War Room Lounge v152: Putting your back out for a few days just from bending over. Good times.

[AnGrYcRoW]

Black Sails has been a great show. Just about done with it.

Starz has a knack for pseudo-historical 4 season shows. Spartacus was surprisingly good, and Black Sails is even better.

Get back to me after your finished

 

[The Diplomat]

Have you guys ever seen The Good Place?

I think that the character Derek from that show might actually beat out Sheldon from TBBT as the most annoying character I've ever witnessed.

I watched it. It's quirky to a fault. Ted Danson is always fun, though.

 

[irish_thug]

Black Sails has been a great show. Just about done with it.

Starz has a knack for pseudo-historical 4 season shows. Spartacus was surprisingly good, and Black Sails is even better.

Loved black sails. Great show.

 

[The Diplomat]

Get back to me after your finished

I'm watching the series finale as we speak Starz should just go ahead with a Treasure Island series to connect it all.

 

[skysolo]

It is strange that you're machine gunning anti-Democratic Party takes lately.

I also really take issue with Turner's approach to opposing so-called moderates like Clinton, Biden, etc. The counterargument shouldn't be to impugn them personally or claim that they don't actually care about achieving long-term change. It should be that, on most of the issues that form fundamental differences between the two wings of the party, the moderates have no footing in pragmatism. The issues on which they refuse to themselves meaningfully defend their positions - market-based healthcare reforms, support for Israel, infringement of speech rights in re Israel, regurgitation of imperial propaganda in re Iran/Cuba/Venezuela/Bolivia/etc. - are not ones that are alienate voters and are not ones that are necessary to swing Republicans.

One of the massive failures of the Bernie campaign and the American left generally is to loudly and clearly articulate the critique of the false center in American politics: the ossified corporate liberalism that the James Carvilles of the world daftly insist is the place of effective compromise with voters. Their response has been to move ever farther on social issues to mitigate their entrenchment on key matters of economic, fiscal, campaign, and foreign policy, as if a purple voter is going to be alienated by socialist policy but unaffected by broad proclamations about race and identity.

Hey man. Carmichael can be criticized. Anyone can be criticized.

But is it really the best time to do so while giving a eulogy?

And he while he is trashing Stokely Carmichael, the country he was the president of his facing a crisis. The same way the Dems united with Biden and against Sanders is the same way they should to get some real reform.

But nah, let's tell tales out of school about a man who has been dead for 20 years. This is the best use of his time.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Question for @Jack V Savage and any other baseball nerds that care about this stuff.

I have had regular conversations with older Yankees fans (for those that don't know I live in NY and there are obviously tons of fans) and I continually hear things along the lines of "we should be playing more small ball" and it is making me mental. I push for a clear definition and as I understand it, it means utilizing bunting, sacrifice flies/ground balls to advance runners and stealing bases to generate runs (and I checked the internet and it agrees with me). My view is that would be a ludicrous strategy for a team like the Yankees who is one, willing to lead the MLB in highest payroll and two, play half their games in a park with a short right field porch (and not particularly deep anywhere else in the park). I also point out that the Yankees have been (and currently are) consistently one of the best teams in baseball not by playing small ball but by hitting home runs primarily, and obviously with good pitching. I even push for an answer with something like - should the Yankees replace Judge, who has 60 home run potential and plays a good outfield with a speedy 10 home run guy that can bunt? The answer is always an obvious no. I also get a lot of squirming over the definition "well I don't mean bunting...". As if the Yanks should steal more bases with a lineup full of big guys that hit bombs.

So the question is, am I wrong? One of the best push packs I have gotten is that you generally face top notch pitching in the playoffs and teams reduce the number of starters so you effective face aces regularly and that small ball can help you win in the play offs. I push back with the fact that 22 home runs were hit last world series and both teams had great pitching. My argument is this is pure nostalgia for a game past, but I do acknowledge teams like the As, Royals, etc. and more so in the National league have salary constraints (or a pitcher that has to hit 3-4 times a game) can benefit from that style of play. I just think it's crazy for the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, etc.. I'd say the Mets too but they just blow lol.

If I was having this discussion with you I'd be saying manufacturing runs wins World Series, not the long ball. Kind of like my annoying friends who thought Judge and Stanton would walk over the Red Sox.

Now, I'm mostly talking out of my ass. Things like "drive for show, putt for dough", or "offense wins headlines, defense wins championships" I think are *probably* true, but I'm going off intuition as opposed to statistical analysis. BUUUUT, there is something to be said that being a can crusher doesn't mean you win tough fights. So like in other sports, high octane offenses may look great during regular season, but may not go well in the playoffs. Sometimes being that team that consistently wins by a little is better than being a streaky team that 2 out of 3 days look amazing, but can also have the wheels fall off. A little bit of a bad times cold streak and it's over.

 

[AgonyandIrony]

Fascinating! I'm gonna have to check out that book. Thanks brother

No problem. Dude is probably my favorite Guerrilla of all time. The Brits historically consider themselves these great tacticians but in reality they ruled through sheer barbarism and treachery and often genocide. Ireland has been plagued by a few famines throughout history and the Brits have always used it to their advantage. To truly understand Irish-Anglo relations I think it's best to go back to the Nine Year War of 1593 and really the Irish Rebellion of 1641 When the British soldiers murdered babies by throwing them in the air and catching them on their spears "The nit becomes the louse" was a phrase that was uttered. Of course failed rebellions took place often until the Easter Rising of 1916, the English made the mistake of executing the prisoners from that failed rising which enraged all of Ireland and caused the Anglo-Irish War four years lady.

I find it quite sad that the assassination attempt on Churchill in the 20s never came to fruition, and sadder still Michael Collins "The Big Fella" sold out Northern Ireland to that fat fuck.

Also I realize I get ranty and long winded when talking about history, but if you want to hear about the another super badass named John Riley who led the Batallon de San Patricio in the Mexican-American War. Biggest mass hanging in US history happened to the Irish at the command of the US Army. It's one of my favorite lesser known moments in history. AND one of the greatest living rebels and the homie I talk about nonstop here Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas gave them a shout out awhile back.

When Mexico was fighting, in the last century, against the empire of the bars and crooked stars, there was a group of soldiers who fought on the side of the Mexicans and this group was called "St. Patrick's Battalion."

And so I am writing you in the name of all of my compañeros and compañeras, because just as with the "St. Patrick's Battalion," we now see clearly that there are foreigners who love Mexico more than some natives who are now in the government. And we hear that there were marches and songs and movies and other events so that there would not be war in Chiapas, which is the part of Mexico where we live and die.

Also @Kafir-kun I found something in my studies that might be interesting to you. I've always wondered why the US Civil Rights Movement that was running adjacent to the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement never got as bloody here as it was during the Troubles.

N & V: Why do you think the civil rights movement in America did not become as violent as "The Troubles"?

BD: There was, ultimately, a legal recourse in the U.S. Britain had and has no written constitution, so there was nowhere Catholics could point to a legal right that was being denied. In Ireland too the issue was complicated by a nationalist issue with a tradition of physical force. It wasn't as though black people in Alabama were trying to reclaim the state from the U.S. government. American civil rights protesters wanted a fair deal inside the system, whereas for many in Ireland they wanted to overthrow the system.

 

[The Diplomat]

Get back to me after your finished

I do wanna say a quick thing about Joji, the Samurai pirate. It's hilarious how he's literally been around since the first few minutes of the entire show, is always involved in some adventure or battle, but never gets a single line in the whole series. Just super serious, badass and mute. Also, the "You fucked the dairy goat..." scene might have been the highlight of the whole series.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

I love the bigger/lower strike zone idea and as a matter of principle, been advocating it for years (I umpired for 6 years). Umpires could simply call it as it's defined in the rule book, which is substantially bigger than how it's called now, but I like the idea of lowering it. If you called an "at the letters" high strike there's a good chance you have to eject a coach, even at the amateur level. I like the deader ball idea, but not loving the restrictions on relief pitcher use. No particular reason other than I like the matchups strategy, but I guess it would help the pace of game too. I wouldn't die on that hill if I had a say, though.

Just bring back the Livan Hernandez / Eric Gregg strikezone.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Also @Kafir-kun I found something in my studies that might be interesting to you. I've always wondered why the US Civil Rights Movement that was running adjacent to the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement never got as bloody here as it was during the Troubles.

That's fascinating and yeah while there are parallels you can't entirely compare the two. Blacks in America have been definitively and permanently cut off from their ancestral culture and have carved out their own space in America, all they want is a fair deal here.

The Irish are seeing their culture and autonomy slowly withered away generation after generation. Its unification they want, not just a Civil Rights Act. Would be cool to see Irish unification within our lifetime.

 

[Andy Capp]

@Lead
I just had to mention, the horrid ads stopped. I don't care why but I am grateful, as long as it lasts.

Now, if we could only come to terms on the likes limit.

 

[AnGrYcRoW]

Loved black sails. Great show.

I , to put it mildly, was not a fan of the way they wrapped it up

 

[The Diplomat]

So. Had a hurricane last night. Power outage from 10pm to 4pm today. Luckily I have a decent generator to keep AC/fridge and TV/PS4 for entertainment for everyone.

My trampoline ended up in my swimming pool, and one of my outdoor garage tents is in the neighbor's yard. Other than that, it wasn't so bad. Just ordered pizza from the only place delivering. Got a good buzz and finishing Black Sails. I also have a $1500 beast of a gaming PC and a new monitor shipping to my house, so I can give my current setup to my nephew. All isn't terrible.

 

[tonni]

This is so good.

 

[AgonyandIrony]

That's fascinating and yeah while there are parallels you can't entirely compare the two. Blacks in America have been definitively and permanently cut off from their ancestral culture and have carved out their own space in America, all they want is a fair deal here.

The Irish are seeing their culture and autonomy slowly withered away generation after generation. Its unification they want, not just a Civil Rights Act. Would be cool to see Irish unification within our lifetime.

To quote the interview(I should have sourced it...and I'm ordering his book tomorrow)

We also spoke with Brian Dooley, author of Black and Green: The Fight for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland and Black America. Here's some of what he said:

"As early as 1963, civil rights protesters in Northern Ireland had compared themselves to blacks in Alabama and Little Rock, and identified themselves as the 'Negroes' of Northern Ireland. They sang 'We Shall Overcome' at their marches and in early 1969 deliberately modeled a protest march on the lines of the Selma-Montgomery march. Oddly, perhaps, the Northern Ireland protesters identified more with black American protests than the myriad of protests in Europe that year — in Paris, Prague, Berlin, Rome and London. They saw their struggle as closer to that of African Americans in the U.S."

https://www.npr.org/sections/newsandviews/2008/03/n_ireland_and_the_us_shared_ci.html
I'd say unification of the occupied six counties is the ultimate goal for the Republicans and Sinn Fein but the pressing matter at the time was the same rights the Protestants had in NI. If you look at the segregation of cities like Belfast and the make up of the RUC there is a common theme running throughout. As to being cut off from ancestral culture I want to point out that Irish culture was stamped out under Anglo rule. Passing down Irish history and the teachings of Irish culture and language was illegally passed down through the "Hedge Schools" I also want to bring up the impact of Penal Laws. Take a peakeroni at this fucked up shit.

• Exclusion of Catholics from most public offices (since 1607), Presbyterians were also barred from public office from 1707.
• Ban on intermarriage with Protestants; repealed 1778
• Presbyterian marriages were not legally recognised by the state
• Catholics barred from holding firearms or serving in the armed forces (rescinded by Militia Act of 1793)
• Bar from membership in either the Parliament of Ireland or the Parliament of England from 1652; rescinded 1662–1691; renewed 1691–1829, applying to the successive parliaments of England (to 1707), Great Britain (1707 to 1800), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1800 to 1829).
• Disenfranchising Act 1728, exclusion from voting until 1793;
• Exclusion from the legal professions and the judiciary; repealed (respectively) 1793 and 1829.
• Education Act 1695 – ban on foreign education; repealed 1782.
• Bar to Catholics and Protestant Dissenters entering Trinity College Dublin; repealed 1793.
• On a death by a Catholic, his legatee could benefit by conversion to the Church of Ireland;
• Popery Act – Catholic inheritances of land were to be equally subdivided between all an owner's sons with the exception that if the eldest son and heir converted to Protestantism that he would become the one and only tenant of estate and portions for other children not to exceed one third of the estate. This "Gavelkind" system had previously been abolished by 1600.
• Ban on converting from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism on pain of Praemunire: forfeiting all property estates and legacy to the monarch of the time and remaining in prison at the monarch's pleasure. In addition, forfeiting the monarch's protection. No injury however atrocious could have any action brought against it or any reparation for such.
• Ban on Catholics buying land under a lease of more than 31 years; repealed 1778.
• Ban on custody of orphans being granted to Catholics on pain of 500 pounds that was to be donated to the Blue Coat hospital in Dublin.
• Ban on Catholics inheriting Protestant land
• Prohibition on Catholics owning a horse valued at over £5 (to keep horses suitable for military activity out of the majority's hands)
• Roman Catholic lay priests had to register to preach under the Registration Act 1704, but seminary priests and Bishops were not able to do so until 1778. At least they could register; the English Popery Act 1698 awarded a bounty for arresting a priest.
• When allowed, new Catholic churches were to be built from wood, not stone, and away from main roads.
• 'No person of the popish religion shall publicly or in private houses teach school, or instruct youth in learning within this realm' upon pain of twenty pounds fine and three months in prison for every such offence. Repealed in 1782.[7]
• Any and all rewards not paid by the crown for alerting authorities of offences to be levied upon the Catholic populace within parish and county.

 

[tonni]

@Lead
I just had to mention, the horrid ads stopped. I don't care why but I am grateful, as long as it lasts.

Now, if we could only come to terms on the likes limit.

This site is a bum that has to delete smileys to make room for new ones.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Imagine Michael Scott answering questions about how he's handled the pandemic, minus the charm and well-meaning

LOL, as I went through the thread we almost had the exact same comment.

 

[sickc0d3r]

So. Had a hurricane last night. Power outage from 10pm to 4pm today. Luckily I have a decent generator to keep AC/fridge and TV/PS4 for entertainment for everyone.

My trampoline ended up in my swimming pool, and one of my outdoor garage tents is in the neighbor's yard. Other than that, it wasn't so bad. Just ordered pizza from the only place delivering. Got a good buzz and finishing Black Sails. I also have a $1500 beast of a gaming PC and a new monitor shipping to my house, so I can give my current setup to my nephew. All isn't terrible.

Sounds like a good day

 

[AgonyandIrony]

So. Had a hurricane last night. Power outage from 10pm to 4pm today. Luckily I have a decent generator to keep AC/fridge and TV/PS4 for entertainment for everyone.

My trampoline ended up in my swimming pool, and one of my outdoor garage tents is in the neighbor's yard. Other than that, it wasn't so bad. Just ordered pizza from the only place delivering. Got a good buzz and finishing Black Sails. I also have a $1500 beast of a gaming PC and a new monitor shipping to my house, so I can give my current setup to my nephew. All isn't terrible.

Can I be your nephew? My PC blows.

 

[The Diplomat]

Can I be your nephew? My PC blows.

He's been living with since he was 8, and just turned 13. A few months ago his mother was murdered, and it's been kinda rough but he's a trooper. He's got a half-working old computer right now, and I told him once I could make it work (I was planning on splurging on a new beastly machine because I never have) he would get mine. It's still an 8core processor, 16gb ram, Geforce 1050ti machine with a 500 SSD and 1TB HHD, but I bought it used for like $200 online. He's going to love it .

He spends a lot of his time with his best friend, Chloe, a black girl who would make Wesley Snipes blush. I love it. They're both in orchestra together.