US Politics, March 2023: "We want our own safe space, and we deserve it"

I realized the other day, regarding my Pat Buchanan reference a while back: A lot of the conservative political agendas strike me as "dog chasing car" scenarios where, once they actually catch up with the car, they have absolutely no idea what to do. Or maybe they're angry some other dog got to the car first.

Of course the internet, but I sometimes wonder if the radicalisation of conservative politics comes from Boomers facing mortality and wanting to stamp society in their image before they lose control of politics. Of course us Gen Xs will gesture feebly toward the reins while Gen Y ascends to fill the power vacuum in a few years, but ...

The idea that bloggers criticising a politician should register with the government is insane

Newt is behind the times. Republican legislators in safe seats everywhere have grasped that floating insane ideas in bills costs them nothing politically and drives the boundaries of politics further toward normalizing white supremacist fascism, which brings them closer to realizing their ideal state.

drives the boundaries of politics further toward normalizing white supremacist fascism, which brings them closer to realizing their ideal state.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, March 6, 2023 1:44 PM

sneaking suspicion says this might be the goal and our friend newt is concern trolling / dog whistling.

(stating the obvious: newt sucks. i just assume the opposite of everything he says. fuck`im.)

WATCH: Democrats need to "put more focus" on crime, says Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.).

Jackson: "It's a violent culture that we have to turn around." @kwelkernbc: "Do Democrats run the risk of running too far left on this issue?"

Jackson: "Yes, absolutely." pic.twitter.com/terJ0EoMxt

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 6, 2023

FUND THE POLICE FUND FUND FUND THE POLICE

The White House’s proposal would raise the net investment income tax, created by the Affordable Care Act, from 3.8 percent to 5 percent for all Americans earning more than $400,000 per year, in line with Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes for anyone under that threshold. The tax applies to capital gains and investment income. The plan also would expand this tax by applying it to more kinds of income from pass-through firms — businesses in which the owners pay taxes on their personal income taxes. Currently, these kinds of business owners do not pay this tax.

Additionally, the plan calls for expanding new rules reducing Medicare prescription drug payments beyond the measures approved last year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The plan would give the administration authority to negotiate what price the federal government pays for more drugs than the limited number approved as part of Democrats’ legislative package last year, while also speeding up the process for negotiations. The prescription drug changes would bring in an additional $200 billion for the Medicare trust fund, the plan states. The proposal would also cap co-pays for some generic drugs, such as those used to treat hypertension and high cholesterol, to $2 per prescription per month.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2023/03/07/biden-medicare-taxes-gop/

holy shit the DeSantis Gitmo stuff is awful, can't believe I'm saying this but I think I'd rather have Trump

“And anyone who calls DeSantis a "fascist" should be run out of the room.” Ok well what if you’re tied to a chair and can’t run? pic.twitter.com/caeylxwwQC

— Screamer Jim (@HeheWaitWhut) March 7, 2023

Hamid should be tied to a chair.

feel like the difference between these two is that Trump would say something like "any journalist who reports fake news about me should lose their citizenship" for applause, while DeSantis would actually try to pass the legislation

See? DeSantis should be president. He gets things done.

The Biden administration is considering reviving the practice of detaining migrant families who cross the border illegally — the same policy the president shut down over the past two years because he wanted a more humane immigration system, officials familiar with the discussions said Monday.

Although no final decision has been made, the move would be a stark reversal for President Biden, who came into office promising to adopt a more compassionate approach to the border after the harsh policies of his predecessor, former President Donald J. Trump.

The Biden administration has largely ended the practice of family detention, instead releasing families into the United States temporarily and using ankle bracelets, traceable cellphones or other methods to keep track of them

From New York Times

Since Biden changed chief of staff and sorta started re-election campaign he’s done a handful of things in an attempt to appease right wingers and rightish centrists

luv 2 put ankle bracelets on desperate families, on the other hand, luv 2 imprison them. how do i choose between????

"Vote Blue No Matter Who"

and here we are:

Now solidly pro-choice Florida will pass a 6-week abortion ban because Ron Desantis can’t win the Republican nomination with it at 15 weeks.

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 7, 2023

And DeSantis wants to personally supervise each abortion

i did not know de santis was a torturer at guantanamo but it makes sense. too bad republicans like this stuff so trump can't use it against him in the primary.

No, Trump can point out that DeSantis offshored all the torture to our enemies in Cuba, while he plans to bring the torture back here to THE USA

i was thinking he could call him like "jigsaw rob" or something

Apparently, no joke, the nickname being considered is “small D”

It's funny that the late night talk show hosts, or at least Colbert & Oliver that I saw, loved "Meatball Ron" and even praised Trump for nailing it, so then Trump had to distance himself from it and call it fake news. He must be hated by them in every way for his schtick to work.

https://jewishinsider.com/2023/03/rep-katie-porter-j-street-house-members-delegation-democratic-netanyahu-israel/

“ Not only was the prime minister “extremely generous both with his time and with his thoughts,” but the group was “really able to have an interactive dialogue with him,” she said. “I was extremely impressed with his willingness to kind of grapple with us at some of the toughest issues that Israel’s facing, everything from judicial reform — an issue that we’re having questions and discussions about right now within the Democratic Party here in the United States — to issues about the West Bank and about settlements.””

“Tiny D”, weren’t it?

hoping that the first debate just descends into cruel recriminations over penis sizes

x-post -- Porter trying too hard not to offend

The pre-visit preparations paid off, she recalled, when the delegation, which was sponsored by J Street, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. “It was actually funny in that there was a moment in that conversation with the prime minister where he was talking about Likud and LGBTQ members of Likud and he was saying, ‘I bet nobody knew that,’” Porter explained, referring to Netanyahu’s political party. “I raised my hand and I was like, ‘I knew! I knew!’ because I had gotten that additional briefing before I went.”

vomit

“Tiny D”, weren’t it?

oops, you're right. i think i was remembering this URL, but it's Tiny D that is under very careful consideration

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/donald-trump-ron-desantis-little-d

Sanctimonious D

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/07/actor-ben-savage-congress-schiff/

Former “Boy Meets World” actor Ben Savage is running for a U.S. House seat in a Los Angeles district represented by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D), who is seeking California’s open Senate seat.

Savage, who had filed as a Democrat in January, formally announced his bid Monday in an Instagram post, declaring himself a union member, longtime resident of the district, and “unhindered by political divisions and special interests.” He emphasized his newness to politics in the post. Savage previously ran for a West Hollywood city council seat in 2022 and lost with more than 6 percent of the vote, according to election records.

“I’m running for Congress because it’s time to restore faith in government by offering reasonable, innovative and compassionate solutions to our country’s most pressing issues,” he said.

EVery generation gets the Gopher it deserves.

Biden bucks liberals and tells Democrats to get tough on crime.

“Crime is only gaining salience as an issue. It seems that Biden, as he apparently runs for re-election, is informing his party to wake up," said @mattsgorman.https://t.co/YHWzOYOor1

— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) March 6, 2023

C'mon man! FUND the police!

Biden knows that '90s nostalgia is hot right now, so looking to remaster the 1994 crime bill for a deluxe anniversary reissue. Savvy!

Biden's got no fecks to give.

FINALLY somebody who promises to "get tough on crime"

Can't believe nobody's ever tried this before

They've got the big brains on this one

Wake up Democrats!!!

I cannot believe people are falling for this fucking bullshit again

Maybe it'll work the 50000000000000000th time we shovel money into police departments and do absolutely fucking nothing about the utterly broken systems of early years education, medicine, after-school programs etc

I mean it's okay, it's only people's entire lives we're playing with for the sake of election positioning

Go ahead fuck it why not!

xpost - They are, believe me. It's been really disappointing to hear how many people I interact with on a daily basis, many of them who are otherwise very liberal and in some cases outspokenly anti-police, who have suddenly gone all in on "crime" being the number one issue that needs to be addressed.

"Last fall, Gallup found that a record 56% of Americans reported crime had gone up in their area — the highest uptick since the pollster first started asking the question in 1972. A follow-up survey in January found that 72% of Americans expected crime to continue to rise this year.

Residents of urban areas reported a 15 percentage point drop in their perceived quality of life over past year in deep-blue New Jersey, according to a new Monmouth University poll, while suburbanites said their quality of life remained stable."

Beyond the issue that throwing money at the carceral complex won’t actually change anything, there’s also the fact that crime, including violent crime, is very low at present.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/10/31/violent-crime-is-a-key-midterm-voting-issue-but-what-does-the-data-say/

The conservative hellion who lives upstairs babbled for minutes a few weeks about how "these savages" (in Cuban Spanish) broke into her son's Jeep, stealing minor crap from the glove compartment. They called the cops.

Last week I went to my car early in the morning and noticed a thief had stolen a supply of quarters I keep by the gear shift. I left the door open or they opened it. Either way, I don't give a shit, nor is my incident an indicator that Crime Is Up. But most people blow up the anecdotal into a Kantian imperative.

https://townsquare.media/site/385/files/2020/10/violent-crime-NJ.jpg?w=1200&h=0&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89

People are fed lies by a very well organized set of lobbyists and a credulous press that swallows every word of it and churns out stories about shortages of cops etc it's just maniacal when you look at the data, it's bullshit but EVEN IF IT WEREN'T it has been shown again and again that cops do not reduce crime

Sorry but I've just about had it. I am completely fed up

What seems to be happening, at least in parts of Chicago, is that crime isn't necessarily up at all, but it seems to be moving into neighborhoods that have traditionally seen less crime.

Like we're probably experiencing the same, or fewer, number of carjackings, but when two of them happen in Lincoln Park, folks act like the end times are upon us.

Here's a comment, jon, from one of the sites I visit:

Despite Fox News focus on it NYC specifically has seen little increase. But it's very bad in places like Baltimore and Chicago. Generally it also seems more widespread, compared to the nineties there has been some convergence between rural and urban areas leading to people who lived through the nineties to think if it's thus bad here what must it be like in NYC.

I think at this point we do have to acknowledge that crime is worse, but we also need to get the message across that it doesn't seem correlated with how hard or soft an area is on crime. Big problem is the increase is too new to really be able to take a data driven approach to the current increase.

Residents of urban areas reported a 15 percentage point drop in their perceived quality of life over past year in deep-blue New Jersey, according to a new Monmouth University poll, while suburbanites said their quality of life remained stable.

A couple of restaurants I really liked in my city have closed over the last year, but I don't know if I'd call it a 15% drop in quality of life. Maybe 9-12%.

Here in Oakland at least, rates of crime are hard to evaluate... so many people are like, "well, they stole my catalytic converter for the 3rd time, I'm not even gonna bother calling the police anymore" because all they do is show up like a day later and take a report that gets filed away somewhere

I tried to file a report online when all my buildings' mailboxes were broken into one night. My police report was REJECTED because I wasn't the victim, I guess they wanted each of the 20 residents to file separately. I didn't even know that police reports could be rejected, but I guess it helps their numbers