sailingbythelee @ sailingbythelee @lemmy.world

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684

Joined

2 yr. ago

I'm no expert on arms control, but I'm pretty sure the industry in the West can only sell to approved countries. But, yes, I take your point that there is always some form of arms race happening in the world and keeping the arms industry going means having to sell more arms, which will be used to kill people at some point. Unfortunately, we still need a defense industry.

I don't think it is inherently unethical to work for a defense supplier, but it obviously depends on the country it is supplying. We in the West certainly need a strong defense industry. China and Russia both have publicly declared their intention to conquer other countries. Just ask Ukraine or Taiwan. Or Europe. Europe can't properly support Ukraine because its defense industry is so fragmented, politicized and atrophied.

I don't know of any open source printers, but Brother laser printers are good. Brother is a 116-year-old Japanese industrial manufacturer. Their printers are simple, reliable, they support their printers for a very long time, and they make linux drivers. AND as far as I know they haven't tried any HP-style fuckery.

During the pandemic, Dr. Oz's private cardiac clinic in the US was handing out vaccine exemption notes to anyone who paid the fee. There was no physical examination, just a questionnaire, and you didn't need to be one of his actual patients. No referral from your family doctor was necessary either and no need to provide your medical records. It was a complete and utter scam. How do I know? Because I literally called his clinic to follow up on a bullshit exemption claim and they told me their process.

You're not wrong. However, it's still massively consequential because if he can be taken off the ballot for the primary, he will also be taken off the ballot for the general. It will be interesting to see how SCOTUS rules. Will they decide to create a new legal test at the federal level? Will they throw it back to Congress? Since they supposedly love states rights so much, will they leave it up to each state to decide?

Each option is incredibly consequential. Option 1 allows the Supreme Court to disqualify candidates. Option 2 turns it into a political contest, like an impeachment proceeding. Option 3 is absolute chaos, since we know some states will disingenuously retaliate by removing Biden from their ballot regardless of whether there is any merit to an insurrection charge.

You are demonstrably wrong. Trump is still going to get nearly half the vote. Potential Trump voters are not just the rabid nutters we associate with Trump rallies. They include millions of normal people who who can be swayed. You almost certainly live in a left-wing social and media bubble if you think Biden is guaranteed a victory in the general election.

I've been in management for about 15 years and have hired many people. My take-away is that standard HR interview practices ("Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a coworker...") are basically a popularity contest that strongly favors extroverts and people with good story-telling and language skills. I suppose these techniques are good if that's primarily what you are looking for. However, if you are hiring for actual technical skills, these interview techniques are worse than useless, they are discriminatory.

Also, HR people, in my experience, are quite under-educated when it comes to interview techniques. I've worked with about dozen different HR people over the years and none of them had any kind of imagination or technical expertise when it came to interviewing. In my organization and in other similar organizations where I have peers, any deviation from the standard HR interview is entirely driven by managers who are sick of the usual HR crap.

Nope. And the "who started it" conversation doesn't go anywhere useful.

btop in the terminal is awesome. It'll give continuously updated temps for each core as well as the temp at the outlet. Plus, it's pretty.

Because everything is racism now, white boy.

Fact: Politicians have positions on many different issues and you won't agree with all of them. Supporting a politician overall in a race doesn't mean you support every one of their positions.

Fact: Trump would be much worse for world (and Middle East) peace than Biden. The US sliding into fascism is just about the worst thing that could happen for democracy and human rights worldwide.

Fact: The US has a first-past-the-post two-party electoral system, which means that you can't avoid the choice between Trump and Biden, no matter how unpalatable that may be for you.

Fact: Choosing Biden over Trump doesn't mean you support genocide, because choosing Trump would lead to even more genocide. The choice is between less genocide or more genocide, not no-genocide. No matter which US President gets elected, there will still be genocide in China and elsewhere. But electing Trump gives a giant green light to even more genocide.

What is so difficult to understand about that?

No, I meant you are hopelessly bad at logic. Your line: "Oh, so you stand with genocide" is right up there with the anti-abortionist's favorite line: "Oh, so you believe in killing babies". That kind of logic is characteristic of teenagers and religious fanatics.

I get it. You are looking for a "third way" to avoid an unpalatable choice. Unfortunately, being a responsible adult and a leader sometimes means having to choose from among less-than-ideal choices because not choosing is also a choice.

OMG, you are hopeless.

Which is actually a choice to help Trump win. Its a zero sum game where the winner takes all. Every vote NOT cast for Biden is potentially the vote that allows Trump to win, especially in swing districts. You can't stand above the fray or absolve yourself of blame by simply refusing to play the game.

I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that what Russia is doing in Ukraine is somehow less genocidal than what Israel is doing. At least Israel has the excuse that they were attacked by Hamas, and that Hamas's ultimate goal is the extermination of Israel. Ukraine did nothing to Russia and has no thought of eliminating Russia as a country. Ukraine's only "crime" was being friendly with the West, which also has no intention of eliminating Russia, except in Putin's paranoid fantasies.

You're right. Climate change is a massive problem, but countries with small populations can't do much about it. Canada, in particular, has little room to maneuver: massive country, extremely cold climate, small population. Canada's actions in regard to mitigating climate change are mostly about "leading by example" (to the degree that anyone cares what Canada does) and solidarity with others who care.

Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine, assuming we are using the rather expansive definition that people are now using for the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The US should definitely support Ukraine, but Europe could do a hell of a lot more to ramp up war production. All the talk is about US aid, but the Europeans are being massive pussies. They brag about sending more food and medical aid, but Russia won't be intimidated by that. Europe needs to convert to a war economy, massively ramp up war production, and supply Ukraine with unlimited military equipment. This is a war whose outcome will be determined by industrial production, which means Russia will certainly win if Europe doesn't get its collective ass in gear. The US should take the opportunity to ramp up military production as well, but the Europeans are a lot closer to the action and have much more at stake. The Europeans should agree to take the lead on Ukraine while the US gears up for competition with China.

I wish I could confidently disagree with you, but I can't.

As I said, your preference is not one of the choices in the election.

Your suggestions are very tempting, I must say. We don't want to sleepwalk into fascism. It could be 1930s Germany all over again.

Trump and many of his gang were arrested already, though, and are facing trial. So far, the verdicts have shown that the justice system is still somewhat functional. I don't think it makes sense to flip the table as long as the justice system continues to hold Trump and his ilk accountable. Taking it to the next level and declaring an emergency would accomplish what, exactly? He has already been charged, so would the point of the emergency declaration be to skip the trial phase and go straight to hanging? Essentially it means outlawing Trumpism, which means purging the GOP, which means civil war. No one wants civil war as long as there is a chance to beat Trump constitutionally.

We had a situation in Canada in the 90s where our second largest province had a very serious vote on whether to separate from Canada. It would have literally ended the country as we know it. It was certainly tempting to arrest the leaders for treason to save the country. However, that would certainly have led to either a civil war or the Quebecois equivalent of the IRA in Canada. So, we persevered through the vote and the remainers won by about 1%, as I recall. We saved the country by the skin of our teeth, but through legitimate democratic means, and so the result was respected.