Unbetitelt

KOSA IS MOVING FORWARD IN THE HOUSE!

It's part of a package called the KIDS Act, filled with digital ID and age verification and censorship!

MAKE THOSE PHONES RING!! CALL YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES ALL WEEK

202-224-3121 i HIGHLY encourage everyone to read the bills in the KIDS Act, because you will be doing more than 95% of people who read and introduce these bills

"The problem is that there’s no way to reliably verify someone’s age without verifying who they are. A platform cannot magically discern that a user is 16 without collecting identifying information, whether through government documents such as a passport, payment information like a credit card, or other identity-disclosing data. Whether that data is stored by the platform itself or outsourced to a vendor, the result is always the same: A user’s offline identity is forever linked with their online behavior.

I dont know what solutions might be on a broader scale, but its absurd for one country to have this much power and for their private corporations to be handed this amount of authority from literally world governments demanding "safety for children". This power structure is absurd.

So, in terrible news, Trump's trying to pull some strings to pass this massive internet censorship bill, featuring all the kinds of internet censorship we're terrified of, including mandatory ID for accessing basically any website, specifically to crush state regulation of AI, because apparently this man will always see the moral bottom of the barrel and start digging.

TL;DR:

Democrat Maria Cantwell and Sen. Richard Blumenthal has warned against the KIDS act package because of the lack of duty of care and believing that it would push for a less effective KOSA

Richard Blumenthal is a big pusher for Kosa with duty of care and thinks it’s needed for Kosa to work

He believes that the one the house is pushing is a sham

Both are also worried about the version Ted Cruz is gonna put in his own package that he has yet to release, but promises to this August

They want him to do their version and not the house version

“Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots”

Full on text

“The Commerce Committee’s top Democrat Maria Cantwell and Sen. Richard Blumenthal warned House lawmakers against advancing their chamber’s version of the Kids Online Safety Act,

Richard Blumenthal is for the senate version of KOSA, which has the duty of care part that the kids act package doesn’t

“The Connecticut Democrat said he is concerned senators will be influenced by the tech industry’s “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” who may “confuse and exploit” misunderstandings about a House bill with the same name as a Senate version”

“We’re not going to let bad legislation with a good title just get across and think somebody’s done something,” Cantwell said.

arguing it would face intense lobbying from tech companies in the Senate and risk unraveling years of bipartisan work.”

Blumenthal, who characterized the version of KOSA that House leadership is pushing as a “sham.” has said that “We need to stop this bill in the House, and we need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with Big Tech on this issue,”

Cruz bill package

“Both Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could adopt the House version of KOSA in a kids’ safety package he has yet to publicly release but has pledged to markup by August recess.

Cruz said “negotiations are ongoing” earlier this week when asked by POLITICO whether he would be open to incorporating such changes put forward in the House.”

“Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

Although Blumenthal remains hopeful that Cruz will “stay true to his first vote in favor of KOSA,

Now is our time to act make sure to vote NO and make sure to just say NO to KOSA and just keep on resisting and refusing to give in to Kosa and don't give up hope just tell and say KOSA NO ASAP!!!

Contact your representatives, US people.

Yes, even if you're scared.

Yes, even if you think it doesn't matter

Yes, even if you think they won't listen.

Write an email if you can't make a call.

Call after hours and leave a message.

Call during office hours if you feel up to it, but do something.

Call every day.

Email every day.

They work for you, not the other way around.

Your single call is not the point. The point is the aggregate of calls and emails. The point is that even "safe" Republicans don't feel really safe right now. The point is that "safe" Democrats are feeling pressure from the left due to the success of DSA candidates.

Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"

The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.

This torches everything. And I do mean everything.

A very abbreviated list of its ramifications include (but are not limited to):

ending funding for ALL DEI related initiatives

allowing the government to terminate grants at any point for any reason

preventing researchers from publishing, going to conferences, and being part of academic societies

requiring that topics must support the president’s agenda.

What this means, and if anything I’m under selling it, is the death of science and research in America. It allows the government to restrict any topic they please at a whims notice, putting officials who have no background in the topic in charge of deciding funding continuity. It controls what gets researched and if/how researchers are allowed to share their discoveries. There are no books to burn if the government never allows them to be written. This is fascism plain and simple.

I read a lot of the retro stories too! Though mainly just the ones that involved Loki somehow lol

But anyway, yeah, most of the time, Loki isn't trying to kill Thor. He's not even trying to destroy Asgard. He just wants to be in charge and to one-up Thor. I remember a comic where Tyr and Loki had teamed up, but at some point, Loki switched sides to Odin and Thor and the rest of Asgard because Tyr was going too far.

For a long time, Loki was jealous, but I don't think he was hateful. I don't think he actually wanted his adopted family to come to harm. I think he was just bitter about being treated like an outcast and being looked down on for his mischief.

Of course, different writers will have different takes on him. Eventually, Marvel decided that actually Loki did want Thor dead for some reason. Every hero needs a villain, after all, and I guess a villain has to want the hero dead? Idk. But I do think that old Loki (that's what I tend to call the Loki from the early comics) is a little underappreciated. I mean, he turned cars into ice cream for shits and giggles. He's just a silly little guy who commits bizarre crimes.

I think Thor got tired of his bullshit and Loki got tired of losing. Eventually, their fights became lethal.

“Loki, I thought the world of you” - as a start it’s okay. The only case when I think a compliment can go wrong is when a person you speak to have reasons to suspect you in flattery. Otherwise it’s not a bad thing but it doesn’t really change much in a positive way neither. Just a nice thing. But I can count it as a good start in comparison of what goes next.

“I thought we were gonna fight side by side forever” - this is slightly worse. You might think this is also a nice compliment and it’s pleasing to hear, but because of wording not exactly. It sounds more like a complaint and a person you are talking to is supposed to feel quilty for not  meeting your expectation and making you sad. That’s just pushes the person away because no one likes to feel quilty for not pleasing you as much as you would like them to. This line could be fixed if it was said somehow like “I am gratefull for the time we spent together in the past.” The same meaning but without forced guilt on the person. But again, it’s not so bad.

“But at the end of the day you are you and I am me” - good, aknowledging that they are separate humane beings with different perspective, different experiences and world view. In this line I see Thor who I love.

“I don’t know, may be there is still good in you” - and right now there is this line that just ruins everything. Just by this line alone you can say that 1) Thor doesn’t really  aknowledged their differences, he sees things only in his own perspective; 2) He tries to force his perspective on Loki which is nonono, it pushes away so bad; 3) He thinks of himself as the one to judge others, in this case basically sees himself above Loki. There could be no equality in relationship when one thinks of himself as a superior one and there could be no proper dialoge between them. He puts Loki in place when he can either confront Thor furhter or really put himself below him (What was the reason he run mad in the first movie. Because he was putting himself below for too long time. He craved equality like any human being) if he wants to continue relationship. There is also third option: break off completaly. Until the person who thinks himself as a superior one will change his mind. If he won’t be able to, there will be no relationship. And I believe that is what Loki was trying to achieve (uncoushiosly probably) all this time, refusing “go home”. There is no home for him if in this home he is below others, if he is valued less than others. Thor’s only job was to just aknowledge him and his feelings and perspective on things as no less important than his own. But he fails to do so completely. (Yes, I do all these conclusions just from one line, because it’s so bad)

“But let’s be honest, our past diverged a long time ago” - now he breaks up with Loki. As a said before, there is only two options for Loki after these words left: really break up with Thor or continue this relationship but with one condition: Thor is a superior one. Loki’s point of view matter only if Thor thinks it does. Otherwise it’s invalid. 

In this scene Thor reveals himself as a persone who thinks of himself as the right one, considers his world view as the only valid one and the one others need to share (and wouldn’t hesitate to force it on them) or otherwise they’re “bad ones”, and struggles to put himself in shoes of another person. Where is all the development he went through in the first movie? Ugh.

You see, you can influence others in a positive way not by telling them what to do with their lifes (if you think you know better, then no, you don’t), not by cheap manipulation technic like reverse psychology (which can be effective in a shortrun and not with a smart liar and player Loki is supposed to be; also it has negative consequences which kinda outweigh all possible positive ones), but by genuenily caring and respecting their needs, beliefs, world view. The things real heroes supposed to do, you know. That is why they are so powerful (see Thor’s speech in the first movie or my previous post). This is why I love Thor in Thor 1 so much. He was a hero then.

But further in the movie it becomes even worse than this. Loki really does try to break up with Thor by “betraying” him. This was his last attempt to establish himself as an equal one to Thor, refusing to cooperate on his terms. Then Thor uses torture that can be interpreted as a punishment (because there was no need for it really if Thor just wanted to stop him) for such rebellion. What Loki does next? He comes back to Thor creating a positive reinforcement to this kind of violence, making it clear that Thor is allowed to punish him if he thinks Loki deserves it. Loki doesn’t mind, he will come back anyway.

I mean that is very in characetr for Thor

In the first movie he sais

Not agnowledging what he did

And in avengers it’s the same

Imagined slights instead of agnowledgement

Even in the dark World it is imidiately about what Loki did and didn’t do

Not about what Thor did an didn’t do

He always deflects, he never did anything wrong …

So points for staying in character I guess …

either Loki is totally messed up and addicted to emotional abuse, and thats why he keeps seeking love and validation from Thor or its just bad writing (or bad improv, cos there were comments about not having a proper script for this movie).

Both

Out of universe it’s bad writting bad directing bad improv

But in universe it tracks

Loki is a fawner

Had to be all his live to survive

First at home, then with Thanos and finally with the TVA

It’s what has kept him alive as a kid and it’s what he defaults to

Also comparing with Steve and Bucky, Steve is “ I know him”, “I’m with you till the end of the line” … Thor, with 1000 years of the opportunity for knowing Loki, does not see him, let alone know him, and shows no interest in understanding him and would never risk everything for Loki, although Loki, the poor little shit, may still risk all, once again, for Thor…

THIS! I have said so before and I’ll say it again

Steve and Bucky are what Thor and Loki should be

Wenn Steve learns that Bucky is the winter soldier, he imidiately knows there must be something wrong with him, he KNOWS that he would never do that

Wenn Loki attacks earth Thor just takes that more or less at face value

Steve is willing to die if that’s what it akes

By forcing Loki to become a fawner

His family kind a made him in to a skeemer, a chessmaster, a manipulator

Becasue he had to teach himself to read, appease and hopefully manipulate them

And so he got realyl good at it, good enough to read and manipulate peopel who where not his family ... maybe even good enough to be very accurat in cold readings etc ...

And they where fine with that

Becasue it was usefull

-> according to marvel canon he worked as a spy for Asgard

Under occupation it says - "Deity, Adventurer, Asgardian Spy"

They only started complaining wenn he was no longer a good little tool