Larry of the Lawn

I don't think the more nihilist, secular, Trump voters give a shit. I wish people did the math that way but I think voter behavior is way less rational than that. Most of the Joe Rogan crowd probably doesn't vote, and if they do, the function that predicts that decision isn't plottable on a Cartesian plane. They might be for legalizing all drugs and abortions for everyone but like the aesthetics of Trump. Plus they lean heavily in the misogyny direction. I think Joe Biden has terrible politics, isn't taking a firm enough stance against genocide, has been hyping up the economy even though if you're in the bottom half of it, you are likely struggling more than you were 4 years ago (and I get that's not Biden's fault), and has been slow playing the student loan stuff to give younger (under 50) voters a boon closer to the election instead of using the more legally sound (of tedious) mechanism right of the bat instead of the emergency clause. I think he's played a large role in the shitty political state the US we find ourselves in. I'm still gonna vote for him. I'm not excited about or proud of it, but I'm voting for a guy I largely do not agree with. I'm sure there are people like me on the other side. Maybe not a lot, but some.

I have not but it's somewhere in the next 25 in the tbr pile

I really loved the first 2/3 of it, but agree that the ending was on the weak side. I feel like there were moments when the book approached some kind of revelation or threatened to breakthrough into a new paradigm but that it just didn't quite get there. There was so much potential with the exploration of consciousness and language and awareness and perception, that really begged for more subtext. Overall I enjoyed it but was disappointed, it felt like the author didn't take full advantage of the concept.

Well women have already been prosecuted for miscarriages so I'm not sure why a law like this would stop these freaks

Of course you'd say that.

Yes, that's essentially my point. Not everyone complaining about Big Pharma is complaining about the drugs. They are complaining about lack of regulations, regulatory capture, lack of industry ethics, etc. I was refuting HoI assertion that most complaints about Big Pharma go hand in hand with conspiracy theory bs. It's demonstrably not true.

I think that's a pretty big generalization. Complaints about Big Pharma are not limited to conspiracy theorists. Sorry if this is to US - centric a comment but when you have basic medications that were designed to be affordable like insulin being priced to the point that people are dying because they can't afford it, complaints about Big Pharma don't sound so conspiratorial, and are in fact common across political divides. This isn't confined to people doing homeopathy and obsessing over GMO labelling.

We could've had tigers in the Whitehouse but instead we had to shove Joe Exotic off to jail. World's so fucked up

No such thing as bad dogs, just bad owners

He's a young 99!

This is what they'll put sanctions on the table for, huh?

How about a compromise candidate and Biden steps aside for .... Jimmy Carter?

As I already mentioned, the entire "ask them to stop nicely" was pointing out that he has done the absolute bare minimum. Read my obviously irreverent response to Scot asking me "how?". Biden said "the response is over the top" and did fuck all about it. Don't piss on my neck and tell me it's raining. If you want to keep pretending that's all Biden can do, and die in that hill, and want to keep condescending and patronizing and deflecting, I think I'm done here. And by the way, the people who tell you you can't criticize the president publicly are never the good guys. Edit: How can you square telling people to be "productive" not "combative" when they are asking for more to be done to stop a genocide, and you're making excuses about why that isn't possible?

Telling people not to criticize the president is not thoughtful. It's cult-like.

Thanks for sharing your opinion of the intelligence of the people who read this thread.

Gross. You wanna police what we can talk about and expect people to believe you know what you're talking about? This is not how free societies work. The people that tell you to do that are not the people whose side you want to be on. I'm voting for Biden, don't fucking tell me not to criticize him. If the common person can't change anything, how the fuck am I going to change anything by criticizing the president?

Did I tell anyone not to vote for Biden? Nope! "Don't criticize the president, or the fascist guy might win!" Is an absolutely idiotic and insane argument to make. Be fucking strategic.

He's not doing shit. He's doing the absolute minimum. To the bolded, lo fucking l. Don't scold me about shutting up like it's damaging the electoral prospects of the guy with the milquetoast opposition to genocide. Great way to get people out to vote if that's what you're so concerned about. Yeah, I'm the fucking reason people are upset about Gaza, not the fucking President. I used the example of "asking them to stop nicely" because I thought it might be an absurd example of the limits of the President's ability to do anything about this. That "over the top comment" is literally all that Biden has done to check this conflict. Biden could be threatening to withhold aid or weapons, he could have actually voted for a UN resolution urging an immediate ceasefire. He could not have run his mouth about decapitated babies. But yeah, sure, I better stop saying Biden could be doing more or Trump's gonna win.

And some people bitch and moan anytime people expect elected officials to lift a fucking finger to stop a genocide in progress.

Biden could publicly say this behavior is not ok and has gone too far. Instead he just reaffirms full support for Israel and hopes for a peaceful resolution in the future. The only similarity between Gaza and gun control is this "thoughts and prayers" attitude. It's absolutely bizarre to me to compare gun control (which involves a constitutional amendment with a lot of SC stare decisis backing) and a President's ability to influence what's going on Gaza. I missed the part where Biden's constitutionally prevented from doing more than thoughts and prayers, and hoping for a way forward-- which is a pretty charitable way of describing all of his public comments on the topic since Oct. 7.

But they do take material support and money from Washington.

Well I guess he tried then! Oh well!

I don't know Scot, I'm just a dumb hick tradesman. But from what I understand President of the US is one of the most powerful political positions in the world with vast diplomatic resources, and that the nation perpetrating this is strong US ally. I'd guess asking nicely would be a good place to start, but wtf do I know?

My President's Day wish is that Biden decides to use his position as President of the US to stop the genocide in Gaza.

I liked it but it wasn't anything amazing, I thought the first half was pretty solid but there were absolutely things that broke my suspension of disbelief. Ran named one in his spoilered edit, Also, as far as the deaths of the scientists, minus Lund and Clark: There was enough mystery to keep me watching and I didn't mind