#gotta clock in for my calling idiots fuckin stupid shift

[princessnijireiki]

The other thing is... totally separate from however much or little faith you have in individual issues around this presidential race.

In nearly 300 years of existence as a formalized nation, the United States has never voted out a genocide. Not one.

And for as long as the United States is run as the specific kind of imperial power it is, Israel in some way, shape, or form, will continue to exist, because its establishment as a formalized nation was specifically so Allied powers post-WW2 had a place to jettison "undesirables" to while forcing Palestinian "undesirables" out, so they had a built in labor and military force to man Israel as an imperial outpost. And when you turn civilian populations against each other, then turn half of them into a military base, and instruct them to "hold the line" against the rest of the world under an imperial framework (under very plausible threat of that same framework being turned against them), then yeah, within one or two generations you have willful and consenting colonial oppressors in the truest sense of an imperial neo-colony.

There is not a ballot that lets you pick the gun boss of the executive branch of guns, who is going to deviate from that model, in some clean & easy hardline way, that every other political power in this country or within its imperial allies will allow to proceed without interference, at this sociopolitical point in time.

I wish there was.

But in the same way that "everything looks like a nail to a hammer," the problem is bigger than a nail, and what we're voting for is a hammer.

It's still a tool. Depending on the force behind or opposing it, a hammer can do a lot, or it can be rendered fucking useless. A hammer can build things or tear things down. A hammer can be part of dismantling an old structure or establishing something new. But you will never tear down the master's house with the master's tools.

Doesn't mean it's not worth voting for a hammer. It's fucking important. It's limited in scope, the conversation is always made out like it's the one biggest and only thing you "need" to engage with politically, when it's very much not the end all or be all. But I'd still rather see if there's a hammer that might be more for me than against me in some kind of way, even if it comes down to "lesser" issues like climate and food related safety regulations, reproductive justice, anti discrimination law, educational access, and union rights, that are also life or death matters for a lot of people.

Obama was, like every US President, a war criminal, a deporter in chief, and so many other things. He was also able to make positive changes despite that. Both things can be true. Because all his scope was, was a fucking hammer. And it is not a bad thing or a moral failure to still pick a hammer less likely to fuck you up, or one less likely to fuck up a whole lotta people who aren't you, just because we acknowledge ceasefire is not actually an issue I get to vote for and win, any more than I got to vote against the genocide to begin with.

That one's gonna have to be a different tool. But abstaining from picking a fucking hammer just means you've decided in advance to be unarmed when other people want to use their hammer against you, and who have you helped with that decision except your own ego?

I don't need to reverse psychologize or play chicken with politicians, and I don't need to play games with my own safety to psych them out when there's actually pretty basic social media psy ops people are falling for every day just saying that none of it matters anyway. When that's an awful lot of effort and an awful lot of money spent on something that apparently doesn't matter... when if it also doesn't matter, what's five minutes to just do the thing, then, since it shouldn't matter either way?

I don't need to entertain or humor the idea that I'm even engaging on that level. I don't give a shit if the politician has faith in me. I don't give a shit about your nihilism. I definitely don't give a FUCK about anybody selling the idea that I should give up some scrap of agency in terms of voting to... prove a point about somebody else's career insecurity. It's not a game.

I don't need to act above being earnest about myself and my community or above caring. I give a fuck and will continue to do so.

So if I have shitty option A or shitty option B, it is not weak to choose harm mitigation for yourself and others, or to choose self interest, if that's the only difference between the shitty options. Because ALL these people who can be or will be harmed still matter, and people need to start acting like it. And then you keep it pushing and REMAIN politically engaged & active BEYOND this bullshit the other 364 days of the year. Y'all getting too lost in the sauce for me. Pick your hammer, then continue the rest of the fucking fight, and pick up a new weapon when the hammers are useless.

while i completely agree with your assessment of realistically what a trump vs harris presidency will look like, i think the issue me and a lot of other leftists have is that there is no need to tell people (and effectively tell harris) that oh ofc we are gna vote for her despite these issues because trump is THAT bad and if you say you don't want to vote for her because her party is pro-war, pro-genocide, then you are condemning americans to a trump presidency. we know trump is worse! i don't want him to win AT ALL, but why would harris even consider even changing the language she is using (i'm looking at the absolutely stupid speech she was giving in michigan, given the large arab & muslim-american population there and given its a battleground state) if she thinks she is going to win on a not-trump basis? i know who i'm voting for on nov 5th if it comes down to it, but we need the democrats to THINK they are going to lose until the very last minute, we need them to feel like they can't just rely on being the lesser of two evils if we want any chance of a shift on palestine. because they very well might lose, for this exact reason (and i'm speaking again more to the votes of the arab & muslim-american population which is far more demographically meaningful than the votes of leftists) and if that happens, they have no one to blame but themselves.

So I'm going to tell you something important: You don't have the leverage you think you have.

Political campaigns are a machine that's been operating the same way for a long time on the Democratic side. The Republicans may have abandoned a lot of the old ways of doing things, but the Democratic party hasn't. And you've got people running these campaigns who are steeped in the "wisdom" of how you win.

And when a block of voters says they're not going to vote for their candidate, they tend to believe them. So they decide to go court the people who they think will vote for them. That's why you've seen the Harris campaign trying to court moderate Republicans who might be iffy on voting for Trump a third time.

Right now one of the reasons Netanyahu is refusing to commit to a cease fire is because he thinks Trump can win. If Trump wins, he has no reason to ever agree to one. One of the reasons he thinks Trump can win is because the polling is so close.

If you want to know why they've gone to the right recently, it's because they think they've lost the left. And since a lot of those leftists are claiming there's a line in the sand that they don't have the power to appease (because -- again -- they can't get Netanyahu to do shit right now), they're going to go for the centrist Republicans.

Also, there seems to be this weird notion that the only way to move the Democrats is during the election. That's not how you move people. You keep pressuring them during their term and it works. Like Biden is continuing to work on forgiving student debt even though he doesn't have an election ahead of him. Because they know that what he does reflects on the future of the party. Voting doesn't end this game, it's the start of it.

But none of it will matter if Trump wins.

[henrikvanderswoon]

Ransom of the Seven Ships Reactions

Alright, kiddos, strap on your uhhhhhhh PiRaTe BoOtS and sail with me on a perilous journey toward saving *looks at smudged writing on hand* Bees. Yes. I would like to save the bees.

Anyway, I have some coffee, I'm multitasking cause I'm also at work, and I'm ready to play this game that I only played once when it first came out and never picked up again. I remember basically nothing about it so this should be an experience and a half. 😂 I'm also probably going to be working on it in bits and pieces but I'll try to put it all into this one post, so let's see how this goes!

*

AH YES... IT BEGINS:

God I love this lil gnome guy sittin in the neighbor's yard. Normally, I'd give this game a 0/5 stars, but because of this gnome I will give it 0.5.

When you go to a place called Dread Isle and don't expect to get kidnapped... Pffftt. Also there's literally NO ONE in the island, and no one found that suspicious?? Bess and George better step up their game.

GOD. The fact that George wasnt just STANDING AT THE DOCK waiting for Nancy to arrive so she could ask the pilot for help is cracking me up. Like she's just deadass BOLTING and fails to say, I dunno, maybe: "NANCY. DON'T LET THE PILOT LEAVE, BESS IS MISSING!"

Poor George's mouth is the width of her head.

They found a graphic artist who only specializes in environments and the occasional animal and said: "You're hired! Now, design a human face."

What the fuck is this puzzle about the battery water levels in the golf cart? I must be an idiot cause nothing's working. Am I stupid??? Probably.

I'm shifting the little knobs and pressing the button and nothing happens... oh NO.

I'm not 15 minutes into the game and I'm now setting Nancy on fire for fun.

Ha HAAA. I am an idiot. I didn't know I could press the blue buttons on the little water tubes. Well, Squidward, what have we learned today? Don't be like me, kids.

Shit, I spilled coffee on my puzzle solving notebook. Is this what I get for making fun of the graphics and playing on the clock?

Dwayne...that accent is literally the most horrendous thing I've ever heard and I want to smack you in the head with your own metal detector.

What the fuck kind of accent is he even TRYING to imitate? Because that is NOT Jamaican (also...his white-ass couldn't pass for Jamaican even if his life depended on it).

Dwayne, this is why your acting career ended before it even began.

Also Nancy is an idiot for falling for it.

There's a behavioral center for monkeys here... but there are no people to take care of the place? Nancy why aren't you more suspicious of this???

The fact that the monkey reaches behind itself when you say, "I would like to play a game with you." Is so funny. Like the monkey just has the game at the ready like: "Oh, good, let's see what I have in my collection."

Coucou fuckin ANNIHILATED that guava, like it was spewing pieces that weren't even it's own color I'm crying.

If anyone's looking for me, check under my bed and you'll find me sobbing over this Krolmeister Bat Seeker battery puzzle.

I wrote this and then immediately solved the puzzle. Complaining; it pays off, folks.

If I complain enough about this digging puzzle, will I also finish it faster? Because the instructions make me want to pull my hair out 🙃

I'm slowly beginning to realize me playing this game is going to be nothing more than a series of complaints listed one right after the other. I'M SORRY.

I'm also beginning to realize why I never picked this game up again hhhhhhh

It's been three days. I haven't seen or heard from George since the last time I visited the resort. I am sunburned, my fingers have all but congealed themselves to the handle of this shovel. "Times two," I mutter. The sound of the sand shifting under my heavy footfalls no longer brings me any kind of solace. It's just me and the coconuts now. Somewhere in the distance I can still hear Dwayne's god-awful accent. I forgot what Bess looks like. Who's Ned?

Oh, wait, I figured out the digging puzzle 🤪

Okay, I will say though. I do have a fun time figuring out what the messages in the journal say based on the little coded symbols. I genuinely enjoy this.

Now... following the instructions the coded message gives me??? Not so much.

Nancy, you mean to tell me you just conveniently know how to throw a sail onto a fucking sailboat and just... do it correctly in less than one second?? Okay.

How the fuck did an ORCA WHALE jump up and hit my boat????

This whole "boating and driving" thing I already wasnt here for. This whole "boating and driving against wind and sand that will slow you down to a snail's pace" I'm here for even less.

I genuinely forgot I could play as George in this.

Nancy and George referring to Nancy as "Detective Drew" over the walkie really just... wow, that is... really somethin' 😂

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." I dont know what you're talking about, Coucou, but same.

Even though I've been doing work throughout this process, I'm this 👌🏻 close to begging my boss to send me something to work on hhhhhh.

Okay, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I'm only just realizing that Coucou js repeating all the phrases she hears the resort guests saying..... which I think is a very cute addition to this game and maybe the single redeaming quality 😂

Alrighty I gotta have lunch and my boss wants to have meetings with us this afternoon so I gotta blast. But... just like Dwayne Powers, I WILL BE BACK.