I also had a handful of interactions with her as a student reporter back in the early 90s. She was always very gracious and engaging, but in my experience that’s kind of true of all politicians by definition.

The one thing that always stood out to me is the way she handled the dual assassination of mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk. I was just a little kid at the time, and the way she stepped up and took control of the situation filled me with admiration and confidence.

Maybe that was the high-point of her political career, I don’t know.

That said, you couldn’t be a Northern Californian at that time and not appreciate her leadership, no matter what else you may have disagreed with her about.

I say all of the above while not touching the obvious fact that she stayed in office far too long.

It was a warning. Frum is and always has been a staunch never-Trumper. He’s still a conservative, but he was never on board with Trump and to his credit has been pretty vocal in his opposition.

The guy is surrounded by a team composed of some of the most elite, highly-trained and experienced security experts on the planet. I don’t think he has much to worry about. His security detail will be composed of tier 1 operators; the elite of the elite.

Meaning no disrespect, but it’s pretty obvious that you don’t know much about the US military. The senior officer corps uniformly despises Trump for all of the obvious reasons that we already know about, and no doubt for other reasons that aren’t public knowledge.

Trump is only popular among the enlisted ranks, and even that’s not universally true.

In any case, while the enlisted ranks know how to keep things rolling and coordinated at the lower levels of organization, there is no world in which any of them knows how to coordinate whole divisions, carrier groups, fighter squadrons, signals intelligence, bomber groups, the nuclear arsenal, and so on and so forth.

The US military is a vast and incredibly complex organization and the only people who really know how to operate it are all in the senior officer corps which again, uniformly despises Trump.

All that said, I would almost kind of like some crazy MAGA fucker to try to assassinate Miley. You know he’s protected by some of the most highly competent and experienced security experts on the planet.

None. My wife doesn’t know about tact, or the polite white lie or anything like that. She doesn’t have time for that bullshit. It’s one of her endearing qualities.

Is it not the case that kale, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are all basically derived from the same plant?

This is what I’ve been told, but I am very ignorant of such matters and while you will say that I can simply Google the issue, which is true, it’s never been enough of a priority for me to do so, goddammit.

As for Sequoia sempervirens or Sequoiadendron giganteum being forms of broccoli, I do in fact know enough dendrology to know that it’s bullshyte.

So is yours, ambiguous I mean.

In other words, I think you’re being ridiculously over-generous in your interpretation of ancient knowledge.

If it were in fact the case that the ancients had any real notion of Darwinian theory, I think they would have stated it in unequivocal terms, as they did with so many other Platonic and/or Aristotlean concepts.

Vaguely suggestive biblical lines interpreted as somehow suggesting an understanding of Darwinian theory strikes me as wishful thinking.

Agree. I also think that it’s inevitable that when he dies, leaving aside the fact of his old age and poor health, it will necessarily result in a cataract of deeply stupid conspiracy theories.

This is the world we live in, unfortunately.

It’s partially but not entirely true. Having correct technique in your upper body matters too, as does accuracy, timing and the ability to create collisions.

All else being equal in terms of technical skill and leg strength, the guy with the bigger arms, fists as shoulders will have a stronger punch.

I had a ton of muscular atrophy in my right upper body due to a bulging disk in my neck --since corrected by surgery-- and I definitely noticed a huge diminution in my striking power, as did my regular sparring partners at the gym. So it definitely does matter.

I’m doing better now, but still not back to 100 percent and probably never will be. But that’s OK since I’m pretty old anyway.

That’s a very generous interpretation. I don’t think anyone can be blamed for not taking it seriously.

Most of what society tells us will make us feel happy and fulfilled in life is bullshit. Living a good life is primarily about your personal relationships. Things like social status and personal wealth are far less important.

Desantis doesn’t have the charisma to replace Trump.

This is one of the few upsides of cults of personality; almost by definition they are not replicable.

Do we have a real choice?

I don’t think we do.

If the choice is between a precariously old octogenarian and a completely unhinged authoritarian octogenarian who doesn’t believe in democracy, I guess I know which way I’ll vote every time.

you can always just call them by their first name or something else

Well I didn’t know you were called Dennis.

Ok guy. Think what you want. It’s no skin off my nose.

That’s precisely my point. It’s a question that was asked in the furtherance of a specific and very obvious regime of intent. In that sense it was the epitome of intellectual dishonesty.

Is that you John Wayne? Is this me?

I wasn’t being “smug,” I was merely trying to disambiguate the point under discussion.

The fact that you took it that way says a lot more about you than it does about me.

Same. There was some initial confusion when I first switched over to Lemmy that resulted in the creation of superfluous accounts. I am better now thank you.

I won’t name any specific organizations, but the upshot is that you need to consume a variety of news sources from different countries and in different formats. It also pays to get into very specifically focused news organizations.