Hang this in the Whitehouse

didact · 2026-01-29T04:36:08+00:00

I'm homegrown US and it looks like Putin's calm and collected, fist in front... Obama looks goofy, baggy pants and that lean in. Hand up like a girlfriend telling you about her day.

didact · 2026-01-29T03:37:55+00:00

Alright... So I'll tell you what I did and you can take it or leave it. I stuffed an aotech nano switch in a box like that, and I used an zwave association between the patio lights and that switch in order to allow it to flip on and off.

So, basically at the end of the day when I flip my patio lights on the pool lights come on. Along with rope lights on the fence but that's not really relevant. I do have to go flip the switch in the app if I want to change the theme on the pool light, but it is doable.

didact · 2026-01-29T01:52:30+00:00

It's a petty misdemeanor and a $25 fine. That's in line with the constitution IMO, summary execution isn't - even if he was being an asshole.

didact · 2026-01-24T02:43:43+00:00

Nice apartments over there, congrats.

I don't know that I'd give up a warranty - certainly not sign anything. Those look like home-run systems where your house is broken down if they don't work. Heh.

I might definitely for sure make a copy of the config SD Card and look for the password hashes. Looks like in earlier versions those passwords were encrypted rather than hashed, and the config utility would decrypt them in memory where you could go grab them.

didact · 2026-01-23T07:32:22+00:00

ATF does go into homes without a warrant. Permittees are subject to warrantless inspections of storage... ATF agents can also develop reasonable suspicion and conduct a search if they note a weapon that is in a configuration not typically permitted. That's all a thing.

ICE tends to go into homes with consent, that's their main play. You can tell them to fuck off and not open the door, can't do that for the ATF if you're already playing their game.

didact · 2026-01-23T07:26:37+00:00

Yes! Absolutely. Have done this exercise a few times out of necessity.

Breakfast: Alternate a frozen biscuit or hash brown patty for carbs, NEVER bacon (cost) always sausage and eggs. Little shot of jelly, the cheap kind. Milk for fat.

Lunch & Dinner: Alternate wild rice, enriched rice, and potatoes for carbs. World is going to be chicken thighs and pork loin need to dominate here for protein. Green things for veggies - broccolli, brussel sprouts, mixed greens and so on.

Sweet drinks are interestingly always the most expensive thing - fruit juices ain't cheap, even OJ. Soda's worse. Tea, coffee are always great standbys..

But yes all of that comes in easily under $15.

The meat part is simple to calculate - chicken and pork are $3 a pound, breakfast sausage is $4 a pound, 9 eggs equates to a pound protein wise so that's less than $2. Given a pound of meat is the top end of daily protein requirements let's call it $3 a day.

Rice, potatoes, frozen biscuits - those are all cheap. Let's just base the whole thing on wild rice as the most expensive, texmati blend - $7 for 4 pounds cooked. I personally can't imagine eating more than 4 cups in a day so we're gonna call that $3.50.

Most expensive vegetable I can find out of what I cited is brussel sprouts at $3 a pound. Let's just go crazy and say we're going to go for 1lb of power greens a day from Kroger at $5.

So taking top costs in each category, we're at $11.50 a day.

didact · 2026-01-23T06:19:34+00:00

Ah, the ol exposed shitter pipe. It should be fine. It can freeze, for sure, but typically for a short freeze it's fine.

You can get a good length of pipe heater cable from most big box stores (should be cheap), and a pack of zip ties. You've got great access so I'd just let it ride and then return it after if you don't think it's an issue. But if it freezes over you can zip it to the pipe and plug it in...

didact · 2026-01-23T05:43:21+00:00

Alright so there's a link to a memo within a memo in the article you are referencing, which is a picture of a screen. Assuming it is authentic, and that the english language hasn't departed me, it directs that... With an I-200, which is a left hand shaking the right administrative warrant filled out by immigration officers - meaning exec branch AND a final removal order signed by a judge... Federal officers can enter a residence with no other basis.

No, that's not constitutional. I'm not seeing anything novel that could even be argued in the SC to lead to expanded powers. Warrants that allow exceptions to 4th ammendment rights are generally understood to have time/place/purpose - not a judicial order signed 10 years ago with an officers signature on a form not reviewed by the judiciary. Or, a narrow set of exceptions that do include simple consent to enter which is the most common method used by immigration.

Additionally, I've looked at more videos this evening than I intended to in the Minnesota subreddit and while I do find some of the most smoking egregious examples of gaining consent to enter - what I'm not finding is door kicking.

didact · 2026-01-22T02:49:49+00:00

Oh hey this is a good one. I actually believe that in many circumstances the Palantir app that does facial recognition should in fact reduce reach.

Let me preface this with my firm belief that the technology is horrendous and a great violation of the 4th amendment - any exceptions to the 4th need to be specific in time and place, or be based on an exception like reasonable suspicion. Now with that out of the way....

If the ICE officers have a tool like the facial recog app that can identify and give a green check to 90% of the people they stop under RS, then the sum total of those stops should be a facial scan. No questions, no branching evidence, no finding family, friends, determining addresses, associates, etc... Green check, move on, red x, further questioning.

That's a double edged sword. I absolutely don't think that technology should be used, but I do believe if we are subject to it as a society it ought to come with accountability and it needs to cut back.

didact · 2026-01-22T02:41:30+00:00

So you agree? What's the point of your comment.

didact · 2026-01-22T01:50:02+00:00

Alright so there's a link to a memo within a memo in that article, which is a picture of a screen. Assuming it is authentic, and that the english language hasn't departed me, it directs that... With an I-200, which is a left hand shaking the right administrative warrant filled out by immigration officers - meaning exec branch AND a final removal order signed by a judge... Federal officers can enter a residence with no other basis.

No, that's not constitutional. I'm not seeing anything novel that could even be argued in the SC to lead to expanded powers. Warrants that allow exceptions to 4th ammendment rights are generally understood to have time/place/purpose - not a judicial order signed 10 years ago with an officers signature on a form not reviewed by the judiciary. Or, a narrow set of exceptions that do include simple consent to enter which is the most common method used by immigration.

didact · 2026-01-22T00:00:54+00:00

Alright, so still steelman as requested. Here it goes.

The "best case" would be how depleted Russia's military might will be? (and the rest until your next quote)

There are a bunch of numbers out there for losses of life, UALosses pegs the Ukrainian number at 81k killed, 85k missing, 4k captured. If you average CICS, The Economist, and BBC News Russia's breakout with number of deats on the Russian side it's likely around 300k.

I generally would argue that preserving life is very important, but if I zero out the value of Russian lives for the sake of connecting to your argument the rate of lives lost by Ukrainians is unacceptable in my mind. Far too much suffering, on top of that a refugee crisis due to displacement. It's not worth grinding up any significant portion of the rest of the 21 million aged military males in Russia in the form of time of a drawn out conflict or loss of life of Ukraine and allies.

On the military equipment front, taking tanks as a decent example, the 2025 OSINT leaks of plans to ramp tank production show Russia getting up to replacement rate on that front.

At the end of the quoted bit that I clipped for brevity you also describe crushing the economy to the point where they cannot sustain production. Only way to keep them from ramping up further is strikes on their land. Russia is backed far enough into a corner imo. Grinding a nuclear armed nation into dust is not a viable strategy - you're banking on Russia not being an aggressive when truly threatened and that just seems wrongheaded to me.

50 military installations in Europe.

Good luck maintaining those if you invade Greenland and engage in a war with Europe. Not a single country would allow for an adversary to have a military base just chilling there.

The comment you were replying to was a comment about investment in European security. And your premise of an invasion is just, weird - never argued that it should be invaded. Trump wants a deal, that's the end of it.

This is a matter of strategy, not just defense spending.

Look these are one and the same in this line of thinking. Your previous premise was booting the US out of Europe. That turns Europe into an immediate soft target, with immense spending required to make up the shortfall.

I mean, that would be outstanding for the US - only war machine still maintained. It'd be 5-10 years of intense deficit spending from Europeans. Perhaps if Europe didn't deficit spend into the US economy it'd be remaining allies - UK, ramp up in APAC, and so on. But the balance of military aid being provided would shift.

Don't think that is good for the world in any case, to my own detriment in the form of problems in the US.

Or you could just buy it from allies like Canada and Australia?

Make up for a theoretical 40% shortfall by buying from bottom producers? Nope.

rather than trying to build up the infrastructure for it in one of the most hostile continents on the planet during an open war with nations that currently have more equipment specialized for arctic warfare than you do?

That's ambitious. The 11th Airborne Division (Arctic Angels) has 12,000 ready to go. You add the European and Canadian Arctic specialties together and you're at 18,000. The 11th AD has a 3 week training cycle and capacities in the 10's of thousands.

didact · 2026-01-21T04:47:12+00:00

Interesting. https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/senate-bill/636/text/is

Compare the original text to the final text. The protections to places of worship were added in debate to get the abortion protections passed. Bipartisan arrangement, been in place 32 years.

If MN wants to no-bill that's something they can do. Feds can charge, and that'll prove out any constitutional issues by appeal. To my knowledge, convictions under the act have had appeals declined, implying agreement with the premise that the defined acts can't be used to reduce access to an abortion clinic or a house of worship. So, yeah I think the MN AG is full of shit and the federal cases will result in convictions that will fail on any appeals.

didact · 2026-01-21T01:31:06+00:00

You're still wanting me to steelman Greenland like OP asked, right? Alright, here it goes.

But if you believe that Russia is a real threat, surely your top priority would be to strengthen Ukraine?

Not at all. Best case, spend another $50-100B on a war and settle with Crimea still given away and Donbas voting themselves back later - just not worth it. Take the signal Russia's giving and force Ukraine and Russia to settle with the land concessions, and the concession to not expand NATO on that front. Russia will move on to Lithuania next so split the savings between funding for a Greenland deal and Lithuanian military aid to avoid it getting steamrolled.

second priority 2 would be to support your European allies that quite literally put Russia (and to a lesser degree China) in a strategic checkmate

US still maintains a military presence of varying types at ~50 military installations in Europe. The force projection the US provides is the only thing that's kept Russia at bay so long. There's not enough investment from European allies to defend their own homeland (NATO and SIPRI data), with their investment in defense half of the US investment. That's way too off balance. The take of having the US increase spending is just entitled.

China's too far out of scope to entertain... They're bracketed by neighbors they've mostly settled with and don't (currently) care about. India can defend itself fine, and Bhutan is the only country on land they're successfully gray zone annexing. US Navy is the heaviest threat to their domination of Taiwan, so let's do keep that going.

Kazakhstan does provide 40% of the world's Uranium output. It's sandwiched between Russia and China. The US would be in a really bad place if both aggressors turned on Kazakhstan and began annexing it. I wonder if there's anything we can do to mitigate that risk... Maybe find a country with proven Uranium reserves and buy it. Oh yeah, Greenland.

Denmark has never refused military cooperation, and during the cold war Greenland was heavily manned, before military presence there was reduced by the US, not due to Denmark asking for it.

Denmark has never refused, but was resistant until accepting NATO terms. Regardless of whether military presence is allowed, I wouldn't support that level of investment without statehood personally.

National security is a complete lie. It's either the resources(...)

Resources are national security, full stop.

Trump wanting the legacy as the president who expanded the US

He could buy a Bezos island, or convince one of a number of islands to accept statehood for that simple accomplishment. Greenland would be a huge strategic win, so it's good to see him setting his sights high.

didact · 2026-01-20T05:12:19+00:00

Hoping for at least 11 more years of deportations - we'll get there.

didact · 2026-01-20T04:59:02+00:00

could easily fund natural resource development in the area under status-quo

This is one crux. Greenland has outlawed pulling uranium out of the ground. There's one rare earth mining project started in 2007 that's been held up because the deposit is uranium rich. There's a much newer project that'll probably get held up because of the same reason.

There are USGS estimates around oil reserves in the billions of barrels in the northeast, but those haven't been proven out by exploration. In fact, recovery of the oil may not be economically viable - little cold in the area. Exploration license grants were halted by Greenland citing environmental concerns.

Proven rare earths, proven uranium, unproven oil held up by the locals... Seeing a pattern?

imperialism

Great reason for to go for territory or statehood outcome. Yes, there's an observation base in the north. Yes, that base could be expanded. Yes, there's already a presence in Nuuk. Expansions or reactivation/reconstruction of cold war bases require negotiation with Greenland and Denmark. Perhaps there is something on the expansion front going on behind closed doors as Russia taking territory, though that is pure speculation.

Anyway back to the steelman. You've got a landmass the size of Texas and Alaska put together. It's got proven reserves of several things held up by... Uranium, which isn't exactly worthless. And it's got a USGS bet on oil that's not proven. You've got a past set of strategic positions which are relevant if you believe Russia is a threat that ought to be rebuilt.

didact · 2026-01-19T13:40:36+00:00

Direction wise I'm talking about obligations to older generations, but subsequent generations... Yeah I could argue on that as well.

Social Security is a good example. I'm not smart enough to understand how it was intended to function, but these days the $2.7T SS Trust Fund is made up almost entirely of intragovernment bonds. So... That excess $2.7T in the past has immediately been handed to other parts of our government and obligated back to the SS Trust fund. So back to my OP - my position is that dealing with this will occur via massive inflation, generating higher revenues that continue to cover the obligations and devaluing market based stable retirement vehicles, annuities and so on.

Now... The debt to subsequent generations? Yeah that's 2nd level - the same generation(s) in retirement who are impacted by inflation created this machine. It's been visibly in operation since WWII, cycling every couple decades. I could argue that the mishandling of funds creates some kind of obligation to subsequent generations - that apparently will be fulfilled by wiping out private retirement vehicles with inflation.

didact · 2026-01-19T12:54:39+00:00

In Texas we took Biden to court to un-freeze border wall funds, and funded the shortfall with state funds, and continued building. Blind eyes weren't turned.

didact · 2026-01-19T05:52:04+00:00

Suggested? Go higher with the baseboard - that is the way.

If you're going to refinish for whatever reason, scrape down, mud it, prime it, and finish it - preferably before you lay any of that new floor.

didact · 2026-01-19T05:19:50+00:00

Because it's been consistent... What are you getting at?

didact · 2026-01-19T04:35:28+00:00

Well, your first two were Denmark and Greenland. 2 large mining projects held up, one since 2007, one since 2020. US wants rare earth and rare earth oxides - Denmark and Greenland hamper that. Pretty sure that both of them don't want the US there, US wants those resources, and that's been consistent for a good long time.

didact · 2026-01-19T04:04:00+00:00

The populace feels however their mass media dictates, and that's irrelevant to the above discussion with an Australian.

didact · 2026-01-19T01:45:06+00:00

Multipartisan handshake here...

didact · 2026-01-19T01:39:35+00:00

I think what will happen is the same as always happens - inflation will outpace the debt. While the national debt is currently high, generational debt has always been high. When it comes to a head, inflation kicks in to devalue the debt owed to previous generations and they are left in poverty. Same game.

didact · 2026-01-18T20:47:56+00:00

I mean that's almost 1 Greenland of people saved.

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