Bah! Use a particular state if you know it. Otherwise American serves as well as European.

I appreciate your forthrightness, and on many points we quite agree, notably noone’s keen to leave and that the current charged atmosphere around the war does chill honest representation of one’s ideals.

That said, while this particular war was the result of Hamas and their October 7 attack, I believe that if not them, some other group would “lead the charge” maybe it would have been more of a single flashpoint or a series of smaller skirmishes, but conflict was (and continues to be) inevitable under the circumstances that Palestinians and Israelis live in.

I want to inquire further on your take that Israeli buffer zones are the land theft so demonized by the anti-Zionists. We see the expansion of the buffer zone in Syria as a landgrab because any security buffer sufficient for defense against the Assad regime should be more than enough, especially when paired with Israeli strikes on weapons caches and bases in Syria. The more puzzling point, though, is the establishment of new settlements and growth of existing settlements in the West Bank even as recently as this week.

…and people who want to hide in the shadows, there’s no reason to do that when you’re buying a vacuum off me and want to come to my home to pick it up.

As a buyer of random trash, I really don’t want anyone to know more than they have to. The only identifying details about me should be “paid $13.65 for a set of glittery plastic tableware.” In whatever ledger you keep for those sort of things.

I got a promotional text message from a store I bought a single repair component from once in a state I never visited. It made me irrationally upset. I would not accuse you of such, but every action to verify someone’s “personhood” means that marketing types have that much more access to try to sell me junk.

No of course not. Things are what they are.

The Democrats’ long-term planning skills are not in question here, but they must recognize that they cannot enact those long-term plans without access to the levers of power- and that short term concessions must be made to that end.

As for voters: we all wish they thought more and weren’t constantly led around by the nose, but both facts and feelings are part of their individual calculus for support. Obama was carried in on feelings of hope which vibed with the zeitgeist. Trump came in on a presentation of a strong figure (that we know to be false) that complements the uncertainty about the future that Obama left behind when hope kinda petered out over his term.

The feelings in this case are critical because we know politicos cannot possibly keep all their (sometimes contradictory) campaign promises and they cannot voice their position on every issue. So it falls to the voters to suss out what priorities and allegiances the politician has and how they will respond to any given event.

Fair 'nuff. I usually reserve that one for people dragging out arguments with little or no substance, but a whooooole lotta bluster and passion.

Beyond the usual descriptors of troll, zionist, obnoxious twat, etc. I like to place people to general regions and countries if they share them.

It helps me remember that the Internet is not the US and gives me some vague sense of what they may be dealing with outside our cozy Lemmy bubble.

Inflation has largely been controlled during that period, but real wages have stagnated since at least the housing crisis of '08. It doesn’t make a lick of difference how well inflation is managed to the poors when buying power is lost.

Pandemic (and even prior) economic malaise is not the fault nor legacy of the Democrats necessarily, but political cynicism bites both ways, and is a lot harder to overcome when the party tells you economic factors are looking up and asks you to wait it out for an uncertain boom in the future.

Yes, Republican (esp. MAGA) policies and mentalities make that promised economic future dicier, but they deliver a feeling of doing something.

For realz, I’m not a Democrat! I just vote for them in primaries and general elections and defend them when those mean ol’ leftists come around.

The Democratic party may be a big tent party with values of varying progressive pedigree, but the adage of lying with dogs and getting fleas applies.

What strikes me is the use of canaries into the 1950’s. Surely we could have had some other means of detecting toxic gasses besides small animals.

Is this to be our Swan Lake?

The policy on preservation of natural areas was not terrible. It was probably executed poorly and wasn’t intended to be anything but a bludgeon of the state to displace people, but nature preservation as a concept is a necessity.

I only intend to come across as ignorant (vice malicious) but what is a community/worker run organization of aid and coordination if not a government (at a small scale)?

The Star Wars IP is still pretty new for them, so this might be more akin to surveying the media landscape to find where to drill down deeper. They will cut back, but only when they have identified a profitable and concrete course forward.

Deadmau5.

The tapes of some of these Catholic hymns are getting kinda worn- let’s get some fresh beats to liven things up. And a laser lightshow in St Peter’s Basilica would help appeal to the “hip youths” ensuring a continued Catholic hegemony for the next century.

A 128 decibel rendition of the Emancipation Proclamation. Because some fuckers need reminding.

Damn. We gotta close the missile gap eith the six-year-olds.

It’s true! When it’s dark out it isn’t because there’s no light, but because you’re trapped in the void!

Kinda. There’s distinct cultural patterns and variations with manga being Japanese, manhwa being Korean (South, maybe North too, IDK), and manhua being Chinese.

Read enough and you can get a feel for what’s what without it being spelled out.

I like watching the grackles go about their morning routine, but I rarely see true crows where I’m at.

Have you seen the state of the IT industry? Furries and trans girls all of them. Your acronym is entirely appropriate.