Traditionally, the incumbent has a huge advantage. I don’t believe that the party of any sitting president that was primaried ever won the election. There are only a few cases of a sitting president that was eligible for another term stepping aside, and those were a very long time ago.

There was very little precedent for what Biden did, and I think very few could have predicted the enthusiasm for Harris - I remember her last campaign. It wasn’t inspiring.

I think Biden felt like the safest choice to many, though obviously that’s been proven incorrect. Hopefully the Democratic party will take a lesson from this and be more willing to replace an incumbent in the future if there’s a better option.

Finished installing a 3.5" lift on my truck - it goes in for an alignment Tuesday, and then it’ll be ready to drive!

This has freed me to start working on my car again - I had pulled the transmission to replace the clutch, upgrade the synchros, and install a limited-slip front differential. That’s going back in, and I also installed upgraded coilovers. Probably have at least a few more weekends of work there to get the car back on the road, but I’m super excited to have two working vehicles on the horizon. The car has been down since around Christmas.

All conservatives seem to be anymore is 3rd grade schoolyard bullies. I guess they’re just as weak and insecure. Such a shame that such a huge chuck of the population will never reach self actualization. What a pitiful existence - kinda makes me sad for them.

He can’t, as this is an ideological split between the parties and would need to go through the house as well, where it would fail. Bringing this up now helps inform voters of an issue that could be resolved if Democrats turn out and take control of the house while retaining control of the Senate and executive branch.

Post belongs to Post Holdings, which is publicly traded. Folgers is a subsidiary of Proctor & Gamble, and Jimmy Dean is a subsidiary of Tyson Foods. It seems unlikely that all three companies would even support their products being hocked together in such a manner. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was unauthorized and he’s attempting to appear like he has more support than he really does.

Edit: spotted Maxwell House in there too, and that’s owned by yet another company, Kraft Heinz.

Edit 2: Ah, it appears he wasn’t hocking these products after all. Apparently we don’t have to start foraging our own food yet.

No one can resist Tricky Dick.

Another good piece of media on the topic from an ex-cop YouTuber: https://youtu.be/HZ3SSNJIQ2k?si=QBw2vtdbElmK8wvn

I think the chaos will be happening at State capitols this time. National Guard (generally, with some exceptions) report to each state’s Governor. Many Republican Governors will be all to happy to start shit up and look the other way just as Trump did on 1/6.

"This warning isn’t just for uBlock Origin users. All extensions built on MV2 will display this warning on the Chrome extensions page if users have updated to Chrome version 127. Users of Chrome’s Beta, Dev, and Canary channels have been seeing these warnings since June 3, 2024.

Although users can temporarily re-enable their MV2 extensions, Google plans to disable these extensions gradually over the next few months. Eventually, users won’t be able to use MV2 extensions at all and will have to switch to MV3 alternatives suggested by the Chrome Web Store."

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/using-ublock-origin-google-chrome-warns-users-it-is-going-to-ban-it/ar-AA1ofsSZ

Also not on Eternity

“Hey Strongbad - check out my creepy pants!”

DELETED / DELORTED

Just because modern ‘conservatism’ is practically defined by its incompetence, doesn’t mean it hasn’t been racking up win after win after win. They are relentless, fueled by fanatical religious views, a sense of entitlement to take any step necessary to achieve their goals, and pure hatred of anyone that attempts to stand in their way or even moderate their views.

Their hatred is infectious, and there are unending waves of fools ready to sacrifice themselves for what they see as a holy war. Don’t think for a second that Project 2025 isn’t incredibly dangerous, even if Project Heritage has understated offices.

Also US, and largely agree, but I would move Hardee’s/ Carl’s Jr. Down to bottom tier. That’s also where I’d put Jack in the Box. I’d put both In-n-Out and Whataburger as mid tier - I think both are VASTLY overrated.

Though In-n-Out is owned by a Christian Nationalist that’s hell-bent on turning America into (more of) a fascist oligarchy and openly using their wealth to destroy democracy, so they’re on my boycott list, along with Chick-fil-A.

Disclaimer: I hate cruises and the entire industry, but ended up getting roped into a few before COVID by weird family dynamics.

I found a portable router to be pretty handy on cruise ships. The only Internet available is through the ship’s WiFi, and the Internet package I had limited connectivity to a single connected device per cabin. The travel router would be the single MAC and allow all our devices to connect. I was also able to share with family in the next cabin over.

A few months ago I stayed in a hotel for about a week and I couldn’t get my Nintendo Switch to connect through their Wi-Fi. My Switch also doesn’t work on my phone’s hotspot for some reason, even though other devices connect and work fine. Anyway, that scenario would’ve been nice for a travel router, but I didn’t bring it with me on that trip.

This is a short distance from the equator. The seasons there don’t really affect temperature significantly; only rainfall.

[JULES] They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?

[VINCENT] No, they got the metric system there, they wouldn’t know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.

[JULES] Then what do they call it?

[VINCENT] They call it Royale with Cheese.

[JULES] Royale with Cheese. What do they call a Big Mac?

[VINCENT] Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.

While at-home testing kits are hard to come by now, and community testing is all but shut down, hospitals still have plenty of availability to run tests. If someone is admitted as an inpatient to a hospital for respiratory issues so severe they end in death, there is an overwhelming likelihood that patient is getting tested for COVID. Particularly due to their legal liability for allowing someone to die due to an undiagnosed infection.

So yeah, we don’t have good numbers for a raw number of active community infections anymore, but the fatality numbers should still be around as accurate as they ever were.

Completely agree on your other points though!

As a response to the assertions you shared, particularly the second paragraph:

This is all true, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t have a good idea what’s going on without testing individual potential cases - most cities are still monitoring sewage that gives incredibly accurate data on how prevalent COVID (among other diseases) is, which neighborhoods are having surges, which variants are infecting people, etc. Plus limited sampling and testing of individuals can still be pretty darn accurate at identifying what’s going on with the rest of the population.

But yeah, a layperson looking at raw case numbers without any kind of error correction is going to come to the wrong conclusions on how things are going with COVID.

I don’t necessarily blame governments for ending the major individual testing efforts - large chunks of the population were disregarding masking / isolation / quarantine protocols anyway and there was little of any means of enforcement. Sucks that it makes it much harder for an individual to protect themselves and their family, but the responsible people will continue to mask up and isolate when warranted, and doing all that testing for a bunch of assholes to disregard anyway is quite a waste of resources.