Posts by Lana@beige.party
(DIR) Post #B4vcs6VTr4NTgsaWqe by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
Also, a quick reminder before the replyguys come in. Yes, these are indirectly caused by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. No, that is not because of a lack of crude oil. While that used to be true decades ago in the 80s, since then, the US has become the largest *exporter* of crude oil in the world. For us, this is a pricing issue, not a supply issue. Buying more crude from other countries would not solve this. We have plenty of supply, and even a ton in reserve. It's just costing us more to buy it because the price of gas is almost directly tied to the global oil market.
(DIR) Post #B4vcs7CjGGyLr0p4G8 by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
For other countries (China and Russia for instance), this isn't a pricing issue. It's a supply issue. Running out of oil for them means food can't get delivered to cities. It means factories can't run. It means electrical grids go dark. For other global super powers, running out of oil is a massive infrastructure clusterfuck. If you like the fact that America isn't currently facing that existential threat, thank Obama and Biden. They did that for you.
(DIR) Post #B506MKpipQSo77fBCa by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
Cis people only: Who is your favorite trans person?
(DIR) Post #B549v0J0DdCj4vQCcS by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
@carmensandiego WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MY POLY-COTTON POLO?
(DIR) Post #B58Xrk4VIJn5OSSPCK by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 1 repeats
Two things that just happened: - The First Lady held a public press hearing about how she Definitely Isn't In The Epstein Files So Stop Asking - The President posted a video on his official social media of a man murdering a woman with a hammerCall your reps and demand impeachment.
(DIR) Post #B5HhewyckYDfcMsxE0 by Lana@beige.party
1 likes, 1 repeats
I want you to picture what immediately comes to mind when I say the phrase "the Strait of Hormuz is closed." Got that mental picture? Great. Because, if you're an American, odds are everything you're currently imagining is wrong. You might be thinking that in order to "close the Strait", some amount of military presence is required. Some form of naval barricade. Ships with guns and mines and things. Or at the very very least, boats. And you would be wrong. The Strait of Hormuz is not closed due to some physical barricade. It's closed because of paperwork. And, more specifically, insurance paperwork. And, even more specifically, American capitalist insurance paperwork. This sounds like the most boring subject ever - until you realize that it controls literally everything about the war, how the war ends, and how things ever get back to "normal". (Spoiler warning, they don't.) On February 28, 2026, the same day Iran publicly announced that a peace deal was on the table in which America gets literally everything they ever wanted, America decided to set fire to Iran in the form of (deep sigh) "Operation Epic Fury". We live in the stupidest timeline. In less than an hour, American military forces bombed more than 1,000 civilian and military targets in Iran, and murdered more little Iranian girls attending elementary school than the Taliban ever did. Ships going through the strait immediately saw their insurance rates rocket sky high. Why? Because war is one of the things that insurance covers, along with piracy, natural disasters, and foreign governments seizing your cargo. Before the bombing, ship cargo insurance ran about 0.02% of the value of the cargo they're hauling. On an average cargo ship carrying somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 million barrels of cargo worth approximately $100 million dollars, that's a rounding error. $20,000 per transit is nothing. Immediately following the bombing though, that insurance rate went up to 5% of the value of the haul. Or roughly FIVE MILLION DOLLARS per ship per transit. Put simply, that's like you waking up one day and finding out that because some idiot bombed the Toyota factory half a world away, your car insurance just went up to $50,000/ a month overnight. And then, to make things worse, on March 2, the insurance companies just yanked everyone's insurance completely. They sent out letters saying that in 72 hours, all ships in the Strait of Hormuz would have their insurance cancelled. If you had infinite money, you couldn't buy insurance for your vessel. The actuarial tables took one look at the state of US involvement in Iran and just went FUCK NO. So, on March 5, 2026, every single vessel attempting passage through the Strait of Hormuz - an active war zone - quietly and completely lost all their insurance.Now, what can ships do without insurance? Basically nothing. If you're an uninsured cargo vessel, no port is going to take you, your cargo won't make it through customs, your financing collapses, and your flag State pulls your registration. Basically the entire legal infrastructure underpinning global overseas trade says if you don't have insurance, you don't sail. So don't sail is exactly what everything and everybody did. America essentially cockblocked itself using capitalism. Over the next few weeks Iran began allowing a few vessels through the Strait, from nations it considers non hostile. And by "allowed", what I mean is, the insurance companies decided that some non hostile nations such as China could buy insurance for their vessels. But there's a catch. They had to buy that insurance using Chinese yuan. Which, China was only too happy to do. And then, THEN, something amazing happened. Something that hasn't ever happened before in the history of the world. Cargo ships started broadcasting their international country of origin AS CHINA. Japanese and Indian cargo ships started blasting the airwaves claiming "China owner" or "All crew and ship Chinese". They were hacking the embargo WITH BRANDING. And it worked! They bought insurance with Chinese yuan, and were allowed passage through the Strait. Problem solved! Everyone's happy! Guess who isn't so happy about that, though. America. America, who is the largest exporter of petroleum and liquid natural gas in the world. Of course, Trump wants the Strait open. If America can't export its petroleum and petroleum based byproducts, because its ships, and its ships alone can't buy the insurance they need at literally any amount of American dollars, then American petroleum manufacturers start losing money. Which means Trump starts losing money. So what does Trump do next? In his infinite wisdom, he decides to, in order: - insult them- insult their religion- threaten them with annihilation- send the Navy to physically blockade the Strait. The Strait which was open before he bombed them, and is still open to everybody but him, and which he desperately needs to be open. And I want you to just have a little think about what that "blockade" actually looks like. Because if you think the US Navy is just shooting down Japanese and Chinese and Indian and South Korean civilian shipping vessels with absolutely no response from those governments, you're a special kind of stupid. No, what this actually looks like in practice is a US Navy vessel is parked just outside the Strait of Hormuz asking everyone else - who has the legal right and paperwork to sail through the Strait - to please pretty please don't sail though. And then when they fucking ignore us and sail through the Strait anyway, the US Navy writes down the ship's identification number on a list and has a little cry about it. So, here's the international state of affairs as it stands right now: America is currently blockading itself, and ONLY ITSELF from passage through the Strait of Hormuz using its own Navy, because of actions taken by its own Air Force, which closed the Strait of Hormuz due to its own capitalist system, which is the only reason America even gives a shit about Hormuz in the first place. Art of the fucking deal, folks.
(DIR) Post #B5MHYNpyrH8Hsaqm8m by Lana@beige.party
1 likes, 1 repeats
Boss makes a billionWhile making no hires Maybe that explains All those warehouse fires
(DIR) Post #B5Sfq4Cq9JVO3TGcb2 by Lana@beige.party
1 likes, 1 repeats
Elliot Page has the chance to do the funniest thing
(DIR) Post #B5UQZsvjCAwXSB0bOi by Lana@beige.party
2 likes, 0 repeats
"No one wants to work, our turnover is terrible!" Ok, do you pay a living wage? "No"Do you give annual raises more than 7%, the annual rate of cost of living increase? "Also no, but-"Do you give larger raises and bonuses to execs than to your workers? "Well yes, but-"Did you force people to stop working from home in order to justify the cost of maintaining real estate you own?"I mean, we-" Do you heavily invest in AI so you can justify massive layoffs? "Like every other co-"Do you ask your employees to pick up the slack for the people who have left?"We had t-"And did you install digital tools to spy on your remaining employees? "Look we need to ensu-"Sounds to me like people DO want to work, you've just made it unpatatable for them to work for YOU.
(DIR) Post #B5pJHwsf9KMj8MEY5I by Lana@beige.party
1 likes, 0 repeats
I am fundamentally against AI, not because I am technophobic or anti-progress. I am no Luddite. I am quite often a first adopter of new tech. I am against AI because I can recognize a con when I see one. And we are living in the Golden Age of Con Artists. We are being sold snake oil and told it is a panacea for all that ails us. We are being sold a deed to the Golden Gate Bridge and told it will only cost us the price of a sandwich. People love being told they're right about things, and hate being told they're wrong. People love things that are inexpensive and hate things that are costly. People love things that are instant gratification and hate having to wait. Actual subject matter experts are: costly, time consuming, and often tell you when you're dead wrong about something. AI is everything an expert isn't. It's cheap to use, gives results in an instant, and always tells you you're right. That's not an expert. That's a grift.
(DIR) Post #B5q5bFZyeFSOQclNKa by Lana@beige.party
1 likes, 0 repeats
And there it is, the official cancellation of elections by the Nazi party of America.
(DIR) Post #B6JHRYZ02mVRRfHuPg by Lana@beige.party
1 likes, 0 repeats
Ranking Punctuation on a Scale of Autism to A.I.. FULL STOP/PERIOD AU ----|----|-⭐-|----|---- AITrue neutral. Absolutely nothing wrong with using this punctuation to your heart's content... unless you double space after the dot, in which case you're either a boomer or a complete psychopath. () PARENTHESES AU -⭐-|----|----|----|---- AIWe all know you can't help it. You just have too many good (slightly tangentially related (yet still important)) thoughts to cram into one sentence. You absolute (brilliant (loveable)) goober, you. , COMMAAU ----|-⭐-|----|----|---- AIThis is just the parentheses' more mainstream, nerdy little brother, good for stringing multiple disparate thoughts together into one, long, extremely complicated, yet still functional, sentence. ; SEMICOLONAU ----|----|----|----|---- AI ⭐Nobody knows how to use a semicolon correctly; not even AI. It's safe; sort of. — M DASHAU ----|----|----|----|-⭐- AIWhy yes, we can actually tell that you wrote your term paper using AI — ask me how I know. It's not even difficult — it's a dead giveaway. ‽ INTERROBANGAU -⭐-|----|----|----|---- AIBe honest, when was the last time you saw an AI use an interrobang. Be honest, when was the last time YOU used an interrobang unironically. Be honest, when was the last time you had to explain to someone else what the fuck an interrobang even is‽ Yeah, that's my point.
(DIR) Post #B6YsfeRJbXy9Omg0Gm by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
AI is the future! Get on board or get left behind! - techbros, 2026NFTs are the future! Get on board or get left behind! - techbros, 2016The Metaverse is the future! Get on board or get left behind! - techbros, 2006Segways are the future! Get on board or get left behind! - techbros, 1996Virtual reality is the future! Get on board or get left behind! - techbros, 1986Hey I'm starting to sense a pattern here.
(DIR) Post #B6YvTZ0uFgukxSFff6 by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
@azonenberg I'm old enough to remember when, at the request of Segway's CEO, Congress explicitly exempted Segway from bans on motorized vehicles on federal walkways and trails - and then landed several lucrative government contracts with various government agencies through GSA Advantage. If your point is that nobody tried to "force" Segways on us, that point is historically inaccurate. They absolutely did try. And they failed. The hype was that in ten years it would "replace walking". Idk about you but I'm still walking places using my dumb non tech legs.
(DIR) Post #B6jTwnB6UDBSfhTp0C by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 3 repeats
Frequently Asked Questions About Cis People: ❓ What does it mean to be a cisgender? 🅰️ Cisgender people are just like you and me, except they believe that their "assigned sex at birth" matches up with their "gender identity".❓ How do they know they are cis?🅰️ Cisgender people often feel that they "know" their gender internally, many times from a very young age. They feel as if they were "born in the right body". ❓ Who would date a cisgender?🅰️ Though cisgender people often have a hard time finding partners, they are still able to have healthy relationships. Often, cis people date other cis people. ❓ How do they have sex?🅰️ Cisgender people can be very inventive with their bodies! ❓ If I have sex with a cisgender does that make me straight? 🅰️ Assigned sex at birth and sexual orientation are two different things. Just like regular people, cisgender people can have any sexual orientation.❓ Why don't cisgenders get counseling to learn to accept the gift of transition? 🅰️ Counseling aimed at changing someone’s gender identity, sometimes known as "conversion therapy", doesn’t work and can actually be extremely harmful. The belief that someone's identity can be changed through therapy runs counter to the overwhelming consensus in the medical community.❓ What medical treatments do cisgenders seek out? 🅰️ Some, but not all cisgender people undergo medical treatments to make their bodies more congruent with their assigned sex at birth, and help them live healthier lives. Different cis people may need different types of sex affirming related care. Medical procedures can include: - Breast enlargement- Hair growth treatments- Erectile enhancement drugs- Hormone therapy- Various surgeries to make one's face, chest, and anatomy more in line with one's assigned sex at birth❓ But they don't even look like a cisgender! 🅰️ Cisgender people are everywhere. They might not look how you expect! Understanding is the first step toward acceptance.
(DIR) Post #B6jde5imJnFCDnx7Fg by Lana@beige.party
1 likes, 1 repeats
People always be like "Oh Mr Billionaire tell us how you made your billions of dollars! What's your secret ingredient to success??" as if the truthful answer isn't "I convinced the government to pay me money to make a thing that was already free before, and then sold it back to the government (or to myself!) for a huge markup at taxpayer expense. This artificially inflated the value of my stock which I then used as collateral to secure enormous personal loans that I have no intention of ever paying back. Also I refuse to pay my workers and I don't pay a single cent in taxes." It's crime. The secret ingredient is crime.
(DIR) Post #B6kdXFdFGZDC5f3wyu by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
We've been banned from sports events because of biological advantage. We've been banned from beauty pageants because of biological advantage. We've been banned from chess because of biological advantage. The bigots have spoken: trans people are superior in every single way, body, mind, and spirit.
(DIR) Post #B6pXPUyMiaiLPvf3dQ by Lana@beige.party
1 likes, 3 repeats
Mooooom it's too early for #Caturday pics
(DIR) Post #B7TLgY0FpXB6moYaxM by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
@vwestlife men dressing in a uniform traditionally meant for women is literally the definition of crossdressing my dude.
(DIR) Post #B9WUTPwRCMvWinHF56 by Lana@beige.party
0 likes, 0 repeats
@carmensandiego Jokes on you I'm into that shit