Maybe it’s inserted into media on purpose, training us like a subtle shock collar to hesitate if somehow, one of the commoners manages to get within range of an authoritarian boss-man.

/Crazy conspiracy lol

This looks like an episode where Big Bird realizes all the really neat grown-up jobs he was telling the kids about this whole time don’t really exist, and he just realized the sheer soul-crushing disappointment of the corporate workplace. :( lol

That’s a pretty good point, and I agree. It was “This is a weird and sinister mystery!” and that’s pretty much it.

I hope it at least builds some attention momentum for others with maybe more assets or connections at their disposal to hone in on what’s really going on here and bring it to light.

It probably sounds a little weird, but while I was sitting at the safety of my “occupy a desk until someone asks questions” job that sapped my soul, I often would research places I really, really wouldn’t want to be.

In a weird way I find this “Dark tourism behind a screen” to be a bit fascinating in a "safe danger " kind of way.

Reading the state department’s notices on some countries really puts in perspective. They’re like “Don’t go here without an armored vehicle, armed security detail, and most preferably a good friggin reason. Even still, have a next of kin lined up and ransom plans.”

Edit: also “Oh yeah, if everything goes bad off embassy grounds (if there even is one) our ability to intervene is limited. Don’t expect direct support to come save you.”

Like. Damn.

I’d say inside the country, it’s not as bad as the news makes it sound, because cameras are only pointing at the worst events. It’s a pretty big country and most people are content to just leave each other alone.

…But a huge radius around the borders or airports are “Constitution-free” zones where nobody has any rights, and our borders/customs folks have a reputation for being less than kind. And those zones, bad enough as they are, are so freakishly large that most people in any populated area are within those zones…so…

…Yeah, maybe wait. . .

before I learned about the Dubai porta potty

I was expecting some sort of ridiculous public sanitation custom. I knew about suspicious weird stories about models “getting on flights and never coming back” but the details make it even worse.

Wish there were people like John Wick to move through these grotesque billionaire circles and purge the monsters entirely.

I have always had zero interest of travelling to or supporting the place, and this only reinforces that.

This is good reporting. I’m glad there’s still people who will notice this bizarre kind of thing and start digging.

Something is truly mind-boggling here, like where he’s getting all this money from.

This is disgusting.

So the State seizing land and demanding tax was really just a ploy to support their vampire masters. I knew it!

Irritatingly unlikely, sadly.

Both parties have spent considerable time batting around the 2nd Amendment as a toy in their game. A polarizing empty-promise point with emotional strings attached, so now all the blowhard bullies sexually fetishize weaponry, and many of the types who would disagree with authoritarians are paralyzingly afraid and ignorant of anything “military looking” that makes loud noises.

“Because only cops and troops should have guns!” said the enlightened neoliberals, as they gladly handed over their responsibilities of self-protection and firearms education to the might-makes-right crowd.

“Muh freedom! An’ 1776 or somethin’! An’ own the libs, don’t tread on me!” says the gun “collecting”, MAGA-hat wearing, massive-smoking-diesel-truck-in-the-suburbs driving, angry and scared working man, who carries a copy of the Declaration of Independence (he hasn’t actually read, or if so, cherry-picks the parts he likes) and is completely ignorant on the Bill of Rights, who loudly decries and slanders “The Government™” …but conveniently simps for his abusive bossman and “backs the blue” when they mercilessly beat a bunch of people waving signs and assault reporters. Who waves a Bible (also unread) around yet shows contempt and hatred for his neighbor. Who thinks a bunch of armed insurrectionists storming the Capital because they didn’t like poll results aren’t traitors.

Lol.

Lmao.

God help us.

Many of the people who are opposed to this clown show have been successfully declawed and defanged if their legal processes have fallen apart, which we’re watching happen in real time. They’re also scabs who just want their creature comforts and will keep their heads down hoping “somebody else will take care of it.”

you should be weary.

Oh don’t worry, we’re really freaking tired and weary of this nonsense.

But we should also be wary of how sneaky these bastards are.

As Caesar Donald the step to becoming the god emperor isn’t that big…

Kinda just hoping we can skip all that and go straight to the “Et tu, Bruté?” bit.

The worship of limitless work and the military, a toxic obsession with hyper-individualism and isolation, with a paper-thin facade of morals and self-proclaimation of greatness, while everyone is broke, without opportunities, hooked on drugs, and stuck with crumbling infrastructure in vast stretches of remote nothing-land, while getting used and abused by multinational corporations and barons?

Sounds like they’re just pushing the mentality of the southern states to a national level.

“This is an invasion that could have been an email!”

Oh trump’s definitely not the “daddy” in this relationship.

Hehe me sitting here with my 9800 GTX++ wondering what the heck to do with it. 😂

Kinda wanted to make a retro gaming machine but, sheesh I bet it’s such a power hog these days!

Stability aside, I loved ME’s personalization stuff, all the themes and sounds and icons and everything they included out of the box to encourage you to make it feel like “yours.”

I wish they had kept with that into later versions.

Thankfully KDE fills that void for me now. :D

Sometimes (often?) at your own peril!

To anyone else following, if you’re mucking around with “I am Root/Admin. OBEY ME!!” you had better have important data backed up!

I once thought an unlisted BTRFS snapshot was an orphan folder taking up space. No permission? Nonsense! Obey my commands!

Suddenly not even terminal commands worked. (“Command ‘cd’/‘ls’/whatever not found”)

. . . it was the “writable snapshot” currently mounted, and the system was so borked it couldn’t rollback, and I needed to completely reinstall.

Fortunately I had things backed up on another drive. Live and learn! But that could have been TRAGIC.

Imperial power will co-opt, steal, bastardize, and butcher whatever peoples or messages it has to in order to justify its own legitimacy.

Gentle reminder that a term of military service is compulsory in Israel.

In essence, wicked old bastards are conscripting kids, filling their heads with xenophobia, and sending those kids to die.

Kids getting blown to pieces is a net-negative for mankind.

If they will not change, the most good these “leaders” can amount to in their brief time on this planet before they go straight to Hell, is to become a feast for the buzzards, preferably sooner rather than later.

(Edit: wording)

Annnd "Open"AI goes full evil, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

And the military is going for this? Yikes.

“Ah, my mistake! I suppose that was a bunch of civilians with signs and not combatants with weapons after all. Let’s try again. Anyway, is there anything else I can help you with?”