Unfortunately, many people really are very self-centered, only think about what benefits them, and consider anything that even slightly inconveniences them to be a betrayal or attack.

Just reminding people that this existed. Last summer’s Spider-Gwen Annual #1 included a story about that series’ alternate-universe Captain America fighting a very familiar villain:

Ehh, lots of supervillians are whiny and don’t have very well-thought-out plans. They’re just usually better at monologue-ing than Dear Leader.

“Illegal tax”, lol.

How much do you want to bet that Trump’s comments have something to do with what Comey said at the Super Serious Top Sekret briefing he gave the Senate Intelligence Committee?

The effects in the Avengers movies have mostly been very good. But were they groundbreaking? I wouldn’t say so. Many movies have convincingly modified real locations or landscapes (IIRC, the NYC part of Avengers was actually Cleveland) with CGI.

I’m, horribly, feeling nostalgic for Mr. “misunderestimated”. At least you could generally tell what Dubya was trying to say, and at least he usually seemed to put in some minimal amount of effort to learn about the issues and have some thoughts about them, even if he garbled them.

ISIS and the rebels are different groups. Assad, ISIS, and the rebels are all fighting each other, though the rebels are also not one unified group and from what I’ve read some of them have ended up siding with ISIS or Assad because they see the other as such a severe threat.

Billy Joe’s shotgun won’t defend his family against an ICBM or a MiG. If someone’s going to invade the US, they’ll do it just like how we’d invade anywhere else - start out with missiles and bombs, and once everything’s blown to shit, then send in the ground troops.

Maryland will definitely hang with the East Coast/New England, except maybe Washington, Garrett & Allegheny Counties, which might split off to join WV while we’re carving up to the country anyway.

Yeah, the Deep South and southern Appalachia are not going to join either the EU or Mexico, smh. Like you say, they’d form a new Confederacy. GA, AL, MI, AR, LA, KY, TN, and maybe WV, SC, NC & the Florida panhandle.

Over/under on somebody at Brietbart writing a screed on how Jews control the shadow government?

Northern Virginia is very blue, because it’s all a giant, sprawling suburb of DC, and it’s the most populous part of VA. Richmond area isn’t too bad either.

I really can’t see California becoming part of China. China would definitely become more dominant in the Pacific region without the US to keep them in check, so they’d be somewhat under Chinese influence for that reason, but not in a governmental sense. And Alaska.... I think they’d appeal to Canada for help. …

Man, one of the reasons I’ve been kind of “ehhhh” about getting married, other than the cost, is the (future) in-laws. So, my extended family are mostly a bunch of liberal New England white-collar types who are very friendly and easy-going. His family (who he’s not on good terms with) are mostly Appalachian rednecks…

I don’t think most superhero movies have a lot of groundbreaking VFX.

Do animated movies normally get nominated for VFX awards?

The original Star Wars was really groundbreaking in terms of SFX. The prequels, on the other hand, spent a hell of a lot more money for less result.

They also used to run ads in gay magazines. I remember there being some criticism from the LGBT community aimed at companies that would be at Pride, that would run ads in the gay press, but wouldn’t openly associate their brand with LGBT folks.

Companies of that size do those things in order to create a brand image that will attract certain kinds of customers, employees, or investors. A company “owned” by 1,000 different investors, mutual funds, and pension plans can’t be a moral actor, because it can only make decisions based on what will maximize the…