Hence the mess it’s in?
This shit is outrageous and I dont understand how it isnt a clear violation of the 1st amendment these people pretend to value. But this is all De Santis does - pick fights that are unconstitutional and then out source the legal defense of his position to expensive private law firms
Lol, the court issued a temporary restraining order on Florida, preventing them banning the running of the ads supporting the abortion rights amendment. Look at the last sentence 
Two dead and 6 (so far) injured in two random shootings last night in the central bar district of downtown. Orlando doesnt do much well, but there is a 4-5 block stretch in the middle of downtown full of bars and restaurants that gets shut down to traffic in the evening on weekends making it safe and easy to bar hop. The streets are shoulder to shoulder with people just moving around in the neighborhood but last night a 17 year old kid walked into the crowd with a gun and at two separate spots about 4 blocks apart just randomly stopped next to someone, put a bullet through their head, and then walked off.
Police said the normal weapons check they do on the perimeter of the blocks they create during big events like halloween they are no longer allowed to do because of the new permitless concealed carry, and while the business themselves dont have to respect that, the police cannot prevent people entering the area because the spaces between the business that they are creating the perimeter around is public space.
I guess there were no good guys with guns around to save them…
A public service message for all sane Americans:
What “both sides” are you referring to? I’d love examples so I can start digging.
Depleted Uranium being used in Yugoslavia during the Clinton Administration.
Drones being used in Pakistan and Afghanistan during the Obama Administration
Gulf War 1 in Bush Sr
the entire WMD/Iraq fiasco for Bush Jr , The Afghan fiasco for Bush Jr
Not to mention the endless coups and propping up of dictators across the world destabilizing regions for years on altogether (across the partylines)
I’m just saying that the interference in the politics of other countries is an inherent trait in US politicians (across partylines). Profiting from arms sales is probably the reason behind that as well. It’s not too much to expect that to stop is it ?
So, let me get this clear.
You’re talking about intervention in Yugoslavia, for which consensus seems to be that it should have been done sooner, and comparing methods of those with actually initiating the conflicts and saying both sides are all the same?
Are you genuinely listening to yourself here?
For what it’s worth, drone warfare is meant to be more targeted than the tactics that would otherwise be used, so I’m not quite sure what the complaint would be.
Give examples where it’s done “by both sides”? Especially with overt political involvement as opposed to the CIA just generally doing its own thing?
Whether or not you’re right about the reason behind that, if only people listened to that man they idolised so much right?
Isnt this regarded as an almost universally accepted worthy and successful military actions?
I mentioned a few days ago in the Election Thread that Ezra Klein has been doing great work on trying to understand what the new supposedly populist and protectionist GOP will look like moving forward, the one formed around the ideas of Trump and the electoral movement he has supposedly created.
Ezra is a great medium to hear this through not only because he is one of the few smart people actually trying to understand it, but because he is one of the few people well versed enough in the policy to call out the BS. If you’re not familiar with his work you may not pick up it because of his genteel nerdy collegiality, but with Cass and especially Vivek there are moments where he clearly calls out that they are too smart to believe what they are saying.
So with all that said, I am not sure the right order to listen to these in to make the most sense of it, so I’ll just them in the order in which they were published
Oren Cass was Romney’s chief economic policy advisor and a textbook traditional Republican on all issues related to the economy. Yet he has now emerged as one of the key thinkers on why Trump’s supposedly populist approach is needed and what it should look like. Ezra is rightly skeptical that a serious thinker should be able to say “everything I always said was wrong, but now I am right so take me seriously” and seems to have real doubts how much of this is a genuine change in perspective and how much of it is an attempt to find an intellectual argument they pretend to believe as a justification for getting behind trump
This is as close as Ive heard to hearing im call bullshit on a guest. His main point of this is that superficially Vance and Vivek argue for very different directions and yet both claim to be the voice of Trump. In multiple areas he catches Vivek ignoring what Trump says, essentially arguing for Biden’s polcieis and trying to pass them off as Trump populsim.
This one is just a fascinating conversation about how all politics of the time have to be viewed through context of the major era. The new deal era gave way to neo liberal era and there were real global conditions that caused that. It seems we are now moving into something new, something that seems populist, but that is yet to be seen or what the internal domestic battle lines within that context will be. I think this is a really good one on understanding a lot of dynamics we’ve seen at play over the past decade or so.
A very interesting piece here:
@Limiescouse feels validated…?
‘Email Putin all our war plans’: Experts blast Trump for picking ‘Russian spy’ Gabbard as intel chief
Story by Maya Boddie
Donald Trump chose former Democratic-turned-MAGA Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence under his second administration, according to CNN.
The president-elect wrote in a statement, “For over two decades, Tulsi has fought for our Country and the Freedoms of all Americans. As a former Candidate for the Democrat Presidential Nomination, she has broad support in both Parties – She is now a proud Republican! I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!”
CNN noted that the selection is “sure to set off a major confirmation fight,” which quickly became evident as a slew of experts weighed in on social media.
Reporter Eoin Higgins wrote: Tulsi Gabbard may be Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence. Gabbard in this position—in any position in this White House—is bad news. I’ve been writing about her for nearly a decade, she is a dangerous, far-right Islamophobe.
NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study law professor Chase Madar wrote: “Very hard to see Gabbard disciplining the natsec apparatus (per paleo/Weird Right fantasy) in any way other than turning it into a personalist Trumpian political police. She learned a lot growing up in her her dad’s authoritarian Hare Krishna spin-off sect and suddenly has a bigger stage to play on.”
Willamette University US history professor Seth Cotlar added: “That clipping sound you heard was all of our global allies cutting the cables that connect to the American intelligence network.”
Georgia State University College of Law professor and political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis replied: “Tulsi Gabbard as DNI? There’s not even a pretense of responsibility from Trump. We might as well just sign up to be a Russian client state.”
Ex-Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (FL) wrote: “Tulsi Gabbard for DNI, a Russian spy. Brilliant”
Patrick Chovanex, former professor at China’s Tsinghua University and Columbia SIPA, added: “Tulsi Gabbard as DNI? We might as well just email Putin all our war plans.”
Look, the American peo- You know what, I can’t be bothered to repeat that again.
The American people didn’t win from this election. Nor did the MAGA movement, who won’t see any benefits from this apart from having their base instincts indulged. They will see their lives worsen in basically every other imagine aspect.
No, the winners are the oligarchs, who will now get to profit endlessly from this. But no one wins more so than Putin does.
Five Eyes becomes Four Eyes and the US data source. The structure will still be there, but a lot of the analysis work done by other Western powers is no longer going to be shared as fulsomely. Perhaps channels that do not involve the US will evolve, but inevitably that will be less effective and take time to emerge.
Gabbard is a Russian asset.
Gaetz is an [alleged] paedophile.
Huckabee is a former Baptist minister turned tv personality who has no regard for the Palestinians.
Hegseth is a Fox media person, with a little weekend warrior background as an amateur, but has never run anything even a tiny fraction of the scale required.
It is a massive joke. And that’s the wrong word, but it’s hard to know what to say, apart from gallows humor.
One obvious international play for Trump will be to end the war in Ukraine. He will negotiate it all with Putin, so Trump looks strong-ish, and a bit like a statesman. Ukraine will be massively diminished in size, population and resources, and will face a decades long task of trying to rebuild with very little help. Trump will claim a huge victory and people will lap it up, but it will just be a victory for Putin. Putin will only be temporarily satisfied. He will allow Trump this ‘win’ in exchange for all manner of info on America from top officials planted in the highest places in government. And then when Putin has regrouped and rearmed, further Russian expansion will be on the cards, possibly against a backdrop of NATO being massively weakened with America pulling out or at the least, undermining it.
All the Dearborn Arabs who voted for Trump, or stayed out of it in protest due to the Democrats not doing enough to help the Palestinians in Gaza… they had a point, up to a point. But they will feel much worse about their lot under Trump, especially when Huckabee gets in there.
One of the things we will find out early on I suspect, is how close Iran is to having the bomb. Israel wants a decisive strike to take out their facilities, or at least set them back significantly, but since Trump pulled out of the international deal a few years ago, Iran has greatly accelerated its program to try to gain the bomb. Are they there yet?
I will actively try to not watch all this too closely, as it will be too depressing. When all is said and done, I fully expect government departments to be hollowed out a few layers deep, so future efforts to rebalance and have more expertise will be all the more difficult.
I don’t know how much damage Trump will do to democracy. He has already overcome the pesky requirement to have the rule of law, and he is above that. He can’t personally go on forever, but he will likely be thinking about dynasty, and will start to see the Whitehouse as a family thing, with Ivanka next, then maybe in time Baron having a go.
Elon Musk will be in his element, chopping some departments down to size in exchange for government contracts. His rise to be the first trillionaire will be accelerated. The coward Jeff Bezos, who pulled the plug on the Washington Post speaking truth to power before the election, will probably come off quite poorly if Musk remains close to Trump. Bezos has his own designs on space, but I think he will get crumbs from the table.
Europe probably needs to come together and get serious about defense, and military spending, as America will not be the same ally as before. From a UK perspective, being nuclear armed might be a way to curry favor and get back into the EU, to help strengthen an independent deterrent, as Russia won’t look like a friendly neighbor to the east, and America won’t be the same neighbor to the west, either.
The shitshow is coming.
It has already been devastating. I don’t intend this to come across as calling you out, but the fact we are collectively asking this question as a consideration for what will happen is a a great example of how much the constant fuckery has eroded our expectations.
No tax disclosures, appointing people without security clearance, zero effort to disinvest from his business interests and a clear strategy of using his position to bolster those businesses, back channel communications while in office to avoid record keeping requirements, using government to go after enemies (yes, it happened, repeatedly), cynically and untruthfully sowing seeds of doubts over the democratic process for his own ends, insane levels of personal enrichment for selling foreign policy (and quite possibly government secrets) to gulf states, enacting plans to stay in power despite knowing he lost an election, exerting pressure on those who are checks to his power to back him and rehabilitate him, running a campaign utterly unmoored from reality, running on a platform that was described by one of its authors as ushering in a “post-constitutional” era…
I know there will be push back on this. People will outright reject that things we actually lived through really did happen. People will point to the fact that he got voted in and therefore democracy still worked, but in our form of government democracy doesnt end at the ballot box. What he has done, time and time and time and time again is go around the checks and balances that are in place to help us make informed decisions, while getting help from unfriendly foreign powers and business interests who control the information space (the somehow forgotten story of the hispanic vote is the buy out of the country’s largest spanish language tv network by a MAGA chud and a very overt change in direction of the network).
Even if he dies tomorrow and Vance takes off his mask scooby doo style and reveals himself to be a California liberal the damage already done is catastrophic, and this to a democracy that already a lot weaker than the “America, fuck yeah” common perspective would ever allow themselves to believe.
You are quite right. That’s an excellent list and what we’ve seen has been abhorrent. In a lengthy post I would change that line to,
‘I don’t know how much MORE damage Trump will do to democracy.
I fear there’s a lot more to come.