Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale in the 80s when she realized that Reagan and his stupid fundie Moral Majority would be ok with turning America into Gilead.
Her one rule during the book's writing process was that every event had literally happened somewhere in real life.

Please make a note of it

@DavidKMresists - Exactly right!

Deepest condolences to Lockheed and Boeing for the loss of Diane Feinstein as she takes her seat at "the cool table" with G. Gordon Liddy, Augusto Pinochet and Cersei Lannister.

Our new thrash-polka album is almost done, just need title/band name

Oh noes, studies showing that NFTs are worthless. =(

Anyone who had a basic concept of how copyright laws work and realized that our geriatric court system would never even *understand* NFTs knew this was coming within five seconds of hearing about them.

In our gerontocracy, senators cling to their immense power until they're completely senile.

Since 1990, 12 US Senators have died while in office. All of them but Heinz (plane crash), Wellstone (ditto) and Coverdell (stroke) were well past retirement age when they died.

It's insane.

the neofeudalist system under which we live is supported by malicious laws.
For over 200 years, the elites - knowing that most people either can't or won't read things - have tweaked our laws to the point where everything is stacked in favor of the interests of corporations, finance capitalists, rentier-class land-owners etc.
At this point it's an unbreakable blockchain of unfair laws that literally can't be fixed, and has led to many many thousands of stories like this.

Living corpse Henry Kissinger's resume:

- Helped Nixon fight a secret war in Cambodia
- Encouraged bombing campaigns throughout Southeast Asia that either killed, wounded or left 6 million people homeless
- Helped brutal dictator Pol Pot gain power
- Won a Nobel Peace Prize

Waitwhat

@BlueRevolution - Absolutely. Dismissing the US as a glorified third world country isn't as hyperbolic as establishmentarians would lead you to believe.

The other day I found out by accident why Kiss lead guitarist Ace Frehley's guitar sound has always been so awesome. He doesn't just pick the strings, he also gives them a swipe with his thumb. That maneuver doubles the impact and seriously fattens the sound.
But take heart, all you guitarists who couldn't write a cool guitar solo to save your mother, this is what Ace looks like now, even after plastic surgery, hair plugs, etc., that's right, he looks like a Hells Angel Beanie Baby.

Reason #34,591 that it's not a good idea for America's government to continue treating citizens like disposable garbage and consistently failing to meet their basic needs.

Thank you!

Countries with free college: Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Mexico.
In the US, A 2021 mental health survey indicated 1 in 14 borrowers experienced suicidal thoughts in response to the financial stress of student loans.
I'll take any questions.

@singlemaltgirl - Sagan was one, yes. As for economists, I rather like Clara Mattei and Michael Hudson.

Clarence Thomas wouldn't even be on the SC if Joe Biden, then a Senator, hadn't tried to appear "fair to both sides" and appease his "GOP colleagues." That sort of waffling - and his recent lukewarm attempt to "take responsibility" - has made it near-impossible not to view Biden as simply the current leader of what labor organizer Jane McAlevey terms "the inequality party" when referring to both sides of the duopoly.
For the record, Biden voted against confirming Thomas.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-joe-biden-hasnt-owned-up-to-about-anita-hill

I think that when experts go on TV to discuss science stuff that every citizen really, really needs to know, their mic volume should be lowered while someone on voiceover translates all their advanced-degree-speak into normal English that isn't meant to impress other experts.

@JLong - No, but Campbell was in on the production. It's set in an LA tenement; the entity ended up there and caused mayhem. It's pretty badass, a lot better than the last one.😊

The new Evil Dead movie is the closest any Saw-era movie has ever come to truly terrifying. It's still predictable, but I spooked the hell out of my wife a couple times during breaks. The worst was when I started crawling upside down on the ceiling with my head turned backward

I think one reason Elmo bought Twitter was because he was forced to delete a tweet that threatened Tesla workers that they'd lose their stock options if they unionized.

He's just another greedy right-wing billionaire who wants cheap labor like all the others, that's all he is.

Big whoop, the Hollywood writers' strike. Hollywood could do movies about tons of cool stuff, like something about the last few barbarian nomads who showed up claiming to be the son of God before Jesus wandered in from the desert, or some 1812 naval battle. A live action film based on the Gundam anime series. There are literally a million things they could do aside from Paul Blart III, but they don't. Why? Because Hollywood is a good-old-boy system and doesn't reward innovation.