RIP Walter Koenig, aka Ensign Pavel Chekov. "Aye, Keptin!"

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While Vladimir Putin ignores Mr. Trump's call for an energy cease-fire and continues to murder Ukrainian civilians, the U.S. president claims that Russia "has been fine on Ukraine." This is factually wrong, strategically naive and morally bankrupt. His obsequious accommodation of Russia, rewarding the aggressor with sanctions relief, won't persuade Mr. Putin to stop. History shows that such behavior emboldens Russia's autocrat, who sees it as weakness.

Really interesting piece on how "Don't Ask Don't Tell" might actually have been a brilliant bit of actual "5D Chess" from Bill Clinton - (like the piece says, not a good guy on many fronts, but a hell of a politician.) TERFs and other "no really I was liberal but then the dems shifted on me" seem to forget how like, national legal gay marriage is only like ten years old. The bar has not been set as firmly for the rights of LGTBQ+ - even the "classic" "LGB" subset - as they like to pretend. Wired.com, the Red Bull Leaks, Revealed: Leaked Chats Expose the Daily Life of a Scam Compound's Enslaved Workforce.

[During an argument with an absurdly matriarchal computer personality] Ford slumped against a bulkhead. He started to count to ten. He was desperately worried that one day sentient life forms would forget how to do this. Only by counting could humans demonstrate their independence of computers.
[...]
Ford carried on counting quietly. This is about the most aggressive thing you can do to a computer, the equivalent of going up to a human being and saying Blood... blood... blood... blood...

huh. almost like someone doesn't want to admit how crap their policies are....