Joe Money, Joe Problems: the November 2021 U.S. Politics Thread

how exactly can Dems 'stop it' other than challenging it in court, where ultimately, this SCOTUS (Even when it was only a 5-4 R majority) has set a precedent that it's not going to declare maps drawn by state governments as 'unconstitutional'? and often overrides lower court rulings in this regard.

just another example of Murc's law, it is fucked and a legit problem but Dems can't just magically make it go away.

i'm sure the "well they should do SOMETHING' is the current #1 suggestion rn.

https://thewhyaxis.substack.com/p/ugh-fine-lets-talk-about-milk

they get $2,500 in tax credits each month for those 9 kids, and inflation is 1/10 what they say it is. lol milk.

GOP has had the benefit for being a bunch of Teflon-dons and seemingly able to scheme through and obfuscate horrible policy decisions and results one after another for decades. They are that little shit 13 year old that sets the garbage can on fire and somehow gets away with screaming 'she did it' pointing at their sister and it works.

They have been pulling this BS off for like 30 years. Name anything and they have been on the wrong side of EVERYTHING except making the rich more f'n money. Democrats come into power and if they cannot wave a magic wand and try to act like an adult...my god they are such a failure. The people with money backing this crap and coming up with this critical race theory angle are laughing their ass off. But hey they be 'getting paid and gettin' laid' and screw all ya haters. Give the devil his due, they are evil mf'ers and good at their job all they got to do is buy a few Dems up in bad suits and jean jackets and blame the victim and the proles eat it up like Easter candy.

yea it's nice to see Manchin and Sinema get hassled everywhere they go but the reality is that all 50 GOP Senators are actually even worse, it's just that we **expect** them to be corrupt assholes who would set the entire planet on fire for a few bucks. idk it's kind of fucked up, senators like Flake and Murkowski and Collins got raked over the coals for certain votes even though every other GOP Senator deserves just as much shit and they didn't get it because it was those 3 hemming and hawing the whole time.

dow up big, way better then expected unemployment numbers and the likes of CNN are talking about the price of milk! Why aren't Dems hammering this point that the things they have put in place like the American rescue act are working, that the job market is recovering! fuck why not have Biden brag about the stupid stock market like Trump did every time it was up. Dems suck at this shit

lol who fucking cares about the dow and unemployment? the job market ... is recovering .. i don't even know what to say to that lol. a big pile of shit is growing, what wonderful news. the democrats should definitely be on that one.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/580156-nikki-haley-calls-for-a-cognitive-test-for-older-politicians

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley suggested in an interview on Thursday that leaders in the government who are of an advanced age should undergo a "cognitive test."

The Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody questioned Haley about her thoughts on the mental health of 78-year-old President Biden, the oldest man to hold the office, asking if she had any concerns.

"Well what I'll tell you is, rather than making this about a person, we seriously need to have a conversation that if you're gonna have anyone above a certain age in a position of power — whether it's the House, whether it's the Senate, whether it's vice president, whether it's president — you should have some sort of cognitive test," Haley said, comparing it to how lawmakers disclose their tax returns.

"And right now, let's face it, we've got a lot of people in leadership positions that are old. And that's not being disrespectful. That's a fact," Haley, 49, added. "And when it comes to that, this shouldn't be partisan. We should seriously be looking at the ages of the people that are running our country and understand if that's what we want."

Haley said, comparing it to how lawmakers disclose their tax returns.

deepest sigh

Once again, ⁦@RepSpanberger⁩ sings the canary-in-the-coal-mine tune:

‘Nobody elected Biden to be FDR, they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos.’ https://t.co/i49n1Se74T

— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) November 3, 2021

Given the lack of movement on the agenda, shouldn’t Biden be polling in the 60s then?

Of course the GOP is redistricting their way to a House majority, that's always been obvious and there really isn't anything that can stop them. My own state, which voted a bit over 40 percent for Biden, is probably going to be reduced to Democrats holding just 1 out of 9 congressional seats. GOP would most likely win the House next year even running with 2020 districts, with the new maps the only reasonable thing to expect is a blowout. The House is lost, any efforts at saving anything should be directed to the Senate.

I think we can assume articles of impeachment against Biden introduced by early '23, probably shot down in the Senate even if the GOP has control, though at this point I don't take anything for granted.

Also, I don't actually disagree with Haley about cognitive tests. I'd be in favor of an upper age limit to run for federal office period.

how quickly do we expect a GOP-controlled Senate to abolish the filibuster?

sorry, that may be a very dumb question. i don't think it's inevitable. it just seems like exactly what they would do (with mcconnell twisting the knife by saying that it's what the democrats wanted to do all along, of course), and then pass the fascism act of 2023

This NYT piece (from the Editorial Board!) really is unbelievably bad. Just meaningless appeals to bipartisanship and "getting things done" as though those aren't, in practice, mutually exclusive.

What a steaming pile.

The Times says Democrats are too far to the left without naming a single specific policy it considers too left.

Then it demands Democrats “work to implement policies to help the American people.”

So, you know, lefty things.

https://t.co/qYM6WsYBV8

— Kaili Joy Gray (@KailiJoy) November 5, 2021

lol who fucking cares about the dow and unemployment?

the fucking idiots that vote do! have we not leaned that a lot of people see this shit and think it means something.

xposts

Actually they may not impeach Biden outright until '24, but will spend '23 launching investigations of everything under the sun and then take the most promising of those and put them together in an impeachment package timed to the election.

I don't think a GOP Senate would nuke the filibuster until they have a Republican president. And even then it may be dicey because the Senate is likely to remain more in play than the House, last thing you want is to kill the filibuster and then have the Democrats take back the Senate.

(with mcconnell twisting the knife by saying that it's what the democrats wanted to do all along, of course),

Oh god, I can hear it now: "Now this is something I actually agree with my friends across the aisle about."

Veering into total speculation, if the midterms are as bad as they will probably be, or even leading up to them, I wonder if there won't be growing chatter (stoked by Politico et al) about Democrats thinking Biden should decide not to run for re-election for health reasons. Or even step down and let Harris run as an incumbent.

Harris would not have a chance

Yeah, the Dems won't do that, passing the baton to Harris guarantees the GOP win in '24.

Also, I don't actually disagree with Haley about cognitive tests. I'd be in favor of an upper age limit to run for federal office period.

so many political institutions are dominated by old corpses of overly bearded 1880s men, reclining in cobwebs. the next generation of american political leaders is 60 years old right now. do we expect them to vote against their own interests as soon-to-be Ancient Leaders? after waiting their turn all their lives, waiting to become so old that they no longer recognize anything that their constituents are doing, that they don't even understand how the economy works, or what kinds of jobs people do, harboring bitter resentments against people 50 years younger than them trying to moderate their language and accusing them of inherent racism? after doing all of that, they're not going to accept their rightful place at the top of the political system that rewards those who have the most faith in the ideas of the 1930s and 1980s?

no way. the only time a politician votes against their own interests is when they screw their own constituents. they don't do it to themselves. there's a whole class of politicians that are about to collect their reward for being a total dick for the past 60 years. they're not going to vote to put a limit on that, just before its their own time.

signed, the most ageist jerk on the internet, who will definitely die before he gets old, probably, please,

I don’t disagree and wish she weren’t the fallback. But man I really don’t know if another Biden run is going to be sustainable. It was held together with duct tape last time, and it won’t just be easy to paint him as doddering and incapacitated, it will be hard to paint him as anything but. At least if he were out of the picture it would open up the possibility for a Democratic primary. Not that there are great obvious options on the bench either.

(That was xpost to Harris posts)

Oh to be clear, I don't think Biden is going to be sustainable either. I'm hoping (most likely in vain, I know) they are working behind the scenes to have someone actually electable as a Plan B.

the Senate is likely to remain more in play than the House, last thing you want is to kill the filibuster and then have the Democrats take back the Senate

Show your work. It's always been my understanding that the Senate is not so slowly slipping out of Democrats' grasp and that once it's gone it'll be gone basically forever because the solid R states are wastelands with fewer people in 'em than the town I live in.

Thank god the important work is still getting done.

NEW: Biden is selling Saudi Arabia $650 million in missiles, calls the move "fully consistent" with ending the war in Yemen. pic.twitter.com/UPBwEpMYtz

— Akbar Shahid Ahmed (@AkbarSAhmed) November 4, 2021

i was worried

Show your work. It's always been my understanding that the Senate is not so slowly slipping out of Democrats' grasp and that once it's gone it'll be gone basically forever because the solid R states are wastelands with fewer people in 'em than the town I live in.

That's certainly the argument here: https://www.vox.com/2021/10/18/22724808/democrats-senate-disadvantage-shor-klein

I just think that once redistricting is done, the likelihood of winning a House majority again this decade shrinks considerably. Whereas the Senate is more susceptible to, say, a terrible candidate winning a Republican primary in a relatively close state. You can't gerrymander the Senate any more than it already effectively is gerrymandered, so the Republicans have to actually win statewide elections.

But yeah, the reality is that none of the scenarios look promising for Democrats.

As with climate change, I'm moving into a how-to-cope-with-impending-disaster mindset. If we assume complete GOP control of the federal and a majority of state governments through (at a minimum) the back half of the 2020s, where are the vulnerabilities going to be, what are going to be the effective pressure points. We know for sure that they will fuck up all sorts of things (because they're crooks who are not good at governing), so how can those fuck-ups be leveraged when they inevitably happen? I think that's how progressive interest groups and alliances should be thinking. Prepare for long-term guerrilla politics, basically.

the cultural politics of the republican party are basically anathema to the urban centers of the US, which is where financial and cultural power are concentrated. if they really do "rig" the rules to establish a permanent majority, i can't imagine that would go over quietly.

Businesses have awakened to the profit-making opportunities of #woke so long as they also benefit from GOP-friendly state legislatures. Look at my state.

these fuckers really love commenting on stacks of paper

2,145 pages. Every Democrat should answer a simple question before they vote for this Socialist Spending Scam:

Have you even read the bill? pic.twitter.com/Oaks4lrmX4

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 5, 2021

there is always money for corporate tax cuts though

Businesses have awakened to the profit-making opportunities of #woke so long as they also benefit from GOP-friendly state legislatures. Look at my state.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, November 5, 2021 1:15 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i mean, the ultra-rich seem willing to let the country rot. they need to wise up, though. their wealth means nothing if the united states collapses, which is what will happen if inequality continues rising at this rate...

not to mention climate change.

it's a complete fantasy that "the good life" can be maintained in lieu of a functioning society.

did u guys read that terrible editorial in the nytimes today

I'm approaching the age when I need to protect my vision.

the ultra-rich can afford to move and set up their new castle wherever they want, even if it's on a sea of rotting carcasses

goooood mooooourning!

that's what they think.

treeship otm

yea I agree with treeship too, if things really start getting bad it doesn't seem like there will be a shortage of people willing to make every aspect of their lives uncomfortable

also money would lose its value.

the cultural politics of the republican party are basically anathema to the urban centers of the US, which is where financial and cultural power are concentrated.

I think about this a lot, especially being in one of the many blue-dot red states. GOP legislatures like to wage war on liberal-bastion cities, but there is (or should be) a legitimate goose-golden egg concern there. My guess is you can only go so far in establishing a completely hostile atmosphere toward any kind of progressive thought before it hurts your economy. I don't know where that line is, though.

i don't think this is a a controp, but i think rich people will be fine. they will flee to the most livable areas in a world that is burning, they will gather together and have their own private militia/guard, and they will hide behind walls and multiple layers of security access. it will be worse than before for them, but not nearly as bad as it will be for everyone else.

or hell, maybe they'll just be on the space station

What’s the scenario where money has no value though? Extinction-level apocalypse?

Short of that, a slide into a completely undemocratic authoritarian state leaves the wealthy protected in every way.

"is that the eastern seaboard on fire down there, dear?"
"why, it certainly is! do you think it's the summer fires or the 6th civil war?"
"oh, who can tell the difference any more, i just hate how the smoke clouds our view!"
"robot! i'm going to go have sex in the matrix now!"
"coooooompliance!"

undemocratic, authoritarian states are far less stable than regimes that the public view as "legitimate." in addition, economies where workers have few opportunities for advancement or stability are less productive. it doesn't pay to be the king of the ashes, you know.

they'll be "better off" than the rest of us, true. but i still think our "ruling class" is terribly misguided in their decision to act as such poor stewards of our economy, government, and planet.

it's hard to overstate how completely the function of the parties is to create the illusion of meaningful choice. if a person doesn't see that i don't know what to tell them.