I agree on all points, and you laid them out well. For all her faults – and they are real and many – MTG was one of only four Rs to cross the aisle for legislation releasing the Epstein files, which is to say that she was willing to stand up for something outside the orange leader’s demands.

And people outside the US don’t get, and I mean have ZERO idea, how we have had propaganda BLASTED at us from all corners 24/7/365 for over a decade, even as successive courts have shot down the idea that anything labeled “news” need contain factual, verifiable information and adhere to some minimal level of journalistic standards. I have observed for myself that it it literally not possible to sit in a waiting room in this country that is not playing some form of right-wing political “infotainment” propaganda. You wanna get your teeth done? Well, you’re gonna have to listen to that shit until the dentist is ready for you – and even he might have it going in his treatment room. It’s bad.

Combine that with rural and small communities where that propaganda has been extended to churches and any other places of community, and it’s a high price to pay for an individual to break with that crowd: they can lose their families, their church, their friends over it, even when there are no other differences between them.

Yet the breaks are happening, and I am grateful. I’m with you. We HAVE to welcome them back, those who are just misled and want to return to the side of sanity. And we have to do it not only for them, but literally for the survival of our country.

All of this is Authoritarianism 101: divide the people, create in-groups and out-groups and set them against each other.

If we do not heed the warnings of history, if the sane among us insist on massaging our own egos because of the offenses delivered and refuse to welcome back the penitent, we are just collaborating with the authoritarians in a different way that feels good to us, but is equally as wrong and as misled.

We Americans are all Americans. I’m not going to get sucked into the hole of hating other Americans, just for reasons that feel better to my ego. Aside from those Americans who are complicit, who absolutely knew all along that the whole thing is and always was a scam, I won’t hate anyone who wants to come in from the cold. It takes guts – real courage and honesty and humility – to be able to say, “I was wrong.” Speaking personally, any American who comes that far I will welcome with open arms.

Not sure MTG is there yet, though. She’s complaining about the superficials of receiving threats that she was all to happy to stoke the flames of herself (Parkland school shooting survivors, for example) and I have not heard anything more honest than that from her. Even so, the enemy of my enemy and all that . . . I guess time will tell how legit her U-turn is.

I have an old 2012 Nook that has literally never been connected to a network: I bought it to sideload epubs and pdfs onto, and that’s all I ever did with it. I never got a Kindle because you can’t sideload pdfs (or couldn’t at the time) and I didn’t like that Amazon was already sneakily retracting/editing purchased digital content.

It could use a new battery but it still works fine, and I bet these Kindles will too as I recall seeing guides out there about how to jailbreak/root them. If you can disconnect your Kindle from all network access and make it sideload (or non-Amazon-connected load) only, you’ll still have a usable device, as well as all your local content. Fuck Amazon.

Four Boxes of Liberty.

I love me some liberty boxes, and I genuinely always enjoy reading a reminder of them. This was well taken, especially the last line. Thank you.

Yup. We used to have a fridge built in the early 80s (possibly late 70s) that lasted until 2015. Ugly ass harvest gold color and everything. Ran it continuously. Had to have it repaired maybe twice in all that time. We moved out and left it behind; for all I know it’s still going (though probably not because it was truly an eyesore).

The point is that a well built refrigerator can last decades, same as other major appliances like washing machines and dryers. No computerization necessary at all. Our fridge was not the most energy efficient by the end, obviously, but apart from that . . . why not build them to last?

Greed. Just overwhelming, all-consuming corporate greed.

You’re not wrong. It’s The Villages, Florida. Just outside Orlando, age-restricted, hard core Trumpland (or was before Covid). It’s where Republican leaders go for events when they don’t want to be heckled. Lots of golf carts, when they’re not running down bicyclists in actual cars.

At least 80% of homes must have a resident aged 55 or older, and persons under 19 may not reside permanently, except in designated family subdivisions

Take that as you will, but it has been called a little Disney World for retirees, and that’s one of the nicer names. The epicenter of brittle entitlement, IMO. I am soooo not surprised by the overly gentle language used by the local fishwrapper to describe menacing with a vehicle, reckless endangerment, and attempted murder by a probably drunk woman who tried three separate times on the same occasion to run over the cyclists with her car.

If you’re in the US try Greenies pill pockets for cats. They’re highly flavored little dough things, not super expensive. My cats love them and now they’re a very special treat (for when a very special treat is needed the most).

Pro tip, though: don’t try to put the capsule in the pill pocket like in the picture. It’s a fool’s game. They say you can but it’s a waste of time, even when it’s not cracked or banged up, which is rare.

Your best bet is to ignore the “pocket” altogether and flatten the whole thing into a thin, even, round pancake (maybe 1" to 1.25") with your thumb into the palm of one hand, dump the contents of the capsule in the middle, and then carefully bring up the sides like you’re making dim sum. Pinch the top around the med to close completely and then roll it gently around in your palm.

This method also lets you use all the broken ones in the bottom; just squish as many as you need all together. If they’re a little dry add a tiny bit of water and they’ll mash together as if new.

If there’s too much med and you can’t close it, use two, or however many. I had one pill from a vet that was far too big to just shove down his throat to start with, and I had to quarter it into four to use the pill pockets, but they worked.

They can be a pain in the ass, but as long as no material escapes from the pill cover I make with them I’ve never had a cat refuse one. I have, however, had every cat I ever owned tell me to fuck ALL the way off with anything sprinkled on their food. It’s worth a try if you already have the meds.

“Journalism” isn’t the same thing as “law enforcement” and it is dishonest to conflate the two. “Evidence” as defined by a documentary and “evidence” as defined by law enforcement are worlds apart, and they do NOT work to the same standard. As you clearly know, but would like to elide.

The Wikipedia article is well sourced, and the multiple investigations managed to name both individuals and right-wing groups.

Maybe the better question to ask is who funded the documentary that says no evidence was ever found, because clearly some was, enough to fuel multiple international investigations.

I personally have no misconceptions about the intrusive data collecting, aggregating, identifying and reselling that LG is doing with their residential customers via their televisions, nor about the entitled way LG and its corporate representatives and officers have spoken about their right to gather it.

“We own the glass,” they repeat, as though that means they also own whatever is spoken beyond the glass in the same house. In reality, they own neither.

Nor am I misled by LG’s weasel words that address problems not ever specifically raised, while completely swerving around actual problems publicly demonstrated with their products.

But I will say they are laboring under a serious misconception if they think I will ever buy one from them. They can fuck ALL the way off with that shit.

Great minds think alike: I have a MBP only a few years younger running the exact same OS, but for CS5. I use old hardware for as long as I can keep it running. But yeah, all the bloat gets cut out or off, first thing. The MBP doesn’t even hit the wider net unless I specifically allow it, so it makes sense to turn off anything that is forever phoning home (aside from the CS5). It’s great having old machines like these around.

Exactly. I have always had Siri turned off, ever since my very first apple devices, and never had a reason to turn it on. Same with all the AI features. I don’t want them so I keep all AI options turned off, always.

I still have a couple devices on the cloud but only for shit I don’t actually care about, and whenever I get around to cleaning those up I’ll get rid of it there as well. Still on the original 5GB, too: I don’t believe in paying others to store my data when I can and should store it myself.

When it comes down to it I don’t even know why I started turning all that shit off, beyond the fact I found it annoying to speak twice (or more) when I could just quietly type once. I’m no prescient genius, but I am now very glad of whatever luddite instinct made me shut it all off, lol.

This is truly helpful. Thank you for taking the time. Much appreciated.

I’ll call you from lockup, maybe you can help me post bail lol

That’s exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

Yup. Same here. There’s not a printer in our house I haven’t fixed. But I do not reliably get good results with tearing out hardwired components and I don’t want to brick a new tv, so I figured I’d ask.

OP, how did you isolate and identify the chip from the rest of it: did you have a service manual, or just relevant experience that told you where to look? Also, was it hardwired, or was it something you could just detach?

I am definitely storing this away for future use, hence the questions. Right now I’ve got very old totally non-networked, non-exploitable sets, but I’m sure that will change some day. Hook a brother up so I know what to look for when I have to buy something new.

This is excellent. Thank you. And – holy shit they are insane.

Huh, TIL. Thanks. Not even remotely surprised.

I’m watching the main one right now (your second link). Holy shit.

Am I the only one who thinks big tech won’t do jack shit other than nod and smile and install a user button that doesn’t actually change anything at all?

They are so NOT going to turn this off. This – the ability to manipulate users by controlling exactly what they see – is the sole reason they are in business. It gets them ad revenue, data to resell, and massive, uncontrollable political power.

And they’re just going to let a user turn that highly individualized control off and turn themselves into a less monetizable, more ad immune user one by one because some govt told them to? The same governments that have been telling them not to do this or that for decades now?

Lol, pull the other one.