Thanks! I feel like I might have conflated two stories though. The Pedestrian is definitely the one in the second half of what I described. I’m not sure about the first part of what I recounted though, it could have been a different story. I’ll have to read it and check it out.

I’ve been trying to find this ridiculous sci-fi story I read in elementary school. I thought it was Ray Bradbury but then I recalled it was, I believe, from a collection edited by and/or with a foreword by Bradbury.

The scenario was that people in the future had become so dependent on mechanized transportation that their legs atrophied. Walking around normally was seen as very strange as everyone used these hovering personal transport devices. I think the story basically just described the protagonist walking around town and taking strolls at night and how odd everyone else thought it was.

Loomer also then defended her post and tried to rationalize it.

Trump mentioned her as a potential White House press secretary, which of course is horrifying.

Kind of a weird dodge… I’ll just answer the rhetorical question for you. So, people who currently fly confederate flags are uniformly Republican and identify as conservative.

I don’t think there’s much use in explaining this, but you don’t seem to have a very good grasp of history. Party names are not the key to ideology, and it’s baffling that people think they can compare politics from 180 and 120 years ago using current concepts. If you think modern Republicans are the party of Lincoln, let’s see… who would we see flying Confederate flags currently?

Are you sure you’re a conservative? Most conservative views are insulting. But back in real life, it was a deeply ingrained institution at the time.

Ending slavery is not a conservative position by definition. Conservatism means continuing the system that is currently in place and accepted.

I guess if you knew basically nothing about US history that would be a convincing statement.

That’s hilarious, Republicans don’t like Dick Cheney now? Sure did love the fuck out of him 20 years ago. Oooh, it’s not for war crimes, it’s because he doesn’t like the velveeta treason weasel. Makes tons of sense.

Now it’s Kamala Harris doing it? Fuck off, Jon.

I’m not saying I agree with Trump saying that in the first place. But to say he’s prosecuted because he’s running and wouldn’t be if he wasn’t seems like the definition of politically motivated. In any event, he’s being prosecuted because he’s guilty.

Possibly. That would be basically agreeing with his claim that it was politically motivated prosecution, though. Seems to me like he really pissed off some people in New York and they may have done it anyway.

Right. The “liberal media” BS has been of the Republican’s most successful tactics. Corporate media is not left-wing - it’s absurd, but that’s what conservatives push and many people fully believe it. Almost all media outlets in the US support conservatives in subtle ways, but people have been trained to think that right/centrist corporate media is rabidly biased towards the left.

It worked for GW Bush, too… come off as sorta dense and dopey, then people will act pleasantly surprised when you exceed expectations vs. be critical for falling short of them.

Highway what?

I guess. Not stealing a bunch of classified documents and refusing to give them back is a great way to not be prosecuted for stealing classified documents though.

Anyway what I meant by “pretty easy to say” is that it’s not really a satisfying or useful suggestion.

I hope so. Biden is old, but his problems with mental acuity were dramatically exaggerated by the media and conservatives. When people asked him questions, he would actually answer them. Meanwhile republicans were “omg he doesn’t even know what room he’s in bro” and that was sort of ridiculous. But then, you have Trump seems not just loopy but insane and deranged, and unlike Biden, he’s always been an idiot. However Trump he gets a pass from these same people. The press has never paid nearly enough attention to how incoherent he is. It gets frustrating because it has to be on purpose.

This is in a hypothetical situation where he didn’t run in 2020, so he wouldn’t have done the election manipulation in Georgia.