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tomatolung

@ tomatolung @lemmy.world

Posts
18
Comments
70
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • It would take the Pentagon months to replace Anthropic’s AI tools

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  • https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war

    However, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values. Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do. Two such use cases have never been included in our contracts with the Department of War, and we believe they should not be included now:

    • Mass domestic surveillance. ...
    • Fully autonomous weapons. ...

  • Climber survives 1,500ft fall before running four miles to get help

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  • I thought it was only the US that did anything but meters.

  • 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.

  • Palantir sues magazine that revealed Switzerland rejected its approaches

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  • I thought they like being the lighting rod of dispute, so why would they want to rebut the article?

  • Aerial view of San Francisco

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  • Really useful article. Rare to read something that actually does a decent job explaining the background from someplace wanting to sell you something.

  • 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
  • United States | News & Politics @midwest.social
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    White House eyes data center agreements amid energy price spikes

    www.politico.com /news/2026/02/09/trump-administration-eyes-data-center-agreements-amid-energy-price-spikes-00772024

  • 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.

  • The corporate enablers of the ICE crackdown

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  • Hours after Pretti was killed, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was in Washington, DC, visiting the White House for a screening of Melania, a documentary produced by First Lady Melania Trump. As Jassy and other guests entered, a military band played “Melania’s Waltz,” a song composed for the film. Guests received “glossy, commemorative black and white popcorn boxes for guests, served by gloved waiters.”

    Amazon paid $59 million for the rights to the vanity project, most of which went to Melania Trump herself. According to Matt Belloni, Amazon is paying another $35 million to promote the film. Despite the massive budget, Amazon “has not shared the film with critics, and won’t before its release.”

    Although Melania will almost certainly lose tens of millions of dollars for Amazon, it is a small price to pay to stay in the good graces of President Donald Trump and his administration. Amazon has billions in government contracts and provides much of the technological backbone for ICE’s surveillance and deportation activities.

  • 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.”

  • How Peaceful Protest by Just 3.5 Percent of Americans Could Force Major Policy Changes From the Trump Administration

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  • Having useless discussion on the internet isn't helpful, but good to know you have a plan... I hope it or something works, should we ever find out, and we don't end up in a worse situation through ignorance.

  • How Peaceful Protest by Just 3.5 Percent of Americans Could Force Major Policy Changes From the Trump Administration

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  • Interestingly, I don't see this as one movement or another, but any or all movements that provide a guide towards the point where enough pressure has show itself to be evident that change is feasible.

  • How Peaceful Protest by Just 3.5 Percent of Americans Could Force Major Policy Changes From the Trump Administration

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  • You have a better plan that realistically might happen?

  • NRA and pro-gun groups call for ‘full investigation’ into killing of Alex Pretti

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  • The NRA waded into the national dialogue over Pretti's killing after Bill Essayli – who was appointed by Trump to temporarily serve as a US attorney in California in 2025 – posted on social media: "If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you."

    In response, the NRA posted: "This sentiment … is dangerous and wrong. Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens."

    Don't discount their self-interest in this. They don't want their members to be summarily shot, arrested, or under suspicion just for owning a weapon.

  • How Peaceful Protest by Just 3.5 Percent of Americans Could Force Major Policy Changes From the Trump Administration

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  • I highly recommend reading some of the paper, listening to a podcast where they talk about the rule, or watch her TEDx. Chenoweth addresses some of the challenges you put forth, if not directly, in the context of what she's researched.

    And yes, there ate issues with it, but not to the degree which make something to disregard. It's a rule of thumb which will help us make the change we seek. Think of it as hope.

  • How Peaceful Protest by Just 3.5 Percent of Americans Could Force Major Policy Changes From the Trump Administration

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  • You Are Not So Smart did a podcast where they talk about the rule and interview her, and she makes some of these additional points.

    Also this is the update in 2020 for direct download from the Carr center. "Questions, Answers, and Some Cautionary Updates Regarding the 3.5% Rule" which has a summary describing some of what you said.

    For me, one of the salient points is that a nonviolent movement has much more "power" than does a violent movement, not that ones don't work without violence, but in the land of guns we need less violence not more. I am not saying that the 3.5 percent is a rule, as I care less about the rule than the change we need from a mass movement. And more than any of this, is that we can disrupt our Nation's slide into authoritarianism if we take civil disobedience and noncooperation to heart in our actions, it should not take a civil war or a violent revolution, but we MUST ACT.

    And yes I would agree that this movement is potentially lacking a specific outcome right now, beyond disbanding ICE which is discreet, but not systemic. The US system is fundamentally a gerontocracy which is in need of reform, but we live in an age of ignorance and distraction where it is hard to remake a vision of a new form of liberal democracy free from the corrupting powers of money. In this we must accept what good outcomes we can get.

  • United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    How Peaceful Protest by Just 3.5 Percent of Americans Could Force Major Policy Changes From the Trump Administration

    www.americanprogress.org /article/how-peaceful-protest-by-just-3-5-percent-of-americans-could-force-major-policy-changes-from-the-trump-administration/

  • ICE Making List of Anyone Who Films Them

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  • A loose-lipped ICE agent in Portland, Maine publicly hinted at the effort in an exchange on Friday that was captured on video. The video shows the ICE agent taking pictures of a car belonging to a woman who had been recording him, prompting her to ask why. The ICE agent replies: “‘Cause we have a nice little database and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist. So have fun with that.”

    The remark wasn’t just bravado or trolling. In addition to what my own sources at DHS are telling me, David Bier, Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute, published a report last month pulling together reams of incidents similar to the one in Portland. The report concludes that DHS has a formal policy of intimidating people trying to film them on the dubious legal grounds that doing so amounts to impeding federal enforcement.

    “DHS has a systematic policy of threatening people who follow ICE or DHS agents to record their activities,” the report says.

  • 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

  • New video of Renee Good's fatal encounter with ICE agent in Minneapolis

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  • Also, from the article:

    Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, questioned why the ICE agent would place himself in front of a moving car.

    Alpert said the officer’s positioning could be an example of officer-created jeopardy. “The crux of officer-created jeopardy is putting yourself in a position to use force in response to whatever the suspect’s doing, as opposed to just reacting to protect his own life or someone else’s,” said Alpert.

    So Ross, who has previously been dragged, decides to put himself in harms way and potentially cause a shooting.

  • Finland: For the first time, a Russian grey-zone sabotage relying on unclear responsibility was exposed by enforcement rather than inference, making the shield protecting hybrid warfare disappear

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  • Nice post! I love the extracts!

    And congrats to Finland for finding the smoking gun.

  • Late Stage Capitalism @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    It isn’t the infotainment bloatware, wireless key-fobs, power seats, or over-the-air subscription..

    futurism.com /future-society/republicans-car-regulation-safety
  • politics @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Which Democrats voted to end shutdown

    www.bbc.com /news/articles/c7974x7248go
  • 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
  • United States | News & Politics @midwest.social
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Organizers said nearly 7 million people turned out Saturday to more than 2,700 No Kings protests across the U.S. — 2 million more than at the previous round of rallies in June.

    www.nbcnews.com /news/us-news/no-kings-protest-photos-cities-demonstrations-rcna238041
  • 50501 @piefed.social
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Organizers said nearly 7 million people showed up for the demonstrations across the country.

    www.nbcnews.com /news/us-news/no-kings-protest-photos-cities-demonstrations-rcna238041
  • News @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Crowds turn out across Colorado for "No Kings" protests, seeing threats to democracy

    coloradosun.com /2025/10/18/no-kings-protest-colorado-october-2025/
  • News @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Analysis: Trump’s mass deportation is backfiring | CNN Politics

    edition.cnn.com /2025/07/13/politics/deportations-backfiring-trump-analysis
  • World News @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Stealthy Uncrewed Combat Air Vehicle To Work Alongside Future French Rafale Fighters

    www.twz.com /air/stealthy-uncrewed-combat-air-vehicle-to-work-alongside-future-french-rafale-fighters
  • Climate @slrpnk.net
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    Track the Tropics: Weather and Storm Tracking Resources

    www.trackthetropics.com
  • Dogs @lemmy.world
    tomatolung @lemmy.world

    ‘Good girl and true hero’: dog saves owner by leading US officer to her home

    www.theguardian.com /us-news/2024/oct/05/gita-dog-saves-owner-washington
  • 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