Indeed the X-wing “wings” are more supports to mount weapons on than they are airfoil. Tie fighters have a totally different approach to flight.
Andor is of course beholden to the fantasy world it is set in, it did convince me as a sound socio-political story. The fears and distrusts both of the rebels and the military/ intelligence services, the anti Ghorman propaganda, it’s awesome.
The one who shot is still a murderer, yes. I don’t know if it was Mr. Mangione, I have not reviewed the court file and only know what I read in the media, which is a bit hit or miss. I know that the shooter resembled Mr. Mangione and that Mr. Mangione has been arrested, and that police reports some evidence found, that is all.
The act certainly was murder, an intentional premeditated killing. One could argue that it was justified as the actions of the one who was killed led to a lot of death and suffering. While it was not the assigned role of the murderer to execute this person, it can be argued that the ones who’s job it is to protect the public from such as the person who got shot, (notice that I refuse to call him a victim, he was not) remained passive and did not fulfill their task, this includes the justice department, police investigators and policy makers. By all accounts the person who got shot was a leading figure in an organization that extorted money from both the state and the public. In any other country the would be considered a criminal organization and prosecuted as such. It can be argued that the killer, whoever he might be, took it upon himself to take an action necessary to protect society, at the risk of his own life, safety and prosperity, If you look at the arguments that serious gun rights activists have advanced for keeping the current interpretation of the 2nd amendment, the actions of this killer checks nearly all of the boxes. Since in the US the policy makers and judicial system is openly bought by wealthy large corporations to such a degree that it surprises me they don’t wear the names of their sponsors on their suits, it really surprises me that what happened in this case does not happen constantly all over the place.
Your strawman argument about hotel owners does not really hold water, as we don’t suddenly have a condition that requires us to stay in a luxury hotel, which is not the same for hospitals, medication of other medical care.
I know it’s anecdotal but I have an different points in my life required medical services, if I had not been able to get those services, I would not be alive today. I have never had a desperate life threatening situation that could only be solves by a stay in a very expensive hotel.
However you do have a point. There are murders, like these, that can easily find a moral justification. The problem with this, is indeed where you draw the line. Who is bad enough that we should kill them, and who is not. We could start killing the really bad ones, but where do we draw the line? Who gets a pass?
The person who gets a bunch of people killed for his annual bonus seems easy. However does the drunk driver who endangers a lot of other people on or even beside the road get a pass or a bullet? What about the person who we think corrupts the morals of our children? You can easily end up in a system where anyone can be killed on any grounds real or imagined. It reminds me of the situation in revolutionary China and France, where anyone could get lynched by a mob or convicted by a hasty court for being counterrevolutionary, having sympathies for the old nobles, etc.
What is clear from this case and the reaction of the public is that the way money for healthcare is handled in the US is atrocious. The governments in the US spend more money per citizen than any other nation and the costs for healthcare for the average American are spectacularly higher than in any other nation. The quality of the healthcare provided is not so exceptional that this high cost is warranted, the high cost seems entirely due to the for profit organizations that govern the care and the insurance who priorities their major share holders over the actual service provided.
I don’t think people who work to keep this system around and profit of it need to be shot. They need to be fired, prosecuted and forced to return all the money that they embezzled over the decades. The companies need to be dissolved and their funds used to provide free healthcare for all. The US can not keep supporting this parasitic system.
Not all star wars is the same. While I agree that it is space fantasy rather than sci-fi, some of it is more serious and well made than the rest. I have absolutely loved Andor, Rogue one and Solo, and the first and second series of the Mandalorian. It’s starwars with very limited force use.
While the space flight isn’t realistic, the wings aren’t really a problem. Look at the space shuttle… Real spacecraft with wings.
Well look at it this way, the guy that got shot indirectly killed thousands and made a lot more peoples lives miserable through needless suffering and financial ruin, the guy who shot him killed one, in an attempt to stop the indirect killing. The first reaction of the company the guy that got shot worked for was to allow compensation for medical claims more easily (“rectified” since, but a bunch of people got essential help early in) therefore the shooter saved a lot more people than he killed. So why would anyone not glorify the killing as it was a net win.
Not everywhere has it to a degree where healthcare is witheld from you when it’s not profitable/ even a small medical procedure ends in financial ruin. Not everywhere has “we need to have guns to prevent opression”
Yeah, looks very nice. I always liked the Mantis design but it is such a limited use ship. This one should be quite popular. I like the style much more than the constellations. If they ever rework the constellations they should definitely follow the Mantis/Meteor style.
Yes but so is wet cardboard so that is not a high bar. I never understood why people liked oreos. They’re really shitty biscuits, the only thing good about them is the marketing. I think I ate two in my life. The first because people hyped them up, the second because I could not believe they were quite as bad as I remembered because people still seemed to eat them of their own free will. They were actually as bad as they were the first time.
Oh at least she is not looking like she is in the midst of an orgasm, she’s ok. I don’t mind a nice nude statue. One of the best, I think, is in Ostend, Belgium.
He stayed quiet and went in hiding, Trump can’t for the life of him, do that.
Even if the US government went though a lot of trouble faking his death and relocating him he’d be bragging about it on twitter before the end of the week.
Has he created a movement, or has there been a movement that has attracted him? As I see it, it’s not just him it’s most of the current GOP leadership, Thiel and the Heritage foundation, Citizens United and a few adjacent organizations that need to go before you can go to a somewhat reasonable functioning society in the US. And frankly the way some Democrats react to the New York primary, they also seriously need to clean house.
It would be nice but with a community as small and passive as this one…
Of course it’s a distraction “panem et circenses” for the people! It’s so close to old Rome you might throw in a Roman salute here and there.
People who saw project 2025 for what it was were not caught by surprise at all. Trump himself barely matters, it people like Peter Thiel and the heritage foundation who write policy. They need the US to fall apart and they don’t mind helping Putin a bit along the way.
Trump often reminds me of the Galactic President from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
“Only six people in the Galaxy knew that the job of the Galactic President was not to wield power but to attract attention away from it.”
So they choose someone flamboyant and zany and scandalous who will give the press nice headlines and good repeatable quotes.
Oh I’m not disputing that one bit. But was Stalin in Stalin in Stalingrad at the time personally leading the defense? Or was that Russian soldiers and officers?
Also Russia did much of the same when it comes to scientists http://epizodsspace.airbase.ru/bibl/inostr-yazyki/nemets/Uhl_Stalins_V-2_2001.pdf
They thought trucks that had transitioned to male would molest the kids instead of just crushing them like the Ford intended? Ridiculous!
Yeah it’s weird, and if there are elections popular opposition candidates will face a fate like mr Navalny, I’m afraid. Much as I would like AOC as a US president, I think at this point, she needs to run for her life rather than for president. And believe me, I truly hate that this is the case.
She is an amazing person and a fantastic leader. However she is the kind of person the fascists fear and she is also the right shade of skin to earn a one way ticket to El Salvador.
You see the people clamoring for the deportation of mr Mamdani, and he is at this point nothing more than one party’s possible candidate for mayor of one town. Imagine what would happen if ms Ocasio-Cortez were an actual presidential candidate!?
Even now I worry about her safety often. Same for that wonderful ms Crockett, mr Frost and a few others.
The USSR did the greater part in defeating nazi Germany, seriously nobody who knows a thing about the fall of the 3rd Reich could deny that. They did so at a huge cost in soldiers and material. This is something that the world should thank the people of the USSR for, their sacrifice was terrible. However it was not Stalin defeating the nazi’s single handedly. His troops and officers did, nor did Stalin do this out of the goodness of his heart or through personal heroics. It was a fight for survival.
If Americans had the balls to copycat this, they would have done so months ago, healthcare would have been reformed as a result or at least health insurance companies would be unable to find anyone willing to be CEO for them.