I hate TikTok too, but it’s not going away without comprehensive legislation regulating social media. Until then, a fediverse alternative that’s not ruled by corporate algorithms would at least be a form of harm reduction. Think of it like a Safe Injection Site program; it’s not great that they’re still using, but at least they’re getting clean needles.

Americans are saying the same thing about the U.S.

Ah man, I used to live in this town. I wish the infrastructure had been this good when I was there.

And your husband knows what he’s doing on a skateboard. Learning at my age will destroy my knees and make me look like an idiot. Part of me will always want to know the thrill of zooming down a half-pipe, but it’s just not worth it. Someone suggested longboarding, that might be fun, or maybe surfing.

Oof, that is my nightmare. I’m a runner, and so far I’ve never torn a ligament or anything, but as I get older I get more worried about it. I always stretch before and after each run, but I know any damage I do will take 10 times as long to heal as it did in my 20s, if it even does heal.

Oh, no, I agree that I’m primed for a midlife crisis, but it’s way too late to start skateboarding. I’m in pretty good shape, eat fairly healthy, exercise regularly, etc., but I can’t shake off an a injury like I did in my teens or twenties. I’m not risking permanently messing up my knees learning how to ollie.

Skateboarding. I was into punk in middle/high-school, some of my friends were skateboarders, but I never bought a board. I’m pushing 40 now and it’s way too late to start, even as a midlife crisis.

This is from the 16th. A higher court already overturned the injunction. And then they murder another citizen today in what was clearly a point-blank execution.

Please grow the fuck up. The majority of people who didn’t vote for Harris weren’t, “throwing a tantrum.” They were tired, working class people who didn’t feel that voting would improve their lives and didn’t want to waste their time on it.

Election day is not a holiday in this country. Mail-in voting is not available in many states. Voting is a hardship, one which is most felt by working-class voters making hourly, minimum wage. If you want those people to vote for you, you have to give them something to vote for.

How did the Democrats do that? Well, first they ran an 80-year-old man that the majority of their voters didn’t want running in an essentially unchallenged primary. Then, when the cognitive issues his team were clearly hiding spilled out on national TV, they allowed him to dig his heals in and stay in the race until the 11th hour. When he finally dropped out, they replaced him with a candidate who failed to win a single primary state and had her campaign with Republicans because they decided it was better for her to appeal to conservatives than her base. Oh, and they wouldn’t stop funding a genocide, can’t forget that.

It is not the voters job to get politicians elected; it is literally the exact opposite of that. The Democrats did a spectacularly bad job in 2024, and the fact that the people associated with the administration and the campaign still have influence within the party is absurd and disgusting. Point the blame at those who deserve it.

Well, he was found civilly liable for rape, so I’d say that one is settled. As for pedophilia, we have a lot of circumstantial evidence, and he’s literally blocking the release of the hard evidence, so I’d say most reasonable people can come to that conclusion.

Is every authoritarian strongman a catty old bitch, or is it just ours?

OMG, yes, thank you, that was a pretty big typo.

It’s worth looking at the framing of this. CNN asked, “Would you (favor) or (oppose) the U.S. attempting to take control of Greenland?” A poll from 4 days early found, when specifically asked about taking over Greenland by force, found it was a 86% support, 9% oppose. [86% oppose, 9% support] (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/86-percent-in-new-poll-against-us-taking-greenland-by-force/ar-AA1Udv9k). (I was very tired when I wrote this. Most Americans are very, very tired right now.)

Trump has made several bids to buy Greenland, and I think most of the support in this poll is for that option. I think the majority of Americans really don’t believe he’ll send the military to Greenland and destroy the NATO alliance. They think this is a negotiating tactic, and they are seriously mistaken.

That’s not what the special elections are showing. In last years special elections, Democrats have gained, on average, 14 points in districts that Trump won. Miami elected a Democratic mayor for the first time in 30 years. At the beginning of 2025, people were wondering if Republicans could hold on to the House. In 2026, they’re speculating on whether or not Democrats will retake the Senate.

And this is all happening while Democrats have hit historically low approval ratings. Only 18% of voters approve of the job they’re doing in Congress, including -6% approval in their own party. And still, voters want Democrats in charge of Congress, 47% to 43%. People hate Democrats more than they have ever hated Democrats in the history of Democrats, and they are still hate Trump more.

LOL, no. As I already said in this thread:

Trump is increasingly unresponsive to polling, even within his base, and it seems like the Pentagon really is planning an invasion. It would fracture his own MAGA movement, completely destroy NATO, make America a global pariah, and potentially start WWIII, but it seems he is seriously considering it.

Approval isn’t changing Trump’s actions, and he’s actively talking about canceling the midterms (though using his ICE for voter suppression is more likely). The only hope is that enough neocons tell him that they’ll support impeachment if he fucks up NATO.

Maybe. MAGA is fracturing right now. Withholding the Epstien files really was too much for some of them, and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s defection gave a lot of them permission to question and criticize him. Invading an ally for no reason might actually break through to good chunk of the average red hats.

I read an article that claimed some top Generals are trying to distract him with an invasion of Iran (which is also really, really bad). Traditional neocons certainly don’t want this, though; they don’t want to throw away 80 years of military alliances. Still, if the president tells the Pentagon, “make me a Greenland invasion plan,” they’re gonna do it.

Well, I hate to throw cold water on that comfort, but I’m not sure the numbers matter. Trump is increasingly unresponsive to polling, even within his base, and it seems like the Pentagon really is planning an invasion. It would fracture his own MAGA movement, completely destroy NATO, make America a global pariah, and potentially start WWIII, but it seems he is seriously considering it.

I really want to stress how deeply unpopular this is in the U.S. The MAGA movement is about 30% of the electorate, so you can generally expect that even the dumbest, most insane Trump decisions have a floor of 30% approval. 9% of Americans support this, 86% oppose it. At minimum, two-thirds of Trump’s most rabid, loyal followers are against this.

I mean, I think most of Season 5 was extremely shit at anything requiring actual intuition, understanding, and basic intelligence, so that was kinda my point. Also, the second YouTube result for “using chatgpt to write a screenplay,” shows a guy doing basically exactly what I’m describing in parts 5 and 7. I’m not saying the the Duffers just said, “ChatGPT, write Season 5 for us,” and it magically generated the screenplay for every episode, but I think they had it generate some dialog, and everything I’ve seen of people using ChatGPT makes me think that’s very possible.