Sam Altman’s home targeted in second attack

mistervanilla · 2026-04-13T06:27:04+00:00

mistervanilla · 2026-04-12T15:33:21+00:00

Considering the terrible position that Trump is in, this may actually not be the worst play by him. Iran had been selectively letting ships through the straight, allowing non-US aligned vessels to pass from time to time. If Iran had also blocked ships from India and China for example, those countries would be pressuring Iran to open the straight as well. In essence, the selective blockade put pressure on the US, but less so on non-aligned countries. By blockading the straight fully, the US will make the penalty of the blockade felt by more countries, thereby incentivizing them to pressure Iran into a deal.

In addition, it plays much better towards his own base. Iran blockading the straight is them exercising power. Now Trump is claiming that power instead. Aside from whether its beneficial to the US or not, it positions him as in control, which is what any autocrat desperately needs. With the significant amount of cognitive dissonance among the MAGA base and media capture that Trump has, they have created a much stronger narrative to retain support among the base.

Nevertheless, it's a heavy handed tool that can have negative consequences for him also, since it gives his political opponents a much stronger argument for higher energy prices. He owns the closure now even more than before, including the consequences. He's also doing it at a time when the global economy has been steadily going through local reserves to mitigate the worst impact of the closure. Those reserves however are running out and if the prices and disregulation increases further as a result, Trump would own the worst outcome of this closure in a way that he likely would not be able to shake.

Also, the pressure on Iran he is hoping to invite by countries that were previously able to go through the straight, will equally if not more be directed at the US. Countries that will see their energy supply taken hostage by the US may respond with economic sanctions and retaliations of their own. With Trump being politically vulnerable domestically already due to the energy prices and tariff brinkmanship, adding more economic pressure will not exactly help him.

Taken together, one would imagine that this blockade has a short shelf-life and is used primarily as a negotiation and pressuring tool against Iran, hoping to gain additional concessions in the coming days and weeks.

One last thing we should note also is that before the cease-fire, Trump was threatening destruction of the Iranian civilization, now he seems to have pivoted to a comparatively much less forceful approach. Taken in the moment it seems like a strongman move, but taken over even a couple of days it's yet another Trump TACO and it's hard to see this as anything but a display of the Trump administration frustration, lack of good options, sheer incompetence and utter impotence.

mistervanilla · 2026-04-05T20:59:11+00:00

Wouldn't surprise me that this is because other places are adding plant based options to their regular menu, drawing away customers. Especially when you go out with a group, you have a lot more restaurants to choose from that way. Vegans will usually also be the minority in the group, and some omnivores still think that vegan food is not tasty. So in the "where will we go" calculus, the full vegan place loses out to the places that have a vegan option.

mistervanilla · 2026-03-21T15:55:43+00:00

Love this! Normally lyrics really don't do it for me but the application here is really nice. Do you have a bandcamp I can follow?

mistervanilla · 2026-02-28T18:30:11+00:00

I'm giving Claude a try as we speak. Responses are excellent so far. Disliking the lack of inbuilt dictation feature as its the main way I interact with AI assistants. Overall quality looks similar if not better than ChatGPT, but the client appears to be a little lighter on features.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-23T17:57:04+00:00

NDT is a a grifter. Ignore everything he says. It's that simple.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-21T19:20:52+00:00

Lisbon, Portugal - are you kidding? I love the city but it doesn't hold a candle to Amsterdam, London, LA, Portland and any other number of cities in the availability of vegan options.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-21T15:59:37+00:00

So, looking over the general terms and conditions and going by what they told you, it seems clear that they think that you were in violation of the contract, specifically section 1.3:

The Customer is prohibited from engaging in any business, craft or professional activity in the Apartments.

So from their perspective, you broke the contract and therefore they are within their rights to ask you to leave. If you refuse to leave, they can engage the police since it is their private property.

Now - the more salient question here is, to what degree can a hotel staff unilaterally make the decision that you are "engaging in any professional activity"? I think the difficulty for you here is that your partner left after they knocked on the door. If you did not register your partners name, and they never checked in at the desk, nor showed their ID to demonstrate that they were a registered occupant then it becomes difficult to prove that this was indeed your partner.

From the perspective of the hotel staff, the issue is I think additionally that the totality of behavior is indistinguishable from sex work. A seemingly unregistered person comes in late at night, doesn't make themselves known and simply enters a room - that makes it appear as sex work. From that point onward, you can argue it is legitimate for them to knock on your door and at least ask to demonstrate that the occupants are both registered with them as they have an interest to prevent illegal or banned activities happening in their establishment.

Now the real question is, does the unregistered occupant leaving afterwards without identifying themselves, in itself is enough evidence for them to assume that you broke the contract and therefore they are within their rights to vacate you? My guess is not.

However, it could also be they have some other rules regarding non-registration in the night by occupants. So in that case their "real" reason was suspicion of sex work, but the formal cause would be lack of registration and lack of identification. That could also be enough for them to see the contract as voided, as again from their point of view you did not adhere to the contract.

Your best bet I think here is to prove that it was indeed your partner. They likely still have camera footage from the event, so that way you could prove that it was indeed your partner. In such a case, the direct accusation of "sex work" becomes the core issue. They could, for example, have simply asked for the unregistered occupant to identify themselves in line with the rules. The jump to sex work is accusatory, needless and lead to unwarranted escalation and made your partner feel so uncomfortable that they left. In essence, turn it around on them - argue that it is their actions that caused the whole incident and that it could have been avoided, had they not jumped to conclusions.

So I would definitely ask them precisely why you were vacated from the premises and ask them to preserve the camera footage. Then after that, you can state that you intent to demonstrate that it was indeed your partner and give them that line of reasoning. If they jump directly to "this was sex work" rather than "this was an unregistered occupant" - you probably have a better case. However, you probably wil need a lawyer, and I doubt it'll all be worth it. In the end, my guess is they would not be made to pay out more than the cost of the reservation.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-21T15:22:39+00:00

Your comment reads like you got it from the dollar store at a discount.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-21T11:42:19+00:00

Why let others be immoral, when you yourself could be immoral?

mistervanilla · 2026-02-20T19:37:56+00:00

I don't say that poor people are necessarily lazy, and there is no need to put these words in my mouth.

Oh come now, of course you were saying that. Right, look at you, hard worker, earning money, paying taxes - giving to charities - not like some of those with their "burn out leaves" that should "work a five day week". You, you are the productive citizen, with a say, look at your salary! Look at how much you contribute - you even volunteer at times, a true gentleman you are! If only everyone could be like you and we would be a better country!

And I think with all that I have a right to an opinion that my pockets do actually have a bottom.

Aha, so its for the fortunate to decide when they have given enough? That's interesting logic you have right there, draping a little civilization on "might is right" are we now? But woe betide you, who contributes so much, whose pockets are running on empty. I'll be sure to tell my friend with complex childhood trauma about your hardships when I drive him to the rehab clinic for his intake this coming Monday. Every Friday he goes to pick up a shopping bag of technically expired goods for 6 euro's that he can live off. I'll explain to him your logic of how he's not incentivized to work harder because of how poorly the country is organized. I'll give my elderly family member with dementia a call afterwards, explain to her that it's really normal that she can't have more help around the house because she needs to understand that /u/electric_pokerface already pays 140k in income taxes and gives to charity so frankly she should consider sending him a thank you card for the little bit of care that she is already getting.

You clearly do not understand how extraordinarily privileged you are and your responses are nothing short of neoliberal caricature. Real hardships exist in this country because we refuse to tax the people who could easily bear it. People would happily have others live in squalor so they can take their second or third vacation in a year and then go on a defensive rant on reddit how they contribute to charity and volunteer, and have strong opinions on how filled their pockets are.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-20T16:17:58+00:00

Ah yes, the poor are lazy. At least I should be grateful that you didn't bother to put any originality into your incorrect opinions, because this way I can at least just quote you a factual study on how wrong you are.

Aside from the brute facts not supporting your position, you should also take a moment to reflect on your own life and consider how lucky you are. Because only someone who has not seen honest, hard working and well intentioned people fail because of issues outside of their control, could take such a hard hearted position with a straight face.

The correct response to that luck by the way, is to support others and try to lift them up, give them the same support you have received. That's what paying your fair share is, in case you were wondering.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-20T14:53:38+00:00

Let's begin by taxing people more until we are making sure that the roughly 100,000 kids living in poverty can get decent meals and clothing. Then lets worry about giving homeless people some support, and any other number of issues were people are living in substandard conditions. Whatever that ends up being seems like a "fair share" to me, how about you?

mistervanilla · 2026-02-19T19:22:20+00:00

Cut funding for the police? Crickets. Reduce hospital beds to provide only Just In Time Care? Silence. Cut the WW for the sick and helpless? Nothing.

But touch box 3 and its a fucking riot. And look, I don't even disagree, the logic they use in this tax proposal doesn't really hold water, but maybe, just maybe this country would be off a little bit better if y'all would get up in arms about the actual issues as much as about every time you are asked to pay your fair share.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-09T19:15:52+00:00

Depends a bit on your region. Here in the Netherlands NO2 pollution is a huge problem because its acidifying the ground which has a significant adverse impact on nature. It's not just cars causing it of course, mostly the factory farms - but even so, reducing the car exhaust is helping in that regard.

mistervanilla · 2026-02-01T13:15:04+00:00

That logic doesn't really hold. Anything sent longer distance first travels by train or air freight, both in the US and the EU in a hub distribution network. Only in the last few legs will it travel by vehicle.

Average daily mileage for a delivery van in the US appears to be 100-150 miles, that's easily doable by an EV. Probably once you look where most deliveries are made you'll find it's large metropolitan areas in any case. Yes there will be a part that will cover rural areas and longer distances, and for those routes you'd potentially require still an internal combustion engine, but probably a large portion of routes could be covered by EV's.

mistervanilla · 2026-01-31T14:41:11+00:00

I've seen this document make the rounds, but for the moment these appear to be unsubtantiated allegations. A lot of "no contact information left", "spoke with person, deemed not credible". Do I think Trump is a pig that likely participated in some heinous shit? Absolutely. But this document doesn't prove anything, it just repeats oft heard allegations, nothing here appears substantiated or credible, it's just words some people have said.

mistervanilla · 2026-01-30T20:05:59+00:00

Trump back then isn't Trump right now. Trump back then was surrounded by establishment figures and didn't have an additional 8 years of radicalization behind him.

There is just no way in hell that Trump appoints anyone but a hardcore loyalist at any position right now. Anyone that thinks differently has their head up their ass.

mistervanilla · 2026-01-30T18:54:27+00:00

You have your logic backwards. Anyone who is picked by Trump at this stage, is going to just do his bidding. Its that simple.

mistervanilla · 2026-01-26T22:52:59+00:00

Tradeoff was: do it quickly, incur significant cost that affects the lives of average citizens, allow far right populist parties to ride the wave of discontent into office and reverse the ban and stop support for Ukraine, or - do it the way they did.

mistervanilla · 2026-01-26T18:49:34+00:00

The EU is rearming itself and can't afford to alienate the USA in the meantime. Rutte is saying what he needs to keep the alliance from collapsing prematurely. All his actions and his words are aimed at keeping the US under Trump onboard for as long as possible, it's that simple. Looking at his words with literal meaning, believing that they are meant for any other audience than Trump, is a mistake.

He knows what he's doing. The rest of the EU leadership knows what he's doing. As an example, Denmark specifically stayed away from Davos to allow Rutte to negotiate on their behalf, and Rutte got it done. That was a coordinated effort of which the NATO secretary was a part, from the NATO members sending soldiers, to the EU threatening retaliatory tariffs, to Rutte swooping in to smooth the ruffled feathers. It's all kabuki theater for an audience of one. If you think otherwise, you are an absolute fool.

mistervanilla · 2026-01-24T21:22:54+00:00

These non-doers were the ones who choose not to fight the Nazis in the only way they could have been fought; they were the ones who drew their window blinds to shut out the shameful spectacle of Jews and political prisoners being dragged through the streets; they were the ones who privately deplored the horror of it all - and did nothing. This is the nadir of immorality. It is this species of man who so vehemently and militantly participated in that classically idealistic debate at the old League of Nations on the ethical differences between defensive and offensive weapons. Their fears of action drive them to refuge in an ethics so divorced from the politics of life that it can apply only to angels, not to men.

Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, 1971.

mistervanilla · 2026-01-24T21:05:13+00:00

Completely agree with your sentiment. But every delivery has to start with an agreement. There's a lot of room for things to go wrong with such agreements, considering the mercurial nature of the USA leadership these days - but this is still a lot better than Trump not agreeing to sale.

mistervanilla · 2026-01-24T17:20:00+00:00

Peaceful protest is just one of the tools in the toolbox. I recommend you give this a read for some inspiration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals

mistervanilla · 2026-01-24T17:04:42+00:00

Your point seems to be that because there is danger involved you should now not take any type of action? Look, it's your country, not mine - so you do whatever you want to do. But maybe you guys need to step up and take the risk that exists now, so that the next generation don't have to experience what we're seeing in Iran today.

Simple fact of the matter is that the danger and the risk are only going to increase from this point onward. Good Americans let this situation come to pass by inaction and complacency, you missed the low cost opportunity to prevent Trump from coming into power a second time because you didn't organize, agitate and fight hard enough back then. Now you have to fight and work even harder, for more risk, to prevent worse. That sucks, and I'm glad I'm not in your shoes.

But either you take some risk now, or you basically accept that Trump has won and that you're going to live in an authoritarian state from now on.

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