See the problem is Light didn’t use the thing correctly. He could have written, “while suffering from a massive stroke, Senator ___ voted to pass nationalized school lunch.” Sure, the killing people sounds fun, but it’s what they do while dying that could make the world a better place.

This will be mine:

As much as I liked the “massive brain damage causes conservatism” narrative following Fetterman around, I’ve been hearing more and more that he was always a duplicitous asshole.

Our country needs a way to recall public servants when they betray constituents. Six years is too long to wait.

I think what makes Flock (and Axon, Motorola, etc.) particularly repulsive is the inability to opt out. I can leave my phone at home. I can choose not to bring Smart Devices into my home to spy on me. If there’s a Flock camera at the exit of your neighborhood, your comings and goings are being monitored 24/7. (Before anyone mentions it, I can completely disable and deenergize the “SOS” feature in my car.)

I could imagine plenty of normal people going to work for a company that purportedly wants to use technology to improve the security of communities. A naive person may not think, “wait, isn’t this turning my country into a dystopian surveillance state?” Nobody that works for ICE got there naively. They were selected from the worst America has to offer.

I work at a factory that makes components for electric vehicles, and also sells some stuff to defense contractors on the side. Two years ago, the Trump Administration completely fucked over my company by threatening previously-guaranteed CHIPS money and magically deleting Inflation Reduction Act measures intended to encourage adoption of EVs. Our demand dropped like a rock, we laid off 80% of our workforce, raises got frozen, equity turned to dust, etc. Then the US did Israel’s bidding and started this asinine war with Iran. For a month there was nothing. Then the defense orders came trickling in. Then we couldn’t keep those tools running fast enough. Finally, two months later, the EV stuff showed up like a flash flood in the Grand Canyon. Insane we were almost bankrupted by his stupidity, then saved by it. For my part, I’m going to try to upgrade my gas furnace to a heat pump before it gets cold.

I appreciate the info! A TV box really doesn’t require much in the way of hardware. Have you considered picking up an old laptop? I personally use a SteamLink to stream from my desktop. (Pretty rare that I want to watch TV and game at the same time.)

As stupid and lazy as they are, their main problem is being infinitely, shamelessly corrupt.

“We can’t let the environment be a deciding factor” is a preposterous take. There’s practically nothing more important that preserving the environment. Even the Chinese are looking beyond their borders for raw materials these days. If it costs more to extract raw materials in a way that doesn’t fuck up the environment, then subsidize it and pay for it. We can fund the subsidies with a carbon tax.

There are always trade-offs. All polymers deteriorate when exposed to that kind of thermal cycling and chemical exposure. A metal alloy fit for the job can last forever.

Workers in Detroit might get paid union wages, but many auto factories have relocated to the South where they can underpay and abuse workers much more easily. I just did some quick googling and it seems like being a factory worker in China isn’t bad compared to in the US. They work in highly automated, clean, air-conditioned spaces like would be found here. Dirty conditions and manual labor are no longer compatible with today’s automotive quality requirements. Low level workers make modest wages, but they employ a bunch of engineers and technicians just like here in the US, and they have subsidized cafeterias and some provide housing or stipends for housing. You might criticize the expectation of working significant overtime, but I’ve worked in factories which had mandatory overtime in the US, so that sort of structural coercion isn’t unique to China. Compared to a “right to work” state, Chinese workers have stronger protections from being laid off or fired. The main downside seems to be lax enforcement of safety standards. If the government doesn’t notice something unsafe on its own, there isn’t a Chinese version of dropping a hint to OSHA.

Now further upstream in the supply chain? No thanks. That’s where you’ll find abysmal working conditions. Just remember there are good reasons our government wants us to believe everything sucks for workers in China.

A crossover is a station wagon but the entire thing is raised up for no reason. It’s funny how averse the public is to driving a minivan. I drove one as a rental for a week and it was snappy, convenient, comfortable, and could hold a ton of stuff or people.

But I like being able to see over everyone else

• everyone

At this point I’m planning to see under everyone else.

And your Western-made car doesn’t? Ha!

That or this is an elaborate form of advertisement. “Oh wooow guys our product is soo powerful it’s dangerous!”

I believe that’s possible but I just don’t think it’s worth it when 99.9% of normies are going to type in their wifi credentials. You have a source of this actually being implemented?

My car is pretty old, so this may not work for everyone, but I can pull the fuse that powers the modem, then program the carnet or whatever VW calls it so it doesn’t expect to find a modem. All you need is an ELM327 dongle and one of the apps. (Car Scanner Pro is like $8 and a single payment.)