“It’s a little too quiet” - US Politics February 2021

That's partially why Trump wanted to destroy the USPS... because they help Amazon deliver profits.

Yea USPS even says Amazon Delivery or some shit on their tracker for Sunday deliveries

It's a much more interesting story than "Biden said he'd do it and he didn't." Trump's un-confirmable man at DHS used the final days of the lame duck term to make deals that tied Biden's hands and let courts stop him from doing the deportation pause. https://t.co/FdJiw2V9zM

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 25, 2021

there's the tax returns:

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/540463-manhattan-da-obtains-trump-tax-returns-report?

xp so much in that ICE story. feel like story should have led with the ultra vires/outside of authority point. like, in process, the ice director resigned, then the two weeks later their replacement resigned, then their replacement would not/did not sign, then cuccinelli signed "for agency" as acting deputy secretary. "but i asked the gc, i know i'm good!"

i'm not good enough at agency ad law to know how that stands tho i guess.

Didn't the tax returns already get leaked to the Times? Wasn't that a thing for, like, a week? Are these different tax returns? Or just finally formally in the hands of prosecutors?

Anyway, while they're in there they should just do the guy a solid and help him with the audit, it's been a while.

It's hard to believe the last-minute ICE deal will stand up given all the issues with the legality of Cuccinelli's authority. But what a clusterfuck. And of course even if Biden manages to override the deal with the union, I'm sure most of those Trumpy ICE officers have civil service protection that will functionally leave them in charge of the agency's operations.

Didn't the tax returns already get leaked to the Times? Wasn't that a thing for, like, a week? Are these different tax returns? Or just finally formally in the hands of prosecutors?

After a contentious debate on the Equality Act, which would extend civil rights protections to the LGBTQ community, Rep. Marie Newman (D-Ill.) on Wednesday raised a transgender pride flag outside her office — which happens to sit directly across from the office of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of the bill’s most vocal opponents.

“Our neighbor, [Greene], tried to block the Equality Act because she believes prohibiting discrimination against trans Americans is ‘disgusting, immoral, and evil,’” Newman, who has a transgender daughter, wrote on Twitter with a video of her hanging the flag. “Thought we’d put up our Transgender flag so she can look at it every time she opens her door.”

Greene, who lost her committee memberships by promoting false and extremist claims, quickly responded with her own video mocking Newman’s earlier tweet as she hung up a poster that said: “There are TWO genders: Male & Female. Trust The Science!”

“Thought we’d put up ours so [Newman] can look at it every time she opens her door,” Greene said.

us politics 2021

https://i.imgur.com/zVFuxGy.png

https://i.imgur.com/q5iWBZy.png

nyah, nyah-nyah, nyah, nyah, not me, you, YOU, the same thing but only YOU!!

disgusting

"trust the science" coming from ppl who do not believe in climate change... fuckin rich

one of these was labeled as hate speech on Facebook and taken down. Guess which one.

It's not just that she holds so many abhorrent views, it's the unbridled glee with which she presents them in such dick-ish, trolly ways that really makes her an extra special brand of despicable.

probably more for the explain conservatism thread, but for the life of me i just can't understand how these fuckwits deal with so much cognitive dissonance on a daily basis.

GOP never got around to adopting a platform, guess abhorrent views, dickish trolling and extra special despicableness will work as well as any. xp

they carefully cultivate a world that absolutely minimizes any encounters with actual facts

also a firm commitment to the design aesthetic and typographical chaos of facebook memes

The cruelty is the point.

one of these was labeled as hate speech on Facebook and taken down. Guess which one.

can I guess

but dan, do you think the company should, for eg, take the same kind of action against Marjorie Taylor Greene's misinformation? if so, ought they wait until halfway through her fourth term, too?

― stilt in the wings (sic), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 12:07 PM (two days ago)

xp

i had an imaginary debate with a generic republican politician on a talkshow in my head the other day. i pulled a power play and said something like "the proof is in the GOP's platform that they put forward during the 2020 election - would you care to explain what was in that platform, republican congressman?", and then he's like "well, i, the thing is that - we didn't exactly, i-, why i, why you scoundrel!! you know we republicans didn't even bother to put together a 2020 platform for our party, this is humiliating!!!". then i offer him my bandana and as he wipe away his tears, i say "you didn't need a platform, because your party sublimated itself to the whims of a fascist, you cowardly piece of shit". in this world i am 65 and i have at least 24 abs, and my ab sweat is just barely showing through my button-down, and the host of tv show is clapping for me as the republican is forced to resign

probably more for the explain conservatism thread, but for the life of me i just can't understand how these fuckwits deal with so much cognitive dissonance on a daily basis.

― it's like edging for your mind (the table is the table), Thursday, February 25, 2021 11:44 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

By refusing to deal with it, I'd imagine. Anything that disagrees with my position in this moment is wrong, even if the perspective in question is congruent with something I was bellowing into someone's face five minutes ago.

"Trust The Science"

utterly fucking pathetic

The party with a platform gets punished. Dems believe in policy, whatever you might think of centrism, neoliberalism, etc. The GOP did nothing in Congress four years of Trump's term. They elect people to troll on social media.

xposts hard lol, km

I'm sorry -- they passed Trump's billionaire tax bill and tried repealing the ACA. In 2017, four years ago.

The Tanden Twitter Defense Squad has really tooled up.

Karl I like your elaborate fantasy world

thank you, Andy. as i look at my non-glistening non-abs now, though, i am reminded that i'm not a ripped 65-year-old who poops out fat. i'm just a 37-year-old trying to get by in this crazy world

eh I'll hit on you too -- it's been eleven months.

probably more for the explain conservatism thread, but for the life of me i just can't understand how these fuckwits deal with so much cognitive dissonance on a daily basis.

I have contemplated this and have a working theory. I think the key is not seeing something like "science" as a thing in and of itself, but merely as part of a rhetorical arsenal. So if you understand that "Trust the science" is an effective rhetorical weapon that is being deployed against you, the proper Karl Rovian response is not to engage with science, but to look for opportunities to muddy the waters by deploying the same weapon in reverse. This is not, in this formulation, cognitive dissonance, because there's no real cognition going on. You're not acknowledging that there is any intrinsic value in trusting the science. You are merely turning the enemy's guns back on them. This often looks unbelievably stupid and tone-deaf from the other side, but the argument is not intended for the other side. It's to rally the political base with what they will understand as an act of aggression that they can cheer.

it's not that fuckin hard tbh, people are herd animals, they can literally tell themselves anything to justify whatever. it is honestly more baffling to me that liberals don't get this, but then they are essentially performing for their tribe too.

Idk there's gigantic fucking gulf between one side "performing" by pushing for fair treatment for transgender citizens and the other "performing" by irl shitposting.

how can this completely insane person affirm the basic value of white supremacist patriarchal capitalism in such a different way than i do? it defies all logic

oh jesus christ

nb i care about trans rights and hate lauren boebert as much as anyone i'm just not going to wring my hands about it on this vacuous fucking thread today

xp lol alfred

The cruelty is the point.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 25, 2021 12:50 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

^

https://americana-uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/19birch.jpg

i just can't understand how these fuckwits deal with so much cognitive dissonance on a daily basis.

There's no such thing as hypocrisy or cognitive dissonance with respect to societal interaction unless you have an underlying presumption of equality. Marjorie Taylor Greene does not have that.

I still come back to the story of that rando middle-aged dad who was your typical dorky dad, lugging his kid around around the time Trump was inaugurated, and he found someone with a lanyard, got in his face, and said "you press?", then when he got an affirmative reply, flipped him off and spat on him, and went back to playing with his kid

I mean, I guess I already knew the answer: these fuckwits deal with it by not acknowledging it, and by either ignoring what doesn't fit into their worldview or shaping facts and ideas to shape their worldview, which is an evangelical, ethno-nationalist authoritarian one.

Guess even I am occasionally moved to awe and horror at the depravity of these people.

The bill, introduced by an Iowa Republican state senator, specifically would reduce the number of early voting days from 29 days to 20 days. It would also close polling places an hour earlier on Election Day (at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m.).
The bill also places new restrictions on absentee voting including banning officials from sending applications without a voter first requesting one and requiring ballots be received by the county before polls close on Election Day...

Guessing the correct number of jellybeans in the jar can't be far behind.

anyone studied the Equality Act bill?

After a tense and often personal debate, the House voted 224-to-206 for the measure, with three Republicans joining all Democrats to vote "yes."

The legislation would amend federal civil rights laws to ensure protections for LGBTQ Americans in employment, education, housing, credit, jury service and other areas. It is a top legislative priority of President Biden, who in a statement last week called the bill “a critical step toward ensuring that America lives up to our foundational values of equality and freedom for all.”

A number of religious denominations are lobbying against the measure, saying its lack of religious exemptions creates one of the most sweeping challenges to religious liberty in decades.

Groups including the Church of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Jews and Seventh-day Adventists, among others, say it could halt free and reduced lunches for children across the country who attend single-gender parochial schools, require church community halls to rent space for LGBT ceremonies and could threaten federal security grants for synagogues and mosques facing violence because of their faiths.

Why do they deserve exemptions? I'm thinking... they don't.

facing violence because of their faiths

I get so infuriated whenever I see this bullshit trotted out in the name of denying LGBTQ rights. How about Americans facing violence just for fucking existing?

It seems the very core of American 'religious liberty' amounts to denying said liberty to others.

require church community halls to rent space for LGBT ceremonies

the community hall is not a consecrated space, so what's their beef?

When your perceived rights are based entirely around denying rights to others and trying to force them to adapt to your precious and perfect worldview, yeah.