Thanks, I’ll check it out, though it’s going to take more than motivational books to pull the US out of the current nosedive…

I harbor a similar hope!

I did not know that either thank you!

Excellent point!

That’s a pretty good analogy IMO.

Does EVERY axis in life have to be fucked up at the same time?

Can we have one thing that is just doing ok?

Government - fucked.

Education - fucked.

Healthcare - fucked.

Environment - fucked.

Societal and Social Cohesion - fucked.

Wealth Inequality - fucked.

Personal Technological Autonomy - fucked, and under continuous attack.

Technological Enshittification - Running like gangbusters. So really - fucked.

Damn, someone give me some kind of ladder to climb out of this pit of despair.

Shit I try not to think about for $1200, Alex!

(But I can’t disagree with a word.)

Thanks!

I never thought I’d be a cheerleader for arteriosclerosis, but here we are!

Well, we’re clearly talking about two different thresholds, but my happiness doesn’t require us to agree, and yours shouldn’t either.

Good day to you!

Trump: My hand- uh, manager will be back soon. He’s the one in the black ballcap.

Thanks buddy. 🙂

I’m sorry you feel that way. I welcome your mockery if we have something resembling a normal 2026 midterm and 2028 general.

I’m a little surprised so many folks don’t seem to realize we have crossed a threshold that may indeed spell the end of the US as we have known it up to now, and seem to think this was just another election. But, I guess for folks who haven’t witnessed that many of our elections in their lifetime it might seem that way.

If more people did realize that, I’d have a lot more faith that we’re going to be able to stop it.

Bold of you to assume we get more free elections.

I’m mid-switching.

Well, I didn’t just stop believing it all this morning. It’s been a process. This is just the nail in the coffin.

Yeah, I’ve been referring to them as the Gilead Party fairly often since the show came out. (I missed the book somehow.)

Oh yeah, 100% for sure I will die of old age before we have recovered (whatever that will mean in this context) from this. I wish I was wealthy enough to do more than just hope really hard I can keep my family safe until then.

The myth of checks and balances.

The myth of (checks notes) every single admirable or positive aspect I was raised to believe was true about our system of government and our values as a nation.

I’m in my 50s. Somewhere WAY down the list of shit that I’m absolutely furious about is that I can no longer pretend that a single thing about US values or the resilient and balanced design of our government has turned out to be true.

Every single thing that has ever benefitted non-wealthy non-white non-male non-straight or non-cis people in the US has been hard won with blood over decades or centuries. And we’re well on the way to undoing nearly all of those after not even two months of a despot in office.

Every thing I have ever been taught about what made the US great or special or even good has been a lie. It’s very plain to see now. It turns out we had some elected people superficially following the rules, and that was really the only thing keeping it all together.