The USA elected the wrong Ol’ Dirty Bastard so you best protect ya neck.

A lot of people did in fact set aside Gaza until Trump was stopped. As for those that didn’t, they should have listened to Bernie Sanders. I did months ago and went all-in on Dem support. There were multiple times when I wrote up an angry post about US support of Israel and then didn’t post it because I didn’t want to turn a voter into a non-voter or worse a Trump supporter.

I understand their position of never rewarding ethnic cleansing and war crimes though. They chose to make sure the Dems know they would never “settle” for the illegal killing of civilians. The support for Israel made it especially hard for Arab Americans to vote Dem. It’s difficult to support a party that has been in power during the whole conflict yet gives unconditional support for the internationally condemned murder of Arabs.

I’m sure a lot also felt disenfranchised by the bipartisan protest suppression and condemnation. Even in Dem states peaceful protesters were punished, and sometimes pro-Israeli protesters who attacked got away with it. Then there was the whole “vote with us or else” pressure that went on for months. Dissenters like the “uncommitted” voters were insulted by the party that wanted their unconditional support.

So it’s not like it’s completely insane. But as Sanders points out that position only makes things worse and has done so.

Policies should be passed at a governmental/institutional level to reduce inequality as it’s identified by data. No one should be at a societal disadvantage because of how they were born or choices that are their personal right to make.

That said, I think some problems to avoid are:

• On case-by-case scenarios, assuming that broad trends apply to every individual. I don’t like automatically assuming everyone of a certain demographic is a victim. Also, some people in disadvantaged groups will use very real discrimination to excuse bad decisions and behaviors. Everyone is fallible, and sometimes justice requires punishment even for these folks.

• Gatekeeping suffering. It’s hazardous to society and individual mental health to tell people of “advantaged” demographics that their suffering/problems aren’t valid because of who they are. I’m talking about “what do you have to complain about, you’re not X or Y”. We can acknowledge discrimination and work to reduce it without dismissing the concerns of other groups.

There are indications that things like abortion bans will affect the number of present and futures doctors/specialists in particular in places like Texas. Perhaps if doctors and dentists come to the table in large #'s with meaningful pushback the damage can be mitigated.

I sincerely hope RFK’s promised position proves to be largely ceremonial, because his proposals could really impact nation-wide quality of life. Especially for kids who have no choice or voice.

Anyone who opposed him, and especially those who have/had a lawsuit against him, are now in the crosshairs.

As a foreigner looking in, I’m worried about how things like widespread protest suppression and union-busting will affect the called-for attempts at change. Some of that stuff was bipartisan, and it’s unlikely to get better now that the far right has control of the Presidency, Senate, SCOTUS, and perhaps the House.

Source appears to be an Onion article from 2021.

Lots of reasons. Left-leaning Canadian’s take on Kamala’s loss:

• Biden/Kamala have acted against the American majority for months now in Gaza. This isn’t a sabotage take, it’s as close to fact as can be determined of national attitude. Look at my post history before you accuse me of “both sides”. A lot of Dems and especially young people are very vocal about hating support of the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Palestinian Territory. Millions of people chose to stomach it, but I think other millions felt unrepresented and betrayed by protest suppression/bipartisan condemnation.

• I don’t want to insult anyone, but even moderately detailed political plans may not work in America. Trump’s campaign was run on vague promises and angry rhetoric that was emotionally engaging. Clearly people don’t know how much Trump’s policies like tariffs are going to hurt them personally, but like “America for Americans”. Kamala ran on a detailed platform that took effort to understand and clearly it failed to motivate enough voters.

• “Try to please everyone and you will please no one.” Instead of solidifying support and inspiring hope among the Dem base, Kamala’s campaign assumed their support due to fear of Trump and went after undecideds and Republicans. Republicans aren’t going to switch and many undecideds are that way due to apathy.

• No Dem primary meant people couldn’t choose the candidate they might actually want to support. They were given Biden then Harris without being asked for input.

• Related to that: Biden’s campaign soured voters, and Kamala wasn’t able to climb out of the hole left to her. His low approval rating didn’t help given Kamala felt like a younger version of more of the same.

• Misinformation and propaganda by foreign and domestic right-wingers kept a lot of people from switching sides.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz, known for his hawkish stance, is set to replace Gallant.

If Katz is even worse, that’s bad news. It’s not like Gallant was a kind or just man. Gallant is the one who announced a “complete siege” on Oct. 9th, 2023 with no electricity, food, or fuel allowed into Gaza. He said the Gazans were “human animals” and would be treated as such. He set the stage and attitude for many of the Israeli war crimes of the last year.

That’s such a Philly headline - DA set to go full Broad Street Bullies. Philly is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest hockey brawls ever this year.

In a pinch you can just crank on it until you’re satisfied.

Finally a voice of reason - I don’t know which psychos are giving up screwing for a whole month, but I have things to fasten.

• If you’re the owner of the home, know what bylaws there are regarding snow removal near your home. Where I live you can get a fine + snow removal costs if you aren’t reasonably prompt getting snow off the sidewalk.

• Snowy surfaces (sidewalks, driveways, roads) are often icy surfaces = slip and fall hazard. This is especially serious for older folks but it can hurt/injure at any age. This gets worse if it snows then melts then refreezes. Don’t run if you don’t have to. Sand/grit on these surfaces can help, and in my area you can get sand for free at certain town facilities.

• Frostbite on exposed skin is a genuine hazard. Look up the weather forecast when it’s cold and take time-to-frostbite warnings seriously.

We are sorry to hear you are disappointed with the Canadian gender identity. Please hold if you wish to express your concerns to one of our agents. Alternatively, courses on the benefits and challenges of being Canadian and what it means to be hockeysexual are available in English and French. Completion of the course grants access to free-but-slow healthcare and a $25 Tim Hortons gift card.

I’d find it odd if I enjoyed the same things as much now as I did when I was say, 6-12 years old. Games and shows for kids are meant for a child-like mind. You can still appreciate them for what they are - I’ve watched Lazy Town with my nieces and enjoyed the quality of the music and Stefán Karl Stefánsson as Robbie Rotten. But I’m not sitting down to watch it on my own.

Plus game design and definitely graphics can improve over time. E.g. I loved Golden Eye on N64 as a kid, but if I replayed it I think nostalgia would be doing a lot of heavy lifting. I replayed FF7 Classic a year or two ago and did not find it nearly as compelling as I did when I was 16. It was still alright, but it didn’t amaze me the way it did in PS1 days.

"It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, ‘No thanks!’” This from a guy who discusses deploying troops in America against Americans, yet dodged the Vietnam draft with fake medical issues.

What’s a can opener? Kind of NSFW - like not really, but if someone walks in on you watching you’ll have some explaining to do.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be the little spoon once in a while?

Get either a piercing weapon to exploit weak points or a bludgeoning weapon to transmit force through the plate, because she’s clearly here to do battle. Dinner can come AFTER I’ve defended my honor.

Reddit:

• It has a much larger user base and many heavily specialized boards that nevertheless stay reasonably active.
• It’s a collection of echo chambers. Dissent is usually stomped out by mass downvoting and heavy moderation/bans. It’s rare to find a board that allows arguments for a long period of time. Agree with the board’s users/mods or get silenced. Posted rules do not matter, and you can definitely be hateful in ways that violate posted rules so long as that type of hate is acceptable on that board.
• So many users mean that getting content to succeed is a crapshoot. Often posts become lost in the noise, especially on busy boards.
• I left about a year ago, but apparently there’s a lot of bot/AI slop on boards now.

Lemmy:

• Much smaller user base. Heavily specialized boards move slowly if they exist at all. It’s not unusual to see boards where it’s just one/a few people posting with days in between new content.
• More ability to have disagreements. Whether it’s because moderating a smaller # of users is easier, the mods are less authoritarian, or whatever you are more likely to be able to disagree. Don’t be blatantly racist, celebrating violence, clearly trolling, etc. and you’ll probably remain able to participate. I’m sure this isn’t universal on all boards, but it’s my experience on many boards.
• For all that I believe the above point, there are still “echo chamber” moments on Lemmy. Sometimes it seems people may be downvoted simply because they are already downvoted. It’s still way less egregious than on Reddit, and such is human nature I suppose.
• Fewer users means you are more likely to get some engagement on your post, at least in my experience. I never sorted my feed by new posts on Reddit because it was an avalanche of posts of questionable quality, so I only saw whatever content had already succeeded. On Lemmy I can look for new posts and see most if not all content on the boards I enjoy.