Political Randomness

[Daehawk]

I wonder how many 4th celebrations will be mired by MAGA crap? A local one near me is called Freedom Festival. Makes me wonder.

[Smoove_B]

Have you not been following 7/4 celebrations since ~2016?

[Daehawk]

Have you not been following 7/4 celebrations since ~2016?

No. Never went never watched.

[Smoove_B]

For your own sanity, it's probably best you just keep the time machine gear in "forward" and wear peril sensitive sunglasses.

[Octavious]

I mean in my town right now I can count one Trump flag and one loony who wrote shit all over his truck. I really should get a picture it's insane. I'm not seeing the overwhelming support he had in 2016. At least yet.... We'll see in 2024.

[YellowKing]

I've got three known Trumpers in the neighborhood (I'm assuming the actual count is far higher). Two that have Trump banners hanging in their garage and one that is always outside mowing grass in his LET'S GO BRANDON shirt. All three of them are total assholes. The LET'S GO BRANDON guy always shows his ass at HOA meetings, one of the banner guys accosted me for daring to park on a public street while dropping my daughter off at the school bus, and the other guy refuses to wave or speak to anyone (think Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino and that's a *really* close approximation to his attitude).

I also have a few "soft Trumper" neighbors (I call them MAGA-lites) who would never post a sign but I'm assuming still vote for him because they'd never vote Democrat. They fall into the category of cordial people that I can safely participate in gatherings with because they're never going to bring up politics. Just from their lifestyle/upbringing, however, I can guess they'd never vote Biden.

[El Guapo]

I was fully prepared to be outraged by this, but when I saw who she wants to stiff on reparations, my reaction shifted to a hard ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Elizabeth Holmes objects to government requesting she pay $250 a month to victims after prison

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced former Theranos CEO, has “limited financial means” and should not be forced to pay $250 a month to victims of her crimes after she is released from prison, her lawyers argued in a court filing on Monday.

The move from Holmes’ attorneys comes after federal prosecutors said in a separate filing last week that “clerical errors” had resulted in no payment schedule being set for Holmes’ restitution after she is released from prison. Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were previously ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of their crimes.

Holmes reported to prison late last month in Texas to serve out her more than 11-year sentence. She was convicted early last year on multiple charges of defrauding investors while running the failed blood-testing startup Theranos.

Federal prosecutors asked that once Holmes is on supervised released, criminal monetary penalties should be paid monthly in the amount of $250, or at least 10% of her wages, whichever is greater.

In the latest filing, Holmes’ attorneys argued “there is no basis in the record for the payment structure in the government’s request,” but did not object to her being asked to start paying $25 per quarter as part of her restitution while she is in prison.

As part of the original restitution order, some $125 million is owed to media mogul Rupert Murdoch, as well as millions in payments to other Theranos investors.

I mean, ripping off the likes of Rupert Murdoch seems like a victimless crime.

I don't disagree, but I would note that Rupert Murdoch at least declined an opportunity to be a shitbird in the Theranos matter. Part of the reason that Holmes and co. solicited Murdoch's investment (leading to the losses) is that the WSJ reporter (John Carryrou) was leading the Theranos charge, and they wanted to give him a financial incentive to shut the WSJ investigation down. After he invested, they tried to get him to intervene at the WSJ, which he declined to do.

Don't want to award the guy a Medal of Honor or anything, but this is one instance in which he did the right thing at personal cost.

[malchior]

I mean in my town right now I can count one Trump flag and one loony who wrote shit all over his truck. I really should get a picture it's insane. I'm not seeing the overwhelming support he had in 2016. At least yet.... We'll see in 2024.

I saw a guy at a derby event over the weekend who was a living, breathing expression of Horseshoe theory. He was wearing a 'Let's Go Brandon' trucker hat that was comically mis-sized for his head, a ratty Jello Biafra shirt, and a coat (yes wearing a coat in June!) festooned with MAGA pins. He got a lot of dirty looks to say the least.

[Daehawk]

For your own sanity, it's probably best you just keep the time machine gear in "forward" and wear peril sensitive sunglasses.

Will try to do.

[Unagi]

For your own sanity, it's probably best you just keep the time machine gear in "forward" and wear peril sensitive sunglasses.

Will try to do.

Might I suggest a night of looking up old fashions from 70s and 80s porn industry?

[Jaymann]

For your own sanity, it's probably best you just keep the time machine gear in "forward" and wear peril sensitive sunglasses.

Will try to do.

Might I suggest a night of looking up old fashions from 70s and 80s porn industry?

I understand Twitter has a great selection.

[Daehawk]

For your own sanity, it's probably best you just keep the time machine gear in "forward" and wear peril sensitive sunglasses.

Will try to do.

Might I suggest a night of looking up old fashions from 70s and 80s porn industry?

I understand Twitter has a great selection.

I cant log into twitter for some reason yet

[hepcat]

You need to buy a Tesla to get access.

[waitingtoconnect]

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-u ... d442b5e470

$15k for having your workers sucked into aircraft engines? Why worry about safety?

[Daehawk]

Fox Slammed For Calling Biden 'Wannabe Dictator' In On-Screen Graphic After Trump Arrest



Can no one fine or shut down Fox news for not being actual news. Just spreading lies and hate and stupidity? Can nothing be done. IS our country so locked by laws that vile shit like that place can just continue to spew its own cockassedy?

[Daehawk]

Texas Teacher Fired For Making TikTok After Teaching Kids About Their 'Constitutional Rights'

Texas teacher Sophie Marie (@sophforpresident) shared on TikTok that she was fired for teaching her students about their constitutional rights.

Yep, you read that right.

Sophie documented the process that ultimately led to her termination over four videos, the final announcing her exit.

In the first, the creator shared notes from a "check-in meeting" with her administrator.

She noted the administrator came prepared with a lengthy list of concerns to be addressed.

But the "concern" that really stuck with Sophie was:

"We've noticed an intentional attempt in teaching your students about their legal and constitutional rights."

After reading that bullet point, the TikToker repeatedly asked:

"Why is that a concern?"

She added text to the video that read, "POV: you're a teacher in Texas," and captioned it:

"You'd think I was teaching way out west but this is downtown Austin..."

[Blackhawk]

Blorp.

[Blackhawk]

Texas Teacher Fired For Making TikTok After Teaching Kids About Their 'Constitutional Rights'

I'm too tired to dig into it, but you might want to vet your sources a bit more. "Teaching kids about their Constitutional rights" is horribly vague and covers a lot of ground. Teaching them about which rights, exactly? And teaching them how? To pull an example out of my ass, teaching kids about the right to bear arms by having them carry replica weapons around the school would be a problem, but it would still be 'teaching kids about their Constitutional rights. The phrasing sounds like someone going out of their way to state things in a manner that is designed to make the user emotional to garner outrage and clicks. In other words, it is potentially dishonest and manipulative.

And the teacher was specifically fired, not for what she was teaching, but for a public social media post she made about it (and again, that's only the teacher's statement, which may or may not be accurate.) The first thing that pop[s into my head is to ask why. Did she make a public post about information that was not hers to take public? Did she violate actual, standard rules in the process? What was her disciplinary record? Was this a first offense, or a last straw?

Now, it's entirely possible that she really was teaching something benign, and that the district got 'revenge' on her for going public. It happens. But the 'news' story doesn't feel that way. It obscures all sorts of basic, vital information and instead pushes for outrage. One has to apply the 'fake news' filter to everything, not just the material you don't like.

[Carpet_pissr]

You are a patient, patient man.

[hepcat]

I have to agree with blackhawk. I'm coming to terms with the fact that there is a LOT of stuff out there that is created just to get me angry about "the other side". In all fairness, I need to stop and review the facts before I make a knee jerk decision on just how mad I should be....or if I should even be mad.

There's enough real world crap with Trump and his moronic worshipers that I don't need manufactured outrage.

[Smoove_B]

NJ is now the only state where you can't pump your own gas.

[Isgrimnur]

This bill approved Wednesday would also eliminate from state law language referring to coin-operated fuel pumps, perhaps in recognition of the fact that a $1 coin, the largest denomination in general circulation, would today buy two-tenths of a gallon of gas, and it would take more than 50 of them to fill an average tank.

Hang on, I have to stop at the casino before I get gas.

[malchior]

NJ is now the only state where you can't pump your own gas.

I'm surprised the NJ nanny overlords let me plug in my own car.

[YellowKing]

There's enough real world crap with Trump and his moronic worshipers that I don't need manufactured outrage.

I got into it with my dad on FB last night because he posted another "transgenders in sports" tirade and I just knee-jerked replied. I was tired from work, and the fact that my dad has ZERO INTEREST IN SPORTS but is somehow upset enough about a swimmer getting second place in a college competition that he had to post about it just was the final straw.

And then I realized that my outrage at *his* outrage was just two sides of the same coin. Here he was getting mad about an issue that DeSantis manufactured, I'm getting mad that my dad's getting mad, and DeSantis is out there laughing at us both.

[Zarathud]

Top athletes have always had physical advantages over their competitors. I thought Republicans wanted to reward winners and not give out participation trophies anyway.

[LordMortis]

CNBC is making effort to draw lines between FTX and Hillary Clinton this morning. They dropped her name three times in the last segment and had her name across the chyron. No links on their site yet. FTX is suing a "hollywood insider" Michael Kivas who was "an aid" when she was a senator. He was paid a lot of money by SBF.

[GreenGoo]

I forgot to mention that I watched a youtube video talking about the sub disaster. The video itself was toxic masculinity, and unsurprising, a lot of comments about how this is the left's fault (because they are responsible for manufacturing know how leaving America) and women in general, because reasons I can't remember, probably because I couldn't twist my mind into a pretzel to accommodate them.

I have no idea about the prevalence of this sort of mindset, but omfg my faith in humanity continues to sink.

I think I'll retire off the grid, in a small cabin somewhere far from people.

[Blackhawk]

I forgot to mention that I watched a youtube video talking about the sub disaster. The video itself was toxic masculinity, and unsurprising, a lot of comments about how this is the left's fault (because they are responsible for manufacturing know how leaving America) and women in general, because reasons I can't remember, probably because I couldn't twist my mind into a pretzel to accommodate them.

I have no idea about the prevalence of this sort of mindset, but omfg my faith in humanity continues to sink.

I think I'll retire off the grid, in a small cabin somewhere far from people.

The far right: Everything is the left's fault. Now, whenever anything happens, all they have to do is figure out a B-movie level justification for it. Canada's on fire? Environmental policies caused it. Sub imploded? The left drove skilled workers away. Prices are high? Biden. Insurance won't cover your medical costs? Obama. Tree limb fell on the car? It was woke.

[GreenGoo]

I get it, but they seem to genuinely believe it. That is a seriously warped perception of reality. People not in contact with reality often do things detrimental to themselves and others. That's why we have psychiatrists and mental health institutions.

But these people aren't seeing any doctors nor are they housed in safe institutions.

Obviously I'm not talking conservatives in general. But the cool-aid drinkers have really gone all in. And they seem to be increasing. I hope when the violence starts (or grows more prevalent, I mean), Murdock gets his first.

Half the nation seems to be getting gaslighted, and they seem to like it. This actually scares me quite a bit. And that fear started when Drumpf was elected.

[Blackhawk]

That is a seriously warped perception of reality.

It is why people get so confounded when they explain reality to those people and they double down instead of seeing sense. They're not arguing from a foundation of reason, or even reality. My sig applies.

[TheMix]

I think I'll retire off the grid, in a small cabin somewhere far from people.

I keep trying to sell gilraen on that idea. So far with zero success.

[El Guapo]

That is a seriously warped perception of reality.

It is why people get so confounded when they explain reality to those people and they double down instead of seeing sense. They're not arguing from a foundation of reason, or even reality. My sig applies.

Do you know the origin of that quote? I've most commonly heard it attributed to Jonathan Swift, but curious if that's accurate or not.

edit: google turned up this which indicates that Swift is probably the originator. Though you figure that someone probably first said something like it in pre-writing days as well I suppose.

[Blackhawk]

I actually figured it was Tyson. Seems like he was paraphrasing.

[Max Peck]

I forgot to mention that I watched a youtube video talking about the sub disaster. The video itself was toxic masculinity, and unsurprising, a lot of comments about how this is the left's fault (because they are responsible for manufacturing know how leaving America) and women in general, because reasons I can't remember, probably because I couldn't twist my mind into a pretzel to accommodate them.

A lot of the anti-woke push-back derives from a statement that Stockton Rush made at some point, saying that he didn't hire a lot middle-aged white male ex-submariners because he wanted to hire fresh young faces (including women, presumably) that would inspire the up and coming generation. Early on, after that quote had circulated I saw a lot of comments along the line of proper submersibles being designed and built by middle-aged white men and the Titan being designed and built by inspiring women. I have no idea if the Rush quote actually reflected the make-up of his engineering staff, but it probably make for good PR at the time.

That fact that OceanGate would save money (which seems to be a recurring theme for the company) by hiring fresh-faced young college graduates instead of experienced marine engineers and submariners probably had nothing to do with the corporate staffing vision. As an added bonus, the less experience they have the more likely that they'll buy in to unconventional "innovative" design principles.

[GreenGoo]

Interesting. There were a lot of references to old white experienced men, but no one seemed to realize that 3 of those things have nothing to do with being a good engineer. Weirdly ( ) more than one of these comments were coming from self proclaimed old, white men. Who may or may not have been experienced technicians/engineers.

You spend your life's work depending on your understanding of objective reality and yet your views are as stupid as any other human's. I don't get it.

[Max Peck]

I went back and found the video where I first heard the statement. I didn't post this video here at the time because it contains some misinformation and I didn't want to muddy the waters. Anyway, you can hear what Rush said, in his own words, instead of my fuzzy recollection from the distant past that is 9 days ago -- a lot of things have happened in those 9 days.



I'm pretty sure that a lot of the anti-woke snark springs from that specific interview.

[GreenGoo]

Yeah, I'm not watching that. I understand that this is likely the source of anti-woke bitching.

[Max Peck]

I wasn't suggesting that anyone watch the whole thing, although some of it is interesting while some of it is just him jumping to conclusions in the absence of facts that were already known when he made the video. The link is set to start at the short segment where he plays the interview with Rush talking about his hiring policy.

[GreenGoo]

Yep, not addressed to you, and it's probably good that the link is there for other people.

It was more of an exasperated "I'm at my fill of stupidity right now".

[Unagi]

When will a president ever get the confidence to admit, during a “State of the Union” address, that ‘we have never been weaker as a nation than we are now’.

I think both sides would appreciate the honesty.