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["Baal?" news] Moody's cuts Israel's credit rating to Baa1. Israel's lowest rating ever.

> - Second cut this year leaves the nation three steps above junk > > - Israel sees cost of conflicts reaching $66 billion by end-2025

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The ranking rizzler
  • A couple comments

    I love her so much. She rocks!

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    (I thought skibidi was bad, can anyone help)

  • The ranking rizzler

    https://subium.com/profile/joshuajfriedman.com/post/3l562jm36ft2s

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    Featured
    Bulletins and News Discussion from September 23rd to September 29th, 2024 - The War In The North
  • I'm watching MSNBC and they're talking about the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. The anchor is talking to a guy from the Such-and-Such Institute for Peace. He's used the terms "ground op", "tactically", "this could tarnish Israeli's brand", and "the deaths of innocents". Even the military guys (ex-generals and such) on CNN and MSNBC don't use lingo like that because they know it's ghoulish and creepy.

  • New Instrument, new sound!
  • You've heard of the hurdy gurdy, now get ready for the harpy garpy

  • Israel secures $8.7 billion military aid package from Washington
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_aLESDql1U

    Note - it's strong and powerful. I started to have auditory hallucinations 30 seconds in.

  • 'Keir Starmer channels Thatcher with military photo op' - The Independent
  • I love how they are in camo and everybody but him has camo face makeup yet at least two guys are wearing berets with bright plumes.

  • Trump warns hostile migrants have machine guns beyond 'military scope,' 'massive machine gun-type equipment.'
  • "My uncle at MIT was a very smart guy - very smart guy. One day I said to him 'What are you working on?' He said 'Top secret - very secret - above top secret nuclear secret - I can't say.' But I wanna know so I say 'Uncle, but I wanna know.' He says 'Okay. The Plasma.' My uncle was 257 IQ. So not just a regular genius - special genius. I'm smart too so I know The Plasma. But I don't know how so I say 'How?' And he says 'Some time in the future there will be The Plasma Weapons. These weapons will be very, very powerful. Blow up a tank or a house a mile away. Just like that.' And he snapped his fingers. The Plasma - I know The Plasma."

  • Journalist Ken Klippenstein booted from X after publishing the Iranian hacked JD Vance Dossier.
  • Klippenstein published the 271-page report compiled by the Trump campaign to vet Vance, now the Republican nominee’s running mate, on his Substack.

  • Meet the First Tenured Professor to Be Fired for Pro-Palestine Speech
  • Emphasis mine. Being anti-genocide is bad and can cost your tenured job. But being pro-genocide is okay.

    Another key moment in Finkelstein's tensions with the college in the previous 11 months [was] her reaction to a fundraising campaign for the Israeli military promoted on campus. Finkelstein told me that on October 17, on leaving her classroom, she was shocked by a display table newly laid out by Hillel.

    "You can help raise money for various war efforts in Israel," a sign on the table read, followed by QR codes linking to campaigns, including one to raise money for the Israeli military. Finkelstein did not immediately post publicly about the fundraiser, but emailed the school's president, chaplain, and director of Hillel.

    "How, in good conscience, can the college allow for this to be displayed to our students? The Israeli military just bombed a hospital in Gaza, killing 500 people," she wrote. "I think this is an absolute disgrace. I hope it will be taken down ASAP." Following several complaints to university leadership, Finkelstein was, she said, told that the Hillel students had a right to fundraise for whichever cause they wanted.

    "I asked if, since students had the right to fundraise for genocide, whether I or anyone else — other faculty, students — had the freedom to write about it, and was told yes," said Finkelstein. The following day, she posted a picture of the fundraiser sign to her X and Instagram accounts, without naming Muhlenberg as the location. "Students raising money for genocide," she wrote. "Grief won't be extinguished by revenge — ceasefire now."

    I don't know anything about academia and maybe this is typical for it. Still my response is holy fuck. I'm shocked that the uni used outside consultants as a PR heat shield and any uni can cherry pick a firm that will give them the result they want.

    While Finkelstein was put on leave, the third-party investigation into the case was conducted by D. Stafford & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in campus safety and law enforcement. The investigation, which concluded in April, found that Finkelstein's Instagram repost rose to the level of violating the school's equal opportunity, nondiscrimination policies, which can police extramural speech in addition to classroom conduct.

    Finkelstein had to literally define words for the provost

    "She didn't seem to understand what I meant by Zionist," Finkelstein said, recounting her experience of an October meeting with Furge, the provost. "And so I explained to her that Judaism is a religion and Zionism is a political ideology."

  • The state of the discourse 2024
  • I wonder why it took two people to write it.

  • Governor Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Eric Adams. She would be in uncharted territory. But he can't be recalled and he is not required to resign.
  • If the dems were smart - they'd seriously twist his arm to force him to resign.

    The New York City Charter gives Gov. Kathy Hochul the power to remove him. But the process would be complicated.

    Under the charter, Ms. Hochul, who had not commented on the indictment as of late Wednesday, could suspend Mr. Adams for up to 30 days and then remove him “after service upon him of a copy of the charges and an opportunity to be heard in his defense.”

    That is where New Yorkers would be entering uncharted territory. A governor has not exercised such powers in recent memory. The closest precedent occurred in 1931, when Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt held 14 days of hearings into the misconduct of Mayor Jimmy Walker, who eventually resigned in 1932 before going to Europe.

  • Ohio Residents Evacuated After Toxic Railcar Chemical Leak
  • The incident that was on many residents’ minds following Tuesday’s accident was more recent. In February 2023, a Norfolk Southern railcar carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, setting off fires and leading to a controlled chemical burn of vinyl chloride, a carcinogen. Chemicals released that week spread to 16 states, later research showed. East Palestine is some 300 miles from Whitewater Township.

    Following Tuesday’s accident, local residents worried that they wouldn’t get the cleanup help they needed.

    “We are Hooven, Ohio,” said Greer, a fourth-generation resident. “They will ignore us.”

  • WE'RE GOING DOWN!
  • That would make sense. After all - the pilot was a hero. They even made a movie about him, Sully, and he was played by Tom Hanks.

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Comprador capitalising on Marcellus Williams' state-sanctioned murder
  • Alternate Universe Honest AOC

    We must abolish the death penalty. Like and subscribe and vote! lmao.

  • Eric Adams has been indicted
  • form a prison gang

    Or a power trio.

  • Eric Adams has been indicted
  • This is like corrupt pol micro fiction crime story. I quoted only the article subheader and the article subheaders which have dates.

    NYT: A Timeline of Key Moments in the Lead-Up to the Mayor’s Indictment

    Mayor Eric Adams faces corruption charges. Here are the key moments that led to his indictment.

    [...]

    Nov. 2, 2023: The F.B.I. raids the home of the chief fund-raiser to Mayor Eric Adams.

    Nov. 2, 2023: The F.B.I. raids the homes of an aide in the mayor's international affairs office and a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on his transition team.

    Nov. 6, 2023: The F.B.I. seizes the mayor's phones and iPad.

    Nov. 28, 2023: Adams announces that his chief fund-raiser is out.

    Feb. 5, 2024: A retired police inspector pleads guilty to funneling illegal funds to the mayor's campaign.

    Feb. 29, 2024: The F.B.I. searches the homes of the mayor's Asian affairs adviser, who was a prominent fund-raiser for his campaign.

    July 2024: Federal prosecutors serve a new round of subpoenas to the mayor, his election committee and City Hall.

    Sept. 4, 2024: Federal agents seize the phones of the police commissioner, the first deputy mayor, the schools chancellor and others.

    Sept. 12, 2024: The police commissioner resigns.

    Sept. 15, 2024: The mayor's chief counsel resigns.

    Sept. 16, 2024: Two former Fire Department chiefs are arrested on bribery charges.

    Sept. 21, 2024: Federal agents search the home of the interim police commissioner.

    Sept. 23, 2024: The city's health commissioner says he will resign.

    Sept. 23, 2024: It is reported for the first time that federal prosecutors are looking into the mayor's dealings with five countries besides Turkey. The other countries are Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan.

    Sept. 24, 2024: The schools chancellor says he will resign.

    Sept. 25, 2024: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becomes the most prominent elected official to call for Adams's resignation.

    Sept. 25, 2024: News of Mayor Eric Adams's indictment is made public.

  • A patient portal may contain your therapy notes. Health care systems have been putting therapists' progress reports online.

    The entire NYT header and subheader. Emphasis mine.

    > Heads Up: That Patient Portal May Contain Your Therapy Notes > > Health care systems have been putting therapists’ progress reports online, much to the surprise (and anger) of some patients.

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    Gaming PC power supply question

    If you missed my other thread - I haven't been a gamer since the late 1970s so I don't know anything about this stuff.

    I'm going to buy an Alienware Aurora R16 next week. The only PSU options seem to be 500W or 1000W. The PSU is proprietary. I'm going to buy my PC from one of the following...

    1. New from dell.com. Both PSU options are available.

    2. Refurbished from Amazon Renewed. There are no power supply details. That's even true if I use plain old amazon.com and look at new models.

    3. Refurbished from outlet.us.dell.com. Both PSU options are available.

    Amazon Renewed might be cheaper but it annoys me they won't give the info. Even if 500W is fine for me - I'll like to have that "in writing" before I buy anything.

    I'm going a PC at least this powerful...

    • Processor: Intel Core i7 14700F (61 MB cache, 20 cores, up to 5.4 GHz Turbo)

    • Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB GDDR6X

    • Memory: 32 GB: 2 x 16 GB, DDR5, 5600 MT/s

    • Harddrive: 2 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD

    I don't know if I'll ever upgrade. Is 500W good enough?

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    Gaming peripherals questions

    I'm going to buy a new prebuilt PC next week. I'm almost certain I'll buy a Windows PC and making a PC is not my thing. I haven't been a gamer since the late 1970s so I'm a bit behind the curve.

    What peripherals should I buy?

    I know that's vague but I sincerely don't know what kind of games I'll end up liking.

    How much should I budget for it?

    ~$300? I have no idea. For the short term - I want the basic core stuff I need and maybe a bell and whistle or two.

    I want to avoid going crazy and buying specialized stuff like a wheel and pedals set. If I decide that driving games are my thing - I can always buy that later.

    Should I buy a headset right off the bat?

    Do you use a headset? My mental image is that I don't want to talk to anybody or listen to anybody because there are a lot of trolls out there. But am I wrong? Are there games where a headset is worth it? I'll let you define "worth it".

    Also - how much does a good headset cost?

    \---

    Edit

    I thought I needed to budget more for peripherals. It seems I don't. And - I don't need to buy everything next week anyway. There's no rush and my gaming needs might turn out to be (very) modest anyway. Current plan

    • Keyboard. My current keyboard is beyond crap anyway.
    • Gaming mouse?
    • Microphone headset?
    • Speakers? Maybe not. For reasons I don't want to explain - no speakers might be better.
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