wonderingwanderer

I think the graph shows relative position of the planets from the sun, so the straight line is just a baseline.

Like if you jump up and down on a plane, and the graph just shows you moving a couple of feet up and down rather than including the entire altitude change of the plane itself

More like outward from the center of a sphere

There’s also no reason to believe that expansion isn’t happening in a spheroid pattern. The big bang wouldn’t have been like a blunderbuss, more like a naval mine suspended in the abyss, exploding in all directions.

For that matter, did the big bang ever cease, or has it continued to spew out new energy, and we’re just so inconceivably far out that our entire observable universe is just one small section of a relatively narrow range of distance from the center?

Lastly, if the big bang is like a faucet, what if black holes are like drains in a tub, or in other words wormholes leading back to whatever realm everything came from before being spewed out by the big bang?

Everything in the universe is cyclical; there’s no way something doesn’t complete the circuit, even if it’s just a big crunch.

If they don’t have anything to hide, then maybe they’ll consent to an unwarranted search. Who needs constitutional rights when you have nothing to hide? /s

New rule: recording someone else without their consent gives them partial ownership of your device: enough that they can rightfully destroy it if they so choose.

People used to call me a creep whenever I raised concerns about mass surveillance. Like, obviously if I wasn’t okay with that then I must have been planning something nasty, right?

Well this is precisely the scenario I was trying to warn about, and it’s far nastier than anything I could have possibly done, even if that were my intention…

This is the next logical iteration of “if you aren’t doing anything wrong then you have no reason to be concerned with people filming you without your knowledge/consent!”

It was never a good argument, but too many people seemed to believe it and now we’re here…

Only an absolute tool would wear that crap.

I’m not pretending it’s likely that we’ll have free and fair elections followed by a peaceful transfer of power, but we’re also not in “no chance in hell” territory yet, and it is our most likely option.

If midterms come and go and it becomes obvious that elections were not both free and fair, or if there is no peaceful transfer of power in accordance with the will of the people as expressed by a free and fair election, then the third and fifth sentences of the Declaration of Independence come into effect.

Until that time, or under more favorable conditions, the fourth sentence of the Declaration applies.

And the rittenhouse case shows that in america, you can get away with shooting/murdering protesters, if you’re a white conservative.

But a liberal counter-protester bringing a gun to a trump rally? Not even white privilege will protect you at that point…

Also, this year for example i can count the amount of days below 0°C on one hand

I can count the number of days this year on one hand…

For real though, I knew what you meant. I just couldn’t resist the opportunity (after all, there’s only five days a year when this joke might apply)

It’s not that climate change is causing this change of climate. The change of climate is climate change. That’s why it’s ridiculous for someone to say “Oh, the climate’s changing. But it isn’t climate change!”

Oh no, it must be those pesky democrats and their secret government weather control /s. Trying to convince people to believe in climate change so they can… checks notes… promote self-sufficiency through renewable energy…

What’s causing it is primarily greenhouse gasses along with several other compounding factors (deforestation, concrete and asphalt coverage, melting ice caps, etc.).

So yes, human-induced. No one would run a gas-powered lawnmower indoors, but somehow they believe that billions of people driving outside every day is totally fine?

What other options do you propose?

I’m aware the midterms aren’t failsafe, but they’re the closest thing to hope that we have.

And if people make the same mistake as last time by boycotting the vote, then their defeatism will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Some cancers are terminal/inoperable…

How do you strike if you’re already unemployed? So many people are already losing their jobs to automation and AI.

Also, one of the most insidious aspects of american healthcare is that by tying it to employment, people become utterly dependent on their employers. They lose a lot of leverage.

How do you risk your livelihood when you have cancer or diabetes and your corporate benefits are the only way you can afford healthcare?

Not to mention, most of the american workforce is not unionized. How do you organize a strike without workers unions?

Plus, there is a precedent in recent history where congress can pass legislation making it illegal for workers to continue a strike. How that doesn’t qualify as forced labor, is beyond me.

So you see, there are many roadblocks to having an effective strike in the US, especially when the american system has been designed over the decades and centuries specifically to advance and protect the interests of the wealthy elite.

It’s not about making excuses, it’s about acknowledging the practical realities that get in the way of progress.

This is the way.

Crashing the USD would be its demise as the global reserve currency, which would evaporate all that speculative value overnight.

Sure, the oligarchs would still have their mansions, bunkers, and bullet-proof SUVs, but their primary source of leverage and influence would be gone. They would become irrelevant.

No, definitely impose sanctions and stop trade, but don’t ban travel. Let the brain drain do its thing.

Some of us do not consent to the actions of this rogue administration, and we don’t crave isolation. Some of us desperately want a way out of this country.

Don’t deport americans. Some of us want to escape.