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#stupidity

6 posts5 participants0 posts today

My goodness - law of unexpected consequences - US pressure might have a small benefit

UK totalitarianism, one part of anyway (and frankly technical ineptitude and misunderstanding), might be halted in its tracks. We an only hope we don’t get the rest of US shite landed on us. But then Starmer considers Trump to be a family man, so who knows?

theguardian.com/technology/202

The Guardian · UK may back down on demand for backdoor access to Apple users’ encrypted dataBy Robert Booth

A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

When the torrent sweeps the man against a boulder, you must expect him to scream, and you need not be surprised if the scream is sometimes a theory. Shelley, chafing at the Church of England, discovered the cure of all evils in universal atheism. Generous lads irritated at the injustices of society, see nothing for it but the abolishment of everything and Kingdom Come of anarchy. Shelley was a young fool; so are these cocksparrow revolutionaries. But it is better to be a fool than to be dead. It is better to emit a scream in the shape of a theory than to be entirely insensible to the jars and incongruities of life and take everything as it comes in a forlorn stupidity.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…

#Louisiana cancels $3 billion #coastal #restoration project funded by #OilSpill settlement

By JACK BROOK
Updated 9:17 PM EDT, July 17, 2025

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — "Louisiana on Thursday canceled a $3 billion repair of disappearing Gulf coastline, funded by the 2010 #DeepwaterHorizon oil spill settlement, scrapping what #conservationists called an urgent response to #ClimateChange but Gov. #JeffLandry viewed as a threat to the state’s way of life. [??!!! Like pollution from BP isn't a threat?!!!]

"Despite years of studies and reviews, the project at the center of Louisiana’s coastal protection plans grew increasingly imperiled after Landry, a Republican, took office last year. Its collapse means that the state could lose out on more than $1.5 billion in unspent funds and may even have to repay the $618 million it already used to begin building.

"The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group, a mix of federal agencies overseeing the settlement funds, said that 'unused project funds will be available for future Deepwater Horizon restoration activities' but would require review and approval.

"The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project aimed to rebuild upward of 20 square miles (32 kilometers) of land over a 50-year period in southeast Louisiana to combat sea level rise and erosion on the Gulf Coast. When construction stalled last year because of lawsuits, trustees warned that the state would have to return the hundreds of millions of dollars it had already spent if the project did not move forward.

"Former Louisiana Rep. #GarretGraves, a Republican who once led the state’s coastal restoration agency, said that killing the project was 'a boneheaded decision' not rooted in science.

" 'It is going to result in one of the largest setbacks for our coast and the protection of our communities in decades,' Graves said. 'I don’t know what chiropractor or palm reader they got advice from on this, but — baffling that someone thought this was a good idea.'

"Project supporters stressed that it would have provided a data-driven, large-scale solution to mitigate the worst effects of an eroding coastline in a state where a football field of land is lost every 100 minutes and more than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of land have vanished over the past century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey."

apnews.com/article/louisiana-c

The nearly $3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project along the Mississippi River, intended to stave off coastal land loss in southeastern Louisiana, is seen during a flyover with the environmental coalition group Restore the Mississippi River Delta, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Jack Brook, File)
AP News · Louisiana cancels $3B repair coastal restoration funded by oil spill settlementLouisiana is officially canceling a $3 billion coastal restoration project funded by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project aimed to rebuild over 20 square miles of land in southeast Louisiana to combat erosion and sea level rise. Conservation groups supported the project as a science-based solution to climate change. However, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry opposed it, citing harm to local oystermen and the fishing industry. On Thursday, a coalition of federal agencies overseeing the settlement funds declared the project "no longer viable" for reasons that included litigation and a suspended federal permit after the state halted work.
Replied in thread

@bones0 don't get me wrong, just collectively #thinking loud, the #alternative a #China #dictatorship is also no #alternative, but actually #China played it's card very well, extracting all #knowhow from #greedy #western #companies of #democracy countries, copying them, doing the same cheaper, winning #competition game (#greed -> #stupidity = bad)

imho #key is in how #money is created and what is then used for

#China got loads of #public banks, how many does #UK + #USA + #Canada have? Zero?

whoever actively works at #corruption in #democracy is willingly accepting 1933 revival party #samesamebutdifferent, craziest have seen is that #minimalincome #job paid more in #gold in 1971 than it does today, who is to blame? #economy #prosperity but also #stupidity are closely linked to #populism

Possibly it is: the #bank lending cheap to #private #banks #printingmoney out of thin air buying real things, one #loan at a time

#badenough for #goodidea or #invention there is never #loan

Replied in thread

@janbartosik great profile picture, there need to be better solutions than this, actually whoever actively works at #corruption in #democracy is willingly accepting 1933 revival party #samesamebutdifferent the craziest i have seen is that minimal income job paid more in #gold in the 1970s than it does today, who is to blame? Because #economy #prosperity but also #stupidity are closely linked to #populism

OK i actually know: the #bank #system #printingmoney out of thin air buying real things

Nearly a dozen people who remained on staff were fired Friday, and the US negotiating team for international climate talks is no more.

It’s “just strategically fucking dumb when it comes to China,” creating a leadership vacuum that China could fill (as they’ve consistently said they would).

#climate #cdnpoli #stupidity #uspol

theenergymix.com/no-excuse-for

The Energy Mix · ‘No Excuse’ for Canada to Step Back as Trump Fires Remaining U.S. Climate NegotiatorsBy Mitchell Beer

Anyone calling #Dems "half of the ruling class" are illiterate dumbfucks.

Anyone who didn't #vote needs to shut their piehole.

Capitalism isn't the problem.
That's not even what has been going on for the last few decades.
#corporatefeudalism and #workerexploitation are the problem.

If you shop at #Walmart you helped create this mess.
If you buy cheap crap from #Amazon and Temu, you're contributing to big problems.

Less #stupidity and #hypocrisy would help turn it around.

I just want to give a massive"Fuck.You" to those that chose to not vote because of some bullshit better than thou issue kept you from voting for a person who was much better than this motherfucker we have now.
You singlehandedly destroyed this country..
By not voting for Kamala or voting 3rd party,or just not voting at all,you took the one real power you had to change things and threw it ,and us,away

Fuck you !!!!
#Election2024
#misguidedidealism
#stupidity
#elitism

In the US, Trump and RFK’ are pushing woo woo, and in the UK Reeves is slashing the budget for vaccine support overseas. I can in a way understand p and his morons - it is in their nature. But Reeves and Starmer? In terms of enlightened self interest vaccinations are good for us all - infections do not stay put in the modern world.

Maybe Starmer thinks this will play well to his Reform base?

theguardian.com/society/2025/j

The Guardian · Scientists criticise cut in UK funding for global vaccination groupBy Peter Walker

*Must read* & please boost!

“Weaponized Stupidity”

by Closer To The Edge on Substack

“Weaponized stupidity is not a mistake. It’s not a blunder. It’s not a man fumbling for words or getting lost mid-sentence. It is a system — carefully constructed, viciously effective, and designed to collapse the very idea of shared reality”

closertotheedge.net/p/weaponiz

Closer to the Edge · Weaponized StupidityBy Closer to the Edge

A quotation from Nicolas Chamfort

Often an opinion, a custom, seems absurd when we are young, and advancing in life, we find the reason. Mustn’t we conclude that certain habits aren’t so ridiculous? One is lead to think sometimes that they were established by people who had read the entire book of life, and that they are judged by people who, despite their esprit, have only read a few pages.
 
[Souvent une opinion, une coutume commence à paraître absurde dans la première jeunesse, et en avançant dans la vie, on en trouve la raison; elle paraît moins absurde. En faudrait-il conclure que de certaines coutumes sont moins ridicules? On serait porté à penser quelquefois qu’elles ont été établies par des gens qui avaient lu le livre entier de la vie, et qu’elles sont jugées par des gens qui, malgré leur esprit, n’en ont lu que quelques pages.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 1, ¶ 21 (1795) [tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/chamfort-nicolas/770…