Okay, then Iāll dive back into KSR territory laterā¦ thanks.
I wanted to read the āMars Trilogyā too. And āDuneā, which is a little ā¦long 
And that list only grows 
By the way, to fill the gaps, or better, to confirm what I thought I understood -or didnāt- about Blindsight, I found this wiki page full of spoilers that did the trick. I think.
PS: See? I just found another book I need to read, āThe Ministry Of The Futureā 
Thank you! Very useful, I also hadnāt understood many things, especially the state of the world at the end of the book. Iām going through the linkā¦ But if you want to talk anytime, Iād be happy to!
From the beginning of the sequel, it sounds itās explores there.
These elections need to be over. Heavens why are they not over!!!
The states counting right now - Pennsylvania for example - tried to get the rules changed so they could count mail-in ballots as they came in. But the Republican state house refused to do it that way and insisted they get counted later. I guess the idea was to hope they wouldnāt get counted at all. Big turnouts are almost always Democratic wins. Thus voter suppression, Esp people of color who, if Biden wins, will be who got him there.
Today I think we will know that Trump has lost. And again, itās people of colour who made it happen.
Yeah and I donāt get why is it still done like this. Itās 2020ā¦can we move finally from the 1800s paper voting?
Dancing in the American streets today for the first time in years.
Women and people of colour did this. Now they must be served with respect.
Biden did better than Clinton with non-college whites, white women, senior whites but the way this election turned was Trump ahead in Michigan and then the votes from Detroit come it. Trump ahead in Wisconsin then the votes from Milwaukee come in. Trump ahead in Georgia then the Atlanta votes come in. Trump ahead in Pennsylvania then the Philly and Pittsburgh votes come in. Black voting for Biden at the 80+% rate.
But of course we are now in the long limbo period while the GOP tries to nullify the will of the people and somehow get the Supreme Court to strong arm some end game that lets them win. It wonāt work and will do damage in the process. But what do they care about damage to the country? Itās what they do every day.
It seems like war is over. It sucks. I shared my thoughts here, if you are interested.
We all lost. As it often happens.
A sad story. Maybe, when Trump is finally gone, the US will again try to act like there are other countries other than ourselves.
Speaking of which, I am certain - pretty certain anyway - that Trump is not going to succeed in overturning this election. It wasnāt even very close. But for those interested, what is going on now is one of the great mass gaslighting events ever as the GOP falls in line with the consensual hallucination that this election was improperly conducted and that Trump is the actual winner. Even now Secretary of State Pompeo said there would be an orderly transition to a second Trump term. This is so far beyond ādrinking the kool aid.ā
See, this is why I canāt get over what has just happened: Artsakh/Karabakh is not a regional issue, itās a global trend.
We are, collectively, watching democracy slipping, devoided of itās ability to make a difference, any difference, to stand for what we think are humanist values. Because ā¦capitalism? Iād go even beyond that: with āBannon doctrineā openly trying to facilitate its āinevitable destructionā to make room for what they would like to see in its place, Iām afraid they are steps ahead in the process of offering alternative models.
So today real dictators can do what they want, including ethnic cleansing with multiple reported war crimes, and wannabes like Trump can get away with poisoning democracy even further; and no one, no one, is capable to say anything that would have any real effect. Same as in Rojava with the Kurds not long ago, the Yazidi genocide, and the countless one I am not even aware of.
Statements like Pompeoās are not a surprise to me, not anymore. When the supposedly good institutions have nothing but empty words in the face of direct affronts to democracy and human dignity, what appears to have any real power is only wealth, whether financial, of natural resources, of military might, or whatever. So maybe those institutions are not that good after all, and they also need deep rethinkingā¦ what a task.
The world just got a bit more harsh this last month, for me certainly, and Iām afraid progressives are not as prepared to whatās next as they should be.
Progressives canāt win using violence. They can only win by heavily outvoting the opposition. Actually, this did just happen in the USA. It will just take some time to shake out. Amazing denial going on over here right now, but it has nowhere to do. Trump can only stay in office through trickery too egregious for even many Republicans, even though they seem to be on board with it at the moment.
But you canāt vote out someone whoās assaulting you, whether an individual on the street, or armies across the land.
We are all familiar with the paradox of tolerance, right?
I never would have believed that too much peace could have negative consequences, but I got my personal reminder here. We were not ready to defend ourselves (I wonāt bore you with details that even locals here are struggling to recognise and acceptā¦), and the institutions that could have done something, released a first tepid statement today, after the āpeace agreementā has been signed off so Turkey and Russia got precisely what they wanted.
I must admit that the fact of living in an unjust world is not something I didnāt know, but getting a bitter taste of it directly, is simply another thing altogether. And many more got that far worse than Iā¦
Wait- what? Gosh it would be fun if they wanted to get into the world building academy, wouldnāt it?
So sorry to hear this Alessandro. If you guys need to get away for a bit I can offer a place to stay in Stockholm. For now I think the borders are still open?Let me know.