crimycarny
crimycarny's JournalRotten Tomatoes Melania review--Critics: 12%, "Popcornmeter"99%?
Wow, someone is working big time to manipulate the audience ratings of "Melania". Critics give Melania a 12% review, "verified ticket holders" give Melania 99%. Sure, sure.
Almost 100% of the reviews from "verified ticket holders" are 5-star ratings. The # of those reviews is 100+ (versus over 200,000+ for very popular movies). The reviews are very similar in wording, much like Twitter bots tend to be.
I was wondering how those behind promoting Melania would try to rig the reviews.
Watching "Cover Up" on Netflix--Makes the hope I had the military would not follow illegal orders seem foolish
I'm watching the documentary "Cover Up" on Netflix about the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke the story about the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.
Seymour Hersh was contacted by a source who had already written to Congress and various other newspapers. Many other journalists passed on the story, not wanting to go up against the Army. Seymour Hersh published the story, which received widespread coverage, but eventually people bought the Army's lies and dismissed Hersh's article as "propaganda". Eventually, though, the story was too big to be dismissed. However, only one of the 22 soldiers and generals who were charged with murder was court-martialed. The rest had their cases dismissed with the defense, "they were just following orders".
This is so depressing, it's all too familiar to what is going on now, except it's American civilians who are being killed. The journalists are too afraid to call it out as it is, instead coach their stories in cautious language so as not to p*ss off the Trump administration. And now I'm wondering if ICE, if ever prosecuted, will get off with "just following orders." Germany held the Nazi's accountable for murder, the US let the murderers off.
Are the Democrats in Congress asking Jack Smith questions are just making speeches?
I'm asking this question without sarcasm as I truly don't know. I just started watching. I've seen some short video clips of the testimony (and I'm now watching live), but everything I've seen so far is just the GOP asking gotcha questions and the Democrats making speeches. Personally, I'd like to see the Democrats use some of their time to ask follow-up questions to some of the gotcha questions where the GOP doesn't allow Jack Smith to answer, or attempt to spin unrelated court cases as if Jack Smith is incompetent. So far, it seems that when the Democrats get the microphone, they are just making speeches. But again, I just started watching.
The Beatles "This Boy" live (John Lennon vocals amazing)
I can't believe John Lennon's vocals. Incredible.
Bloomberg article explaining why no one is stopping ICE
This has been the question I keep asking...why is no one doing anything to stop ICE? By "no one" I mean no one in our Government.
This article explains the various limitations and loopholes that make it difficult to stop ICE. The Supreme Court decision ("Kavanagh stops"
is a big part of it, along with major loopholes in the laws that govern ICE.
The only people who can try to put a stop to it now is Congress. And they aren't doing anything. I know Dems aren't in the majority, but they could at least try to introduce bills and make the GOP vote against them. Maybe they have, if so, I haven't seen wide news coverage of such. At a minimum Dems need to vote against increased spending for DHS, and many seem reluctant to do that. I don't get it.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-11-19/ice-raids-why-isn-t-anyone-stopping-them
I hate the whole toxic positivity when it comes to mental health
I lost my son to suicide, coming up on 4 years now. I joined a support group for Suicide Loss survivors and, while it's been a big help, certain long-term members on the site spout their own beliefs as gospel.
It's the whole "mindful thinking" philosophy: "Where you are in your grief is a choice", "Everyone can change where they are at mentally if they choose growth." "Grief can be a great teacher if you choose growth." That is so arrogant to say to someone else. I picture someone sitting in yoga pants, drinking chai tea, telling someone who has been stabbled 100 times and is curled up in a ball on the floor, "You know, you are choosing the pain you are in." I get it's meant as a pep talk, but I don't find it helpful.
Mental health is the only human disease I know of where the sufferer is allegedly "choosing" the symptoms of their disease. Would we tell someone with Parkinson's they are "choosing" their tremors? Someone suffering an asthma attack is "choosing" not to breathe? Then why do we assume that someone's mood is a choice versus a symptom of a disease, such as depression?
This Zen shit drives me nuts. So you've got two identical twins, one loses her child to suicide, and the other twin's children go on to live happy lives. So the twin who lost her child is going to have more "growth" than her twin whose kids are thriving? Sorry, I'll take non-growth over this absolute hell I'm in.
The 3.5% rule -- effectiveness of peaceful protests
Did anyone see Rachel Maddow on Stephen Colbert last week, where he asked her if peaceful protests actually worked, and she said "absolutely" and then mentioned the 3.5% rule? I'd never heard of this 3.5% rule before, but it gave me some hope in a sea of hopelessness.
"Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change."
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
3.5% of 350,000,000 (estimated US population) is 12,250,000.
Do you think these horrific videos of what ICE is doing will help turnout in the midterms?
I don't think MAGA will care, but I'm hoping this will increase turnout, especially in those who don't bother to vote. I'm hoping these graphic videos will be a bridge too far.
What do others think?
Wow! Airline ticket price difference increase of 65% before using VPN and clearing cookies
I've been wanting to fly out to Australia to visit my daughter, so I've been browsing flights for the last couple of months. I noticed the price kept increasing. I remember when I was checking business class last month, the ticket was $8,464 (which I can't afford, but I remember the price). Today I checked, and that same flight was over $13,000! An increase of $5,000!
So I did a test, I deleted all cookies and browsing data, I turned on VPN (used double-VPN), then did the same search. Business class was back to $8,464. The costs were all in USD, so there was no exchange rate issue.
So be careful if booking flights.
AI is going to make life better, right? Yeah, for corporations.
So grateful to see celebration posts and no "we can't get too comfortable" posts!
I’ve been seeing some of the predictable “Debby Downer” posts on BlueSky warning about not getting “too comfortable” with the huge Dem wins across the board. I’m so grateful not to see those on DU.
Let’s at least have 24 hours to celebrate!!! Hand wringing kills the momentum IMO, does more harm than good.
(Thankfully the majority of posts on BlueSky are all about celebrating victory, the Debbie Downer are definitely in the minority)
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Member since: Fri Oct 19, 2018, 07:49 PMNumber of posts: 2,069