• 1 Post
  • 116 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: July 9th, 2023

help-circle
  • In essence, that is what she did. Her letter, which is an excellent read if you like detail oriented logical takedowns of transparent corruption, only “offers” her resignation, conditional to the AG refusing to meet with her to discuss the issues she raises in the letter.

    She says that dismissing the charges would be, in the first place, unethical, as the prosecution is based upon an indictment rendered faithfully by a grand jury. Furthermore no one (including Adam’s defense counsel) has called into question the conduct of the prosecution. In addition, dismissing the case would also be illegal, as legal precedence states that a court may decline the Government’s request to dismiss charges in instances which run contrary to the public interest. She concludes that, in light of those points, she cannot and will not comply with the request. At that point, she offers her resignation.

    Despite really enjoying reading her arguments, I’m certainly no law expert. I would imagine that she would open herself up to some pretty serious charges from the Department of Justice if she refused to comply with their order. I mean, considering the brazenness of the corruption on display by the very order she is protesting here, it wouldn’t shock me if she’s wondering if they’d try to charge her with fucking treason or something, a crime which could result in the death penalty. Of course, something like that would only be plausible if there was demonstrated evidence of an authoritarian, Tammany Hall-style political machine situation developing at the federal level with the tacit approval of the judicial branch. Good thing there’s no evidence of that happening, right?

    Which is to say, I think the folks in here whining about how she isn’t doing enough to fight fascism should maybe get off their pedestals a bit and have a little empathy for the position she had forced upon her by the ACTUAL villains in this story.


  • You’re rephrasing the post as though you’re making a “gotcha!” statement, when it’s just the thing they said. Their argument is that the Dems needed to lose for any chance of party reform to occur, and they voted in a way that would encourage that outcome.

    It’s an argument that I find compelling, especially given the fact that the Democrat leadership seems to be actively trying to learn all the wrong lessons from their humiliation, where they are trying to learn anything at all. This indicates to me that, to some degree, OP is correct and there wasn’t even a snowball’s chance in hell that party leadership would have done anything significant had they coasted to victory based solely on being not-Nazis.

    To seat his logic in another context, where the Trump of it all is not a factor, it’s the same argument I’ve heard lefties trot out in a discussion about legal vs illegal protest tactics. Which is to say, effective protest is protest which forces people to engage with the issue being discussed, and legal protest is ineffective because, by design, it is easily ignored by both the public and the powers that be.

    All that being said, the argument is not so compelling as to convince me that any pain caused to the Dems in service of organizing an actual progressive wing is worth the pain Trump’s election is causing people, the environment, or the world in general. I don’t know anything about OP, so I don’t want to state this as fact, but, to me, it smacks of the privilege that comes with figuring they will make it through this period okay (if not particularly great). Therefore, it’s worth it to them to endure this inconvenience, in the hopes that it effects change in the Dems. Attack their argument on that front all you like, but you’re not contributing anything by saying “you helped elect Trump!” when that’s what they said they did and they’d do it again.








  • redhorsejacket@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.worldThe Outcast
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    20 days ago

    While that may be true, you also put them in places that should have a comma, but you want more pause; this is why boiling it down to a single aphorism is difficult.

    For example, I’ve read most of the comments in this thread, as well as the Oatmeal info-comic that someone linked, and I still don’t know with certainty the semicolon I used above is grammatically appropriate.


  • Yes, I probably didn’t emphasize enough exactly what I was referring to by “marketing” initially, and it’s confusing when talking about an industry in which that term usually refers to the studio advertising strategy. I still don’t know what else you would call it, necessarily, but I can see where my phrasing was misleading. My bad.

    I appreciate your optimism and willingness to let Eggers do Eggers, and what’s incomprehensible to some person is going to be fine for another. I just think your optimism (and Eggers’) crosses into delusion if you think you’re going to be able to follow dialog like this, subtitled or not. The point I’m arguing, that I don’t think you’ve responded to other than to say you’re not concerned, is that we aren’t talking about writing a movie in “Ye Olde English”, we are talking about writing movie in a fundamentally different language than what is spoken today, and then, presumably, not subtitling the dialog (I would imagine that would be mentioned in the press release if that was the plan at this point).

    I understand that my argument relies upon an assumption that the film Eggers’ is planning is mostly conventional, just written in Middle English. I stand by my assertion that that is a bad idea, even if it comes from a place of artistic purity. I don’t share your view that a creative idea which breaks the norms of storytelling is good based solely on its being different. It can make a film interesting, to be sure, but it doesn’t make it good. By way of example: The Last Jedi is a very interesting movie to me, in the sense that I’m flabbergasted Disney let Rian Johnson come into their multi-billion dollar franchise with the attitude of “this is all dumb and if you take it seriously, fuck you”. That level of anarchic glee in a Star Wars movie of all things is fascinating. I still think it’s a bad movie in the sense that it’s a slog to watch. I believe Johnson was so preoccupied with deconstructing the mythos that he sacrificed telling a good story in service of that idea. Much as I was arguing that Eggers would be sacrificing good storytelling sense in service of period authenticity.

    However, to tie a bow on this whole thing, since I’ve taken up a lot of your time and I appreciate you patiently hearing me out, I acknowledge that my assumption does not give Eggers the benefit of the doubt. If he commits to the bit, I’m sure he will try to find other means of conveying information to the audience than spoken dialog. Its a visual medium, after all, and Eggers is a talented filmmaker. Until we know more about his execution of this idea it’s all much ado about nothing, I just have trepidations.


  • I’m speculating, and certainly not a business expert, so heaping handfuls of salt comes with this statement: I think part of the problem that led to this is that each game was published by a different entity. Square published 2016, then put the devs up for sale the following year, citing underperformance. IO buys itself out and becomes independent, but needs capital to get Hitman 2 across the finish line. Enter a publishing deal with Warner Bros. That game proves successful enough that Hitman 3 is able to be self-published.

    Considering IO’s concept of this World of Assassination trilogy was always that it would have certain online-only or live servicey features, and I assume that publishers often provide the necessary infrastructure for these things, I wonder if the rotating chair of publishers is to blame for making this process so much more obtuse than it needs to be.



  • Just anecdotal experience to relate, but the opinion I see most commonly in various threads is that being concerned about SEO and growth metrics and the like fundamentally misunderstands the opportunity the fediverse provides.

    At least for me, it’s nice to have a corner of the internet where, for the most part, discussions don’t escalate to the polemical levels that occur when everyone needs to shout to get a word in edgewise.

    I admit that my logic stems from the impulse to gatekeep, but my intent would be that we tend to our gardens, as it were, and let the folks who are seeking that kind of experience filter in at a natural rate. For example, while I don’t think that Lemmy needs to juice it’s SEO, I do think it would be a good idea to continue to improve the onboarding process for folks that don’t give a rip about the tech running their social media.

    I’m willing to entertain arguments to the contrary, but I think that this approach encourages growth by improving accessibility, while not overwhelming the aspects of the culture that has gotten folks to stick around here at all. The assumption I’m operating under, and I acknowledge its optimism, is that a person who finds themselves on Lemmy is clearly looking for a different experience than what traditional social media offers them, even if they can’t articulate what exactly it is that they’re missing from corporate owned platforms.

    To that end, I don’t think it’s necessary to try and ensure our Lemmy beats out Lemmy Kilmeister, who is the singer I’m hopefully correct in assuming people are talking about lol




  • Ah, I’m a bit younger (in fact I don’t believe there’s a song on that list that was released after I was born), but I’m a big history geek, and the evolution of genre is a particular fascination of mine, so I have intentionally sought out the music which influenced bands I liked in high school.

    I’m sure I’ve missed out on some killer acts from the era, so hopefully someone who was both alive at the time AND paying attention to the scene will appear and give us both an education.

    A tangentially related suggestion for you, if you share my fascination with the context around the art we make (though you are probably well aware if you’re an old-head haha), there’s an EXCELLENT documentary about the LA hc punk scene that was released during its zenith (arguably) in 1981. Several of the bands I mention in that list appear. It is called The Decline of Western Civilization, and the most convincing argument I can make to get people to watch it is that the LAPD chief wrote an op-ed demanding theaters not screen it.


  • Yes, though this is a scenario where I’d argue such a reading is a touch overzealous, and is exactly the sort of overreaction that leads idiots to think that calling Musk’s Nazi salutes what they are is just pearl clutching. The song is about haters who talk mad shit behind your back, but don’t dare say anything to your face. Therefore, “boy” is being used to imply the narrator doesn’t consider these people to be “men”, as they lack some quality (maturity, courage, whatever) necessary to qualify.

    Also, the world changed a lot in the decades between the song’s release and 2016. I’m not going to go digging to try and find out exactly how much of a piece of shit Anselmo has been and for how long. Fucker isn’t worth my mental bandwidth, so I’m okay with operating on the assumption that, like many, many folks, he was radicalized over time by the rise of the “alt-right” and becoming wealthy. In either case, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ve got no intention of ever financially supporting his endeavors in the future, despite enjoying some of his output in the past.


  • Further recommendations for your exploration: any band Ian MacKaye has played in. Even if you don’t care for his work, he has had an outsized impact on the development of American punk / hardcore (even if he’s resisted that attribution). Specific recommendations include:

    • Minor Threat - self titled (straight up hc punk)
    • Embrace - Building (early emo, when that just meant it was a hardcore song that touched on emotions other than anger)
    • Fugazi - Waiting Room, or the 13 Songs album as a whole (post-hardcore, or “hardcore, but we’re not afraid to show off that we’ve learned some music theory”)

    Okay, with MacKaye given his due, other “classic punk” recommendations include:

    • Agent Orange - Bloodstains
    • Bad Brains - I Against I
    • Black Flag - Fix Me, TV Party, My War
    • Circle Jerks - Wild in the Streets, Live Fast Die Young, World up My Ass
    • Dead Kennedys - Nazi Punks Fuck Off, California Über Alles, Holiday in Cambodia
    • Germs - Lexicon Devil
    • The Clash - Straight to Hell, White Riot, Lost in the Supermarket, and many more.
    • Operation Ivy - Sound System
    • The Descendents - Suburban Home
    • Social Distortion - Story of My Life, Mommy’s Little Monster
    • Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)?
    • Hüsker Dü - Don’t Wanna Know If You Are Lonely, Pink Turns to Blue
    • The Replacements - Androgynous, Bastards of Young, Here Comes a Regular, Can’t Hardly Wait, Answering Machine, Alex Chilton
    • Minutemen - History Lesson Part 2, Corona

    Some slightly deeper cuts, more in the proto-emo space than political punk, but they share a lot of musical DNA and I think some of these tracks are underrated.

    • Rites of Spring - For Want Of
    • The Hated - Words Come Back
    • Dag Nasty - Circles
    • Gray Matter - Burn No Bridges
    • Soulside - Pearl to Stone
    • IGNITION - Previous
    • Fire Party - Cake
    • Samiam - Tired of Waiting
    • Fuel - Cue to You
    • Drive Like Jehu - Here Come the Rome Plows

    That’s probably enough for now. I hope you find some stuff you like here.


  • I listened to Siren Song of the Counter Culture all the way through for the first time since probably 2007 a little while ago, and tbh, there’s little on the record I would call filler. Some songs do less for me than others, so I’m not gonna say it meets “All Killer” criteria, but I was surprised by how much I was enjoying the deeper cuts.

    In fact, it surfaced an embarrassing memory for me. When “Paper Wings” came on, I was reminded of a little light plagiarism I committed as a shitty 13 year old. We had discussed the use of enjambnent in “The Red Wheelbarrow”, and were told to write a poem with an emphasis on structure as much as meter or rhyme. Being (as mentioned) 13, shitty, and confident that Rise Against was not in my English teacher’s rotation, I basically just copied and pasted lyrics from that song and incorporated odd line breaks and punctuation.

    Had I a modicum of self-awareness at the time, I’d like to think I’d have made different choices, but that’s high school, baby!


  • Oof. Well, I’m disappointed but I refuse to let it ruin my day. I also tend to think that the band saying they had no idea is a stretch, but I empathize with someone who rationalizes away suspected bad behavior of a long term friend. I can’t say with 100% confidence that I wouldn’t do the same, as long as there was enough plausible deniability. If they disavowed him immediately upon it coming to light, well, I guess that’s better than praying for forgiveness and healing or whatever, even if they had thought his behavior was suspect beforehand and not acted on it. Perfect can’t be the enemy of good, and I’m just so fucking tired man…