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softlynow

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by softlynow

  1. 4 minutes ago, troph said:

    No I understood but in the end it won’t matter who breeds. The Earth will win, the question is whether humans get permission to stay. 

    If we’re succeeded by another civilization-building life form, hopefully they possess actual intelligence.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  2. 2 minutes ago, troph said:

    It’s ironic that the side that claims exclusivity of morality is ends justifies the means to an extreme and their opponents who couldn’t argue moral high ground even though they clearly have it fail on ideological purity for their means. And then they wonder why they get their asses charred and roasted. And when I say they I mean we maverick. FML.

    I think the most infuriating thing is all the votes cast under the delusion of self-interest. The culture wars have enabled the economic subjugation of most of this country.

    Doubly frustrating is the no-nothings who quote/cite Hayek’s Road to Serfdom when convenient to their worldview, that is the sections severely critical of socialism, but forget those sections which acknowledge a role for government, such as the need for a safety net, the inability of the market to effectively deal with negative externalities in areas like ecological conservation and that there areas of the economy where prohibitions and regulation is necessary.

    GOP base voters are wrapped in many layers of delusion and ignorance. Most seem to inherit it. 
    Which brings me to a final thought: I keep seeing posts about women seeking tubal ligations and pledging to refuse sex because of Hobbs. This is sort of a reverse Prima Nocta, letting the cons breed us into a permanent irrelevancy. I get the impulse, but fear the disaster that leads to if those become widespread cultural phenomena. 

    • Hook 'Em 1
  3. 10 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

    You clearly get it and not preaching to the choir, it's more about those in the gray zone who are amorphous. But then I guess the argument against appealing to that voter is that what got us Biden versus a more progressive nominee. I don't know the answers or I'd be in D.C. along with yous guys with all the answers. 

    What isn't the answer is mealy-mouthed incrementalism crap and losing visible and risible political battles. 

    On the one hand, the electorate isn't progressive enough for the aggressive pols we need. On the other, the centrist Dems who can win are suffering PTSD from decades of getting shellacked anytime they enact any policy, even if that policy is coopted from the fucking Heritage Foundation.

    In the end we get the representation we deserve, and a majority of the people in a majority of the surface area of this country (and remember, that is what matters according to our demi-god founding fathers) do not like progressives. The why doesn't matter. They just don't.

    If we are to return from the precipice it will be because the dumbasses that remained "independent" after Trump was elected see the light. Unfortunately that means nominating more Biden's, which means more orderly retreat.

    On top of the ideological/rural problem, add in this nonsense:

    Yes, it's unseemly to fundraise off of bodily autonomy. Sure, the Dems are inept as fuck. But guess what, your house is on fire, and you're yelling at the firefighters for trampling your azaleas while they struggle with antiquated equipment procured by a government that thinks only God should put out fires. $15? Your rights are under attack by folks with a $15 billion war chest, and they're counting on you asking for Dems to be ideologically pure, to accept and abide by the niceties of a long-dead style of politics and they're going to make banning abortion look liberal by comparison to their future acts of hatred.

    Time and again Dems say, THIS group of young people will vote. THIS generation gets it. Fuck no they don't. They're as naive and stupid as every generation before. They will get distracted and not vote, or get enchanted by the next Nader/Jill Stein or vote Trump/Desantis because Dems only agree with them 92% of the time and "you've got to send them a message."

    Dems will lose Congress in '22, and have, at best, a 30% shot at losing the WH in '24.

     

    Right now the constitution is holding this country back. But, I guess if rural America changes its mind about blacks, gays, guns, unions, abortion, misogyny, immigration, climate change, and democracy itself, we can move forward without structural change to our form of government. Might as well ask aggy to fuck only bipeds and ou to not suck.

    • Hook 'Em 7
  4. 4 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

    Okay. I hope so.

    But if not, then what? Weren't you the one who was saying shut up about gas prices and just drive less or move closer to your job, as if that was possible for everyone?

    People should definitely vote for the party that will end the war in Ukraine . . . which is the the GOP, who will allow Putin to annex what he wants in exchange for dark money and social media assistance.

    • Rage+1 1
  5. 26 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Well, if not that, then obstruction of an official proceeding.  And they're both 20-year felonies.  And throw in some obstruction of justice/witness tampering, to boot.

    And, the delicious and hilarious thing is, to make reasonable doubt, I think it would be imperative that Trump testify to provide some alternate explanation for his words and behaviors.

    And I think we can guess how that's going to go.  Col. Jessup indeed.

    Col. Word Salad. He will inadvertently admit his crimes, in passing, as he regales us with tales of things that wholly irrelevant and are demonstrably untrue.

  6. 41 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

    Must be a strange position to have your source of truth originating from nine non elected officials. 

    I usually have to inform loony leftists on the realities of politics, but you really should know better than to confuse truth with power. I’m not sure why you failed to comprehend my first post. You feeling alright? 

    • Hook 'Em 1
  7. 1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

    None of the lawyers here are actually discussing and dissecting the decision. A tweet here and tweet there.  Some of the expected hyperbolic nonsense. Sack only one that posted some of the relevant text from the decision in more than a few frames. I am sorry that your profession shows out so poorly on this board. 

    Nope. The profession remains ahead of you. We realize that reasoning doesn’t mater when handing down decisions. The timing of when a spot opens is all that does.

  8. As a criminal defense lawyer, I welcome the increased mental health funding. It will really help with low-level assaultive, property and drug-related crime. It won’t prevent many mass shootings, though. 

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Like 2
  9. 8 minutes ago, yoladu said:

    from a CNN article..

    Louis bought an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle from a gun store at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Franklin said. Police were called about the shooting shortly before 5 p.m.

     

    Christ, is there not a waiting period at all anymore? I will admit I am not up on all gun laws.

    Sure there is. Credit card transactions aren't instantaneous yet.

  10. 13 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

    Cops making false statements to the public needs to be made a felony. It'd be better if they just shut the fuck up and spent a week saying "we're trying to gather all the evidence and can't say anything until we do" than their immediate copaganda bullshit.

    IA should be the best funded part of every department, and successful investigators the best rewarded in the department (and their time there should be capped to prevent an overreach of that power).

    Also, and I've said this before, any fact about an interaction between LE and the rest of us should be inadmissible unless it is seen AND heard on dash and/or body cam. Too often I've reviewed body cam footage that suddenly cuts out one or the other right at the moment I need to see/hear the most. Most video footage I watch only confirms the cops' stories, so what are they so afraid of?

    • Hook 'Em 2
  11. 1 hour ago, markstanco said:


    This is interesting. Pro dead children? Who said that? I venture in cloak every now and again and typically roll my eyes but where in the fuck did I say I was pro dead children? Jesus man spin less.

    Actions said it. Actions which made this latest massacre more likely, not less. You saw those actions and signed on to the team.

    You “venture” where facts are spoken because you know your worldview is unmoored from any morality, and want to continue to believe the lies you tell yourself. 

  12. Just now, markstanco said:

    Crazy. I actually have two AR15 rifles and an AR10. The AR10 is a long range rifle. All 3 guns have never, ever, jumped out of my gun safe and killed people.

    Also, my grandfather was killed before I knew him. Killed by a drunk driver in 1970. I never got to fish with him, or go to a Texas game with him ( he was there which is why I am a diehard). I don’t want cars outlawed. It’s not the cars fault.

    Thanks for weighing in. Your complicity is duly noted. To carry water for those who are pro-dead children is . . . well it's something.

  13. 3 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

    Don't be confused here. They don't want to actually fund those things. They just want blame something else besides guns. There is no intention to provide any additional funding for their stupid ideas. 

    Correct. The whole point of this is to muddy the discussion until we move on the next thing.

    I think we should try to get back on message: Republicans like dead school children. 

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Rage+1 1
  14. 33 minutes ago, Keef said:

    I know Patrick is a nut and we're all desensitized to him at this point.  But MY GOD.  This is insane.  His proposal is turn our ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS into armed fortresses instead of putting forward any sort of restriction on firearms.  What civilized society does this?

    Just like "mental health(!)," it's not a serious suggestion. He knows the brainwashed at home loll their heads at the suggestion, harden themselves to any serious gun control suggestions because free-dumb, and he's done his part in running out the clock of the news cycle.

    They know they only need to deflect for a few days, and then we'll be on to the next thing. They're probably hoping a brawl breaks out an NBA playoff game or gas hits a new easy to rail against benchmark in the next few days. If not, a verdict will likely be reached in the Depp/Heard trial next week. Then they're off the hook.

  15.  

    8 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

    I don’t understand how someone is able to capture Ramos running into the school via phone video. I find it hard to believe they’d be already recording something and just so happened to catch Ramos in the act .

    Was there a lock down of the area because of Ramos shooting his grandma and alerts sent out on phones? Anyone in LE who knew where he was at, running around in broad daylight with a rifle should’ve been able to plug him.

    What an absolute tragedy that you probably would never be able to script.

     

    7 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

    you don't really need all that much imagination to come up with the script

    Yep. If you need new material you just have to wait for school to resume after the summer. Another sequel is in the works right now.

  16. 10 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

    and in that case, certainly do not deserve our worship

     

    12 minutes ago, sidis said:

    then he and his dad really despise their creation.

    and they suck at their job.

    RIP Quackenbush's

    • Like 1
  17. 4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    We only win if we break the MAGAs.  We cannot break them with logic.  We cannot break them by appealing to empathy.  We can only break them with the only currency they respect: pain.

    Link? You're hoping they even respect that. I don't think they can actually be reached. At all.

    Quote

    What I just wrote is as horrific as it seems.  How we fucking got here, I truly don't know.  But here we are.  You will never, ever, ever change a MAGA mind with facts, logic, or an appeal to decency or humanity.  In fact, all of those things will only further turn them against you, and signals to them that you are a weak libtard candyass and they oughta go at you extra hard.  It's fucking sick and hideous, but also absolutely true.

    Correct. Elections these days are turnout battles. So tell me how cruelty to this grieving father gets more non-MAGATs to the polls?

    Quote

    You don't want it to be true.  I get that. I appreciate it.  I don't want it to be true, either.  But I'm a realist, and I cannot ignore the mountain of evidence -- a good bit of that mountain being made up of broken and shattered bodies from Uvalde, Buffalo, El Paso, Parkland, Pittsburgh, etc. etc. ad infinitum.  Our society does not function on humanity, decency, or empathy.  It traffics exclusively in pain.

    Whether I want it to be true or not is irrelevant. I never denied it was true. You're preaching to the choir (I'm actually about to head off to choir practice). Hell, I'm silently sipping my vodka on the ledge with you. But I stand by everything I've said to this point.

    I'll say it again another way.

    In "Doubt," Meryl Streep's character says you have to take a step away from God to address wrongdoing. I think this is right. Step away from god, become the monster, to WIN at the politics.

    But going after this father isn't stepping into shadow to win. That rationalization is just an excuse to savage this father because it feels good to do so.

  18. 3 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

    But that’s my point. That’s not what EVERYONE is talking about now. This isn’t about winning votes, we know this state. But it could be winning the conversation. 
     

    this is my last post on this topic, I’ve distracted this thread enough. Infer like I’ve made my point even if folks disagree. 
     

    that’s a hell of a pic. I hope he has the balls to publicly draw the parallel to nazis. 

    There is no straight-forward way to keep the discussion about policy and the horrible outcomes that you want to prevent. That's not how mass media works.

    It isn't how humanity works.

    I'm reminded of a quip about Christianity (paraphrase): Jesus was a man who pointed towards a better way of living. Christianity fails us because it focuses not on where he was pointing but on his finger.

    Every discussion will break down immediately from the initial message in the directions of all of our individual agendas. You "win" those discussions by realizing that and seizing the opportunity to become the authority on the subject, or a star worthy of many followers.

    Your comment on this being a mistake for Beto is only right if it not only doesn't work, but worsens his position.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  19. 13 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    If anybody else running for office (or who is in office) wants to get a discussion going about actual policy, they needs to drop mention of specific political parties, and instead start running a shit-ton of ads on TV and online and put up billboards that do a few things:

    1. Highlight all of the tone-deaf comments by various state leaders, such as somebody bitching that Texas doesn't buy as many guns as California.  Run the shit out of ads where they brag about how easy it is to get guns in Texas,  and plenty of ads with them offering thoughts and prayers, etc.  Also, highlight things like how much money is being funneled from the NRA, etc. to state officials.  Get really fucking specific with the quotes and the money trails.  Basically make them defend this shit.
    2. Highlight how much money has been diverted from things like the mental health systems (DSHS - Human Services, etc.) to other areas that they weren't allocated for.
    3. Highlight how many of these shooters would have set off red-flags and been stopped if we had solid red-flag laws, and how solid red-flag laws won't affect the average law-abiding gun owner.

    Everything else is just political theater meant to distract everybody from the fact that we have 21 dead kids and teachers.  Arming teachers, turning schools into fortresses, etc. all just distracts from the actual perpetrators of these mass killings.

    That sounds nice and all, but it isn't how policy is changed. Unfortunately you have to win at the theater to have a say in policymaking.

  20. 17 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    While South Austin says so much more eloquently and kindly below than I will here......FUCK THAT SHIT.  Most of us have spent the last several decades fighting these horrific issues under Marquess of Queensberry rules while our opposition follows......literally no rules.  They are in the ring swinging nail-studded baseball bats, knives, and shooting at the rest of us with ARs and an endless supply of those weapons supplied by the NRA.  Continuing to follow norms and decency against this opponent is a suicide pact.

    The hideous, awful truth, that NONE of us want to be true, but we'd be lying if we argued it was NOT true, is that the only way to defeat monsters doing monstrous things is to become a monster yourself.  Ask an American GI or bomber pilot in WWII what it took to defeat the evil they faced.  It took inhuman, horrific shit.  Nietzche's warning about not becoming what you fight sounds good, it's super-trite....but it's also not reality.  "Attack on Titan" stated the real truth: "To defeat a monster, you must be willing to throw aside your humanity and all that makes you human."

    Enough.  At long last, enough.  Stop with the fucking rules, norms, decency, and decorum.  Treat them as ruthlessly and with as little empathy as they treat the rest of us.  They only speak the language of pain -- time to study up and speak in terms they understand, then.

    Tell me why that's necessary against victims like this. Against McConnell, MTG, Abbot, your local DA, or school board member? Sure, I get it. Hell, I applaud it. No rules, just win. I know my posts don't register much, but I've already weighed in on the approach Dems need to take. But going after this poor guy whose life has been turned upside down? And before we even know how he'll react?

    That isn't cruelty with purpose, it's just sating the lust for revenge.

    Tell me how this kind of cruelty changes minds. Tell me how it results in electoral or legislative victory.

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Like 1
  21. 47 minutes ago, lemonlime said:

    The death of 10 Black people going grocery shopping in Buffalo didn't keep him up at night.  Neither did 23 at a Wal-Mart in El Paso, or 10 at Santa Fe High School, and I could go on for pages.  

    I certainly don't wish this on anyone.  But I'm not sure why Republicans get to gleefully wish for lib tears and support policies whose entire point is cruelty, and then ask for sympathy when the cruelty they cheered on hurts them.

    He was fine with these deaths when it was someone else's child being murdered.

    He didn't ask for sympathy. I just don't think that diverting from the road to justice and good policy to dabble in ineffectual cruelty because of our feels is appropriate.

    I may not believe in Christian dogma these days, but I still consider myself an Episcopalian because of the positive values instilled in me by growing up in that church. If Jesus exists, he is grieving with this man and hoping for better from him.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  22. 46 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

    I feel sorry for the girl. She didn’t deserve her fate, neither how she died nor having a shitty person for a father. I don’t feel sorry for her dad at all. I hope the pain of his loss makes him rethink his shitty attitude.

    I bet it won’t.

    Based on your posting style, I don't doubt this at all. Every big tent needs its assholes, I suppose. Carry on.

  23. 46 minutes ago, South Austin said:

    Karma suggests that his daughter's death was an appropriate reaction to his gun enthusiasm.  That I cannot get behind, and I agree with you.

    But he's also put his enthusiasm and political position on gun control out there in the public domain.  While his daughter's death never should have happened, I would hope that this tragedy might cause him to reflect on how he's contributed to a social and political culture that has fostered the epidemic of mass shootings in America and possibly change his beliefs [Narrator: He probably won't], and I think that's suitable for discussion on this message board and other social media platforms.  I don't believe in a "hands off" approach to this guy.

    Suitable for discussion, not for ridicule. Let the man grieve. If he comes out of this unchanged, then, so be it, let the vitriol loose.

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