FriendOfDeSoto

joined 3 years ago
[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 10 points 8 months ago

The country with the biggest military force on this planet can do many things. But it shouldn't. Ability and legal justification are two different things. It isn't done doesn't mean they're not capable. Abu Ghraib happened and shouldn't have either.

It's not a perfect comparison but you could take your kitchen knife and stab a rando on the street. You can do that but you shouldn't. Because we have rules. And we have rules because without them soon everybody be stabbing everybody else. And if you stabbed a rando on the street in Caracas you don't exactly have the moral high ground when you want you tell your pals Vlad or Jinping not to stab randos in Kyiv or Taipei.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 14 points 8 months ago (11 children)

Because you cannot just go into a country and kidnap the leader. With no declaration of war, no jurisdiction at all, not even a hint of a justification through the UN. That's why it isn't done. Americans ought to be on the streets protesting in force. Their children at the latest will rue this day. 47 just sealed the end of the rules-based international order. He didn't start that fire but he dropped 50 gazillion barrels of Venezuelan crude onto it. This is not good bad very, very bad.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 79 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Then you'd think wrong.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 10 points 8 months ago

That's at best a piece of circumstantial evidence but not enough to diagnose homophobia. People are weird. People say the wrong thing because they are overthinking it. There could be any number of reasons why they reacted the way they reacted and only one of them is homophobia. More data is needed.

I don't disagree with those ideas. Corey has been beating this drum for a while. I'm just afraid this is putting the cart before the horse. Europe and in particular the governments need to get off of the US clouds or they will quickly find themselves up shit cloud (creek) without a parachute (paddle). And I fear building up viable domestic competition will be harder if you reshape the market that drastically next week. But I'm onboard with it in general.

Constitutions are just documents. The US one isn't bad, save for a few amendments. A constitution only works well if the people in the three branches act within the spirit of it. Once you get people in who DGAF you see all the breaking points in the system that are normally papered over by decorum and moral standards. And those are things you cannot necessarily write into laws. The exception to that is the way political parties and campaigns are funded; that's definitely something that should be addressed.

It doesn't really matter who will be the next US president. They won't be the leader of the free world any more. They will be increasingly isolated on the world stage and dealing with a domestic landscape somewhere between unbelievably fractured and civil war.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

At UN level, it will be pretty much impossible to sanction the US. They'll just veto everything away. Either by procedure or behind the scenes diplomacy.

It is also debatable if UN level sanctions are that effective in 2026. North Korea kept finding creative ways to get around them.

And these days, WGAF about international law anyways? International law, shminternational law. Sorry, I'm busy. I'm off to abduct another dictator on trumped up charges and then run his country.

The EU resorted to counter-tariff the US where it hurts the financial contributors to 47 and his bootlickers the most. Harleys, jeans, and whisky were the first package, I think. I believe this is the only viable way to exert pressure. In 2026 that means playing hardball around the hardware for all this so-called AI stuff, somehow weening people off of US controled internet services, and not buying weapons from the US - just a few examples.

I've recently read it on a hotel key card in the instructions: insert key card and depress lever.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 38 points 8 months ago

I think this is a rare case of where an actual phone conversation might clear up the confusion. If you have the number, that is.

Iron ≠ vitamin. You are really pissing out most of the vitamins in vitamin supplements. And when I say most it's closer to all of it.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

... back button hijack is starting to rear its ugly head again.

Are you basing this statement on this alleged case alone? I don't get any of this behavior on this page on Vivaldi. Another person has done more of a deep dive and also came up short.

Unless your schoolmate is here, I don't think you will get a definitive answer. And what people do on social media is not necessarily representative to what they would do in real life. So don't take this block personally.

A mixup of names has been suggested a a possible explanation. It could just as well simply be a mistaken touch on the app or a misplaced click on the site. That person may have their own ghosts of school life past to fend off and they've chosen to make a clean break and not keep in touch with people from that time for their own mental health. Or they are friends with the people who used to bully you and doesn't want them to spot you on their friends list. Or, while they treated you nicely and stood up for you, it's still possible they just don't like you regardless. There are many possible explanations.

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