JaneAusten

I hesitate to trust Joe Manchin on one *amn thing, but this sounds promising. McConnell threatened to not pass the CHIPS bill if the dems passed their reconciliation package. I think Manchin FAKE tanked it 2 weeks ago. Today they passed the CHIPS act then Schumer announced they had a deal on reconciliation. They allegedly have 50 votes. If so, they out maneuvered McConnell. We'll see.

I am glad Biden is finally getting out ahead of this. It should have been sooner but I'll take it. Now he need to KEEP REPEATING IT and I want to see more comments about SCOTUS. Not hits but facts. I took the time to read the dissents, particularly the one by Sotomayor. Very cutting and I am thinking the days of any unity or vision of "We all work for the same goal" is gone or soon will be. And frankly it's needed to happen for a while. And one thing I enjoy about reading this board is comments from @DramatistDreamerand @Cat. A lot of Americans really don't know much outside of our bubbles but particularly outside of our country. While I have not lived abroad, I worked abroad for many years in Europe, Japan, South Korea, and parts of South America when I worked for Deloitte. And while ifs not the same as actually living there(working there you are yourself in a protective bubble ), I hope it has given me a wider view of the world in some respects. A lot of people tend to compare the American and Japanese work ethic the same. I disagree completely. While their work/life balance MIGHT have similarities to that of the US, the decision making process is far different and there is a lot more of it by consensus versus one key decision maker. I had no real understanding of that until I worked there and understood why certain activities on the project timelines were scaled differently than what I was accustomed to. Abe's assassination is shocking and I guess we will end up hearing more about how and why. I still have a couple of friends I have made from my time in Japan and I have reached out to them. I'll share if I can what I hear back from them.

HIghland Park also has a large Jewish population. Not sure if that has any bearing. We will find out. Robert Crimo III has been taken in custody. Not shocking there were signs on social media - he talked about schools and guns and was a high school dropout. All this on social media just in October. I'm grateful for our Governor. Tammy Duckworth was with him at the press conference in Highland Park and she spoke. Dick Durbin as usual MIA.

Include Mexico in that. Oh I clearly remember that election. My mom and I were glued to the hearings when Thomas was confirmed. She was so angry - she took me with her when she canvassed for CMB in the primary. And trust me it was a shockwave here in Illinois at the time when the machine candidate Dixon lost.

The election following Thomas's confirmation had consequences. Women were elected in record numbers. Alan Dixon from ILLINOIS a democrat voted for him and was beat by Carol Mosley Braun in the primary. He acknowledged it was due to his vote for Thomas.

I don't know what the balance was before, but I believe LePen's party won 87 seats and Melenchon's 131. But I do believe France had been down this road before I think with Mitterand. Not with LePen of course but with not having a majority in Parliament. I hope @Catcan come back and share the perspective from someone closer to the situation It's quite interesting what is happening in Latin America. Columbia, Chile, Bolivia. and it looks like Lula most likely will beat Bolsonaro in Brazil. That certainly is a bit different than the rest, but still interesting.

I am perplexed at the stupidity of the American voter. I understand inflation and oil prices and why this is happening, but most people don't seem to care. Plus is consumption of oil and food products down? The demand and consumption regardless of the raising prices remains consistent. Steve Bannon is a dangerous sociopath. And this guy is indicted and this is what we hear. And it gets back to the justice department. Bannon to Garland over Jan. 6 hearings: Indict Trump and we'll impeach you - CNN Video I understand justice takes time, but this idea in the US that no one is above the law is and has been as we all know a farce for centuries. As for Trump, he's a criminal. We all know it and I get it's all about what you can prove in court. But the only ones who seem to be holding him accountable are black women(Georgia and New York). When I hear how its too political, I think that's a load of hogwash. Leaders have been prosecuted in other democracies. Berlusconi in Italy, Sarkozy in France. I am not for a political witch hunt and I am not even saying Trump should be prosecuted (going broke would kill him), but I do think that what appears to be no justice for the powerful is dampening some level of enthusiasm. The hearings are important, but what will happen if the hearings end and that's it. After seeing all the evidence if nothing happens. Ford lost the presidency for no reason other than pardoning Nixon. I think Biden is doing a good job. And I am not saying this as a democrat but as an American. Maybe too good that so many people think we are back to politics as normal, blame the president, and pretend the GOP is a normal party, not the danger they are more than ever, to the country. Rant over.

I hope I never in my life have to hear about DeWine being a moderate. I had enough of that crap with Kasich.

It's sickening that this vile piece of garbage still has a twitter account. Why does she?

Thats a good article and yes it's happening all over the country. It's been happening here in Chicago for years. But what you see are neighborhoods thriving like they have not in years. What's been happening here is more residential properties replacing those and the type of businesses that appeal to those residents opening up. We have a housing shortage in these places all across the country. It's certainly not that easy to just snap your fingers and turn an office building into a residential building, but it can happen. Or that real estate can just stay vacant. Here in Chicago our entire rail transit system from the suburbs goes to the downtown area. It becomes a question - what kind of investment is needed to rethink that?

Now we know what the Roe decision is about at this time. To cover for this. I doubt most people will understand what this could mean. We now have a SCOTUS that will uphold this and cause the chaos they want all while passions are directed elsewhere. ALWAYS.ABOUT.THE.MONEY

I read that in Variety this morning. Making it sound like it was Chucks idea and he wanted it. Laughable.

Thanks @DramatistDreamer for posting that. This happened in California so don't this this is only in red states. Imprisoned for a Stillbirth: Kings County Is Criminalizing Pregnancy Loss | ACLU of Northern CA (aclunc.org)

Countries all over the world have made abortion legal in recent years including Ireland and Mexico and here is the US stepping back. This is horrible. This indicates a major shift by force by a minority dictating what the majority has the right to. I knew this day was coming but now that it's staring, it's just such a monumental shift in how women are valued or not. I know PoC and LGBTQ people have had battles as significant but this feels like an earthquake. For almost all of my life abortion has been something women can decide on for themselves. That will be gone. And there was a story in WAPO this morning about the GOP crafting legislation top make it illegal nationally. I'm sick to my stomach. Oh they're coming for a national law next and then coming for birth control.

Twitter has already become unbearable in many ways. I was reading an article a few weeks ago as to one of the reasons for the other platforms failing. It's because the people on there want liberal voices to taunt. They feed from it. There is a long way to go before this becomes a reality if it does. Musk despite the reporting hasn't fully secured all the funding and there is the matter of apvl to come. Anyway once it becomes private not only toxic but it will be filled with ads and people will have to end up paying for a non ad twitter space. Like youtube. No thanks. I don't even use it much anyway.

@Cat Thanks for sharing. All of it is very unsettling in many ways and not surprising. I know elections are not the same as they are here but margins like that would be called a landslide here. That's not to say that the fringes have not gained more momentum - that's happened here but we have only had one mainstream party embrace the fringes - perhaps because that party was the most vulnerable or perhaps because they have never been all that interested in democracy period(The Jim Crow south of 100 years post civil war was more fascist than democratic and that wasn't so long ago). But of course republicans here never want to talk about that nor does our own media, who keeps celebrating the worst of the worst - people like Ron DeSantis and of course Trump. I'd be very interested in whether Melenchon is a doer versus a talker. The far left here always talks about what should be done but there is never a real plan on how to legislatively get things done. The members elected at least in our legislative branch always seem to be the least interested in helping craft legislation and spending their time on social media and chastizing other democrats than the real threat.

I used to listen to the BBC a lot more than I do now. It's been tainted like many others peddling sensationalism and horse race garbage more and more. My neighbor returned from a trip to France - she has family in Dieppe, so I trust her feedback more than anything I read anywhere based on her conversations with family and friends she talks to there and reads from there. Honestly there was never a danger in Macron not winning and as she told me yesterday, it was expected. Sure there is still a lot of anxiety especially in the poorer parts of France. Normandy has a lot of poverty and hurt relatively speaking. But too many people there understand the danger of Le Pen and that movement. Now keep in mind her family are not extremes on either side of the political spectrum but they were talking about Melenchon when she was there weeks ago. He and Le Pen were actually polling neck to neck and had the youth vote been higher he would have easily beat her. And they were even saying then about Melenchon's strategy will be rallying for the PM position. That was not a common discussion point in any of the media and still isn't, but they believe he has a very good chance of pulling an upset unless Macron can agree on and form a real coalition with real commitments. So time will tell.

The article mentions the Haitian issue in 1990-91 which is shocking since a lot of this stuff they love to sugar coat. I'm old enough to remember it and how appalling it was they did this. But news stories that are not favorable to those in power buried or justified.

Media critic for the Washington Post published this. I do wonder if anyone in the media circus is paying attention or even cares. It was a bit of soft peddling but gets the point across. I hope she includes her own paper in this writeup because they have failed also.' The media is failing the public on the good news about jobs - The Washington Post Oh and I notice the media is not paying attention to this. Texas is a mess I think moreso than Florida and this is what their looney Governor does and causes. But then they don't care because they somehow don't get blamed for it. Why? Partially because the media establishment ignores it. Mexico truckers protest new Texas inspections, halt trade at border bridges | The Texas Tribune

I don't want to setup a doomsday machine here. There are lots of good things happening. I blame the media almost entirely. The other day I did see a video of Chuck Grassley a GOP senator from Iowa getting reamed out at an event with voters by a republican voter for his inaction at the KBJ hearings. The voter was a republican who told Grassley he just sat there while the GOP made soundbytes for TV and told him he no longer cared about the country, only his party, not speaking out while these people launched viscous attacks on KBJ. He told Grassley it was time he stepped aside and let someone else run. The media is putrid. One would have thought things might change after Trump but if anything it's gotten worse trying to make Biden seem worse then Trump. The worst part IMO are stories these people kept to themselves to publish in books. Bob Woodward who made his name for exposing Nixon in Watergate is the most egregious and this is someone who should know better. It's frankly disgusting and immoral. I don't cry a bit when these people attacked by the right. I know I should but I can't help it. They are no better than their paymasters and care nothing about holding powerful people accountable, only their pocketbooks.

I find so many people in our own country so tuned out to what's going on. I can't blame people, but I have friends who don't want to even discuss Ukraine for example or the abortion cases as another example because it's just too depressing and they are tired of depressing. I wonder how some of them would have survived being a minority before 1965 especially, or the Great Depression and WW2 when poverty and rationing of many resources were widespread. I have plenty of friends and family who are tuned in, but the disinterest or "tuning out" hoping it will just go away frankly kind of appalls me. And my mom passed away about 6 weeks ago. She was elderly and was suffering from vascular dementia and had a good and healthy life, but it still hit me hard. But frankly she lived through some of those times herself and Im glad for her sake she's gone from the current world we live in.

I heard about that earlier and am in shock.

Millions of Kids already do this as you said in certain longitudes. It's stupid frankly. The main reason to do it is to save energy. The experiment in the 1970's for permanent daylight savings time was tried to save energy in an energy crisis and we couldn't suck it up then. I'm frankly sick of leaving for work in the winter when it's dark and having it dark when I leave work. I'll take dark in the morning every day if needed to have some daylight when I leave work to enjoy for a short time. Since suburban parents can't really suck up anything to make our lives better, I don't expect this to last. It will likely be rolled back.

The pictures coming out of Ukraine and areas bombed remind me so much of Syria. Aleppo was a thriving cosmopolitan city bombed to rubble. I pray it doesn't end up that bad.

I know people tend to hate any comparison to Hitler, but towards the end Hitler also destroyed the country he claimed to love - his own. Much of the rubble seen across Germany then was done by the Germans. I can't help think about Syria and how the world stood by while Aleppo was turned to ruins, as the Russians killed civilians and crushed hospitals and homes.