Thoughts?
http://justsomeantifas.tumblr.com/post/178925053929/yall-keep-begging-people-to-vote-because-we-all
I figure there’s still the possibility that, if enough of us work together, then we can slow down the train. And it’s harder for us to work together if a Nazi with a gun has declared himself conductor, in order to “save the train from black people.”
My take on it is that there’s three ways the future could play out:
I think people trying for #1 are naïve, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, the system is designed to maintain entrenched power structures rather than overthrowing them, but it’s also designed with the pretense of letting “the People” make the decisions. The latter can be exploited to overcome the former, and it’s an attack that can’t be blocked without abandoning the pretense entirely (leading to situation #3).
Actually attempting to achieve result #3, though, is, I think, incredibly heartless and irresponsible. The system is broken, yes, but people are still depending on it to survive, and they will die if the system is allowed to collapse.
Personally, I think that #2 is the best option: to start fresh, in such a way that your new organization is not constrained by the limits of the old one, while keeping the old system, broken as it is, intact until something better is ready to replace it.
If you’re hard at work on option #2: great! I understand how you think that participating in the current system at all might be counterproductive to your goals, so feel free to abstain from voting.
If not, if you’re too busy or too jaded or whatever to not participate in creating the next system, the very least that you can do is try to minimize the damage that the current system is doing, and that requires voting.
To go back to the train analogy: Yes, the train is broken, and had no brakes. But the current conductor is choosing to switch to the tracks where the greatest number of people will be harmed, and that’s something that can be prevented by replacing the conductor. And maybe, just maybe, with a willing conductor and some competent engineers, the brakes can be fixed. I understand not believing that, though, in which case: get those engineers to start building a better train, because this one is going to crash, sooner or later, and unless we can move the passengers over to a train which has brakes, it’s going to end in, well, a bloody trainwreck.
Do any of you know of a good distance calculator? Maybe 22 known stops in the Great Don Host and Ukraine, so straight-line distance won’t help. Google Maps isn’t an option due to the zooming.
Google Earth (the Linux version if it’s still available) has a measurement widget. It’s a pain in the ass to use, of course.
Thanks.
I found Meander, which lets me work with handy maps. Just need to take calculated distance for the route x original distance for the scale / calculated distance for the scale. Which comes out close to my painstaking work with measuring tape.
More realistic Jurassic Park
Feathers
“To fill the gaps, we used the dna of tinamous, alligators, and whiptail lizards…”
Because really too many reproductive differences between archosaurs and frogs, not nearly as many between archosaurs and whiptail lizards, since both are amniotes.
Ignorance: “Frankenstein is the monster.”
Knowing: “Dr. Frankenstein created the monster.”
Understanding: “Dr. Frankenstein is the monster.”
Galaxy Brain: “Mary Shelley is the monster.”
Mary Daly Brain: “Dionysus is the monster. And Zeus.”
Persephone Brain: “Together, we can defeat Zeus.”
(See The Dark Wife. by Sarah Deimer.)
Is it so much to say that if you take the position, you take on certain obligations? Such as investigating key matters that the press and ordinary citizens aren’t able to thoroughly investigate?
In a time where the committee isn’t already split in a partisan manner, sure, maybe an investigation of a sitting President belonging to one of those parties might be done in a nonpartisan way. Theoretically.
Expecting to come onboard in the middle of such an investigation, with an extreme partisan divide already existing within the committee, and mend that divide just by “being the adult in the room,” smells closer to capitulation than compromise.
When one side is ignoring democratic norms, you’re not going to fix that just by sticking scrupulously to those norms yourself, and in a fight where only one side is willing to fight dirty, the dirty side is going to win.
The solution isn’t to take the high ground: it’s to poison the low ground, to penalize fighting dirty, to force both sides to return to the supposed “democratic norms.”
I can’t condone the hyperpartisan environment that currently exists at all levels of American politics, but if one side engages in hyperpartisanship and the other doesn’t, that’s not setting an example of statesmanship, that’s surrendering to a shift of the Overton window away from your position.
I have no idea how you would go about disincentivizing hyperpartisanship, though.
Oh no! A company selling harm overcharged people who paid for harm… if they’re selling video ads, they probably inflicted a few seizures in the process, so what about the people who were harmed?
Because tea can worsen hyperacusis, and is known to worsen tinnitus, I’m trying to get back off it. Day 4 of titrating down. I’m wavering between exhausted and strangely alert, which isn’t good for sleep.
Does anyone know a good way to scan notebooks and papers without worsening rsi? preferably one that works with Epson scanners, and either works with their horrendous drivers or substitutes better drivers.
So I haven’t been able to take the bus in years.
I talked my brother into helping me to today’s protest.
He says he’ll tell me when it’s time to catch the bus. Now “We’ve got one minute. If we hurry, we can catch the bus.” So he runs across the highway, and the bus arrives, even before I can get to the less-dangerous crosswalk, let alone try to find the bus stop on my own.
I don’t know if he caught the bus, but I couldn’t fucking cross the highway!
I thought he had a better idea of my disabilities and how they affect things.
Uggh, that sucks.
I often have to help my mother out, so I know that I need to figure out the bus schedule based on how quickly she can get from point A to point B, not how quickly I could get there if I weren’t accompanying her.
I try to avoid many crosswalks, because I have to avoid turn signals. I guess maybe he thought since I sometimes cross without crosswalks, I can cross anywhere… rather than I have to avoid crossing at dangerous places. And I take a long time, longer if there’s a school bus or ambulance firing its weapons and I have to wait until it’s done before I can see again.
P.S. And not being able to look for traffic or see if it’s approaching makes many places more dangerous than otherwise.
I guess I should be more up-front about my disabilities and my needs. I just don’t know how to explain my needs.
When you have hyperacusis, so 65 decibels is incapacitating, and a helicopter is buzzing the neighborhood and reaching 80 dB on its closest passes, and you have an atypical head shape or ear canal shape so your 26 nrr plugs and 30 nrr non-emergency protectors only provide 14dB of attenuation.
Awful migraine and nausea today. I think I’ve been working myself too hard, but I’m making too little progress on my game notes.
How many more accidents will this cause?