• 0 Posts
  • 91 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 15th, 2023
  • dhork@lemmy.worldtoYou Should Know@lemmy.world•YSK americans requires 60 votes out of 100 in the Senate to pass any bill. As a result, their government regularly shuts down. But in Canada or Britain, you just need a simple majorityEnglish
    10·
    1 month ago

    It’s even dumber, because it’s not about the budget, it’s about the allocation of funds to certain departments and the authorization to spend that money, which comes after the budget. Some other countries separate budgets and appropriations like this, but those other countries put in those safeguards you mention, because they want government agencies to function even if the politicians are having a snit.

    In the US, thanks to “small-government” Republicans, we make it extremely difficult to spend any money without explicit authorization. And since we also have no concept of a no-confidence vote, politicians can basically hold government funding hostage if they want. The politicians that are doing this right now know they won’t have to face another election until next November at the earliest. (Senators serve six year terms, and it’s telling that all of the Democrats who voted for cloture on this bill are either retiring or not up for election next year…)

  • dhork@lemmy.worldtoNot The Onion@lemmy.world•Cisgender Boy Forced to Play on Girls' Sports Team Because of Birth Certificate ErrorEnglish
    32·
    2 months ago

    There is a process to amend birth certificates, presumably initially intended for errors like this. But then people who successfully transitioned used the process to amend their birth certificates to reflect their new gender, because there was no other way to do it. The transphobes seized on this, and started processes that refuse to honor any late changes to birth certificates.

    It should have been a simple matter to resolve - his doctor wites a note saying “This kid has boy parts, and always has. The birth certificate was always an administrative error”. But then, that would force the transphobes to acknowledge a role for facts and science to contradict their feelings. So, we can’t have that either.

    So, they go on claiming that they are just out for the best interests of kids, and that justifies why they are treating this kid so poorly. When in reality, they are just protecting their narrative, at his expense.