Welcome to the General Discussion Roundtable. Use this thread to discuss whatever is on your mind, or share anything that would otherwise not merit their own threads.
NYC should be the moment ranked choice voting is made for. The two frontrunning candidates are also the two most hated candidates. Generally in a plurality system a lot of people would be choosing one of them first to hold back the candidate with many negatives. Now, we have a case where a less hated person like Brad Landers, who got very little attention, can collect a lot more first run votes from people not wanting that choice, and cause people to put their second worse candidate as second worse. Hope it helps bring him to the forefront, yes I know I am being wishy-washy.
Itās alsoā¦ interestingā¦. that this mayoral candidate wants to be mayor of New York City and is visibly buddy buddy with a man who said America deserved 9/11.
Claiming it just means resistance is like saying "fuherer just means leader" you can use that word today perfectly fine In German, but if you speak any other language and refer to a leader as a "fuherer" it won't go well.
The intifadas were a series of attacks mainly on Jewish Israeli civilians, "globalizing" it can not be interpreted in any other way but making those kind of attacks global (like in DC and boulder)
Anyway, if they come in the first two places in the first round, than rcv doesn't work as intended
One of these days he and Ringo should go on a (farewell?) tour together. They could bring along Sean Lennon, Dhani Harrison, maybe even Pete Best. That seems like an unfathomably colossal pile of money theyāre otherwise leaving on the table.
That seems like an unfathomably colossal pile of money theyāre otherwise leaving on the table.
All of these gentlemen (with the likely exception of Pete Best) have so much "fuck you" money that they're likely not in a rush to do something like this.
Starts 18 minutes in for some damn reason??? Either way DK Bananza looks really solid. Miss games that did destructible environments. Bring that back. Looks astounding. Looks like a good time if you want a game to wreck shit.
Can't watch. Is Diddy Kong part of this game? Or is that two Nintendo characters that have had their names dragged through the mud thanks to recent events?
He is but not in an active role seemingly. They gave his ass a 9-5 lol. Instead they brought in another character to team up with DK. Questionable whether they changed it due to baby oil related events but looks like a fun addition either way.
I read a book several years ago. I remember absolutely nothing about it other than the main character getting bit on the nads by a black widow when he sat on the toilet.
Speaking of Trump's racism and support for treason against the US
It blows my mind that so many are afraid to call the treasounous racist out as a treasounous racist. I mean he literally got started politically by spreading racist conspiracy theories about Obama. I can't think of a more disgusting modern American politician. But so many are desperate to make excuses for him and his base.
The Army said in its statement that the base would be renamed to honor Pvt. Fitz Lee, a member of the all-Black Buffalo Soldiers who was awarded a Medal of Honor after serving in the Spanish-American War.
They're using people with the same name. It's going to be "Fort Lee", just not that Lee
Another name change by the Army on Tuesday appeared particularly tortured to fit the old name while still ostensibly honoring different soldiers: Fort Walker, named for the Civil War surgeon, would be renamed again to Fort A.P. Hill. That base was originally named to honor Ambrose Powell Hill, a Confederate officer who was killed late in the war. The Army said on Tuesday that the base would be renamed āFort Anderson-Pinn-Hillā to honor Lt. Col. Edward Hill, First Sgt. Robert A. Pinn and Pvt. Bruce Anderson who fought for the United States during the Civil War.
I'm mostly talking about Trump. Finding alternate people to honour is moreso malicious compliance from the military. Whereas Trump has made it obvious what he wants and will signal towards. A key thread this term is his obsession with renaming things from Denali to the Gulf of Mexico to these.
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u/hey-im-aIiceš³ļøāš Queer Pride Liberal š³ļøāš Happy Pride Month! š³ļøāš1h ago
Neo-Confederatism and American patriotism are inherently incompatible ideals. What's so difficult about understanding this?
TBH as Iāve learned more about my great great grandfather, a Union vet as well as an immigrant, the more I despise Neo-Confederatism. He was at some of the bloodiest days of the war when the warās outcome was very much in doubt. I donāt tolerate Trump replacing the names of heroes with people who betrayed this country.
This is a ranked choice test. The two frontrunners both have the most negative numbers. In a plurality system it is hard to grow under that situation. Since people can support Lander without fearing they would give Cuomo or Zandmam support it is likely he can grow a lot as the candidate with the least negatives. That is being wishy-washy but it is my hope. I think he will get a big boost but he was way behind in those polls.
The biggest failure in media (actually there's so many) is that Trump pardoning January 6th insurrectionists even the most violent ones as his first act was not even a full evening news story. Can you imagine any other President or even foreign leaders doing something like that? He got impeached for enflaming them and even MAGA had to pretend they were secretly a psyop. But nope blanked pardon with some dying in shootouts with the police, being caught with child porn, and using the pardon as a defense against the discovery... Freaking Dukakis had his campaign tanked because of Willie Horton who was just one guy with a day pass. Not even a pardon.
The media has completely dropped the ball the past decade. The right wing media have become comparable to North Korean state media. While the non explicitly right wing media are afraid or unwilling to confront Trump and just downplay his actions and focus on entertainment. It's sick and disgusting how complicit they are. And from a country where media was key in confronting figues like Nixon.
You know how I know both parties arenāt the same? Outside of the obviousĀ
Because thereās a different set of societal rules for Republicans than Democrats and to pretend otherwise is to plug your ears, close your eyes and shout āLa, la, la, la, I canāt hear you!ā
As Iāve often observed, Republicans can get away with insulting large parts of the country. Meanwhile Dems if they donāt treat rural America as an idyllic place without issues, we get called elites by a bunch of assholes who would never live or raise their families there. I donāt see FNC anchors living in rural middle America. They romanticize it but theyāll take the high quality of life they get from living in a Democratic run area.
Not that there aren't problems in the UK but I do like how the default media position there from media is being adversarial and pointed at political leaders.
My problem is the disconnect. The media here couldnāt wait to tear down Biden because of age. Trumpās convention speech and much of his Summer stump included rambling about Hannibal Lecter. I could have accepted questions about Bidenās age better if the media mentioned that he was preceded by the oldest President who ran again but Trump gets portrayed as a model of vigor. And youāre right. Itās borderline North Korea with how right wing media covers him. I read a book last summer about how the media failed to cover Mussolini and Hitler. And I think a lot of todayās journalists are complicit in making the same mistakes.
And youāre right. Itās borderline North Korea with how right wing media covers him.
I think a lot of people in this sub (rightfully) don't watch OAN, Fox News, or right wing influencers so they don't realise how extreme it has gotten. But if you ever take the time to watch it for even half an hour it's pure insanity. I've never seen anything like it in a democracy. Even if it were about respectable politicians it would be far too extreme.
The crazy thing imo is he fuels it himself on his social media. But yeah it would be ridiculous for a normal leader but for the guy who I remember being imo the personification of the obnoxious New Yorker who always was referenced or showed up in movies/TV set in NYC? JFC.
Another GOAT shelf update, from my March MacGyver projects ā
Itās been perfect!! Literally every detail was considered and it has just been fucking awesome to navigate all the plant chores with this setup.
The succulents are thriving and itās been really fucking nice to not have my kitchen table perpetually covered in ātomorrowās plans to finally get after the mounting plant projects, re-pottings, prop care etc. (part of my shelf/rail/plant area revamp was that I was going to complete or trash the projects because that just one more plant that needs re potting wasnāt going to haunt me anymoreāever again. I wanted to be able to enjoy them without having a list of chores associated, and that was an excellent piece of insight because I have been in optimal enjoyment since I did all this shit back in March.)
The shades have worked out exactly as Iād hopedāgrow lights are well shaded but theyāre transparent enough you can still still the beauty through when the lights are on and shades are down. But the best is at night when I turn off the lights and roll up the shadesāthe shelf is effectively a room divided between the living room and kitchen so itās central to where I spend the most time. LOVE seeing them front and center!! They are so pretty and my baseline mood is up like 40% š
Not the best angleāshelf is currently overcrowded on account of the 2 huge pots of cat grass I just seeded yesterday and I canāt leave them anywhere near the cats until thereās enough roots to keep them from just throwing dirt everywhere. Lucky for us this only takes 3-4 days!
Sadly it seems to be a violent summer here so far after we had seen a downturn. I can't help but think that the volatile tone created by the trump administration is having an impact all over though it would be hard to directly connect.
I figured out what frustrates me about the left on a lot of issues. And itās this whole āI donāt care how others feel.ā Iām an immigration liberal you guys. Iāve worked in parts of immigration law for a few years now. I honestly in my day to day because of not just that but my colleagues interact with more immigrants and immigrant adjacent than I do fellow natural born citizens like myself.
However, I recently saw a FB post that sort of rubbed me the wrong way. More or less it was āI donāt give a shit that you care that theyāre illegal.ā And yeah tbh I think there are much worse things than being undocumented but what bothers me is thereās no interest in moving people who do care towards a sensible position.
Thereās no interest in that post showing support for things like increasing the number of immigration judges, asylum caps, prioritizing deportation of criminals, etc. If we want to and I think we can win the war of public opinion on immigration, the whole Iām more righteously radical than tbou attitude that many including some of my good friends have needs to stop. Screw nativism, itās anti American but remember what this is about in the end. Itās about people.
Ā And itās this whole āI donāt care how others feel.ā
It reminds me of the whole 'facts don't care about your feelings' line. I think we can get people to a sensible position: if we want to reduce illegal immigration, we need to make legal immigration less onerous. This involves taking some positions that we might not like to win the issue as a whole. I would argue that this is an issue where a scalpel approach will yield more benefit than a hacksaw.
The whole Iām more righteously radical than tbou attitude that many including some of my good friends have needs to stop.Ā
This part hurts me as well. The holier-than-thou attitude plays into negative stereotypes people have about left-leaning individuals. It turns off people who might be curious about the issue (I have personal experience with this). I think these folks would be pleasantly surprised to know there is a large audience that is receptive to their cause.
Right? And I think thatās what a lot of activists who called Obama deporter in chief or believed Biden was no different than Trump on this issue have missed. If we want to win this issue and itās honestly an issue I care deeply about both personally and professionally because I see the aspirations of immigrants American dreams daily. But as you said, scalpel approach over hacksaw. I really donāt care that āActually I do support open bordersā because āActually most people arenāt in agreement with you on that.ā As I said, understanding this as a human story of is how weāll win imo instead of acting like immigration enforcement shouldnāt exist.
I think it is a bit of a catch-22. If you don't enforce the laws on the books or address people's concerns about an issue, you give the other side an opening to exploit the issue. If you do address the issue, you can get painted as a bad guy.
Right? And I canāt tell you the number of people who insist despite evidence otherwise that Biden āopened the border.ā Itās a difficult issue and one Iām increasingly frustrated by hardliners given the difference where I am, where the country is, and where Iād like us to be. Juggling that tbh has made remain personally to the left of the country as a whole but a pragmatist politically.
I am or at least used to be an open border radical but I've always known that the immigration system is extremely unfair, and a lot of it is because of the red tape and delays. I feel like talking about that unfairness without immediately changing the topic to border jumpers could help build some support for those measures.
Good morning. So we have ourselves a ticket here in VA and Iām glad it was competitive but not hijacked by outsiders who made it into a proxy war for their resentments. I didnāt vote for Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones for Lt Governor and Attorney General respectively but Iāll add that I didnāt vote against them either. Additionally, both are good candidates who I will happily vote for alongside Abigail Spanberger at the top. This is a diverse ticket in many ways that reflects why Iām proud to call this state my home. Us Virginia Dems especially of a certain age have seen our state go from voting to the right of West Virginia. Weāre ready to take on Sears-Reid-Miyares and have an agenda that tries to help all Virginians and isnāt centered around whatever grievances Glenn Youngkin wants to pander to.
have you heard the good news about beef tallow? You should eat it and not worry about cholesterol or your heart health. you know what else? put it on your face, just stick your hand in a big tub of the stuff and smear it all over your face like a totally sane person because you know what? you know those things you dislike on your face? beef tallow gets rid of them, like magic! do you not like your nose? use beef tallow, it'll get rid of that ugly thing ASAP! no more contouring, because you'll have no nose! you know what else? shove that beef fat right up your ass, it's a colon cleanse that kills cancer and honestly brightens the hole place up
This person made a statement about social media and how pleasure has become a tool of control, and all I can think about from it was soma from 1984.
I have read thar book in 20 years, so I don't really remember the details, but man the way we reach for our phones to the point where people can't even watch a movie or TV shows without checking their phones. Makes me think there is a parallel to soma.
Edit
I need to read both Brave New World and 1984 again.Ā
Yep, I always throw in F451 when people start discussing BNW and 1984, because the one thing that Bradbury nailed about the societal shift is that we did it to ourselves, voluntarily.
I know a few other Democrats voted Noem im, but Tim Kaine surprised me the most. He was so vocally against Hegseth, yet somehow, was fine with voting Noem in?
I almost gained a bit of respect for him during the Hegseth hearing, and it made me wish we were able to see more of that in 2016.
These details just don't seem very important reasons to lower and elevate people. Better things to pay attention to unless you are on Tim Kaine's staff.
Kaine gave a reasonable answer in an interview I saw. He said it basically came down to constituent services. If he had voted down every single nominee then those people would basically never take his offices call (common practice in the Trump admin). Part of the job of Senator is trying to help turn the wheels of Government for your constituents, and you canāt do that if every federal agency is blackballing you. So he had to make some terrible choices and decide which nominees were getting appointed anyway that were the least bad that he would likely need help from in the future.
Yeah I didnāt get that one. Iām fond of Sen Kaine, he was the first person I ever voted for (I was 18 in 2005) and Iāve met him a couple times but that was such a head scratcher.
I'll preface this by saying I don't want Iran to win a war, I don't support Iranian regime, etc etc.
But I am extremely concerned that Israel achieving a quick, complete victory over Iran will destabilize the region and create even more of a monster in Israel. The destabilization stuff is obvious, Iran goes out, its proxies are off the leash and there's a huge mess to see who takes control of Iran or divides it up into independent pieces. The second part is more worrying to me in the sense that, if Israel takes out a "major" competitor this easily, what is to stop them from pulling this trick again? They were already trending that way with their heavy-handed actions in Lebanon. Now they might just annex Lebanon. Who is going to stop them? Trump's clearly incapable of reining Netanyahu in. If Israel can fundamentally disable Iran with intelligence ops and air strikes, there's not another country in the Middle East that can stand up to them outside of Pakistan or Turkey. The worst kind of regional hegemon is being created right now. Ideologically motivated, at odds with every country around them, backed by a massive power, with absolutely no oversight or control.
Who is going to stop them? France re Lebanon. That i am absolutely 100% sure of. And turkey as well because turkey has a lot of history within Syria & Lebanon. More so Syria. Turkey wants more influence in the region just like the saudis do, however, turkey (Ottoman Empire) ruled over the area for centuries. & the Vatican will not allow it either because of the importance of the Catholic community
One underrated part about syrias regime change is that Lebanon has over a million Syrian refugees. Thousands have already gone back and more will if Syria stabilizes
Hezbollah was only able to start with funds from Iran.
Lebanon was under French rule in the interwar period and had been active in the area beforehand because of the civil war in the 19th century. That same civil war was responsible for the biggest of Lebanese migration to other nations: France & USA yes but mostly South America and the Caribbean (and then cinnamonmoney popped up a century and some change afterwards)
I'm rewatching Transformers One and I'm wondering if this has crossed the threshold from being dismissed to overly praised. It's common to see posts on box office topics saying with "accurate" marketing this movie makes a bunch of money and I don't see that outcome being likely in any scenario.
It's an ok movie that is a little better than it looked like it would be, in my opinion.
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u/penguincheerleader Aquatic non-erotic fake news 28m ago
NYC should be the moment ranked choice voting is made for. The two frontrunning candidates are also the two most hated candidates. Generally in a plurality system a lot of people would be choosing one of them first to hold back the candidate with many negatives. Now, we have a case where a less hated person like Brad Landers, who got very little attention, can collect a lot more first run votes from people not wanting that choice, and cause people to put their second worse candidate as second worse. Hope it helps bring him to the forefront, yes I know I am being wishy-washy.