A Simple Blog

It's just memes and politics now tbh

[sleep-tight-pupper]

reblog if your blog is actually unbelievably boring

[previewofthoughts]

I want to be a good neighbor so badly, but I’m so terrified and anxious of talking to people

[did-you-know]

Leading a sedentary lifestyle with prolonged sitting can build up excess fat around your internal organs. 

[previewofthoughts]

Gotta start going on walks in the middle of the day. And get back into running

[girlmostlikely]

ENOUGH WITH THE PROTEIN MARKETING! PROTEIN POPCORN THIS PROTEIN WATER THAT NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS 50G OF PROTEIN OK. WHERE IS THE FIBER. WHERE IS IT. WHERE IS IT?????

[previewofthoughts]

[maryoliveoil]

Should I become a Shaker?

[previewofthoughts]

Gotta be a Mover first

[yorgen-sh]

[keepingitcountryon]

[previewofthoughts]

What? This isn’t true. I don’t have much comment on Maduro other than it seems we haven’t actually toppled the government.

But, the 2003 invasion operation started on March 20th and ended May 1. Coalition forces effectively occupied the country by April 15th when the Iraqi government went into hiding. May 1 was the infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech.

The US also only contributed about 450,000 personnel, not 4,000. And this was part of a 550,000 coalition force in which Americans suffered 150 losses.

Saddam was also captured in December of 2003 and tried in Iraq. So that was 8-9 months, not 8 years.

The 8 years was as security forces for the new Iraqi government. Very different. This is also easily verifiable.

[thepromiscuousfinger]

[mariacallous]

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Could you explain all this stuff i've been hearing about a recent interview that Tucker Carlson did with Nick Fuentes that's got everyone on the right screaming at each other? I'm not really in the loop when it comes to Tucker anymore. I stopped watching him after he pushed conspiracy theories about Israel somehow being behind Charlie Kirk's death.

TL;DR version, Tucker invited Fuentes onto his show and, instead of challenging him on his racism (including some vile comments about Tucker's self-professed "good friend" Usha Vance), he gave him a softball interview to try and let Nick launder his image. Most conservatives, rightly, blasted Tucker for this, which lead to the CEO of the Heritage Foundation to wade into a topic he didn't understand (which he admitted later on) to try and shame conservatives for "canceling" Fuentes and Tucker. He recently issued a half-apology, saying he didn't know what was actually going on and partially blaming one of his subordinates for bringing it to his attention in the first place. He said he would offer his resignation if needed, which is probably what's going to happen. Tucker also went on Megan Kelly and issued a non-apology of his own, claiming that he doesn't support Fuentes' racism and that he was wrong not to at least ask him about his comments on Usha Vance.

That's the short version.

Now, the real issue here is this stupid idea growing on the right that "we don't have any enemies to the right", which is blatantly false and a dangerous idea to believe. There are plenty of people who claim to be right wing who are just in it for the money. They don't care about the movement, or the country, or the future. They just want to wear a MAGA hat, call people names, and cash in on low info people who don't know any better. There are also people like Nick Fuentes who are actual, legit white supremacists who drape themselves in the flag and the America First slogan and use those as shields whenever someone calls them out on their racism. They hide within the millions of innocent conservatives who were called racist by the left just for having conservative beliefs. But they aren't innocent little conservatives who are persecuted for their beliefs. They are actual, dyed in the wool white supremacist racists. And if we let them into the tent, they will destroy it the same way the communists and Jew haters and trans cultists and violent psychopaths destroyed the liberal movement. Just because the first amendment gives them the right to be vile pieces of shit, doesn't mean we have to platform them and let them associate with us without pushing back. Just because they mouth the right words occasionally doesn't mean they're an ally.

[fatehbaz]

low opacity elrond

[dashaibo]

Underappreciated trope:

Villain turns good and their lackey turns good too. Not because they always secretly wanted to be good, but because they're just ride or die for their boss.

[invenblocker]

[shadowfromthestarlight]

"is candace owens EVIL or INSANE?"

third option - she's just not very smart. she's smart enough to have a podcast, but not smart enough to not get in over her head. and she's certainly not the only one.

[previewofthoughts]

Yeah I think I agree. There’s a confidently ignorant version here where that leads her down very unsavory paths

[previewofthoughts]

You know, I was homeschooled for about two years and I had a very good education through it. When I returned to public school, I was ahead of my class with a lot of knowledge base - including a higher reading level if memory serves.

The thing is, homeschooling should never be about keeping your child at home and attempting to educate them. It’s about giving your child the best education you can give them. This also includes social education.

My mom joined a local homeschooling co-op that had me and my sibling join other homeschool students and learn from adults who knew about certain subjects. I recall going to someone’s home with about 4 or 5 other kids and learning elementary science and doing experiments weekly. And also was in my church’s CCD class.

On top of this I was part of my local cub scouts and recreational soccer leagues.

Unfortunately, I’m seeing a lot of examples of using homeschooling as an excuse and a method to allow the adults retreat from society. Even in my own community. Many parents will straight up lie and claim their child is being homeschooled when they are clearly not (they will return to another public school or, often, the same one and their child would be very behind).

Anyway, homeschooling can be great for children. Gotta actually teach them though and get them involved in their communities.

[meparame]

THEM *sobs*

[previewofthoughts]

What comic is this?

[divorcedbasil]

vid i stole off reddit and feel like i need everyone to watch

[noneofchar]

Watch the whole thing. You have to watch the whole thing. Omfg I can’t remember the last time a video hit me like this.

[mornington-the-crescent]

[previewofthoughts]

Kimmel

This will probably be the last thing I say on this topic.

I don't particularly care what Kimmel said. Here is the full segment:

We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving on Friday. The White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.

Cuts to a clip of Trump

Yes, he's at the fourth stage of grief, construction. Demolition. Construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish. OK? And it didn't just happen once.

Cuts to a clip of Trump

And then we installed the most beautiful chandelier. Sconces you wouldn't believe. There's something wrong with them. There really is. I mean, who thinks like that? And why are we building a $200 million ballroom in the White House? Is it possible that he's doing it intentionally, so we could be mad about that instead of the Epstein list? By the time he's out of office, the White House will have slot machines in a water slide.

And Kimmel then goes on criticizing/joking about Trump and his reaction to Kirk dying.

MAGA, and much of the right, is incensed about the very beginning of this segment. Of course, one can look at this a couple ways.

A common reading that Kimmel was implying the guy who killed Kirk was MAGA himself or,

A charitable reading which says that MAGA was looking for anything and everything to distance the shooter from their movement and from the Right.

I think both of these reads can be correct.

For the right, there are a couple of reasons for the anger. From what I've seen, some believe the comment was "heinous". Not totally sure how it's heinous given the comment wasn't actually about Kirk's death but the near immediate reactions around it from the Right and their reactions regarding the killer's alleged ideologies and motives.

The other reason is that Kimmel purportedly "knowingly lied" to America on late night television. I don't think we have the evidence to say he knowingly lied, and just because you saw something about the killer and motives and whatever doesn't mean it was a) correct or b) Kimmel/the show saw it.

This is where it seems to get murky for me. After the internet backlash, ABC decided to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live from the air "indefinitely". Many on the Right praised this move by ABC. However, every major outlet reported that this came after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr went on Benny Johnson's podcast and made statements such as:

They have a license granted by us at the FCC that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest

and

I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct to take actions, frankly on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.

Carr even called Kimmel's comments, made on a late night comedy show, akin to "news distortion".

Now, the FCC does have authority to take action against bias in broadcast news, but it's limited and the FCC is prohibited in engaging in censorship or violations of the First Amendment, more on that later.

Nearly four hours after Carr made these comments on Johnson's show, Nexstar, a broadcast company who owns the second most ABC affiliate stations, made an announcement that they will not broadcast Kimmel's show on their affiliate stations. Shortly after, Sinclair, another broadcast company who owns the most ABC affiliate stations, announced they will follow suit. Within the next day, ABC announced Kimmel was suspended indefinitely.

Many liberals and media accused the FCC for censoring Kimmel and ABC while conservatives and MAGA pointed to Sinclair's press release stating that they took Kimmel off the air because his comments were heinous.

To put this part to bed right now, Sinclair's owners are very conservative and are aligned with Trump and his FCC. It's not surprising they are going to do something ideologically aligned. Second, Sinclair owns the broadcast affiliates and have no say over ABC and Kimmel's show. In fact, their statement asks ABC and the FCC to do more. It's folly to point to their statement as a reason why ABC chose to take them off the air.

Sinclair was also the second corporation to make the move. The first was Nexstar. It would be remiss to not mention that Nexstar currently has an acquisition of another broadcast company with $6.2 billion on the line that must clear FCC approval. Remember, the FCC Chair just said that they are going to take action against Kimmel and ABC.

While we can't say for certain that Nexstar is making these moves because of their acquisition in front of the FCC, there is precedent to include this rationale. Trump was suing Paramount last year for CBS News' 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris for allegedly "false advertising" and "unfair competition". Despite most scholars looking at the lawsuit as frivolous misapplication of the law, Paramount did not defend against the lawsuit and instead settled with Trump for $16 million. Paramount, at the time, had a merger in front of the FCC with Skydance Media. Two days after Trump publicly announced the settlement, the FCC approved the Paramount-Skydance Media merger. Nexstar could very well be looking back at that episode and trying to be currying favor with the FCC and Trump to get a better chance at their acquisition going through. To me, there's enough to assume that the FCC successfully jawboned ABC to pull Kimmel.

That said, there seemed to be enough plausible deniability that this was some natural backlash that Disney/ABC caved to and pulled Kimmel.

Now, the FCC does actually have a policy against news distortion, however, it's extremely limited. The FCC is prohibited, by law, from engaging in censorship or violating the First Amendment. Jurisprudence on the matter also notes the policy makes a "crucial distinction between deliberate distortion and mere inaccuracy or difference of opinion." You can read the FCC's guide here.

Fast forward one week and Disney announces Kimmel is back on the air. Conservatives demand an apology from liberals for being wrong about the FCC pressuring ABC to pull Kimmel from the air, because it couldn't have been the case since Kimmel is back right?

I want to pose a very important question. If Brendan Carr said nothing, didn't imply the FCC had "work ahead of them" in regard to Kimmel or ABC, or that that there's an "easy way or hard way," does Nexstar do anything? Does Disney feel they could have an FCC investigation if they don't capitulate? Does Disney have emergency meetings with Kimmel? I think an honest answer is "No".

But even aside from this exercise, Trump betrays the arguments that the FCC did nothing wrong or that the White House wasn't trying to pressure Disney/ABC.

The president wants him off the air and wants to use the government to do so and even cites the Paramount settlement. I think it's clear the FCC and the White House are absolutely jawboning Disney and prior to, Carr violated the law in his implication that the FCC will investigate.