Firefox and hardened forks, possibly Cromite. All you can do is harden your defenses as much as possible and try not to go “oooooo shiny” when looking at extensions.

No. It will also include anyone who had even a slight relationship to Obama, as she did.

I can’t conclude anything from this. No specifics on the discrimination, and nothing but innuendo on tje firing itself. I get the feeling the implication is she was fired because of her opposition to this adult mode, but there is no proof on either conclusion.

How did declaring an emergency (per the Stafford Act) make it his responsibility to fix it? Last I checked, in a federal system it is the local authorities who are responsible for doing the work. The feds supply public funding and potentially manpower if FEMA gets involved.

The local authorities in fact caused the problem by trying to cheap-out on water treatment. Replacing huge quantities of buried pipes is not a short-term operation, even if they put all their attention on it. In fact, it was the city that had to be sued multiple times to get the job mostly done:

Well, we’ve had to go back to court now six times and constantly been tracking to see if the city was actually following through on this settlement agreement. Finally, the court actually held the city in contempt and the state took over most of the finishing up of this project.

So, what actions did he take to show he “didn’t give a fuck?” Maybe you’re referring to this drink of water someone put him on the spot to drink?

“This used a filter,” Obama said of the water. “The water around this table was Flint water and it just confirms what we know scientifically, which is, if you’re using a filter, if you’re installing it, then Flint water at this point is drinkable.”

Properly filtered water was safe, exactly as he said. It is the responsibility of the local governments to ensure they’re available to their residents - with federal help per emergency funding.

Here’s a full breakdown.

The matter of blame appeared to be settled conclusively in March 2016, however, when Snyder’s nonpartisan task force released its blistering final report. Primary responsibility for the crisis in Flint was placed on the state, and particularly on the MDEQ, and task force members called for a thorough review of the emergency manager system. The report also characterized the crisis as a clear-cut example of environmental injustice, as evidenced by the fact that Flint’s poor, largely African American population “did not enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards as that provided to other communities.”

Now, I am fairly sure you will completely discount any evidence of the reality I posted here. Truthfully, I mostly did this to inform anybody else who stumbles upon this so they can verify it for themselves.

I’ve been waiting for this for a year.

So… you either didn’t read the linked article, or you decided it was a lie because it differed from your “gut feelings”… or maybe you just didn’t understand what it was saying?

Wait…what? You took my statement as a support of dictatorship?? Wow. Take a look at my comment history.

Rule of law is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and it is the dictators who selectively enforce laws on their foes while letting their allies off the hook.

You know, like when all the Jan 6 insurrectionists were pardoned while all his political enemies are being indicted on the flimsiest of charges?

Unfortunately, they’ve been so successful, we won’t be able to get our kids to read this report.

This gave me a sudden flashback to the days when I had a program on VAX VMS that would spit out ASCII art to a chat console from a collection of dozens.

This was also huge on the old WWW III and other BBS Systems over various networks like FIDO. What a time.

That’s not how a society built on laws work, and the judge would be abdicating his duty if he let him off light.

Besides, he is MAGA, and I suspect that whole situation was set up as a PR boost for Trump. He’s the fall guy anyway.

In consistent authoritarian fashion, now that Bovino has caused a PR problem for them, under the bus he goes and all blame goes to him.

I’m confident he was doing exactly what was expected of him. Don’t fall for the fall guy playbook.

I’d love to hear the logistics of making that work well in the current world.

TIL Sortition. Thanks. Your since you don’t believe in democracy, what form of governance do you feel is best?

Removed by mod

Oh, you were serious! Well, I think what they need is Democracy first, then unions. Communism theoretically eliminates the need for unions, but the reality is that it’s just a dictatorship. Unions in China would likely either be co-opted by the Communist party through subterfuge, or through “reeducating” the misguided leadership and defining the unions - thus landing them right where they are, with a new bureaucracy.

Unions represent the spirit of the checks and balances envisioned in the U.S. Constitution. It is only by being of near equal power to the company that employees can negotiate for fair compensation and treatment. Without that, they’re just resources. It’s an effort to use human nature to gain good outcomes.

Oh, I forgot to address the Dr. Strangelove reference. Did you know that was parody and sharp criticism of not just The United States, but of the power structures of the whole (first) world at the time? If that kind of criticism were made in the U.S.S.R. or China, Cuba, etc., of their leadership, the film would be banned and everyone involved would be imprisoned or disappeared. We’re allowed to criticize stupidity in leadership over here (for the moment). We believe it is a useful tool to try to make things better, or at least a bit more sane.

Hey, how come you didn’t get the snide arrogant insults for saying the same thing I did? I’m jealous! ;-)

I was implying nothing about any other type of societal organization. However, since you mention it, I will point out that Capitalism (which is an economic, not political philosophy) can become horrific for the same reasons Communism becomes horrific - People. Communism was a response to naked, mercantilist Capitalism. Marx’s heart was in the right place, but he was describing a Utopia.

I think Democracy (in its many forms) designed with checks and balances is a viable answer to the problem. It ain’t magic, though. People still need to ensure it remains balanced. We’ve been having some trouble with that lately. It took fifty years of planning for the authoritarians to get us here. It’s a good sign it was so difficult, but now we have to work hard to fix the mess.

Yes. I simply found it somewhat ironic that someone would point out that a Communist nation would need unions given the definition of Communism. It was to me a Monty Python level of dry humor to suggest that, and I felt my response should match that dry humor.

Thank you for the assist. You are correct. I made the fatal assumption that most people discussing such things would have the context of Mao, the long march, the various purges, the decades of poverty, the suppression and outright murder of minorities under their belt and would recognize that the statement was so obviously false that it could only be taken as sarcasm. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for people having arrogance and a sense of other people being ignorant morons by default.

sigh. I know what communism is. I also know it’s never been implemented in real life and never will be due to the nature of a subset of humans inflicted with various personality traits like Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Sociopathy… not to mention simple greed and basic envy.

I find it interesting that you first assigned to me the characteristics of ignorance and arrogance, and then pegged me to a certain nationality, thus revealing your uninformed bias against an entire nation containing over 300 million people - many of whom probably fled whichever morally superior country you call home - simply for living there.

Now, as for the assertion that government control of the means of production is the antithesis of communism, I give you first a description of Karl Marx’s vision:

Karl Marx envisioned communal ownership on a large scale through the abolition of private property, particularly in the means of production, advocating for these assets to be owned collectively by society. He believed this would lead to a classless society where resources are distributed based on need rather than profit.

Now, has it ever crossed your mind how this could possibly be implemented? I mean when you literally have millions of people collectively owning everything and therefore whatever is needed must be somehow made available wherever it is needed. Where will things be stored, and who will manage it? Who will ensure nothing is stolen from the people? Who will ensure item or resource “A” is transited from somewhere to the place it is needed? Word of mouth? Telegraph? What if nobody feels like manning the telegraph or decides not to relay the message to the next person? Heck - how do they know who the next person is?

In any sufficiently large group of people, some form of “government” has to exist merely to facilitate meeting the needs of the people being governed. So, I put it to you that the U.S.S.R. was in fact “implementing communism” by being the “people’s government” and thus, by their logic, everything is “owned” by the government. They have to know where it is, how to protect it, how to ensure there is enough of it to meet needs, etc… Unfortunately “power corrupts”. Or in the case of the Red revolution, it decapitates a revolution for freedom and democracy the moment it wins power and takes its place.