US politics - have you no sense of decency, sir?

[DMC]

4 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I didn't pick gravy...

I don't need an explanation for why you're so lame.

[LongRider]

never mind 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Vague rememberances of faint, nicely buried, sorried headline of Kari Lake desperately seeking some, any, relevance and now seeking a lawsuit to keep her losing off our lips.

Obvious strategy to latch her star with the recently fired up Orange hobo train.

CHOO-CHOOOOO

CHOO-CHOOOOOO

WOOHOOOO!!!!!!!

 

 

[Zorral]

This is sad, tragic reading. Nothing we here don't know, aren't aware of, but seeing it described in such detail by someone who was born there, lived there, in very different times.

NOVEMBER 25, 2022
The Retail Carrion Feeders of Rural America

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/11/25/the-retail-carrion-feeders-of-rural-america/

Quote

 

.... Still people are starting to refuse the slops that are offered them. The Covid lockdowns–hated here in the hollows and hills as intensely as anywhere–have taught people there are other ways to get by, modes of life that don’t require you to submit to the least that’s offered, to work crap jobs for crap wages in dangerous conditions with no health care. It may be a silent resistance, but its building.

People don’t trust their bosses, their banks, or their government. They don’t trust that the insurance they pay out the ass for will really cover them if they have a stroke or get cancer or contract COVID on the job. Yet, the people most in need of national health care are among the least likely to support it. If you don’t trust the government–if it’s never done much of anything for you, except demean your existence, humiliate you for asking for help, and make life harder than it already is–why would you want them tending to your failing body or injecting a vaccine (no matter its efficacy) into your bloodstream? The fear isn’t irrational. It’s been learned over generations.

The Dollar General Theory is as cruel as it is simple. They want you to work cheap, live cheap and die cheap. They don’t want to pay you what you’re worth or pay for you when you’re ill, even if they caused your sickness. Where are you going to go? Who are you going to turn to? The town you’ve known all your life is boarded up. The grocery store and hardware store are gone. The coffee shop is closed. The gas stations no longer have mechanics. Most don’t even have attendants. Just insert a card and go. You need a credit card for everything now, even if your credit is in the toilet.

It’s not just the supply chains that are broken. The threads that have bound these small communities together since the Great Depression are fraying. No one knows their banker any more. Many of the local banks have been replaced by ATM machines, racking up hidden fees for every impersonal service rendered. There hasn’t been a town doctor here in five years. People have to drive 20 miles west to Bloomington or 30 miles east to Columbus and then they are often treated by a nurse or physician’s assistant for the diseases that are ravaging these small towns: diabetes, congestive heart failure, emphysema, opioid addiction. The diseases of the passed over and forgotten. The diseases that don’t pay.

For some reason, I was struck by the recent proliferation of MIA flags, which I’d rarely, if ever, noticed down here before. There are now more of them than Trump flags, of which there are still many. These black flags fly from houses and schools, Post Offices and fire stations, city parks and some of the few remaining local businesses. It’s been nearly fifty years since the fall of Saigon and the end of that savage war seems more immediate than ever. I asked a few people if they knew any MIAs. No one could name a single one. No surprise, there were hardly any. Few people even knew anyone that served in Vietnam. It seemed clear that what had really gone missing was an idea of America itself, a void in the national identity, that remains dark and inexplicable, and, as the scenes of planes ferrying desperate people out of Afghanistan play endlessly on cable TV, it’s a hole that continues to grow, consuming what we thought we knew about ourselves. ....

 

 

[Castellan]

On 11/24/2022 at 8:55 AM, Tywin et al. said:

But when are we going to talk about those violent, gun crazed Canadians? 

the number of killings per population would be interesting

[DMC]

So this isn't really news but this thread is pretty dead of late.  Patty Murray is going to become the first female Senate pro tem ever due to Leahy's retirement and Feinstein declining the position.  This is the first time the pro tem will be younger than POTUS since Styles Bridges in 1953-5 under Ike.  Murray is "only" 72, which is pretty damn young for a pro tem, at least in our lifetimes.  Of more substantive note, she'll also be taking over Leahy's role as Appropriations Chair, arguably still the most powerful position in the Senate.

[ThinkerX]

Saw yet another article or two (it is getting hard to keep track) claiming it is at least possible enough members of this 'Freedom Caucus' will vote against McCarthy to cost him the speakership. I dunno...maybe? Combination inflated egos and no connection with reality.

In the comments to those articles there is a large number of posters saying that this might give the D's an opening - pick some relatively sane centrist R House Member with at least some support, then vote him into the speakership? Could that actually work? Or is there an unusually potent batch of drugs floating around? 

If it did work, then Biden might still be able to manage the occasional modest bipartisan measure. Tempting thought, but...I have difficulty seeing this come to pass.

If it didn't work, the R's will make utter fools of themselves within a year, which could be entertaining and might cost them the House come the next election.

[The Anti-Targ]

Is it even possible to find 6 (or more) Republicans in the House who would be willing to vote for a bill that is supported by more or less all Democrat members?

I suppose more likely would be bills that are only supported by ~180-200 Republicans where there are enough Democrats willing to make up the numbers.

[IheartIheartTesla]

No idea whats going on polling wise in the Georgia run off (two polls post Nov 8 that are a bit divergent), but early voting has started, and has already reached about 90k voters. More people voted this Sunday than any other Sunday in the last three cycles, which is probably a close to useless statistic.

[Maithanet]

34 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

No idea whats going on polling wise in the Georgia run off (two polls post Nov 8 that are a bit divergent), but early voting has started, and has already reached about 90k voters. More people voted this Sunday than any other Sunday in the last three cycles, which is probably a close to useless statistic.

It is pretty crazy that Republicans aversion to early voting has resulted in them actively sabotaging themselves in this race.  Mostly Democratic leaning counties of Georgia had extensive voting hours this past weekend, where more Republican areas decided that early voting is bad and offered less/no early voting this weekend.  So, voting is easier in areas where lots of Democrats live, but harder in places where Republicans live.  Brilliant strategy. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Arizona, Georgia, Republicans trying to catch the early, often and ficticious fakester vote.

 

[DMC]

3 hours ago, Maithanet said:

It is pretty crazy that Republicans aversion to early voting has resulted in them actively sabotaging themselves in this race.  Mostly Democratic leaning counties of Georgia had extensive voting hours this past weekend, where more Republican areas decided that early voting is bad and offered less/no early voting this weekend.  So, voting is easier in areas where lots of Democrats live, but harder in places where Republicans live.  Brilliant strategy. 

There are minor reports of active repression and long lines - and analysis from those on the ground is still yet to be determined, by far - but it does not seem as if the voter suppression laws had much of an effect on turnout during the midterms.  Turnout was down in Florida, Georgia, and Texas compared to 2018, aye, but attributing that to the measures of the bills passed therein is a fantastical leap in causality.  Indeed, it appears if anything such efforts led to a rather anticipated backlash that negated the intent to begin with. 

Huge caveat here - what we don't know yet is how many were purged from the rolls by state governments, and what effect that had on turnout.  That's usually where "voter suppression," such as it is, wields any type of significant effect.

[Wilbur]

The really crazy thing is that the local Trump people sent out numerous texts, emails, and mailers to Republicans in Arizona impugning the election process in Maricopa County PRIOR to Election Day.  It included things like "don't put your ballot into Box 3" (for ballots that needed to be cured) and recommendations to take your own pen and not use the ones provided by the balloting stations.

Please note that this communication went out to Republicans, and Republicans only.  Not Libertarians or Democrats or Independents.  Just and solely to Republicans.

So not only were some Republican voters discouraged by this sort of thing, and therefore likely didn't vote, but the ones who refused to follow the correct procedure for voting, based on the weird, conspiracy-based advice, likely spoiled their own ballots or else caused them to be counted only after curing or perfection.

So the only thing that the Trump conspirators managed to do was to suppress their own likely voters.

Morons.  Who would purposefully let these people run government functions?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

19 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Who would purposefully let these people run government functions?

People like one of my uncles who thinks freedom means the right to be as selfish as you want and if you don't get what you want, you're not free anymore. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

Lol pro-labor president my ass

[LongRider]

Oh boy, I’m speechless. Expect for this;  

 

[Darzin]

Someone organized Fuentes going to Mar a Lago to fuck Trump up, he's a poison pill if there ever was one. Trump now gets the ate dinner with an actual anti-semite and (part Mexican） white supremacist albatross for no gain. 

[Varysblackfyre321]

3 hours ago, Darzin said:

Someone organized Fuentes going to Mar a Lago to fuck Trump up, he's a poison pill if there ever was one. Trump now gets the ate dinner with an actual anti-semite and (part Mexican） white supremacist albatross for no gain. 

Also Kanye presented trump in a negative light. Forget the racism for a bit—Kanye presented trump as too weak to protect his people, and scared of West’s potential success.

[Fez]

In sad news, we already our have first vacancy of the new House: Donald McEachin (D-VA) has died. It's a safe Democratic district, but it makes the Republican margin for error slightly larger until the election is held.

And goes to show just how unstable the House might've been if Democrats had held an extra couple of seats.

[Corvinus85]

12 hours ago, LongRider said:

Oh boy, I’m speechless. Expect for this;  

 

I thought MTG was fully in the Trump camp. Didn't she tell DeSantis not to run for president? Ah, the twists, this is so twisty!