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US Politics: Hey wanna come to my office and see some Top Secret Eyes only documents?


Ser Scot A Ellison

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I'm amazed at how the Republicans have shot themselves in the foot these past few months. Biden's approval is up ~ 43%, the Senate looks increasingly like it'll be held by the Democrats in no small part due to terrible candidate selection by the GoP, and they'll end up probably with a 225-230 seat majority in the House, which is not that impressive (also makes it easier to flip back in 2024). The generic ballot is one thing, but the popular vote margin between R and D has also slipped from +5 to about +3.

The only thing that can make this even sweeter is if the orange cheeto declares to run for 2024 in the next few months. That would be the best gift to the Democrats ever.

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Short meta question tho.

Who of you had: Takes highly classified documents to his private residence - including information on Nukes.

On their Trump legal trouble bingo card.

Just to once again put into perspective how insane this entire thing is.

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2 hours ago, Larry of the Lake said:

What policies will lead to worse outcomes and more people locked up?  Please specify these losing policies.  This is not an improvement, it's not even a bandaid on a gunshot wound.  It's predicated on the right-wing view of criminal justice and incarceration .  

I'm not of the opinion that doing anything is worse than doing nothing.  This is going to be worse. 

If you run on defund the police and that's the only issue that will swing the race, you will lose. That in turn gives power to Republicans who looking longingly at how the police behave in the Philippines. It's much better to approach this issue from a left of center, but not far left, perspective. Idk what more cops will do, but what we need is more qualified cops and more social workers place directly in police departments. We need to treat people more accordingly and not just throw them in prison. And we need to find a better way to reduce recidivism while helping people reenter society after they've been sent to jail or rehab. All of this and more is going to cost a lot of money, which is another reason why that damn slogan is so counterproductive. 

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35 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Short meta question tho.

Who of you had: Takes highly classified documents to his private residence - including information on Nukes.

On their Trump legal trouble bingo card.

Just to once again put into perspective how insane this entire thing is.

I would have had "Takes documents about a famous world leader's affairs" on mine.

It still blows my mind that back in the day this weird fuck liked to call up his friends' wives, put them on speakerphone then call his friends in and try to get them to talk about how they're cheating on their wives. 

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But I am really kinda curious what kinky stuff is in those bloody Macron files?

Are they reliving their early days, and she tasks him with writing an essay as foreplay?

Does she spank him and tells him what a naughty boy he is?

Do they do a rehearsal of the graduate, and the staffers at the Elysee Palace have to take part in it, naked?

I am pretty sure the reality is even more boring than that.

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1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

If you run on defund the police and that's the only issue that will swing the race, you will lose. That in turn gives power to Republicans who looking longingly at how the police behave in the Philippines. It's much better to approach this issue from a left of center, but not far left, perspective. Idk what more cops will do, but what we need is more qualified cops and more social workers place directly in police departments. We need to treat people more accordingly and not just throw them in prison. And we need to find a better way to reduce recidivism while helping people reenter society after they've been sent to jail or rehab. All of this and more is going to cost a lot of money, which is another reason why that damn slogan is so counterproductive. 

You might not know what more cops will do, but a very probable bet is more people in prison.  There is a lot of data to support this.  The stuff in Biden's plan is going to result in more people in prison.  We have the largest prison population in the world.  We spend more on police than any country besides the US and China spends on their military. More police will not help anything.  Part of the problem is quite literally Too Many Police.  Giving them more money is not going to accomplish any of the goals you listed.  

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4 hours ago, Larry of the Lake said:

I guess I'll take the good with the bad while this shit is going to be supporting arresting women for having abortions.  

Honestly don't give a fuck about what kind of political needle Biden needs to thread or whatever.  This is objectively bad, and whatever 'good' stuff is int here is going to be attached dto a lot of horrible stuff.  Crazy I'd focus on the bad. 

Let's back up and be clear here:  Biden's plan is just a policy proposal - specifically, part of his 2023 FY budget request.  Now, some of it may be added to the next budget/CR, but a lot of it is not (I didn't even mention the third part of his plan on gun control because it has zero chance of actually happening).  If/when certain measures are actually included in the next budget/CR, we can argue about it then, but right now a lot of this is very preliminary and unclear in terms of how the policy will actually be implemented -- which is perfectly fine for a proposal.

For the most part, though, this is a messaging proposal - which is why the focus on its political and electoral impact is just as, if not more, important.

Anyway, you keep on saying the bad heavily outweighs the good when the proposal is specifically designed - in terms of policy measures AND funding - to be about even between the "more police" part and the second part which could have been written by the "defund the police" movement.  That's why I keep saying your description is so misleading.  Hell, even the ACLU's response is infinitely more measured:

Quote

The president’s plan proposes investments in two competing approaches to this goal. The first is to hire more police officers and call for more criminalization and incarceration. For decades, this approach has failed to make us safer and it is alarmingly reminiscent of 1990s style policies that fueled mass incarceration. The second approach, however, is to significantly invest in community-based programs and services that have proven to prevent violent crime and can make America safer for everyone. This is the approach that we need to embrace in 2022 to create thriving communities. 

 

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5 hours ago, Zorral said:

@Longrider inquired in the previous US Politics topic when Palin will start shrieking 'fraud.' She already has, according to the news crawls.

Not just Palin.  Now the entire GOP has picked up the issue and is describing the ranked-choice voting method itself as a "scam" to "rig elections:"

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“Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) tweeted after results from Alaska’s special election showing Peltola won Wednesday. “60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat ‘won.’” 

The RNC is preparing a resolution to officially oppose ranked choice voting.  Worst.  Losers.  Ever.  It'd be funny if it weren't so sad.

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3 minutes ago, Zorral said:

 Well ... that's how we ended up with that fool Adams as mayor . . . .  Damned NY party machine Dems.

I mean, Adams got the most votes in the first round by a pretty significant margin so he would have won a standard plurality election anyway.

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1 hour ago, DMC said:

Not just Palin.  Now the entire GOP has picked up the issue and is describing the ranked-choice voting method itself as a "scam" to "rig elections:"

The RNC is preparing a resolution to officially oppose ranked choice voting.  Worst.  Losers.  Ever.  It'd be funny if it weren't so sad.

So glad Palin didn’t disappoint.  Her wordsalad was epic I’m sure.  
:bs:

I think it’s leftovers for dinner tonight.   

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Former NY police officer got sentenced 10 years for assaulting a office at the Jan 6th coup attempt.  Longest sentence of any of these jerkwaddies so far.

https://gothamist.com/news/former-nypd-cop-gets-10-years-in-prison-for-january-6th-assault-on-police

Quote

 

A resident of Goshen, N.Y., Webster served in the Marines, before joining the NYPD in 1991. He later served Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s personal security detail.

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors argued that Webster's years of police and military service only made his actions more troubling.

“It is particularly disturbing,” they wrote, “that a former NYPD officer, once responsible for manning bike-back barricades and protecting dignitaries, would help lead the breach of the barricades outside the U.S. Capitol.”

 

Nevertheless, despite how shocking the sentencing memo sees this behavior is by a ranking cop, I suppose he'll be released after a short term though for good behavior, seeing as he was a cop. :P

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Meant to post this yesterday, but a couple polls on the student loan debt cancellation suggest this shouldn't be a problem for Biden.  YouGov has 51% in support and 39% opposing.  Morning Consult has it at 48% support to 43% opposed.  Perhaps more surprising is there doesn't seem to be nearly as much intraparty disagreement among Dems.  80 percent of Democrats supported it in the YouGov poll while 72 percent did for Morning Consult (with only 19 percent opposed).

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4 minutes ago, DMC said:

Meant to post this yesterday, but a couple polls on the student loan debt cancellation suggest this shouldn't be a problem for Biden.  YouGov has 51% in support and 39% opposing.  Morning Consult has it at 48% support to 43% opposed.  Perhaps more surprising is there doesn't seem to be nearly as much intraparty disagreement among Dems.  80 percent of Democrats supported it in the YouGov poll while 72 percent did for Morning Consult (with only 19 percent opposed).

Well I'm opposed. If we are buying votes I can think of any number of more deserving, more popular, disadvantaged citizen groups who should get bought before we reward these parasitic institutions that are bankrupting our citizenry with the explicit aid of our government. 

I'm not unsympathetic to folks who got fucking swindled at these community colleges and with all these federally guaranteed loans. I'm really not. And it's gross that your government would allow a desire for higher education to become a tool of impoverishment. That's just gross.

But I do NOT accept that there is an answer here that involves the government twice giving away for free this kind of money. No! Not while the system that created the issue is free to operate. That's just stupid. This problem isn't going to go away until you reform the administrative carbuncle that has developed from the capitalistic chafing of the American college system.

Biden is buying votes. I do not disapprove of this strategy. Rs have the best vote buying strategy ever. They buy their own votes through tax/regulation/enforcement vandalism that doesn't even benefit the unwashed fools who make up their constituency. Pretty good scam, eh? 

But if Democrats are gonna buy votes I want them to buy smart. 

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4 minutes ago, Firebrand Jace said:

But if Democrats are gonna buy votes I want them to buy smart. 

Considering the overwhelming support among young voters for broad student debt cancellation, coupled with Biden's marked difficulties with young voters otherwise over the past year, I'd say this is buying very smart.

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5 minutes ago, DMC said:

Considering the overwhelming support among young voters for broad student debt cancellation, coupled with Biden's marked difficulties with young voters otherwise over the past year, I'd say this is buying very smart.

Only if you're looking for a subscription. 

Gonna do it again in 2 years? 2 after that too?

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16 minutes ago, Firebrand Jace said:

Well I'm opposed. If we are buying votes I can think of any number of more deserving, more popular, disadvantaged citizen groups who should get bought before we reward these parasitic institutions that are bankrupting our citizenry with the explicit aid of our government. 

I'm not unsympathetic to folks who got fucking swindled at these community colleges and with all these federally guaranteed loans. I'm really not. And it's gross that your government would allow a desire for higher education to become a tool of impoverishment. That's just gross.

But I do NOT accept that there is an answer here that involves the government twice giving away for free this kind of money. No! Not while the system that created the issue is free to operate. That's just stupid. This problem isn't going to go away until you reform the administrative carbuncle that has developed from the capitalistic chafing of the American college system.

Biden is buying votes. I do not disapprove of this strategy. Rs have the best vote buying strategy ever. They buy their own votes through tax/regulation/enforcement vandalism that doesn't even benefit the unwashed fools who make up their constituency. Pretty good scam, eh? 

But if Democrats are gonna buy votes I want them to buy smart. 

Considering that Biden is merely fulfilling his pre-election promise, think of it as delayed payment for goods already delivered.

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