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Sympthsical

Sympthsical's Journal
Sympthsical's Journal
April 29, 2024

Decades outside of the 1960s have actually happened

This is kind of more of a Millennial grouse I really need to get off my chest.

Does everything ever have to revolve around the 1960s? They were 60 years ago. Surely events have occurred since then. It would never cross my mind to constantly reference the 1990s as if that was when everything important happened.

Did the 1970s even happen? I wasn't alive then, and I almost never hear anyone talk about them. The 80s is just "Reagan was a tool. That is all."

But oh my god. "The grocery store was out of bread. It's 1968 all over again!"

What has everyone been doing for the last sixty years that this is the endless holy reference by which all other things are measured? Every time anyone anywhere has a protest about anything, it's the 1960s all over again.

I thought I'd be grateful people gave the 1930s a rest for ten seconds (and just in time to have discussion about Jewish issues - lucky coincidental break for those folks). But good lord, can we go back to that? Why was every minor event on earth being "just like the Nazis!" somehow less irritating than this?

Yeah, stuff happened then. Civil Rights, protests, moon things, JFK. But other shit has happened since, too. LGBT rights, 9/11, a few wars here and there. The economic death of the middle class. It's fun across the ages. These events can be referenced instead sometimes!

Ok, grousing over. I just had to say it somewhere because my eyes cannot take much more rolling without medical attention. The media is being just the worst about this, but it's creeped into everything else, too.

Whew. I feel better.

April 24, 2024

The Stages of Antisemitism

Stage 1: Denial - "It's not happening"

Stage 2: Reluctant Admission - "It's happening, but it's a small handful of fringe"

Stage 3: The Conspiratorial - "It's happening, but it's outside foreign/domestic agitators who are someone else"

Stage 4: The Full Admission - "It's happening, but it's not important and here is why"

Stage 5: The Actual Sentiment - "It's happening, but here's why what they're saying is a good thing"

I think we're somewhere between 3 and 4 right now.

April 14, 2024

Support for Russia and Apologism for Iran are both anti-western and Putin supportive

Just a thought I wish would cross some minds in this country once in a while.

Putin must be laughing his ass off at how he's managing it.

It's worse when people eagerly walk right into it.

March 23, 2024

Suspect in 2021 SF stabbing case of 94-year-old Asian woman gets probation

Everyone here in the Bay Area is furious. To be clear, this isn't the prosecutor. This is the judge.

https://abc7news.com/sf-woman-stabbed-daniel-cauich-san-francisco-attempted-murder-94-year-old-ahn-peng-taylor/14558878/

"Ninety-four years old at the time. Taking a walk in the morning, where she was violently, viciously stabbed multiple times by a violent repeat offender who should not have been walking on the streets to begin with," said public safety advocate Lily Ho. "In return, the judge said, 'It's fine. Let's just give him probation instead.'"

They were joined by Jenkins and San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey.

"If there is no accountability for the people who attack them, if we don't have adequate consequences for that behavior, it will continue," Jenkins said.

Public safety advocates say they are demanding courts end the release of violent repeat offenders and restore public safety on the streets of San Francisco.
March 8, 2024

'What the Hell Am I Watching': Republicans Torch Their Own SOTU Rebuttal

L.O.L. Honestly. One of my favorite political speeches of all time for all the wrong reasons.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/katie-britt-sotu-rebuttal-torched-republicans-1234983528/

Katie Britt, the junior Republican senator from Alabama, delivered the GOP’s rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s address on Thursday. Her impassioned, breathless speech — delivered at times in an ASMR-esque whisper from what appeared to be her kitchen — ended up feeling more like a rejected audition tape for a supporting role on “Grey’s Anatomy” than the hard-hitting political sparring favored by Biden’s Republican critics.

Into the late hours of the night, Rolling Stone was inundated, sometimes completely unprompted, with messages from longtime GOP operatives, right-leaning pollsters, conservative Capitol Hill staff, MAGA lawyers, and even some senior members of Trump’s own 2024 campaign absolutely torching Britt’s absurdly over-dramatic rebuttal.

“What the hell am I watching right now?” a Trump adviser asked, mid-Britt remarks.

“Creepy,” one of the Republican pollsters noted.
March 8, 2024

Well, this was the best SOTU evening ever

First the President comes out like he's about to punch someone in the face - which was awesome.

And then we followed up with a nice ASMR session about sex trafficking from someone who's trying to seduce me from across a kitchen table?

Fantastic. 10/10. No notes.

March 6, 2024

Reminder about California results

We've transitioned into a heavily vote-by-mail state (upwards of 90% of ballots cast are mailed). Ballots post-marked by election day have 7 days to arrive at the county elections office.

So if various races are close, it might be a hot second before final tallies are known.

March 4, 2024

Supreme Court rules 9-0 people should stop hearing only what they want to hear

Pretty clear, I think.

Turn the damn cable off already.

February 28, 2024

Michigan was better than South Carolina

Just wanted to highlight this, particularly since I noted the low SC turnout here at the time.

These are Democratic votes between the two.

SC 2020: 539,263
SC 2024: 131,472
2024 is 24% of 2020 total


MI 2020: 1,587,679
MI 2024: ~800,000
2024 is ~50% of 2020 total
(extrapolating the final number a bit based on current returns)

Michigan had significantly better turn out in what is functionally an uncontested election.

Honestly, I think last night was fine and hand-wringing about it is a bit overwrought. The media's gonna media. No one prints headlines with, "Election was a thing and nothing important happened." I'm not saying we don't have work to do in a swing state before November.

But I think this was a really good result. Especially considering the Uncommitteds were ridiculously motivated and everyone else probably didn't feel nearly the same pressing need to go hard.

February 15, 2024

Israel Says Wounded Al Jazeera Journalist A Hamas Militant

Weirdly!, Israel bad stories don't get updated when additional information comes to light. In that vein . . .

The Israeli army on Wednesday said an Al Jazeera journalist wounded in an air strike in Gaza was a Hamas militant who filmed himself at a kibbutz during the October 7 attack.

The broadcaster itself reported on Tuesday that Arabic language reporter Ismail Abu Omar and his cameraman Ahmad Matar were both seriously injured north of Rafah and taken to hospital for treatment.

But the Israeli military described Omar as "a deputy company commander in Hamas's Eastern Battalion of Khan Yunis".

"Abu Omar even filmed himself in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7th massacre and published it on social media platforms," a statement read.


https://www.barrons.com/news/israel-says-wounded-al-jazeera-journalist-a-hamas-militant-1523a11c

And for the inevitable, "It's propaganda!" a receipt for you:

https://twitter.com/AdinHaykin1/status/1757377355427807670

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