Its definitely hard.

To take a broader point. I think thats the thing people like Sheeran need to get about the times we’re in, due to the disintegration of the ‘world order’, and the increasing effects of climate change.

The choices we have are now hard and they matter in a way they didn’t seem to for a few decades. His decision to not pushback against the promoters, who he claims made the decision, is a political choice.

Unfortunately for him politics exists at his shows, it always did, except the broad agreements have now broken between the privileged and powerful, and the not. Sheerans decision says to everyone he is with the privileged, even if his rhetoric indicates otherwise.

I haven’t quite said what I wanted to here, but I’ve run out of time to think about it. Sorry.

I understand the position Sheeran was in. But, at best (I don’t Sheeran’s beliefs), when it came to the choice he accepted the stadium owner’s demands over the moral demands Macklemore is calling all people across the world to recognise.

That act supports the unjust persecution of Palestinians and marginalises the few brave voices like Macklemore’s who are willing to stand up against these humanitarian crimes. Sheeran deserves the backlash as well, and whether its his lack of moral fibre, or his ideological alignments, this instance should always tarnish him.

Fridge through the sky… 😆

That day, the link wasn’t just broken… The link was missing!!!

Haha, i don’t think we mind sandgroper.

Yeah, actually this paragraph is what made me pay a little more attention to the writer. Seems theres a story there in itself.

Not a bad analogy. Very appropriate, as has been proven by the right wing terrorism list reference and how much the US appears in that list. Sorry, I didn’t think I needed to spell out we were interested in the amount the US appeared in that list.

I used both the German analogy and the Republican analogy to demonstrate that you its the individuals that must be held to account while the rest try to bridge the divisions in a society.

Please stop these echo chamber tier insults, you know how much I detest America

Well it gets a bit hard to take you seriously sometimes, but fair enough. I thought that line, and it definitely was a line this time, was nicely pithy though.

If US republicans in Africa, Asia, North America, weirdly not latin America…

This sentence makes no sense Claude. Recalibrate and try it again.

Lololololol!!! 😆 Its like your heads been buried in the sand for the last 15 years. Do you only consume right wing propaganda? Like on a scale from ‘Zero’ to ‘Only Consume’, how much Sky/News24 do you watch per week?

The right wing terrorists, that vote overwhelmingly Republican, are regularly targetting Democrats, racial minorities, religious groups like Islam all over the USA. Don’t let facts get in the way of good time though…

Heres a list. For interests sake scroll to the bottom for a comparison with Islan and Left wing.

So the point stands. You don’t attack whole groups for the actions of individuals. Even if some members of those groups commit or applaud the commitment of heinous crimes.

This is why all men aren’t in prison for domestic violence against women, its not all men, but theres a pattern of rape and murder of women by men.

Coexistence is not the absence of disagreement; it is the decision to live with disagreement without turning the other person into an enemy. Perhaps, after 25 years, this is one of the most important things we can learn from 9/11: that the opposite of hatred is not indifference, but an ethical commitment to living together. An ethical life begins when we stop seeing the others as strangers and recognise them as human beings.

What a great way to end the piece by Sirwan Barzanji.

Love this time of year.

I’m not saying ‘lines’, I’m trying to get you to wake up to the historic systems that create these sharp divisions and friction points.

I used to think Religion was a cause of hatred, but its actually a post-hoc rationalisation by the people experiencing circumstances they can neither see the cause of, nor explain. That includes people like Bin Laden, with all his wealth he was born into a part of a system, and became a part of that system where the logical reaction is to attack and try to pull down your perceived foe.

You’re hatred for religion, and one in particular helps nothing, and actually hinders the development of a less religious world, which I suspect you see as a better way. It hijders it because you make an enemy out of the majority of the people on the planet, and enemies are famous for having little trust in each other. And trust in each other is key if you want them to take notice of your ideas.

Also a picture of a guy protesting with an ineffective protest sign, like its not even witty its just rage in printed form, and a wikipedia list of recent terrorist attacks by small groups of terrorists is your idea of presenting a case for hundreds of millions of followers and supporters? … pffft thats horribly a undercooked for the population sizes, and doesn’t even make logical sense, as I will explain in two ways below.

US Republicans just had a convention in Texas where someone was advocating shooting some Democrat and was apparently cheered for it. By your incoherrent logic that means all Republicans and those that vote for that Party are blood thirsty murderers, because a guy did a thing at a convention. Its just not true.

Many, not all, Germans genuinely cheered on the Nazi’s for years, but they would never have committed the crimes Nazi’s committed, or thought thats what they were supporting by supporting the Nazi’s. Its one reason why the allied forces decided to march 1000 people from Weimar (or a village nearby) up to Burchenwald concentration camp to witness the attrocities that had been committed there. Because they knew the support was still there, the cognitive dissonance was so strong that without the incontrovertable evidence in so many of the German’s own eyes and nostrils that the attrocities could be dismissed as the occupying force propagandising.

Yeah, seems a good news story all round. Props to all involved if you ask me.

Yeah, i felt writing that and not recognising Bin Laden’s wealth was an oversight that she needed to address for her narrative to work properly. I don’t think it disqualifies the narrative though, but glad someones highlighted that.

Not to mention theres still open questions about how much the Saudis knew, the extent of their involvement, and how high that went. And they are by no means poor or powerless, even then.

Yeah for some reason it’s always one particular religion

Thats just incorrect bigotry about a whole religion, spanning many sects and classifications, not to mention countries and cultures

Definite props though for stating later (not ALL muslims). But blaming a whole set of people at all for the crimes and shit behaviour of a few is never right.

Its like blaming all Jews for what Israel is doing to Palestinians, or all Christians for what the IRA did to British people. Or vice versa in all cases. Was the Pope responsible for Bloody Sunday?

I think theres something real in what you’re picking up on though. But i think its a systemic issue to do with the historic construction of what has become the ‘Islamic world’. European colonialism was influential here, but also more localised and ongoing tribal conflicts. Even environmental pressures.

The conflicts across the Sahel due to the expansion of the Sahara pushing groups into each other’s lands they use for subsistence has been an underlying driver of conflict across that region. Tim Marshall Prisoner’s of Geography was a good distillation of that.

I don’t know about these DAPs, i get the need for streamlining processes, but i get the feeling that these DAPs are just rubber stampers.

Freo Dockers should have their parade across it if they win the GF.

This is the result of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, and Right Wing media racist dog whistling.

Well done supine Liberals, really standing up to the enemy of the people you represent with this one. /s

What a joke Melissa Price is, yes its the Labor government playing politics, not your mates at The West Australian. /s

I think the problem is media and hyperscalers have flattened the whole data science field into the SEO and speculator friendly term ‘AI’, a decade ago there would be a better description of the interesting models being employed than,

AI models

Or

AI-generated statistical models

While I’m not sure if the impact on the environment would be much different, though it might be far less, I fairly sure this article is not refering to the use of Claude or ChatGPT when refering to ‘AI’. I assume this is a proprietary model of the kind that is actually useful because it is built for a specific, and therefore limited, purpose. Those limitations may mean its impact on the environment is far less, as its compute needs are less and may reduce after development.

I’m yet to see anything fascist about him. Please inform me if you have. Conservative as fuck, for sure, but conservatism doesn’t equal fascist. He also seems to be a religious zealot, or at least adjacent to such. Not everyone who thinks of life as a ‘heirarchy of the deserving’ takes that idea as far as fascists.

He has demonstrated on numerous occassions lines he doesn’t cross, there is no line a fascist will not cross in their extremist pursuit of dominance and power.

Ah yes, the humvee. I like that line from the humvee commander in the movie Black Hawk Down. “These things are bullet magnets!”

I suppose a possible answer if they’re determined to have heavier armour is compartmentalised and autonomous setups. Having the operator in a separate location to the cannon could reduce the armouring requirements of both and splitting them up could make delivery separately on those c130’s possible. Of course the draw back is a platform far more susceptible to electronic warfare.

I don’t like a lot of his politics but that guy will single-handedly rebuild the Liberal party. Each one of his interventions is more effective than everything Angus ‘good one mate’ Taylor has ever done.