Gods, I wish someone would gag that bloated gasbag.

I don’t think it’s a cop out at all. It’s a very good start and I appreciate the work and the quote. It sets me to thinking of a monstrous demigod by the name of Na’scrivas I’ve had rattling around for some time (I made an anagram of scrivener and changed a few letters. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy a good apostrophe in a fantasy setting.). It’s takes the form of a journal that makes its contents a reality at the cost of slowly detaching the writer further and further from reality. The idea is that by the end of the story the reader should question how much of it actually happened, and how much was simply the protagonist going mad.

‘Twas ever thus.

If Reagan were around to see this we might stand a chance at getting some kind of gun control.

It’s certainly a beer in its own right, but that’s simply a matter of definition and production. I know it has a history of being served mixed, but I’ve certainly come across it served on its own a non-trivial number of times.

I was just looking to express my penchant for collecting pseudo-historical stories that I don’t feel compelled to check the accuracy of because they don’t purport to express anything important. Ngl though, I would play the fuck out of that encounter if you made it.

Xitter* (pronounced shitter)

I once ran across a Berliner Weisse at a brewer’s festival that made excellent use of pickle juice. I had to try it out of curiosity, and while it was too much on the palate to drink many more than one, had a lived in the area I would have had one every evening. I wish I remembered the brewery so I could recommend it.

Iirc, Tchaikovsky wrote his 1812 Overture rather quickly to commemorate the defense of Russia against Napoleon and wasn’t too thrilled with it himself. I believe he called it noisy and without artistry, but I’m prone to collecting myths, so please do check my work.

Just because you don’t agree with criticism doesn’t mean It’s not constructive. You asked how a progressive party would work, the type of local grassroots activism and organizing cutthroat describes is exactly how many nascent parties form. You grow your influence where you can when you can as a bloc that others have to win the support of if they want to win. Once your movement is big enough you either capture the party that has become dependent on you or take your base of power and start your own.

Absolutely! But it’s not just about the internal pressure. If everyone trump threatens retaliates even when he backs off, and then demands he offer assurances before they do, he looks weak. The one thing he doesn’t want, and can’t afford, is to look weak in front of his base. It won’t work immediately, but if he keeps looking weak on the public stage he’ll either stop making such threats in order to avoid it or lose enough support to matter.

It implies that these women are objects undeserving of or without agency of their own. Doing so on the basis of appearance is as good as doing so on the basis of sex or gender. There’s no broader point being made here beyond “I don’t like them so I’m comparing them to a taboo sex object.”

That’s said they’re also abysmal human beings.

“Make or break?” Jon Stewart is on what is essentially the victory tour of his career. He was so popular in his first stint at the daily show that some openly wondered whether the show could continue without him. He retired from that to work advocacy for first responders, for which he was lauded. He’s back now because even a solid decade away couldn’t make the audience forget his heyday. I’ve criticized Stewart in the past, but even I can see that if he were to flub this interview most would shrug “huh, sad how the greats start to slip as they age,” and tune back in next week.

He means, just like him, she’s a horrible tapeworm in the bowels of our society.

Yeah, I remember when we were telling ourselves the nazis would never govern. I was so confident I brought a nice cigar and bottle of scotch to the watch party. I never did smoke that cigar, but I went through that whole bottle nearly on my own and had to sleep it off on my friend’s couch.

Hard to believe there was a time when Catholic priests fought for progress instead of standing in its way.

Not just McDonald’s, it’s been used by numerous organizations to downplay lawsuits they feel will hurt them with consumers. Tort reform is also trotted out by politicians who want to look as though they’re protecting people from “government overreach” because they know people don’t know what torts are and they can scare them into believing they’re going to be sued if they don’t get outside to shovel their walk early enough after a snow.

“It’s been very cathartic making my mental health troubles everyone else’s problem” says man who can afford to pay an entire team to listen to his unhinged rants if he wants.

Worryingly we may all be both types. The problem is that we’re typically the first when the new information aligns with the world as we think we understand it, and the second when it conflicts. Information that calls into question our understanding of the world around us makes us feel threatened and through that threat activates our fight or flight instincts. Since we can’t run from information we’ve already heard the only choice is to fight back against it either publicly or in our own minds.

I would imagine that Columbia’s disciplinary process creates records that are maintained for a number of years. If they weren’t created, or have since been destroyed that would be evidence towards improper procedures. Certainly any destruction now would be highly illegal and might result in a presumption against the university. As to the tenant laws I assume the order that the students received should be proof enough unless New York tenant laws have a carve out for universities.