CatBus

Sessions is always there in a pinch to keep the Trump admin from sounding like a bunch of racist assholes.

We’ve had a tough weekend in Charlotte [sic] and I know you’ve all been following that. I want to thank the state and local people and the federal people that worked so hard since those tragic events there. We cannot, and in no way can we accept or apologize for racism, bigotry, hatred, violence, and those kind of things that too often arise in our country.

Emphasis mine. It’s like two drafts of the same statement got merged into one – one saying what any decent human would say, and one saying what he thought. Stay classy, Jeff!

Sorry not to join in. Any topic that even vaguely touches on sportsball makes me very sleepy.

However, I saw this for the first time today. It’s from an exit poll PPP did in February 2016, while the Republican primaries were still going on. I think it wasn’t widely publicized at the time because everybody already knew Trump’s core supporters were a hamper of reprehensibles, and the GOP establishment was totally going to prevent them from taking over, so it didn’t matter, right?

Not focusing on Trump’s numbers in particular–there it is folks, 21% of Republican primary voters either think whites are a superior race, or are open to the idea. We’re gonna need a bigger basket.

These newfangled Nazis sure crumble faster than their predecessors.

Maybe they shouldn’t be made out of snowflakes?

yotsuya said:

I hadn’t heard about the missing frame. Where is it? Is it really any worse than R2’s moving restraining bolt or the duplicate R5 or the Jawa with human arms?

Are you sure you want to know about it? Once you see it, you can’t look at the scene anymore without seeing it…

On Hoth, when Han’s on top of the Falcon getting it ready to evacuate, some rebel troops run by on the ground. Because the troops are fairly fast-moving, it’s easier to see if you focus on the troops and not on Han (not the normal way to watch that scene). A frame gets dropped right in the middle, not at a scene change or anything.

Well, there were three 1980 soundtracks depending on how, when and where you saw it. There was the 70mm six-channel mix, the 16mm mono mix, and the stereo mix. The stereo mix is how almost everyone heard it, it’s how everyone heard it on home video until the 1993 home video mix, and it’s also the basis for the default Despecialized six-channel soundtrack.

So if you hear anything like that in Despecialized, it was definitely that way in the most commonly-heard audio mix and in home video mixes prior to 1993 (there may be some channel differences just from how the six-channel mix was constructed, but no content differences like that). I can’t vouch for the other mixes, but DeEd also includes other soundtracks, including the original 16mm mono mix and the 93 mix, so you can see for yourself if it’s there too. The 70mm six-channel mix was supposedly extremely similar to the stereo mix, but went with a different cut of the video, so it’s a bit of a unicorn.

Movies have flaws. Wait until you hear about the missing frame in Empire. You’ll never unsee it, and it’s in every version of the film ever released.

That’s not to say the current version of Empire Despecialized is flawless–there are problems. But the soundtrack? That part’s pretty much perfect (except that the video lags one frame behind it, which is a problem with the video). Not just because hairy_hen did a great job on it (which he did), but because the original 1980 audio was made available to the public in lossless form, so we had excellent-quality raw materials to work with.

EDIT: Found hairy_hen’s comment on this exact issue. Seems like it’s been there on every audio mix and wasn’t removed until the Special Editions:
http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/724246

Also, just to tie everything together with a nice ribbon, the infamous Nazi website that no reputable domain hosting service will touch… just got a new domain. From Russia, with love. Just in case there was any doubt remaining about how this obscure movement suddenly became shockingly well-funded and connected.

Can we call the Nazis “Russian-backed separatists” yet?

It’s an error in the 1980 film. The Despecialized Edition reproduces it exactly as it was.

I don’t know much about torrenting, and I believe Harmy also was (and perhaps still is) unable to do it. If enough technically-minded people agree, and Harmy thinks it’d work, that might be fine. Then again, maybe Harmy already has a Plan B.

Tehparadox going down also threw me for a loop.

We experimented once before with some key users getting a download link via PM and then having them all seeding a torrent as a means of handling the high demands of initial distribution. There was some technical fiasco and it didn’t work well at all. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth another shot, but maybe someone would need to document a “you must do it exactly like this” set of instructions to avoid issues. In theory, it seemed like a pretty good idea. Maybe worth another go.

suspiciouscoffee said:

I tend to stay out of this thread, and political discussion in general. Not that I’m apathetic, I’m just not very comfortable in my opinions and am often genuinely scared of being wrong. Not today though. The president says that “some” people who are/ally themselves with white supremacists are “fine people.” I don’t say things like this often, but this is utter bullshit.

As someone who can sometimes be a little a lot on the strident side, let me say that even if I seem like a biter of heads, I do understand not only differences of opinions but also uncertainty and unease about them. It’s just some people (like me) are more comfortable with conflict than others, and we actually are just used to disagreements being a little more on the blunt and maybe even a little rude side. But anyone who posts here is a friend. Unless they’re some Nazi asshole, then fuck em 😉

That said, a good BS detector is a fine thing to have, and yours appears to be in perfect working order. I’d love to hear more from you.

SilverWook said:

And holy hell, that’s a bad wig.

I’m telling you. You see a partially-deflated topiary on someone’s head, run for cover.

Warbler said:

SilverWook said:

If they’d only had a permit!

You do realize that John Adams defended the British Soldiers in court and got them acquitted, right?

He got some of them acquitted. The two who fired directly into the crowd were found guilty of manslaughter, which was a death penalty offense–reduced later to branding (yoiks!). And permits didn’t enter into it at all. Did I suck all the life out of that or what?

TV’s Frink said:

SilverWook said:

Do any other countries put up monuments and statues to the losing side in a war?

Do any other countries fetishize guns like we do?

Yes. Oh yes yes yes lordy yes some do. But those countries can’t necessarily afford to have 1.13 guns per human, so there’s that.

SilverWook said:

Do any other countries put up monuments and statues to the losing side in a war?

The South was just ahead of the curve on the concept of participation trophies.

Warbler said:

CatBus said:

Confederate statues are, to me, more akin to statues of Timothy McVeigh than Washington or Jefferson.

I am not sure it is valid to compare Confederates to the likes of Timothy McVeigh. A lot of people boil the Confederacy down to slavery and racism. I am willing to bet the truth is a bit more complicated.

People retroactively apply all sorts of alternate intentions on the Confederates. Fortunately, the Confederates documented their intentions when they wrote their various Causes for Secession. Slavery and racism were right there in black and white: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world”. “Fighting for southern hospitality and the right to sip sweet tea under the willow oaks” didn’t make the cut. South Carolina even included language explicitly opposing the principle of states’ rights (which is the one thing most commonly retroactively misattributed to the Confederate cause). Not a lot of scholars think the Confederates weren’t truthful when they wrote down their causes for secession, but I suppose the argument’s been made.

But all that is a little beside the point, since the statues were put up long after the Confederates were defeated, during the reign of terror (End of Reconstruction to Civil Rights Act), when Confederate identity was already undergoing changes, and was less about slavery specifically and more about white supremacy in general.

McVeigh isn’t a perfect analog for the Confederates, he’s just the best I could come up with. But the primary difference is he had a much lower body count.

Warbler said:

As for Washington and Jefferson, it would not surprise me if some wish to tear down their statues. They were slave owners. I’m sure some view them as nothing but slave owning racists.

Sure, that’s a view of it. A distinction most make, though, is that neither Washington nor Jefferson were so married to the idea of slavery that they were willing to murder US soldiers over it–or if they were, they never actually had the opportunity to prove it. Even Lee’s “the reluctant traitor” image doesn’t wash that part clean. Washington and Jefferson statues also generally were not placed around the nation as part of a broader effort to intimidate the local population into submission (i.e. lynching and the whole hundred-year reign of terror thing), which is why we have the Confederate ones in the first place. It’s more important to me to look at why the statue is there than who the statue is of, if that makes sense.

Confederate statues are, to me, more akin to statues of Timothy McVeigh than Washington or Jefferson. It’s no coincidence that many of the people at this march defending the Confederate statues were also McVeigh admirers–and not particular admirers of Washington or Jefferson.

Season’s Sprinklings Everyone!

Warbler said:

yhwx said:

God damn it. We had him then we lost him.

Or we never really had him in the first place.

?

There was a lot of wishful thinking that “this time for sure!” Trump would see how awful Nazis were and stop supporting them. But instead he dithered for a bit, released a late and mild statement condemning white supremacists, but continued to employ the ones on his staff. But apparently that was too extremist for Trump, so he walked back the statement part, and echoed some white supremacist talking points while he was at it.

SilverWook said:

When has anyone ever got into trouble prematurely blaming Nazis?

I called the 1990’s. I want my Godwin’s Law back.

Looks like Nigel Krofta, a Ridgeville, South Carolina Nazi, is out of a job. I am having a pity party right now, Nigel.

And I’ve been around white supremacists before, but one thing I never got was the haircuts. Okay, shaved heads we get, fine, that’s a thing. But what about the strange topiary disaster mop jobs? Is it some sort of a macho statement that you’re manly enough to be comfortable letting your mom cut your hair? Like that guy in Holland. Nazis and weird hair. I just don’t get it.

In the interest of law & order and fair & balanced and all that is right, I hope these people get a stiff fine for littering. Some poor county employee’s got to take all that trash to the dump.

DominicCobb said:

While mistakes being made are unfortunately possible (or even likely), exposing these scumbags for who they are is still an absolutely worthy effort.

Daniel Borden, one of the attackers who beat the man with a pipe in the OTHER white supremacist attack in Charlottesville, has also now been identified.

And this one is going to prison! I only hope he’ll rat more people out for a lighter sentence (and then not get one).

Jeebus said:

CatBus said:

This is interesting.

When you’re marching around in public as part of a hate group, people can widely distribute photos of you and ID you via crowdsourcing. First off, a caution–be damned sure about someone’s identity before you tag them with something like this, and secondly, if you actually can positively identify any of these white supremacists, please do. They wanted to tell the whole world what they thought, so it seems proper that the parts of the world closest to them shouldn’t be left out of knowing what they think.

I don’t know what’s more precious–that Cole White lost his job at Top Dog, LLC (ohh, so sorry, it turns out “assclown” is not a legally protected class!), or that Peter Cvjetanovic is now making the media rounds saying “that’s not me in those super-clear photos!” (when it definitely is – it reminds me of when Richard Spencer recently denied he was Richard Spencer because he was too delicate of a snowflake to cope with being disliked in public). It’s like there’s consequences or something. I wonder if he’s also going to deny that’s him in those (not rally-related) photos with US Senator Dean Heller, or vice-versa.

More consequences (preferably law-enforcement-style consequences, but I’m not picky) are needed to make sure this shit gets shut down right now. Or at least make the Klansmen have to wear their goofy hoods again.

Yeah, get those Nazis! Fuck 'em, and what are the chances the angry mob of losers internet detectives get the wrong person? Next to none, I’m sure. Oh shit.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/charlottesville-doxxing.html

Hmm, I’m suddenly reminded of /pol/'s mad attempts to find the person who committed the vehicular terror attack that day, only to find the wrong guy.

I wish my warning wasn’t warranted, but thanks for the sad news that it definitely was.

yhwx said:

http://originaltrilogy.com/user/TVs-Frink/id/6930

You’ll have to pry Secret Agent Frink from my cold, dead imagination.

Hey, where’s Frink?

[Cut to a scene with Frink in secret agent garb opening a vault door under a doghouse]