@hex@kolektiva.social2026-04-08 05:09:12
Every time leftists talk about escalating against Trump, liberals point out that Trump is looking for an excuse to invoke the insurrection act. This is true. But they don't notice that he's the least popular president in history and the military has largely already made it clear that they won't be used against civilians. That risk assessment completely lacks context.
Trump could not possibly win against an insurgency because the only thing he could possibly offer to end it would be his own resignation. If Trump tried to escalate to civil war he would either lose or be removed.
More importantly, Trump compulsively escalates. He will continue to start wars because he thinks he's doing a good job and he's a hero. When he gets frustrated at some foreign enemy because he's actually completely incompetent and only able to win against incompetent and wildly unpopular opponents, he threatens war crimes.
I am familiar enough with history to fully believe that he ordered a nuclear strike last night and people said "no." Humanity has been saved multiple times by people refusing to follow orders, and you don't find out until years later. (This is also not the first story of a president dangerously deep in mental decline. Reagan lost the nuclear football.)
The longer this goes on, the greater the risk that eventually someone will actually let him do something unthinkable. But that's significantly less likely if he's trying to fight within the US border.
Just looking at things from a risk perspective, "he's going to invoke the insurrection act" is not nearly as big of a threat as democrats think it is, and it's about time they think realistically about this fact.
@cdarwin@c.im2026-04-06 18:56:53
The “neural fingerprint” of psychedelics was spotted among hundreds of brain scans of people on LSD, psilocybin, DMT, mescaline and ayahuasca,
pointing to a shared impact on the brain’s behaviour.
The finding emerged from a major study that combined 11 brain imaging datasets from around the world
in an effort to build a reliable picture of how the substances temporarily rewire the brain.
Dr Danilo Bzdok and his colleagues analysed more than 500 brain scans from 267 p…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2026-04-07 10:55:43
The US IRS is yet to issue guidelines on whether prediction market gains should be taxed as derivatives, gambling winnings, or income, worrying accountants (Kate Knibbs/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/nobody-knows-how-to-file-taxes-on-predi…
@inthehands@hachyderm.io2026-01-08 05:50:16
Generative AI can’t magically reveal otherwise unknown truths. AI doesn’t have any idea what the lower half of the killer’s face looks, no more than my students knew what my unmasked face looked like.
What AI •can• do is generate a random plausible face that really looks like a face. It might even look like the face of a real person — a random, innocent person.
Sharing AI-generated unmasking photos is dangerous.
3/
@janneke@todon.nl2026-04-06 16:54:26
There is so little total insanity, fascism and transphobia on Mastodon; it's not an equal representation of our society.
I haven't really looked but it must be an echo chamber.
@outer@mas.to2026-04-06 16:22:57
O Gods! I had a brain worm one-hit wonder pop song stuck in my head last night. This morning it came back. So I started to think of an Offenbach song to counter it -- now they're BOTH going at the same time! I better practice some new music, quick.
Jeez. Next time I'll make sure they're in highly incompatible time signatures!
#Music
@markhburton@mstdn.social2026-02-07 20:08:07
In Cuba now, lives being lost in hospital because no electricity, so, for example, can't ventilate a critically ill patient.
This is Trump
This is cruelty
This is genocide.
https://mastodon.social/@JDanielSsp/116026739948880529
@memeorandum@universeodon.com2026-03-04 19:20:57
Strong Majorities of Democrats & NYC Voters Support Gov. & Leg. Giving NYC Ability to Raise Income Tax on Its Residents Earning At Least $1M (Siena Research Institute)
https://sri.siena.edu/2026/03/04/strong-majorities-of-democrats-nyc-voters-support-gov-leg-giving-nyc-ability-to-raise-income-tax-on-its-residents-earning-at-least-1m/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260304/p98#a260304p98
@scott@carfree.city2026-04-06 22:10:38
Good primer on how California housing development laws have changed in the past few years, for better or worse, but also how those changes are unlikely to usher in broad affordability.
"*This* project is all but certainly going to get financing because *this* project is exceptional. But not every project is exceptional... If merely approving a project resulted in its construction, San Francisco would have scores of thousands of additional built units. It doesn’t."
@cdarwin@c.im2026-02-08 03:41:38
