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why isn't anyone calling for Trump to drop out.
  • Because

    • None of the above legally prevent him from running.
    • Republican voters will still vote for him en masse.

    It's that simple.

  • Britain will not rejoin EU in my lifetime, says Starmer
  • I think if substantial change is what you're expecting from a Labour/Starmer government, then you're going to be disappointed.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/keir-starmer-labour-party-uk-election-u-turns/

  • The justices of the supreme court ruled that Trump was immune and effectively above the law while being president. What is now stopping Biden from bringing a gun to the next debate?
  • It's not that simple; A court must rule that the action in question is an "official act". As the SCOTUS intentionally declined to elaborate further on how this is defined, it will be up for the courts to decide what is and what is not covered by immunity.

    Not that this couldn't become subject to abuse and partisan rulings, but it's more than just the presidental equivalent of

    Michael scott declaring bankruptcy

  • Los Angeles Sees First Decline in Homelessness in Six Years
  • California has a housing crisis across the board. NIMBYism and city zoning practices are artificially preserving neighborhoods with expensive, single family homes over what is actually needed: multi-family condos and apartments, combined with brand new social housing projects and homeless shelters.

    This is a good start, but a lot more needs to be done.

  • Ron DeSantis vetoes millions in arts grants to defund “sexual” theater festivals
  • “You have your tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival, which is like a sexual festival where they’re doing all this stuff,” DeSantis said during a Thursday press conference, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

    Hmm, I wonder what kinds of "sexual stuff" he's referring to.

    the Tampa Bay Times reports that the governor’s spokespeople did not respond to questions about specific events he found objectionable.

    Oh.

    Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani (D), who attended this year’s Orlando Fringe festival, told the Times that she saw nothing “sexual” at the festival.

    “It does feature drag queens and other forms of artistic expression that DeSantis has wanted to censor despite courts telling him otherwise!” Eskamani said.

    So a man dressing in women's clothes is an inherently sexual act, according to these sexually repressed freaks.

  • Protestation
  • I prefer the original version with the Rupert Murdoch allusion.

  • Ultra-Orthodox protest against order to enlist in Israeli military turns violent in Jerusalem
  • The first thing to understand is that Israel's parliamentary system of government is quite different from the US'. Instead of two main parties dominating the political landscape, i.e. Republicans vs Democrats, Israel has around a dozen main parties which work together to form coalition governments where more than one party is in power at one time. Under this fragmented landscape, if you have a religious or ethnic minority who all tend to vote for the same party, that can lead to a situation where one group in society may hold sway over others politically even though they are not as as large a population numerically.

    And yes, you're quite right - a lot has changed since 2016, and some Haredi (especially the young) have been increasingly drifting towards the far-right nationalist parties like Likud (Netanyahu's party) and the Religious Nationalists. However, as this AP article suggests, these recent converts moving away from the traditional Haredi parties are still a minority.

    While the majority of Haredim living outside Israel still do not identify as Zionists (as per this recent, post-Oct 7th survey), I admit I don't have any hard polling data for the current situation in Israel itself. If anyone else does, I would appreciate the info.

  • Ultra-Orthodox protest against order to enlist in Israeli military turns violent in Jerusalem
  • The vast majority of Hareidi Jews are Zionist.

    According to a recent survey, less than half of Haredi Jews outside of Israel identify as Zionists, post October 7th.

    In 2016, the percentage of Israeli Haredim who identified as Zionist was just 33%.

    Do you have any recent figures for within Israel itself that confirms a "vast majority"?

  • Ultra-Orthodox protest against order to enlist in Israeli military turns violent in Jerusalem
  • I didn't say they weren't politically powerful. The two main Haredi (Ultra-orthodox) parties are significant part of Netanyahu's coalition, and they have always had a disproportionate power compared to the Haredi population because almost all Haredi voters vote for them.

    Within the Haredi community there is still a wide range of opinions, of course. However, even within Israel most have not traditionally described themselves as Zionists (only 33% percent, according to a 2016 survey).

  • Ultra-Orthodox protest against order to enlist in Israeli military turns violent in Jerusalem
  • Most ultra-orthodox Jews are actually anti-zionists. It's not uncommon to see them joining pro-palestine peace protests.

    Within Israel they are a minority, and their broadly anti-war stance combined with their dependence on the state for financial support (most of the men are unemployed) have made them quite unpopular in the eyes of the general population.

  • How Ukraine shattered Europe's balance of power
  • How so? I think it's quite an accurate summary. The German economy has been stagnating for a while, mainly due to its poorly handled transition towards an economy based on renewable energy. Their reliance on cheap Russian gas was shattered by the onset of the war in Ukraine, and their economic and political influence within the EU has been in steep decline ever since.

  • How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids in the US to be poor readers
  • This article is a good (albeit long) explanation of what the MSV system is and why it sucks, but it neglects to mention the important fact that, thankfully, most US states have either already banned it from their public school curriculums or are moving away from it to more evidence-based approches:

    https://www.lexialearning.com/blog/sound-it-out-the-shifting-landscape-of-literacy-from-three-cueing-to-science-based-reading

  • T-Mobile In Trouble After It Decides To Build Cell Tower That Is 'Not Safe' For Residents
  • Or the EMF generators they carry around with them in their pockets, A.K.A their phones.

  • MSNBC's Lawrence on Biden-Trump debate: "We live in a country where most commentators declared the liar the debate winner" -- (video, 20 min)
  • Yeah, that was the single biggest Biden blunder of the evening, IMO. I was dumbfounded.

  • ‘The Movement to Convince Biden to Not Run Is Real’
  • I don't think so - Biden tried to come back at Trump with some combative energy but it rang hollow. Plus, of he was really ill he and his team should have simply postponed the debate until he recovered.

  • ‘The Movement to Convince Biden to Not Run Is Real’
  • Biden has been conspicuously avoiding speaking at unscripted public encounters for quite a while now, though, and reading from an autocue at SotU is a far cry from having to react on the fly and put together coherent arguments in response to moderator questions and Trump's lies during a debate. I have the feeling Biden's staff knew full well that the debate was going to be rough going into it.

  • MSNBC's Lawrence on Biden-Trump debate: "We live in a country where most commentators declared the liar the debate winner" -- (video, 20 min)
  • What happened is that Biden and his team completely screwed up. They called for this debate and agreed to its terms, which included the fact that the moderator team would not be fact checking Trump in order to avoid accusations of bias.

    These terms shifted the onus of calling Trump out on his biggest lies to Biden himself, who would have known that Trump would try to gish-gallop his way through the debate and avoid discussing policy because that's precisely what he did in 2020. The fact that Biden failed spectacularly to counter Trump in any meaningful way is the reason why he lost the debate.

  • Most Americans have no idea how anti-worker the US supreme court has become
  • From the article:

    A 2022 study found that of the 57 justices who have sat on the court over the past century, the six justices with the most pro-business voting records are the six members of today’s 6-3, rightwing super-majority, all appointed by Republican presidents

  • ‘The Movement to Convince Biden to Not Run Is Real’
  • That's the point - they closed ranks and kept riding the Biden train whilst quietly hoping that no one would notice it was in danger of coming off the rails.

    https://theintercept.com/2024/06/28/biden-debate-dnc/

  • ‘The Movement to Convince Biden to Not Run Is Real’
  • Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves. They stayed mum for three and half years and now they’re reaping the whirlwind.

    ☝️

  • "Why are the Arabs so violent? Why do they hate Israel?"

    TIL that in 2018, thousands of Gazans peacefully demonstrated against Israel's siege of the territory.

    In response, IDF forces opened fire on the demonstrators with live ammunition. Some they shot to kill, others they shot in the leg, crippling them for life. Others they shot with rubber bullets and tear gas. They shot women, children, the elderly, paramedics, and journalists.

    A UN Commission found that Israeli soldiers likely committed war crimes or crimes against humanity. Investigating from March 30 to December 31, 2018, the Commission reported 183 Palestinian protester deaths from live ammunition, including children, medics, and journalists. Over 6,000 were injured by gunfire.

    1
    apnews.com House passes bill to expand definition of antisemitism amid growing campus protests over Gaza war

    The House has passed legislation that would establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws.

    House passes bill to expand definition of antisemitism amid growing campus protests over Gaza war

    'If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the bill would broaden the legal definition of antisemitism to include the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.'"

    Pardon me, but what is this horseshit?

    45
    theintercept.com Even Mentioning “Occupation” at the Oscars Is Antisemitic, Some Jewish Hollywood Figures Say

    “The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech was denounced by Jewish Hollywood figures for mentioning Israel’s occupation.

    Even Mentioning “Occupation” at the Oscars Is Antisemitic, Some Jewish Hollywood Figures Say

    “The use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years and has been recognized as a state by the United Nations, distorts history” gets the prize for the most oblivious statement I've seen all week.

    1
    Why are Mastodon's trending hashtags so ... dull?

    As a new user, I'm enjoying Mastodon's vibe so far but the one thing that is a letdown is the trending hashtags. I've been checking them regularly over the past couple of weeks and it seems like they're pretty much always like this.

    Even on days with big news stories, people on Mastodon are only talking about what day of the week it is like company employees on some internal message board?

    Is there anything that can be done to liven them up a bit?

    145
    theconversation.com Science activism is surging – which marks a culture shift among scientists

    Political mobilization among scientists has been growing in recent years. Two social scientists break down what this looks like and how it represents a culture shift among the scientific community.

    Science activism is surging – which marks a culture shift among scientists
    0
    Debunk This: The Scientific Evidence for Gender Transition Therapies is Weak
    unherd.com The media is spreading bad trans science

    Misleading studies are being taken as gospel

    Hi, everyone. The author here claims a couple of things I'd like people to check out:

    1. That European countries are generally reluctant to endorse gender reassignment treatments due to insufficient evidence

    2. That there are no large scale studies / reviews that find good evidence in favor of gender reassignment treatments

    Thanks in advance!

    7
    lifehacker.com What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: UFOs and the Government

    Maybe people are just really bad at identifying objects.

    It appears UFOs are flavor of the month again.

    0
    aleph aleph @lemm.ee
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