Well, it took over $500 and many hours of set-up, but now I can watch TV with an antenna by streaming my parents' TV to my apartment. (Thanks, @Jellyfin.) All because this apartment faces the wrong way for a TV signal. Oh well. You do what you have to do.

In the ancient world, the way many people gained great wealth was by forming gangs of strong men, beating up their neighbors, and taking their stuff. People still speak with admiration of men like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, but they were little better than gangsters who enriched themselves through armed robbery. This was a negative sum game, and assured that people remained poor and unhappy for thousands of years. Eventually, however, we figured out that respecting each other’s rights, building things, and trading meant that we could play positive sum games instead. We could increase the amount of wealth, and all would benefit. As a result, we moved from living in unheated shacks to living in what our ancestors would’ve thought of as paradise in only a few hundred years. However, there are still people out there who think that beating someone up and taking their stuff is a really great idea. It is the great task of our civilization to shun such people, as they are not fit to be part of society.

Lmao. And there’s the plan. Right there. Laid bare in your face. Create the problem (stranger danger), sell the solution (more authoritative surveillance state), repeat forever. Everyone owes conspiracy theorists an apology who have been screaming about this for years.

I think most Americans care so little about Canada that they don't even know Canadians don't like us. 🤣

Not just committing crimes, but abusing freedoms so that those freedoms become restricted as well.

I hate to break it to you - but the United States is an absolute, incoherent shitshow. The idea that we have ‘representative government’ is ridiculous. If that were true we would not have wasted billions killing Iranians for no reason at all. Some people wanted this - but the voters who elected this government did not. Let’s go further. When Trump goes to China - he brings our ‘great billionaires’ with him. I can’t think of any more obvious symbol that we live in an oligarchy that does everything it can to manipulate outcomes - and that voting is a bit of a joke. It’s like he’s bringing with him ‘the ruling elite.’ Because that is what he did. We have at least 40 million illegal aliens living here. Our business ‘leaders’ engineered this by bribing politicians to keep the border open - because they wanted to pay low wages and make mucho $$ for themselves. When people objected because their incomes were falling - the business leaders accused them of racism and funded Barack Obama to become POTUS. The USA is $40 trillion in debt - and no one has a plan to solve that problem. Absolutely no one. This will blow up one day - and it will destroy normal people who save in dollars - because the unspoken plan is to destroy the currency and save the rich and destroy the rest. But people who own our homes - like Blackstone or Blackrock - won’t care because their assets will follow inflation. Everyone else will be reduced to paupers renting from them - their bank accounts gone. The United States today is hopelessly dysfunctional. It lacks a coherent population that can even agree on anything. It is bankrupt - but the rest of the world is propping it up because they are also scared of what happens when the dollar collapses. It doesn’t have any smart leaders - and we have to watch insiders doing oil trades to make $$ on the Iran war - and the administration itself sells shit coins. Our foreign policy is a total joke - not strategic in any way at all. It is driven by special interests, and then not even followed through. And people are actuality making money on it - pump and dump coming straight from the White House. This is a hell of a way to celebrate 250 Years! At least we can have a cage match on the White House lawn that degrades our entire history and underscores just how bad and ridiculous things are! Thank you for your attention to this matter! Enjoy the circus! If you’re lucky you will be dead when the music stops!

What level of IQ do you need to have to believe that throwing money at problems will solve them?

In 1980 Ronald Reagan convincingly won the presidency against Jimmy Carter, and also tipped the Senate. But the democrats maintained control of the House and Tip O’Neill remained speaker. That meant a lot of people voted for Reagan, but then voted democratic down ballot. They could do this knowing bipartisanship was possible - that the country had a coherent population, and differences were not so wide that people would refuse to work together. Reagan was able to push his tax reduction plan through Congress. Tip O’Neill basically said ‘this is what the people voted for, so we will work with you.’ That could not happen today. The US electorate is balkanizing because of too much immigration too fast - which is exploited by unscrupulous politicians. We will probably not see the kind of bipartisanship of the early 1980s again in our lifetimes - if ever. And this is why a 1924 style moratorium on immigration is necessary, coupled with aggressive assimilation policies and deportations of those who don’t really want to be American. And it’s why birthright citizenship is a disaster in present circumstances.

Raman gets last place on mail-in votes. Raman gets last place on in-person votes. Then suddenly surges ahead *only* with mail-in ballots submitted AFTER the election. LMAO.

No, you reduce crime by sterilizing and imprisoning violent criminals Fuck this if we only give them free shit they won’t steal crap

It is true that colonialism didn't "make Africa poor." But there is a case to be made for how it led to Africa's modern troubles. The story is not flattering to Africans or Europeans, so no one really tells it. But here's a stab at it. Europeans - largely through private initiative only later legitimated by government - invaded an Africa that was primitive compared to Europe in the 17-19th centuries. Over a couple centuries it built up an economy - often having to overcome tribal resistance through brute force - and created totally artificial states that didn't take into account ethnic/tribal/linguistic/religious differences. Those states made Africa more prosperous, and this permitted a dramatic increase in the African population in the 20th century. But these states were fake. When the European powers abruptly withdrew in the 1950s-60s, it handed over a bureaucratic infrastructure that allowed new African rulers to have centralized power over these large states. The rulers used their power to reward their own families and tribes - at the expense of everyone else. The Europeans did not do this - at least to the same degree (they did use a divide and conquer strategy from time to time). This set the stage for a zero sum game among Africans, who were "citizens" of "states" that even now don't have any real meaning in the Western "nation state" sense. So you have brutal civil wars, a lack of coordination - and sometimes even genocide (Rwanda in 1994, and a low level version of it that lingers in the Congo even now). Because these African states are totally dysfunctional, they need Western aid even to prop them up. NGOs and foreign aid provide the food and medicine that maintain the population, and keep up birth rates that are very high by modern standards - making the problem worse all the time. The freaking out over DOGE gutting USAID reflects this reality - many parts of Africa would depopulate and fall into disorder without Western help. So the story really is that colonialism made Africa richer at the end of a gun, created political entities that make no sense, and permitted massive increases in the population. But the withdrawal of European leadership put Africans in charge of complex entities they couldn't rule effectively. And now they blame all their troubles on the Europeans, as if colonialism itself was one big theft. The reality is colonialism created wealth - the Europeans left - the Africans cannot maintain the same standard of living without them - and this is what they're complaining about.

While soccer is mostly played with feet, really, it can be played with anything other than the hands and arms. Perhaps, it should be called "No-Hands Ball". In all seriousness, I believe football gets its name because it is played on foot rather than on horseback.

Technically, it's Association Football. Soccer is a shorthand for that. Since soccer is the clearer shorthand (as compared to football), I'd say it's better.

I agree with the New York Times. Marbury vs Madison was wrongly decided. Judges have taken power via a coup. The Supreme Court is not the final say on the Constitution. They are a co-equal branch. Judicial supremacy must be rejected by Trump.

Violence is the default mechanism for solving problems. All of civilization exists to provide less violent ways to resolve problems.

My parents had a waterbed up until a few years ago.

I seriously hate how information that would be best presented in text is now only found via video. I suspect the information exists in text form but crappy search engines (like @Google) are just doing an ass job of finding it because they are essentially useless now,

Consider all of the blatant lies that activists tell about cases we’ve all lived through. Cases where there’s video and forensic evidence disproving their claims. Think about how the false narratives spread anyway and eventually become mainstream orthodoxy. Now go back and consider every supposed racist atrocity from decades or centuries ago. Every “innocent” minority wrongfully persecuted by racist whites. I’m not saying that all of those stories aren’t true. I’m saying that you can’t assume that they are true. If they can lie about the stuff we all witnessed with our own eyes, imagine what they can do with the things none of us witnessed.

These stories from the left are always hilarious. "anti-LGBTQ attack" A bit of digging shows that one drunk rowdy outside bar A yelled at the staff of bar B across the street something like "you should close your bar; you're faggots", bc bar A loyalty. person C, at bar B decided to interpret this as a hate crime, approached the drunk guy and got within arm's reach, screaming at him drunk guy pushes person C [ arguably in self defense ], knocking them to the ground. person C draws a pistol, racks the slide cops are called for person brandishing a pistol person C denies that they have a pistol; they had a KNIFE you see, but they dropped it no dropped knife is found "actually, I do have a pistol, but not on me; it's in my car" it was not in the car; it was on the person's hip person C then charged for assault for approaching a person, screaming at them, drawing a pistol person C argues self defense / stand your ground "I had to do it to protect myself" prosecutor says "but you DIDN'T stand your ground; you approached the other person, creating a confrontation" so anyway, yeah, ameriKKKa is a fascist police state where LGBTQ people can't catch a break

here are some facts about California. some of this is hard to believe. first of all, it's important to understand the concept of "ballot harvesting," which is perfectly legal in CA. this refers to a situation where someone completely unaffiliated with the voter can collect and submit their ballot for them. this flow is completely legal: - a homeless person arrives in LA, where they are eligible for cash assistance, SSI, food stamps, healthcare through medical, and an array of other taxpayer-funded services - they are registered to vote by an NGO (many such NGOs exist and explicitly do this). - they do not have to provide a residential address or any proof of residency to vote. they only have to provide a mailing address, which can be anywhere (church, NGO HQ, homeless shelter). their home address can be "a park" or "an underpass". - their ballot is mailed to the homeless shelter (or whatever address the NGO elects for them) - the only verification done for the mail-in ballot is "signature verification" and uniqueness (only one vote per person is counted theoretically). - the signature can be an X. if they register with an X, they can sign with an X. that is sufficient to pass verification. signature verification is also deliberately loose. the signature does not have to be a perfect match. now consider the hypothetical scenario, which is fraudulent, but virtually impossible to detect: - a homeless person cycles through the LA system. they get registered with their mailing address listed as the NGO HQ or homeless shelter - they "sign" their registration with an X or nondescript, easily replicable signature - they disappear. never seen again. or they exist, but it doesn't matter. they don't get purged from the voter rolls for 4-8 years typically. - the address where they registered receives their ballot for several cycles - operatives are aware that they have X amount of votes to make up. they fill in X many thousand mail-in ballots themselves. the ballots are manually postmarked (permitted). they forge the signature to match whatever signature (could be an X) was submitted upon registration - ballots can be accepted even if they are postmarked at 11.59 pm. polls closed at 8 pm. (you would need an accomplice who is a USPS employee) - the only fraud checks are de-duplication (if the homeless person through some miracle voted in person, only one of their ballots would be counted) and signature verification - because very few of the homeless people in question would have voted in person, this gives NGO operatives tens of thousands of possible mail-in ballots to submit unilaterally. the big problem is that there is NO way to detect this type of fraud. NGOs that register homeless people to vote exist. that isn't a secret. ballot harvesting is fully legal. voting by mail is encouraged. signature verification is as loose as possible. de-duplication doesn't solve anything, since few homeless people vote in person. and no one in power locally is going to spend political capital on rooting out such fraud, since they are all wholeheartedly committed to "voting rights". in a situation where fraud is undetectable, the absence of hard proof of fraud is not evidence that no fraud exists. Raman has gained around 20k votes since election night. She is around 3k votes ahead of Pratt now. there are over 72 thousand homeless people in LA county.