TheMonkey

TheMonkey

@themonkey7.bsky.social

Gen-X old punk science fiction nerd raised on Vonnegut, LeGuin, Battletech, and Comic Books.

162 followers257 following328 posts

US: We want a $15k electric car like you can get in China. GM: Here is a $30k gasoline car that will act like a personal assistant and spouse. US: How are we supposed to afford it? GM: It will pick up your groceries giving you time for that second job.

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TheMonkey reposted

TheMonkey reposted

No matter where you shop, you're getting screwed by Amazon. Amazon has found a way to make everything you buy - at Target, at a mom-and-pop shop, even direct from the manufacturer - more expensive. And they're not the only one: Expedia's done the same thing, but for hotel rooms.

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge is up there with Snow Crash as a book that tech billionaires shouldn't read. Leave the Torment Nexus alone.

@catalystgamelabs.bsky.social, 35 years and you can claim back copyright rights no matter what the contract states. Could this be a path forward for #battletech? Imagine having one holder for the entire IP!

And now, Richard Garriott, AKA "Lord British," has claimed back the rights to the groundbreaking Ultima series of computer role-playing games, which he sold to Electronic Arts in 1992: www.videogameschronicle.com/news/richard...

TheMonkey reposted

There are many ways in which every billionaire is a policy failure, but the most corrosive and destructive way in which billionaires are policy failures is this: billionaires, despite being unelected and unaccountable, possess the power to control - and ruin - millions of peoples' lives.

TheMonkey reposted

the supreme court: "stop saying we declared trump a god-king, presidential immunity was a limited and reasonable ruling" trump, constantly: "I am absolutely a god-king and I can do anything I want at any time"

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: "I could've done very bad things to Hillary Clinton. I could've done very very bad things to Joe Biden. I could've done very bad things to Barack Hussein Obama ... I can do whatever I want, if I want."

TheMonkey reposted

"While Charlie Brown did once again accelerate toward the ball, miss it entirely as Lucy pulled it away, flip backward through the air, and land violently with a disquieting crunch, we do not believe that now is the time for a dramatic change in kicking strategy." buff.ly/X2RjqP5

buff.ly“Charlie Brown Must Stay the Course”: A Football Kick Autopsy Report by the Democratic Party“While Charlie Brown did once again accelerate toward the ball, miss the ball entirely as Lucy pulled it away, flip backward through the air, and land violen...

Watching the original Jurassic Park with the kids. For a movie made in 1993 it holds up really well! Kids were on edge during the T-Rex scene.

TheMonkey reposted

"The value of persons, however, does not depend on what they achieve or produce ... The fundamental dignity of each person, therefore, is neither acquired nor earned, nor does it need to be justified ... The dignity of every human person can be described as infinite" "Magnifica Humanitas."

TheMonkey reposted

One of the less remarked-upon aspects of atheism is how it changes the way you see sunsets. If you believe in an omnipresent God, then sunsets are one of God's intentional creations, which means that the beautiful colors refracting through the darkling sky were *chosen* to produce that effect.

TheMonkey reposted

I'll to come right out and say it: statistical extrapolation is *fine*. One of the most useful ways to understand the present and anticipate the future is measuring the things that happened in the past, find the correlations among them, and extrapolate likely future outcomes from those correlations.

Cost of car rental at airport: $320 ($230 + $90 airport fees and taxes Cost of car rental from the local non-airport location of the same company. $320 ($290 rental +$30 taxes) Corporations suck.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump on 9/11: "I just thank my people. I was building a big building in New York & I took the whole crew down there right after this happened & they had no hesitation. Everybody went down with me... we thought it was coming down on top of us... two fireman lifted me up and started running with me"

Another example of our vacuum up economy: I've been getting ads saying you should pay your rent with a credit card. People don't have enough money for purchases, so they are targeting people's largest necessary expense. They get 3% immediately and can trap people with interest payments.

TheMonkey reposted

They disinvented the VCR. You might think that the reason we don't have VCRs anymore is because VCRs were supplanted by DVDs, PVRs and streaming, but that's not the case. They had it in for the VCR from the very start, and they never stopped trying to kill it. Eventually, they succeeded. 1/

This thread is a love letter to Battletech by so many in the community. The best fandom in gaming!

Gail Simone@gailsimone.bsky.social

Okay, I have a question for the BattleTech players. What is your single favorite thing about the games? Is it the lore, the battle, the rpg elements, the setting, what do you LOVE about it?

Don't reserve a room at @wyndhamhotels.bsky.social. They overbooked and didn't have a anything for my family. No warning! Refunding my credit card had a two day wait. I had to rebook at another hotel for three times the price. Never trust a booking at a Wyndham Hotel. Corporate enshittification.

Cleaning up and found old model kits I did 35 years ago. Members of my Golden Serpents #Battletecherc Company. Now only salvage, hopefully the Shadow Hawk pilot ejected okay!

Please ask every Republican and administration official to explain this comment. I'd love to see how they sane wash his mental decline.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: "We had 11 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan"

TheMonkey reposted

Vance says the midterms are big because Republicans are one SCOTUS seat from ending birthright citizenship

This should have happened under the Biden administration. But leave it to Biden and centrist Dems to do nothing about a popular policy and let Trump make it his issue.

CNN@cnn.com

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signs order reclassifying state-licensed marijuana as a less dangerous drug. https://cnn.it/3Oo377k

I'm scared to see what Superman's values will be after Warner Brothers/DC is taken over by Paramount and Ellison. It will break my heart to have him turned MAGA.

If I want to UPGRADE my Xfinity internet to spend more money, it takes a couple of clicks online. But if I want to CANCEL, I need to go to the store or wait for a callback in two days. Tell me again how immigrants and trans people are making my life worse and ruining America...

If Trump is moving appropriated money around to pay the military, how come he doesn't just do the same for air traffic controllers or to keep parks open? The GOP Congress has handed him the power of the purse. There is nothing stopping him from unilaterally ending the shutdown.

Trump's silence on the politically motivated murder of Minnesota Representative Melissa Hortman signaled approval for political assassinations. Renaming the Department of Defence to the Department of War further shows how he condones violence. He is the cause of Kirk's death.

name a non-LOTR character who is a cool and good person but would nevertheless set land speed records for getting fucked up by the One Ring

Crazy3ddie@crazyeddie404.bsky.social

name a non-LotR character who is a cool and good person but would nevertheless set land speed records for getting fucked up by the One Ring

"The great owners, striking at the immediate thing, the widening government, the growing labor unity; striking new taxes, at plans; not knowing these things are results, not causes. Results, not causes; (1/x)

results, not causes. The causes lie deep and simply - the causes are a hunger in a stomach, multiplied a million times; a hunger in a single soul, hunger for joy and some security, multiplied a million times; muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, multiplied a million times." (2/3)

Inspired a joke to share with MAGA: "How are Jesus Christ and Epstein alike?" "They both died for Trump's sins."

NY Times Pitchbot@nytpitchbot.bsky.social

Lots of people can say that they live for Donald Trump. But how many can say they died for him? by Jeffrey Epstein