Arotrios

Arotrios OP , 8 months ago to Politics in [News] Republicans nominate Steve Scalise to be House speaker and will try to unite before a floor vote

Let the games begin...

Arotrios OP , 8 months ago to Politics in [News] RFK Jr. launches independent bid for president, leaving Democratic race against Biden

I christened this guy Ratfucker Kennedy when he started his campaign, and today, beyond all doubt, he's earned the right to bear that name.

Arotrios OP , 8 months ago to Politics in [Opinion] Hakeem Jeffries: A bipartisan coalition is the way forward for the House

@Virginicus - the Freedom Caucus certainly will. However, the realpolitik of the situation is that any Speaker will need Democratic support to get elected at this point.

There are three possible outcomes here:

1. The Republicans are able to control their caucus and elect a new speaker entirely with GOP votes (highly unlikely, and if they do, a new leader will be just as vulnerable as McCarthy was until 2024)
2. The Republicans are able to peel off enough Democratic votes to get a new speaker in by advancing a moderate and granting concessions (possible, but this effort would likely lose as many GOP votes as it would gain Dem ones unless they convince Jeffries to rally his caucus in support of a moderate)
3. The Democrats are able to peel off enough GOP votes to elect Jeffries (slightly less likely than 2, above) - this is the worst possible scenario for the GOP

Jeffries has them over a barrel as long as he maintains caucus discipline. Thus far he's doing a far better job at it than the GOP, plus he's still got Pelosi's connections in his back pocket (and she's definitely not about concessions to the GOP at this point). This opinion piece is both an olive branch and a subtle threat to those on the GOP side who can still do basic math - it's "work with us, or watch us take the Speakership before 2024".

Arotrios , 8 months ago to Politics in Kevin McCarthy Ousted as House Speaker in Historic Vote

Kevin McCarthy and the GOP right now

Arotrios , 8 months ago to Politics in [News] John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump | CNN Politics

Power is a helluva drug.

Arotrios , 9 months ago to Fediverse in "It's the content, stupid." - Quick Notes to Supercharge K.Bin

Posted this on the other thread - but excellent work! Thank you!

Arotrios , 9 months ago to Fediverse in "It's the content, stupid." - Quick Notes to Supercharge K.Bin

For those having issues with the aforementioned downvote trolls, @some_guy and @YourContentSucks kindly showed up to illustrate the problem. These two accounts are accompanied by a third, @cre0 -all the same user. If you're pre-emptively looking to protect your users from downvote spam, keep these accounts out of your magazines - he likes to try to dox folks. This is his theme song.

Arotrios , 9 months ago to Fediverse in "It's the content, stupid." - Quick Notes to Supercharge K.Bin

@inkican - Agreed - Kbin will live or die based on its content. One thing that should be mentioned to those on the fence about contributing is how powerful Kbin is as a publishing platform in comparison to either Mastodon or Lemmy - this is one of the few places where you can post and get your content on both style of instances.

There are a couple of factors degrading contribution that could be alleviated by more stringent moderation - particularly the bot networks and downvote spammers. I've seen a couple of instances where folks have gotten bullied out of trying to run a forum, and Kbin's flaws in blocking (a blocked user can still downvote your posts and message you), make ongoing harassment an issue for contributors. No one wants to submit something to have it shat upon.

The other factor is that a number of users set up magazines, grabbing popular names from Reddit, then did nothing to maintain them. I think removing or reassigning these ghost magazines to interested moderators would go a long way in improving the content quality here now that the dust has settled from the Reddit collapse.

From a moderator standpoint, if you're looking to expand the reach of your magazine and get new subscribers (and thus, hopefully, more contributors), one thing I've found that helps expand the audience is using a Lemmy account to crosspost, as the cross-posting functionality is built into that architecture and provides a link back to the original. This both expands the range of the content, and draws subscribers from Lemmy that normally wouldn't see you on Kbin to subscribe to your magazine. Mastodon is similar - a single supportive account there boosting magazine content expands your reach dramatically.

Side note: I run @13thFloor and wanted to say if you or your users ever feel like cross-posting our scifi content from there, or cross-posting your content to our magazine, feel free to do so - we fucking love scifi over here.

Arotrios OP , 9 months ago to Politics in [Opinion] An out-of-control GOP is the party of nonstop national crisis -

American voters != Republican voters, but I agree with your overall point regarding the GOP.

Arotrios OP , 9 months ago to Politics in [News] California passes anti-book ban bill: 'The true freedom state'

Now I've got the Beach Boys singing your comment in my head... thanks...?

"ban ban ban Alabam, ban ban ban christian Taliban"

Arotrios OP , 9 months ago to Politics in [News[ A New Rudy Scandal: FBI Agent Says Giuliani Was Co-opted by Russian Intelligence

Guess this is happens when ghoul Fuks around...

Arotrios OP , 10 months ago to Politics in [News] Pro-China influence campaign pushed talking points across more than 50 websites

Thanks to @MicroWave for the link.

Arotrios OP , 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to Politics in [News] "Hit list": Trump grand jurors face violent threats after names and addresses shared on QAnon forums - Salon.com

No, it's not. I'm guessing a MAGA that works within the GA court system got hold of the names and published them specifically so they could be targeted and harassed.

EDIT: thanks to @solidgrue for the correction. I spoke too quickly, and didn't have a full understanding of GA law.

Arotrios OP , 10 months ago to Politics in [News] Newly declassified US intel claims Russia is laundering propaganda through unwitting Westerners | CNN Politics

Most likely, but they're not in this article. I called out the operatives they did name in the tags on the post:

#anton_tsvetkov #natalia_burlinova #andrey_stepanenko #maxim_grigoriev

Arotrios , 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to Politics in The Fox GOP debate melted down when the word “climate” was mentioned

Actually Kbin is great for tracking shitheads, which is why I'm able to call this guy out. Downvotes are visible on the activity tab of each post and comment, and this troll loves downvote spam - as you can see, he downvoted my comment above. He's the kind that will stalk your account and downvote everything to try and get your attention.

In general, 99.9% of the community here is awesome, and there's a lot of support between users here. It's actually the best experience I've had online in many years (and I've been online since the early 90s). One of my goals in calling out the trolls when they decide to target me is to keep the community enjoyable, as I'm quite certain I'm not their only intended victim.