The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

That last article says what I've been thinking this term. I do think on gay rights he is more of a swing or quasi-left vote, but on many other areas, not so much. Still, it's a sobering loss. The best I can hope for is that no one is appointed before November and that Democrats win back the Senate. I doubt that will happen though. 

 

What was the article on the recession? I know many have said one has to be coming in the next year or two, the only question is how bad it will be. Right now with the trade stuff and more and more countries actively avoiding working with us, I think it will be pretty bad.

[Juliajms]

What a nightmare.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I had to do a quick search to locate it again:

Do flattening yield curves warn of impending recession?

 

Didn't read this article but gave the headline a passing glance:

 

[DRW50]

Thanks.

 

Meanwhile I get to read Donald Trump Jr saying "lit." 

 

My day is complete. 

[Juliajms]

This is obviously more bad news.  The message is states can do what they want.

[Wendy]

This nation is f*cked. At this point, do Liberal States of America and Conservative States of America. Separate but equal. Won't ever happen but it should. But then red taker states would have to support themselves, hence why this won't happen.

 

Barring that, NY/California SHOULD secede, IMO. We're going backwards at an alarming rate. Gilead isn't such an impossibility these days.

[Juliajms]

This piece discusses pre-fascism in The U.S. and Italy, although I agree more with the people who see it as the early stages of fascism.  I think he is right on when he calls what is happening on our border as a trial balloon. One that worked pretty well overall.

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-trial-runs-for-fascism-are-in-full-flow-1.3543375?mode=amp

 

Fascism does not need a majority – it typically comes to power with about 40 per cent support and then uses control and intimidation to consolidate that power. So it doesn’t matter if most people hate you, as long as your 40 per cent is fanatically committed. That’s been tested out too. And fascism of course needs a propaganda machine so effective that it creates for its followers a universe of “alternative facts” impervious to unwanted realities. Again, the testing for this is very far advanced.

[DRW50]

 

There are already plans underway to try to split California into three. I won't be too shocked if it happens sooner rather than later the way things are going.

[Khan]

 

Unfortunately, it WILL happen.  She will place so many restrictions on the law that we'll STILL have to cross lines just to get access even to medicinal marijuana.  I put nothing past the woman.

 

I must admit I'm not too up on SCOTUS to know what Kennedy's retirement would mean.  How bad is his decision to retire for us?

 

[Juliajms]

It's pretty bad if you care about reproductive rights, voting rights or gay rights.

[Khan]

Yeah, I'm reading some articles about this now and...it don't look good.

 

Roe v. Wade will most def be overturned -- or, if not overturned, then chipped away at until it's all but obsolete.  Which means more "backroom jobs," more abortion pills being acquired through the black market, more women exposing themselves to potential injury and even death.  And all because they see each baby as another, potential Republican vote.

 

When it comes to voting rights and affirmative action, the court(s) of today apparently operate on the notion that it's no longer 1965; and that we, as a nation, have "come around" in our thinking about racial and ethnic inequalities.  Of course, the average and truly ENLIGHTENED American knows that not to be the case.  So, good luck, my potential grandkids, in getting those measures protecting minorities' voting rights back into law!  I wish you well!

 

And as for gay rights...well, you know, all I had ever hoped for was that same-sex couples BE allowed to marry -- because, hell, why should heterosexuals have all the misery? -- and that those marriages be recognized as legal by the government.  Anything beyond that, I reasoned, was too pie-in-the-sky.  So, the ONLY hope I have now is that SCOTUS will remain true to its history of "stare decisis," or whatever it's called, and not reverse THAT decision w/o "some compelling reason to do so" (per Vox), even as they allow businesses and such to discriminate the hell against gays and transgendered persons.  (In other words -- fine, you won't bake cakes for queers, but they're still married in the eyes of the law, so eat it.)

Edited June 27, 2018 by Khan

[Khan]

Ya know...this is pure speculation...but I would NOT be surprised if, after Trump announces Kennedy's replacement and he/she is quickly voted into SCOTUS, the GOP in Congress all-of-a-sudden ramps up talk of impeaching his ass.  Because, after all, according to certain pundits, one major reason why they've stuck by Trump for so long (albeit reluctantly, in some cases), was because they needed him to pack the court with a right-leaning majority.  Once that happens, I predict, they'll suddenly find him to be dispensable.

 

Will it make any difference if they were to succeed on that front?  No.  The damage has been done -- damage, quite frankly, that'll take at least several generations to fix.  But, at the very least, Trump could finally be put down like the rabid dog that he is, and we could get on with the business of healing the country's many wounds.

Edited June 28, 2018 by Khan

[Vee]

If you liked that, you'll love this:

 

 

[Khan]

Speaking of books, "Will You Please Go Now, Bernard Sanders?".

[DramatistDreamer]

What f*ckin election did he win??  Look at some of the faces of the bystanders in that picture--split between those who don't believe a word of what he just said while others are humoring him the way one humors a doddering old fool.  Or is that "dotard"?

 

Women's reproductive rights is not just about Roe v. Wade (though that is a large part of it) but also access to birth control and family planning initiatives. 

The recent story of the woman who had a miscarriage comes to mind.  This woman was prescribed medication and the pharmacist refused to fill the prescription, preferring to let the woman suffer instead.  There is a strong possibility that we will see more of these types of situations arise.