Obama: ‘Inherently corrupting’ for a president to use military ‘against their own people’
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 21976 |
Comments: 887
Former President Barack Obama criticized President Trump's deployment of the National Guard to multiple U.S. cities, calling it a 'politicization of the military' and an effort to weaken democracy. Obama argued that using the military against a country's own people is 'inherently corrupting' and a violation of the principle of civilian control over the military, citing the Posse Comitatus Act.
Key Points:
Obama criticized Trump for deploying the National Guard to cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Memphis.
He labeled the use of the military for domestic policing as an 'inherently corrupting' practice that weakens democracy.
Obama cited the Posse Comitatus Act, stating the military should not be used domestically except in extraordinary emergencies.
He contrasted Trump's actions with how his own administration handled the 2015 Baltimore protests, where the governor deployed the Guard.
Obama expressed concern over 'masked folks with rifles and machine guns patrolling our streets' instead of community-oriented police.
""when you have military that can direct force against their own people, that is inherently corrupting," Obama said about his time in office."
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 7367 |
Comments: 358
A federal judge has denied the Justice Department's request for extended discovery deadlines in the criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey, ordering prosecutors to provide all discovery materials by October 13. Comey faces two felony counts for allegedly making false statements to Congress and obstructing a Senate investigation during a 2020 hearing. The case is scheduled for trial in January 2026 and carries significant implications for prosecutions of high-ranking officials.
Key Points:
Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff ordered prosecutors to provide all discovery materials to Comey's defense by October 13, 2025
Comey is charged with two felony counts: making false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding
The Justice Department had requested two separate discovery deadlines but was denied by the judge
The case tests how far the Justice Department may go in pursuing high-ranking officials for statements made in oversight settings
Comey has pleaded not guilty and the trial is scheduled for January 5, 2026
"The outcome could redefine how far the Justice Department may go in pursuing high-ranking officials for statements made in oversight settings, testing public confidence in whether such prosecutions serve justice or politics."
Donald Trump, 79, Skewered for Embarrassing Geographical Flub | The president clearly didn’t have access to a map.
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 7362 |
Comments: 484
Former President Donald Trump made a significant geographical error by claiming one could walk from Iran to Qatar in 'one second,' when in reality the countries are over 500 miles apart and do not share a border. The comments, made aboard Air Force One while praising Qatar's role in a ceasefire, were quickly criticized on social media by journalists and fact-checkers. The article also notes Trump's reversal of his 2017 stance on Qatar, which he had previously accused of funding terrorism.
Key Points:
Donald Trump incorrectly stated Iran and Qatar are adjacent, claiming you can walk between them in 'one second'.
The actual distance between Iran and Qatar is over 500 miles; they do not share a border.
Journalists and social media users quickly fact-checked and criticized the geographical blunder.
Trump reversed his 2017 position on Qatar, now praising the country as 'amazing' and 'brave' for its mediation help.
Trump also claimed credit for solving 'eight wars' and addressed missing out on the Nobel Peace Prize.
""They’re literally, you walk over from Iran to Qatar. You can walk it in one second. You go ‘boom boom’ and now you’re in Qatar, that’s tough territory.""
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 4879 |
Comments: 956
Discussions about Donald Trump potentially running for president again in 2028 are increasing among Republican allies, despite the 22nd Amendment's prohibition on being elected more than twice. Trump allies like Steve Bannon claim there are 'many different alternatives' to enable a third-term bid, while constitutional experts dismiss proposed workarounds as 'far-fetched ideas' and 'sham campaigns' that voters would see through.
Key Points:
Republican allies including Steve Bannon are ramping up talk of Trump running for a third term in 2028
The 22nd Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president more than twice
Bannon claims there are 'many different alternatives' to get Trump on the ballot legally
Constitutional experts describe proposed workarounds as 'far-fetched ideas' and 'sham campaigns'
Trump has given mixed signals about running again, telling CNBC he would 'probably not' run but telling NBC there are 'methods' that would allow it
""Voters tolerate a multitude of lies from politicians generally, and Mr. Trump specifically, but the American people are too smart to fall for a sham campaign based entirely on such a ruse.""
Posted on r/selfhosted |
Score: 393 |
Comments: 150
BentoPDF is a free, privacy-focused PDF toolkit that processes all files locally in the user's web browser, ensuring data never leaves their device. It requires no sign-ups, has no usage limits, and works offline on any modern operating system. The service is fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA standards due to its client-side processing model.
Key Points:
All processing happens client-side in the browser; files never leave the user's device
Completely free with no sign-ups, file limits, watermarks, or paywalls
Fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA privacy standards
Works on any operating system with a modern web browser
No file storage, tracking, or server uploads involved
"Your files are as secure as possible because they never leave your computer. All processing happens directly in your web browser (client-side). We never upload your files to a server, so you maintain complete privacy and control over your documents."
Tests Don’t Prove Code Is Correct… They Just Agree With It
Posted on r/programming |
Score: 376 |
Comments: 170
The article argues that while formal proof of correctness is rare in industry software development, programmers intuitively use proving techniques. It posits that writing clean, modular code makes these informal proofs feasible, which in turn significantly reduces bugs and provides business value by lowering maintenance costs. The author contrasts this with spaghetti code, where proving correctness is nearly impossible and testing alone is insufficient.
Key Points:
Testing cannot prove an application works correctly in all cases, only that it fails when a test fails.
Clean, modular code allows developers to intuitively prove the correctness of individual components.
Proving the correctness of small, well-defined parts enables proving correctness for broader system workflows.
Spaghetti code makes it very hard to prove correctness, leaving testing as the only, insufficient, verification method.
The business value of clean code lies in significantly reducing bugs and the associated time and cost of managing them.
"When the code is clean and modular, because you can easily prove the correctness of individual classes and methods, then the chances for bugs hiding in that code is significantly lower than the chances for bugs hiding in a spaghetti code."
Posted on r/programming |
Score: 242 |
Comments: 132
The article argues that the best engineering teams adopt a blameless culture, where failures are treated as opportunities to learn and improve systems rather than to assign fault. This approach fosters innovation, true accountability, and collaboration by creating psychological safety. The author provides actionable advice for tech leads on how to build this culture, such as leading by example and running blameless post-mortems.
Key Points:
A blameless culture focuses on understanding why failures happen and fixing systemic issues, not on assigning individual blame.
This mindset fosters innovation by making engineers feel safe to experiment and take calculated risks.
It encourages true, shared accountability where teams collectively own outcomes and work on preventative solutions.
Blamelessness improves collaboration and morale by removing the fear of punishment, leading to higher retention.
Tech leads can build this culture by leading by example, owning their mistakes, and conducting structured, blameless post-mortems.
"It taught me that mistakes don’t define people; they define systems. And how a team responds to a mistake defines its culture"
What's That!? - the brutally honest WhatsApp Web analyzer (open-source)
Posted on r/selfhosted |
Score: 184 |
Comments: 28
What's That!? is an open-source tool that analyzes WhatsApp Web chat data to reveal user statistics, such as who receives the most attention in a group. The project began as a humorous way for a group chat moderator to call out members on their 'stats' but has since been opened for community collaboration and improvement.
Key Points:
The tool analyzes WhatsApp Web data to generate user statistics.
It originated as a humorous 'gag' project to call out group members.
The project is open-source and the creator is seeking collaborators.
It aims to reveal the 'inordinate attention' users give to others in a chat.
"This started as a "gag" project on a WhatsApp group chat I moderate, where I would call people out on their "stats," or the inordinate attention they were giving someone 😅 but I figured I'd share it, so that it can actually be improved!"
Environment variables are a legacy mess: Let's dive deep into them
Posted on r/programming |
Score: 150 |
Comments: 34
The article argues that environment variables are a legacy, problematic feature of modern software development due to their lack of namespaces and types, existing as a flat global dictionary of strings. It explains that environment variables are not a special OS feature but are simply passed from a parent process to its child via the execve system call. The author details how different tools like Bash, glibc, and Python handle these variables internally, often in inefficient or non-intuitive ways.
Key Points:
Environment variables are a legacy, outdated interface with no namespaces or types.
They are passed from a parent process to its child via the execve system call.
Most tooling, like Bash and Python, passes the parent's environment down by default.
Bash uses a stack of hashmaps to manage variables, allowing for local scopes that can be exported.
The glibc C library uses a linear array for environment variables, making operations like getenv and putenv inefficient.
"There are no namespaces for them, no types. Just a flat, embarrassingly global dictionary of strings."
An update from changedetection.io - your self-hosted web page change detection and notification engine
Posted on r/selfhosted |
Score: 126 |
Comments: 23
This article provides an update on the self-hosted web page change detection tool changedetection.io, highlighting several new features and improvements. Key additions include an RSS Reader Mode for monitoring feeds and an unread counter for tracking changes. The update also includes performance enhancements and better notification handling.
Key Points:
New RSS Reader Mode for monitoring and filtering RSS/Atom feeds
Implementation of an unread changes counter with real-time UI updates
Improved timezone support for notifications and browser steps
Reduced memory usage by approximately 20%
Updated Apprise integration for enhanced notification handlers
"RSS Reader Mode - New feature for monitoring RSS/Atom feeds (see main Settings), renders the RSS/Atom/RDF feed to text for easy viewing (then you can also add filters + triggers (keyword, etc) to the feeds to get alerts to your email/discord/etc"
Not to be against the grain, but I kinda love Sonnet 4.5.
Posted on r/ClaudeAI |
Score: 83 |
Comments: 38
The author expresses strong satisfaction with Claude Sonnet 4.5, finding it provides better performance at a cheaper rate than previous versions. They note a significant improvement in their implementation-to-bug ratio compared to using Sonnet 4 alone, and they now rarely need to resort to other AI models like ChatGPT 5. However, they criticize the Claude code extension for being buggy and lacking features.
Key Points:
Claude Sonnet 4.5 provides better performance at a cheaper cost than previous versions.
The implementation-to-bug ratio improved dramatically from 1:8 with Sonnet 4 alone to 1:1.5 with Sonnet 4.5.
The author now rarely needs to use ChatGPT 5 when the model 'hits a deathspiral'.
The Claude code extension is criticized for being buggy, laggy, and missing features like agents mode.
The author has resorted to using the CLI instead of the extension due to its issues.
"Never been happier, getting better performance at cheaper rates. Peace."
The author spent three years struggling with poor gaming performance on a high-end laptop, unable to fix it despite repeated attempts. Using Claude AI, they finally identified and resolved the issue in just two hours, which was a power setting limiting performance to keep the fans quiet.
Key Points:
A high-end gaming laptop with an RTX 3070 GPU consistently delivered poor performance (around 16 FPS) for three years.
The author made periodic, unsuccessful attempts to diagnose and fix the problem over this period.
The root cause was a 'quiet mode' power setting that limited CPU performance to prevent fan noise.
After using Claude AI, the issue was resolved, and performance improved to a expected 60 FPS.
The solution revealed a new problem: the laptop's fans became very loud under normal operation.
"Buried deep down inside a control panel I didn't even know existed was a power performance setting, and it was set to run quiet, ie, no fans, therefore no heat allowed, therefore no over-using the CPUs"
I'm just not convinced that AI can replace humans meaningfully yet
Posted on r/ClaudeAI |
Score: 57 |
Comments: 59
The author, while acknowledging the speed and utility of LLMs for tasks like coding and writing, argues that they are not yet smarter than humans. The core issue is that AI often fails to follow specific instructions and understand context reliably, despite its speed. The author remains unconvinced that AI can meaningfully replace humans, as it has not demonstrated the ability to perform tasks better than a person, only faster.
Key Points:
LLMs are fast and useful for tasks like coding, writing, and creating websites.
They frequently ignore specific instructions and context, requiring extensive back-and-forth to correct.
AI often produces fragmented or poor-quality writing despite requests for good prose.
The average human is considered better at understanding context and following instructions, albeit slower.
The author has not seen AI perform a task better than a human, only faster at forming grammatically correct sentences.
"I have yet to see AI be able to perform a task better than a human could, other than maybe forming grammatically correct sentences. This isn't to downplay AI, but I have yet to be convinced that they will replace humans in a meaningful way."
Posted on r/programming |
Score: 44 |
Comments: 86
The article argues that programming is a temporary phenomenon, citing the absence of programmers in science fiction like Star Trek as evidence. It posits that in these futures, intelligent computers understand and execute user requests directly, eliminating the need for traditional coding. The author concludes that the current era of programming is a unique, transient period that will be superseded by AI.
Key Points:
Science fiction, like Star Trek, depicts a future without programmers, where computers intelligently understand and fulfill user requests.
The role of computer experts in these futures shifts from programming to fields like AI psychology or advanced robotics.
The article suggests that the advent of general AI will make programming, algorithms, and apps obsolete.
The author views the current time as a unique, temporary period where programming exists and should be enjoyed.
The concept is compared to a Universal AI that can do what you ask without being explicitly told how, similar to a Universal Turing Machine.
"Picard says "Tea, earl grey, hot" and the computer instructs the replicator to create such a beverage. He doesn't even think about someone coding up a "tea" app - the computer is intelligent enough to know what he needs and controls the device to deliver."
In cities with hundreds of thousands in low density housing, how do you incentivize developers to develop land after homeowners forfeit their land?
Posted on r/georgism |
Score: 14 |
Comments: 30
The article questions how Georgism incentivizes developers to build on forfeited land in cities with low-density housing, arguing that high taxes and population loss create excessive risk. It posits that developers will wait to buy land cheaply from the state rather than from owners, and that the lack of a guaranteed returning population discourages investment.
Key Points:
Low-density housing is economically unproductive, leading to sharp tax increases and homeowner forfeiture.
Developers are incentivized to wait for forfeited land to be sold by the state at a discount rather than buying from owners.
High taxes on undeveloped land create financial risk for developers before projects become profitable.
Out-migration of the population reduces demand, making development a risky investment with no guaranteed return.
The core concern is that Georgism may increase developer risk and thereby discourage development.
"Why would a developer take the risk of developing? They will immediately be paying extremely high taxes before the buildings begins generating a profit. There is also no guarantee the population will return."
Do improvements in technology cause a commensurate increase in rents? And how does this relate to the Law of Rent?
Posted on r/georgism |
Score: 8 |
Comments: 11
The author is confused by an explanation of the Law of Rent from a book review, specifically struggling with the concept of the 'Margin of Production' and its relationship to technological progress. They do not understand how an increase in labor productivity, which pushes the margin of production 'down and outward,' would lead to landlords being able to increase rents.
Key Points:
The author is seeking clarification on the Law of Rent and the concept of the Margin of Production.
They are confused by the definition of the Margin of Production as the difference in productivity between a given piece of land and the least productive alternative.
A key point of confusion is how technological progress, which increases labor productivity, affects the Margin of Production.
The author questions the claim that pushing the margin of production 'down' allows landlords to 'jack up rents,' as this seems counterintuitive.
The core issue is understanding the causal link between material progress, the Margin of Production, and rising land rents.
""And as labor's productivity goes up, it makes it worth developing on more marginal (ie, less productive) lands, pushing the margin of production down (and outward geographically), which gives landlords more room to jack up rents.""