Akuchimoya

The River Saints https://www.goodreads.com/series/356333-the-river-saints Canadian author, but printed by Amazon. Series is not yet completed, but the author is much younger than GRRM and, barring a very unfortunate accident (knock on wood), I expect he'll actually complete it.

The problem is they called them light sabres, so, naturally, they must be wielded maniacally.

Since we're guessing, I'd guess lymph is part of it. It's part of our immune systems, but, unlike blood which has its own pumping mechanism (the heart), lymph gets moved along passively.

Telling a conservative they're incorrect is oppression to them.

Its a lot of promises of intentions without a lot of specifics. The one that does look more solid is the invitation to the PM to their summits. I assume it means no vote, but giving Canada a presence is a good signal to start, anyway.

A generation ago, Iran was not like this. Islam itself does not require any of this. An important part if Islam is that the Qur'an cannot be translated, so it is in a form of Arabic few people can really understand. People must depend on the mullahs to tell them what it says. (Which was once also what Christians said about the Latin Bible, though that makes even less sense than the Qur'an because the Bible was translated into Latin.) This is anti-women conservatives using the guise of religion to push their hatred on women and control the population as a whole. As you say, Christianity was once used in the same way, but it still is now, isn't it?

In the US, abortion is a bogeyman used to threaten women from getting healthcare (even to the point of death), and monitor and control their movements. It's being done under the guide of "Christianity". "Christianity" is used against people of different races (because they can't really be Christian if they're not white), actually other religions, sexuality, and gender. Yet, how much did Christ ever talk about these things?

You can see it in Mamdani's smile; the man radiates joy from the inside out. His smile says he loves New York, he loves New Yorkers, and he loves serving them. I wish the world had more Mamdanis.

And who or what exactly is going to stop him?

When no one (who is in a position to enforce) cares what is legal or constitutional, he can do anything he wants. Just look at the current state of the US and tell me anyone in any power or authority cares. Do you really think "third term" is where they'll draw the line? I'd put every dollar I have that is not actually about not carrying, but that this is the desired outcome, to enrich themselves.

I only see one way to stop him, and it's certainly not by law or votes.

I can't wait to find out how they will blame the woke left for this very thing they were warned about.

No, a realist wrote it. You can do things like write letters and petitions, attend protests, etc., and I'm not even saying people shouldn't or that those things were bad. People should exercise what little rights we do have before they're taken away, too. But I am saying that, ultimately, it cannot stop anything, which is the question being asked. The system is functioning exactly as intended: power and authority concentrated by and to the few.

Trudeau, whom I would still choose over Poillievre 10/10 times, showed us that exactly. He won by talking election reform, then dumped it in the trash as soon as possible without even having any actual exploratory consultations, surveys, etc. Power cannot and will not be given back to the people by polite elections twice a decade. Because the problem is that I still would vote for Trudeau or Carney 10/10 times instead of Poillievre, because that's the best our system gives us. (Let's just be honest and say there aren't viable alternate contenders even if the system technically allows for it.)

Here's the fun part: you can't. They can do whatever they want. The only pressure we can (legally) put on them is at the polls, and Poillievre is so irrelevant right now, that is no threat at all. The senate isn't even voted for, so they can do whatever they want without even the hypothetical pressure of polls.

I am not a programmer, but related to a few. My cousin said his workplace actively evaluates people on token usage, where more is better. He has refined his prompts to burn as many tokens as possible.

Another relative said they only hire seniors now, and use AI for junior work. I told him there will be no more seniors in five years, doing things that way. Well, that's a problem for later.