And Now a Sports Interlude

Posted: March 8, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

With the Departure of Jackie Bradley Jr the Boston Redsox have now lost all three members of what was once the best outfield in baseball.

It’s fair to say that the best outfielder that the Sox currently have is worse than the worst outfielder they had in 2018 (Andrew Benintendi).

The number of flyouts that will become doubles and the number of extra bases that will be taken against this pitching staff will not be an enjoyable sight to see.

There has been some talk about Shaq’s comments concerning NBA players of today being coddled.

He is of course right but in general the youth of today have not had to face reality in general and have not been said no to about anything so as average students without massive ability aren’t subject to anything resembling discipline I don’t see why he would expect young people in the NBA who by definition have a high level skill set that make them a potential source of revenue for people and are paid highly for it to show any?

This isn’t an NBA problem it’s a societal problem.

Here in New England there is still all kinds of talk concerning who will be the QB for the patriots this year. Will it be Cam Newton? Will Belichick draft a QB, will he sign a free agent, will he do something else etc etc etc.

All of this talk is basically meaningless. As long as Tom Brady is still playing in the NFL he will be the only measuring stick that any Pats QB will be measured against and there is no available QB that can be signed or drafted that will not be found wanting in such a comparison so whoever comes here is going to be here for a paycheck not to take this team to a title. As long as Brady is on the field anywhere being the Patriots Quarterback will be the most thankless job in the NFL.

Personally my thought is that if you don’t have the potential to make this a playoff team I’d just pick up players in the draft to improve other position and perhaps trades for some picks next year presuming there is someone coming up the pike that might be worth looking at.

Am I the only person who thinks it’s both pathetic and creative that the NFL sold the naming rights to their divisions to make up for lost Corona Virus revenue? I mean the Honda West Division? Really?

Frankly the most interesting thing about hockey these days is that it’s been decades since the Montreal Canadians who were once the NY Yankees of the Hockey world has won a Stanley Cup or even been in contention for it.

We’re still nowhere near Red Sox after 1918 futility but the drought has almost reached 30 years. That’s pretty sad.

Finally it appears that with fans shortly to start returning to the various sports venues in the near future the owners have decided to put the breaks on “woke” displays designed to appease the arrogant left.

It’s one thing to do these things when there are no paying fans to offend, it’s quite another to risk fan bases already disgusted with athletes who treat them with contempt.

Review: Season One of Tribes of Europa

Posted: March 7, 2021 by John Ruberry in culture, media
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

I guess I’m in an arts and culture mood of late so I’m reviewing my latest Netflix binge-watching adventure, Tribes of Europa, a six-episode series about a dystopian Europe centered on the former Germany in 2074. 

In December of 2029 the world’s power-grid fails–the cause of which is never explained, but it could be because of a cyberwar gone too far, along the lines of the biological warfare that precedes the Charlton Heston classic, The Omega Man.

Europe has devolved well past the European Union or even the nation-states that the borders of which–for the most part–have been resilient since the end of World War II. Microstate tribes have replaced the old order. One of those tribes is the Origines (rhymes with aborigines), a peaceful group of several dozen hunter-gatherers, wearing, presumably, scavenged clothes from before society’s collapse. Their community is destroyed after a B-1 type aircraft, belonging to the technologically advanced Atlantians, crashes near their village.

Three young Origine siblings, Liv (Henriette Confurius), Elja (David Ali Rashed), and Kiano (Emilio Sakraya), along with their father Jakob (Benjamin Sadler), are forced to scatter, the siblings carve three storylines, much like what the children of Ned Stark did in Game of Thrones. Yes, this show is derivative. Much of the mood and tone recalls another German series, the time-travel show Dark. The producers of that series also are behind this one. And there is a bit of the Star Wars franchise in Tribes of Europa. Moses (Oliver Masucci) is a fast-talking salvage merchant who is constantly trying to keep one step ahead of a powerful lender. Who does that remind you of? Moses takes Elja under his wing. Masucci is a gifted actor, he portyayed the brooding Ulrich in Dark, a cruel but ultimately tragic character, as well as Hitler in the comedy Look Who’s Back. 

Moses is only interested, at least initially, in Elja, the youngest of the Origine siblings, because he found an Atlantian cube, which, must like the Ring of Power in the Lord of the Rings, is sought after by other tribes, particularly the Crows. And in the early episodes, like the Ring, we are unsure of exactly what powers the cube possesses. As for the Crows, they are barbarians who party in discos and participate in gladiator duels.

Yes, there is a bit of The Hunger Games in Tribes of Europa.

Liv falls in the the Crimson Army, which is led by General Cameron (James Faulkner). He’s the actor who portayed the stern Randyll Tarly in Game of Thrones. One of the Crimson Army’s goals is to seize the former Berlin, Brahtok, the Crow capital, where Kiano and Jakob are being held.

Cameron dreams of bringing back the old Europe. Liv asks the general, “Do you really think you can pull it off, unite the continent?” Cameron replies, “The European idea will never die.” According to numerous media sources the idea for Tribes of Europa came to show creator Philip Koch after the Brexit vote in 2016.

The German in Tribes of Europa is dubbed for Netflix. But in a key revelation, English is still the lingua franca in post-collapse Europe.

There are just six episodes in the first season and as this one ends with three cliffhangers, I imagine a second season of Tribes of Europa is planned. If there is I’ll tune in.

Netlix rates Tribes of Europa as TV-MA for graphic violence, foul language, nudity, and very uncomfortable sexual situations. 

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

One Point about the harassments accusations against Cuomo that nobody is mentioning…

Posted: March 7, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

…is that not one of these women were willing to come forward while Donald Trump was still President of the United States.

After all Cuomo was falsely being painted as a COVID success story (even as he will killing grandmas) while Trump falsely painted as a failure (while getting vaccines developed in record time & trying to get the country open) and it just wouldn’t do to put Cuomo on the spot when it might help Trump.

But now Cuomo is a potential rival to the Obama sorry Harris sorry Biden Administration and thus must be removed so those who tolerated that behavior before now find it problematic, or put simply the useful idiot is no longer useful, unexpectedly of course.

I submit and suggest that if the president was re-elected these women would have remained silent and if more were harassed during that time they and the left would have considered it small price to pay to keep from giving President Trump an advantage.

Oh and FYI Cuomo isn’t going anywhere, just ask Ralph Northam or Tara Reade if you think he will be resigning anytime soon.

Judging our neighborhood overseers

Posted: March 6, 2021 by ng36b in blogs, crime, Uncomfortable Truths
Tags: , , , , ,

I’ve been enjoying my time away from Facebook, with the biggest benefit being more time to do things that really matter. I’ve hung out with more actual friends, gotten more work done on the house, and read more actual news and a lot less opinions.

I am still on MeWe and Nextdoor, and Nextdoor supplies me with any additional drama I may need. A few days ago, this gem popped into my feed

Overseer? Rid of crime? Whoa…what’s going on here!

So, for starters, this person lives in a crappy part of town. Nextdoor lists your neighborhoods, so I looked it up…and that neighborhood sucks. It’s not Chicago level, but its not a nice place. On a scale of “let my kids play in front yard” to “requires military escort to visit 7-11,” I’d give it a “keep a knife in your car for protection” level of safety. Basically, the person posting it isn’t off the mark about safety.

Now, when you read the word “overseer,” most people reading this blog probably sucked in their breath. I know I did. But I kept reading.

  • “Rid of crime?” I personally think that’s why we have police officers, but I don’t disagree with the sentiment
  • Streets are clean. Not disagreeing here.
  • Helping people repair homes. Sounds like charity work. I’ve helped my neighbors clean up, and they’ve helped me.
  • Make sure everyone is safe. Define “safe.” If its a neighborhood watch sort of thing…ok.
  • Make sure everyone has food. I donate to the local food pantry, so again, not opposed.

The more I read it, the more I realized I’m not in total opposition to this person. As you can see from the comments, plenty of people paused on the “overseer” word. Given that there are plenty of grammatical errors in the post, I would say this person doesn’t have a great grasp of English. Is it possible that this person made a poor word choice? I think so.

Even better, what if I made some tweaks. Let’s say the post looked like this:

OK, so I had some fun at the end with Karen and CNN. But if someone posted about starting a militia, most of the readers here (including me) would be OK with it. And if we also helped our actual neighbors, again, most would be fine. If we did a food drive, or a repair homes drive, or walked the streets at night to provide presence and deter criminals, again, most people reading this are probably OK with that.

I don’t blame people for jumping on the word “overseer,” but anymore social media has made people so quick to judge others that we’re missing opportunities to connect with real people. If you want to jump on every comment from Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi, I don’t blame you, because they don’t have good intentions. But your local neighbor is not Nancy Pelosi (hopefully not anyway). Maybe, just maybe, instead of instantly lashing out against the person, asking for some clarification might be in order.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

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