I am having this conversation with my wife. I’m 16 years into a military career (so 4 years from retirement), and she was talking about moving to Canada. So for a thought exercise, I looked it up, and with my skill set it would be pretty doable.

But I reminded her that we aren’t the ones in danger. A cis-het white family of natively-born Americans in the military with the economic stability to fly to Canada on a moments notice for an abortion (she was worried about our daughter) is not in particular danger. But us leaving means we can’t fight against this, and makes it worse for those who can’t just leave.

We’ll see how it is in 2029 when I’m due to retire, if the country can pull its head out of its ass or if Project 2025 goes full swing followed by no legitimate election. But for now, we’ll stay and push back.

Unless he was diagnosed as a pathological liar, they should not. Not that he isn’t, because he is, but as a news organization they should only provide the facts, quotes, and unbiased contextual information. That is what we should expect from the news. It should not be “left-leaning” or “right-leaning,” because they shouldn’t tell us what we should think about what they are reporting.

They should report that some of his former (and possibly current, if it’s accurate) aids and expected cabinet members wrote, participated, or supported Project 2025. They should report what Trump’s response was when asked about it, as well as including the factual context of how many people directly surrounding him that were openly involved (to give the lie to him “not knowing”).

We need news to stop giving opinion. Period. They should strive to be as unbiased as possible, including reporting on events based on newsworthy-ness, not trying to be “fair” to the candidates by reporting on both in an equally negative way regardless of the severity of their respective news (e.g. Obama’s tan suit vs. Trump’s children in cages.)

Mirror selfies seem like a very reasonable thing to do at a gym, particularly if you are looking for progress pics, taking the same picture in the same location while it’s still in your mind.

I’m an American, and I had to ask my wife what that was the first time I saw it. And then I needed an explanation on why that was a problem, because I had thought the point of text messages was that you could read it and get back at your convenience, as opposed to a phone call you have to respond to in the moment.

Apparently I’m old.

I’ve got a crazy idea that probably won’t work, but who knows:

Let’s start making tons of memes of Bibi making Trump his little bitch. Make fake quotes that make the rounds of Bibi calling Trump a useful idiot, or easier to control than Biden. Try to get Trump to see doing whatever Israel wants as being weak, and make him get into a huge row with Netanyahu.

Israel isn’t Russia, and I don’t think Bibi has Trump by the short hairs like Putin does.

Yes, where they argue over which convoluted plan that ultimately benefits insurance companies is “better” and which is “totally communism.”

Excluding the obvious choice of everybody gets Healthcare at no higher average cost to the individuals.

That got me upset enough that when I read “GI Joe movie” in your comment, it was the first thing I thought of, before reading the rest of your comment.

Perfect, except there wouldn’t be anyone on the lower track. But definitely gets the point across.

I was going to make this, but put Palestine before the fork. And then put the person away from the lever refusing to participate when pulling the lever would move it to a track with nobody on it. Or pulling a different lever that does nothing (labeled Jill Stein).

Palestine is and will continue to get run over regardless who wins the presidency, so they aren’t exactly relevant to the choice. It’s not a real trolley problem because it’s not a trade for different people. It’s just “let the trolley run over Ukrainians, lgbtq+ people, minorities, and immigrants” or… don’t. And then refusing to touch the lever because it somehow makes you “love genocide” to have anything to do with the trolley, even if to mitigate the damage.

But if you wanted to do something about it: these weapons come from this country and they have to get there in trucks traveling on roads to ports that load them on ships.

We are discussing voting, though. That’s a bit tangential, because you can vote or not vote and still commit acts of… resistance…

And it’s not like there’s not a value to making genocide come with electoral consequences…

If you otherwise would have voted Dem against the Republicans, who are as bad or worse when it comes to the specific issue you’re punishing the Dems for, you are hurting one group committing genocide by helping one who commits and wants to commit even more genocide.

All under the mistaken belief that by refusing to vote for the group you would otherwise vote for, you will get them to move Left. But if the Dems lose to the VERY right wing party, if the voting shows that Americans favor more right-leaning policies, they would move to gain the votes of the people who actually voted.

The reality is, refusing to vote is still a choice. As long as you are an adult who can legally vote in the US election, you are partly responsible for the results of the election. You don’t get to wash your hands of it. Choosing to abstain because you don’t want to partipate out of moral self-righteousness is saying your soapbox is more important than the lives affected by your choices, from the Palestinians to the Ukrainians, immigrants to LGBTQ. Nobody is more important than your ability to say “I didn’t vote for a party that commit genocide.”

So what are the other choices?

Let’s take it step by step:

1. penalty tax the shit out of any owned housing (house or apartment) that stands empty more than 3 months (cumulative) out of a year. Some provision might be put in place for a house or unit under development or repair, which could only be used once every 5 or 10 years per property, regardless of owner. That works against the millions of uninhabited homes that drive up scarcity. It might also peck away at some of that AirBnB-filled places with no places to live (like where I live) in seasonal tourist areas. And it will give property owners incentive to lower prices to make sure they get tenants in (so they don’t incur penalties).

2. Tax incrementally based on homes/buildings owned, similar to graduated income tax. Own a home with multiple units (and rent out the other units)? You’re good (as long as they are occupied 9mo+ out of the year). Own a second home that you are renting out? Pay a bit more in taxes than your primary home. Own 20 homes? Good look profiting on that.

3. Well, let’s see where that gets us, first.

Wasn’t the US Constitution’s 4th amendment the basis for Roe vs Wade? It would be fitting for the Florida 4th amendment to enshrine abortion access in their state.

A

Just a reminder to those “Biden and Harris are participating in genocide, it’s not like Trump could be any worse” crowd.

It can always get worse.

Oh, we have the military superpower. We’re constantly putting it on display. We’re basically a giant weapons and war factory. When we go down, it won’t come from the outside (except in the form of cyber attacks and misinformation campaigns).

Though I could see it in a few decades. Russia was a powerful body full of rot. We’re a powerful body with an infection. If the authoritarians win, they’ll replace competent people in key positions with unqualified party-loyal yes men, and that will start the rot.

I feel this is appropriate:

ERB- Roosevelt vs. Churchill

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Do you need to be an -ian? Like, if you like the teachings of Ghandi, or Socrates, or Marcus Aurelius, you don’t have to call yourself a Ghandian, or a Socratian, or an Aurelian. You just agree with their teachings.

I feel like you’re just making a dig on Christians, and it’s not like a lot of them don’t deserve it, but what you’re talking about isn’t a religion. You don’t need an -ian to like a philosophy.

Flying a confederate flag in Pennsylvania is about the most ridiculous thing I can think of off-hand. In the south, they’re all about “it’s not about racism, it’s about heritage!” People flying it in the north are, like, “Nope, racism! I don’t have any heritage with this, except its heritage of racism!”