Yeah - it’s about regional control, and defensive positions.

This comment is sort of a continuation of this one, but not exactly. (Sorry about the link to my instance, I’m new and don’t know how to do the thing.)

The U.S. has long needed a bully in the area to prevent the Middle East from being too unified, so the west can get relatively inexpensive access to its oil.

The state of play right now is that the U.S. actually produces enough petroleum for its own needs, but our western allies do not, and supplying them with enough oil will raise the cost to an unacceptable level/a level where they’ll have to channel money to the Middle East (which hates the U.S. for its meddling, or to Russia, which also hates the U.S.)

In about 10-15 years, technology and renewables will advance to a point where oil demand is going to have decreased to the point where the U.S. can supply all of its needs and those of its western allies without jacking the price up.

That means the U.S. won’t need a bully. But it will mean that the U.S. will cut funding to Israel, and more or less stop coming to their defense. Israel’s plan is to push out every non-Jew, using Zionism as an excuse for awful statecraft, and they’re going to push their borders to easily defensible geographic areas.
Once they do that, they’re going to basically become North Korea of the Middle East - armed to the teeth and hard to get into. Because if they don’t, everyone they’ve been bullying for the past hundred years (yes, this started before the declaration of statehood), is going to wipe them from the map - potentially leading to them launching the nukes they keep pretending they don’t have, so they don’t have to undergo international monitoring.

Assuming, of course, the plot by other countries to destabilize the U.S. fails and U.S. is still major player by the time Israel’s plan is accomplished. If the destabilization effort succeeds, we may see a full scale war against Israel before their aims are achieved.

That’s my take on it, anyway. They won’t stop because they don’t think they can stop, due to how horrible they’ve been. (At the behest of the U.S., who will begin dropping them once their usefulness has ended.)

They control the borders and they are systematically destroying infrastructure while stealing the land to be ‘settled’ by right wing Israelis. (They done let liberal folk become settlers.)

The right wingers have no issue with being bad neighbors or otherwise murdering Palestinians. And they are backed up by the military. Any resistance is returned 10-fold, with an associated grab for land.

If a cease fire can be forged, the control of the border will mean that the they will continue their existing blockade on imports of building materials such as cement, so new infrastructure cannot be built. They are even using construction equipment to remove or bury rubble, so it cannot be repurposed/recycled.

The plan is to do to Gaza what they have already done to the West Bank. Turn it into fragmented enclaves that lack access to basic resources. It’s clear they even want to block total access to the beach, to prevent fishing for food. It’s why they are literally selling the land that is currently being bombed. They want to make it impossible to live there if you’re Palestinian. They want everyone that isn’t part of their theocracy to die off, or emigrate.

Not related, but totally related.
I’ve watched these interviews with white supremacists in the U.S. who talk/fantasize about the creation of a ‘white’ ethnostate. They always talk about how there will be a nonviolent transition to this, saying that people who don’t match their racial parameters will be relocated to places outside of the state, or those who won’t have children will be allowed to live out their lives, etc. And that’s widely regarded with a ‘sure buddy’ and you know they’re full of crap. People don’t want to move away from their homes. They don’t want to go where they don’t know anyone. They don’t want to lose their jobs, their savings, all their stuff, the land they own and the effort they’ve pored into their home and land or the resources their home/land offers them.

But the situation in Palestine is literally that. People are ‘voluntarily’ relocating (after their homes, jobs, neighborhoods, and often, families) have been blown up by bombs. Or they’re staying and living out the rest of their lives - until they’re shot or a bomb goes off, or they die from malnutrition, thirst, or contaminated water. Hm.
I suppose it’s (relatively) nonviolent to the aggressor.

Honestly, the article is a mess, but it talks about a real issue while failing to clearly establish that it is a real issue. They really should have discussed how this affects people in third world countries aside from the vague possibility of privacy invasion.

They focus on Sam Altman for the connection to OpenAI and its pop culture relevance, and then further drift from the topic to make it relevant to U.S. audiences by discussing U.S. matters. A mess of a ‘story.’

If I’ve had a vasectomy, do I still get to participate?

I’m fine wearing a vest that says “Training Staff”.

^hehehehehe

That means those suckers are either stored plaintext or stored with decryption key that is somewhere within the server. Yeesh.

Well I’m not going to seduce them for it.

In the U.S. (if you’re in the U.S.), one option is to get allergy shots. And likely other places, but I can’t speak to that.

They do an allergy panel to determine what you’re allergic to and approximately how badly you’re allergic to each thing , then give you injections (usually weekly) of very low, but increasing amounts of the allergens until they feel your reactivity has ceased or decreased to an acceptable level.

I’ve had them. They’re sort of miserable, but they are effective.
They’re miserable because you have to go to the allergist every week, and sit there after the shot until they feel comfortable that you’re not going to have an anaphylactic reaction. But you do have a reaction, and it varies. My average reaction was to spend the next day and a half feeling a bit like I had a cold - sniffles, headache, body aches, and lethargy.
It did, however, ease my allergies significantly.

I want to downvote you because like, I love dogs (and cats, too). But like, not being able to love on or get loved on by dogs and cats is way, way worse than any downvote. That’s just a tragic allergy.

Yes he did! I just called him that!

I mean, joking aside, props to the man for his impressive accomplishments. I searched for him and it looks like he’s a living legend.

^{(But I still don’t know why he’s in the picture.)}

He sexually assaulted an exotic dancer and chased her with the gun when she ran away. (Edit: Allegedly.)

This is from a subscription-only news source called Gongwer:

Posted at 12ish PM:

Rep. Neil Friske’s arrest this morning stems from allegations that he sexually assaulted an exotic dancer and then chased her with a firearm, a source familiar with the allegations says.

Lansing police have not released any information about what led to the arrest and jailing of Friske (R-Charlevoix). He remains in the city’s jail. Police have said he will not be arraigned until Friday or Saturday - if the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office authorizes charges.

Posted at 1ish PM:

Jordan Gulkis, spokesperson for Lansing Police, said around 2:45 a.m. on Thursday, officers were dispatched to the 2100 block of Forest Road for a report of a male with a gun and possible shots fired.

Gulkis said the accused was arrested for a felony-level offense but did not specify what.

Other news stories indicate he owns a home in the vicinity of the arrest.

Edit 2: But don’t take my word for it!
GOP Michigan rep and gun-rights supporter Neil Friske accused of chasing a stripper while firing a gun – NY Post
(Sorry it’s a garbage publication.)

Why is Methster Clean the focus of this image?

So you’re saying there’s going to be a big influx of cash into small battery research and improving efficiency for tiny screens/low power WiFi?

I admire and appreciate your optimism and sentiments.

My exact thought was “So they can know they have to enforce the ‘no water’ rule when republicans eliminate more polling stations in cities, eliminate mail in voting, and reduce poll hours?”

Good to know that got some holes poked in it, but… I’m a bit cynical.

Right now the one that comes to mind is the voucher systems for schools.

Channeling public money into private schools. It drains the education system.

As Reagan’s dismantling of the mental health system showed - once you destroy a public service, you can’t really rebuild it. The buildings are gone, the land repurposed. Now there’s a ‘homeless crisis’ as people do not get adequate care to participate in society.

And when our core populous is educated with a corporate agenda or a religious agenda, who will be capable of upholding the U.S. on the world stage? Will we innovate? Will we keep up military?

Rail transit in the 50’s and 60’s, followed by privatization of buses - leading to mass pollution, economic waste, segregated communities, and a divided society.

Bans on research, or underfunding public research, allowing corporations to tell us that cigarettes, PFAS, PCBS, BPA, Glyphosate, and all number of substances we consume(d) daily are safe. Leaning to massive public health issues.

Cuts to social safety nets, the attacks on the library system, Trump-era underfunding of the IRS, banning the post office from providing banking/passing laws and appointing people who specifically are trying to destroy the postal service, repeal of the FCC fairness doctrine - I could go on, but … sigh.

I think I need to hug my wife. I’m glad we aren’t having kids.

How do you envision change happening?

Every scenario I come up with is foiled by voter suppression measures, micro-targeted ads, influence campaigns, and systemic blocks.

At my most hopeful, I think that perhaps maximally, some of the national issues can be addressed at the state level via ballot initiatives - but that won’t change the federal government. And ballot initiatives move glacially slow compared to legislators who can change the rules and make ballot initiatives nigh impossible.

By voting in liberal democrats - like Obama? Who abandoned his promises once he had power, because resolving issues like abortion is less motivating to voters than using them as wedge issues? Of course, if they vote Democrat, that’s assuming their liberal candidates can rise through the ranks to gain power, vs like, a candidate that is a former Bush CIA torture operative, that is so hated by her constituents that when the district she was in got redrawn to include a better liked (and more liberal) candidate, she moved into the house of a lobbyist to run somewhere she wouldn’t get primaried. And then - when a senate seat opened, The Party emplaced her there by negotiating more liberal, better liked candidates out of the primary, so she can do to America what Manchin and Synema did the last time democrats had a majority.
By voting in third party candidates? Who lack conmity in their local dealings, who only gain that if they manage to elect enough people to gain local power? Which will split the power of the party closest to their political views under our two party system and ensure endless game theory discussions until that third party loses strength to go back into the shadows?

I just… don’t have hope today. Maybe tomorrow.

I mean.
Voters are pawns for political parties, but their understanding of the world is guided by their media. Political parties pretend to be autonomous, but their funding largely comes from corporations.
Media (social and otherwise) is controlled under a handful of large corporations. (The TikTok ban was not about China, it was about corporate governance and the ability of TikTok to sway public opinion.) The U.S. system of government ensures only two possible political parties can exist, and outside efforts cannot succeed.

The net result is that voters have no real ability to affect the outcome of our governance. Nor are the lawmakers inclined to change the system in ways that would harm their political party or their corporate patrons.

This has been the status quo for decades.

The only reason this is now a topic of conversation is because there’s a concerted effort to take the U.S. off the world stage by destabilizing it internally through both tearing apart the social fabric, but also destroying the very flawed but stable political system with fascism.

I’m not sure there is a war to win, for the citizenry, at least.

That’s the reason I killed IPv6 on my network.

lol