The best reason to end any war is to ask how everyone can just stop killing one another.

This is modern day civilization, not the barbarian hordes of Europe 1500 years ago.

We have a choice to act civilized or like our ignorant ancestors from thousands of years ago.

Whether or not it’s true … it’s marketing for Google and their AI

How does anyone verify this?

It’s basically one person’s claim and it’s not easy to prove or disprove.

“Don’t be evil” …

… for now

$1,000 to give birth is just the start of the payment process to having a child

Last I read, on average to raise a child with the most basic requirements to give it a decent life in North America to the age of 18, the estimate was about $200,000 - $300,000 … that was about 20 years ago I read that, it’s probably way more now.

Or hiring two guys to be co-referees for the no holds barred orgy that’s about to start.

How about farm workers … I’m up in Canada and I know because I’ve seen entire farm communities in southern Ontario base their entire business on immigrant labor that was either legal, illegal and everything in between. Around Norfolk (a region southwest of Toronto), entire towns are filled with Mexican, Haitian, Dominican and more recently, African workers as labor for the planting, management and harvest.

We all have cheap vegetables in North America because of cheap immigrant labor that our governments allow into the country to work (for little to no money) but not to stay.

I spent about ten minutes trying to figure out if this was just an Onion headline … only to realize it is indeed an Onion headline … this is beautiful

Deporting Musk? … I’d be more worried that they will want to deport you.

“The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it.” - George Carlin

Wow … thanks for this again … I’ve heard references to it, read articles about it but just never had time or space to read it … I’ll definitely look into this and take the time to listen and read it now … never knew much about it other than the writer and the book and the fact that he just questions and holds a mirror to society and the insanity of our supposed ‘civilized’ society.

The insanity becomes more tolerable when you can find and read the thoughts of other people who agree that this world is indeed … insane.

Great … another reminder that I should read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Thanks for this Flying Squid the Sane

They should install a turbine onto Carlin’s grave because he’s spinning so fast right now that he could power a small city.

If you claim that sane people are the majority yet insane things happen, then everyone is insane.

I’m in Canada … and our government is sending money, arms and support for this stupidity?

It’s also just another piece of the Overton Window
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

Everything in this election saw a monumental move to the right for everyone … the left (if there ever was any) went to the center, the center went to the right and the right went to the far right

Now right wing or right wing leaning ideas have become the norm and anything that is even remotely left or leftist has become extreme.

America shifted to the right and it brought along everyone, no matter their political leaning along with them.

lol … classic GIMP … this is becoming the best part of a terrible day

GIMP 3.0 has kinda sorta maybe been released but they’re still working on it

lol … this will be one for the memory books

American loses their minds … for the 100th time … on the same day as GIMP 3.0 was released

MIGA

Make Image-manipulation Great Again

There isn’t a single cabal responsible for choosing Trump.

I agree but the point I was trying to make is that there are extremist groups out there (and yes, they are sometimes reasonable business people or wealthy political backers) that often act in such a way to allow people like Trump to come into power either through their support or by simply not acting in way to stop anyone.

There will always be those people in power who are willing to allow certain things, events or people to just happen even if they know it will be terrible for others or run the risk of destroying or corroding democratic norms if it means it will serve their ends in the long run. The benefit of not overtly supporting terrible events or people up front is that you can plausibly deny ever being part of anything if it all falls apart. Either way, those with wealth and power maintain their control by either openly supporting things or just merely standing aside to allow things to happen even though they have the power to stop it.

Those with wealth and privilege win in any situation … if fascists or authoritarians gain control, they can step in line as friends who had shown some support … if authoritarians lose, they can step in anyway and say that they never supported anyone.

When you look at this way, you realize that those who are beholden to wealth, power and control only have an allegiance to one thing … maintaining their power and control at all costs … even if it means supporting those they disagree with or those they know will destroy morals and ethics.

This is the classic argument or debate I have about political figures like this in history.

They don’t appear out of a vacuum of their own will … they are not just some all powerful persuasive figure that just pushes people to do what they want. Maybe that could have happened in the distant past but not in our modern world.

Political leaders today get to their position because others with power allow them. Money is poured into them, money to promote, to advertise, to market, to manage, to manipulate … in short, the political figure of Turnip came to be because it was allowed by those with power. It didn’t have anything to do with his ability to promote, stall or politically manoeuvre around.

He came to be because he was allowed to take the lead and those with power wanted him there and kept him there.

Your explanation is a continuation of the fallacy … (please don’t take this the wrong way as a personal attack against you)

Your explanation starts off by accepting that someone like Trump is a legitimate political leader. The Democrats presented legitimate candidates, who did some minor faux pas and were ridiculed for it or the Democratic leader or politician was accused of wrong doing and then hounded for it relentlessly.

Trump was the anomaly, he said and did things that any previous politician would have been ridiculed and blasted by the public media of all sides … but for whatever reason, everyone allowed him to stay in the limelight and never called him on his deranged antics … everyone enabled his behaviour … for years.

Someone like Trump doesn’t come out of thin air or through the force of their own will … if that were the case, we’d have people like him everywhere. People like him come to power because other powerful people allow him to get that position … and then a population is conditioned to allow him to stay in the public eye through constant marketing and promotion.