While I get the outrage about people being responsible for the virus' spread getting vaccinated, especially in some cases directly responsible within their own personal lives. It's just a fact that there is value in protecting our elected leaders.
I dispute that fact for some. There would be value in our leaders setting a good example and being careful and practicing good health hygiene. There would also be value in them getting sick and telling others hey this is no joke take it seriously like Chris Christie did.
Additionally, earlier today Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) who is worth $24 million (despite getting paid a $174k salary), stopped $1200 stimulus checks.
That guy, who previously voted for Trump's 4 trillion dollar tax cut for the rich, was suddenly deeply concerned about the deficit and cancelled checks going out.
My name is Ron Johnson.
I come from Wisconsin.
I work in a lumber yard there.
Everyone that I meet
when I walk down the street
says "Hello, what's your name?"
and I say:
I saw a comment that was pretty spot-on today, which is that $600.00 is a rich person's idea of what poor people think alot of money is. These people gave away the store to corporations with the tax cut, and now are clutching their pearls about miniscule one-time payments that will be spent the moment they hit the bank account.
Sounds like there was a meeting in the oval office in the past few days in which, among other things: The idea of announcing Martial Law was floated, and the idea of making Sidney Powell a special council tasked with uncovering voting fraud was brought up.
Seriously.
Martial law and Sidney Powell. We're in the apparently undiscovered 4.5th stage of grief over the election loss: Total insanity.
There is now a narrative that is being taken as gospel in right-wing circles because of a floor speech some Republican state rep made, in which he told a story of a Supreme Court aide overhearing John Roberts yell at the other conservative justices about how they weren't taking the Texas case because they were afraid of liberal riots. This clerk had supposedly heard the conversation through a wall. The problem?? The Supreme Court Justices haven't met in person since the beginning of the pandemic. This literally COULD NOT have happened.
There is now a narrative that is being taken as gospel in right-wing circles because of a floor speech some Republican state rep made, in which he told a story of a Supreme Court aide overhearing John Roberts yell at the other conservative justices about how they weren't taking the Texas case because they were afraid of liberal riots. This clerk had supposedly heard the conversation through a wall. The problem?? The Supreme Court Justices haven't met in person since the beginning of the pandemic. This literally COULD NOT have happened.
There is now a narrative that is being taken as gospel in right-wing circles because of a floor speech some Republican state rep made, in which he told a story of a Supreme Court aide overhearing John Roberts yell at the other conservative justices about how they weren't taking the Texas case because they were afraid of liberal riots. This clerk had supposedly heard the conversation through a wall. The problem?? The Supreme Court Justices haven't met in person since the beginning of the pandemic. This literally COULD NOT have happened.
Even though it's been predicted and pointed out a 100 times in this thread, it is still a marvel to behold the Republican Party using deficits as the reason to oppose a more robust stimulus package after the last four years. Their super-power is their utter shamelessness. It's hard to know or strategize how to deal with people this cynical and full of shit. They erase even recent history at the drop of a hat. It's obvious none of them give a flying fuck about the deficit. They have proven that. So we know their complaints about it now are completely disingenuous. The only reasonable assumption left to make is that, yes, they actually do hate the poor and downtrodden as much as liberals have claimed over the years. This time during a crisis their party has almost 100% responsibility for. Because they took none. So neither did much of the rest of the country.
I feel like I did something really wrong today. I don’t know if this belongs here in the politics thread, please tell me if not or just move it or delete it. The reason I believe it belongs in the politics thread revolves around me being transgender.
Huge family gathering today, over a hundred and fifty people, many I did not know. Normally I would not be a part of that but I have been hurting and needed a distraction, even with the pandemic. I thought that it had been long enough and that I would be okay. Not quite. My one cousin starts bashing me right away. I always thought we would be okay, grew up next door when his father bought my grandparents farm when the were getting ready to retire and move, and put a trailer on a small 5 acre plot on the edge of the farm until they were ready to move. I took punishments for him as often if not more than everyone else growing up.
Anyway he kept bashing me and finally he said, You should just go, no one wants you here. I broke and stared him in the eye and asked if he wanted to go there. He just said, Yes, you should go. Then with over a hundred of our closest family watching I told them the truth.
When you were 13 and I was 10, you were the first person to put a penis inside me south of my mouth. Was not an isolated incident either was it? Happened many times. How can you think to take the moral high ground now? Like somehow you are better than me? Do you think it would be okay for your friends on Facebook to know that you fucked a ten year old child? And I left.
I felt horrible but was just so mad. My brothers both called later and said that I destroyed him, no one would talk to him and he left soon after I did. I am in agony, I did not want to hurt him, I just wanted him to shut up. Why do I lash out like that? He was not the only one or even the worst, but he was the first. He was a child too and I think that I did more damage to him in five minutes than he did to me in all of our childhood. I feel so bad and wish that I could take it back.
I am not looking for absolution here, just well... was I absolutely evil to do that to him? It really feels like it right now.
I feel like I did something really wrong today. I don’t know if this belongs here in the politics thread, please tell me if not or just move it or delete it. The reason I believe it belongs in the politics thread revolves around me being transgender.
Huge family gathering today, over a hundred and fifty people, many I did not know. Normally I would not be a part of that but I have been hurting and needed a distraction, even with the pandemic. I thought that it had been long enough and that I would be okay. Not quite. My one cousin starts bashing me right away. I always thought we would be okay, grew up next door when his father bought my grandparents farm when the were getting ready to retire and move, and put a trailer on a small 5 acre plot on the edge of the farm until they were ready to move. I took punishments for him as often if not more than everyone else growing up.
Anyway he kept bashing me and finally he said, You should just go, no one wants you here. I broke and stared him in the eye and asked if he wanted to go there. He just said, Yes, you should go. Then with over a hundred of our closest family watching I told them the truth.
When you were 13 and I was 10, you were the first person to put a penis inside me south of my mouth. Was not an isolated incident either was it? Happened many times. How can you think to take the moral high ground now? Like somehow you are better than me? Do you think it would be okay for your friends on Facebook to know that you fucked a ten year old child? And I left.
I felt horrible but was just so mad. My brothers both called later and said that I destroyed him, no one would talk to him and he left soon after I did. I am in agony, I did not want to hurt him, I just wanted him to shut up. Why do I lash out like that? He was not the only one or even the worst, but he was the first. He was a child too and I think that I did more damage to him in five minutes than he did to me in all of our childhood. I feel so bad and wish that I could take it back.
I am not looking for absolution here, just well... was I absolutely evil to do that to him? It really feels like it right now.
Just based on your story, the reason he was saying no one wanted you there was precisely because he knew what he did when he was younger. He didn't forget. I would bet any amount of money that was the explicit reason he confronted you. Because he couldn't deal with himself. If he'd kept his mouth shut, no one would know his dirty little secret, or what he has been hiding or denying his entire life. So at the risk of sounding cruel and heartless, he did this to himself. Play with fire, you get burned and all that. I don't believe he deserved it because of what he did when he was 13. I sorta do believe he deserved it for what he did today.
Sadly, the only way certain people are going to learn to at least FAKE empathy and politeness in public is if the tables are turned on them. What he did today was just him thinking he could exert the same type of dominance he did back then. Didn't work out so well for him it seems. How much abuse is someone like yourself expected to absorb coming from someone you know is a blatant hypocrite?? Eventually, turning the other cheek and allowing yourself to be slapped on the other side of the face (metaphorically) just isn't feasible anymore.
If we absolutely have to tie it into politics, I mean, you can't count the amount of religious conservatives who were MOST vocal about opposing gay rights in the last twenty years who were caught having extramarital homosexual relationships on two hands. I'm not a psychiatrist, but whenever I see someone who is clearly going far overboard even in relation to the boiler plate condemnation of the LGBTQ lifestyle, I automatically assume they have some serious skeletons in their closet.
I feel like I did something really wrong today. I don’t know if this belongs here in the politics thread, please tell me if not or just move it or delete it. The reason I believe it belongs in the politics thread revolves around me being transgender.
Huge family gathering today, over a hundred and fifty people, many I did not know. Normally I would not be a part of that but I have been hurting and needed a distraction, even with the pandemic. I thought that it had been long enough and that I would be okay. Not quite. My one cousin starts bashing me right away. I always thought we would be okay, grew up next door when his father bought my grandparents farm when the were getting ready to retire and move, and put a trailer on a small 5 acre plot on the edge of the farm until they were ready to move. I took punishments for him as often if not more than everyone else growing up.
Anyway he kept bashing me and finally he said, You should just go, no one wants you here. I broke and stared him in the eye and asked if he wanted to go there. He just said, Yes, you should go. Then with over a hundred of our closest family watching I told them the truth.
When you were 13 and I was 10, you were the first person to put a penis inside me south of my mouth. Was not an isolated incident either was it? Happened many times. How can you think to take the moral high ground now? Like somehow you are better than me? Do you think it would be okay for your friends on Facebook to know that you fucked a ten year old child? And I left.
I felt horrible but was just so mad. My brothers both called later and said that I destroyed him, no one would talk to him and he left soon after I did. I am in agony, I did not want to hurt him, I just wanted him to shut up. Why do I lash out like that? He was not the only one or even the worst, but he was the first. He was a child too and I think that I did more damage to him in five minutes than he did to me in all of our childhood. I feel so bad and wish that I could take it back.
I am not looking for absolution here, just well... was I absolutely evil to do that to him? It really feels like it right now.
Just based on your story, the reason he was saying no one wanted you there was precisely because he knew what he did when he was younger. He didn't forget. I would bet any amount of money that was the explicit reason he confronted you. Because he couldn't deal with himself. If he'd kept his mouth shut, no one would know his dirty little secret, or what he has been hiding or denying his entire life. So at the risk of sounding cruel and heartless, he did this to himself. Play with fire, you get burned and all that. I don't believe he deserved it because of what he did when he was 13. I sorta do believe he deserved it for what he did today.
Sadly, the only way certain people are going to learn to at least FAKE empathy and politeness in public is if the tables are turned on them. What he did today was just him thinking he could exert the same type of dominance he did back then. Didn't work out so well for him it seems. How much abuse is someone like yourself expected to absorb coming from someone you know is a blatant hypocrite?? Eventually, turning the other cheek and allowing yourself to be slapped on the other side of the face (metaphorically) just isn't feasible anymore.
If we absolutely have to tie it into politics, I mean, you can't count the amount of religious conservatives who were MOST vocal about opposing gay rights in the last twenty years who were caught having extramarital homosexual relationships on two hands. I'm not a psychiatrist, but whenever I see someone who is clearly going far overboard even in relation to the boiler plate condemnation of the LGBTQ lifestyle, I automatically assume they have some serious skeletons in their closet.
He spreads so much hate on Facebook and is a big part of why I deleted my account as soon as it was possible to do so. Does not make what I did right and now I have to live with the guilt of it. It had been so many years since I have seen anyone in the family, much less all of them except my sister who is recovering from pneumonia, I don’t think I will be invited again. For the first time I would not blame them.
Side note. It was interesting how few of us were wearing masks and trying to social distance. Maybe 20 of us. It is a huge pole barn that my one uncle doesn’t use anymore because he only has a few beef cattle now and leases out most of his farm to other farmers. At least my aunt was considerate enough to keep a space on the other side of the food tables for those of us worried about spreading COVID. He was not the only member of my family making fun of the “maskers”. Not like in a mean way or anything, not that I heard anyway, just that that the virus was joke and how timid we were being. Still, with everyone packed on the other side of the barn they were warm enough that we got all of the space heaters. Was toasty warm even with the two big doors on our side open to keep it well ventilated. I was surprised by the care my aunt took, especially considering that she was not wearing a mask or on our side of the barn. So I was saddened by everyone who was unconcerned about the spread of COVID-19, but impressed at how well they made it work for everyone. It was a good event, I only hope that I didn’t screw it up too bad for everyone.
@_Nightfall_ " Does not make what I did right and now I have to live with the guilt of it."
I don't see anything wrong with what you did. Abusers THRIVE on their victims not wanting to speak out or "make a scene." I wish more people had the courage to do what you did, even if it was only because you were so angry at the time.
MacLeod's twitter thread is misleading. As he confuses the "COVID Bill" with the omnibus spending bill -- of which the COVID relief package is a part. The omnibus spending bill contains all the government spending for a certain time period (iirc six month but I might not be correct on that).
That means that the bill includes previously negotiated spending items between the two legislatures. It's simply dishonest to frame the spending items MacLeod enumerates against COVID relief.
Frankly, I'm just glad we're finally putting legislation in place to support reincarnation. The social contract applies to this *and* every other life I plan on having.
@_Nightfall_: I'm proud of you for standing up for yourself. It takes a massive amount of courage to do that. You were absolutely within your rights to do it. If anything, doing it in front of all those people makes it even more commendable. Speaking the truth to an audience is even better than speaking it to just one or two people.
You did the right thing. The fact of the matter is, as painful as it must have been for that person, it's healthy for these things to happen. You didn't just call out an abuser; you showed to everyone present that it's okay to stand up for yourself and speak up about abuse and trauma, and breaking the silence is how we fight abuse.
It sends a powerful message to any survivors that they're not alone and they should not be ashamed. It also sends a powerful message to any abusers, past or future, that they cannot hurt people safely; they cannot count on the silence to shield them from their own actions.
Thank you. I'm sorry if it hurt to know the impact it had on that one person, and I'm sure it was awkward for you as well. But you did the right thing, and I'm glad you spoke up.
MacLeod's twitter thread is misleading. As he confuses the "COVID Bill" with the omnibus spending bill -- of which the COVID relief package is a part. The omnibus spending bill contains all the government spending for a certain time period (iirc six month but I might not be correct on that).
That means that the bill includes previously negotiated spending items between the two legislatures. It's simply dishonest to frame the spending items MacLeod enumerates against COVID relief.
Its dishonest to put those "previously negotiated spending items" into a must pass bill that includes the covid relief money.
You make it seem like doing this and then giving people two hours to read it before the vote was not intentional. It was.
I see McConnell made it a personal mission to make sure funding for madatory paid leave for workers who actually HAVE COVID-19 was removed. And people still wonder why we are where we are. We won't even encourage or make sure people who are ACTIVELY sick can stay home and still pay the bills.
It's no small feat to one-up the failure of their last go-round in power, which included Iraq, Katrina, and a financial meltdown. Yet Republicans keep raising (or lowering) that bar at every opportunity. At this rate, when they take total control again in 2028, we can expect something WORSE than this. I shudder to even imagine.
MacLeod's twitter thread is misleading. As he confuses the "COVID Bill" with the omnibus spending bill -- of which the COVID relief package is a part. The omnibus spending bill contains all the government spending for a certain time period (iirc six month but I might not be correct on that).
That means that the bill includes previously negotiated spending items between the two legislatures. It's simply dishonest to frame the spending items MacLeod enumerates against COVID relief.
Its dishonest to put those "previously negotiated spending items" into a must pass bill that includes the covid relief money.
You make it seem like doing this and then giving people two hours to read it before the vote was not intentional. It was.
How?
It’s previously negotiated. It was already written. It was already read and put aside waiting for everything else to be finished.
If a lawmaker didn’t know about it and didn’t object to that type of spending it’s on them for not being informed about when these items were being discussed.
If it is something the government is going to spend money on in the next 6 months, it needs to be in this bill. Of course the COVID relief is the one most tax payers care more about and both Sanders and a Republican Senator whose name escapes me at the moment attempted to get the COVID passed separately but it didn’t work because one other senator blocked it (which is odd that 1% of a governing body can do that, but I digress).
MacLeod's twitter thread is misleading. As he confuses the "COVID Bill" with the omnibus spending bill -- of which the COVID relief package is a part. The omnibus spending bill contains all the government spending for a certain time period (iirc six month but I might not be correct on that).
That means that the bill includes previously negotiated spending items between the two legislatures. It's simply dishonest to frame the spending items MacLeod enumerates against COVID relief.
Its dishonest to put those "previously negotiated spending items" into a must pass bill that includes the covid relief money.
You make it seem like doing this and then giving people two hours to read it before the vote was not intentional. It was.
How?
It’s previously negotiated. It was already written. It was already read and put aside waiting for everything else to be finished.
If a lawmaker didn’t know about it and didn’t object to that type of spending it’s on them for not being informed about when these items were being discussed.
If it is something the government is going to spend money on in the next 6 months, it needs to be in this bill. Of course the COVID relief is the one most tax payers care more about and both Sanders and a Republican Senator whose name escapes me at the moment attempted to get the COVID passed separately but it didn’t work because one other senator blocked it (which is odd that 1% of a governing body can do that, but I digress).
Trump took this exact same tactic a couple minutes ago. After sitting on the sidelines and doing NOTHING the entire negotiation, he listed all the earmarks (mentioned studying fish numerous times, as that is always an old warhorse) and then said he isn't going to sign it and wants everyone to get $2000. The Republican Senate will NEVER agree to that, so I don't know who the fuck he thinks he has to convince. Because it isn't the Democrats.
Here is Pelosi saying within minutes she would pass such a measure in the House. She does not make empty promises about how her caucus would vote:
MacLeod's twitter thread is misleading. As he confuses the "COVID Bill" with the omnibus spending bill -- of which the COVID relief package is a part. The omnibus spending bill contains all the government spending for a certain time period (iirc six month but I might not be correct on that).
That means that the bill includes previously negotiated spending items between the two legislatures. It's simply dishonest to frame the spending items MacLeod enumerates against COVID relief.
Its dishonest to put those "previously negotiated spending items" into a must pass bill that includes the covid relief money.
You make it seem like doing this and then giving people two hours to read it before the vote was not intentional. It was.
We can debate the merits of packaging these bills together. But it's still profoundly dishonest for an ostensible reporter to do what MacLeod did. It fails to give the correct context. I mean he even further disgraces himself by characterizing the Venezuela stuff as "regime change" money, when the very text of the bill he's citing notes that some of these funds are being given to help countries that have taken in refugees.
If voters want to oppose some of the things in the ominbus bill of course that's fine. But by framing it as being part of the COVID releif bill, MacLeod is actually harming people's ability to lobby Congress on these issues. No member of Congress is going to be responsive to uninformed advocacy.
One example is the ~$500 million given to Israel for defense spending in the bill. This is likely a disbursement of funds agreed upon years ago. Failing to include the funding would mean breaking a past agreement between Congress, the White House and the state of Israel. Not something to be done lightly. But a naive reader of MacLeod's twitter thread would be mislead into believing that this was something debated and agreed upon the midst of COVID relief debates -- or surreptitiously added at the last minute, as you imply. Both of those characterizations are false.
Just to add, huge bills like the ominbus spending bill spend months in committees. These various parts of the bill have all been seen and combed over by members of both parties within those committees. Again, I'm not saying everything in them is stuff we should want (but Republicans control the Senate and the White House right now).
Almost all those committee hearings on aspects of this bill have been public and are recorded. Members and their staffs have had months to be aware of the things in the bill. And this giant bill is a giant collaboration between those committees. It's not some bill written just by Pelosi and her staff and then thrust out on the floor for a general vote.
Trump Pardoned 15, Including GOP Allies, a 2016 Campaign Official Ensnared in the Russia Probe, and Government Contractors Convicted in an Iraq Massacre
Criteria for a Trump pardon:
. War criminals
. Corrupt Republicans
. Convicted in the Russia probe
. Trump co-conspirator
The GOP has become an undemocratic un-American criminal conspiracy at this point.
I wonder how people of this country would react if another nation invaded us, killed innocent civilians and then got pardoned.
This isn't something that should be overlooked. This is the second time Trump has decided to just pardon cold-blooded murderers who slaughtered innocent people. These men were butchers:
Trump has suddenly demanded that the relief bill have its individual payouts increased from $600 to $2000, threatening a veto otherwise. The original bill had a veto proof majority, but Pelosi welcomed the move, and Democrats are going to unanimously support a bill with the $2000 payments instead of $600. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-bill.html
I have no idea what inspired Trump to do this--this is exactly the sort of thing the Democrats have been calling for and the GOP has opposed--but if Democrats revoke enough support for the current bill so that a Trump veto would kill it, Republican lawmakers might just consent to increasing the amount.
But that relies on multiple different factors to come together, and at the end of the day it seems like it would be a dealbreaker for McConnell. There's always the chance that Trump flip flops on it and withdraws the threat. Hopefully it can go through but I'm guessing Trump will either change his mind or the GOP will just kill a bill with $2000 payments.
Trump has suddenly demanded that the relief bill have its individual payouts increased from $600 to $2000, threatening a veto otherwise. The original bill had a veto proof majority, but Pelosi welcomed the move, and Democrats are going to unanimously support a bill with the $2000 payments instead of $600. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-bill.html
I have no idea what inspired Trump to do this--this is exactly the sort of thing the Democrats have been calling for and the GOP has opposed--but if Democrats revoke enough support for the current bill so that a Trump veto would kill it, Republican lawmakers might just consent to increasing the amount.
But that relies on multiple different factors to come together, and at the end of the day it seems like it would be a dealbreaker for McConnell. There's always the chance that Trump flip flops on it and withdraws the threat. Hopefully it can go through but I'm guessing Trump will either change his mind or the GOP will just kill a bill with $2000 payments.
I mean, Pelosi has already called his bluff and said the House Dems will pass a bill in the coming days with $2000.00 payments. It'll be interesting to see how this ends up being their fault anyway if it doesn't happen. Frankly, I think it's just BS posturing by Trump (again, he could have leaned on Republican Senators at ANY time in the last few months and didn't), or he thinks if he gives people alot of money they'll be inclined to let him stay in office despite soundly losing an election.
Trump has suddenly demanded that the relief bill have its individual payouts increased from $600 to $2000, threatening a veto otherwise. The original bill had a veto proof majority, but Pelosi welcomed the move, and Democrats are going to unanimously support a bill with the $2000 payments instead of $600. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-bill.html
I have no idea what inspired Trump to do this--this is exactly the sort of thing the Democrats have been calling for and the GOP has opposed--but if Democrats revoke enough support for the current bill so that a Trump veto would kill it, Republican lawmakers might just consent to increasing the amount.
But that relies on multiple different factors to come together, and at the end of the day it seems like it would be a dealbreaker for McConnell. There's always the chance that Trump flip flops on it and withdraws the threat. Hopefully it can go through but I'm guessing Trump will either change his mind or the GOP will just kill a bill with $2000 payments.
I mean, Pelosi has already called his bluff and said the House Dems will pass a bill in the coming days with $2000.00 payments. It'll be interesting to see how this ends up being their fault anyway if it doesn't happen. Frankly, I think it's just BS posturing by Trump (again, he could have leaned on Republican Senators at ANY time in the last few months and didn't), or he thinks if he gives people alot of money they'll be inclined to let him stay in office despite soundly losing an election.
Trump has suddenly demanded that the relief bill have its individual payouts increased from $600 to $2000, threatening a veto otherwise. The original bill had a veto proof majority, but Pelosi welcomed the move, and Democrats are going to unanimously support a bill with the $2000 payments instead of $600. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-bill.html
I have no idea what inspired Trump to do this--this is exactly the sort of thing the Democrats have been calling for and the GOP has opposed--but if Democrats revoke enough support for the current bill so that a Trump veto would kill it, Republican lawmakers might just consent to increasing the amount.
But that relies on multiple different factors to come together, and at the end of the day it seems like it would be a dealbreaker for McConnell. There's always the chance that Trump flip flops on it and withdraws the threat. Hopefully it can go through but I'm guessing Trump will either change his mind or the GOP will just kill a bill with $2000 payments.
The white house has actually been sniping at McConnell a lot more than usual lately after McConnell acknowledged that Biden was the law president-elect. McConnell is also reportedly trying to stop any senators from objecting when the EVs are counted in congress of the 6th. Considering how totally and utterly petty Trump is, I wouldnt be at all surprised if he's doing that just to hurt McConnell and make him be the one to shoot down a super popular 2k stimulus check.
The other bits are as @jjstraka34 alluded to: Trump is maybe hopeful this makes people more receptive to the idea that the election should be overturned and perhaps even more generically: Trump wants to be liked and remembered positively, and maybe sees this as a way to prop up part of his legacy.
Trump also talked a big game during the first COVID relief bill in the summer, claiming to want a payroll tax holiday included. He never got it and didn't veto the bill then.
Comments
I dispute that fact for some. There would be value in our leaders setting a good example and being careful and practicing good health hygiene. There would also be value in them getting sick and telling others hey this is no joke take it seriously like Chris Christie did.
Additionally, earlier today Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) who is worth $24 million (despite getting paid a $174k salary), stopped $1200 stimulus checks.
That guy, who previously voted for Trump's 4 trillion dollar tax cut for the rich, was suddenly deeply concerned about the deficit and cancelled checks going out.
I come from Wisconsin.
I work in a lumber yard there.
Everyone that I meet
when I walk down the street
says "Hello, what's your name?"
and I say:
My name is Ron Johnson.
I come from Wisconsin...
Seriously.
Martial law and Sidney Powell. We're in the apparently undiscovered 4.5th stage of grief over the election loss: Total insanity.
People voted for this guy knowing what kind of a piece of work he is. That's very disappointing.
Speaker phones and conference calls exist.
Doesn’t mean it isn’t BS though.
Huge family gathering today, over a hundred and fifty people, many I did not know. Normally I would not be a part of that but I have been hurting and needed a distraction, even with the pandemic. I thought that it had been long enough and that I would be okay. Not quite. My one cousin starts bashing me right away. I always thought we would be okay, grew up next door when his father bought my grandparents farm when the were getting ready to retire and move, and put a trailer on a small 5 acre plot on the edge of the farm until they were ready to move. I took punishments for him as often if not more than everyone else growing up.
Anyway he kept bashing me and finally he said, You should just go, no one wants you here. I broke and stared him in the eye and asked if he wanted to go there. He just said, Yes, you should go. Then with over a hundred of our closest family watching I told them the truth.
When you were 13 and I was 10, you were the first person to put a penis inside me south of my mouth. Was not an isolated incident either was it? Happened many times. How can you think to take the moral high ground now? Like somehow you are better than me? Do you think it would be okay for your friends on Facebook to know that you fucked a ten year old child? And I left.
I felt horrible but was just so mad. My brothers both called later and said that I destroyed him, no one would talk to him and he left soon after I did. I am in agony, I did not want to hurt him, I just wanted him to shut up. Why do I lash out like that? He was not the only one or even the worst, but he was the first. He was a child too and I think that I did more damage to him in five minutes than he did to me in all of our childhood. I feel so bad and wish that I could take it back.
I am not looking for absolution here, just well... was I absolutely evil to do that to him? It really feels like it right now.
Just based on your story, the reason he was saying no one wanted you there was precisely because he knew what he did when he was younger. He didn't forget. I would bet any amount of money that was the explicit reason he confronted you. Because he couldn't deal with himself. If he'd kept his mouth shut, no one would know his dirty little secret, or what he has been hiding or denying his entire life. So at the risk of sounding cruel and heartless, he did this to himself. Play with fire, you get burned and all that. I don't believe he deserved it because of what he did when he was 13. I sorta do believe he deserved it for what he did today.
Sadly, the only way certain people are going to learn to at least FAKE empathy and politeness in public is if the tables are turned on them. What he did today was just him thinking he could exert the same type of dominance he did back then. Didn't work out so well for him it seems. How much abuse is someone like yourself expected to absorb coming from someone you know is a blatant hypocrite?? Eventually, turning the other cheek and allowing yourself to be slapped on the other side of the face (metaphorically) just isn't feasible anymore.
If we absolutely have to tie it into politics, I mean, you can't count the amount of religious conservatives who were MOST vocal about opposing gay rights in the last twenty years who were caught having extramarital homosexual relationships on two hands. I'm not a psychiatrist, but whenever I see someone who is clearly going far overboard even in relation to the boiler plate condemnation of the LGBTQ lifestyle, I automatically assume they have some serious skeletons in their closet.
He spreads so much hate on Facebook and is a big part of why I deleted my account as soon as it was possible to do so. Does not make what I did right and now I have to live with the guilt of it. It had been so many years since I have seen anyone in the family, much less all of them except my sister who is recovering from pneumonia, I don’t think I will be invited again. For the first time I would not blame them.
Side note. It was interesting how few of us were wearing masks and trying to social distance. Maybe 20 of us. It is a huge pole barn that my one uncle doesn’t use anymore because he only has a few beef cattle now and leases out most of his farm to other farmers. At least my aunt was considerate enough to keep a space on the other side of the food tables for those of us worried about spreading COVID. He was not the only member of my family making fun of the “maskers”. Not like in a mean way or anything, not that I heard anyway, just that that the virus was joke and how timid we were being. Still, with everyone packed on the other side of the barn they were warm enough that we got all of the space heaters. Was toasty warm even with the two big doors on our side open to keep it well ventilated. I was surprised by the care my aunt took, especially considering that she was not wearing a mask or on our side of the barn. So I was saddened by everyone who was unconcerned about the spread of COVID-19, but impressed at how well they made it work for everyone. It was a good event, I only hope that I didn’t screw it up too bad for everyone.
I don't see anything wrong with what you did. Abusers THRIVE on their victims not wanting to speak out or "make a scene." I wish more people had the courage to do what you did, even if it was only because you were so angry at the time.
That means that the bill includes previously negotiated spending items between the two legislatures. It's simply dishonest to frame the spending items MacLeod enumerates against COVID relief.
You did the right thing. The fact of the matter is, as painful as it must have been for that person, it's healthy for these things to happen. You didn't just call out an abuser; you showed to everyone present that it's okay to stand up for yourself and speak up about abuse and trauma, and breaking the silence is how we fight abuse.
It sends a powerful message to any survivors that they're not alone and they should not be ashamed. It also sends a powerful message to any abusers, past or future, that they cannot hurt people safely; they cannot count on the silence to shield them from their own actions.
Thank you. I'm sorry if it hurt to know the impact it had on that one person, and I'm sure it was awkward for you as well. But you did the right thing, and I'm glad you spoke up.
Its dishonest to put those "previously negotiated spending items" into a must pass bill that includes the covid relief money.
You make it seem like doing this and then giving people two hours to read it before the vote was not intentional. It was.
It's no small feat to one-up the failure of their last go-round in power, which included Iraq, Katrina, and a financial meltdown. Yet Republicans keep raising (or lowering) that bar at every opportunity. At this rate, when they take total control again in 2028, we can expect something WORSE than this. I shudder to even imagine.
How?
It’s previously negotiated. It was already written. It was already read and put aside waiting for everything else to be finished.
If a lawmaker didn’t know about it and didn’t object to that type of spending it’s on them for not being informed about when these items were being discussed.
If it is something the government is going to spend money on in the next 6 months, it needs to be in this bill. Of course the COVID relief is the one most tax payers care more about and both Sanders and a Republican Senator whose name escapes me at the moment attempted to get the COVID passed separately but it didn’t work because one other senator blocked it (which is odd that 1% of a governing body can do that, but I digress).
Trump took this exact same tactic a couple minutes ago. After sitting on the sidelines and doing NOTHING the entire negotiation, he listed all the earmarks (mentioned studying fish numerous times, as that is always an old warhorse) and then said he isn't going to sign it and wants everyone to get $2000. The Republican Senate will NEVER agree to that, so I don't know who the fuck he thinks he has to convince. Because it isn't the Democrats.
Here is Pelosi saying within minutes she would pass such a measure in the House. She does not make empty promises about how her caucus would vote:
The whole time, the issue has been Gravedigger of Democracy Mitch McConnell. This is exposing the Senate Republicans.
We can debate the merits of packaging these bills together. But it's still profoundly dishonest for an ostensible reporter to do what MacLeod did. It fails to give the correct context. I mean he even further disgraces himself by characterizing the Venezuela stuff as "regime change" money, when the very text of the bill he's citing notes that some of these funds are being given to help countries that have taken in refugees.
If voters want to oppose some of the things in the ominbus bill of course that's fine. But by framing it as being part of the COVID releif bill, MacLeod is actually harming people's ability to lobby Congress on these issues. No member of Congress is going to be responsive to uninformed advocacy.
One example is the ~$500 million given to Israel for defense spending in the bill. This is likely a disbursement of funds agreed upon years ago. Failing to include the funding would mean breaking a past agreement between Congress, the White House and the state of Israel. Not something to be done lightly. But a naive reader of MacLeod's twitter thread would be mislead into believing that this was something debated and agreed upon the midst of COVID relief debates -- or surreptitiously added at the last minute, as you imply. Both of those characterizations are false.
Almost all those committee hearings on aspects of this bill have been public and are recorded. Members and their staffs have had months to be aware of the things in the bill. And this giant bill is a giant collaboration between those committees. It's not some bill written just by Pelosi and her staff and then thrust out on the floor for a general vote.
Criteria for a Trump pardon:
. War criminals
. Corrupt Republicans
. Convicted in the Russia probe
. Trump co-conspirator
The GOP has become an undemocratic un-American criminal conspiracy at this point.
I wonder how people of this country would react if another nation invaded us, killed innocent civilians and then got pardoned.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-bill.html
I have no idea what inspired Trump to do this--this is exactly the sort of thing the Democrats have been calling for and the GOP has opposed--but if Democrats revoke enough support for the current bill so that a Trump veto would kill it, Republican lawmakers might just consent to increasing the amount.
But that relies on multiple different factors to come together, and at the end of the day it seems like it would be a dealbreaker for McConnell. There's always the chance that Trump flip flops on it and withdraws the threat. Hopefully it can go through but I'm guessing Trump will either change his mind or the GOP will just kill a bill with $2000 payments.
I mean, Pelosi has already called his bluff and said the House Dems will pass a bill in the coming days with $2000.00 payments. It'll be interesting to see how this ends up being their fault anyway if it doesn't happen. Frankly, I think it's just BS posturing by Trump (again, he could have leaned on Republican Senators at ANY time in the last few months and didn't), or he thinks if he gives people alot of money they'll be inclined to let him stay in office despite soundly losing an election.
For $10,000 I'd change MY vote...
The white house has actually been sniping at McConnell a lot more than usual lately after McConnell acknowledged that Biden was the law president-elect. McConnell is also reportedly trying to stop any senators from objecting when the EVs are counted in congress of the 6th. Considering how totally and utterly petty Trump is, I wouldnt be at all surprised if he's doing that just to hurt McConnell and make him be the one to shoot down a super popular 2k stimulus check.
The other bits are as @jjstraka34 alluded to: Trump is maybe hopeful this makes people more receptive to the idea that the election should be overturned and perhaps even more generically: Trump wants to be liked and remembered positively, and maybe sees this as a way to prop up part of his legacy.