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Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of February 19
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
March Government Shutdown Deadline Draws Closer
We're less than 2 weeks out from the expiration of yet another Continuing Resolution. On March 1st funding for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development will run out, followed by the rest of the federal government on March 8th. The linked article states that odds of a shutdown are low, but I'll be gobsmacked if we end up with an actual budget this time rather than a fourth CR.
I'm still of the opinion we'll get a very real shutdown at some point. The political climate has never been more self destructive.
Current odds are 26% :/
Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are children, imperiling IVF (Washington Post)
Alabama health system pauses IVF treatments after court embryo ruling (The Hill)
Can I ask why it's "extremely obvious"? There's only one person who's beaten Trump in an election, and that's Biden. The polls are very close, and Biden has barely started campaigning, while Trump has been in full swing for a while. I think it will be a close race, but it's far from "extremely obvious" that Trump would win.
Here we go with this. It seems to me the only reason people think Biden has cognitive decline is because the media won't stop talking about his age. And yet, Trump (who's essentially the same age as Biden) gets a total pass despite constantly spewing the most inane, crazy stuff. Of the two candidates, clearly the one we should be worried about as far as mental acuity is Trump.
I think this is a dangerously arrogant view. There's plenty of reasons to not be thrilled with Biden and his behavior and plenty of people on all sides of the spectrum have pointed out why.
They didn't claim otherwise. Your response doesn't follow the previous post. There are reasons for people not to like Biden, that's not the same as the media blasting stories about his alleged cognitive decline (while not covering his rather busy schedule of events where he's in front of people.)
It's vibes based journalism
I'm really not sure what you took from my response so I guess ill rephrase.
There are very rational reasons to believe Biden is experience cognitive decline or an inability to keep up with the job. The severity is arguable, but "well his schedule" is not an excuse any president gets to use, because its part of the job. If you can't handle the pressure, you can't do the job.
It is wild to me watching all the people who constantly bash regan (many who weren't even alive when he was in office) for daring to be allowed in the building when he was clearly unfit, now bending over backwards to explain why biden's gaffes are just normal things.
Your previous post seemed more of a general "lots of reasons to be unhappy at Biden" not a "lots of reasons to think Biden is mentally not ok. "
My comment about the schedule was that the press isn't covering it - I've seen numerous calls for Biden to do more events. He's doing events. I wasn't saying the schedule was too strenuous.
The issue I, and I suspect many others, have with Reagan was his politics and policies. His lack of fitness was unrelated to his mental capacity and more related to allowing Americans to die because they were gay. I also haven't mentioned him in years so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
IMO it's between an old guy who stutters and slips up occasionally but will probably forgive my student loans, improve the economy, etc. and an old guy who wants to overthrow our democratic government, tried once before and who will gut environmental regulation, civil rights and the rule of law itself. Given the scenario we're in, I do not care if Biden is a Popsicle. (I do care, it's bullshit that this is where we're at but frankly it doesn't matter at this point)
I'd really rather all the hand wringing and "aw gee I just don't know if Dem candidate is good enough because Trump is so virile" shit was translated into doing something in the 4 years between elections. Local elections. Midterms. Being involved with the party. Etc. but instead, every 4 years it is complaining about the two party system and whether or not to vote for the old guy with reasonable to good policies in most areas or the old guy who doesn't think everyone should have the right to vote.
Ezra discusses this directly in the podcast and u/IIIIIIIIII quotes it above. And the contrast between the two campaign speeches is startling (heard here at the 7:30 mark on the YouTube version of the episode). He sounds markedly slower.
Again, Ezra's point is not that Biden is too old to be president. It's that he's too old to decisively win the election against Donald Trump.
Absolutely. Problem is the alternatives so far have all been worse.
It makes a lot more sense when you understand its not some fantasy based honor system so much as power gripped nepotism. Feinstein didn't step down, Pelosi isn't stepping down, Biden isn't stepping down. None of these people have any intention to pass the torch (and yes McConnell, trump, and the reps as well. ) and would rather literally death grip it to oblivion. Biden does not want to step down, and doesn't think he should step down, so he's not going to step down. I would bet decent money a convention isn't happening by choice (I'm less clear on the route should he pass).
Eh it's really not. Or at least not at this point. It is disturbing it's this close though, and just another damming example of how shit our politics have been. The time to talk about Biden's successor was 3 years ago, not now. It's by far too late.
What are you talking about? Pelosi literally stepped down as the leader of the the House Democrats in favor of a younger congressperson.
And is still running for re-election in 2024.
I came here to post this. As usual, Ezra Klein provides an excellent analysis of the situation that I think is very fair.
If anyone else wants to listen to it, it's available on Spotify here, Google Podcasts here, Apple Podcasts here, YouTube here, and other places.
I think he makes an excellent point when he distinguishes between Biden's ability to be president and Biden's ability to win another term of the presidency.
Having said all of that, I'm not certain that Biden automatically loses to Trump in the election if it comes down to it. I've lost all faith in my ability to predict how elections are going to go since 2016.
I thought the other (and more realistic) option would be voting for Dean Phillips in the primary. He's in my primary presidential election voter guide. It says he supports ranked choice voting, which is neat.
This was interesting to learn, and I was eager to have an option other than Biden until I looked him up and discovered he plans to build "the most extraordinary bipartisan Cabinet in history" (because what we need is to have a bipartisan system so that Republican's will finally respect us, sure, that'll work) and that one of the people he floated the idea of including in that cabinet was Elon Musk.
Considering his position on the Israel invasion of Gaza is similar to that of Biden's, I officially see him as somehow managing to be an even worse option, now.
MAGA Republican Pledges “End of Democracy” to Rabid Cheers at CPAC
This a freaking direct admission about January 6 being a coup and their ongoing intentions to end democracy, and it STILL probably won't cause any meaningful change. Just... Wow. I think I'm getting numb to how awful these people are at this point, it's the only way to maintain my sanity.
Direct link to the Twitter post featuring the video where he says this. I find this to be a better link at any rate, since New Republic appears highly sensationalist and almost exclusively links to itself in articles to boot, which feels more than a little gross to me.
Anyway, disgusting though it still is, it did appear to be a genuine joke, as he sounds like he's chuckling even as he says it. Still, I have no doubt there's a large contingent of Republicans that genuinely want this, or who have such a warped perception of democracy that they see it and theocracy as identical, Posobiec included; it may be a joke now, but it won't stay that way.
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor signs his new legislative maps into law after Republicans pass them
(Emphasis mine.)
Holy shit. I did not expect to have such a good thing come out of last year's state Supreme Court election so hard like this, but I am rather decidedly over the moon about it. About damn time we got some better district maps.
Yay for fair maps!
Swing state Republican parties are in chaos. That could matter in November. (ABC News / 538)