Another person of refinement and good taste, I see. Both gone way too early. I have been rationing Discworld since Pratchett died.

Absolutely no argument from me on that, but there is no getting away with it - once we start shooting back we’ve opened Pandora’s box. The government is dying for an excuse to get even worse.

People just want to make snarky comments about the second amendment because we’re not shooting ICE agents in the face. They don’t want to hear about the things our communities are actually doing.

My own community hasn’t been hit as hard as MN but we’ve got rapid response hotlines tracking ICE, getting people with cameras and signs on them at the blink of an eye, and resource support groups for the undocumented.

Apparently that counts as nothing to a bunch of people that probably haven’t lifted a finger against their own government despite the fact that fascism is almost certainly rising there too.

He doesn’t need to actually stop them, just make them appear illegitimate. Also, in places where Republicans are in power already, they will absolutely do this and suddenly we’re looking at a midterm where the best outcome for Democrats is losing no power instead of gaining any.

I don’t get why anyone thinks this will be consequential anymore. We already know what’s in them, Trump’s base does not care. The Supreme Court basically made Trump untouchable by the law…

I mean, I’d take some legal deus ex machina to get us out of this shit any day, but at what point are the Epstein files the distraction from the fact that Americans are being wantonly murdered by the state?

Chess is like any other multiplayer game in one regard. Anonymous match ups turn people into assholes. Resigning at the drop of a hat isn’t too terrible, but it’s just something you wouldn’t do if you were playing a friendly game in person.

I play Stockfish exclusively now, fuck a rating, because for the brief time I was playing real people it seemed like every other match I’d get someone yelling in the chat, asking for moves back when they blunder, or just resigning when it started going against them. Especially with time pressure it’s just not worth it when you have an infinitely patient, world class chess opponent on call 24/7.

Admittedly, no, I just remember it being taken that way in 2020 when his age was an issue. Definitely possible the media misconstrued it, but regardless if he was acting in good faith in 2024 instead of out of ego, he would have declined to run.

So much of his last year bumbling would have been totally forgivable if he never went on the debate stage, never made the Dems run Kamala without further discussion etc.

Eh, hard to lionize Biden for this when he also overstayed his welcome and pretended to be fit to run in '24 for as long as he could. Kamala was a meh candidate, but she certainly would have had a better chance if she’d been the head of the ticket from the get go… Or, you know, Biden actually kept his promise not to seek reelection early enough that we had a real primary.

So traditional it’s like a Norman Rockwell painting.

I subbed, but I think puzzle content is welcome here.

I put this on expecting a trainwreck and a cash grab too, but it still had me laughing my ass off. It really felt like they understood why the originals were so funny.

Yeah, my parents are still basically the same liberal Democrats they were when I was a kid. Meanwhile I’ve gone farther left and the rest of the family mutated into a virulent strain of fascist.

I don’t think AOC has that baggage. Democratic voters want someone that isn’t a corpo-centrist running like being not-Trump is enough. Every argument that can be made against AOC could have been made against Obama in 2006 too, but he had a message that resonated and won. AOC could be in a good position to do something similar. I’d sure vote for her, even if she’s become more mainstream she’s still miles ahead of every other likely candidate.

I used the communicator chime for a long time, but these days I’m basically permanently in do-not-disturb. My phone only makes sound when a close contact calls, or for a timer/alarm. Anything else can wait.

I love that song and yeah, nailed it.

I’ll bite. Austin, TX circa 2007. Sublet. Moved my (now) wife and one year old into a one bedroom, one bathroom house the size of a shoebox. Cooled by a single window unit, had to steal wifi, and roaches crawled in through the gaps under the doors.

Ironically, it’s now a fond memory. First place I lived with my new family, it was just for the summer, we had cool neighbors and were like 200 feet from a bunch of really cool local businesses.

By myself, probably Apollo 13 - I used to watch it like once a day over the summer. With my dad, we watched Predator every time my mom had to work late.

Probably due north.

Hey, that’s great. I’m not sure it’s a way to reach full communism, but good on them.

Perfect example. Insurance is an entire industry of blood sucking middle men producing absolutely nothing.

Good luck to your friend. Sorry they have to support a useless leech corporation instead of, you know, paying that money to actual workers.