Michael

Maybe there would be more than Side A and Side B if we had voting reform and Democrats didn’t systematically sue third-parties off the ballot.

People (not just authoritarians) criticize Side A because they have way more tallies than most have been led to believe. Everybody who pays any amount of attention knows that Side B has a lot of tallies. What good comes out of specifically pointing out the tallies of Side B when literally everybody on non-conservative social media is blasted with the knowledge of those tallies? If you want somebody to preach to the choir or inform you about Side B’s tallies, just ask. If you think people paying attention to or being informed about Side A’s tallies is dangerous and harmful, just say so.

Side A tolerates third-world exploitation (labor, resources, goods) that the US economy still relies on, they tolerate the US economy still relying on slavery and child slavery, they tolerate or support US imperialism and regime change, they refuse to address or come up with solutions for the fresh water crisis (by 2030, demand will exceed supply by 40%), they refuse to properly address many issues that the US people face (the economy, the housing crisis, the health care crisis, etc.), they support harmful policies like fracking, they have allowed corporations/et. al to go out of control under their power, and they generally have not advocated for strong regulation and protections for the American people. Yes, Side B is undesirable, but Side A is insufficient.

If Side A’s hands are always tied in a two-party system, then they should impeach the bad actor, push voting/election reform and term limits, and hold fair and democratic primaries and elections. Side A not propping up extreme right-wing candidates (like Trump) and telling the media to take them seriously would be nice, too.

1/3 of Americans don’t vote and plenty of people only voted Kamala because they didn’t want Trump (and there are other factors than Gaza, misogyny, and Jill Stein voters at play to explain why people didn’t come out to vote for her). Plenty of people probably don’t want Trump (or anybody like him) if they’ve been paying any attention and didn’t fall for the propaganda.

Side A would get bonus points for not alienating progressives, for supporting the loosening of requirements for ballot access (and stop engaging in lawfare to restrict ballot access), and for supporting fair and inclusive debates on public property where they would have to address perspectives and topics that are potentially uncomfortable or inconvenient for them.

I realize there are plenty of unserious actors who run for president (like Kayne West) who would try their best to poison open debates and abuse expanded ballot access, but there has to be some fair mechanism to filter (openly racist and insane) people like him out. Perhaps a competency test of sorts with independent observation would be appropriate.

And I realize a lot of people find Jill Stein to be harmful (and individuals like her), but maybe we shouldn’t arrest her (or any other presidential candidate) and put her in a black site, shackling her to a chair for 8 hours, because she wanted to be present at the presidential debate?

This is an unprecedented time for the American people, with human rights and due process in jeopardy. We are facing multiple serious crises with no solutions or progress in sight - voting and election reform, in addition to term limits, are all urgent and necessary.

I don’t care if you want to vote for Side A no matter what, but we can only suppress criticism and stay in denial of major issues for so long before (e.g.) the fresh water crisis hits us and humanity is completely and utterly unprepared.

Northern Illinois leaders consider reinstating grocery sales tax at local level

Seems like it’s going to affect more than DeKalb, see the article title.

Regardless, I lived in a rural university town myself in the past - much more rural than DeKalb. There were plenty of rich people tucked away in their massive homes. At least enough to raise their taxes just a bit to generate 800k of revenue.

Tax literally anything instead of food, I say - groceries are high enough and not everybody struggling qualifies for food stamps.

How about taxing the wealthy instead of food? Taxing cars is nice too.

Everybody is free to express themselves however they wish. I’m merely pointing out why people are calling the poster I was responding to AI or reducing their arguments down to “not containing any rational thought”. Their comment speaks to people who are already radicalized, people who already know the Democrats are playing everybody - it doesn’t speak to the people deeply entrenched in the propaganda and tribalism that the Democrats invoke.

Here’s some unsolicited advice: you’d probably get your point across better if you found a way of expressing yourself with less perceived hate, less name-calling, and less labeling - don’t dilute your passion, but speak to the reality and to the solutions that aren’t being put on the table. Speak to people’s silent struggle and find a way to not be polarizing.

Instead of calling out the US as being imperialistic, shed light to the real effects of US imperialism (e.g. US reliance on supply chains that revolve around slavery or child slavery, third-world exploitation, effects of US regime change etc.) and complicity on both sides.

Instead of calling Democrats fascists, explain that they don’t have any power or energy to fight fascism, authoritarianism, oligarchy, imperialism (effectively making them complicit). They have no plan and no solutions.

Instead of calling elections bourgeois, explain that political teams and this tug of war game is a pointless exercise and gets literally nothing done - e.g. speak to election/voting reform, the dissolution of team politics and political parties that take money from non-small donors, term limits, and speak to concepts like direct democracy. Bernie Sanders and AOC aren’t socialist or anything close to it in practice, but they also aren’t necessarily operating in complete bad faith.

I don’t disagree with your general sentiment, but your points can be more eloquently expressed. Reduce the terminology, Democrats are powerless even if they shift their tune, they are always going to answer to capital, they aren’t interested in addressing critical problems (e.g. modern slavery, the fresh water crisis, the housing crisis, the health care crisis, the economy, deregulation of corporations etc.), and they aren’t interested in solutions. They have no power, even when they have had power (e.g. under Obama).

He never seriously fought for universal healthcare. He stopped advocating for it before he even started fighting. As soon as he got a “reality check”, not a word of support for universal healthcare was ever uttered by him to the best of my knowledge. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, though.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Publicly available information is invasive and a violation of privacy.

We have corporations who have effectively set up mass surveillance networks and they call it “adtech”.

There is an entire economy surrounding “publicly available information”. There are corporations that act as as data brokers and people search websites that compile way too much sensitive information about private individuals. Newspapers systematically report on events that aren’t really of public interest concerning private individuals; e.g. arrest records and these articles hang around forever even if the arrest doesn’t result in a conviction or the crime is expunged.

If this was employed by the government or law enforcement, it would absolutely include data that extends far beyond the reaches of publicly available information — and it’s worth pointing out that the US has a mass surveillance network in the form of the NSA/PRISM.

There is zero way you could convince me that AI, prone to hallucination, would be well served to predict crime or criminals. Even if it didn’t hallucinate, it still wouldn’t be possible to predict crime - only potentially anticipate a crime. We aren’t 2D characters following a script — anything can happen.

Law enforcement is already very unhinged. Let’s not cheerlead the addition of any tools that aid in psychosis to their arsenal.

This is about as psychotic as governments using AI to predict crimes.

We didn’t have internet or the means to properly educate ourselves (at least to today’s standards) for much of the 20th century. And now, we’re finally at the point where laypeople anywhere can simply look this stuff up with relative ease. Though, few do or are aware that common corporations are responsible for atrocities.

Thanks for doing your part in spreading that awareness, even if that’s not the point you were trying to make.

The company did not answer whether it or the outside firm it hired communicated or consulted with the Israeli military as part of its internal probe.

In its statement, the company also conceded that it “does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices.” The company added that it could not know how its products might be used through other commercial cloud providers.

Microsoft said the Israeli military, like any other customer, was bound to follow the company’s Acceptable Use Policy and AI Code of Conduct, which prohibit the use of products to inflict harm in any way prohibited by law. In its statement, the company said it had found “no evidence” the Israeli military had violated those terms.

Those three quotes stick out to me as proof that they are pleading ignorance.

A military is not “like any other customer”. Forbid access and fact-find some more or stop pretending that you aren’t complicit in AI being used for harm.

Nobody wants to live in an age of unregulated AI use besides the power-hungry and the short-sighted — and even those people probably won’t like the consequences once the boomerang comes back.

Let’s not throw the boomerang, please. Do better.

The company did not answer whether it or the outside firm it hired communicated or consulted with the Israeli military as part of its internal probe.

In its statement, the company also conceded that it “does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices.” The company added that it could not know how its products might be used through other commercial cloud providers.

Microsoft said the Israeli military, like any other customer, was bound to follow the company’s Acceptable Use Policy and AI Code of Conduct, which prohibit the use of products to inflict harm in any way prohibited by law. In its statement, the company said it had found “no evidence” the Israeli military had violated those terms.

Those three quotes stick out to me as proof that they are pleading ignorance.

A military is not “like any other customer”. Forbid access and fact-find some more or stop pretending that you aren’t complicit in AI being used for harm.

Nobody wants to live in an age of unregulated AI use besides the power-hungry and the short-sighted — and even those people probably won’t like the consequences once the boomerang comes back.

Let’s not throw the boomerang, please. Do better.

The original source is a verified, leaked email (dated April 23, 2015) from her 2016 campaign. The DNC plan was attached in the email and can be found here.

The specific quote is from Salon.

The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee called for using far-right candidates “as a cudgel to move the more established candidates further to the right.” Clinton’s camp insisted that Trump and other extremists should be “elevated” to “leaders of the pack” and media outlets should be told to “take them seriously.”

She may not be playing now, but I feel it’s fair to point out that Hillary has played some stupid games - the American people reap the stupid prize.

In all seriousness - I wouldn’t because I value people’s privacy, but I imagine it’d all be quite lucrative with the data economy being what it is.

Apologies, I was half-asleep when I wrote that.

I guess every media outlet that I’ve looked at is reporting this wrong for saying he was backing young progressives. Even his website claims that. But I know Democrats love to tease at being progressives to appeal to voters, and then shift back to the right.

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Just because protests aren’t being covered by the mainstream media doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And a significant portion of liberal spaces are becoming radical in sentiment, even if some are still constrained to hoping Bernie and AOC will save them in 2028. You aren’t going to hear me praise anything going on as being sufficient, though.

It’s definitely warmed my heart hearing your thoughts and insights.

I do actually think Quorn is around in some retailers, but it is expensive - it’s not terribly expensive though. I liked it when I consumed it in the past and it agreed well with me. Beyond/Impossible have a small amount of amount of problematic ingredients (like avocado oil in one of them - which I am allergic to, not just sensitive to), but the main issue I simply can’t afford them.

I recently moved back to a rural area and I don’t access to a Kroger/Whole Foods/Wegmans (not that supporting any chain is really something I’m proud of), so admittedly my options are limited. This interaction prompting me to find out that chickpea tofu is available locally and that pumfu is available (though a bit far from my location) is completely life-changing.

I’ll have to get nutritional yeast, I didn’t realize it was an (albeit small) protein source - it’s a great seasoning. The defatted peanut powder seems very good to order in bulk. I had no idea about lab-grown dairy protein, it sounds great and I will consider it as well. I didn’t realize quinoa had a modest amount of protein, so I will have to incorporate that. And I’ll have to trial oats to see if they bother me. I take a plant-based multivitamin for vegans (Ora) already so I should be good to transition over anytime I want to a fully plant-based diet.

I have always aspired to go vegan, and was a practicing vegetarian for many years. It was wrecking my health, and I really almost didn’t know what to do. It took me a while (and many years in denial) to realize wheat and soy were the culprits that were specifically bothering me. So for many years, I have mainly ate fish, a moderate amount of beans, some cheese, or ate some free-range eggs, and small amounts of poultry (which does not bring me any joy to admit). None of the aforementioned (besides beans) are things I’m particularly fond of consuming for various reasons (which we likely are 110% on the same page on), but I admit on some levels I’d had given up on trying to find what agrees with my body.

Our interaction has renewed my interest in exploring my options though. I probably misread your intent too, I know I err on the side of naive optimism and that usually doesn’t result in the best interactions with people who are informed on the state of the world, but damn it, I’m just tired of giving up and seeing others give up.

Thank you for exposing me to your knowledge once again. I am sorry to have reacted strongly earlier too. It was unfair to you.

Thank you. I am very grateful for your insights. I haven’t asked for help much at all in my life and I appreciate it more than you know.

I am unsure what generally causes my discomfort in the bean department. Soy and tofu cause very awful non-allergic reactions, but I will look into this further. As for wheat, I highly suspect it’s more than a sensitivity, though I don’t particularly want to pursue a diagnosis for celiac disease if I can just avoid it.

I tend to do fine with moderate amounts of pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, and a few others, but admittedly it seems like there are more beans that I can try and vary. Lentils seem to give me some trouble though, which is unfortunate because I like them more than most beans.

Pea protein and peanut butter seem to be fine. I will look into pumfu (sounds life-changing) and defatted peanut butter and incorporate those into my diet. I tend to do fine with pumpkin seeds and peanuts, but I also have issues with high fat content food. Great suggestions, I had no idea they were a thing. I don’t really care about taste, I just want to be healthy and make choices that align with my ethics.

You put a smile on my face. Sorry to be perceivably negative, the situation on this planet is incredibly frustrating for everybody with a desire for a better future and I don’t want to alienate anyone. Thanks once again.

Edit: Apparently chickpea tofu is a thing too. I will have to try that because chickpeas are a bean I tolerate the most. I just never shopped at the local retailer that stocks it. Pumfu is proving hard to find near me unless I go 36 miles to obtain it, but maybe I can stock up if I ever have to go that way.