We went from no computers to computers in your toothbrush, from pong to Cyberpunk 2077 in what, less than 50 years?

People think if that can happen, we are just one ion booster or warp bubble invention away from interstellar travel. Surely that too can happen in less than 50 “as long as we stop limiting businesses ability to invest and grow and…” all those other things they’ve been told are holding us back.

And since the CDC has been muzzled and WHO departed from, guess we’ll see if we’re magically healthier without them.

Haven’t seen any, but with the news that the OPM messaging may be written by them I think it would be good to take it seriously.

https://archive.is/IwQ6k

Maybe when some actually stick. He’s toeing the line now, uses them for threats to seal the deal but none have stuck yet.

But MAGAs will twist it into a win either way. Things get too expensive to import? Yay domestic factories! Jobs! Economic independence! Companies won’t give all our jobs to China when it costs more than employing us!

I wish. I really wish. A good /s tag would have been nice but no.

I’m sorry but there are people that side with Trump on Greenland, Canada, and Panama. They think Panama will be easiest because Trump will find some loophole to annul the original treaty because we’re “being shafted with fees funding China”. Then when we get it, we’ll get all the fees and that’ll solve our national debt.

Greenland is next easiest because they “already want out from under Denmark. We can help with that.” Of course that supposedly secures our Arctic interests.

Canada is the fuzziest. They agree they want it, because “America has the means and the will to get out those resources they are just sitting on, and the ability to turn all that empty land into livable space and end the housing crisis.” But they seem to think Canadians are fed up with their leadership and “broken healthcare you wait months for” and are just going to offer themselves up.

All in all, it’s what you might expect. A bunch of people who feel they aren’t getting what they want in today’s world are looking backwards to the “good old days” of like the American West. They want more land of opportunity, frontiers to go out and stake a claim to. Legit a few of them like to think that there will be homesteader claims on any new territory the US picks up, so they can finally leave their tiny lot and go stake a claim on 10 acres of Greenland or Canadian wildland to run as their own little kingdom.

No, take that MAGAs at their word. Trust that they are exactly who they say they are, and that Trump and all he says will be attempted or at least used to make some lesser capitulation seem reasonable. Maybe he won’t take Panama, but he will threaten to until Panama cuts US trade fees significantly, things like that.

So, I’ve heard tell from MAGAts(sadly my town has plenty them and I can’t afford to escape yet), not only do they support takeover of a sovereign nation, but they’re ready for hostile takeover. They expect “adoption” of Greenland to be purely political and transactional, and funded by China through all the tariffs (🙄), but are not against armed conflict.

First, what the fuck, but second, how ready is NATO to turn on supposedly one of their own? I know Trump wants out of NATO, and surely this would be a quick way out, but would anyone chicken out of the fight and let Trump move in? I keep getting told that the “magic Article 5 argument isn’t a guarantee of support. There are no requirements to go to war for an ally, just pre-emptive permission to join in. It’s still voluntary, and few are so stupid as to stand against the [Empire!] USA!” (Brackets mine).

This timeline makes me sick.

Same. Mullvad #1.

Unless you need port forwarding, then Proton for those activities.

If it went that far, we’d be back to offline communication and small communities, because the AI would be programmed to tattle on us. :)

It’s a fascinating question actually how far technology could be used against us, and how long the “underground” could continue to use it before we’d have to continuously invent something completely new just to communicate, until we just loop back around to word of mouth or smuggled paper missives. A lot of people think that the cat is out of the bag on mass communication, that we can never be silenced again but I’m never quite so sure…

Honestly, it is my expectancy that if the US goes down that worst possible outcome, and they start passing laws that make you worry about your communications, then the “US Cyber Defense Platform(Great Firewall)” will also be quick to pass, argued to protect the children from porn, rights holders from piracy, and of course will quickly expand to any service that doesn’t agree to an encryption back door so they can look for “terrorists”.

In that case, Proton and any non-surveillance allied service is out. Email as we know it is pretty unsafe, and if you want to use email privately you will have to learn to provide your own encryption via PGP and the like, most likely through your own server even, and you will stress to ensure proper configuration.

Or get to another method(like Matrix configured for E2E) before they get pulled from your App Store for not complying with the Patriot Act 2.0, and be ready to learn the safest way to sideload updates, and how to dodge around the Bigly Firewall to connect with international users.

How long until you start questioning if it will work and invite doubt? Or will you assume defeat if the vampire fills the gap with, “why, thank you my good sir”?

My understanding of the idea with many interpretations of magic is they are all just ways of focusing your will on the world.

Ergo, the words aren’t themselves the source of power, your expectation that the words will result in a certain outcome is.

Therefore, if your intention is to deny entry is strong, there could be a fairly good gap.

But on the other hand, playing around to try and see could create doubt and uncertainty, weakening the effect.

The good ol’ Red Scare.

It’s not that there is superior heat output, it’s that there is superior heat collection and observation.

Not familiar with the meme directly, taking your attached picture example I can guess why they think it’s better:

It’s trapped closer to them.

Heat, that you recognize exists but usually rises out of reach of an uncapped candle, to the ceiling, is now trapped near the observation area. The pot is trapping it and radiating it much closer to the person thinking they’ve just solved the universe.

It’s observable. Like people who don’t understand the need for vaccines because they’ve never personally seen the disease the vaccine helped beat down, a majority of people struggle to grasp theory, and direct observation is all they understand.

Problem with that….

Whose idea of virtue?

You making a Catholic one? Buddhist? Right or alt-right idea of virtue? Lefty? Conservative values, socialist values? Etc.

Or is everyone going to make their own most virtuous AI and throw them in a virtual gladiator pit to finally decide whose (AI)God is right?