Political Digression Thread -- Save UP! Move the politically focused stuff here

[videtur quam contuor]

Representative Jeff Jackson provides inside (ish) information regarding recent unmanned ballon incursions:

https://jeffjacksonnc.substack.com/

[kayman]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cou6uRGJeP6/?igshid=MWMzM2Q4ZmE=

Huge demographics shifts within Mecklenburg County particularly the City of Charlotte.  The black population has increased and shifted significantly and explains why Charlotte appears more black nowadays.  Also the drastic increases in other non-white/brown populations. 

[rancenc]

Not necessarily political in nature, but great news for the state on the green energy front concerning this announcement.

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/619721119/n-c-department-of-commerce-and-the-danish-energy-agency-sign-agreement-to-cooperate-on-the-responsible-development-of-offshore-wind-energy

[kermit]

Not really a local but I’ll ask anyway…

anyone else troubled that republicans are now comfortable dictating how businesses operate? (Meatball Ron threatening Disney with fiscal penalties if their content is too 'woke',  the whole nut job  caucus w ESG investing when all necessary disclosure / fiduciary laws already exist). Where did pro-business / pro free-market / anti-regulation republicans go?  Seems like the right is going anti-capitalist / big government really quickly. Feels weird -- like the next step is for them to nationalize private businesses. WTF?

Folks in Idaho calling out the GOP as "The Party of Big Government" as well:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/idaho-republican-party-changed-stripes-100000962.html

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by kermit

[Popsickle]

On 3/1/2023 at 8:48 PM, kermit said:

Not really a local but I’ll ask anyway…

anyone else troubled that republicans are now comfortable dictating how businesses operate? (Meatball Ron w Disney,  the whole nut job  caucus w ESG investing when all necessary disclosure / fiduciary laws already exist). Where did pro-business / pro free-market / anti-regulation republicans go?  Seems like the right is going anti-capitalist / big government really quickly. Feels weird -- like the next step is for them to nationalize private businesses. WTF?

 

Link?

[kermit]

30 minutes ago, Popsickle said:

Link?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/business/dealbook/esg-biden-white-house-congress.html

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/03/desantis-promises-florida-will-control-disney-content.html

Edited March 3, 2023 by kermit

[kayman]

On 3/1/2023 at 8:48 PM, kermit said:

Not really a local but I’ll ask anyway…

anyone else troubled that republicans are now comfortable dictating how businesses operate? (Meatball Ron w Disney,  the whole nut job  caucus w ESG investing when all necessary disclosure / fiduciary laws already exist). Where did pro-business / pro free-market / anti-regulation republicans go?  Seems like the right is going anti-capitalist / big government really quickly. Feels weird -- like the next step is for them to nationalize private businesses. WTF?

 

 

14 hours ago, kermit said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/business/dealbook/esg-biden-white-house-congress.html

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/03/desantis-promises-florida-will-control-disney-content.html

The GOP is going to keep upping the ante until there's a massive demographic and generational cohort backlash against them. I'm seeing signs of this coming from Millennials and Gen Z and particularly with the rapid growth of black and brown populations from these cohorts.  NC, GA, VA, TX, and possibly FL will be the forefront states we will see this backlash.  They are starting to eff with people's pockets and bottom lines and they are going to come back for them in return at the ballot box. 

The Democratic parties in these states need to organize in their key geographic areas and set their ground game towards engaging more black and brown populations now. 

[videtur quam contuor]

Does anyone here live and work in a blood red district and know what it is like for the lying liest of liars to represent them in state and national positions? And for this view to represent a large, even majority of the voters (residents?) of the area? 

If so what is your view and experience? 

[kayman]

4 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

Does anyone here live and work in a blood red district and know what it is like for the lying liest of liars to represent them in state and national positions? And for this view to represent a large, even majority of the voters (residents?) of the area? 

If so what is your view and experience? 

I don't currently live in a red district but have several times in the past. It's like gaslighting on a daily. The level of microaggressions is annoying when controversial issues have come up and shows that too many people choose to go with group thinking rather critical analysis of issues from another demographic perspective. My parents still live in said areas. They literally stay to themselves on their property and in home with very few exceptions because of this atmosphere of social hostilities towards black people in that area. My parents both have open carry permits just case some anti-black bigot attempts to accost either of them. 

It shows that such dogmatic thinking doesn't help civility at all.  It also contributes to rapid decline of the younger generation populations in the rural South and other rural parts of the US.

Edited March 3, 2023 by kayman

[kermit]

6 hours ago, kayman said:

The GOP is going to keep upping the ante until there's a massive demographic and generational cohort backlash against them.

Yea, but that is the weird part of this. The right (particularly Desantis) is proposing things (telling corporations how they should operate) that the Democratic Socialists of America would be thrilled about if the moves were driven by different culture-war motivations. In general, young progressive folks are pro corporate regulation, and that is exactly what the right is giving us (just in a different wrapper than the DSA would use)

The party that was once all about small government and reduced regulation is now openly discussing seizing the means of production (and they kinda seized the control of Disney property with the Reedy Creak taxing district changes).  I am genuinely confused by their logic.

Edited March 3, 2023 by kermit

[kayman]

10 minutes ago, kermit said:

Yea, but that is the weird part of this. The right (particularly Desantis) is proposing things (telling corporations how they should operate and what they should, and should not make money on) that the Democratic Socialists of America would be thrilled about if it were driven by different culture-war motivations. In general, young progressive folks are pro corporate regulation, and that is exact what the right is giving us (but wrapped differently that the DSA would prefer)

The party that was once all about small government and reduced regulation is now openly discussing seizing the means of production (and they sorta did in the context of the Disney / Reedy Creak taxing district changes).  I am genuinely confused by their logic.

It's all power at all costs. However, it's like kamikaze politics which shows they are only about (short-term) power gains. Meanwhile, guaranteeing they will never be the party of preference for the current young generations of demographics. 

[videtur quam contuor]

The last Democratic presidential candidate to receive a majority of the white vote was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Does that explain anything? Does it explain everything?

[southslider]

No Republican has won the popular vote for the presidency since the 1980s, except the incumbent during 9-11. North Carolina has been a roughly 50-50 state for much of the current century but only seen Republicans increase their seats in the NC General Assembly.  It took the prior State Supreme Court to finally deliver a fair 50-50 Congressional map that remains threatened by the power-hungry state legislature. 

[LKN704]

On 3/3/2023 at 1:46 PM, kermit said:

 I am genuinely confused by their logic.

There is no more logic. 

The Florida legislature is now attempting to ban the Democratic party from the state while also trying to require the registration of those who write about DeSantis online. 

What most people don’t get and what is evidently very difficult for others to realize, is that these folks want fascism, they want authoritarianism, and they want other people to do their thinking for them. That’s why total nonsense like Fox News and Newsmax goes over so well with them. They don’t want democracy; they want a leader to lay down the law and say my way or the highway. Liberals, democrats, and sane Republicans must draw a line in the sand and stop debating, negotiating, and discussing this with them. There is simply nothing to talk about. Period. This crowd realized decades ago that they were fighting a losing battle with the public...so they abandoned democracy. They aren't interested in changing minds or their policies. They know they are hypocrites and don’t care if you know…what matters to them is that their base doesn’t know, which they don’t, and will never, because they won’t listen to anyone who isn’t following that circle. 

If you spend any time with these people, they will tell you straight to your face, that it’s the intellectuals who are the problem, that they don’t want to think about or reason about ideas, and politicians need to rule with an iron fist. Fear guides their every decision, as they feel unsafe in any scenario that requires them to think about an idea and treat people like individuals. They don’t want democracy, so we need to stop expecting them to change their minds soon. It’s not going to happen. They want the killing fields, they want the concentration camps, and they want the gulags. They are very open about the end game. 

A friend’s parent (who is a devout evangelical, of course) literally told me straight up that trans folks need to be sent to a work camp to learn "how to live correctly." When I asked her what exactly trans people were doing that warranted them being shipped off to a gulag, she wasn't able to answer. She didn't know, because she wasn't thinking, she was parodying what she previously heard. Granted, this is a woman who owns her own business and has a decent enough level of intelligence that tells her it isn't okay to go swimming in the middle of a thunderstorm or that it isn't okay to go play hopscotch in the middle of a freeway, but yet she wants to send trans folks to a gulag. 

Edited March 6, 2023 by LKN704

[kermit]

^ Scariest thing I have ever read.

Stephen King scary...

[LKN704]

On 3/5/2023 at 10:24 PM, kermit said:

^ Scariest thing I have ever read.

Stephen King scary...

Indeed, it gets worse and worse by the day...this is a tweet from a big Tucker Carlson surrogate:

Nothing like standing with leaders who shamelessly imprison/torture/murder their own citizens!

He just needs to add Maduro and they'd have quite the group. The sweet irony (for me) is that this crowd would probably love + idolize Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader of Iran) if they weren't so islamophobic. 

[Matthew.Brendan]

Truly insane. I really don't understand this stance.

[elrodvt]

Well as we know it's impossible to know what these guys really think. All they care about is the eyeballs. The sheep will swallow whatever crap they're sold. 

[elrodvt]

I found some old scientific American magazines I missed reading and found the article on gerrymandering linked below. SciAm really is a treasure!

The math behind fixing gerrymandering is pretty interesting. If both parties could agree gerrymandering was bad over time for each of them perhaps they could solidify behind a mathematical approach. Of course the put Fauci in jail, global warming is a farce, crowd will never be able to understand but the majority of Congress must be intelligent people. Right??

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/geometry-versus-gerrymandering/

[JRNYP2C]

Irony at its best yesterday afternoon as I was driving to Charlotte from the west.  SUV in front of me with a "Let's Go Brandon" sticker on the back and on the window, a decal that said "Stop Complying."  To add to LKN704's quote above - they don't see they hypocrisy in these actions.  They just don't get the fact that they ADORE a man that wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.  The adulation to that man is quite frightening.  Yet the continue to toe the line with abandon.  And there are still way too many that think like this.  Which - long term - is going to be a major issue for sane/rational thinking people in the next election.

For me personally, I think we are going to be given the lesser of two evils once again in 2024.

[LKN704]

I really don’t know what to say anymore…I’m speechless. I genuinely feel sorry for that die-hard MAGA demographic, who are all being blinded by culture wars while being taken to the cleaners. It’s genuinely amusing to think that demographic continues to believe that Trump is “my guy” and “just like me” when he is surrounded by a ludicrous amount of wealth that his followers couldn’t even fathom. 

The vast majority of far-right policies, like tax cuts for the wealthy, do nothing for your average citizen. If you look at almost any conceivable human development measure like teen pregnancy, maternal mortality rate, life expectancy, high school dropout rates, poverty, etc. the numbers are far worse in red states. People who are voting for far-right candidates are voting against their own self-interest and they do that because of the BS they are fed by the far-right crowd. You get people to do that by demonizing the other side and getting people angry at the "other". It's so sad to see someone willing to go without, say health care, because they are afraid someone who looks different from them might get it too.

Honestly, the sad reality at this point is that I cannot discern if DeSantis is more dangerous than Trump at this point. 

Trump is incredibly unstable, but at the same time, he's an idiot. DeSantis is incredibly well-educated and well-versed in the political system…he knows how to play the game to increase his power. It’s comical to me to see DeSantis go after the “elite,” when he went to Yale and graduated sprite laude from Harvard Law. DeSantis is truly a working-class man!

Everything coming out of Florida is incredibly terrifying…more so terrifying is the way that people are just falling in line without giving any thought. 

I watched a news clip the other day that discussed how a Floridian school administrator was recently fired (IIRC they were given the choice to resign or be fired…same thing) after one of her teachers taught an art history lesson that involved showing students (who were older…I think at least junior high aged) a picture of Michelangelo's David. Parents and local lawmakers said it was pornography. The statue has been on display for what…500 years? Why is it suddenly a problem?

One of the comments on the video was:

My family fled Cuba to escape this communist agenda…we don't need our children being taught it in school. THANK YOU DESANTIS!!!!!

There is so much idiocy here that it isn’t even funny. 

Your average American wouldn’t even be able to define Communism…let alone authoritarianism, which is what we are seeing here. To date, there has been no single pure Communist country. 

The Cuban voting bloc in South Florida is so weird…they have major political daddy issues. 

They hate "socialism" but will vote hand over heels for authoritarianism and fascism, which was the actual problem in Cuba under Castro. 

I guess it makes more sense when you realize that the initial exiles were the former elite who had been in positions of wealth and power under the Batista regime. Their personal problem with Castro wasn't the authoritarianism, it was that they themselves were no longer in charge of the authoritarianism. 

[davidclt]

52 minutes ago, LKN704 said:

Honestly, the sad reality at this point is that I cannot discern if DeSantis is more dangerous than Trump at this point. 

Trump is incredibly unstable, but at the same time, he's an idiot. DeSantis is incredibly well-educated and well-versed in the political system…he knows how to play the game to increase his power. It’s comical to me to see DeSantis go after the “elite,” when he went to Yale and graduated sprite laude from Harvard Law. DeSantis is truly a working-class man!

Everything coming out of Florida is incredibly terrifying…more so terrifying is the way that people are just falling in line without giving any thought. 

Desantis is manifestly more dangerous than Trump (assuming he can get elected nationally). If you watch the Republican party for the past 30+ years . . . this move for the party has been inevitable.

My parents live in Florida (and it's where I grew up). I begged them in 2018 to vote for Andrew Gillum. I still remember the smug call with them after he was found in Miami Beach with two other (naked) men having overdosed on crystal meth in 2020. In 2022, I begged them not to vote for Ron Desantis in 2022, "They're all bad, we're just not going to vote for that race" - Charlie Crist really was not a good candidate either.

Their reasoning on Republicans vs. Democrats:

1. "We don't like socialism." (So how do you feel about fascism?)
2. "They're all crooked, on the take"
3. "I'm a registered Democrat, [the other parent] is a registered Republican."
4. "We don't want to pay any taxes. We love the warm weather and low taxes."
5. Whataboutism
6. "We don't like [Nancy Pelosi, AOC, Kamala Harris]" "They're [bad juju, too woke, corrupt]"
7. "Rick Scott was a Medicare fraudster but he wasn't going to raise our taxes."
8. "The Democrats are in disarray," (That may be true, I'm feeling better about the NC Dems of late electing a 25-year-old - it's time to end the gerontocracy we find ourselves with)
9. "We don't watch Fox News (or TV), our [nutty] friends do." (narrator: They watch plenty of TV and YouTube)
10. "We think Grady Judd is hilarious and no one will run against him he's so popular." "We like that he shames criminals." "He keeps a podium in the trunk so he's TV ready wherever he goes."
11. [until recently] "Climate change is just normal cycles and the woke Democrats want to take our gasoline/airplane travel with no plan."
12. "We would rather give our money to charity. They are better stewards of it. We've seen how the government just gives it away."
13. "What do you want me to do about it?" (umm . . . vote like it matters for your grandchildren)

Edited April 4, 2023 by davidclt
Added more points

[kermit]

5 hours ago, LKN704 said:

Your average American wouldn’t even be able to define Communism

I am under the impression that Communism occurs anytime taxes increase above their present level.

Edited April 4, 2023 by kermit

[LKN704]

10 minutes ago, kermit said:

I am under the impression that Communism occurs anytime taxes increase from their present point.

Only if announced by AOC in NYC or by Gavin Newsom in SF on a national broadcast on CNN.

[kayman]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqoIpsuP6R4/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

For those who always want to support clownery yet can't say it with your full chest aloud or post it.  You supporting this nonsense got your circus. Watch what happens next.

I meant exactly what I said.

Edited April 4, 2023 by kayman