It’s not like the guy they voted for is a rare qualified pick from the Trump camp.

It’s David Purdue, a failed pillow company CEO, as well as ceo for other textile companies. More recently he dabbled in politics as a Republican senator from Georgia, failed gubernatorial candidate, 2020 election denier, climate change denier, and generally an idiotic sycophant.
The textile experience gives him a small amount of plausibility as a choice, but everything else far outweighs that. Just another loser grifter in Trump’s orbit.

Before I get into my comment, I want to reiterate that it does not matter what his tattoos do or do not say, that he was kidnapped and illegally deported, and now they are using false ‘evidence’ to prove their case, without ever having held a trial? This is fascism. What has happened to him is illegal, and he deserves justice. He should be returned, and everyone who had a hand in this should be brought to justice.

… Anyway.

I find it funny that we’re supposed to believe a Salvadoran immigrant used such Byzantine symbology to represent the wrong fucking acronym.

The MS stands for Mara Salvatrucha, said to be a combination of Mara, meaning gang, Salva, for Salvador, and trucha, which translates roughly into street smarts. The 13 represents the position of M in the alphabet. — MS-13 gang: The story behind one of the world’s most brutal street gangs - BBC

I really appreciate you saying this. We’re all focusing on the photoshop, but missing the fascism.

Right. In real life you can look someone in the eye and see some semblance of humanity (or at least fear). Online, it doesn’t matter what you say or how you’re perceived, because people get to hide in their perceived anonymity. And you never know when some psychopath with no morals or sense of decency is going to have you swatted.

I read deeper into the article than I care to admit because I wanted to find the date of original introduction.

The Equality Act was introduced in 1974, only 10 years after the civil rights act, which it sought to amend.

In the 8 legislative sessions where democrats have held a trifecta since the act’s introduction, they have not attempted to pass it (instead, favoring stripped down versions that often have many LGBT+ protections removed if a bill has been introduced at all). Every time it has lost the vote or died in committee. And now here we are, less than a week after Trump has moved to nuke the way that the CRA is enforced. So… if both succeed we are actually further from the goal.

Great. Good politics. Not ineffective virtue signaling while being passenger princesses on this ride to fascism at all.

Well, shit. I have been operating under the assumption that these were part of the same conspiracy.
But there have been some gaps that link the two things (linking Koch to Thiel on certain things, for instance) that I have assumed were merely gaps due to one party or the other doing better at hiding their involvement. I’ll have to bear what you said in mind as I continue to figure stuff out.

Do they need to succeed?

The Koch brothers already have a new U.S. constitution drafted and a majority of the states they need to call a constitutional convention. They’ve had plans in motion for years.

I think Trump and Musk were always supposed to be the fall guys. But if they break enough, or reveal enough non-working about the current system, the plan we’re not supposed to realize is in play will succeed.

I told my friends back in mid-October of 2023 that I thought the Hamas attack was probably 1.) heavily influenced by Russia, and 2.) going to throw the election to Trump or whoever the Republican candidate was going to be unless he could get that thing zipped up and a peace deal in place within a month or two.

So stupid. Biden could have done better so easily. But here we are, I guess, witnessing the oligarchy take over the world, using Trump and Musk as patsy’s, letting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Ukrainians die by the hand of genocidal fuckwits.

The following should be taken as a bit of a ramble because I want to express this idea I have, and I don’t think it should be taken as any sort of attempt to correct or challenge what you’re saying because I don’t think what you’re saying is in any way incorrect.

I think the right wing shift is a mirage that is being perpetrated by corporate-owned media. That’s not to say that every media outlet is racist or is explicitly attempting to push a narrative, but I think that the large corporations in the U.S., at least, that own news media have a vested interest in not offending both monied and powerful interests. In that regard they are avoiding reporting on topics that will rally the public, or are outright changing how they report on certain topics.

Which is a lot of words to say that I think what we’re seeing is false consensus driven from the top down, rather than a ‘bottom up’ shift in opinion. I think many of the normal folks are ill-informed, or outright propagandized.
Doesn’t change the outcome, or the opinions held by so many, though… sigh

A good day, I think. My wife’s best friend came over and the dogs love her. She sorta moved in with us, but she’s been crashing elsewhere the last week, so they’ve really missed her.

The dogs had their nails done, which is usually an ordeal. They are freaked out by the click of the clippers, and usually don’t like to be kept still while having their nails clipped.
Our anxious one was given trazodone, and then they’re snuggled on the couch with treats (my job) while my wife cleans their feet and trims their nails. Our non-anxious dog has hyperkeratosis and ingrown/impacted hairs around her paw pads, which both require extra maintenance.
Suffice to say, the dogs are not fans of nail grooming day.

Recently we started using this electric nail file thing my wife got for shaping press on nails. It’s like the Dremel pet nail file device, but smaller and with way less power. It doesn’t make nearly as much noise, and goes slower taking off bits of nail. The Dremel also freaks out the dogs (at least - the older one. We never attempted with the younger/more anxious one). It’s been a great experiment so far. Because their nails are too long/they’re awkward about clipping them, it’s hard to maintain the steady progress needed to get their cuticles to retract. For the second week in a row, we’ve managed to give them nicely rounded (no jagged edges from the clipper) nails that are slowly getting shorter. In about a month, if we can keep this up, we might be able to drop the frequency and still keep them at “fresh from the groomer” nail lengths.

This is a game changer for our anxious dog. He’s got black nails with long cuticles that are a real challenge to deal with using clippers. It’s hard to see the quick when he’s all wiggly and anxious - accidents do happen. He’s so much calmer with the little file. Between treats and his happy hoodie, he only let out a few grumbles this time — because he wanted to lick off the foot balm!

You know what?

Their body, their choice.

I support their right to choose to drink or inject bleach into their own body.
I wish them the best of luck.

Well, one line of my comment was about her being part of the CIA torture apparatus. The rest detailed how she, personally and with the help of the Democratic Party, did fascist things like subvert the will of the people by preventing real political choice.

This isn’t a situation where we can pick the lesser of two evils and hold our nose. I’m outright saying she’s part of the problem — so fuck her and her insistence that we focus on only the kings they want us to be concerned about. And fuck her desire to step away from our moral duty to protect others from discrimination.

I will not abandon my principles for word games.

I went looking for the alt text because, well, I love the Easter-egg nature of the alt text he provides. Got chills as soon as I realized what he’d done.

So much respect for him.

Is he really an illegal immigrant? And is he guilty of the crime that he was in the hearing for?

If he’s here illegally, then deport him. If he’s here legally, let him have his trial, and let the rule of law prevail by meting out whatever justice is deemed necessary. Sure, a crime may invalidate a visa or legal standing or whatever, but you still have to have the damned trial. Innocent until proven guilty.

Trying to arrest him at his pre-hearing to rendition him is fucking wrong. And trying to punish the judge for trying to block that miscarriage of justice from happening is doubly so.

Ah , see, that take is rationalizing. She’s a former CIA torturer who worked under Bush. Within Michigan she once moved into a lobbyists house to avoid getting primaried after redistricting. (The lobbyist’s house was in a safe democrat area that the Democrat party did not field a local candidate for.) Her ascension to state senator was equally questionable - all the other candidates dropped out after meeting with party officials.

It’s clear she’s the Democrats new Joe Manchin, put there to avoid progress and force concessions if they ever win a plurality. All the Michiganders I know vehemently hate her.

She also is only in office because she kept district hopping to avoid getting primaried until she was up for a senate seat, whereupon the Democratic Party pushed out or made concessions to all the other better candidates so they would drop. She’s widely reviled.

Oh, you’re right - I recalled the article and just grabbed the first one that fit when I skimmed it.

I think my point that this is a clear message that the regulators are unable to regulate right now is still valid, but I will update my previous comment for clarity.

Since you’re bringing up language points, I’m wondering if you’d be willing to take a left turn with me.

What are your thoughts about applying the phrase “extraordinary rendition” to their situation?

I feel that it’s appropriate, but I haven’t seen anyone using it.

Where the fuck did USPS get those super-powerful electromagnets from and how do they know to use them to manipulate impossibly heavy packages!?!

.
No idea, man. I just saw that thing in the company warehouse and started pressing buttons

But now it’s not just milk and the legally allowed amount of blood, pus, urine, dirt, fecal matter, cleaning agents, and the things the FDA USDA found and did nothing about.
Now it’s an unambiguous statement that unknown quantities of unknown substances in your food will not trigger enforcement actions! (Regardless of the regulating body)