The tax payer pays up almost $1M and these scumbags remain employed. How predictable.

Also, just in case anyone isn't aware: rule number one if you're in the US and police ever bring you in and try to interrogate you is to shut down and demand a lawyer. Legally, the interview has to stop immediately until you have one present. If the officers don't comply, then you know they're corrupt and there's no reason to believe anything they say from that point onwards.

"Why don't you buy Apple products?"

Me: Gestures broadly at this:

Ever the innovators, Apple introduced a new dimension to repair that our scorecard simply didn’t account for: namely, that you could take a highly repairable design like the iPhone 14, install a genuine Apple replacement screen or battery, and then… it fails to work. Following the correct procedure was no longer enough.

Today, you need one more thing: a software handshake, using Apple’s System Configuration tool. It contacts Apple’s servers to “authenticate” the repair, then “pairs” the new part to your system so it works as expected. Of course, it can only authenticate if Apple knows about your repair in advance, because you gave them the exact serial number of your iPhone, and they’ve pre-matched it to a display or battery. This is only possible if you buy the screen or battery directly from Apple. Forget harvesting parts—which is a huge part of most independent repair and recycling businesses. It’s also impossible to pair any aftermarket parts—which means only Apple-authorized repairs can truly restore the device to full functionality.

Archuleta himself, though, has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. He previously blamed LGBTQ+ individuals for the Club Q shooting and said that queer people are “groomers” – or child sex abusers – a negative stereotype that has been used to justify hatred and discrimination.

Bruh.

A few US outlets have mentioned it fleetingly, but here's a more balanced account from Haaretz.

Here is a flyer circulated by the protest organizers:

Here is a flyer advertizing the real estate sale itself:

Here is an archived copy of the real estate sale web page (which is currently unavailable):

https://web.archive.org/web/20240624010428/https://homeinisrael-il.com/

Here is a listing for property in Efrat, which is an illegal Israeli settlement located in the West Bank:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240324124658/https://homeinisrael-il.com/property/efrat-hamoshava/

I've defended lemmy.ml in the past when people have blamed the entire instance for the actions of a solitary, overzealous moderator, but this genuinely concerns me:

This must have been action taken at the instance admin level, considering all those communities have different moderators.

Is there any way to probe the modlog to see which account it was?

Technically, it's for a combination of election fraud and falsifying business records.

But "paying hush money to a porn star" is definitely a sexier headline.

I am also still quite worried about the amount of distinct users on hexbear who have posted Kremlin propaganda. I so far don’t have reason to believe that these users are employed by the Russian state, but the fact that they are spreading the same hateful content which can be seen on Russian television seems problematic to say the least, and it remains to be seen if moderators can truly keep up with such content.

This was why my eyebrows raised when I saw the Hexbear admin response when they claim that "Russian disinformation is generally either refuted in comments or removed by mods". Kremlin propaganda is rife in communities like chapotraphouse, and it certainly seems like the mods there let anything slide as long as it is isn't outright incitement to violence.

I challenged claims made in a couple of different anti-Ukraine posts and despite the fact there were maybe one or two users whose responses were thoughtful, the majority were outright calling me an idiot and a retarded liberal (edit: correction; dumb fuck)

So far, my impression of HB's userbase is pretty negative because the posts on there that make the front page here tend to be the more shit-posty ones.

That said, I appreciate @sunaurus for the stance he's taking. There is some positive and thoughtful content on HB - you just have to block the noisier and more idiotic communities so it doesn't get drowned out.

42 Dems voted for this nonsense.

Important context: the synagogue in question was holding a real estate sale for land allegedly stolen from Palestinians in the West Bank.

This protest was not against Jews praying at a synagogue. This protest was not antisemitic. This was a protest against the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and against settlements that Biden's own administration considers illegal.

But I suppose the AP doesn't consider that relevant information.

And yet again we have congress members clapping like trained seals to debunked Israel propaganda and the characterization of anti-war protesters being in favor of the killing of civilians.

"My friends, defeating our brutal enemies requires courage and clarity. Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good an evil. Yet, incredibly, many anti-Israel protesters choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers. They stand with people who came into the kibbutzim -- into a home -- the parents hid the children, the two babies, in a secret attic. They murdered the families -- the parents. They found the secret attic and then they murdered the babies. These protesters stand with them; they should be ashamed of themselves."

*Thunderous applause, standing ovation

https://youtu.be/Kwi0uD2QlKw?t=5589

This is 2003 Iraq War levels of state-approved disinformation. I feel nauseated.

Just to be clear, these are the most popular metal bands from each country, according to worldwide listening stats, correct?

Hi-resolution audio, especially for streaming. The general idea is that listening to digital audio files that have a greater bit depth and sample rate than CD (24-bit/192Khz vs 16-bit/44.1 KHz) translates to better-sounding audio, but in practice that isn't the case.

For a detailed breakdown as to why, there's a great explanation here. But in summary, the format for CDs was so chosen because it covers enough depth and range to cover the full spectrum of human hearing.

So while "hi-res" audio does contain a lot more information (which, incidentally, means it uses up significantly more data/storage space and costs more money), our ears aren't capable of hearing it in the first place. Certain people may try to argue otherwise based on their own subjective experience, but to that I say "the placebo effect is a helluva drug."

“I don’t hate these people, man,” Yarbrough said.

Oh, but you do, buddy. You do.

“You have your tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival, which is like a sexual festival where they’re doing all this stuff,” DeSantis said during a Thursday press conference, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Hmm, I wonder what kinds of "sexual stuff" he's referring to.

the Tampa Bay Times reports that the governor’s spokespeople did not respond to questions about specific events he found objectionable.

Oh.

Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani (D), who attended this year’s Orlando Fringe festival, told the Times that she saw nothing “sexual” at the festival.

“It does feature drag queens and other forms of artistic expression that DeSantis has wanted to censor despite courts telling him otherwise!” Eskamani said.

So a man dressing in women's clothes is an inherently sexual act, according to these sexually repressed freaks.

It's funny that this article doesn't mention the one company that pretty much single handedly created the need for this legislation in the first place.

Why are we giving this odious little twerp the oxygen of publicity?

I prefer the original version with the Rupert Murdoch allusion.

And LosslessCut is a ffmpeg frontend, so that checks out.

For those who aren't aware, this bill aims to effectively enshrine into law the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which has been a controversial doctrine since its inception because critics say it unnecessarily curtails freedom of speech.

Hell, even the Zionist Anti-Defamation League say on their website that the IHRA definition is a guideline that should not be codified into law because it could be used to infringe the First Amendment:

ADL does not support the adoption and application of the IHRA Definition in a manner that would create new categories of legally prohibited speech that are subjected to either civil or criminal penalties – something we believe the First Amendment and principles of free speech would prevent.

This bill does very little that existing legislation does not already except have a chilling effect on freedom of speech on university campuses, and the fact that it got such widespread support from both Democrats and Republicans in the House is an absolute farce.

The whole thing was the strongest argument against American exceptionalism I've ever witnessed.