When another poster asked, “Isn’t it possible that this was a deliberate terrorist attack rather than a tragic accident?,” Simon retorted, “It’s possible that you’re a useless shitheel rando on an internet hellsite speculating wildly and without regard to what is already known by authorities in Baltimore. Quick, have someone fund your podcast. You’ll go far.”
To a poster who called Baltimore a “mismanaged, failed state,” Simon offered a well-worded correction: “The port is a state-run entity and nothing whatsoever to do with Baltimore municipal government, you absolute submoron.”
To Anthony Sabatini, the former Florida congressman who wrote “DEI did this” – referring to diversity, equity and inclusion – Simon took no prisoners. “Your mother did you, but after a hard life of service on a truck-stop lot, can we really hold her loosened, battered womb responsible for dropping you head-first on the Winnebago floor and burdening our society with another empty, racist demagogue thereafter? We cannot.”
Idris Elba started out on it. As did Dominic West (Prince Charles in The Crown), and Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger in Game of Thrones). And Michael Kenneth Williams had some choice parts, he was always great.
Deadwood is the closest a TV show has gotten to reading a rich, classic work of literature, to me. I've watched the entire series three times in about as many years.
Deadwood is the best written, most humane and complex drama I’ve seen on TV. Watch with subtitles because Milch is a genius and you don’t want to miss anything.
And you might still miss some things the first time but it makes rewatches even better. I rarely feel the desire to rewatch shows, even good ones, Deadwood is the exception.
Hell even the set is amazing because the background extras took their roles so seriously, listening to the commentary tracks the lead actors noted that the background extras/actors developed their own routines and really made the camp come to life.
It had more of a living history museum or renaissance fair vibe than that of a stale set. Everyone invovled with the project had passion for their role no matter how small.
BSG is a very different show but there might be some crossover between the fanbases. Deadwood is legacy HBO, the quality and depth of cast is on another level compared to what the scifi channel had at the time.
It’s also endlessly quotable, that’s one thing I miss about reddit is the small /r/Deadwood sub. You’ll see some general “cocksucka” quotes in the wild but that sub has multiple rewatches under their belt and uses the full range. I have to revist some posts there everytime I rewatch it.
IMHO the shield pales in comparison to the Wire. The wire is up there as one of my favorite shows of all time and I couldn’t really get into The Shield.
I had a tough time as well, I think it was the slow burn intro and the shaky camera work (that is actually technique). Try it again and it is most definitely some of the best television of all time. Right up there with breaking bad as well.
The Shield is very different. LA and Baltimore are very different culturally and it shows in the final product. The Shield also focuses on the one squad while The Wire is about the city of Baltimore. Of the two, I personally think The Shield is a little more cartoonish, so The Wire wins out, but The Shield is still excellent.
Yes it is different but so is Breaking Bad, Bojack Horseman, Futurama, etc. Shows/movies can be different and still be equal in quality.
I’m still going to say that The Shield is up there with the others in quality, regardless of the differing topics and story. I don’t want to watch the same movie or TV show over and over with a different cast and slightly different story line.
I’m not sure how this in any way contradicts what I said. I’m not saying only watch The Wire, I’m saying between The Wire and The Shield, having seen both, I prefer The Wire, but they’re also very different so it’s not a good comparison.
Both shows are at the top but Deadwood’s dialogue has a deliberate rhythm to it that is unmatched. If you get on it’s wave length you’re in for a treat. I watch it at least once a year and never grow tired of it.
David Milch the creator details his thought process on the rhythm of the dialogue and the push back he got with use of obscenity here: youtu.be/F2qk7W8_KLE?si=LxeRNs2N_-kzKiGb&t=1196 (20:01) Once he’s done answering that question (around 29:00) i’d stop watching if you haven’t seen Deadwood as there are spoilers later in the talk.
Right, I think he had a lot more in the tank that we never got to see.
For years I was upset that Deadwood never had a fourth season. When I learned more about Milch and listened to his recent memoir that came out in 2022 I was just glad those first 3 seasons made it to air.
Many people don’t survive all the drugs, family problems and a gambling addiction that he had going for him.
It would be cool to see the alternative universe where the other frat member becomes president or the one where Deadwood doesn’t get cancelled but this one could be a lot worse really.
Dude! The Wire is the one of the best shows ever created! Watch on Max, rent DVDs from the library, or just do some normal piracy. You owe yourself a watch of The Wire.
Absolutely brilliant show. And yes, this is indicative of The Wire. 😅
I finally gave in and watched it after multiple independent recommendations from people who had strong educated opinions on quality nuanced literature and media. The last series sort of declined a bit, but overall I was in no way disappointed. It was exceptionally well done, and importantly for me, not too watered down with tired tropes, stereotyped single dimensional characters, painfully predictable plots and neatly tidied moral threads.
I mean, there were definitely some, but, it's TV. It holds up extremely well even with age.
And corporations, because of the money. These aspects impact choice of research directions and results so much that I feel like rectifying them would be enough to start a new scientific revolution.
This isn’t something new. This is how society has functioned throughout history. Democracy is an ideal, but no country is truly democratic. Show me a country where the parliament or whatever legislative and executive bodies they have is truly made up of common people voted by their peers, and not part of the upper class.
I don’t think Switzerland meets the definition given by @space but there is the element of direct democracy, where any citizen can create a petition and if they get enough signatures it will go to a referendum, although ultimately it is up to the politicians to implement the results of the referenda.
Bro we got a lot of career politicians that have had their families intrinsically tied to our political sphere for ages. Also we have an insane revolving door of people being in politics and doing “lobbying” depending on the way the wind blows. There was also a bigger article with the actual stats on how often this has happened but I can’t find it. Anyway …
Ireland has a political elite, like most other countries. However, many of our politicians are ordinary people too… There are teachers, doctors, farmers etc mixed among the lawyers. Due to proportionak representative democracy, there are also one issue candidates who her elected for campaigning on things like special needs or other issues.
When K moved to Australia, I was quite surprised to find that nearly every politician was a lawyer by trade.
No one really knows the whole story. But there are factors that lean into the side of conspiracy. Several redundant systems would need to have coincidentally failed in order for the ship to steer and stay off-course the way it did. All this in the backdrop of food plants blowing up, the Biden administration blowing up Nordstream, it’s not hard to be skeptical in such times.
Sage advice, brother. Clearly they’re going to release another bio-weapon, crash the world economy, and trigger riots throughout the country. While all this is going on, nuclear war will start in the middle east, and from there spread all over the world. China and Russia will team up and try to take over a weakened United States.
Things are about to get real, for sure, but hiding only works very short term. I think the only way forward, after the initial attacks, is to link up with other like-minded people that share your values, and care for one another more than themselves. Even Mark Zuckerberg with his $100M bunker in Hawaii (with a submarine escape hatch) won’t stand a chance. It’s all delusion to think we’re going to survive what’s coming on material preparation alone.
You’re totally right though. We need to get out of the cities (they’re going to be death traps) and get as much storable food as you can.
Several redundant systems would need to have coincidentally failed
Jeez, it just shows you have no fucking clue. Main engine problems happen regularly with a big enough fleet of vessels. Meaning, it doesn’t happen often, but with hundreds of vessels it happens often enough.
Several things need to happen or fail in EVERY accident. Every car accident is a mix of multiple factors at once; weather, driver inattentiveness, other traffic or obstacles, etc. It doesn’t mean every car accident or plane or boat crash is a conspiracy.
God I genuinely hope once a day while eating you randomly manage to bite your tongue. I hope it happens so much that one day you swallow a piece of it on accident and develop an addiction to the taste. Then one day you’ll kiss someone you love and suddenly you’ll find yourself swallowing their tongue, deaf to their screams. You’ll face your loved one in a trial and beg for their forgiveness and even if they wanted to they would not be able to reply. Then when you are thrown in solitary, you’ll starve yourself knowing what you did, and that you don’t deserve their sympathy, but still dream of the flavor as you took your lovers speech forever.
Except there was literally a mayday call from the ship saying that they lost power and could not steer… So… That’s the only option worth descussing because that’s what happened. MJT or anybody else suggestion it was intentional is indeed a submoronic pirfall of a human being.
There are infinite options. Entertaining all of them is not sane, and completely futile. If you have no ability to narrow down the field to the realm of plausible scenarios then you’ll never discover the truth of anything.
People who dropped out of high school and think they never needed to learn physics are all watching the video and thinking, “why would a bridge fall THAT way?” and then blaming Biden because that’s what Fox and Newsmax keyed them into blaming.
And religion + racism + fear of the unknown + social echo chambers can all be exploited. Remember that MTG floated a few years ago that space lasers caused California forest fires. Never mind the power requirements and ridiculousness that would require.
I think the woman is dangerous as hell, but I don’t think she’s stupid. I think she uses dumb ideas to mobilize an ignorant base.
Idk I think she’s stupid but I don’t think that makes her unwilling of a participant in her evil or less dangerous. She’s the voice of the bigoted idiots of America rather than someone selling to them.
When you’re trapped in the phantasm of conspiratorial thinking you’ll try to map any event that makes you feel something into that crooked framework.
It’s incredibly said when it’s involuntary, because it shows how damaged a person’s reasoning faculties have become. It’s infuriating when it’s done by assholes who use it knowingly to manipulate others.
There were conspiracies the morning of. I asked if anyone at work had seen it, about 9 California time, they hadn’t but soon after seeing pictures and video some of these guys were calling for a conspiracy.
So I leaned into it. Yeah Republicans refuse to fund infrastructure maintenance, so the conspiracy is get shipping companies to ram dilapidated bridges so their insurances fund the rebuilds.
The Key Bridge isn’t even that bad. There are WAY worse bridges. Just roll down the water a few miles and go after the Bay Bridge near Annapolis, for example. I’m still irritated that as bad as that pair of bridges is, there’s STILL no long term plan for replacement. We’ve been talking about it for at least a decade now.
One two lane bridge (circa 1952), and one three lane bridge (1973) with a lane that is often set to the reverse direction - without barriers! No shoulders at all. You break down, you’re in the lane. People freeze up from fear driving over it, and I really don’t blame them - I’ve never had an issue, but there is little to block your view of water almost straight down out the side of the vehicle. Don’t forget the metal grate section that gets nice and slick in any sort of wet weather. And they carry far more traffic than they were ever expected to handle. Oh and there are often high winds that add to the fun.
The Mackinac Bridge is exactly the same. Built in 1957, with one concrete and one metal grate lane in both directions, and in winter, it’s sheer ice. It’s so long over a strait prone to high winds, you can feel the sway. I’ve had panic attacks halfway over it as a passenger – and I’m always a passenger even if I was driving in the lead-up because it scares me so much, I was too terrified my first time driving across it and was shaking so badly, I could barely steer. Maybe I’m a pussy, and they say it’s well-maintained, but I’ve read Michigan DOT’s state-wide bridge health report, and it’s less than exemplary.
I have driven over that bridge as well and it’s definitely a scary one. Especially since part of it is that metal grating which gets slick in any kind of humidity.
But for me the Bay Bridges is worse (and I’ve driven the Bay Bridge many times, and the Mac only once - so you’d think familiarity would kick in). The Mac has the other lanes in sight, so it doesn’t seem as crazy small. Also, the Mac doesn’t climb as far over the water as the Bay Bridges do.
I actually compare the Bay Bridge more closely to the old bridges in Charleston, SC that connected downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant. The Grace and Pearlman bridges were quite exciting, the Grace was like a roller coaster. Like the Bay Bridges, the Grace had 2 lanes and the Pearlman had 3, one of which served as a reverse lane for trucks since the Grace couldn’t handle them. They didn’t have the height over the water that the Bay Bridge does (based on my memory), though. Those bridges weren’t replaced until 2005.
Human error is a far more reasonable explanation than complicated conspiracies, but I understand the thought. It really looked like that ship aimed for the bridge. Planning such a conspiracy would be far, far harder and more expensive to pull off than simple bridge failure, though.
They’re starting to claim it was the fault of “DEI”. That’s their new thing, whenever any accident happens of any kind its the fault of “DEI”, by which they mean its the fault of minorities having jobs. How convenient that all the failures of poor management and cut corners due to profit seeking can so neatly be blamed on minorities they want to discriminate against.
It’s not minorities having jobs, it’s minorities having good jobs. They don’t like that there are brown and queer people doing shit they want. Like why the hell am I, a trans woman, an engineer and not them? It must be DEI because it definitely isn’t that I chose to attend a college that barely even requires a pulse to attempt their engineering program and then dedicaed 5 years of my life, countless hours of work, and large sums of money to it.
A crowded room is illuminated by dim lights casting shadows across its inhabitants. In the center, DETECTIVE JIMMY MCNULTY sits at a table, surrounded by empty bottles of whiskey and beer cans. He wears his police uniform unkempt, as if he hasn’t bothered to change since his last shift. His face is grim, eyes bloodshot.
A sound echoes through the room, growing louder. A bright light flashes in the window.
MCNULTY (CONT’D) (slurring) It’s happening again. It always happens.
He stumbles to his feet, knocking over an empty bottle which shatters on the floor. He wobbles towards the door and disappears into the night.
CUT TO:
EXT. BALTIMORE STREETS - NIGHT
Streetlights flicker above as cars rush by. The distant sound of sirens grows closer. MCNULTY stands on a bridge, observing a cargo ship passing underneath.
MCNULTY (to himself) They need me. They don’t even know it yet.
His gaze fixates on the massive ship as he fumbles with something in his pocket. With a determined look, he throws what was in his hand onto the water below.
CUT TO:
EXT. BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION SITE - NIGHT
Construction workers are busy at work, their tools clanking against metal. Suddenly, a loud crash reverberates through the air. Bricks and cement fly everywhere as the pillar supporting the bridge collapses. Screams fill the air as debris falls onto the water below.
CUT TO:
EXT. ROADWAY BELOW THE BRIDGE - NIGHT
Panicked drivers swerve to avoid falling debris. An SUV skids on its side along the road, causing a chain reaction that leaves multiple vehicles destroyed.
CUT TO:
EXT. BRIDGE COLLAPSE SCENE - NIGHT
JIMMY MCNULTY emerges from the shadows, unscathed. His face is covered in ash, but his eyes burn with an unquenchable thirst for justice. He looks up at the collapsed bridge and grins, knowing that once again, he will have a case to solve.
You forgot that he will drag his old shitty boss and department into the case against their wills by proving that the ship ran into the pillar which was land not in the water therefore it was a Baltimore jurisdiction instead of the coast guards jurisdiction.
A somber mood fills the room as detectives gather around the conference table. Lieutenant CIARAN “SNUBBY” REDMOND storms in, visibly irritated.
SNUBBY (yelling) What the hell is going on here? This is a Coast Guard case! We don’t have any jurisdiction over this!
MCNULTY steps forward, unfazed by his superior’s outburst.
MCNULTY (coolly) Actually, we do. Let me show you something.
He walks over to a projection screen, plugs in a flash drive, and starts playing a video. The recording shows the cargo ship smashing into the bridge’s pillar. However, the video is slowed down, revealing something significant.
V/O (Mcnulty) The slow-motion footage reveals that the ship didn’t just hit the pilings underwater—it also collided with solid ground.
SNUBBY (surprised) How did you get this video?
MCNULTY (smirking) Let’s just say a little birdie told me that some local fishermen captured this on their boat.
Lieutenant SNUBBY runs his fingers through his hair, defeated.
SNUBBY (muttering to himself) Damn it, McNulty. You always find a way.
The other detectives look at MCNULTY with newfound respect as he takes charge of the investigation.
The ship lost main power because the corporation that leases it doesn’t pay for sufficient maintenance because that would eat into executive bonuses and shareholder dividends. The ship lost control at a pretty pivotal time with no safety measures whatsoever in place, because “most of the time they aren’t needed.” And because this is the chronically negligent maritime industry, not much will be done about it industry wide.
Slow your roll captain conspiracy. That sounds like lunacy.
It’s way more likely that illegal aliens transported this ship under the cover of night to cover up the melting of the steel beams by jet fuel. They don’t just crumple like that on their own after all. We’ve known all along these cargo containers are hollow on the inside.
Casual Navigation has (amazingly) already made a video about this accident and hypothesizes that the geography of the channels in the harbor may have pulled it to starboard. Had they not lost power they could have corrected, but it looks like happened at the worst possible moment.
We really need to bring back the true meaning of conspiracy, because these “conspiracy theories” just serve to distract the public from the wrongdoings of the capitalist class.
Believe it or not, the insurance companies drive maritime safety requirements since they hate having to pay out for things like this. The classification societies that regulate and inspect ships to approve for insurance coverage have very strict and well thought out safety requirements that get better any time a new failure mode is discovered.
I personally think this one was human error in an emergency situation.
Theory: They lost primary electric service and began a slight drift to starboard. When they got backup power online, they began a crash reverse to slow down. This would hinder rudder control since the ship was still going forward and now just creating turbulence with the prop. Reverse would torque the stern to port, swinging the bow to starboard, as we saw. The bow thruster was offline due to the power issues.
from the photos that I saw thismorning she had also dropped a bow anchor, my thoughts are if this was done when the bow had already began its drift to starboard that could have swung the stern even more to port.
Insurance companies, being for-profit institutions, are poorly suited to manage industry safety.
As for theories as to exactly what happened in terms of “the power failure caused the rudder to remain 4 degrees to port and stopped the bow thruster, causing the ship to veer off course” or whatever…I’ll wait until Brick Immortar reads me the NTSB report.
Being a pilot (as in an airplane driver, not a harbor pilot) as long as I have, I’ve had this conversation a lot:
“Did you see that airplane crash in the news?”
“No.”
“Here look:” 3 seconds to look at a hastily googled headline and a badly taken photo of what looks like a mangled Piper Cherokee wing sticking up from behind something “What do you think happened?”
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