Says the senator of a state that takes $40 billion more in federal money than they contribute annually.

They are the very model of modern major generals!

Don’t get me wrong, I believe little donny debt-co wants to use the military to force compliance with his will, but I don’t think that clip says what you think it does. He states that the military isn’t for organizing drag shows “or spreading democracy at the point of a run.”

What the great Orange meme-cicle seems to be saying is much worse. He seems, to me, to be saying that the military shouldn’t be concerned with ethics or morality, but rather with raw strength of arms and the exercise of power to whatever ends the president sees fit.

I hear you. There’s a serious lack of grand scale organizing, and with all three branches of government captured there’s not even the consolation prize of legislative or judicial obstructionism.

That said, there is resistance at the local level, and it needs people badly. Those hands off protests aren’t being organized at the national level. The national org is calling for protests on a specific day and unaffiliated local groups are organizing the individual events. Those local groups could really use your support in whatever form you can give it. They’re almost always handing out flyers and info on their projects at protests. Most don’t require membership to help out and you almost never have to rsvp to just attend. Odds are there’s an organization or two near you that you can support, and if not most of the national orgs have organizing instructional materials on their websites for free.

It’s easy to be so worried by what’s happening nationally that we forget the difference that local orgs make. I was a part of a canvassing effort for an abortion rights amendment last year that knocked on over three thousand doors with no more than ten people every Saturday. We didn’t get the amendment passed, but it did get majority support and we saw a huge surge in new members. We’re now using our newfound numbers to help push for a city council recall and explore candidates for school board. Ours isn’t even the most well established organization in our city either. We regularly collaborate with four, more established, orgs and we’re working to build relationships with three more.

This knitting together of smaller orgs is the process of resistance building. It is unfortunately slow, but it is happening, and I promise it isn’t just happening here. Even in the middle of nowhere I have a friend in a town of two hundred who’s been auditing the town budget to show the incompetence of the “maga moms” on their town council in an attempt to get them removed. You’re right to be frustrated, but for all our sakes I hope you find something to do with that frustration.

As long as we don’t forget that many human rights issues have been mislabeled “culture wars” to detract from their importance. The first battle in the class war will ever be the battle for solidarity, for we cannot stand together unless we all stand equal.

Absolutely!

Even were it true, which it is not, that the ruling classes push LGBTQ+ acceptance, Nutomic’s argument would be ignorant at best and dishonest. Either they don’t know of all the historic instances in which those in power have played both sides of an issue against each other in order to divide potential opponents or, more likely, they are willing to selectively overlook it to justify their prejudices.

They spelled “out of racism” wrong. “In error” isn’t even close.

My brother in Christ, that is just a club! You pay dues to belong and everyone elects the few most organized and functional people to plan events that everyone can enjoy. You can even kick it up a notch and make it a civil organization so that you’re accomplishing good works while hanging out with likeminded people. Society used to be full of such organizations, and it’s time we brought them back.

I don’t think it’s a cop out at all. It’s a very good start and I appreciate the work and the quote. It sets me to thinking of a monstrous demigod by the name of Na’scrivas I’ve had rattling around for some time (I made an anagram of scrivener and changed a few letters. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy a good apostrophe in a fantasy setting.). It’s takes the form of a journal that makes its contents a reality at the cost of slowly detaching the writer further and further from reality. The idea is that by the end of the story the reader should question how much of it actually happened, and how much was simply the protagonist going mad.

‘Twas ever thus.

If Reagan were around to see this we might stand a chance at getting some kind of gun control.

I was just looking to express my penchant for collecting pseudo-historical stories that I don’t feel compelled to check the accuracy of because they don’t purport to express anything important. Ngl though, I would play the fuck out of that encounter if you made it.

Xitter* (pronounced shitter)

I once ran across a Berliner Weisse at a brewer’s festival that made excellent use of pickle juice. I had to try it out of curiosity, and while it was too much on the palate to drink many more than one, had a lived in the area I would have had one every evening. I wish I remembered the brewery so I could recommend it.

Iirc, Tchaikovsky wrote his 1812 Overture rather quickly to commemorate the defense of Russia against Napoleon and wasn’t too thrilled with it himself. I believe he called it noisy and without artistry, but I’m prone to collecting myths, so please do check my work.

Absolutely! But it’s not just about the internal pressure. If everyone trump threatens retaliates even when he backs off, and then demands he offer assurances before they do, he looks weak. The one thing he doesn’t want, and can’t afford, is to look weak in front of his base. It won’t work immediately, but if he keeps looking weak on the public stage he’ll either stop making such threats in order to avoid it or lose enough support to matter.

It implies that these women are objects undeserving of or without agency of their own. Doing so on the basis of appearance is as good as doing so on the basis of sex or gender. There’s no broader point being made here beyond “I don’t like them so I’m comparing them to a taboo sex object.”

That’s said they’re also abysmal human beings.

“Make or break?” Jon Stewart is on what is essentially the victory tour of his career. He was so popular in his first stint at the daily show that some openly wondered whether the show could continue without him. He retired from that to work advocacy for first responders, for which he was lauded. He’s back now because even a solid decade away couldn’t make the audience forget his heyday. I’ve criticized Stewart in the past, but even I can see that if he were to flub this interview most would shrug “huh, sad how the greats start to slip as they age,” and tune back in next week.

He means, just like him, she’s a horrible tapeworm in the bowels of our society.