As a Seattle native, I now must inform you of the…

Seattle Street Samurai

As someone who once upon a time managed a black belt in Shito Ryu Karate…

This is pretty interesting.

Of course, the claimed history of many older martial arts are quite hard to verify historically, but basically modern Karate derives from Okinawans creating and teaching themselves a martial style to resist occupation by the Japanese.

Okinawa was once an independent island with its own traditions and government, until it was basically colonized / vassalized by the Satsuma Domain, under the Tokugawa shogunate, in 1609.

It is thus fairly ironic that one of the most well-known ‘Japanese’ martial arts lineages actually has its origin in what was once an independent state and people resisting Japanese control.

But this Togakure Ryu… apparently goes much further back, at least to the Sengoku period, about 200 years before Tokugawa, and is basically a branch of ninjutsu, with much more emphasis on swords, escape and evasion, and basically being a scout/spy.

I can see how that would be pretty applicable to a street mobster haha.

Karate was more designed as a means of a farming village resisting raids from much better armed and armored bands of Samurai and their underlings, either without weapons, or using their farming implements as weapons such as sai, bo staffs and kana, as the Japanese had banned the Okinawans from owning katanas.

A ninjutsu style would be much more apt for a mobster looking to occasionally rough up (or murder) people and then flee, as well as keep tabs on his domain hahah.

I will always opt for a Lyft or Uber, unless I am actively dying from something that could kill me in 30 minutes or less, like a massive severed artery or something like that.

They are just as fast, and if I start literally dying in the hospital waiting room, they will most likely pay attention.

The only way it makes sense to take an ambulance to a hospital is if you literally have no other option, or if you are so seriously injured you’ve already lost consciousness or are mostly paralyzed.

You can call an ambulance, paramedics arrive, stabilize you, and then refuse to get in the ambulance.

This costs you nothing.

Then you just bite on your wallet and take an Uber or Lyft, which costs 10 to 20 dollars.

Get in the ambulance? 1 to 3 thousand dollars, for a shitty version of the care you’ll recieve in the hospital anyway, can’t avoid those costs.

Republicans: “Well, who else is gonna work the fields after we deport all the Mexicans?”

Everyone up to 5 steps up from the blue guy is either an element of the Trump/Republican campaign, or was caused directly by Republicans over time.

Do… you not think that Republicans want to destroy public education because stupid people (ignorant voters) are easier to manipulate?

Do you not think that Republicans use and promote misogyny both as a rhetorical tactic and and end goal?

The part that absolutely baffles me is that latinos shifted heavily to vote for Trump, for potentially the deportation of their own family members.

Ahhaha, good joke.

No the future is everything is more expensive and worse quality.

Its a pretty strategically and economically impactful piece of legislation pushed by, and then signed into law, by Biden, in 2022.

It basically sets up a bunch of tax incentives and funds to go toward building out domestic computer hardware research and manufacturing.

Its the kind of thing that would lay the foundation for the US building a lot more of its own computer hardware, instead of importing it.

So when the Trump tariff apocalypse hits… assuming the CHIPS Act does not get repealed, it will be the only saving grace in terms of possibly lowering computer hardware costs.

Trump and Republicans are likely to try and take credit for this, if domestic chip fabs start coming online before 2028, pretending it is something they came up with.

CHIPS Act? Never heard of it.

I just said they would freak out.

Who they end up blaming is between them and their god emperor, I guess.

It will at least be extremely funny to watch all the right wing gamer bro chuds freak the fuck out when an immediate consequence of their actions will be that gaming pc components instantly inflate 50% in price.

Glad I already got my Steam Deck, fuck.

So how could she have broken with Biden as the current VP?

If elected, I vow to cease all offensive arms and munitions shipments and funding for such to the State of Israel on day one.

What Hamas did on Oct 7th was an outrageous act of terrorism committed against a civilian population, but the response from the Netanyahu administration has caused orders of magnitude more death and destruction against innocent residents of Gaza, and this over zealous military response has enflamed tensions in the region and risks escalation into a much broader conflict.

I will still supply the Israelis with defensive funds for their Iron Dome, we will send them Patriot missile intercept systems, but we will no longer send artillery shells, bombs, ammunition, anything that can be used to further their wildly mismanaged offensive operations.

Further, I will actually commit to setting up and operating a temporary harbor for food and medical supplies to enter Gaza.

… Something like that, blah blah blah, make it clear that all sides in this have some level of culpability for wrong actions and that she will do what she can to minimize the harm the US is culpable for.

Let’s say she does that. Do you think with the numbers that DJT turned out that she’d have gained so much more than she would have lost that it would have made a difference?

IMEU polls in July and August showed roughly that 30% to 40% of likely Dem and Indp voters in multiple swing states would be more likely to vote for a Dem candidate if they did what they could to halt the Gaza genocide.

Would this turn off likely Republicans voters from her? Basically no more than they already were turned off from her. But she would have gained a whole bunch of Dem voters who specifically could not bring themselves to vote for a candidate complicit with genocide.

Let’s further say that she did, and it was, and she won the election. She’s now thrown a long-term, strategic ally under the bus on the world stage. Not only that, she’ll have to forcibly disarm them, potentially feeding them to the wolves in the Middle East.

Nope. You can stop enabling offensive action by ceasing to supply offensive systems and munitions, and still maintain your commitment to Israel’s defense by giving them defensive supplies.

You don’t need to totally disarm the IDF. That would involve going into a ground invasion war against our ally which is obviously insane.

This would not be throwing an ally under the bus. It would be stomping your foot down and reigning in an ally that’s gone on a mad rampage with bombs you have given them.

And please don’t mention “genocide” in your reply. That’s already a know variable in play.

Nah, I’ll use that word, because it is an accurate descriptor. I am not sorry at all if this somehow offends your sensibilities.

Ding ding ding!

Winner winner, idiot dog barfing up your chicken dinner.

Unless they just rewrite those rules/regulations to avoid that.

Which is their whole plan.

If you are talking about deontology and utilitarianism from two to three hundred years ago…

Maybe your characterizations are accurate.

But uh, in more modern ethical theory…

Both camps have realized that pure adherence to the older forms of these ideas leads to absurdities and moral prescriptions which do not broadly match actual empirical responses to hypothetical scenarios.

As a result, most modern ethical theories are some kind of a hybrid of deontologic and utilitarian principles.

I will only use this if it uses Clippy’s animations.

Thats… what this is, right?

Clippy 3.0?

Nurse bursts in to OR

Doctor!

This new study show that there is a 30% chance the patient will die if you ignore this allergic reaction they may have if you keep pursuing your current treatment plan!

Doctor scoffs

It can’t be that big a deal, if this was serious, the patient’s family would have let me know by mailing me that study with appended handwritten notes from my favorite peer reviewers from JAMA, and a gold star sticker!

But Doctor! It’s not the job of the family to know how to practice medicine, that’s your job! And anyway, I have a copy of the study right here!

Pff, no appended notes, no gold star, ignored.

Patient dies.

Huh, damn, things might have been different if the family had told me how to do my job in the exact, precise manner in which I accept advice. Oh well! Maybe the next patient’s family will figure out the correct way to tell me how to do my job next time. After all, I can’t be held responsible for not accepting information readily available to me… without a gold star sticker!

So uh, skipping a bunch of excess lore:

“Dogs are one of the most beloved pets in the world. They are loyal, friendly and make great companions. Despite their differences, all dogs share a few key traits – they are affectionate, protective of their owners, and eager to please. Dogs require proper care, including regular exercise, grooming, and veterinary checkups. In return, they provide unconditional love and can even improve their owner’s physical and mental health. Whether as a family pet or a working animal, dogs have been an integral part of human society for thousands of years.”

The chat bot is named after a dog because a dog-named chatbot is more likely to make users treat it with patience, kindness, and understand that it does silly things sometimes, but it means well.

Its marketing. PR.

This can be done, but it isn’t legal.

Yep.

It would mean that a law that passes that just appends ‘and you are male’ or ‘and you are white’ now is legally valid without requiring judicial review.