kescusay

kescusay, 1 day ago

I called in Mr. Harry Balls to make a complaint.

kescusay, 1 day ago

You can definitely expect more. Democrats are consistently over-performing versus the polls.

Polling is kinda broken right now.

kescusay, 1 day ago

He can “demand” whatever he wants. What he’s gonna get is a fair trial, followed by a verdict from a jury of his peers.

And that’s the last thing he wants, because he’s so fucking guilty.

kescusay, 2 days ago

My hot take is that she figures she’s delayed it as long as she possibly can, so now she’s washing her hands of it.

Jack Smith will appeal, of course, and now has grounds to seek a new judge, but it doesn’t matter. The damage is done. Any new judge assigned to the case will have to get up to speed, and that will take time.

kescusay, 3 days ago

What the actual fuck is wrong with Republican politicians? I mean, I already know what’s wrong with Republican voters - brainwashing by years of Fox “News” - but the politicians? Are they all literal sociopaths?

kescusay, 3 days ago

It’s certainly to be hoped, but given the Israeli mobilization in the last 24 hours or so, I’m not holding my breath.

kescusay, 4 days ago

Ew. Ew, ew, ew. Gross in ways I didn’t think an elected official could get away with in public.

Someone needs to do a wellness check on his kids, if he has any. Again… Ew.

kescusay, 4 days ago

I just threw up a little in my mouth.

kescusay, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago)

Good, but fragile.

Let’s talk about the fragile first:

• We have unrest due to the genocidal war in Gaza. Israel is a long-term ally of the United States, but… their government has lost its mind. They’ve responded to a horrendous terrorist attack with an even more horrendous war that it’s hard to see a good ending to. Lots of blame to go around on it, but as for the United States, we’re stuck with a particularly sticky political problem because of it.

  If we cut off support for Israel, it’s likely that they’ll face invasion by their neighbors, plunging the entire region into war and strengthening Russia.

  If we give them everything they need to raze Gaza to the ground, no strings attached, they’ll… raze Gaza to the ground, and probably try to destroy all of Palestine in a grotesque act of true genocide. This will also result in their neighbors attacking them, and likely cause an even more horrific war. Biden is currently trying to thread a very difficult needle between these extreme outcomes.

  I genuinely don’t know if he will succeed and ultimately convince Israel to stop the horrific destruction, but at least he’s trying. If Trump wins the next election, we - and Palestine, and Israel, and everyone who isn’t Russia or Iran - are fucked.

• We have a serious long-term problem that threatens the stability of the entire country, which I will sum up in two words: Fox News. This misnamed infotainment channel is almost single-handedly responsible for a decades-long - and horrifyingly successful - campaign to make an entire half of the country stupid, misinformed, bigoted, and angry all the time about utter nonsense.

  Have you heard about how trans people are beating all the “real” women in sports? Or raping them in public bathrooms? Have you heard about how DEI is flooding every business everywhere with unqualified employees, because white people are superior reasons that will remain carefully unspecified? Is Disney trying to turn little Timmy gay? Is the “woke mind virus” something you’re familiar with?

  Then you’ve probably either seen Fox News, or interacted with its victims. And I mean that: victims. These are people who have been intentionally targeted for, quite literally, brainwashing. If you’ve ever found yourself in an argument with a Fox News victim, you’ll have discovered that they’re remarkably impervious to facts, fully capable of believing complete balderdash without a single scrap of evidence, and are prone to become angry - sometimes violently so - in defense of their worldview and in response to anything that causes the discomfort of cognitive dissonance.

• We haven’t yet figured out how to really counter bad actors, both foreign and domestic, who take advantage of all of the above to try to destroy the United States as it is right now.

  Domestically, actual white supremacists and Neo-Nazis are absolutely thrilled with the current state of affairs in Israel and Palestine, because 1) they hate absolutely everyone involved anyway, and 2) they see it as an opportunity to try to recruit new white supremacists from college students who are angry about the genocide. Does that make any sense? Of course not; if they’re upset about the horrific slayings of thousands of Muslims in a majority non-white country, it’s absurd to believe that they’re likely to be turned by white nationalism. But it’s not like Neo-Nazis are known for their critical thinking skills, and they still might succeed in dividing enough of the electorate to help Trump get back into office. They certainly want to.

  On the foreign front, there’s Russia, of course. Russia still wants to do everything it can to destroy the United States. Putin and his ilk have long since concluded that the easiest way to become a mover and shaker on the world stage isn’t to make a strong Russia, it’s to make everyone else weak. They’ve utterly squandered the opportunities of perestroika. And they are hell-bent on making the world suffer for it.

Pretty depressing, huh. But it’s not all bad:

• We seem to be taking genuine, if tentative, steps towards actually forcing Donald Trump to experience the consequences of his actions. This will destroy him. He’s a corrupt narcissist, and even being forced to be in court is absolute torture for him. And if he’s found guilty and becomes a felon, it’s a near-certainty that he will lose the upcoming election. There’s some evidence that while it would invigorate some of his base (comprised of Fox News victims), it would also partially divide them. He would, at last, look weak to some of them.
• Our economy is actually doing quite well. Jobs are up, inflation is down, GDP is up, and overall things are actually going fairly well. You don’t hear about it much, because “Everything is going well” doesn’t make for an exciting news headline, but it appears to be true.
• Biden has made remarkable strides, all things considered, on multiple issues, from the environment to student loans. This, even with a House controlled by the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and a corrupt Supreme Court.
• The pandemic isn’t over - it probably never will be - but with actual grown-ups at the wheel, we’re doing much better on that front, too.

So… yeah. Good. But fragile.

kescusay, 4 days ago

This is partially true. The rich have definitely benefited more than everyone else. But the actual statistics don’t lie… Wages are not actually stagnant, they’ve been ticking upward, and it’s finally happening faster than inflation. It’s not helping everyone, of course, but it’s not all doom and gloom, either. And inflation really is down - importantly, lower than the global average by quite a bit.

I’m not going to argue that everything is going perfectly, because it’s clearly not. For one thing, everything that can get passed in the House has to overcome Republican obstruction right now, only to face Republican obstruction in the Senate, too. We have a half-&-half government where one half is sociopathic, and that’s not amazing. In fact, while some economic indicators are good, the whole thing does appear pretty fragile.

Which is kinda the thesis of my original comment.

kescusay, 5 days ago

I am sick of these monkey-fighting snakes in my Monday-to-Friday pants!

kescusay, 5 days ago

Why would he? He’s not in Russia (no matter how much Putin plays pretend on that).

kescusay, 5 days ago

Yes, but Ukraine is currently at war with Russia and on hyper-alert for Russians trying to assassinate their president. They’ve stopped numerous assassination plots against him.

kescusay, 5 days ago

Oh, it won’t be meaningless. The meaning will be remarkably clear: “Hey, everyone, we’re having hundred-year worsts every week now, and you should all be shitting your pants over it instead of what you’re actually doing, which is sticking your fingers in your ears and going, ‘la-la-la, I can’t hear you.’”

kescusay, 5 days ago

No, I mean the events themselves will be “saying” that, not that people should get out there and instigate panic. Sorry if that didn’t come through.

kescusay, 5 days ago

For the record, folks: Deadnaming a trans person will earn you an instant, permanent ban.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled real-life-imitating-The-Onion content.

kescusay, 4 days ago

That user kept publicly wondering about people’s genitals, so they’ve been cordially invited to continue wondering elsewhere. (In other words, banned.)

kescusay, 5 days ago

Ah damn! Wally is practically our mascot! Nooooooo!

kescusay, 7 days ago

Yeah, I’m having trouble identifying the falsehood. Japan’s awesome in many ways, but they still have a long way to go to combat xenophobia there.

kescusay, 7 days ago

Japan is one of those countries I’d really like to visit at some point, but as a 6’3" white dude, I know full well I’m gonna stick out like a sore thumb and almost certainly be on the receiving end of some xenophobia there. That’s fine, I can deal with it, and there are so many awesome things to see and do in Japan that I’m confident the experience would be extremely positive, but it’s still something on my mind.

kescusay, 9 days ago

Google solving the important issues, here.