Eschaton

Sunday, September 26, 2021

Use It Or We All Lose It

One does wonder what our military and security and intelligence and law enforcement apparatus is for if we're unwilling to bring any of it down on the people attempting to overthrow the government.

2021 is peak Democratic power. Sure you can get a few more Senate and House seats, maybe, but that Senate number is never going to 60.

Vote Harder

It is an annoying message, as it is directed at people who do vote.

Saturday, September 25, 2021

8 Can't Wait

Do nothing and noisy activists will be back with their very upsetting slogans.

As I've said, for many people, disproportionately elite media types, 9/11 was the greatest day of their lives, the post-9/11 era the greatest era of their lives. A few of them let it slip in the subsequent years, openly expressing a wish for "another 9/11" to bring back that wonderful, wonderful feeling. Sure they told themselves this was "national unity" or some horseshit, but really it was a moment when they felt the clear-headed righteousness of justified mass murder, and reveled in it. The surge of power, the glory of destruction.

I'm not making a point about 9/11, just about the broken brained people that rule us.

Saturday Morning

Everybody's working for the weekend.

Friday, September 24, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Team Grassley

The 88-year-old is running for re-election, and someone added me to the campaign email list.

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

Anyone Remember Blogs?

Related, the thing about blogs in Ye Olden Days, and the internet generally then, was the conversational nature that was made possible by easy linking to text. I don't fault anyone for putting up paywalls - we all gotta eat - but the rise of a new blog ecosystem that is largely behind a paywall (paying a bunch of bigots really well) is not the same thing.

Ah, well, no good deed goes unpunished, and no bad deed unrewarded, it seems.

Tech For Old People

While I'm annoying people with tech opinions (nothing annoys people more than tech opinions), would the ghost of Steve Jobs please consider that a substantial number of users of his phones are 75+. While certainly relative to an old Windows box they're easy to use without constant tech support, every time there's a minor UI change in a forced upgrade (stick a needed menu option elsewhere, for example), it is a major life event for some people.

And, unlike computers back in the day, increasingly phones are near essential.

I Blame The Left

The inhumane and illegal treatment of immigrants of all types will continue. This will upset some people who will speak out, and when those concerns are met with more and more dismissal and less and less action, the critics will become more vocal, and then those critics will be blamed for any electoral woes.

Really learn a lot by who gets mad at whom in these situations.

Lunch Thread

Get your lunch on.

May Tragedy Strike

I think I used to be a better person, in that I (honestly) didn't actively hope for my enemies to be smited by a just and angry God, or whatever.

After decades of watching the absolute worst cruel fucks rise to and remain in prominent positions of power, it's hard not to occasionally give in to the temptation of hoping for a bit more karmic retribution. Lots of people get cancer, why not the baddies instead?

Oh, Elon

Guess I need to provide the dumb Elon news, too.

Elon Musk and Grimes have broken up after three years together, Page Six can exclusively reveal.
The SpaceX founder confirmed that he and the Canadian singer are “semi-separated” but remain on good terms and continue to co-parent their 1-year-old son, the epically named X Æ A-Xii Musk.

Harper's Assholes

Just go read Julia's thread. Remember blogs? People should do that again. Twitter threads are hard to read.

Though it seems the racist substacks are really popular! Maybe I should turn up the racism and anti-trans bigotry dial. That stuff sells!

A few people were taken off (or put on, depending on how you look at it) my list because of that letter. That they looked around in the middle of all that was happening in 2020 and decided that the most important problem facing America was that their speaking fees might, maybe, possibly, but probably not, be threatened... assholes.

Most were just always assholes, of couse, but a few I thought knew better.

Mint The Damn Coin

There are so many options.

Treasury ruling out not only trillion-dollar coin but also invocation of 14th Amendment to defuse debt ceiling; spox reiterates in statement:

"There is only one viable option to deal with the debt limit: Congress needs to increase or suspend it."
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) September 23, 2021

But, sure, put on a straitjacket and then try to wriggle out of it just for fun.

Do The Kids Today even know about the platinum coin?