I’ve seen that gunman --he has an absolutely dazzling smile. $50k pls 🫱💰

I love Bernie too! We have that in common.

But you’re take is only part of the point he’s making though. The government is failing people in large part because such a small segment of the population has enormous sway over who gets to be in government.

I had a much longer response that got deleted when the app force closed on me 😮‍💨

I really did want to weigh in from your original post, though, how you argue that billionaires make jobs, make products, make the world better. Like, sure, some do, but the ones at the top? Big corporations? No, they don’t. Literally, Walmart workers have relied on government assistance programs due to poor pay for decades. Companies like Toys R Us get bought up by billionaires and liquidated for more money as employees lose their jobs. Or billionaires buy things that shouldn’t be profit driven–where is that return on investment going to come from? These are billionaires choices, not Congress or City Council or whatever, that directly shape society negatively. Sure, governments allow it–especially governments that billionaires have bought.

I used to be against limits to billionaires (I still kind of am, I’d prefer minimum/maximum earning ratios), but actually watching them work and change in the world, I have seen that they have too much power with too few checks. I mean, hell, from a global warming perspective, it’s hard to find what I, as a little person, do matters at all. I could die tomorrow and produce no more carbon emissions (beyond my body’s offgassing), and it wouldn’t change anything. Meanwhile, some small percentage of people, just like in Bernie’s tweet, contribute much more each day than I will in my whole life. Fuck, man.

The billionaires aren’t the problem?

I do get your point. It’s bad to take joy in the pain of other people. That it is bad as a society that we celebrate the deaths of our fellows. I don’t really want vigilante justice to become our norm–that’s how gangs and cartels come to prominence. I’d much rather have institutions that do their damn jobs so the common person doesn’t believe justice can only be found at the end of a gun. The billionaires keep voting/promoting to break those institutions though!

That’s so retro tho

Exploitation of the religious liberties clause of the first amendment.

Continuing to plot out the book I hope I’m writing. And hang out with the family. And clean. And get rid of more crap. Ooh, and a friend’s birthday dinner tomorrow ❤️

Hopefully my ratio of writing to the other stuff is decent.

I wish one of those steps ahead had been a successful prosecution.

Or his cadre of evil clowns.

women can’t marry older than 25? What kind of bass ackwards handmaid’s tale bullshit is that?

Japanese instructors in college would tell us how older unmarried women would be referred to as ‘Christmas Cakes’–no one wanted one after the 25th. Although they were happy that had been a changing attitude.

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Why do you think they want everyone uneducated and saddled with more kids than they want/can afford?

I’m willing to bet there’s millions of women who didn’t vote/voted for the male candidate in part due to internalized misogyny.

The people who will be in power around him might well get rid of him themselves for all the use they want. He’s getting them to power. Vance and Musk and Thiel and whoever the fuck else don’t care about Trump. They want power.

Book recommendation: Persepolis. It’s a graphic novel autobiography of a girl who lived through the Iranian revolution and eventually moved to Paris. It’s a very accessible read.

For a brief recap of just the Soviet Union part, this is a fun little song.

S

I listen to a podcast by a licensed therapist (Dr Laura Anderson, Sunday School Dropouts) who specializes in helping people recover from religious trauma, and honestly, she does argue that high control religion works a lot like the dynamics of abusive personal relationships. She also notes that when people are used to being shamed/coerced/guilted/etc for religious reasons, they’re more likely to accept abusive behaviors in personal relationships as well–it’s already normal stuff. And most of the arguments I’ve heard in favor of preserving child marriages comes from religious folks asking “what happens when a 15 year old gets pregnant, the baby needs both a father and a mother!” Instead of wanting to use investigation or nuance, child marriages are a quick fix to always complicated situations.

I’ve heard people argue for (age)x.5+7=not creepy. Seems moderately reasonable.

I wonder if all the schools and hospitals and government buildings having to close and/or evacuate due to bomb threats will be enough for the burden of proof. It’s not directly threatening language, but it certainly was a tangible, disruptive result.

You mean that they aren’t just cursed for having made a deal with demons? /s

Though that is a shitty thing that I heard on American (religious) TV 20 years ago. Poison to understanding & compassion.