a generation of young Republican staff members appears to be developing terminal white nationalist brain. And they will staff the next Republican administration.
This is nearly a complete non-sequitur to the comment you are responding to. If Biden laid it out like you have, said “look we’re in a bad position here, we need to compromise with the fascists even though they are wrong”, if he presented a strong platform with goals people could get excited about, and make it clear who and what are the obstacles voters have to overcome to get there, he could bring out the voters to get those overwhelming and consistent majorities. The same goes for every Democratic president you named. Instead, Biden is absolutely obstinate about it. He acts like the fascists are decent and reasonable people, like the only hope the left can have is to slow down the slide to the right, and like we’re the problem - not the Republicans, not the right-wing Democrats, no, the only problem is that some of us would like less murder and more food, housing, healthcare and education. That’s exactly why the Democrats have only had control for four of the last twenty-four years.
And the filibuster isn’t real. It’s literally just a made up rule they all agree to pretend matters. It can be ended at any time by a simple majority. Doing so at the beginning of a session would look more legitimate, but frankly, the so-called “nuclear option” is far more legitimate in itself than the routine abusive use of the filibuster. They choose to let it restrain them specifically so that they can blame inaction on it.
Your comment was, as I stated, nearly non-sequitur because you only responded to one word of the first sentence of givesomefucks’ comment:
I wish the Dem party compromised as much with Dem voters as they did with trump supporters.
You responded to the word “compromised”. You responded as if you were responding to a general senseless rant against the very idea of compromise at all, a position which is not even present in that first sentence, and has nothing to do with the rest of their comment, or the overall point they were making about the belligerent and dismissive attitude Biden takes toward Democratic voters, and what different approach would actually win elections - I’ll quote the rest so you don’t have to scroll back:
That’s the best way to get Biden the votes necessary to prevent Trump.
Not the current strategy of:
Fuck you, you’ll vote for me or get the fascist again
Like, this should be an easy victory for any halfway decent candidate. Instead we get an 82 year old that won’t stop shit talking his party’s voter base for not wanting to fund a genocide rather than social services.
In my comment, I attempted to clarify and expound on what would work, what they are actually doing, and the great gulf between these, trying to bring it back to givesomefucks’ actual comment, rather than what you imagined to respond to. Instead, you’ve responded, again, to a comment not actually made - accusing me of somehow “demanding” something. Where did I demand anything?
And yeah, the filibuster isn’t real. A simple majority of the Senate can pass anything they want. They can drop the filibuster as a rule; they can carve out a general exception; they can even just choose to suspend it for that single piece of legislation. If a simple majority can pass any legislation they want, given that they actually choose to, then the filibuster is absolutely not real. It’s smoke and mirrors so they can blame the other guys. In fact, it’s probably not even constitutional - there’s no constitutional support for it, and the founders were explicitly against including any kind of supermajority requirement.
Characterizing the voters as “lazy” is really failing to understand how bad legislators stay in office. We need to reform our electoral systems to make legislators more accountable to democratic oversight, not impose arbitrary limits that take the power away from the voters.
With term limits, the Congress would lose institutional knowledge. When a new member of Congress came in, they would only have lobbyists to give them introductions, teach them the ropes. Legislation is a difficult job that requires professionals, not just a bunch of newbies. We would be absolutely signing over the Congress to complete corporate control.
So I did some digging… USTL is one of several shady, fake-grass-roots organizations operated by Howard Rich, a wealthy libertarian, and funded by his collection of wealthy libertarian friends, who clearly want to reduce the effectiveness of government, and make it more susceptible to their influence. The lobbyists investigated the lobbyists and found that they don’t support the thing they are saying you should support.
If you look deeper at the specific bills highlighted in that article, neither one is about term-limits versus no-term-limits. They’re both about restructuring existing term limits. We had a similar ballot measure where I live. It’s a fairly complicated issue, and not a good example.
Perhaps the most famous term limit in the US is the Presidential one, imposed because FDR was doing too many good things. By actually doing things to help people, he had become insanely popular, and won a fourth term - democratically, because the voting citizens approved of his actions, as it’s supposed to work. That’s when the corrupt capitalist wing of Congress decided to put a limit on democracy, and honestly, that might be one of the most significant “beginning of the downfall” moments we can point to in US history.
Another big supporter of term limits is the Heritage Foundation. If you can judge somebody by the friends they keep, how about legislation? It’s always the right pushing for this idea.
There’s a lot, and I mean a whole lot, we should be doing to reduce the influence of money on politics. Fully publicly funded elections; banning many current shady lobbying practices; improving our electoral systems to be more democratic; making it illegal for legislators to take bribes, no matter how subtle. Lots. But taking the choice away from the voters is not a good option. It’s a generally good rule of thumb: if your solution to a problem is to reduce democracy, you’ve got the wrong solution.
Shilling for the status quo? I’ve got a whole laundry list of changes I’d love to make, some much more significant than term limits, to make legislatures more responsive to democratic oversight. Please see my response to Zaktor for just a few.
There’s this claim, probably kinda BS, that it takes ten years of practice to get really good at something. I’m always suspicious of nice neat numbers like that. But I think it gets repeated a lot because, ultimately, anybody who has become an expert at something kinda squints at it and says “yeah that sounds maybe right” - because it’s close enough, it’s on the right order of magnitude. Expertise takes time. Laws are complicated. If you have a twelve year term limit, and become an expert at year ten, you get two years to do something about it - but only a small fraction of the legislative body left has your level of expertise to work with you.
I think you’re underestimating the extent to which they really want these things, or their donors do. These issues aren’t new, and many of them either trace back to before the founding of the country, or are proxies for other issues which do. They’re just feeling bold these days.
Exactly. Dependency injection is good; if you need a framework to do it, you’re probably doing it wrong; if your framework is too magical, you’re probably not even doing it at all anymore.
The Times in a statement called it “troubling” that Biden “has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term.”
I dunno why people are downvoting this. You’re absolutely right. Biden doesn’t give as good speech as Obama or Clinton did, but he is pretty charming when he turns it on. He should definitely be in front of cameras, and crowds, more often, especially as we get closer to the election. He’s not perfect, and his tepid stance toward Palestine is saddening, but on domestic policy, he’s been far better as president than I personally expected - probably the most progressive president since LBJ. He’s done more with less political capital than past Democratic presidents, yet a lot of people don’t really realize that, because he’s not talking directly to the populace as much as he could and, I think, really should.
Pretty sure they meant to not have review. Dropping peer review in favor of pair programming is a trendy idea these days. Heh, you might call it “pairs over peers”. I don’t agree with it, though. Pair programming is great, but two people, heads together, can easily get on a wavelength and miss the same things. It’s always valuable to have people who have never seen the new changes take a look. Also, peer review helps keep the whole team up to date on their knowledge of the code base, a seriously underrated benefit. But I will concede that trading peer review for pair programming is less wrong than giving up version control. Still wrong, but a lot less wrong.
Sotomayor: If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military to assasinate him, is that within his official acts to which he has immunity?...
The pardon power should be eliminated, and that’s been clear since Nixon was pardoned. Sure, just about every president has a feel-good set of pardons, people who were railroaded by bad laws and bad court practices, but those corrections are only a tiny fraction of the outrageous injustices committed by our system, and their existence is used to justify the injustice in the first place - “oh but surely there will be a pardon for people who really need it” - as if depending on a single King-figure at the top to make good decisions, instead of improving systems, was ever a good idea. But in the meantime, just about every president also has a list of political pardons they trade for favors, or use for people who committed crimes on behalf of the president, or the party. Why the fuck does it make any sense at all to say “hey, this person was elected head of the executive branch, they should be able to just shield people from the rule of law”, if the rule of law is an important basis of a free democracy? It’s weird, when you think about it. End the pardon.
I’m not sure they can realistically run out that clock. But they can absolutely just ignore a past ruling, if they want. Also, Biden just wouldn’t do that. He’s a shit, in a lot of ways, but not that kind of shit. Buuut the important point is that this argument is effective, accurate or not. Scare the MAGAts about what Biden, or, say, a future President Alexandria Ocasio Cortez might do. It doesn’t have to be a realistic threat, just play into their existing narrative.
I agree, it is a very bad sign, but the idea that we are either a “failed state” on the way to oblivion, or doing great, and there’s nothing in between, is silly. We’re a lot better now than we were when only landowners could vote, right? Or before the civil war and the second founding? Or before women gained suffrage? Or in the leadup to our entry in WWII, when it looked like we might just join the Axis powers? Or the nineteen forties, when “separate but equal” was basically unchallenged? Or in the nineteen fifties, when a woman was a housewife or nothing? Or the nineteen nineties, when “don’t ask don’t tell” was actually considered a victory for LGBTQ+ rights? Or the twenty-aughts when people were noy allowed to marry based on gender? We’re trying to decide, right now, if a former president can be tried for crimes - it seems wild that this should even be a question, but when it was Nixon, Johnson pardoned him, and that was it - we might be on the verge of a huge step forward, in even just going ahead with the trial, no matter the outcome. Does all this mean everything is awesome now? Oh, oh, HELLS NO! It’s a mess, but it doesn’t mean we are a “failed state”, it just means we aren’t there yet, and we gotta keep struggling.
Why? Can you provide an accurate definition of communism, and a theory as to why you think it cannot be done without becoming a dictatorship? Can you provide an accurate definition of capitalism, and why you think it is more free?
The UCC I went to every Sunday of my childhood (Dad was the minister, so kinda had to go) would have a loaf of really good fresh bread. Some was cut up in cubes, to take neatly, or you could pull a hunk off the loaf if you liked. One side of the drinks tray had grape juice, the other had wine, again, your choice, although obviously when I was young, I didn’t reach for the wine in front of my mom. Little tiny snack was the best part of church.
That’s hilarious. After the Korok cutscene, normally the rock seems to be removed (as a physics item), and a scenery “rock” replaces it in the circle. Does the rock stay on your weapon?
Thanks, @EunieIsTheBus and @justlookingfordragon, for clearing that up. I forgot you have to leave and come back for the rock to become scenery. Makes sense.
I mean great, I support this, but 450 people is “a massive march”? How did 75 organizations only come up with 450 people? That’s only 6 people per organization. Here’s hoping this grows a lot by the convention.
So, do you not think the principle of ensuring a justice doesn’t have to worry about their next gig is valuable, or do you think youthfulness is just more important?
I think the court should be expanded, quite a lot. There is nothing magical or constitutional about the number nine. Congress could easily expand it to twenty, or fifty, or more while limiting justices by terms or age would require a constitutional amendment. Nothing says every justice has to sit on every case. A larger court would be significantly less prone to extremes, reducing the importance of individual nominations.
Lincoln was pen pals with Marx, probably the most progressive president in our history, though sadly his time was taken up with stopping the slaver traitors. Imagine what he could have done if the bastards hadn’t killed him.
I barely know Vim, I’m an Emacs guy. Every time I pair with a colleague using an IDE, I find myself having to exercise great restraint, and not complain about how slow and fussy everything they do is. When I’ve worked with skilled vimmers, I have to admit that they invoke the deep magic nearly as efficiently as I do. Hotkeys? Pshaw, child’s play.
Democrats have pretty much been the same since Clinton, not really drifting right. Yes, Democratic centrism enables Republican extremism, but the neoliberal agenda of Democrats, regarding domestic economics and foreign affairs, has stayed pretty constant, while they have actually improved on social issues. Clinton or Obama would not have handled Israel’s recent actions differently, they might even have done worse. On domestic issues, Biden is probably the most progressive president since LBJ. Now, granted, that’s really a condemnation of American politics since then, more than it is praise of Biden - but still, we are finally moving in the right direction again, at least, and it’s important to acknowledge that, if we want it to continue.
Do You Want a ‘Unified Reich’ Mind-Set in the White House? (www.nytimes.com)
a generation of young Republican staff members appears to be developing terminal white nationalist brain. And they will staff the next Republican administration.
Bernie Sanders to run for fourth term in US Senate (www.theguardian.com)
Independent senator, 82, stresses need to improve healthcare and protect abortion rights – and condemns ‘extremist’ Netanyahu...
GOP official argues in favor of child marriage: Girls are ‘ripe’ and ‘fertile’ (www.nj.com)
STOP DOING DEPENDENCY INJECTION (sopuli.xyz)
New York Times blasts Biden for avoiding interviews (www.politico.com)
The Times in a statement called it “troubling” that Biden “has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term.”
GOD DAMMIT STEVEN! NOT AGAIN! (lemmy.world)
Trump Lawyer Says Having Political Rival Killed Could Constitute 'Official' Presidential Act (www.rollingstone.com)
Sotomayor: If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military to assasinate him, is that within his official acts to which he has immunity?...
Biden gains on Trump in series of polls (thehill.com)
Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners After Natural Disasters (jacobin.com)
Gov. DeSantis signs new law requiring instruction in public schools on the history and ‘dangers’ of communism (www.news4jax.com)
Insane Indeed (midwest.social)
Full Circle (by Awkwardzombie) (www.awkwardzombie.com)
Original source: www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/full-circle...
Chicago: More than 450 people representing 75 organizations gather to plan march on the Democratic National Convention (fightbacknews.org)
Sonia Sotomayor's retirement is a political IQ test (www.natesilver.net)
Happy confederate L day (midwest.social)
My wife was unimpressed by Vim (programming.dev)
"Get Over Yourself!" (lemmy.world)