He’s right. There just isn’t the political will in the population to reopen the topic of Brexit now. Whether anyone likes it or not, the things British people really care about right now, in no particular order, are:

• Inflation

• House & utility & food prices

• Immigration

• NHS waiting lists & more dentists

• Train infrastructure.

People can make very legitimate arguments linking Brexit to those issues, but it’s not politically viable to open that can of worms again. They just really want their lives to improve for the first time in over a decade.

There’s also the fact that a hypothetical end to US aid wouldn’t end EU aid. It’s definitely not on the same scale as the US due to our much smaller military sector, but that’d likely change in the event of a US shut-down of aid.

In my mind, the most likely results would be:

Short-term: Very dangerous period for Ukraine, they lose some ground, lots of men (similar to the last time they had a crippling artillery shell shortage).

Medium-term: EU military sector slowly ramps up to meet demand, as about 3/4 of central & eastern EU considers this an existential war that cannot be lost at any cost.

Long-term: After the war is over (however many more years that takes), Russia finally negotiates some kind of ceasefire where they can save some face internally and brag about how they “Denazified” Ukraine while going home and accomplishing nothing, EU is much more self-sufficient and therefore buys less from the US, and they aren’t seen as a trust-worthy ally militarily anymore. Even if on paper most EU members are still in NATO, they consider the security guarantees of the EU as much more important and serious.

It’s not a civil war and I don’t think it’ll become one. The modern US isn’t geographically separated enough to have any sort of cohesive movement locally. There’s no north vs south playing out, for example.

Instead, what you have is a slow-rolling coup and social instability.

As far as I understand the decision (IANAL!), the definition of what constitutes an “Official Act” is left intentionally undefined, so in effect you can only claim this ultimate power if the courts like you in order to declare what you’re doing official.

This means, if I understand it correctly, king powers for Trump and nothing for Biden. They’d just rule everything Biden is doing as not an official act.

Btw, After staring at it for a while I can kinda switch between red and white at will. Anyone else?

No, that doesn’t seem to work for me, but after messing with zooming in, I can absolutely see it’s white if I’m all the way zoomed in on the black and white pixels in the can, and then as I slowly zoom out, there’s a specific moment when there’s enough of the surrounding blue that the can suddenly turns red.

The can remains black and white in my perception as long as I’m sufficiently zoomed in on it without the background. It’s a pretty neat effect.

The 2 Knives out movies are really amazing. It’s clear that he understands and adores the murder mystery genre, and plays around with it in these two movies.

There’s so many subtle things to pay attention to, hints that seem weird or jarring but make absolutely perfect sense in retrospect. The classic big reveal where the detective explains what’s really been going on the whole movie is amazing in both. By the time that reveal happens, if you’ve really been paying attention, you can have the answers to who, how and why already solved and feel proud of yourself (or be like me and only have who and why, but not the how).

Sorry for gushing, but both the Knives Out movies are absolutely must-watch movies if you have even a passing interest in murder mystery fiction.

So basically the Lemmy version of Subreddit Simulator, but allowing users as well?

Here is an excellent video explaining why international EU train routes are so overwhelmingly terrible.

The problem isn’t really investment: it’s interoperability, regulations protecting train passengers like flight passengers not existing, and national train companies hoarding their data like hissing gremlins to force users onto their terrible apps/websites.

Yes, absolutely. That is a concern that I too share, fellow meat being. We should be vigilant against superior, more capable, and really friendly artificial intelligences.

The Romania link is kinda misleading. That isn’t a big government problem: that’s a profit crushing laypeople problem. Both the communist Romanian government and the capitalist government that followed wanted to profit from many different mines even though it would destroy nearby villages.

Rosia Montana is still very controversial today. A different mine, but the same core reasoning and issues.

What is an example of something that is not self-regulated that was worked out well?

EU food industry works pretty well. Incidences of food-borne disease, contaminated food, etc are very rare, and you can generally trust the label says exactly what’s in the food with confidence.

The regulations themselves are very complex, change depending on new evidence, and include all sorts of rule changes for events that impact the food industry.

How do you ever solve a problem if you don’t acknowledge it exists?

I’m not from the US, but live in a country that is a US ally with a lot of military bases. The US election effects us. The fact the DNC is fielding an old age pensioner who should be sitting comfortably in a retirement home complaining about the birds obstructing his view against an equally old fascist is deeply worrying.

Technically, yes. Practically, it’s complicated. It doesn’t really exist within the same ecosystem as other Linux distros.

It’s not as different as Android (which is also technically a Linux distribution), but running a normal DE and all the programs that come with it is very clearly still an advanced user thing locked behind knowledge of how bash and virtual environments work.

There are plenty of new age wuwu types that do define reality as a god. If I thought they had any legitimacy I wouldn’t be an atheist, but the core idea is that we essentially exist as constructs within the imagination of this god.

Hey, just went back to this conversation now that the UNESCO report claims that the highway construction project is putting Stonehenge in real danger. What’s your opinion on that?

Sorry, I edited in the stuff about deists and pantheons as you were responding. What’s your opinion on that?

No, but most people do think of Reality as a god.

But they don’t think He is a god

These two statements directly contradict eachother. Either you think of Reality as a god, or you do not. If you don’t think reality is a god, then you don’t think “he” is a god (wow, the tautology was weird to type).

Also, there are many examples of religious people who don’t think reality is a god. Deists, for example, believe that god showed up, made the universe, and left. Under that belief system, the deist god and the universe it created are two entirely separate things.

There’s also pantheons, where gods exist within their own higher reality with their own set of rules, limitations and powers that interact with our reality. Reality (either ours or the supernatural plane in these belief systems) are clearly separate from the gods operating under these rules.

People are perfectly capable of worshipping, praying to, and generally being religious towards someone they refuse to believe is a god.

What’s your opinion on people who do neither? That don’t believe in a god and don’t pray to anything either?

I’m not a lawyer, first of all! I’m not very knowledgeable either.

Mens rea, as far as I understand it, definitely doesn’t apply here. Bringing it into question undermines the case if you’re trying to build a conviction around it. Better to have a wide variety of provable smaller claims than one big ticket item you’re doomed to fail, as far as I understand it.

Never happening, but even if it was wouldn’t the correct charge be criminal negligence? It’s not like the companies killed those people in a calculated, pre-meditated way. They’re “just” externalities.

Wait… could Just Stop Oil have done some 5D chess move here? Force Sunak to publicly claim he cares about Stonehenge just before the UNESCO report comes out?