I dunno, they just did a test run of having an openly gay supporting character w Beauty & the Beast, and that’s make literally a billion dollars in the last month and played in many much more conservative markets than the US. Granted, a reboot of one of Disney’s most popular and successful movies is much more of a…

I think, in all fairness, we should remember that these characters were invented *last year*. When World of Wakanda #1 came out, the main cast had been announced and the movie was in preproduction.

We’re still their biggest trade partner, but it looks like that means we buy 18% of their exports - and they buy 8% of ours. So both of us have skin in the game. And losing some of that 18% would hurt them, but if they’re successful in forming the Asia-Pacific free trade deal they’re pursuing with the countries (other…

That’s a good point, I looked at the Gallup figures for Obama at the start of April 2009 vs Trump’s latest, and Obama’s approval was 90% (D), 60% (I), 27% (R). Trump’s is: 87% (R), 34% (I), and 6% (D) - and Trump got a big bump up from the prior week.

I saw that too. I think a lot of his supporters genuinely think that 100% of Mexicans are dirt poor and desperate to come to the US to pick strawberries. They can’t grasp that lots of Mexicans are middle-class and have the money to go on vacation in the US. (Maybe they’ve never met foreign tourists? Clearly they’ve…

I think there are a lot of Americans who really don’t understand just how much we depend on other countries, and how much development has occurred in the rest of the world. They have no idea how much of an economic powerhouse China is. They have no idea how much of the growth in consumer goods, finance etc is…

I suspect what will also happen, and help, is that some of the folks who don’t normally vote, but turned out for Trump because they wanted to “send a message” or whatever, will be demoralized and not bother voting again. They came out to elect some racist populist asshat who promised them the moon, and it turned out…

Eh, these aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. The folks who voted for him aren’t a single monolithic group. Some of his base will support him no matter what, but others who voted for him are falling away.

Drones seem like they’d be an expensive alternative to just having automated speeding cameras..... but I guess they’d keep drivers on their toes everywhere since they can fly anywhere, while speeding cameras are stationary so if you’re familiar with the area you know where you can speed and where you can’t.

Yeah. I had to look it up, but a law promoting this idea was PASSED in Indiana earlier this year: http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/02/dangerous-abortion-reversal-bill-passed-in-indiana.html

I wonder the same thing every time I see the anti abortion crowd propose this - this seems like it would make abortion an easier decision, not a harder one.

It’s also possible that she was getting harassed & so forth for the same reasons, and that led to her becoming depressed and committing suicide. Being the first in her field is probably lonely, too.

I think he just mispronounced Assad’s name.

I feel guilty that this made me laugh.

 Spicer’s only “qualification” is that he’ll lick Trump’s boots. Loyalty is all this administration cares about - competence is an afterthought.

He who controls the present controls the past and all that. Did anyone ever tell these guys that 1984 is not a guide to governance?

Most people don’t understand just how complex the situation is and how many groups are involved. I try to stay informed about the world, and there’s still a lot I don’t know about it. “Assad the secular dictator fighting the evil jihadi ISIS” is a simple narrative that’s a lot easier to digest than reality.

Racist white guys have always had this weird fear that white women might prefer a black man over them.

I think a lot of liberals and moderates are deeply conflicted on the strike, because they want some kind of humanitarian intervention in Syria and are glad that Assad got some of his stuff blown up, even if Trump went about it in an impulsive, irresponsible and ill-thought out manner.

What I meant was more like, “I don’t know what her town is like”. These things can be very local, and unemployment #s don’t tell the whole story - if a union mill was replaced by an Amazon warehouse, you may have the same # of people employed but they’re earning half the pay. In that case, those townspeople are going…