The US Politics/Elections Thread 2.0

[downzy]

12 hours ago, Basic_GnR_Fan said:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-raked-cash-denying-loss-125839286.html

The numbers are in. Trump raised $175 million in November and December, and only spent $10 million on legal costs on the election. Told ya'll he was just grifting. 

I wonder how much Rudy got?  

Apparently Trump's legal team walked out on him a few days ago over pay issues.  

He's now re-building his legal team with the trial set to start next week.   Hope the new guys get paid in advanced.  

[Amaya]

Trump time was a shytshow from start to finish.

To have his people ,rioters , break in, break up the USA Capital was insane.

Biden- Harris need to address what is most urgent, doable , necessary, and not try to appease all genders by choice, ethnic groups, illegal aliens, etc.

Top of their list should be:

1. Get Covid virus under control. Get Covid vax out .
2.  Economy. Open up all businesses from churches to schools, stores, everything. This thing ( virus) is here and with all best practices and safety precautions, people and the economy have to move on.

I think Biden - Harris are on the right track to doing this .

I disagree with Biden-Harris on:

3. DACADreamers. Accelerate the citizenship process, but they must go through the process.

Legal immigrants or illegal aliens, however they got here, they did. Now it is time to close the So.  borders.

Last wave of illegal aliens need to be sent back. Reunited and sent back. 
The caravan of 8,000 illegal aliens needs to be dealt with now while still moving in Cen. America.

Send USA military to stop them now or let them know , no entry into USA. Border closed.

Dr.Rachel Levine, a man who is transwoman ,as Assist Sec.of Health , was a wrong choice. Levine believes in children having puberty blockers and treatments no matter what age and if against parents/ guardians’ rights.

Biden signed Executive Order giving men transwomen the right to be in women’s spaces of locker rooms, restrooms,  fitting rooms, mid- high sch to collegiate sports teams, etc.

Funding from Women’s Health issues has mentranswomen under this umbrella so funding will go from women’s health issues to men transwomen. Levine is over Dept of Health.

We women have to fight this and  silly new terminology of ciswomen which is degrading of women- females .  Add men transwomen are moving to companies changing feminine products to be more inclusive.  Always products already changed its logo.  Feminine prod are inclusive...inclusive to women. Who else can they include?  Lions and tigers and bears? Men do not menstruate , get pregnant, or use fem cleaning prods.

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Amaya

[RussTCB]

1 hour ago, Amaya said:

Trump time was a shytshow from start to finish.

To have his people ,rioters , break in, break up the USA Capital was insane.

Biden- Harris need to address what is most urgent, doable , necessary, and not try to appease all genders by choice, ethnic groups, illegal aliens, etc.

Top of their list should be:

Get Covid virus under control. Get Covid vax out . Economy. Open up all businesses from churches to schools, stores, everything. This thing ( virus) is here and with all best practices and safety precautions, people and the economy have to move on.

I think Biden - Harris are on the right track to doing this .

I disagree with Biden-Harris on:

DACADreamers. Accelerate the citizenship process, but they must go through the process.

Legal immigrants or illegal aliens, however they got here, they did. Now it is time to close the So.  borders.

Last wave of illegal aliens need to be sent back. Reunited and sent back. 
The caravan of 8,000 illegal aliens needs to be dealt with now while still moving in Cen. America.

Send USA military to stop them now or let them know , no entry into USA. Border closed.

Dr.Rachel Levine, a man who is transwoman ,as Assist Sec.of Health , was a wrong choice. Levine believes in children having puberty blockers and treatments no matter what age and if against parents/ guardians’ rights.

Biden signed Executive Order giving men transwomen the right to be in women’s spaces of locker rooms, restrooms,  fitting rooms, mid- high sch to collegiate sports teams, etc.

Funding from Women’s Health issues has mentranswomen under this umbrella so funding will go from women’s health issues to men transwomen. Levine is over Dept of Health.

We women have to fight this and  silly new terminology of ciswomen which is degrading of women- females .  Add men transwomen are moving to companies changing feminine products to be more inclusive.  Always products already changed its logo.  Feminine prod are inclusive...inclusive to women. Who else can they include?  Lions and tigers and bears? Men do not menstruate , get pregnant, or use fem cleaning prods.

 

So.....no to anything trans? 

[downzy]

Just convert everything to unisex washrooms.

Problem solved. 

[Amaya]

I am not transphobic by NO means. Trans community need rights and they have that. They just cannot take women’s rights or infringe on women. 
Ex. Federal health funding for women’s health issues.

 My mottto is, “Do you Boo.” 

Unisex is not the answer.

Would feel comfortable by having your 16 yr old daughter in the locker room, fitting room, restroom with women, men, transwomen, transmen, and  male pedofiles. All any man has to do is literally put on some lipstick and say he identifies as female? 
Transwomen, situation is easy. There is a single restroom at public  called Family restroom, Special Needs Restroom. Unisex one.  Use that one. They do not want that though.

Note. Transmen are not calling men, cis men. Transmen  are not trying to go in male spaces of sports teams. Transmen , if they go in mens locker rooms, restrrooms, they know they better go in a stall . Go when no men are arround. Go in a  single rr or unisex one, whatever.  Mentranswomen do not want that though. They want to be in women’s spaces.

men transwomen on sports teams is allowed by Biden Executive Order .  Females  cannot compete for  scholarships with males so that is why sports are separated by gender/ sex.  With men transwomen on the teams, they will get scholarships and are placing high , 1st - 5th places.

This is the next big fight for Women’s Rights.
 

I want Biden - Harris to stop trying to be the old Democratic way of include everybody. That does not work.  I am sorry about hurt feelings, but the country is at stake and not fringe groups feelings . We all rights  so we are all good there. Even.

Biden is only going to be a one- term POTUSA.

I would be surprised if Harris  wins as frontrunner and I like her.

She might have to be Pres for 2-1 years.I hope Biden can make it all 4 years, I mean, I am not wishing the end on him. Like I said, they to focus on about Top 5 things. The country is in a critical situation.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Amaya

[downzy]

The main focus will be on covid recovery, the economy, climate change, healthcare and immigration. Those five issues will take up most of Biden’s focus and time.

Signing an executive order that allows trans people to serve in the military doesn’t take away from those core areas.

It just means that some priorities are easily done through executive order and can be taken care of quickly.

People shouldn’t confuse course of action with priorities. 

[Amaya]

I agree with downzy.

That is a good Top 5. Urgent. Workable. Doable. Must be addressed.

The environment.....important, but  I only hear of extremes. The environment has been an issue since I was a young child, only 45-50 years ago.

I believe more should be done to have Americans recycle . My neighborhood does not. This is the very simplest thing.

We need big oil, fracking, etc. Green jobs too such as solar panel companies, recycling jobs are environmental , modern, and more. Great for the economy.

Executive Orders can be fought  by the people. 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Amaya

[downzy]

When the rubber meets the road...

This is what it looks like when “news” organizations don’t want to be sued into oblivion for promoting nonsense.

 

[downzy]

Canada designates Proud Boys a terrorist organization.  Hard to argue with the move all things considered.  

https://www.axios.com/canada-proud-boys-terrorists-89862394-d8be-4e1c-bf44-5618a5b05c6d.html

[downzy]

There probably isn’t a dumber member of Congress than GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy:

 

[Dazey]

11 hours ago, downzy said:

There probably isn’t a dumber member of Congress than GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy:

 

Really?  

[downzy]

1 hour ago, Dazey said:

Really?  

Actually, I would say Gaetz is probably one of the smarter members for what he's trying to accomplish. 

He's making a full run at McCarthy's job by taking aim at Liz Cheney in Wyoming.  I think Gaetz realizes that the next Republican speaker is the person who picks a side, with that side winning.  He's put all his chips inwith the nut job faction.  McCarthy seems to want to straddle the middle and not pick a side, which in Republican politics is a strategy for defeat, IMO.  

------------------------------------------

Biden's big fuck you to Republicans...

https://www.axios.com/biden-coronavirus-stimulus-compromise-7ee1c817-dc20-49c3-a885-55e56e481479.html

Can't say I blame him considering what we saw during Obama's first couple years as President.

Go big, go early, market yourself as unifier even if you're not actually doing shit to bring the two sides together, and hope the economy improves and the health crisis lessens to paper over any mistakes or setbacks.  

[Basic_GnR_Fan]

1 hour ago, downzy said:

Actually, I would say Gaetz is probably one of the smarter members for what he's trying to accomplish. 

He's making a full run at McCarthy's job by taking aim at Liz Cheney in Wyoming.  I think Gaetz realizes that the next Republican speaker is the person who picks a side, with that side winning.  He's put all his chips inwith the nut job faction.  McCarthy seems to want to straddle the middle and not pick a side, which in Republican politics is a strategy for defeat, IMO.  

------------------------------------------

Biden's big fuck you to Republicans...

https://www.axios.com/biden-coronavirus-stimulus-compromise-7ee1c817-dc20-49c3-a885-55e56e481479.html

Can't say I blame him considering what we saw during Obama's first couple years as President.

Go big, go early, market yourself as unifier even if you're not actually doing shit to bring the two sides together, and hope the economy improves and the health crisis lessens to paper over any mistakes or setbacks.  

You're right, Gaetz is smart. He knows the Republican base hates people like Paul Ryan and McConnell and McCarthy. The donors love them, but they don't have the love of the base. He's throwing a wrench into that by explicitly calling those types out. Now I think he's just doing Machiavellian stuff and probably doesn't even believe have the stuff he espouses, but he's playing a game to win.

If Biden puts money into ordinary people's pockets early on (especially after the McConnell fiasco of rejecting $2,000 checks in the Fall), he's going to create a lot of momentum for himself.

[Dazey]

2 hours ago, downzy said:

Actually, I would say Gaetz is probably one of the smarter members for what he's trying to accomplish. 

He's making a full run at McCarthy's job by taking aim at Liz Cheney in Wyoming.  I think Gaetz realizes that the next Republican speaker is the person who picks a side, with that side winning.  He's put all his chips inwith the nut job faction.  McCarthy seems to want to straddle the middle and not pick a side, which in Republican politics is a strategy for defeat, IMO.  

I honestly can't stop thinking of this guy whenever I see him.  

 

 

[downzy]

3 hours ago, Dazey said:

I honestly can't stop thinking of this guy whenever I see him.  

 

 

There are Gaetzs everywhere!!!

Not a great day for Rupert...

 

[Jakey Styley]

5 hours ago, downzy said:

------------------------------------------

Biden's big fuck you to Republicans...

https://www.axios.com/biden-coronavirus-stimulus-compromise-7ee1c817-dc20-49c3-a885-55e56e481479.html

Can't say I blame him considering what we saw during Obama's first couple years as President.

Go big, go early, market yourself as unifier even if you're not actually doing shit to bring the two sides together, and hope the economy improves and the health crisis lessens to paper over any mistakes or setbacks.  

I really hope he can pull this off through getting enough GOP votes and not using reconciliation. Doing the latter would destroy any tiny amount of bipartisan trust that exists right now. I've already seen him criticized from the right for signing 30 or 40 executive orders on the grounds that he's breaking his campaign promise of unity.

The stimulus checks need to be much more targeted to low income people as is the case with the Republican plan. It seems he's sticking to his guns on $1400 which is fine if it's going to the right people. He signaled yesterday he would compromise on this issue. I also think he could compromise on federal unemployment bonus - upping $300 to $400, fine,  but extending it all the way to September is really unnecessary at this stage. The GOP plan of going until June is much more appropriate. This would be a small detail for him to budge on.

These two things can take a good chunk out of the cost. What worries me though is, last I checked, he wants to increase the minimum wage to $15 in the COVID bill. Somehow in 2021 this still freaks Republicans out, so this could be a big hurdle to passing the bill through the Senate.

[Basic_GnR_Fan]

53 minutes ago, Jakey Styley said:

I really hope he can pull this off through getting enough GOP votes and not using reconciliation. Doing the latter would destroy any tiny amount of bipartisan trust that exists right now. I've already seen him criticized from the right for signing 30 or 40 executive orders on the grounds that he's breaking his campaign promise of unity.

The stimulus checks need to be much more targeted to low income people as is the case with the Republican plan. It seems he's sticking to his guns on $1400 which is fine if it's going to the right people. He signaled yesterday he would compromise on this issue. I also think he could compromise on federal unemployment bonus - upping $300 to $400, fine,  but extending it all the way to September is really unnecessary at this stage. The GOP plan of going until June is much more appropriate. This would be a small detail for him to budge on.

These two things can take a good chunk out of the cost. What worries me though is, last I checked, he wants to increase the minimum wage to $15 in the COVID bill. Somehow in 2021 this still freaks Republicans out, so this could be a big hurdle to passing the bill through the Senate.

My opinion is that 'unity' is just a modern shibboleth. People performatively say it, but nobody actually thinks it.

Funny enough, the two recent political events that actually caused some type of unity from all over the spectrum was the Epstein death (everyone thought there was fuckery going on) and the Redditors vs Hedgefunders issue (everyone wants to fuck up the hedgefunders).

But yeah, neither party is going to investigate Epstein or come down on Wall-Street. So the easiest and most realistic way to have a semblance of unity beyond covid relief that goes into normal people's pockets would be an infrastructure plan, which everyone agrees we need.

[-W.A.R-]

Biden's statement on Yemen sounds like allot of BS. He says were are going to end support for "offensive operations" stop "relevant arms sales" but still support Saudi's right to "defend their sovereignty". That is a qualified statement that is meaningless. At best it sounds like they may pull back on supplying some of the more egregious weapons, but still support the assault but frame it as "defensive".

Biden also called for Navalny's release and made this statement "He’s been targeted for exposing corruption and he should be released immediately and without condition" I'll be damned if that doesn't sound familiar. Julian Assange is sitting in jail with no charge against him while US appeals to have him extradited to prosecute him. That is the funny thing about the posture toward Russia - The US is guilty of pretty much everything they are claiming Russia is doing.

[Basic_GnR_Fan]

11 minutes ago, -W.A.R- said:

Biden's statement on Yemen sounds like allot of BS. He says were are going to end support for "offensive operations" stop "relevant arms sales" but still support Saudi's right to "defend their sovereignty". That is a qualified statement that is meaningless. At best it sounds like they may pull back on supplying some of the more egregious weapons, but still support the assault but frame it as "defensive".

Biden also called for Navalny's release and made this statement "He’s been targeted for exposing corruption and he should be released immediately and without condition" I'll be damned if that doesn't sound familiar. Julian Assange is sitting in jail with no charge against him while US appeals to have extradited to prosecute him. That is the funny thing about US' posture toward Russia - they are guilty of pretty much everything they are claiming Russia is doing.

You sound like an anti-Saudite!  

[Dazey]

To think that you'd get sacked for calling for the boss to be executed eh? I'm shocked to the core I tell y'all!  

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/02/04/us/joe-biden-trump-impeachment 

[Jakey Styley]

2 hours ago, Basic_GnR_Fan said:

My opinion is that 'unity' is just a modern shibboleth. People performatively say it, but nobody actually thinks it.

Funny enough, the two recent political events that actually caused some type of unity from all over the spectrum was the Epstein death (everyone thought there was fuckery going on) and the Redditors vs Hedgefunders issue (everyone wants to fuck up the hedgefunders).

But yeah, neither party is going to investigate Epstein or come down on Wall-Street. So the easiest and most realistic way to have a semblance of unity beyond covid relief that goes into normal people's pockets would be an infrastructure plan, which everyone agrees we need.

I'm not even sure how much unity the Epstein death inspired - so many conservatives were still connecting it to the Clintons.

But yeah, I don't see actual unity among liberal and conservative citizens ever again except in the face of natural disasters/war/catastrophes. What we can hopefully aspire for though is some baseline level of trust in congress so that every vote isn't party line and every piece of legislation isn't deadlocked. This trend began in the 90s but was greatly accelerated with McConnell's approach to Obama's presidency. Biden making small compromises to pass this bill through the Senate with GOP support, rather than forcing his exact plan through the budget reconciliation process, would say "hey, lets at least TRY not to be complete assholes to each other all the time" to kick off the next 4 years.

[-W.A.R-]

Quote

 

The February 4 announcement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan that President Biden would end U.S. support for “offensive operations” in Yemen was understandably met with celebration by those opposed to the war. Almost six years of the U.S.-Saudi‑U.A.E. onslaught on Yemen have left the country devastated by humanitarian disaster and famine. Anti-war activists have spent these years — first during the Obama-Biden administration, then the Trump-Pence administration, and now the Biden-Harris administration — agitating to end U.S. participation in the onslaught. It has been an organizing effort that often seemed like shouting into the wind, as the bombings of hospitals, factories and weddings piled up. The countless people who have been toiling in obscurity to end this war, and the people in Yemen who have joined in this effort even while surrounded by hardship and death, certainly deserve praise and gratitude.

But Biden’s foreign policy speech, delivered just hours after Sullivan’s teaser, unfortunately underscored that we must not celebrate the end of the war until we verify that it has actually, materially ended. That is because Biden’s remarks leave just enough room for the president to gesture toward ending the war without actually halting all U.S. participation in it.

Biden first noted that USAID will reach Yemeni civilians who have suffered “unendurable devastation” (the Trump administration suspended aid to much of Yemen in 2020) and declared “this war has to end.” He then added, “We are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen including relevant arms sales.” But the president continued, “At the same time, Saudi Arabia faces missile attacks and UAV strikes and other threats from Iranian supplied forces in multiple countries. We are going to continue to help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people.” 

Unfortunately, qualifiers like “offensive” and “relevant” do not signal a clear commitment to ending all forms of support for the U.S. war in Yemen, which includes targeting assistance, weapons sales (the U.S. is the largest supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia), logistics, training, and intelligence sharing with the Saudi-led coalition. Labeling Yemen’s Houthis as “Iranian supplied forces,” and making a commitment to defending Saudi Arabia’s “sovereignty,” echoes President Obama’s initial pretense for entering the war on Yemen in 2015. The White House statement that signaled Obama’s illegal entry declared, “In response to the deteriorating security situation, Saudi Arabia, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, and others will undertake military action to defend Saudi Arabia’s border and to protect Yemen’s legitimate government.” In other words, from the outset, this onslaught was framed by the U.S. as defensive. 

Importantly, Sullivan noted that ending the war in Yemen “does not extend to actions against AQAP,” or al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. While sanctioned by the AUMF, it’s important to oppose this parallel U.S.-led war in Yemen that has also led to the killing of civilians.

Now, more than ever, it is vital to hold a firm line about what a real end to U.S. participation in the Yemen war means: an end to all U.S. assistance, including intelligence sharing, logistical help, training, providing spare parts transfers for warplanes, bomb targeting, weapons sales and support for the naval blockade (we still don’t know the full extent of U.S. support for the latter). It also requires that the United States immediately reverse the Trump administration’s designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), a determination that is cutting off critical aid to northern Yemen and significantly escalating the crisis of mass starvation.

Because these things have not yet come to pass, it is critical to keep up the pressure until the war is really ended. As much as we might welcome positive messaging — no doubt a result of the pressure exerted by dogged organizers — we must not rest until we have won actual material relief.

This is not to sow nihilism: It is significant that President Biden, whose own Obama-Biden administration first initiated U.S. involvement in the war, feels that he has to answer to anti-war activists. A global day of action to end the war on January 25 saw people mobilize from streets to online forums demanding an immediate halt to the war, reflecting the growing power of an international movement to end the onslaught. 

And the Biden administration has taken some steps. In the 24 hours before leaving office, Trump’s final act of war on Yemeni civilians involved signing a $23 billion arms sale to the U.A.E., in addition to the designation of the Houthis as an FTO. Two days after taking office, Biden’s State Department launched a review of the FTO designation, citing “deep concern about the designation that was made is that at least on its surface it seems to achieve nothing particularly practical in advancing the efforts against the Houthis and to bring them back to the negotiating table, while making it even more difficult than it already is to provide humanitarian assistance to people who desperately need it.” And one week after taking office, Biden temporarily froze the sale of F‑35s included in the Trump deal, as well as precision-guided munitions destined for Saudi Arabia. 

But these temporary halts and reviews have not yet had any tangible effects, as the FTO has not been reversed and arms sales to Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. have not been cancelled. Indeed, a celebrated Wall Street Journal report from January 27 about the Biden administration “pausing” arm sales to Saudi Arabia subtly noted in paragraph three that the pause “isn’t unusual for a new administration” and “many of the [arms] transactions are likely to ultimately go forward.” Still, these steps could indicate a willingness by the Biden administration to end U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen. 

But rhetoric and positive signals are not enough. We need a material end to all U.S. assistance now, before one more Yemeni dies, and we need to verify that this assistance has ended before we declare victory. The Trump administration claimed, at various points, that it was working toward the end of the war via a “political solution.” Of course, the Trump administration horrifically escalated the war — rhetoric to the contrary did not shield Yemenis from U.S.-manufactured bombs, or the assault on the port city of Hodeidah.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D‑Calif.), in his January 25 address at the World Says No to War on Yemen global online rally, noted his commitment to ending the war in Yemen by re-introducing the War Powers Resolution that Trump previously vetoed. “Senator Sanders and I will be advocating and introducing again a War Powers Resolution to stop any logistical support…any intelligence support, any military support to the Saudis in their campaign in Yemen,” he said. Passing another War Powers resolution with these provisions would provide additional and significant pressure on the Biden administration. 

The Obama-Biden administration made numerous announcements in 2012 and 2013 that it would end the U.S. war in Afghanistan by 2014. But we saw that declarations do not, in themselves, signify that the job is done, especially ones loaded with red-flag-raising qualifiers like “offensive operations” and “relevant weapons systems.” We should know in a matter of weeks what the details of Biden’s plans for Yemen are. The job in the meantime is to maintain pressure, to ensure the Biden administration brings about a real end to the war that the president helped start — and says he wants to bring to a close.

 

Biden Says He’s Ending the Yemen War—But It's Too Soon to Celebrate

[downzy]

5 hours ago, Jakey Styley said:

Doing the latter would destroy any tiny amount of bipartisan trust that exists right now.

I would say that trust doesn't actually exist with respect to legislators.

My guess is Biden and Democrats will attempt to adjust how legislation or action is considered "bipartisan."  The idea that something is bipartisan because a few members of the opposing party support it is becoming antiquated.  The standard will become less about how many votes you get versus how popular a piece of legislation is amongst various voters.  If most voters want something, including voters of both parties, then it's bipartisan regardless of how representatives vote.  

What is the point of quashing good legislation because members of the opposing party are acting in bad faith?

Good or better policy shouldn't be sacrificed on the alter of bipartisanship.  And when have Republicans ever given a shit about whether their policies are bipartisan?  Where was the bipartisan outreach by Republicans in Trump's first two years?  

It's why Obamacare wasn't as good or robust as it could have been.  Bigger subsidies and a public option that would have improved the effectiveness of the law and increased its scope were sacrificed in an attempt to be "bipartisan."

There's little reason to believe that enough Republicans would actually vote for covid relief package even if they got most of what they wanted. 

This was learned during the Obamacare negotiations, where Senator Max Baucus believed that he could get GOP Senator Chuck Grassley to vote yes on the bill and spent additional months tailoring the Senate bill to gain his support.  Obama got fed up with being strung along after months of delay and called both Grassley and Baucus to the oval office.  He asked Grassley why he hadn't yet supported Baucus's bill.  Grassley told him there were five issues.  Obama asked if they changed the bill to accommodate those concerns would they then gain Grassley's support.  Grassley said probably not.  Obama already knew the answer; the entire meeting was for the benefit of Baucus - to show him that it was pointless to make any further concessions since the other side wasn't acting in good faith.  It was a bullshit performance put together by McConnell and Grassley to slow passage down and muster public support against it.  I really don't see all ten Republicans being sincere in their proposal.  It's the same play from the same playbook.  We've been down this road before.  

Moreover, the differences are not as insignificant as just unemployment top-ups or payment targets.  Nowhere in the Republican bill do they provide any money for state and local relief.  Biden's plan allots $350 billion.  There's no way they're going to bridge that gap.  I do agree that they should probably cap direct payments to people making less than anywhere from $50k - $70k a year (or $100k-$150k per household).  I actually think direct payments are kind of dumb entirely, but that's what Democrats ran on and they have a campaign promise to uphold.  But if that and the UI top ups were the only thing keeping both sides apart this would have been done by now.  

This concern with "bipartisanship" makes me laugh since it's truly an American concern.  Here in Canada, nobody bats an eye when Liberals pass liberal legislation that doesn't consider conservative principles.  Same in Europe, where coalition governments still largely stick to the priorities of the governing coalition. 

America seems to be one of the few democracies in the western developed world that doesn't seem to get that elections have consequences.  Democrats won the White House, took back the Senate, and hold the House.  If Republicans want their policy concerns considered, they can do better at winning elections.  

5 hours ago, Jakey Styley said:

What worries me though is, last I checked, he wants to increase the minimum wage to $15 in the COVID bill. Somehow in 2021 this still freaks Republicans out, so this could be a big hurdle to passing the bill through the Senate.

Another campaign promise that is extremely popular; one that Republicans won't take back when they regain control of the Senate/White House.

This is why they should just do away with the filibuster.  It's dumb and works against any real progress or action.  Republicans like to pretend that Democrats will miss it when Republicans regain all three branches of government.  But the truth is that most Republican policies aren't popular.  The party only works as an opposition party, not a governing party.  Once in a position to enact its agenda, it almost always dodges because it knows that it would be committing electoral suicide if they followed through on what they campaigned on.  

[Basic_GnR_Fan]

1 hour ago, Jakey Styley said:

I'm not even sure how much unity the Epstein death inspired - so many conservatives were still connecting it to the Clintons.

But yeah, I don't see actual unity among liberal and conservative citizens ever again except in the face of natural disasters/war/catastrophes. What we can hopefully aspire for though is some baseline level of trust in congress so that every vote isn't party line and every piece of legislation isn't deadlocked. This trend began in the 90s but was greatly accelerated with McConnell's approach to Obama's presidency. Biden making small compromises to pass this bill through the Senate with GOP support, rather than forcing his exact plan through the budget reconciliation process, would say "hey, lets at least TRY not to be complete assholes to each other all the time" to kick off the next 4 years.

Yeah you saw those dumb takes. But by and large, the common theme I was seeing among people was that, 'this Epstein guy was involved with some powerful players and they probably had him whacked." Whether someone believed that was the Clintons (lol) or someone or something else, people thought it was messed up and needed further investigation.

[downzy]

27 minutes ago, -W.A.R- said:

Biden Says He’s Ending the Yemen War—But It's Too Soon to Celebrate

I agree. 

I believe America's support is limited to selling arms to Saudi Arabia and providing fuelling stations for Saudi fighter jets.

Biden was one of the biggest dove's in the Obama administration so I'm hopeful he makes substantive changes with respect to America's involvement in a wholly unjustified war. 

At the very least, I'm hopefully confident that Biden won't veto Congress's attempts to legislatively end America's involvement like Trump did in 2019.