McGuffin

Desperately craving someone to give them orders to follow.

Or in this case, sometTHING.

I will grant people some grace for voting for him the first time around.

They fell victim to what I call "The Ben Stein Effect": conflating someone with the role they're best known for.

In this case, a shrewd, savvy businessman.

The *second* time, however...

You mean when you buy something, you expect to actually own and control it?

How old-fashioned.

www.el-balad.com/16879167

"Town Center Cow Drama".

Okay, I'm picturing a production of _Wuthering Heights_ with an all-bovine cast.

"The right reading is the one I'm giving."
"At the moment."

"Reputational damage".

What's that scene from _Clue_? Ah, yes.

"Are you trying to make me look stupid in front of the other guests?"
"You don't need any help from me, sir."

I don't think this is new, really.

The *nakedness* of it may be. The brazen, obvious, you-can't-touch-us aspect, perhaps.

Guess who isn't paying any attention to what hundreds of years of history has shown to be true?

The admin that purged much of its top military, decimated agencies entrusted with preserving history, kicked analysts to the curb, and put in their place loyalists with the mindset of teen video gamers.

I have never in my life understood the phenomenon of conservative furries.

I mean, I don't get conservative Trekkies, either.

I know that all art is a Rorschach, but damn.

It is very easy to read statements like this as a joke.

This is not a joke.

We have proven with AI, completely by accident, what knowledgeable people have been saying for decades: the environment that rich people live in gives them a very specific personality disorder.

Our brain trust is being...
*puts on sunglasses*
Kashed out.

He doubtless believes that the army can just file for bankruptcy and move on.

And now, I'm again hearing the voice of a little girl who would grow up to be Whoopi Goldberg, excitedly telling her mother about seeing "a Black lady on the TV, and she ain't no maid!"

She was watching _Star Trek_.

Or, perhaps more directly, why I’m not cis, after a childhood spent reading book after book that invariably starred cis people.

Shouldn't there be some eyedrops involved, maybe a little Ludwig van playing in the background?

And now I'm reminded of a young conservative furry who insisted that medical costs were so high because that's what people were willing to pay.

Because insulin is just like peanut butter, y'see. You can go without, if you don't want it enough to pay the market price.

There’s nothing more obnoxious than when people celebrate being an asshole or “just saying what everyone’s thinking”

Yeah, dude, most people have edgy thoughts, and learn to keep them inside. It’s called control. What you’re doing is like being really proud of constantly shitting yourself.

"Avoid difficult language", they say.

"Younger", "vulnerable", and "father" are _difficult_?

And that's not even getting into the loss of meaning.

This was in a comic aimed at 10 year olds. I need people who don't want to encounter big scary words in prose to get on the level of a superhero comic aimed at 10 year olds.

so the prosecutor essentially argued swastikas are pro-trump.

I feel like the biggest question of all remains:
Why.
The Fuck.
Did we elect him.
AGAIN?!

It would've been so damn easy to avoid ALL of this.

What sound -does- an exploding cow make?

#AI does not "commodify" intelligence: the commodity it offers is not really #intelligence.

The mayor shows more grace than I'm inclined to.

As Li'l Tommy severely compromised our forces by holding up military appointments, I think it safe to discard his opinions on who "the enemy" is, or how they are to be met.

On top of, y'know, him being a racist shit.

Obvious attack on the First Amendment, and also--importantly--an attack on the second amendment

One asshole did a stupid thing, and the completely legal firearms owned by other protesters became evidence of domestic terrorism

It's that last point that the orange waste of oxygen was most surprised by, I think.

After all, when has -he- ever faced consequences?

Sometimes, the greater miracle is the one that makes sense.

So to summarise: You failed to take out the regime. You failed to destroy nuclear material. You failed to eradicate Iran's retaliatory capacity. You brought chaos to the Middle East. You killed god knows how many people. You destabilised your own economy. All for nothing, but the ego of madman.

Y'know, at the end of "In the Pale Moonlight", when Sisko said *he* could live with it?

His body language screamed otherwise.