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i think we should maybe start killing people

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wife found out how much i spend on money

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So Trump Administration's weaponized Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sent out a mass "voluntary survey" to Barnard University teachers and staff asking them if they were Jewish.

This was not sent to their school-affiliated offices and emails, but to their personal phones and email addresses.

How did the EEOC know the personal contact information of all of these people? Why, their employer, the College, gave it to them, of course!

Several Barnard staff members told CNN the college has their personal contact information in case of emergency only. “The cellphone belongs to me, it doesn’t belong to Barnard,” said Nara Milanich, chair of the school’s history department. Milanich, who is Jewish, said she “didn’t even know it was legal” for the school to turn her information over. Another staff member who received the text, and who wished to remain anonymous out of concern for their job, expressed fears it might not just have been their own information that was shared with the government. “It would be one thing if they gave them my office number, but they gave them my cellphone number, and who knows what else? I’m concerned that they may have given the numbers of my emergency contacts and my loved ones, who have nothing to do with any of this. I’m worried if they gave other personal identifying information about me,” the staff member said.

Ostensibly, this was all done as part of a US government's "investigation" into alleged anti-Semitism on college campuses - the irony of which seems to have been lost of them.

“They’re not concerned about antisemitism, they’re inflaming antisemitism,” Debbie Becher, a Sociology professor at Barnard, who is also Jewish, said. “They’re concerned with tearing down the institutions of higher education and shutting down any speech that is pro-Palestinian or critical of Israel.”

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plagiarism isnt bad because its theft -- copying is not theft, and theft is not inherently bad. to the extent and in the places where it is bad, it's bad because it's lying

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When he approved a campaign to reopen shipping in the Red Sea by bombing the Houthi militant group into submission, President Trump wanted to see results within 30 days of the initial strikes two months ago.

By Day 31, Mr. Trump, ever leery of drawn-out military entanglements in the Middle East, demanded a progress report, according to administration officials.

But the results were not there. The United States had not even established air superiority over the Houthis. Instead, what was emerging after 30 days of a stepped-up campaign against the Yemeni group was another expensive but inconclusive American military engagement in the region.

The Houthis shot down several American MQ-9 Reaper drones and continued to fire at naval ships in the Red Sea, including an American aircraft carrier. And the U.S. strikes burned through weapons and munitions at a rate of about $1 billion in the first month alone.

It did not help that two $67 million F/A-18 Super Hornets from America’s flagship aircraft carrier tasked with conducting strikes against the Houthis accidentally tumbled off the carrier into the sea.

By then, Mr. Trump had had enough.

Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy, who was already in Omani-mediated nuclear talks with Iran, reported that Omani officials had suggested what could be a perfect offramp for Mr. Trump on the separate issue of the Houthis, according to American and Arab officials. The United States would halt the bombing campaign and the militia would no longer target American ships in the Red Sea, but without any agreement to stop disrupting shipping that the group deemed helpful to Israel.

Announcing the cessation of hostilities, the president sounded almost admiring about the militant Islamist group, despite vowing earlier that it would be “completely annihilated.”

“We hit them very hard and they had a great ability to withstand punishment,” Mr. Trump said. “You could say there was a lot of bravery there.” He added that “they gave us their word that they wouldn’t be shooting at ships anymore, and we honor that.”

Whether that proves to be true remains to be seen. The Houthis fired a ballistic missile at Israel on Friday, triggering air raid sirens that drove people off beaches in Tel Aviv. The missile was intercepted by Israeli air defenses.[...]

Mr. Trump’s new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, was concerned that an extended campaign against the Houthis would drain military resources away from the Asia-Pacific region. His predecessor, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., shared that view before he was fired in February.

By May 5, Mr. Trump was ready to move on, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former officials with knowledge of the discussions in the president’s national security circle. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal discussions.[...]

General Kurilla had been gunning for the Houthis since November 2023, when the group began attacking ships passing through the Red Sea as a way to target Israel for its invasion of Gaza.

But President Joseph R. Biden Jr. thought that engaging the Houthis in a forceful campaign would elevate their status on the global stage. Instead, he authorized more limited strikes against the group. But that failed to stop the Houthis.

Now General Kurilla had a new commander in chief.

He proposed an eight- to 10-month campaign in which Air Force and Navy warplanes would take out Houthi air defense systems. Then, he said, U.S. forces would mount targeted assassinations modeled on Israel’s recent operation against Hezbollah, three U.S. officials said.

Saudi officials backed General Kurilla’s plan and provided a target list of 12 Houthi senior leaders whose deaths, they said, would cripple the movement. But the United Arab Emirates, another powerful U.S. ally in the region, was not so sure. The Houthis had weathered years of bombings by the Saudis and the Emiratis.

By early March, Mr. Trump had signed off on part of General Kurilla’s plan — airstrikes against Houthi air defense systems and strikes against the group’s leaders. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named the campaign Operation Rough Rider.

At some point, General Kurilla’s eight- to 10-month campaign was given just 30 days to show results.

In those first 30 days, the Houthis shot down seven American MQ-9 drones (around $30 million each), hampering Central Command’s ability to track and strike the militant group. Several American F-16s and an F-35 fighter jet were nearly struck by Houthi air defenses, making real the possibility of American casualties, multiple U.S. officials said.

That possibility became reality when two pilots and a flight deck crew member were injured in the two episodes involving the F/A-18 Super Hornets, which fell into the Red Sea from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman within 10 days of each other.[...]

the cost of the operation was staggering. The Pentagon had deployed two aircraft carriers, additional B-2 bombers and fighter jets, as well as Patriot and THAAD air defenses, to the Middle East, officials acknowledged privately. By the end of the first 30 days of the campaign, the cost had exceeded $1 billion, the officials said.

So many precision munitions were being used, especially advanced long-range ones, that some Pentagon contingency planners were growing increasingly concerned about overall stocks and the implications for any situation in which the United States might have to ward off an attempted invasion of Taiwan by China.

And through it all, the Houthis were still shooting at vessels and drones, fortifying their bunkers and moving weapons stockpiles underground.

The White House began pressing Central Command for metrics of success in the campaign. The command responded by providing data showing the number of munitions dropped. The intelligence community said that there was “some degradation” of Houthi capability, but argued that the group could easily reconstitute, officials said.

Senior national security officials considered two pathways. They could ramp up operations for up to another month and then conduct “freedom of navigation” exercises in the Red Sea using two carrier groups, the Carl Vinson and the Truman. If the Houthis did not fire on the ships, the Trump administration would declare victory.

Or, officials said, the campaign could be extended to give Yemeni government forces time to restart a drive to push the Houthis out of the capital and key ports.

In late April, Mr. Hegseth organized a video call with Saudi and Emirati officials and senior officials from the State Department and the White House in an effort to come up with a sustainable way forward and an achievable state for the campaign that they could present to the president.

The group was not able to reach a consensus, U.S. officials said.[...]

Also skeptical of a longer campaign were Vice President JD Vance; the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Mr. Hegseth, people with knowledge of the discussions said, went back and forth, arguing both sides.

But Mr. Trump had become the most important skeptic.

On April 28, the Truman was forced to make a hard turn at sea to avoid incoming Houthi fire, several U.S. officials said. The move contributed to the loss of one of the Super Hornets, which was being towed at the time and fell overboard. That same day, dozens of people were killed in a U.S. attack that hit a migrant facility controlled by the Houthis, according to the group and aid officials.

Then on May 4, a Houthi ballistic missile evaded Israel’s aerial defenses and struck near Ben-Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv.

On Tuesday, two pilots aboard another Super Hornet, again on the Truman, were forced to eject after their fighter jet failed to catch the steel cable on the carrier deck, sending the plane into the Red Sea.

By then, Mr. Trump had decided to declare the operation a success.

Houthi officials and their supporters swiftly declared victory, too, spreading a social media hashtag that read “Yemen defeats America.”

12 May 25

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Oh did America overextend itself with Israel and now they’re backing off? Funny. The resistance actually made it too costly for America to continue being involved, that’s an insane success story

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I missed most of the Iraq war due to being a baby, but every time I read about it I start wondering why we aren’t all talking about it all of the time

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“of course having a law that allows corporations to own the work of artists for a one time payment and then make millions off that work without paying the artist a cent is worse than having no law at all.” In a world without IP, wouldn’t the corporations just do the same thing but without even the one-time payment? Like, they own the means to profit off of creative content anyway, so isn’t making them at least pay for the idea better than nothing? Or is it more that it’s not worth the tradeoff of letting them abuse IP against smaller creators?

well the thing is that not only do these corporations profit off the work (which ofc they would do without IP) but the original creators can't! if kurvitz tried to make disco elysium 2, or write a sequel to his novel, ZA/UM could sue him. the creator of ghost rider was in fact sued by dc for selling sketches of the characters at cons. copyright is not just the ability to profit off a work but the exclusive ability to profit off of it and prevent anyone else, including the original creator, from doing so. american mcgee wanted to make a third alice game badly enough he asked EA to let him buy or license the property back and they said no. when yahtzee croshaw quit the escapist he had to rename and rebrand the show he'd been making for 15 years. john fogerty refused to play CCR songs for years rather than let a record label that he hated leech profits from him. & on and on and on

sure, without IP law corporations could still replicate people's creative works, but at least they couldn't legally prevent the original artists from continuing to create the things they love, which they can now. what's happened to these artists is a real theft, unlike so-called "IP theft", because they have been deprived of something they created and loved!

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Biden Admin admits to never pressuring Israel

Here is the article that ask was and drop site was referencing.

Some highlights since the article focuses on the disappointment that Biden officials had with how Israel spun their press.

Quote from Former Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog: “God did the State of Israel a favor that Biden was the president during this period… We fought [in Gaza] for over a year and the administration never came to us and said, ‘ceasefire now.’ It never did. And that’s not to be taken for granted.”

This was an investigation from Israel’s own news team. They interviewed 9 Biden officials who acknowledged that they didn’t apply real pressure to Israel.

Israeli leaders bragged about dragging the war in favor of Trump so he could take the credit of getting a ceasefire deal.

U.S. officials pushed a post-war plan modeled on the anti-ISIS campaign, proposing that Arab states temporarily secure Gaza—but Netanyahu blocked it, refusing any role for the Palestinian Authority.

Far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich openly pushed for reoccupying Gaza and rebuilding settlements. Netanyahu refused to advance alternatives, keeping the door open to their demands.

Israeli officials relished in Biden’s passivity: “We Fought for Over a Year and the Administration Never Said ‘Ceasefire Now’”

Biden aides knew that Israeli was dragging the war: “He’s undercutting it every step of the way,” said Goldenberg. “All the security people are coming out and saying it.”

There were internal discussions in Washington about Biden giving a speech to pressure Israel politically, possibly triggering new elections there—but Biden backed off.

U.S. Covered for Israeli War Crimes and Blocked Aid Report. State Department adviser Stacy Gilbert resigned after being cut out of the process of drafting a legally required arms compliance report. The final version cleared Israel of violating U.S. law—despite overwhelming evidence of aid obstruction. Gilbert called it “shocking in its mendacity,” adding: “Everyone knows that is not true.” Even as settlers looted Gaza-bound trucks and Israel blocked humanitarian aid, Biden certified compliance—and kept weapons flowing.

Biden knew that BiBi was deliberately sabotaging release captive talks to prolong the war. American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin was scheduled for release the day he was executed. Amos Hochstein confirmed: “There’s no doubt… those hostages would be alive.” Netanyahu’s public campaign to retain control over Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor was viewed by Biden officials as a smokescreen to kill the deal.

Biden Backed Israel Even After Netanyahu Publicly Undermined & Insulted Him. Biden once told Netanyahu he was “full of shit,” and hung up the phone mid-call. But as Ambassador Tom Nides put it: “Biden saw [Netanyahu] as a manipulator, a magician… But he stood by him through the end.” Lol this was some ho shit. In May 2024, Biden announced he was pausing a shipment of 2,000-lb bombs over concerns about their use in Gaza. Days later, Netanyahu accused the U.S. of freezing broader arms deliveries—reportedly pausing Biden’s plans to restore the paused shipment.

Biden allowed Saudi Deal to collapse because of Israel. Biden officials described how a U.S.-Saudi normalization deal—coupled with defense and economic pacts—was nearly complete. But it required Israel to accept a “political horizon” for Palestinians. Dan Shapiro, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, explained: “We always understood that the Israeli government depended on far-right ministers who would try to block that commitment… that might require an election or a coalition shuffle.”

This is a copy and paste job from drop site news but yeah. It’s pretty bad.

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to put it very simply -- if you are any type of socialist at all you should find the defense of labour rights in the face of generative AI vital and the defense of property rights in the face of generative AI laughable. conflating the two is the indicator of an incoherent politics of Vibes

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Literally an unbelievable video, a bunch of men are surrounding and pushing around this woman in the middle of the street??

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everytime someone defends copyright i remember the gary bowser thing and get even more mad about it

so true. i also remember robert kurvitz and american mcgee and siegel and shuster and alan moore and mary wells and yknow i could just continue, writing a huge wall of text of the names of musicians and comic artists and authors and game devs who had their creations ripped away from them or died in poverty while the people with the rights to what they invented made millions -- but i think i've made the point

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the general anti-ai cohort is simply moralizing their defense of both private property and the interests of people who sell commodities…they oversell the dangers of A.I. to protect or aspire to the petty artisan class interest.

the general pro-ai cohort is simply defending private property and the interests of capitalists who purchase labor…they oversell the capabilities of A.I. to protect or aspire to the ownership class interest.

the conversation has been restricted into a unproductive fight between the interests of the petit bourgeois and the ruling class. both of these positions are reactionary and not “materialist.” even the so-called “leftist” anti-ai cohort is dabbling in fascist thought about how machine generated pictures contribute to “degeneracy,” babbling about “souls” and “intrinsic value,” and engaging in bloodthirsty antisocial campaigns against randoms who post midjourney slop instead of paying them $300 for commissions. they struggle to express the alienation people feel with A.I. art in a Very Normal way. yet again the principled marxist position is marginalized on both fronts. This squabble is the equivalent of two violent hogs flailing around in mud.

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With all these breeches of rights and deportations of both noncitizens and citizens without due process, one of the first bills Dems are bringing up?

Chinese EVs are actually more of a threat to democracy than civil and voter rights 💜 Also there's no such thing as a free market I guess since it seems the superior EV market is in China.

I guess the only ones that are out to brunch and enjoying themselves are the Democrats in office.

Anyways give a big hand for this Democrat Senator of Michigan knowing exactly what the constituents care about the most, EV markets.

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grim that the ideology of the family is so fundamentally ingrained that even reporting that is appropriately horrified by a legislature passing The Child Molestation Act has to stress that it is extra special super bad because they don't even ask the child's parents for permission to molest them

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The United States is the great Satan.