now that so many states run by shit eaters are in open competition with each other in turning their states into the most supreme christofascist dystopia, I am curious to see which state takes it too far first. too far meaning, the residents decide to take mass direct action instead of waiting for some court case to worm its way through the district and be determined by some rich assbite.

like Idaho requires every school to close it’s music and arts programs and use the proceeds to build a golden state of Jesus in a courtyard, which all children, teachers, and staff must pray to on their knees 3 times a day.

or South Dakota segregates students by sex and bans literacy for girls.

or Texas changes the definition of sodomy to include communicating in any language except English and makes it a capital offense.

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seeing as how Batman is a billionaire douche, I would totally replace Alfred with the joker. and I would replace Robin with Bane. and Commissioner Gordon with Poison Ivy and Lucious Fox with Harley Quinn.

i think music could do it, or that sensation of being really dialed into a theme or motif as it unfolds. definitely wind in trees makes me think of it, because for me there’s a subtly to its induction. sometimes it reminds me of what productivity-heads call “flow”, when they describe this sensation of being fully focused and fully aware, but having an introspective, meditative quality to it instead of like “i’m really making great widgets for the bossman rn” or whatever the latest characterization for “functional” is.

lol, i am in my 40s and i get ASMR. big time. i remember stumbling across a community a long time ago and immediately recognizing the fumbling attempts to describe the sensation, because it’s not universal and i had once tried to explain it before as a teenager and failed, embarrassingly. also, some people have certain “triggers” that others don’t, or are less reliable. and sometimes the triggers are less about the action and more about the memory connecting to an earlier experience.

in those early days it was about finding/sharing videos online that gave the sensitive viewer the sensation… which is sort of like transfixing or mesmerizing. my first experience that i recall was IRL as a 1st grader when my desk neighbor was explaining a math problem to me that i already understood. just sort of quietly talking while tapping / scratching their pencil lightly. it was like being caught in something, but pleasant. another time IRL i was in a meeting with this guy who was like late 50s and he had this meandering style of speech with a low voice. same deal, i was just kind of there, locked in, and could have listened to him prattle on about literally nothing of consequence for hours. i could snap out of it, but i could feel myself not wanting to, even though the meeting was a huge waste of my time lol. i also remember getting it from watching some public access channel as a kid for a show where they did algebra on a whiteboard for some local community college. and one where they taught conversational french that was recorded in the early 80s, when they would go over conjugation. super-chouette!

the way the phenomenon has exploded i attribute to monetization, because in those early days of people looking for videos they were all these like random clips of unintentional stuff. like a guy demonstrating a suit fitting, or a transferred VHS recorded lecture on body posture. so like some youtube channel for a very niche audience would have like 15-50 views on their dozen or so videos and then one that would have like 3.2 million views lmao. and frankly, if i just search ASMR on youtube, like >95% of the content is way off the mark. like annoying, weird etc. some up close face making mouth sounds.

it’s really only probably something like 1% that hits it, and usually it’s not content that is made to produce ASMR. this has been recognized broadly by us ASMR enjoyers and there are entire communities that chase and curate collections of “unintentional ASMR”, which honestly has a better track record in my experience.

though, there are exceptions: content makers who seem to know they are giving off the whammy and how they are doing it, but they tend to be associated with the “fascination” and “mesmerism” community which is more adjacent to weird hypnotist stuff and those grifts.

they are held up by the light of THE LORD and our ALWAYS LOW PRICES!

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lol hell yeah. “Pocket sand!”

in the context of PvP games, I have been told many times in various ways that I fight without honor. it is one of the few things about games I take pride in.

of all the patriotic soda grocery displays, the twin towers / 9-11 one is the best of the genre.

though the Easter one is p classy too, tbh

kick forwards: no
kick backs: yes

“it’s not my responsibility to support your pro-genocide candidate just because that’s who your political party actively, knowingly chose to offer. sorry about your loyalty-over-principle problems. press 30330 to donate to genocide joe.”

was it this one or #1 where you could grab a handful of sand and throw it in their face?

my friend and I played the shit out of this because of how fast and fatal the fights could be in an instant. in a time when there were so many fighting games, this one really stood apart in a smart way.

I’m still waiting on the $50k student loan forgiveness that became $10k forgiveness that became $0 forgiveness and fuck you for asking.

the cop who does career suicide is a trope I vibe with.

there’s a TV series that is like 15 years old now which introduced the character /popped off with an Irish gardai pulling over a conservative/austerity minister’s car for speeding. the minister is like, “don’t you know who I am?” and the gardai is like, “yeah you’re the prick that sacked all those nurses.” and the minister is like, "I will have you fired for this " and the gardai just shrugs like, “you’re right, might as well make the most of it” and then busts the guy in the mouth.

it was so satisfying. it flashes forward like a year or so after that event and now he’s an ex-cop who does like private detective shit for the downtrodden. it’s called Jack Taylor and it’s OK, but sorta falls off from that starting high point.

her wiki paints a picture of the sort of person who would be into someone like Bibi. all of the following references to “Netanyahu” are to Sara…

In January 2010, the family housekeeper sued Netanyahu in a labor court for withholding wages, unfair working conditions and verbal abuse.[9] Netanyahu was sued as of March 2014 by another caretaker and former bodyguard to the family over claims that she was abusive towards him.[10] In February 2016, the Jerusalem Labor Court ruled in favor of plaintiff Meni Naftali, who claimed that Sara Netanyahu had created a hostile work environment and awarded him damages of NIS 170,000.[11] The National Labor Court subsequently rejected her appeal.

that’s like $40K USD.

In 2015, reports surfaced that she had ordered catered meals and charged the government nearly $100,000 for the expenses when the Prime Minister’s Office already employed a cook.[12] Police recommended indicting her in 2016.[13] On September 8, 2017, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced that Netanyahu would be charged with ordering meals at the state’s expense without authorization.[14][15] On 17 January 2018, the pre-indictment hearing was held. Netanyahu’s lawyers met with Mandelblit, while she herself did not attend, breaking with usual custom.[16] After negotiations for a plea bargain collapsed,[17][18] the trial was set for July 19.[19] Netanyahu’s lawyers argued that the meals were ordered by an assistant for visiting dignitaries.[20]

like what the shit. how the fuck do you drop $100K on catering, unless the entire point is to do some payola to a friend’s catering company. anyway…

On 16 June 2019, Netanyahu signed a plea deal and was convicted of misusing state funds, with the more severe charge of fraud being dropped. She was ordered to pay 55,000 NIS ($15,275) to the state.[21]

i guess I should clarify that I am not looking to have a 60 minute pedestrian commute alongside a road either. that’s why it’s a puzzle and not a simple substitution. I have been pedestrian-ing for several years now and know/experience the risks with open eyes.

by “not driving” I mean, not having a car/car adjacent commute. I mean being far removed from cars for many/most days of the week. i.e. living where I work, where I mostly eat/kitchen gardening, etc, having near access to passenger rail for longer distance trips.

a girl i went to high school with was in a car crash just a year after graduation. coma for over a month, severe brain damage. major cognitive impairments and requiring constant at home care from her parents, one of whom died after about a decade of doing that. everything about the aftermath is emotionally crushing.

sometimes it feels like one of the great riddles of improving and lengthening my life is trying to structure it so that i don’t have to drive much at all.

im sure it is structured in a way to elide any existing rules by the structure of the merger/transfer of management, but still exists for all practical purposes in perpetuity. the church is the oldest known organization on the planet, with the bank of england in a distant second.

not to mention, how does one prove “standing” in the case or find a court that isn’t ruled over by some tradcath maniac who will overturn every precedent to say the rights of an ancient church in italy supersede any american women’s right to bodily autonomy, because Jeppu Crimbo said so in 33 AD.

it occurs to me that the courts are not the mechanism for protecting the rights of the working class. they are the least democratic branch and they are ruled over by an elite professional class in a strict hierarchy of prestige and power. they are coinflippers at best. more commonly, they put their fingers on the scale behind closed doors and can detain people who argue with them on a whim.

my point being, if we’re waiting for the courts on an issue, we’ve already lost.

reminds me of the ban that is going into effect state-wide in Florida in less than 1 week (July 1st).

the ban is on counties and municipalities from creating or imposing any heat protection for outdoor workers.

it cracked me up. sometimes i rewatch the trailer for a laugh. the part where the white lady stands up clapping while blocking out jeffrey wright is so hilariously shot, it fucking kills me. i think that was all i needed to decide to watch it and i was not disappointed at all.

I watched an interview with a screen actor once, talking about playing a stage villain and the vibe of negativity that can be felt coming from an audience. they related a story of another actor playing Iago in Othello in a production in Texas, when this guy stood up in the audience, pulled out a gun, and shot them.

the wound was not life threatening and the shooter was clearly disturbed, but the actor who was shot admitted later that it was the most flattering personal review of his talent that he ever received.