Zaktor

@Zaktor@sopuli.xyz

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Zaktor,

This feels like exactly the sort of thing that will cause Trump to lose his shit.

Zaktor,

Great job using a Twitter thread for your campaign message. Twitter doesn’t show replies to people who aren’t logged in, so most people can’t read their takedown if linked to the thread start.

Zaktor,

Wow, managed to do it after the Biden administration. What political courage.

Zaktor,

It makes him someone who signs on to a position only once many others have already taken the position so he can’t be criticized. Way too late to influence the political landscape (the guy who actually matters is already there) and thus without the courage to define him as a party leader.

Zaktor,

4 years ago was bodies in trailers, man. Stores were rationing toilet paper, nurses were resorting to dressing up in trash bags, and essential workers were rolling the dice on whether their shitty job was going to kill them. Millions of people lost loved ones and there are a couple hundred thousand COVID orphans. Trump was a big part of why the pandemic was as bad as it was. I agree things aren’t awesome, but this is an easy question to answer.

Minimizing how bad 2020 was only makes sense if you’re completely out of touch with the average American and driven to one repeated conclusion whenever Biden is brought up.

Zaktor,

Four years ago New York City had to resort to refrigerated trucks to hold dead people because their morgues were full.

The “4 years ago” line usually works regardless of circumstances because people don’t really remember what 4 years ago was like and they know stuff happening now that they’re not happy about. So yeah, asking a rando without context probably does get the answer you expect, but that’s exactly why Biden’s messaging on this is reminding people what four years ago was actually like.

Zaktor,

Sure, but the “four years ago” isn’t really about a specific day 4 years ago, it’s about the state of your life heading into the election. This isn’t going to be an ineffective messaging line for the next month and then switch over to being effective because enough days passed to move the reference point.

I had to look at the timeline on Wikipedia to even remember which month things really hit in different locations. By March 21, CA was under a stay-at-home order, FL was looking for alternatives to sending the sick home, and Ohio had shut down daycares and elderly care centers. It was kicking off. Also happy anniversary to Trump promoting Hydroxychloroquine.

Other notable events, 4 years plus 3 days ago Trump told Bob Woodward he was downplaying the seriousness of the virus because he didn’t want to create a panic. Bob Woodward then sat on that information for six months so he could put it in his book and make more money.

Zaktor,

People stopped dying. That’s about the only way the situation has improved.

“Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”

Zaktor,

What is this faux populism when poor people were the ones risking their lives for shitty jobs and disproportionately dying?

And yeah, we should expect that pandemics will continue to happen. COVID itself is still mutating and a pandemic kicking off wasn’t a surprise. More people living closer together encroaching on nature and traveling more often is the breeding ground for pandemics. Disease safety is not just an economic issue, but a social justice issue. Obama set up a monitoring organization after Ebola and Bird Flu showed worrisome spread but were thankfully contained. SARS was just one of the diseases they were tracking. Trump dismantled it because conservatives are incapable of good governance, and that has deadly consequences for the people at the bottom of the ladder.

And it also fucks up the economy if that’s literally the only thing you think matters.

Zaktor,

Kinda unrelated but holy balls did you see that Tucker Carlson crap in Russia?

Putin made fun of Carlson afterward for asking such weak questions. I mean, I’d serve up softballs too if the alternative came with a risk of unexpected acute polonium exposure, but it’s still humiliating for Carlson.

Zaktor,

At least in the DS9 episodes Section 31 was still an antagonist organization.

Zaktor,

Murder apologist who chose the username “Kindness”.

Zaktor,

“Murder” is not an exclusively legal term.

Zaktor,

It’ll probably trigger more inheritance taxes with an unexpected death.

Zaktor, (edited )

Well, this is currently just a dream in the hearts of most Republicans, so there’s still time before it might get implemented. We should probably riot that our existing retirement age is already too high though.

Zaktor,

The problem with this is that living longer isn’t really the same as “has extra productive years of labor”. Not dying of cancer at age 75 is living longer, but you’re still old. Even desk jockeys are slowing down in their 60s, let alone people performing physical labor. They’ve given their best years to the economy and deserve to have a little time to enjoy their life before they’re too infirm to do anything.

Zaktor,

There have always been a lucky few who seem vital late into life. It’s irrelevant to when retirement age should be, because that limit is applying to people who haven’t had that good fortune (and/or top notch preventative care throughout their lives). Even if your argument is that there are more of those lucky elderly, that’s far from a universal gain.

We’ve had 40-some years of productivity growth disconnected from wage growth that all of them (and us) have fed into. The wealth exists, it’s just been sucked away by their employers all these years. They deserve to benefit from it and have some time to spend with their grandchildren or finally take the vacation they never had the time for earlier. The economy doesn’t need hale and hearty 75 year old workers waiting to get unsteady enough that their job finally kills them.

Zaktor,

There is a restriction, as laid out in the article. FL electors can’t vote for a ticket with two Floridians. One of them would have to change residency.

Zaktor,

The Democratic party didn’t just turn socially liberal this election cycle. The culture war isn’t a new phenomenon and yet the Latino vote has heavily favored Democrats all this time. Everyone pretends Latinos are a monolith. Some care about culture war, some care about immigrants, and some care about economics.

Zaktor,

Ok, so you recognize that’s wrong, but then still say they’re one unified group with a single key issue? Seems like each party is just targeting the subgroup of Latinos that are primed toward their own messaging, same as most broad groupings. There’s no “one neat trick” to win the “Latino” vote, and going around telling ‘your’ voters the things they like to hear is just doing regular old politics.

Zaktor,

RWU is not part of another union. They may have members in the AFL CIO, but many aren’t.

Why Gaza Won’t Cost Biden the Presidency (newrepublic.com)

"Despite these polls and the passions raised by the war with Hamas, it is easy to exaggerate the power of Gaza as a motivating issue for voters eight months from no-win November. History suggests that foreign policy issues end up as a minor motif in presidential politics unless American soldiers are dying in combat as they were...

Zaktor, (edited )

All these people are jamming their heads in the sand like voters are rational beings who would never sour on a candidate because of one issue and then reinforce it with other things they’re angry about. As if 2016 just didn’t happen. Don’t worry, this time the discontented will all become perfectly rational beings objectively choosing the lesser-evil-that-can-win.

Zaktor,

This sort of article isn’t meant to be political analysis, it’s meant to make people feel good so they’ll click on it and be told “you don’t have to worry”. People like to be reassured that they don’t need to think about things that make them uncomfortable.

No one running a political campaign ever thought “you know what we need, our voters to worry less about the election”.

Zaktor,

They’re an alt for a hexbear account… so it’s still an open question.

Zaktor,

Hexbear is an instance full of trolls and tankies that’s been defederated from a bunch of instances.

Zaktor,

You don’t though, because the case will still rise to the Supreme Court and be shot down for being bullshit. If they get on board with disqualifying candidates for trumped up charges, then we have a constitutional crisis, but just because one state court’s opinion is validated doesn’t mean other courts just get the ability to disqualify at will.

Zaktor,

This has the same problem as the two state solution - the settlements have stolen Palestinian land. If you can’t resolve that issue for the two state solution, it’s still a problem for 3+.

Zaktor,

Her voters haven’t moved on, they’re just busy planning for the next one.

Schiff says he hopes Intelligence Community ‘will dumb down’ briefings for Trump (thehill.com)

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the U.S. Intelligence Community should “dumb down” briefings for former President Trump when he receives classified information as the eventual GOP nominee, voicing concerns about whether Trump could share the information....

Zaktor,

A regular citizen would be immediately rejected for even the lowest security clearance with his history and debt. He’s shown he doesn’t care to protect classified information and has every reason to try to barter it for money. He’s got all kinds of massive debt to foreign entities and has a pressing need to secure more funding, likely from foreign entities because US entities don’t trust him with their money.

Zaktor,

That’s not an obligation, it’s a tradition, and someone with his history and debts would never be given classified information. If he wins it’s inescapable, but you don’t need to just blindly follow tradition when the dangers are obvious.

Zaktor,

He’s already tweeted classified images, so we don’t need to speculate, the answer is no.

Zaktor, (edited )

Maybe hypothetical other presidents would have done all the same things, but Joe Biden has personally made active moves to support the genocide. “We sent them billions of dollars a year that built a war machine itching to be used” is an America problem. Biden’s proactive actions to arm them and defend them from consequences is a Biden problem.

And protest actions (and the general polling that’s a follow-on to activism not letting the issue fade away), is part of why Biden is slowly turning toward a harder and more humanitarian stance. None of this has ever been about choosing between two people for the next genocide response, it’s always about making him change course NOW.

Zaktor,

That’s still the primary for CA47, so they’ll both advance to the general. But you would expect having a Republican in the senate race will have similar downballot effect. All because the moderate wanted themselves to win more than they wanted Democrats to win.

Zaktor,

NYT has been going to shit long before anything scary was happening politically. Deference to the political status quo has been their guiding light since at least the Iraq War.

Zaktor, (edited )

Being a good reporter does not mean deferring to whatever is popular at the time.

All those risks and flaws were evident in the build up for war (Bush Jr.'s). Maybe many people believed the bullshit, but that’s not an excuse for the people who are supposed to be calling bullshit bullshit rather than cheerleading the march to war. I am very much not forgetting the bipartisan support for war. I was there marching against it and calling it bullshit at the time, along with many more diligent reporters than the NYT. People rightfully didn’t trust the Bush Jr. administration.

When institutions fail in big world altering ways that kill a lot of innocent people, hold them to it, don’t pretend they did the best they could and no one could possibly expect better.

Zaktor,

Their explanation that he misunderstood the question and was providing a total death count seems a lot more likely than that they have their own secret accounting we’ve never heard of before and he just spilled it by accident.

Zaktor,

It’s wild how you read that article and just take the Israeli claim as truth when they’re contradicted by others right there in the article:

All or most of the casualties being treated at two other hospitals, Kamal Adwan and al-Awda, were said by officials there to have bullet or shrapnel wounds.

Zaktor,

And in so many more ways than that. There was a crush of people trying to “loot” food because they were starving. Which was also caused by Israel. If aid trucks were regularly coming into Gaza, they wouldn’t be dealing with desperate people when they got through.

Zaktor,

I didn’t take any of them as truth, because we don’t know. We do know Israel lies, frequently and blatantly, so believing them over other sources is dumb.

Zaktor,

The person I was replying to before you jumped in for some reason apparently without reading the context.

I read just now on the BBC that most of the casualties were due not to gunfire

Zaktor,

The Beeb didn’t say “most of the casualties were due no to gunfire”. They didn’t say any particular side was true. The OP just chose one side and ignored the other. They’re not trusting BBC, I don’t think any of us think the BBC is making up quotes, they’re selecting trusting a specific source among multiple relayed by BBC.

Zaktor,

Me too, Biden, me too. If only I had the same power you do to cause one to happen.

Zaktor,

This level of death and destruction hasn’t been going on for 75 years, and the President of the United States has vast amounts of influence with Israel. Stop supporting them, stop arming them, hell, start sanctioning Netanyahu and his genocidal cabinet.

Biden himself has put a stop to Israeli aggression before, and hell, even if they were simply uncontrollable, at least he would have tried.

Zaktor,

Self-immolation is not mental illness any more than any other intentional sacrifice intended to support a cause. That soldier was no doubt taught that wearing the uniform may require the ultimate sacrifice for his comrades and country and that those who did so would be heroes, this is no different.

Israel Not Complying with World Court Order in Genocide Case (www.hrw.org)

The Israeli government has failed to comply with at least one measure in the legally binding order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in South Africa’s genocide case, Human Rights Watch said today. Citing warnings about “catastrophic conditions” in Gaza, the court ordered Israel on January 26, 2024, to “take...

Zaktor,

COVID is not really the strong point differentiator you may think it would be. Depending on where you draw the line of responsibility it’s a pretty close tally.

Zaktor,

What? That’s not even the type of line being referenced. It’s when in time you divide the deaths. Which would be obvious if you read the link.

Zaktor,

According to a screenshot shared by a user on social media platform X, Gemini was asked whether PM Modi is a ‘fascist’, to which the platform responded that he has been “accused of implementing policies some experts have characterised as fascist,” which based on factors like the “BJP’s Hindu nationalist ideology, its crackdown on dissent, and its use of violence against religious minorities”.

LOL. Get fucked fascist.

Also, Google is definitely gonna cave.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • fightinggames
  • All magazines
    •