American Politics III: New President, Same Old Country

[Nakena]

Tom Clancy was an insanely popular author of techno-thrillers in the 1990s (who also sort of predicted 9/11) and his idealized (if conservative) version of America is somewhat close of what you believe your ideal america to be.

It's also close to the america of movies such as "Air Force One" or various Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay's transformers etc. The cultural sucessor to Eagleland. The opposite to Donald Trump's ugly Murica, CSA etc.

And honestly, by all your posts I ever read, you always gave me the impression that this is the kind of America you believe in your hearts of hearts. Don't you?

PS: I am hyperbole ofc.

My ideal America is an America that one can be proud of without having to justify that pride.

Something which has not existed for at least 40 years, if it ever did.

40 years? So the america of 1980 for example? I mean i get what you mean but even if you go back to that time, it isnt really what you think what it was. It's a glorified and mostly imaginary past. At least as far as you given views go. Ironically enough the time of your ideal america would be probably be closer to the early Obama years. Which was however, as it turned out, only a transitional phase.

[Kowani]

Illinois to end Cash Bail, limit high-tech incarceration

[Cannot think of a name]

It sounds like he wants money to cover the extra cost of keeping it from becoming a disaster if I'm reading that right, which kind of makes sense. Ultimately it would be cheaper to go ahead pay for the tiger repelling rock than it would if the tiger actually turned out to be real. Or bear, I can't remember the gag now. But he's in that frustrating position of only getting help if he lets it go to shit.

Bear Patrol, tiger repelling rock. You good.

Let's not get carried away, I'm a plagiarist in the name of pop culture references.

[Cannot think of a name]

Illinois to end Cash Bail, limit high-tech incarceration

I'm so fucking confused at this point where California is with cash bail. I thought we voted to get of that shit, but then I guess we revoted to get it back again...I just want it to go away.

[Kowani]

Illinois to end Cash Bail, limit high-tech incarceration

I'm so fucking confused at this point where California is with cash bail. I thought we voted to get of that shit, but then I guess we revoted to get it back again...I just want it to go away.

We voted on it in November
Cash bail won

[Shrillland]

Illinois to end Cash Bail, limit high-tech incarceration

Yep, the original bill would've also ended privileged immunity, but the Senate wouldn't go for it.

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

I'm so fucking confused at this point where California is with cash bail. I thought we voted to get of that shit, but then I guess we revoted to get it back again...I just want it to go away.

We voted on it in November
Cash bail won

Am I missing something here?

Proposition 25, officially the Referendum to Overturn a 2018 Law That Replaced Money Bail System with A System Based on Public Safety Risk, is a California ballot proposition that appeared on the ballot for the general election on November 3, 2020.[1] The "no" side prevailed, resulting in retention of the system of cash bail in the state.[2]

Failing to overturn the law, should leave the law in place?

[Heloin]

Bear Patrol, tiger repelling rock. You good.

Let's not get carried away, I'm a plagiarist in the name of pop culture references.

We're here, we're queer, we don't want anymore bears!

[Cannot think of a name]

I'm so fucking confused at this point where California is with cash bail. I thought we voted to get of that shit, but then I guess we revoted to get it back again...I just want it to go away.

We voted on it in November
Cash bail won

That's what I said. We also voted it out before that but then it didn't go away and then this vote. I both hate and kinda like the proposition system. I'm as confounded by it as often as it comes through.

[Shrillland]

We voted on it in November
Cash bail won

Am I missing something here?

Proposition 25, officially the Referendum to Overturn a 2018 Law That Replaced Money Bail System with A System Based on Public Safety Risk, is a California ballot proposition that appeared on the ballot for the general election on November 3, 2020.[1] The "no" side prevailed, resulting in retention of the system of cash bail in the state.[2]

Failing to overturn the law, should leave the law in place?

These veto referendums can be confusing, but voting No, in this case, meant they rejected SB10, the law that abolished cash bail. It wasn't just the right, though, the ACLU and Human Rights Watch also condemned the risk assessments that were being used to replace bail since they relied on computer algorithms that had been proven to show racial bias.

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

Am I missing something here?

Proposition 25, officially the Referendum to Overturn a 2018 Law That Replaced Money Bail System with A System Based on Public Safety Risk, is a California ballot proposition that appeared on the ballot for the general election on November 3, 2020.[1] The "no" side prevailed, resulting in retention of the system of cash bail in the state.[2]

Failing to overturn the law, should leave the law in place?

These veto referendums can be confusing, but voting No, in this case, meant they rejected SB10, the law that abolished cash bail. It wasn't just the right, though, the ACLU and Human Rights Watch also condemned the risk assessments that were being used to replace bail since they relied on computer algorithms that had been proven to show racial bias.

Well that's silly of them. Injustice has to be allowed to happen before it can be challenged, and cash bail itself has a huge racial bias.

I should look more into their reasoning. I know there are good reasons to "get it right first time", to do with political capital.

[Kowani]

MyPillow has just been dropped by Bed, Bath, and Beyond


turns out, insurrection is bad for business

[Cannot think of a name]

We voted on it in November
Cash bail won

Am I missing something here?

Proposition 25, officially the Referendum to Overturn a 2018 Law That Replaced Money Bail System with A System Based on Public Safety Risk, is a California ballot proposition that appeared on the ballot for the general election on November 3, 2020.[1] The "no" side prevailed, resulting in retention of the system of cash bail in the state.[2]

Failing to overturn the law, should leave the law in place?

We're a schizophrenic state (despite everyone in their two minute hate of California thinking we're a hive mind communist state.

In 2018 we got rid of that shit.

California will become the first state in the nation to abolish bail for suspects awaiting trial under a sweeping reform bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday.

An overhaul of the state's bail system has been in the works for years, and became an inevitability earlier this year when a California appellate court declared the state's cash bail system unconstitutional. The new law goes into effect in October 2019.

"Today, California reforms its bail system so that rich and poor alike are treated fairly," Brown said in a statement, moments after signing the California Money Bail Reform Act.

The governor has waited nearly four decades to revamp the state's cash bail system. In his 1979 State of the State Address, Brown argued the existing process was biased, favoring the wealthy who can afford to pay for their freedom, and penalizing the poor, who often are forced to remain in custody.

But two years later...

Wait, you may be thinking, didn’t California already end cash bail? The answer is yes, legislation was passed, and no, it’s not in effect. Here’s a quick primer on where things stand.

The passage of Senate Bill 10

In August 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that would have abolished the state’s current money bail system, and replaced it with one that grants judges greater power to decide who should remain incarcerated before trial.

Passage of the historic legislation further positioned California as a leader in criminal justice reform. It also marked a decades-in-the-making victory for Brown, who had first called cash bail a “tax on poor people” in his 1979 State of the State address. Advocates for reform have long argued that money bail furthers racial and economic inequities in the criminal justice system and favors the wealthy.

But the law also spelled disaster for the bail industry at large. Los Angeles is home to the largest jail system in the country, and California accounts for roughly a quarter of the nation’s multibillion-dollar bail market. (In an interesting aside: Only two countries in the world have a money bail system reliant on commercial bail bondsmen — the United States and the Philippines.)

Then this bullshit happened:

Lex Steppling and his team of criminal justice activists knew they wanted to undo California’s law abolishing cash bail. They said it would merely replace one oppressive system with another, worsen racial inequities and give too much power to algorithms and judges.

They were convinced they were right. But he didn’t think they’d actually defeat Proposition 25 — especially not by a nearly 11-point margin.

“We didn’t expect to win, let alone win by so much,” Steppling said in an interview. “I’m still wrapping my head around that part.”

Which I guess is leading to more of this bullshit:

Proposition 25’s failure will likely cast a long shadow on justice reform in California. Lawmakers are barred from taking another crack at cash bail that is similar to the one voted down Tuesday. They might also be hesitant to take it up again, saying the voters have already spoken.

That has longtime advocates on edge.

“You fear what you think you can’t change,” said Sam Lewis, head of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, among the most active criminal justice reform organizations in California. Lewis, who was released in prison in 2012 after serving 24 years, was among the fiercest supporters of Proposition 25. He said he thought the killing of George Floyd would have made people want to dismantle the system now more than ever.

“Instead,” Lewis said, “we kept a system that’s steeped in racism and criminalizes poor, black and brown people because we were afraid.”
What happens next?

Steppling’s organization says it has a plan to improve the jail system from the ground up. It’s unclear how exactly that plan would roll out and how much it could be deployed in counties across the state.

The replacement, he said, “does not begin and end in Sacramento.”

“If we let our sense of possibility be mediated by electeds, we would never get anywhere,” Steppling said. “We have to create a roadmap to something different, and then actually organize and do that work and build community pressure.”

Steppling said his group will work to replicate programs in other places like the one they helped push in Los Angeles County calling for jail diversion programs.

County-by-county, they plan to push a plan called Preserving the Presumption of Innocence. The plan calls for non-law-enforcement groups to evaluate people’s risk, counties to collect better data, and law enforcement to only detain people accused of serious or violent felonies. It is modeled, in part, from the bail reform law voters shot down Tuesday.

Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles, who wrote SB 10 and has championed bail reform, was unconvinced that Steppling’s work would be successful. He said his yearslong effort that culminated with Proposition 25 was, in fact, a grassroots effort with people across the state. It prompted new county-level public safety assessment programs and was the type of sweeping change to state law that is needed for a broken system.

“The only way to solve this is at a statewide level,” he said. “You can’t fix the bail system on a county by county basis. It just doesn’t work. It has no legal authority.”

State-level bail fights aren’t over. The California Supreme Court has a case pending that would force judges to consider a defendant’s ability to pay bail before setting it. The Humphrey case could force a reckoning about how high bail is set, eroding some of the industry’s profits. It’s why Hertzberg said that, despite Proposition 25 failing, the bail industry “is on life support and the oxygen is running out of their tank.”

So...you know...California politics.

[Bombadil]

Just.. what's the point..

President Donald Trump on Monday lifted coronavirus-related travel restrictions for much of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil, effective on January 26 -- a move that President-elect Joe Biden's administration has promised to block.

In an executive order issued Monday evening, Trump said he had been advised to lift restrictions on incoming travelers to the United States from the 26 European countries in the Schengen Zone, the UK, Ireland and Brazil but leave in place restrictions on travel from Iran and China.

"I agree with the Secretary that this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely," Trump wrote in the order, referring to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
Biden is set to take over the presidency on Wednesday and his incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that his administration would not lift the restrictions.

"With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," Psaki said on Twitter. "On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."

[A-Series-Of-Tubes]

MyPillow has just been dropped by Bed, Bath, and Beyond


turns out, insurrection is bad for business

1. Buy one, get one.
2. Buy two, get two.
3. ...
4. Buy into Trump's bullshit, get shitted on.

[Cannot think of a name]

Just.. what's the point..

President Donald Trump on Monday lifted coronavirus-related travel restrictions for much of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil, effective on January 26 -- a move that President-elect Joe Biden's administration has promised to block.

In an executive order issued Monday evening, Trump said he had been advised to lift restrictions on incoming travelers to the United States from the 26 European countries in the Schengen Zone, the UK, Ireland and Brazil but leave in place restrictions on travel from Iran and China.

"I agree with the Secretary that this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely," Trump wrote in the order, referring to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
Biden is set to take over the presidency on Wednesday and his incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that his administration would not lift the restrictions.

"With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," Psaki said on Twitter. "On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."

His entire exit strategy comes from the instructions on the side of fireworks: Light fuse, run away.

[Senkaku]

Just.. what's the point..

President Donald Trump on Monday lifted coronavirus-related travel restrictions for much of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil, effective on January 26 -- a move that President-elect Joe Biden's administration has promised to block.

In an executive order issued Monday evening, Trump said he had been advised to lift restrictions on incoming travelers to the United States from the 26 European countries in the Schengen Zone, the UK, Ireland and Brazil but leave in place restrictions on travel from Iran and China.

"I agree with the Secretary that this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely," Trump wrote in the order, referring to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
Biden is set to take over the presidency on Wednesday and his incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that his administration would not lift the restrictions.

"With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," Psaki said on Twitter. "On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."

The point is to give Biden as much shit as possible that he'll have to shovel as quickly as possible, tying up his first few weeks as much as possible as the new administration has to go undo a bunch of stuff Trump's just set in motion before it can take effect and start doing damage.

[Stellar Colonies]

I wonder if Trump will try to declassify anything...

Two more days...

[Kowani]

Just.. what's the point..

President Donald Trump on Monday lifted coronavirus-related travel restrictions for much of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil, effective on January 26 -- a move that President-elect Joe Biden's administration has promised to block.

In an executive order issued Monday evening, Trump said he had been advised to lift restrictions on incoming travelers to the United States from the 26 European countries in the Schengen Zone, the UK, Ireland and Brazil but leave in place restrictions on travel from Iran and China.

"I agree with the Secretary that this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely," Trump wrote in the order, referring to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
Biden is set to take over the presidency on Wednesday and his incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that his administration would not lift the restrictions.

"With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," Psaki said on Twitter. "On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."

The point is to give Biden as much shit as possible that he'll have to shovel as quickly as possible, tying up his first few weeks as much as possible as the new administration has to go undo a bunch of stuff Trump's just set in motion before it can take effect and start doing damage.

they're not even hiding it
it's very transparent

[Repubblica Fascista Sociale Italiana]

Just.. what's the point..

President Donald Trump on Monday lifted coronavirus-related travel restrictions for much of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil, effective on January 26 -- a move that President-elect Joe Biden's administration has promised to block.

In an executive order issued Monday evening, Trump said he had been advised to lift restrictions on incoming travelers to the United States from the 26 European countries in the Schengen Zone, the UK, Ireland and Brazil but leave in place restrictions on travel from Iran and China.

"I agree with the Secretary that this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely," Trump wrote in the order, referring to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
Biden is set to take over the presidency on Wednesday and his incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that his administration would not lift the restrictions.

"With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," Psaki said on Twitter. "On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."

To no one’s surprise, he’s willing to sacrifice American security for his own petty personal gains. Fuck him

[Kowani]

Qanon adherents discussed posing as National Guard to try to infiltrate inauguration, according to FBI intelligence briefing

[Zurkerx]

Just.. what's the point..

President Donald Trump on Monday lifted coronavirus-related travel restrictions for much of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil, effective on January 26 -- a move that President-elect Joe Biden's administration has promised to block.

In an executive order issued Monday evening, Trump said he had been advised to lift restrictions on incoming travelers to the United States from the 26 European countries in the Schengen Zone, the UK, Ireland and Brazil but leave in place restrictions on travel from Iran and China.

"I agree with the Secretary that this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely," Trump wrote in the order, referring to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
Biden is set to take over the presidency on Wednesday and his incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that his administration would not lift the restrictions.

"With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," Psaki said on Twitter. "On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."

The point is to give Biden as much shit as possible that he'll have to shovel as quickly as possible, tying up his first few weeks as much as possible as the new administration has to go undo a bunch of stuff Trump's just set in motion before it can take effect and start doing damage.

Essentially, he's going to try to undermine Biden's Administration as much as possible, like what those evil Democrats did to him! According to Trump's view at least. Trump is a very vengeful person. That said, Biden seems hellbent on plowing through: he won't allow Trump to be in the limelight no more.

[Luminesa]

MyPillow has just been dropped by Bed, Bath, and Beyond


turns out, insurrection is bad for business

I remember my mom buying one a couple years ago. It...did not help her neck pain at all. So it's not a good product either.

[The Black Forrest]

The point is to give Biden as much shit as possible that he'll have to shovel as quickly as possible, tying up his first few weeks as much as possible as the new administration has to go undo a bunch of stuff Trump's just set in motion before it can take effect and start doing damage.

Essentially, he's going to try to undermine Biden's Administration as much as possible, like what those evil Democrats did to him! According to Trump's view at least. Trump is a very vengeful person. That said, Biden seems hellbent on plowing through: he won't allow Trump to be in the limelight no more.

True. If trends keep up, he will be distracted by trying to find people to still do business with him.

[Kowani]

MyPillow has just been dropped by Bed, Bath, and Beyond


turns out, insurrection is bad for business

I remember my mom buying one a couple years ago. It...did not help her neck pain at all. So it's not a good product either.

that seems to have been the consensus of much of the thread, yes
mediocrity at best