Less electable than Herschal Walker

5 democrats voted against reining in this current attack.

Just enough defections to guarantee the resolution fails. Cuellar is, incidentally, the highest ranking Dem on the House Appropriations Committee, a job Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries allows him to keep despite needing Trump’s Presidential pardon to stay out of jail.

Vargas is, similarly, a steaming pile of shit who squats on one of the bluest districts in the country.

You can go down the list. These are all enabled by national leadership and state level corporate money. They’re symptoms of a corrupt and diseased partisan system.

And “was a rapist in FL and a private island”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_N._Straus_House#Jeffrey_Epstein

Gotta wonder why the NY AG is so interested in prosecuting Steam and so blase about pursuing anyone in the Epstein Files.

according to Arnie Bellini, a tech entrepreneur and investor.

Hey Arnie, what are you an investor in?

Bellini founded Bellini Capital, where he serves as CEO. The firm invests in cybersecurity software, services, and related fields

Cool.

I often wonder how many black hat hacker groups and other malicious digital actors are the cat’s paw of cybersecurity businesses.

Americans consistently bemoan violent teenagers until they put on a uniform. Maybe we should start referring to them as Military Age Males.

I think support for the war in Texas and similar red states is weaker than you’d think

The Republican political majority and much of the nationally elected DINO contingent fully backs the war. Maybe the people don’t, but they’ll continue to send up people who do to make decisions on their behalf.

enough dumb F**ks who would be brought back in line with a false flag attack

Or just an AI video overlaid with TikTok voice that claims there was an Iranian attack.

The Totenkoph is popular among fascists the world over.

From Mussolini’s Black Brigades and the British Royal Air Force to both the Azov Battalions and the Wagner Group to the Punisher Logo that American fascists love so much.

Reminds me of the death of General Solomani. The Iranian response was “We’d kill someone in America that your people love and value, but who would that even be?”

Americans can bomb Iranian cultural sites because they still have them. We paved over paradise and put up a parking lot.

“Iran deeply regrets not investing in an ICBM, studies show.”

The media agitation is aimed at blue states, because blue states have the highest population of anti-war people.

We’re not going to get a story about Texas being targeted by Iran, because Texans are largely on board with the war. We’re going to get an endless earful about California and New York and Minnesota and Oregon, because it gives reactionary media an opportunity to scream “Why are you rooting for Radical Islamic Jihadists?! THEY WANT TO KILL YOU!!”

Also, provides another great excuse for Trump when he decides to send in ICE to rough up brown people in SF or LA.

Actually, that’s not the truth. That’s propaganda from <insert person or group I don’t like>.

Feel the same way about people wringing their hands over dead US soldiers, as though they’re the only people who matter.

A Thai shipping frigate just got hit in the Straight of Hormuz, and I have seen absolutely nobody on national news raise the question of whether any of the crew were injured or killed. Similarly, Israel and the UAE have been incredibly close-mouthed about civilian deaths from Iranian attacks into civilian areas, because they consider it a public embarrassment. Nobody seems to want to talk about the “collateral damage”.

And then there’s the death toll in Iran itself. I was getting ear-blasted with “Iranian Government Murders 10,000! 20,000! 30,000! people!” for weeks. Suddenly, Iranian deaths don’t matter, unless they’re high ranking politicians or military figures.

This reeks of the same coverage we got out of Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Ethiopia. National news is entirely contained within jingoistic nationalist terms. We’re covering (and increasingly gambling) on the outcome like its a basketball game.

Vile.

if you’re born into a religious family initially you just adopt it

Right. Because there’s no inherent reason not to do so. And little kids tend to want to follow along with what they’re elders are doing.

Compare it to how most kids initially believe Santa Claus exists because they were told so.

Kids are told that they get presents by pleasing their parents. And then the decision making / agency is displaced onto a fictitious figure. That’s a very neat analogy for religion in the aggregate. Whether or not you “believe in Santa”, you’re still getting gifts based on your parents’ resources and generosity. If you want the newest kids’ favorite widget, you’re following the letter of the law whether or not you adhere to the spirit.

You can also participate in some church community stuff without being a member or even going to church.

If you’ve got friends/family who are members/do go, sure. Because they’re your social connection.

But you’ll struggle to join a community event if you don’t know anybody - or even when/where the event takes place. Nevermind knowing what’s in the works, what needs volunteers, what needs money, and who is in charge of leading them. The more you want to participate, the more you need to attend the religious church functions. The more you want to get into leadership, the more you need to demonstrate your piety.

you’re gonna vet the creator/know them

I mean, sure. If you know the person IRL for some reason and you’re just sending them money for nudes in a sugar daddy relationship. Idk how common that is in practice though.

But just going on OnlyFans and opening your wallet isn’t any more ethical than hitting up a strip club.

But still, yes, you’re right, things are, as usual, always a bit of a mess in our world.

I mean, that’s half the reason for decriminalizing sex work. So you’re not offering up police/prosecutors and associated regulators as leverage over people doing the actual work.

Everyone is born into the world entirely ignorant. Cultures, customs, languages, and superstitions espoused by their parents, teachers, and peers are adopted as a matter of survival. And as the individual develops more autonomy, they use the information they gathered in their youth to navigate into new cultures and belief systems, in pursuit of improved material conditions.

You can be born into a Catholic family and become Atheist just as easily as you can be born into an Atheist family and become Catholic. What has driven the modern collapse in religiosity is - at least in my view - the mass migration driven by economic expansion and ecological collapse. People aren’t just waking up one day and deciding they aren’t gullible anymore. They’re being shuffled around by tidal forces and torn away from the historical cultures and infrastructure that had reproduced their families’ beliefs.

As a kid, my mom was deeply Catholic and tried to get us to attend church. But we moved several times, and after each move we found ourselves at a new church (often not even a Catholic church) with an alien congregation and divergent dogma. So what had rooted her and her sisters and parents and grandparents in Catholicism never took root with me or my sister.

By contrast, my wife’s family lived in Galveston for four generations. Virtually her entire family is devote practicing Catholics. She only slipped through the cracks because… her dad moved around a lot, particularly after her parents got divorced. Everyone else - even two of her transgender cousins - are still practicing. Churches are, at their heart, social institutions. And I think modern New Atheists often miss that fact in their quest to Own The Dumb Pious Folks.

I mean if you pay a creator directly I don’t see how that could be unethical

Plenty of actresses and cam girls - particularly those working overseas - are managed directly by pimps or by agencies that function no differently. Plenty more are exploited indirectly in the same way Uber and Lyft exploit their drivers - treated as contract labor, underpaid, and subjected to abuse both off and on camera.

The system is fucked but people still need to eat

Sure. “No ethical consumption under capitalism”, yadda yadda.

And there’s plenty of arguments for why direct sourcing has better broad economic incentives. But Hugh Hiefner played this game with Playboy sixty years ago, insisting everyone was paid well and treated respectfully. And that was the softest of soft core. Turns out his organization was barely a step above the guys making porn videos for Times Square.

You make the best decisions you can. But at some point you have to recognize that you’re buying a narrative as much as anything.

If the US was serious about their offer

As of early 2026, the U.S. has allocated approximately $175 billion to $188 billion in total, covering military, financial, and humanitarian aid related to the war in Ukraine. Of this, roughly $66.9 billion to $69 billion has been specifically dedicated to security assistance and military aid.

That’s more than the entire GDP of Ukraine when the war broke out.

You’re allowed to watch porn, let’s just direct the fear of people finding out into finding ethical porn you don’t need to feel guilt for.

I mean, YMMV on that ethical porn business. I’ve found that to be more of a marketing gimmick than anything I can sleep soundly on.

Might just settle on not feeling guilty for beating off.