Castimir

Helping someone sign up for selective service and, uh, there’s a “how did you hear about us” dropdown?

I’m going to go out on a limb here but it may have been threatening unemployment for life if born male that made us aware of this form’s existence.

I know nothing, not an expert on anything.

But I think everywhere should start studying how Minneapolis is beating ICE. Because it is taking a ton of work and courage and that didn’t just happen overnight.

Tactical retreat on one side is not strategic victory on another.

ICE has to regroup and reassess. They are doubtless picking a new target that they think will be less well organized and less resilient.

They are not defeated.

10 inches and 3 shoveling runs in, my neighbor and I heard the sound we had been bracing for all weekend: the tinkling malice of sleet.

But we have to have a national program of change to actually accomplish anything.

We need to strip the President of the unconstitutional immunity from Trump v US.

We need to end Citizens United.

We need to end the culture of gun violence.

But all of this is only possible with a new constitution.

We are not yet in a civil war and hopefully we never will be. But those of us angered by state terror must have something to present as an alternative to the current dystopia. Many, many people are offering a new vision of world. We see it in the community based self governance of Minneapolis.

Will this bring Alex Pretti, Renee Good, George Floyd all back from the dead? No. But it will curb the domestic abuse of power that lead to their state executions without trial.

We need to imagine and implement a wholesale change, not an incremental reform, that will stop the bloodshed.

We need a new constitution. Pass an amendment to the old one saying the new one is now in force.

And get rid of qualified immunity.

And get rid of most of the President’s domestic power.

And implement a parliamentary system with ranked choice.

And a lot of other changes.

The more I work with modern “AI”, the more I understand why the Tusken Raiders gave up interstellar civilization to scream in the desert.

The only thing I know for certain is America is being fed this morning by band kids, Eagle Scouts and the regional managers of Walmarts who made oopsies with their produce orders and if anyone ever makes fun of any of those groups again I will fight them.

That’s the value of their gdp for one year. Let’s take this at face value. They would be taxing themselves 10% in tribute for…what?

The magnitude of the Democrats’ win yesterday shows the rhythms of US democracy are still very much alive. The race against authoritarianism is clearly not lost yet.

At this rate the 2026 Dem meta will be running dead-eyed CIA officers whose campaign ads are just them graphically describing what war crimes they will do to Republicans

the entire twitter and group chat poisoned elite of American society who decided Trump winning an election by 1.5% heralded a thousand year reich may have miscalculated a bit

I see Modi’s reason for escalation. I don’t see one for Putin. I suspect he and the PRC don’t want this overshadowing whatever dumb show they were putting on for VE Day.

There can be many rogue and bad actors at once.

As much as I think Putin is the root of all 21st century evil, what earthly good does this do him? India purchasing oil is bailing out his puny war effort and getting oil to India just got a lot harder.

Just ordered a hydroponic tower and some gardening supplies. Should be able to grow about 30 plants in the tower and a small patch of cabbage in a raised bed.

Reading the Rust programming book is two parts stunning revelation and one part utter confusion. Not even sure it is Rust per se, sometimes it just reminds me that every programming language slowly adding every other language’s features is another version of enshittification.

In the weird hushed days between Christmas and New Years, I decided to start playing Jedi: Fallen Order.

Mostly fallen to my death a lot and got eaten by a toad.

Got removed from a Reddit post for saying Trump was the government and thus should talk less and do more.

Still not sure which “side” that offended, I just want a transparent and just government.

The US had the humiliating Abbey Gate bombing and the Taliban takeover. Now Russia has had the humiliating defeat of Assad.

China, the way of the 21st century superpower is to not build empires and stay at home.

South Korea’s military just dissolved Parliament. Whether it stands or not, this is a huge blow to the idea that democracy is alive and well anywhere.

Got a whole computer science degree only to discover they’ve reinvented Socratic seminars.