And that is getting to the crux of the problem with our modern, post-capitalist system. How would you value things? With what would humans buy the production of this AI robotic machine? If labor is worthless then so is everything else too. I mean why bother with keeping humans around at all?

Once labor was seen as a liability instead of an asset, our economic system began to crack. Just the other day I read this interesting quote from an old novel, "Perry Mason and the Case of the Perjured Parrot." It's Marxist in a way, but I have a very hard time arguing against it:

You might be interested in his economic philosophy, Mr. Mason. He believed men attached too much importance to money as such. He believed a dollar represented a token of work performed, that men were given these tokens to hold until they needed the product of work performed by some other man, that anyone who tried to get a token without giving his best work in return was an economic counterfeiter. He felt that most of our depression troubles had been caused by a universal desire to get as many tokens as possible in return for as little work as possible---that too many men were trying to get lots of tokens without doing any work. He said men should cease to think in terms of tokens and think, instead, only in terms of work performed as conscientiously as possible.

Yes but pastel colors! Surely you want those. That and low-contrast text.

There are also tons of AI-generated, feel-good, tear-jerker, -type stories. Sometimes about famous people helping a sick kid or something. In most cases as near as I can tell these stories are completely fabricated.

As a farmer I partially agree with you. The rush to ban neonics was definitely not done with any kind of scientific rigor. Certain forms of neonics such as seed treatments are incredibly beneficial without harming bees and other insects. We regularly use neonic seed treatments in Canada still (will be banned eventually unfortunately), and we also heavily rely on pollinators and they do just fine with such limited use of neonics.

However foliar application of neonics later in season is problematic. If I'm not mistaken Neonics are systemic, so they are of effect for several days. And like you say they are extremely toxic to bees. Traditional late-season insecticides such as Deltamethrin or Lambda-cyhalothrin are contact insecticides so are much less likely to affect bees and other beneficial insects if sprayed carefully and at times when the bees and other beneficials are not foraging.

I always have to look up the trade names so I know what they are are talking about. Seems that this particular insecticide was banned in Canada a few years ago. It went under the trade name of "Lorsban." I used it once on a crop on recommendation, but it certainly wasn't a chemical I wanted to be exposed to on a regular basis. Never found a need to use it again after that. As insecticides go, it is one of the more toxic ones.

Guess I've been lucky in recent years. The only insecticide I've needed to use was for grasshoppers and there's a highly selective (and expensive) insecticide for that that doesn't harm most other insects.

Food prices are rising and squeezing a lot of families no doubt about it. But widespread shortages? I don't think so.

Did you file counter claims? How did you do that?

I post videos for our local church branch and often get copyright claims, even on music that's actually owned by our church's head office. It's such a broken system. I normally do nothing with these claims since we aren't wanting to monetize our videos in any way, but it galls me that someone else wants to monetize our videos.

Some European trains also get up to 300 kph. I remember riding the train from Paris to Kohn back in 2014. Looking out the window I estimated our speed at around 160 kph. Pulled out my GPS unit and turned out I was wrong. Very wrong. 300 kph. And it was also a very smooth ride. The investment European countries made over the years was very costly but well worth it. I occasionally visit family in the US. Would love to have a fast train that would take me there, instead of driving for 12 hours. But you know, freedom and things.

Indeed. The clip I saw of the meeting with Lee and Trump was pretty weird. It's bizarre that this sort of meeting is now normal. It's one thing to show and express deep respect and understanding of a world leader, it's another thing to unabashedly heap over-the-top praise and flattery, and invite the president to personally profit from a political deal. But that is what leaders are lining up to give Trump. I'm not sure who such naked displays debase more, the groveling world leaders or Trump and the entire United States. But it does work, sadly. World leaders essentially get what they want, and Trump gets what he personally wants. Never mind the interests of the US as a country. As crude and vulgar as South Park's portrayal of this is, it is very, very accurate.

Oh I see. So we should just give up now and let Trump take us over since it's inevitable. With friends like that who needs enemies.

Migration... as in immigrants, emigrants? People moving from one part of Canada to another? Not quite sure what you're getting at there.

I mean never looked like a Fisher Price toy.

Pastels will look dated very quickly. Like 60s orange and green kitchens.

My phone UI has ever looked like a Fisher Price toy. But it is possible to have a nice looking UI with good contrast and decent colors. Pastels just aren't to my liking at all and the older I get the more I have a hard time with low contrast.

And the GOP is full on in favor of the biggest tax rise in decades. And the party of small government and states rights is actually the opposite. It's a bizarre world now.

So? Despite that now the descendants of rich, poor, enslavers, enslaved, are all benefiting from this rich framework. True it took far too long to get to this point, but nevertheless, it did happen. In other words it was the people and the application of their principles that were wrong, not the principles themselves.

Sadly it appears the current regime is out to destroy it all, including the very principles themselves.