He couldn’t wait.

Even in places like the Boötes Void, you’re still among stars. They’re just very far away.

The “they have played us for absolute fools” line always gets me laughing, even when I don’t fully get the setup.

Default? I think the first thing I did once I settled down with my current setup was find a background of my own liking, not something curated. And it’s all mine; no one else has it.

For those that care, all zero of you, it’s a bunch of frames from a cool star field animation, timed to rotate to the next every few seconds or so. Because I could not find anything that would simply play a video as a background, I made something that worked. If that’s not Linux level, I don’t know what is.

Clearly, shoot people in the back if they didn’t vote correctly.

“But your Honor, there was ice in the snowman!”

Judge: “…”

lol

lmao

Really. Just a small chunk of ice off a passing car or truck can do some serious damage. A whole ice/snowman? Might as well hit a tree.

I think that’s where the evidence led. Yes, it was weird, even creepy, but MJ was broken thanks to his asshole father and never had a proper childhood. This was his way of dealing with the pain, trying to recapture it. Maybe some things happened beyond that, but I don’t think it’s been proven, and him being a child inside still would make sense based on his behavior everywhere.

Unlike all the current ones in the news, who obviously were doing horrible things to children.

I really think class warfare is far stronger than any racial divide. And that’s exactly why there isn’t much momentum from any group, white, black, whatever. They’ve pinned us down for so long ensuring that any individual efforts can be punished. Now… how do you get a unified effort so they can’t lock individuals down? That is the question to be answered. General strike? Not if it’s some lame Friday and then back to normal. It’s got to be a shutdown that’s felt by the ones who are the problem, and it has to be outlasted long enough to matter. Can that be done by people living paycheck to paycheck, or by those already missing many weeks of food stamps? The rich hope not.

So sure, there’s the inequality of black vs. white. But it’s far deeper and planned than that, and this kind of arguing is what they want instead of a shared effort.

I’ve seen enough bad cop videos of situations escalating out of control for this not to be a surprise. Our military is trained better at de-escalation tactics than our domestic forces.

I mentioned color because of your phrasing, which would lead to that conclusion. It’s pretty obvious. And it’s not like I even disagree with the points you make, it’s just how you made them. Don’t blame the reader/listener when you use euphemisms you didn’t intend to imply. Say what you mean.

Your previous statement was also a bit on the side of poisoning the well, so no matter what anyone says now, they’ve already been invalidated as being part of change. Attacking people who may be breaking from ignorance or finally pushed too far as part of the problem is dividing any potential resistance, and that’s exactly what the powers that be want us to do: fight amongst ourselves.

American history is dark. As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned more and more of things that were simply not talked about, or worse, covered up. That doesn’t mean most Americans are guilty of these crimes, or can’t try to improve things. But it won’t get better if there’s so much infighting because of the past that most of us weren’t even part of. “Sins of the father” is such a crock of shit.

The PATRIOT Act was a fucking power grab, and obviously was in place in case a crisis came into play. No way something that couldn’t be read in that short a time before approval was written that fast.

The engineering is incredible. Imagine if it had been applied to a better purpose.

Oddly, it was much like playing Dark Side of the Moon alongside The Wizard of Oz. Everything was in sync and made sense.

“I’m all for trying new things and experimentation. But I also know to count on techniques that work.” ;)

these people and their ancestors

So if I’m the wrong skin color and have past relatives who didn’t do anything that made a change, I can’t participate in doing something now? If we could find a movement that had all the morality of the progressives while having the right’s trait to let anyone join who agrees with the cause, we might have something that works. It seems to be a leftist thing to gatekeep anyone who tries to help.

I never get the “we were doing it first” toxicity. Why should it matter why the newcomers were ignorant if they want to join the cause? Why create new enemies just to protect your “pure” reasons? That kind of separationism is exactly what keeps the ones you should focus on in power, and they want it that way. A divided resistance will fail.

We say that new cement dries, but what it’s doing is chemically curing. Keeping cement wet actually strengthens that curing process.

So you’re okay with anyone seeing anything you send over the internet, in the mail, or on the phone? Why would this not be a problem, even if you are totally innocent of any current crime? Would you be fine if someone were spying through the open windows of your home? You’ve got nothing to hide, and they aren’t hurting you, right?

If there is a reason for officials to come looking for information about a crime, they have other ways to do so. Why make it easier for them and violate the privacy of everyone else who is doing nothing wrong?

This borders on “well, they aren’t after the group I’m in, and probably won’t be, so whatever”. If you don’t think that’s a danger, you have not been paying attention.

Let’s turn the question around - why is securing any sort of communication between two parties such a bad thing? What happened to innocent until proven guilty of doing anything? Encryption isn’t a crime, at least until it becomes an inconvenience for those in power who want to mind other people’s business. It’s no different than pulling the window curtains closed.