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+--- Thread: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch (/showthread.php?tid=7308)
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 20th December 2021
Ughh, maybe something can be salvaged next year but yeah this is definitely bad. At least most reactions I have seen blame the correct people, that is, Manchin (and Sinema) being horrible on very important issues.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Weltall - 21st December 2021
Joe Liebermanchin.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 23rd December 2021
They share the direct blame, but ABF, we TOLD YOU they weren't useful to actual issues some time ago. There's also plenty of blame to go around. The democratic party failed to do what the republican party would have done, which is GET THEM IN LINE and play hard ball. The actual policy is far too important to tip toe around all polite and say things like "we're a big tent". Make the tent smaller I guess. Maybe the tent was too big.
The whole democratic party shares the blame. Yes, the progressive wing too. They fell for that deal to split the bill and then voted on the really sucky part, the part with those provisions Manchin actually wanted. You know, the provisions we're ALL going to regret in a few years but very few people are talking about now. The ones that let PRIVATE COMPANIES own major infrastructure like highways. By allowing the bad part to get passed first, the progressives lost all their leverage. Shame on them. Shame on the rest of the party for not getting Manchin in line. They should have made him a pariah the very instant he started going against their plans. The only "negotiations" that should have happened was Biden getting him in a room and telling him in no uncertain terms that "If you don't vote on this thing, we're going to advertise how you betrayed us in your state for the next five years straight and we're going to mention the names of your big coal company connections in every one of those ads to give them a black eye too." Then run the vote. If it tanks. Do it again. Do it again after that.
Manchin for his part doesn't care. His own state HATES that he did this. His own VOTERS hate that he did this. Lobbies he worked closely with hate him for this. He's getting paid.
Speaking of, Pelosi sure answered that question about whether or not congress should be allowed to own stocks FAST. "Freedom" she says. Sure, the people in congress are free to trade in stocks, IF THEY LEAVE CONGRESS. That should be the deal. It's absolutely ridiculous that it's allowed to happen, and that is the exact reason that we get politicians that vote against their own constituent's desires. It only makes sense if they no longer care about getting elected and instead care about financial gain.
Yes, I'm mad about this, but I saw it coming years ahead of time.
Now for my next prediction. This is going to cost the democrats the mid terms. They're afraid actually doing things will lose them power? Let's see what NOT doing things does for them. First they'll lose the mid terms, then Biden truly will be powerless to achieve anything, and then he loses his reelection because he failed to do anything, and then we get to hear morning shows complain that "no one gave him a chance". Trump's running again in 2024 by the way. If that man gets reelected, the democratic experiment in the US is over. I don't want that. Biden needs to take direct action to prevent it, but now they're shifting tracks to focus on another bill. Voting rights are an absolute necessity as well, but if they cave on one, who's to say they won't cave on the next?
There's some genuine good things Biden did. Most of that was on the very first week he was in office, but he didn't go quite far enough then, and he's definitely not going far enough now. Where's that $10,000 student loan reduction? Stroke of a pen, but I don't see any scratching.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 4th January 2022
How to change the filibuster (if you intend to keep it):
1. They have to talk (bringing back the old rule)
2.They have to talk on the topic of the legislation under discussion. Deviating from that ends the filibuster immediately.
3. They have to speak truthfully. Any objectively untrue statement ends the filibuster immediately.
At this point, there are too many sound bites already available. Republicans ARE going to change it the next time they're in power, which is a year from now, whether democrats do it or not is immaterial at this point. So, they better just go ahead and do it on these terms.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - etoven - 9th January 2022
(4th January 2022, 9:12 PM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: How to change the filibuster (if you intend to keep it):
1. They have to talk (bringing back the old rule)
2.They have to talk on the topic of the legislation under discussion. Deviating from that ends the filibuster immediately.
3. They have to speak truthfully. Any objectively untrue statement ends the filibuster immediately.
At this point, there are too many sound bites already available. Republicans ARE going to change it the next time they're in power, which is a year from now, whether democrats do it or not is immaterial at this point. So, they better just go ahead and do it on these terms.
That would be pretty disgusting behavior (and honestly not unexpected) if the republicans changed the filibuster after Kevin McCarthy threatened to burn it all down when the democrats wanted to do it.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 9th January 2022
Yeah, Republicans are extremely willing to reverse their so-called beliefs at a drop of a hat i it gives them any political benefit, and I'm sure they would drop the filibuster immediately if they had a trifecta and wanted to pass something. Mitch McConnell has long claimed to want to keep the filibuster, and he has made constant use of it, but it's easy to imagine situations where he would get rid of it.
Us, though? Unfortunately some Democrats are far too attached to continuing the now-failed filibuster "norm" on, so it's probably unlikely we get rid of it... but it is not impossible. Going to a talking filibuster is the most plausible option that might actually happen. It would really surprise me if we manage to get that, because it'd be a major blow against the filibuster and would make Manchin and Sinema's denial of progress harder for them to maintain at a time when it is clear they want to continue blocking good bills froim passing, but... it's possible, and that is fantastic.
Longer term the filibuster is probably doomed, the only question is which party gets rid of it first. I hope it's us, because we have to be able to pass legislation!
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - etoven - 11th January 2022
(9th January 2022, 11:21 PM)A Black Falcon Wrote:(9th January 2022, 11:21 PM)A Black Falcon Wrote: Yeah, Republicans are extremely willing to reverse their so-called beliefs at a drop of a hat i it gives them any political benefit, and I'm sure they would drop the filibuster immediately if they had a trifecta and wanted to pass something. Mitch McConnell has long claimed to want to keep the filibuster, and he has made constant use of it, but it's easy to imagine situations where he would get rid of it.
Us, though? Unfortunately some Democrats are far too attached to continuing the now-failed filibuster "norm" on, so it's probably unlikely we get rid of it... but it is not impossible. Going to a talking filibuster is the most plausible option that might actually happen. It would really surprise me if we manage to get that, because it'd be a major blow against the filibuster and would make Manchin and Sinema's denial of progress harder for them to maintain at a time when it is clear they want to continue blocking good bills froim passing, but... it's possible, and that is fantastic.
Longer term the filibuster is probably doomed, the only question is which party gets rid of it first. I hope it's us, because we have to be able to pass legislation!
Kevin McCarthy threatened to basically Yeah, Republicans are extremely willing to reverse their so-called beliefs at a drop of a hat i it gives them any political benefit, and I'm sure they would drop the filibuster immediately if they had a trifecta and wanted to pass something. Mitch McConnell has long claimed to want to keep the filibuster, and he has made constant use of it, but it's easy to imagine situations where he would get rid of it.
Us, though? Unfortunately some Democrats are far too attached to continuing the now-failed filibuster "norm" on, so it's probably unlikely we get rid of it... but it is not impossible. Going to a talking filibuster is the most plausible option that might actually happen. It would really surprise me if we manage to get that, because it'd be a major blow against the filibuster and would make Manchin and Sinema's denial of progress harder for them to maintain at a time when it is clear they want to continue blocking good bills froim passing, but... it's possible, and that is fantastic.
Longer term the filibuster is probably doomed, the only question is which party gets rid of it first. I hope it's us, because we have to be able to pass legislation!
So I read that Kevin McCarthy basically threatened to all the democrats, to throw a temper tantrum if we kill the filibuster. Basically it will crush his spirit.
Good job dumbshit.. Now that's all I can think about.
That's like trying to threaten me with free McDonalds.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 14th January 2022
Thank you corporate interests. It isn't going to be the democrats apparently (I don't consider the democrats "us", they're just more closely aligned in some cases).
Now then, if you'll excuse me...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 1st February 2022
Protip (not to anyone here, as far as I know, but to far too many voices online): If you claim to be on the left but are cheering on Putin's invasion of the Ukraine while insulting "Biden's warmongering", you are not a leftist or even a liberal, you are doing the work of the far right. Putin is a right-wing murdering authoritarian dictator and thinks nothing positive about the left. Stop doing his work for him. If there is a war in the Ukraine, and I very much hope there is not, it will be entirely Putin's fault.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 20th February 2022
(14th January 2022, 8:10 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: Thank you corporate interests. It isn't going to be the democrats apparently (I don't consider the democrats "us", they're just more closely aligned in some cases).
I've got to agree on this point, the majority of the reason why Biden isn't getting most of his agenda through Congress is because two of our senators are much more beholden to corporate special interests than they are two their voters. It's a real tragedy that will have lasting consequences.
In other news, Putin continues to threaten to invade Ukraine but not quite do it yet, though the news seems to get worse every day. It's utterly repulsive that he would even consider invading another nation without really any cause in the modern day, it's just insane... but it well might happen because of how fragile his feelings areabout all of Russia's former European subjects turning against them (except for Belarus). Despicable stuff.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 21st February 2022
Putin's motivations are childish, but here's the thing to remember. If we get involved, it's a world war. That's all there is to it. Russia is NOT some middle eastern country our military can just step on for fun. It's a near peer. So is China. That seems to be where the US has been shifting it's focus for the past couple of years mind you. We're moving away from the middle eastern conflicts and back into "near peer" readiness. The attempt at Ukraine isn't just about Ukraine. This is a power move. This is Putin making a statement to the world. The US doesn't want to risk open war. It CAN'T. There's nukes involved and a "hot" conflict between two nuclear powers is... well there's no precedent but the general consensus is "avoid at all costs". Ukraine is a cost, ultimately. Any move that the rest of the world makes is a political ploy itself. It's grand standing, and the typical stuff that's existed for thousands of years. The US will make a show of not standing for this. Russia will make a show of bravado, and ultimately both sides are going to want to find a way to stand down that looks like they "won". Welcome to the new cold war, this time with China as the third player.
Related to this, Nanci Pelosi is showing her colors now that outlawing congress from buying stocks is on the table and a major talking point. She of course is against it thanks to just how many millions her husband's investments make, but that doesn't matter to the rest of us. Fortunately, support for such a law is growing and, shockingly, on both sides. Yes, even a few republicans are openly calling for this. Biden for his part is just stepping aside, but I'll say this for him. While he took plenty of donations from major corporations, he never traded stocks. I'm glad for that. He at least wouldn't have a motive not to ban such a thing. Now there's even talk of expanding such a proposed law to not just ban for congress, but for all three branches of government. Good! Further, I also support extending this to spouses. Nanci's husband is the one investing after all.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 23rd March 2022
So, over the last three days, soon to be Supreme Court Justice Jackson had to fave her senate Judiciary committee hearing for the appointment. And the Republicans, probably seriously scared of this obviously very intelligent black woman, decided to be ludicrously openly racist and basically alternate between yelling at her a lot and saying how upset they were with Supreme Court decisions that allowed everything from gay marriage to inter-racial marriage. Oh, and saying how she gives weak sentences on child porn cases based on basically nothing other than that she tries to be compassionate towards the perpetrator as much as you can, while still almost always giving long sentences. It was disgusting stuff and I couldn't take much of it, every time one of the very unintelligent, performative-lunatic Republicans started speaking I had to turn it off.
Fortunately she is almost certain to be confirmed, but those people have a big problem and having to see such an accomplished and successful black woman sure seems to have brought out the worst in a bunch of them. Knowing that there were cameras there to broadcast their overdone histrionic outbursts to the world encouraged them even further, of course. Gross stuff.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 24th March 2022
Yep, it's all been pointless. Also, _ucker Calson has no idea what LSAT scores are. They're ENTRANCE exams. If he actually wanted to know if she was qualified, he wouldn't ask for the entrance exams, he'd ask for her GPA. She graduated Cum Laude. That should settle that too. It's all pretend of course. No one's being an honest actor. I should add of all the candidates, she is very much the best qualified from a progressive standpoint too. She's no "token" like so many republicans are accusing her of.
Among all those pointless "grasping at straws" questions though, there was a question about her religious beliefs, whether she could judge those who don't share them fairly, and how strong her religious convictions were. That... is first of all a religious test of office which is unconstitutional, but secondly utterly insanity since pretty much every single political figure in government is protestant. Not all, but 99%. It's pretty stunning, almost as if it's a defacto requirement for office already.
Lately the crazier far right are trying to find child abusers everywhere. Of course, there's legitimate concerns about that sort of thing happening at the highest level of power, see that one rich guy's special isolated island (can we just agree that rich people should NOT be allowed to buy and own private islands? That really shouldn't be a thing, and especially ones outside any government oversight whatsoever), but their level of conspiracy mongering is absolute madness (and more than a fair bit of projection I think).
This is all a distraction, from what comes next. We have another sitting justice that just got hospitalized. There is a non-zero chance that justice may die during all this, which (and I hate to be a frickin' buzzard about this) opens up a chance to actually take a seat back and not just tread water like this nomination is doing.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 1st April 2022
Aaand we're dealing with numerology now.... The latest conspiracies, from flat earthers to the constant child abuse allegations, are all being "supported" by complicated numerology schemes. Magic, basically. This is where we're at as a society.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 1st May 2022
I am not saying anything at all new here, but the situation is unchanged. I'm not sure who I am more upset by:
- The American news media, for clearly wanting Trump and the Republicans to win and get power back. (Did you know that Biden passed several major pieces of legislation last year, and they had some pretty significant effects? No? Hmm, I wonder why... but they will be happy to tell us all about how the Democrats are in disarray!)
- The American people, for probably being about to vote for Republicans who just got a lot of people pointlessly killed and supported an insurrection against the government. (Yes, I know that people vote on economic issues first,and the inflation and gas prices are bad and they are the main driver of Biden's poor approval ratings, along with how Republicans are mostly kind of fascists now and oppose all Democrats. But it's still really awful that people outside of the Republican cult also are supporting that democracy-destroying nonsense.)
- Manchin and Sinema, for tanking Biden's legislative agenda after the first two major bills. (Maybe something can pass this year, I hope so... but at this point I'll only believe it if I can see it. How short-sightedly stupid can they be, wasting so much opportunity for so little...)
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 2nd May 2022
Biden can instantly gain a chunk of democratic support with the stroke of a pen. He needs to cancel all student debt yesterday, but I'll settle for today.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 3rd May 2022
And there it is... the culmination of all the turtle pope's work in congress.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 3rd May 2022
The Right:
- Spend 50 years building towards a specific goal, ending Roe
- Vote based on judges, making sure your candidates support your side of this key issue
- Vote in off-year elections because of wanting to win on judicial nominations
- Steadily gain ground over time towards your goal (regardless of how unpopular this goal is with the general public)
- Keep the Supreme Court thanks to a combination of luck and adept decision-making
The Left:
- Spend 50 years resting on their laurels and failing to get a bill passed through congress making abortion legal (because it's always risky to rely exclusively on a court decision)
- Almost never vote based on judges or judicial issues, don't demand as much on the issue from candidates
- Don't bother to vote on off-year elections because the President isn't on the ballot and that's the only race people care about
- 'Judges? What are those?'
- Steadily lose ground over time on the issue despite having a commanding lead in public polling, and do nothing much to reverse this slide
And it's suprising that the far right is going to finally achieve their goal?
Of course this is horrible -- and it's absolutely no surprise whatsoever that Alito also wants to repeal the decisions that legalized birth control, gay marriage, and probably also inter-racial marriage -- but... I mean, just read that list above. The right has been primarily motivated since the '70s by their hatred for legal abortion, and they have slowly been winning in the law on the issue. Public opinion is strongly against banning it again, but most of those people either vote for Republicans anyway and are now pretending to be surprised (see, for example, Susan Collins and her lies about how this isn't what Kavanaugh and Gorsuch said to her at all) or are Democrats and only maybe kinda care enough to vote once every four years maybe if we're lucky, and even then getting them to the polls is like pulling teeth... gah.
So yeah, it's awful, but this result was probably inevitable. The real question is how committed are liberals to winning on this and the other key social issues long term.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 3rd May 2022
You're very close ABF, but you're missing one thing. The democrats, most of them, are liberals, and liberals are NOT leftists. Their philosophy is still largely defined by believing in capitalism and that it's virtues are an important part of a functioning democracy.
We have two parties, a centrist party making a few small inroads to truly going left here and there, and an increasingly and frighteningly far right party who may not actually believe what they're spouting, but in practice it doesn't matter whether they believe it or not, the results are the same.
Every other point you make is spot on. The liberals have failed in being a bulwark against the dangers of far right extremists. This whole modern dynamic forged in the Reagan era is going to be the death of us if something drastic doesn't change. I'm not sure exactly which party we need to hijack, but something's gotta change.
Anyway, this little history lesson I saw on neoliberalism (it isn't the only one, but it covers a lot of things I'd picked up over the years pretty succinctly) helps to put things in perspective.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 4th May 2022
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 6th May 2022
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 11th May 2022
Nanci Pelosi needs to go. She is PROMOTING the one anti-choice democrat in the senate over others in the primary that are against it. Thus, she is effectively anti-choice. Actions speak louder than words.
She's also talking up how we "need a strong republican party". We don't need ANY specific parties. The republican party SHOULD in fact weaken and die out. It SHOULD be weak. They earned having their power stripped away. New parties will emerge to take their place. Stop fighting for the status quo. The status quo is killing us, literally.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 11th May 2022
(11th May 2022, 8:25 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: Nanci Pelosi needs to go. She is PROMOTING the one anti-choice democrat in the senate over others in the primary that are against it. Thus, she is effectively anti-choice. Actions speak louder than words.For anti-choice Democrats, technically there are two, Casey and Manchin. Casey isn't as much of an obstacle as Manchin is, but he does claim to be personally pro-life. Democratic leadership supports both of them because parties almost always support their current office-holders. Neither one is up for re-election this year, so I'm not sure what you're that upset about? I agree that we should not nominate anti-abortion people, I'm sure Pennsylvania could have found someone who could win and is more pro-choice than Casey, but West Virginia? Manchin isn't up for re-election until 2024 and he's the only Democrat that even MAYBE could win West Virginia, so while he is extremely wrong on this he's still better than any Republican would be -- at least Manchin votes for our judicial nominees and such, that's huge!
She's also talking up how we "need a strong republican party". We don't need ANY specific parties. The republican party SHOULD in fact weaken and die out. It SHOULD be weak. They earned having their power stripped away. New parties will emerge to take their place. Stop fighting for the status quo. The status quo is killing us, literally.
On the second point, democracy requires at least two functioning, nationally competitive parties to work. A one-party state is not a democracy and does not work, it is an autocracy which I certainly believe is an objectively worse form of government.
So while we do not need a Republican Party, we do need two functioning parties that believe in small-d democracy in order to continue to have a free country.
But as we all know, while America had that for its first 200 years-plus, we are losing that now. Many Republicans today have become authoritarian, opposing democracy. This is obviously a VERY VERY BAD thing for the future of our nation, if we want it to survive without becoming a right wing dictatorship.
So, do we need a Republican Party? No, of course not. If it died out and was replaced with another party not so cravenly subservient to authoritarians that'd be great. But so many Republican voters have fallen for Trumpist extremism that that isn't very likely right now. It's a really bad situation, she's right about that. She is looking well into the past now with that statement, but given how badly wrong things are going with the Republican Party's fall to fascistic authoritarinism I get it...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 11th May 2022
Casey is in a very blue district. It would be VERY easy to find a replacement that matches the values people in that district hold, but they aren't doing that. Instead Nanci is promoting someone who is actively against it. I'm not talking about the mid terms. I'm talking about RIGHT now. That man's very existence is an obstacle- wait... it looks like he's suddenly changed position. Huh... Well, I don't like the guy but maybe for once the democrats actually put in some threats that he wasn't going to get backed if he didn't play ball. That's something!
And of course I don't want a "one party state", because thank you for recognizing that the democrats have some power hungry people in charge too right now. What I AM saying is that parties should ebb and flow, one party dying and another rising to take it's place again and again, but we're frozen in time right now. The worst sin is the original sin, the sin of refusing to allow the next age to replace the current one. That's why the good ending in Dark Souls is letting the flame die to start the age of darkness.
Manchin absolutely needs to go though. The threat of not being able to confirm a judge isn't enough to justify his continued presence. He may as well be a republican at this point, and there's already talk of not "upsetting him" into "switching sides". Manchin, if you're gonna switch, just do it already.
Edit: Manchin's made his choice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/11/abortion-senate-vote/
Manchin needs to go NOW! Immediately! He's going to kill many people, his judge vote be damned!
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 11th May 2022
Yeah, it's good that they got Casey to back down.
But unfortunately, even if Manchin voted for the women's health bill it would still fail because the Democrats aren't willing to kill the filibuster over it, and I do not only mean Manchin; there are statements from several other Dems saying like 'I don't really want to kill the filibuster even if we could, that would come back to bite us next time the Republicans have full control...'.
I do not agree with them on that and strongly think that the filibuster needs to go, but institutionalists in the Senate are way behind where they should be in terms of what must be done to pass the legislation that's needed.
On the women's health bill, Manchin's excuse is that he would support a bill that codifies Roe v. Wade into law, but not anything more than that, and this bill does more than that. And well, that's true, this bill does a bit more than that, it has some good provisions added on on top of Roe's trimester-based system. Opposing these extensions is similar to the excuses that Collins and Murkowski gave for why they aren't supporting the bill.
Now, what Schumer absolutely should do is offer a literal 'just codifying Roe' bill up on the floor and see whether those people would actually vote for it or not -- how far will they take their lies about how surprised they are that Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lied to them about their positions on Roe? It would be much better if Schumer would do that.
Of course though, that still probably would not pass anything because we'd hit that same stupid "we refuse to get rid of the filibuster" wall. Dumb senators...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 11th May 2022
Of course the thing is, if they actually start fulfilling their promises, which they can do if they just get rid of the filibuster and start passing act after act after act, then the republicans will never win again. Once people start actually seeing the benefits in their own lives, they'll want to keep those laws in place.
There is one wrinkle. The supreme court can, and sadly will, overrule ANY act congress passes to protect abortion rights. Manchin is lying, of course, and so are the people responsible for the upcoming decision.
So, where does that leave us? I say they do it anyway. Show that they're at least trying and that'll be something. If they actually do the thing, that can affect turnout. But there's more than that. We need to start at the local level. We need to, all of us, PERSONALLY act. Oklahoma is a state where it's going to be illegal, and they may well try to pass one of those terrible "even if you leave the state it's illegal" laws, or one of those "we're going to track your periods and judge you guilty of murder if your periods don't line up to our terrible understanding of your biology" laws. It's awful. Now, I'm not exactly going around dating anyone but I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to help people break the law. I'm going to help with some underground networks and become an accessory to "murder". That's the real world help I'm going to offer. In fact, I think we all have a moral obligation to break the upcoming laws.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 13th May 2022
Yeeeah so the inflation going on right now isn't strictly Biden's fault. First of all, it's global, so i couldn't be.
But second of all this hour long video:
Turns out unchecked corporate greed and addiction to growth in a time when more and more people are demanding better work conditions and wages is more to blame, but even that doesn't fully explain it.
Also, most solutions to "inflation" seem to resemble a stubborn insistence on keeping poverty and starvation around in a certain underclass, and just maybe if we are using a system that requires ritualistic sacrifice of one class to keep the rest of us happy, we burn that system to the gro- I mean consider alterations to it.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 15th May 2022
Yeah, that was a pretty good episode. Inflation's tough, and I am definitely not an economist so I don't know the answer. But "we can't do THAT, it might hurt the rich" is certainly not a helpful response, more must be done to slow it down.
Also, things like oil companies reporting record profits because they haven't lowered prices after their costs dropped after the big Ukraine war-related surge MUST be pointed out and strongly criticized until this changes. That's really, really bad.
On a mostly unrelated note...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/14/opinion/sunday/rich-happiness-big-data.html
Quote:The study didn’t tell us about the small number of well-known tech and shopping billionaires but instead about the more than 140,000 Americans who earn more than $1.58 million per year. The researchers found that the typical rich American is, in their words, the owner of a “regional business,” such as an “auto dealer” or a “beverage distributor.”
This shocked me. Over the past four years, in the course of doing research for a book about how insights buried in big data sets can help people make decisions, I read thousands of academic studies. It is rare that I read a sentence that changes how I view the world. This was one of them. I hadn’t thought of owning an auto dealership as a path to getting rich; I didn’t even know what a beverage distribution company was.
I've seen some people on the internet mocking this, and for good reason. This New York Times opinion columnist is shocked to learn that ... people who own car dealerships and beverage distribution companies are wealthy millionaires. Somehow they had not considered this before. I assume that they think that anyone not a billionaire or a wealthy brown person is "middle class" or something? It makes very little sense. The rest of the article is not nearly as dumb as that, but still. Come on...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 16th May 2022
Every Chad knows that owners of dealerships are rich. They're the ones bragging about how their dad owns one so you can't talk to them like that, and then they're off to total their car just outside their own fraternity house. (I understand the meaning of "Chad" has changed online recently, but I'm using that early 2000's meaning).
In other news, once again you have the party leadership conflating "independent voter" with "centrist", unaware that the majority of independents are just too far left or far right for the current parties. I fall into a pretty far left camp, which shouldn't come as a surprise. (Though for all my "BURN IT DOWN!" rhetoric, I don't actually want to physically burn much of anything down and definitely don't want to get into a state of civil war if it can be at all avoided. Such a state would be far too unpredictable and could very well lead to a true dictatorship afterwards instead of an idealized Star Trek level utopia, not to mention such things will last at least a decade and result in countless lives cut short, and those already at the very bottom of society would be the first to suffer, the ones I'm trying to help. So, no, I don't want warfare, I just want change and I don't believe the current methods employed by the democrats will lead to that change at all. I vote democrat because it's the "damage mitigation" strategy, but if they want to win over more people that hold far left views, the party has to end their dreams of being a "big tent" and pick a side.
The republicans for their part figured this out already. They're courting a whole different set of independents, right wing fascists, and it's working. Well, not ALL of them. Mitch, for all his awfulness, seems to want to deTrumpify his party and kick the man out. He's making moves to do that, and at the state level, state governments are doing all they can to undermine the biggest Trump supporters in the party. It's been entertaining to say the least, but we have no idea who's actually going to succeed at this point. It's easy to say that it's better for the racism and the sexism and all their hate to be out in the open for all to see, because it's not hidden any more. For SOME people, that's true, but for a depressingly high number, them saying the racist parts out loud and proud is still apparently too subtle for them to believe they're racist. "I watched cartoon saying racism is bad so it's dead right?" Sorry, it isn't dead. Just like how Captain Planet may have made ridiculous caricatures of big business types actually ENJOYING their evil and as a result none of us believing the actual messages the show tried to promote until decades later, we've also found out those caricatures themselves are shockingly accurate. There really are people who happily sing songs about how much they love polluting stuff and how evil they are, or as one energy company CEO said "F everyone that isn't us". Alright, he didn't literally say that, he literally WROTE it down and sent it out. You know, like an 80's villain from a Schwarzenegger movie would do, but in the real world, where we live, right now. The real world where a giant corporation is about to launch floating airships stuffed with automated drones scurrying all over our skyline and where California and Australia are taking turns being infernos on opposite seasonal shifts (and where locally, dust bowl conditions have kicked up again over in our pan handle and are slowly making their way east...).
I say all that to say this. There ARE centrists left, and a lot of them, but they're not voting centrists. They're the indifferent, they're the ignorant, they're the ones that don't know enough to know they need to figure this out. The only centrists left any more are only "centrists" because they just don't care enough to vote. The brief encounters with political discourse are... these two people are fighting with each other, and fighting's bad, so they're both just as bad. It's a very Gen X attitude honestly, and it ignores the drastic shifting of the zeitgeist to the right in recent years, because they don't even know what that is. This is the most frightening thing, because we are about to have a whole generation that won't be exposed to necessary bedrock information we all learned in public school, which threatens to make not only a larger group of nonvoters, but a larger pool of people the republicans can lie to freely.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 3rd June 2022
I was in that exact building, on that exact floor, days before the shooting happened, with my mother.
They're suggesting arming teachers now. I suppose that patients get armed next?
What we need are red flag laws. Now. Get the guns out of the hands of anyone with a history of violent behavior.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 5th June 2022
On the one hand, it's extremely obvious what needs to be done in order to reduce gun deaths in this nation dramatically. Most notably, ban assault rifles first. Other necessary measures include much longer and more thorough background checks, allowing areas to ban any guns if they wish since the first amendment was very obviously written to refer to a state-run militia (national guard) and not anyone who wants to own any gun they want, better mental health services, and more.
However, the gun lobby is so overwhelmingly powerful and influential that if such a miracle occurs that something passes Congress soon because of all the shootings, it will be a meaninglessly limited bill that will do nothing. It's hard to have any hope at all for progress on guns, one of our nation's worst problems...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - etoven - 7th June 2022
(3rd June 2022, 2:37 PM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: I was in that exact building, on that exact floor, days before the shooting happened, with my mother.
They're suggesting arming teachers now. I suppose that patients get armed next?
What we need are red flag laws. Now. Get the guns out of the hands of anyone with a history of violent behavior.
Ted Cruz and his stupid door ideas also. Such a perfect combination of ibasole AND pompous ass.
Convinced he has it all worked out, he thinks everyone else is stupid.
Okay, so here how Teds plan works I am guessing:
First there's only one way in or out. Make sure that guard is there. And make sure that door is closed and locked at all times.
Because a open door in Texas is just begging to have everyone shot inside (such a lovely state you guys are doing fantastic BTW)
Next recess gets moved underground and all the other buildings become a complicated tunnel system.
Or maybe we just scrap recess completely and for one period a day and everyone just sits in the gym for mandatory cower-hour..
Where you learn at a early age to be afraid of everything. In texas will put that towards your life skills lesson.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 8th June 2022
Don't worry Ted doesn't actually believe it. He's throwing it out there as a distraction. He knows better. Ted is a liar.
And yea, there's one other critical thing: The terrorist that killed all those kids in Uvalde walked in through the front door.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 9th June 2022
This guy is NOT confident this bill can pass. I tend to agree, and yes, we probably should split up the bill into numerous parts just so that we can get SOME of it through.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - etoven - 9th June 2022
Not confident... I would say no a chance in hell. Not with the GOP clown show as it is now. It won't get one vote from them.
Here's the thing he over looks, even the "STUPID IDEAS" in this bill would be better the nothing the GQP seem content with now.
Im my opinion they are simply gutless cowards, who admitelly have scraped the very bottom of this crazy hole, to keep a gun no one has threatened take.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - etoven - 9th June 2022
Truth is we can scrap all we want, there not going to budge on a single thing that threatens that collective herp de-derp "MY GUUUUUUN" mindset.
Will never happen.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 11th June 2022
The first real hope I've felt in a long time:
That team of experts... All they need is the resources to accomplish it and the backing of law. We're already IN climate change now. People are already dying to it. It's already here and we're dealing with the effects. It's going to be bad, but this team can prevent it from being worse.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 29th June 2022
The republicans are evil, and the democrats are incompetent. Welcome to our current reality.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 30th June 2022
Domestic supply of infants. Alito said we there's a concern about the commodity "infants". They tell on themselves. They don't actually value the sanctity of life. Donors bought them, and they're terrified of running out of both expendable employees and customers, sorry, "consumers". When they come after gay marriage next, rest assured that's going to be a major factor in why that'll be the very next one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHGOO4dXUvg
As someone who's never going to have biological kids (but may adopt... it's something I've considered if I can only get better finances), I'm just glad my particular group is largely invisible to lawmakers. I don't get beaten. I don't have laws against expressing my form of love. I don't get denigrated in the media, well mostly. Frankly that "A" recently added to the ever growing sub sandwich of letters in Slimer and the Real LGBTQA is nice but far less needed than the rest. The rest are actively discriminated against, and the A is just largely ignored. That said, if THIS is their motivation for a change in laws? Well, expect people who choose not to get kids to get some kind of legal punishment hiding in plain site soon enough. Maybe they actually cave and provide some limited form of universal health care, but only to "reproducers". Maybe they just end up taxing single individuals more since they "can better afford it" (yes... technically? Billionaires can afford it better than I can though). In any case, it'll likely be targeted at gay couples and couples that don't chose to have kids but it'll end up affecting me whatever form it takes.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 3rd July 2022
There is apparently still hope that some kind of significant bill will pass this year. It better.
But other than more spending on climate change, it should now be clear to everyone that the main focus of the Democratic Party must be on Supreme Court reform. MAJOR reform. Adding justices, etc. What this court is doing cannot stand under any circumstances -- not on guns, abortion, climate, or more. We all knew for years that this day was coming, but it's here. And it's really bad for the future of democracy and passing liberal legislation with no hope for change for a long time unless something big happens with the Supreme Court.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 5th July 2022
One, rescind the philibuster rule. Two, increase the number of supreme court justinces. Three, appoint them. Four, overturn the overturned rulings.
That is the only plan of action that will actually work. And yes, if the republicans actually gain power again (which if the democrats actually can deliver on this, will be less likely, but if they can't, will be more likely, because results are all that matters, not the means by which they are attained) then they will do the exact same thing back at us. Even if that happens, the end result is that more lives are saved and we buy ourselves a few more years of time until then.
Heck, Biden should just issue as many executive orders as he can. Ones within Presidential authority and ones OUTSIDE presidential authority. The latter will fail in court. In the mean time, while that long court battle goes on, more lives will be saved. Fight the losing battle, but FIGHT IT. Rage, RAGE against the dying of the light!
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 6th July 2022
We are on the verge of losing democracy entirely.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 19th July 2022
First comes the baby carriage, then comes marriage... At least that seems to be the order that the current supreme court will tackle deleting all our hard earned rights. Love will be next.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 8th August 2022
It seems a whole lot of women in Kansas preached to their fellow church goers just how evil abortion was, walked into a voting booth, and voted to protect their rights in secret.
What the republican representatives never understood was the ability for rural American to keep a hypocritical secret. It's to our benefit. But, and here's where it gets important, get ready for republicans to start singing about how maybe the real issue is secret ballots themselves. Maybe, for securing our voting process you see, of course, we should be able to see just how someone votes after all. Sure there's going to be some, ahem "unintended" consequences like someone not truly voting for what they want out of fear of punishment from their surrounding community, but, well it's all for making sure our election process is "secure", right? Yes.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 14th August 2022
It truly has been a stunning last few weeks, hasn't it. Far from the unending string of failures and struggles of the past year, suddenly things are going well, or at least as well as you could possibly expect currently. Biden and the Democrats have done a whole, whole lot.
So, let's look back.
- First, a month ago or more, Joe Manchin said that he was out on negotiations with the rest of the Democrats over the remains of the Build Back Better bill. He gave up after a year of debate, and set off a wave of anger aimed at him from Democrats.
- Following this, breaking a Republican block on the bill because they didn't want to pass it without connecting the bill to permanent enforcement of Trump's immigration rules, the Senate and House passed the Chips Act to push back against Chinese control of the microchip-building industry and make more computer chips in the US again.
- Within hours of the CHIPS Act passing, Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer trolled Republicans HARD by announcing that they had a deal on neo-BBB. This cooincidentally timed announcement of course had absolutely nothing to do with the Chips act passing, oh no... heh. Cutting the original $3.5 trillion bill to about $750 billion, this new bill has the two most important components of BBB in it, a huge amount of spending on climate change and health care. The bill has now passed the House and Senate and will soon be signed by Biden, under the name chosen by Manchin, the Inflation Reduction Act... because yes it will also reduce inflation somewhat.
- Furious Republicans, realizing that they had been completely conned, decided to ... temporarily block the PACT Act, a bill for veterans' healthcare for those suffering from cancer and such from burn pits. What truly wonderful political sensibilities the Republican Party have... ... yeah, that didn't last long before they gave up and let it pass.
- Then the Justice Department raided Trump's Mar-a-lago resort because he had illegally kept and hidden top secret documents in random places such as a storage room off the pool. He was likely selling these secrets to foreign powers, perhaps the Saudis. Republicans have reacted by circling the wagons and defending their despicably evil leader. They are now opposed to the FBI and the rule of law. Our democracy is still deeply in trouble.
- Meanwhile, inflation is going down as are gas prices.
- Also meanwhile, Democrats' poll numbers are going up, helped by the Republicans' ending Roe v. Wade. As DJ pointed out the "we should not ban abortion" aside managed to win in Kansas, of all places! And it wasn't even close, it was 58-41! Those numbers show how badly Republicans messed up by ending abortion. They will not have the red wave they wanted this November and while all of the bills Dems have passed are great, none of them are why. The Presidents' party almost always loses mid-term elections in this country, and all polling was showing thing heading that way again this year... until Alito and co. ended Roe, and completely changed the political calculus. Now Democrats are leading the congressional polling average, a stunning turnaround from a few months ago.
So yeah, things are going quite well politically at the moment! It's just amazing, I could never have hoped it'd be this many wins this quickly. May they continue to come; we've still got to pass the Electoral Count act, after all, and to try to get the gay marriage bill through the Senate if possible.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 14th August 2022
I'm not interested in "winning", I'm interested in policy being accomplished. Also, only in the US can not even a 60% victory be considered a "landslide". Sorry, I have to temper things a bit there. Kansas pulled out a win like I said, but let's not forget just how many people voted against it. They are there, and will continue to be there.
Biden is not responsible for the inflation, and he's not responsible for the ceasing inflation, because it's a world-wide phenomenon spurred on by corporations trying to "make up" for what they believe they are "owed" after the lockdowns. Note I didn't say "after the pandemic". We're still in it. The US just gave up on it.
The... ugh... "neo build back better" act is an utter failure. There is no other way to characterize it.
All that said, ALL that said, yes, Biden has accomplished a lot in terms of reversing Trump's awful executive orders and he needs to start advertising that.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 14th August 2022
The largest investment in fighting climate change any nation on the planet has ever made is very very exciting indeed, I am so thrilled that the Inflation Reduction Act passed! This is a bill that should have passed ten years ago or more, during the Obama administration, but he focused on health care instead and tragically didn't get a climate bill passed. Well, Biden finally righted that wrong and it's by far the most important thing that has happened in this presidency.
Will that bill alone save the climate, of course not, but it will have a huge impact and make a dramatic downward change on carbon emissions. It's a big deal.
Quote: Biden is not responsible for the inflation, and he's not responsible for the ceasing inflation, because it's a world-wide phenomenon spurred on by corporations trying to "make up" for what they believe they are "owed" after the lockdowns. Note I didn't say "after the pandemic". We're still in it. The US just gave up on it.Of course the causes of inflation are worldwide and aren't something Biden caused, but right or wrong people blame the person in charge, and that's Biden, for the economy and gas prices. Even if there wasn't much that anyone could directly do to reduce inflation or gas prices, that they do seem to be going down currently helps Democrats.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 17th August 2022
You and I both know it's only "the largest" because no one in power actually took it seriously until now. It's still insufficient by far. Citing that it's "the largest in history" is akin to early 90's console "bit wars". I don't care about winning an entry in the Guinness book of world records here.
In other news, today a good act was passed. A little bird tells me that Manchin wouldn't have signed if not for ten of his own employees staging a revolt in his own office. Small miracles eh?
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 18th August 2022
Sure, we should have passed something like this a long time ago and added more over time, certainly, but this isn't some drop in the bucket bill, it's significant. It's not the end of fighting climate change obviously, but it's FINALLY a beginning and it will reduce the planet's warming by a notable amount and that is fantastic.
As for Manchin, that's plausible, but it also could be this... (yes, I love this cartoon, whoever made it is great!)
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 26th August 2022
I have no idea what that comic is trying to say... Literally I can't parse it. And no, Manchin's motives are absolutely utter lies. It's outright naïve at this point to assume ANY of his objections are genuine, and as dangerous as assuming anything Hannibal Lector tells you is honest. Seriously, the man owns coal mines. If there is a clear conflict of interest, it is our responsibility to ALWAYS assume the worst. There's a reason that when someone is sworn in as president, they're required to divest their control in their companies. There is a reason the emoluments clause exists.
Anyway, Biden finally did the most important thing he could possibly do to assure votes. He affected everyone in a concrete way right at their kitchen table. THIS right here is how you win elections ABF. Fox News and other right wing commentators are calling it "communism" and "bribing the voter". Are we so far removed from how politics USED to function in this country that a politician actually doing something for the common citizen is seen as "bribery" and not, like, what politicians are SUPPOSED to do? You can't feed your family on "grit and sacrifice". I could (and will) point out that this is far less than what Biden COULD do. He could easily have stricken off ALL the student debt. He could do that just as easily as he did this. He could also push for a bill to make higher education free for everyone in this country, at least announce that he'll be pushing for that in the future. That said, actually keeping one of his campaign promises, small as it may be compared to what's in his power to do, is STILL going to make a big difference in a lot of people's lives. I love the outrage over it. They're mad for three reasons. One, "If the left did it, it must be bad". Not an actual view they have, but a general party policy they must stick to. Two, they don't want an educated public. That hurts republican chances of victory. Three, they don't want citizens to get used to actually getting help (or "handouts" as the put it) from government, or we might actually start to expect it. You know, expect government to actually serve the people's interests.