A Deeply Fractured US

[brihard]

Longest Jan 6th sentence to date. 10 years.

Former NYPD officer sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting a police officer on January 6 | CNN Politics

The sentence is the longest yet for any US Capitol rioter

www.cnn.com

Mods, maybe move this rely to the Jan 6th thread? Sentences and such have been consistently tracked in there. Also- wow. Ten years? Now we begin to get an idea of the going rate for convictions of violence at trial.

 

[KevinB]

I don’t think it helped anyone, and in the long run will be a negative.

Biden's speech walks a fine line in its attack on MAGA Republicans

In his Thursday evening address to the nation, President Biden chose a risky strategy of criticizing elected GOP officials while trying not to alienate Republican voters.

www.npr.org

 

[Lumber]

I don’t think it helped anyone, and in the long run will be a negative.

Biden's speech walks a fine line in its attack on MAGA Republicans

In his Thursday evening address to the nation, President Biden chose a risky strategy of criticizing elected GOP officials while trying not to alienate Republican voters.

www.npr.org

Agreed. I think this was a dumb strategy. I haven't actually read the transcript, but even if Biden did a world-class job of carefully indicating he was referring to the small and most extreme (and loud) portion of the MAGA crowd, there's just too much risk of FOX et al grabbing onto key words/phrases, and making Biden sound anti-republicans in general, a la HRC "deplorables".

 

[Remius]

Agreed. I think this was a dumb strategy. I haven't actually read the transcript, but even if Biden did a world-class job of carefully indicating he was referring to the small and most extreme (and loud) portion of the MAGA crowd, there's just too much risk of FOX et al grabbing onto key words/phrases, and making Biden sound anti-republicans in general, a la HRC "deplorables".

Agreed. It doesn’t matter what he said or how he said it. MAGA types and the snowflakes on the extreme right hurt by words (like déplorables) will capitalize on this and the usual chorus of apologists will try and rationalize extreme behaviour by pointing to this speech.

Either way, I don’t think his speech is going to work as intended. If it was something to accelerate the momentum the democrats seem to be having going into the midterms then there may be a price to pay for that move.

 

[Infanteer]

It's what everybody (rightfully) crapped all over Donald Trump for - acting un-presidential and attacking others.

Anyone have that John McCain video on how to be a true statesman?

 

[kkwd]

Even the US military endorsed the speech, the 2 Marines in the background indicate that.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Probably the most divisive speech I've heard from a serving politician. He even beat trudeau at his own game.
The dems are out of gas. They got nothing.

Desperate people do desperate things

 

[Brad Sallows]

So much for the Great Uniter schtick.

If the speech wasn't meant to antagonize people widely, it failed.

 

[KevinB]

Talking to friends who are mostly moderate Republicans, they took it very similar to how I took it.
If anything he pushed more Republicans towards supporting Trump as, the minor caveats still left a Us v You taste in mouths.

The Midterms are going to be ugly.

 

[kkwd]

C'mon Man. Where's the beef? The speech was devoid of a checklist of things that would benefit the country. He got points with some for wanking on Trump and his supporters but he didn't win any new converts or reinforce his current supporters. A few delighted in the "Mega Attack" on MAGA but for the rest it was a dud. As for the blood red background, say it ain't so Joe.

 

[QV]

Soon, even the slightly left Americans will harken back to the Trump State of the Union kind of speeches wishing for the good old days.

 

[Lumber]

Soon, even the slightly left Americans will harken back to the Trump State of the Union kind of speeches wishing for the good old days.

Sooo you're saying you think the Dems are going to continue to hold onto power?

 

[QV]

Take it anyway you want!

 

[brihard]

Sooo you're saying you think the Dems are going to continue to hold onto power?

Palin’s unexpected defeat in the Alaska at-large House seat special election is bound to be causing some consternation. That should have been a solid Republican seat,

The midterms will indeed be ugly. Overshadowed by the search warrant for Trump’s Document Stash and the Biden speech, I think there’s a lot of quiet simmering anger over Roe v Wade’s overturn that’s going to motivate a lot of voters, and may spurn more participation from younger, left-leaning voters.

Safe money is probably still that the Democrats are in for a bruising in midterms (as is usually the case for the party of the incumbent president), but it’s not as much a sure thing as it was up to a couple months ago. I won’t be surprised to see a split Congress.

 

[Lumber]

Take it anyway you want!

I just mean that your statement implies things are going to get worse, but if the GOB takes the midterms and DJT takes 2024, things will be better, no?

 

[dapaterson]

I don't know that the AK special vote should be viewed as a harbinger; the two R candidates combined won about 60%, but sufficient R voters refused to put Palin as their second choice, and others put the D candidate above her, to let the D eke out a win.

It reads more like a repudiation of Palin than of the Republicans.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Palin’s unexpected defeat in the Alaska at-large House seat special election is bound to be causing some consternation.

There were enough empty second-choice slots on ballots marked first-choice for the other Republican candidate to have made a difference. The question is how many of those people are not-Palin (but would not vote Democratic either), and how many will mark a second-choice Republican this fall.

Palin isn't a grey-man Republican; she's a character. Drawing conclusions from her performance would be a waste of time.

 

[brihard]

Yup, absolutely possible this is simply a repudiation of Palin. It’s a bloody strong one if true. Also possible that it illustrates a schism within the right, and that there are different prospects for MAGA Republicans versus non-MAGA Republican candidates.

Very possible it means nothing outside of Alaska. Also possible that it’s a warning sign.

 

[Remius]

If one can infer that MAGA candidates are winning their primaries because of Trump endorsements (and one certainly can) then one could infer that a Trump endorsed candidate not winning a seat could be a sign. It’s only one seat. Not sure if that seat is a bell weather seat but the New York 19th congressional house seat is. And the democrats won that a few weeks ago.

That win is much more of a predictor which is likely why some predictions are moving the needle towards a split house which is far better than what was predicted going into this.

But time is still a factor.

 

[QV]

I just mean that your statement implies things are going to get worse, but if the GOB takes the midterms and DJT takes 2024, things will be better, no?

The more Biden speaks the more the centrist voters will long to hear Trump speak.

But the GOP could have some difficulty with the midterms resulting from the USSC Roe decision... maybe a combination of Biden's inflammatory remarks and the unprecedented FBI/DOJ actions on 45 could cancel the Roe decision out... it's hard to say.

I'm not sure DJT will be a choice in 2024, it certainly looks as though the FBI/DOJ are going to make sure he doesn't get anything near the Hillary precedent.