So the story gets a happy ending… and I’m guessing so will his cellmate.

I wouldn’t say Trump stayed on message, but he included it enough in the insane rambling.

The problem is that Harris was from the incumbent party and administration at a time of deep dissatisfaction with the economy. That’s an extremely difficult position to be in, and it’s made all the worse for her because as VP she gets all the blame by association but can’t really do much personally to adjust policy. She’s handcuffed to the status quo at a time when the vast majority want change.

Biden and Harris both chose to try to defend the status quo and spin things as more positive. This waa a mistake. I don’t know if they would have won by acknowledging the problems and portraying this as them leading through a time of crisis, and how they have plans to get us through, but it probably would have had a much better chance.

It also didn’t help that most of the things they did to address the economic woes were either indirect or only narrowly targeted (or canceled out by courts). News that a factory will eventually open and add jobs in one area doesn’t alleviate the concerns of the vast majority of voters, nor does processing student loan forgiveness for a few thousand people at a time under very specific programs. These things are good, but they don’t make most people feel better the way a more broadly applicable benefit would.

Just speculating here, but if a few additional counts aren’t likely to add significant time to his sentence, they might also be saving some for later in case they lose or the case gets thrown out for some reason.

Yet another reason why I don’t wear pants.

I really want a law that requires clothing sizes to include actual measurements. And it’s insane that I would have to specify that these measurements must be accurate, but the clothing industry has made lying about sizes the norm.

There shouldn’t be anything preventing me from figuring out women’s bra sizes with a tape measure aside from the fact that I don’t know them and they probably don’t want a stranger obsessively measuring their boobs.

Tesla could have pursued an affordable model, but instead Elon pushed the robotaxi, and Elon said there was no need for an affordable Tesla model. If we assume that he actually expects to release the robotaxi at some point, and that he actually thinks it’s important for anything other than trying to pump up stock, then it certainly looks like his plans are more focused on fleet sales than trying to sell to consumers. Making cars less affordable across the board (and slashing any funding for public transportation) only helps that business model.

If Trump wants loyalty he should get a fucking dog. Just maybe not while Kristi Noem is around.

Honestly, this is the smart move no matter what his plans are. If he took a position either way he’d just be provoking a backlash for no reason, and at the time when his position is most vulnerable.

Tariffs alone will probably lead to a very bleak outlook for Republicans in the midterm elections.

Oil and gas which need to be extracted from deep underground so we can burn them: a gift from God.

Wind and sunlight which come to us for free and never run out: somehow not a gift from God.

The alarm app I use allows for playlists to be used as the alarm, and I have a different one set for every day of the week. It’s not quite as effective at preventing me from tuning it out, but that’s balanced out by the fact that I have to solve puzzles and math problems to turn it off. Combined with an alarm clock that has a light that slowly turns on in a simulated sunrise and it’s pretty effective.

I used to have a TV which had a setting that would turn it on and go to a specific channel at a set time. I would set it to go to the history channel every morning because they would play random stuff from their archives in the morning, so it was impossible to get fully desensitized. One day I’d wake up to the history of candy, the next day it’d be the history of stealth aircraft, the next day it’d be the history of the klan (that was not the best way to start the day).

Back when I worked in an office I would put up badass president pics Fourth of July. Too lazy to find them, but stuff like Kennedy riding a robot unicorn on the moon, FDR in wheelchair themed power armor, Roosevelt gunning down big foot in a forest fire, etc.

At home, the only significant decorating I do is for Christmas. There’s enough misery out there, and I choose to embrace the joy and the appeal to the better side of our nature. So we have lights, fake candles, and so on, and we put up a tree that gets a new ornament or two every year which fills it with memories. And as a finishing touch we hang a banner declaring “All creatures will make merry under pain of death”

Let’s see how hungry those leopards are.

That’s not true. He also wants them to shoot protestors.

Trump was already a paranoid nutcase who fostered an atmosphere of chaos and betrayal the last time he was in office. Given the way his declining mental state has been making him even more hostile and unstable, I can’t imagine how bad it’s going to get this time around.

The moment Trump sets foot in the white house again, the economy becomes his problem. If he actually puts those tariffs in place, he will be causing immediate price hikes that will be felt by everyone. That alone would likely cause a massive backlash in the midterm elections.

Harris tried to run on protecting abortion rights, and saving democracy from Trump and Project 2025. Under other circumstances, that probably would have worked.

Unfortunately, she was the nominee for the incumbent party at a time when the vast majority of voters were unhappy with the economy. That’s a hard position to be in, and requires a compelling answer. She had a few token items for the agenda, but nothing that would address the larger issue of people feeling squeezed by inflation. Saying things are better now or going to be better soon doesn’t appease the voters who don’t feel better.

The horrible truth is, a large portion of the electorate would vote for the literal devil if he was running against an incumbent during a bad economy.

Elon’s going to get a shot at balancing the government’s budget. And I’m sure his approach will be similar to the way he handled Tesla’s budget. You know, gotta make deep cuts and lay off as many people as possible, while granting himself a bonus large enough to cover those jobs for decades.

Trump and the Republicans are about to make things worse for the vast majority of Americans. How much they actually accomplish will probably be at least somewhat limited by infighting and incompetence, But if they fulfill even a fraction of what the campaign promised (to say nothing of the project 2025 roadmap) there will be a lot more things for the people to be upset about.