CharonY

Both tend to be related. Wittgenstein has argued that language is our key tool to construct reality, or at least our understanding of it. Limiting it, as explored in Orwell's 1984 would also limit our experience of reality. The cons have taken that as an instruction manual, after heavily projecting that the libs are doing it for nefarious purposes such as addressing systemic inequality. Instead, they are doing it to combat important things, like drinking water.

Yes, but that has probably more economic reasons. I believe in China abortion is widely legal (though there are some difficult relationships due to the one-child policy and resulting overabundance of boys relative to girls). Also, rather than banning abortions, they have create incentives, such as subsidies and other support to ease affordability (whether those are effective is probably another discussion). It is possible that things are changing, but I think the context for now at least is a bit different.

It is not only a dictator thing. It is part of the manosphere, where it is considered manly to impregnate women. Musk is a poster child for that. We are living in the stupidest version of a man's world.

It is also a very aggressive variant of the classic spin. Except that with the help of the amplifying powers of the internet, the more emotionally loaded version at some point seems to overwrite the original context, if that makes sense.

Yeah, I assume it falls under the same category as the claim that no confidential information was shared. That being said, as the administration changes rules on a whim with no relationship to evidence or reality, it probably does not matter.

General speaking, when it comes to risk management of biological agents, the models are typically not quantitative. If you run a biosafety lab, for example, it is expected to be as close to zero risk as possible. The categories you deal with are usually qualitative in nature, e.g., high vs low risk, rather than precisely quantified, which, in many cases is simply not possible. For personal care products, including soap, there are regulatory standards in terms of bacterial counts that have to be met. Because of the precise definitions, laundry does not fall under that category, but considering that laundry is in close contact with skin, it is a plausible risk.

Fair enough. It is hard to tell these days.

I don't think that it is clear that Signal is an obviously acceptable tool. According to a warning by the Pentagon: It seems that it is considered acceptable only for a narrow range of uses.

The number of seven was based on directly attributable deaths and was considered the minimum. There other estimates based on certain models as well as excess death calculations. The high end is around 35M, IIRC, but would likely include cases that were simply caused by an overtaxed health system.

This is working as designed. Folks on the top are have tweaked the system to avoid accountability and part of it is firing the folks below. Ablative armor, so to speak.

If you are referring to COVID-19, it is a) unrelated to influenza, b) caused over 7 million confirmed deaths (excess death calculations show an even worse picture), which puts it somewhere among the top 10 of pandemics. The impact of it was also clearly global, and the best response would have been a united one. Instead folks fought over PPE and vaccines (and then against vaccines). Also at the beginning, there was no telling how much worse it could have been. And yet, years later we keep seeing folks stating how unimportant it was. This, of course are those who didn't lose anyone and/or are delusional.

Remember the outcry regarding the removal of confederate symbols and statues? Meanwhile, universities are warning international students (and are hinting the same to faculty)not to leave the country as they might not be able to re-enter. But even so, yet another grad student is detained by ICE, this time in Alabama. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/us/ice-detains-doctoral-student-university-alabama.html Brownshirt tactics.

So basically unattributed account of an interaction that, as far as I can tell is entirely phony (a quick search revealed similar videos but each with another "professor"). This is astonishingly accurate, but in a sad, vacuous way. Regarding keeping a straight face, he is really good at making very detailed promises (like, autonomous driving by end of next year December, maybe November) and keep doing that for years without showing any level of self-consciousness. But maybe that is because he is such a math genius that actual numbers don't mean anything to him anymore. How does the saying go? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me every time, I must be a Musk fan.

What I am wondering about, is it normal for US Presidents to be so hands off when it comes to bombing other countries? It seemed from the thread that there were some general directions, but apparently it was up to the folks in the chat to decided whether to go forward.

My guess is until people forget and/or get distracted by the other 10000 screw ups and unlawful actions.

They also have started to arrest grad students. https://apnews.com/article/tufts-student-detained-massachusetts-immigration-6c3978da98a8d0f39ab311e092ffd892?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

Again, I will posit that we are dealing with malignant motivations/actions paired with incompetence. The administration is full of bad actors who are trying to exploit others. But they are also terrible at their job and in hiding things. Well, there are apparently some Canadians (well below 20%) who look at that and want to join. Mostly the demographic you probably expect most to do so.

It is one of the more consistent aspects- they ultimately did it to protect their trade routes and there might be additional motivations prompting them to do it. But thinking that the Europeans should pay is basically the same idea as building a wall and have Mexico pay it. I.e., try to externalize cost and bully folks into doing it, if you can.

Just to add to the point, Spiegel just reported that mobile phone numbers, email addresses and some passwords have been found freely accessible on the internet.

With this administration I would like to introduce Charon's Y. "Why not both?"

Yes exactly, that was in response to an earlier comment mentioning that Pseudomonas was a soil bacterium and making a quip regarding soil recall. As you know, microbial contamination of non-food is a challenge (which is why there are preservatives in those products to begin with). If you can have Pseudomonas, there is no reason to believe that you are safe from Bukholderia or other harmful bacteria. Most known issues happen in mostly controlled (e.g., hospital) settings, but it is not well known how much contaminated products could contribute to household outbreaks. If sufficiently contaminated, they can survive in your clothes, and create biofilms in your washer and water lines.

That was the point I was addressing, a proportion didn't believe it happened, a more sizeable proportion didn't consider it a big thing and a quite a sizeable proportion, including geniuses like Musk and Trump have propagated to their followers that it would vanish on its own and nothing had to be done. This is in direct contradiction on your statement (assuming the statement meant that folks should work against it, not that it was a bad thing to work against it). In a public health emergency, having more than say 30% undermine efforts meant that it would spread and kill people, which it did. Now a lot of folks are using the narrative that it only killed old folks and that therefore we should have let it run wild. Which is both callous as well as short-sighted. Note that RFK is making the same argument now for avian influenza. If that is what you consider to be an united response, the aliens would really just to need to pay Meta to take over the world.

Nope, I haven't seen anything that would suggest that it was deliberate. I think it is an error to assume 4d chess if it can be explained by idiocy. We had plenty of examples during the first administraiton. Within the thread there was a discussion that they thought that Europe would be more dependent on the Suez canal than the US. So they were worried that it would look that they would be bailing out Europeans. As they are currently trying to exert pressure on them and are crafting an "Europeans are worthless moochers so that is why we need to have a trade war with them" message, it could undermine it.

Oh you were referring to just Claudius' family, that could be the case, as in contrast to his other male relatives he was not involved in public office (or rather, excluded from it). I am not sure whether it is fair to state that he acted up on it. He also wrote history books, which according to wikipedia might have caused some anger, too. But I think that you are in fact overthinking the MAGA movement. Part of it is planned for sure, there have a book on it. But the execution is not some hidden masterstroke. It is done with incompetence and relies on the fact that people have fractured realities. Even 20 years ago it wouldn't have worked because the public outrage would have been overwhelming. It is both: planned and incompetent.

Wasn't Nero the last known male descendant? I am not particularly sure whether that explanation is necessary. Child death was high, maybe half of all children reached adulthood. And murdering was quite frequent in the Imperial lineage.