"Will you shut up, man?" US Politics October 2020

Upper-middle class married white women*

old grey mare she ain't what she used to be

I know this is a bullshit outsider perspective but it seems to me that systemic racism is enabled/perpetuated by America’s fascination with race-based differences in politics, voting intentions etc. Like virtually half of US political discourse/polling involves thinking of people’s decision making as if it was determined by race.
I get that the reason is that people in different racial groups are differently affected by policies, but the continual message is that race determines thinking. Which seems like a driver to me.

We have two political parties and one has made white supremacy their core value for 50 years. (And the other one courted the white supremacists before that.)

It’s an unavoidable part of voting calculations and “what’s the matter with Kansas”-style questions of why someone who would theoretically be harmed by white supremacy would vote against their interests.

The 'soccer mom' imagery was supposed to conjure up a suburban mother of school aged children with enough spare time and devotion to her kids to constantly drive them to their after-school soccer practice and games.

Because soccer skews heavily white, that inference was def intended. Because children + spare time to drive them around skews heavily toward middle class and married, those inferences were intended. Because kids of school age tends heavily toward the 29 -45 age bracket, that inference was def intended, too. Add all those together and there will be a noticeable skewing toward college education, but not as definite as the other demographics.

Lastly, because several of these factors tend to offset one another in terms of skewing toward liberalism vs. conservatism, the 'soccer mom' imagery was supposed to be the very model of the wavering centrist each party wants to capture. It's just an accurate reflection of how marketing people are taught to think. Hard to say how accurate it is, politically, but the idea sure got sold to candidates and pundits very effectively.

i know i'm probably imagining this, but mcconnell sounds old as hell right now

maybe he'll pull a Pontypool and just die in the Senate chamber while repeating the same unremarkable word over and over again

"cloture....cloture....cloture....cl-cl-cloture..."

god he's being such an assfuckstain

his hand doesn't look discolored anymore :(

when he said "the democrats pioneered it", referring to the filibuster, i automatically said "but you perfected it", and was kind of surprised when he didn't say it with me

staring at him hoping for a Redd Foxx chest-clutch death

lol @ "policymaking, which is what we do here", mr Graveyard

a lot of people give me shit for watching debates or state of the unions or whatever. i will say this: listening to mcconnell make this speech is excruuuuuuciating, like an order of magnitude more painful than the typical trump speech

the Pinter pauses would have me calling on his understudy to take over

it is excruciating because mitch is twisting the knife

what the democrats want, you see, is activist judges

maybe Kavanaugh will have a little autoerotic asphyx accident this weekend

oh bullshit, Mitch, they woulda confirmed a Republican nominee in 2016. like Dems always do.

like the Dems woulda Robert Borked in the 21st century

"elections have consequences", he says, referring to trump's losing the popular vote by 3 million

Rand Paul walking around the floor unmasked, that motherfucker

There's a guy near me who wears a Rob Paul shirt on the weekends, and has a sticker on his car still. I've had to restrain myself when I see him

welp, there it is.

it's done.

fuck

globetrotters dunk all over the generals, again.

the globetrotters own the ball and got to have more players on the floor

pretty cool that this asshole will most likely be shitting all over progressive legislation until after I’m dead

Get power. Control the legislature and the executive. Pass laws that are unambiguous, constitutional, and hard to challenge.. Strive to make the court irrelevant.

These are the imperatives.

Strange how the consequences of 2012 election didn't last as long as the 2016 elections huh

Election's

pretty cool that this asshole will most likely be shitting all over progressive legislation until after I’m dead

Had the same thought. She's the first person younger than me appointed to the court.

Not possible to make the court irrelevant without packing it, explicitly taking judicial review off the table or something along those lines.

Even if your progressive legislation is "unambiguous and constitutional," courts acting politically can create the basis to challenge it all the way up the ladder.

She’s a little older than I am but I bet she lives waaaay longer!!

Xp ok but it's not like she reports to work tomorrow and immediately they hold a little internal vote and suddenly there's no Roe, no ACA, no same-sex marriage, and chattel slavery is reestablished.

Right? Don't they kinda have to rule on specific cases that come before them, through appellate channels, based on the facts and circumstances of each specific case?

Happy to be corrected but I suspect there are a few intermediate steps between Barrett's confirmation and The Handmaid's Tale

3 Trump campaign emails in the last 2.5 hours. The most recent one carried the subject line "America: 3 Democrats: 0." I want him to die of hemorrhagic fever.

Right? Don't they kinda have to rule on specific cases that come before them,

sure

through appellate channels,

sure

based on the facts and circumstances of each specific case?

nope

(obviously there are intermediate steps, no one is claiming otherwise)

Theyre in motion as we type for sure

I doubt they overturn Obergefell or specifically attack abortion. It’s going to continue the long campaign of attacking labor protections, voting rights and the rights of the accused. Their program is enabling minority rule forevermore, winning the culture war wouldn’t help them on that.

The same money that has packed the courts with reactionaries can now turn to packing the docket with their cases designed to go up the rungs.

Roberts doesn't overturn. He undercuts.

CivicScience Poll

Have you ever opted not to vote in the presidential election?
No
78%

Yes
20%

Other / Does not apply
2%

Based on 815 responses

CivicScience Says:
People who prefer comedy movies are more likely to answer No.

One believable analysis of the abortion issue is that our conservative overlords have no desire for a speedy resolution of the issue by overturning Roe v. Wade (which, at this point, would swiftly reduce the number of states where abortion is legal, but would not render it illegal altogether, much to the amazement of most anti-abortion voters). The abortion issue has been the primary driver of the conservatives' grip on power and once they 'win' they can't replace it with anything quite so viscerally powerful. They much prefer to crawl slowly to the point where the issue is politically exhausted.

hey one unrelated thought. during the last debate Trump said over and over that the reason why he paid $750 in taxes is because he prepaid "tens of millions" in years prior. has anyone followed up on this? clearly this is false, right?

how do you 'prepay' taxes years in advance? I know you can prepay during the same calendar year, but I've not heard of prepaying years in advance.

they just...give you refunds.

https://abc7ny.com/politics/can-americans-prepay-their-taxes/7258554/

I suspect there are a few intermediate steps between Barrett's confirmation and The Handmaid's Tale

Look out Oxford English Dictionary, new sample text incoming for "cold comfort"

To be honest, and I'm actually being really sincere, I feel for parents and kids right now. The future is ever more grim.

"Happy to be corrected but I suspect there are a few intermediate steps between Barrett's confirmation and The Handmaid's Tale"

yes, but it's close enough to be creepy

my best friend is 25 and was talking about how much more she should have accomplished by now and I pointed out how pointless it would be to define oneself by that anymore considering how rigged the game is.

she's had two historically major recessions since she was a teen - the ones I lived through prior to 2008 were relatively minor. I really wonder if 'long careers' will even be a thing anymore.

Our generations have been fucked by 2008 and 2020, no question

some people have asked me why I've been so paranoid about my savings despite doing fairly well and it's mostly cos I'm waiting for the day when my luck runs out.