First they’ll collapse slowly, then all at once.

People have been predicting in imminent collapse of various tech firms for what feels like decades

Half the joke of that movie was how it’s a total mystery what his job is

Taxing: Wicked, Theiving, Irrational, Unconstitutional

Rent-Seeking: Beautific, Generous, Sane, Magna Carta-esque

“If voting had any effect, it’d be illegal!”

The joke of that is voting is illegal, for quite a few people.

Voters are segregated, consent is manufactured, seats are gerrymandered, populists are vilified… But when all else fails, the elections don’t matter and industry does as it pleases.

Democracy exists as an illusion of majority governance, so individuals in opposition feel alienated and at odds with unknown neighbors. The policy outcomes are put at the feet of popular majority, whether or not people actually want them.

Come down here and give it your best shot

But I see a lot more armchair militancy than actual actions

Your Texas Tax Dollars At Work

Why not just build all these overseas?

Iran keeps having a say in their operation

American Democracy in a nutshell

They’re salesmen.

What they’re saying is only “crazy” if it fails to move units. And this guy seems to have been very successful at moving merch

Is there anything more Protestant than worshipping a golden calf, then getting mad when someone suggests that might be heresy.

you wont have full and fair elections next few election

Show me the last time Americans had a full and fair election. Any year.

Ukraine is getting stronger

I’ve seen this line repeated ad nauseam since the war started. Can’t count how many predictions of a dramatic reversal fell flat. We get them at least twice a year.

Ukraine can trade small amounts of land to allow Russia to grind its self down

Russia is never going to “run out” of manpower or materials. It’s the world’s largest contiguous landmass, home to 150M people, and a trillion dollar economy that is second only to the US in arms manufacturing. This has always been a question of political capital. At what point does the United Russia political block sour on the war, in the same way Americans soured on Iraq and Afghanistan.

The problem with fascist states is that they can actually persist and thrive on an endless conflict. Americans wrote the textbook on the Forever War. But we’ve seen Turkiye and Israel and Russia all crib generously from it.

Reminds me of Brett Farve suing Pat McCafee for mentioning his Mississippi swindle

democrats had no choice but to follow suit

Democrats had a number of opportunities to outlaw gerrymandering at the national level. They also had a number of opportunities to pack the SCOTUS, admit several more states (DC, Puerto Rico, American Samoa if they were feeling really feisty) guaranteed to put more Dem House Reps into Congress. They even had opportunities to just turn out more liberal voters by dumping financial resources into highly successful GOTV organizations like ACORN.

At every turn, they balked and made excuses and complained about optics. “When they go low, we go high!” was always just empty rhetoric. Dems never went anywhere.

Newsom ain’t gonna be president

I remember people saying the same shit about a low-rent NYC real estate tycoon.

She’s a prodigious fundraiser and a fantastic “this left and no further” stalking horse

two decent candidates in the last election on the Democrat side: Gavin

decent candidate

Gavin Newsom

Clickbait headline is Clickbait.

News at 11

He’s never going to get reelected at this rate

Both countries are functionally out of gas.