States Investigate TikTok Over Alleged Harms to Kids and Young Adults
Plus: Texas can't investigate family of transgender teen, SCOTUS considers case on doctor drug trafficking, and more...
Prosecutors go after TikTok. Whenever a gaggle of state attorneys general investigates a tech company, you can bet moral panic and authoritarianism aren't far away. We have seen this with Craigslist (which was then cornered into dropping adult services ads) and Backpage (which was shut down because it wouldn't). We've seen it with Facebook and Google, with bogus antitrust lawsuits following not far behind. Now, these prohibitionist pack animals are taking aim at the immensely popular short-video app TikTok.
California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont are participating in the investigation. Attorneys general in these states say they are looking into whether TikTok is bad for "children, teens, and young adults" and whether TikTok executives know this.
"As children and teens already grapple with issues of anxiety, social pressure, and depression, we cannot allow social media to further harm their physical health and mental wellbeing," said Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey said in a statement.
To explain how this is at all within their authority, prosecutors make a vague nod to consumer protection laws.
Prosecutors offer no reason to believe TikTok wants to harm kids, if it's even doing so at all. But attempts to punish tech companies that may—even inadvertently—cause distress to young people is a popular political pastime these days. (See: Congress and Instagram.) And you'll notice that the purview has moved beyond just concern for children to encompass young adults, too.
But the whole business stinks of performative nonsense—a way to appear proactive, protective, and progressive while circling the wagons around an easy scapegoat.
If TikTok and other social media platforms are causing kids' psychological anguish, it's largely for the same reason these things can cause anguish in adults: negative interactions with one's peers/other users; viewing things one might be missing out on or not included in; comparing oneself with people who seem to have more money, better bodies, or other things that inspire envy. These are issues of human nature, not technological issues.
No amount of algorithm tweaks or targeted-ad bans—which are the kind of things politicians propose as remedies—can change these factors. Short of banning social media use, nothing can.
It's also telling that only tech gets singled out for investigation when plenty of other things may exacerbate social pressure, anxiety, and depression. School, for instance, is often a major source of stress, between academic expectations, pressure to fit in, and potential bullying.
OK, you say, but school has useful attributes, too; we can't just ban school or punish administrators because attendance makes some kids feel bad! I'd argue both things are true of TikTok as well. But let's just say for a moment that TikTok is both bad for teens' well-being and has no corresponding social or psychological value.
Couldn't the same be said of fashion magazines? Celebrity news? Movies and TV aimed at teens? Video games? Sad or mad music? TV commercials concerning weight loss? Texting?
All of the above have been accused, at one point or other, of causing mental distress, bad habits, or social isolation in young people. Studies have supposedly shown as much about many of these things, too. Of course, much of this research—or at least the conclusions politicians and pundits draw from it—has been flawed, plagued by that great destroyer of rational conclusions everywhere: misplaced causation and correlation.
Folks will note that teens who do more of X (looking at celebrity magazines, watching TV, playing video games, using TikTok and Instagram, etc.) exhibit more of such-and-such negative trait (i.e., depression, anxiety, negative self-image). Then they blame X for causing these traits and say, 'see, it's Science!' But that's not what the research actually says; it merely finds a link, not which way it flows. It's just as likely—perhaps more so—that feelings of self-doubt, sadness, or social isolation may drive young people to partake in more of X, relative to teens who are better-adjusted, have more friends, are involved in more outside activities, etc.
And even if some of these things may exacerbate negative emotions for some people, Americans aren't generally suggesting (any more) that we strictly regulate teen magazines or emo music or weight loss programming, or that we punish their creators because of it.
When it comes to nontech activities, people can generally see that the issue goes deeper than the media in question (i.e., eating disorders aren't actually triggered by skinny models, even though skinny models may make someone with an eating disorder feel bad or more committed to the disordered activity). They can see that banning or hyper-regulating things over these concerns would be too much—too heavy-handed, a violation of free speech or free markets, a step toward authoritarianism. And they can acknowledge that perhaps not all forms of entertainment or diversion are good for all people without assuming that the makers of these diversions must be dastardly masterminds who must be punished.
These same precepts are true when it comes to digital media, even if less folks can see it clearly. And they are true even if prosecutors persist in preening that they're tough on tech companies for the kids and not for the publicity and potential settlement money it might bring.
FREE MINDS
Texas can't investigate family of transgender teen. A state judge has temporarily halted enforcement of a new "child abuse" policy against the family of a transgender teenager.
Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared that providing any of what's come to be known as "gender affirming care"—including hormone therapies and puberty blockers—to a minor should be considered child abuse and parents who allow these treatments prosecuted. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Texas, and Lambda Legal sued on behalf of a family being investigated.
The mother in this family—referred to in court documents as Jane Doe—works at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and was placed on leave because of medical care being provided to her transgender daughter ("Mary Doe"). Investigators also interviewed the family and sought Mary's medical records.
Now, Judge Amy Clark Meachum of the District Court of Travis County, Texas, has granted a temporary restraining order, which means the state must pause its investigation into the Doe family. The judge's ruling does not, however, halt enforcement of the policy more broadly. A next hearing is scheduled for March 11 and the broader policy will be considered then.
You can read the judge's full order here.
FREE MARKETS
Can doctors be accidentally guilty of drug trafficking? The Supreme Court is considering how the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) applies to doctors prescribing opioid medications. The issue "is important for patients as well as doctors, because the threat of criminal prosecution for deviating from what the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers medically appropriate has a chilling effect on pain treatment," Reason's Jacob Sullum explains. Several justices seemed alarmed that doctors might unwittingly be guilty of drug trafficking—which has been the positions of two federal appeals courts:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has held that a physician's "good faith belief that he dispensed a controlled substance in the usual course of his professional practice is irrelevant" to the question of whether he violated the CSA. Based on that reading of the law, the 11th Circuit rejected the appeal of a Mobile, Alabama, pain specialist who was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for writing opioid prescriptions that deviated from accepted practice. According to the 11th Circuit, it did not matter at all whether the defendant, Xiulu Ruan, sincerely believed that he was doing what a doctor is supposed to do.
That decision is one of two involving physicians convicted of drug trafficking that the Supreme Court is reviewing. In the other case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit likewise held that a doctor's good faith has no bearing on the question of whether his prescriptions were written in "the usual course of professional practice," which it said must be determined "objectively." That case involves Casper, Wyoming, physician Shakeel Kahn, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
QUICK HITS
• Former President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" border wall has already been breached more than 3,000 times.
• Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is disappointed with crypto exchanges' "philosophy of libertarianism or whatever."
• A bill to investigate the therapeutic potential of psychedelics passed the Utah House and Senate with near-unanimous support.
• And you think you've had a bad date…
U.S. Rep. Van Taylor ends reelection campaign after he admits to affair with former wife of ISIS commander. Not the Onion. https://t.co/VO5XOr35Nb
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) March 2, 2022
• A member of the Oath Keepers has pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in conjunction with the January 6 riots.
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Fuck Joe Biden
Well said
Fuck Joe Biden
Let’s Go, Brandon. 🙂
Not even with Lori Lightfoot’s dick.
Let’s Go, Brandon and Truck Fudeau.
Lavrov says Americans are Nazis and Europe is under our boot. The same lie they’re using to invade, subjugate and murder Ukrainians.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10573123/Sergei-Lavrov-repeats-warning-WW3-nuclear-likens-NAZIS.html
What a coincidence. Our own government says Russians are Nazis and Europe is under their boot.
Closer to home, our own government, and the government of our neighbors in Canada, say half the citizens are Nazis.
…while taking some pages out of the Nazi playbook to deal with them.
So the world is actually Nazis all the way down, not elephants?
How can you not see that?
Even self-avowed Nazis are calling other people Nazis.
He’s not wrong, but that doesn’t mean Russia is justified and isn’t acting like Nazis too.
and to just come full circle, the Ukranians have actual Nazi’s on their side!
Shhh!
The only country acting like nazis are the ccp
Americans are Nazis and Europe is under our boot.
4 out of 5 American Marxists are already in agreement with Russian propaganda? Molotov’s corpse just got a giant boner.
Unfortunately for him, it was also on fire.
The same lie democrats use on half the country.
Wait, Trump wasn’t a fascist now?
Who’s telling the truth, everyone who keeps telling me we’re living in a fascist dystopia or everyone who opposes Russia saying we’re living in a fascist dystopia?
Just like racism, fascism is now everywhere and everything and everyone that doesnt agree with me and my views.
Therefore, basically meaningless.
But still a level 10 curse in American political cosplay.
This isn’t about your pathologies guys. The Russians are threatening war against Europe. You couldnt devise a better way of turning Europe against Russia. It’s almost like Putin is working for us.
So what you’re saying is, Putin’s actually been a Democrat puppet the entire time?
The term is useful idiot. But it’s too disgusting to even think about when good honest people are being murdered by Putin’s thugs.
So Putin is both the evil mastermind and a useful idiot?
I can tell you’re too emotional right now to spare thought cycles, but perhaps you should calm down long enough for thinking.
“I can tell you’re too emotional right now to spare thought cycles”
thats called being a progressive, its their baseline
when good honest people are being murdered by Putin’s thugs
LOL! Are you referring to the gangs that stole the weapons they were distributing and promptly started fighting each other or the hardened criminals that they released from prison and conscripted?
Now that the neocons are firmly in the Democratic camp, they’re starting up the “destroy Russia” masturbation again.
See the story below on Putin’s kow-towing to Emperor Xi.
Soooo, should we be against anti-Red China masturbation too?
The CIA must have a pro-Russian bias. They only seem to arrest Chinese spies anymore.
And Red China’s spies wouldn’t share the secrets with Russia? Possbly do a joint Sino-Russian spying operation at some point?
I trust neither Putin nor Xi as far as Putin’s horse could throw him or as much as I trust Xi to be a dragon-slayer.
Noting neocon warboners is not the same as being pro-Russkie or pro-Chink, especially given their track record of promoting wars that actually turned out well for us.
Like I noted yesterday, these are the same people who get in a lather about Trump’s civic nationalism, yet supported a war that carved off part of Serbia’s territory to create a literal ethno-state.
“Nationalism is evil and wrong, unless it’s against certain people” is just the latest example of neocon duplicity in this regard.
My, you make such a lovely turn-of-phrase there. Maybe you should be a communications consultant for Misek so he can tell us how he really feels.
No one has to be a Neo-Con or anything else but cognitively functioning and non-dissonant to see that Putin & Minions along with Xi & Minions are equally all in together against the U.S., as well as all in together against freedom-loving people in Ukraine and Taiwan. Opposing one tyrant logically means opposing another.
And one can say “a pox on both your houses” to both Trump and theones who helped Balkanize Yugoslavia.
But it’s too disgusting to even think about when good honest people are being murdered by Putin’s thugs.
I think you should get over there right away and do something about it.
He probably got Biden elected just for this very purpose.
Folks, it turns out that chisel-chested, horseback riding, he-man so-called trustworthy Christian Hero of the West Vlad Putin took orders about delaying invasion of Ukraine from Emperor Xi from Red China:
China Asked Russia to Delay Ukraine Invasion until after Beijing Olympics: Report
https://news.yahoo.com/china-asked-russia-delay-ukraine-144655030.html
How do you like your hero now, Nardz, Geiger, JohnZ?
To be fair all of the people I converse with in person knew there wasn’t going to be anything until after the olympics. Seemed pretty apparent.
But a real strong-like-bull Putin wouldn’t defer to Xi or anyone else publicly about who, whether, or when he invaded a nation. This reveals Putin’s thumbscrew and I hope people keep turning and turning it.
How do you like your hero now, Nardz, Geiger, JohnZ?
Pretending that anyone is lionizing Putin or justifying the invasion only makes you look like an asshole. Pointing out Putin’s motivations is not support.
“If you knew Susan like I knew Susan…”
Soooo…Supposed Conservatives and Libertarians are getting into “root causes” and “We are depraved on account of we are deprived” psychobabble with Ex-KGB thugs? Hmm…Now I know we’ve gone full Bizzaro World!
Maybe this makes me a lazy bastard, but I practice economy of movement.
I would never devote as much apple-polishing, minimizing, rationalization, concern-trolling, and Stockholm Syndroming for anybody I disliked as much as these three have for Vladamir Putin. If they dislike Putin, it’s snooze to me!
It’s been pretty obvious to everyone that the Davos Crew and China wanted this war as bad as Putin.
China wanted to watch a test case for Taiwan, and Joe, Justin, Boris and Macron needed an enourmous distraction for a furious citizenry.
If the hilariously obvious preference cascades in the mass media hadn’t made that a dead giveaway by now, it’s hard to imagine what would make people realize that.
For fuck’s sake, we’re SUPPOSED to be skeptical when these media blitzes take place, because they’re typically a prerequisite for a lot of shady shit going on in the upper reaches of government. It’s been that way since the USS Maine exploded, yet people always have cripplingly short memories.
Well, the invasion of Ukraine is interconnected with many issues playing in the background. Paying attention means paying attention to energy, which means paying attention to radical environmentalism, OPEC, which means paying attention to the Islamic world, Venezuela, Nigeria, and other oil producers, as well as the failings of wind and solar and the safety and efficiency of nuclear power, etc.
Well the US federal government is currently controlled by a political party that leans corporatist in its governing philosophy, and is getting deep into the weeds about racial essentialism, but Nazi is still a bit strong.
On the other hand, Russian government officials saying we are Nazis is laughable. They are under an authoritarian strongman
Damnit! I tried to write: “The lady doth protest too much” in Russian Cyrillic, andReason wouldn’t accept my comment! So much for “open borders!” Feh!
For every Neo-Nazi, White Supremacist group there is in Ukraine, there are prolly at least half a dozen iin Russia, including some with people in the Russian Duma, such as Pamyat, The National Bolshevik Party, aand even Old Echool Stalinists to add severe Anti-Senitism from the Left as well.
Israel has a Neo-Nazi Skinheds problem…and the majority of them come from Russian f.emigre families.
If I were Great Grandfather, I would be yankingup youth Zers, and homicidally negligent Xer and Yuppie parents and grandparents by rhe scruff of the neck and saying: “Come, family, let’s take a trip to Europe, but it won’t be a joy-ride! I have some things to show you….
https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1499376642820657153?t=QVhlscMG02izuZyD6_QWbw&s=19
Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC): It’d be great to “throw out the Constitution altogether” and create something “more inclusive”
[Video]
This is the part where they write butt-sex with kids into law.
There’s a ton of stupid in the comments on that thread.
Always.
I don’t know how you create a document more inclusive than “The people of the United States.” That’s literally everyone under the government’s authority.
It’s missing the “some people need to be more Included than others” part of Inclusion.
All animals are equal. Some animals are more equal.
And this has always perfectly summed up what those on the “diversity, equity, inclusion” initiatives want. It always was, and always will be, a power grab to be the “more equal” animals.
It doesn’t guarantee every hood rat in the country a 2,500-square foot mcmansion and immediate acceptance to college regardless of actual academic ability, so it needs to be replaced with something that will.
(This is what critical race marxists actually believe)
And “Life, Liberty, and Property” of all are upheld as Individual Rights in the 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments. Clearly, what Elie Mystal wants is to get rid of that.
By the way, was Elie Mystal handling a Van de Graaf Generator? 🙂
“Inclusive” = including all your liberty and property in the public pot.
Fuck Elie Mystal.
Id like to go the opposite way. Back toward the only landowners can vote. Id be willing to taper that back to only net tax payers.
The optics are better if we give every adult a vote, but then award more votes based on net taxes paid.
I find this acceptable. Id also be willing to consider some system based on Schrutebucks.
Former President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” border wall has already been breached more than 3,000 times.
Maybe it’s just my lack of TDS, but, even without a wink emoji, that sounds like a sexual innuendo to me.
Former President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” border wall has already been breached more than 3,000 times.
Just wondering, was this before or after the Biden regime pulled the funding on it?
And how does that number compare to the non-walled border?
Yeah. I wonder if anyone told them there’s a bunch of holes in the wall (with the materials to finish literally laying on the ground at the scene in some cases) because Biden stopped all construction as soon as he took office?
This is just another example of ENB being completely dishonest.
If you don’t want me talking shit to you you’re free to leave your evil, bigoted church. Ya know Joseph Smith is a proven charlatan? Or you can flag or mute me…
I have told you repeatedly: I don’t give a flying fuck what you think. I will never engage with you on religion. The only thing you have ever “proven” with your comments is that you are bully unable to rise above unsupported slander and middle-school level insults.
You are the poster boy for the ‘tolerance’ movement. Lashing out at anyone who declines to bow to the will of the woke collective. So woefully ignorant of history that you don’t even understand that you are vomiting 150 year-old Marxist bile you have been spoon-fed from your youth. FREEDOM of religion IS SLAVERY.
You have now doxxed little girls, you sick fuck. Mentally healthy people don’t behave this way, and you lack the maturity to discern even that.
Tell your other church going pals to not make enemies and make it easy to find info about them online. Their cunt mother shouldn’t be indoctrinating kids while getting paid with my tax dollars. Their dad shouldn’t violate people’s civil rights while getting paid with my tax dollars.
You people are too stupid and arrogant to see what a cancer your church is. The only legal thing decent folk like me can do is make you uncomfortable as possible until you get the fuck out of my state!
You people are too stupid and arrogant to see what a cancer your
churchrace is.You use the exact language of the people you claim to hate the most. And you dox little girls. LITTLE GIRLS.
Y O U A R E A N I N S U F F E R A B L E C U N T.
“ You people are too stupid and arrogant to see what a cancer your church/race is.”
People can’t choose their race. They can choose what church they attend, financially support, recruit for…
Your just like all the Mormon bigots I encountered: discriminating against and ridiculing gays, non whites, Jews, trans. When someone points out that their religious beliefs shouldn’t be used for bigotry it turns into “hey who said anything about religion? Yes I’m LDS but I don’t see why that matters. No my problem isn’t with their orientation/race/religion it’s something else I won’t go into”
(I’m not quoting you this is a typical Mormon response when called out on their bigotry)
You won’t discuss religion. You’ll just be a bigoted dick and get offended if your kooky and DISPROVEN beliefs are the reason why.
It’s not us decent folks job to “respect your beliefs” when they involve fucking people over.
How am I a Marxist? Doesn’t your church believe in the United Order?
Oh and I just used the girls first names. I didn’t point out what shithole Yamhill county town with a university named for a Quaker that they live in. It could be anyone or anywhere.
The mother in this family—referred to in court documents as Jane Doe—works at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and was placed on leave because of medical care being provided to her transgender daughter (“Mary Doe”).
Castration isn’t actually medical care, ENB.
How else can she make the swim team?
Pretty sure she can keep her cock and they’ll still let xer compete.
Being transgender is not itself a medical condition to be cured. But gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition that, if left untreated, can result in debilitating anxiety, severe depression, self-harm, and suicidality.
This is where they lose me. Last time I checked, breaking up with a boyfriend/girlfriend can result in the exact same symptoms, which would by the communitive property make it a serious medical condition. Small boys are sometimes bullied to the point that they are suicidal. Should they be allowed access to HGH therapy?
Removal of the clitoris of a minor in a religious ceremony is a crime against humanity, but the chemical castration of a minor is a civil liberty?
Why not wait until make them wait until they can legally consent? The only answer seems to be that they won’t be as attractive after their transition if they wait, which is very disturbing.
Simple: parental rights are sacred as long as the mob approves.
The entire problem with the “gender affirming care” issue is that anything approaching informed consent is considered LITERAL violence against trans people. Parents deserve all the information. Adults who want to transition deserve all the information. But the Alphabet people can’t allow that for some reason.
There was an article recently, featuring two prominent surgeons who perform sex change operations, and even they said this was wrong. One of their concerns was, giving puberty blockers to young children negatively impacts their ability to surgically transition in adulthood because the tissues of their reproductive systems are not developed correctly, and it makes the surgeries and resulting organs dangerously prone to injury. These people are obviously not “transphobic” since they perform these surgeries regularly on trans people. This is important medical information that people -including parents- should have, even if they support transition. They should know that if they let their kids be treated with puberty blockers and hormones they may be preventing their kids from ever having normally function sex organs, and they may be preventing their kids from ever being able to even have an orgasm. Ever, in their whole lives. How is that any different than removing a female child’s clitoris?
Jazz Jennings, the poster child for this shit, ended up with a horrid axe wound for a “vagina” because all the hormone blockers he took as a kid ended up giving him a micropeen that couldn’t be reconfigured. Not to mention that it fucked up his hormonal development so bad, that he can’t actually feel sexual arousal, is basically stuck in the emotional state of an 11-year-old, and the only pleasure outlet he has now is through food. The poor bastard is on something like 40 different medications now and ballooned up to around 240 pounds, which, because he’s actually a guy and not a female, settled primarily in his gut like any other male.
For many transgender adolescents, going through puberty in accordance with the sex assigned to them at birth can cause extreme distress. Puberty-delaying medication allows transgender adolescents to avoid that, thus minimizing and potentially preventing the heightened gender dysphoria and permanent physical changes that puberty would cause.
This quote and what I quoted above are from the suit filed by the ACLU. The horror story like you describe could very well be an outlier, but when the justification for puberty blocking is “extreme distress” and not an actual medical condition, the worst case scenario is significant. Most children are distressed by puberty. Even for kids without gender dysphoria, it can enter the realm of extreme distress. This not not abnormal.
So why do they treat kids with gender dysphoria differently? A child might not want to have a penis, but they do. A child might not want to grow breasts during puberty, but they will. The changes the body undergoes in puberty are the correct changes for that body. Delaying puberty is denying reality to support a delusion that their body is behaving unnaturally.
If delaying puberty actually makes the physical transition more difficult, they are sacrificing physical health in the long run to placate mental health in the short run. If giving puberty blockers to gymnasts or steroids to football players so they can perform better as teens is child abuse, then this is.
Why don’t you Mormons clean your own house before forcing your views on other parents?
Tighten that belt a little more as you furiously whack off to your Mormon porn, asshole. Your family will be grateful.
Sick burn!
What can I say? You inspire me to be better.
If you put 1% of the effort into researching the history of your church as you do into your insults you’d thank me
Keep in mind, it’s not always munchie parents pushing their kids to do this, either; the schools are becoming notorious for enabling these delusions out of a dumb progressive motivation to encourage “inclusivity,” which really is little more than grooming behaviors to push a political agenda and exploit the kids’ confusion.
Someone’s got to bring this to a head. Get one of these cross-identifiers, female as male, to argue before an audience with a women’s libber.
WOMEN’S LIBBER: What made you think you were male?
CROSS-IDENTIFIER lays out a litany of preferences and feelings that are stereotypically boyish.
LIBBER: You think there’s something wrong with girls/women wanting/doing those things, you male chauvinist pig?
CROSS: Do you? Maybe you’re really a man trapped in a lady’s body too.
LIBBER: Don’t shame me about my body! I can do whatever I want. Your parents or society stunted your social development, so you decided to stunt your physical development as well?
CROSS: No, I just identify male, I don’t need those body parts.
LIBBER: Well, I don’t need those body parts either, nor those pronouns.
You might not be aware, but that shit happens all over the internet. Feminists like JK Rowling, especially lesbians, who criticize troon mental illness are called TERFs, or trans-exclusionary radical feminist–basically, any feminist who doesn’t want to suck the girldick is called a TERF.
Ever notice how a lot of MtF trannies call themselves “lesbians”? That’s because it’s actually a fetish and they aren’t actually women, they’re just men who got off on the idea of sticking their dick in a woman while wearing women’s clothes or having tits.
https://twitter.com/realjuliasong/status/1499397731432861698?t=zmTMUSoQvNBqNW7zJEYPeg&s=19
Remember when they arrested a mom of 3 in Texas for daring to open her salon up for business, nevermind that it was her only source of income and that of her workers’?
Remember when they tried to ruin a guy’s life for opening his small gym?
Remember when they brutalized a tattoo shop owner in NC for failing to close his doors when mandated to, due to bogus ever-changing covid rules?
Never happened. We’ve always been at war with Eurasia and that’s the only thing that’s ever happened.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
They were just liberating the small business owners from the chains they created for themselves.
My progressive neighbor started calling it ‘FREE-DUMB’ about 2 months into the pandemic. Probably a couple days after Madcow.
At least COVID revealed all the Stasi bitches for who they really are.
^. I’ve gone full sarc and made a list.
When East Germany disintegrated, one of the first buildings to be over-run by the citizenry was the Stasi HQ in East Berlin. The people going through their rather extensive files discovered that there was a crazy number of Stasi informants. Something like 1 in 7 East Germans.
And one of the people who had to flee the day they overran the Stasi HQ — a young Vladimir Putin! If they had only gotten hold of him.
1 in 7 sounds about right for true COVID evangelicals, who are probably pretty consistent in their allegiance to the Party.
Language is very revealing.
When word choice consistently lines up so precisely, you might be witnessing the effects of brainwashing.
There are a few words to look out for during this new mass hysteria.
They aren’t called NPCs for nothing.
“My progressive neighbor started calling it ‘FREE-DUMB’ about 2 months into the pandemic.”
Nothing makes me walk away from a conversation or debate faster than when people pull that one out.
Is it due to the complete lack of respect for individual liberty, or because they are the type of person who thinks that it’s clever?
Yes.
Mainly the former, with the latter creeping in because I have seen it so much in various comment boards, 4chan and Reddit
It’s the desire to not get arrested for punching them in the face.
Which my wife tells me would be bad for neighborhood harmony. She also will not let me edit their yard signs.
“Remember when they arrested a mom of 3 in Texas for daring to open her salon up for business, nevermind that it was her only source of income and that of her workers’?”
“It doesn’t matter, but hey! Texas won’t allow Karen to get her
son castratedtrans daughter “medical care”. Fortunately the ACLU is taking a break from ignoring J6 protesters and Covid fascism to tackle this travesty.” – t. ENBRemember when they arrested a “van life” guy for camping alone in the state park?
Remember when they arrested a guy for paddle boarding out on the harbor in So Cal?
Remember when they closed down the gyms and the gun stores but left the liquor stores open?
Remember when you couldn’t buy paint or landscaping supplies but you could buy lotto tickets?
Remember if you lived in Michigan you couldn’t go to your cabin up north but people from out of state could go to their cabin up north.
Also, the governor’s husband could go to theirs . . .
My in-laws were literally packing their car to go up to their cabin when she made that order.
My folks were also heading up to Arcadia that week, (M22!) but, apparently, we’re OK because we were crossing like 4 state lines to get there.
The only TikToker I’m aware of is that history chick who claims the Roman Empire didn’t actually exist. She seemed pretty credible-she wears two different-colored wigs, after all.
So, no one was Spartacus?
None of those fuckers. The real Spartacus escaped to Argentina and is living on an island near Bariloche.
No one came, no one saw, no one conquered?
No one fiddled and nothing burned? All roads lead to nowhere? No official State-sponsored Christian Theocracy under Constantine? No barbarians at the gate? No Istambul or Constantinople?
As Geoff always said on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson:
“What the Hell, Man?!”
When in Nowhere, do as the Nowherians do?
No Istanbul or Constantinople, just Byzantium.
“That’s nobody’s business but the Turks”
Craig Ferguson–“Istambul”
https://youtu.be/G4phHwSSing
So what of Carthage, then?
Mostly peaceful protests occurred.
Obviously, it wasn’t there to be destroyed.
You know what this means? If Rome never existed, you know who else didn’t have a right-handed salute?
Once again people gotta panic over what teens are doing. Today it’s TikTok.
Harm? They’re videos! It it wasn’t TikTok it would be YouTube or something else. You can’t put the video genie back in the bottle. And it’s the teens themselves making these videos, not some eebil cabal of influencers.
There is no harm.
But do you know what is harmful? Ugly shirts. Why isn’t congress investigating the ugly shirt of that guy in the picture? Did the shirt manufacturer know it was harmful? Congress must act!
There’s a reason that many cultures found ways to send teens away for a few years (vision quests, missions, snipe hunts). The survivors could then be welcomed back after they got over most of their crazy.
And if they died doing stupid teenager shit, it was because the spirits called them home.
So you agree with those state governments that TikTok is problem for government to solve? Show us where on this anatomically correct doll exactly where TikTok touched you.
You’re projecting again
No, I agree that TikTok can make teens do a new type of stupid. And if they want to do that, my life would be better if they did that somewhere else.
As long as I can still hire a teen to mow my lawn, I don’t much care what videos they watch.
Don’t forget to call him a racist Brandy.
Considering TikTok is CCP spyware, this might actually be a situation that calls for government to get involved.
I’ve never heard of a “snipe hunt” lasting more than a few hours even with really dumb kids. This is what you do while preparing a surprise party.
You would think they would learn form investigating Elvis Pressly and rock and roll or when they investigated video games or. interesting its always teh democrats investigating what kids are doing
They should have learned all those years ago when teens were into the Gilbert and Sullivan phase, all singing off key renditions of a Modern Major General.
My big objection to TikTok is that it’s a revenue stream for Emperor Xi & Minions in Red China. Other than that, let the Tide Pod eaters enjoy whatever.
Tell us again about masks.
#BidenBoom update.
The Warren Buffett Net Worth Index — which Reason’s leading economics expert considered the most reliable metric from 2009 to 2016 — went up $2.36 billion yesterday. That’s why I refuse to believe these wingnut.com polls showing Biden with a low approval rating, especially on the economy.
#LibertariansForBiden
https://twitter.com/davereaboi/status/1499386017996025859?t=J8evEftYwEMwUK8alAjx9w&s=19
It’s imperative to the narrative that Putin be regarded as an evil madman. That may or may not be true—but any Russian leader would not countenance Ukraine becoming an outpost for the west.
Nardz’s bone-headed narrative backed by twitter!!!
Hey, did you hear about Hiter and Nixon in Uruguay in ’55, you fucking idiot?
Cut it out, Sevo. Debate him, don’t troll him.
Sorry, his bullshit is worth exactly what he’s getting; I’ll ‘debate’ this asshole about the time I’ll debate turd.
Fuck him and his ‘Nato made Putin do this since, uh. one pile of shit after the other’.
Poor sqrlvo, unable to form decent arguments to explain why his opinion is the exact same as those who previously brought us the covid crisis, and generally show themselves to be dishonest totalitarians every day
He’s spot fucking on. Fuck you.
^endorsement for sqrlvo
Must be reassuring…
his opinion is the exact same as those who previously brought us the covid crisis, and generally show themselves to be dishonest totalitarians every day
Lord of Strazele
March.3.2022 at 10:40 am
Flag Comment Mute User
He’s spot fucking on. Fuck you.
Nardz haz prophesyed
Aww, sqrlvo’s trying to stroke out early this morning
You too.
Nah, I’m simply stating logical, truthful points. That doesn’t hurt the brain nearly so much as the dissonance of the popular narrative forces
Everyone desperately wanted this war except the Ukrainians.
Putin didn’t just attack out of fear. He wanted the Russian empire back, and embattled Western leaders frightened by revolt at home were delighted to provide him a pretext.
Putin wanted a war, and Joe, Justin and Boris desperately needed one.
Ukrainian leadership sure seems to have wanted this war, and they’re enjoying the hell out of it.
How so?
See?
They rejected diplomatic talks, escalated threatening rhetoric, and have been on western TV nonstop with pity pleas, which have often turned out to be lies.
They are world celebrities now
“…have been on western TV nonstop…”
There ya go: Putin was jealous of all that air-time, so he just HAD to invade!!
You’re really obsessed with Putin, huh sqrlvo.
Did he reject your friend request or something?
What exactly do you talk about diplomaticslly when the local bully demands your lunch money?
Russia, in any incarnation, has been a bad neighbor for centuries, and a bad power to fall under the domination of. Russia has no legitimate claim to Ukraine’s sovereignty. You can be against US intervention without polishing Putin’s rhetorical turds.
Would it be fair to say you never had an open mind to Russian concerns then?
Give it up, man! Ukrainian Russians don’t like Putin and Russians Russians are protesting Putin!
And Putin delayed invading until after the Olympics on orders from Red China’s Emperor Xi! So bow is Putin the big strong-like-bull stable genius trustworthy Christian Hero of the West that all the Trumpistas and QAnon-ers make him out to be??
They rejected diplomatic talks
Putin didn’t exactly make it easy to accept them.
escalated threatening rhetoric
They didn’t once threaten Russian territory or sovereignty. Their “rhetoric” was about their own defense, which is the proper and admirable thing to do.
and have been on western TV nonstop with pity pleas, which have often turned out to be lies
Good for them. Exactly what they, or any country, in their situation should be doing.
They didn’t once threaten Russian territory or sovereignty. Their “rhetoric” was about their own defense, which is the proper and admirable thing to do.
Sure, but like it’s been pointed out before, if Mexico was playing footsie with Russia after having a regime-friendly government installed, and talking about forming a mutual defense alliance to protect Russian interests there along with Mexican sovereignty, we’d be looking
Hell, we don’t even need a rhetorical example–this exact same shit happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis after we put nuclear missiles in Turkey and then tried to overthrow Castro in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
*we’d be looking to respond to such arrangements as an attack on our sphere of influence.
This is the result of 30 years of longtime Imperial Russia territories sliding over to the west, and a notoriously paranoid country like Russia is not going to take kindly to such events. It’s unfortunate that this is happening, but it was also inevitable.
It wasn’t just inevitable, but planned. The Western leaders knew that they were goading Putin. They needed this war.
And Putin came in after the neocons installed Yeltsin.
I don’t disagree. Putin was being deliberately pushed by an administration who actually wanted him to attack.
It still doesn’t make the invasion less wrong.
I don’t think Putin is a good guy either, but if trump and covid have taught us anything, it should be that when our incestuous media congeal in near unanimity against any person or thing that “MUST BE STOPPED!!!!”, you’re goddamn right the bullshit detectors should be flashing red.
This whole slow motion invasion smells about as fishy as a wet market origin story.
Ewwwww…
Putin is a WEF fellow, just like Trudeau, Boris Johnson, Macron and Merkel. There’s definitely something snakey going on with how the invasion in has gone down.
this exact same shit happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis
And the left denies how batshit crazy Castro really was. He said he would be happy to see those nukes launched at the US and was deadly serious.
Yep, he thought the Soviets were actually going to light those off, and Kruschev had to talk him down because he was about to get a good chunk of the planet turned into a quiet neighborhood for the next 1,000 years.
As for the claim that they want the empire/Soviet Union back, I really don’t think there’s much basis for this claim. The stated demands prior to invasion were: no NATO, cessation of hostilities and autonomy for Luhansk and Donesk, recognition of Crimea’s annexation (via referendum) as part of Russia. Since invasion was decided upon, the only additional demand is Ukraine stop taking foreign arms.
What is unique to the Ukrainian culture that Putin wants to wipe out? That doesn’t even make sense.
The ultimate issue is that Russia feels it cannot accept a hostile, militarized presence in Ukraine. That’s a reasonable red line.
If this invasion is going as poorly as the media reports and many of you seem to believe, why do you also assume Russia will keep going once it conquers Ukraine? And if they do decide to keep going, why would anyone assume the Baltics can’t take care of themselves? These are inconsistent positions.
The problem with the whole dialog is rampant, one-sided propaganda (wonder who’s funding it) and an inability or unwillingness to see anything from the Russian perspective.
Is striking first always evil? Was Israel wrong to do so in 1967.
Facts:
-since 1999, NATO has doubled its membership, adding 14 nations in a 20 year span, all in Eastern Europe – Czechia, Hungary, & Poland in 99 – Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Estonia in 04 – Croatia and Albania in 09 – then Montenegro in 17 and Macedonia in 20.
-NATO rejected Russian offers to join on at least 2 occasions, in 1999 and 2002
-NATO military intervention in Iraq, Bosnia, Yugoslavia/Serbia, Afghanistan, the Gulf of Aden,, Libya, and held talks regarding Syria (which the US very actively intervened)
-NATO proposed including Georgia as it was engaged in a civil war the Russia was intervening in
-a coup in Ukraine in 2014 that ousted a Russian ally and installed a hostile government, which immediately passed antagonistic laws targeting its Russian population and sparked civil war in the east
-US negotiators wouldn’t say they’d refrain from putting military equipment, troops, and even nukes in Ukraine
Those are just the documented, concrete actions. No suspicion or extrapolation. None of NATO’s military actions were in the least bit defensive (unless you want to count Afghanistan, which NATO would occupy for 20 years), but all were NATO taking violently inserting itself into non-member states.
Try to look at this from the Russian perspective: NATO, a military alliance specifically designed for conflict with the Soviet Union, expands massively in the direction of and with a hostile attitude to Russia. Is it evil to view NATO as a threat, and conclude that Russia would not be able to defend itself from a Ukraine-based attack?
If that’s a fair assessment, which I personally think it is, what choices does Russia have? Either “break out” via securing Ukraine by any means necessary, or do nothing and hope for the best?
What is unique to the Ukrainian culture that Putin wants to wipe out?
That it calls itself the Ukrainian culture?
And why should Ukraine legitimize the (previous) illegal Russian theft of Crimea, or the (current) illegal Russian theft of Donesk & Luhansk?
I can fully appreciate why Russia doesn’t want them to join NATO. I don’t want them in NATO either. Hell, most of the time, I don’t even want US in NATO.
But the bottom line here is: No matter what Ukraine did or said or blustered or postured – they did NOT invade Russia. Russia did and said and postured a bunch of things too. Then, they DID invade Ukraine.
Russia is the aggressor here. They are in the wrong.
So Israel was wrong in 1967?
No.
Was Ukraine used as a staging point for attacks against Russian civilians? Did Ukraine actually enter NATO? Was Poland massing tanks on Ukraine’s Russian border? Did Turkey close the Bosporous to Russian shipping after being told that would constitute an act of war?
Russia has legitimate strategic concerns regarding NATO’s expansion into their sphere of influence, and about the conduct and composition of the Ukrainian government (some of which is their own fault – Ukraine was much more pliable before their mostly-Russian regions were effectively annexed). This was still a reckless and unjustified escalation.
So the requirement is that one wait for the probable attacking forces are strengthened and positioned before taking action?
What were Russia’s options in your opinion?
Israel won that war, but the Arab States were the aggressors
Yet Israel attacked first.
I’d wager that Russia thinks Ukraine is an aggressor.
The flaw in your example is that Ukraine did not have their entire military arrayed against Russia, ostensibly to invade them. Nor did Ukraine threaten to destroy Russia and drive their people into the sea.
The 6-day war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are not analogous.
NATO’s military has been arrayed against Russia for 60+ years. NATO’s been waging aggressive warfare almost nonstop for the better part of 30 years. Ukraine violently overthrew a Russian-allied government (by the way, think about Article 5 as justification for war) and has been attacking ethnically Russian neighborhoods for 8 years.
It’s more similar than different. I don’t think it’s logically consistent to morally approve of Israel’s actions then and morally condemn Russia’s actions now.
What would’ve happened if Israel hadn’t invaded Syria and Egypt in 1967?
And what do you think would happen in the coming years if Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine?
Well Nardz, what you are calling arrayed NATO power against Russia for 60+ years, others would call it former Warsaw Pact countries rejecting that odious pact they were forced to join against their will and voluntarily joining an alliance that respected their freedoms.
The Baltics, Poland, Romania: They will never go back to Russia because they have no desire to re-form the Warsaw Pact.
We simply disagree on your Israel ~ Russia logic.
I’d need to think about your last two questions. A lot there to digest. But I grant you that they are fair questions.
^ This. It was a very different situation.
All of this. Plus, you’re missing the small detail that Ukraine routinely is ranked in the top ten of most corrupt regimes in the world, often up at #1. Zelenskyy was supposed to be cleaning things up but there’s no real evidence of progress being made (not to mention Biden helping oust one of the prosecutors investigating the corruption, before he was POTUS).
The US routinely uses the military to take out corrupt leaders in nations where there’s a vested US interest-look at Panama and Manuel Noriega. Imagine if there was a Noriega type who came into power in a neighbor like Mexico. USA probably wouldn’t move in immediately, of course. We might wait and see how the regime treats its people. But if we waited maybe eight years, and there was no progress, and the leader was talking about forming an alliance with a geopolitical rival like China? We might do something very similar to what’s happening in the Ukraine.
Another thing to consider is that, aside from their massive nuclear arsenal, Russia is not a global power. Their army isn’t massive, it includes conscripts, they have outdated equipment, their maintenance isn’t that great. They probably couldn’t even conquer Turkey or Iran if they got a mind to do so. The only reason Europe feels threatened is because you’ve got states like Germany, with a population of 83 million+, defended by an army of only 64,000 because they’ve outsourced National Defense to the USA, or France, with an army of 180,000 defending a population over 63 million.
These countries utterly neglected to maintain any kind of defensive force and are now freaking that people are actually having to defend themselves on their own continent.
Which is kinda why I think we should pull out of NATO, though not all at once. Give them an incentive to take up that burden for themselves.
It’s not like they’d even not be nuclear armed between Britain and France.
NATO is kind of pointless if it’s a bunch of nations signing mutual defense pacts with the US and then gutting their armed forces. That’s why there are provisions requiring they spend a certain amount on maintaining their forces but nobody is getting kicked out for failing to live up to it because that would be mean.
Beyond that, what use is even Germany getting out of it? They’re crapping their pants because tanks are rolling and they don’t have enough forces of their own to do anything and have to rely on the good graces of a nation on a different continent.
It would be precious to see the faces of the Green Revolution after an offensive broke their electrical grid and they all froze to death for lack of a bucket of coal.
“The ultimate issue is that Russia feels it cannot accept a hostile, militarized presence in Ukraine. That’s a reasonable red line.”
If Ukraine falls…then Russia ends up with an actual NATO ally at its border. I do not see how that is an improvement if one assumes Putin’s statements are true.
Russia doesn’t have to annex Ukraine. They’ve always been obsessed with having a buffer, and I think that’s what they’re looking for here.
It’s also like when you corner an animal and continue approaching it – the animal swipes/snaps at you. That animal doesn’t commit to a full on attack as step one. It tries to get you to back off, first through communication then limited violence. If you still keep coming, then it goes all out.
Russia doesn’t have to annex Ukraine. They’ve always been obsessed with having a buffer, and I think that’s what they’re looking for here.
Russia picked a spectacularly bad way to get a buffer.
How would you do it?
I wouldn’t try to get a buffer. Never works.
So… oh well, just hope for the best?
“If Putin is so concerned about NATO being at his border then why is trying to conquer Ukraine?”
Why do people assume Putin is a fucking moron? Whether he’s wrong or right, you have to assume he’s got a modicum of intelligence.
This is a war of conquest, this is Putin’s attempt at regime change for a neighbor that Russia is used to manipulating. That doesn’t make it right, by any means, but it should tell you about the politics of the media narrative we’re being fed.
this is Putin’s attempt at regime change for a neighbor that Russia is used to manipulating
Bingo! The Russians are going to sit on their chest and poke them until they capitulate and install a proper crony as President. This is not rocket science, it is middle-school politics. If it gets to rocket-science politics, Ukraine is well and truly fucked. Fallout will not trail over the Carpathians. A nuclear wasteland makes a pretty good buffer.
It’s half built already, since 1986.
So, seriously though, how does taking Ukraine help with “breaking out”? They still end up with a border with hostile people across it, and now they’re even more hostile.
Same way a cat swiping at your nose when you stick your face too close gets you to back off.
Sure, ultimately you can take a few scratches and get the damn cat in the pet carrier if that’s your goal, but your approach more cautiously. Of course, the cat doesn’t have 6,000 nukes – a cat with nukes is just absurd.
From the Russian perspective, there is no way the neighboring nations could be more hostile. Again, Ukraine’s government has been actively waging kinetic war on Russian sympathetic people for 8 years, and blaming Russia for it. Western leadership has been actively campaigning against Russia for much longer, and blaming everything that upsets half their populace on Russia.
When you constantly, and over many years, target someone/something with hostile rhetoric, your target is probably going to think you have hostile intentions toward it.
Sure, a cat with nukes is just absurd. But a raccoon with nukes is a skunk.
“As for the claim that they want the empire/Soviet Union back, I really don’t think there’s much basis for this claim.”
Okay.
“The stated demands prior to invasion were: no NATO, cessation of hostilities and autonomy for Luhansk and Donesk, recognition of Crimea’s annexation (via referendum) as part of Russia.”
Nardz, aside from the perfectly reasonable “no NATO” demand, that’s taking the empire back.
I suggest you double check the history.
Russia’s demands were/are reasonable. Sure, they have no *right* to determine who Ukraine has relationships with and their nature. Neither does the US, but we do it all the time. In real life, idealistic notions of sovereignty and such are as dangerous as they are admirable. Remember, NATO bombed the hell out of Sarajevo to grant Kosovo secession from Serbia. Russia bombing the hell out of Kiev to secure secession of Luhansk and Donetsk is no different.
Are we doing sovereignty and self determination, in which case we’d have to recognize Crimea as Russian and the Donbass republics as independent, or nah?
Asking for chunks of territory isn’t exactly reasonable.
What if we Canadians took the Alaska Panhandle and demanded autonomy for Washington and Oregon with an option to join us? I think a giant “fuck you” would be an appropriate response from the US.
And what if Mexico demanded Texas, California and the Southwest back? Their historical claims are just as legitimate.
“NATO bombed the hell out of Sarajevo to grant Kosovo secession from Serbia. Russia bombing the hell out of Kiev to secure secession of Luhansk and Donetsk is no different.”
Where on earth did you get the idea that I thought the first instance was legitimate? You’re absolutely right, “bombing the hell out of Kiev to secure secession of Luhansk and Donetsk is no different”. Both were damnably wrong.
What if we Canadians took the Alaska Panhandle and demanded autonomy for Washington and Oregon with an option to join us? I think a giant “fuck you” would be an appropriate response from the US.
As long as we can negotiate to continue fishing the Inside Passage, I could live with it. You can have Western Washington and Oregon right now, but you have to let us fold the Eastern half of those states into Idaho. Unfortunately, we need the California ports.
We will even support you if you feel the need to viciously suppress the population to keep them from rising up. I will personally request the doxxing of KAR so he can finally get that truncheon to the balls he has been begging for.
“Asking for chunks of territory isn’t exactly reasonable.
What if we Canadians took the Alaska Panhandle and demanded autonomy for Washington and Oregon with an option to join us? I think a giant “fuck you” would be an appropriate response from the US.
And what if Mexico demanded Texas, California and the Southwest back? Their historical claims are just as legitimate.”
Well, are Canada and Mexico trying to take these areas, or did those states vote to secede for independence or annexation into another state?
“ Attorneys general in these states say they are looking into whether TikTok is bad for “children, teens, and young adults” and whether TikTok executives know this.”
Now do school mask mandates.
Here’s a mask slipping story:
Gov. Ron DeSantis has risen to prominence within the GOP as a zealous opponent of COVID-19 restrictions, but in aiming his indignation over masking at a group of high school students he tested the limits of the nonstop COVID warrior approach.
A short video clip of the governor’s interaction with the students Wednesday went viral, generating millions of views.
DeSantis was widely criticized over the exchange, with many people focusing less on his mask position and more on his willingness to impose his views on children.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/stop-bullying-kids-gov-ron-141157247.html
LOL
He “imposed” his views by giving them shit, as is common communication among high school males, and telling them it was their choice.
In the video you’ll notice some kids take their masks off with evident relief and humor.
Get back to us on this when kids are being suspended from school or otherwise being punished for continuing to wear masks at school.
Get woke! Resisting righteous tyranny is tyranny!
fucking LOL
I love that you thought this was a gotcha and its actually a “this guy is normal and highlights the religious-level insanity that the left has reached with COVID”
Im going to laugh my ass off when Desantis steam rolls Kamala in 2024.
“You do not have to wear those masks. Please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve gotta stop with this Covid theater. So if you wanna wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”
IMPOSING HIS VIEW!
haha the NPCs are spouting this one all over today.
He did not “impose” anything on the kids. He explicitly told them that they could wear the stupid masks if they want.
Again, allowing people to avoid the mandates of their betters is tyranny.
CALLING SOMETHING RIDICULOUS IS WORSE THAN MEAN TWEETS!
De Santiago dared to think he knew what kids should do with masks and suggested they do it his way?
Hardly tyranny. You must have had constant diarrhea for the last two years over what blue state governors have done.
Nope. Strudel supported them in lockstep.
By saying they can wear them if they really want to, but that they do nothing?
How is that “imposing” his views? Giving them factual information and then permitting them to make their own call?
I am betting you did not watch the video in question.
Tiki Tok, like Twitter, is a cesspool that is not good for anyone, though that does not justify legal sanctions.
I would just think that if the government was so concerned with harm, they would first seek to do no harm. It’s a lot easier to stop harming people than it is to make someone else stop harming people.
https://twitter.com/aimeeterese/status/1499388761993793537?t=TbL1K6AP2jvislUhFP87ng&s=19
This is your regularly scheduled reminder that in 2020, Donald J. Trump, received more votes for President, than any Republican OR Democrat candidate in American history upto that point. Way more than Obama (2008 & 2012). And way more than Hillary (2016).
https://twitter.com/docMJP/status/1499393556917673987?t=UgsI0O-ziB_s_2uBs6t01Q&s=19
What the Ds have latched onto is a ruling class claim that anyone that opposes them opposes democracy itself. Trump did not introduce this dangerous and divisive rhetoric. His existence as a populist candidate outside of uniparty control scared the hell out of the people who did.
This reaction to political realignment is leading to cultural realignment, as people who find themselves called insane names for wanting normal things for themselves & their families increasingly don’t appreciate being called terrorists & murderers of grandma and democracy, etc.
Kinda like the fauci and his ‘I am the science’ rhetoric, crossed with Antifa and their whole ‘Well, we’re ANTI-fascist, so if you’re against us, you’re a fascist’.
Democrats are like ‘We are Democracy, it’s right there in the name. If you’re against us, you’re anti-democratic.’
They are playing a dangerous game that could easily lead to violent division of our society and geography. I hope that the current trends continue in that moderates increasingly reject woke liberal dogma. If this continues, progressives will become more fringe, and then we can send the media and academic to detox.
https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1499400628010815492?t=LAmJZkYw6XFn8skCnOB3oQ&s=19
The COVID -> war transition was absolutely seamless
Whatever Putin.
He’s exactly right though.
We’ve all been saying for the last six months that Joe needed something like this to come up before midterms.
https://twitter.com/ConceptualJames/status/1499401364534751249?t=mOlG3jQKB1NhExhGzCVkZA&s=19
Communists bullying their way forward.
[Link]
https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1499044729161494540?t=xcWc0hkAG1x2Z2QYghQYkw&s=19
You watch: all of this insane anti-Russian hatred — cancelling the Dostoevsky course, kicking Russian movies out of film festival, etc — is going to be mobilized & used against internal dissidents in the future. Hate the war, loathe Putin, but don’t hate Russian ppl or culture!
“is going to be mobilized & used against internal dissidents in the future”
future? We just had the president for months saying “the unvaxxed are the enemy”
This guy’s a little behind the curve.
*not jimbojr, the guy I linked to
Still, at least some are catching on
ive been called worse
cancelling the Dostoevsky course
What the everloving fuck? How long have they been waiting to do this? It makes sense to cancel an author who wrote about desperation and redemption where what they strive for is hopeless despair. I bet those shitweasel lefty academics didn’t cancel their courses on Lenin or Trotsky.
I cancelled (stopped reading) Dostoevsky when I got about half way through The Brothers Karamozov and came across a paragraph that was just a tad under 3 pages long.
It was at that point that I realized that I didn’t really care all that much about these guys, that the Russian people were a psychologically broken society and have been for hundreds of years, and that Russian literature was overrated.
Demons (the book I have is called demons, but it comes under various titles because the word apparently doesn’t have an exact equivalent in English) is probably the best novel I’ve ever read. It is both hilarious and tragic at times, and extremely relevant to our times.
Fun fact: there’s a character, who’s in it for like 3 pages only, that perfectly fits Vladimir Lenin… who was a child when the book was written. Very funny passage.
You want a funny novel set in Russia, then read My Official Wife by Richard Savage. I will admit, though, that it’s not great, and that the last third or so of it underwhelms, but it’s pretty good overall. The first half isn’t exactly with an unreliable narrator, but with a naive narrator — you’ll be several steps ahead of him — yet it’s written that way as a self-critical persona, inasmuch as it’s not diary style, but by someone writing long afterward.
Richard Savage is the figure it’s most widely believed Doc Savage was named for.
“is going to be mobilized & used against internal dissidents in the future. Hate the war, loathe Putin, but don’t hate Russian ppl or culture!”
100% this. If the West wants the Russian people to hate Putin, don’t make them hate the West to do it.
Can we get another counter going for days since ENB argues for sex work liberation?
Why does it bother you? We are all libertarians here, aren’t we?
Poor Dee still hasn’t figured out humor.
Stop being a weasel. Nobody is buying it.
You’re not.
“UN: Climate change to uproot millions, especially in Asia”
[…]
“The walls of Saifullah’s home in northern Jakarta are lined like tree rings, marking how high the floodwaters have reached each year — some more than 4 feet from the damp dirt floor. When the water gets too high, Saifullah, who like many Indonesians only uses one name, sends his family to stay with friends. He guards the house until the water can be drained using a makeshift pump. If the pump stops working, he uses a bucket or just waits until the water recedes. “It’s a normal thing here,” Saifullah, 73, said. “But this is our home. Where should we go?”…”
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article258955458.html#storylink=cpy
Seems some should have ‘uprooted’ some time back.
“As children and teens already grapple with issues of anxiety, social pressure, and depression, we cannot allow social media to further harm their physical health and mental wellbeing,” said Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey said in a statement.
Healy went on to say, “That’s my job.”
Shes the AG, not the Health Commissioner.
That’s “Commissar”.
So how is everyone enjoying these gas prices? At the station closest to me, which is always a pretty good proxy for the national average, the price is up 20 cents in the last three or four days, and I’ve read that at some stations it jumped 30 or 40 cents just in the last 24 hours.
Call me crazy, but when the new inflation number comes out in about a week, I don’t think it’s going to go down from 7.5 percent.
It’s actually good for Louisiana’s economy. The people down here were complaining when gas was cheap.
Haha. You’re a gem.
Talk about a useful idiot. You clearly don’t understand Louisiana’s economy or how supply and demand work. People may have been complaining when demand was so low that prices bottomed out because of the government imposed lockdowns. Nobody complains about cheap gas when demand is high.
“The people down here were complaining when gas was cheap.”
Nah, not possible. Based on the stereotypes I know about Louisiana there is no way everyone could fuel the fan boats they use to swiftly dodge gator attacks on their swamp commute to work with high gas prices. So not possible.
Parish the thought!
Sure, and they complained when healthcare prices were low, too, for sure.
I have an oil-fired heating system. Home heating oil jumped from $3.76/gallon, which was already absurd, to $4.20/gallon since I last checked the price 2 days ago. Thank God it’s March and heating season is almost over.
I got gas for my car at the filling station near my house for $3.44 yesterday morning. $50 total and it was only 3/4 of a tank.
On my way home from work, same station, $3.59
For the war effort. Rationing is next.
Jesus Christ….Gasoline prices in the People’s Republic of NJ have moved very substantially….just in the last 60 days. We went from 3.19/gallon to 3.79/gallon for regular unleaded.
OBL, what is going on here?
Yeah. Truck diesel is up over a dollar a gallon from last week. It’s gonna get bad. Buy shelf stable food now if you don’t already have some.
• Former President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” border wall has already been breached more than 3,000 times.
WaPo:
Mexican smuggling gangs have sawed through new segments of border wall 3,272 times over the past three years, according to unpublished U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintenance records obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act.
The government spent $2.6 million to repair the breaches during the 2019 to 2021 fiscal years, the CBP records show.
…
President Donald Trump built 458 miles of new barriers, primarily in remote areas of New Mexico and Arizona.
If my quick math is right, that’s like 2.5 breaches per day, or one breach every half mile per year, and the cost to fix them is under a million per (a pittance in the grand scheme of things). How many crossings were there in those areas pre-wall, and how much was spent in additional manpower to patrol those areas?
Also, since, “the Biden administration continues to call on Congress to cancel remaining border wall funding and instead fund smarter border security measures that are proven to be more effective at improving safety and security at the border,” what are the cost to those vs. putting up the additional fencing in appropriate areas, and how many more illegal crossings will they prevent?
It’s fun to be glib, but there’s going to be a border with Mexico, and people going to circumvent it for various reasons, until Mexico isn’t appreciably different than the US (changing that dynamic will undoubtedly cost more than any border & enforcement mechanism). So what’s the most cost-effective way to do so?
Orange Wall Bad. How hard is that to understand?
Let the market adjudicate the border. When American wages drop below $2 an hour, they’ll stop coming here.
https://twitter.com/MaxNordau/status/1499199756148559879?t=_aff_Cs8-4eZQ6O35MCkDQ&s=19
You can see more smiling faces in the left photo than in the right photo.
[Pic]
Oh lord, a smirking teen! Someone call CNN!
That’s a black teen though, he can smirk without it being a hate crime.
Russia’s decision to keep its stock market closed for a fourth day is nothing but self-destructive. It looks like something an idiot tyrant would do in the name of the sunk costs fallacy. No, Mr. Putin, keeping the markets closed doesn’t freeze the value of Russia’s industries at the prices they were before you foolishly invaded the Ukraine. It’s actually making the situation worse for the Russian economy.
Exhibit A:
“MSCI said Wednesday that it would remove Russian stocks from its widely followed emerging-markets indexes. The firm said it had sought feedback from market participants and found “an overwhelming majority confirming that the Russian equity market is currently uninvestable and that Russian securities should be removed from the MSCI Emerging Markets Indices.”
Funds that seek to mirror the performance of popular benchmarks will struggle to match any changes to their Russian weightings if the market remains closed. As a result, the performance of those funds could begin to veer away from that of the indexes they are trying to match.
“If they still own stocks that are not part of the index, that would result in tracking error,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual-fund research at CFRA. “The longer this drags on, the greater the risk you’re underperforming.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-closed-russia-market-after-invasion-challenges-u-s-fund-managers-11646303401?
In short, the indexes that so many emerging market mutual funds are based on can’t keep Russian stocks in their index when the value of those stocks have dropped by (at least) 40%, and when those Russian stocks are dropped from the index, the emerging market mutual funds that track them will be forced to liquidate their Russian holdings, too.
Most retail investors aren’t buying individual Russian stocks. They’re just buying an emerging market index fund. We’re probably talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in “dumb” index money exiting the Moscow stock exchange–and not coming back until they’re sure the Moscow stock exchange will open and remain open.
Last I checked, Russia’s two largest oil companies, that were trading on the London stock exchange had fallen in value by more than 40%, and Russia’s largest bank had fallen by more than 70%. The London stock exchange, meanwhile, announced that they can’t keep listing Russian companies when the Moscow exchange is closed indefinitely either, so there won’t be any more trading on Monday on those stocks either.
This is a really big deal if you’re an oligarch. It’s bad enough that the value of your holdings has fallen by hundreds of billions of dollars. It’s even worse if there’s nowhere you can sell your holdings to raise cash. And Putin refusing to let the world see exactly how much his foolish war in the Ukraine has cost his economy and its oligarchs doesn’t change the fact that this value has been lost.
P.S. The Russian central bank has blocked payments to foreign bond holders–supposedly in retaliation for western sanctions. All that does is make it harder for Russian companies to sell debt on the international market. If you’re an investor–even outside the west–why would you buy a bond from a Russian company, right now, when the Russian central bank is blocking payments to foreign bond holders? And guess who needs to be able to raise cash right now for the benefit of your economy–Russian companies, that’s who.
It’s so important that the world shows China and any aggressor what happens when you act like Putin. This is bigger than Ukraine.
I’m actually a little hesitant to approve of targeted sanctions on individual oligarchs for a number of reasons. For one, when you make it so they can’t have any wealth outside of Putin’s Russia, you make their wealth completely dependent on keeping Putin in power. An oligarch may be more likely to work against Putin when he and his money is safely in London and he’s in Miami. Maybe we should probably make it clear that these oligarchs can defect–like Nureyev or Nadia Comaneci.
The other objection is about constitutional due process. The Constitution doesn’t give U.S. citizens any rights except for the right to be here, the right to vote, and the right to run for office. The Constitution on our rights is mainly a restriction on the government’s ability to violate them, and as long as we’re talking about the U.S. government, we’re talking about restrictions on the U.S. government when we’re talking about freezing the accounts of oligarchs.
Have these oligarchs been convicted of a crime? Were they sued by somebody? Is there a judgement against them? Were they given a trial? Were they given the opportunity to cross examine witnesses?
I’m wiling to make exceptions for war. The problem with the war on terror wasn’t that there wasn’t an AUMF. The problem was that the AUMF let them go after anyone the president determined aided Al Qaeda in any way, at any point in time, forever–and it didn’t matter what country they were in. There’s no declaration of war on Russia. By what authority is Joe Biden depriving these oligarchs of their property without due process of law?
Could this be used by a progressive government to target wealthy libertarians some day?
I’m not willing to give up on due process just because I hated terrorists, and I’m not willing to give up on due process just because I hate oligarchs either.
But as COVID proved, a large contingent of our political leadership, and their eager minions, are more than ready too suspend due process. They cite “emergencies” and “crises”, and really just any procedural limitations as justification.
^this
And when you fall fully for the underlying narrative/rationale, you unintentionally help those who WILL overstep limitations and cite “emergencies” to increase central power and take away everybody’s rights.
“Short of banning social media use, nothing can.”
Well, then, the common sense approach is clear.
Nobody needs 23 kinds of communication.
Time to invest in party lines.
“But let’s just say for a moment that TikTok is both bad for teens’ well-being and has no corresponding social or psychological value.
Couldn’t the same be said of fashion magazines? Celebrity news? Movies and TV aimed at teens? Video games? Sad or mad music? TV commercials concerning weight loss? Texting?”
Obviously. That’s why a caring, equitable government should be in charge of all these things.
“Former President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” border wall has already been breached more than 3,000 times.”
And burglars continue to break into houses. Stop wasting money on door and window locks!
It’s a baffling argument, I don’t understand how ENB can think that it’s some sort of gotcha.
Basically it’s “The roof leaks so we shouldn’t have a roof”.
“U.N. adopts historic resolution aimed at ending plastic pollution”
[…]
“For the first time, the international community has agreed on a framework to curb the world’s growing plastic problem. A resolution adopted Wednesday by the United Nations lays out an ambitious plan for developing a legally binding treaty to “end plastic pollution.”…”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/un-adopts-historic-resolution-aimed-at-ending-plastic-pollution/ar-AAUvLqW#:~:text=For%20the%20first%20time%2C%20the%20international%20community%20has,a%20legally%20binding%20treaty%20to%20%E2%80%9Cend%20plastic%20pollution.%E2%80%9D
“Legally binding”? Is the US (or its population) under legal control of UN policies?
Pretty sure we have the option of telling the UN to fuck off.
Pretty sure we have the option of telling the UN to fuck off.
Not while the Biden regime is in charge.
Are the cocktail parties that good?
There’s a lot of envelopes handed around at those cocktail parties, so yes.
“First Capitol riot trial: Militia member ‘lit the match,’ prosecutor says”
[…]
“WASHINGTON — A Texas militia member who is the first person to be tried for the assault on the U.S. Capitol “lit the match that started the fire” when a mob charged at police officers guarding the building, a prosecutor said Wednesday during the trial’s opening statements.
A defense lawyer told jurors that the Justice Department’s case against Guy Wesley Reffitt is based on “a lot of hype” and a “rush to judgment” against a man who is prone to bragging, exaggerating and ranting.
[…]
“The defendant was the tip of this mob’s spear,” Nestler said. He referred to the Jan. 6 riot as an attack on the “heart of democracy in our country” and the worst assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812…”
https://www.pilotonline.com/nation-world/vp-nw-capitol-riot-first-trial-20220302-hveqqyab7ff4hfe6n7u2kdewk4-story.html
So he’s charged with what exactly? Being a Brit?
the worst assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812
Jubal Early might beg to differ.
So… why don’t we refer to Zuckerberg, Gates, Buffet, etc as oligarchs?
We should.
I’m in
Whatever I may think of TikTok (and I don’t think much of it, going by what I’ve seen of it), I don’t harbor any illusions that the government is nimble enough to provide any meaningful protection from social media platforms. We’re going to have to figure it out ourselves.
That’s just crazy talk. What kind of alt-right Nazi are you?
The worst kind! For instance, I am not wearing a mask right now.
I do.
So not a fan of the no-bra challenge? Fucking commie.
well thats a google search I didnt regret
Concur!
Nice.
As Russia shows, just invade a foreign country and the platforms operating in your adversary’s home country will voluntarily remove them from use.
Up above, I’m raising questions about whether Putin is smart. There are people in this world who know a lot about quantum physics and theoretical mathematics that couldn’t run a hot dog stand profitably. There are problems no one could foresee and avoid, but the old adage about how stupid is as stupid does really is true. Smart people make hard decisions with no good options in bad circumstances. On the other hand, whatever the benefit of Putin getting himself stuck in a Ukrainian quagmire was, the cost in terms of destroying his economy is really high. Maybe Putin didn’t expect the west to unite in defense of the Ukraine, but if that’s the case, should we really think of him as smart? Judging by performance, Hitler and Saddam Hussein were idiots. They destroyed their countries for nothing. Putin’s doing it, too.
I’ve seen some people suggest that he’s paranoid, which I also question. Given that the rest of the world is conspiring to destroy him–plenty of his crony oligarchs probably are, too–how can we call him paranoid? Hitler was in the same situation. So was Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Just because you’re paranoid, I guess, doesn’t necessarily mean the CIA and the whole wide world isn’t conspiring to kill you. In the case of Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden’s, the world succeeded in killing them, too. If you put yourself in a situation where the rest of world would be better off if someone put a bullet in your head, maybe it’s not crazy to be paranoid.
https://twitter.com/_BarringtonII/status/1499406780752932865?t=z9MyoDscUtQPWNqbMTveNg&s=19
People don’t understand how much they don’t think for themselves and it’s very disheartening to see and watch in real time.
https://twitter.com/ConceptualJames/status/1499405689374089220?t=CsdmpVCGEwXygFU74xuUWg&s=19
Red Guard
[Video]
https://twitter.com/braxton_mccoy/status/1499398333034479620?t=aLxh__BtJtZgnSuAZ_xEFQ&s=19
One of my favorite new trends is Democrats who mostly live in cities that have warheads pointed at them calling for a nuclear exchange.
Darwinism has never been something that favored progs
I’ve been wondering a lot lately if Los Lunas is far enough away from Albuquerque to be worth it or just enough to make the last few days really suck.
Or, of course, possibly not far enough away at all and I won’t have to deal with any of the aftermath.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is disappointed with crypto exchanges’ “philosophy of libertarianism or whatever.”
If only you could wipe crypto away with a rag or something.
Crypto didn’t kill itself.
Former President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” border wall has already been breached more than 3,000 times.
Yeah, probably people leaving the hellhole he created.
A member of the Oath Keepers has pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in conjunction with the January 6 riots.
Maybe next time he’ll take that oath as seriously as the politicians and judges.
“‘Attorneys general in these states say they are looking into whether TELEVISION is bad for “children, teens, and young adults” and whether TELEVISION executives know this.”‘
https://twitter.com/LeonydusJohnson/status/1499414658184359942?t=skzOEi8u3PRxS3A7CeEwKQ&s=19
You know that sense of unease where you recognize that something is wrong but you aren’t exactly sure what it is. That’s how I felt when COVID first started. That’s how I feel now with Russia and Ukraine.
I am sure we will find out in time. But something clearly isn’t right.
Former President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” border wall has already been breached more than 3,000 times.
How about the areas where there is no wall?
How is that information useful for Orang Man Badding?
Its actually simple. Since the smugglers generally go where there is no wall, you say Trump built it in the wrong place.
But that risks the Walls Don’t Work narrative.
They seemed to work pretty well at the State of the Union Address.
>>Hillary Clinton is disappointed with crypto exchanges’ “philosophy of libertarianism or whatever.”
H turned out to be just a stupid chick who rode her husband’s coattails farther than anyone before.
This. Funny thing is despite all the “woman shattering the glass ceiling” talk, she ended up being a many time failure, who’s greatest accomplishment was an unelected appointment (given as a consolation prize for losing) given to her by a man that bested her, and being married to a popular dem president.
So basically earned nothing on her own, got everything given to her by men. No wonder that glass ceiling didnt break
Let’s not forget her Senate seat, which was handed to her when Giuliani had to drop out.
the Yankees-cap pic is the height of political pandering.
I would love to see Caitlyn Jenner run against Hillary Clinton for president in 2024, and win. Just to make the point that people would rather have a dude as the first woman president, than Hillary Clinton.
Hillary’s not dumb, but her venality, entitlement, and lack of self-awareness have been crippling weaknesses ever since she and Bill projected themselves as “co-Presidents” during his ’92 run.
I’m convinced that Bill actually would have been perfectly happy to stay in Arkansas chasing tail his whole political career, and Hillary was really the one pushing him to go national because she saw him as the means to advance her own ambitions.
Almost certainly.
Man, the memes when she finally croaks are going to be epic, and the wailing they’ll cause deafening.
That is, assuming we’re not all dead from nuclear war.
We don’t have to all be dead, you’re already not allowed to Tweet mean things about Democrats.
”
Josh Rogin
@joshrogin
U.S. Rep. Van Taylor ends reelection campaign after he admits to affair with former wife of ISIS commander. Not the Onion.”
Well, I saw pictures of her and as such I won’t judge him too harshly. Any of us might have made a similar tactical error in the fight against extremist Islam.
Cite?
https://twitter.com/AfricaClear/status/1499168172846501890
Has a picture of the terrorist in question.
I mean… Yeah, I’da probably taken the chance on trying to dick the crazy out of her, too.
I’da probably taken the chance on trying to dick the crazy out of her, too.
I think somebody already did.
“I need meaning in my life. My children give meaning. Fifty percent of the reason why I changed and de-radicalized was because of my children,” she says. “I love them more than my religion, which I’m not allowed to do in Islam. I want to see them grow up and benefiting humanity, not destroying it. I want to watch them thrive and do well. That conflicted with my religion. But I was already waning in my belief.
She lives in Texas and gives speeches at interfaith events. Yet another nothingburger story writ large and propagandized.
She fine
I’ve seen far hotter Arabs, to be honest.
I’ve only seen the one picture, but I’d put her toward the ceiling for Arabs.
Persians, on the other hand, she probably wouldn’t warrant a second glance among.
“California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont are participating in the investigation.”
On the bright side, it’s bipartisan.
Days since ENB referenced ygleasis : 15
I hope my counter is staving off the refrences
It’s keeping away the tigers as well.
Kuckland I want to buy your counter.
https://twitter.com/Richard_Harambe/status/1499086907954839556
“Kamala with AOC’s eyes, you’re welcome.”
People can’t unsee that, you bastard!
Just because we’re concerned about people being wrongly accused of child abuse doesn’t mean we think nobody is rightly accused of it.
All this talk about “mental health” undermines the First Amendment in a fundamental way. Yes, some types of discussion can cause people some anxiety. But that really isn’t a pathological condition, it’s part of life. I’d even say that robust public discussions should make some people anxious, people who are the targets of public criticism that can sometimes be quite justified. Gratuitous insults, on the other hand, should be recognized as what they are and ignored. (And tools already exist to automatically ignore posts from those who are abusive. Even this comment board now has the “mute user” button.)
Gratuitous insults, on the other hand, should be recognized as what they are and ignored.
Fuck you too, buddy.