I’ve read the English translations of the trilogy. If you like mystery, high-concept sci-fi, and epic storytelling, the series is pretty terrific. But if your into rounded and compelling characters, especially if those characters are women, your going to have a bad time.

Kinda reminds me of classic authors like Heinlein.

Somebody should tell JD Vance that watermelon jokes are older than political correctness, by about a hundred years.

(they date back to reconstruction when watermelon was one of the first cash crops the former enslaved people were farming)

Trump’s version looks like the speech the Emperor gives announcing a new super weapon to crush the Rebel Scum.

It’s wrong for some random citizen to torch someone’s democratic agency. That’s what the Electoral College is for.

I still haven’t played Wasteland 3 or Divinity Original sin 2 even though I own both. And Balder’s Gate 3 is due to get discounted at Christmas. At some point, you have to measure RPG purchases against your life expectancy.

I think it’s time to consider the possibility that our grandmas and pop-pops are not tricked or indoctrinated, they just plain old support fascists.

The person who’s job it is to get Harris elected is optimistic? Would you be surprised if Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles are bullish on Trump’s chances?

Prices are falling in Florida, and inventory is stacking up.

AI is like the office worker who’s the nephew of the CEO. They’re never going to go away, but can be useful for tedious work, so long as someone checks behind them.

Ocean trash comes from plastic manufacturers. Responsible wealthy countries ship their dutiful recyclables to garbage pits in poor countries.

Most poor people don’t even have the education or resources to polymerize crude into poly-vinyl, it’s harder than you’d think.

What makes you think it’s good for the wealthy? This article is from the WSJ, not the Jacobin.

Spoiler: tariffs are bad for everyone. Regular people won’t feel the pain immediately, but if your the kind of capitalist that imports goods, especially from factories you’ve moved to Asia, the pain starts on day one.

Look at the bright side, implementing Trump’s tariffs would cause two unprecedented events:

1. it’d be a steak through the heart of the neoliberal economic hegemony
2. economists as a group might finally make a prediction that came true.

When the federal government shows up to help… for free, suspicion is a valid response. Not to mention that the South has experience being occupied (not for long enough).

But the government putting people in camps for bullshit security reasons? Madness.

Just more evidence that the behavior and ideology of religious people doesn’t come out of a book. Protestant Christianity must be the best example of this. What other ideology could account for both liberation theology and prosperity gospel? I’d go further to say that the number of denominations is equal to the number of Protestants.

This is why it’s so foolish for the non-believer to have opinions about how a “true” Christian ought to behave or ought to believe. In order to make that claim you imply:

1. The authors of the Bible had a message
2. That message was accurately recorded
3. That message has been accurately preserved.
4. That message is clear and understandable.

At that point you might as well start confessing your sins because while you might lack belief, you’ve kept the faith.

I had to look this up, In case anyone else didn’t know. DW.com is like NPR, but for Germany.

There was relevant scandal in 2020 where the Guardian reported on racism, misogyny, toxic work conditions, and antisemitism at DW. DW responded to these accusations by cutting ties with a partner news outlet from the Middle East, and firing a handful of employees after their socials were trawled for"antisemitism". (two of whom sued successfully for wrongful termination) DW also updated their code of conduct to read:

Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust is also a reason for which we support the right of Israel to exist

Which could be read as benign if we didn’t already know that Israel’s “right to exist” is a cudgel to label any anti-Zionist sentiment as antisemitic.

During the early '00 flight sim fans were enjoying a Russian game called IL2. The other offerings from Microsoft and Janes just couldn’t compete with the level of detail in the flight models. Turns out, the people working on the game were all trained in aerospace engineering. The guys who went to school to work for the famous Russian aviation firms were making video games instead because it paid better.

Who decided that the best use of the Obama’s is to scold black people? Are they going to ask black men to pull up their pants next?

Black Americans are the most reliable Democratic voting block, women and men. And everybody knows it’s more hostage situation than love affair. We get this shit every election cycle, and it’s just as mad as Republicans panicking because evangelical support slipped from 68% to 66%.

Go on Amazon, buy a skillet, don’t spend more than $25. Use this skillet to learn how to use and care for cast iron. Maybe it’s not for you, or maybe you’ll love it. Either way, you’ll know what to look for in cast iron.

What about the math where Elmo spends this money on ad-buys for X?

Billionaires never simply spend money.

For the love of god, just sit to pee, your cock won’t fall off and women can’t tell. I promise.

Systems are not the sum of the individual actors who participate in them. Systems can influence and even control individuals back. Therefore, individual flaws in character or intellect are necessary, but not adequate to explain why systems are flawed.

Consider the future imagined in the movie “Idiocracy 2005”. Society is collapsing because people are dumb. This is the explanation for all problems in that society. Capitalism, Resource extraction, environmental degradation, political corruption, and a rather authoritarian government are all blameless. The implication is that capitalism an authoritarianism are good if we could just be smart about it.

This is a big difference between left and right thinking. Republicans argue problems can be solved by reforming individuals; the police are good, there are just a few bad apples. Or that the right individual, at the helm of a system, can clean up all the issues with strength and resolve. This is the central pitch for supporting Trump.