Not if you’re a woman, a queer person, a member of the working class or poor, need health care, need higher education, or don’t want to be governed by people who use your tax money to help kill Palestinian kids, among other things.

But sure.

It wasn’t Trump doing those things, so I agree that it’s okay.

No worries, my dude. It can be hard to tell online.

I’m pretty sure Boss is being sarcastic.

It’s so maddening to me that part of Biden’s pitch four years ago was how electing him would mean a blow against fascism.

Yet here we are.

accordingly: implying that the problem is the Democrats for not unilaterally overturning the entire constitutional order when they don’t have the votes to do that (or anything, for that matter!)

Yet, with a simple majority, we saw Republicans pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and Obama and Biden both had a simple majority in the Senate and controlled Congress. We’ve also seen presidents unilaterally keep Congress in session, as the Constitution allows them to do, in order to help pass important legislation. The thing is, the loss of Roe, the rollback of voting rights, the minimum wage, none of it seems to matter enough for Democrats to actually wield power when they have it. Republicans still get what they want. When I mention this in any online forum, the excuses roll out like Halloween candy, but if you’re someone working for a living in the US, you’re well aware that it doesn’t matter who we elect. Your life only gets harder.

I’m also aware that there’s really no way to change it, outside of being a billionaire or being willing to commit a terrorist act, both of which don’t apply to the vast majority of people. The only way for an average person to benefit from our system of government is just to make sure you’re putting every dollar you can in the stock market, because both parties agree 100% that the stock market should never drop, and they’ll make trillions appear out of thin air overnight to achieve that.

At this point, if you’re not double-checking something produced by your AI tool of choice, it absolutely is your fault. It’s no secret that these applications were trained on garbage.

I’m past the point of giving credit to Democrats for saying nice things or pretending to create change.

I’m giving them credit for what they actually produce.

We’ve discussed it elsewhere in this thread, but it’s really not.

Your right to vote, absentee or otherwise, is largely based on your zip code. Democrats haven’t shown any interest in bringing back the Voting Rights Act.

I can’t understand why someone would just roll over and give up when one candidate is promising a fascist dictatorship

Weird. A bug in the app switched up my replies.

What I intended to say was:

I can understand. If you’re a wage earner in this country, your life does not change in any significant way based on who we elect, so why skip a badly needed day’s pay to vote? There’s just no point.

And when you point this out to other people, all you get in response are excuses.

This makes me think about that quote about insanity.

We’ve seen 40 years of Republicans getting their way no matter who we elect, so it’s exceedingly difficult for me (and I imagine most people working for a wage) to understand why it even matters.

Yeah, but to me, it seems a tad backward to have Democratic leadership at the federal level, and yet, your rights still depend largely on your zip code.

I gotta say, part of me kind of admired the chutzpah, pulling this junk out of his ass against a voting bloc they are going to badly need to win, but you’re not wrong. Harris built her career on the lost lives of non-violent drug users she put behind bars.

Ah, my mistake mixing them up. Thank you for the correction.

This article buries the money quote:

“We’re not a monolith,” Thompson said. “However, we are just like every other American in this country who wants a good paying job, that we can provide for our children and participate in their lives and the lives of our partner, that we can get them home safely, afford to go to the grocery store, save a little for retirement and have a vacation.”

Reminds me of the article yesterday calling out women for not having enough babies and blaming individualism and secularism instead of the fact that people can’t afford to procreate.

The simple fact is that it’s really hard to sell Biden 2.0 when Biden 1.0 failed people so spectacularly for people that are out there working to live. You just can’t hand someone a record of failure and expect that they’re going to enthusiastically support your candidacy.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it in the UN Charter that an attack on UN forces is an attack on the entire dang alliance?

What fascinates me every time this topic comes up is that, for tens of millions of Americans, social media isn’t required because they’re living the utterly shitty effects of our current regime’s rule.

Can’t afford health care or education, could find themselves homeless and bankrupt with one bad injury or illness

Working 60-80 hours a week, and that’s just to cover basics

Rampant inflation for food, housing, and utilities with no end in sight

As always, a blank check for war, even if we’re not actually fighting it, also a blank check for genocide against children

Cops are still killing at will, and cop cities are becoming a thing

School shootings happening almost every day

You lost the right to abortion and Dems response was to use it for fundraising

Who needs enemies with friends like these Democrats? How is it possible that there were almost no meaningful primaries after all this AND the presidential candidate was a man in obvious cognitive decline? (Granted, that’s also true of Trump, but Trump isn’t the one at the helm right now.) Objectively, you don’t have to lie to voters when they don’t care what you do in the first place.

There’s plenty of evidence that social media is harmful to kids, teens, and adults. Several are referenced in this article: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/social-media-teens-mental-health

We also know that FB has used its platform to unknowingly run social experiments on users without their knowledge and helped the proliferation of misinformation to the tremendous detriment of our country and our people. With gen AI creating even more false information, it’s imperative that governments crack down.

Social Media can and should be regulated just like any other objectionable form of speech.

Totally.

I was very impressed by Democrats’ reaction when the Roe repeal was leaked.

They used it to raise money.

That alone is indicative of the fact that they’re unsuited to govern.

Well, thank you for your perspective.

Have a nice weekend.

I honestly think you and I are on pretty close to the same page as far as American politics are concerned

I really think we’re not.

But thanks for the discussion.