Noah Ross7 said:Based on what I'm seeing on Reddit, fans are just praying for an American victory, because they think that means the gold is already won.
Kudos to the Canadians for how they've played so far. I'd love to see them take bronze against the Norwegians, obviously. Either way, they’ve got a solid foundation for a silver medal run in Washington, D.C. in two years. 😁
The Frenchmen are rooting against us for one simple reason: we're their biggest handball rivals. Plus, a classic matchup in the finals is much better for global handball than facing a team that hasn't won a single medal and is still finding its footing. They know Tito will probably play dirty right out of the gate just to secure the win.
We haven't really seen a massive influx of high-quality Russian films in American theaters, so I doubt this one will be any different. Even if it is an SF movie made with a Western formula.
It’s a solid movie about a topic that hasn't been totally chewed up by Hollywood yet. Though, I guess Dawn was better. It felt more convincing.
It was about time we got a Western take on WW2 that wasn't just centered on the Pacific Ocean or Normandy.
The subject matter itself is pretty controversial even over in the Czech Republic. Some folks think killing that one demon was justified, while others say it was unnecessary. I doubt there'll ever be a consensus. Americans owe a lot to the Britons for dealing with Reinhard Heydrich. Those bastards betrayed them, just like they did the Polish people a year later.
Of course they hate Russia. After Peter the Great turned them into minced meat at Poltava, the Swedish Empire basically collapsed. They lost Poland and Finland right after. They just became some insignificant little player in Europe.
Let's face it, Hollywood has completely run out of ideas. I guess you could count maybe five films on one hand that actually tackle fresh themes, like Inception.
I guess the SF genre has been most consistently dragged down by romance, even if it has had some absolute disasters. The reason is pretty simple. The rise of the multi-complex has fundamentally changed the nature of filmmaking itself. Today's moviegoers are paying an extra 50% just to sit there eating popcorn, soda, ice cream, and tacos from various snack combos. At that point, a trip to the theater easily hits $80.$33I guess cinema just isn't what it was forty years ago. It's different now.
Sci-fi is probably the easiest genre to wrap your head around. Superhero flicks work in any culture because they’re just so simple to follow. You've got evil Thanos attacking the world, everyone has to team up, blah, blah, blah. It's basically just an excuse for the whole family to hit the theater and for the kids to demand extra ice cream. That’s the entire business model, I guess.
Studios simply don't give a damn about art anymore. We aren't getting that Golden Age from the 50s back—no more classic noir, no more gritty Westerns, no more unforgettable dramas or musicals. And the icons? They're gone. We won't see film divas or legends on the level of Wayne, Garbo, Monroe's, Bergman's, Taylor's, Stewart, or Brand ever again. Once the old guard—De Niro, Pacino, Hopkins, Caine, and Eastwood—finally pass on, I guess cinema is just going to hit rock bottom. Right now, the only thing making real money is SF, specifically those superhero flicks, and it looks like that's not stopping anytime soon.
It’s a fact that there’s never been more absolute garbage on the market than what we’re seeing today, yet profits have never been higher. I guess the era of the historical epic and the heavy drama is behind us now, and maybe they're just headed for the same fate as the Western.
Paul Thomas46 said:Honestly, vb isn't going anywhere—they haven't reached critical mass yet, not to mention the fact that they don't even have a clear plan once they get there.
Turkey is definitely a major issue, plain and simple. The European Union is in complete chaos, too—no question about it. Even those quiet bureaucrats over in Brussels have stopped chiming in on everything... that kind of silence is actually quite unsettling.
We shall see. A massive political defeat for Merkel at the general elections might actually be good for everyone, especially the European Union. Right now, we just have this fragmentation: some are openly opposing things, others are cooperating (mostly due to various economic ties), and many are just shouting into the void...
It really boils down to the fact that Merkel is politically isolated. The only reason she hasn't been clearly outvoted and sidelined by the rest of the European Union is because of certain economic arrangements. But eventually, politics will take precedence—money can't buy everything...
VB is practically a state within a state. It’ll probably just stay a pro forma part of the EU while doing its own thing regardless.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone puts a bit of pressure on Merkel and she just quits on her own.
Merkel is dangerously provoking radicalization in Germany, which won't end well. I guess the German mentality doesn't handle being humiliated or suppressed. Germans tend to solve everything through radical means. I expect we'll see the same thing happen in France.
Every policy comes with its inevitable consequences.
Sophia Ramos5 said:If it isn't true, then what is. They’re setting up camps in Ukraine. How are they even getting them in from Turkey?
Camps for 150,000 refugees looking to enter the EU are opening—right in Ukraine!
While the global elite throw money around like confetti, the actual refugees are left to fend for themselves. And I mean that literally.
Basically, under pressure from Brussels, the Ukrainian government decided to open refugee camps on their own soil. They plan to house roughly 150,000 people coming from Afghanistan, the Middle East, and North Africa, depending on the need. The reception centers will be set up in regions like Kyiv, Lviv, and Kherson (near the border with Crimea). Of course, the authorities deny any outside pressure, claiming they're just "meeting obligations" tied to their EU association agreement. This move is likely a play to secure visa-free travel with the European Union, which is exactly what Poroshenko mentioned when he told Brussels on February 27th that construction of these shelters is nearly finished.
Istina Portal isn't exactly a reliable source...
Ukraine? And specifically in Galicia? 🤣
I guess you know why. So they can import them into the Višegrad group. But that probably won't fly.
Honestly, the way Turkey is screwing over all of Europe is just impressive. I guess you have to hand it to them.
''We’re ready to help, provided we get into the EU.'' 😂
As if we’d ever want to deal with a potential 100 million people being sent our way. It would basically be turning the Middle East into the Schengen Area.
I honestly don't even know what we're talking about anymore. But there's this constant, nagging feeling... maybe things haven't even truly started heating up yet.
Because how does it make sense that the elites are suddenly against immigration? Is it possible the Bataclan attack was "just" the catalyst?
They aren't. They’re just pacifying the public. A little programmed outrage here, some performative fighting there. In reality, the influx hasn't slowed down one bit.
Do you really think some mid-level bureaucrat at the Fed actually cares what the public thinks?
Power is everything. And power is an obsession that kills any shred of rationality.
Brian Doyle6 said:Before this EU-Turkey summit even kicked off, there was already a consensus on shutting down those North American "refugee shuttle" operations once and for all. But then Merkel shows up and shuts the whole thing down flat. 😠 Honestly, I can't tell if she's just acting as some deep-state asset working to tear Europe apart from the inside, or if she’s playing chess and knows the Turks will come back asking for the moon if we play ball now.
Word on the street is the Turks have already dropped their counter-offer: they'll step up to block the migrant flow—even agreeing to take back anyone whose asylum claims get rejected in Europe—but it's gonna cost. They're looking at over $3 billion a year, a massive fast-track for their EU membership, and scrapping visa requirements by this spring. 🙄
🙏
Erdogan is a troll. Get into the EU and get visa-free travel? Then he'll probably just send every Kurd straight to Europe. It's sneaky.
Mark Campbell5 said:I'm not sure I'm following your logic here... care to walk me through it?
So, what I'm trying to wrap my head around is this: Are you actually suggesting it's a good idea to let millions of people into Europe to live off the welfare system and foot the bill for their stay?
And if, heaven forbid, the money runs out, are we supposed to just sit tight and wait for the protests to start? Or worse... the assaults on women or whatever else breaks out?
Can you explain that to me? Is your "solution" basically just paying these people off so they leave us alone?
And when you say "welfare"... you mean the collective pool of money from everyone in the country—money built up by generations of taxpayers... 🤔
You have it all wrong.
Of course not. I was one of the first people here to predict exactly how this would play out. And I don't even recognize them as war refugees, because there aren't wars in Iran, Algeria, Egypt, Tunis, or Morocco. There isn't even a war in most of Afghanistan or large parts of Iraq, and honestly, who knows how many Syrians are even involved.
This has nothing to do with any actual wars. If it did, millions would have been flooding in during the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, or back in 2003. They weren't. So, why is Syria any different from those conflicts?
This is a geopolitical project run by the Gulf states and Turkey, but I guess they'll just call me a conspiracy theorist now.
If you ask me, nobody would come here. They should just fight for their own country.
stormytinker40 said:Hold on. Are you actually telling me there are 3 million refugees sitting in camps in Turkey just waiting for some war to end, or are 3 million people just standing there waiting for a green light to head into Europe?