Beware the Ides of March -- U.S. Politics March 2021

younger people are way more receptive to socialism things that even resemble it, i think. much more so than older people. i think the cold war ending (temporarily) may have had something to do with that, too. the anti-communist knob has been turned just a bit down, during my lifetime, compared to what it seems to have been just before that. there will always be young republicans and libertarian cryptolords, but my sense is that the balance has shifted toward the left, among young people, more than it has in quite a while?

Lindsey Graham calls the border “the biggest issue facing the country in many ways right now” pic.twitter.com/0rwkkKOzRO

— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) March 26, 2021

yeah ok bro

i guess to old white rich white dudes it's up there

You mean down there, we're not talking about the Canadian border.

lol

Running against immigrants has yet to hurt the GOP — they even made gains with Latino voters — so I think we can expect "the border" and "China" to be the go-to Big Scaries until current events offer other possibilities (Iran, Muslims, etc). They can't run on naked LGBTQ discrimination at the federal level anymore, doesn't poll all that well, but it's still paying dividends in a lot of states.

I'm in a low level panic about the voter suppression laws in Georgia and other red states

Just want to express my view that these laws are a) bad and b) doing 1/10000 of the work gerrymandered state legislative lines are to allow the GOP to act as it wishes with no regard for the public will.

State legislative boundaries are the whole ballgame.

"but a popular majority can still elect a governor who can block state legislature shenanigans---"

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/26/michigan-gop-chairman-plans-go-around-whitmer-voting-law-changes/7010417002/

i'm still worried but this is comforting coming from the local district demographics knower

Georgia is roughly where Virginia was a decade ago: Republicans still control state government and may be able to redistrict the state to their liking one last time...but long-term/demographically, the writing is kinda on the wall.

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 26, 2021

Metro ATL's share of GA's total vote, '92-'20: 52%-59%
Northern VA's share of VA's total vote '92-'20: 30%-36%

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 26, 2021

this may be hopelessly naive of me but my feeling is that the legacy of the civil rights movement is that demographics ARE changing and the money IS moving around into different communities. Is it happening fast enough and with minimal cruelty? No. But it IS happening and that means that ultimately these assholes are going to be outnumbered. Everyone knows it's a question of when, not if. I can't help but feel that attempts this transparent and desperate suggest that the fading GOP is aware this is the last rodeo and they only have so many final chances to bleed the constituency before this stage of the game is fully over.

It’s real fucked up that Biden kept Pompeo on as Secretary of State.

We are deeply concerned by growing signs of anti-democratic behavior and politicization of the legal system in Bolivia. The Bolivian government should release detained former officials, pending an independent and transparent inquiry into human rights and due process concerns.

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 27, 2021

"politicization of the legal system" you have got to be shitting me lol

just an embarrassing dipshit. Biden’s worst appointee?

Until Hunter is confirmed to the Supreme Court, yes.

would take hunter over p much everyone except sotomayor

for some weird reason I think he’d be good on criminal justice issues and I bet he’d know when the fuck to retire

read that as "I bet he’d know when to fuck and retire"

oh for sure

wait, how are we going from $6k to $27k? ... like we each get $27k? that would be rad.

― sarahell, Thursday, March 11, 2021 12:38 PM (two weeks ago)

Harris / Markey / Sanders’ bill covered $2K a month for the duration - I glitched and added 12 months x $2K to another 3 months without xing that 3 by $2k. So, $30K.

― armoured van, Holden (sic), Thursday, March 11, 2021 12:49 PM (two weeks ago)

I also forgot (or never saw) that Harris wanted the payments to continue for three months after the pandemic, too?

I’m proposing $2,000 monthly payments throughout the pandemic and for 3 months after, because rent and bills are still due during this crisis and people are going hungry. It’s that basic.

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) May 11, 2020

If expectations of herd immunity by summer play out, that's $38,000. Pay people that amount to stay home right now, and you'll stop the currently-rising hospitalisation numbers as well.

No, I did not read this story. Just preserving the headline in its pure, uncut Politico-ness.

If Matthew McConaughey Runs for Office, Which Role Should He Reprise for the Campaign Trail?

that article is way longer than I thought it was going to be

Oh boy

And here are the conclusions that emerged from this new research:

The Trump loyalists and Trump-aligned were angry, but also despondent, feeling powerless and uncertain they will become more involved in politics;

Trump’s base saw Biden, as a white man, as not threatening, controlled by others, unlike Obama who represented everything Tea Party-Republicans were determined to fight;

Even Trump’s base is curious about the extent to which they benefit from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and Biden’s signature program, compared to Obamacare that they viewed as a new entitlement for Blacks and immigrants that must be stopped;

The Trump loyalists and the Trump aligned are animated about government taking away their freedom and a cancel culture that leaves no place for white Americans and the fear they’re losing “their” country to non-whites;

They were angered most of all by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa that were responsible for a full year of violence in Democratic cities that put white people on the defensive – and was ignored by the media;

They were angered most of all by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa that were responsible for a full year of violence in Democratic cities that put white people on the defensive – and was ignored by the media;

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck huuuuuuuuuuuuuugh

The "Democratic cities" trope is really getting engrained on the right. It's part of the whole blue-red polarization obviously, but the problem with it for Republicans is that "Democratic" cities are responsible for an overwhelming majority of U.S. economic productivity. Granted, those are "metro areas," which typically have some red rings around the blue centers, but it's still true that the blue dots on the red maps are where most of the money comes from. So Republicans are increasingly in a goose-that-lays-the-golden-egg position, they can run and rail against the cultural atrocities of blue cities, but anything they do to hamper their economies is going to be literally self-defeating

Brookings say Biden-voting counties account for 70% of the nation's GDP: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/11/09/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/

the subsequent three bullets from alfred's link:

The Trump loyalists and those who are aligned rooted for the anti-lockdown protestors in Michigan and saw the violence and disruption of the legislature as justified. Some pulled back when the guns threatened innocent civilians, and more when their methods seemed to be losing support for the Trump movement;

A handful of the Trump loyalists supported the January 6th insurrectionists, but most quickly concluded it was really Antifa or an inside job to make Trump supporters look bad. They normalized the insurrection, suggesting it was no different than the violence carried out by BLM and Antifa;

They worry now that it is the government that has taken the initiative on the use of force, increasing their sense of powerlessness;

they really are the victims, feel so sorry for them

Afaics, US rural conservatives view themselves as the economic bedrock of the nation (as constantly illustrated for them by every ad for pickup trucks) and have almost zero appreciation of the extent to which urban areas directly subsidize their vital public services, such as roads and schools, not to mention generous subsidies like farm price supports, cheap grazing rights on public land, timber tax breaks, and the Mining Act of 1872.

Afaics, US rural conservatives view themselves as the economic bedrock of the nation (as constantly illustrated for them by every ad for pickup trucks) and have almost zero appreciation of the extent to which urban areas directly subsidize their vital public services, such as roads and schools, not to mention generous subsidies like farm price supports, cheap grazing rights on public land, timber tax breaks, and the Mining Act of 1872.

Well, I mean, it's not like there's an entire media infrastructure dedicated to keeping them ignorant of all that stuff...

Pay people that amount to stay home right now, and you'll stop the currently-rising hospitalisation numbers as well.

Legit curious about why you think this is what would happen, sic.

Seems like a whole lot of people are greeting isolation fatigue, loosening state-level restrictions, warm weather, and spring break as invitations to party.

How do you figure if they suddenly get a windfall of cash, they'd interpret it as an incentive to stay home, rather than an invitation to go out and party way harder?

Yeah everyone in my hometown actually seems to believe the opposite of the truth, that outstate minnesota subsidies the wasteful, morally bankrupt sodom and gomorrah that is.... minneapolis/st.paul....when of course the opposite is true

The unlikely scenarios cited to explain need for an assault weapon always have the air of fantasy.

"A real big tornado happens but my house is spared! The Cops can't reach my neighborhood but a roving natural-disaster-gang can! Turns out, I'm the only one who can save the day!" https://t.co/wvcH9ArKba

— Ryan H. Walsh (@JahHills) March 28, 2021

YMP - I meant in the sense of following up on her previous "calling for" and "proposing". I'm not abandoning my own 13 months of advocating restrictions, border quarantine, and other public health measures that work. In those posts the other week I noted that a three-week hard lockdown would have been effective a year ago, and a three-month managed lockdown would have gotten things significantly under control by the time the $2K monthly bill was drafted in May. Giving people an actual deadline (with a cash* payment at the end of it) would be a massive difference psychologically to "it'll be gone by Easter 2020."

(Or, I dunno, give out the $38k now but have $39K fines for people that party unmasked, so the stimulus can also start to work before summer.)

What is happening in the replies here

Two weeks ago, I directed all states, tribes, and territories to make all adult Americans eligible for the vaccine no later than May 1 — and we’re already making progress. pic.twitter.com/w6Ly5AVkks

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 28, 2021

There are millions of US voters who still think the election was fraudulent, because Trump told them it was roughly 20 times a day starting last September.

NY in fine company with SC, AR and whichever dumb, square state that is.

Deborah Birx tells CNN most U.S. covid deaths ‘could have been mitigated’ after first 100,000 https://t.co/bvR1Vy85P5

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 27, 2021

Were those voters all French bots?

xxp

The Pessi (a twisted Lionel Messi) are a leaderless French Twitter mob whose sole raison d’être is raiding the accounts of public figures they dislike. They went after Biden because he’s a ‘fraud’, whatever that means.

I forget to mention that their golden rule is ‘no insults’.

Short explainer vid here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZr2Sz3--vg

Meanwhile, I am enjoying the mental image of Lindsey Graham with his AR-15, sniping through his blinds at the post-tornado pillagers. Ideally he is in a bathrobe and slippers.

If only she knew someone on the inside ...

White House, 2019
Proceedings of the President's Coronavirus Task Force
Pandemic Level: Code Red

BIRX: Get me a man on the inside. Get me the Chair of the President's Coronavirus Task Force, Mike Pence.
Mike Pence: ...
FAUCI: That would be Vice President Mike Pence, Chair of the President's Coronavirus Task Force. Who is sitting in his traditional and fundamentally ordained position at the head of the table.
PENCE: That's right. I am the Chair of this Task Force.
BIRX: Thank you Dr. Fauci, thank you Vice President and Chair Mike Pence. I've noticed that President Trump keeps mocking COVID and acting like it's not a big deal and blaming it on China in a racist way every single day even though everyone repeatedly keeps asking him to stop saying things that increase nationalistic and racist hatred.
PENCE: ...
MARK MEADOWS: The Vice President is deliberating. But I'd sell my soul for money at any rate, at any rate all!
BIRX: I see. Vice President, also consider that far less than 100,000 have died in the U.S., as of the morning of this very funny meeting, and there are plenty of things we could do to prevent deaths over that number. For example, one thing that keeps coming up in the research is the problem of the entire GOP and their very persecuted follower-victims being united in the idea that COVID is overblown, that the cure has become worse than the disease, that it was implanted here by a global conspiracy connected to bill gates, who is now coordinating federal officials to make sure that the vaccination death sentence "passports" will all contain the mark of the beast, that there's no way a healthy patriot could get sick from COVID, that it only takes a few months off of the lives of people in the nursing homes (god bless them), but that no one really knows anyone who's really gotten that sick from it, and it's isn't it kind of fucked up that we shut down the whole fucking world for this thing, I mean think about the damage to all of us at home, and the children who aren't going to school, as well as the coordinated globalist effort to eliminate Christianity by forbidding Christians from meeting at any place at all, only in the catacombs. Pretty much the entire GOP is saying all of that, in one form or another, and it gets way weirder than that.
PENCE: ...
MEADOWS: The President of the United States. Is in the building! He just got back from the clubhouse and Christie says he is in a very, very good mood!!
PENCE: The President. My new mother.
PENCE and MEADOWS together: Our better mother.
BIRX: Isn't there an Admiral that is connected with this team? Or the Surgeon General guy, he seems pretty with it! How can we mitigate these completely preventable deaths over the next year? We need to do something!
ADMIRAL and SURGEON GENERAL carry Dr FAUCI off stage, through the seats and out of the back of the auditorium. Audience plants throughout the audience cheer and support and livestream FAUCI's exit

White House, 2020

the coverup has started

i don't even know what you're talking about in the first place, i was never here

Can someone explain to me why the Internet is mad at Elizabeth Warren this time? Is it really because she sassed the Amazon Twitter account?

To be clear, Senators shouldn’t threaten to muzzle dissenting voices but all of this appears to be in the context of antitrust proceedings and am I wrong for thinking that context has a material impact on the tenor of her comments?

lol remember a little over a year ago when Sanders vs. Warren consumed us

sure, but life moves on. among other things, first we had to endure Super Tuesday, then the world came down with covid19

Oh I get it now

New: Amazon's Twitter war with @berniesanders & @SenWarren came after Jeff Bezos expressed dissatisfaction with the company not pushing back aggressively on criticism execs feel is inaccurate or misleading, Recode has learnedhttps://t.co/bxapcGeeck

— Jason Del Rey (@DelRey) March 28, 2021