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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 - 1st September 2022
Joe Biden gave a speech tonight about the threat to American democracy that the authoritarian, fascist MAGA movement is a serious danger to democracy... and that the Republican Party is now mostly beholden to them. It is the simple truth and an incredibly important that we must emphasize until the enemies of democracy are stopped. And the mainstream media seems to have reacted by.. saying he is being too divisive. Be nice to Republicans, even those trying to destroy our democracy! It's absolutely disgusting. It's like, the speech didn't really say anything new, it was just summing up the current situation. It's very sad that anything like it is necessary. But it is necessary.
(26th August 2022, 5:16 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: I have no idea what that comic is trying to say... Literally I can't parse it.
Most of it is pretty straightforward -- the idea is a meeting where Biden, Manchin, Sinema, and that Democratic guy in the House always talking about SALT repeal are having a meeting about how to get his agenda passed. Sinema says what you'd expect from her, an uncaring 'give up'; the House guy says 'clean SALT repeal', which I find pretty amusing (as if that'd help, heh); and Manchin says... just lie to them. Because that's pretty clearly what he did.
I described the rest of it in my last post, but the timing of Manchin's moves, from his initial statement that the discussions on neo-BBB were dead to announcing his return to supporting the renamed IRA bill immediately after the Senate Republicans allowed the very important CHIPS bill, which they had been blocking in order to try to keep BBB from passing, through... that timing is just so perfect that it's hard to NOT look at it and see what whoever made that cartoon did, that it was likely Manchin lying to everyone in order to get both BBB (IRA) AND CHIPS passed, something which otherwise may not have happened.
And so, Senator of the Month. :)
Quote: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.
Indeed, he has dirty hands with his family's close connections to the coal industry. And yet, he supported and passed the largest climate bill the world has ever seen, a $300 billion effort to reduce this nation's greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 40%. It's quite an irony but I'll take it!
Manchin is, at his core, a traditional Democratic politician. Is he trustworthy, I think he's proven no. But he is in our party and in the end supported most of Biden's agenda.
Quote: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.
It is probably because my parents paid for my college, but personally this 'forgive college loans' thing has never been something I care all that much about myself. It's a good thing to do, but of Biden's accomplishments this year I'd put it way behind the IRA bill passing, and more. It's probably last on the list. Now, college obviously needs to be more affordable, there is no question at all about that -- college costs more than ever, but the gains after that as far as jobs go are less than ever. That's a really bad dichotomy. What needs to be done is legislation to somehow reduce college costs in this country. However, it looks like right now such a bill can't pass, so this band-aid debt forgiveness bill is, unfortunately, probably the best thing that can be done. So sure, it's nice he did it, and it is very important that he did it with an upper income limit -- the wealthy don't need the help, so targeting the assistance to those who need it is important and that is exactly what Biden did. But I don't care about this issue nearly as much as you, clearly.
You are right about keeping campaign promises though. And he promised to cancel at least $10,000 of debt, so it is good and important the he is trying to keep that promise. (I say "trying" because Republicans are probably going to sue to try to block this executive order. I hope they fail, since people need help in this country right now.) The IRA bill is another of the long list of recent examples of Biden keeping campaign promises. It's great to see after such a frustrating year.
And the wins might not be over, either! This week, Democrats won the special election for the US House seat in Alaska, defeating Sarah Palin. We'll see in November if we hold the seat for three months or two years, but either way it sure was great to see. And apparently the Electoral Count act, perhaps the last absolutely critical legislation that must be passed this year, is moving forward and seems to have enough Senate support to get past the filibuster. I hope that happens soon.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 2nd September 2022
ABF, that's the thing, you need to realize JUST how important "kitchen table" politics are. That college forgiveness thing, small as it was, provided an absolutely MASSIVE bump in Biden's popularity. For most people, that was THE most important thing he did his entire term, and the republicans KNOW it. That's why they hated it so much. For most people, "parents paid for my college" is not the reality. It certainly wasn't for me or any of my siblings, or any of my friends, or any of my extended family, or most of the friends I have online that I've actually discussed such things with. Actually directly helping out people financially is THE biggest thing a candidate can do. There's a reasons republicans are labelling as a "bribe", and that's because they're trying to make people forget that oh so long ago, this was how politicians won over voters. They helped them directly. Now, let me be very clear about why "targetting" (means testing) is a problem. The wealthy don't need the help, but it also won't hurt the poor if the wealthy get that "debt forgiveness" too. Why? The wealthy AREN'T IN DEBT IN THE FIRST PLACE! It's the same reason that means testing free college access isn't an issue. The wealthy will still be sending their kids to the most expensive private colleges anyway, and the taxes they are paying GREATLY outweigh whatever relief any one of them might take advantage of.
Poor people DO NOT CARE if wealthy people also benefit from things like free education and health care and... like fire departments. They only care about having that access themselves, and for wealthy to pay their fare share in taxes. Do that, and sure, let the wealthy take advantage of the same roads and schools we do if they want. Heck, the wealthy's kids mingling with the poor can only be a good thing for society in the long run anyway.
But, and this is important, means testing will ALWAYS end up leaving anyone right at the margin high and dry. It only ever hurts people, and never hurts the wealthy. THAT is why I'm generally against such things. So yes, ALL college debt could have been forgiven, and it could have been done without any means testing. But, this was still a good thing even in an unnecessarily weakened form.
-----------
NEXT TOPIC! That speech. That speech was, frankly, the best speech Biden's ever given. Most of the time he's hemmed and hawed and not been willing to call out what needs calling out, but not in this speech! He was aggressive and he even used the republican's favorite color. (Which for some reason they called "satanic". I guess because this time it wasn't a baseball cap that was red.) Biden called out fascism and specifically went after the MAGA movement itself without pretending it could be ANY group. He went after Trump and his fanbase directly with specifics. The 14 characteristics of fascism ( https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html ) were even hinted at numerous times. Fox of course is melting down over it, and the results have been frankly stunning. In their haste to try and turn it around and label Biden the fascist, they didn't realize they failed to call him a socialist or a communist even once. Good. If they're shifting their framing from "socialism bad" to "fascism bad", then that's where the discourse and the discussion between people is going to move. Mind you, _ucker Carlson may object to how the rest of Fox went after Biden, but it's a good move. Whoever wrote that speech should be pretty proud.
My only hangup here is that he merely called Trump a "semi-fascist". By the end of Trump's presidency, he ticked all 14 characteristics. By definition, he's literally a full fledged fascist who was attempting to become a dictator on top of it (and fortunately failed, that time). I don't see the point in going half-in on that when the rest of the speech had so much fire.
I may have wanted a lot more from the IRA bill, and I'll list that to start with. First of all, it won't really reduce inflation so labelling it that was disingenuous. The inflation is a worldwide phenomenon brought on by corporate greed after (sure... "after") the pandemic). Biden couldn't have caused it, and nothing Biden can do could end it either. It's ending on it's own now that all that price gouging has reached it's limit and people are freezing their purchases as much as they can. That said, it's real stealth purpose was an attempt to FINALLY get a weak version of infrastructure reform passed, and a first attempt at actually combating climate change. These were important, and I'm glad they happened. In terms of survival of the species, yes, the IRA bill contains the most important thing he's done.
Alright, I've been rather critical here, but that's because I'm discussing this with you ABF. I want to be clear that Biden, while having exactly the lackluster presidency so far that I expected, REALLY turned things around the past two months. Is it all I could have hoped for? Of course not, but it's downright impressive and welcome. The added fire for the first time in his life (that ISN'T going after black people... no I will NOT forget all of Biden's absolutely terrible policies from the 90's, and that goes for Hillary "All lives matter" Clinton too), is also incredibly welcome. He's starting to live up to that fun "Dark Brandon" running gag you see online, and I welcome it.
All that said, I have never believed in the concept of a "great man". There is no such thing. No one person can "save us all from ourselves" and the belief in such a concept is what leads to Trumpism and fascism in general. I'm not just saying we need to pay attention to congress and which judges get in power. Real change involves local organization among common people.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Weltall - 4th September 2022
Quote:It is probably because my parents paid for my college, but personally this 'forgive college loans' thing has never been something I care all that much about myself.
Thankfully, finally, the liberals are taking into consideration that enough of the rest of us do care, and that helping us helps us help you get the things you care about. I wish that lesson didn't take 40 years to learn, but better late than never.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 11th September 2022
Another good thing the democrats are finally FINALLY doing, which if you check my earlier posts I've been saying they should do for years now.
They are putting up very important legislation even without knowing if they can actually get all the votes. This is a GOOD THING! This forced everyone in congress to put their name to actual votes, and whether this upcoming bill passes or loses, it only helps the democrats because these policies, I say again, have OVERWHELMING popular support. This is what REAL populism looks like.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - etoven - 12th September 2022
(4th September 2022, 10:10 AM)Weltall Wrote:Quote:It is probably because my parents paid for my college, but personally this 'forgive college loans' thing has never been something I care all that much about myself.
Thankfully, finally, the liberals are taking into consideration that enough of the rest of us do care, and that helping us helps us help you get the things you care about. I wish that lesson didn't take 40 years to learn, but better late than never.
I'm liking this new "Fuck Trump" joe biden.
Also india trolls trump live during a show with funky music.
https://youtu.be/bUtufEnNWsU?t=335
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 14th September 2022
Mike Pillow is in it now...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 16th September 2022
Never mind Mike Pillow, DeSantis (which I think is a word that means "to remove Santa or Santa-like qualities") is now a human trafficker that abandoned uncared for people, both adults and children, on the side of the road like they were unwanted dogs, all in the name of... sarcasm basically. The guy's CRUEL political stunt has backfired and he's now under investigation, but I have better news than that. Those poor people have been taken in by the people around Martha's Vinyard (and other areas that UnSanta sent immigrants to) and an emergency refugee camp has been set up for them. I do hope they're allowed to integrate into that community and are deemed legal citizens soon. What a horrible cruel thing to do...
Remember this. DeSantis is nothing more than another Trump, and more Trumpian figures will emerge in the coming years. Even if Trump died today we would not be rid of the mindset or the weaknesses in our system that allowed him to come to power in the first place. The enemy isn't Trump, it's fascism, and we must root out all fascists from positions of power. I'd even go so far as to say that the danger their words pose to society justifies a ban on that kind of speech. We don't have absolute free speech in this country. Libel, direct inciting to violence, and lies that lead to dangerous behavior (yelling fire in a crowded theater) are already illegal.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Weltall - 16th September 2022
(12th September 2022, 7:14 PM)etoven Wrote:(4th September 2022, 10:10 AM)Weltall Wrote:Quote:It is probably because my parents paid for my college, but personally this 'forgive college loans' thing has never been something I care all that much about myself.
Thankfully, finally, the liberals are taking into consideration that enough of the rest of us do care, and that helping us helps us help you get the things you care about. I wish that lesson didn't take 40 years to learn, but better late than never.
I'm liking this new "Fuck Trump" joe biden.
Also india trolls trump live during a show with funky music.
https://youtu.be/bUtufEnNWsU?t=335
I really feel like this is so overdue. Like not enough bad things can happen to these people. Criminals without peer in American history if even half of this all turns out to be true.
Quote:I'd even go so far as to say that the danger their words pose to society justifies a ban on that kind of speech. We don't have absolute free speech in this country. Libel, direct inciting to violence, and lies that lead to dangerous behavior (yelling fire in a crowded theater) are already illegal.
That, or an attempt to actually go after 2A comprehensively, would be the exact worst moves we could make right now. They went after Roe, are going for a complete ban on abortion, period. That confirms for many people all the worst things we've said about Republicans, and what their true intentions were all along. It would be a huge mistake to make their speech illegal, a move that shows weakness as well as our own willingness to infringe upon fundamental Constitutional rights. What we must do, as Americans opposed to fascism, regardless of our beliefs, is to make sure people know the truth about them, about the things they really want.
Engaging them in 'debate' is a waste of time, they win automatically because by agreeing to debate at all, you are validating their extremism. They will just lie, anyway. There's no need to ban them. We need to drown them out and shine every light on them. Entire generations are seeing what these people really are. Make it so that expressing these kinds of awful, cruel opinions makes you a pariah in society. They hate this 'cancel culture' thing, but you know what? That's just them being mad because the marketplace of ideas is now actively rejecting the ideas they are trying to sell. They hate it so much, and liken it to censorship, because that's what they really want everyone to think it is. 'Censorship' is what totalitarian governments do! Only, this is not a totalitarian government at work. This is society itself telling them that we are starting to feel like the debate is over and that we are ready to stop pretending that right wing ideology is 'just an opposing opinion'.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 17th September 2022
I understand where you're coming from, and I do hope you're right. I fear there's a lot of silent people who agree with the likes of Tucker that we still haven't seen though.
But, I'd like to be clear about the very specific kind of speech I think would be better off banned. I'm talking specifically about saying this or that group "should be rounded up and shot". I'm talking about speech saying we need to "take up arms and take back our country". I'm talking about direct incitements to violence in particular.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 26th September 2022
Alright so Italy just voted in their first female prime minister. She's a fascist. .... This isn't how you do "progress" Italy!
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 30th September 2022
Yeah, the rise of the far right in Europe continues, sadly -- in addition to Italy, Sweden also elected a very far-right party recently. Some people like to act like Europe is so amazingly enlightened and superior to America, but look at the kind of people winning elections in a whole lot of European countries and you see just how wrong that is. I'm not going to say how much better we are, Trump did win once after all, but Europe has absolutely no legs to stand on when they criticize that, not with how they keep electing extremists with incredibly bad records!
But don't worry, the woman who won in Italy said how normal and centrist she is to win, never mind how her party is neo-fascist or that she started out office by saying some awful things. (There is one good thing about her, though: she supports Ukraine.)
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 3rd October 2022
ABF, they have legs to stand on. "Europe" is not a monolith, and a country isn't either. Individual free people have every right adding criticism, because here's the thing. Trump didn't get elected by accident. Heck you could even argue he didn't get "elected", but that's an inditement of our entire electoral process. If it happened once, it can happen again. Biden really isn't all that special. He's a right leaning centrist, not a progressive, who happens to be doing a number of things I actually agree with recently. Our country is STILL doing some very unfortunate things that deserve criticism. Even right now, if anyone says anything negative about the current government of Israel, they are labelled as anti-Semitic. It's a lazy and insulting thing to do, when that government really is committing war crimes and of course, criticizing a government is not the same as criticizing the people that government lead.
Oh and don't grasp at straws. Saying "I support Ukraine" is pretty easy when the alternative is supporting a country that is a direct threat to your own. That isn't "good", it's self preservation.
...Hillary Clinton celebrated her election as "progression" because she's a woman. What a foolish thing to do! As though half the population of Italy didn't contain literally a single female candidate that WASN'T a fascist they could have picked instead. This is the danger of "tokenism".
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Weltall - 3rd October 2022
Quote:Some people like to act like Europe is so amazingly enlightened and superior to America
because they forget that they had spent two thousand years killing and conquering each other and everyone else until the United States put a stop to it.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 3rd October 2022
Why making Juneteenth a national holiday is about as important as giving a drowning victim a high five of support. Guess what? Black people were already celebrating that holiday. What they aren't doing is... you know, surviving police encounters.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 6th October 2022
....This situation would have literally been better if the police never responded at all. This girl would have been better off if her murderer father were allowed to kidnap her.
Defund the police...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 6th October 2022
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/biden-pardons-all-federal-simple-marijuana-possession-offenses/
Alright, ABF, this right here is the second HUGE thing Biden has done, at least as far as securing party votes this November. First, the sheer simple logistics. Prisoners that are pardoned and freed can now vote. Secondly, well, everyone affected such as friends and family will see real benefits right now, at a kitchen table which now includes more loved ones than before.
This isn't legalizing it, but it's a big move. I may not agree that presidential pardoning powers should exist, but if it's going to, this is how it should be used.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 11th October 2022
SCANDALOUS!
The man loves his son. Now, what I see here is just another attempt to implicate Joe as conspiring to get Hunter out of legal trouble. Look elsewhere. All this proves is that a father loves his son. We always knew the motive was there, the same one any parent has. Evidence is needed to demonstrate something.
As it is, it is rather hilarious to hear republicans branding Hunter as "gun toting", to suggest his gun rights should be removed. I mean, maybe they should be, but be consistent. It's also entirely irrelevant to me. I really don't care about Hunter, and neither should anyone else until such time as he's appointed in some position of power where his escapades, real or imagined, might actually have some real effect.
We need to stop with this notion of dynasties. It was foolish with the Kennedy family, it was foolish with the Clintons, and it was foolish with the Bushes. We should stop idolizing royal families and stop trying to reproduce them politically here in the U.S. Stop seeking the next president by seeing who's related to the last, and stop trying to tar a political figure by going after their family.
There is of course, one glaring exception. Nepotism. If someone's put their loved ones in positions of authority, you are free to go after them as people in positions of power. You know who did that? Trump. (As an aside, I have never been a fan of this far too old tradition of "First Ladies" being put in charge of government projects. It's simply trussed up nepotism that once again comes across as a "royal family" sort of thing and it needs to end.)
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 18th October 2022
Looks like there's a lot of people convinced "republicans do the economy better" according to polls... And the democrats aren't even trying to fight that narrative...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 20th October 2022
Yeah, it's pretty frustrating. The main problem is that there is a very very old stereotype that people have that Republicans are better for the economy, and the economy is not the best right now, so let's elect Republicans because they are better for the economy.
This stereotype is, of course, completely false. Republicans are worse for the economy. When you elect them the economy gets worse most of the time, and when you elect Democrats the economy gets better most of the time. But Democrats sometimes raise taxes while Republicans like to lower them, so the falsehood that Reps are better for the economy is a very enduring and widely believed myth.
I agree that Democrats should push hard on breaking that myth, since it is absolutely untrue and if Republicans win that will be a major part of why they won (the other part being "let's vote for the people not in power"), but it's such an old one that I doubt just a few TV ads or something would make THAT much of a difference... so instead they have focused on abortion. I understand why they have and a focus on abortion is necessary, but should Dems mention the economy more? The problem is, most voters will think "but Dems are in power and the economy has issues, why should we vote for them again?" and not listen to the facts, such as that the economy is struggling worldwide and that there's not much anyone on either side can do about that.
So, if the Republicans do win, the economy will not get better. It could well get worse. But we will get the "fun" of endless House investigations on Biden and such, I am not looking forward to that one bit. And we will also get some serious pressure against the US support for Ukraine, since many Republicans are Russia supporters. Ugh. But "vote for the people in power to stay in power because the currently not great economy is not our fault, we're doing our best but there isn't much more we can do", while true, unfortunately is too complex for most people to listen to. :(
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 8th November 2022
So, election day for the midterms is today, and nobody knows what is going to happen, there is a lot of uncertainty. A small Republican victory is the most likely outcome, but it could go either way. I hope a lot of people are going to vote, Republicans cannot be rewarded for ending abortion and opposing the continued existence of democracy...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Weltall - 15th November 2022
You got what you deserved, Republican Party. FTR, I voted and then went blackout on election coverage, assuming the worst and not at all prepared to wake up Wednesday morning to see it was the worst, for them.
But I live in red world and my polling place looked like a nursing home jailbreak, can you blame me?
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 16th November 2022
I NEVER follow "by the minute" results after voting. I ALWAYS check the day after some time in the afternoon. I'm right there with you Weltall. My mom on the other hand...
So, a number of interesting developments. First of all, the specific races the republicans lost. They are losing, very specifically, almost all the "pro Trump" and "pro conspiracy" elections, whether for candidates or specific local issues. This seems to have been enough to ensure that the democrats keep the senate. The house? That's about to be lost. As of this post it's a single seat away from going to the right, but we expected that. What's more interesting is the general tone of the party. They're in a sort of "civil war" right now. It's been Mitch vs. Trump for a while now, and I think Mitch just won. The party, by and large, are all turning on Trump and Trumpism. They've found out it won't win them elections any more. Don't confuse this for a rejection of fascism. They already revealed they're entirely okay with plunging the nation into fascism if it lets them keep or get power. They're rejecting, specifically, the COMPLETE disregard for any and all facts and ostentatious "Great Man" thinking. Not all of them of course. Margorie Green was always a true believer and is utterly shocked at all this and demanding a more violent civil war.
Anyway, here's the best news for the future of democracy: the republicans and their mouthpieces like Fox News are NOT immediately claiming the election was stolen. They're not even bringing it up as a possibility. Yes, Margorie Green and Trump definitely are, but it's really only the true believers who are even bringing it up now. Even Mike Towel is claiming he (and god) intentionally worked to make sure the republicans lost. The utter reversal is interesting. Now, it's still soon yet to decide if this rejection of Trumpism will "stick". They may get enough kickback from the Trump faithful that they go running back into his arms in a month. But, right now? Right now, it's a good sign. It's a good attempt by the media as a whole to shove conspiracies about the legitimacy of our elections right back into the garbage where they belong.
Here's the thing though. We cannot and should not just wipe our hands and say "well that's that, status quo returned and it's all back to normal!". First of all, normal died during the Trump presidency. That pre-Trump era is never going to return. Secondly, frankly I don't want it to. I want change. Not fascist change, TRUE populist change. The current parties, even if the republican party goes back to their post-911 "normal", are utterly incapable of solving our current problems. In fact, as a general rule no system is capable of changing itself utterly through it's own rules. Change is coming one way or another, but let's see if we can't provide and keep up the pressure on both parties to actually WANT to encourage the change we need, as opposed to them fighting us every step of the way.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 17th November 2022
Anyway, enjoy another frankly exhausting hour!
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 17th November 2022
So, basically what happened in this election is that the nonpartisan polls were fairly accurate. The problem is that there weren't very many OF them, while there were a whole lot of Republican-funded polls by right wing pollsters, so polling-wise the situation looked a lot worse than it actually was. The right wing pollsters' right-leaning polls were inaccurate. Thank goodness.
Of course, it is getting significantly harder to poll -- very few people answer their phones to unknown numbers anymore, and internet polls are difficult to do -- so some of this problem is inevitable and will only get worse, but even so, you can see the massive gulf in results between the very inaccurate right-wing pollsters and the reasonably close nonpartisan ones.
To start the year, Republicans had a big lead. Then, the Supreme Court ended Roe v. Wade, totally changing the equation. After this Democrats got a big lead. The polls did show a Republican gain in the month before the election, before things started moving back towards the Dems closer to election day. The final result was something pretty much like the earlier, pre-"Republican wave" polling: as most people had been thinking for much of the year, the Democrats kept the Senate while the Republicans took the house. So, the results were a mixed bag, with a slight Republican lean in the overall turnout negated in the Senate by the favorable map and some horrible candidates on the Republican side.
Meanwhile, the pundit class ignored the nonpartisan polling and predicted a big Republican victory that the polling never showed post-Roe repeal. Republicans expected a win because "that's what always happens in a Presidents' first midterm", and a lot of members of the press were all too happy to gleefully predict Republican victory, because they seem to prefer Republicans to Democrats. It's pretty frustrating stuff.
But then the election happened, and the red wave fortunately failed to materialize on a nationwide basis. Instead, some states went right and others went left, the results were very mixed. Republicans did best in Florida, probably America's worst state, which went hard right this year. Meanwhile, in states such as Maine the Democrats did great. Unfortunately for our House majority, one of the states we did poorly in was New York. Combined with some very questionable court decisions there that blocked an attempted Democrat-favored map, Republicans picked up multiple seats there, sealing their victory.
However, the Republican majority is fortunately small. Currently Republicans are leading in 222 races, and Democrats in 213. That is only a five vote majority, which is extremely close. The Democrats recently have been united enough to work together and get our agenda through with a narrow majority, but the Republicans, quite unlike their old days of being the more disciplined and uniform party, now are riven by divisions. Their right flank wants endless investigations and hearings about Hunter Biden and his laptop. They also want hearings into how horribly the people arrested for being a part of the mob who assaulted the capitol on Jan. 6th have been treated in detention. And they don't want Kevin McCarthy for leader, since his doormat-style of leadership isn't enough for them, they want someone as insane as they are.
Of course, their wing did not win in this election. Election deniers did worse than average, and as you pointed out, very few candidates are going hard into election denial about their defeats in this election. The losing Republican governor candidate in Arizona Kari Lake is an exception, she'd a diehard Trumper, but almost all others conceded defeat the way you should after losing. That's a relief for sure! Certainly, this does not exactly prove our democracy is fine now, it is not, but if it continues it's a huge step forward. But despite this, the Trump wing of the party is not going to go down without a fight, and they don't care that they clearly lost and want to get as much as they possibly can out of the rest of their party for their support for a Republican Speaker of the House.
Seriously, thinking about the Hunter Biden hearings and prospecitve impeachment iof Joe Biden for literally nothing is so frustrating and sad, but it's what is probably going to happen. However, to keep their majority in '24 they will need to win seats that they held this time but that voted for Biden in '20. I cannot see those more moderate Republicans fully getting in line behind Trump-style election denial and policies, not when the not-Trump wing of the Republican Party's great hope for stopping Trump, the also crazily evil Ron DeSantis, is ascendant in his position in their party due to his huge win for Florida Governor... we will see how this will go, but the House will probably be a total disaster for the next two years, as the Republicans mostly fail to govern in any way and spend most of their time screaming about nonsense and yelling eachother. Ugh.
But hey, at least with our Senate majority we get two more years of judicial nominees passed without a problem, and that is a big, BIG deal. Absolutely huge. Keeping the Senate after the '24 election will be nearly impossibly hard because of the states we need to defend then (West Virginia, Montana, Ohio, and more...), so before then we need to get as many judges through as possible. It is fantastic that we held the Senate, it was getting a bit scary for a little while before the election thanks to the absolute flood of right-wing polls.
As for Trump, he announced he is running for President in '24... and the right-wing media and most Republican members of congress are NOT on board. Most of them want to move on from Trump to DeSantis. Well, they're both absolutely horrendous so I take no strong position there, but watching the right-right fight for the '24 nomination should be interesting. I hope they rip eachother to shreds and make it easier for Biden to win again in '24...
Lastly, Nancy Pelosi just announced that she will not run for another term as Speaker of the House. When she retires as Speaker she will have been our House leader for 20 years, and she's done a fantastic job! Keeping the Democratic Party in line is incredibly difficult, but she always managed it when it counted. Just amazing work there. I think we'll really miss her leadership in the coming years...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 19th November 2022
I won't miss Pelosi. She's done way too much against the progressive wing for me to support her at this point. It's absolutely time for new leadership, but what we're getting instead is a republican in charge of the house.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 17th December 2022
Meanwhile:
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 1st January 2023
So, two days left. Two days until we learn whether Kevin McCarthy manages to get almost all of the Republicans to vote for him for speaker or not. If not this could get ugly, if by ugly you mean 'there might not be a speaker for a while...'. Heh. Republicans in disarray indeed, it sure is nice that it's not the Democrats who are anymore!
As for Nancy Pelosi, she did pretty much the absolute best anyone possibly could have given the members she had to deal with.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 2nd January 2023
I don't think she did the absolute best. I won't soon forget her self serving attitude regarding congress insider trading.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 2nd January 2023
Okay, criticizing her for the insider trading issue is fair. For the most part though she did amazing.
In other news... only one day until Kevin McCarthy finally gets to join his friends in failure!
![[Image: 9781451607345_hr.jpg]](https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/tagged_assets/cvr9781451607345/9781451607345_hr.jpg)
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Weltall - 6th January 2023
Eric Cantor was the representative in the district I lived in most of my life. It was delicious to watch him get primaried out by a right wing caveman, who was, in turn, replaced with a Democrat who has won re-election twice.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 6th January 2023
So, the House is voting right now on its 14th ballot for Speaker. McCarthy may win this ballot and finally be Speaker, or he may very narrowly fall short, but it is looking more likely he might manage it either in this ballot or soon. However, he got to this point by fully surrendering on just about every possible issue to the raving psychos of the Freedom Caucus, Kevin McCarthy may be about to become speaker... but he loses either way, because if he does get in he will have an absolutely miserable two years, if he even lasts that long. The emboldened Freedom Caucus will make regular life in the House incredibly difficult. It'll be a miracle if we don't default on our national debt, unless somehow their blockage can be worked around... unless we try the 'you can't actually default on the debt' concept, but who knows if that's legal.
And with Democrats holding the Senate and Presidency, the House's bitter infighting and inability to do anything will be extremely apparent to anyone paying any attention to politics. Even if he wins, McCarthy will hate his job as speaker...
But apparently, all he cares about is getting that office. He doesn't care how awful a time he has AS Speaker, he just wants to be Speaker of the House and to be able to say in the future that he was Speaker of the House. Whatever self-serving book full of absolute nonsense he writes some day wil be utterly insufferable, and a pack of lies if he tries to pretend that his essential strategy, both with Trump and the Freedom Caucus, is not to 1) surrender on all issues and then 2) privately complain about it, as if this matters in any way given that #1 is the important part.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 10th January 2023
So, it ultimately doesn't matter what happens here. The republican led congress will be as "do nothing" as ever, because that's all they're going to care about, depriving the opposition of a single attempt to do anything to improve the lives of voters. This is their strategy: make sure nothing changes so they can win in 2024.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 4th June 2023
So, the House Republicans finally have their big "win"! After a big, long fight over whether to raise the debt limit or force Biden to try tactics that may or may not work to avoid default, at the last minute they decided to negotiate for real, and as a result Biden has now signed the resulting deal...
That, it is pretty clear, he absolutely rolled the Republicans in the negotiations for. They got so little for all their yelling, it's pretty funny...
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 4th June 2023
It's not what I'd call a good deal, mind you. We still lost things, but the cuts were minor enough the more extreme republicans are absolutely furious. The big question is this. Will they vote for it? It would be political suicide not to, and it would also throw us into a nightmare of a recession as confidence in the US to pay off it's debts utterly evaporates.
I think the veil is slipping a bit. It's becoming more and more obvious that the republicans alone are responsible for "holding up" the debt ceiling talk. That said, we absolutely should get rid of the debt ceiling entirely. The only two countries on the entire planet of Earth that have a "debt ceiling limit" are us and Denmark. It's pointless. All it does is threaten to undermine our debts, which by the 14th amendment shall not be questioned. Incidentally, even if it was a good idea not to invoke that amendment, it was a TERRIBLE idea to actually state it wouldn't be invoked. NEVER tell the other side what you won't do in advance. That's basic rules of negotiation.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Weltall - 5th June 2023
Love watching the latest divorced, brainless Republican fuck puppet (who is a grandma despite being younger than anyone who has ever posted on TC) missing the debt ceiling vote and then lying about the reason.
I also love that I'm in my 40s, and I'm somehow not growing more conservative. That element of my existence peaked so long ago that it barely even seems real now. At this point in my existence, I don't even consider myself a leftist (though that is where almost all of my opinions seem to lean now) as much as I consider myself anti-conservative. I love going on Reddit and just eviscerating random fascist fuck heads with bad takes, now and then. Everything about conservatism feels overtly sinister and dangerous now. There isn't even the facade of decency and tradition on display anymore. It's an entire party made up of sociopathic shitposters. I honestly believe that conservatism has contributed absolutely nothing, at all, positive to the history of the United States. Not once, not ever, and absolutely not intentionally.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 5th June 2023
Oh you sir are absolutely a leftist, and yes, it's amazing that the whole "older generations lean more right" thing seems to be dying as a pattern. Oh I'm still a grumpy old who thinks games aren't what they used to be and all, but as far as public policy goes? I'm only getting more and more progressive. The latest thing I've been obsessing over to the annoyance of everyone around me? Walkable cities that emphasize public transit and bikes over North America's car addiction. Funny thing is from a certain perspective that's about as "conservative" as it gets because what I'm asking for is to return to 1910's era city design and, where our modern tech allows it, emphasize the sort of ideas futurists of that era had envisioned like merging buildings with nature and verticalization of public transit. (That is, turning the tops of buildings into garden spaces and linking together those top sections with nearby buildings with skywalks, which means establishing that buildings overall are publicly owned and only the specific sections within can be privately owned.)
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 27th June 2023
What a wonderful day! Okay, it's not wonderful out, we're still in that permanent cloudbank that seems to have been overhead for most of the past few months. For a while Maine was protected from the worst of the Canadian wildfire smoke by a storm off to our east, but it's not anymore.
But politically, it sure is wonderful, because the Supreme Court explicitly rejected Moore v. Harper's incredibly dangerous independent state legislature theory. In a 6 to 3 ruling the Supreme Court solidly opposed ISL as a theory. Considering how incredibly dangerous ISL is as a theory, particularly with how it could allow a state legislature to overturn the results of an election they don't like with zero oversight, this is fantastic, fantastic news. Roberts got two of Trump's appointees to support keeping the status quo on elections, again going against a past opinion of his in the name of opposing this highly destructive theory that would totally upend our election system.
This decision pretty much stops this avenue for the destruction of our democracy. Republicans may try some new avenue for their goal of continuing their extreme anti-democratic (small d, not big d) and pro-authoritarian agenda, but this is a big win against that. Of course, Roberts also did it out of self-interest, since this would be surrendering his own branchs' power to the legislative branch, and likely also to keep the people from hating the supreme court even more after their abortion decision, but regardless of the reason the effect is to keep the system as it is: imperfect, but democratic.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 28th June 2023
(27th June 2023, 6:33 PM)A Black Falcon Wrote: What a wonderful day! Okay, it's not wonderful out, we're still in that permanent cloudbank that seems to have been overhead for most of the past few months. For a while Maine was protected from the worst of the Canadian wildfire smoke by a storm off to our east, but it's not anymore.
But politically, it sure is wonderful, because the Supreme Court explicitly rejected Moore v. Harper's incredibly dangerous independent state legislature theory. In a 6 to 3 ruling the Supreme Court solidly opposed ISL as a theory. Considering how incredibly dangerous ISL is as a theory, particularly with how it could allow a state legislature to overturn the results of an election they don't like with zero oversight, this is fantastic, fantastic news. Roberts got two of Trump's appointees to support keeping the status quo on elections, again going against a past opinion of his in the name of opposing this highly destructive theory that would totally upend our election system.
This decision pretty much stops this avenue for the destruction of our democracy. Republicans may try some new avenue for their goal of continuing their extreme anti-democratic (small d, not big d) and pro-authoritarian agenda, but this is a big win against that. Of course, Roberts also did it out of self-interest, since this would be surrendering his own branchs' power to the legislative branch, and likely also to keep the people from hating the supreme court even more after their abortion decision, but regardless of the reason the effect is to keep the system as it is: imperfect, but democratic.
Somewhat democratic, at least, which is better than "none democratic". It was the obvious right decision, and these days we're not getting those as often as we'd like from the Supreme Court. There's speculation going around that McConnel may have made a mistake selecting supreme court candidates based solely on a single issue and hadn't vetted them for their positions on other issues. This decision is another notch for that proposition, but I'm still a bit skeptical on that count.
Meanwhile...
The supreme court made a bad decision today, ruling that there must be proof that someone sending a death threat knows it's a death threat. That's a pretty much impossible burden of proof. The better burden is the "reasonable person" standard, which does require a jury but it's better than this. Now, death threats are basically legal nationwide, so long as the person making the death threat, when asked, coyly puts a finger to their lips saying "Oh who me? Oh no that was just me sharing poetry!".
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 30th June 2023
Never mind that idea the new supreme court is more center than we had thought. NEVER MIND IT TO HELL!
They did one good thing, the thing that kept them in power, and the fact it kept them in power was the core reason they did it. The rest? Screw all of it.
It's time to expand the supreme court and get things back in our control. Well, the time to do that was before the house was lost... But, the moment we get it again, we do this. The consequences of not doing it have been devastating.
I had hoped for a little relief, that pittance we were given, but even that's been taken from me.
Affirmative action dies as well, and a decision that will have terrible repercussions regarding the right of stores to discriminate against LGBLT members (namely, legally there is no way to distinguish between a right to do that and a right to discriminate against black people, or women, for example).
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 30th June 2023
Honestly, despite how bad the last day's decisions are, I do think that it's true that the Republicans didn't get the most out of their court picks. I mean, if they wanted three doctrinaire hard-right conservatives in the Alito or Thomas mold, they didn't get it. They got three conservative Republicans who sometimes will support good policies, such as when, a few days ago, they somewhat shockingly decided that Alabama and Louisiana each deserve an additional VRA district -- that is, one more black-majority district than their gerrymandered states were allowing them. That's very very good. The decision to not blow up our democracy by rejecting independent state legislature theory's also great. Had they chosen three Alitos we wouldn't have gotten those decisions. Also, Gorsuch is apparently probably the most pro-Native American rights justice ever. This term he even had one 8-1 case where he was the only one supporting them.
This is not to say that the last days' decisions weren't bad, they were. The decision allowing discrimination against gays and lesbians particularly is horrible, and will have long-lasting repercussions.
The decision blocking the student loan forgiveness is unfortunate for anyone who can't afford to pay their loans because college costs a huge amount now and does not come with the guarantee of a good job afterwards that it once did. Biden must have been expecting their decision though, because he immediately came out with a package of reforms aimed at helping people with student loan debt despite this decision. He's trying. I hope people are helped by the policies he's announced.
As for affirmative action, it kind of dies but there may be workarounds.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 1st July 2023
The court had no issue with legacy admissions you'll note...
And yes, Biden's "backup plan" really should have been the first plan.
But, here's the thing. The court needs to change. Nothing can be accomplished without that.
I've been posting a lot of videos here, but if anyone has any doubts at all about affirmative action, please watch this one. The people about to take your cookie aren't black people. The rich already took the whole jar.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - etoven - 6th July 2023
(1st September 2022, 7:27 PM)A Black Falcon Wrote: Joe Biden gave a speech tonight about the threat to American democracy that the authoritarian, fascist MAGA movement is a serious danger to democracy... and that the Republican Party is now mostly beholden to them. It is the simple truth and an incredibly important that we must emphasize until the enemies of democracy are stopped. And the mainstream media seems to have reacted by.. saying he is being too divisive. Be nice to Republicans, even those trying to destroy our democracy! It's absolutely disgusting. It's like, the speech didn't really say anything new, it was just summing up the current situation. It's very sad that anything like it is necessary. But it is necessary.
(26th August 2022, 5:16 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: I have no idea what that comic is trying to say... Literally I can't parse it.
Most of it is pretty straightforward -- the idea is a meeting where Biden, Manchin, Sinema, and that Democratic guy in the House always talking about SALT repeal are having a meeting about how to get his agenda passed. Sinema says what you'd expect from her, an uncaring 'give up'; the House guy says 'clean SALT repeal', which I find pretty amusing (as if that'd help, heh); and Manchin says... just lie to them. Because that's pretty clearly what he did.
I described the rest of it in my last post, but the timing of Manchin's moves, from his initial statement that the discussions on neo-BBB were dead to announcing his return to supporting the renamed IRA bill immediately after the Senate Republicans allowed the very important CHIPS bill, which they had been blocking in order to try to keep BBB from passing, through... that timing is just so perfect that it's hard to NOT look at it and see what whoever made that cartoon did, that it was likely Manchin lying to everyone in order to get both BBB (IRA) AND CHIPS passed, something which otherwise may not have happened.
And so, Senator of the Month. :)
Quote: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.
Indeed, he has dirty hands with his family's close connections to the coal industry. And yet, he supported and passed the largest climate bill the world has ever seen, a $300 billion effort to reduce this nation's greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 40%. It's quite an irony but I'll take it!
Manchin is, at his core, a traditional Democratic politician. Is he trustworthy, I think he's proven no. But he is in our party and in the end supported most of Biden's agenda.
Quote: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.
It is probably because my parents paid for my college, but personally this 'forgive college loans' thing has never been something I care all that much about myself. It's a good thing to do, but of Biden's accomplishments this year I'd put it way behind the IRA bill passing, and more. It's probably last on the list. Now, college obviously needs to be more affordable, there is no question at all about that -- college costs more than ever, but the gains after that as far as jobs go are less than ever. That's a really bad dichotomy. What needs to be done is legislation to somehow reduce college costs in this country. However, it looks like right now such a bill can't pass, so this band-aid debt forgiveness bill is, unfortunately, probably the best thing that can be done. So sure, it's nice he did it, and it is very important that he did it with an upper income limit -- the wealthy don't need the help, so targeting the assistance to those who need it is important and that is exactly what Biden did. But I don't care about this issue nearly as much as you, clearly.
You are right about keeping campaign promises though. And he promised to cancel at least $10,000 of debt, so it is good and important the he is trying to keep that promise. (I say "trying" because Republicans are probably going to sue to try to block this executive order. I hope they fail, since people need help in this country right now.) The IRA bill is another of the long list of recent examples of Biden keeping campaign promises. It's great to see after such a frustrating year.
And the wins might not be over, either! This week, Democrats won the special election for the US House seat in Alaska, defeating Sarah Palin. We'll see in November if we hold the seat for three months or two years, but either way it sure was great to see. And apparently the Electoral Count act, perhaps the last absolutely critical legislation that must be passed this year, is moving forward and seems to have enough Senate support to get past the filibuster. I hope that happens soon.
(28th March 2023, 4:57 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: That's a lot of chinese users... all legitimate human beings I'm sure.
There is no defending the GOP's behavior as of late. It's to bonkers. Unapologetically un-american and just plain disgusting.
They would suggest we find middle ground to child raping axe murders (if I can make a analogy).
Rapeing babies is bad... End of story.
There's no tolerating this behavior, no middle ground to find. Just offending me to my very core.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 29th October 2023
Here in Maine we have eight -- yes eight -- ballot measures on the ballot next week. Well, more accurately we have four ballot measures plus four constitutional amendments suggested by the secretary of state's office. Those four fix some constitutional issues and aren't anything major, they should all pass hopefully. Of the first four, two are major and one other noteworthy.
The less major one is a right to repair [cars] referendum which puts a right for auto shops to access car data in state law. Apparently carmakers are starting to block this so only dealers can get data from newer cars, which is obviously a problem. Perhaps because there's already a law like this in Massachusetts, carmakers aren't putting a lot of money into fighting this. I'm guessing this passes but we will see.
The big question is about whether the state should buy the two main power transmission companies, CMP and Versant, and make them into a state-run power company. For anyone who doesn't know, CMP and Versant are both highly unpopular. CMP is one of the most unpopular utility companies in the country, in act. Power outages are common in Maine, could this be improved on? (Perhaps not given how scattered our population is and since this is the most forested state in America, but who knows.) And on top of that, both companies have foreign ownership -- CMP is owned by a Spanish company, and Versant by a Canadian government (that of Calgary, Alberta, apparently). Should our power companies be foreign-owned?
So, this referendum to try to solve this problem by buying the two companies and ... nationalizing them I guess. State-izing them? Heh. Obviously, it's highly controversial and CMP and Versant are spending very heavily against the referendum. Most of the advertising is on the no side. Claims include that "It will cost $13.5 billion!", 'they have no plan for what to do after the purchase so it won't improve reliability', and more. From the paper it's clear that some of the questions about the referendum are fair, as it could be expensive, if passed it will certainly be tied up in the courts for quite some time as CMP and such will sue, it could reduce municipal taxes paid by the power companies though supporters claim it will not, and more.
What do I think though? I'm deeply conflicted. On the one hand, I've never supported nationalization of industry, and haven't had CMP do anything bad to me in particular. On the other hand, the foreign ownership of power companies issue is something I think is probably a valid concern, and certainly CMP's service is expensive and not exactly the most reliable, could we do better? So I'm still not sure how I'm going to vote. I predict it fails, though, as even many Democrats sound like they aren't voting yes. But with how hated CMP is I guess you never know.
The other referendum is related to the power company one, as it would ban companies owned by foreign governments -- such as, as previously mentioned, Versant -- from spending money on political ads in Maine. It is illegal for foreign governments to spend on ads for federal elections, but that isn't the case for state ballot measures, that is a state law issue. This one's mostly going under the radar, CMP/Versant aren't going all out against it like they are the main one above. Since the idea sounds reasonable when you read the measure, my guess is that is passes. I don't know how much of an effect it would actually have though, dark money always finds a way in this country, it seems. Ah well.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 30th October 2023
My thoughts on those? Well, obviously I'm not from there so consider me a carpet bagger for what I'm about to say, but...
I fully support right to repair laws, and prefer more generalized ones to this specific one, but it's a good start. Considering I repair a lot of electronics these days, mostly as a hobby, you can imagine how important a right for people to repair said hardware is to me.
Banning foreign companies from spending money on campaign ads? Absolutely. Yes, "dark money" as you put it is a problem, but that doesn't mean we just give up. All we can do is plug up every hole we possibly can WHEN we can.
"Nationalization of industry" is the kind of thing that can be easily abused by fascist actors. I understand your concern. For what it's worth, this isn't nationalized, it's only state-wide. This prevents fascists at the national stage from taking advantage of it. My preferred solution? The employees that work for those power companies should own the power companies, or in other words make them co-ops. Then it's not owned at any level by the state while still not allowing oligarchs total control. Second to that is to only buy ONE of those power companies, leaving the other as competition. That's much like USPS competing with UPS and FedEx. Still, on balance this would, at least right now, be a better solution than doing nothing. I understand your concerns though.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 2nd November 2023
Well now this is very telling. If these laws weren't effective, why fight so vehemently to prevent their passing? Of course, the video also directly addresses the failings of this legislation... but wow was it telling.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 8th November 2023
Well, they figured it out! The problem is democracy itself! Oh, so sorry, "direct democracy". They'd be perfectly happy with a stacked state congress voting against the will of the people, and then voting to manipulate the districting so they stay in power.
Our betters know what's best, you see.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - etoven - 9th November 2023
(4th September 2022, 10:10 AM)Weltall Wrote:Quote:It is probably because my parents paid for my college, but personally this 'forgive college loans' thing has never been something I care all that much about myself.
Thankfully, finally, the liberals are taking into consideration that enough of the rest of us do care, and that helping us helps us help you get the things you care about. I wish that lesson didn't take 40 years to learn, but better late than never.
All of them completely shit the bed Tuesday. And I bet only 1/3 of a single human learned a damn thing.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 9th November 2023
I'm not sure what you mean, Tuesday American liberals had a very good day. They won both houses of the Virginia state house, the Kentucky governor's race, and an abortion amendment passed in Ohio, among other things.
Here in Maine, that 'should we buy the power transmission companies' referendum failed 70-30. It's a noble idea but I get it, there are real issues that would have resulted, including the costs, whether politicians would run a power company well, etc. I don't like the foreign ownership of our power companies, but just couldn't quite support the bill. The right to repair amendment did overwhelmingly pass, though, which is pretty nice.
Portland (Maine) had a mayoral election as well. All five candidates running were Democrats, but the winner ended up being ... the most centrist of the five, a former county sheriff. I thought a more liberal candidate would win and in the past I would guess one would have, but things must have changed because the 'I'll get tougher on the homeless tent camps' (which the city does currently have some of) candidate won. I was hoping a candidate with a better housing plan than his would win, since southern Maine, like a lot of places, has a bad housing problem in the places where people want to live, but oh well. Portland's mayor doesn't have much power anyway, they're pretty much a glorified city councilor.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - Dark Jaguar - 11th November 2023
Geez, sounds like Maine's going backwards. Yes, let's treat homeless people like they're criminals. They don't have homes, people! That's why they live the way they do! Moral idiocy...
In the mean time, Ohio's referendum succeeded, but it looks like the republicans in the state house intend to just.. ignore it and loudly shout that an amendment to the state constitution isn't valid, didn't repeal any laws, and all those laws MUST be respected because they say so.
The republicans really are worse than any party, including themselves, in the history of the country when it comes to actually caring about democratic results.
RE: A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch - A Black Falcon - 11th November 2023
The people of Ohio will surely respond to this attempted abridgement of the right they just voted for themselves by ... re-electing the Republicans with another wide majority, I imagine. You can't vote for Democrats, that's crazy talk...
Quote: Geez, sounds like Maine's going backwards. Yes, let's treat homeless people like they're criminals. They don't have homes, people! That's why they live the way they do! Moral idiocy...As far as law goes, illegal camping is something municipalities are legally allowed to crack down on, and I certainly understand disliking the tent camps, but yeah has threatening to arrest people ever actually worked? The housing and homelessness crises right now are national issues tied to housing costs, addiction problems, etc. I don't know what the best answer is but just threatening to arrest people probably won't work.