Trump is campaigning on making massive changes to American domestic and foreign policy. I don't like the changes he's pursuing, but he is absolutely not running on the status quo. And that is, in fact, exactly what won him the race.
If he was just running on the status quo, he wouldn't be a threat to democracy. Deporting 20 million people isn't the status quo. Repealing civil rights isn't status quo. Attacking or ending NATO isn't status quo. Abandoning Ukraine isn't status quo. Befriending Russia isn't status quo.
Yes, Trump is a conservative white guy. But type of thinking, focusing on identity groups and demographics, is what has got us here. Kamala herself is a historically novel nominee, she was new in terms of personal identity. But she wasn't actually offering anything other than the same milquetoast centrism of Biden.
This is the problem. People are hurting. Trump actually had something to offer these people. He said, "elect me, I'll throw out all the immigrants, and by doing so I'll lower the cost of housing and increase wages!" It's a horrible, evil, and long-term unproductive solution, but he was actually offering SOMETHING. Democrats offered no meaningful answers to the things people are actually hurting on. The only thing Democrats offered were wonky dismissals of economic concerns by citing official inflation numbers and calculated real wage gains. (Ignoring figures like ratio of median housing cost to median wage.)
People are in pain right now. People are on the edge, driven to the brink by late-stage capitalism. Biden was a milquetoast centrist, but he was able to barely eek out a win by running on a lot of progressive promises in 2020. He walked away from a lot of those commitments and governed as the centrist he is. Harris offered just more of the same. Neither offered real meaningful solutions and proved completely incapable of handling the crises at hand.
Trump again, he actually offered solutions, or at least something that seems like a solution. Like it or not, he WAS the change candidate of 2020. And that is what won him the election.
Previously, on January 6th, Trump actively prevented troops from being deployed to the Capital grounds. Congress specifically asked for troops to be deployed, but he refused. Despite the advanced warning that violence was expected, the Capital was guarded by just a handful of regular police officers. The forces present are the normal type, the Capital police officers who normally handle things like protesters who chain themselves up outside a Senator's office. That's the level of threat they're used to handling.
The proper way to deal with armed insurrectionists trying to literally overthrow a government is actual troops, real soldiers. And that is what will be used this time. The Capital will be a fortress guarded by thousands of trained service members, with orders to shoot to kill anyone attempting to break in. If MAGA tries anything this time, they'll be met with automatic weapons fire. In other words, they'll get the kind of treatment the SHOULD have received on January 6th last time.
Biden being in office and holding command of the military during this time is not something that should be so casually dismissed.
This considers only party registration. Harris seems to be pulling in a substantial number of Republicans - an amount far, far greater than the number of Democrats voting for Trump.
And yet, without such people, these institutions will never change. If you want these institutions to be non-hateful, you have to get non-hateful people into them. We're not going to get rid of Liberty University any time soon. And I would prefer to see it grow into a non-bigoted institution than to have it remain a bigoted institution indefinitely.
Sometimes you just have to work at places that are hostile to trans people, and you just have to hope they don't find out you're trans. If the only place that you can find a job in your field is at a Christian College, maybe you'll accept the job and hope for the best. Potentially losing a job at some point in the future is better than not having a job today.
Full self driving should only be implemented when the system is good enough to completely take over all driving functions. It should only be available in vehicles without steering wheels. The Tesla solution of having "self driving" but relying on the copout of requiring constant user attention and feedback is ridiculous. Only when a system is truly capable of self-driving 100% autonomously, at a level statistically far better than a human, should any kind of self-driving be allowed on the road. Systems like Tesla's FSD officially require you to always be ready to intervene at a moment's notice. They know their system isn't ready for independent use yet, so they require that manual input. But of course this encourages disengaged driving; no one actually pays attention to the road like they should, able to intervene at a moment's notice. Tesla's FSD imitates true self-driving, but it pawns off the liability do drivers by requiring them to pay attention at all times. This should be illegal. Beyond merely lane-assistance technology, no self-driving tech should be allowed except in vehicles without steering wheels. If your AI can't truly perform better than a human, it's better for humans to be the only ones actively driving the vehicle.
This also solves the civil liability problem. Tesla's current system has a dubious liability structure designed to pawn liability off to the driver. But if there isn't even a steering wheel in the car, then the liability must fall entirely on the vehicle manufacturer. They are after all 100% responsible for the algorithm that controls the vehicle, and you should ultimately have legal liability for the algorithms you create. Is your company not confident enough in its self-driving tech to assume full legal liability for the actions of your vehicles? No? Then your tech isn't good enough yet. There can be a process for car companies to subcontract out the payment of legal claims against the company. They can hire State Farm or whoever to handle insurance claims against them. But ultimately, legal liability will fall on the company.
This also avoids criminal liability. If you only allow full self-driving in vehicles without steering wheels, there is zero doubt about who is control of the car. There isn't a driver anymore, only passengers. Even if you're a person sitting in the seat that would normally be a driver's seat, it doesn't matter. You are just a passenger legally. You can be as tired, distracted, drunk, or high as you like, you're not getting any criminal liability for driving the vehicle. There is such a clear bright line - there is literally no steering wheel - that it is absolutely undeniable that you have zero control over the vehicle.
This actually would work under the same theory of existing drunk-driving law. People can get ticketed for drunk driving for sleeping in their cars. Even if the cops never see you driving, you can get charged for drunk driving if they find you in a position where you could drunk drive. So if you have your keys on you while sleeping drunk in a parked car, you can get charged with DD. But not having a steering wheel at all would be the equivalent of not having the keys to a vehicle - you are literally incapable of operating it. And if you are not capable of operating it, you cannot be criminally liable for any crime relating to its operation.
Profanity? In terms of four-letter words, I doubt it. But I could absolutely see a conservative house making political hay by deadnaming her and refusing to use her correct pronouns on the House floor.
In many cities, nighttime noise level is limited by decibel level. But even low-level noise is allowed if below some level. So you could have some extremely quiet speakers gently wafting spooky sounds while you do this. Or if that's a bridge too far, whose to say you don't personally just like listening to Gregorian chants and quiet levels while you work?
Life pro tip for those nocturnal. Even those nocturnal folks need to mow their lawns. For modestly sized lawns, a scythe can be a great option! It's also perfectly legal to mow your lawn with a scythe at three in the morning, dressed in a long black hooded robe.
Well you see, according to conservatives, women doing any of those things are acting counter for their god-given gender roles. As such, they are transgender, and deserve to have their rights taken away...
Did you really think the focus on trans people is actually ultimately about trans people?
Not to be confused with the most common name. World wide, the single most common first name is Mohammad. The single most common last name is Wong. Therefore, the most common name globally must be Mohammad Wong.
SpaceX has been paid extensively for services not rendered. The funds that are currently paying for their Starship development were ostensibly for a lunar lander. And they're years behind schedule at this point. They haven't even started on the lander itself.
Trump is campaigning on making massive changes to American domestic and foreign policy. I don't like the changes he's pursuing, but he is absolutely not running on the status quo. And that is, in fact, exactly what won him the race.
If he was just running on the status quo, he wouldn't be a threat to democracy. Deporting 20 million people isn't the status quo. Repealing civil rights isn't status quo. Attacking or ending NATO isn't status quo. Abandoning Ukraine isn't status quo. Befriending Russia isn't status quo.
Yes, Trump is a conservative white guy. But type of thinking, focusing on identity groups and demographics, is what has got us here. Kamala herself is a historically novel nominee, she was new in terms of personal identity. But she wasn't actually offering anything other than the same milquetoast centrism of Biden.
This is the problem. People are hurting. Trump actually had something to offer these people. He said, "elect me, I'll throw out all the immigrants, and by doing so I'll lower the cost of housing and increase wages!" It's a horrible, evil, and long-term unproductive solution, but he was actually offering SOMETHING. Democrats offered no meaningful answers to the things people are actually hurting on. The only thing Democrats offered were wonky dismissals of economic concerns by citing official inflation numbers and calculated real wage gains. (Ignoring figures like ratio of median housing cost to median wage.)
People are in pain right now. People are on the edge, driven to the brink by late-stage capitalism. Biden was a milquetoast centrist, but he was able to barely eek out a win by running on a lot of progressive promises in 2020. He walked away from a lot of those commitments and governed as the centrist he is. Harris offered just more of the same. Neither offered real meaningful solutions and proved completely incapable of handling the crises at hand.
Trump again, he actually offered solutions, or at least something that seems like a solution. Like it or not, he WAS the change candidate of 2020. And that is what won him the election.