Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
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User ID: 551
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
Communism will continue having supporters until you have a better answer than "Sorry, the rich have to horde all the wealth, that's just how it works!"
This isn't the answer. But sure, people that are too slow-witted or malevolent to understand how investment and production actually work believing that this is how things work is exactly how communism and other collectivist ideologies persist despite being completely vapid.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
The remaining effort is on how to ascertain that for a given set of facts.
The obvious answer would be to knock it off with the gigantic piles of no-reason absentee ballots and just hold a normal election.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
Any changes in results that occur as counties continue to count ballots are not evidence that an election is “rigged.”
I'm going to be very blunt - they are lying. Everyone knows this is a lie. While changes to results aren't dispositive with regard to rigging, they absolutely constitute evidence of rigging. All else equal, it is much better that results be immediately obvious and transparent to all. Preemptively lying in this fashion is additional evidence of rigging.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
"I met ${congressman} and he wasn't the scum-sucking pile of human shit that I expected him to be" stories are incredibly common.
I'm always surprised that they're surprised. Con artists don't scam people by being so off-putting that no one would ever want to speak with them. People can know going into an interaction that they're being targeted for a confidence trick and then still get tricked by it.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
Alexandre de Moraes
This guy's Wiki is just too perfect:
De Moraes's presidency of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court and certain actions he took during the 2022 Brazilian general election has made him the target of several false conspiracy theories by former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters.[4] After the 2023 Brazilian Congress attack, de Moraes ordered several judicial actions to maintain Brazil's democratic rule.[5]
He's doing it for democracy.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
I'll cop to just basically being pretty soft about it. I don't think the objective risk level is all that high. People get killed around here occasionally, but it's usually either their fault or at least substantially avoidable. The risk-tolerance is less as an objective matter (I wouldn't be down for road trips in the car if I was really that concerned) and more feeling a personal sense of vulnerability on the bike that I just don't like.
I've had a couple incidents that freaked me out where I realized I'd have very little control over living or dying, which I think might have put that seed in my head; on a rural road, guy takes a left turn at the T in front of me unreasonably fast, comes across my lane at a short angle doing about 50 MPH head-on, I was lucky to bail to the side of the road in time. A big dude on a Harley pulled up at the stop sign next to me after seeing it to check and make sure I wasn't too rattled by it. I know these things are low probability, but I can't get it out of my head.
Don't get me wrong, if someone wants to grab the bikes to head over to trivia night a couple miles away, that's cool, I'm not paranoid about something relaxed and easy. If some buddies want to do a little lake loop ride (~12 miles), I'm down. It's the combination of speed and open roads for long rides that just kind of gets in my head.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
Is it possible that your saddle is just set up wrong? This isn't something I experience. Clip right foot out, slide weight forward, stop, foot down. No big swing, no nuts crushed.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
I say that it's hard to believe you have meaningful cycling experience not to "win" but because I simply cannot imagine that someone that has that has put in significant mileage at any reasonably decent pace could come to the belief that being on the sidewalk is a good idea for cyclists. If I'm wrong, OK, it is what it is, I guess, that is a bit of a showstopper.
Drawing from personal experience is relevant in this context because the suggestion is something that anyone could easily go try out for themselves. Try it out! Go out, head over to the sidewalk, crank it up to ~18 MPH, and see if it doesn't seem like absolutely deranged behavior that's going to end with a broken wrist or collarbone in short order. Sidewalks aren't smooth, they aren't wide, pedestrians are frequent and not attentive, road-crossing have low visibility for turning vehicles, and so on. On surface streets in cities, the speed of a bike is closer to cars than pedestrians by a pretty significant margin.
I'm going to abandon this one because the topic is genuinely infuriating to me for whatever reason. I find it hard to not be insulting and that's just not great.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
And intersections are currently very dangerous because cyclist are on the road, not on the sidewalks.
No, they're dangerous because you're not easily visible when cars are turning. This is true even at running speeds and would be dramatically worse at cycling speed.
It's just very difficult to believe that you have any meaningful cycling experience to draw from here.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
all of which are 100% necessary
Street parking, especially free street parking, is not as necessary as it's often treated as by people that want to park for free on the street.
Sidewalks are legal to ride on in most municipalities. They're terrible to ride on. I don't know why you believe relegating cyclists to sidewalks would prevent accidents with vehicles - sidewalks cross intersections with less visibility than roadways and most accidents are at intersections.
If you just want cyclists to stop their stupid hobby, you should say that rather than proposing a solution that's obviously unworkable and that you've apparently been told is unworkable by cyclists.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
I'll still ride with friends on occasion, but the level of risk has just gotten to be too high for me to be a cycling hobbyist as I've aged and gotten more sensitive to risk. I'm more of a runner than a cyclist anyway and I can get the fitness benefits from using a trainer on Zwift, so this isn't a huge sacrifice for me, but it is unfortunate that even living in a pretty bike friendly city, I just don't feel like it's worth it. Most motorists are basically fine and give you plenty of space, but it doesn't really matter if most people are fine, it only takes one moron staring at a phone, one drunk like the scum that killed Gaudreau, or one malicious prick that just think it's funny to antagonize cyclists.
It remains amazing to me what a polarizing issue this is. I'm kind of struggling to write anything meaningful about the topic that isn't absolutely filled with vitriol. The absolute entitlement I see from motorists in comment sections is just incredibly over the top. Almost uniformly, these are people that have absolutely zero experience with cycling, as where cyclists almost always have plenty of experience driving. Personally, I have hundreds of thousands of miles driving, tens of thousands running, and tens of thousands on my bike. The number of genuinely dangerous incidents I have encountered that are caused by motorists across all of these is high, so high that it was enough to make me decide I just don't want to bike on roads at all. Despite that, you'd think that the most dangerous thing anyone had ever seen was a cyclist rolling an all-way stop sign if you read comment sections.
If I ever returned to significant road cycling, it would either mean that something changed quite a bit.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
Hell, Virginia and Minnesota start voting in three weeks.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
For those not familiar, the theory of how to accomplish this came from John Eastman:
[1] VP Pence, presiding over the joint session (or Senate Pro Tempore Grassley, if Pence recuses himself), begins to open and count the ballots, starting with Alabama (without conceding that the procedure, specified by the Electoral Count Act, of going through the States alphabetically is required).
[2] When he gets to Arizona, he announces that he has multiple slates of electors, and so is going to defer decision on that until finishing the other States. This would be the first break with the procedure set out in the Act.
[3] At the end, he announces that because of the ongoing disputes in the 7 States, there are no electors that can be deemed validly appointed in those States. That means the total number of "electors appointed" – the language of the 12th Amendment – is 454. This reading of the 12th Amendment has also been advanced by Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe. A "majority of the electors appointed" would therefore be 228. There are at this point 232 votes for Trump, 222 votes for Biden. Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected.
[4] Howls, of course, from the Democrats, who now claim, contrary to Tribe's prior position, that 270 is required. So Pence says, fine. Pursuant to the 12th Amendment, no candidate has achieved the necessary majority. That sends the matter to the House, where “the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote ..." Republicans currently control 26 of the state delegations, the bare majority needed to win that vote. President Trump is re-elected there as well.
[5] One last piece. Assuming the Electoral Count Act process is followed and, upon getting the objections to the Arizona slates, the two houses break into their separate chambers, we should not allow the Electoral Count Act constraint on debate to control. That would mean that a prior legislature was determining the rules of the present one – a constitutional no-no (as Tribe has forcefully argued). So someone – Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, etc. – should demand normal rules (which includes the filibuster). That creates a stalemate that would give the state legislatures more time to weigh in to formally support the alternate slate of electors, if they had not already done so.
[6] The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission – either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court. Let the other side challenge his actions in court, where Tribe (who in 2001 conceded the President of the Senate might be in charge of counting the votes) and others who would press a lawsuit would have their past position – that these are non-justiciable political questions – thrown back at them, to get the lawsuit dismissed. The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter. We should take all of our actions with that in mind.
This is, of course, quite norm breaking. I think it's reasonable to argue that it's not even a good-faith legal theory, that it's just plain illegal and Eastman knew it was illegal, and he was just doing wishcasting to try to give power to his guy. But really, it's not any more of a "coup" then the Compromise of 1877.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
Yes, the Orange Man is also Bad. To my knowledge, very few people believe him to be a sincere man, as was articulated about Walz above. I've got a solid decade of saying I don't like the Orange Man though, as where Walz being an annoying bullshitter is new to me.
Tim is a guy everyone knows.
I agree that he's a guy everyone knows, but I don't agree even a little bit about him seeming like a sincere, earnest guy. He's the bullshitter, he's the guy that has to inflate every single thing he does. Even the things that are honest-to-god admirable, he still has to be an E9 instead of an E8, he doesn't just know a thing or two about rifles, he carried them in war, and so on. He's never invested a penny, never genuinely risked anything, and he resents the hell out of the guys that got more money and status than him in the private sector. He babbles about racial justice while a half billion dollars in damage is done to Minneapolis as his wife enjoys the vibes (and scent of burning debris). Someone else's business is a small price to pay for him to feel better about white supremacy.
Yeah, I know guys like Tim Walz.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
The biggest sign was how quickly the Trump assassination story died down. The second Biden stepped down, he overwhelmed the media cycle and wiped the slate clean on both sides.
There's a lot of passive voice here! Media outlets consist of actual people that make decisions about things. When we say that the Trump assassination died down, what we mean is that the media doesn't really have much curiosity about the shooter or why he putatively went unnoticed. Likewise, when we say that Biden stepped down and everyone rallied around Kamala, what we mean is that the media stopped being curious about what exactly Nancy Pelosi meant by doing things the "easy way or the hard way" and why it was that no one really mentioned that Biden was plainly senile.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
My prepper impulses are limited to ammunition rather than precious metals. I have considered precious metals as well but decided that I think the situations where metals are the difference maker are fairly niche. Arguably I'm underestimating the risk level and should just buy $10K in gold and silver as a slight hedge. I actually find that argument fairly persuasive, but I haven't done it anyway.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
I'm actually somewhat inverted in that I used to struggle with focus in driving when I was young. I think it's easier for me now because I'm more acutely aware of risk and also have the benefit of interesting podcasts to keep me from drifting as far into fatigue.
On the flip side, my Garmin says that my stress level goes up substantially while I'm driving. This is true even if my subjective experience is of having a relaxing afternoon with my wife. The change in heart rate variability is a measurably physiologic indicator of the fact that driving is taking something out of me even if I don't feel like it on a moment-to-moment basis.
I generally don't drive far at night anymore. My night vision isn't as good as when I was young and my state has terrible illumination and even worse road paint. The state is so bad at this that I thought my vision had deteriorated much worse than it actually has... until I crossed a state line and was promptly fine.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
The idea that you were, at one point, bound to lose (particularly immediately after the assassination attempt) and, all of a sudden, you're now bound to win is pretty exciting in itself, no?
I don't relate to politics that way, no. I have trouble empathizing with other people that do, at least outside of people that are directly involved in campaigns or work in policy positions. It's not a sport, I'm not cheering for it, and I don't get excited about it in this fashion. Politicians are, at best, instrumentally useful when it comes to getting the things I want done.
But sure, this does seem to be exactly how other people relate to it. Their team was down big in the second half, suddenly got a quick score, and now they might win. Wow, how exciting! Is Kamala Harris good, or committed to any particular values, or someone that earned the job? Who gives a shit, she got a pick six and now those Republicans are so fucked! They can't stop her!
The shape of my understanding for how this works has certainly evolved slowly, arriving much after events unfold, and it has not done wonders for my opinion of my fellow man.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
I have no trouble acknowledging that there are many people that support a bunch of Democrat policies that I don't like much. If, for example, someone just doesn't think they should have to pay their student loans, they're probably going to vote Democrat.
On the flip side, the enthusiasm for Harris is genuinely hard to understand. I accept that the firmware update worked as intended and people really mean it, but it is genuinely puzzling to me what they're seeing that they're excited about. The answer is apparently as simple as the fact that she's 60 and lucid rather than 80 and comatose, which is fine as far as it goes, but doesn't really get me to understanding excitement.
As a bit of an extra point, I think if you'd told me this was how it was going to go down a few years ago, I would have thought a bunch of Democrats would be annoyed that they didn't get a say in picking their candidate. Instead, everyone just happily agreed that they're coconut-pilled now, that they're not going back, and that it's time embrace what can be, unburdened by what has been. That, above all else, is why I can't stop thinking of the situation as embodying the NPC meme. It is very hard for me to believe that people authentically watched some teleprompter speech and thought, "wow, now I can't wait to get out there and campaign"; I don't think it was astroturfed, but I do think that this is almost entirely an exercise in groupthink.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
It doesn’t take a coordinated blitz of friendly op-eds, since my parents were getting this straight from the TV.
Is this not just the visual version of friendly op-eds? Outside of the explicitly right-wing media entities, everyone else has granted Harris what seems like fawning coverage to me. I hear that she's running a great campaign but haven't actually seen her do anything other than read a couple speeches off of teleprompters. I quite literally haven't heard a single word that's actually a thought that occurred in her head rather than something that someone else wrote down for her to say.
I'm not doubting that there's a vibe shift, but I do absolutely marvel at how people's vibes shifted so much when nothing actually happened. As I covered a couple days ago, I thought it was a good speech as far as such things go, but I really have trouble relating to people that treat these sorts of things as decisive factors for themselves.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
2mo ago
I think that Trump's big problem is simply that Harris seems really young compared to him, and the average voter knows almost nothing about her...
One of the most striking features of this election cycle is that we had years of polling data where people kept saying that they were concerned about the age of the candidates, especially concerned about Biden's age, and partisans just kept shrugging that off as though people giving that answer didn't really mean it and were just using it as an excuse. Currently, it seems like people that basically said, "I like Democrats, but Biden's too old" were just telling the absolute truth about what their perspective was.
Is this referring to Trump? He owned hotels, casinos, of which visitors could be called clients.
Yes. I didn't say that I agree with the substance! It's good speechwriting though. The reality is that Harris has never had a client, never had a single person that willingly purchased anything that she's ever created. Neither has Walz, for that matter, which is an interesting fact about the ticket. The spin is that her clients were the people as where Trump is just purely self-serving. This is a good rhetorical defense, in my book.
This is a pretty funny example of homogenization to use during an era when small, independently owned breweries exploded. I don't even live in a large city and there are a half dozen little brewery taprooms within walking distance and many more within biking distance.
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