Senate The US Politics 2.0 Discussion Thread

The youth vote? Nah not when there are a few Republicans to still win over.

 

As someone who lives in OK, I agree it is pretty bad. I'm too cynical these days and try to stay offline for mental health reasons but the stupid people I will interact with in the outside realm is absurd. You can really tell public education failed the people in this state.

 

Stupidity can live anywhere, though. One of my neighbors, heme in Central Mass, put up a sign with the jackass on it says "Person of the Year."

 

A failed candidate voiced a complaint - Kalyn Free, a Democrat from Oklahoma. By doing so, a subcommittee recommended that the election be held again.

Ready for the complicated explanation? From an NBC News article:
"DNC rules require that the national party's executive committee "shall be as equally divided as practicable" along gender lines. (If the committee includes members who identify as non-binary, they don't count for the purposes of gender division.) As DNC members met earlier this year for the multi-hour process of voting in a new slate of officers,the vote for the three vice chairs being the last position to be filled, it became clear that the party needed to elect at least one man to the final two vice chair spots to maintain the required gender equity on the seven-person executive committee.
The party then decided to hold a single vote to decide the final two slots instead of holding separate votes for each position.
Free claimed that the combined ballot unfairly benefited Hogg and Kenyatta, the only two men left in the race, because members had to vote for at least one man on the combined ballot. She argued it's possible they could have voted differently if the ballots were separated."

So what really happened? I think it's obvious - they did it that way because they thought that it would tank Hogg from winning - that putting both men on the ballot would have Kenyatta win over Hogg, and Free would be elected as a matter of course. Instead, both Hogg and Kenyatta won.
So Free is complaining that the vote that the DNC insisted on doing ass-backward to begin with wasn't fair - she certainly didn't at the time, and it's transparent that the DNC is basically having Free come in to demand a revote so they could go "Well, she's right it's totally unfair" in the hopes that Hogg doesn't win again.
Honestly, I was surprised that Hogg had won to begin with, and I should've known it was because the DNC failed at rigging the vote. The blame goes conveniently to the former chair, but it's framed as just a 'parliamentary error' so no one is to blame, really!

The Republicans are sensing the blood in the water, with Fox News articles suddenly showering Hogg with mild praise and a DOJ official suggesting the Hogg should contact the agency because his civil rights are being violated.

 

Newsom urges cities to back him up in his war on homelessness

https://www.axios.com/local/san-diego/2025/05/13/newsom-california-encampment-ban-cities

https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/05/newsom-encampment-sweep-ordinance/

He wants homeless camps banned, and no homeless person to be in the same city for more than 3 days, 48-hour warning and you're out.

But no funding to help the cities with any of this.

It's so stupid they went through with it.

The DNC is worthless, it's part of the problem. Fire everyone, just have state Democratic parties for a year, then remake it. Put someone with a background in campaign finance reform advocacy, and known for their ethics and integrity, in charge. Don't hire anyone who used to work for it.

From all the emails/texts/ads... they're just a cash black-hole. They are consumed by fundraising, and not upsetting their donors, or the establishment politicians that have held back the party.

They exist to grab cash, not to win. We need to boycott ActBlue and anything else with DNC.

On the brighter side, this incredible (and incredibly stupid) decision and controversy is probably going to give him a stronger individual platform of his own. He won't be going away.

 

Democrats deserve to keep losing now and forever, Amen.

 

Tulsi Gabbard fires intelligence people for a report that concludes the Venezuelan government is NOT directing gangs in the US (the whole legal justification for the use of the Alien Enemies Act being put to use):
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tulsi-gabbard-tren-de-aragua-venezuela_n_6824db67e4b0a84e35c704c1

 

Update on the Omaha election; Republicans are blaming low voter turnout. Mind you, it was low for both parties.

Forgot to say them.

Yes.

 

"Disruptions will not be tolerated." But handing the country over to the tyranny of the right wing is ok.

 

People in my household still hate him. Who's falling down on the job here?

 

I turned 50 last week and I'm pretty convinced that for the rest of my life I'm going to be witnessing the continued unraveling of democracy in the U.S. We might get out of this decline eventually but not while I'm still above ground. It's an odd sensation to look back on the history of the U.S. from 1975 to the present and think, "well it's never going to be that good again for the rest of my life" and man alive, this country has had A LOT of problems between 1975 and 2025!

One can cherry pick things that are better now than they were in the late 20th century but today it feels like the very fabric of democracy is falling apart before our very eyes. So yes, married women don't need their husbands permission to get their own credit card like they used to but also freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly are slipping away, science and education are under attack and social media is erasing the truth.

 

UnitedHealth Group under criminal investigation for "possible" Medicare Fraud

Medicare Advantage a scam perpetrated against healthcare providers, the government, and patients. Who would have guessed such a thing could be possible.

 

Weird, India is claiming that Trump stating that they are going to drop all tariffs on American goods is actually untrue. The stock market reacted by... oh, it's not affected at all. Right, I forgot, only wildly unfounded boasts and unverified claims affect the stock market!

 

Well, that must mean that everything's fine, because Democrats were pretty clear that the proof of a good economy was the stock market.

 

My two big takeaways from this are:

1. Do you know just how badly you have to **** up for Canadians to have a more positive view of China than the US after the Two Michaels incident?
2. Can the British please get with the freaking program at some point this decade instead of desperately pining for the affections of their former colony?

 

Yeah, but we still have the Aussies!

 

Well, I've learned from the stock market. If part of my house burns down, I'll put on the market and sell it through one of those Internet house purchase sites as if it's in great condition. Then, just as the sale is going through, I'll tell them the whole thing burnt down. Then, a week later, I'll tell them that only about 10% of it burnt down, and they'll surely accept my original asking price enthusiastically, right? Either that, or a lot of investors are kind of, like, total idiots.

 

Eh, I mean, I've seen what burnt down houses are going for and I'm not looking for that to behave reasonably either.

 

Even better! Then if my house ever burns up, I'll implement this plan so that I can be rid of my old rundown burnt up house and move into a new chic burnt up house.

 

From The Te of Piglet (1992):

I wonder what Benjamin Hoff would think of what we're doing to the Earth this year.

 

Fighting for the F Word: Defending Fluoride Against Fear and Faulty Science

Spoiler: The entire article (or you can click the link, idk)

I'm posting this in response to this:

Florida becomes second state to ban fluoride in public water

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...nd-state-ban-fluoride-public-water-rcna205127

 

One thing I'm noticing is a growing acceptance that the period of overall prosperity the US experienced between 1975-2005 was merely an anomaly in history rather than some default that we should all expect to get back to eventually. And the fact that the ruling class from that time is still in power just leaves people with nothing else to do at this point but become indifferent to it.

 

@Rylo Ken Don't worry, Trump will kill whatever investigation there is. Until then, we can just revel in the fact that there is nothing more thrilling than nailing an insurance company:



@InterestingLurker Reading is just a reminder that I am happy to live in a blue state, particularly where fresh drinking water is available and the ravages of climate change won't be as catastrophic as they are in red states. Don't get me wrong, the effects of climate change are already horrible in the Chicagoland area; this past winter didn't even have 12 inches of snow. The season average is around 39 inches. And it wasn't like this was a fluke. There seem to be fewer and fewer years we hit our norm for snow, and then we don't make it. If current projections hold up, by the time my kids are around my age, they will tell their kids, "Back when I was your age, it used to snow around here." I guess they can also tell their kids we (Americans) destroyed whatever change there was to help slow down the effects of climate change, "to own the libs".

Meanwhile, at Walmart.....


https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lp7u2hahxb2n

I guess this is what Jerry O'Brien (Robin Williams) is talking about when he says, "sticker shock" in Cadillac Man":

 

To the bolded:

I wish I lived in one of those...