“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

-George Bernard Shaw

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • I’ve seen people argue the real numbers of the decline for China are much worse than they have shared and they may already be past the point of no return like Japan and South Korea. It’s going to be interesting to see how they handle an aging population.

    Asia does have a more recent tradition of kids being the retirement plan so they might fair a little better than places like the US where that is not the norm anymore. The US with their infrastructure crumbling from underfunding and a general lack of care, should provide a good side by side comparison of the ride down with the differences of family versus industry support of seniors.



  • The supporters don’t care about law and haven’t in a long time. They ignore this about him:

    The more than 25 women who have accused Trump of sexual assault or misconduct (which he has denied), and the countless more who have endured public vitriol and threats to their life after being targeted by him, have all been punished either for challenging him or for denying him what he fundamentally believed was his due.

    Laws are the least of their worries. Getting everyone to group think like them is more critical then they can get rid of everyone not like them.


  • Most here will recommend Linux Mint and it’s what I use now after trying many different versions over the years. There’s a simplicity to Mint that just works especially well for those just surfing and doing office tasks. I’ve given away old work laptops with just mint installed as most people just need a web browser and it works great for that.

    MS office can be used in your web browser or you can switch to Libre Office which should open most of your office files.

    If you have a old laptop or computer I recommend trying to install Mint there first to try it out. It’s pretty easy to start out there first before trying dual boot. You might be surprised at how quick your older laptop works with Mint in the process.

    I use dual boot on my machines but most of the use these days is to get to a web browser so I find I rarely boot into windows now.

    You will find Firefox is the default web browser but you can add Chrome to Mint if that’s your browser of choice.

    Many will say what about the privacy issues with Chrome but many still use it. I’ve switched back to Firefox myself and I like it better for my Android phone.

    Good luck on your journey!



  • “No one in Australia will be allowed to glorify or profit from acts and symbols that celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology,” the press release said.

    Glad to see someone mention the Profiting part.

    I’ve always suspected a lot of this was due to grifters stoking these A-holes up to increase sales of the flags, shirts, hats, etc.

    The Brandon thing was a big boon to the Maga grifters as it created more new things one needs to collect to show your true level of being a Patriot.

    You could then change out your Trump flag curtains for the Brandon stuff. Some are brave enough to change them out for the Nazis stuff when the time is right too. It completes the set when combined with the Southern Surrender flags as your curtains or bath towel.



  • I wonder if they were taking notes from John Deere and the automotive industry or will it be the reverse here soon?

    Just imagine all these vehicles that could be bricked for not going back to the stealerships for outrageous prices on parts and incompetent service.

    Also the vehicles that could be disabled for not paying for device protection plan that allows your vehicle to operate safely. It would be a shame if your vehicle stopped working on your way to work or the hospital.

    I suspect Tesla, BMW, and John Deere are the closest to this reality.

    I sure hope the government doesn’t help with another great cash for clunkers national program to get rid of more cars too old for these measures. Sure is a great way to drive new car sales though…


  • It displays those countries that have never had a strong history of democracy will struggle to not fall back into Fascism, Communism, or some form of military control via a dictatorship.

    It’s been interesting over my life from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the new Russia and former soviet block countries having sampled western ways.

    It’s been interesting to see limits on how long one can run for office in Russia was worked around with swapping roles of president and premier early on to a outright change of removing such limits.

    I recall the older generations in these countries longing for the good old days of their memories when bumps in the road arise. The Soviets were some good guys they said. That was when things was great for them. Much better than the western experiment turned out.

    We also see the purges throughout the Communist party in China and the removal of limits so one can become the ruler for life.

    Many countries around slipped back into Fascism, Communism, dictatorships, cults of personalities, with America barely holding on to not circling down this same drain in the past few years with those wanting to see these same changes to limits and even restricting voting in a country with one of the strongest histories of voting freedom. It’s been odd to see the right embrace their love for Russia when traditionally that was very not patriotic behavior that would see many blacklisted. It’s a badfe of honour now for many like those that fly Nazi flags in the streets.

    As the world continues to go right, it’s been interesting to see how much goes wrong. I wonder if this is how things were getting in the run up to the first. world war with the chaos and extremism running amuck then.



  • For me it’s a big F you to HP and it has been that way for a many years now. I loved their HP 4250 series laser printers for work. Those things were work horses, almost every part could be replaced, and the toner was cheap for what it put out. I had various HP multifunctions after and they were just garbage. Updates breaking them and disabling them. Not being able to function without all ink and the ink being very expensive.

    Canon and Epson came in second for me on the F you list. I had some great Canon multifunctions but Canon would just abandon them on the support side. If a windows update came along you would lose the ability to use the printer.

    Epson was a true pain in the ass as the driver would constantly break and need to be reinstalled or it would reinstall itself each update and switch back to the default settings. When dealing with many of them in a office environment it was a hell.

    The one special gem that deserves it’s own place in hell is the Xerox 7855. That was one of the worst POS they ever made. It was a contract service unit. It was always breaking down, there was never a tech available to fix it, and when they did fix it, it was not long before it broke again. We paid a lot up front for the thing.

    We had a office party where we rolled it off the shipping deck in the warehouse into the parking lot below. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Tears of joy. We never used Xerox again after that.

    The multiple home office brother printers we bought just seemed to work. Next time I need to outfit a factory it will be Brother. I currently have a small brother “inkvestment” multifunctions that works great at home due the little printing I need. Comes with a ton of ink and it was cheaper than replacing the ink in my last printer.





  • At the US Canada border crossing, if you don’t declare a pack of gum or a candy bar for a inspection it can be used as an “issue”

    I was warned of this a few years ago as they asked me if I wanted to declare anything before they started their random vehicle inspection.

    One time I was driving my Gf’s car and at some point a orange had rolled under her seat and had turned into a dried out black ball.

    They let me off with a stiff warning that I was lucky since I didn’t declare and they could tell it was an accident. They have to be concerned about the orange crops (in Florida I guess?) I was told. I was crossing in Washington State though.