“National Call a Friend Day” Open Forum

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Yes, we were also surprised (but not really) this is a “day.” Of course, instead of calling a friend, you can opt to drop a message here!

FILED UNDER: Open Forum
Matt Bernius
About Matt Bernius
Matt Bernius is a design researcher working to create more equitable government systems and experiences. He's currently a Principal User Researcher on Code for America's "GetCalFresh" program, helping people apply for SNAP food benefits in California. Prior to joining CfA, he worked at Measures for Justice and at Effective, a UX agency. Matt has an MA from the University of Chicago.

Comments

  1. Ol' Nat says:

    Thank you Matt, James, and Steven, and everyone for being here and for giving us your thoughts! I always appreciate your commentary and love the comments!

    13
  2. Bill Jempty says:
  3. Kathy says:

    You may have seen Youtube videos exposing a browser extension called Honey as a scam. Here’s the one that started it. And there are others.

    TL;DR, Honey is supposed to find discount promo codes. It does, sort of. It also replaces affiliate links with its own, which is stealing a commission. As to promo codes, stores affiliated with Honey use it to limit how good a discount you can get.

    Seems to me Paypal, which owns Honey, got upset people were making money off the internet, and decided to rectify the situation. IMO, this is just the latest in extractive economy. All Money to the Oligarchs!

    4
  4. CSK says:

    Per NBC: Putin has apologized to Azerbaijan over the plane crash but won’t take responsibility for it.

  5. CSK says:

    Just more fuel for the MAGA dumpster fire:

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-crisis-
    could-mean-there-is-no-trump-inauguration-on-jan-20/

  6. CSK says:

    Sorry, the edit function won’t allow me to fix the above.

  7. Rob1 says:

    About that Greenland flap:

    [Greenland has]….. only known significant source of cryolite [WW2], and German attempts to use the island during the North Atlantic weather war, the United States for the first time applied the Monroe Doctrine on European colonies in the North Atlantic Ocean. The US landed armed United States Coast Guard personnel from USCGC Northland (WPG-49) in Greenland to hold the territory. Prior to landing, the Coast Guardsmen were formally discharged from service and reconstituted as a force of “volunteers” to create a legal fiction that would avoid charges of an American invasion of the country, the United States being neutral and the Danish government-in-exile not having agreed to the landing. The Danish government later agreed to the official entry of United States forces into Greenland, and the United States Army occupied the island in 1941.

    [And]

    The island is still important to American and NATO security;[6] Walter Berbrick of the Naval War College said in 2019, “Whoever holds Greenland will hold the Arctic. It’s the most important strategic location in the Arctic and perhaps the world”.

    Proposals for the United States to purchase Greenland – Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_the_United_States_to_purchase_Greenland

    1
  8. Kathy says:

    So, those problems with the government’s portal I mentioned the other day… they’ve gotten even more annoying.

    We can upload documents just fine. the problem is uploading the offer’s total. Some agencies ask only for the grand total, which is very easy to type in. Others want the price for each item. To aid in this, one can download an Excel file, paste the prices into it, and then upload it.

    I tried. I get errors that there needs to be a valid number with at least two and no more than six decimals. the problem is all those errors are numbers with two decimals. We can’t leave that part blank. So now I have to type them in manually.

    The issue here is I need to type 1) price, 2) minimum amount for the item, 3) maximum amount for the item, 4) VAT on the minimum amount, 5) VAT on the maximum amount amount, 6) other taxes on the minimum amount, 7) other taxes on the maximum amount, for 299 items.

    Just how everyone wishes they could spend their Saturday mornings after a very hard week of very long hours.

    1
  9. Rob1 says:

    @CSK:

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-crisis-could-mean-there-is-no-trump-inauguration-on-jan-20/

    It’s one of their paywalled pieces.

    But what can be gleaned from the “internets” on the topic, the problem hinges on Mike Johnson’s tenuous hold on the Speakership, plus the impending “debt ceiling” crisis.

    We may be looking at GOP Speakership election dumpster fire V2.0. And, a debt ceiling crisis would play well into Trump’s “I told ya so” agenda. In any case, might it be another situation where fundraising goes down the Trump rabbit hole never to be seen again?

    The dude hates leave money on the table, regardless whose it is or for what it’s intended.

    1
  10. Slugger says:

    @Rob1: The US has a large military base on Greenland. It was a USAF base called Thule, but it has now been renamed Pituffik and is run by the Space Force. Is there any reason to think that American industry will not have access to any minerals? Are the Danes selling Havarti at discriminatory prices? This is more pointless b.s. from Trump.

    4
  11. CSK says:

    @Rob1:

    Thanks.

    1
  12. charontwo says:

    @CSK: @Rob1:

    Not so fast …

    Link

    Several media outlets are suggesting that the failure to elect a Speaker will prevent the House from “certifying” Trump’s electoral win on January 6, 2025. That is incorrect. See explanation here.

    Link

    As noted above, Congress does not “certify” the electoral votes. It convenes in joint session to listen to the reading and tally of the votes by tellers and the announcement by the President of the Senate of the totals.

    The Electoral Count Reform Act refers to the tellers being appointed by “the presiding officers” of the House and Senate.

    When the House does not have a speaker, the Clerk acts as presiding officer. See Congressional Research Service, The Speaker of the House (“T]he Clerk of the House presides over the House under general parliamentary law until a Speaker is elected.”), and Precedents of the House | Clerk as Presiding Officer, (“At the beginning of a new Congress, the Clerk from the previous Congress serves as interim presiding officer . . . .”

    2
  13. Bill Jempty says:

    Another tale of a wheel well stowaway. On a flight from Chicago to Maui. They didn’t survive.

  14. Michael Reynolds says:

    I would love if @Andy took a look at this YouTube count of Russian tanks. It looks plausible to me, but IANAIA (I Am Not An Intelligence Analyst.) I’m mostly curious what he thinks about the methodology.

  15. Sleeping Dog says:

    Congressional Rs and trump have another, anticipated but happening sooner than expected problem, we’ll hit the debt limit by mid/late January.

    Civil war over immigration among the MAGAts, the debt limit, speaker wars…

    1
  16. Mister Bluster says:

    “This is Trump’s America now”
    Patrick Egan, 39, suspected of assault, harassment after allegedly tackling, choking journalist at KKCO and KJCT
    The victim told police that Egan rolled down his window and said, “Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine, and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”
    Denver Post

    Attacking people in the name of Donald Trump by MAGA goons is politically correct. I predict these attacks will increase after he is inaugurated.

    5
  17. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Sleeping Dog:
    I’m wondering which member of the regime hops in a plane and flies to Scotland.

    (Obscure historical reference.)

    1
  18. Rob1 says:

    @Slugger:

    Thule is a shell of its former self.

  19. DK says:

    Costco shuts down shareholders demand to ditch DEI hiring practices (The Independent)

    The shareholders had put forward a suggestion that employees of the company could be victims of “illegal discrimination because they are white, Asian, male or straight.” They argued that it could lead to tens of billions of dollars in legal expenses…

    “Our Board has considered this proposal and believes that our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary,” said a statement issued by the board. “…Our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion follow our code of ethics.”

    The board added that it wants to make sure all of its more than 300,000 employees “feel valued and respected,” and that by having a diverse workforce, Costco can have more insight and creativity when it comes to what the company offers at stores.

    The board went on to note that customers will be able to “see themselves reflected in the people in our warehouses with whom they interact.”

    “Having diversity in our supplier base, including attention to small businesses, is beneficial for many of the same reasons diversity benefits our Company,” the board stated…

    The board noted that it “regularly evaluates” the procedures the firm uses to comply with “the law including evolving Supreme Court decisions.”

    Good to know sane, normal people run the show at Costco. Vichy Dems and center-left’s surrender caucus should take note.

    I’ve heard DEI and wokeness were dead, as if the half of America that isn’t ignorant and gullible would just lay down and give up because a tired fascist (whose coalition is already melting down into infighting and incompetence) won an election by 1.5%. But there’s no chance the normies will renege on their principles. Certainly not to genefluct before Trump’s drug addicted oligarchs, the right’s DEI-for-MAGA freaks, or those whose ethics bend whichever way the winds are blowing.

    8
  20. Slugger says:

    @Rob1: Thule was established to counter the threat of Soviet bombers coming over the North Pole, and with the diminution of that threat it has shriveled. However, a US military toehold on Greenland remains.
    My cousin was a USAF meteorologist there. He said it was 800 miles from the nearest woman, but he had the upside of experiencing F=C (-40 degrees).

    1
  21. al Ameda says:

    @CSK:

    Per NBC: Putin has apologized to Azerbaijan over the plane crash but won’t take responsibility for it.

    How very similar this is to Nixon’s, “I accept the responsibility, but not the blame,” back in 1974 as the Watergate scandal widened.

    2
  22. CSK says:

    @al Ameda:

    It may be closer to Trump’s “I take no responsibility.”

    3
  23. Rob1 says:

    MAGA after all, was always grounded in MLM and financial network gladhanding…

    Anti-woke’ dog food and pro-America lipstick: US sees rise in rightwing stores [..]

    [progressive branding] upset a segment of rightwing consumers, creating a market for the likes of Mammoth Nation and PublicSquare.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/28/anti-woke-shopping-public-square

    Mammoth Nation https://mammothnation.com/

    Liberal strategy keeps chasing after the wrong vectors to confront. Financial self interest, both petty and large, underwrites the apparition in their nightmares, resulting empty swings in the air.

  24. CSK says:

    @Mister Bluster:

    The victim is Ja’ronn Alex, by ethnicity a Pacific Islander, a native of Detroit, and a Clemson grad.
    Seems to be an American to me.

    5
  25. Lucysfootball says:

    Trump is going after E Jean Carroll again:
    Trump has escalated his public attacks on writer E. Jean Carroll, signaling on Truth Social that she should face jail time. Trump shared a post from another user calling for Carroll to be imprisoned for allegedly lying about her allegations against him.
    The post, which included a photo of both Trump and Carroll, asked, “Should a woman go to jail for falsely accusing a man of rape?” and encouraged users to “retruth” the post in support of Trump. Trump reposted it to his millions of followers.
    To any lawyers out there, can Carroll go after Trump again for defamation? It would be civil, and I think the Supreme Court has ruled in the past that presidents are not immune from civil suits.

    2
  26. Jim Brown 32 says:

    Interesting enough—my jaunt to YouTube this afternoon was blitzed by RW content suggestions and ads from RW loons hawking supplements—including, Scott Adams. Who I haven’t thought about until it was mentioned in the other forum here today.

    Granted, I did several posts today talking about RW tactics and personalities and, of course, Trump. But this is how insidious the ecosystem works. I scrolled a post on OTB that referenced Scott Adams, and WALA, he’s in ads on my YT feed selling me supplements to reduce my belly fat.

    This doesn’t happen with Centrist or LW content—and I’ve scrolled and browsed a fair percentage of it today as well. Browsers across america are serveilling web activity to then serve up RW content that throws a significant percentage of influence-susceptible Americans down a Rabbit hole.

    6
  27. dazedandconfused says:

    @Slugger:

    Actually, Thule was established as a re-fueling station for trans-Atlantic aircraft that couldn’t make it all the way from Labrador to the UK a vit prior to WW2 . The DC2’s and 3’s and a some other aircraft craft absolutely needed one for that hop. However, as you say, Thule as greatly expanded and improved in the Cold War as a military base.

    Trump says whatever pops into his head at the moment, and most of it is just him being in love with his own voice. The Dane’s extremely low-key reaction indicates they are hip to this.

    1
  28. Mister Bluster says:

    @CSK:..I luv the internet…

    I found this story on Yahoo reported by the AP (link). I looked for a few other sources and found the Denver Post item that I linked to in my 12:39 post in this thread. I know that I clicked on the Denver Post story more than once and saw the complete report. The last time I clicked it was behind a paywall. No mention that I had used my free clicks just blocked.
    Clearly when Trump is sworn in his thugs will claim open season on anyone who does not support their führer.

    1
  29. MarkedMan says:

    Here’s another in my series of links about the dangers of using generative AI for things it is not appropriate for (almost everything). When doctors were asked about the advice given by ChatGPT, they found that it gave dangerous responses 20% of the time. Not just wrong – dangerous.

    I don’t think generative AI can solve this problem. In fact, as more of what it is trained on comes indirectly or even directly from generative AI, it’s only going to get worse. I think back to a year ago when I had to deal with T-Mobile tech support, which previously had been great, and it was painfully obvious that the “technicians” were simply reading generative AI scripts, and going off onto tangents, repetitions of advice that hadn’t worked, and all kinds of “friendly” banter, over and over and over. I finally realized that I could get transferred to a real technician by asking them to stop speaking from a script.

    4
  30. Mikey says:

    I talked to Thule once. February 28, 1991, I was in southern Iraq, and the cease-fire of Operation Desert Storm had just gone into effect.

    I was sitting in my HMMWV with its vehicle-mounted communications system, which included an HF radio set (what civilians would call shortwave). We were ready to move at any moment, so I had the 16-foot whip antenna mounted. This antenna was of the boring type, omnidirectional and not particularly high-gain. But even so, I figured I could still count on a range of a few hundred miles.

    With this in mind, I decided I’d try to raise Incirlik Air Base in Turkey’s base radio operator and ask him for a phone patch (connection from radio to phone line) so I could call my girlfriend in Germany. I found a frequency that would likely work for that time of day (somewhere around 13.5 MHz if I recall correctly) and started calling: “Incirlik, Incirlik, this is (whatever my callsign was).” Unfortunately, repeated attempts failed to get a response. I was just about to give up when I heard “(whatever my callsign was), this is Thule.” A bit disbelieving, I replied and basically said “who’s this again?” and he spelled it out for me, “Tango Hotel Uniform Lima Echo.” “Holy shit,” I thought to myself, “I must be skipping over the whole North Atlantic.” Shortwave signals can skip off water and refract back from the stratosphere.

    I replied, “Thule, this is (callsign), request phone patch.” He replied, “(callsign), I can’t do that for you.” I then replied, “Thule, I am in India Romeo Alpha Quebec, request phone patch.” Well, that got his attention. He replied, “(callsign) meet me at (frequency).”

    I dialed in the requested frequency and called “Thule, this is (callsign), over.” He asked what phone number, I told him it was Germany and gave him the number. A minute later I heard the ringback tone and my girlfriend’s voice…”Hello?” Fantastic! We had a quick conversation, I told her everything was OK and I was fine and that was about it.

    Later I calculated the straight-line distance between where I was in Iraq and Thule Air Base–almost 4,600 miles. Probably a lot of HAM operators with their top-notch radio sets and fancy antennas can do that, but me with a relatively low-powered radio and the most basic antenna you can get? That was something.

    7
  31. gVOR10 says:

    @Michael Reynolds:

    I’m wondering which member of the regime hops in a plane and flies to Scotland.

    Not that obscure. But, where’s Scotland? In Latin America and Europe, the OAS, the EU, and the U. S. have acted to limit authoritarian populists. Who can play that role for us?

  32. JohnSF says:

    Having been away for some days:
    Merry Christmas, to all who hold to that.
    Happy Hanukkah, cool Yule, viby Solstice etc to those who hold otherwise.

    1
  33. JohnSF says:

    @Michael Reynolds:
    Well, I ain’t Andy.
    But Russia seems to have been reaching quite deep into their stockpiled armour, cross-mating what was usable, reconditioning and refitting, and installing “modern” gear, for some time.
    This is quite sensible; but does not necessarily produce MBT that can be effective.
    Though that depends on how the amour is being used: to date in Ukraine, MBTs have not been of much value in “breach and exploit” blitzkrieg operations.
    In some ways, Ukraine now is similar to both WW1 and to WW2 Normandy.

    More generally: contrary to some, Russia does not have either infinite stocks of weapons, or an economy capable of producing such.
    The lesson of war post-1860: economic potential is fungible.
    And compared to the West, Russia is a rounding error.
    The questions is primarily one of political will.

    2
  34. just nutha says:

    @Mister Bluster: Thugs gonna thug, and goons gonna goon. Twas ever this.

  35. Matt says:

    @Michael Reynolds: I’ve been watching that channel and some others for comparison’s sake. What I like about that channel is they buy new satellite images for their analyzation.

    Russia is scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point for tanks and IFVs. Replacement electronics is a constant struggle due to sanctions. Getting cut off from French thermal optics really hurt the Russians.

    Having said that even a tank from the 40s can have a use on the modern battlefield. If nothing else they can be used for infantry fire support and quasi arty. I’m sure there’s a ton of soviet era 115mm and 125mm ammo lying around. Since Russia’s leadership doesn’t care about the lives of their soldiers then it doesn’t matter if a few dozen people are killed by breach or barrel explosions.

    Shortages of barrels for artillery is a real problem for Russia and a lot of the big guns in the field are time bombs waiting to happen. Combine that with questionable ammo..

    You can get away with a lot when you don’t give a crap about the common soldier.

    3
  36. JohnSF says:

    @Matt:
    The barrel-wear issue is one that gets overlooked a lot.
    Europe is shipping a LOT of 155 barrels to Ukraine.
    Rebuilding the production capacity is a big issue.
    Forgemasters and Rheinmettal are currently working on it.

    Killing your gunners for fun and profit is all very well, but when you’re all out of barrels, you’re shit out of luck.

    2