Well that is scary.

It should have an option to add an event to your calendar.

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

I used to imagine, “What would a new constitution look like if we actually invoked the clause to hold another constitutional convention?”

But imagine if we voted to hold one now, when billionaires hold so much power already. I all but guarantee that they’d make sure they had control over a majority of the delegates, and we’d end up with something that was somehow even worse than what we have today.

Bump all punishments up by a tier for elected officials.

Capital offense is still a capital offense.

Life in prison becomes a capital offense.

Long prison becomes life in prison.

Short prison becomes long prison.

Large fine becomes short prison.

Small fine becomes large fine.

I also think we should make a law that says any elected official making a public statement is assumed to be under oath to tell the truth, and provably false statements made by public officials in an official capacity should be punished as harshly as perjury in court.

I mean, they are smiling in the last panel.

I personally liked Ruon Tarka. He felt like a good foil for our protagonists. Sympathetic, believable, but still squarely in the wrong. I did not, however, believe Book siding with him for so long.

But I agree the coolest parts of S4 were at the end, trying to actually learn about the 10-C for first contact.

All the more sad.

I honestly would love to see a “Utopia-Realized Level Federation” series, even a limited run, where all the plots are philosophical, artistic, interpersonal, or scientific.

Oh, nice. I’m glad we aren’t ending with another stress-fest. End on a more fun note.

That’s fair, and I think Starfleet HQ fits that bill. But I think (at least in my opinion of architecture as an art form, which I think starship design falls under, since people live and work there), I’d be frustrated to work on a Saturn class if that big hole did nothing, and made navigating between any two places on the ship more of a pain. That said, with personal transporters, maybe it’s not an issue (assuming this ship isn’t near any action that could make personal transporters inoperable). Maybe it would work well as a sort of diplomatic vessel, where having all these rooms with windows facing into the ring (like a giant round table) could be artistically conducive to discussion. Maybe they have a bunch of huge holo emitters in the ring, and they use it to project the current speaker, or just cool holo-art when not in session.

I’ve read through two threads recently on DIS, and I have found nobody talking about S4. Did everyone just give up at S3? Did we all forget about “growing the beard” and how long it can take a show to get it’s legs?

S4 is my favorite season of DIS. Species 10-C was some of the coolest new sci-fi for Star Trek in a while. The overarching plot was interesting in that it had high stakes, but it didn’t feel oppressive like other seasons. It still had a sense of hope and optimism. A lot of the characters got to expand their roles and relationships, feeling more like an ensemble.

I know there was some stuff that didn’t hit well in that season, but I can’t recall the details off hand (like I can for S1-S3). In my memory, the good outweighed the bad.

I am hopeful that S5 meets at least that mark, and hopefully glides into a graceful ending for the show. If I had my wish, S5 would make a switch to a more episodic style (rather than a big season-long central plot).

I saw a lot of hate for the Saturn class, and the arguments made sense assuming classic Starfleet designs and concepts.

I, however, love it because it begs the question: why? What is that for? And my mind jumps to all sorts of cool technobabble uses for such a weird ship design.

Some weird portal experiment? Evacuation ship made to maximize shuttle bay access? A specialized science ship designed with tons of inward-facing sensors? The mind boggles with possibilities.

The people who hated in it see wasted space. I see an unopened techno-mystery-box.

That’s the great thing about lifetime appointments: they don’t have to care about their opponents at all (up until the point of violence).

To save others a click:

5 appointed by George W Bush (including the chief), 4 by Donald Trump, 1 by George H W Bush, and 1 by Barack Obama.

GOP has been losing popular opinion for years, but they’ve been stacking the courts every chance they get, and now they are reaping their rewards. Fascism by judicial capture.

I agree, but we’d have to restructure how the House does business.

The current count of Representatives is 435. If we were to go back to old ratios at 30k, we’d have 11,300 Representatives.

We’d have to break it up into smaller, constituent houses, or something.

It’s weird, he doesn’t really look like a Tellarite, but he doesn’t really look like a Talaxian, either.

I will concede he looks more like a Talaxian than a Tellarite, but still, very different.

Funny enough, if you throw bricks, it counts for both.

I don’t like the implication. Riker always respected in consent.

The wizard died doing what he loved…

Being covered in piss.

Yeah, single-use plastics make sense in a medical setting. They have the added value of being sterile where you really need it.

Outside of that setting, it’s just a convenience that is costing the environment.