“Man who is leaving the party anyway tries to get extra concessions on his way out.” FTFY

I think it’s a combination of factors but the largest (in my mind at least) is the capitalist fed toxically-independent mindset that has thrived in the US. It keeps people afraid of other people. It keeps them isolated which prevents community and safety and trust. It sows xenophobia. It prevents any preference toward a government collective.

Take a look at the difference between US towns and towns anywhere else in the world. Suburbs are extremely rural in comparison. They’re re devoid of life. Life only exists in the little boxes. In Europe a town of 300 is built around an active town center and rural properties are all focused on that center. US suburbs are less connected than rural Europe or Asia. And then much of the US is way more rural than the suburbs. You’ve got a media and political system telling everyone they’re alone and on their own. So when people have a psychotic break (not super uncommon) or just some form of extreme emotion, they do so with the fear of others in mind. And they lash out with one thing that makes them feel powerful in their solitude.

We will have elections. Whether they’re free and fair is up for grabs.

A big rally promoting sibling marriage.

I think she’s working on an organic gardening cookbook with mostly borscht and vodka recipes.

Given how Ukraine is mopping up with them right now, I don’t see a play here. Seems like antagonizing your big brother while you’re losing a fight with your little sister. It could be lack of creativity on my part but I can’t see any gains at all for Russia in attempting this.

Music Assistant most of the time. Sometimes I just use Symfonium directly but they both tap into my Navidrome server.

The French only have to protest in France. Imagine the French protesting in Moscow. That’s the distance from Utah to Florida. Utah isn’t even the furthest point from Florida. Tell some Frenchmen to go march on Russia and protest until they get their way. Now picture that playing out.

Surely no one will gun you down within 200 yards.

Document everything and try to force a title change to better reflect the position (even without more money) so that you’ll have an easier time finding a higher position when you leave.

I’m hoping they’re all just tankies which means anything they say is irrelevant.

Yes but no. What happens is, an actual journalist does their job and people get up in arms. Commercial media will slowly start to cover the topic. In this case, the audio will come out and the world is aghast. Commercial media will interview Trump or his cabinet and ask “how do you respond to the rumors of this audio?” As if the audio isn’t real and as if we’ve not all heard it. Like it’s an anomalous thing that he’s accused of like a case of he said-she said between rival politicians. Like it’s not obviously real and factual. That’s how it gets covered.

It’s unethical to practice self-treatment.

My best friend was military. Raised Mormon, though he spent a decent amount of time in boys homes (very crazy mom) and went into the military as quickly as he could. Very typical meathead character, doing basic toxic male shit. He was working for the military when I met him. And I met him because he was leaving his faith when he learned about atheism. Since then, he became a pacifist (I helped him through his conscientious objector status to get out of the military), got rid of his guns, became a staunch Democrat, recognized his suppressed bisexuality, and started working on his mental health. If you put the person I first met, next to the person he is today, he’s only visually the same. Completely different person. It’s not normal to have such extreme changes. Most of us don’t have those polar changes in life. But some people do. Platner sounds a lot like my friend. He has been angry for a while but finally put on the They Live glasses and figured out who and what to be angry at. Could it all be a farce? Yeah. We could be being misled. Any politician can be someone else. Platner’s story thus far is absolutely plausible. And it’s been scrutinized heavily. He’s not a George Santos. He IS however targeted by Israel and the oligarchs. So, I’m choosing to believe his story, one that I’ve seen before, over targeted talking points that are being used in paid ads by AIPAC.

Musk was doing the bidding of the Tech Bros. Project 2025 was a separate entity with sometimes overlapping goals. We’ve got a lot of villains here. Putin was/is supporting both factions monetarily and technologically because the goal of all of it is to tear the US down. Which is his main goal. Project 2025 wants a theocracy and the Tech Bros want a feudal state. They’re happy enough to have it be a theocratic feudal state as long as they’re running everything.

Cubans right now: "Remember the Maine!’

I thought about replying to some comments but decided to make a top level comment instead. There are some valid points a few people have brought up that aren’t the easiest things to fix. Some are, actually pretty easy to fix. Some are issues where Jellyfin forces you to do things a certain way, like file naming convention, which I think is extremely smart to do anyway.

But the one reply I keep seeing is “until Plex stops working, I see no reason to switch”. With that, I mean, I guess we all agree you are going to get fucked by Plex at some point. They’ve been slowly cranking up the heat in the pot. I love my media library and I just couldn’t stand waiting for the rolling boil. I’ve been using Adobe products since 1999. I recognize an abusive relationship when I see it. If you’re happy where you’re at, I mean, by all means. I’m not going to yuck your yum. Many of the issues are exactly the kinds of things the Jellyfin community is happy to help fix with you. I do wish you all the best, but I’ve never gotten locked into a great deal that didn’t hurt when I needed to get out of it before.

I can’t speak to Europe, but for China, this throws a spotlight on the lack of US effectiveness and leadership and erodes our soft power. Which is a free method for them to gain soft power. Europe IS having their own increase in isolationism which is likely why they’re not moving on the world stage.

ICE is barely beholden to the law but that’s still way too much for what Trump has in mind. A private army of J6rs paid well enough to do absolutely anything along with any mercenary just wanting the money. 1.7b / 10,000 = $170,000. He could pay 10,000 people $170,000. I think that’s exactly what he wants to do. That’s exactly what he wanted on Jan6 but those idiot fucks were doing it for free.

So, 13,000 ICE and DHS officials plus 10,000 even angrier and even dumber private army militia. I want to mention that we’ve got likely over 10% unemployment right now. The real numbers are difficult but my most measures I trust, they’re saying 10+%. This is the exact situation the Nazis were in. They were out of work, currency was almost worthless and the Nazi party were paying (they got the wealthy early on).

Now, the big difference is I do not think there’s enough people willing to join up. I think they’re maxed at ICE numbers. There really weren’t that many J6rs who weren’t feeble Boomers. But, I do think they’re trying to follow the Nazi playbook. This is what they want. They’re just terribly fucking incompetent so… I guess we’ll see.