The real question is: why is the US involved in any of this - or indeed any war anywhere, beyond applying international sanctions against rogue countries along with other nations at the behest of the UN.

Fuck the US’s self-assigned role as the world’s police. Just like the real police, it’s doing more harm than good.

Small instances probably aren’t for you

I’m sorry but… no.

Look, I’m a child of the 70’s, I know what shite internet feels like and I’m a patient man. Hell, half of the reason why I stick to SDF is exactly because I’m patient (the other half being because SDF defederates almost no other instances and I appreciate that).

But I’m running a BBS with 32 lines and quite a few users (yes, old-stylee, with modems) and also a few Echolink repeaters for hams, and I provide better service and better uptime than SDF most of the time. And it’s just me, myself and I with little time to spare after work.

I’m glad you’re satisfied with SDF. My bar is a bit higher than yours apparently, yet goodness knows I’m not demanding…

The millionaires I’m talking about are the millionaires from the eighties who partied with Epstein and all knew who he was and what he was doing. Hell, his fucking private jet was nicknamed the Lolita Express…

A million in the eighties was a lot of money. It got you 4k of snow tops.

Does this public-private partnership truly benefit the public?

It never does: whenever public services are delegated to private companies on the promise that they’ll run them better for cheaper, it holds true for 2 or 3 years, and then the service degrades and becomes more expensive because the shareholders are greedy and they know they’ve captured the market.

Case in point: private highways in France that cost you a fortune, railway services in the UK that are always late or cancelled, healthcare in Finland which is even worse than the UK’s despite being a Scandinavian country, and of course almost everything in the US.

Yeah, I really feel for those poor innocent millionaires who associated with a known pedo totally in good faith.

People who voted for this shit, knowing full well who Trump was and what he did, lost the right to open their trap about the consequences the minute they cast their ballots.

Fuck you funny man.

I made a donation once, with the idea of making one every year, because I believe in paying for the things I use, and particularly small-time, old-style services like SDF.

But the plain and sad reality is, most of the things I DON’T pay for work much better than SDF services.

So yes, it truly was money poorly spent. It wasn’t much money and it didn’t make a dent in my quality of life in any way, but that’s just what it was - money poorly spent.

My one donation will remain a single donation until SDF services improve to the point when I can convince myself that the occasional slowness and downtime are reasonable for a small gig like SDF. Sadly, it’s not even up to that standard, and has never been in the 2 years since I’ve joined: it’s more slowness and downtime than it is working normally.

SDF had been nothing short of terrible for me for the 2 years I’ve been using it. It’s easily in the top spot for worst money I’ve ever spent on anything. And I’m not talking about just Lemmy…

The only reason I’m still here is inertia. But I have a shadow account on Sopuli and I’m getting awfully close to switching for good.

It’s different this time around.

The previous attempts were about freeing themselves from an abusive unprincipled data-hungry big data monopoly,

This attempt is about freeing themselves from an abusive unprincipled data-hungry big data monopoly operating in a fascist country and in cahoots with the regime.

I reckon it’s serious this time.

Consisting his poor command of English, he must be impressed by anybody who uses it correctly.

how can she call herself a Christian and be in the MAGA cult?

If she’s a MAGA christian, she’s in two cults.

The obvious answer to your question is that she’s prone to falling prey to cults.

deleted by creator

Proving once again, if there was still a need, that MAGAts aren’t the brightest candles on the chandelier.

Well, FEMA funds are being redirected towards building concentration camps in the Everglades. Whatcha gon do without any money?

alas, someone bright and intelligent somewhere probably already fed your credit card alongside all your other customer information into it

Well, you’re probably right there…

Our city has had a fleet of electric BYD buses for the past year and a half and they’re great! Whenever I have to ride one of the old diesel buses still operating on the less-traveled lines, it feels like a downgrade.

But their range isn’t all that great. I asked a driver, and he said that yes, in theory, they can drive 300 to 400 km on a charge. But the reality is, because of heating in the winter (and we have VERY cold winters here) and A/C during our short summers, the buses do 150 to 200 km at the most, and the city basically had to purchase an extra bus for every one on the road, the other being charged at the depot.

How is this Linux news? It’s barely tech news.

AI learning your credit card number is a recipe for someone to make it spew it out in the future. No thanks.

Is there anything in the US that gets better?

Immigrants are just the first wave of scapegoats.

I refer you to Martin Niemöller’s famous confession:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

ICE is the modern American SS. They just need an excuse to arrest people arbitrarily - until they don’t need an excuse no more.