My position on guillotine imagery and sabre rattling at oligarchs is — amusingly — expressed best by Ali Wong:
"…we just wanna experience some risk and be out of control, you know? Like, “I don’t wanna die! Don’t kill me! I don’t wanna die!” But I also don’t want to be sure that I’m gonna live. You know? I just wanna be out of control for once. Just– Just choke me enough so that I can’t talk. ‘Cause if I can talk, I’m gonna tell you what to do."
Don't kill them. I don't want them to die. Don't murder them. But I also don't want them to be sure they're gonna live. I just wanna have them out of control for once.
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If #Boeing execs keep feeling sure they're going to live, they're going to keep killing #whistleblowers. It won't stop with Boeing. Remember that time Elon tried to have police murder a Tesla whistleblower. He won't be coy next time, he'll just order a hit.
#Boeing is killing whistleblowers like they're #Russian dissidents, so please DO keep with the #guillotine imagery. The oligarchs are afraid. That's why they're killing us. They need to be more afraid, though.
As far as #Boeing executives go, we're past the point of intimidation. Some Boeing execs and probably some #shareholders need to die to make this right. They aren't going to stop killing us otherwise.
If I believed laws would be upheld and executives put in prison, I would accept that. But we're past that point if you've been paying attention. #Capitalism is over. We're witnessing a new era of #Mercantilism that the powerful are trying to bring about. Boeing is doing a flex; they want to appear sovereign and above being governed by us.
If we band together and organize, we are more powerful than #Boeing. We could always try a strike if you're feeling sympathetic towards #Billionaire necks.
Do you think this speculation is probably correct or incorrect? If you think I'm incorrect, then what are you worrying over, those billionaire necks will be fine.
If you think they DID have the whistleblowers killed AND you agree that the U.S. justice system won't pursue these crimes, come again with what you think is hard to take?
Cookie’s vet just called back with her new test results. Everything she had which was previously 2-5x more than normal (all liver related) have all come back to well within normal. The vet now recommends keeping her on this medication and routine for as long as possible (instead of euthanasia)! There was a moment a few weeks ago when we didn’t know if she’d make it, or what her quality of life would be. She’s really surprised everyone with her will to live well.
@skinnylatte happy news! Relief from bad news still has an emotional toll for me and I find myself needing a recovery window to decompress. She looks good. Yay.
@thejacenallen@kmmfoo@jf_718
I genuinely applaud Jeff's optimism. I've cultivated a lot of Biden-critical voices in my circle. The best of us include meaningful calls to action.
We can also de-emphasize the celebrity tier national races while reinvigirating interest in state and local progressive governance including small stuff like councils and school boards, because it isn't small.
@thejacenallen@kmmfoo@jf_718
It's reasonable to imagine organizing folks to make political plans now for a 2018-style grassroots Blue Wave invested in local races; where Biden rides their coattails. That would be a sign of healthier U.S. democracy and feels like a great gameplan in 2024.
Energize and motivate the voters. If you must chastize, direct ire at your reps in office right now. That does move the needle. I have to believe it does. 2/3
I think consistently referring to counter-protestors as "zionists" is probably misleading; I suspect that while there may be many genuine zionists doing violence to pro-Palestine protestors, there are also probably a bunch of fascists mixed in there who are very much not "zionists" in the traditional sense (other than perhaps that Israel's continued existence provides a potential avenue to ethnically cleanse the US of Jews).
Using that broad brush actually plays into the fascists' agenda.
I don't tell stories about my spouse often because I don't feel like they're my stories to tell. But they have struggled with mental illness, which is a bit like saying that Tokyo has struggled with Godzilla. When we first met they were totally unmedicated (it's okay, so was I) and were not doing well, apart from their life totally falling apart.
Some days, the only thing I had was begging. I would cry and say, "Please," through the tears because I had nothing else to do or say. Sometimes it was please don't leave, sometimes it was please don't give up, sometimes it was just please, to them, to god, to whatever.
It's not good. It's very much not good. It tears a piece of yourself out and uses it to power the invocation. Humans aren't meant to beg abjectly, or maybe we are but we don't know how to do it properly. We're not meant to live at rock bottom. I'd argue that we're not actually meant to reach rock bottom, that when we do, it represents a failure somewhere. I don't hold with the idea that one has to hit rock bottom to recover. But that's neither here nor there.
I don't know where my rock bottom is in many ways, for which I'm profoundly grateful, but I do know what it'll take to make me debase myself, to throw pride out the window and beg. I know that I would beg for my life, all other things being equal. I would beg for other people's lives. My pride is worth relatively little to me. I don't say this as a mark of pride, by the way. One should value oneself enough to care about debasing one's coinage, so to speak. I don't really. I'm not worth very much to myself and that's another sign that there was a failure somewhere.
I don't have a moral to this story. Just something that was brought to mind for reasons which are probably apparent if you follow me.
@scalzi
Waves of uninspired #PlayDate knockoff energy emanating from this thing's industrial design alone.
I love that Panic has inspired interest in novel form factors and human input devices (like the PlayDate crank or that R1 wheelie thing). But I have a deep dislike of cheap immitations.
@GammaGames
Good to know. Thank you. I can't decide if that supports or refutes my accusation. Probably refutes it unless an even more cynical interpretation turns out to be correct. I'll wait to learn more.
Regardless, yay to the PlayDate inspiring novel designs and Teenage Engineering getting continued work.
@tomhannen
Yes, indeed. I would feel flattered mostly, I think, were it me.
@grimalkina
I'm reminded that human babies can count. They know the difference between none of something, one of something, and doublings thereafter. They can tell when they've been given more or less than another baby. We're born with a sense of justice and fairness.
Yes, we can be selfish little beasties, but I suspect a part of us knows we're being unjust when we do that. Or would when we see clearly.