Wednesday Grab Bag
Is it Christmas yet?
Welcome to the first day of winter, the shortest day of the year, and the first day of the rest of your life.
Look, if I’m gonna mock Stacey Abrams for being an election denier, I gotta make fun of this guy too:
Now MAGA Nation is claiming Republicans stole an election?
DeSantis is a winner. Trump is a loser. It’s as simple as that. If the Republicans want to lose in 2024, they should nominate Trump again. If you guys would rather play victim than stop the Democrats, keep talking.
What consequences should the Taliban fear after Joe Biden has already surrendered?
When Elon Musk isn’t making capricious sweeping changes to Twitter’s policies and then changing them back just as quickly, he’s also giving us hard evidence of what the company was like before he bought it. Things were even worse back then:
And then they claimed they weren’t doing that. Just like they claimed they weren’t suppressing conservative voices. Just like they claimed to support free speech. Just like all the other lies they told.
I don’t trust Musk, but I do thank him for holding these bastards to account. What a pack of fascists.
The following bit of DALL·E art would’ve been perfect for yesterday’s edition about Twitter being run by the feds, but I didn’t think of the prompt (“A pig in a police uniform yells at a Twitter bird”) until after my self-imposed daily deadline:
These AIs are getting better by the day. Eventually the robots will destroy us all, so we might as well have some fun with ‘em while we can.
Stanford University wants to save you from the English language:
Yeah, the whole list is like that. On one hand, it’s just a few kooks at a lib university. Who cares, right? But five years ago nobody had ever heard the term “misgendering,” and now you can lose your job over it. This is how that nonsense starts.
Remember how the media accidentally admitted Gisele Fetterman was the one running for the Senate, not her husband? Now they’re actually boasting about it:
So she’s the one behind the victory, huh? That makes sense. She’s the one who can still speak and understand human language.
Bad news, Black Adam fan(s):
I finally watched this movie last week, and I can see why it got dumped on streaming so quickly. It’s a paint-by-numbers copy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with so much CGI it’s mind-numbing, and a wooden performance from the usually charming Johnson.
Black Adam is basically a Superman who murders bad guys with lightning, yet somehow they made him boring. The character started out back in the ‘40s as a Captain Marvel villain — the real Captain Marvel — and Johnson has the comedy chops to pull off the same tone as the Shazam! movie. The man is a charisma machine. But for whatever reason, they were determined to make him glower and scowl for two hours. Big mistake.
Heck, Pierce Brosnan even plays an all-powerful wizard with a shiny golden helmet, and they managed to make me not care. Never thought I’d see the day Pierce could put me to sleep.
Streaming pick: A Christmas Horror Story on Shudder. No, not A Christmas Story, the classic film based on the Jean Shepherd stories. Not even A Christmas Story Christmas, the new sequel with a grown-up Ralphie.1 This is a 2015 horror anthology, and it’s pretty dang good for something made in Canada.
Santa Claus vs. zombie elves! The Krampus vs. yuppie scum! Teenagers vs. pregnant ghosts! Parents vs. demonic changelings! Shatner vs. the bottle! This one’s got it all. The great Joe Bob Briggs just showed it during this year’s Christmas special, and it’s one of the best Christmas horror movies I’ve ever seen. Granted, most of the ones I’ve seen have been terrible. But this is still a fun, nasty little low-budget slasher/action/comedy. Some genuinely surprising twists, and a stable (heh) of terrific actors. On a scale from 1 to 10, I give it a B+.
And if you’re a nerd for Canadian horror flicks, this movie is set in the same town as Ginger Snaps. If ya know, ya know.
It’s almost Christmas! Hope you’re staying warm if you’re in a cold part of the world. And if you’re in a warm part of the world? Well, bless your heart.
Do you have all your shopping done? Did you remember that certain special someone? There’s still time to get me a present… 👇
I still say they should’ve made the grown-up Ralphie a grizzled Korean vet. With an eyepatch.
Whew! For a grab-bag, lots of stuff! BTW, what was the name of the AI you used for Batman-Joker?
Mike Lindell is already in trouble over his voting machine assertions. Obviously he has $$ to burn.
The Taliban? Hasn't Biden given $780million SINCE Kabul fell for "humanitarian" aid? Maybe it's being used to destroy women's schools.
You are absolutely right about Stanford and "how that nonsense starts". Everyone laughs at the college kids. Until they come at you out of Lord of the Flies.
Thanks for the reminder of the Double Standard: Republicans repudiate Herschel Walker as unfit. Dems vote for the charcuterie candidate. Then, his unvetted wife is the real power. Damn.
DC sucks. No idea what Gunn's vision is, but it can't be much worse than what we've been given. I'm not a fan of militant Black Adam anyway.
I understand how you feel about Trump. He's spent the past month shooting himself in the foot, groaning, and then doing it again. On the other hand, take a look at current leadership. Why the F an Omnibus bill that handcuffs the House GOP Majority for virtually the entirety of 2023?? As a result: McConnell's gotta go: https://thefederalist.com/2022/12/21/gop-cant-be-successful-until-mitch-mcconnell-is-gone/
So, we shall see, but I worry about DeSantis. Indeed, I worry about anyone else fighting the entire "system". The freaking FBI tried getting rid of Trump as he was inaugurated and then, again, with Twitter in 2020. Can anyone else stand up to that and, better, clean house? So far DeSantis has been good. But what any GOP candidate will be up against, my Lord...
Oh. I already contributed. Merry Christmas Jim.
Yes, the pig^2 yelling at the little blue bird is clever, but the key to defeating AI is the same as it's always been: chaos.
There was finally a prompt that stumped ChatGPT. Someone asked it to write a passage in the style of Finnegans Wake. It failed. Hard. It generated something, but it wasn't even close.
Incidentally, this is exactly how the Harlem Globetrotters beat that robot basketball team in the 1981 made for TV movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island.