Rox

the funny thing about the lack of mandated algorithm here is that you sometimes only see one side of a conversation

my timeline is full of people arguing against Newsom-as-presumptive-nominee and I have not seen a single glimpse of pro-Newsom arguments anywhere

good curation by me apparently

When I visited London a few months back, it was insane how many otherwise progressive seeming people I talked to had fallen for “it’s the immigrants” as the reason they feel they are falling behind. And not, you know, the rich people.

I would take the popularists more seriously if they in any way engaged with the absolute collapse of Labour, which - contrary to their protestations - has in fact followed their suggestions in many ways

it also takes time to shift your production - do you really want to bet on the Pollutionmobile 9000 when you’re staring down the prospect of President AOC? maybe they don’t work on making current cars much cleaner but I am skeptical we see a ton of backsliding

this is very bad but I’m curious what effect it’s going to have in practice - if American car manufacturers move back towards extremely emissions-heavy cars they are basically surrendering the global market and are extremely vulnerable to domestic politics shifting back

it’s bad business

there are many characters on Discworld who are admirable and entertaining and you would never in a million years want to live in their shoes

Nanny, though? I think we’d all be happy to have lived Nanny’s life

a baby’s finger pointing at a bald grumpy old man in the book RAIN

close up of the bald grumpy old man. I do NOT look exactly like him

extremely rude of my baby to roast me by pointing at this character in her book and loudly insist it’s “daddy”

Flavor Flav Tries Skeleton

how can you not love the Olympics

The thing that annoys me is when people sneer "It's just performative!" don't seem to understand how much narrative shaping via so-called "performative" acts does lead to concrete action when done consistently on a wide scale.

This is literally the mechanism by which propaganda works!

it’s like rainbow capitalism

does it mean the performance is sincere? no

is it an indication that we’re winning the cultural battle? yes

contrast this to a year ago when there was very little anti-Trump messaging in public from anyone in a position of power or influence

this is an big change and it does indicate his power over the elites - who have been much more deferential than society at large - is starting to wane

Melrose and La Brea is just a river right now.

A prominent Bluesky elder already hosts Jeopardy

Elana Meyers Taylor finally gets gold at age 41! she’s been a winter Olympian since 2010 and has three silver and two bronze medals already, I’m so thrilled for her

the day I realized I simply Do Not Have To Respond was one of the best days I’ve ever had online and it is a realization I highly recommend to everyone

there is a reason I don’t argue on here and basically don’t even discuss except with people I know are acting in good faith with me

if you enjoy the back and forth then by all means go for it but if at any point you catch yourself going “just one more well reasoned post and I’ve got them” put down the phone and go outside

you can, if you’re lucky, win over some of the people in the audience who don’t already have a strong opinion on the topic, but you will never change the mind of the person you’re debating with

you will especially never change the mind of random trolls or sea lions in your mentions

Elana Meyers Taylor holding up the American flag after winning her first gold medal. she's overcome with joy

Meyers Taylor said her children's disabilities — both of her sons are deaf and Nico has Down syndrome — have created some "unique challenges" on the road. Nico experiences sensory overload at times and becomes overwhelmed, she said. The boys don't particularly sleep well on planes and then there's keeping up with their specialized treatments and medical equipment while on tour."

"I thought it would get much easier as they got older and it has not," Meyers Taylor, 41, said at the USOPC media summit in October. "Bigger children, bigger problems. Now that they're both walking, they're both up. They don't want to sit on planes, they don't want to stay still. They don't want to sit for meals or anything like that. So it is absolute chaos."

Meyers Taylor hugging her two sons after winning the gold medal

Elana Meyers Taylor.
Wins medals in 4 Olympics (bronze in 2010, silver in 2014/18/22)
In 2020 & 2022, she has kids. Both have special needs. She lives on the road with them, flying around the world for months at a time to compete in bobsled.
And THEN! At 41! She wins her first gold.
American hero.

fully expecting Elon to start tweeting out random history facts for the next week

morpheus is fighting neo dot gif

all hail the queen of shade

look I don’t wish what happened to Ilia on anyone but I was able to move past it

but the short program is tomorrow and if anything like that happens to these three I’m going to walk into the ocean

I’m not even demanding medals so much as clean programs they’re happy with

Discworld QOTD, from Maskerade

“Nanny's philosophy of life was to do what seemed like a good idea at the time, and do it as hard as possible. It had never let her down.”

“they bought the puppy-killer a private jet, can’t be fixed” is a message anyone can work with

I’d love to get every single Democrat on board with “abolish ICE and dismantle DHS” but you’re going to need some votes from folks who don’t want to embrace that particular rhetoric and good news “there’s just too much corruption we’ve got to dismantle it to solve the problem” is sitting right there

as long as she keeps her hater energy focused on republicans she can do whatever she wants, it's when she gets annoyed by the progs that i find her irritating, but you take the good with the bad, i suppose

it really seems like “entered politics during the Trump era” is a dividing line among Dems, it’s hard to write all of this off as a game when one of your very first political experiences was a literal mob invading the capitol at the behest of some of your colleagues

she didn’t throw trans people under the bus and she thinks republicans are the scum of the earth and that’s good enough for me

I was initially not the biggest fan of Spanberger but it turns out she has the heart of a world class hater and that is 100% the kind of energy we need right now

Ironically, it's the same media-sphere that makes politicians like AOC, who are frequently taken out of context, hesitate and choose their words very carefully.

More so, by far, than those the media choose to do free cleanup for, and often.

The choice to not remove the vocal codas (um, ah) from transcriptions is a known Shit Thing To Do To Politicians by journalists and editors, to he extent it should be seen as bias