StitchInTime

Unfortunately the fact remains that he received 3 million more votes in 2024 than 2020. It’s simple to political missteps and cry foul, but I simply can’t overlook the fact that majority of Americans knew who he was, witnessed the same January 6th I did, and elected to restore that guy to office. In something that shouldn’t have been remotely close, he won. That speaks more to the mentality of average Americans than it does what the democrats did or didn’t do this cycle.

Democrats aren’t faultless here, they continuously bury their best candidates for political nepotism (and I personally feel Biden would have been a solid president in 2016), lack courage when defending their positions, and are generally too worried to rock the boat that benefits their donors. I personally want funding limits in elections and ranked choice voting in all things and to curb this nonsense, yet the fact Donald Trump secured that many votes, the fact I have neighbors who fly his flag as a symbol of strength, gives me little hope for the future of this country.

I whole heartedly agree with your points, however I think it’s important to note that Trump did win the popular vote this time around, which if nothing else showcases how far the US has fallen.

I know nothing about the European software market, but translating this in American, $100,000/year for a principal developer and lead of a project of this scale is like paying him 33%-50% of a US salary for those 10 years.

I’m a firm believer that people - including open source contributors - should be compensated for their time when an avenue exists that doesn’t compromise the integrity of the project. Mastodon an amazing platform and I wish him, and the project, nothing but the best.

Black alert!

I’m unsure if that’s borrowed from somewhere, but I read that in Monty Python.