I have worked hard to remind some of the Trump-voting Massholes I have the pleasure of interacting with on a regular basis of this. I think I’ve made inroads with at least one of them. I also make sure to bring this up:

“The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy.”

Trump committed negligent homicide in blue states for political gain.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MOTHER SCHRODINGER!?

Most recent social security trustees report says the trust fund will run out in 2035. What happens in 2035? Benefits are still funded at 83% in perpetuity. By the way, last year it was going to run out in 2033, and the year before that it was going to run out in 2031. And also by the way, the trust fund was specifically set up because they knew the baby boomers were going to stress the system, so it’s supposed to get depleted as the boomers use it.

Everything is working mostly as intended, and yet there’s all this anxiety around Social Security. Why? Because Republicans want you to think Social Security is fucked all on its own so that you don’t question it when they ratfuck it. That and they want to constantly frame the conversation as such so that the conversation doesn’t turn to “how do we make social security more robust and generous?” or some other radical socialist nonsense.

I’ve had some pretty long commutes in the past because my work location changes every few years. I enjoy the work, though, so that helps, but I’ve still been feeling the OP lately. I’m in my late 30s and I don’t have kids and “fun” doesn’t really do it for me anymore. More and more I need to feel like I’m doing something worthwhile instead of aimless hedonism. I’ll figure it out, though, it’s just time to make some, as you say, necessary changes again.

Feeling pretty bogged down.

It was the naval ensign of Massachusetts up to 1971, and I guess still is, just with the words removed. As a proud Swamp Yankee, I say to anyone using it to support a fascist coup attempt, and especially anyone from New Jersey - fuck right off.

Code mods are great, maps and assets are in there but not officially, so compatibility going forward probably isn’t great for those. Full modding support is being worked on and is one of their highest priorities, so I’m not surprised there wasn’t much discussion about it. Asset mod support is “before summer” so they’ve got another month according to their last statement on it. PDX Mods has some bugs but overall it’s actually pretty slick and functional, and they’ve made a few highly requested improvements to it already.

IF PEOPLE EVELEVEVOD FROM MONKEYS WHYARE THEREA STILL MONKEYS!?!?!

CHECKMEAT ATHEASTS

Straight white Christian men sit at the bottom, almost buried beneath the pyramid

Like a Pharaoh? Buried with concubines and unimaginable riches and feasts in an elaborate sarcophagus? Under a monument built on the backs of thousands of slaves and their suffering and death? Yeah, okay, that tracks.

If you read the full article, it seems as if the Saudi religious establishment was infiltrated by Egyptian extremists fleeing a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood following the assassination of Sadat. Their ideology meshed with Wahhabism and Bin Laden’s religious vendetta against the United States. The Saudi state apparatus did not have effective oversight over the religious establishment and so this all happened under the House of Saud’s nose. The countries in red are (at the time) places with either US puppet regimes or some form of Arab Revolt descended, nominally secular/socialist regimes. The religious extremists pushing Islamic rule operated in these countries under various militias and terrorist groups, notably Al Qaeda, backed by the newly radicalized Saudi Wahhabi establishment, and of course, Iran.

From that perspective, the US was waging war against militias and terrorist groups with roots and support in Saudi Arabia, but the House of Saud was not considered to be complicit. The article goes on to say…

Astonishingly, the attacks of 9/11 had little effect on the Saudi approach to religious extremism, as diplomats and intelligence officials have attested. What finally changed royal minds was the experience of suffering an attack on Saudi soil. In May 2003, gunmen and suicide bombers struck three residential compounds in Riyadh, killing 39 people. The authorities attributed the attacks to al-Qaeda, and cooperation with the U.S. improved quickly and dramatically.

Interesting stuff, to be sure.

He was more than a hero. He was a union man.

In the US, there are positive and negative stereotypes, too. German efficiency and Japanese perfectionism and perseverance are among them. Jewish intelligence and commitment to education, too. These things have a basis in reality, of course, but they shouldn’t be mistaken for reality itself. It seems to me these things appearing in your textbooks were probably attempts by your own government to get its people to emulate what it sees as positive traits in other cultures, rather than an attempt by foreign adversaries to paint Chinese people as inferior. Of course, when the message was a little too unclear or negative as in the “toxic textbooks” incident, your government deflected blame.

My best friend in shul, and still to this day, comes from a long line of anti-Zionist leftists. My own family history is more mixed, but includes several socialists and anti-Zionists.

Interestingly, one of the portions of the IHRA definition of antisemitism enshrined in this law is:

Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Now, e.g. means “for example” which means it’s not the only example. Might another example be the silencing of anti-Zionist speech? After all, as stated in the article:

The Jewish Bund was the largest Jewish trade union movement and Jewish political party in Europe, and it fought for Jewish liberation alongside the struggle for socialism and international solidarity with other workers and oppressed peoples. […] Against Zionism, the Bund insisted “wherever we are, that’s our homeland.”

Isn’t this Bundism a form of self determination? And wouldn’t denying the anti-Zionism inherent in it be tantamount to denying the self-determination of the Jewish people?

Can I sue Congress under the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

But have you considered the heat death of the universe?

No, conspicuousness is when something is obvious to the point of standing out, you’re thinking of conscription.

Can I subscribe to Mid-Atlantic Raptor Facts?

Without even reading it.

A Windows update broke my wife’s install earlier this week. Her laptop has Manjaro on it now.

Why are you here, Oklahoma man?

Not the guy you’re responding to, but Discovery and Picard are awful entirely on their own merits; so bad, in fact, that it took me four years to recover enough to try Strange New Worlds, which was great by the way. Lower Decks and Prodigy aren’t really for me, but I’ve caught enough of them to know they’re quality entertainment, too.