At best, "support our troops" was a version of that dumbass magical thinking that, in earlier times, held that the U.S. lost in Vietnam because Americans didn't clap for Tinkerbell, err, I mean, support the war. Mostly, it was a thought-terminating cliché.
Yeah, as you rightly point out, it was never about the soldiers themselves.
It's not accelerationism at all! It's fatalism.
Accelerationism is, "It has to get worse before it can get better."
My point here is, "The system that only allows for getting worse will never get better."
A big issue with this approach: The United States is not a law of nature; it doesn't have to exist. The system may only allow two options, but it does not guarantee that either one of those options will keep the system viable. Reduced harm is still harm, and at some point we needed to stop doing it.
Not believable; Epstein died over 5 years ago. All the girls in that book are way too old for Gaetz by now.
Dammit, I came up with a Halloween costume too late. The plan would've been to dress up as a 'like' button, and get drunk.
Parents? My friend volunteered as a poll worker on the University campus here. At his location, 25% of the students voted for the orange fascist.
It's the perennial coordination problem. Consider these truths: 1. Anybody who stands up alone will get viciously hammered down. 2. If a large number of people stand up together, they can make a difference. 3. People have to trust others to stand up with them, otherwise see #1.
How do we organize a large crowd of people that trust each other without the people in power catching wind of it and viciously hammering down the organizers? It sure would help to have some support from people already in positions of power...
Now, now, remember correlation is not causation. Maybe it's not the unintuitive design; maybe a disproportionate number of idiots buy Teslas?
Right, and this isn't rhetorical combat. You are correct, and I was continuing the train of thought.
"The court's three conservative justices have accused the liberals of playing politics with abortion."
It is to laugh!
Yep, interesting how they're proud of America, they just hate all of the people and things in it.
Is that why quite a few progressive ballot initiatives and referendums also passed?
A friend who worked in D.C. for a while clued me in to the Rosetta Stone of understanding the right-wing mentality: It all flows from a deep, abiding self-hatred. They need constant reassurance that they are good people, because they don't really believe it.
Furthermore, they literally need an untermenschen (the poor, the homeless, the sick) to be better than, so their own success proves that they are good.
It's obvious when you look at it this way: America must axiomatically be all good, because they are Americans; with your criticism, are you saying they're not good?
I don't think that MAGA is an existential threat to democracy, or to Americans' lives. If it were, Pres. Biden would do something about it, right? Like, maybe, lock them up. Or at least say so. He certainly wouldn't be planning to just hand over the reins and walk away.
(P.S. If you can't tell if the above is serious, then why couldn't millions of voters actually think this way?)
He's 78 and displaying moderate dementia symptoms. I wouldn't worry about a third term.
Heck, people are still producing new games for the Commodore 64.
And Emmett Till could still be very much alive, had he not been lynched.
Still not great from a messaging perspective. Better ways to reach people who aren't politics nerds or policy wonks:
Medical care will be affordable, so you can go see your doctor any time you or your family need to. If your kid gets sick, you can be there for them and help them get better without worrying about how to pay for care. You'll get paid better, no more of the "boss gets a dollar, I get a dime" crap. No more stress about setting aside a college fund for your kids. They'll be able to go to school, guaranteed. Strong American morals mean we're not going to send our tax money to fund war and atrocities on the other side of the planet. If you lose your job, the government will have your back with enough money to survive on until you get back on your feet, no questions asked.
Goddamn, why can't Democrats say this stuff, instead of word salad like, "Launch a National Health Equity Initiative to address health challenges that disproportionately impact Black men." WTF does any of that even mean?
How's that tactic of browbeating and blaming voters working out for ya?
There's a germ of a good idea in there, but they've got it backwards: Big cities like Chicago need to "secede" from their states, like the free imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire. "Secede" here being a colloquial metaphor; the real, legalistic action would be declaring Dillon's Rule void, and taking state-like sovereignty for themselves.
It makes sense on many levels: Cities are where lots of people live close together, and their infrastructure, services, public health, and governance needs therefore are very different than rural areas. They are the economic powerhouses of the world, and we need to let the city leaders nurture that power by responding to their local needs. The political polarization divides largely on urban/rural boundaries, and our antiquated political system dilutes city-dwellers' votes and influence.
Lastly, our political system is broken, and can't be fixed entirely within the system. But tearing down the system will definitely lead to chaos. (See: actual secession in 1861.) As I see it, this would be a radical move by the cities, but it would solve a lot of issues in the political system without tearing it down. It's unlikely they'd get representation in Congress the way that free imperial cities had representation at the imperial diet, but even just getting out from under the thumb of state legislatures would be a huge step.
Uncovered forum posts by Tim Walz could shake up race
A forensic analysis of comments on HotOrNotDish.net.
CNN and ProPublica found that Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz is the owner of an active account on the website HotOrNotDish.net, where he posts under the anonymous username DarthTater, according to an investigative analysis of comments on the forum. The user DarthTater has for more than a decade offered compliments (sometimes accompanied by a flame emoji) under every single photo uploaded to the site for hot dish appreciators.
The account also mentioned the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in one post, in which it wished other HotOrNotDish.net users a “happy MLK weekend!” and hoped they would get to “spend it with family, eating hot dish.”
Walz appears to have been active under the same username for years on a variety of HotOrNotDish.net’s subforums for other hot dish-related issues, including once posting 24 times in a thread dedicated to the question of “Is hot dish casserole?” DarthTater ultimately concluded, “Sorry, friends. I’ve got to hit the hay. A lot of good points. Food for thought (almost as delicious as hot dish).”
Posts going back years include statements such as “That hot dish looks delicious” and “My only note? Try it with Schell’s beer. But what you have going looks good too!” and “Hope you’re enjoying that delicious dish with your beautiful family! Cherish your family! I know I cherish mine!”
DarthTater also expressed some viewpoints that matched with Walz’s public persona. In one instance, the user wrote, “National Coming Out Day is around the corner and I need to be on my A-game with snacks (I’m a GSA club sponsor). Any suggestions, hot dish friends?” adding, “Goes without saying, but, just in case, I disapprove of slavery.”
DarthTater was also the name Walz appears to have used on Quora, where that user often posted detailed replies to queries about the best snow tires to purchase.
Walz admitted that the account might be his, adding that he hoped he had not said anything that would offend anyone. “Those hot dishes all looked delicious,” he noted. “I wouldn’t want anyone to think that their hot dish didn’t pass muster.”
Another HotOrNotDish.net user, MarkRobinsonIsMyLegalNameAndThisIsMyRealEmailPleaseAskMeAboutNazismIAmForIt, complained about DarthTater’s posts being dragged into the news. “Why is it fair to bring in the things that people post anonymously on forums in their spare time?” the mystery poster asked. “Especially if, frankly, they’re not all that surprising.” (On the record, the legally named Mark Robinson denied engaging in any such behavior.)
MarkRobinsonIsMyLegalName was a less active HotOrNotDish.net poster, having left only one comment, “some folks need killing,” under a picture of a hot dish that had used cream of mushroom soup as its base.
Housing experts say there just aren't enough homes in the U.S.
I saw Madison in this article immediately. I hear a lot of local residents try to deny the fact that we have an acute housing shortage, opposing new construction projects on the grounds that they require tearing down dilapidated dumps"affordable housing," which displaces lower-income residents, as if building new market-rate apartments causes wealthier people to move here. Here's the reality:
>Alex Horowitz: We're short on all homes. Full stop. There just aren't enough of them. And that means that existing homes are getting bid up because we see high income households competing with low income households for the same residences since just not enough are getting built.
We're a growing city with a healthy economy. People keep moving here, and as they do, housing is like a game of musical chairs, except seats go to those with more money. The Common Council and mayor are trying to do something about it.
>Horowitz: So restrictive zoning is the primary culprit. It's made it hard to build homes in the areas where there are jobs. And so that has created an immense housing shortage. And each home is getting bid up, whether it's a rental or whether it's a home to buy.
Restrictive zoning. It makes building new housing illegal in most of the city. The West Area Plan is an incremental step forward on this issue, but of course, change is scary enough to turn people into bullies, literally shouting abuse at city staffers in public meetings. Let's hope that they're tough enough, and wise enough, to keep pushing it forward, because:
>Horowitz: [...] And we certainly see some local elected officials and some residents concerned about changes in their community, even though the evidence suggests that allowing more homes is mostly beneficial by improving affordability and reducing homelessness.
Look at what's tucked into this NPR interview about housing...
>Kelly: Is there a downside? I'm thinking of people trying to find a parking place, for starters.
>Horowitz: So we see that in places that have actually eliminated parking minimums, that we see fewer people driving at all and having cars and we see vehicle miles traveled decrease because people can get around via other mechanisms.
Well, now, would you look at that?! If we change the incentives, if we stop incentivizing driving by law, people change their behavior. In this case, they can save a ton of money by not needing a car.
Honor Among Thieves - Technical Jelly (Halloween '97)
Madison's Honor Among Thieves, live at The Harmony Bar and Grill. Recorded by Steve Gotcher for the 105.5 radio show "Mad City Live" Halloween 199. Some of the tunes were on the band's 1998 album, "Pr
Madison, WI's Honor Among Thieves, live at The Harmony Bar and Grill. Recorded by Steve Gotcher for the 105.5 radio show "Mad City Live" Halloween 1997. Some of the tunes were on the band's 1998 album, "Primordial Soup du Jour", but not this wild and crazy one.
long stick lifting boat pillows
A crane lifts pads for the hands-free mooring system at the Welland Canal locks into place. Credit: Michel Gosselin. Video and more photos here.
Has Windows startup repair or a troubleshooter ever fixed your issue even once?
Yeah, basically that. I'm back at work in Windows land on a Monday morning, and pondering what sadist at Microsoft included these features. It's not hyperbole to say that the startup repair, and the troubleshooters in settings, have never fixed an issue I've encountered with Windows. Not even once. Is this typical?
ETA: I've learned from reading the responses that the Windows troubleshooters primarily look for missing or broken drivers, and sometimes fix things just by restarting a service, so they're useful if you have troublesome hardware.
Comments not propagating to other instances.
In the past several days, I've noticed that comments that I make on this instance to cross-instance communities started to take up to several hours to propagate to the community's home instance, and now do not seem to propagate at all.
I've noticed the issue on lemmy.world, lemmynsfw.com, and lemmy.ml. Several comments I made today in a programming.dev community went through more or less instantly, though.
Has anyone else noticed this?
UW-Madison Arboretum
It's just a photo from a budget phone, but I figured I'd share this Sunday afternoon scene from the middle of Madison.
FITCHBURG, Wis. -- Dane County prosecutors have decided not to file criminal charges against a driver who hit and killed a Madison-area educator earlier this year.
They say that if you want to get away with murder, use a car as the weapon. By the way, Wisconsin has no jaywalking law, so they're letting a killer off the hook for, like, reasons?
(Vox) How cars ruin wild animals’ lives
"There’s probably nothing that we do that causes more suffering to wild animals than driving."
Just North American Things
I believe the expression you’re searching for is “WTF?!?” 1. Majority (perhaps almost all) bikes are going straight. And, ya know, in the street. See, this is a “bicycle boulevard.” 2. “Let’s make...
Lost cause or not, this is still typical of the traffic infrastructure we're building. Notice, this is a designated "bicycle boulevard."
Michigan Attorney General Charges Fake Electors
Sixteen people forged documents and claimed to be "duly elected and qualified electors" for the state of Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel said.
You paying attention, Josh Kaul? Let's go, already.
Door Peninsula Astronomical Society
With the possibility of aurora borealis again later this week, this seems like a good time to share a link to the DPAS. If there's a big coronal mass ejection (CME) event, they'll know about it. They have a filtered telescope for observation of sunspots. If there's no CME, it's still worth checking out their open house nights at the observatory in Sturgeon Bay.