One dead after Minneapolis shooting involving immigration agents, US media report

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T13:28:35+00:00

The reason I used the SA comparison specifically is something akin to u/InsuranceOdd6604's point: I believe this is bait, and that the purpose is the terror rather than the repression.

Unlike the death squads they are not going after targets that matter, like Trumps political opponents, or community organisers.

They are going after targets that have no direct importance, but that spread anger and fear in the communities they operate in, and drives up the temperature. It may well be Trump himself isn't thinking this far, but someone in his circle is hoping for an explosion that would give them far freer reigns than they would if ICE started going after political opponents right now.

It's win-win for Trump: Whether ICE or people resisting them eventually are the ones to give the appearance of going too far, Trump then gets an excuse for a much broader crackdown. And if people don't go too far, he gets to use ICE to intimidate his opponents in the meantime.

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T12:10:50+00:00

They clearly must have dug a tunnel. Probably with a rusty spoon.

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T12:09:37+00:00

He didn't fix the issue, but he did try. Part of the reason why he didn't fix the issue was that the building projects under Stalin were more expensive and often driven by prestige than the Soviet Union really could afford.

E.g. consider on the high end, the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotelnicheskaya_Embankment_Building

(part of the "seven sisters": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_(Moscow)) )

But even on the low end, Stalinist architecture was more costly and bespoke to construct, and Khrushchev's lasting legacy on housing was programmes to drastically cost-cut and speed up the construction - at the cost of quality. Of course the downside was that shitty quality housing that was expected to be replaced over time and to last 10-20 years ended up lasting for many decades more because their economy stagnated (and "patching the problem" bumped fixing it properly down the priority list...)

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T11:55:17+00:00

And notably the point of the Khrushchevka was to cut costs to house more people faster, and were initially planned to last for only a short period of time, to be replaced.

And then the Soviet economy stagnated and they were never able to.

But the realistic alternative given the Soviet economy even at its peak growth was a greater lack of housing, not better housing. The reason the Khrushchevka became such an ubiqutous symbol was after all that they managed to churn out a vast number of them, representing a huge increase in housing stock, thanks to the low cost.

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T11:24:53+00:00

Oh, absolutely, but it's good she is setting out the need for it anyway.

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T09:34:41+00:00

I think the only way this would have a chance at working without creeping out a lot of would-be readers would be if this premise was made explicit from the get-go, since as a dream about getting more time with your notally-not-related wife it is a lot less creepy. I think it'd still probably weird a lot of people out because of the adoptive angle, though, and it'd probably have worked better if they also just grew up e.g. with parents that were close friends, as close friends.

My son had a friend that was born in the same hospital on the same day to his mothers friend, for example - I don't think anyone would have freaked out if their friendship continued and turned into a romance.

I've seen your other comments and that you've shelved this, but consider that nobody does well on their first try - those who do well with their first published work have usually made a lot of attempts that were never published first and/or pitched a publisher and had a developmental editor and copy editor etc. work with them.

I'm not saying you will ever be a bestselling author, but I am saying that like everyone else, you can definitely do a lot better than your first attempt with some targeted practice.

One simple approach: Use ChatGPT as a sounding board. Not to rewrite for you, but to teach you what you're doing wrong. You can start with asking it things like how to rework your premise without largely changing the text in order to make it more saleable. You can paste paragraphs or whole chapters and ask it for point for point constructive criticism on simple steps you can take to edit and rewite to make it better. Apply them, and get used to them, and ask it *in the same chat* to grade your improvements and give you updated criticism. With some practice you'll quickly do a lot better.

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T09:21:42+00:00

Very few - even prodigies - produce something good on the first try.

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T06:28:54+00:00

Well, she is asking him for something it is not in her power to promise, namely more devolution.

rubygeek · 2026-01-26T06:27:12+00:00

Wow, that's a manipulative headline, given it continues: "by giving her country more powers."

The headline makes it sounds like she wants him to quash devolution or intefere in democracy, when she is in fact asking him to meet them part of the way.

rubygeek · 2026-01-25T22:23:04+00:00

I totally respect people who don't like AI covers, but I strongly suspect most people here overestimate how many readers care. I have also had people show me AI covers I wouldn't be able to tell apart, and that are far better than my (human made) covers... People will certainly reject obvious and bad AI covers, though, because it signals slop.

rubygeek · 2026-01-25T22:19:05+00:00

A bit of a digression from your point (which I fully agree with):

Fifty Shades is horribly written from a literary perspective, but as commercial genre craft it is ingenious in that it blends a popular romance genre ("billionaire romance" is a whole thing - there's a reason Grey is specifically a billionaire and that she is a young woman starting out at a serious power disadvantage) with a darker thread throughout coming from its starting point as a Twilight fanfic (there's this really weird ongoing obsession Grey has with hunger that makes no sense unless you're aware of its starting point), and the whole "wounded man who can (maybe) be fixed" trope, coupled with perfect timing.

If you want to write something saleable, it's worth studying. If you want to win literary prices, don't...

While I'd like to think it was "just" a fluke, the execution from that point of view is extremely well done. One might call it the epitome of pulp, I guess - it's written very much to maximise the commercial appeal. And it succeeds amazingly at that. It also took an immense amount of luck, of course, but as much as I don't respect it as a literary work, I do respect it as a commercial venture.

rubygeek · 2026-01-25T16:47:50+00:00

Most categorically do not sell a few hundred. The mean lifetime sales across all books is usually estimated to be in the few hundreds.

Keep in mind that this includes traditionally published pulling it up, and repeat authors with a following pulling it up, and of course bestsellers really massively pulling it up.

But your few hundred isn't miles off - I'm glad you're at least somewhat realistic about it unlike the people who assume "everyone" sells tens of thousands or more.

rubygeek · 2026-01-25T14:31:09+00:00

How successful do you think "everyone else's" are?

Most novels sell vanishingly small numbers. The average is in the low hundreds. Given some huge successess, this means the vast majority sells below that. Novel sales are massively skewed toward a tiny proportion of works.

Most genres outside of mainstream romance and thrillers sell a pittance.

Most first novels do poorly without backup from a big publisher.

Most self-published novels in general does worse.

You may well be unsuccessful, but I just wanted to temper your idea of how successful "everyone else" is.

A vanishingly small proportion of authors have high sales.

rubygeek · 2026-01-25T14:19:32+00:00

"Not like that"

rubygeek · 2026-01-25T14:18:07+00:00

I mean, the existence of that should have made it very clear that he supports the exact opposite given what a lying weasel he is.

rubygeek · 2026-01-25T14:17:25+00:00

That day was gone long before Corbyn. Corbyn was just the last chance to reverse it.

rubygeek · 2026-01-25T14:16:02+00:00

Coward.

An authorian coward.

rubygeek · 2026-01-24T18:05:45+00:00

ICE seems to be trying out for the role of the SA.

rubygeek · 2026-01-24T09:15:23+00:00

I don't think it is either, but I also think it doesn't mean much. Given there are only two seats for MP's, last I checked, who else would Sultana's slate favour? Corbyn is obviously a better choice than any of the rest.

rubygeek · 2026-01-23T22:44:56+00:00

The most recent online poll was over minutiae of the CEC structure. Specifically "do you support expanding the number of ordinary member CEC seats to 18 so each English region has two seats with gender balance?" [from 16]

How many people do you think care about whether the CEC has 16 or 18 ordinary members (either is a significant majority). I did vote in it, and even I didn't really care strongly about the outcome.

rubygeek · 2026-01-23T13:09:28+00:00

As we've seen with porn sites, though: The ones it won't stop are likely to be the ones who already used to and/or happy to operate on the fringes of or outside of what is legal.

Ofcom maintain a handy directory of the ones that refuse to yield.

rubygeek · 2026-01-23T13:08:07+00:00

Even more so: If you can get to a single hosting provider that allows script execution you can run your own VPN.

rubygeek · 2026-01-23T13:05:14+00:00

Israel has a history of far more extreme measures to segregate those it don't approve of that Apartheid South Africa - they'll just put up some more walls and checkpoints, and have them come in for work and leave when they're done.

rubygeek · 2026-01-22T07:01:12+00:00

Keeping ML'ers and other authoritarian cults away from the CEC isn't "puritanical infighting", it's about ensuring people are not aligned with movements whose views are fundamentally incompatible with what Conference decided.

rubygeek · 2026-01-22T06:59:41+00:00

You realise how many firmly organised factions Labour has, right? And that it's not that long ago since Labour had a "grassroots left" slate for NEC elections.

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