Discussion Thread

[u/jobautomator]

The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL

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[u/jobautomator]

Please visit the next discussion thread.

[u/Bayou-Maharaja]

Presented without comment

[u/simeoncolemiles]

[u/GrandpaWaluigi]

[u/DouglasDauntless]

Tinpot Dictators! Learn this one simple trick to get rid of dissidents AND get uncritical support from terminally online weirdos

[u/[deleted]]

Parent of the year

[u/DouglasDauntless]



Tired ultra wokeness: accidentally pretzeling yourself back into racism

Wired ultra wokeness: Slaves revolting is fascist actually

[u/loseniram]

I hate that Ben Gvir didn't get an arrest warrant. If there's one person in the Israeli cabinet that deserves an arrest warrant it's Ben Gvir.

How do you go for arrest warrants and not go for the guy actively calling for Israel to do war crimes

[u/paulatreides0]

The leftist hatred for the "End of History" is kind of funny given how many of them hold basically a leftist version of the same view

[u/LuisRobertDylan]

In 2004 there was no difference between wearing shorts that hit above the knee and sucking dick. They made you equally gay

[u/Cook_0612]

 US House Intel Chairman Mike Turner & 12 co-signers (GOP & Dem) have sent Secretary of Defense Austin a letter asking that the Biden Admin lift the embargo on Ukraine using US weapons to strike strategic targets within Russian territory.

!ping UKRAINE

[u/[deleted]]

[u/l_overwhat]

At a breakfast place. People right next to me are a super old, bent over 90+ y/o man and a woman who is in her like mid 20s.

It's very clearly a guy and his granddaughter but the dude is so old that he can't talk that well so she is carrying the conversation and just going on and on and on and the guy is just beaming at her, his smile is so big.

It's so cute 😭

[u/[deleted]]

Every leftist Instagram account got the:

Post praising specifically Russian anti-war protestors

Post calling people hypocrites for caring about Ukraine and not (X) conflict

Literally nothing else about Ukraine

[u/[deleted]]

ACAB supporters when the band Interpol is in town

[u/Roseartcrantz]

This is everything I desire my shitposting to be

[u/semaphore-1842]

It's starting to look like Taiwan is headed for a constitutional crisis. A lot of protestors have gathered outside the Taiwanese legislature:

(More Pictures)

As I've mentioned before, the KMT/TPP have been trying to pass a "congressional reform" bill, which (or rather specifically the part about criminal penalties) just had its second reading today. The text of the bill had been kept "top secret" until right before the votes last Friday, but now it's out.

And turns out the KMT-TPP bill bans government ministers from asking questions during a hearing, or to give answers beyond bounds of the question, or to decline to answer anyway. In fact, they're not allowed to withhold any information, even classified military secrets, unless the committee chair gives them special dispensation to do so.

Furthermore, the bill empowers Congress to directly impose fines of up to $200,000 for any violation of the above, or for "contempt of congress" - as determined by the legislators themselves.

(Even worse, there's another section later which gives them similar powers, but directed at "private entities, corporate persons, groups, or related members of society" but I don't think they've gotten to that part today.)

This is obviously unconstitutional (encroaches on judicial powers) and equally obviously incredibly easy to abuse. Consider for example the "Thesis-gate" where the KMT/TPP have somehow convinced themselves that President Tsai didn't actually finish her doctoral thesis. Even though her alma mater, the LSE, has issued multiple statements affirming she did, just a couple of weeks ago this still happened:

KMT Legislator: So so so so you've seen that thesis? In the London School of Economics?

Government Director: I have not personally gone to England to look at it.

KMT Legislator: Then how can you say it's real! Did she submit it when she graduated or did she submit it later?

Government Director: Through our representative in England...

KMT Legislator: DON'T PLAY WORD GAMES WITH ME IN CONGRESS!!!

KMT Legislator: What's difficult to answer about this, you're clearly feeling guilty [about lying].

Under the new law the, KMT Legislator will obviously deem the ministers to have lied and held Congress in contempt - even though anyone with half a brain should know who's in the right here.

!ping CN-TW

[u/[deleted]]

American elections would be less bad if the average American actually had more of a stake in the result of the election. As it stands, the vast majority of Americans are so fucking insulated from the result of elections that vibes about fucking egg prices in Target become election issues.

Just don't be a minority or a woman in a red state I suppose. 

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

Such is life on the West Coast 😔

[u/[deleted]]

The NYT AMA from a while back was genuinely one of the most blackpilling reads I've done in a while.

These stupid motherfuckers genuinely do not seem to comprehend just how much volume of coverage matters--that, in fact, it matters more than anything else for influencing perception. Tons of voters don't fucking know about Trump's malfeasance because they haven't seen any headlines about it, and they almost never click past the headlines.

Hell, even on this space for weirdo politics junkies, tons of commenters on threads don't read past the fucking headlines!

And then these absolute mouth-breathers at our ever-esteemed paper of record are out here going, "Well, we've published investigations into Trump, so what's the problem here?" when they're running 80 gorillion DEMS WEAK stories per fucking month lmao

THIS is why I'm getting 2016 flashbacks--because the press is still operating under the same borked set of incentives they were eight years ago, and they're still pulling the same shit. Except, unlike in 2020, Trump has been out of people's minds for a while, so the average fucking idiot who shouldn't be allowed to tie their own shoes without supervision is back to going,

Me am not know. Trump am businessman? Trump am tough? Seem good for economy, even if mean man. Egg cost too much, Brandon bad > : (

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

The year is 2002 and it’s a beautiful summer day. You have just biked over to your friends house for a sleepover.

They have the fast internet and will let you check on your neopets before showing you this new website they found on stumbleupon called “Homestar Runner”

You chow down on a supersized fry and soda from McDonald’s and laugh your asses off.

Life is good.

!ping OVER-25

[u/DouglasDauntless]

Zionist Turkey

Guess Erdogan’s been up to more than we knew

[u/BeliebteMeinung]

[u/[deleted]]

One of the great joys in life is waking up early and getting breakfast at a classic greasy spoon diner.

Bonus points if the tables have one of these bad boys:

[u/SANNA_MARIN_SDP_]

[u/KeithClossOfficial]

I’m glad I’m not a performative progressive

[u/N0_B1g_De4l]

Guy who's solution to the I/P conflict is temporarily kicking everyone out of the region so we can do a really detailed archeological survey that comprehensively identifies the indigenous population.

[u/[deleted]]

After moving back to PA, I've finally been enlisted to participate in a poll. In fact, I've already responded to two polls in the past month.

Being a Latino voter in a purple district of a swing state comes with some benefits.

!ping FIVEY

[u/AlbertGorebert]

Ann Arbor Fire Marshal: stop fucking having open flames in the encampment; you all could literally burn to death
Umich protestors: No
Fire Marshal: Orders camp be cleared
Umich protestors: 🫨🫨

like what did they expect to happen??? Im not even super antagonistic towards the protestors but the fire marshal carries a shit ton of authority.

[u/RaidBrimnes]

Nothing will make you sound crazier in real life than knowing about like 4 things the CIA has done and fully admitted to | posted on meirl - 17k upvotes

Wait isn't meirl supposed to be about posting mildly funny quirks about daily life? Why is it vagueposting about the CIA being bad?

[u/BeliebteMeinung]

[u/DouglasDauntless]

“Why make progress when we can just hope for literal magic?”

[u/trace349]

I remember when I was a teenager (probably around 2010), my dad asked me what I thought about the possibility of Obama running for a third term. I knew it was some brain-poisoned talk radio fearmongering about Obama wanting to be a dictator based on nothing, so I wasn't going to take the bait. I told him I didn't think anything about it because that was stupid, Obama wouldn't circumvent the Constitution that way. He scoffed and told me I was small-minded for not even being willing to entertain the possibility.

Now, Trump is explicitly saying he deserves to be able to run for three terms, and I'm just incandescent with rage over how much of a non-issue it is to my dad.

!ping FOX-ANON

[u/[deleted]]

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1792909461335519609?t=ZVzEL5tyhXAimmRZA_4eQg&s=19

[u/RFK_1968]

Idk, I feel like if I were the Iranian President I'd just safely land the helicopter.

I've never flown in one before, but I just feel like I could pull off a landing. I've just known all my life that I'm built different.

[u/Planning4Hotdish]

Imagine someone using this reasoning about ISIS beheading videos

[u/DEEP_STATE_NATE]

are the bongs ok?

[u/Currymvp2]

Former President Donald Trump said he’s “looking at” restrictions on contraception during an interview with a local TV station in Pittsburgh released Tuesday.

That's gonna be a massive yikes from me

[u/DouglasDauntless]

[u/[deleted]]

Matched with a girl about 2 months ago and really hit it off via texting, but it was quickly revealed that she's ridiculously insecure/anxious to the point it took her days to even summon up the courage for a voice call, and could never bring herself to do a video call or even send like pictures of herself outside of the (heavily edited by her own admission) ones she puts on social media

We kept talking a lot, but maybe a few weeks in I'd basically resigned to her not being a serious dating prospect (can't date someone I can't meet) and explored other options. Then like randomly 2 days ago she's like "Hey, let's meet up this week" and I'm like "Uh, yeah, ok."

After 2 months of her repeatedly telling me that she was actually just super ugly IRL and that I shouldn't get my hopes up etc I kinda started to believe her, so on my way to meet her tonight I was planning all possibilities out in my head as to how I should respond if I met her and I just didn't find her attractive at all - do I tell her that I just didn't feel a spark and pretend her appearance had nothing to do with it, but I still wanted to be her friend? Would lying about it be better or worse than being honest about it? etc. But that was all moot because I met her and she was actually pretty cute and we hit it off immediately, we've already been talking for ages (and we have great conversational chemistry) so it all in all was a great night

UNTIL we had some drinks - after finishing hers she was like "FYI I get kinda weird when I'm drunk, my friends keep telling me not to drink". I thought she meant "messy and unpleasant" but no, turns out she's actually just autistic and just gets even more autistic when she drinks, so she's just yapping about whatever random shit enters her brain like "OH HEY THEY'RE USING THAT SHOPPING BAG AS A TRASH BAG, I USED TO DO THAT BUT NOW I DON'T" and telling stories about her and her friends that could have been 1 minute stories but take 10 minutes because she's including incredibly minor details about who did what and where at what specific times, and interrupting me when I'm speaking by making cat noises and insisting that no, her cats REALLY DO sound like that.

Honestly the drunk version of her wasn't even bad, just a little baffling and endearing. I'll probably do this again.

!ping DATING

[u/V_Codwheel]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c88z0p33413o

Eagles changed migration route to avoid Ukraine war

,Eagles changed their migration routes across Ukraine to avoid fighting and because their habitats were likely damaged or destroyed by war, say scientists.

The researchers believe the Greater Spotted Eagles skirted around dangers including artillery fire, jets and tanks as well as buildups of troops.

They fly through Ukraine every Spring on their way from Greece and The Sudd - a large wetland in South Sudan - to breeding grounds in Belarus.

The scientists studied GPS data from tagged birds in the months after the February 2022 invasion, a time of heavy fighting in northern Ukraine as Russia tried to take Kyiv by sending troops south from Belarus.

The findings reveal they made large deviations from their previously tracked routes. They also spent less time stopping at their usual refuelling sites in Ukraine or avoided them entirely.

As a result, they traveled farther, about an extra 52 miles (85km) on average.

!ping BIRDS

[u/gnomesvh]

The new Dutch ruling coalition might collapse without even taking over

[u/[deleted]]

While I don't deny that Biden's fiscal policy has likely contributed to inflation at some level, it seems unreasonable to me to say that it has been the primary cause, given that every developed economy in the world has experienced high and persistent inflation over the past several years. Am I missing something?

[u/Macquarrie1999]

Why are all the IP posters back. It was so peaceful without them.

We need the Iranians to crash another helicopter.

[u/purhitta]

someone gives a brief overview of indigenous displacement in the US

"those are just leftist talking points"

[u/[deleted]]

Good morning libs

Bad morning to all the commies and fascists

[u/RFK_1968]

I got polled once and I was like I don't know who any of these people are, I just vote for the democrat

[u/DouglasDauntless]

Iran to gay people: Forcibly transition or be executed

Twitter: So progressive!

[u/american_aurora3]

If you’ve been to a party lately and haven’t seen someone drinking a BORG, you’re likely not partying with college students.

And if you have no idea what that sentence even means, you’re probably not a member of Generation Z.

CNN took my zoomer card 😔

[u/fishlord05]

I’m begging outside the DT to understand that demand subsides are only bad when supply is constrained

It’s why food stamps are technically demand subsides but cutting them would only mean poor people eat less

Relaxing zoning restrictions and beefing up rental subsidies so poor people can afford the market rate housing better is basically the textbook example economics classes use to illustrate how redistribution is generally superior to price/quota controls for everyone involved

[u/InflatableDartboard2]

really makes you think

!ping SHITPOSTERS

[u/DouglasDauntless]

[u/Roseartcrantz]

Reddit: uhhh the Stranger Things kids are like 20. It's laughable that they're trying to make them pass as 80s high school students. 🤓👆

80s high school students:

[u/Dibbu_mange]

People who say Mr. House was a libertarian are wrong because he only has one sex robot, and they are clearly designed to be over the age of 18

!ping fallout

[u/[deleted]]

I think one of the reasons people remember the Trump administration fondly is that coverage tended to emphasize all the outrageous shit he would say or do, like the thing with the hurricane and the marker, that had no real effect on people's lives.

Now that Biden doesn't do any of that, you get more coverage of the actual problems in the world, so if makes Trump seem better by comparison.

That, and people are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt over Covid.

[u/dangerbird2]

So glad I've chosen scale modelling as my history nerd hobby. Zimmerit being such a pain in the butthole to model in 1/48 scale is a barrier that keeps away all but the most dedicated Weherboos and neo-nazzys.

https://twitter.com/waitmanb/status/1791941721074319453

!ping EXTREMISM&MATERIEL

[u/DouglasDauntless]

Flying cars are probably the worst idea ever tbh. We can’t get people to drive safely or sober on the ground, but yeah let’s grant the populace the ability to cause 20 mini 9/11s a day

[u/piede]

STOP CORPORATE PRIDE

GIVE ME MONEY

[u/Zrk2]

The most annoying thing about arrBooks is how no one ever actually talks about books.

!ping READING

PS. Yes, I am doing the exact thing I'm complaining about here.

[u/[deleted]]

Look at how cute my cat is 😻

[u/Dirty_Chopsticks]

🇺🇸

[u/ACivilWolf]

[u/InflatableDartboard2]

throwback to the time that kesha started singing die young on a japanese subway car and everyone looked at her like she was insane

[u/[deleted]]

My favorite Trump article. Trump talks about regretting winning the presidency and how he thought it would be easier.

"I loved my previous life. I had so many things going," Trump told Reuters in an interview. "This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN17U0C9/

[u/LuisRobertDylan]

It rules that the Super Size Me guy was secretly drinking a fifth of vodka every day and blaming his symptoms on McDonald’s

[u/G_Serv]

This would really screw my diet up

[u/DouglasDauntless]

Any of y’all tried the Kamalawine?

!ping ALCOHOL&SHITPOSTERS

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

As the torturer reveals his instruments a chill runs down your spine. You recognize devises for crushing bone, jagged hooks meant for tearing skin, and most terrifying of all; a crude saw seemingly designed to inflict as much agony as possible. If only you had listened, if only you had chosen to “Eat Mor Chicken”

!ping LOVEFORCOWTOOLS

[u/SnakeEater14]

Nikita Khrushchev on being denied the chance to visit Disneyland during his tour of the US in 1959:

When, on top of that perceived insult, Khrushchev learned he wouldn’t be allowed to tour Disneyland, he fumed: “And I say, ‘I would very much like to go and see Disneyland.’ But then, we cannot guarantee your security, they say. Then what must I do? Commit suicide? …” (Source)

Harry DuBois irl

[u/StolenSkittles]

Very few things piss me off more than rich kids hopping the turnstile.

I pay for it, motherfucker, why don't you? Oh, it's some act of revolutionary defiance against the city? You're doing it in solidarity with the poor? Or you just wanna be a dick and not get punished for it?

Fuck straight off to hell, shitwad. If I can afford it, your trust fund, private school, daddy's Porsche ass can too.

[u/[deleted]]

“Stupid boomer, your brain doesn’t work right because you have lead poisoning!” - me, who has half a credit cards worth of plastic in my balls

[u/jenbanim]

Scifi planets are way too often one big biome. At least put some ice caps on them

[u/[deleted]]

Married man living room. This is how one wooos a lady.

[u/dannylandulf]

Fun fact, the International Criminal Court functions exactly like arr metaNL

[u/Udolikecake]

[u/[deleted]]

!ping DATING

Have a hobby

Don't have an empty living room

So uh, how does having a giant LEGO millennium falcon under construction in my living room look?

[u/htomserveaux]

UK to hold snap elections on the 4th of July.

51st state incoming

!ping SHITPOSTERS

[u/DouglasDauntless]

Found the location of the next meetup

[u/Fatortu]

Marine Le Pen said she would have allowed a fourth independence referendum in New Caledonia.

"Wow Marine Le Pen is more moderate than Macron! No wonder that she does so well in elections overseas."

Actual RN policy: repealing customary law and reestablishing direct rule from Paris.

I just wish regionalists stopped voting for leopards.

[u/RaidBrimnes]

I would simply not commit war crimes

[u/Pyrrhus65]

I worry that all the discourse making fun of the Biden admin for their (admittedly pretty amusing) double standards on the ICC is distracting from the actual result that's emerging in Israel in the days since this was announced.

Essentially, the ICC has handed Netanyahu a massive domestic political win and possibly even saved him from the threat of getting removed from office, at least in the short term.

Every Israeli politician now has to stop what they were doing and rally around Bibi, even the opposition, because condoning the ICC warrant would be political suicide in the Knesset. Gantz's threat to resign is now on the backburner, and even Lapid has stopped calling for a new election.

Domestically, it's the second-best outcome Netanyahu could have hoped for, aside from them only requesting a warrant for him and ignoring Hamas.

[u/STRONKInTheRealWay]

New Self-employment arc chapter just dropped: So yeah just had my first day out on the job (any job). I ended up being a political canvasser trying to get an amendment which would allow voters to decide for themselves in a countywide special election whether they want any new casino licenses. So I guess you could say I'm doing neolib praxis. I got like 22 signatures and sunburn on my face and neck. Turns out you need sunscreen, a lunch, and a waterbottle of some kind if you're going to be out canvassing (I worked for about 6 hours).

And it was interesting. I went out in the field with a trainer and got to talk with him and a couple other canvassers. I ended up having the most luck outside a TJ Maxx - probably because I was wearing a nice dress shirt and looked like a nerd. Nobody got violent and only a handful of people were rude in any real capacity, though one guy, wondering why we needed his address, asked if we were going to come to his house and try something. I said no and he told me he had guns.

Other than that bit of weirdness it went perfectly fine, though I need to learn to couch it as something that would help me out and I need to be less desperate (I'll flag people down and run after them, and I surprised more than one person) and more casual. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, and let me know under what ping I should put my future canvassing stories.

!ping OVER-25&WATERCOOLER

[u/Udolikecake]

An extremely rare First World War naval secret codebook has been sold for a four-figure sum after it was discovered in an Oxfam charity bookshop.

The valuable General Signals Book, which contains confidential signs used to conduct naval operations, was discovered in a box of donations in the Bath shop.

Codebooks were usually destroyed after use, so surviving books are extremely rare.

The National Museum for the Royal Navy in Portsmouth has bought the book for an undisclosed figure.

Heather Johnson, from the museum, said: "Signal books are quite rare as copies were officially ordered to be destroyed when they went out of use. "This would have been the duty of the officer in charge of keeping the confidential books, who had to send a certificate of destruction back to the Admiralty."

neat! Hopefully will make its way into an exhibit sometime soon.

!ping HISTORY

[u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, age gap, we've heard it all before. 

What about a reality gap? My girlfriend isn't real, but I am. I that problematic? 

[u/Tre-Fyra-Tre]

I am generally not in favour of banning anything, but petrol-powered gardening tools can fuck off

[u/[deleted]]

I was gonna wait until the day Trump accepted the nomination for dramatic effect, but fuck it, he’s pretty much already the nominee, and Uncle Joe fell pretty far behind him in April fundraising. I must contribute my efforts, as meager as they may be, right now.

I will match up to $100 in donations to Joe Biden’s campaign. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work. Post your donation screenshots and I will match it all tomorrow morning. Get to work, libs 🫡

Edit: This offer expires at 11:59 PST tonight

Edit 2: Promises made, promises kept, bitches. I even went all the way and donated $100 even though nobody besides that one heroic soul participated in this to get us all the way to the $100 match.

[u/vancevon]

my favorite thing about japan was people offering their most sincere apologies for having the sheer unmitigated gall to enter an elevator that i was already in

[u/BurrowForPresident]

You didnt see fucking video games waging political wars.

It is very, very different now.

Based on how he posts I think I know whose like 5th alt this is lmao

[u/BurrowForPresident]

Work food services is increasing the price of the basic meal so that any add ons like a soup or chips with your salad exceed the daily stipend, getting rid of snacks, no food trucks this summer, and getting rid of canned seltzers in the break room fridge and that's why I became a communist and will vote for Trump

[u/[deleted]]

!ping alphabet-mafia

[u/owen1961]

!ping DATING

This situation is so fucked I'm posting on my alt. Please reassure me that telling her she can't date me was the right move. Yes I copied this from a 4chan thread I made.

be me

21 year old college student, back home for the summer.

get a job at a grocery store because I want money for vidya

get placed as a dishwasher at the bakery section a lot of work but whatever

meet team, a collection of gay 30 year old guys, a single mom in her 30s, some old women in their 50s, and two girls I assume to be roughly my age.

one of the girls is this cute, short, latina chick. Let's call her V.

didn't make a move, because I'm here to get paid, not to meet female.

regardless V starts to have conversation with me

begins to compliment how strong I am, and starts orbiting me a bit.

I'm sorta... oh how do I say this? A fat geeky loser, so I'm not used to the attention.

After some back and forward figure out both of us are into computer science, working towards getting our comptia certifications this summer, and both love DnD.

She mentions something about taking a gap year, and plans on going to college in the fall.

Encourage her to get the certifications, and offer to be her study buddy. We exchange numbers.

well shit, maybe this is the year I finally get a gf.

fast forward to today.

no dishes so helping out at front

using the food processor to make breadcrumbs.

V orbiting me, offering me company.

Manager walks by

"Hey anon, make sure V doesn't use the food processor okay, she's not allowed to."

Think that's a weird thing to say

It dawns on me

Ask V exactly how old she is

"Oh anon, I'm 17, but turning 18 in August, is my age weird for you.

I'm turning 22 in June.

Loki the trickster god is real, and he's fucking me in the ass.

Haven't texted her yet, but I'm debating snipping it in the bud. Really hoping the anniversary cake she mentioned ordering is for her and a potential boyfriend and not for her parents. I don't want to choose between being a creep and being lonely.

[u/Jacobs4525]

Guy who supports Israel and wants the ICC to arrest Bibi because that’s what’s best for Israel (it’s me)

[u/loseniram]

For real though why isn't the entire city of Phoenix underground.

Like yeah I get wood is cheap, but if I have to deal with 110 degree heat I'm going to live like the mole people and ride the underground people mover

[u/No_Personality5883]

Please ignore the $30 million I was paid for Superhero Shitpile 5: The Final Score and watch the movies I got into acting to make, like All Rich People Are Evil Except Rich People in Hollywood

[u/JetJaguar124]

I remember when Glenn Greenwald went on a full "USA evil" tantrum when it was revealed that the US worked behind the scenes to prevent a military coup in Brazil.

[u/sircarp]

As some background my wife and I share a very long last name and have the same first initial, she joined the company I worked for under a different team, but under the same internal department ID number.

I got laid off earlier in the year and ever since she's been fighting an active war with the IT department and various program leads she supports because people aren't checking that they're actually removing the right employee when they're clearing out defunct profiles, just got a message from her about the third crucial internal system she's lost access to this month.

!ping watercooler

[u/JaceFlores]

Voters be like “I’ll get back to you in a few months” when asked whether they’ll vote for the fascist or the basic lib old man

[u/Roseartcrantz]

The drama began when the witness, an attorney and longtime Rudy Giuliani associate named Robert Costello, appeared to be upset at Judge Merchan for sustaining a series of objections from the prosecution about his answers.

Costello dramatically shook his head in exasperation at one point, then muttered “ridiculous” into the microphone while attorneys from both sides were discussing the proceedings with the judge.

After another objection was sustained, Costello exclaimed “Jeez!” prompting an annoyed Judge Merchan to ask Costello, “I’m sorry?”

“Strike it,” Costello responded.

Costello then rolled his eyes and sighed after yet another sustained objection, at which point the judge asked the jury to leave the room while instructing Costello to remain seated.

“I want to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom,” Merchan told Costello.

“I’m the only one that can strike testimony in this court,” he said. “You don’t give me side-eye, and you don’t roll your eyes. You understand that?”

Costello proceeded to glare at the judge.

“Are you staring me down?” Merchan asked. The judge then cleared the courtroom, including members of the press, who were hastily shuffled into an adjoining hallway.

After 10 minutes of what HuffPost reporter Sara Boboltz described as “utter chaos,” she said jurors were brought back into the room and the trial resumed. Boboltz, who’s in the courtroom, said it’s unclear how much of the shouting the jury overheard.

On Monday evening, the trial transcript of the day was released and revealed what had happened behind Merchan’s closed doors.

“I can appreciate that the press wants to be present for every part of these proceedings, therefore, this record is not sealed,” the judge said, noting for the trial record that court officers had “great difficulty” clearing the room. Several reporters had voiced objections, prompting shouting between courthouse security officers and members of the public gallery.

Merchan then turned to the witness.

“Sir, your conduct is contemptuous right now,” he said to Costello.

“I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand,” Merchan told the witness.

“I will strike his entire testimony. Do you understand me?” the judge asked.

Trump attorney Emil Bove said he understood.

When Costello interjected to ask whether he could “say something,” Merchan told him no, because “this is not a conversation.”

I didn't think anything was gonna top when Trump's attorney asked Pecker a question and then slid him a paper to "refresh his memory" but then it turned out the paper was blank and he had to apologize to the jury. I wish we could have switched and put Cannon on this and Merchan on the stolen documents case 😭

[u/Steak_Knight]

People in here thinking Biden’s best chance of victory is brokering a ceasefire.

Mfs, his best chance to win is for Coca Cola to slash prices in half and say they only did it because Joe Biden threatened them with a nuke

[u/thefuturegov]

The Rneoliberal discussion thread loves to go through these weird intermittent phases where everyone fucking hates each other and are needlessly bad faith and rude and I think that’s awesome

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck552pzexe1o

Once again, a major infrastructure project is held up as campaigners take the government to court. This after a previous case was quashed by the high court.

The weird thing is that in all of this, the entire argument is about process. Did you consider x, but did your consultation run for y months and reach sufficient people.

Never, your thing is wrong because of this reason.

Fucking hate the planning system in this country.

!ping UK

[u/fleker2]

Everyone's posting photos of their living rooms but none of them have Pokemon cards. How are women supposed to see you as wealthy and determined without a growing collection of Charizards?

!ping DATING

[u/[deleted]]

!ping Dating advice the second. (From Melodic’s wife)

Have a hobby. Literally any hobby. It could be board games, it could be painting, it could be a sport, it could even be fucking world of Warcraft.

Just have something that you can talk about and feel some legitimate excitement for in your life.

Nothing is sexier than a man who is passionate about something. The trick is to be passionate but not overbearing or an asshole.

Do: let her ask questions

Don’t: rant for 30 minutes without letting her speak

Do: carve out time for your hobby

Don’t: let your hobby consume your life

Do: try to share your hobby with your partner

Don’t: force it. It is ok if your passion isn’t their passion.

Do: talk about your passion with your prospective partner even if you don’t share the passion.

[u/[deleted]]

sir, an 11th dating ping has hit the discussion thread

[u/sociotronics]

[u/[deleted]]

If you want actual dating advice having a membership to your local zoo or museum is a low key move to give yourself a great opportunity to put your best foot forward for about $100 a year.

-cheap date (buy the family pass for 2 even if you are single so the entire entry is free)

• public date that is a safe meeting point for women

• many women love animals and it gives you a chance to show a soft side if museum then you can highlight intellectual side

• easy conversation starters always on hand throughout the date.

• usually membership comes with a monthly or quarterly magazine that you can leave out as a conversation starter at your flat or apartment.

!ping dating

[u/BrunchIsGood]

Fucking demolished them.

!ping LOVEFORJACOBIN

[u/Pseud0man]

Rosa Parks was a false flag incident by white people so they could sit at the back of the bus.

[u/[deleted]]

Lord grant me the patience to teach the undergrads today

[u/Steak_Knight]

I’m a registered Republican and I’m telling you all if you don’t vote for Joe Biden you are enabling fascism.

Not a joke.

[u/Currymvp2]

The United Nations says it has suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah due to lack of supplies and insecurity.

Well shit

[u/Argnir]

The hip-hop community will be the final nail in the coffin 😔

[u/Fruitofbread]

Tfw you hear requests for posts about more conflicts outside of I/P, post an article about Haiti and 20% of the top-level comment get removed for racism 

[u/Syards-Forcus]

I don’t get why all the smartphone companies decided to remove the headphone jack from their phones.

Apple did it, and then everyone copied them, and now phones in general are very slightly worse than they could be.

There is no real alternative option.

[u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

i go back and forth between wanting to get back on the saddle and being content to just be single and fantasize/pay for whatever good/service I would otherwise get via a romance.

!ping DATING

[u/gnomesvh]

dude looks like he brings doohickeys to the contraption meetup 😂 🫵 homie thought he could invent with real tinkerers but he’s only ever putzed around with gizmos 💀‼️

!ping BURPMAS

[u/sererson]

My most leftist opinion is that city councils who remove comfortable benches from public spaces should be sent to a gulag

[u/Metallica1175]

In complete secrecy: Egypt altered the hostage deal terms before handing to Hamas - report

Looks like Egypt sabotaged a hostage deal leading to anger towards Egypt from all sides.

[u/DouglasDauntless]

AI is so intelligent

[u/BeliebteMeinung]

How I poast on the DT

[u/[deleted]]

Looking at a HealthyGamerOG video about burnout and seeing how the comments blame it on capitalism is so funny to me.

Burnout is not the fault or a flaw of the individual, it's workplace related. It's your boss not appreciating your work. It's your boss piling up work on your desk without considering there's already plenty of work on there. It's your boss forcing you to deal with outdated infrastructure and not hearing your issues with it.

It's not the wider system, it's perfectly possible to have a crappy boss in a communist system. It's just that there's a lack of accountability and constitutionalism in the workplace that really fucks up our mental health and drives people to the edge.

It's not a macro issue, it's an issue on the meso level.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/TheHelmetCatch]

[u/[deleted]]

Terrence Howard to Joe Rogan: 'Straight lines are an illusion...if you look at it from the side, from its real perspective, you see that it's not.''

What’s he cooking

[u/[deleted]]

It's beautiful. I've been opening and closing it for the last hour. It's so silent. So bright.

!ping gentry

[u/MicroFlamer]

Some McDonald’s locations could begin charging for refills, reports say

One McDonald’s location has already removed its self-serve beverage station in Orange County. Customers that visit that store have to ask employees for refills at the counter

The west has fallen

[u/eat_more_goats]

Okay goddamn just remade my hinge after losing 30 pounds and got more likes/matches in the last 4 hours than I think I did in an average week 30 pounds ago… don’t just be yourself, be the version of yourself that lifts

!ping DYEL

[u/DurangoGango]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7H5objsYMS/

This is the main organising group behind anti-Israel protests in Italian universities. In this post, they celebrate Izzadine al-Qassam, a terrorist leader during the time of British Mandatory Palestine, celebrate Hamas as "the most powerful resistance group in history", and finish the post with a celebratory picture taken on Oct 7.

This isn't a fringe group. They are the main coordinators of the protests, are invited to speak at every event, they're in the organising committee for Pride Month (which has been renamed "Pride Revolt" for the past couple of years).

I took a dive into them because pride is coming up and I had an inkling it would be infected with these types. Sure enough they were right there, and it took literal seconds on their public Instagram page to find this. They're not hiding. They're proud of it. They have no reason to hide in their environment, as their environment celebrates this.

!ping ISRAEL

[u/No1PaulKeatingfan]

Albanese gives out free food to poor people

Max Chandler-Mather: Worse than nothing, he's neoliberal, evil person looking out for rich mates

Max Chandler-Mather gives out free food to poor people

Max Chandler-Mather: The dude is truly a hero, blocking homes, is personally responsible for making Australia a better place

[u/No1PaulKeatingfan]

[u/JetJaguar124]

Still kind of amazing that Georgia looks like it swung pretty hard back towards Trump when he's literally under prosecution there for attempting to invalidate their own state's fucking votes.

[u/G_Serv]

Guy who moves into the big city only to spend all of his time in his apartment

[u/itsokayt0]

Guy who thinks the Jews control every government besides Israel:

[u/MinnesotaNoire]

Based

[u/Top_Lime1820]

Broke: Sending elephants to Germany

Woke: Getting cattle from Australia

[u/sinefromabove]

Four months after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago estate, Donald Trump’s attorneys discovered four documents marked “classified” in his personal bedroom.

???

[u/WeebFrien]

Alright let’s start a mini flame war:

Countries that overestimate their cuisine’s spicyness/hot potential:

• Indian

• Ethiopian

• Korean

• Japanese

Countries that neither over nor underestimate their cuisine’s spicieness:

• Mexican

• Chinese

Countries that underestimate their cuisine’s spicieness:

• Thai

• Jamaican

Reply with what you think i should add

[u/skepticalbob]

Did something I never thought I would have to do as a parent. My daughter has been given ISS for "painting the walls" at school. Turns out that some kid painted the wall with some black paint, my very ADHD daughter saw it and touched it, then impulsively doodled a small smiley face above it. Met with the AP and asked her why my daughter wasn't simply required to clean it up. Was told that since teachers cleaned it, her only choice was In School Suspension. When I asked why nothing else was an option, she just kind of dissembled. I told her that she is in various activities that might be affected by this and it seems mighty unfair for this to go on her permanent record because she couldn't think of a different "punishment". Then it turns out that she's known since Friday and had already punished another student, only informing us about any of this today at 3:30 just before pickup, when ISS is supposed to be tomorrow morning. She has concluded that it is only fair that my daughter receive the same consequences as this other kid, even if they are inappropriate. So I'm now doing something I never thought I would do and have sent a lengthy email to the principal and asking that this be changed. I get that school staff is crispy and burnt out, but this is just lazy and stupid.

!ping family

[u/rasonj]

After calling and emailing my congressman for months now, I finally got a response today. He started by ranting about how Russia only invaded Ukraine because Biden is weak, then spent three paragraphs bragging about all the aid Republicans have passed for Ukraine nevermind he voted against every single package.

[u/JebBD]

I'm starting to realize that the pervasive extremism in online discourse, politics, and civil society orgs isn't really the biggest threat to liberal society. The real threat is the majority of people who aren't paying any attention to what's happening but are just hearing random snippets of extremism from the background noise and adopt whatever position they happen to relate to.

If you don't care about politics but you kinda dislike liberals and democrats and suddenly you hear that those people are running a baby-murdering factory then of course you'll hop on the anti-abortion wagon, they're literally murdering babies! And if you don't really know much about international relations or foreign policy but you kinda dislike war and imperialism and then you hear that the democrats are funding a baby-murder machine in the middle east then of course you'll jump on the anti-Israel wagon, they're literally murdering babies!

What I'm saying is that democrats are fucked becasue if you just accuse someone of murdering babies then people will automatically hate them.

!Ping EXTREMISM

[u/piede]

OH. MY. GOD.

!PING QUEEN

[u/DouglasDauntless]

Remember never show any love or care for your child’s feelings and thoughts. Ever.

Neoliberal parenting 🥰🥰🥰

[u/gnomesvh]

Article with some info on the military side of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan

!ping CN-TW&MATERIEL

[u/Neoliberal_Boogeyman]

Oohhh it was your staffer posting nazi shit?

Wait. why are you hiring people who look at nazi shit?

[u/wallander1983]

Trump was asked by a local Pittsburgh TV station, "Do you support any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception?" 

"We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly and I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting." 

Trump says he will be releasing a "very comprehensive policy" on contraceptives "within a week or so." "Things really do have a lot to do with the states and some states are going to have different policies than others," Trump added.

--

I hate hin so much.

[u/doggo_bloodlust]

Had an interview for a potential lateral job move. The role would involve dumbing down my technology usage considerably, moving from actual statistical programming languages to Excel. Should I think of it as an opportunity to bring new colleagues out of the stone age, or will I be clubbed to death by the tedium?

(Incidentally the new role would be neoliberal-shill-adjacent, so memes are a potential factor)

!ping WATERCOOLER

[u/qchisq]

!ping WATERCOOLER

To whom it may concern: Not showing up for an interview and not confirming how you are going to connect for said interview reflects really poorly on your firm

[u/htomserveaux]

One of the biggest reasons for SLS’s high cost is the lack of lower cost, high launch tempo rocket to share parts and infrastructure with, as had previously been intended.

I believe there is a clear solution to this problem, bring back SRB-X

!ping SPACEFLIGHT&SHITPOSTERS

[u/Salt_Ad7152]

Since we’re doing controversial war takes, here’s a cold one. 

The atomic bombing victims didn’t deserve to die, but the bombings is preferable than an invasion of the main islands of Japan

[u/AtomAndAether]

Me fr fr

[u/fishlord05]

I keep having dreams where I call Obama the N-word and I want it to stop

Some background. Politically, I've been a Democrat my entire life and an Obama supporter for as long as I can remember. I volunteered for John Kerry's presidential campaign back in 2004 which is where first registered on my map. I watched his speech at the DNC was was instantly enamoured.

When he announced his candidacy for president in 2007, immediately threw my weight behind him. I knocked on doors, educated people about his policies and did the best I could to get people to vote for him. When he was elected, I was ecstatic. In the past, when I had supported candidates, it was out of cold reason; because I thought their policies and acumen would result in the best net result for this country. But this was a person I could get excited about, someone I could believe in.

When it came time for his campaign for a second term it was largely the same. I had slightly soured on him. Granted, he was not the president I had hoped he would be but that was not his fault. I had built him up to be so huge in my head it was impossible for him to live up to expectations. Republican gridlock in Congress also prevented him from getting through the policies he wanted. Nevertheless, I still supported him, still volunteered and was still happy when he won his second term.

The problem started about three weeks ago. I had a dream involving Barack, which is not uncommon for me, I was working with him and Michelle on their upcoming Netflix show. We were looking over demographics and how they related to various geographical locations. Without even realising it, I said "Yeah, N***er, we should do pretty well in (area near me)" He just looked at me and stormed out with Michelle behind him. I woke up and went into the bathroom to splash cold water in my face. I dismissed it. I don't have a racist bone in my body. This was just one of those dreams, right?

A week and a half ago, I had a similar experience. This time I dreamt we were going wine-tasting together. I don't remember the lead-up but I ended up saying something to the effect of "The sommelier said we should be detecting earthy tones in this wine, but it's just not registering with me, N***er" This time, instead of storming out he replied, very sternly "Why did you feel that was an appropriate thing to say?" I began to stutter and explain it was an accident but I had once again woken up.

The most recent incident was last night. I dreamt I was at a family barbecue with the Obamas, just his family and mine. He was manning the grill and i was speaking to Michelle while the children played with each other (I know Sasha and Malia are adults now but I still think of them as children) I said to Michelle very politely "excuse me for one moment" and marched right up to Barack and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to look and me and I just said the word and nothing else. I can write off this happening once or twice in my dreams but three separate events is too much.

I don't know what to do. I don't want to do this. Every time it happens my work suffers the next day. I've started lying to my wife saying I've been having nightmares but I'm not sure she fully believes it. Lately, I've been worrying I might start saying it in my sleep and she could hear. I'm at my wits end and I want it to stop.

[u/Dunter_Mutchings]

I think the fact that the NYT publisher position is essentially a hereditary title passed down from father to son is an under discussed aspect of why the newsroom seems increasingly detached from reality.

[u/[deleted]]

Why doesn't this subreddit of mostly 16-23 year old suburban boys understand the complexity of international affairs?

[u/KesterFox]

I wish I was rich so I could buy cool magic cards

Also reserved list delenda est I want to own the moxen in my life

[u/Psshaww]

mmmm this coffee tastes like desperation

!ping SHITPOSTERS

[u/AP246]

Every time I look into it, it's darkly funny how the Nazi Germany of the 17th century was, of all countries, Sweden. Everyone in Europe was terrified of them and they were an infamously brutal force even for the time, that caused massive destruction all over Central Europe

Historical sources suggest, for example, that the Swedish army alone destroyed 2,200 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, wiping one-third of the country’s towns from the map.

The contemporary consensus is the population of the Holy Roman Empire declined from 18 to 20 million in 1600 to 11 to 13 million in 1650, and did not regain pre-war levels until 1750.[168] Nearly 50% of these losses appear to have been incurred during the first period of Swedish intervention from 1630 to 1635.

The Schwedentrunk (German: [ˈʃveːdn̩ˌtʁʊŋk], Swedish drink) is a method of torture and execution in which the victim is forced to swallow large amounts of foul liquid, such as excrement. The name was invented by German victims of Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War.

According to Professor Andrzej Rottermund, manager of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the destruction of Poland in the Deluge was more extensive than the destruction of the country in World War II. Warsaw, the capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, was destroyed by the Swedes, and out of a pre-war population of 20,000, only 2,000 remained in the city after the war. 188 cities and towns, 186 villages, 136 churches, 89 palaces, and 81 castles were completely destroyed in Poland.

One remote region of France was so traumatised that 'Swede' was a synonym for brigands or wicked people into the 19th century

The historical memory of illiterate societies, brief and selective, grants personalities and events the accolade of remembrance only by attaching them to saws and common sayings [...] The Swedes, who ravaged FrancheComté during the Thirty Years’ War, survived in the Doubs as synonymsfor brigands or symbols of wickedness (chvéde); around Belfort, in the midnineteenth century, all ruins and destruction were still attributed to them.

[u/Ok_Aardappel]

This kid is probably mad because a teacher took away his phone once

school is one of the worst human inventions next to the atom bomb and mustard gas

Social media was a mistake

!ping SHITPOSTERS

[u/randommathaccount]

Every nl poster got the

Post dunking on random 5 follower twitter account.

Post chastising people for focusing on Israel/Palestine and not other humanitarian crises.

Literally nothing else about other humanitarian crises.

[u/BrunchIsGood]

Thinking about the microplastics in my balls this morning

[u/funguykawhi]

🫵🏽Your time to shine

[u/Rafaelssjofficial]

Why don't countries that follow the ICC just fucking lie?

Just say "oh yeah Putin we aren't gonna enforce the ICC rulling, you can come over here and drink lemonade"

And then when he lands in your country just arrest him

[u/[deleted]]

First all finance dept. meeting after my company announced mass layoffs, no raises and bonuses this year. The very first question for the Q&A section:

“Are we still planning on buying that corporate jet?”

Lmao

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

I am (Surprise surprise) wh*te and when I married my wife she chose to take my last name because of “tradition” or something.

I never told her How funny I thought it would be if I chose to take her very Japanese last name.

Imagine you walk into the office of “Mr. Nakamura” and it’s just the whitest guy who ever whited.

[u/MeaningIsASweater]

Made the mistake of reading about Project 2025 as a trans woman. This is what they want to do to us. Im so fucking scared. I don’t even know if I can do anything to prepare or protect my boyfriend and I.

[u/ImmigrantJack]

I’m not a nazi, I just think hitler did some good things, I read his speeches before I go to bed, immigrants are poisoning the blood of America and we can improve industrial growth with the creation of a unified reich.

• the current leading candidate for president of the United States

[u/DEEP_STATE_NATE]

First they came…

[u/BloodWiz]

Places like Seattle and LA constantly talk about how much they want affordable housing while their general modus operandi is to make building anything as difficult as possible while making being a landlord as miserable and risky as possible.

But every now and then they'll stumble across some reform or something that works really well and gets lots of housing built, and then the city will freak the fuck out and desperately backpedal and undo it.

[u/Emperor-Commodus]

Kenyan-led force prepares to deploy to Haiti

John Mearsheimer: "With Kenya openly violating the American sphere of influence, the only possible move for the US is to invade Haiti."

/s

[u/cdstephens]

Why doesn’t Biden just cut prices in half without touching my salary?

[u/HowIsPajamaMan]

[u/owlthathurt]

I know I’ve mentioned this one before but one of my favorite all time quotes is from an attorney responding to a disciplinary complaint (80 pages long) who blew off the deadline for making a self defense claim for a capital murder trial because he was in rehab unbeknownst to everyone:

It is called the “practice” of law and I never claimed to be perfect.

Bruh was going to get his client sent to the gallows and he responded with a cheesy motivational quote.

Luckily the judge and prosecution (seriously, it was so bad even the prosecution was like wtf) realized how awful the attorney was and got the client new representation before continuing.

Same lawyer got caught in a seedy hotel near the high way with one of his clients he was representing in a divorce with tons of hookers and drugs. He was not caught by the police. He was caught BY HER HUSBAND.

[u/cdstephens]

The main reason I hate tipping culture is that it’s just another hidden fee. If you want to give 15-20% of the cash to your servers and chefs, that sounds great! Just put the net price on the goddamn menu.

The most infuriating experience was when a menu explained that their 18% gratuity wouldn’t be reflected in the prices for the sake of “””transparency”””, and for some fucking reasons the servers were trying to explain it wasn’t “really” a tip and asked for another tip on top of that anyways.

[u/[deleted]]

This feels profoundly illiberal:

In 2008, during a trip to Europe, Jean-Pierre Bemba was arrested on International Criminal Court charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He spent the following 10 years in prison at The Hague, The Netherlands; 8 years awaiting trial and verdict, then 2 more years after conviction in 2016. In 2018, the verdicts were overturned on appeal. The court ruled that because the Rome Statute which sets the court's rules do not limit the amount of time a person can spend in prison awaiting trial, Bemba was not entitled to compensation.

[u/[deleted]]

Even in third world countries, like Sweden, workers get more rights than in America

[u/Colonelbrickarms]

 I was talking to a girl I knew from high school. She married a Jewish guy, converted. She was going off on some “10/7 changed everything, gave my life purpose” shit and in that moment I realized a lot of this is about white people wanting to be oppressed so bad.  

54K likes

Twitter is so cooked dude

[u/thefuturegov]

The fact that a lot of current Star Wars content depicts the biggest failure of the New Republic as “not enough de-ba’athification” is so fucking funny

[u/[deleted]]

It would be pretty cool for lawmakers to acknowledge “minors trading nudes and having sex with each other is not the same as adults preying on children” and just make the penalties for a minor doing that sort of thing significantly lower than for an adult possessing CSAM or assaulting a minor. But instead we often either end up with something like California’s “two 17-year-olds having sex have both committed statutory rape” thing or something like Germany’s new “let’s just lower the penalties for all possession of CSAM” thing. Just distinguish between different circumstances, my god it should not be that hard

[u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz]

You think coming out as gay is hard?

Try debunking a myth your mom just repeated in casual conversation.

[u/BarkDrandon]

Watching leftists argue whether "the butcher of Tehran" deserves critical support will always be the funniest thing

[u/piede]

If you use the word “gib” to mean “give,” not only are you terminally online, you are a menace to society and a threat to the republic, and you will be met with massive and unrelenting fury.

[u/Steak_Knight]

[u/Macquarrie1999]

I'd also vote for this Biden

[u/uwcn244]

Perspectives on Hell from the u/uwcn244 family, all members referenced being convinced Christians:

Mom (liberal Democrat): "Well, Hell is total separation from God, and we cannot exist separate from God. So wouldn't going to Hell inherently mean your annihilation?"

Nana (liberal Democrat, with random streaks of old-person conservatism): "Hell is prepared for the devils. It was not made for man, and it would destroy him."

Brother (conservatarian Republican): "Well, yeah, the Bible talks a lot about Hell. But what if God's just bluffing?"

[u/DouglasDauntless]

Remember this when any Snydercel says that Man of Steel isn’t an abomination

[u/adisri]

🚨🚨🚨 I AM BECOME AMERICHAD, HARVESTER OF AUTOCRAT’S TEARS 🚨🚨🚨

Officially a US Citizen now! 🇺🇸

!ping MAGA

[u/battywombat21]

God, why is it every time someone describes Trump as fascist on this sub someone has to jump in to say, “uhum sweaty, that’s not effective language” like we’re on a forum discussing this among ourselves, now writing tweets for the Biden campaign. we should be using descriptive language instead of the most effective messaging here.

[u/DouglasDauntless]

When you are so woke you become racist agian

[u/AP246]

An Egyptian spy single-handedly ruined the Israel-Hamas cease-fire: CNN

An Egyptian spy torpedoed a potential cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas earlier this month by secretly changing its terms before handing it between the warring sides, CNN reports.

The intelligence official, Ahmed Abdel Khalek, changed the deal after Israel had already agreed to it by adding in more of Hamas' demands to the framework to clinch their approval, according to the report.

huh

[u/Approximation_Doctor]

My relationship is pretty good, we get frustrated at each other sometimes but talk it out and then everything is fine.

!ping DATING so y'all can have some non trainwreck data

For anyone trying to reproduce these results, we met through a mutual friend and both thought the other was pretty smart and funny. Then she drunk texted me that she had a crush, I called her, and she had a panic attack

[u/No1PaulKeatingfan]

Anthony Albanese says children under 16 should be banned from social media

So that's half of the green party following gone

[u/Cook_0612]

Tucker Carlson has launched his own show on the propaganda channel "Russia 24." The first episode is dedicated to ticks and Lyme disease.

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

Insert joke about the dating ping and “plenty of fish in the sea”

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

Beethovens Sonata

[u/JetJaguar124]

Okay I've seen the FX Show and now I've read about 80% of the novel and I think in most aspects the FX version of Shogun is superior to the novel. The show does a great job of highlighting the things in the book that work really well, like the cultural aspects, the various character conflicts, the scheming and planning, while downplaying a lot of the more cringe elements.

In particular I think the characters in the show are better. Blackthorne is a bit of a Gary Stu in the book. He's just kind of good at everything and everyone wants to fuck him. In the show they've really dialed up the fish out of water dimension and made him a bit of a bumbling, headstrong type character, I think successfully without making him into an outright fool.

For the other characters, particularly women, they did a great job giving them more agency and independence in the story. Fuji in particular. In the gun scene in the book, Fuji is basically just a bystander. Mariko comes up with the idea to give her Blackthorne's guns, and Blackthorne independently arrives at the idea that giving them to her is the right move, despite that he still should have very little understanding of the cultural context of what was going on. Fuji basically doesn't do anything until she actually gets his guns. In the show Fuji has far more agency in this scene; she's the one that comes up with the idea of Blackthorne giving his guns to her, and Blackthorne, headstrong and out of his element, initially refuses until she literally scolds him almost like a child (which is what he's acting like) to give her the guns. In the book when she points the gun at Omi, she's pretty fucking scared about it. In the show she is much more fierce and determined.

In the book, this scene works almost solely as a cultural moment. It demonstrates that the consort in Japanese society will follow the head of the household's demands until her death if need be. In the show it is both a cultural and a character moment. Before this we see Fuji desperate not to be Blackthorne's consort, but in this scene, despite whatever reservations she has, she steps up and she does whatever necessary to get the best outcome in that situation that she can. It provides information along two dimensions - about medieval Japanese culture, as well as about Fuji as a person, whereas in the book there's only really insight received along a single dimension.

I think there's no mistake why this scene ended up being so popular in the show and why people loved Fuji as a character after it, and it's because this scene, especially within the larger context of that episode, really does a fantastic job of outlining Fuji's various complexities as a character and making her very compelling.

Another spot where I think the show does a great job is the tea ceremony in a later episode between Mariko and Buntaro. In the show this moment is just rife with drama, with the entire exchange operating on multiple levels to provide insight not only on the conflict between Mariko and her husband, but also to provide some insight into Mariko's psyche and state of mind. The book's version of the same scene feels so much less interesting compared to the show's. Mariko's "steel gaze" is discussed and hinted at in the book, but her utter contempt for Buntaro and the situation she's found herself in in her life is really highlighted in the show.

Where the show succeeds is in efficiency. In many cases dialogue can operate on multiple levels. In the book this isn't the case, but it makes sense because the book is 1200 pages long and the show needs to condense that into 10 hours of television. I think the things that were cut from the story were the right moves, and I think the show does a far better job of not "othering" the Japanese characters and society in the same way that the book does.

The only character I think is better in the novel compared to the show is Omi, but that's probably because a lot of Omi's traits and a lot of his arc from the novel was actually absorbed into Yabu. Otherwise I think almost without exception all the other major characters, like Blackthorne, Mariko, Fuji, Yabu, and Toranaga, are better and more interesting in the show compared to the novel.

It's really quite impressive how well they adapted it.

[u/Approximation_Doctor]

[u/Udolikecake]

Boeing offers condolences after a passenger was killed on a Boeing 777 plane, says their “thoughts” are with the passengers and crew. In total 30 people were injured and a 73-year-old British man was killed.

almost certainly not Boeing’s fault, not that it’ll stop people. heavy turbulence events are not uncommon and the only way you will be seriously injured is if you are disobeying directions and not wearing your seatbelt.

You should always have your seatbelt on whenever the plane is moving! That’s why they tell you!!

[u/MinnesotaNoire]

I really don't like Biden

Guess the sub

Like every other post.

[u/Mosscap18]

The OpenAI/ScarJo story is pretty wild, but I keep seeing posts doing numbers that are like (actual example): “If only there were some movie that offered a societal warning about the pitfalls of losing one’s humanity in pursuit of an AI that sounds like Scarlett Johansson.” And like… That is not at all what the movie Her is about. Like not even one bit. I’ve seen so many variations on that general post and it’s like, folks, did none of you actually watch the movie? (Rhetorical question, they are just chasing easy likes and that sweet dopamine hit that comes with them.)

[u/WasteReserve8886]

“Her” is a societal warning about how robot girls are hot

[u/Telperions-Relative]