Arotrios

You see, according to Cocteau’s plan I’m the enemy, 'cause I like to think; I like to read. I’m into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I’m the kind of guy likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder - “Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?” I WANT high cholesterol. I wanna eat bacon and butter and BUCKETS of cheese, okay? I want to smoke Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green jello all over my body reading playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay, pal? I’ve SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It’s a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing “I’m an Oscar Meyer Wiener”.

Looks like the non-profit founded by Higgins and Mehta is active in promoting this law on a worldwide scale, with ongoing legislative efforts in Spain, Finland, and Brazil. Here’s their action page to get involved and offer support.

They committed treason for less than $15k a pop. This indicates to me that either the CCP was threatening their family members in China, or that they’re just dumb as rocks.

I have to admit, Barbie becoming a Chinese feminist icon was not on my 2023 bingo card. Anyone taking bets on when we’re gonna get a kpop version of this classic?

Yep - @morrow corrected me on that point. I should replace that statement with platforms (aka kbin to lemmy or mastodon to lemmy, etc)

That’s pretty cool - I wasn’t aware of that functionality - makes me want to investigate further. I’m wondering if the basis for the function is within the ActivityPub protocol, or if it’s a function built into the Lemmy code.

Speaking as someone who ran a set of public forums back in the early days of the internet, the number one thing I can suggest is don’t do it alone.

Alone, you’re one person arguing with hundreds of other people that your opinion is the right one. This burns out anyone but the most narcissistic assholes (I should know, being the latter). With a team, you get to deflect attacks that would be personally directed at you to the overall team while relying on their support to provide a unified front. Bullies generally target single individuals - they rarely go after groups.

This can be hard to build, and it often relies on a third party in the admin role to encourage the creation and unity of the mod team until it gets on its feet, often becoming part of the team in the early phases until it runs well on its own. A minimum of three people is usually what it takes to really make a community thrive cleanly.

Unfortunately, the fragmented nature of the Fediverse makes it difficult to build these kind of teams, as the mods have to be users on the same instance platform, and a small instance with only 20 users can end up with an enormous amount of content and commentary from users across the wider Fediverse. This, of course, ties into @hoodlem 's comment regarding bandwidth costs for instance owners - the speed at which your traffic can scale is exponential, and you need to be prepared for it from both a financial and staffing standpoint.

One solutions that could help would be to have an ActivityPub login standard that would allow logged-in users from one instance to moderate a community on another when given permissions. A cross-platform private messaging standard would help here as well. Of course, both of these functions would have to be encrypted and secured to prevent cross-site attacks, but they could be steps in unifying the Fediverse without centralizing it.

EDIT: as pointed out in the comments, you can mod across instances, but it doesn’t look like you can mod across platforms yet.

Looks like Bolivia’s next in line for the Belt and Road Bait and Switch, and they’re sending out the messaging that they want a shot at what Africa’s getting.

That being said, it’s not surprising that we’d see this reaction from Bolivia and other economically distressed countries in Latin America given the interest rate increases by the Fed. This caused downstream liquidity problems that the economic minister is directly speaking to. Note, this explanation appears disingenuous, as the Boliviano has been rising against the dollar since the beginning of 2022.

Digging in a bit, it’s important to note that:

In February 2021, the Arce government returned an amount of around $351 million to the IMF. This comprised a loan of $327 million taken out by the interim government in April 2020 and interest of around $24 million. The government said it returned the loan to protect Bolivia’s economic sovereignty and because the conditions attached to the loan were unacceptable

That they did this in the middle of the pandemic is actually a stronger indicator than the attached article that the Arce administration is determined move Bolivia out of the US’s economic sphere of influence. This is understandable given the abuses many countries have suffered as a result of IMF policies.

That being said, Belt and Road is a very similar deal, just without the same conditionality that the IMF requires of its debtors. I don’t see it being a better choice for Bolivia in the long run, and I would be far more worried about China and Russia gaining additional influence in my country than I would the US, but that’s only considering current geopolitics, and disregards the history and scars of US action in Latin America.

This is only going to compound the gang problem in the long run. An innocent sent to an El Salvadoran prison has no choice but to join a gang to survive. I can only see this leading to further social destabilization and human rights abuses.

It’s also textbook fascism on a whole 'nother level. This is the kind of thing that can start a revolution.

I’m going to take your request seriously, so bear with me. Grusch isn’t the only whistleblower that recently came forward. He’s just one going through the proper channels.

About two weeks ago, someone with incredible detail claiming to be a molecular biologist wrote the most detailed breakdown of alien biology I’ve ever read on Reddit. I archived the original on kbin here, as there was a lot of odd mod activity around the post (comments deleted, author disappears, etc).

I suggest you take a look. If it’s a LARP, it’s the best I’ve ever read.

Spacey’s had a bad rep in the industry for his behavior for awhile - he was a well known bully on set, and it was a running joke in LA in the 2000s that if you’re young and male, you don’t get in a cab with Kevin. That being said, I’m not surprised the verdict came down this way - male sexual assault victims are marginalized to the point of invisibility, and mocked when they make a stand.

I have no doubt that he’s guilty of what he was accused of and suspect there are probably more victims. The results of this trial speak more to his wealth and power than to his innocence.

Kudos to the judge, especially his specific reasoning regarding Mexico:

In an order that will not take effect for two weeks, Tigar wrote “the rule … cannot remain in place”, in part because it improperly presumes people who enter the country between legal border crossings are ineligible for asylum.
…
The administration had argued that protection systems in other countries that migrants travel through have improved. But Tigar said it was not feasible for some migrants to seek protection in a transit country and noted the violence that many face in Mexico in particular.

He also wrote that the rule was illegal because it presumes that people are ineligible for asylum if they enter the country between legal border crossings. But, Tigar wrote, Congress expressly said that should not affect whether someone is eligible for asylum.

I’m not really seeing a viable appeal here from the Justice Department. IMHO, they should just take the loss and let the ruling stand. This isn’t a political winner for Biden, and has the potential to backfire on his administration.

MFW when I hear about a new Venture Brothers movie.

American commenting from across the pond, but it this looks like an attempt to give rhetorical cover to further immigration restrictions specifically targeted at North Africa, expanding their policies through the cooperation of other EU members.

Italy may need immigrants, but from what I’ve seen thus far, her government only wants those are who are white and straight.

I love boosting good news, especially given the enormous amount of Russian disinformation surrounding the “failure” and “slow going” of the offensive.

It was never going to be quick, or easy, and I think that the extraordinary successes of earlier Ukrainian counter-offensives set expectations higher than the reality on the ground.

But in the balance, Ukraine went from having half its territory captured by the 2nd strongest army in the world to knocking them back on their knees and retaking half of what was lost in the space of less than two years. That’s an incredible success in the face of overwhelming odds, even with NATO and EU support. One only has to look at the Russian takeovers in Eastern Europe after WWII to get a sense of how unique it is that Ukraine was able to not only resist, but drive back the invaders.

From California and all Americans who support freedom, Слава Україні!

Fuck off and die you Nazi cunt:

One 2008 “riikka” comment talked of “[N-words] selling pirated Vuittons” in Barcelona, which Purra, then a researcher at the University of Turku, was visiting at the time for an academic conference.

Another described “the sound darker males make when they pass you by” as “not whistling (that would be too obvious) but a fucking hiss between the teeth”, adding: “The more eager Abdullah is, the more saliva comes with it.”

In another post, the commenter wrote: “Anyone feel like spitting on beggars and beating [N-word] children today in Helsinki?”A post in January 2008 read: “I’m so full of hate and pure rage … What are you doing to my psyche, Islam?”

In September 2008, “riikka” wrote about a confrontation on a suburban train with a group of young immigrants: “If they gave me a gun, there’d be bodies on a commuter train, you’ll see.”

I don’t say that lightly - this woman has confessed to wanting to beat up children and commit hate murder. She doesn’t belong anywhere near government office. Good on the Finns for protesting this atrocious appointment.

Removed by mod

Did you tell them it was a dirty word and not used in polite company?

What wonderful news to start the day with!

As a side note, my son (who’s currently in high school) reports that the Tatetification of the younglings has ceased to spread, and raggedy Andy is now openly mocked. Mad props to @gretathunberg for developing such an effective fungicide against Mildew Tate from nothing more than a slice of pizza.

Probably the best performance of his career, IMHO.