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Cake day: September 3rd, 2023

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  • TotesIllegit@lemmy.worldtoWorld News@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    22 days ago

    To add to this: taking territory is the easy part.

    The hard part is holding it, because you don’t just have to worry about staffing the front line, but maintaining security in the occupied regions long enough for non-state actors to cease hostilities and accept the invading force as the new legitimate authority- which may never fully occur- all the while dealing with resistance fighters.

    This means orders of magnitude more personnel, funding, and equipment for an unknowable length of time across a much larger area than just the line of incursion.

    It’s taken them two years to fail to take the land, and now have an incursion into their own soil to contend with. so I’m skeptical they’d manage to keep it permanently.







  • USPS is self-funded through postage and other services they provide. They did receive $50 billion from an emergency funding bill back in '22, but that also removed a hefty, arbitrary load: back in 2006, legislation was passed that forced the USPS into pre-fund retirement plans for the next 75 years. The emergency funding bill lifted that requirement and gave emergency funding to the USPS under the condition that the USPS adopt changes listed in the bill to further address funding shortfalls and become solvent again.

    The people paying for USPS windshield replacements are effectively paying customers, much like how toll roads are supposed to fund their own upkeep by charging for its use.



  • Tbf, they sold the Steam Controller for a while, and eventually dropped the price to $5 just to clean out the rest of their stock- and that was the end of a product line instead of the older, cheaper version of a current product.

    Alternatively, they may have realized that some people who want the Steam Deck but cannot afford it justify the OLED model as their first handheld PC would most likely go to a competitors’ product instead, or write off handheld PCs as unattainable due to cost.

    For my part, I was on the fence about the LCD model when it came out because I didn’t think I’d have enough use case scenarios to justify the initial cost, and only after someone I know upgraded to the OLED and gifted me their old LCD model did I actually find out what I was missing out on. Now that I’ve had one for the better part of a year, I can say that the LCD model works for my needs.

    If I had any complaints, it’s that the touchpad is too low in its position and too square for me to comfortably use for FPS games, and the select & start buttons are placed in such a way that I have to reach my thumb over their respective analog sticks just to reach, which feels awkward sometimes; I feel that the touchpad and analog stick positions should’ve been swapped- though iirc the OLED has the same form factor, so it’s not an issue exclusive to the LCD model. I’m also coming from the perspective of a Steam Controller fan, too, which to me is nearly perfect as a controller. (I only wish the left pad was just a dedicated d-pad, better analog emulation when using keyboard inputs, and as many back paddles as the Steam Deck.)






  • “Don’t make perfect the enemy of good” essentially says that it’s better to do what you can in the short term to reduce harm or make positive change than to wait for the perfect solution and do nothing in the meantime. The idea is that the good is still going to help some people while we wait for the perfect solution to the problem- which, crucially, may never come, or come too late for a whole bunch of people.

    One example would be letting a parent having their kid eat fast food instead of a perfectly healthy diet because their parents live in a food desert; not ideal, but it’ll keep the kid fed and alive.




  • Even if he’s only removed from the ballots in blue states, it’ll have an effect on an downballot elections in those states. The base of the Republican party is still very deep into trumpism; and they’re more likely to vote at all if their guy is on the ballot. If he’s not, they may refuse to participate at all, which could potentially swing local races or otherwise make them competitive rather than safe positions.

    On the national scale, if a congressional district is already competitive and those otherwise reliable Republican voters don’t show up, it could give the democratic nominees for those districts an edge- assuming “keep Trump from getting back into the White House” isn’t the only motivation energizing the Democratic party’s base.

    The Republican party’s majority was already thin after the midterms, and the gap has been narrowing due to party infighting; on top of that, they barely won back the house during a midterm election without securing the Senate during the election cycle that is most advantageous to the minority party (since a ton of voters only vote during presidential elections).

    The more states that ban Trump from the ballot, the more likely it is that the discouragement felt by the Republican party’s base- particularly the Trumpist faction- leads to a number of them no longer feeling energized to vote, which may lead to progressive and centrist Democratic wins in competitive districts up and down the ballots, which may affect local or state politics enough to affect policy in a way that less more toward the progressive side of things- again, provided that the Democratic party doesn’t rely too heavily on “we’re not Trumpists” and find themselves going against Haley instead of Trump without a cohesive plan.

    Tl;dr: Trump missing from the ballot in only blue states could still significantly affect downballot elections and initiatives, and give the Democratic party an edge in their efforts to take back the house and solidify their hold on the Senate- provided the Dems work on their messaging, energize their base, and win over independents.