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

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.

I read that if he had prepaid his taxes that would still show up on the documents the NYT reviewed

Also smacks of BS because 1st response was NYT story was fake news. Took him, what, 2 weeks to come up with the prepaid taxes excuse?

he thinks taxes are Layaway at Wal-Mart

Perhaps it means he was claiming deductions for money he spent years before

The NYT report was v detailed on how he paid taxes for the first time in over a decade after getting on The Apprentice, and (presumably deliberately) found all sorts of bullshit deductions like his upstate "park" after that, in order to claim back the amount that he'd had to pay. Presumably this has translated in his poison brain into pre-paying taxes and receiving a refund.

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S09E20/258591/m/IE5PLiBCRUNBVVNFLCBZT1UgU0VFLCBJCiBXRU5UIEFIRUFEIEFORC4uLgogWUVBUi1XSVNFLCBJIFdBUyBDT1VOVElORwogRk9SV0FSRA==

Whoops.
https://frinkiac.com/meme/S09E20/258591.jpg?b64lines=IE5PLiBCRUNBVVNFLCBZT1UgU0VFLCBJCiBXRU5UIEFIRUFEIEFORC4uLgogWUVBUi1XSVNFLCBJIFdBUyBDT1VOVElORwogRk9SV0FSRA==

Yes, they will, at lots of places.

I doubt the civil service and the military will end up being the only organizations that recognize the value of retaining and rewarding experienced, devoted staff over time.

Lol so many xp. Whatever.

xps:
how do you 'prepay' taxes years in advance?

That's how capital gains/losses works. For individuals, if you lose X amount of value in a closed transaction, eg, a loss in a stock transaction, or an ownership stake in a casino becoming worthless, then that loss gets noted on schedule D. That amount X can offset capital gains (of the same class, like long term) in the same year, and if X is much larger than the gains, the balance of X is carried forward to future years. Invest $1000 M in 1990, they go bankrupt and all value is lost in 2000, and there's $1000 M in tax-loss carry forwards. If you still make $ 50 M a year in capital gains (of the same class), no taxes would need to be payed on capital gains (of the same class) for 20 years. The tax loss carryforward would just drop $950 M, $900 M, $850 M... In this example, the premise is that Trump paid taxes on the income and realized gains that produced the original $1000 M.

What bugs me about this, as someone who has never dealt with more than my own schedule Ds, is that tax loss carryforwards can't be applied against "ordinary" income, such as salaries for Apprentice appearances or license fees from Turkish Trump branded hotels. My suspicion is that Trump's lawyers structured those contracts so that ordinary income was realized as capital gains, and that's both fishy and beyond my ken.

This is a good piece; 16 reasons why the electoral environment is completely different in 2020 than it was in 2016, and none of them are good for Trump.

FYI jaymc and other Cook Co. voters, my gf and I received the emails last night confirming our ballots were received after using the dropbox last Tuesday, so it looks like there's a turnaround of about a week. Hopefully they recognize that picking up the gd pace is kinda crucial wrt this particular election.

I got my confirmation at 12:47am this morning.

Imagine what it must be like to have your elected officials fighting tooth and nail for your beliefs, however shitty and reprehensible they may be. Voting Democrat means watching your elected officials wither in the face of discomfort and immediately caving in for fear of being considered "divisive". I've got to swallow the bitter pill once again for this election, but I don't know for how many more elections I can in good conscience vote for spineless chickenshits that focus their efforts on memes and tweeting threats that have no bite because they are never, ever followed up on. Barrett's confirmation was inevitable, but I'm furious that the Dems couldn't get their shit together to drag their feet even a little bit.

Early vote total now 66.2 million this morning. If it’s 72 million or so first thing tomorrow then the average of at least six million a day is looking more in play; at the least it’s likely we hit 70 million by late this evening. What that also means is at some point today we pass 50% of the total 2016 vote.

Some more states starting to pass the 50% mark already, like California. Others of course further blowing past them — Florida at 67%, Texas at 86%, etc.

Barrett's confirmation was inevitable, but I'm furious that the Dems couldn't get their shit together to drag their feet even a little bit.

serious question: what could the Dems have done? they're in the minority.

I was sort of hoping McConnell would drop over dead before the vote could happen

all the shit that the dems could have done involve quorum rules which would still involve getting mitt romney and susan collins to get lost in Arches somewhere. it wasn't happening

Probably nothing, but when the perception of a lot of your base is that you didn't try hard enough, that's a problem. In a reversed situation, the GOP would have dug deep and figured out more ways to drag things out. Watching the Dems continue to play a polite game of bridge while the GOP is playing a rigged game of Monopoly where they cheat at every turn is infuriating.

In a reversed situation, the GOP would have dug deep and figured out more ways to drag things out.

How? Are Republicans magic?

No, but they bend the rules, break the rules, cheat where necessary. They fight dirty.

wHen tHEy gO lOw

And that only works because they have a majority.

I think it's totally fine to be frustrated, angry and disheartened after her confirmation. Is my anger misplaced, maybe. But I can only shake my fist at McConnell for so long without recognizing the systemic failures of the party I support.