know what you are saying here, but lawyers are not supposed to be co-conspirators with their client’s efforts to hide documents.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mnemosyne:
So as someone who is kind of meh on Star Wars
Until Rogue One (which I actually liked) would I like it?
Yutsano
@Barbara:
They were on .gov domains. It is very explicitly said that anything for the federal government e-mail servers is not private.
raven
Apparently the power is out at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport with 30 planes on the tarmac.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Fans are split over the Last Jedi, and it is definitely not just Boys.
Yeah, Yeah, mild spoilers. But potential spoilers for some.
Some fans are happy beyond delight because they feel that Rian Johnson has wrested the movie away from Lucas and given it to them. They were never happy with some of the characters and now they feel that some characters are easier to relate to, more like themselves. And I am not referring here to the diversity thing, which is or should be a non issue.
I have mixed feelings about some of this. I am a Star Wars fan, but I don’t give a crap about the extended universe, the books, the animated show. I wanted to see what a new generation of film makers would do with a film series that may have inspired them. And I wanted them to be free to bring something new to the franchise. And I admired Johnson’s work on Looper. So, I should not complain about the new paths he has laid out, and yet I am not entirely happy with all that he has done with this film.
But just in terms of audience reaction, the younger people I saw, who obviously are not long time fans were just besides themselves with happiness. That’s what movies are supposed to do.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@raven:
Saw that – the Countess and my mom are on a flight from Paris to ATL right now. Hope it doesn’t screw them up.
raven
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
Kylo is an emo Darth Vader. This definitely works for some people.
raven
Tweety!!!
trollhattan
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Speaking of flight weirdness, my bro is headed here from the east coast and his flight is a whopping 35 minutes ahead of schedule. Considering the wind is usually west to east that’s doubly odd.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sirota’s kind of a yutz, but it would be great to hang this on Corker and the GOP.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
CBS says McCain is returning to Arizona and will miss the tax bill vote.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): sounds like Cochrane (sp?) may miss it too. Hence the Corker Kickback and however they got Collins. Which was probably a ruthless, “Susan, come on now” “okay”
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
If you have a link to a good critical article, I would love to read it. I suspect that fans are split for the exact reason Film Crit Hulk loved it (and it’s the headline of his article). In some ways, the film messes with what is literally some people’s religion — Johnson is Martin Luther nailing his objections to the door of the cathedral.
And people who liked the prequels (not saying this is you) don’t get to complain about Kylo Ren being “Emo Darth Vader.” Despite some surface resemblances, he’s 100 times more interesting and compelling than Anakin Skywalker ever was.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It’s probably more similar to Rogue One than it is to The Force Awakens, so you may like it. There are definitely several explorations of the dark underbelly of the conflict between the First Order and the Rebellion.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
He’s a trust fund force user. He’s inherited everything- power, mentor, name, even his outfit- and think it makes him deserving. He’s impatient, which made him easy prey for a dark side would-be mentor like Snoke.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@raven:
I’m talking to her now. If diverted, they’re probably screwed until tomorrow morning.
Their inbound is to arrive at 7:20 pm.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
Not necessarily. If planes flying from east to west usually face a headwind, they will have factored that into their flight plans. If the headwind is weaker than usual, it will let them arrive earlier than expected.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
It’s sad to think how much better the prequels could have been. The basic storyline isn’t that bad, but the movies were poorly written and terribly directed, at least in terms of getting decent performances from the actors. Emo Anakin Skywalker could have been so much better if he had been acted with the skill Adam Driver brings to Kylo Ren.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
He is, and yet … he did genuinely get screwed over and treated badly by his family, which made him even more vulnerable to Snoke’s manipulations.
I really liked how Johnson was able to make Kylo relateable but still dangerous. He makes a game-changing choice, but that choice doesn’t change the fact that he’s basically evil.
Argh. Now I’m considering creating a discussion post on my mostly-defunct blog so we can have a spoiler-filled discussion without ruining it for everyone else who hasn’t seen it.
SgrAstsr
@donnah: Donnah, it’s beautiful, and such a moving tribute to your Dad. ❤️
raven
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Rats!
WaterGirl
@donnah: Hi donnah! The instructions I gave you in the thread yesterday were specifically for the iPad. Did you try those? Because I tested every step and was able to get a URL that I emailed myself and also pasted into BJ from my iPad.
SgrAstsr
@burnspbesq: I thought GSA required all users of the ppt.gov account to sign waivers allowing future email accessibility. Ianal, but I am a scientist. :)
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): That’s good news for us, but I presume that means it’s very bad news for John McCain. Not being snarky. I feel terrible for anyone facing their own death, even the non-maverick McCain.
donnah
https://imgur.com/gallery/VVlg5
Thanks, Watergirl! Does this work?
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
I will see what comes up. I have already been devoting too much time to Star Wars and neglecting other tasks. I note the Forbes movie commenter and others noting a significant gap between critic and moviegoer sentiment, with critics loving the film much more.
Actually, Lucas himself tinkered with the mythology in the prequels, but I take your point.
And people who liked the prequels (not saying this is you) don’t get to complain about Kylo Ren being “Emo Darth Vader.”
Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot
Paris! My favorite city in the world (that I’ve been to). Haven’t been to them all, of course, but I’ve been very fortunate to have visited quite a few in my life so far: pretty much every American city in the top 35 or so by population; Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal up north; Mexico City, Rio, and Lima down south; Jakarta, Bangkok, Seoul, and Perth; Dublin, London, Edinburgh, and some others in the Brit Isles; Tunis and Marrakesh; Amsterdam, Brussels, Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin; Rome, Milan, and Geneva; Madrid and Barcelona; and Strasbourg, Marseille, Aix, others in France. The City of Light (been 3 times) is the best of them all!
Planning a Eurotrip with my wife and granddaughters the summer of 2026, that’ll be the next (and likely last) time I’ll visit Paris. Wonderful place!
Another Scott
@donnah: Looks good.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
donnah
also, too
https://imgur.com/gallery/9h6Wn
I’m done pestering! Thanks to all for helping me!
thalarctosMaritimus
@raven: “Matthews made inappropriate comments about her in front of others”
Hasn’t he done that to women on the air, or am I misremembering?
2liberal
Just a reminder to the bloggather that The Steelers are Brady’s bitches
2liberal
Omfg
Miss Bianca
@donnah: oh, that’s so sweet I don’t think I can stand it! It’s a really beautiful homage to Ernest Shepard while being a unique vision. *Very* cool!
ETA: The more I reflect on the post on your process, the more blown away I am. Maybe we can Alain to do an “amazing project a BJ commenter is doing” post!
donnah
@Miss Bianca:
Thank you, Miss Bianca! You’re very kind!
WaterGirl
@donnah: Late getting back to the thread, but I see 3 photos at that link. Not as far along as the one chris found earlier, but yes, it works! Now that you know how to do it, you can get us the rest. :-)
Really cool to see how it progresses as you go along. It’s truly lovely and amazing. So glad you persevered to get us photos!
edit: I see that you posted the latest photo. Hurray! It was worth waiting for. Now that you know how to get the URL and show us pictures, I hope you will let us see photos as it progresses.
You are very talented!