donuts

donuts, 3 months ago

What the ever loving fuck..?

donuts, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

I live in one of the bigger PNW cities that you might hear about occasionally from Fox News or Ron DeSantis.

I can say with absolute certainty that, while we have problems and challenges that we face (namely affordable housing, opioid addiction, gangs and anarchists, mental health, petty theft, lazy sandbagging cops, etc.) being "terrorized by antifa" is not one you're going to hear about from touching grass and talking to real people here.

I think that's a really warped view on what happened during the 2020 BLM protests. In fact, during the heat of the protests, people here were just as concerned about violence against peaceful protesters from unmarked out-of-state US marshals under Trump. I guess in 2020 I was too busy trying to wash off my elderly parents fucking instacart to worry about vaguely defined boogeymen like "antifa".

donuts, 3 months ago

"I am the highest ranking Arab and Muslim in Michigan" is definitely more funny than they probably intended it to be.

donuts, 3 months ago

Give me a second, I'm just trying to imagine what it must be like to have so little sense of humor that you not only don't recognize the funny part of the quote, but actually get pissy about it.

donuts, 3 months ago

Soap

donuts, 3 months ago

I don't think you can sue on other people's behalf, due to a lack of legal standing or whatever. She could probably fund other people's lawsuits, though.

donuts, 3 months ago

$83 million

That's 638.46 stormies, for those playing along at home.

donuts, 3 months ago

How about we give our own people a comfortable life before worrying about the feelings of fascist Islamist terrorists half way across the world?

Like, did we not just spent the last 20 years "nation building" in Afghanistan to the tune of >$2 trillion, including not only military training but also building schools and other civilian infrastructure, only to have them just piss it away and let the Taliban walk back in and impose strict theocratic law upon their society in the span of just a few months. Now Afghani girls aren't even allowed to attend the schools that we built.

Contrary to what white guilt might have one believe, there is plenty of money in the Middle East. Unfortunately it's all in the hands of royals, oligarchs and warlords. There are powerful Houthi's at the top of the chain of command who have a lot more spending money than any of us. We aren't the world police, nor are we Santa Claus. It's not our responsibility to improve their lives, just as they wouldn't ever consider doing anything for us if roles were reversed.

If the Houthis want to attack international trade ships, even after a month of warnings and wrist-slaps, they should expect nothing more than counter-attacks from the nations who are interested in preserving global order. We aren't going to fix them no matter how much money we give them, and so the best we can hope for is that they eventually learn not to fuck with us or our allies.

donuts, 3 months ago

If Texas has complete control and final authority over their majority portion of the southern border, shouldn't they be the ones are responsible for spending the resources for securing it as well as being accountable for the humanitarian disaster?

The Republicans want it both ways: They want to blame the President and federal government for the situation at the border (but only when it's the Democrats in office and never when they are, of course), and at the exact same time they want to claim total authority over border policy on the state level. On top of that, they love to pull political stunts wrt the border every election year, but when it comes to actually passing an immigration bill, they'll tank it because Trump doesn't want to let Biden have yet another win.

Talk about having your cake and eating it too. Fucking pick one you disingenuous scumbag clowns.

donuts, 3 months ago

Hopefully he's dead (from natural causes) or in jail (from natural consequences).

donuts, 3 months ago

Trump leading another insurrection, but this time against the judicial branch instead of the legislative branch???

SHOCKED fucking PIKACHU fucking FACE.

donuts, 3 months ago

You could tell that the GOP had no interest in an honest primary when they decided that Trump didn't have to participate in the debates.

donuts, 3 months ago

It just shows that the Republicans can't get shit done even when it's shit that they claim they want to do. They are incompetent at best and a blight on our society at worst.

donuts, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

1. I respect other people's expressions of individuality, romantic preferences and unique sexuality.

2. I apply broad negative labels on people who don't want all the same things that I want from a partner.

Pick one.

It's possible to support people without being romantically, physically and/or sexually attracted to them. For example, a straight man might not want a lesbian woman for a partner (and, you know, she probably doesn't want him either), but they can still support each other, believe in solidarity, be friends and allies to each other and acknowledge each other's fundamental human rights.

I genuinely don't know if I would be attracted to a trans woman (I'm happy to keep an open mind but I haven't been in a situation where it's come up in my life), but I do believe in trans rights, I love my trans friends, and I want them (and everyone else) to find happiness in their own skin and be able to live as the person they want to be without some asshole politicians in red ties telling them they cannot. I don't think it's hard.

In my opinion that's not a bad thing, it's a good thing.

donuts, 3 months ago

Microsoft basically tied with Apple for the title of richest company in the world, by the way.

donuts, 3 months ago

And then after two months they turn the genocide machine back on?

Wait, did you think that a ceasefire meant that neither side would ever fight again, and that they'd all live happily ever after?

If that was the case, Hamas wouldn't have brought an end to the last ceasefire on October 7th, 2023.

donuts, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

In 2019 during the great march of return [...] During the so-called ceasefire Israel’s war on Gaza never ended.

This would be a more compelling point had you not cited yet another border incursion by Hamas into Israeli territory, wouldn't it?

A lasting ceasefire means that both sides must cease fire, border incursions and other blatant provocations. (It wouldn't hurt to cut down on the militant rhetoric too, but I digress...)

If South Koreans or North Koreans decided tomorrow to march thousands into the Korean DMZ, what do you think the other side would do as a response? Do you suppose that it might rapidly escalate into a very dangerous situation for both sides?

The bottom line is that there was relative peace and stability on October 6th, and then on October 7th, something happened that undeniably made the conflict worse for everyone. There is not an innocent person in the Levant whose life is better post-October 7th, and Hamas are to blame and thus cannot be trusted by any rational mind to preserve future ceasefires.

There is a long history of militant border incursions on Israeli territory going all the way back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and they always backfire when Israel fights back, which is why Gaza's borders are as they are today. Gaza was 3-4x bigger and controlled over half of the Egyptian border before the Arab League very unwisely chose to invade Israel in 1948.

One would think that the Palestinians would figure out by now that militant provocations against Israel are not the path to a better life. They only embolden Netenyahu's government, which has historically thrived on demonizing Hamas. Hamas' Islamist jihad and Netenyahu's right-wing fascism have been mutually fueling the cause of political extremism in the Middle East, and that's why they are in the situation that we see today.

Unfortunately, neither side is run by political leaders who want peace, only power. And so, unless Israeli and Palestinian leadership changes, I feel that we won't see a long-term ceasefire or lasting peace in our lifetimes.

donuts, 3 months ago

In my experience yabridge is fantastic. With a bit of initial setup, it's the closest thing to a native experience that I've come across.

You do control it with a CLI interface, so you need to be comfortable with that.

You also need to have already installed the Windows VSTs manually using WINE or whatever, and so there's a bit of a typical "how well does this work under wine" crapshoot and a bit of a learning curve there.

donuts, 3 months ago

Modartt's Pianoteq is a nice Linux native, physically modeled piano plugin.

donuts, 4 months ago

Don't worry, Trump's gonna claim foul play no matter whether he wins or loses and by how much.

donuts, 4 months ago

Oh hell yes.

donuts, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

So, if you think that this case is meritless because, “key,” U.N. members don’t support it

No, the accusation is meritless because there is little evidence to support it:

"This killing is nothing short of destruction of Palestinian life," South African lawyer Adila Hassim

There are upwards of 2 million Palestinians in Gaza alone, and if Israel's intention was to inflict destruction of Palestinian life, wouldn't there be far more than 20,000 of Palestinians dead? And, if the goal was genocide, why would Israel be only focusing Gaza and not the West Bank where there are upwards of 3 million? Not to mention the population of ethnic Palestinians who live or work safely and peacefully inside of Israel.

The world has seen genocide many times, from the American genocide of Native People, to the Armenian Genocide, to the Holocaust. Jews know first hand what a ethnic genocide looks like, and this ain't it.

It really doesn't matter who does or doesn't support accusations, or who are allies with who, because legal matters are not democratic and instead based on evidence.

Now when it comes to Hamas, on the other hand, they have made it easy by writing their genocidal intent directly into their founding language. They said their quiet part out loud on day 1, and while they've tried to legitimize themselves by moderating their official language, they clearly haven't moderated their actions. Their allies and backers have made it equally clear that their intent is the complete destruction of Israel and Israeli Jews.

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as
such: (Genocide Convention, Article II)

Please don't omit the parts that hurt your argument, it's a waste of time and it doesn't work or help.

Remember when you said:

it’s not a, “two-way genocide,” if only side can actually commit genocide, right?
[...]
Genocide isn’t just a declaration in a charter, it is a specific series of actions against an ethnic group,

The Genocide Convention does not support your original claim that Hamas' actions cannot be considered genocide because they aren't capable. The part that you omitted is very clear that intent is everything.

Killing members of the group (check); Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (check);

What? By that definition alone, every war in human history could/should be labeled a genocide.

That doesn't pass the smell test, and its why you're not doing a service to your argument by omitting inconvenient parts of definitions. It's doing these things "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" that meets the criteria for genocide under the Genocide Convention.

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (check);

I'm not sure what you're citing here, as it links to an entire CNN news feed.

Not that it's relevant, because as we've just established, you've omitted important language from your mischaracterized version of the definition.

But to get back to it, it is Hamas whose intent (as expressed in their founding charter and many times since) and actions (as perpetrated on and after October 7th) most certainly meet the Genocide Convention standards for genocide that you've (at least partially) listed here.

Finally, you seem very concerned with what could happen while ignoring what is happening.

...You seem to have lost the thread on your own argument: that Hamas' actions cannot be considered genocide as the don't have the capacity to pull it off. (Which, again, is an ass-pull and not consistent with the Genocide Convention definition in the slightest.)

Hamas, combined with its allies and backers, absolutely have the capability to murder massive numbers of Israeli civilians. They have also all expressed genocidal intent against Israel at various points in time. Israel is facing attacks from multiple Islamic militant groups as we speak.

These are not opinions, but facts.

If not for Israel's ability to defend itself from these very real attacks, a direct result of ~$130 Billion of US military aide since its inception, we would be seeing massive numbers of Israeli civilians dead from the very real attacks on Israel during this war.

The fact that Israel is able to defend itself from most of Hamas attacks, has no bearing on the classification of this war as a genocide. American investment in Israeli defense has helped save countless lives of innocent Israelis from a daily volley of missiles from openly genocidal, Iran-backed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.