backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026what if the law is changed tomorrow? why are they not trying to change this law? there are things that are deeper than legality. For a social program like M4A or social security to last, the law is not enough 110
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026I mean, yes, but I think there is actually a sense in which the folk belief is a simplification of the social contract here. if the government repeals SSA payments, they _are_ in fact taking real money from you, in violation of a societal agreement 100
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026this has made it VERY durable; we’re coming up on a century of failed attempts to undermine and repeal it, and the last _major_ attempt was one of the 3 big wounds that killed Bush’s presidency 010
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026this is probably the single most brilliant part of social security. the contract is, you put money into the system now _and the system supports you later_ 341
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026you also really do want to specifically fund this through a broad-based tax _so that attempts to undo the system are understood as reneging on a debt_ 130
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026in this age of bad Roman history takes, it is important to ask: what would Cicero do here? (I disclaim all responsibility if your answer to my completely innocent question gets your account TOS’ed) 010
Reposted by backyardChris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 18/05/2026They're stealing billions of your money to pay off violent right-wing psychos while doing everything in their power to spike gas up to $5 a gallon, make groceries into a luxury and hand the country over to the oligarchs who want to permanently replace you. 976237047976
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026(that comment) handshake meme (literal British aristocrats in the 18th and 19th centuries) 070
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026the pillaging of the American state and the decline of American democracy probably isn’t LITERALLY due to the moral failings of American voters, but the voters really do their best to make that argument 160
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026but this is what they chose. the people of california voted for an insanely dumb primary system and they get to live with the insanely dumb consequences 010
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 18/05/2026the problem is that the way you reduce this kind of nonsense is _stronger political parties_ and, if you’re keeping the primary process, _partisan primaries_ and telling that to the people of california is like telling a twelve year old to eat vegetables 270
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026the 90s court and early 21st century Kennedy court did actually have some very high profile and good decisions, the marriage ones coming most prominently to mind, but those have served to cover for a lot of rot 010
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026even knowing that it’s the War of the Triple Alliance, I think I’d guess the “odd man out” incorrectly 180
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026if I heard about a war involving Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, and didn’t know more, there’s no way in hell I‘d guess the sides or the name of the war correctly 1110
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026this is also the core fantasy in slightly-more-sophisticated people imagining a "Woke PRI" buddy, you know why people put up with the _real_ PRI long enough for them to entrench themselves? you don't want to go to that part of town 0190
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026(it’s not on this side of the moon landing, as a helpful hint) 0141
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026also, if you do the history and determine the last time a majority of Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Democrats, the answer may either shock you or make you want to walk into the ocean 2283
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 17/05/2026we should have a modern adaptation that is equal parts “The Odyssey” and “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” 000
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 16/05/2026the Weinersmiths have a lovely book that includes a discussion of “space madness” (they conclude that it isn’t real) the best anecdote there is a bit distressing because it a particularly dark joke, courtesy of astronaut Taylor Wang 020
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 16/05/2026I don’t know much about contemporary French doctrine (and I’d love to read a piece about how Macron’s recent speeches fit into it…) but there’s something very French about the idea of a nuclear warning shot 030
Reposted by backyardPatrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Watching a series of former Confederate states rush to eliminate any vestige of black representation in the House pretty much answers the question whether the Voting Rights Act was still necessary. 233168335157
Reposted by backyardWilliam B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 13/05/2026I am very tired of the stupid-savvy 'oh you think politicians were honest before Donald Trump' take, like yes there has in fact been a qualitative change in the way modern american politics have been conducted that is largely attributable to him, and is bad. 683987603
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 13/05/2026I think that Frank's advice here would cause his own state party to die a horrible, painful, and sudden death, to be replaced by the Samuel Adams Party for Massachusetts Independence and the Blood of Tyrants 040
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 13/05/2026honestly any real attempt to enforce the "no woke policy ever" idea would probably lead, in the long run, to open and broadly supported secessionist movements along the entire west coast and most of the northeast 190
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 12/05/2026I’ve had the impression that even a total victory at Waterloo just buys Napoleon the right to fight an Austrian army in battles along the Rhine, then a Spanish army in the battle of Toulouse, then a Russian army at the battle of the Rhine, then a British army at Waterloo 2: Electric Boogaloo, then— 040
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 12/05/2026poster’s bushido must always calmly include accepting the ban 0131
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 12/05/2026people traditionally say "nightmare blunt rotation" at stuff like this, but I'm not sure there are nightmares this bad 140
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 11/05/2026I prefer to believe that this is true-to-life for a real cat, the feline Hannibal Lecter, that the restaurant has in the back as a sushi taster 020
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 11/05/2026“reality is controlled by the arbitrary whims of beings too strange to comprehend” handshake meme between “Eldritch horror” and “democratic politics” 020
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 11/05/2026and almost 20 years old! We were all very excited for the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Ah, the memories 010
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 11/05/2026when I was 5--7 I really liked the Star Wars films, which were a trilogy at the time 110
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 11/05/2026look, like him or hate him, the clear _fact_ to be learned from the tattoo is that this is a man going through life with a chip on his shoulder and moths in his skull 040
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 10/05/2026the five hundred and thirty eight count-electors meet ceremonially one every four years, sent by the fifty princes to elect the president of their society, and then ignore everything. Cyborg-Voltaire quips that the polity is neither united, nor a state 080
Reposted by backyardutopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 10/05/2026they absolutely had a horse in the roman senate. that 100% happened. 414110
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 10/05/2026opening a local "Yahweh plague" franchise like it's a McDonalds. When they're starting to run out of locusts, the manager, Amon-Ra, has to call Yahweh and get a shipment sent out the next day 020
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026if you want to go to the cool zone, this is a sign telling you that you are on the right road if you do not want to go to the cool zone, this is a sign telling you that you should take the next exit you do not want to go to the cool zone 000
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026these days, the usual reaction to literal assassination attempts is 110
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026FUCK Sorry, I'm sure I meant to say thank you. I was simply trying to remember the oldest story I could think of and, wouldn't you know it--- 010
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026now I'm worried that someone is going to pop up and tell me "actually, the Epic of Gilgamesh fits your description above" 140
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026can someone find a place and time in the human experience where "local personage goes rogue to act against the central authority" has not been a big hit? like, this is just a world-historically popular trope 1141
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026for people who have not seen the greatest first-page footnote in all of human writing:arxiv.org 0202
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026you realize that if we get you famous enough for this then you, too, can be cited as "Better known for other work" 1180
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026geez, isn't the Russian population like half the US? (also my understanding is that for political reasons, the soldiers are recruited away from the most major population centers?...) 320
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026this post fact-checked 100% true by REAL Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Patriots 000
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026look, when the ancient Romans appeared from the sea and took over the entire mediterranean, it was pretty embarrassing for everyone else. let them have their stories 030
backyard @bdlurk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026this is an unusual case where I think natural English usage could admit either "for example" or "that is" and therefore the distinction---which is perhaps stronger in the Latin?---is easier to lose track of 120
