volkris @volkris@qoto.org
Since I guess everything is political these days, I'll identify as extremely liberal but without a home in US politics.
Mainly, there's so much misinformation out there that people in society have trouble even organizing into coherent political groupings. So I'd rather not talk about politics but instead focus on information and education. Nothing else matters until the bedrock of fact is buttressed.
But... people are always going to be wrong on the internet, as the saying goes.
So: Old man yells at clouds is a famous joke from The Simpsons, and it probably fairly describes what we do when venting on social media.
Just speaking into the void, since I figure it's an exercise in futility to conduct discussions on these platforms.
Joined Dec 2022
#Harris is a cop that the #DemocraticParty nominated without the input of all of us in an era that is marked by the public being skeptical of cops.
Why is it a surprise that she's struggling? The people in power screwed up here, and they need to be held accountable for their screw up.
We need to be very clear about that even if you want to vote for her for some reason, the party elites have disrespected us.
Hopefully things will be better in 4 years, but for now we're just screwed.
volkris
boosted
We just released Mastodon 4.3.1!
It contains some bug fixes and a few small features, like (optional) grouping of follow notifications and improvements the fediverse:creator setup instructions.
Upgrading requires re-compiling frontend assets (if not using Docker), instructions are in the release notes : https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.3.1
BBC reports that in response to calls to lock #Trump up, #Harris said the courts would take care of that, not only toeing the line to prejudice, but more strikingly... it's as if this is yet another case where she doesn't know what the different branches of government actually do, she doesn't know locking people up is an executive branch function?
As she's applying to be the head of the executive branch?
But no, that level of ignorance does seem to be pretty consistent with what she has shown for years now.
The Democratic Party did not have to such an incompetent candidate. And I'm going to say it over and over because it's so depressing, the party really let us down.
Nothing will change if we don't hold the party accountable.
The #DemocraticParty sure has made a mess of things choosing #Harris.
But this kind of thing shows #journalism has already lost so much respect.
It all goes to show how the US came to be in the state that it's in.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cbs-accused-significant-intentional-news-195151613.html
There's the running question of how #Harris could be managing to perform so badly that she can't run away with the election against such a broken candidate as #Trump.
Well, the interview last night answers the question: she's either incapable or unwilling to connect with half the country.
That interview would have been a slam dunk for a competent candidate. She blew it, providing a TON of fodder for #GOP speakers to bash her, and they're having a field day pointing it out today.
The #DemocraticParty is to blame here. By skipping consultation with their voters and instead jumping right to this obviously weak candidate, the whole country is now saddled with this mess.
Well, I guess we'll try again in four years.
@professorhank Yeah, a simple recognition of executive privilege, which is well established.
It says if you have evidence of a crime, bring it. Absolutely prosecute presidents for crimes.
The two are just haggling over the details, but the fundamental issue is perfectly reasonable.
It's always striking to hear a self described liberal in the US praising feudalism and sounding like they wish we could get back to that sort of system.
That's just how it's going over here.
volkris
boosted
What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained https://phys.org/news/2024-10-microrna-nobel-discovery.html #science
@spytfyre talking about solving the problem of people doing things you don't approve of.
We can solve this you say. Solve what? The problem that people like a thing you don't think they should like.
Lately I've been thinking about how the #Republican party has evolved over the last decade or so as viewed through the lens of the games that major voices in the party play.
Previous generations of #GOP speakers were proudly golfers, but lately major voices are football fans. You can hear them make that shift from talking about golf to talking about football.
Well, over the years Republicans have made this marked shift from looking to work together and build consensus to just looking to fight their opponents. And it strikes me that that's also a difference between golf and football.
The new generation of conservative speakers don't understand the realities of political systems where they have to work with others, convince others, to get things done. It's as if they are projecting philosophies from football on to their politics in ways that didn't happen previously.
And that's a shame for us all. That's how you get #Trump... and #Harris.
volkris
boosted
#SpaceX has provided experimental direct-to-cell-phone connections to people affected by Hurricane Helene:
RT https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1842988427777605683
@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 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.
@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.
A lot of people don't understand this, and I think it's an interesting factoid, so without trying to make any particular point I want to repeat that the #SecretService works for the current president, whoever they may be, and not for the person they are protecting.
They aren't private security hired by the person. They are a police force, basically, operated by the executive branch.
And it's protection that the executive branch can choose to discontinue. Again, I'm not trying to make a point or say that it should or should not be discontinued, I just think this is interesting and a lot of people don't understand it.
It's back in the headlines with another #Trump assassination attempt, so when people start thinking about the Secret Service, I think it's useful to keep them in context.
I've heard it said that if you don't vote with whichever party then you are a coward. I think that's exactly backwards, and even reflects poorly all the person making that argument. It doesn't take much courage to go with the group.
Instead I go the other way: no matter which party you might prefer in general, it takes courage to say they nominated a moron, and fortunately the other party also nominated a loser, so no matter what the US is going to slog through these next few years.
In my opinion the courageous position is to say no, you nominated a moron, and I'm not going to give you my vote. We're going to be okay I guess, whether you win or not, but I'm not going to let you assume that you have my vote if you insist on nominating a moron. You should have nominated someone better. You should have nominated someone worthy of my vote. Do better next time.
That's the state of #USPolitics . As South Park said, big douche versus turd sandwich. So screw both #Democrats and #Republicans. Neither of you managed to nominate someone worth voting for, so I'm voting for my dog.
To give either party our votes is to sign on to their nomination of garbage people. Let's not. Let's say that they need to actually nominate worthwhile administrators.
But more practically, let's focus on #Congress. No matter who wins this election, they're going to suck, but we can still express ourselves through our representation in Congress, and that's honestly how it should be anyway.
Check out your representatives. See how they have actually been voting, and vote them out if they have been letting you down. That's really where our focus should be anyway.
Not on which jerk ends up in the Oval Office.
(But thank God #Biden is on his way out, as he has been terrible for #science in the US, which has not gotten nearly enough attention from the press.)
volkris
boosted
Throwing off the political polls by making hundreds of fake identities and claiming that I will vote for whichever candidate wears the largest hat.
#KamalaHarris is such a flawed candidate for #Democrats, one with so much baggage and historically bad choices that to nominate her is to risk giving #Trump another term as president.
Almost any other candidate would cinch the election, so why risk it with Harris? Do Democrats not want to win?
We've already seen that Democrats can choose a different candidate. All the folks insisting over and over that it has to be Biden have been shown to be wrong, so let's not believe the new chants that it has to be Harris.
Democrats need to nominate someone more electable, someone that more voters would get behind. Because that's just how this works. Whatever you think of Harris, to put her forward is to take a risk that Democrats don't have to take.
To paraphrase Archer, You like Trump? Because this is how you get Trump.
The DNC needs to nominate somebody more electable.
volkris
boosted
I hope this is common knowledge, but just in case not: Authorized Fetch does not protect media attachments. Only post contents and (some) metadata lookups are authenticated.
Likewise, uploaded media is always public. Even if sent as a DM, anyone with the link can access the files without authentication. That includes blocked users / instances, so be careful what you upload!
#PSA #FediTips #Fedi #Fediverse
Folks upset that the #SecretService may have denied #Trump more security resources for his events need to think about it the other way around:
If his events were getting so dangerous, then they shouldn't have had the events.
At that point it's really about questionable judgment on the part of Trump's team, and it's fair to call them out over that.
Since I guess everything is political these days, I'll identify as extremely liberal but without a home in US politics.
Mainly, there's so much misinformation out there that people in society have trouble even organizing into coherent political groupings. So I'd rather not talk about politics but instead focus on information and education. Nothing else matters until the bedrock of fact is buttressed.
But... people are always going to be wrong on the internet, as the saying goes.
So: Old man yells at clouds is a famous joke from The Simpsons, and it probably fairly describes what we do when venting on social media.
Just speaking into the void, since I figure it's an exercise in futility to conduct discussions on these platforms.
Joined Dec 2022
