this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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And so it begins. Nine months still to go before the next US presidential election and already the Republican party favourite and former President Donald Trump is sending eyes rolling skywards with his seemingly outlandish statements.

And yet they will delight many of his supporters.

Suggesting at a rally in South Carolina that he would "encourage" aggressors (for example Russia) "to do whatever the hell they want" with Nato countries that fail to pay their dues has prompted an immediate slap down from the White House. A spokesman called the comment "appalling and unhinged", saying it was "encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes".

Nato Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has also responded forcefully, saying: "Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk."

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[–] dhork@lemmy.world 120 points 9 months ago (12 children)

But we are going to elect him anyway, because the other guy forgot a thing once. Just like we elected him 8 years ago, because the other one ran her own email server.

[–] spider@lemmy.nz 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

You forgot this:

How Clinton lost Michigan — and blew the election

"They believed they were more experienced, which they were. They believed they were smarter, which they weren't," said Donnie Fowler, who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee during the final months of the campaign. "They believed they had better information, which they didn't."

Rollins doesn't need a recount to understand why Clinton lost the state. "When you don't reach out to community folk and reach out to precinct campaigns and district organizations that know where the votes are, then you're going to have problems," she said.

[–] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago (3 children)

She ran a shit campaign. Everyone likes to forget that part

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Everyone also likes to forget that she won the poplar vote. She lost the electoral college, an anti-democratic institution that Democrats seem to think is really important to keep, despite the fact that keeping it often makes them impotent.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It frankly doesn't matter whether they want to keep it or not. It would take a constitutional convention to change and in the current climate that's going to go make things worse, not better.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)

There is one interesting workaround I've heard about from time to time, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. It's a state-level agreement where all the participating member states commit to allocating their electoral college votes to whomever won the popular vote nationally. No need for a constitutional convention since the allocation of electoral college votes is in the hands of state governments, they can decide to do this under the existing constitution.

[–] HighElfMage@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

But you need states to agree to that, which runs into the same issue as an amendment does.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You don't need as many states to agree to it. Just enough to swing the election.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

However the states likely to agree are the ones that reliably vote Democrat, and the GOP has only won one popular vote in the last 30 years. So again, it won't make a difference.

[–] Bumblefumble@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It will. To change the constitution you need 2/3 of the states. For this plan to work, you need only 50.1% of the electoral votes to agree. Doesn't matter if they primarily swing democrat, it just has to be a majority.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Not a single "swing" or red state will go through with it. It may be numerically closer, but ideologically, it's not going to happen. The red states know their favored candidate would lose, the swing states would forfeit their leverage to basically "go with whatever the northeast and west coast say". Since this requires holdouts to surrender some measure of political power they have, won't happen.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The comment I was responding to at the root of this said:

It would take a constitutional convention to change

And my response was to point out that no, it wouldn't. It doesn't. It's still difficult, sure, but it doesn't require a constitutional convention to change.

Also, if you actually look it up, there are enough states that have already enacted the compact or are "pending" to get it done. So it's closer to being done than you are implying.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Of the ones that are 'done', they were already consistently democrat and haven't had to vote against their usual leaning.

Of the ones that are marked as 'pending', it is very optimistic to presume that is on its way to anything. It merely requires that some state legislature person proposed it. Maine is "Pending" but has already failed 7 prior attempts over the past 15 years. Many of those "pending" have been "in committee" for about a year. No way it takes a year to seriously bake such a simplistic proposal, it's dead in committee, just waiting for an election cycle for it to be official.

The reason this is doomed to fail is you'd need states to join that explicitly enjoy political advantage from the current system. A die-hard "red" state will not sign on to a system that basically hands the presidential election to whoever the northeast and west coast vote for. A swing state that may be more ok with a democrat winning consistently would still not want to cede the political influence afforded to them by virtue of being a "swing" state.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago

All of that can be true and this is still easier than a constitutional amendment.

That is all that I was saying from the start. It remains the case. You don't need a constitutional convention to make this change, there is an easier way to do it.

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[–] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

We can also double the size of the House (if not more). Electoral college votes are distributed according to the number of House districts (plus 2 for the senators of each state). Congress can simply pass that law. This is a good idea, anyway, since it was last set in 1911 with a total US population that's less than a third of what it is today. It becomes harder gerrymander lots of smaller districts, as well, and it dilutes the effect of small states having outsized influence with their guaranteed 2 senate seats.

Would probably need to build new chambers for the House. The current one has 450 seats on the floor, plus 500 in the gallery that are normally for staff and guests, not elected members.

It'd be nice to ditch the electoral college system altogether instead of coming up with these workarounds.

[–] rambaroo@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

So what? The popular vote means nothing. Her campaign was incredibly arrogant. She took the entire rust belt for granted and lost because of it.

[–] Glitchington@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

"Pokemon GO to the polls." causes me physical pain to think about.

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[–] NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works 19 points 9 months ago (5 children)

We’re going to get Trump again (barf) because the DNC insists on running shit candidates and refuses to acknowledge that they are bad, instead insisting that the voters are just too ignorant to understand how good their candidates really are.

Hillary Clinton was a horrible candidate: immensely unpopular even with the Democrat base, running on a status quo platform right in the wake of disappointment with Obama’s failure to deliver on “hope and change”, and acting as if she was somehow entitled to the position.

Biden is not as bad as Clinton in most ways, but is utterly lackluster and feels more like a moderate Republican. His unwavering support for Israel during their campaign of atrocities is despicable and shameful. The fact that he’s totally ancient and losing his mind isn’t helpful in the least. Why can’t we have a more compelling candidate from the DNC?!

This post will get modded down and ignored, as will the incredibly common and widespread sentiment that it expresses, and we will get Trump again as the nation and the DNC acts shocked yet again. It’s so predictable and infuriating.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 57 points 9 months ago (15 children)

His unwavering support for Israel during their campaign of atrocities is despicable and shameful.

If we're going to get Trump again it's in part because of the absolutely all-or-nothing brook-no-compromise attitude of voters. Like this, for example. Biden's support has not been unwavering, he's criticized Israel's actions. But not enough for you, and so he gets no credit whatsoever for any moderation he might have. And that's why you say he "feels like a Republican" to you, because someone can only be 100% totally on your side or they must be on the other side.

I'd love for there to be a viable fully-progressive candidate who happened to agree with everything I believe in. I'd also love to have a pet unicorn. When elections actually roll around in reality, though, none of the candidates are going to be perfect. And unfortunately in many first-past-the-post electorates the system is set up in such a way that there are only two viable candidates. So pick the one that's closest to your views. Push for better candidates in the primary, of course, but accept that you won't always get everything you want.

[–] Toldry@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

All the people critisizing """Genocide Joe""" give me a aneurysm when cosidering their alternative:

Attacking Biden, Ben Gvir says Trump would have been more supportive of Israel

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir harshly criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, accusing it of benefitting Hamas and arguing that Israel would have been better off dealing with a second Trump administration.

“Instead of giving us his full backing, [President Joe] Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel, which goes to Hamas,” Ben Gvir declared in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday. “If Trump was in power, the U.S. conduct would be completely different.”

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yep. The uninformed gEnoCiDe jOe kids are obnoxious. I’ve tried in the beginning to calmly reason with them and explain how things work and I’ve been met with being reported and even banned from a few instances.

Now, when I see them- I just block them from my feed. It’s not worth it. They don’t want to know what they’re doing is dangerous to democracy.

[–] rusticus@lemm.ee 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Get out of reddit and take your reasonable pragmatic opinion with you.

[–] Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social 21 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Thats what i did. Day one, and im already banned from world news on Lemmy as well now. For calling out russian talking points when they came up.

[–] rusticus@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Then you're doing it right my friend. Hexbear and lemmy.world are overrun by Putin sympathizers who want nothing more than chaos and the continued decline of western democracy.

[–] Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So messaging a mod wasnt a good move? xD

[–] rusticus@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Only if your message was "I'm sick of your anti-American Russian apologists. Please ban me." in which case that was a BDE move.

[–] Pan_Ziemniak@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Close enough?

Hey, sorry to bother you, but apparently within less than one day ive been banned from World News after calling out russian propagandists. I would like to ask for a bit of clarification on which rules of the sub ive broken. Its concerning that clear kremlin talking posts are not only espoused and upvoted, but that they hold enough sway to get those who call them out for being what they are banned.

I did not call for violence, at worst you could call this a difference of opinion. Is Lemmy this far down the propaganda hole as well?

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[–] MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The most popular worldnews lemmy is on lemmy.ml it is a tankie shit show.

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[–] Illuminostro@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Tankie bitches gonna tankie bitch.

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[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

Biden has actually done a lot to restrain Israel but the MSM fails, as usual because outrage sells. Too bad people just run with whatever is on hand.

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[–] Illuminostro@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago
[–] Bipta@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Before New Hampshire's primary I thought Biden was fucked.

I'm still worried now, but I'm no longer sure we're doomed.

[–] trslim@pawb.social 3 points 9 months ago

What happened at the new Hampshire primary? Im ootl

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[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

Not if we beat the drum about him being insane, instead of letting him get away with it as just another wacky thing

[–] A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

I mean, the people did elect her. She won the popular vote, but as I understand it, the electoral college had different plans.

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