elbucho @ elbucho @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

That's a bit trickier, though, because SCOTUS already ruled on this, which means that their fucked ruling is now precedent. So any future challenges to a law passed by congress would be interpreted with that precedent in mind. If the composition of the supreme court changes, they could reverse their earlier rulings, but it's much less certain of an outcome than if there was an amendment to the constitution guiding future decisions.

Technically, it's an either / or process. It either needs 2/3rds of both houses, or 2/3rds of state legislatures have to call for a constitutional convention. You are right, however, in that after either hurdle is passed, it still needs to be ratified by 3/4 of the state legislatures in the union. That's where the equal rights amendment is now. It passed both houses, but has not yet met the 3/4 state legislature hurdle, so it's still in the pipeline 81 years after its proposal. Yay government!

I'm a bit skeptical on the first bullet point: while I'm all for an amendment to the US constitution that spells out in detail the limits on presidential authority, it's still an amendment that has to get passed. That means that it needs a 2/3rds majority in both the House and the Senate, or it needs to be supported by 2/3rds of the state legislatures. I don't think there's any way in hell that Biden's going to be able to get that through while the prospect of Trump regaining the presidency is on the horizon. At the moment, 47% of the US Senate is Democrat, with 4% caucusing with the Democrats most of the time, 49% of the US House is Democrat, and 46% of State Governors are Democrat. While it's not 100% certain that all Republicans would vote along party lines, I'm reasonably certain that all Republicans would vote along party lines, which means a constitutional amendment is dead in the water.

Now, if Harris wins the presidency, there's a good chance that the Republicans would be willing to vote for an amendment to curtail presidential authority. But right now? Nuh uh. Not gonna happen. As for the other two bullet points, they're certainly more possible right now than a constitutional amendment, but still unlikely. Dems don't have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and I'm certain that the Republicans would filibuster the shit out of that. Even if that wasn't the case, there's no way it'd pass the House. Best case scenario, Harris wins, with a large majority in both houses, and is able to push some legislation along these lines through.

Edit: changed language from "ratified by 2/3rds of the states" to "supported by 2/3rds of the state legislatures".

Vance hates cat ladies because cats are the natural enemies of couches.

God, imagine living in a retirement community that has a Hot Topic.

Yup. I'm old enough to remember when the selling point of cable TV was that it was ad-free. Then, of course, they started adding ads. And then they sold us premium channels that didn't have ads. Now those have ads, too. You just can't get away from them.

I find it fascinating how media companies evolved their usage of ads over time. Used to be that the purpose of showing someone an ad was to get them to buy your product. Now, though, the companies who make the ads are paying to have them put on media networks who use the ads to annoy you into paying for a premium membership so you don't have to see them. It's double dipping.

Not sure how I would feel if I made an ad, and YouTube was saying to their users: "Yeah, you like that fucking ad? Super annoying, isn't it? If you don't pay me more money, I'm going to cram that annoying bullshit down your throat every time you want to watch a video. I'm going to put ads at the beginning of videos. I'm going to sprinkle them throughout the middle. Hell, I'm even going to make you watch ads after the video ends! You like that, you little bitch??"

Tastes like a campfire.

From Reddit itself, just the large userbase. It meant that even niche interests had lively and active communities.

From Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES): the ability to resize images just by cliking and dragging, the ability to tag users in custom ways so you can tell at a glance if they're someone who past-you thought was an idiot, and endless scrolling.

What I don't miss: everything else. Comparing the two userbases, Reddit is far more right-wing on average than Lemmy is. It's nice not having to deal with so many garbage takes here.

Man, Ivan. You really suck at your job. You must be new here. You're way too obvious about it.

But but but he played a successful businessman on TV! Surely that means that he is a successful businessman in real life, right??

Fuckin' yikes, man. Real edgy 15-year-old energy here.

If Biden had decided to keep running, I can almost guarantee you that enough of the party would have rallied behind him that he'd get the official nod next month. He absolutely could have continued stroking his ego at the expense of the country. Eventually, however, enough people talked him out of it and made him see that he was probably not going to win, and he needed to step aside for the good of the country. Regardless of whether he did so willingly, or kicking and screaming, he made the right choice at the cost of his ego. It seems like a really small thing, but you've got to remember that presidents are, as a rule, huge egomaniacs. You kind of have to be to get into that position in the first place. To an egomaniac, putting anything above their own desires is a big deal.

It's not a particularly flattering picture of him, but he will absolutely be remembered for putting America first.

Which is hilarious, since Biden is old as fuck, and has one of the most stressful jobs in the world. You'd think they'd already have a contingency plan in place in case he kicked the bucket while in office with all of the hate talking points for Harris.

To be fair, though, even with literal brain damage, he's still not the worst candidate on the ballot.

Oh for sure. Don't get me wrong; she's not my ideal president, but she'd still probably be in the top 5 presidents we've ever had. That's not necessarily making a judgment about her without seeing her performance first, it's more of a statement about how bad most US presidents are. Still, I have high hopes for a Harris presidency. I think she'll do a great job. She's just not my #1 draft pick.

Well, you know, if you guys had spent that money talking about how you were going to "make America great again" instead of on slinging mud at Joe Biden, none of it would have been wasted and you'd be ahead of the curve, wouldn't you? Maybe instead of crying like a little bitch, you start figuring out how you're going to sell your miserable agenda to the American people?

Oh, on the contrary. His entire 2016 run was just because he wanted to stick it in Obama's face after Obama humiliated him at that White House correspondents dinner. You can see him sitting there in the audience, just seething. For a raging narcissist, humiliation is one of the worst things in the world.

All, or at least the vast majority, of those people you're talking about are already Trump voters. They're going to continue backing Trump no matter who the Democratic party picks. They saw a black guy get elected president, and that radicalized them. They aren't coming back. Pandering to the imaginary demographic of racists who will surely see the light if we elect the right candidate is simply a losing proposition.

Will there be right wing violence in response to a Harris presidency? Of course there will be. Is there right wing violence now? Of course there is. I understand that you're tired of hearing the "fuck them" replies, but seriously: fuck them. They are a cancer on this nation. Holding back on doing something good just because you're afraid that the fucking awful people you share a country with will do something awful just means that you never make any progress.

I mean, she'll have ample opportunity to expound on that. But prison reform and legalizing marijuana were platforms she ran on in 2019. I haven't seen anything from her that would indicate she's reversed her position since then.