FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS

I will bulk purchase grey-market bootleg toner from shady overseas websites before I go back to a inkjet…

Manchin glazing Trump at his 2024 inauguration speaks words, even without his problematic voting record on immigration, the border wall, or routinely blocking the Democratic agenda - to me runs beyond the ‘sensible silent majority’ centrism tropes, and veers to bedfellows of fascism:

I also extend my congratulations to [President Trump on his victory. He is our President, and I am committed to supporting him in moving this country forward…

As we reflect on this election, one lesson stands out clearly: The candidate who appeals to the sensible majority of Americans – the center – wins… In this 2024 election, Trump was again the candidate better able to connect with the concerns of the sensible majority – prioritizing the economy, securing our borders, and responding to the core needs of working Americans.

1. Astoundingly stupid to leave super valuable attack/multirole helicopters out in an open field, after years of HIMARS gobbling up anything worthwhile in range. Keep doing Russian things Russia

2. Those are fuuuuuuucked. I doubt they’ll be able to even pull a single spare part off these, those tungsten penetrators do some work. There’s a (SFW) video of a vatnik who’d been assigned to repair a KAMAZ after being HIMARS’d and he was cussing out his commander lmao

“Look at this shit, everything is fucked… it pierced the turbine, holes in solid cast iron fuck. “Restore” are you joking, there’s nothing to “restore”.

Hardly. How about letting ‘moderate’ reactionaries stay in your club?

Manchin wasn’t ejected from the caucus despite his numerous blocking votes and hostage holding, but they did cut off party fund disbursements . Never kicked out of the party, despite him leaning into Trump.

Sinema wasn’t ejected, but they did cut her off party funds after 2019. But never threw her out of the party either.

A Nazi sit down at a table with 10 others, and nobody leaves. How many Nazis are now sat at the table?

The Democrats should whip their members harder instead of giving members ‘outs’ that makes the party as whole look uncommitted - Pelosi managed to do it for years, even with those ‘pesky progressives’.

Use the billion dollars of DNC leverage and lean on them - just like Elon’s unlimited money has openly threatened to primary anyone “disloyal” on the right.

As a lurker who ends up rubbing shoulders with right wing culture spaces, I have to disagree. The right has heresy tests for their politicians, the left tests for their voters. However the left expects competency in government (because they actually believe in it) and will sacrifice ideals or policies, while the right can afford the luxury of rejecting good governance because they’re expressly transactional when it comes to politics.

Rightwing voters are willing to cut off their nose in spite and become single issue voters - and it works for them. Pro-life or you’re dead to them. Pro-gun or you’re dead to them. Non-Christian? Dead. They get the political rhetoric and efforts they demand, which has left them severely ripe for opportunist political grifters who say whatever gets them access power. Like the MAGAs who build nothing, but hand out bones to voting blocs. Abortion overturned. No new gun laws. Ten Commandments in school and state houses. “Hurting the right people”. Migrants deported. Culture wars.

Or in the more extreme examples, they’ll just outright co-opt the structures of power and governance to fit the voters whims. It’s why we have the political maximalist lobbying NRA of today, instead of the humbler sportsman’s advocacy group of yesteryear. Or Trump.

“The president does not have unilateral authority to shut down an expenditure, or instrumentalities funded by Congress, without the authorization of Congress.”

The Korean politicians literally put their lives on the line, and called the coup’s bluff by doing so. Posting on Twitter ‘man, Congress outta do something about that Doge’ when he is a Congressional leader while kicking the issue to the courts to ‘work it out’ is political theatre. Stand up, or step off Chuck.

If lawmakers don’t challenge DOGE, by passing new laws or going to court, they risk losing the powers Congress has held for two and a half centuries. Driesen and other legal experts said judges might consider the lack of congressional opposition as they decide cases on this question.

I said leadership, because yes the individual politicians do not have the ability to whip votes in Congress or create a cross-party platform. That Jeffries’, Schumer’s, and the DNC’s job. That’s who I’m mad at for refusing to recognize the new meta that Trump has tapped into - populist messaging.

People have been failed by late stage capitalism, and are mad about seeing their children have fewer chances in life and less hope, or that the lifestyle their parents were able to achieve is now a fantasy for many. They may not recognize the why, but they are pissed about it. Trump peddles easy to consume lies that offer no real solution to the problem, call him out and provide a real alternative, not more milquetoast centrism subservient to Wall Street. Voters want change and a new social contract. Become the party they want to vote for, instead of crafting districts to meet the DNC’s stance.

Source? I can’t find anything linking the legislative schedule to a snap change, just dry press releases of ‘here’s the planned calendar’ and official announcements.

He’s making wild power grabs by EO because they’re not being challenged - outside some judges blocking the most egregious overreaches.

Congress has the lion’s share of the government power - the purse string - if they choose to use it. Nothing moves or happens without money in America.

THIS is what a politician fighting to stop fascism looks like.

Not a press conference, not ‘barricading’ the door before meekly letting the DOGE lakeys in after they call the DC police, not Chuck fucking Schumer folding to Trump’s budget demands after the House stood tall and members in D+1 districts risked their position.

It’s still politics as usual for most of the leadership. Not ‘the fight to save our democracy’ like they campaigned and fundraised on.

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I voted in each primary, midterm, ballot and election - every chance I got. I was also one of the many who was warning that a shuffling corpse was a terrible candidate, that Harris wasn’t doing enough to differentiate from Biden in a meaningful way, and that constantly arming Israel’s genocide with our money was going to cost voter enthusiasm, swing states, and likely the election.

And here we are, still blaming voters. While Schumer folds on the CR or Jeffries refuses to whip votes - Pelosi at least ran a tight ship and wielded the House gavel. The Democratic leadership is waffling and waiting out for the midterms, where they’re hoping enough people are pissed off to flip the House/Senate. They’re willing to wait two years to act. Two years of deportations, two years of norms destroyed, two years of institutions gutted, allies snubbed, economic self-injury.

Can you wait two years on a political gamble? Can the country? When are we going to hold our political leadership to the fire and demand action?

Is it ableist to not define AI art as art, when handicapped people can’t perform the same actions?

Please reconsider this like of argument in the future, it just comes across as cynical using the disabled for arguments sake. There are plenty of blind/deaf/handicapped/motor impaired/etc people making art of various forms. Deaf musicians. Blind painters. Non-verbal writers.

What makes art, “art” is the human creativity of original thought and intrinsic meaning, even if it is derivative. A jazz beat sampled on a rap track is art because it has social/familial meaning - beat makers often unwittingly share their childhood memories listening to their parent’s music at home. A painter may be influenced by their surreal visions, or the war and horrors they witnessed.

Devils advocate, but given the way they’ve been building metal sheds around the prior tanks and almost completely negating the main gun, a missing turret might just be a weatherproofing issue for the Orks Russians.

It’s not like a main gun helps you survive a mobility kill from the umpteenth TM-62 in the dirt that got replanted after the last assault failed.

The Soviet Union was huge, and dispersed tanks in a multitude of storage depots. Russia is big, and inherited most of them, in varying condition.

Covert Cabal does a good high level OSInt overview, but here’s a list of everything.

If you can’t make your point without moving the goalposts over the horizon, you don’t have an actual point.

I made my point, twice even. That final example is what’s know as hyperbole, trying to make the point get across to you by over exaggerating. You ignored two examples (stalkers and burglars), to focus that. Moving the goalposts is an entire different thing.

hyperbole

1. Deliberate or unintentional overstatement, particularly extreme overstatement.

People passing by and getting a temporary snapshot with their eyes? No problem

A tech monopoly putting photos online, for anyone anywhere at any time to see, and constantly updating the photos? Thats a problem.

Without even thinking hard I can imagine several malicious uses like stalkers finding their victims home, or burglars casing neighborhoods for gates or cameras.

You naïveté does not define the norm for everyone else. Would you livestream video on the internet of your front door online, 24/7? Of course not.

“ANOTHER FORK?!? Unbelievable, don’t these people have any original ideas?”