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

Yeah, and I’m sure elsewhere they say it’s all lies anyway, it’s just funny

i'm sure one america news will do the right thing and fire their new anchor. they were pretty smart to announce his new deal 13 days ago, no one saw this coming

reporting exclusively from high schools, sleepaway camps, etc.

Gaetz fast-tracked to the 'Where Are They Now?' installment of People magazine

Balding security guard at DisneyWorld, most likely

holy toledo, my brother-in-law sued Seattle Children's Hospital for racial discrimination and won. sheesh. it was all so horrible for him though. who knows what will happen with appeals and all that. pretty resounding jury verdict though. he's my wife's brother. and a swell guy.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/former-seattle-childrens-doctor-wins-21m-in-discrimination-lawsuit/

Great Scott! That's great, scott.

Dude that's a serious judgement! Good for him

Amazing

it felt pretty political! that's why i came here.

merry christmas!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/12/24/trump-latino-voters-prosperity-gospel-pennsylvania/

The mix of hope, drive for success and belief in a God who rewards faith, sometimes with financial accomplishments, has become dominant across the United States and Latin America, experts on Latino religion say. The belief system is sometimes called “seed faith,” “health and wealth gospel,” or “prosperity gospel.”

In the past half-century, driven by larger-than-life pastors, it has overtaken other more traditional theologies centered on God’s priority being poor and disenfranchised people, some experts said. This belief system, they said, helps explain what exit polls showed was a significant shift among Latino Christian voters to Trump, who they see as an uber-successful, strong and God-focused striver.

“If you take Trump and all his characteristics, it’s almost exactly as any prosperity gospel preacher,” said Tony Tian-Ren Lin, an Asian-Latino pastor in New York who wrote a book on Latino Americans and the prosperity gospel. “The big personality, talking a big game, saying things like ‘no one can do it’ but him … If for years you’ve been listening to someone like that, you’re not surprised when a political leader says those things.”

Nationally, network exit polls showed that between 2020 and 2024, Trump gained 14 points in support among Latinos, although a bare majority favored Harris, the Democratic nominee. In that same period, he gained 25 points among Latino Catholics and 18 points among Latino evangelical Protestants.

The prosperity gospel is rooted in American Pentecostalism and evangelical Protestantism, but experts say it’s become huge across faith in general, and especially among unaffiliated, often online spiritual influencers. Trump grew up in the church of the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, whose book “The Power of Positive Thinking,” was a huge bestseller and is considered a classic of the prosperity gospel.

raise your hands up in the air and speak in a different language (that sounds like "la lala foli so la" if you've seen someone speak in tongues in person. if you don't know what this is like, and more importantly, if you haven't seen the pleased reaction among many dozens of people in a room as it happens, then maybe watch jesus camp

Yes, yes it would

The Gaetz legal team, meanwhile, is fighting hard to keep the report from seeing the light of day, arguing in a new lawsuit on Monday morning: “If publicly released, would significantly damage plaintiff’s standing and reputation in the community.”

― Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, December 23, 2024 2:36 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

What standing? Everybody hates this fucker, when people in his own party

Even

I mean, why do you think emigres from former Soviet satellite countries and their offspring tend to be so gaga for Trump? He reminds them of strongman authoritarianism but is draped in Christianity, as opposed to state-mandated secularism

"What are we, a bunch of Polacks?"

maybe don’t use ethnic slurs even in jest?

Was referencing this, I could have just said "POLES??" I suppose, but I think satirical direct speech is valid, otherwise much great literature would have to be censored which I profoundly disagree with, but I'm not going to have that discussion on this thread

https://i.ibb.co/8gmtDw1/FJHc-IS8a-UAAh-Me.jpg

why do you think emigres from former Soviet satellite countries and their offspring

Amazing how there’s a new THOSE PEOPLE love authoritarianism because they’re genetically disposed to it every cycle now.

Lib phrenology rules.

Yeah. LOTS of people like authoritarianism, is the not-so-secret thing about authoritarianism. It's hardly a genetic or even cultural disposition, it's more like the default mode of human government.

Case in point: how I respond when the ice cube in my Negroni is too small.

Lots of people like authoritarianism when it controls people they determine to be members of out-groups.

That’s one of its big promises, for sure. Another one (for the in-groups) is “Look, don’t worry about the government, you don’t have to do anything, you’re not to blame for anything, just let Daddy handle it.” Which is something a lot of people respond to whether they would admit it or not.

Was referencing this, I could have just said "POLES??" I suppose, but I think satirical direct speech is valid, otherwise much great literature would have to be censored which I profoundly disagree with, but I'm not going to have that discussion on this thread

this is a message board, don’t fucking use ethnic slurs, dickhead.

Performatively disingenuous stupid prick

y'know you coulda just apologized and said 'my bad' but here's my middle finger as well after what you said to tabes

alert me again to how it is “disingenuous” to suggest we don’t use ethnic slurs on this board? my mom is a Polish immigrant, born in a DMZ after her family was liberated from the camps. perhaps i could have avoided insulting you after your paltry excuse without any apology, but what’s done is done, and trust me that using a vile ethnic slur is a lot worse than calling someone a grade school insult.

I did not "use" it, as you well know. Writing it in a specific walled-off context where it is highlighting racism is not the same as "using it". As you well know. As you well know. That's the disingenuousness, and you know it. I know you are smarter than that but you are pretending not to be because of... reasons. I apologise if you or anyone else was offended by the writing of the word, but I don't apologise for the intent, because you know very well what the intent was. However, the flag link is right there for anyone who either was offended, or who wants to tell me that what I wrote was offensive or racist.

I'm an immigrant from southern Europe by the way, and have endured some racism in my time, but I know the difference between racism and satirical highlighting of racism.

That's all I'll say about this. Enjoy your evening, and Happy Christmas.

I probably need to take a break from ILX, because leftist-infighting is absolute poison. Very bad for anyone's morale.

OK, how about some right-wing infighting instead?

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/26/maga-civil-war-ramaswamy-musk-loomer-cernovich

Haven’t we had right wing culture warriors shocked by techies love of H1-B visas before? Was that W era or Paul Ryan era?

xpost, actually, i am pretty sure i know what i believe, and one of those beliefs is that using slurs of any kind in service of making a broader point about, well, the vileness of slurs and the bigotry behind them is pretty wack. i always found it deeply cringe, even as a teenager, when radical leftist punk bands would use slurs to make a point— why use the slur at all? can’t you make the point without it? i think you are smarter and better than that, and also wish you all the best, in all sincerity— no hard feelings.

Also no hard feelings and sorry again. I certainly understand and agree with your point that no one should throw around racist language willy-nilly on a messageboard, it's a social space. I also agree with you about cringe "ironic" racism (I remember the noise dude period of this board and was not a fan). I am obviously sensitive about being accused of racism, so tried to over-explain. I'm not keen on apologising without the consciousness of real transgression, so I didn't want to do that, but certainly I don't want to genuinely offend anyone. And I realise now that behind your comments are personal history.

This is very out of character for me, if you look back at my posts you will see I complain on the reg about people making fun of foreign names, I think that's cringe and racist, but some leftists love doing that, for some reason.

Also no hard feelings and sorry again. I certainly understand and agree with your point that no one should throw around racist language willy-nilly on a messageboard, it's a social space. I also agree with you about cringe "ironic" racism (I remember the noise dude period of this board and was not a fan). I am obviously sensitive about being accused of racism, so tried to over-explain. I'm not keen on apologising without the consciousness of real transgression, so I didn't want to do that, but certainly I don't want to genuinely offend anyone.

This is very out of character for me, if you look back at my posts you will see I complain on the reg about people making fun of foreign names, I think that's cringe and racist, but some leftists love doing that, for some reason.

Expanding this outwards, and dragging it back to politics, the coming years of Western hyper-racism as a result of far right/nationalist parties in government, turbo-charged by climate change that we're going to see in Europe and USA, it's going to be necessary to face the tangible racism of the political class and voters head on, they aren't and won't be shy about that, and I think that will only be possible by reproducing it literally in print and media so that it can be mocked, challenged and defeated. I don't think being excessively squeamish about the existence of the racism and the racist language that will be normalised is going to help us on the left (that's not, i promise, a critique of messageboard etiquette); I think we need to be unafraid of being in its presence, as a start; currently it almost rebounds as a taboo on the hearer or witness of racism, and I think that anti-racists are going to need to be tougher and more resilient to confront this. I am talking about myself as much as anyone. As soon as I hear racism from an acquaintance or family member I tend to feel like I need to my face in shame, and I sometimes feel so overcome I can't even rebut it, I just leave. I think the left in general understandably wants a safe space from racism, to be shielded from its very existence just like we wouldn't like to be reminded of poverty and genocide just for the sake of keeping it together mentally, and if it is on the uptick, this is probably not a viable strategy. If only because there probably will be political compacts between leftists and "anti-globalist" MAGAs/nationalists at some stage (small signs of that in France I think), and we're all going to have to come to terms with the idea that some leftists will do a deal with nominally and actually racist people in the service of some economic and political ends. I think it's highly likely we could see some of those sort of grassroots associations as well, over the next 4 years in the USA. I'm sure some people here have seen Cenk Uygur's heel turn in that regard. I don't know how many people respect him, and yes he's likely grifting etc, but it could be a sign of future political developments. That stuff above about Ramaswamy and Musk underlines the faultline that's going to widen over neoliberal economics vs protectionist nationalism. I have the same visceral disgust of associating with proud racists as anyone else, so I don't know how this is or could possibly work, but I feel it's going to happen to some extent.

Oops sorry for duplication

The Senate adjourned this month without confirming President Joe Biden’s 10 judicial nominees for the D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals, but it didn’t have to turn out this way. Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) tried to explain away the problem, complaining in a statement: “I wish we could have gotten more appointments done, like local D.C. judges, but as we got closer to the end of the year Republican intransigence made everything harder. The whole system of the Senate confirming D.C. superior court judges is ridiculous and should be fixed.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/27/senate-democrats-dc-courts-judicial-vacancies-crisis/

Weird its going to work fine in 3 weeks

My favorite bit out of the whole H1B donnybrook is Ramaswamy saying American kids need to watch “more movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of ‘Friends.’”

He thought Whiplash was an inspirational story?

That is absolutely how people like him have interpreted it. Like finance bros and Wolf of Wall Street.

I mean prob shd watch whiplash instead of friends but joke’s on u bub

reruns of friends vs being forced to watch the movie whiplash

this truly is a dystopia

Eat Burger King instead of mcdonalds

I had a similar experience in the early '90s when I learned that plenty of conservatives I knew thought Ricky Roma and the Alec Baldwin character in Glengarry Glenn Ross were the shit.

My dad woulda beat the shit outta those guys in the 80s.

Rick Coma morelike

"Take a big step back and FUCK YOURSELF in the face." for January thread title.

I think this Musk H1-B thing is going to be a real wedge for the GOP.

Problem is, speaking as a tech worker, I basically think H1-Bs are okish and only need modest reform (pls make it possible to switch jons on them--today employers know H1-B folks are locked in). I do think opening the doors to immigrants of all skill levels has made this country stronger and can continue to.

But there's no question that the GOP base has been sold xenophobic bullshit and also that a lot of big GOP money benefits from all kinds of immigration (illegal included).

So Musk has just put the spotlight on something that they would rather handle without peoplw noticing.

I bet it snowballs.

I wouldn't say switching jobs is a modest reform though? Employers aren't going to give up so much control for the hell of it.

otm but i’m not so sure that it’ll snowball. h1b is a very small share of immigrants and high-skilled immigration is very popular even among republican voters. rational thing would be for the rabid anti immigration faction to take the L on h1b (and maybe some other visas) but go hard on border and family. obviously rational behavior is not a given here…

(xp to fajitas)

Another Day, Another Cybertruck Explosion - US Politics January 2025