This is interesting.

This memo is only relevant if Trump plans on staying in office past 2028, or installing another MAGA sycophant.

I mean, Trump knows that if a Democrat takes office, the DOJ will first clean house and then go after him for this shit. Yet he telegraphs his intention to break the law. Why?

First, who the fuck is an expert on teleporting to Waffle House?

Second, why the fuck are the experts "dubious" instead of incredulous or openly condescending? JFC, c'mon experts, do better!

Edit: It's because I chose "Link" as the type of post. If I had chosen "Discussion", a URL wouldn't have been required.

I always do this - I ask questions first and click around later. JFC, I don't know if I've got ADHD or just come down with a case of boomeritis.

Thanks for this!

The field was marked required, with a red asterisk. I tried posting without a URL, and it did not accept the webform. Said I needed to fill in the required field.

I took a screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/gbF3jP3

(And if Imgur doesn't meet Lemmy standards, I'm happy to use a different service.)

What strikes me about this:

Tubi is ad supported.

Sesame Street used to air on PBS, public broadcasting. The ads during my childhood were very wholesome - an announcement of a sponsor or donor. Never anything loud or crass, and many were public service announcements. Like Smokey the Bear from the National Parks, and other public interests.

Now Sesame Street will be filled with targeted advertising, blaring across the room.

I'm happy that people will be able to watch for free, but sad for what we've lost.

It's funny, I have very successful friends who used to say something similar. As one put it: "If you sell out at 20, you got no heart. If you haven't sold out by 30, you got no head."

That friend group are a great bunch of guys in their personal lives, family men and good providers, down to the last one. At the same time, they are 100% part of the problem. They are landlords and marketing execs. And every one of them has an exceptionally high EQ. (Except Jake. He's my favorite and he fixes industrial baking equipment. Used to be a bartender. You know the type - staring daggers when you interrupt his conversation with a regular customer. Jake didn't GAF about EQ.)

Anyway, it's not that they are evil. They are just the "normal" amount of selfish. They have comfortable lives. They read their newsfeeds without ever thinking any deeper. They aren't the Nazis - they are the people who empower Nazis by remaining laser-focused on their job and their family, ignoring politics unless their property tax is at stake.

I think it's possible to be a good husband and an overall good person, but not a good citizen. Zombies, if you will.

What is more, Saudi Arabia has 68 years of reserves at 2024’s production rate. The world will probably have stopped using hydrocarbons long before those run out. So any crude it does not pump today could be money lost forever.

1. Holy. FUCKING. SHIT! That is a lot of oil!

2. But the math doesn't check out. The world uses about 37 billion barrels annually. Saudi Arabia has ~260 billion barrels in reserve. That's more 7 years of global oil reserves. It would cover about 40 years of US oil use. And it would cover the modest Saudi annual useage for over 200 years. So no matter which way you slice it, the math is funky here.

3. Something else I just discovered. Saudi Arabia does not have the world's largest oil reserves. That honor goes to....drumroll....yep, you guessed it. Venezuela.

This is false.

The Pentagon hosts a Ramadan dinner (at the end of the holiday, to celebrate the conclusion of the fasting ritual).

The Pentagon has hosted Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremonies. (I'm not sure if they still do.)

The issue here isn't the sponsoring of a religious activity. The function of the military is to send soldiers to their deaths. Those soldiers who need spiritual support should absolutely have access to it.

The issue is that the president and the defense secretary have incorporated evangelical Christianity into their cronyism. Religion is being used as a litmus test for loyalty.

Signed,

A pragmatic (ex-militant) atheist

DLC expansion packs

You might not believe this, but there was a time before DLC expansion packs. Super Mario World, I love you.

Your head is really gonna hurt when you read about printer ink and printing presses.

CMYK ftw!

Piglet would like a word with you.

Also cats. Dogs. Lemurs. Rats.

Basically, any creature that has a pink nose probably has pink lips. We just don't notice because they are mostly covered in fur and proportionately thinner than human lips.

Unless they are metahuman - probably, yes.

There are exceptions, like The Punisher, but he's not really a "super" hero (at least, not in any of the media I've consumed, which is admittedly not very much). Heroes like this are great at saving the day, but its just not believable that they can save the world or the galaxy or the universe.

Iron Man without money is some dude in a garage who spends his lifetime building the arc reactor and the Mark I. By the time he's gathered enough resources to build a Mark II, he's already 60.

"Hello human billionaire friend. I too would like to harvest unlimited data directly from the government agencies."

Someone did. They missed by inches. I would imagine they beefed up security a bit since then...

And, in most cases, it's a good thing that our head of state is well-protected. Otherwise, we'd have a new president every week and the executive branch would be a mess...oh....hmmm....

The Pentagon has invited more than 3,500 employees to attend a Good Friday service at its in-house chapel. Except it’s only for Protestants, not Catholics.

About 25,000 employees work at the Pentagon on any given day. So, it's pretty obvious that not everyone was invited. The article gives no information on how employees were chosen, which is concerning. It could be officers only?

“Just a friendly reminder: There will be a Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass) for Good Friday today at the Pentagon Chapel,” reads a Friday email sent by Air Force leadership, a copy of which was shared by an employee.

This states that the service will not include Catholic Mass. This seems pretty standard for a non-denominational observance of Good Friday. (Though, knowing Kegseth, it will probably be an evangelical service.)

The Pentagon Memorial Chapel is a 24-hour interfaith chapel that employees can use for prayer and reflection, and that is used for religious services.

The Pentagon Memorial Chapel only seats 80 people. SO WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE OTHER 3,420 PEOPLE GONNA SIT?!

All in all, some pretty shitty reporting on the part of Huff Post. Lots of unanswered questions here.

The same reason that DeBeers doesn't flood the market with diamonds.

OPEC has always been about manufactured scarcity. It's not a bad scheme, if you have a heavily concentrated, limited resource. The difference, of course, is that oil is actually useful. So might as well pump it while you can, store it where it's easy to get and ration it out.

Never thought of it that way!

Can "Iran fries" be a thing?

Or maybe since fries is already taken, we can rename "chili" to "Irani stew"?

With respect, it's also about who receives the money.

RTX makes the Tomahawk.

In 2016, the stock was at 59. Now it's at almost 200. A return of 338%. That's about the same rate of return as the S&P 500 in the same timeframe. The difference being, the worst performing stocks in the S&P are regularly swapped out.

So, yeah, these guys are pretty much a sure bet to make money.

Condensing some information for discussion here (and thanks for providing the archive link!):

It’s not clear what further tools President Donald Trump has to keep global oil prices from surging in the near term – other than fully reopening the strait.

The situation is even more extreme in liquefied natural gas. The Strait of Hormuz typically accounts for about a fifth of global supply...The US is the world’s biggest LNG exporter, and its domestic gas market is relatively insulated from the war due to its massive production.

So...why would Trump want to reopen the Straight? Keeping oil in short supply keeps the petrodollar dominant. And it increases the value of domestic oil/natural gas.

In short, Trump has no reason to ease gas prices. The effects on the upper class are minimal, and he's shown that he absolutely does not care about the economic impact of his policies upon the working class.

A very informative article, but (as always seems to be the case with major news outlets) a bit short on analysis and clarity.

In fairness, that one does get a giggle from me. Every time. Even this one. Especially this one.

Giggity. (Please forgive me.)

Saapas, I can see that you were trying to relate your own experiences to the discussion and even add to the discussion by asking a question. I'm sorry that nobody seems to understand what you're trying to do. Many here are autists and many more are self-involved. I, in fact, am both and very pleased with myself for feeling empathy and compassion in this moment.

Back to your very valid question: Sleep scientists have long tracked sleeping cycles. Not all sleep is equal. Sleeping for a certain amount of time resets certain chemical imbalances in the brain. Many people can take a twenty-minute nap at midday, for example, and feel clear-headed afterwards. However, if they take an hour nap, they may feel lethargic. But then maybe that same person could take a two-hour nap instead, and feel great.

Your mileage may vary, but my point is that sleep cycles are a real thing. If your body is used to going to sleep at a certain time, that's the time it expects sleep. It's based on your body's own internal clock. Daylight Savings Time messes with that clock. Your body doesn't care that your phone jumped ahead an hour.

Not everyone will have a difficult time adjusting, but it's not uncommon to feel restless for a couple of weeks until the body catches up to the new sleep pattern.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=circadian+rhythm+daylight+savings