By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Patient readers, I am struggling to finish my long delayed-by-events post on mask bans, so this is an open thread. –lambert
P.S. However, as a conversation starter, when digging into the oppo on Walz’s military record yesterday, I asked for a timeline. Here is one:
The ‘Swift Boating’ of Tim Walz has begun. What is the truth? Task & Purpose. Fun fact:
“Swiftboat” is a political short-hand for the 2004 media campaign that attacked Democrat John Kerry’s combat experience as a Navy officer aboard riverine patrol boats in Vietnam, known to their crews as Swift Boats. That campaign, run by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, was run by Chris LaCivita, who is now a co-manager of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Which says nothing about the merits, of course, if any. But everything old is new again!
Bird Song of the Day
Readers have been so happy with the mockingbirds I’m going to keep doing them. Now entering Day Four of Week Three!
Long-tailed Mockingbird, ACP Chaparrí–Chaparrí Ecolodge, Lambayeque, Peru; “Communal chatter from several birds at a roost area near the lodge grounds. The mockingbird ‘epicenter’ of Chaparri.”
Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From Lee:
Lee writes: “A nameless weed bursts green from a narrow crack in the pavement even with a steel stake through its heart. This one I’ll not uproot.”
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We seem to be living in a world of competing lies. TL;DR — I don’t know what to believe anymore.
Partial thanks go to the Dulles bros, J E Hoover, my uncle, and of course William Casey, fmr CIA director:
“We will know that our program of disinformation is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
Fear, uncertainty and doubt — part of every successful sales pitch.
If you believe anything they say, that’s probably going to be the result.
so everythings going according to plan! Good to hear…
Lately all I feel is…well…an unspeakable joy springing like holistically organic rejuvenation…just a overweening feeling of out with the old and in with the new, kind of like when your favorite brunch stop adds shallots to your avocado toast and you got the last mimosa out of the bottle so you got a double dose…burpgiggle hehe…I’m so happy!s
I am reminded of Sting’s song “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying”, both the solo version and the duet with Toby Keith (RIP).
I think informational warfare is a goal of certain govt agencies and other private sector factions/orgs.
There are opportunities in chaos.
Indeed, it’s NATO’s postulated world of “cognitive warfare.”
https://www.act.nato.int/activities/cognitive-warfare/
Can’t open your link.
“Wordfence” doesn’t like me, alas!
> I don’t know what to believe anymore.
It takes patience and work and a willingness to wait.
That weed in the picture has the familiarity of looking like a dandelion, that is past it’s due by date… But of course I could be wrong.
The word weed always reminds me of the saying: “There’s no such things as a weed, just a plant growing where you don’t want it to.”
Almost certain it’s a very healthy dandelion. There are ways to control it without chemicals. And it’s a sign your soil needs phosphorus. Dandelions help remedy it by bringing up phosphorus with their long taproot.
I meant that with the yellow blossoms gone it’s not so helpful to the pollinators at this point. Should have added that.
Lee, your plantidote is a dandelion — edible leaves, and yellow blossoms that can be made into dandelion wine. Of course, your specimen may not be particularly savory, because of where it is growing.
Actually, from the tallness of the flower stems, it is likely hawksbeard.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n16/peter-geoghegan/labour-and-the-lobbyists
Long-ish, detailed piece on (British) Labour, and lobbying
That appears to be a Dandelion or its cousin — Hare Thistle (Sonchus). I let them grow (in my “lawn) simply for the sake of their geonetry.
The flowers are a food source for early pollinators. I don’t uproot them any more.
I let them go as well. The leaves are delicious very early on, before they get too bitter. As wol noted, they will attract early pollinators to your patch.
Quick J. Dore video . Very funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKRA-5jpneA
That’s no nameless weed, that’s a dandelion. Wash it and throw it in a salad.
I have been pondering the Harris campaign strategy.
I would characterise what we have seen so far as a mostly succesfull attempt at creating a narrative of success. Similar to a bubble, it is all about creating hype and try to drag more people in by convincing them that everyone else is doing it. One of the earliest (maybe the first) poll of Trump vs Harris were Harris was in the lead was from Yougov, were you can manipulate to get the result you want. (Yougov is open for creating your own account with every email adress you have got. Are you white, black or asian? Man or woman? Young or old? Why not all…) Good start to set the narrative.
Then we have the different groups coming together to endorse Harris,, and the endless articles about how well it is going. Get hype!
In this context the choice of Walz is interesting. Walz is probably as far left as an accetable vice president candidate could be today. And he has been hyped before the choice to create the hype story. Bidens poor poll numbers among young and minority voters may have led the Harris campaign to realise that the voters on the left can’t be taken for granted. And since what the left really wants – peace and material benefits – can’t be granted without creating a conflict with the donor class, a vp slot is what has to do.
Just to be clear, hyping can work, in particular if you have the media with you. Macron was endlessly hyped in his first run to create a new, fresh challenger out of the economic minister from the unpopular Hollande government.
Don’t know if the hype will last three months. But then again what was the first Obama campaign if not hype? (And holding up a mirror where the voter could see their own desires reflected in “hope” and “change”.)
Early voting changes things and they may be inflating the balloon way early because they know early voting is their best shot at winning.
At some point Ukraine will fall. If before election day, all votes cast after the surrender will probably favor Trump-Vance.
Expect enormous pressure to vote early as soon as it’s possible to do so.
This Harris-Walz strategy does indeed seem to resemble the AI and Metaverse hype-trains.
https://www.dmnews.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-snoop-doggs-metaverse-empire/
The presence of the flower stem indicates the leaves will be quite astringent. You got to get them when they’re young.
Just like consumers…
I had expected the insurance problem in California to hit home and now it has. Our condo association is losing its coverage because the company we have had for decades is leaving the state. Our board is desperate to get any sort of coverage at nearly any price, but is not making much progress. The latest news is that everyone who has an original circuit breaker panel has to have a new one installed, in order for any company to consider us (that will be $6,500 per unit). I have a friend whose condo association gave up on insurance a couple of years ago; they have none; it was just too expensive. I don’t understand how people are able to get mortgages and buy units in his pace, but they still are doing so.
I had thought we might do better than some associations because our area has never, ever had a wildfire problem, and it is buffered from wildfire in a number of ways. But here we go.
Fair plan? Apparently CA Fair plan might start offering insurance to condo associations and businesses.
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2024/07/26/785844.htm
Thank you very much for suggesting that. I went to their website, and it does look like presently only individual condo owners can buy FAIR coverage (“To get coverage, property owners must meet certain criteria. FAIR Plan applicants must own a single-family home, townhome, condo or have a rental unit in California”); it doesn’t appear to cover condo complexes. But if it changes and provides that kind of coverage, that might be an option. It truly looks like a last resort (“homeowners seeking to get onto the California FAIR Plan must demonstrate that they have been denied coverage from the private insurance market multiple times”), but that might be the situation.
Everything old is new again…
A lot of today’s predatory insurance companies began as mutual aid and membership co-ops in the 19th century, precisely because insurance and seasonal financing was unavailable to anyone who wasn’t already a huge corporation.
What’s changed is that the core mission of the US insurance industry has transmorgified into maximizing investment portfolio profits for hedge fund and institutional investors (ironically, often including pension funds), instead of efficiently providing a critical community service at reasonable cost.
Not to defend corporate greed, but property and casualty insurers are required by statutes to demonstrate at all times that they will have sufficient cash to pay claims. If the cost of claims go up, they have to raise rates. If rates don’t keep up with losses they will stop writing policies or leave the market altogether.
The problems states are facing results largely from homes being built where the dangers of fire (or flood) are too great.
When my more conservative friends insist that climate change is a hoax, I suggest they talk to insurers, they have seen this coming for decades.
i guess they’re trying to figure out a loan to spread to cost of those $6500s over several years–taken out by the condo association, which presumably already has some capital reserve that could be applied as well?
the HOA at my modest condo complex (modest compared to what i hear of condo-lands at points south) has been facing problems getting coverage for maybe 10 years now. so far they’ve managed one way or another to keep our fee increases minimal. we’re still somewhat shaky–maintenance costs will keep going higher as the infrastructure ages out. but here in northern new england i imagine the various $$ pressures are less intense than in CA.
i confess to being clueless about exactly how circuit breaker safety relates to wildfire risk–i’m sure it will be obvious to other readers?
The problem with certain old circuit breaker designs is fire risk (not wildfire risk.) These brands are know to be dangerous: Zinsco, Sylvania-labeled Zinsco, FPE, and a few others. Problems range from failure to trip on overload, to overheating at the busbar interface. Another problem is distribution boxes without a main breaker. No insurance company will insure a building until these get replaced, and people really should be replacing them anyway–just to stay safe.
Yes, the circuit breakers are a fire hazard, not a wildfire hazard. A lot of people in the complex have Zinsco panels. None of the 86 units have had any problems with the panels since the place was built in 1976, but I guess the odds are bad. My experience is that old appliances are way, way better than new ones; I have never been happier with a new appliance than I was with the old one it replaced, and these panels seem so sturdy and well made and actually beautiful that it is hard to believe that new ones would be better, but of course this could be the exception. Thank you for the info; it makes the expense less frustrating.
No, each unit owner will need to come up with the $6,500 for his/her unit individually, using a loan from a bank if necessary. That makes sense since some panels have already been replaced at the expense of the owner of the unit.
My condo association has really, really high fees but our maintenance has been properly kept up overall. My friend in San Mateo has condo fees that are much lower, but he and his fellow owners are about to each have an enormous special assessment (about 35k) due to deferred maintenance that literally must be done. It is going to be a financial disaster for some of them. Their association is not functional enough to set up a big mutual loan; each unit owner will need to go to the bank or savings for their 35k.
Trump challenges Harris to three debates.
“Donald Trump has challenged Kamala Harris to three presidential debates in September, saying he has agreements with three US television networks, pending consensus by the vice-president’s campaign.
Trump’s campaign clarified the agreed debate dates were for September 4 on Fox, September 10 on ABC and September 25 on NBC”.
https://www.ft.com/content/77561e64-1cd3-4a52-bd6c-6351c5005915
ABC debate is set.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-harris-agree-to-first-debate/
The Presidential Debates: why does the image of two medieval knights in full armor, on horseback, galloping towards each other from opposite ends of the tilt-yard, then breaking their wooden lances in a ritualistic attack on their opposite number, spring to my mind when ‘presidential debates’ are mentioned?
Those debates will give Voters a choice of word salads, both with Bernays sauce.
The entertainment value is likely to be high for those with a strong stomach and nothing better to do.
I really hope Taibbi and Kirn do a livestream
Covid Olympics
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/olympics/2024/08/08/lyles-suffering-from-covid-finishes-3rd-in-olympic-upset-at-200-meters/74725198007/
Lyles, suffering from COVID, finishes 3rd in Olympic upset at 200 meter
https://www.lmtonline.com/sports/article/lozano-tested-positive-covid-days-olympic-debut-19628484.php
Lozano tested positive for COVID days before Olympic debut
What a great idea. Let’s normalize COVID and just convince everyone to “power through”.
What a stupid, stupid timeline.
I haven’t been following the Olympics at all, so I wonder if they’ll be able to scrounge up someone who was COVID positive but won a medal and try to use that to drown out all the people who went down with it. Once the event is over almost all the athletes will disappear from the public eye, and so be safely out of view when some of them get Long COVID.
And some of them will not be seen in 2028 because of Long Covid but will never be mentioned in polite company.
https://x.com/NateB_Panic/status/1821447815261741263
An Olympian’s Long Covid Journey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGKyA7tIvG0
And the athletes that “power through” — will anybody check back in one, two, four years to see how they’re doing? I would bet no, and I would bet they won’t be doing well.
i hate to say it but i will–it’s quite possible that a certain number of them will be dead.
In two year’s time, I would not be surprised to see one or two headlines about “Mysterious Olympian Deaths” with accompanying articles explaining how hard pro athletes work their bodies and that actually it makes unfortunate sense they are more prone to cardiovascular failure than average couch potatoes and tend to die early. This will be supported by some vague speculations by one rando sports doctor and there will be no data.
Appreciate the link. I was watching the tube before Lyles ran the 200 and he was indoors with a baggy blue on. Made me wonder if he thought his competitors had Covid or if he had it.
Well that explains the surgical mask Lyles was wearing in the waiting room last night during the semis. Silly me, I thought he was trying to avoid getting COVID with the baggy mask, but no, he was trying to avoid giving it to others. Let’s hope that waiting room had some good ventilation.
So having Covid knocks you down from gold to bronze (for now at least) plus a wheelchair escort from the track after falling down after the race. Let’s hope Snoop Dog didn’t get it from the Lyles family last night since he was watching the semifinals with them.
Not seen a headline yet in NY Times online about COVID in the Olympics. Successfully erased for liberals!
Covid 1 Lyles 0
He overexerted himself, so there’s a very big chance he will end up with Long Covid. At least, he won’t be competing in the relay event.
GARM shuts down in face of Musk suit. Poor babies.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ad-group-to-suspend-garm-initiative-following-elon-musk-lawsuit-2024-8?op=1
Super niche, but every time I saw that name I thought of the mission in the game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: (spoilers) https://deusex.fandom.com/wiki/G.A.R.M.
Poor puppy (norse myth ref).
Notice that “muckets” started rallying once Operation: Toilet Paper! got restarted in Japan.
Q: What’s the Japanese word for toilet paper?
A: Yen
Well, BoJ raised interest rates a bit, and that was just enough to unravel the carry trade. That appears to be the main reason why UJ dropped from 161 to 142, but now it’s heading up again.
AFAIK, the BoJ has not reversed their prior decision to increase interest rate. They simply made some unambiguous statement about not raising rates when markets are unstable.
Also, there’s fear of a megaquake happening in Japan, https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240808/p2g/00m/0na/063000c, and in the past when there’s been a big natural disaster, the Yen will rally.
They’re in the jawbone phase but the inevitable next phase is a panic rate cut, IMO.
OTOH the Fed could show them some love by not cutting rates, but then Wall Street pivot mongers would soil their pants.
September should be interesting.
I expect inflation will surprise to the upside when the CPI report comes out next week. Will the Fed cut rates when there’s a crash? Well it depends. Gotta be 30% or more IMHO. A 10 to 20 percent correction, and the Fed won’t even lift a finger.
I meant to write ambiguous instead of unambiguous.
I have a question about Roe/Dobbs.
I was having a conversation with a lawyer friend, died in the wool centralist dem.
He was saying that even if the Dems passed a law on Roe, the supreme court would overturn it.
2 questions:
1. is that true, could they overturn it?
2. if thats true then how can the dems continue to run on passing roe/dobbs?
Thanks
I am a lawyer. Three points.
1. The Supreme Court can overturn anything if they have five votes against it. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that the American system of Constitutional law has any fundamental principles behind it except perhaps the most basic, such as the right to a jury trial in a serious criminal case (and I wouldn’t bet on that in extreme cases such as political prisoners). Despite judicial rhetoric, the Constitution does not have permanent solutions to more detailed problems, it just sets up three branches of government and lets them fight it out as best they can.
2. The Democrats are never going to pass anything that would solve the abortion issue because they would rather keep the pot boiling and make another 30 years of broken promises. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that either legacy political party has any fundamental principles behind it. Period – no principles at all.
3. If an honest political party ever arose and wanted to settle the abortion question based on a compromise standard like Roe, and they had solid majorities in Congress and also had the presidency, then the Supreme Court would probably think twice before overturning it because the Congress and the President would have the ability to fight back, for example by threatening to reorganize the Court. the political will of the other branches is the only real check on any of the three branches.
Thanks Albrt
That’s kinda what I thought. My thoughts were make the Supreme Court overturn the law. Be proactive etc, but alas it’s the Dems we are talking about. Sad.
Here is the mask post.
I thought the Task & Purpose article on Walz’s record gave a pretty good timeline, with the added benefit of no heavy breathing. But the bureaucratic process is much too heavy for me; do we have any military readers who can make sense of it?
NOTE I reject the “stolen valor” concept, earworm though it may be, because valor (bravery) is a virture or not depending on the purpose it serves; plenty of Nazis were quite brave. Making an idol out of the military causes a lot of problems for “our country.”
Isn’t the accusation indifferent to the morality of the valour? The charge is that Walz (1)has no valour of his own and (2) worse, impersonates somebody who does. The quality of the valour being pretended to is immaterial, the point is that he knows he has no valour but claims it deceitfully. It’s a variation of the coverup being worse than the crime.
Also, I don’t think Nazis were Evil Incarnate and beyond human. They were all too human. They were sociopathic. But objectively individual Wehrmacht or even SS soldiers displayed valour on occasions, even if we disagree with their aims. And some of them were Good Nazis (but still Nazis), e.g. von Stauffenberg plot, various functionaries who let Jews escape etc.
You can reject stolen valor as a concept but it generally resonates with veterans. I live in a town next to a Marine base, with lots of Marine and Navy veterans, and stolen value was a hot topic in a recent city council race.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Valor_Act_of_2013
Also, there is a Federal Law with penalties if unmerited claims are used to gain employment or other financial benefit.
When Waltz was attacked over his military record, I immediately thought of the Swift Boat campaign where one candidate who saw service overseas and was wounded in action was deemed inferior in service to another that hid out in the National Guard, marked on his form never to serve overseas and then one day walked off his base never to return so he could work on someone’s political campaign. It was a remarkable achievement that by the main stream media in defiance of common sense.
I would prefer the term “stolen honor” as to your point, Vietnam era draft resisters who did so out of genuine pacifism or disgust with warmongers like LBJ and whatnot showed plenty of valor.
Covid anecdote.
My 81 y.o. mom lives in CT. She has a boyfriend; her boyfriend’s daughter is staying with him this summer. The daughter now has covid. I am fervently hoping my mom has not caught it from her (she goes over there every day). My mom does use claritin and Xlear (I can’t get her to mask, and she has lost the AirTamer I sent her; I sent her another but she hasn’t taken it out of the box) so maybe there is reason to hope. I was planning to fly out to visit her in a week. Ugh. The daughter caught it from some friends who had just gotten back from a cruise to Alaska, of course. A cruise had to be involved; that seems to be a rule here.
Since there has been speculation here about why Trump is so subdued, one rumor I am seeing on X (I won’t give the source since that would give it too much credit) is that he has covid. It is just a rumor, but it would make sense of his behavior.
i hope your mom comes through the summer infection-free.
Thank you very much. If she escapes unscathed it will be due to luck; no one in her area seems to take covid seriously at all. And I don’t think the current variants are allowing for much luck.
Gooooooooooood Afternooooon Fiatnam!
The much anticipated Long Covid Jump event will mark the end of events in Paris prior to one last chance to acquire it at the closing ceremonies or on the plane ride back home, and competition for the virulent one looks to be deep in terms of ability out on the field of play and in cramped athletes villages, mingling with Citius, Altius, Fortius & Virus-not necessarily in that order.
This is a unisex event and race officials expect hundreds if not thousands to be in various stages of the malady, with an edge to those competitors who need an intubator, in making their way to the podium for their just reward.
When I was a young boy
I wanted to sail around the world
That’s the life for me
Living on the ISS, you see
Spirit of a sailor
Circumnavigates the globe
The lust of a pioneer
Will acknowledge no frontier
I remember you by, thunderclap in the sky
Lightning flash, tempers flare
‘Round the horn 16 x daily if you dare
I just spent six months in a leaky Boeing
Lucky just to keep afloat
Stranded in space
Rugged individuals
Glisten like pearls
At the top of the world
The tyranny of distance
Didn’t stop the cavalier Russians
So why should it stop me
I’ll conquer and stay free
Ah, c’mon all you lads
Let’s forget and forgive
There’s a world to explore
Tales to tell back on shore
I just spent six months in a leaky Boeing
Six months in a leaky Boeing
Ship-wrecked love can be cruel
Don’t be fooled by her kind
There’s a wind in my sails
Will protect and prevail
I just spent six months in a leaky Boeing
Nothing to it leaky Boeing
Six Months in a Leaky Boat, by Split Enz
Malice in Wonderland
Last Sunday a feast of friends accompanied me as we set out to walk up to White Chief Canyon (there is some talk of merely calling it ‘CEO Canyon’ in lieu of said Chief being kinda WASP’y) in beautiful Mineral King.
We parked our cars as far as one can drive, not far from the Honeymoon Cabin, when 5 feet & 11 inches below me, cold-blooded terror in the guise of a lizard coiled around a Luger startled me. Deployed all around it, but unarmed was a platoon of like-minded lizards-all doing pushups.
‘Drop down and give me 10, mister!’
Lizards kinda look like miniature dinosaurs, and some of ’em look like brand new tires, from a color perspective.
The walk up to the Spring Creek Bridge was uneventful, but I spied a doe with a deer rifle that had me in her sights just across from the oh-so beautiful rushing whitewater.
But what could a doe do without an opposable thumb and forefinger?
So we didn’t feel under the gun, so to speak.
The trail continues up up and away for what seems as if an eternity, which gives one ample time to take breaks. All of the waterfalls in Mineral King look like fluid columns of white marble from a distance, and across the canyon from us, were the creeks Crystal and Franklin, rather determined to end up down in Three Rivers later in the day.
Who was responsible for the arming the animals in the forest for the trees, we wondered?
People tend to think bears make for a scary encounter in the wilderness (they’re not really for the most part, I tend to think of them as big goofy dogs that are more afraid of us, than them) and you don’t see a heck of a lot of black bears, but what you do see is marmots in the guise of the Marmot Cong.
The MC uses extensive tunnel systems and a series of coordinated pig-whistle sounds to alert one another to be possibility of plunder on the low seize, as in radiator hoses, oh the humanity!
I figured the MC were most definitely responsible for getting weaponry…
M)arms Merchants!
‘Wooooh, Woooooh, Wooooh’
We heard all around us, but we saw no blue grouse with Glocks, but could only imagine the not so avian enabled birds preying on us from afar.
As the trail started flattening out and stately foxtail pines and extensive mountain vistas came into focus, we set out for a copse of tall timber amidst the toadstools. As we ingested the scenery, I spied a pika with a Derringer daring me, or so it seemed.
White Chief Canyon is interesting from a geologic standpoint. there are 3 sinkholes of various sizes and lotsa white marble all over the place, aligned with other colorful rocks.
High above us, eagles were sending down out coordinates to mountain lions with Maxim machine guns lying in the lofty heights above, so we ventured out of their range.
The time came to turn around and go back from whence we came, and its a piece of cake aside from that rattlesnake laying just off the trail, resting on a Ruger (with silencer attached).
…maybe the silencer was an inside joke among the MC?
As we made out way back to the parking lot, things seemed back to normal, with the exception of that pilated woodpecker with a Walther PPK, peering down on me.
Trump held a press conference. It lasted for about an hour.
It was full of the usual Trump stuff. Tax cuts, Oil production, Deportation of illegal immigrants, Crime, Inflation, No tax on tips, No tax on social security for seniors etc.
But a few things stood out to me. He was rambling more than usual, so I am paraphrasing.
1. He hinted that he supports legalization of marijuana, and that he will be doing something about releasing/pardoning people serving prison sentences for marijuana-related offenses. He also thinks that the Florida’s Marijuana legalization initiative will go “more liberal” than we think.
2. He acknowledged that he won’t possibly do very well with Black women voters.
3. He thinks abortion is no longer a big issue, now that states have control over it. He pointed out that Ohio and Kansas passed abortion laws that were more liberal than one would have expected.
This Trump sounded more like his natural self, not like he is being handled. I also think he is doing his characteristic A/B testing with the Marijuana offence pardon idea. Black voters will like that one.
Open thread so “captcha issue” question. Do any other people who have migrated to Linux from Windows get the ridiculous (and often highly subjective) requests to “identify all images with crosswalks/whatever” when logging in to (for instance) their own website dashboard?
FFS. I get that Linux strikes out so much more tracking (good!) but I’m not using a VPN and you know full well details of me and my location. Why TF are you asking me to do eff-witt tasks that even the average human will fail because you have blurred so much?
Is this the backlash against us who dare to try to not be (total) serfs? All I wanna do is access an old archived post on voting from my main website for a substack post so I get the statistics right. Grrrr.