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

(not here, btw, just in general - lots of absolutely shocked outrage versus sighs of having expectations met)

((and not like good sighs, to be clear, just the "sigh, of fucking course this was going to be the outcome"))

Nonviolent resistance is an idea whose time has passed.

i just don't have the emotional energy for it today. i'm having to go radio silent on the social meeds (which tbh I mostly have done anyway this week other than telling concerned peeps about my dad).

this is the only place i can bear to read rn (which is sayin something lol)

Similar to "Miranda," we'll forever call this ruling the "Rittenhouse" - the inalienable right to carry a rifle wherever you go, and shoot anyone who tries to stop you

It's horrifying to think of how much bloodshed is going to be tied directly back to this date. This fucking country.

I guess we can feel lucky they didn't convict the victims of upsetting a child murderer

how unique is Wisconsin on this self defense stuff?

He crossed state lines just to stand his ground
Just a shy young kid, chambering a round

- "The Ballad of Patriot Kyle", to be played at every future MAGA event

joe problems

President Biden on Rittenhouse verdict just now, arriving on the South Lawn: “I stand by what the jury has to say. The jury system works.”

— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) November 19, 2021

Why? Why would you say anything if you’re going to say that?

The only thing that matters is that the libs and the rest of the world are angry. That's a win, in their eyes.

The worst people on earth have a new hero, but at least they don’t have a new martyr, I guess.

Give it time.

"he's not the same anymore, my little Kyle-ie is having PTSD from the trial"

how unique is Wisconsin on this self defense stuff?

― maf you one two (maffew12), Friday, November 19, 2021 2:39 PM (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not unique whatsoever?

Okay, Biden said more than just supporting the jury

Do NOT ruin this moment for milo

Taibbi JAQin 4 clicks:

In a tinderbox situation like this one, it was reckless beyond belief for analysts to tell audiences Rittenhouse was a murderer when many if not most of them had a good idea he would be acquitted.]

No one who called him a murderer was wrong, regardless of whether he was likely to be acquitted.

Do NOT ruin this moment for milo

I think you're confused about who posted his quote.

Not sure greater context for his statement improve it, though.

Biden also encouraged protesters to "express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law."
"Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy," the statement adds.

i posted it and any context or new information is going to ruin my whole day i can tell you

i'm a big fan of the rule of law and the jury system

Always make sure to scold 'looters and rioters' when talking about the white supremacist murderer.

In a statement later Friday afternoon, Biden acknowledged that the verdict in the trial "will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included."

Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy

looks at that quote

looks at like literally all of American history

i mean, wasn't there like a thing with tea that time? i mean

looks back at that quote

closes laptop and starts drinking

sad lol

They couldn’t have canceled this? https://t.co/hZoXMMsBM8

— Lisa Snowden (@LisaMcCray) November 19, 2021

Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy

looks at that quote
looks at like literally all of American history
closes laptop and starts drinking

Congress just censured a Republican for pretend violence and we all applauded. Or so I seem to recall. You can draw valuable distinctions between Gosar and those protestors, but I guarantee that at least 80% of the public would see those distinctions as hypocritical quibbles and approve of what Biden said. None of this stuff is that simple.

+ one of the major complications in all this is people's overwhelmingly Procrustean desire to impose simplicity on it.

If you threaten political violence you get a meaningless non-punishment.

If you commit political violence (against the proper side), there are no consequences.

Seems to me that YMP has the accurate read.

Sorry aimless I don't really even have a coherent point to make, I'm just... tired and frazzled.

Like, could just ONE fucking thing move in the direction of kindness or fairness or even (gasp) justice?

Anyone going to protests after this decision has all my admiration.

Like, could just ONE fucking thing move in the direction of kindness or fairness or even (gasp) justice?

― popcornoscenti (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, November 19, 2021 1:52 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

you do know where we live, right?

Post from my friend who has been covering this:

Heartbreaking conversation with Susan Hughes, the great-aunt of Anthony Huber who was a quasi mother to him and who testified on his behalf at the trial. She left the courtroom after the verdict and drove to a quiet park along Lake Michigan. We talked about the last three weeks, but this jumped out at me. This is soul and grace:

"Maybe it’s my naivete. I’m 74, I’ve seen a lot of things in my lifetime and a lot of unfair things in the justice system, I just never thought it would happen to me. I thought we had a chance. But there was a lot of money, and a lot of advance support and publicity tainting the public perception of who he is.

"I think he can develop remorse. I won’t be conflicted until he makes some atonement and some acknowledgment of what he did. And his decision to fire eight bullets in a short period of time that seriously disfigured Gaige and killed Anthony and Joseph Rosenbaum. He could make a grand gesture. Whatever he makes of the millions of dollars he raised, give it to an organization that supports victims of gunshot violence or trains people in de-escalation or conflict resolution. Something positive. But I don’t think that’ll be the case. You’ll see him in ads promoting AR-15s.

"(Kyle's) been used. He’ll continue to be used by people and I hope that if I was speaking to him directly, I’d say you gotta man up, quickly, because you need to get better at understanding who you have around you and who has an agenda. And right now, everyone has an agenda and if they think that child belongs in the hall of the Capital as an intern for Matt Gaetz, that is going to destroy him. Ten years down the road, MG and people will have deserted him when he is no longer good for their fundraising efforts."

Forgot the 'MAGA Asshole Kid' was Sandman.

Thanks to this bill, we scored a big round against the Moocher States and cut taxes for families across New Jersey's Fifth District.

Months ago, I said “No SALT, No Dice.” Today, New Jersey’s middle class families won big!

— Rep Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) November 19, 2021

the SALT repeal mostly affected democratic progressive states with high state taxes, unlike backwards retrograde states like fucking Texas. why should we pay federal taxes on our already garnered state taxes to subsidize you?

https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/12-10-19taxf1_0.png

(The top quintile there starts at ~2X the median household income of CA.)

"A larger SALT deduction would provide the least benefit to people who live in states like Florida, Texas and Nevada without state income taxes" sounds good to me

Tax the rich (unless they’re me)

^^Sinema's Met Dress

I think you mean AOC?

I know it’s objectively bad but it is one of my vestigial epic blue-brain lib takes. Every time I see some comfortable MAGA fuck I’m connected to on Facebook popping off about “makers and takers” it’s extremely difficult for me not to just swoop in and remind them that the only reason they have roads or their precious troops or their shitty incorporated exurb’s PD has tanks or peepaw’s government subsidized scooter he rides to the Blue Lives Matter rally is thanks to “blue” coastal states (and blue metros in red states). That if they were able to divorce themselves from their woke vaxxed liberal oppressors— aka this country’s economic engines that collectively pay much more in federal income taxes than they get back—this cobbled together neo-Confederacy would mostly look like the “shithole countries” they deride inside of 10 years, just with bloated red-faced honkies

XP The Parenthetical makes it more of a Sinema thing, as in AOC would presumably be up for paying taxes on newfound wealth, but Sinema wouldn't.

it’s extremely difficult for me not to just swoop in and remind them that the only reason they have roads or their precious troops or their shitty incorporated exurb’s PD has tanks or peepaw’s government subsidized scooter he rides to the Blue Lives Matter rally is thanks to “blue” coastal states (and blue metros in red states).

not angled as some kind of insult, this is very insightful into how all of this works imo.

I mean, spreading broadband to where it doesn't reach is the modern equivalent of rural electrification! Anyway, the part of "government" these assholes really hate is "handouts," and by "handouts" it's stuff they presume goes to minorities, whose unemployment and poverty is of course totally different from that of all the poor, unemployed white people that benefit from the same so-called "handouts."

This is an impression the capitalists have ruthlessly worked to promote in rural America. It’s how they split the American working class—it’s why something like the Republican Party, which works for no one but the wealthy—is even possible in a putative democracy.

Democrats play into it too. The only hope for the country is class consciousness. Things like the antiwork subreddit are a glimmer of hope but I won’t hold my breath.

sadly I think the Democratic Party is as committed as the GOP to culture war in lieu of any kind of class consciousness