[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago

Worth noting, this isn't really a Google thing. It's something other websites do to allow you to login with various other credentials: Facebook, Google, Amazon -- Twitter used to be common. It's just that Google is obnoxious because when say Reddit allows you to login with your Google account, the login widget Google uses is an obnoxious pop-up.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 hours ago

Biden’s policy on facilitating the Israeli genocide of Palestinians is incredibly unpopular with voters, it isn’t even close.

'42 [percent] of Democratic voters [...] said his approach was “just right.”'

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/14/democrats-sympathetic-palestinians-israelis-poll-00152117

is an unmitigated catastrophe for his electability

No, unlike you, he actually knows what the polls say, and largely they say that people support what he's doing. If you think otherwise it's because you're in an echo chamber. But, what's sad about you is that you're so deep in that echo chamber that you think you're not.

if anything Israel has just become equivalent to a North Korea on the world stage

Suuuure... wow, those echoes in your chamber are deafening you.

Either is enough to be a red line for me in terms of voting for Biden

So, instead you allow Trump to win, because somehow you think that's the result that's better for Palestinians? That's idiotic.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago

If you think this is how the actual world works you are incredibly misguided.

If you think this isn't how the world works, here's an example: Israel.

Israel knows having a cushy relationship with the US military industrial complex is literally existential to its existence

It may once have been, but now the free weapons from the US are just a nice to have thing, rather than a necessity. Israel is relatively rich and doesn't need the free stuff from the US anymore. But, it's certainly nice to have.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 days ago

If you don't think it's an idiotic thing to say, you're an idiot.

"If something extremely complex and time consuming isn't already 100% done to my satisfaction, nothing has been done."

Do you know that some things take time? Do you know that progress isn't instantaneous? What are you, a literal baby who has no concept of the passage of time?

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 days ago

Those are Israeli jets dropping Israeli bombs being piloted by Israeli pilots. When you sell someone something it becomes theirs, they are free to use it as they see fit, especially in the case of another country with its own military following its own laws.

The US definitely shouldn't have been selling Israel weapons for decades, let alone giving Israel money it can use to buy weapons (although it's more of a gift to US defense contractors than it is a gift to Israel). But, once the weapons are in Israel's hands, they're Israel's weapons.

Of course Biden could do more, but he's part of a political class that deeply believes in helping Israel. Mitt Romney would have been the same, same with Hillary Clinton and her husband, same with Obama, same with both Bushes, junior and senior. Trump isn't part of that political class... but his stance would be "nuke Palestine" and/or "what's in it for me, personally?"

if Biden wanted to he could call up Netanyahu and end the genocide almost immediately

He could call him up and tell him the US was cutting off support, but that wouldn't end it immediately. It would also be a major cost to him politically, because a lot of democratic donors are rich jews who believe in the Zionist project. But, he's probably not even making that kind of a political calculation, he's probably just doing it because he strongly believes in helping Israel.

It sucks, but there are 2 dominant political parties in the US, and one wants to help Israel because it thinks Israel is the only real democracy in the middle east, so no matter what it does, it's not as bad as the nearby arab states. The other party thinks that the rapture is about to happen and that there needs to be a holy war in the middle east before all the non-evangelicals get wiped out and Jesus comes back to take the righteous to heaven -- oh, and it's a good place to sell weapons and generate big profits.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago

That may be, but he's better at hiding it than Hillary. She seemed to always be making it clear that it was her turn. That message came across much more strongly than anything else.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 26 points 4 days ago
  • $35 cap on Insulin
  • Student loan cancellations
  • Restoring net neutrality
  • Banning non-compete agreements
  • Pardoned people convicted for simple marijuana possession convictions
  • Funding important infrastructure projects
  • Banning abusive and junky bank fees
  • Going after landlords who are price fixing
  • Minimum 15% tax on corporations, who otherwise use every trick in the book to hide their profits in tax shelters overseas
  • Rejoined the Paris Accord
  • Antitrust actions against Amazon, Google, Apple, various airlines, book publishers, even meat packers
  • Blocking mergers that would reduce competition, like Krogers acquiring Albertsons
  • Reducing fees real estate agents collect for home sales
  • Requiring airlines to refund passengers for delayed or canceled flights
  • Automatically recognizing a union when a corporation interferes with a union vote
  • Massive climate wins in the Inflation Reduction act
  • Giving IRS funding so it can go after the rich tax cheats, instead of just the poor people who make small errors
  • Allowing Medicare to actually negotiate drug prices, instead of being forced to accept whatever the drug companies decide

And, this is despite a senate where Sinema and Manchin supposely give democrats a razor slim majority, but in reality they block almost everything. And, despite a congress that is currently republican controlled and block even the things their constituents want because they don't want to let Biden have a win.

In what way (other than Gaza) is he not doing a good job?

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 25 points 4 days ago
  1. Those aren't things that would otherwise be crimes. He doesn't have immunity from procedure, he has immunity for crimes. He kill the justices, or kidnap them and lock them up in some undisclosed location. He has immunity in those cases. But expanding the court would require passing a law. Passing a law is not an action that the President takes, regardless of any presidential immunity. As for felons not being able to become presidents, any law congress passed to say that would be unconstitutional, because the constitution lays out the only requirements to become a US president. The constitution also limits the ways in which the constitution could be changed, and none of that is within the powers of a president. He could kill Trump, but he can't change the rules about who's allowed to be president.

  2. He still believes that the system works. He thinks the checks and balances work. He believes that, regardless of the recent Supreme Court ruling, that he's not immune, so he won't commit crimes like that. The result might be that the final president of the Republic thought it was more important to follow tradition and live the values that he thought the president should hold, than to do what was necessary to prevent the Republic from becoming a dictatorship.

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submitted 3 months ago by merc@sh.itjust.works to c/til@lemmy.world

Maybe the "great" America that Donald wants to take us back to is the 1860s?

7
submitted 5 months ago by merc@sh.itjust.works to c/canada@lemmy.ca

Note: National Bank of Canada is a commercial bank, not the Bank of Canada which is Canada's national bank. Um. Which is Canada's central bank.

The graphs in the presentation are the key takeaway for me. But, some key words:

"Canada is caught in a population trap that has historically been the preserve of emerging economies. We currently lack the infrastructure and capital stock in this country to adequately absorb current population growth and improve our standard of living."

...

"To put things in perspective, Canada's population growth in 2023 was 3.2%, five times higher than the OECD average."

...

"But to meet current demand and reduce shelter cost inflation, Canada would need to double its housing construction capacity to approximately 700,000 starts per year, an unattainable goal."

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submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by merc@sh.itjust.works to c/engineering@sh.itjust.works

Earlier today, Scottish adventurers Chris and Julie Ramsey were finally able to announce their completion of the nine-month, 17,000-mile "Pole To Pole EV" expedition, the world's first drive from the 1823 Magnetic North Pole to South Pole.

Other links:

https://expeditionportal.com/what-the-pole-to-pole-expedition-wants-you-to-know-about-long-term-ev-travel/

https://poletopoleev.com/

https://global.nissannews.com/en/releases/north-pole-to-south-pole-with-nissan-ariya

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submitted 10 months ago by merc@sh.itjust.works to c/ottawa@lemmy.ca

The article was clearly AI generated. Microsoft has killed the original article, giving a 404, pretending it never existed. But, you can see an archived image of it on Imgur.

Even ignoring the ridiculousness of including the Ottawa Food Bank as a destination. Even ignoring the callousness of the line "Consider going into it on an empty stomach", the article is just full of spicy autocomplete nonsense.

  • "Participate in the Winterlude, the Capital's winter festival, skate on the world's largest skating rink, or play on North America's largest snow."
  • "Go to an Ottawa Senators Game: Ottawa, as Canada's capital draws visitors from around the world who come to see its historic buildings and landmarks, experience its arts and culture and take in the sights and sounds. Denis Potvin are two NHL heroes from Ottawa..."
  • "The World's Largest Naturallyfrozen Ice Rink"
  • "Discover a Winter Wonderland at Omega Park" (along with a picture of the Canal)
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merc

joined 1 year ago