US Here, I’d like to but not having the skill sets right now makes for difficult to move to another country.

Which leads to another problem, if I do I leave my entire social network behind to a culture that I don’t know and trying to live there. While I’m not against that, I realize that can be VERY isolating so not sure where the place I’d want to go right now.

the right’s attacks on her are likely to be a lot more openly bigoted

They’re already dusting off the ole Obama birther playbook and asking if she’s qualified to be President due to citizenship.

From the US and I pay a lot of attention to politics.

Her past is she was a bulldog in the courtroom, absolutely a firebrand and ready to take on anyone. By making her VP, her job was mostly to not make the administration look bad, which is a tough job for a firebrand so for years it felt like she was put in the back and kept quiet.

Roe v Wade decision happened, making the abortion argument on the side of the Republicans getting what they wanted, Biden is a Catholic and male so completely uncomfortable using the fact that abortion is the winning ticket item for the Dems so Harris has been beating that drum hard and getting out. GRANTED the media has been focusing on “Biden too old!” (Legit had to learn a Biden policy from BBC because American news isn’t going to talk about that) so she’s still feeling a relative unknown to the country at large.

There are people calling for wanting the DNC to do a vote, but we’re past that marker, there’s people disappointed, and then there’s a lot of people excited. Right now this election is going to shape up to be more “interesting” than Bush v Gore or Trump v Hillary.

I have one for those that worked at Disney World. “What time is the 3 o’clock parade?”

I mean… worse is different.

ACLU didn’t say we’re going from a shining world to bad… they’re saying “OH BOY IF YOU THINK THINGS ARE BAD NOW!”

Gee… wonder if this ever could have been predicted when Patriot Act was brought out.

Immigration? Come on in, we’ll worry about it later!

So many takes but the legislative branch built together an immigration plan, one that involved quite a lot of money to the border to help enforce it and crack down. Both Dems and GOP worked together on that one. Then Trump said to bail on it, that immigration was a winning ticket for Presidency and congress Republicans sank the bill.

So… legit the thing you’re bitching about is a political tool by the Republicans.

I keep saying it. Hamas knew what it was doing, and literally the whole world danced to the song they put on, and I’d be legit shocked if the ones in charge that came up with the attack are actually in the strip.

Hamas attacked Israel in one of the most aggressive and heinous methods that has been seen in a long while, the Israel that has a history of retaliating with absolute and overwhelming force with zero chill, at a time when the leadership of Israel was looking for an opportunity to invade. So Israel is gonna Israel, and now the Palestinians in Gaza who would go against Hamas, as you said that would be happy to subjugate the Palestinians, are going to be more supportive of Hamas where the two-state solution isn’t even being as supported as it once was because the calls for revenge are coming.

Regionally, Israel gained it’s zero-chill attitude because it was surrounded by countries that want to exterminate it, it’s required western backing to keep there. But Egypt and Israel haven’t been quite at each others throats as much anymore, and Saudi Arabia and Israel were working out a deal. This put Israel back at square one in terms of local diplomacy.

Western countries have had to be the supporters to Israel, it kinda exists in that sort of meddling. When Israel attacked the strip, there were multiple countries ready to throw in and escalate it from a small war to a full all out multi-national war. That much rattling sabers means the west continues its support, even when they hand the weapons to Israel to say ‘don’t use it over here.’ and watches Israel do just that.

The west supporting Israel has only helped fan the flames of anti-semetic rhetoric with the feeling of Israel pulling an excess of political power upon itself. The right wing hawks are willing to help keep escalating the war because, well they’ve never had a problem starting wars in the Middle East. The political left is tearing itself apart because it typically is a coalition of differing beliefs, the US is having a problem that the not-ultra-right wing party of the Democrats got where they are because depending on the state it was coalitions of Muslim and Jewish voters, both of whom are mad and are threatening to stay home despite the other runner is someone who will make things worse, which could be the sort of thing to rally the religiously held Muslim countries together.

What angers me is how much of this I predicted when Hamas attacked. I’m just a guy who works on equipment, one would hope the world leaders would see this exact same train of thought and turn off the music instead of getting in line and waltzing to the beat.

I remember an old reddit post about what it’s like to not like football by replacing it with archeology. I felt that in my soul.

Personally, I enjoy the drinks I’m drinking. And no, I’m not saying where it tastes like candy but I drink in the manner of responding “I don’t understand the question.” when I’m asked “What would you like with your gin?”

Part of what I drink helps because slamming it hurts, but I like that slight burn when sipping (Why yes I like spicy food too but I digress), that burn is a nice speed limiter so it takes a while to even get a buzz. There at the slight the term “social lubricant” shines. I’m not deep in my head, all the worries, anxieties, etc I can actually set aside and enjoy my time rather than going through the list of shit I need to get done a thirtieth time.

If you don’t like it, it’s perfectly fine, getting drunk is not something necessary to live life.

Matthew 23 is Jesus absolutely bitching out the religious leaders “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”

As you say, the so-called ‘Christians’ really act like the Pharisees in the Bible that is called out against. If the bible they claim to believe in is true, then a loooooooooooooooooot are probably going to be in for a rude awakening because they were warned in the same book, Chapter 7 verse 23 when the person they claim to follow says “I never knew you.”

There’s a quote attributed to Ghandi but it’s not verified to actually be by him. But is a very appropriate one in my day to day “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

IMO the “getting scarier” is the swinging back part. Grew up in the same time, my parents were big on “No identifying information to anyone on the internet!” I joke with them now that their generation, the ones that told us to stay off post all their business on facebook and the like.

But that’s the thing, you have a small segment of society that was the internet nerds that didn’t trust anything on the internet, hid themselves and the like, but now like you say it’s the corporate walled garden that’s sanitized and happy, which makes that veneer of trust. And boy do people trust it, posting anything and everything.

Odds are lower in percentages of being genuinely victimized as a child, but the lack of paying attention what’s posted has lead to a lot of effects, so people are getting worried again.

Kansas city… what I’d kill for a fast track to Chicago, St Louis, Denver and the like…

I mean fuck, at least we have Amtrak to Chicago and one to St Louis… however only runs once a day, takes as long as driving as long as the priority that goes to freight trains doesn’t delay too much.

US here… it has less to do with the 1% being fucking morons and more to do with the only infrastructure we actually pay any attention to is cars. Sure we’re having a bit of a bicycle revolution but at least in my area the bikes aren’t being used for transport but for fun, but then that’s with a metro that’s sprawling with a city that’s only 100 sq miles smaller than NYC, with 8,000,000 less people in it. Add that the auto companies were allowed to buy out things like the streetcar that was local and able to tear up the tracks to get rid of competition, it really isn’t a shocker.

But we’re now stuck in a cyclical spiral, of no investment for things like this are happening because it’s not seen as profitable enough. Which means a constant problem of using something like a bike for commuting is “But then I have nowhere I can put my bike where it won’t get fucked with.” so people don’t commute with it, which leads to no investment to the infrastructure.

Dunno how to fix it. It just sucks.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa…

Former Christian here… I’ll give the religion credit it allows for a lot of openness and exactly what the pope is talking about. The main icon of Christianity was all about accepting people, legit the time where Jesus got angry with whips and table flipping was because money changers and vendors were cheating the poor (long story: You had pilgrims that would come bringing currency that would not be accepted by the temple so the money changers would do exactly what was on the tin… for a fee, and then the temple was selling animals to be sacrificed, the doves being brought up specifically because they were sold to the poorest that couldn’t afford the bigger sacrifices.) This is the idealogical head of the religion who is said to have sat and dined with those considered sinners while shunning the so called “faithful”

Honestly even as parable the stories in the bible are perfect reflections of the way most Christians would react. It’s said regularly that the Christians would kill Jesus as a heretic if he came back… ignoring the fact that it was those that had power within the church that crucified Jesus in the Bible.

I got lucky in being raised to go to a church with a preacher that was big on critical thinking. Another fitting example of Christianity ignoring its own teachings, post 9/11 said preacher gave a sermon talking about a religious extremist with a middle eastern background that spoke out against the prevailing government at the time, explaining that was exactly who Jesus was, the sermon on not hating from statements just made by assumptions, had the magazine that on the cover that had the ‘real face of Jesus’ to show not your white long haired man but the middle eastern face as a part of the sermon… naturally said preacher was politely “let go” from the church.

I watched an extremely drunk dude kick his own ass at the nightclub

Greatest thing I’ve read all night.

Holy shit yes, this whole thing right here.

The trade fields are absolutely insanely full of men telling each other how manly they are and how not gay they are with the “notice me” mode that it’s kinda ‘dude… if you want guys to hit on you… you’re going about it all wrong.’

and because it keeps bugs and birds from hitting the aforementioned rugged bearded handsomeness at high speeds

I wear a full face helmet because holy shit I know one saved my face. But even if the helmet wasn’t a separator from potential meat crayon situation, I’d still wear it for this reason right here. Seriously, I’ve had some beetles hit my helmet so hard it made me recoil, I can’t imagine taking one straight to face like that.

When Hamas attacked I commented Israel would lash out with it’s usual fervor, making sure that any Palestinians that didn’t support Hamas wouldn’t have a choice. And that the US world would back Israel, providing more ammunition to the Muslim extremists in the middle east to want to continue to fight the US. And Israel working at that time to a potential deal actually worked out with Saudi Arabia would get smashed. Hamas played the world like a fucking fiddle and literally everyone danced along with the tune.