Shot in the dark, they’re doing keto in the saddest way possible.

Sam Raimi Spider-man spent most of his time saving people from imminent harm and stopping armed robberies. He fought the CEO of a company that developed military technology who was killing people to hang onto his position of power and wealth. He then fought a mad scientist that spent the entire movie putting innocent people in danger, attacking Spider-man and ultimately risking the deaths of millions out of an obsession and the influence his technology had over him. In the third one… he turns into a bit of a dick for a while because he’s being partially controlled by an alien, and the theme for all three villains is revenge. At no point in the trilogy does he target anyone who is trying to make a political or social change, just people that are attacking him personally and/or putting innocent bystanders in harm’s way.

In the Amazing Spider-Man movies he pretty much just fights a guy who is trying to turn everyone into lizards, his own stalker who just happens to get electricity powers, and the rich brat that blames him for not giving him blood samples which he thinks will cure his disease (they won’t, but the reason for the refusal is still poorly defined).

MCU Spider-man gets recruited to fight half the avengers, which might play into this if the civil war was about a larger societal issue, but it wasn’t. As far as the movie presents it, the entire issue is about the rules governing the avengers themselves and the fate of Bucky. Arguably the Captain America side is presented more favorably, but that too would go against the point the comic is making because they are the ones resisting the status quo and sticking it to the man.

And in his actual movies, MCU spider-man fights a guy who is flooding the streets with high tech weapons just for the money, a con man that’s willing to kill innocent people to make himself look like a superhero, and all those villains from the previous continuities who is actually just trying to send home.

Maybe spider-man was a bad example. Surely the rest of the MCU must be pro-government propaganda, right?

Iron Man 1: Rich selfish asshole has a wake up call, realizes that harm he’s done by filling the world with weapons, immediately exits the arms industry and dedicates his company to developing peaceful technologies to help the world. Uses the technology he developed to intervene in conflicts where civilians are getting massacred and no one is willing to do anything about it. Defies the US military to do it. The villain is a greedy executive that tries to kill Tony to seize control of the company and continue building weapons.

Iron Man 2: Tony is continuing his policy of protecting people in war zones, in defiance of an angry US government. The government tries to steal his suit for the military, and works with a rival company to develop drone versions which Tony destroys.

Iron Man 3: Wouldn’t you know it, another company developing military tech is run by an evil guy and is killing innocent people.

Captain America: Literally fighting Nazis.

Captain America 2: Fighting the Nazis that have infiltrated the US government.

Captain America 3: Fighting to save his friend in defiance of a government that would rather kill him than bring him in peacefully.

Thor: Shakespeare in space, plus Thor learns humility.

Thor 2: Blowing up the universe is bad.

Thor 3: Thor literally helps start a revolution to overthrow a dictator.

Thor 4: The gods are assholes who should care more about people.

The Incredible Hulk: Science man good, military guy bad. Smashy smashy.

Ant Man: An ex con who went to jail for hacking a corrupt corporation gets recruited by a scientist who helps him take and an evil CEO of a corrupt corporation.

Alright, I’m not listing any more, there’s a million of these things, you get the idea.

Not like they were going to get any help from this administration anyway.

Plus the plans only got to the rebellion after Vader personally failed to stop a piece of physical media from escaping the airlock where he was slaughtering rebels. This happened despite him having telekinetic powers, because he chose to use them on rebel soldiers and not the obviously valuable item they were clearly trying to smuggle out at the cost of their own lives.

And it just so happens that the ship those plans got onto was his daughter’s ship. And when he “captured” her, she just happened to choose his old astromech droid and the protocol droid that he built as a kid to carry the plans off. And those droids got out in an escape pod that just slipped past a fully armed star destroyer because obviously there couldn’t be anything valuable slipping past that might warrant firing up one of their many lasers or tractor beams.

And the planet they were over? Tatooine, the ass end of nowhere, a wasteland ruled by the Hutts which has no rebel presence whatsoever, but which just happens to be Vader’s home planet. And those droids, who could have landed anywhere on that entire planet, by sheer coincidence, land right by the farm where Vader’s step brother is looking after his son. And those droids take the son and the plans to Vader’s best friend and teacher, who has not been part of the rebel alliance, and couldn’t possibly know of a secure place to pass them along.

From there, a disgraced former imperial officer with a lot of debts to pay agrees to take the group to the planet that happens to be where the death star is waiting. This happens only after the former imperial carries out the murder of a childhood associate of Vader. And they only manage to escape because the troopers who have them outnumbered and outgunned yell a warning and fire wildly, completely negating the element of surprise.

And don’t even get me started on the death star escape or the battle of Yavin. There’s just too much. How does a moon-sized planet-killing space station not have enough fighters to overwhelm a dozen x-wings and y-wings? How does a transport get the drop on an ace fighter pilot with functioning sensors, wing men, an entire goddamn space station backing him up, and oh yeah, FREAKING PSYCHIC POWERS?!

By the way, that transport? Previously registered to the man who handed control of Bespin to Vader. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. I mean, it’s not like he blew up a death star or anything… oh wait!

While the ship is near the house, the crew reports finding an endless number of letters, tickets and citations from a homeowner’s association, all stashed in drawers, lockers and folders around the ship. The captain’s report on the incident contained three separate documents alleging violations of HOA rules regarding lawn maintenance and garbage can placement, which he claims had not been in the report when he logged it.

And yet, they are even more incompetent than that. Because even if we go along with the idea that all trade deficits are bad, that still wouldn’t explain why they would put tariffs on the countries where we already have a trade surplus.

The year after that Star Wars will be half a century old.

I would assume they’re getting the Intel already. The entire administration is comprised of Russian assets and useful idiots. Even if the info isn’t being handed to them directly, all the existing security is being ripped to shreds and the teams that would counter any threats have officially been told to ignore Russia completely.

That said, I wouldn’t put it past Trump to publicly give Intel to Russia, but only because he’s an idiot and assuming there is a low he won’t sink to his always a losing bet.

This shouldn’t be a surprise, but it’s still outrageous and probably a lot more damaging than simply stopping future aid. Russia’s economy is crippled and they are struggling to supply their military to keep up the war effort. Dropping the sanctions would not only give them a huge economic boost, it would also potentially allow them to buy things they can’t manufacture on their own.

A plurality of voters chose to elect a puppet who has effectively turned the US into a Russian vassal state. But at least eggs are cheap and plentiful and we have peace in the middle east, right?

A destabilized country living under permanent Russian influence is not a recipe for peace and security.

I have no faith in Amazon to handle this well, but it’s not impossible for them to hand it off to someone competent either. At the same time, everything I know about the way the previous stewards of the franchise handled things makes me glad to see them go.

In an order issued by a Texas federal court last week

Ah, say no more.

Honestly, Trump bitching about someone and insulting them is more likely than not to be a positive indicator.

Do we even know if he has nipples? Sure, he looks like a mammal, but alien life wouldn’t necessarily fit neatly into the categories we use on earth. We can’t just assume they produce milk. They might be puking up honey to feed their young for all we know.

Microsoft said Windows 10 would be the last version I’d ever use. They didn’t know how right they were. I’ve been gradually switching to Linux, and will absolutely never use Windows 11 or any other version they put out.

Since OP didn’t bother, I went looking for the recipe

Ingredients Yield: 24 squares (one 9-by-13-inch pan)

• ¾ cup (170 grams) unsalted butter (1½ sticks)
• Nonstick cooking spray or neutral oil
• 1¾ cups (385 grams) packed light brown sugar
• ¾ cup (170 grams) canned pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2½ cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1½ cups (9 ounces) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

• Step 1

In a small (preferably light-colored) saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue cooking, stirring constantly to prevent the milk solids from burning, until the butter foams, darkens into a light amber color and becomes fragrant and nutty, about 3 to 4 minutes more. (Watch closely to make sure the butter doesn’t burn.) Immediately pour the butter along with any of the browned milk solids into a large heatproof mixing bowl. Let cool for 20 minutes until warm but no longer hot.

• Step 2

While the butter cools, heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch metal or glass baking pan with cooking spray or oil and line with a strip of parchment paper that hangs over the two long sides to create a sling.

• Step 3

Add the brown sugar, pumpkin purée and vanilla extract to the cooled butter and whisk until smooth and glossy. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cloves and nutmeg and stir with a spatula just until a soft dough forms with no pockets of unincorporated flour. (Try not to overmix.) Add 1¼ cups/216 grams of the chocolate chips and stir to evenly distribute throughout the dough.

• Step 4

*Transfer the dough to the prepared baking pan and press into an even layer using a spatula or clean hands coated with nonstick spray or oil. Sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate chips, pressing them in so they stick. Bake until the bars are puffed, the top is lightly browned and a skewer or knife inserted into the center comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached or with smudges of melted chocolate, 30 to 45 minutes.

• Step 5

Let the bars cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 1 hour. Using the parchment paper, lift the bars out of the pan and cut into 24 squares. The cookie bars will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

At this point, I’m not sure if trump would bother trying to defend the US from an actual Russian invasion, especially if they invaded an area he doesn’t like.

I really hate this “real news or the onion” guessing game.

I grew up poor in a fairly cosmopolitan city, and I still felt like I was going to crawl out of my own skin the first time I went to a slightly dressy business event. I have no fucks to give anymore, but back in the day, this would have probably been a fairly reasonable disaster preparedness plan if I had to be invited to something formal with a lot of social expectations that I was not familiar with.

It’s walking into a different culture, and while the hosts should be understanding, it can be reasonable to prepare someone who isn’t familiar with the culture before sending them in. Still, no need to be a dick about it.

Reminds me of my cousin. Her parents are lovely people, but they are not exactly… refined. Her dad in particular makes a first impression that I’d describe as a somewhat toned down Earnest P Worrell. And while he isn’t stupid he never learned a lot of important life skills and his past mistakes have have caused a fair amount of hardship, and that only fuels the resentment.

By the time she was in high school it was clear my cousin was ashamed to be associated with her family. She kept her home life and social life as far apart as possible, and she was always excited to spend time with members of our extended family that she saw as much more normal. (Especially funny to me since my mom made that list and I’ve seen that woman scratch herself with the cutlery while dining out). She was also pretty fucking rude to her parents, openly talking crap about them while they were in the room. Very shitty, but not exactly shocking for a teenager in her position.

Fast forward to today when my aunt and uncle own a hipstery restaurant, while my cousin got knocked up ended marrying a contractor / meth head.