Well, if you look at it from the perspective of faithless reporting like that from Fox News and Newsmax, the information pipeline has been selling a narrative that the left has been on an authoritarian tear since Obama. The newscasts are chilling: every one of them for more than two decades has taken a position that the left is an existential threat to the United States.

With that kind of context, it's really no wonder there's support from the right for an authoritarian leader. They honestly just think they're playing the democrats game and playing it better.

It _is_ a bit odd there's a complete lack of reflection on some of these moves though, but I suppose so long as the current executive branch veers away from changing the second amendment and manages to carve out enough exceptions for their most ardent supporters, all's good from their standpoint.

ChatGPT advanced voice mode really is surprisingly excellent - I just wish it:

1) would give you more time to pause when you’re talking before it immediately launches into an answer

2) would actually try to say the symbols in code blocks verbatim - it’s basically useless for looking up anything to do with code, because it will omit parts of the answer from its speech.

I'm one week in on heavy grok usage. I didn't think I'd say this, but for personal use, I'm considering cancelling my OpenAI plan.

The one thing I wish grok had was more separation of the UI from X itself. The interface being so coupled to X puts me off and makes it feel like a second-hand citizen. I like ChatGPTs minimalist UI.

The US gov's intention was not at all to shut down TikTok. It was to force ByteDance to sell it.

The fact that ByteDance is opting for a shutdown instead is a huge PR stunt, and their unwillingness to sell under the circumstances kinda proves their whole First Amendment claims are made in bad faith. Something deeper is going on, and it's not about your social security number.

Which is ridiculous because while casinos are engineered to ensure $x > $y over time, economies are existentially dependent on the reverse being true over time and across a broad enough portfolio.

Folks you can just buy the S&P 500 and wait. It really is that simple. Money will go down sometimes, up sometimes, down some more, but in the long run it will almost certainly go up. And if it doesn't, the world is crumbling anyway so who cares?

Agreed.

With any such service, I budget 1 hour. If I can't get cancellation within that time-frame I have a standard form letter that gets sent out.

Once the letter is sent, after the current billing cycle ends any additional charges from said service are disputed (either on the card or on bank account) as fraud.

On three occasions, I've been asked to provide proof of fraud.

I've emailed a scan of the cancellation letter. The fraud has never been further disputed even from a gym in Chicago that (via their contract's language) demanded an in-person cancellation.

Life is too short and time is far too precious.

Five tons sounds like a lot. But on the other hand, the Los Angeles basin sounds pretty big. (a quick check suggests it is about 1200 square miles)

The AQI there looks good.