America

[morepork]

Ye won't get any replies other than, ya but de dems are just as bad it's the same on both sides blah blah blah Ted Kennedy

It's just an energy-sapping clusterfuck of baseless anecdote.

[Puja]

In other news, it's been referred back to the states where, despite mass public support for abortion access, the Arizona Supreme Court has decided that a law from 1865, that punishes all abortions with 5 years in jail for all involved, is the pre-eminent bit of legislation. This is instead of all the much more recent bits of law that are apparently not as law-y as the bit written before Arizona even joined the union, which just happens to coincide with those judges' prejudices.

Democracy!

Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

In other news, it's been referred back to the states where, despite mass public support for abortion access, the Arizona Supreme Court has decided that a law from 1865, that punishes all abortions with 5 years in jail for all involved, is the pre-eminent bit of legislation. This is instead of all the much more recent bits of law that are apparently not as law-y as the bit written before Arizona even joined the union, which just happens to coincide with those judges' prejudices.

Democracy!

Puja

The mystery is that the US and Iran are enemies. Theocracies unite!

[Coco]

Still team Donny then I take it?

I am... still a long way to November though and a lot can (and will) happen by then.

[Puja]

Still team Donny then I take it?

I am... still a long way to November though and a lot can (and will) happen by then.

Curious - what potential change of circumstances could shake your faith?

Puja

[Which Tyler]

Curious - what potential change of circumstances could shake your faith?

Well, we know for sure it's not an admission of competence, compassion, sexual assault, fraud (financial or electoral) or treason, so...

IIRC from Coco, it's "my tax bill" that matters most

[Coco]

It's up to each state at the moment but he could change that.

Ridiculous. He cant change that and has no interest in doing it. He has said this specifically. That is reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

It's not ridiculous because he could do it (if he had the numbers in congress). It is currently for each state to decide but that could be changed (unless you're aware of some kind of constitutional protection for abortion?). I'm not sure what you mean when you say it's reserved to the people.

It is a state issue... the people within each state can vote on whatever is brought to the table for a vote regarding abortion itself, late term abortions, or whatever it may be. Some states will not bring any of those issues to vote... some will, and the states that do, will be voting on varying wording and timelines (12 weeks... 24 weeks, etc) - it really depends on how important it is to the voters in each state to get it on the ballot.

California, in 2022, we voted on Prop 1, which explicitly adds abortion and contraception rights to the state constitution.

[Coco]

Still team Donny then I take it?

I am... still a long way to November though and a lot can (and will) happen by then.

Curious - what potential change of circumstances could shake your faith?

Puja

Its really not faith, its more about what my choices are. I personally really liked Tulsi and hoped she might throw her hat in the ring to shake things up but she didnt. I eyed RFK Jr... even Vivek... but my choices as of today are Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Ive now experienced life under both of them and feel out of the two, Trump's policies were better for the majority of people, and definitely for me and my family(work especially). Not everyone agrees, but most do even begrudgingly, or secretly. If anything changes between now and November, and Im sure it will, I will update my opinion accordingly. Its still a bit early for everything to unfold however it will.

[morepork]

What policies? The temporary minor tax cut to the middle and working class? Paul Ryan pushed that through and promptly fucked off. What other enacted policy initiatives were actually followed through?

In fact, don’t worry. Your choice. I don’t have the stomach for it.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Ridiculous. He cant change that and has no interest in doing it. He has said this specifically. That is reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

It's not ridiculous because he could do it (if he had the numbers in congress). It is currently for each state to decide but that could be changed (unless you're aware of some kind of constitutional protection for abortion?). I'm not sure what you mean when you say it's reserved to the people.

It is a state issue... the people within each state can vote on whatever is brought to the table for a vote regarding abortion itself, late term abortions, or whatever it may be. Some states will not bring any of those issues to vote... some will, and the states that do, will be voting on varying wording and timelines (12 weeks... 24 weeks, etc) - it really depends on how important it is to the voters in each state to get it on the ballot.

California, in 2022, we voted on Prop 1, which explicitly adds abortion and contraception rights to the state constitution.

It is a state issue . . . and has been for about 20 months. Between 1973 and 2022 it was not. Obviously the situation could change again. Do you agree?

[J Dory]

If every state conducted a referendum on abortion, would there be any state that actually voted to ban it? I'm guessing there wouldn't be a single one. Politics in the US is at an all time low point, the GOP has a lot to do with it. It's hard to watch even from across the border, can only imagine what it's like living in that shit.

[Coco]

What policies? The temporary minor tax cut to the middle and working class? Paul Ryan pushed that through and promptly fucked off. What other enacted policy initiatives were actually followed through?

In fact, don’t worry. Your choice. I don’t have the stomach for it.

The minor tax cuts didnt really help me much to have an opinion about them. It is the state tax here that is high... really high. I moved back here from Nevada which does not have a state tax so it was a reawakening at that time. I choose to live here and work here so I get STATE taxed to death.

From my own experience, the major policies that impacted workers here had to do with ARB and compliance issues that were difficult to meet. Border policies helped keep wages up and more citizens employed. Business tax cuts enabled businesses to hire more employees, wages even grew a bit. He eliminated regulatory barriers that made it difficult for small businesses to offer retirement benefits to their employees, Apprenticeship programs were expanded, established Opportunity Zones (in all 50 states) encouraging investment and growth in underserved communities.

Other things of note would be funding childcare and development block grant, signed in to law 12 weeks paid leave for federal workers, doubled the child tax credit (didnt help me but helped families with kiddos), helped small community banks by lifting costly provisions of Dodd-Frank, established WHC on reducing regulatory barriers to affordable housing development, negotiated USMCA, opened up Japans agricultural markets and digital trade allowing $7 billion in agrcultural export and $40 billion in digital trade, overhauled policies for the UPU benefitting workers, expanded markets for American farmers to export their goods, numerous border deals with Mexico, El Salvador, Guatamala, and Honduras to help stop human trafficking, weapons, and drug smuggling across the border, First Step Act, Ready To Work Act helping former prisoners gain meaningful employment, and connecting employers directly with former prisoners, DOE initiatives expanding Pell Grants to individuals in Federal and state prisons, Fix NICS Act, established Operation Lady Justice Task Force improving data coordination and collaboration between LEAs, tribal partners for missing and murdered Native Americans, VA Mission Act, VAIM Act, Support for Patients and Communities Act, launched Findtreatment.gov to make it easier to find treatment locations, Right To Try Act, reauthorized the DC Opportunity Scholarship program, Farm Bill that includes over $100 million in research, scholarships and centers of excellence at HBCU land grant institutions, enabled faith based HBCUs to have equal access to federal support, $255 million annual funding for HBCUs and other minority serving institutions... The list goes on.

You are correct, it is my choice. You may not have the stomach for it but therein lies the problem. Your choices are yours for your own reasons, and I respect that. Wholeheartedly. Id never judge you for yours, even if I dont agree. My choice seems to upset people that dont even live here, have no clue about me or my life, and couldnt be bothered to dig deeper. I dont owe anyone an explanation on any of this - nothing I could say would make any difference to anyone that is not open to hearing and understanding a different point of view. Im not asking for anyone to agree with me, in fact I think diverse opinions are a good thing. Puja was the only one of you conveying what seemed to be genuine interest in my thoughts or reasoning.

My apologies for such a long winded post with terrible grammar and punctuation - Im typing from my phone which doesnt help.

[Mikey Brown]

Well I appreciate it, for one.

As a pretty ignorant foreigner, who has just been looking on in bemusement for the last 8 years, this is probably the most policy-focused argument for Trump I've ever come across. Obviously I have done no fact checking about how/if these were enacted and if they had positive effects, but it's clearly more than the cult of personality for you.

Maybe it's just the lying news media doing a great job of discrediting him, but beyond the stereotypical racist/nationalists and those who just want 'anybody but a career politician' in charge it's been hard to see how the country is so evenly split on this guy. He comes across like an utter maniac, though I'll grant you he's pretty funny at times. His initial message of 'draining the swamp' etc seemed valid, but didn't seem to line up remotely with his policies or the people he associated with.

I'm curious if you view these policies listed as Trump's work specifically, or just the under-the-radar (relatively speaking) work of the Republicans? My interest in US politics is incredibly superficial, but I've hardly heard mention of any of those things before.

Whatever people think of Trump he knows how to play the game. He knows all the bullshit and bluster is effective both for mobilising his base and for clouding an issue when it's beneficial. I just find it so hard to picture this guy having any sort of thoughtful input on the issues you've described. If he's just a figurehead and the rest of the GOP are doing work that you approve of then that's fair enough, but it's very hard to disentangle all this from Trump the man and the kind of rhetoric he puts out.

[Puja]

What policies? The temporary minor tax cut to the middle and working class? Paul Ryan pushed that through and promptly fucked off. What other enacted policy initiatives were actually followed through?

In fact, don’t worry. Your choice. I don’t have the stomach for it.

The minor tax cuts didnt really help me much to have an opinion about them. It is the state tax here that is high... really high. I moved back here from Nevada which does not have a state tax so it was a reawakening at that time. I choose to live here and work here so I get STATE taxed to death.

From my own experience, the major policies that impacted workers here had to do with ARB and compliance issues that were difficult to meet. Border policies helped keep wages up and more citizens employed. Business tax cuts enabled businesses to hire more employees, wages even grew a bit. He eliminated regulatory barriers that made it difficult for small businesses to offer retirement benefits to their employees, Apprenticeship programs were expanded, established Opportunity Zones (in all 50 states) encouraging investment and growth in underserved communities.

Other things of note would be funding childcare and development block grant, signed in to law 12 weeks paid leave for federal workers, doubled the child tax credit (didnt help me but helped families with kiddos), helped small community banks by lifting costly provisions of Dodd-Frank, established WHC on reducing regulatory barriers to affordable housing development, negotiated USMCA, opened up Japans agricultural markets and digital trade allowing $7 billion in agrcultural export and $40 billion in digital trade, overhauled policies for the UPU benefitting workers, expanded markets for American farmers to export their goods, numerous border deals with Mexico, El Salvador, Guatamala, and Honduras to help stop human trafficking, weapons, and drug smuggling across the border, First Step Act, Ready To Work Act helping former prisoners gain meaningful employment, and connecting employers directly with former prisoners, DOE initiatives expanding Pell Grants to individuals in Federal and state prisons, Fix NICS Act, established Operation Lady Justice Task Force improving data coordination and collaboration between LEAs, tribal partners for missing and murdered Native Americans, VA Mission Act, VAIM Act, Support for Patients and Communities Act, launched Findtreatment.gov to make it easier to find treatment locations, Right To Try Act, reauthorized the DC Opportunity Scholarship program, Farm Bill that includes over $100 million in research, scholarships and centers of excellence at HBCU land grant institutions, enabled faith based HBCUs to have equal access to federal support, $255 million annual funding for HBCUs and other minority serving institutions... The list goes on.

You are correct, it is my choice. You may not have the stomach for it but therein lies the problem. Your choices are yours for your own reasons, and I respect that. Wholeheartedly. Id never judge you for yours, even if I dont agree. My choice seems to upset people that dont even live here, have no clue about me or my life, and couldnt be bothered to dig deeper. I dont owe anyone an explanation on any of this - nothing I could say would make any difference to anyone that is not open to hearing and understanding a different point of view. Im not asking for anyone to agree with me, in fact I think diverse opinions are a good thing. Puja was the only one of you conveying what seemed to be genuine interest in my thoughts or reasoning.

My apologies for such a long winded post with terrible grammar and punctuation - Im typing from my phone which doesnt help.

The problem with a lot of the economy-boosting things is that they were all spectacularly short-termist accelerants to try and supercharge the economy without thought towards the future. Repealing the Dodd-Frank act removed regulation and requirements for capital to assist community banks but also enabled the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, and Signature Bank in 2023. Funding childcare, development block grants, and child tax credit was great, but was part of an overall spending splurge and unfunded tax cut that pressed all the go buttons on the economy at once, leaving a soaring national debt and priming inflationary pressures that Biden then got to cash in on.

On the foreign trade deals, USMCA is NAFTA by another name and the deal with Japan is less advantageous and wide-ranging than the TPP that he tore up because it was one of Obama's ideas, overhauling the UPU had nothing to do with worker benefits and everything to do with a boneheaded ideological trade-war with China that actually hurt the US economy - they're all nothing of something.

Frankly, Trump was incredibly unlucky that COVID came along and dropped the economy like a stone cause, before that, plan A of putting nitrous in the engine and riding an overstimulated and unfunded economy for 5-6 years while leaving the fallout to someone else was working like an absolute charm.

Puja

[paddy no 11]

The Iranians giving plenty of verbals, could get very messy. A Palestinian state should have been sorted 70, 40, 20 years ago but the Israelis wanted it all........now vlad backed Iran is a serious threat (with China falling in behind vlad with Taiwan in mind).

[paddy no 11]

Iranians have launched from their own territory, this is an absolute clusterfuck now

[Puja]

I hadn't realised that Israel had attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria. Seems like asking for an escalation of the tensions if you ask me - what was the rationale behind them doing that?

Puja

[paddy no 11]

They killed a high ranking hamas commander iirc

A state of war suits Netanyahu, he can give it the only democracy in the middle east shit again now, while slaughtering innocent kids

[Donny osmond]

I hadn't realised that Israel had attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria. Seems like asking for an escalation of the tensions if you ask me - what was the rationale behind them doing that?

Puja

I read somewhere that it was retaliation for Iranian backing of Hamas and Hezbollah.

I'm stuck in between 2 thoughts with the events overnight.
1. Hopefully, Iran did it to 'save face' after the Damascus attack and don't really want to escalate any further
2. Pessimistically, Iran and Russia reckon that antagonising Israel into some kind of conflict will mean the US will now concentrate more on backing Israel and 'forget' about Ukraine, allowing Russia an easier path to some kind of victory there, with wider implications for shifting geopolitical power away from US/NATO.

[Sandydragon]

I hadn't realised that Israel had attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria. Seems like asking for an escalation of the tensions if you ask me - what was the rationale behind them doing that?

Puja

I read somewhere that it was retaliation for Iranian backing of Hamas and Hezbollah.

I'm stuck in between 2 thoughts with the events overnight.
1. Hopefully, Iran did it to 'save face' after the Damascus attack and don't really want to escalate any further
2. Pessimistically, Iran and Russia reckon that antagonising Israel into some kind of conflict will mean the US will now concentrate more on backing Israel and 'forget' about Ukraine, allowing Russia an easier path to some kind of victory there, with wider implications for shifting geopolitical power away from US/NATO.

Your second point is probably accurate. Hamas might have decided on their own to attack, but Iran is absolutely exploiting the situation, just doing enough to keep its role below the active participant level, although hijacking a merchant ship is a big move.

Launching drones and missiles is also a very significant act but their failure means Iran didn’t lose any people and can therefore stop. So much will depend on Israel’s actions.

[Sandydragon]

I hadn't realised that Israel had attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria. Seems like asking for an escalation of the tensions if you ask me - what was the rationale behind them doing that?

Puja

Iran has been helping/coordinating actions against Israel for decades. Hamas, Hesbollah, Houthis etc. Iran wants to be the dominant regional power and keep the US out. Hitting Israel has always been part of that plan, even before anyone considers religion.
The Americans took out a senior Iranian commander a few years ago in retaliation for Iranian interference in Iraq. And there was a ton of evidence for them helping various Iraqi factions after 2003, with the aim of driving out the west and then assuming greater influence/control in Iraq itself.

[Son of Mathonwy]

I hadn't realised that Israel had attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria. Seems like asking for an escalation of the tensions if you ask me - what was the rationale behind them doing that?

Puja

I read somewhere that it was retaliation for Iranian backing of Hamas and Hezbollah.

I'm stuck in between 2 thoughts with the events overnight.
1. Hopefully, Iran did it to 'save face' after the Damascus attack and don't really want to escalate any further
2. Pessimistically, Iran and Russia reckon that antagonising Israel into some kind of conflict will mean the US will now concentrate more on backing Israel and 'forget' about Ukraine, allowing Russia an easier path to some kind of victory there, with wider implications for shifting geopolitical power away from US/NATO.

Your second point is probably accurate. Hamas might have decided on their own to attack, but Iran is absolutely exploiting the situation, just doing enough to keep its role below the active participant level, although hijacking a merchant ship is a big move.

Launching drones and missiles is also a very significant act but their failure means Iran didn’t lose any people and can therefore stop. So much will depend on Israel’s actions.

More likely 1 I think. Everyone knew they 'had to' respond, just like Israel or the US would have done in the same position. Not to say that they don't want to sow confusion and try to weaken the US-Israel bond but they do not want an open war with Israel (and probably the US). It could happen though because it would be good for Netanyahu.

More generally I do wonder what goes on behind the scenes when the US and Israel talk. The US are doing such a bad job of preventing Israel from doing, well, anything it wants really, that there has to be some doubt about whether they really are trying to restrain it. Yes, they express reservations but their support is so unquestioning that I'm beginning to suspect they give Israel the green light behind the scenes. Deeds count, not words, and we can see the vast flow of money and arms, accelerated by the recent events, pouring oil on the fire.

[Sandydragon]

I read somewhere that it was retaliation for Iranian backing of Hamas and Hezbollah.

I'm stuck in between 2 thoughts with the events overnight.
1. Hopefully, Iran did it to 'save face' after the Damascus attack and don't really want to escalate any further
2. Pessimistically, Iran and Russia reckon that antagonising Israel into some kind of conflict will mean the US will now concentrate more on backing Israel and 'forget' about Ukraine, allowing Russia an easier path to some kind of victory there, with wider implications for shifting geopolitical power away from US/NATO.

Your second point is probably accurate. Hamas might have decided on their own to attack, but Iran is absolutely exploiting the situation, just doing enough to keep its role below the active participant level, although hijacking a merchant ship is a big move.

Launching drones and missiles is also a very significant act but their failure means Iran didn’t lose any people and can therefore stop. So much will depend on Israel’s actions.

More likely 1 I think. Everyone knew they 'had to' respond, just like Israel or the US would have done in the same position. Not to say that they don't want to sow confusion and try to weaken the US-Israel bond but they do not want an open war with Israel (and probably the US). It could happen though because it would be good for Netanyahu.

More generally I do wonder what goes on behind the scenes when the US and Israel talk. The US are doing such a bad job of preventing Israel from doing, well, anything it wants really, that there has to be some doubt about whether they really are trying to restrain it. Yes, they express reservations but their support is so unquestioning that I'm beginning to suspect they give Israel the green light behind the scenes. Deeds count, not words, and we can see the vast flow of money and arms, accelerated by the recent events, pouring oil on the fire.

I think Israel is a difficult ally. I suspect successive US presidents have tried to keep a check on Netanyahu, but he is very keen to follow his own agenda. Equally, the US doesn't want to abandon Israel completely. Could the US be more assertive - probably. Russia used to have decent relations with Israel but that seems to have fallen down so potentially, it might be an opportunity to remind them who keeps their military afloat (largely).

Iran and Russia are loving the difficulty this is posing to the US. It muddies the waters internationally with Ukraine and focuses US attention elsewhere. Iran will push things just enough without starting a full on war that it knows it will lose. But it can, via proxies, cause a lot of problems both in the middle east and globally.

[Which Tyler]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/election ... n-results/

Top Republicans, led by Trump, refuse to commit to accept 2024 election results

One possible vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), repeatedly declined to say whether he will accept the outcome.

[morepork]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/election ... n-results/

Top Republicans, led by Trump, refuse to commit to accept 2024 election results

One possible vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), repeatedly declined to say whether he will accept the outcome.

Jesus Christ, it's fucking pathetic.