A president who wants what is best for his people, seeks out the smartest man on the planet, and puts him in charge of the most challenging problem facing the country?
Yes. I want president Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho as president.
That got me upset enough that when I read “GI Joe movie” in your comment, it was the first thing I thought of, before reading the rest of your comment.
But if you wanted to do something about it: these weapons come from this country and they have to get there in trucks traveling on roads to ports that load them on ships.
We are discussing voting, though. That’s a bit tangential, because you can vote or not vote and still commit acts of… resistance…
And it’s not like there’s not a value to making genocide come with electoral consequences…
If you otherwise would have voted Dem against the Republicans, who are as bad or worse when it comes to the specific issue you’re punishing the Dems for, you are hurting one group committing genocide by helping one who commits and wants to commit even more genocide.
All under the mistaken belief that by refusing to vote for the group you would otherwise vote for, you will get them to move Left. But if the Dems lose to the VERY right wing party, if the voting shows that Americans favor more right-leaning policies, they would move to gain the votes of the people who actually voted.
The reality is, refusing to vote is still a choice. As long as you are an adult who can legally vote in the US election, you are partly responsible for the results of the election. You don’t get to wash your hands of it. Choosing to abstain because you don’t want to partipate out of moral self-righteousness is saying your soapbox is more important than the lives affected by your choices, from the Palestinians to the Ukrainians, immigrants to LGBTQ. Nobody is more important than your ability to say “I didn’t vote for a party that commit genocide.”
So what are the other choices?
Wasn’t the US Constitution’s 4th amendment the basis for Roe vs Wade? It would be fitting for the Florida 4th amendment to enshrine abortion access in their state.
Just a reminder to those “Biden and Harris are participating in genocide, it’s not like Trump could be any worse” crowd.
It can always get worse.
Do you need to be an -ian? Like, if you like the teachings of Ghandi, or Socrates, or Marcus Aurelius, you don’t have to call yourself a Ghandian, or a Socratian, or an Aurelian. You just agree with their teachings.
I feel like you’re just making a dig on Christians, and it’s not like a lot of them don’t deserve it, but what you’re talking about isn’t a religion. You don’t need an -ian to like a philosophy.
I’m going to let you in on some insight from a 40-something millenial:
I feel like being a adult is just lying about how much you have your shit together to people who also lie about having their shit together.
It starts off that way a bit, and you’re expected to at least put forward the impression you have your shit together before you do. But then the pretending gets easier and easier until you realize you’re just paying your bills, getting your laundry done, and doing what you need to do while feeling like you’re failing at the new, added responsibility in your life (like big career changes, kids, projects taken on, kids, taking care of family or friends, more kids). But that’s with anything new you take on. If you aren’t struggling at least a little, you’re not growing.
After we got out of college, we are just going to sit in front of a computer like the generations before us for the rest of our life, with the only difference of be paided less then them.
If you choose that. I can’t speak to the pay, because y’all are getting fucked… so far. I’ll speak more on that in a second, but I was the store manager of a restaurant for a few years before moving to New York from Seattle on a whim, worked customer service at a phone center for a cable company, and then joined the Coast Guard in my mid-to-late 20s, and drove boats until going into aviation and flying in helicopters, living in various places throughout the country, saving a few lives, flying in really cool places, and when I retire I can go do something else. People who stay in a job behind a desk their whole work life either love that job or are complacent in it. You are absolutely not chained to it.
And as for the shitty pay and everything, what I have seen of the Gen Z folks that have come through the Coast Guard is that they advocate for themselves and get things that we millenials are embarrassed to hear requested, much less think to ask for ourselves. And look to all the labor movements going on to push back at those pay drops. Keep the momentum, keep up the fight, don’t get complacent like my generation or Gen X.
not one of us could have imagined the entire generation having a mid-life crisis at the age of 18.
That’s not a mid-life crisis, that’s just the normal fear of entering the world for real, and it’s been that way for a long, long time. The crises come when you start feeling how little time you have (quarter-life realization you just don’t have enough lifespan to do everything you hope to do, mid-life realization of how little time you really have). Your thing is simply the fear of embarking into the unknown, and your doomscrolling has made your future look bleak. Put the phone down. Take opportunities when you can. Enjoy what you can out of life.
The whole thing is daunting, I totally get it. But going in with the approach you have is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I wish it were required that both parties agree to the lawsuit being dropped for it not to continue. I’d love to see this frivolous bullshit forced into a courtroom against the plaintiffs will by the defendants.
I disagree. If we sent 100 personnel with an air defense group to Ukraine, shit would get pretty real pretty fast. Sending people is a whole different commitment to sending weapons.
I had an old instructor who liked to say “when it comes to breakfast, what’s the difference between the chicken and the pig? The chicken made a contribution, the pig made a commitment.”
Sending our own troops stops being a contribution and starts being a commitment.
Them absolutely rioting over a small increase in retirement age made me feel shame as an American. I love how willing the French are to remind their government of what happens when it gets out of line. Like, “don’t make us break out the guillotines.”
The French are not weak.
I’m a bit more confused, because when you me tion it referring to an ideology that focuses on social injustice and advocates for change, and reference MLK’s efforts, it seems like you support the general idea. And I would agree!
I guess I’m just confused on the “personal responsibility” portion. It’s my understanding that most of the “woke” issues are gay and trans rights and police reform (and combating systemic racism in policing). So other than demanding change, protesting, and voting, I’m not sure where the “personal responsibility” would come in.
Can you define the “woke movement” and “woke” in general, in the context of what you’re saying?
I’m asking because I’ve seen “woke” used for a video game that happens to have one gay character in it, which doesn’t seem relevant for what you’re talking about (for example). Or any number of things that are simply people existing. And other times it’s used for referencing social justice issues. It seems fairly amorphous, and entirely dependent on the person mentioning it, so without some context I can’t nail down what you mean unless you define it for you.
The corruption of those courtesy cards. For which he got retaliated against. And that he brought a lawsuit over, which brings the corruption to light.
I’d say that’s fighting corruption from the inside.
Does anybody know what this said?! I’m having the same problem!
Edit: nevermind, I figured it out.
“Oh, I’m sorry, is that distracting you?”
I think you’re missing the point. Bringing in difficult to obtain weapons as part of the conversation muddies the conversation about controlling the currently ubiquitous weapons being used.
As an analogy, let’s say someone blows something up and hurts people, using dynamite or homemade explosive using gun powder:
“Anyone who has access to the dynamite and RPGs and C-4 should be held responsible for what’s done with it!”
“Wait, there was an RPG or C4? I’m pretty sure outside the military it’s pretty difficult to get ahold of either of those. They’re already heavily regulated.”
“What difference does it make? They’re explosives used to blow things up and kill people.”
“Right, but, again, those are heavily regulated, while what happened was with dynamite, which is not.”
“OH! So it’s OKAY since the dynamite is not as regulated!”
“No, it’s just a different conversation about RPGs and C4.”
“Only if you have an agenda!”
Vs.
“Anyone who purchases dynamite should be responsible for what happens to it, unless they can show they’ve properly secured it and didn’t give access to it to someone they shouldn’t.”
“Agreed, dynamite and gunpowder explosives are common and not as regulated as they should be.”
What do you mean? That’s just Mrs. Crawley with Mr. Crowley, the strange man who is friends with the bookshop owner. Weird seeing him without his sunglasses though.
My parents were wonderful, so I have no real complaints, but my father had a weird quirk. Tools, equipment, whatever that he had interest and purchased himself were “his.” I mean, obviously, but he would use the possessive when referring to those things.
“You have to prime my lawnmower first before you try to start it.” “Go and get my ladder.” Never the ladder, always my ladder. I never questioned it (because I didn’t care), but when I was a teenager I started noticing it and it was odd. Like he was establishing that the lawn mower or the ladder or whatever didn’t belong to the household, they were his. And nothing seemed to get him worked up more than a neighbor borrowing something and taking more than a day or so to return it.
That one person is a gem and we should appreciate them. They noticed you got talked over, and made sure to circle back, noticeably so the others don’t do it again, to make sure you weren’t silenced. It shows they not only noticed, but were bothered by it.
Treasure those people, and be those people.