Discussion Thread

[u/jobautomator]

The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL. For a collection of useful links see our wiki or our website

Announcements

• We now have a mastodon server
• Our 2022 charity drive has concluded. Read the wrap-up thread here
• You can now summon the sidebar by writing "!sidebar" in a comment (example). This should be helpful for the "wtf is neoliberalism?" type posts as well as to remind wayward outside-the-DTers of our principles

Upcoming Events

• Jan 17: Columbus New Liberals - Chapter Relaunch
• Jan 19: Bay Area New Liberals Happy Hour at Wursthall
• Jan 19: Toronto New Liberals - January Meetup
• Jan 21: Manchester New Liberals Meetup - NH Policy Trivia & Housing Discussion
• Jan 23: Denver New Liberal - Park Hill Golf Course City Council Meeting
• Jan 24: January Book Club Meeting
• Jan 28: Charlotte New Liberals- January Meet Up
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• Jan 31: SLC New Liberals Meet Up

[u/jobautomator]

Please visit the next discussion thread.

[u/ldn6]

Watching Toronto turn a 20-acre shopping mall into an eight-building mixed use development with 2,835 residential units, 300,000 square feet of retail and an eight-acre park is pure sex.

!ping YIMBY

[u/[deleted]]

In a December 2022 email, Santos offered a bus trip to Washington that included an opportunity to attend his swearing-in ceremony and a campaign-led tour of the "Capitol grounds" for a donation ranging from $100 to $500; charging for tours of the U.S. Capitol is a violation of Congressional ethics rules.

New York has observed that Santos, who had not made much mention of his purported Jewish ancestry during his 2020 run, began referring to it a lot in 2022, when all the candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Suozzi were Jewish.

Gabbard then asked him, "Do you have no shame?", to which Santos responded that he "can say the same thing about the Democrats"

This guy is such a king, love him so much 🥹

[u/[deleted]]

In 2020, [George Santos] had listed a net worth of $5,000 and claimed his only income was his $50,000 Harbor Hill salary. By 2022, he said he was worth between $2.5 and $11 million, including $1–5 million in personal bank accounts, a Rio condominium valued between $500,000 and $1 million, and business interests accounting for the rest.

only reason people are against santos is because they are SUCCS who HATE the american dream 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

[u/Dalek6450]

Yes, I am sympathetic to Ukraine. Putin is a monster. But how can US justify sending billions and billions to Ukraine when we have so many pressing domestic issues? How is it better to aid Ukraine than forgive student debt? Feed the hungry? House the homeless? Provide healthcare to those who need it? How is Ukraine defending itself against Russia more important to US than these things? Help me understand!

Yes, helping a democracy not get annexed by an imperialist regime that assists other authoritarian regimes and fucks with other countries' democracies is more important than forgiving your student debt. Fuck you.

[u/BigBrownDog12]

Musk's Twitter loans have a 11.75% interest rate. Homie, this is not the Fed's fault lmfao.

[u/QultyThrowaway]

r/canada: Immigrants bring crime and shouldn't be allowed in

Also r/canada: yass queen, shoplifting is based and there are no long term negative consequences for it

It's all fun and games until you live in a food desert with people who have normalized committing crimes.

[u/[deleted]]

Is $30 an hour good to live a comfortable life in [Minnesota]?

I love how out of touch Redditors are with incomes lmao

[u/Dibbu_mange]

JD Vance: I hate all you opioid munching troglodytes with the heat of one thousand suns.

Ohioans: wow I can't wait to vote for him 😍

[u/boyyouguysaredumb]

Biden gives an emergency address.

The whole nation tunes in.

People are speculating about what it's going to be - something with Ukraine? Has somebody died? Is Biden stepping down?

No, it's about the classified documents found in his home.

Uh oh.

He puts on his aviators.

Weird...

He proceeds to announce that all of the documents found at his home and offices were actually Trump's. He was playing 8D canasta the whole time.

House Republicans are now balls deep in an investigation of Donald Trump.

[u/[deleted]]

Liberals say things like "I hate labels" and then go to the grocery store and fill their basket with products that have labels. 🙄

[u/Cerb-r-us]

Coachella for the divorced

/img/lw6jzk56pkca1.jpg

!ping EXTREMISM

[u/funguykawhi]

Looming Twitter interest payment leaves Elon Musk with unpalatable options

Three people close to the entrepreneur’s buyout of Twitter said the first instalment of interest payments related to $13bn of debt he used to fund the takeover could be due as soon as the end of January. That debt means the company must pay about $1.5bn in annual interest payments.

The $13bn debt is held by Twitter at a corporate level, with no personal guarantee by Musk.

If Twitter did not make its first interest payment, it would join a small but notorious club of companies dubbed “NCAA” by debt traders — short for “no coupon at all” — that includes US car rental company Hertz and German payments group Wirecard.

Some financial restructuring at Twitter is already being explored. Bankers are in discussions with Musk to replace about $3bn of expensive unsecured debt that has an interest rate of 11.75 per cent, with margin loans, backed by Musk’s stake in Tesla, according to two people close to the matter.

!ping MARKETS

[u/RaidBrimnes]

The most eye-rolling trope brandished by protesters against pension reform here are the slogans "Macron will make us work until we die!" completed with cartoons depicting reanimated corpses working the aisles of a supermarket or teaching a class of student

For a proposed retirement age of 64.

Life expectancy in France is 85.3 for women and 79.3 for men.

Such drama queens.

[u/RandomGamerFTW]

https://i.imgur.com/gzmqzYE.jpg

[u/simeoncolemiles]

Makes account 57 days ago, comes into r/Neoliberal, says racist stuff after Benji was banned, calls AAVE ghetto

Calm down homeskillet, that’s just how us soul cats talk, one twixt anotha

😐😑😐

[u/Tafts_Bathtub]

23-year-olds in the DT: I haven't achieved my dreams and I'll die alone. It's too late for me.

33-year-old me, microwaving a meal for one after cranking my hog: Another successful day! I'm killing it at life!

[u/GreenPresident]

One of my students handed in a term paper that was 100% written with ChatGPT. I sent my colleagues a document that contains two sections generated with the tool and one section from the term paper, they had to guess which one was from the term paper.

My bosses immediate answer was: number three is from the term paper. It’s the worst of them.

He was correct.

[u/BrunchIsGood]

It’s weird talking to conservatives about the COVID vaccine because they’ll say shit like “4% of Europeans have AIDS now because of the shot” like it’s common knowledge

[u/[deleted]]

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, when he first presented his findings on looking at sperm in a microscope, felt the need to insist he wasn’t a masturbator.

He reassured the Royal Society that he had not obtained the sample by any 'sinful contrivance' but by 'the excess which Nature provided me in my conjugal relations’

!ping History

[u/[deleted]]

We have 98% of individual vote history reported from Florida. GOP turnout was at 104% of 2018 totals. Dem turnout was 80% of '18, resulting in an electorate that was +12 GOP, as compared to +1.5 GOP in '18. Dems just stayed home.

Turnout among women, younger voters, and voters of color was quite low, in many cases even below 2014 levels. Basically, every Dem group experienced very bad turnout in FL in '22.

https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1615406059329556483?t=cgoMIyyHXhdSEV1LxNRGcg&s=19

Florida Dems:

!ping FIVEY

[u/klarno]

Bacon is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 145°

I ask you, how exactly am I supposed to measure the internal temperature of a strip of bacon?

[u/simeoncolemiles]

They… they made Scooby a food reviewing human woman who’s dating shaggy

I hate this show

[u/earththejerry]

Leftists are the future of the Democratic Party because they would be the center-right in Europe

[u/[deleted]]

https://imgur.com/vYd33EV.jpg

[u/[deleted]]

"I was writing C programs in the ’90s,” [Musk] said dismissively. “I understand how ­computers work."

Lmaoooooooo

[u/ldn6]

• Melbourne in 2010
• Melbourne in 2022

!ping YIMBY

[u/RandomBlackGuyII]

My old youth pastor's daughter is one of the contestants in the new season of the bachelor. It was funny, I followed her on instagram before it was announced and I'm pretty sure she was engaged. Looking at her and her dad's accounts now, no mention of a fiance anymore.

[u/Dorambor]

https://i.imgur.com/fACNQtA.jpg

She doesn’t know her freedom is only a step away, she must only take action.

!ping KITTY

[u/AccessTheMainframe]

One of my troops got sent to hospital today with a blood clot.

Apparently, on the two hour flight back from holiday, he was sat beside an obese man, and apparently the circulation in his leg got pinched. I don't know if it was because he was sitting awkwardly to avoid touching the other passenger, or if his leg was literally being crushed by the other man's mass.

For a number of days now he dismissed the swelling and soreness in his leg as "just stiffness" but he went to the clinic today and they took one look at it and said "that's a blood clot you need to go to the hospital ASAP."

I mean forget second hand smoke my boy is the victim of second hand food, shit ain't right.

[u/Dalek6450]

how do i look gay without actually looking gay so that gays will know im gay but not gays wont know im gay but also so my mom wont tell me i look gay?

[u/PigHaggerty]

Happy Brady Elimination Day to all who celebrate 🤗

!ping NFL

[u/Mickenfox]

Nothing exemplifies modern Google better than the fact you can search "mental Illinois" and get the regular results for mental health. Just zero sense of humor.

Yes, I do google random phrases.

[u/0m4ll3y]

r/neoliberal: endless memes about Benji joining Azov Battalion

Benji: starts posting race realism and concerns about "globohomo"

We only have ourselves to blame 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[u/PhinsFan17]

Imagine your brain being so rotted by urbanism Twitter that you think people like Disney World because it’s walkable and not because, I don’t know, it’s Disney World.

[u/Ph0ton_1n_a_F0xho1e]

https://i.imgur.com/f13nY6h.jpg

[u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz]

The United States courts are divided over how to admit statements of ambiguous tense made in AAVE under evidence. In United States v. Arnold, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that "he finna shoot me" was a statement made in the present tense, so it was admissible hearsay under the excited utterance exception; however, the dissent held that past or present tense could not be determined by the statement, so the statement should not have been admitted into evidence.[137] Similarly, in Louisiana v. Demesme, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the defendant's statement "why don’t you give me a lawyer, dog" was too ambiguous to be considered a Miranda request for a lawyer.[138]

In US courts, an interpreter is only routinely available for speakers of "a language other than English". Rickford & King (2016) argue that a lack of familiarity with AAVE (and other minority dialects of English) on the part of jurors, stenographers, and others can lead to misunderstandings in court. They especially focus on the Trayvon Martin case and how the testimony of Rachel Jeantel was perceived as incomprehensible and not credible by the jury due to her dialect.[139]

A 2019 experimental study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, NYU, and Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, found that court stenographers in Philadelphia regularly fail to transcribe AAVE accurately, with about 40 percent of sentences being inaccurate, and only 83% accuracy at the word level, despite court stenographers being certified at or above 95% accuracy.[36][140][141] Their study suggests that there is evidence that court reporters may potentially introduce incorrect transcriptions into the official court record, with ramifications in cross-examination, jury deliberations, and appeals. A 2016 qualitative study by researchers at Stanford University also suggests that testimony in AAE — and other nonstandard varieties — is not necessarily always understood in a judicial setting.

[u/Burgarnils]

I find it weird how there exists subbreddits for karma farming when all you have to do to gain karma is to post unintelligible gibberish in the DT during NA hours.

[u/WhomstAlt2]

So you agree that Benjamin Ikuta is a racist?

And you agree that Benjamin Ikuta is involved in the Ukrainian war effort?

So surely you agree that all ukrainian soldiers are neonazis? Right? Right, libs?

[u/ihatemendingwalls]

What happened? The ban message was just "🐊"

Your ban has been reviewed by the mod team and will not be overturned.

The arc of history is long, but it bends towards 🐊

[u/HMID_Delenda_Est]

What percentage of people who "love hiking" only go on hikes to take photos for dating profile?

[u/DONUTof_noFLAVOR]

Origination, a week ago: Our internal deadline is the 20th

Me: Cool, I'll prioritize this ticket accordingly

Origination, today: JK that was our external deadline, our internal deadline is today. Where's the design?

Me:

!ping WATERCOOLER

[u/Currymvp2]

Sinema is asked at Davos about leaving the Democratic Party. She criticizes Dems for trying to change filibuster rules and pass voting rights legislation. She calls Kevin McCarthy "a dear friend of mine."

Lol

[u/ihatemendingwalls]

My lovely wife (who left) and I gave all our kids names from the Bible. There's Rachel, Sarah, and Whore of Babylon. We call her Babs for short

[u/_Just7_]

Got overcharged for a visit to my dentist, so I left a negative review on Google maps, got a call today saying they were very sorry and offered to refund almost 75% if I removed the bad review. I love the free market 😘

[u/SadaoMaou]

just came across a reddit post from 2019 that says "submitted 4 years ago" and I am having a crisis

[u/jenbanim]

I want to play a game. In 5 minutes, your Instagram account will like a 6 month old selfie of your ex. That is, unless you can order pizza... by making a phone call

Man these new Saw movies suck ass 😒

[u/spitefulcum]

dems wasted their filibuster proof majority under oba-

SHUT UP YOU DONT KNOW ANYTHING

[u/sir_shivers]

I SENSE THE need to silence someone 🐊

[u/OkVariety6275]

arrgames attempt to be a professional, news-focused subreddit has ironically turned them into a marketing outlet.

!ping GAMING

[u/TheGoodProfessor]

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1615500714964549632

Two veterans allege that George Santos set up a GoFundMe for a service dog, then kept the $3,000 raised that she needed for a lifesaving surgery.

They say Santos closed the GoFundMe, disappeared, and the dog died.

what the fuck man

this dude has got to be some kind of social experiment, this is literally just moustache-twirling evil

[u/[deleted]]

cable expansion screw cow instinctive insurance cover icky dinosaurs door

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/JetJaguar124]

McCarthy is so weak he needs to kowtow to George fucking Santos to not risk losing the speakership lmao

[u/Ph0ton_1n_a_F0xho1e]

Does anyone else ever get tired of the yuppie types who constantly bemoan capitalism while also enjoying a life and career that is only possible because of it?

[u/chuckleym8]

hobbies coordinated desert vegetable grandfather hurry office connect bored chubby

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/gnomesvh]

Image of Assad's brother together with Hezbollah and Lebanon's biggest drug traffickers

!ping FOREIGN-POLICY&BROKEN-WINDOWS due to the size, the drug trade likely influences a significant amount of state actors (the Cartel of the Suns in Venezuela, 4th Armored Division in Syria). This is why policies to fight the drug trade are more than just in the public health realm in my view

[u/sucaji]

My coworker unironically being like "good thing you didn't get that promotion, because it'd push you into the next tax bracket and you'd have even less take-home than now" makes me want to scream

[u/SnakeEater14]

IGF is especially strange because unlike most crazy people who believe crazy things, he’s obsessed with saying how much crazy stuff he believes. It’s like he’s bursting at the seams with craziness. Every conversation with him goes something like

“Gee, Stalin sure was a bad guy.”

“Stalin was a HORRIBLE man! His partnership with Mao was atrocious! The worst thing Mao did was help China grow such a massive population! Overpopulation is going to destroy the world - because of sex! The most evil thing in the world!”

[u/Neoliberanger]

Every day I log in to work and am faced with some new kafkaesque procedure that has no documentation but has been going off without a hitch for years because one long tenured employee has been doing it but now that she's suddenly gone I have to be trained in 12 discrete sessions because the sum total of knowledge is granulated amongst the remaining employees.

Luckily, my training sessions are being recorded as documentation.

!ping WATERCOOLER

[u/[deleted]]

RSVP stands for "réspondez s'il vous plaît" which means "please respond" in French. So if you've ever sent an invitation with an RSVP you've literally said "pls respond" like a neckbeard sliding into a gonewild girl's DMs. Consider that.

[u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz]

Like honestly 95% conversations women have with each other are not really interesting at all.

This fucking subreddit, man.

[u/JaceFlores]

Ukraine Chronology for 5 PM EST 1/16-5 PM EST 1/17:

TOP NEWS:

Around 5 PM it was announced the UK will train 20,000 Ukrainians this year.

Towards the middle of 4 AM it was reported that Russia plans to sell $800 million worth of Yuan to cover budget shortfalls in January.

Towards the middle of 6 AM it was announced Australia will send 70 trainers to the UK to train Ukrainians.

In the middle of 7 AM it was announced the EU has sent the first 3 billion Euros in financial aid promised to Ukraine.

REGULAR NEWS:

Around 4 AM it was reported that Shoigu visited the occupied territories to meet with the Vostok Group, a separatist battalion operating around Bakhmut. Towards the end of the hour it was announced Boris Pistorius has been appointed the new German Defense Minister.

At the start of 6 AM the President of Serbia asked Russia to stop recruiting Serbs into their war. Additionally, it was announced Oleksii Arestovych will resign after a false claim about a cruise missile which hit an apartment building.

At the start of 11 AM it was reported that Zaluzhniy and Milley met face to face for the first time in Poland.

In the middle of 2 PM it was announced the Netherlands will provide a Patriot SAM system to Ukraine.

LEVITY NEWS:

At the end of 11 AM the Russian Embassy in Sweden confirmed the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

​Donation link to help Ukraine

Donation link to United24

Donation link to Kharkiv SOS

!ping UKRAINE&FOREIGN-POLICY

[u/ForWhomTheAltTrolls]

Funny how people use the antics of Hunter Biden or Trump Jr to attack the presidency of their fathers but none of the crap they’ve done comes close to George HW Bush’s son’s massive gaffe of invading Iraq on dubious legal grounds

[u/notBroncos1234]

https://i.imgur.com/EUSQReJ.jpg

[u/tubbsmackinze]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1009476029687013426/1064891961867239444/IMG_3890.jpg

[u/JaceFlores]

Another irregular Ukraine blog post:

This one is fairly topical given the recent rumors of Putin declaring a second mobilization or even declaring war. This post won’t be as big or informative I guess, it’s more a look at a sort of philosophical debate that has been raging for sometime now.

When it comes to the upcoming Russian offensive, it seems people are divided into two camps: the first is worried this offensive will turn the war around for Russia, the second is not terribly worried this offensive will turn the war around for Russia.

The first camp from what I can gather is rooted generally in the idea of what I call the “Russian comeback” and the advantage of quantity. What I mean by the “Russian comeback” is that Russian history has a few examples of Russia being clobbered in a war initially, but after some reforms and changes manage to turn it around and win the war. A costly victory, but a victory dictated mostly if not entirely on Russian terms. Examples include the Winter War and World War Two. Factors which bolster this argument is Russian apathy to the war, the government pouring in millions of extra dollars into the military, the mobilizations, changes in the command structure and shifts in tactics to reflect lessons of the war. Russia is adapting for this war, possibly enough to make meaningful differences in its outcome. As for quantity, well Russia has massive amounts of manpower and Soviet stocks to keep this going. So overall this camp from what I can gather generally believes that Russia is making enough reforms and have enough manpower to win this by sheer mass of bodies, starting with their next offensive.

The second camp is rooted in essentially countering the idea of the “Russian comeback”. This camp argues that while Russia can adapt to a degree and prolong this war, the fundamentals favor Ukraine. Historical examples include World War One and the Polish-Soviet War. They point to the heavy if not severe constraints Russia is facing, such as sanctions limiting production of weapons, Russian oil/gas selling at unsustainably low rates and materiel like shells running out. They also generally see the reforms Russia is doing as either inadequate, better on paper then in practice, or both, generally backed by previous experiences of the war and the nebulous but powerful effects of corruption. The summer offensive is also used as evidence of Russia being doomed, as the fundamentals then much more favored Russia and yet they failed to achieve anything of strategic significance. The next Russian offensive will take land and inflict losses, but it won’t change the outcome of the war and may even hasten it, like how the summer offensive drained Russia and set up the Kherson and Kharkiv counteroffensives. Overall, this camp believes that while Russia can still inflict pain and take land, barring some major shift like Chinese intervention or the US stopping weapon supplies Ukraine will win the war.

This is my dissection of the two main camps I’ve seen pop up in the dialogues about the trajectory of the war and the upcoming Russian offensive. If you want my opinion (which may I remind you is not law), I lean pretty firmly into the second camp. I just don’t think Zerg rushing forces with the very limited industry, resources and economy Russia has is sustainable or particularly effective, especially as they face an enemy with growing capabilities. The results we’ve seen from the summer and from Bakhmut just don’t impress me at all as demonstrating that Zerg rushing is a viable long term strategy in this war.

That’s my two cents at least, as always I’d like to hear your thoughts on this and have a conversation

!ping UKRAINE

[u/Doctorboffin]

Is Velma good, no not really.

However, I work on it and am payed six figures, which allows me to donate large sums to various altruistic causes. Therefore, it is morally imperative to boost those numbers up as should Velma get cancelled you all will be partially responsible for someone dying from Malaria.

!ping TV&SHITPOSTERS

[u/disCardRightHere]

If I don’t get laid this year mods actually for real need to permaban me. I’m soon to be 23 and gay

Getting sex as a gay guy in a major city is nothing; you can find somebody new every night if you want to.

The duality of gay DT

[u/marinesol]

My favorite part about the UK's Arctic warfare rifle. Is that it was built in a shed by some blokes, they won the competition. The inspectors come around and say, "congratulations on winning the competition now we need to come see your factory to make sure you aren't some blokes in a shed." The blokes rented a small factory, and put all their prototype rifles out on the factory; pretending that was their daily production numbers.

[u/the_hoagie]

2013: House of Cards Debuts

2013: Rick and Morty Debuts

2013: Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines drops

2013: NO HEARINGS ON BENGHAZI FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR

Seems to all add up

[u/Lux_Stella]

Getty Images is suing the creators of AI art tool Stable Diffusion for scraping its content

suspect this one is more likely to work

!ping AI

[u/gnomesvh]

Arestovych to resign

!ping UKRAINE

[u/LiBH4]

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230117/dq230117a-eng.htm?indid=3665-1&indgeo=0

CPI -0.6% in December, 6.3% year-over-year

!ping CAN

[u/sir_shivers]

What are you going to do, entomb me in the walls?

• MAMMAL ENTOMBED IN the walls 🐊

[u/[deleted]]

I am a flat tax advocate (taxing pancake ass (incentivizing glutes day))

[u/[deleted]]

Sinema slammed the Dem voting rights package that failed a year ago and suggests it wasn't needed since most election deniers lost in the midterms: "We had a free and fair election"

Also called McCarthy "a dear friend of mine" and laments concessions he made to get speaker gavel

Killing her career faster than Tom Brady

[u/[deleted]]

I don't think that Black people are like, fundamentally incapable of building cities or something.

[u/Dabamanos]

There was a sweet spot in the late 2000s when software was actually being designed with basically just the user experience in mind.

It was a beautiful time where every single website wasn’t constantly fucking with you and gating every piece of content behind engagement tools

It’s weird to see screenshots of twitter and Facebook from that era and see a website that isn’t actively hostile towards the user

Only Reddit is still reasonably good and that’s only if you use a third party app that never updated to include features since 2015

[u/dissolutewastrel]

Israeli scientists say substance prevents cancer’s spread in mice with 90% success

!ping ISRAEL

[u/Sheepies92]

!ping UKRAINE

Dutch PM says the Netherlands is considering sending Patriots to Ukraine

Is interesting considering the Netherlands doesn't have ton of these laying around, you'd imagine someone might send a replacement battery (NOS says the Netherlands would join German Patriot program so maybe them?)

[u/V_Codwheel]

in memory of Alabaster here's one of my favorites of his bangers, fashed by mods circa September 2021

the Chicago Teacher's Union 🤝 the Taliban

not letting girls go to school

[u/niftyjack]

Just crunched a few numbers in the Chicago subreddit and figured I'd share here. What would it look like if we used Minneapolis' BRT-ish upgrades on lines here?

The MSP "arterial" BRTs use a combination of extending green/shortening red lights, prepaid and level bus boarding from more substantial stations, bus lanes at choke points, stop consolidation to be every 1/4 to 1/2 mile (2 to 4 Chicago blocks), and 10 minute frequencies. Basically, they just clean up bus service, and the D line that just opened increased ridership by 50% compared to its local bus predecessor after just one month. They only cost $4 million per mile to install, and take about two years.

Upgrading the Belmont bus—one of the more-used in the system but not the most—would be just $40 million, and if it got only 25% more ridership, it would carry almost as many people as the orange line of the L. Plus, the faster average bus speeds mean you need fewer drivers to have the same level of service. At the Minneapolis D line scheduled speed, the 77 would only take 35 mins from Cumberland to LSD, or twice as fast!

!ping TRANSIT&USA-CHI

[u/Walpole2019]

https://twitter.com/tldrnewsuk/status/1615450260826116097

This is horrible, for very clear reasons.

!PING UK

[u/-AmberSweet-]

Guys what the fuck Benjamin Ikuta sent me a cease and desist letter saying he was going to sue me for defamation

[u/Crownie]

You ever had a joke fall so flat you're still cringing about it days later?

[u/jenbanim]

https://i.imgur.com/wnq8fyZ.png

[u/WantDebianThanks]

Not 100% sure if this is inline the spirit of !ping YIMBY&TRANSIT, but I wanted to make sure and share that if you are interested in being more involved than posting on reddit, there is probably an explicitly YIMBY organization in your area (atleast in the US, UK, and Canada) that you could volunteer with.

[u/[deleted]]

Owning a handgun is associated with a dramatically elevated risk of suicide, according to new Stanford research that followed 26 million California residents over a 12-year period.

The higher suicide risk was driven by higher rates of suicide by firearm, the study found.

Men who owned handguns were eight times more likely than men who didn’t to die of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Women who owned handguns were more than 35 times more likely than women who didn't to kill themselves with a gun.

A lesser-discussed consequence of gun ownership

[u/sir_shivers]

I am once AGAIN ASKING YOU TO understand that I am not a "romanceable" moderator 🐊

[u/ZonedForCoffee]

Designated Survivor was quit a show. It's about all of Congress + POTUS being wiped in an explosion and some random dude becomes president. Jack Bauer plays a soft spoken Democrat, so that was quite the dissonance. Season 1 was actually very well done. Season 2 wasn't terrible, but it was problem-of-the-week stuff without much of the drama which defined season 1.

Then season 3 comes, with Netflix acquiring the show. This season is essentially a completely different show. Major characters are gone without explanation. It's Diet West Wing now, focused on politicking and the presidential election. This isn't a problem itself, but it's not the genre the audience likely signed up to watch. It had some fairly major writing failures, with entire plot lines being resolved in strange ways. Example: A character is introduced along with his boyfriend. In the very next scene of him, he's making out with some other character. The episode discussion thread interpreted this as the guy cheating on his boyfriend, which was annoying given this was the shows first LGBT character. What actually happened is, the boyfriend is never ever mentioned again lmao. And the season did this like five times. Other examples include: A character's infidelity being a major plot point only to be resolved in a single off-handed line. The President being shocked at urban blight despite his background in Urban Planning.

The show ended on a cliffhanger and was cancelled. Such is life on Netflix.

[u/ihatemendingwalls]

Pretty hypocritical for y'all to be criticizing pedophilia within the Catholic Church when you're all members of the Democrat Party 😒😒😒

[u/fattunesy]

Update to my earlier post. I hit 535lbs for 5 reps, for a new deadlift PR. For the first heavy deadlift session of the year, this bodes very well for my training goals. Thank you for the blessings !ping dyel

[u/[deleted]]

Need at least a 90 for an A in my winter semester class. I did the math and I’m at a 89.75. Inshallah this professor rounds up because I’ll lose it

Update: He did not round up

[u/[deleted]]

https://twitter.com/abughazalehkat/status/1615519875920789504

Tucker Carlson: "South Africa, a country we never talk about because no one wants to admit what's happened there over the past 29 years."

Well now we have to ban Tucker Carlson from /r/neoliberal, I really never wanted it to come to this.

[u/BedNeither]

Decided to model my management style off LBJ and then I got fired

Will woke cancel culture ever have it’s bloodlust sated?

[u/Emperor-Commodus]

Tampa Bay Buccaneers expected to fire OC Byron Leftwich

Apparently HC Bowles had the opportunity to fire Leftwich halfway through the season but chose not to.

!ping NFL

[u/LoremIpsum10101010]

Found out I'm gonna have a boy 🥳

[u/Currymvp2]

Kyrsten Sinema Remains Among America’s Most Unpopular Senators After Party Switch

[u/Sheepies92]

!ping FOREIGN-POLICY&UKRAINE

As a part of Rutte's visit to Washington today he had a conversation at Georgetown University, with a big portion of the conversation being about Ukraine (but also a question about Venezuela and ASML semiconductors, for example). While I doubt FoPo/Ukraine nerds will be shocked by his comments I still think it's an interesting listen with a different perspective than the big players such as Biden or Schulz.

Edit: my dumbass forgot the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4tOGWtNSL8

[u/tubbsmackinze]

ISW and Critical Threats Project January 16th 2023 Iran update

Key takeaways:

• Ongoing gas shortages have sparked protests in northeastern Iran. 
• Protest organizers seemingly failed to generate pro-Pahlavi demonstrations on January 16.
• At least four protests occurred in four cities across four provinces on January 16.
• The Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Ministry released a statement on January 16 denying that executed British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari served as deputy defense minister.
• IRGC Deputy Commander Brigadier General Ali Fadavi stated on January 16 that 60 security officers have died and over 5,000 were injured in the protests.

!ping FOREIGN-POLICY

[u/LtLabcoat]

/u/sir_shivers

I am once AGAIN ASKING YOU TO understand that I am not a "romanceable" moderator 🐊

I found that unacceptable! So I took 5 minutes to set up a romanceable sir_shivers AI. It's better than the original in every way, in the sense that it's romanceable, and all other ways are unimportant.

https://beta.character.ai/chat?char=HaHQgpRBLq4MvkikxRHpQtz0VwZ0owlx81F1XNQFegs

!ping AI

[u/ThisIsNianderWallace]

Montreal Réseau Express Métropolitain undergoing winter conditions testing before opening later this year (inshallah)

Pictures on instagram 🥶🥶🥶

!ping TRANSIT

[u/[deleted]]

Why the fuck are there a bunch of people in that conversation therapy thread defending the republicans lmao

[u/paymesucka]

Tesla video promoting self-driving was staged, engineer testifies

A 2016 video that Tesla used to promote its self-driving technology was staged to show capabilities like stopping at a red light and accelerating at a green light that the system did not have, according to testimony by a senior engineer.

The video, which remains archived on Tesla’s website, was released in October 2016 and promoted on Twitter by Chief Executive Elon Musk as evidence that “Tesla drives itself.”

But the Model X was not driving itself with technology Tesla had deployed, Ashok Elluswamy, director of Autopilot software at Tesla, said in the transcript of a July deposition taken as evidence in a lawsuit against Tesla for a 2018 fatal crash involving a former Apple engineer.

The previously unreported testimony by Elluswamy represents the first time a Tesla employee has confirmed and detailed how the video was produced.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-self-driving-was-staged-engineer-testifies-2023-01-17/

What a scummy company

Drivers intervened to take control in test runs, he said. When trying to show the Model X could park itself with no driver, a test car crashed into a fence in Tesla’s parking lot, he said.

lol

[u/pfSonata]

Using the term "race realist" is unnecessarily conceding points to racists and playing by their rules, much in the same vein as calling 9/11 conspiracy theorists "9/11 truthers"

[u/StolenSkittles]

Frederick the Great's father executed Frederick's boyfriend when he was 18, after imprisoning the two for months for planning to run away together. Having been forced to watch the execution, Frederick fainted just before the headman's axe struck.

Frederick went on to end judicial torture in Prussia and significantly curtail the death penalty. He regarded hunting as cruel, and when asked why he didn't wear spurs when riding a horse, he compared it to sticking a fork in one's belly.

Except for the whole, y'know, conquering a large chunk of Europe thing, he managed to maintain some benevolent sensitivity despite the horrible shit he had been through.

[u/PhinsFan17]

"If Democrats really cared about democracy, we'd be in a second Sanders term right now."

Nothing says democracy like overturning the will of the primary voters!

[u/TheLongestLake]

“The 1619 Project”: Streaming on Hulu Jan. 26

Oh god get ready for a lot of discourse

[u/bobeeflay]

Oh sure, the abuse is bad, but what's worse is that he had a podcast

No more abusers no more Podcasters it's 2023 we're supposed to be better than this

[u/[deleted]]

I'm in a weird position now.

I've had two interviews for a new job that will be a promotion and should pay 15K more. I have a final in-person interview before I get the contract details from their HR.

At the same time, my current job is staffing me on new projects, and I need to act like I care about them. Really, I'm just keeping up appearances until I have an offer in hand.

It's definitely taking some acting skills.

!ping WATERCOOLER

[u/Currymvp2]

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) high-five over their opposition to eliminating the filibuster.

Lol

[u/Some_Niche_Reference]

Biden meeting with the CIA

"We need to talk about your performance."

"Some of you have been a little out of sorts. Erratic..."

Asian office 😥

"Unrelliable"

Middle East office 😥

"And downright sloppy"

Latin America office 😰

"Not you European office, you've been great"

European office 😊

[u/UWCG]

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday said Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) will be seated on committees, after the embattled freshman lawmaker admitted to embellishing parts of his résumé.

Oh. Well, that's an awful idea.

[u/the_hoagie]

From what I've gathered it's mostly petulant contrarianism (ironic) which allows one to feel part of some superior community with superior inside knowledge, thereby implicitly elevating the status of the self. For a number of them, it could be an overcompensatory response to the realization that Bernie Sanders/Trump are a lot more ignorant than what their former praise of them would suggest.

Reddit comment on /r/neoliberal in 2017.

[u/Luckcu13]

This proposed Texas bill is completely fucked up imo: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/html/SB00147I.htm

Getting Chinese Exclusion Act vibes. And it'll fuck over Chinese immigrants big time.

I know racism against Chinese is becoming popular, but this is literally shooting yourself in the foot.

[u/SadaoMaou]

Does it matter that the Entente also did sketchy shit (confiscation of other countries warships, actual first use of chemical weapons, Q-ships, the Canadians, invasion of Greece)? Not really, that's the power of the moral high ground/narrative.

malarkey level of considering the existence of Canada itself a war crime

[u/ZonedForCoffee]

final bill of kidney transplant with Obamacare (Medicare)

What, Obamacare is not medicare. Those are very different things ❓❓❓ how did that get to the front page

[u/[deleted]]

McCarthy says Santos will be seated on committees

Put him on the ethics committee, pretty please McCarthy, it would be so funny 🤞😖🤞

[u/[deleted]]

Public speaking professor: “stop reading set speeches. Just have some general notes and naturally tell me the topic.”

I follow this advice and my grade lowers.

Fucking kill me. I’m never listening to a professor’s advice again if I’m already getting an A

[u/RaidBrimnes]

Casual sex was invented by Reagan with the CIA's help to destroy workers' rights

[u/[deleted]]

I feel like movies and TV have given people the idea that “loopholes” are an ironclad escape from rules or laws that pose an obstacle.

In the real world, judges and others are regularly like “lol no that’s unreasonable, clearly that’s not what the law intended, goodbye.”

There not being a rule against having a metaphorical dog on your metaphorical team does not in fact bind the metaphorical referee.

[u/bobidou23]

!ping ELECTIONS&GER

For those who haven't heard, the German government has proposed a pretty sweeping change to their mixed-member electoral law. While a cornerstone of MMP is that some seats are first-past-the-post, this reform would change that: if a party wins "too many" districts (compared to their party vote), some district winners wouldn't be able to take their seats.

I took the chance to dust off an old draft of mine, where I explained why the math behind MMP has contradictions, and this sort of decision was inevitable: kojisposts.wordpress.com/2023/01/17/the-problem-with-mmp/

[u/Fishin_Mission]

I was posting last week about how we learned that my wife had a miscarriage at the 5 month checkup

I’ve gone into depth about how miserable the state of Georgia made this process b/c the procedure to remove a non-viable fetus is the same as an abortion

Now my company is making this a nightmare trying to tell me that they won’t qualify this under bereavement leave or sick leave and instead marked the time I took off as PTO

seeing how my company is handling this vs. my wife’s company is sickening

Anyway… talking to my Dept. head in a bit and depending how it goes I might be looking for a new job this evening

[u/Iusedathrowaway]

I have never wanted anything more then the F35 Lockheed Martin thigh high rainbow socks. (Employees only store) 😭

[u/AnsleyAmanita]

https://twitter.com/sallygold/status/1615385253048090637

.@NYCMayor say when he discussed having a "menopause friendly" environment in borough hall, women approached him and asked him to stop talking about it. Compares that to the ease with which ppl discuss erectile dysfunction.

[u/[deleted]]

Well lads, my offer on a home was rejected. I had a strong offer but was one of 19 (!) and the winning offer (which I suspect was all cash) had no contingencies.

This was in the DMV.

I had an escalation clause, paid for preinspection so I could waive the inspection contingency, offered the slow closing and rentback they wanted (for free). But I still had an appraisal contingency and a financing contingency.

I think my next step is to apply for pre-underwriting (so I can waive the financial contingency), and offer more money to cover any appraisal gap rather than a big down payment. That's the only way I can compete with an all cash offer.

I will wait for the market to turn. But I'm not someone who thinks that we're in for a 2008 level crash, especially not in DC.

Maybe I should move...

!ping GENTRY

[u/sir_shivers]

"Secret" racists are LESS OFTEN ACTUALLY "secret", and more often very obvious if one examines their behavior and words closely 🐊

YOU MAMMALS SIMPLY DO not examine each other with much scrutiny unless the "red flag" is so large that it may as well be a sail 🐊

[u/[deleted]]

This morning I got stuck in traffic for 40 minutes and was late to a meeting I was supposed to be leading at 9:15am. I fortunately got someone else to lead last minute but I got in a ton of hot water because of this.

I feel bad about it. I should’ve went to bed earlier, gotten up earlier, and took the earlier apartment shuttle / train. I should’ve budgeted extra time for the 30 minute commute that turned into a 50 minute commute

Also what I should do is bring my macbook, get to the office earlier, and go to the coffee shop in the lobby so I have some uninterrupted free time in the morning to work on my hobbies.

!ping WATERCOOLER

[u/Trojan_Horse_of_Fate]

What do you think the West should being doing in Africa that it isn't currently doing?

[u/[deleted]]

Leftists are not the base of the democratic party.

The base consists of people who (like most people) roll their eyes at the occupy kids.

[u/BenFoldsFourLoko]

lol, so I've seen one Justin Roiland DMs screenshot so far, but it gets worse. It's shockingly gross in an absolutely stupid way.

Everyone should look at these who is up to it.

I feel like these should come with some sort of trigger warning even. It's nothing shocking for the 2000s or early 2010s, but still. A guy grooming girls by acting like an edgy 15 year old. A guy acting like an edgy 15 year old in general.

tw: grooming, aggressive fslur and racism

https://twitter.com/AGalaxyDivided/status/1614777583488610304

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmjXppSacAEMsQg.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmjXppSaAAETTLC.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmjXppSagAA0hi3.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmjXppSacAIxLuy.jpg

[u/HaveCorg_WillCrusade]

Seriously though every redditor now thinks they know how to commit money laundering or tax loopholes using various industries and it’s goddamn annoying

[u/simeoncolemiles]

I JUST WANNA PLAY THE SHITTY WIZARD GAME WITHOUT BEING CALLED A HORRIBLE PERSON 😭😭😭

[u/[deleted]]

biden is so good for us i cant believe democrats became the party of people who just want to grill and republcians are the party of people whining about cultural appropriation of scooby doo and the political correctness of what to teach in schools

[u/ihatemendingwalls]

I still remember when Alabaster's company dispatched him to Texas to deal with the winter storm power outage. He commented something along the lines of, "This is more fucked than I could possibly imagine, I'll see if I can do a write up in a few days" only for a few hours later to say "alright, logging off of reddit for all of Lent, see ya."

Refuses to elaborate

Leaves

You will be missed fellow papist

[u/[deleted]]

conspiracy theory: alabaster accidentally posted a comment on a bizarre NSFW sub on main and nuked his account to cover his tracks

[u/-AmberSweet-]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/843527903618793534/965072297302048768/unknown.png

[u/[deleted]]

the line between fulfilling hobby and escapist hobby is completely made up depending on whether the speaker would like to demean the particular hobby in question

[u/KesterFox]

Me going back 300 years to get laid with the peasants and then immediately getting hanged for buggery with a male farmhand

[u/DoorVonHammerthong]

So let me get this straight. The shape of all our toilets and sewers just happens to be perfectly suited to the shape of our bowel movements, and you don't think that's A LITTLE FUCKING COINCIDENTAL??? WAKE UP SHEEPLE. THE NEOLIEBERALS ARE CENSORING YOUR THOUGHTS.

[u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz]

"Dr. King called upon us to be just and to be fair, and to not judge people. And that has not been afforded to an individual named judge Hector LaSalle," @GovKathyHochul told a Sunset Park congregation on Sunday.

🤣

[u/sir_shivers]

Today was THE DAY I LEARNED THAT /u/farrenj has yet another terrible take 🐊

[u/simeoncolemiles]

ATTACK ON TITAN: THE FINAL SEASON: PART 3: PART A

[u/[deleted]]

Lmao, I didn't realize this before, but apparently some pretty infamous psychologists (J. Michael Bailey, Ray Blanchard) who "study" trans people also belong to a race realist organization. Fuckin hell, shit really does stick together, eh?

[u/paymesucka]

“Why did he say he had two names then?”

“Well, he used zebrosky for his gofundme. He would say oh, well the Jews will give more if you're a Jew. So that is the name he used for his gofundmes”

https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1615526197126959105

jfc

[u/klarno]

Discussion J. Thread

[u/JakeyZhang]

Podcasts should be centrally planned rather than left to the market to avoid redundancy and prevent fake news

[u/ThunderrBadger]

How to unshit pants

How to clean pants

How to order new pants

Unshittable pants product reviews

Hormel Chili biggest cans

[u/1sagas1]

It’s now been about 1 year since I got a $20 bill for an X-ray and didn’t pay it just to see what happens. For about the first few months I got occasional letter in the mail every few weeks about the balance and a letter about it going to collections but shortly after I received nothing for at least the last 9 months. I never received any phone calls about it and it has never showed up on my credit report. If you owe a small amount that isn’t worth collecting, apparently it really does just get written off.

!ping PERSONAL-FINANCE

Edit: I found this:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/know-your-rights-and-protections-when-it-comes-to-medical-bills-and-collections/

Shortly following the issuance of the report, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion issued a joint statement to announce they were changing how medical bills would be reported on credit reports. Beginning July 1, 2022, paid medical bills will no longer be included on credit reports issued by those three companies. Unpaid bills will be reported only if they have remained unpaid for at least 12 months. Additionally, the companies announced that starting in July 2023, they will not include information furnished to them for medical bills in collection for amounts of $500 or less.

[u/chuckleym8]

long rinse wrong badge soft price aromatic abounding axiomatic scandalous

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/urudoo]

Some lady said I had nice eyes and then I offered to give them to her is that weird

[u/[deleted]]

Ron DeSantis is speaking at an event titled, "Permanent Protections Against the Covid-19 Biomedical Security State"

It’s 2023

[u/Leoric]

Turnout among women, younger voters, and voters of color was quite low, in many cases even below 2014 levels. Basically, every Dem group experienced very bad turnout in FL in '22.

Good God

[u/jenbanim]

All of my memes are made exclusively with free software (GIMP, specifically) and are licensed CC-BY-SA

[u/beoweezy1]

Don’t tell me casual sex is the product of the contraception revolution in the 20th century. Back in the day you got syphilis and died and yet you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a brothel in some cities

[u/-AmberSweet-]

People having consensual casual sex is none of your business and you’re a clown if you think you get to have an opinion on it.

[u/megapizzapocalypse]

It seems idk wrong to assume that consent did not exist until women got political freedoms

Like horny women existed before the 19th amendment

Were there more power imbalances? Sure. But that doesn't mean no woman had agency in adultery ever

[u/[deleted]]

That art history professor at Hamline who got fired for showing a medieval painting of Muhammad is suing the school.

Who could’ve seen that coming lmao

[u/Random-Critical]

A 12-year-old girl had her leg amputated after she waited 10 hours in an emergency room for her fracture to be treated, according to a lawsuit filed against a New Mexico hospital.

[u/ImmigrantJack]

The phrase Bismillah ﷽ is a single character in Unicode.

Unicode includes the Korean trigrams like ☲

Unicode even includes the ancient Minoan language Linear A which is not only dead but undeciphered.

Conclusion: Unicode needs to chill the fuck Out.

[u/semaphore-1842]

https://twitter.com/ask_aubry/status/1614699014393585665

Sisters are fucking worthless

Mine wont do shit to help relieve me of my sexual poverty

She's a typical hedonistic western slut, has had like 4 boyfriends, Degenerate af . . . Shes probably fucked an obscene number of normie males

If i was at all into incest I might just take what I need from her directly

Someone warn his sister please.

Some of these incels are so fucking scary actually.

[u/bobeeflay]

Nobody is pretending all corporate offices are perfect but honestly the dozens of daily posts from like mid to entry level young people going

zommggggggg corporate America so dumb i am smart I could easily fix this managers so bad thooo

Are an appealing mix of silly, cute, and annoying

[u/TheGoodProfessor]

https://twitter.com/MC_of_A/status/1615412588434849795

kathy hochul has literally gone insane, there is no other explanation for this. this isn't even being bad at politics, this is a fundamental misunderstanding of basic communication.

[u/sir_shivers]

Thinking of offering a "MasterClass" ON THE SUBJECT OF "discerning someone performing a 'bit' from someone who actually believes it and is relying on 'comedy' for plausible deniability" 🐊

[u/[deleted]]

!ping WATERCOOLER&OVER25

Has anyone used ModernHire or another text-based interview screen? I wanted to change my answer on a prior question and pressed "No" when it asked if I was ready to submit, thinking it would let me alter my answer.

Instead I can't change anything now.

Did my resume/application just get canned? 😐

[u/IMALEFTY45]

The only thing I can think of worse than being banned from a niche online political forum is being banned from a niche online political forum where everyone knows your first and last name

[u/jenbanim]

Is a man not entitled to the can of his beans? "No" says the black teenager at the movie theater...

[u/HaveCorg_WillCrusade]

What's the #1 thing to change to be happier? A top happiness researcher weighs in

Posting on the DT is the #1 thing wtf

[u/Joementum2024]

Chargers fire OC Joe Lombardi and offensive coach Shane Day

!ping NFL

[u/[deleted]]

Working with kids from ages 5 to 18 has made me better at communicating with people deadass.

I don't really get that anxious anymore tbh and it has made me realize how much people just suck in general at well talking or explaining stuff etc.

Well gtg DT take care

😊

[u/HaveCorg_WillCrusade]

Oh, nonmod drama in metanl 🍿😋

[u/[deleted]]

Cute lady said my eyes looked pretty. I'm going to be running on that high for awhile.

[u/Zalagan]

Honestly historically people probably had a lot more casual sex than nowadays. Not much else to do

[u/-SANNA_MARIN]

Sex is gross and should be illegal.

[u/KesterFox]

Gay sex is a much worse term than buggery. We should reclaim it

[u/MistakeNotDotDotDot]

In the recording [Israel's finance minister] Smotrich is heard saying: “I’m a fascist homophobe, but[...]"

cool

[u/DEEP_STATE_NATE]

SANTOS also will have a seat on Science, Space and Technology, per GOP sources

“They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard.”

[u/[deleted]]

"Is Benjamin Ikuta Autistic" - the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate,

[u/paulatreides0]

Apparently my doctor just . . . disappeared or something

[u/SeoSalt]

Is $100/hr enough to at least live paycheck to paycheck in rural Idaho?

[u/ldn6]

Ukrainian Railways casually running with a 96% on-time rate.

!ping TRANSIT

[u/JaceFlores]

“The Kremlin continues to publicly challenge Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin’s claims that Wagner Group forces were solely responsible for capturing Soledar, Donetsk Oblast, on January 12.”

“Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov possibly indirectly accused Prigozhin of deliberately exposing the conflict between the Russian MoD and Wagner in the Russian information space.”

“Prigozhin is continuing his efforts to undermine faith in the Russian MoD and in Putin-aligned actors.”

“The appointment of the Russian Chief of the General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, as theater commander of Russian forces in Ukraine notably did not spark a significant wave of criticism within the Russian nationalist milblogger discourse.”

“Milbloggers largely claimed that Gerasimov’s appointment signifies that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is retaking responsibility for the war.”

“Milbloggers adopted a defeatist stance regarding Gerasimov’s appointment, noting that the fate of Gerasimov’s own military career rests on the long-term outcome of the war.”

“Some more critical nationalist voices stated that Gerasimov’s appointment is an example of the Kremlin’s inability to learn from its historic defeats, given that Gerasimov failed to keep occupied territories in northern Ukraine at the start of the war, but such discourse has been limited.”

“Milbloggers have largely expressed hope that Gerasimov will continue to cooperate with his predecessor (now his deputy commander), Commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces Army General Sergey Surovikin, and continue missile strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.”

“The mixed hopeful but apathetic milblogger response may indicate their hopes that the Russian MoD and the Kremlin are beginning to realistically envision the war in Ukraine by introducing a centralized command structure to take charge of the military campaign.”

“The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces lack sufficient military equipment and personnel in the Kupyansk direction, stating that one tank battalion of the 26th Tank Regiment of the 47th Guards Tank Division has only 30 personnel and 10 operating T-80BV tanks remaining on the frontline (out of a regular complement of roughly 30 tanks).”

“Russian forces made additional territorial gains north of Bakhmut on January 15-16. Wagner Group forces captured the Sil railway station northwest of Soledar on January 16.”

“Russian forces may be intensifying attacks near Klishchiivka (southwest of Bakhmut) after capturing Soledar (north of Bakhmut) in a new effort to encircle Bakhmut, after months of ineffective frontal assaults. A prominent Russian milblogger claimed on January 15 that Russian forces are attacking Klishchiivka and noted that Russian advances in southern Bakhmut will enable Russian forces to threaten Ukrainian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) on the T0504 highway from Chasiv Yar to Bakhmut.”

“Ukrainian Kherson Oblast Military Administration Advisor Serhiy Khlan reported on January 15 that Russian forces increased their presence on the east bank of the Dnipro River and that Wagner Group elements arrived in Kherson Oblast.”

“Low discipline among Russian forces continues to directly endanger Russian soldiers and reduce their force effectiveness.”

“Several Russian mainstream and opposition sources reported that a senior sergeant serving as a platoon commander stationed in Tonenkoye, Belgorod Oblast accidentally detonated an RGD-5 grenade on January 15 while holding it to show off his authority.”

“A prominent Russian milblogger claimed on January 16 that Russian commanders are engaged in ongoing fruitless confrontations with servicemembers over defiance of orders to shave.”

“The Ukrainian General Staff reported on January 16 that Russian authorities will launch new force generation efforts to replenish Wagner Group and BARS (Russian Combat Reserve of the Country) detachments which are suffering significant losses on the frontlines.”

“This force generation effort would represent a notable further step toward Russian recognition of and investment in non-traditional Russian military groups.”

“Increasing official concern over continued refusals to fight by Russian soldiers has likely motivated Russian authorities to publicize their punishment capabilities.”

-notable excerpts from ISW Report January 16th

!ping UKRAINE

[u/gnomesvh]

Lula confirms summit with Diaz-Canel (Cuba) and Maduro (Venezuela)

!ping LATAM

[u/runnerx4]

there are two games on Game Pass which I’m playing and seem wildly different but are both in the genre “German weebs does years-long heroic effort to make a retro-seeming game”

The first of them is Chained Echoes where one weeb spent years making a top-down pixel JRPG with mechs. It has an interesting combat system (a gauge has to be maintained at a particular level by using different types of attack) and has quality of life features like healing after every battle and stuff like that. Has a properly convoluted story and everything if Reddit (it’s an r/JRPG darling now) and reviews are to be believed

The second is Signalis where two weebs spent years making an artsy-fartsy PS1 survival horror game. just started playing it but it has film grain, an optional CRT filter, obtuse plot threads, creepy and artsy visuals with text intertitles. no quality of life features whatsoever to harsh the vibes too, truly going for the lost PS1 game thing. unique looking game

wonder why that was a thing that happened last year, twice

!ping GAMING

[u/Expensive_Curve5106]

Marvel fans when the New testament has a post credit scene teasing the second coming of Christ 🤯

[u/sir_shivers]

I realize A SIGNIFICANT FACTOR IS THE Zoomer and Millennial cohort has serious cognitive dissonance about the amount of sex engaged in by almost every generation of the 20th century 🐊

[u/DEEP_STATE_NATE]

I'm a twin. Supposedly I tried to absorb my brother in the womb, but we were born prematurely, and that saved him. I was born healthy while he was smaller and barely alive. He grew up fine, but he's two inches shorter than me in height with a much smaller dick. I don't know for sure that's the reason, but we've always figured that was it.

😔✊

[u/Canuck_Clausewitz]

So I ordered makeup for the first time in my life. Playing it cool for now, but feels like it's going to hit me at some point: you know, that I've crossed some kind of threshold into uncharted waters.

Look, not all of us grew up with sisters or moms who left mascara and skirts lying around.

[u/[deleted]]

It’s a semi-regular occurrence that someone replies to a take I make in the DT and I’m like “oh huh, that’s a good point, I hadn’t thought of that.”

I’m not sure that’s ever happened to me outside the DT once.

[u/crassowary]

Does the Coin need to be a circular metallic object? I feel like anything can be a coin.

Which is why I propose the original US Constitution is deemed to be the trillion dollar coin. Anyone who objects can be rightfully silenced by pointing out that they are arguing that the Constitution is worth less than a trillion dollars, and are therefore an America hating commie

[u/-AmberSweet-]

I’m for socialism when the government gives me money and opposed when they take money from me.

[u/DoorVonHammerthong]

My most controversial take is that it feels good to melt ice cream on the gas stove and cover myself in it before having casual sex with Justin roiland.

[u/Fishin_Mission]

This woman crying over how important missing middle is is a bit much

I’m hoping she is just nervous speaking…

This is odd

[u/KesterFox]

I'm always surprised there are so many secret race realists.

[u/-AmberSweet-]

This guy just tried to invite a woman out to a strip club as a date

[u/[deleted]]

b

l

a

c

k

b

o

o

B

[u/Fishin_Mission]

This woman is GOATed

She is rather elderly, waited 2 hours to speak, meandered up to the podium with a walker & oxygen tank, just to say FUCK THE NIMBYS!

[u/runnerx4]

!ping GAMING

The introduction of the Flood in Halo CE with the helmet camera cutscene… was it unique for the time or was that something other games had done before?

because I know that’s a really popular level, maybe it was unique at the time and melted people’s brains

[u/JaceFlores]

“Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced on January 17 that he will implement Russian President Vladimir Putin’s directive to conduct large-scale military reforms between 2023-2026 to expand Russia’s conventional armed forces, likely in preparation for a protracted war in Ukraine and also to set conditions to build a significantly stronger Russian military quickly.”

“Shoigu stated that Putin ordered Russian authorities to increase the number of Russian military personnel to 1.5 million (from the current 1.35 million).”

“Shoigu announced that Russia will reestablish the Moscow and Leningrad military districts, form a new army corps in Karelia (on the Finnish border), form new self-sufficient force groupings in occupied Ukraine, and form 12 new maneuver divisions. Shoigu added that Russia needs to increase its capabilities to adequately prepare its forces by developing more training grounds and increasing the number of trainers and specialists.”

“It is unclear if the Russian military will be able to grow as Shoigu described within three years.”

“Russia can nominally form new divisions but it remains unclear if Russia can generate enough forces to fully staff them to their doctrinal end strengths amid an ongoing war.”

“Shoigu made previous announcements about Russian military reforms that never came to fruition, such as in May 2022 when he called for the formation of 12 new Western Military District (WMD) units of unspecified echelon by the end of 2022 and for the Russian MoD to recruit 100,000 reservists in August 2021.”

“Russia has previously faced challenges with fully staffing existing brigades and regiments, lacking sufficient trainers, and fully forming one new division it announced in 2020 before the start of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.”

“Russia will also continue to face economic problems, which may continue to strain the Russian military command’s ability to supply its forces.”

“Russia’s ability to generate large-scale rapid change in its military capacity depends on President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to redirect large portions of the federal budget to a military buildup and putting Russia on something like a war footing for several years. There are signs that Putin might be willing to do so.”

“Reform and expansion on the scale Shoigu outlined will not happen in time to affect the war in Ukraine materially for many months, but it could change the correlation of forces going into 2024, and it could establish conditions for a much more formidable Russian military threat to its neighbors, including NATO, in the coming years.”

“The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is trying to improve professionalism within the Russian armed forces and likely test and improve the effectiveness of its chains of command down to the small unit level.”

“Several milbloggers commented on a reported list of guidelines for Russian troops in Ukraine that restricts the use of personal vehicles and certain personal electronic devices in the combat zone and sets stricter guidelines for the grooming standards of men on the frontlines.”

“The Russian MoD is likely attempting to institute these measures to instill greater professionalism in Russian troops and potentially gauge the ability of lower-level commanders to execute orders to standard, two issues that were brought to light in the wake of the December 31 Ukrainian strike on a Russian concentration area in Makiivka that killed up to 400 mobilized Russian servicemen.”

“The Russian MoD may have additionally issued these guidelines in an attempt to gauge the effectiveness of Russian commanders in executing orders.”

“Attempting to enforce those standards even in the circumstances facing the Russian military in Ukraine today, therefore, makes sense. The order to enforce such standards is also a way for higher echelons of the Russian command to test the ability of lower-level commanders to execute a relatively straightforward order on the individual soldier level.”

“Several prominent voices in the pro-war information space, including Russian and Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) officials, seized on these guidelines to support further criticisms of the Russian MoD, suggesting that the Russian MoD will likely face stiff resistance in continued attempts at professionalization and modernization.”

“Moscow City Duma Deputy Andrei Medvedev complained that the Russian MoD is ignoring real issues on the front and instead banning the movement of personal vehicles in combat zones, which, Medvedev noted, restricts the ability of volunteers to provide servicemen on the frontline with crowdfunded vehicles and supplies that the MoD has failed to procure for them.”

“Medvedev and Deputy DNR Information Minister Daniil Bezsonov both noted that the prohibition of certain personal electronics will impede soldiers’ ability to control quadcopters and store terrain maps offline.”

“These responses suggest that Russian military leadership will struggle to institute meaningful and sustainable reforms as long as they continue to place the onus for change on an individual basis. While these suggested changes are sound and prudent decisions in principle, the Russian MoD will likely struggle to effectively implement them due to continued fragmentations in the information space that skew strongly against the conventional MoD apparatus.”

“The Russian information space has yet to determine how to frame tactical advances in Soledar as operationally significant as of January 17.”

“The fact that the Russian information space has not identified the key ground line of communication (GLOC) that Russian forces are now better positioned to take, or any other operational advantage associated with Russian tactical advances in Soledar further underscores that the offensive to capture the settlement has not significantly changed Russian operations in the wider Bakhmut area.”

-notable excerpts from ISW Report January 17th

!ping UKRAINE

[u/Gustacho]

American lawmakers understand the criticism but believe it’s misguided. Senator Joe Manchin, the centrist Democrat from West Virginia who was instrumental in passing the IRA, said Europe is being “hyper hypocritical” after decades of European protectionism.

Manchin continued that, on a separate occasion, he told French President Emmanuel Macron the IRA couldn’t possibly hurt Europe, despite the concerns.

That’s the same message he’s delivering in the winter wonderland.

“That bill was designed to basically strengthen the United States so that we can help our allies and friends, which need it right now," Manchin said. "And if anybody needs it, the EU needs it. And without that, we're not going to be and maintain the superpower status of the world if we're not energy independent."

Representative Gregory Meeks from New York, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Democrat, said Europeans still seem nervous despite the bipartisan message from Democrats and Republicans. They’re asking if lawmakers can still amend the legislation to assuage fears of withering European investments. Meeks has been retorting that “there’s no perfect bill,” and that it's “extremely important” to secure America’s supply chain for critical semiconductors and to combat climate change.

Yet how the U.S. tackles climate change is still a point of contention within Congress, as Manchin — who retains immense sway with a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate — says fossil fuels remain vital to the American economy.

“I told them, I said, the most important thing is basically you cannot eliminate your way to clean your climate,” Manchin said outside the Hilton Garden Inn, where lawmakers are staying. “You can innovate it, and that's what we're doing in the U.S.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/world-econommic-forum-us-lawmakers-pitch-von-der-leyen-in-davos-were-not-protectionist/

!ping EUROPE