I explained something for a friend in a simple way, and I think it's worth paraphrasing again here.
You cannot create a system that constrains itself. Any constraint on a system must be external to the system, or that constraint can be ignored or removed. That's just how systems work. Every constitution for every country claims to do this impossible thing, a thing proven is impossible almost 100 years ago now. Gödel's loophole has been known to exist since 1947.
Every constitution in the world, every "separation of powers" and set of "checks and balances," attempts to do something which is categorically impossible. Every government is always, at best, a few steps away from authoritarianism. From this, we would then expect that governments trand towards authoritarianism. Which, of course, is what we see historically.
Constraints on power are a formality, because no real controls can possibly exist. So then democratic processes become sort of collective classifiers that try to select only people who won't plunge the country into a dictatorship. Again, because this claim of restrictions on powers is a lie (willful or ignorant, a lie reguardless) that classifier has to be correct 100% of the time (even assuming a best case scenario). That's statistically unlikely.
So as long as you have a system of concentrated power, you will have the worst people attracted to it, and you will inevitably have that power fall into the hands of one of the worst possible person.
Fortunately, there is an alternative. The alternative is to not centralize power. In the security world we try to design systems that assume compromise and minimize impact, rather than just assuming that we will be right 100% of the time. If you build systems that maximially distribute power, then you minimize the impact of one horrible person.
Now, I didn't mention this because we're both already under enough stress, but...
Almost 90% of the nuclear weapons deployed around the world are in the hands of ghoulish dictators. Only two of the countries with nuclear weapons not straight up authoritarian, but they're not far off. We're one crashout away from steralizing the surface of the Earth with nuclear hellfire. Maybe countries shouldn't exist, and *definitely* multiple thousands of nuclear weapons shouldn't exist and shouldn't all be wired together to launch as soon as one of these assholes goes a bit too far sideways.
#Measles On The Rise Across Globe As #Vaccination Rates Decline...Third World Has Highest Spike, But #USA in The Mix As Well Now.
Leyendo el artículo de Vicisitud y sordidez sobre el Metal no puedo mšs que estar de acuerdo con esta afirmación: "Cuando pruebas una Imperial Stout de 10 grados y te gusta, no vuelves a pedirte una Radler en la puta vida."
Larga vida al Imperial Stout.... y al metal
https://www.<…
Details of the MOU as reported by CBC. Hot Take:
It's a sh_t show of oil soaked hopeium and climate defeatism.
- Shovels in Ground by 2029 *(may this be forever extended)
- Tanker Ban will be lifted if the project is approved by MPO *(Coastal First Nations setting rhetorical fire to MPO in 3-2-1)
- July 1, 2026 deadline for submission to MPO *(OIL CANADA DAY)
- 75% methane emissions cut on 2014 levels from methane by 2035 *(*shaking head* We are VERY GOOD at hitting 10 year targets *shaking head*)
- "both sides commited to net-zero by 2050” (implied via CCS) *(carbon capture and storage? should be Carney Can't Stop -- Emissions)
- industrial carbon price of $130 -- down from $170
*(Oil Industry - Very Poor)
- Alberta exempt from fed O&G emissions cap and clean electricity regulation *(Woop Coal! Let's Mine the Rockies!)
- No private proponents have been announced. *(Hear No Evil)
- No pipeline path/route has been announced. *(See No Evil)
#TMX #EndFossilFuels #ClimateSellout #ClimateEmergency #CdnPoli #CanPoli #BCPoli #ABPoli
Since multiple Ottawa CBC reporters seem utterly incapable of understanding what First Nations groups are what in BC here are some facts about the Coastal First Nations. It has existed since 2003.
https://coastalfirstnations.ca/about/
"The Great Bear Initiative Society (a non-profit society under the BC Societies Act), also known as Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative (CFN), is an alliance of First Nations on the North Pacific Coast that includes the Gitga’at, Gitxaała, Haida, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo Xai’xais, Metlakatla, Nuxalk and Wuikinuxv First Nations. " Their territories span on the mainland coast of BC from the top of Vancouver Island to the Alaska Border including Haida Gwaii.
After #Trump finally crashes and burns (I'm still saying I don't think he makes it to the mid terms, and I think it's more than possible he won't make it to the end of the year) we'll hear a lot of people say, "the system worked!" Today people are already talking about "saving democracy" by fighting back. This will become a big rally cry to vote (for Democrats, specifically), and the complete failure of the system will be held up as the best evidence for even greater investment in it.
I just want to point out that American democracy gave nuclear weapons to a pedophile, who, before being elected was already a well known sexual predator, and who made the campaign promise to commit genocide. He then preceded to commit genocide. And like, I don't care that he's "only" kidnaped and disappeared a few thousand brown people. That's still genocide. Even if you don't kill every member of a targeted group, any attempt to do so is still "committing genocide." Trump said he would commit genocide, then he hired all the "let's go do a race war" guys he could find and *paid* them to go do a race war. And, even now as this deranged monster is crashing out, he is still authorized to use the world's largest nuclear arsenal.
He committed genocide during his first term when his administration separated migrant parents and children, then adopted those children out to other parents. That's technically genocide. The point was to destroy the very people been sending right wing terror squads after.
There was a peaceful hand over of power to a known Russian asset *twice*, and the second time he'd already committed *at least one* act of genocide *and* destroyed cultural heritage sites (oh yeah, he also destroyed indigenous grave sites, in case you forgot, during his first term).
All of this was allowed because the system is set up to protect exactly these types of people, because *exactly* these types of people are *the entire power structure*.
Going back to that system means going back to exactly the system that gave nuclear weapons to a pedophile *TWICE*.
I'm already seeing the attempts to pull people back, the congratulations as we enter the final phase, the belief that getting Trump out will let us all get back to normal. Normal. The normal that lead here in the first place. I can already see the brunch reservations being made. When Trump is over, we will be told we won. We will be told that it's time to go back to sleep.
When they tell you everything worked, everything is better, that we can stop because we won, tell them "fuck you! Never again means never again." Destroy every system that ever gave these people power, that ever protected them from consequences, that ever let them hide what they were doing.
These democrats funded a genocide abroad and laid the groundwork for genocide at home. They protected these predators, for years. The whole power structure is guilty. As these files implicate so many powerful people, they're trying to shove everything back in the box. After all the suffering, after we've finally made it clear that we are the once with the power, only now they're willing to sacrifice Trump to calm us all down.
No, that's a good start but it can't be the end.
Winning can't be enough to quench that rage. Keep it burning. When this is over, let victory fan that anger until every institution that made this possible lies in ashes. Burn it all down and salt the earth. Taking down Trump is a great start, but it's not time to give up until this isn't possible again.
#USPol
Gemini co-lead Oriol Vinyals says Gemini 3's gains come from better pre-training and post-training, contradicting the idea that pre-training gains are falling (Stephanie Palazzolo/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-unseats-anthropic-…
Someone on here recommended "Saint-Piere" - which I can't find now of course. So I went through the contortions required for watching Gem on my tv and we have now seen the first episode of series 1. 2 will have to wait until 2026.
It is actually pretty good but the ads are really annoying
In the UK, BBC is not full of commercials like CBC is in Canada
There are just too many patents granted. Example 33,444,592: This company literally sticks a microwave oven on top of a fridge and gets a #patent for that.
https://www.danby.com/microfridge-patent-a
"the assets of British banks ‘mostly consist of claims on other banks. Their liabilities are mainly obligations to other financial institutions. Lending to firms and individuals engaged in the production of goods and services – which most people would imagine was the principal business of a bank – amounts to about 3 per cent of that total.’"
It's not for nothing that the medieval church -- like modern Islam -- considered
Good Morning #Canada
Happy #BoxingDay to all Canadians, and good luck to the estimated 8.6M Canucks who will wade into this significant sales day looking for bargains. December 26th was traditionally a day when the nobility gave gifts and leftovers to their servants and staff. The practice was famously put to song when the Duke of Bohemia, patron saint of the Czech Republic, and inspiration for the Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslas," was known for feeding the poor after Christmas. His charitable nature didn't prevent his murder by his brother. Today it's known as a major shopping day, although less important than 10 years ago. Check out the attached article for a really boring look at recent retail Boxing Day trends. Summary: Boxing Day is more like a Week and shoppers are less impulsive and more focused on specific purchases that they delayed.
#CanadaIsAwesome #EverythingMustGo
https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2025/12/boxing-day-still-matters-for-canadian-retail-new-data-shows/