Death panels

[dorchadas]

I was a bit surprised that Deathcare passed yesterday, but not as much as I once would have been. There is no depths of evil to which the American fascists* can sink that would surprise me anymore. Especially after reading all the testimonies from American fascists* who voted for it without reading it and then were astonished to learn they voted to murder hundreds of thousands of their own constituents slowly with bankruptcy along the way. I was a little mollified to hear that the Senate won't even be considering the bill until it's CBO scored, and possibly not at all, but since all American fascists* are human garbage I have no faith they won't also vote to murder their constituents.

I think there's an important lesson to be taken from their behavior as well. Real evil isn't charismatic, visionary, or commanding. It's smug, banal, hypocritical, and kind of stupid. We need more depictions of realistic evil in fiction.

"We have to live with people as they are, and people are dangerous."
-Rabbi Joshua Haberman, Foundation for Jewish Studies podcast

I have excellent health insurance through work and schoolpsychnerd is a public employee, so while I spent most of yesterday in a state of pure rage I at least don't have to be afraid. Instead, I spent it wasting my time debating a libertarian crypto-Confederate on jmenda's Facebook wall about the necessity of taxation, especially as it relates to allowing an expansive government with the capability to enforce the rights of the oppressed--the Slavers' Rebellion, the Civil Rights Act, Obergefell v. Hodges, etc. As it so often is, it was a complete waste of time and I should have just played Majora's Mask all night instead of constantly tabbing over to answer questions. I'm halfway done--just beat Snowhead Temple on Wednesday--and I want to finish this weekend if I can.

Tonight is kelley.christensen1's emoji-themed karaoke birthday party and it's without walking distance from our apartment, so I'll have something else to concentrate on. It's box karaoke, and while I'm not going to link the website because I just went there and they've been hacked (thank you NoScript ), but it looks promising. I'm not sure they'll have all the songs that I sang in karaoke korokke or karaoke U-style or karaokekan, but hopefully they'll have something. And kelley.christensen1 is bringing cake!

Alright, back to mucking around in databases.

Comments

[killertofuuu]

Bless your heart. After the disgusting farce that was the 2016 election, I've 100% lost patience with Republicans and Libertarians on facebook. I wasn't even remotely happy about voting Hillary, but boy did I get rammed for being "entitled" and "supporting fascism" anyway, and I'm pretty certain those numbskulls don't understand what either of those words mean, or else they'd realize that that's what THEY voted for if they voted Trump.

Also, my fiance is Type 1 diabetic, so Deathcare does impact me, and I won't stand for their bullshit. They're evil and they suck.

[dorchadas]

Hopefully we get the good end where this kills them in the midterms, but we're already in the worst timeline. And I keep seeing comments pointing out that the Republicans are governing like they don't have to worry about being voted out, and I wonder...

They're evil and they suck.

Let me just say that I'm getting a lot of use out of guillotines.jpg lately.

[killertofuuu]

They probably don't because of fuckin' gerrymandering. The system is rigged. Our only hope might be to overthrow it entirely. Our forefathers are rolling in their graves right now. The American people were NEVER meant to have the government's big, nasty foot grinding us into the ground, yet here we are. I wonder what the final straw is going to be.

[dorchadas]

At least anti-gerrymandering cases are having some luck in state courts, though who knows if that will go anywhere.

[tilmon]

"Real evil isn't charismatic, visionary, or commanding. It's smug, banal, hypocritical, and kind of stupid."

That is perfectly stated and bears being quoted. Would you mind if I do?

I wish I had the patience to argue with the Trumpets, but all I can usually muster is to define a term they are using wrong, or correct their misstatement of provable fact, and point them to some links so they can learn on their own if they wish.

The good side of the political disaster is that a lot of worthy challengers are declaring themselves to run against the Republicans in 2018. And the French have learned from our mistake, and held their noses to vote to stay the course rather than embrace literal fascism.

[dorchadas]

I don't mind at all! Go ahead.

I used to argue with people on the internet a lot more in the days of my youth, but now I value my time more. I only bother when it's people I know personally, or people on my friend's Facebook walls.

And the French have learned from our mistake, and held their noses to vote to stay the course rather than embrace literal fascism.

I was legitimately moved when I saw the video of Macron walking up to the stage to the EU anthem.