NSA Director Paul Nakasone confirmed such purchases in his letter to Wyden, saying the data collected “may include information associated with electronic devices being used outside - and, in certain cases, inside - the United States.”

  • makeasnek@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    The reason you only get to vote for the “lesser of two evils” is because you don’t participate in primaries (assuming you are talking about the US system here). If MAGA can get a psycho like Trump to be their party nominee, you can get your kind of psycho nominated as well.

    Primaries are where you actually get a chance to express what kind of candidate you want. Hell, you can even run for office! Generals are where you hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils because otherwise it’s an automatic vote for the worst of the two evils.

    I agree voting seems pointless sometimes. But it’s still important. But it’s a lever of power you have access to and nobody can take it away from you no. And you can spend the 364 other days of the year impacting politics in other ways.

    • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      That worked out well for Florida that one time. But you’re missing what gets people nominated to the general primaries, boat loads of money. If you don’t have that, good luck getting anyone you want to win to run. Thoughts and prayers and wishing don’t fund a campaign, but money does.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      The reason you only get to vote for the “lesser of two evils” is because you don’t participate in primaries (assuming you are talking about the US system here)

      Just popping in to remind you they destroyed the Iowa caucus to stop Bernie.

      • makeasnek@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        There was some shady stuff on behalf of the DNC but he legitimately lost. He didn’t get the votes. Because his voters didn’t vote in the primaries. A number of reforms have been made to the primary system since then, a bunch of the people who oversaw that primary got fired, and many states are now moving towards ranked choice voting which will eliminate the need for primaries entirely. If half the people who complain about how voting is useless actually participated in the primary process, our political landscape would look a lot different. I used to be one of those people, I get it, the whole damned thing is a bit of a racket, but it doesn’t change that voting takes 5 minutes and has a concrete impact on who runs the government.

        Edit: And that’s the presidential race. You can make much more of a difference, and the rules are much less wonky, in local and state elections. Hell, many of those positions are entirely uncontested.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          He “legitimately” lost after they handed Iowa to a nobody loser like Pete to render Iowa irrelevant in the future. You don’t really think Pete won, do you? Sure, they gave the appearance of “cleaning up” after Iowa, but that was always the plan! Now Iowa is done as a relevant caucus state.

          I voted in Iowa. Getting my caucus vote made irrelevant showed me the Democratic Party is not a viable vehicle. They’ll literally throw out your votes if they don’t like it.