HarkMahlberg

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

[Steve Scalise] is seen as a hero to some after surviving a mass shooting on lawmakers at a congressional baseball game practice few years ago.

Scalise, who was at second base when the shooting started, was shot in the hip and tried to drag himself off the field. While the shooting was still going on, Representative Mo Brooks used his belt as a tourniquet to help stop bleeding for a staffer who had been shot in the calf. After the shooting ended, Brooks and Representative Brad Wenstrup—a podiatrist and U.S. Army Reservist who served with the U.S. Army's 344th Combat Support Hospital—were able to assist Scalise.[29] Several witnesses said their lives were saved by the presence of the Capitol Police, who were there because of Scalise's position as the House Majority Whip. The Capitol Police immediately engaged Hodgkinson and kept him pinned down, preventing him from continuing to fire on the unarmed baseball players. Representative Davis and Senator Rand Paul separately said that if not for the presence of the officers, the incident "would have been a massacre".

I see several heroic acts here, but they show Scalise as a victim, not a hero. Either way, we can expect another imminent government shutdown before the holidays as the Republicans scramble to prove they are unable to govern.

HarkMahlberg , 8 months ago to Politics in [News] McCarthy says he won’t give Democrats anything in exchange for support as Speaker

I'm secretly hoping enough Republicans get so sick of the magas that they switch sides and make Jeffries Speaker. That would be the ultimate insult, both to the magas and the GOP as a whole. Alas, I can only dream.

HarkMahlberg , 10 months ago to Fediverse in When you block a user on kbin and they're so butthurt, they ban you from their "magazines."

The key advantage of fediverse is that you can never be banned from a group and have it stick.

That characteristic is a double edged sword. It's a disadvantage if you want to keep trolls out.

HarkMahlberg , 10 months ago to Fediverse in Mastodon is getting text search

Aren't searchability and discoverability two different things? I understood hashtags as a way to make your post discoverable, or more accurately, to comment on a topic that there's a consensus term for and so everyone can see your opinion. If I was looking for a specific opinion, some piece of news that I remembered a short sentence from, then I would search for the phrase I remember.

HarkMahlberg , 10 months ago to Politics in [News] House Judiciary Committee expected to launch inquiry into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis

Weaponized government indeed.

HarkMahlberg , 10 months ago to Politics in [News] Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights

Gotta give the midwest credit - between Ohio rejecting the 60% ballot approval measure and Kansas voting directly to keep abortion legal, they've been bringing their A game to voter turnout.

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to Politics in News: Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to build a new agency to police Big Tech

I probably wasn't being fair to Warren by using OP's words (crusty relics). I trust her far more than I trust most politicians, but I don't trust Lindsey Graham at all, or any other Republican for that matter. "Bipartisan" bills like this include the likes of SOPA, PIPA, COPPA, and I've mailed my senator to protest them all.

Around the world, people look at the US parties and don't see "left wing and right wing," they see "right wing and lunacy." Ultimately I want more regulation of big tech, I want to see the busting up of the AAAMM monopolies, but the political environment that would create that kind of effective, authoritative, savvy regulator... well, we don't live in that environment. So until our system and parties resemble the EU's, these kinds of bills are kneecapped by bribery disguised as political donations (a la Citizens United), regulatory capture, and the other Reagan-era failed policies that have brought us to our current position.

Like yeah, this part is great, especially considering Google's WEI proposal:

Specifically, the commission would ban the largest tech companies like Amazon, Meta, and Google from providing favorable treatment to their own products on their platforms to those of their competitors, otherwise called “self-preferencing.” Along with the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department, it would also be allowed to authorize merger proposals and review past ones retroactively.

I'll take what I can get for now, but the US has a very long way to go.

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago to Politics in News: Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to build a new agency to police Big Tech

Vote out the crusty relics, promote candidates that actually understand tech or are willing to listen to people who do. Even if you don't believe the crusty relics can be voted out, they cannot live forever. Eventually they must be replaced.

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago to Politics in News: Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to build a new agency to police Big Tech

The answer to a dysfunctional government is not dismantling government, but replacing it with a functional government.

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago to Fediverse in Hateforking alreading happening for Fireffish

Why did Calckey need to change their name at all? I mean we just saw Twitter change its name for literally no reason and I can already predict how that's going to go.

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago to Politics in [Analysis] 'People are hungry for more choices': Inside the Green Party's push for 2024

Real, structural change is needed to stop the fascism.

On that we agree.

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago to Politics in Analysis: Democrats eye Wisconsin high court's new liberal majority to win abortion and redistricting rulings

Oh he does, take a look at his comment history.

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago to Politics in Analysis: Democrats eye Wisconsin high court's new liberal majority to win abortion and redistricting rulings

Meanwhile, on a conservative supermajority Supreme Court.

“I wouldn’t want anybody to … make me a wedding website?” he continued, sounding a bit puzzled but good-natured about the whole thing. “I’m married, I have a child—I’m not really sure where that came from? But somebody’s using false information in a Supreme Court filing document.”

Up to this point, Smith had never designed any wedding website. (In fact, her website six months prior to the lawsuit being filed in 2016 does not include any of the Christian messaging that it did shortly afterward and today, archived versions of the site show.)

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago to Politics in [Analysis] 'People are hungry for more choices': Inside the Green Party's push for 2024

You got the point of that movie all wrong. Mutually assured destruction is a game where the only winning moving is not to play, because it is mutual, meaning either choice is equally doomed to the same outcome. "Two undesirable outcomes" is not a good enough excuse to simply not participate. By definition, one of those outcomes must be preferable to the other, and that's what you should vote for, while you continue to work outside the ballot box to push better candidates and better policies.

"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

HarkMahlberg , 11 months ago to Politics in "Sounds like Rudy flipped": Giuliani evades Jan. 6 target letter after meeting with prosecutors

Catch you later.