US Politics, June 2024: "Have there ever been this many cowards in power?"

xpost I also doubt that? I wasn't suggesting people were unaware of the conviction, but that it could be politically useful to demonize Trump over it constantly for a while. Sort of how the constant repetition that the border is a crisis has caused Biden to do a total 180 on policy.

agreed Alfred, it's unclear to me who this is aimed at

Nobody? I'm making a remark.

They heard that some guy in a midwest diner might vote for Biden if he was tougher on "the border issue"

Became a US citizen and a registered democrat today, fml.

seriously? congrats! welcome to our hellhole

got one question wrong on https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/questions-and-answers/100q.pdf (blanked on the name for the first ten amendments) but yeah seriously.

Bill O'Reilly is named after the Bill of Rights, that's how you remember it

I know the Democratic Party is a hot mess as well but I've been a D. partisan mostly all my life, outside of youthful stints as a Green or SWP

I can tell you: the GOP are rabid about it. I hear it in my Cuban American family. They can't stop talking about it -- more than inflation.

The constant fear of invaders is such a perennial and effective political trope. What boggles my mind about it under current circumstances living in a red state is that every construction crew around here — including the guys who put on my new roof a few weeks ago — are Latino. Restaurants, hotels, custodial services, etc etc. And everyone is totally fine with it, I never hear anybody complaining about the actual practical impacts of a large migrant population, because they are almost all to the benefit of the permanent legal residents. But that doesn't dampen its mythological appeal as an existential threat.

In California, everyone who's taking care of your grandma in the home is an immigrant, or maybe second gen

There was a recent article in the local newspaper business section pointing out that studies have determined that if Trump were to follow through with the mass deportations of undocumented US residents that he has promised as part of his agenda it would mean a net loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs for US citizens, too, because if you remove enough pieces from an economic structure, it fails and its failure takes down everyone's job who was employed in it. The ripple effects of Trump's "plan" would be more like shock waves.

Of course, he's only blowing smoke when he talks of 8 million deportations, but even accomplishing the bare outlines of this idea would cause massive and needless misery in return for no benefit to anyone whatsoever.

Texas already wants the Supreme Court to give them the capacity to not provide public education for the children of undocumented people. The fallout from that would be staggering, and the social implications are as terrifying as what they’ve done to women

Honestly, I just hope coastal states fucking ignore the SC

Quite a few blue states not on the coast.

Another reason why I won’t be voting for Biden in the fall: the caving in to racist anti-immigration sentiment via enacting policies to the right of Trump’s. Please please, continue to tell me how this racist geriatric genocidaire is the best president of your lifetime.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/us/politics/biden-immigration-asylum-order.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xE0.YNXK.p-ZHfLh4Y5ZJ&smid=url-share

Well, the choices aren't exactly great.

Either way, this decision is terrible.

We were looking at a bunch of population maps at work yesterday and I feel like everyone needs to be reminded that our numbers are going up only due to immigration and that population growth is a good thing.

South Korea’s in some trouble btw. I think they have a 0.7 pop growth

And that’s why there’s a huge wave of homophobia in South Korea, among other reasons

I also want to make clear: I understand voting for him, and don’t begrudge anyone who does. But the “best president of my lifetime” schtick might be true, but is so impoverished in its evidence, that it mostly goes to show that the US isn’t worth saving afaic. Talk about a shithole country

What it not a shithole country atm?

Uruguay.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/6/60/Uruguay.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100724103022

Just curious, table, who would you say is the best president of your lifetime?

agreed Alfred, it's unclear to me who this is aimed at

― rob, Monday, June 3, 2024 4:17 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Nobody? I'm making a remark.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 3, 2024 4:17 PM (yesterday)

I was puzzled by this yesterday and only just realized the confusion: Alfred, by "this" I meant Biden's decision, not your post! Sorry for the ambiguous pronoun :)

Remind me to mix you a Negroni at 5 p.m.

xxpost As Nas said, “Ain’t no best.”

xp nice. and I just got a bottle of amaro I've never tried. unfortunately, I left it in my friend's car and can't remember the name

I wanted to buy some Amaro Nonino the other day but it's like $55 now

^^ Biden Did This ^^

I feel your pain, f. hazel

This is so adorable. Honestly, good on him bringing his grandson to work. Just some good innocent fun in govt.

*googles Rep John Rose + wife*

Oh....oh god. No. https://t.co/8uaQ1qUM1T

— Centrism Fan Acct 🔹 (@Wilson__Valdez) June 3, 2024

Rose and his wife Chelsea (née Doss) married in January 2011.[30] At the time, he was 45 and she was 21. He met her when she was 14.[31] They live in Cookeville, Tennessee, with their two sons.

A pretty good Times piece on Ryan Busse, the Democratic candidate for governor here in Montana. (Gift link.)

XP I typed out a Milkshake Duck post about that guy yesterday, but thought better.

I think that tack in Montana is a good one, even if it doesn't produce immediate wins. Red-state Republicans are so full of shit and so susceptible to outside money that they are easy targets and should be treated as such. We have a Senate race here in TN that I'm curious to see the result of — not because the Democrat (Gloria Johnson, one of the "Tennessee Three" and my own state rep) has a prayer of winning, but because she's running a full-throttle assault on Marsha Blackburn that is a contrast to the first time Blackburn ran against former Gov. Phil Bredesen. Bredesen is a centrist and ran as one, and what I hope is that Johnson does at least as well as Bredesen or better — which would show that there's no harm and potential gain in running straight at the loonys, not trying to soften their edges.

I think that tack in Montana is a good one, even if it doesn't produce immediate wins. Red-state Republicans are so full of shit and so susceptible to outside money that they are easy targets and should be treated as such.

As I've said here before, people in Montana are really pissed that their property taxes have effectively doubled this year — and Busse's been running ads and social media videos talking about the fact that Gianforte's own property taxes actually went down while his neighbor's went up. There's also a lot of anger about attempts to privatize land and streams that people have been hunting and fishing on for decades. It's not gonna be a blowout, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Gianforte loses. And I'm pretty confident Tester's gonna hold his seat; he's about five points ahead of Sheehy, who comes across like a real asshole in basically any context.

the whole crux of the Hunter Biden case was that he lied about his drug use when he otherwise legally purchased a firearm

I'm known a few drug addict over the years, and the first thing they'll tell you is that they're not an addict... that's like a fundamental part of addiction, that denial. If he'd admitted he drank too much every day, would that have been a gun crime?

“Protesting peacefully doesn’t always mean you’re protected by the first amendment,” CPD Sup Larry Snelling, US Secret Service Director address DNC security plans pic.twitter.com/0gAOqtd6zK

— Paris Schutz (@paschutz) June 4, 2024

Chicago cops have just been itching for yet another excuse to beat the shit out of people. This summer is going to be an absolute shitshow.

Sadly that quote is correct as far as judicial precedent goes. "Time/place/manner restrictions" and all that. We've had 21 completely peaceful protesters arrested on the University of Tennessee campus, for being peaceful at the wrong place or time. But yeah, cops will interpret that as broadly as they want.

Yeah, you peacefully chain yourself to the courthouse steps, and they'll unpeacefully arrest you and take you to jail

worth noting that all this is because various liberal factions let the SC chip away at these rights in anti-abortion cases back in the 80's, specifically regarding a California tree-defense pepper spray usage case in the late 90s that had precedent as noted. support yr enemies right to peacefully protest, or it will bite you in the ass.

We now have "Free Speech Zones" lol.

I've dealt with that twaddle for at least 15 years

Have you ever hung out in a free speech zone? It blows your mind man

https://facts.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/48-facts-about-the-movie-say-anything-1687589831.jpeg

I went to a feee speech zone before they were cool

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/us/politics/trump-fbi-documents-threats.html

repeated use of the word "lie" rather than "falsehood" here. has some line been crossed in this particular case or is this a change of policy.

“ Representative Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican whom Donald J. Trump is said to be considering for his running mate, suggested on Tuesday that the Jim Crow era had some virtues for Black people while trying to persuade voters of color to back the former president.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries,Democrat of New York and the House minority leader, also condemned Mr. Donalds on Wednesday, making a thinly veiled reference to the congressman during remarks on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“That’s an outlandish, outrageous and out-of-pocket observation,” Mr. Jeffries said of Mr. Donalds’s comments, pointing to the lynchings and inequities that defined the Jim Crow era. “How dare you make such an ignorant observation? You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.”

Is there any democrat that’s not a complete dork

dorks can be perfectly good legislators. white supremacists not so much.