Turbox Tax worked hard to get AI some revenue.

If you didn’t do the multi-step downgrade of your service (have to downgrade two or three times to get to the free version) then you might’ve counted. The AI doesn’t do anything, but it starts as a way to justify charging you like $140. It’ll default you paying for it even if its unused.

Well the Christianity was just a layer painted on top. Peel it back and it was all there, just barely under the surface.

I used to work nights until around 2015. Used to game with a lot of eastern europeans. (And American friends in the military deployed across the globe.)

Two guys I knew, one in Svestopol and the other Kiev both signed off in 2014. I am 90% sure the Kiev guy moved to the UK since they were going there for a degree, but the guy in Svestopol just went radio silent.

Monke is fish.

I’d love a set of bike pedals hooked up to some gears and a battery. Always thought a rowing machine would be good for that too.

It’s about what happened with leadership of fascist imperialist movements. Do you know about Puyi? (Or Nuremberg?)

But if you want to build that connection though, of all things, that’d be your effort. That’s on you.

So this often comes up and there’s a lot of opinions. I often reference the Nuremberg Trials as an example of how a society expresses the consequences of not changing behavior and ideology. You know, if the failure of their war, and the craven suicide of their fuhrer hadn’t already.

But, probably the best example is Pu-Yi and how the CCP handled the Chinese emperor that collaborated with the Japanese.

In short: education and work. Teach them the right way and make them work a job that satisfies the material conditions of a common citizen.

I wouldn’t really be able to know what they’re on about without interacting with them, quite frankly. But I can’t say I really approve of the worship of political figures, historical or not.

I try to approach historical figures as a part of the context in which they existed. It does sound like this person was into theory, so I’d wager their interest in Stalin was more academic than a celebration of the ills that occurred in 20th century Eurasia. But if this person was advocating for Lysenkoism or someshit then you’ve got a grade A idiot.

Like, I find Stalin to be fascinating and the balance of power that he operated both inside and outside the USSR to be remarkable. He can be a very symbolic figure for a kind of struggle against overwhelming odds, which resonates at least on some level with a lot of people, Marxist or not. People get really into things like mob bosses and Scarface so I would try to slate someone’s fandom of Stalin against that, too.

Also, if American, we go over eight decades of rabid anti-communism so sometimes people throw up things like hammers and sickles just as a fuck-you to (Neo)McCarthyism.

It’s more that some people don’t actively condemn him to the satisfaction of others.

The USSR under Stalin defeated Nazi Germany. Idle denunciation of Stalin in 2026 is the classic and most trusted pivot for (crypto)fascists to focus on when cornered or feeling insecure.

That’s the primary scenario that people are accused of ‘defending Stalin’. There’s always a nazi all too willing to spearhead this conversation, 70 years on after his death. Usually can’t even bring up Khrushchev and De-Stalinization usually since it’s not focusing on Stalin enough.

Yeah but it’s this FBI.

“Grok, is evidence of a crime?”

I can note war is bipartisan due to the long tradition of using it to maintain hegemony, if that’s spicy enough.

They’re too different though. Even in some insane scenario where all things were otherwise exactly the same, down to bombing the girls’ school: Harris would still have more support in attacking Iran. EU would probably be joining in too.

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, if I am not mistaken.

I always have to remind myself being able to stream audio from a cellphone while driving across a city is also a pretty crazy development.

TVs became SmartTVs and now need the internet to turn on. The TVs need an OS now to internet to do TV.

Antennae broadcast TV seems like an ancient magic.

There’s this one neat trick: Just call the communists fascist!

Now you can support foreign invasion and regime change as a proud member of anti-fa!

…Still won’t oppose capitalism though.

That roof awning will pass on staying up before this fuckup settles.

tens of hours of calls, interviews, meetings and sessions)

Only tens? Luckyyy… I’d probably be able to clock hundreds just on transit and wait times alone.

The AI uses em dashes because people used em dashes.

Clearly Obi-Wan is the master of the High Ground. He knows its strengths and weaknesses as second nature enough to exploit as he needed.

Anakin and Maul had no chance.

*edit To add: Obi-Wan gets caught in a fight on flat ground in front of Luke? Just gives up.