Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

@f800gecko @SearingTruth @Free_Press Yes, well, always bear in mind how dumb the average person is, and bear in mind that half the population is even dumber than that. (thank you George Carlin, and many others, and the brutal truth of simple arithmetic. Hahaha.)

However, you do bring up an interesting thing that only applies in the United States today. It also applied in Germany in the 1920s and 30s. USians are brought up to think they are special. I'm old and remember this well from my childhood. "You're really smart. You can grow up to be President someday." BULLSHIT!

300 million to one chance of becoming president. Nobody in their right mind ought to say this to a child. But it was said to me more than once. It's insane to say this to a child. But perfectly normal in the USA.

Living here in West Virginia, I can say that a lot of people here feel they are entitled to be rich and powerful because they were born in the USA. To them, that's what it means to be born in the USA. And, of course, all of them are disappointed, disillusioned, and ANGRY. This anger is what powers MAGA. "I ought to be rich and powerful. I'm not, so it's someone's fault. Someone has messed with the "USA Game" and screwed me out of being rich. Being rich is my RIGHT as an American". This is what they believe. And I'm not surprised, given the crock of shit I was fed since childhood.

@Free_Press Welp, maybe we should authorize Ukraine to use our weapons to balance the scales. Have we given them Mavericks? An F-16 armed with Mavericks missiles can take out a nuclear power plant. A Maverick can penetrate the containment dome. It's been done before. And I know the guy who designed the warhead. ;-)

Here's 3 pounds of molten copper coming at you at 30,000 feet per second (not a typo). As Data said, "Assimilate this." (Largest shaped charge ever designed)

But the dome is six foot thick concrete, reinforced with 3-inch thick rebar! Yes. Yes it is. Or, well, it was.

@SearingTruth @Free_Press True. But throughout history there have been psychopaths who wish to dominate others at any cost. Some of them have powerful charisma and are able to motivate masses of people to do their bidding. They don't care about the human species, they care about personal pleasure and aggrandizement.

This is the problem that keeps cropping up. Most people want to just live their lives, raise their children, avoid problems. But there are the Genghis Khans, Alexander the Greats, Adolf Hitlers -- single, rare, special individuals, that have other plans and have the innate skills to make them happen, at the cost of millions of lives that they don't care about.

This is the problem.

The fact that this question is being asked At ALL is a clue that something is seriously wrong here. Nobody should be asking this question about someone who was executed in the USA. And this is just one of the reasons the death penalty is a bad idea.

https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-williams-fd7279d8e885bac17658a66f6f72b5c7

@Free_Press More saber rattling. Hahaha.

Dear Mr. Putin, so proud of Russia's "glorious" history (I assume). Do you really want to go down in history as the man who turned Mother Russia into an uninhabitable sea of radioactive molten sand? Never to exist again. Really?

@Free_Press Well, yes. Russia has been run like a Mafia for over 100 years. That's just a fact.

Lol.

@NunavutBirder I'm so envious I have no words for it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I would.

@DemocracyMattersALot I think what they're really afraid of, and should be afraid of, is the regime in Russia collapsing suddenly and the truth about GOP / Russian collaboration falling into the FBI's hands.

@HopelessDemigod Fewer Asians? Hmm. Has he looked at the authors of science and engineering papers in this country for the past 25 years as I have? It's rare to find a European surname. Let that sink in.

@heidilifeldman Very nice. In fact, it's wicked good. Cuts through to what's really going on.

Had a discussion here in pure red West Virginia with an older woman who's a fan of Trump. She also respects me highly. I laid out fact, after fact, after fact. In the end, "Well, I'm never voting for a woman for president."