US Politics: Time for the Stormy season with a chance of conviction

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Since the last thread was past the 20 page mark time for something new.

Also moving on from splitting mullets over the benefit of legalization of weed, what'S the state of play wrt to Ukraine Aid package and MAGA Mike's Speakership.

Edited Sunday at 02:54 AM by A Horse Named Stranger

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, DMC said:

Also, I know it’s pedantic, but we really should distinguish between legalization and decriminalization.  Marijuana has been partially decriminalized throughout New York State since I grew up there.  Indeed, since 1977.  And in NYC it was further decriminalized in 2014 - notably to little long term effect on arrests.

Also, people have been selling weed, coke and god knows what else out of bodegas for decades. There was one on the UofMN campus that I swear everything on the shelves had dust on it and most of the stuff was probably several years expired. First time I went in with a friend it caught me a bit off guard. When I asked why anyone would go there he basically told me that they have great hot cheese curds and drugs. 

The cheese curds were pretty fucking good and that's coming from someone who doesn't really like them. 

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

I guess I just live in the right neighborhood.

Cause everyone wants to live close to a cool ass bird with a whip. 

Quote

Funnily enough, the police report there’s still a thriving underground market, that 80% of the pot sold in Canada is still the illegal stuff.

It will probably be like this in both Canada and the US for the foreseeable future. It's cheaper, your information isn't in a database, you can buy larger amounts, etc. I hope people didn't have any illusion that dispensaries were going to magically fix things overnight. But with time they should make things better overall. 

[DMC]

Dude let someone else start a new thread.  I’ve heard of a ball hog but not a ball horse.

Edited April 11 by DMC

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Fine I'll get out of mullet. Feel free to start a new thread. Grumpy. grumpy.

[Zorral]

Ocasio-Cortez Never Steered Money to a Key Arm of Her Party. Until Now.
Her contribution to the campaign arm of House Democrats is a symbolic moment in the New York lawmaker’s own evolution inside the Democratic Party.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/us/politics/aoc-campaign-contribution.html

Quote

 

.... “We spent a lot of time, since first coming into office in 2019, working to change this institution,” she said of the campaign committee. “And we have successfully done so.”

In a statement, Mr. Jeffries thanked Ms. Ocasio-Cortez for “helping us protect the integrity of the electoral process and take back the House in 2024,” calling her “a valuable member of the House Democratic Caucus who is a powerful voice for the voiceless and defender of democracy.”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the Democratic Party’s most prolific fund-raisers; her campaign committee has raised more than $37 million since 2019. She has raised another $11.1 million, according to her office, for nonfederal candidates and causes, including nonprofits, food banks and abortion-rights groups.

But until now, she had never given a dime to her own party’s leadership, even though House Democrats are each assigned “dues” that they are supposed to pay to remain members in good standing.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s $260,000 contribution is earmarked specifically for the party’s Voter Protection Program. It is the first time a member of Congress has given money to a program that works on voter registration, poll observation and litigation. ....

 

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

For those of you thinking the ballot measures will make Florida competitive, I just saw a recent Emerson College poll (and they are decent pollsters if I remember Silver's ratings from last cycle) that had Trump up +13 (1000 RV). Still early days, but my prognosis at this time is that Florida will flatter only to deceive come election day.

Edited April 12 by IheartIheartTesla

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

For those of you thinking the ballot measures will make Florida competitive, I just saw a recent Emerson College poll (and they are decent pollsters if I remember Silver's ratings from last cycle) that had Trump up +13 (1000 RV). Still early days, but my prognosis at this time is that Florida will flatter only to deceive come election day.

Bloody trumpanista retirees.  They’re too old to worry about Abortion as an issue.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

https://www.tiktok.com/@aamer.rahman/video/7355652926586506542

 

[DMC]

I’m quoting the below purely out of amusement in the acronym.  If Ukraine funding passes the House?  Well then fuck yeah and Hoo…

Quote

The HOOHA Act is exactly what mcbigski is grousing over.

 

[Spockydog]

State of this.

 

[DMC]

46 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

State of this.

This type of bullshit is always going to be there if you edit enough.  At this point it’s almost ripping off Jay Leno and JayWalking.  Not to say he was the first to think of it, cuz he wasn’t.

Doesn’t mean shit.  You interview enough people on the street, you’re going to find stupid people on the street.

[DireWolfSpirit]

So Iowa Republicans want to pretend all that agriculture work is solely accomplished by native and green card migrants.

"Iowa governor signs bill that would make it a crime for some undocumented migrants to be in the state"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/11/us/iowa-immigration-enforcement-bill-signed

 

This really is the heigth of hypocrisy to ignore who is hiring the undocumented and exploiting the cheapest migrant labor they can find to bring in the crops, dairy, pork, poultry, etc. that Iowans themselves have been long too lazy to accomplish without massive immigrant help of both the documented and undocumented status.

My question is why not hold the people responsible that create the market for the undocumented migrants? If the migrant can be deported for being here  shouldnt the lazy guy hiring them also be deported, he has created the situation ?

Iowans pretending they actually do the dirty, difficult, dangerous agriculture work, pffft, were 50 years past that.

Shame on them.

[ThinkerX]

1 hour ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

So Iowa Republicans want to pretend all that agriculture work is solely accomplished by native and green card migrants.

"Iowa governor signs bill that would make it a crime for some undocumented migrants to be in the state"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/11/us/iowa-immigration-enforcement-bill-signed

 

This really is the heigth of hypocrisy to ignore who is hiring the undocumented and exploiting the cheapest migrant labor they can find to bring in the crops, dairy, pork, poultry, etc. that Iowans themselves have been long too lazy to accomplish without massive immigrant help of both the documented and undocumented status.

My question is why not hold the people responsible that create the market for the undocumented migrants? If the migrant can be deported for being here  shouldnt the lazy guy hiring them also be deported, he has created the situation ?

Iowans pretending they actually do the dirty, difficult, dangerous agriculture work, pffft, were 50 years past that.

Shame on them.

I have brought this issue up with conservatives in the past. Usually, they just sneer, even when I point out that entire sectors of the US economy depend on undocumented immigrants.  Some are amiable to the idea of greatly increasing the number of work permits.

Recently, on another site, I had a lengthy exchange of posts that went a little differently. He started with the 'illegal immigrants are dirt' bit. As before, I pointed out that much of the economy depended on these people and that if he was really serious about ending it, he'd support greatly increased fines and prison time for the people hiring undocumented workers. I also tossed in the increased work permits thing. His response was both chilling and refreshing.

He agreed that increasing the number of work permits would be a good thing. He was dead set against steep fines on those hiring illegal immigrants - because it would increase their costs. And to him, hitting those people with prison time was downright criminal because you just don't treat important people that way. But fining and deporting illegals - no problem.

 

He was advocating for a sort of economic/race caste system, which has been coming together for years.

 

At the top, a sort of corporate CEO caste, wealthy, in charge, and immune from legal sanction.

 

Below them, the 'Patriots' for want of a better, God-Fearing White Americans with just a few blacks and others tossed in. This bunch gets things like Social Security and 'Good' medical insurance and can escape a lot of legal penalties.

Below them are the...' Subject's,' I suppose they could be called. Minorities. Poor whites in low-paying jobs. Regarded as criminals. People who need to be heavily policed. Bound by the law but not protected by it.

And at the bottom, the illegals, devoid of even basic rights...

 

Edited April 13 by ThinkerX

[The Anti-Targ]

3 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

I have brought this issue up with conservatives in the past. Usually, they just sneer, even when I point out that entire sectors of the US economy depend on undocumented immigrants.  Some are amiable to the idea of greatly increasing the number of work permits.

 

But isn't the point of hiring undocumenteds because they can be exploited much harsher than immigrants who have work permits? But it's always the case that people blame the desperate immigrants for stealing citizen's jobs by being willing to work for low pay and little protections when it is the businesses who are certainly fully aware that the immigrants are not legally allowed to work and so the business is also acting unlawfully. If businesses acted lawfully undocumented immigrants would not find work. Perhaps that one thing, US businesses not employing undocumented immigrants, would do more to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants entering the country, than any border control measures state of federal govts might put in place.

But capitalism doesn't work without exploitation of the poorest and most desperate, and so the hiring and exploitation of undocumented immigrants will continue.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

12 hours ago, DMC said:

This type of bullshit is always going to be there if you edit enough.  At this point it’s almost ripping off Jay Leno and JayWalking.  Not to say he was the first to think of it, cuz he wasn’t.

Doesn’t mean shit.  You interview enough people on the street, you’re going to find stupid people on the street.

Eh, they obviously do edit out the intelligent responses, but from my canvassing experiences the average person is closer to the people in these kinds of videos regardless of the type of questions being asked.  

[SeanF]

18 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Bloody trumpanista retirees.  They’re too old to worry about Abortion as an issue.

 

After Florida voted to enfranchise felons, Trump’s lead rose in 2020.  No doubt felons saw him as a kindred spirit.

[Larry of the Lawn]

1 hour ago, SeanF said:

After Florida voted to enfranchise felons, Trump’s lead rose in 2020.  No doubt felons saw him as a kindred spirit.

do you have a citation that supports the idea that felons voted for Trump at a higher rate than your average Floridian?

Edited April 13 by Larry of the Lawn

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

45 minutes ago, Larry of the Lawn said:

do you have a citation that supports the idea that felons voted for Trump at a higher rate than your average Floridian?

Isn't the situation still tied up in the courts? IIRC the ballot measure passed and then DeSantis and his crew of flunkies sorta ignored it while challenging it in court.

That said, isn't your average Floridian a felon regardless if they've ever been caught? We all know @DMC is like Mario dodging Donkey Kong's barrels to avoid being flagged. Tampa can do that to the most innocent person. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

38 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Isn't the situation still tied up in the courts? IIRC the ballot measure passed and then DeSantis and his crew of flunkies sorta ignored it while challenging it in court.

That said, isn't your average Floridian a felon regardless if they've ever been caught? We all know @DMC is like Mario dodging Donkey Kong's barrels to avoid being flagged. Tampa can do that to the most innocent person. 

I wanted to leave the Florida Man Games joke behind in the last thread. But boy you are making it tough.

[Zorral]

An obsession to compulsively trash where people live as a personal character defect does reveal personal character defects.  Or some will say.