U.S. Politics, November 2022: “I don’t know, you hear the same things I do”

as a citizen of the united states and, more importantly, a minnesota vikings fan i will die with a white hot hatred of that man

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-says-he-did-not-know-identity-of-dinner-guest-owing-to-white-hood

This sucks

As a proud pro-labor President, I'm reluctant to override the ratification procedures and views of those who voted against the agreement.

But in this case – where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions – I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal.

— President Biden (@POTUS) November 29, 2022

Jfc

“slave for us so we can keep profiting off you” is the heart of both parties.

“vote blue no matter who”

Would this action be the end of it?

I didn’t vote for Biden!

Waited an hour and a half to early vote for Warnock on a Monday at 11am. This is after two weekend days of early voting! I guess that’s encouraging?

I heard that the first day of voting alone there was something like a 10,000 vote boost among new voters aged 18-24. That's gotta be good.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2022-georgia-senate-runoff-georgia-sets-one-day-early-voting-record/

Promising:

According to data from Georgia's Secretary of State office, 46% of that weekend's voters were Black and 57% were female.

Early voter turnout for the runoff has been highest in several Democratic leaning counties around Atlanta such as Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb County.

GOP voters gonna be happy to pretend Walker never happened imo.

Hershel Hears a - Who?

Waited an hour and a half to early vote for Warnock on a Monday at 11am. This is after two weekend days of early voting! I guess that’s encouraging?

Same-day voting is likely to favor Walker.

Election-day voting, I mean to say.

yep

Also voters with significant brain damage

GOP voters gonna be happy to pretend Walker never happened imo.

I predict Herschel will still get his 49%.

^^^ yep.

That's almost certain.

Vampires 51.7%
Werewolves 49.3%

lol. As long as they have a shot at Werewolves 50.1% I think they'll keep rolling the dice on getting their brain dead candidates elected rather than find better candidates.

iirc Werewolves cannot run for President, since they were born in London.

It’s stunning how awful a candidate Walker is.

How did it get this far? I refuse to believe that they couldn’t have found a better black Republican anywhere in the state of Georgia.

(I don’t want the GOP to win this seat, of course, but this is just so painful.)

Republicans will run anyone with some measure of fame from outside politics.

It’s stunning how awful a candidate Walker is.

How did it get this far? I refuse to believe that they couldn’t have found a better black Republican anywhere in the state of Georgia.

One word: football. Herschel still has near saintly status in Georgia, purely due to football. Without that, some white dude like Gary Black would have been the candidate.

xpost
they seemingly hit a wall with the strategy this year, as their newscaster, tv health guru and football(?) guy are not winning.

Republicans will run anyone with some measure of fame from outside politics.

A dozen years ago the Republican candidate for governor of Oregon was a big white guy named Chris Dudley who'd played center for the NBA Portland Trail Blazers. He had zero political experience. He came within a percentage point of winning.

Both parties have run celebrity candidates. However, most of them used to have some interest in public service.

Like, Al Franken had a degree in political science from a school that is near Boston.

Oh you've got to be fucking kidding. pic.twitter.com/6BDAhiNFwj

— Louis Peitzman (@LouisPeitzman) November 29, 2022

How did it get this far? I refuse to believe that they couldn’t have found a better black Republican anywhere in the state of Georgia.

One word: football. Herschel still has near saintly status in Georgia, purely due to football. Without that, some white dude like Gary Black would have been the candidate.

football, yes, but Herschel wouldn't have run (or won the primary) without Trump's encouragement and endorsement

yesterday I heard a local commentator say that any other Republican nominee would have beaten Warnock in the general election; that's probably true, given the margin of Kemp's gubernatorial win

without the incentive of voting against Stacey Abrams, I don't think Herschel's charms are sufficient to drive the GOP turnout he needs

our wait for early voting this morning was longer than we had at the same time and place during the general

Yeah, I voted on Sunday in Clarkston. Total wait was about an hour. It was maybe 15 minutes in Tucker during the midterm.

lol Nancy gonna Nancy

NEW PELOSI DEAR COLLEAGUE — House will vote tomorrow on ratifying the rail deal AND a separate vote on seven days of paid leave.

The paid leave element lines up w what ⁦@SenSanders⁩ wants the senate to consider. pic.twitter.com/Nh11s0x3Pa

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 29, 2022

They’re not gonna give rail workers the paid leave , but Pelosi will put it to a vote . Ugh

Assuming every House Democrat falls in line on the second vote they get to blame Manchinema in the Senate once more for old time's sake.

And they force Republicans to block it, blunting whatever appeal Rubio or whoever is making. (Cynical, sure.)

Was there another way to avoid this farrago? I'm asking seriously.

Is ms Pelosi still in post?

Do you mean the potential for a strike?

If that’s what you mean, the main issue is that rail companies have been consolidating and recording insane profits over the past decade or so, all while furloughing or downright firing workers. Many companies want (and some have gotten) one-person crews, who are then responsible for the amount of dangerous work that was done by three people only 25 years ago. This creates dangerous conditions for workers, but also dangerous conditions on our rail system and every community it goes through.

This is to say nothing of workers being on-call so that they don’t have guaranteed weekends, can’t ask for days off, and are often forced to work when hurt or tired.

The Biden administration is on the side of the rail companies and brokered a deal in the fall that didn’t actually get the approval of an enormous chunk of union membership, but the baddies believed that they would accept the deal eventually because what else is new, you don’t want to cause a nationwide logistics hell around Christmas, right? Well, now the union is calling their bluff, and Biden and many Dems are showing which side their bread is buttered on.

To avoid this would have been easy— agree to the union’s very reasonable terms.

As a former hobo and someone who knows a lot of rails, I cannot stress how dangerous this kind of work is, and how a bunch of suited assholes in Washington shouldn’t have any say over the safety and wellbeing of rail workers.

Was there another way to avoid this farrago? I'm asking seriously.

A pro-labour train enthusiast might nationalise the railways.

Yeah, that's gonna happen.

You'd think so given Amtrak's quasi-public corp status.

The outcome of these sorts of policies are disasters like the Lac-Megantic tragedy, among others too numerous to name.

yeah

It’s by the problem here that union leadership and membership disagree with each other as well as the railroads?

Pelosi's House speech:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday urged her colleagues to support both a bill to avert a national rail strike and a second piece of legislation that would give workers seven days of paid sick leave — addressing a concern from liberal lawmakers about the underlying deal brokered by the Biden administration.

“Today we are here to safeguard the financial security of America’s families, to protect American economy as it continues to recover and avert a devastating nationwide rail shutdown,” Pelosi said at the outset of the House floor debate on the measures.

Pelosi said the main bill, which reflects the deal brokered by the Biden administration, includes “important advances” for rail workers, including a sizable pay raise, from owners that had “made obscene profits on the backs of workers.”

But Pelosi said the second bill, mandating seven days of paid sick leave, is necessary to address a glaring deficiency in the first bill.

“It is outrageous that every developed country in the world has paid sick leave except the United States of America,” she said. “No one should be at risk of losing his or her job by staying home when sick, needing to see a doctor or getting lifesaving surgery.”

“Going to see a proctologist is not a reason why people would take a day off. They do that because they have to,” Pelosi added.

She closed by urging her colleagues to support both bills.