Off-Topic Tuesday!

[icon_uk]

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat amongst yourselves.

Words fail me in trying to describe the American political scene at the moment...though in fairness it would challenge most people, and I can't afford to hire Clive Barker as a ghostwriter.

I will say that as I'm not given to conspiracy theories, I won't comment on the astonishing convenience of a right wing VP elect) with a track record of homophobia) attending a play as associated with ethnic and gender diversity in casting as Hamilton gainging feet of newspaper column space, on the self same day that the P Elect settled out of court (for three times the expected amount) over the Trump University fraud case (which got inches of column space further down the page)... however if I WERE the sort who was given to conspiracy theories....

(And for the record, the address that was given to the VP Elect was, IMHO, a masterfully polite and passionate plea... if that sort of speech causes outrage to the P and VP Elect, imagines what actual political wrangling might do to the poor delicate flowers)

Oh, and as a Brit I'm tempted to say that P Elect is welcome to have Nigel Farage to do with as he see's fit for as long as he likes, with our compliments and blessings (not a phrase I'd use under any other circumstances) provided he never comes back, and he's never made the UK Ambassador.

Brexit continues lurching towards what might be an omnishambles or might be a flustercuck... the jury is still out on which it will be.

New LEGO sets for next year will include a bendy armed Ms Marvel minfigure (and Captain America in aviation jacket because why the hell not), as well as a wave of blind bagged minifigures for The LEGO batman movie which has my wallet weeping already for sheer nuttiness, the line up includes Lobster-Lovin' Batman, the Living Eraser, Zodiac Master, King Tut, Pink Power Batgirl, Dick Grayson, Orca, Fairy Batman, Glam Metal Batman, Clan of the Cave Batman, Vacation Batman, Arkham Asylum Joker, Calculator, Red Hood, Commissioner Gordon, Barbara Gordon, March Harriet, Mime, Catman, Nurse Harley Quinn

And to close, I'm not saying Scottish people are cheap, but sometimes we won't even pay for the colour version of rainbows.

Comments

[janegray]

I've already made it extremely clear how I feel about the election, and frankly I don't believe it's possible for me to debate the subject any further without breaking community guidelines, because I don't believe I can remain civil with anybody who supports a man who put literal nazis in charge of the most powerful country in the world, nor with anybody who excuses them and requests we offer them hand-holding.

Let me assure you, in my own country, we didn't get rid of Mussolini by asking nicely. These men, when they get in power, never willingly let it go. During the next four years you can expect more Voter Suppression that will make current gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement look positively benign, and replacement plans that just make things worse (if Trump gets impeached, Pence will take his place, and so on and on).

Therefore, this is the very last comment I'm making on the subject in this community. After this, I will comment here exclusively on non-politics stuff, and simply ignore all political discussions.

[janegray]

So, permanently turning the page on non-politics stuff.

The anime ReLIFE, which on the surface has a stupid premise, turned out to be very good. Legit good writing and characterization, and some characters in particular that are extremely moving.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/relife

You can read the manga on Crunchyroll too. I'm not sure if you need a Premium account though, I currently have one and can access the volumes fine, I have no idea if the access is restricted to normal accounts.

[skjam]

I'm enjoying "Tiger Mask W" myself, old-fashioned goofy sports anime fun.

[janegray]

Wait. Hold on a sec.

Tiger Mask W is "goofy sports anime fun"??????

O_o

Holy shit.

Sorry, it's just... I was a fan of the original Tiger Mask anime, both the first one with Naoto Date and the second one with Tatsuo Aku (Italian TV stations in the 1970-80s used to buy super old anime to save money and rerun the episodes ad infinitum). And they were good and enjoyable, but they were most definitely NOT goofy fun. They were incredibly dramatic, and their sympathetic characters dropped like flies. The first one especially was super depressing, by the end pretty much all the heroes were dead (Naoto himself, after defeating the villains for good, ends up getting run over by a car in the very last episode to push a child out of the way).

I had heard that Tiger Mask was going to get a new series, but I honestly never would have expected it to be goofy fun ^^"

I'm glad to hear that, tbh. When I was a child and watched Tiger Mask, I often wished it could have a happy ending :)

[informationgeek]

And here I am again, looking at more of Trump's cabinet picks and having to discuss another one of them again. Let's talk about Pete Sessions, once again brought to you by RepublicanInsanity of DailyKos:

Welcome to the 530th “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’re going to talk about U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who honestly, we have no idea how we’ve not gotten around to the guy sooner. Sen. Sessions is a four term senator who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1996, and has been one of the most regressive and conservative Republicans during that stretch. Sessions is full-throated in his opposition to immigration, so much so that he was considered to be one of the front-runners to be chosen as a vice-presidential candidate to run along side Donald Trump on the 2016 GOP ticket. That probably has something to do with the fact that Sessions has propped up Trump by helping write his vague and insane national security and anti-immigration policies, appeared on stage with him wearing a “Make America Great” hat as far back as August of 2015, and was the first Republican to defend Trump’s idea of banning the entry of all Muslims entering the United States, saying it was “an appropriate time to begin discussion” of something that bigoted and obviously unconstitutional. Sen. Sessions favors privatizing Social Security, pushing the boundaries of the establishment clause by finding ways to put God into the public sphere, and the absolute right to gun ownership. He opposes far, far more, including clean water rights, research into climate change, a woman’s right to choose, voting rights, civil rights (not limited to legally having to consider women or minorities for employment), and opposes LGBT rights so fiercely that he was the person who introduced a bill for a Constitutional Amendment to ban same sex marriage in 2006.

Long before he was in the Senate, back in 1986, Jeff Sessions was a U.S. Attorney for Southern Alabama nominated by President Ronald Reagan to be a U.S. District Court judge. During the hearing to confirm him, however, four lawyers from the U.S. Department Justice came and testified to report on Sessions’ history of making racist statements. He was quoted as having said that the NAACP and ACLU were “un-American” and “Communist” because they “forced Civil Rights down the throats of people”. Sessions had told an assistant U.S. Attorney once that he “thought the Klan was okay until I found out they smoked pot”, which is a revolting place to draw a line, frankly. Those are the remarks that Sessions, being questioned under oath by Sen. Joe Biden admitted he did, in fact say. There were a handful more that he was accused of saying, without admitting (but it seems pretty damned likely). He never advanced past the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Reagan administration withdrew his nomination, making him only the second person denied the office after being nominated in 48 years. That forced Sessions to go skulking back to Alabama, where he would remain a U.S. Attorney until 1993, before running for Alabama Attorney General and serving for all of two years before making the jump to replace the late Sen. Howard Heflin, coincidentally one of the senators in that Judiciary Committee hearing who refused to confirm him to the U.S. District Court.

And now, a timeline on Sen. Jeff Sessions:

February 12th, 1998: Jeff Sessions voted for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
November 4th, 1999: Rep. Sessions votes for the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act, which repeals key parts of the Glass-Steagall Financial Regulation Act, and opens the door for big banks to create the 2007 Sub-Prime Mortgage Housing Crisis.
October 10th, 2002: Sessions votes for the Iraq War Resolution.
October 1st, 2005: Sen. Sessions insults protesters of the Iraq War, saying “They did not represent the American ideals of freedom, liberty and spreading that around the world. I frankly don’t know what they represent, other than to blame America first.”
January 27th, 2009: Sessions votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
January 29th, 2009: Sen. Sessions votes against the renewal of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
September 14th, 2009: Based on faux-outrage created by Breitbart “journalist” James O'Keefe’s malicious hack job against the voter registration organization, ACORN, Sessions votes to defund the organization.
July 23rd, 2009: Sessions votes against the Matthew Shepherd Act, which passed to offer protections for LGBT citizens against hate crimes.
August 6th, 2009: Jeff Sessions votes against the successful “Cash for Clunkers” program that is eventually credited with helping save the American auto industry.
April 29th, 2010: Sen. Sessions gives his humble opinion that President Obama “sees the Constitution as an inconvenience”. (That seems unlikely, considering he was a Constitututional scholar at Harvard.)
December 18th, 2010: Rep. Sessions votes against the DREAM Act.
December 8th, 2010: Sessions votes against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.
December 9th, 2010: Jeff Sessions votes against the Zadroga Bill, to provide healthcare for first responders from 9/11.
February 2nd, 2011: Sessions votes for Senate Republicans’ first attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
July 29th, 2011: Jeff Sessions votes against raising the Debt Ceiling limit, which if not lifted, economists warn could lead to the collapse of not just the American economy, but the global economy. Worse yet, even the Republicans’ threatening to hold it hostage during this time led to the United States’ having its credit rating decreased by Standard and Poor’s for the first time in its history a few months later.
January 28th, 2013: Sen. Sessions votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
February 12th, 2013: Sessions votes against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.
April 17th, 2013: Weeks after the Sandy Hook shooting, several bills are brought to the floor of the Senate to install modest gun control efforts to curtail gun violence, like limiting the size of ammunition magazines or eliminating the gun show loophole in background checks. Jeff Sessions votes against ALL of these suggestions.
September 30th, 2013: Rep. Sessions voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown.
November 7th, 2013: Jeff Sessions decides that it’s more important that religious bigots get to use their faith as en excuse to discriminate against LGBT employees and fire them for their sexual orientation when he votes for Senate Bill 815.
April 30th, 2014: Sen. Sessions votes against the Minimum Wage Fairness Act.
January 29th, 2015: Sessions votes for the Keystone XL Pipeline as an immediate priority starting off the new session of Congress.
September 22nd, 2015: Sessions votes for HR 36, the Pain Capable Unborn Child Act, which would ban abortion at 20 weeks.
December 1st, 2015: Sen. Sessions expresses his thanks to the Almighty because the United States had not been hit by a “devastating hurricane” since Hurricane Katrina. This, of course, ignored Superstorm Sandy, and Hurricane Ike, the second and third most expensive hurricanes in American history, that hit in that decade.
December 3rd, 2015: Democrats produce some common sense gun legislation, that anyone who is found to be on a terror watch list during a background check should not be allowed to purchase a firearm or explosives (which they could use to carry out a terror attack). Well, Jeff Sessions loves the Second Amendment way more than he hates terrorism, as he voted against it.
January 20th, 2016: Jeff Sessions votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
June 10th, 2016: Sessions, speaking before the Faith and Freedom Coalition, claims that his anti-immigration position is “The Biblical One”, citing the Book of Nehemiah from the Hebrew Bible. Of course, in the actual Christian Bible, that Sessions is supposed to follow the tenets of, Jesus Christ kind of talks about welcoming strangers from other lands with open arms as the mark of a True Christian (Romans 12:13), so…
May 19th, 2016: Jeff Sessions votes against funding for the prevention of the spread of Zika Virus. Really an amazing decision from a hardcore “pro-life” Republican, right?
June 20th, 2016: Sen. Sessions votes against Senate Amendment 4720, to prohibit the transfer of firearms to suspected terrorists… because kowtowing to the NRA is more important to him than preventing terrorism.
September 21st, 2016: Jeff Sessions is another Republican senator who perpetuates the lie that the Obama administration paid a “ransom” to Iran earlier in the year. As any sane person knows, it was actually assets frozen by the United States that belonged to Iran in our banks back in 1979 during their revolution that were negotiated to be returned to their rightful owners, and thankfully, interest free.

Jeff Sessions has helped fuel the anti-immgrant fever of the Trump presidential campaign, allowing his own communications director, Stephen Miller, to join the Trump campaign, and Miller helped write the dystopian nightmare speech that Donald Trump delivered at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Sessions himself was one of the few Republican politicians also bold enough to appear at the convention itself, speaking on Day One… Shame was, nobody noticed because a certain egomanical billionaire gave himself a WWE-styled entrance to introduce his wife, who completely dominated the headlines by blatantly plagiarizing former first lady Michelle Obama. And so, Sen. Sessions faded into the background yet again, where we can only hope he impotently will watch as his racist agenda flames out in November, until the day he is sent packing. We’re hoping it’s when he’s up for re-election in 2020.


This profile was made before the election results...

[junipepper]

He's unspeakable. Literally, speaking about him makes me gag.

(Just wondering, is there a reason you refer to him alternately as "Rep Sessions" and "Sen Sessions?" He was never in the House, was he?)

[informationgeek]

He wasn't. I took the information about this from a site, so it's probably an error from the original article.

[scorntx]

Well, LEGO Dimensions has been on a patch bender the last six days, trying to fix the sheer disaster that was the Wave 7 update.

In general, it seems to have been a success... except the Harry Potter World's still unplayable, and any time you try and play as Harry or Tom, a screen pops up saying they need an update, which doesn't exist, and moves you to a different character.
Of course, the solution to that is to just ignore it, but not being able to access the HP World is... mildly annoying.

(Also, the constant upgrades seem to be stressing my puir wee PS3 something fierce. Last night's one took over 70 minutes just to download.)

But the Sonic level pack works fine enough, which is encouraging.
(Well, aside from one or two slip ups...)


On non-Dimensions news... Green Lanterns has suddenly got mildly interesting, by bringing back a minor character from Geoff John's run as a villain.
It's also brought back a minor villain from his run, too.

[icon_uk]

Ah yes, should have mentioned Dimensions, I currently can access the HP world, but not the IM world, though things weren't helped by my Sonic being unplayable because the portal flatly refused to recognise the tag after about 10 minutes. Still, took it back, got a new one and all's well, apart from the IM world issue.

The Gremlins World is great fun.. though Daniel Clamp jokes are less amusing than they were a few weeks ago.

[scorntx]

I think that might have been what the several thousand megabytes worth of patching was meant to fix.

(From what I've seen, it seems to be common that everyone's got that one level that just won't work.)

[informationgeek]

And to try to lighten the mood, let me switch the talk to something more positive. The new Pokemon game has come out. Has anyone gotten the chance to play it yet?

I have and it's wonderful. Team Skull is hilarious. The Totem Pokemon are nasty as hell to fight with their combos. The humor is better than ever. The region is so rich in culture and history that it feels believable and is fascinating to learn more about. Good range of Pokemon available and with no HMs, feel free to experiment even further with your team.

This is definitely my game of the year and so worth the time if you are fans of the franchise.

[icon_uk]

Never played any of the games, but ITV screened the first couple of episodes of the anime for Sun and Moon last weekend...

Couple of interesting things... a shift in the animation style to something simpler and probably much cheaper, and the plot involves Ash actually staying put and going to school... okay so it's a Pokemon School (Where the principle dresses up as a Pokemon of one type or another hal;f the time and makes Pokemon name puns which probably don't even work in the original Japanese) but at least there's a hint that a 10 year old should be getting an education.

[informationgeek]

The animation is certainly a lot lower than the last season from what I've seen, which is a shame. Having played 13 or so hours into the game, a strong animation budget could do wonders for some of the intense stuff that happens.

[thezmage]

I cracked up so much at that challenge.

I spent more time trying to think up a name for my Decidueye than I devoted to any other Pokémon name since the original series when I caught John Tra the Voltorb. (I went with Arrow, since I'd already decided on Rath for my future Incineroar, and Scylla for Primarina)

[mrstatham]

Sun/Moon unfortunately isn't out here in the UK until this week.. But I'm probably going to get a copy... And a new 3DS to go with it. I haven't really had any kind-of portable gaming format since my Vita's memory card packed in last year, which was a bit offputting.

Anyone have any recommendations beyond Sun/Moon, game-wise? I'm open to any suggestions.

[informationgeek]

Hyrule Warriors is fun from personal experience. Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, Rythym Heaven, any of the Mario games, Luigi 's Mansion (cheaper now because it's part of the Nintendo Select line), the Zelda remakes, A Link Between Worlds, Dragon Quest VII if you like old schoolady RPGS, remake for Dragon Quest VIII in January, Monster Hunter, Zero Escape, and others.

[mrstatham]

Some excellent suggestions there - I liked Ace Attorney V and Professor Layton, and some of the other titles had caught my eye previously. So thank you - that's an awesome list!

[informationgeek]

Ace Attorney and Professor Layton had a crossover game as well. Definitely recommend that if you are a fan of both series.

And I thought Pokémon/ Black and White were dark...

[deh_tommy]

•People actually eat Pokémon.
•Mega-Evolution is both painful and bad for Pokémon, turning them into blood-hungry killers.
•Salazzle brainwashes others into a twisted reverse-harem.
•Mimikyu is so dreadfully, miserably lonely, hiding behind a Pikachu rag because of the latter's popularity.
•I think there's one Pokémon who, if they find a spot they like, will stay there forever and starve to death.
•Araquanid drowns small Pokémon, but also brings them into their bubble to protect them
•Bewear often kill their Trainers by breaking their spines from hugging them to hard
•People actually eat Pokémon.
•Pomalas are apparently never awake, and any movement they make is them turning in their sleep
•Sandygast brainwashes children to build them bigger bodies to become Palossand. Buried beneath Palossand are the corpses of those they have killed, and apparently those consumed by one become vengeful spirits that turn into new Sandygast.
•Decidueye suffers from serious panic attacks when caught by surprise.
•PEOPLE ACTUALLY EAT POKÉMON

Re: And I thought Pokémon/ Black and White were dark...

[icon_uk]

Well, I've always worked on the theory that Pokemon probably eat humans when no one is looking, so it seems equitable.

Re: And I thought Pokémon/ Black and White were dark...

[thezmage]

Every once in awhile I play the game "how can I make Pokémon distinct from animal abuse in such a way as to assuage all guilt.

One of the ideas I came up with is this:

The Pokémon world was once very much like our own, life-wise. Normal animals, etc.

Then Mew landed. From here the strange alien creatures began spreading. And humans noticed something: they looked an awful lot like animals that already existed, only better, faster. And they started forcing out the natural animals. They started simple, slowly getting better. The one uniting factor they could find was that they all loved to fight, all sought to get stronger.

Then one day they discovered that Pokémon resembling humans were starting to appear. Machop, Gardevoir, etc.

With pending extinction looming, the humans did the only thing they could: they established the trainer set up to show Pokémon that they could be stronger together. The existence of Pokémon like Voltorb and Klefki seem to show they've succeeded, but time will tell

"All you feed me is poffins! I need nourishment! Taurus meat, or something!"

[deh_tommy]

I know that certain Ghost-Type Pokémon eat souls (which is another horrifying thing that everyone is either comfortable with or no one really seems to bring up/care), but I think this is the first time the games actually address the concept of carnivores and omnivores. No one ever said anything, so I just presumed everyone lived on vegetarian diets.

Re: And I thought Pokémon/ Black and White were dark...

[informationgeek]

Don't forget Drifloon! His Dex entries are as follow:

Sun: Stories go that it grabs the hands of small children and drags them away to the afterlife. It dislikes heavy children.

Moon: If for some reason its body bursts, its soul spills out with a screaming sound.

Re: And I thought Pokémon/ Black and White were dark...

[penguinzero]

It's technically been canon that people eat Pokemon since the first series of the anime, where they mention that Farfetch'd are rare because they've been overhunted for food. In the games, it took until Gen II, when Team Rocket was dealing in edible Slowpoke tails, though those were said to grow back.

[scorntx]

Also, Star Trek Beyond came out on DVD 'round here the other day.

Actually found it... enjoyable.
Maybe a few quibbles (criminal waste of Elba), but definitely a major improvement over the last one.
... which isn't really saying much, but hey.

(I particularly liked the Enterprise nods. They even included the zippers!)

[stubbleupdate]

Who is still on the Westworld train?

Hopkins, Harris and Newton are tremendously watchable

[junipepper]

Best thing on twitter this week: "First they came for the Muslims. And we said, 'Not this time, motherfuckers!'"

If it actually comes to a Muslim Registration Act, this Jew will be registering as Muslim. And I had damn well better see every Jew I know in that line with me, or I'll have to start going house to house.

[ozaline]

So Lego Dimensions is going to half price at Wal-mart Canada on Friday. I am just undecided which version to get. I have a PS4 and Wii U, setting it up at the U might be more convenient, does it run much better on PS4?