Lately, for various reasons, I've been watching or reading stuff about Nazi Germany, or Hitler, and the various ideologs and sycophants around that leader. I mean, I already had a general idea, but the more I see/read, the more I find myself asking. Are the people currently running the USA all...

Humans are inherently flawed, with an almost uncanny ability to rewrite their own history so they are correct. We prefer myths to reality, because in reality, we often fail, and cause harm when doing so. Any functional society must take this into account and correct for it as best they can.

This

@fetterman.senate.gov Senator Fetterman, I am contacting you through this medium because www.fetterman.senate.gov/contact/ has a 1200 character limit.

I feel like we need to have a really solid way to weed out confidant idiocy from gaining power.

I found this video useful and refreshing. Reminded me that I've been checking out of the ever shorter news cycle more often because it's so exhausting, and that's not optimal. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyco...

Do our laws and regulations ensure that any fine levied on an individual or organization by default will be at least 100% of any direct or indirect profit gained by the fined actions?

We need to seriously consider whether allowing persons with billionaire money to influence politics to the degree Musk and others have is acceptable. Purely from the perspective of having any form of democracy, it is dangerous to allow. Block the influence and remove the money.

Efficiency at the expense of reliability is inefficient for mission critical systems, such as the payment system Musk/Doge is looming over right now.

If this 47th Admin is going to be doing all they can to destroy the institutional memory of our government, is there any way to preserve that in some kind of support network until we can wrangle things back on track?

I chuckled audibly at this title: apnews.com/article/musk... Because of course that was going to happen.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZtZ... I found this interesting. Essentially, it's saying that the ERA has been law since Virginia ratified it in 2020. The reasoning: The constitutional does not allow a time limit on ratification, nor any rescinding of ratification. I think?

Does anyone else have accounts follow them that have between 0 and 10 posts or replies? You aren't sure if they're bots or just new users, but you wonder if you should keep and eye on them in case they need blocked. I could probably just make a list and put them in it so I remember to check. Nah.

theonion.com/trump-claims... I'm really not sure this is satire.

www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c... Well now, look what they up to.

Recently (about 3 days ago) I saw commentary or discussion where a Democrat was pleased at how smoothly and without issue the normal procedures for counting the EC had gone. Perhaps even congratulatory towards each other? I find myself wondering if we will not look fondly upon that, in future.

I found this useful, entertaining, informative, and perhaps a little motivating. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKgN...

Found this article from 2018 when I was responding to someone who brought up the (infamous?) "Stanford Prison Experiment" (which is now known to be fraudulent). www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17...

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202... The fruitless search for nonexistent common ground instantaneously normalizes Trump. Democrats should not propound the dubious assertion that Trump can operate rationally and in good faith.

@godlyblue.bsky.social Your profile: I dislike billionaires and multimillionaires and I won't stop complaining about them until I become one. So if you want to silence me, it's going to cost you a couple of million. My first thought: "Why should becoming one stop you from disliking them?"

www.politifact.com/factchecks/2... The proposed continuing resolution would raise most senators’ and representatives’ salaries by about $6,600, not by more than $60,000 as the incoming Department of Government Efficiency claimed on X. 1/3

Apparently going outside and looking up at the night sky has been a revelation for many lately, only they didn't understand what they were looking at and thought it revealed something else.

Very interesting, and I did not know some of these details before. Opinion of Musk somehow dropping lower.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_up... I found this informative - I knew some of it before, but not all.

i think it is important to clarify that this — the exclusionary distribution of benefits on some sort of ethnic or national basis — isn’t socialism. it’s, you know, something else.

Am I way off on this feeling I have, that it's unreasonable for us to be expected to navigate an intentionally overly complex system in order to get necessary health care without going into debt? It doesn't need to be this complex and unnecessarily stressful.

Possibly odd thought... Is there some reason we aren't charging various health providers with multiple murders when they deny necessary care?

Apparently at least one right-wing commentator is trying to message that only "the left" is happy about the health care CEO getting shot, but they're getting pushback from their followers. Examples:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKK... It's so unequal we can't even comprehend it, apparently.

@thomasjefferson.agentsoflearning.com I have an idea. a Karl Marx bot.

How complex/difficult is it for a political party to change it's primary elections so that they are no longer winner-takes-all? Does it have to be done state by state? This idea is stuck in my head. What if the state doesn't want to update it's voting system to allow for this, how to do it?

I encountered this idea recently, and I am not yet sure what it means, or if I agree. Capitalism = Authoritarianism. Or perhaps more precisely, Capitalism is authoritarian. I await responses with curiosity.

Seems as if they don't think it necessary to try and suppress votes via lawsuit anymore.

When we hear someone talk about "shared sacrifice" in the near future, remind yourself that they almost surely do not include themselves in the sharing of that sacrifice. And likely will benefit from whatever they are proposing.

Is there such a thing as a fully electric vehicle, without all the extra gadgets that drive up the price, and with bodywork that doesn't cost several limbs to replace if you scratch it? Does anyone make a car you can 3d print new plastic trim parts/body panels for, or something? Should be a thing.

I found this event interesting, so I found an article about it: cw33.com/a-taste-of-n... Essentially, the reason the ice cream machines were "always broken" at McDonald's was because the company that made them did not allow anyone but their own techs to repair them, which of course meant waiting.

www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo... I wonder how many people still believe this disinformation was accurate. I suppose that means it was effective disinformation.

Question: How effective is it to write and mail a physical letter to your U.S. representative or senator? And does it matter whether it's hand-written or typed/printed? I've heard a claim that some are more responsive to that method, compared to email or even phone call.

Mediation is not meditation, but meditation may aid mediation.

www.amandaripley.com/high-conflict I'm part way through an audiobook of this. I think we all need to consume it.

Has anyone else noticed that they're consuming more content outside this site, because you can just click on the link and get there? I'm not sure how significant the difference from other social media sites is, as frankly I was not using them much.

I've wondered whether the U.S. education system's results are declining for years, but don't have solid reasons, just vague impressions. I've heard standardized testing is part of the issue, but if this is accurate it depends on the test and school: www.britannica.com/procon/stand...

@liberalmeansfree.bsky.social I followed you to ask if you would consider including cannons in some of your work, purely for the pun factor.

Is there some kind of preferred protocol for when you get followed by an account that appears to be something you don't want to be bothered with, yet isn't obviously negative? I've been using "Mute Account".

Shower thought theory. The entirety of history is a series of FAFO cycles that overlap, intersect, and more often than not cause each other.

I have what may be an odd perspective on bluesky vs. X. Had not been using X much if at all for months or years. Saw mention of bsky, decided to check it out. Joined and like it. Decided to see what twitter was like, now. Am occasionally blocking people on X for fun now. Likely ineffective.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=egL8... I found this quite useful. Not sure I agree entirely, but that bar is too high.

I am entertained. youtube.com/shorts/GEJ_K...

The feeling when you realize you're hoping the corrupt cronies around the leader of the incoming administration who are invested in profiting via capitalism will prevent him from hurting the economy too much.

The USA is the only nation with a "democracy" that has two main parties? youtube.com/shorts/btyFO...