#democrats in congress are full of shit
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...Into The Void: Issue 008 "What did you think would happen?!"
The only thing 'egregiously wrong from the start' is the complicity that brought us to challenge women's reproductive rights.
On women's rights, bodily autonomy and liberty as stated in the constitution, the fundamental right of healthcare (FYI, abortion is healthcare), criminalization of women and advocates seeking abortion, and stripping the voting rights of people with felony records (aka: the long con)
I'm so sick to death of the Supreme Court's leaked opinion on Dobbs v Jackson and Congress' anemic response.
For fuckin' shame.
1. The decision of Roe vs Wade is not a radical left position, it's a moderate position that protects the many nuanced instances in which you may terminate a pregnancy that states laws define as abortion. See point #2
2. Late-term abortion, as Republicans and Theocrats like to hyperfocus on, was never the core issue in Roe v Wade. It was always about ensuring early trimester rights to healthcare, and — in the modern context — protecting individual liberties from states' TRIGGER LAWS (Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, etc): those in Texas banning abortion after six weeks with the exception of life-threatening illness and injury to the mother; criminalizing abortion, those who seek it for themselves and medical professionals who assist them; it opens the door for even more oppressive and invasive legislation that criminalizes childbirth outcomes like miscarriage, environmental contributing factors, and restricts access medical procedures that carry an increased risk of miscarriage — including medical testing — by threatening to prosecute the professionals who administer them.
3. Felons can't vote, and based on the state that restriction may be temporary or permanent. Criminalizing abortion is yet another way to suppress the vote, chipping away at voters' rights protections which were already feeble to begin with. It strips women of their agency to have a voice in the legislation that effects them which is exponentially detrimental to the theft of more of their rights.
4. To those people who prioritize individual liberties over 'big government' federal power/jurisdiction as an rationale to opposing Roe v Wade: What TF do you think bodily autonomy is?! Without bodily autonomy, how can you have individual liberty?
5. Justice Alito's comments in the leaked Dobbs v Jackson opinion which undermines Roe v Wade are "these are not rights that are deep rooted in history." This opens the door to 'Constitutional loyalists/originalists' to radically interpret the Constitution to fit personal political bias by eroding any/all modern human rights that their political ideology takes offense to. Like marriage equality. If you think they won't, if you think word choice is just coincidental, then you aren't paying enough attention.
6. You cannot look at the states' prohibitive legislation toward legal and safe abortion, yet without access to affordable childcare, family planning, lack of universal healthcare in the face of life-altering childbirth and hospitalization expenses, dramatically undercut welfare programs — on the cycle of systemic violence toward women and children goes — as anything other than a class war attack on the working class, indebted, and impoverished.
7. With this impending backslide in the high court, I look at the balancing branch of Congress with a fair amount of anger and contempt for Republican and Democratic self-serving representatives alike.
Within my job we train in CPI, crisis prevention and intervention. I swear to goodness that every single Democratic member of Congress needs an intensive course! They cannot use a decision model to assess risk and severity (and here we are in the red zone of both a high probability and severely harmful outcome) in order to act. And for the life of us all, they refuse to read the room regarding an escalating, Republican-fueled crisis on healthcare as a fundamental right. On women's rights. Old guard Democrats are still trying to offer support and renewed rapport to Republican colleagues, not acknowledging that it's a vastly inappropriate response to the level of behavior that the rest of the world can see: Republicans are engaged in risk behavior that endangers the American people by they're continuous refusal to reason and intimidation and the ONLY appropriate response is direct a course and decisively intervene.
Except Democrats in Congress don't have the **** force of will! Not to bring rogue party members to heel with opposition about their personal enrichment. Not to endorse candidates —like Jessica Cisneros, Nina Turner, etc — that challenge the status quo against laxidasical incumbents like Henry Cuellar and Shontel Brown. Not to shore up a "big tent" that is in danger of collapse in the midterms under the burgeoning weight of complicity. Not to protect bodily autonomy or fundamental rights.
For shame Republicans, who put out quotes like (the photo below) "my confidence in the court has been rocked / it would be completely inconsistent." What did you think would happen if you applied just a little bit of foresight?! For shame Democrats that put out quotes like the need for "strong Republicans."
For shame Congress. When are you going to show up for the people?
#political commentary#into the void#sociopolitical#human rights#women's health#healthcare rights#roe v wade#planned parenthood v. casey#abortion#the criminalization of women's rights#dobbs v. jackson women’s health organization#Democratic party failure#republican crisis#democrats in congress are full of shit#SCOTUS
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One of my biggest annoyances is leftists and communists beinging up Biden’s tweets during the 2020 campaign of things he said he would do, and being like “see?? he didn’t deliver on anything and this is why you shouldn’t vote for the Dems again” Like, for all the understanding they seem to have of communist or marxist or whatever theory, the idea that the President is not a king and can’t do whatever he wants without Congress’s approval is lost on them?? He still believes in those things but if Congress won’t pass the legislation what is he supposed to do? EOs won’t solve all our problems.
Yeah. Not even to mention, the claim that "Biden hasn't done/delivered anything!!!" is a big fat lie, as people keep pointing out the things he has done, with a razor-thin House majority (until 2022) and two "Democratic" senators who torpedoed everything and one of whom has now literally left the party (Manchin and Sinema). So while Online Leftists obviously don't understand the difference between "achieving all of his campaign goals" and "achieving some," for the last frikkin time, Biden has done a lot of good things in very bad circumstances!!!!!! Using "he didn't do everything!!!!" as an excuse to not vote and so enable the open and unrepentant fascists is the stupidest fucking thing I have ever heard!!!!
Like. Take the debt deal. As in other things, Biden clearly learned from Obama's mistake (which was believing that the Republicans would ever negotiate in good faith about anything, and/or would reciprocate in kind if Biden made concessions). McCarthy whined for WEEKS that Biden wasn't listening and wasn't talking to him and wasn't entertaining his ridiculous proposals (22% cuts in ALL discretionary/non-military spending, including Social Security, Medicare, etc etc, while preserving the giant Trump tax cuts for the rich.) No matter that a full one-quarter of the national debt ($7.8 trillion of $31 trillion) was racked up under Trump and the debt ceiling involves paying bills that have already been spent. No sir, those Damn Free-Spending Democrats wanted to use your money on icky things like ~social welfare!! It was mean and it was hypocritical and it was blindingly obvious, and Biden just completely ignored it. He didn't try to negotiate in good faith with that, because there was no way it would work. He just let them whine.
Then, when it came down to it, Biden went in and got a deal that preserves pretty much all of the Democrats' major legislative priorities and expansions from the last two years. The only real change is raising the work requirement age for childless adults on SNAP food assistance from 49 to 54, but this has also been accompanied by a corresponding expansion of the definition "homeless" to make more people eligible, some for the first time ever. There's not going to be any major new spending for the next two years, but that wasn't happening anyway since the GOP controls the House and wouldn't agree to anything Biden put in the budget (and plus, none of the money that has already been allocated through the American Rescue Plan and other federal assistance is getting taken away). But more importantly, it raises the debt ceiling for the next TWO years and it won't come up again until after 2024. That is HUGE: the GOP really, REALLY wanted to hold the economy hostage again prior to the next presidential election. But Biden basically went in and told McCarthy to stfu and got what he wanted. Qevin was even forced, after months of "Sleepy Joe" GOP propaganda, to call Biden "very smart and very tough" in the negotiations. Soooo.
Anyway, this is what I mean: this isn't as sexy and/or as utterly fucking useless as spouting lukewarm rebaked "Marxist" propaganda on the Twittermachine about how Biden hasn't done anything, but it's the actual nitty-gritty work of government and flat-out beating the Republicans. They got absolutely shit-all that they wanted, because Biden didn't fall for their same old, same old dirty tricks and disingenuous squealing. He went in, got the job done, and will get way less credit for it than he deserves, from anyone. Dunno about you, but I like that guy. I plan to vote for him again.
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Being good at your job is praxis
You know the joke.
Office manager: "$75 just to kick the photocopier?"
Photocopier technician: "No, it's $5 to kick the photocopier and $70 to know where to kick it."
The trustbusters in the Biden administration know precisely where to kick the photocopier, and they're kicking the shit out of it. You love to see it.
Last July, the Biden admin published an Executive Order enumerating 72 actions that administrative agencies could take without any further action from Congress - dormant powers that the administration already had, but wasn't using:
https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/biden-monopoly-executive-order/
This memo was full of deep cuts, like the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, Northern Pac. Ry Co v US (1958), the Bank Merger Act and the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, and the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/07/09/executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/
The memo opened with the kind of soaring rhetoric that I absolutely dote on, a declaration of the end of Reagonomics and its embrace of monopoly:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby
But the memo didn't just offer red meat to tube-feeding activist cranks like me: it also set out 72 specific, technical activities that would make profound, material changes in the economy and improvements to the lives of every person in America, and then the administration executed every one of those actions:
https://www.davispolk.com/insights/client-update/president-bidens-executive-order-competition-one-year-later
They knew where to kick the photocopier and boy did they kick it - hard.
The White House action has Tim Wu's fingerprints all over it. He's the brilliant, driven law professor who's gone to work as Biden's tech antitrust czar. But Wu isn't alone: he's part of a trio of appointees who are all expert photocopier kickers. There's Jonathan Kanter at the DoJ and Lina Khan at the FTC.
Khan is a model of administrative competence and ideological coherence. Her tenure has included lots of soaring rhetoric to buoy the spirits of people like me:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/09/rest-in-piss-robert-bork/#harmful-dominance
But it's also included lots of extremely skillful ju-jitsu against the system, using long-neglected leverage points to Get Shit Done, rather than just grandstanding or demanding that Congress take action. Here's the FTC's latest expert kick at the photocopier: action on Right to Repair that exercises existing authority:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bxaa/ftc-energy-rules-right-to-repair
The Right to Repair fight is a glaring example of democratic dysfunction. Americans broadly and strongly support the right to fix their own stuff, or to take their stuff to the repair depot of their choice. How broadly? Well, both times that the question has been on the Massachusetts ballot, there was massive participation and the measures passed with ~80% majorities:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/26/nixing-the-fix/#r2r
But despite this, state-level attempts to pass R2R bills have been almost entirely crushed by a coalition of monopolists, led by Apple, including John Deere, GM, Wahl Shavers, Microsoft, Google, and many other giant corporations who want the power to tell you your property is beyond repair and must be condemned to an e-waste dump:
https://doctorow.medium.com/apples-cement-overshoes-329856288d13
Right to Repair is a case study for the proposition that "ordinary citizens… get the policies they favor, but only because those policies happen also to be preferred by the economically-elite citizens who wield the actual influence."
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Enter the photocopier kickers, wearing boots. The same month that the White House dropped is massive antitrust executive order, it also published an executive order on Right to Repair, including electronics repair:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/10/unnixing-the-fix/#r2r-plus-plus
The EO built on the evidence compiled through the FTC's "Nixing the Fix" report:
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/nixing-fix-ftc-report-congress-repair-restrictions/nixing_the_fix_report_final_5521_630pm-508_002.pdf
But it also identified that the FTC already had the power to do Right to Repair, in its existing Congressional authorization:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/07/09/fact-sheet-executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/
The Biden antitrust strategy is powerful because it recognizes that every administrative agency has powers that can be brought to bear to slow down the anticompetitive flywheel that has allowed giant corporations to extract monopoly profits and then launder them into pro-monopoly policies.
Which brings me to today's news: the FTC has carefully reviewed the powers it has under its existing Energy Labeling Rule (you know, the rule that produces those Energystar stickers on appliances) and concluded that it can also force companies to publish repair manuals under this rule:
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/10/federal-trade-commission-seeks-public-comment-initiative-reduce-energy-costs-strengthen-right-repair
As USPIRG's Nathan Proctor told Motherboard’s Matthew Gault, "When Congress passed energy conservation policies decades ago, it included the ability to require Right to Repair access. While that provision has gone unnoticed for too long, it’s not surprising it was written that way."
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bxaa/ftc-energy-rules-right-to-repair
The FTC is now planning to exercise that long dormant authority in a game-changing way - to kick the photocopier really, really well. It is seeking public comment on "whether lack of access to repair instructions for covered products is an existing problem for consumers; whether providing such information would assist consumers in their purchasing decisions or product use; whether providing such information would be unduly burdensome to manufacturers; and any other relevant issues"
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/R611004EnergyLabelingANPR.pdf
The Trump years were brutal. Every time we turned around, some Trumpy archvillain was twirling his mustache and announcing an evil plot. Yet so many of these turned out to be nothingburgers - not because they were sincere in their intentions, but because they lacked administrative competence.
Trump embodied administrative incompetence. He was very good at commanding the news cycle, and very good at riling up his base, but he had no idea where to kick the photocopier, and every expert photocopier kicker that Trump hired got immediately fired, because they would insist that Getting Shit Done required patience and precision, not a deluge of chaotic governance-by-tweeting.
To the extent that Trumpland Got Shit Done - packing the courts, handing out trillions in tax gifts to the ultra-rich - it was in spite of Trump and his trumpies, and because of the administratively competent wing of the party: McConnell, Romney, et al. In the GOP, "establishment" is a slur meaning "competent."
This isn't to say that Trump wasn't dangerous - he absolutely was. But it does militate for an understanding of politics that pays close attention to competence as well as virtue or wickedness.
It's one of the things that was very exciting about the Elizabeth Warren campaign - those long-ass policy documents she dropped were eye-wateringly detailed photocopier-kicking manuals for the US government.
Biden himself isn't much of a photocopier kicker. He's good at gladhanding, but the photocopier kickers in his administration represent a triumph of the party's progressive wing. And therein lies a key difference between the parties: in the GOP, the competent are the establishment; in the Democrats, the establishment are the ones who can't or won't act, and the progressives have got their boots on and are ready to kick.
Image:
Temple University Libraries (modified)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tulpics/4882641645/
CC BY 2.0:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
[Image ID: A photocopier in an office copy room; a silhouetted figure is dealing a flying kick to it.]
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The wild thing about the Vote Blue rhetoric is that according to them, Biden is an uwu helpless baby who's had no power to stop any of the shit that's gone down the last three years but if Trump comes to power he can end democracy as you (don't) know it. You just have to get through this election cycle because the GOP can't find its own ass with both hands and a mirror on a stick and they're breaking apart, but they're also about to transform into the Third Reich. If Biden gets a second term you can totally push him further left when he isn't even up for re-election, but not with half the country on the streets a year out from when he does still need their votes. Biden can't get Netanyahu to stop because he has no power over Israel, but Trump will be able to destabilize democracy all across the world. The enemy is either weak or strong, y'all can't have it both ways.
Also, "If democrats haven't earned your vote, what has the republicans done to earn your complicity"????? You think this is how democracy works??? But oh, that's right you don't have a democracy, you have Evil (genocide without personal enjoyment) and Super Evil (genocide with personal fun). But you need to Vote Blue to save the democracy you don't have. Which they've had three years and one more to get around to saving, just like they had two years to legislate Roe vs Wade and eight before that, but they need another four to do anything.
"We cannot afford to divide the left and alienate voters!" you yell, as you harrass people whose relatives are currently being starved and blown to pieces as the entire world watches, a full year before elections, proving you have no intention of holding the Dems accountable even for a literal genocide. Because your winning strategy here is to scream at people for having a moral compass and basic empathy for their fellow human. These are luxuries you cannot afford because the GOP doesn't have any either, but the two parties are different bro, I swear bro, pay no attention to Hakeem Jeffries standing next to Mike Johnson and Christian Zionists bro, don't look at how much AIPAC has bought and paid for the whole of Congress bro, don't look at the bipartisan support for sending billions to Zionists overseas while cutting funding for every public service bro, don't look at how much more land for fracking they've sold off than Trump ever did bro, don't look at cop city and the border wall and ICE crackdowns and kids still in cages three years later bro, Biden totally controlled COVID and saved millions of lives unlike Trump and the pandemic is definitely not still raging bro, queer and reproductive rights are definitely not flaking off piecemeal under the Dems right now bro, Project 2025 can definitely happen when Obama couldn't even push through Medicaid with a trifecta bro, bro where are you going bro—
#vote blue#genocide joe#vote biden#blue no matter who#shit liberals say#free palestine#gaza genocide#knee of huss
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There is a Christo-fascist in the House!
Stephen Jay Morris
10/28/23
©Scientific Morality.
I remember it vividly. During the Vietnam war in the 60s, the overall sense of helplessness among Americans as the U.S. Air Force dropped bombs on Vietnamese villages full of children, mothers, elderly people, and other innocent humans. The government said that the Viet Cong were among the peasants and was using them as human shields. Those civilians were merely “collateral damage.” In other words: oops! It got to the point, during the anti-war movement, where every tactic we employed was futile. Demonstrations, civil disobedience, voting for liberal Democrats. The killing continued. So, what could we do? A group of militants from SDS became “The Weathermen” and utilized terrorist methods, like planting bombs in public buildings or at corporate headquarters. It didn’t work!
Doesn’t that sound familiar? You see, if you criticized the U.S. government then for its war strategies, you were “anti-American.” The Conservatives were stanch supporters of the war in Vietnam. After all, not only was this a war against communism, it was also a war on yellow people! Bumper stickers abounded on 10-year-old cars: “Love it or leave it!” along with antenna-mounted American flags! My favorite Bumper sticker was: “Don’t like the police? Next time you are in trouble, call a hippie!” One thing they used to talk about was the man-made tunnels in which the Viet Cong hid.
The same thing exists in Gaza city; Hamas has tunnels everywhere! That is why Israel must flush them out by carpet bombing the city! So, if civilians are crushed under collapsing buildings, oh well. Blame it on Hamas! If they’d never attacked Israel, then nobody would have gotten hurt! In this war, if you criticize Israel, you are Anti-Semitic! History repeats itself, repeatedly.
The primary reason I hate Hamas is because they are Theocrats. They want Palestine to be an Islamic state. Israel is a Secular democracy and an asylum for Jews in the diaspora. There are some Judeo-Fascists who want to turn Isael into a Theocratic state, as well as a separatist state for Jews only. “Kick out all non-Jews!” This was the Rabbi Kahani doctrine when he was Aliyah to Israel. He was the founder of the American Jewish Defense League. They were a Right wing militia group for Jews. Got the picture?
Here is more bad news: The MAGA Republicans are one step closer to making America a Christian state. In Congress, the Republican majority just elected a certified Christian-Nationalist to be Speaker of the House. If that doesn’t put a chill in your spine, then you must be high on meth! Maybe you ought to forget your family problems and show a little concern. If not, well I don’t give a happy shit! You got so many warnings from the Anti-Authoritarian Left. If you believe it’s only a shower, then take off your clothes and walk in and get a whiff of Zyklon B. When Democrats warn you about the dangers of a fascist state, then you know you are the deep state. The Democrats never used the word, “fascist” until now.
You should worry. When the God Squad enters your homes and conducts a search for anti-American books and other Satanic contraband, then hauls you into Jesus’ camp for owning an art book full of photos of 17th Century paintings of nude, fat women, then you will say, “The far out Left was correct! Politically correct! Go ahead—laugh now, cry later.
Me? I will protect my family the best I can, but I will laugh at your tears the way you laughed at me. I will get the last laugh.
#stephenjaymorris#poets on tumblr#youtube#anarchism#anarchopunk#anarchocommunism#american politics#anarcho punk#anarcho syndicalism#anarchofeminism#anarcho primitivism#atheism#agnostisizm
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Back when Trump was in office, at some point, Megan Rapinoe had some very strong words for him in an interview.
I was listening to a sports and politics radio show after the interview came out. The main hosts are in their mid-forties, and they had a guest host, an older gentleman in his mid-sixties I believe.
The guest host was disgusted by the language Megan used in the interview. He was stuck on respectability politics. The younger hosts were trying to explain to him that when fighting fascism, if you get caught up in the ways in which people attempt to resist, and shame them for it. You've already lost.
2024, we are, checks notes, angry at protesters who interrupted a Biden speech in a historic Black church that was the site of a rather recent mass shooting.
We are mad at people who demanded Joe Biden, the man who is circumventing congress to send undocumented amounts of weapons to a country that is live streaming a genocide it's committing.
We are angrier at the protesters who confronted the head of the child killing machine, than we are at the machine itself.
It was disrespectful to interrupt Biden's speech in a church, but not for racist Joe Biden to use a Black church for a prop in a similar fashion as his predecessor. Remember Trump with the bible after siccing his goons on protesters?
When you demand that people only confront the oppression that oppresses them in ways that you deem fit. You have chosen your side. You've already lost.
Please protest in a way that doesn't inconvenience me.
Cowards, a country full of cop and wannabe cops, afraid of their own shadow. The true sign of a fascist nation.
Also, white people, have y'all noticed that whenever Democrats are down in the polls. They take a little trip to a Black church to get us niggers on board with their shit? Biden, Obama, both Clintons.....
Don't forget folks, if you ain't for Biden, you ain't Black.
oops, wrong election cycle.
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full offense but biden has been a shit president and all the good things hes done are still overshadowed by the half measures and compromises he made on his campaign promises. specifically the ones he didnt completely ignore/drop once he secured the presidency. and i bet hes gonna say some shit to court progressives and make promises again but they are going to be fucking empty and hollow and mean nothing. he went over congress to fund israel's genocide he's not going to pass any kind of progressive reform that isn't slashed and neutered
fuck biden fuck the democrats i wish we had something better i wish my vote would actually fucking mean something but both parties know if they switch away from fptp they'll lose all of the power they've hoarded for themselves
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I am very much over this ongoing micro martyring of Pete Buttigieg with the implication being pushed, that he's really being picked on for being Homosexual, not allegedly incompetent as Transportation Secretary. Buttigeig was/is a whole ass bigot, who got a makeover at lightning speed. This is all total bullshit, when it's pretty obvious that not only are many of the GOP Homosexual, but many, many....MANY of the modern Democratic Party are, also. Why else would they push such toxic movements onto our children, with the full approval of the Republican Party? If you choose to expose your kids, they got you. If you reject it... likely swinging hard right, they still got you. Fuck all of Congress. Get on their asses, to get real shit done.
#FrancisScottKeyBridge #LGBTQ #PoliticalLobby #Washington #JayInslee #BidenAdministration #TransgenderCult #Israel #WEF #JustinTrudeau #WomensRights #AbortionRights #VotingRights #TaxScam #TAXTHERICH #DOJ #SCOTUS
#Pete Buttigeig#The Making Of A Martyr#Future Presidential Run Set-Up#Transportation Secretary#Bamboozling Republican AND Democratic Party#Homosexuality#freemasons#Grooming#NFL#NAACP#HBCU#Harvard#Stanford#UC Berkley#Wharton School#Pennsylvania#Francis Scott Keys Bridge#LGBTQ#Political Lobby#Washington#Jay Inslee#Biden Administration#Transgender Cult#Israel#WEF#Justin Trudeau#Womens Rights#Abortion Rights#Voting Rights#Tax Scam
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Like, I know we all know that right wingers lie all the time and every accusation is a confession and all that, but sometimes I still get so fucking pissed off by how blatantly full of shit they are.
“The now-former Representative George Santos’ actions were not only unbecoming of a member of Congress, but the facts reported by the ethics committee point to numerous violations of House rules and federal law, rendering him unfit to serve in this distinguished institution,” - Representative Ron Estes (R-Kansas)
"This [Donald Trump] indictment news from New York is absolutely unprecedented and appears to be about politics, not justice. The House has already started investigating Democrat DA Alvin Bragg to look into this potential abuse of his office against political opponents." - Representative Ron Estes (R-Kansas)
I am absolutely no fan of George Santos, but it is super interesting that he is the single republican who is to be held accountable for the bullshit so many of them pull.
And, just, I know railing against their bullshit doesn't change anything, but FUUUUUCK. It's so enraging.
Talking shit about "activist judges" and then doing obvious judge shopping:
The state of Texas joined the lawsuit under the direction of Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2022. The case was filed in Amarillo, an area without a Planned Parenthood facility – a jurisdiction that might seem an unlikely choice. There’s one good explanation, however: All cases filed there are heard by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk.
The Trump-appointed judge made headlines in early 2023 when he suspended the approval of a common abortion-inducing pill. Kascmaryk’s anti-abortion history on the bench makes him a strategic choice to rule on the case against Planned Parenthood.
Hell, my own mom told me she couldn't bring herself to vote for her neighbor for city council because he ran as a Dem. She knows this man. Likes this man. But because he's a Dem, she just left the question blank. She is the only person who would have known if she voted for him, and she still couldn't do it.
Blergh.
#this is my brain on life#us politics#trashpool says fuck this shit#representative government my ass#fire the gop#republicans are unfit for office#venting into the void
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As the looming shutdown goes, it’s a minor thing, especially when you factor in how many members of today’s Congress are millionaires, but of course their paychecks are protected. The Constitution does it for both the Congress and the President. Article I, Section 6 states, “The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States.” Article II, Section 1, similarly guarantees that the President will be paid: “The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected.”
Everybody else who gets a federal paycheck is shit out of luck.
That means that the approximately 150,000 Virginians who work for the federal government will lose their paychecks, too, and you have to wonder why Congressional Republicans, especially Speaker Kevin McCarthy, don’t appear to have factored that into their calculations over whether to turn off the federal spigot at the end of this week. Every elective state office in Virginia comes up for election next month, and if past is prologue, that does not auger well for Republicans. After the shutdown in 2013, Governor Terry McCauliffe and other Democrats won their races when Republicans were blamed for that debacle. The current Virginia governor, Glenn “Check Out My Monogrammed Fleece Vest” Youngkin, has promised to pass limitations on abortion if he is reelected and Republicans take the state house and senate. That promise alone is going to hurt Republicans next month, and a government shutdown might just bury them.
But Virginia politics isn’t all that’s on the chopping block for Republicans if the radical Freedom Caucus goes through with its threat to close down the government over spending demands that include cutting out U.S. funding for Ukraine’s war of survival against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Goldman Sachs has said that a shutdown of the government similar to the 35-day shutdown under Trump that ran from late 2018 into 2019 would take a full percentage point off Gross Domestic Product. That may sound like a technical detail, but it would have dire effects on the national economy and lives of citizens, driving up costs of lending, forcing some small businesses to close, and once again, rattling credit markets around the world.
House conservatives have already blocked the defense spending bill twice. Now they have their hero, Donald Trump, egging them on. Trump has several things in mind in his backing of Republicans’ shut down fever, and as ever, his own future is among them. Last week on Truth Social, Trump reminded them that “This is the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots” (capitalization provided by himself). Yesterday, Trump all-capped “UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!” Then he all-capped Mitch McConnell: “Close the border, stop the weaponization of ‘Justice,” and End Election Interference – WE MUST HAVE HONEST ELECTIONS. Are you listening, Mitch McConnell, the weakest, dumbest, and most conflicted “Leader” in U.S. Senate history? HE’S ALREADY GIVEN THE DEMOCRATS EVERYTHING, THEY CAN’T BELIEVE HOW LUCKY THEY GOT. WE NEED NEW, & REAL, REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, NOT A CLONE OF MITCH, & WE NEED IT NOW!!!”
The Atlantic reported today that Democrats and Republicans in congress agree that the chances of a shutdown are 90 percent, and with Kevin McCarthy holding all the cards, I’d say they’re off by 10 percent. The House is scheduled to hold votes on rules to advance four spending bills involving the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Defense, and Agriculture – funding the Republican Party has rubber stamped a zillion times over the years. Passage of these rules bills would open the door to a continuing resolution that would fund the government for a period of time, a month has been mentioned, for negotiations on the overall budget. But several far-right Republicans in the House have said they will vote against a continuing resolution, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, mentioned as something of a lieutenant in what’s left of McCarthy’s rule, because of funding in the continuing resolution for $300 million to help Ukraine.
Ukraine is fighting the first land war in Europe since World War II against an enemy that has announced aims to expand its sphere of influence back into countries it controlled as the Soviet Union. The war has cost Ukraine more than 100,000 of its citizens so far. Just to put that in perspective, it is more than this country lost in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan together. This fact seems to mean nothing to Greene and her buddies on the Right.
All McCarthy would have to do to keep the government open is to strike a deal with Democrats, but passage of a bipartisan bill of any kind would spell the end of McCarthy’s time as Speaker of the House.
They used to call this kind of thing brinksmanship. That’s not what it is. It’s insurrection-by-vote, and nobody knows this better than the man who fomented the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to keep himself in the White House. Trump made it clear back then that he would take the whole thing down if he had to, and he’s doing it again with the entire Republican Party behind him. Every single vote in the House and Senate, every single vote in Virginia in November, and every single vote in November of 2024 is a vote to defend our democracy. That’s how we have to think about these elections. Every. Vote. Counts.
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oof. was looking into federal student loan consolidation and while the new SAVE plan *would* save me money in the long run... I'd also have a way higher payment at first because I make a lotta money. And I don't think I can handle several hundred in loan payments, that'll climb to almost a thousand as I (and my fiancé) make more money Dx
I'm glad for the MANY this plan helps (especially those whose plan effectively deletes monthly payments or cancels it today), but it just doesn't do shit for monthly payments if you make much more than the income cap.
like. here's the tea. I make 78,000 a year right now (imo kinda high for right outta college, but I ain't complaining). Min wage here is something like $15.50, so like 32,000 a year at full time pre-tax. When me and my fiancé marry, my FEDERAL loan payments alone would shoot up to $500 a month (currently would be $200 for standard repayment)! On top of my existing private loans (thanks mom! /s), that'd be $800 a month TODAY. Depending on our income it could easily be much higher.
That's just, like, a lot! It'll be a bit easier once my fiance is working as well & can contribute some to rent and groceries and stuff, but like. They want to save for a gemology program. I don't want them to feel like they have to juggle working full time plus the program. Sure, my loans would all be paid off in a few years... but that extra $300+ a month is savings for other things in life. *sigh* maybe I'll apply for standard and then swap to SAVE once my fiancé is working.
Assuming my fiancé's loans aren't hell, too.
and I feel like this is an important side of the SAVE plan discussions. There are some things it does very well - interest doesn't capitalize so long as you make payments (and the $0 payments count to that!), much higher no-payment cutoff, loans get forgiven after like 20-25 years no matter what (in line with other income based repayment plans tbh)...
It's just. scaled weirdly. I would love to apply for it because paying less over the loan is VERY appealing to me, even if my payments are a bit higher. I just wish it wasn't SO much higher that it's better to go standard and toss more money at it when I can, knowing that by default I'll spend an extra 15-20k on those loans if I can't.
ugh. I hate that student loans exist. I hate that the forgiveness got axed, and that they aren't going through other avenues to forgive it (and afaik, not HARD pushing Congress/the Democratic party to make loan forgiveness a BIGGER thing).
No cutoffs. No applications. Just delete some amount from our loans.
#copied from my mastodon#student loans#frustrated with this shit i hate capitalism i hate debt i hate how bullshit this system is and how annoying it's set up
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Speaking of Jack Smith and the indictments, follow up questions if you feel like answering! What do you think the chances of a conviction before the 2024 elections are? And (more worryingly to me), how much will convictions matter given they don't actually stop Trump from running or potentially being elected?
I've been following the investigations pretty closely, until I figured out last night that there are no laws against running for president from prison, and nothing stopping an imprisoned president from pardoning themselves. @_@ And while no one running for president from prison has ever gotten much of the vote, I have a terrible feeling that's one of those terrible firsts Orange-kun could pull off.
The thing with all this is that it is, for America, completely unprecedented political and legal territory. As such, while we can speculate and infer from what has happened thus far and what would normally be on schedule to happen next, we simply can't be sure. As I have said and as we all need to prepare ourselves for, Trump WILL be the GOP nominee at the time of the 2024 election, and if you thought he and his deranged cultists were dangerous to American democracy before, that's nothing compared to what they would be now. Which means we have the obvious task of all working as hard as we fucking can to get Joe Biden re-elected and given back full Democratic control of Congress. That is and remains Job Number One.
Next, Trump's only play is to delay, delay, delay as long as possible, in hopes of miraculously winning and canceling all the charges against himself like a proper banana-republic Autocrat-for-Life. That is obviously a terrifying idea, so see above: need to make sure it doesn't happen. The good news is that Biden beat Trump last time and if we do our part, he can do it again. Democrats are over-performing their 2020 margins by an average of 7+ points in the last 20 special or off-cycle elections, and while this isn't a sign to think we've got it in the bag and can just relax, it also means that the electoral trends are overall much better for Team Blue than they are for the Group Of Pfascists over there, especially since state-level Republican parties are basically bankrupt after throwing away so much money on pointless Big Lie challenges. Trump and his entire vindictive fascist apparatus is, again, terrifying. But it is not genuinely popular or in the actual majority, and we need to approach it like something that can and must be defeated, and not some unstoppable demonic force.
As such, we also need to recognize that even if Trump does go on trial and get convicted on any number of things before November 2024, which is still something of a long shot just because Merrick Garland dragged his feet on this for so long, he will try every bullshit delay tactic and appeal that he possibly can, in hopes of elevating it to a Trump-appointed judge and/or SCOTUS (he will try AS HARD AS POSSIBLE to get it to SCOTUS, since like every good mob boss, he thinks he owns them and they're obliged to bail him out). We don't know the timeline on that or what the effects will be, but as I noted last night, the benchmark for "progress on holding Trump accountable" constantly shifts and doesn't seem to be acknowledged, even when we are in the realm of the unprecedented for any former American president. And yet we do continue to make progress, and as I say whenever there's a development on that front, the LAST thing we should do is pre-emptively throw up our hands, despair about how it still doesn't mean anything, or just won't work. I know pessimism is easy and hopelessness feels like our default setting; the last almost-decade has kicked the absolute SHIT out of us and I won't pretend otherwise. But nonetheless, this is still happening. We just have to hang in there and do our part.
If we do that, and trust that Jack Smith and co. do theirs (as they have been doing so far), then things will probably, in fact, be okay. We cannot ever make the mistakes of 2016 again, which is why it's so maddening that a significant minority of leftist-identifying people seem determined to do exactly that, but it's certainly not as if all hope is already lost and the indictments will be a magic wand to speed Trump back to the White House (again, God forbid). We have to keep that in mind and our eyes on the goal, so yeah. We can do it and we must, and that's about all there is to it.
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listen. listen every time you talk about how democrats have a majority in congress you have to realize that there are democrats who just want to maintain the status quo for their own gain but are OK with gay people, and there are democrats who want to do some actual good (even if i dont always agree with their visions or their plans). They both get called democrat but like Sinema is not the same 'democrat' as AOC and buying into that vision is one of the (many) reasons the 2 party system continues to have a chokehold. I want to shake biden until the good policies come out as much as the next guy but acting like he can just snap his fingers and fix things is so frustrating when our broken ass system is so entrenched in ways to tie everything up, and entrenched in gerrymandered rigged games
Okay but then by this logic, there's absolutely no point to pushing for change ever. Like why fight for gay marriage or abortion to be codified into law to make it harder for SCOTUS to overturn then? Some democrats would just want to maintain status quo and might not vote for those. Shit yeah, why fight ever? Let's just sit back and continue being fucked because the system is all rigged anyway, let's not even attempt to work with the tools we do already have to fix what we can. Makes perfect sense to me.
The point of me bringing it up is to show that there are measures Democrats could be using to fight for change- in this case using reconciliation to avoid needing a supermajority to end a filibuster since student debt relief would be a budget item- but that there hasn't even been a push within the Democrats to use this tool. You're really going to tell me someone like AOC or Bernie in the House, or Schumer or Warren in the Senate, or Kamela or Biden who are all HUGE Democrat names couldn't at least suggest using reconciliation? If one of those big names brought attention to the measure and that the Democrat Party as a whole was refusing to use it for student debt relief even when they easily could and it would be extremely difficult to overturn then? You really don't think that would lead to anything? Nothing at all? That something like wouldn't be spread around, if not by the news, at least their very large fan bases? Shit, even just their haters trying to use it as a gotcha would bring a fuck ton of attention to it. And you don't think that wouldn't get enough people riled up that the uncooperative Democrats wouldn't go "oh fuck, I might not get voted in next election" and at least light a fire under their asses?
That very thing happened with gay marriage originally. If you look back to 2009-2010, after Obama has been in office a couple years, the majority of Democrats were against gay marriage being federally recognized. Major names like Hilary Clinton and Obama himself. Then look at 2012ish on. Majority support. Because they saw that if they didnt change and start bringing attention to it, they were at real risk. Doubting you can make any changes is exactly what those that want to maintain the current status quo want. That's what actually supports the current system.
Yes our system is shitty, I think thats one of the few things everyone no matter the side can agree on (And that's why you should vote for the Burn It All Down And Start Over Party in 2036, me for President and my Vice President, Full Gas Can. Together, along with my advisors, Box Of Matches, Lit Candle, and 24 Pack of Lighters, I'm confident we can make some real change.) but that doesn't mean we can't already use the tools at our disposal. Change does take a long time, but that's why there's that stupid saying "the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is today" (I want to throw the hard clumps of callus from my clonal propagated lemon and orange plants at whoever said that). You gotta actually start doing something, and no, only sitting around pointing fingers at the opposition isn't doing something. I'm not demanding immediate results, I'm demanding immediate progress. Those are two entirely different things.
#apologies for the novel but this ask has 2 of my worst pet peeves#people who complain about their circumstances but wont do anything to change those circumstances#and people who put words in my mouth (in this case im assuming unintentionally but still)#burn it all down and start over party for 2036
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I feel George Santos is eventually going to burn for being possibly the dumbest asshole ever elected to the US House of Representatives, but if I am forced to see another article about him I may lose it
this is ultimately what you get supporting career charlatans and politicians like Donald Trump
so many people see Trump and go “oh wow - I too can be a spoiled, compulsive liar and get elected to Congress or the Judiciary or the White House for doing jack shit my entire life and then lying about everything else.”
one amazing thing about George Santos is that it is not currently illegal for House candidates to just lie about everything on their resume
as far as US law and the FEC is concerned, if you are elected by voters for saying anything you want regardless of evidence, That’s Just Democracy Baby
the other important thing to note about all this is that NY Democrats have long had full access to everything journalists are now unearthing about Santos, and did nothing to oppose his race
and as a direct result this lying dickhead has been elected to the most powerful legislature on the planet
well done
#2023#us#united states#congress#politics#george santos#donald trump#house of representatives#democracy#republican#republicans#GOP#democrat#democrats#NY#corruption
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Shaming people isn’t going to get them to vote Dem. I actually think the Dems’ unpopular policies (such as reinstating Trump-era immigration policy and appearing weak/incompetent as death tolls rise regarding the Israel/Palestine situation) and their weak handling of several conservative efforts to create election flipping operations at the state and local level has far more to do with the uncertainty of their win right now.
I’ll be voting Dem as I am in a contested state, but why should someone whose family is being deported do the same? This isn’t “my vote doesn’t matter” stuff. The only path forward is to push them towards better policy but how can that happen without threatening to withhold your vote?
I get that Trump would be much worse, but that should condemn the Dems ever more. Why blame the powerless for politicians’ failures?
I'm not shaming anyone, I'm stating facts. Voting for anyone except the Democrats WILL elect a Republican. Period. End of discussion. That's how our system works. If truth feels like shame to you, that's shit YOU need to unpack.
The following is also a fact: Trump is not going to IMPROVE immigration policies or do anything but applaud the family being deported. They will not have more power under Trump.
Sure, there are a few things Biden has done that I vehemently disagree with. But I've also reblogged posts full of the amazing stuff he HAS done. No, Democrats aren't perfect. But if a voter looks at Biden's flaws and decides TRUMP WAS BETTER, they are not someone I was ever going to be able to communicate with in the first place, and that is also a fact.
If you feel powerless, maybe it's because you think voting is the only things you have control over. It's not. In between elections, you should work towards your individual state adopting ranked choice voting. In between elections, you pressure your representatives in Congress to take actions you prefer. In between elections, you do everything you can in your community to improve voting access. There is SO much to do in between elections, and that's when the people you claim are powerless should be taking action.
But during the election, you vote blue if you don't want red in office.
I'm sorry that sucks. I don't have the power DURING THE ELECTION to change that. I put in my effort on that last year, by encouraging my state to do ranked choice voting. It didn't happen this year, but the more I push, the more likely it will become. Maine did it, so can we.
And you're not powerless during an election, either. Get out there. Join a local group that drives people to the polls. Volunteer to be a helper at your local polling place so it's not just Republicans, who tend to intimidate minority voters and keep them away from polls. Volunteer for phone banks. Become part of your community, and help all those people you consider "powerless". Give them power.
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Gotta vote straight ticket for democrats this election. Specifics don’t matter, the goal should just be to take back majority so that the current BS stops happening on such a large scale
#dumb ass only gets away with the shot he gets away with because its majority republican#np matter what you have to vote democrat or theres no point#trump will still be full of shit but at least congress wont have his back
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