Got taken to the cleaners on a Craigslist used bike deal. Fuck it, it’s sunken cost time. I had to replace the crankset. Pulled it off, but the bottom bracket was fucked up too, so I took it apart, regreased it, and assembled it. It’s still kinda fucked up, but it is SO MUCH better than it was. Put it all back together with the new crankset and new pedals and it’s pretty sweet actually, but I cannot fully tune the front derailleur due to a broken barrel adjuster. The better two out of three gears are working reliably at least.

Folks, this can happen to you too if you stop cycling for 10+ years.

It’s not all bad. I’ve met a bunch of my neighbors while sitting on the bench fucking around with this piece of shit. One even offered to give me a copy of their garage key to store this thing in.

The Zionists do not have a monopoly on the term “blood libel.” Joe Biden claiming he saw pictures of “40 beheaded babies” on live television is the greatest example of blood libel in the 21st century.

Libs will sigh a breath of relief that they don’t have to worry about those ‘tankies’ any more.

This is probably the right move. “Do not support” falls short of “condemn,” and now is absolutely not the time for them getting caught in the weeds explaining the nuances of how adventurism contradicts democratic centralism and posing hypotheticals like “this would be good if we decided to start doing assassinations in a committee.”

Not to mention the IOF firing at a diplomatic mission in the West Bank earlier today.

Not to write this off or anything because it does outline how things will get worse, but this has been the plan since October 7th. Framing this as an evil Heritage Foundation / Project 2025 plot is a cowardly ass-covering strategy for the liberal institutions (news media, academia, state agencies, the Democratic party, and many nominally progressive NGOs) which took the initiative all on their own to crush any opposition to this genocide. The New York Times gets to publish exposes like this and pretend they have absolutely no blood on their hands. That they didn’t spend the past two years sowing the seeds which are now blooming.

Case in point, just the other day the New York Times asked Ms. Rachel in an interview if she was being paid by Hamas because she commented that killing children is wrong. Was that part of Project Esther too? I don’t think so. The commitment to genocide is systemic and institutionalized. It is not the product of any particular conservative NGO. It is the consensus in Washington, across the board. “You’re either with us, or against us,” as George Bush put it.

Microsoft laid off 6000 employees to replace them with this. lmao.

The mortality rate of serving in congress is going to get up to Alaskan king crab fishing levels.

The tagline feature was upstreamed into Lemmy around the same time we transitioned off our hopeless fork and joined the federation.

Making a deal with gamers:

“lol,” said the scorpion, “lmao.”

Started bicycling again for the first time in like 10 years. Really helps highlight how out of shape I am. I can get to the library much more quickly now, but I’m learning about muscles in my legs I completely forgot existed. I guess I need to break my ass in a little bit too, because the saddle’s making my butt sore (this could be aided with a different saddle, but I think a significant part of the problem is my butt).

The bike I got is a bit of a stinker. It’s a pretty light-weight hybrid in generally good condition, but the previous owner didn’t do a great job assembling it. Everything was loose. On my inaugural ride, the saddle dumped backward on me and one of the pedals nearly broke off. I gave it a proper once-over after walking it back home, but I probably need a new crank arm to fix the pedal issue more permanently. It might just be that I’m heavy, but a human-load bearing part shouldn’t be mounted with aluminum threads IMHO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApaGxk2j0II

I’m basically looking at craigslist for used bikes as a starting point, with the consideration of upgrading things here and there

Doing 9/11 v2.0 and it is not even as destructive as Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate.” The House of Saud is truly in decline.

I think I am going to acquire a bicycle sometime soon .

Any advice? I am thinking of getting a “hybrid.” Something in-between a road bike and a mountain bike. A “commuter” bike really.

No disagreement here. The user experience IS bad. All I’m saying is the cards are stacked against us. The internet is designed first and foremost for multinational corporations. Our existence is tolerated within the cracks… for now.

There is no such thing as an apolitical prosecution. Even down to the most mundane infractions like loitering or a parking ticket, it is all politics. The liberals ignore this to their own demise.

The “justice” system is a weapon. It is capable of destroying whatever it is pointed at - and it is ALWAYS pointed at someone, whether we like to admit it or not.

Federal prosecutors across the country may soon be able to indict members of Congress without approval from lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, according to three people familiar with a proposal delivered to attorneys in the section last week.

The executive branch may soon bypass an extra step of bureaucracy which exists entirely within the executive branch. Sounds like a shit system to me, but what do I know? Like in Trump 1.0 when the executive branch was responsible for appointing a special counsel to investigate itself, which opted to observe a Nixon era DOJ memo (still fully internal to the executive branch, no “checks and balances” here) that you cannot indict the executive.

This is a joke fucking republic. There have been no fucking rules since Ford pardoned Nixon. I wish people would just report from the perspective that the whole thing is illegitimate, instead of whatever this is.

I mean, it is newsworthy that the administration is planning on going after elected representatives, but with representation like this, cry me a river. My representative is Josh Gothheimer. I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep if he were summarily executed. Fuck that guy.

In some places they have in-line water heaters like this instead of big hot water tanks.