Yeah, I’m 30 and I have way more recent embarrassing moments to keep me up at night. I’m not thinking of shit I did when I was a kid

I argued with family about this more than once since the debate, and it’s endlessly frustrating. I work in the medical field. I’ve worked mother/baby. Still takes way to long to impress on them that this not only isn’t happening, but any remotely similar story they hear is someone twisting the worst day of hopeful parents’ lives around to support their political bias. Real people having their tragedy flagrantly lied about, and being painted as baby killers, for no good reason. It’s disgusting.

Still no idea if I’ve gotten through, but they seem to have stopped bringing it up for now.

Then called her (I think NPR said it was a her) crazy afterwards, implying she was having a mental health episode. Then they’ve gone on to release photos, showing they were blatantly violating federal law after being clearly told they were doing so. Not to mentioned , they allegedly assaulted an Arlington cemetery staff member in furtherance of that violation (I know you mentioned this but I feel it’s worth repeating, there should be multiple people charged for this).

I don’t think it would prompt some kind of vindictive vote. That side of it is only going to energize those who were vehemently republican anyway. Republicans would hammer on any and all sympathy they can eke from having their candidate assassinated (regardless of the truth they will say it was the left, and at best people will think the guy was just crazy), and the average person only half paying attention will eat it up. Dems would be even more hamstrung in their rhetoric against the GOP considering the gravity of an event like that. Even with that aside, they’re now running Joe Biden against whichever face the GOP tells their voters to line up behind – who you can bet will be all in on the kind of stuff that will do even more lasting damage to our country. Biden is not a strong candidate, and without the uniquely unlikable personality and character of Trump I’m not sure there’s enough motivation amongst voters to carry him to another term.

But all of that was a lot to type, so I just said it would give them a massive boost

I tentatively agree. The man himself I have no sympathy for, but an assassination of presidential nominee would have made everything even worse. GOP would get a huge boost, and could replace Trump with someone that is actually competent enough to fully implement their 2025 treason-esque bullshit. Not to mention how much that would have inflamed an already looney tunes level of political discourse.

It’s also just not how we should do things in America. Call me a hopeless patriot, but we should try to live up to the ideals we espouse.

There’s gotta be some crazy scam that will work on me that I’ve never heard of. Every time a new one comes around its always something that throws a ton of red flags out the whole way. They have to be just catching people with particular blind spots

There are over a hundred million working adults in the US, and all of them with their own opinions and needs. Many of them completely out of touch with the world outside of their bubble, and some who even approve of the current trajectory. The idea of organizing a generalized strike is a complete pipe dream. I’d love to see it, but we are nowhere even close to that. We must work with reasonable, attainable solutions.

They’re terrified of seeming political, or making a mistake that will let him walk. Republicans have stacked the courts with people who barely grasp US law, and certainly have no respect for it, and the Democrats have put up glorified bureaucrats. We need a judge willing to force the issue and say “if you were anyone else this behavior would land you jail awaiting trial, so that’s where you’re going.”, Or I dunno, maybe stop giving breaks with fines. Let the morons whine and cry about being biased, or an activist judge; make the USSS have to coordinate with corrections to maintain protection while being held. Show this isn’t a game. Prove that you have some conviction when it comes to the rule of law in the US. History would look kindly on the person who chose the make the right call when it wasn’t easy.

I feel like a broken record with how much I’ve said this in the last handful of years, but: someone needs to be the fucking adult in the room.

I used to think this way, until I tried writing more sci-fi and I kept running into weird moral quandaries trying to keep stuff realistic on a human level. I genuinely don’t think there will ever be a threat that could rally all of humanity at this point. Not only because I don’t believe aliens are a thing we’ll ever experience, but also because everything I’ve seen points to people being too chaotic. Even the perfect enemy (some bugs that just want to kill us all) would have humans helping them out, a contingent of people who think the whole thing is a deep fake, and a multitude of people preying on the flawed reality of those groups and others to horde whichever resource (money, food, manpower, etc.). That’s before you even get into the various well-intentioned factions that would form around a variety of “best” approaches to the issue.

I’m not even saying this in a doomer kind of way, I’m rather optimistic and believe we tend to stumble forward. I’m just saying the rally around the flag moment for humanity feels like a total fantasy.

The headline, which very likely isn’t even real, is also not inherently fascistic. If anything its more a statement on people being so stressed with life, that a fantastical idea of going off to live a sci-fi movie life is appealing.

You’re pulling the fascism from the movie, which is inherently satirical. It makes sense something like that, which was already popular, continues to be so when the satire has more real world connections. You’re on a platform with a ton of nerds, they’re gonna reference sci-fi classics. If anything I’d say that’s a healthy sign. Satire is arguably one of the strongest forces pushing back against fascism and the like on a cultural level.

It annoying, but also leads to some wonderful moments. I was at small event yesterday, when a weather alert started rolling out. I can only describe it as glorious sitting at the back listening to a sea of angry alarms, and watching people frantically try to silence their phones. Idk if that outweigh the alarm fatigue it gives people, but it was a fun moment for me.

Pretty sure I can still quote the Cloak from beginning to end if you catch me at the right time. I’m horrified by how old the video is now…

I’m pretty sure “did we have a moment?” got me out of a minor ticket once.

I don’t get this. I was raised by a cop, and I’m very comfortable with firearms. Flashing your concealed weapon in public is immature at best. I can think of zero reason to flash a concealed weapon in public (unless you intend to defend yourself with it, right there in that moment), even if someone is asking to see it the answer is, “It’s not a toy”. It’s an object designed to kill, the threat is inherent in revealing it.

Not calling out you specifically, but the irreverent attitude of the loud pro-gun group has pushed me way further left on gun control than I used to be. Actions like OP tell me the leaders advocating for it do not have a healthy or mature view of firearms.

They didn’t specify it would be floating in the water…

You know, from the eggshell fragments.

How much force are you people using to crack an egg?

So now we’re saying she actually did have both signficant political and legislative experience, but won because of a penchant for fundraising. Which is something you see as soliciting bribes. That’s a fair interpretation.

From your original comment:

That’s how Pelosi became Speaker in the first place in spite of having no legislative accomplishments to speak of nor seniority: she was simply the best at collecting fat checks from rich people and their corporations.

My gripe is why invent this idea that her taking a bunch of bribes and being good at soliciting more is the sole reason they made her speaker, with no other qualifications? She had held prominent positions within the party for a while (decades), and was minority whip (second in command essentially) for some time prior to becoming Leader/Speaker. She was minority leader when Dems took the house, which automatically makes her a major contender for the position and she was comparable to her opponents on the whole. A cursory search of her career casts a ton of doubt on your claims, and they’re obviously flawed to someone who lived through that time.

Getting caught up in bashing Pelosi waters down the legit criticism you have, and makes your viewpoint seem biased. We should be upset that her penchant for fundraising is such an asset, not that she was good at it in the first place.

Pelosi had literal decades of political experience, and was co-authoring legislation in the late 80s concerning the AIDs crisis. She became Speaker after Democrats won control of the house with her as minority leader – a position she won in 2002/2003 after being directly under it for a couple years.

I get not liking Pelosi, or fundraising I guess, but it’s bizarre when criticisms are spun seemingly whole cloth.

Silicon Valley. Great show, gotta love Mike Judge.

That’s been the GOP M.O. for a while, but according to the info presented in the article the Dem appointed judges have actually been slightly more lenient (sentenced less than what prosecution sought 92% of cases, against the Trump appointed 90%).

I’m sure there’s more nuance to it if you look at it case by case, but it seems like across the board judges are handing out lenient sentences for Jan 6.