The First Amendment is pretty strong about how it's legal to be a dick.
Just as I can say that evangelicals are delusional children who never learned how to get over their daddy issues to the extent that they literally invent a daddy in the sky who just so happens to approve of every bias and bigotry they hold to.
If you think Biden is only "slightly less extreme", you really need to take another look at the Republican party, given its leader is casually suggesting sending out secret police to round up undocumented immigrants into camps.
Even restricting the view to economic policy, the gap between the average Republican and Democrat in office has been growing much much larger compared to the old 90s consensus. Both parties have grown critical of free trade, with Republicans going much further and wanting to throw huge tariffs on any country that feels icky (and somehow thinking that jacking up prices on all imported goods will improve inflation*). Republicans have also grown extremely fond of attacking any corporation they perceive as being too woke or socially aware, even going so far as to invoke the powers of supposedly-small government to ban certain diversity practices.
Both parties have become relatively protectionist, but Republicans tend to be against any form of actual domestic investment. On housing, pretty much all supply-side solutions (which you'd think would come from the supposedly market-loving Republicans!) are instead coming from the Democrats, with the Republicans instead reducing essentially everything to culture wars.
Again, look at the Republican party as it actually is today, because they largely do not have any substantial policy beyond stoking white conservative rage. I'm not saying mainstream Democrats are revolutionary champions of the working poor, but there simply is no competition compared to the Republicans of today.
Treasury secretary came out against the proposed global levy, which proponents say would stop the rich from shifting wealth into countries where they can avoid paying the tax
There are very real constitutional issues with explicit wealth taxes. It took a constitutional amendment to authorize the federal government to collect an income tax, and it's quite possible that it would take another to authorize a wealth tax. Particularly with this Supreme Court, Congress probably doesn't have the legal ability to impose a wealth tax even if it wanted to, to say nothing of the general complexity and costs of collecting it. There are plenty of economists who support the general idea of taxing the wealthy more but who prefer other taxation schemes.
This article describes the little-reported on success that Brown University had in disbanding student protest… by conceding to let activists present a case for divestment at an upcoming hearing before the university’s investment board....
Well, this is Brown we're talking about. The students probably got too high and just accepted whatever deal was thrown at them without thinking about it.
There's this notion that modern Israelis are essentially just Europeans who invaded after WWII, which is simply not true.
While the Zionist movement largely did originate in Europe in the late 1800s, the majority of Israeli citizens today are not of European ancestry / Ashkenazi. The majority are what's called Mizrahi, coming from Middle Eastern Jewish communities that were forcibly expelled from Arab countries during the 50s and 60s. For instance, Ben Gvir, the current Minister of Defense (and to be clear, a complete little shit), is from an Iraqi family. In 1948, there were roughly 150,000 Jews in Iraq, making up nearly 40% of the population of Baghdad. Today, there are estimated to be less than five. Likewise, in Yemen, there were roughly 50,000 Jews, maintaining a presence that goes back well over 2500 years. Today, there may be one single Jew left in the country. The same situation happened all throughout the Arab world. The departing Jews generally had to flee their homes without any significant belongings, since their property was often confiscated. In Syria, for instance, a 1964 decree prevented Jews from traveling more than 3 miles from their homes, banned them from owning land, banned them from working in the government or in banks, banned them from leaving anything as inheritance - which would instead be seized by the state.
If something is possible, and this simply indeed is, someone is going to develop it regardless of how we feel about it, so it's important for non-malicious actors to make people aware of the potential negative impacts so we can start to develop ways to handle them before actively malicious actors start deploying it.
Critical businesses and governments need to know that identity verification via video and voice is much less trustworthy than it used to be, and so if you're currently doing that, you need to mitigate these risks. There are tools, namely public-private key cryptography, that can be used to verify identity in a much tighter way, and we're probably going to need to start implementing them in more places.
That's what's always a bit maddening about these conversations. It's not like companies are just shredding plastic into the atmosphere because they're cartoon villains who love evil.
They're making cheap plastic shit because we love cheap plastic shit. They're making this stuff in response to explicit consumer prioritization of low costs above all other factors. If consumers broadly demanded soda in glass bottles and expressed a willingness to pay the extra cost that this entails, every soda company would use glass.
I'm not saying that you individually should be blamed for all environmental pollution, but we have to realize that companies are responding to the exact same incentives that we do. They're obviously operating at a much larger scale, but they use cheap plastic shit for the exact same reason we do. If you're looking for policy solutions, a great option would be to introduce an externality tax on plastic so that this environmental cost is actually factored into the production and end price and can fund remediate the damage, similar to carbon taxes. Of course though, the moment you say the word 'tax' people's brains completely shut off, so this is probably a non-starter.
Regulation is fine, but people need to realize that there are always downstream effects that often result in a less efficient version of the same outcome.
For instance, say you just pass a blanket ban on plastic soda bottles and mandate glass. Production costs immediately go up (not to mention transportation and logistics), and those costs are naturally passed onto the consumer, so the prices of all sodas go up.
Has this really improved things? There are real questions about the environment impact of glass, since they're significantly heavier and thus require more carbon emissions to transport. Glass is better if it's reused, but there are situations where it's unlikely to be reused. Soda is now more expensive, just as it would have been under a plastic tax (and because lower income people tend to drink more soda, you've hit them extra hard relatively), but now you've also eliminated the ability for plastic bottles to be used in situations where they truly are called for; for instance, you probably don't want to be selling glass bottles at a music festival, so an organizer will need to instead purchase extra plastic cups instead, resulting in the consumption of extra glass and plastic.
I know people have this idea that the only factor that goes into a price is how greedy the CEO happens to feel that morning, but that's simply not the case. Prices are set by market circumstances, not greed. It's not like NYC landlords suddenly got less greedy in 2020; the market radically changed. They're already charging the most that the market will bear. In terms of regulation, it's almost always more effective to go after the market incentives - that is, price signals - instead of just taking a hammer to the thing you don't like and hoping it doesn't have any bad effects.
You frame this as a ‘there is no solution i can see that’s worth it so why bother’ and this tells me you are not interested in a solution.
That is the exact opposite of what I'm saying. I'm saying that an externality tax to capture the actual cost of single-use plastics would do a lot to reduce their use without distorting markets and causing unintended side effects while likely being more effective than blanket bans.
The spot where you charge it really doesn't matter much except to the accountants; it'll always just be factored into the price of the product. There's no real difference between the company increasing the price by ten cents or a ten cent tax being levied at the register.
I really wouldn't call it an indulgence tax though. There are plenty of uses for single-use plastics that aren't sodas or indulgences.
Okay, so imagine you just ban plastic soda bottles. Now plastic bottles cannot be used in any circumstances, no matter how genuinely warranted, even if a user is willing to pay all costs to ensure its environmental impacts are offset. Also, all soda is now significantly more expensive, so "the poors" still have less access to it.
And by definition the amount you would have to tax to achieve this has to be so much that it destabilizes the market.
Potentially, yes. The entire point is that these artificial low prices are only possible because the negative externalities are being inflicted on other people in the form of pollution. By actually factoring this impact into the cost of the good, its true cost emerges and the market will settle into whatever the equilibrium is. If the only thing enabling mass access to cheap soda is a ton of pollution, then you either accept mass pollution or you lose the mass access to cheap soda. There's not really any way around that fundamental trade-off.
EU citizens are not doing well when it comes to financial literacy. Nearly half lack an understanding of basic financial concepts, including inflation....
This isn't even true though. The vast majority will agree that a little bit of inflation is good, deflation is very bad, and hyperinflation is essentially cataclysmic.
Essa Al-Nassr, a member of the Qatari legislative Shura council, spoke on Monday at an Arab League session, received ovation making bigoted accusations against Jews and promising the end of Israel.
That's the infuriating thing about this whole mess that feels impossible to solve.
Rhetoric like this directly radicalizes Israelis and pushes them towards violent escalation, which then radicalizes Palestinians into violence as well, further inspiring more Israeli violence, and on and on the cycle goes.
And then anyone who advocates for any amount of moderation will simultaneously get called a terrorist sympathizer for not wanting to nuke Gaza and a genocide accomplice for not wanting to forcibly remove or kill every Israeli.
It is also a Club founded to keep the LGBTQ community free of anointed gatekeepers and machine politics
This is comically hypocritical given that you'll be gatekept out of any group like this the moment you express any opinion they disagree with, speaking as a gay guy myself.
In this particular context, "I believe Joe Biden should be the elected to another term" in apparently objectionable.
Similarly, "I believe that the murder of 1000 Israeli citizens on October 7th was bad, and also that the Netanyahu government is atrocious and its military response has been grossly disproportionate and involved multiple war crimes" is enough to get you ejected from plenty of leftist spaces that insist that the October 7th attacks must be celebrated as an act of radical resistance.
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
I certainly hope you're not an American and have never been to the United States, because I've got some unfortunate news about who that land properly belongs to.
“Google issued a stern warning to its employees, with the company’s vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, saying, “If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again,” according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC.”
I mean, that's precisely the point. Growth isn't really the priority right now, because that also tends to increase inflation. The loose aim of Milei's plan is to return things to an actually accurate economic baseline by cutting extremely distortionary government spending and subsidies and allowing the peso to fall to its true actual value, and only then pivoting to focus on real and sustainable growth that's actually backed by legitimate increases in efficiency and production rather than government money printers and IMF loans that only make the problem worse.
I won't pretend that this approach doesn't have some harsh consequences on people that will be disproportionately born by the poor or that there aren't any other options, but there is a legitimate economic basis for the idea. Whether it's worth it or is fair and just is another question.
I am a Palestinian American in Pennsylvania, a contested state. I plan to write in “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary on 23 April and in November, I will vote for a third-party candidate....
Trump would gladly support turning Gaza into a parking lot, and quite likely would have US troops engaged in a war with Iran right now. So, the actual choice is Biden, who's attempting but largely failing to restrain Israeli military actions, and Trump, who would actively support them and undoubtedly support subsequent Jewish settlement of Gaza once the Palestinian "problem" has been solved.
It's an unfortunate choice, sure, but it's not a hard one.
Conservatives are by no means the only problem here.
Ultimately, people become homeless because they cannot afford a home. Shockingly, housing prices thus have an extremely strong effect on homelessness rates. The great state of West Virginia, despite all its many many flaws and challenges between extreme poverty, addiction, lack of jobs, and everything else, does not have a significant homelessness problem. Why? Because housing in West Virginia is dirt cheap such that even people who are struggling can still maintain housing.
This is a policy choice, not some natural and inevitable state of affairs. While subsidies and other programs can move the needle a little bit, by far the greatest factor affecting housing costs is raw supply v. demand, and the fact of the matter is that voters all over the United States, even in the most progressive zip codes in the country, have decided that they would rather restrict the supply of new housing in order to increase the value of their own property investments instead of allowing new housing to be built, even if the consequence is huge swaths of people can no longer afford housing at all. To make themselves feel a little bit better, progressives might throw some money at broken homeless shelter systems and pretend that that band-aid actually fixes the problem.
West Virginia certainly didn't avoid a homelessness problem by aggressively subsidizing affordable housing, making huge investments in public housing projects, implementing huge restrictions on landlords, or building a massive shelter and support system. They simply maintained an adequate supply of housing relative to the amount of people that want to live there. Until blue cities and states wake up to this fundamental fact, nothing is going to meaningfully change. You cannot simultaneously have your housing be an ever-increasing lucrative investment asset and have housing be affordable, no matter how many progressive sign posts you put in the lawn. It's incredible how quickly people like California progressives who claim to care so much about the poor and the downtrodden show their true colors the moment you suggest building an apartment building in their single-family house suburbia that might actually be affordable by those same people.
I can imagine a non-zero amount of people would consent to a deep-fake porn video of themselves having sex with some generic hot woman, just as one example.
“But the Trumpian part is that even though, or perhaps because, it may be part of a Trump scam, Knight now too may be on the hook for $175 million as it won’t automatically get out from underneath its own proffered surety.”...
To actually give an answer, it's because the Constitution very deliberately does not allow criminal convictions to disqualify someone. This was done because it was, and in plenty of places still is, common practice for a government to simply make up charges and arrest any opposition, thus disqualifying them from running.
You always have to look at this kind of stuff from the other side. Would you really want a Trump to be able to disqualify an opposing candidate for running a red light once twenty years ago?
You're correct, but the fundamental blame for that does lie with the voters, at the end of the day. No amount of structural protections can protect democracy from voters that do not care about it. At that point, they're just ink on a page.
Ms. Soussana, 40, is the first Israeli to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted during captivity after the Hamas-led raid on southern Israel. In her interviews with The Times, conducted mostly in English, she provided extensive details of sexual and other violence she suffered during a 55-day ordeal....
Jews conquered large parts of Palestine (not all of it AFAIK)
This isn't really true to the historical record, not that it's significantly relevant to the modern conflict. Contrary to the Biblical Exodus account, from what the archeological and linguistic record seems to show, a unique Jewish culture seems to organically emerge from a particular group of Canaanites who were not otherwise previously distinct from any of their neighbors. There certainly was no mass migration and conquest from Egypt. Over time, the Jews/Israelites developed a distinct cultural identity, possibly with some amount of external influence, and later developed individual minor kingdoms before being subjugated by the Egyptian New Kingdom, the Assyrians (thus the Lost Tribes of Israel), the Babylonians (thus the first Exile and the destruction of the first Temple), the Persians (who returned the previously exiled Jews), Alexander the Great, and lastly the Romans, who destroyed the Second Temple and began the Diaspora.
Again though, none of this should really be seen as being particularly relevant to the modern issue any more than Roman territorial claims are to the modern borders of Italy.
Okay, so who are the people responsible? A handful of leaders? Most of the original Zionists have been dead for a long time. Is it literally every single Israeli? What exactly does this freedom and justice look like? I don't think locking up Netanyahu and Ben Gvir would exactly satisfy the Palestinian cause, so ultimately, you have the situation of millions of Israelis, most of which were born there, who do not want to leave and will only do so by force.
So, what do you want? The forced removal of all Israelis? That's not an inconsistent position given your general perspective, but if that's the case, come out and actually say it.
You've said a lot of nice abstract things about wanting freedom and justice, and very little actual concrete info about the situation on the ground.
You're the one who seems to be incapable of actually stating a concrete desire that isn't the violent removal or murder of all Israeli citizens, but by all means, tell me how I'm the genocidal one.
It's just amusing that these people know that they can't openly say "I think all Israelis should be either removed or murdered", so they'll just heavily imply it without having the balls to actually own up to their position.
Speaking as someone who would not at all be upset to see a rocket happen to fall on Netanyahu and Ben Gvir.
Nothing, though the budget reconciliation process allows for one filibuster-proof bill a year if it primarily deals with the budget.
That said, the filibuster is just an internal Senate rule. A majority could simply eliminate it at any time, but that of course may come back to bite them when the balance of power shifts.
Meta will probably be pretty cautious and strict about what inbound content is allowed, since they have a global quagmire of laws and regulations to comply with and cannot just open up the firehose without significant legal risk. I'd imagine they'd only accept content from vetted instances that agree to some amount of common policy.
To compare forced labor camps where the alternative is being murdered to people making the active choice to volunteer to serve as moderators is a comparison so lacking in perspective that I'd expect to only find it on Reddit, but I guess Lemmy has managed to foster the same kind of behavior.
Are you going to compare Reddit killing the API to the Holocaust next?
"I think what you're reacting to is that, at the moment, Biden is an unpopular president seeking a second term while Trump is a popular figure inside his party who is winning primary races. I wouldn't necessarily compare the two."...
Kenya is one of the major supplier of UN Peacekeeping forces. It's not at all unusual for Kenyan forces to be involved in something like this, anywhere in the world.
And for better or for worse, optics matter. You really don't think that the US military moving in wouldn't bring a storm of controversy and accusations of neo-colonialism?
NATO didn't participate in the invasion of Iraq, so what exactly are you talking about?
You might remember the term 'coalition of the willing'. The only major ally the US actually got to come along with us to Iraq was the UK. Everyone else rightfully sat out of that mess.
Unless you're implying that Gaza is a part of Israel, which truly would be a pretty bold claim that not even Netanyahu makes, I'm pretty sure not even you think that there's a genocide in Israel.
This was all after the invasion to support the fledgling new Iraqi government.
If ten trainers from Norway training the Iraqi military to resist terrorist attacks is your idea of an example of gross western imperialism, you'll have to forgive me for not being hugely convinced.
And again, the only mandatory after Article V have been monitoring and patrolling US airspace for a few months after 9/11 and some maritime operations in the Mediterranean to protect shipping and prevent terrorism and smuggling. All those other NATO operations were voluntary, and other NATO countries have happily told the US to fuck off when they don't want to be involved.
Also, Sweden, despite not being in NATO, also participated in operations in Afghanistan. Your premise that being in NATO necessarily causes you to be involuntarily dragged into gallivanting around the Middle East is simply false. Other nations have autonomy and agency, actually. Not everything is about America.
No, it is not, and I'm not going to allow you to just walk back your claims after some inconvenience. To quote you yourself:
This just means that Sweden will have [to] send their troops to fight wars in middle east for oil companies.
No, it doesn't. NATO membership does not mean that anyone is forced to fight wars in the Middle East. If that were the case, all of NATO would have been roped into the Iraq invasion, but they weren't. The vast majority told America to fuck off during the invasion, and only lightly participated in some minor training operations with the Iraqi military afterwards.
And again, Sweden not being in NATO did not prevent it from participating in other NATO campaigns in a voluntary capacity. Your claim that Sweden joining NATO means that it's going to be forced to participate in all these Middle Eastern wars against its will simply does not stand up to even a cursory look at actual reality. You can believe whatever you like since it appears that you're immune to facts, but anyone else reading this should know that you're not saying anything based in actual evidence.
Also, if you really think that ten Norwegians trying to teach Iraqi soldiers how to resist the groups that later became ISIS is an example of the "horrible things" that NATO does, that says much more about you than it does about NATO. The world is actually more complicated than "US brainwashes the world into killing the third world because oil".
Right-wing Heritage Foundation trolls Pride month by declaring June 2 "Ex-Gay Visibility Day" (www.lgbtqnation.com)
Justice Department says illegal monopoly by Ticketmaster and Live Nation drives up prices for fans (apnews.com)
Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden (www.theguardian.com)
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/15676201...
A Global Tax on Billionaires? Janet Yellen Says ‘No’ (www.wsj.com)
Treasury secretary came out against the proposed global levy, which proponents say would stop the rich from shifting wealth into countries where they can avoid paying the tax
‘Huge win’: Brown University protesters reach an agreement to dismantle encampment (forward.com)
This article describes the little-reported on success that Brown University had in disbanding student protest… by conceding to let activists present a case for divestment at an upcoming hearing before the university’s investment board....
White House considers welcoming some Palestinians from war-torn Gaza as refugees (www.cbsnews.com)
Microsoft’s VASA-1 can deepfake a person with one photo and one audio track (arstechnica.com)
Survey finds that 60 firms are responsible for half of world’s plastic pollution (www.theguardian.com)
How financially literate are Europeans? Not very - but who knows most? (www.euronews.com)
EU citizens are not doing well when it comes to financial literacy. Nearly half lack an understanding of basic financial concepts, including inflation....
Qatari official: Jews are murderers of prophets; October7 is only a 'prelude' (m.jpost.com)
Essa Al-Nassr, a member of the Qatari legislative Shura council, spoke on Monday at an Arab League session, received ovation making bigoted accusations against Jews and promising the end of Israel.
Influential LGBTQ+ group pulls Biden endorsement over 'perilous' handling of Israel-Hamas war (www.advocate.com)
Hamas official says group would lay down its arms if an independent Palestinian state is established (apnews.com)
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
Google fires 28 workers for protesting $1.2 billion Israel contract (www.nbcnews.com)
“Google issued a stern warning to its employees, with the company’s vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, saying, “If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again,” according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC.”
Argentina Monthly Inflation Slowed More Than Expected in March (www.bloomberg.com)
Argentina keeps dropping the inflation numbers, good news for the country!
As a Palestinian American, I can’t vote for Joe Biden any more. And I am not alone (www.theguardian.com)
I am a Palestinian American in Pennsylvania, a contested state. I plan to write in “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary on 23 April and in November, I will vote for a third-party candidate....
Supreme Court to consider whether local governments can make it a crime to sleep outside if no inside space is available (theconversation.com)
Making deepfake porn without consent could soon be a crime in England (www.cnn.com)
YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown now includes third-party apps (www.theverge.com)
Sounds like trouble for Newpipe, Sponsorblock, etc…
Letitia James to Begin Claiming Donald Trump's Properties (www.newsweek.com)
“But the Trumpian part is that even though, or perhaps because, it may be part of a Trump scam, Knight now too may be on the hook for $175 million as it won’t automatically get out from underneath its own proffered surety.”...
Hillary Clinton to voters upset over Biden-Trump choice: ‘Get over yourself’ (thehill.com)
Israeli Hostage Says She Was Sexually Assaulted and Tortured in Gaza (www.nytimes.com)
Ms. Soussana, 40, is the first Israeli to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted during captivity after the Hamas-led raid on southern Israel. In her interviews with The Times, conducted mostly in English, she provided extensive details of sexual and other violence she suffered during a 55-day ordeal....
The House GOP just gave Biden’s campaign a huge gift: Roughly 80 percent of House Republicans just lined up behind a plan to cut Social Security and ban all abortions (www.vox.com)
Donald Trump would be on track to win a historic landslide in November — if so many US voters didn’t find him personally repugnant....
Hamas, Al Jazeera admit: Story of IDF rapes in Gaza hospital fabricated (www.jpost.com)
😠Meta just showed off Threads’ fediverse integration for the very first time😠 (www.theverge.com)
Can Reddit—the Internet’s Greatest Authenticity Machine—Survive Its Own IPO? (www.wired.com)
archive.is/urG1R
A New York Times reporter was asked why they consistently frame things as bad for Biden but never bad for Trump. (old.reddit.com)
"I think what you're reacting to is that, at the moment, Biden is an unpopular president seeking a second term while Trump is a popular figure inside his party who is winning primary races. I wouldn't necessarily compare the two."...
Haiti’s leader resigns as gangs run rampant through country engulfed in crisis (edition.cnn.com)
Biden says Medicare should negotiate prices for at least 50 drugs each year, up from a target of 20 (www.cnbc.com)
Key Points...
Sweden officially joins NATO, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality (apnews.com)