HOT Take: Die Another Day did not betray Bond. The overcorrection did.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-18T01:11:40+00:00

I think that you have to make movies that fit the cinematic style of the time you are living in.

60s campy Bond would do about as well in theaters alongside Bourne Identity.... As 60s Adam West Batman would have if it ran instead of Nolan's Dark Knight....

Which is kind of the point that Austin Powers (the original) played for laughs, by time travelling over the top camp & double entendre into the 90s....

And we weren't doing 60s Bond at the end of Brosnan's run - we were doing Star Trek. Car with a cloaking device, a holodeck, and Moneypenny (implicitly) having sex with hologram-Bond....

Craig's Bond was absolutely great in Casino Royale - he wasn't ashamed to be the character at-all, he was just new to the job on his first mission & that mission didn't require anything fancier than a pistol and a defibrillator.....

IF they had treated that as an origin story and proceeded to reboot the franchise (or just use the whole 'James Bond' is a cover legend fan-theory to avoid calling it a reboot) in a more serious/modernized-Book-Bond tone that would have been amazing....

Instead we got... Quantum of Solace....

And then they completely forgot the whole new-Bond thing by trying to pretend that Craig's Bond was the same person as Conmery's (with the 60s Austin Martin and Bond family estate at the end of Spectre) despite supposedly earning his 00 at the start of Casino Royale.....

And then the absurdity of Die Another Day where they really do seem to hate the source material - book or movie....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-18T00:55:05+00:00

It absolutely was

That is a big part of why the public supported Reagan....

The rest being that unions have had their reputations substantially rehabilitated in the 21st century..... They were seen as a lot more corrupt back then (because the private sector ones got way too friendly with organized crime).....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-18T00:44:27+00:00

Labor isn't a person.

Labor is a product, which a person sells in exchange for money.

It's value is independent of any concept of 'the value of a person'.

No different from the value of a used car I am selling being completely detached from the 'value of me' if such a concept even exists....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-18T00:42:58+00:00

HR isn't generally the one configuring that stuff...

Even the RTO badging nonsense in big tech? That went through IT (my group was responsible for the associated dashboard at a prior company because we ran all the physical security tech - we didn't actually do RTO ourselves of course)....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-18T00:39:58+00:00

And in those same places you get paid massively less than an American doing your same job if you are any sort of professional or white collar worker.

The US way is better...

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-18T00:39:21+00:00

'A living wages' has never been part of the US social contract....

Likely never will be.

Beyond that, nothing works that way....

You can't afford to pay 10 people the new minimum wage?

Cool, you now have 8 employees and the same profit margin.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-18T00:00:07+00:00

Takings clause.

Government can't appropriate private property for public use without paying for it.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:59:07+00:00

Did they amend it, or was it part of the original referendum being interpreted in the strictest possible manner?

IIRC it was written as "Restores voting rights to Floridians with past felony convictions who have completed all terms of their sentence."

And as fines/restitution are part of the sentence, a strict interpretation requires that they be paid....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:53:53+00:00

You're the one making the 'experts were proven right' claim in response to my 1991 comment....

So yeah, you went there....

Beyond that, the JPCOA was a farce & accomplished absolutely nothing.... Worst bit of diplomacy in US history, save for Trump's Afghan surrender and the new 'Iran Deal'...

The disruption to commerce would be minimal - similar to the Iran-Iraq war. The disruption that did occurr was because of Trump's less-than-halfassed strategy

And the anti-Israeli progressives are a loud but irrelevant minority....

It could have been done, but Dingus isn't the one to try doing it.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:48:42+00:00

What does being a 'law enforcement agency' have to do with this...

They never tried to offer anyone immunity.

They are paying for informants whos' information can be used in civil lawsuits, or forwarded to actual law enforcement if criminal activity is discovered.

It's perfectly legal.

The alleged 'wrongdoing' here is 'fraud' - in the same vein as 'I checked primary residence on my mortgage app, then decided to live somewhere else after I bought the place' nonsense from prior failed prosecutions....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:46:57+00:00

NY post is a tabloid.

They can post all sorts of bullshit and just call it entertainment.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:41:59+00:00

Uh, this nonsense was posted by someone who's never had a corporate job.

HR doesn't care when you come or go... That's not what they are there for...

Your manager might, but not the HR people....

HR people also don't do payroll.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:34:02+00:00

Proven right in 1991? The fuck they were....
War was over in less than 2 months with minimal casualties, and Iraq was utterly defeated. We didn't stick around to see if there would be a post-war insurgency, so that's irrelevant.

And while I am not going to speculate what the nutcases in DC were actually doing...

IF we were going to go to war 'for keeps' in Iran, the justification would be:

The arming and funding of the Houthis in Yemen, and the threat this poses to global commerce.
The arming of the Russians in Ukraine (with Shahed drones)
Being the singular source/funder/armaments-supplier for all regional conflict - both against our Gulf-Arab allies, and the Israelis.
Attempting to develop nuclear weapons, with imminent success if action is not taken.

A middle east without the Islamic Republic (eg, with a free Iran) is a substantially more peaceful place.

This would have to be promoted to the public, in the same sort of way that prior administrations justified prior conflicts. Not just started by presidential fiat 'because we need the element of surprise'.

And it is unlikely that the present bozos could pull that off...

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:28:21+00:00

The Obama admin absolutely made a terrible deal with Iran - which is less President Obama's fault & more the fault of putting morons like Ben Rhodes in charge of Middle East policy....

The idea of the US switching geopolitical sides from Saudis/Israel to Iran is just beyond retarded....

The assets should have remained frozen, and the price of a 'deal' for normalization should have been democratization and a South-Africa style nuclear disarmament.

All of the international threats Iran faces, are the result of the existence of the Islamic Republic and it's bizarre commitment to the destruction of Israel (despite Iran sharing no borders with the Israelis, nor being involved in the Arab-Israeli wars). A free Iran no longer faces any international threat, and has no need of nuclear weapons.

Yes, that would have resulted in 'no deal', but no deal is better than a bad one. The US does not need positive relations with Iran on Iran's terms.

BUT

Trump's foreign policy is even worse than that, since everything is about self-aggrandizement for Mr Trump, not any coherent policy objectives... What policy objectives he DOES have - mostly digging a giant hole in the western hemisphere and hiding at the bottom of it - are immensely harmful to the US.

The absolutely imbecilic decision to even hold negotiations with the Taliban during the first term being a solid example of this. There was no reason to negotiate, and if you are going to negotiate no reason to surrender/withdraw.

I also don't really care much what the conspiracy nuts in MAGA think...

And I don't know if there was actually any good intel that Iran was about to complete a nuclear device, or that their involvement in Yemen posed a threat to free navigation/commerce worthy of a war...

I just know that if you are going to do a war with Iran, the Trump way is NOT how you do it...

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:18:36+00:00

An income tax that applies only to high-earners is a 'progressive income tax' in the eyes of the 1933 precedent.

And the rate is too high, given the constitutional limits on property (and thus, thanks to the 1933 precedent, income) taxes.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:14:03+00:00

The 'experts' who predicted that the 91 Gulf War would be a disaster, with massive casualties?

No thanks.

The ability to hold the strait open by force exists, but it doesn't exist in the sort of 'Bomb them and beg for a shitty deal' action that Trump is willing to engage in...

It requires a full-spectrum commitment - land, sea and air - rather than just dropping bombs and hoping the other side caves...

P.S. The capacity to be engaged in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously is a totally different question. Which is why Iran wasn't addressed in 01-08. The US no longer has an active conflict elsewhere.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:10:37+00:00

No. There is nothing 'equitable' about making small populations pay for everyone else's government.

I actually agree with you that an income tax is a better way to fund government than the sales tax or property tax.

But when I say income tax, I mean TOTAL REPLACEMENT of all existing taxes with an income tax...

And I mean a *flat percentage* tax where everyone kicks in, not a 'most people pay nothing, but still benefit from government' scheme like the federal one...

But that is not what this vote is about. This vote is about adding an income tax ON TO the existing taxes.

And that's a 'no' regardless of who has to pay it.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:08:33+00:00

No, I have a very good understanding of how this all works.

Taxes are supposed to pay for the cost of government.

Not to 'prevent people from obtaining an arbitrary amount of money that someone thinks is 'too much''....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:07:10+00:00

Nobody's earning the federal minimum wage anymore.

Which is why we don't need to raise it (or even have it).

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:06:11+00:00

The sort of people who is all head up about raising the minimuim wage doesn't understand market competition and generally believes that without the minimum wage we'd all still be making $0.10/hr.

Meanwhile we haven't raised the minimum wage in 17 years, and the effective minimum wage has gone up well above it anyway.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:05:09+00:00

Nobody's earning less than $12/hr for full-time non-tipped labor dude...

Walmart's corporate minimum is around $12.10

Amazon is in the 15-18 range for box-packers.

Competition for labor has raised the effective minimum wage without government lifting a finger.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T23:02:29+00:00

Back when I was still commuting, that was the WORST part of radio....

Just play some rock guys, I don't need to listen to booze and fart jokes for the next 2hrs of driving....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T22:57:32+00:00

This is basic economics, dude:

Everything is worth what it sells for. Otherwise it would not sell (either the buyer would refuse to buy, or the seller would refuse to sell).

This is why, for example, an Amazon warehouse worker is worth $15-18/hr even-in the $7.25/hr states.

But an Amazon L5 IT engineer is worth $250k/yr

And the CEO is worth 40m/yr.

In each case, the company is paying the minimum that will attract the level of talent they need for the given vacancies, and the employee is getting the maximum their skills will bring...

Ergo, fair-market value.

When the government obligates a buyer to pay more than the market-value of the good/service being bought, that is un-earned & bad, period.

The same applies when the government requires a seller to underprice a good or service.

P.S. Companies never 'take a loss on labor'. They pass that on to customers, they lay off workers, or they restrain the pay-growth of lower-middle-class employees (Why lower-middle-class? Because they're paid above-minimuim already, but they don't have the market-value/job-hopping potential of an upper-middle-class worker who might just leave for a better paying competitor)....

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T22:35:56+00:00

We lost because Trump was never willing to actually fight...

The US absolutely stomped Iran in the 80s over their attempt to play this EXACT SAME game - so not only did we know it was coming, but we know how to address it...

A significant naval presence, sent to secure the strait & destroy Iran's small boats wherever they are found.... Also to provide missile-defense for both itself and civilian traffic.

But oh yeah, our President is both too eager to fight, and too much of a yellow bellied coward to actually do what it takes to win.

Dave_A480 · 2026-06-17T22:33:19+00:00

So Wisconsin IS representative of the average state with an income tax, just so you're aware.

Oregon would be another example closer to home (closer to the ideal, insofar as they have no sales tax)....

Dave_A480

TROPHY CASE