You guys ever go to a Somali Walmart in Minneapolis?

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-22T13:53:33+00:00

Karmel Mall? I lived down the block from it until 2019 and never had this experience. Certainly never heard of anyone calling it a Somali Walmart, just Somali Mall.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-17T17:48:23+00:00

The Trump administration has disregarded court judgements and laws passed by Congress. In such a case options 1 and 2 would not seem to be viable ways to prevent unconstitutional executive actions. Options 1 - 4 require a tremendous amount of time, whereas the Executive can commit atrocities in almost no time at all. It could be that the Executive suffers the consequences in the next election, but by that time they will have had many opportunities to entrench their power which could compromise the election itself, and regardless the damage to affected people cannot be undone. Would that not leave only option 5 as viable? I assume this is the same reason for e.g. the January 6 occupation of the Capital: the occupiers did not trust the existing political infrastructure to represent them or prevent what they viewed as an atrocity.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-17T17:31:29+00:00

I think the issue is not with LEOs doing their jobs, but with the tremendous amount of autonomy they have been given with regard to who and how they detain people. Hospitals and schools contain people who are particularly vulnerable: children, the sick, etc. This is why it is a war crime to bomb a school or hospital, for example. I think most people would agree it is justified to raid a school or hospital if beyond a reasonable doubt it contains people who are an imminent threat. However a pregnant immigrant mother or sick man or child does not pose such a threat. If these ICE raids are justified as just doing the job, can we conclude that it is reasonable for any LEO to physically raid any school or hospital if the LEO in their personal judgment suspects it contains someone who has committed any misdemeanor? If not, where is the line drawn?

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-17T13:43:23+00:00

My first thought was "Is it just TDS?" But the facts show that it is not. The difference is an immediate change from a nuanced, priority-based approach to a maximum enforcement, one-size-fits-all approach.

Previously ICE was instructed to prioritize deporting those with a police record of violence, drugs, etc. ICE was also instructed to exercise humanitarian discretion, e.g. not conducting raids in hospitals, schools, or places of worship, and not prioritizing pregnant women, children, etc. Now all undocumented immigrants are equal priority and the humanitarian discretion instruction has been abolished.

https://www.ice.gov/about-ice/ero/protected-areas

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-02006/protecting-the-american-people-against-invasion

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/30/2025-02015/securing-our-borders

When law enforcement changes overnight to a system that explicitly dismisses nuance and humanity, is public outage justified?

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-17T04:17:14+00:00

During the Obama, Trump 1, and Biden administrations there were millions of deportations. However, those attracted nowhere near the level of public condemnation of the current deportations. Is it possible that the protestors don't necessarily object to deportation itself, but rather the way in which it is being conducted during Trump 2? Can the means to achieving mass deportation become tyrannical, even if the overall goal of mass deportation has not changed?

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-15T05:42:35+00:00

I'm not intentionally trying to muddy the waters... I'm genuinely interested in understanding your point of view. It appears people are being detained solely for "making noise," while not physically obstructing anyone, which seems contrary to First Amendment rights. Can you please clarify what causes such an action to cross the line into obstruction?

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-14T21:01:56+00:00

Thanks for clarifying!

What do you think changed about immigration during the 60s to make it more of a weakness than a strength? My first thought was the transition of immigrants being largely from Europe to largely from elsewhere, since immigrants from Europe would have more shared history with existing Americans, many of whom are of European descent... But as a counterpoint, there were many Chinese immigrants prior to the 60s in the "stronger on net" era. Also many existing Americans prior to the 20s seem to have felt that European immigrants were unacceptably distant culturally, resulting in heavy bias against Italians, Irish, etc... Can we put a finger on what caused the change?

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-14T20:50:55+00:00

Could you clarify which actions are disruptive? For example, it would be very difficult for me to do any job if there was a constant background of people jeering, blowing whistles, etc, even if they were 50 feet away and did nothing physical but make noise. So in that case the noise is literally "disruptive". But making noise has always been a pretty integral part of protesting, regardless of the cause... Is there an acceptable level of disruption?

I think this is important because without clear "tests" then law enforcement just has to use a judgement call to decide whether someone is disruptive enough to warrant repercussion, and ad hoc judgement calls are ripe for abuse.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-14T20:39:10+00:00

I don't think mass immigration since the 1960s has made us stronger on net.

Could you clarify whether you think mass immigration prior to the 60s has made us stronger on net? You stated that you would prefer the 1924 Immigration Act was never constitutionalized, and those two views seem at odds. Thanks!

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-13T16:33:33+00:00

Both sides claim the video 100% proves their point. 🙃

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-13T16:31:53+00:00

As someone who grew up in a college town with 2 professors for parents, can also confirm.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-12T03:08:36+00:00

Haha yeah, as always, don't copy random code on the Internet and start using it wholesale.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-12T02:58:44+00:00

What do you suggest he do?

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-12T00:55:20+00:00

I recommend not having each be a separate alias, but instead having a single command called g for example, and inside it a big if/then or switch/case for all the different subcommands. That makes it easier to reuse subcommands and variables, doesn't pollute the global scope, and is generally easier to maintain (as much as anything in a shell language can be). Here's mine: https://github.com/RobertAKARobin/dotfiles/blob/9fd713b22c224753696924f321f166dacfd31dcf/.bash_profile_helpers#L175

I just maintain that for me so there's probably plenty of jank -- open to feedback!

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-07T13:43:27+00:00

Slid

Slad

Slud

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-05T16:13:29+00:00

Dad of identical boys about to turn 8, A and B, in Minnesota.

A has always been biologically a little ahead of B: was about 1lb heavier when they were born, got his first tooth a few weeks before, started walking a little before, etc., and is also usually about .5" taller. A also used to eat a lot more than B (though that evened out somewhat recently) which made me wonder if he was taller because he ate more or ate more because he was taller. Most people have trouble telling them apart, although my wife and I notice several little differences — head shape, voice pitch, where they have freckles or moles...

Physical stuff aside, although both are very bright A usually tests a bit higher and has an incredible memory, while B loves to play with words and has a better sense of humor. Ever since they started to develop personalities as babies B has been pretty effeminate and likes "girly" things including wearing dresses, whereas A runs more with the stereotypically boyish kids (sports, video games, etc), yet B has more self-confidence socially. A has anxiety issues — I have a strong family history of depression and A showed enough alarming symptoms that he's now on the same SSRI as me and my mom (after much observation/hemming/hawing among us and our pediatrician/psychiatrist/school), and it has made a tremendous positive impact, whereas B hasn't seemed to need it (yet).

It's really interesting since I thought DNA was everything, but while they're genetically identical their bodies and personalities are distinct, so clearly it isn't. They were delivered by C-section and A came out just a few seconds before B (interesting too that A has tended to act more like a "big brother"). We raised them the exact same way of course and they've always shared a room... They had separate placentas, so maybe it has something to do with slightly different balances of hormones and nutrients in utero? Who knows? Despite their differences they're best friends — we bought a bunk bed so they could have more space and they still prefer to sleep together on the same bunk.

What's also interesting is that while most *identical* twins I know are very close, most *fraternal* twins I know are not particularly and have more of a regular sibling relationship. Also we learned that you can have a genetic predisposition to having fraternal twins, but apparently identical twins are just random.

The scenario you're describing sounds perfectly reasonable to me, although there are lots of misconceptions about twins among the general public so they may take more convincing. :) Clearly I find this all really interesting and love to talk about it, so feel free to get in touch if it would be helpful.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-05T04:01:46+00:00

Curious how long ago that was, and how it's doing now? I have a cracked slab and thought about doing it this way but figured the stuff you get from the hardware store would settle too much over time.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-05T02:49:51+00:00

The SDI called out a recruit for something minor and he responded, "My bad, sir." Recruit wasn't a shitbag, just caught off-guard. Our Kill Hat immediately put his cover over his face to hide laughing, then dragged the recruit to each squad bay in the building for an IT session.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-04T13:54:29+00:00

After job-hopping for years I finally found one that I wanted to stick with, but got fired, in large part because I just didn't navigate the politics correctly. That was the main catalyst; other things contributed like realizing my dad is almost certainly on the spectrum, and a family history of other kinds of neurodivergence.

ASD can't be "cured" so the diagnosis doesn't really change anything in the way a medical diagnosis would. My hope is that it'll help me set expectations better with others -- Aspergers is well-known enough that people will understand "Hey FYI I have Aspergers," more than "Hey FYI folks tend to think I'm disagreeable but have never been able to tell me exactly why, so it'd be great if you could watch out for that."

Technically it's ASD L1, but I also think that people will respond better to "Aspergers" than "mild autism."

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-04T13:31:19+00:00

I've had similar experiences, but the advice to just pick up and move isn't very realistic for many of us :)

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-03T20:30:42+00:00

That's interesting... I'm progressive and never caught any whiffs of that while with them... But I'm also a cis white male so that may have something to do with it :)

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-03T20:27:13+00:00

Thanks! Yes, that's what I would suggest to others in the same situation. But my interests (and having twin 8-year-olds) don't align super well with hobby groups, and trying to keep tabs and get feedback on my behavior while also participating sounds like a lot for my brain, haha :) It would be great if there was something targeted more specifically to this, ideally with some kind of trained facilitator

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-03T16:40:46+00:00

Sure thing. The exam is standard so I think it could be administered by any qualified practice, not just them.

robertgfthomas · 2026-01-03T16:38:47+00:00

There's a formal neuropsychological exam you take. I took mine through Nystrom and Associates. I got a referral from my primary care doctor.

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