Trump: No longer states that we do not support Taiwan independence.

Also Trump: Mulls crippling tariffs because they “stole” the semiconductor industry.

SNIP SNAP.

If it were to happen the way it’s “supposed” to, if Canada were admitted as one state it would instantly become the largest state and gain FIFTY electoral votes, as a state gets the same number as they do Senators and Representatives combined. Again, barring the very shenanigans that would likely be the only way this could happen, those fifty votes would be Democratic-leaning for at least a generation. Alberta and the Prairies combined don’t have many more people than the GTA.

You could mitigate the presidential-electoral hit by letting them in as 13 provinces, but then you’re probably adding 16-18 Dem Senators versus 8-10 Republican. The only real hope is to get the Canadians to vote against their interests and split their Electoral votes when almost no other states (and no other large states at all) do so.

That’s assuming it happens aboveboard, of course, which naturally it wouldn’t, and would instead plunge the entire continent into violent misery if not outright war.

We’re just literally in the phase where Elon is operating Trump as a puppet via his distended asshole to achieve every pet project imaginable. I assume that Ketamine legalization is next, followed by changing the name of the country to the Xnited Xtates of Xmerica.

I didn’t really mean it was ever an explicit position, beyond possibly your Carville strategist types in smoke-filled rooms, but the fact remains that Roe v. Wade was always being chipped away at, in courts and statehouses and law schools, and at several points in the 50 years that it was in effect the Democrats had the power necessary to put up a legislative firewall (see, e.g. Obamacare), but they took no action while reminding voters every election who supported choice. They didn’t even have to lie, but there was always a “better” use of political capital, and nothing was done until it was too late.

Labour is in a somewhat analogous situation, in that they have taken power, and they can blame the hardships of Brexit on Tories, and they know the UK is better off in the EU, but they have other priorities. I am fully aware that they need to be prudent, and maybe repairing relationships is meaningful progress, but this could also be tickmark #1 on a ledger called “Times that Labour could have fixed Brexit but didn’t.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer aims to improve relations but won’t re-enter the single market, as both sides cautiously rebuild ties.

I get that right now feelings are still raw in Europe and the UK would get a shit deal that would probably undo the (imminently sensible) desire to forget Brexit happened, but Labour needs to be careful they don’t follow the US Dems down the same path they took in never codifying abortion. It’s more politically expedient to have a persistent bludgeon to use on the other party than it is to fix the mistake, but eventually there are political consequences either way.

You see, jimmy, sometimes the words ‘tangible,’ ‘fragile,’ and ‘fungible’ love each other very much…

It’s even worse because he thinks he’s charming, so he’s smug and cringe while being old and boring.

I had to look this up. The plane crashed into a concrete barrier that was installed to lift the “localizers,” lightweight radio beacons on sticks that help pilots navigate the airport. Normally they have to be completely “frangible,” meaning that a plane would barrel right through them with no problem.

The issue here was that the ground was a bit low so they had to be raised up high enough to get a proper signal, and these were 10 meters outside the 240 meter safety zone where everything had to be frangible. I assume 240 was chosen for some reason, and I hope to hell it wasn’t just to save money by avoiding a retrofit somewhere, but either way this looks like a classic case of “regulations are written in blood.”

It’s !worldnews@lemmy.world and this happened in the US. Some people find that frustrating, and fair enough. Still, this one… everybody everywhere needs to see about this one. It’s relevant.

I haven’t played with vanilla Debian in forever, but if there’s a good “Software Center” style overlay to the package manager, I bet he could find some good stuff on his own. The “Discover” app in Ubuntu actually categorizes the games by genre. Pingus, Minesweeper clones, Sokoban clones, Poker, Chess, Checkers, Go, Reversi.

For everyone elese who didn’t know, the current “Waka Jumping” law in NZ allows the leader of a political party to demand the resignation of a member of Parliament who leaves their party. Sounds like the Greens are wary of the law in general, so they require an internal 75% vote for their leader to request the ejection.

The ejected member will be replaced via a new election, if they represent a district, or by the next person on the party list if they were from the proportional vote.