Nah, I know how to really piss 'em off. The definition of ‘white’ has always been cultural, not genetic. Look at how the Irish or Italians weren’t considered ‘white’ for many generations. So I propose we modify the definition of ‘white’ to deliberately exclude people with strong Southern heritage. Maybe we can justify it with racist psuedoscience. “No one whose ancestors who have lived in such a hot and humid area for so long can really be white.” If you have ancestors who have lived in the American South for more than three generations, you are now a person of color by default, regardless of your skin color. You no longer get to live in the ‘white’ club. If the Irish can be excluded from being white, so can the Southerners. Only people whose ancestors fought on the right side of the Civil War will get to call themselves white from here on out. We’ll even add a question to the Census that asks how long long your ancestors have lived below the Mason-Dixon line. Anyone who says three or more generations will automatically be classified as non-white, regardless of what they list their stated race as. We’ll take the thing from them that they value above everything else, their very whiteness.

Burn the witch!

Professional hitmen don’t actually exist. It’s a ‘business’ that you can’t possibly advertise for and has no way for the customer to assess the quality of the provider in advance. Sometimes killings do happen in exchange for money, but they don’t involve someone that is a professional killer that works with the public as their primary source of income. It just doesn’t exist. But there are some cases where killing does happen for money.

Sometimes two people will conspire to kill another for profit. Maybe one spouse hates another spouse. They ask a close friend or relative to kill their spouse, and they offer a portion of proceeds from life insurance as a payment for their risk and trouble. Or they’re cheating on their spouse with someone else, stand to inherit all their spouses assets upon their demise, and promise to marry the person they’re cheating with, thus sharing all the assets with them. In this case, it’s not a stranger being hired; the killer has known the person ‘hiring’ them for decades.

Some killings-for-hire are gang related. A gang wants someone killed. They don’t hire a random person to do it. They get one of their own members, who they’ve already known for many years and is a full member of the gang. In compensation for the huge risk the person is taking on to perform the deed, they offer a large sum of cash. Again, an unvetted stranger is not being hired. This person has likely already committed numerous crimes on the gang’s behalf in the past. When you’ve already committed enough crimes on a gang’s behalf to get you years in prison, a murder isn’t such a stretch.

Some killings-for-hire are done at the behest of nation-states. Spycraft. The KGB or CIA hire someone in a foreign country who is already sympathetic to them to kill someone the intelligence agency wants taken out. The intelligence agency doesn’t just select anyone, they go through a long vetting process just like they would any other intelligence asset. In fact, the potential assassin has likely already provided good intelligence and assistance to them for years, already risked extensive jail time or worse. If you’re a US military member that’s been providing intelligence to the KGB for a decade and have already participated in sabotage efforts, you’re already looking at treason charges if you’re caught. Offing someone for the KGB isn’t such an escalation. And when a nation-state hires someone to perform a killing, they also offer the person a plausible way out. The CIA can hire someone to kill someone for them in a foreign country and hand that person a US passport along with a few million safely in a US bank account in their name. Hell, they can make sure the assassin’s family has been given US citizenship and is already in the US before the deed is done. The CIA assassin can perform the killing, and as long as they can get to US or friendly territory before the foreign cops catch up with them, they’ll be completely free and clear. And regardless, their family will already be set for life in the US.

These are the kinds of scenarios where killings actually do occur in exchange for money. No one hires someone to kill another that they haven’t heavily vetted. If a random civilian is going to hire someone else to kill someone, they won’t hire a professional assassin. They’ll hire their brother or their lover. Otherwise contract killings only are done by organizations like gangs or national intelligence agencies, and they only hire people to do so that they’ve worked with for years and who has already committed numerous less severe crimes for them in the past.

In short, there really is no such thing as a professional assassin that serves the general public. Maybe if you are the spouse of a high-level violent gang member, you might be able to convince them to use the gang’s resources to pay one of their trusted members to kill someone in exchange for cash. But if you’re just a random average person? Forget it. There simply are not professional contract killers hiding in the shadows that a random civilian can hire if they have the cash. Anyone claiming to be that is simply a cop. Any person who DID try to start a career like this would be caught very quickly and have a very, very short career.

Are you high?

Wouldn’t that make sense from an evolutionary perspective? Through human history and prehistory, think of all the common tasks people did on a day-to-day basis. I would say the vast majority of them would involve looking at things below eye level. With the exception of picking fruit from trees or hunting birds in flight, most of the tasks we evolved to do involved looking at things below eye level. Most work with crops involves looking at things below the height of your eyes. Tracking prey involves looking at things below the line of the horizon or tracks on the ground. Crafting objects involves working with your hands and looking down at your work. Raising children involves looking down at their shorter stature.

Why wouldn’t our back and neck structure be evolutionarily optimized to look at things a bit below eye level?

Seriously. Remember that whole, “the tree of democracy is watered by the blood of tyrants” line? That’s what this refers to. Democracy is a peace treaty. People lament that democracy does not produce the ideal policy outcomes they would like, or even always the outcomes that the majority would like. But that really isn’t the real point of democracy. The real purpose of democracy is as an alternative to civil war. We all agree to accept elections and their results. This gives people a means to enact change in society without resorting to violence. People will always want to enact change in the world. And if you do not give them a peaceful means to do so, they will turn to violence. Democracy generally works because it’s actually usually a lot easier to make change in a democratic system than it would be to enact change through violent conflict. If you have enough of the population behind you to win an all-out civil war, you likely don’t need to start a civil war in the first place. Starting a civil war to enact policy goals is almost always a very bad idea. If you don’t have enough of the electorate behind you to enact your goals democratically, you will be very unlikely to have enough people willing to fight and die with you in order to triumph in a civil war.

Sometimes in democracies, a group of people forgets this fact. They come to realize their views are an increasing minority and will have zero success in the future. This is what happened in the US Civil War. The South saw the writing on the wall. They realized that slavery was becoming ever-more unpopular, and that every year that passed, more and more of the population recognized it for the moral abomination that it was. The election of Lincoln made it clear that their long-term success in protecting slavery through democratic means was doomed. And so, they turned to violence.

It’s one of those harsh facts that this is just something that happens from time to time in democracies. The support of Trump is based on one fundamental worldview - that white straight Christians are the natural leaders of society, and that they deserve special rights and privileges. They fundamentally do not believe in the principal that all human beings are created equal. White people, and especially white males, deserve special privileges because of their sex, skin color, and religious beliefs. In the 1860s, we had reached a point where the premise that slavery was acceptable was a politically doomed idea. Now, through changes in culture and demography, we are reaching the point where the premise that straight white Christians are the natural rulers of society is becoming politically nonviable. Trump is fundamentally a reaction to an inclusive and diverse society. And the old America that gave special privileges to people simply because of their sex, skin color, and religion is on its way out the door. We are becoming a pluralistic democracy, and that is fundamentally anathema to many people, in the same way that the end of slavery was fundamentally anathema to many people.

And if these people turn to violence? Well, so be it. The last time a group of regressives tried to overtly rebel against the government (not counting January 6th here), we had to burn Atlanta to the ground. We had to come down like the Hammer of God upon them, and grind it into their skulls saying, “we are done with your shit. Slavery is over. We will kill as many of you as necessary to end this bullshit. Give it up, continuing to fight will only make things worse for you.”

We forget just how intransigent the bastards in the US South were. They were stubborn mother-fuckers. They fundamentally believed that democracy did not matter, and that their right to slavery was above democracy. It took putting a gun their head and saying, “slavery is done, and we will kill every last one of you if we have to in order to end it.” THAT is what it took to end slavery. The South wasn’t convinced of the error of their ways, they were given the choice between Emancipation or death.

I really, really hope that Trump is defeated resoundingly, and that this breaks the back of the modern Christian Nationalist movement. But if they actually do take up arms? Well, we’ve been here before. We had to turn Atlanta into a heap of ashes to stop these guys the last time they convinced themselves that God gave them more rights than other human beings. And if we have to do something similar again? So be it. There is a reason that soldiers swear an oath to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign AND domestic. Democracy is a peace treaty. We agree that we will fight each other in elections, and try to enact our will upon the world through peaceful democratic means. But when you decide that your views are more important than democracy? When you decide that elections be damned, your preferred world must be made? When you decide to roll the iron dice and take up arms against your brothers and sisters? Make no mistake. You have broken that peace treaty. And you will be put in the ground where you belong.

The correct response to, “The South will rise again!” has always been, “fine. And I will be the first to shoot your traitorous ass. And we won’t be so forgiving the second time around.”

It’s really rich. The same party that six months ago was apoplectic because a handful of Jewish students were blocked by protesters from using one of many doors at a few buildings when they attempted to march through barricades, decrying it as Hitler returned? That same party is now trying to start a pogrom against Haitian immigrants in Ohio.

At first I read this as “the next generation of buffets.” I was getting excited that someone had figured out how to make a buffet that isn’t a food safety nightmare, then I read the rest of the sentence and was disappointed…

Gather up your neighbors and have them come and strategically park their cars on the church yard, physically blocking the kid’s path. If he can trespass, so can you.

I don’t know much about Doug Jones, but this seems like a suicidally stupid idea at first glance. What kind of Democrat does it take to get elected senator in Alabama? That sounds like the kind of conciliatory milquetoast centrist bullshit that has gotten us into this mess.

When a group of people decides that they are no longer going to respect democracy, and they are willing to burn down the republic for their own gain, milquetoast centrism is suicidal. Going easy on these bastards didn’t make them stop. They’re still denying they lost, and they’re still trying to steal the election. Historically, this type of authoritarian movement that seeks to destroy democracies only ends up one of two ways. Either the authoritarians end up winning, or everyone remotely involved gets multi-decade prison sentences. While the Justice Department has tried a lot of the low-level people, Garland’s intransigence has protected the real people in power, the ringleaders behind the whole thing. Trump hasn’t faced justice. The Republican Congressional members involved in the scheme haven’t faced justice. The media that deliberately fomented the rebellion hasn’t faced justice.

Compare this to something like the Guy Fawkes’s attempt to blow up the English parliament. They didn’t give those people a slap on the wrist and say, “it’s time for the nation to heal.” Back then they rounded up everyone remotely involved and publicly executed them via torture. Historically, the absolute worst punishments a state could apply were reserved for treason and rebellion. And they were applied liberally after any serious attempt at overthrowing a government.

Now, we’re not in that era anymore. We don’t need to resort to mass summary executions or public executions by torture. We hopefully are a bit more enlightened now. But these people still cannot just be allowed to run around and continue their attempts at overthrowing the government. The people who organized it? The people on the ground? The legislatorss involved? The prominent media figures who deliberately spread lies about the election being stolen? All of them should never see the light of day again.

And yes, that includes people in the media. Look at how the Union states cracked down on Southern-sympathetic press during the Civil War. That’s we what we should be doing now. I’m sorry, but if you are deliberately spreading lies about an election being stolen, you should be in jail for attempting to foment a rebellion. You’re as guilty as Goebbels or any Nazi propaganda minister. The first amendment does not protect conspiracy to treason.

Instead we did nothing. Milquetoast centrist bullshit led us to ignore the scale of the problem. Now these same bastards are attempting to foment a pogrom against Haitian immigrants in Ohio. THAT is what treating these people with kid gloves gets you. It doesn’t let the nation heal, it just gives the traitors another bite at the apple.

We do not need another limp-wristed centrist leading the Justice Department. We need someone willing to come down like Hammer of God on these people. Maybe I’m being unfair to Doug Jones. But the fact that he was able to get elected as a senator in Alabama hints that we might just be making the mistake all over again.

They’re Know-Nothings, in every sense of the word.

Among other things, we need to ascribe financial penalties to states that wrongfully remove people from voter rolls. States can rightfully remove people who die, move away, or are not citizens from voter rolls. However, there is no consequence to states for making a mistake. This encourages bad actors to deliberately be sloppy in their roll-clearing efforts, and it provides cover for purges based on race and ethnicity.

There need to be damages associated with removing someone from the rolls incorrectly. We should pass a federal law that establishes a new cause of action for such civil rights violations. Were you incorrectly removed from the voter rolls? You should be able to sue your state in federal court, for say, $100k plus attorney’s fees, for violation of your civil rights. States can either be deliberate and careful about their voter rolls maintenance, or they can be driven to insolvency.

I’m just pleased to see that they finally recognized how to debate Trump. He’s a fat fart of a narcissist who debates with a cloud of grievance and endless lies. He isn’t a regular candidate; he is simply a bully. And like all bullies, deep down he needs to make other people feel small because that’s the only way he can not feel small himself.

The mistake that so many others have made is that they treat Trump like any other ordinary candidate. Instead, it seems like team Harris actually sat down with a few psychologists, got to the core of Trump’s fragile psyche, and figured out how to break him. If he wasn’t such a cruel villain himself bent on ruining the lives of countless others, I would actually think such a trick is unfair and cruel. But sometimes you have to do what’s wrong in order to do what’s right. Trump is so consumed with his own ego that he is literally willing to order the extrajudicial imprisonment and summary execution of people who offend his ego. He is a dangerous man that cannot be allowed near any real power. And if taking advantage of his mental deficiencies is unfair play, so be it. I am willing to break the mind of a signal malignant narcissist if it means saving the Republic. I have no more sympathy for his mental illness than I do for those of countless dictators through history. The worst tyrants of the 20th century may have had some legitimate psychological illnesses that made them act the way they do, but that does not excuse their actions. Mentally deficient or not, they need to be taken down by any means necessary.

Hell, the only reason I don’t endorse violence to keep these people out of power is that it’s counter-productive to create martyrs. These people need to be shown as the fools they truly are. Only then can the spell be disrupted. If Trump’s attempted assassin had succeeded, a dozen baby Trumps would have quickly risen up following the same playbook. Trump instead needs to be defeated not with violence, but with total abject humiliation and defeat at the ballot box. He needs to die not as a martyr at the height of his power, but from old age, as a sad, tired old man, repeatedly defeated and ranting at the clouds, repeating facebook rumors, til his dying breath. THAT is how you defeat Trumpism. You have to break his psyche so fundamentally that he never recovers. He needs to be defeated resoundingly and made such a fool that no one will ever attempt his playbook again, or at least until his humiliation has passed from living memory. Ideally he will end up dying in prison. But regardless he needs to live to til the end of his natural life, making a greater fool of himself with every word he speaks, from now until the end, digging his pit of shame ever deeper. THAT is how you defeat a demagogue like Trump. You don’t out-logic him. You don’t kill him. You break him. You shatter what his left of his ego and mind. Leave him a blubbering fool trapped in the remnants of his own shattered ego. That is how you deal with Trump. You have no mercy, and you break him.

Here’s a few you can try in the future. You can take a paywalled link and append the address to the following sites:
archive.is/
archive.ph/
12ft.io/
removepaywall.com/

Just take the website link from the taskbar and paste it directly after. This works the vast majority of the time.

Some might complain about getting around paywalls, but I don’t mind. The web was built to be free. If you want to have your info and stories completely behind a login, fine. Make your page require a log in to even see stories. Make that worth it to people, and you can build an audience. But don’t have your pages and stories accessible to draw people in, only to slap them with a paywall. That strategy always felt like a slimy bait-and-switch to me. I remember back in the 90s when Congress had a serious debate over whether for-profit commercial activity should even be allowed online at all. And it’s been downhill from there. Put your content on the open web or not. Pick a lane. Want a walled garden? Build a walled garden and don’t let people see inside without paying. But don’t lure people into your garden and then slap them with a pay booth once they’re starting to enjoy the flowers. If it’s even possible for people to use a paywall removal site, it proves you’re trying to pull a bait-and-switch on readers.

As a matter of course, one should not even open a link that goes to OpenAI.

It’s best not to become dependent on these piracy engines. These models are hopelessly unprofitable, and they will not be cheap and accessible for very long. They take such colossal resources to train, billions upon billions of dollars. Currently OpenAI is trying to do the classic Silicon Valley bait and switch. They have a product that is more expensive and inefficient than the previous method. If they charge the real price for their product, they know no one will adopt it. So instead they offer their product at an artificially low price initially. They hope that everyone will become dependent, after which they can jack up their prices.

It’s the Uber model. Start by paying drivers more than they would make driving taxis, and by charging riders far less than they would pay for a taxi fare. This is possible through billions of angel investor subsidies. Then once everyone is dependent, slash driver pay and jack up ride prices. This is the only way for Uber to make back the billions they’ve squandered on market capture sub Silicon Valley execute bloat. If we had functioning anti-monopoly law enforcement, the executives of all these companies would be in jail. But for now they’re able to take advantage of practices that would have seen them in chains two generations ago.

Same with OpenAI. They want to get all the copy-editing companies dependent on their piracy engines. They want all the graphic design companies dependent on their image stealing tools. Then, once these companies fire their real human copy editors and graphic designers, OpenAI will start charging the real price for its services. And considering the literal hundreds of billions being poured into these hopelessly inefficient piracy engines, the rate they will have to charge will be enormous. Someone has to ultimately pay for those billions Sam Altman is sponging up. And even if they didn’t have billions of investor dollars to recoup, their ultimate goal is to gain a monopoly position in the copy editing and graphic design market. They will replace a million competing copy editors and graphing designers with a single provider - OpenAI. They’ll control the market. Once all the real human copy editors, graphic artists, and voice actors/readers have been driven from the industry and been forced to move on and take jobs elsewhere, they will be able to charge whatever they please.

Any executive that lets their company become dependent on this technology is a fool. They’re a sucker, falling for a classic bait-and-switch. Hopefully enough of them are smart enough not to be suckered in by the OpenAI con job, and OpenAI can hastily be driven into bankruptcy where it belongs.

Well, according to Trump, Harris is a Marxist. Are political reeducation camps out of the question? We’ll go full Maoist. Anyone caught posting such drivel has to spend a year working on a state-run farm while they receive political reeducation. 🤣

Race-baiting is a bad look. Stop trying to start a pogrom.

If you have no problem hanging out with Klan members, you are hillbilly trash.

We’re bringin’ back capes and cloaks.

To prevent the obvious reference, the trend will be called, “‘No capes’ only applies to superheroes.”

You may find this SFIA video interesting.