There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Got_Bent

@[email protected]

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Got_Bent ,

Rigged in the sense that they intentionally made the odds so long as to almost ensure it would routinely go weeks and weeks without a winner. So yes, it is by design.

Got_Bent ,

I wanna see a Bruce Almighty scenario with the lotto at some point in my life.

Got_Bent ,

97% of people can’t handle this jackhammer

Got_Bent ,

Man, I remember a time when Starbucks gave decent pay, great benefits, and employee stock to even part time employees.

How things change when you can only see short term quarterly profits.

Got_Bent ,

This time of year, I really miss the college football sub, but I have not succumbed to temptation.

Got_Bent ,

It won’t shut down. I see it more going the way of Yahoo - a once juggernaut that stumbles along a shell of its former self.

Got_Bent ,

Late Friday night, the former president of the United States—and a leading candidate to be the next president—insinuated that America’s top general deserves to be put to death. That extraordinary sentence would be unthinkable in any other rich democracy. But Donald Trump, on his social-media network, Truth Social, wrote that Mark Milley’s phone call to reassure China in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.” (The phone call was, in fact, explicitly authorized by Trump-administration officials.) Trump’s threats against Milley came after The Atlantic’s publication of a profile of Milley, by this magazine’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who detailed the ways in which Milley attempted to protect the Constitution from Trump. And yet, none of the nation’s front pages blared “Trump Suggests That Top General Deserves Execution” or “Former President Accuses General of Treason.” Instead, the post barely made the news. Most Americans who don’t follow Trump on social media probably don’t even know it happened.

Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous, not just because it is the exact sort that incites violence against public officials but also because it shows just how numb the country has grown toward threats more typical of broken, authoritarian regimes. The United States is not just careening toward a significant risk of political violence around the 2024 presidential election. It’s also mostly oblivious to where it’s headed. Trump loves to hide behind the thin veneer of plausible deniability, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. If a mob boss were to say, “In times gone by, people like you would have had their legs broken,” nobody would mistake that for a historical observation. The suggestion is clear, and it comes from a man who has one of America’s loudest megaphones—one that is directed squarely at millions of extremists who are well armed, who insist that the government is illegitimate, and who believe that people like Milley are part of a “deep state” plot against the country. Academics have a formal term for exactly this type of incitement: stochastic terrorism. An influential figure with a large following demonizes a person or a group of people. The likelihood is strong that some small number of followers will take those words literally—when Trump implies that Milley deserves to be put to death, some of his disciples might take it as a marching order. The number of those who take action does not have to be large for the result to be horrific.

Already, one of Trump’s minions in Congress has echoed the incitement to violence. The Republican Paul Gosar of Arizona wrote—in his taxpayer-funded newsletter, no less—that “in a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.” The meaning is not ambiguous: Gosar is explicitly saying that killing Milley would be desirable. From the November 2023 Issue: The Patriot As a political scientist who studies political violence across the globe, I would chalk up the lack of high-profile assassinations in the United States during the Trump and post-Trump era to dumb luck. Already in 2018, one deranged Trump follower, Cesar Sayoc, sent pipe bombs to public figures (and a media organization) who just so happened to be among those whom Trump most often attacked in his Twitter feed. Thankfully, nobody died—not because the dangers of Trump’s rhetoric were overstated but because Sayoc was bad at building bombs. Heading toward one of the most consequential, divisive elections in American history, every ingredient in the deadly recipe for political violence is already in the mix: high-stakes, winner-take-all politics; widespread conspiratorial delusions that detach followers from objective realities; a suggestion that one’s political opponents aren’t “real Americans”; a large supply of violent extremists with easy access to deadly weaponry; and a movement whose leader takes every opportunity to praise those who have already participated in a deadly attack on the government.

Eventually, all luck runs out. Political violence is notoriously difficult to forecast with precision, but would anyone really be surprised if Trump’s violent rhetoric led to real-world attacks in the run-up to the 2024 election—or in its aftermath, if he loses? For all of these reasons, Trump’s recent unhinged rant about Milley should be a wake-up call. But in today’s political climate, the incident barely registers. Trump scandals have become predictably banal. And American journalists have become golden retrievers watching a tennis-ball launcher. Every time they start to chase one ball, a fresh one immediately explodes into view, prompting a new chase. Eventually, chasing tennis balls gets old. We become more alive to virtually any distraction: The media fixate on John Fetterman’s hoodie instead of on stories about the relentless but predictable risk of Trump-inspired political violence. Bombarded by a constant stream of deranged authoritarian extremism from a man who might soon return to the presidency, we’ve lost all sense of scale and perspective. But neither the American press nor the public can afford to be lulled. The man who, as president, incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol in order to overturn an election is again openly fomenting political violence while explicitly endorsing authoritarian strategies should he return to power. That is the story of the 2024 election. Everything else is just window dressing.

Got_Bent ,

I am not even remotely Christian or any other religion, so the following is meant to be nothing more than a thought exercise.

Suppose somebody in the United States took Jesus up on his word and sold all their possessions, gave it all away to the poor, and spent their remaining days helping others.

In the US economic and social environment, how would they even survive?

Reiterate: I am not Christian and I do not support religion of any kind. I’ll add that the foundation of this thought is my general disdain for this late stage capitalism in which we exist.

Got_Bent ,

I’ve thought of that in philosophy as well. I once pointed out to a professor that it was a mathematical impossibility for every person to be completely altruistic. He mostly stopped speaking to me for the remainder of the semester.

Got_Bent ,

Some of them want to corral you

Some of them want to be corralled

Got_Bent ,

I had one of those in my 96 Mazda. I’m still curious is they were at all effective.

Got_Bent ,

All these progressively restrictive laws have been good to me. I’m of the generation who remembers smoking on planes, and my grandmother smoking in her hospital bed.

I was probably at two packs a day in the nineties because it was cheap and acceptable.

These days, a pack will last me a week, and I only ever smoke in my backyard at home, in clothing dedicated to the habit that get washed separately from my other clothes.

Bans and social stigma have forced me into near non-smoking without ever consciously trying.

Do I ever have an occasional night of celebratory drinking where I exceed that trend? You betcha, and I don’t feel sorry about it. But I’m glad that I’m not the chain smoking beef jerky with a voice three octaves lower than it should be that my grandparents were.

I still believe that people should be able to enjoy vice and that you shouldn’t be completely ostracized from society for not living a perfect organic free range fair trade intoxicant free perfectly vegan whatever else life.

But to phase out tobacco as it has been going, I have found that I haven’t minded at all in the long term.

(As to the occasional celebratory night, for completely different reasons, I hardly drink anymore. Also was not a conscious choice or effort. It just lost its attraction for me)

Got_Bent ,

The first smoking bans were sections of airplanes

Then they were for domestic flights under two hours

Then they were for domestic flights

Then they were for all flights

The first restaurant bans were only the dining area

Then they included the bar area

Then they hit stand alone bars

The smoking bans you know today did not hit all at once. They got progressively more restrictive over a period of many years.

Got_Bent ,

Man, my freshman year of college, in California of all places, we had cigarette vending machines in our freshman dorm. The only smoking policy in your dorm room was that your roommate had to be cool with it. Zero designated non-smoking rooms. There was a smoking section inside the cafeteria. You couldn’t smoke during class, but the professors could smoke in their offices and we had a coffee bar in the building that was one huge cloud.

How things have changed, eh?

Got_Bent ,

Shhh… Nothing to see here. We’re busy setting the coals to the feet of a Democratic senator!

Got_Bent ,

I’ve been planning on cancelling prime at the end of the year. This closes the decision making process for me.

I’ve been sticking to Pluto and Tubi lately. Yes, they have ads, but they are entirely free and have enough content to keep me entertained for the duration of my ever decreasing television watching habits.

(End of year because due to terms and conditions, there is no benefit to cancel early)

Got_Bent ,

My experience with prime delivery in 2023 is that it has gone from two days to four days to two weeks to completely lost fuck you trying to get a refund.

Further, I stopped using eBay in the late 2000s because everything there became “fell off a truck in China” quality. This is what a vast percentage of Amazon product has become.

This is the crux desire to cancel.

Got_Bent ,

I really didn’t think we would ever see a return to the days of the robber barons. Now I think that era was but an open mic amateur hour opening for the headliner that’s coming.

Got_Bent ,

Good. I’ve come down with something that mirrors what COVID felt like and have exhausted my supply of tests. They were pretty expensive to purchase.

Got_Bent ,

It was about fifty dollars for three tests at CVS

Got_Bent ,

It was just one of those things. I needed to test same day, so I had to pay the premium.

Got_Bent ,

The comments on that are really difficult to understand.

Got_Bent ,

I’m not sure what drew me to watch Crunk on Earth as it looked like something I really wouldn’t enjoy.

I’ve never been so happy to be so egregiously incorrect.

Crunk is the best!

Got_Bent ,

I was using the archaic had to get up at three in the morning to go to work spelling

“I simply fell short of my values”: Lauren Boebert issues apology after being removed from “Beetlejuice” performance (coloradosun.com)

The Republican congresswoman said “while none of my actions or words as a private citizen that night were intended to be malicious or meant to cause harm, the reality is they did and I regret that”

Got_Bent ,

How does one fall short of something that is infinitely lacking in stature?

Got_Bent ,

Forty years later, people figured out that the nerds were making more money than God. Then nerd wasn’t such a bad thing.

Got_Bent ,

I’m not even supposed to be here today!

Ok, I know that wasn’t a gas station, but it felt like it fit.

Got_Bent ,

Work. The answer is always work. Eke out a little more profit while people recharge.

Got_Bent ,

$110k? That’s it? Damn, that’s some good insurance!

Got_Bent ,

Stay away from the green ones. Bitter.

Passenger on Ill-Fated Diarrhea Plane Says Flight Attendants Were Forced to Craft "Makeshift Biohazard Suits" (futurism.com)

On Friday, an international Delta flight bound for sunny Barcelona was forced to U-turn back to its starting point, Atlanta, for an exceedingly rare air travel horror: a passenger had suffered diarrhea throughout the plane’s aisle so extensively that completing the flight was deemed untenable....

Got_Bent ,

Snakes on a plane part doodoo?

Got_Bent ,

Air Canada says what’s the problem?

Got_Bent ,

I got the mitosis. What’s the loss?

Got_Bent ,

I’m truly sorry for your and your wife’s suffering. I have one kid, and everything went perfectly up to present day adulthood. I don’t think I would be able to function after even one episode of what you’ve gone through. Internet hugs from afar.

Got_Bent ,

I was serious and that’s brutal. After thirteen years of Reddit, I have no idea how I was completely ignorant of this one.

Court Rules in Pornhub’s Favor in Finding Texas Age-Verification Law Violates First Amendment (variety.com)

Court Rules in Pornhub’s Favor in Finding Texas Age-Verification Law Violates First Amendment::A Texas law requiring age-verification measures for porn sites, challenged by Pornhub and others, violates the First Amendment, a judge ruled.

Got_Bent ,

I live in Texas. Is it my patriotic duty to go rub one out now?

Got_Bent ,

I live in Texas and was considering wearing dresses to work just to see what the definition of “sexually explicit performance” would be.

Got_Bent ,

It’s in my shaving soap and it’s divine

Got_Bent ,

I tried the all you can eat pasta at Olive garden once.

The first bowl happened.

The second bowl was in like one of those little soup cups.

They refused to come anywhere near our table after that except to slam the check down.

Fuck everything about Olive garden

Got_Bent ,

In retrospect, all you can eat in a table service environment is just a bad idea all around.

This was back around 2000. We were young, poor, and hungry, so of course we were looking for value. It’s not fair to servers to offer that.

Got_Bent ,

I remember those halcyon days when calling each other Sherlock and Einstein was the zenith of insults.

On the playground.

During recess.

In the fifth grade.

Got_Bent ,

Most shops I know of these days assign a labor time to any given job. You get charged that amount whether the mechanic does it in half the time or takes five times as long.

Anymore, it’s an internal benchmark for mechanics to build on the efficiency of their own work.

In my line of work, it may take me three hours to solve a client tax issue. I will bill for that accordingly.

If another client comes along the next day with the exact same issue, but this time I know the answer because I researched it yesterday, so I can solve it instantly, should the second client get charged nothing?

Got_Bent ,

I have no horse in this race either way. According to wiki:

Two years later, the university was accredited for degree-granting programs through the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC)

Currently the DEAC is recognized by Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the United States Department of Education as an accreditor of institutions of higher education.

It looks like there are potential issues with transferring credits to more traditional schools.

If I were a hiring manager, I would certainly raise an eyebrow to see that school on a resume.

Edit: While there is no tuition, there are fees from a couple thousand for an associates up to slightly under five thousand for a master’s.

Got_Bent ,

My Shiba crossed the bridge two years ago at age fifteen.

There are not many dog breeds that are more difficult and there are not many dog breeds that are more rewarding.

I still miss him daily.

Disclaimer: While he did happen to be a purebred Shiba Inu, I got him at the SPCA and didn’t know shibas were even a thing at the time. I only learned that at the first vet visit.

Got_Bent ,

I don’t like Bud Light. I have never liked Bud Light. It’s been over twenty years since I’ve drunk a Bud Light.

However, I also believe there is a time and place to consume crappy American adjunct lager. Generally daytime outdoor activities.

I don’t understand the culture of disparaging people for the beer they drink. I especially don’t understand something along the line of a Coors Light drinker expressing existential superiority over a Bud Light drinker.

As to the craft drinkers, I see that as an entirely different market that should keep to itself. It’s like Michelin star diners disparaging people who can only afford to occasionally eat at the local greasy spoon.

The world's largest chipmaker promised to create thousands of US jobs. There are growing tensions over whether US workers have the skills or work ethic to do them. (www.businessinsider.com)

The world’s largest chipmaker promised to create thousands of US jobs. There are growing tensions over whether US workers have the skills or work ethic to do them.::Jobs at the TSMC semiconductor factory in Arizona could require long hours and total obedience. Americans may push back on the company’s culture.

Got_Bent ,

That doesn’t sound like jobs. It sounds like indenture.

Got_Bent ,

The album cover for the 1980 X album Los Angeles would be a perfect logo for Elon’s little sandbox.

Got_Bent ,

Is that with a football or a bullet? Both scenarios fit.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •