U.S. Politics

joshsquash729 said:
I hate that I'm a grown man and need pretty pictures to look at in order for me to read.
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Anything that works. With my ADHD, I generally have three to seven different books on the go, and sometimes I will read multiple books within the same sitting, because I just can't keep focused long enough on one thing. My wife thinks I'm absolutely insane and doesn't understand how I can keep it all straight, but it's the most normal thing ever to me.
Whatever works for you is what works for you.


docsilence said:
Love seeing that other folks have implemented the "never say no to books" rule. That rule for me as a kid is why I grew up to be a professional writer, and I now have the same rule for my nieces and nephews. Want that book? Will you read it? It's yours, go get it.
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I wanted to be a writer, but it didn't pan out. Seems like I could never get out from under real world responsibilities. Or specifically, the real world responsibility to make enough money to support a family. And, so as not to seem like I'm making excuses, I'm terrible at time management. I tell myself I'm going to sit down to write over the weekend and then I just.. don't. I play video games in between doing work for my regular job, and the writing never comes. So I'm just a guy with ideas I keep saying 'one day....' about.


Wicker_Basket said:
sure why not

I don't know how significant the protest vote against Kamala over Palestine decided the election, if only because I do not assume the average American is bothered by dead Arabs/Muslims in foreign countries. if appealing to the anti-genocide constituency was important enough to make or break the election, I think that the Biden administration could have, should have done more than what they did which was (in my opinion) actively harmful. heck, even if Trump was going to win anyway I still think that we should refuse to abet another country's mass killings.

it's not that the threat of Trump/Republicans being worse for Palestine (among other issues) wasn't a real concern. my view is that trying to sell the Dems as The Lesser Evil and to 'Vote Blue No Matter Who' while asking voters to ignore or tolerate mass death is going to turn some people off. honestly, I don't blame them and I'm sure there are those that did not make their Election Day decision capriciously. it's why my harshest criticism remains with the people who enabled the killings and not the people protesting the killings. anybody who read my response to Rick already knows this.

also: I don't know if anybody remembers but I have shared my feelings on this issue before.
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This is essentially my position. It's not that 'voting for Trump because Biden was bad at Palestine' wouldn't be monumentally awful and idiotic. It's that I don't think it really happened in any kind of worthwhile-to-consider numbers. Might as well rage about the thousands of people every election that vote for Mickey Mouse. Even if each of those people in their state voted for a specific candidate - it would not matter. Because we have rigged system where your votes mostly don't actually matter, on a micro level.

Also agree that part of the reason this wasn't a voter-swing issue is because most Americans don't actually give a shit.


All of this is entirely on the Dems anyway. They had every opportunity to roundly denounce Israel's actions and call it a genocide. They chose not to. They are the reason some voters would have figured a Republican wouldn't be any worse than a Democrat since both parties seemed perfectly happy to send bombs for Israel to kill children with.
Also worth noting is that the Republicans had a bit of a leg-up in a weird way. Being openly fucking Nazis means some people may have figured, once elected, they would stop supporting Israel because, you know... Nazis and Jews.
 
docsilence said:
Yeah, I lived in Ireland for a while (Ru's heard some of my stories) and culturally nobody hates a bully like the Irish when it comes to situations like this and they are NOT quiet about it. Also had three oddball interactions with Irish law enforcement and the Garda were the only time I didn't feel like I was a split second away from a physical assault. Granted they were also they were the ones who told me if I ran into any immigration problems to just "jump in a bush."
Me: But--
Garda: Do I look like a man who's gonna chase ya? Anyone gives you trouble, jump in a bush. They'll give up and go home for a pint when they can't find ya.
Also got stopped at the airport because my boots set off the metal detector and security looked me dead in the eyes and said "ah go on, sure now anyone who wants to blow us up is already here."
I have never fully gotten my jaw up off the floor after having THAT said to me. And of course not a 24 hour period goes by I don't question my sanity for moving home to the States.

Love seeing that other folks have implemented the "never say no to books" rule. That rule for me as a kid is why I grew up to be a professional writer, and I now have the same rule for my nieces and nephews. Want that book? Will you read it? It's yours, go get it.
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I suppose that could explain a lot about me and my lack of patience for bullies- I've got a veritable smorgasbord stew of nationalities in my blood, but most prevalent is Irish- on both sides of my family, to boot. So much so that my natural Texan accent, which has long since disappeared, has started to almost morph into an Irish one at times. The older and more crotchety I get, the further my transformation into a grumpy, drunk Irishman (and I don't even drink!).
 
Damien said:
This is essentially my position. It's not that 'voting for Trump because Biden was bad at Palestine' wouldn't be monumentally awful and idiotic. It's that I don't think it really happened in any kind of worthwhile-to-consider numbers. Might as well rage about the thousands of people every election that vote for Mickey Mouse. Even if each of those people in their state voted for a specific candidate - it would not matter. Because we have rigged system where your votes mostly don't actually matter, on a micro level.
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So overall you're probably right. But in Michigan the margin of victory was 80,000 votes... I don't know if that issue could have swung 41,000 votes the wrong way... but it's possible that that single issue cost Harris that state.

All of this is entirely on the Dems anyway. They had every opportunity to roundly denounce Israel's actions and call it a genocide. They chose not to. They are the reason some voters would have figured a Republican wouldn't be any worse than a Democrat since both parties seemed perfectly happy to send bombs for Israel to kill children with.
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Heck... the Dems have guys like Fetterman who is one of the staunchest pro-Israel politicians in the entire Senate. Democrats are deeply, deeply divided on this issue with no chance they could unify in an anti-Israel stance.

Also worth noting is that the Republicans had a bit of a leg-up in a weird way. Being openly fucking Nazis means some people may have figured, once elected, they would stop supporting Israel because, you know... Nazis and Jews.
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This is depressing because its accurate.

The current Republican coalition is weird because it has a bunch of rich guys who are legitimately pro-Israel, a bunch of evangelical "Christians" who are pro-israel because it is required for Revelations to come to pass (and not because they care a whit about Jewish people) and then a slough of Neo-Nazi's and anti-semites who are very much anti-israel.
 
it was a very cynical move for the Republicans to brand themselves as the anti-war party during the 2024 election but I lay some blame towards the Democrats for providing that opportunity.

sorta related: something that often frustrates me is that I have heard or read Trump-supporters/Trump-curious express variations of 'we need to stop sending money to Ukraine/Israel/other countries and take care of our own people instead'. and at the risk of sounding like a total isolationist, I'm not gonna disagree. too much money for war, plenty of issues at home that need fixing, plenty of things the public sector could be doing that don't involve the police, criminal courts, prisons, border security, the DoD, and the like. but now Trump is president and his MO is to dismantle as many public sector services as he and his "gov't efficiency" troops can get away with.

of course I am all too aware that debates around what the public sector should be funding means not just wildly different opinions on how to serve our people but also who is and is not 'The People'. I've heard/read plenty of Trump voters that can sound like Bernie Sanders voters ("we need a government that serves The People and not special interests!", etc) but only up to a certain point. they will always have their invective for whatever Americans don't measure up to Real America and whatever cruelty/deprivation gets visited upon them will not bother them much.

and yeah, I know this is comparable to Nazi ideas of Volkisch nationalism. many such cases.
 
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PantherCult said:
So overall you're probably right. But in Michigan the margin of victory was 80,000 votes... I don't know if that issue could have swung 41,000 votes the wrong way... but it's possible that that single issue cost Harris that state.
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It's possible that Uncommitted cost Democrats Michigan. So what? That gets Harris to 241 electoral votes. She lost every swing state.
Wicker_Basket said:
sorta related: something that often frustrates me is that I have heard or read Trump-supporters/Trump-curious express variations of 'we need to stop sending money to Ukraine/Israel/other countries and take care of our own people instead'. and at the risk of sounding like a total isolationist, I'm not gonna disagree. too much money for war, plenty of issues at home that need fixing, plenty of things the public sector could be doing that don't involve the police, criminal courts, prisons, border security, the DoD, and the like.
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The foreign aid we send is a pittance of our national budget. It's worth it to defend international democracy against Russian overreach.

Republicans and their friends in the press have convinced people to ask how we pay for things. Strangely, they won't ask that question when Republicans give the rich a massive tax break this year. We only question where the money comes from when it goes to something good.
 
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I think there's truth to your original post. Some Trump voters are disenfranchised. They recognize that the system doesn't work; nothing gets done. Their communities are deteriorating. Why spend money on foreign aid when there are homeless vets in the streets? What they don't get is that there's no reason we can't spend money on both. Honestly, I feel similar about most military spending. Why are we wasting money on jets when people can't afford health care? Their mistake was getting in bed with an oafish billionaire who only cares about enriching himself and stroking his ego.

They were indoctrinated. Their local paper is probably owned by a right-wing billionaire who feeds them slop. We know all about Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, etc. I haven't even mentioned the mainstream press or social media, which are equally responsible for this mess. As someone who grew up in the South, I can tell you there's no guarantee that their education will teach the critical thinking skills needed to overcome these obstacles.

Other Trump supporters, the wealthy small business owners and car dealership owners, are definitively reprehensible. They're waving Mass Deportations Now signs at the Republican National Convention. They want to kneecap workers and the unions that represent them. They're motivated by racial animus and keeping people down.

Unfortunately, whether you voted for Trump because you thought he was Magic Economy Grandpa or because you hate brown people, the result is the same.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
At some point, this country is going to have to reckon with the fact that Evangelicals no longer believe in Christ. His teachings are at odds with their every policy preference.

https://bsky.app/profile/eliasisquith.blog%2Fpost%2F3lonujcyzhc2k
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American Evangelism has mostly been about this for quite some time.

www.theguardian.com

There’s a straight line from US racial segregation to the anti-abortion movement | Randall Balmer

Leaders of the religious right would have us believe that Roe v Wade mobilized apolitical Christians. The real story is very different
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Oh look there's Stephen Miller, the official Maga Ghoul again. Wherever he pops up bad news and insanity is sure to follow.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
We're going to win.

https://bsky.app/profile/nied.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lor5ye5les24
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This is where I'm at with a lot of this stuff. They are trying really, really hard to project strength, and to get people to comply in advance, but they don't have nearly the power they want to. There's a reason they're targeting the undocumented and foreign students, people who are vulnerable to the whims of the executive (not diminishing the very real harm they're causing those groups). I'm not even convinced the arrests of judges and the mayor of Newark are part of any strategy - I think it's just more evidence that they're acting impulsively and without thought.

As a side note, I'm just so absolutely sick of people giving the "You really think there will be midterms/elections again?!" line - OF COURSE there will be elections, though we have to be vigilant and prepared for them to try and cheat.
 
hmmberto said:
As a side note, I'm just so absolutely sick of people giving the "You really think there will be midterms/elections again?!" line - OF COURSE there will be elections, though we have to be vigilant and prepared for them to try and cheat.
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The next mid-terms are about a year-and-a-half away. I think people would have to be incredibly naive to think there's zero chance the US could forfeit (legitimate) elections by then. The amount of damage Trump has done to the rule of law in 3 months is unprecedented, and very little is actually being done to stop him. We're already at a point where the administration is flouting direct rulings from the courts and, essentially, daring them to do something about it (they can't).

I'm not saying the US has already completely fallen to a fascist dictatorship and all hope is lost. But I do think we're a lot closer to that than many people want to allow themselves to admit/believe.

We're way past cheating, at any rate. Republicans have been cheating to win elections for as long as I've been alive. And they get away with it pretty damn often, actually. The more brazen cheating they just attempted in NC -almost- worked. That's also important to remember. Republicans just said 'we don't like these results, so we're going to toss 60k votes and count again.' And they nearly got away with it.

They're getting push-back from some areas (not nearly enough). But them being desperate also doesn't mean them losing is a foregone conclusion. I appreciate the need to hold onto that level of positive thinking, but it's, to my mind, not pessimistic enough for the times we're living in and what history and current events have taught us.

Wicker_Basket said:
oh yeah, Putin ain't a good dude. I wouldn't be sorry if he lost Ukraine and all that.
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You mean lost -in- Ukraine, right? He can't lose Ukraine because he doesn't own Ukraine. Just for clarity.


TheSameIdiot said:
It's possible that Uncommitted cost Democrats Michigan. So what? That gets Harris to 241 electoral votes. She lost every swing state.
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Also, I think we really have to draw that thick line between possible and likely. I would argue there's almost no chance that Harris lost that many votes solely on being too fucking stupid/corrupt to say Israel = Bad.

Wicker_Basket said:
sorta related: something that often frustrates me is that I have heard or read Trump-supporters/Trump-curious express variations of 'we need to stop sending money to Ukraine/Israel/other countries and take care of our own people instead'. and at the risk of sounding like a total isolationist, I'm not gonna disagree. too much money for war, plenty of issues at home that need fixing, plenty of things the public sector could be doing that don't involve the police, criminal courts, prisons, border security, the DoD, and the like. but now Trump is president and his MO is to dismantle as many public sector services as he and his "gov't efficiency" troops can get away with.
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I definitely agree with TSI here. Don't get me wrong, we definitely spend too much money on war. But also like... we could actually (in theory) do that AND spend more than any other country on public works. We just don't. Because oligarchy and dumb voters make sure we don't.
Also we shouldn't be giving any money to Israel. Period. They don't need it. They just -want- it.
Also also, it's fuckin' wild that people vote for Trump because of foreign policy opinions and wanting to spend more money at home, knowing that Republicans never do ANYTHING except cut funding to public services at home. There's no sense to it. It's just stupidity.
 
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