u/maybemorningstar69

I feel like I'm in the minority here, but I'm convinced that Bernard is still alive. In sci-fi shows the constant rule is always that unless you see the death clearly, it didn't occur. Sims only suffocated Bernard for a few seconds, and we saw a body get torched but no face. Either he's dead and the writers want us speculating about his status (but why?), or he's alive.

Assume he's alive, assume Sims stashed him somewhere or whatever. Why did Sims keep him alive? Where is he exactly? And how will he factor into the story (in either this season or next?)

Generally I put butter on a lot of my food to up my calorie intake (I'm thin and no matter how much food I eat, even if it's all garbage), but sometimes I can't resist and I just eat butter straight.

It's a pretty good snack, sometimes I'll cover them in sugar when I want something sweet, or buffalo dry rub when I want something salty, and it works both ways.

Granted, I know much of her polling success is just name recognition and "I voted for her last time" vibes, but some of it is probably real.

If you're someone who thinks Kamala Harris would be an above average (or even the best) choice for the Democratic nomination, why? What advantages do you think she provides that the other potential candidates don't?

To me, she's pretty much as bad as it gets in terms of potential nominees. She's lost twice, she's not from a swing state, neither the progressive or centrist sides of the Democratic Party really like her, she fumbled the VP pick in 2024, etc. But that perception of her as a candidate is pretty mainstream, at least online, so to people who think she'd actually be a better choice than most of the other candidates, what do you think she brings to the table?

This might be a somewhat unpopular opinion because of that fact that functionally Mike was wrong. Lydia ultimately got her way when her and Walt decided to kill the nine men, but I think Mike in the end was right because that decision imho is the main factor that led to Walt's downfall.

Looking back at the time Walt was considering this move, Mike just lost all his money, and Walt of course killed him. Before Mike was dead, Jesse wasn't in great shape, but after Mike was dead and Jesse clearly knew it was Walt who did it, he went nuts throwing away all his money, and needed to be taken out of the picture (which of course led to him figuring out that Walt poisoned Brock.) Not to state the obvious, but if Walt just used some of his ~$80 million to pay off the nine guys and Mike, Jesse would've been fine, and without Jesse turning on him there really wasn't much Hank could do to beat Walt after his "retirement" from the meth business.

There's that, and the fact that the people who Walt hired to kill all of Mike's guys caused so many problems for him and Jesse directly afterwards. Todd of course killed Drew Sharpe (and yes I know that was before the hit on Mike's guys), then Jack and his gang stole nearly all of Walt's money, killed Hank, and imprisoned Jesse, only for Walt to kill the gang and liberate Jesse through a plan that could easily have failed if Jack's gang for whatever reason just decided to move Walt's car, or maybe a couple guys duck and then shoot the terminally ill cancer patient and his handcuffed sidekick, idfk.

But TL;DR, Gus and Mike would've never gotten into bed with Jack's gang, or ever considered such a violent prison hit, and not because they were "morally opposed" to it or something like that (tbh I think Gus and Mike are both worse people than Walt), but because accepting people who are capable of such a rapid and violent coordinated effort in the long run is just bad for business.

So to clarify a little more, there's a girl who decent amount of time with in-person through a shared hobby that I'm gonna ask out pretty soon. Normally I wouldn't bark up this tree because I know I'm a young looking 21, but I feel with her that's not a dealbreaker, not much more than a gut feeling but I think I'm right about this.

Sometimes with girls my own age or even younger tbh I can tell when I say something slightly off color and it just gives them the ick, sometimes in an immature way and in other ways, but I want to avoid that sort of thing with her. Maybe she likes me now, but if she spends two weeks ago and starts thinking "damn, this guy's really immature," she might just move on.

And this isn't about "not being myself" or whatever, I'm perfectly comfortable in my own skin, but I guess what I'm asking is what are some subtle signs that a guy can give off without knowing that to you would make him appear childish? (Both in the early stages and more long term in a relationship.)

So this is one part of the story I never really understood. Christopher's dad, Dickie Moltisanti, was like an uncle to Tony, and helped initially introduce him to the business. This would make sense if Tony was like 20 years older than Christopher, but isn't Tony like 10 years older than Christopher (and since his dad died when he was a baby, that doesn't leave much room to introduce Tony to the mafia.)

Tbh when I first watched I thought Tony was like 20 years older than Christopher, but then with the Tony B stuff it's revealed that they're closer in age, I think? With that in mind, what was Christopher's father's role in Tony's life?

So I already knew that Dutch Harbor is one hour behind the rest of the state, but I also just learned that Hyder is one hour ahead of us (because they're only connected to Canada by road, so they're in the same time zone as the Yukon and BC.)

I also heard somewhere that they use both U.S. and Canadian currency, which sounds pretty cool. If anyone here has ever been there please fill me in, living in the U.S. but also being completely isolated from the country in a tiny pocket sounds like a really interesting concept.

So before anyone says it, I don't think Raskova's actually gonna get him sent to a gulag (yet), at least not long term. Aside from the fact that he's clearly been sent to one already, in FAMK it's established that Sergei became the head of Roscosmos in 1983, not the early 1970s. I don't think we're at a point yet where next episode Sergei's immediately gonna go into leading the Soviet space program.

I also think that the Chief Designer is without a doubt the show's most compelling character, and since there's no time skips I don't think the show's gonna can him in Season 1 or even Season 2. So with that assumption (though maybe I'm wrong), where do you all see his story going?

So as I see, if Lalo's plan was successful, i.e. if he showed proof to Eladio that Gus was working against them by trying to start his own operation in secrecy and basically secede from the Cartel in the process, Lalo probably would've become #2 in the Cartel, behind Eladio.

Gus was essentially Bolsa's guy, almost all of Bolsa's character is the idea that money outweighs the importance of cartel tradition, and that since Gus runs such an efficient operation that he should be a party to cartel business (despite not being Mexican or straight.) If Gus went down, wouldn't Bolsa too? (At least from being Eladio's de facto consigliere to a minor player.)

Then if it's just Eladio and Lalo, wouldn't Lalo want to take over the entire Cartel? Hector's whole point in Better Call Saul is basically that his family got screwed over. We can kind of assume that there was some big war(s) in the 1980s/1990s where a bunch of Salamanca blood was spilled (including the parents of Tuco, the Cousins, and Lalo), leaving Hector as the sole family elder. With that and the fact that the Cartel abandoned tradition purely for profit, wouldn't Hector be in Lalo's ear telling him to go after Eladio next so the Salamanca family could actually run the Cartel?

Then there's an interesting hypothetical to follow that up, if the Salamancas fully took over the Cartel, how would that change Breaking Bad?

#1: Bill Walker (I, AK) - Starting off with someone people not be expecting, I think Bill Walker is the most likely Independent/third party candidate to win this cycle. He's a former Governor, and since there's three strong Republican candidates in the race I think there's a real chance that Tom Begich gets locked out of the four candidate runoff. But even if he doesn't, I think a lot of the Independents/Republicans who are flipping for Peltola this year would also gravitate towards an Independent. After the RCV is fully counted, my guess is that it'd be something like 55% Walker, 45% Wilson.

#2: Dan Osborn (I, NE) - Osborn's back again, and in a blue leaning year. Does that improve his chances of actually winning statewide? Perhaps, but can a progressive figure like Osborn actually win a state as red as Nebraska? For now I'll say no, I'm thinking it ends up at like 53% Ricketts, 47% Osborn again, but I don't think it's impossible either.

#3 - Kevin Kiley (I, CA-06) - If we're to go directly off of the primary results, it would be 56% Pan and 44% Kiley. I think that's actually a pretty fair assessment for now, but I also think Kiley's got a realistic path to victory if he convinces people he's an actual Independent (and not just Republican Sanders/King.) The trouble is that until now, he's never really been a swing vote, so it's definitely a stretch. Not impossible though.

#4: Seth Bodnar (I, MT) - The Senate race that (in my opinion) everyone is sleeping on right now. Seth Bodnar, the former UM President with the support of one of the Senate's most centrist Democrats, a former Republican Governor, and the Forward Party already. But will the Democrat drop out? She says no, but so did Eric Adams last year, and look how that turned out. For now I'll assume she won't and give it the NYC numbers (50% Alme, 41% Bodnar, 7% Bankhead) since there's credible polling that says Alme and Bodnar are tied in a head-to-head matchup.

#5: Robert Smullen (C, NY-21) - Now the House race that literally everyone is sleeping on (because it just became relevant last week.) After losing the Republican primary for NY-21, State Assemblyman Robert Smullen has yet to withdraw from the Conservative Party ballot line. Maybe he will tomorrow and my prediction will become irrelevant, but until then, this race could honestly go any of three ways. If he stays in, my prediction is 41% Gendebien, 35% Constantino, and 24% Smullen, because I actually see conservatives struggling to consolidate in this situation.

#6: Rick Bennett (I, ME) - Second only to Alaska, Maine has a long history of Independents getting double digits in statewide races, often even winning them outright. Rick Bennett is a pretty big name, so I expect him to be no exception, and the increased Independent turnout due to Platner's controversies will definitely help him out too. I'm thinking 52% Pingree, 37% Charles, and 10% Bennett.

#7: Ken Block (I, RI) - The founder of the Moderate Party of Rhode Island which not too long ago broke 20% in a gubernatorial race. Block's internals also have him at around 20%, and McKee's controversies definitely help Block here. Even still, I doubt he's getting 1/5th of the electorate, I'd have to see non-internal polling saying otherwise first. I'll predict 54% Foulkes, 37% Guckian, 8% Block.

#8: Ken Miyagishima (F, NM) - This one's pretty interesting given that Miyagishima is a former mayor of a major city in New Mexico (Las Cruces), and the state Republican Party is so disorganized that it almost didn't nominate a candidate for Senate, and Miyagishima's actually running on the Forward Party ballot line, not just as an Independent. I think it'll be a matter of whether or not he can convince people he has enough credibility to basically absorb the Republican vote (even some MAGA people, not just moderates.) I'll assume no for now, but I wouldn't fully discount the possibility. Haaland 55%, Hull 38%, Miyagishima 7%.

#9: Todd Achilles (I, ID) - Achilles, Bengs, and Pinkins all seem like fairly progressive Democrats inspired by Dan Osborn to try to force their red state Democratic parties to stand down and endorse them as Independents. Unforunately for the three of them, it's almost certainly not gonna work, and they don't have the same institutional support as Bodnar imo rise above their Democratic counterparts. 62% Risch, 33% Roth, 6% Achilles.

#10: Brian Bengs (I, SD) - Summed it up pretty much in the paragraph above, Rounds 63%, Beaudion 32%, Bengs 5%. Interesting side note, Beaudion was endorsed by Joe Biden, and I can't say I know why.

#11: Andy Kaplan (F, SC-05) - Bonus eleventh candidate. This is a particularly interesting House race to me since it's one of the first instances of a Forward Party candidate actually being on the ballot, South Carolina has a pretty well organized Forward Party chapter, and Kaplan seems to have decent funding behind him. So since he's an unknown if he can just hit above the regular Libertarian/Green numbers I think it'll be a larger success for third party politics. My prediction is Climer 57%, Dittmer 38%, Kaplan 5%.

Side note, although this is purely a numbers ranking, it does not include D+40/R+40 districts where the other party got lazy and didn't find a candidate so some Indie showed up off the street. Those situations never end up becoming relevant, and it's not like Nebraska where there's actual strategy involved. Also I can't keep track of every time a weak state party gets lazy.

In Rick's drunken ramblings to Morty in 09x04, he says "it's genetic, your just like me!" If the pair are really so alike, what if (like Rick and Rick Prime), Morty ends up killing Evil Morty?

Other than that option, I really have no idea where Evil Morty's story ends. I thought that his Season 5 ending was a good way of coming full circle, but he just keeps coming back, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon (although I don't see him staying in prison until Season 11, I think we're getting another appearance sooner than we might expect.)

Rick Prime though had an ending obviously, being killed by Rick. The Citadel had an ending, being destroyed twice (kinda three times tbh.) But what is Evil Morty's final outcome? I don't see an alternative to him being killed by Morty. They're both Mortys, Morty deep down is capable of anything that Evil Morty is capable of. If Rick and Morty are so alike, a face off between the two Mortys is inevitable. Morty.

I was having a debate about this with a friend of mine, obviously ET favors U.S. elections (nothing wrong with that), but what is everyone's least favorite election, anywhere in the free world?

Btw I use the term free world loosely, like I'm not counting countries like Russia, but if they have at least like a 4/10 on the Economist Democracy Index, they count. Basically any system with multi-party elections where two or more parties at least have a hypothetical pathway to victory (so yes, that includes dominant party states.)

This is coming from someone btw who generally thinks this show should've never had 16 episode seasons (let alone >20 episode seasons.) However, I actually really liked the covid filler episodes, in particular the Gabriel/Aaron one and especially Find Me (the first Carol and Daryl one.)

I felt like this episode was the only instance after 09x05 where the character talked about Rick in the way the audience wanted to hear. After Season 10 he was essentially forgotten, and in Season 9 there he was mentioned a lot, but it was mostly through that stupid "brave man" caricature (and overall I liked the Grimes kids, but Michonne should've referred to him as "your dad," not some mythical creature when she talked about what happened at the bridge. Very bad writing there.)

But in Find Me we saw important things, what "looking for Rick" meant to Daryl, and Daryl getting an actual romance. It took over a decade, but finally he got one, and it was actually pretty interesting to watch. I still wish he ended up with Connie in some regard, but Daryl and Leah were a neat duo.

When Daryl said he was living in the wild and Leah asked him why, he said essentially that he lost someone, his brother, and initially we're kinda led to think he's talking about Merle, but then we figure out that he meant Rick. That's one of the big things this decade of TWD lost.

Forget big reunion shows or spinoffs or whatever, Daryl spent six years looking for someone he considered his brother, and that was probably the one episode that leaned into that in an effective way.

Speaking as someone who went to a lot of Christian summer camps and after school activities, that one scene where he's just sitting there overstimulated by all the screaming and dancing (particularly Firecracker going nuts, and then Oh Father doing the big yell), that's like every high energy Christian worship event boiled down into a couple minutes.

Literally every one of these things has a girl like Firecracker screaming her lungs out, and I have nothing against organized religion, it's pretty cool I guess, but there's always a woman who you can tell has nothing going on, her life probably sucks as a whole, but she's still screaming the loudest and being the most high energy, and I'm just sitting overstimulated asf.

Then the guy on stage who's like kind of a priest but might not be (sometimes he's just a camp councilor with with a bible and a microphone) starting yapping super loud, directly in my ear, and no one else seems to be bothered by the level of energy and movement and stimulus, but I'm just sitting there absolutely zonked.

I don't drink milk though, so there's that.

- Father who is overweight, may or may not be balding but has little hair regardless, and is generally a decent guy who cares about his family, but his incompetency and stupidity increases every season. If the show gets past Season 5 he basically becomes a cartoon character.

- Mother who is not employed (but often has single episode jobs), she is strict and confident, and that's kinda it.

- Sibling who is gifted.

- Sibling who is rebellious but "smart in their own way."

- Maybe a third sibling who exists purely for comic relief, is either the middle or youngest child, always a B tier character in terms of importance.

- A dog (but you never see it get walked or fed.)

- No cat or other pets that last longer than one episode.

- A next door neighbor who is inside the family's house a lot.