US Politics, December 2024: The Worst Second Coming Ever

Let us pray.

I dunno. What about the Stone Roses?

Good afternoon!

I might just sit this month out

US Politics is no longer as interesting when you can't suspend disbelief

xp good afterdoom

*something garbled and vaguely academic about how unknowable reality actually is, with raised eyebrows and furtive hand gestures*

i am waiting for the tax records. which are definitive.

tick tick tick

As a public sector employee in WI this makes things feel a little brighter.

https://www.wsaw.com/2024/12/02/wisconsin-judge-restores-collective-bargaining-powers-public-employees/

Found Trump's first pardon opportunity

https://archive.ph/50pog#selection-1941.164-1941.177

The New Yorker is not happy about Hunter being pardoned

I really do need to see that My Son Hunter hit-piece schlockfest

I haven't seen such centrist rage since Biden pulled out of Afghanistan.

the huge attention and angst given to this story is absurd

Wasn't expecting that NYer piece to be written by Isaac Chotiner

What about the norms

“But Biden has once again forced Americans to ask whether he is acting in the national interest”

Short of some kinds of treason (not even all) I’m not sure I’d put any convictions in the “national interest” column.

the pardons stretch back 14 years or something. biden was protecting hunter from being targeted further by trump for burisma era allegations.

any father would do this. it's not moral but i get it. he wants to give hunter a chance to stay sober and live a decent life. not at all fair that hunter gets that chance and millions of others languishing in prison for lesser crimes don't, but it's how it is

people are still blabbing about Ford's preemptive pardon of Nixon, this will definitely affect his legacy

that said, I don't really give a shit and hope that he pardons more people

any father would do this. it's not moral but i get it. he wants to give hunter a chance to stay sober and live a decent life. not at all fair that hunter gets that chance and millions of others languishing in prison for lesser crimes don't, but it's how it is

― treeship., Monday, 2 December 2024 23:25 (thirteen minutes ago) link

Hunter Biden is 54. Jesus.

Bro has likely been committing financial crimes for decades. Everything about Hunter Biden is shady. Why are people so protective of this private equity fail son?

b/c the prosecution was a ridiculous political witch hunt by some of the absolute worst people alive, i think

He was targeted because he sucks. I can’t believe anyone outside of the r/neolib would be defending Burisma.

And, frankly, I think I prefer a dad who can admit his 50-something son sucks.

I'm a bit ambivalent.

On the one hand it's difficult to believe that feeble dem attempts to uphold the rule of law etc. matter that much in the trump era (e.g. I'm not sure that Biden pardoning Hunter meaningfully impacts how difficult/easy it will be for republicans to go along with trump's gleeful forthcoming pardon-spree).

On the other hand, we tend to hate and resent the imposition of hypocritical imposition of double standards only up to the point where everyone agrees there's no longer any point in pretending.

Yeah, mixed feelings. In general I hate the corruption in our system, and things like this just basically ratify and reaffirm it. On the other hand we just reelected the most obviously corrupt president in modern U.S. history, so it's hard for me to get too worked up about.

Biden’s legacy doesn’t matter anymore. The democratic party needs to be transformed into something else.

I'm not sure my diabetic film who gets way cheaper insulin will agree with you, treeship.

i didn't care about hunter biden before the pardon and I don't care after the pardon. putting him in jail or letting him off does absolutely nothing, either positive or negative, to anyone's life.

alfred, i am not dismissing the fact that democrats are better than republicans from a policy standpoint. but they lost EVERYTHING. trump controls both legislatures and he stocked the supreme court with loyalists. democrats can't protect people when they are out of power.

Well, Democrats tried the "we're better people than them" / they go low, we go high stuff. And failed utterly.

So maybe Biden is like fuck it, nothing matters, nothing to lose.

That’s definitely the vibes I’m getting.

“Tried to yank this turd back from the brink but she went over the edge. The grave beckons. Carry on my wayward son.”

If he’s really all “fuck it” he should pack the court and stuff

Not expecting any heroics from the vacating administration. They have all moved on to their assorted Plan B's.

I suspect this is as much a "fuck you" to the democrats for forcing him to bow out as to anyone else - it's joe and hunter against the world now.

If he’s really all “fuck it” he should pack the court and stuff

He can't do that alone. He'd need Congress to be all "fuck it" to the tune of majorities in both chambers. Sen. Wyden has a SCOTUS reform bill all waiting to move ahead, but nowhere near enough votes to move it.

I suspect this is as much a "fuck you" to the democrats for forcing him to bow out as to anyone else - it's joe and hunter against the world now.

Hunter will take his old man to a strip club to celebrate.

Let's all let our freak flags fly, it's Trumpworld now

It's not like politics was ever a pristine utopia of virtue, but common, man, the current level of sheer tacky crasssness is most definitely due to the Donald.

C'mon, man

Nothing in any society is perfect. American society was never even good. But things are capable of becoming very bad when there are no brakes, even minimal measures of partial accountability, like the necessity of keeping up appearances. So we’ll see

It does seem like at some level people were annoyed at the hypocrisy and just wanted mask-off gangsters as their government. Seems stupid to me but i think this is a real thought process

Why is there is treeship 2 and a treeship.?

branching off onto a new line

When i sign in on my phone this is the account that is saved. I don’t know the password for it though so when i use a computer i sign in as treeship.

i'm glad people are talking about the hunter pardon because it lets me know who gets it and who doesn't and those who spend more than a second thinking, contemplating it. . . don't get it. it's ok! You don't have to get everything

Ok thank you seemed a lil weird

Something's happening and you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Waterface

how much damage he can do before his political capital is completely drained

Trump doesn't play by those rules. Hell, he doesn't give a shit about legality, so why would he care about something as intangible as political capital? So long as he holds office he has incredible power. As yet there's no evidence the Republicans in Congress will push back at him over anything he does, aside from a few meaningless expressions of their 'concern' or 'alarm'. The well-being of the party or its future success or failure isn't even on his radar. He may officially be a lame duck, but in Trumpworld that just means he's a total loose cannon with nothing to lose. He'll start wilding until some force intervenes to mute him.

looks like they removed the provision returning RFK to DC. Elon is the fucking worst.

According to Punchbowl News, the deal would fund the government for the next three months

Unbelievable to read every time.

xxp

He clearly does not care about political capital, but it's still going to be much more difficult to get anything done if he's racing to piss off as many of his allies and supporters as possible.

Biden should not sign a two-year debt ceiling deal. That is bananas. Just tees up the ability for Republicans to have full control of appropriations even if Democrats take the house in the midterms. He should only do total elimination of the debt ceiling. That would be a capstone https://t.co/yajP4ZZRWs

— Lindsay Owens (@owenslindsay1) December 19, 2024

The provision returning rfk stadium from federal control to DC city control would allow the city to team up with billionaire Commanders nfl football owner to build a new stadium in DC rahter than stay in their current Md one. But as these deals always work, the billionaire owner will likely make DC pay for most of the stadium costs. Some have suggested Congress allow for building more affordable housing there on rfk site instead, but neither COngress nor the mayor are excited about that.

Elon was on X saying the bill included funds to build the stadium, which it didn't. It was just giving the land back to DC so they could consider bids etc. I would have liked to have seen what the Harris Group etc would have proposed and what amount DC would consider ponying up. Harris isn't Kroenke so you're not gonna get a SoFi deal but would have been interested to see. Might still happen but the pointless blockage is annoying.

House Republicans have abandoned an effort to include reforms to pharmacy benefit managers in an end-of-year bill to fund the federal government.

Congressional leaders had reached a deal to rein in prescription drug middlemen earlier this week, but the larger package it was tacked onto fell apart following backlash from conservatives and top advisers to President-elect Trump. Instead, lawmakers are planning to pass a three-month government funding bill with extensions for basic public health programs and telehealth flexibilities ahead of a Friday deadline.

https://www.statnews.com/2024/12/19/republican-government-funding-bill-pbm-reform-doctor-pay-shutdown/

Another reason for Dems to vote no. Republicans abandoned a bipartisan pharmacy reform provision

Extreme right wing types like Chip Roy from Texas are also voting no because the bill doesn’t magically decrease federal spending. But He won’t say what he wants cut — hurricane damage aid; farm subsidies; something else .

Bill failed, too bad

haha

The Musk / Trump latest bill just got voted down by the Dems and some Republicans. Some of the Republicans who voted no also opposed the earlier bill.

Two Democrats voted Yes, one of them (of course) being that gaping asshole Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

The bill proposes an extension on limits to the debt ceiling for two more years, just in time for Trump and Musk and the billionaire republicans to renew the obscene tax cuts for corporations and the super rich that will further explode the deficit. That is what this is about I think

Debt limit is currently set to expire in June 2025. They want to increase it now to make it easier to get their tax cuts through; and then they are fine with bringing it back in 2 years after Dems possibly regain the House

yes, exactly

I remember a time when having an Afrikaaner in your cabinet might've been frowed upon

debt ceiling is bad, they should take trump up on his suggestion of abolishing it

I don’t think they want to abolish it permanently, though, do they? They just want to extend it in time for their tax cuts., And then have a fight about it again in two years with the Democrats

Congressional Republicans want to just have debt ceiling available as you said when they can use it to blackmail Dems. Trump did suddenly say recently he wanted to abolish it, but that was likely because he thought that was the only way to prevent Dems from using it against him in June 2025 when it expires. Now the Congressional Republicans seem to have convinced him instead to support their slimier approach to it.

The US deported more than 270,000 immigrants in a recent 12-month period, the highest amount annually in a decade, according to a government report released on Thursday.

The deportations were nearly double from 142,580 in the same period a year earlier and came as part of a broader push by Joe Biden to reduce illegal immigration.

Good morning!

that picture on the WaPo with Elon creepily smiling between Trump and Vance is really something

the fact that Daniel Penney is in the same skybox with them ups the creep factor

The people wanted a king

So Trump posted that if there is gonna be a shutdown let it be now under Biden , and that it is Biden’s fault if it happens .

"expert strategy, sir" I said with tears in my eyes

I forgot that if someone tells Trump, "Let the shutdown happen and then we can blame it on Biden" Trump will just post "WE ARE GOING TO LET THE SHUTDOWN HAPPEN NOW AND BLAME IT ON BIDEN!"

Yep, but Fox News and the whole right-wing world will describe it as "Biden and Dems cause shutdown because Dems can't get wasteful pork spending and Congressional pay raises they want", and the Washington Post, NY Times and other media will just say "both sides can't come to an agreement, shutdown happening"

https://www.wsj.com/politics/biden-white-house-age-function-diminished-3906a839

Yep that's bad re hiding Biden and bad his issues. Now will WSJ do the same with Trump? Nah.

Meanwhile back to continuing resolution bill spin- here's the right wing current position from some right-wing podcast news guy on x with too many followers--

Senate Leader celebrated the lean spending bill's failure, demanding Republicans return to the original 1,547-page package that Elon and Trump torpedoed earlier this week.

"It's a good thing the bill failed," Schumer told reporters, pushing to revive a deal packed with Democrat priorities that conservatives rejected as too expensive.

The streamlined 116-page alternative included disaster aid and debt ceiling fixes.

Now it's game of chicken: Return to the pork-filled original or risk a holiday shutdown.

Source: Fox

Return to the pork-filled original

Someone should inform Fox News that Congress functioned 10x better back when pork-barrel provisions were a standard part of bargaining for votes. Since then "continuing resolutions" and gridlock have become institutionalized and approval ratings for Congress have dropped off a cliff.

yeah where's the Ghost of Tip O'Neill when you need him

So:
•Dems negotiated a year-end bill
•Musk killed it to duck scrutiny of his Chinese investments
•Republicans pared it down, breaking the negotiated agreement
•It needs Dem votes to pass today
•Dems will apparently give the decisive votes with no additional asks https://t.co/iZ3PcOrpZR

— David Dayen (@ddayen) December 20, 2024

God I hate that party

Yep that's bad re hiding Biden and bad his issues. Now will WSJ do the same with Trump? Nah.

Will they do the same? You mean report on it two years too late, after the damage has already been done?

3rd bill passed with Dem and Republican votes ; a 34 Republican no votes , 1 Dem abstention . Bill has no debt limit extension and does not kill debt limit either

Items in 1st bill that didn't make it to 3rd

* Act to ensure providers rural internet weren't ripping folks off

* Anti deepfake porn bill 

* $ for research on premature labor 

* $ for treatment of sickle cell

* $ for breast and cervical cancer early detection 

* program…

— Sam Stein (@samstein) December 20, 2024

The bipartisan pediatric bill that passed the House and then went to the Senate and sat for a bit and then got placed in the 1st cr try , did not get added back in this 3rd one. It under Congressional rules now has to go back to the House and get voted on again there and then go to the Senate. Stand alone bills can take longer to pass than bills made part of a budget continuing resolution.

This CR lasts until March 2025

The Senate authorized funding for NIH pediatric cancer by unanimous consent tonight as a stand alone bill after it was stripped out of the House CR bill, though NBC specifies it's less money than the original package

The allegation that Congresswoman Kay Granger of Texas is in a memory care facility is shocking. It's also accurately reported here that it first came from "activist" Carlos Turcios, who double-times as a "staff writer" for a website published by a Republican megadonor. pic.twitter.com/d2covKfXvc

— stevanzetti.bsky.social (@stevanzetti) December 21, 2024

here's an article on that. I guess she's retiring at the end of term anyway, but it's pretty alarming her whole office packed up last month and left and they never made an announcment https://dallasexpress.com/tarrant/exclusive-where-is-congresswoman-kay-granger/

it’s not really that alarming is it tho?, we let old ass people run this country, we had the Feinstein thing, Mitch had another health thing the other day. Is Patrick Leahy still in the senate? He sounded 300 years old when he was confirming Sotomayer

sorry for bill maher level snark

CR, more Social Security $ for those who previously got less due to technicalities , cancer kids, DC stadium, and two more judges…. the Dem Senate had itself quite a productive Friday late night .

But Senate becomes Republican shortly

Wait DC gets RFK back? What a rollercoaster

brimstead is otm though. the us is essentially a gerontocracy that sometimes recruits the middle-aged so that they can have the proper level of power once they too are old as hell

You tell me a Republican member of the US House of Representatives has dementia and I'm going right to the joke about Calvin Coolidge dying: "How could they tell?"

Story.

So she hasn’t been seen for six months but she won’t her election in November?

Or is she retiring in a few days?

Pretty sure she's retiring