There were similar levels of fear and worry when Russia was amassing troops just under the border ahead of their “3-day special operation”. But the truth of the matter is that Russia has shown itself to be a lot weaker as a military force than they purported themselves to be.

Their internal war-time economy is anyway starting to flounder as the >1.5K daily casualties they are amassing is having a noticeable impact on not only military production, but also civilian and agricultural. (‘ Russia economy crumbling with food prices skyrocketing as Putin’s problems mount’ - Express.co.uk).

They are relying heavily on Iran, China and NK to supplement their falling arms production; and are now also needing to supplement their conscript forces with NK forces.

Russia has continually been over-estimated, but don’t doubt for a second that it is being cooked like a frog in a boiling pot in a proxy-war solely using Ukrainian forces.

In the event of a handful of allied European nations joining the war to aid Ukraine, Russia would be expelled from the region quite quickly - but at the cost of additional human lives, which is why the escalations have been so slow.

Honestly it sounds like Sino fear-mongering or Tankie wishful thinking.

It’s easy to forget because it’s made up of a multitude of smaller countries - but Europe has a population of ~750m, and a vastly more coherent and powerful combined military (even if the US were to pull out of NATO).

Russia can’t currently steam-roll one nation, how on Earth do you think they’d do anything against Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland - all countries with a deeply (& rightfully) ingrained distrust/hatred of Russia.

China isn’t likely to risk making themselves an international outcast just to aid Russia - they are more likely to make a play for Taiwan than anything else.

Not OP; but probably referring to Nixon normalising relations with China; or maybe negotiating with the Viet Cong to prolong the Vietnam War so that he could be elected?; or the whole Watergate fiasco which directly lead to the creation of Fox News… I mean, that man is responsible for a lot of our modern ails.

But if it’s the former, it directly lead to outsourcing production overseas where labour was cheapest, resulting in the gutting of American manufacturing and the entire middle class that depended on it.

I more personally believe that Nixon severely injured the US, but it was Reagan who shot the killing bullet. But that’s honestly a debate for another time.

Part of me, as an outsider looking in with abject horror, wants to see this happen just because I still hold out hope that it might finally wake up a not-insignificant part of rural and rust-belt America that live off these benefits (or ‘handouts’ according to the GOP) out of their political stupor.

But on the other hand, I know that once it’s gone, it’s very unlikely to be brought back in the immediate future by the current crop of Dems, who seemingly would rather keep dangling it as a carrot (along with restoring ablation access) in order to entice voter turnout.

With the right level of Government support, bubbles can seemingly go on for literal decades. Case in point, Australian housing since the late 90s has been on an uninterrupted tear (yes, even in ‘08 and ‘20).

Honestly, unless people are in their 20s and willing to live out of a van (using a gym for shower etc.); I have no idea how the fuck people are expected to save up enough to buy a home. Shit’s beyond ridiculous.

Yup; RIP to Billie Jean as the first song you hear when you jump into a car for the first time in Vice City.

For the most part, those still dying from COVID19 are self-selecting by refusing to keep on top of their vaccine boosters. Ditto for the flu.

I have no sympathy, and the world will be a better place without them.

Obama at least managed to deliver the Affordable Care Act; which despite not being Medicare Part E (Medicare for All), was a significant improvement over what existed before.

What the US needs is a proper progressive firebrand from the Dems; someone from the Bernie school - or hell, just pick from any one of the other Western democracies.

Not that I’m actually trying to defend MS/Teams (seriously, fuck ‘em both); but this is more due to IT Admin settings.

We have similar in our company, that’s in place because we handle PIR data regularly and it’s meant to be a speed bump rather than full roadblock.

Mentors can be a legitimately good way to progress your career; but 100% of the online mentoring services are bullshit.

Like, for anyone salaried in a corporate environment; pick someone ~3 rings higher than you on the ladder in a seperate department (e.g. Team Lead, Department Head, VP, GM etc.).

They will be familiar enough with the business to provide useful guidance, helping you build up not only your skillset but your professional network. Because, the dirty secret is - after a certain point, it’s not necessarily what you know - it who you know.

VPN to a country with a lower cost, and sign up there. It used to be Turkey and India, where you could get a Family Plan for like $2/mo - but they’ve cracked down a bit on it.

We use YT for so much in our ‘household’ that it made sense to pool together and get Premium, and honestly it feels good having ~5 people who consume a tonne of content ad-free for nearly no cost while still supporting our preferred content creators.

You need to seperate out the political machine from the populace.

The DNC did make a right-ward play to try and peel centrist/moderate voters who identify as Republicans but didn’t necessarily want to vote for Trump. They did this on the (now we know false) assumption that their base would turn out automagically.

But again, Trump won with fewer votes this time around than he lost in 2020 to Biden with. He didn’t gain standing, the only reason he was victorious was because those left of centre failed to show up to the polls. Voter apathy doesn’t denote a right-wing shift; it denotes a shit political platform.

Voters are still voting rather progressively on state-wide ballot measures, the people haven’t gotten more conservative - despite what the (elite-owned) media narrative would have you believe. Every datapoint and infographic regarding voter demographics is based on %s of voters, rather than absolute demographics.

I’m not familiar with the California referendum in question, but Florida saw over 57% vote in favour of extending abortion rights.

The only reason it lost was because it required at least 60% to pass; instead Florida now gets to experience the tyranny of minority rule.

I used 2020 as a comparison for a few reasons;

• It was the most recent result prior to the 2024 election, so it will have the most comparable demographics.
• voting infrastructure from the COVID-era is still largely in place, allowing for more early and postal voting than pre-COVID. So earlier years are less comparable.
• presidential elections are just as much about voting against the worse candidate, if not more-so, than voting for a preferred one.
• both 2020 and 2024 could be seen as referendums on Trump’s policies, presidency and suitability for a second term.

Rather than looking at percentages, the individual counts are more important as they tell the underlying story.

The DNC’s GOTV campaign absolutely failed to motivate their base and undecided voters. Perhaps that was somewhat intentional, as a lot of the former GOP aligned ‘never-Trump’ campaign financiers have shifted to the Dems and have used their new-found influence to nudge the party’s platform rightward. The Cheney endorsements certainly didn’t do them any favours!

But looking at how even deep-red states have voted in support of abortion rights, shows that the general US populace is generally slowly drifting leftward - despite what the corporate-owned media narrative would have you believe.

Biden got ~81m votes in 2020, Harris only got ~67m. >14m fewer people voted for her.

Trump also dropped by ~2m, only getting ~72m this time around vs. ~74m in 2020.

Trump didn’t win because of a giant right-wing national shift, he won because of voter apathy on the left.

I was actually thinking coloured O rings to define specs, but that still means I’d need to have a colours guide somewhere too…

…yours might be a more practical solution. 🤔

Yes, you can. The charger and the device communicate between one another what they can support, and pick the highest one they both agree on.

E.G. my laptop charger can charge at full speed (100W) for my MacBook, but only at 20W for my iPhone.

That bit is pretty straightforward and transparent to end users (there are a few rare conditions where devices might not agree on the fastest, and have to fall back to a slower one); the issue is more with cables not having sufficient gauge wire, or missing connections that prevent the charger and device from communicating their full functionality.

It’s been more of a pain in the arse than initially expected.

Most motherboards (for example) only have 2-4 USB-C ports, meaning that I still need to employ A-C and C-C cables for peripherals etc.

My main gripe is that the standard just tries to do too many things without clear delineation/markings:

1. Is it a USB 2.0 (480Mbit), 5Gbit, 10Gbit or 20Gbit cable? Can’t really tell from the plug alone.

2. More importantly, for charging devices: How the heck do I determine maximum wattage I can run?

For all its faults, at least the blue colour of a USB-3.0 plug (or additional connectors for B/Micro) made it easy to differentiate !

Now I’m eyeing up a USB Cable tester just to validate and catalogue my growing collection! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Contraceptives aren’t 100% effective, not all sexual partners are willing to use them regularly, rapes can and do happen, and most importantly - bodily autonomy is something that should be respected.

Ultimately, what happens between consenting adults should be solely up to them - and not some puritanical directive from a Big Brother-style Government.