It’s all fun and games until one of the following happens:

• You develop a chronic illness or have a terrible accident.
• You have a child who has a chronic illness.
• You have a child who is ostracized by the other children because he/she doesn’t have the fanciest new shit. Yes, kids are assholes like that, but knowing that won’t help this situation.
• You or your partner reaches mature age and decides they want something else. Or in general you grow apart.
• Inflation blows up the cost of living and suddenly you can’t support the careless lifestyle anymore. All those years spent unemployed did not develop you any networks or skills to find better means for a better living.

This kind of life would not be too bad, but it only works on the happy path where nothing goes wrong.

Lapsellista ja tyhmää ihan takuulla, mutta joskus kamppailulajeja harrastaneena näkisin, että jollakin tavalla hallittu väkivalta on joillekin tosi palkitsevaa. Ennen matsia ja sen aikana tulee adrenaliinia, ja sen jälkeen endorfiineja, mikä koukuttaa helposti. Ja tuommoisessa joukkotappelussa on vielä yhteisöllisyyttä, jota ei millään löydy arjessa. Kaiken tuon saisi tosiaan myös kehästä, molskilta tai tatamilta, mutta sitten jos päälle laitetaan vielä joku epäsosiaalinen personallisuushäiriö ja halu vaan riehua, niin selittäviä tekijöitä alkanee olla kylliksi.

Muuten olisin melkein sitä mieltä että tehkööt aikuiset keskenään mitä haluaa, mutta noilla huligaaneilla tuppaa olemaan myös taipumusta käydä sivullisten päälle, hajottaa paikkoja ja käyttäytyä muutenkin häiritsevästi, niin ajattelen että pärjättäsiin aika hyvin ilmankin.

Must be a very early stage of the relationship.

It might not be so simple. Once you’ve imposed these tariffs to your allies, you can’t go back to the world where they didn’t exist. Everyone sees this and will remember, it will take a long time to build trust again, including among investors.

The billionaires will possibly benefit from this, but it’s very risky. If he just wanted to please the wealthy, he could have just gone with some tax cuts and removing regulations as is traditional for the Republicans.

He in fact did, just the win was stolen by the supreme court.

Agreed. Moronic idealism to back corporate interests over the working class by the Dems certainly screwed us over.

That’s not idealism my friend, just cold opportunism and cynical realism.

Imagine if the Dems actually stole policies from Nader, and sucked in those Nader voters? Imagine how much better we’d be as a nation?

This is a good point. However Gore was a good candidate. Not perfect, but good with a chance of winning. Nader was perhaps perfect for some people, but he absolutely could not have won anything in that election.

Yes, the Republican supreme court was the real problem. However, with Nader’s votes it would have been more difficult to claim victory, as Florida would have been a wider margin win for Gore. What were those Nader votes good for? Absolutely nothing.

Nader pulled from D and R voters in equal measure. Nader’s Wikipedia page disagrees. Miami-Dade county was deliberately obstructed from completing its vote counting by Republican campaign staff Blaming Nader for a judicial coup is asinine.

Yes, we should not forget that the Republicans were the real villains here. And that the Democrats should have protested much harder. However, the point is that Gore was initially declared winner, but because his margin was not significant enough, there was room to obfuscate the victory. Had he gotten Nader’s votes, it would have been more difficult to claim Bush victory.

You hardly have to imagine. Just ask Republicans how they felt about the Perot voters in '92, when Clinton swept the EC with 43% of the total vote.

Yeah, it was mostly a rhetoric question. I was mainly thinking all the bullshit about stolen election in 2020.

The degree to which Florida has been fumbled by Dems for the last 30 years cannot be overstated.

As much as they messed up there, I have to point out that a significant percentage of the voters went for Nader (although would have preferred Gore to Bush). That stupid idiotic moronic idealism cost them and the world two pointless wars in the Middle East, whose ripple effects can still be felt. Nevertheless R’s just stole the election and the D’s rolled over I suppose in order not to cause instability and keep the corporate overlords happy. Can you imagine how angry the R machinery would have gotten if the roles were reversed (possibly some of the D base as well, but just because they’re not similar scum as R voters)?

The democrats are very good at fighting a change inside their own party. They’re very bad at fighting republicans on the national stage. Case in point, voter suppression in the last election, the stolen election of Gore v. Bush in 2000 (Gore had majority in Florida in the end, did you hear CNN reporting about it?)

To extend a bit, the DNC controls the machine to run elections. They are friends with the corporate donors and the “left wing” media. Without their support it’s very hard to brand yourself as a full blown democrat candidate, which eventually will matter to the voting public.

Carl Sagan.

This meme misses the mark. These oligarchs have rivalries in the same vein as the feudal lords and kings had rivalries: they played a game with the other lords where common people were their pawns. The opponents were respected or hated, but treated as equals. The pawns were there just as a means to an end.

Ok, you’re right in this sense. However, I meant beaten badly in the sense of expectations vs. reality. If you followed any media, it was supposed to be a slight edge for Kamala, or at least a good chance for an upset. In the end the R’s got president, senate and congress. And the outcome was clear after the first few hours, unlike something like Gore vs. Bush.

Fascism is fascism, what can you say…

“Mr. Musk has provided us with another delicate moment, demonstrating the ancient Roman salute combined with a Hindu symbol. It appears that the talk about the AI-operated gas chambers was a bit of an awkward slip, and it’s best we do not further aggravate the division of our nation.”

I remember reading he also just laughed it off and said people are just paranoid and see what they want to see.

A pretty good tell-tale sign of a fascist is that they will never apologize or admit doing wrong. You have to appear strong at all times.

There was a lot more demonstrations and outrage during Trump’s first term. I think now everyone is just exhausted and over it. Dems got beaten pretty bad in the election, and are probably very demoralized after this outcome. Maybe it will add up to a landslide in the next senate/congress election, maybe not.

Itselläni heräsi näistä signaloinneista tämmöisiä ajatuksia:

Amerikkalainen äärioikeisto on nyt saanut vahvaa signaalia, että nykyinen hallinto pitää heitä arvossa. Trumpin suuntaus tiedettiinkin jo, mutta nyt myös isoimmilta tukijoilta on saatu rohkaisua. Miksi tällä on enää mitään väliä, kun Trump on jo vallassa? Lähinnä itselle tulee mieleen Hitlerin ruskeapaidat, eli natsipuolueen radikaalien alkupäivien toiminnallinen jaosto, joka hoiti juutalaisia ja poliittisia vastustajia vastaan kohdistetun väkivaltaisen kenttätyön ennen kuin Hitler oli saanut Saksan instituutiot ja upseerit valtansa alle. Tämän tapahduttua Ruskeapaitojen haave tulla armeijan veroiseksi väkivaltakoneistoksi kaatui, kun SS teloitti ryhmän johtohahmot ja Ruskeapaidat lakkautettiin ja sulautettiin muuhun natsipuolueen toimintaan.

Mitä USA:ssa tulee tapahtumaan on tietysti vielä täysin auki, mutta uskon että Trumpin kabinetissa äärioikeistoa leivotaan juuri samanlaiseksi työkaluksi, jota pidetään takataskussa pahan päivän varalle. Esimerkiksi jos Trumpin politiikka alkaa herättää liikaa vastarintaa, on kätevää jos siihen voidaan vastata lain ulkopuolisella omalla voimalla.

Tänään kyllä alkoi päivä mukavalla vitutuksella kun on tuota uutisointia seurannut, Muskin kainalontuulettelut kirsikkana kakun päällä. Tuolla tervehdyksellä on ihan selvästi nyökätty äärioikeiston suuntaan ja taas kerran kokeiltu mitä saadaan menemään läpi. Ja läpihän se tämäkin menee, jopa ADL:tä, joka omassa twiitissään halusi korostaa yhtenäisyyttä ja ties mitä. Vähän jää semmoinen kuva, että kenelläkään ei ole enää virtaa vastustaa tätä uutta fasismia. Sorakuopan reunalla sitten todetaan väsyneesti vieruskaverille, että ei noissa kivääreissä oikeita ammuksia ole.

Edit: Ylen ansioksi pitää tosin lukea se, että Muskiin viitattiin sen enempää selittelemättä oligarkkina. Tavan soisi yleistyvän.