Cool. I plan to continue not using Netflix. Seems like this arrangement is working out great for both of us.

But can that which was lost ever be saved?

I love the hell out of Cena’s Peacemaker performance, but if you forced me to pick between those two it’s gonna be Big Dave.

If anyone wrote a story about an awful fascist president who left behind a legacy of desecrated American landmarks, we’d be accused of a lack of subtlety. It’s ridiculously on the nose.

In the Canadian military they don’t say “Idiot proof”, they say “Yank proof.”

I have no comment on this product, but i respect their music choices. Meds absolutely fucks.

Your division between intent and capability is meaningless here. As is your quibbling over the specifics of imperialism. While there is, potentially, some room for argument over Iran, Russia fits your definition of Imperialism perfectly. Russia is a strong advocate for exactly the world of imperial spheres of influence that you describe, and it’s absolutely wild that you can’t see that. As for the question of intent vs capability, this is an irrelevant distinction because they are actively working towards the creation and reinforcement of imperialist power structures. As the strength of competing imperial powers in their respective sphere wane they will expand - or at least attempt to expand - to fill the gaps. That is imperialism.

The outcome of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is misery and oppression. They are not aiding the oppressed, they are oppressors. The Iranian regime engage in the oppression of their own people and if given the opportunity they would engage in the oppression of other people as well.

It’s frankly ludicrous that I even have to explain any of this. You - and just about everyone else here - are operating on a childish morality. You haven’t actually unpacked the propaganda you grew up with, you’ve just swapped out the heroes and villains in a global meta-narrative that still demands the existence of heroes and villains.

I’m aware that I’m trying to offer reason to a cult by even trying to convey any of this. I probably won’t bother replying further, there’s little value in trying to convince a wall not to be a wall.

Russia and Iran are totalitarian imperialist states (Iran’s imperialist ambitions are extremely constrained, but they would still gladly overrun their neighboring states if the opportunity existed). They’re not undermining imperialism, they’re perpetuating it. That’s like arguing that GameStop is undermining capitalism by trying to buy eBay. Competing within the bounds of a system isn’t undermining that system. Cancer isn’t good because it sometimes kills bad people.

Anyone who hasn’t actually watched the interview, you really, really need to. “Combative” doesn’t come close. It’s a train wreck. Ryan is repeatedly pressed on where the fuck they’re getting the money for this, and he not only fails to answer the question, he doesn’t even seem to understand it. There are long stretches of silence as he gormlessly stares at the camera before repeating, endlessly, “Half cash, half stock” like that somehow explains anything. I’ve seen Trump pressers that were more coherent.

MOASS is definitely right around the corner this time!

Very few of the job losses attributed to AI are really because of AI. Mostly it’s just a bloated tech sector shedding weight and using AI as an excuse because it plays well with shareholders. The reality is that they over-hired when credit was cheap and now they’re looking at their bottom lines and trying to find ways to be more efficient.

I really feel like you’re actually being too generous to this proposal.

Let’s be clear, when this administration says they want to vet new models, what they mean is that they want to turn them into right wing propaganda engines. This is “reprogram ChatGPT to say the 2020 election was stolen, white genocide is real and trans people are all sex predators, or we won’t certify it.”

Radar doesn’t work very well on cardboard. Ukraine has already been using drones like this since 2023.

Given the context, they probably meant something more like “So it only counts as discrimination if it’s against white people?”, and just worded it really badly.

Probably. They might just be an asshole.

No, that’s only allowed if you’re super wealthy or part of Trump’s cabinet. Regular people don’t get to play at the big boy table, they’ll come down on you like a hammer. Just look at the soldier who bet on Maduro getting “removed”. He’s facing charges while guys like Lutnick are making bank.

Where I live people genuinely commute by snowmobile.

So far they’ve sold out the first three batches already, so either they’re lowballing their production runs or demand is strong.

Absolutely. One of the really nice things about Immich is it stores your files in a normal folder structure. Nothing obscured, very easy to backup.

If you’re willing to self-host, Immich is a fantastic replacement.

There’s always call for all kinds of specialized trades. You have to be able to handle the core discipline requirements (just don’t be a fuck up, basically) and you need to able to pass the FORCE test by the end of your basic training, which is a moderately hard physical exam. You can look up the requirements online. After that, if you’re not combat arms it’s basically just an office job but in uniform. You work 8 to 4, get summer and winter leave (something like 8 weeks total per year), plus usually 4 day long weekends if your command doesn’t suck, guaranteed annual pay increases, probably a signing bonus if you go into an in-demand trade, and potentially access to subsidized military housing. If you don’t get subsidized housing, you’ll get a cost of living allowance which is based on where you’re posted; for somewhere like Ottawa or Toronto it can be a few thousand a month on top of your pay.

It’s definitely not for me, but honestly there are far, far worse jobs out there.