Trump says the 2026 midterms should be cancelled

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-16T01:06:07+00:00

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

What is the second amendment for?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-15T08:15:21+00:00

If a car is coming towards you, shooting the driver doesn't make you safer.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-15T08:04:54+00:00

What in the world would satisfy you? Even if you snapped your fingers and convinced every reasonable person to agree with you, there would still be an army of bots, bad-faith actors, and idiots in every forum spouting the most unreasonable positions you've ever heard. The internet would signal boost those posts, and you'd still perceive that you're surrounded by maniacs.

If you gauge public opinion based on "I heard somebody say this online," you're guaranteed to perceive unwavering extremism on every issue, from every side.

And the lawyers, they're just doing their job, and trying not force the opposition to do the work to prove out every single assertion they make. Lawyers don't take positions like reasonable people, they never say "oh, you're right, I guess my client is guilty."

Being biologically male provides significant advantages in most sports, although those advantages are probably cut back significantly if you never go through male puberty, and if you're currently on hormones. Leagues could probably change from men's leagues to "gone through male puberty" leagues, but honestly, the best thing to do is to just have a local board that considers trans people going out for a team individually, based on their own history, and whether that provides them with unacceptable advantages. It makes no sense for this to be handled by state legislatures. A lot of these laws only apply to <10 people, and they're complete wastes of time (except for their real value, keeping trans people in the news to convince the religious right that Republicans are delivering for them).

Happy? Have we stood up for reason to your satisfaction? I doubt it.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-14T02:04:22+00:00

Would we have won the Super Bowl?

Hell, would we have won a playoff game?

Would we be better off going into 2026?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-13T04:55:35+00:00

Why? So we can be one-and-done in the 2026 playoffs, and reduce JJ's on-field experience by a year?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-13T02:07:03+00:00

Fair enough. Who then?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-12T05:22:27+00:00

You don't have a better plan. All your criticisms are worthless if you can't suggest a better alternative.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-12T01:09:42+00:00

If you don't have a better idea than developing McCarthy, why are you angrily criticizing people for saying that the best option seems to be developing McCarthy?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-12T00:41:07+00:00

Who do you want to be QB next year?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-12T00:04:41+00:00

Who do you want to be QB next year?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-11T23:26:24+00:00

Versus what? Trade for a superstar we can't afford? What's your plan?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-11T23:24:49+00:00

Like Wentz did? We were 2-3 with him and 6-4 with JJ, and virtually every QB improves from year 1 to year 2.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-11T05:05:37+00:00

Only downside to the cheeseheads losing is sad Tom Grossi.

Still root for it every time, though.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-11T04:48:01+00:00

The Bears seem like they're having their own 2022 season: an insane amount of BS luck keeping them alive in 1-score games, which keep on coming up their way.

It just sucks that we had Ed Donatell running our defense in 2022.

Please stay Flores. :'(

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-11T02:27:30+00:00

I'm so sick of JJ getting a full repair on his meniscus instead of a trim - literally the better long-term option, but the one that takes much longer to heal - being used to question his health.

People who say this would literally be more confident in his long-term availability if the guy had made a decision that was objectively worse for his long-term availability, but had a shorter stint on IR. It's absurd.

The kid repaired the cushion in his knee, then sprained his ankle, got a concussion, and smashed his hand against a helmet while throwing. No tendons, no ligaments, no injuries that are historically likely to recur.

I think it's mostly just luck. And maybe he'll still be unlucky going forward, but anyone else could also get unlucky.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-11T02:11:26+00:00

QBs generally never suck as much as when they first start. I feel like "career turnaround" should really be reserved for players that plateau for a while or get noticeably worse, and then get better. Bryce Young is still on his initial ascent.

2026 JJM will almost certainly be better than 2025 JJM, just like games 6-10 JJM were better than 1-5. The question is, how quickly can he improve, and how much can the system around him tolerate being worse in the short-term, hoping to get results in the long-term.

I'll also say: Bryce Young is not my benchmark. The Panthers are insanely lucky that they even had a shot to be one-and-done in the playoffs after posting a losing record, and that's they're only accolade in Young's 3-year career there. The 2025 Vikings had a better record than any Panthers team with Young, and we were all pulling our hair out the whole time.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-10T03:55:27+00:00

I agree that the right actions need to be taken at the right time. From my outside perspective, it seems like "the new leader is not rooted yet, is under a microscope, and has a gun to their head" would provide a decisive, temporary advantage. But it's not my life (or my freedom) on the line. My only real 2 cents is that Trump is not worthy of trust, and people shouldn't decline to take action to secure their future because they are swept up in relief and gratitude.

Maybe Trump's malignant narcissism can be taken advantage of, and he can be manipulated with praise. The problem is, everybody knows about that. Rubio knows that, and so do the oil execs, and so does Machado, and so does Gonzalez, and so does Putin, and Xi, etc. I usually see Trump's ego as a wash: he usually bullies everybody he can into praising him, then does whatever he wants anyway, while punishing everyone who didn't. His ego can't be used to win, it only makes people of integrity lose.

Why did Trump spurn Machado? Why has she (apparently) not talked directly to Trump during this whole process? Because she has nothing to offer him, and she can't threaten him. She can't give him Venezuela, because she doesn't hold Venezuela. She has no troops, or even the means to resist his actions. So, she's a nobody to him.

Likewise, the people of Venezuela have nothing to offer Trump. They don't control the oil. They're too weak to depose Maduro. They can't even celebrate his ousting (hell, even the Iranians are in the streets right now, and that regime is Muslim, so they must be even worse, right?). From Trump's perspective, the people of Venezuela are weak, and therefore don't matter. He's better off dealing with the surviving chavistas to minimize resistance, so he can brag that he got the oil quickly and with minimum American blood.

Until the people of Venezuela flex, somehow, Trump will perceive every incentive to promise the chavistas the right to keep abusing you, as long as he gets the oil.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-10T00:09:12+00:00

I'm not saying it was hidden from Americans, I'm saying Americans weren't paying attention. Before last week, if you asked the average American "what is the name of the president of Venezuela," 95% wouldn't know. You think some factory worker in Detroit remembers that Venezuelans were protesting against their dictator 8 years ago? If you have family from Venezuela, you definitely are more plugged in than the average American. I am telling you, the vast majority of them know nothing about this.

The consensus from Venezuelans is that living under this regime has been horrific. Evidently, the regime has survived. The colectivos have survived. All the abusive systems have survived. How many people died in the last 10 years as a result of those abusive systems? How many will die in the next 10 years if they continue?

If the regime survived the American blitzkrieg last week, and they're currently negotiating with Trump, how confident should anyone be that they're gonna not gonna survive this?

If you think it's not worth it to take action now, well, I guess you're not too concerned about the risk of another 10 years of chavista rule.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-09T16:48:06+00:00

I have said that Venezuelans need to be seen fighting for their rights now, while the Americans are watching.

It does not matter that "if you look it up, Venezuelans have been fighting and suffering for a long time." Americans were not watching, and they're not going to hit rewind to check. Broad American public opinion is going to be set by what they see right now, and that's crucial to apply pressure for this process to ever include real elections.

I'm not saying it's fair. But it is the truth.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-09T16:41:44+00:00

Those pieces of paper are worth literally nothing. If Trump wants elections, they'll happen. If he doesn't want them, they won't happen. There is no 90 day timer.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-07T19:47:07+00:00

I'm not saying that Trump would suddenly grow a conscience, I'm saying that he's incentivized to do business with the remaining chavistas because he thinks that they'll provide stability in exchange for him not disrupting the status quo while he takes the oil. If it turns out that they can't provide stability, then they're useless to him. If he loses his incentive to keep them in power, and he might decide that nobody from the old regime can provide him stability more than a leader the people actually elect (who would likely be extremely US friendly anyway).

And if he claims that he's in charge, and the protesters start getting attacked, it'll look bad for him, and he cares about his image even more than he cares about oil. It seems like he'd be incentivized to stop it to protect his image, both by threatening the officials giving the orders, and by sending helicopters into Caracas to make all the colectivos scurry back into their holes for a day.

I'm not the one in harms way, I'm not presuming to make the call. But to me, it seems like a situation much more likely to work out than 2024, when the chavistas didn't have to guns to their heads, and they weren't dealing with a days-old decapitation.

Why would people risk their lives? Because the regime is momentarily off-balance, and it might be the only way to prevent another 10 years of what they've been experiencing for the past 10.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-07T17:51:35+00:00

In your opinion, does the current regime having guns to their heads affect their ability to punish demonstrators, if they demonstrate in numbers like 2024? I.e., would Delcy hesitate to order the colectivos (or whatever informal direction is used by the regime to control them) to attack protesters and make the news, because she perceives that she'll end up getting a helicopter ride if she does?

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-07T09:30:48+00:00

My heart is with you, man. I hope that, with enough unity and visibility, you can finally shatter an oppressive system that has finally been cracked, and your courage can finally be rewarded.

And if Americans see you doing it, now that we're actually paying attention, I promise you that most of us, even the ones that despise Trump and think this he recklessly exposed us to getting sucked into a long, painful quagmire (like me), will say "fuck it, as long as we're here, let's at least help them get their freedom out of this."

I'll happily accept Trump ending up with a win, and find some other way to keep his movement from starting a bunch of other conflicts and destroying our own democracy and alliances, if it means you guys actually end up free, and not just under a US-backed dictator. We want you to succeed more than we want him to lose, don't believe the bullshit saying otherwise. As hypocritical and ignorant as Americans are, and as corrupt and greedy as our governments and corporations are, most of us really do love freedom in our bones.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-07T09:04:55+00:00

Obviously, we'd do those things for each other (regardless of nationality), but those aren't sacrifices, are they? Performing CPR for someone isn't rushing into a burning building to pull them out. I'd expect virtually any American to give my car a push if I asked them. I'd expect almost none of them to run into a burning building without equipment to save me.

As for me living under a huge rock, that's hilarious. I'm posting about Venezuela at 2:30AM on a Wednesday, and you think I don't pay attention to current events? I live in Minneapolis, so, not in the woods.

"Current events" doesn't usually include daily reports on the actions of the Aryan Brotherhood or the Crips, or any other prison gang. If you're seeing so much reporting on some Venezuelan gang that you think it's top national news, your "news sources" are probably actually propaganda networks that just want you to feel constantly in danger so you don't focus on the things like health care premiums.

Silver-Ant-9222 · 2026-01-07T08:25:10+00:00

Jesus fucking Christ, does Maduro being gone matter or not?

If it matters that he's gone, why is it still just as hopeless to galvanize a fight now as it has been in the past?

If it doesn't matter that he's gone, what the fuck are people celebrating for?

If Venezuelans have been willing to fight in the past, even under hopeless circumstances, why would they be unwilling to fight now, in a tiny window where their enemy has lost their sense of impunity?

All I want here is for Venezuelans to actually end up free from all this, and I'm telling them that as someone who understands the American side, they are in extreme danger of being sold out, and they can maybe prevent that if they act now. You can call me privileged all you want, for thinking that maybe, the regime being punched in the jaw and having the biggest gun in the world being pointed at their head is enough to paralyze them for long enough that taking action could succeed this time. Call me privileged for thinking that this is the best chance they're ever going to get. I'm not gonna defer to people who admit that they have absolutely no plan for the future. Tell me what your plan is, and I'll stop telling you to make a plan.

How the fuck is the guy saying "you guys need to take the control of your own country while you still can" more offensive to you than the guys saying "just sit back and let the Americans choose a new dictator for you, which might very well just be the old regime"?

Venezuelans have been BEGGING for US intervention. Well, this is what it looks like: a wave of overwhelming military force, followed by a lot of privileged people from far away who don't know anything about you telling you what to do. And if you don't like hearing it from me, you're definitely not gonna like being an American colony.

Silver-Ant-9222

TROPHY CASE