Yoooo! That’s us! The first year they try to work with us. The second year they tell us to pound sand so we give the people at the closest store a new customer signup. We only have Comcast so we swap back and forth on who is the account holder.

It’s like a Russian enclave or something. I believe it was part of the terms of Kazakhstan’s independence.

Thanks for the book recommendation, I’m going to go look it up right now.

It’s a ridiculously fucking crass thing to say huh? But like it comes from a place of that’s not my country, my country supports and actively participates in the genocide of Palestinians. This feels worse because I feel partially responsible because I’m a citizen. I don’t have the power to change anything but I feel like I’m failing by not succeeding in changing anything.

In this regard it’s hard to rank any country participating in a genocide as particularly worse than another. There still is a ranking, like I would still rather live in the US than Sudan, but it definitely levels the playing field between the US and China. It’s not flat but it’s so much closer than before 2023. Both seem pretty damn shitty right now.

This isn’t even to bring in ICE and the genocide or country is committing against people of Hispanic origin. But like if you want to argue the genocideness of US Immigration actions, we’ve been oscillating between #5 and #8 since rump 1 if not since Obama was in office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide

Shit’s really fucking bad and we need to be taking it more seriously as citizens of this country. I also really don’t want to get shot or arrested by our police or immigration.

Yes, at this point genociding Uighurs doesn’t seem like the greater evil… Maybe the same level of evil as genociding Palestinians. But somehow when it comes to the question: where is it better to be LGBTQIA+? China keeps making themselves less appealing than the US. How? Shockingly easily. Why? No idea. It feels short-sighted like everything the US has been doing since the second coming of the pedophile in chief.

I have some spare storage! What I want to do with it is either archive very important information, documents and/or scientific papers. I don’t mind of it’s the same shit others have, just want to be part of retaining information. I’m trans and last time fascists were in power we lost 100 years of progress towards being able to exist openly so I’m pretty eager to archive information.

Either this or it’d be cool to be part of a decentralized database that is searchable and and readable.

I could probably find somewhere between 1-10 TB to donate to the cause in perpetuity. But I don’t know how to do this myself, what to save, or if there are groups already doing this type of thing.

I can’t know for sure but I think it’s a safe bet that you lose everything you can’t get friends and family to rescue. There is some logic to this beyond cruelty, the US government is cruel to be sure but this is not just for extra cruelty. The extra cruelty is a bonus!

So just to frame this, if you commit a crime and are wanted by the police. They hunt you down and arrest you. Do you get to bring your stuff? No. Do you lose it? Also no. …Unless you don’t have a home in which case it’s considered litter and removed, throwing all the blankets, tent, and any knick knacks you might have acquired into the landfill. There’s a story about this happening to the ashes of a man who’s widow had become homeless. Just heartbreaking stuff and it feels like the point is to break people down… But that’s editorializing.

We are supposed to have a cool thing called Due Process in this country. That is the process of law, searching for facts and going through a fair and unbiased review from someone taught to be good at reviewing things, a judge if you will. And you should because that job is titled judge.

Anyway, that judge overseas a process in which you are told what you are accused of and given the space and time to defend yourself. People aren’t guilty, they are found guilty by systematically laying out all the evidence and facts. This process usually takes a fair amount of time and many people are allowed to return home during this time. Usually on Bail. We can argue the merits of bail but basically you pay a decent chunk of money and you get to go home with a promise to show up for your court date.

Now while doing court stuff you also have to find time to plan for your stuff or money for fines or whatever comes next.

Anyway, all this stuff doesn’t matter because ICE, DHS, the Trump admin. they don’t work like that. They are supposed to. The law says they must do it that way. They are not. If you get abducted (detained is the word they will use but without due process your not being detained.) by federal agents right now I would expect to lose everything, maybe not right away but quickly enough unless you can get friends and family to help.

This is because of government has revoked three right of due process for people it deems “illegal.” This is crazy because how do you prove whether you are legally allowed to be somewhere if there is no process for showing your documents? Like I could show you my driver’s license, my passport, but if no one verifies them, and there is no process to make sure I get released once they are verified…you can see the problem right?

Anyway, once you’re in their custody they want to deport you, period. Wife at home? Kids to feed? Pets that rely on you? Work and friends wondering where you went? Doesn’t matter to these people. They just want you give and will try to do it asap. You can try to fight it but there few stories of it being successful. Those that are successful take months and months of work and money. Most people however just can’t do that. You file a petition or two and get the boot anyway.

So much like the Japanese Internment during WWII much of the stuff not saved by friends and relatives will be repossessed, stolen, and eventually thrown away. Cars and homes will be sold and if these people ever get to return to their families everything in their lives will be different and they and their families will be much poorer for it.

In my opinion, it’s kind of like we all have paid taxes so the government can take the dreams of hopeful immigrants looking for a better future for themselves and their families and smash it on the ground before grinding it to dust beneath jack booted heels. But maybe someone else has a different take.

I’m a millennial, the last time this advice worked for me was in 2019. I applied to the job online and went and sat in their office for an hour and a half waiting to talk to the manager for the position I wanted.

Eventually we chatted for like 5 minutes, I told him my name, that I applied on line, and that I’m ready to start as soon as they’re ready to hire me.

I got the job. The next one was a bit less dramatic but still involved some extra bugging after applying online.

But all of this in a county of 30k people for a labor job that I was overqualified for. I think this would still give you a leg up in the right environment or job search. But I haven’t looked for a job in 4 years and my wife is a programmer and you can’t do this stuff for those jobs. We’re at least 50 applications deep at this point with no contact from companies.

Thanks for the advice! I’ll try to and edit things and see if it helps!

Don’t worry, three Masters degrees and I still can’t get call back.

We didn’t start the fire

Yep, that’s what we see. No one is a villain in their own mind.

But it does describe an embattled hero surrounded by villains on the snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Heroes kill people all the time in stories. We don’t disparage the hero because they killed because it was for a good cause. And like imagine if the hero didn’t kill the bad guy and next week you’re dealing with the bad guy again. Clearly RFK and friends are fighting the good fight and have to defeat the bad guys once and for all.

Obviously to me it’s BS but the point is that they might see the bad stuff and justify it because of the greater good or whatever. We’ve learned through countless tales that ends don’t justify the means and doing bad things for the greater good is usually bad and often terrible. But we also have an imagination and empathy. And know how to read.

Fiction is full of stories that teach you right from wrong. The distinction gets more complicated as we get older so we use stories to explore the ideas. WE do that, our current leaders do not. And because of that they are lacking in empathy and didn’t see the patterns that they are following. And don’t see the history that they are rhyming with.

Your logic seems sound.

Okay so hear me out, public, neighborhood car parks but also a network of car free streets.

Like my neighborhood is surrounded by arterials, what if you had a car park that was free like within 5 blocks. Is it a waste of space that could be used for housing? Yes. But it also moves cars to the periphery and opens up like 25 blocks to be car free neighborhood streets where people can walk, children can play and we have less noise pollution and can easily build community.

We can designate areas of on street parking for disabled people and allow services into the neighborhood but we could limit the entrances and have more clutter and places to sit and vibe instead of having to maintain vigilance.

I heard about Notebook LM recently. I couldn’t tell you what it’s trained on but I’m order to use the LLM you need to provide it source material.

So say you’re writing something for school. You can gather 50+ papers on the subject you’re trying to write about, upload them, then ask the LLM about what you uploaded. Sounds like turning research from a search for info to an interview with an “expert.”

Again I can’t speak to how it was trained in the background but this seems genuinely useful.

Skins

These fucking morons don’t understand a thing about soft power. They’re so ridiculously eager to remove the US from a place of global leadership. The next decade is going to be wild beyond anything any of us millennials have ever lived through.

Any chance you could link to this or help me find more stuff from Robert? I am always interested in his takes.

Honestly I’m sure I’ll find it similar but it’s the last book, I’ve just got to try! I’ve set the series down for a break and a change of pace whole I read the latest Stormlight book, Wind and Truth. It’s a good break.