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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: November 1st, 2023

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  • I have a neighbor who voted for Trump. He relies on aspects of medicaid, to get insulin, that the GOP have directly targeted for removal from what it will cover. I told him this, he didn’t believe me. So I showed him it in writing from a GOP source. He said that Trump will find some way for people like him to get their insulin. They just want this particular way gone because it’s a bad method. I even pointed out that there was zero discussion of changing these policies, to make them more sensible, or anything like that, just an outline that they plan on stopping that coverage. He just doubled down that he won’t be abandoned, they aren’t just getting rid of the coverage, they are getting rid of THAT SPECIFIC WAY OF DOING IT because it is inefficient, or whatever.

    If you explained that tariffs would hurt their income, and employment, in a way they understood, they would just assume there was something being cooked up to make sure that didn’t happen. Now that all the manufacturing companies, here, are demonstrating that there will be big losses of profit margin, and cutting compensation to workers, they are mad. However, I personally doubt they will stay mad, or mad enough, or that they won’t just end up blaming Joe Biden for it.
















  • The first point - Your previous comments made it seem as though you were saying only people in such position held that opinion. Whether you meant to or not.

    I moved here about 7 years ago. There are not many great places to get a good variety of foods here, without driving to one of two close, bigger, cities. There is, however, a healthy community from the middle east, a lot of which happen to be Palestinian, due to a history of taking refugees, and other political outreach actions over the past 50 years, or so. Though that tide has changed in the past ~20 years. So, having a hobby of cooking, I found myself at their stores, a lot. They got to know me, we discussed food, they invited me to classes that teach cultural practices, and history, cooking being the most popular. I started attending their cooking classes.

    This lead to a conversation where I mentioned that, in one of the close, larger cities, I have a cousin who is a civil rights lawyer, who is in a firm that specializes in immigration. This community, naturally, has a lot of connections to people living in this city. So I got a stack of business cards, and gave them to a number of people, who largely own local businesses, to hand out, in case they know people, in that city, that needs, or may need, legal help with immigration matters. This lead to me being more, and more, in discussion, with that community, about political issues. I also have volunteered help to a couple organizations that work with marginalized demographics, which lead to me handing out business cards of representatives of these organizations. This ingratiated me with a bunch of people. So I started attending their out reach program. I also began to attend their community meeting they hold at a local mosques, and theater one family owns. I offer a number of voluntary services. to these groups, on occasion. Mostly IT work.

    Then the genocide started. I have worked with people to design billboards for the issue. I have canvassed for them. I have been generally active, and helpful, as I can. There is an organization here called CAIR, it is national, I assume you know who they are. Through this exposure I have been around a number of this community large enough, to be the vast majority, locally, at one time or another. I have sat in meetings and listened to them talking. I have seen where they decide to apply their donated funds to take political action. I have a friend who translates discussions to english for me. There isn’t a huge group that are hard line on the idea of staying out of voting, in the presidential election, totally. A lot of those that are, discuss how white Americans have to participate, and while they will stand out, they urge that, if you are going to vote, vote for Harris. The reasons I have been given for this, is simple, while no party is good for them, and the US immigration practices are most often hostile, unlike the people you know, they saw a very noticeable increase of activity from the government, against their community, when Trump put forth his anti-muslim sentiment. My cousin’s law firm says they experienced a large spike in cases during that time, as well, particularly ones that the government “lost” (as in it was deemed illegal/unconstitutional, but too late now, and no one was punished). One of the big, specific, things they discuss is that long term, established, people, in their community, started to be targeted, where as, previously, their was no question about their immigration status, or position as Americans. They saw a lot more prying into who they were related to, arbitrary contact with individuals, etc. They saw a lot more of these people being taken by ICE, and deported. As the situation has gotten more desperate they have been using their local businesses to reach out to non-middle eastern customers, and some have literally been putting pamphlets, explaining the situation, in their bag, as they check them out. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t like Harris. They see one that is not backing off selling weapons to Israel, and the other is vowing to take an active role in accelerating the genocide, so they are either voting the former, or suggesting that other Americans do so, because they are in the extreme of the rock and a hard place analogy. There is no good choice, there is only the possibility of, some level of, harm reduction.

    There is more, but I have explained enough of my personal life, for you to get the picture.


  • I think that is because most people are only aware of its use as what are, effectively, chat bots. Which, while the most widely used application, is one of its least useful. Medical image analysis is one of the big places it is making strides in. I am told, by a friend in aerospace, that it is showing massive potential for a variety of engineering uses. His firm has been working on using it to design, or modify, things like hulls, air frames, etc. Industrial uses, such as these, are showing a lot of promise, it seems.



  • According to the English version of the Swedish government’s website, Sweden does have local laws though? It says there are 23 regions, with 290 municipalities, that are allowed, and have laws, that pertain only to that district/municipality. That the central Swedish government regulates their governance to make sure it adheres to constitution’s, and central government law also regulates these areas.

    Reading more, there are police local to these regions and local municipalities too. With central government investigative authorities. So, what’s the deal with what you are saying, vs what the Swedish government claims