It's gotten to the point that you have to wonder how much money he's getting from the Rs.

Biden just told the truth. Foolish in the forum, maybe, but the truth nonetheless. We aren't going to war over some border skirmish. It's going to take a full-fledged invasion before we even think about it.

The are an infinite number of truths that the leader of the free world isn’t supposed to say in a press conference. The guy is either senile or has incredibly poor judgement. Putin has got to be absolutely beside himself that the guy who got elected running against the guy he helped get in power partly on that platform is helping him arguably more than the first guy did.

Biden has always done this. He speaks the same in public as he does in private.

And this is being way overplayed. Putin knows that the big risk is economic, not military. He's not the only one that can see NATO has no interest in starting a potentially nuclear war over Ukraine.

So we got pissed because the former guy lied all the time, now we are pissed because the current guy tells the truth too much.

I don't think anybody is saying Biden's foot-in-mouth proclivities are as bad as Trump's lies.

Half the country is literally saying that

JFC he literally had to come out and walk his comments back after his Secretary of State had to contradict him while facing the music with our allies. But my team is better than the other team so fuck it right?

He’s a shit president and he’s handing the White House back to Trump or worse. Or is the 20% drop in approval rating all Republicans as well?

Again, he is just really dumb.

Pres. Biden called out Republicans after being asked if he ‘overpromised’ things to Americans: ‘I did not anticipate that there’d be such a stalwart effort to make sure … President Biden didn’t get anything done’ pic.twitter.com/Qf3w25Ntlu

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 19, 2022

All I'm saying is that what he said has no bearing on whether or not Putin attacks. If Putin, mistakenly IMO, thinks he can weather the economic hit, he'll attack. If he doesn't, he won't. Everybody involved knows there isn't going to be a war with NATO unless things get messy and spill over to a NATO neighbor. Ukraine is the most upset because they still think they will one day be in NATO. I get why they want that, see the above, but they aren't getting that and again, everyone involved knows this.

I meant here on the board. It's not half the country, but the people you're talking about mostly wouldn't be in favor of Biden if he walked on water while simultaneously solving world hunger and peace, curing cancer, and providing pain-free solutions to climate change.

I.e. as ever, what matters is what independents/moderate dems/etc. think of what Biden is doing. Not what those who can't be persuaded (conservatives in general) and those who will support him no matter what (liberals in general) say.

It was a dumb comment and absolute gaffe from Biden.

But yes, my team is absolutely better than the other team. I've been passionate about politics since the 80s and I've never felt more sure about that than I do right now.

That is a particularly baffling statement after serving as VP in the Obama administration for 8 years. Either he's absolutely clueless or he had some delusional belief that he was so great a statesman that he simply wouldn't have any of those issues.

I don't think Biden is that dumb. I think he most certainly knew better, and does. Only he can know for sure of course, but I'd say it smells like a convenient and bad excuse for what almost all politicians do - promising what they know they can't deliver.

Yup, and I think he could have done a much better job of handling it.

I think Biden's problem is his age, and I don't mean in an "old man is senile" way. I think he truly believed "politics as usual" would win the day when he became president - that the horse-trading and compromising he's been used to for 40 years would magically return once Trump was gone and people returned to normal. And he was sadly mistaken and delusional about that.

But that's basically what he ran on, as the great uniter. I think many people underestimated the Trump cult and partisan divide. I think that's why people like McConnell, Graham, Haley and McCarthy floated "Trump was responsible" trial balloons right after January 6th, only to feel the blow back and either go silent or do an about face. Biden wasn't alone, but he is president and is now facing the music for not delivering on what was, in hindsight (maybe foresight) an impossible task.

I think that's much of the Dem's issue is that they aren't fighting evenly. IE. they keep brining knives to gun fights

BUT

I also think a GREAT majority of Dems are center and thus if the DEMS do fight "dirty" those constituents, including me, may be turned off by the 'giving up' of fair play. I'm not torn on it until it happens, right. I mean right now I say "Fight dirty like they do" but then when they talk about things that are in that camp, ie. changing the Filibuster I feel the hair stand up on my neck.

Given the ideas espoused by the GOP these days, Flasch, it's either killing the filibuster or ending up with concentration camps.

(only kinda joking)

Wouldn't keeping the filibuster enable the democrats to employ the same tactics to prevent conservative policies from being implemented. No party will ever get 60 senators so we are stuck in this loop of nothing happening.

I think the Filibuster is done anyways. The next time the GOP takes control of the senate, you're going to see clip upon clip of Democrats calling the filibuster racist, anti-democratic etc... That Republicans will feel compelled to get rid of it on principle alone and do what the evil Democrats could not. Of course everyone will know this is BS but the end result is the same.

Democrats should probably get a jump on things now and find a way to bribe Manchin and Sinema.

What does the GOP want to do that will take 60 votes? They are mostly concerned with judges and financial things, which can be done with a majority. I honestly can't think of anything the GOP wanted to do where they had 51 votes but not 60. When they've failed, it hasn't been because of the filibuster, it's been because they can't get to 51.

edit: The first big test will be if they have a unified government in 2025 and SCOTUS has killed Roe v. Wade. At that point, I can't imagine they'll let a filibuster keep them from making abortion illegal nationwide.

That feels like '6 of 1 half dozen of the other' to me. He was dumb if he actually thought the Republicans would let him govern more than Obama, and he was just as dumb/incompetent if he knew those were empty promises but did absolutely nothing to prepare for or control the optics of that inevitable fallout.

Yeah, Republicans changed the rule for Supreme Court justices back in 2017. I don't think there is much legislation they really care about that requires 60 votes. Maybe tax cuts or corporate bailouts, but it's pretty easy to find Democrats willing to go along with that.

I believe tax cuts can generally be passed via reconciliation (i.e. 51 votes).

Yeah. It's also worth noting that these are all just modern made up rules that no one is forced to go by. McConnell didn't allow a confirmation hearing for an Obama Suprem Court justice which went against tradition.

Republicans will ignore any of these rules if they feel they can do something they want. Democrats won't.

A woman in VA said this:


and the cops said she apologized, so everything's fine.

Doesn't sound like the Feds kicked in her door and dragged her to jail, so I'm going to guess white.

Anyone figure out what Garland does for a living? Are we still paying him?

That was just a lucky guess...

This photo of Amelia King is posted on the Facebook page of Emry King. pic.twitter.com/cCnljhF338

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 21, 2022

Imagine how confident you have to be in your standing in society to just blurt out terrorist threats at a recorded public meeting in front of law enforcement.

Now imagine a Muslim man publically threatening to shoot up a school while having photos on social media holding weapons and gleefully supporting violent extremist groups.

Soon, imagining that will be illegal under VA's anti-CRT law.

Amelia King was charged with "oral threat on school property."

Page County woman charged after comments made at school board meeting

0% she would have been charged had this not gone viral.

oh no, that $2500 fine and/or up to 12 months in jail is going to be a harsh punishment.

What happened to dropping terroristic threatening charges on anyone who sneezed menacingly? After 9/11, that was all the rage.

And another one.

House committee in Florida passes 'Don't Say Gay' bill | TheHill

I like the play though. It is much easier to say that you did not know you were being hateful if you can say that you never learned anything that would have explained what you are doing is hateful in school.

Sure the Democrats won't do anything but you have to vote for them for the judges at least.....

NEW: Biden has nominated Jennifer Rearden — a former Trump judicial nominee, GOP donor, and corporate lawyer who has helped Chevron-aligned law firm Gibson Dunn target human rights attorney @SDonziger — to serve as a federal judge. https://t.co/2adn7sWYdS

— Revolving Door Project (@revolvingdoorDC) January 20, 2022

You joke but they literally charged someone with terrorism for coughing near a cop.

Woman faces terrorism charges for coughing near police officers and telling them she has COVID-19 | TheHill

Weird story that I guess falls in general politics. Workers at a hospital got a better offer from another hospital and took it. Court has now ruled they can't take it and must still work for the other hospital for less pay.

Wisconsin is an at-will state and serfdom is illegal I believe.

What we know the Ascension, ThedaCare court battle over employees

They aren't forcing the employees to work anywhere. The employees aren't even being sued. They are preventing one hospital system from hiring former employees of the other hospital system. So basically it is an injunction against the new employer. They have quit the other job and are not being forced to go back.
The judge was still wrong in granting the injuction from what the legal experts I am reading. It was shocking that he did. In the end, really the only thing the court could really do is force the one hospital to pay the other hospital damages if they could even prove damages. Stopping their employment was ridiculous. The employees are being punished and they are not even being sued.

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I'm not an expert on Appleton, but I imagine the opportunities for a highly skilled position like that is pretty limited. So if you are cutting off their opportunity to work somewhere else, you're essentially forcing them to work at the other hospital.

So yes, it's not suing the actual employees, but the purpose of the lawsuit is the same. To limit the free market and prevent employees from leaving.

Wisconsin is an at-will state with lots of folks who preach free market. They've been awfully quiet about this one.

This is a very key point. The judge's ruling effectively means "at-will" is a remedy only available to the employer.

Can you guys explain to me why we care about Russia invading Ukraine?

Land Creep... in my view. Watch any WW2 doc and see what Neville Chamberlin had to do with how the Nazi's got such a head start. Side bar, thank god for Winston Churchill.

I think everybody should care about a sovereign nation invading another one. It sets a horrible and very destructive precedent to decide that is ok. And yes, we tend to ignore it when it happens in certain parts of the world, but that doesn't mean we *should*.

They don't have aspirations that far into Europe. Nor do they have the means to do so.

You shouldn't care unless you work in the defense industry or have some altruistic reason you don't apply to your own country.

Absolutely Rainmaker. Hitler will be perfectly fine just absorbing the Sudetenland. He definitely won't want to go any further.

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Are you a Russian troll?

Maybe it's just me, but you seem rather keen on pointing out flaws in America (not always unjustified) but you're rather non-chalant about authoritarian Russia invading Ukraine.

Because it sets a precedence we do not want to encourage. Putin may be happy with Ukraine for a while but he'll think about others eventually.

Personally, I would go the political route and buy sympathizers who will eventually get elected to highest posts. It doesn't matter if Russia occupies Ukraine, it matter that Russia controls Ukraine.

But Putin took Crimea and won that gamble. He has a cult of personality of rebuilding Russia/USSR so something like economic/banking sanctions won't stop him (hey Germany, need some of our natural gas?) if he really wanted to go.

My biggest beef is why is the US, seemingly, taking the lead here in pushing back on Putin. EU should be doing that with US backing.

Pick up a history book so you can tell the difference in the two and why they are not remotely comparable. This is a dumb take, even for you.

The EU doesn't care enough. Also, because being a superpower has certain responsibilities, and this is one of them.