I have a Google account specifically for logging into YouTube. I’ve aggressively used the like/hide channel/not interested in this video options to force it to actually show me what I want. It took quite a while to train it, but my YouTube homepage is actually nice right now.

But every so often I’ll go on YouTube logged out and it’s like staring into the sun. The top videos that it pushes seem like brain melting garbage.

Strangely I haven’t had any issues with Firefox+Ublock+Sponsorblock. The way YouTube interacts with seemingly the same sets of software for different people is baffling.

You’ll use rifled MBT main guns and you’ll like it.

Nah, I just don’t feel like typing out a thesis to defend what started out as an offhand joke under a meme post.

But also Gollum.

I’m pretty sure being stuck in space prison with Gollum was a factor.

With carter having been out of the WH for decades at that point, I didn’t consider him a “current” political figure. That episode is an example as well where the closest that episode gets to politics are some jabs at Carter as a peanut farmer, the episode doesn’t use him to segue into some then-current political issue centered on a current politician.

My point, the forest through the trees, is that KOTH tended to shy away from up to the minute real world political specifics, and instead went for wider cultural issues and sort of culture politic issues without tying itself to specific real world politicians. Doing an episode revolving around a current hot button politician is more South Park’s game, and even those guys are tired of talking about Trump.

People are giving answers to your specific hypothetical, but on a higher level, the answer is simple. The government likes having more money. Once a tax is in place, it becomes the new normal. It can be like pulling teeth to make a government roll back a tax. Groups in my local area have tried numerous times to roll back a specific tax where a government spokesperson has even said the tax is no longer fulfilling the original purpose, but removing the tax would now affect the overall budget. That has become the reason they refuse to remove it, and because neither party cares much about removing it, there’s no political leverage by the voters who care about it.

I can’t believe it turned out the Kleya was the secret Jedi and Luthen was the original Palpatine who got usurped by one of his early clones. Bravo, Gilroy.

Star Wars has a tradition.

I know what you mean by “another Andor” but your comment reminded my of the RLM pitch for a post-Rogue One Andor season where every episode is just a charred body floating in space.

In the same way the original show intentionally avoided addressing 9/11, Iraq, or the Bush presidency I hope the revival has the sense to focus on the local lives of the characters instead of Trump.

The closest the original ever got to specific high level current political figures was the episode with then Governor Bush where Hank was rattled by his handshake rather than any comment on policy by the show.

I think around season 3-4 the writing on the show got high on its own supply, as it were. The dramatic, maudlin moments that felt like the writers really thinking it was the peak of writing were just so overwrought to me. The show has gotten away from that, and by season 6 and 7 all the interpersonal drama and depressing tendencies of the main cast are pretty much gone. The show still has dark premises and lots of over the top moments, but it has stopped lingering on “deep” moments. I think it is much better for it. There is a new main cast character which works for the better, and the rest of the family integrates into the adventures more.

Seeing all of that “2020s stuff” in the poster is giving me really bad vibes. It gives me the same feeling as the Futurama cryptocurrency episode, where the commentary was late to the punch and delivered by writers either out of step with the subject or with the original show. I know KOTH was a premise about an old fashioned guy dealing with encroaching modern times, but it was written genuinely. The poster just cramming so many things in at once worries me that will trying too aggressively recreate that original premise by slapping the most bleeding edge topics into it.

What was Cassin supposed to do regarding Maarva? Fistfight time?

There was an alien (mon calamari, I think) briefly shown in a bacta tank.

Best I could tell with Luthen is that he needed the external ventilator to keep breathing, which might not have been compatible with a bacta tank. Tanks are always shown with much simpler respirator setups. It may have been the plan to stabilize Luthen on the ventilator to a point where he could be transferred to a bacta tank.

Furious and shyly worried.

Headlamp. Headlamps are so useful for doing mechanical work and doubly so if it ends up being dark. A flashlight is also helpful, but as a companion to a headlamp.

A baggie of 100 zipties (12 inch or bigger), electrical tape, hose clamps. These are so often useful for DIY kludged together nonsense.

An extendable magnet. In case you drop something in a weird spot.

High dexterity gloves. Mechanix or something like them in case you’re touching a hot/spiky/unknown fluidity bit.

A change of clothes, including a long sleeve shirt isn’t the worst idea. If you encounter trouble and need to get under the car you’ll either want to change into the spare shirt before or after, and generally having spare clothes ready is just a good idea.

Hellboy is my favorite anime.

“Bang.”

I gotta go with my man Ice-T on Law & Order: SVU. While the writing does him no favors in making his character seem slow on the uptake, his acting usually consists of loudly talking in a monotone that feels like it was too loudly mixed in ADR even though it’s not.