Does Not Obey the Laws of Physics

Denmark just capitulated to Trump threats. Yet the English language media is focused on pretending like this is some kind of "victory" for Denmark resistance.

Now let's get something very, very clear here. Prior, the matter of Greenland "security" was "delegated" to US provided US upheld NATO agreements. I want to emphasize the importance of this last condition: provided US upheld NATO agreements. The previous agreement does not presume that Denmark and US will remain allies and furthermore has an ending condition. There are terms enforced upon the US side in exchange for allowing their military presence in Greenland.

According to the new "deal", US gets to dictate Greenland security in perpetuity FOREVER. In addition, US gets to dictate who is allowed to invest in Greenland. So two points:

1. Once signed, this means Greenland's security becomes a US decision no matter what. This means even if US disbands NATO, Greenland is still obligated to host US troops. This means if US attacks a neighbor or former ally, Greenland is still obligated to host US troops. There is no exit strategy.

2. US has total control of foreign economic investment in Greenland. Greenland can no longer receive foreign investment without US permission. This "enemy state" tag is purely aesthetic because the US can declare any state as an enemy state willy-nilly based on whether they want to allow investment into Greenland. This is NOT a normal security agreement, y'all!

I'm utterly baffled why people in Denmark/Greenland think they retained sovereignty when they've allowed another country unconditional military occupation in perpetuity. Like...do you people even understand what sovereignty is? This is outright annexation, with no cost to the US other than some idle threats! I know the media doesn't want to hand Trump a win, but is no one willing to point out the blatant annexation that's happening?

Also, just a reminder, Nazi Germany annexed Denmark after fighting only 6 hours. This is worse. This is annexation after 0 hours of resistance.

Honestly, I'm starting to get annoyed at how frequently the subject of AI is popping up in hobby spaces. There are so many vectors of annoyance for me, but I think a huge part of this is the performative outrage, or maybe not performative but definitely ill-thought out outrage.

First: Consumers are angry at AI. Now, if you are able to identify AI slop and go "this is AI slop, I did not pay to buy AI slop" then good for you. Cease paying for AI slop. However, if you were perfectly happy buying slop and found the slop was AI generated after the fact...shut up and go away. You couldn't tell the difference between AI generated slop and human generated slop. AI being better at mass market human crap is not a good enough reason to have buyer's remorse.

Second: The creatives need to stop pushing the angle of "Human created things are worth your money." The problem is not that the end consumers want to pay you less money. Note that I'm talking about the end consumer, not the entrepreneur petite bourgeois (or the bigger bourgeois/giant capitalists) who want to crush cost to the lowest possible price. The problem is that the capitalists (and yes, this includes the indie publishing petite bourgeois who owns the means of their production) are incentivized to make things as cheaply as possible to maximize profit as greatly as possible under the capitalist economic system.

If you want to solve the problem of AI, then you need to tackle the root of the problem: the economic system of selling labor as livelihood aka capitalism. Rather than try to protect the system of exploitation that has, admittedly, exponentially increased human productivity (and exploitation of labor for the capitalist class), perhaps it is time to engage in reform (or revolution if you are so inclined) to decouple the necessity of labor from goods distribution.

Might I entice you to consider lobbying for UBI (universal basic income) from your government, price cap on basic living needs (food, water, shelter, energy, and increasingly telecommunication/internet), enact planned economies to protect job availability, etc.? These government programs/systems will ensure that you do not need to work for sustenance and/or job security, thus you can go live the life of the starving artist/creative without actually starving and you will be able to afford to give your art away for free.

The problem is the free market. You want to get rid of the free market is what I'm saying. Because the free market is the actual thing that is killing your livelihood, not AI or people who purchase AI slop. (And even if the AI companies did compensate you for the products you created that was used to train the AI in the first place, it still won't be enough to fix the market problem.)

Three: No one is advocating for Free AI as a solution to their problem. Given that AI was developed on stolen/uncompensated labor, the actual argument should be that AI need, nay should be a public good free to use by all in perpetuity. The fact that the governments are allowing AI companies to make money rather than passing laws to enforce these companies into compulsory subsidizing of consumer use is the real problem. If you want to kill AI, then you target the industry from the point of capital.

Take back the means of production, artists. This is what you should be advocating, not shaming end consumers into buying human art.

Spain gets their second star. Argentina regressed to the mean at the final.

Honestly, nit that surprising. Oh well. Wasn't really worth the effort of getting up. Sure, calls favored Spain, but nah. Defending title was always going to be a long shot.

┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

You tried your best, Argentina. Two finals back to back was already more than could be expected. Sad that Messi retires in a meh note, but well, let's not delude ourselves that Argentina had an actual plan that was ever going to work against a Spain side anyway.

Hopefully, though, if Spain keeps dominating, the NT meta will finally pay attention to the need for controlling midfield and generating players who can pass worth a damn.

Too tired, need sleep...

I didn't really want to watch the World Cup this year, because...well, many things. Anyway, point is, I didn't want to watch.

Then fucking Messi is in the line up and I was like, oh well, I guess I'll watch one game. Just as a send off to the little dude. He's probably coming on as a sub.

Except he's on for 90 minutes. And gets a hat trick.

And so, I'm watching World Cup, getting sucked into the stupid thing and becoming invested. Fucking hell. And now I'm waking up early to catch games and basically am a walking zombie for the rest of the day.

My only consolation is that Argentina has somehow scraped their way into the semis. This is much, much further than anyone could have anticipated. At this point, it's like...welp. I guess Messi is going to make me cheer for Argentina even though all evidence points to this team getting knocked out by England, but fuck it, Malvinas War let's gooooooo.

Also, anulo mufa. Frickin' hell.

On the other side of the bracket, I'm not sure who I want to win. On the one hand, I hate Mboopi (as a player and as a person), Deschamps is a fraud who relies on talent and have no tactics or philosophy to speak of. On the other hand, de la Fuente is also a fraud and French's Olise and Dembélé are actually good (I always believed in you, Dembouz 😭) and I would like those two to get more recognition. So, I'm on the fence about the match-up.

Either way, I'm still of the belief that whomever wins the France vs Spain match is going to win the Final. Neither England nor Argentina looks particularly convincing. 💀 And yet...¡VAMOS ARGENTINA! anulo mufa

USA treatment of Iranian athletes have been absolutely despicable. I'm surprised anyone is trying to evoke "nuance" when it's been unequivocally terrible.

Yesterday's games were the most bleh draws. The amount of people trying to justify it as "exciting" is...no. Exciting is when two teams are trying their best to score and playing high quality, well executed tactics. Parking the bus and inability to put the ball into the net is not exciting. It's just frustrating.

Hoping Argentina bring a little magic to the table, but honestly not holding my breath after all these years of watching Argentina scraping by and winning games they statistically should be losing. (Messi is not enough as I keep saying, and it's been really unfair to Messi's cohort that they're a super talented group that had the terrible luck of being managed by an absolutely abysmal AFA.)

But also do not want France to win (hate Mbappé, if only he wasn't there, then I can actually cheer for France). So, I guess it's time to pin hopes on Germany. At least I like Nagelsmann's tactical philosophy. Spain's tactical philosophy is a betrayal of all that is good, so I don't like them. And anyone who is cheering for Portugal at this point is probably a fascist.

(Trying not to think about the politics and keep in my mind that athletes are not their governments...😑. Although NGL, my goodwill towards humankind is at an all time low ATM.)

Also, I need to stop reading reddit. The constant evidence of political idiocy and ignorance just... ugh.