Guess I needed to add an /s to that one.

Good thing we’ve got so many international allies and are known for being such a stable, reliable economic partner. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I haven’t read the news in two months and I need to catch up on current events.

To be fair, the roadrunner it was following somehow successfully ran into the painting.

Honest question, what do you think a Tankie is?

Yeah, when the Krasnov thing first got published, I said something to the effect of, “I would skeptical of explosive, unverified claims like this because they may be disinformation, and either way there’s more than enough evidence that Putin has control of Trump.” Then someone accused me of being a Russian asset because everyone has brain poisoning now.

Yeah, but the Wii was a very underpowered system, and it didn’t even have HDMI. That transition wouldn’t have been as stark going from PS3 to PS4.

Well, that’s true, but the fact that he said, “I’ll only do it if they air it unedited!” makes me think he thought they would say, “no,” and he’d be able to decline while saving face. My gut tells me he’ll make up another excuse now. I’d love to be wrong, though!

He’ll find a way to back out. Musk is stupid, but not that stupid.

That’s true, and I did forget about that, but that also doesn’t undo the 16 years of cutbacks they had to make to try to meet that target. It’s also unclear to what happens to the money ($56 out of $72 billion, I think) they had already saved in retirement, but if I member right, they got about $50 billion in debt relief, so I guess that about balances out.

Reminder that the Post Office is only losing money because of a 2006 law that forces them to fund their retirement plan for 75 years in advance, which is an insane burden that no nother agency or private corporation undertakes. Also, even if it does lose money, it doesn’t matter because the USPS isn’t a business. It’s a government service provided for the public good.

If the independent calculations are correct, DOGE has cut $8 billion in government spending. 20% of that, divided amongst 350 million Americans, would be $4.57. If DOGE’s claims are correct (and they’re not), they cut $55 billion, which would be $31.43. Even if DOGE met it’s goal of $2 trillion, that would be $1,142.86, which would be a significant one time payment for a lot of Americans, but wouldn’t offset the loss of Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, a functioning Post Office, etc.

Honestly, this is the one I’m least worried about. It doesn’t sound like anyone who wasn’t about to retire is taking the deal. I’m more worried about congressionally allocated funding being impounded, federal bureaucrats being illegally fired, and Doge’s massive security breaches in the Treasury and IRS.

OMFG dude, I’m going to explain to you how closed primaries work, step by step, and how they differ from open primaries, because you clearly have no idea what the fuck they are or how they’re different. Let’s do PA vs MA since we were already talking about them.

To be a primary candidate in PA, you need a certain number of signatures, to fill out a candidate affidavit, and pay a filing fee. That’s it. In MA, it’s virtually the same, except you have to prove you’ve been a party member for at least 90 days. Do you see how it’s just as easy (technically slightly easier) to become a party candidate in a closed primary as an open? Do you see how there’s no additional vetting that goes into it?

The difference comes in the voting. In closed primaries, only registered members of the party get to vote, while in open primaries, anyone can request a ballot for any party. However, they can only choose one, so they have to decide which party’s primary they want to vote in. Some people get scared that this will cause, “bad actors,” to screw up a party’s primary, but there aren’t any examples of that successfully happening. Most people just want to participate in the primary for the party that most closely reflects their views.

However, closed primaries are in danger of producing worse candidates. Since people who choose not to affiliate with either party (which has become growing plurality over the last few decades) can’t participate, the party primaries are being determined by a smaller, more partisan portion of the population. You could even say they’re being vetted by fewer people. They can produce candidates that are more extreme or less representative of the general electorate.

So, no, dude, closed primaries don’t keep faux progressives like Fetterman off the ballot. They don’t add another layer of vetting to the process. They’re not some vanguard against bad actors who want to mess with a party’s nominating system. They just ensure that fewer people can take part in the Democratic process. That’s why 70% of states favor open primaries over closed. Now please, sit down.

LOL, how do you think letting anyone run as a candidate without vetting them will turn out?

Literally anyone can run in a closed primary. A closed primary means that only registered members of the party can vote in the primary, but anyone can try to get on the ballot. It doesn’t limit the candidate pool, it limits the voter pool.

Absolutely any bad actor will be able to run without intervention. The floodgates would be open. Which is probably what the bad actors calling for open primaries want.

What the fuck are you talking about? The vast majority of states currently have open primaries. There are only 15 states that hold closed primaries. I live in a state with open primaries, and I’m repped by Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, and Ayanna Pressley. Not exactly a bunch of secret conservatives, is it?

This is the definition of vetting. lol

It isn’t. Sit down, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

LOL, whaf the fuck are you talking about? “We got Fetterman through the closed primary process. The only way we can prevent candidates like this is with more closed primaries.”

Also, closed primaries don’t add any more vetting. They just mean that the only people who get to vote in the primaries are party members. They arguable lead to less vetting, since less people get to vote in closed primaries, which means those candidates are being vetted by less people.

You’re not wrong about Netanyahu, but Biden and Harris both played into his hands with an appeasement strategy, and we should absolutely blame them for that.

Closed primaries don’t lead to more progressive candidates. For example, Senator John Fetterman, who you are currently complaining about, was the product of Pennsylvania’s closed primary system.

This lady who had to resign from her town council after doing it. I thought there was at least one other, but I can’t find it now.

I’m sure most of them just believed they could get away with it and then abruptly realized they did not have the same power and influence as the richest man on Earth.

It is very funny that there are so many examples of people basically saying, “It wasn’t a Nazi salute, watch I’ll show you,” and then immediately ruining their lives by doing it.