“Here’s our North Star: does this help us win? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission.”

It’s about damn time. No more moral victories, you gotta WIN before you can change or improve anything.

China should sell $10 billion worth of weapons Venezuela.

“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said, starting as he meant to go on by telling a lie: he claimed that inflation was the worst in 48 years when he took office, when in fact it had come back down to 3%.

He went on to place blame at the feet of Biden, previous trade deals, immigrants and what he described as a corrupt system.

Fascists can’t actually solve problems, even though they will tell you they’re the only ones who can. They don’t have problem solving skills, that’s why they’re fascists. They blame, deflect and scapegoat, and do it very aggressively and forcefully. Unfortunately, many people mistake that for strength. But fascists are not strong, they’re weak, and they try to compensate for their weakness by acting very strong, in very superficial ways. That’s why they are so focused on hyper masculine performance.

REAL strength is not an over inflated ego, it’s not threats and cruelty, it’s not being ignorant and proud of it, it’s not unnecessary aggression and violence. Real strength is accountability. Weak people think it shows strength to never admit when you’re wrong, but that’s completely false. Real strength is owning up to your mistakes, but not so you can crumble into self loathing, it’s so you can learn from them and become better. Real strength is learning, it’s knowledge and understanding.

You can’t fix a problem that you don’t understand, and you can’t understand a problem if you are unwilling to look at it honestly and critically, without bias. But that takes humility and weak people think humility is weakness, and they think arrogance is strength. The opposite is true. Humility is STRENGTH. That’s why fascists can never lead, because leadership takes real strength and they don’t have it.

If driverless taxis ever go mainstream (and that’s a big if), it will be from companies like Waymo, not Tesla. Tesla shouldn’t be seen as a serious company. I mean, they do sell legitimate products, but their $1.6 trillion market cap isn’t based on what they sell today, but what their cult member investors think they’re going to bring to market in the future. You know, all the stuff that will usher in the post-human, techno utopia. It’s all nonsense, and someday it will all come crashing down, though that could take a while. People can stay delusional for a long time.

I always put the lid down. It’s got a lid for a reason, it looks much nicer with it down.

The US is the dictator of the world, and has been for some time.

Yeah, Trump’s an idiot, but the American people are bigger idiots for voting for him, twice.

And the neoliberals/libertarians/anarcho capitalists cheered. Of course people who worship the “free market,” and who believe that governments can only ever do harm and that taxation is theft, want the government to be dysfunctional. Because, ultimately, they don’t want the government to function, at all. Why would they? Why would someone who adamantly believes that governments are always bad want a functioning government?

Who was projecting that global energy related CO2 emissions would increase from 34 gigatons to 50 gigatons between 2014 and 2040? Was that a reasonable projection? What was it based on? Is this evidence of “progress” or inaccurate projecting into the future?

I can project that the murder rate will increase 50% between now and 2050, and then when the murder rate only goes up 10% I can say, “omg, we’ve made such great progress on the murder rate,” even though it still went up, because it didn’t go up as much as I projected it would. But was my projection likely or even feasible in the first place?

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Probably someone who lives in the southern US, where it rarely snows. This wouldn’t be unusual for someone living in many northern states, especially those around the great lakes. But to a southerner, this might as well be a different planet. They will close schools and businesses even for relatively light snow in the South. It frightens and bewilders them.

I know. I was siding with Rand Paul here.

A deal to end the 41-day government shutdown is running into turbulence, thanks to a single Senate objection: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Senate Republican and Democratic leaders say they need to resolve Paul’s objection to a provision in the government funding package before they can accelerate consideration of the bill. The provision would restrict the unregulated sale of intoxicating…hemp-derived products like Delta-8 at gas stations, corner stores, or online without federal regulation.

I mean, do we really need this provision, right now? I’m not necessarily opposed to federal regulation of Delta-8 products, but can’t we address that at a later date? Let’s get the government open and worry about Delta-8 later.

People want validation not advice, even if that advice could fix their problem.

How do I know this isn’t just a pic someone snapped of guy in parking lot crying because he just lost his job, or because he was just informed that his mom died?

It’ll get worse.

If you’re a right wing libertarian or neoliberal who believes that governments are always corrupt, inefficient and incompetent, the best way to prove yourself right is to ensure that the government is always corrupt, inefficient and incompetent.

Hoping’s fine just don’t hold your breath.

And if capitalists cared about inequality, I’m sure they’d be very worried about this.

Neoliberals do not like populism. They’re not fully committed to democracy, either. Or, at least, their support for democracy is conditional. Friedrich Hayek, one of the architects of neoliberalism, once said:

Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.

I think it’s worth noting that this is not unique or exclusive to neoliberals. Really, any ideologue or technocrat will only ever support democracy conditionally.