That's very cool, Cash!

Clearly in the better late than never category. I wish it didn't take so much to make them think it was a good idea to remove the tribute to such a blight on the city, and humanity.

Absolutely, on all points.

Yay Cash.

So the Arguing Guy is a new friend and I don't think the was a troll. I think there are a couple of things going on. One he said he had some life and death experiences and faced his own mortality and that he has a better understanding of people and life because of it so he is very attached to this. Now he has talked about these experiences before so I think it's true amd I think it did change him but he doesn't have a better understanding. He also talked about having a detachment from certain things because of this and that seems to be true. On top of that he argued like guys I've seen before who are super invested in being logical and not emotional and "objective" when they are clearly not.

Also it seemed that he wanted to be objective to the point of making all kinds of mental gymnastics to justify. He said he didn't vote for Trump but wouldn't openly criticize Trump unless he did something major. I asked where the line was and he said if Trump violated the Constitution. I asked him about the EO on Social media and he countered it would never get passed. I reminded him that Executive Orders don't have to be passed just signed. So if Trump signed it would he speak up?

No.

Because even if he signed it the validity of it would get challenged because it violated the Constitution. And since it would be struck down Trump wasn't actually violating the Constitution.

It was super late and I just logged off at that point. Or he is a massive troll. But I kind of want to talk to him again about the Trump thing and get him to walk me through it and pick that apart to piss him off.

He is loosely part of a group of people I've been hanging out with more in Second Life and I don't want to burn those bridges but I'm about ready to go back to being an SL hermit and a RL hermit.

I am not doing well today. I know I have been slacking at work, so I am feeling very guilty. It seems like I forgot to do or did everything wrong that either of my bosses asked me about today, which holy fuck made me panic like a panic thing.

I took a walk with the dog and I worked, then I sat for a couple of minutes in the sun and then I worked some more.

I fixed the thing that was wrong. I did the thing I forgot to do. I made a reminder in my calendar so I do not forget the thing again.

I made a list of all I am working on for main boss and have now addressed two issues that popped up today and almost completed a backlog of data entry for one area, but doing that at the expense on the backlog of things to process for another area.

UGH. I am not over-worked. This is not more than one person can do. I am stressed and scattered and the undone work is frustrating because 1) there is no deadline, so no pressure 2) it was done wrong and I am having to fix it 3) it is tedious and tedium feeds my anxiety 4) I don't wanna.

figuratively slapping myself with a get over yourself and do it stick.

Because even if he signed it the validity of it would get challenged because it violated the Constitution. And since it would be struck down Trump wasn't actually violating the Constitution.

Ok yeah, that's bullshit. Trump is TRYING to violate the Constitution but because people are fighting him it makes it ok?

Your friend seems to think that because we cannot read minds we cannot judge people. But we can judge them on their actions, can't we? If that's all we have.

Trump has, among many other things, broken a treaty with allies in Iraq & Syria; taken the US out of the climate accords without doing anything to help fight climate change; validated the dictator of North Korea without getting anything in return; rejected the findings of his own intelligence community on the international stage; asked foreign governments to investigate American citizens without going through the proper diplomatic process (and there is a proper process); lied about easily-verifiable facts like how many people were at his inauguration; refused to respond to legitimate Congressional subpoenas (even if Congress is being political they have the right to ask questions, that's part of their oversight); told the American public that the coronavirus was just going to disappear when he'd been warned multiple times by his own staff that this was a major public health crisis; seized private property on the border to build a wall even his own experts say won't do much good; insisted on spending multiple millions of taxpayer dollars to repaint the wall black because he likes the color better even though it will cost more to maintain; hired his own child as a WH advisor despite her complete lack of experience; overrode the WH's security review process to give top secret clearances to people the FBI said shouldn't get them; claimed without evidence that 3 million people voted illegally in 2016; pardoned multiple war criminals against the advice of his own military; and spent hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars at his own privately-owned properties.

None of those things require knowing what's going on Trump's mind: it's material reported by mainstream press and fact-checked. I'm pretty sure I don't need to read Trump's mind to have an opinion about him.

Similarly, I can look at the statistics about traffic stops and other kinds of policing and determine that black Americans are subject to police action far beyond their proportion of the population. And in the absence of being the kind of racist who thinks blacks are just naturally criminal, I can then decide that there's something racist about the system itself.

Looking for intent doesn't get you anywhere: look at the system, look at the outcomes.

[/end rant]

Any time somebody brings up the "states' rights" thing with the Civil War, I just ask them sweetly about the Fugitive Slave Act, and shouldn't that have meant that if a slave escaped to Ohio were they or weren't they a free person?

If they then say something about retrieving ones property, I then ask them if they think that a human being should be property. Or if a state has the right to declare that a human being is property.

Usually I end up getting called names when it's clear their logic is so many false assumptions, but hey, fun times.

If they then say something about retrieving ones property, I then ask them if they think that a human being should be property. Or if a state has the right to declare that a human being is property.

A woman told me with 100% sincerity that some slave owners treated their slaves well. I pointed out that literally owning another human being as chattel was the very definition of treating a person horribly. She didn't understand. Holy balls.

Oh, yeah, Theo, the Fugitive Slaves Act was the classic example of the ideological justification (state's rights!) being undercut by the actual thing. Why should slaveowners from Georgia be entitled to help from Massachusetts law enforcement to capture people who are free in Mass?

msbelle, try not to be so hard on yourself. You started this job right at the beginning of the craziness. You have stepped up under really tough conditions. You are working on solving the issues, and that is all that can be expected.

Well, more charges filed, and murder charge changed to 2nd degree. Stuff is happening. Maybe things will quiet down as far as the looting and so forth. The peaceful protests will no doubt dwindle as that is the normal course of events.

What has not been the normal course of events is anything taking place in the White House. I feel I am always holding my breath in fear of what he is going to do next.

"Some" slave owners. There was no laws about what you could do to your slaves, btw -- there was nothing even like the ASPCA to charge you with cruelty if you cut off their toes or ears (a common punishment for running away btw), whipped them to death or burned them alive (all recorded historically) to "encourage" the others.

Some slaves got treated like family because, well, they were, though it was more common to not acknowledge the relationship. But in the end, they were property that would outlive the master, and then would most likely be sold off to pay off debts or settle the estate among the heirs. Or, since chattel slavery was largely agricultural, it could take just one crop failure for the plantation to go bankrupt.

(This is why I don't get invited to parties in the South, I guess.)