Looking at his Wikipedia… actually no, he is not. A Zionist and into “effective altruism”.

I don’t doubt the difference between the CPC and UK govt responses will be night and day. With Grenfell, IIRC there weren’t any consequences beyond some slaps on the wrist. With the CPC there will be death penalties.

Apologies for the Reddit link but not sure where else to find it… Joseph Gordon-Levitt gave a nice quick summary of why AI toys are a bad idea:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1p7defc/joseph_gordonlevitt_warns_parents_about_buying/

Even M. Night Shyamalan had a few very good movies (The Village and Signs, and at least everyone else loved The Sixth Sense) before turning into dogshit.

Chappie might be the worst movie I’ve ever paid to see.

I was initially very skeptical of my kindergartner having a school-issued iPad. While I still have my concerns about screen time and all the bright colors and actions burning out her little sensors… now that I’ve done some homework with her on the iPad, I do see the merit in it. The lessons she does do see to fit well with the iPad i.e. showing a word and then sounding it out.

It’s not out of the ordinary where I live (high cost of living)

The remainder of the frozen Russian funds will be invested in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle that will implement joint projects in specific areas. This fund will be aimed at strengthening relations and increasing common interests to create a strong incentive not to return to conflict.

I may be reading far too much into this, but I noticed that nowhere here does it specify that this remainder - I think very roughly $500 billion or so - must be invested in Ukraine. If so, this sounds like what Trump is trying to do with Japan; get a commitment from a foreign government to commit to investing in the US. But again, I am likely reading too much into this, even if it means investment in Ukraine this is a nonstarter for Russia. But it does have Trump and Witkoff’s grubby little fingerprints all over it.

If you only knew about the alternate reality this person lives in. Honestly while they were always classist and reactionary, it was a small part of their overall personality until they got hooked on Facebook a couple years ago. At this family gathering whenever they weren’t spouting this BS they were on Facebook. Like seriously, I would say at least 80% of the day today, they were on Facebook.

Gosh, supply and demand is working as intended? People are operating in their own self-interest? Leave it to a libertarian to complain about their own beliefs.

lol I mentioned this. We live in California where they passed a minimum wage law specifically for fast food, I think at $20 per hour. This person is blaming this law (“BiG gOvErNmEnT iNtErFeReNce!”) for being the reason for all these jobs they think are way beneath them paying “too much”.

I don’t know anyone IRL who hates poor people more than this person. They grew up rich too. They identify as a libertarian.

Yes. The exact example they said was they saw a server on Facebook who makes $300 on a 6 hour shift regularly. I was like yeah, at a high end restaurant maybe. But that’s not likely 40 hours a week and more importantly, for every server who makes that there’s another 10 who aren’t. And those $50/hr gigs aren’t thick on the ground so anyone can just walk in and get one.

But he said that if France “is not prepared to accept losing its children, to suffer economically because priorities will be given to defense production, then we are at risk.”

I think the general is burying the lede a bit here. The focus is on the comment about children, but what I think he’s actually getting at is that the French people must accept austerity so we can push more money into the military. Because otherwise the Russians will land in La Rochelle and try to conquer France because reasons.

(And a side question for the Francophones here… at least to me “France Unbowed” feels a bit clumsy in English. “Unbowed” is just not really a word I ever see or use, even though I understand it. Does the original French for the term sound better / used regularly?)

Yeah the fact that the original sources is the New York Crimes I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

IMO Maduro would readily accept a deal where he steps down but sets up the Revolution to continue, so I am assuming the US doesn’t just want Maduro to step down, but to completely dismantle any structures which impede US imperialism.

From Drop Site News’ daily email today:

President Trump authorized CIA planning for covert operations in Venezuela, while reopening secret backchannel talks with President Nicolás Maduro, according to a new report from the New York Times. Those briefed on the discussions say Maduro raised the possibility of stepping down after a two-to-three-year transition, which the White House rejected. The administration has reportedly been planning either a negotiated exit for Maduro or a forced removal, and Washington has weighed plans to secure increased U.S. access to Venezuelan oil.

If true, this would confirm the idea that there isn’t much else the US wants other than for Maduro to step down and allow a comprador regime to come in and hand over the nation’s wealth to the US. Not encouraging that it seems (edit: grain of salt since it’s the NYT) Maduro is willing to step down but they are just haggling over the time frame.

I am really trying to cling to my optimism, but it’s getting hard.

Re: COTW

Western Sahara: Colonialism, Settler-Colonialism and Resistance with Garazi Hach Embarek

I listened to this episode a while back, but I found it incredibly informative and a good Marxist take on Western Sahara. I don’t think you can access the actual episode from there, but you can use the info there to listen to it on your podcast app of choice.

Mitchell!

I use Linux Mint for personal and Windows on my work PC. It’s really stark to me how much better the Mint experience is. Like, if I bought a new PC and it came with Windows 11 I would just remove it and put Mint just for the user experience alone (not to mention privacy, security, no AI crap). It really reminds me of all the best parts of the old Windows version I used (going back to windows 95 and 7 I mean).