When it's codified into the highest law of the land and doesn't work, and suggestions to do so voluntarily can't work to the point of being laughable, what options do we have left?

There's always Nancy Reagan's catchphrase: Just Say No.

Any particular game is expendable. You won't miss out on anything. Games don't even have the network effects and lockin that you get with other types of software; it's a part of the economy where Just Saying No is easiest of all.

Don't like the quality? Don't spend your money. They have no power over us except what we give them. Stop being so selflessly altruistic when it comes to actively supporting your own abuse.

It's so damn easy, and there's already hundreds of years worth of hassle-free game-playing available to spend the few remaining seconds of your life on.

Can we use these glasses, or are they just as worthless as Google's and Meta's, where they choose everything for you, and you'll likely get a DMCA complaint if you try to use them for your own purposes?

If not, then $21.95 is about as much as these people should be charging for the product, which is obviously intended to get its revenue through proprietary software/services sales.

One of the problems America currently faces, is that we're still getting far too much science done, it's not costing us enough money, and the money it does cost is being wasted on paying the salaries of scientists instead of personally paying whoever contracts to kick back the most to political appointees.

I believe this will help solve all three problems.

Every single day, it seems like the White House does something to keep the ongoing Epstein Obstruction Scandal in the news. It's been the top story for months and every single day there's new news about it.

On Thursday, Todd Blanche, presumably acting under orders, spent all day obstructing the release of the information. And then he did the same thing on Friday. And now there's this UFO story, looking almost custom-made as a silly distraction. Blanche or Trump clearly wants to keep the illegal obstruction on voters' minds, as an evergreen topic so that it never goes away. But why?

What does Trump get by working so hard to persuade every American that he disagrees with a law that he signed, implying that laws is a bad idea and shouldn't be applied or enforced? What advantages are gained by an explicitly pro-crime agenda? What's the advantage of campaigning on releasing the files but then breaking my campaign promise?

I (naively?) think if I were in his position, I would comply with the law so that I don't go to prison for obstruction, and so people wouldn't notice every day that I'm still casually and continuously committing crime. I would let, no make the files come out, so that everyone can see the criminal witnesses confused me with the actual rapist, Biden. That would put me in a position where I'm seen as pro-law instead of anti-law, and it would also put to rest all the speculation that the "Epstein" files are actually mostly about me. Seems like that would be good for everyone, including myself.

So why commit obstruction when the releasing files will exonerate you and make all the problems go away? This strategy doesn't make any sense. What could I possibly be missing?

I feel like there's something incredibly obvious that everyone with a more-than-50 IQ has figured out about the president's lily-white innocence, but somehow I'm just too fucking stupid to figure it out. It's humbling, and makes me question my deeply-held faith in the president's genius.

Then We The People need (or have needed) to become post-newspaper, indeed post-any-sort-of-centralized-media, since all centralizations are pressure points for coercion and compromise.

Make Usenet Great Again? There is No Cab-NO CARRIER

We decided "I really really don't want x to happen to me, so I won't x someone else." And then we agreed that x will be categorized as "terrorism" instead of "war."

Then recently (yesterday?) we Americans apparently changed our mind about whether or not it would be ok if Iran (or anyone else) blew up America's civilian water supply infrastructure, no big deal, so we're doing that now, telling the whole world that it's acceptable. It's just war, what can ya do?

For now, people can worry about what type of weapons to use and whether or not certain types should be banned.

But in the future, all the debates will be about will be "how do we pick just the right grid squares in which to Kill All Humans?"

"I want to know what war is! I want you to show me!!" (Apologies to 'Foreigner')

No, Europe is not at war with Russia - not yet. Sure, Europe spies, facilitates killing of Russians in Ukraine and Russia, and holds onto Russian money. On the other hand, Russia kills Russian dissidents in Europe, snips cables, holds onto European assets and occasionally jams GPS. This isn't war. The two sides should be actively negotiating a wind-down of hostilities with each other and in Ukraine, and retaliating proportionally to offenses to keep each others worse instincts in check. But this is not war.

I, for one, am glad someone is finally cracking down on explicit images. If you have words to say, post them as actual text! Don't just throw text onto an image and call it a "meme," because that's totally lame.

I would expect that our backward-ass leaders will instead get all nationalistic and prideful of the "homegrown" Microsoft monopoly

Then we must lead them down a better path.

"It takes four hundred thirty people to man a starship. With this, you don't need anyone. One machine can do all those things they send men out to do now. Men no longer need die in space, or on some alien world. Men can live, and go on to achieve greater things than fact-finding and dying for galactic space, which is neither ours to give or to take. You can't understand. We don't want to destroy life, we want to save it!" -- Blacula

In other words, the "gap" you describe is considered to be good news for the humans who have to do those jobs.

I say this jokingly, but I really did drink the Kool Aide, and I think it's just Kool Aide without any additional harmful ingredients. I'm seriously all for us at least striving to live a completely hedonistic lifestyle, where we never toil because our robots slaves do everything tedious for us.

I want to die in an Orion whorehouse, looking like a character from WALL-E. Only in my final moments do I want to learn the awful truth, when one of the green-skinned ladies' faceplate falls off, revealing a robot.

Ok, maybe it wasn't pure Kool Aide.

The premise is that you would understand how it works. Once we've glossed over the story of finding that holy grail, then you can build minds with different amounts of spite. (e.g. doubly-infinite for a TortureBot, or decreased for most other uses.)

Wait, are you suggesting I can simply hire humans, to design and manufacture these intelligent computers for me?!

Oh, duh, I get it! You're taking Bezos' own point of view, rather than the point of view of his engineers.

But how do the engineers create the intelligent computer? It's not hiring-people all the way down, is it?

What do you think is the right age for Carousel? As someone over 30, I think 30 is too young. ;-) But what age might we all agree isn't too young?

This is not the Jetsons. If Ukraine had a robo-army, by now there would be no "busification". And yes, Russia is losing more men, but why do you think that is? It is because the Russians are attacking, breaking cover. If the Ukrainians attacked, the same would happen to them.

It may be that the Ukrainians have superiority in autonomous targeting drones; that the Andurils and tech startups of the West help them in this. But how long do you think this superiority will last? Will this period be long enough to enable the Ukrainians to break out and get the the Donbas back? What do you think will happen to the casualty exchange rate when Ukraine attacks?

Yes, drones can help attack, but they cannot hold land. That requires men. Again, we are not in the Jetsons era yet.

Look, Ukraine is already in a demographic death spiral. Using EU funds, it is importing guest workers, already reluctant to enter a warzone, while shipping of it's own youth to die at the front. Ukraine is desperate to involve the West more deeply in the war. This is unsustainable and dangerous for both itself and the West.

Say, your plucky smaller friend is getting trashed in a bar fight with a big guy. He is gesturing at you frantically to join in. Won't the wise option -- for him and for you -- be to urge him to stop the fighting and try to come to terms with his opponent? Rather, the West keeps slipping Zelensky the equivalent of knuckle dusters, tells him "Keep going", "punch him over there", "look out for his left hook", and swears at the Russians while quietly buying uranium and gas from them. Rocky Balboa's coach is doing business with Ivan Draga.

Those Ukrainian defensive lines you speak of, the ones that are too sacrosanct, they are no guarantee. The Ukrainians need to scramble and build new ones behind them anyway. The Russians are still advancing, imposing losses on Ukraine's assault brigades that have taken back territory in the last two months. The Ukrainians aren't going to get a dramatic infusion of soldiers. So they need new lines far in the back anyway, either as defenses after surrendering territory, or as fallbacks if the frontline is breached. The West should help Ukraine build new lines in the back (the only real security guarantee), encourage them to make concessions for peace and broach the topic with the Russians