The Flock cameras at my local Home Depot (which I like to call “Flock Depot”) were cut right off of the poles a few weeks ago.

I live in the Puget Sound area though, where people are more willing to take some sort of action

Nice, going to be great to get away from Slackware. I’m glad they’re finally implementing native docker compose as well. I do wish they’d offer rootless containers, maybe that’s coming down the pipe since Fedora supports them?

Yeah, it’s too hard for them to realize that it invalidates your mailed ballot

Copying my comment from a related thread:

Just wanted to say that in many of the mail-only states, you can still cut out the post office. For example, in WA, you can print out your ballot at home and drop it into a ballot box. There’s no requirement to use the postal service.

For WA, simply sign into votewa.gov, navigate to “Your Ballot & Voting Materials”, then “Get a replacement ballot”, and finally, select “Print a replacement ballot”. Additionally, you can request pick up a new ballot in person on the same “Get a replacement ballot” page.

While everyone should be able to vote through mail, I highly discourage returning your ballot through the postal service for obvious reasons. Most counties in WA have placed plenty of ballot boxes, usually there is one within a mile or so of you. VoteWA shows drop box locations as well.

Just wanted to say that in many of the mail-only states, you can still cut out the post office. For example, in WA, you can print out your ballot at home and drop it into a ballot box. There’s no requirement to use the postal service.

For WA, simply sign into votewa.gov, navigate to “Your Ballot & Voting Materials”, then “Get a replacement ballot”, and finally, select “Print a replacement ballot”. Additionally, you can request pick up a new ballot in person on the same “Get a replacement ballot” page.

While everyone should be able to vote through mail, I highly discourage returning your ballot through the postal service for obvious reasons. Most counties in WA have placed plenty of ballot boxes, usually there is one within a mile or so of you. VoteWA shows drop box locations as well.

I’m painfully aware of how LLMs function, I’m unfortunately in the IS industry. It doesn’t change the fact that corporations can and do assist fascist states when they see fit, either for profit or for the personal goals of those in charge. It’s a bad example to make your point to be honest, because while an LLM has no living parts and is not able to think, companies are made up of living, thinking human beings with their own ideals. A company is not a person, they’re groups of them though. And thanks to the supreme court and US government, in the US, they sometimes have more rights than an individual does.

Intent does not matter - the result is the same, that they’re assisting with fascism. They are “bending the knee”. There is nothing with that expression that necessarily requires explaining intent, it can exist on its own or with intent. Bending the knee is an action with results, it’s not necessarily an intent, although it certainly can be.

I acknowledge that they are profit driven, but these companies are also run and operated by billionaires who have their own personal interests, including authoritarianism. This shows in their leader’s personal actions and how the companies lobby. While most of it is to drive profit and “make line go up”, you also have sick fucks like Peter Thiel who use their wealth to spread their own ideals. He spreads those ideals by convincing billionaire company owners like Musk to further spread authoritarianism through lobbying and company policy.

The point is not these semantics that you keep bringing up when we are on the same page. The point is that, intentional or not (and reasoning aside), they are doing what a fascist wants, using the power that they have to spread misinformation and falsehoods. They have the power to not fall in line, and instead are being good lapdogs to Trump. That is what people need to remember, regardless of intention.

You bringing intention into this is exactly the excuse they will use if Trump & Co ever lose power: that they had no intention of helping authoritarianism, that they were just looking out for shareholders, that their guidelines were broad enough to allow outsiders to influence changes on their platform, etc. That line of thinking is exactly what should be avoided, they will say anything to make their “line go up”. The reasoning doesn’t matter when the result is helping a fascist state be fascist.

Bend the knee is an expression, and groups and organizations can definitely do so. Just because it’s a group or organization deciding to do practices which are in line with fascism doesn’t mean they aren’t bending the knee. You are semantically taking the expression of “bend the knee” as a literal and not figuratively. Bend the knee is almost never used to describe someone literally bending their knee for someone else.

At multiple points, I have emphasized that people should never forget that Google was on the wrong side of history.

And their PR/localization system is fundamentally flawed and causes them to bend the knee to fascism. I wonder why they haven’t changed that process?

This isn’t about personification of Google or Apple. It’s about their systems, leadership, and processes that enable bending the knee.

What you’re describing is generally referred to as localization. Executive orders are not country wide, and no one outside of the executive branch is required to follow them. Because of that, they are not able to make them nationally recognized, as that would require an act of congress. Even then, it will not ever be internationally recognized since that would require the relevant parties to agree on the change.

Organizations have varied approaches to localization. For example, OSM’s guidelines center around either official or common names for map features. Trump’s names are not official outside of the executive branch, and are not commonly used by anyone. This means the original names have remained the primary name tag, even inside the US.

MapQuest, while I don’t know their guidelines, is also on the side of not changing names of international festures based on an executive order.

This isn’t just a localization thing. The problem, at the root, is that either Google’s localization guidelines are loose enough to force them to bend the knee for fascists, or, more likely, Google wants to continue to glaze up Trump, and is therefore more than happy to bend the knee. Either way, the result is the same.

Yeah, people should not focus on just one method of rigging and cheating, because they’re doing much more than just one.

Marie Gluesenkamp is a moderate republican with a D label because the rest of the republicans went full MAGA

I know some people in Vancouver, WA that hate having her as their rep, but unfortunately her district is large and otherwise pretty rural, so they’ll continue to suffer having her to “represent” them

He could, yes, but the point is that he didn’t impose anything on big tech and they’re rushing to do what he says anyway.

I agree, it’s likely that’s where they pull from.

Don’t forget the fake crying when she decides that it’s time to leave

Yeah, outside of the US, you’ll see the proper international names. Many maps function this way and localize names, however, usually it’s based on what the locals call a feature, and not what a toddler with a full diaper calls it.

He doesn’t know what that is, he barely knows Google and Apple.

I’m not surprised to be honest, and this isn’t to defend Apple, they’re pieces of shit as well. Google does do it pretty much immediately though, Apple slow walks it. Same result in the end.

The president cannot force Canada to follow along, however.

The president also cannot force companies to change the name, either. Not through executive orders. Google did so voluntarily because they love fascism.

Everyone needs to remember how Google was more than willing to assist fascist pedophiles if this ever ends. They will definitely say some bullshit like they do in this article, “our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.”

While true that all maps do this, so far, only Google has changed the names to match executive orders. Generally, the names of features on maps are based on what people actually call them, not what a whining piece of shit says they’re called.

I believe you can print at home. This is how it works in WA and I’ve heard CA has a similar deal. There’s no need to use the postal service at all.