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  • On the post: White House Falsely Calls NPR, PBS A “Grift,” Moves To Cut Already Modest Funding In Latest Attack On Journalism And Informed Consensus

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 11:01am

    Oh, if it gets bad enough, bullets will be what it comes to. I’m not going to deny that. But I think even a fascism-loving GOP would boot Trump out of the White House if doing so meant they would save their own asses from angry citizens who want Trump’s head. And there’s no way to get them angrier any faster than fucking with their entitlements⁠—especially for older people who are living off said entitlements. Blood won’t have to be spilled if the GOP does the right thing if and when the time ultimately comes. But if they don’t…well, no one will be able to say “they weren’t given a chance”.

  • On the post: ‘This Should Be Shocking’: Conservative Judge Blasts White House As Senator Finally Accesses Abrego Garcia

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 10:56am

    We get it, you want to kiss fascist ass so much that you end up looking like you’re wearing blackface. Go back to /pol/ OH WAIT YOU CAN’T

  • On the post: Library Study Shows It’s Just Politicians And Activist Groups Trying To Get Books Banned

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 09:20am

    Performative Chrisitians absolutely want to be the Romans. They’ll never admit it out loud, but their actions speak for themselves.

  • On the post: White House Falsely Calls NPR, PBS A “Grift,” Moves To Cut Already Modest Funding In Latest Attack On Journalism And Informed Consensus

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 09:08am

    somehow, they’re excited about losing their Social Security and Medicare
    I don’t think that’s true. Trump’s propensity for bullying⁠—and the implicit approval for his followers to do that same bullying⁠—will only go so far when the people on Social Security and Medicare who voted for him start losing their money. Educating people wakes them up slowly; taking their money wakes them up far faster.

  • On the post: Library Study Shows It’s Just Politicians And Activist Groups Trying To Get Books Banned

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 08:52am

    A grassroots movement need not be explicitly partisan. An activist group is typically partisan (or at least thought to be partisan).

  • On the post: Library Study Shows It’s Just Politicians And Activist Groups Trying To Get Books Banned

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 08:17am

    Conservative Bible thumpers prefer to be no a source of God’s mercy and compassion, but an instrument of God’s wrath. Once you understand how much they crave authoritarianism, you’ll realize the performative nature of their Christianity and disabuse yourself of the notion that they could ever believe in “live and let live”.

  • On the post: White House Falsely Calls NPR, PBS A “Grift,” Moves To Cut Already Modest Funding In Latest Attack On Journalism And Informed Consensus

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 07:33am

    the same way conservative news can pay for itself
    You say that like conservative news outlets aren’t funded by rich-ass Republicans who buy off journalists to spin the news in ways that favor those rich-ass Republicans. Do you think Fox News is funded by Viewers Like You?
    Taxpayers ought not do it.
    Taxpayers are funding NPR and PBS⁠—by giving them money out of their own pockets. Like the article notes, federal funding isn’t even a majority of the funding for those two outlets (and in NPR’s case, it’s only 1%). Instead of blindly repeating Trump propaganda because you want to “own the libs”, maybe look into what he’s complaining about and see if his complaints have any merit. Seriously: Do you think NPR and PBS are “woke” because they’re legitimately bashing Republicans 24/7, or do you think they’re “woke” because Trump and the GOP media apparatus cucked your brain into thinking things like “empathy is a weakness”, “diversity is bad”, and “Big Bird is a communist”? (Side note: When your “side” is attacking Sesame Street, you might want to reëxamine whether you want to be on that side. It’s no better than, say, attacking Mr. Rogers.)

  • On the post: White House Falsely Calls NPR, PBS A “Grift,” Moves To Cut Already Modest Funding In Latest Attack On Journalism And Informed Consensus

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 07:04am

    the White House issued a statement full of lies about public broadcasting, calling NPR and PBS a “grift”
    Every accusation, a confession.

  • On the post: Judge To DOJ: No, ‘Facilitate’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Do Nothing’ In Abrego Garcia Case

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 06:49pm

    Hey, would you look at that: ICE detained a born-in-the-country American citizen. I’d like every Trump supporter here who said this couldn’t happen to form a line so I can go down the line and smack you all upside the head while saying “I told you so, you dumb motherfuckers”.

  • On the post: Judge To DOJ: No, ‘Facilitate’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Do Nothing’ In Abrego Garcia Case

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 04:51pm

    Nothing will change the minds of Trump haters.
    Some of us have empathy and compassion. That means we don’t support a heartless sociopath who would sooner execute people he dislikes if he thought he could do it without losing more support than he would gain for really “owning the libs”. You don’t seem to share that trait. Were you raised in a household where you were beaten/spanked/slapped “for your own good” and told that accepting help was for “pussies”, or did you grow into being a heartless dick as a form of rebellion against kind and loving parents?

  • On the post: Judge To DOJ: No, ‘Facilitate’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Do Nothing’ In Abrego Garcia Case

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 04:48pm

    that’s never going to happen
    Few of the people who voted for him last year likely believed he was going to enact those sweeping, massive, economy-wrecking tariffs when he talked about them last year. Guess how that turned out! You can keep saying that phrase all you like. Trump will prove you wrong and laugh about it all the while. Consider how the Trump administration…
    1. is targeting foreign students for their speech in re: protesting the Gaza genocide,
    2. is suggesting American criminals could be sent to El Salvador,
    3. is defending ICE using masked agents to snatch people off the streets, and
    4. defending the idea of deporting someone without due process
    …and believing that his administration could and would deport American citizens without due process to a sovereign nation with no way (or no desire) to get them back isn’t a huge leap in logic. Expecting the worst out of Trump may not be your thing, but everyone else has learned to expect worse than the worst at this point. Hell, given the way RFK Jr. talks about autistic people, I’m surprised Trump hasn’t yet come out in favor of physical abuse disguised as “therapy” to handle the “problem” of autistic people existing. Key word: yet.

  • On the post: Judge To DOJ: No, ‘Facilitate’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Do Nothing’ In Abrego Garcia Case

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 04:38pm

    The courts are trying to tell the president and his goons that what they’re doing is likely unconstitutional. Do you want a president that ignores the Constitution when it suits him and his agenda?

  • On the post: Judge To DOJ: No, ‘Facilitate’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Do Nothing’ In Abrego Garcia Case

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 04:37pm

    the Separation of Powers still exists
    So does the concept of checks and balances. Or do you believe judges and courts should only exist to do what the president tells them to do?

  • On the post: Judge To DOJ: No, ‘Facilitate’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Do Nothing’ In Abrego Garcia Case

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 04:36pm

    Tell me: Other than “the government said so”, what is the proof that Garcia is a member of MS-13? And please be specific and detailed, as neither vibes nor vague allegations will pass muster here.

  • On the post: Library Study Shows It’s Just Politicians And Activist Groups Trying To Get Books Banned

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 02:26pm

    STFU, GTFO, and go get therapy before you start cutting yourself, because that seems to be the direction you’re headed.

  • On the post: The “De” In “Decentralization” Stands For “Democracy”

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 11:06am

    I’m reminded of something I read on the Fediverse yesterday; I’ll quote it at length with no changes in formatting:

    the secret sauce of the fediverse is that the network is the important part. the websites die but the network keeps going. even if your instance dies in a blaze of glory or whatever, you go somewhere else and your friends are still there. you see nerds on other websites not understand this. they're like "fedi instances go down all the time". yeah, but individual instances don't matter. your friends are still there. you just go to a different instance. you didn't have to convince your friends to follow you on a different website because they keep going to the same one. also, you gotta remember, websites went down all the time before now. that was just a fact of life before the modern age of the googles and the facebooks and such with giant data centers and 24/7 on call engineers. like it used to be websites would go down for a while and you'd say "well, i guess i'll go somewhere else until Greg wakes up and fixes it" we're used to it by now. usually you get some warning when an instance is gonna go down permanently so you get a chance to ask your friends if they have room on their instance. it's annoying, but, again, it's less traumatic than having to leave, say, twitter, because you don't have to convince your friends to move instances die, the network lives on. as it should be. meanwhile, if bluesky gets bought by hitler 2, you're shit out of luck you ever think about how eugen could quit this and pull the plug on mastodon.social tomorrow and we'd be basically fine … also, like, if your instance gets a nastygram from a government, or if you can't pay for your domain because of sanctions against the taliban, you can move to an instance in a different country. that's pretty nice.

  • On the post: Judge To DOJ: No, ‘Facilitate’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Do Nothing’ In Abrego Garcia Case

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 06:29am

    You still keep hinting at widespread lethal violence as the only answer, but I would genuinely like to know what exact, specific, non-violent actions you think people could take to protest against/disrupt the Trump administration. Because for all your whining about the ineffectuality of other protests (and I’m not about to argue that point), at least they’re doing something. You’re sitting here begging for someone to go “yeah, it’s about time we went all 1776 on their asses” without it being sarcastic. And for what⁠—a chance to gloat about how you got them to say that, either to right-wingers or Feds? Your schtick is getting more pathetic than the “OH NOES 230 IS DOOMED, THE INTERNET IS DOOMED” schtick. At least that dumbass actually seems to care about what he’s complaining about. You seem to care less about stopping Trump and more about making me endorse violence so you can say you “owned a lib”. So please, tell me what non-violent acts you think would be more effective for protesting Trump than ping-pong paddles at the State of the Union and interpretive dance. I insist.

  • On the post: Court Allows Government To Continue Stalling While Abrego Garcia Remains In Hell

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 06:20am

    Sure. That person is transgender and gay. That means they’re transgender and gay. Hope this helps!

  • On the post: Otherwise Objectionable: How 230 Let US Internet Companies Win

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 06:18am

    Go take your misery elsewhere and don’t come around here no more.

  • On the post: Judge To DOJ: No, ‘Facilitate’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Do Nothing’ In Abrego Garcia Case

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 16 Apr, 2025 @ 02:22pm

    The Trump administration admitted days ago that his deportation was⁠—and I quote⁠—a “mistake”. Why do you believe the administration now when it says his deportation was deliberate? The Trump administration has shown no significant evidence to the court that he was part of any gang. Why do you believe the administration when it basically says “vibes” are enough to prove he was part of a gang? The Trump administration sent a man to a foreign nation without due process in an immigration court, and it refuses to do anything to get him back⁠—even if it will simply send him to another country. Why do you think the administration won’t do the exact same thing to anyone deemed a “threat” to the U.S., including born-and-raised American citizens?

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