I didn’t mean to dispute that. I just checked what you stated and posted what I found for anyone else who, like me, wasn’t up to date on this meeting. I share your assessment.

The AP reported:

The 88-year-old pope offered the Catholic vice president three big chocolate Easter eggs for Vance’s three young children, who did not attend, as well as a Vatican tie and rosaries.

I can’t even believe the trump admin is going after tech giants.

I share the disbelief. I think it is mostly a power play against not just Google, but all tech giants, which must be watching this closely, given most of them operate in a similarly anticompetitive manner: kiss the ring or else. The Trump administration could give Google reprieve in exchange for axing DEI further and helping push their political agenda.

I can’t imagine anything the admin does will be good for society so maybe its safe to assume they will be broken up so elon can buy a chunk?

I think so too: if Google doesn’t satisfy Trump and his administration, parts of it will be forcibly sold as private equity, outside of shareholder scrutiny and beyond the reach of the SEC. Such a private company would be easier to control than a publicly traded one.

Yeah. Over on Moronix Phoronix, every article about Rust, systemd, Wayland or –to a lesser extent– GNOME is a troll fest.

I think what @Naich@lemmings.world means is that the recent UK Supreme Court ruling gives some cover to Starmer, allowing him to pin some of the dissatisfaction with his eventual acquiescence to US pressure on the judiciary (even though Labour, being in control of the legislature, could fix the laws instead of washing their hands…).

Is that the average 4chaner?

I for one find “Genocide Don” quite catchy. The problem with this label is that the man himself and most of his supporters will likely just shrug it off as if it weren’t worth denying; it would be like calling a paid assassin a “murderer”.

If Putin’s tables are anything to go by, those Russian couches must be nice and curvy in JD’s eyes.

TIL Epson made laptops. Having had to deal with some of their printers and scanners, I’m not inclined to learn more.

All that big talk about forcing countries to negotiate

Trump indeed touts tariffs as international leverage, but they’re just as much if not more of a domestic power play that forces US businesses to kiss the ring in order to get exemptions. Businesses that pledge allegiance keep their supply chains and survive, whereas those that don’t satisfy the Mango get to pay tariffs and compete with exempted businesses in a weakening consumer market with decreasing purchasing power.

World’s reserve currency. When it inevitably switches to the yuan

That’s neither inevitable nor likely at this point. China’s capital controls, ongoing devaluation of its currency and demonstrated willingness to prioritize the state over investors –at least some of which are positive things I wish we had– make Chinese assets in general and the renminbi in particular not investible to the degree necessary to achieve reserve status. The euro has better chances for now, especially if European debt is unified and becomes more liquid.

I think this is unironically what they are going for everywhere: delegating regulation to industry, as is the case to some extent in aviation. If they get their way, they won’t need approval from the NHTSA or any other agency, because they will self-approve and likely even shape regulation themselves.

/s Meanwhile, in some Signal group: “Should we suicide her or do you guys figure she might have some ICE-worthy tattoos?”

Not to speak of options. With how high volatility got, writing puts must have made bank, and, despite that high volatility, buying calls must have too.

This is due to a few people in power, not because of tsunamis etc. So this can switch over in just a day.

In my view, the damage is very real and businesses will keep suffering even if Trump winds down his tariff ambitions, because the uncertainty and unpredictability hinder investment decisions. For example, if you managed an aluminium business like Alcoa, would you put up the cash to set up new smelters in the US despite melting stock prices, high borrowing costs and the possibility that the tariffs shielding those US smelters from foreign producers are reduced or even scrapped altogether without warning? Many businesses are “damned if they do, damned if they don’t”.

I’m sure there are smart plays in this market, but I’m also convinced that we’ve entered a bear phase.

I searched for German articles about this, but found none. However, the three parties expected to form the next government –the SPD, the CDU and its Bavarian sibling, the CSU– are considering to weaponize migration background against “sponsors of terror, antisemites and extremists”, which could be construed to include some peaceful critics of the Israeli government and military and their actions and plans.

Interesting to note that since 2022, he lost under 1% of his population to the war… Meat attacks could go on for years on end and it would barely move him.

If that “1% of his population” refers to the general population, I would note that the total includes many people who could never fight, such as:

• all those involved, whether directly or indirectly, in the development and production of military hardware,
• all those involved, whether directly or indirectly, in the extraction and trade of natural resources, without which the Russian economy would collapse, and
• all those physically unable to fight, such as children, the elderly and disabled people, and all those who care for them in one way or another.

As much as Putin’s tyranny may yet squeeze out of the general population, 1% in three years is already devastating, in my view.

For anyone who doesn’t know: this is a clever reference to the myth of Midas’ Touch that I’m totally stealing.

Hogwash! Capitalist pigs will end us. I for one advocate for roo committees.

As good as that would be and as much as I desire it, my impression is that too many of them are trapped in a disinformation bubble to realize what and who is actually causing their problems. Some might, like the former Republican who shot at Trump and the veteran who blew up a Cybertruck, if I understood their motivation correctly, but I doubt such incidents will ever reach such a scale that Republicans reverse their entrenched stance on gun ownership.