Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

How's that "I just can't vote for Genocide Joe or Kamala the Cop" workin' out for ya? https://apnews.com/article/trump-netanyahu-washington-ceasefire-1c8deec4dd46177e08e07d669d595ed3

The ultimate #mashup. "Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an exterminator!"

A tiny complaint compared to all the other crap going on, but ... I really hate it when #icon-and-#text #interfaces are replaced by icon-only, and there's no way (or at least no obvious way) to change it back. #Bluesky seems to be the latest site to embrace this very bad idea.

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/unionized-colorado-grocery-store-workers-two-week-strike-thursday

Friends in the #Denver metro area, and along the Front Range from #Cheyenne to #Pueblo, take note. Please don't cross the #picket line.

Many of my friends have worked at #KingSoopers over the decades. It used to be completely unionized, and a good place to work. #Kroger bought it out in the 1980s, and has steadily ground down the #unions ever since. I honestly don't know how much of a difference this #strike will make.

I do know the battle is worth fighting, and those who fight it are worth supporting. As convenient as King Soopers is around here, there are other places to shop. Do what you can, when you can, and maybe things will get better someday.

This is a horrifying but illuminating microcosm of #antivax in action: https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-vaccine-trump-science-autism-9b99621b01f11b7f0bdc81e5a0b82d2b

#Vaccination is quite possibly the most heavily studied kind of #healthcare in existence. We have more data about the #safety and #efficacy of #vaccines than *anything else* we do to keep people alive and healthy. The conclusions from that data are overwhelming and inescapable: vaccines work.

Antivaxers will never, ever accept any amount of evidence. Nothing will ever satisfy them. You will never change their minds. They have chosen the side of lethal #pathogens over the side of their fellow human beings, and they are fixed in their #treason.

Thanks to current politics, they now have the power to propagate their lunacy via the law. We can no longer, on a national level, protect ourselves from them by #publichealth means. So what can you do to stay alive?

First, cut them out of your life. They may be your parents or siblings or children, your spouses or lovers, your oldest and closest friends. Doesn't matter. The people you thought you knew and loved are dead—as dead as they want to make you. Cast out the walking corpses wearing their skin.

Second, stop wasting time. Don't try to reason with them. They will happily goad you into presenting a long, carefully reasoned argument, and then laugh at you, gleefully spraying infectious spittle across your face. The space between their ears is nothing but disease.

Third, do what you can locally. States and cities and businesses can, at least for now, deny services to the walking dead. Every school, every office, every store, *especially* every clinic and hospital, can and must make them pariahs.

And frankly, even if this kind of self-defense becomes illegal, it's probably still worth the risk. Consider the alternative.

In short, stop treating them like they're people. Maybe they used to be, and it's natural to remember that. But they're not now, and they never will be again.

Mourn them and move on. Do what you can to keep yourself safe, and those still worthy of your love. Survive.

This looks useful. #Authoritarian #regimes always cut off public access to #statistics that might prove embarrassing, and the #CDC has a whole lot of those. *Even if* we find our way back to sanity at some point, there's going to be a huge amount of #missing #data. Get what you can. 🧪⚕️🖥️🧬

https://archive.org/details/20250128-cdc-datasets

Next will be updating my credentials. I'm thinking of describing myself as a Digital Creator with a PhD in Common Sense from the School of Hard Knocks, University of Life.

I've decided to go underground to infiltrate #MAGA. My first move will be to replace all pictures of myself currently online with #selfies taken wearing #sunglasses, in a #truck, holding up a #fish.

@BoysenberryCider @kaffando thanks!

I'm sick of reading about it. I'm sick of talking about it. I'm sick of feeling like I can't look away from it for a moment, even though it's going to keep happening with or without my attention. I'm sick of all of it.

And I bet you know exactly what "it" is.

@VulcanTourist Heh. It's always been a shambolic mess, true enough. But it's a *working* mess when we don't have people inside the party tearing it apart.

@BoysenberryCider @kaffando As American as I am in most ways, I learned the value of restraint from my English father. I'm not as good at is as he is, of course. But I do my best.

@kaffando @BoysenberryCider Thanks, I appreciate it. And I apologize for being snappish. A bit on edge these days, and you can probably guess why, but that's not an excuse for being a short-tempered jerk.

@BoysenberryCider @kaffando @QasimRashid Fair enough. I don't know anything about the nuances of Australian political terminology either ...

But OP is American, and *definitely* knows that "Democrat Party" is a right-wing insult. Or at least damn well should!

@kaffando @QasimRashid If it quacks like a duck ...

"Democrat Party" is right-wing rhetoric. Always has been, always will be. I'm not really interested in any self-proclaimed leftist's reasons for using it, any more than I am in parsing the difference between Nazi and Nazi-adjacent members of Trump's "very fine people."

A FOAF asks, "What's wrong with trimming the #federal #workforce anyway? How much has it grown since 2000?"

Well, here's the answer: it's been essentially flat for decades. Sorry if that doesn't fit the narrative you'd already decided on, buddy. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES9091000001

Alleged #leftists who use the phrase "#Democrat #Party" are about half a step from going full #MAGA ... and that may be a bit too generous on my part.

If you're one of them—that, way off over there, is the off to which you can fuck. No, farther than that. Keep going.

@kaffando @QasimRashid "Democrat party." Anyone who uses MAGAt terminology is either a MAGAt themselves, or a useful idiot.

Not reposting because I don't want to give it a boost. All I will say is ... HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK WE GOT HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?