Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

@Zincy
There’s a reason I refuse to associate with them despite being conservative.

That’s because, unlike them, you’re actually conservative in the dictionary sense of the term. “Conservatives” in US politics today would more accurately be called “reactionaries” and “fascists.”

Keep in mind, Republicans don’t care about law, they want people to suffer because they’re demons under human skin.

I think its more desperation, I heard that if you took away redistricting, Gerrymandering and voter suppression. The GOP becomes a regional party. Its why they are doing things that they know going against what they claim to believe. They know if they don’t they can’t survive in this political system.

It makes me wonder if the GOP will just collapse after Trump is gone. The GOP voters don’t want someone like Nikki Halley and DeSantis is too extreme to appeal to a wider audience. Trump has the appeal that you can write off his threats as jokes because of his history as an entertainer. Something both Nikki and DeSantis have a hard time pulling off.

Trump loves to claim that, because he was president once, he’s immune to the law forever.

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has just told him to put up or shut up. Correction, he knows Trump drags his feet on everything, so instead Smith has taken a junction straight to the SCOTUS to ask them to definitively declare whether Trump is above the law or not. He also requested an expedited ruling, so as to get an answer in only a month’s time or so rather than waiting the usual several months.

Trump naturally is blowing his lid over at his Twitter knockoff that Jack Smith is calling his bluff.

@Princess Applejack
I must say I somewhat agree. Even if the GOP would be able to find a replacement for Trump, if they don’t find a replacement within 4 years (assuming Trump loses, which is a possibility) it’s very likely to go into a death spiral by then.

@Dustcan
Trump was surrounded by ass kissers for so long that people calling him out is causing him to go fight or flight.

I am thankful for Trump, though. Without him, I wouldn’t realize how fucked up the political party I’m suppose to support actually is much later, if at all.

On another note, I pray Alina Habba takes the charges against her to jury and represents herself. Show us why you are a F tier lawyer.

Just imagine how insane that argument is. If the SCOTUS somehow rules that presidents are indeed immune from the law, Biden could literally stroll into Mar-a-Lardo, shoot Trump in the back of the head while he’s cheating at golf, call a press briefing over his corpse and declare himself president for life.

I’ve read something about how SCOTUS could rule that their Dear Leader is immune to the law by adding in “Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances” to the ruling in order to prevent giving Biden immunity, but it’s pretty telling that this bullshit was pulled on “Bush V. Gore” in terms of how blatantly corrupt such a disgraceful ruling would be.

@Princess Applejack
Anyone who would write them off is on life support

Michael Knowles - the Daily Wire pundit who advocated for the “eradication” of “transgenderism” at CPAC - shared a selectively and deceptively edited soundbite of a senior content specialist at Aylo (formerly Mindgeek, parent company of Pornhub and other adult video streaming sites), claiming it shows that Pornhub knows and is okay with kids watching their content, and that they are secretly slipping content into the porn that will turn straight cisgender viewers gay and/or trans.

@Vivace
Seeing how Bush jr. ruined the appeal of the neo cons. Mitt Rommeny ruined the imagine of Republicans being a business party. I feel the GOP is in a moment of crisis. The GOP was so weak it was able to be hijacked by Trump. Trump beat out experienced judges, lawyers, and politicians. He was able to exploit the cracks in a weaken party and make it his own.

The Supreme Court has decided to wade into abortion once again.

Taking up a Biden admin challenge to a lower court ruling from earlier this year that sought to restrict the drug mifepristone. The case is likely to be resolved in July, dead center of the 2024 race.

This, all the other court cases, and the possible wave of ballot initiatives are certain to keep abortion a salient issue for voters in 2024.

Interestingly, the SC did not take up another abortion related case, where a cadre of anti-abortion doctors have sought to have the 2000 mifepristone approval overturned, which would effectively ban the drug nation wide.

This means that the court is unlikely to fully restrict mifepristone. But a ruling against the Biden admin would place mifepristones future access in the hands of a conservative leaning appellate court. Which could see the drug banned in states with abortion restrictions.

@BlitztheDragon
insert gay frogs meme here.

About 2 million Teslas has been recalled to fix software issues.

Since it’s founding Tesla has sold just under 5 million vehicles.

@Dustcan
How long until spyware is discovered in the other 3 mill?

Does that include the apparent glitch where the autopilot system cuts out seconds before a crash so it can’t be blamed on it?

@lonewolf
That isn’t a glitch…

There are two forms of “softening” that can happen after a streak of economic inflation.

Deflation and Disinflation. One is bad, one is “good”, at least in terms of economic health.

The US is experiencing Disinflation, which is the slowing of price growth, ideally putting it at pace or slower than wage growth. Disinflation is “good” because it means demand is still strong, and that hiring will remain strong (hopefully).

Deflation is rapid declines in prices, which sounds good but it is because of demand destruction, which often coincides with layoffs and slowdowns in hiring.

This is what’s happening in China. The Reds are in the red as they are caught in a nasty Deflation spiral. Demand destruction is cutting back jobs and wage growth, leading to more demand destruction as consumers spend less.

And with their real estate market sputtering hard…

China is likely heading into a deep recession.

The weird part is, most of the time where China goes so goes the US, but that’s not happening this time. There are multiple factors as to why, but it does give credence to the idea that it might not actually be impossible for the US to decouple from China.

I absolutely hate to give any life to the “Let’s have a trade war” Republicans out there…but they’re not entirely wrong that the US might be better off pulling back from the Chinese market.

To be sure it would still hurt, especially since China will almost certainly pull US debts if they sensed we were pull out of the market.

But…that’s the fun part…who would be able to collect? The funny thing about sovereign debt is that there isn’t actually any way to force collection. And negative ramifications require the market to basically self-enforce. If the rest of the western market just kinda shrugged their shoulders and said “thems the breaks” to China, and kept happily working with the US, there wouldn’t really be any major issues. What’s China going to do? Threaten to pull out with the nation’s that keep doing business with the US and risk even more economic damage? Invade? Neither option is really feasible.

China would seize US assets in China, but if we were decoupling we would likely sell them off anyway to cover our debt.

Decoupling from China the moment they sink into a deep recession is the perfect opportunity to finally sever ourselves from them.

The latest chapter in the Texas v. Californa Saga seems like its gonna be a spicy one if this trending tag is anything to go by:

IDK who Plemons is…

@CaptainXtra
It’s a movie (trailer just dropped).

Presumably the US president goes full fascist and Texas and California revolt to take back the country.

Jesse Plemons is an actor that usually plays full blown soulless psychopaths (and is in the movie).

@CaptainXtra
I know Jesse Plemons as the guy who plays Todd in Breaking Bad (among other roles).

He’ll also feature in the upcoming Alex Garland movie Civil War, hence the tag.

Remains to see if we’re talking about actual fascism, AKA what the Republican Party is trying to pull off, or their romanticized version of it which applies to anyone to the left of hunting the poor for sport.

Oh, who am I kidding, of course they’re gonna bring up every single Qonspiracy there is and play into them full throttle. Fucking hell.

@The Smiling Pony
The President, in this case, is Nick Offerman of Parks & Recreation.

Ron Swanson’s gone mad with power.

It’s difficult to tell from the trailer alone, but there are a couple of clues to suggest this might NOT be a Trumpist circlejerk. For one, the rebel coalition is stated to be a union of California and Texas. While Cali has its fair share of far-right nutjobs, most of them refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the state, preferring instead one of their various breakaway state names like “Jefferson.” Should also point out there are plenty of libs and lefties in Texas, but they’re heavily repressed.

There was also a lack of obvious winks/nods to Trumpers in the trailer (though I’m not up to date on all of them, so I could be wrong). If this were a Trumpist propaganda piece, I’d expect the trailer to wear that on its sleeve. There’d also be some far-right names signed onto it in that case, like Kirk Cameron or Jim Caveziel.

Friend of mine jokingly floated the idea that it being produced by A24 is another tell, as their movies tend to be too “complex” for Trumpists to understand.