He can’t tackle SCOTUS expansion unless we also vote in a solid majority in the Senate, and he can’t tackle Medicare for All unless we vote in a supermajority.

I think they are setting up the narrative to write off a poor performance. I think if he were going to pull out of the debates that they would have ramped up the rhetoric a lot more than this by now.

My theory had been ‘amburger in a cockney accent

an 🍔

Going crazy trying to think of what word you use for 🍔 that starts with a vowel.

Oh, and also I used to always get the Santa Fe chicken Gordita at Taco Bell until it went away.

People on the right are not looking for a logical thread at all. On the contrary, they are looking for ways to short-circuit critical thinking, so that what they want can be justified and that’s the end of it. They want to wall off logical paths, so they have absolutely no interest in what you’re pointing out.

I think Apple’s emphasis on the privacy and security stuff would have happened anyway, because they’ve been positioning themselves as privacy focused for several years now.

As I tell my kids: if you want to make things fair by making something better for someone else, that’s great. If you want to make things fair by making something worse for someone else, you’re doing it wrong.

I would hope that angry students would not sue to prevent something that would help so many people in the name of “fairness”.

Besides, if anything, actions like this just establish more precedent that encourages further action against unfair debt.

I definitely see your perspective, but mostly wanted to make sure I wasn’t overlooking some obvious downside in my risk assessment.

I figure my chances are low that I will get into the situation where an authority demands access to my phone but I also don’t have the opportunity to lock out biometrics. Like if I get pulled over I just hold power and volume up buttons for three seconds and biometrics is off. That said, it certainly doesn’t eliminate my risk completely, and I wouldn’t consider anyone crazy for just opting out completely.

Regarding biometrics, I’ve felt that one advantage is that if I’m in a public space, I don’t have to worry about someone watching me enter my password over my shoulder. If I got into a situation where someone is physically overpowering me to get my finger onto my device against my will, I’m probably going to give them whatever password they want so I don’t get a beat down.

I think this is where the specific definition of “nice” is crucial. I think it’s very possible to still be “nice” while also being confrontational or standing up for things, and in fact, doing it nicely but without backing down can sometimes be extremely effective.

I know the “nice” you are referring to, where someone uses it as a shield for uncaring, selfish behavior. I’d of course rather have someone who isn’t so “nice” who earnestly tries to do the right thing than that kind of nice.

Why would Biden publicly announce that he wants to pack the courts, and get all of the negative political consequences of that, while at the same time having a 0% chance of adding even one Justice, therefore getting absolutely none of the benefits?

I think you’re right but I think it goes further in that he genuinely doesn’t grasp the concept of reality. I think for him reality is whatever he wants it to be in the moment, and anyone suggesting it is anything other than that is lying, unfair, disloyal, and so on. So even if he does remember it, it doesn’t matter.

You should because I guarantee it would be for all the wrong reasons and done in the worst way

In the primaries, sure, that’s your chance to send your party a message about who you really want. In the general election? You are just a vote and you don’t get to decide how that is interpreted.

Are the Democrats likely to look at the results and say “oh the libertarian vote is gaining ground, we need to move our platform to the left”? Or will they see themselves losing ground and try to appeal more to the center? Or will the Republicans look at it and say “we need to be even more anti-government!” Or any number of other things that could be antithetical to the change you want?

If it’s a clear sign of disrespect, can you say why the person wanted to disrespect you?

OMG WHAT A GOOD POINT YOU’RE SO RIGHT

Unfortunately our democracy is flawed, and our election system punishes similar candidates who run against each other in the general election.

Because of this, our political parties are more like coalitions, made up various groups with overlapping goals, who choose one candidate through a primary, so that they don’t cannibalize each other in the general election.

This means that those who run third party anyway are either looking for publicity, cynically playing the spoiler, or fools.

I’m sure the people on the right — who already actively engage in suppressing the vote of people who do want to vote — will feel deeply concerned about the legitimacy of their increased power due to people on the left deciding not to vote.

And I’m sure the Democrats, who will then have even less power in the federal government, will somehow use their non-power to pass laws to make things better in order to woo these non-voters who have proven their unreliability.

Wouldn’t that give an extra incentive to raise the retirement age?

The level of betrayal it would take for my wife to do something like this when I am a Supreme Court justice, knowing the political significance it would have, would be off the charts.

This is not simply be a case of “my wife and I don’t agree on everything and we don’t keep tabs on everything”. This is one of 9 people in the entire country appointed to one of the most powerful positions for life, and who, if they have the slightest bit of integrity and respect for the power entrusted to them, should be striving to show a significant level of nonpartisanship. Yes, this is a sacrifice. It’s the job.

I don’t know how I could possibly remain married to someone who would sell me out like that — make it appear that I was supporting insurrectionists. But we know it wasn’t a betrayal, and that he was showing support for them, and saying his wife did it is a convenient way to signal to the bad people while hand-waving away anybody who calls him out.