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 have a wife stuck in the Adobe-verse and yeah, going back that far should work great. It didn’t become a huge hassle until they started being insane with the licensing.

Uhh, is this not a direct reference to that song? I immediately took it that way…

The treatment of Bernie in the 2016 primary also made me lose faith in our form of flawed Democracy. Living in a red state, primaries are my only chance to have any effect on the national Democratic Party and 2016 made it obvious they would accept no challenge to the status quo. Superdelegates are plainly undemocratic, but the post Citizens United world makes both parties absolutely beholden to the corporations.

We literally can not have a candidate that is against business and therefore can not have a candidate that is against fascism.

That said, I will probably continue to pull the lever on my purely symbolic, utterly pointless, placebo vote for the lesser of two evils because people don’t understand that the only non-voters that matter are the ones in battleground states.

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?

“Don’t be a minority” is a rule so deeply ingrained in their ethos they think it’s universally understood already.

Star Trek is just a setting at this point. Lower Decks proved you can do funny and respectful of the fans at the same time. I agree some of SNW’s campiness is a bit over the top, but I’d rather a show spend time trying to do something different like a musical than be totally reliant on drama/action like Discovery (a show that was actually good on the rare occasion the cast could take a break from universe ending peril).

This made me laugh. This is the same shit we’ve been doing for 100 years. “Illegal orders” aren’t a thing when you use your imperial military to do imperialism. The last time we had a President that wasn’t a war criminal was never.

Yeah, I get the sentiment, but there is such a cult of personality around him and it’s not like he’s mentally competent enough to be more than a puppet anyway. Maybe losing the figurehead would splinter the fascists…

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.

I burned a Blu-ray a few years back just to supplement some of our encrypted Google Drive backups with copies that would be more accessible in case of my demise, or physically grabbable in case of disaster. I know they won’t last forever, but if Drive shut down on the same day my local copies failed at least I have an option.

Otherwise, I haven’t used physical media in years. I got the 4K LOTR set when it came out and tried to use it, but it ended up being easier to just pirate the rips like anything else.

So, basically the same thing that’s happening now…

Thing is, no economic system will eliminate people that are afraid of the truth and are obsessed with covering their own asses. Best we can do is shift culture to reward being more up front and honest but it’s a pretty tall order to expect someone to happily be humiliated when they make a mistake even if there aren’t lives on the line.

Reminds me of old Mad Magazine, when they’d parody something they’d draw famous faces in detail but on a much more cartoony body. Definitely a bit jarring, but I’d take it over another stick figure any day.

Eh, I dunno. The opening seasons are usually weak (TOS is an exception) but looking at Encounter at Farpoint/Emissary/Caretaker and even Broken Bow they all do a pretty good job introducing the show even if the cast hasn’t found its feet yet.

Honestly, Vulcan Hello / Battle of the Binary Stars is spot on for how the rest of Discovery behaves. Pay lip service to science and exploration and, at the first opportunity, trash that and turn into an action drama.

So traditional it’s like a Norman Rockwell painting.

I am also interested in this, but don’t have good examples.

Ultimately, a lot of anarchist texts are describing anarcho-communist societies, but historically when communists and anarchists disagree, the communists ignore/fight them, or the revolution gets crushed before either really get a say.

That is literally the best outcome. The worse it gets the longer the chapter on this era gets, until eventually there is no textbook at all.

Definitely agree. Had a couple of them and loved some of the ideas (touchpad sticks, gyro to mouse aim, all of the Steam Input flexibility) but they never really eclipsed my rechargeable Dualshocks in terms of feeling right. Taking some of the Deck’s refinements and giving it another spin is welcome.

Great series, amazing game 7. I thought the Jays were screwed just because the Dodgers are so ridiculously stacked, but they really showed they belonged there.