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Zaktor

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'My school abandoned me': California university cancels pro-Palestinian student's commencement speech (www.middleeasteye.net)

The University of Southern California has cancelled a scheduled commencement speech by Asna Tabassum, citing unnamed security concerns after her selection as valedictorian was met with a wave of online attacks directed at her pro-Palestinian views....

Zaktor ,

I want to ask: if the university genuinely cannot provide a secure environment for the commencement event

It can. They’ve hosted much more controversial and high profile figures before without danger and the speaker and the public have not been given any indication there’s even a credible threat. It’s not remotely an impossible task, it’s just an excuse.

Zaktor ,

Anyone can put up a YouTube video, it’s not going to be watched by 65,000 people or recorded and made available through the school. The platform your speaking from matters. That’s the privilege of being valedictorian.

Zaktor ,

This is notably a tactic often employed by terrorists.

Zaktor ,

Then include rent in the income-to-expenses measurements for home loans? Getting rid of that portion is the whole point! Hell, someone paying stupid high rent is the best evidence they could have that you’ll be able to pay back their loan since you have 55% of your income already dedicated to housing that will be freed up and available without changing your lifestyle. They should worry more the smaller that percentage is.

Zaktor ,

They are not trying to make us informed global citizens. He was.

Zaktor ,

The Debt Collective named Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) as particularly responsible for the language.

I’d sure like to know how they decided on this list, because at least Schumer and Duckworth were both actively calling on Biden to cancel debt via executive action.

Zaktor ,

I mean, that’s one interpretation, but Biden’s initial stab at cancellation probably wouldn’t have happened without Schumer getting on board and making it less just “Warren calling for stuff she wants”. Harder to dismiss it as progressive fringe when the majority leader keeps calling for it.

My interpretation is that them being “responsible” is just a list of the Democratic leaders in each chamber and the expected sponsors rather than them actually making the edit. Flood their phone lines for sure, because they’re the ones who can shut it down (and arguably should have noticed and shut down without needing outside watchdogs), but I think it’s pretty obvious this was a Republican insertion. Even if they didn’t believe in debt cancellation, it’s still a good campaign issue for them and they could just rely the courts and filibuster to block their performative efforts.

Zaktor ,

I find that really unlikely as both Schumer and Duckworth have called for debt cancellation by executive order and even if they were secretly opposed it’s a good campaign issue that can be reliably blocked by the filibuster or the courts. I think it’s just Debt Collective being a little loose with the definition of “responsible” to prompt outrage and more calls to the people who have power to do something (which is a good thing).

Zaktor ,

I think this is Debt Collective being a little loose with what “responsible” means. Both Schumer and Duckworth were involved in mainstreaming the cancellation of debt via executive order.

Zaktor ,

Wow. Put people under a military occupation with no rights and then charge them with crimes for complaining.

Zaktor ,

I’m sure this time yelling at the voters will work.

I didn’t give a shit that Clinton beat Sanders. I am however pissed that she then lost. The person most at fault for a candidate losing is the candidate.

Zaktor ,

This isn’t an existential problem. Just block threads.net.

Zaktor ,

Even better, that should be their primary social network site. It’s inherently restricted to valid government accounts and under their control so all the right data protection and preservation procedures can be followed. Then Threads users can follow [email protected] or whatever.

Zaktor ,

Just a totally straight blog about ice cream and cool cars, with no mention of politics.

Zaktor ,

I mean, it’s not like he’s reading the Threads users’ comments either.

Zaktor ,

Nah, give those National Parks posters a Mastodon account. Way more desirable than POTUS. Also put all those other random gov Twitter accounts on it so they can link somewhere that anyone can read.

Zaktor ,

Well then I guess the pro-trans thing to do is tell Katy she shouldn’t be allowed to follow all those trans people.

Zaktor ,

Yeah, I’ve never even heard of them before now and would have no particular reason to trust that what they mean by “good” servers aligns with what I’d consider “good” servers. This isn’t like joinmastodon.org trying to strongarm instances to adopt their personal federation policy.

Zaktor ,

What do you think the effect of “defederation” is?

Zaktor ,

If an instance defederates from another instance there’s nothing stopping a user who liked that instance that was defederated with from moving to, making an account on or just using (in the broadest sense) another instance which hasn’t defederated with the instance they like or that instance itself.

This functional consequence of defederation is telling their users they shouldn’t be allowed to interact with an instance. That they can just leave if they don’t like it doesn’t make the choice not coercive. Moving servers is certainly a viable option, but it’s a pain and doesn’t transfer content, so that’s still locked under the former server’s federation choice.

That’s one reason I moved to the fediverse: so I could get rid of all of the content I didn’t want to see before I saw it. More typical social media like Meta, Twitter and Reddit all have a long history of failing to moderate against anti-trans hate, as with other types of hate, so I moved to the fediverse.

On Mastodon, which is the place Threads is trying to federate with and which Katy was comparing it to, you can block instances. You no longer need your instance to make those decisions for you. Your desire to have Threads blocked at the instance level is at odds with Katy’s desire to follow trans people on it. You can do a simple thing to implement your desires without forcing anything on the other person.

Zaktor ,

The best place to go is Z, which federates with both.

Zaktor ,

If it helps bring perspective. I’ve never even heard of Fedi Garden before this post. I did a lot of puzzling over choosing instances for Lemmy and Mastodon when I first joined and never saw a link to them. I’m not sure why they’d even be seen as a trusted list for a new users, since at joining the user also doesn’t know anything about them or their values, reliability, or reputation.

Plus, once you’re in the Fediverse you then learn you can just change instances. Once someone points out that [other instance] can talk to Threads users the individual can just switch or stay depending on their preferences.

Zaktor ,

One week ago he penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying Chuck Schumer made a horrendous act in saying Netanyahu was an obstacle to peace. Evil right to the end and, like the Christian right, publicly claiming to be the true representative of his religion.

Zaktor ,

Ok, but first past the post is a bad voting system.

Zaktor ,

Worst case scenario is he comes to power with more dedicated goons as his cabinet and they just do what they want while the already captured courts find new ways to delay and avoid cases so that he never faces any functional check on them. The System is not self-actuating and is already near the breaking point.

Zaktor ,

One of the things that convinced a few Never Trumpers to quit was the risk of violence. They’ll be happy to expand the program.

Zaktor ,

I’m gonna guess this 15 minute old account is the user from lemmy.ca that just got banned earlier today for homophobic comments.

Zaktor ,

They seem to continually misunderstand the relationship between our two countries. They weren’t coming here as a favor to us, they were coming to America to petition for something we would accept to maintain their arsenal of family-eliminator bombs and collateral-enhancing tank shells.

But who am I kidding, Israel is daddy-America’s spoiled brat and we’ll always find a way to excuse their actions. But it would be nice if they at least recognized that they’re a fucking client state and carry out the appropriate motions.

Zaktor ,

Israel has other options for aid and weapons

Not in the short term they don’t. You don’t just switch from US standards at the drop of a hat and think everything is good. That’s why the West was initially trying to scrounge up old Soviet equipment for Ukraine. They’d have to retrofit or junk a lot of their current hardware and retrain their army on the new stuff. And that includes the Iron Dome keeping them safe-ish from rocket fire.

Zaktor ,

Two years in they have. That’s a better timescale for Gaza than “next month”. And scale is irrelevant to the problems for the armed nation. They have fewer weapons, but also fewer resources. The problem with arming Ukraine was never that the West needed time to find enough weapons, it was integrating weapons with their armed forces.

Zaktor ,

Red flag laws have already been on the books in various places throughout the country. Do you think the gun nuts just didn’t feel like challenging them with an auto-win case?

The fact is, they’ve tried and been rejected.

Zaktor ,

So this is one of those slam dunk legal arguments that only works in federal courts? And the gun nuts haven’t managed to get a single federal court to agree to it in all the years red flag laws have been active? Sure.

Zaktor ,

But they also questioned why the ATF conducted what they characterized as a dawn raid on a private home that led to the gunfire.

“Even if the allegations in the affidavit are true, they don’t begin to justify what happened,” the family said in the statement, released by an attorney acting as their spokesperson.

Yuuup. Shitty gun nut giving guns to people without any sort of checks, but showing up at dawn doesn’t do anyone any good. There were so many other ways to handle this that didn’t invite chaos.

Zaktor ,

What benefit does a dawn raid provide over just showing up when he’s expected to be out of the house? It’s worse at protecting evidence, a harder tactical situation for the cops (entering a building where the target can ambush, easily access weaponry, and shoot from cover), and worse for the target making rational decisions (like not shooting at cops). Ignore the target, because you presumably think he got what he deserved. One of the agents got shot and they didn’t have to.

This wasn’t an imminent danger situation where if they didn’t get him at 6 am he was going to set off a dirty bomb at 7 and disappear into the wind. He was going to go to work and then come home later to do the same slow and steady crime he’d been doing for months.

Zaktor ,

2A for overthrow purposes means you and your militia buddies can build up an armory that the government can’t take away. Pre-overthrow you’re lawful citizens doing perfectly fine civilian stuff. It’s a just in case, probably not even going to be used. Once you’re rebels, sure, laws don’t matter, but if they make preparing yourself to be credible rebels illegal, then the rebellion never gets off the ground.

Zaktor ,

We don’t really know how aware he was that they were cops. Breonna Taylor died because her boyfriend didn’t know they were cops.

Sure, this could just be a survivalist whacko taking his last stand once the gubmint finally came for him, but it also could be triggering someone’s fight or flight when they’ve surrounded themselves with tools for fighting and a fearful mindset. And again, a cop got shot. They should do stuff to avoid that.

Zaktor ,

Never trust any cop’s version of a shooting. They lie, all the time, and then when they’re caught lying they “initiate an investigation” and then just wait for people to forget about it.

Zaktor ,

People doing “career criminal moves” (fucking copaganda bullshit framing making an unusual appearance against a white suspect for once) don’t have some magic cop-sense and often are worried about being the subject of violent crime. Doubly so if this was some rich white dude mainlining Fox News 24/7.

You don’t know anything about what he knew or why he shot at them, but fuck it, go to the mat for the boys in blue like a good bootlicker.

Zaktor ,

Did Breonna Taylor die for her boyfriends “stupidity”? Police raids are often indistinguishable from a criminal invasion to a groggy target. “What we know right now” doesn’t tell us anything about the actions of the cops leading up to the shooting…

Zaktor ,

At least in the DS9 episodes Section 31 was still an antagonist organization.

Zaktor ,

Can reddit actually defend that database? Almost all the comments are public and they don’t actually own the copyright to other people’s words so I don’t think they could sue someone who scraped them. I suppose by going through Reddit the buyer would protect themselves from the users suing, but that doesn’t seem like a huge risk.

Zaktor ,

…the Federal ones apply to everybody…

That’s how the racist ones work, my man. The laws apply to “everybody”, but somehow most of the enforcement is on black people. Black people aren’t in prison disproportionately because the law says “black people carrying drugs is illegal”.

Get it straight, there is no struggle but the class struggle.

Ahh. “No issues, but white issues.”

Zaktor ,

I feel like you don’t really need to show up at 6 am to serve a search warrant. Making a commotion and trying to barge into someone’s home when they’ve just awoken is kind of a recipe for them to make bad decisions. If you need surprise to make sure they don’t destroy evidence, just get them when they’re out of the house. Wait until he goes to work, then send the crew to the house and a couple agents to his work to serve him there and escort him to the residence? It might take a little longer to figure out when the house is empty and you can secure it, but it means fewer people get shot.

Zaktor ,

Which is actually a perfectly good way to approach work, but even the hustle-is-virtue people who think workers should constantly be overperforming will have a hard time justifying it when the company has specifically said high-performance cannot yield a promotion.

Zaktor ,

The best thing about a soft barrier like this (as opposed to “you have to be in the office next Monday”) is that it doesn’t cost the employee anything to coast along until they find their better opportunity. Dell may trim their workforce, but not on their own timetables.

Netanyahu snaps back against growing US criticism after being accused of losing his way on Gaza (apnews.com)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed Sunday against growing criticism from top ally the United States against his leadership amid the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as “wholly inappropriate.”...

Zaktor ,

Who cares what Netanyahu thinks about whether Netanyahu should be removed from power? “Netanyahu opposes being removed from power” isn’t exactly a revelation. Tell me what other key Israeli politicians and the Israeli public think.

Zaktor ,

They’re an alt for a hexbear account… so it’s still an open question.

Zaktor ,

Hexbear is an instance full of trolls and tankies that’s been defederated from a bunch of instances.

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