The only things left are empty attempts at the most crucial moments.
Empty attempts at oversight are worse than doing nothing, as they provide cover for parties that otherwise would be easier to excoriate.
A Roman call to arms at the end is made to seem an empty, craven attempt to take political advantage of a private tragedy, a bit of saber rattling as pointless as the rape itself.
Or "This Success/This Failure," in which young children at play in an empty room attempt to draw visitors into their games, and after a certain time decide themselves whether the result has been a success or a failure.
Would Sophia's citizenship hold up in court in some strange future legal precedent that will come back to haunt us 10 years from now? Was the whole thing a depressingly empty, unironic attempt at publicity for Sophia's human captors?
Andersen capped the shutout by denying a frenzy of empty-net attempts in the final minute, making 16 saves in the third period.
Congo came up virtually empty in its attempt to recover money stolen by Mobutu Seso Seko, the dictator who was chased out by rebels in 1997, and Nigeria is still trying to get its hands on huge sums stashed away in foreign accounts by Sani Abacha, a military ruler who died in 1998.
Not a single pesticide or GMO related bill survived, despite the many promises of legislators and Governor Abercrombie, as an empty promise and attempt to derail County ordinances to regulate where the state repeatedly refuses, during county pesticide and GMO proceedings.
Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, after some anarchist demonstrators wrecked an empty police car, attempting to overturn it, while others smashed the windows of banks and started fires.
Insufficient staffing resulted in lines of 90 minutes for meals despite empty tables and attempts to divert guests to surcharged dining rooms, where the food was not as good.
