circuscritic

I got as far as the second paragraph, which consists of the following quote from a Google VP:

“I’m not going to talk about Recall, but I think the reason that some people feel it’s creepy is when it doesn’t feel useful, and it doesn’t feel like something they initiated or that they get a clear benefit from it”

That’s somehow worse than I imagined. I can at least understand being intentionally sinister, or overtly anti-privacy, but that level of delusion is somehow actually more terrifying.

lol.

Just search for Purism customer support experiences.

I’m honestly amazed there hasn’t been a fraud, or some other consumer protection type criminal investigation.

All that baggage, and their hardware is also laughably outdated and overpriced.

Which is unfortunate, because the concept is amazing and clearly there’s a sizable market for it.

Here is an example of just ONE flavor of Purism customer experiences:

Announce current gen hardware and current pricing.

Customer pays

Customer receives hardware 5 years later, after being told approx. 362 times that cancellation refunds are down, or unable to be processed.

Customer tries to immediately return the 5 year old laptop that was just delivered and is told “No Returns”

There are other variations that you can read about on various forums.

I always setup my own new installs offline, with no Internet connected and assumed that the was the workaround this was referring to. Guess that’s my fault for not reading the article. I wasn’t even aware of the fake email bypass.

But my reasons were primarily because I wanted to disable as much telemetry as possible and tweak other settings before putting it on a network.

Nursing homes and the entire home care industry have been thoroughly ransacked by private equity.

And what’s even more pernicious about this case of corporate raiding, is that the public actually believes the lie that these industries and businesses are not profitable.

They are highly profitable, but all the funds are siphoned off and legally embezzled the way private equity always does: exhorbanant consulting fees and switching the vendors and suppliers to their own companies, and jacking up the rates they charge themselves.

And that’s before you even get into the favorable legislation they purchase through donations, and the refusal to adequately staff the companies.

https://www.levernews.com/how-wall-street-profits-off-of-the-sick-and-elderly-private-equity-nursing-homes/

Those Russian mercenaries are running recruitment operations to feed foreign nationals e.g. Syrians into the Ukraine theatre.

This is mostly just public posturing and open diplomatic signaling.

Nuclear weapon submarines are always deployed, and have been since the advent of the Nuclear triad.

That’s as true for America, as it is for China, Russia, UK, etc. Basically every county with both nuclear weapons and a capable submarine platform/program.

That is a Project Veritas level edit to generate a completely out of context quote.

That’s not how this type of influence is exerted. It’s done by putting people in charge who will run it in a way that will keep their boss happy, which then leads to them hiring people who will keep their boss happy, and so on and so forth.

Editorial discretion, self-censorship, or pink slips, that message is going to do one thing: not rock the billionaire’s boat.

That’s not how those schemes work.

Buffet, Gates, the Patagonia family, etc., all those Billionaires do is transfer all their wealth, tax free, into “charitable” entities that their descendants can continue to live off of, and profit from, indefinitely.

That by itself is sinister, but the worst part is that the majority of people actually believe they’re really giving away their wealth. So they cheat the system, that they already rigged, and it actually gives them a better public image.

There’s a lot more to sovereign monetary policy than currency exchange rates, such as the capital controls being exercised here

You’re technically correct, but only because the DNC drinks from the same neoliberal Kool Aid. The apparatus is now mostly run from their bloated privatized consultant class (campaign consultants, media firms, polling outfits, etc.).

Of which, I’m sorry to say, I have spent time both employed by personally, as well as many years in close proximity to, outside of my own direct professional engagement.

I love how, on Lemmy, you think that it’s more likely that I’m actually a deep cover foreign asset, then a citizen who’s happened to have worked in the disgustingly large multi-billion dollar campaign industry.

But please, tell me more about how your intimate knowledge of our body politic is more nuanced and insightful then mine.

You call me angry and disgruntled, but your political philosophy is “I’ll compromise on literally anything, as long as I’m told it’s for the greater good”.

Trump would be awful, but he’s not the end of the line of awful candidates and I’d rather take my chances with a DNC that is responsive to it’s base, and not it’s donors. That can’t happen unless they fear their base will pull support, which is why they’ve trained them to always compromise.

Isn’t it funny though, that the compromise only works in one direction: to the right and for the benefit of the donor class.

As opposed to you, and the others like you, who are demanding that anyone who voices dissent and discontent must still vote for Biden, and to do otherwise means we’re actually a combination of Trump supporting tankies who run socket puppet accounts for Russia, who really want the country to continue sliding towards fascim.

So yeah, I understand your position just fine.

That’s because full auto rifles*, are typically seen as wasting limited ammunition. A modern military unit isn’t likely to encounter a bunched together group of 30-50 soft targets where a full auto rifle would be most effective…unlike a mass shooter indiscriminately targeting a crowded concert.

*Rifles, not machine guns. I’m well aware of the utility of squad machine gunners, talking guns, etc.

I don’t know about your locality, but I’ve never lived in a state where a Presidential general election ballot doesn’t have a whole lot of other races and ballot initiatives on it…

I don’t see how my not supporting Biden, or the establishment DNC candidates, somehow prevents me from voting for school bonds, local progressive grassroots candidates, or any other measures and races on the ballot this year.

So…good for you, vote your conscience, and I’ll vote mine.

What super secret strategy? I’ve laid out my very simple belief on the matter, repeatedly, and on a public forum.

If my vote isn’t a big deal, than why are you devoting so much time trying to convince me otherwise?

I never said don’t vote. I’ve said I won’t support the establishment DNC, or Biden, but that I will continue to support progressive/left candidates who would be beholden to voters, and not special interests/machine politics.

Compromise to what end? That is what you’re not understanding. When in the last 30 years has that not lead to us being worse off?

I get it, you’re happy to manage our decline into a full blown neoliberal gilded age 2.0 hellscape, on the off chance that it helps to staves off full blown fascism. I’m not judging you for making that choice, but I do disagree with it.

I don’t see how the unending shifting of the Democratic party to the right, just to remain slightly to the left the GOP, doesn’t end up with the exact situation you’re trying to fend off.

So, as I said, I’m going to use the only voice I have, my vote, to support the only viable path that might prevent the outcome that you claim you’re trying to avoid, but really, are just easing into a bit more gently.

I’m guessing you would have/did vote for him though. Good luck with your strategy of not even playing the same game

…what? No, seriously, I’m usually pretty good at deciphering gibberish, but I think I need some clarification here…

I understand the part where you’re calling me a Bernie voter, and intending that as insult.

But I’m not clear on the part about me not playing the same game as a sitting senator, and former presidential candidate… because of course I’m not…

Am I supposed to be? If so, how?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/23/biden-primaries-unchallenged/

Yes, they effectively rigged the Presidential primary this cycle for Biden. It wasn’t really a secret, was widely covered, and if you aren’t aware of that, I don’t think you’re informed enough to even have this conversation.

I genuinely don’t care if you believe me. It wasn’t an appeal to authority to get you to change your mind. It was in response to your patronizing “I used to be like you” schtick.

I never said don’t vote, not once. I haven’t even appealed to others to follow my lead in not supporting Biden.

I have laid out some of my reasons for not supporting Biden, and that is what you find so offensive.

“The lesser of two evils” game will never end. That is the fire, that is how we got Trump in the first place. Continuing to breath life into the existing DNC isn’t going to put it out, it’s just going to fan the flames.

Wake up and smell smoke.

Well, considering that he lost then, and then lost again the same way 4 years later, he’s not really the benchmark of effective political strategy that you’re acting like he is.

You mean vote in the Presidential primary that the DNC cancelled this year?

Or did you mean, ignore that they cancelled it, and just vote for Biden like a good little lemming?

Don’t be so hysterical. Trump is bad, and I’m under no illusion what another term of his would be like, but he’s far too stupid and petty to “end democracy”, the Democrats are doing fine at doing that themselves.

I’m not some young radical. I’ve been through many cycles, and I’ve worked on more campaigns then most of people have voted in.

And yes, I’ve worked inside the DNC apparatus and been around contemporary Democratic machine politics nearly my entire life. I have a pretty good idea of what these people are like, because I’ve known a whole lot of them.

Vote for whoever you want.

My responses were directed at people commenting, unprompted, about how anyone who doesn’t support Biden, or buy into his campaign messaging, are either closeted Trump supporters, tankies, or (my personal favorite) foreign socket puppet accounts i.e. Russian bots.

Because obviously they can’t be lifelong Democrats who are fed up with current Democratic establishment and see the threat they pose if left unchanged - precisely because we NEED an actual strong leftwing workers party to stand against the GOP.

So, again, you do whatever your conscience tells you.

If your comfortable with a Democratic party that is already fully run by neoliberals, crushes leftists, and only moves further to the right each election, then keep supporting them. That’s on you.

Myself, I am going to see which option the Democrats are MOST concerned with i.e. uncommitted vs blank vs a specific 3rd party candidate.

I will also continue to support most of my local and statewide progressive candidates, because I do care, and I’m not whatever fantasy the Biden supporters have concocted so they can dismiss people like me without giving these idea any real thought.