Ding Dong.....the US Politics Thread (Part 2)

When does @Arminius become self aware?

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You can bet that this shutdown will be rhetorically lodged against Biden, despite the fact that we are in effect once again seeing a GOP intermural dispute

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Hasn’t happened yet, seems like a low-risk possibility

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NYT reporting yesterday on reports of thinking inside ABC on their decision to settle. Two key considerations were

  • fear that a case brought in Florida couldnt be won against Trump the person, even without consideration of him being president.
  • concern a litigated case could be the vehicle for Trump to take this to the supreme court leading them to gut press protections explicitly granted in New York Times v. Sullivan

Who knows if this was the actual thinking, but the points made are both entirely reasonable and that is absolutely chilling. Trump was never more right than when said he could shoot a person dead on 5th avenue and be able to get away with it.

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Republicans are already rallying against Johnson for his failure to get support for his CR, with Musk and Vivek both speaking out against it but for reasons that are in opposition to each other. All the while Trump is on the outside, dropping turd bombs into the process making it harder for his incoming house majority to function and revealing his own cynical motivations (“raise the debt ceiling now so it’s done on Biden’s watch and not mine next year”)

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Writing is on the wall for Johnson, no way he survives a shutdown. House GOP will back doing their endless loop election for Speaker in January. If the debt limit increase is not done in this measure, Treasury will be on extraordinary measures in the first week of January, putting huge pressure on the Speaker selection process - which should have been easy last time and instead became farce.

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Trump has suggested that this CR includes the complete elimination of the debt ceiling altogether, which will obviously have massive push back from the majority of his caucus, while the Dems are grinning in delight at the idea removing one of the biggest tools the GOP has for causing dysfunction. What dynamics does that put in play? Are the Republicans who vote for that along with Dems to pass it the enemy, or is it the ones who oppose Trump by sticking to one of the closest things Republican politicians have for a principle these days?

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Thats what they always say.

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https://x.com/SundaeDivine/status/1869613419323945263

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I just found this :joy:

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Clyburn 84 years old and willing to do nothing. Perfect representative of the Dems.

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It is odd how Americans simply describe the War of 1812 as a victory against the British (their biggest victory against British troops was actually New Orleans, after the armistice) and don’t learn about the burning of the Capitol and the White House. In Canada, that raid is very much taught as being retaliation for the burning of York (now Toronto), and we are taught all about the battles in Canada - with forces mainly composed of local militias supported by British troops. Many of those British troops ended up settling in Upper and Lower Canada.

Probably for the better if Trump doesn’t know about this though. It has been safely hidden from him in books…

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Americans’ understanding of their history is incredibly narrow and shallow.

If it was something you learned about in school in the UK it would have been in the context of the ongoing conflicts with France in Europe spreading into the Americas, and as just a part of a multi dimensional series of conflicts trying to define boundaries between the new US, British Canada, the French, and the various native tribes.

Americans view it as an independent conflict initiated by the Brits in response to losing the war of independence with the goal of ending the US and getting everything back under British rule. The fact America still existed after the war therefore proved that they kicked our arse. Again.

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Republican’s diktat spending bill probably should not even have gone for a vote, it never had a chance. All they did was make it clear Johnson has no control of his caucus.

Holiday travel plans are going to be thrown into chaos, TSA has to furlough non-critical workers starting Saturday morning if they don’t get a deal done tomorrow. These GOP chickenhawks always thump their chests about the military, then happily fuck-over the US army privates who make $2.5k or so a month.

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It is Elon Musk show, most of this. Whoever thought Musk did not wield true power and influence over Trump, should think again. Trump needs him, Musk needs Trump. It’s a nice mafia symbiosis and I think it will last.

The dream scenario of Musk breaking with Trump and visa versa, I find it too ideal (for sane people). One should not allow one self to think the ideal scenario will materialise imo.

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https://x.com/atrupar/status/1869866081017319534

I don’t have words tbh

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WTaF?!

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I could well see Trump getting the hump with Musk though.

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Nah. He’s too in thrall to the money.