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"State capture occurs when wealthy private interests influence a government to such a degree that they can freely direct policy decisions and public funds for their own benefit or for the benefit of their ideological fellow travelers"
Musk? Trump? Who Exactly Is Running the Federal Government? nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion…


There are a lot of explorations of how Trump and Musk are breaking the law.

But unlike if anyone else breaks the law, the systems of intervention and accountability for Trump are almost entirely broken. Which appears to be exactly what he’s going for.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/20…

in reply to Philip Bump

This is thoroughly depressing. Short of MASSIVE public protests (including, eventually, at the ballot box), evidently NOTHING can be done.
in reply to Philip Bump

One important detail.

Why should the #Weirdo-in-Chief care about the public opinion? He is on his second term.

If he stays beyond January 2029 in office, it will not be by "normal means". (Remember one of the many things he promised: this would be the last relevant election.)

If he does not stay on, he already has immunity for any "official crimes".

So exactly for what does #Trump need the public approval?



Midweek ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the lowest on record (JAXA data)

• about 690,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,330,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,910,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,330,000 km² below the 1980s mean

Plots: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice-fi…

reshared this

in reply to Zack Labe

The way the yellow line veers down like that and just levels out! Omg
in reply to Zack Labe

Yep, that warm air intrusion has really done a number on an already bad year. (see my post from a few days ago)


Arab countries flatly reject Trump's Gaza takeover proposal


Summary

Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza and resettle its Palestinian population was widely condemned by allies and adversaries alike.

Arab nations, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, firmly rejected the plan, reaffirming support for Palestinian sovereignty. U.S. allies like Australia and New Zealand reiterated their backing of a two-state solution.

Critics, including Palestinian leaders and Hamas, denounced the move as illegal and destabilizing.

U.S. lawmakers also opposed it, with some calling it “dangerous” and “ethnic cleansing.”

Unknown parent

lemmy - Link to source
prole
Genocide includes displacement, and does not necessarily require killing (at least per the UN definition)
in reply to MicroWave

Can't read the article. Too busy watching leopards eat Gazan faces for dinner.


The mysterious statisticians shaping how we think about fertility (Dylan Scott/Vox)

vox.com/future-perfect/396708/…
memeorandum.com/250205/p23#a25…





Europa präsentiert OpenEuroLLM: Open-Source-Sprachmodell für KI

Fördert europäische KI-Entwicklung
Offene und transparente Forschung
Stärkung der digitalen Souveränität

#AI #KI #OpenSource #Europa #Sprachmodell #openeurollm

kinews24.de/openeurollm-europa…



Netflix, $NFLX, has 89.6 million paying subscribers in the US and Canada up from 64.8 million in 2018, per Bloomberg.

#news #finance #economics #stocks #options



Every Gamer Should Explore this Archive of Video Game History
https://gizmodo.com/every-gamer-should-explore-this-archive-of-video-game-magazines-2000559224?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Tech @tech-Gizmodo

@Tech


Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, says she is “shocked at the defiance towards international law, not just by Israel, but by most countries in the international community”.

“It’s unlawful, immoral and completely irresponsible,” says Francesca Albanese, when asked about US President Trump’s suggestion to remove Palestinians from Gaza and have the US take ownership, Al Jazeera reports.

youtube.com/watch?v=S0Af-JZSrz…

🕎 🇵🇸 ☮️
#Gaza #Palestine

earthling reshared this.



Trump just launched his Crusades with ethnic cleansing and invited terrorist war, but Baker and the #BrokenTimes call it "an improbable idea": "Mr. Trump is advancing ever-more brazen ideas."
Imperialism, totalitarianism, fascism: just ideas the Times will not name.
in reply to Jeff Jarvis

"unbound"

"improbable"

Whoa there #NYT whoa there one minute

Harsh rebuke, lil' dudes, way harsh

#Trump #DonaldTrump #NewYorkTimes

This entry was edited (10 months ago)




Trump's tariffs could make it harder for Americans to get their medications (Dylan Scott/Vox)

vox.com/future-perfect/398161/…
memeorandum.com/250205/p22#a25…




What are rare earth elements, and why does Trump want them from Ukraine? | US news byteseu.com/716896/ #Ukraine


Today in #Valheim, Sten did quite a bit of cookery. He traded a quantity of flax that he had grown, for some dragon tears. With those he was able to build a wildmill and an oven. And now he has pies! Bread! No new weapons or armour, but he is eating well.

Though while sniping some fulings, Sten did accidentally eat a Bukeperry, and made rather a mess on the plains. Never mind, that just makes room for more pie!



in reply to jamesbunagna

Didn't know about this vendor.

Looking at their page the prces look a bit steep for me.

in reply to Strit

Looking at their page the prces look a bit steep for me.


I understand where this is coming from. Buying a spec-wise similar device from say Lenovo would definitely be cheaper. Unfortunately, whether it is System76, TUXEDO or NovaCustom, we pay a premium for the fact that they're Linux-first.

in reply to jamesbunagna

yeah, €1500 for an i7 with 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD is just a bit too high compared to a ThinkPad that runs linux pretty well. :D
in reply to Strit

Nowadays a lot of hardware works very well on Linux, the main approach of this vendors is not the compatibility (has guaranteed but as you say in a thinkpad you have the same compatibility), the approach is about a free software (or mostly free) firmware, and in this case, free and secure implementation for the firmware an all secureboor chain
in reply to Strit

it's well vs perfectly; ESPECIALLY when it comes to battery life.

i've been buying linux laptops for the last few years and the battery life between a dell or thinkpad vs system76 or tuxedo is significant thanks to core/libre boots. i'm looking forward to their risc-v offerings.

the hard/soft support alone makes linux smooth sailing, just like any mac (and the price tag is almost the same). i've been a linux user since 2002 and it's nice having paid developers to fall back on who always know more than i do since it's literally their job.

This entry was edited (10 months ago)
in reply to eldavi

coreboot/libreboot saves that much battery? I thought it just handled the initialisation of devices and the devices were handed over to the kernel (and the drivers that come along with it) as soon as boot was done. Aren't the battery savings down to superior power management drivers?
in reply to Jumuta

a system that comes with either core or libre boot is going to have hardware that's intended to work with them; also meaning that the open sourced software that controls the power is an exact match, giving an improved life.

it's not so much that core/libreboot are a determinant factor; but more so an indicator.

This entry was edited (10 months ago)
in reply to Strit

I got those same specs for like 250$ on a used dell latitude that supports ubuntu natively lol. And runs other distros perfectly too.
in reply to jamesbunagna

Bought from them in the past. Solid people and superb communication.