BarretWallace

Ted Lieu getting ready to attend yesterday's shenanigans.
 

 
I hope he brought a bigger bag today.
 

Two weeks ago there was a fatal shooting at the high school four blocks from my house.

And the Colorado Springs shooting.
 
And the UNM shooting...which was planned, premeditated, and targeted.  Which only had 1 death...one of the attackers, but still.
 
It already has devolved.  It is still only intermittent, but perpetual doesn't require continuous...but these incidents are all within 10 days of each other.
 
And that doesn't begin to touch those that don't make the wider news.
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting
 
Just to point out one:  Richmond.  The 19th.  Mother, 3 kids.  Incident categorizes it as both home invasion and domestic violence;  the shooter was the father of 2 of the kids he shot.  Just because we don't hear about it, doesn't make it any less sickening.

Put it up on Archive of Our Own or Fanfiction.net
CES

I'd like to see them pare back significantly on Star Wars and Marvel content.  They're putting out more stuff faster than they can do it well.

This reminds me vaguely of my Star Wars fanfiction that grew out of playing the old West End Star Wars roleplaying game.  I was fascinated enough by the characters that I wanted to explore their lives more, so I started writing.  The first stories took shape in high school.  In the decades since then, the characters and story arc have evolved considerably.  Thanks to being an electronic pack rat I still have many of the original bits, and to call them cringe-worthy is being polite.  I'm not sure I have the neural capacity to create something truly original, but I have no problem with playing in someone else's sandbox.  If I ever actually finish a writing project, it will probably be this one, though copyright issues means that it will never see publication.
 
Over the years, many other stories have flared to life and then gone back into hibernation.  I haven't had a new idea for several years, and as I age, that is less and less likely to change.

For some reason I find this inspiring. 
 

I've got a fantasy tetrology that's been smoldering in my imagination for over 30 years.  The first book is written, was typed in long ago, but after hard drive & media failures it exists only in paper now (and I'll probably resort to OCR to get it back into electronic format).  Second book has about half of it in handscrawled form.  Only broad outlines and a few scenes exist in the last two books.  That includes the finale, which my wife considers anticlimactic and doesn't like.
 
My (fiction) creative style is problematic.  I get grand plot arc concept fairly early on.  After that I tend to think in scenes, and the scenes may be difficult to mesh together into an integrated story.  And my writing ... well ... as I have said before, at some point someone will send me an email asking if I know how to write a short email, and my response will be 3000 words and boil down to "no".

I am rather embarrassed to admit that I was once a die-hard Republican.  What the party said, I parroted.  Then a random conversation with a Scout parent got me taking a step back and looking at issues from more than one side.  In this case, it was the 2003 Iraq invasion.  Long story short (it's also rather boring to anyone but me), I had a sudden realization that, as part of the cost of the invasion, that kid (if he were serving in uniform overseas) could come home in a body bag some day.  I'm not saying that I will never advocate US military intervention anywhere under any circumstances, but when I started considering the cost, I also found a great deal of caution, plus a great deal of critical thinking around my own opinions.
 
These days I still lean more conservative than liberal, but if I vote for a Republican candidate, they're usually a younger Republican who advocates such crazy things as "common ground," "negotiation," "compromise," and "reaching across the aisle."  Few if any of them are ever elected.  I have no patience with Sith Republicans (or even some Democrats) who tell me, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"  We don't have to agree, but at some point we do have to get along and work together for the common good.  I wish there were more friendships like Scalia and Ginsburg, political opponents yet personal friends.
 
I have no idea what the Republican party has even become.  I just finished reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and there are disturbing parallels between Nazi rhetoric/tactics and modern times.

I am rather embarrassed to admit that I was once a die-hard Republican.  What the party said, I parroted.  Then a random conversation with a Scout parent got me taking a step back and looking at issues from more than one side.  In this case, it was the 2003 Iraq invasion.  Long story short (it's also rather boring to anyone but me), I had a sudden realization that, as part of the cost of the invasion, that kid (if he were serving in uniform overseas) could come home in a body bag some day.  I'm not saying that I will never advocate US military intervention anywhere under any circumstances, but when I started considering the cost, I also found a great deal of caution, plus a great deal of critical thinking around my own opinions.
 
These days I still lean more conservative than liberal, but if I vote for a Republican candidate, they're usually a younger Republican who advocates such crazy things as "common ground," "negotiation," "compromise," and "reaching across the aisle."  Few if any of them are ever elected.  I have no patience with Sith Republicans (or even some Democrats) who tell me, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"  We don't have to agree, but at some point we do have to get along and work together for the common good.  I wish there were more friendships like Scalia and Ginsburg, political opponents yet personal friends.
 
I have no idea what the Republican party has even become.  I just finished reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and there are disturbing parallels between Nazi rhetoric/tactics and modern times.

I am rather embarrassed to admit that I was once a die-hard Republican.  What the party said, I parroted.  Then a random conversation with a Scout parent got me taking a step back and looking at issues from more than one side.  In this case, it was the 2003 Iraq invasion.  Long story short (it's also rather boring to anyone but me), I had a sudden realization that, as part of the cost of the invasion, that kid (if he were serving in uniform overseas) could come home in a body bag some day.  I'm not saying that I will never advocate US military intervention anywhere under any circumstances, but when I started considering the cost, I also found a great deal of caution, plus a great deal of critical thinking around my own opinions.
 
These days I still lean more conservative than liberal, but if I vote for a Republican candidate, they're usually a younger Republican who advocates such crazy things as "common ground," "negotiation," "compromise," and "reaching across the aisle."  Few if any of them are ever elected.  I have no patience with Sith Republicans (or even some Democrats) who tell me, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"  We don't have to agree, but at some point we do have to get along and work together for the common good.  I wish there were more friendships like Scalia and Ginsburg, political opponents yet personal friends.
 
I have no idea what the Republican party has even become.  I just finished reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and there are disturbing parallels between Nazi rhetoric/tactics and modern times.

I am rather embarrassed to admit that I was once a die-hard Republican.  What the party said, I parroted.  Then a random conversation with a Scout parent got me taking a step back and looking at issues from more than one side.  In this case, it was the 2003 Iraq invasion.  Long story short (it's also rather boring to anyone but me), I had a sudden realization that, as part of the cost of the invasion, that kid (if he were serving in uniform overseas) could come home in a body bag some day.  I'm not saying that I will never advocate US military intervention anywhere under any circumstances, but when I started considering the cost, I also found a great deal of caution, plus a great deal of critical thinking around my own opinions.
 
These days I still lean more conservative than liberal, but if I vote for a Republican candidate, they're usually a younger Republican who advocates such crazy things as "common ground," "negotiation," "compromise," and "reaching across the aisle."  Few if any of them are ever elected.  I have no patience with Sith Republicans (or even some Democrats) who tell me, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"  We don't have to agree, but at some point we do have to get along and work together for the common good.  I wish there were more friendships like Scalia and Ginsburg, political opponents yet personal friends.
 
I have no idea what the Republican party has even become.  I just finished reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and there are disturbing parallels between Nazi rhetoric/tactics and modern times.

Oh, how I wish this could be a real ticket in a couple of years......

I am rather embarrassed to admit that I was once a die-hard Republican.  What the party said, I parroted.  Then a random conversation with a Scout parent got me taking a step back and looking at issues from more than one side.  In this case, it was the 2003 Iraq invasion.  Long story short (it's also rather boring to anyone but me), I had a sudden realization that, as part of the cost of the invasion, that kid (if he were serving in uniform overseas) could come home in a body bag some day.  I'm not saying that I will never advocate US military intervention anywhere under any circumstances, but when I started considering the cost, I also found a great deal of caution, plus a great deal of critical thinking around my own opinions.
 
These days I still lean more conservative than liberal, but if I vote for a Republican candidate, they're usually a younger Republican who advocates such crazy things as "common ground," "negotiation," "compromise," and "reaching across the aisle."  Few if any of them are ever elected.  I have no patience with Sith Republicans (or even some Democrats) who tell me, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"  We don't have to agree, but at some point we do have to get along and work together for the common good.  I wish there were more friendships like Scalia and Ginsburg, political opponents yet personal friends.
 
I have no idea what the Republican party has even become.  I just finished reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and there are disturbing parallels between Nazi rhetoric/tactics and modern times.

Oh, how I wish this could be a real ticket in a couple of years......

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/nick-fuentes-says-the-results-of-the-2022-elections-prove-why-we-need-a-dictatorship/
 
 

I'm popping in to say that one of the healthiest lifestyle changes I have ever made was abandoning all of the (online) political channels I used to regularly view.

to be clear, bite your own nails. Don't make the same mistake I did

Latest update from my GM...
So yeah, that's what the majority of the group wants anyways.

This administration needs to start playing hardball with these lawbreakers. I understand not wanting to provoke a confrontation, but letting them get away with this crap just emboldens them, making an eventual confrontation inevitable and probably worse.

While we like to blame The Donald as, at least, being the point man for encouraging divisiveness...there's this story:
 
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/holocaust-museum-of-la-flooded-with-antisemitic-messages-after-offering-kanye-west-a-private-tour/
 
 
 

All Things Considered aired a story about the Progressive Caucus letter and Rep. Pramilla Jaipaul's swift retra ction of it, with some mumbling that a staffer had sent the letter before it was "vetted." Um, OK.
 
From the description, it sounds like high-minded dithering by very nice people. Negotiate directly with Russia. But wait, we aren't saying to leave Ukraine out. Oh please, can't  we have a diplomatic solution instead of this nasty war?
 
No. At this point, I don't think we (that is, civilized humanity) can, unless the resolution involves Russia renouncing all claims to any Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, and returning all the kidnapped Ukrainians. Once those concessions are made, the diplomats can go to work. Until then, let Russia reap the disaster it has sown and choke on its own banquet of horrors.
 
Dean Shomshak