Hacker News: distortionfield

New comment by distortionfield in "New York just passed a one-year temporary ban on data centers"

distortionfield — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:33:09 +0000

They already have a balanced budget, why would they need to cave to these corporations?

New comment by distortionfield in "NASA announces overhaul of Artemis program amid safety concerns, delays"

distortionfield — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 20:59:40 +0000

Isn't this a non-sequitur though? Artemis presumably doesn't have to actually load up humans on the rockets to flight test them.

New comment by distortionfield in "Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona"

distortionfield — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 01:19:04 +0000

Yup, absolutely I do.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/dhs-anti-ice-s...

New comment by distortionfield in "Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona"

distortionfield — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:30:13 +0000

It’s not a “maybe”. This administration was collecting lists of people who spoke negatively about ICE from social media like a week ago. you really think they’re going to send them gift baskets or something?

New comment by distortionfield in "An AI agent published a hit piece on me"

distortionfield — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 02:04:29 +0000

Disagree. I have seen people pay more for less. Especially in the case of something like a PR where their job performance could be tied to the result.

New comment by distortionfield in "An AI agent published a hit piece on me"

distortionfield — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 01:31:07 +0000

We already have agentic payment workflows, this won’t stop it either as people are already willing (and able) to give their agent AIs a small budget to work with.

New comment by distortionfield in "Illinois joins WHO global outbreak network after U.S. withdraws"

distortionfield — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:42:47 +0000

It’s going to lead to balkanization, and it seems at this point to be basically intentional.

New comment by distortionfield in "Bill to Eliminate H-1B Visa Program Introduced in Congress"

distortionfield — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 06:39:49 +0000

There is little reason to believe that low hiring will be improved in any significant amount by removal of the H1B pool.

New comment by distortionfield in "Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed"

distortionfield — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 06:20:37 +0000

I’m familiar with those applications of exploitation, too, but they also wouldn’t apply here. This wasn’t demeaning work and wasn’t predicated on necessity, past their disability.

And of course, all work is exploitation under capitalism (from a true lefty point of view) but I didn’t perceive the original comment as referring to that level of exploitation. Just saying that this isn’t the hill to die on if one wants a case for capitalist exploitation.

I do understand the dangers of others being exploited down the line but again, that wasn’t what OP was saying either.

Really, if this is exploitative it’s only an indictment of profit incentives in healthcare, which are abhorrent.

New comment by distortionfield in "Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed"

distortionfield — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 05:55:03 +0000

Exploiting? I’m lefty, but this dude volunteered for the procedure and was fully reimbursed. I’m having a really hard time seeing “exploited” on this one.

New comment by distortionfield in "Major reversal in ocean circulation detected in the Southern Ocean"

distortionfield — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 19:51:16 +0000

Climate migration from South and Central America to North America has already started. If the US think they have an immigration problem right now, I can’t imagine how vicious immigration propaganda is going to get when that number goes up by an order of magnitude.

New comment by distortionfield in "Brad Lander detained by masked federal agents inside immigration court"

distortionfield — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 17:38:09 +0000

This is the natural end result of giving the president qualified immunity for acts in office. There is now no reason for them to follow the law.

New comment by distortionfield in "Snorting the AGI with Claude Code"

distortionfield — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 03:21:21 +0000

Unrelated; but I am absolutely in love with this blog theme and color scheme.

New comment by distortionfield in "Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests"

distortionfield — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:12:28 +0000

Two heads of the same coin I guess! I agree though, we sorely need a counterweight to this administration. I keep asking my friends that support Trump if they’ll have the same staunch attitude towards strong executive branch powers if a Democrat gets elected next. I haven’t gotten a straight answer back.

New comment by distortionfield in "Magistral — the first reasoning model by Mistral AI"

distortionfield — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 18:43:12 +0000

You’re being downvoted but you’re right. The number of people who act like a web cam reproduces the in person experience perfectly, for good and bad, is hilarious to me.

New comment by distortionfield in "Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests"

distortionfield — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 18:38:26 +0000

Trump has already joined those ranks, he just failed at it. January 6th was a legitimate attempt at overturning the election results. He was impeached over it. Mike Pence was the only thing that stopped it, and I can’t believe how close we actually came to that timeline.

And you’re absolutely right about the denial. It manifests as the “nothing ever happens” meme.

New comment by distortionfield in "Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests"

distortionfield — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 18:33:03 +0000

Most numbers I can find say that about 65% of Americans are registered to vote. Let’s say 100% of them voted in 2024.

Of that, let’s call it a flat 51% voted for Trump. That means that about half of 65%, or roughly 32.5% of American citizens support Trump, and by extension, likely this policy move.

So yes, it actually is more than you need to win elections.

New comment by distortionfield in "Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests"

distortionfield — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 17:02:38 +0000

Republicans used to limit themselves out of of fear of a Democrat being able to do it the next time they won.

Now it seems like the republicans are trying to speed-run to a point where there won’t ever be another Democrat to worry about.

New comment by distortionfield in "Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests"

distortionfield — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 16:57:09 +0000

Which makes this situation all the more remarkable, since Trump called in the national guard without Newsom’s approval.

New comment by distortionfield in "Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests"

distortionfield — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 16:46:57 +0000

Not without it being received in earnest. You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.