He never claimed to have invented the internet. He claimed rightly that he was integral to legalstaure adoption efforts early on its history.

From Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf (the men who invented TCP/IP, which the modern internet is based on):

As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship. Though easily forgotten, now, at the time this was an unproven and controversial concept. Our work on the Internet started in 1973 and was based on even earlier work that took place in the mid-late 1960s. But the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises.

As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to consolidate what at the time were several dozen different and unconnected networks into an “Interagency Network.” Working in a bi-partisan manner with officials in Ronald Reagan and George Bush’s administrations, Gore secured the passage of the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in 1991. This “Gore Act” supported the National Research and Education Network (NREN) initiative that became one of the major vehicles for the spread of the Internet beyond the field of computer science.

As Vice President Gore promoted building the Internet both up and out, as well as releasing the Internet from the control of the government agencies that spawned it. He served as the major administration proponent for continued investment in advanced computing and networking and private sector initiatives such as Net Day. He was and is a strong proponent of extending access to the network to schools and libraries. Today, approximately 95% of our nation’s schools are on the Internet. Gore provided much-needed political support for the speedy privatization of the Internet when the time arrived for it to become a commercially-driven operation.

The above was just a GOP hit piece like when they swiftboated Kerry, I.e when they took something really excellent about a politician, distorted it into an inane strawman, and then mocked it endlessly until people believed in the strawman.

Yes, that is an accurate representation of the issue of FPTP.

What does voting for Jill Stein or RFK Jr do to change that in 49 of 50 states?

It doesn’t matter until it matters. Voting fecklesly for a 3rd party in just one large election every 4 years has not and will not change anything meaninfully. You need changes like Alaska’s, which based on state population size, was like changing a city ordinance. It will take a lot more effort to change over to RCV in basically any other state. A kind of effort fringe candidates should be applying non stop.

The issue with “well just do it in non swing states” is that you can’t contain this empty, contrarian gesturing to just those states without the candiates opting to not put themselves on the ballot in others. If they did that intentionally, only applying to be on the ballot in non swing states, while also actively campaigning for RCV, then I would fully support it. None do.

The reality is the people like RFK Jr and Jill stein are intentional spoilers, heavily subsidized by right wing billionaires and foreign powers to throw the election in those swing states. You can follow the money and see it in action. Until they seriously apply the above efforts, that’s all they will ever be, and they don’t deserve even token gestures of support.

Contextually, we are discussing the presidential election. That’s what the meme above is about. 49 of 50 states are FPTP. Alaska is the only one using RCV. Since Alaska’s total population is 800k out of 345 million US citizens, the discussion of voting pragmatically for president affects 99.8% of Americans.

In Alaska, which does have RCV for president starting this year, people should fully vote for their ideal candidate, as long as they rank the rest as well so RCV works.

So overall, for every 500 Americans who read this thread and now opt to vote pragmatically, it might adversely affect 1 Alaskan, who may vote pragmatically instead of ideally. That’s not a perfect ideal for those rare Alaskans, but it’s still reasonable.

No info on total tonnage hauled either. Most electric semis will not be able to haul as much stuff at once.

You improve a broken system by fixing the broken system, not by pretending you’re not using it.

Vote, agitate or even run as a candidate that will pass ranked choice voting, locally or larger. Support the interstate electoral vote compact. Do whatever you can to directly fix the system.

Until then, you mitigate harm within the broken system.

Musk is a liar. He said he wasn’t going to donate to Trump in July when news leaked about his 45mil/month promise, but he was already donating, and is still donating now.

This week, there was more proof that Musk has put his money where his mouth has been. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Musk poured tens of millions of dollars into Republican campaigns and conservative groups even before he publicly endorsed Donald Trump in July. Conservatives helped conceal Musk’s contributions through so-called social welfare or “dark money” groups that do not have to disclose their donors and can raise unlimited funds. (Musk did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.)

One piece of reporting stood out. The newspaper found that the tech billionaire donated more than $50 million in 2022 for campaign advertisements by Citizens for Sanity, a group connected to former Trump aide Stephen Miller and his non-profit America First Legal, which bills itself as “the long-awaited answer to the ACLU.”

Musk has also directly aligned himself with Trump, founding a super PAC called America PAC to get 800,000 people to vote for the former president in key battleground states. According to the Guardian, Trump’s ground operation in swing states are now mostly outsourced to America PAC, and Business Insider said that Musk is now shelling out millions to Republicans in 15 competitive House races. Yesterday, Politico reported that America PAC was teaming up with Turning Point Action, the political advocacy division of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, to fund hundreds of “ballot chasers” in Wisconsin.

Hes also dumped at least 300k in to general GOP races directly:

The National Republican Congressional Committee reported receiving $289,100 from Musk in August, according to its report filed with the Federal Election Commission Friday.

Try Ollama. No payment required.

It can be, especially if you have steady tenants.

I know ex landlords of mine that barely had to pay out anything over the course of years, while they made 5 figures/year.

Even as a home owner, you can have a string of luck. I have relatives with 20 year old water heaters going strong.

Not in the EU you didn’t.

Seriously might make the drivers day. Driving around bored as shit or listen to an expert talk about a topic they love with great passion?

Not a hard call for me either.

No problem mate. The article goes into it a bit with the cheaper splitters. They either aren’t UL listed, so maybe electronically unsafe, or they allow power draw over both outlets at once, which will trip you breaker if someone starts the dryer while the car is charging.

This one is electrically sound and “set it and forget it,” but is pricier.

You can even tap off the 240v and leave the dryer plugged in with a smart adapter. It only charges the car when the dryer is not running.

If only.

To whom it will concern…

I wish sonos had better interoperability, but I did discover if you make a group of speakers and then cast to the “primary” speaker with symfonium, it broadcasts to the whole group.

Was my only issue with it, but that’s 100% a “sonos is shit” problem, not the app.

Slay the spire, balatro and Peglin also fit here.

Amazing indie games, all one time buys.

No, not even them, but the GOP is actively doing it, and if they win this election it will never stop.

This is what “fight fire with fire” means. You use the same tools as your enemy, or you lose.

Satire can take action in its execution. A man with a tuba following a nazi march is satire mixed with action.

You don’t like money in politics, and this is still money in politics. That’s a different and valid complaint, but this is still effective satire.

Try out greenshot. It’s a FOSS tool that let’s you click and drag a box around the area you want to screenshot. It also let’s you save multiple outputs, so you can auto upload a screenshot to dropbox/etc while also letting you paste locally. You can customize how file names are generated, on and on. Completly free.

Mine is setup to always save a copy of a screenshot to a folder that is date stamped, but also saves to my clipboard, so I can paste it anywhere.