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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • I would say it’s more like, “Things aren’t as bad as the right would have you believe, and we have actually done a lot to prevent it from being worse.” She didn’t pretend America wasn’t struggling. I remember her talking about the rising costs of groceries frequently, and she advertised the planned first time homeowner tax credit as something intended to make housing more affordable. Trump’s solution was instead deporting a lot of residents working jobs that generated a lot of value relative to their wage, and making pretty much everything more expensive with tarriffs.


  • The president appoints the head of the DoJ and DEA. Just appoint someone who says “I’ll hold the hearing and we’ll have the judgement within the hour”. Instead they appointed someone who scheduled the hearing for after they’ll have been kicked out by Trump’s guy. There is no way to read that as anything but they never intended for it to be rescheduled at all.

    I would consider that corruption. People should be appointed based on competency, not dogmatic loyalty to the person appointing them. Sidestepping the review process would open it up to challenge and set a precedent that would allow it and other drugs to similarly be casually reassigned based on the whims of whoever is in power in the future. It’s also almost certainly illegal, since the process for reassignment was part of the laws passed from Congress. Additionally, Biden first instructed the Attorney General to re-evaluate its scheduling in 2022, so it didn’t just start now. The review process just takes a long time I guess, but it’s fair to assume it hasn’t been a priority.

    Or just not sending them the weapons they’re using to carry out that war.

    If you mean Gaza, that started long before Biden’s presidency, and Hamas instigated the most recent conflict. If you mean Ukraine, that also started before Biden’s presidency, but I would consider leaving the country to conquest from Russia to be abandoning a responsibility to safeguard peaceful nations’ sovereignty. I would compare it to European nations appeasing Hitler by allowing him to conquer Austria and Czechoslovakia without consequences.



  • It’s true that inflation outpaced wages, but this was only for a period following Covid. And while everyone pointed out when inflation pulled away, no one seemed to notice when wages bounced back.

    Tens of millions of deaths globally will inevitably cause supply chain issues, and no amount of fiscal policy will prevent that scarcity. So people have to pay more for the same value. But things also recovered under Biden to more than compensate for that deficit. Here’s the growth rate of inflation and wages over the past four years:

    1000002708


  • Decriminalizing marijuana isn’t something that the president can do through an executive action. Unless Congress does it (which was always unlikely), it requires the Justice Department to propose rescheduling followed by acceptance from the DEA (which is part of the Judiciary). The Biden administration has worked to reschedule it to schedule 3, which would make it legally available with a prescription. The DEA hearing for this was delayed to early 2025 however. It’s also worth noting that Biden pardoned and released thousands of people from federal prison for marijuana possession around a year ago.

    Expecting the US to prevent other countries from going to war would require a level of intervention that could only be called imperialism, if it would even be possible. I would argue doing so would be endorsing oppression in some cases. Peace is an important goal but the price for it can only be so high.

    I feel like the Biden administration actually accomplished a lot over the last 4 years against heavy resistance but no one wants to give them any credit. I was not expecting much but have been impressed whenever I look into things.



  • Yes, technically Mandela was considered a terrorist because he was a member of the ANC, which was labeled as a terrorist group during the cold war after its infrastructure attacks against an apartheid government accidentally killed civilians. I agree this was a mistake and should have been corrected sooner. But this was also a lingering bureaucratic snafu, and doesn’t have anything to do with the Houthis. And for the record, Mandela was welcomed into the white house by Bush and considered a respected ally decades before being delisted.

    The Houthis meanwhile have fired on, captured, and killed crew members of merchant ships belonging to various countries uninvolved with the conflict. They’ve haphazardly fired cruise missiles at Israel that instead land in civilian areas in Egypt. Their slogan translates to “God Is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A curse upon the Jews, Victory to Islam”. Whatever justifications they may give for their actions, they are terrorists.

    I did some more research and I’ll admit the guy may not have been a member of the Houthis. I’m sorry for saying that when it was unconfirmed, but I still wish he would’ve been pressed to give a real yes or no. I didn’t find an explanation for why else he would call himself a Red Sea pirate. But if not, then at least he does support them with content like this and was welcomed onto a ship patrolled by armed guards they had captured for a tour or for content.

    Also, you are misremembering the tone of the interview. Hasan’s fourth question was if the guy had heard of One Piece, followed by Hasan saying that the Houthis were “doing what Luffy would do”. When the guy was talking about their motivation for capturing the ships, Hasan said “Yeah yeah yeah yeah, exactly, no, I’m saying it’s a good thing. I understand.” Hasan asked if he was a Houthi member later, after bringing up anime.



  • The kid described himself as a “Red Sea Pirate” and when asked more about his role, his translator gave us “His answer is, he is a Yemeni who stands with Palestine”. Hasan said he was media-trained, so I would say that’s a rather meaningful evasion. Also worth noting that the Houthis were (and I think still are?) designated as a terrorist group by the US, so I would expect he wouldn’t want to claim membership outright. If nothing else, it could risk a ToS violation for Hasan.

    I’m not saying that he should be demonized. In case I wasn’t clear, I personally think an interview could be valuable if done carefully, but interviews can also be disguised advertisements, and I don’t think Hasan was trying to be neutral in it. It would have been cool to know more about the kid’s personal motivations and goals considering he would probably share them with many others. But I guess part of my critique is that we didn’t get much exploration of that and it seems like a squandered opportunity. Instead it was mostly stuff with little substance that distracts from the possibility of a moral judgement, and it seemed intentional to me.


  • Wow! Hosting terrorists on your stream is so perfect! So is blasting propaganda music with flags saying “death to the jews” on them!

    The “hosting terrorists” part would be referring to the Houthi soldier Yemeni he interviewed on stream. I personally don’t have a problem with having controversial people on for stuff like interviews but the problem was more that Hasan was trying to make him seem more appealing and only giving him soft-balls.

    • The Houthi guy was talking about guarding captured foreign merchant ship crews and making them dance and Hasan was talking about how much fun that must have been.
    • Hasan later cut him off and redirected when he started talking about how the knife on the shelf behind him can’t be sheathed until tasting blood.
    • Hasan ran out of prepared questions pretty quickly so he started asking him about what his favorite anime was and what fast food they had available there. He was just generally trying to make him seem relatable.
    • Someone in chat wanted Hasan to ask about if they would release the hostages if peace or a ceasefire was negotiated and Hasan something like “I’m not asking him that, of course he would”.
    • He later described it as “like talking to Anne Frank”.

    The “blasting propaganda music” refers to him showing a Yemeni propaganda music video on stream to a guest and viewers. The lyrics were mainly about all the weapons and war supplies they wanted, and what they would use them for. It honestly was just bizarre and left everyone confused since there wasn’t really context for showing it.

    I love how people (rightfully) called out Pewdiepie for jokingly paying guys to put “death to jews” on a sign, but when hasan does it unironically its okay

    Not sure if the “Death to Jews” thing is referring to something specific or just that Hamas is very vocally anti-Israel.


  • KombatWombat@lemmy.worldto196@lemmy.blahaj.zoneepic ratio rule
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    16 days ago

    I really suggest people don’t block it. Lemmy needs active users and communities engaging with each other and while it is going to have some crazies just from how many people are on it, it should also be the least vulnerable to group think. When I hear of another instance defederating I always suspect it of being a fringe echo chamber.

    Honestly though I would defend the man too. Take from that what you will, but I’ll just say it’s usually good to be exposed to people who disagree with you.