American Politics from 2019 on

[Tero]

Sanders cracks a joke

Not every senator is going out of their way to praise the Senate’s bipartisan streak: “You mean we were productive because the government didn’t shut down? There you go!” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “Do you want a scoop? ... I heard that all 100 members brush their teeth in the morning.”

Yet for the moment, Schumer and McConnell are delivering a bit of bipartisan compromise to the longest-running 50-50 Senate ever. It’s not always been pretty, but there’s been no debt defaults, no shutdown and no change in chamber control due to a party-switcher.

[rainbow]

Even black folks can vote, almost like Americans:

Mitch: “Well, the concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”

Puerto Ricans.

How much do their votes count?

[Tero]

American politics needs a war or an enemy to function

You see, I came to Washington in 1974, in the Ford administration, and then worked in the Carter administration. The cold war was raging during those years, serving as a kind of silent backdrop for everything else. Democrats and Republicans had different views on a host of issues, but we worked together because it was assumed that we had to. We faced a common threat.

The cold war had produced an array of bipartisan legislation involving huge investments in America – legislation that was justified by the Soviet threat but in reality had much more to do with the needs of the nation. The National Interstate and Defense Highway Act was designed to “permit quick evacuation of target areas” in case of nuclear attack and get munitions rapidly from city to city. Of course, in subsequent years it proved indispensable to America’s economic growth.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... sion-putin

[Brian Peacock]

If infrastructure investment 'proved indispensable to America’s economic growth' then there's no longer any need to use 'war' or 'enemies' to justify the investment..

[Tero]

But that is where the big money is. US defense budget is so big it dwarfs many GDPs.
$728.5 billion defense budget
Australia GDP 1370.00 USD Billion for 2021

[Svartalf]

and also, major works by the feds rely on the army corps en engineers

[Tero]

Freedom house ratings of various countries
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world

[Tero]

Freedom house ratings of various countries
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world

https://freedomhouse.org/country/united ... world/2022

We lose in the "leader" points because of the electoral college

also

[Tero]

So called independents have voted for democrats as hight as 50% (GOP40%) at times, but mostly 50/50
https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/part ... ation.aspx

[Tero]

The Trump effect may be temporary. If the white working classes lose interests in politics, we are back to:
The number of registered voters for the Republican Party is approximately 36 million.
The number of Democratic voters is reported to be around 49 million.
...the second-largest reporting party affiliation was the Independents. no number given.

[Tero]

Featuring Vance, who wrote a book "white people become racist because they are poor."

[Tero]

Senate races and abortion:
https://thehill.com/news/campaign/34800 ... e-fallout/

[macdoc]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... ource=digg

[Tero]

Americans: things are wrong. We are concerned. But not enough to bother to vote.

[rasetsu]

Madison Cawthorn is history. Huzzah! Huzzah! Now if only we can deep six Rand Paul.