Real talk, it’s going to be like the troubles or the early days of Nazi Germany, not like people forming battle lines and shit. The only way the latter happens is if states secede; one viable scenario I’ve considered is California/Pacifica seceding and a subsequent shooting fight over water rights, because of how much water California gets from the Colorado River basin and other water sources outside its borders. But realistically, it’s going to be shitty partisan on partisan on innocent bystander violence.

Best advice I’ve heard is to form close ties and mutual aid agreements with your neighbors and friends. A small network of people can be far, far, far more resilient in defending protecting themselves than individuals or families can.

[Look inside]

It’s a regex

This is a mixed bag. Where I get lukewarm is that I’m convinced it’s going to come down to a shooting fight with the fascists at some point, and I’d rather that the people who are not fascists be able to educate and arm themselves appropriately. Don’t bring sticks and bricks to a gun fight and all that.

This is cool! Thanks for making it, as well as sharing the details. If you can be bothered with it, I’d really like to watch a peer tube video of the making of.

There is no such thing as making “enough” money under the chicago-school dominated business thought. A business should always make as much money as it can for its investors, always. A friend who read Friedman’s works says that the Friedman doctrine makes room to say that a wise business will optimize investor outcomes by investing in its product, workforce, and other smart long-term choices, but in practice, nobody ever reads that deep into the Friedman doctrine. It’s just “philosophical” license to make (and demand, on the part of investors) the shallowest slash-and-burn business decisions possible to make line go up NOW. I will accept arguments about how it’s capitalism, but I’d like to point out that we experienced a very distinct culture shift in business leadership starting around the time that Chicago school thought became all the rage.

Sure, I’d welcome Biden changing my mind on this.

I think it’s a little alarming that his last international travel was almost two weeks pre-debate and that left him tired enough to perform badly. And by badly, I mean the worst debate performance I’ve seen ever, and I’ve been watching since Bush/Kerry. I also don’t think it bodes well that he hasn’t yet done any big interviews or press conferences to show that it really was just a fluke, which seems like a fairly easy thing to do if he really is actually fine. I would feel much better about his odds of beating Trump if he could start reliably doing public speaking at a similar quality to what he displayed in 2020, which remains to be seen a whole week later.

The difference is that Biden has markedly declined from previous performances. He spent most of that night stumbling, mumbling, and struggling to speak clearly, none of which is his stutter, because a stutter is a very specific speech impediment. He was downright difficult to understand on average, and flat out unintelligible at worst. Even when he got riled up, like with the losers and suckers remark, it sounded like he was having trouble forming word sounds accurately, like he has dysarthria. Even in carefully curated campaign material, like asking for donations, he sounds out of breath and like he’s struggling to speak clearly.

I think the part where he finally beat medicare is the best example.

https://youtu.be/i3eYmc1AkMs?si=RJkeAb7gwN_TJOSG

I would gladly have Trump drop out. It won’t happen. Trump is running to save his own ass. For my part, I have grave doubts about Biden’s ability to win that have been building for a few months but came sharply into focus during the first minute of that debate.

I keep seeing this sentiment, and it boggles me. Last season’s winning horse just debuted this season with a huge limp, and the response from some people has been “it’s fine, stop panicking, we’ll win if we just keep betting on it.”

Yeah, I think you’ve got a good handle on it.

I imagine that Kamala could at least win an argument with a potted plant, which is more than you could say about Biden at this point.

Yeah, I don’t get it. I was confused and not happy when I saw he was running again. He could’ve gone out like a heavily watered down LBJ, instead he’s going to be forever remembered as the lost nursing home patient who wandered onto the debate stage. This is an unmitigated disaster, and the only way forward I see now is have Joe step down and let Kamala be the president. I’m not excited for that prospect, but I assume she can at least win a debate against a potted plant.

Yeah, it reminded me a lot of the Carter/Reagan debate, only if Carter had a massive concussion.

And when he said he beat medicare

I would vote for a wet sandwich before I vote for Trump, but Jesus Christ, it would be nice if the democrats fucking tried.

If only. Dude looks and sounds like he’s about drop dead. I cannot begin to express how enormously frustrated with the democrats I am.

Gas prices mean nothing if you can take the train. Every time gas prices jump, people start thinking about alternatives. Might be pretty sick, actually.

If you’ve got better ideas, we need them, get out there and get on it. As it is, we’re sleepwalking into catastrophe.

I think anon has it 100% correct. The instant Gabe is out of the picture, I expect to hear talk about how “you don’t understand, we have to fuck out users, won’t someone please think of the IPO?!”