donuts

donuts , 25 days ago

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Trump is a fucking convicted felon and a serial rapist. Fuck him. Now on to sentencing.

donuts , 25 days ago

I'm not so sure...

I went into this trial knowing that it was the least of Trump's crimes and thinking that some brainwashed cultist would turn it into a hung jury. I was wrong, and instead we ended up with 34 consecutive guilty verdicts in less than 12 hours.

Now Trump is going to be sentenced by a judge who he has repeatedly called disgraceful and corrupt after weeks of sleep shitting through the trial. He has shown zero remorse and zero respect for the law. So other than the mythology of Teflon Don, why should the judge sentence him with anything less than he deserves?

donuts , 25 days ago

He could run from prison, so there's no deus ex machina here.

When November comes around Americans are either going to be smart enough to reelect Biden or stupid enough to let a convicted felon, serial rapist, election denying, wannabe dictator slob take over the most powerful nation on Earth.

I know what I'm doing. Let's see if everyone else can pass the basic intelligence test known as "election 2024".

donuts , 30 days ago

Well, kudos to the libertarians for actually showing that some of them actually believe in the things that their party stands for.

Even they are smart enough to understand that Trump is a fucking wannabe fascist dictator.

donuts , 1 month ago

He lets the worm do the thinking.

donuts , 1 month ago

We need a better congress, that's for damn sure.

donuts , 1 month ago

It's crazy that you actually think that's what this is about.

Brb, going to the dispensary.

donuts , 1 month ago

Oh, don't worry, I'm with you. I'm from Oregon, and I can tell you that the people who represent my interests in the House and Senate are specifically not the problem here. (We do have some bad ones in the east, but not in my district.)

donuts , 1 month ago

Man I hope you're the dumbest motherfucker on this website. I don't think I can take anything worse.

donuts , 1 month ago

Ok, so... What big, sweeping things are YOU doing to make society better? Where's your list of accomplishments?

The Democrats don't have a perfect track record, not even close. But being part of the online peanut gallery of whiners doesn't get us anywhere. I'm so tired of people who are all commentary and no action, people who aren't going to be part of progress (big or small) are part of the problem no matter how smug you act about it.

donuts , 1 month ago

a president elected on hope and change

Here's a little middle school social studies lesson for you: there is a lot more to the government than the President.

Bernie Sanders could be sitting in the Oval Office right now and he'd still be struggling with the political realities that Biden is dealing with today. There would still be multiple wars raging, there would still be Republican obstructionism, there would still be a Republican controlled House and a tied Senate, etc. And I'm willing to bet you would be sitting here commenting on how "disappointing" he ended up being as a progressive....

If you want big, sweeping FDR-style changes, then elect a big sweeping congressional supermajority like FDR had. It's not rocket science, people like you would rather just shy away from the political reality of getting bills passed in favor of complaining online, and it's getting boring.

donuts , 1 month ago

If Trump wins I'm going to be too preoccupied with the climate disaster and end of American democracy (in that order) to give a single fuck about what happens in Gaza, Ukraine, or anywhere else.

donuts , 1 month ago

That's the scary part... If you have been following the Republican Party recently, you'll realize that he is reading the room.

donuts , 1 month ago

Nobody is starting a global thermonuclear war over Gaza. Iran doesn't have a capability, NK doesn't give a fuck, and if Russia was going to elevate the world into a nuclear war they would have already done so over Ukraine.

Meanwhile climate change is here and American democracy is in peril, and these are things that actually affect people in this country and the entire world.

If Trump wins, Gaza is his to do as he pleases. If we didn't hold him accountable for his crimes against the United States, I have serious doubts that we're going to hold him accountable for crimes in the middle east.

donuts , 1 month ago

I mean, am I wrong? Should I care more about what happens to Gazans or Ukrainians than the fact that we're living in a kleptocracy of science-deniers who are openly taking $1 billion bribes from the oil industry? I don't think so...

donuts , 1 month ago

He's staunchly against it.

Until Trump picks Noem as his VP, then he'll tell you that it's no big deal and it's just simple farm livin'.

donuts , 1 month ago

If you're just abstractly posting about shit on the internet, sure. But if a wildfire burns my neighborhood down (a real possibility where I live, even now, and increasingly likely as the climate slips into the irredeemable zone over the next decade or so) I'm not going to be thinking about global politics and wars happening in countries that I will never step foot in. That would be borderline pathological.

I'm just being honest. You need to live a life of privilege to have the time, freedom, and emotional capacity to worry about what is happening in Gaza. And, should Donald Trump become president again, he will do whatever he feels like doing in Gaza, nobody will hold him accountable (as nobody seems willing to do right now for the things he's done in the past), and I'm not going to have the willpower to care because, mark my words, WE will have real problems of our own.

If you want to see what unchecked genocide, mass civil unrest, climate disaster, and American autocracy looks like, by all means, allow Donald Trump to take over our country. 2024 is our last stand, and what happens next is a matter of individual survival.

donuts , 1 month ago

Let's imagine Trump wins in 2024. He's leading in a number of polls and Biden's popularity is down, so there's a REAL chance...

Who exactly do you think is going to hold him accountable for anything he does at home or abroad?

Congress? (Maybe in some kind of weird scenario where Trump wins the presidency but loses the House and Senate. Not very likely...)

The courts? (Trump has personally appointed 33% of the current SCOTUS, and we have seen that they will tie themselves into knots to do his bidding. Another 33% of SCOTUS are other highly political conservative judges who have proven to be on Trump's side. And then we have to consider that Trump has also appointed a huge number of judges at every different level of our legal system. They aren't going to do anything to him, ever.)

And if Netenyahu was to kill every last man, woman, and child in Gaza, do you think a Trump administration would push back even in the slightest? This is a guy who sides with Putin and Kim Jung Un. He does not give a fuck about humanity or anybody's life other than his own.

I once had hope that someone, somewhere would hold Trump accountable for things like January 6th, but I guess hope doesn't spring eternal after all because I'm just not seeing it. Trump's right about one thing: he could shoot a guy on 5th avenue in broad daylight and nothing would happen to him. One third of this country would be evil enough to still vote for him, and another third of the country would be to stupid to hold him accountable.

donuts , 1 month ago

What do you mean? I don't follow, so can you elaborate?

Are you really saying that you care more about what happens to people in countries half way across the world in regions that you'll probably never step foot in than yourself, your country, or the world at large?

So we hand America over to a criminal autocrat because Biden hasn't managed to solve world peace adequately enough for your liking. Doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Maybe I'm not understanding something here.

donuts , 1 month ago

You didn't elaborate on what you meant when you said "saying the quiet part out loud". Can you tell me what you mean by that? I don't follow.

“Hasn’t managed to solve world peace adequately” is quite the euphemism for “is supporting an ongoing genocide with billions of dollars of weapons.”

Biden is "supporting an ongoing genocide". He's doing what every President in modern US history has done by arming Israel because they are (a) our ally and have been since Israel and Palestine were both created, and (b) under attack from multiple groups including Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

Since October 7th 2023, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have launched well over 11,000 missiles and drones at Iran, the vast majority of which were intercepted and nullified by Israeli defense systems. On top of the 1,500 people that Hamas killed and kidnapped on October 7th, had those missile and drone attacks not been defended against, how many more innocent people do you think could have been killed in this war? Would you have been happy to see thousands of missiles hit Israel as well as what's going on in Gaza?

I personally feel that we need to put stronger restrictions and conditions on the weapons we send to Israel in light of the war, and they have started doing that, which is good. But let's not pretend that American defense spending in Israel hasn't saved thousands of lives and prevented further escalation. Hamas are a terrorist organization founded on an explicit call for genocide against Israeli Jews, and they killed more people on October 7th than Israel is killing per day on average over the last 8 months.

On top of that Biden has spent more money and sent more aide into Gaza than the UN or anyone else... You think Biden is happy about this war? You think he wanted any of this shit to happen, during an election year of all times? C'mon...

Listen, I don't care what you do, but go ahead and help elect Trump if you want to see what actual, unmitigated genocide in Gaza looks like, because unlike Biden he will not give a single fuck what Netenyahu does to the Palestinians. In fact, just like Trump will do what the oil lobby wants if they give him $1 billion, Trump will be more than happy to help Netenyahu flatten every inch of Gaza if he can get some kind of "deal" (read: bribe) in return.

donuts , 1 month ago

I love Evangelion. I don't love this stupid bullshit.

donuts , 2 months ago

1. My cat
2. Tough one, but probably my cat.
3. Not only do I love my cats, taking care of your pets if your responsibility as a pet owner. I have no love or relationship to a stranger, they don't care about me and I don't care about them, and It's also not my responsibility to protect other people. An animal that I raised from near-birth, and who has always shown me basically unconditional love and affection seriously means as much to me as a child. My pets are there for me when I have a bad day, and they're with me when I'm having a great day too. They bring so much joy and comfort into my life and they are so innocent and kind. Even after a lifetime of interactions I never have a single bad or negative moment with my pets. I don't hate people and I wouldn't like to have to decide in a fucked up scenario like you're describing here. But to be honest, I'm probably saving my pet. Sorry.

donuts , 2 months ago

They should recall it for a faulty design.

donuts , 2 months ago

Was it Trump?

donuts , 3 months ago

Funny how all of these social media platforms that were so happy to describe themselves as "the public town square of the internet" or whatever are now claiming that they own everything that everyone ever posted. So, which is it? Because it obviously cannot be both.

donuts , 4 months ago

"its data".

Ah yes... of course.

donuts , 4 months ago

Their TOS says they own your content in any current or future formats or derivative works.

Their ToS could say they own you and your children and grandchildren, but that doesn't make it enforceable.

If I post a frame from the movie Akira on Reddit would any reasonable person suggest that they own not only that frame, but also the entire movie that it came from as a derivative work? There is a glut of second-hand data just like that all over Reddit, Twitter, and every other social media network, and I'm willing to bet that's also part of what's being sold.

But hey... I'm not saying you're wrong, just that the idea that they automatically "own" the things that people post on their website is ridiculous. It's a bit like UPS or FedEx saying they own the contents of your package while delivering it.

donuts , 4 months ago

And yet that exact kind of data is all over reddit in ways that are impractical to enforce by case by case DMCA. How many memes are there using footage from popular shows? How much fanart?

More importantly, is that stuff not included as part of the data that reddit "owns" when they sell their data to tech companies? Because whether a DMCA takedown has been requested on that kind of data or not, doesn't change the fact that they don't hold the copyright in the first place. How can they sell things that they don't even own?

Something smells. The logic of this entire industry doesn't add up.

donuts , 4 months ago

I think you're conflating two very different things here.

1. Reddit _hosting/dissemination user-submitted copyrighted data.
2. Reddit licensing/selling copyrighted data to other parties.

The DMCA covers hosting and dissemination. If a user submits copyrighted data to Reddit that they do not own and Reddit unknowingly (because, to be fair, they can't know what is or isn't owned or by who), then Reddit is not liable for copyright infringement as long as they comply with DMCA takedown requests from people who claim to own the original IP.

But again, none of that implies that Reddit themselves (or Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, etc.) can realistically claim ownership over all of the data that is on their website. The reason they are subject to DMCA at all is because there is a globally shared assumption that data that users submit may or may not be owned by some other party, and while the DMCA protects them from being held liable for simply hosting and disseminating that data, it does not magically make them the owner of all data that hasn't had a DMCA claim made against it.

In other words, if I post a picture of Homer Simpson on Reddit (and there are many), it is ridiculous for anyone to suggest that they have any intellectual property rights over that picture, that character, any trademarks, etc., whether someone has made a formal DMCA take down request or not. And if they don't own the picture, the character, the trademark, etc., when what exactly are they selling (licensing) and where did they get the right to sell it?

They might not be liable for just hosting/distributing it, but just like you can't sell someone else's car, you can't license out someone else's IP.

donuts , 4 months ago

He didn’t hurt your democracy though, he didn’t try to keep the opposition off the ballot.

Yeah he just repeatedly called the election rigged and tried to replace the Biden electoral votes with Trump ones by means of an armed insurrection.

But hey, he failed (just like how he fails at everything else) so no harm no foul. That's how law and society work, right?

donuts , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

Just because he wasn't charged with treason doesn't mean he didn't commit treason by advocating an armed insurrection against our democracy. (See: the US post-Civil War Reconstruction Era for further examples.)

And if you want to why he wasn't charged for that, it's because of Republican Special Counsel Ken Starr's disastrous opinion that sitting presidents are above the law and can't be prosecuted, and must instead be impeached--which, if you remember, Trump was, not once but twice. Of course now Trump is arguing that he's still above the law and deserves "total immunity", which only further shows that he is, in fact, a wanna-be dictator.

Saying "Trump wasn't charged with a crime so therefore he did nothing wrong" and "Trump can't be charged with a crime because current and former US Presidents must have total immunity from prosecution" is very clearly circular logic.

donuts , 4 months ago

Armed with what?

Guns, knives, blunt weapons, tasers, bear spray, hand cuffs and zip ties.

Taking the stand in the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates, Terry Cummings showed jurors an AR-15 firearm and an orange box for ammunition that he contributed to the so-called quick reaction force the Oath Keepers had staged at the hotel outside of Washington in case they needed weapons.

“I had not seen that many weapons in one location since I was in the military,” said Cummings, a veteran who joined the Oath Keepers in Florida in 2020.

https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-florida-virginia-conspiracy-government-and-politics-6ac80882e8cf61af36be6c46252ac24c

But a review of the federal charges against the alleged rioters shows that they did come armed, and with a variety of weapons: stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs. An additional suspect also allegedly planted pipe bombs by the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties the night before the riot and remains at large.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/19/977879589/yes-capitol-rioters-were-armed-here-are-the-weapons-prosecutors-say-they-used

Online sleuths who have aided in hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions say he is the same man they identified to the FBI who is currently individual No. 200 on the bureau’s Capitol Violence page, which he first appeared on three years ago. Videos and photographs from the Capitol on Jan. 6 showed him with what appears to be a gun in his waistband. As NBC News previously reported, that man, John Emanuel Banuelos, told Salt Lake City police that he was at the Capitol and had been captured on film with a gun. “I was in the D.C. riots,” he told the investigators, according to a police transcript. “I’m the one in the video with the gun right here.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/new-jan-6-footage-appears-show-rioter-firing-gun-air-capitol-attack-rcna138137

And I recall Hillary’s plot to get electors to “vote their concious”

The source you've linked quotes Martin Sheen and other "celebrities", not Hillary Clinton, who conceded the election as someone who believed in democracy would (despite being much more popular than Trump and winning the national vote by millions).

Also, you should know that official electors are not always bound. As a Trump voter I know you're not big on education or knowledge, but if you want you can read all about unpledged electors here.

Meanwhile, what Trump and his gang of indicted co-conspirators did was to submit a slate of fraudulent and fake electors to the election certification process in order to literally steal swing state electoral college votes and appoint himself President. Or as he likes to say "dictator on day one".

Here's a list of the names of the fraudulent electors in each state that Trump tried to overthrow.

donuts , 4 months ago

I might 'encourage' someone to kick Trump square in the toad-from-mario-shaped microdicklette.

donuts , 4 months ago

At this point I wish they would, frankly. Especially since the US is clearly going to do nothing to hold Trump, Putin and all of their stooges accountable for anything.

donuts , 4 months ago

Haley’s husband is an Army Colonel currently deployed to Djibout. Trump knows this.

Trump thinks Haley is Pelosi. I'm not sure he knows what fucking year it is anymore.

Of course, none of that takes away from the very real and key fact that the is an asshole...

donuts , 4 months ago

Animals don't have an electoral college, to be fair.

donuts , 4 months ago

I understand what you mean, and people should get a chance to vote in the primaries for the person who they think is best, but Biden is the incumbent, and he's out there winning primaries with like >85% of the vote. Hell, he even won the write-in campaign in Iowa. ( That's to say nothing of him winning against more than a dozen other, younger candidates in 2020. ) Marianne Williamson is the only other candidate to regularly crack 1%, and she's not exactly "president material" if you ask me.

It's going to Biden vs Trump. Two old ass white dudes who aren't exactly sharp (though Trump is most certainly dumber, weirder and not to mention a fucking criminal fascist). For me, that makes it the easiest choice of my year.

donuts , 4 months ago

The majority of American elections are winner-takes-all, first-past-the-post races decided with plurality voting. Among other things, this means that if you are voting for someone outside of the realm of the statistical possibility for victory, you are simply throwing your vote away. That is the way the system works today, whether we like it or not, and wasting my vote by writing in Bugs Bunny or whatever isn't actually a reasonable, productive, grown-up, or intelligent thing to do--especially not in the face of impending autocratic fascism.

In other words, the winner of the 2024 Presidential Election will either be Joe Biden (D) or Donald Trump (R). Of those two, I can easily pick Joe Biden as the person I would like to see running the country, controlling the US nuclear arsenal, and watching over the western world. Again, it's an easy choice for me. As someone who does probably too much research and overthinking into voting, I've never had an easier choice.

But hey, if you're like me and you don't like the current American two-party political system, then I encourage you to vote for democratic reforms like Ranked Choice Voting, STAR voting, approval voting, etc. Multiple states have implemented better, more democratic voting systems, and more will hopefully continue to in future years, because unsurprisingly they are almost all better and more democratic than plurality voting.

donuts , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I'd also say to develop a healthy attitude towards soft drugs like alcohol and weed.

Hard drugs can fuck your life up faster, but addiction to soft drugs can also do a lot of damage. Have fun, but keep perspective. You're probably gonna be around people do stupid shit from time to time, but resist the temptation to be the person doing the stupidest shit.

donuts , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

Whatever you want to do in life, start right away.

• If you want to start a business, start developing it and putting the pieces into place as soon as you can.
• If you want to be a artist/musician/writer/etc, take yourself seriously and start gigging or creating right away.
• If you want to reach the top of the academic pyramid, study more than what you're assigned and start developing your ideas.
• If you want to be involved in politics, then start getting involved in politics.
• etc...

I'm not saying this because it'll be too late if you don't, or anything like that. It's never really too late to change course or start doing what you want.

But don't wait until you're finished school. Don't wait until you feel "ready". Dispel is the idea that you're still a kid or that you're just going through the motions until your life really begins. Life is now. So, plant the seeds of your future as soon as you possibly can.

donuts , 4 months ago

What does any of that have to do with LGBT rights? Seems like an ad hominem at best.

Is this the part where y'all jump the shark and pretend like Palestine is a mecca of progressivism and civil rights?

donuts , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

Hardware wise, you'll be hard pressed to find any even half-way popular computer that can't run some form of Linux. So I'd say just get something that's within your budget. Those x86 APU-based mini pcs that you can find for ~$200 are becoming pretty popular for projects these days. Something like a Raspberry Pi or Orange Pi or whatever might also be fine depending on what you want to do with it, just keep your power expectations in check. If you want to spend more money on something with graphics hardware, I'd recommend going for AMD over NVidia, just because the drivers are built into the kernel and essentially no-hassle.

When it comes to software, especially if you're on x86, just arbitrarily pick one of the reasonably popular distros like Ubuntu, Fedora, PopOS, or any of the other ones you've probably heard of. One of the first things to learn about "Linux" is that there's a whole ecosystem of software projects behind it, and there is a lot of overlap between the software that each distro runs. Yes, there are some meaningful differences between, for example, Ubuntu and Fedora, but I think they are much less meaningful to a noobie (who is just learning the basics of Linux) or an expert (who probably knows enough to bend and customize just about any distro into whatever they want).

Small caveat #1: If you prefer to have a desktop that more closely resembles Windows (like the one of the Steam Deck's desktop mode) you might want to pick a distro spin that uses the KDE Plasma desktop. On the other hand, if you want to play around with something that's a bit different than what you're used to, it might be worth checking out a distro spin that uses the Gnome desktop. I can recommend them both for different reasons, so you might want to check out some videos of them to see what you're more into before picking. (Other desktops are available, these are just the two big ones! So there truly are a ton of options to explore here if you want to.)

Small caveat #2: At this point in time are you more interested in stability or customization? If you want a truly rock-solid Linux system that's hard to ever break, you might want to consider one of the new "atomic" distributions like Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite (or others), though you might find some of their limitations annoying. On the other side of the spectrum, if deep customization and flexibility is what you're looking for, then you might want to venture into the deep end with things like NixOS or ArchLinux, just keep in mind that they can be very technical and overwhelming for noobs. Personally I have been using Fedora Silverblue for a couple years now and I love the stability of it, and I can work around it's limitations with distrobox.

Another thing to consider is just using what you already have. For example, playing around with Linux in a virtual machine, setting up a Linux-based server on one of the popular VPS services, or just plugging your Steam Deck into a dock with a keyboard and monitor attached and playing with something like distrobox (which you can probably find a guide on how to set that up for your deck).

donuts , 4 months ago

location location location

donuts , 4 months ago

"I am the highest ranking Arab and Muslim in Michigan" is definitely more funny than they probably intended it to be.

donuts , 4 months ago

Give me a second, I'm just trying to imagine what it must be like to have so little sense of humor that you not only don't recognize the funny part of the quote, but actually get pissy about it.

donuts , 4 months ago

Soap

donuts , 4 months ago

I don't think you can sue on other people's behalf, due to a lack of legal standing or whatever. She could probably fund other people's lawsuits, though.

donuts , 4 months ago

How about we give our own people a comfortable life before worrying about the feelings of fascist Islamist terrorists half way across the world?

Like, did we not just spent the last 20 years "nation building" in Afghanistan to the tune of >$2 trillion, including not only military training but also building schools and other civilian infrastructure, only to have them just piss it away and let the Taliban walk back in and impose strict theocratic law upon their society in the span of just a few months. Now Afghani girls aren't even allowed to attend the schools that we built.

Contrary to what white guilt might have one believe, there is plenty of money in the Middle East. Unfortunately it's all in the hands of royals, oligarchs and warlords. There are powerful Houthi's at the top of the chain of command who have a lot more spending money than any of us. We aren't the world police, nor are we Santa Claus. It's not our responsibility to improve their lives, just as they wouldn't ever consider doing anything for us if roles were reversed.

If the Houthis want to attack international trade ships, even after a month of warnings and wrist-slaps, they should expect nothing more than counter-attacks from the nations who are interested in preserving global order. We aren't going to fix them no matter how much money we give them, and so the best we can hope for is that they eventually learn not to fuck with us or our allies.