Political Randomness

[Holman]

Seen on Bluesky:

I normally think it’s cringe for Americans to mark Guy Fawkes Day but I guess for the first time we also have the chance to keep a bunch of adult Catholic converts from blowing everything up

[Brian]

So I finally pulled the plug on my Facebook account (and Instagram but nobody gives a shit about that).
I did this for a couple of reasons:

1. I don't want to have to see the smug gloating of the one or two MAGAT folk that still populate my friends list.
2. I don't want to deal with the cries of despair and the gnashing of the teeth from everybody else on my friends list.

The only social accounts I plan to keep are this one here on OO and my YouTube account so I can post game play videos.

[dbt1949]

I wonder how long it will take for Trump starts the ball rollin on a new amendment to abolish the 22nd amendment?

[Max Peck]

The Constitution is just a piece of paper. Why amend it when you can simply ignore it.

[hepcat]

Thankfully, mother nature has a solution for Trump attempting to run again in 2028. And it all begins...and ends...with KFC and McDonalds.

[LordMortis]

I had mostly stopped video gaming since "retiring." Doubly so since getting hit by a car and rehabbing. I guess I'm a stress video gamer. Factorio couldn't have come at a better time for me. Such a relaxing way to not be present. If it weren't for arm stiffness unto pain, I'd be lost like I was a kid again.

[hepcat]

I'm heading back to Elden Ring until 2028.

[hepcat]

2. I don't want to deal with the cries of despair and the gnashing of the teeth from everybody else on my friends list.

You may want to delete your OO account too in light of that requirement.

<puts in special dentures made for extreme gnashing>

[Blackhawk]

The cries of despair are a reaction to the event, not the new norm. People are genuinely afraid, and some have good reason. People are genuinely shaken by the fact that this is their America. They (we?) need to vent and work through some things. The gnashing of teeth is temporary.

[LordMortis]

Gawd, I hope so. Literally every time I am finally normalizing and accepting "this is where I'm at, work on it and make the life best you can for your where you are", I'm thrown a new trial. I'm wearing out.

[msduncan]

I'm heading back to Elden Ring until 2028.

Good news: There will be a new Skyrim out every year from now until 2028.

[hepcat]

Go on...I'm listening.

[Isgrimnur]

It will run on your smart refrigerator except during the Two Minutes Hate.

[Max Peck]

It will run on your smart refrigerator except during the Two Minutes Hate.

But it will break the Skyrim Script Extender anew each year, so you will only be able to run vanilla Skyrim (on all platforms, not just the smart fridges).

[WYBaugh]

May be the wrong spot to ask but I keep reading people's comments (not necessarily here) that it's just 4 years. Don't stop fighting, etc.

Do y'all believe that things will just continue as normal concerning elections? The group of election fraud and January 6th are just going to relinquish power?

Is there something that is going to stop the Republicans from re-making things how they want it?

[Smoove_B]

I know it's probably a niche topic and only likely directly relevant to a few OOers, but part of my current despair is also related to what happened in my state. Specifically:

Harris’ 5-point win here was the closest for a Democratic White House contender since 1992 and comes after Trump lost the state by 14 and 16 points, respectively, in his last two races.

Not that I want NJ to be a swing state, but I'm feeling quite concerned that the growing MAGA movement in various pockets is starting to coalesce into a greater state-level movement - despite the "classic" GOP members that have been fighting/resisting all things MAGA over the last 8 years.

I guess I'm sharing because it might be something that eventually makes it to national news. Our last governor's race was rather close (he won with 56% of the vote in 2021) and so all eyes are what's about to happen in 2025 as he's unable to run again (term limit).

Interesting, interesting times. If NJ flips to red...trouble.

[Smoove_B]

Do y'all believe that things will just continue as normal concerning elections? The group of election fraud and January 6th are just going to relinquish power?

Yeah, this is where I am when I see people commenting on how things will be fine or that it's "only" 4 years. His last term was genuinely insane. Maybe COVID-19 really has wiped out those memories or perhaps people did manage to live those years without being impacted at all by all the crazy shit he said and did.

This time is different; it's decidedly worse to have him back and I don't believe for a second the 2028 election will be what people think. Even if it is, he's going to absolutely destroy the fabric of government and pack the courts, likely impacting our trajectory for another 25+ years; I'll be dead before this is turned around, if it ever can be.

[Skinypupy]

May be the wrong spot to ask but I keep reading people's comments (not necessarily here) that it's just 4 years. Don't stop fighting, etc.

Do y'all believe that things will just continue as normal concerning elections? The group of election fraud and January 6th are just going to relinquish power?

Is there something that is going to stop the Republicans from re-making things how they want it?

Nope. Nothing at all.

I'm fully expecting US elections to end up as a perfunctory exercise that can be used for them to publicly say "See, we're still a democracy!" while MAGA gets 96% of the vote.

[WYBaugh]

May be the wrong spot to ask but I keep reading people's comments (not necessarily here) that it's just 4 years. Don't stop fighting, etc.

Do y'all believe that things will just continue as normal concerning elections? The group of election fraud and January 6th are just going to relinquish power?

Is there something that is going to stop the Republicans from re-making things how they want it?

Nope. Nothing at all.

I'm fully expecting US elections to end up as a perfunctory exercise that can be used for them to publicly say "See, we're still a democracy!" while MAGA gets 96% of the vote.

What I'm feeling as well. So good as it's going to get right now then down the shitter unless there is a civil war or a coup.

[WYBaugh]

Do y'all believe that things will just continue as normal concerning elections? The group of election fraud and January 6th are just going to relinquish power?

Yeah, this is where I am when I see people commenting on how things will be fine or that it's "only" 4 years. His last term was genuinely insane. Maybe COVID-19 really has wiped out those memories or perhaps people did manage to live those years without being impacted at all by all the crazy shit he said and did.

This time is different; it's decidedly worse to have him back and I don't believe for a second the 2028 election will be what people think. Even if it is, he's going to absolutely destroy the fabric of government and pack the courts, likely impacting our trajectory for another 25+ years; I'll be dead before this is turned around, if it ever can be.

Same boat. Won't live long enough to see if things get corrected.

[LordMortis]

I would have said that the actions of the GOP would just create more Blue and it couldn't be denied. Right up until TFG won the popular vote and even if things were rigged won enough to make the popular vote a reasonable assumption. Now, who knows? If this is who we are, you don't need to rig stuff any more.

[Pyperkub]

Nobody listens. Saw an ASU student who said she voted for Trump because he said he'd protect abortion rights.

People still think Republicans are fiscally conservative despite running up the debt by trillions every single time and trashing the economy. You really can fool some of the people all of the time.

[YellowKing]

People still voted for progressive policies (abortion, marijuana, minimum wage hikes), Democratic governors, Democratic congresspeople. Trump didn't win because all of a sudden the country went full MAGA. There's a way back. People are dissatisfied with government in general, so they're throwing crap at the wall trying to find something that sticks.

[Blackhawk]

The problem is that the Republicans know that there is a way back, and they likely have enough control to spend the next two years locking that down.

[Punisher]

I blame Loki for all of this.
If he hadn't made a newer, kinder TVA we would have been pruned already...

[Zarathud]

Trump is the Loki strategy of politics. Create enough chaos that people ignore everything but your brand reputation and nostalgia, and make excuses that “he can’t be as bad as everyone says” or “he’ll be restrained by business” or “he didn’t mean that.”

There is absolutely a way out. Trump will help as he turns the leopards on the “wrong” people in the eyes of voters.

We all have to make sure people understand the Chaos is now all Republicans stand for. Make dissatisfaction and the blame stick to the GOP, not the scapegoats. Show all the brutality so it can’t be ignored.

America literally survived race riots and slavery. We can get through it. It won’t be pretty, but giving up is surrender. It only seems inevitable.

[LordMortis]

You really can fool some of the people all of the time.

Sig worthy, only Izzy asks to keep R&P out of sigs.

America literally survived race riots and slavery. We can get through it. It won’t be pretty, but giving up is surrender. It only seems inevitable.

After the adults took over I was surprised at how little COVID hurt the economy and how successfully they got so much done in a hostile environment so quickly. So there is a ray of hope, even as a hurricane is blowing on the candle.

[Holman]

America literally survived race riots and slavery. We can get through it. It won’t be pretty, but giving up is surrender. It only seems inevitable.

Trump (and especially Vance, Bannon, Tucker, etc) will be following the well-established and so-far successful playbook for turning a troubled democracy into an "electoral autocracy."

We need to be on high alert for the signs of this.

[Blackhawk]

The problem is that the Republicans know that there is a way back, and they likely have enough control to spend the next two years locking that down.

If they can spend the next two years 'tweaking' the electoral process, the options for a 'way back' shrink dramatically and in unpleasant directions.

[gilraen]

As seen on X (via Reddit) - here's a joke circulating in Germany: "What borders on stupidity? Mexico and Canada."

[Blackhawk]

We have earned it.

[Unagi]

I'll tell you what borders on stupidity.... Illinois.

[Blackhawk]

This is truth.

[Blackhawk]

As an aside, Mike Braun won Governorship of Indiana, stepping in from the US Senate. He's a pure Trumpist, supported Trump's position that the 2020 election was rigged, supported Trump's tariffs, has worked hard to limit marriage to a man and woman, and... well, you get the idea. MAGA at the helm.

[Max Peck]

This looks like good timing, especially if you expect a sudden brain-drain at, say, the CIA or DoD.

Claude AI to process secret government data through new Palantir deal

Anthropic has announced a partnership with Palantir and Amazon Web Services to bring its Claude AI models to unspecified US intelligence and defense agencies. Claude, a family of AI language models similar to those that power ChatGPT, will work within Palantir's platform using AWS hosting to process and analyze data. But some critics have called out the deal as contradictory to Anthropic's widely-publicized "AI safety" aims.

On X, former Google co-head of AI ethics Timnit Gebru wrote of Anthropic's new deal with Palantir, "Look at how they care so much about 'existential risks to humanity.'"

The partnership makes Claude available within Palantir's Impact Level 6 environment (IL6), a defense-accredited system that handles data critical to national security up to the "secret" classification level. This move follows a broader trend of AI companies seeking defense contracts, with Meta offering its Llama models to defense partners and OpenAI pursuing closer ties with the Defense Department.

In a press release, the companies outlined three main tasks for Claude in defense and intelligence settings: performing operations on large volumes of complex data at high speeds, identifying patterns and trends within that data, and streamlining document review and preparation.

While the partnership announcement suggests broad potential for AI-powered intelligence analysis, it states that human officials will retain their decision-making authority in these operations. As a reference point for the technology's capabilities, Palantir reported that one (unnamed) American insurance company used 78 AI agents powered by their platform and Claude to reduce an underwriting process from two weeks to three hours.

[LawBeefaroni]

Palantir, founded by Peter Thiel and named after the magical crystal balls from LOTR. This will be fine.

[Blackhawk]

You mean the crystal balls that an entity with harmful intent corrupted in order to provide those he perceived as a threat with misinformation in order to demoralize them to the point of giving up resistance or to turn them to his views?

Those magical crystal balls?

[Unagi]

Sounds like a dangerous tool.

[Isgrimnur]

Yes, he is.

[El Guapo]

You mean the crystal balls that an entity with harmful intent corrupted in order to provide those he perceived as a threat with misinformation in order to demoralize them to the point of giving up resistance or to turn them to his views?

Those magical crystal balls?

Those are the ones.