AbusesToilets wrote: » Biden has again collated gun violence with particular types of guns. His solutions aim to either outright ban or increase the difficulty to purchase most rifle type firearms. None of that will make any impact on the level of gun violence in the country.It's also wildly disingenuous to make reference to said violence without acknowledging the main driver of those numbers. Typical empty, perfomative nonsense.
Tell me how wrote: » Just how much do you want to acknowledge those numbers? Up to and including pointing to black communities and talking about culture maybe? But definitely not exploring the historical reasons that led the situation existing as it is today? Definitely not that I warrant. That would be a 'woke agenda' and nothing more I'm guessing.
StringerBell wrote: » It's an odd infrastructure deal, one bi partisan and one intended to go with 50+1 and there will be no track 1 without track 2 and vice versa? Trimmed well down too, but if it comes off then fair enough. Will see how it all shakes out. Have reached the point where enough time has been wasted playing to the gallery looking for bi partisanship, for the sake of it at that.
StringerBell wrote: » For 10+ years at this point there's been no change to GOP tactic when out of power - obstruct, delay, block and run out the clock as much as possible. I genuinely have no idea how the penny hasn't dropped at this stage. Democrats when they won the election had 24 months maximum to push through policy, Mitch took a month off at the start by delaying the handover and they will still presumably be taking their August off to catch up on their "reading" (Mitch put a stop to that last year of course but can't see the Dems doing it) They are in danger of wasting a lot of time they may end up regretting right now. I really hope for their own sake they start to push ahead now and build some momentum. Sinema is a problem but I think she will come along eventually as she won't want to be the lone opposition within party and genuinely am a fan of Manchin, he has surely been indulged enough though at this point with his desperation for bipartisanship for the sake of it? Manchin 10 years ago wanted to reform the filibuster. I think he can be brought around to agreeing with the Joe Manchin of 10 years ago when push comes to shove.
AbusesToilets wrote: » Longer terms would work if there were term limits. A better option (and totally nonviable) would be to get rid of the Senate and make the House actually representative of population.
Quin_Dub wrote: » I wouldn't "get rid" of the Senate but I'd certainly look to make it more representative based on Population. The house is reasonably representative , but it gets twisted by gerrymandered districts. So - Maybe double the size of the Senate and give extra seats to States based on Population - With all States having a minimum of 2 seats and create an independent "Election Commission" that defines both the districts and the voting rules consistently across the country. But like you say , will never ever happen.
AbusesToilets wrote: » The issue with the House is that its numbers are capped, which penalizes States that see their population grow. There ought to be more members of the House, based on the apportioning ratio. .
That Schumer is unable to put the screws to Machin and Sinema is damning indictment of his leadership. The Sock Puppet continues to run circles around the Dems.
Manic Moran wrote: » If they grow enough, they will see their representation change. My State gets two more representatives next Congress.https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-states-won-and-lost-seats-in-the-2020-census/ What screws? It is Manchin and Sinema who have the screws to put to Schumer right now. They don’t work for him. If the Democrats get more Senators, the balance off power may change, but it is not in Schumer’s favor right now.
AbusesToilets wrote: » They shuffle district numbers, but the overall number of Representatives isn't capped. Which mean that the ratio of citizens to Representative continues to expand over time. Leading to increased democratic deficits
eire4 wrote: » Some good ideas that would actually allow the Us to really become a democracy. I would throw in getting rid of the electoral college in terms of electing the president as well. Sadly as you say though none of the above has any chance of happening and the US will continue to be what it is a corrupted pseudo democracy but dangerously one that is flirting with becoming an out and out authoritarian state.
AbusesToilets wrote: » If they awarded the Electoral College votes proportionately, it would go a fair way to improving things. Simple enough adjustment, without the need for a complete overall.
Manic Moran wrote: » I could get behind this, but there's no chance of it happening either. Democrats will not give up 40% of California's votes, neither would Republicans give up 40% of Texas', for example.
big fan of Biden bluntly calling out Facebook by saying that "They're killing people" by facilitating so much disinformation
Last week Foxnews were lamabasting Facebook for attacking free speech, basically for banning Trump. This week they’re defending Facebook as a bastion of free speech, because Biden attacked them. It’s hilarious.
Vaccination rates are lowest in Red states, the GOP are afraid to do anything about it.
I don't believe its that the GOP is afraid to do anything about it... Its that they see nothing in it for them to support the Vaccine rollout. When Biden aims for high vax uptake, as a target, the GOP will not do anything to help him to achieve it, because that would be 'getting into bed with the Libs'. As things get worse, and more people get infected by Delta, it will force new lock-downs which will hammer Biden's economy just as Trump's economy was hammered in 2020. This will be just in time for the GOP to portray Biden/Dem Government as a failure leading up to tbe 2022 mid-terms. They want the Congressional majorities back and will go 'scorched earth' to achieve it. Like, what's another 100,000 avoidable deaths (already had over half a million under GOP rule) if it 'sticks it to the Libs'.
When you hear the poison coming out of Carlson, Ingraham, Pirro et al against the Biden attempts at getting people to take the vaccine, the vitriol can only be explained by analyses such as the above. And of course, no-one can sue those ppl because their drivel is now considered to be opinion rather than news reporting. It.Is.Crazy! And Evil!
Exactly. Barack Obama talked in his latest book about how the Democrats controlled The House for the entire duration of Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr.'s presidencies but all of them were able to govern as everyone was willing to negotiate and compromise in order to get bills passed. There was no opposition for the sake of opposition.
Then the Republicans took The House in 1995 and Newt Gingrich became Speaker. This is when things started to break down. Basically they had calculated/realised that there was no political upside to helping the President get his agenda passed. This process only accelerated when Obama was elected. The Democrats took their back by ensuring that Trump could get nothing passed in his final 2 years in office but now the Republicans are taking it to new levels of cynicism by turning life saving vaccinations into a political football.
I have heard the theory that the breakdown is due to the Reagan era, basically Reagan passed that big immigration amnesty and regularised huge numbers of people but the reciprocal thing was meant to be that it was strictly a once off and illegal immigration was meant to be non partisanly tightly controlled and not rewarded.
It looks like anyone (like me) who thought that Biden would shake up the DOJ and clean out the extraordinary tenure of Jeff Sessions & Bill Barr, are in for a very rude awakening... Merrit Garland's appointment as AG has done little to restore faith so far. Here's a few concerns from the recent past:
1. Wilbur Ross was found to have lied to Congress at least twice, but DOJ not going to prosecute. However, Omarosa Manigault Newman (a Trump POS 'advisor') who 'happens to be black ' is being fined $50,000 for a late filing of a form...
2. Capitol rioter received 1st Federal sentence of 8 months. However, young black lads routinely 'earn' decade-long stints in jail for marijuana offenses...Not a single Capitol attacker has been charged with Sedition, which is incredible...
3. DOJ is trying to have grand jury evidence sealed for 50 years... This will keep EVERYTHING resulting from the Mueller investigation that then went to Grand Juries well-hidden for decades...
etc.
Sadly, so much stink remains the same!
And if people thought there was going to be a change when it comes to an bumbling idiot in office, they must also be disappointed.
Stupid politicians seems to be an endemic problem in America.
Don't mistake users being unhappy with elements of the new administration with a concession that it's as bad as the last one. They are incomparable.
That's only an accurate statement if you deal in political absolutes; that any balls dropped by one administration is comparable to the historically lopsided number of ones dropped by the previous admin. There's simply no fair degree of equivalence to be drawn between the Biden and Trump administrations, except if one is angling towards a "they're all the same" reduction. Which TBH, by your own history here, tends to be how you swing.
There's no question a great many things wrong with the structures of American politics, from the polling stations to the Resolute desk, but you'd want to be spectacularly naive to think Biden was going to be the one to fix them. Or any. So really the question isn't - has it got better? - inasmuch as it can be phrased - has it got worse?
