That's my point, you can break your own record, but the media and public will be desensitized to it after the first time, sadly most people will tune out after the novelty has passed.

I'm not disparaging him, as much as I am calling into question the timing of it. Any pushback at all is welcome, but it just seems to me to be poorly timed in terms of effectiveness.

I guess we'll see what kind of effect this has afterwards and if it has a positive outcome.

I didn't say one did preclude the other. My point is that if you're going to do something historic that, by it's unusual and uncommon nature, gets you more attention then usual, why wouldn't you use that gesture to BOTH protest, and filibuster a bill that will put more attention on the bill because of the historic nature of the filibuster?

And yes, by all means, continue to filibuster and stymie the admin's progress by filibustering whenever possible. However, the American public are notoriously short of attention, especially when something has already been done before, that subsequent filibusters won't have the same impact as the original, especially when you have outlets like Fox that can just spin it towards being not worth notice because "same old shit by the dems". People will eventually tune out, and the opportunity to really amp up the pressure on the Republicans will be lost.

But why not wait to filibuster an actual policy as both a protest against the admin itself, and to call attention to, and spark outcry, about the policy? It still seems like a waste to not time this type of once in a lifetime event with a particular action by the admin. I feel like if he's going to do something like this, especially something historic which will get people paying attention, why not use all that attention to it's maximum potential? The garbage is still going to be pushed through eventually, but if he were doing it at the moment that a garbage policy was being pushed through it would call much more attention to it and create more pushback from people.

I'd argue no. I'm kind of confused. I guess it's a prolonged speech protesting the actions of the admin in general? I somewhat applaud the push back by any member of congress, but I feel like it's a wasted gesture if it isn't specifically filibustering an important bill. This just seems like a publicity stunt rather than a meaningful action of resistance.

For me it took getting into therapy and realizing why I would lose control and drink to excess. I understand now that, for me, excessive drinking is a physical manifestation of an underlying problem I'm not confronting. If I drink when I'm not in pain or emotionally distraught, I drink responsibly, but when I am angry/sad/depressed I'll drink uncontrollably. I liken it to taking hallucinogens, specifically mushrooms, if I take mushrooms when I am already feeling bad emotionally, I will have a bad trip, if I take them when I am already happy and in a good mood, I'll have a good trip. It's about being mindful about your state of mind and what you put in your body that can effect that state of mind.

I appreciate the kindness, take care too ;)

Thanks for the kind words!

Yes, I did get into SMART for a time. I found that it was easier to just go to AA since I didn't feel like going through the hassle of maintaining a digital form and having to print it out every time I had to show it to my probation officer.

There have been a lot of successful lawsuits contesting the legality of mandating AA through the courts, in fact, no lawsuit has lost to date. I would have loved to contest it as well, but honestly I live in a small town and the police and courts here are the type to hold a grudge, so I didn't want to draw any unwanted attention. But yeah, it is most definitely a religious organization, no matter how much they try to maintain they aren't.

I had a similar experience myself, I was desperate and was looking for a way out. I initially joined before being mandated by the court, and for a little while I was on board, but after a year or so I got fed up with the methodology and rhetoric of AA. About six months before the mandate I was pretty much through with AA, and then I got a DUI and was forced to go. Which just further brought out my distaste for AA.

Luckily I'm just about finished with the court requirements. I only have a few more weeks of outpatient, and was told by my PO that once I completed the outpatient I'd be off of probation. So, very happy it'll be over soon.

The positive thing was that I did take a break from abusing alcohol and resassessed my relationship with alcohol. I don't intend to stay abstinent, but I do plan on having a healthier relationship with drinking and being mindful of when and how much I do.

Oh man, this is the fucking truth. I'm court mandated to go to AA, and it's driving me up the wall. The steps are ridiculous and the true believers will endlessly drone on about how amazing and effective they are. It's literally just religious fundamentalist ideology (AA itself was created by Bill Wilson, who was part of a religious organization called the Oxford Group, and used their existing principles to create the 12 Steps). The organization is definitely a cult, the largest operating and hiding in plain sight cult in the world. It's crazy how prolific it is and most people don't realize it is a Christian temperance cult.

Haha, and here I was thinking that I did horribly. I saw someone on a random reddit thread say they did it in 400 and something.

As I was typing this out I rechecked the thread and they we're playing the full PC version with assist mode on. Apparently the PC version has the original playable within the game at some point. A quick Google search put the average at 1000-1200 or more deaths for the Pico-8 version.

So, damn. That makes me feel pretty awesome lol. Thanks for the kind words, you made my day!

After the past twenty years, coming of age during the Bush W years, I've tried hard to resist becoming a misanthrope. But good, goddamn is it harder than ever before. I thought it was bad (and it was) when W. was the president growing up, but the amount of insane and woefully misinformed and hateful people in this country has reached a fever pitch I never could have imagined back then. It's truly awesome in the most negative sense of that word.

Sheldon S. Wolin talked about the fact that the US system was a "managed democracy" and a form of "inverted totalitarianism" in his book Democracy Inc about twenty years ago. In a managed democracy the pretense of democratic voting is maintained, but the system is so heavily managed as to render voting ineffective and largely irrelevant. The US voting system is so heavily gamed that to expect the average US citizen to have any power through the ballot box is laughable.

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

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

For me it was getting into counseling to find the underlying cause of my addiction, which was my grief. There's many ways addiction is percieved in mainstream society, with the biggest focus being on addiction being a "disease". I'd avoid such thinking since, I believe, it only serves to exacerbate the problem. If you're told that your addiction is a irreversable illness than you'll attack the symptoms without getting to the root cause.

Ask yourself why you feel the need to drink to excess, what is it that you feel you are missing in your life? We tend to utilize addiction as a way to cope with uncomfortable realities in our lives. If we can figure out what that uncomfortable truth is, we are better equipped to make better, healthier decisions on how we chose to cope with that feeling.

I recommend checking out any of Lance Dodes' books on addiction, which focus on a evidence-based approach to confronting and coping with addiction. Good luck. Feel free to DM me if you ever have any more questions ;)

Call me crazy, but this is why I have been thinking about getting into hobbies where I can make my own tools. I like to journal, and have a fountain pen with ink, but it occurred to me that I could just make my own ink and paper. So much of what we do nowadays for enjoyment is via manufactured things. It's an unfortunate by-product of a consumer society that even the hobbies that we partake in are themselves a consumptive act. That's not to say that we should all forgo any kind of external products and just make everything ourselves, I too like a good book, piece of vinyl or comic like anyone else. But it is definitely something to consider the degree to which our lives revolve around some type of product consumption. I think that we'd all benefit from taking some time to consider finding hobbies that don't rely on buying some type of product.