Notices by a fish named dog 🎗️ (fishnameddog@mastodon.social)

@aral Well, yes. But presumably that system was designed before Erdogan.

Question, since I assume from the frequency of these postings you follow Turkish politics more than I do: do you know if this autocracy came top-down -- i.e., Erdogan first, then at a more local level -- or bottom-up -- i.e., democracy was already nonexistent or quite weak at the local level and Erdogan reflects that?

@aral Wait, you need a degree to run for president in Turkey? Wouldn't that favor rich people even more than politics already does?

@bruces I'm on windows and using this via Google. I know, I know.

@Gargron Aww, who's a good boy!

@bruces my head hurts.

@aral Honestly I'd say not fascist is the baseline? Like not murdering. That's not a low bar, that's basic humanity. You do not get a cookie for basic humanity.

@dansup I'm sorry for you and your family's loss, and I hope that somehow, in some weird ethereal non-scientifically-shown way, you get to see him again alive.

@Gargron Seriously, Germany. You know what happens when you elect these guys, and you've seen what we've descended into -- they haven't changed. Don't mess this up.

@quinn there's also bad stuff going on in afghanistan, burkina faso, burundi, the central african republic, chad, china, the drc, eritrea, ethiopia, haiti, iran, madagascar, mauritania, myanmar, niger, somalia, south sudan, ukraine, and yemen. some of those are genocides. but also, equally periodic reminder that stuff does not need to be a genocide to be horrific and worthy of being stopped!

@Gargron Happy birthday!

@Mastodon Hooray!

@EricFielding I believe the appropriate response to this is: "*Fuck*, shit's fucked."

@Gargron (except for NaziNProud1488 of course, they are welcome to stay on Threads)

Rest in peace, Jimmy Carter. At least you got to vote for Kamala, and you won't need to see Trump destroy this country you loved so much.

Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024. May his memory be for a blessing.

We'll miss you, Jimmy.

#politics #uspol #carter #jimmycarter #death #us #usa #america #KamalaHarris #president #trump #donaldtrump

@Gargron She's an accomplice in my procrastination, for one thing.

@QasimRashid Fun fact, by the way - I did the analysis once and scaling only for the Swedish population if we adopted Swedish healthcare policies we would not only cut the deficit - the government would run a *surplus* of $15 billion in 2022.
If you want to do the math yourself, all numbers are for 2022. Sources are:
https://measuringworth.com/datasets/exchangeglobal
https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/population/population-composition/population-statistics/pong/tables-and-graphs/population-statistics---summary/population-and-population-changes/
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/2022-population-estimates.html
https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-reports/national-health-expenditure-data/nhe-fact-sheet [only count Medicare & Medicaid spending]
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/national-deficit/#us-deficit-by-year

@_elena bad news: it ended up on explore. It was position #6 when I found it. Sorry.

@Gargron And just so we're clear, Jill Stein is not who to vote for. Jill Stein will not win. Even if you despise Harris, pinch your nose and vote for her, because if you vote Harris you'll be able to vote again in 2028, and on all the issues that matter her stance is closer to correct than Trump's. If you vote Trump you won't necessarily. If you vote Stein...well, in 2016, Russia meddled in favor of Stein, which should tell you enough to know not to vote for her (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/russians-launched-pro-jill-stein-social-media-blitz-help-trump-n951166).

@pavsmith @bontchev it's a bit weird looking at taylor lorenz' post on how bluesky is awful (as i write this at the top of 'explore' on mastodon.social) and then this.

@pavsmith @bontchev https://mastodon.social/@taylorlorenz/113339615131367067 for lorenz's post and also what the hell was that second sentence? genuinely confused.