U.S. Politics

[maqroll]

14 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

I think people this side of the Atlantic are incapable of adding much to the US political debate

I have to say that the talk here in this thread is consistently the most satisfying political convo I have going. Well informed lot on VT 

[villakram]

On 07/10/2018 at 07:37, NurembergVillan said:

Just wow...

Those Repub cufflinks sure are nice, I guess his Dem timepiece is hidden from view. Once must wonder, given the garb, if Ms. Liberty has a kinky side though...

Remember Obama codified and re-upped pretty much every single rotten to the core precedent that Bush and his band of war criminals set.

[HanoiVillan]

Shot:

Chaser:

 

[bickster]

Trump is that stupid, he'd actually try and prosecute them... Could be highly amusing.

It'll never happen

[Chindie]

Nikki Haley resigns. No word yet if Darth Vader is available to replace her.

[HanoiVillan]

37 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Nikki Haley resigns. No word yet if Darth Vader is available to replace her.

I seem to be seeing Lindsay 'Jarhead' Graham's name connected to this. 

[Chindie]

25 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I seem to be seeing Lindsay 'Jarhead' Graham's name connected to this. 

Graham supposedly wants Sessions' seat when he vacates it shortly, he's taken every opportunity to fondle Trump's bollocks from the second Sessions was clearly not on Trump's Christmas card list.

[snowychap]

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

I seem to be seeing Lindsay 'Jarhead' Graham's name connected to this. 

From The Grauniad:

Quote

Asked about Haley’s successor, Trump said there were a “number of people” who were interested, saying that Haley had made it “a more glamorous position”.

Among the possible candidates is the president’s daughter, Ivanka, and Haley went out of her way to praise her and her husband, Jared Kushner...

 

[TheAuthority]

12 hours ago, Chindie said:

Graham supposedly wants Sessions' seat when he vacates it shortly, he's taken every opportunity to fondle Trump's bollocks from the second Sessions was clearly not on Trump's Christmas card list.

I read that the opposite that he wants to stay a Senator.

Why risk a change of lifestyle at his age......

[Xann]

[peterms]

On 09/10/2018 at 03:37, bickster said:

Trump is that stupid, he'd actually try and prosecute them... Could be highly amusing.

It'll never happen

It doesn't need to, and it's not meant to.

It's just a signal to the baying mob that their harrassment of the complainant is ok, and should be extended to others.

Why prosecute, when death threats will dissuade women from complaining?

Interestingly in the context of "fake news", he is now moving from his lying claim that his mate was found innocent, to floating an idea based on the false premise that he was found innocent, and more, that the accusation was malicious; all without having to state this explicitly, make a case for it, or defend it.

The power of assertion and dog whistles, in the face of a compliant and uncritical audience.

[HanoiVillan]

In Georgia, the GOP Secretary of State is running for Governor, and his office have taken the opportunity to, ahem, seriously prune the voter rolls:

Nice job if you can get it, monitoring your own election race! 

Kavanaugh's new mates are up to the same shit in North Dakota as well:

Supreme Court Makes It Harder for Tribal North Dakotans to Vote

'The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower-court order requiring voters in North Dakota to present certain forms of identification and proof of their residential address in order to cast a ballot in next month’s elections. A case challenging this requirement on behalf of the state’s sizable Native American populations alleged that the requirement would disenfranchise tribal residents, many of whom lack the proper identification and do not have residential addresses on their identification cards. 

[. . .]

North Dakota’s 2017 voter law ID was challenged by Native residents who alleged that the law disproportionately blocked Native Americans from voting. In April, a federal district court judge blocked large portions of the law as discriminatory against Native voters. “The State has acknowledged that Native American communities often lack residential street addresses,” Judge Daniel Hovland wrote. “Nevertheless, under current State law an individual who does not have a ‘current residential street address’ will never be qualified to vote.” According to the website of the Native American Rights Fund, which represents the plaintiffs, many native residents lack residential street addresses because “the U.S. postal service does not provide residential delivery in these rural Indian communities.”As a result, tribal IDs use P.O. boxes, which are not sufficient under North Dakota’s new law—a specification that seems designed to disenfranchise native voters. Hovland’s ruling was in place during the primaries this spring.'

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/10/supreme-court-makes-it-harder-for-tribal-north-dakotans-to-vote/

[NurembergVillan]

It's not fascism though.  Nope.

[VILLAMARV]

1 minute ago, NurembergVillan said:

It's not fascism though.  Nope.

No he's fighting them, you know, the commies.

[NurembergVillan]

4 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

No he's fighting them, you know, the commies.

Socialists weren't they?  It was even in their name.

[peterms]

29 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

In Georgia, the GOP Secretary of State is running for Governor, and his office have taken the opportunity to, ahem, seriously prune the voter rolls: 

Ooh look, it's not just happening in Georgia.

Quote

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower-court order requiring voters in North Dakota to present certain forms of identification and proof of their residential address in order to cast a ballot in next month’s elections. A case challenging this requirement on behalf of the state’s sizable Native American populations alleged that the requirement would disenfranchise tribal residents, many of whom lack the proper identification and do not have residential addresses on their identification cards...

At least it stops short of genocide, this time.  They should be grateful, but I expect we'll just hear complaints.

[villakram]

This is a silly problem. It's 2018 and people can't be bothered to get ID and then have the gall to complain about "their" vote. The Dems rapidly need to stop fighting this and instead get on board and work to get IDs in the hands of all citizens. It's 2018 ffs!

I've been here 10 yrs and this problem crops up every election time. One would almost think the Dems don't really care and are quite happy to have this as a stick with which to beat the Repubs come election time, much like immigration.

If you are over the age of 18 and can't be bothered to go and get yourself a form of official ID, I find it very very hard to have sympathy. Yes, bureaucracy works in an ever so "accidental" go-slow mode over here, but the relevant timescale to get registered is years. 

Having the Dems fight for unregistered voters and for illegal immigrants is one of the all time great pieces of strategy from the Republicans overlords. 

[peterms]

3 minutes ago, villakram said:

This is a silly problem. It's 2018 and people can't be bothered to get ID and then have the gall to complain about "their" vote. The Dems rapidly need to stop fighting this and instead get on board and work to get IDs in the hands of all citizens. It's 2018 ffs!

I've been here 10 yrs and this problem crops up every election time. One would almost think the Dems don't really care and are quite happy to have this as a stick with which to beat the Repubs come election time, much like immigration.

If you are over the age of 18 and can't be bothered to go and get yourself a form of official ID, I find it very very hard to have sympathy. Yes, bureaucracy works in an ever so "accidental" go-slow mode over here, but the relevant timescale to get registered is years. 

Having the Dems fight for unregistered voters and for illegal immigrants is one of the all time great pieces of strategy from the Republicans overlords. 

But the authorities are requiring a postal address, where many people use a PO box.

If there's a more blatant attempt at preventing people voting, I'd be interested to hear about it.

[HanoiVillan]

25 minutes ago, villakram said:

This is a silly problem. It's 2018 and people can't be bothered to get ID and then have the gall to complain about "their" vote. The Dems rapidly need to stop fighting this and instead get on board and work to get IDs in the hands of all citizens. It's 2018 ffs!

I've been here 10 yrs and this problem crops up every election time. One would almost think the Dems don't really care and are quite happy to have this as a stick with which to beat the Repubs come election time, much like immigration.

If you are over the age of 18 and can't be bothered to go and get yourself a form of official ID, I find it very very hard to have sympathy. Yes, bureaucracy works in an ever so "accidental" go-slow mode over here, but the relevant timescale to get registered is years. 

Having the Dems fight for unregistered voters and for illegal immigrants is one of the all time great pieces of strategy from the Republicans overlords. 

These are Native Americans, who use PO Boxes because the Postal Service don't drive far enough to deliver their mail. Did you even read the link?

[villakram]

19 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

These are Native Americans, who use PO Boxes because the Postal Service don't drive far enough to deliver their mail. Did you even read the link?

But, it's not the first time these games have been played. The tribal authorities need to find a way to circumvent this issue (i.e., work to re-define what a PO box is or create some other legal fudge or whatever mechanism is used in other parts of uber-rural America), and then here's the thing... the Repubs will look for some other loop hole. We should be playing the game too and working to identify these issues first and then help the relevant populations front run them. The only way to combat this is ID for all. 

Btw, it's simply amazing how ignored the whole history of the Indian genocide is over here. That they are still targeted is not surprising in the slightest, and this particular piece of legislation is quite likely to be in none too subtle retaliation for the pipeline fight a couple of years back.