I honestly can’t tell whether her intent is to block any counter-climate change projects or if this is just a dumb chemtrails thing.

I mean, I assume it’s chemtrails, given the source, but it could easily be a “I like the smell of forest fires, and you’ll reduce hurricane intensity over my dead body.” Given the source.

Zohran, What is best in life?

“To crush the oligarchs, see affordable housing, and hear the lamentations of landlords.”

Bibi’s stopped taking his calls.

I think he signed this one just to prove that he can spell his own name right.

Cancer research and Medicaid.

This is terrible. Those guys make the_best accident reconstruction videos. https://www.youtube.com/user/USCSB

Even better: safety goggles that seal around the eyes or face to reduce chemical exposure as well as projectile. Not the shitty safety goggles you got in high school chemistry, but things that actually fit & conform to your face.

It’s not clear that he has the authority to order it, especially over the objection of the state governor. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/presidents-power-call-out-national-guard-not-blank-check is from 2024, largely about when Trump 1 ordered National Guard to DC, and why it’s different in states.

TL; DR: National Guard is a state organization; if the President federalizes it, then it becomes subject to posse commitatus, same as the Army.

It’s the “You can’t fire me! I quit!” response to Trump threatening his NASA contracts.

Are you suggesting that the primary structures came into existence without the support of the parties? Or that the people can somehow rise up and rewrite election rules over the objection of party incumbents? I thought we were having a serious discussion.

US primaries aren’t like France’s two round election system, even in open primary states. California, Washington and Nebraska have a single-ballot “jungle” primary system that’s kind of close (although Nebraska is kind of special because it’s only for non-partisan state legislature races), but most open primaries still list only the candidates of one party - you can’t vote for a (D) in one race and an ® in another. US primaries are supposed to let the parties - which are essentially semi-private clubs - reach consensus on who they run against the other clubs. Having the states run those primaries was supposed to be democratizing and let more people have a voice in their representation, and maybe it even worked that way a hundred years ago. It’s the nature of people to organize themselves into cliques to consolidate and maintain power, and they’ll figure out ways to manipulate any system to do that. The fact that no one votes in primaries - regardless of their structure - makes them an easy lever of manipulation.

Is that not the second sentence in my original comment?

Not really. I’m saying that the system discourages change. If there’s blame for the DNC, it’s that their message has constantly been something along the lines of “be reasonable & empathetic; improve the world through measured change” which tends to demoralize people who think the system is seriously fucked. That empowers the career politicians. GOP propaganda, at least for the last 50-or-so years, has been “More guns! More babies! No brown people!” which tends to attract passionate radicals.

Voter turnout in primaries is pathetic. In 30 states, you have to be registered with the party - i.e.: give them your name and address for fund-raising purposes - to vote. This all works to bias primaries to ‘establishment’ candidates, or at least people well known among party apparatchiks. They are, theoretically, the best way to get progressives or populists into office, but practically, those progressives are fighting demographics and the general apathy of voters under 40.

The same phenomena that let MAGA take over the GOP keep the moderates in charge of the Dems. At least, until someone figures out how to motivate all the young internet revolutionaries to actually go and vote instead of memeing about how useless voting is.

Do you get so excited when someone says, 'My house was robbed"? Houses, of course, can’t be robbed. They can be burgled; only people can be robbed. Legally. Colloquially, we all know what they’re talking about.

Maybe “The Technician” does, but insisting that people be very carefully precise with language outside of the specific technical domain is a form of sealioning.

They’re happy to call it an intentional act of violence, so they’ve ruled out a lot of the explanations for an exploding car. The bar for “terrorism” is pretty low - they charged an Atlanta student with is for tossing bottles of water and dry ice out his window.

Regardless, it’s definitely a journalistic choice whether to quote the police lieutenant’s very careful, and possibly technical statement, or to quote the business owner (Musk) or US President speculating. And maybe it just turns out that it’s carefully ethical journalists reporting on potential right-wing violence, and usually unethical hacks reporting on possible attacks on the corporatocracy, but it sure does feel like a pattern.

Remember that half of Americans are dumb enough to vote for Trump. A lot of the other half are also just voting for their favorite letter, without any thought of who’s holding it. Even with RCV, there’s an enormous amount of work to convince people who’ve been voting for their favorite letter for decades, who’ve been told for decades that politicians are all the same, to even pay enough attention to realize there’s another option.

RCV would be a start, but the start of a similarly decades-long process. IMO, it would be easier and faster to reform Dems from within. Recruit properly progressive candidates to primary the tired, old corporate Dems, inspire some of our younger non-voters, and change the party direction. Still take a few election cycles, but you’d keep the people who just vote for their favorite letter.

How is this man in charge of anything?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Z9IpTVfUg tl;dw: people confuse action with leadership.

Thinks it’s scored like golf.

Going to be a beautiful, sunny day here. Nothing better to do than go hang out with some like minded humans.

That’s income, though, not net worth. Imagine you’ve got $250k in your 401k and you spent $250.