The government does nothing. Companies are constantly making computers owned by other people do things that are against the interests of the owner, including disabling it altogether. Especially handheld computers a/k/a phones. After all, you willfully gave them the right to do so when you used your computer, and the TOS clearly said on page 38 that by using your purchased property, you agree to give up control over it. They can shut it down if they do not like the way you use it, or if they do not like the software you run on the computer that you own. If you have a problem with that, you can sue at your own expense. Watch out for that arbitration clause though. You probably cannot sue at all.

But let an individual citizen do it, and OH MY GOD. The state is more than happy to use your money to investigate and prosecute them. Not to mention the oh so moral outrage that follows. How dare a non corporate entity try to affect the property of someone else!

It is an outrage. And outrage I tell you!

âoeAmerica is really a distopian hellhole when it comes to consumer interaction and protections.â

Hey look at Mr Optimist here. I have lived here all of my life, and for years I have longed for America to become a consumer dystopian hellhole, as that would be a massive improvement.

Alas, it remains a pipe dream.

Credit reporting = extortion for the 21st century.

Most people passively accepted it, so yeah, corporations enthusiastically use it to force you to pay whether you owe or not. You can cancel all you want, but they will still try to punish you for not paying. Especially since the mechanism to do so is already in place, and is so damn easy to use.

Or you can spend who knows how many hours trying to dispute it. Either way, you will pay.

Recurring charges were not invented for your convenience.

It has a huge impact because it devalues these kinds of deals and just supports the idea that these companies can run roughshod over IP rights, steal, and pillage to their hearts content without consequence.

Reddit wants to sell your IP rather than let AI have it for free. Reddit did not create it, though. It is two corporate entities trying to cash in on content created by others. I am not sure that there is a clear moral high-ground here.

In one of my daughters high-school classes, over 70% of the girls claimed to be non-binary. To be fair, it was a very small sample size, something like 12 out of 18 girls, and we live in the conformist capital of the world; Seattle; but still, I think that is probably historically unprecedented.

She said it is decidedly unfashionable to be cis or whatever they call breeders these days.

What is bizarre is that these are otherwise smart kids. Moral panics used to be the domain of the religious right, but they completely flipped to become a primary obsession of affluent white progressives. They basically co-opted the cognitive elite of the country, and even the 1 percent is shocked by how easy it was.

There are no cultural wars. That would suggest that this was in some way organic. It was not.

Remember, this was all brought about by the Occupy Movement, where both Democrats and Republicans began eyeballing the 1 percent as the cause of societies ills. They started actually agreeing on things for once,

It scared the ever loving shit out of the ruling class, and almost overnight, the number 1 issue in America was trans this and that, and gay gender etc etc. The media and elites responded with an endless string of divide-and-conquer moral panics. Men playing on womenâ(TM)s sports teams, pronoun bingo, men supposedly giving birth, do you really think the elite believes any of that? Seriously?

They are laughing their asses off, and more than a little stupefied by how much they have been able to get away with. Best of all, they control the side of the supposed culture war with the vast majority of disposable income and influence. Gay and trans populations are more affluent than average, so if a political party is going to pretend to side with a minority group, the best ones to go for are the ones with money.

Voila, occupy what? Fuck that, how can you even think of occupying shit at a time like this, we need to make sure the OTHERS do not get into power because if they do, god knows what they will do to the transes. Will you people please think of the transes, who have suddenly become the most important people in the world to to me. No not because of the media, but because of my own thoughtful initiative. Yeah, I was totally concerned about the transes way before the media said anything. I was just waiting for all of you to catch up!

Unfortunately, they are leaving a mentally fucked generation in their wake, but since when does the ruling class care about that? The majority of them are most likely clinical psychopaths.

But culture war? Nah. Just following the script. Call it an insurance policy to make sure the people of America keep pointing the finger at each other and not the 1 percent. Identity politics makes it absolutely impossible for something like that French Revolution thing to happen here. Quibble about abortion and pronouns and some random persons racist tweet, we will hand out as many head pats as you want. Just do not look at the shit we are doing in the meantime.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Now, how about those men weight lifters competing as women? It is outrageous, is it not? My goodness it is so outrageous! You think it is outrageous, right? Tell us what you think about it in the discussion below, and be sure to vote in the poll. Spoiler, half of you will vote one way, and the other half will vote the opposite way. I just hate those other voters, how about you? Buncha racist threats to OUR Democracy if you ask me.

Jail time and the public cost therein for violating a private sports organizations rules?

Should we jail NBA 2K25 cheaters too? How about people who exaggerate on their resumes? Or people who photoshop their pictures on dating sites?

When consumption goes down, power companies scream to the government about declining demand, who in turn allows them to raise rates. Now they deliver less power for the same money. Rinse and repeat.

Watch what happens to rates when power-saving measures are effective. Unless you live in an area with public-owned utilities, you will eventually end up paying the same, or in some cases more, the less power you use. It is not well covered by the press, but my power company files for rate increases every year, often citing the success of power saving initiatives. Utilities want more money not less, and they could not really care less about the climate. It is just the rationale they use to increase the unit cost of their product.

Why do utility companies buy so much ad space in local media when they are monopolies that everyone is forced to use?

It is definitely NOT because media tends to be soft on major advertisers. Rather, it is just their way of saying hello to all of their valued customers, and cost is no object when it comes to saying hello to valued customers.

At least, that is my theory.

Nuclear Power

1. Energy Density (Insane)
        â 1 gram of uranium-235 can produce about 24 MWh of energy.
        â Thatâ(TM)s about 3 million times more energy than burning the same mass of coal or oil.

2. Capacity Factor (How Often Itâ(TM)s Running)
        â Nuclear plants operate at 90â"95% capacity factor, meaning theyâ(TM)re almost always generating electricity.
        â Compare that to:
        â Coal: ~40â"60%
        â Natural gas: ~50â"70%
        â Wind: ~35%
        â Solar: ~25%

3. Land and Fuel Efficiency
        â Nuclear plants use tiny amounts of fuel and very little land per MWh generated, especially compared to solar or wind.

4. Waste Efficiency
        â Yes, it creates radioactive waste, but the volume is tiny compared to the waste (including COâ) from fossil fuels.
        â Most waste is solid, contained, and can be managed or even reprocessed in some countries.

People who say nuclear fails a cost/benefit analysis are usually focusing on economic, political, regulatory, and risk-related costsâ"not the raw efficiency.

THIS is why I bought into a YouTube Premium account. That way, I don't have to frustratingly deal with ad interruptions all the time, especially on longer videos. Yes, I know it's US$13.95 per month, but given the cost of a premium Starbucks drink or even a fast food meal nowadays, it's definitely worth it.

Holy shit, you sure showed them! Take THAT corporate fuckwipes, HA!

I don't know that you can really expect that of most people, though. I mean, clearly you're a hard man, a stone-cold killer, a man that doesn't take any motherfucken shit, but most people just don't have the instinct to be that cruel, even in the face of adversity.

Don't get me wrong, we need people like you. People who will stare pompous elites in the face, throw up two middle fingers, and scream "Thug Life!" while reaching for their credit card and cock-slapping the corporate execs with that motherfucken fourteen dollar recurring charge. And if I know people like you, and I think I do, in the "notes" section of the order form, you said something like "for the vaginal reconstruction yo mama is gonna need after I destroyed that puhaho last night". That's just the type of shit gangster motherfuckers say, amirite?

For most people, however, that is not a solution. There is just a finite among of people willing to go to such extreme lengths ... at least not enough to put Google on notice that, if they keep up the enshittification, the people are gonna make it rain 14 dollar recurring charges on their sorry wealthy asses.

Most of us will have to be content with living vicariously through you, player.

And they are exactly right. Anyone doing anything on the internet will be either forced to geofence, or face the impossibility of compliance with a tangle of contradictory international laws possibly not even availible in language you speak.

Oh no, that sounds awful! ANYONE doing ANYTHING on the Internet will now be FORCED to face the impossibility yada yada!

Oh the humanity!

Anyone.

Doing anything.

I am an anyone. Wait, so are you. And we do things. We do any things.

At least we used to. We cannot anymore. We cannot do anything anymore. Nobody can!

Because not doing shit that people find objectionable is out of the question. Most of these legal things can be avoided by simply doing the right thing, not taking what is not yours to take, and not obsessively trying to use fine print as a shield for doing things that many people find objectionable.

But according to you, if you cannot take data that is not yours, you cannot do anything! Nobody can!

Most of these numerous laws in numerous jurisdiction are merely trying to prevent companies from taking information that they are not entitled to. If you stop trying to do that, you solve a big part of your problem right there. Most companies face legal issues do their own making.

And of course, anytime a company is told that it cannot do something, we are all treated to screams about how the sky is falling. About how, you know, nobody can ever do anything on the Internet ever again.

Don't buy a Mac for gaming.

I donâ(TM)t think many people do.

I think most Mac gamers bought their Mac for another reason(s), and at some point decided that they might like to play some games.

I do not think it is common to buy a separate computer for each discreet task you at some point decide to perform.

Hardware wise, Macs are capable of running many games, albeit at lower settings compared to machines with beefy GPUs. They are just looking for software that makes it easier to do.

Sounds quite reasonable.

Neither side has much to brag about when it comes to the Civil Rights Act

Senate

Democrats voting No: 17
Republicans voting No: 3

House

Democrats voting No: 90
Republicans voting No: 82

He probably assumed, like most people, that when you purchase a physical product, the code that makes it so what it is advertised to do is part of the purchase. Why?

Because they knew, of course, that they could use them. After all, they bought the appliance. They purchased it with their own hard earned money. Why would they not be able to use its features? You know, the ones that were advertised?

Why would they think such a thing?

Because it is common sense. We have had alarm clocks for decades, but it would have been farcical to suggest that when you bought an alarm clock, you did not buy an alarm clock. Instead you purchased a physical case with some internal complements which did nothing, and licensed the code that makes it, for instance, display the current time.

Had you told them that this is what the future had in store for Americans, they would not have believed you. After all, it sounds like a scheme invented by a child to retain control over their toys even after they trade them away to the kid down the street, it is not something that would even pass the laugh test for adults. Not to mention, we pay 30%-ish of our earnings ever year to governments and courts which use our money to give us an nation and an economy that is sane, rational, and that preserves values that we have always held dear, such as respect for personal property and fair, rational business dealings.

There is NO WAY they would ever fall for a scheme as patently silly as divvying a product up into a patchwork of owned and licensed parts. And if for some bizarre reason they did, the people would never stand for it. I mean, we are Americans for fucks sake! Remember Do not Tread on Me. These colors do not run. We will put a boot in your ass, it is the American way. Yes, THOSE Americans.

Do you think they, do you think we, are would bend over while corporations rewrite well-established rules of private property, and ass rape us out of control over the things we spend our hard earned money to purchase?

Do you really think that would ever happen here?

I ask because most people still, to this day, cannot fathom it. And so they continue to purchase products, with the expectation that they will be able to use their newly acquired property as they see fit. Just as their parents did. And their parents before them.

And they are slowly, but surely, finding out that this is no longer the case. And when they do, they express shock, outrage, and disbelief. The whole thing is so bizarre and nonsensical, that they truly cannot believe that it is actually happening.

Get used to it. There is more to come. It has only just begun.

Thanks for posting with your real account so that we can all see that you're retarded.

Retarded > Coward

Do other customers honestly lose their right to sue if they get nothing? I thought you could only legally give things up in exchange for consideration. What if you do not have one of the 21 printers, are you still barred from suing in the future?

On second thought, do not answer. I do not think I want to know.

Remember, they just put a guy in jail because he sabotaged his ex-employers equipment. The corporations, on the other hand, profit. Here again is the completely two tiered justice system. No wonder the presidents have no faith in it. Criminal court for thee, half ass civil court for me. Suckers.

Growing up, I could never have foreseen the type of place my country would become.

And only a couple of week before tax day. Why, how convenient, another timely example of the quality government your money gets you. It takes some of the sting out, at least.

Now if the rest of you will excuse us, another US judge has handed another barbed wire condom to another US business to strap onto their corporate cock.

It is time for us to assume the position.

Yes again.