ShittyBeatlesFCPres @ ShittyBeatlesFCPres @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

Once it’s all tallied, something like $100 million will be spent on a single state’s judicial election. That is insane. Ten million would have been insane just a decade ago.

I imagine that’s why things are close. A lot of voters are being bombarded with (mis)information. The people who are undecided probably have no idea what’s true or false.

My theory is that for-profit social media companies push conflict and controversy because it increases “engagement.” So, people are conditioned to be hostile and hiss like a cat at the first sign of disagreement (real or imagined). Lemmy, obviously, has different incentives.

It’s happening on Mastodon and BlueSky too. I try to respond with kindness and sincerity. (I don’t always succeed. I kind of suck at it, to be honest. But if we all even can halfass human decency, it’ll be better than most of the internet.)

I think long term, the changes in scientific research will be the big story. They made it so grants can only request something like 15% of facilities funding. Some universities can eat the cost of a lab but 95% can’t. So, it’s going to destroy any sort of research that’s mostly done in labs.

To give a hypothetical example, you could imagine a novel battery chemistry that really only needs a few humans to run the experiments but an expensive lab to just run the battery through 10,000 charge/discharge cycles to see if it degrades. That research probably won’t be done in the United States.

The executive order allows wavers so maybe it won’t be batteries — Elon Musk needs those — but a lot of basic science research will be done in Europe, Canada, China, etc. who are more than happy to accept brilliant scientists and fund their research. It’s basically pocket change in the context of a national budget and the payoffs are potentially huge.

For international readers or Americans unfamiliar, Wisconsin has a state Supreme Court vote. It’s probably 50/50 and is the important one. Florida has 2 special elections for vacated House of Representative seats in Congress. The districts both voted heavily for Trump so the Republican candidate should win.

So, in Florida, don’t necessarily expect the Democrats to win. But if it’s even close, Republicans will be filling some diapers. They should be winning these districts by 20 or 30 points. Winning with 53% or whatever would be a really bad result for Republicans.

We’re aware. People who get all their news from Fox or ignore politics in general probably aren’t but even my conservative family members are embarrassed about the threats to Canada and Greenland. Canadians are generally considered super nice and polite by Americans so pissing them off crossed a line. Even apolitical people probably know the U.S. National Anthem is being booed at sporting events.

There’s elections in several states today that will provide some data to know more. Louisiana had an election on Saturday and rejected 4 constitutional amendments supported by Republicans. None even got 40%. Louisiana is an oddball state so I’m not sure it’s a harbinger of today’s elections but if voters in Wisconsin and elsewhere vote like Louisiana, it’ll be very telling.

If anyone really wanted to find government waste, fraud, and abuse, they’d be looking at state and local governments. Federal employees are usually underpaid, if anything, and could make more in the private sector.

The highest paid government employees in basically every state are college sports coaches — who are typically actually paid by foundations funded by insane fans — and 4 cops who somehow clocked more overtime hours than is physically possible without a gravity well and a deep understanding of general relativity.

I have a friend who insists he can defeat any animal in a fight as long as he has enough size advantage and lay on the animal and pin it down. He has apparently never seen a cat, much less a chimp.

Do they have volunteer positions in Antarctica? I’ll clean the beakers and be nice to penguins.

I think we should deport me to the Amalfi Coast or the Cayman Islands. I’m a snake handler who works with voodoo priestesses. I’ll convert to Judaism if they’re willing to deport me to a tropical paradise where all news and social media sites are inaccessible except one day a week.

They should import some Louisiana alligators to deal with the rat problem. When the alligators become an invasive species, add Alligator Sauce Piquante to the menu. Problem solved.

Germany winning 7-1. I was a neutral but kind of rooting for Brazil just to see a fun match and home fans celebrating. It’s always more fun when a team wins at home. And then minutes later. I thought “Oh no. Namar is out and Germany is the country least likely to hold back.” Brazil players looked dejected. Anyone with empathy felt for them.

Maybe I’m a bit contrarian, which grows old but I try to balance it with sincerity and light jokes. I don’t have any particular agenda when posting on Internet forums, to be honest.

You do you as well. I would nominate “Meh, you do you.” as the Fediverse slogan if I had such powers.

Yes. And they didn’t stop. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_v_Germany_(2014_FIFA_World_Cup)

It was mean spirited.

I feel like I’m doing ok. I want the Fediverse to happen and I imagine I have way more likes than dislikes. (I don’t know how to check.)

Sometimes, jokes don’t hit. Life has upvotes and downvotes and I accept both with the zeal of a competitor.

Braaaaiiiinnns. And a 16 piece family deal, spicy, with a side of red beans, mashed potatoes, and extra biscuits.

With this kind of speed, we could invent Call of Duty games where the Zombies want slightly more than brains. Generative A.I. uses internet data for training so at first, the zombies will probably request Doja Kat in the racial chat rooms showing feet but human progress marches ever forward. Within a decade, Zombies might just want to get drunk and go to Popeyes.

I feel like this is a good idea but I also saw what Germany did to Brazil in that World Cup and there needs to be a plan for them going too far and hurting people just for living.

The meanest concept in Louisiana culture is “We will not buy your ingredients because you failed.” I’m within walking distance of 4 places that cook swamp animals. Mostly with sherry. But that’s not important. The important thing is that if ~65% of Louisianans can vote antagonistically, Wisconsinites should be able to as well.

I won’t root for the Vikings but try me.

I had a good time in Wisconsin the 2 times I’ve been there but if y’all buy this shit after Louisiana just rejected all the amendments the governor proposed as a solid “fuck you,” you don’t get anymore beer. And we will escalate based on cheeses and how important they are to recipes.

I don’t know anything about the tournament but I saw a photo of all 4 people in his group holding the same sized trophy and at least one was a former PGA player. I would bet they played best ball and just took the pro’s shot every time. Maybe one of the other three got lucky and hit a putt or a par 3 green or something while every other “best ball” was the professional golfer’s shot.