Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Cygnia]

8 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

Ohio residents should suggest other employment opportunities for that sheriff.

Portage County has willingly sucked down the flavor-aid, unfortunately.

[Pattern Ghost]

Harris Campaign is having fun with Trump's Taylor Swift drama:

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/kamala-trump-and-taylor-swift

[Cygnia]

https://www.clevescene.com/news/amid-ongoing-threats-gop-us-senate-candidate-bernie-moreno-calls-for-deporting-springfield-legal-immigrants-45139066

[unclevlad]

2 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

Harris Campaign is having fun with Trump's Taylor Swift drama:

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/kamala-trump-and-taylor-swift

 

This nails the situation, IMO:

 

[csyphrett]

I wish the picture of Trump on his Twitter wasn't covered in the flag. It reminds me too much of Nuke.

CES

[BoloOfEarth]

7 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

Harris Campaign is having fun with Trump's Taylor Swift drama:

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/kamala-trump-and-taylor-swift

 

My favorite comments were:

 

"Her crowds don't leave early" and "He's on his Errors Tour"

[Rails]

My favorite was the all blue electoral map.

[Cygnia]

11 hours ago, csyphrett said:

I wish the picture of Trump on his Twitter wasn't covered in the flag. It reminds me too much of Nuke.

CES

"Gimmie a RED!"

Meanwhile...

 

Joe Biden Is Bailing Out a Steel Plant in JD Vance’s Hometown. Vance Is Trying to Stop Him.

Quote

A hulking steel plant in Middletown, Ohio, is the city’s economic heartbeat as well as a keystone origin story of JD Vance, the hometown senator now running to be Donald Trump’s vice-president.

Its future, however, may hinge upon $500 million in funding from landmark climate legislation that Vance has called a “scam” and is a Trump target for demolition.

In March, Joe Biden’s administration announced the US’s largest ever grant to produce greener steel, enabling the Cleveland-Cliffs facility in Middletown to build one of the largest hydrogen fuel furnaces in the world, cutting emissions by a million tons a year by ditching the coal that accelerates the climate crisis and befouls the air for nearby locals.

In a blue-collar urban area north of Cincinnati that has long pinned its fortunes upon the vicissitudes of the US steel industry, the investment’s promise of a revitalized plant with 170 new jobs and 1,200 temporary construction positions was met with jubilation among residents and unions.

“It felt like a miracle, an answered prayer that we weren’t going to be left to die on the vine,” said Michael Bailey, who is now a pastor in Middletown but worked at the plant, then owned by Armco, for 30 years.

“It hit the news and you could almost hear everybody screaming, ‘Yay yay yay!’” said Heather Gibson, owner of the Triple Moon cafe in central Middletown. “It showed commitment for the long term. It was just so exciting.”

This funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the $370 billion bill to turbocharge clean energy signed by Biden after narrowly passing Congress via Democratic votes in 2022, has been far less thrilling to Vance, however, despite his deep personal ties to the Cleveland-Cliffs plant.

The steel mill, dating back to 1899 and now employing about 2,500 people, is foundational to Middletown, helping churn out the first generations of cars and then wartime tanks. Vance’s late grandfather, whom he called Papaw, was a union worker at the plant, making it the family’s “economic savior—the engine that brought them from the hills of Kentucky into America’s middle class,” Vance wrote in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

But although it grew into a prosperous All-American city built on steel and paper production, Middletown became a place “hemorrhaging jobs and hope” as industries decamped offshore in the 1980s, Vance wrote. He sees little salvation in the IRA even as, by one estimate, it has already spurred $10 billion in investment and nearly 14,000 new jobs in Ohio.

When campaigning for the Senate in 2022, Vance said Biden’s sweeping climate bill is “dumb, does nothing for the environment and will make us all poorer,” and more recently as vice-presidential candidate called the IRA a “green energy scam that’s actually shipped a lot more manufacturing jobs to China.”

America needs “a leader who rejects Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s green new scam and fights to bring back our great American factories,” Vance said at the Republican convention in July. “We need President Donald J. Trump.”

Republicans in Congress have repeatedly attempted to gut the IRA, with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint authored by many former Trump officials, demanding its repeal should Republicans regain the White House.

Such plans have major implications for Vance’s hometown. The Middletown plant’s $500 million grant from the Department of Energy, still not formally handed over, could be halted if Trump prevails in November. The former president recently vowed to “terminate Kamala Harris’s green new scam and rescind all of the unspent funds.”

 

[Starlord]

Middletown is 15 minutes away from me...i know people who work at that mill.

Edited yesterday at 03:34 PM by Starlord

[unclevlad]

Wittenberg College in Springfield basically closes campus for the week due to the threats of violence.  A 2-year school shifted to all online classes.

 

It is not much of an overstatement to say that the entire public sector in the city has been forced to lock down due to the bomb threats, from what I'm reading.

 

JD Vance shows how much he values his roots, constituency, and legacy.  Trump shows how little he cares about anyone...but we've known that.

 

I hope fervently that Trump and Vance lose Ohio by 30 points.  

 

Sidebar, this is why I'd be in favor of a constitutional amendment to remove the protections given to hate speech.  Not that it'll happen....

[unclevlad]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2024/09/18/over-100-ex-gop-officials-endorse-harris-heres-the-full-list/

 

This story contains the full text of the letter.

[Cygnia]

 

[DShomshak]

The Daily, on what we know so far of Mr Routh, and some thoughts on a new era of political violence.

 

Trump incites rage. He also inspires it. Neither is good for the US.

 

Dean Shomshak 

[unclevlad]

I don't blame Trump for the social, cultural, and political schism that too heavily dominates the US now.  The roots here go back longer than his pernicious brand of 'leadership.'  

 

OTOH, I do blame Trump almost entirely for weaponizing the division, and for promoting violence as an appropriate tactic...so long as it's in service to him.

 

 

[tkdguy]

 

[Ternaugh]

Nevada already has automatic voter registration: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/more-voters-less-party-affiliation-2-years-into-automatic-voter-registration

 

I'm also registered with the Secretary of State for email notices about my ballot--when it's mailed out, and when they receive it. All registered voters will receive a mail ballot, but it's still possible to vote in person at a bunch of locations (a local mall is most convenient for me, but I usually only drop off).

 

[Ranxerox]

American Pastor Detained In China For Nearly 20 Years Released

 

There is nothing in the article that touches on American partisan politics, but I am placing this here and not the news thread just in case responses stray into that territory. 

Edited 34 minutes ago by Ranxerox

[unclevlad]

32 minutes ago, Ranxerox said:

American Pastor Detained In China For Nearly 20 Years Released

 

There is nothing in the article that touches on American partisan politics, but I am placing this here and not the new thread just in case responses stray into that territory. 

 

Between this and the Britney Griner story...there is no amount of money that would get me to travel to...well, quite a few countries nowadays.