Well… there is that bit where his companies now have all of the data they were able to loot from the Federal departments he ruined.

TIL - thank you!

That’s Gerald Manderley the 3rd, ESQ to you, sport!

my organization rto’d very early on after the pandemic, and promptly lost 40% of their staff who retired. It’s an old place, demographically. I can guarantee that everyone forced back in was refusing (and continues to refuse) to buy anything for lunch and brown-bags out of spite, especially given some dummies were stupid enough to claim that as the reason. Lots of eateries continuing to shut down in the area, and you know what? nobody cares. In attempting to “save” something, they’ve practically guaranteed its demise by pissing off an entire generation.

The same author did another similar novel called Thin Air, which you might like - it maintains that tech noir theming.

The first season does the detective noir thing pretty well, and doesn’t deviate too far from the novel. They tried rolling the second book (Broken Angels) and the third book (Woken Furies) into one season, it didn’t work out at all.

Now I want to make an ai slop Altered Carson poster.

There’s so many great book series out there. Ian Banks’ Culture Series, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Ruin series, could re-do Altered Carbon properly and base it on the second book more faithfully; which was actually quite interesting. Alastair Reynold’s Revelation Space series. Terry Pratchett’s last contribution in The Long Earth series. What happened to the supposed adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars series? Neal Asher’s Polity series. Dan Simmon’s Hyperion, anyone? And that’s just a small fraction of more modern SciFi.

None of these series really get a look in because we’re still busy repeating the same formula ad nauseam until the fan base literally can’t take ingesting another two hours of recycled dross.

Let’s try something new.

who fucking cares?

I disagree with you. Protests accomplish a great deal, and send an undeniable message when that message is appropriately scoped and targeted.

Protests show popular support for an issue in ways that are impossible to minimize or ignore, and they are effective in moving the needle on issues. Have a few tens of thousands of people take to the streets sends an undeniable message. Even getting a hundred people to chant something in a town square sends an undeniable message. Just because the outcome isn’t immediately visible doesn’t mean that nothing was accomplished.

NEVER go to a protest armed, that defeats the purpose. Why make a situation worse by making everyone surrounding the protest regardless of whether they’re uniform, or just someone getting to and from lunch fearful for their lives? That’s very bad advice. Additionally, gearing up almost automatically makes for a bad look. Half of what a protest aims to accomplish is to show the other side of an issue “We are here, we aren’t something you should be afraid of, we are people like you” - how is that aim going to be achieved by masking up like a bunch of cosplaying militarized goons? You don’t want that. I don’t want that. Believe it or not, I doubt half of the people co-opted into ICE want that. And part of the message has to be “We don’t need this in our lives”

Just take a look at the campus protests regarding the Palestinian Genocide. First off the students were made out to be violent, which as it turns out is largely untrue, then a bunch of pro-israel actual crazies showed up and started assaulting them (and random people) on the street. Not a good look, even with media minimization. By simply being there, and refusing to give up, they have raised awareness on the issue despite the personal cost. Those people have taken a great personal risk to do something about a situation they find ethically intolerable. I think that deserves respect, at the very least.

Be loud, focused and get your point across, but be respectful. I’ve seen police step in to stop potentially/violent counterprotestors on many occasions, believe it or not they do actually try to be neutral even in the face of provocation - so don’t offer that kind of fear to anyone sharing the local environment whilst making your point. There’s so little respectful middle ground remaining that it is critical to preserve it, because this is now a wasting asset.

This situation is now tilting towards the question of how much the lack of protest and visible popular opposition emboldens a group of self-serving individuals, before the cumulative risk becomes worse than the risk of protesting and possibly getting hurt. Constant, nonviolent protest in even the face of state violence is how to win this, and sure, that puts the protestors at risk. Risk is part of this equation, it’s coming for us - for many it’s already here - and can no longer be ignored.

I get that it’s hard work. Sometimes it feels like nothing is accomplished, and it’s not shocking and awe inspiring…but Hard Work is what’s required to correct this trajectory. We spend so much time and effort making entertainment about one special person or one special moment that we’ve given ourselves a social impediment vs. truly understanding the kinds of efforts, risks and suffering it took to get to a more equitable society in the first place.

Furthermore:

Be aware of local political groups in your areas that share values that align with yours. Generally, have a practice of being involved. Work out how your state and local elections and party machines operate, run for empty positions or support good candidates who will do the job, and not sell out to the local moneybags.

Attend protests. Sure, it might look like a bunch of people standing outside getting rained on with soggy cardboard signs, but protest works. It shows others that even though you may be afraid, you’re still standing up for what you believe is right. Support protests you agree with - order them some pizzas or something.

There’s no longer a choice about what to do - become an activist, or become complicit.

There is also the cost of power and computer hardware to factor in, which probably raises the barrier to entry, but you’re right. Once you have all the equipment or have it anyway for other purposes, it’s very cheap.

Me.

There is an adjustment period, which is often uncomfortable.

Find me a philosophy or religious perspective that is unambiguous about brute force.

It’s effective as long as one doesn’t consider the consequences, but the reality of nearly every situation is such that there’s always a better way. Did the US need to nuke two Japanese cities and every inhabitant during WW2? Or were they just too tired, scared of a war of attrition and with the technological option available, they took the easier path?

Maybe. How are we going to responsibly fight one?

You are correct in your noticing Democrats have been the party of decorum - and that’s the penultimate refuge of the incompetent before violence. So, now we’ve established that the two-ply paper-thin veneer of legitimacy has unraveled, what should we do?

There are ways out of this. None of them are easy.

Vote with your wallet, vote in primaries. Go to community board meetings. Speak up, even if you’re afraid of what anyone might think. More people will respect you for trying than you’d think, but don’t waste the opportunity on something trivial.

Don’t do business with anyone with destructive politics to the point where it causes you personal/professional inconvenience and costs your money. Support local communities. Talk to the guy on the street corner you always see but never approached. Maybe they can tell you something. Talk to the guy that makes your sandwiches at the store, your bartender, your barista, your cleaning lady, your laundromat people. Hell talk to your drug dealer/street pharmacist. Talk to your coworkers and don’t be scared. If they snitch then you will know indicators better for next time, and trust me - you will survive the mistake. Maybe it’s BS, maybe you’ll realize there’s an angle to help yourself and everyone else. Never do anything unless it helps more people than yourself, and doesn’t have an obvious negative externality that you can account for.

Go to rallies, go to meetings. Show support in public for people you believe in, someone standing up next to you when you stick your neck out counts for more than you can possibly understand. Put yourself on the front line facing armed police. Make the point that you won’t break, and that they can’t scare you. Remain nonviolent until you have no other option, but be prepared when they invent reasons to hurt you withing reason - and remember that they may have thought they never had a choice (even if they did).

This is going to get ugly.

The next time someone annoys or inconveniences you, or says something provocative, ask yourself why, and ask yourself what personal hell they are living in made them do that?

If this sounds a lot like religious nonsense, that’s exactly what it is. That stuff was (arguably flawed and wantonly misinterpreted) attempts to give people a map going forwards. We’ve been putting in an abysmal effort to do better for not only ourselves, but everyone else, and now everyone’s hurting. Some people you can’t help, they’re so stuck into their monomaniacal vision of reality that they don’t care who they’re hurting, even if it’s ultimately themselves through consequence or some other metaphysical mechanism whether you believe in it or not.

Find a community, build a community. Be a leader and set a better example for everyone around you.

It may already be too late but your actions going forwards from here will determine what survives, and whether THAT is worth saving.

And remember - it’s not just humans. There are many other living beings on this planet that don’t have the technological capacity, legal status or physical ability to make themselves heard, and our status demands at very least the acknowledgement of some form of responsible stewardship.

Good Luck.

To all of us.

Thank you for the information. My (incorrect) assumption was the oft-paraded “gun show” loophole.

I think consistent effort is required to erase any misconception about the availability of firearms.

What a foolish bill.

Road trip to Georgia and back, basically.

And here I am stuck in an apartment in NYC with one option… spectrum cable. That’s it. I mean you COULD get Verizon DSL (lol) or some horrendously overpriced LTE thing, but realistically you’re at the mercy of whatever bloodsucking landlord thinks you deserve.