Gropey Old Pedophiles; its right there in the name.

Again not the original person you asked, but I found Bazzite a tad too restrictive - I couldn’t for the life of me get PIA’s VPN client installed (for all of those Linux ISOs on my home server).

Ended up switching to CachyOS, which is also very gaming-focused (and Arch-based, if that matters at all!). It’s a bit more open, allowing you to fiddle (or not) with everything a bit more than Bazzite.

As an aside, my only hang-up is that it sometimes hangs while trying to boot up the GUI (not sure why, hasn’t bothered me too much), and it can’t wake from Sleep - but I’m pretty sure that’s just something misconfigured in the BIOS.

Based on the most recent special-election results, we should* see the Dems leave the 2026 mid-terms with 250+ house seats and a slight majority (50-55 range) in the senate.

Enough to impeach the orange turd - but not enough to convict, without some of the more moderate reps growing a spine.

* rough estimates based on a ~25 point swing in urban and suburban districts, and a ~15 point swing in rural seats towards the Dems from the 2024 result.

Again, this is also based on the idea that Trump won’t somehow rat-fuck the US to the point of declaring martial law due to a perceived insurrectionist uprising, and trying to cancel the mid-terms altogether.

Dr. Tran

…will fuck you up!

I won’t feel relieved until we get confirmation what the substance was.

There have been too many mentions of a potentially deadly mercury compound, to be used against political enemies floating around in social media comments for my killing.

I would, as an under-educated Australian, expect a lot of these migrants being from the Middle East - due in no small part to all of the US-led fuckery over the past 25 years (in particular).

So not colonialism, but something altogether worse?

Honestly - in the event that this nature fails, California should just unleash a barrage of similar legislation like this, year after year. Eventually it would end up cheaper to just pay the taxes than continually fight against it.

They do round up, so in the very unlikely event of this ever passing - it would be given one congressman and two senators. All three would be Dems, so this will never happen.

It’s just pure rage bait, intended to distract away from the Epstein Files, Venezuela, and Renee Goode.

The American Experiment is well and truly coming to an end, and I think we can mostly agree that it is ending an abject failure.

The big question is: what comes next? Will it be the age of the American Empire, or the start of America’s Century of Humiliation?

Mind you, neither answer is a particularly good one - seeing as how the rest of the world has basically built itself up based off the foundation of a unipolar world.

We are cursed to live in interesting times.

…meanwhile Steven Miller is hiding in the nearby storm drains with clown make-up on like:

Reduce the US population by almost 2/3rds?

Press X to Doubt.

Criminally under-funding, and undermining the public schooling system for at least two decades (Bush Jr.), or longer if you consider Reagan’s ‘81 Omnibus as the start of the current downward spiral.

It’s not hard to figure out why Republicans are so anti-education; you have to be an idiot to think that their policies would be good for the working class.

Stop carrying water for the DNC, they don’t deserve it.

You have Trump (both times) because the vast majority of the population were unhappy with their circumstances, and the trajectory it was on.

How is it dividing the party to propose they follow their own bylaws and face a suits or primary challenge? Why is it their divine right to run unopposed, what - just because they’re incumbent septuagenarians who’ve gotten ungodly wealthy off insider trading and kick-backs from corporate lobbyists?

Make no mistake, the Dems are on track to win big in the mid-terms and in the 2028 election. But with feckless figures like Schumer and Jefferies at the helm, they are all but guaranteed to squander this once in a generation opportunity to make a fundamental change in the direction of the nation.

And when they inevitably drop the ball, young voters will seesaw back away from the Dems just as quickly as they did from Trump, and Biden before him.

Without a strong, progressive solution towards income, healthcare and housing affordability for the bottom 80%, and soon - America will not be able to pull itself out of the death-spiral it currently finds itself in.

More of the same failed Liberal policies simply won’t suffice in this day and age, and you are a gullible fool if you still think that it is.

Most corporatist/centrist Dems stand to benefit from the current status-quo and aren’t incentivised to support any radical shakeups.

This is causing the increasingly nihilistic populace (younger millennials and Gen Z) to flock to the extremes of the political spectrum. They rushed to Trump because he promised to improve their lot in life, and now they’re realising it was all a lie. They’re the cause for the 10+ point swings we’ve seen in the special and off-year elections thus far.

However, unless progressives are able to challenge and unseat existing Dems in sufficient numbers to be able to put forward a strong change in policy - we are only going to witness yet another exodus of support from the party towards the next GOP firebrand making false promises.

It takes longer to mend something than it does to break it, and I fear it will take 3-4 strong Dem presidential terms to undo the damage of the two Trump presidencies, let alone set the nation on a path towards prosperity.

Hey, it could be worse… you could also share a birthday day, month and suit with the man! shudders

Maybe not to the rest of us, but it is news to the MAGA crowd!

I meant relatively simple in the sense that it shouldn’t require a full re-write of existing laws - just an addition to, knowing full well that enforcement would be the biggest challenge.

Hefty fines (over and above the value of the assets used as collateral) on the lenders if caught not reporting could help ensure compliance.

Another way to tackle it might also be to treat the end of every financial year as a Capital Gains Event for assets over a certain threshold? That way, it just becomes part of people’s annual tax returns and taking out loans wouldn’t necessarily help avoid it.

eg. If FY26 saw Elon Musk’s wealth increase by $10bn, he would owe ~$2bn in Capital Gains to the IRS.

Also, to head off possible arguments: Given that the US taxes its citizens even if they live/work abroad - there would also be negligible risk of capital flight.

There is a (relatively) simple solution to this; Make the act of taking out a loan against the value of your assets (which the wealthy tend to do, for liquid cashflow) a Capital Gains taxable event.

They do exist, depending on the types of trash;

• Recycling Centres
• Pawn Shops
• eBay