Yes, and humans with rabies will refuse to drink, even though they need water to survive. Decisions made under literal medical delusions aren’t stupid or nonsensical, they’re misinformed and inherently alogical.

He was facing the possibility of life in prison. I could see pleading guilty in spite of his innocence because of that (and there are many cases of people who pled guilty to avoid the possibility of a maximum sentence and were later exonerated).

As for the specific admission of stalking, shooting, and causing the death of Brian Thompson, I don’t extend the benefit of the doubt to the government anymore, to the point that the description of his flat affect makes me wonder if he was tortured. He was kept in solitary confinement for a long time (which I guess is technically already torture, but I’m sure the US government doesn’t legally consider its “correct” application such)- a couple of missed visits outside in a row can really fuck with a person’s psyche.

I don’t think it’s likely that they specifically and actively tortured him to force this exact confession out of him, but I do think he has likely been both intentionally and negligently psychologically harmed during his imprisonment, beyond what is unavoidable when holding someone against their will.

I try to think of it from the perspective of a Luigi who didn’t do it. He had gone a little nuts in the months before the arrest and had been living rough for a while after having cut contact with most of his family and friends and quitting his job. Suddenly he’s arrested because of his eyebrows, and they plant a bunch of convenient for prosecutors but nonsensical for the specifics of this case evidence. They probably rough him up during the arrest, then he’s reunited with his family who have enough money from a gofundme to hire great attorneys, and he’s getting fan mail and nude Polaroids for some reason. He’s still not exactly mentally stable and then he’s kept in solitary confinement for months, interspersed with incredibly high profile court appearances and a huge demand from the general public for his commentary on all of this.

Would it astound me if someone who had been through all that reacted by confessing to the crime? No, honestly. I could see that person reacting in all sorts of ways.

Maybe during sentencing or if there is ever a state trial, enough evidence will be put forth to tip it for me, or we’ll get to see enough of him speaking and reacting to things to get a better handle on what his mental state is, but until then, I’ve got evidence based reasons to doubt that he did it (the chain of custody on the backpack, the eyebrows not being convincing for me, and the utter pointlessness of getting a ghost gun and not disposing of it), so it’s not beyond a reasonable doubt. If I were on a jury deciding this, I would obviously receive more evidence, but I do need that before I can say it’s beyond a reasonable doubt.

It’s easy to remember “weird’s weird,” though.

Yeah, Denmark should do that. I’m not trying to be contrary, I just don’t see what prevents Denmark from making a plan with Greenland to have security forces nearby (ideally with some other NATO members as a show of force) to arrest any unlawful drillers without paramilitary escorts, and to force a confrontation with any armed groups not explicitly authorized to be there.

You mean they couldn’t physically or legally? Because they probably won’t be able to physically prevent the first shovel from breaking ground due to the relative locations of NATO members, Greenland, and the US (though maybe Canada), but they could come to Greenland and legally force the drilling company to leave before there’s much of an impact (assuming the oil company didn’t come with mercenaries).

An out of power politician could still share intelligence in general, but I’m not sure how useful that would be in this case with a separate government in power.

I would probably also prefer to be executed by firing squad at age 60, than to spend 15-30 years rotting in prison.

That is to say, currently I think would prefer that, but I might feel differently when I’m 60 or if I were actually standing in front of a firing squad.

I paid $450 for a single room in a house share ten years ago. Now it’s $850 for rooms on the same street

Donaustahl sounds like someone forgot exactly what Rheinmetall was called, but remembered the gist.

This is not the US’ or Israel’s first act of hybrid war, by a long stretch. Maybe against Spain, but I’d be surprised if the US hadn’t meddled at all with Spain post Franco.

The US has never had a military defeat that hugely affected them and don’t fundamentally believe it’s possible. It’s simple hubris.

I read it as a revolution

That’s a failure on the part of the schools/Kindergärten. Children start attending government institutions at between two and four years of age. It should be perfectly possible for nonnative speakers to master German as well as any other student there, and it’s not hard as a teacher to mix students up and give them a chance to gel with new classmates.

Teaching children a language other than the main spoken one in their country gives them a huge benefit towards general language ability. The teachers and schools just have to consider it when planning lessons, but with a little attention, a four year old spending six hours a day in a language bath is going to learn the language. Then they’ll have two different ways of thinking about communication from the start, whereas other students might wait until they’re 8 to begin learning their second language.

You’re not joking, holy shit. I did not realize that the Korean War was deadlier than the Vietnam War.

I’m honestly not sure it’s evil enough. I just scrolled through his wiki to find the year, and it’s like he chose the worst possible position on every issue. He was on the side of the tanks in tianamen square!

Oh yeah, I was a worrier before working exclusively with people who got the worst result from the dangers constantly around us, but I try not to let it spiral.

I also used to be a smoker, which weirdly makes it easier to dismiss worrying about other things.

Kissinger advised trump in 2016 and 2017, infuriatingly

Yeah, that’s absolutely fair. It was fully banned in the EU in 2005, which is still way too late, but much better. Several individual countries had banned it earlier, but I don’t know how many or how effective that actually is in the single market.

I was handling all types of latent claims with long term exposures which aren’t exclusively toxin based, but it was mostly environmental/workplace poisoning, like lead paint, asbestos, printing chemicals, or radiation. One of the things I realized is that we’re either all fucked, or we’re more resilient than we expect, because most of us have a lot more casual contact with serious carcinogens than we think we do.

I try to lean towards the latter while still taking appropriate precautions, but none of us gets out alive. If I loved working on old cars, I’d probably do it despite the risks (but I’d definitely do a wet clean with as fine a mask as I could find and a disposable smock, then I’d immediately shower and get rid of my rags afterwards), because I think it’s better to use your time in a way that makes you happy than preserve a life that doesn’t fulfill you.

Anyway, that got very off track from the original diversion, but it was a fun chat. And now I’m going to throw a pair of dishwashing gloves in my trunk.

I’m sorry to tell you this, but asbestos was banned in brake pads in the US in 2024. There were restrictions in the type and processing of asbestos in the 80s, and most manufacturers stopped in the 90s, but it’s definitely still out there, especially if you’re working on a classic car, a junker that someone chose the cheapest parts for, or any kind of industrial vehicle (the last one isn’t likely for non mechanics, but most people I know who work on their own cars are working on one of the first two).

That said, I don’t think a few exposures over a lifetime are likely to cause mesothelioma. I hesitate to even say that, because it could happen with one fiber, but the vast majority of people who develop mesothelioma had multiple exposures, either very early on (eg. children of mechanics who did the laundry every other day for years), along with comorbidities (smoking, drinking, using a wood/peat stove, etc.), or on a daily basis for years and years.

I’m not saying that it’s not a danger or that you shouldn’t treat it very, very carefully (almost as delicately as you’d handle an open vial of fluorine), but I do always wonder if it would be better for everyone to do themselves it every couple of years instead of giving all of the risk to mechanics. They should have better PPE and knowledge about how to handle it than lay people, but A) we won’t really know if the PPE was effective until people have been using it for forty years and then do or don’t develop mesothelioma, and B) there is unfortunately a lot of pressure on people, from both peers and employers, not to advocate for best practices and sufficient PPE, which, along with a culture of machismo in many trades, means that people aren’t actually as protected or careful about disposal as the industry reports that they are.

But then again, given that these are brakes we’re talking about, I absolutely don’t want lay people fucking up their brakes and endangering everyone. The best solution imo would for 60+ year old mechanics to volunteer to do it (or even for the government to create a program for retired mechanics to work one day a week part time for as long as they’re capable/willing without any impact on their retirement benefits/social security). It takes several decades to manifest, so they’re almost certainly to die of something else first.

Nah, I have a very low tolerance for a patronizing tone, but a pretty high one for being ignored, and the language barrier makes me seem even less knowledgeable, so it’s a recipe for condescension if I’m the primary communicator. My husband would love it if I let loose on them in English, but that feels like giving up a little.

We just laugh at them together afterwards and if they’re too awful, we find a new place.