I mean, they should have known that his anti-war stance was bullshit, but I don’t think anyone saw, “maybe we’ll invade Greenland,” coming. That was a batshit crazy foreign policy position he just pulled out of his ass right before he took office.
It’s fucking insane. Even MAGAs didn’t vote for this. He just suddenly started talking about taking over Greenland and making Canada a state between the election and the inauguration, and the billionaires are just trying to extract whatever wealth they can out of our government before grandpa drives the car into a ditch.
Kinda incredible how quickly he pivoted from, “We’re gonna stop spending billions on all these wars,” to, “Fuck it, I feel like invading Greenland.”
Yeah, when the Krasnov thing first got published, I said something to the effect of, “I would skeptical of explosive, unverified claims like this because they may be disinformation, and either way there’s more than enough evidence that Putin has control of Trump.” Then someone accused me of being a Russian asset because everyone has brain poisoning now.
Bernie is too old and he knows it. He’s not gonna run. AOC has a pretty bad favorable to unfavorable ratio nationally. That’s not automatically disqualifying; numbers aren’t set in stone, and a lot could change between now and 2028, but she’s not starting from the same place of broad appeal that Sanders did. As much as I love both of them, we need to look beyond the same two people for progressive candidates.
This article covers it, but it unfortunately doesn’t link to the actual poll. I first learned it from a news podcast, so I can’t point you to the original source.
The largest plurality (29%) of people who voted for Biden in 2020 but stayed home in 2024 said that Gaza was their biggest reason for not voting. The Democrats aren’t considering pulling their support for Israel, but they have been fighting internally over being less supportive trans people. The idea that they lost because they just wouldn’t stop fighting for marginalized people is just not connected to reality, and it’s very possible they’ll be standing up for even less people by 2026.
I mean, the largest holodeck ship I can think of was the one from Insurrection, and that was specifically designed to secretly abduct a whole population without their knowledge. I don’t think it would work for exploration or combat, just transport. I think they started incorporating holoemiters into systems on all decks by the time of the Enterprise-E, but they were supposed to be supplemental systems, not replacements.
I just don’t see how these holoquarters would improve much. Like, what real-world things are you replacing? You’ve already said that they need to have real-world seating and beds (and I’m going to go ahead and add bathrooms to that list), so what are we phasing out? Clothes and personal effects? Sure, you can replicate a new uniform every day, but it’s probably a waste of energy, and you wouldn’t have space for sentimental possessions.
Being able to go on some sort if multi-player adventure sounds cool, but I think most people would prefer to able go out to a real bar with their friends rather than go to a virtual bar from their bedroom. This is starting to feel like how Zuckerberg tried to replace meeting rooms with VR meetings. I think most people would rather go to a place and see someone real face-to-face.
And holodoctor or a holographic patient interface is even more risky. Even if you assume that a holodoctor is just as good as a real doctor (and there’s really only been one EMH that was), or that a holographic version of your patient is exactly like the real thing, all of the problems with holographic medicine I mentioned get even worse. Imagine being halfway through surgery when your doctor just dematerializes.
Well, that’s true, but the fact that he said, “I’ll only do it if they air it unedited!” makes me think he thought they would say, “no,” and he’d be able to decline while saving face. My gut tells me he’ll make up another excuse now. I’d love to be wrong, though!
He’ll find a way to back out. Musk is stupid, but not that stupid.
Oh, no worries about my files. I have a pretty thorough backup system going back over a decade. I did a backup a little over a year ago when I bought a new laptop and stopped using the desktop. I already wiped my files this and did a full reset of Windows 10 in preparation of the Mint installation.
Yeah, I think that’s about it. I think Russia has been encouraging oligarchs and mobsters to make contact with prominent Americans they thought they could influence, and a lot of those connections went nowhere. When Trump started winning the primary, Putin probably realized he could use him, so he had some oligarchs cut a deal. But this KGB agent’s Facebook post about making direct contact with Trump, recruiting him as a spy, and giving him a codename, as well as his claim that he may be assassinated for sharing this? It seems like it’s either some sort of disinformation campaign or just some old man embellishing a story for attention.
As someone else already said, there is functionally no difference in terms of what he’s doing to our country. But if we elevate unverified nonsense about Trump being a secret sleeper agent, it makes credible evidence of Russian influence seem less credible.
I mean, I’m sure the KGB was interested in influencing prominent Americans, and it’s very likely they were using Russian businessmen (and mobsters) to influence Trump. The CIA plays similar games with foreign business leaders. But do I believe that KGB directly recruited Trump, asked him to be their spy, gave him a codename, and kept him on as a sleeper agent through the fall of the Soviet Union? No, it’s going to take more than one guy’s Facebook post to make me believe that. It’s very possible there is some truth in what he’s saying, but I would take it with several grains of salt.
Thanks! That’s what I thought after reading the reccomend specs, but every source also said, “if you’ve got a machine that’s 8 to 10 years old, you might want something lighter.” I think it’s probably because it’s an older gaming PC, so it’s got a little more juice than the average 10 year old PC.
LOL, you’re literally doing the thing I’m describing. You’re making an outlandish claim (that I am a paid Russian agent) that’s going to make a real issue (Russian online disinformation campaigns) seem less credible. If your reaction to someone saying, “Trump is clearly in Russia’s pocket, but you should be wary of outlandish claims with unverified sources,” is, “you must be a Russian propagandist,” you need to touch grass.
“I can’t believe it so it’s likely untrue,” is a fundamental misinterpretation of what I’m saying. “There is enough evidence of a Trump/Russia connection without unreliable sources,” would be more accurate.
Believing unverified claims has consequences. Remember the Steele dossier, with its wild allegations of blackmail and urinating prostitutes? It’s now pretty much entirely discredited due to unreliable sources, and the very real, very clear connection between Trump and Russia lost credibility with it.
Similarly, the Mueller investigation was also undermined by outlandish claims. Left-leaning grifters like Louise Mensch and the Krassenstein brothers made predictions of imminent arrests and treason charges. When the Mueller Report was finally released, it stated that, while there wasn’t enough evidence to say Trump definitively colluded with Russia, there was no evidence to clear him of that charge, and he committed criminal obstruction of justice during the course of the investigation. That should have been a damning conclusion, but after months of wild speculation and overhype, it was labeled a nothing-burger.
So, I’m going to remain skeptical of an old KGB agent’s Facebook post about a 38 year plot to recruit Donald Trump as a spy, and instead stick to what is known: Trump has long had business dealings with Russian oligarchs, the Russian government supported him through online propaganda, there were credible accusations of collusion between his campaign and Russia, and he is now promoting a pro-Russia foreign policy. That’s significant enough.
And that is not saying, “I can’t believe the world is round so Occam’s razor it must be flat because that I can understand.” That’s saying, “I can see the Earth is curved, and while some people claim we’re actually on the back of giant turtle, Occam’s Razor says it’s probably just round.”
OK, that’s good to know. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, if I even need to get to it.
But it won’t. Hakeem Jefferies will have his members wear, “How will this lower the cost of eggs?” t-shirts as they’re obediently led in front of firing squads.