Them talking about how Loki absolutely cannot be released and then cutting over to Luffy right in front of him made me laugh. Of course he would be. Oh, Luffy...

And that "care" that they're blocking from teenagers is the ability to block puberty, and it is a temporary thing that can be reversed if when they get older they decide they are not trans.

Blocking teens from puberty blockers is insanely unjustifiable and cruel, in of itself. But puberty blockers are not what the Republican base hear about, they hear about hormone replacement therapy for 4 year olds and boys' genitalia being chopped off. It's straight up disinformation and they need to be held accountable for this. Does the truth about anything not matter? Why can't we hold our politicians to the fire for lying and harming people for no reason?

Politics nowadays are beyond parody. Indeed it would be very easy to be pranked today because news as of late has been beyond belief. Be very skeptical today! But be skeptical always!

This debate was so much better than the last one, even down to the moderation. He got nailed on a number of issues he wouldn't answer, such as on abortion and healthcare. It was so great to watch him get called out thoroughly.

I also loved how the Trump campaign fought so hard to keep the mics muted and the blabbering idiot just interrupted and forced his way anyway. He was completely out of control, and mostly incoherent. He also took all of the bait put out for him. Harris trolled him so hard and he fell for it! It was hilarious.

Them talking about how Loki absolutely cannot be released and then cutting over to Luffy right in front of him made me laugh. Of course he would be. Oh, Luffy...

This debate was so much better than the last one, even down to the moderation. He got nailed on a number of issues he wouldn't answer, such as on abortion and healthcare. It was so great to watch him get called out thoroughly.

I also loved how the Trump campaign fought so hard to keep the mics muted and the blabbering idiot just interrupted and forced his way anyway. He was completely out of control, and mostly incoherent. He also took all of the bait put out for him. Harris trolled him so hard and he fell for it! It was hilarious.

The episode actually got a few laughs out of me, for what it's worth. So I enjoyed it, despite knowing it's a reference that will be dated in no time. NFTs were always a joke to me, so that adds to the episode's humor for me, I suppose.

@Robby said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:

I can have an opinion on the candidates again when there's a primary and its actually a choice and it's not "continue being normal" or "end of the world".

It feels like every single general election is like that and I sadly don't know when it's going to stop. The right has planted the seeds of their authoritarian takeover over decades and I don't know if it's even possible with the way the US is right now to defeat them thoroughly enough to make them moderate. (A radical candidate like Donald Trump should face a defeat the likes of Reagan's opponents, but that's not going to happen - and for clarification, this is not a statement on Reagan or his opponents, as I do not like Reagan at all. Just an example of huge defeats I'm giving here)

It seems like we defeat them, and instead of moderating, they just come up with new plans to suppress voters and get in without actually winning the vote of the people.

I'm afraid we might be stuck in this loop for all elections going forward until the Republicans do win and then it's game over. Are we really as screwed as I'm thinking? I hope not.

@Robby said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:

@Jabra said in American Politics: A Brand New Day:

Who would be her VA pick? Blinken?

White guy from a battleground state, those are the requirements.

Probably not a gay one though, we're already pushing enough boundaries.

The best would be if there was anyone from Florida that was popular. You take Florida then there's no road at all for Trump but... gotta go for some other battleground state.

Before the midterms I would have said "Beto" because fuck it, take the wild swing and try and get Texas and/or make Reps waste a lot of time there... but during his last campaign Beto basically said "no guns" and blew any cred or future he had in the state.

Florida is actually a curious case, as they've got abortion on the ballot during the election. We all know the chances of the voters approving of abortion are high based off of not only other states, but approval of abortion in Florida.

The abortion proposition could drive up voter turnout of people who want abortion to be legal. However, I've not been optimistic that means that Democrats can win in Florida. Right now there is a lot of ignorance on the subject, in the most baffling of manners. For instance, there are people that think because Roe v Wade was overturned under Biden's presidency, that Biden is responsible for it. Straight-up cluelessness like this in the populace is one of our biggest enemies.

If we could get the Democrats to effectively rightfully tie the loss of abortion rights to Trump and the Republicans, that's the key. There is indication that in the 2022 midterms that tie was made, but it still didn't save Florida from re-electing Ron DeSantis, which is a very bad sign.

I don't know that Dems should try to focus much on Florida. It seems like it's becoming a loss cause. So many crazy right wingers have flocked to the state and the demographics have changed.

@Ubiq If it's Harris, there's so many angles they can take, unfortunately:

1. "Kamala's a cop". I remember hearing/reading that line a lot during the 2020 primaries. This is particularly effective toward leftist voters, unfortunately.
2. "She wasn't elected to be the nominee". I fear the power of this point. She was an early drop-out in the 2020 primaries. She is here because she was chosen as Vice President. Without a primary, the voters get no say. (Not that I'm saying one is practical at this point.) She was elected as Biden's Vice President (both when he won the 2020 election and when he won the 2024 primaries), but I'm not sure how strong that point is.
3. "She's a DEI candidate". This is a load of BS, but that doesn't change the power it can have on the clueless, prejudiced populace. As said in point 2, she wasn't elected to her position, she was selected, which makes it even easier for right wing sources to spread this point.

I'm afraid. I want to be cautiously optimistic, though. A new candidate, whether that's Harris or not, will not have the baggage that Biden does. The tables can be completely turned on the "too old" narrative, as a younger candidate like Harris can show that Trump is old and suffering cognitive decline.

Is Harris a particularly strong candidate to begin with? That I don't know. As I said she dropped out of the 2020 primaries fairly quickly. She does now have experience, though, and sure as heck, I'll vote for her.

Truly, the one of the biggest steps in authoritarianism taking over democracies is compromising the court.

They seriously want to turn us into Russia or Hungary.

Alright, first my views on this episode:

I loved that Usopp got his own fight, and his cowardice was shown. I was worried in the earlier episodes that we weren't going to get one-on-one fights, but they've managed to fit a few in.

The fight with Arlong was condensed, we lost a lot of the iconic details that I still remember from many years ago that I last watched the arc in the anime or read the manga. Like Luffy breaking Arlong's nose. However, they did manage to properly show that Luffy was more destroying Arlong's "dream" than destroying Arlong himself, by Luffy defeating Arlong by destroying the building. Good going on that, it kept the most important detail. And the scene where Luffy rose up from the rubble may not have had the impact of the anime or manga, but good job regardless.

Was there no Hatchan? I couldn't tell if there was a character that was supposed to be him and he just wasn't emphasized. If there was one, they didn't really do a great job of him because I couldn't tell. Either way, given the future plot points with Hatchan, this is a glaring omission. Sadly, it's unlikely this series will make it that far, given it's a Netflix show and we know what happens with Netflix shows. But still... Hatchan should have been there.

Nami hitting Nezumi over the head with her baton was a nice touch, a bit cathartic, even though it was delivered more like a gag.

I liked the bounty poster scene. I liked how they kept the back of Usopp's head in it and Usopp made a big point about that. And the scene where Kaya sees Usopp's head in the bounty poster and smiled was really cute. This is the kind of charm that I enjoyed in the original series and going forward I hope they bring more of it.

Zoro and Sanji already showing animosity towards each other is nice to see. Also I liked that Sanji got in calling Zoro "mosshead" already. lol

Now, in an earlier topic I posted about wondering where they were going with showing Garp, Koby and Helmeppo. I figured that there would have to be some conflict resolution, and now I understand why they did it. Seeing as this is a Netflix seasonal show, they probably figured they'd do that side plot and wrap it up here just in case there was never another season of the show. Whereas the manga has never been written in that way.

I thought the conclusion of that was okay. I just have one thing to say: We all likely knew at this point that Koby would be a light in the marines, that he would be a good guy in an otherwise corrupt military/world government. However, I think that seeing all of these shades of grey so early may take away from the line Smoker makes after Luffy defeats Crocodile. In the manga, that was the first real shades of grey we saw from the marines, and Smoker telling the higher ups to "eat shit" was awesome, and I'm afraid the impact of that may be lost a little.

Overall, I enjoyed this series. I had lots of mixed feelings for many scenes and the way they were handled, but I did feel like there was charm here and I do feel like it was well-done and I'm happy that they made it. I do hope it gets more seasons. I do hope that the Netflix curse is lost and this series continues for a while. I want to see Chopper, Robin, Franky, and Brooke. I want to see Enies Lobby! Sadly, I know how unlikely that is and it makes me sad.

I DO miss some of the more cartoony characterizations from the anime and manga.

I noticed they played the content in the first episode more straight (not fully, of course), but they really changed up this content. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I suppose a 1 for 1 is never what happens either way.

The way they juxtaposed Luffy's drowning scene in the flashback with Luffy drowning in the "tank of doom" was a nice touch. They set it up so when Shanks reached for Luffy in the flashback, you knew that Nami and Zoro were going to do the same in the current day.

I'm not against what they did with Nami and Zoro and Cabaji here, but it looks like one-on-one battles may not be much of a thing in this adaptation if at all. They seem to be playing up heavily on the teamwork idea with the fights in the first episode and this one here. And you know what? That might not be a bad idea.

Continuing to show Koby's growth as a marine with Garp is interesting. However, all of this time taken on building up does make me wonder if they're going to take this a different direction and have Koby and Garp show back up and have some kind of confrontation with Luffy early on. Either that, or the directors of this adaptation just aren't aware that Koby kinda fades into the background of the series and doesn't run into Luffy again for a very long time. I doubt they're not aware, though.

The nuance of Zoro's build-up of trust in Luffy sadly is a bit lost in this quick format. That's the kinda stuff (the buildup of the friendships with the crew) that I think is really important to this series, so that's kinda sad. One Piece gets a lot of flack for it's insane length, but it works well for the characters.

Anyway, I'm only on this episode so far, curious to see what they'll do going forward.