Don't ever, *ever*, tell me that even a single one of these politicians does not know *exactly* what they are saying or does not know *exactly* why they are saying it.
Is there ignorance in the land? Sure.
Is there hardcore disinformation in the land? Sure.
But these people are not ignorant, or poorly informed, or naïve, or misled.
None of them.
The latest from Texas Observer cartoonist Ben Sargent.
See more from Loon Star State: https://www.texasobserver.org/topics/loon-star-state/
A video clip in which Senator Festerman positions himself as one of the few true Democrats while spewing Republican talking points and dismissing most Democratic voters as regrettable people who are radicalizing his party in ways that he thinks are dangerous.
https://bsky.app/profile/acyn.bsky.social/post/3mpmwecucge2t
"For most of its history this country has been a handful of flawed democracies wedded to a roughly equal number of one party authoritarian dictatorships.
We’ve never actually had all the states respect the principles of democracy at the same time.
The South is not an anti democratic hell hole because that’s what everyone wants, it’s like that because it’s not a democracy and the elites have almost always got to decide what everyone else has to put up with."
https://bsky.app/profile/anarcish.bsky.social/post/3mpoz2u2pqk2n
Like, as a back of the napkin calculation, I'd have to make like $4,800.00 to "break even" on my latest book.
That's paying a decent wage for the amount of time working on it.
Am I going to get $4,800 from it?
No. LOL, LMAO.
I would have to sell about 1,500 paperback copies to make that much and that's more books than I've ever sold in my entire life.
So you know, I get, e.g., artists wanting to be compensated for their work. But it's a shit situation out there.
People lecturing you about how to "eat right" while chronically poor always remind me of Republicans screeching: "But you have a refrigerator and a microwave! You can't be poor!"
One of the things I've realized over the years is that people react poorly to less-than-idealized portrayals of women, even when they profess to want strong, complex characters.
And it annoys me because are women people or not? We shouldn't always have to be perfect, and "perfect" often requires a mode of femininity that is non-threatening to men and inherently self-subordinating. I hate it.
I grew up desperate for female characters who were the equal of men in every way.
"Women and girls are allowed to be messy and violent" is kind of my oeuvre.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@FluentInFinance/116851666453756471
Oh, you mean the Great Jobs Numbers were fake, again?
Shock.
I don't know if "Supergirl" is a good movie or not but I do know that if Matt Damon made a sci-fi adventure film using the same plot and aesthetics, it would be considered mid-tier at worst and not "the worst script ever written."
I was 38 when I started self-publishing because I was intimidated by the idea that I had to write at a "professional" level or I was wasting everyone's time.
Even then, I told myself it was pulp fiction, lowering my own expectations for fear of other people's high standards.
"Oh, here's my stupid little novel about time travelers and their midlife crises. It's funny! Please don't hurt me." 🥺
"You can feed 4 people on $300 a month. In this video, I will show you how to make a thin rice gruel..."
(The first sentence is really from a real person. The second is what I assume came next)
@Kalshann I can do politics, too!
"People sometimes end up on obscure sites run by just... anyone. A page made by a local club is as easy to find as a corporate site."
I didn't realize that the guy I was talking with about the internet in 1999 thought of this as a *problem* to be solved... not what made the internet awesome.
All along there have been people who see everything you love about the internet as an unfortunate design oversight, something to be fixed. And they've been working for decades to make it happen.
A Fedi version of Queer Eye:
Five autistic queer Fedifolk (one in a fur suit) travel to help out a regular person each episode.
By the end of the episode, the team have degoogled the recipient, installed a thoughtfully selected Linux distro on their formerly-windows machine, replaced much of their software with open source alternatives, stocked their home library with Murderbot novels and cozy queer SF, and given the recipient a new Special Interest to hyperfocus on.
I tend to avoid calling them "founding fathers" because it sounds like a bunch of patriarchal shit to me, as terminology goes.
Plus, it's a bullshit title that doesn't take into consideration that a bunch of wealthy white dudes didn't "found" this country on their own. They depended upon the coerced labor of slaves, women, poor white laborers, and a host of others. They would have up and perished without someone to help them wipe their asses, metaphorically speaking.
Bunch of 1776 CEOs...
Pictured: The Gender Stasi.
"Without downloading any new pics, what's it like being in a relationship with you?"
Gender is biological and immutable, which is why it obviously requires the government, corporations, and your teachers spying on you constantly and reporting any form of non-conformity to the local Gender Stasi.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@carmensandiego/116847217367908457
Joke's on Carmen, that's just spite and I can refill it for free in an instant.