I think we’re going to have to strike “boring” from the name soon.

It’s kind of scary that people are responding so passively and pessimistically this time.

I’m arguably part of the problem here. The fact that he won again, and that Dems ran the 2016 playbook again, and that the have openly moved to the right on various issues since 2020, and will probably run the 2016 playbook again in 2028 even if they would deserve another vote, has really just taken the wind out of my sails.

It’s not that I don’t understand those concerns, I just don’t think those are reasons to reject the concept, nor the obligation to make an effort.

How would you solve that problem?

I doubt I have the necessary understanding of the nuance to propose any good solution. That’s not evidence that one doesn’t exist, however. And if the folks who should be responsible for such things are choosing to abdicate that responsibility, I’m going to need a better reason than “because it’s hard.”

*…but don’t anyone worry about that! We’re going to take control of a nuclear power plant and keep pushing them to you whether you want them or not! We’ve never let the sanctity of users’ data stop us before, and we’re not about to start now!"

Me too!

Well, I can at least understand your point of view. Thanks for the discussion and perspective.

That’s a solvable problem, not a reason to reject fact checking as a concept.

“Fact-checking” is preserving a certain model of censorship and propaganda. “No fact-checking” is moving to a new model of censorship and propaganda.

Dude, facts are facts or they are not. There is no rejection of fact checking that will result in more truths being exposed to the world, only less.

My hypothesis is that they now except political support from Trump administration and to pressure the EU?

Yes. We will now export our fascism, making it essentially just the same imperialism we’ve been engaged in forever.

All fair points, but what do you suppose the Taliban would have done to those same people and more if the US had not pulled out when Trump told them we would?

Fair opinion I guess, but I think there are plenty of things you can cleanly give Biden shit about before you get all the way down to complying with the troop withdrawal schedule that Trump committed us to.

Instead of going to war against this oligarchy he chose to cash his political capital on a rushed pull out of Afghanistan

I don’t see how this is laid on Biden since Trump agreed to the withdrawal and timeline, and then R relentlessly hammered Biden for not getting on it, then relentlessly hammered him for the problems related to rushing it.

I agree with the rest of your comment.

In other news, A Lot of Americans Are Googling ‘What Is Oligarchy?’ After Biden’s Farewell Speech.

“Papers, Please”

are they a health insurance or a revenue stream insurance?

Come now, I think we already have that answer.

I’m a veteran. I grew up Gen-X during a time of high jingoism, with a lot of military folks in my family. It was a time and a setting where “American Exceptionalism” was uncritically accepted. If you had told me thirty years ago that one day I’d be rooting for a foreign nation standing up to the US, and saying things like, “Nothing off the table” regarding their own defiance, I’d have laughed in your face at what a fucking credulous fool you must have felt me to be.

And yet, here we are.

We didn’t listen to Eisenhower; I don’t think we’re going to listen to Biden.

The inaugural lunch, a tradition since 1897, typically includes speeches and toasts for the new administration.

Anyone have a sense of how rare it is for living ex presidents to dodge it? Feels pretty rare but I don’t know.

Former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton also received an invitation to the inaugural luncheon but will not attend, according to a third source familiar with the matter.

I kinda feel like she missed an opportunity there.

Keeping these images from the US public is what ACTUAL censorship looks like Musk and magas! Getting banned for being a bigot is not.

But “hanging out in a coffee shop” while buying little, and honestly even more specifically “going to starbucks to write” are such common activities that they have been the subject of show plots and memes for decades. There’s probably a reasonable argument that this cultural perception of coffee shops drives a certain percentage of business.

I personally don’t find it troublesome to need to buy a coffee if I’m going to hang out at a coffee shop (and I’m not one to do so anyhow), but I’m also skeptical it’s such a widespread problem that they had any reason to do this beyond real-world enshittification.