I came to count how many times Trump says “millions and millions”

They could still remove it if they wanted to.

For example push an update so your console can’t read certain games when they lose license. Or simply break backwards compatibility in specific ways.

I guess the games I really like are all digital. Games like Slay the Spire, Rimworld, Balatro, etc. I know that the data is sitting there in my hard drive. I can copy it, move it, delete it, etc whenever I want.

I honestly haven’t included a disc reader in my PC builds for over a decade. I guess on Xbox it’s different because Microsoft has more control. But again, if they wanted to take away the games they could do it either way.

If that’s main reason, I don’t see the point of continuing disc use

I understand if you don’t have the CD they can remove your access to it arbritarily like when they lose the license but

Nobody ever complains about Steam and they have a similar policy of no physical media going back decades. I have hundreds of gamed accumulated on Steam and no game of mine has ever been removed.

I bought the cheaper Xbox last year to play Overcooked with my girlfriend and it has no physical media. I just download and play games no problem. I actually find it more convenient not to have any physical games.

So I guess the question is- what is the reason for the strong rejection of the digital version? It is the natural evolution of these things.

People believe just because someone interacts with some sort of digital device, it makes you an expert on computers. The thing is, it depends on the type of operating system you are interacting with.

For example when I was young, my father would buy those big old gray computers from yard sales. I would mix and match the pieces inside to build my own PC. I broke a lot of shit but learned a lot.

The operating system was one where you more or less had total control over the computer. By 12~13 I was using CD-Roms to load different Linux distros and play around with all sorts of different things.

This experience basically taught me how operating systems work at a fundamental level. How it needs a kernel, how it loads and maintains services, packages, etc. How file systems work and learning how terminals are useful. Scripting languages, and eventually coding applications.

Compare and contrast that to the young kids of today. What do they get? A phone and a tablet. You can’t open it up. You can’t tinker with it. The OS is closed off and is deliberately made as difficult as possible to modify. No mouse, no keyboard. Streamlined UIs with guard rails.

You get what you get and you don’t get upset. That doesn’t leave nearly as much room for exploration and curiosity. It’s a symptom of our computers becoming more and more railroaded. More and more control by large companies.

It’s really sad, I think. Fairly soon I believe every device will be a “thin device” or essentially a chrome book. Very little local processing power and instead it’ll essentially stream from a server.

Personally I prefer subscription model over ad-based data tracking model. When you get something for free, you are the product being sold. For example Facebook or Reddit. Your content (comments, media) is used to populate the site and your data is sold to advertisers.

When you pay a subscription, you are the customer. There’s more incentive to create a proper service with the actual users in mind when it’s a subscription model.

When advertisers are the primary customer, they will always be a priority in determining policy. So for example YouTube- longer ads and more of them.

Of course, I think Google is guilty of double dipping. We pay for premium but I’m certain they still sell our data to advertisers. For example you watch a lot of carpentry videos, they will sell a list with your name that says “likely tool buyer” or something along those lines.

But generally speaking, I never mind paying a subscription for a service. It’s more honest, more clear what’s going on.

I just pay for premium. I’d rather pay the $25 a month to never have to see an ad.

A) like I said it’s a prerequisite to move around millions of people. You need to first collect all of them, put them in camps. And then you would need something like 10% of all airline capacity working round the clock 24/7 for a year in order to move everyone out.

We would need camps. Deporting everyone would mean camps. Like I said- be very clear of what you’re suggesting.

B) us gov gives ITIN for people to pay taxes and illegals do. Hard to find a job when most places require i9 and participate in e-verify.

It’s easy to start a company, get an ITIN, and work as a subcontractor though. Believe me, vast swathes of our construction industry work in this manner.

C) it is not a criminal act, like getting a speeding ticket is not a criminal act. These people commit dramatically less crime than native-born Americans.

We should secure the border and deport every single one of them. That’s how a functional country operates. You can’t have a country if you don’t defend your borders.

That actually isn’t how the US functioned for most of its history. The “illegals” today would have been regular immigrants for the majority of this country’s history.

A functional country operates on what is best for the country. Normalizing their status and improving the immigration system is what would actually be done if our country was “functional”

A) we’re talking about the federal government creating camps and sticking millions of people in them. I want that to be very clear. That is a necessary prerequisite to move around millions of people. Remind you of any other period of time in history? Say… 1930s?

B) these are people that contribute positively to the economy. They

a) pay taxes without pulling from the system b) work jobs that Americans don’t want to do, leading to lower costs for businesses (and by extension, the consumers) c) stimulate local demand for goods and services by buying stuff from stores, going to restaurants, etc

C) these are people intertwined with the country. Many illegals have been here for years, majority of which have never committed any crime. The only reason their documents haven’t been normalized is because it’s impossible. The current US immigration system is broken and simply does not allow for the quantity and type of immigration that the economy needs. So the black market fills the void.

My opinion: we should take a page from Reagan and give the millions of illegals amnesty. At least the ones that haven’t committed crimes & have paid their taxes.

Then fix the broken immigration system by making it easier for people to come here legally.

We could get rid of illegals in a few months. The people in power don’t want that. Illegals are too useful as scapegoats for imaginary problems, and they are also too useful as cheap labor.

They will not actually get rid of illegals because labor price would shoot up which would lead to a massive inflation shock. We’re literally just repeating the 1930s. Economy goes to shit, people aren’t happy, what do you do?

Find a scapegoat. The problem is Republicans are playing with fire. They think they can control the flames they are fanning but it can pass a point of no return very quickly. I think it already has. Evidence being that even the Democrats are becoming anti-immigrant

Construction he promised to halt. Instead he wanted a photoshoot with CBP

Dems have been promising reform and help for decades now and there’s nada. Biden even expanded construction of “the Wall” tm and Kamala is promising border security. Nada about the plight of the 10-15 million people living in the shadow.

As the Overton Window shifts further and further to the right, both parties become hostile.

I’m guessing there will be some compensation. Something like the streaming model. Company makes $ and gives a cut to user. The most popular ones can make quite a bit. I believe Twitter does this now too if I’m not mistaken. You can get paid based on total impressions to your post

Waltz is a Zionist too, just not as zealous as Shapiro. I see no reason to believe the future will look any different from the current administration’s policies. Aka unconditional support for Israel with a couple strongly worded statements every once in a while

When he served in the House from 2007-2019, he frequently took pro-Israel votes, including voting to condemn a United Nations resolution affirming that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal

Mark Mellman, the chairman of Democratic Majority for Israel’s super PAC, praised Harris’ selection of Walz in a statement, calling him a “proud pro-Israel Democrat with a strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

Walz has never diverged from the party line of unconditionally supporting Israel, a position illustrated by his comments earlier this year at an event held by the Jewish Community Relations Council.

“The ability of Jewish people to self-determine themselves is foundational … The failure to recognise the state of Israel is taking away that self-determination. So it is anti-Semitic,” he said.

That’s a nice part of accepting refugees from a state like Cuba. You pretty much get to selectively import the right-wing elements of their population.

Similar effect happens with Venezuelans. The ones who can afford to uproot their lives are also more likely to align ideologically with US politics.

I used to work with a lot of Cubans. My favorites were the old ones. They would tell me stories about living in Cuba under Castro back in the day. One thing that I always found interesting is how they said they were happier. It might just be nostalgia but I’ve heard from older people from Soviet areas too.

Life was slower and as long as you did your job certain things were guaranteed to you. In a capitalist system you have infinitely more purchasing power but they would make the analogy of addiction. In the US you are addicted to money so you need to work a lot more to pay the bills.

Whereas in Cuba you spend a lot more time idle and just living life, even if you’re not able to purchase common items we consider essential. (Some days you go to store and there’s no shoes, next day there’s no bread, etc)

My least favorite were the 2nd generation ones. Like Marco Rubio. They don’t understand the struggle but feel intensely like they do. Very strong opinions with very little nuance. I’ve met my fair share.

The only thing that really matters is PA. If GOP wins PA, they win election. Right now it’s neck and neck with Trump a little ahead.

Kamala was always going to be up in national polls and she will always win national vote.

Here’s a link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG-xrqaq3zw

Call me tin foil hat man but I think the COVID was just a way to take spotlight off of Biden so he couldn’t say anything stupid

Almost every time he’s spoken publicly in the last few weeks he’s made some gaffes. Imagine a press statement and he mixes up Kamala’a name with someone else.

Not worth the risk. Biden speaking in public is too risky, might mess up the message they’re trying to send.

Have you not been paying attention? Every time Biden goes up to speak, he makes a fool of himself. At the debate he was mumbling and staring blankly into space with his mouth open. He then did an interview afterwards to try and calm the mood that only make it worse. Then he showed up to the NATO summit and introduced Zelensky as Vladmir Putin. He called Trump the vice president.

All in the course of a couple of weeks. Biden simply isn’t all there. His polling numbers were on a downward trend and the key problem is that concerns about his age and mental capacity can only get worse with time. It will never get better.

There was no other option but to change Biden. Everybody knew this after the debate. I think it took so long for him to drop out because they didn’t know who to replace him with. Kamala isn’t pilling any better and in some places worse.

But it seems the DNC has done their research and figured Kamala is the best chance they’re gonna get. Which I think is a grim omen for the near future.

Biden was 100% going to lose. Kamala is probably going to lose, but at least there’s a chance.

There was no other move here. Democrats put themselves in Zugzwang by Biden seeking re-election in the first place.

Ideas spread between humans. On systems designed to facilitate communications between people, these ideas will likewise spread. Did AfD exploit TikTok’s algorithm or is right wing populism seeing a large growth worldwide?

When the printing press come out and certain news agencies starting “Yellow Journalism” were they exploiting that system of communication for profit?

Did JFK and Nixon exploit TV for their own political purposes?

I believe wholeheartedly that every social media algorithm should be open source and transparent so the public can analyze what funny business is going on under the hood.

But is it any different from how TV channels pick what shows to play or what ads to run? Which articles get printed and the choice of words for a newspaper?

I think people are quick to jump on TikTok because of some unusual socially acceptable jingoism but I don’t see how at its core is fundamentally different from other forms of media, let alone other popular social media platforms.

It’s sort of legally gray but generally speaking in the US downloading is a civil offense but not a criminal one. You can get sued by the copyright holder for example but you won’t end up in jail over it.

People usually never get sued for it because it’s not worth it for Comcast to pay for lawyers to try and extract any money out of regular people. Not only will they almost certainly be unable to even recoup the lawyer fees, they risk getting a lot of bad PR for no gain.

What’s usually considered an arrestable offense is uploading aka distribution. Once you start hosting seedboxes then you enter the area where you’re liable to go to prison.