One thing I've learned over the past month is that a whole lot of people don't understand the not-so-subtle difference between "take things seriously" and "panic".

Then there'a another group that doesn't understand the difference between "don't panic" and "Hold church jamborees and parties and shit, it's cool bro".

I shouldn't be shocked by the nation who still struggles with every brain cell to understand that "Black Lives Matter" doesn't mean "Fuck everyone else".

My top albums of 2019 in no particular order....

Swimming Tapes - Morningside
Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride
Silversun Pickups - Widows Weeds
Turnover - Altogether
White Reaper - You Deserve Love
Fontains DC - Dogrel
Foals - Everything Not Saved Will be Lost parts 1 & 2
Tool - Fear Inoculum
Michael Kiwanuka - Kiwanuka
Hernan Cataneo - Balance Presents Sunset Strip
Menzingers - Hello Exile

2019 Movie List

Movies seen for the first time in 2019. (Out of 4 starts)

1.    The Old Man and the Gun (***)

2.   The Mule (***)

3.    Reign of the Supermen (***½)

4.    Beirut (***)

5.    How to Train Your Dragon 2 (***½)

6.    Bad Times at the El Royal (***)

7.    Creed II (***½)

8.   How to Train Your Dragon 3 (***½)

9.    The Great Escape (****)

10.  Captain Marvel (***)

11.  Thunder Road (****)

12.  Shazam! (****)

13.  Short Term 12 (****)

14.  Roma (***½)

15.  Us (****)

16.  Leave no Trace (***)

17.  Destroyer (***)

18.  Rio Bravo (****)

19.  In the Heat of the Night (****)

20.  Hateful Eight (***½)

21.  Avengers: Endgame (***½)

22.  Arctic (***)

23.  Ready Player One (**)

24.  John Wick 3 (***)

25.  The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (***½)

26.  Cold Pursuit (***)

27.  High Crimes (**)

28.  Senna (***)

29.  Toy Story 4 (****)

30.  State of Play (***)

31.  The Disaster Artist (***)

32.  High Life (***)

33.  Fast Color (***)

34.  Spider-Man: Far From Home (****)

35.  Transit (****)

36.  The Art of Self Defense (****)

37.  Little Woods (****)

38.  The Man From Earth (***)

39.  Detective Pikachu (***)

40.  Miles Ahead (***1/2)

41.  The Farewell (****)

42.  Angry Birds (***)

43.  Secret Life of Pets 2 (***)

44.  Godzilla: King of the Monsters: **½

45.  Le Samourai (****)

46.  Shadow (***½)

47.  Ad Astra (****)

48.  Abominable (***)

49.  Frida (****)

50.  Alien (***)

51.  The Fortune Cookie (***½)

52.  The Lighthouse (****)

53.  Crawl (***)

54.  Tim's Vermeer (****)

55.  Turbo (**½)

56.  Jojo Rabbit (***½)

57.  The Man Who Knew Infinity (***)

58.  Knives Out (****)

59.  The Report (****)

60.  Ford v Ferrari (***½)

61.  The Rise of Skywalker (***½)

62.  The Aeronauts (***)

63.  Bombshell (***)

64.  Peanut Butter Falcon (***½)

65.  Power Rangers (**)

I'm not saying the commercials judging men on their looks will ever be as bad as is the situation for women, but growing up I was very conflicted over the razor commercials that told me I was a slob for not being clean-shaven and no women would ever have me, and the other ones telling me how sexy beards were to women and you were a snowflake if you didn't have one, but be sure to use their special beard dye so you don't look like a grandpa... and then came the ones that were like "Yeah just go ahead and dye it gray"...

I don't know what else I could possibly tell anyone at this point. 45 is about to be impeached by the house but all indications point to the senate acquitting him. The evidence of criminal bribery and abuse of power is overwhelming, and yet, the senate protects him. What can one do when the entire senate has lost its collective mind and is protecting a flagrant mad-man. What's worse is that 2020 reelection polls are CLOSE. When people are this ignorant and have swallowed this much of the kool-aid, there's really nothing to be done. Anything that doesn't fit in with their narrative they make shouts of deep-state conspiracies, and their base believes them. Hell, to a degree THEY probably believe that crap. Facts in the world make you look bad? Conspiracy. It couldn't possibly be that just simply have it astronomically wrong. No evidence for my argument? Conspiracy. Mountains of evidence to the contrary? Conspiracy. Hell, there's nothing you can't convince yourself of when you think everything is a conspiracy.

Repost from my friend John O...

"if you are one of those people who think that both major political parties in the USA are "exactly the same" I'm here to tell you that you are not only an uninformed idiot, but that you are making sure we never get out of this Republican hellhole we are in.

I have tried to tell these fucking fools that there are major differences between the parties but they come back with their Russian ideas about things. Look, Democrats aren't trying to deny science and limit our access to our government paid scientists' information. They aren't doing their best to destroy public schools. They aren't trying to limit women's rights, they are trying to expand them.They aren't jailing children, denying them food and medicine, and ripping apart their families just to scare others into staying away. Plus a ton of other important issues that they are diametrically opposed to the Republicans about.

I usually try to talk to these bumpkins without offending them, try to point out these differences and I am met with the buffoon's responses. Things like "They all take money from the rich" and "you have no proof of that".

If you don't vote, you are a tool of the powers that want you to not vote. We can see what happens when people like Trump or Bush get in office, they run wild and have a lot of support from bought-off Senators and Congresspeople. We are in a crisis in this country, on the edge of becoming a fascist/totalitarian state like China or Russia. Voting for those who will put on our chains is nuts.

In conclusion, if you are not going to vote, please shut up about anything to do with the process. If you aren't involved, don't have an opinion beyond "I give up". Ya morons."

Re: https://www.space.com/bill-nye-climate-change-john-oliver.html

It's marvelous how people will criticize Bill Nye on his climate change video because he's not a "real scientist" (which he is... being NASA engineer and public science educator and popularizer for decades more than qualifies) but will take the half-baked supposed scientific opinions of know-nothings and blow-hards like Trump and Fox News pundits at face value.

Nathan W. Pyle/Strange Planet

I don't think we need to the light torches and get the pitchforks out just yet over a relatively common opinion on abortion a guy shared 2 or 3 years ago. I don't agree with him at all and the march-4-lyfe people are turds but if your criteria for liking a comic strip or any other form of media is that the creators believe exactly all the same things you do, I've got some news for you (especially when the thing they're creating is entirely apolitical). Actual subject matter and degree need to be accounted for, sure. If a creator is going online frequently spouting off Nazi shit, that's another matter that's impossible to ignore. And if that person starts using their craft as a way to spread those ideas that you don't agree with, logically it also becomes a different matter entirely. I get political with my comic sometimes with the full understanding it may turn some people off and I might lose a reader or two, or otherwise limit my audience, but that's a price I'm willing to pay. All that being said he made a pretty mild tweet 2 years ago, he's not standing outside of abortion clinics with images of dead fetuses screaming at pregnant 15 year olds. Chill. It really isn't worth it.

New Zealand attacks

In response to: https://bit.ly/2O6905s "The Shooter’s Manifesto Was Designed to Troll"

How much of that matters at this point? Someone who believes the bullshit enough to murder dozens of people... obviously the hate is genuine. Setting aside the killing for a moment, and as an example, when someone makes homophobic jokes over and over but claims they're "just joking", it isn't too hard to imagine it's a serious problem disguised as a joke. And again... the killing part of it. Obviously muslims were killed for being muslims. The video and manifesto were perhaps meant to obfuscate the motive... but the way in which it was done points directly at poisonous, racist, right wing "troll culture". Like those photos cropping up of people throwing the "white power" hand signal as a supposed act of trolling. Yes, on some superficial level they might have been "joking" to illicit a reaction... but their actions are a window into their mindset. Non-racist people would have a problem even making the joke. The "joke" in-and-of-itself is a provocation and a racist act. But again... THE KILLING makes their motives and mindset crystal clear in this case. People are fucked up and have been radicalized in bizarre ways. An apparent motive, hidden behind a meta-motive that just points right back to the original, more obvious motive.

USWNT Pay

In response to: https://nyti.ms/2EVhtWa "U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Sues U.S. Soccer for Gender Discrimination"

This has been brewing for awhile. I had a conversation after the last World Cup cycle with my sister; Her argument was, justifiably, that equal work deserves equal pay, and in this case the women outperform the men in their own competitive field. The obvious hole in all of this was that spectator sports are entertainment, and entertainers make money based on how much revenue they rake in. It's true that during the last world cup year (2015 for women) the USWNT did bring in more in terms of revenue, but overall the men's sport does (or did) (just like NBA players make more than WNBA players, and so on).I believe that both of these arguments have merit, however, at this point, even if that's still true (I'm not digging into revenue stats right now, and it doesn't really matter) my attitude now is just "F*ck it, make the pay scales the same, even if that means siphoning revenue from the men's side to do it" Be a model for the rest of the world. Title 9 is, in part, what allowed the women's sport to become so strong in the US, and what allowed us to have a leg up. We decided that no matter what the system/or paying audiences preferred, we were going give women the same shot as men in terms of college athletic scholarships. What we ended up with was 3 World Cups in 25 years. If we want to keep that dominance, adopt matching pay scales. This will encourage young US women to play the game professionally and it'll strengthen our programs and shore up our player pool. It'll be tricky, and it'll probably involve letting CBA agreements lapse and writing up new ones, but ultimately we can make it happen.