I should set up a head of lettuce on a turntable and see if this journalist ends up in Gitmo for other peoples’ oopsies before the lettuce rots.

Closed primaries. I never got a chance to vote for Bernie.

Lol, a lot of political scientists disagree with you, too. I bet they’re all stupid, right?

Yes, that’s what “barrier to entry” meant in my comment. Happepend to Bernie, happened to a family member of mine at the county level.

Parties prevent YOU from being ABLE to vote for qualified candidates. That’s all they are for, to give unqualified rich or charismatic people a chance to sell the party to you. Nothing else.

It actually makes more sense when you don’t reduce it. Look up a Nolan Chart, or quadrant-based political stance diagram. I fall squarely into the center of the Nolan Chart.

I spent 4 years going into debt for a degree in political literacy. And then more for a related Master’s. I appreciate the frustration, but I can assure you I know exactly what I’m taking about.

Relative to the 1D spectrum of D to R in the US, I’m certainly in the middle ground, beyond the border of what falls enough into the D realm. From a global perspective, sure, the Dems are already a mess that overlaps the center some, but thats a fuzzy edge and not as fully held by the Dems as most moderately informed Europeans like to imply.

And yes, the lack of appropriate labels makes me more of a “Centrist” than anything else, but its barely an accurate term, as is using a 1D left/right binary to define anything can be. I’m against many types of government spending, which only a decade or two ago used to be such a quaint way to identify oneself politically, then everyone dropped the mask and it’s just a full-on Kleptocracy out there now. On a Nolan Chart, I’m squarely in the Centrist square. On a quadrant evaluation, I fall into the same zone as Thomas Jefferson and…Marianne Williamson, oddly enough.

Plus, Lemmy needs to hear opinions from outside the tankie echo chamber.

Voting WITH a party is not the same thing as voting for a candidate that has openly identified as a member one party or the other because that is a barrier to entry or funding avenue for them.

I know it’s hard to accept, but the entire history of both parties hasn’t been “socialist utopia vs. Nazis.” For a century the Democrats didn’t eject all the Southern racists that declared they were Dems simply to be a counterpoint to Lincoln-to-MLK-era Republicans.

Even a cursory understanding of history should make anyone distrust all political parties forever.

But please tell me more about how the party that denied us a president Bernie Sanders (I) is worth my time.

I consider myself Centrist because I would rather eat 10 pounds of fried bugs than align myself with either absolute clown show of a party.

I’m a free agent, and the haters can’t stand that they can’t have me.

Because hyperbole sells.

I consider myself a Centrist simply because both sides can fuck right off. The Left can’t barely manage to do 3 things right before fumbling everything. The Right traded the former guise of fiscal responsibility for LARPing as Nazis. “Sides” are a false choice forced on voters to give two brands of dickbag a duopoly to their benefit.

So…Jamaica?

Cool beans.

JFC on a stick. Here’s a few reasons why this is assenine.

10 years ago implementers tried to stick blockchain into everything. It flopped over and over again. It’s simply not practical for 99% of what humanitarian assistance does.

USAID programs and budget and spending was all FOIAable and heavily audited public record. Do you want to see the invoices submitted for all programs in Malawi from 2018? You used to be able to get that. Annual reports showed detailed budgets. Presentations to Congress presented detailed budget documents. Top to bottom this was already more detailed than a blockchain can realistically provide. They broke a system because they couldn’t understand the difference between dense and detailed but visible, and impractical EILI5 level simplicity.

So you put the transactions on a chain. Great. How does that turn into a salary payment for Malawian staff who only have Malawian bank accounts? It doesn’t. So now you have 2 systems. Meaning twice as much opportunity for error and chance for fraud to go unrecognized.

Most developing world fraud is things that look like perfectly reasonable procurements where the terms of the tender are overly specific as to limit who can win a bid (see Oklahoma school bible solicicitation). Blockchains don’t correct for that. That’s all public information in most places, which is why the fraud has to be so clever.

The data is based on a sample, so unless your relatives collected a phial of spit from you and didn’t tell you why, there’s not a lot they would really have. Maybe name and DOB based on a family member adding it to a family tree, but you can likely just ask your family of they did that. IIRC, that’s a premium feature anyway.

What disagreement? This is literally what Rubio said in his confirmation hearing.

Oh cool, I have a free OK cupid account I can delete? Fun!

This is the best thing I’ve seen online in a week.

Not really. I’ve only seen it at a couple local type places. No large chain has it as a standard combination. TBH, that’s kind of weird to peg that of all things as “an American” slice.

I also use them, and have liked the results.

That’s implied. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

That’s not how any of this works. The contracts are with the individual people, listed by name. They assumed they could do what you said, and the law proved them, and you, wrong.