Grumble 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇬🇱

Kelly KJ6WUW.
Lefty. Software. Hardware. Music.

Posts delete automatically after a brace of fortnights.

"...with Liberty and Justice for ALL." all means all.

"We have met what's going to save our ass and it is us." - Vinge

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Last Notes

2026-03-26 19:53:47 UTC

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When San Diego was having a bad drought a few years back, a guy I know got seriously riled up because the city put hella restrictions on watering lawns. He was livid because he had his own well, and figured that meant he was entitled to as much ground water as he could afford to pump.
Of course, the rich people's golf course watered daily anyway, and just passed the water fines on to their customers.

2026-03-24 22:43:27 UTC

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The Spice Must Flow.

2026-03-11 19:43:09 UTC

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Any chance of code overlays?

2026-02-19 11:48:30 UTC

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A Mountbatten-Windsor formerly known as Prince?

2026-01-27 15:43:17 UTC

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“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have travelled.”
―**The Prophet Mohammed,القرآن الكريم**
I like your pampas grass :)

2026-01-25 20:48:11 UTC

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Nobody wants to believe that the Feds can just murder people on the street now. Hell, if that was true then we'd probably have to fight back, or something.

2026-01-22 16:48:08 UTC

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I went to a lecture in the early 1990's by Tim Leonard, the formal methods guy at DEC. His story was that DEC had as-built simulators for every CPU they designed, and they had correct-per-the-spec simulators for these CPUs.
At night, after the engineers went home, their workstations would fire up tools that generated random sequences of instructions, throw those sequences at both simulators, and compare the results. This took *lots *of machines, but, as Tim joked, Equipment was DEC's middle name.
And they'd find bugs - typically with longer sequences, and with weird corner cases of exceptions and interrupts - but real bugs in real products they'd already shipped.
But here was the banger: sure, they'd fix those bugs. But there were still more bugs to find, and it took longer and longer to find them.
Leonard's empirical conclusion is that there is no "last bug" to be found and fixed in real hardware. There's always one more bug out there, and it'll take you longer and longer (and cost more and more) to find it.

2026-01-15 04:35:53 UTC

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Good to see that, but we *knew *all of that already.
The unanswered questions are why aren't the poor in the streets with barricades, and pitchforks, and guillotines?
Oh, that's too much work to get everyone involved?
Then why aren't there smaller protests and cop cars set on fire?
Oh, even getting *some *people involved is too much work?
Then where's the general strike where we collectively stop working for the rich for a few days? A general strike is literally not working - that can't be too much work.
The hint is the word "collectively". We have been trained to not act collectively.
The rich have been insanely successful and making us hate each other instead of uniting and hating *them*.

2026-01-14 04:45:29 UTC

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Who's got a landline any more?
Show me how to hook up a modem to a cell phone?

2026-01-11 06:04:05 UTC

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Let's cut the fancy words and talk bluntly:
People will stand in line for a chance to piss on Trump's grave.

2026-01-10 19:18:13 UTC

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Wait - you said 'drop' them?
From what height? We might be able to save ourselves some trips to restock their MREs and fresh water...

2026-01-08 09:31:27 UTC

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*Lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.*
Don't work for ICE, folks - it'll stink up your resume for the rest of your working life. You'll end up having to lie for the chance to piss in a bottle in an Amazon warehouse.

2025-12-19 23:20:22 UTC

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The Epstein Files - sponsored by HP

2025-12-18 10:34:14 UTC

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https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/115/740/118/122/560/546/original/d5d480316d573cc4.png

2025-11-18 17:06:40 UTC

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In Stephenson's *Snow Crash*, one of the bad guys had "POOR IMPULSE CONTROL" tattooed on his forehead by a court. I know cyberpunk books are supposed to be cautionary tales, but...

2025-11-16 18:24:15 UTC

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Trump's policies come and go - like ICE raids in Portland, like invading Greenland, like annexing Canada, like tariffs everywhere.
What sticks around through it all is Donald Trump using his temporary position as president to extort money to enrich himself.
Which is ironic since the old fart won't live long enough to spend it. He's literally collecting bribes just to pretend he's "winning" something, when he could be actually making America better.

2025-11-02 05:34:54 UTC

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Gleaning - giving the poor the right to gather the remains of a crop in the field - is about as old as field crops themselves.
Note that I said "right" and not privilege. Old Testament God commands farmers to leave a part of their crop for the poor and the strangers, not that the oldest parts of the bible mean anything to modern capitalists and their christianish proles.
I think it's a fairly easy argument to make that restaurants and markets should allow their surplus to go to the poor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaning

2025-10-24 05:29:11 UTC

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Trump seemed happy for people to know he banged a porn star. If "all he did" was statutory rape a 17 year old, I can't see him going to all this trouble to keep the files hidden.
So either Trump did a lot of really freaky shit, or he's covering up something else (like, maybe Trump has been blackmailing the pedos that Epstein was blackmailing?)

2025-10-20 01:51:15 UTC

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Trump seems to imply that because Putin spent a lot of money and blood in his failed war, Russia *deserves *some land from Ukraine.
Fuck that.
Russia can have as much land from Ukraine as the Trump took from Afghanistan when he surrendered to the Taliban. None. Zero. Zilch.
Will Putin's failure have negative consequences for him? Likely.
History shows it sucks to be the guy who loses a Russian war.

2025-10-12 21:52:01 UTC

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I'd prefer that, too, but I think it's going to be difficult to find a country willing to publicly cross Mr. Putin.
Anyone with a submarine - France, Germany, UK, Poland, Sweden, Italy, USA, even Australia and Japan - can anonymously sink a tanker. Putin will be enraged, but what exactly can he do?
*cough *Nord Stream 2 *cough*

2025-10-12 21:24:22 UTC

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Tankers go out full, come back empty.
Sink the empty ones.

2025-10-11 10:15:31 UTC

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Sink. Russian. Tankers.
The drones will take care of themselves.

2025-10-02 21:44:12 UTC

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The problem is the number of layers of hierarchy.
Once the number of layers hits some magic number, a sociopath or psychopath in the chain has very bad consequences for the population as a whole.
At the same time, human societies are more efficient with some amount of coordination and control.
So if the environment is abundant, your society can get by with little hierarchy (think indigenous American tribes). The risk of a sociopath or psychopath in a position of power is small, and easy to fix.
But if the environment is hostile, or population is high, you need more coordination and specialization, and thus more layers of hierarchy, with more danger if the power positions are filled with sociopaths or psychopaths.
I see a couple of ways to deal with these risks:
- when possible, use shallow or flat organizations not hierarchies
- when you have to have deep hierarchies, you must install pro-social ideals in the leadership, and relentlessly weed out the anti-social leaders

2025-09-22 10:51:53 UTC

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So... 110 years ago or so, the US needed wheat for export to Europe - they were having a war and needed food since their workers were at the front. Wheat prices went up, and markets did what they do and farmers started growing wheat. And for a few years, prices kept going up, and more farmers kept growing wheat.
Then the war ended, exports slowed, and wheat prices dropped. And market did what markets do, and farmers stopped growing wheat. Haha - just kidding! Farmers bought *more *land to grow *more *wheat, because if you make less money per bushel, you have to grow more bushels! That's just science.
And for most of the 1920s, wheat prices kept falling. And farmers kept borrowing more money and buying more land (which was less and less productive, because the good land was already growing wheat, etc.) By 1930, most of these farmers were in serious debt, the crop yields were shitty because you grow one crop for a decade you wear out the soil, and because of some idiocy on the stock market, the banks really needed some cash and they foreclosed on the farmers.
And then farmers, people who should always have enough food for themselves, were kicked off the land and headed out to California to find work picking crops.
Farmers - "the common clay of the new west" Haha!
Also - the people who farm 3500 acres aren't "farmers" like there were farmers 100 years ago. A married couple could homestead 80 acres, and that was a *lot *of work for two people. Modern "farmers" are doing the work of 40 families. You might as well compare a WalMart to a mom & pop convenience store.
So... do I feel bad for farmers? No, I do not. They (via the Farm Board, their lobbying organization) has blocked immigration reform for over two decades, enabling this administration's destructive ICE behavior.
Disclosure: My great grandfather was the last full-time farmer in my family. He moved from Iowa to homestead in Idaho (Teakean, Idaho - near Orofino - it's too small for maps) around the first world war. His daughter married the boy next door (Kendrick, Idaho), they homesteaded some nearby land, and during the Depression lived off hunting, the chickens, the cow, their garden, and whatever summer work grandpa could get - mostly fire tower watch duty. When WW2 broke out, they and their three kids moved near town (Post Falls, Idaho) where they could keep their garden (no livestock) and grandpa could do war work. His wages bought land, because he meant to get back to farming. The last chunk of farmland they owned was sold off when the town grew around it in the 70s and changed the zoning and hiked the taxes, and the hay crops wouldn't cover what the county demanded every year.
The family back in Iowa? The cousins of my mom's generation were the last to farm, and their kids and grandkids all have city jobs.
https://youtu.be/hYTQ7__NNDI

2025-09-15 22:48:14 UTC

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This probably isn't WW3 doom preppers, but mainstream LDS self-reliance preppers. There's overlap, but they aren't quite the same.
Twice a year, the LDS Church holds a "General Conference" weekend, and the faithful watch it for two days. It's where the up and coming charismatic speakers get a few minutes to shine, the elder statesmen bang their traditional drums, hints of new doctrine are floated, and so forth. The Tabernacle Choir sings.
But there are commercials. And the commercials include preppers and food hoarders selling emergency water and food for your well-equipped LDS pantry.
Looks like next conference is first weekend in October. Tune in if you're curious.
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/event/october-2025-general-conference

2025-09-07 04:44:05 UTC

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I started thinking the government of Israel is a pack of assholes when I learned about the USS Liberty incident, 40+ years ago.
I haven't found any reason to change my assessment.
In fact, a lot of governments are packs of assholes.
I'm starting to think the whole idea of 'nations' is a really bad idea.

2025-09-07 01:05:43 UTC

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Every post about the half-ass name change is a post that doesn't wonder what, exactly, terrifies Mr. Trump about disclosing the Epstein Files.
Whatever Mr. Trump is ashamed of, it's more serious than boinking a 17 year old girl.
Pre-teen girl?
Pre-teen boy?
Pets?
Snuff films?
Something has Mr. Trump really spooked.

2025-08-28 23:48:06 UTC

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Houston could hire some experts from The Netherlands but why spend money on professionals?

2025-08-22 00:16:28 UTC

Now that Kootenai county, Idaho, is reporting measles cases for the first time since 1991, and with flu/covid season coming up, I'd like to point out that Idaho requires inspections of all watercraft (boats, canoes, kayaks, etc) every time that boat enters their state.
If you live in Newport, Washington and drive over the bridge into Oldtown, Idaho, for a paddle in the Pend Oreille river, you must stop and get your boat inspected. You get a dated sticker. Some boat launches have inspectors who check the sticker.
Idaho literally cares more about the invasive quagga mussel infecting their lakes and rivers than about measles or covid infecting their children.
https://cdapress.com/news/2025/may/01/watercraft-inspection-stations-open/

2025-08-15 22:22:19 UTC

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Maybe it's time to shower President Pedo with cans of peas?

2025-08-12 03:59:33 UTC

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Seems like we should stop sending money to DC, and close the roads and bridges leading into the city.

2025-08-07 07:14:49 UTC

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antisemitism accusations are the new witchcraft accusations

2025-08-04 07:09:28 UTC

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Now that the CPB has died, I don't know what will happen next to NPR. But whatever happens, I hope those champs learn to write in the active voice.
Not "Palestinians are killed" but "Israel kills Palestinians".
Passive voice in the press is the hallmark of journalistic cowardice.

2025-07-25 05:14:52 UTC

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And everyone who isn't locked up will be afraid of being locked up. Making them a lot more willing to accept any shitty job offer or workplace bullshit or gig work scam.
General strike now! While you still have a choice.

2025-07-23 21:56:14 UTC

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Is this practical lesson in cowardice, complicity, and moral midgetry offered for free, or do I have pay tuition to Columbia for this?

2025-07-20 04:28:58 UTC

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If Trump was 15 years younger, I'd be concerned about him staying in power. But he's an unhealthy old man, veering into dementia at inopportune moments. And neither his trade war nor the war on the Houthis has accomplished jack shit.
Now that the question on everyone's mind is "Is Trump just a rapist or is he also a kiddie rapist?", I wouldn't be surprised if the producers of our little farce don't decide to recast the lead role.
On an unrelated note: please write your representative and senators and demand that they release the complete, unedited Epstein Files. Think of the children!

2025-07-20 04:12:18 UTC

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Everyone except the marks and Trump himself know that Trump is a lame duck, every time he wakes up, a little less powerful than when he nodded off. So if MAGA is to persist, a suitable figurehead must be anointed. Otherwise, Trump's departure will lead to an ugly food fight between MAGA, Qanon, and the corporate GOP.
So I expect the Vance/Murdoch thing is just prudent planning on their parts. My question is, where was Mr. Thiel? Did he attend, or does the money guy actually trust a pipsqueak like Vance to make commitments on his behalf?

2025-07-13 02:12:43 UTC

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Pretty sure it's why he got into politics - wanted to wreck more lives than just his family and personal lawyers.
It's called *ambition.*

2025-07-12 21:16:37 UTC

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It's worse than useless for the DNC, because it's yet another disconnect between position of the party & loyalists and the position of other citizens.
Somehow, I think the underlying cause is an assumption on the part of these DNC supporters that the people must suborn their opinions in all matters and actions to support the DNC.
I think they might have democracy backwards.
I'm willing to cut a deal with the DNC - I'll vote for their shit but only if they promise to vote for my shit, too. Instead, the DNC position seems to be "join us and bend to our will or be our enemy". I can get that assholery without the lipstick from the other guys.

2025-07-07 00:56:05 UTC

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Piss off the crowd and you'll see watch those tithes dwindle.
Everybody has bills.

2025-07-02 17:11:26 UTC

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An asshole in Texas walks into a public school and starts shooting kids - dozens of cops wait outside.
A citizen speaks out at a public city meeting - tackled by three cops.
Pretty obvious how America works these days, and what service the cops provide the ruling class.
Note the "Freedom of Speech" painting by Norman Rockwell. For all we know, this average Joe is spouting anti-vax nonsense; or maybe, he's declaring his willingness to enlist in the Army if they'll waive the age restriction. Either way, the goal is that we all listen to the polite man speak his peace and then decide for ourselves - and not have jack-booted thugs arrest him for displeasing our commissars.
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/784/769/445/169/427/original/f938339ec6de4846.png

2025-07-02 16:53:31 UTC

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"Social Justice" party. I'm so in.

2025-06-18 17:40:18 UTC

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As grampaw Trump mentally checks out more and more each day, his princes in the administration are flexing their muscles running their own little palace intrigues. So that's a clock ticking away Trump's power and control
Even if Trump wasn't declining mentally, his presidency was lame duck from the inauguration, with all of the political struggles inside and outside his party as the ambitious jockey for power once he's gone. So that's *another *clock ticking away for him.
Lastly, Trump knows he's old, and that he doesn't have a lot more fancy parades and fancy birthdays in his future. He's desperate for a legacy (Greenland? Canada?), and he doesn't love his kids any more than his dad loved him. He knows his biggest parade will be his own funeral. That's the third clock ticking, and it eats at him.
We're barely 1/8th into Trump's last term, and shit is already getting sporty. It's just going to get worse as this ride pulls into the station.

2025-06-18 16:30:11 UTC

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Fear does that to the weak-minded.
MAGA is all about being afraid.

2025-06-18 16:02:40 UTC

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Trump is on the outs with Putin now because Trump is making the US help Israel fuck over Iran.
Putin really needs the drones Russia buys from Iran to keep up pressure on Ukraine. He literally spends hundreds of them every day.

2025-06-18 15:53:25 UTC

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I expect he's going to fly various flags from the poles to create buzz in the media. Also, I expect donors will be able to sponsor their flags for TrumpCoin.

2025-06-18 03:51:49 UTC

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I hope he makes the Army install them. Judging by the parade, the towers will fall down in a week.

2025-06-16 18:19:22 UTC

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The coup happened. This is Vichy America.
Our choices are:
- become Nazis
- collaborate with Nazis
- quietly stand complicit with the Nazis
- resist
- flee the country
Choose wisely. Not choosing is still making a choice.

2025-06-07 23:21:55 UTC

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The question isn't "will our fascist administration order troops to attack civilians?" but rather "will our all-volunteer military comply when fascists order them to kill civilians?"
As a veteran, I'm cautiously optimistic that the troops aren't paid enough to kill Americans.

2025-06-03 02:59:46 UTC

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DoD is our bipartisan jobs program, too.

2025-05-23 20:23:41 UTC

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Now you've gotten me thinking: what are Trump's magic powers? How can they help nuke tech bros?
Trump has a few magic powers:
- the president can say things
- the president can get headlines
- the president can sign things
For the nuke techbros, having the president *say *that nuke power is happening seems really important. Not because there's an honest-to-God sustainable business model building and operating nuke plants in 2025, but because if the president says it's happening, that might be enough for banks and VC and stock market dweebs to give the techbros some money.
Maybe a plant will be built; if so, the techbros will take their cut during construction.
Maybe a plant will operate; if so, the techbros will take their cut before any other bills get paid.
Maybe the plant will turn a profit; if so, the techbros will take a big cut for themselves before the investors get a taste.
Will there be amps for AI to burn? Maybe, but that seems like a problem for anyone except the techbros to deal with.
And all of this grifting gets started with the techbros buying some crypto coins from Mr. Trump's kids. We call it "the free market".

2025-05-23 19:58:10 UTC

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Trump says lots of shit - doesn't mean it's going to happen, especially when the thing he talks about is a construction project.
Some nuke techbros bought some TrumpCoins, so Trump cheerfully spews some bullshit (transaction accomplished!). Building the plants is the easy part - we've gone that for 75 years - the hard part is turning a profit, the impossible part is storing the waste safely.

2025-05-21 22:19:02 UTC

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Defense labor rates are similarly bloated. 15 years ago, my company billed the DoD $180/hr for programmer labor. Our typical programmer pay was $90K/yr, or less than $45/hr.
As for contracting... my life got better once I decided to go for direct contracting with my customer. It sucks setting up invoices and that stuff with the customer's accounts payable, and it royally sucks calculating monthly/quarterly self-employment and other taxes.
But once you get it set up... so much better. Dealing with your customer and their finance folks is SO MUCH BETTER than dealing with some agency's HR folks.
Even you raise your rates to cover the accounting and billing and extra taxes and health insurance and 401K... you're still a cheaper option for your customer than an agency. Most people have no idea how much money they give up for the convenience of working for an agency.

2025-05-20 23:59:37 UTC

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Happy to learn of any other balanced military analysts you might care to mention, or any substantive critiques of what the nice Aussie man said here.
There's a similar not-very-rosy estimate of Ukraine losses and recruitment challenges. His recent vid discussing how NATO might re-arm without buying American was pretty good.
👋 laterz

2025-05-20 21:57:56 UTC

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Material basis? Two things: the ever-increasing enlistment bonuses for enlistees, and the use of foreign mercenaries on the front lines.
Russia can stand another 18 months before their magazines and barracks dwindle. Less if Mr. Putin can't raise hard currency selling oil to buy crappy artillery and unskilled labor from North Korea.
When conscription starts, we'll see how long Mr. Putin can hold on to his job.
https://youtu.be/Ja6-espHVSE?si=Rf6z6euDx4Rkry6e

2025-05-20 20:39:20 UTC

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Because drawn out wars of attrition have never led to political instability in Russia?

2025-05-20 18:24:04 UTC

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The capability of a weapon shapes tactics as much as the terrain you're fighting on. But ultimately, it's up to the people to adapt to the situation and use what's at hand. "People - Ideas - Hardware - in that order!" to quote John Boyd.
In Ukraine, both sides are scrounging everything they can from anywhere they can find it, and both sides are relying on stuff made decades ago. The logistics lessons from this war are going to shape defense procurement around the world for a century.
I agree that the DoD budget has been the US bipartisan jobs program for decades. It makes me sad. We spent a lot of treasure on weapons, and too many of those weapons are now junk.

2025-05-20 17:54:41 UTC

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I don't want to prolong anything - I want this shitshow, started by Mr. Putin, to end soonest, on terms favorable to Ukraine.
Then I want US foreign policy to unfuck itself and stop dicking around with internal affairs of other countries like toddlers with a chainsaw.

2025-05-20 17:13:54 UTC

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A lot of our really fancy tools are highly optimized for one set of tactics in one kind of fight. If your army finds itself in that situation, the weapons can work really well - otherwise, not so much.
But our satellites, cluster munitions, M109s, Patriots, etc. work really well in lots of scenarios.
Abrams and Bradleys aren't perfect, but one thing they do really really well is keep their crews alive even when the vehicle is hit; that's been a real plus in Ukraine.

2025-05-20 16:58:09 UTC

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My dude, it's a testament to Ukrainian smarts and bravery that Ukraine has stayed in the fight for as long as it has, being grossly outnumbered by Russian material and personnel. There is absolutely no failure on their side.
I'm happy the US has helped Ukraine, and I wish that we'd do more.
Seems stupid that our very sneaky and unseen submarines haven't sent the Russian oil fleet to the bottom. I bet we could get some help with that from Sweden and the UK if we asked nicely.

2025-05-20 16:40:56 UTC

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I agree - the US has a spotty record of achieving their stated political goals when they unleash their military. But they do a good job of killing their opponents and destroying their stuff.
So calling the US a "paper tiger" might be true if you're a foreign diplomat, but it's not at all true if you're a foreign civilian or soldier.

2025-05-20 05:43:49 UTC

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How do you figure?
The US military is lethal as hell. My criticisms are:
- the US military has a hard-on for fancy gadgets and appears to prefer to destroy $25K targets with $1M weapons (e.g.: we've spent 3 planes, a navy captain's very expensive career, and roughly $2B dollars to destroy maybe $100M worth of equipment and buildings in Yemen)
- the US military leadership can't make the leap from killing people to accomplishing national security goals (e.g., Houthis are now fucking with ships in Haifa; but the US' goal was not to kill people and make rubble in Yemen - the US' goal is to unfuck shipping)
- the US politicians to whom the US military report are too dumb to realize that their DoD is both way too expensive for what they do, and the strategy skills of the DoD leaders is more focused on spending money than global accomplishments.
In conclusion: the US military spends assloads for a body count, and they are good at it. They are a lot less good at accomplishing strategic US political goals, but if you fuck with them, they will probably kill you if they decide to.

2025-05-19 21:23:45 UTC

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Remember when Serbs shot down an F-117 in the 90s?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_F-117A_shootdown
"Stealth" means "harder to spot with a certain radar". When the other side stops using that radar, and uses a different one, or picks a strategy where they don't use radar at all, the "stealth" is now defeated, and it's just another airplane.
At that point, the issue is whether the pilots can adapt. If pilots are in the air when this happens, replacing the seat cushion is warranted.

2025-05-13 18:57:24 UTC

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fascist cancer "ready to blossom"

2025-05-04 20:23:01 UTC

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For maximum cringe and offense, we need a video of Papal Vestment Trump sucking and tonguing Elon Musk's feet.

2025-05-01 20:02:13 UTC

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I feel lucky that, as a kid in the fall of 1980, the teachers in my district had a 2.5 week strike. Not only did I enjoy the fantastic September weather for a change, but I learned about labor solidarity.
God Bless my middle school science teacher who got his leg broken by a scab in a car. That teacher taught us plate tectonics long before it was in the books.
Weird that it took a minor teachers strike for me to learn this - there was plenty of local union activity in the 1890s (Western Federation of Miners) and the 1910s (IWW), but none of that was inside our schoolbooks.

2025-04-26 04:16:18 UTC

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There was a time when everyone involved in the 2014 OPM data breach would have been fired, too. But in our brave new world, we neither hold powerful people accountable, nor even inconvenience them.
It's all for the best in this, the best of all possible oligarchies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach#Investigation

2025-04-26 04:06:34 UTC

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I'm giving dad the benefit of the doubt because a lot of details aren't stated: when did dad learn son was in Russia? Did he know son was in the Russian army? When did dad file his last SF86? If dad had his SF86 fully up to date and his chain of command was cool with it, then I guess dad did nothing wrong?
I agree with you that, just a few years ago, dad would receive zero benefit of doubt. But now we've got political appointees from both parties violating norms without punishment. We've also got a 4-star admiral court martialed for bribery.
The days when America could trust that our military and political leaders had more spine than a bowl of oatmeal are sadly behind us. We have met the enemy, and it is us, top to bottom.

2025-04-26 02:40:21 UTC

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Dad got his job in February 2024, son died in April 2024.
Should they have re-hired dad after the funeral?
I agree that foreign entanglements like that typically (well, in the before time) led to clearances being refused. It would be interesting, in hindsight, to review dad's SF86 and see what, if anything, he disclosed.

2025-04-26 02:26:59 UTC

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The story lost me when kid was somehow able to go from holding a tourist visa in Russia to enlisting in their military. Leaving aside his motives, how desperate for recruits was Putin that they'd accept a US tourist?

2025-04-22 03:38:46 UTC

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The real problem with the Executive branch adopting "vibe justice" is that the Congress has been doing "vibe legislation" for so long that they don't know how to respond.

2025-04-21 23:29:08 UTC

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Sounds like there's a lot more "Limits of Dissent" to their policy than actual "Freedom of Speech".

2025-04-14 01:35:27 UTC

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I hope to live long enough to see Palestinian Genocide museums built next door to all existing Holocaust museums.

2025-04-08 10:09:56 UTC

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I think it was a cultural thing - Irving Berlin wrote a song about it. But it was before my time for sure.
https://youtu.be/wTIN2GTWwwI?si=1SbhT11TUz3X_NMd

2025-04-07 20:55:33 UTC

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Easter Bonnet? Lovely!

2025-03-28 23:57:52 UTC

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"... I was in prison and you came to visit me." Matthew 25:36.
I don't think Christ had in mind a photo op for the Roman penal system.

2025-03-24 02:26:43 UTC

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defines platforms as businesses that sit between supply and demand, profiting on both sides.
The US has been been conquered by platforms and the middle-men who profit from them.
We don't have commercial education, we have educational platforms.
We don't have health care, we have insurance-based medical platforms.
We don't have commercial social media, we have media platforms.
The GOP and DNC political organizations are pretty much platforms, too.

2025-03-24 01:33:08 UTC

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I'm no expert, but I think maybe America has done for higher education what it's done for medical care. We set a useful (negative) example for the rest of the world.
After we're destroyed from self-inflicted fascism, I hope we remember our mistakes and build something better next time.

2025-03-23 20:21:47 UTC

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Administrators and the professional sports staff.

2025-03-08 03:02:37 UTC

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I stole that from someone much smarter than me.
Which one? I am too dumb to remember - sorry 😭

2025-03-08 02:31:32 UTC

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"spicy autocomplete"

2025-03-08 02:26:56 UTC

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*This is what makes them so dangerous in that their generalizations are "truthy" enough to be convincing but not reliable enough to be trusted.*
You'd think the people most afraid of losing their jobs to something with those characteristics would be politicians, executives, financial advisors, and religious leaders.

2025-03-05 04:23:45 UTC

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*"You discuss the topics at hand, you make a decision, you carry out the decision, you learn from what happen, and you discuss whether you need to adapt. Rinse and repeat."*
Is there a name for this? If not, I nominate "democratic empiricism".

2025-02-24 12:54:50 UTC

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Is Zelensky's attitude perfect? I doubt it - I'd be cranky, too, 3 years after being invaded, having to go on world tours to beg and borrow for the tools to fight back and still burying hundreds of thousands of his fellows. And now that Ukraine is in a good bargaining position, his largest supplier suddenly spouts nonsense about Ukraine starting the war and demands mineral rights.
But is Zelensky's attitude hurting Ukraine? I'd rate it a 2 on a scale of 0-10. What hurts Ukraine is Russian artillery and missiles, which I'd give a solid 7.5 out of 10.
Zelensky's attitude has provided all of the materiel that has kept Ukraine in the fight and led to painful, unsustainable Russian casualties, plus an embarrassing loss of Russian territory.
Russia has emptied its prisons - literally closing empty ones. Russia is letting arrested men enlist instead of going to trial. Russia is giving federal and local signing bonuses to enlistees, plus debt forgiveness, up to about $100K, which in their economy is around $1M in buying power. Russia has cut short officer training so officers leading infantry are as young as 21, while the average age of the enlisted they lead is creeping towards 40, with some in their 60s.
Russia will bleed out before Ukraine will, as long as the west continues to supply artillery shells and missiles. Mr. Putin would not be twisting Mr. Trump's balls so tightly to get Ukraine to give up if Russia was in a better tactical position.
Highly recommended: warning - lots of numbers.
https://youtu.be/Ja6-espHVSE?si=3qbzrCTlwzOuGKNk

2025-02-08 11:07:38 UTC

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I don't think Mr. Musk and his Hitler Youth need to pimp a zip file on the darknet - Mr. Musk can just provide excerpts to his X investment partners (Jack Dorsey, Andreesen Horowitz, Prince Talal bin Saud, and other VC) in exchange for them not asking Mr. Musk to personally repay the difference between what they invested in 2023 and what X is worth today.
All of those chuckleheads could likely make use of very accurate US citizen demographic and financial data in their other companies, or could target certain citizens for special interest (e.g., Saudi Arabia might want to know what engineers are working on the F-35 or NGAD programs that congress won't sell to them), and compare those names with credit scores to see who might be worth talking with.

2025-01-27 09:12:32 UTC

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Bummer. I'll miss Coffee Crisp.

2025-01-27 09:00:48 UTC

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Oh, well, yeah. Weird that I couldn't tell a non-citizen from a DNC apologist.
You and Canada aren't fucked yet, but I assume your fucking is in the mail and will arrive anon. The good news is I don't recall Austria being firebombed in WW2 - you might do OK. Please welcome my fellow Americans when they start fleeing there.

2025-01-27 08:46:57 UTC

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No, I assume that there must be opposition *now*.
Weird that you don't assume that Democrats should lead it.

2025-01-27 08:36:26 UTC

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I'm a lefty and I held my nose and voted for Harris - more fool me.
But that no longer matters, and Harris and Walz have fucked back off to where ever. There are real problem right now. Now what?
If the Dems want to be useful, they'd best show some fucking leadership. Now or never, if they want to not be the next Dixiecrats and Know-Nothings and Whigs and Bull Moose on the trash heap of failed US political parties.

2025-01-27 06:35:25 UTC

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Mr. Biden supported genocide for 207 weeks, and negotiated a ceasefire for 1 week. And suddenly, 80M people didn't vote for his designated replacement. And that's their fault? THOSE DARN IDEALISTIC LEFTIES.
The DNC is out of touch with the people they relied on for votes. They catered to their donors, and browbeat their voters. And their formula failed so badly in 2025 that they lost to a convicted felon.
You can complain about the election results now, but it won't change the situation.
Any DNC grand plan to unfuck the world that Trump and his shitheads are fucking up? Or can we safely ignore the DNC while we deal with the immediate problems?

2025-01-27 00:24:24 UTC

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Ever been driving on the freeway when your car's engine dies? You've got no power, but you need to find a soft landing. That's the DNC right now.
DNC has been following the donors so long that they are in shock and disarray that their "loyal" donors have bent their knees for Mr. Trump.
This is to be expected after losing an incumbent election to a convicted felon. Obsolete parties die off, like the Whigs and the Know Nothings and the Dixiecrats have done.
Who knows, our New Whigs might try supporting majority policies while their party slows down and dies on the side of the road.

2025-01-16 22:18:05 UTC

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2 months after high school I went straight into the Navy. It was 1983. My take home was $440.
Thank you all for your service. Lol.

2025-01-11 12:34:47 UTC

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The CIA calls it "outsourcing".

2025-01-10 08:20:36 UTC

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Only midnight here - and I'm enjoying my decaf :)

2025-01-10 06:05:49 UTC

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Ridiculous hats like those will definitely make them easier targets.

2025-01-07 21:54:51 UTC

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As long as the US has had a foreign policy, that's been our foreign policy.

2025-01-05 20:44:29 UTC

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*Alfred Thayer Mahan enters the chat...*

2024-12-31 01:03:38 UTC

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I'm stunned. This is way fucked up.

2024-12-31 00:43:43 UTC

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Silicon Valley relies on exploiting H1B tech labor the same way the central and imperial valleys rely on exploiting undocumented ag labor.
The only tech companies I've worked at the didn't have H1B working their asses off for less than their coworkers were the companies too small to have HR people to file the H1B paperwork, or the defense companies who only hired folks with security clearances.
I'm hoping the divide between the MAGA owners and the MAGA voters widens until that party splits like a rotten tree in a storm. Look at the fighting now, and Trump hasn't even taken office.

2024-12-22 06:23:02 UTC

And in other news... Idaho whooping cough infection rates are more than 10x last year's rate, and in what must be the world's least surprising coincidence, Idaho student vaccination rates for pertussis are the lowest in the nation at 81%.
The school of hard knocks has the highest tuition costs of any education, but some people just will not learn anywhere else.
https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/community/boise/article297402117.html