Notably, there is no guarantee that the Obamacare subsidies will be extended — and no commitment from Republican House leaders to even hold a vote at all on the subsidies.

Then what the fuck was the point? That was Democrats one demand. Either finish what you start or don’t start at all, you cowards.

Bringing AI into redistricting would be a nightmare. AI is not objective, it’s trained on biased datasets and that bias is reinforced by the bias of whomever created it or wants to shape it to their will.

We already know how to do nonpartisan redistricting, and many states (including CA) already have a nonpartisan committee in charge of it. But since elections are managed by state and local governments, and explicitly not the federal government, it would take something like a constitutional amendment to make it required nationwide. That’s also why states like CA will temporarily use different maps this cycle (if all goes well tomorrow), because CA being fair and TX cheating doesn’t help the nation as a whole reflect its actual population. Might as well force the fairness by cheating like them. It’s a shitty stopgap, but they’ve left us no choice.

I really wanted him to show up to add another absurdity to his legacy, but mostly to see how KBJ would write about the hilariously unsubtle intimidation tactic in her dissent.

Yeah, the text of the proposition makes it explicitly temporary. Here’s the language on the ballot:

Requires temporary use of new congressional district maps through 2030. Directs independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to resume enacting congressional district maps in 2031. Establishes policy supporting nonpartisan redistricting commissions nationwide.

I sent in my ballot over the weekend. All my fellow Californians please vote, it takes 30 seconds and a quick walk to the nearest mailbox. And please vote Yes, most of the No campaign is disingenuous and based on misinformation.

Yes = temporarily switching to a map that favors Democrats, as a counterweight to Republicans already doing the same thing in other states. It’s temporary, the nonpartisan redistricting committee isn’t going anywhere.

No = closing your eyes, plugging your ears, and pretending like everything is normal and that we aren’t in an existential crisis.

Good. I hope more states follow. Republicans probably won’t stop, so Democrats shouldn’t either. It’d be kind of hilarious to gerrymander the hell out of all the red and blue states so thoroughly that the districts circle back around to actually reflecting the populations of the states. And once it’s all over and the states have reached their end…states…those that had nonpartisan redistricting committees can pretty safely go back to their work. I’m not sure if it would ever shake out that way or if it even makes sense, but I say keep at it. It’s the first step of many to clawing back some tiny bit of control.

I agree with most of this except the part about Newsom being great for California. He definitely seems great for California, the man can give a damn good interview, but practically speaking he hasn’t done very much at all to benefit the everyday people of California. That may not be saying a whole lot, since I think we still have it better than most Americans, but there hasn’t been much progress on our most pressing issues (housing, homelessness, cost of living) since Newsom took office. He’s better than a full republican for sure, but he talks like a classical liberal and governs like a moderate. I’ve had enough of that kind of politician. I want a real leftist as a candidate for the next governor of CA and the next president.

100% agree on Harris, she’s done. I sympathize with her to a certain extent, but no one, not her and not Newsom, are entitled to power. She needs to retire and found a nonprofit or something. There’s still a whole lot she could do for the country without losing more elections for us.

Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, is the source of that poll. Here’s the original link to the article that discusses it (it’s paywalled, which is probably why it’s so hard to find).

The poll was conducted in May, so the numbers have probably changed a bit, but I totally understand your skepticism. Unfortunately, as an American Jew who is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, I’ve spent a lot of time in Israel, have Israeli family, and I have no trouble believing these numbers. It’s difficult not to generalize, but based on my personal experiences with my family, as well as talking with Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinians who live in the occupied territories, there is disgusting widespread hatred against Palestinians and Muslims in general that has been completely normalized across Israeli society. It’s by no means every single person, there are still loads of lefty anti-establishment and anti-Zionist movements, but I have no trouble saying that the majority of Israelis hold abhorrent views about Palestinians. It’s definitely not antisemitic to describe the hatred I’ve witnessed coming from Jews against Palestinians. I can’t even count the number of horrendous things I’ve seen.

Racial slurs are the norm, racial profiling is legal and expected at the entry to every public business, segregation is expected and accepted, Jewish children are taught to hate Palestinians, and every Israeli (with some exceptions) is conscripted into the military, so they are all indoctrinated into a system of state violence.

The person you were responding to seems to think that murder is acceptable in service of a just cause, and I couldn’t disagree more. Murder and violence are never justified, even against those committing them.

Seth Meyers still apologizes for that, sarcastically of course, but it’s hilarious that enough people blame his joke for jumpstarting Trump’s campaign. Trump seething from his table while everyone around him cracks up is burned into my memory.

So many mixed feelings. I hate that they have to point out that she’s James Comey’s daughter, because she’s a very accomplished prosecutor in her own right. But being his daughter was clearly part of why this happened (also because she prosecuted Trump’s best friend?). On the other hand, I don’t have a ton of respect for prosecutors in general and the way they exercise their discretion, so the partisan implications seem to be the important part of this. On the other hand, James Comey fucked us real bad, so my petty juvenile side gets a little joy out of this until I remember who did this, then I go back to being furious on her behalf. What a whirlwind.

I don’t tolerate intolerance, and I would never suggest that it should be tolerated. I also don’t tolerate violence against anyone, let alone glorify it, and I don’t find those postures to be in tension at all.

I’m not sure how else this should be handled. I don’t like Newsom, and Kirk was a piece of shit who I disagree with as hard as I can disagree with anyone, but I’m frankly pretty surprised and disappointed by the responses I’m seeing here on Lemmy. This is the only social media I interact with, and I had hoped for better. I’m not trying to preach or condescend, but that’s genuinely how I feel.

I realize this is a super controversial thing to say right now but: violence is bad, even if you hate the victim. I hate this victim, and I’m still disgusted that he was killed.

Oh shit, that’s good. Took me a sec to realize who they were, but that depiction of Trump is surprisingly unique and hauntingly excellent.

Ahh thank you! Very good to know.

Primary him. It’s the only way to scare these power-hungry assholes into listening to their constituents. Imagine if Jeffries becomes speaker, he’d be even more beholden to the neoliberals and billionaires.

Fuck with the base (the base voted for Mamdani), and lose your seat. Actual real consequences are the only thing that matter these clowns.

Meanwhile, I got multiple mailers yesterday trying to convince me to vote against the CA redistricting plan. Hard to tell if they’re from the right or left, but it doesn’t really matter. These fuckers in Sacramento are doing everything they can to make sure we don’t win back the House.

Same. I’m enjoying his trolling, but knowing that it’s probably only in service of improving his image in order to force a presidential run down our throats, makes me enjoy it a lot less. Newsom is just not a genuine guy, he has always given me sleazy greasy politician vibes, and his governance hasn’t made up for it.

Fuck Melania, but also fuck Hunter. They both seriously suck. I have very little sympathy for either of them and the way they act in public.

California could definitely do it, we have a lot of seats in Congress, more R’s than you might expect. The main obstacle is the nonpartisan redistricting commission, but there’s already a ballot measure proposed that will exempt the 2026 election from the nonpartisan commission, depending on what Texas does.

It’s basically a hedge: if Texas fucks with their districts, we’ll go around the CA commission and fuck with our districts. If Texas does nothing, we’ll do nothing and CA’s nonpartisan commission retains its power. I might be oversimplifying a bit, but I just filled out a survey asking if I’d support this (I definitely do).

Ironic, since the writ of Habeas corpus predates even the Magna Carta.

Habeas corpus goes back to around 1166, which for those keeping track, is only around 600 years before the founding of the USA…