God Has Abandoned Us: U.S. Politics November 2023

re: Ned's weed map above (which is excellent btw)

https://preview.redd.it/5ed97mut16zb1.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=9f2077c870709542b02242c1fbeb2313850a6e08

In a weird way I sort of agree with old Rick, based on what California's ballot initiative process has become... big money interests can afford to collect signatures, and pretty soon we're voting on 'sexy' things like physician staffing at dialysis clinics, or whether ambulance drivers get paid for lunch breaks (these are actual thing we've seen the last few cycles), things that really belong in the regulatory part of gov't

But god forbid the actual voters go behind JD Vance's back to pass this stuff, am i right?

J.D. Vance got the memo I guess. But a federal 15-week ban is a loser from both ends of the spectrum.

it lost virginia last night

I think citizen referendums are like any other part of our system, they can be used or abused for good, bad or weird interests. But living in a state that doesn't allow them, I wish we did.

Influential Republicans are circulating polling and focus groups that show their abortion message is failing badly. And that voters now believe "pro-life" means banning all abortions without exception... which they're pleading with candidates to combat.https://t.co/J1iLOEV58P

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 8, 2023

Good job, GOP!

Turns out that’s what pro life actually means to these people who knew

Maybe if only all those states hadn't completely totally banned abortion people wouldn't think you wanted to completely totally ban abortion idk.

Leave my Daughter out of your Voice sounds like the title of a Julia Holter album

Who hasn’t tried to ban abortion without exception - lord knows i have

When faced with a poor outlook in terms of population demographics and trends, the GOP leaned hard into cheating and extremism as their two-pronged approach for prolonging and even potentially cementing their tenuous grasp on power. Turns out those two pillars are not popular when it comes to elections! But it’s way too late for them to shift course- how can you temper your message now without alienating the extremist voting bloc you are relying on to maintain what power you have- and potentially turning them against you?

Case in point

Ramaswamy: The GOP leadership is so weak. It let two journalists question our candidates — rather than pushing culture war to its logical end, which means replacing "their" people with ours. You can't just sit around complaining about bias. You have to remove them from the frame. https://t.co/A0DQsfxJKq

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) November 9, 2023

Thing I keep telling this right-wing evangelical guy I know — most people don't want to live in your weird little world, leave us out of it.

Trump is politically smart enough to know it's a losing issue, but that sets up an interesting reckoning with his lunatic megachurch base, which loves him almost as much it hates abortion.

yeah see that's the problem they've basically alienated everyone who isn't plugged into the right-wing mediasphere. and studies show for that shit to work they have to consistently be watching it. like didn't they do one where people switched from FOX to CNN for a week and they became way less radical? but to retain viewership you have to say increasingly insane shit and before you know it you're running guys like Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker while basing your entire party platform on the whims of a 78-year old 4x indicted reality TV star whose entire business model has been exposed as a total fraud from the ground up. not sure what the off-ramp is either it's not like they do anything for the people that they can actually run on

Trump is politically smart enough to know it's a losing issue

You can slam Trump pretty easily for his three (3!) SCOTUS nominations who were absolutely chosen specifically for their anti-abortion credibility and who cemented the downfall of Roe v Wade with their votes.

When you can’t broaden your base, you work really hard to narrow the electorate.

You can slam Trump pretty easily for his three (3!) SCOTUS nominations

Your honor, he was acting on advice of counsel.

But it seems a mistake to put so much stock in personality over platform and policies.

what if you don't care about his personality but simply on their merits don't like his pro-genocide policies, his pro-domestic-child-murder policies, his pro-climate-collapse policies, or his union-busting policies, and also think that being old and set in his ways might impact his dedication to these policies?

For more than 50 years, employers have been able to thwart their employees’ attempts to form unions in three simple steps (I have often wondered why “union avoidance” lawyers and consultants make so much money, given how straightforward this is):

1. When workers give their boss signed union cards showing a majority of them want to form a union, refuse to recognize or bargain with the union.

2. Use the NLRB’s sluggish processes to delay an election for weeks or months.

3. Use that time to retaliate against or threaten workers so the same group that signed union cards ultimately votes against forming the union they wanted.

Retaliation and threats are against the law, but the legal consequences are farcical. If an employer commits an unfair labor practice in the period before a union election, the NLRB will often, and I am not kidding here, require the employer to put up a poster saying they won’t break the law again, and then do the election over again.

The NLRB’s recent moves, however, should throw several monkey wrenches into this strategy. On Aug. 24, the NLRB issued a final rule that will speed up union elections, screwing up Step 2 of employers’ union-busting playbook. The rule, effective Dec. 26, will eliminate common delay tactics that help employers: pointless waiting periods, the chance to request numerous extensions, and the opportunity to flood the process with irrelevant arguments.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/10/biden-administration-union-strikes-nlrb-win.html

his union-busting policies

what exactly are his union-bashing policies? was under the impression that biden has been unusually pro-union in gesture and deed

Joe Biden siding with rail companies on sick leave:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/01/joe-biden-rail-strike-labor-unions

He has also been a big supporter of cop unions, which shouldn’t exist. There are other examples of how his support of unions isn’t as robust as it could or should be.

Yes, it's fairer to accuse him of two steps forward, one step back

lol, "siding with rail companies" and "union busting."

the administration intervened to prevent a strike because of the effect a rail stoppage would have on the economy. AND they continued to push for paid sick days. union negotiations continued and now most US rail worker now have sick leave.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/most-unionized-us-rail-workers-now-have-new-sick-leave-2023-06-05/

you can disagree on the correctness of the strike call, but it is not union busting. we're a union household and Biden has strongly and repeatedly spoke on the importance of unions, and supported them.

I'm not disputing you bulb, but grim lol at 4 days of sick leave per year being a win in the era of covid

agreed

bulb & rob otm

lol, "siding with rail companies" and "union busting."

the administration intervened to prevent a strike because of the effect a rail stoppage would have on the economy. AND they continued to push for paid sick days. union negotiations continued and now most US rail worker now have sick leave.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/most-unionized-us-rail-workers-now-have-new-sick-leave-2023-06-05🕸/🕸

Meanwhile it's looking like the Moms 4 Liberty wave has peaked and is receding in a lot of places. Not totally surprising — polling pretty consistently shows majorities most places in favor of teaching real history and against banning books — but good to see.

https://popular.info/p/update-school-board-voters-fight

They're empowered in Florida, alas, thanks to Governor Chicken Fingers.

Mostly true in deep blue MN too, but for an unfortunate result in Anoka-Hennepin (state's largest, and very suburban, district).

I know when M4L types show up at school board meetings here everyone just rolls their eyes.

one of my former coworkers was a school board candidate that defeated M4L-backed candidates this week!

I love M4L... Max4Live

that's right

Re: M4L- It seems like their intention was to make up for what they lacked in numbers and actual support, with sheer volume, brashness and headline-making amplification. It worked on the short term, until people caught on. Turns out those headlines that they were relying on to make it seem like they were riding a big wave of support, came around and bit them by causing just the sort of backlash you would expect.

My wife was lurking on the local M4L FB group for a couple of years and watched them ping pong from "re-open the schools" to "no more masks" to anti-CRT and anti-trans all the while purging anyone who offered a deviant opinion and finally demanded dues money to stay in the group. So it's basically lure them in, radicalize them, soak them for cash.

I can see how this has also shrunk their numbers.

yeah, M4L is basically the Westboro Baptist Church now.

the level of in-fighting in M4L and similar groups is insane

a similar group in my state called the "mama bears" managed to blow up after one of the leaders made false allegations of abuse in her peer's home. turns out those calls are recorded and it's illegal to lie about that!

You get all the craziest most unpleasant people all together in one place, crazy and unpleasant things will happen. Marx said this.

"the craziest most unpleasant people all together in one place" for December thread title

I hope you keep a Google Doc file with these proposed title, little flower.

LOL pic.twitter.com/vbGG4xhTX6

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 9, 2023

Manchin announcing he will not seek reelection

Maybe the WV dems can find someone electable who's not such a dickhead. Obviously the problem there is 'electable'; they could find someone who's less of a dickhead by holding a lottery.

That seat will surely go to a Republican.

Well it didn't take long for someone to come along and crush my dreams.

Manchin knew he was going to lose to Jim Justice. Maybe he'll join Kennedy, West and Stein as a sixth party candidate.

https://i.imgur.com/qMJ3ZPR.png