Please don’t lump trademarks with the rest. Makers have stamped their goods with their mark since ancient times, both as advertising and to signify quality products (and not knockoffs). Swords were especially commonly marked with the smith’s trademark.

It was illegal to sell bread in ancient Rome without a trademark, for example. The punishments for doing so were harsh, as they wanted to be able to track down the baker if someone sold tainted bread.

In modern days, they’re useful for customers to know what company they’re buying from.

My dad grew up in a communist country, and I know exactly what you mean.

I’m incredibly lucky that we have a kind of mutual intellectual respect, where we fact-check each other a lot and are both willing to change our minds about stuff. Consequently, I’ve managed to explain the differences between totalitarianism, communism, and fascism (had to explain why horseshoe theory isn’t a thing).

He thought I was being hyperbolic about the US’ slow descent into fascism in 2017, as I ran through the fascist identification checklist. As a victim of communism, he naturally tried to make excuses for Trump. That ended the first week of his second term, and we’re having some close calls with a similar candidate here.

59 / 49 = 1.2 Hegseconds / Truss.

Alternatively, the Truss / Scaramucci conversion would be 49 / 11 = 4.45

I think for name recognition and not scaring off Americans who run in fear from the s word, maybe it should be called the Progressive Party?

Depends how you do it. If you get professionals to do it, yes, it gets very expensive very quickly. I know some people that renovated their own place. Took upwards of a year on what would be a 1 month job if they had hired professionals, but it got done slowly but surely at a fraction of the cost.

This is a time of crisis, and both the Squad specifically and the American progressive movement in general are letting a good crisis good to waste

What would you recommend they do? And how would they go about doing that within the strictures of a two-party system where one is fascist and the other is captured?

A nominal fee from a heavily discounted sale is still more than spending money on a demolition.

Messaging is important. While the Republicans are saying “There’s some temporary pain, but it’ll all sort itself out in the end. We just need to get through this transition, and the tarrifs and deportations will MAGA”, there needs to be a counter-argument.

They’re (thankfully) not preaching to the choir. They’re going to Republicans and independents and explaining in these rallies that there’s an oligarchy that has taken control, made them poorer, and it will get worse.

If they can convince enough people of the real causes, they have a broader base, and potentially even some new progressives.

Why would they demolish houses rather than selling them? Makes no economic sense.

There’s no reason to believe that a formerly homeless person wouldn’t put in the effort on a house restoration project if given the chance to live in it permanently.

Did anyone seriously expect it to be a real wall with Rober sitting in the driver’s seat?

There’s plenty of opposition parties in Russia, for example. They’re just all controlled. They use intentional gaffs to throw the election to the “correct” winner. If they start getting too uppity and stop following orders, they get banned from running on some technicality.

Navalny is what happens when even that doesn’t work, but he was very much the exception.

Was at the one in Bucharest. Was a little disappointing tbh. Was just a photo op with extra steps. Organizers maneuvered the crowd into the formation they wanted for the photo, took the photo, then wished everyone a good night and wandered off.

I swear, YT comments seem to be 60% bots, 20% people who have to be reminded to breathe, 10% trolls.

Of course, 110% of all statistics on the internet are pulled out of someone’s ass.

Every neighbour of theirs has a score to settle. Russia has never been a good neighbour to any of us.

Of course, black people had no role in the war over their status as free people…

None of that text matters anymore. Laws are only as good as the enforcement of them. When ICE can strip a green card holder of their right to be in the country and deport unilaterally with no legal accountability for the crime of supporting a cause they don’t like, free speech is over.

It’s frankly incredible just how devoted the US Democratic party is to losing. They’re so ridiculously ineffectual.

I know someone who got had by a spearfishing call. They knew all the details about his phone contract, sounded 100% legit. The scammer got thousands of dollars in prepaid SIM cards from his account.

After the police investigation, turned out that the scammer was actually a former employee of the phone company who downloaded a copy of the customer list when he got fired.

The EU has multiple “second class” membership options. Multiple non-EU countries are in Schengen, even more have no visa requirements.

Multiple countries have trade deals with the EU, including Canada (as soon as CETA gets fully completed).