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Tuco

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Everything posted by Tuco

  1. For me I think the handwriting thing came down to just lack of finger dexterity. Although, I do flip letters and shapes. Senior year I did an art project that included an outline of Nebraska. When I was done my friend asked if I had flipped the state to represent that it was backwards. I had spent a few hours on the thing and didn’t realize I put the panhandle in the east. I’m not sure what you call that. “Stupid “ maybe. Speaking of which, I wonder how much of the cursive nostalgia is from folks who struggled at every other subject.
  2. They still teach hand writing (printing), they just aren’t teaching the second, more formal, script system the west has. I know Montessori schools will work the eye-hand coordination thing before kids can even spell. And it’s not like learning cursive was a light lift; I’m guessing we dedicated 20% of class time, and probably 40% of student effort, of 3rd grade for it. And as someone with shitty eye-hand coordination, it was 95% of my school angst. Fucking hand cramps while failing to get that shit legible.
  3. And typing is much faster. And more legible. And nobody hand writes business letters and rarely personal ones. Shit gets outdated and fuck any schooling system that doesn’t adjust, freeing up time to teach new skills that didn’t exist when I was a kid.
  4. I'm a big proponent of the first part - developing local newspapers to get the word out. Print media is dying in the free market. Many of the surviving papers put up firewalls either for their entire publication, or for the sports. But that leaves a void. In Nebraska, after the Omaha World Herald was gutted there were a couple of papers that popped up that rely on donations and provide really good, but limited, reporting. But they don't have the budget to do daily sports. If they did, it would get way more eyeballs. Their current reporting frequently focuses on the corruption in state government or public organizations, like this report on the fuckery around around the power company self-dealing on a property purchase. It's not explicitly political, but helps explain the reality to brainwashed rubes. You don't need stories that even mention Trump, but when you explain the reality of his policies, it can undermine him and others who follow a similar path. We aren't going to win the political battle without winning the media battle.
  5. I personally think the "how" is much more of an issue than the "what." The "what" isn't getting to the low-information voter in anyway that sticks. The left frequently wins on the liberal issues in red state referendums, but still can't crack 40% with their politicians in those same states. I don't know the solution, but some suggestions would be: 1. Figure out a way to stop the spam. I think Democrats are disadvantaged eschewing corporate contributions, so they rely more much more heavily on individual donors. But in doing so, they spam the living fuck out of their base: calls, emails, texts...day after day. I'm a true believer, but I get sick of the typing "Stop" multiple times of day. I think it has to have an effect on how the casual voter views Democrats as a whole. I get it: campaigns need money. And the national orgs won't give you if you haven't raised a certain amount on your own to demonstrate viability. But we need to figure something else out. 2. Non-campaign propaganda. I see all sorts of bullshit on Facebook and LinkedIn that isn't directly related to politics, but that I suspect is being pushed to drive a certain narrative that is helpful to conservatives. Usually it's the shit about how awesome it was back in the 70s, you know, before we had regulations. How much tougher we were before culture changed. So, how do we drive a narrative that shit has actually approved over the years, which is kind of crucial if you are going to preach the idea that "progression" is good.
  6. Well, he's not King yet. Right now he can only gum up the system, not replace it. He gums it up enough and people will believe it needs to be replaced. Arkansas and Missouri are filled with enough cultists who will believe him as he says it's FEMA's fault. Huckabeef certainly won't blame Trump. And once the system is replaced* with a single decision maker, that decision maker has all the power. It's the same thing with Tariffs. Sure, he may fuck up the economy, but since Congress has ceded him the ability to either save or ruin companies, he can use that to demand loyalty. Same thing with deportations. When the President, or the Dept of State, can decide to cancel a visa, they can punish someone who says something they don't agree with. Trump is demonstrating what happens when a system is placed with a person. Note: it doesn't actually need to "replaced," just "reformed" in a way that makes it more "efficient." That includes which states/counties get funds. It could also include which contractors get the work, which would be a graft machine.
  7. Yeah, that's game plan. Crippled the agencies, drive up dissatisfaction with them, dismantle them completely, replacing the bureaucracy with a King handing out money to the governors who bend the knee. A competent dictatorship can be fast and even efficient. But the "competent" part of that isn't a system, it's luck. Luck that we will not have.
  8. Well, my main focus is still to whine incessantly about it on a social media platform with people who mostly agree with me. Podcasts are my back-up plan.
  9. Democrats weren't going on Rogan because he was giving a stage to Holocaust deniers and anti-vaxxers. There is, or was, a general mindset that you don't provide draw eyes to someone who is peddling irresponsible and dangerous bullshit. But, I think that mentality is changing. Frankly, there is nothing a politician is going to do to give Rogan "credibility" because credibility is an outdated notion in today's world.
  10. A short watch of Jordan Klepper talking about young MAGA:
  11. Ok, if he wasn't a pussy, what would he do? A strongly worded attack mailer.
  12. He's just trying to keep it in the news cycle. At best, if it actually went to a vote, he could get Republican Senators on the record for supporting corruption (as if that would fucking matter). What alternative was the "right" path? Schumer deserves a lot of shit for a lot of reasons, but I don't think this is one of them.
  13. “Hey guys, I’ve brought my own recipe for the hookah. You should give it a try before we talk business.”
  14. Maybe in the bonus round they can challenge MAGgots on questions about US History and Government.
  15. Ewing winning was a surprise. Ewing winning by 13 points was a shock. But, it's not really a repudiation of MAGA and it is definitely not a sign that the Democratic Party is getting their shit together. Stothert wasn't MAGA. She was vocal about not voting for Trump in 2016. As far as I know, she never bent the knee. Her loss may be an indication that it is getting harder for non-MAGA Republicans to survive. (She did have other issues, like spending enough time in St. Louis, where her boyfriend lived, that there was accusations that she didn't really live in Omaha.) As far as the Dems go, the State Party showed their incompetence by coordinating with another Republican candidate during the primaries on some anti-Stothert attack ads. The backstory is that McDonnell was Dem State Senator, who voted for the abortion bill, got enough blowback that he switched to Republican, but was the deciding vote against switching to winner-take-all for the 2024 Presidential election. The mayoral race is a non-partisan, top two advance, primary. So, there was a decent chance that two Republicans - McDonnell and Stothert - would have been the only general election candidates, and the Nebraska State Democratic Party was coordinating with one of them. That is soooo fucked up. But the good guy won. And John Ewing is the good guy. I've liked him since he was the county treasurer and he overhauled the car registration process to make it easier. Just simple, non-partisan, efforts to make your life better. Granted, I may be giving him credit for something technology enabled, but I still like him. And it may demonstrate a changing of the guard in Omaha. It's not that unusual for Omaha to have a Democratic mayor, but they are all that old Irish-mob-political-machine type. I think a lot of that base has eroded with reshifting with MAGA. Being the first black mayor should not be underestimated.
  16. Keep reading asshole. You're just a few verses short of "Pride goeth before the fall." I really wished Christians would actually read the Bible instead of just wearing the logo.
  17. Fixed it. Who wants to bet that Martin and Deborah talk a lot about their pure Castilian heritage?
  18. He knows it. He just thinks he's outsmarted it.
  19. The film tariff is fascinating. Does it apply to just movies shown in theaters? What about movies made for streaming? If it does, what if Netflix has a one episode series that is 2 hours long? Since intellectual property isn't consumed, does it apply retroactively? The scary part is this: "This is a concerted effort by other Nations, and therefore a national security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda." Let that sink in for a bit. That is not about industry or revenue. It's about controlling what Americans can watch, using "national security" as the justification.
  20. Slow response on this... I probably should have clarified: I don't think Elon is their biggest problem moving forward. There is a perception that Elon becoming toxic in the world of public opinion is why they are struggling. I think both of us are agreeing that the issues are much more fundamental, and more difficult to fix, than Elon's bad press.
  21. I believe that would be considered "persecuting Christians."
  22. Tesla is one of the most interesting stocks. If it’s a car company, it’s grossly overpriced. If it’s a tech company that is about to create new products (robots, robotaxis, ai, etc.) which spawn new markets, then it makes sense. It’s why Elon stresses the latter and dismisses any concerns about car sales. I think it’s a car company that hasn’t made a major advance in years and has lost its technology edge to the Chinese and is losing ground to domestic and European competitors. The truck was not only an Edsel-level flop, it demonstrated a dysfunction which undermines any confidence that they are competent in developing new products. Elon is a problem, but not their biggest one.
  23. Well, they’re still racist. They just don’t want to be poor racists.
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