Arghblarg

Arghblarg , 7 days ago

Thine instructions be murky, alas my Jerry sticketh inside the mechanism

Arghblarg , 20 days ago

I'm sure he'll wear this as a badge of honour, so that's a backfire for sure.

Arghblarg , 22 days ago

Good.

Arghblarg , 22 days ago

What? Oh no, I had not written down the recipe for using gasoline to cook my spaghetti! Whatever shall I do?

Arghblarg , 23 days ago

Isn't the Senate supposed to have a Marshall who has authority to haul people in who ignore subpoenas and the like?

The USA seems to have an awful lot of 'regulations' and 'laws' that have no real enforcement, it would seem.

Enough of 'courtesy' and 'expectations' for all governmental things such as this. Anything that isn't mandatory apparently will be ignored. Close the loopholes. Amend every law and regulation with the full expectation that every person it might be brought to bear to is a slimy grifter wannabe-fascist that will only listen to the very real threat of incarceration and jailtime from this point forward.

Oh, and give the President 2, maybe 3 pardons max and none exercisable in the last year of office. Or something. Geez, anything.

Arghblarg , 23 days ago

I'll say it again: since the SCOTUS intends to slow-walk a decision on presidential 'absolute immunity', Biden needs to announce RIGHT NOW that he's dissolving the SCOTUS effective 2 weeks from the time of the announcement, at midnight, intending to appoint an all-new roster of his choosing, as well as replacing all state-level judges, also of his administration's choosing.

If the SCOTUS, on the other hand, suddenly finds they do have the time to make a decision on presidential immunity before that deadline, well maybe Biden won't do it, after all.

Arghblarg , 22 days ago

But Trump is currently asserting in court that he does have that power! Absolute immunity remember? Who are you to say, peon, that the POTUS cannot dissolve the SCOTUS? He has absolute immunity, remember? That means he has absolute power to do anything!

What I was trying to say is that Biden should call the bluff, and force the SCOTUS to decide right now. Why not? If the POTUS really does have absolute immunity, why not? Do you see the insanity this road leads down?

Arghblarg , 21 days ago

I would like to say, for the record, that I wrote that late at night, and my phrasing probably came across incorrectly.

It wasn't my intention to call you personally 'a peon'. I was trying more to adopt the voice, for argument's sake, of what an imagined President, using this supposed absolute immunity, might say to their critics -- 'who are you (out there, the people) to question my power?'

My apologies for it coming out the way it did.

Arghblarg , 24 days ago

Because the infection of Fascism and White Christian Nationalism has too many others in power who were in a position to soften her judgement; or too many are still in denial and aren't willing to mete out definitive judgements to stop things before they can go further.

The rot goes deep and is nowhere near to being rooted out, and the US legal system seems to be locked in 'kid gloves' mode in dealing with these people.

Arghblarg , 26 days ago

"F*ck My Shit Stinks", by The Dayglo Abortions.

Arghblarg , 30 days ago

So much for 'checks and balances' hmm U.S.? Wow.

Arghblarg , 1 month ago

Missing a spoon attachment

Arghblarg , 1 month ago

That's my phone notification tone

Arghblarg , 1 month ago

Kill it all with fire

Arghblarg , 1 month ago

..are there lights on in there, or was it the sunset shining through? Beautiful pic.

Arghblarg , 1 month ago

Americans rejected The Crown, but missed vapid royalty so much, they had to invent their own.

Arghblarg , 7 days ago

Is there an rss or atom feed for the squirrel of the day?

Arghblarg , 2 months ago

Not to get political.. buy why wouldn't just washing it and generally treating it respectfully be good enough (Like, why waste a perfectly nice looking flag?)

Intentionally throwing one's national flag on the ground and stomping on it... that's one thing. But just dropping it by mistake? People make mistakes, it shouldn't be considered bloody treason :p

Then again, I'm one of those people who avoids ever addressing 'someone of station' as 'Your Grace', 'Your Honour', 'Your Highness', etc. If I were ever in the situation of being expected to do so, I'd be very uncomfortable and would try to get away with "Sir" or "Madam". I don't believe anyone deserves such obsequious subservience. Guess I'd be dead if I'd been born a few hundred years ago.

Arghblarg , 2 months ago

So they should switch to element.io, or host their own forum thingie on a VPS somewhere. Why is Discord essential? (Hint: it's not)

Arghblarg , 2 months ago

You spread misinformation, gardylou@lemmy.world. Anyone who cares to do so can verify the info I give below.

Snowden stated from the start that he originally intended to go from Hong Kong to Ecuador, who had promised him asylum. He intentionally gave away all copies of his data, destroying his own, to the journalists who had met him in Hong Kong to evaluate his leaks (verify sources before believing those who claim 'he leaked info to Russia'). He fully intended to be 'clean' if he were interdicted on his way out of Hong Kong.

The US illegally (violating international law! It is illegal for a nation to render their own citizen stateless while abroad) revoked his US passport as he flew to Russia, which he meant to be a temporary stop only to obtain passage on a flight to Ecuador as Ecuadorian officials were to be there in order to receive him.

The President of Ecuador's own Presidential Plane, with the Ecuadorian President onboard was forcibly grounded over EU airspace, by fighter jets, at the USA's behest, on suspicioun that Snowden might be aboard. Snowden was trapped in a Russian airport, against his will, with no valid passport, essentially rendered Stateless -- again, a violation of international law perpetrated by the USA against one of its own citizens.

Imagine the USA's response if Airforce One were forcibly grounded to a foreign airport, by foreign fighter-jets, at the behest of another country.

Arghblarg , 2 months ago

What's old is new again: "The Mechanical Turk".

Arghblarg , 2 months ago

Individual does this -- CFPA indictment instantly.

MegaCorp does this -- Oh dear, we absolutely must meet to plan to implement a meeting to form a panel that will plan to meet to maybe ask nicely that MegaCorp stop what they're doing (or pay us lots of lobbying funds to make it go away, which it will do anyhow, just not quite as quietly as if they pay us $$$)

Arghblarg , 3 months ago

Oh freddled gruntbuggly,

Thy micturations are to me

As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.

Arghblarg , 3 months ago

I know this might sound naive, buy why don't more whistleblowers get "all their ducks in a row" before coming out by recording absolutely everything and mailing it out in triplicate to random (or carefully chosen) third parties with some sort pf deadman switch? And announcing they've done so only after it's all in place? If one knows one's life might be at risk, make sure the bastards are exposed, no matter what happens.

Arghblarg , 3 months ago

I have used Krita to edit 1-2 page PDFs, but it's clunky as each page is its own layer. If you're looking for something that lets you add notes to an entire book or something... probably not useful.

Arghblarg , 3 months ago

Greetings, Programs!

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

It's good to be paranoid, but for years I have had periodic sign-ups for lists I never wanted, services I never asked for, medical appointments and plane ticket reservations(!) I didn't make ... you name it.

All because I was an early gmail invitee, so my account is just 'firstinitiallastname@gmail.com' (with no '123', or other decorations) -- I was the FIRST. And I'll be damned if I give it up!

So, so many people with my first initial and surname forget to add whatever crap they added to their signup after they must have gotten the error message at sign-up that told them 'sorry, but firstname.lastname@gmail.com is already taken' and they then forget whatever they added, and keep using my email address when they register for whatever crap they do. So bloody annoying.

I've taken to just logging into the numerous sites they helpfully send me registration links for, and if there's a profile section I may (if I'm feeling cranky) set their profile photo and bio to unsavoury things, before locking the account. If I'm not feeling cranky I just unsubscribe/delete the account.

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Bwahahaha. I really hope the fire sales on properties he is forced to offer are severely underbid by all potential buyers. Make him eat the losses over and over again. Karmic reflection of the fraudulent over-valuing he always did, and reversing some of the money-laundering he did for all the shady foreign agents through those properties.

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Wow, today is a banner day. Drumpf getting hammered for over $350M for realestate fraud, and now this.

It's Friday night, I was already planning to down a few, but this makes it an occasion! :)

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

My parents bought their first house immediately after marriage -- they were about 22. Sure, they had a stool (I think it was just an apple crate actually) and a table in the living room, and not much else... but my Dad worked, and my Mom raised the kids as soon as they were born, quitting her job as a bank teller, so mostly single income. There was no generous dowry or gift from parents or relatives to purchase it.

This was in the late 1950s, mind you. But it shows how much buying power the middle class has truly lost since then.

There was a time when owning a home didn't require one to be 'rich'. Today's situation in supposedly 'rich' nations is a travesty.

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

How can they NOT see, and not be frightened, that by not holding him accountable, they are literally opening up the possibility that he will dissolve the SCOTUS on his "day one" of being dictator? That would be ironic and I wouldn't put it past him.

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Hmm, if you could find a SCSI3->2 adapter, and then a SCSI->CompactFlash drive, you might be able to cobble a working solution together?

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Is it just (Canuckian) me, or shouldn't it be pronounced EpOch (long 'e', long 'o') to avoid ambiguity? It still breaks my brain when US people say what I hear as 'epic'.

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Thank you, sets my mind at ease to know it is not just me :)

"Atom" vs. "Adam" -- yes now that you mention it, you're not hearing things, Americans do say it differently.

This reminds me of something that constantly bothers me about youtube tutorials: I can tell instantly the presenter is American or was raised in America when they say ".. now go ahead and ..." rather than "now, ..." or "next, ..." when presenting step-by-step procedures. I don't know why, but it really bothers me, yet there is nothing 'wrong' about it.

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

I searched some more, and I had to stop since it just made me more frustrated :)

Listen to this clip (find the Podcast link halfway down the page with a short audio clip):

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epoch

The narrator even prefaces the discussion by saying "... EEE PEE OOOH CEEE EAYCHH". Guh!! :P

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Can confirm. I can't give details, but ... yeah. Had to file a card just last month about a uint32_t UTC time value being used in a device-to-cloud message where it will definitely need to be upgraded to a uint64_t before good ol' 2038 comes ...

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Someone let "Camping with Steve" know to NEVER go to Kentucky, I guess. Holy hell, what a dystopia.

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Hunkered down and well I've had my Stage II at this point ;)

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Damn, that's beautiful. I've never found one larger than a golf ball. Delicious sliced and sauteed in butter!

Where was this generally, if I may ask?

I did find a cauliflower mushroom this past Thanksgiving about the size of my chest though.. So great as noodles in a chicken broth soup!

Arghblarg , 4 months ago

Aha, much much further south and east, maybe that has something to do with it.

White puffers grow all across North America IIRC, but I'm on West Coast Canada (Pacific Northwest but over the border). It's a lot cooler here.

I would freaking lose my mind if I found a puffer that big. Keep an eye out ;)

Arghblarg , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

Funny how I expressed the same thing a while ago and got downvoted into oblivion.

It's simple, people (EDIT: Yes, I know it's anything but simple...) -- both sides at this point hate each other so much, there's no point in trying to establish "who started it". The way to save lives is to have BOTH populations moved elsewhere, opposite sides of the planet preferably, and international laws stating passport-holders of New-Palestine and New-Israel may NEVER travel to within one international border of the other. For the next 10 generations.

No one has to die. Moving them BOTH isn't "genocide". They can both still practice their religions -- all except the bits that say "WE MUST LIVE IN THE HOLY LAND AND ONLY US AND WE CAN KILL OTHERS TO ACHIEVE IT!".

The paradox of tolerance, that we must tolerate others' intolerance, is folly. When someone is such a threat to others, we must actually be intolerant to their intolerance. They have broken the social contract.

Once both sides are safely relocated out of the region, then we salt the entire area around Jerusalem with low-grade radioactivity that will render it uninhabitable for generations. UN-appointed international forces standing guard around the borders to prevent anyone from entering or residing the region ever again, or until everyone forgets why they're doing it. Make it a warning to humanity on what must happen when religions and ethnic hatred get out of control.

I know it will never, ever happen. But one could dream.

Arghblarg , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

Damn right I'm annoyed! Annoyed they are killing each other over a stupid piece of land that their upbringing has brainwashed them into dying for, because some "god" supposedly granted them exclusive right to!

I'm serious. There are lots of regions that could home these two warring cultures, far away from each other. Canada and one of the large South American nations, for example, or a coastal region of Australia.

I live in Canada, and if it would end the conflict I would 100% accept carving out a home for one side or the other (roll dice! I am willing to accept either! So long as the "other side" has to go somewhere on the other side of the planet) -- say, a region spanning northern Alberta/Manitoba or Manitoba/Saskatchewan, of equivalent size to Israel or Gaza. We have lots of land.

On the condition that once they moved here, every citizen would swear a solemn vow that they would put the past behind them and never seek to return to their homeland or harass the "other side" wherever they moved to, again.

Wouldn't it be better for the people on both sides to have all of us (the world's nations) fund their move to disparate regions for each side? They wouldn't be able to bomb each other. They wouldn't ever have to even think about each other. They hate each other, so give them a chance for peace apart from one another.

On the other hand, if they are so fixated on their "Holy Land" and their sky daddy that they want to die for it, then fine. Let them blow each other up.

You may be able to deduce, by now, that I have a rather low opinion of organized religion and its use as a pretense for foreign and domestic policy.

EDIT: BTW I never said, nor implied, either side were "dumb" or "barbarians". I will, however, stand by my implied assertion that the populace of both sides are brainwashed by organized religion, and authoritarians and terrorists are using that as a cudgel to achieve their own selfish aims, and are the real poison here. The only way to take away their power is to remove the dispute over the region.

Arghblarg , 5 months ago

How tall is it?

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!

Also: Linux.

Arghblarg , 5 months ago

Assistant (Home) has already gone to shit and it's obvious they're just cruising. I fully expect they announce within a year or two that all of our assistant devices are deprecated and brick them. 'Cuz that's what Google does.

They removed all games AND custom 3rd-party apps. Just what, three stupid 'games' now -- "Tell a joke", "Crystal Ball" and "Tell me what any animal sounds like".

And when I say "Hey Google, play the latest episode of blah-blah- podcast" it always responds "Here's where you left off on blah-blah podcast..."

Like FFS, I said play the LATEST episode, not resume the previous episode I was playing. The workaround for this obvious, annoying and months-old bug is to instead say "Hey Google, play the <current month> <current day>-st episode of blah-blah podcast..." even if the "latest" episode was days ago. At least it plays the "latest" one.

Assistant is dying and they are obviously letting it die.

Arghblarg , 5 months ago

You mean West China right? :)

(I hear the Pooh Bear hates that)

Arghblarg , 5 months ago

No, you're totally right -- there's no easy way out of this. But how does one work towards a peaceful solution, and overcome multi-generational, cultural, 'religion'-based attitudes shaping foreign policies (I place 'religion' in quotes because I believe that religion is just used, by all sides, as justification for intolerance and abuse of power) that insists on conflict? BTW I'm referring to both Iran and the 'Western Powers' here.

Simply trying to 'kill the masters' would only create a vacuum for whomever is waiting in the wings to take their place, and just perpetuate the cycle.. sigh. I dunno.