A little late to the game, aren't they?

This may be anecdotal, but it may also be a canary in a coalmine.

I have seen a civilian population tear down its president and vice-president. Peacefully, and just before an election. It took months of activism. Weeks of protest and a 1-day general strike.

Look up Guatemala, 2015. Otto Perez Molina. #noletoca.

This was underreported, I think. Three presidents later, therr is Bernardo Arevalo. He is a president whose legacy hearkens back to before their Civil War, after WWII, and before US intervention.

Are you me?

Everyone in the Expanse. Naomi, Drummer, Fred Johnson, Bobbie Draper, Chrisjen Avasarala, Monica... Obviously, Amos, Peaches, Miller, and even Holden.

All of them do reprehensible things. Some did them and made up for it. Some still do them to win.

Wall-E v.0.1.0.

They know that Israel is at the eye of the global shit storm. Iran might close the strait of Hormuz, and the Yemenis are definitely going to take shots at ships heading for Bab-el-Mandeb (Gate of Grief). Iran may start boarding ships as well.

This is a business decision.

The rest of this post is bullshit. If it comes true, well, then, I'm an unprofitable prophet.

Goodness knows how this is going to go once the NATO-backed EU sanctions on Israel hit in mid-July. US will try to sanction/tariff their way around that, an attempt to support their pals, but, surprise! Domestic unrest will force the felon's hand.

That frees up some space for more integrated transport across Europe, Canada, and emerging markets across north and west Africa, quelling some of the decolonial "unrest" in Mali, Burkina Faso with offers of "trade."

The wedge in the anglosphere will widen, and the US will be more isolated. They'll either attack Canada or suffer Civil War by November, about the time people start to realize they can't pay for their heating this winter and can't even afford "2 dolls instead of 30" this Xmas.

I look forward to Netanyahu making his case in court and watching every argument evaporate under the sheer gravity of reality. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, standing beside him, defiant. Gallant gave up.

If I said yes, I'd caveat that by saying, "we're not special." There's no interaction, quid pro quo or otherwise, with whatever presence, energy, or overmind that I would conceptualize as a deity.

Not an architect. Not a creator. Omnipotence and omniscience defy temporality. There are, similarly, no subdivisions of the deity; there are no places that it is present, and others that it is absent. No underboss gods, angels, demons, heavens, hells, or purgatories.

The deity, in my understanding, is simply a unity: An answer to paradoxes, a solution to the incomprehensible, a layer beneath and above all other measurements, concepts, and capacities. A holographic whole that encompasses and inhabits every possibility. It is older than the universe and beyond our feeble attempts to comprehend it, let alone write its character and tell its story.

A bearded white dude who impregnated a virgin, hates masturbation, holds vendettas, destroys cities, sends plagues, and permits humans to hide from "HIM" in the garden of good and evil... it is all just silly by comparison. At that's just from the tradition I was raised in.

I mean, a burning bush? Or tests of faith?

We, people and all other organisms that are aware of one another, need to get on with finding ways to coexist. Biodiversity is the scorecard.

/rant

The metric is biodiversity.

How many kinds of life are there, and are they thriving? What are the bottlenecks and boundaries for species that slow or stop their progress?

Well, as a living, all-consuming, extinction-level event, I'd say we are making the experiment more impossible. We are a confounding factor, a bias most foul, and the primary flaw in the experimental design.

If only there was guidance in terms of balancing our biological impact and capacity for sustainable development. If only there were some models that have and had worked for millennia. If only there were living groups who could share their wisdom.

If only.

So, for now, plunderous expropriation rules: violent, resource-heavy, rational modern warfare; apathetic, resource-heavy, throwaway consumer culture; and ignorant, resource-heavy, industrial machinations.

What could go wrong?

So there's this Rick and Morty episode (s05e04)

I've read Dante's Inferno. Two things are true:

1. In envisioning Hell, this is beyond even him.

Though, the ninth circle — betrayal — is where many politicians, pundits, and the president of Israel belong. Frozen in the ice at the center of Hell.

2. Many people deserve to be sent to Hell for this. Perhaps all of us who did not do more to stop it.

Jewish communities are not monolithic. This, like the genocide itself, is a wedge issue. People are being forced to confront the reality and scope of these past 20 months, and the occupation writ large.

Let justice be swift and certain.

If more people realized this, life would be a lot more simple. I never grew up. I just got older.

James Holden has a safe future in Quebec.

Well, I guess we're not at full genetic mix yet.

Climate connection was also in my feed this AM.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/30/carbon-footprint-of-israels-war-on-gaza-exceeds-that-of-many-entire-countries

Carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries

Exclusive: Climate cost of war is more than than the combined 2023 emissions of Costa Rica and Estonia, study finds

Nina Lakhani

I agree with funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works. Running cover for despotic regimes seems to be a pattern that 20th and 21st century American history is shot full of.

Please keep in mind that America backed Pol Pot as the head of state through that 1975 to 1979 genocide and for over a decade after.

It suffers the same problems as many of the sequel/prequel ilk; as compared to the originals, it fails to stand on its own. Sure, it explains the origin and rationale for a few key characters in the original trilogy, but that's the only function of this book. Any attempt to establish stakes is undercut before the start as we are locked up by the future we (who have already read the original three books) already know.

So, flat, perfunctory, and fan-servicing; punctuated by privations of humanity inflicted on District 12; this story was unsatisfactory.

I wonder at those who, to start their readings of these books, elect to go chronologically rather than in publication order. They are good books, but the two prequels rely on foreknowledge offered in the Katniss arc.

I've seen a bunch of those. Enough to know of his April 1st gags and to be able to shill for his website.

Which I won't do here.

I'm more wondering about doing it as a career. What's the annoyance/danger factor? How much work do you need to stay afloat? What do start-up costs look like? What would cause a locksmith to walk away and get into something else?

And so on.

Any insights about locksmithing? Aside, of course, from odd hours

I'd also like to hear about the journey toward being a master carpenter.