United States Politics Thread 47

[Raphael]

Or for getting past the massed rows of ICE agents outside the polling places.

I don't have the links ready right now, but apparently, some people have done the math on that, and there don't seem to be enough ICE agents to have "massed rows" of them outside more than a fairly small share of all polling places.

[Richard W]

I don't have the links ready right now, but apparently, some people have done the math on that, and there don't seem to be enough ICE agents to have "massed rows" of them outside more than a fairly small share of all polling places.

For the House of Representatives, they only need to be stationed in selected areas of marginal districts. One assumes their ranks won't be swollen by fake ICE agents.

[jcb]

Given that it cost fees to get a passport, wouldn't such a law directly violate the 24th Amendment? Yes, I know, the current corrupt apparatchik US Supreme Court would uphold it anyway, but I just want to note that for the record.

A more serious issue is whether it must be issued even if requested for nefarious purposes, such as voting democrat.

Or for getting past the massed rows of ICE agents outside the polling places.

Seriously, though, aren't the sections of society most given to voting for Trump much the same as those least likely to travel outside the USA, and thus least likely to have passports?

Of course, this restriction will only be used against certain people in certain places...

[jcb]

The "missing minute" from the video of the Epstein's cell tier has been found in the recently released batch of three million Epstein files!
(1) It shows only that somebody walked to (or past) the wing of Epstein's cell during that time. (The angle and quality of the camera are still shit, of course.) It's still suspicious that they thought it was worth hiding though.
(2) It turns out that Pam Bondi was lying when she said that the last minute of every video of every day in the prison was missing.
(3) The unedited video was found by changing the extension of a "pdf" file that loaded nothing to "mp4".
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVEvFIPTxdI

[bradrn]

The "missing minute" from the video of the Epstein's cell tier has been found in the recently released batch of three million Epstein files!
(1) It shows only that somebody walked to (or past) the wing of Epstein's cell during that time. (The angle and quality of the camera are still shit, of course.) It's still suspicious that they thought it was worth hiding though.
(2) It turns out that Pam Bondi was lying when she said that the last minute of every video of every day in the prison was missing.
(3) The unedited video was found by changing the extension of a "pdf" file that loaded nothing to "mp4".
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVEvFIPTxdI

Or maybe they genuinely made a mistake and actually thought it was missing. I never thought it would contain anything interesting in the first place, quite honestly.

[jcb]

The "missing minute" from the video of the Epstein's cell tier has been found in the recently released batch of three million Epstein files!
(1) It shows only that somebody walked to (or past) the wing of Epstein's cell during that time. (The angle and quality of the camera are still shit, of course.) It's still suspicious that they thought it was worth hiding though.
(2) It turns out that Pam Bondi was lying when she said that the last minute of every video of every day in the prison was missing.
(3) The unedited video was found by changing the extension of a "pdf" file that loaded nothing to "mp4".
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVEvFIPTxdI

Or maybe they genuinely made a mistake and actually thought it was missing. I never thought it would contain anything interesting in the first place, quite honestly.

Why would they think it was missing? The original version is the full version. The version with the "missing minute" had to be edited into existence.

[bradrn]

The "missing minute" from the video of the Epstein's cell tier has been found in the recently released batch of three million Epstein files!
(1) It shows only that somebody walked to (or past) the wing of Epstein's cell during that time. (The angle and quality of the camera are still shit, of course.) It's still suspicious that they thought it was worth hiding though.
(2) It turns out that Pam Bondi was lying when she said that the last minute of every video of every day in the prison was missing.
(3) The unedited video was found by changing the extension of a "pdf" file that loaded nothing to "mp4".
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVEvFIPTxdI

Or maybe they genuinely made a mistake and actually thought it was missing. I never thought it would contain anything interesting in the first place, quite honestly.

Why would they think it was missing? The original version is the full version. The version with the "missing minute" had to be edited into existence.

Not necessarily. Computer systems do many strange things.

[Travis B.]

Or maybe they genuinely made a mistake and actually thought it was missing. I never thought it would contain anything interesting in the first place, quite honestly.

Why would they think it was missing? The original version is the full version. The version with the "missing minute" had to be edited into existence.

Not necessarily. Computer systems do many strange things.

That's naive. That minute was missing because someone wanted it to be missing.

[jcb]

Or maybe they genuinely made a mistake and actually thought it was missing. I never thought it would contain anything interesting in the first place, quite honestly.

Why would they think it was missing? The original version is the full version. The version with the "missing minute" had to be edited into existence.

Not necessarily. Computer systems do many strange things.

With all due respect, you are naive and gullible.

Do you also believe that all the other cameras on that tier (all of which had better angles of view) happened to fail at the same time?

[bradrn]

Why would they think it was missing? The original version is the full version. The version with the "missing minute" had to be edited into existence.

Not necessarily. Computer systems do many strange things.

With all due respect, you are naive and gullible.

Do you also believe that all the other cameras on that tier (all of which had better angles of view) happened to fail at the same time?

I didn’t say the cameras failed (it’s clear now that they didn’t). If it was innocuous (I’m not saying that it was, mind you, just that it’s conceivable that it was), it could easily have been any other part of the CCTV system.

Basically, it comes down to Hanlon’s razor: ‘Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity’.

[Raphael]

Basically, it comes down to Hanlon’s razor: ‘Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity’.

I think in the case of that crowd, it's been clear for a while that both of those are usually present at the same time.

Never posit a binary between malice and stupidity when there's every reason to believe that you're dealing with both.

[malloc]

At the risk of sounding like a doomer, the Trump regime has democracy in check (if not quite check mate) with the SAVE act under serious consideration in the senate. If passed, it will make voting incredibly difficult for many women and lower income people, effectively guaranteeing GOP victory in elections for the foreseeable future.

[Travis B.]

At the risk of sounding like a doomer, the Trump regime has democracy in check (if not quite check mate) with the SAVE act under serious consideration in the senate. If passed, it will make voting incredibly difficult for many women and lower income people, effectively guaranteeing GOP victory in elections for the foreseeable future.

At least, it seems that the SAVE act has no real chance of passing the Senate at this point.

[malloc]

So what does everyone here think about the upcoming war with Iran? People used to complain that "nothing ever happens" and declare that "Trump always chickens out" but it looks like those days are over with a vengeance.

[jcb]

The Ministry Board of Peace had its first meeting.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvMzlACtrqY

[alice]

"Strategic Partnerships Driving Success"??? That's an empty piece of management-speak, not a convincing motto for an international quasi-political organisation.

As for war with Iran: it's just about the stupidest thing Trump, or any US President for that matter, could do, not that means he won't seriously think about doing it.

[jcb]

So what does everyone here think about the upcoming war with Iran? People used to complain that "nothing ever happens" and declare that "Trump always chickens out" but it looks like those days are over with a vengeance.

The Dow hit 50,000, so it can't be that important!
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7yv4fpfDbs

[lëtzeshark]

The "Liberation Day" tariffs were just declared invalid in Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc., though the response was just to impose an across-the-board 10% tariff under a different provision (the Trade Act of 1974). Tariffs under the Trade Act, though, are time-limited (150 days), so whether or not Congress chooses to act on them is a different story... and especially with the November elections approaching, that might be a thing Congress doesn't want to touch.

At least, it seems that the SAVE act has no real chance of passing the Senate at this point.

It also seems like a law like that could be ripe for a constitutional challenge, primarily because most election rules are state-level and not federally determined. And it's also funny that military IDs are "acceptable" under the act, because military ID cards can be issued to non-citizens as well as to citizens. There's always plenty of grandstanding in terms of laws that probably don't have a chance in the other House and which are very likely unconstitutional, like one bill I saw proposed to outright ban double citizenship (this question was litigated long ago: Afroyim v. Rusk, Vance v. Terrazas...).

[Raphael]

like one bill I saw proposed to outright ban double citizenship (this question was litigated long ago: Afroyim v. Rusk, Vance v. Terrazas...).

So if some other country would want to see a specific US citizen whom it doesn't like - perhaps a politician or political commentator or a businessperson - to be stripped of their US citizenship, all that country would have to do would be to pass a law saying "This person is hereby granted the citizenship of our country, whether they agree to it or not"?

[bradrn]

like one bill I saw proposed to outright ban double citizenship (this question was litigated long ago: Afroyim v. Rusk, Vance v. Terrazas...).

So if some other country would want to see a specific US citizen whom it doesn't like - perhaps a politician or political commentator or a businessperson - to be stripped of their US citizenship, all that country would have to do would be to pass a law saying "This person is hereby granted the citizenship of our country, whether they agree to it or not"?

This actually happened in Australia a few years ago, because members of Parliament are forbidden from holding dual citizenship: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%8 ... ity_crisis