Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Iuz the Evil]

She’s allegedly dating Travis Kelce and is encouraging people to register to vote in high population areas. They’ll fixate on less.

 

 Oh and she’s an outspoken ally of LGBTQ groups and has been moving away from her historically apolitical positions to support progressive policies more openly. I figure they thought she was apolitical because she was secretly endorsing GOP positions, and there’s a sense of betrayal. 
 

People really really care what popular performers think about public policy and politics these days, so they’ve apparently tagged her as an adversary. 

[unclevlad]

Actually, it's a short read.  The first 2 paragraphs:

 

Quote

Republicans' criticism of Taylor Swift could massively backfire, as detractors take aim at her efforts to encourage fans to register to vote.

 

On September 19, National Voter Registration Day, the singer took to Instagram to share a message urging her fans to register on the nonpartisan, nonprofit Vote.org. According to the organization, Swift's post was followed by a surge of more than 35,000 registrations—an almost 25 percent increase over the same day last year.

 

I mean, they try SO HARD to suppress voting rights, then this stupid singer-chick disrupts their plans???  HOW DARE SHE?  DOES SHE KNOW WHO WE ARE??????

[Lord Liaden]

The GOP may have bitten off more than they can chew with this one. You think MAGAts are motivated and devoted? They've got nothing on Swifties.

 

[Cygnia]

6 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

The GOP may have bitten off more than they can chew with this one. You think MAGAts are motivated and devoted? They've got nothing on Swifties.

 

If the Swifties team up with the BTS Army, the MAGAts are [MEEP]ed.

[Hermit]

So, Dianne Feinstein has died.

 

And I feel like an ass, because my first feeling was RELIEF.

 

She should have had an honorable retirement years ago.

 

EDIT: I should reclaim my sense of decency and add condolences to her family and loved ones.

[Lord Liaden]

After such a long and distinguished career of public service, that the most recent memory of her will be so pathetic is deeply sad.

[Hermit]

Just now, Lord Liaden said:

After such a long and distinguished career of public service, that the most recent memory of her will be so pathetic is deeply sad.

 

That's the real tragedy. She had a long and amazing life. She attained heights that women of her generation were often kept from. An American success story! Instead, she'll be recalled as much as a person who refused to let go of power even when it hurt the causes she championed. It's a blemish on her personal history that's going to stand out.

 

I'm not one for ageism, the older I get the more I'm like "hey, 60 doesn't seem THAT old" ... but I do think there comes a time to pass the torch when the years begin to erode your ability to serve as a leader or voice for your people. I am not sure a flat 'no one this old or older should be allowed to run for office' is the fix, but watching politicians  space out, get confused with where they are here and now on camera, and then being told 'oh, they're fine' while their aides do damage control and everyone knows they are NOT fine is a problem. At times it seemed to border on elder abuse.

[Pattern Ghost]

I think retirement once you lose your faculties is a good thing, but I wouldn't put her lack of retirement down to a refusal to give up her power. She still likely carried a lot of influence and also funding with her name. Could she have done that in retirement? Perhaps. But I think a kinder look at the situation would be that she, and those around her, felt she could do more good as a figurehead up to the end. It could also have been simple stubbornness, but I'm willing to give her some benefit of the doubt given her record of service. I just hope it was her decision to carry on, and not someone else's.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Pattern Ghost

[Pattern Ghost]

 

I found the following here, on what looks like a local NBC affiliate's site. The page is currently so terse as to be useless for someone looking for her career highlights, but:

 

" . . . In February 2023, she said she would not run for a sixth term the next year.

 

"Amid the concerns about her health, Feinstein stepped down as the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel after the 2020 elections, just as her party was about to take the majority.

 

"In 2023, she said she would not serve as the Senate president pro tempore, or the most senior member of the majority party, even though she was in line to do so."

 

So, it was to be her last term, and she'd previously stepped down from some of her duties as she started to decline.

 

Edit: The NYT has a nice career retrospective here, for those interested.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Pattern Ghost

[death tribble]

RIP to a public servant

[Starlord]

A recent AP poll made up of 10,000 13th and 14th century Eastern/Central Europeans and Central/Western Asians voted Swifties as "Most Feared Menace You Don't Want to Piss Off" over  Mongolians and the Bubonic Plague.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Starlord

[Old Man]

[Iuz the Evil]

8 hours ago, death tribble said:

RIP to a public servant

Agreed. She was an accomplished representative of California and servant to the people. I prefer to recall that aspect of her career, which in my opinion overshadowed anything after. We all have moments when we stumble, she stood strong for many years and had major accomplishments in legislative service that none of her recent contemporaries can match. RIP Senator, condolences to her family.

[Ternaugh]

The first defendant has flipped in the Georgia election case.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-co-defendant-pleads-guilty-georgia-election-case-rcna118140

[DShomshak]

All Things Considered had tributes for Sen. Feinstein, including this:

 

https://www-cf.npr.org/2023/09/29/1202745293/former-rep-jane-harman-on-sen-dianne-feinsteins-trailblazing-legacy

 

Best moment, I think, is the clip of her during the debates leading up to the assault weapons ban of 1994. A senator from Idaho apparently thought the li'l woman from California couldn't really understand guns the way a big strong man from Idaho could, and...

 

Quote

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DIANNE FEINSTEIN: I am quite familiar with firearms. I became mayor as a product of assassination.

LARRY CRAIG: I'm aware of that.

FEINSTEIN: I found my assassinated colleague and put a finger through a bullet hole.

CRAIG: Yeah.

FEINSTEIN: I proposed gun control legislation in San Francisco. I went through a recall on the basis of it. I was trained in the shooting of a firearm when I had terrorist attacks with a bomb at my house, when my husband was dying, when I had windows shot out. Senator, I know something about what firearms can do.

 

...She proceeds to rip him a new one without raising her voice. A moment when the Senate truly was a great debating body.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cygnia]

Donald Trump tried to purchase a gun at the Palmetto State Armory in South Carolina. That matters more than you think.

 

Quote

During a campaign trip to South Carolina, Donald Trump took some time to visit the gun store that sold weapons to the racist Jacksonville, Florida, mass shooter.

Trump visited Palmetto State Armory on Monday, where he admired a handgun engraved and decorated in his honor. He repeatedly said he wanted to buy a gun there—which would be a violation of federal law given his many indictments.

A lot of the media has focused on whether Trump actually purchased a gun and violated the law, but less attention has been paid to Trump’s decision to visit Palmetto State Armory, as opposed to any other gun store in South Carolina.

In late August, a white man opened fire in a Dollar General store in a predominantly Black Jacksonville neighborhood, killing three people, all of whom were Black. The shooter, who then killed himself, used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, at least one of which was painted with a swastika. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the shooter “hated Black people” and acted alone.

At least one of the guns came from Palmetto State Armory, a store in Summerville, South Carolina. The Jacksonville sheriff’s office shared photos of the firearms used in the attack on its Facebook page. One of the guns is clearly engraved with the Palmetto State Armory logo. The shooter had also drawn swastikas on the gun.

When the Jacksonville shooting happened, Trump did not issue any statement on the tragedy. But you could argue that this campaign stop is a kind of tacit statement. He put the spotlight on Palmetto State Armory, praised its inventory, and tried to offer it business.

Palmetto State Armory has openly embraced far-right ideology. In 2020, it began marketing its products using imagery and language associated with the “boogaloo,” slang for racist violence and even a call for full-on race war. It has also come to mean war to topple the government.

 

[tkdguy]

Meanwhile, in Louisiana...

 

 

[unclevlad]

Well, it looks like the shutdown is going to be averted for now.  House passes a stopgap bill that has flaws, but I've yet to read about any poison pills, so it should pass the Senate.

 

We'll see what kinds of stunts the Freedom Caucus pulls in retaliation over the next few weeks...and whether we've just delayed things.  

[Cygnia]

 

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

Well, it looks like the shutdown is going to be averted for now.  House passes a stopgap bill that has flaws, but I've yet to read about any poison pills, so it should pass the Senate.

 

We'll see what kinds of stunts the Freedom Caucus pulls in retaliation over the next few weeks...and whether we've just delayed things.  

 

This is timed to come up again right before Thanksgiving, so that's just swell.

[DShomshak]

All Things Considered said the Senate passed the stopgap a little while ago.

 

ATC mentioned that more Democrats than Republicans voted for the stopgap, so I guess McCarthy has broken the "Hastert Rule" of trying to pass bills with Republican votes alone.

 

Dean Shomshak

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, DShomshak said:

All Things Considered said the Senate passed the stopgap a little while ago.

 

ATC mentioned that more Democrats than Republicans voted for the stopgap, so I guess McCarthy has broken the "Hastert Rule" of trying to pass bills with Republican votes alone.

 

Dean Shomshak

Vote in the Senate was 88-9;  in the House, 335-91.   One Democrat voted against, and he's the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus.  There's no funding for Ukraine.  So the count in the House had to be around 120-90, whereas yeah, it's 210 or so Dems.  

 

90 voting No could mean McCarthy's tenure as Speaker is on *very* thin ice.

[Ternaugh]

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

Vote in the Senate was 88-9;  in the House, 335-91.   One Democrat voted against, and he's the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus.  There's no funding for Ukraine.  So the count in the House had to be around 120-90, whereas yeah, it's 210 or so Dems.  

 

90 voting No could mean McCarthy's tenure as Speaker is on *very* thin ice.

 

If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach
Of a million tear-stained eyes
Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet.
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind
With your fear flowing out behind you
As you claw the thin ice.

[Starlord]

Republicans are red

Democrats are blue

Neither one

Cares about you

Edited October 1, 2023 by Starlord

[Cygnia]

Russia Smuggling Ukrainian Grain to Help Pay for Putin’s War