FriendOfDeSoto
@FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website
Joined the Mayqueeze.
- Comment on Accuweather handling rain and snow differently 16 hours ago:
Isn’t that because it’s different measurement techniques? Mm rain is measured in a standardized meteorological cylinder contraption. If snow is measured in one of these cylinders they do mm of meltwater if I remember correctly. The centimeters are the height of the snow cover on the ground if it doesn’t melt right away.
- Comment on If president abductions are something that can apparently just happen how come Putin or Kim Jong Un aren't in some foreign prison right now? 20 hours ago:
I’m neither in the US nor a US citizen and this requires boots on the ground. But if you want some ideas: organize protest marches, many and often, a general strike would be good, bombard relentlessly elected officials with phone calls and emails, campaign for impeachments especially after the midterms, get people to vote in the midterms for anything that weakens the incumbents’ power. Call out the media that downplays the international rights violations in this Venezuela shitshow. Nationalists go gungho over this stuff, patriots are brave enough to call out mistakes. Protest the Orwellian press accreditation rules at minipax. Start a campaign with empathy at its core, empathy towards the economically sidelined and destitute, the migrants who keep your economy afloat, the people who die senseless deaths (due to gun violence, just as one example). Cost of living, health insurance, social security to tackle homelessness in particular. Lack of empathy is what’s driving this neo-fascist bus and I believe you can be better than that as a people. It’d be great if it didn’t just end up as a hashtag. It may be time to start a new political movement that refuses to follow in bipartisan trodden paths. Start investing the time you do something like doomscrolling now. Get off the free platforms whose billionaire owners sat at 47’s table, checkbook in hand, for anything other than organizing protests.
My contribution will be to reduce the amount of money I end up giving to American companies, not plan any trips to the US (probably ever again considering the ridiculous list of information I need to provide to get my visa waiver), and to lobby my government to reduce their reliance on the US. The mealymouthed reactions to the US breach of international law among its allies and the velvet gloved treatment we give the orange toddler are my concern. Fixing the US is for the Americans. If you have ideas on how to support you from the sidelines, pipe up. We’ll all have you live in this neo-fascist, neo-imperial hellhole.
- Comment on If president abductions are something that can apparently just happen how come Putin or Kim Jong Un aren't in some foreign prison right now? 1 day ago:
I understand that shit is hard. My projection for the future is just: it isn’t getting better. Much the opposite. So what are you surviving for? To watch your country spiral down the toilet? To be branded a playground bully and unreliable partner internationally? Economies don’t thrive on that, either. And economists are dot com bust Lehman crash level concerned about the single minded bet on so-called AI that represents pretty much the only GDP growth today.
Meanwhile the great dealmaker hasn’t brought down cost of living because he thinks the word tariff is beautiful. He didn’t want another war, was so thirsty for the peace prize, and yet ordered the illegal invasion into Venezuela and the abduction of its leader on trumped up charges. Late night show hosts are your free speech canaries in the coalmine. Oh, and he’s a convicted SA felon and very much connected to that late pedophile who shall remain nameless here.
If you don’t find a way to resist and oppose now, I think you will be sleepwalking into an even worse future. This will have been the good ol days.
- Comment on If president abductions are something that can apparently just happen how come Putin or Kim Jong Un aren't in some foreign prison right now? 1 day ago:
The country with the biggest military force on this planet can do many things. But it shouldn’t. Ability and legal justification are two different things. It isn’t done doesn’t mean they’re not capable. Abu Ghraib happened and shouldn’t have either.
It’s not a perfect comparison but you could take your kitchen knife and stab a rando on the street. You can do that but you shouldn’t. Because we have rules. And we have rules because without them soon everybody be stabbing everybody else. And if you stabbed a rando on the street in Caracas you don’t exactly have the moral high ground when you want you tell your pals Vlad or Jinping not to stab randos in Kyiv or Taipei.
- Comment on If president abductions are something that can apparently just happen how come Putin or Kim Jong Un aren't in some foreign prison right now? 1 day ago:
Because you cannot just go into a country and kidnap the leader. With no declaration of war, no jurisdiction at all, not even a hint of a justification through the UN. That’s why it isn’t done. Americans ought to be on the streets protesting in force. Their children at the latest will rue this day. 47 just sealed the end of the rules-based international order. He didn’t start that fire but he dropped 50 gazillion barrels of Venezuelan crude onto it. This is not good bad very, very bad.
- Comment on Why in hospitals, is 'gun shot wound' appreciated as "GSW"- 1 day ago:
Then you’d think wrong.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
That’s at best a piece of circumstantial evidence but not enough to diagnose homophobia. People are weird. People say the wrong thing because they are overthinking it. There could be any number of reasons why they reacted the way they reacted and only one of them is homophobia. More data is needed.
- Comment on Can other countries impose sanctions on the US? 2 days ago:
I don’t disagree with those ideas. Corey has been beating this drum for a while. I’m just afraid this is putting the cart before the horse. Europe and in particular the governments need to get off of the US clouds or they will quickly find themselves up shit cloud (creek) without a parachute (paddle). And I fear building up viable domestic competition will be harder if you reshape the market that drastically next week. But I’m onboard with it in general.
- Comment on What should the next President of the United States do? 2 days ago:
Constitutions are just documents. The US one isn’t bad, save for a few amendments. A constitution only works well if the people in the three branches act within the spirit of it. Once you get people in who DGAF you see all the breaking points in the system that are normally papered over by decorum and moral standards. And those are things you cannot necessarily write into laws. The exception to that is the way political parties and campaigns are funded; that’s definitely something that should be addressed.
It doesn’t really matter who will be the next US president. They won’t be the leader of the free world any more. They will be increasingly isolated on the world stage and dealing with a domestic landscape somewhere between unbelievably fractured and civil war.
- Comment on Can other countries impose sanctions on the US? 2 days ago:
At UN level, it will be pretty much impossible to sanction the US. They’ll just veto everything away. Either by procedure or behind the scenes diplomacy.
It is also debatable if UN level sanctions are that effective in 2026. North Korea kept finding creative ways to get around them.
And these days, WGAF about international law anyways? International law, shminternational law. Sorry, I’m busy. I’m off to abduct another dictator on trumped up charges and then run his country.
The EU resorted to counter-tariff the US where it hurts the financial contributors to 47 and his bootlickers the most. Harleys, jeans, and whisky were the first package, I think. I believe this is the only viable way to exert pressure. In 2026 that means playing hardball around the hardware for all this so-called AI stuff, somehow weening people off of US controled internet services, and not buying weapons from the US - just a few examples.
- Comment on Is "depress" ever used in this context? 3 days ago:
I’ve recently read it on a hotel key card in the instructions: insert key card and depress lever.
- Comment on I should assume I'm not going tomorrow, right? 3 days ago:
I think this is a rare case of where an actual phone conversation might clear up the confusion. If you have the number, that is.
- Comment on The way my fuck-ass pharmacist makes up the remaining pills in my bastarding prescription 5 days ago:
In Japan, this is the norm. They’ll throw each drug in its own zip lock bag but piecemeal like that is all you’ll get. And people grow really old over here.
I don’t find this mildly infuriating. I think this is a responsible way to deal with a precious resource.
- Comment on Could you be relatively healthy if you replaced traditional carb sources with skittles and multivitamins? 5 days ago:
Iron ≠ vitamin. You are really pissing out most of the vitamins in vitamin supplements. And when I say most it’s closer to all of it.
- Comment on Why did an old friend who stood up for me in school block me when I messaged him on Facebook? 1 week ago:
Unless your schoolmate is here, I don’t think you will get a definitive answer. And what people do on social media is not necessarily representative to what they would do in real life. So don’t take this block personally.
A mixup of names has been suggested a a possible explanation. It could just as well simply be a mistaken touch on the app or a misplaced click on the site. That person may have their own ghosts of school life past to fend off and they’ve chosen to make a clean break and not keep in touch with people from that time for their own mental health. Or they are friends with the people who used to bully you and doesn’t want them to spot you on their friends list. Or, while they treated you nicely and stood up for you, it’s still possible they just don’t like you regardless. There are many possible explanations.
- Comment on What are therapists allow to share about their clients? 1 week ago:
Doctors can share the details of your genial warts as well as long as it doesn’t become painfully clear they were taking about you. The same logic applies to therapists. They can share your story but not the fact that it is yours. And if they have a lot of patients they have a certain level of obscurity. And if they’re clever they change a couple of things about the story to make it less obvious.
The distinction I would make here is the intent behind sharing the story. If it’s a function of venting with other professionals, I get it. They’re only human too. If it’s meant as a sort of teachable moment to others present, I think that’s alright. If it’s a “get a load of this shit” story telling and I found out, I would change therapists.
- Comment on Should leftists who are anti-authoritarian use the term "comrade"? 1 week ago:
The ties to “ML-ism” are just as strong as to the social democratic movement. So you can be of two minds here: either you say WGAF what the commies did to the term and go on using it. Or you say it’s been historically so tainted you have to move on. I don’t think there is a right answer. On top of this being not the most pressing concern of our age.
- Comment on Where can I Ai a whole video? 1 week ago:
You’d need your private data center, a video model, and skills with video models. I think all publicly available models don’t do more than minutes at a time and will probably not accept fucking with copyrighted material. But if you ran your own operation you could probably do it in a month or so. You shouldn’t though for a laugh because you’ll be personally responsible for killing a polar bear family.
- Comment on Is it wiser to store one savings in Gold as superior to the average bank/savings accounts nominal interest? 1 week ago:
Gold in large quantities is still a bet. You’re betting that society and the economy will collapse or suffer huge trauma, which will wipe out a lot of wealth. But you’re also betting that the economy will come back alive soon enough because without it all you have is a heavy pile of metal. Gold is also not an easily transferable asset. In societal and economical collapse, gold is not as useful as stuff you need to stay alive. It also ties up a big amount of wealth in one item that may be difficult to separate into smaller currency to use on a black market. And if people know you have gold, even if everything is fine in your neck of the woods, you’re a target for theft. Gold is a good idea if you don’t know what to do with some of your second million in assets. But it would be inadvisable to put all your savings into it. Diversification is the answer.
- Comment on If you had too, how would go about running a Instagram account? 2 weeks ago:
Use the same country for the VPN as you’re in. Same or neighboring state in the US. And then stay on that server. There is always a risk. I decided I would bail on the account if they ever wanted more from me. 2y in and knocking on wood.
Pixelfed is really a lean back experience so engagement will be lower. You can just go for a Mastodon account and you’ll be able to promote it on Pixelfed; they will just miss out on all text only posts for the time being.
- Comment on If you had too, how would go about running a Instagram account? 2 weeks ago:
I have started running an Instagram account for a niche thing that after the heat death of Twitter shifted its attention to Insta. I was one of those insufferable Facebook leavers in the mid teens and had deleted my own FB and Insta accounts. So I created a new one. But I’ve never accessed it without a VPN. To get all the functions I’m running the app on an old phone under permanent, dead man switch VPN connection. And crucially it’s a phone that never had Insta installed on it before when I was using it under my main driver account.
And I’m using it because the interaction is there. In the decade I wasn’t on Insta it has turned to shit. And it’s no longer the app to share pictures. If you want people who appreciate just good pictures, maybe try Pixelfed instead.
- Comment on If you had too, how would go about running a Instagram account? 2 weeks ago:
The web doesn’t allow you to do all the things you can do on the app.
- Comment on what was the worst enemy of feudalism? 2 weeks ago:
I don’t think there was an -ism that fits this bill. Feudalism’s end boss was enlightenment thinking and it had to play the level for a century before it could say it had beat it, at least feudalism in a traditional sense.
- Comment on Why are there so many Christmas songs, yet hardly any New Year's ones? 3 weeks ago:
By most accounts, 25 Dec as a day in the calendar is a historical accident. The boy was probably not born in winter. Calendar problems, ancient Roman holidays, and the proximity to the winter solstice made this a historical game of telephone until a pope just set it in stone (some orthodox churches don’t agree but January is probably only marginally more correct for his birthday).
Traditionally, Christmas lasted so long it usurped solar new years. On the 8th day of Christmas my sweetheart gave to me … a shitload of weird stuff. Mostly birds, for some reason.
Correct me if I’m wrong here but isn’t in UK English “Christmas” still used to describe the whole year end period encompassing the year change. To me they are two close but still separate events with a bit of decorational overlap. So I understand your question why there aren’t more New Years songs. But the answer may simply be: history and tradition. People tolerate Christmas tunes until the 31st and then they’re all cheered out. And NY for most is just a reminder that it’s back to work now.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
I did not have the feeling that we’re talking about fully formed adults here.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
I don’t think those particular comments, in writing and devoid of tone, not meant for public distribution (and she’s probably not running for political office or something justifying higher scrutiny), necessarily qualify as ableist per se, more skirting the line. I’ve said very dumb things in my youth and context is important, even in chat threads. But the rest of the picture you painted of that person is: asshole. So for my money it doesn’t really matter if she ticked that particular box as well. Stay away.
- Comment on Is it a bad idea to learn Russian because of everything? 3 weeks ago:
Of course not. If we blamed the language for the bad actions of the people who spoke it during, there would be virtually no language left in a pristine enough condition to learn.
That being said, tempers can boil over. So maybe don’t shout your Duolingo answers at a full Starbucks. I mean, that’s good advice regardless of the language but you know what I mean.
- Comment on Lebron James is popping up in Chinese videos shouting "What can I say?" - Is this a Chinese meme? 3 weeks ago:
- Comment on Lebron James is popping up in Chinese videos shouting "What can I say?" - Is this a Chinese meme? 3 weeks ago:
6-7.
I don’t know about the origins of this meme but I know basketball and the NBA are insanely popular in China.
- Comment on If WW3 breaks out, who is going to be on which side? 4 weeks ago:
That depends on when it will break out. If it’s tomorrow, China and Russia will be buddies or at the very least will be in a non-aggression pact situation. Most of Europe will side against Russia but might be more mealy mouthed towards China (even if they decide to start it by going after Taiwan and that escalates from there). The US will, as it is tradition in a world war, not enter until much later or unless attacked first. And on whose side? Depends on one person’s bowel movement on that day an no longer on treaties and commitments. One of the many crucial areas to watch will be if the US honors the security alliance with Japan.
I say it depends on when because if we give it another 25-50 years, attitudes may shift. The US could try going for a more sane leadership and affirm its NATO membership. Sentiments towards Russia may shift in Europe, especially if the US is progressing further towards Idiocracy.