for visiting heads of state, meeting only with Trump is a bit of a slight. it’d be like getting a meeting only with the Vice President. you know you mean something to this administration if, like Modi, you get a one-on-one with Musk (or a one-on-one-ish with Musk and a bunch of his kids).
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before President Musk, we'd gone 16 years without a commercial jet accident. somehow everything is breaking down now. i guess he arrived just at the nick of time!
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it would be nice if people would do the work, and show it. but if that's a precondition, i fear we'll have a hard time with the numbers.
(it does leave one with a bitter pill, of welcoming people who may have harmed you or people you care about. socially one would want to demand some token of repentance first. but i wonder if sociologically the welcome doesn't come first and the repentance eventually issues from that?)
you know how chain restaurants make up their own clappy birthday songs to gather 'round a table + celebrate customer birthdays with? if i still had local IRL friends, i'd want to make up a song praising federal workers, get together + troupe from post office to post office to sing + celebrate them.
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Thanks for the conversation!
christianity in theory demands sincere repentance. in practice, as a political force, it does not. those "with us" are forgiven, despite no sincere regret or even promise not to sin again. 1/
the theoretical version is definitely more morally appealing, and i'd not want to go full prosperity gospel and become a movement that absolves any misbehavior in exchange for worldly power. 2/
but demanding overt expressions of shame may go too far the other direction, if the goal is a virtuous but also large and effective political movement. /fin
the nonfascist political coalition needs to become a bit more Christian in the sense of "whatever the fuck you've said or done in the past, however you've sinned, join us now in our worthy project and you will be welcomed and redeemed." may the vote be our sacrament.
part of the fascist ethos is that the weak and disabled should die to render the larger community stronger and more beautiful. i think this explains some of Republicans' elite-level accommodation of anti-vax stuff. Republican elites know vaccines are safe and effective. 1/
the problem isn't that vaccines don't work or that they have side effects. the problem is that they do work, and interrupt a "natural" culling of the runts. 2/
the rest of us (well, looking in the mirror, the rest of you) are left with burdens of care and the economic cost of "accommodations". the weak and old should want to die for the greater good of the nation the young and strong would build and vigorously enjoy. /fin
every democrat should face a primary. even the ones i love. letting democracy become a kind of sham running on autopilot, in which most of us don't feel we have a meaningful voice, has rendered us vulnerable to all this kind of shit. campaign finance of D primaries should be v restrictive though.
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weren’t they supposed to close our borders to criminals?
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i remember when we had a CDC.
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was roberta flack’s death (rip) a sign they’re no longer contenting themselves with killing us softly?
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leatherface