TeknOShEeP
6d ago
The difference is that the cop, acting in their official capacity as an agent of the state, performed what appears to be a bunch of unjust and legally actionable violations of his civil rights. Afroman is offering criticism to specifc agents of the state for their specific actions that in his eyes, warrant such criticism.
A barista doing her job for Starbucks is in both a socially and leglly different position. It has been long established in case law that defamation of public figures or state actors has a much higher bar than private figures.
TeknOShEeP
6d ago
Hmmm... have they ever been seen in the same room together? Allegedly theres a 7 year age gap, but I feel living a double life as a famous kung-fu actor is exactly the sort of thing Papa Illia would do.
TeknOShEeP
12d ago
Lol, Qatar is just Dubai Jr. Same "build a fuckload of gaudy skyscrapers in the middle of the fucking desert despite miles of empty space everywhere while relying on a population made up of 90%+ imported labor to do all of the dirty day to day actual work."
And Qatar Airlines is just Emirates with a better marking team. They fly the same planes to the same destinations with the same customers (ie- economy is full of subcontintals on transit flights, biz class is full of rich arabs or western biz people). The whole experience from glitzy airport lounge that somehow manages to be less comfy than the average Scandinavian bus stop to the glitzy permium cabin pods that are underneath the outer cosmetic shell the same parts made by the same suppliers to the glitzy menu with gold-leafed cappacinos and "premium" wines is interchangeable with most airlines these days.
TeknOShEeP
12d ago
Trump picked his cabinet based on loyalty more than competence.
Repeating the leftoid talking point endlessly doesnt make it true.
Hegseth is clearly vastly more competent than Austin (to be fair, a low bar as Austin wasnt even present for large chunks of his tenure), Bessent runs circles around Yellen, Rubio mogs Blinken, and really the only sorta tie is Bondi vs Garland. You may not like the agenda, but Trump 2.0's cabinet is actually capable of doing things, unlike 1.0 or Biden.
TeknOShEeP
14d ago
The lack of articulation is really on the general public though. There is a very long winded explanation involving Iran's ballistic missile production rates and available US/Israel strike capabiltiy that comes down to "either we hit them now, or we will never again have the capability to significantly deter them from developing nuclear weapons without incurring massive civilian casualties as colateral damage". The administration made the (likely correct) decision that such an explanation would only play with the analysis nerds and fall disasterously flat with the general public, and didnt really bother.
As far as the unjust part goes, any government that happily massacres 30,000+ of its own citizens (by its own admission, outside estimates are higher) for the crime of protesting has lost all moral legitimacy, and its removal by outside forces is just. Wise? Dunno. Just? Absolutely. Fuck the mullahs, and fuck anyone who supports them.
TeknOShEeP
15d ago
Mines have no IFF
There are mines with IFF (Turkey and Finland make some), but I dont think Iran has any.
TeknOShEeP
17d ago
Nah, AT weapons simply arent at a scale they can pose any threat to a battleship armor belt or turret faces. A javelin may have a spec 800 mm of RHA penetration, but the 12.1" Class A monolithic plate that makes up the main belt on an Iowa is something north of 1000mm RHA equivalent (though RHA equivalent testing is really only done for much thinner tank armor, not naval armoring). Also, there are a minimum of three layers of armor to penetrate the citadel (decaping plate, main belt, spall liner or bomb, main, and splinter decks) with feet of standoff distance between them, that alone would defeat an EFP warhead designed to punch through one layer of tank armor.
Modern naval ships are much less heavily armored for a wide variety of reasons, but armor not working isn't one of them. Economics, geopokitics, and submarines would be the big three IMO.
TeknOShEeP
20d ago
which have made carriers obsolete in the same way that carriers made battleships obsolete.
Which is to say, not obsolete at all? The idea that the battleship was made obsolete in WWII is a) untrue, and incidentally b) a highly american-centric one based on experiences in the pacific. The only way battleships were made obsolete by carriers is in carrying the role of primary offensive arm of naval strategy (ie- sail your Grand Fleet towards the enemy Grand Fleet, blow them to pieces and then blockade their coast and shell their harbors and raid their shipping with cruisers was replaced by launching airstrikes against capital combatants from long distance and submarine warfare against their commerce), in a tactical and operational sense they were still very much relevant.
Looking at the Iran situation, it would be incredibly helpful to have a vessel that was not particularly vulnerable to drone and missile stikes (through whatever combination of armor and defensive armament) that could cheaply return fire on shore- and small boat-based launchers that we could park in the straight of Hormuz right anout now.
Also, carriers can also serve as highly efficient drone launch platforms, to say they are obsolete in an era of drone warfare is circular logic.
TeknOShEeP
20d ago
Agreed. I would add "How was your day?" is also a way for her to judge your emotional state and adjust accordingly. Most guys (and I include myself in this group until my wife started explicitly pointing it out) don't realize that when we first come home from work, especially if theres a shit commute involved, that we're about the grouchiest we will be all day.
TeknOShEeP
22d ago
Here, it seems that either real insurance companies are bad at judging risk (which would be bad for libertarian utopias), or that the USG is bad at juding risk.
Neither. Real insurance companies, or more accurately reinsurers and underwriters, have certain regulatory-imposed capital requirements (specifically EU SCR II and its UK equivalent) that scale with risk in a non-linear fashion. Those requirements rapidly escalated in such a fashion as to force out basically all of Lloyds from covering Hormuz transits. Not because they didnt want to, but because you simply cannot raise capital fast enough to cover your regulatory requirements.
The DFC, being a US government entity, is under no such burden and has been given a blank check to slurp sweet premium. The rough numbers being thrown around are 75% of the value of a ship per transit, which given the spike in oil and LNG prices will still make for a profitable journey for carriers.
In short, EU regs meant to save an industry are ironically going to undermine it.
TeknOShEeP
26d ago
Yeah, thats Anthropics side of the story, but as you note there is no specific contract terminology put forth there. So we still dont actually know what the debate is really about, and I am skeptical a fairly young silicon valley company has actually done the proper due diligence regarding their contractual obligations to the DoW to be in the position they claim to be in. If I were a betting man, I would wager the contract between Anthropic and the DoW does not contain any of the safeguards Anthropic thinks it does, based on my experience with similar contracts.
Also, someone needs to tell Anthropic they are roughly 40 years too late on the autonomous systems thing. The Aegis system used by the navy has had a fully autonomous mode that, once authorized by a human is capable of detecting, prioritizing, and engaging targets without any further authorization. Mostly because the navy realized at the speeds of modern missile engagements there literally is not time for humans to make decisions. Hegseth was maybe just out of diapers when the DoD formulated its policy on software being capable of killing on its own.
TeknOShEeP
26d ago
The problem is that the DOW agreed to their terms, then changed its mind, then threw a hissy fit and abused the law to punish them when they didn't agree to a retroactive changing of the terms.
I'm seeing this framing thrown around a lot, but no actual evidence its true. Like, what is the actual, accepted and in-force contractual provision that Anthropic and the DoW are disagreeing on? Because the OP and reporting both state this as a provision under negotiation, not in-force.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Recasting is one of those things that is never, ever mentioned by the people who are handling your loan, unless you directly ask about it. Funny how that works.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Nonononono! Making extra payments is a trap, because all you are doing is shortening the term duration without affecting the monthly payment. In effect, you are robbing yourself of the interest that money could be making, and letting your lender benefit from it instead.
What you want to do is recast the loan (which will admittedly require a more substantial payment) possibly combined with a refinance. This will reduce your monthly payments without modifying the loan term, which gives you the interest rate advantage.
Then you can use your increased monthly available cash to pay down the loan more aggressively if you are really trying to burn through it.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Epstein wasn't a finance bro, he was a tax-dodge bro. His entire net worth came from buddying up to billionaires with strategies on how to tax-optimize their personal holdings. Requires a lot less intelligence when your opponent is the federal tax authorities rather than other razor sharp finance types.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Yup, me too. My shorthand explanation is I like the policies of Bill Clinton, for the most part. Today that's most closely matched by Trump, therefore Im a fascist nazi bigot. Oh well.
TeknOShEeP
4mo ago
Regardless of your feelings about Netanyahu's actions as PM of Israel, he is a democratically elected head of state who took office in a free and fair election. This is the first time the ICC has ever been so bold as to issue a warrant for a leader who meets that definition (prior recipients such as Putin and Gadhafi mostly dont even bother to wave the fig leaf of democracy), and IMO sets a terrible, no-good, very bad precedent that should be treated with utter contempt by all peace-loving denizens of the world.
Issuing an actual international arrest warrant because you don't like what the leader of a democracy is doing is dangerous and destabilizing to the norms of international behavior. The only people who can get away with it are those who have enough actual international muscle to shake up the playing field, and the ICC definitely fails that test. Our robed man of excessively signaled virtue fucked around and is now finding out. This is a good thing.
TeknOShEeP
4mo ago
Lol, very true! It's pretty much the same reaction.
Though the subjects are not the same, and that difference is everything.
TeknOShEeP
5mo ago
Is there coherent opposition? You have Silwa, who is very explicitly using this as an excuse to route campaign financing bucks to his friends and family (so technically coherent I guess?) but is putting in the same amount of effort as his chance of winning. Then you have Cuomo who manages to be toxic on both sides of the aisle and is obviously grabbing at any chance at ressurecting his career. Cuomo has some organized money behind him, but it doesnt seem to be the usual influence-dealing you would expect with a standard campaign, just knee-jerk desperation gambles from wealthy boomers not already planning on fleeing the city.
Prediction markets have this as a foregone conclusion, with Mamdani approaching 95% victory chance. I would believe them.
TeknOShEeP
5mo ago
That's because the actual strategic play on the right is not to oppose Mamdani, its to amplify him. If deep blue NYC wants to vote in a champagne socialist who larps at third-world credentialism, more power to them. They'll just be over in the corner eating popcorn and taking notes.
As a result, the anti-Mamdani coalition is a slapdash contraption hobbled together by people who mostly despise each other and are united only in their disbelief that NYC voters could possibly be this dumb, financed by a couple of boomer billionaires who are not particularly relevant. Thus the reason you dont see any coherent opposition is because it doesnt exist. Mamdani will be the next mayor of NYC, and his supporters will get what they voted for, good and hard.
TeknOShEeP
5mo ago
According to news sources, the plant manufacturered TNT, among other things.
TNT has several relevant attributes here: compared to most high explosives, it is considerably cheaper, which means it can be produced in comparatively large quantities. Compared to most high explosives, it is also very unstable and dangerous (C4 famously can be burned without detonation, other military-grade HEXs are similar). TNT is also very dirty to manufacture, and has been mostly been banned from production in the US, with defense concerns only recently restarting production (AES appears to be one of those concerns). As a result, there is limited current experience in the US with best practices for safety measures.
While I am not a certified demolitions and ordnance engineer, I've dealt with them in the past, and this whole thing reeks of: "small industrial producer trying to make many metric shit-tons of TNT without grizzled old guys missing fingers to pass on the important lessons, goes about how you expect." Like the amount of safety precautions we had to take for explosives in the double-digit grams was both immense and sadly very necessary (an improperly sodered inflator squib blew up in an inspectors face killing him, shit is hazardous).
So I guess my point here is this seems like the logic of hoofbeats and zebras- malicious intervention from a foreign power is a possibility, certainly, but it seems vastly more probable this was an industrial accident.
TeknOShEeP
5mo ago
Ah, TIL.
TeknOShEeP
5mo ago
only that AFAIK the speech norms are often pretty different
Yes, 4chan is for my literal shitposting (on my employer's time of course), the motte is for when I am waiting on civilized company. One can have different voices tailored to different environments.
TeknOShEeP
5mo ago
These people are laboring under the misapprehension that their voice is so desired other people will follow them to wherever. In reality, no one cares, and it makes no sense.
Lol what? He is absolutely offering very specific criticism of specific actions. Specific cops raided his place based on an anonymous tip, caused $20k in damage that they did not compensate him for, and so, understandably pissed, he made a bunch of music videos using security footage of the incident and yes, ascribing certain negative aspects to the cops who raided his home in the context of thst criticism. Textbook free speech, and happily the jury agreed.
The idea that you can't insult agents of the state for doing their jobs poorly is how you get dictatorships.
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