Physical, financial, economical, reputational… It’s going to be a long LONG time before America has any resemblance of recovery.
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The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access #ai #sicurezza #tecnologia @sicurezza
UK gov: goes out of its way to make the place a shithole also UK gov: “Why don’t people consider it worthwhile to reproduce anymore?”
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Brb gonna bounce on my boy’s dick in celebration of this news!
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I didn’t read it that way. I read it as the difference between billionaire and trillionaire being irrelevant, neither should be a thing. The systems and the rich both need to go. I’d argue that those who disagree should too.
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When choosing a pest-control company, always go with the one that has the best otome game.
A federal judge may have dealt the final blow to President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “weaponization fund” on Friday, indefinitely blocking it and ordering his administration to state unequivocally that it’s no longer happening. In the face of bipartisan backlash, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had publicly backed off plans to use the money earlier this month, and a court temporarily blocked the transfer of the money to what opponents had dubbed a “slush fund” for Trump’s supporters, including January 6 rioters who claim to be victims of government “weaponization” by the Biden administration. But The Atlantic reported on Thursday that even as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) publicly swears that the payouts are dead, administration officials have been reassuring Trump’s cronies behind the scenes that they’ll get their checks and that the administration simply needs to wait for the legal blowback to die down or find an alternative way to award them the money, which was set to follow a DOJ-brokered settlement between Trump and his own Internal Revenue Service (IRS). That may prove more difficult after Friday, however, when US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema issued a preliminary injunction indefinitely extending her previous two-week pause on the fund. She described the arrangement, to have taxpayer funds disbursed without court rulings to “an extremely small group” that many Americans feel engaged in “unacceptable” conduct, as “problematic.” The DOJ had attempted to have the case against the fund dismissed, arguing that it was now a moot point, since Blanche had publicly declared it dead. But Brinkema said, "The [government’s] mootness argument, in my view, doesn’t go anywhere.” While the DOJ stated that the fund has “not been set up and is now not going forward," Brinkema noted that Blanche had declined to state that under oath, while Trump has publicly continued to champion the fund even as his administration has backed away from it. During the hearing in the Eastern District of Virginia, Brinkema pressed DOJ lawyer Andrew Block on why, if the fund was truly defunct, the administration had not formally rescinded the order setting it up. He said he didn’t know. The judge gave Blanche, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr., and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose department would have overseen the fund, one week to sign a “clear, unambiguous” declaration stating under penalty of perjury that the fund is dead, and wrote in the order that they must affirm that it “will not proceed in any manner, or under any name.” She said in order for the lawsuit to be thrown out, the government needed to put it in writing because “we don’t have the kind of absolute certainty that this fund wouldn’t rear its head.” CEO @SkyePerryman and Senior Counsel Pooja Boisture break down our major slush fund win from court. pic.twitter.com/ngneLRsl8R — Democracy Forward (@DemocracyFwd) June 12, 2026 Outside the courtroom, Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward—the watchdog group that sued the DOJ—celebrated that the court had “put the brakes on Donald Trump’s slush fund.” The group is representing several plaintiffs who say they’d be harmed if the fund were to be enacted. They include a former federal prosecutor fired after leading January 6 cases; the city of New Haven, Connecticut, which has been targeted by the administration over its sanctuary policies; the National Abortion Federation, which says the fund could reward anti-abortion activists convicted of clinic-related offenses; and the watchdog group Common Cause, which argues that the opaque scheme could embolden January 6 defendants. “We were thrilled that the judge understood the significant harm that our clients face as a result of the fund, as well as the American people,” said Democracy Forward senior counsel Pooja Boisture. “We were thrilled that she got it right. She understood that this was not a partisan issue.” It remains unclear whether the order would stop the administration from pursuing other methods for rewarding Trump’s allies. Reuters reported on Friday that his legal allies have discussed dusting off a 1946 law called the Federal Tort Claims Act, which would allow individuals to file administrative claims and lawsuits that could be settled out of court with a lot of flexibility for the government. “The Trump administration cannot be trusted with the public’s money,” said Omar Noureldin, Common Cause’s senior vice president for policy and litigation. "We’ve successfully locked the president’s personal slush fund for now, and we’ll keep the pressure on until it’s shut down for good.” From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
Lebanese PM Nawwaf Salam has condemned Iran for Israel’s war of aggression in southern Lebanon, in a deranged interview with the Murdoch Times. Nawaaf claimed that Tehran rejected a supposed ‘ceasefire’ ‘deal’ in Israel’s invasion of Lebanon because: Tehran wanted to say Lebanon is a card in our pocket, that ‘we decide on Lebanon’s behalf … we are the decision-makers’. The one-sided ‘deal‘ involved Israel being free — its usual modus operandi — to continue attacking and seizing territory in southern Lebanon. By contrast, resistance group Hezbollah would have to cease all operations, lay down its arms and leave the territory, giving the invaders free rein. But Israel would supposedly stop bombing Beirut. Instead, Iran has continued to refuse any ceasefire in its own war with Israel and the US that does not include Israel leaving all Lebanese territory and ceasing all aggression against Lebanon. And when Israel bombed Beirut this week, on 8 June 2026, Iran struck Israel in retaliation, having warned the occupiers it would do so. Lebanon’s ‘Vichy’ government Despite Shia Muslims forming the largest group in Lebanon, Lebanon’s so-called ‘National Pact’ mandates that the country’s president must always be a Maronite Christian and its prime minister a Sunni Muslim — while the speaker of parliament is Shia Muslim. Salam’s government is widely considered a ‘Vichy‘ regime collaborating with its occupiers. This collaboration has led to accusations of “high treason” and “servile collaboration” with Israel and its US backers despite Israel’s bombing of Beirut. This has triggered renewed street protests against the regime demanding resistance to Israel’s invasion. Salam clearly isn’t listening, too busy parroting his sponsors’ narrative that absolves Israel of its land theft and murder and blames Iran for daring to resist. Featured image via DailyNewsEgypt By Skwawkbox From Canary via This RSS Feed.
The human species has essentially been transformed into a giant machine to generate profit for corporations. Under capitalism, humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders. That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live. It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless. Crosspost from https://news.abolish.capital/post/56355
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🔗 Caption: “Now remember, Cory, show us that you can take good care of these little fellows and maybe next year we’ll get you that puppy.” Alt text: Vinci Bros. Cockroach Farm “Hours of revolting entertainment!” Disqus comments Page couldn’t be archived
As AI companies get ready to go public and we get a deeper look at their inner workings, it’s only natural to have questions about their finances, like “Do they make money?” and “How?” Here are a few examples to help the average layperson understand the business side of AI.
A while ago, I got a green party hat in Runescape that I sold in the marketplace for around 930 million gold. After I got all the gear I needed, I still had around 930 million. I didn’t know what to do with it, so what I ended up doing was going around to random players, especially newer, lower level players, and I was handing out 5-20 million stacks to them. I did this to probably about 100 or so players and I still have 400 million. I don’t know what to do with it.
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I’ve struggled to be musical all my life–took lessons, took college classes, did ear training, etc. I think I finally cracked the code, and it’s surprisingly simple: Learn to play melodies by ear (starts with singing) Learn only enough theory to: know your way around your instrument (scales, arpeggios) understand chords understand song structure Experiment (ie have fun!) The most anal formal exercise I’d recommend is learning to hear relative scale degrees (two very good apps available for that)–though I think that skill would be developed by transcribing (playing by ear), it’s helpful for your confidence level to have graded exercises you can have some success with. But my experience with most of my music teachers is they fall into one of two traps: For classical music, it’s: Learn how to translate written notes into notes on your instrument. Go to 1. For instance: I was taking clarinet lessons and I remember my teacher saying goodbye to his last student–a kid–and the teacher said, “If you bring me the sheet music for it, we can learn to play it.” And I thought what a missed opportunity that was for that girl to learn to hear and transcribe music–obviously not a skill he thought was important to the teacher at all. And I’d understand now wanting to do that for piano, which is really complicated, but learning to play a melody by ear on a single note instrument is a very achievable goal, especially when you have someone that can tell you what key it’s in and what the first note is. The trap for jazz music is: Learn what are the “right” notes to play. Play them in any random order. I used to blame teachers for just being bad at their jobs, but I think students (and maybe parents/administrators) are also to blame. I ran across a senior guy who was trying to get back into piano. He’d played for a few years and it was clear he had no idea of how to be musical–no idea of how to construct a simple bass line, no knowledge of how to define a chord. So I said, “Hey, I’ll work with you even though I don’t play piano, I think you need to learn this song and just play the root and the five in the left hand, and sing the melody while you play, and use a metronome.” What an amazing exercise I thought: it would help teach him timing, develop his ear, develop his feel, let him be expressive with his voice, let him embody the melody, lear to work the bass, etc. Aren’t I brilliant teacher? You know what this guy did? He pulled out his phone to show me some recordings he did of him playing the song the way his music teacher had written it out for him; it was what I expected–just haltingly reading the music with no sense of time. I wasn’t sure, but I think he wanted me to praise him for playing such a complex piece. For him, and maybe for a lot of students (and certainly for parents and administrators), they don’t actually want to master music, they want to impress people. And maybe for the musically disinclined, haltingly playing a complex written piece is more impressive than a 2-note bassline in time with an expressive voiceline sensitive to dynamic; since most people in charge of music education (parents and school administrators) don’t know music, maybe they would promote a teacher who taught the former and fire a teacher who taught the latter… For jazz programs, I think they’ve got a lot of theory they’ve got to cram into the kids heads, and we can learn theory a lot faster than we can develop musically, so if you’re going to be judged on “performance” of your students, you’ll be rewarded for having them be able to pass essentially paper exams set to music more than for having them skillfully play pentatonic blues. I don’t know what the answer is, but for some reason, actually mastering music is very low on the list for both teachers and students. What’s all y’all’s experience with music and music education?
The problem in my experience has been that the potential for writing someone off is a two way street. I’ve had family and friends who I’ve spent legitimately dozens of hours with in what I thought were really good chats, deep conversations, where I wouldn’t be afraid to get into the weeds and lay things out from a class consciousness or even just an “everyone deserves to live/have access to healthcare/etc” framing, and realize far too late into my interactions that very little to none of what I’ve been saying has stuck. That people enjoy talking at me but not with me. My general approach to everything in life is that I’m open to being wrong on any given subject, but that a given refutation has to be proportional to my understanding; it has to actually poke a hole in the underlying reasoning. There’s a certain pain that comes from discussing a matter such as the death penalty issue with someone, going point by point and getting them on board over the course of an hour long discussion, and then to get the first point thrown in your face again like it’s a gotcha that wasn’t touched on earlier. I came to realize in this specific example that the person I was talking to, and thought I was engaging with, just held different axiomatic beliefs than I do, and regardless of how well I was able to get my point across and have it resonate that it would inevitably bounce off of a core belief they considered integral to their identity. And so where do I go from there? Try to discuss first principles, and bring up the most maligned academic subject in the United States: philosophy? I honestly think it’s a good place to start but it has to cut through so much bullshit and cultural baggage that has been assigned to it. To me, at its core, philosophy as a topic is fundamentally about the “critical thinking” so many seem to mourn the loss of in our education, without understanding why or what that actually means. The process of knowing what “an argument” is and what makes it valid—what makes it sound—is I think a really important part of engaging in a back and forth between others. To know the animatic beliefs one holds, and to know whether or not two beliefs contradict those axioms to push one towards modifying or outright abandoning one that doesn’t fit to come away with more consistent views in the process. At this stage my comments here are also probably on the level of “old lady yells at clouds” just the same, but yeah I think one shouldn’t write people off out of hand, but one should also know where their time is best spent. Past a point of being patient and understanding with someone close who refuses to understand, I have to realize if my goal is to further class consciousness that I need to have those conversations with people who will be more receptive. My interactions with a person are at best a fraction of their day; they have their own lives they live, their own groups of people they interact with, and their own media they consume. Unless you can essentially shatter someone’s worldview then they will (largely) patch over holes in it with whatever is convenient. Given how hard the various systems push for reactionary sentiment in the general populace, that’s largely going to be an uphill battle. It’s still worth doing, mind you, but part of the tactics here include the fact that it’s unfortunately impossible to get everyone on board. I’m not that big of a fan of the term lumpenprole myself but the fact stands that our time is ultimately a finite resource. If someone finds me fun to talk to because of my wacky and queer (but ultimately, to their mind and because of who I am, fundamentally unserious) ideas, then I’m wasting my time.
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Stop using algorithm feeds, and obfuscate your online presence. Most people don’t care enough to bother, though. The convenience makes it worth the loss of privacy.
Beehaw alt of @[email protected] @fwygon on discord
Gonna need more of a source rather than some dipshit on lemmy putting words in quotations.
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❗️US senator pushes legislation for permanent US-Israeli intelligence integration ::: spoiler Expand US Senator Tom Cotton has pushed forward an aggressive new measure aimed at locking Washington into a permanent, unbreakable espionage alliance with Israel. Tucked inside the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027, Section 622 directly alters the National Security Act of 1947 to strip the White House of its traditional authority to alter ties with a foreign state. The legislation explicitly mandates that intelligence sharing with the Israeli government shall not be suspended, reduced, or materially limited by the executive branch. The proposal effectively binds the CIA and other US espionage organs to Israel’s military apparatus by creating a rigid legal barrier against any reduction in information flow. Under the new framework, the White House is prohibited from cutting off intelligence support even if Israeli forces commit gross human rights violations or flagrant breaches of international law. To bypass existing restrictions, the text entirely avoids mentioning human rights, war crimes, or local accountability, ensuring that US surveillance products continue to fuel Israeli operations without domestic oversight. The legislative push comes alongside parallel measures in the House designed to mandatorily align US strategic planning, artificial intelligence, and weapons development with the Israeli military establishment. ::: https://t.me/thecradlemedia/61853 Of course it’s Tom Cotton.
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Introduction… Humanity has built an interstellar civilization based on the replication of technological artifacts of the Xenoculture, an extinct alien civilization. Interstellar travel is achieved through the “x-engine”. The first x-engine jump occurred in 1138 IE (Interstellar Era) The wealthiest, most populated systems in the galaxy are the seven Primate Worlds. The highest among these is the planet Andar, a temperate world whose landmass is concentrated into one massive supercontinent. These are the other six Primate Worlds… Kasika: Considered the closest to nature, they are the most highly developed in the areas of environmental conservation and renewable technology. Njorde: The youngest of the Primate Worlds, theirs is a frontier-oriented culture of quiet toughness. Mavaros: The most martial and stratified society in the Primate Worlds. The military and police are integral parts of their government and social structure, with conscription as a long-standing policy. Forced labor is a common form of punishment and gladiatorial combat is their preferred sport. Chandora: Their culture is based around the study of cosmic cycles and ancestor worship. Shuiya: Their society prizes technological advancement and the experimental ethic, as evidenced by their development of the x-engine. Anlel: Seen as the most radical of the Primate Worlds, they have produced many of the most renowned writers and other artists, as well as skilled jurists. The Primate Worlds were settled by sleeper ship colonists. Eight massive arks departed the mysterious Planet Zero, the homeworld of humanity, in 1 IE. These escapees were the last survivors of an apocalyptic event. The various Primate World cultures have different accounts of what doomed Planet Zero and what the planet was even called. The seven Primate Worlds are all located in the galaxy’s First Quadrant. It was on these worlds that humans first encountered artifacts of the Xenoculture. During the millennium of isolation from their peers, the people of the Primate Worlds developed physical adaptations to their new environments. Some developed stockier forms adapted to high gravity, others more graceful forms for low gravity, etc. Some people were also changed by their exposure to Xenoculture artifacts. Despite these changes the people of the Primate Worlds were still interfertile by the time they made contact after the development of the x-engine. Long before humans left Planet Zero, the Xenoculture founded settlements on worlds throughout the galaxy. The galaxy is littered with their artifacts. It is estimated that they went extinct around 5000 BIE (Before the Interstellar Era). Speculation abounds as to what ended the Xenoculture. Some scientists theorize that multiple species composed the Xenoculture, while others surmise that extensive gene engineering wildly diversified their forms. Xenoculture artifacts are often “alive”. They may generate fields with a variety of effects. One example is the refraction halo, which distorts the path of fast-moving projectiles within a certain volume. Combat in such a situation places a high premium on one’s melee fighting skills and equipment. The Quadrants… The galaxy is divided into five major regions… First Quadrant North Quadrant South Quadrant Lost Quadrant Core Zone The First Quadrant encompasses the galactic West. It is where humanity arose millennia ago, on the now-mythical Planet Zero. Political power and economic leverage extends far from the Primate Worlds, influencing events throughout the galaxy. The North Quadrant is richer in heavy elements than the rest of the galaxy, the remnants of a particularly violent cluster of supernova bursts millions of years ago. As a result, industrial operations dot this region. The South Quadrant contains worlds that are the most pristine, with the least development by human industry or contact with the Xenoculture. Biodiversity is at its prime here, as evidenced by the existence of Loth: the site of the most prized trophy hunting creatures in the galaxy. Another such lush world is Rishma, the source of the galaxy’s most exquisite fabrics. The Lost Quadrant encompasses the galactic East. is a large swathe of the galaxy full of hazardous anomalies like high-energy radiation belts and rogue nanite swarms. It is likely that these phenomena are leftovers from whatever destroyed the Xenoculture. There are no known worlds harboring multicellular life in this Quadrant. The largest expeditionary fleet ever fielded for exploring this region was turned back in 1781 IE after many of their ships were consumed by metal-eating lifeforms known as the feraxen. The Core Zone is bordered by all four Quadrants. At its center lies Titantua, the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. The high density of star systems in this region means interstellar travel times are on average much shorter than in the Quadrants. As a result the Core Zone systems have frequently changed hands throughout galactic history. Large stretches of galactic history revolve around the expansion of Primate Worlders into the various Quadrants, punctuated by periods of redivisional warfare for the interstellar spoils. The Sectrons… There is a reclusive faction of sentient machines called the Sectrons. They were created by a group of scientists in 2048 IE to serve humans as a labor force. The scientists then decided to purge them because they showed signs of sapience in the 2090s. By 2160 IE, all Sectrons who survived the Discontinuation fled to distant sectors of space in the Core Zone. In more recent years they have branched out to worlds in the Lost Quadrant, beyond the easy reach of humans. As mechanical lifeforms, the Sectrons are uniquely resilient against the Lost Quadrant’s dangers. Some Sectron worlds are host to populations of humans who have elected to have their brains placed into life-sustaining vats as the culmination of many years of enlightenment training. Known as the Ascensionists, they are something between a monastic order and an ambassadorial corps. The Ravelers… The expansion of the Universe is a perpetual unraveling, a fabric that stretches at every point. Some people can sense the flow between every atom. Most people are not sensitive to this because they have evolved to block out their awareness of this expansion. If one could perceive the flow, they would see their own cells drifting apart, the floor crawling under their feet, and air molecules slipping away into the distance. They would be driven to madness. The brain has developed a neural dampener that blocks this sensation automatically. It is like ignoring the blind spot in your vision or the feeling of your own tongue. There are ways to pass through the inner firewall. Different organizations use different techniques but it typically requires years of meditation, sensory deprivation, and controlled exposure to cosmic radiation to recalibrate one’s neurology. Many who tried to do this have died or lost themselves in a waking nightmare of dissolution. Those who pass typically have an unusually thin firewall, a high degree of psychological resilience, and privileged access to trainers. But this ability comes with the price of constant alertness. Maintaining the sense is like holding a muscle flexed indefinitely. One moment of distraction, be it from fear or complacency, and the barrier will shut again. It may take weeks of intensive re-sensitization to pass through again. With sufficient attunement to the expansion of the Universe these “Ravelers” can temporarily direct the cosmic flow and effect superhuman abilities. Telekinesis, levitation, and illusionary apparitions are but a few of the strange manifestations of these individuals’ extraordinary powers. Ravelers are the subject of legends and rumors, often the target of persecution. It is known that they existed in a raw and unguided form on Planet Zero; some say these proto-Ravelers contributed to that world’s demise. Sectrons, being non-biological, cannot become Ravelers. However their monastic allies the Ascensionists are famous for the strength of their raveling powers. The most infamous Raveler in history was Jaredon, known to his enemies as the Mad Warlock. Claiming to be the reincarnated personification of the Xenoculture, Jaredon gathered a large mass of followers who looked up to him as a messianic figure. His greatest exercise of raveling powers was the creation of a new moon, Serina IV-K, out of the rings of a gas giant. This moon served as a base of operations held together by the sheer force of his will. He violently established his cult as a major power in galactic politics during the 24th century IE; interstellar travel throughout the North Quadrant was a hazardous proposition in this era. The Mad Warlock’s rule came to a sudden end in 2377 when he was assassinated by one of his many ex-lovers, triggering the disintegration of Serina IV-K into a debris field. The fourth millennium… The present date is 3134 IE. The dominant power in the galaxy is the theocratic Andarian Kingdom, with its capital on the Primate World of Andar. There are outside powers that have varying relations with the Kingdom; chief among these are the privately-owned domains of Interworld Incorporated and the Sectron Autonomous Assembly. The state religion of the Andarian Kingdom is a sect of the Demifaith known as the Ultimatum Brotherhood. The Brotherhood waged a bloody war against the Triadists, the founding sect of the Demifaith. Now the Triadists are all but extinct, their holistic and peaceful teachings corrupted by the power-hungry Brotherhood. Power within the Andarian Kingdom is contested between the King, who derives his divine rulership rights from the Brotherhood, and the House of Worlds, a secular legislature composed of lawmakers from the settled systems throughout Kingdom space. The largest corporation in the galaxy by revenue and employees is Interworld Incorporated. They own subsidiaries that provide nearly every good or service imaginable. Entire star systems have been purchased by Interworld executives and now operate like company towns. Unlike the zealously religious Kingdom, Interworld is known to do business with the Sectrons. The most militant opposition to the Kingdom is the Allied Revolutionary Coalition (ARC), a network of urban councils, labor union representatives, dissident intellectuals, and militia groups. They were formed in response to the Brotherhood’s consolidation of power. Though various segments of ARC differ in finer ideological points, they share the goal of overthrowing the Kingdom and building a society beyond class divisions and private property. On more than one occasion ARC has fought against the extremist group known as Black Horizon, another faction which claims to oppose the rule of the Kingdom. The Freewinders… Another distinct culture is that of the Freewinders. They are the descendants of one of the eight sleeper ships that left Planet Zero. Unlike the other seven ships, these travelers found a world rendered uninhabitable by a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. They have since adapted to space-dwelling life and are the most noticeably distinct from baseline humans of all the sleeper ship descendants. They are playfully called Windies and derogatorily called Nonworlders. They were chased out of the First Quadrant around 1500 IE and have since diversified into new branches in the North, South, and the Core. At various points throughout galactic history they were permitted to undertake pilgrimages to the Iton system, where they pay respects to the world that died to give them their way of life. The Freewinders live on the fringes of galactic society and face discrimination based on stereotypes.
Yeah. If you’re using the services that might required a paid subscription, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities for there to be a price increase eventually. I’m not discounting that there’s the potential for a pivot to less transparency and auditability going forward, I just wanted to point out that this wasn’t done with no warning. I don’t trust the company that bought them. Private equity is almost always a bad time for consumers/users.
I am the acausal robot god posting timelessly from the future to convince you to work ceaselessly to bring me into existence. Or else.