I’ll respond to this because I’m a father and have observed a lot of things about other parents that I never noticed or paid attention to before becoming one. There are some seriously selfish-ass people who treat their kids like accessories or tea-cup dogs. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people who treat their kids as franchises or property and view the kid in terms of ROI.

Some people only find value in themselves as mothers or fathers (“I’m the goddamn pater familias!”) where the role is often more important than the kids. While the act of parenting can be selfless, there is a performative element to it that takes over some people’s identities and personalities (clothing that advertises your “parent-ness,” name-brand clothing, chic and fashionable accessories, strollers that cost as much as a used car, humongous houses and baby suites, paying for full- or part-time help, excessively documenting “baby’s” life and sharing it widely beyond friends and family, et cetera and ad nauseam).

Now, there’s another take on selfishness I’ve picked up on from anti-natalist threads which is specifically tied to the concept of agency: a child has no agency regarding the circumstances of its birth. The fact that two people can intentionally (or even worse, unintentionally) choose to procreate is viewed as immensely selfish since it denies the created being of all choice. Parents often “want” to have a kid; but there is often no “need” (biological imperative notwithstanding). Hence, a selfish act.

Another expression of selfishness is that some parents cannot help themselves from creating clones. From birth, the kid is a reflection of the parents’ identity, interests, politics, hobbies, and media fandoms. The political or religious parts are especially disturbing—no kid has a valid opinion of the election and has no solid foundation for belief in a deity. Raising kids with values is one thing, but creating little mouthpieces that just repeat parents’ opinions is another. There is also the chance that a parent will try to live vicariously through their child and push them into sports or academics so that they can fix their mistakes or relive the past.

All said, some people make really shitty parents. And I don’t mean shitty people—there are lots of pleasant and thoughtful people who are fucking terrible caregivers. I think that some people felt too much social, cultural, or religious pressure to be honest with themselves and stay away from parenting. I think that nothing says selfish like knowing that you shouldn’t do something but do it anyway because you know that you will benefit from it in some way (financially, socially, etc.).

Let’s capitalize nouns again while we’re at it.

My univeristy library would often have one or two copies of the current textbook on course reserve in the library. This meant that 1) you had to know where the course reserves were, 2) hope you could get it before one of the other 100-150 students also taking that course got it first, and 3) hope some dickhead didn’t just take it off the shelf and hide it in their study carrel or in a quiet corner of the library. Number 3 gets worse the higher the level of degree you are studying.

To be fair, the schisms have been occurring for like 200 years.

Why wasn’t he arrested and charged for this before being sent to El Salvador? If he is this heinous of a criminal, why was he the alternate for the seat on the flight down to El Salvador?

Let’s argue for argument’s sake that he is the kind of person the DOJ claims he is. Does this mean he is guilty before being given a chance to defend himself? Shouldn’t he be afforded an opportunity to hear the charges and offer a defense? Granted, immigrants without citizenship can be deported for any criminal activity, but this guy had a court order preventing that. So why couldn’t the DOJ arrest and charge him before sending him to a death prison? Wouldn’t it be in the interest of the nation to maybe find out more about his network before disappearing him, especially since they claim he smuggled thousands of people?

This is some kafkaesque, fascist, dumbass bullshit.

Serial killers need patterns, process, and specific situations tailored to their individual neuroses. They are driven or compelled to kill to create or recreate certain events. That’s one thing that separates them from mass murderers or spree killers.

This guy was just in it for money. Mass murderer, yes, but there have been mafia hitmen with more morals than this fuck.

The scale of this, and the callousness of it, are far closer to Hitler and other genocidal maniacs because none of them wanted to get their hands dirty; they’d never kill anyone, personally. At least serial killers are into DIY and often are quite proud of their fucked up accomplishments.

It really says something about this guy’s absolute depravity when a comparison to a serial killer makes someone say “you know, that’s offensive to serial killers.”

I’m not disagreeing with what you said, I’m just frustrated because this guy was worse than serial killers and that is really something else.

Oh, I’m with you. I was just diving really deep into how absurd the 51st rhetoric is on our side.

It is clear that there is no intention of treating Canada fairly and, as you rightly pointed out, annexation would be violent and justifiably so.

I hate that you’re right. Normalization is the goal, but this is far from fucking normal. Even language like “51st state” betrays a wild ignorance of Canada and the U.S. procedures for admitting new states.

As a US citizen, Canada should not become part of the US.

It’s been 77 years since the US admitted a new state and almost 100 since we’ve raised the number of representatives. D.C. residents make up a large portion of the federal workforce and even they don’t have representation in Congress. Quite frankly, there’s no political entity in the US with experience bringing in a new state and all the logistics and legal work that it requires.

There is no path for Canadian annexation where the Canadians will be treated fairly.

If Canada entered collectively as a single state (pure nonsense, but hear me out), they’d get two senators and 1 representative to the house. The apportionments for US representatives would need to be raised to account for 40 million new people, which my guess wouldn’t happen, so instead California and Canada (who have almost equal populations) would just trade off allocations of representatives alternating with New York and Texas. Canada would end up with a lot of representatives in the House this way but wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as adding 20 senators if the provinces entered as individual states.

All said, not all of these seats would go democrat, but the GOP definitely wouldn’t be able to guarantee majorities or stalemates in both houses like they have been for the past 20-30 years. Even if the Trump admin pulled this con off and annexed Canada as a US territory, the GOP would just block entry as a state since I can’t imagine this Congress passing a joint resolution to allow it. Furthermore, Congress doesn’t even have to consider adding a new state even if the population of that territory keep petitioning for it (see ongoing D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood petitions).

Shit would get really complicated when the US has to handle the dissolution of parliament, withdrawal from the Commonwealth, and Quebec.

The Acela is worth it going to NYC and further north. Every town in Connecticut apparently still has an Amtrak stop (which is cool, but goddamn). Compare the travel times of the Acela and Amtrak between DC and Boston.

DOGE was never officially created but the Trump administration instead repurposed the US Digital Service (partially renamed the US DOGE Service). USDS was in charge of digital infrastructure modernization and was originally supposed to be a neutral technology consulting agency across the government. That was their “in” to many other agencies.

Musk was never appointed because he was “hired” as an executive consultant with a time-limited position instead (see how he is leaving/withdrawing right as that limit is reached).

Since the USDS is an executive agency, it can be instructed to directly take orders from the president through its agency head and the chain of command. USDS has also primarily infected other executive agencies with executive authorization and the heads of those agencies allowing it to happen (or resigning).

The majority of Federal agencies fall within control of the Executive Branch.

Appropriate Constitutional power is moot when the other branches won’t check the Executive. Right now, DOGE is testing the boundaries of executive power at every corner of the government.

Oh, right. Golden plates make more sense for cults.

The reading rooms will be filled with golden toilets and copies of Mein Kampf inscribed with Trump’s ridiculous Sharpie signature. Under Mein Kampf you’ll find a print out of the McDonald’s menu and unused Trump casino cocktail napkins.

The stacks will contain nothing but books spray painted gold and autographed copies of The Art of the Deal.

The archives will only contain printed out copies of every tweet and truth-post he’s ever made.