He ran on ambition. "Change we can believe in." Prison for the hedge fund managers. Closing the revolving door. A public option for healthcare. Then he won and turned out to be scared of the media framing him as an angry black man. Which of course they did anyway. Such a waste.

Watching someone that's fucking you up just bounce off another human for no apparent reason is a very normal part of life that, nonetheless, is often quite maddening.

I look at the pic in the OP and go, lol, imagine unironically thinking in 2026 that Obama was an example of ambition amongst the Dems

VERY COOL PERSON: It's four-twenty, you know what that means?

ME: Hell yeah! [starts shoving blackbirds into a pie]

Blexas and Blississippi implies the existence of Blohio

And I think that’s beautiful

Narrator: they were, in fact, full of it the whole time

(By "society" here is meant "Eichmann-esque banality-of-evil social planners and their defenders, for whom direct feudal oversight of peon-minions constitutes an essential component of self-justification and self-esteem")

Yes, a lot of us thrived during COVID due to our natural dispositions and preferences. WFH dramatically improved a lot of lives. Our actual output was valued over any petty social taxes.

Plenty of us talked about it. It wasn't a secret. Society just doesn't like us.

No. *sobbing*

Oh, here's an idea: hire a good composer to make a stirring wordless Star Trek anthem, because you can't fucking sing in space.

Folk casually saying "excommunication" don't generally even know different types exist. But I appreciate clarifying the type you meant.

Vatican I gives the Pope total unconstrained monarchial power, in black and white. The lawyers agree. It would be unpalatable to wield today but IS on the books.

(am lawyer who almost became canon lawyer, I've done my homework on this shit lol)

Not quite correct. Latae sententiae excommunications are automatic and require only explicit external recognition by a local canonical authority to have public effect. The Pope also has universal ordinary jurisdiction per Vatican I and can therefore impose excommunication on any individual at will.

"the will of the Triune God and His Doctrine must respect Bureaucracy" is the most Catholic thing I've ever read.

One big problem with persona Christi is that it tends to make celebrants feel like they are King Jesus

Not a new phenomenon. The church has historically left its progressive priests in LatAm to the tender mercies of reactionaries, going all the way back to the 16th century. Ironically, secular government and empire have often aligned better with reformist clergy than have their own hierarchs.

God, it's so weird having a Pope who obviously 100% believes in liberal democracy--the fact that Leo is American is no coincidence; besides US culture, Catholicism can't survive in the US w/o liberalism. A socially conservative version of it, to be clear, but clearly liberal democracy as we know it.

air pump air this is your country dont let the big men take it away from you., a shack in the background

Dorothea Lange, Gas Station, Kern Couny, California, 1938

This just failed.

Chinese economic planners:

The China Crash of the 2030s is gonna be WILD, kiddos.

I have an idea:

Yea, people will be a lot happier making changes now, instead of when 30 million extra climate refugees cross the southern border and the Colorado river dries up

Good Dem Natsec isn't hard. You can get 90% of the way there by sticking to 1) freedom of navigation and trade, 2) the UN charter, 3) opposing autocracy.

It's not hard to sense that even the best religious people tend to look upon us Nones with pity, when we absolutely don't want your pity: we want your respect and to be treated as equals. We want to see you showing solidarity with us and humility before the privileges you have.

If you're in communion with the Bishop of Rome, you're legitimately Catholic according to the institution. The buck stops there. Posturing otherwise is just grappling over aesthetics and social position. Better to condemn Vance directly rather than by trying to play a shell game with labels.

Wait 'til you hear about this political backer named Constantine...

This is just No True Scotsman again. How many conquering generals bathed in blood are Catholic saints? How many kings slathered in ill-gotten wealth? The "God the Catholics believe in" has endorsed MANY like Vance across the aeons.

Religion yet dominates society. Its crumbling is one of the looming battle lines of social progress, and most of you are not ready for it and will prove easy prey for reactionary forces.

Scottish Greens manifesto is out, compare and contrast

Everyone in Southern Spear has gotta go to jail