Spyke

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Pence Says Trump Shouldn’t Be Disqualified Even If CONVICTED — Says ‘That Needs To Be Left To The American People’

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(Getting this out of the way first: I'm not a Trump supporter.)

Convicted felons can and have run for President in the past. Some campaigns have even been run from prison. Disqualifying somebody from running for office because of a conviction is extremely easy to weaponize. It's the next step in removing somebody's right to vote because of a conviction (a thing we do/have done and shouldn't).

I agree with you on the age thing, though. If you can vote, you should be able to hold office.

memes

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remember when companies didn't have the right to price gouge or steal wages from labor? pepperidge farms remembers. so does nestle. which is why it union busts

IIRC, the price cap on labor was to reduce workers from getting drawn to other companies that were paying higher wages. The idea was to make production predictable by keeping the limited labor force in place rather than having them be mobile. It led to the rise of benefits, like health insurance, being offered as part of total compensation packages since the extras weren't capped. Effectively this was the start of insurance being tied to employment.

Law of unintended consequences hit us in a big way with this one.

dnd

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[Gamerant] Critical Role Removes Hundreds of Videos from YouTube

That's such a tough call I don't envy having to make. Some of the content created while he was ok is one of a kind. I'm picturing the interview he had with Quyen Tran where she shared her and Sam's 9/11 story. We're missing that verbal history for people to hear, now. Balancing that with not giving him air time, or worse, having to pay out to him must have been an extremely hard decision.

memes

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The EU has finally won this one!

Prefacing this question with the fact I'm an Android user and have never owned an iPhone. Saying this in the hopes people won't think I'm an Apple fanboi trying to make a point...

I haven't been that interested in the EU legislation around this until now; I'm curious what happens when something comes out that is better than USB-C? Are companies stuck until new legislation is passed or is there some sort of auto update to the standard written in?

android

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Google Maps rolls out new colors on Android, iOS, and web

My initial reaction is "fucking gross", but that's only because Google Maps has taught me what map colors should be. I'm old enought to have used a book-based atlas even before Yahoo Maps was popular, but young enough I don't remember what that coloring was.

While I do find it harder to understand what is going on with the map, esp while driving, I'd be interested in reading more into why they made the change. So fucking help me God if this is just some graphic artists idea of what looks better...

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US supreme court blocks ‘ghost gun’ makers again from selling at-home kits

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The length of the 2nd Amendment is insanely short and likely thought to be quite obvious to the authors. Ironically, it has likely been more debated than any other Amendment. There have even been court cases that focus on how the placement of commas impacts the meaning.

To your comment on "well regulated," the debate there has to do with how the phase has changed meaning over time; well regulated meant "well maintained" or "taken care of." A well regulated clock, for instance, would have its gears cleaned and oiled at regular intervals.

Even in the groups that still hold that interpretation debate on whether the phrase then mean well-drilled/disciplined or well-stocked with arms.

With regard to at-home kits, the general rule/understanding was you could build your own with your own tools and any materials that were only 80% or less manufactured/machined to being a completed firearm.

The debate kinda went like this: "Is a block of metal a gun?"
"Well, no..."
"So... How much work am I allowed to do to this block of metal before I get in trouble for selling it to somebody else?"
"Ionno... A lot, I guess? 80% sound good?"

So, people started selling 80% kits within the bounds of the law. They were blocks of material mostly milled with instructions, and sometimes tools, to finish the job.

The article doesn't explain why these kits in question are getting blocked. I'm suspecting too many things were sold at once as part of the kit, though. 80% kits normally don't have barrels, for instance.

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The Reddit Protest Is Finally Over. Reddit Won.

Imo, nobody won here and the reddit user lost everything. The Fediverse wasnt ready for the influx of users and lost its chance to "win" for a long time. The sites couldn't support the load and there was a lack of polished mobile apps that felt familiar to people that wanted to browse and shit post.

Without content -- without interaction, a platform whithers; and my experience, so far, has been comment oasises while scrolling through pages of desert.

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NYPD is spending $390 million on a new, encrypted radio system

They've been dodging the open airwaves for years. During more than one mass response incident I've heard radio traffic something along the lines of

Sgt Copguy, Other Copperson. Third Copson has info you requested. Copperson, Copguy. Have Copson call my cell. Copguy, Copperson. Roger, expect a call in minutes.

If we know the call might have happened, we can still ask for those records even if we can't get full records of what took place on the call. Without the base evidence, we're on the fucked-foot.