I made this exact argument. All of the sudden they’re against excessive police raids. Maybe they’ll agree that if police are using this much manpower for squirrels they may be over funded and a correction could be in order. One could argue for some sort of defunding to get police priorities back in order.

It’s not gay as long as the kiss is only 1/4" of tongue or less.

Unless we’re disallowing guns in video games, movies, books, plays or on the internet in general then this is a waste of time.

My aim is to replace Biden with someone who can actually win. Bidens team is on the offensive trying to claim he’s got the best shot but that’s a load of hot garbage. I think you’d be surprised at how many people voted for anything not trump last time around. This time around his cognitive decline has become so blatantly obvious that by even defending it you destroy the democratic party’s credibility and as a result become Trumps real enabler. The election will be decided by a few swing states and a small number of undecided voters living in those states. Telling them they are wrong about what the see and hear from Biden is gaslighting plain and simple. If democrats want to differentiate themselves as the morally superior party then lying out of fear isn’t a good look. The situation is what it is. The best chance they have is to replace Biden as soon as possible. Every day that passes decreases the nominees chances. Also, I really hope they hold a primary vote because just telling voters they get Vice President Harris makes this feel less like a democracy and will definitely alienate enough voters to throw the whole election.

Final thought, as long as we have a two party system nothing will really get better. The best we can hope for is not worse. It’s very telling that so many democratic congress people are afraid to challenge the party. If an elected representative is afraid to act on their conscience then it’s obvious we don’t have a real democracy.

I don’t know anything about this particular waterfall but the existence of a pipe doesn’t mean anything nefarious here. It definitely doesn’t have to mean water was pumped up there unnaturally. It could be that a short segment of pipe was used to keep a river flowing under a segment of rock to control flooding or erosion. I’m not saying that’s what it is but on its face this is a non story without context or evidence of water being pumped.

Is this because of me?

And then double down on those choices. Their play book seems to consist of:

• Doing something awful
• Getting callled out and immediately doubling down on their awful choice
• Attempt to re-frame said choice as their toughness that “snowflakes” couldn’t understand
• Then finally to just embrace the fact that they and their followers are just worthless people with very limited morals. Somehow this is also viewed as strength to them.

Haha! Team 4% FTW

People are already dying because of the broken medical care system in the US. Continuously voting for the lesser of two evils hasn’t made things any better and I doubt it’s going to be any different this round. The threat of ‘worse’ is no longer motivation enough for me. In fact, instead of trying to delay our inevitable crash maybe we should just steer this mother right into the frickin wall. Either way, I just don’t care anymore.

My argument to that would be if we are only a niche segment then where is the serious economic harm they are referring to? It sounds to me like API calls are happening either way but they don’t want to lose out on the ad and customer tracking revenue. Also, I as other have pointed out there is no reason it needs a remote cloud to change the thermostat.

If all it ever took was one bad president then democracy has already ended and it was always just a matter of time.

This reminds of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when it describes a planet ruled by reptiles:

[It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see…" “You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?” “No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.” “Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.” “I did,” said Ford. “It is.” “So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?” “It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.” “You mean they actually vote for the lizards?” “Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.” “But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?” “Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in.]

👆 This Douglas Adams bit is the exact situation we find ourselves in now.

All companies care about is profit margin. This is why automotive companies are so focused on trucks and SUVs. These vehicles cost a bit more to produce but can be sold at multiple times the additional investment. When electric vehicles took off they were a status symbol and sold primarily to luxury car buyers. US manufacturers beholden to share holder value will never focus on affordable transportation. This is why China will eventually eclipse the US in electric vehicles.

I’ve had prime since almost day one. Lately I’ve been trying to reduce my dependency on Amazon which isn’t easy when you’re already paying them in advance for shipping just to keep prime video and a few free games and ebooks. This was the push I needed to finally sever that tie and release myself from their trap. This could be the start of a good thing for a lot of people. Prime has been an effective competition blocking lock-in scheme for too long. It’s end result is it’s ability to keep prices high because they are the sole gatekeeper. Good riddance Amazon.

The issue is the right to repair is being challenged in an almost unprecedented way. Propitiatory software allows the developer to cut off access to critical diagnostic abilities as well as lock basic features behind subscriptions etc. Do you really own your car? The future is being fought now.

I’m starting to think you’re a bot. You most definitely said it was fraud to the user. No, I’m not going to go buy a mechanical blueray player and then try to figure out how to rip that content to be able to use it how I want. If you think anyone is really going to follow your needlessly complicated advice then you’re in for a rude awakening. You can keep beating this drum all day long but your attitude (and Sonys) is why piracy is going up. If you want to hang on the “you agreed to it” bull then then that’s up to you. More and more people are done caring though and there is nothing you can say to change that. Companies that put out crap terms are getting what they deserve. Your solution is no solution. Buying physical media in 2023 is just not acceptable.

I really don’t know why you’re going so far out of your way to defend a company that you yourself just said is commiting fraud. I know you probably think you’re actually making a case against piracy and not for Sony but in reality you’re putting in a lot of work into making Sony’s case for them. Your argument is that if a company is able to slip a gotcha past a dumb customer then it’s the customer’s fault for not noticing. You’re acting like there’s an alternative when there is not. Giving up on music is not an alternative, all digital content outlets seem to do this and who even owns a means to play physical media anymore? Considering there is no technical reason a company would need to revoke a digital license I’d say morally there’s nothing wrong with getting that content back in a way that does no harm to the license provider. That is unless you believe that not buying it twice somehow harms the company you’ve already paid. I’d further argue that if a company is willing to engage in fraud (your words) then that company is not ethical. A company that behaves unethically should have no expectations of their customers to behave ethically in return. You said people should stop agreeing to ludicrous terms. So long as these companies are issuing terms that you say no one should agree to I’d say piracy is completely justified from a moral standpoint. If they don’t like it then they should quit providing dubious terms and instead provide a reasonable option for a legal purchase.

My XPS 9310 2 in 1 works great with Fedora. Literally the only hardware that didn’t work after install was the fingerprint scanner. Everything else seems perfect. It even recognizes when the laptop is folded into a tablet and provides the virtual keyboard and does auto rotate.

I’ve made this exact argument many times. As a US citizen Russia and China have no power over me so it’s better for me to have my info there than at home. A person’s own government may use their info as a means of direct control while a foreign government can’t do that.

The stock market and publicly traded companies. The idea that a business that is making consistent profits isn’t good unless those profits are increased each quarter is asinine. This system of shortsighted hyper focus on short term quarterly growth for the sake of growth is the cause of so much pain and suffering in the world. Even companies with amazing financials will work to push workers compensation down, cut corners and exploit loopholes to make sure their profits are always growing. Consistent large profits aren’t good enough.

The guy openly posted that the FBI wouldn’t dare raid him because they’d get a 45 ACP in the face. I’m no law enforcement apologist but that kind of boast can put people on edge. Specific threats of violence should never be acceptable.