The Neverending Thread for Political Shit

[Zip City]

Ohio has decided to be as efficient as possible with their rampant transphobia, combing their healthcare ban, trans sports ban, and outing kids to their parents bill together into one giant shit sandwich.

[beantownbubba]

David Leonhardt in a NYT newsletter:

"A rising generation of Republican politicians is more skeptical of the free market and more comfortable using government power to regulate the economy than the party has traditionally been. Consider:

Senator J.D. Vance, the Ohio Republican, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts progressive, have collaborated on a bill to claw back executive pay at failed banks. The two worked through the details through in-person conversations, weekend phone calls and late-night texts.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has signed a public letter calling for the reinvigoration of collective bargaining and praising the German approach, in which labor unions play a larger role in the economy. Rubio this month published a book, “Decades of Decadence,” that criticizes the past 30 years of globalization.
Senator Todd Young of Indiana has helped write a bipartisan bill to restrict noncompete agreements, which companies use to prevent their employees from leaving for jobs at a competitor.
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who began pushing a few years ago for federal subsidies to expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing. President Biden signed a version of the policy last year.
Tomorrow afternoon, these four Republican senators — Cotton, Rubio, Vance and Young — will speak at an event on Capitol Hill that’s meant to highlight the emergence of a populist conservative movement in economics. The event is organized around a policy manifesto, called “Rebuilding American Capitalism: A Handbook for Conservative Policymakers.”

“We really like capitalism, but we recognize it’s not working right now,” said Oren Cass, a former aide to Mitt Romney and the executive director of American Compass, a think tank that published the manifesto.

Cass is right about that: Income growth for most families has been sluggish for decades, trailing well behind economic growth. Life expectancy stagnated even before Covid. And polls show that Americans of all ideological stripes are frustrated with the country’s direction.

“Capitalism is a complex system dependent on rules and institutions,” Cass told me. “And conservatism calls for building and maintaining institutions that work well.”

A new capitalism
I recognize that many liberals will be skeptical of the new breed of Republicans. For one thing, they really are conservative; they’re not disaffected right-wingers who have become moderates without admitting it. They support abortion restrictions and oppose gun laws. They make excuses for Donald Trump’s anti-democratic behavior or even spread his falsehoods.

But the preference for a different kind of economic policy than one Republicans have long supported is nonetheless significant. It is a sign that the consensus in Washington is moving away from the neoliberal, laissez-faire approach that has dominated since the 1980s. These new conservatives are trying to separate themselves from anti-government Republicans like Paul Ryan — and, although they won’t say so, Ronald Reagan.

One major reason is the class inversion of American politics. Most professionals now vote for Democrats, which is a stark change from past decades. Most working-class voters vote Republican, partly because they see Democrats as an elite party dominated by socially liberal and secular college graduates.

Yet the Republican Party still has a major vulnerability with working-class voters. The party has long pushed the laissez-faire agenda that has hurt those voters, and polls show the country to be left of center on economic policy. Most Americans favor a higher minimum wage, higher taxes on the rich, expanded government health insurance and subsidies for well-paying jobs.

When Democrats can flip the script on elitism and paint a Republican candidate as an out-of-touch protector of the rich, the Democratic candidate can often draw enough blue-collar support to win. John Fetterman used this approach to beat Mehmet Oz last year in Pennsylvania, the only state where a Senate seat switched parties.

Politically, the new conservative populism is an effort to show that Republicans understand Americans’ struggles and want to help. Economically, the new approach offers a glimpse of a Republican Party that’s starting to grapple with the economy’s true challenges.

The manifesto rejects the idea that free trade is inherently good and argues for policies to ensure the U.S. has a thriving, well-paying manufacturing sector that makes strategically important goods like semiconductors. “The idea that trade would lead to liberalization and a happy world was wildly wrong,” Cass said.

The document also calls for:

a guaranteed right for workers to organize and industrywide bargaining, which could increase the number of union contracts — and raise wages.
a financial transaction tax, meant to reduce Wall Street trading that makes people rich without making the economy more productive.
a monthly child benefit of around $300, as well as changes to Medicare and Social Security to recognize the work done by stay-at-home parents.
an easing of government regulations, to encourage new construction.
Progressives will raise principled objections to some ideas — such as a ban on unions’ campaign donations. And that’s how a democracy should function. The country’s two political parties are not on the verge of agreeing about most economic issues.

But something is changing. More politicians are recognizing that the policies of the past several decades have failed to create a broadly prosperous economy. From that emerging consensus may eventually come a longer list of bipartisan legislation designed to lift living standards."

[beantownbubba]

Soooo... Justice Alito adds to the "if it weren't so tragic it would be funny" decline and fall of the Supreme Court with this doozy: Attempting to "get out in front" of a story that would report that Alito accepted and didn't report a $100K private jet/private compound vacation from a billionaire with repeated interest in cases before the Court. Writing an op-ed in the WSJ, Alito explains that after all, if he didn't accept the trip, the seat on the plane would have gone empty. Take a second and think about how boldly outrageous that is. It completely reverses the nature of the problem: It's not about what something cost the briber/host, it's what that something is worth to the bribee/guest. I mean, that's an F on any legal ethics exam (oxymoron related jokes duly acknowledged in advance).

And as far as getting out in front of the story goes, the idea is to lower the spotlight and noise, not make the problem bigger by being disingenuous to the point of stupidity. How is it possible for anyone in public life, much less a Supreme Court Justice, to be so incompetent?

The decline if not dismantlement of the Court continues apace, and I find it distressing while acknowledging its inevitability: Put a bunch of clowns together and you're gonna get a circus.

[brettac1]

https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/6/22/23 ... mas-habeas

Definitely a legitimate institution that must be upheld at all costs.

[beantownbubba]

https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/6/22/23 ... mas-habeas

Definitely a legitimate institution that must be upheld at all costs.

Wow, that is some complicated stuff. But oddly enough the key point is actually very simple: Is the judicial system there to provide certainty or to insure that guilty people are punished but innocent people are not? On that score, it always surprises me that some people think certainty is more important, but it's not a new view. What's sad to me is that the vote on this kind of issue is absolutely predictable/preordained.

[beantownbubba]

People who reach a certain level of fame/influence are always concerned about their legacy. I was thinking about Alito this morning and had to chuckle: I don't know what he considers his best, most important decisions to be (although I would likely disagree no matter what he chose) but I have no doubt that to the extent that he is remembered in history at all it will be for that silly verging on preposterous ill-advised op-ed in the WSJ. Which is exactly what he deserves.

[Tequila Cowboy]

https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/6/22/23 ... mas-habeas

Definitely a legitimate institution that must be upheld at all costs.

Wow, that is some complicated stuff. But oddly enough the key point is actually very simple: Is the judicial system there to provide certainty or to insure that guilty people are punished but innocent people are not? On that score, it always surprises me that some people think certainty is more important, but it's not a new view. What's sad to me is that the vote on this kind of issue is absolutely predictable/preordained.

Given the full scope of history, I’m never surprised by that argument. As you alluded to, it’s as old as time. How people can live with that callousness within themselves is the shocker but it’s all about self interest, prejudice and your view of the world. My uncle, father to two convicted felons and a third who plead out in a fraud case incurring a misdemeanor instead, feels this way. He thinks it far worse if a guilty person is free than an innocent person is locked up and I’ve had this argument with him for forty years. His view has never changed, well except in the cases of his progeny which he deems bullshit. If I looked within myself and this is what I saw, I’d jump off a bridge.

[beantownbubba]

How people can live with that callousness within themselves is the shocker

[beantownbubba]

I am mystified by the goings on in Russia. The only things I know for sure is that we don't, and may never, know the full story and that one way or another, it ain't over.

[cortez the killer]

[beantownbubba]

From a WaPo newsletter. How is it possible that I haven't heard a word about this before this minute? How amazing is this program?

"Andrew Brown at the Connecticut Mirror reports on the launch of the state’s new “baby bonds” program, “an initiative that was created to combat income inequality and to break the cycles of systemic poverty in the state.”

The initiative “will invest $3,200 for every child that is born after July 1, 2023 and is eligible for the state’s Medicaid program,” Brown wrote.

“Those investments will be managed by the state until the children turn 18, at which point the recipients will be able to use the money to buy a home, pay for college, start a business or save for retirement — the type of financial assistance that children from wealthier households often receive from their parents or families,” according to Brown.

[beantownbubba]

Following up on a formerly big story, according to the Economist, 60% of Britons now wish the UK had stayed in the UK. More annoyingly, apparently in May Nigel Farrage, one of the most high profile leaders of the pro-leaving forces and the one who promised that hundreds of millions of pounds would be available to fund the National Health Service, admitted that "Brexit has failed." Whoops.

[305 Engine]

Following up on a formerly big story, according to the Economist, 60% of Britons now wish the UK had stayed in the UK. More annoyingly, apparently in May Nigel Farrage, one of the most high profile leaders of the pro-leaving forces and the one who promised that hundreds of millions of pounds would be available to fund the National Health Service, admitted that "Brexit has failed." Whoops.

I'm 100% certain that the UK will eventually rejoin the EU. Neither major party is currently calling for it, but eventually they'll catch up with public opinion. I dont want to put a time limit on it, but it will happen.

[John A Arkansawyer]

Following up on a formerly big story, according to the Economist, 60% of Britons now wish the UK had stayed in the UK. More annoyingly, apparently in May Nigel Farrage, one of the most high profile leaders of the pro-leaving forces and the one who promised that hundreds of millions of pounds would be available to fund the National Health Service, admitted that "Brexit has failed." Whoops.

I'm 100% certain that the UK will eventually rejoin the EU. Neither major party is currently calling for it, but eventually they'll catch up with public opinion. I dont want to put a time limit on it, but it will happen.

But will the EU have them back?

[305 Engine]

Following up on a formerly big story, according to the Economist, 60% of Britons now wish the UK had stayed in the UK. More annoyingly, apparently in May Nigel Farrage, one of the most high profile leaders of the pro-leaving forces and the one who promised that hundreds of millions of pounds would be available to fund the National Health Service, admitted that "Brexit has failed." Whoops.

I'm 100% certain that the UK will eventually rejoin the EU. Neither major party is currently calling for it, but eventually they'll catch up with public opinion. I dont want to put a time limit on it, but it will happen.

But will the EU have them back?

Yes but it'd have to be when each major UK party backs reentry to the EU and has done so for a decent amount of time. Thats why I cant put a time limit on it. But it will eventually happen.

[brettac1]

Trump could get sentenced to life in prison next week and he'd still beat Meatball Ron by 20.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/0 ... r-00104768

[pearlbeer]

Trump could get sentenced to life in prison next week and he'd still beat Meatball Ron by 20.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/0 ... r-00104768

It's really pro-level grifting. 10/10

[dime in the gutter]

a prison canteen unlike any the world has never seen. yuuuge. the greatest and best prison canteen of all time. soooo much bigger and better than phil spector or epstein. double the size of bill cosby canteen.

[chuckrh]

Trump could get sentenced to life in prison next week and he'd still beat Meatball Ron by 20.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/0 ... r-00104768

It's really pro-level grifting. 10/10

Legendary. 1 for the history books. They'll be saying WTF were they "thinking".

[Zip City]

Marjorie Taylor Greene was voted out of the Freedom Caucus

[beantownbubba]

I don't know enough to say, but this sounds as or more reasonable than any other explanation I've read:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/opin ... trump.html

Zip, where'd you hear about MTG? I haven't seen confirmation anywhere.

[pearlbeer]

Marjorie Taylor Greene was voted out of the Freedom Caucus

Haha. That's like being too nerdy for the A/V Club.

[Zip City]

Marjorie Taylor Greene was voted out of the Freedom Caucus

Haha. That's like being too nerdy for the A/V Club.

More like being too rowdy for the KKK

[beantownbubba]

Marjorie Taylor Greene was voted out of the Freedom Caucus

Haha. That's like being too nerdy for the A/V Club.

More like being too rowdy for the KKK

I think the explanation lies elsewhere and I, perhaps unusually, find it pretty interesting. What we have here is a classic case of the outside firebrand being co-opted by "the system." Maybe McCarthy wooed her, maybe MGT had stars in her eyes over the possibilities, but I'm pretty sure she succumbed to the temptation to "wield power directly" and to "effect change from the inside." The problem is that she miscalculated badly, mostly by hitching her star to the incompetent putz known as Kevin McCarthy. She also may (I'm being delicate here) have overestimated her own influence and underestimated the power and resolve of the Freedom Caucus w/out her. But now McCarthy can't deliver, the Freedom Caucus won't have her and while she can presumably be re-elected in her district until infinity, her national profile, influence and impact will continue to wane unless she changes course. Expect her to change course, most probably by trying to out-crazy the crazies.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Marjorie Taylor Greene was voted out of the Freedom Caucus

Haha. That's like being too nerdy for the A/V Club.

More like being too rowdy for the KKK

Too drunk for The Replacements

[tinnitus photography]

Haha. That's like being too nerdy for the A/V Club.

More like being too rowdy for the KKK

Too drunk for The Replacements

[chuckrh]

Haha. That's like being too nerdy for the A/V Club.

More like being too rowdy for the KKK

Too drunk for The Replacements

I wish someone would get Paul out of his basement. Was just listening to "Pleased to Meet Me" yesterday. It still doesn't get much better than that.

[beantownbubba]

I've noticed a recent spate of articles saying in one way or another that DeSantis is running a bad, and to some extent an unlucky, campaign. It seems to me that this analysis misses the point entirely. It's not that DeSantis is a bad campaigner, though he is, it's that he's a bad candidate.

People get that he's a bully. People get that he's arrogant and even worse they suspect that he's arrogant w/out having the goods to back it up. Put another way, people get that he's the only one who thinks he's the smartest guy in any particular room. People get that he just doesn't seem to be a good, "regular guy," a guy like George W. Bush whose main attribute often seemed to be that he appeared to be a good guy to have a beer with.

He has no experience or talent in many of the areas that are important to a president including communicating to a broad audience, responding in real or close to real time to surprise events and preferably having some foreign policy experience but at a minimum having a foreign policy point of view.

And on top of all that, the policy positions on which he's staked his candidacy just aren't that popular with voters who aren't already going to vote for Trump, e.g. abortion, environment, LGBTQ+, immigration and on down the list. While his position on most of these issues are calculated to appeal to Trump voters, he has wrongly calculated that there are a lot of Trump voters out there who want Trump's positions but not Trump. This is a fundamental and fatal miscalculation. Whatever the secrets of Trump's appeal may be, they do not include his positions on issues. If people want Trump it's because of, not in spite, of the personality, surround, chaos and norm breaking. This major miscalculation makes him a terrible candidate because there is no purpose to his candidacy.

[beantownbubba]

No, she didn't! But alas, she did. Because this is who we are now.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, showed pictures of a naked Hunter Biden engaging in sex acts during a Congressional session. Matt Gaetz had the pics entered into the Congressional Record. MTG emailed the pics to her entire mailing list presumably including at least a few people who did not consent to receive that kind of material and perhaps some of whom are minors (anybody know?). Despite all the evidence to the contrary I'm going to assume that this statement of the facts of the matter stands on its own and needs no further commentary.

[beantownbubba]

It definitely gets boring to continually bash Ron DeSantis but the dude keeps doing incredibly fucked up things.

The latest contretemps is the new proposed curriculum for middle school (and maybe hs too?) American history especially as it relates to the teaching of slavery and the African-American (and secondarily the immigrant) experience. The best lesson from the curriculum is how it illustrates the old maxim about history: The victors get to write it.*

This seems to be a very intentional effort to re-write history from the white largely male perspective, downplaying the fact and impact of slavery and in some ways justifying it. According to this telling, slavery confirmed numerous benefits on the enslaved. Really. It also takes an incredibly rose colored glasses view of "the arc of history," basically concluding that there has been a straight line march from the ideals of the Declaration of Independence to today's "post-racial" society largerly because of the beneficence of white men. IOW, it reads like fiction. There's something about the intentionality of it in the face of by now well understood realities that is not just offensive and dismaying but scary. It's as if time stopped somewhere in the early 20th century.

While teaching history this way will inevitably delay what most of us think of as progress it's also oddly crippling to the children who will be taught this bullshit but have to survive (and hopefully thrive) in a society very different from the one that has been described to them.

*Using "victors" loosely here because the outcome is thankfully still in doubt but acknowledging who is still in charge and literally writing the history, especially in Florida.