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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • I was so disappointed when Kamala came out strong for Medicare For All and then pretty much immediately caved and walked it back.

    I have a strong suspicion that there is enormous pressure from the business world to keep the healthcare system the way it is. I’d bet almost anything that the instant healthcare is no longer tied to employment there is going to be a mass exodus of people from their jobs, and an absolute explosion of people starting their own businesses. I mean, I’ve had about half a dozen good scalable business ideas waiting and ready to go for years now, and the only reason I haven’t pursued them is because it would probably mean giving up my health insurance. I can’t possibly be alone in that.

    And I bet if we got socialized health care, a lot of the problems we have right now with suppressed wages and poor working conditions would suddenly have a way of working themselves out.












  • I really hope the Denver one doesn’t pass. It’s basically targeting one small employee-owned meat processor (the one local chefs go to for higher quality meat products), trying to force them to close. And that will shunt all their business to the huge industrial slaughterhouse up north in Greely.

    City Cast Denver interviewed the supposed whistle blower that the campaign to shut the place down are holding up as an example of how awful the place is supposed to be, and it turns out the parts which aren’t untrue are wildly exaggerated. The whole thing feels kind of sleezy, in bad faith, and a gift to the giant corporate meat packers. I hope people see through it.



  • I feel like a ton of conservatives would actually be socialists if they had any idea what socialism actually was. Mostly they have only known the word as a synonym for ‘thing I don’t like,’ but I always find it striking how much socialist language conservatives use when they want to get their base on board with something. Even the introduction for project 2025 goes like: socialist idea, socialist idea, socialist idea, statement condemning socialism as the cause of the world’s problems, positive sounding authoritarian statement presented as a solution. Then it goes back to socialist statements to keep the reader engaged and feeling like the author is working in their best interest. It’s like some weird rope-a-dope bait and switch strategy.

    I bet if socialism got a rebranding that stripped out all the language that usually triggers the conservatives, you’d see a lot of conservatives jump on board with it. At least until the billionaires spin up their media machines to destroy it again.


  • Gotta love conservative double-think. A guy who lives up the street from me has a big “come and take it” sticker on the back window of his truck flanked by two thin blue line Punisher skulls.

    Like, my brother in Christ, do you not understand who they’re going to be sending to “take it?” I swear these guys think Kamala is going to personally come to their house to demand they give up their guns.




  • To my understanding, she’s pretty reviled by boomers for being anti-war.

    Depends on the boomer. Some people thought what she did was important and brave, but for the people who hate her it wasn’t just that she was anti-war. A ton of celebrities were anti-war. It was that she flew out to Vietnam, embedded with the North Vietnamese army, and filmed what a lot of people considered anti-American propaganda.

    I used to work in a machine shop where a bunch of the old-timers were Vietnam vets. I made the mistake of talking about Barbarella one day, and ended up with an earful about “Hanoi Jane,” and her “crimes” against America. They absolutely despised her. For a long time after that they’d all take turns asking me how my communist girlfriend was doing.