Exactly. The Ministry of Truth says _________ (fill in the blank as needed.)

It will sound like a government agency is providing recommendations, but in truth it’s whatever Elon says.

It won’t have government employees or have to follow government rules. It’s just an expensive government contractor with no rules. It won’t have to prove itself. Just “the algorithm” that has the answer to any problem. How did it arrive at that answer? Difficult to say, it’s proprietary. Assuming any accountability, it won’t be uncovered until years after the decision has already been made.

Trump will just take no responsibility. He’ll blame RFK Jr for all the things that go wrong. Maybe he’ll eventually get fired but at that point the damage will already be done. Trump will just say “Ah, he screwed me, I would have done the exact same thing but it would have worked, I’m a smart guy, I’ll fix it or appoint someone else to fix it.” And then it won’t be fixed.

So if RFK Jr. is smart he’ll just do a little bit of damage over time. Alternatively if there is a ton of chaos on day 1, then just add to the chaos. People can only be angry at so many things at one time.

“check to see if the information is accurate” is better advice.

This is just great general advice for anything you read or post online. A misinformation tweet on Monday, spreads like wildfire on Tuesday, is looked at by professionals on Wednesday, a reasonable take or correction appears Thursday, and by Friday the only thing anyone remembers is the lie.

I’m reminded of “This Video Will Make You Angry” by CGP Grey, https://youtu.be/rE3j_RHkqJc

But you don’t get likes or whatever by taking time to write out a well thought out opinion.

https://frinkiac.com for all your Simpsons needs.

Also, Bob’s response to why he cheated,

The most likely scenario is Trump/Vance are still selected by the Electoral College but on election day Vance is sworn in as President, without a Vice President. Vance then goes through the standard process (Senate approval) to select a Vice President.

Technically it is possible for the Electoral College to select Vance and whomever Vance selects as VP. Since Republicans (will) have control of the Senate the odds of this scenario is slightly increased just to save everyone time. However given the various Electoral College deadlines and the fact that Vance would likely want time to select a VP, this option isn’t likely.

Now if Trump had died 4 weeks before election day and Vance had clearly selected a new VP already, then the second scenario is more likely.

Lol, I voted like 4 years ago.

(And earlier today)

Diablo 2 also had an expansion… and balance patches… But I agree.

if

when

Even if he thought he was going to win by a landslide he’d still be doing this. The goal is to sow doubt in the elections. Only HE is the source of TRUTH, everything else must be a lie.

after everyone had forgotten

And as a brief note of positivity,

Not everyone, https://rollcall.com/2019/07/23/photo-of-the-day-stewart-smiles-at-mcconnell/

It’s fatigue. If there were a turd-based fireworks show outside your house every night, eventually you just have to ignore it.

At first, exploding turds, I kinda want to see that. Eventually everything is covered in shit. That’s sort of a problem. A few folks try to clean it up, but it’s A LOT of shit. Your house is covered in shit. Your car is covered in shit. You go to the car wash and things improve… But your car is covered in shit again pretty quickly, so that felt like a waste.

Then someone asks you about that one time when a bunch of people broke into a building and let off shit fireworks everywhere. Sure that was new, but the nightly turd extravaganza still went off just the same. Plus the turd fireworks are always being set off in new and unusual places. I can’t be expected to remember them all.

The truth is there are SO MANY great episodes of The Simpsons. Even the current seasons have a lot to offer.

I also think that the earlier seasons get an advantage because they’re the episodes we’ve all seen dozens of times.

Obviously I won’t deny that the earlier seasons have 10/10 episodes. Maybe there are fewer 10/10 as you go along, but even a “bad” episode will have some great jokes in it.

In fact the “I’m a sign, not a cop” meme/macro, that’s a season 20 episode.

I had no idea. I looked it up and the truth is even stranger still. Officially it’s named after Grover Cleveland’s daughter, but seemingly to avoid having to make a proper deal with Babe Ruth.

It just “happened” to have the name of a famous baseball player who was experiencing a nation wide rise in popularity. It was named after the daughter of a president, a girl who A, was relevant 20 years ago, B, is no longer a baby, and C had passed away.

https://www.history.com/news/babe-ruth-v-baby-ruth

To clarify, he is a world famous golfer.

It’s like saying Tiger Woods is famous for cheating on his wife.

Michael Jordan is famous for playing baseball.

Babe Ruth is famous for the candy bar.

Arnold Palmer just happened to like lemonade and iced tea. It is weird what people are remembered for, but it’s not like he was just a dude who ordered a unique drink.

If Trump wins I don’t think they’ll immediately replace him. Keep in mind Trump is easy to influence. He’ll agree to anything if you butter him up a bit so a lot of damage can be done under the guise of “Trump did it”.

Only when he rants out of line or does something that can’t be sanewashed will he be removed. In terms of ideal timing (for Republicans) right after the midterms works best. Trump usually causes problems for the midterms, but assuming he can shuffle past, after the midterms would be best. It would give Vance the incumbency advantage and still allow him to run for two terms.

Of course Vance doesn’t have the charisma for that, so it’s unlikely to actually happen.

Based on, https://www.npr.org/2024/08/30/nx-s1-5096107/what-is-fracking-explained and https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/energy-execs-say-they-believe-vp-kamala-harris-is-indeed-open-fracking-2024-09-17/

It looks like Harris was against it before joining the Biden ticket + administration. Also it only gets buzz during election years. And sadly it also looks like going against the industry would be free cannon fodder for Trump.

Basically it’s not worth actually being a campaign issue, and no one actually cares about it outside of elections, so Harris is just taking a pass. Obviously Trump doesn’t give a shit and Harris doesn’t see it as worth the risk.

It’s a shitty situation to be in. On the plus side the numbers you mentioned mean it’s close to being unavoidable. Continuing to push is the way forward. Local politicians might also have better luck. Maybe it can get midterm traction.

On the plus side it doesn’t seem like Harris is throwing any Hail Mary’s, so she must be confident with the current strategy, and hopefully winning the state.

• From Dec 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/12/08/1141613281/ftc-microsoft-activision-blizzard
• From July 2023, https://apnews.com/article/republicans-ftc-khan-technology-companies-41610756160e10732f7ded6c587cec0e
• From Jan 2024, https://apnews.com/article/ftc-antitrust-inquiry-openai-chatgpt-microsoft-anthropic-google-amazon-67feef411ef311f0be543f546ef34b3d

As a few quick examples of the work (not necessarily success).

Wikipedia probably has a better outline, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Trade_Commission#Biden_administration

I’m assuming we’re hearing about it more since it’s an election year.

I admit I’m far from an expert on the subject and position. I didn’t follow much until I saw her interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, https://youtu.be/oaDTiWaYfcM

Oh I agree. By quietly I just mean without undue political interference.

I admit it is a hope and not a guarantee. However I also learned that unless the President takes an active role and nominates someone (and they are confirmed), then the current member can just continue in their role as an acting member/chair.

So depending on the political climate, Khan may be able to just quietly continue her work.

If Harris is elected, she’ll govern using traditional norms and values

You’re right, but it probably also means she’ll keep FTC chair Lina Khan as chair of the FTC. As chair she’s been aggressive, in a good way. Musk and the FTC haven’t gotten along much over the past few years and I expect with more time the FTC with Khan in charge will cause problems for Musk, who continues to violate obvious laws and regulations.

So tails probably isn’t just doesn’t lose, it’s probably a real loss.