Is it a full nappy?

I think you should identify as a problem instead of identifying as the problem if possible. The former attitude has more ‘spunk’ as the yanks say.

I like being able to see the source before I consider investigating further - archive.org links at the top level make that harder.

Where are you getting such questionably cheap steak?

So he just has to increase the tariff by -20%?

I feel entirely powerless to affect change too. But then at times I guess it’s because the vast majority of people don’t see the world in the same way that I do, and so unless I can convince them that change is important, then isn’t going to happen.

And how would I convince these people? How would I make them see the world in the way that I do? How do I communicate something that is so central to me but so subtle and peripheral to them? Why should they bother to listen?

And the conclusion that I come to is that in a world where we are generally free to express ourselves, but are constantly fighting for attention, it is always going to be an uphill struggle; but it’s the only thing that I can do to change anything.

Sorry that I don’t have an answer for you.

I can understand the desire to rationalise a path through what you’re facing at the moment. But sometimes change is outside of our hands.

As an aside, don’t forget that higher levels of organisation make it easier to decapitate a movement.

Yeah, and I mean, that’s great in theory, but do you understand how large the US is? If a protest started right now in DC, and half the country decided they wanted to attend, even if they all left right now, it would take days for them to even arrive, and then we’d have a hundred million cars trying to get into DC, and the majority wouldn’t even get close. Most probably wouldn’t even make it to West Virginia. It’s not like we can all just hop on a train and be there by dinner time.

Yeah, the point isn’t actually that they get there. The point is that they all dramatically change their behaviour in a fairly worrying way.

I think that sometimes the need for organisation is a little overrated. If 50% of Americans were so pissed off by Trump’s actions that they all just stopped whatever they were doing and converged on Washington DC just so they could stand as close as possible to the federal Government and stare at them in the face… I think something would change. You can do all the organisation you want, but sometimes it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back that triggers change.

You sure he can keep it up for that long?

How much longer before the US loses the hegemony of the dollar as a reserve currency do you think?

Trump and Vance are bullies. The kind of damage this will do to the PR of the USA is incalculable.

Will there be anymore goodwill for the USA?

Cruel and unusual punishment you say?

Once you are a billionaire, you get a nationally broadcast pizza party on CSPAN and we engrave your name into a plaque in some “hall of smart winners” somewhere in DC. You are declared a champion of the economy and the President shakes your hand and declares a one-time national day to be in your honor. Or they read your name during the superbowl that year or whatever. Your place in history is locked in.

No, you’ve won the game so you start over with zero dollars on level 2 (someone breaks one of your legs to make it harder).

I think it’s ironic that Trump and Musk are trying to implement the kind of shock that might wake someone up and bring them around. If nothing else, they are making clear the absurdity of Government and the contradiction that we call democracy. I think there’s something hideously ironic there.

But that is not to say that I deny the pain and suffering of those who suffer from any kind of disability.

I think this is because Trump realised that we’re all disabled. We’re all disabled by the social norms and conditioning that surround us. No one is intrinsically disabled; we are only made to suffer disability by the unreasonable expectations placed upon us from outside.

Trump it taking us one step closer towards waking up.

People will still be alive in four years?

So tell me again why it’s okay for the Government to backdoor encryption.

You do realise that a load of former Nazi officers were welcomed back into administrative and leadership positions in West Germany after the end of WW2, right?