Trump’s rhetoric takes a more dangerous turn
October 5, 2023
In a sit-down interview, Trump is invited to opine on a topic near to his heart, which has become the theme song of Republicans: horror over the idea that a nation of immigrants should accept more immigrants. Meidas Touch News has the video.
“Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions and insane asylums. We know they’re terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country.”
— Read on www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/5/2196058/-Donald-Trump-uses-Nazi-propaganda-to-support-abhorrent-views-on-immigrants
There are tons of noteworthy Adolf Hitler quotes to choose from—including “Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout, Wilhelm?” and “Say, Eva, is this your cyanide tea or mine?”—but the best advice for properly using and citing Hitler quotes is, “Jesus Christ, don’t! What the hell, man? That’s Hitler! His Q score is lower than Matt Lauer’s!”
That’s good advice for anyone, but it’s especially pertinent if you’re a moms’ group proofreading your shit at Kinko’s and a juicy Hitler quote smacks you square in the face. And if you’re a moms’ group that’s already been flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an extremist organization, as Moms for Liberty has, you may want to goose-step especially lightly.
— Read on www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/22/2176913/-Moms-for-Liberty-chapter-uses-Hitler-quote-about-owning-youth-in-member-newsletter
Multiple mass shootings across the U.S. leave at least 6 dead on holiday weekend | MPR News
June 19, 2023
Multiple mass shootings across the U.S. leave at least 6 dead on holiday weekend | MPR News:
A spate of weekend mass shootings and violence across the U.S. killed at least six people, including a Pennsylvania state trooper, and left dozens injured.
The shootings follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. They happened in suburban Chicago, Washington state, central Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore.
“There’s no question there’s been a spike in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are played out with firearms, not with fists.”
Researchers disagree over the cause of the increase. Theories include the possibility that violence is driven by the prevalence of guns in America, or by less aggressive police tactics or a decline in prosecutions for misdemeanor weapon offenses, Nagin said.
This problem is uniquely USA, let’s question the last statement…
- “prevalence of guns in America” – The growth in mass shootings tracks with the growth of gun sales, and in this we’re alone in the civilized world.
- “less aggressive police tactics” – This seems to be limited to white males, but even with changes our law enforcement is the most aggressive and combative among civilized nations.
- “decline in prosecutions for misdemeanor weapon offenses” – This seems to also be limited to white males, and is accompanied by Stand Your Ground and Concealed Carry laws where Some People can literally get away with murder. This is another place we’re alone in the world, because in most countries gun ownership is severely regulated and offenses around ownership tend to be vigorously prosecuted.
So what’s different here? Too many guns.
’17 tapes’ are latest attempt by Republicans to smear Biden:
Have they heard these 17 tapes? No. Have they heard maybe 10 of the tapes? No. How many tapes have they heard? Zero. They’ve heard zero tapes. Because the whole thing is just another part of the extended fantasy tale that Rudy Giuliani brought to them years ago. Like the missing whistleblower and the fake “FBI document,” Republicans know this is all a lie. They just don’t care.
The form they have been hodling up as “proof” of these tapes is an unverified initial report form… It’s the notes some agent took when they received a tip, without any vetting of the contents or source. I’d personally love to know where the tip came from.
After George Floyd’s killing, DOJ probe finds Minneapolis police show pattern of violating rights
June 16, 2023
After George Floyd’s killing, DOJ probe finds Minneapolis police show pattern of violating rights:
The Justice Department has found that Minneapolis police engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discriminating against Black and Native American people following an investigation prompted by the killing of George Floyd.
Daily Kos reads as the most detailed reporting on this, but we made the world stage too…
Apple Vision Pro: A Watershed Moment for Personal Computing – MacStories:
I’m convinced that Vision Pro and the visionOS platform are a watershed moment in the arc of personal computing. After trying it, I came away reflecting that we’ll eventually think of software before spatial computing, and after it. For better or worse – we can’t know if this platform will be successful yet – Apple created a clear demarcation between the era of looking at a computer and looking at the world as the computer. Whether their plan succeeds or not, we’ll remember this moment in the history of the company.
Some blogging myths
June 9, 2023
myth: everyone should blog
I sometimes see advice to the effect of “blogging is great! public speaking is great! everyone should do it! build your Personal Brand!“.Blogging isn’t for everyone. Tons of amazing developers don’t have blogs or personal websites at all. I write because it’s fun for me and it helps me organize my thoughts.
Overall the thoughts here on blogging are great, and apply to how you share your thoughts across the board… If people want to share stuff, it should be in a place where you own your thoughts, and can control what you produce… A blog, ActivityPub/Fediverse/Mastodon, etc.
Conveniente – Penny Arcade
June 9, 2023
That’s because even if you are playing all by yourself, alone, there is no single player mode because Diablo isn’t a single player game.
One of the reasons I continue to love Warframe is they have this thought out – If you’re in a story mission, or any game mode set to Solo for grouping, you can actually, honest-to-goodness, pause by opening the menu. As a grown up with things going on with kids, cooking, etc. this is an affordance I use quite often and I bless the devs at DE for it.
graydon2 | The Rust I Wanted Had No Future
June 9, 2023
graydon2 | The Rust I Wanted Had No Future:
In a recent podcast about Rust leadership, the BDFL question came up again and Jeremy Soller said (in the understatement of the century) that “I believe Graydon would have said no to some things we all like now”. And this echoes a different conversation on reddit where I was reminded that I meant to write down at some point how “I would have done it all differently” (and that this would probably have been extremely unsatisfying to everyone involved, and it never would have gone anywhere).
Boy Howdy would I ever. This is maybe not clear enough, and it might make the question of whether the project “really should have had a BDFL” a little sharper to know this: the Rust We Got is many, many miles away from The Rust I Wanted. I mean, don’t get me wrong: like the result. It’s great. I’m thrilled to have a viable C++ alternative, especially one people are starting to consider a norm, a reasonable choice for day-to-day use. I use it and am very happy to use it in preference to C++. But!
There are so, so many diferences from what I would have done, if I’d been “in charge” the whole time.
It sounds like I would have very much liked the Rust as it was envisioned…
— via mjtsai.com
Apollo to shut down; developer has receipts – Six Colors:
I gotta be honest, this Huffman guy sure looks like a lying creep, and all of Reddit’s public statements about honoring third-party apps seem like an attempt to lie to Redditors so they don’t look like the bad guys. But the bottom line is that Reddit repriced its API in order to bankrupt third-party apps. (Selig says he’ll lose $250,000 in the shutdown.)
No Apollo, no Reddit. I deleted everything I had ever posted save for the last Goodbye to the dev and a hope he moves his attention to ActivityPub related services like Lemmy… And deleted my account. When the refund offer comes up at the end of the month I intend to decline, he’s more than earned that for putting up with Reddit management.
Pocket Realities 