Spyke

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Donald Trump brands US a ‘third -world hellhole’ run by ‘perverts’ and ‘thugs’

Well, as a former political official, he is among them. It's also a bad look to say this because the president has to work with other politicians. If you are an independent or reasonable republican, please vote against him in the primary. Vote for maybe Tim Scott or Nikki Haley or the North Dakota guy or the mayor of Miami. Off the top of my head, they seem milder in bigotry and tyranny. They still are a little bigoted and tyrannical, but not at Trump, DeSantis, or Pence's level.

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Hunter Biden lawyer files complaint after Marjorie Taylor Greene shows Congress nude photos

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I honestly don't understand why they act like Joe Biden is the only politician with a child who has addiction issues and/or failed relationships. Donald Trump Jr. is also divorced and has had alcohol addiction problems. During the Biden/Trump debates I almost wanted Biden to mention Don Jr's problems since Don Sr kept bringing up Hunter, but fortunately familial attacks are beneath Biden.

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There are, they're just bigger.

When I was young, I wanted to go to Disney World because most other kids I knew went there. Now, I'm 28 and no longer interested. Maybe I will be one day, but not now. Disney as a company has gotten too big and the "magic" isn't really magical if 35% of entertainment media is a Disney property. Not to mention the state of Florida is run by a tyrant, and then Disney Land in California is just in one of the most congested states in the nation. Haven't visited a theme park in years but the best ones are Story Land (lots of toddler stuff there, but still fun) and Canobie Lake Park. Maybe Knotts Berry Farm or Busch Gardens are some better theme parks in the southeast.

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Substack says it will not remove or demonetize Nazi content

Mckenzie needs to read that Reddit story about the bartender who kicked out a guy with the Third Reich eagle ensign on his shirt despite him quietly minding his own business. I really don't want Substack to "suddenly become a Nazi bar." I'm just a reader, but if I ever start a newsletter I may reconsider my platform. I am on a basic free plan for all Substack channels I read. I've thought about upgrading my subscription to some, but now I will hesitate.

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Trump Declares It Will Be a ‘Bloodbath’ for America if He’s Not Elected

Can he just be quiet for once? Why is he even saying that? It's a death threat but I think he's too stupid to realize it. This is probably why so many of your family members don't want to help on your campaign. Melania, Barron, Ivanka, Jared... and Tiffany and her husband. You don't have to talk every time you are interviewed. You can ignore or decline requests to talk. Lord knows you do that enough with invoices.

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In the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson, there has been a 100% increase in calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline about reproductive coercion

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There's a famous saint, Brigid of Kildare, who was an "abortionist." She was an Irish abbess who performed miracles. One of her nuns got pregnant (legend is spotty about how, if it was rape, consensual, or if the man was a priest or a layman) and Brigid stopped the gestation just by touching the nun's abdomen. Conservative people will argue and say "no, it wasn't an abortion, it was a time warp back so the fetus had never been conceived" or something... But... It seemed to be an abortion to me. Of course there's no record of Brigid's own memoirs or diaries, just those of her followers and some of the nuns who reported to her, so her life is somewhat mysterious. There's other saints out there with similar stories about aiding in reproductive choices, but Brigid is the first to come to mind. And as far as the prophets go about the welfare of babies, Solomon encouraged two mothers to split a baby in half. He was somewhat joking as a test to see who was the true mother of the baby, but still, it's kind of a sick joke and he's supposed to be one of the good guys. (Also, the false mother is the one who is content about cutting the baby and that makes no sense to me. Even though the King determined the baby wasn't hers, why does she have no humanity or knowledge of what happens when humans are split apart? Being horrified by his joke isn't really a requisite to being a real parent).

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Do people just not use the YouTube subscription feed?

I use the subscription feed. Definitely don't use the bell. Bell is so cumbersome where you get a email for a new video, then you get that pop-up preview on your browser, and push notifications on your mobile device. Too much for me, especially since I'm at a point where I subscribe to 600 channels or so, which makes it hard to play favorites. That's sort of what the bell is for I guess, determining whose content you value the most.

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Is there an artist whose work you love but was a shitty person?

This thread has already mentioned a lot of artists I was already going to mention...and I'll add a semi-recent one for me, Scott Adams. I started reading Dilbert while I was still learning to read and my exposure to it helped me recover from my literacy anxiety (which I sometimes still have to an extent). I've mentioned a bit of my associations of it in previous posts but to recap, my mom worked at another "Baby Bell" company, Nynex, later Bell Atlantic then Verizon, (like Scott who worked at Pacific Bell and Dilbert and friends who worked at an unnamed company implied to be in the telecom sector) I liked the simplistic designs a lot, as well as the introduction of new vocabulary. I soon started making my own comic strips. Scott Adams' views on race, medicine, politics and several other subjects are perplexing. If I could logically follow them, I'd be offended. My dad's high school experience was diminished by segregation apologists during Boston bussing mandates of the 1970s when they would protest at school campuses. The fact that Adams was on board with such a stupid practice in that infamous vlog is upsetting. Then again, Adams is a contrarian so I can't be sure if he sincerely feels that way, especially since he tweeted something afterwards saying "I'm not actually bothered by black people. I am actually just annoyed by white people who advocate for black people" (paraphrase). Maybe it's a true clarification or maybe he's just trying to walk back his statements. He needs help. There's probably something traumatic in his life that made him snap. Off hand, I know his wife filed for divorce from him and his stepson died of an overdose, and he may still be mourning in a strange way. Still, if I see Dilbert merch at a secondhand shop or in the library, I'd gladly take them out. I will not subscribe to his new pay-walled comic, but if his distributors and publishers ever decide to re-sign their contracts with him and start printing new Dilbert books again, I may buy them. Anecdotally print publishers seem to do more vetting than web publishers, so I'd hope that if they ever reunite he'd be in the right headspace. Anyway, great comic, troubled person. Hope the guy gets some help.

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Trump wishes electric car supporters 'rot in hell' in Truth Social Christmas message

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I almost feel bad how little personal emotional and/or spiritual time he takes for himself. He continues posting this crap after his brother died, after his first wife/mother of his three eldest died, while he was getting ready to attend his younger daughter's wedding, and more recently, after his sister died. He's so relatitory. Just be happy or somber in these landmark occasions. His sister Maryanne who just died even seemed to be pretty important to him. He wanted to transfer colleges and Maryanne had a friend who was on their admissions team, so she set up an interview for him, and even drove him to the interview. Not to mention her being a circuit judge in New Jersey helped his casino get its gambling and liquor licenses issued quickly. She really looked out for her little brother, and he'd rather post about how due process is against him than how much she meant to him on the day she died. She'd said in Mary L. Trump's book that Donald's comments on how the death of their older brother Fred inspired his sobriety was emotional manipulation. Now that more impactful events have come in his life and he's only focusing on the ones that effect him directly, I realize she was right.

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Secret Service Agents Were in Contact With Far-Right Oath Keepers - A new report reveals members of the Secret Service were in communication with the group’s radical leader, Stewart Rhodes

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That was actually Major, their younger dog at the time. Champ was their elderly dog who died a couple years ago. They since got a younger pup, Commander, and he too, has been biting staffers, but I don't know if they revealed which agencies the victims work for. Maybe Commander is copying what his elder brother does, but iirc Major doesn't live in the White House too often nowadays. He might just have the same intuition.

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Hunter Biden lawyer files complaint after Marjorie Taylor Greene shows Congress nude photos

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The Kushner family sounds almost even more dysfunctional than the Trump or Biden families combined. Jared's dad has been in jail for a while because he solicited a prostitute for Jared's uncle(elder Kushner's brother-in-law) because he wanted to prove to his sister that her husband was a bad person and divorce him. Jared and Ivanka's kids will probably have to have a lot of therapy, not to mention Jared's cousins and their children.

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Lemmy Babies of the Rexodus - it's been 9 months, how has Lemmy changed you?

It's okay. I still peruse reddit sometimes because the subs here aren't sufficient enough. Also, reddit has more variety. Lemmy is a bit too political. Like /c/news seems to only post political stuff. And it's mostly liberal leaning (which I am), but too liberal occasionally. People hate nazis here but curiously, they also hate Israel. I'm looking for more communities that are less intense and charged. Stuff about crafting, plant rearing, literature, etc. The other big fediverse site, Mastodon, has a similar prevalence of charged stuff, but I've found a bit more silly things both on my own and with suggestions over there. I suppose I could start some new communities here but I'm doubtful I have the fortitude to make them get increased traction.

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Reddit now won't let non-logged in users see subreddits until they've been "reviewed"

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Mark Zuckerberg was planning on introducing some subscription service like Twitter checkmarks to Meta, but at least he responded to questions about it in his comments section. Iirc the program might even have been delayed due to its apathy from users, but I haven't heard much about its plans lately. At least he understood how stupid he sounded once he spoke with consumers.

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I laughed aloud when I first saw that episode of SpongeBob "Selling Out," where Karl takes over the Krusty Krab and he threatens Squidward with Human Resources. The Human resources guy isn't a human, nor are any of the employees, yet they have HR anyway. But still, HR guy is scary and another reason the crew lives their work lives in fear. As cheap as Mr. Krabs is as a manager, he always let Squidward and SpongeBob express themselves in their own personalities. Human resources sometimes tries to squash your individuality.

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You probably don’t need a masters degree to debunk this one.

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Adams is "crazy" because he seems to disagree with himself. Donald Trump impresses Adams, yet he voted for Hillary Clinton to protect himself. White people should "stay the hell away from black people," yet in a tweet after his tirade he explained he is not bothered by black people, but instead bothered by white advocates for black people (which... may include himself, I mean he identified as black for solidarity or something, which is kind of meaningless, but he did used to support black cartoonist Robb Armstrong's comic Jump Start quite a bit, and even wrote the foreward to his book). Yeah, his views can be upsetting, but the following day they will likely be upsetting yet completely contrawise to his previous views. That's why he's "crazy," and while I dislike the connotation of the word it seems apt. He has a constant paranoid mania in his videos, blog posts, and tweets. I really only have a layman's knowledge of mental disorders, coupled with my own experience, but Adams really needs an evaluation. PTSD, any bipolar disorder, any schizophrenia, or maybe something else I don't know about could likely be in the cards.

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DOJ prosecutors request gag order after Trump arraignment, citing social media threats

I'm hardly an expert, just someone who loves studying law by myself until I can afford formal law school, and I did a little PR work during my internship, but despise my rudimentary exposure, Trump, his spokespeople, and legal team are approaching these indictments in the completely wrong way. They are too adversial and argumentative. Speaking little and gently would be much more helpful, and maybe even opting for a guilty plea. Trump needs to stop whining about how much he hates being prosecuted and the publicists and attorneys on his payroll need to stop regurgitating his bellyaches. It's not like I think he won't be sentenced for being agreeable. He likely will, but maybe they'd be able to make some compromises. Now I know why Ivanka will not work on her father's current campaign. Her style of arguing is much more reserved, while her two eldest brothers have an aggressive style which seems to be the only one their father seems willing to emulate. I bet Trump did not listen to his daughter's advice often enough. Edited a word.