this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
262 points (100.0% liked)

News

33133 readers
2881 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The pardons may be largely symbolic as none of the people listed were convicted of federal crimes, which the presidential pardon covers.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] snooggums@piefed.world 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

He is draining a useful ecosystem that Republicans describe as a terrible thing and paving over it with the cheapest materials possible.

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world -3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The swamp is by definition not a useful ecosystem

Drain the swamp is a political phrase used as a metaphor for getting rid of corruption, waste, and the improper influence of special interests and lobbyists in government. The "swamp" refers to the entrenched political system and bureaucracy, and "draining" it implies a commitment to foundational reform and clean-up. 

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 6 points 3 days ago

"Draining the swamp" in the political context is referring to gutting public safety nets like SNAP benefits, affordable healthcare, and government safety oversight so they can give the wealthy tax breaks. The swamp is the working parts of government being demonized as if supporting the general public is not a useful ecosystem.

That description is what Repiblicans said it meant, but what I wrote is what they actually meant based on every single thing they have done while using the phrase. Like how they say they want to enforce fair elections while suppressing the vote and claiming there is widespread voter fraud despite decades of evidence that it barely ever happens.

[–] mhague@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

That's basically the AI definition given by DDG.

But nobody uses the phrase like that. When Reagan said he was draining the swamp, and his followers repeated the line, what do you think they said? Probably some shit like, "let's make the government more efficient."

Ok. Fine. That actually fits the phrase, even if Reagan was lying and giving corpos more control.

But 40 years later when you ask someone what they mean by "drain the swamp" and they express ideas of... imprisoning Democrats, getting rid of the big Jews, dismantling the liberal deep state.

People used "literally" sarcastically / for effect, and dictionaries added a new definition. So I think it's fair to add a new definition for "drain the swamp" when people use it to mean "get rid of liberals."