I’ll bet the Jan 6 pardons are quietly forgotten. They were a bunch of useful idiots who have already played their role and can be safely disposed of.

Only exception might be anyone who could be potentially squeezed for more information that might lead to more evidence against Trump, but even that’s probably a non-issue for him.

Would it be like a chest burster alien, or more like what Neo did to Agent Smith?

Say it again for those in the back.

The full cost of Vietnam started coming 20 years after it went in full swing as the veterans started ramping up the benefits they were promised. That same wave for Afghanistan/Iraq is hitting right about now.

Not really. Even from an almost sociopathic perspective, the economic loss of sending a chunk of your population off to war instead of doing something more productive at home can kill the whole calculus. Sun Tzu had a whole bit on how expensive it is just to march an army around, as if he were trying to get nobels to understand that maybe you just fucking shouldn’t.

Right. I feel like they were a self correcting problem all along. They get buried in Sturgeon’s Law and that’s the end of it.

Except for that one guy who tried to copyright claim Steph’s channel. That guy needs something more. Like any kind of consequences at all for false copyright claims.

Ur mom says you abuse women.

I miss early 2000s LAN parties.

Which could be true in the same way Reagan freed the Iranian hostages.

Our collective anuses.

We can ignore the Geneva Conventions starting with Pete Hegseth.

It’ll happen. Three minutes later, they’ll discover what a bad idea it is to kick people out of the army in the middle of a recruiting shortage. Nothing will be learned and they’ll skip along to the next bad idea.

So we use a black hole to bend space time and look into the past where it isn’t. We know where it isn’t in the past.

If the US does end up dropping out of NATO and Europe keeps it as a military alliance, they should think about kicking Turkey out. It’s held on for geopolitical reasons that only the US really cares about. It’s otherwise been a problem child for decades.

It’s way more pleasant than a drive. We also have an EV, and while we can make that range, charging infrastructure isn’t good in northwest Wisconsin, and the Twin Cities are falling behind there, too. Southeast Wisconsin and Chicagoland are much better.

Trains are generally a better environmental option than EVs, anyway, and they can be a more practical option if we fucking try.

Even as it is, I prefer taking the train on this route if possible.

Other way around. Amtrak does have priority on all tracks per the 1973 Amtrak Improvement Act. However, this isn’t enforced, and the rail companies are kicking and screaming to keep it from being enforced.

Northeast coordinator is where Amtrak is at its best. Their coverage of the rest of the country is only barely worthwhile on cost and time.

As bad as it is, when it does work out, it’s way, way better than flying.

Took a trip to Minneapolis on Amtrak from Columbus, WI (closest station to my house in Madison). Everything is so much more low key than air travel. Seats are fairly comfy, and have legroom that might even beat first class air travel. Food is . . . no worse than airlines.

Most of all, I didn’t feel tired at the end of the trip. Air travel always makes me want to spend the rest of the day in bed.

We’d probably go out of Wisconsin Dells next time. It takes the train an hour to go between the Dells and Columbus, and the extra drive time is less than that. But we also found this wonderful pizzeria not far from the station in Columbus, so idk.

Did some math on the Social Security Admin actuarial tables a bit ago. For a 79 year old man, he has a 30% chance of just keeling off on his own in the next 4 years. Probably higher than that, because he’s not in good health and eats a lot of McDonalds.

That’s the beauty of MkUltra. You don’t get to volunteer. You’ll find out decades later why you had an incredibly weird day of freaking out.

I think people might overstate how much the Overview Effect would help.

John Glenn’s time in congress had him oppose nuclear proliferation, fix safety and environmental problems at nuclear weapon storage facilities, and to clean up nuclear waste. He also supported the B-1 bomber program, was wrapped up in the Keating Five corruption scandal, voted against gun locks for transferring pistols, and voted against a underage tobacco usage amendment. He generally supported every defense department budget bill.

Bill Nelson voted for the Patriot Act–just like everyone else in the Senate except Feingold–and also voted against a mandate for a 2007 complete withdrawal from Iraq.

It’s all a mixed bag, at best. It’s not going to magically transform our political system.