https://youtu.be/J6bv92W4YnE?feature=shared

Found it, enjoy!

And Mel Gibson. When they were lobbying to get rid of the regulations, the supplement industry did commercials that had Mel’s home getting raided by SWAT-looking guys for having supplements.

Occupied West Taiwan

I keep hearing about Niagara and everyone says the same thing, it’s different.

Could you describe how it’s different? Just the setup, or is it different when you’re using it?

Even in Maine and Nebraska, two of their electrical votes are statewide just some are allocated to CDs. A state’s electrical votes are determined by their total number of senators and representatives. The ones that correspond to the two senators are statewide.

Believe this hype; You can make a difference.

I lived in Florida in 2000. If I had recruited a couple friends, and I knew people who would have been down, and we drove vans back and forth to the polls all day…

As much as I loathe the guy, I think we all dodged a bullet.

If he died of natural causes last month I don’t think the MAGAts would have rallied behind Desantis, or whomever got the nomination. I’m not saying they wouldn’t have voted for them, just that the excitement wouldn’t be there.

If this has succeeded, the supporters would have transferred and been even more pumped up. And sympathy from those weird fuck undecideds could make the difference, not just in the presidency, but both chambers of Congress, and for their policy goals too.

Riding the wake of an assassination the draconian shit they would push through could have been far worse than anything Trump would have been able to accomplish in a second term.

Take civil rights legislation in the 60s; a lot of what LBJ accomplished was credited to the national feeling after the Kennedy assassination. Would JFK have been able to accomplish all that if he had served eight years with public sentiment toward civil rights being divided?

It sucks that this is boosting his chances in November. But a martyr, a new figurehead, and a more energized base could have been far worse.

There were normal diplomatic disagreements that all allies have. And consider the source of that statement. Yeltsin’s critics would have included any anti-democratic groups. This was a period of unprecedented cooperation and trust that was growing until Russia turned its back.

Before Russia did their heel turn in the aughts, they almost joined NATO after a period of significant cooperation. Russia seeing the U.S., or it’s allies, as enemies is a symptom of Putin turning a fledgling democracy into a dictatorship, not the natural state of affairs.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia–NATO_relations

Go to the “Development of post-Cold War cooperation (1990–2004)” section and check out “NATO-Russia Founding Act”, “NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council”, and “NATO-Russia Council”.

Back then the talk was pearl clutching over NATO with Russia being seen as some racist white alliance against China, MENA, India, and others in the global south.

Russia only sees us as enemies because Putin needed to create enemies to seize and consolidate power.

I’m just one person and my sample size is small. But judging by the number of right-leaning people I know that send me stuff from RT and other similar places, and the number of left leaning people who repeat dispiriting talking points I see in those pieces (They may never vote republican, but their enthusiasm is certainly being sapped.), I would say the percentage is quite high. That’s just people being swayed like you asked, not necessarily convinced to vote or act a certain way.

Again, I’m just one person, but from what I see around me Russia and its allies are winning the propaganda war.

Yeah yeah

How about for an encore you tell us how The Godfather is overrated and Sharknado 3 is actually a good film.

I’m not balking at communicating what I think the line is, either by trying to define it or by listing some things on one side and some on the other, because it’s hard, although it is. I’m not doing it for two main reasons, no one else should give a damn what my line is and I wouldn’t want to list a book that I thought was shallow fun when someone else could have related to it in a profound way. I don’t want to shit on someone else’s experiences.

I think your being dishonest and pretentious when you say the line doesn’t exist. Plenty of books I’ve read lately, and enjoyed enough I’m looking forward to the next things from those authors, are not in the same league as things I would consider art. This is true for all forms of art/media. Jerry Springer is not art like (insert what you think is the best expression of art on the small screen here). Battlefield Earth is not art like (insert whatever you think fits here). Are you seriously going to try and pull some smug insufferable “everything is art” bullshit here?

I never said there is anything wrong with a good translation even though it obviously can’t be perfect and something is almost certainly lost. My French is never going to be good enough to read Camus, so I have to settle for a translation.

But that’s not how this started. Before you started your “the line doesn’t exist”, “Shakespeare is overrated”, “aren’t I just so smart” auto-fellatio session, you defended butchering art with ai in the name of allowing ESL students to read it.

No one who wants anything more than an entertaining read should use this, ESL or otherwise. If you’re going to read something with the hope that it’s more than just entertainment, you should try to avoid any further opinions or analysis on it, avoid TV or movie adaptions, not read the Cliff’s notes, and not use this fucking app. If you’re going to use the app, use it for something you don’t expect to get anything more than a bit of fun out of. And if you think you’ll never have the necessary level of mastery, or just don’t want to wait, find a good translation.

Using this app on anything you would consider art is indefensible. I have a hard time believing this is anything more than you being bored and feeling contrary.

Oops, sorry, I thought I was replying to someone else.

I apologize for coming in so hot. I really do think entertainment and art appreciation ideally go together and didn’t need to be explicitly said. I’m not in the habit of choosing to do anything I don’t think I could enjoy. Forcing something for intellectual enrichment has it’s place for schoolchildren, or if you feel the need for it as an adult, but these days I don’t have the bandwidth. Maybe in retirement when there is more time.

I’m not sure if I said something to offend you or if you just woke up this morning and decided to spend the day being a pedantic twat, but I’ll pretend you’re being genuine.

I thought being entertained by appreciating art would have gone without saying. But if you’re such a sad sack you can’t be entertained by art…well, I guess that goes a long way toward explaining your attitude.

Ultimately, every individual reader I suppose. But don’t be obtuse, when you pick up a book I think you know if it’s just a fun read or if you’re expecting it to be something more. Either due to a particular person’s opinion, or the opinion of society in general.

If someone is reading something they would like to appreciate as art, as opposed to entertainment, I don’t think it’s out of bounds to suggest they might enjoy it more if they waited until they mastered the language enough to appreciate the prose.

Simplified language for learners is great. But I would suggest to learners that they use this on books that are for entertainment and save real literature for after they have the proficiency to enjoy it as it was written.

Sure, they could always reread it unaltered later, but you only get to read something for the first time once.

Yeah, this is fucking bullshit, but it’s not like Cliff’s notes haven’t been a thing for a long time. This is just another way for someone being forced to read something to slack off. No one who actually wants to read the book would ever consider this.

The planet is great. It’s the fucking occupants that are a problem.

I guy I work with owned two condos in a development. The HOA passed a rule banning short term rentals. There were a lot of units being advertised on Airbnb and similar services so he put them on the market when he heard the rule was being proposed to beat the rush.

He managed to sell one at market but the second one didn’t sell before all the other Airbnb landlords listed their places too. He had to take about 10% below market for the second one.

Now those two places are owner occupied, and one of them got a nice deal (I don’t know about the ones sold by other people). And everything that sold in that area probably went for a little less for a while due to the glut on the market.

Making renting less profitable works. People aren’t landlords because it’s fun. They do it for the money. Take away the money and you have less landlords.

I agree it will take him some time, maybe not quite as much as you think, but my point was I don’t think anyone else could even get there. Even Regan had limits in what the faithful would put up with, he wasn’t teflon. But no matter what Trump does, the MAGAts will support him and the moderate republicans, if there is such a thing anymore, will go along to avoid earning their wrath.

There is only one caveat I can think of. Trump can do anything without losing MAGAt support, but he can’t say anything. There have been scattered instances of Trump saying something that deviated from the MAGA ethos and actually getting booed. He can still do the things that would get him booed but say he’s doing the exact opposite and those morons will never question it. He just has to keep assuring his cult he’s hurting the people they hate.

As long as he keeps tossing red meat to those hateful scumbags by abusing our most vulnerable fellow citizens and increasing oppressive efforts on other groups they hate, they will cheer any and every thing he does even as they’re being herded into forced labor ghettos.