When he’s being actively undermined by Republicans the whole way, just cleaning up Trump’s mess can be an accomplishment. The Inflation Reduction Act went against heavily entrenched interests to restart the US federal government’s response to climate change. It took real finesse to get that through Congress.

Nah, that’s a bit reductive. There’s internal dissent within the conservative movement. Not everyone’s willing to go full fasc with Trump. A good chunk of the judges that were ruling against him in the 2020 election were Federalist Society members.

The Federalist Society handpicked the the conservative majority, not the Heritage Foundation.

Why did it take a Constitutional amendment to allow non-white Americans to vote?

For that matter, why did it take a Constitutional amendment to consider Black Americans as citizens?

I can’t help but think that’s why Putin invaded Ukraine. He needed something to keep the masses distracted. He’s afraid that he’ll get assassinated if he ever leaves power, whether voluntarily or by violent overthrow.

America has always had racism, but America has never been a racist country

I’m really quite stunned by this claim. She seems to be parsing words to dodge reality. The US wrote slavery into its Constitution, engaged in a series of racist genocides of the indigenous people, and excluded immigrants of various ethnicities throughout its history. We’ve certainly improved, but to say we’ve never been governed by racism is either ignorant, revisionist, or pandering to some of the worst people.

It’s paid off sometimes in the Senate, like with the bipartisan infrastructure bill. That was passed in the Democrat-controlled House and then negotiated in the Senate. The problem is the current Republican-controlled House, where extreme right wingers hold much greater sway.

There’s certainly no need to tussle over it in California. Trump wouldn’t win in California anyway and it would just feed into the persecution narrative among his fan base.

This is the case I try to make to people on the left who complain about corporate white washing, or whatever they want to call it. Mainstream corporations feel like it’s advantageous to have their symbols out there in pride parades, environmentalist goals, anti-racism, and anti-sexism. Corporations are obligated at a certain level to follow the money, and they have read the signs and chosen to align themselves with these progressive causes. If nothing else, this is a good sign of where the country is headed.

It sounds like it was the bomber, Serhiy Batryn, that was reported as dead. Conflicting reports as to whether he has actually died. This was not related to Russia from what I could gather. He had a long standing feud with members of the local council.

Are you sure Judge Gen, Almighty Judge on High of All Beings Living and Dead for All Eternity, is not the more appropriate judge of this sort of thing?

What’s the relationship to the Burrito Supreme? Does it come with sour cream?

Judge, jury, and executioner, apparently.

That’s how I see it. Israel really hasn’t seen any public consequences from the US, its closest allies, for how it treats the Palestinians. This is kind of a shot across the bow that there is more to come. The Biden administration has indicated that they are not pleased with the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza.

Haley and Christie are bad but survivable. I usually try to keep my claims measured, but Desantis and Ramaswamy are every bit as fascist as Trump. I would genuinely fear for the country under the last three.

In September, Christie looked directly into the camera and declared that if Trump keeps skipping debates, he would deserve a new nickname: “Donald Duck.”

I remember the Clinton campaign had something about “Donald Duck” because of his refusal to publish his tax returns. Maybe it was sending someone in a Donald Duck costume to his rallies? I don’t know, the joke always kinda fell flat. It made sense when you explained it, but then it’s not funny, is it?

Back when I was doing a weekly shopping trip on my bike with panniers, I tried self-checkout once when the cashiers were busy. Never again. The tall bags just screwed with the sensors too much. Now I’m maybe a bit more inclined to use it because I moved to a house just a quick walk to the store. It can make sense to just dump all of the items on the weighing platform and put them in my backpack and reusable bags later.

I get that, but I have had the opportunity to talk to several people from Israel. They’ve grown up surrounded by this conflict. Inflicting collective punishment on them doesn’t sit well with me. This is a more multi-dimensional situation than the apartheid of South Africa or the invasion by Russia. This is as much a string of failures of leadership in Israel and Palestine as anything else.

Interesting. I’m not going to stop doing it, but still, interesting.

Definitely avoid companies that are profiting from activity in the West Bank, but not all of Israel. Israel includes many ethnic minorities that would be harmed all the same.