Tracking toy tariffs

To be fair, this is a key element of the conservative mind-virus. We can ALL see that everything is getting more expensive, but conservative politicians are -absolutely sure- that if they just keep telling us prices are down, then we'll believe it. And, I've gotta tell ya' folks, it's 100% working on some people already.
 
Oh, the messaging is definitely working far more than some of us realize. I live in the midwest. So many people I know still blame everything on the democrats. They're confident that Trump and his tariffs are going to save them and create lots more American jobs, while layoffs continue to be announced daily all around them and prices only continue to rise. All many of them care about is ending any shred of anything gay/lesbian, trans or anything non-white or non-Christian from the country immediately. Most that felt that way used to try to hide those thoughts or wouldn't be vocal about them, but that has completely changed around me. They're not ashamed of it anymore. I hear the term "woke" used in a negative way by somebody daily.

All I heard during the government shutdown was how everything was the Democrats' fault. When I reminded people that the Republicans hold all branches of the government and can basically do anything they want with no support from the other party, then I heard about the deep state holding down Trump's agenda. I try to avoid talking about politics, but what I see and hear around me is beyond scary. It's like something out of a bad alien invasion movie. That's it, that's all that I'm going to say about it - but it's terrifying. I feel like we've gone backwards decades. I'm even seeing this type of anti-liberal bias in AI tools that I use, mostly because much of that machine learning is utilizing the web and it's finding it there.
 
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Reno said:
Oh, the messaging is definitely working far more than some of us realize. I live in the midwest. So many people I know still blame everything on the democrats.
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It's fun in Canada where US News about US issues and scandals will be inundated with "Great, come for Carney next!"

And you're absolutely right about AI.

I have friends who like to kill time with ChatGPT giving it ludicrous demands, like The Berenstain Bears Go to Epstein, or Tie Charlie Kirk into the Terminator Franchise. Ethics of AI and artistry aside, the past several months I was shown that ChatGPT went from "Hell yeah, that's wild. Here we go" to "I can't do that, even satirically, that's harmful and insensitive, let's soften this up so it isn't offensive or mean spirited".

Real quotes..

But.

Swap Trump to Biden or Vance to Kamala or Obama and you get no protests or disclaimers. Enjoy your mean-spirited SNL skit.

It made me wonder if some contract got signed along the way.
 
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altcunningham said:
It's fun in Canada where US News about US issues and scandals will be inundated with "Great, come for Carney next!"
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The LEVEL at which US politics infects Canadian politics/life is fucking -W-I-L-D-. You would literally think we live in the United States with how committed Canadian conservatives are to defending Trump and Republicans.
 
Damien said:
The LEVEL at which US politics infects Canadian politics/life is fucking -W-I-L-D-. You would literally think we live in the United States with how committed Canadian conservatives are to defending Trump and Republicans.
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For reasons that I will never fully understand, the dude is the conservative catnip. He's their ideal candidate.
 
Reno said:
All I heard during the government shutdown was how everything was the Democrats' fault. When I reminded people that the Republicans hold all branches of the government and can basically do anything they want with no support from the other party, then I heard about the deep state holding down Trump's agenda.
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I hate these shutdown battles no matter who is doing it. I blame whoever is filibustering since they're the ones standing in front of spending allocated money, and this time it was Democrats.

Every time they shut it down the money spent is ludicrous. The loophole they're using to shut things down shouldn't even exist since it's rubber-stamping money that laws have already been passed to spend, so actually complying with a shutdown itself is illegal. Not once has either party EVER gotten their demands during a shutdown; it's really just used for the filibustering side to bluster in the media about some issue of their choice on the taxpayer's giant dime with this latest one estimated to have cost $11 billion which is by far the record for money lost to a shutdown.

I also really hate either side using the supposed "filibuster" to do it. It's not much of an actual filibuster as most of us understand it where someone is always up there talking. Mitch McConnell set a precedent so that when there's a filibuster most of Congress just goes home. The filibuster needs to be reformed to actually make it difficult to do so that it's only used when one side REALLY wants to prove a point. Al Franken proposed an overhaul to it when he entered Congress that makes sense to me--the side filibustering has to have at least 41 people present for it to continue,
 
EnigmaticClarity said:
I hate these shutdown battles no matter who is doing it. I blame whoever is filibustering since they're the ones standing in front of spending allocated money, and this time it was Democrats.

Every time they shut it down the money spent is ludicrous. The loophole they're using to shut things down shouldn't even exist since it's rubber-stamping money that laws have already been passed to spend, so actually complying with a shutdown itself is illegal. Not once has either party EVER gotten their demands during a shutdown; it's really just used for the filibustering side to bluster in the media about some issue of their choice on the taxpayer's giant dime with this latest one estimated to have cost $11 billion which is by far the record for money lost to a shutdown.

I also really hate either side using the supposed "filibuster" to do it. It's not much of an actual filibuster as most of us understand it where someone is always up there talking. Mitch McConnell set a precedent so that when there's a filibuster most of Congress just goes home. The filibuster needs to be reformed to actually make it difficult to do so that it's only used when one side REALLY wants to prove a point. Al Franken proposed an overhaul to it when he entered Congress that makes sense to me--the side filibustering has to have at least 41 people present for it to continue,
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I think you're mixing up the government budget/funding shutdowns with fights over raising the debt ceiling. Congress is required to allocate money for the continued operations of government via the legislative process. The government shuts down when Congress fails to appropriate the money for the starting fiscal year by failing to pass a budget bill. It's not the responsibility of any representative/party in Congress to rubber stamp whatever funding bill is put in front of them - the process is intended to be a negotiation that gets enough consensus from enough representatives to make its way through. If the majority party doesn't have enough votes to put through whatever they want, they have to get some people from the other side on board. Failure to raise the debt ceiling (resulting in a government shutdown) is a different animal. This shutdown was not over the debt ceiling.

Likewise with the filibuster - like it or not, it is part of the rules of Congress for certain things. The controlling party always has the option to remove it and pass things on a simple majority - but while it remains on the books it would be insane to avoid using it out of principle.

Shutdown are extremely politically risky. I'd say this one had some important impacts - the Democrats' messaging was that their main request was to extend ACA credits, while at the same time notices of insurance price increases for 2026 were going out to millions of people. I don't have a ton of faith in most of the electorate to remember that, but the fact remains that they made a ton of noise about it and people will spend the next year dealing with the consequences of a failure to do anything about it.
 
Government shutdowns are only a thing because Carter's AG made them up in 1980. They shouldn't exist.

Neither should the filibuster, while we're at it. Nothing gets done in this country because you require a House majority, 60 Senate votes, and then the president's signature to pass legislation. (And that's before the partisan Supreme Court steps in and kills your bill if a Democrat signed it.) Our system is unique because it's a bicameral legislature that requires a three-fifths majority if the minority party opposes. That's not how it should work. A simple majority should be enough. That's before I mention how minoritarian the US Senate is. Why, pray tell, should Vermont and Wyoming have as much say as California and Texas? The Senate, should it continue to exist, should have no more power than the House of Lords.
 
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