I thought it was just me and my old iPhone, but I’ve also been having a lot of trouble connecting for the last few months. Since May, really.

Yeah I think I’ve seen that usage, but I’ve also seen it used as a negative put down rather than an affirmation. I just have a lot of trouble with this one for some reason. Anyone know where it comes from?

And every time I think I understand what people mean by it, I’m wrong. This one has got to stop.

Yeah, I honestly don’t know how la croix does it, but that water has serious flavor, without any of that gross chemical aftertaste. I drink so much la croix…

Nope seems like you understand it perfectly. It’s completely detached from reality. It’s like saying “we know of no rigorous study showing that accurate weather forecasts produced a tangible increase in the number of people who like bagels.” Like, okay, sure, but no one thought there was.

That article really rubbed me the wrong way. It was a bunch of marketing people basically saying “privacy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be because it doesn’t make poor people rich” and “you’ll ruin the ability of small businesses to thrive if you don’t allow them to base their businesses on intrusive mass surveillance.”

The arrogance is astounding. If you can’t start a business without invading my privacy, you should rethink your business model. Just because surveillance marketing makes finding customers easier, doesn’t make it right. This part in particular is absurd:

Privacy can be, in some sense, a problem of the privileged. We know of no rigorous study showing that toughened digital marketing privacy policies produced tangible economic benefits for anyone, let alone lower-income consumers.

No, privacy is a problem for all of us, not just the privileged. To suggest otherwise is a deflection. It’s not always just about economics, even the working class have other things we value.

Wow, props to Castellucci for being a stand up person and not using their discovery to control or mess with tens of thousands of people’s power supply. And props to GivEnergy for not turning around and suing them after they reported finding the issue.

This could have gone badly in either direction, but we lucked out that this Castellucci seems to be an excellent and conscientious citizen.

Haven’t we always known this? It’s the same concept as a Stingray device, which is used to spy on people because their devices connect to it automatically, assuming it’s a normal cell tower. People don’t know what tower they’re connected to, so if you connect to a “fake” or exploited tower, you’ve basically handed over the keys. This is essentially the same thing, but on a 5g network, which is presumably made up of even more nodes/towers.

The justice system doesn’t apply to corporations, even though they’re people. And since the corporations are run by billionaires, the most peopliest people there are, the justice system definitely doesn’t apply to them. Money = speech, and these corporations have the most money, therefore they get the most speech, meaning they have more rights than us normal people, and can get away with breaking the same laws that would get any of us thrown in jail.

/s but not really…

I was in second grade when the school district started thinking about providing internet access for a few computers. You could just add a period at the end of a URL to get around the filters. No idea how or why it worked, but I told everyone. Those were the days.

That’s a good point, I hadn’t thought about it as a strategic attack on the small people, you’re onto something. It’s frankly absurd that this is what we’ve come to.

I mean sure, it’s cute. And the video is worthy of like, a small smirk, but is this really what the Lincoln Project is up to these days? Seems like they could be using their money and influence more responsibly. It’s probably more valuable to at least try to change some peoples’ minds. I don’t see how spending money producing a sketch that wouldn’t even make it on SNL is worthwhile.

His sister (who is dead now by the way), was a federal judge.

Those were highly controlled public appearances. It’s pretty easy to get those done without fucking up. There’s no substitute for us seeing him in a completely unscripted and natural setting, and he has consistently done pretty badly in those types of situations lately. When someone his age starts to decline, it can happen really fast. He’s not to blame for that, it’s just human, we get old and lose our abilities. He is to blame for thinking he’s fit for another four years of one of the most stressful jobs in the world.

I want you to be right, I really do, but I’m not sure where you’re getting your confidence.

A DailyMail.com survey of 1,000 likely voters

Well that seems like some untrustworthy bullshit. Give me a sample size of 100,000 and maybe I’ll listen. Fucking polls…

Yeah, all good and valid points. I’m a big fan of Whitmer, but AOC is my favorite on that list to be sure. As much as I love Bernie, he’s too old. I just don’t see it being easier for any of them than it would be for Harris, taking into account the institutional party support she would automatically have if Biden resigned.

I think you’re totally right that Harris would struggle with constant media attention though, so that’s not great. But ugh, I just want this to be done.

I mean, practically speaking, she’s the most realistic option with the way stupid internal party politics work. Again, I don’t like her, and I like the Democratic Party establishment even less, but I like democracy more than I dislike her. Since her name was on the ticket, Joe would have a much easier time transferring his delegates to her at the convention. Many of those delegates are bound by their state law to vote for Biden, btw. If he steps down, they could relatively easily go to Harris instead. Anyone else would require a bloody open convention that I’m not confident the party could survive, let alone win the race after.

I’m open to anything that lets us win, honestly. But we can’t afford to just shut down alternatives because it sounds hard or might not be exactly what we want. Have any suggestions?

Yeah, that’s unfortunately right. So much of the American system is based on norms and ideals that we trusted our leaders to respect. The Supreme Court has seized their authority, and since they refuse to recognize Congressional oversight (the Chief Justice has regularly refused to appear before Congress), there’s very little we can do.

I’m with you, I’m not a fan of Kamala. I think any of your suggestions would be a way better candidate than her if she hadn’t already won on the current administration’s ticket. The fact that Kamala’s name was on the winning ticket is huge. Incumbency is so important, arguably way more important than it should be, but even a few months of being president would give her a huge leg up over any candidates who might look better on paper. It would take a ton of humility on Joe’s part for this to be a viable plan, but I think he’s capable of it.

Nothing about this situation is ideal, so I’m prepared to settle for pretty much anyone other than Trump.

Dear Joe,

You made it. You ran for president for decades, and you finally did it. On top of that, you did the best you could dealing with some genuinely absurd and unprecedented issues, and all told did a completely acceptable if not a pretty good job.

Now, if you actually care about the country you’ve spent your entire life serving, it’s time to resign, let Kamala finish out your term, and give her the opportunity to run the race as an incumbent. There is no shame in recognizing the time has come. Literally everybody gets old, it’s kinda fundamental. To be clear, I don’t like Kamala one bit, I think she’s a problematic candidate with a problematic record, and a terrible communicator. But she’s an intelligent and vital human being with relevant experience. Stress on the vitality, meaning she’s not in her final months of life.

Sorry, but your age really does matter. Frankly, you have one of the only jobs in the world where your age matters so much. Kamala won’t embarrass us nearly as much as you did during the debate. There’s nothing you can say that will convince me that you’ll magically get younger and more vital in the next few months, so again, if you care about this country, you need to step aside immediately, and put all of the party’s establishment support behind Kamala. Anything less is selfish. If Kamala, as an incumbent president, can’t beat Trump—a man who promises to use his new immunity in the worst ways possible—I don’t think you would again either.

Sincerely, An exhausted patriot