No you’re right. It’s like Mitch Hedberg used to say about drinking though… Still does, but he used to too.

They are, but Wells Fargo too.

Obligatory crooked timber post:

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”

It’s pretty nakedly just a cult of personality with no other policy platforms that I recognize. For 50 years quality of life for Americans had meaningfully stagnated or declined. It’s brutal paying so much for groceries and gasoline when rent has been commodified. Answering that with mythical “I alone can fix it” is a very attractive and easily understood pitch. A lecture about the nuances of globalization and market efficiency is not. As important as bathroom access and preferred pronouns are, they too are not a sufficient political answer for a minimum wage that hasn’t matched productivity for decades.

It’s a leadership issue but any sane person would never subject themselves or their families to running for office in a news environment like America’s. That leaves us with a government composed primarily by clinical narcissists and grifters.

Feels bad.

CIS had an interesting chat with John Mearscheimer about Israel that’s unsurprising, but worth the listen. The host commented with a running joke that, "having been strongly supportive of Netanyahu after October 7, Joe Biden is seriously invested in the two-state solution—Michigan and Pennsylvania (@1:17:38)

Tough sell. Sure it’s obvious who will make the situation measurably worse in nearly every way, but it’s really hard to motivate and mobilize a voting block on harm reduction, when the incumbent elicits strongly emotional revulsion right now.

Recency bias, negativity bias, etc. are so hard to overcome. It’s like trying to logic your way out of an argument someone has emotion’d themselves into. You may know the answer conceptually, but actually feeling ok about it enough to act isn’t a logic proposition. It’s one of the most emotionally charged decisions we make.

Not a demographic I’d be counting on showing up in large numbers if I we’re a campaign strategist. Sadly, Trump is retaining well over 90% of his voting coalition from 2020, whereas Biden is only retaining a fraction of his (very diverse) block. Since the election will come down to a very small number of votes, he’s going to need all of his 2020 coalition to show up. 4 years of reality make that a hard bargain for Arab Americans and Republicans who held their noses after Jan 6 and voted blue though. Ugh.

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/kAfIYtpcBxo

Piped bot, assemble!

I wonder where it got it’s name from?

Why would you exit vim tho? Are you being forced under duress or something?

Solving yesterday’s problems, tomorrow!

We all talking about the rapist Matt Gaetz? The Matt Gaetz that notoriously trafficked minors across state lines to have drug-fueled sex with children Matt Gaetz? That child rapist Matt Gaetz?

You’ve just made a bootloop for life!

You’ve received several responses but the meaningful “come to Jesus” story actually relates to Saul (Paul, who is responsible for much of Christianity) on the road to Damascus.

Paul was persecuting primitive Christians and while he was traveling to Damascus to arrest them, he was temporarily blinded by divine intervention that led to his conversion and stopped him from continuing to persecute people. The dramatic intervention disabused him of the errant beliefs that caused him to injure people, in other words.

See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_of_Paul_the_Apostle

That’s what the comparison is talking about. It’s a metaphor that relates to needing a dramatic and often violent wakeup call to snap someone out of doing something wrong. From a Christian perspective you can see how Paul being shaken up enough to change his name, religion, profession, etc was a real “come to Jesus” moment.

That’s the key context I think you’re asking about. It’s not really about converting to Christianity. It’s more about having a BIG wakeup call that you’re on the wrong path (literally in Paul’s case) and you need to change your ways because you’re hurting people (or you’ll stay blinded if you’re Paul I guess).

Hope that helps!

“The King can do no wrong” bit also lays up really nicely with “The President must have absolute immunity”. It’s an insightful commentary all around.

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

For even younger members, The Twilight Zone was The Black Mirror, before netflix was a thing.

Remember the time Kant’s categorical imperative massed hundreds of thousands of troops for a “training exercise” along the border of a sovereign neighbor state, loudly protesting concerns it was preparing for a ground invasion?

Then when it did invade that neighbor, on the most cynically pretextual grounds imaginable, and began a wholesale slaughter of innocent men, women, and children?

Remember when Kant did that?

Nobody else does either, but it will be a generational memory for Russia to live down now. Hope the good governor gets cancer of the anus talking that kind of shit.

Trade you for an 80 years gaff machine or an almost 80 year old criminal game show host wannabe Hitler? Two for any one of your neo-liberals, but you have to take both…

*Edit: (existential sigh of constant anxiety)

Something’s going to have to give and soon. Police need to carry individual malpractice insurance, where gross negligence results in personal liability, and blanket qualified immunity as a whole needs to go.

No other institution has built a self-licking ice cream cone like law enforcement. The US health care system certainly tries, but at least it doesn’t have a monopoly on the use of force. Until the incentives change, there’s no future where civil relations recover. You just can’t remove liability for bad faith abuse of power and expect an organization to self-police its behavior.

Crushingly ironic that the “don’t tread on me” crowd are the loudest proponents of the wholesale gutting of freedom of the press/speech…

This is in fact, a much better article and (horrifying texan political hellscape aside) the key except is copied here for convenience:

Begin quote: The Texas statute she was charged under made it a crime to solicit non-public information from a government official with an intent to obtain a benefit. Prosecutors alleged she used the information to amass more Facebook followers.

A Texas state court judge in 2018 tossed the charges, finding the law unconstitutionally vague, and she sued in 2019. A judge ruled the officers and prosecutors were entitled to qualified immunity, but a 2-1 panel reversed in 2021.

But in Tuesday’s ruling, U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan, said law enforcement officers were not required to predict whether the Texas law at issue was constitutional before arresting her.

Thankfully it’s not a vibe. Sad state of affairs that questions like that even have to exist nowadays… I wish it was still shocking to run across and not oh yeah, that’s Uncle Frank for ya.

Last.fm used to have a Pandora radio aspect to it, but lost the race with YouTube music, Spotify, etc.

The thing that last.fm had that made them unique is what they call scrobbling. Basically they kept track of what users were listening to and made links between user preferences that you can use to find new music. I mean they used to, and they still do too, but with far far fewer users. Think Spotify’s year in review, but running constantly.

Honestly, it’s pretty great. I still hop on from time to time, because it’s a great way to find less well known bands. Makes me sad for when it was better used though…

It’s science reporting and not immune to headline inflation, but it’s not a lie to say there were measured improvements to patient cognition.

There’s a developing consensus that electric stimulation has therapeutic potential in restoring brain function (from basal ganglion to transdermal stim). But if you want the full study findings here, I course this article because it looks the DOI address at the bottom.

Given how few (none) treatments they’re are for TBIs right now, this is pretty exciting stuff to me at least.

Basically, this coming election will be decided by the margins because almost everyone who follows politics–at all–knows who they’re voting for already.

Think about the number of people who follow politics and then understand that those people are already not the demographic that will likely decide the outcome. It’s the people who are surprised they Joe Biden and Donald Trump are on the ballot that matter.

It isn’t worth trying to pressured persuade either the right or the left. What we need is to activate and engage the non-participating section of the electorate. This is hard, but achievable. It’s people who work multiple jobs and don’t have time for politics that need to know it matters if they vote. Civil rights are not a given and 2024 will be hugely consequential.

Take your friends with you on election day! Register for vote by mail and bug your friends too! Take about it and don’t leave easy points on the table. Yes the options are terrible. Yes one of them will make the possibility of improving it ever infinitely more difficult.

The people saying it doesn’t matter do not understand what they stand to lose. It is so so much harder to build something than tear it down and our imperfect institutions will not save us. Politics matters and the luxury of not caring, will lead to co-optation and the loss of rights that are easy to take for granted now.

So what he said was true, from a certain point of view…

(Jedi noises intensify)