The Martian.

Aside from the macguffin that left Matt Damon stranded, the science was solid. Furthermore, the casual dysfunctionality and administrative infighting of the governments and agencies was brilliantly on point.

Toenail growth.

Cutting nails is annoying, and toenails are awkward and stupid.

In a nutshell…

They’re not here for your benefit, they’re here for their own profit.

If they could make money with flashing lights they would, even if they had to deal with lawsuits from people who had seizures from it.

They don’t cate what you like. They don’t care what you want. You are nothing more than a commodity they can sell.

No.

Now that you mention it…

No, not really. It had never occurred to me before, and as I hear them in my head right now, they’re just not that similar.

But that’s me.

Sooner or later, all protests in the US will turn into this kind of protest. I suspect quite soon.

Why aren’t you?

Also, grow the fuck up.

Fuck no.

No kidding. I mean, this is finally the moment that Madison predicted two centuries ago! A fascist has seized control over the government, and is illegally detaining people. Rise up my US gun-lovers! Rise against the dictators and claim control of your country from…

Oh wait, you’re the ones who got him elected? Nevermind.

If all else fails, a Scotchbrite pad should do it safely.

Not American, so take with a grain of salt. However…

Frankly, if you’re a naturalized citizen at all, you should already be looking over your shoulder and feeling scared right now. They’re deporting legal residents because they don’t like the tattoos they have. They’re disappearing people for being 2SLGBTQ+.

So either you hide, you run, or you stand up. The only real difference is that standing up will make it easier to catch you - but the end result will be the same.

I see this sort of response from Americans over and over, and it makes me crazy.

“there’s going to be incredible pushback.”

Great! Fantastic! WHEN??!?!

• He was bankrolled FORTY YEARS AGO by the Kremlin.
• He orchestrated an attempted military coup four years ago.
• He was convicted of 34 felonies and ordered to pay a third of a billion in a civil trial.
• He has been found guilty repeatedly of sexual assault.
• He has seized illegal authority over all aspects of the government.
• He put his neo-nazi puppetmaster in charge (unsupervised) of destroying whole (non-partisan) divisions of the government
• He cut life-saving international aid.
• He threw Ukraine to the wolves, and backed Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
• He destroyed almost a century of goodwill between the USA and the rest of the world.
• He continually threatens (seriously) to invade Canada, Panama, and Greenland.
• He has unilaterally renamed an international body of water.
• He is currently destroying education, research and healthcare in the USA.
• He is deporting thousands of US residents - many of them legal - in violation of the Geneva Convention.
• He is erasing attacking the right to exist for LGBTQ2+ citizens, and actively encouraging violence towards them.

In short, he has proven over and over and OVER AGAIN that he is the single biggest enemy of the USA, and the single biggest threat to their continued existence. He is copying Hitler’s playbook from 1933-36 almost to the letter.

And STILL I hear, “oh just you wait - things are gonna happen if he doesn’t stop soon!”

What does it take to get you to realize that the USA is being destroyed by a traitor working for Putin? What will it take for your country to FUCKING ACT RIGHT NOW instead of saying “oh, just wait” again?

Why are Trump and Musk and their entire entourage not in chains, awaiting the death penalty on the far end of high treason charges?

What the fuck are you still waiting for?

No answers from me here, but I’m curious - how much of the US learns Spanish in school?

As a Canadian looking in, I honestly believe they will. They’ve already done worse things and gotten away with it.

The only ‘fire’ effective against Nazis is a molotov cocktail or a gun cartridge.

Stop blaming the opposition for not being tough enough against fascism, unkess you’re willing to take up arms.

Gen-X guy with possibly too much interest in the subject.

Shaving it bald for women started to become normal about 15 years ago. Trimming it was more common then, and going back to end of the 1980s, shaving was a rare and weird fetish in the western world.

As for why, I’d say it’s because porn normalized it - and porn did it because as mainstream content became more explicit, shaved pubes were both easier to keep clean for the actresses, and (more importantly) showed more.

I find it funny that now that it’s become mainstream, hair is becoming a growing fetish.

As an aside, since pubic hair is a sign of sexual maturity, some of the generations that grew up with hair down there have a subconscious connection between bald and sexually immature, i.e. children.

“What’s the point?” The point is to seize power and get rich.

They will destroy whatever they want or need in order to become rich and powerful.

I actually has psyche written down, and changed it.

It’s not exactly the normal use of zeitgeist and maybe volksgeist would be a better term (except tthat we don’t use it in English), but I feel that this is a relatively new aspect to Americanism, starting in WWII. It’s still more of a growth on their psyche than a fundamental part of it.

It also has some parsllels with British exceptionalism up to the endnof the 19th century

I’m a Canadian who has lived and worked in the US, so I’ve got some familiarity with it.

There is a pervading sense of exceptionalism buried deep in the American zeitgeist. It runs so deep that most people don’t even notice it - even on the outer edges.

Case in point: My closest friends down there were staunch leftists. In a land of gun owners and meat lovers, they were vegetarians and pacifists who marched in protests against the government. Most of the time they were quiet, charming, soft-spoken, but firm in their beliefs. Pretty much the polar opposite of the “loudmouth American tourist abroad” stereotype.

And yet if you asked them if the US was the greatest country on earth, they’d say “well yeah, which is why we have to fight for it.” An admirable sentiment, but the “well yeah” speaks volumes for how the country sees itself.

The protest singers who lived through McCarthy are the same. Woody Guthrie and his son Arlo would probably say that for all of its flaws and horror, the US is still the best nation we’ve got so far.

When you know deep in your soul that you’re the best, it’s hard not to let some subconscious arrogance show through.

I know that software is a very different industry, but Mountain Equipment Co-Op went through this in Canada. The end result is that the new Mountain Equipment Company is a for-profit, US-owned reseller of overseas crap, just like everyone else.

The problem I see is that browsers are still evolving significantly, and I’m worried about what will happen if Mozilla goes T-U. Sure we have the code, but will it continue to be developed after that point?