US Politics, March 2024: The house of illuminati will NOT be holding any other event in the foreseeable future.

Ok I must have misunderstood your post, because I thought table's friends were taking that exact position: no US military aid to anyone regardless of their cause. I don't think anyone who supports Palestine expects the US to ever back the Palestinians militarily -- they just want the US to stop helping Israel destroy and imprison them.

I have been to Ukraine, and it is a beautiful place. Personally, I tend to think of it as evidence that borders are poor indicators of what actually constitutes a country, as the very foundation of who is and isn’t Ukrainian is always contested by various factions with competing versions of history, all of which have some element of truth to them.

It seems like most people who live in the current Ukraine think they are Ukrainian and do not want to be invaded by Russia.

I guess I'm saying that US/Biden intervention in Ukraine is maybe stopping/slowing a similar situation to what is currently happening in Gaza, and a Biden loss would likely make that Ukraine situation as bad as or worse than Gaza.

dunno but when much of the region was very very radically "cleansed" and repopulated only within the last 80 yrs. sometimes i wonder how many of the people there are even related to those people, so terrible was the massacre and removal.

and starvation

JiC, frankly you don't know what you're talking about.

https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/ukraine/2023/01/ukraine-stepan-bandera-nationalist

from that article, and supporting my final point above:

As Davidzon put it to me, throughout modern Ukrainian history “the understanding of Ukraine as an ethno-nation has always lost”.

The hope among some I spoke to was that as Ukraine writes a new national story for itself in almost real time, it will both find new heroes and form a more nuanced attitude to the old ones. “I do hope that as time goes by we will see the shadow in every historical figure,” Lutsevych said. “I don’t think it’s good for Ukraine to be so hooked on the idea of glorification.”

Not all agree. Bandera will continue to be venerated in Ukraine, Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP, told me. “All those who are fighting for Ukrainian freedom will be our heroes. Some of them will have controversial backgrounds. But that will not change the fact that all fighters for Ukrainian freedom will be heroes for us.”

But this is the US politics thread, so perhaps we can take this over to the Ukraine thread if we want to continue.

I feel like everything being said about Ukraine here is equally true of the United States

sinema not running

🚨🚨 SINEMA won't run for re-election in 2024.

"I will leave the Senate at the end of this year."

This clear the way for a Gallego (D) versus Lake (R) race with no Sinema independent candidacy. https://t.co/l1YAgBSclf

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 5, 2024

I was too good for you

now she can start the wine bar in tempe

being a real politician is a hard job that sinema never cared to work at

I read that people liked being on her staff because they never had to work past 5 pm

or before 5pm

wine o'clock

It is always wine o'clock

Turns out living for three years in an abandoned gas station doesn’t make you a more empathetic politician.

What a loss

NOT

(And neither is the boat guy from WVa)

voted! (uncommitted ballot)

Turnout here in NorCal is supposed to be historically low, ugh

I just got home from my local polling place and I was only the 18th person to vote in-person at that location.

That said, the ballot drop off boxes were filled to the brim.

dropped my ballot off today at the Norwegian Seaman's Church, there were five or six people in attendance, but nobody else was there

Heh heh you said seaman

And thus ends the most exciting primary season of our lifetimes (unless death or jail makes a late appearance)

Haley's (officially) out.

big win for biden in michigan last night. uncommitted might be in tough shape only getting less than a third of biden’s votes

And the slaughter continues apace.

So Schiff is likely the next CA senator. A bummer, but will enjoy seeing Taibbi melt down about it.

After Minnesota, where "uncommitted" picked up 19%, Biden's second-smallest margin of victory was in Oklahoma, where Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson each pulled 9% (a greater proportion for Phillips than he got in his home state) and someone named Stephen Lyons got 5%. Still a 64+ margin, but I'm curious if there's a story there.

Not that many Dems in Oklahoma?

hearing that Trump is underperforming his polls, idk how much that matters given we know most Republicans will vote for him anyway, though it does seem a surprising number of Haley supporters are saying they won't vote Trump, and even if only 10% of them actually mean it that's probably a big problem for him in November

Also lots of Indigenous people in Oklahoma who are less likely to trust establishment politicians for pretty understandable reasons.

idk how much that matters given we know most Republicans will vote for him anyway

There are fewer Republican voters nationally than Democratic voters. Trump needs to hold onto everyone who voted for him in 2020 and bring in new people to win in 2024. There is just no fucking way that happens. Biden, ideally, needs to hold onto everyone who voted for him in 2020, but is frankly in a much stronger position to gain votes thanks to the Dobbs decision.

This is a pretty good (as in, politically astute and very solid from a marketing standpoint) statement from Biden re Haley dropping out:

It takes a lot of courage to run for President – that’s especially true in today’s Republican Party, where so few dare to speak the truth about Donald Trump. Nikki Haley was willing to speak the truth about Trump: about the chaos that always follows him, about his inability to see right from wrong, about his cowering before Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign. I know there is a lot we won’t agree on. But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.

We all know this is no ordinary election. And the stakes for America couldn’t be higher. I know that Democrats and Republicans and Independents disagree on many issues and hold strong convictions. That’s a good thing. That’s what America stands for. But I also know this: what unites Democrats and Republicans and Independents is a love for America.

The Lincoln Project just had a huge orgasm.

I mean, he's wrong about Republicans loving America, but this is Joseph Robinette Biden.

Recent polling from Quinnipiac University found that about half of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters who supported Haley would vote for Trump, while 37 percent would vote for Biden. Twelve percent said they would abstain, vote for someone else or hadn’t yet decided what to do.

Haley is a fucking monster just like the rest of the GOP, that statement might be good politics but jfc it’s abhorrent

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QAo1Ingszws/sddefault.jpg

Biden needs votes
Biden needs votes
Biden needs votes

One key to not driving yrself completely crazy with presidential politics in particular is that when you hear a candidate who you may eventually feel obliged to vote for making rhetorical outreach to voter demographics that don't include you, just tune it out.

Unless they bring Henry Kissinger (or living equivalent) to the convention

can't imagine it'd smell any worse than usual

Why would Kissinger have wasted time at a crowded convention when he could have a gin and tonic and chill at Hillary's?

Kissinger complained that Biden never invited him to the White House, which is a plus for Biden in my book.

in 2016 I tried to use that kind of logic to convince some of my less-insane Republican friends and colleagues to vote Hillary - like, do you really think it'll be good for the Republican party if Trump wins? he's gonna force everyone to bend to his will (which changes by the hour), he's gonna put the dumbest people in charge of everything and make all his voters look like morons. he's not actually going to accomplish much because he's utterly incompetent but he might make a lot of serious mistakes which could constitute an existential crisis for the country. obviously you don't *want* Hillary in charge but come on...she's a moderate. Republicans can work with her.

well guess what, all that came to pass. Trump lucked into a bunch of conservative judges but ultimately him and the GOP have accomplished what exactly? how many bills have they actually passed since retaking the House? what have they produced for the American people outside of Hunter Biden hog pics? everyone who was hysterical about how Trump was going to try to overthrow the government were right! everyone who thought he was gonna screw our allies and cozy up to Nazis and fascists was 100% correct! do you really want to go through all this again? especially since you already have the Supreme Court for the next 40 years?

Trump lucked into a bunch of conservative judges but ultimately him and the GOP have accomplished what exactly?

The 2nd part of the sentence answers the first. Roe overturned, aiming at mifepristone and birth control next. Federal oversight and regulation gutted. They've accomplished a LOT (of misery).