Way back in 2001 when Adobe flash was the exciting new thing on the web, I was the network/firewall admin for the data-center hosting the company website. I didn’t get to argue about the site itself, since they had Microsoft in to do that. I did win the argument against the Microsoft engineers wanting to put the site outside the firewall for “performance”. Needless to say my ass was on the line if performance was impacted.

Sure enough, the big launch day arrives, the Superbowl adds run, and the complaints all start coming in about how terribly the site was performing. They beat the hell out of it in the lab, so they knew with absolute certainty that the firewall was to blame. Lots of higher-ups were suddenly aware that I existed, which is never a good thing for a network admin.

I dove into troubleshooting and had my answer in less than ten minutes. The front page was a monstrosity made entirely of flash that displayed nothing until the entire page loaded - graphics and all. That worked well enough on a high speed network but, back in 2001, most people at home were on dialup. A little quick math on the size of the download had it taking over 40 seconds to just see the front page.

The site got a really rapid rewrite, and I was off the hook.

Wouldn’t it have been easier to rig the primary?

The US lost in both Vietnam and Afghanistan because occupation is hard. There isn’t an army on the planet that can even come close to taking on the US military in open combat, but insurgencies are a completely different animal.

Social media and AI mass surveillance might make a difference, but I kinda doubt it.

I don’t think this is where we are headed, but it wouldn’t be an automatic win for the military. Unfortunately, the people who end up in charge after an uprising usually end up being worse than the people they replace.

Carlin was great at spotting problems, but shit at recognizing solutions. He was an entertaining crank, not a leader. In the right category he was great.

I imagine it would feel a bit like punching a pile of dried leaves.

As a hopelessly straight American, I second the motion.

It wasn’t rigged. Even if it were rigged, it should never have been close enough to be rigged, but it wasn’t rigged. If the DNC waited to say it was rigged, they are still waiting because they haven’t said they think it’s rigged, but their not waiting, because it wasn’t rigged.

They really thought she’d be worse?

For the love of God, please stop spreading this mode of thinking. Elections are won by enthusiasm, not an intellectual weighing of the pros and cons of each. This is the model Democrats have used for decades that got us here. Being the lesser evil is not a solid campaign strategy. The greater evil will always get more attention, and therefore enthusiasm.

I don’t think this is an exclusively American thing. Did Brits really think brexit was a good idea?

I want to see the candidates also grilled on whether they condemn the Israeli government for the genocide in Gaza. Why isn’t that one being asked? (rhetorical - we all know why.)