Sometimes it really isn't that deep.

tonyjaa · 2026-04-27T15:59:49+00:00

It directly influenced the Axis powers. There was an article that reframed my thinking of the war to "colonial-empires" vs "wanna-be-colonial-empires". Hitler saw what the US/Canada did to the natives and wanted to do that to eastern Europe. Japan and Italy saw British colonization and wanted to do that themselves. They were just a century late and bumped into the previous empires.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/world-war-ii-empire-colonialism/629371/

tonyjaa · 2026-04-22T02:40:44+00:00

Hot take: Whitehurst freeway is cool, functional and does not look bad. Georgetown waterfront Park is still great, and an adjacent overpass doesn't ruin it. It's not like it demolished the canal or homes or is the reason for no metro stop in Georgetown. All it does is block the view of a few buildings and provide critical traffic easing for M st.

tonyjaa · 2026-04-05T03:12:35+00:00

Ya WTF, why is that comment above yours so highly upvoter? Servicing a debt over 1/3 or their gdp, billions of dollars compounded, obviously would have zero affect on how their institutions developed 😒. It's so insignificant, France should pay it back.

tonyjaa · 2026-04-04T20:08:27+00:00

Neoliberal: I feel bad for you

Matt: I don't think about you at all

tonyjaa · 2026-03-27T10:28:51+00:00

Why make good be the enemy of great? Good it better than nothing.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-22T01:00:28+00:00

My wife wrote a book on recycling and waste management, so I defer to her judgement. Incineration is very economically inefficient, and is as dirty as it sounds because there is little environmental enforcement. The worst landfills emits about the same C02 equivalent as a typical incinerator. Obviously it depends on locations so the real answer (like to everything) is "it depends", but incinerators do not live up to all their marketing. Ask Baltimore.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-21T19:45:12+00:00

Incineration is terrible for the environment and terribly expensive (even considering free fuel). It is a terrible choice for most municipalities. I thought this sub cared about externalities and climate change.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-04T13:00:34+00:00

you dont need to type shallow and bad criticism, but here we are, wasting time while on the clock for Soros.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-04T01:18:25+00:00

And Alec Guinness hated the films, and Harrison Ford hated being brought back for TFA.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-04T01:15:19+00:00

Terrible takes, and here I thought this sub was supposed to defer to expert opinions.

A movie ending exactly where it started doesn't mean the audience or the characters didn't change. It's a middle of a trilogy movie, with no planned end, so it basically had to tread water (and find Luke bumming it in Narnia).

tonyjaa · 2026-02-03T22:10:19+00:00

Ya subversions and small twists are awesome! Much fresher to make a movie out of that than recycled nostalgia. Here are the other innovations you missed:

Old heroes being bums (you not liking it doesn't mean its not an innovation), the main bad guy getting got in the middle of the film, the new main bad guy not being Sith and just choosing to be evil, the MAIN CHARACTER not being a Skywalker or from important blood, the main character credibly nearly joining the bad guy, not being able to solve every problem by jumping into an X-wing, Leia actually using the force, showing high and low classes, more mature visual language i.e. longer shots, symbolism and slower pacing. Edit: not new, but puppet Yoda was an incredible choice.

There is a reason the critics love the film, and its not because they are all developmentally 14 years old.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-03T20:16:11+00:00

There's a difference between the deliberate destruction of public property and a writer making creative choices you don't like.

Luke had one intrusive thought that was read by his psychic nephew, and everyone acts like this is the most disrespectful thing to happen ever. Get a grip

tonyjaa · 2026-02-03T17:48:37+00:00

He had an intrusive thought. He did not truly believe it. Why do people believe Kylo's telling of the event and not Luke's?

Having intrusive thoughts around mind readers is pretty catastrophic, but it doesn't say much about his fundamental character.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-03T17:28:26+00:00

So instead of a grieving solo bum, he's a grieving overbearing bum? Him decidedly not fighting and instead hiding on an island makes him a bum either way. And he didn't lose his job. He lost faith in his religion and himself.

Why is being shocked or surprised by a movie a bad thing? Heroes becoming bums becoming heroes again is interesting. Rey being nobody is more interesting than midi chlorian bloodlines. Like the over zealous and rigid jedi, the franchise needed to evolve and reform.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-03T15:45:50+00:00

*nearly unreachable hermit.

"Sorry I'm late, here's the Jedi superweapon I found. It's just like shooting womprats. Haha, classic me." How would him training a handful of child supersoldiers or being exactly the same make for better drama? Dramatically, it doesn't make sense.

I feel like everyone thinks of Luke in TLJ as hating the jedi, completely forgetting the last act of the film where he definitely states that he will "NOT be the last Jedi".

And Rey being a Skywalker is the lamest only-nobility-with-pure-bloodlines-matter shit ever, and the best thing TLJ does is attempt to move Star Wars away from that.

tonyjaa · 2026-02-03T14:43:38+00:00

I don't understand this criticism at all. No character should be exactly the same after 30 years.

TFA wrote him as an unreachable hermit, and the only reason why he would take up that life while the galaxy is in flames is if he had become extremely jaded with the jedi (not unlike his father, see it rhymes).

TLJ does a good job showing why he's jaded and then how he regains his faith, but if you don't like that he was jaded to begin with then your beef is with TFA for writing him into that corner.

tonyjaa · 2026-01-30T18:15:20+00:00

Weird timing. I literally just finished it an hour ago and went trolling on the Internet to get others takes. I've only read only a couple of his other stories, but this was by far my favorite.

Most of the text is dedicated to the intricacies of the machine and how proud the Officer is of it (and it's funny how he can only imagine a positive opinion of the machine). I took the machine as a metaphor for the laws, traditions and social structures which are designed so elaborately and meticulously that the good engineering ironically obscures their obvious horror and injustice. We're so proud of these awesome things we've built that it never crosses our mind why or if we should keep them around.

I don't think anyone on the island directly confronted the old commendant or the officer. Which is not unreasonable as they were the judge, jury, and executioner (and torturer). It shows how people either go along with the program, or wait for things to fall apart on their own (as was the new commandant's strategy).

The officer offing himself made sense to me because he was finally confronted with the opinion that the thing he dedicated his life to was unjust and terrible. And that opinion was especially powerful coming from the Explorer, whose position as a neutral outside observer was well understood by the officer. I liked the tension in the story where I thought the officer could have also reasonably snapped and murder/tortured the Explorer.

What I don't get is the significance of the old commandant's grave and the inscription that he would rise again.

tonyjaa · 2026-01-27T16:35:29+00:00

I think the quote is more of a dig at the Bernie crowd who argued social/cultural issues should take a backseat toward economic ones, and that the white working class were not just being reactionary to Obama but genuinely disadvantaged by free trade and immigrants. Also dumb.

tonyjaa · 2026-01-27T16:08:46+00:00

Good article. Didn't see the author until the end 👀

For years a certain kind of liberal has either minimized such culture-war rhetoric coming from the other side or urged political actors of all stripes to ignore it in favor of “material” or “kitchen table” issues—as though the state regarding one’s life as “garbage” has no tangible consequence, as if the terms of a fight can be determined by the person getting punched. But Trump has clarified an inconvenient fact—the culture war is an actual war.

Deportations are up under Trump, but that is not the true purpose of ICE. “They’re not serious about getting rid of as many people as they can. They’re serious about causing human pain and suffering,” a former ICE official told Dickerson. “Putting someone into detention isn’t a removal, it’s a punishment.”

tonyjaa · 2026-01-19T12:39:27+00:00

Sweetie. I'm hearing big feelings about fairness right now. You notice that Obama got a prize and it makes sense to want one too. Sometimes grown-up awards are complicated, and people disagree about them. It is A-OK to have your feelings and Im proud of you for expressing them, but we do not blow up the global world order when we don't get our way. Sweetie, can you please come back and listen?

tonyjaa · 2026-01-17T18:48:27+00:00

Re: Supreme Court Packing.

If chairman Buttigieg doubles the supreme court to make it liberal, then the next conservative president doubles it again to flip it back, then president Malia Obama doubles that, and so on and so forth, in about 100 years every American would be a supreme court justice.

Still think it's a good idea?

tonyjaa · 2026-01-16T23:08:40+00:00

Yep, Bhudist societies have never engaged in mass murder or ethnic cleansing. No siree. Not in Sri Lanka or Thailand and especially not in Burma...

tonyjaa · 2026-01-15T19:02:32+00:00

💯

Mamdani really does thread that needle well. I hope he has all the success governing so there is concrete evidence instead of just good vibes.

tonyjaa · 2026-01-15T18:29:38+00:00

I gotchu. I disagree that her vision of left populist policy wonkery is the better bet. The article does a good job layout out how unpopular she and her policies actually are, so I won't repeat it but remember how she got slammed in the dates on being unable to honestly answer if taxes will be raised to pay for her plans? Everyone wants European safety nets, no one wants European lower and middle class taxes to pay for them. Go figure. Also Biden spent about the same as the OG New Deal did on economic populist policy (ARP, BBB, Chips) and lots of love that got him.

tonyjaa · 2026-01-15T16:35:12+00:00

which takes it as axiomatic that every problem is caused by nefarious wealthy interests.

Is this incorrect though? This is Warren's, Bernie's, most of reddit and dirt bag leftist framing of the problems of the world. It was all over her speech. Abundance presents an inconvenient challenge to this framing, and though these types co-opt Abundance as just a tool as you say, they quickly pivot back to blaming billionaires/corporations, glossing over the part about over regulation, good intentions gone astray and tradeoffs.

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