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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by bolverk

  1. The Svalbard thing might be an interesting twist if they somehow work in the whole global seed vault thing. @austingirl One thing, though, is that Irving hopped on a train to get out of there, which doesn't seem too realistic for a remote island above the Arctic Circle. "Shuttle" could also mean a private plane.
  2. https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1ja7e5y/putin_declares_ukrainian_pows_should_be_treated/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1ja7jo2/russian_troops_execute_at_least_five_ukrainian/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1jaeury/crimean_political_prisoner_rustem_virati_died_in/
  3. https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1ja7k5q/nearly_60_of_french_support_the_use_of_frances/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1jal9dz/france_to_refuse_any_demilitarization_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1jad06y/russias_novotroitsk_chromium_plant_to_shut_down/ I don't know shit about chromium, but here are some of the replies.
  4. As wildfire anxiety grows, Austin plans to designate half the city as at risk of fire damage Austin plans to greatly expand the amount of land, and therefore homes, considered at risk of wildfire damage. Council members are scheduled to discuss updating rules surrounding Austin’s WUI, or Wildland-Urban Interface, later this month. This is the area where wilderness and development meet, and where there is a higher risk that a fire burning in a wooded area could jump to homes and businesses. The move would put 71% of the city’s land parcels in a zone vulnerable to burning should a wildfire break out, according to a presentation in January by the Austin Fire Department. That amounts to about half of all city land, up from 38% a decade ago. The discussion comes as experts have grown increasingly convinced conditions are ripe for Austin to have a devastating wildfire. Summers have grown hotter and droughts more extreme. Austin ranks fifth in the nation on a list of cities with the highest number of homes at risk of being damaged by wildfires. The four cities that rank above Austin are all in California. β€œWe’re sitting on the edge of a major catastrophic fire,” said Randy Denzer, a former battalion chief with the Austin Fire Department. β€œThis isn’t too far-fetched.” Old map vs New map Rest of the story: https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2025-03-13/austin-texas-wildfires-risk-map
  5. Given your handle, I always assumed you were from Northern New Mexico.
  6. It seems their writer room has a finger on the pulse of Austin because that would totally check out based on the past few years.
  7. Sounds familiar.
  8. Same. 11-year-old me was especially fond of her role in Exectutioner's Song, which was particularly enlightening at that critical stage in my film studies.
  9. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/21/donald-trump-us-putin-zelensky-ukraine-russia-war-tribunal/
  10. WIRED has had some really fine reporting on DOGE. Better than any other news outlet I've come across. This is basically the story of DOGE. Way too long of a piece to copy/paste. https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-digital-coup-doge-data-ai/ (archive link: https://archive.is/HA6mC)
  11. https://www.thefearlessforeigner.com/life-in-russia/things-you-need-to-know-before-moving-to-moscow/
  12. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-03-13/ty-article/musk-shares-claim-that-stalin-hitler-didnt-murder-millions-public-sector-workers-did/00000195-8ee8-d155-affd-8fec8f8e0000 Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who serves as an advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, shared a post on social media platform X on Thursday which said "Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn't murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did." The post, originally written by a user named "Alice Smith," was shared by another user named "Rothmos," whose post was then shared by Musk. The post has reached around half a million viewers so far. The user "Alice Smith" later wrote: "After the Nuremberg trials, the so-called 'superior orders' defense – 'I was just following orders' – is considered invalid under international law. Individual rather than collective responsibility for your actions is enshrined in law." In January, Musk said in a speech at a conference of the far-right Alternative for Germany party that there is "frankly too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that." Amid applause from the audience, Musk added, "Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their parents, their great-grandparents." "It's good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything," Musk said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier come to Musk's defense after he was recorded appearing to give a fascist salute at a rally held after Trump's inauguration. "Elon Musk is being falsely smeared," Netanyahu wrote in a post on X. "Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust," the prime minister said. "He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel's right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state. I thank him for this," Netanyahu added. Musk responded to the Israeli prime minister's post by writing, "Thank you." Musk occasionally posts memes and jokes related to Nazis and the Holocaust. He recently mocked his critics in a series of jokes that included wordplay on the names of senior Nazi party officials. "Don't say Hess to Nazi accusations!" he wrote in one post, adding: "Some people will Goebbels anything down! ... His pronouns would've been He/Himmler!"
  13. Hey everybody! BIG NEWS: The United States of America is not a sovereign nation with its own Constitution, history, and traditions. In fact, we're not even America. We are Mexico. Also: We were always at war with Eurasia and 2+2=5.
  14. Fuck off, GRU.
  15. It wouldn't surprise me. As I said above, there's a deeper reason why many Jewish groups opposed the relabelling of Judaism as a nationality versus an ethnoreligious group. Criticism of a foreign state can be more easily twisted into supposed anti-semitism and, therefore, be considered in alignment with terrorist organizations that actually do want the destruction of Israel. The redefinition also can be leaned on to make American Jews as something other than "American" and, therefore, more vulnerable to various "punishments" meted out by the regime.
  16. No such claim was made. Edit: Oh, and @CHIEF, are you okay with the detention and threatened deportation of a legal, permanent US resident, who's married to an American citizen and against whom no criminal charges have been filed, simply because the current regime doesn't approve of his speech? Yes or no. Simple question.
  17. β€œIt is utterly despicable that they are carrying out this authoritarian lurch under the guise of fighting for Jewish safety,” Eva Borgwardt, the national spokesperson for IfNotNow, a Jewish group that is often critical of Israel, said of the Trump administration. Sophie Ellman-Golan, the director of strategic communications for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, added, β€œJews, regardless of where they stand on political activism and organizing, feel in their bones how deeply dangerous this is.” That sentiment was echoed during a news conference near Columbia on Monday evening by several Jewish professors and activists who accused the Trump administration of using genuine antisemitism as a pretext to further its goals of deportation and limiting free speech. β€œWhat’s happening on this campus β€” or to this campus β€” is not about protecting Jews,” said Marianne Hirsch, a retired English professor and Holocaust scholar whose parents were Holocaust survivors. β€œPro-Palestinian speech and activism does not mean a lack of safety for Jews,” she added. Joseph Howley, a classics professor at Columbia who has supported the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, said in an interview that Mr. Khalil, whom he knows, is β€œdedicated to negotiation, mediation and finding peaceful agreements to conflicts.” Professor Howley also noted that Mr. Khalil did not obscure his identity. Opponents of the protests, including the A.D.L., have blamed some protesters for wearing masks to hide their faces. Several faculty members even proposed a universitywide ban on face coverings at classes and other events. But Mr. Khalil’s is a familiar face to critics and supporters alike. Over the past week, Mr. Khalil has been singled out on social media by critics of the protests. The dispute among Jewish organizations represents more than just the general polarization of American life. Mr. Khalil’s case highlights fundamental tensions in the American Jewish community’s sense of how best to ensure its own security. The American Jewish establishment has long defended civil liberties and the rule of law, seeing them as crucial bulwarks against the kinds of threats that many Jews fled Europe and elsewhere to escape. But American Jews are also vigilant against antisemitism, and for many people, supporting Israel has long been central and viewed as part of that vigilance. Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, said that defending Jews from supporters of Hamas β€” designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government, he noted β€” is of paramount concern. At the same time, he argued for protecting civil liberties. β€œWhat I believe,” he said, β€œis what the mainstream of the American Jewish community believes. We have always been at the vanguard of free speech.” Jonathan Jacoby, the national director of the Nexus Project, a progressive Jewish group, expressed concern that the arrest and promised crackdown would widen divides between Jews and other minority groups. β€œThere has never been a safer and more flourishing experience than the American Jewish experience, living as a free people in an open society,” he said. β€œAnything that endangers that, or our relationships with other Americans β€” those are all Jewish concerns.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/nyregion/palestinian-activist-arrest-jewish-community.html
  18. This guy wasn't picked up by the police at a political protest. Also, the US is not Mexico. Is Free Speech a guaranteed right in Mexico? Is that right extended in their Constitution to legal permanent residents? If the answer to those two questions is yes, are you suggesting the US should emulate Mexico and ignore its own Constitution? Yes, if he broke the law, he should be punished. What law did he break? The current regime hasn't charged him with any crimes. They've only vaguely suggested, as of this moment, that he's an anti-semite who supports Hamas and terrorism. Let's see the charges. Again, a legal, permanent US resident who's married to a US citizen is locked up, right now, barred from seeing an attorney, and is being threatened with deportation to Palestine, which is under the occupation of the government that he was protesting against. How is that going to work out for him?
  19. Where in the fuck did I suggest a non-citizen has the right to vote? Where in any of the articles regarding the protests does it say that this particular guy didn't follow lawful orders? To date, the current regime has not claimed he broke any laws whatsoever -- aside from exercising his rights to oppose the actions of a foreign government. If you or anyone else shows that Khalil, the guy in detention who has not been allowed to see a lawyer, broke an actual law or refused lawful orders, then okay. But I'm not going to be silent over the detention of a legal US resident because Big Brother didn't like what he had to say. If you are okay with the detention of a legal US resident because you didn't like his speech, then quite frankly, you are an authoritarian. And, if that's the case, then as an American who believes in the US Constitution, you are my sworn enemy. I'm quite serious about that.
  20. Small government people wanting to make us afraid of our own government.
  21. Laxtonto wasn't talking about rights, simply risks. I'm not saying it was "smart," but he was absolutely exercising his supposedly guaranteed constitutional rights unless, of course, he engaged in illegal activity. Hell, engaging in any act of protest is inherently risky for all kinds of reasons. One thing you shouldn't fear, however, is a government capriciously deporting your Free Speech just because they disagree with it. When I was living on a student visa in France country, it would've never occurred to me that had I peacefully protested against, say, the US invasion of Panama (which did occur while I was living over there), I could have been imprisoned without charges and eventually deported. Shit, protesting is the national fucking past-time over there. For the record, I didn't protest it, but I also initially had a really hard time explaining/justifying/understanding it at the moment it happened. And, really, I don't even recall if there were protests over that, though I'm sure someone was somewhere. Essentially, what you're saying, however, is that LEGAL residents of the US should be afraid of the federal government because we just might decide to suddenly act like an autocracy. And, apparently, several posters are again admitting to their tacit fascism. What laws did this guy break? https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/after-we-grant-your-green-card/rights-and-responsibilities-of-a-green-card-holder-permanent-resident
  22. Hey, guys, what's a little tacit fascism between friends? I mean, if we can't equate opposition to a foreign government's actions to anti-semitism and supporting terrorism, we're not going to get where some want us to go. So, let's go ahead and start rounding up and deporting legal residents to demonstrate we're serious about "you'd better watch what you say, or else." Free speech, free shmeech. It's funny; I was listening to an interview with the deputy secretary of the DHS on NPR about an hour or so ago, and he couldn't answer a couple of very simple, basic questions: What specifically did this guy do to support terrorism or antisemitism? What specific law did this guy break? Every attempt to respond was, "Like I said, didn't you see the protests on the teevee?" as if it were self-evident that ANY protest against Israeli actions OBVIOUSLY represents anti-semitism and support for Hamas's terrorism. It's kind of funny because we heard that exact same bullshit from a lot of simpletons on these boards. Anyone here is welcome to listen to it themselves: https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5326015/dhs-deputy-secretary-troy-edgar-discusses-arrest-of-protest-leader-deportations Personally, I don't know if this guy was involved in any behavior that would actually constitute harassment or the destruction of property. He claims to have been primarily a spokesperson and/or mediator between the protestors and the university. Until now, the government hasn't provided any evidence to the public that he did. Just vague statements of anti-semitism and support for terrorism. I hope we all realize everyone in the United States is protected by the US Constitution, including green card holders, visa holders, and undocumented immigrants. This guy, under our laws, is protected under the First Amendment and is afforded the right to Due Process. Shit, the guy is also married to a US citizen and is a legal permanent resident. ***** A little background here: In 2019, it was decreed (Executive Order 13899) that Jewish people (including American citizens who'd never been to Israel in their entire lives) were not only an ethnoreligious group but also a nationality which, in turn, "legitimizes" the assertion that criticizing Israeli State actions are essentially an example of antisemitism, because you see, the authoritarian mindset doesn't really tolerate nuance very well. (To illustrate the absurdity of that take, let's consider any number of Old World countries comprised primarily of a single or dominant ethnic group. Hell, Europe is lousy with them. So, let's say I've got a problem with some bullshit Bosnia is up to, like being dicks to Serbians, and I go down to campus and say, "Hey, Bosnia, stop acting like an asshole." Does that make me necessarily Islamophobic and wish to see the destruction of Bosnia and the Bosnian people? Well, no, of fucking course not. I just don't like what the Bosnian government is doing, and in fact, I believe that its actions actually further imperil peace in the Balkans.) Turns out, though, that little EO expanding the legal definition of Judaism in America to a "nationality" wasn't universally supported by the Jewish community because many actual anti-semites and neo-Nazis think the same way: Jews aren't Americans. By nature, they're an Other, separate from America. ***** Ask yourself this: Do I actually believe in the US Constitution and the rule of law? Or is it all just bullshit unless I change my mind only for when it's convenient?
  23. Wordle 1,363 4/6 πŸŸ¨β¬›πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ© β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ© β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #641 πŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺ 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 πŸ™‚ Daily Quordle 1144 6️⃣5️⃣ 4️⃣7️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ 🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  24. Start here: https://www.surlyhorns.com/board/topic/769-tapatalk/?do=findComment&comment=6621106
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