DradisPing
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User ID: 1102
DradisPing
1d ago
The "absence of statutory restriction" might also involve federal laws, since as far as I know state and federal have the same voter registration.
DradisPing
1d ago
Trump's comments were incredibly influential in the election.
The boomer left has a very strange relationship with the US. They love Obama, vacation in the US all the time, and frequently fantasize about living in NYC. However they rage against the US and Americanization.
The "51st State" comments triggered a key part of their political identity.
The results aren't so much that Conservative support collapsed. It did go down a little, but the NDP basically committed suicide this election. Hyperbole, they can come back later obviously. But this is their worst result ever, and they've been running since 1963. 7 seats is 2% of the house. They got 9 seats in 1993, but that was 3% since there were fewer seats. They lost 70% of their seats in the House.
The Bloc Québécois also lost 10 seats, or 30% of their seats.
The Green Party went from 2 to 1.
Basically the Canadian left decided to rally behind Carney.
I think the motivation isn't so much that they thought anything would happen. It's more that they see Canada as a showpiece of centre left governance, and losing to the Conservatives after Trump's comments would be globally embarrassing.
There's a lot of dislike for how Trudeau II ran things but the Liberal Party brand is incredibly strong in Canada. Back in the run up to the first Quebec separation referendum in 1980, Trudeau I, in the name of national unity, talked the Conservatives (then the Progressive Conservatives) into backing a new national identity that was closely related to Liberal policies. So "Liberals Good" is basically taught to all school children east of Winnipeg.
Switching to Carney allowed them to create some space from the unpopular policies. Most of which are probably going to continue.
Is it because they really like what Canada is becoming under Trudeau?
This is actually a very interesting topic. It's surprisingly easy and common for Canadians to not follow what's happening in Canada too closely.
Canada has two cable news networks, run by CBC and CTV.
What's the most popular cable news network? CNN.
Plus the Liberals ramped up subsidies to news media in 2018, so reporters have a strong financial incentive to stop the Conservatives from getting in.
As a result people tend to be less aware of problems than you'd expect. Things sort of have to penetrate their social networks to become aware of them.
Also the age breakdown is interesting.
https://x.com/JackPosobiec/status/1918071839365980483/photo/1
The Liberal victory came from voters aged 55+. People who are much less concerned about things like housing affordability. Also they probably figure that staying the course until they die will be less painful for them personally than making dramatic changes.
DradisPing
7d ago
Trump is not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid. If he does it won't be until after he's cut so much from DC and NGOs that the average Trump voter feels that those orgs have sacrificed enough.
DradisPing
10d ago
Any real attempt to build a semi-permanent Mars base would have larger political, legal, and financial problems. You can't throw in the towel in the face of a much smaller problem and expect to make it.
DradisPing
10d ago
I think the problem is that this is the first time they've done it. California specifically has messed with shipping and importing a lot recently. Things like the Advanced Clean Truck Act (and similar bills) as well as increased port fees.
But they never added on a "California compliance charge". So this would be seen as a direct protest because it's Trump.
DradisPing
10d ago
People who want to colonize Mars really need to think smaller first.
They should start by trying to build pleasant domed habitats somewhere marginally habitable like northern Minnesota first.
Then a resort hotel near the peak of Mount Whitney where people can take in amazing views.
Thirdly I'd go for a resort hotel on Mount Foster in Antarctica.
Really if a comfortable enclave in Minnesota for remote tech workers isn't practical, I don't see how we're remotely ready to go to Mars.
DradisPing
15d ago
A lot of news anchors basically wear a latex mask that is then painted to look human. They aren't in any position to call out the guests.
Expensive makeup gets away with being expensive because it works. People going on TV pay some professional to do their makeup because the results are worth it.
DradisPing
23d ago
I think that the press' ongoing refusal to publish Banksy's name really shows that they don't have any real standards about respecting privacy.
DradisPing
26d ago
What's interesting about ET is that it's biggest problem was from a design point of view. It was programmed as a top down game, but visually it was a 3/4 view game. So it had a big problem where people fell in pits because their head hid the bottom of the pit on screen.
I don't know if it's quite on the same scale, but have a look at "Robot Alchemic Drive" (R.A.D.) for the PS2.
It took the perspective that piloting a giant mecha would be hard, so it should feel hard to the player.
You walk the mech by controlling each leg with the paddle buttons. You're controlling the mech and the guy sitting on his shoulder at the same time and he jumps off it you hit the wrong button.
Of course the ridiculous controls were the main selling point of the game, so it doesn't really qualify.
In general I think it will be difficult to find good examples. Movies end up with more interesting results because there are hard limits to what an editor can do once the shooting has finished. Releasing a bad movie is the only way to recover costs.
Video games have the advantage where once you have assets and a working engine you can tweak the mechanics until you get something at least mediocre. Fortnight was famously saved in beta by introducing all of the construction mechanics to an unimpressive pubg clone.
DradisPing
26d ago
To be a little tighter, it's like telling them to have some willpower and just use drugs in moderation. Which is precisely what they have proven to be unable to do.
DradisPing
30d ago
The current strategy of deporting foreign national students is bad, because the negative publicity far outweighs the tiny changes on university campuses.
Hard disagree on this one. The values of the managerial class are forged in universities.
Right now they learn that being a lefty edgelord and aggressively supporting Hamas means they get to break laws.
The deportations are sending a strong signal that a supportive school admins and lefty law firms can't protect them from consequences.
The negative publicity has only minor effects. The public doesn't find the students being deported as very sympathetic.
DradisPing
1mo ago
There's a theory that it's instinctive to try to stop parents from having sex and having another child too soon that would compete for resources.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Submarines solved the first strike problem. During the cold war there were enough missiles in the water on both sides to guarantee severe retribution.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Europe desperately needs to confront reality.
The UK has less than 25 working main battle tanks and more admirals than working ships. Yet their politicians are talking about confronting Russia without the US.
It'll take at least a decade of intense reindustrialization and rearmament to field proper defensive armies.
They need to get started now. Putin is actually a moderate in Russia who just wants to bring territories that are majority ethnic Russian in Russia proper.
Putin is 72 and there's a very real chance that he'll be replaced with an actual hardliner when he dies.
The German delegation laughed at Trump in 2018 when he tried to warn them about dependence on Russian energy. Now he's decided that a harsh wakeup call from him is better than letting them be caught off guard in the future.
An actual Russian agent would just tell Europe not to worry and let them be at the mercy of the next Russian leader.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Self bailout may not be exactly accurate, but I think it's mostly about refinancing the X debt.
The other issue is that xAI is a benefit corp. I'm not an expert in legalities, but this probably allows him to bake in a requirement to promote free speech into X.
If he becomes more arms length or sells off enough stock to loose control he could probably still sue the board if they start bringing in "misinformation policies" or banning politicians and political activists from one side.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Disney has a major problem where it is unwilling or unable to constrain budgets on productions.
I think midlevel execs get an ego boost from writing big cheques. It makes them feel important and powerful.
DradisPing
1mo ago
China has been trying to take over international shipping lanes. Trump sees US control of them as critical in the long term.
Greenland only has 57,000 people. If the Northwest Passage becomes a more viable shipping route it's an obvious chokepoint for China to try to control.
The US is already paying to defend it by having a base there. Greenlanders would most likely be better off as a US territory. Denmark isn't doing much for them.
57,000 people is less than the monthly illegal immigrant entries under Biden, so it's pretty easy for the US to invest in new programs to benefit the residents in exchange for becoming a territory.
Plus there is likely oil that can be developed with modern technology.
The only downside for Greenland I can see is the Jones Act possibly causing some problems. I don't know any of the details about shipping there.
DradisPing
1mo ago
Transvestigation or transpiracy is enjoyable because it's wildly out there while being basically harmless. The claim is that many celebrities are secretly transgender.
A prominent example is Candance Owen's 8 part video series arguing that Bridgette Macron, the french first lady, was born a man. It's amusing but desperately in need of a shorter summary.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=FDOnxpViQxY&list=PLPW2eH9z9CUvJ0Iiv9AQqq2RVAWFFfNZR&index=8
The Electric Universe is fun because it starts with plausible sounding arguments about space not being electrically neutral and then builds so much stuff out of that it starts sounding like 40k lore.
https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2015/02/18/discourses-on-an-alien-sky-series-2/
DradisPing
1mo ago
I'd try getting a used MacBook Air and doing a battery replacement. They tend to be really good at build quality and battery life.
DradisPing
1mo ago
It's more of a thumb on scale thing. The ED giver out a lot of grants and also has school evaluation programs. Assorted state groups who live off of grant money will toe the line when ED policies come out. Common Core was pushed out in part using "Race To The Top" grants.
Basically being the major source of education grants lets people at ED control what is trendy in education. It's not direct control but it's a significant influence.
DradisPing
1mo ago
It's infamous for being full of Education PhDs who change up federal standards so that their side businesses selling education materials generate steady income.
The top Education PhD programs are famous for far left ideological gatekeeping because you need a degree from one of them to work at DoE.
People on the right just think that breaking it up into other departments would result in better people fulfilling it's requirements.
DradisPing
1mo ago
The most likely explanation is that when DOGE asked about the work USIP tried to play the "private organization" card instead of answering questions.
DradisPing
1mo ago
It looks like USIP is structured to get government money and spend it without oversight. It'd be very surprising if it weren't up to anything shady.
DradisPing
1mo ago
As a side note, the Trump administration seems to REALLY hate US assistance to foreign countries and they're doing their damndest to shut it off.
I think it's more accurate to say that he sees foreign policy as solely within the power of the President and doesn't like the fact that there are a bunch or orgs around DC funded by the US government with official sounding names that are undermining the foreign policy of the White House.
DC loves these para governmental organizations. In the case of USIP the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence are ex officio board members. The rest of the board members must be appointed by the POTUS and confirmed by the Senate. So it seems like it's sort of part of the executive branch but also not when it comes to oversight.
Perhaps I wasn't being clear. I'm suggesting that there have been significant changes to federal law regarding name paperwork since 1982, particularly since 2001. A judge could easily decide to cite federal law changes as a statutory restriction.
Your whole argument depends on their being no statutory restriction and you're going to need to do more research to be sure that is the case.
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