Like - I’m excited about sensors that uses higher frequency versions of this for health monitoring. I think that’s a perfectly valid use. But also, in my use, I’d be installing it as an IoT device on a network I control, feeding data to services I own.

This use - where it’s opt in for now, until they figure out how to monetize selling how much time you spend in front of the TV, in the kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom (paired with ‘anonymized’ data about what you’re looking at online in each space) is creepy as fuck.

Why this is unneeded

Citizenship is already required to vote in state and federal elections. Every state currently maintains its own voter rolls. These voter rolls are administered at the state level and how citizenship is proved occurs according to state laws.

Why this is bad

This database represents a breach of state autonomy to administer their elections.
Some localities do not require citizenship to vote. This database could disenfranchise voters in those localities.
This represents a huge target for hackers, and given that every municipality will have access to it, there are a lot of potential ways in which it could be compromised or manipulated. The federal government is rife with inaccurate information, and is often understaffed to address the issue. These issues can and will disenfranchise voters. States and municipalities are better equipped to handle their voter rolls.

How this will be abused

This database will be used to both verify citizenship, and for election officials to upload who is registered to vote in a given electoral area. This will lead to its usage to disqualify people who are registered in multiple areas. If - 31 days before an election, someone uploads a list of conservative or liberal voters from a purple area such as Florida or Ohio to the rolls of another state using hacked credentials, then it’s very possible those people will be disqualified from voting and may not know until they try to cast their ballot - shifting the balance of the election.
With the Supreme Court recently discarding birthright citizenship without clarifying who qualifies for citizenship, a sufficiently malicious actor could ensnarl the electoral and legal system with arbitrary claims that people’s parents were not U.S. citizens.
Invariably, the data from this will be used to stalk hapless people — either by electoral workers, or by anyone, once it has been hacked.
And, speculatively - what happens if the scope of this morphs to a ‘voter eligibility’ database, where it tries to ascertain if someone is eligible to vote on additional criterion, such as criminal history? Will it be plagued with errors, such as not registering expunged records, or applying one state’s laws to another?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Well, Mr. President, when you talk to the people who built the bombs, understand what those bombs can do and deliver those bombs, they landed precisely where they were supposed to, so it was a flawless mission, right down where we knew they needed to enter.
And given the 30,000 pounds of explosives and capability of those munitions, it was devastation underneath Fordow. And the amount of munitions? Six per location.
Any assessment that tells you it was something otherwise is speculating with other motives.
And we know that because when you actually look at the report– by the way It was a top-secret report. It was preliminary. It was low confidence, all right?
So this is a you make assessments based on what you know they don’t.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And they said it could be very devastating, very serious.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Moderate to severe, and we believe far more likely severe and obliterated. So this is a political motive here.

Each GBU-57 weighs 30k lbs (13,600kg), and contains around 5k lbs (2,270kg) of explosives.

So first, I’m really annoyed they dropped 6 bombs, because while I wholeheartedly believe that Hegseth thinks each bomb has 30k worth of explosives, I’m sure that if I make that assertion, someone will “well, ackschually” me that 5x6=30 and say he’s technically correct.

But second, his lie is fucking stupid. So they saw a report that said the strikes were ineffective and they knew exactly what was being referenced when the reporter brought it up, but they’re saying the report is ‘wrong and low confidence’ because it disagrees with how they think things should have happened.
You’d think a man that drinks like that has played cards. Does he only play poker with people that let him win? Has he never bluffed before? No guile, no finesse. Just vacant stupidity.
I wonder what the WH doc has them on this time around.

80% of U.S. states have made marijuana decriminalized or legal for medical or recreational use. As far as I know, many of these states require some form of registry or documentation when legally purchasing marijuana.

Marijuana isn’t federally legal. If the federal government got its hands on state buyer registries, they basically have a cheat code to subjugate vast swaths of the population under threat of legal action.

I hope that states will take the necessary actions to protect their citizens.

My wife and I (both with ADHD) do both, and alternate who is doing which. We’re on the same page about 75% of the time, and practicing our communication skills the rest of the time.

This has been interesting to watch: Hegseth is apparently running against the grain or considered untrustworthy. Gabbard is expressing contrary opinions to the media. Tucker Carlson is part of the media resistance on this issue. Marjorie Taylor Greene is also opposed to the extent that she tries for express thought.

It’s a who’s who of people that carry water for Russia in the U.S. Of course Russia doesn’t want the U.S. at war with its primary military partner and missile/drone supplier. Sorta funny and sad to see all of them so desperately crawl out of the shadows to reveal their real masters.

Trump quoted Galaxy Quest for his “big line”

Tim Allen did it better while doing an okay job portraying a mediocre TV actor.

Ah, I see. That is much clearer.

The testimony given is that Gamboa had pulled out his weapon while hidden behind a barrier, and was in a firing position while running into the crowd is supported the video. At the very beginning of the video, it shows him walking, then running, while holding the weapon in his right hand.
I guess if he ducked away to surreptitiously pull the weapon out, he should have… I don’t know, slung it, rather than held it, and responded to the folks who drew on him, rather than try to run into the crowd.
I wouldn’t have stepped out of cover with my hands on it if that were the case. But also, if I were open carrying, I wouldn’t be wearing a ski mask.
Nothing about his actions read proper to me.

I would argue he should have carried his rifle the whole time and not concealed it in a bag and pulled it out amidst the crowd before I consider the jumpiness of the person trying to keep the crowd safe.

What video?
The traffic cam video? The detail on that is horrific. I would not attempt to create any theories from that.

If there’s other video to support your statements, can you link it?

I’d say that his actions were not legal or sanctioned. He had the rifle concealed in a carrying case, which he waited until he was middle of a crowd, whereupon he removed it, and regardless of whether or not his handling of the weapon met the legal definition of brandishing it, he still handled it in a manner that incited panic.
If he wanted to open carry, he should have had the firearm openly carried the entire time he was at the protest (including his outside approach to it) and he should have never put his hands on the weapon.

I don’t do a lot of design anymore, but I still wind up working on data visualizations a fair amount.
It’s both subversive and satisfying how well the various LGBTQ+ flag color combinations work when creating stacked area charts.

Or the designer knew exactly what they were doing and pulled one over on leadership.

I haven’t seen someone suggest the designer knew this looked like the Russian flag and left it in there as a tongue in cheek criticism/metacommentary, but that’s what I would do.

Edit: Skimming. Posted entirely wrong takeaway.

New takeaway? Just being bullies.

I knew a guy who - about 20 years ago, slept with both women in a lesbian relationship. As in - they cheated on each other with him. And somehow they formed a workable triad out of that that was pretty darn stable for like 10 years. Until he got caught cheating on them (after months, apparently) with someone in their social group - a younger, monogamous, ‘party girl’-type woman.
He didn’t want to break up with anyone, and all of them refused to ‘give up’ so now (10 years after cheating) he has two relationships - the triad, the “new” one, two houses, and now a kid with each woman.

He looks and acts sort of like a grown up version of Max from A Goofy Movie (Goofy’s son), is still ‘fixing’ the muscle car he bought in his college years, and has a 99% complete collection of every edition of Playboy magazine.

But to answer your question of what a guy with 3 (or more) wives should look like? Bill Paxton, circa 2011.

I don’t think we’re talking about the same kind of crime here.

I’m talking about theft, you’re talking about financial terrorism.

There’s no grift to be had in destroying the value of the currency you are attempting to steal unless you transform it into something else that has or retains value after your crime has been committed, such as gold, other currency, or stable crypto (the latter two of which are easily exchangeable for crypto before the dump happens).

I think even Trump might understand that if he steals all the dollars but that means all the dollars will no longer have value, that he will no longer have valuable dollars.

We’re not dealing with the Joker here. We’re dealing with a 80’s businessman who fried his brain with coke and laundered Russian money and is stuck in those glory days as he descends into dementia. Now he’s a puppet with his hand in too many cookie jars, and an hand or two in his own ‘cookie jar’ and all he wants is MORE.

I’m talking an actual transfer of federal funds and pretending it’s legit, like the proposed strategic crypto reserve/sovereign wealth fund.
The previous ones were personal grift, paid for by willing idiots.

They could still actually rob Fort Knox and directly invest the U.S. treasury into a crypto pump and dump scheme.

I feel that in my area the driving culture has become so toxic that there’s a better than average chance that indicating a lane change (which I always do) will lead to the vehicle in the lane you’re attempting to change into accelerating to prevent you from ‘getting in front of them.’
It’s so frustrating (and dangerous!). It seems that a lot of folks feel entitled to the road, or the patch of road in front of their car fro as long as the eye can see, and are willing to behave irrationally regarding it.

I feel that telegraphing that your vehicle is slowing down (for any purpose) will lead to overconfidence or even willful misunderstanding by other drivers. A careful slow-down will turn to panic as they try to take advantage of the situation. I also think that drivers will focus on the vehicles too much, and will not focus on things like pedestrians or perhaps why your car is slowing down, and wind up contributing to the problem.

You are a light in the darkness.

Right! I can’t wait to hear about all the new historical events!

I wonder if anyone witnessed the burning of the Library of Alexandria and felt a similar sense of despair for the future of knowledge.