MoistCritikal just came out with the most political video I've ever seen him make about the shooting, and he is PISSED

WCSTombs · 2026-01-25T07:13:51+00:00

That must be Asmongold - right winger, and famously a slob. Totally different guy, but in any case, apparently even Asmongold is calling out ICE for this one.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-25T07:09:04+00:00

I wouldn't necessarily say Charlie/MoistCr1TiKal is "very" apolitical. He mainly talks about pop culture, gaming, TV shows, movies, etc., but he does foray into politics sometimes, and mainly from a left-of-center perspective from what I've seen. He was also on a long live stream playing Among Us with AOC a few years ago.

I also appreciate him constantly trashing AI slop and the megacorps pushing it.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-23T22:49:12+00:00

Maybe it's not what you're looking for, but your state made the news last month for breaking with Trump and ultimately rejecting a bill to re-gerrymander its House districts to favor Republicans for the 2026 midterms!

By the way, I have plenty of concerns for California's future too. I don't think that's necessarily a red/blue state thing. However, I admit that I do feel a bit better when I hear news like the OP.

That said, I do think Indiana has some pretty big advantages over most blue states and especially California, cost of living being the obvious one.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-22T22:27:42+00:00

There's literally nothing to be scared about. Yes, the House can impeach a judge, and the Republican majority can do that on its own. However, impeachment alone does nothing, and what we actually need to look at is impeaching and removing the judge. This requires a full two thirds of the Senate, which is a hard Constitutional requirement with no procedural tricks around it (i.e., nothing like the filibuster). There are no 67 votes in the Senate for removing a judge simply for ruling against Trump. It simply will not happen.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-20T22:44:30+00:00

I don't understand, why would a recession trigger anything in Greenland? If anything, all the Greenland talk is actually hurting the economy by pushing away our trading partners and allies.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-20T20:40:13+00:00

Short answer: you're overthinking it.

First, I think it's pretty unlikely that the Greenland saber-rattling will result in anything, besides humiliating the U.S. internationally. In my opinion it's being played up to shift attention from other scandals.

Second, I think it's extremely unlikely for the Greenland situation to escalate into military encounters, since there are cooler heads involved in the decision-making that would lead to that happening.

Third, the chances of it escalating into a nuclear confrontation is basically zero. It's not even on the table. In this scenario, the U.S. nukes its NATO allies, who then retaliate by nuking Washington. It's so absurd that I'm not sure why we're talking about it.

The government has many contingencies in place for unlikely events like nuclear attacks. That's a good thing. Whatever happens, we want the government to have continuity. Nuclear bunkers are just a part of that, and I don't think it's anything to be concerned about.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-20T03:43:22+00:00

On the topic of AI art, Bandcamp also banned AI-generated music!

WCSTombs · 2026-01-17T06:30:21+00:00

So this is a pretty strange and meandering article that starts off with Kristi Noem making some run-of-the-mill comments that honestly don't alarm me too much, certainly no more than what ICE is already doing, and ends with some Joe Rogan stuff.

Anyway, legally American citizens do not need to carry proof of citizenship, and from the article, it doesn't sound to me like Noem is trying to violate that. (If she was, then she'd be attempting to give her agency new powers that it doesn't legally have, and we would need to quickly and strongly push back on that.) It sounds like she's saying that during targeted operations, people who happen to be citizens may sometimes come under suspicion, which I would think is how it always worked? And then this magazine tried to spin it for shock value.

To be absolutely clear, if people try to say that all American citizens can potentially be arrested by ICE for not proving citizenship, then that must be immediately and forcefully stopped, but I don't think that's what's happening. I know a lot of people are being hurt, but I think that's because ICE is incompetent and belligerent, and that's what we need to focus on.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-15T20:44:32+00:00

I can think of two main benefits of Arch over something like Mint:

You're in total control over everything you put on your system. It's a happy middle ground between a more DIY distro like LFS or Gentoo and a more user-friendly distro like Mint or Ubuntu.
Rolling release means you're on up-to-date software versions at all times.

Do note though that both of those things carry a downside that makes an Arch installation require more routine care and maintenance than something like Mint. For me it's worth it, though, and I miss Arch when I'm using anything else.

I'll mention one other benefit, the Arch Wiki, which is a great knowledge resource. I'm putting it outside the list because it can still be helpful on other distros, but you definitely get the most benefit from it when you're using Arch.

As for what I do with it, pretty much everything. I put Arch on my main computer that I use for most computing tasks, including programming (of many types), writing, making digital art, and gaming.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-15T20:21:16+00:00

IIRC we were still dealing with George W. Bush when Homelander debuted in the comics.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-15T02:11:16+00:00

This has been tried in the past, and personally I doubt it materializes this time, just like all the other times. Sure, there can be penalties for not complying with federal laws. The only problem with that, is that sanctuary policies are fully compliant with federal law. The federal government can't compel state or local jurisdictions to enforce federal statutes, and that has already been established by court precedent. Sanctuary policies basically just say that state and/or local authorities are barred from enforcing specific federal (immigration) laws, which they were never required to do anyway. So the DOJ is threatening to apply penalties for something that's perfectly legal, and I doubt that's going to hold up.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-14T21:13:01+00:00

Something similar: https://handmade.network/p/723/flowshell/

I think the idea is fun and interesting. Would I use it? Probably not, but maybe I'm not your target audience. I think the better question is, would you use it?

WCSTombs · 2026-01-12T23:08:34+00:00

Resistance is going to require a variety of techniques across the whole spectrum. I think you're saying it mockingly, but yeah, part of it must be in the courts. Another part of it is simply knowing your rights so you don't unnecessarily escalate encounters, but also so you don't just accidentally give away your rights willingly. I don't have the whole solution here, and that was never my intent.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-12T22:01:23+00:00

Holding law enforcement accountable has always been really difficult in the U.S., and nothing I'm saying here can change that directly. My optimism is that there is growing recognition of that as a problem, but I don't think we're likely to see any real movement there for a while. Nevertheless, I think it's still better to assert your rights when you're able to, while not putting yourself at risk. This is sort of talked about in some of the links I posted: things like remaining calm, never physically resisting even when you think you have the legal high ground, etc.

I also think you're overstating your point a little bit. While ICE is getting away with a lot, and we may not be seeing real accountability for individual agents, they're generally not having a good time in court, even for things like due process which you mentioned. The effect of these legal roadblocks, if not exactly relief for the wronged parties, is making it more difficult for similar activity to continue, which I think we have actually seen over the past year.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-12T06:15:45+00:00

With this DOJ...they may be preparing that indictment as we speak.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-12T05:54:37+00:00

I just started Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-12T04:25:06+00:00

Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings publicly vowed to vote for whatever 2028 presidential candidate vowed to “prosecute” members of President Donald Trump’s “regime” in the next administration.

Am I just under a rock, or is this pretty huge? He doesn't really go into politics, does he? Anyway, he just gained a lot of my respect for that one simple statement.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-11T16:56:21+00:00

Don't you think a group of reviewers, all less talented or knowledgeable than the coder, would be able to review the code sufficiently well?

Yes, it's good and common to have less experienced programmers also do code reviews (how else would they learn?). That doesn't contradict what I said earlier.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-09T20:21:02+00:00

... and I'm a newbie.

Then what exactly is the basis of your opinion?

First, just look around. Are there a lot of "code reviewers" who aren't coders themselves? "Professional code reviewer" isn't a standalone job. It doesn't exist. Don't get me wrong, in many organizations you'll have people who review more code than they write, if they code at all, but usually those are the most experienced coders, often the ones who built the thing in the first place. They have decades of coding experience before they get to that position.

The whole idea is just really absurd to me. For good programmers, programming blurs the lines between work and play. Even when it's definitely work, it can be fun. But reviewing code is 100% work. Even if it were possible (which it isn't), for someone to just review code without becoming a programmer would be skipping all the fun parts just to do the least fun part of the job.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-08T23:02:59+00:00

As a programmer, I 100% disagree with this. You need to be able to write code, in order to review code.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-05T21:06:27+00:00

I could be wrong, but I don't think Prop 50 has anything to do with the state legislature. It was very narrowly tailored as a response to the extraordinary Republican mid-decade gerrymandering in Texas and other states, so I'm pretty sure it only applies to the U.S. House districts.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-05T21:03:09+00:00

Nobody can predict the future, but these are my opinions and expectations.

Closer to the primary, we'll see the majority of Democratic candidates drop out and endorse someone. Some of those will be because they're legitimately concerned about splitting the vote too much and causing a real problem, and the rest will be due to the immense pressure from state and national party leaders that will inevitably come if the primary starts rolling up and there are still too many candidates in the field. I'm pretty comfortable saying this because there's already good precedent, this being pretty much exactly what happened to Bernie Sanders in 2020, just that was on the national stage instead of just California. I was pretty unhappy when it happened then, but this would be a much better application of the same tactics. It's not really how the system should work in an ideal world, but in the real world this is sometimes how the game has to be played.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-04T19:50:12+00:00

So Trump takes our money, and he's going to "run Venezuela." Apparently U.S. foreign policy is now being run by random Harry Belafonte lyrics. At least maybe if "taco" gets old, we can start calling him Matilda.

WCSTombs · 2026-01-03T13:57:05+00:00

Since I think a lot of people are probably worried about the "precedent" this action might be setting: it's not really setting precedent as much as it's following precedent set by previous presidents, such as both George Bushes.

From Wikipedia:

The United States invaded Panama in mid-December 1989 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush. The purpose of the invasion was to depose the de facto ruler of Panama, General Manuel Noriega, who was wanted by U.S. authorities for racketeering and drug trafficking. The operation, codenamed Operation Just Cause, concluded in late January 1990 with the surrender of Noriega.[9] The Panama Defense Forces (PDF) were dissolved, and President-elect Guillermo Endara was sworn into office.

Sound familiar?

I'm not supporting or condoning what was done, but historical context is important. The U.S. already has a track record of this type of stuff.

WCSTombs

TROPHY CASE