24 responses to “Our new AI-enabled robot dog overlords”

1. 

   Anonymous

   10/13/2024

   Virginia prosecutors fight to uphold life sentence for man found not guilty

   jury nullification nullification

   Reply
2. 

   Doug Holland

   10/13/2024

   You are blowing my mind, babe.

   Reply
3. 

   granville

   10/14/2024

   I can't believe they're blowing the election. Shouldn't be surprised, this same team that's erased a healthy lead in the last 45 days was previously notable for running the worst presidential re-election campaign in history. Quite an accomplishment to do both in the same year.

   Trump and Vance are literally speaking to everyone. It's nuts. They're in saturation bombing mode. They're literally trying to convince everyone that while yes they'll probably screw them, you should go out and vote anyway because it could be funny. That's it. That's the pitch. And Tim Walz is in a bunker somewhere and Kamala is saying things like the main difference between her and Biden is that she'll appoint more Republicans. This is crazy, man.

   Reply
   1. 

      Anonymous

      10/14/2024

      If you have always felt that you had your political compass fixed, but are increasingly feeling lost at sea, that’s because we are in the midst of a fundamental reorientation of our political landscape – a sea change. If someone had predicted eight years ago, or even four, that Dick Cheney would ever back a Democratic presidential candidate and, in the same year, RFK Jr. would side with the Republican, they would have been laughed off the stage. Aren’t Republicans supposed to be the authoritarians? Then why are the Democrats putting the foundation for totalitarian control of our lives in place? Aren’t Democrats supposed to defend our civil liberties? Then why are their leaders intent upon revoking our inalienable right to Free Speech?

      Reply
   2. 

      Doug Holland

      10/14/2024

      Granville — Dems, especially at the Presidential level, usually sidestep saying anything interesting, anything that might make people think they'd make things better. They don't like saying anything that might offend someone somewhere, even Republicans.

      But I don't follow the polls and day-to-day campaign crap, and I'm a million miles from the middle-of-the-road voters that Democrats always target, so I might be under-informed and insufficiently terrified. Has the Harris campaign said something in particular that's dumb, or is it just the yawn-inducing Democratic Party dullness you think will sink things?

      Reply
   3. 

      Doug Holland

      10/14/2024

      Anonymous — Before I bother responding, you'll need to pass a brief sanity test by explaining how Democrats are "intent upon revoking our inalienable right to Free Speech," and also, why Free Speech is capitalized.

      Reply
   4. 

      granville

      10/14/2024

      Yeah, this came right out of the candidate's mouth:

      https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/1844836136729940093

      I understand what they think they're doing, but they're driving down their turnout with this nonsense. And then Kamala came out in favor of crypto, appeasing a voting demographic that does not exist.

      Anonymous:

      If I honk your nose, does your bowtie spin?

      Reply
   5. 

      Doug Holland

      10/14/2024

      It's been the Democratic Party's strategy for decades: reach out to Republicans, reach out to middle-of-the-roaders, ignore the left. It's been pissing me off for so long, that Twitter bit barely registers with me — this is simply how Dems run and how Dems govern, and I'd expect no better from Harris.

      But absolutely, that's how to deaden enthusiasm from voters like you and me. Keep people enthusiastic, and they'll vote. Lose the enthusiasm, and a percentage of them will say screw it. Trump understands this, hence he's cranked up his already noxious hatemongering. Harris seems to be campaigning largely on outreach to Republicans and Republican endorsements, which is tiresome as fuck and deadens enthusiasm.

      Reply
   6. 

      Sam I Am

      10/15/2024

      https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4932273-vice-president-harris-interview-fox/

      Harris agrees to sit for interview with Fox News

      she's doing everything she can to win over Cletus and Reba in Bumfuck, MS.

      Reply
   7. 

      johnthebasket

      10/15/2024

      The Harris campaign is very quiet and not well-funded in Mississippi. This presidential election will be decided by a few hundred thousand people in five states. She has a shot at exactly one CSA state. Your implied argument, that progressive voters will stay home unless Harris promises to raise taxes on the rich (I'm for that) is one that speaks badly of progressives. They'd actually rather see Trump win than not hear the correct messages from the closest thing to their candidate? Well, I think they're great progressives and lousy Americans. Yeah, she's taking your vote for granted. Learn to live with it. And keep Trump the fuck out of the White House. Next time will be much, much worse.

      John

      Reply
   8. 

      granville

      10/15/2024

      "Your implied argument, that progressive voters will stay home unless Harris promises to raise taxes on the rich (I'm for that) is one that speaks badly of progressives."

      Well if that's to me, I didn't imply that. I'd like them to stop citing war criminals approvingly, state emphatically they plan to retain Gensler, Khan and Biden's union policies. You know: say what the aspiring president of the United States plans to do when she's president. I don't think that's asking much. But I'm voting for her anyway, and am in such a blue state it doesn't matter if I didn't.

      More importantly, she's polling worse among some groups than any Democrat has in 60 years, and that does matter. They're not asking for raising taxes on they rich. They're simply not hearing anything of any appeal at all, and if they don't vote for the other guy, they'll just stay home. That's just what happens and they're *even less* likely to turn out if we start calling them names.

      Today's insanity is that they sent Bill Clinton to rural Georgia (their first surrogate to even go to Georgia outside of the cities, amazingly). He immediately proclaimed that immigration will assist our GDP on account of a low native birthrate, and said he has many friends who are billionaires and he's glad they pay their taxes. This is the dumbest campaign strategy in history.

      Reply
   9. 

      Sam I Am

      10/15/2024

      She's gung ho on sending arms and munitions and weapons to help Israel keep killing.

      Reply
   10. 

       Doug Holland

       10/15/2024

       Granville — Seriously? Clinton said those things? Almost funny. And even if he said better things, what demographic is swayed by Bill Clinton's words in 2024?

       Harris got lots of initial enthusiasm for being not only not Trump but also not Biden, but beyond those cherished nots I'm not sensing anything to get excited about. Nobody I know is voting for her for anything but the nots, and I'm not sure having both nots lined up is enough to win it for her.

       Reply
   11. 

       Doug Holland

       10/15/2024

       Sam You Am — She's the Democratic nominee, and that position isn't open to anyone who believes in solving problems.

       Reply
   12. 

       Sapporo

       10/16/2024

       I'm a little hesitrant to vote for a candidate endorsed by Dick and Liz Chaney.

       Reply
       1. 

          Doug Holland

          10/19/2024

          Harris: “Let’s do nowhere near enough to solve problems.”

          Trump: “Let’s burn the world down.”

          Reply
4. 

   johnthebasket

   10/15/2024

   I campaigned my ass off for George McGovern and have organized and doorbelled for most of the few progressive candidates who have survived the New Hampshire Primary, and a few who didn't., as well as some progressive locals. I knew who my enemy was, and it wasn't the Republicans. But let's not lose site of what happens to representative democracy if Trump wins this election. Trump's friend Hitler never learned the lesson: one enemy at a time and lost the best fighters he had on the frozen plains of Stalingrad.

   John

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      10/15/2024

      Harris has my vote, and probably Sam I Am's, just by being not Trump. For me she gets extra credit for not being decrepit and sleep-inducing. Our votes aren't in play.

      What's in play is a tiny sliver of the genuine undecided, and a much, much larger swathe of left-leaning voters who'd like to hear a candidate address the issues they care about, but haven't heard it and probably won't. It's those millions who'll decide the election, and Harris isn't doing much to get them excited. For some people, not-Trump isn't enough.

      > I knew who my enemy was, and it wasn't the Republicans.

      Who was it?

      Reply
   2. 

      johnthebasket

      10/15/2024

      Sorry, I wasn't trying to be mysterious. Any time you are working for a progressive Democrat running for President, your biggest enemies are the Democratic establishment. The last presidential election in which I spent significant time, the election of 2004, and the establishment candidate consistently got the most funding, the best position in speaking rotation, access to Democratic assets like printing and photocopy machines, access to perennial Democratic volunteers, (the list goes on and on: at the bottom, the establishment candidate(s) got genuine Democratic scotch tape at rallies, we had to buy our own.). So I'm sticking with my point, but it's not like I don't know what you guys are talking about.

      John

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   3. 

      Doug Holland

      10/15/2024

      Democratic scotch tape — made me laugh, but that's the reality. Everything for the boring candidate. And speaking of boring, without Googling I can't even remember who the Democrats ran in 2004 against GWB.

      Reply
   4. 

      johnthebasket

      10/16/2024

      John Kerry, who had been busted multiple times for his opposition to the Vietnam War, who was a progressive in policy, but a little boring in style was the choice of the Democratic establishment and, by coincidence, got the nomination. I bet you a doughnut you won't be able to figure out who I gave up three months of my life to work for. Progressives wear all kinds of odd clothing.

      John

      Reply
   5. 

      johnthebasket

      10/16/2024

      True political fact: Jimmy Carter, who just quietly turned 100, and half a lifetime ago won a Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for human rights around the world, would never have even entered a primary in 1976 without the support of the Allman Brothers. The boys put on concert after concert to raise seed money, and by the time they had to get back on the road to pay the bills, Jimmy was winning primaries and roaring toward the White House. Can six guys make a difference? They can if they're the Allman Brothers.

      jtb

      Reply
   6. 

      Doug Holland

      10/16/2024

      I didn't know there were that many Allman Brothers, but I love that story.

      Seems like a kick in Carter's peanuts when people say he was a lousy president but a great after-president. I don't know whether he was a "good" president or whether that's even possible, but he was a damn sight better than his immediate predecessors and successors. Might be the best president of my lifetime, but I'd have to read a book to say for sure, and I don't care enough about presidents to read books about them.

      Reply
   7. 

      Doug Holland

      10/16/2024

      Gore in 2000, Kerry in 2004, Obama in 2008 and 2012, H Clinton in 2016, Biden in 2020, Harris in 2024… Yeah, I'd take Carter over any of them.

      Reply

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