America

[morepork]

Good job Supreme Court. Argue for a technicality to increase civilian access to gun mods that hand the advantage to people that want to kill other people. I mean, fuck me.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pp5xl13wlo

[Son of Mathonwy]

Good job Supreme Court. Argue for a technicality to increase civilian access to gun mods that hand the advantage to people that want to kill other people. I mean, fuck me.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pp5xl13wlo

Freedom!!!! USA!!!!

[morepork]

There is just no sound logic to this. A fat depressed middle aged Joe Average managed to kill 51 people in Vegas with one of these on a whimsical jolly recently. If he didn’t have access to it, shit would not have gone down so badly. There’s your data driven argument against it and there are hundreds more.

[Mikey Brown]

Just give up. Just become like me and wish someone would accidentally set off a world-ending nuke. It offers a surprising amount of peace of mind.

[morepork]

Micro dose of LSD in the water supply will chill everyone out. None of that unregulated foreign shit. Just pure measured doses of Gods beautiful drug made in the USandA under the watchful eye of the FDA, the only regulatory authority that gives a shit about safety.

Nukes. Come on Brown.

[morepork]

One person can buy policy. What essential legislation could an individual with 50 Mill in disposable income possibly need to get by?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce448zzwp2go

[morepork]

Clarence needs to just fuck off. Blatant common sense is all this is.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy77g704ldzo

[Son of Mathonwy]

Clarence needs to just fuck off. Blatant common sense is all this is.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy77g704ldzo

Wow. A rare glimpse of sanity from even the right wing judges. I guess their instinct for allowing gun ownership clashed with their instinct for punishing dangerous criminals and this is the result.

This is grim, from the BBC article:

In 2022, the US Supreme Court significantly expanded gun rights when it decided the Second Amendment protects a broad right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defence.
It also created a new test for gun laws, specifying they must be rooted in "historical tradition".

So they can look back to any point in the history of their peace-loving nation to draw on 'historical tradition' to justify gun ownership rights. No matter how harmful. Glad I don't live there.

[Mikey Brown]

Have we already done the anti-bribery thing in here? It’s hard to keep track. With everything in UK politics at the moment it’s so funny to see the US continue to be so loudly and proudly pro-corruption.

[Puja]

The fate of the Western world could very well turn on the debate tonight. If Biden gaffes and acts like a tired old man, it will cement the story the Republicans are selling and he'll lose the election on the grounds of being too old. On the other hand, a strong performance like his State of the Union will put the lie to the narrative of him being a senile old codger and focus the attention on Trump's increasingly incapacity to string a coherent sentence together.

Two bald men fighting over a comb, but I hope the one that's not a literal fascist wins.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

It doesn’t sound as if it went particularly well. What a horribly predictable turn of events.

[paddy no 11]

Watching CNN and its pretty much unanimous they want biden replaced

[Sandydragon]

The fate of the Western world could very well turn on the debate tonight. If Biden gaffes and acts like a tired old man, it will cement the story the Republicans are selling and he'll lose the election on the grounds of being too old. On the other hand, a strong performance like his State of the Union will put the lie to the narrative of him being a senile old codger and focus the attention on Trump's increasingly incapacity to string a coherent sentence together.

Two bald men fighting over a comb, but I hope the one that's not a literal fascist wins.

Puja

Yep. And the least problematic candidate lost.

I think trumps chances of winning have gone from possible to probable. Biden needs a miracle, albeit there’s still time before the election.

There has to be an honest conversation with Biden now where his own party make it clear he’s not up to it. Whilst unprecedented to replace a candidate at this point one can only hope that someone displays
Some moral backbone. If Trump wins in November it will be because the democrats lost, they need a better candidate.

[Puja]

Yup, we're all fucked. Shame on Biden for his ego and shame on the Democratic party for none of them having the minerals to stand up to him. Pick any white, middle-aged, straight, cis, Christian male, stick a blue ribbon on them, and they would be annihilating Trump at this juncture, but they're insisting on trying to push an 81 year old man, who is clearly in decline, on the most virility-obsessed electorate in the world.

Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

I haven't seen any of the debate but it doesn't sound like it went well. No way is Biden going to stand down though, unless he's forced to by illness or something. He should have set up a successor in an orderly way over the last couple of years. He stuck around in politics long enough to get the big prize but like so many others he was too vain to do the right thing.

I'm sure it's not game over but you'd think a challenger with a criminal record would be easy to take down. Fingers crossed he really was suffering from a cold and will be a lot better next time.

This is bad for us, but my god, what must the Ukrainians be feeling??

[Mikey Brown]

Yup, we're all fucked. Shame on Biden for his ego and shame on the Democratic party for none of them having the minerals to stand up to him. Pick any white, middle-aged, straight, cis, Christian male, stick a blue ribbon on them, and they would be annihilating Trump at this juncture, but they're insisting on trying to push an 81 year old man, who is clearly in decline, on the most virility-obsessed electorate in the world.

Puja

After winning in 2020 there wasn't really any other option was there? Has anyone ever had their sitting president stand down for another candidate? I don't know about Biden's ego. Does he even get a say in any of this?

The DNC get what they deserve (well some of it, assuming they even care about losing - 'fund-raising' under a Trump government is a gold mine) and Harris never seemed to be considered a serious candidate to step up from VP, but it's terrifying how many people will suffer for these decisions. I can only imagine what Trump (and his base) 'out for revenge' is going to look like. He's got nothing to lose this time.

[Zhivago]

Yup, we're all fucked. Shame on Biden for his ego and shame on the Democratic party for none of them having the minerals to stand up to him. Pick any white, middle-aged, straight, cis, Christian male, stick a blue ribbon on them, and they would be annihilating Trump at this juncture, but they're insisting on trying to push an 81 year old man, who is clearly in decline, on the most virility-obsessed electorate in the world.

Puja

Yup. My thoughts exactly.

[Puja]

Yup, we're all fucked. Shame on Biden for his ego and shame on the Democratic party for none of them having the minerals to stand up to him. Pick any white, middle-aged, straight, cis, Christian male, stick a blue ribbon on them, and they would be annihilating Trump at this juncture, but they're insisting on trying to push an 81 year old man, who is clearly in decline, on the most virility-obsessed electorate in the world.

Puja

After winning in 2020 there wasn't really any other option was there? Has anyone ever had their sitting president stand down for another candidate? I don't know about Biden's ego. Does he even get a say in any of this?

The DNC get what they deserve (well some of it, assuming they even care about losing - 'fund-raising' under a Trump government is a gold mine) and Harris never seemed to be considered a serious candidate to step up from VP, but it's terrifying how many people will suffer for these decisions. I can only imagine what Trump (and his base) 'out for revenge' is going to look like. He's got nothing to lose this time.

Biden could absolutely say he's not running again. You can't force someone to stand for President! It would've been a first for a President to choose not to compete for a second term, but it's also a first to have an octogenarian President, so "Joe's going to retire and spend time with his family, because running the country is a younger man's game," is hardly something that can't be sold to the voting public.

Have you come across "Project 2025" before? It's a dedicated plan of action for the first year of a Trump administration, written up by a bunch of libertarian/theocratic/fascist government nerds, about how various loopholes, obscure presidential powers, and bureaucratic rules can be leveraged to completely and irrevocably change how America works. Highlights include placing the Department of Justice under the direct control of the President, allowing the deployment of the American military on American soil to round up and deport immigrants, removing all legal protections against discrimination for protected characteristics, and reclassifying thousands of people in skills-based roles in government departments as "Political Appointments", then firing them all because of a change of administration, and replacing them with true believers, who have already been picked out, vetted, and pre-approved. So, the EPA will no longer talk about climate change, because it'll be run and staffed by climate deniers at the highest level, the Department of Education will no longer talk about evolution because it'll be run and staffed by Christian fundamentalists, and the FTC won't worry about antitrust and mergers because it'll be run and staffed by people who are doing very well out of oligarchy.

The worst part is that it's using every back alley in the levers of government, so none of it will require getting through Congress or winning votes or requiring funding - it can just be done by fiat, without anything other than the Presidency. It is insanely well prepared and thought out and planned and it's absolutely terrifying.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

I haven’t heard of that, but I’m not struggling to believe that’s the plan.

Biden standing down, with a similar message to what you’ve said, would obviously have been a sensible move in a rational world. I guess I was questioning it being about ego or a sense of duty or just not having a fucking clue what is going on.

I am very curious though who actually makes these key decisions like rail-roading Bernie and bringing Biden back from the dead. I might become a full-on Hillary Clinton illuminati guy, that seems like a fun interest to have.

[morepork]

Jesus Titty Fucking Christ.

[Mellsblue]

Jesus Titty Fucking Christ.

I know the situation is very serious but this made me lol.

[Mikey Brown]

Jesus Titty Fucking Christ.

Collectively nuking ourselves not sounding so bad now, is it?

[paddy no 11]

Watched some clips, absolute train wreck

That's terrifying stuff puja, really hope we don't see it

[morepork]

The cancer in the Executive branch of government is now terminal and poised to render the legislative and judiciary branches moribund.

[J Dory]

That was unwatchable, very very sad. Is there still a path for the Dems to switch candidate?