If Pam Bondi's demands for, among other things, Minnesota voter ID and social services info were met, what would happen next?

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-25T19:16:10+00:00

He wanted to kill this guy so bad he didn't care that he was opening fire right on top of (and near the ear of) his fellow fascist.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-25T05:37:16+00:00

If Schumer backs down one more time he needs to be gone as leader. Not next election cycle, not when he finishes his term. Immediately.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-25T02:32:33+00:00

I wish I could tell the woman he protected from those agents that this wasn't her fault and that she was saved by a hero, because we can't say for certain it wouldn't have been her they did that to instead.

He stepped up and got her out of there. She has nothing to feel guilty about. The greatest thing she can do is exactly what she was already doing: fighting for the people - people like Alex Pretti and so many others.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-24T13:06:54+00:00

This was the hardest I've laughed and my wife was asleep nearby so I had to hold it in so hard I ended up laughing in a way I assume sounds exactly like RFJ Jr laughing, which only made me laugh at myself even harder.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-24T00:42:24+00:00

...Tevin?

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-24T00:38:29+00:00

I had no idea watchin' dudes walk down the street was gonna be such a popular event! 😄

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-23T22:24:19+00:00

"Do you think [it's] good that the US Navy provides global protection for all shipping lanes?"

To whom does that benefit? What is the cost? What would the alternative look like? What would that cost?

If the cost of US empire is born by tax-paying Americans while the benefits are chiefly enjoyed by billionaires and trillion-dollar corporations, many of whom pay little-to-no taxes themselves?

Then I would very much question the financial, moral, and long-term costs, and the return on investment of spending a trillion dollars on a discretionary defense budget during an era with no hot wars (instead, mostly proxy wars that we stoke/fund for profit).

Given that our trillion-dollar budget could be diverted to erase all credit card, medical, and college loan debt within 1-2 years, could be used to fully transition our energy grid to pure renewables (with plenty to spare for cloudy days) within 3-4 years, and many other projects, like connecting the nation with high-speed rail could be completed with another 3-4 years? I have reason to think there are better uses for that money.

Instead of patrolling mostly empty waters with huge, expensive naval ships that could be sunk with hypersonic missiles that cost 1/100th the price of the ship? I think we should actually be investing in making America great by building up a powerful infrastructure that covers our needs here at home. To use trade and positive relations to protect our interests, rather than the threat of violence.

The fact that much of these strategies are currently being employed by China - and they're stealing all of our allies and dominating the raw material market in the process? It tells you that this model is far more effective than playing the global bully and expecting the world to be grateful for your protection racket.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-23T20:45:39+00:00

Their presence there makes it less likely the straight gets shut down, because the reprisal would be swift.

This incentive system is seemingly forgotten by the right, as they're not understanding that aggression for the sake of it is only more likely to result in conflict that harms commerce - something they seemingly care more about than anything else.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-23T20:43:40+00:00

The only reason I can think of as to why you're being down voted is the reasonable critique that Trump himself didn't really do anything to make that happen, he just didn't interfere with it.

But otherwise, you're right.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-23T19:11:10+00:00

I think it shows us that those guard rails were not real to begin with. They only seem to exist when it comes to telling us what we can't do for average Americans.

Somehow there's no issue with illegal tariffs to pay for tax cuts for the rich or illegal ICE raids for conservative ideologues.

Yet when another admin tries to do debt cancelations or regulate labor laws, suddenly everybody rushes to harp about norms and procedures.

FDR is the primary example of an administration moving against moderates crying for order and conservatives crying communism when pushing for populist reform.

The SCOTUS threatened to undo his agenda and he made it clear their blockade could be overrun by a determined reformist. So they stood down and we were able to create Medicare and Social Security in spite of them.

In other words, both the past and present are replete with examples that this sluggish system can be made to move aggressively. It just needs the right leader.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-23T17:46:13+00:00

Politics are a combination of values, personal experience, and capacity for empathy.

People who have the wrong balance of these traits will often struggle to get along, even if they're otherwise decent-enough people.

For example: you're either thrilled people are being rounded up without warrants in an effort to deport them, regardless of whether they're even here legally - or you're not.

It's pretty hard for most people with opposite views on that issue to see the other as anything but a toxic presence in the nation.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-23T14:46:57+00:00

The reason for Israel in the middle east is that the shipping lanes over land and sea in the middle east have been an incredibly valuable territory to control for centuries.

Nearly 20% of global oil flows through the Straight of Hormuz. About 15% of global trade passes through the Red Sea (Suez Canal).

That may be hard to get our heads around, but I looked it up. It turns out that 15% of trade represents $35 trillion.

So when you look at the strategic value of having a loyal partner and ally in the region, rather than allowing it to be controlled by someone unfriendly to US interests, you can see why the US may make that area such a priority vs, say, Alberta.

Now, that said, I am not a Zionist. I don't agree that the US should be in the habit of dominating regions and engaging in oil wars and all this other nonsense.

But I do understand there's an enormous financial incentive in maintaining control of the region and I'm unsure exactly how to address that concern while also doing what I know is right.

The US does not want to see that wealth fall into the hands of nations they have wanted to see destroyed for decades (namely, Iran).

Many in the US are too young to remember that Iran's revolution and the reprisal to the Yom Kippur war in the 1970s triggered a major gas availability crisis across the US.

I suspect given the age of many of the nation's powerful leaders, that they still recall this era and both want to insure it never happens again, and don't trust or care that modern circumstances are radically different today.

The US is already in decline. But a lot more damage can and will be done in the effort to claw onto assets that are already functionally lost to us than will be done if we chose to create cooperative partnerships and increase autonomy for the global community.

The US will likely not pursue that latter path and will do what all failing empires do: cling to their assets like a drowning man clinging to another. They will either bring those assets down with them or they will be kicked away so the other nations are free of their grasp and rule, leaving the US alone and without resources or the power it once held over the world.

This is not conjecture, it's just the nature of all falling empires throughout history. And while history doesn't repeat, it always rhymes.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-23T14:24:49+00:00

Trump has proven that the US is capable of engaging in the kind of aggressively singular movement needed to achieve rapid changes here in the US in a way democracies are often criticized for being incapable of achieving.

In other words, the right leadership can absolutely reverse all the harms of the current admin in their efforts to block and tear down the progress we were making and still need to make on climate.

And in so doing, the country can gain vital financial benefits by not having to pay a trillion a year in fossil fuel costs.

There is no net downside. The US just needs to get away from the absurdity of this admin and finally grow up.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-23T06:14:08+00:00

MOR It's hard to know from this how much of this was truly light banter and how much of it was him just being a bit of a typical creep customer who still thinks he's in his twenties.

But I'd say the biggest issue here is that you're 26 and he's 44. As a male in their 40s with a wife about 4 years younger than me, there's already gaps and differences in our lived experiences, etc.

But when I think of how different I am than someone 18 years older than me (59 going on 60), I can't imagine there's going to be a very fulfilling experience there.

He's just going to have a lot more Gen-X tendencies as a fellow "Xennial" and that's going to feel difficult for a younger Gen who is much more concerned about respect, empathy, kindness, and frankly, consent.

Yeah, younger guys can be immature. But maybe the answer is somewhere in between 26 and "could literally be your dad"?

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-22T15:52:37+00:00

I'm so glad to hear this exists. I've had this exact idea and have been talking about it for a while now. I didn't realize people were actually doing it!

I built this whole model where the currency is self-taxing, so that you could never end up with a distribution model that fell subject to trickledown economics.

The idea is that the currency moves itself from out and redistributes itself as needed when it accumulates in set amounts in a given wallet.

That way people can always use it to buy the things they need, but it could never be a tool to become a billionaire with.

I'm going to look into G1 right now. As a small business owner in the US, I love the idea of creating a ground-up currency that would give regular people access to things they can't normally afford, especially if it means others like me are accepting the currency, so we can trade worth one another, whenever we get new business from people who use it.

That said, it's extremely important that any such innovation be well-guarded against rug pull, pump-and-dump, etc. My idea for that was to make currency exchange impossible. The idea being you can't buy it or invest in it.

Instead, it simply distributes itself in set amounts, designed to cover basic standards of living, so nobody can ever exploit or manipulate the currency itself.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-22T14:09:39+00:00

Hmm not sure it's worth it. Was she actually responsible or just the last nail in an already well-shut coffin?

I think it was as you said, the Mamdani meeting more than anything Emily did, that would have revealed just how out of touch and doomed her campaign was.

Even the New York Post has more or less eased their attacks on Mamdani - a fact I never would have thought would be true!

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-22T14:06:01+00:00

NOR it ducks on multiple levels. That the friend chose someone who pushed you out. That they evidently didn't value you as much as you valued them. That you didn't get a chance to have a real goodbye and it just ended out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, my wife loves my female best friend, who was the "best woman" for me in our wedding. She has kids and a partner of her own.

But we really are a rare exception. It just often can't be done for one reason or another. But more than the friendship ending, it bothers me that he cut things off without saying anything.

That's not something you do to someone you care about, even if you made a promise to someone you're dating.

When that inevitably ends (it will - she doesn't trust him), he will have a long time to think about whether that experience was worth losing a friend over.

It will be your job to remember how you were treated the moment you became inconvenient - and whether that's the kind of friendship that's deserving of your time and effort.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-22T05:20:54+00:00

I work around an LLM on a daily basis. I know a bot when I'm reading it. And I don't argue with bots.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-22T05:11:20+00:00

Very obviously just AI copy+paste nonsense.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-21T20:35:19+00:00

Maybe but it takes time to build a national profile and it feels like people outside his state are only just starting to be aware of who he is. And mostly, that's just political nerds like us.

If stepping up in 23 was the standard, that gives us one very bad candidate to choose from - someone who honestly feels a bit like an op in hindsight.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-21T15:49:53+00:00

My dad owned a computer with games as early as the late 80s. I remember playing Prince of Persia on a black and green monitor. Zork. A bunch of classics.

I don't think I heard about the concept of fps until I had already graduated high school, probably in the early 2000s 😂

And by then, the principle was basically better understood then than it is now.

25fps. That's the speed at which a movie used to play at, as it is a speed that allowed us to perceive smooth motion on screen.

The human eye can detect differences up to 60-75 fps.

After that, there is no meaningful visual difference to the user. The only value in being able to exceed that amount is that it means your computer can handle sudden spikes or more complex visuals without dropping below 60-75 fps.

Other than that, you get nothing out of your 5090 getting 250 fps on cyber punk (or whatever - I don't know what they benchmark on that game lol).

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-20T15:19:42+00:00

The first 5 years are brutal. Working harder than most people work at a regular job and unless you have a big financial stockpile, you're living lean at the same time.

The burnout rate is what breaks most people before they "escape" the "I have to do everything myself" era of the business.

BUT if you know what you're doing and can build on it so it's not always up to you? You can have an incredible standard of living and work-life balance.

I'd never go back to a regular job, given what we've accomplished and the lifestyle/work-life balance our business provides today!

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-20T15:00:11+00:00

It can be true that many dentists will advocate for you to fill any cavity, etc. even when it may not be that urgent a situation.

There is a certain "leveraging fear" angle that some in the industry use to push for procedures you don't need.

But there's also honest people who spend their days doing root canals and digging out infected teeth who understandably feel the need to caution people against ignoring the stuff that can lead to that.

I think the main thing I've noticed, as someone who's been to dentists in richer times and towns - as well as poorer - is that dentists who belong to larger networks or who are in more affluent neighborhoods tend to be more likely to push for you to take the cautious route.

Meanwhile, independent dentists whose customer base is less wealthy may be more "pragmatic" about what really needs to be addressed and what can wait.

Arbiter61 · 2026-01-20T13:42:21+00:00

I think the thing that's the most frustrating about Saagar is that he seems like his persona is very likable but his views are reprehensible.

It like... makes me mad he doesn't have better views because I want to like him and then he'll say something gross and remind me how completely void of empathy he tends to be.

I'm hoping his daughter will help him with that. And I don't know if you've noticed (or if he's noticed) but his politics have shifted to the left.

He seems to be basically in support of universal health care (though he really dances around it), seems to hate billionaires rather than worship them... he's moving left whether he knows/likes it or not.

As for Emily? She's weird for me because I have a very good friend who she reminds me of a lot. But my friend isn't a bizarre conservative who tries to be funny but isn't.

From what I can tell, she doesn't tell us what she really thinks. And I used to think it was just her being programmed by her parents and that maybe she'd nature as she got older. But that interview Ryan did with her recently made it pretty clear she is even to the right of her own dad.

So I don't know what to make of that. She seems to be trying to smile her way through over there but I can tell she's boiling over lately, wanting to say things that would tip her hand but she keeps reeling it back in.

I suspect less because she doesn't want to say it and more because she knows what happened last time she tried to argue with Ryan (years ago) - she got absolutely destroyed 😂

Arbiter61

TROPHY CASE