volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@lawprofblawg The fact that they were sticking with Biden should have been your first clue that they were trying hard to lose the election.

The fact that they pivoted to Harris without a reasonable primary or convention process should have been the second.

Neither of the two parties is particularly interested in winning this year. They would have chosen better candidates if they were.

Well we'll try again in four years.

@thelonious08.bsky.social It's funny because people complain that Trump is proposing to dismantle parts of the executive branch, voluntarily giving up powers of the presidency.

And then they turn around and complain that he has a well-documented history of being a fascist, even though they are complaining that he gives up power.

Sometimes when people don't call the guy a fascist it's because he's not a fascist.

He's an idiot, but he's not a fascist.

@spytfyre @wiredfire @trumpet pretty much laid out the discernible reason above 🙂

We want it. Facebook gives us what we want.

And over on this platform we see users complaining that they're not getting what they want because the algorithm is too simplistic.

Ideally it would be nice if humans were nice and healthy and wanted good things, but it turns out that's just not how humans are, so platforms give us what we ask for, Even if it's not particularly healthy.

@Tharpa Well it's a tool for us to accomplish things.

You might as well ask what the point of a hammer is. Well it's a tool that we can use to get things done, to build things, to create things, and all based on finding patterns that we ourselves would have trouble seeing.

@pzmyers@octodon.social What in the world?

NYT is notorious for its anti-Trump slant, having been long criticized for misrepresenting what's going on in ways that pander his critics.

@tshirtman you can look at different regions ranging from the Middle East through the engagement with the Pacific nations to see how US alliances grew at the expense of Russia's during the Trump years.

It's unfortunate that Biden dropped the ball on those efforts, but he seemed far more interested in domestic policy than international.

International energy policy is probably the simplest way to view it, as the US promoted itself as a source for trade to displace Russia under Trump but receded under Biden.

@dannotdaniel

@dannotdaniel these actions were widely reported by established journalistic outfits, and integrated with even policies coming out of international organizations like the UN.

Kremlin propaganda? Why in the world would the Kremlin be promoting actions that hurt itself. It makes no sense.

@tshirtman

@jalcine No, it's not controlling the relationships between everything, and it's vital to realize that not everything is about governance.

I don't have to ask permission to hang out with a friend. I don't have to ask permission to make a bit of art. And we should celebrate that politics does not enter into our personal lives like that.

To accept that politics controls the relationships between everything is to promote that very dangerous granting of power, that we don't have to grant, and that we should absolutely refuse to grant.

No, politicians don't have that power, and we should absolutely refuse to give them that power.

@OWHolmes I wonder what post you were responding to. At least here on my screen your post showed up without showing it as a reply.

Anyway, the vital detail here is in who gets to decide who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion.

It's one thing to say such a person can't hold office, but the practical mechanism is the rub. The actual procedure. Who gets to have that say?

@grrlscientist@mstdn.social The answer is really important: because for some reason Republicans want him to run.

This is Democracy for you. The people want it, so it happens. And it's really important to realize that because it shows that something is really broken with our institutions that so many people chose to nominate such a person to run for office.

This is a symptom of a deeper problem. And until we work on addressing that problem things aren't going to get better.

Trump is allowed to run for president because we have a system that respects that choice of the people. But boy, we really need to sort some things out so this doesn't happen in the future.

@User47 I mean it might be fun to hang out with him at a bar, but he's the kind of guy that seemed like he always wanted to be the center of attention but didn't really have anything of substance to offer.

So no, he would be derailing the actually interesting conversations of the other guests. It would be a bad balance to have his personality in there.

@tshirtman from blocked pipelines to strengthening relationships with other countries to take them farther from the Russian sphere of influence, this story that Trump sucked up to Putin the whole time is just a myth.

If you want to put it a different way, Trump's too damn stupid to even know how to have a consistent policy that would benefit Russia anyway.

But he certainly did not spend the whole presidency sucking up to Putin like so many claimed.

@dannotdaniel

@GoldenRetrieverBF If your rice doesn't taste like anything, maybe get different rice.

I've got probably four or five different types of rice in my kitchen, and they all taste like different things.

@Laukidh just ignore the morons that can't mentally separate Elon from the company.

@Alarod@mstdn.social Republicans don't, though.
They decided to support him again.

@dannotdaniel but Trump's opposition to international agreements that would have benefited Russia suggests that that isn't the case, that it's kind of ridiculous sensationalism.

@dannotdaniel What in the world?

His record in office debunk conspiracy theories like that.

@jeffowski not at all!

I would never say both sides are the same. So I'm sorry you misunderstand that, and I'm happy to clarify.

No, that's not my position.