Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I think it’s spelled “Tapia, Valentin”, not “Tapia, Goddamnit” 140
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Yeah, it definitely is. This war was a colossally bad idea on so many levels. 000
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Brett has been very clear about saying this war was a dumb decision, and he isn’t defending it. The reason the US’s posture prior to this war in the gulf is defensive is that we were defending the gulf states (that want us there) and the strait (which is international waters) from Iran. 131
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I guess what I want to know is(and I think is what the guy above is getting at) is what do the Saudi’s do if we abandon them? For example, they have the money to create their own nuclear program, so if abandoned to Iran why wouldn’t they? 2102
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The most powerful lever a large account can wield to police its own followers is to block them for bad behavior. This is a more effective response than the victim blocking the harasser, because I don’t care if some rando blocks me, but if one of my favorite accounts blocks me I would be crushed. 021
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Yeah, the long range beam Sunder builds often underutilize their small kinetics, in my experience. I alway put needlers there to get the most out of when the Sunder drifts into their range bracket. 020
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Does the Tac Laser buff stack four times? If so, you could swap the LACs for two more on a LG Sunder. Or do you really need the kinetic damage? 120
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Wait, is this just labor theory of value all over again? AKA, Capital investments (including AI) can only produce exactly as much value as the labor inputs (so training data) that create them. Guys, we debunked that a long time ago. 010
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Very true! It’s too bad Elite PD does actually stack with BRF (although I suppose that would be a bit crazy). 130
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 18/09/2026It’s still worth making the change, for the record. I’m just not con that it will do much. 110
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I’m not sure how they would react to him being removed, but I don’t think they’d like it. And even if they don’t know who specifically voted against him, they might just blame the whole GOP. And GOP Senators presumably know that. 130
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I do wonder how GOP Senators would respond to secret ballot impeachments. I could see disposing of Hegseth (the man is incompetent and a political liability). But what about someone like RFK? He’s the leader of the Anti-Vax movement. 150
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I’m a bit surprised you can hit anything with the Heavy Mortars! Also, I assume you tried DLAC in the Lasher hard-points. Did they just not have enough range? I usually think they have pretty good accuracy there, with the recoil mitigation. 121
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 16/09/2026You can argue that AI will work, but that frontier lab’s profitability will never take off (usually due to proliferation of open source models). But the argument is easier to make if you pretend there are few/no real world applications for AI. 020
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I definitely agree with your broader point in this thread, but there is one AI risk that requires (or at least is helped by) AI not working: the Stock Market Bubble argument. 230
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Hard to imagine free movement of people, since Canada actually allows immigration and Europe is Europe. 010
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I think the “in Texas” part is what makes it ok for me. Like, this isn’t a blue state, or even a purple one. Dems still run some pro life people for house seats in Texas, and they win! It’s just the hand we’ve been dealt in this race specifically. 020
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 10/09/2026It’s still worth doing! But we need to think really carefully about how to set up the fund management. 050
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 10/09/2026My one concern about the index fund is that if (GOP) politicians decide the makeup of the index, then it becomes another (massive) vector for corruption. Imagine if Trump could direct a meaningful fraction of all Americans’ life savings into buying Palantir and Space-X stocks. 180
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 08/09/2026That’s still my favorite line you’ve ever written on here 050
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 08/09/2026God’s Perfect Bidoof: “my time has come” 180
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I’m not sure MAHA can be brought back (their conspiratorial mindset is so similar to MAGA), but the advantage of this strategy is that step one is good on its own merits, even if step two never works out. 030
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/09/2026The government has regulated addictive substances to make them less palatable before. We banned flavored cigarettes despite them being just as unhealthy as regular ones because they appealed to kids more. This is the same! 020
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 04/09/2026We have to hold some principle, but upholding norms and fair play aren’t among them. 010
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 03/09/2026The Twilight Saga, but not Midnight Sun (they have some standards) 020
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Will definitely likes to find something that everyone hates, but that a compelling case can be made that it is good, and confront people over it. But I don’t think that’s what you mean. 110
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 01/09/2026I am so sorry that you were heckled like this! Thank you so much for coming to Minnesota to show your support for me and my neighbors! 040
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 28/08/2026I’m reminded of Canterbury Tales, and the leader of the party being the local MP (who also owns a tavern). Or that line in Ken Burns Prohibition about how many New York Aldermen owned bars. Is that just a totally different situation though? 120
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Either way, I don‘t read anything specific into their response. The biggest take away is that Dems need to constantly be attacking Trump to try to find what sticks, because it’s impossible to predict what MAGA cares about. 020
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 19/08/2026I’m torn between thinking that Trump is just lashing out for purely irrational reasons and suspecting that Harper is the one causing the freak out, because sexual purity only maters to MAGA if you are a woman. 130
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Yeah, unless there is something really big we don’t know about, they are massively over reacting. And as you point out, it’s not like infidelity or rape would matter to MAGA. 150
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 15/08/2026I do not want to see what Xitter would make of this version of the story. 0100
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Part of the problem is that it takes a lot of suspension of disbelief to decide that traditional super heroes are the good guy in the first place, so I’d really appreciate the writers make that easier for me not harder. 1240
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Martin does show it in the books while we are following Arya in the Riverlands, but the looter’s focus is more on gold that food. 1580
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Also just people who accidentally hit the wrong button, didn’t read the question correctly, etc. 140
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 08/08/2026I thought MAGA did well in (Republican) primaries? Like Cornyn vs Paxton in Texas. Or are non-MAGA Republicans doing well in lower profile primaries, and I just hear when they win? 020
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/08/2026If we do it right, we can tax large landowners in poor (mostly red) states really highly, while taxing small landowners (such as rural African Americans) in those same states at lower rates. 050
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/08/2026My understanding is that you are even allowed to make the property tax progressive (i.e. larger landholders pay higher rates) within each state as long as the total amount of taxes levied from each state is proportional to population. 140
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Yeah, pretty much. Technically it falls disproportionally on poor states, but that mostly works out to the same thing. 120
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Slight mistake, the actual location in the constitution is Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4. Here’s an overview of the issues around levying property taxes (or any direct tax) from Congress’s online annotations of the Constitution. constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay...constitution.congress.gov 110
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/08/2026So if the total value of taxable property in state A is twice that of state B, but their populations are the same, then you would need to set the land value tax in state A at half the rate as state B, because the total tax revenue per person needs to be the same. 110
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Specifically, the amount of property taxes gained from each state needs to proportional to the population of that state. 110
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 05/08/2026The issue is that Federal Property taxes are considered a “direct” tax, and thus have to satisfy some really weird requirements to not be unconstitutional by Article 1, Section 2 of the constitution. 110
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Not online media, but this is what I really enjoy about reading Andy Weir (author of The Martian, Artemis, and Hail Mary). 010
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 28/07/2026No stabilized shields? Or do you not have them yet? I’m also surprised you made it flux neutral. I thought the consensus was for overfluxed builds? 120
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Thank you for bringing up a real world scenario. I agreed with your original point, but I was struggling to come up with an example of it ever really happening. 011
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 25/07/2026This must be what it’s like living in Russia during their invasion of Ukraine. 010
Flick Farstander @flickfarstander.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Yeah, I always forget that torpedos are the discount option when it comes to small missiles 020
