tardigrada @ tardigrada @beehaw.org

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3 yr. ago

'Kamala-mania' also catching on in Europe among U.S. voters living overseas

The US government's Federal Voting Assistance Program estimates there are 2.8 million Americans living overseas who are eligible to vote in federal elections. In 2016, according to the program's calculations, only 6.9% of them did so.

Democrats hope they're now seeing some of that untapped potential activated. DA [Democrats Abroad] said registrations to vote outside the US via the Federal Post Card Application have quintupled in the first three days of this week, rising to more than 3,000, compared with the same period last week. This process registers voters of either party, but DA said the number of its new members also tripled from Monday to Wednesday.

And similar to what Democratic fundraisers have seen in the US, Porter said money from Americans — foreign citizens are not allowed to donate to US election campaigns — is also pouring into DA. "We do get donations regularly, but this is off the charts," she said.

That's a good question non of the articles I found on the web is answering. But Ms. Wexton spoke to the Time magazine also using the device, and the magazine says:

During the interview at her dining room table in Leesburg, Virginia, the congresswoman typed out her thoughts, used a stylus to move the text around, hit play and then the AI program put that text into Wexton’s voice. It's a lengthy process, so the AP provided Wexton with a few questions ahead of the interview to give the congresswoman time to type her answers.

Source: A Neurological Disorder Stole Her Voice. Jennifer Wexton Took It Back With AI on the House Floor

[Edit typo.]

Yeah, but it could get better, according to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell: "Trump is going to have to get used to hearing Harris’ prosecutor record"

Here is a video (17 min): https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=5JbXbqe5t_w

Labour rights, privacy rights, antitrust enforcement, cooyrights, DRM, maybe more.

I'd just argue that it's hard to say that this law is more or less important than that law, because it will depend on who you are. If you're a tech worker you'd likely be focused on labour rights, if you're an author it might be copyrights, for example. So we should protect all whose rights are violated.

The Global Times, a Communist Party-backed media outlet, cited Chinese experts who called Harris’s performance in the White House “mediocre” and claimed she lacked the “experience and achievements to serve as president.”

Another state-run outlet highlighted Donald Trump’s campaign trail claim Harris would be “easier to beat” than the sitting president.

Why can't we have all of it?

Kenya spends USD 1 billion in a year to repay Chinese loans, burdening taxpayers --- (archived version)

[...] cash sent to Beijing [by Kenya] comprised nearly 100.47 billion KES (703 million USD) in principal sums that fell due, and 52.22 billion KES (365.54 million USD) in interest ]...]

The total amount paid represents a 42.14 per cent jump in the previous year, ending June 2023 [...]

[According to research lab] AidData, "The terms of Beijing's loan deals with developing countries are usually secretive and require borrowing from nations such as Kenya to prioritise repayment of Chinese state-owned banks ahead of other creditors." [...]

Tankies do like to pretend that they don't support fascism, but they really just ignore it and enjoy their brunches. Forced labour and other human rights violations in autocracies don't effect them personally, therefore it doesn't exist at all.

Sounds like whataboutism tankies do to users here on Lemmy.

A Brief History of Trump and Violence --- (archived)

This is the candidate who presided over Nuremberg-styled rallies in 2016, during which he encouraged his supporters to chant that Hillary Clinton should be locked up—and then didn’t push back when some advisers and supporters took the next step and urged that she be executed.

This is a man who said there were “very fine people” among the neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville in 2017.

This is the political leader who mused about finding ways to shoot would-be immigrants in the legs, or feed them to alligators, as they tried to cross the southern border into the United States.

This is a person who tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” in response to protests against the killing of George Floyd.

This is a demagogue who, for political advantage, at the height of the pandemic, whipped up angry mobs against public health officers and then refused to condemn those mobs, when they picketed officials’ homes and workplaces, often heavily armed, frequently with exhortations to hang the medics for their advice on social distancing, on closing schools and businesses, or on mask and vaccine mandates [...]

This is a man who refused to call off the dogs when, on January 6, 2021, participants in an insurrectionary riot that he had inspired tried to hunt down the speaker of the House, the vice president of the United States, and miscellaneous other figures.

This is a felonious candidate who, along with his sons, openly mocked the Pelosi family when Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was seriously injured by a hammer-wielding would-be assassin who tried to beat his brains in, and took to social media to spread baseless rumors that Paul Pelosi had been attacked by his gay lover [...]

This is a candidate who has called for the execution of former chief of staff Mark Milley [...]

Political violence ought to have absolutely no place in how democracies allocate power and influence. That goes not just for the violence unleashed by would-be assassins but also for the more casual, background, daily violence that Trump has, since he first announced his candidacy in 2015, normalized among his supporters.

Trump Rally Gunman Was ‘Definitely Conservative,’ classmates recall --- (Archived)

Why Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate Donald Trump is a mystery to investigators and his ex-classmates [...]

[Former classmate] Max R. Smith recalled taking an American history course with Crooks as a sophomore. He did recall Crooks making political statements — but they shed no light on his actions Saturday.

“He definitely was conservative,” he said. “It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.”

Smith recalled a mock debate in which their history professor posed government policy questions and asked students to stand on one side of the classroom or the other to signal their support or opposition for a given proposal.

“The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”

There is a comprehensive report from 2022 by Safeguard Defenders (mentioned in the article):

Chinese offical corroborates 110 Overseas findings (here is the pdf)

And a folliw-up on Chinese Overseas Police Service Centers in 53 countries around the world (here is the report as pdf)

Just a reminder:

Rights expert finds ‘reasonable grounds’ genocide is being committed in Gaza --- (March 2024)

“Specifically, Israel has committed three acts of genocide with the requisite intent: causing seriously serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group,” she [Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories] said.

Furthermore, “the genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians,” she continued.

For over 76 years, this process has oppressed the Palestinians as a people in every way imaginable, crushing their inalienable right to self-determination demographically, economically, territorially, culturally and politically.”

[...]

"I implore Member States to abide by their obligations which start with imposing an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel, and so ensure that the future does not continue to repeat itself,” she concluded [...]

What's irritating are the reactions by both the company and the authorities. Imagine you're in China and your child or some family member gets hit by car, and then the car company says it was only a 'mild' collision because they had been jaywalking, and the officials add that you should not spread 'rumors'.

They seem to go ahead with more licenses for such cars -if I understand the article correct- as if people's lives don't matter. That represents the worst of neoliberalism within an authoritarian system.

A question, please, as I'm not a legal expert: The Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

The IRS says:

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

I don't understand that. How is this possible?

[Edit typo.]

Interesting take by Timothy Snyder:

Fascism and Fear (here is the original Substack link, here the archived version)

One source of the negative energy is Trump’s fascism [...] the threat and use of violence; and [...] the big lie that must be accepted and used to reshape reality.

[...] it is the official big lie and the threats of violence that are dangerous to those whose job is to report truth. Trump is on the record as regarding reports as enemies of the people. What should I make — a journalist might ask — of Trump’s talk of arresting journalists? When not confronted, such questions become self-realizing fears.

[...] The Biden administration is being held to standards, while the previous Trump administration is not; and Biden personally is being held to standards, while Trump as a person is not. This helps to generate a fascist aura. There must be something special about Trump such that he is different from others: a Leader beyond criticism rather than just an indebted hack or a felon from Queens or a client of a Russian dictator.

It should seem odd that media calls to step down were not first directed to Trump. If we are calling for Biden to step aside because someone must stop Trump from bringing down the republic, then surely it would have made more sense to first call for Trump to step aside? (The Philadelphia Inquirer did). I know the counter-arguments: his people wouldn’t have cared, and he wouldn’t have listened. The first misses an important point. There are quite a few Americans who have not made up their minds. The second amounts to obeying in advance. If you accept that a fascist is beyond your reach, you have normalized your submission [...]

I haven't read this article as the statement is simply wrong. AI is just a technology. What it does (and doesn't) depends on how it is used, and this in turn depends on human decision making.

What Google does here is -once again- denying responsibilty. If I'd be using a tool that says you should put glue on your pizza, then it's me who is responsible, not the tool. It's not the weapon that kilks, it's the human being who pulls the trigger.

Ranking Member Joe Morelle to Introduce Constitutional Amendment Reversing Supreme Court’s Immunity Decision

[...] Rep. Joe Morelle (NY-25), top Democrat of the Committee on House Administration, began the process of introducing a constitutional amendment to reverse the catastrophic harms of the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States days before Independence Day.

“I will introduce a constitutional amendment to reverse SCOTUS’ harmful immunity decision and ensure that no president is above the law. This amendment will do what SCOTUS failed to do – prioritize our democracy,” said Rep. Morelle. “The former president must be held accountable for his decisions. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and stand with me on the front line to protect our democracy.”

Earlier today, Rep. Morelle issued a statement declaring, in part: “With no basis in precedent, with no understanding of our origins in history, and with no fidelity to the Constitution, the extremists on the Supreme Court have decided that former President Trump is above the law.”

Just stumbled upon this (it's a podcast, 7 min, contains some explicit language).

I apologize for losing my shit here

I just spent 7 minutes losing my shit. I apologize, but No regrets. Because they're doing it again. Trump & his sycophants are spreading lies, attacking our democracy and inciting violence again. On purpose. They are traitors. We must defeat them.

Yeah, I was wondering the same, but didn't want to edit the original title. Maybe there are some details that are new, I don't know. What the CCP has been doing for a long time now is a shame.