Their internal polling must be ugly AF to necessitate this.

I know the word “rigged” is overused in politics these days but I’m not sure how else to describe the method the RNC and DNC use to select candidates. We have a matchup of historically unpopular individuals who were both President already, and yet most feel as though there was an inevitable quality to each receiving his party’s nomination.

I live in a primary state where party registration is arbitrary and I could have easily participated in the process for either major party (just providing this background lest I be accused of being something I’m not). Problem is, by the time it rolls around to my state, the momentum of previous caucuses and primaries has all but secured the nomination already and my ability to influence the process is effectively zero.

The DNC and RNC have created a system of managed coronation disguised as some sort of democratic process. And what’s worse is they now set the precedent of rigged debates designed to exclude meaningful alternatives. If they have a second debate they’ll probably make up something about minimum Twitter mentions or shoelace color to purposely exclude RFK and other 3rd party candidates again.

I just take Marques for what he is - normie entertainment tech channel.

All marketing hype associated with Apple is always to be taken with a grain, nay, a shovel of salt.

Agree. Not every hobby and common trait is automatically a “community” nor should it be.

The tiny house community

The pickleball community

The eating ass community

etc.

Everyone who works a white collar job for a medium or large company should have access to a 401k or some other investment vehicle but I understand that many can’t afford to fully utilize those benefits even if those benefits are available. The exec class gets richer as their portfolios gain value, as they tend to get compensatory stock. Everyone else takes an “L” to make that happen.

A rank-and-file accountant or developer can still set themselves up for retirement but they have to start early and be extremely aggressive.

I agree that with inflation, there are perverse incentives created. Most peoples jobs do not have any guarantee of annual raises, performance based or cost of living based. Effectively you are taking a pay cut each year due to inflation. This passively makes every company environment worse, because the only way to gain compensation is to jump ship to another job. Those who are capable and motivated will try to parlay every job into a better job within 6 months, and that makes it impossible to build up capabilities and culture. It effectively makes everyones job suck more, whether you stay or leave.

The fact they even acknowledged it is … Surprising? Most big US companies seem to be opting for that awkward in-between space where they feel obligated to recognize it but sure as hell don’t want to give people the day off. The result is some execs admin assistant sends out a boilerplate email about how important the holiday is in our company culture, blah blah blah, also you don’t get the day off, get back to work peons, etc.

You’re already legally required to manually register with the selective service if you are male and you turn 18.

Why not just introduce legislation to end that requirement altogether.

Problem is… by that definition, pants beltloops are also machineguns because you can bumpfire just as easily from those, and through exactly the same combined “mechanical function”.

“Looks like you’re masturbating. Get a bonus month of premium if you climax during an ad.”

People have gotten in the habit of cheering on court rulings based on outcome, rather than any defining principles. I’ve been trying to encourage people to imagine the shoe is on the other foot and their political enemies are in charge, before contemplating expansion of federal powers.

Not a lawyer but I would assume any that were registered through that mechanism are on the NFA registry. If you have your paperwork and the stamp, it is legally a registered SBR (whether you paid $200 or $0 for it). Might as well put a normal stock on it at that point.

You mean the “Brace Rule”? It is more than just injoined. It is vacated entirely. So it is as if it never happened.

Not 100% sure but I don’t think it can stay on the books anywhere, if the ruling isn’t challenged.

Fine by me, it was garbage law and they used illegal methods to promulgate it.

What’s more likely though is that they reintroduce the rule in some other crappy incarnation that has the same practical effect, and hope it sticks the next time.

As I said in the other thread… This wasn’t a merits decision as to “bumpstocks good” or “bumpstocks bad”. The point was that machine guns have a statutory definition. Bumpstocks did not fit that definition. Trump tried to use executive order to essentially amend the law all by himself to revise the practical implementation of that definition. That’s not how the US works. If the president wants bumpstocks banned, he must use political capital to lobby congress to pass a bill, then sign the bill if it makes it that far.

To everyone whining about the outcome of this particular case, imagine unilateral executive authority applied to every area of American life, and realize what you are wishing for.

It wasn’t a merits decision. It was about the previous administrations abuse of the executive to reclassify things that already have a statutory definition.

By this diagram, the Hawaiian Puka Dog is sushi.

A lot of public school districts now provide laptops or Chromebooks to the students to use during class while doing… let’s say…minimal oversight at best.

So most of the same inappropriate garbage behaviors and distractions will just be offloaded from the personal phone to the school device.

My favorite part was the qualified engineer sending him the stress curve graph with the likely crush depth zone marked with literal skull and crossbones and he apparently just ignored it and chose to exceed those depths anyway.

They can do whatever they want, sure. What I will say is the moving goalposts for certain “undesirable” content is pretty ridiculous especially if you consider the history of YouTube. Several of the first partner channels and many of the oldest YT channels are gun channels. They were glad to exploit that community to build their platform, but will throw them under the bus at every turn if it can be used to virtue signal or pander to advertising partners.

Haven’t voted for either of the major party candidates in the last several elections. Like many people, I have tried to reform parties from the inside and have also tried elevating third parties and independent candidates. It is frustrating.

The two major parties in the US are baskets of mostly unrelated issues and policy positions. Seems to me that only the most braindead normies agree with even 60% of either these party platforms, much less 90%. All votes seem like “defensive” votes to prevent the excesses of your less-preferred party.

It would be nice to be able to actually vote for something in my lifetime, that actually has a feasible chance of winning.

Any competent person with $50 and access to a hardware store can build functional firearms. This didn’t start with 3D printers.

It is 100% legal in the US to build ones own firearms for personal use. Only a few states have put any additional requirements around it.

Building new full auto guns is already illegal without the proper federal licensure. It was already possible for motivated bad actors to ignore this law if they want, even before 3D printing became a moral panic.

There is already zero point to gun control. Can’t stop the signal.