themeatbridge

I think there will be some protests, some violence, but it will be much smaller than the protesters want it to be, and any violence will be swiftly met with law and order.

Jan 6 happened in part because Trump was in power. Election deniers in every state tried to gum up the works, and will try again. But Trump is not in power. He cannot exchange favors or offer pardons. People obstructing the democratic process will be arrested and prosecuted.

There was a movie about this last year. It was based on a true story, but strays a bit from what actually happened. It’s pretty good. It’s called Hitman.

Does the term describe yourself? If not, you haven’t reclaimed it.

Some wealthy people don’t give a shit whether you believe they have wealth. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone until and unless you make an offer. Ask questions, and don’t answer questions. Give vague, short responses and neglect to elaborate.

Why do you think you can’t prove Gengis Khan existed?

Claims need proof when there is a call to action. It doesn’t matter to me if you’re from an island or a small town or a big city, unless you’re giving me directions. If you make an extraordinary claim, and you want me to believe you, then I’ll need proof. If you make a mundane claim, then what the fuck do I care if you’re lying? If you claim to have a disease, I’m going to believe you because I’m not a doctor and it costs me nothing to take you at your word.

If you shout “Run, something bad is coming!” I might feel foolish and angry if I later learn you were lying, but I’d rather be foolish and angry than injured or dead. Proof is a luxury when time is of the essence, doubly so when safety is at risk.

There might be some specific nuances to quibnle over, but generally I think we could reach consensus on the guidelines I described.

That kinda sounds like something someone would say if they were planning to stop supporting Ukraine after the election.

He also noted that Donald Trump made it clear in his debate

Donald Trump didn’t make anything clear except his own mental decline. He was asked directly if he would continue to support Ukraine, and he said he wanted the war to end. That’s as muddy as he can make it, and it still implies he will kneel before Putin.

MAGA is the island of lost souls. The point of the debate is not to change their minds. It is to make the stark difference between the candidates laughably obvious, so that even the moderate conservatives feel ashamed and stupid that he represents their interests, and the moderate Democrats feel comfortable mocking them for their weirdness.

Nobody felt that way about Clinton. She tried to be the better person without alienating the Trump supporters. She used words like “deplorables” when she should have said “shitbags.”

Trump supporters deserve to be alienated, just as all bigots and nazis and narcissists should be. They will not change because of a rational argument. You need to smoke them out of the crowd, and then point and laugh until they shrivel up and every child sees their humiliation, so that no one grows up thinking it’s OK to be a bigot, or that there are good people on both sides.

Fascism is a threat of violence, and the best way to defeat it is to render it impotent. You can’t kill an idea, but you can make people embarrassed to admit it out loud.

It’s a reference to spam callers. For a few years, right around when everyone was realizing they shouldn’t answer the phone for unknown callers, it was really common to get calls that, if you picked up, would play a pre-recorded message along the lines of “Hello! We’ve been trying to get in touch with you regarding your car’s extended warranty. You may be entitled to money and blowjobs, and if your warranty expires, your hair will fall out and your car will be repossessed. To speak to a representative, press 1. Por habla Esperanto, marqué νούμερο 二.”

If you pressed 1, you would ostensibly be connected to a high-pressure sales rep trying to sell you a worthless maintenance contract. Nobody is really certain, though, because despite hundreds of millions of people receiving twelve of these calls each day, not one person every stayed on the line longer than “regarding…” In fact, my memory on the end of that message might be a fabrication, because I don’t think I ever heard it.

See also, filibuster and gerrymandering.

I’ve just been doing it manually every time I see it. It’s probably getting old, but then that’s the point, innit?

Progress is about movement, not destinations. Some days you move the ball forward. Some days you stop it from moving backwards. On really shitty days, you just try to slow it down moving in the wrong direction. It takes effort, and dilligence, and I agree it’s exhausting. We may not live to see the mountaintop, but we stand on the shoulders of giants and we try to make the world better for the next group. If we live our lives that way, we can die knowing it was worth being alive. Anything else is just killing time.

What a load of horseshit.

There was nothing unconstitutional about the first executive action to cancel student debt. Such action was explicitly permitted by the HEROES Act, and only a bad-faith interpretation by an illegitimate court consisting of corrupt justices was able to find otherwise.

And there’s nothing wrong with this attempt, either. It’s just that Conservatives don’t want the government helping people in an election year. Debt cancellation is universally popular and only negatively impacts the politicians who aren’t in favor.

You seem really upset about something that shouldn’t affect you in any way.

The answer is that you’re thinking about this too much. It’s pop music, designed to be fun and catchy, with a hook and a fun dance routine. It’s performed by pretty people who can sing and dance in a manner that is aesthetically and musically entertaining.

Why do they all look and sound the same? Why does every fast food restaurant have a similar burger and french fry combo? It’s because that’s what sells, and this isn’t art. It’s a product designed to be sold.

I dunno man, if you are a girl wouldn’t you a dude that, yeah, he’s attractive but also that looks manly? That can physically protect you? And that does not has a doll face?..

This just comes off as thinly veiled insecurity. There are a lot of people in the world, and attraction is a spectrum. People like what they like, and there’s probably someone out there who likes you for you. You don’t need a doll face, nor do you need to look manly or be physically imposing. Most people don’t need protection in their day to day lives. People want support, companionship, partnership, compatibility, and entertainment. Be fun and loving, and be yourself, and just leave the outdated gender stereotypes behind. You’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, nor do you need to be (unless you’re trying to land a job in a KPop band).

Strong agree on the dark side of the industry. That’s the danger with turning performers themselves into a commodity. It’s bad enough manufacturing commercial music as a product, but turning the talent into a product is dehumanizing in a way that leads to terrifying exploitation.

But as consumers, we’re all really good at compartmentalizing the exploitation from the enjoyment we receive from it. If you think the pop music industry is bad, wait until you learn about fast fashion, or cheap technology, or luxury travel, or abundant meat, or out-of-season produce, or inexpensive energy, or pretty much anything you pay to enjoy. There’s a lot of money involved in hiding the suffering.

We’re at the restaurant. The waiter is walking towards the table. The menu is in front of you. It’s the dry chicken, or a rusty fork in your eye. Those are the choices. You don’t have to like it, but you will choose or the choice will be made for you. You can complain to the chef, but if you don’t order the dry chicken, you will get the rusty fork stabbed into your eye. You can demand we go to a better restaurant next time, but right now you’re either going to eat some dry chicken and look for ways to make the best of that situation, or someone is going to stab your eye with a mangled fork that is almost certainly covered in tetanus.

When Harris is President, and Trump is in jail, we shall discuss the next election. Until then, you’re either with Harris or you’re with Trump.

Remember, this is what Conservatives are good at. They don’t bitch and moan that their candidates aren’t perfect. They bitch and moan that reality isn’t what they want, and consistently demand that politicians cater to their brand of narcissism. Conservatives have installed acolytes at every level of government, in every judicial system across the country, on every school board and election board. They have achieved this by unwavering devotion to make the world benefit themselves at every turn. They have lost more battles than they have won, but they don’t need to win every time. They just need reasonable people to grow tired and give in a little. That’s how you end up controlling six Supreme Court Justices, two of the three most populous states, and most of the religious institutions in the country.

Slams! Dut duh duh, dut duh duh. Let the boys be boys!

[L]ook for something to kill

I had not thought about it, but I didn’t have any interest in the Biden/Trump debate. I knew what to expect, and Biden’s disappointing showing just made me bored with the whole thing.

I’m actually excited to see Harris pick Trump apart tomorrow, and I hope she doesn’t take her foot off his neck the whole time.

I agree that she’s not as progressive as I wish she was. But the overton window is stuck on a fascist dictator, so I’m going to vote for Kamala and we’ll call that progress.

I welcome her efforts, and agree with her that Trump is a cancer upon the party.

But Trump is not some invader to the party come to conquer. He is the natural product of a brand of political narcissism that she’s supported and espoused her entire public life. She’s like a tobacco executive with metastatic lung cancer, who has suddenly realized that cancer is bad but doesn’t think people need to stop smoking. They just need to cut out the cancer, and then they can go back to enjoying the smooth taste of Conservativism.

She’s brave to go against the party. She’s smart to recognize the opportunity she has to reclaim control of the GOP by helping Kamala and the Dems. If Trump loses, and the Dems take the House and Senate, she can point to the loss and say “See, I told you so.” But anyone that falls for that line has a very short memory.

This reads like a Baptist minister discovering a boyfriend his daughter’s room, and then losing his shit like the boyfriend hadn’t been invited in. “How could you dupe my sweet, innocent political party with your seductive money and influence!”