Those poor people spending time only on HB for four years, never going anywhere else, never finding 4/8chan, never even finding reddit…

Is your question why a propaganda operation focused on disrupting or presidential elections would “go live” 18-ish months before the presidential election?

And are you asking if I have specific evidence that they’re trolls? Or that the governments I’ve listed have troll farms? Or that specifically HB is specifically rife with trolls from this governments’ farms? Because I definitely don’t have specific evidence. Just the historical evidence of (attempted) general interference from those countries in our previous elections.

I think HB and some of the other groups are mostly trolls or Russian, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, or aligned operatives trying to gas up trolls or wannabe trolls.

There are definitely some well meaning Americans and others who get suckered into the bullshit tornado that is those sites. They are definitely worth saving if we can. But it’s hard. They ban and block anyone with a dissenting voice no matter how calmly presented.

If someone calls me insane, the response that proves them wrong is a reasonable, chill response at most. The actual sane thing to do is ignore them or make a joke about the claim.

Just like if someone calls me weird, the response that proves I’m not weird is to say, “hahaha, sure, whatever” or “so what?” The response that would prove their point is along the lines of, “I’m not weird, you’re weird” or “they’re not calling me weird, they’re calling my associate weird.”

I have it on pretty good authority that everyone who likes having sex with humans likes female boobs. And plump round asses. It’s some deeply ingrained evolutionary stuff.

Doesn’t mean a gay guy is gonna go straight because of some nice tits, but he can appreciate them erotically.

It would be wild if stuff like this is some proof of life after death.

Hmmm maybe we should ignore #1 and focus on #5 then

If Mastodon wins out in the long run the only reason will be persistence.

All these other “like Twitter but ______” micro blogging or whatever sites only stay viable while they’re profitable.

If Bluesky or Threads become (net) unprofitable, they’ll die. Mastodon is already unprofitable, so that can’t kill it.

I think we could compete with #1 just by word of mouth.

For #2 some person or group needs to develop a Mastodon app (FOSS obviously) that has a “just do this part for me” option, probably automatically enabled.

#3 is on us. We have to do what we can to make Mastodon (and Lemmy) more open and accepting without falling pretty to the paradox of tolerance.

#4 is hard… Although I think if Mastodon follows or tries to replicate the “early” Facebook user experience where most or all of the content people got was from people they follow, that could be better. The only challenge is that algorithms tickle our anger/hate/disgust impulses to drive and maintain engagement. That’s some very strong “lizard brain” stuff.

So… let’s get going y’all! :)

Privatizing anything will lead to higher prices.

The claim (which I think we should be comfortable calling a “lie” at this point) is that services provided by the government are almost inherently wasteful. Conservatives (it’s always conservatives) believe that civil servants (our neighbors) are overpaid and lazy. They believe that top level bureaucrats don’t have incentives for innovation and cost/waste minimization, and that top level executives in a for profit corporation do.

And the additional claim (“lie”) is that commercial profit incentives de facto lead to improved customer (citizen) outcomes.

However, I’ve never seen any long term data that supports ANY transition from public to private leading to either better innovation OR internal performance OR customer outcomes. I’ve also never seen data supporting the reverse (converse? inverse?) contention that nationalizing something corporate leads to worse innovation, performance, or outcomes.

Just for clarity I’m not looking for “data” from kleptocracies, oligarchies, military juntas, or other non free, non democratic, arguably non market based countries.

So basically only NATO, maybe EU, North America, Australia, Japan, South Korea… And I bet such data doesn’t exist (or exposes the lie).

I bought a squirrel proof bird feeder pole thing

https://jcswildlife.com/products/squirrel-stopper-deluxe-squirrel-proof-bird-feeder-pole-system-with-baffle

It works great, now I’m happy to watch the squirrels run around not eating my birds’ seed.

Only downside so far is some wasps built a nest inside and stung me. But they’re dead now.

Hasn’t every modern Attorney General been a Republican anyway?

Oh I call the cables I use to wire up my controllers “suicide cords” because it’s just the hot, neutral, and ground hanging out one end, waiting to touch me…

Also I think you’d be hard pressed to find any credible biological scientist willing to define “life” let alone define when it “begins.” I’m sure there are scientists who will, but they’re probably not biologists, or they’re “scientists.”

Not all fertilizations create viable zygotes. Not all zygotes become viable blastocysts. Not all blastocysts successfully embed in the uterine wall. Not all embedded blastocysts develop into viable embryos. Not all embryos become viable fetuses.

So I’d take exception through all of that to say any of those are protectable “lives” in any meaningful sense.

Roe was a very imperfect solution to the problem of men wanting to control women’s bodies. The best decision would’ve been to say that any abortion a woman and her doctor agree on is legal.

A moral or ethical doctor’s willingness to perform an abortion is inversely proportional to the gestational age of the fetus. Medical boards are charged with only granting licenses to moral & ethical doctors.

I think RBG had it right that abortion should’ve been protected by equal protection instead of privacy.

https://time.com/5354490/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-v-wade/

Слава Україні!

One thing that has started bugging me this election cycle is the term “middle class.” I feel stupid for not realizing it sooner, but your point about a single earner supporting a whole family with a house and 2.5 kids and usually 2 cars is incredibly important.

Is there a meaningfully large middle class in America any more, at least in those terms? I know people who manage to fund a whole household on their salary alone but those are low-ish 6-figure salaries (~$170k). Even then, a few curveballs come in and suddenly they’re screwed.

We need to recouple the productivity of the American worker with their income. We need more and stronger unions. We need to abolish so called “right to work” laws. We need to override Citizens United. We need to break up these huge monopolies & oligopolies.

We can do some of that if we elect Harris/Walz.

If (hopefully when) Trump loses he now has the perfect scapegoat though: Just Dance Vance

Xemu: Not Too Much Lead

https://youtu.be/MKTN2OiR2R8

Yes he could lose Florida! Meatball Ron won his first term like 50.5% to 49.5%. Florida is a swing state, but Democrats are so dysfunctional statewide that they can’t organize a two person picnic.

I think that’s changing with the March For Our Lives kids coming of age.

The Harris campaign needs to take all this money they’re getting and invest it in states Biden got 45% or higher in 2020. They can get those states.

You should go vote if for no other reason than to keep Sherrod Brown in his seat.

And honestly nobody knows what’s actually going to happen in this election. Ohio is “red” (god I hate that terminology) only by a few points. It’s flippable in the right circumstances. Like if people remember that MAGA wants to force 10 year old rape victims to have their attacker’s baby.

This is a numbers and momentum game. If you vote AND some of your fellow closeted Midwestern Democrats (or at least pro small-d democracy) vote and convince some people who want to have a chance to fix American democracy to vote for the Democratic nominee, Ohio could flip.

They all could. If there were justice in the world, all 50 states would be “blue” on November 5th because of who Trump is, what he’s done in the past, and what he’s telling us he’ll do in the future.

Vote!