Learning from his Silicon Valley backers I see.

First character: A brooding loner with a tragic backstory, full of obvious parallels to my own life.

Second character: Yes these mechanics I’m combining are wildly mismatched, but my backstory explains it all.

Third character: A centaur that I play as a cab driver. Work in references to Taxi Driver, Cash Cab, Fake Taxi, etc. 100% dedication to the bit at all costs.

Fourth character: Mysterious backstory and ominous foreshadowing throughout the campaign, all leading up to the moment in the final session when I unleash the pun that the entire character was built around.

There are no EV mandates. The article presents Trump’s statements about repealing an EV mandate that doesn’t exist without ever noting that no such mandate exists.

Without seeing video of the statements it’s hard to say how much that was Trump selling policy for donations and saying the quiet part out loud vs just making a joke. But either way, I’m pretty sure it’s based on a flawed premise because at this point I don’t think Elon gives a shit about electric cars either.

And finally, the talk about the cost of charging infrastructure is framing the issue in the stupidest way possible. How much did it cost to build infrastructure for ICE vehicles, to have gas stations all over the place and a supply chain to keep them running? A hell of lot more than it will take to add charging infrastructure, that’s for sure. But we don’t talk about that cost because no single entity paid for it all, and those that did mostly did so as an investment, which generally paid off. People will pay for public chargers. We don’t need public funds to cover everything, they just help get the investments rolling in faster.

What we do need is a rule forcing apartments to add charging of some kind to all residential parking. Even a standard wall outlet for each space would be enough to solve the majority of the charging problem.

A lot of people have a political party woven into their identity. It’s hard for them to accept that their party is no longer aligned with their views. If they still identify as Republicans but oppose Trump, they might just avoid confronting the cognitive dissonance by staying home or writing in a candidate for president. Plenty of others will pinch their nose and vote Trump because they just can’t escape seeing it as R vs D.

By appealing to them as Republicans, the Harris campaign is able to basically say that it’s ok, you don’t have to choose between being a Republican and voting against the insurrectionist would-be dictator.

The strategy that will pick up those stray Republican votes isn’t going to moving to the right, it’s going to be focusing on the things that shouldn’t be partisan at all. Despite cosplaying as patriotic Americans, the MAGA crowd routinely positions itself in direct opposition to the core values and principles that America is supposed to stand for: liberty, equality, democracy, truth, justice, and the rule of law.

She doesn’t have to run to the right, she just has to run as someone that’s normal and point out how far from normal Trump and pals really are.

I wanna say they specifically called out property destruction as being against the rules. And overpaying as well iirc, so you can’t offer someone millions for a sandwich that you then eat.

Plus, if we’re being pedantic, burning the money isn’t spending it, which is what he is supposed to do.

The movie also has the advantage of having a contract that presumably covers any other loopholes the audience thinks of, but which they don’t explicitly address in the script. Once you take it out of a movie and start treating it like a challenge to be solved, you can no longer hide behind some unseen fine print.

It’s taking the premise of Brewster’s Millions, which required that he not only spend the money, but that he has to have nothing left at the end, including assets. So, buying a house doesn’t work because you still own the house.

Obviously there are still plenty of ways to drop millions on stuff without having anything to show for it. Hell, it’s probably easier now than ever before. Just become a whale for a mobile game and you’re there.

Funny how anti-woke is always synonymous with anti-freedom. The government doesn’t approve of your opinions, and therefore must use the force of law to punish you.

The good news is, I wouldn’t expect these laws to survive in the long term. The federal government could easily preempt them since they obviously involve interstate commerce. And I suspect there’s probably some blatant viewpoint discrimination baked into the laws, but that would come down to the specifics of the wording. But even if they are content neutral, I’d argue that they violate the first amendment, which thanks to citizens united would have to be applied to financial institutions too.

And that brings us to the bad news: until congress and/or the courts are no longer held by nutjobs, I wouldn’t expect either to do anything to fix this.

I was responding to someone else’s post which was discussing intergenerational blame. I’m sorry if this made you feel like you weren’t the center of attention for 2 seconds. But I’m sure if you keep being an asshole to random strangers on the internet you’ll eventually fill that void.

Everyone who is alive today is descended from slave owners, thieves, rapists, murderers, conquerors and oppressors. They are also all descended from people who were the victims of slavery, theft, rape, murder, conquest and oppression. If people are responsible for the actions of their ancestors, then we are all guilty of damn near everything, and it’s basically just original sin without all the Catholicism.

Or a constitutional right to censorship.

The NDA was apparently against voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement. Essentially, it was agreeing to only cooperate to the extent required by law.

That’s still bad, but wouldn’t overtly compel someone to commit a crime. It’s just heavily implying that crimes are being committed and could easily push someone to do something illegal simply to cover their own ass.

Not in a million fucking years Sony. I would have gladly given you my money, but apparently that’s not good enough for you.

Part of the issue is the balance between the stakes of the current election vs the value of the potential change for future elections. It’s possible for someone to be willing to stay home or choose a different candidate as a protest vote during one election, and then view those same strategies as monstrously irresponsible in a different election.

And to add another layer of complexity, keep in mind that both parties are fluid and can change radically over time as factions within them rise and fall.

For example, in some alternate timeline where Clinton got the nomination in 2008, a protest vote against Clinton would have risked a McCain presidency, which would have likely been the most moderate Republican president in modern history. This would have been short term loss for Democrats but likely would have been a long term win for progressives. The Democrats would likely have shifted to the left as they sought more candidates that appeal to their base, and the Republicans would have had their more moderate wing exerting greater influence and filling their leadership positions.

The situation we have today involves very high stakes, in that Trump and pals are threatening serious damage to the basic principles of democracy and rule of law, in addition to all of their horrifying policies. And the message that the Republican party will get from the next election is especially critical. Trump won in 2016, but they performed poorly in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Their shift to the right and the purging of anyone not 100% loyal to Trump has lead to a significant brain drain and a shrinking of the party.

A Trump victory would help the worst people keep a stranglehold on the party, while another defeat would send the message that their current path is a dead end. There’s a sizable portion of the Republican party that isn’t particularly happy with the MAGA crowd, but who are willing to go along with them if it means winning, and others who are just trying to keep their heads down because dissent is punished harshly. The power struggle that would occur after another Trump loss would very likely push the party to move back towards something resembling sanity and competence.

Hell, just being rid of the 800 pound orangutan in the room would make it easier for both sides to work together on the things that shouldn’t be partisan. We didn’t have a problem getting Ukraine aid passed until Trump started exerting pressure, which only got worse when he vetoed a speaker candidate that supported Ukraine aid in favor of the current one who is more than willing to open his ass cheeks for Trump’s puppeteering hand.

Every time I see Elon’s picture in one of these posts, my brain tells me he’s wearing an Ant Man costume.

Letting fascists seize power will not make it easier to get rid of them. If you think it’s hard to stop them now, wait until they have a chance to purge the government of anyone who opposes their agenda, and wield the full power of the federal government without restraint or oversight. They have the insurrection act and they aren’t afraid to use it. And nearly half the people will cheer them on because they get their news from propaganda outlets that will reassure them that the protestors are the bad guys and the soldiers stomping their heads are the good guys. To say nothing of the kind of insidious shit they can do to suppress dissent using the IRS, the justice department, the NSA, etc.

Sacrificing democracy, the rule of law, and what little institutional opposition we have to authoritarianism is not going to help us in the long run.

The Supreme Court just ruled that racial gerrymandering is ok as long as it’s intended to advantage one party over the other. They gave a thumbs up to rigging elections and fundamentally undermining democracy and described it as a legitimate purpose. And if that wasn’t enough, they went on to rule that courts must tip the scales in favor of politicians who are defending against charges of racial discrimination, even if the evidence overwhelmingly supports the accusation, adding unique barriers to racial gerrymandering cases so that they are essentially impossible to win. That decision took away the one remaining tool that was available to fight the GOPs national strategy of going all in on gerrymandering and locking in power in every state they can.

Now, I’m sure you can probably think of other Supreme Court decisions that the current 6-3 court has made which were not exactly great. And those will keep rolling in until the make up of the court changes, which could happen at any time. If Trump gets to appoint another justice or two, he’d likely be able to lock in the right leaning majority for decades.

The undermining of democracy and the extremism of the Supreme Court should be reason enough to recognize that the damage Trump can do would outlast whatever political calculus goes into the next Democratic primary. But add to that his stated intention to eliminate the norms of that keep the justice department and IRS independent so that he can weaponize the entire executive branch to attack his rivals and carry out his petty Vendettas. Add his open hostility to NATO and Ukraine, and his unwavering support for Putin even as he threatens further military aggression. And let’s not forget his stated plans to rollback environmental regulations. Oh, and let’s not forget the part about how he’s planning on rounding up millions of people and putting them in camps. Plus, you know, the fact that he’s siding with Israel all the way, and doesn’t give two shits about genocide in Palestine or anywhere else. And that’s ignoring the crazier shit he might do.

Give me a break. The lesser of two evils thing is played out, it’s precisely what brought us right to this point. It’s time for neolibs to wake up, there is no way to avoid what is coming by voting for more corporate careerist shitheads, it doesn’t work. There is no “comfortable” way of weathering the confrontation with fascism that needs to happen.

You going to go out there and gun down the bastards? Because they don’t give a fuck about protests. They’re happy to send cops in to assault protestors, and then use the protests as fuel for fundraising. If you want to have an effect, your options are voting and political participation (potentially including protests), or a whole lot of assassinations. Unless you think that some signs and gas masks will somehow solve the partisan divide and bring the people together in a massive unified front that can overthrow the government and all it’s entrenched interests, and that this is somehow more plausible than being able to convince people to support better candidates in primaries and at the state and local level.

Not everyone ignores the problem. Some will actively make it worse just to stick it to the people warning about the problem.

So racial discrimination and disenfranchisement is acceptable, as long as it’s in service of rigging elections and undermining democracy? Jesus fucking christ Alito, I know you’re a corrupt piece of shit that shows utter disdain things like justice and the rule of law, but this is taking things to another level entirely. At this point it looks like you’re trying to beat Dred Scott for the title of worst Supreme Court decision ever.

I think I need to officially change my bet. The Court probably will rule that absolute presidential immunity is a thing. I mean why not? The reasoning here is that politicians can do literally anything that isn’t specifically called out as forbidden by the constitution, no matter how egregious or corrupt it may be.

Since we can’t rely on even the tiniest hint of deference to even the most basic of legal principles, the only thing left that I can point to to argue against that outcome is the fact that it would immediately give Biden cover to open up 6 seats on the Court. I doubt they’d take that threat seriously, God knows I don’t. But after this, I don’t think I can even argue that a call to seal team six in that scenario would be doing less damage than leaving the Court in place as the grave diggers for liberty, equality, democracy, and the rule of law.

TL;DR: The decision was bad and everyone should feel bad.

And on the flip side, Trump is erratic, emotional, and extremely narcissistic. He demands absolute loyalty, but will turn on people in an instant. He is pretty much the last person on earth you would want to rely on, and there’s basically no depths he won’t sink to in order to get what he wants out of you. Just look at the way he treated other Republicans on January 6. Look at all the people he’s cheated, attacked, or simply discarded when they were no longer useful.

If I were a Republican, even one on the far right, I would still rather try to work with Biden to reach some sort of compromise on the things where that would be possible than take my chances working with Trump.