Well I’m not sure what your point is then. Just keep voting the lesser evil until one day you find yourself in the voting booth gleefully voting for Hitler 3.0 because at least they are marginally better than Hitler 4.0?

Just hang your head and cry about it and do the bare minimum you can do to mitigate the damage?

I’d rather at least try to fight for something better. Even if it doesn’t work out it’s better than just capitulating and being all but complicit in the system that is actively making our lives worse.

Fortunately, that doesn’t work either, there are several issues with that logic.

We are still (nominally) a type of Democracy. That means our ‘leaders’ must be elected. The 22nd only addresses term limits, the constitution itself spells out how the President comes into power in the first place, and that is by being elected. Nowhere is the President granted the power to appoint someone else to the office. The 25th amendment lays out who is to be president in the event that the current one is unwilling/unable to perform their duties.

Still, we are talking about if he at least wants to have the appearance of legitimacy. He’s certainly argued that he can ‘creatively interpret’ the constitution to suit his agenda. For example, despite the 14th amendment stating that “…all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” the Trump administration has tried to claim that ‘all people’ do not include people who’s parents were ‘illegal immigrants’, despite the Supreme Court precedent that it most certainly does include them.

I do have some faith that Americans would not stand for that though. That would be the final straw for many of us. If I am still around and something like that happens, I know it will be the final straw for me. I was born in a ‘free’ country, and I have no issues dying to help ensure it remains that way.

That being said there is nothing really stopping him from being the ‘de facto’ president in the case one of his lackeys gets elected and is willing to let him do so. For example if Vance were elected he could allow Trump to attend meetings and press conferences and speak on his behalf. He could be appointed an ‘advisor’ and Vance could follow his ‘advice’ every time. Hell he could allow Trump to sleep in his bed and use his toothbrush if he wanted.

Hopefully the DNC will pull it’s fucking corporate boot licking head out of its ass and put up a candidate that’s actually worth a damn for the next election, but that’s about as likely as Trump stepping down gracefully.

It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I wish I believed in God, I would ask you to pray for us.

What do you define as a centrist in that context.

I’m referring to people who vote, but they claim to be the ‘reasonable’ middle ground between Democrats and Republicans. They are right wingers who don’t feel strongly one way or the other, because they are either completely ignorant about politics, or get their information from American mainstream media (pretty much the same thing).

Basically they have no real values and only know that they are satisfied with the status quo and will vote for whomever they think will maintain it. There is a lot of overlap between these pseudo-intellectuals and people who boot lick Musk.

From an European viewpoint, most democrats are right-wing politicians, some of them even far right.

I’m not a Democrat I’m a leftist, so I view it that way as well

Bernie Sanders is the only one that comes to mind that could be seen as center-left

AOC has had some pretty decent takes, but like Sanders she is a politician in America and has to play the game so who knows what she actually believes in. I believe her heart is probably in the right place at least.

And politically disinterested people don’t sound like a relevant political force…

They’re not. I wasn’t trying to imply Musk would run for office or anything. I’m just saying they are likely to be the type of people ignorant enough to continue to support him.

If there is another election and they are going to pretend it’s legitimate, Trump would have to overturn the 22nd amendment to the Constitution to be eligible to run. A constitutional amendment requires a 2/3 vote from both houses of congress, and that is not likely to happen.

That doesn’t mean the dumbass won’t try to pull some sketchy shit and I honestly wouldn’t put it past him to try.

Burning inside with
Violent anger.
Burning inside with
Violent anger.

Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!

Burning inside with
Violent anger.
Burning inside with
Violent anger.

Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!

Fate- monstrous
And empty.
Fate- monstrous
And empty.

Burning inside with
Violent anger.
Burning inside with
Violent anger.

Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!

Come, come, Oh come,
Do not let me die.
Come, come, Oh come,
Do not let me die.
Come, come, Oh come,
Do not let me die.
Come, come, Oh come,
Do not let me die.

Glorious and Noble…
Glorious and Noble…

Sephiroth!

Edit: Full Latin Lyrics for the curious.

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi.
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi.

Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi.
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi.

Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!

Sors immanis-
Et inanis.
Sors immanis-
Et inanis.
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi.
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi.

Sephiroth!
Sephiroth!

Veni, veni, venias,
Ne me mori facias.
Veni, veni, venias,
Ne me mori facias.
Veni, veni, venias,
Ne me mori facias.
Veni, veni, venias,
Ne me mori facias.

Gloriosa Generosa…
Gloriosa Generosa…
Gloriosa Generosa…
Gloriosa Generosa…

Sephiroth!

Neither the neoliberal technologists and futurists he charmed nor MAGA are on his side any more.

This is true. The only people that will remain loyal to Mush are centrists/ politically disinterested people. I think that will turn out to be a lot of people, but not enough to really do any damage. I can see some neolibs who bought Teslas stanning for him in the hopes they will regain some of the value in their vehicles.

I’m more concerned with Musk’s wealth, he can do a lot of damage with that still. Not as much as the government can do, but not insignificant either. If he feels like he is being attacked, I can see him doing some really disgusting things to get revenge.

I’d be curious where Peter Thiel stands, the handler of Vance.

My guess is as long as Trump plays by the rules and continues to chicken out on the Tarrifs, people like Theil will be content to stay in the background, silently pulling the strings. As soon as he starts actually hurting peoples bottom lines, that’s when we will see dissent. That is almost certainly why Musk cut and ran.

If Thiel backs the impeachment Thiel will become president and that might align with their goals to dismantle democracy in the US.

I think people like Theil and Trump are equally committed to dismantling democracy (in practice if not in name), so I don’t think it matters who is running things. They have to be careful about it too, since they have propped him up and Trump is a megalomaniac who actually thinks he deserves to be where his and his base are rabidly, stupidly obedient to him.

I’d say that Musk was just as big of a part of MAGA as anyone else. Quite a bit more than most really because he ran a whole ass government agency so he and Trump could harm their political/business opponents.

Even though the Leopard ate his face, he still voted for/ promoted/ worked for/ and donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the Leopard. Musk is in no way a victim here.

Sure, he got ‘chewed up’ (I guess), but so did Hitlers supporters when they outlived their usefulness. It’s really not surprising.

Nobody on the Republican side gives a shit about him.

Name anybody (besides themselves) that they do care about? Caring about people isn’t exactly the Republicans strong suit.

I agree it’s not really a ‘turning point’ but don’t underestimate the number of people (MAGAt’s or not) who are Musk ball lickers. Those people will ‘pick a side’ and not everyone will choose Trump. They are both Fascists though, so the people end up losing either way.

Pop-Os gang!

There’s nothing more satisfying than quitting in person so you can look your boss in the eye and tell him he is a piece of shit, making them so mad they threaten to call the cops on you for trespassing as you are literally walking out the door lmao.

I don’t mind giving a 2 week notice normally, but at this particular job one of my coworkers put her notice in and they fired her that day. They immediately lost their 2 week notice privileges from me with that slick move.

I love how companies expect you to give them 2 week notices, but how many of them give you any notice before laying you off or firing you? None- that’s how many. They literally value their own profits over human beings, fuck them.

:)

Sure, if you happen to already know where the Wedell Sea is or if you look it up it you can reasonably locate it, in which case adding the “north of Antarctica” part is superfluous. But if you don’t already know where the Wedell Sea is, adding in the “north of Antarctica” part doesn’t actually narrow it down any, which is why it’s a funny thing to point out.

If they had wrote “just north of Antarctica” or “off the coast of Antarctica” or “near Antarctica”, that would have narrowed it down significantly.

Now that I have thoroughly explained the joke, I imagine it’s much funnier now.

I’m sure that “Mark “Three-Jabs” Newton” and the rest of us who found this funny were able to deduce from the context that is actually what the writer meant . That isn’t what they actually wrote though so “sp3ctr4l” is not only incorrect in asserting that Mark has “poor reading comprehension”, he is also wrong that ‘reading the whole thing’ would have clarified things and was extremely condescending about his incorrect statement at the same time, which makes him kind of an ass imo.

He was correct that Mark was “intentionally being a little shit” so 1 out of 3 wouldn’t have been so bad if he weren’t such a douche about it at the same time.

There is no part of the Weddell Sea, or any sea that is South of Antarctica.

Which part is south of Antarctica?

Lol,

I was ‘taught’ by my 5th grade Geography teacher that Iceland used to be called Greenland, and vice versa and they switched the names during WW2 to “confuse the Nazi’s”. I thought that was interesting but never really took the time to think about it logically. I repeated this ‘fact’ to a friend when I was in my early 20’s and she laughed and called me an idiot. Talk about embarrassing.

IBM 386DX with a ‘turbo’ button.

I used Apple II’s in school and older “IBM” PC’s but my family never got one. I had to buy one myself once I moved out.

I remember learning to write BASIC and Logo programs in grade school. I even went to ‘computer camp’ during summer school, but that was more ‘play Oregon Trail/ Carmen San Diego and print out basic ass ascii art’ than learning.

Weirdly, after 6th grade the whole ‘computer literacy’ thing at our school quietly disappeared. In 8th grade I learned to type, on an actual typewriter. Maybe they thought the whole ‘computer’ thing was a fad, or they could have just been cheapskates. Idk.

We all probably understood that’s what they meant but it’s funny and not super clear. “The Weddell Sea just north of Antarctica.” or “The Weddell Sea near Antarctica.” work much better.

True, but it seems like the EUs interests aligns with public interest a lot more often than it does in the U.S.

Id trade for sure. As an American, I am conditioned to settle for the lesser of two evils.

Pulp Fiction. Bruce Willis.

This is cheating a little bit because Bruce Willis is already a muppet.

To get pedantic for a second. The title of this post is “Microsoft gives…” as if this was an altruistic act that Microsoft decided to do for some people, when the article states they did it to comply with a law.

A much better title would have been “EU Forces Microsoft to Give Users More Control:” It returns the credit to the people who deserve the credit and clarifies that it wasn’t something Microsoft did willingly.

In addition to what others have said, sadly the myth persists among some people. I have a good friend who I used to play Magic: The Gathering with. I had been playing for years before I met him (since 3rd edition) and had a pretty decent collection, and he invested a lot of money in cards in the next few years.

At one point I was moving away to a place where I didn’t know anyone and needed to travel light, so instead of selling my collection I gave them to him.

I ended up coming back to my home state and we became roommates. Then he became ‘born again’ and instead of giving me those cards back, he burnt them all.

I’m not really mad at the guy for it, he was doing what he thought was right, but I do regret giving him the cards in the first place.

I would go so far as to say all of them. The whole idea of Satan is ridiculous, it’s “The Boogeyman” for adults.