Thanos' reasoning is idiotic.

People are a resource. If you eliminated half the people, not only have you wasted all resources that went into those people, but you've wasted everything those people could produce. Minus half of agricultural workers would probably mean way less than half production. The post-snap world would be a place of austerity and starvation. You could recover sure, but it'd be time for another snap.

Fentanyl is so dangerous that cops can OD just by thinking about it.

These lawmakers just want to use government force to keep everyone woke.

Do people still pirate Windows? You can download the iso directly from Microsoft's website and you don't need a registration key anymore.

This is an odd test case. Not only is the defendant unsympathetic, the circumstances seem to be exactly what section 702 was intended for.

Whatever information was obtained through FISA (if it was), wasn't used as evidence against this guy. So they can't even prove that the Nazi was subject to a FISA search, much less that it harmed him.

Notice the event is named "Black Americans for Trump" and not "Blacks for Trump". That's awfully woke of them don't you think?

Are you going to have to deal with a full-screen ad when you’re trying to open File Explorer eventually?

I was literally reading this sentence when the whole page grayed out and a window asking me to subscribe popped up.

For years people have made fun of esports, but not they'll have to admit that gamers behave no different than other professional athletes.

Say, what do you call someone who openly works for the fascist cause?

Is there any evidence of American rat-fuckery in the Bolivian coup attempt?

There is a concept in post-modern philosophy called "hauntology". This theory posits that late-capitalist societies loose their ability to imagine different social orders; and cannot imagine the future except as high-tech versions of the current social order. To fill the void of novelty, the culture industry must constantly recycle and repackage old culture.

Anyway, this isn't a new phenomena, just a technology enabling us to resurrect live people instead of just fictional characters.

If Israel’s right to exist is a controversial topic, I‘m out.

Fuck me, they're arguing States rights. Is there a playbook for this atrocity denial or what?

What if the great filter is just when civilizations learn to live sustainably at home? Perhaps the assumption of infinite population growth, resource consumption, and expansion is flawed.

That's my optimistic thought for the day.

Article: Johnson plots to use the House to free Bannon

Text: The House is going to file an amicus brief.

Fuck you Salon.

I read this article and I'd advise against it. All the author does is write about a bunch of facts that are all obviously true, without tying them together or saying anything interesting.

1. cognitive tests work
2. both candidates have declined to have cognitive tests
3. debates are mentally taxing
4. candidates are going to have to perform live.
5. the audience will judge the performance
6. the moderators will affect this.

Mind blown right?

The ultra-orthodox have wanted this for a long time and it's one of the reasons Israel's government was trying to curtail the power of the judiciary. You may remember there were protests in Israel over last summer over this.

This isn't about Pacifism, but more about autonomy and seclusion. I don't think they mind exposing their youth to bombs and bullets as much as exposure to cosmopolitan ideals they get from mixing with Israel's more secular youth. It's similar to the impetus for religious parents to do home-schooling in the US.

The funniest thing about the Cybertruck is the windshield wiper. Not only does it ruin the science fiction ascetic by breaking up the flat surfaces, it breaks up the primary surface with a dumb squeegee arm. It's also a little reminder that not only were the first wipers invented in 1903, but that they were fitted to electric vehicles.

I think they used one huge wiper in an attempt to make it look innovative by just by virtue of being unusual.

What scares me shitless is the idea that Trump is what the US is and what the US has earned. Who's ready for that conversation?

Elmo says the goal is to make Grock "politically neutral". Politically neutral is code for "politics that are inoffensive to chuds".

OJ's trial goes beyond his innocence or guilt. His trial was racially charged and cannot be understood outside this context. I don't think those who celebrated his acquittal believed in his innocence as much as they saw it a victory that a black man used his privilege and resources to escape justice the way so many white criminals had in the past. Not justice, but equality, American style.

For white America, it came as quite a shock that a rich black celebrity could leverage race tensions to escape accountability. This was such a singular event it resonates 30years later. If you're black, you don't need a long memory to see justice betrayed behind some racist bullshit.

There is a rumor that Mao Anying was cooking fried rice when he was killed in an airstrike and that the smoke from his cook fire betrayed his position. This is why it's a sensitive subject.

This case is just like the New York one. The matter of guilt is already settled, only the award remains.

The real lawyers will work on the real case, witch is the appeal. Habba's job is to make headlines, keep Trump in the news, and fight every inch no matter how useless. Just because her behavior makes her a bad lawyer, doesn't mean she's not serving her client, or that she's dumb. Habba's legal work probably amounts to tens of millions of dollars in free prime time advertising for Trump's reelection.

Trump's strategy is to be in the news everyday. So many scandals that only Rachael Maddow can keep it all straight. Is it a good strategy? It worked in 2016.

When whatever conflagration that MAGA causes is over, those who survive will have a duty to record what Trump and his supporters were. No Milgrahm experiments to explain why people reflexively obey authority. No excuses about how Trump was so charismatic and could sway and persuade.

Nobody is being tricked or persuaded. Trump is paradoxically the most transparent politician in American history. He's no great persuader. Listening to him speak is like watching a drunk man cross an icy street. The truth is LOTS of Americans fucking love fascism! They want people to be harmed and killed. They'll suffer hardships, and take losses to make it happen. They raise Trump on their shoulders because he tells them what they want to hear. And they'll happily hoist someone else up should Trump stumble.

Remember the Dominion lawsuit against Fox reviled that the network presenters were cowed and intimated by the viewership. All these years people like Jon Stewart told us that Fox news radicalized Memaw and Poppop. Maybe all along it was the deplorables that radicalized Fox.

At some point, people will be standing in the rubble of American cities asking "how could this happen"? Tell them Americans wanted it; Americans voted for it; and Americans gleefully held hands and jumped into the abyss.

And my adult children don't speak to me.

I've always been pro nuclear. But what I've come to understand is that nuclear accidents are traumatizing. Anybody alive in Europe at the time was psychologically damaged by Chernobyl. Don't forget also that the elder Xers and older worldwide lived under the specter of nuclear annihilation.

So you've got rational arguments vs. visceral fear. Rationality isn't up to it. At the end of the day, the pronuclear side is arguing to trust the authorities. Being skeptical of that is the most rational thing in the world. IDK how to fix this, I'm just trying to describe the challenge pronuclear is up against.

I think public executions where the prisoner is tortured to death are more progressive than supposed "humane" methods.

Not because I like cruelty or think they deserve it, but I want the State to do it's killing out in the open where citizens are exposed to what's happening in their name. Hiding the act behind closed doors and beneath a cloak of "humane" methods allows the State to exercise ultimate authority in secret from the people from whom that authority is derived. It's the State and the supporters of the death penalty that are being spared pain.

Yes, I got this from Foucault.

This kind of marketing ruined gaming culture.

There is a throughline between gendered marketing; the idea that young hetero men owned gaming; and chud gaming culture like gamergate.

The idea of the young horny gamer dude is sexist toward men too. Never mind the accompanying stereotypes of gamers as loosers and nerds.

Ooooh, America bad, they're shooting their obese healthcare again.

Jokes on you, he's not shooting the fish, he's shooting the woke rainbow. Get it straight.

Her removal led hundreds of Monarch students to walk out of class two weeks ago in protest.

The kids are alright.

Headline: US officials admit that TickTock ban intended to censor Gaza news.

Article: Romney and Blinken blame Israel's disastrous PR on social media and opine that this is a good reason to ban platforms like TickTock.

Reading through these comments it seems that many lemmings have wildly optimistic ideals about ethics in the "true crime" genre of documentaries.

Even for sincere documentarians, presenting unvarnished history accurately and completely is an impossibility. For the bad-faith actors, you'd be amazed at how much is outright staged or otherwise faked. The only rule is that it be entertaining.

As far as "true crime", the question of "should we even make this" is pretty ethically fraught. True crime is cheap, popular, and stuffed to the brim with hacks and bad faith actors.

The lewd conduct violations in question were related to clothing that exposed the buttocks and nipples of patrons, which is prohibited under state law in liquor establishments, he said, noting that, in his opinion, the law needed to change to be a reflection of today’s times.

Absolute horseshit. According to the Supreme Court, the pigs have no duty to uphold law, enforce court orders, or protect citizens. We've seen plenty refuse to enforce gun regulations and COVID restrictions recently. Don't ever believe them when they say they can't pick and choose what to enforce.

Castle Rock v. Gonzales

Warren v. District of Columbia

Dave Chappelle is the Clarence Thomas of comedy.

Anybody who's followed Chris Rock since the 90s will be familiar. It starts out as an "edgy" black comedian with an overwhelmingly white audience. It ends with your core audience using you as a black voice, that one black friend, who justifies regressive politics. I don't know if Dave is in on the joke, laughing all the way to the bank. Either way, he's playing the clown.

I thought the whole reason he abandoned his successful show was in part a refusal to shuck and jive. Kinda disappointing that he's putting on a minstrel show now.

I can't wait to put this on my wishlist and wait another 2 years for it to drop to $30.

The US Supreme Court could rule against Trump, leading to similar lawsuits in additional states.

If SCOTUS rules that Trump is an insurrectionist, barred from office by the Constitution, wouldn't that make him ineligible in every state?

Neat fact: Late in WWII, Germany deployed a rocket fighter. This rocket could climb to 12K in a three minuets. Consequently, the pilots had to eat a special low fiber diet to prevent gas because the change in pressure caused severe intestinal distress.

Of course that was the least of the pilot's problems. The Me163 was so crazy dangerous it made OceanGate look as safe as the Bank of England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_petitions_against_age_of_consent_laws

Just for some context here. In the US, Christianity is everyday, more an identity than a religion. The "evangelicals" that support Trump overwhelmingly don't attend services, don't read the Bible, and don't pray unless they're in trouble. The evangelical movement has been cooped by the Republican party so thoroughly, that there isn't much difference between conservative politics and Christian belief in the average worshiper's mind. Christianity is the justification for having power, not the ethic of how to wield it.

I'm not playing "true Scotsman", or trying to define what a Christian ought to be. I'm just posting this for the people who are mystified at the disconnect between the teachings of Jesus and the support for regressive and hateful politics.

It's ironic that apotheoses of the individual, so central to modern conservative thought is antithetical to patriotism, faith, and family values.

Other missteps have not been as widely scrutinized. In Las Vegas in 2017, two officers stayed on the hotel floor below a shooter instead of rushing upstairs to confront him as he spewed bullets into a crowd of concertgoers. The next year in Thousand Oaks, California, officers attempted to confront a shooter within minutes of arriving at the scene. Some retreated after he shot at them. Police did not reenter to engage the shooter again for more than 40 minutes, even as victims remained inside.

Active shooter training, which emphasizes rushing into danger flatly contradicts all the other training and police culture that emphasize officer safety.

The Supreme Court has constantly ruled that police have no duty to protect life, enforce court orders, or uphold the law. In one of these cases, Castle Rock v. Gonzales, during oral arguments, Justice Ginsburg wondered aloud "what are police for".

The police are guardians of property of the wealthy: slave catchers, night watchmen, and bodyguards who've been socialized so that the powerful can share the cost with the very people being regulated. Fuck the police.

The thing to know about nihilism is that it doesn't matter that it doesn't matter.