I'm locking this thread, as I can envision this going south very quickly. Remember to be(e) nice.

I want to keep this space as one where people can be free to vent. That being said, I'm honestly kind of loath to encourage fedi drama from other instances leaking over here. I'm not saying you can't vent about other instances, but I don't intend for this to become Subreddit Drama.

Anyway, OP, after reading through everything, you're coming off as needlessly hostile. I don't think that's how you meant to be, but that's what you appear to be. If you see someone who mentions that they don't have it in them to follow politics, you shouldn't be pushing back on that unless it's clear they're doing so in bad faith. As someone who does follow politics, it can get depressing. It can be bleak. And it can get overwhelming. If you are able to power through that, great! It helps. But not everybody can read about how the right is planning to genocide us. I guarantee that there are trans people who have taken their own lives over this. I guarantee it. Your demand that people refrain from saying they don't follow politics is deeply, deeply misguiding. It isn't your place to determine what people can and can't do. And that's exactly what you sound like. Also, it looks like you got banned for a flippant, ableist comment. Suffice it to say that I won't tolerate that here. Be(e) nice.

Former Fox News personality Megyn Kelly said she no longer has empathy for people experiencing gender dysphoria. “There should be a healthy measure of ridicule,” she told Kirk during a lengthy discussion about trans people and the erasure of trans rights, which Kirk said is a “winner politically for Republicans.”

These people are fucking ghouls.

Interesting that they mentioned Beehaw, but not Lemmy or Kbin as a whole.

Even I could have told you that a vague digital "proof of ownership" of a hideous, mass-produced ape image was a bad investment.

That's what they should be doing, but it isn't what they're going to do, unfortunately.

Kimathi Bradford, a 16-year-old Oakland tech repair intern, has looked into whether there was a way to replace the outdated Chromebook software with a non-Google brand, but it ended up being a lot of work, Kimathi said, and the open-source replacement wasn’t up to par. “It’s like the Fritos of software,” he said. “No one really wants to use it.”

Now, I'm not sure if what they tried was Linux, but I wouldn't be too surprised. The younger generations grew up with smartphones; I feel as though operating systems will become more streamlined and opaque as time goes on. I suspect we'll have to contend with the phonification of mainstream computing in the coming years.

I've mentioned this before here, but my stance is 20 years flat for a work owned by a corporation, and life for works owned by an individual.

Criticism of the actions of Israel's government does not make one an antisemite.

That image sure was a choice.

The Lemmy dev AMA really shook my faith in the future of lemmy itself. That being said, I'll support and stand behind you, regardless of what you decide. If we make a new platform, I'll follow, if we choose to stand our ground and make the best of it, I'll help do my part. I believe in Beehaw and I'm proud to be part of the community.

The parents of a woman who was beaten to death at a county jail last year are suing the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, alleging failures by several of its leaders and deputies allowed her to be killed by her cellmate.

Chief among the failures, the lawsuit says: Deputies gave Kaushal Niroula, who was transgender, a sex offender cellmate with a violent past.

The new filing adds to the cascade of similar suits over inmate deaths that have been recently against the department, which is also being investigated by the state attorney general over the deaths and other allegations of misconduct and civil rights violations.

A record 18 inmates died in the jails in 2022.

The suit states that the department acted negligently and in violation of both the constitution and state law by allowing Niroula to be housed in a cell with Ronald Sanchez, a man who was a convicted sex offender and had a history of violent behavior. The sheriff's department manages all jails in Riverside County.

The suit states that sheriff’s personnel knew Sanchez posed an imminent threat to Niroula, who was particularly vulnerable because she was transgender and HIV-positive, and yet the sheriff's department allowed the two to be housed together at the Cois Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.

The cops murdered her.

Justice Sotomayor did not hold back in her dissent:

"Looking beyond the fate of this particular prosecution, the long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark. The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding. This new official-acts immunity now “lies about like a loaded weapon” for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation. The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune. Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today. Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.

The majority’s single-minded fixation on the President’s need for boldness and dispatch ignores the countervailing need for accountability and restraint. The Framers were not so single-minded. In the Federalist Papers, after “endeavor[ing] to show” that the Executive designed by the Constitution “combines . . . all the requisites to energy,” Alexander Hamilton asked a separate, equally important question: “Does it also combine the requisites to safety, in a republican sense, a due dependence on the people, a due responsibility?” The Federalist No. 77, p. 507 (J. Harvard Li- brary ed. 2009). The answer then was yes, based in part upon the President’s vulnerability to “prosecution in the common course of law.” Ibid. The answer after today is no. Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop. With fear for our democracy, I dissent."

The idea of a major nuclear power like Russia having a civil war is terrifying, but hopefully Ukraine will be able to take advantage of this.

I hope that this ends up being the right decision. The Dems must really, truly think they can't win with Joe Biden. Kudos to Joe for setting his ego aside, I know that can't have been easy. Let's unite behind whoever gets picked and beat Trump.

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. This has to be nipped in the bud IMMEDIATELY. Can't be giving them ideas.

Honestly, how I feel about it is this: I am a woman. No matter what, I am a woman. My gender identity isn't something that can just be taken away, even if I do something awful. She's absolutely a massive piece of shit. But she is still a woman, and should be treated like one.

Yeah, at this point, having the "if the Republicans win, my way of life is basically over" thing constantly over my head is really draining.

Honestly, any Republican that tries to work with the Democrats at this point is going to get eaten alive. Even if it's a "moderate" one. They have completely gone off the deep end.

Is it true that he can still run for the office even if he’s in jail?

Eugene V. Debs ran for president in 1920 while he was serving time for "sedition"(he had been making anti-war and anti-draft speeches during World War I). It's certainly possible, though incredibly doubtful he'd win. I find that I can't really count anything out when it comes to Trump, though.

It definitely seems like it. There's also been surprisingly high amounts of upvotes on questionable comments lately. I wouldn't be surprised if lemmy as a whole is getting astroturfed, but I can't say that for certain because I rarely venture out of Beehaw. Don't be afraid to make a report if you see something.

The killer here is that we don't really have any recourse. Like, the best case scenario is what, wait until some of the right wing justices pass away and hope that the Democrats have both the presidency and the Senate? And, even then, it would take a long time to undo the damage the Roberts Court has wrought. Maybe THIS will get the Dems to ditch the filibuster and pack the court. Of course, that would require the Democratic party as a whole to show some fight, something they refuse to do for some reason.

I've been using it for years, first out of disdain for Internet Explorer, now out of disdain for Google Chrome. I just do not trust the corpos at all, and Firefox has always been solid(outside of a few years in the '10s).

If they're informative and/or helpful, I don't mind bots. If they're those stupid pointless novelty bots that were plaguing Reddit, they can go away.

I'd prefer if we didn't have repost bots in this community. A lot of people find them off-putting(myself included). It's pretty quiet here, so a bot could theoretically be posting most of the threads, and, honestly, that isn't a good look.

Hey, that's neat, wasn't really expecting that. It's still an absolute joke that he lasted this long, though.

Yeah, I think I'll pass. The Raspberry Pi people hired a former police officer who used their stuff in hidden surveillance. Then when people called them out on it on Twitter, Pi blocked those who did. https://petapixel.com/2022/12/09/raspberry-pi-under-fire-by-creators-who-are-upset-it-hired-a-former-cop/

Convicted Felon Donald Trump. Let us hope that his downfall is nigh.

I get the feeling that the Republicans are going to start openly running with a "bring back slavery" platform. I feel like I'm being hyperbolic here, but their mask has gone off so far, really since Obama was elected. All they have left is hate.

Yeah, that's why I feel it's important to share things like this. The trans community knows how bad things are, but I'm not sure the populace as a whole understands how dire our situation is right now.

I will concede that probably they should not have even bothered playing in Malaysia at all. However, protesting garbage laws is the right thing to do. Slavery was legal in the U.S. at one point. It was illegal(even in the North, where slavery itself was banned) to help escaped slaves evade the authorities. What I'm saying here is, some laws don't deserve to be "respected". This is an evil law, one that should be mocked, scorned, and flaunted.

I feel so bad for Dylan Mulvaney in particular... she can't do anything or associate with anyone without the conservatives going ballistic. This is what they want for all of the transgender community. Even happening to see one offhandedly is "shoving it down their throats".

If something's going to try to grab my attention, it had better be worth my while. I block as many notifications as I can, both on my phone and my computer. I also try to avoid using apps for things unless I have to.

The U.S. voter base does not realistically have a choice regarding Gaza in this election. None. Zero. Nada. Do not even try going on about third parties or withholding votes. I know from your comment history that you're trying to dampen harm reduction votes, so I'm not trying to convince you. But when it comes to casting a vote in the 2024 election, failing to cast a strategic vote against Donald Trump when so many people will suffer if he comes back is a completely indefensible position. It's probably safe to say that everyone on Earth, save perhaps Russia, will be worse off if that monster comes back. I voted uncommitted in the primaries. I'm fucking massively pissed off about the genocide the U.S. government is aiding and abetting. But there isn't shit I can really do about it save protest. This is a first-past-the-post voting system. It punishes and discourages third party voting. If you oppose Trump, and vote Stein, then you threw away a perfectly good vote that could have been used to block Trump. That's the thing about this system, and why it sucks so bad: you're forced to cast a vote against the viable candidate that you dislike more by casting one for the other viable candidate. It doesn't mean you particularly like or support the candidate you voted for, but the system actively punishes doing anything else. U.S. voters aren't exactly the cream of the crop, but even they get this, and with the massive upswing in polarization lately, even fewer people would vote for a third party. Voting third party in the U.S. is completely useless. In a general election, votes are not endorsements. People can and do swallow their pride and do what needs to be done. And what needs to be done is to prevent a second Donald Trump presidency and Project 2025 from becoming reality. That's it. Fascism's coming and only a fool(based on the emotions involved, I will give American Muslims a pass, though it is very much not in their best interest to have Trump Part II) would screw around here because they're so desperate to feel superior to others because they "took the high road".

Good. She can't win; she'd only function as a spoiler. Not that I'd want her to win anyway, she was awful. I still remember that weird thumbs down into curtsy motion she made to kill a bill (I think it was to increase the federal minimum wage). Had real "fuck the poors" energy.

I was in the same boat. I cracked when puberty hit(so about the turn of the millennium). I knew that trans people were a thing, but I had little to no exposure to them outside of fucking Ace Ventura. I didn't feel safe in approaching anyone about it, so I had to sit there and let it fester for years. I dedicated most of my 20s to becoming financially independent, but I just as I was gearing up to come out after I left the military, Trump got elected. That freaked me out so bad that I went back in the closet until late 2021. I will always lament what could have been had I been allowed to transition at age 13 instead of 33.

Fortunately, Musk walked it back(for now):

UPDATE 1/9/24: Hours after reporting out this initial story, some of the suspended X accounts returned. X has not explained what happened and the affected account owners have no idea why they were briefly suspended. The reinstatement came after notable users such as George Galloway, a former member of the British Parliament, called out Musk for banning the accounts.

Of course, anyone who's still on there should consider leaving... he's going to continue to pull this shit, and the more people that interact with the platform, the more legitimized it is.

sure, yeah, maybe you'll end up about the same if trump gets in. However, as someone who would be made to massively suffer under a second Trump term, I'm sick and tired of seeing people not treat this election with the gravity that it merits. If you're anything other than a cis white Christian male, Trump Part II is going to be a nightmare(and, to be fair though those cis white Christian males may not be aware of this, but they aren't exactly going to have the best time of it either, especially if they're not rich).

Yes, I agree, the Democratic party sucks and does little to actually help us. But, THERE ARE TWO, AND ONLY TWO OPTIONS UNDER OUR CURRENT SYSTEM. A Green Party vote accomplishes nothing, for they're never going to be in enough numbers that anyone actually notices. Most people stuck voting in this stupid first-past-the-post system understand that a protest vote in a general election only serves to benefit the party further from your actual beliefs. Therefore, third parties are an utter and complete waste of time, and those voting for them were taken for fools. Not voting simply sends the message that you can be safely ignored. The time for protest votes and voting your conscience is the primaries.

Part of being an adult is having to make difficult and unsavory choices. I don't like Harris much. I don't like how the country is completely captured by corporate interests. However, Trump is so completely unacceptable in so many ways that not making the crappy choice to strategically vote against him is both monumentally stupid and, quite frankly, a slap in the face to every minority and every woman who stands to go through hell if that monster comes back. That's the hand that we have been dealt. If too many people fuck around when fascism comes knocking, I'll be one of the first to find out, though everyone will, eventually.

I seriously do not understand why his base latched on to him so hard. Like, the man is every terrible stereotype of Americans rolled up into one, and he somehow manages to be worse THAN THAT. The only thing I can really think of is that his behavior gives people an out to be as shitty as they truly wanted to be. Kinda like that "He's not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting" lady.

get out of here with that transphobic shit

Same. I thought I might have had to put my mod hat on for this.

Honestly, I don't think this rhetoric is helpful anymore. As vile and disgusting as it is, we don't have a viable anti-genocide option. We need to pick our battles. I'm pretty left-leaning myself, so if you'll indulge me, this is why I feel compelled to grudgingly vote for the Democratic ticket.

Biden is a garden variety conservative corporate stooge, which has basically been the best case scenario ever since Reagan killed the New Deal. The billionaires that control this country aren't going to allow an administration that pushes back on imperialism and empire. Thus, we never get a chance to elect someone who'd actually stand up to Israel. Just look at what happened to Bernie. I voted uncommitted in the primary because I was furious about the genocide, but, electorally, that's about all I can truly do. The first past the post system actively punishes people who vote third party, and not voting against Trump is not an option for me. I'm a trans woman. I do not have the luxury of ideological purity. I have to vote for whomever the Democrats put up because Trump will institute a dictatorship that could very well have me put to death. After the "Supreme" Court's decision to allow immunity for presidents, I am even more convinced that the Republicans cannot ever be allowed to take power again. If the U.S. goes fully fascist, its influence will be as such that the current right wing wave in the West will be like a tiny ripple.

I hate the position we're in. It sucks. This country has been so utterly inundated with anti-left propaganda that people think liberalism is far left. We should be organizing and radicalizing everyone we can, 100%. I'm hoping that this late stage capitalist hellscape we're living in will help with that. But, even then, it's going to be a painfully slow process. We have six years olds being forced to swear that they won't betray the country every morning at school. Few people ever seem to stop and think just how fucking weird the Pledge of Allegiance is. When people are that indoctrinated, it'll take a Herculean effort to get them to realize they've been lied to their whole life. That doesn't mean it's not worth doing, but we're not going to be able to snap our fingers, elect a president from the Green party, and everything will be all better. It doesn't work like that. Change comes from the bottom up, by changing hearts and minds. People won't like to hear this, but we need to be patient until our efforts bear fruit.

So, we need to buy time. Failing to thwart Trump's dictatorship pretty much only leaves the last resort, revolution. Biden is too milquetoast to order purges. However, Trump will have no scruples cracking down on his "enemies". With how open we all are on social media, it would be trivial for someone in control of the three letter agencies to find us all. If this were a normal election, I'd be fine with people voting their conscience. I get it. I'd love to vote for the Socialist ticket. But I have to engage with the world as it really is. I had to set aside my idealism in favor of pragmatism.