donuts

Soap

How about we give our own people a comfortable life before worrying about the feelings of fascist Islamist terrorists half way across the world?

Like, did we not just spent the last 20 years "nation building" in Afghanistan to the tune of >$2 trillion, including not only military training but also building schools and other civilian infrastructure, only to have them just piss it away and let the Taliban walk back in and impose strict theocratic law upon their society in the span of just a few months. Now Afghani girls aren't even allowed to attend the schools that we built.

Contrary to what white guilt might have one believe, there is plenty of money in the Middle East. Unfortunately it's all in the hands of royals, oligarchs and warlords. There are powerful Houthi's at the top of the chain of command who have a lot more spending money than any of us. We aren't the world police, nor are we Santa Claus. It's not our responsibility to improve their lives, just as they wouldn't ever consider doing anything for us if roles were reversed.

If the Houthis want to attack international trade ships, even after a month of warnings and wrist-slaps, they should expect nothing more than counter-attacks from the nations who are interested in preserving global order. We aren't going to fix them no matter how much money we give them, and so the best we can hope for is that they eventually learn not to fuck with us or our allies.

In 2019 during the great march of return [...] During the so-called ceasefire Israel’s war on Gaza never ended.

This would be a more compelling point had you not cited yet another border incursion by Hamas into Israeli territory, wouldn't it?

A lasting ceasefire means that both sides must cease fire, border incursions and other blatant provocations. (It wouldn't hurt to cut down on the militant rhetoric too, but I digress...)

If South Koreans or North Koreans decided tomorrow to march thousands into the Korean DMZ, what do you think the other side would do as a response? Do you suppose that it might rapidly escalate into a very dangerous situation for both sides?

The bottom line is that there was relative peace and stability on October 6th, and then on October 7th, something happened that undeniably made the conflict worse for everyone. There is not an innocent person in the Levant whose life is better post-October 7th, and Hamas are to blame and thus cannot be trusted by any rational mind to preserve future ceasefires.

There is a long history of militant border incursions on Israeli territory going all the way back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and they always backfire when Israel fights back, which is why Gaza's borders are as they are today. Gaza was 3-4x bigger and controlled over half of the Egyptian border before the Arab League very unwisely chose to invade Israel in 1948.

One would think that the Palestinians would figure out by now that militant provocations against Israel are not the path to a better life. They only embolden Netenyahu's government, which has historically thrived on demonizing Hamas. Hamas' Islamist jihad and Netenyahu's right-wing fascism have been mutually fueling the cause of political extremism in the Middle East, and that's why they are in the situation that we see today.

Unfortunately, neither side is run by political leaders who want peace, only power. And so, unless Israeli and Palestinian leadership changes, I feel that we won't see a long-term ceasefire or lasting peace in our lifetimes.

Microsoft basically tied with Apple for the title of richest company in the world, by the way.

Modartt's Pianoteq is a nice Linux native, physically modeled piano plugin.

In my experience yabridge is fantastic. With a bit of initial setup, it's the closest thing to a native experience that I've come across.

You do control it with a CLI interface, so you need to be comfortable with that.

You also need to have already installed the Windows VSTs manually using WINE or whatever, and so there's a bit of a typical "how well does this work under wine" crapshoot and a bit of a learning curve there.

And then after two months they turn the genocide machine back on?

Wait, did you think that a ceasefire meant that neither side would ever fight again, and that they'd all live happily ever after?

If that was the case, Hamas wouldn't have brought an end to the last ceasefire on October 7th, 2023.

Fair. Totally fair.

That was wrong of me, I was just tired of constant bad-faith arguments over nothing.

Yep, ya got me bro. Nothing says "i love democracy", or as you call it "demacracy", like advocating for a small state which is not at all representative of the broader voting base to unilaterally put itself first in line to the nomination process. 😂

With people like you around it's no wonder Socrates was put to death by popular vote. They also loved making shit up to get mad at back then.

I'm not sure if AI is going to revolutionize anything good, but it's certainly going to revolutionize election interference.

Are you aware that New Hampshire decided to unilaterally put themselves first in the primary schedule based on some nonsense in their state constitution?

"The presidential primary election shall be held on the second Tuesday in March or on a date selected by the secretary of state which is 7 days or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election, whichever is earlier, of each year when a president of the United States is to be elected or the year previous," the law says.

But last year, the Democratic Party, supported by President Biden, announced it would be changing its primary calendar to prioritize South Carolina and move up battleground states such as Michigan and Georgia. New Hampshire's state government, controlled by Republicans, refused to comply with the DNC's new rules and scheduled the primary for Jan. 23, leaving it first.

As a result, Mr. Biden is not appearing on the ballot, although his campaign has launched an aggressive write-in campaign. Democratic candidates participating in the unofficial primary on Tuesday will not win any delegates, so any victory will be symbolic.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-new-hampshire-primary-first-in-the-nation/

As I'm somewhat a fan of democracy, I think that South Carolina is a much better first primary state than New Hampshire for the simple reason that it better represents the demographic and ideological makeup of that party.

I agree with the commenter above, you've inventing shit to be mad at.

Then maybe Trump should quit "riffing" until he can string a coherent sentence together.

Because Biden is over here giving solid speeches on how this moment reflects American history, while Trump is so completely confused (and, let's face it, that's being fucking generous) that he doesn't even know that Nicky Haley (who worked in his cabinet and who is running against him as a Republican) isn't Nancy Pelosi.

Am I cherry-picking? Has Trump said anything coherent in the last 12 months? On prompter or off. That's a serious question by the way.

Time to face the facts, Biden may be a bit old and doddering, but Trump is now straight-up demented.

It's no wonder he's afraid to debate, because he seems to have barely any idea what's even going on anymore. Why else do you think his handlers have him taking cognitive tests?