U.S. Politics, November 2022: “I don’t know, you hear the same things I do”

It’s stunning how awful a candidate Walker is.

How did it get this far? I refuse to believe that they couldn’t have found a better black Republican anywhere in the state of Georgia.

One word: football. Herschel still has near saintly status in Georgia, purely due to football. Without that, some white dude like Gary Black would have been the candidate.

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they seemingly hit a wall with the strategy this year, as their newscaster, tv health guru and football(?) guy are not winning.

Republicans will run anyone with some measure of fame from outside politics.

A dozen years ago the Republican candidate for governor of Oregon was a big white guy named Chris Dudley who'd played center for the NBA Portland Trail Blazers. He had zero political experience. He came within a percentage point of winning.

Both parties have run celebrity candidates. However, most of them used to have some interest in public service.

Like, Al Franken had a degree in political science from a school that is near Boston.

Oh you've got to be fucking kidding. pic.twitter.com/6BDAhiNFwj

— Louis Peitzman (@LouisPeitzman) November 29, 2022

How did it get this far? I refuse to believe that they couldn’t have found a better black Republican anywhere in the state of Georgia.

One word: football. Herschel still has near saintly status in Georgia, purely due to football. Without that, some white dude like Gary Black would have been the candidate.

football, yes, but Herschel wouldn't have run (or won the primary) without Trump's encouragement and endorsement

yesterday I heard a local commentator say that any other Republican nominee would have beaten Warnock in the general election; that's probably true, given the margin of Kemp's gubernatorial win

without the incentive of voting against Stacey Abrams, I don't think Herschel's charms are sufficient to drive the GOP turnout he needs

our wait for early voting this morning was longer than we had at the same time and place during the general

Yeah, I voted on Sunday in Clarkston. Total wait was about an hour. It was maybe 15 minutes in Tucker during the midterm.

lol Nancy gonna Nancy

NEW PELOSI DEAR COLLEAGUE — House will vote tomorrow on ratifying the rail deal AND a separate vote on seven days of paid leave.

The paid leave element lines up w what ⁦@SenSanders⁩ wants the senate to consider. pic.twitter.com/Nh11s0x3Pa

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 29, 2022

They’re not gonna give rail workers the paid leave , but Pelosi will put it to a vote . Ugh

Assuming every House Democrat falls in line on the second vote they get to blame Manchinema in the Senate once more for old time's sake.

And they force Republicans to block it, blunting whatever appeal Rubio or whoever is making. (Cynical, sure.)

Was there another way to avoid this farrago? I'm asking seriously.

Is ms Pelosi still in post?

Do you mean the potential for a strike?

If that’s what you mean, the main issue is that rail companies have been consolidating and recording insane profits over the past decade or so, all while furloughing or downright firing workers. Many companies want (and some have gotten) one-person crews, who are then responsible for the amount of dangerous work that was done by three people only 25 years ago. This creates dangerous conditions for workers, but also dangerous conditions on our rail system and every community it goes through.

This is to say nothing of workers being on-call so that they don’t have guaranteed weekends, can’t ask for days off, and are often forced to work when hurt or tired.

The Biden administration is on the side of the rail companies and brokered a deal in the fall that didn’t actually get the approval of an enormous chunk of union membership, but the baddies believed that they would accept the deal eventually because what else is new, you don’t want to cause a nationwide logistics hell around Christmas, right? Well, now the union is calling their bluff, and Biden and many Dems are showing which side their bread is buttered on.

To avoid this would have been easy— agree to the union’s very reasonable terms.

As a former hobo and someone who knows a lot of rails, I cannot stress how dangerous this kind of work is, and how a bunch of suited assholes in Washington shouldn’t have any say over the safety and wellbeing of rail workers.

Was there another way to avoid this farrago? I'm asking seriously.

A pro-labour train enthusiast might nationalise the railways.

Yeah, that's gonna happen.

You'd think so given Amtrak's quasi-public corp status.

The outcome of these sorts of policies are disasters like the Lac-Megantic tragedy, among others too numerous to name.

yeah

It’s by the problem here that union leadership and membership disagree with each other as well as the railroads?

Pelosi's House speech:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday urged her colleagues to support both a bill to avert a national rail strike and a second piece of legislation that would give workers seven days of paid sick leave — addressing a concern from liberal lawmakers about the underlying deal brokered by the Biden administration.

“Today we are here to safeguard the financial security of America’s families, to protect American economy as it continues to recover and avert a devastating nationwide rail shutdown,” Pelosi said at the outset of the House floor debate on the measures.

Pelosi said the main bill, which reflects the deal brokered by the Biden administration, includes “important advances” for rail workers, including a sizable pay raise, from owners that had “made obscene profits on the backs of workers.”

But Pelosi said the second bill, mandating seven days of paid sick leave, is necessary to address a glaring deficiency in the first bill.

“It is outrageous that every developed country in the world has paid sick leave except the United States of America,” she said. “No one should be at risk of losing his or her job by staying home when sick, needing to see a doctor or getting lifesaving surgery.”

“Going to see a proctologist is not a reason why people would take a day off. They do that because they have to,” Pelosi added.

She closed by urging her colleagues to support both bills.

Bitcoin Bro was a 'both sides' kinda donor:

The fall of crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried has been painted as a big blow to the Democratic party, whose candidates were major beneficiaries of his largesse. But in a new interview, Bankman-Fried has claimed he gave equally large amounts of money to Republicans.

“I donated to both parties. I donated about the same amount to both parties..."

“All my Republican donations were dark,” he said, referring to political donations that are not publicly disclosed. “The reason was not for regulatory reasons, it’s because reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to Republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.”

I assume that’s true but his proximity to the Democrats is the only thing that will get traction.

Also lol at Sean McElweenie for getting couped because of FTX.

Manchin not giving a firm answer on whether he’d support adding more sick leave to rail deal. Says he needs to review it more

Says he’ll vote for “Anything to prevent a strike that will enhance inflation and cause economic harm to our country.”

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) November 30, 2022

Who could have seen this coming?!

Apologies if this has been discussed, but Kamala seems like the least visible VP of my lifetime. Quayle at least had a nice-sized gaffe. Am I missing something?

The standard excuse is that she was stuck in dc for the past two years breaking senate ties.

When she does go on camera she starts talking about Venn diagrams.

It's a combination of White House anxiety that they chose a woman who inspired turnout in 2020 but isn't a great improviser on the stump yet in the eyes of the right wing, as I know on Cuban radio, is the real power behind Joe Biden.

xp your collective hatred of Harris seems misogynistic to me

There's nothing to hate, she's a non-entity. VP is a dead-end job unless Joe keels over.

She's not a bad speaker, and she's been traveling the world and making positive connections with other world leaders, but maybe she's not visible to you, ok

Dan S, she’s literally an awful speaker. There are bits about it on left-leaning late night talk shows.

I know you don't like her, she's a cop, but come on

"in the eyes of the right wing, as I know on Cuban radio, is the real power behind Joe Biden" holy shit do they really think this? if anything she is being underutilized and has less power than she probably should. she is a terrible public speaker though.

She's on the spectrum of okay vice presidents. We overrate the administrative ability/damage of these people cuz (a) Cheney (b) Cheney. As a speaker she was fine on the Senate Judicial Committee and often way better than that.

But this thread is not the audience for Kamala Harris.

"in the eyes of the right wing, as I know on Cuban radio, is the real power behind Joe Biden" holy shit do they really think this? i

yes because #Blackwoman.

Because even in the cloacas of Cuban radio, no one hates Joe Biden. He's "el viejito," the Dems' Reagan but manipulated by la Pelosi y la Kamala

I am being totally serious: she is not a good speaker, and it’s not just right-wingers who believe this. Watch her address to Dems for 2022 on YouTube. Despite it being edited, it remains painful to watch.

I mean, fine? Biden, Cheney, Gore, Quayle, Poppy, Mondale, Ford -- how far ya want me to go back? All horrible speakers as veeps.

Mondale was a soporific that walked on two legs.

It’s never easy being the first, particularly when most of the people who voted you into office have an eye on the future and a hell of a lot of worry.

thank you

"I am being totally serious: she is not a good speaker, and it’s not just right-wingers who believe this"

I want to see your point of view but I still like her

US Politics December 2022: Get Sick on Your Own Time

She was tasked with stopping Hondurans from invading our borders, and she failed

I find her voice a little dreary but I don't think she's that awful a speaker

Her power over Hondurans was never sufficient to succeed in that task.

Fox making a dumb statement is funny enough, but considering Fox spent $1 billion on the World Cup TV rights makes this even funnier. https://t.co/m4noXAXMlx

— Aaron Grisham (@AGrisham247) November 30, 2022

"Soccer Needs To Be More Entertaining" for December Thread Title

She was tasked with stopping Hondurans from invading our borders, and she failed

Please don’t tell me you’re being serious.