MystikIncarnate

I could see California and BC getting together and starting their own country. The entire West coast would just be one, very liberal, nation.

I'm still amazed at climate deniers. You see the evidence year over year, how can you not fucking see it?

10 years ago (or thereabouts) we had snow in my area so severe that most things were shut down. People couldn't get out of their driveways.

I had to go out after the snowfall and it took more than an hour to dig my car out enough to leave.

Last year, we had maybe two snowfalls, and there was snow on the ground for less than one hour all winter.

The changes year over year are small, but over 10+ years? It's an entirely different planet. IDK why some people are so blind to that. WTF.

I have such a hard time believing that this brain rot is infecting Canada. I do not doubt anything you've said is true, it's still hard to believe.

I have a lot of thoughts on it, mostly unhappy thoughts.

Two things stand out:

First, I'm having a hard time with the voting turnout numbers. More people showed up to boot Trump out of office (voting for Biden), than every before. If you look at the numbers, the Republicans have gone up and up in vote count, albeit, not by a lot. While the Democratic vote count varies wildly year over year. It tells me that if people, specifically democratic voting people, show up, they win. When they don't, then the GOP wins. It is clear to me that they didn't show up.

Clearly, more people believed he was a threat to the country in 2020 and turned up in droves to drive him out, but in 2024 when we needed all of those people to turn up again, and keep him out, they just, didn't bother. I'm sure, a nontrivial amount of the voters flipped between Dem and Rep.... Or vice versa.... But the total votes when Biden won, were simply a lot more.

So I'm having trouble reconciling that fewer people turned up to vote and keep the orange one out of office, than the number that showed up to kick him out of office to begin with. I don't understand why they thought they needed to show up in 2020, but felt that they didn't need to in 2024. I just don't get it.

The second thing is centered around project 2025. Holy shit that entire plan is cursed. I feel bad for every American that isn't a straight white male right now. You're all going to get fucked over in some way, shape, or form. Even if you are a straight white male, you're probably still fucked because of all the fucked up things that Trump is going to do to the economy that will benefit his billionaire friends (at your expense). You'll get fucked slightly less than everyone else, but you'll still get fucked.

The only solace I have in this, is that Trump is done. He cannot run for a third term. Assuming that he isn't successful in dismantling the democracy at the heart of what the US is, it will only be four years and they can start the very long journey to repairing all the damage that this clown is about to do.

I have no illusions, that even if America survives his second term, they will be fucked for decades to come.

I would OCR it myself, but edit the meta data in the file so that the text in the OCR metadata is lorem ipsum.

So any bots that assume that the OCR text is what's on the image in the PDF (and why wouldn't they), it will only read useless junk. Only someone reading the text from the image would "see" it, and only a bot programmed to OCR a file that already has OCR metadata would realize that there's any inconsistency.

I'm not entirely sure how to accomplish that, but I'd figure it out if I was worried about the data being compromised.

Personally, I would simply keep the file in an encrypted container, then I wouldn't worry about what can scan the file since it would be entirely unreadable ciphertext without the correct security key or passphrase.

This works, right up until you introduce PDF compatible software that doesn't give a shit about your rules, of which there's plenty.

You can also print/scan, or even print to PDF to get around such limitations. The original document cannot be altered since that would invalidate the digital signature on the file, but you can create a perfect digital copy, omitting the signature, and modify it however you want.

If online systems that are skimming documents for their contents don't give a shit about what the signature is, and simply take a copy and OCR it to train an AI or amalgamate the information for data harvesting or other purposes.

I get what you're saying and in concept, it should be fine, the problem is that it's a software lock/restriction on a file type that isn't inherently closed source, unknown, nor was the PDF format built to be secure from the ground up. So we're applying security to a system that wasn't built for it.

Doesn't this proposal also make anyone who participates in the production of porn into a criminal?

Is the first Lady going to get arrested for her involvement in the creation of porn?

Fucking up other people's lives is basically the status quo for capitalists.

If other people get benefits you don't, either because you don't need them, or you don't want them, then they see it as a hand out, giving their money to the filthy poors to unjustly elevate them potentially above those that they are taking from.

Aggressive capitalists see everything as a race/ladder. Being in a better position than someone else because you're more wealthy/powerful/whatever, is the most important factor, and any kind of charity regarding providing basic needs to those who fall upon hard times is seen as a sin.

It's a demented and selfish mentality that's unnecessarily cruel to those less fortunate, simply because they can be. Anyone "below" them on the ladder (or "behind" them in the race), is less than them. So they idolize anyone who they view as "successful" or "wealthy" because they see them as "winning" the race. Something they desperately want to achieve.

Dunno what's wrong with your shit, but it looks fine from here.

I absolutely agree with that. Either the total number of respondents or the absolute number of voters on each side.

It's still self reported information which can very easily misrepresent what actually happened, but at least there would be some weight to the figures in any way, shape, or form.

I did not know this. Thank you.

Related: Alberta, get your shit together.

I'm not American and I wasn't able to vote in any American election. However, my heart goes out to all of my American friends, especially those in any group which has been clearly targeted by the incoming administration. Including certain races/nationalities, and LGBTQIA+ persons.

Stay safe, I'm sending you thoughts/prayers/vibes/whatever I can, hoping you will be safe throughout whatever comes next.

You didn't ask for it, you didn't vote for it, you don't deserve it. I'm angry that we find ourselves in this position. Much love for you all from Canada.