Trying to get popular brands to give him free swag with his personal logo and Punisher skulls on it? I’m sure a K$H themed Monster is coming soon.

I’m not entirely convinced Luigi didn’t not want to get caught, I’m curious to see how the trial plays out because I question if he wanted a stage to make a statement or is banking on jury nullification. The botched investigation of Kirk’s death is more telling. It took family ratting him out to put them on the trail. ICE agents are ill trained loose canons that rely on numbers, intimidation, and the confidence no one will fight back. They started a war that now they don’t know what to do with. Meanwhile the FBI Director is making Punisher skull collectible tokens and designing his own custom Nikes and the Secretary of War is adding randoms to their group chat. Mass surveillance is only as efficient as the people operating it, and the people operating it are ego driven cronies who’s qualifications are loyalty.

Local cops are the bigger threat. They’ve been at it longer and are better trained than the deputized rabble of Proud Boys and insurrectionists they call ICE. They also know their cities. Even then, criminal organizations like gangs, bikers, drug traffickers, human traffickers, and others operate across the nation every day. Some of it is allowed because they know and want to build bigger cases, some is missed.

Technology always changes war and fighting with yesteryear’s methods is a sure way to lose. If they started loosing military grade hardware like drones on us we’re epically more fucked. But also, Ukraine has shown you don’t need elite soldiers to fight back, just gamer geeks with good hand eye coordination and access to a 3D printer. Fighting back might not be daily shootouts with the authorities, but more infrastructure and supply chain disruptions.

Minnesota showed how quickly locals will improvise and respond, and how many will join up. They chose to keep it non-violent on their end. The response might be different when presented with the knowledge that there’s no peaceful solution left. It’s all conjecture because this would be the first civil war in a digital surveillance state, a heavily armed surveillance state in an era where drones can kill remotely no matter how many guns you have.

Locals do have the benefit of being local. They know their cities, they know their neighbors, they know the blind spots, they know the infrastructure. What works in LA might not work in Chicago, might be different than a fight in Texas. It will need city and state leadership to be willing to, if not fight, at least run interference with the Feds. If the US goes mask off, full on dictatorship that will not give up power willingly, no one else in the world is going to come save it from itself. At that point you accept it or start testing how to resist while knowing it’s a risk and that you will likely end up in a prison or dead.

There’s no way out of that scenario that doesn’t involve that (and they’re already killing and imprisoning people for far less), and there’s no perfect roadmap for how to pull it off because nobody has tried. It’ll be figure it out as you go. I’ll add that the volume of mass shooters that have spent weeks spewing their hate and posting manifestos on social media before their crimes but failed to get red flagged makes me question how great their mass surveillance and threat detection is. People aren’t even trying to not be caught but fly under the radar.

Iran didn’t have to develop the tech itself. Clearly they have captured a Predator.

I doubt it will be nationally coordinated. If it really got rolling it would probably look more like The Troubles but scattered across cities, some more violent than others. The biggest hurdle is that it’s not just civilians vs ICE, it’s ICE, cops, and all the Rittenhouse wannabes that assume they’ll get a pass.

But really, what’s going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back? Blatant election interference? Losing control of Congress but just ignoring it? Running for a third term, or simply refusing to leave office even if impeached or when the term expires?Democracy only works if everyone agrees to play by the rules and let go of power when the voters decide or the time comes. We’ve never had a situation where we might have to forcibly remove someone with that much power and influence that says “fuck your democracy”.

It’ll be a lot of John Browns until city/state leaders start siding with the people in their districts and at that point we’re on the brink of secession and civil war.

I’ll join you. I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They’re not much bigger than a Starlink.

You really think they’d leave peacefully if they were impeached? At best we’d force their hand early since I think whether through ignoring the Constitution and running for a third term or straight up declaring dictator for life, that’s what’s coming in a couple of years.

“Literally the only way”? They tried violent treason and have refused to swear in duly elected reps that are not of their party. If you think they’ll leave when their term is up just because you voted someone else in… the major players aren’t going anywhere. These aren’t the kind of people that gain power and then let it go. Don’t not vote, but don’t believe that’s how we’re getting out of this mess.

Well, ya see, they’re morons. That’s why I sacrifice to Odin. You want no mercy? Pray to the guy who hung himself on a tree by choice, not the one who got his pacifist ass nailed to one by the authorities.

Oh, it doesn’t mean they won’t look back on it with “blunder years” self amusement. It’s the frosted tips, peroxide blonde, white dude cornrows, bowl cut, skater hair, mullet, Beatles bob of Gen A. Every generation get one.

I think it’s one of those things that youth do specifically because it’s youth coded. A lot of older people think it looks dumb, so they won’t do it themselves. And if anybody over 25 did it, it would look even dumber because of the pathetic attempt to look “hip”. I know when I was a kid I didn’t want to look like adults and thought it was weird if adults tried to look like me.

On the girls’ end, holy shit the Alysa Liu bleach stripes are everywhere now. That’s another one that would look ridiculous and sad if tried during middle age.

Eh, Mary was a teenager when God knocked her up. Seems religion and power are just convenient excuses for old dudes to fuck kids. Always have been. Fuck religion and the morons who follow it.

I watch ASMR to fall asleep and quackery of all kinds is very relaxing to me. I’ve noticed that chiro and chakra/aura reading/crystal and herb touching all have the same vibe. The difference is that chiro sells itself as medical, uses a lot more scientific sounding jargon in a professional looking office, where aura stuff is mystical and spiritual with candles, incense, and mandala tapestries. It’s woo-woo for people who think woo-woo is beneath them.

Mountain west, and same. Closest we got was a watered down mention of MLK and Sacagawea, mostly because she is pertinent to state history. They kinda glossed over her being a teenage sex slave and depicted her as the “wise old squaw” trope, never mentioning she died in her mid-20s. We have a statue of her by the Capitol. She’s pointing Lewis and Clark south, the one direction they didn’t go 🤦‍♂️

The regime has gone radical vegan.

Jury nullification. We’re appalled but also impressed so we’re sending you back out to see what other zany hi-jinks you can get up to.

Slots are awesome because they prefer forking to spooning.

Death is the ultimate cuddle buddy for the best sleep of your life.

I worked at a late night pizzeria that served the after hours crowd. If you think last call is desperate, holy shit.

Should have been there during the late 90s and early 00s when binge drinking was the rage. No dating apps, no addiction to socials, just bars full of horny drunk people making bad choices the way nature intended. Some nights you gave the facial, some nights you received, some nights both. Most mornings you had no idea what the fuck you’d done but the lingering stank told you it was probably regrettable.

I was adopted, then abused. Like, they had to go out of their way to get a kid and then treated it like crap. Met my bio mom as an adult. She was 15, drunk, wanted to get laid at a party, and by the time she realized she was pregnant couldn’t abort. Fucking pro-lifers, I was this close to not having to deal with this shit. This close!!!