“I remember talking on the playground with kids in the fourth grade about how we hoped we died quickly when we were nuked, as who would want to live after that? That’s not a normal thing for nine-year-olds to talk about, don’t you think?” https://www.technologyasnature.com/2024/08/26/jane-says-wrong-stuff/
// basically my experience as well. i had a persistent “fear-tasy” in which my whole family would be huddled in the basement before we would be transformed into a silhouette on the wall. at least we would be together.
trying desperately to undo what he has done to himself, Trump will soon announce he supports abortions until age three.
fraud fraud is when you fraudulently allege a fraud that in actual fact was not fraudulent.
"More often than not, 95% of economists will be right. But in a disturbing number of cases they are not." #ScottSumner https://www.econlib.org/do-tariffs-raise-prices/
I find this “conflict index” (I don’t know anything about it or its source) a bit shocking. Is Mexico really much more dangerous than Ukraine?
Big if true, as they say!
https://acleddata.com/conflict-index/index-july-2024/
ht #RobertYoungPelton
@jgordon “the deadliest year for underground violence was 1981, when eleven people were killed in bombings and bank robberies gone bad.”
now compare with contemporary mass shootings. we are living through a much weirder period. we, like they, just don’t see it, because it is the water that we swim in.
@baldur a democratic government could limit or regulate these uses. it might be satisfying, might be morally accurate, to blame global demand, but that’s unlikely to be very effective. but you have a state. in fact you have the benefit of a state unusually close to you and your fellow citizens. rather than, or in addition to, raging on social media at market forces, i wish you every success in making use of it.
@kentwillard some of the people who consider voting for Trump just want retribution against those they resent for sure. but a much larger group i think legit thinks we are collectively in a cult-de-sac, we can’t get anything done, and someone willing to break a few eggs could fix things. this group should be reminded that a political party with a serious mandate could get things done too, with less likelihood they or theirs end up broken eggs.
@ZaneSelvans @luis_in_brief (thanks for the heads up!)
when you are young, the world around you seems comfortable, familiar, while the past seems exotic, even alien.
when you are old it’s just the other way around.
I think the following messaging would be useful and true:
“We don’t need a strong man to fix what’s broken in this country. An electoral landslide for a party committed to democracy would enable action and solution just as vigorous, without the lawless unaccountability of a tyrant.”
@GreenFire instead of a statement, maybe he could, like, write a letter.
i wanna quip that this is a campaign fueled by joy and gasoline, but i wonder if anybody would get the joke, and if they do, it doesn’t really quite fit.
@djc i think that’s right. but it’s a strange kind of democracy we’re running right now, is all i’m saying.
We’re kind of in a “You can read the bill after it passes” moment.
Text: Amazon.com Inc. was legally the boss of a group of subcontracted delivery drivers, US labor board prosecutors have concluded, rejecting the company's claims that workers in its sprawling delivery network aren't its employees. The general counsel office of the US National Labor Relations Board has determined that a group of drivers in Southern California were employees of Amazon itself, as well as of the "delivery service partner" company that hired them, agency spokesperson Kayla Blado said Thursday. The agency prosecutors also concluded that Amazon violated federal labor law by making illegal threats and refusing to negotiate after the workers organized last year with the Teamsters.
