Watched "Beast" with Idris Elba.  Complete waste of time (and $6) and utterly absurd.  Unless you think an injured man could ever go toe to toe with an adult male lion wielding a ka-bar.

"The menu".  Funny an interesting film I just watched cause it was the top pick on HBO. 

"The Whale"  Brendan Fraiser should get an academy award for this.  One of the best character studies in a film in recent memory.

Thanks for the contribution, Mitch.

Interesting point of view.  The problem is the west refuses to acknowledge the Russian point of view and how NATO and the US have ignored every historical precedent and agreement over the past 20 years or so.  When the Soviet empire fell, the west agreed they wouldn't expand NATO into the former soviet bloc states.  We now have American missiles in Poland and Romania aimed at Russia. 

People who only get their information from corporate media may forget that a violent coup actually occurred in Ukraine in 2014 and the democratically elected government was violently pushed out.  (this is what an actual coup or insurrection look like, they bring weapons and kill people, not wave flags in a rotunda) And the new government immediately started cozying up to the EU and NATO. 

No one thinks Kennedy is a monster for his response to the cuban missile crisis, but despite the West acting in bad faith and taking every step (including supporting violent revolutions) to increase their dominance and supremacy in the region.  I certainly haven't forgotten about Obama and the media mocking Romney when he called Russia our greatest geo-political threat before they invaded and took over Crimea.  But I'm sure the people who changed their facebook profile picture to be a flag of Ukraine have forgotten. 

When Americans riot and loot because a bad man was shot 2k miles away, they think of themselves as warriors and righteous.  But if the bad man is setting up a missile defense shield and continually grabbing land right next to your territory, any suspicion that the West isn't being honest in their actions is immediately dismissed. 

Don't get me wrong, Putin is a tyrant and if God took him in his sleep tonight I wouldn't weep over it.  But this black and white thinking that only considers a short period of time is exactly what all authority loves about stupid, gullible people. 

None of the loudest voices are sacrificing anything.  None of our world leaders served in combat and neither did their children.  The best America has is the waiver they gave to a 40 year old Hunter to be in the Navy reserve before he got kicked out for testing hot for coke.  I served with Beau in Iraq, we were in the same brigade.  I met the man a few times and he was nothing but nice to me.  But he was the VP's kid, everyone knew that, and he spent his entire 8 months in country at Camp Victory in Baghdad, occasionally flying with the Brigade's CG to morale and photo ops.  Point being none of these people are ever willing to put their lives and fortunes on the line for their goals and power grabs, but they're more than willing to risk the lives of other people's kids for their shot at infamy. 

Ukraine isn't a beacon of egalitarian values.  They're not a beacon of democracy.  It's a nation of authoritarian and anti-democratic behavior , slightly worse than most of the nations that comprise NATO.  Every public spectacle they make is solely catered to garner support from western plebes who will feel morally righteous when their country sends new weapon systems to Ukraine.

I can sit here all day and talk about how I wish if I jumped into the lion's exhibit at the zoo I would go unmolested.  I could quote poetry or philosophy to qualify that desire and win lots of support.  But no amount of hope is going to change the reality that if I hop into that exhibit I'm going to be mauled, and I'm a fucking idiot if I think the support of strangers is somehow a shield from that lion's claws.  It's the same thing with Russia and Ukraine. I can wish for Putin to not want Ukraine as a buffer for NATO and under the thumb of the Russian empire.  I can pontificate on how bad war is and how evil it is for Putin to disregard the territory of another sovereign nation.  I can find millions of strangers to give me a like on social media for this thought.  But none of that changes reality.  Russia has been adamant for decades that western expansion of NATO wouldn't be tolerated.  This isn't a new insight.  Experts and every political leader have know the cost should the west continue its expansion into the former soviet bloc states.  They chose to move forward with that decision anyway, so they're not immune or separated from the current conflict.  To say nothing of the danger of the West creating its own edicts that every nation must adhere to, or not be allowed into the room.  This is why China and India are allying up with Russia and not the West.  What that means long term, I don't know.

Why?  You didn't download every leak and enjoy it over the past 20 years?  Don't get me wrong, some of the fans that existed on HTGTH 15 years ago and who I assume are now at MyGNR (never really visited that forum) were bat shit bonkers insane.  The guy they article was primarily focused on seems to fit that archetype of fandom - the type that would buy and worship a strand of Axl's hair.  I certainly won't forget my private messages with TimeBomb who lived surprisingly close to me. 

I met and stood next to Darknemus at the Hammerstein shows along with some other forum "celebrities" and realized then that most of the die hards were dudes just slightly more obsessed with the CD saga with better networking skills than I was at the time.  MikeGivani or whatever his handle was asking the Colombian fans if they brought any coke with them was just cringe.  But I loved being part of a small group of fans who enjoyed what at the time was a joke and almost obscure album that many thought would never see the light of day.

Do I recognize that I was a bit over the top as a GN'R fanboy during the CD circus, sure.  But people who know me in RL that I haven't spoken to in 15 years on the regular still send me messages and memes about GN'R because they remember how important the band was (and still is) to me, when most of the world saw them as a joke.  I'm not ashamed of that or downloading every leak that I've been able to.  You shouldn't be either.