But the big question is what do you think about coconuts and their impact on Hydrangeas?

The point on the thread has pretty well been lost, so all avenues are open. Besides, a little literary input can't hurt much! I would think maybe it is time to respond to the endless political interjections with some free association topic drift.

I should get bonus points for the comparisons between Ice-9, with Ice-21, and a tangential comparison between Harrison Bergeron and some well meaning but ignorant people though. All tied with a pretty, yet annoying bow.

Anyhow, if Ice-21 is anything like Ice-9, you don't want it anywhere near your drink.

And just to muddy the topics further. I don't drink much at all, but enjoy the occasional shot of Rebel bourbon. It's inexpensive, pretty smooth. If not that, Bulleit Bourbon if I'm in the mood for something with a little more kick, since it has rye in part of the grain bill.

1) most 'piracy' (I suspect) is not massive commercial grey-copy moneymaking enterprises.
1.1) that said, as a society I think it's morally in our interest to NOT normalize low-level theft, which copying someone else's music, text, video, etc without them being fairly compensated is.
2) yet there are large numbers of such organizations that really do deserve punishment
3) at the same time, the idea that "in defense of our IP" the producer/distributors feel entitled to install harmful software without permission is also absolutely unacceptable.

Neither the blurb, the OP, nor the (sort of paywalled) Guardian article note that ITV is ONLY available to UK viewers as far as I can tell? (Maybe there is a pay version)

Or use Tunnelbear, et al.

Note that the NASA one, for all its warts, is available to everyone for free.

I know the implication is "not even half the workers have quality jobs!!" rage-bait but I rather suspect that most of the historical data (curiously not really presented as far as I could see in a skim of the OP and linked report) would show that - by their metrics - MOST people don't have "quality" employment, ever. And have NEVER had so.

Then again, it seems a very 21st century thing that people can daydream about their fantasy situation "I wish I only worked 3 days a week, half days, from home, got paid $250k/yr, had a 4 bedroom house overlooking the sea in a stable relationship" and then spend actual time bitching that "the world" hasn't provided that for them.

You don't "DESERVE" utopia. You have to make it.

Don't like rapacious corporations and how they treat workers? Vote in representatives that will aggressively control them.

"But my neighbors are all MAGA stupidheads who don't agree with me and vote for Literal Nazis!" then you have three choices:

1) try to listen to them and understand why they feel that way; in most cases people can find agreement on what they want (ie "kids to get a good education") but disagree on the means ("more funds for public schools!" vs "vouchers to put my kids in goods schools"). Understand that democracy REQUIRES compromise, find a compromise you can live with, then work TOGETHER to get it done.
or
2) just seethe 24/7 like a crabby bitch that you don't have the utopia you want and post your rage repeatedly all over social media because it gives you that tiny faint sense of validation. ...and I'll tell you which of those two will actually make things better in the long run.

I'll bet I'm not the only one only one who read that as "incest"

I know a girl who likes corn on the cob with peanut butter. I tried it once, not too bad, but not a photogenic dish. On the other hand, she is.

It's a cautionary tale. But in quick summary, the Democrats need to read the room before they choose who they obey.

Could be, but that isn't the way it is meant. And since we live in a world where the word "literally" has become its own antonym, I guess personal definitions hold control.

Living "rent free in your head" refers to people who are completely obsessed with a person, and it colors 100 percent of their outlook, and interactions. SO some scientists create a new form of Ice, a poster mentions "Ice 9" from a Vonnegut novel, and some halfwit decides it is time to make post about the asshole he is obsessed with. Since we are here, The idiot getting elected a second time is (in my estimation) more of a cautionary tale, than much else. A large number of people were obsessed with him, and spent every waking moment - maybe even in their dreams - in constant thought and speech.

They were so worried and so open to whatever the far left said they had to endorse, that they latched onto some very irrational dictates. I've discussed them here before.

So what ended up happening was voter fatigue over the Democrats allowing a small minority of far left academics led them to to believe that whatever the orange shitgibbon was, he was better than electing people who have serious anti scientific beliefs, and who hate half of the population. And the Republicans only had to report facts to expose that. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F.... Vote against your husband. How an actress worth 250 million can play the victim and tells women to actively vote against their husbands - assuming that 100 percent of men are MAGA, is hypocrisy. There are other issues that contributed to far left fatigue.

And there is the cautionary tale. Democrats forgot how to read the room. They aligned themselves with ideals that not only didn't resonate with Americans, some of those ideas were repugnant.

Getting through the next three years trying to mitigate damage. Hoping that the Democrats learn to read the room, and abandon some of the far left ideas they've incorporated, and produce electable candidates. Hoping the Democrats become a party of ideas, not a party of "When we want your opinion, we'll tell you what it is."

In another bit of irony, Republican candidates in the early part of this century used to be tripped up by asking them questions about if they believe that the earth was created 6000 years ago, and if every word in the bible was true - even the contradictory words. The tap-dance they had to do.

In the present day, a Democrat candidate has to do a tap-dance when asked about trans surgery and chemical injection for children, and if biological males should compete against biological females in sports. There is only one allowable answer. That they fully support men on women's teams, and gender affirming care is critical for children. Look up Democrat Seth Moulton. Look up Josh Fetterman, who has dared to support Israel, and the Democrats are attempting to purge him as well.

Fatigue, pure and simple.

None of this is living in my head rent free - only takes a little time to suss out the issues. I write, maybe troll a little, then go about my day.

People who conflate ice21 with Trump? Yeah, Trump is something they are obsessed with, both literally and figuratively.

Absolutely. I especially like The Books of Bokonon from Cat's Cradle, and in a different short story, Harrison Bergeron.

I found Harrison Bergeron to be eerily prescient in recent years, as recently, we seemed to be heading down a similar path, not identical of course, but allowing well meaning people to attempt to install a tyranny of the weak.

Non sequitur.

Mao was not a nice person. Apparently his wife was even worse. Sad but almost funny was when in his great wisdom, he decided that sparrows had to be killed. That didn't work to too well either.

There are many reasons a person might be poor. They might have a handicap or mental issue that stands between them and becoming well off. These people deserve sympathy rather than contempt.

They might have simply had bad luck. You know, the person who gets laid off at 60, without salable skills. Some sympathy is due there.

They might have made bad life decisions. Here it is a mixed bag. I worked with some people who foolishly invested during the dot.com and subprime eras, who were pretty wealthy for a while. Then lost everything when the bubbles burst. Went from being multimillionaire to living off Social Security in retirement. I'm not happy about their situation, but damn - it was predictable as the sun coming up in the morning.

Then we get into a gray area. Some people are poor because they lack drive. I don't think lack of drive is something to encourage.

So simply using the right wing mantra of "The poor are poor because they are lazy and deserve it." is bullshit generalization. The left wing mantra of "The poor are poor because capitalism", or vague references to the wealthy, is bullshit generalization as well.

What I wrote will probably piss off as many people as George Carlin did when he wrote "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops" ?

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F... They call themselves Communist, so I will too.

What China has done, is to incorporate some amount of Western capitalist mores into their system.

Just like the USA incorporates some socialist concepts into their system. It is being pragmatic. Any pure 'ism other than pragmatism will fail, because pure 'isms always make bad assumptions about human nature.

A shocking fact. And those are the ones weknow about.

While all pure 'isms except pragmatism eventually fail because they don't take human nature into account, I am amazed that people still agitate for communist style government. If people take a shit-fit over Elmo Musk and Billybob Gates because of how much money they make, while they are living better than kings used to live, they might be surprised about the gulf between the haves and have-nots in China and Russia and North Korea over the years.

I was watching some stuff about China's great famine, https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F... whereMao and his cadre lived luxurious lifestyle while purposely allowing peasants to die. And then there is Uncle Josef's holodomor in Ukraine, a purposeful starvation of Ukraine citizens. Among all of his other expressions of communism.

Yeah, miss the world with that. In irony, China's present better situation was not based on application of communist ideals, it was from adopting western capitalism aspects into their gestalt.