left-turn depression indicator

@phantomcobra.bsky.social

2184 Followers 1588 Following

writer and critic (Paste+Endless Mode, Vague Visages, Blood Knife, People’s World, Baseball Prospectus, Dangerous to Go Alone, Movie Jawn, The Imaginary Engine Review); a better world is possible (socialist). he/him pcvulpes.wordpress.com

in an era when so many people have shorter attention spans anyway, due to short-form content consumption and the sheer breadth of entertainment media available, I think Red Dead Redemption 2 falls on the wrong side of the line.
The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll (sic)," Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post Saturday. "Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair." The National Park Service did not immediately respond to CBS News' request for comment. David Hearn, a 67-year-old Bethesda, Maryland, man who stopped by the pool while on a 64-mile bike ride, said authorities arrested him and held him for five hours on Friday after he reached down into the pool
From the website formerly known as Rap Genius: Bloc Party’s breakthrough hit, which is speculated to be about former U.S. president George Bush. In response to the interpretations, Okereke stated that he’d actually written the lyrics of “Helicopter” about himself. It’s frustrating that people attribute something to certain songs and that’s not what they’re about at all. It’s a common misconception that “Helicopter” is about President Bush. It’s kinda patronizing.
ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents, overseen by DHS, were involved in the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota
Darth Vader says “It’s stronger than it looks” while holding a cable connecting Padme’s old Naboo cruiser and some hardware he and Doctor Aphra stole
A series of comic panels after Doctor Aphra is introduced which include her telling the keeper of an archive that a weapon “belongs in an armory” like a reverse Indiana Jones
In issue 2 of Blade Runner: Black Lotus, replicant servants-turned warrior queens Cleopatra and Neyfirtiti look over their forces fighting those of King Nebuchadnezzar with the caption “The Resulting battle between Babylon and Egypt in the streets of Vegas was as fierce and bloody as any in human history”
A Warhammer 40k faction alignment chart 40% imperial 70% chaos 85% eldar 30% dark eldar 65% orks 55% tyranids 60% necrons 95% T’au
My word of the year, according to Merriam Webster, is “mortifying”
A copy of John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle with no front or back cover or spine. A stack of pages as a naked book
This is not a show made for humans. It thinks very little of the people who make games, and it thinks even less of the people that play them. And I think every little thing done to give them credence — every podcast discussion or article about its trailers and winners and column chronicling that awards horse race — has worked to cement the place where it all sits. Yes, The Game Awards are here because Keighley has the resources and stubborn will to insist on them, year after year. But they also endure because on some level, we want them to. We don’t actually want something better. We want what Keighley is selling.
Everything is Permitted: On Assassin’s Creed by Cameron Kunzelman
Rather than seeking ways of reinventing a system in which America has lost faith, Democrats are betting on Trump’s defeat in next year’s congressional elections. The odds are that Republicans will lose the House of Representatives in 2026 and retain control of the Senate. Such midterm success would be a pyrrhic victory for Democrats. Biden based his 2024 re-election bid on his party’s relative success in the 2022 midterms. Look where that led.
America has a conservative establishment. Its formal name is the Democratic party. Whether it be the federal government, universities, welfare or the regulatory state, Democrats fight to preserve the world as it is or was. “America is already great,” liberals cry, which is another way of saying that things were fine until Donald Trump came along. Their lodestar was Joe Biden, who personified nostalgia. Much of the party is now nostalgic for Biden. You have to be imprisoned in old ways of thinking to believe this is how US liberalism will rebound. An invigorated US opposition would now be making hay. Trump’s team maintains a “promises kept” tally sheet. To be sure, he has in effect closed the border, demolished DEI quota culture, assaulted the deep state
What occurred to me was the possibility that what had seemed, to me, like it could only come from a chilling and impossible level of cynicism might come instead from a perverse and even more chilling variety of mostly genuine belief. Not in the transformative power of AI! I'm talking about something wider and deeper and more frightening than that: a genuine and horribly earnest belief in not believing in anything.
1 like = 1 game I want to play
A cream-colored sedan sitting pretty in a field
Health officials from Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania met this week to consider coordinating their own vaccine recommendations, separate from the federal government. Map of the U.S. northeast with the following states highlighted: Vermont Maine New York Pennsylvania Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut New Jersey
Saw it or abetted it finally convinced themselves that it was, at best, an unimportant snafu, since the major information had, in fact, been given. I suspect if it was ever questioned, excuses of time and programming were given, and however absurd the excuses sounded, heads were shaken and the thing was more or less internalized, repressed, and forgotten. But it remains one of the most direct and terrifying manipulations of the media that I have ever seen.
The Cuban ambassador was introduced. In Spanish, he began to talk. In English, the translator followed him. There was a very different feel to the Cuban’s speech. It felt far less peremptory. He spoke of US atrocities committed regularly against his country. He spoke of his country’s unsettled position, geographically close to one great power, ideologically closer to a more distant one, and the huge experience of the risk this created across his island. He spoke of the pain and death of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, to which the recent buildup of Soviet missiles in Cuba was (partially) a response.
The Sixth Borough; Anfitriões há meio século; Otherworld; Tijolo por Tijolo
Philadelphia’s own Freeway performing at the last night of the Wu-Tang Clan Final Chamber tour
Run the Jewels performing at the last night of the Wu-Tang Clan Final Chamber tour
June 2025 Letterboxd list 20th-Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)-2.5 stars 19th-Sicario (2015)-2.5 stars 18th-The Phoenician Scheme (2025)-4.5 stars and a heart (rewatch) 13th-The Wrath of Man (2021)-2 stars 9th-Phoenician Scheme (2025)-4 stars 8th-The Nice Guys (2016)-3.5 stars and a heart 6th-28 Days Later (2002)-3 stars 3rd-Mission: Impossible (1996)-3 stars and a heart 2nd-Ballerina (2025)-2.5 stars and a heart
Picture of the Esperánce Sportive de Tunisie fans in the Lincoln Financial Field stands; some of them holding a banner that says “Land, Freedom, Palestine”
"We created a gold rush mentality around coding right as the gold ran out," Ryan continued, referencing the "learn to code" craze of the late 2010s and early 2020s. "Companies are cutting engineering budgets by 40 percent while CS enrollment hits record highs. It's basic economics. Flood the market, crater the wages."
Richardson, who has no disaster response experience, said during Monday's briefing, a daily all-hands meeting held by phone and videoconference, that he will not be issuing a new disaster plan because he does not want to make changes that might counter the FEMA Review Council, the sources said. President Donald Trump created the council to evaluate FEMA. Its members include DHS head Kristi Noem, governors and other officials. In a May 15 staff town hall, Richardson said a disaster plan, including tabletop exercises, would be ready for review by May 23.
Picture from the game Star Wars: Outlaws. Adorable little alien pet with cyborg visor implants like Lando Calrissian’s buddy Lo Bot in Empire Strikes Back
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin on a bookshelf with a recommendation blurb that says “Zombie outbreak targets cis men. Two trans women fight for their lives against flesh eaters and worse - TURFS *(should be spelled T-E-R-F*). Such a kickass debut from Gretchen Felker-Martin.”
Paperback book - The Consumer Society: A History of American Capitalism by Peter d’A. Jones… the cover is torn off the book cleanly
A full two page spread of Absolute Batman #7, the central picture in which Batman is diving upside down, but other smaller panels include a pink hued helicopter interior with Gotham police astonished, and a series of yellow hued panels depicting a construction site
Comic panels where Wonder Woman as a child talks through a story with an ambiguous ending; in the last exchange, her mother says “I understand you are caught up on her worthiness, but do you think that is the point of the story?” “…no,” replies Diana
Homemade pizza with pepperoni, mushroom, and prosciutto
2025 Independence Blue Cross Broad Street Run 10 mile race finisher medal
ESPN College Football broadcast desk conversation with “September Storlyines in PAC 12” as the bottom label during the “Sling TV halftime report” (“storlyines” should presumably say “storylines”; this was a typo on the national broadcast of a multibillion dollar company)
Chicken wing pieces fried but not fully sauced
F1 calendar fill-in list Top 5 driver predictions Max Verstappen Lando Norris Oscar Piastri Charles LeClerc Lewis Hamilton Top 3 Teams Predictions McLaren Ferrari Red Bull
Letterboxd Recent Activity showing “Conclave” (rated 3.5), “The King” (rated 4), “The Killer” (rated 3.5), and “The Big Heat (rated 4)
Full page picture of the Batmobile in Absolute Batman no. 2. Is a giant multi-level construction truck with stairs on it converted with a huge metal bat logo-shaped plate in the front
Panels of absolute Wonder Woman carrying a giant sword that’s bigger than her and transforming it into a sword larger than a building
Cover of “We the Pizza” by Muhammad Abdul-Hadi with recipes by Michael Carter. Subtitled “Slangin’ Pies + Savin’ Lives”
Financial experts interviewed by CNBC said balances that high are unusual. “That’s a truly massive amount of credit card debt,” said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate. “He has a lot of income, so I don’t even know why you’d have all that debt if you have that much income,” said Carolyn McClanahan, a certified financial planner and founder of Life Planning Partners, who reviewed Kennedy’s filing. Kennedy was not immediately available for comment.
Braided king cake with white icing, Mardi Gras color (purple, green, and yellow) sprinkles, and surrounded by Mardi Gras beads
Trump administration officials have said the offers are also meant to signal to those who oppose Trump’s agenda to find work elsewhere. Ratcliffe told the White House to extend the same buyout package to the CIA, the aide said, believing it would pave the way for a more aggressive spy agency.  A CIA spokeswoman said the move was part of an effort to “infuse the agency with renewed energy.”  In his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe promised to launch more hard-edge spying operations and covert action, naming drug cartels and China as key adversaries. “To the brave CIA officers listening around the world, if all of that sounds like what you signed up for, then buckle up and get ready to make a difference,” he told lawmakers last month. “If it doesn’t then it’s time to find a new line of work.”
Michael Fassbender in Inglourious Basterds playing a British spy undercover as a Nazi who blows his cover by holding up three fingers in the British (index, middle, ring, with the thumb holding the pinky) rather than German (thumb, index, middle, with the ring and pinky down) way
"As a freelancer, my options for pitching features is a very small list – and most of the time I don’t even get a response. My options for pitching features that pay well? It’s like two places," writer, author, and friend of Aftermath Aidan Moher said on Bluesky. "So, honestly, Restart will go on my list and its turn-order placement will be dictated by pay rate."
From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
Earlier this year, an administrative trial judge in the department recommended dropping a disciplinary case against Maddrey regarding a November 2021 incident in which he ordered officers to void the arrest of a retired officer who previously worked for him. The judge ruled at the time that the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, a police watchdog agency, lacked jurisdiction to pursue the case.
VHS tape of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi labeled “unaltered ver.”
After acquiring Destiny 2 developer Bungie in 2022, the company underwent two rounds of layoffs cutting roughly 300 employees, shuffled another 155 employees to other divisions within PlayStation, and cancelled a number of in-development projects. Then in 2023, Sony acquired Firewalk Studios to create an “original AAA multiplayer game” for the PS5. That game turned out to be Concord, whose exceedingly poor reception led to the game being permanently shut down weeks after its launch with Firewalk completely shuttered barely a year after Sony’s acquisition.
The Biden administration would have to rush $7.1 billion in weapons — $4.3 billion from the 2024 supplemental and $2.8 billion that is still on the books in savings due to the Pentagon recalculating the value of systems sent — from the Pentagon’s stockpiles in order to spend all of those funds obligated before Trump is sworn in. There’s also another $2.2 billion available to put weapons systems on long-term contracts. However, recent aid packages have been much smaller in size, around $200 million to $300 million each.
Me standing in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art holding up a sign that says “Yo Kevin!” and has a picture of my face taped over Sylvester Stallone’s face on an iconic picture of Rocky
NBA logo which shows a player dribbling
Panel from Absolute Batman #1 where masked, armed members of the Party Animals run up to Batman as he stands waiting at the top of stairs leading down from a Gotham government building enshrouded by amoke
A screenshot of the game Suzerain in chapter 3. The player has a -3 budget and 1 personal wealth. Centered over the map screen is a news story from the Radical, the left wing papered the lead headline is “Refugees Suffer Because of Rayne”
Screenshot of command & conquer: red Alert
NCAA football 07 on PS2
Screenshot from X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse featuring a squad led by Magneto including Wolverine, Cyclops, and Storm