I’ve been a hangout at the coffee shop/bar and casually meet people person for over 20yrs. In the last six months the amount of conversations I’ve had with strangers has shot up exponentially. For the first time in many years it’s reminded me of what the social scene was like when I was in my teens and early 20s at the turn of the century. And it’s not just people my age returning to it, it’s a lot of the 21-25 crowd. I’ve been invited to play darts, join a pool or foosball game, or play some Buck Hunter with a stranger more times this year than I probably was in the past five. It’s nice, a chill night out meeting new people even if it’s a temporary “let’s converse for a bit”.

I think it’s surpassed both and is pure Aphex Twin level body horror.

I worked in a late night pizzeria that served the post-bar crowd. The amount of shit-filled undies (men’s and women’s) we’d find throw in the corner was unreal. So remember that folks, there’s a reasonable chance whoever you’re flirting with at 130am isn’t wearing undies because they’ve already shat themselves.

Operation Epstein Fury Road.

And my point is that regardless of whether he successfully steals them, suppresses them, intimidates voters, even if opposition wins big, without teeth to back up any action they take against him (like impeachment), he’s in a position of power that he needs to keep himself and all of his cronies out of prison. A win for the opposition, even if the opposition breaks with Democratic leadership and starts coming at him hard, is just delaying the inevitable fight to be rid of him and his regime. The opposition wants to obey the rule of law, and that’s a good standard, but we’re dealing with a person in power that ignores the balance of power, defies the courts, and has the support of law enforcement. He keeps calling our bluff and letting us play by the rules while he breaks or ignores every last one to the applause of his base. How many of his supporters did we see lusting for a Putin-style strongman that puts on the facade of elections and democracy but would never concede to the will of the people? They’ve found their dude and will fight just as hard to keep him in power at the expense of democracy as he will. People need to be willing to defend more than the right to vote, they need to be willing to take action when voting occurs but the results are ignored.

Continental cuisine as it was intended. Only uncultured Americans use a blow-torch to achieve caramelization.

Dude helmed one of the biggest child sex trafficking rings in history, whipped his loyalists into a coup attempt with false claims of “stolen election”, suffered no consequences for that, came back promising revenge, pardoned his convicted loyalists, turned them into a private army that has been given carte blanche to murder peaceful opposition, is operating death camps, has kidnapped and murdered the leaders of foreign countries with impunity, routinely ignores those in his own party and Supreme Court when they occasionally oppose him, is threatening all sorts of voter suppression (up to cancelling elections), defies the Constitution by calling for a third term, is backed by a cabal of the most wealthy and powerful individuals in the nation who are also clients of his child sex trafficking ring, is beloved by the nation’s police forces, has seized total control of the military, and has already ignored every check and balance that exists because he can. You can flip the entire Congress blue but unless they find someone who can physically extricate him and his cronies from their positions, he can ignore every impeachment, court order, and protest if he says “nah, I’m staying”. You really think his backers have worked this hard to gain control just to lose it in two years to the will of the people, the people they know would have a helluva time matching them blow for blow to force his removal?

Don’t not vote, but don’t be so assured winning at the polls translates into the first step of over-throwing the regime. I mean, what are you going to do if voters say “time for you to go” and his response is “fuck you, make me”?

Pure speculation- they’ll let it happen. Boomers are on their way out and the price being paid by the next generation for their greed is that insurance companies, funeral homes, creditors, and their own hubris won’t pass along the wealth they inherited from their parents. Many have held positions of power (public and private) at the expense of allowing other members of society to progress into (except in cases of nepotism and cronyism). With them phasing out and the decline in birth rates among Mils and Zs, it might not be as much of a crunch. Toss in a few endless wars and you can clear out some more to the meat grinder, build new private prisons to house “illegal immigrants” and once you’ve made a dent in that you can keep them stocked with the folks you can’t deport as easily. Maybe they’ll get lucky and mass resistance will break out at home and they can gun down some more. At best you’ll get the one or two who snap and are eliminated even if the fire doesn’t spread. The rest will either submit, accept poverty, eke out a living, die young because they’re malnourished and have no access to healthcare, they’ll starve, or suicide. Even under the current system where many live paycheck to paycheck, impoverished Americans don’t live in the kind of poverty that many in other places do. There’s places where people live and die in garbage dumps. I don’t think there’s much concern for the people of this country, how they live, how they die, so long as there’s enough infrastructure to keep the standard of living the elite enjoy up to par and they don’t have to see the poverty from their penthouse.

1982 to be exact, when Thomas Dolby was blinded with science much like Saul was once blinded by Jesus on the road to Damascus. It’s poetry in motion.

“To serve and protect… ourselves and our masters from being held accountable by the the masses.”

Where there’s a whip there’s a way.

Police can rid themselves of the loathsome term “peace officer” and revert to their preferred name, “slave catcher”. The violent beatings of minorities and dissidents will continue because anonymously exploding them by remote isn’t as rewarding to the ruling class as watching them suffer.

I get the impression we’re in the final stages of “money” as we’ve known it and heading to some sort of digital feudalism where most people don’t own much of anything and rent, lease, or pay a subscription to access everything else. You don’t need to buy a smart fridge that analyzes your behavior because it was supplied by your landlord. Can’t tamper with it, can’t replace it, and older models are no longer supported. Can’t repair the 40yo car you own because it’s no longer considered “safe”, plus they quit making replacement parts so you have to get a new one. I would not at all be surprised to watch them shift to an all digital money market where your rent, bills, and subscriptions are withheld and distributed as a convenience and when you go shopping the retailer adjusts the price based on your ability and willingness to pay more. You might make 10% more than your coworker but WalMart knows that and gouges you for every last cent of discretionary income they can pull. Can’t shop anywhere else, it’s all the same because the same people own everything. Jobs will exist, the illusion of “work hard/climb the ladder” will be abandoned and the tasks it’s cheaper/more efficient to use human labor in will be your career options. If you cannot find a mate one will be assigned to you and the expenses of your children (obligated to provide) will be deducted from your wages, after taxes of course.

Dystopian and dark, probably a bit of a stretch, but I do think there’s an effort to make private property and capitalism as we’ve known it a thing of the past. Not in a socialist, collectivist way, but to get to some perpetual indentured servitude.

What to do about it? Sink the ship. Yeah, we’re on it; so are they. Some of us won’t survive, there’s no guarantee we’ll win, but we’re constantly patching up a 250yo vessel that has some parts worth saving but is mostly rotten. We sleep in the bilge while they enjoy the cabin. Scuttle it and start again. I get why people still aren’t ready to do that, but I guess we’ll see what they think of our prospects when elections start getting cancelled, suppressed, or ignored.

Providing energy absorption 10000yrs into the future, even at the edge of a subduction zone. No more plate tectonics for you.

Sounds stingy. Everyone knows level one goblins have a dragon’s stash of gold in their hovel, you’re just being a dick by making it impossible to find it. I’m gonna go pick pocket that guy across the bar. I expect a low DC because he’s drunk and I put two skill points into it. He better have a bag of diamonds on him or so help me I’m quitting.

Grond will breach it. Bring up the wolf’s head!

A killing? Whoever owns the shithole dive commies and anarchists hang out in is not making a killing slinging $1.50 PBRs and $3.50 wells. If the commie really has an issue with capitalism they could a) not patronize the bar, or b) actually attempt to seize the means of production from the corporate conglomerate that owns 99% of alcohol manufacturing. The problem is that those people are out of reach, the bar owner lives in town. I would wager that the bar owner is at best a tax bracket above the anarchist and communist, both of whom have jobs themselves despite philosophical issues with capitalism. If we’re going to keep punching within the same class, at least punch the bigots.

And Rest In Power little girl, not long in this world but you lived every minute you were with us:

Legends era glup shittofication would have told us he once bought a shipment of space beer from a brewery on Ord Mantel that sourced their water from Tatooine and the money spent was just what Owen needed to buy medicine to save Luke’s life when he was five. The Star Wars we know would never have happened if every background character that ever appeared didn’t contribute to the main plot!