It’s like the saying “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” By playing the game you perpetuate its existence, so yeah-I hate the player.

I feel like every member of HHS and other agencies should agree to just scream “GET FUCKED, BRAIN WORM” any time he says anything until they are fired or he quits.

I would argue that if you recognize you lack the knowledge to form an opinion, you’re doing better than 90% of people online.

This is insane. When exactly is a permissible age for kids to be walking about on their own?

In Georgia, probably 30.

All good, I didn’t take it that way. We should be expecting more than the bare minimum, but even the bare minimum would mean people I care about having safer lives.

100% agree. My comment was more about how much easier it would be for someone who isn’t moved by compassion to just not be a gaping asshole by going “not my issue.”

My personal feelings are that there are people I care about who have aspects to them I don’t understand and that doesn’t keep me from caring about them or believing they have the same rights as anyone else to live their lives in a way that expresses their complete selves. Attempts to harm them because of who they are are wrong and I will always fight against those who want to keep people from being their true selves.

The most pragmatic view is “how does this affect me? It doesn’t? Who cares.”

Do you mean “the left” as in “US democrats” or “the left” as in actual leftists? Because actual leftists have been attacked by every government in power of the US and western industrialized nations since before WWII. That “left” has a damn good reason for lacking a cohesive message.

The big money donors don’t even want to hear pretend populist messages with a left bent.

Glad my brain is cracked the same way as at least a couple other people. I saw the Venus of Willendorf as well.

People who were already poor would remain so. Most people who aren’t wealthy can’t afford to own acres of land that doesn’t produce crops. If leaves suddenly became money, that would not change the fundamental needs people have of food and shelter. So you’d have the wealthy with vast swathes of forest that would slowly die as they carted out a lot of compost for use in markets, and people who live in apartments or other rental situations would never see a leaf on the ground again. You might see suburban homeowners get really good about caring for their trees and planting more, so that’s one possible benefit but overall this would be a nightmare.

There are old methods of getting lumber from trees by cutting them short and letting the limbs grow back. The Japanese “daisugi” and European “copsing” are two different styles of the same idea. The fact that we don’t see those done much in the modern era makes me think that the industrial-capitalist mind would not comprehend the idea of waiting for leaves to fall.

What does happen if the president-elect dies before the inauguration?

I’m guessing that’s pretty common.

“Yes, it’s a trick and you’re turning it.”

There is a competitive aspect: a quiz show where contestants compete to win the right to push the billionaire into the tank.

“I’m not gay, I’m just a man who really likes the taste of sweaty balls and the feel of a hard cock in my ass.”

Those are also places where a lot of regressive candidates run unopposed and hold office for decades because they’re the only ones who have an interest in the position. Prime spots for someone with different ideas to throw their hat in the ring.

We need at least one new party in this country, and one that runs for local elections first to build a bench of people who can run for higher office.

Even if I didn’t believe the national Green Party was just a spoiler (regardless of how they started out,) they spend all their time and energy pushing a presidential candidate every four years rather than working on ground game.

I think states like Texas are actually fertile ground if you focus on what people are dealing with in their day to day life and start small-county commissions, town council positions, even sheriff if you have a county where the local sheriff is unpopular and your party platform is looking at criminal justice reform.

I also think pushing for changes to use ranked choice voting with proportional representation would generate long-term change. Single Tranferable Vote has worked well in Ireland, and historically it worked well in multiple American cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote?wprov=sfti1

Okay, how about the 34% of voters in PA as mentioned in the OP? Or the black Americans who said Gaza was important to them?