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tomatolung

@ tomatolung @lemmy.world

Posts
8
Comments
26
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • A Sweeping Theory of Everything Is Revolutionizing the Democratic Party. Democrats are in thrall to the idea that corporate consolidation is America’s biggest, and maybe only, problem.

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  • First off this article is basically arguing that Lynn's idea have become a religion in the Democratic party, and a religion that doesn't answer anything.

    Second, the ways to fix this from a rooted evidence based method are State based and start with RCV and proportional voting. But it also means intentionalizing a institutional investment in people and ideas in democratic ideals which is taught, trained, placed, and promoted over decades, specifically focused on taking regulatory authority seriously.

    There's more, but I'm tired of reading about ideas that critique without actionable answers. This is fixable but it's going to take generation and intention... As well as attention... Which the American people don't fucking have, even if we are all bloody angry.

  • Removed

    Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane.

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  • More difficult to remove than install. Adding the file took zero clicks. Removing it requires (a) discovering the file exists, (b) understanding what it is, (c) navigating into a hidden user profile path, (d) deleting it (and on Windows, also clearing the read-only attribute first), and (e) accepting that Chrome will silently re-download it on next eligible window unless the user also navigates chrome://flags, enterprise policy, or platform-specific configuration tooling to disable the underlying Chrome AI feature [5]. None of those steps is documented in the place a normal user looks - none of them is even hinted at in default Chrome.

    This is 5: https://pureinfotech.com/stop-chrome-gemini-nano-download-windows-11/

    Obviously only windows focused, so how other platforms stop would require more searching.

  • Removed

    Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane.

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  • So we now have a four-way evidence chain - macOS kernel filesystem events, Chrome's own per-profile state, Chrome's runtime feature flags, and Google's component-updater logs - all four agreeing on the same conduct, and the conduct is: a 4 GB AI model arrived on this user's disk without consent, without notice, on a profile that received zero human input, in a window of 14 minutes and 28 seconds, on a Tuesday afternoon.

  • FBI Extracts Suspect’s Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database

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  • Not sure you would, both are FOSS and if it works I wouldn't change. Looks like similar feature sets at the core, so unless you want something specific I'd leave it.

    Just good to have options.

  • The Classics

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  • FBI Extracts Suspect’s Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database

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  • In Asia, the global oil crisis is turning into an everything crisis

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  • That strain is now spreading into every corner of the consumer market as prices rise for materials like plastic, rubber and polyester. The impact is so far most evident in Asia, which accounts for more than half of the world’s manufacturing and is heavily reliant on imports for oil and other commodities.

    In South Korea, where people have been panic-buying trash bags, the government has encouraged event organizers to minimize use of disposable items. Taiwan has started a hotline for manufacturers that have run out of plastic, while its rice farmers told local media they may hike prices because they can’t get vacuum-sealed bags.

    In Japan, the oil crisis has sparked fears that patients with chronic kidney failure won’t be able to get treatment due to a lack of plastic medical tubes used in hemodialysis. Malaysian glove manufacturers say a dearth of a petroleum byproduct needed to make rubber latex is threatening global supplies of medical gloves.

  • The owners want to close this Colorado coal plant. The Trump administration says no

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  • In the request, Tri-State and Platte River say they've built sufficient solar and wind farms, and no longer need Craig 1. By forcing the power plant to stay open, the plant owners say they've been forced to buy coal and invest in maintaining the facility, unnecessary expenses that amount to an "uncompensated taking" of their property in violation of the Constitution.

    The U.S. Department of Energy declined an interview request for this story. In an emailed statement, Caroline Murzin, an agency spokesperson, said the U.S. needs vast amounts of additional electricity generation to support domestic manufacturing and the ongoing artificial intelligence boom.

    "Thanks to President Trump's leadership, the Energy Department is unleashing energy dominance to reduce energy costs for American families and strengthen the electric grid," Murzin said.

    So you want to keep a coal power plant that even the operators don't want online, and violate the constitution again, so you can support your pedo-tech buddies and shove AI down our throats?

    https://www.gem.wiki/Craig_Station

  • My favorite episode

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  • I appreciate the shitty Photoshop over AI slop. Keeping it real with the chief.

  • Technology @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Landmark trial accusing tech giants of harming children with addictive social media begins

    www.pbs.org /newshour/nation/landmark-trial-accusing-tech-giants-of-harming-children-with-addictive-social-media-begins

  • US government partially shuts down despite last minute funding deal

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  • I see and partially agree with what you mean, but I don't agree that those actions don't so anything. Partially it's having worked for change in Washington and walked away burnt out, that I know how much DC is a bubble that has cascading impacts to everyone.

    In some ways yes shutting the government down means services don't happen, but you are wrong about not getting paid. While they aren't paid at the time, they have regularly gotten back pay after the shutdown. Some lower level may quit anyway, but often the government job is just to good at a high GS level to really give up, due to the healthcare and retirement. So it's not easy, but it's a paid time off.

    The real impact is as you mentioned that services aren't processed. This has a ripple impact across the world due to trade, and finance markets. This in turns puts pressure on politicians to compromise, as a slowing of the economic makes everyone upset, and that is a lever.

    So it's about finding levers that are more than show, like this current "shutdown" as many agencies have already been funded prior to this and the stopgap is likely to get passed shortly, but without longterm DHS funding. Schumer calling it a win, is just for show. DHS will continue, when they could have put their foot down and stopped everything.

    Where I agree with you is that the ideal of the conservative movement is to make government small and privatize it. They can only do so much though, as the US federal government is a behemoth, and even what DOGE did--while stuipid, and short sided--barely impacted the overall long term budget. If they were really after shrinking it, they'd cut the military. DOGE claimed they cut around 55 billion, but the senate just passed a 1200 billion dollar budget. And remember the US GDP is 31 Trillion, and the 1.2 Trillion wasn't all of the budget, just most of it.

    I don't think we need it all, but changes and improvement, especially in governments, tend to be slow and deliberate. Rash acts cause disruptions which have profound impacts, and we'll see those.

    All of which is to say yes, I agree those actions don't seem like much, but they have more impact than you think.

  • politics @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Senate passes $1.2T government funding deal — but a brief shutdown is certain

    www.politico.com /news/2026/01/30/shutdown-senate-passes-funding-deal-00758615

  • US government partially shuts down despite last minute funding deal

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  • How about standing for something and sticking to it. One of our senators could filibuster, much like Strom Thurmond did for 24 hours during the civil rights movement.

    Or even if you shut the government down for the ACA, you get what you were asking for rather than giving in when it "looks" like you have won the propaganda battle.

    Basically they need to put inspiring acts of policy in front of rational reasoned policy, as no one think rational and reasonable is going to work with the Republican Nazis.

  • ICE Unloads

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  • “The best they can do is shoot the guy in the back?” That’s not the voice of some liberal commentator. That’s what a homeland security officer told me this weekend, one of over half a dozen who have reached out to express their alarm over the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and beyond.

    I’ve listened to the stories and the beefs of immigration officers in Minneapolis across the country, and to a person, they all blame the shooter, one of their own. The major media is stuck on framing the killing of Alex Pretti as some national and partisan battle, highlighting Republicans breaking ranks, the NRA protesting, MAGA wavering, and Chuck Schumer doing whatever he’s doing, but no one is really capturing what the federal law enforcement officers on the ground are thinking. The truth is that they’re fed up and have been for weeks.

    They paint a picture that is more Police Academy (or even Reno 911!) than a Gestapo on the march. Yes, they agree that Washington is a huge problem and are uncomfortable with the mission creep that is taking them away from actual immigration enforcement. But internally? Theirs is also a story of gung-ho 19-year-olds, drunken stakeouts, and senior officers disappearing into meetings and all of a sudden needing time off.

    ...

    An ICE agent was even more critical. “Yet another ‘justified’ fatal shooting … ten versus one and somehow they couldn’t find a way to subdue the guy or use a less than lethal [means],” the agent said. “They all carry belts and vests with 9,000 pieces of equipment on them and the best they can do is shoot a guy in the back?”

    ...

    As the meetings are held, the ICE agents and others I’ve talked to say the government versus terrorists narrative is having a tangible (and negative) impact on the ground.

    “Lots of people are freaking out,” one ICE agent told me. “Agents are getting seriously paranoid, afraid of being targeted by ‘retaliators.’”

    Several agents described receiving briefings about retaliatory threats to ICE inspired by the Minneapolis shooting. “Guys take it really serious, like we are fighting insurgents,” as if Minneapolis is Baghdad, an ICE officer said.

    Though all of the federal agents I’ve spoken to this weekend support immigration enforcement, they indeed see the Minneapolis operation as something else entirely — an open-ended counterinsurgency in a faraway land and under an out-of-touch leadership in Washington more concerned with optics than immigration.

    “This is a no-win situation for agents on the ground or immigration enforcement overall,” a Border Patrol agent said in the private group chat shared with me.

    He closed on a plaintive note: “I think it’s time to pull out of Minnesota, that battle is lost.”

  • politics @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    The Situation: “Evident Clinical Symptoms”

    www.lawfaremedia.org /article/the-situation---evident-clinical-symptoms
  • politics @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Minnesota Can Prosecute Jonathan Ross—But It May Not Be Easy

    www.lawfaremedia.org /article/minnesota-can-prosecute-jonathan-ross-but-it-may-not-be-easy

  • GOP lawmakers, frustrated with dysfunctional Congress, head for the exits

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  • The number of lawmakers not seeking reelection for their seat this cycle — 30 Republicans and 23 Democrats, according to a Ballotpedia tracker updated Dec. 23 — has drawn comparisons to the 2018 midterms, when 37 Republican lawmakers departed, compared to just 18 Democrats, and Democrats saw a blue wave of wins. 

  • A New Report Reveals the Real Reason Democrats Lost in 2024

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  • Way to Win pointed to three main problems that cost Democrats last year: Voters were upset not just about rising prices but about longer-term economic trends, and wanted change; Republicans and the far right have a built-in media advantage, thanks to years of investments, which made it harder for Democrats to break through; and movements on the left around issues like Gaza, racial and economic justice, and immigration weren’t aligned with the party.

    Yea... Close...Not quite though. Basically, YOU HAVE TON FUCKING ACT YOU DIP SHITS! Do real things people can fucking believe in.

    As it stand I still want both sides out of all the offices. When you actually represent me and the voters.... Not some corporate lobby group, PAC, or persons with more money than sense but "We The People", then I might vote for you.

    Mamdani is a good start... If he follows through.

  • MAGA declares war on the Catholic Church

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  • My favorite is the ending:

    The Catholic Church is more than 2,000 years old. Declaring war on it is hardly civilized or politically smart. Trump has three years left in office. The Catholic Church will survive condemnation by those in power; it’s hardly the first time this has occurred in its long and storied history. 

    Also good:

    Clergy members from various denominations have come to detention centers only to be turned away or arrested, wrestled to the ground or sprayed with pepper balls.  

    The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership is suing the Trump administration for denying Catholic priests and ministers admission to its ICE facilities. The coalition’s executive director said, “For Catholics, pastoral care isn’t optional. We believe that it’s a lifeline.” 

    The response from Trump loyalists is to declare war on the Catholic Church.

     “Boarder czar” Tom Homan condemned the bishops’ letter and the church as “wrong.”“I’m saying it as not only border czar, I’ll say it as a Catholic. I think they need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church, in my opinion.” 

    Thou doth protest to much Tom.

  • Hard drives on backorder for two years as AI data centers trigger HDD shortage — delays forcing rapid transition to QLC SSDs

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  • I posted this as a perspective on AI that is not given by AI, nor by someone who believes it will stay this way, but nor am I promoting it. I believe it's more nuanced that just being crap, although it is taking over many things in life. I have used it, I know how to use it for good (keeping it private, local, and to help teach reasoning as well as do the thing that we need done (like dishes, bills, and other bullshit). I'm fully aware it's a bubble (14 billion to 1.4 trillion for OpenAI alone), dislike it and hate the energy waste. You all just seem to want to keep up the ignorant web user stereotype.Have fun down voting something you don't really understand.

  • Hard drives on backorder for two years as AI data centers trigger HDD shortage — delays forcing rapid transition to QLC SSDs

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  • Having done my research, and tried it, I'm not an ignorant F*** as I read and engage at least. You just like being a troll.

  • politics @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Which Democrats voted to end shutdown

    www.bbc.com /news/articles/c7974x7248go

  • Hard drives on backorder for two years as AI data centers trigger HDD shortage — delays forcing rapid transition to QLC SSDs

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  • I think your sentiment and the back end requirements of AI is a big downfall of it, as while your sentiment has validity in many public facing deployments of it there are some things it is actually succeeding at. I speak from experience having used it for several specific use cases which it excels at, but you and others probably don't have time nor care that this is true. And again marketing idiots out weight the deliberate approach that engineers and others might want, much less the economy might need.

  • News @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Senate Votes to Advance Measure to End Shutdown

    www.nytimes.com /live/2025/11/09/us/trump-news/ccf24a2e-1ebe-5de8-8944-a214d978a294

  • Century-old dam under strain as floods increase in US and federal funds dry up

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  • 3DPrinting @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    U.S. Air Force Airman Develops 3D-Printed Insert to Solve Perennial 20 mm Ammunition Jams While Loading

    theaviationist.com /2024/10/03/20-mm-ammo-jams-solution/
  • Technology @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Transparent famine models I: Counting calories

    theoryandaction.substack.com /p/transparent-famine-models-i-counting