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'People got betrayed': Cardi B says she's not voting in the presidential election
  • Yeah totally. And everyone will feel super satisfied for really sticking it to Biden for not providing enough Palestinian aid or pushing Israel hard enough in their opinion, while only holding back some weapons from Israel, and not doing a pointless veto of congressionally allocated funding that would be immediately over ridden by congress. And then when Trump is elected later this year.... Let's see here....

    Oh yeah, withdrawing all aid from Palestine (like he did before), helping Israel to "finish the job" in the Gaza strip, and then strike some corrupt deals with Netanyahu and his son in law to divide up all this sweet recently vacated beach front property. And yes, this is the same son in law he put in charge of Israel Palestine peace "negotiations" during his term.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/6/trumps-talk-on-gaza-highlights-stark-choice-for-voters-in-us-election

    https://apnews.com/article/jared-kushner-trump-israel-waterfront-property-901895eeafee867e69d0c4582a4deb47

    By all means vote for the most progressive politicians you can. But you have to grapple with the current reality of a first past the post voting system, and not voting at all is even more stupid.

    I hate all this accelerationist nonsense. Let's sit out this election and have an authoritarian facist takeover! Surely this will help push the country to the left like we want.

  • Iran arrests 260 people for spreading 'satanism and nudity'
  • Yeah but it wasn't just fundamentalist religious zealots. It was also a lot of corporations and capitalists determined to make a profit no matter what, even at the cost of great human suffering and they dragged over a bunch of indentured servants and slaves and oh wait I think this explains a lot about the US.

  • What vegetables and fruits do you wish were commonly available in the US?
  • They are now legal to grow in many states. Unfortunately still not going to find it in a grocery store most likely. I grow my own in the backyard so I can have some at least part of the year. They're perennial, very easy to grow, and produce a ton of berries. Gooseberries were banned for similar reasons, but are now also legal in many states.

  • Watchdog readies crackdown on predatory lending after Supreme Court win
    www.washingtonpost.com Watchdog readies crackdown on predatory lending after Supreme Court win

    More than a dozen lawsuits and investigations faced delays as the federal watchdog battled back a constitutional challenge over its funding

    Watchdog readies crackdown on predatory lending after Supreme Court win

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to restart its aggressive crackdown against payday lenders and other companies that offer high-cost, short-term loans to poor borrowers, after a Supreme Court ruling this week resolved a challenge to the federal agency’s authority to act.

    The decision is expected to ease some of the persistent political and legal obstacles at the CFPB, where powerful financial firms had blocked regulations, jeopardized the bureau’s funding and used the uncertainty generated by their battle to ward off recent probes and punishments.

    https://archive.is/uq5G1

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    Judge blocks Biden administration rule capping credit card late fees at $8
  • Yes I agree, but it doesn't just have to meet some of those criteria to get an injunction, it has to meet all those criteria, including likelihood of success. They can't just argue irreparable harm only if the judge thinks they're unlikely to succeed. The judge seems to agree with them in that section of the ruling that he thinks that the rule is likely unconstitutional. And conservative judges have been pretty hostile to the consumer financial protection bureau in general. I'm not holding my breath, at least not for this judge, but maybe ultimately on appeal the cfpb will still succeed in the end.

  • Judge blocks Biden administration rule capping credit card late fees at $8
  • The legal standard for issuing a preliminary injunction as includes a "likelihood of success." The judge seems to agree with the banks in his ruling that they're likely to succeed, so unfortunately this is a signal that the judge is more likely to rule for the banks here then against them. His most recent ruling is below, though he spends most of it being pissed of that the case was sent back to him, and only about a page on the actual merits of the injunction.

    https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2024/05/US_DIS_TXND_4_24cv213_d230938971e185_OPINION_ORDER_Before_the_Court_is_Plaintiffs_Motio.pdf

  • Judge blocks Biden administration rule capping credit card late fees at $8
  • The legal standard for an injunction also includes a "likelihood of success on the merits." The judge agrees with the banks in his ruling that they are likely to succeed on the case. So unfortunately the injunction is a signal there is a good chance he rules in the banks favor ultimately. Though he spends a bunch of the ruling just talking about how he's mad this case was kicked back to him. He only spends like a page talking about if the legal standard for injunction has been met or not.

    https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2024/05/US_DIS_TXND_4_24cv213_d230938971e185_OPINION_ORDER_Before_the_Court_is_Plaintiffs_Motio.pdf

  • Unforgivable
  • It's a little weird, here's an article that would describe the process of making some if you're curious:

    https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-make-easy-homemade-jelly-basic-jelly

    I prefer jam in general, but a lot of people find this stuff easier to spread on a pb&j sandwich (like softer untoasted bread) or other uses where a thick texture would make jam more difficult to use but they still want the fruit goo (like filling a pastry with maybe). Usually we would use the word jam to mean like a chunkier fruit preserve, and jelly specifically refers to this stuff.

  • Judge blocks Biden administration rule capping credit card late fees at $8
  • Infuriating thing was, this judge was clearly shopped for, but he kicked the case to the DC district Court instead of Texas. He himself even accused the banks of venue shopping in the ruling when he did so! Unfortunately the DC district court sent it right back and said he still had to take the case. He should have recused himself at that pont anyways given his stock holdings and things, but he now decides to reward the the banks for their venue shopping he's clearly aware of. Judiciary is rotten.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-judge-moves-fee-case-232103686.html

  • “Out of control”: Legal experts call for recusal, reform over Stop the Steal symbol at Alito home
  • The bill went along party lines out of committee, 11 Democrats in favor 10 Republicans against.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/senate-panel-set-vote-us-supreme-court-ethics-reform-2023-07-20/

    Dead due on arrival though, due to unanimous republican opposition in both the senate and house (controlled by Republicans). Even if you wanted to argue for Democrats overturning the filibuster or something, it still wouldn't solve the issue of the house. Anyways the point is, republicans are far more of a problem for judicial reform than your "moderate dems."

  • Engine Bursts Into Flames on Boeing Plane With 468 Aboard
  • There's about 100,000 flights a day in the world. Until very recently Boeing was the largest provider of commercial aircraft, and it's still second largest next to airbus. It's basically a duopoly with those two manufacturers providing the vast majority of planes. Even with the small rate of accidents, with so many flights every day involving Boeing planes there's going to be a few.

    Editors know anything relating to an airline accident and Boeing right now will get lots of clicks, they just throw that it's a Boeing aircraft in the headline, then bury relevant facts indicating there's really no way this could have anything to do with Boeing quality control in the article. And many of these are about events that happen from time to time anyways but wouldn't normally make any sort of splash in the international news media, so suddenly it feels like you're being bombarded with Boeing news. If the headline writer put GE or Rolls Royce airplane engine fire due to likely accidental bird collision, or Garuda Indonesia airline repair standards are subpar or something, it wouldn't get any clicks.

  • Locked Removed
    Results of new NYT poll being called into question
  • People really need to take these polls seriously, and some misunderstanding of the win probabilities really contributed to everyone's shock in 2016 and I think their disbelief in current polls.

    A 70% chance based on the summation of multiple polls per five thirty eight was Hillary's chance of winning. Considering the end result was an extremely slim electoral college victory only for Trump, that's pretty reasonable. I think the problem here is just a misunderstanding of 70% probability, a lot of people thought that implies something way more sure than it actually does. That's just a slight favoring of Clinton, closer to a 50/50 chance than a sure thing. A 30% chance is like saying, I'm going to get at least three heads when flipping a coin four times. Or pretty close to getting a pair on the flop in poker. It's really not that unlikely, happens all the time.

    It was the NY times upshot trying to copy five thirty eight that had some really bizarre math creating numbers way up in the high 90s of percent that clearly couldn't be right and especially didn't help with the false confidence.

    It also doesn't help that those win probabilities often get mentioned in the same breath as polling numbers. 70% in a poll is an insane advantage that would translate to a basically 100% win probability, while a 70% win probability is just a slight edge. I think some people that see those numbers close together can't help but unconsciously conflate them.

    Another important thing to consider is when polling errors happen, they tend to be correlated with each other, not independent. And it just so happened that the polls across multiple upper Midwest states were consistently underestimating Trump's support. Not to mention a bunch of last minute news events that took place after many of the last polls that could have moved them.

    Anyways, it still would be much better to be up in battleground polls than down. We shouldn't be complacent when there's in actuality only a slight advantage, and we definitely shouldn't be complacent when we're down. These numbers should be a cause for major concern.

  • BSE: 'Mad cow disease' case found on farm in Scotland
  • What I mean is even now these sporadic cases happen every once in a rare while and always will as long as beef is farmed. It is impossible for cases to go to 0 anywhere because very rarely a cow can spontaneously develop prions. Like the last case in the UK detected two years ago didn't result in massive culls and restrictions and things. A prion case in a cow was found in the US just last year as another example.

    The 90s were a bit different because it was very widespread due to feeding of animals to other animals, and it was hard to track exactly how far it would have got. Same for humans, most human prion disease is extremely rare and sporadic, but if humans start consuming each other it can become common. In humans the sporadic form is called CJD (creutzfeld jakub disease), the kind believed to be transmitted by cows is called variant CJD, and there was a kind that developed due to a funerary cannabilism practice in a certain tribe in papau new Guinea called Kuru. Because of the cannibalism practices it was able to become very common, similar to what happened in cows when they were fed waste products from other cows.

  • Country music
  • Do they not use the word country as a synonym for rural? I checked the Cambridge dictionary, it's their second definition listed, even higher than where that definition is listed in Merriam Webster. It's like complaining rock music is made with guitars instead of boulders. Does he also think that country is like the only genre of music made in America? Though some country singers do like to put a lot of nationalism in their music which does kind of confuse things.

    I'm a firm mayo by itself as a sauce hater though so I'm with him there. Even more abominable are the jello (or jelly for those in the UK) "salads." It's not a salad!

  • BSE: 'Mad cow disease' case found on farm in Scotland
  • This probably won't affect beef prices. Rare isolated cases of prion disease in cows happen and can develop spontaneously. The epidemic resulted when the remains of cows/sheep with it were fed to other cows allowing it to propogate.

    The surveillance systems that are used to make sure cases don't get into the human food supply though do cost something and contribute some to beef prices, but those systems are always going on, so no change.

    Bird flu on the other hand is super contagious and spreads like wildfire, especially in factory farming conditions, resulting in the need for culls of large amounts of birds, that can very quickly affect prices.

  • Biden administration is sending $1 billion more in weapons, ammo to Israel, congressional aides say
  • Not exactly. In the cases you're referring to Biden wasn't bypassing congress to give tax dollars to Israel (presidents can't just allocate money willy nilly, congress does that). He bypassed them to approve a sale of weapons to Isreal (Israel spending their money to buy American arms). Usually arms sales also get submitted to congress so they can review them beforehand but currently the president can bypass that. And yeah it's doubtful congress would have stopped it, they would have needed to pass a law restricting the sale to do so.

    What the current article is describing is US tax dollars going to Israel, since congress has now allocated funding to buy Israel weapons. It also mentions some republican lawmakers are still so enraged the large bombs are being held back, that they're attempting to create laws to prevent him from withholding any further weapons in the future. Unlikely to pass with democratic control of the senate though, and Biden has said he would veto it if it did.

  • Raw milk fans plan to drink up as experts warn of high levels of H5N1 virus
  • We have made H5N1 avian flu vaccines many times before. We have one developed as recently as 2020 that's been approved by the FDA for use in humans, not sure how great it is against the current incarnation though. Flu is quite good at evading vaccines, hence the need for frequent updates.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H5N1_vaccine

    The US government funds vaccine development for viruses that might become a problem at some point. There's also work into expanding rna vaccine technology, which can allow for very quick updates as viruses change. We need way more work and funding on pandemic prep and surveillance. We've all seen how devestating a global pandemic can be. Even if the vast majority developed never end up needing use, one of them may save millions of lives.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccine-makers-are-preparing-for-bird-flu/

    Anyways, if an H5N1 pandemic started tomorrow, there's a vaccine that would probably be helpful already made. Would need to be scaled up massively in production of course though.

  • Raw milk fans plan to drink up as experts warn of high levels of H5N1 virus
  • The spectrum of human thought is astounding some times.

    On the one hand you have people adamant that viruses don't even exist against all rational thought, reason, the almost daily experience of their existence, and over a hundred years of scientific research around the world learning more about them in detail and cataloguing at least 15,000 distinct species.

    While simultaneously you have people who know so much that they can manipulate viruses into becoming our own little machines to deliver working copies of genes straight into particular types of cells in someone's body and treat their deadly genetic illness with gene therapy.

  • What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign

    Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/09/trump-oil-industry-campaign-money/

    https://archive.is/BquYY

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    Wisconsin Ethics Commission alleges illegal scheme by Trump fundraising committee and Rep. Janel Brandtjen
    www.jsonline.com Wisconsin Ethics Commission alleges illegal scheme by Trump fundraising committee and Rep. Janel Brandtjen

    The commission referred allegations to prosecutors against the Trump PAC, Rep Janel Brandtjen and others.

    Wisconsin Ethics Commission alleges illegal scheme by Trump fundraising committee and Rep. Janel Brandtjen

    A state oversight panel is recommending Wisconsin prosecutors pursue a slate of felony charges against a fundraising committee for Donald Trump and a Republican state lawmaker in a scheme to evade campaign finance laws surrounding an effort to unseat one of the most powerful Republicans in Wisconsin, Trump foe Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

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    Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power.
    www.washingtonpost.com Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power.

    President Trump’s unprecedented use of pardon power to benefit political and financial backers is paying dividends as he seeks to return to the White House.

    Never before had a president used his constitutional clemency powers to free or forgive so many people who could be useful to his future political efforts. A Washington Post review of Trump’s 238 clemency orders found that dozens of recipients, including Arpaio, have gone on to plug his 2024 candidacy through social media and national interviews, contribute money to his front-running bid for the Republican nomination or disseminate his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

    Ghost archive link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/IHZj1

    10
    U.S. stops helping Big Tech spot foreign meddling amid GOP legal threats
    www.washingtonpost.com U.S. stops helping Big Tech spot foreign meddling amid GOP legal threats

    The federal government has stopped warning Meta about foreign influence campaigns amid a legal campaign against the Biden administration’s communication with tech firms.

    U.S. stops helping Big Tech spot foreign meddling amid GOP legal threats

    The federal government is no longer warning Meta about foreign influence campaigns, a shift that comes amid a legal campaign against the Biden administration’s communication with tech platforms.

    Archive link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/4ejOM

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    US Government Releases New National Climate Assesment With Atlas
    atlas.globalchange.gov National Climate Assessment Interactive Atlas

    The Interactive Atlas of the 5th National Climate Assessment of the United States provides maps, data, and stories from the 5th Assessment.

    National Climate Assessment Interactive Atlas

    This report is required by law every four years. The previous report was buried by the Trump administration. This time around Biden admin going to great lengths to publicize the report, including the creation of an Atlas allowing Americans to see how climate change is expected to affect their local area.

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    How the Biden administration tried to slow Israel’s invasion of Gaza
    www.washingtonpost.com How the Biden administration tried to slow Israel’s invasion of Gaza

    In the days after the Hamas invasion, the White House deployed the president’s top diplomats and military advisers in a frantic, prolonged mission to stave of a worst-case scenario of a wider Middle East conflict.

    How the Biden administration tried to slow Israel’s invasion of Gaza
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    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)RA
    Ranvier @sopuli.xyz
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