The difference is that we’ve allowed a private, for profit company to do the surveillance, and they are not beholden to all of the laws that we put in place to keep the Government in check. Capitalism’s latest innovation is outsourcing fascism. The privatization of all of this oppression is accelerating.

“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.” -FDR

"The Trinidad Police Department employs five full-time officers and several part-time officers. The officers will be transferred to the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office after the department shuts down Friday.

Trinidad will now receive law enforcement support from the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office. The mayor said the city will look into getting a designated deputy from the sheriff’s office. "

Same assholes, same job, same beat, different boss. I’m sure it will change EVERYTHING. End qualified immunity, make cops personally liable when lawsuits are pressed, make police pensions or unions responsible when the office can’t cover the entire penalty.

The laptop is 300+.

As frustrating as it is to see, and despite my overwhelming desire to scream “duh” and " I told you so"; The only path out of this division is to try to be gracious and welcoming when someone wants to come back to reason. So please don’t fight the folks that are trying to agree with you in a way that saves them their wounded pride. Go watch Behind the Curve to see how these echo chambers make it socially toxic to change your mind, which means people get “trapped” by the fear of judgement, so they just stay in the cult.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the_Curve

I just feel like posting this completely unrelated story on every automated traffic camera thread, I can’t understand why I feel this compulsion.

https://cybernews.com/editorial/israel-hacked-iran-traffic-cameras-us-war/

This is Minecraft. Like literally, this idea spawned Minecraft. https://www.wired.com/2013/11/minecraft-book/

VR game. Finger tracking controller mandatory. Basic gameplay is that of a wizard, casting spells. Each finger is an element, like air, water, fire, earth, life. You cast a spell by holding an element and drawing a shape in the air then gesturing. So a fire bolt would be hold fire, move in a line to point the direction, release fire mid throw. To make a fire ball, hold fire, then draw a circle in the air, then throw, release in the throw. Allow the user to make up spell effects by combining elements, shapes and gestures. Combine air and earth, draw a spiral, point at an enemy to trap them in air bands and earth bonds. Paint an ally in broad strokes with life to heal, etc. Moderate inspiration from Wheel of Time, if you’ve read it.

The gameplay of finger-wiggling mage sounds fun. Add bullet time for easy mode/overpowered.

IANAL, but doesn’t settlement mean they don’t admit fault, they have no judgement to actually force changes, and the same case can’t be brought again, aka, they get to keep harming kids, just have to cough up some tiny slice of profit and offer some lip service to doing better? Or, to rephrase, as long as the government gets a cut, they can keep abusing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CIA_controversies

Let’s get crazy then.

You are in fact right, but given a binary choice between war crimes, or war crimes AND Fascists, I’m afraid the right choice is war crimes without the side order of Fascism.

Hilariously, you are right. It certainly wasn’t his intention to do so, but it is happening. Strangely aligned with China spending like crazy to pivot to a green energy super-supplier. End of an era, although no one will admit it yet.

Dogs are not great at grammar and punctuation. They are still good dogs.

The only piece I think you missed is that nation states and surveillance corps will buy up foreclosed data centers for pennies on the dollar to use them to power a surveillance/police state.

To me it seems like all of the corporations and western governments are in a race to the edge of a cliff. All of them see the cliff and all of them know the race is going to end in disaster. But they also refuse to slow down because then they will lose the race.

100% the cheapest, most green choice is keep driving what you already have. But when I did my own math on my projected ownership of 10+ years, going electric was a no brainer on deciding between ICE and electric, and I’m betting that math will only get more in favor for electric on the basis that manufacturing petroleum products is dependent on a limited resource while green electricity is only getting bigger and cheaper. Especially if you’re able to get your own solar power generation.

Zoom out. BYD models are $10k cheaper than comparable models, you’re saving maybe $1k+ annually on gas, and you’re throwing in the towel on $150 tax? They are not available in US because of anti-competition and “national security” concerns, but if they were, the US manufacturers would be getting murked. As it is, we’re just going to massively lose global market share.