USA Politics Thread |OT| Cleaning up the town

[Pissy F Benny]

Can someone break these down, Ben's shit is 2 deep 4 me

[Occam]

By the way, I keep seeing posts by Republicans claiming "We are a republic, not a democracy".

No, you morons. "Republic" is a form of government, democracy is a source of power. The two are not in conflict.
In fact, being a republic requires at least partial democracy (popular participation/representation), otherwise: no republic.

[Nintex]

Free speech wins

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1526953862271184897

[D3RANG3D]

[Nintex]

Can someone break these down, Ben's shit is 2 deep 4 me

You gotta read up on the lore

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1526997132858822658

Can't believe these hatin' Democrats and their dirty tricks smh

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Occam]

https://twitter.com/xiruxi/status/1527002346584162305

[Occam]

Such kindness.

[Occam]

Much love.

https://twitter.com/bennydiego/status/1527006882300592128

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1527047326476410880

 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

This will not cause hoarding and panic buying

[close]

[VomKriege]

Can someone break these down, Ben's shit is 2 deep 4 me

Biden is not the real president but also will start WW3 by himself.

[Pissy F Benny]

(Image removed from quote.)
Much love.

https://twitter.com/bennydiego/status/1527006882300592128

Muskrat is a nazi?

[Pissy F Benny]

Can someone break these down, Ben's shit is 2 deep 4 me

Biden is not the real president but also will start WW3 by himself.

Dang, what deep ass subtext

[Skullfuckers Anonymous]

https://mobile.twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1527095936811409410

 

[Madrun Badrun]

OMG



That has to be a deep fake, it's just too good. 

[Polident Hive]

Unreal. Horrible yet the comedic timing of muttering “…Iraq, too… 75” is a solid recovery.

Some people in their 20s, kids during his administration, see Bush as a funny goofball 

[Potato]

Unreal. Horrible yet the comedic timing of muttering “…Iraq, too… 75” is a solid recovery

Did he not say Semper Fi?

[Transhuman]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1526997132858822658

Can't believe these hatin' Democrats and their dirty tricks smh

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

I guess courting controversy is the easiest way to get publicity these days. Knew I was right to dislike this little edgelord.

[Occam]

This is normal:

[benjipwns]

Honestly, I wouldn't post Lincoln Project stuff no matter what at this point.

[benjipwns]

The Queen of Florida is back!

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1526997132858822658

Can't believe these hatin' Democrats and their dirty tricks smh

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

I guess courting controversy is the easiest way to get publicity these days. Knew I was right to dislike this little edgelord.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1527297765599981574

[Occam]

[benjipwns]

I was thinking of this when I was reading Mary Harris’ interview with Anat Shenker-Osorio in Slate, headlined “Why Abortion Activists Need to Stop Using the Word Choice.”

I don’t have extremely strong convictions about what word you should use for the political faction that believes abortion should remain legal. But I always thought the basic logic of “pro-choice” was pretty clear: you want people who believe that abortion is wrong as a matter of religious conviction to still vote for candidates who believe that abortion should be legal. That’s important. A lot of people have views that incorporate both the metaphysics of fetal personhood and also support for a woman’s right to choose, and Democrats are counting on the votes of many religiously observant Black and Hispanic voters.

My big complaint with Shenker-Osorio’s take isn’t that her ideas about language and framing are necessarily wrong — I’m open to the idea that there’s a better option than “choice” — it’s the way she evades talking about policy.

As her big positive case study in favor of her ideas, she cites the successful campaign to legalize abortion in Ireland. That is absolutely something that we should study and learn lessons from. But the necessary starting point for learning lessons from Ireland’s success is understanding what they succeeded in achieving.

Under the terms of the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act of 2018, abortion is legal in the Republic of Ireland under the following conditions:

When the pregnancy is less than 12-weeks old.

When two doctors certify in good faith that the fetus is likely to die either before or within 28 days of birth.

When two doctors certify that continuing the pregnancy poses a serious risk to the life or health of the mother.

When one doctor certifies that there is an emergency threat to the life or health of the mother requiring immediate action.

That is a big change from the historical abortion policy situation in Ireland, and it is very much at odds with the policy goals of the pro-life movement in the United States of America. But it is also a much more moderate policy than the one advocated for by the pro-choice movement in the United States of America.

...

Democrats thus far have not taken up my advice, largely I think because pro-choice groups have made it clear they are not yet prepared to certify this stance as supportive of abortion rights.

Instead, the party and the movement are having this conversation about framing, language, and slogans. On one level it’s fine to talk about framing, language, and slogans because those things matter. But the semantic content of what you are saying matters more. I think it is fine and appropriate to say that political slogans developed in Ireland over the past five to 15 years may be more relevant than slogans developed in the United States 50-60 years ago. But you can’t just sweep under the rug the fact that Irish choice activists won their battle by advocating for a more popular, more moderate policy.

...

Marcela Mulholland and McKenzie Wilson of Data for Progress have a new podcast out where they reference specific messaging testing experiments on abortion to see which ones do best.

It’s a really good discussion because they hone in on a point that I think tends to be neglected in this discussion — the best-testing messages tended to be ones they did not personally like. After all, these are two young, secular, college-educated women living in a big city and working professionally in progressive politics. If the whole electorate was made up of young female college graduates, then you could win on abortion with any message. But the point of developing a message is to try to come up with language that seems persuasive to people who aren’t progressive political professionals. In the case of the tests they did, that was generally messages that activated libertarian and individualistic ideas. Young leftists are not big on individualism. But as they say, this works precisely because it’s a political idea that appeals to people who aren’t leftists.

In the Slate article, Shenker-Osorio complains about trying to appeal to right-of-center individualists:

Harris: In the U.S., we talk about abortion as an individual right.

Shenker-Osorio: That’s right.

Harris: It’s almost by definition separate from the community.

Shenker-Osorio: Separate from the community, separate from relationships. And it has historically been argued in a libertarian framework. U.S. out of my uterus. Get your laws off my body. My child, my choice. And what happens with that “individual choice” language is, in policy terms, we get the Hyde Amendment.

I think this is backward.

At a time when abortion rights are under very clear and direct assault, you can’t optimize your messaging choices to try to advance Hyde Amendment repeal — a cause that’s unpopular and nowhere close to winning the needed votes in the Senate.

If the Supreme Court tosses Roe v. Wade, which seems very likely, many Republicans are going to push to enact draconian anti-abortion laws. Those laws will in many cases be unpopular and risk backlash. But to generate effective backlash, abortion rights activists need to counter-mobilize with a more popular position — the way they did in Ireland — not try to come up with a message that is optimized to try to defend an unpopular position. Compared to other western countries, the United States is more religious, which makes abortion rights harder to defend. But the United States is also more individualistic, which gives abortion rights a fighting chance. The most effective messages key into that, but effective messengers will also acknowledge that words aren’t magic and can’t substitute for aligning your views with things the public agrees with.

[benjipwns]

Taking his primary defeat well:

[Pissy F Benny]

I'll never get over "Madison Cawthrone" being some MAGA dude and not a big tiddy insta thot.

[Nintex]

We've been blessed with literally a LOTR LARP of Dark Powers and MAGA Kings. 

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/KartoonistKelly/status/1527020581421338624

[Occam]

Oklahoma Legislature Passes Bill Banning Almost All Abortions

The legislation prohibits abortion from the moment of fertilization

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/us/oklahoma-ban-abortions.html

Asked on “Fox News Sunday” how he would help women who carried out their pregnancies despite financial or other challenges that would make it difficult to raise a child, Mr. Stitt blamed the “socialist Democrat left” for attempting to abort children who would be born into poverty.

“We believe that God has a special plan for every single life and every single child,” he said, “and we want everybody to have the same opportunities in Oklahoma, and aborting a child is not the right answer.”

All going according to the handmaid-plan.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

dude should have just toughed out the geriatric orgy like every other congressperson has.

[Occam]

I looked it up and, surprise surprise, the American Taliban can't even argue that their beliefs are based on "holy" scripture. Not that it matters because religious texts should have no influence on the law, but the Bible doesn't actually prohibit abortion.
It isn't mentioned. And life starts when you begin to breathe (=at birth). If for instance an act of violence causes another man's wife to miscarry, this is treated as property damage, not murder (to be compensated by paying money). (Old Testament).

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/BadLegalTakes/status/1527668836010369024

 

edit: Oh, I see, this man is an idiot:
https://twitter.com/BJMendelson/status/1526673363674054659

[VomKriege]

So the truck convoy made a lot of noise of going back to DC a second time, this time not just circling the Beltway and get their feelings hurt because people flipped them over. They were going to silently "ambush" the city center but apparently they declared victory already before doing any of that.

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1527771125572313091

[benjipwns]

Free speech wins

At the price of national security:
https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1527692475384713218
https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1527700172775608320

[Potato]

The fact that they even proposed that type of government regulatory body, let alone actually implemented it (for 3 weeks anyway) shows the Democrats just don't get why Trump cut through so much with middle class voters.

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/DidKissingerD1e/status/1527482043675734016

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/IAPolls2022/status/1527624428682608640

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1527622784247025664

Oh it can get much worse

[VomKriege]

The convoy is not doing great.
https://twitter.com/ZTPetrizzo/status/1527840157390585856

[Tasty]

Unreal. Horrible yet the comedic timing of muttering “…Iraq, too… 75” is a solid recovery.

Some people in their 20s, kids during his administration, see Bush as a funny goofball 

A lot of people saw him as the useful idiot back then.

[VomKriege]

Yesterday's spin today.

https://twitter.com/GeraldoRivera/status/1528033646615093250
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1527726686808199168

[Nintex]

To think that of all of "this" happened because they feared Hillary Cilnton would not have been able to defeat Jeb Bush on the economy and the hispanic vote.

Now a twice impeached President will be reelected unless some kind of miracle happens.

[D3RANG3D]

[Occam]

No lies detected.
And I like this quote by Carlin someone brought up:

“Pride should be reserved for something you achieve or obtain on your own, not something that happens by accident of birth.” -George Carlin

[Occam]

"Not everything is about you": A concept some people have a hard time grasping.

[Potato]

Turning tide?

#nintexwasright

[benjipwns]

Turning tide?

#nintexwasright

https://twitter.com/JShahryar/status/1528021255026200576
https://twitter.com/GBBranstetter/status/1528069377555369985
https://twitter.com/ScottyWilsonSr/status/1527891424657567744
https://twitter.com/THICCUSMAXIMUS/status/1527891773103677440

spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://twitter.com/LisaGrande13/status/1527889785758437376
https://twitter.com/pabnbab/status/1527906979808587776
https://twitter.com/PatrickJTroska/status/1527901521421148163
https://twitter.com/jfclifford/status/1527891805076738049

[close]

[benjipwns]

Mayor Adams may be eyeing a White House run if President Biden doesn’t seek a second term, confidantes and City Hall insiders told The Post.

“Eric has told me repeatedly that he thinks that he has a platform to run for national office, for president in 2024. He has said that repeatedly. He thinks New York is a national platform. He thinks the national party has gotten too far to the left and he thinks he has a platform to win,” a person close to the mayor said.

A Brooklyn Democratic elected official who was also frequently in talks with the mayor said Adams was “considering a White House run in 2024 if Biden doesn’t seek re-election,” adding that Adams’ advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin was “running point” on the issue.

Even a GOP lawmaker broached the topic with Adams.

“I said you really have to consider that you are young enough where you will have a life after the mayoralty and if you solve the crime problem there would be a lot of interest in a big city Democrat, African American with progressive values but who mediated the crime problem in a major city,” he said.

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Nearly 3,500 Virginians have had their civil rights restored by Gov. Glenn Youngkin since he took office in January, allowing them to vote, run for public office or serve on a jury.

In Virginia, those who are convicted of a felony automatically lose these rights. Under the current system, the governor is the only way someone with a felony on their record could regain these rights.

According to the governor’s office, the civil rights of 3,496 people convicted of felonies have been restored since Youngkin was sworn in.

[Nintex]

Turning tide?

#nintexwasright

https://twitter.com/JShahryar/status/1528021255026200576

You get the most flak when you are right on target.

[Pissy F Benny]

Bill Maher just commited a genocide, stay say everyone.

[Occam]

Actually, the Ohio/California comparison wasn't very good, he should have compared California to a state with a similar level of liberty.
Obviously, in a more "conservative" state (using the term loosely here, because modern Republicans aren't conservative, they are coo coo bananas), there is more fear of reprisal for deviation.

[james]

What ever happened to Kellyanne conoways hot daughter?

[Occam]

Turning tide?

#nintexwasright

https://twitter.com/JShahryar/status/1528021255026200576

You get the most flak when you are right on target.

And when you are on the wrong target, as you should know by now.

[HaughtyFrank]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1528443821293461505

Hey USA, you guys doing okay?

[Occam]

Hey USA, you guys doing okay?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/far-right-idaho_n_628277e2e4b0c84db7282bd6

[Uncle]

I would really think twice about the order "jesus guns babies"

[benjipwns]

Hey USA, you guys doing okay?

Despite what the barely polling PhD says, the Constitution does not mandate the type of death penalty nor does it even mandate the death penalty. Her not having written the Constitution does seem to be accurate though.

Traditionally, the punishment for treason was hanging. I'm not sure why someone would think the Constitution mandates firing squad which probably wasn't practiced until later.

[benjipwns]

Blue Checks commit treason daily, when are the mandatory firing squads?
https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1527153096349974528
https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1528268996654419969

spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://twitter.com/SocialActuality/status/1528416632707567616
https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1528593289531691009
https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1528614204747370496
https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1528600594721624064
https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1528604608787976193
https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1528607858568245249

[close]

https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1528602247063404544
https://twitter.com/meckdevil/status/1528263378669404161

[Occam]

I actually looked up the 1919 SC commentary from which this cowded theatre thing originated and yeah, it makes no sense so many people (and even lawyers) keep quoting this as an example of the limits of free speech in the USA. In reality, there are almost no limits imposed today, and you can absolutely shout fire in a crowded theatre.

Edit: typos

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1528443821293461505

Hey USA, you guys doing okay?

I just can't with the MyPillow ads

Jesus guns babies 

[Uncle]

I actually looked up the 1919 SC commentary from which this cowded theatre thing originated and yeah, it makes no sense so people (and even lawyers) keep quoting this as an example of the limits of free speech in the USA. In reality, there are almost no limits imposed today, and you can absolutely shout fire in a crowded theatre.

it comes down to "can you attempt to change peoples' minds, especially in a way that could cause fear/uncertainty/doubt, when what you're saying is either not true or heavily disputed by other groups or authorities"

can you yell fire when there's no fire, and possibly get people hurt as they run in panic?

can you distribute anti-war pamphlets, when the goverment considers the war to be just, and the soldiers need support that you're inadvertently trying to deny them?

can you yell about fire and brimstone and whip people into a panic about their potential afterlife, when authoritative sources say god is not real and no one should be religious?

should it be legal to convince everyone that some aspect of society has major issues and demands immediate action, potentially causing riots, injuries and deaths, when studies demonstrate that the issue is overblown?