Yeah, we might not. We could still bid on F35 production runs. I think the specifics will be quite important to determining what’s a good outcome.

Regardless, I like that we’re courting other options even if it just results in leverage elsewhere.

Yeah, I saw that. I’m not sure how that 10k number relates to the number created by F35-related manufacturing so far.

To be fair, we’ve manufactured a lot of parts for other country’s F35s so far. That’s quite standard for defense contracts. Still, if Saab commits to bringing more guaranteed manufacturing jobs than the F35 program, it could be worth it. If this gives us a leg up in F35 manufacturing bids, that could also be worth it. Feels like a strong play regardless of outcome.

Ok.

I’m asking if you’re aware of the fact that the articles you’re posting have no basis in fact. ICE has proven 72 million on equipment, an astonishingly large number. There is absolutely no data or anything at all to lead anyone to believe they’ve purchased “warheads” “guided missiles” or “artillery” as the articles you’re posting claim.

Is this disconnect intentional?

A bigger outlet repeating the same false claim with the same citation doesn’t make it more true. Or are you saying you know the claim is made up and its worth posting anyways as propaganda?

What’s worse is I fucking called it, now The Independent is repeating this BS (although the rest of the article is much better at focusing on all the horrendous shit ICE actually is doing, and the guided missiles lie is a single sentence basically), here is the article.

While the majority of the money has been spent on guns and armor for field agents, the outlay has also seen ICE purchase “guided missile warheads and explosive components,” according to Popular Information.

There we go, tracked this particular disinformation live. Next step is a major US outlet like NYT repeating the same “Popular Information states ____”. Journalism used to mean actually doing something just just copy/pasting from random blogs online. I doubt they’ve even pulled the data from the government portal themselves. /sigh

Here’s the REAL story, after the made up stuff:

ICE has also attracted a deluge of unwanted headlines for the administration, including the recent revelation that it has arrested at least 20 children who are American citizens this year, two of whom had cancer.

Reports of operations involving armed agents “traumatizing” mothers and children and firing pepper balls at a priest attending a demonstration have not helped their publicity drive.

“What we’re seeing is a general escalation of violence and the use of excessive force by ICE officers,” Ed Yohnka of ACLU Illinois told NPR recently.

? The articles HEADLINE says “warheads” and the body says “guided missiles”, and then cites a source saying “guided missiles” and “artillery”. I’m not just disambiguating minutiae, there’s a huge difference between buying a flashbang and a fucking guided missile system.

Misinformation is cool as long as it’s “our guys” making shit up?

We have so many real things to go after the gestapo for, INLCUDING spending $72 mill on guns and shit, but you’re right, we should say they bought tanks and F35s as well. It’ll really get this ball rolling.

I wasn’t even accusing you of doing anything, but hey, attack me personally to make your point. Makes you look really smart and reliable. No wonder your country is fucked.

The only source cited is a blog which cites a blog + raw acquisition numbers from government data, none of which contain ANY reference to “guided missiles” or “artillery” as the original substack claims.

As best I can tell, this claim was just kind of made up, then referenced by a blog, and now by the daily beast. We’re like 3 days out from NYT writing this and referencing this daily beast article.

Fuck this administration for all the illegal and inhuman shit they’re doing, but I’m almost certain this is just made up. They definitely have spent a shitload of money on weapons and equipment (bad) but theres no proof they’ve bought explosives and chemical weapons (beyond pepper spray)

Oh I’m with you - gerrymandering, purging of voter roles days before elections, systemic voter suppression methods, etc. are all existential threats to democracy. I’d argue that apathetic voters is a bigger issues though in aggregate, the vast majority (80%+) want taxpayer funded single payer healthcare but if you were to consider “did not vote” as a political party, “did not vote” would have won the election in 2024 by a landslide (40/30/30). Voter suppression alone cannot account for ~108 million voters.

North American elections aren’t decided by changing people’s minds, they haven’t been for decades. They’re decided by getting the non-voters out for your party. 30ish % of the electorate will never drop Trump. 35ish % of the electorate will never vote R. Elections are decided by the 35% in the middle who usually don’t even vote.

They only vote when the impact on their lives is impossible to ignore, hence why Trump’s COVID inflation gift to Biden got them off the bench. “Food is much more expensive now, I blame <person currently president>”. These people can be swung, but it requires their lives to be directly and obviously impacted. Maybe loss of healthcare would do it.

Yea idk

Worth noting that the flight itself wasn’t cancelled, his reservation/booking “just disappeared”. I highly doubt the government interfered, while the administration is certainly this petty I doubt anyone with any authority at all was even aware.

I grew up in northern Vermont. There are a lot of people who simply don’t know anything about what happens in the world - Vermont is very much like The Shire that way. The internet is unreliable and I grew up on DSL on copper lines from 1920, so FM radio is incredibly popular. Same with satellite TV. There’s also a massive drug problem and large-scale unemployment, because Vermont (without me passing judgment here) is fairly anti-industry and doesn’t have a lot of economic opportunities, especially up north in more rural areas like the NEK.

When all you have is people on the radio telling you the opiods ravaging your town are being smuggled from Canada and maybe 200 people in your town total who all listen to the same radio station, it’s really easy to believe whatever you’re told. It’s just ignorance, not of the willful kind but the naive kind. VT is the second whitest state in the union and people will frequently literally almost never meet a black person, and so racism can be a real problem just out of pure naivity.

Vermont is, in many ways, the land that time left behind in the 40s and they’re kind of only considered progressive because of UVM/Burlington and because they love weed, lol.

I do love aspects of Vermonters’ heartiness and sense of community, but it has real downsides as well. /rant

Neither do I - I use either my phone, or my smart TV, or my fire stick. SSO works fine there, or you can use the QR based session transfer to SSO on your phone and then “sign in on another device” or whatever by scanning the QR your other device is showing. I think they call it quick connect or something.

It does what you want.

And if you think Grandma can’t figure out scanning a QR code, Grandma is also not gonna figure out MFA lol.

You can run the OIDC version and use SSO and implement MFA on the IdP. I use Keycloak for SSO w/ MFA and users sign into my Jellyfin via Keycloak. Just disable username/password auth and leave it SSO only.

The only benefit Plex really has is the relaying, but I was able to sync watch with 3 people basically as far across North America as you can get from me and it worked without issue so…

Oh completely, I’m not a “both sides” guy. I think my point is quite aligned with yours, which is that the system is actually fairly reflective of the will of the people, it just turns out people are willing to go fascist for $5. The checks and balances aren’t broken, they’re just not being used because a plurality of elected officials represent people who actively want this.

Skill issue

They can be fired - SC justices can be recalled via impeachment by Congress, who ultimately derives their power from the people via elections. Congress is abdicating responsibility and power, and the electorate is too ignorant to know or care. The whole chain of responsibility is simply being ignored because the people voted for this repeatedly.

All 100% true. EU and rest of NATO giving Trump valid ammunition by not meeting spend targets and essentially giving up the defense game is one of the greatest self-cuckings of all time. Obama and Merkel sold out Crimea for cheap LNG, and EU kept doing business as usual and now the world is hyperdependent on US.