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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#245976: Jun 17th 2018 at 4:26:55 PM

[up]x5, [up]x6 The President holds a lot of authority in the government, but not enough that a Russian invasion of Japan could ever be taken lying down. We have good military and political relations with them, and even if we didn't we have mutual defense agreements which would almost certainly be triggered by Russia invading.

edited 17th Jun '18 4:27:19 PM by archonspeaks

They should have sent a poet.
Grafite Since: Apr, 2016 Relationship Status: Less than three
#245977: Jun 17th 2018 at 5:15:10 PM

[up][up] Republicans like "fiscal responsibility" if that means they get to slash any sort of existing welfare program. When they had the option to reduce the deficit with the budget last year, suddenly the concept wasn't good after all, because it would mean cutting the precious defense spending.

Life is unfair...
TroperOnAStickV2 Call me Stick from Redneck country Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
Call me Stick
#245978: Jun 17th 2018 at 5:17:30 PM

... is that hypocrisy being explicitly hammered on in Democratic party messaging?

Hopefully I'll feel confident to change my avatar off this scumbag soon. Apologies to any scumbags I insulted.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#245979: Jun 17th 2018 at 5:42:49 PM

The Democrats have to deal with the fact the Republican hypocrisy is SO VAST they don't know where to begin.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
TroperOnAStickV2 Call me Stick from Redneck country Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
Call me Stick
#245980: Jun 17th 2018 at 9:59:36 PM

Point. Well, the budget would be a good place to start.

Hopefully I'll feel confident to change my avatar off this scumbag soon. Apologies to any scumbags I insulted.
Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#245981: Jun 18th 2018 at 1:37:43 AM

They have fair and free elections in Japan

That's true but misleading. Japanese elections are free and fair, but actual governance is even further from the voting public's hands than in Yes, Minister, and due to a lack of any kind of freedom of information in Japan, it's very difficult to actually run against government policies because it's hard to actually pinpoint who's responsible for what.

Still, Abe is not a Putin-style autocrat. You're not going to see Japan's eminently fair legal system used to suppress political dissent - that would require publically admitting that said dissent exists.

DeathorCake Since: Mar, 2016
#245982: Jun 18th 2018 at 4:41:37 AM

[up][up][up][up]

You'd have to tread a fine line between pointing out the hypocrisy in their rhetoric and opening up an opportunity to slam you every time you want to deficit spend, and as actual "fiscal responsibility" usually means running a deficit pretty much all the time in a trade deficit country like the US or UK then that will be always, especially when you've got the global reserve asset on tap.

See the £20billion NHS funding thing happening in the UK right now. It's nowhere near enough money (below normal operating cost increases, let alone enough to fix it), doesn't address the actual problem of social care being massively slashed and continues the trend of everything being badly centralized into a few big hospitals that then get clogged with people who should be in social care, yet still they want to raise taxes to pay for it rather than deficit spend like sensible people and all the Left is doing is talking about how to fund it because they've all got stuck in this endless loop of "deficits are bad".

[down]

Hahahaha, no. I mean, I'm a lot more relaxed about the possible effects of Brexit than most remainers, but even I know it's not going to make us any richer even if government spending did have to be "financed" by stuff before you hit a supply cap of some kind and start generating more than the usual amount of inflation for no actual gain.

On the topic of deficits: Dem leaders embrace pay-go

This seems like a hilariously bad idea to me, but I guess they can just ignore it if they want to.

edited 18th Jun '18 5:12:10 AM by DeathorCake

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#245983: Jun 18th 2018 at 5:02:53 AM

But leaving Europe means all that money is going to be spent on Healthcare!

edited 18th Jun '18 5:03:07 AM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#245984: Jun 18th 2018 at 6:44:38 AM

Republicans are beginning to question how long they can (politically) sustain their draconian border enforcement policies.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/immigration-trump-congress-family-separation/index.html

They are caught between the far-right base, who if anything want harsher measures, and everyone else, who is opposed. Plus, this is going to galvanize Democrats in key states.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
DrDougsh Since: Jan, 2001
#245985: Jun 18th 2018 at 6:49:11 AM

I'm surprised there are any Republicans at all who are opposed to these measures. This is exactly what they voted for.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#245986: Jun 18th 2018 at 7:08:01 AM

Well, here's the thing. A lot of Republicans in positions of national power are quite well aware of how various border control policies do and don't work, but they're trapped by a constituency that gets all its information from Fox News. There's some cognitive dissonance that shows up for some of those voters, however, when they observe the real world and their brains clumsily attempt to reconcile the fact that they see immigrants doing useful work, paying taxes, etc., and see what happens to the local job markets when immigrants vanish. This is particularly profound for those who operate businesses that are dependent on migrant labor.

So, on the one hand, they are rabidly stirred to oppose immigration by the culture they are immersed in, and on the other hand some of them observe that immigrants are not so bad in person, and indeed a vital part of our economy. And then there are those whose moral sensibility kicks in when they see children getting stolen from their parents, an atrocity that not even the most steadfast racism can completely blot out.

This cognitive dissonance can resolve itself in two ways: either they start reluctantly backing down from their positions, looking nervously at their peers to see if anyone notices; or they double down on the hostility, declaring immigrants subhuman and therefore not worthy of the slightest consideration.

edited 18th Jun '18 7:14:00 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
TyeDyeWildebeest Unreasonably Quirky from Big Rock Candy Mountain Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: How does it feel to treat me like you do?
Unreasonably Quirky
#245987: Jun 18th 2018 at 7:13:16 AM

And then there are those whose moral sensibility kicks in when they see children getting stolen from their parents, an atrocity that not even the most steadfast racism can blot out.

Wanna bet?

Out of morbid curiosity, I looked at the front page of r/the_donald to see how they'd try to spin this. One of the most upvoted posts right now says, "Don't want to be separated from your children, don't cross the border illegally."

Which, of course, ignores the hundreds and thousands of immigrants who came here legally and overstayed their visas.

edited 18th Jun '18 7:13:58 AM by TyeDyeWildebeest

No beer?! But if there's no beer, then there's no beef or beans!
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#245988: Jun 18th 2018 at 7:22:24 AM

Since Trump felt compelled to comment on Germany politics…

NO, the German people don't turn against Merkel. What is happening is tiff between the CDU and the sister party, the CSU, which has been gone on for three years by now. Basically the CDU has drifted more and more to the centre, while the CSU has started to fish for votes at the right wing, terrified of the Af D. Though, for the record, the election results showed this this tactic has only ensures that the Af D got even more votes and, if you ask me, the CSU runs into the risk of losing their moderate voters at the upcoming elections (for the state of Bavaria, not the government as a whole).

Btw, if the government wouldn't want her in office, they could simply ask the "Vertrauenfrage" (question of trust) and oust her.

DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#245989: Jun 18th 2018 at 7:39:41 AM

Though, for the record, the election results showed this this tactic has only ensures that the Af D got even more votes

Well, duh. Why vote for a copy, if you can vote for the original?

edited 18th Jun '18 7:39:48 AM by DrunkenNordmann

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#245990: Jun 18th 2018 at 7:41:13 AM

Forget a GOP civil war — the biggest fight plaguing Hill Republicans may be Trump vs. Trump

tl:dr; the GOP is having trouble following Trump in part because Trump keeps changing his mind and being frustratingly vague when it comes to actual policy.

edited 18th Jun '18 7:42:14 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#245991: Jun 18th 2018 at 7:45:19 AM

[up]X4 It also ignores that this is also aparently being done to legal asylum seekers to present themselves at the border and make a claim.

edited 18th Jun '18 8:16:50 AM by Silasw

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#245992: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:13:52 AM

the child stealing evil is unforgivable.

And some racists are being affected.

Just not enough.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#245993: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:16:33 AM

And again, I doubt it will affect them enough to actually make them change their voting behavior come November.

Disgusted, but not surprised
kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#245994: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:16:58 AM

[up][up]Espicially since apparently the only reason Trump is holding them is to use them as a negotiating chip for his wall. Who needs ideologies to be a horrible douchsnozzle?

edited 18th Jun '18 8:17:18 AM by kkhohoho

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#245995: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:17:19 AM

Trump flip flopping? Pfft, next you're gonna tell me that the immigration policies he keeps dancing around are Obama's fault and it being tied to Hilary's emails!

edited 18th Jun '18 8:17:56 AM by Steven

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#245996: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:18:16 AM

If it causes a split with some churches it may have an impact, only in that the church leaders won’t push their congregation to go vote Republican, leading to lower Republican turnout.

I don’t see many Republicans swinging to the Dems over to this.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#245997: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:18:19 AM

My sympathy for the GOP's frustration is summed up in this video:

Disgusted, but not surprised
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#245998: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:19:26 AM

Peter Strzok said he would be willing to testify without immunity and without invoking the 5th Amendment before the House Judiciary Committee and any other congressional committee. Strzok was removed from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election for sending anti-Trump texts, and his lawyer says Strzok "wants the chance to clear his name and tell his story." Strzok's lawyer added: "He thinks that his position, character and actions have all been misrepresented and caricatured, and he wants an opportunity to remedy that."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-associate-roger-stone-reveals-new-contact-with-russian-national-during-2016-campaign/2018/06/17/4a8123c8-6fd0-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html?utm_term=.d69625d5d27e

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#245999: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:20:46 AM

No one (Republican) wants him to testify because he didn't do anything wrong.

edited 18th Jun '18 8:21:03 AM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#246000: Jun 18th 2018 at 8:22:42 AM

Supreme Court punts on two cases regarding partisan election districts

https://uw.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/18/supreme-court-republicans-democrats-unfair-election-maps/666162002/

The Supreme Court sidestepped a potentially historic ruling Monday that would have stopped states from drawing election maps intended to help one political party dominate the other, but the issue could return as soon as next term.

The justices found procedural faults with challenges brought by Democratic voters in Wisconsin and Republicans in Maryland. That could open the door for a third case from North Carolina to reach the court next term.


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