The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

I doubt it was planned that way but it was clever anyway of Trump and the GOP to scale back so many critical regulations and announce that they are pushing forward with another ACA repeal effort while celebrity tweeters and the usual LOL brigades are focused on the latest stupidity of Sean Spicer. Shiny objects always get the job done.

[marceline]

 

You and I see the news narrative very differently. To me, all of the rolling back of regulations is simple spite because the Trumpcare failed but the stories I've been seeing in my feed are about Devin Nunes, Sally Yates and Russia.

[DRW50]

 

The main things I saw here were all about Spicer. Then I went to a few political news sites and it was a mix of Yates, Nunes, Yates, the repeal, the regulations, Spicer, etc. But in a celebrity driven culture, a clown is always going to get a lot of attention because it's easier for people to laugh at and get a lot of retweets and likes. 

[Wendy]

 

But that's par for the course for Twitter. I think the real Litmus test comes from the actual news sites, and they are all pretty much about Nunez, Yates, Russia, and a smattering of Rethuglicans trying to go back to the ACA drawing board, as well as Trump holding up his latest EO like a 6-year-old showing Mommy the gold star he got on his spelling test.

[DRW50]

 

To be honest with you I don't trust most news sites these days. I'm just hoping that it trickles down to the average voter in some form. But I don't really know if anyone can understand what he's doing with things like labor regulations unless they feel the effects themselves. Of course many of those who do will still blame Obama anyway, but I hope that isn't the case for everyone.

Edited March 28, 2017 by DRW50

[Wendy]

 

I get the mistrust of the media since it was that that helped give us this a*****e in office to begin with. But using Twitter as any sort of sampling pool for political discourse seems useless, to me. Sure, it's cool to feel more unified in Trump scorn, but anything beyond that just seems fruitless.

[DramatistDreamer]

People do know that Rand Paul was the one who pushed for the rollback of privacy regulations so that ISPs to can sell Internet users' personal information and browser histories, etc, right?

 

So-called "libertarian" Rand Paul. It's amazing that people could be fooled into believing in that phony cult of personality but I tend to side eye libertarians, from jump, so...

Edited March 29, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[JaneAusten]

Yeah I agree. Some on twitter are also claiming "the resistance" is only about the overblown Russia story and how the democrats are failing by not focusing on "important" issues. I have now attended 4 actual townhall meetings held by politicians in Illinois, Gutierrez, Davis, Durbin, and Schakowsky and I heard 2 questions about Russia in all of them combined. Most questions were about Healthcare, Education, and Immigration.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Speaking of Illinois, earlier in the week, I read about a small group of states whose legislatures are now working on their own privacy regulations (regarding marketers and ISPs) and Illinois was one of the states in that group. Some states want to require that consumers know how their information will be used, some want to the ISPs to notify and get permission, others want to give consumers the right to not be included (like a Do Not Call/Contact list) or targeted by any marketers.

[hsfolk]

what are y'alls thoughts on sanctuary cities/states?

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Personally, I think anyone who lives in a diverse city is most likely making use of or reaping the benefit of the labor of illegal immigrants.

A few months ago, I read an article about how the last of the victims of 9/11 had finally been identified (as in a picture with the name) for the museum and online exhibit (which I've seen) and quite a few had either been legal immigrants and a few were undocumented.

Having lived in NYC in the time of 9/11, I knew that quite a few undocumented immigrants died while working- delivering breakfast to employees in the Towers and doing food prep for the Windows On The World restaurant.

This article reminded me of how just how many died that day who were immigrants, both legal and undocumented.

When you live in a diverse city it is inescapable but people forget that some of the most dangerous jobs, which are often in rural areas (chicken processing plants where losing appendages is a regular thing) are undertaken by immigrants, particularly undocumented.

 

Trying to cause a climate of fear is a recipe for future disaster.  Forcing police to split their time between protecting and serving the public and functioning as de facto immigration officers will yield negative results (police are concerned about a breakdown of trust in already fragile relations between the police and communities of color), especially when it comes to community policing.

Also municipalities are not being funded/paid to do all the extra work that this will require. 

Smaller cities (that may feel more pressure to comply) have talked about banding together with larger cities to develop strategies and exchange ideas. Many larger cities have already talked of defying the order(s), while Trump admin. has threatened to cut federal funding. Maybe NYC should start cutting corners with security at Trump tower or just double their bill to cover any shortfalls.

 

But we'll see how this shapes up. I will be paying keen attention to what impact this climate will have on local and national economies.

 

On on Japanese news outlet, they were reporting that the so-called "Trump bounce" that happened in the weeks after the election has already dissipated and the global economy is trending downward (The dollar is down, the yen is up, which the Japanese do not like since it makes their exports like electronics, more expensive) and the stock markets are trending downward since the markets do not like the instability that the Trump White House is exhibiting.

 

There is such a thing as the law of unintended consequences. The pain might spread well beyond the undocumented community. 

Edited March 29, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[hsfolk]

the stock market isn't down, far from it

[DramatistDreamer]

 

According to what I read Consumer Confidence is up but the actual hard data doesn't reflect any of that. The stock market hit highs during the height of the recession so the stock market being up may be good for some investors but come to think of it, doesn't mean much to the average person.

 

As for the actual sanctuary cities, the larger ones will most likely ignore Trump's edict. 

 

[JaneAusten]

They can't withhold federal funds based on what the AG considers non compliance no matter what is said. DeBlazio talked about this at length a month ago I think on Rachel Maddow's show. They already do work with them but trying to turn them into an ICE arm isn't going to happen. That is not their job. Legally the feds cannot force it and would lose in court. It's also unfair to ask local and state law enforcement to focus their efforts on rounding up "illegals" when they already have a full time job.

[DramatistDreamer]

Thanks for clarifying that @JaneAusten because I wasn't sure.

 

From what I've seen on the news, I definitely get a sense that many police departments, particularly the ones that rely on decent relations with the community, resent being given this additional task that threatens to undermine their policework.

Edited March 29, 2017 by DramatistDreamer