Skip Navigation

InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)W

Weydemeyer

@ Weydemeyer @lemmy.ml

Posts
18
Comments
113
Joined
3 mo. ago

  • Microsoft CEO Begs Users to Stop Calling AI Content "Slop"

    Jump

  • “We need to get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication,” Nadella wrote in a rambling post flagged by Windows Central, arguing that humanity needs to learn to accept AI as the “new equilibrium” of human nature.

    I’m starting to notice a recent trend in tech CEOs. They seem to be saying “yes, we know you hate it but too bad get used to it”.

  • Dell seems to be the first to realise we don't actually care about AI PCs

    Jump

  • While this is good news in terms of where the industry is hopefully headed, FYI Dell (and HP, for that matter) is currently considered a priority boycott target of the BDS movement. Don’t buy one.

  • China says it cannot accept countries acting as 'world judge' after US captures Maduro

    Jump

  • Faith without works is dead. Not saying China needs to start sinking ships, but unless they do something beyond strongly worded letters, it is, actually, “accepting” what the US is doing.

  • Spain: Podemos calls for severing ties with the US and leaving NATO after the aggression against Venezuela

    Jump

  • For countries like Spain, Portugal, Ireland, et al… what’s the motivation to remain in NATO in the first place? I know it’s a joke to call it a purely “defensive” alliance but those countries do not face a credible military threat from anyone. Meanwhile they are rules falling into place that will require members to really pay up and increase military budgets at the expense of social programs.

  • Trump says US has "captured" Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife in "large scale strike" - latest

    Jump

  • The DPRK is showing that, despite global condemnation, they were 1,000% correct to pursue a nuclear programme.

  • Trump says US has "captured" Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife in "large scale strike" - latest

    Jump

  • I think the whole “we’re taking over Venezuela” is just your typical Trump bravado. I believe user xiaohongshu on Hexbear has the correct angle:

    I think everyone is too fixated on the empire getting into a long war but I don’t think that’s the goal here.

    Just like Trump’s B-2 stunt on Iran’s Fordow back in June, the US operation was a quick in, quick out operation. Nothing seems to have significantly changed on the surface, but the message has been sent. The US is sowing political instability in the region, and it scares away foreign investments especially China’s.

    Just look at China-Iran trade numbers, it’s plunging by 20% this year. Chinese investors are pulling away because they cannot see profitable return in Iran and the surrounding regions. This worsens the economic condition in Iran, and months later, we see the Iranians protesting as a result.

    The same play is being replicated in Venezuela here against Latin America. The US has no interest in getting dragged into a long war. It wants to demonstrate how easily it can upset the political balance in Latin America. Do you seriously think that Chinese investors will still want to invest billions on Venezuela seeing how easily the leadership can be kidnapped?

    The investment’s gone, and the US simply has to sit back and wait for the situation to deteriorate even further, and the regime change opportunity will present itself. But it’s not even about Venezuela, it’s about the US dominance over Latin America.

  • Trump says US has "captured" Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife in "large scale strike" - latest

    Jump

  • I will be honest, I was expecting the US to do IOF / Palantir type actions and try to take out government and civilian leadership several levels deep. While taking out a single leader rarely does anything, removing an entire leadership structure in an already unstable situation can be devastating. The fact that, for now, the US is stopping at “just” Maduro encourages me that the Bolivarian Revolution will continue on, now with even more support from the people.

    I think now it will be a battle of how much the Trump admin can do in the face of international condemnation (outside of US vassal states, that is) and likely increased support of Venezuela from its neighbors. Trump will almost certainly dig in on sanctions until Venezuela hands over their oil. But I don’t see that happening, so I don’t know what happens.

    America is truly an evil country.

  • Odd thought: is Free & Open Source Software inherently Socialist/Communist?

    Jump

  • It’s an interesting question. I don’t think I’d say it’s inherently socialist, as that’s a fairly strong statement. I would say, though, that FOSS really shows humans’ ability and desire to create useful things outside of the profit motive. That we are not slaves to “rational self-interest” and without the profit motive, nothing will ever get done. I think that dovetails nicely with what we know a socialist society can be built on.

  • More Than 20 Million Americans Are Set to Lose Health Care Coverage on January 1

    Jump

  • Whenever I see those crazy, deranged Israeli settlers in the West Bank, I can’t help but think about how the people who colonized North America were just as horrible. Cut from the exact same cloth.

  • Removed

    The Americans

    Jump

  • It feels like it doesn’t happen often, and they paid a very heavy price during and after the war… but this is one where the Good Guys won. o7.

  • Trump Says Construction of His ‘Triumphal Arch’ Will Begin ‘Sometime in the Next Two Months’

    Jump

  • Yes, because if you are counting on Democratic politicians to reverse anything - this, Denali, Gulf of Mexico, Kennedy Center, etc - then you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Fossils like Schumer think reversing incredibly unpopular things somehow loses them support from centrists.

  • What's your opinion on the Somali daycare fraud story?

    Jump

  • The fraud is the cover, racism is the real angle.

    There was similar fraud uncovered in New York state I believe earlier this year, which was significantly larger in scope, and that story hasn’t even cracked the news. Pointing out the racism here, while correct, isn’t at the core of the issue IMO.

    To actual Stormfront-posting capital W capital N White Nationalists, years ago they made the “issue” of Somali immigration into Minnesota and other places across the northern US stretching from the Cascades to the Great Lakes one of the causes they got the most worked up over. I have yet to see a White Nationalist envision a takeover of the entire USA. What they do advocate for, amongst themselves, is creating a white ethnostate in the Pacific Northwest, possibly reaching eastward across Minnesota and Wisconsin. The reason for this is, take a look at a map of counties in the US with >95% white concentration. If you do you will notice just how white that part of the country is (and how conservative it is, if you overlap it with a voting map). They see that area as “theirs” and the home of a future white homeland.

    White Nationalists perceive the immigration of Somalis into Minnesota as the tip of the spear of their great replacement theory. They think Soros et al specifically target the whitest areas of the US and mark them for “replacement”. While this is all obviously ridiculous and gross, these people see it in terms of a life-or-death struggle.

    Just like other issues that were only in the realm of furthest edges of the right have been mainstreamed into the GOP and conservative media ecosystem before, this topic and broken containment. It’s a deeply racist idea that no doubt has a ardent champion in Stephen Miller (who I am 100% is a White Nationalist based on pretty much every word out of his weasel mouth) and likely others in conservative leadership. That’s the real story behind this.

  • it's just human nature

    Jump

  • This is an excellent insight.

  • The job market is so bad, people in their 40s are resorting to going back to school instead of looking for work

    Jump

  • The massive cuts to Medicaid that were in the Big Beautiful Bill passed by Trump and the GOP aren’t supposed to go into effect until after the 2026 midterms IIRC. When that does happen I think finding a job in the healthcare sector will be very difficult if not impossible.

  • Happy Freedom day!

    Jump

  • Slower growth was a problem from circa 1975 to 1985. By the mid-80s, the Soviet economy had problems but none of them were catastrophic (and tbf, consider how various capitalist economies right now have very serious issues but those economies are not collapsing). That was the view of Western intelligence agencies in the mid 80s btw - that there were problems but that everything was more or less fine.

    A former unnamed CIA director once told historian Eric Hobsbawm that had Andropov lived another 15 years, the USSR would still be around today. I do think as late as the Andropov era, the leadership in the USSR had a good understanding of their problems and were starting to put the country on a better path. Then Andropov died and a lot of the changes made by Gorbachev and the leaders around him really threw a bunch of spanners into the works.

  • Happy Freedom day!

    Jump

  • The book Socialism Betrayed is an excellent book if you want to understand the reasons for the collapse of the USSR (Chernobyl was not a major factor, but I wouldn’t say it had zero impact). Or, if you would prefer to read a book not written by Marxists, Revolution From Above would fit that and IIRC the authors of the later largely come to the same conclusions as the former.

    Much like the collapse of the Roman Empire, it’s a very complex topic that isn’t easily boiled down into simple answers.

  • ICE detains woman whose lawyer insists is US citizen. DHS says she isn't

    Jump
  • Removed Locked

    Fox News host suggests US ‘may have to burn a bridge’ with Denmark over Greenland

    Jump
  • Removed Locked

    Fox News host suggests US ‘may have to burn a bridge’ with Denmark over Greenland

    Jump