This lunge by China was always doomed to failure, or at least to be very difficult and costly to actually pull off. While it's not over yet, you can put another bullet point on the long list of 'Reasons why China has no Friends'.
Whether or not this leads to anything immediate I think depends on if China thinks they're being embarrassed yet. Ego is behind a lot of what they do.
Worse, they have power in their hands and they enjoy wielding it. They see how it can be applied to their opponents and they like it. It's hard to conclude anything else when the wall of silence from the moderate democrats continues to hold, and they continue quietly supporting their crazies. It's not just willful ignorance anymore.
And if what I'm saying isn't true, boy would it be nice if some of these guys actually spoke up for once and stood up for what they believe.
For what it's worth Texas looks very tempting, so if I ever make the jump at least I will be one of the red migrants. The biggest temptation is the culture, mindset, and much better cost of living compared to California and I love how your state government is set up. The weather is scary, but if things keep devolving here I think I can put up with that.
California warps one's perception as to what normal is supposed to be, and I'm tired of settling for 2nd tier citizen status.
It's the attitude more than anything that bothers me. He's shitting on people as if they were 1-5% of the room, or less, and they may as well not exist and not be listened to at all.
Meanwhile your typical GOP critter, especially the California variety, will always kowtow to the other side, often far too much. The Democrats don't care- don't try - and their base rewards them for it.
You're not wrong, it's how the system is designed, but it's just so damnably lopsided in this state.
King Joe's take:
'Biden, asked about takeaways from the California recall election upon his return to the WH tonight, said results weren't in yet but he believes there is "positive support for mandates" and there's "always going to be a small percentage who say no,"'
So, noted for the record, 1/3 or so is a 'small percentage' and simple majority, or close to it, means that democrats can do whatever the hell they want.
I get it, it's California, but being so vapidly dismissive of what's still a large number of people is the thing that bothers me the most about democrats - the people who supposedly care so much about how other people feel, and they really, really want you to know how much they care.
There was a migration from San Francisco through covid, but that isn't the real reason.
It's honestly hard to say. There's been a slow burn of migration over time from the border, and while a lot of military retire here I feel like that's changing or something, because they used to be a big part of the reason why San Diego was very red. The State GOP is beyond incompetent, they're practically the enemy at this point - I think the republicans in the area are just.. ..overwhelmed. Demoralized. No leadership, what have you.
Just spit balling here, but a major turning point that I witnessed was back during the Tea Party days when the Obama IRS was persecuting tea party groups over their 501c-3 status, and they targeted one of the larger tea party groups in San Diego as part of that. I think between that and the GOP squashing the upstarts, a lot of potential grass-roots momentum was crushed and it's struggled to breathe ever since.
I'm really starting to think about it. Lived in San Diego my entire life and I am sick of living under the boot of these freaks, especially now that Gavin is doing social justice victory laps, and our republican mayor termed-out and thanks to Jungle Primaries, we had two democrats to choose between in 2020. Yay.
In a sane country, the state would collapse under its own weight and split into pieces. I mean, maybe that's still possible, but, whatever crisis kicks that off will be one that consumes the entire country now.
How the fuck did San Diego county, as of this posting, report 60/40 No!?
Rigged or not, that's just shameful. I expected better of my city but I guess I really shouldn't be that surprised, there are too many comfortable softies here, and the ads, while dumb, I guess triggered enough OH GOD REPUBLICANS in enough people to motivate them to vote for governor hairspray.
The Obama ad was the fucking worst. 'Are we going to go forward -' Pictures of happy, smiling people - 'or backward' imagery of January 6th of people with Trump signs on the capital steps
Fear and division is working out really well for the left, and that train apparently still has steam. But this is California, and unfortunately, San Diego I think is now officially light blue and no longer purple-leaning-red. Too many people are having fun being afraid and they won't change their minds until the economy collapses around them at this rate.
Thanks for chasing that info down, it's good to know the follow-up.
What's funny is that the profile picture is absolutely perfect - head held up, gazing 'thoughtfully' (smugly) off camera, the Noble Crusader for Justice.. ...informing on someone in clear distress.
These people are beyond parody sometimes
I would apply the 48 hour rule to this one - I do not trust Woodward, and this feels a lot like telling liberals what they want to hear.
But it also sounds plausible.
Either way it's terrible, either a general is admitting to literal treason or is telling a very tall tale, but is expecting to be praised for this. He thinks this makes him a hero.
It would really be fucking nice if the left ever thought about the long term consequences of celebrating disloyal 'resistance' fighters in the highest positions of leadership in our country. This makes our government, the men with their hands on our nukes, look like a bunch of chickenshit idiots.
As a San Diegan, I am quietly crossing my fingers and hoping for this.
With so much fear and distortion in the air, though, it's hard to really know, my only real point of optimism is the enthusiasm gap that polling showed a month ago when I think they were more trustworthy. What sucks about games being played with elections is that what's supposed to be conventional election wisdom has to be thrown out of the window because of Dumb Bullshit that Breaks the Rules.
We shall see.
Wish I could slap a 'history' tag on this. Also, this has disturbing footage with minimal edits. Not for the squeamish, there is footage of the jumpers. This is a documentary produced by the history channel that used to be run annually, but was among the tributes that stopped being aired sometime seven or so years ago. This is a repost on youtube made today, and I'm not sure how long it will stay up. This isn't an easy watch, but out of all the tributes this one is one of the most raw and visceral, because the documentary is the timeline of the attacks, from the first attack to a short ways after the collapse of both towers, reconstructed with stitched together amateur video with no commentary save time-stamps.
It's possible to find DVD copies online, and I'm hoping someday this is re-released. Maybe this is a little out of the scope of this board, but given its the 20th anniversary of the attacks, and recent events, thought some of you might like to be made aware of this documentary. There has been a gradual, slow smothering of video footage and rebroadcasting of the news broadcasts from that day, and this is history that is vital to never forget. This hits a bit close to home for me, my Uncle worked in the top floors of building seven but thankfully rallied his coworkers to evacuate very quickly, and went straight to Chelsea Pier and the ferries as quickly as he could, and later told my mom how he watched the towers collapse from the Hudson. He's never talked about the day since.
Nice work losing the court case in advance, fellas.
...I wish, in a sane universe the Judiciary would take this as an insult and treat the pending lawsuits accordingly, and rule against the executive branch with prejudice.
Things may need to devolve further until judges rediscover they have balls, unfortunately. They're still too cozy lazily writing law without scrutiny from anyone. In the great collapse of institutional integrity, the authority of courts is on the list of things that is likely to get challenged by the populace, especially as it becomes more and more obvious laws are for the little people and the system continues to protect its own in more outrageous ways.
Someday, the system will relearn it's supposed to fight itself. Someday..
Seconding.
Siege warfare. That means it's going to take a lot of constant resistance on every front possible to make progress.
Just, fuck these people.
This is so tiresome. They don't even have the cajones to try and do it properly, they just have weasily maneuvers and 'clever' tactics like employing the executive branch in ways designed to anticipate eventual court losses. And when challenged - they laugh! Haha! So funny!
If they meant it they would have been able to rally congress. They are in so far over their heads, it's funny and terrifying. These people will crumble under the weight of a real crisis. And what makes this real bitter? The entire rest of the democrat party will hold up their hands, back away, and go 'wasn't me! Don't look at me, look at JOE!' because they think they have the golden ticket for All Excuses Forever. Because this is how leadership works.
Thing is, yes, but the problem with being sneaky and too clever for your own good is that the 'sneaky' tactic gets the short term win but comes at a price.
The biggest price to be paid is legitimacy. They're playing with authority and gravitas they absolutely have not earned. To have the president come out and spew this drivel, but then to have the Department of Labor be the hitman?
The presidency looks so stupidly weak right now. He can't even do his own business that he declares out in the open! Where everyone can see! This is a huge put up or shut up moment. If he makes these threats, and then just.. dithers, or blusters, or shouts and expects the media to fight this battle for him? What does that say about the office he occupies? That's supposed to be the chair for the most powerful man in the world?
It won't just be people and governors in the red states thinking about whether to call his bluff or not. The world is watching, too.
Hopefully your company has some moral fiber. The silver lining is the impossibility of enforcement if enough businesses and individuals flip the feds the bird, but, yes, there probably will be a lot of companies who let people go and then wonder how all the work is going to get done. Whatever happens, trust your gut and be ready to change things up with work if you have to. Best of luck either way.
This is definitely a step beyond the "I've got a pen and a phone" days of the Obama presidency. He's just going straight to the vague threats!
I bet he's going to attempt some limp-wristed approach similar to trying to get OSHA to do it for him, or threatening federal funding for states who don't comply. Talk tough, but try to get their way via cloak and dagger and backroom shenanigans because it's all they know. Because no one would ever actually call their bluff. That never happens!
The rub is, what happens when people do start calling the bluff on federal authority, and it feels like that day is coming quickly.
Okay, Joe, that's nice.
How exactly are you going to do this?
Those who are no longer our countrymen.
Oh, it but it's so much easier to make the private businesses the bad guy. Make them responsible for enforcing the federal mandate.
This is absolutely classic. It's 'clever' politicking, don't you know, to make others do your dirty work.
Also, this is another classic leftist move of flood the field with distractions to try and pivot away from a 'bad press cycle', and hope no one notices the other hand behind the curtain. Or in this case, the pending butchery the Taliban will be enacting on American citizens and others in Kabul as the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches.
And the AG's lawsuit against Texas.
The games they're playing with the recall in California.
the unvetted Afghans just waltzing off holding facilities in the states.
Joe getting heckled in public in blue areas.
Larry Elder getting assaulted by a racist white liberal.
They're just greedily devouring so much right now that it's obscene. This can't hold. Our system is not supposed to be abused like this.
He doesn't, he is actively counting on people being forced to comply while the courts struggle to play catch up.
This is a deeply cynical expedient approach to defeat the obstacles the constitution has in place to prevent this very thing, and he's doing it without the support of congress. Makes it both better and worse, but this is nothing short of exploiting the system for immediate political ends, with no regard for the long term consequences.
They do not care.
Well, I'm happy they're finally being honest. Healthcare was always a means for them to pressure people to do what they wanted, and I can't think of anything that makes it more clear than this.
I know.
This is siege warfare, and it's going to move at a crawl - just, at this point, there will be bursts. The critical line is when these crackpot authoritarians decide it's time for yet more flexings to make examples of yet more people. There isn't going to be a dam burst, or a sudden turn - this is going to be a slow, agonizing process barring some stroke of good fortune with moments where things stagger, loose momentum, then start hobbling along again. I've never been someone to claim one midterm cycle fixes everything - we are in a very deep hole that's been dug for decades, and it will take a comparable effort to get ourselves out.
They can state this is the new normal all they want, but how the hell are they actually going to enforce it when they've staffed themselves with nothing but political cronies? When they think shouting at the media ticks the 'appeal to the public' box? Things are different. We're a different country now, especially now that all they do to appeal to people is to scare them, and all the charm from even the Obama era has been thrown out the window as inconvenient. We aren't going back to any kind of normal we've known at this point - this will flare to some kind of confrontation.
It's going to escalate until it can't, and what's going to accelerate things is all the damage that's been done to society over the past year and a half. Loss of societal trust is a big one, and it's the most tragic one. I've felt ever since the election that the powers-that-be have decided to basically punish the people at large for daring to attempt to embrace populism, and I'm betting long term that will be what leads to their downfall.
Long term. This isn't happening fast.
I thought objectifying women was supposed to be a bad thing?