limer
@limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on Car crashes have killed and seriously injured roughly the same number of people as shootings in Chicago this year. Only one of these things is treated as a safety crisis in the media 2 days ago:
Cars, roads, and car culture are inflicting harm though, even if it’s seen as a neutral tool by many
- Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives 3 days ago:
I stand up for elections that are accurate and fair. If you look at my bio it’s my central belief in what needs to be done in American politics.
I cannot progress any leftest beliefs without accurate elections. So I’m ok if fair elections promote things I dislike very much. But they must be accurately counted.
I think I would respect many democrats more if they shared the same belief; but over the last few years I have become convinced that to be a card carrying Democratic Party member, one must be willing to turn a blind eye to how this country is not very democratic.
So yes, while democrats are better in many ways than republicans, both are harmful
- Comment on Trump says US will start talks with China on TikTok deal this week 4 days ago:
- Trump — I wanna buy it
- China — no
- Trump — I’ll do something bad
- China — here is x million, go away and come back later
- Trump — yay
- Comment on Welcome to the Labour police state 4 days ago:
Can verify : am frog
- Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives 4 days ago:
I think if one follows the same practices as what is implemented in the UK and France and other democracies, then the issues we speak of with American ballot counting will simply go away.
I would not trust any improvements over the ballot counting methods perfected over 200 years ago. Scantrons, as mentioned, obfuscate witnesses trying to spot issues, and anything else is simply worse.
The modern crop of voting machines are not that much better than the Diebold machines, its hard to tell due to everyone being locked out of investigating them. Most people do not understand that these systems can have the owners throwing the elections without the employees being any wiser. We do not know this is happening, but with the exit polls and other hints going on, I would rate is as probable.
I think my issues with voting machines are influenced by me making similar systems myself. But still, I have no idea why people think they are a good idea. I do not think its a matter of education, or lack of awareness, because I tried for a few years to educate people, and have talked to others who tried too. I think it boils down to some taboo against calling out cheating in the American culture, to be honest. But that is just my idea
Texas is ok. Yes, it has a corrupt bad government steeped in endless corruption. But the big cities are just regular North American cities in both outlook and being cosmopolitan in nature (there are dozens of ethnic groups that have a huge impact on Houston, for example). And most of the rural population is allergic to politics. There is a warming trend that is going to cause mass migrations out of Texas in the next two generations, though.
- Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives 4 days ago:
First, I’m rather far far left. Both mainstream parties have traditionally been against things I hold dear. So things promoted by democrats can be poison to me.
But that is not the point.
When you have a party supporting the fascists, and a party that is less so; and that other party is against enabling, asking, paying token lip service: to democratic principles that every real democracy in the world holds dear, practices that would make the fascists loose.
That makes them a passive enabler.
There is nothing wrong with being a professional looser, and a corrupt mess, if that is what your voters want. But when it’s something that important and there is still no mass awareness of the situation, or even a glimmer of interest to do better.
That does make them equally bad. Much like a child abuse scenario where one parent beats up the children and another parent lets them.
And I think future historians will agree with me
- Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives 4 days ago:
Democrats are out of their minds because they, as a party and a majority of participants: embrace electronic voting; do not demand recounts in very close elections; ignore exit polls that show more people voted for them than recorded in the elections they loose; have no interest in paper ballots etc etc.
If a party is against demanding better democratic practices in states they routinely lose. Sometimes loosing only narrowly.
And everyone needs them to win.
Then what would you call it besides a sort of insanity?
- Comment on Thumbs up to people dying. 5 days ago:
What is the most ethical thing to do here?
- Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives 5 days ago:
the hanging chads in FL
Those were really badly designed ballots. Look at France or the UK or Canada or Virginia etc for how they should be. No self respecting democracy should ever use a half mechanical design that fails like that.
What really made me angry later was that this was used to justify worse ways counting ballots. But my main issue was the shut down recounts. GW was never properly elected, in my mind, and he made several problems for the USA that still have ramifications to this day, including his introducing modern computer voting. He used his contacts to form the first private voting companies we know today. And in my view his son was elected to Texas only because of that.
an expat now. Did you leave?
No, still in Texas. Unfortunately, during the gw era I was not interested in politics much. If I sound like an expat its because I am totally not on board with any of the major political movements
- Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives 5 days ago:
Most democracies use hand counted paper ballots. It works, and it’s fast enough, no need to improve it.
I don’t understand the American need to tinker with a good system.
That said, there is no way the majority of USA states will switch over to better counting systems. Some areas of the world will never be able to be truly democratic. The Americans have some weird system that works for their upper class, and the lower classes fully believe in it. This will not change in my lifetime
- Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives 5 days ago:
Eh, it’s been a long journey for me. Years ago I was active in the Democratic Party in Texas, later I was a keyboard warrior who wrote millions of words, none of which did any good.
Now I just want fair elections; again writing words, now in a very small community, that also does no good.
But I’m done with the partisan stuff, and think both sides are equally out of their minds.
Democracies need accurate ballot counting, most states fail this. The primaries in both parties and the general elections have been tampered with for decades in many states. This has totally changed the character and leadership of both parties over the decades.
This is not a falsifiable argument because the only way to prove the above is wrong is to not use the election machines run by private organizations. While at the same time exit polls and stats hint of extreme ballot stuffing by these very companies. It’s not rocket science.
But, most commentators and social media participants in USA politics don’t care or want to know.
The ballot manipulation will allow democrats to win the midterms by a landslide, and most likely have the presidency again in 2028, and people who want paper ballots will be rendered mute again by most. Then next cycle the republicans will win again!
It’s a very long game, with each iteration moving more wealth away from the majority. And the only way to fix it is with paper ballots counted in front of witnesses and unlimited recounts allowed. Even then, it will take a long time to fix
- Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives 5 days ago:
These discussions always assume the elections are fair, which in many states is not true.
Perhaps instead of bickering about unimportant stuff ( at least to me they are not important), everyone griping should at least check to make sure their local elections at least meet United Nations specifications? Maybe they do, but depending where you are at, probably not.
I will never ever understand political discussions done by the majority of Americans.
- Comment on What happens in the North Woods 1 week ago:
Thanks
- Comment on Will Texas Be an AI Powerhouse from its Energy Mega Campus? 1 week ago:
There are so many things wrong with the situation in the article.
I don’t want any misunderstandings, if I were a corrupt mess of a politician who would receive money from this, I would love it.
But as a small Texas citizen, I just see less money going to my community later, and worry about the increasing corruption that is more and more upfront
- Comment on What happens in the North Woods 1 week ago:
What are the details of the book? So I can get it via library… I want to know what happens on the next page. What about the spider mites ?
- Comment on Even Quantum is Bigger in Texas: Texas House Passes Bill to Launch Quantum Initiative 1 week ago:
I wonder how many members of the Texas government enrich themselves from this.
I will also hazard a blind guess and think this will be run like a Ponzi scheme
- Comment on Cloudflare’s New Tool Lets Sites Charge AI Crawlers 1 week ago:
I’m guessing the Supreme Court will eventually rule that it’s an American right to crash sites with poorly designed AI bots, resolving this quandary.
- Comment on YouTube Will Add an AI Slop Button Thanks to Google’s Veo 3 2 weeks ago:
To opt out, do I have to pay the a subscription ?
- Comment on YouTube will “protect free expression” by pulling back on content moderation 4 weeks ago:
Hoping for the best, expecting attacks on science while still demonetizing videos talking about climate change in geography
- Comment on Self-hosting your own media considered harmful according to YouTube 4 weeks ago:
it can also be seen as breaking anti monopoly laws ( or equivalent) ; many people depend on these services to get free stuff, but these are the tools to create competitors.
Setting up a large video stream service is definitely different from the above tools. But small interconnected services in their thousands are probably the stuff of nightmares for any self respecting you tube middle management type
- Comment on Meta plans to replace humans with AI to assess privacy and societal risks 5 weeks ago:
That, and top management really does not care about the issues this will “help”
- Comment on xAI to pay Telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app 1 month ago:
It’s like a virus, infecting each system as it can
- Comment on Reddit will tighten verification to keep out human-like AI bots 2 months ago:
Slightly amusing because most of the active users are perhaps AI powered bots now, run by Reddit.
If that is the case, then it seems to me that this is a repeat of the locking out of third parties, done by the api change was two years ago, but for now for those that use bots?
- Comment on NASA's Dragonfly nuclear-powered helicopter clears key hurdle ahead of 2028 launch toward huge Saturn moon Titan 2 months ago:
It’s too early to say it, and I hope it never comes to pass, but I hope somebody made future contingency plans to transfer this to another country.
- Comment on Introducing Kermit: A typeface for kids 2 months ago:
My internet service blocked this site: says it was a threat
- Comment on Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk would like to ‘delete all IP law’ 2 months ago:
He tweeted about solving climate change by using a reverse heat pump to hell, where it’s very cold now
- Comment on 'Doctor Who' Star Varada Sethu Fires Back at 'Woke' Critics: 'It Means We’re Doing the Right Thing' 3 months ago:
I look forward to future Dr Whos.
I’ve been watching that show for decades, and I have seen the ups and downs.
This cycle of shoddy work is unique because of the era. But if there is any luck I hope to see better dr who later, followed by something equally bad but different.
- Comment on 'Doctor Who' Star Varada Sethu Fires Back at 'Woke' Critics: 'It Means We’re Doing the Right Thing' 3 months ago:
I don’t see people defending the newer shows by saying the writing is great or the plot tight. I just see arguments about politics and social messages.
- Comment on Google adds end-to-end email encryption to Gmail 3 months ago:
I just see vendor lock-in. A closed source solution?
End to end encryption already exists for email without everyone using the same service. Using open source solutions.
How many services has google canceled through the years? What happens to email send by this when that alphabet department looses a turf war? Unrelated : how can anyone reasonably trust this company to keep secrets?
- Comment on U.S. Institute of Peace Staff in U.S. Fired as Trump Seeks Nonprofit’s End 3 months ago:
It was old guard American empire, its status between private organization, government, and war criminals very blurry.
Its demise will be celebrated by many. I’m glad I outlived it; I thought decades ago it would just persist maybe forever. I can rest easier tonight.
In the fight between the oligarchs, this is a welcome casualty . I really don’t care about its final days.