Had a horrible wait on election day a few years ago; a hateful bigot was polling really close to the (effective, thoughtful, visible-minority) incumbent leading up to the election, and people turned up in droves. Broke records for number of votes cast in a municipal election.
But waiting in line 3+ hours to vote, with 2 preschool kiddos with us? Never again. Never. Again.
Early voting, every time. It’s the way.
Mood.
Very well summarized.
Project 2025 includes a detailed plan about how to dismantle the entire Federal government and replace thousands of government managers with alt-right extremists.
Project 2025 matches most of his campaign promises and is written largely by former Trump administration staffers.
The ultra-wealthy are terrified of reprisal from Trump. And they control the media (Bezos/WP) and social media (Zuck).
Democracy in America may fail next week. Terrifying to watch.
Meanwhile, Steam is raking it in by continuing to offer a better product than piracy. The Steam Deck is making that even more true; it’s so much more convenient to have games in the Steam library than try to keep a repack updated with new patches/content.
Right, but pirating Disney-owned IP is more moral than paying for it. Disney is the number 1 company in the world for lobbying for copyright over-reach. Every dollar that goes to Disney pays for lobbyists who will continue to push for life-of-author + 90+ years, because life-of-author plus 70 years just isn’t enough time to control our shared cultural heritage.
Similarly for Nintendo and software piracy.
Paying for Disney/Nintendo media is immoral.
Putting 2S at the front is part of Truth and Reconciliation, recognizing the intersectionality of being Indigenous and two-spirit and the importance of including Indigenous Knowledge across all systems of power.
With all due respect, decrying their inclusion is racist and continues the perpetuation of colonialist systems of oppression.
I say this coming from a position of immense privilege, as a white, cis male from fairly wealthy and educated non-immigrant parents.
ikr? And they re-elected him!
Nothing, as far as I can tell, but political opponents have been running attack ads and blaming him for everything that’s gone wrong in the local (and global, for that matter) economy for the last decade.
I think he did amazingly well in the Trump presidency threading the needle of not giving in to Trump but also not antagonizing him, so Canada had limited personal vendettas and attacks from Trump.
He’s very articulate and careful with his words, and his pauses to think carefully about wording are seen as a lack of confidence. And, granted, it does make him a less inspiring/exciting/dynamic speaker.
Contrast that with Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Cons, who’s not at all worried about offending minorities and is constantly telling people how Trudeau has ruined everything, is ruining everything, and will ruin everything, for exemple by letting in immigrants, allowing schools to support trans kids (provincially controlled, not in Trudeau’s jurisdiction), and for long medical waiting times (also provincial), etc. Literally everything.
ikr? By buying online, it’s saving them money on staffing, and they want to charge for it? Bullshit.
If anything, they should raise prices and give a discount for buying online to cut down on box-office staffing needs. Customers prefer discounts to fees; everyone knows that. And it lines up with customer expectations that paying more to get more “service” (staff time) is reasonable.
What a stupid plot to alienate your customers.
I worry that age verification will backfire spectacularly; users can just tunnel their traffic through a VPN and then once on a VPN, they would also miss all harmful content blocking. Middle schoolers can figure out how to get around school web filters, and they, and everyone else, will figure their way around age verification just as easily.
Pierre Poilievre is going to do the same in Canada, too. He’s been threatening to defund the CBC (Canada BBC, basically). And our current PM, Trudeau, is reviled by so many Canadians that he’s unelectable, so the Cons are going to cruise to an easy majority next year.
It sucks knowing that the country is going to be in a worse place 5 years from now but being unable to do anything about it. At least the US has a 50-50 shot of coming out okay, if the polls are to be believed. (I’m more optimistic about the actual election results, personally, but very concerned about a coup/civil unrest of some sort.)
Attacks on the press are attacks on democracy, and the Canadian press is crumbling.
Yes. Many people budget the most they can afford in mortgage payments to identify how much to pay for a home. Lower interest rates -> lower mortgage payments per $100K -> more money they can offer for the house -> house prices go up.
Not just “people”, either. Interest rates are the main cost of expanding business activity. Lower interest rates means it’s cheaper to start or expand a business.
Yes. Borrowing $100K just became $500 cheaper for each year the loan is held. With interest compounding over time, this has a much bigger impact the longer the term of the loan (mortgages and business loans are the biggest and longest, generally).
I think the building restrictions parent poster was referring to are density restrictions.
As an example, there are narrow strips of Toronto along major roads that allow skyscrapers, a lot of it a block away from single-family-home zoning. So all the demand for multi-unit housing bursts up in narrow corridors.
If, instead, quad-plexes became universally allowed, and lot height limits were increased to 3 (or 4? idk) stories, then single-family homes could be torn down or renovated to make room for up to 4 families to live comfortably on the same land.
Rosedale shouldn’t exist. Single-family homes a short walk from downtown Toronto is a big part of why people are commuting from Barrie.
West Van is just as bad. Even small towns in desirable areas are seeing density restrictions causing a missing middle in housing.
“CO2 is presently at around 420 ppm, near the lowest level in over 1,000 years.”
One of them is a literal fascist who has publicly stated they will become a dictator. Pretending they’re at all equivalent is lunacy.
I wonder:
It’s a cesspool.
A protest vote does nothing. The system sucks, but with an election this close, a protest vote is a half vote for fascism. Project 2025 makes it very clear that a Republican victory might very well be the end of democracy in the US. Literally—not speaking hyperbolically.
As a non-American, it’s very disturbing to see how few Americans seem to take the rise of fascism in their country seriously. There are so many parallels to the Third Reich it’s deeply unsettling.
It’s also becoming abundantly clear that Russian/Chinese/Iranian interference in elections is pushing for fascism, and their anti-democratic rhetoric, memes, and talking points are being shared widely.
Voting for a third party, with what the Republican Party is saying they’ll do if elected, is voting for fascism being an acceptable outcome.
The fact the polls are in a dead heat is disturbing.
I’m a cis Canadian and I’m terrified for everyone in the US. Even the ignorant masses who viewed for him. Project 2025 is going to dismantle American democracy, and with a stuffed supreme court, there are no remaining impediments to reverse this for a generation, until it’s too entrenched to change. If the USA lasts that long.
Literally wondering if an American civil war, or breaking apart into smaller countries, will be coming.
Longer term, terrified what this will mean for anthropogenic climate change and the world my children will inherit. (A climate-science denier is going to be the PM of Canada this time next year, too, and many are already provincial premiers.)
I didn’t think this was possible, tbh. I don’t understand how 51% of Americans can think the “grab-her-by-the-pussy” con artist is the best choice for president. He’s literally told them, repeatedly, what he’s going to do and they don’t care, don’t pay attention, or don’t believe him. I can’t even.
I’m going to go bury my head in the sand. No more news for me for the next long while. This isn’t good for my health.