TIRM
20d ago
I don't like bureaucrats and I obviously didn't vote for them. These self-appointed vetoers should be fired and criminally punished if I had my way. They derive all their authority from the executive. In a better world they would be suitably punished for betraying that. They also almost all happen to be partisan Democrats very selectively deciding which sorts of policies to obstruct.
Trump is a vote for restoring norms.
But will be countered by:
People blew it up in an attempt to oppose him.
They'll go as far as possible to oppose him next time. They're whipping themselves into a frenzy about how this is the last election, etc. Someone on reddit told me the military would kill them if Trump wins.
The actual leaders of the Democratic party are not that hysterical redditor. But they'll be plenty Trump deranged in their own way. Blowing up any and all norms or guardrails will be routine in their Quixotic struggle against him.
I'm beyond caring about claims of bias. In some trivial sense everyone is biased. It is true and unimportant that I am not biased against Trump in this one matter.
A comedian riffing at your event is a speaker. "Speaker" does not mean "speaker, but only if they are also a politician". I have a purely semantic objection here.
And yes there is an obvious difference between a comedian who is a speaker at an event and a politician who is a speaker at an event. But both are speakers.
TIRM
21d ago
it was a comedian act making a joke, not a speaker.
A comedian riffing at a rally is a speaker. It is not an exclusive designation.
Something like that. The film had a very lengthy narrative about Batman following the Riddler's string of murderers and clues. And also Selina's struggle against her father. Those story lines all wrapped up and the film was over. Wicked father dead, Riddler in jail. We're done.
And then they introduce the bomb truck/overly online white guy terrorists plot line and it goes on for another half hour or so. Pointlessly excessively long. And as you mention they threw away a better interpretation of the Riddler in which he murders corrupt politicians and mofiosos who wronged him and every other orphan in Gotham.
TIRM
23d ago
fire-resistant envelopes
My biggest complaint about The Batman other than it's absurd length.
TIRM
23d ago
Trump is, if anything, pro-Jew. I accept that American Jews may be sensitive to potential ethnic troubles. But specifically worrying about Trump is a false positive.
TIRM
24d ago
Aesthetically, I hate the presence of stubble between shaves.
A shocking response. I thought for sure you were a transwoman. I work with a few and can guess at the physical difficulties they go through.
TIRM
24d ago
I was never much concerned with this kind of argument. Make a reasonable attempt to determine outcomes. That does not involve perfect knowledge or unbounded computational problems. Using a small bit of thought and your best understanding of the situation, you can make a reasonable approximation.
TIRM
24d ago
I had a teacher assert something similar. That naming of people and households was important because the people listening to the story could claim some of those were their ancestors. So there ends up being 1000+ named people almost all of whom are (from a narrative point of view) pointlessly mentioned in passing.
And that teacher claimed a bit of improvisation in oral retellings was allowed. An ancient bard or traveling storyteller could add in a few mentions to local families. As though their ancestors were battling at Troy.
TIRM
26d ago
Stranger still Trump mean tweeted the Patriot Act away. He tweeted that he wouldn't sign an extension. Congressional leaders tweeted back that they would fix it so he could sign it. Then they never followed through and it expired.
TIRM
27d ago
Quibble accepted. Cutting off penis or breasts except in cases of necessary removal due to gangrene or cancer.
TIRM
27d ago
Cutting off your child's penis or breasts is the abuse. Declining to do so is not abusing them.
TIRM
27d ago
I live in a blue county in a blue state. I am a father. My kid is in private school in order to dodge the worst excesses of public schools. There's no secret transitioning at my kid's school. Also class sizes are smaller and the academic standards are higher.
TIRM
27d ago
Are you hoping for them to have an epiphany that the progressive hivemind previously ordered them to fight for things that they now know were bad, and realise that this might be happening again?
I wish progressives would internalize this. I know most won't, but we'd all be better off if they did.
TIRM
29d ago
The best way to understand people on the other side of a culture war issue is to start from the assumption that they really do genuinely believe what they say they believe.
We need a flashing banner along the lines of "Yes, your opponents actually think that. No, they aren't pretending to just to make you mad."
TIRM
1mo ago
I'm not advocating for it. But some people would. I'm saying Starlink and satellite internet aren't that and don't need my tax dollars.
TIRM
1mo ago
Starlink has, as far as I can tell, completed the requirements now, still before the actual time target, and that awards to 'settled' technologies aren't always retracted even after a due date has come and gone
vs
the FCC again ‘determined that Starlink failed to demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service.’
Hard to square unless there's some wild spin going on. Which I wouldn't put past the FCC.
Trying to evaluate this clearly: the FCC claims that Starlink won't meet future projected targets even though they happen to be working fine at the moment. As Starlink expands it has throughput problems in rural areas. By some (foolishly naive?) projection from current trends they will underdeliver.
But then Starlink is launching ever escalating numbers of satellites. So presumably a short term slump in download speeds isn't indicative of long term performance.
TIRM
1mo ago
I'm sympathetic to this. If we are going to incentivize rural internet, but the provider underdelivers according to original promises, then they shouldn't necessarily have the entire reward taken away.
To make up numbers: 80% of original promised speeds from Starlink is still an enormous benefit to rural communities. It's not like that is hard failure deserving of nothing.
If they consistently take an all or nothing approach to rewards then I'm fine with them doing it now. If they did it now to stick it to Elon then I'm not fine with it. I have no evidence they are spitefully sticking it to Elon.
TIRM
1mo ago
And StarLink isn't performing as previously claimed, so they don't qualify for this award. I don't want awards based on mean tweeting. I am fine with denying awards for failure to deliver as promised. I hope that is the criteria being used here.
TIRM
1mo ago
I don't want bureaucrats spitefully revoking contracts because Musk tweets too much.
I also don't want my tax dollars given to StarLink. They are a large private for-profit venture and are not a fledgling industry that needs a financial boost. If they don't meet the criteria for this award, then don't give them this award. Similarly don't give hundreds of millions of my tax dollars to Iridium, Kuiper, Blue Ring or the other satellite companies. Make government contracts with them of course. Pay for services provided. But don't just 'award' only one of them with a money spigot regardless of their ability to deliver promised services.
In the Cyberpunk anime they show how shitty and exploitative the future is by a teenager trying to dry his clothes, but the dryer subscription service runs out so the dryer in his mom's apartment refuses to work. I'd better never have an always-online dryer or fridge looking for reasons to lock up because I haven't paid a service fee or installed updates.
Neocons are bad conservatives. Good riddance to that lot of big government military adventurers. Disaffected leftists turning bad and ruining the Republican party.
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