380 Comments

Yeah... if his own daughter is saying it shouldn't be done, I think that's what we call a 𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘨. A fundamental part of what makes art, art, is the mortality of its creators... it is something unique; the mind behind it only in this world for a little while, a voice and a perspective that never was before, and never will be again. Without that impermanence... what does it even 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯? George Carlin was a master of his art, and it is true that we lost him far too soon... but doesn't that just make what he 𝘥𝘪𝘥 give us all the more valuable?

I worry that, with the rise of AI-generated (and imitated) art, it may come to pass that human artists fall by the wayside as corporate interests seize on the potential for infinite content generation from an entity they don't have to pay. We'll be inundated with facsimiles of what has already been done, and the ever-shifting, evolving, chaotic stream of consciousness that is true art will be drowned out by a cacophony of artificial echoes.

------------------

...that said... how 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 is it that a computer doing a comedian 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 is better at comedy than conservatives? And how flimsy is religion, that even a 𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 can make a joke of it?

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lol all too true.

If there was a Comedy Turing Test, conservatives wouldn't pass.

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very and overwhelmingly...

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Let's do it, 'religiously'.

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Gervais and Chapelle are not conservatives, if that is who you are referring to.

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I wasn't, but they 𝘢𝘳𝘦 both oozing rightward and downhill, the more they lean into the same kind of punching-down "humor" the likes of Gutfeld and Watters employ. The fact that they've both got stand-up specials where they kvetch about being cancelled, while streaming on several of the largest media distribution platforms on the planet, speaks 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘴 about what's become of them.

Some comedians, like Carlin and Williams, left us far too soon. Others, like Gervais and Chapelle and Maher, haven't left us nearly soon enough. (*𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵- I should clarify: I don't wish any of them dead... but I 𝘥𝘰 wish they'd hang up their hats and fuck off already, if 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 is all they're going to do with their talents.)

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I agree that Maher has turned into a right wing turd. His politics have clearly shifted. That is not the case with Gervais. In his latest special he explains what "woke" is and isn't, then identifies as woke. He raised over 2 million for animal charities. I don't know what Chapelle's political persuasion is, but he is hilarious. The latest special was great. I am, of course, also a big Carlin fan.

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Telling shitty, bigoted jokes and then doubling down on them as if you're the victim when you get called out for it isn't really my idea of good comedy... but hey, to each their own. It is a highly subjective art, after all.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/dave-chappelle-addresses-transphobia-protests-1234667521/

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/ricky-gervais-comedy-netflix-transphobia-1357860/

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Chapelle never claimed to be a victim. That is the author's interpretation. If anything, the article makes the people actively opposing him look bad. "cancellation of his performance in Minneapolis after the venue stated that they wanted to make their venue a “safe space” for all attendees." I don't believe in the concept of safe spaces. We don't have a right to not be offended. Protestors throwing eggs at his fans doesn't look good either.

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I do agree that we don't have a right to not be offended. I also agree that people shouldn't be throwing eggs at his fans. However, Chapelle has mentioned being cancelled. "Thank god for Ted Sarandos and Netflix - he is the only one that didn't cancel me yet."

Remember, we are a capitalist society. Money matters more than people, and people with more money matter more. When you filter things through the money lens, they look very different.

The venue isn't looking to swaddle attendees. They want as many happy customers as they can get, happy customers are returning customers. It's a PR balancing act and it can never know what will go viral and what won't. In reality, a venue has the right to show, not show, or cancel anyone they choose. We're all about rights in America, but too many people will never defend the rights of others. They can't wrap their heads around the concept that supporting/defending someone else's rights isn't the same as agreeing with them.

For Chapelle, if punching down gets him more money, then he will, it doesn't matter who gets hurt. He apparently has a token trans friend, so that makes what he says fine. It's like believing that having a black friend makes dropping the n-word fine. If making money means ignoring the difference between sex (biological) and gender (social and self-identity), then Chapelle with be all, "Show me the money." If antisemitism was, or becomes, acceptable enough, he'll put it in his act.

Corporations are all about jumping on the pride bandwagon. Sell rainbow products to make money. Transpeople are just a selling point.

Another lens to consider is relevance. Many people I used to respect have shed integrity for likes. I used to be a member of the Skeptic Society, but Shermer's anti-trans BS and "You can't change your biology" stance became ridiculous. Shermer isn't really anything today, more on the outskirts of the skeptic movement with his cult of personality than anything, probably because of the many sexual harassment allegations against him. The final straw for me was his analysis of Matt Walsh's "What is a Woman" mockumentary. He wrote about the language Walsh used, but his comment section is full of anti-trans bigotry. (This from a man who told me "Trans rights are human rights." I don't like someone trying to placate me with hollow words.) What mattered to him was the generated likes and comments, not the content of the responses. There's no substance to Shermer anymore.

The right to not be offended does actually exist. However, only in the workplace. Again, it's a money thing.

It's actually difficult to have a safe space when you're marginalized, and engaging in life means exposure to a constant fluctuation between low-grade hate and overt harassment. When you have to forgo eating and drinking to avoid the restroom, when you never know who might attack you or when it will happen, and you suffer constant insults and death threats, you're not safe leaving your house. And in our doxing society, you're not even safe in your house. So much for that "pursuit of happiness" thing we're always going on about. Speaking of...

The problem with not having a safe space, aka being decent, is it becomes a license for people to harass and harangue others. I watched a boomer scream in the face of a Walmart employee, "The Constitution guarantees me the right to the pursuit of happiness and right now, screaming at you makes me happy." Irony. (Actually, the Declaration of Independence states "pursuit of happiness," which has no legal authority at all.)

Should people be walking safe spaces? No. But "safe space" is an abused word that has lost all meaning. It's nothing more than a dog whistle. What people want is to be able to go out and not be harassed. But too many people think that "others" should not be allowed out, especially not without being harassed, harangued, mocked, and threatened.

And they especially believe that harassment and offense should never have consequences.

Just as there is not (outside of work) right to not be offended, there is no right to offend. And in many, but not all, cases, offense is a choice.

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Jan 12, 2024
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I've said all I think I need to about those two. I'd remind you that 𝘺𝘰𝘶 are the one who connected the dots between my flippant jab at conservative comedy and them, and if you feel the need to leap to the defense of your sacred cows when they haven't even been mentioned, let alone attacked, that says quite a bit about your awareness of how problematic they've both become- and about your willingness to not only tolerate, but to proactively defend their shitty behavior.

And it really shouldn't need to be said, but this seems to get lost in the noise every single time someone's favorite famous transphobe- whichever one it happens to be at any given time- gets criticized for it, so just to underline the point for the umpteenth time: 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘢 𝘪𝘴.

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Gervais is right wing? News to me. Bummer if he is. I haven't seen much of him lately.

Maher used to be good, then he bought into conservative Newspeak.

Chapelle is just an asshole cashing in on outrage, so he doesn't give a shit who he harms if it makes a buck.

We definitely need more comedians like Williams and Carlin.

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I think it's fine if AI-generated art comes to be a part of our culture. That's no different than art going from rare and expensive single or very few copies pre-20th century to being able to buy a nice $25 photocopy version of Starry Night to hang in your bedroom now. Rapid cheap generation allows everyone to experience art more.

However, you gotta get the original artist's (or their estate's) permission to sell that copy, and probably give them a cut. At least for the first 75 years or so. AI-created pictures, songs, and jokes are really no different in that respect from dumb-machine generated pictures, songs, and jokes. It's not a new problem. I don't know how or why some folks in this generation think that plaigerism ethics and laws don't apply if their smartphone or laptop is involved.

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IMO there's a big difference between a copy of a piece of art, which is identical to the original but for the experience of watching the artist make it or perform it, and this. I can listen to the .mp3 file of a song, and it is still the song. I can look at a reproduction of the Mona Lisa, and it is still the Mona Lisa. I can read any of the three copies I own of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and it will be the same play. I can watch my DVDs of Babylon 5 and... well, no, bad example, it's actually 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 that way than it was as originally released; the commercials are all gone and I don't have to wait a week for the next episode.

There may come a time when a true AI- that is, a real, thinking, feeling being, a digital consciousness- creates art... but this is not that. This is hamburger. Feed the machine some meat and gristle, watch it spit out ground beef. Shape it, cook it, stick it in a bun. Sure, it may be filling; you'll even enjoy it, if it's well made... but it ain't the prime rib you started out with, anymore.

Art can be made accessible to all without creating a separate tier of "not even created by an artist" for the plebes- which is exactly what I suspect will happen, the way we're currently heading. Art made by human hands will become increasingly rare and expensive (just as it was in ages past, when it was the exclusive domain of nobility), with access severely restricted to a premium subscription, while "art" stamped out by an algorithm will be cheap and ubiquitous (and probably ad-supported). If the publishers think they can get away with it, that's what they'll do.

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𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟. 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑒, 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑓. 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑖𝑡, 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑖𝑡, 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑏𝑢𝑛.

As long as the chef pays for their hamburger, they can cook it up any way they want. Right now, they don't pay for the hamburger, they steal it.

Not only that, but we have some chefs arguing that because cooking is the REAL part of the artistic creation, it should be their right to use all the beef they want without ever paying the farmers. How artistically stifling, they say, it would be if all these nascent, would-be amazing chefs had to pay the farmers. Just think, they say, of all the wonderful burgers the world will miss out on, that won't be cooked, if you force chefs to pay for the beef they use!

It's madness.

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True... the whole "stealing the beef to make the burger" bit 𝘪𝘴 more problematic than the way it's being made. I'd still have a problem with it, regardless- but I'll admit, there's more than a little personal bias in that. I feel pretty strongly that, by taking the human creativity out of art, it ceases to 𝘣𝘦 art.

Of course, you can get into the weeds pretty quickly by arguing over whether or not the code behind the AI is art, and there's a case to be made there... but if so, then can 𝘢𝘳𝘵 create art? How many steps removed from the creative mind can we really get before it's the artistic equivalent of homeopathy?

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I agree, the genie is out of the bottle, AI art is here to stay. The ethics of it will certainly have to be addressed and, in these early stages, it's going to be problematic while we sort it out. When photography was invented, painting was declared dead. So, I'm not worried that art is dead, but it will impact artists in various ways.

I suspect the whole "Hollywood wants to use your image" thing will both blow over and and happen anyway. Musicians get paid every time their song is streamed, CD bought. AI movies will probably become like that. They want to use an actor's image, they negotiate a price, royalties get paid.

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Yep. The 'Napster to now' transition is probably what will happen in AI. Right now everything is napster-esque; AI production software is able to stay ahead of the legal side of fair use. But, the legal side will catch up. When that happens, you'll still have all the nifty tools and maybe even better ones...but you'll be paying $0.05 for every generated image, or a monthly service fee for the app just like you pay $0.99 for every song download now.

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Definitely. It seems like every innovation causes an initial uproar since it can disrupt business, then when someone starts to make money off of it, it goes mainstream. It's almost like nothing advances until the rich figure out how to profit from it.

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https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d94xx/the-george-carlin-ai-standup-is-worse-than-you-can-imagine

This gets even weirder when you read that the podcast hosts are visibly and one of them is verbally uncomfortable of the AI and can't disclose the owner due to a nondisclosure agreement?

Like it sounds like they're trapped in some sort of contract hell because they needed cash.

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It should be taken down. I think it is illegitimate and immoral to do this. There are so many new voices; and Carlin was great, but he has sadly passed away. I do not want AI imitating real people, like in this case; and if anyone does that again, I am sorry, I am not going to lose my time on an imitation! If you want to invest in something, then invest in new voices, not AI imitations.

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Baphomet's advocate here : "In your own words".

Both Sasso and Kultgen put a lot into this. I have a routine myself about 'soap'; very Carlinesque. Even my voice changes ever so slightly. But AI is going to be employed in much more sinister stuff. Not sure we can stop it.

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As a conservative and a fan of such comedic legends as Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, and Matt Gaetz, I am appalled at this for many, many reasons. First, I am against intelligence in general, be it emotional, social or artificial. I just don't see how it has benefited society in any way. If God wanted us to know something, He would have put it in our thinking thing at birth. Secondly, does this so called intelligence even understand what comedy is? Where are the jokes that re-enforce my long held beliefs at the expense of others. Getting people question social norms and think about their own beliefs and prejudices is not funny. It never has been and never will be. No, just give me a joke were I can point to someone different than me and laugh, so that I can feel superior. I don't want to have to think. You know what I don't even need to laugh at the joke. So just give me, Greg Gutfeld.

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"Just give me a joke were I can point to someone different than me and laugh,"

No wonder Fox isn't funny.

https://preview.redd.it/hhms9rglofq51.png?auto=webp&s=d0927ede4389ec73bd938f3158a616afb6771080

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That picture is why you don't spray water at the fox news girls. They just bud and before you know it, you have a small herd of them. Just don't feed them after mid-night, or they will turn into Brian Kilmeades.

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I'm pretty sure they never eat. And do tanning booths count as being exposed to sunlight?

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Remember the Jimmy Swaggart "I have sinned!" routine? I split a gut. Classic Christian stuff!

Good times (like Fridays)

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Jan 12, 2024
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Well, the problem was that his funniest joke was his presidential campaign. Every other joke he's told was like launching a pathetic bottle rocket after the 4th of July grand fireworks finale. Unless he blows off his fingers, no one is going to care.

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Speaking of artificial intelligence, happy birthday HAL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_9000

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I'm sorry, Zizz. I'm afraid I can't do that.

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Be afraid. Be very afraid...

https://youtu.be/XDO8OYnmkNY

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Remember though, HAL saved the next expedition and assisted in the birthing of Lucifer (the star nee Jupiter) and eventually the Europans. Besides he sits at the right hand of Dave entwined into the superstructure of the monolith forever observing. Klaatu barada nikto.

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I saw this movie when I was 16. I distinctly remember asking myself "Why didn't Dave and Frank rotate the pod away from HAL BEFORE they shut all its systems down? HAL wouldn't have been able to read their lips or hear what they were saying.

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Yeah. But I'm fairly sure there was some human chauvinism involved. It's been a long time since I read the novel. In 2010, Chandra explicitly denigrated anyone that labeled or behaved towards HAL as anything less than conscious and valuable as a being. Which he was, he just didn't have the "emotional intelligence" (←that's probably the incorrect term) to deal with emotional beings and why HAL became homicidal. HAL was put into a dilemma and chose the mission over the crew. While humans would've struggled to save both even if it meant ultimate failure.

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Would had it worked though ? HAL is paranoid and would have wondered why they turned the pod away.

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Dave and Frank were pretty nonchalant. They were open about their reasons for doing what they were doing (looking at a possible problem with the pod). HAL would have no reason to suspect that they were up to anything. Otherwise, he would have questioned what they were doing if he did. He didn't.

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Carlin left behind an amazing legacy and an amazing body of work.

He was already as immortal as humans are likely to get. We don't need this. We don't need AI immortality.

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What you can accomplish with technology that does not employ AI and is done with permission and participation by those who are actually a part of the project.

https://youtu.be/AW55J2zE3N4

The voice of John Lennon...the real John Lennon...was skillfully lifted from a demo tape with poor quality. His voice is crystal clear. Like being in the room with him. George Harrison's guitar parts on the original Now And Then sessions were lifted from those recordings and added. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr added instruments and vocals. Paul even added additional lyrics, making it a true Lennon/McCartney composition. The project had the full approval of Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia. All of that made it an official Beatles song. Perhaps the last one ever,

(I'm holding out hope they can go back over both "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" to "clean up" John's vocal using the same technology and re-release them).

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Start to finish, "Love Me, Do" to "Now and Then" The Beatles were brilliance, creativity, and iconoclasts to the order of their current day, without fail.

I seriously doubt we shall ever see the like of them again.

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I still get teary when I hear their final one.

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I find the whole thing creepy. It’s the same when holograms of dead singers are projected onstage to sing their songs. It almost seems like plagiarism. We have their bodies of work available to us in various formats, we don’t need some facsimile.

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As a reminder of just how prescient Carlin was, here's what he once had to say:

"Nero is playing his violin. It's all over for America. I can see an out-of-control pandemic wreaking havoc in this country and around the world."

He said this in 2008, long before COVID. And those first two sentences could apply to Trump seizing the White House. How can AI possibly hope to compete with that?

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Well…those first two sentences could apply to Trump but I am sorry to say thatyou have sunk to the level of biblical “prophecy” my good man.

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George Carlin never did or would have used the transgender community for a joke. He didn't believe in punching down. He always punched up. On Larry King once, while supporting Andrew Dice Clay's free expression, he did criticize how he went after the vulnerable in his comedy.

I studied with his daughter for a year in her Women (now Humans) on the Verge. She's wonderful.

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OT- Texas, can you even 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 you have any humanity left? https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-border-drownings-deaths-cbp-dps-national-guard-tmd-baa099b2511ecea07c534a61b4212fb0

AP reports that federal border patrol agents were prevented from responding to an alert from the Mexican side of migrants in distress- state authorities, who stood by and did nothing as a woman and two children drowned, blocked the agents from reaching the scene so that nobody else could try to save them, either.

https://live.staticflickr.com/5703/22621367694_8417fd2c15_z.jpg

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it's what right wing Jesus would have wanted.

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WWJD- Who Would Jesus Drown?

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His daddy drowned everyone.

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Well, there WAS that meme of Jesus drowning Trump.

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At least we didn't shoot them..........yet. - G. Abbott

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In the 1950's, the US and the CIA set up friendly dictators to quash unions in banana plantations. These dictatorships became known as banana republics. Those once friendly dictators are now just dictators and the immigrants are now fleeing the totalitarian dictatorships WE set up.

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Oh, we were at it 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 before then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

We took our cues from the great empires of Europe which birthed us, and did our dead level best to be just as greedy and rapacious as they were, from the very moment we had the industrial base to build the fleet we needed to exert power abroad. Very damned near every problem we face in the world today, we either directly created, or else laid the groundwork for, by interfering in other countries' self-governance and domestic affairs to advance our own short-term interests.

And just like all of the great empires of Europe before us, we're trying to skip out on the bar tab now that we've cleaned out their stocks, roughed up the staff, and trashed all the furniture.

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Speaking of which...

What 2 things do Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming all have in common?

a) They all refused federal funding to feed people (8 million children among them).

b) All 15 have GQP governors.

Pro-life? This proved they are most definitely NOT pro-life.

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Tate Reeves doesn't look as if he's ever missed a meal in his life.

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Were HE the one experiencing food insecurity, he'd be screaming for financial support.

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Let's ask Christ Christie to weigh in...oh, never mind, the scales have been tipped.

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Vermont is a surprise. I thought that Scott was a fairly moderate Republican.

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What gets into their heads, I don't know.

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Maybe the nation's most liberal/ least conservative Republican governor (whichever way you want to look at it). Disappointing.

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"Republican" seems to be synonymous with cruelty.

We found out what a joke "compassionate conservative" was back in the day.

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Hey, Abbott...

THOU SHALT NOT KILL.

Also, look up Leviticus 19:33-34. Your own god told you to not mistreat foreigners. He says you're supposed to treat them as native-born and to love them.

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Surprise twist- he's treating them 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 the way the native-born were treated!

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DM is disgusted too.

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How "pro-life."

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I can't believe they went ahead and did this without consulting his family even if they weren't the owners of his estate. In this case it's already clear that his daughter does hold the legal rights to his material and likeness. I'm not sure why they'd think for a moment this was a good idea. It's almost like they knew they'd get a lot of press out of it in the time they were able to keep it up. I hate to reward them with exactly what they wanted in the first place. Another question that's not really being addressed is why there's no one else even close to being as well known for being willing to take on the hypocrisy of organized religion in the way that Carlin did? Surely there have been comedians attempting these types of jokes? Why was he able to pull it off and no one else? The entire field of popular stand-up seems to be mostly the same set of people pretty much for the past 15-20 years. There have been some extremely popular incredibly unfunny comedians. It's felt to me to be in a slump for a while, with less intelligent and fresh takes coming out. I feel like as an atheist we could use a Carlin but I don't think the world we live in is in a place that will allow it, if that makes sense. Not from where I'm living, in the Bible Belt. I saw Carlin when he played in Evansville, IN and I was more than happy to make the drive. I loved him in "Dogma" so much.

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I can think of at least one comedian who's still skewering religion and woo, albeit in a more... 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 sort of way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB958pxquj0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB958pxquj0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U

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Trae Crowder, the Liberal Redneck, gets on it here and there as well.

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One of my faves.

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Dara O Briain also does it although a bit more jovially than most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6se5b35YLQI

And Jimmy Carr of course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYv2ajQ6Yjs

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Oh yes! I love him!

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OT: Fuckin' snow. Two blizzards this week and now it's going to get cold (highs below zero).

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-campaign-news-01-12-24/index.html

I predict record low turn out. I don't know how that will affect the outcome. Probably the candidate with the dumbest supporters will win, but that was likely anyway.

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We’re getting blasted right now. I’m at work and my boss is not interested in closing early because his commute wasn’t so bad. But the snow and wind has picked up since he’s been here. I think he is just afraid he can’t change the phone message since the person who regularly does it is out of the office for a family emergency. The city has requested all non-essential businesses close. And while we are in the medical field, we are not essential.

My hubs is trapped an extra day in Orlando because of the storm.

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"My hubs is trapped an extra day in Orlando because of the storm."

https://cdn.quotesgram.com/img/13/6/1170625673-3-Apocalypse-Now-quotes.gif

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We're supposed to be really cold and windy for a couple days, but no snow. We've had a really dry winter so far.

"My hubs is trapped an extra day in Orlando because of the storm."

I'm sure he's upset.

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He was thinking it would be nice if we were there. But since the storms are what’s keeping him there, they’re what’s keeping us here.

And he’s complaining they’re trying to make him ride the rollercoasters. He’s there for an amusement/water park conference.

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My wife is going to Florida in a couple weeks for a conference (not sure if it's Orlando or not), she asked if I wanted to go along. I had to remind her someone should probably stay home with the kids.

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No snow here, but we're getting an Arctic blast from our cousins in the Great White North.

Today, the High/Low is 23F/14F. Tomorrow, it's 25F/18F and Sunday sees us at 32F/23F. Sunday will seem balmy by comparison.

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Finally made it home, one road, a county highway, I took was littered with cars in the ditches. One area had six cars with their drivers still in them stuck. The plows are out but seem to be making little progress.

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Unless there are some minus signs it's not cold.

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Are you talking about the Celsius scale, the Fahrenheit scale or the Kelvin scale?

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The One True scale. F!

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One of my coworkers was in Florida over the holidays and complained that it was cold down there. I asked if it was actually cold, or Florida cold. Well...50's.

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These kind of temps here are unnatural. Unnatural, sir!

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72F°/22C° The windows are open, and I'm wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts.

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I hate you. :)

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Should've mentioned it's also windy. Brr!

The thing I worry about the most is pipes bursting at my apartment building at either 3 in the morning or when I've gone out for the day.

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That's not winter. A real winter was when Aria* needed at least 2 sweaters 😁

* Let's not talk about Rhapsodie, this doggess was abnormal.

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Same here, although it is unusually muggy. But there is a reasonably nice breeze. They don't call us the Windy city for nothing.

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I thought you might be called the Windy city depending on the kind of foods you favor. 😉

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No, we are called the Windy city because today at 37 KPH is considered a light breeze.

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Humidity 91%

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Take off, you hoser.

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Décolle, sale arroseur ? 🤔

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Merci.

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Translated literally that makes no sense in French.

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Don't Canadiens speak Quebecois? 🙂

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The only Canadians I know speak some French not Quebecois.

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Canadians are bilingual. Gotta post that in two languages, eh?

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According to Google translate: Décolle, espèce de tuyau. Which changed to "Take off, you pipe." when I translated it back. Maybe BHM will come along and help me. Or she'll curse me out in French. Merde.

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Still makes no sense in French.

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Similar to my neck of the woods.

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Aren't ALL the Republican candidates the ones with the dumbest supporters?

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The race to the bottom has gotten depressingly heated.

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We have the albums/CDs, the specials and the books by the man himself. We even have all his movie/TV roles. We don't really need this.

And Carlin was always evolving as an artist right up to the time of his death. He was working on a play about America when he died.

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This is no laughing matter.

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Slightly OT, but: "We pray for God"-Donald Trump in a speech at his Iowa rally today (seriously, not a joke).

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"For".

Not "to"?

Is he implying someone even greater than God? Like maybe Donald Trump?

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