uspol
In the 2000s, we discovered that the US government was torturing people. They'd pack someone up at an airport, send them to Syria, and do unspeakable things to them in the name of "national security".
It happened to a Canadian citizen who was just doing a quick layover in the US on an international flight.
Wow, that's all pretty bad, heads must've rolled, careers must've ended. Right?
Nope. Turns out the people in charge just went "Yeah we did it, and we'd do it again." and a bunch of Hollywood TV shows came out justifying it.
If you're powerful enough, then you only actually get punished for the things you let yourself be punished for, and most of the most horrible things you might have done you can just take refuge in audacity and there isn't much you can do.
Especially since the other powerful people around you probably did the same thing or want to. In the 2024 election, a bunch of the responsible parties for the torture such as Dick Cheney were trotted out and given the red carpet treatment to help try to get a candidate elected -- The Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, in fact.
Meanwhile, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange both get to live in international prison cells -- Snowden in Russia to this day, and Assange in an Ecuadorian embassy for years. Turns out the crime isn't the crime, reporting on the crime is the true crime.
People did vote for Trump in part because they believed he'd be different. On the other hand, they also voted for Obama twice because they believed he'd be different, and only now are we discovering just how wrong that assumption was -- and in the end, Obama just waits out the spin cycle and he'll come out sparkling clean. If Trump outlives his term, he'll end up with the same reputational bleach other presidents did. If he lives to be 90 or 100, by that time he might be celebrated by the establishment left too and by then the kayfabe will have moved on to another, more imminent target.
It happened to a Canadian citizen who was just doing a quick layover in the US on an international flight.
Wow, that's all pretty bad, heads must've rolled, careers must've ended. Right?
Nope. Turns out the people in charge just went "Yeah we did it, and we'd do it again." and a bunch of Hollywood TV shows came out justifying it.
If you're powerful enough, then you only actually get punished for the things you let yourself be punished for, and most of the most horrible things you might have done you can just take refuge in audacity and there isn't much you can do.
Especially since the other powerful people around you probably did the same thing or want to. In the 2024 election, a bunch of the responsible parties for the torture such as Dick Cheney were trotted out and given the red carpet treatment to help try to get a candidate elected -- The Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, in fact.
Meanwhile, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange both get to live in international prison cells -- Snowden in Russia to this day, and Assange in an Ecuadorian embassy for years. Turns out the crime isn't the crime, reporting on the crime is the true crime.
People did vote for Trump in part because they believed he'd be different. On the other hand, they also voted for Obama twice because they believed he'd be different, and only now are we discovering just how wrong that assumption was -- and in the end, Obama just waits out the spin cycle and he'll come out sparkling clean. If Trump outlives his term, he'll end up with the same reputational bleach other presidents did. If he lives to be 90 or 100, by that time he might be celebrated by the establishment left too and by then the kayfabe will have moved on to another, more imminent target.
They're really funny thing is that none of these people seem to realize that the rich pay all the taxes as it is.
Problem is, since we're talking about an envy-based taxation system, "the rich" includes blue collar workers who shovel shit for a living but managed to get themselves a halfway decent deal such as in mining or oil and gas.
It isn't even Marxist, because at least Marx recognized that the government isn't a friend of the proletariat to be supported and advocated for. If Marx were alive today and could tear himself away from a bottle of overpriced booze, he'd probably have a lot to say about the fact that the state makes up 40-60% of GDP in western nations. In some ways it's a step backwards, closer to feudalism than capitalism and nothing like communism.
As for "wealth taxes", the west already has that thanks to inflation. If you own $1 in 1933 dollars of assets, you have $96 in 2025 dollars of assets and once you divest you'll pay taxes as if your asset went up 96x even though the buying power of that $96 is identical to the $1 you invested.
People complain about how the market requires continuous growth, but that's a direct effect of the wealth tax; you need to constantly grow just to stay still.
Problem is, since we're talking about an envy-based taxation system, "the rich" includes blue collar workers who shovel shit for a living but managed to get themselves a halfway decent deal such as in mining or oil and gas.
It isn't even Marxist, because at least Marx recognized that the government isn't a friend of the proletariat to be supported and advocated for. If Marx were alive today and could tear himself away from a bottle of overpriced booze, he'd probably have a lot to say about the fact that the state makes up 40-60% of GDP in western nations. In some ways it's a step backwards, closer to feudalism than capitalism and nothing like communism.
As for "wealth taxes", the west already has that thanks to inflation. If you own $1 in 1933 dollars of assets, you have $96 in 2025 dollars of assets and once you divest you'll pay taxes as if your asset went up 96x even though the buying power of that $96 is identical to the $1 you invested.
People complain about how the market requires continuous growth, but that's a direct effect of the wealth tax; you need to constantly grow just to stay still.
People think that God created Hell to punish sinners. I have come to believe that sinners create Hell themselves and God tries desperately to save us from this fate.
Imagine living in a place like this, surrounded by the things that you would see. Of course there would be filth, wailing and gnashing of teeth, and without external maintenance eventually fires would start from the accumulated filth, and the reek of rotting bodies -- both alive and dead.
Anyone who has ever had a loved one this deep knows that you can't save them, they have to choose to be saved. You can remove them from hell, once you turn you your head they will scurry back. You can clean up the spot that they created of hell, and they will either find a new one someone else has created or create a new one without help.
Imagine living in a place like this, surrounded by the things that you would see. Of course there would be filth, wailing and gnashing of teeth, and without external maintenance eventually fires would start from the accumulated filth, and the reek of rotting bodies -- both alive and dead.
Anyone who has ever had a loved one this deep knows that you can't save them, they have to choose to be saved. You can remove them from hell, once you turn you your head they will scurry back. You can clean up the spot that they created of hell, and they will either find a new one someone else has created or create a new one without help.
"Ah! You're right! Of course this code doesn't work! Here's corrected code. <posts the exact same code>"
Why, they could say to various AIs "It doesn't work, do it again and do it right this time" thousands of times in a day!"
As I recall, Louis Rossman's tax issues were that part of the state thought he'd paid the tax, but another part of the state didn't, and he couldn't get the two parts of the state to agree. That's a fundamental failure of a tax system, which really looks like it's just harassment.
Given that such a Kafkaesque nightmare is possible, I don't think it's an accident given what I've seen of New York. I think it's weaponized bureaucratic incompetence meant to punish people without needing to actually punish them in a way that you can actually fight against.
New York has been world renowned for corruption for centuries, partially related to its origin as New Amsterdam.
Given that such a Kafkaesque nightmare is possible, I don't think it's an accident given what I've seen of New York. I think it's weaponized bureaucratic incompetence meant to punish people without needing to actually punish them in a way that you can actually fight against.
New York has been world renowned for corruption for centuries, partially related to its origin as New Amsterdam.
Born too late to use the term WAP, born too late to use the term WAP, born just in time to use the term WAP.
>so I can get the latest nmap to scan the nodes in the building to find soft targets
Win 9x was fast (especially around 95osr2 before 98 got active desktop), but it was shite.
I have some thin clients I've put 9x on in the past decade, and I forgot how you might install it then it'll be totally unstable until you reinstall it again the exact same way but magically it's totally ok because of solar flares reflecting off of Jupiter.
I ran 95 on a 386sx, and it wasn't perfect but it was basically fine. You wanted to keep it clean.
Apple has a bad habit of producing something that is absolutely world-changing, something that completely changes the game, and then doing absolutely nothing with it for decades. I had an iPod touch back around the time that iPhones were still the new hotness, and it was absolutely incredible. The problem is that it is now 18 years later and you're basically looking at the exact same device. My first Android device came later, it was on cupcake I believe, and over the next 5 years Android was constantly making massive strides forwards.
Same with the OS X -- it was the most revolutionary thing the world had ever seen when it first came out, but that was a long time ago now.
I have some thin clients I've put 9x on in the past decade, and I forgot how you might install it then it'll be totally unstable until you reinstall it again the exact same way but magically it's totally ok because of solar flares reflecting off of Jupiter.
I ran 95 on a 386sx, and it wasn't perfect but it was basically fine. You wanted to keep it clean.
Apple has a bad habit of producing something that is absolutely world-changing, something that completely changes the game, and then doing absolutely nothing with it for decades. I had an iPod touch back around the time that iPhones were still the new hotness, and it was absolutely incredible. The problem is that it is now 18 years later and you're basically looking at the exact same device. My first Android device came later, it was on cupcake I believe, and over the next 5 years Android was constantly making massive strides forwards.
Same with the OS X -- it was the most revolutionary thing the world had ever seen when it first came out, but that was a long time ago now.
Some Democrats are calling for an investigation into whether Colbert and Kimmel getting canceled is a result of political influence over their political opinions.
Let's assume arguando that they are 100% completely correct. Let's assume that some people got very upset with Colbert for his political opinions and as a result his show got shut down.
And? What exactly is the problem? The last 11 years show us that Colbert's side of the aisle has absolutely no problem with that. It's been their modus operandi for over a decade.
Realistically, even if it was 100% purely political, there is already precedent for that. The United States federal government was able to log directly into Twitter to delete posts that it didn't like. At that point, you're done. Political censorship is back on the menu, and they're the ones who wrote it on there, by the opposition explicitly said "be careful, what if the shoe was on the other foot?" -- and now it is.
I don't even necessarily like it. I think it's bad. But on the other hand, if they didn't like it then they wouldn't have used it. The same as I don't particularly like the idea of going after our political enemies using the legal system, but that's going to happen because our political enemies decided that they had to take up the one ring for themselves. Once Pandora's box is opened shutting it doesn't do anything because of the contents have already escaped.
Robspierre always ends up under the blade of his own guillotine.
Let's assume arguando that they are 100% completely correct. Let's assume that some people got very upset with Colbert for his political opinions and as a result his show got shut down.
And? What exactly is the problem? The last 11 years show us that Colbert's side of the aisle has absolutely no problem with that. It's been their modus operandi for over a decade.
Realistically, even if it was 100% purely political, there is already precedent for that. The United States federal government was able to log directly into Twitter to delete posts that it didn't like. At that point, you're done. Political censorship is back on the menu, and they're the ones who wrote it on there, by the opposition explicitly said "be careful, what if the shoe was on the other foot?" -- and now it is.
I don't even necessarily like it. I think it's bad. But on the other hand, if they didn't like it then they wouldn't have used it. The same as I don't particularly like the idea of going after our political enemies using the legal system, but that's going to happen because our political enemies decided that they had to take up the one ring for themselves. Once Pandora's box is opened shutting it doesn't do anything because of the contents have already escaped.
Robspierre always ends up under the blade of his own guillotine.
Back then there was a parent at home who would be happy to watch their child for 8-14 days.
The nietzschiean military school of marriage. "That marriage which does not kill me makes me stronger...somehow."
Meanwhile, NYC still goes after Louis Rossman for a business he no longer runs, in a state he no longer lives in.
Something just occurred to me: When they take photos of the outer planets such as jupiter, saturn, or neptune (or pluto, fight me) one major problem is that there isn't actually much light. The sun at that distance is effectively a particularly bright star, not the powerful source of light we're used to here on Earth. We're talking single digit percentages of the amount of light we get here, and by neptune or pluto we're talking fractions of a percent.