Not advocating violence, but shit like this is going to lead to violence.

I agree with your points. The scheme will fail because politicians will use it to punish groups of people they don’t like. I said in the beginning that I don’t know what the solution is, but somewhere along the way, we threw out our values of community, service, thrift, education, and fairness (among others) for “I got mine, fuck you.”

Citizenship doesn’t guarantee me equal protection under the law. It doesn’t guarantee me fair treatment, freedom from racism, bigotry, harassment, or currently keep me from being murdered or forcibly deported by my own government. It doesn’t guarantee me an education and it doesn’t get me food, clothing, shelter, or healthcare.

But if there are some brown people that my government wants to bomb, or some tax breaks they want to give to some billionaires, you can bet they will happily use my citizen tax dollars to do it.

You have to earn it in other countries, plus people coming to the US have to earn it as well.

We talk a lot about our freedoms and liberties in the US, but we don’t talk much about civic and personal responsibility to our neighbors, communities, and country. We look down on poor people and people unable to participate in the economy. We give away all of our power as citizens to people who exploit us.

We don’t participate in our own government.

I think citizenship and all it entails should be taught in schools, and once you’re nearly an adult, you take the exam and then you get your certificate or whatever, just like anything else.

I’m not saying that you wouldn’t have any rights until then - I’m viewing it more like an educational degree - but you would know a LOT more about how your government is supposed to work and what your actual rights and responsibilities are. I see it as empowering, not exclusionary.

I’m not entirely sure. I feel like citizenship and social responsibility were things that were talked about in elementary school once or twice and then never spoken of again. Civics class was forgettable.

We push the idea of individual liberty to the point where I feel it’s detrimental to the goals of living together in a community and society.

I don’t know what the solution would be, but EARNING your citizenship sounds like it would mean more to people instead of it being granted automatically.

Since we Americans are granted citizenship at birth, it doesn’t really mean a whole lot anymore nowadays. People take it for granted and feel like they can do whatever they want whenever and however they want, regardless of the fact that they live in a society, and are not just a collection of individuals.

I’ve had great success with Garuda Linux. I’m running the KDE “Mokka” version.

It’s quite opinionated, so be aware of that, but it’s been very reliable on my HP laptop (it even has hibernation support!) and the built-in apps are top notch.

Just be aware that Arch-based distros tend to shun things like Flatpaks in favor of their own repositories and the Arch User Repository (AUR), and there aren’t any friendly point and click app stores like KDE Discover or GNOME Software. You will have to install apps using the command line or tools like Octopi, which is great if you know exactly what you’re looking for, but terrible for app discovery.

Since I mostly use Flatpaks, I installed Bazaar. You can install Discover, but it only works for Flatpak.

I used to run Manjaro, but after it left two of my computers in an unbootable state after an upgrade a few years ago, I moved on.

Nothing inspires curiosity more than making something forbidden.

That kid is gonna find out ALL KINDS of information that his dad doesn’t want him to know about from his peers. Some of it good, most of it inaccurate, but you go ahead, dad.

I’ll have to take your word for it. I’m just parroting what the dishwasher repair guy told me.

Occasional cleaning in the dishwasher is probably fine, as long as it’s occasional. Dishwasher detergent contains enzymes that eat away at the food on your dishes. Just be sure and do it with a full load of dirty dishes, otherwise those enzymes will start eating away at whatever else is in the dishwasher. 

It’s why if you read the manual of your dishwasher, it will usually tell you to not rinse your dishes before putting them inside. Those enzymes need something to work on, and if there is no food for them to munch on, they will start munching on your glasses and dishes, dulling their finish. 

Pirate Santa Rap.

Someone please do this, and do it FOR REAL - none of that AI slop.

Found him! No spoiler needed!

Our hotel was in FiDi, but I had issues even in Midtown. I have a brother in Harlem, and when I mentioned it to him, he was not surprised.

We come up to visit our daughter pretty regularly. I usually don’t have issues when I go to NYC, just these past two times when it was downright painful. 

I would have a love for it to be a cold, but I have never had colds with no other symptoms than burning lungs when I am walking down the street in Manhattan.

Two, actually. And they were almost a year apart. And it didn’t happen in Brooklyn, only in Manhattan.

I’m obviously not discrediting the study, only stating that I didn’t notice a difference. Clearly 20% cleaner is not enough for me. 

Normally I’d agree with you, but I’ve been traveling to NYC once or twice a year for the past 8 years, was there for 5 days, and only had issues on the most recent trips.

I sure didn’t notice it. My trip to NYC over Thanksgiving week left me with sore and painful lungs nearly every day I was there.

And now imagine how that feels for people who don’t have direct access to the press, you fucking cunt.

America First?

They want to keep it because it’s a double recursive acronym, GNU Image Manipulation Program, where “GNU” translates to “GNU’s Not UNIX.”

So clever.

It’s 2026. Can we please change the name to something NOT juvenile?

Fuck Israel. The Netanyahu regime is genocidal and needs to be crushed.