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[Duuvian]

I heard about a week ago there may possibly be a big political announcement sometime today; something I may possibly be interested in supporting locally, for a time. Not like liberals are getting the rural county I live in anytime soon, and I too go out to mingle with and befriend the people of the area in less pandemic-y times.

[None]

You, uh, want to clarify that at all? The liberals are coming?

[Duuvian]

Lol no I had heard quite the opposite about a week ago. Anti-Trumper Republicans were supposed to make some sort of announcement the day after Liz Cheney was removed from leadership, but I guess they chickened out. I had hoped it was a plan to form a coalition to defeat the Cheatos or however that deserved disparagement is spelled. That's something I could support despite my many political differences due to my area of residence being firmly controlled by conservatives. Thus I would be willing to support an anti-Trump coalition for a while as to me it would be more like supporting democracy against an authoritarian movement. My (large traditionally Catholic) family used to lean conservative, now there are only a few cousins and a couple uncles who do, and they all DESPISE the orange demagogue.

EDIT: Mispelled Demagogue

[Bumber]

America's least favorite mayor stuffs his face with fast food to discourage encourage vaccinations.

[delphonso]

It's sad that America's Least Favorite Mayor didn't narrow it down enough for me to be sure this was about de Blasio

[da_nang]

In perpetuating the stereotype, the Mississippi legislature proves itself to be incapable of futureproofing its bills. The Mississippi Supreme Court has struck down the latest cannabis ballot initiative as unconstitutional on the basis that it is mathematically impossible for an initiative to satisfy the criteria in order to end up on the ballot.

The people reserve unto themselves the power to propose and enact constitutional amendments by initiative An initiative to amend the Constitution may be proposed by a petition signed over a twelve-month period by qualified electors equal in number to at least twelve percent (12%) of the votes for all candidates for Governor in the last gubernatorial election. The signatures of the qualified electors from any congressional district shall not exceed one-fifth (1/5) of the total number of signatures required to qualify an initiative petition for placement upon the ballot. If an initiative petition contains signatures from a single congressional district which exceed one-fifth (1/5) of the total number of required signatures, the excess number of signatures from that congressional district shall not be considered by the Secretary of State in determining whether the petition qualifies for placement on the ballot.

[sic]

In other words, no congressional district can provide more than 20% towards the number of signatures required. Since 2000, Mississippi has only had four congressional districts. Any ballot initiative that has passed since 2000 can now be challenged as unconstitutional, including Initiative 27 that made Voter ID a requirement.

[Rolan7]

So...  Every ballot initiative is technically impossible because their stupid state constitution is so restrictive it's accidentally impossible to propose initiatives...

So the state's Supreme Court specifically went after the cannabis initiative on those grounds :think:

Constitutional Originalism is downright stupid at the best of times, but they're usually at least a little subtle about the social agendas they're 100% pushing.  Dishonest, manipulative [legislators].

[da_nang]

More precisely, it was the mayor of the city of Madison that went after it.

This was, to my knowledge, the first time the mathematical impossibility was used as an argument. Also, the ruling was less originalist and more textualist. An originalist would probably have ruled in the other direction.

Still, an originalist ruling would have been a monumental example of legislating from the bench. How would you reconcile the massive difference between the letter of the law and the effect of the ruling? It's not like they're correcting a typo.

[Lidku]

Can anyone explain to me why the US, almost always, blocks any motion to discuss the ongoings of the Palestine-Israel crises in the UN all the time?

[voliol]

Can anyone explain to me why the US, almost always, blocks any motion to discuss the ongoings of the Palestine-Israel crises in the UN all the time?

The US is largely pro-Isreal, and if there are serious discussions on the Palestine-Isreal crises then there will be motions against Isreal, which the US is against. Or at least so goes my guess.

[Frumple]

Pretty much. The why of the favor for the nation varies wildly -- a great deal of the support actually comes from outright anti-semites, ferex, who want Israel to exist solely so it can be destroyed -- but pretty staunch support is one of the more bipartisan issues in the US, at this point.

That might be eroding somewhat, but it hasn't actually done so to a meaningful degree, yet.

[MrRoboto75]

It's a money sink for our bloated military budget, so obviously it cannot end.

[bloop_bleep]

but guys isn't isreal super suspicious like why are they making it so showy to mention that the country is real kinda makes me feel like the country isn't real

[Duuvian]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/15/palestinian-death-toll-in-gaza-occupied-west-bank-mounts-live-news

Of interest to me:

7 hours ago (21:35 GMT)
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee: There must be a full accounting for civilian deaths

Spoiler: text (click to show/hide)

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a statement that “Israeli authorities must continue taking the conscientious practice of giving advance warning of its attacks to reduce the risk of harm to the innocent”.

While “Israel has every right to self-defence from terrorists committed to wipe her off the face of the map … there must be a full accounting of actions that have led to civilian deaths and destruction of media outlets,” it said.

7 hours ago (21:48 GMT)
Al-Aqsa Mosque is our ‘red line’: Hamas chief

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hamas chief Ismail Haniya says the group repeatedly warned Israel not to touch Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“We have repeatedly warned the enemy not to touch Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is our qibla, our identity, our belief, and the trigger of our revolutions,” Haniya said in a video conference in Qatar’s capital, Doha, in support of Palestinians.

He said that Al-Aqsa Mosque is the group’s “red line” and it told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to play with fire.

“Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque form the basis of the struggle against Zionism,” he said, and thanked Qatar for helping the Palestinian people.

So while I agree that Israel has a right to defend itself, which seems to be the only position the US administration has taken so far, does it's leader also have the right to, seemingly purposefully and quite possibly with the full knowledge of creating a conflagration, instigate civil conflict at a time when it may extend his time in power and potentially keep him from facing corruption charges? A worrying trend, and a mildly ironic stance for the Biden administration to take on one man's selfish leadership considering Biden's own predecessor.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/15/give-us-10-minutes-how-israel-bombed-gaza-media-tower

The following is a bit of an old link I think, also a small warning that while it's https, the images are flagged as potentially unsecure (likely due to being an older article; on that note things are likely to have changed in some ways since then and I'd welcome clarifications on that on how this could be justified)

https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/protection-journalists

Spoiler: Conclusion (click to show/hide)

It follows from the above that journalists and their equipment enjoy immunity, the former as civilians, the latter as a result of the general protection that international humanitarian law grants to civilian objects. However, this immunity is not absolute. Journalists are protected only as long as they do not take a direct part in the hostilities. News media, even when used for propaganda purposes, enjoy immunity from attacks, except when they are used for military purposes or to incite war crimes, genocide or acts of violence. However, even when an attack on news media may be justified for such reasons, every feasible precaution must be taken to avoid, or at least limit, loss of human life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects. [...]

Hamas are butts for defying humanitarian protections, as it would be unfair to not recognize this too. It's not all about the Benjamin.

I think it may take parallel elections with candidates who run on working together towards an agreement that perhaps neither side loves but may tolerate in the interest of not being compelled to lifelong enmity or at least, occasional violence towards one another; and publics willing to support such a push should the opportunity come.

[Iduno]

A lot of the issue is, Palestinians have been fighting against genocide and apartheid for 70 years. Few if any Palestinians living today remember any time that Israel wasn't warcriming them. When you're in a fight for survival, a peaceful version of status quo is just you being killed slower, and is unacceptable. They've agreed to peace before, and got nothing out of it. They've also learned that as long as the US and other right-wing regimes are on the UN security council, they will never be able to trust help from the UN. At this point, it would be literal suicide for them to accept they're being offered. Hamas isn't the solution, but neither is allowing Israel to continue killing them off and keeping them as a permanent underclass.

A lot of the issue is the UN Security Council, which is where nations who are more equal than others get to refuse to accept solutions that don't let them profit off the suffering of others. Removing it entirely so the UN is actually able to do what they're supposed to would help.