“My dad says you used to be evil, but now you’re just cranky.”

iirc

Or organization like ISIS will have recruiters. Mr. A shows up in a town, talks with the locals and arranges a few meetings. The locals know who might be receptive. Say Mac is a likely recruit. Angry at the powers that be, not a lot of prospects, ready for some adventure. Mr. A will give him a few tests. Graffiti this building, throw a rock through that window. If Mac does well he gets an offer to visit the big city. Train fare and a few bucks. There he meets others like himself. There’s training and more training. Mac is now part of something big and important.

In a lot of ways it’s not much different from High School ROTC. A sense of belonging and purpose mean a lot to many people.

When I saw Loomer’s plastic surgery I realized she was one of those desperate Sugar Babies who’d do anything to be a “winner.”

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This is one of my favorite stories.

Newman was an amateur race car driver. He brought a crappy looking old Volvo and had it modified so it could hit 150 mph. Racing tires, shocks, etc etc in a car that looked like grandma drove it.

He’d tool around Los Angeles and look for young street racers and challenge them.

He was the head of a crime family, the Don. Like Don Corleone in the Godfather. Corleone’s first name was Vito, but he was the Don of the family. Later his son Michael became the new Don.

Anthony Scaramucci, the short, short time Trump appointee owns a New York restaurant where Sugar Baby/Sugar Daddy parties have been held.

In order to make sure that the women are desperate, the usual invitation list favors the men. If they have 30 potential Daddies, they invite 40 or more women.

https://ny.eater.com/2018/4/17/17242252/anthony-scaramucci-midtown-restaurant-sugar-daddy

[off topic?]

Back during the Watergate investigation, one of the witnesses let it slip out that President Nixon had a formal ‘Enemies List.’

One of the dangerous foes was actor Paul Newman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon's_Enemies_List

By that logic, every Union is a cult. All I said was that people should organize and show up and vote.

Funny. You say you’re all for a blood soaked revolution, but you aren’t in Palestine or Ukraine or Yemen or any other place where real bullets are flying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wicked_%2B_The_Divine

the tl, dr is that every 90 years a dozen young people become reincarnations of various ancient gods from all over the world. Amaterasu is one of these.

Fun book and worth a look

Cool story

Funny thing is that I was taught by some old school Communists; folks who fought in Spain and came home to face the blacklists. Back in 1968 they were telling people to vote for Humphrey because they knew how bad Nixon would be.

“The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” by Robert A. Heinlein. It’s a really good science fiction novel and the handbook for a lot of Libertarians.

You can read and enjoy it as a story, but if you examine it you’ll see all the hoops the author had to jump through in order to make his society work.

One of the most glaring examples is that there are almost no guns in a prison where machine tools are readily available.

The GOP pushed both the Greens and the Libertarians to siphon votes from the Dems.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/10/metro/jill-stein-new-hampshire-ballot-republican-help/

You’re right.

I should have stopped responding to you several messages ago.

The US got an eight hour day, child labor laws, environmental laws, and things like Social Security and the ADA without a revolution, so yes, I do think reform is possible.

Why do you believe Reagan was elected?

Why did you need to move the goal posts? If you’d proven your point you’d have shown where I was wrong. You couldn’t, so you tried a different approach.

That’s the funny thing about you. You keep shooting yourself in the foot and call it a win.

edit =by your ‘logic’ any historian who talks about a particular leader/inventor/general believes in the Great Man theory.

Moving the goal posts again?

I never explicitly or implicitly endorsed the Great Man Theory. You were unable to show I did.

Adios

Look up The Moral Majority and Jerry Falwell.

Falwell made himself a big deal in the GOP by getting his troops to show up at every single local Republican event with enough votes to make sure that they got everything they wanted. It started small with sheriffs and county clerks, and then Congress members.