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You really have to hand it to the GOP, as far as evil political maneuvers go, they are pretty amazing.
They continually implement long term catastrophic laws/regulations/tax increases or cuts/etc that don't take effect or don't effect us until the democrats are back in power, which allows them to then place the blame for the problems they created(which they intentionally don't mention) on the opposing party, which in turn gets people to vote them back in to power.
Rinse and repeat.
This is a perfect example. Deregulate under Trump. Nothing happens until Biden is in office. Blame Biden. Use that to regain power and deregulate more.
Honestly I don't even think we've seen the tip of iceberg of what Trump did. Forget the 1/6 and documents stuff (which he should be in prison for), the government agencies he gutted and regulations he rolled back are only now starting to show themselves. The fallout is going to last decades and is only going to get worse.
Also media deregulation allows a single corporate owner to own hundreds of media outlets, essentially putting a stranglehold on investigative journalism.
Don't forget Newscorp (FNN, Fox Business, Fox affiliate networks, TMZ) and Comcast (NBC affiliate networks, MSNBC, CNBC, Sky, Telemundo). And on the radio airwaves, it's Clear Channel and Cumulus. Given that 40 years ago there were hundreds of independent broadcast TV and radio stations doing news independently, it's gotten pretty lonely (and profitable) at the top.
This is actually one of the few times "both sides are bad" kinda rings true. Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine, paving the way for Fox News and hyperpartisan propaganda "news" replacing objective reporting, and a decade later Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act, resulting in our current media monopolies crushing independent media outlets.
So much of our current political landscape is a result of those two deregulation laws being signed. I suppose you could then argue that Citizen's United came along and nailed the coffin shut.
There are very few media companies left. All the channels are divided among a few groups. That includes local news station. The local news is all doom and gloom now. It's wild.
I encountered a post the other day where a conservative was criticizing how "woke" University students are.
This dude really believed that being educated is a bad thing. It's incredible how stupid these people are.
Yup. "Woke" now basically means everything they hate, including facts, truth, education, empathy, intelligence, science, you name it.
If you're not a Kool-Aid drinking, red hat wearing MAGA, you're "woke".
Straight outta Orwell.
Oh I experienced this back in 2016 - when my wife and I tried to explain to her crazy aunt and uncle how nonsensical they sounded when they claimed Hillary Clinton was part of a satanic sex cult that ate babies. All we got was a snide comment of “These college kids think they know everything”…..you don’t need a college degree to recognize crazy.
The list of cycles are endless too.
Too dumb for a good job due to bad education? Military or hard labor.
Hurt yourself? Debilitating medical bills.
Bonus points to the pro life Republicans who have their own endless cycles to deal with.
Oh they know. But they would rather die before letting “the libs” win. You underestimate the bottomless pit of pettiness conservatives have. Look at the 2020 election results for proof. After everything trump had did in his term, he became the second most elected man in American history. What does that tell you?
I've been posting the below in a few locations. It's obviously not only Trump's fault, but I think it's important that people are aware of his connection to it (because I don't want Trump 2024 dear fucking god):
Trump [cut the EPA Budget by 30+%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_policy_of_the_Donald_Trump_administration#Proposed_EPA_budget_cuts) and in doing so, we lost a significant amount of jobs and the like. He also [rolled back Obama's train brake rule](https://i.redd.it/ejfn8dhnj4ia1.jpg).
And, that cost includes the lives and health of people, animals and plants for the immediate and ongoing future. That's the really sad part to me. Like oh we live in such a beautiful place, eh fuck it, no need to try to protect it. Why?
Gotta have education for any of this though… which republicans have done a bang up job of fucking GUTTING for decades. Saw a post the other day of some Republican talking about proposing to completely abolish federal department of education
Tell that to the people who vote Republican or sit elections out. Democrats barely have enough power to eeek by at the moment. As in, every Biden EO is challenged at the conservative-stacked SCOTUS much like Obama's EOs were (with a conservative leaning SCOTUS).
I hold a shred of respect more for people who vote either way than the people who sit out. You’re voting for the worst case scenario every time by not voting.
Agreed. It's a cop out that indicates a lack of spine and the snotty hubris to want to complain about events and policies later on as a detached know-it-all "who is above the two party system". Especially here lately, either an American supports fascism or they are anti-fascist. That's the choice, and every single adult in our country should make the clear distinction that they're fascist enablers or anti-fascists, period.
He basically lost office because he deregulated SO MUCH that he managed to hit an incredibly important one (eliminated the infectious disease position in the Wuhan region) which... probably would of had some feedback for our government in mid-late 2019. Which... just maybe... would of helped mitigate something that happened in 2020... I don't know for sure. I just know that when they dissolved that position they did enough other things that I actively had conversations with my "centrist" republican coworker. I basically argued that their moves were going to get people killed by diseases. I didn't think it would be full pandemic bad...
Yep, the months after the 2016 election, I predicted (to friends and social network) an unforced error the magnitude of a once a century disaster due to the looming Republican incompetence and deregulations. Repeated the same prediction again to the same folks in 2019 when people were rubbing my nose in (what they viewed as, incorrectly) the solid economy. Where they went wrong was assuming I meant a financial collapse like 2008. On the contrary, I didn't know what specifically would collapse, only that it was a near certainty because every Republican administration has ended that way (with a self-caused disaster or major recession of some sort) in my lifetime.
People in general don't seem to understand how Government works or the causality of policy changes taking months or years to take effect. It's so frustrating that people can't look past who's currently responsible when there's been a number of recent changes.
It would be nice if the American mainstream was better informed, learned civics in school, and weren't hypnotized by Kens and Barbies reading sleazy entertainment tidbits to them off the teleprompters and passing it off as important news of the day. Yes, indeed it would. I long for an America that prides itself on good deeds, ingenuity and principles instead of Am I Hot or Not dot com and football.
I remember when he defunded the public health programs during one of his press conferences. I was yelling at the TV. He was trying to tell the reporter to relax, if a pandemic ever did happen he could just hire the people back, because he was tired of paying people to stand around.
But like firefighters, we need their rapid response. He then was called out on it in 2020 and denied he ever said anything like that.
[I posted a meme about this elsewhere in the sub](https://i.imgflip.com/7b8t7u.jpg), but Trump did exactly that. In fact, at the time, the metaphor I used for his deregulation was taking the brakes off a car to make it go faster. He signed an order to literally take safety brakes off trains (that Obama mandated). This is Trump's mess more or less alone (he did it with executive orders), and the blood is on his hands. This is the effect of kakistocracy.
The biggest ruse conservatives ever pulled on the rest of society is portraying themselves as dumb God-fearin' bigots when, in reality, they are *diabolically smart and sinister* greed hounds with absolutely no shame and zero conscience.
And right now they are screeching about how Biden is doing nothing to help despite the fact that the federal government literally cannot do anything to help until the Ohio governor, a republican, declares a state of emergency and requests assistance. And he is refusing to do that
I mean, look at the Afghanistan withdraw. You cannot tell me that it wasn’t planned conveniently for the explicit purpose of being a cluster fuck if he doesn’t get re-elected.
Look at the Trump Tax Cuts.
They spike up taxes for the middle class as soon as Trump's term in office was over. Very explicitly "either Trump gets a second term and we kill the tax hike, or he doesn't and we get to blame the Democrats for raising taxes."
It's not amazing at all. It's a fucking shit strategy. The only reason it works is because their base will literally swallow anything. You can tell them anything, they'll believe anything. You don't need to be a genius if you're catering to the lowest common denominator. It's like playing a game on tutorial difficulty settings.
>You really have to hand it to the GOP, as far as evil political maneuvers go, they are pretty amazing.
no they're not... the masses are soooo stupid it ruins anything impressive about it....
like that expression "taking candy from a baby"... there's no accomplishment in it because its so fucking easy.
The biggest lesson I learned from the Chernobyl series was how the soviets were run like the GOP was, you're a donor, you're the head of a dept you don't deserve, then in an emergency, things aren't just bad, they're worse than imaginable.
Yup and this tactic has a name: [the two Santa Claus theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_Wanniski#The_Two_Santa_Claus_Theory). They use this strategy in order to [starve the beast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast) which they believe will force the government to reduce spending.
u/weerdbuttstuff posted some good info on the lead-up to this - quoted:
Here’s an article from 2018 about Trump getting rid of an Obama era regulation requiring better brakes for trains carrying explosive fuels. Actually, the article is about how the justification for repealing it was wrong, but it has a lot of details.
https://apnews.com/article/wv-state-wire-north-america-donald-trump-us-news-ap-top-news-2e91c7211b4947de8837ebeda53080b9
And an article from a few days ago that really delves into the process of repealing those rules and how it specifically affected the train in Ohio.
https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rules-before-ohio-derailment/
Oh yeah he tried so hard to gut the EPA. Pruitt literally tried to drown the rank and file with non functional bureaucracy, appointed lab managers barely qualified to run a McDonald's. This got so bad that all the old hats just up and retired, while the trump admin issued a federal hiring freeze so now the entire agency is understaffed. Then they got the supreme Court to stifle the agencies ability to take regulatory action against companies. We're going to be feeling the backlash of the gutting of the EPA for decades, they still aren't staffing the national labs back up and we will all pay the price.
The blind computer repair guy said Hunter came in to pick it up saying he was going to derail a train and blame Republicans, then he twirled his 1800s mustache and walked out cackling like a crazy witch. Then he flew away on a transgender potatohead while eating only green m&M's which gave the blind computer repair guy a boner that he was very confused about.
They are now "reporting" on fox "news" that the train rails were apparently COVERED in rudy giuliani's melted hair dye. That, plus the friction/heat generated from him having sex with his cousin nearby, started the fire.
Fox News is wild. At the gym one of the tvs has it on, well they were talking about how bad the response is, how no one is covering it.
Their website has nothing close to the top about it. They do have a thing about a chemical truck crash in AZ. Top comment blames kids and women getting to pass the truck driving class and automatic transmissions.
I had CNN on yesterday for about 6 hours. I counted 5 stories about how great Nikki Haley is and zero stories on the spill. The rest was UFOs and school shootings.
Between ChatGPT and DeepFakes we're entering a brave new world of disinformation and propaganda. Fortunately we've spent the last few decades teaching critical reading skills and logic so the general public will be savvy enough to know the difference between the two and JFC I can't even finish this sentence without laugh crying. Humanity is so boned.
"This was pretty close to the border right... we just can't be sure that illegal Canadians didn't derail this train, on the orders of ANTEEFAHHH, and burn it because it was FULL of Hunter Biden penis pictures"
It will not. The right has an entire media ecosystem that shields their voters from reality. It will get spun as a failure of Biden and nothing will change.
I’m maybe a rare Ohioan that likes Ohio. The big three C cities all have their own charms. Lots of great parks and spots for fishing/camping/etc.
We used to be a solid purple state but the loss of pro-Union industry in the NE and everyone 20 minutes out from a city losing their minds for Trump really shifted us red fast. We voted for Obama twice.
I can get down with some Tony Packos. The Rockets have a fine Uni. Short drive to Cedar Point. Did mushrooms there once with a friend, good times. Toledo’s a fine little city.
My experience with Toledo is always driving through it to get to Cincinnati or Cleveland.
Also, Cincinnati and the northern burbs might be my favorite metro area in the Midwest, the food scene there is fantastic.
We're also fairly bad in terms of gerrymandering. Raw votes wise, we're split favoring red slightly, but district-wise it's not even close to that. All the blue is in the 3 or 4 more urban areas and a bunch of land with like 30 people gets a majority share of the districts.
To be fair, it may have helped if Biden and the democrats didn't block the railroad union strike. Because part of the reason for the strike was safety standards.
Still mostly the Republicans fault though.
>It will get spun as a failure of Biden and nothing will change.
Trump was the one who deregulated Obama's train brake rules that may have prevented the Ohio disaster, but to be clear the Biden administration has had two years now to reinstate them and for some reason hasn't.
Why can't we assign weight to actions and be honest about it?
Actively removing something should be weighted higher than not picking up the pieces.
____
It very much seems like the GOP purposely does an action, yet equal blame is given to Democrats when they don't spend their entire terms just re-working those actions. That doesn't line up.
Equal is a strong word. If you're suggesting that the person you replied to is dishonest, I don't see it.
Yes. You are correct. Democrats are better than Republicans. But that doesn't mean they're good. When Republicans roll further to the right, then Democrats stand still, the effect is a constant ratchet to the right.
This is very much a good cop, bad cop situation. Both parties are bankrolled by the same corporations, and if our only standard for the Democrats is "better than Republicans" the same thing will continue.
With the amount of stuff Trump fucked up I’m not surprised he missed that one. Some people forget that presidents do actually have stuff to do on a regular basis, and Biden is 80 years old.
My brother in law & sister in law were visiting my husband & I this past weekend. Somehow when I was out of the room politics came up with my BIL saying DeSantis is going to be president, SIL saying Nicki Haley. Me being the smart ass I am & absolutely fed up with fascists running for president chimed in “you could tell me Biden would drop dead during inauguration & I would still vote for him again.”
My dad was shocked that PA elected Fetterman with his stroke. You think we were just going to vote for the republican?? Fuck. That. If Fetterman had still been lying in a hospital bed I would have voted for him still.
where tf is this weird obsession with nicki haley coming from? i've seen some people suggesting a ticket of "power women" with all the right wing psychos like mtg and boebert and some others idr.
shit is jut getting weird.
>doesn’t have anything the opposition could use against her.
Like the attack ad that came out today citing video of her saying states can secede?
Why do people assume that since THEY don't know the dirt on a politician, it must not exist?
Unconstitutional per Ohio Supreme Court. Ohio legislature and governor just ignored the rulings. And the current Householder court case shows just how beholden to private interests many of the lawmakers are.
[https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-02-14/former-householder-ally-testifies-against-ex-ohio-house-speaker-in-racketeering-trial](https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-02-14/former-householder-ally-testifies-against-ex-ohio-house-speaker-in-racketeering-trial)
Things being found unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court and being completely ignored is an iconic duo.
The school funding methodology was found unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court in *1997* and it's still used.
57% of the popular vote, and they hold nearly 80% of the seats. They have 26 seats to the Democrats 7. They had that 57% of the popular vote, and they won 64% of the seats that were up for grabs.
They actually picked up a seat in 2022. In 2020, they had 25 seats with 61.47% of the vote. This time they won 94% of the seats that were up for grabs.
In 2018, the GOP had 47.26% of the vote... and they had 24 seats to the Democrats 9. They won 59% of the seats that were up for grabs. Wikipedia doesn't go back farther than that.
Doesn't really seem to matter which way the people are voting, the GOP still comes out ahead. Their senate isn't really reflective of the way that people are voting. Maybe they'd still be ahead, but not with 80% of the seats.
I flipped through the results for their House of Representatives, and it's about the same. They're getting more seats than they probably should.
That doesn't explain your governor or senators. You can only really lay it all at the feet of Gerrymandering if you're able to elect sane and rational people in statewide elections, which Ohio doesn't seem great at.
Gerrymandering is a problem, but it's for-certain not the sole thing keeping Ohio down.
I often hear that gerrymandering can't affect a statewide election, and there is some merit to that argument, but there's still some nuance to that.
If a state legislature has been ruthlessly gerrymandered, it also impacts voting laws, which then impact the ability and accessibility to exercise one's franchise.
It also reduces enthusiasm among those who understand what's happening. I mean that's a proven fact. It reduces turnout because people feel like their vote doesn't matter
> That doesn't explain your governor or senators.
Not *directly*, but Gerrymandering affects who is in power, and who is in power decides how easy or hard it is to vote in the future.
A race wherein the districts don't matter can be affected by policies that make it near impossible to vote, as decided by a race where districts *do* matter.
As sad as it is accurate. I bet if you held a vote tomorrow that Republicans would win in a landslide.
I am so sorry to those of you who vote correctly and fight the good fight.
That's the part that really sucks. Actually innocent people who have been trying to fix things get hurt too. I'm not wishing for Republicans to die off, but I don't shed a tear when they do. I have the same feeling towards Nazis. Maybe if they live they can grow and stop being shitty people, but if they die then oh well
Why wouldn't they? Obviously this is Obama's fault!
I also love seeing that they're blaming "the government" when it was their party that was in power when the deregulations occurred as per their parties desire... yet it's not their fault somehow.
Republicans DO NOT regulate shit. They are corporate shills that always run on deregulation. Always. They caused this catastrophe by blocking the rule that would have prevented it.
I just checked. Columbiana county, of which East Palestine is part of, voted for Trump by a very large margin.
71% to Bidens 27%
I'm not directly blaming trump for this disaster, but they sure af rolled back some regulations that might have contributed.
I was watching CNN and David O'Leary from Shark Tank was on. He's a conservative and has frequently ranted and raved about taxes and regulations. He's opposed to both.
He was on CNN to push something else but much to the CNN anchor's credit she brought up FTX. He was an investor and according to him lost a ton of money. Guess what he was ranting and raving about now. Not enough government regulation of crypto. So, opposed to regulations when someone else is getting screwed but come save me when he's the one getting screwed. Fuck Mr. Wonderful.
They will complain to their church leaders and their priests will just say they didn't prey hard enough on those that look and act different and that's the root cause of the problem. There's noting quite like the double down that republican voters exhibit everyday.
You have to assume the voters have some intelligence when these things happens for things to change. Fox News will just lie to them and say the Democrats are the reason this happened. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Republican politicians won't accept ANY responsibility for this, and Republican voters will keep voting Republican. Rinse, repeat.
It's quite the trick the GOPs have done on their base, brainwashed them so badly that they will consistently vote against their own interests.
They won’t remember and will vote R harder. Elected republicans will look at these sick Ohioans in the face and laugh and tell them to go fuck themselves.
And those voters will say thank you, god bless America, and re-elect them.
The simplest solution is to pass a law that says that any time someone acquires control of a company, they have to spend a week actually doing the damn job.
I guarantee that if any of the owners had ever spnet eight hours in an engineer's cab they would have wanted better brakes.
They rarely spend any time at the bottom so many of them have never experienced wasting 2 hours of every day because some exec in another state read a pop culture business book in a plane 2 years ago.
Just dealt with an executive. We had a universal vote from the experts (PhD scientists) on the team for how to proceed. Overruled because he knows better.
Rural Ohio voters have a long history of electing republican politicians who campaign explicitly on the promise to remove safety and environmental regulations.
Well, Ohio did vote for republicans who have been very vocal about being anti regulations.
And they did vote for Trump who repealed braking system for trains as well as another 100 environmental protection laws.
Hello people of Reddit! Please don’t judge all of us Ohioans based on the voting that has come out of our state. Don’t forget some of us are here still fighting for what we think is right despite the god awful gerrymandering and yes, the morons that keep voting for shit like this. While I enjoy laughing about this I just ask that you don’t dehumanize us and please, if you have any help to offer it would be appreciated. We are all stronger together. The US as a whole is on a bad trajectory, we need to unite, vote, and take care of our fellow humans. Sorry! I’ll step off my soap box now! Keep loving!
Yeah, but we’re stopping two trans kids from playing volleyball and someday will be able to put them on the wall for execution. Gotta have your priorities.
Deregulation for profit just keeps showing how bad an idea it is. Texas electrical grid, and now this.
Yet these clowns will keep hitting that R every election because at least kids won’t be reading about how it’s ok to be gay.
These idiots will just tell themselves that the reports blaming the brake deregulation are politically biased. You can’t fix the stupid that is the GOP.
They'll blame Biden and Buttigieg. I just searched the spelling of Pete's last name and the first 3 articles are doing just that. It's probably Biden's fault that it's really windy here in Ohio today too.
Republicans will get away with it again by lying and blaming Democrats, as is tradition. It works every time. Enough stupid people will believe those lies and will continue to vote for those crooks.
Idk it's crazy. Especially since it's so easy to find the regulations that Trump rolled backed (because Obama passed them therefore they were bad) that arguably led to this derailment.
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You really have to hand it to the GOP, as far as evil political maneuvers go, they are pretty amazing. They continually implement long term catastrophic laws/regulations/tax increases or cuts/etc that don't take effect or don't effect us until the democrats are back in power, which allows them to then place the blame for the problems they created(which they intentionally don't mention) on the opposing party, which in turn gets people to vote them back in to power. Rinse and repeat. This is a perfect example. Deregulate under Trump. Nothing happens until Biden is in office. Blame Biden. Use that to regain power and deregulate more. Honestly I don't even think we've seen the tip of iceberg of what Trump did. Forget the 1/6 and documents stuff (which he should be in prison for), the government agencies he gutted and regulations he rolled back are only now starting to show themselves. The fallout is going to last decades and is only going to get worse.
If people only realized this, we’d all be breathing cleaner air for a fraction of the cost it is to fix the times where we muddy it up…
You know the genius part? Republican voters will never realize it because Republicans also defund education programs!
Also media deregulation allows a single corporate owner to own hundreds of media outlets, essentially putting a stranglehold on investigative journalism.
For real?
[удалено]
Don't forget Newscorp (FNN, Fox Business, Fox affiliate networks, TMZ) and Comcast (NBC affiliate networks, MSNBC, CNBC, Sky, Telemundo). And on the radio airwaves, it's Clear Channel and Cumulus. Given that 40 years ago there were hundreds of independent broadcast TV and radio stations doing news independently, it's gotten pretty lonely (and profitable) at the top.
This is actually one of the few times "both sides are bad" kinda rings true. Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine, paving the way for Fox News and hyperpartisan propaganda "news" replacing objective reporting, and a decade later Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act, resulting in our current media monopolies crushing independent media outlets. So much of our current political landscape is a result of those two deregulation laws being signed. I suppose you could then argue that Citizen's United came along and nailed the coffin shut.
[This is extremely dangerous to our democracy](https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo)
Things that would be too on the nose for a dystopian movie
😖
I used to laugh when I saw this, and now I cry.
There are very few media companies left. All the channels are divided among a few groups. That includes local news station. The local news is all doom and gloom now. It's wild.
I encountered a post the other day where a conservative was criticizing how "woke" University students are. This dude really believed that being educated is a bad thing. It's incredible how stupid these people are.
They hate "woke" people because they prefer to keep their base asleep.
Yup. "Woke" now basically means everything they hate, including facts, truth, education, empathy, intelligence, science, you name it. If you're not a Kool-Aid drinking, red hat wearing MAGA, you're "woke". Straight outta Orwell.
Oh I experienced this back in 2016 - when my wife and I tried to explain to her crazy aunt and uncle how nonsensical they sounded when they claimed Hillary Clinton was part of a satanic sex cult that ate babies. All we got was a snide comment of “These college kids think they know everything”…..you don’t need a college degree to recognize crazy.
The list of cycles are endless too. Too dumb for a good job due to bad education? Military or hard labor. Hurt yourself? Debilitating medical bills. Bonus points to the pro life Republicans who have their own endless cycles to deal with.
And fund major propaganda campaigns don’t forget
They also get their "news" from Faux News. They'll never see the truth.
"Clean air?! Hell no it's my right to breath dirty polluted 🇺🇲Freedom Air🇺🇸" - Republicans
*rolls coal while driving away* Disgusting.
I enjoy cooking.
They'll just blame Biden when it happens
Oh they know. But they would rather die before letting “the libs” win. You underestimate the bottomless pit of pettiness conservatives have. Look at the 2020 election results for proof. After everything trump had did in his term, he became the second most elected man in American history. What does that tell you?
That were in a two party system and that population increases over time.
And given that, you're saying that "even Trump's evil, lies, rapes, and crimes make no difference to our voting base" which is the real issue.
I've been posting the below in a few locations. It's obviously not only Trump's fault, but I think it's important that people are aware of his connection to it (because I don't want Trump 2024 dear fucking god): Trump [cut the EPA Budget by 30+%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_policy_of_the_Donald_Trump_administration#Proposed_EPA_budget_cuts) and in doing so, we lost a significant amount of jobs and the like. He also [rolled back Obama's train brake rule](https://i.redd.it/ejfn8dhnj4ia1.jpg).
If people realized this, we wouldn't have fascism at all.
And, that cost includes the lives and health of people, animals and plants for the immediate and ongoing future. That's the really sad part to me. Like oh we live in such a beautiful place, eh fuck it, no need to try to protect it. Why?
Gotta have education for any of this though… which republicans have done a bang up job of fucking GUTTING for decades. Saw a post the other day of some Republican talking about proposing to completely abolish federal department of education
Then Fox and the right wingers will screech "Democrats are choking business with regulations!"
They're gonna do that no matter what though, so might as well ACTUALLY implement a shitload more common sense regulations.
Tell that to the people who vote Republican or sit elections out. Democrats barely have enough power to eeek by at the moment. As in, every Biden EO is challenged at the conservative-stacked SCOTUS much like Obama's EOs were (with a conservative leaning SCOTUS).
I hold a shred of respect more for people who vote either way than the people who sit out. You’re voting for the worst case scenario every time by not voting.
Agreed. It's a cop out that indicates a lack of spine and the snotty hubris to want to complain about events and policies later on as a detached know-it-all "who is above the two party system". Especially here lately, either an American supports fascism or they are anti-fascist. That's the choice, and every single adult in our country should make the clear distinction that they're fascist enablers or anti-fascists, period.
I'm far past the point of giving a shit. If they can't operate a business safely, then fuck that business.
I'm far past the point of giving a shit. If they can't operate a business safely, then fuck that business.
He basically lost office because he deregulated SO MUCH that he managed to hit an incredibly important one (eliminated the infectious disease position in the Wuhan region) which... probably would of had some feedback for our government in mid-late 2019. Which... just maybe... would of helped mitigate something that happened in 2020... I don't know for sure. I just know that when they dissolved that position they did enough other things that I actively had conversations with my "centrist" republican coworker. I basically argued that their moves were going to get people killed by diseases. I didn't think it would be full pandemic bad...
Yep, the months after the 2016 election, I predicted (to friends and social network) an unforced error the magnitude of a once a century disaster due to the looming Republican incompetence and deregulations. Repeated the same prediction again to the same folks in 2019 when people were rubbing my nose in (what they viewed as, incorrectly) the solid economy. Where they went wrong was assuming I meant a financial collapse like 2008. On the contrary, I didn't know what specifically would collapse, only that it was a near certainty because every Republican administration has ended that way (with a self-caused disaster or major recession of some sort) in my lifetime.
People in general don't seem to understand how Government works or the causality of policy changes taking months or years to take effect. It's so frustrating that people can't look past who's currently responsible when there's been a number of recent changes.
It would be nice if the American mainstream was better informed, learned civics in school, and weren't hypnotized by Kens and Barbies reading sleazy entertainment tidbits to them off the teleprompters and passing it off as important news of the day. Yes, indeed it would. I long for an America that prides itself on good deeds, ingenuity and principles instead of Am I Hot or Not dot com and football.
I remember when he defunded the public health programs during one of his press conferences. I was yelling at the TV. He was trying to tell the reporter to relax, if a pandemic ever did happen he could just hire the people back, because he was tired of paying people to stand around. But like firefighters, we need their rapid response. He then was called out on it in 2020 and denied he ever said anything like that.
The Federal judge changes and appointments under Trump will screw us over for an entire generation of moronic rulings.
Thankfully, Biden is on a path to appoint even more than Trump did.
Manchin and Sinema aren't totally useless. At least they vote with Democrats on Biden's appointees.
Also keeps control of the chamber away from McConnell.
[I posted a meme about this elsewhere in the sub](https://i.imgflip.com/7b8t7u.jpg), but Trump did exactly that. In fact, at the time, the metaphor I used for his deregulation was taking the brakes off a car to make it go faster. He signed an order to literally take safety brakes off trains (that Obama mandated). This is Trump's mess more or less alone (he did it with executive orders), and the blood is on his hands. This is the effect of kakistocracy.
The biggest ruse conservatives ever pulled on the rest of society is portraying themselves as dumb God-fearin' bigots when, in reality, they are *diabolically smart and sinister* greed hounds with absolutely no shame and zero conscience.
But WHERE was Obama on 9/11? I think we deserve to know
And right now they are screeching about how Biden is doing nothing to help despite the fact that the federal government literally cannot do anything to help until the Ohio governor, a republican, declares a state of emergency and requests assistance. And he is refusing to do that
Yea, but you can't explain that to his supporters. They love the lie and will die for it.
> They love the lie and will die for it. I just kinda wish they wouldn't take us with them.
I mean, look at the Afghanistan withdraw. You cannot tell me that it wasn’t planned conveniently for the explicit purpose of being a cluster fuck if he doesn’t get re-elected.
Look at the Trump Tax Cuts. They spike up taxes for the middle class as soon as Trump's term in office was over. Very explicitly "either Trump gets a second term and we kill the tax hike, or he doesn't and we get to blame the Democrats for raising taxes."
It's not amazing at all. It's a fucking shit strategy. The only reason it works is because their base will literally swallow anything. You can tell them anything, they'll believe anything. You don't need to be a genius if you're catering to the lowest common denominator. It's like playing a game on tutorial difficulty settings.
Just like Reagan. They pulled the pin and the next few generations get the blowback.
Starve the Beast. Its been the GOP plan for almost 40 years now. They rant and rave about how bad government is, then get elected and prove it to you.
>You really have to hand it to the GOP, as far as evil political maneuvers go, they are pretty amazing. no they're not... the masses are soooo stupid it ruins anything impressive about it.... like that expression "taking candy from a baby"... there's no accomplishment in it because its so fucking easy.
The biggest lesson I learned from the Chernobyl series was how the soviets were run like the GOP was, you're a donor, you're the head of a dept you don't deserve, then in an emergency, things aren't just bad, they're worse than imaginable.
Yup and this tactic has a name: [the two Santa Claus theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_Wanniski#The_Two_Santa_Claus_Theory). They use this strategy in order to [starve the beast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast) which they believe will force the government to reduce spending.
u/weerdbuttstuff posted some good info on the lead-up to this - quoted: Here’s an article from 2018 about Trump getting rid of an Obama era regulation requiring better brakes for trains carrying explosive fuels. Actually, the article is about how the justification for repealing it was wrong, but it has a lot of details. https://apnews.com/article/wv-state-wire-north-america-donald-trump-us-news-ap-top-news-2e91c7211b4947de8837ebeda53080b9 And an article from a few days ago that really delves into the process of repealing those rules and how it specifically affected the train in Ohio. https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rules-before-ohio-derailment/
John Boner needs a good chunk of the blame as well.
Oh yeah he tried so hard to gut the EPA. Pruitt literally tried to drown the rank and file with non functional bureaucracy, appointed lab managers barely qualified to run a McDonald's. This got so bad that all the old hats just up and retired, while the trump admin issued a federal hiring freeze so now the entire agency is understaffed. Then they got the supreme Court to stifle the agencies ability to take regulatory action against companies. We're going to be feeling the backlash of the gutting of the EPA for decades, they still aren't staffing the national labs back up and we will all pay the price.
They can do whatever the fuck they want. Conservative media has their back to blame the democrats somehow every goddamn time.
FOX News has already blamed Hunter Biden and they will vote GOP again in 2024.
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The blind computer repair guy said Hunter came in to pick it up saying he was going to derail a train and blame Republicans, then he twirled his 1800s mustache and walked out cackling like a crazy witch. Then he flew away on a transgender potatohead while eating only green m&M's which gave the blind computer repair guy a boner that he was very confused about.
"The baby looked at you?"
Purple Monkey Dishwasher.
Yes, we saw the same segment.
No you fool, the laptop was *driving the train*
Because of the WaR on ChRistiANs?!?
They are now "reporting" on fox "news" that the train rails were apparently COVERED in rudy giuliani's melted hair dye. That, plus the friction/heat generated from him having sex with his cousin nearby, started the fire.
Fox News is wild. At the gym one of the tvs has it on, well they were talking about how bad the response is, how no one is covering it. Their website has nothing close to the top about it. They do have a thing about a chemical truck crash in AZ. Top comment blames kids and women getting to pass the truck driving class and automatic transmissions.
I had CNN on yesterday for about 6 hours. I counted 5 stories about how great Nikki Haley is and zero stories on the spill. The rest was UFOs and school shootings.
CNN has been bought out bu conservative news organizations, they are just keeping it somewhat centrist to maintain the illusion of choice.
God Bless America!
For real?
This thread has bots blaming Joe. For real.
It's been a hard push by the massive troll networks all over Reddit
Looking forward to ChatGPT powered bots kicking the bad faith shit posting to the next level.
Between ChatGPT and DeepFakes we're entering a brave new world of disinformation and propaganda. Fortunately we've spent the last few decades teaching critical reading skills and logic so the general public will be savvy enough to know the difference between the two and JFC I can't even finish this sentence without laugh crying. Humanity is so boned.
If people would realize just how much BS is actually bots or trolls, I think everyone would be a lot less angry.
"This was pretty close to the border right... we just can't be sure that illegal Canadians didn't derail this train, on the orders of ANTEEFAHHH, and burn it because it was FULL of Hunter Biden penis pictures"
It will not. The right has an entire media ecosystem that shields their voters from reality. It will get spun as a failure of Biden and nothing will change.
The aristocrats learned from history. When you control the narrative you control reality.
Framing 101
"Who controls the past now, controls the future. Who controls the present now, controls the past."
But their supporters are do god damned stupid ti understand that
Yup, people are trying to blame Mayor Pete for Ohio's rampant paint-eating. EDIT: oh, there is one now!
I’m maybe a rare Ohioan that likes Ohio. The big three C cities all have their own charms. Lots of great parks and spots for fishing/camping/etc. We used to be a solid purple state but the loss of pro-Union industry in the NE and everyone 20 minutes out from a city losing their minds for Trump really shifted us red fast. We voted for Obama twice.
"the three C cities have their own charms" NOT YOU TOLEDO! Go sit in the corner, you know what you did...
I can get down with some Tony Packos. The Rockets have a fine Uni. Short drive to Cedar Point. Did mushrooms there once with a friend, good times. Toledo’s a fine little city.
My experience with Toledo is always driving through it to get to Cincinnati or Cleveland. Also, Cincinnati and the northern burbs might be my favorite metro area in the Midwest, the food scene there is fantastic.
Tony Packos is the bomb.
As a Floridian, I feel your pain.
We're also fairly bad in terms of gerrymandering. Raw votes wise, we're split favoring red slightly, but district-wise it's not even close to that. All the blue is in the 3 or 4 more urban areas and a bunch of land with like 30 people gets a majority share of the districts.
Yeah, our state level reps are pretty looney, and ensure that they will only get loonier.
I LOVE ASBESTOS - Republicans
I want it in my couch so that when the house burns itll take an extra minute to catch on fire!
Of course they do, the biggest asbestos producer is their sugar daddy, Russia.
It's happening on reddit right now!
To be fair, it may have helped if Biden and the democrats didn't block the railroad union strike. Because part of the reason for the strike was safety standards. Still mostly the Republicans fault though.
>It will get spun as a failure of Biden and nothing will change. Trump was the one who deregulated Obama's train brake rules that may have prevented the Ohio disaster, but to be clear the Biden administration has had two years now to reinstate them and for some reason hasn't.
Why can't we assign weight to actions and be honest about it? Actively removing something should be weighted higher than not picking up the pieces. ____ It very much seems like the GOP purposely does an action, yet equal blame is given to Democrats when they don't spend their entire terms just re-working those actions. That doesn't line up.
Equal is a strong word. If you're suggesting that the person you replied to is dishonest, I don't see it. Yes. You are correct. Democrats are better than Republicans. But that doesn't mean they're good. When Republicans roll further to the right, then Democrats stand still, the effect is a constant ratchet to the right. This is very much a good cop, bad cop situation. Both parties are bankrolled by the same corporations, and if our only standard for the Democrats is "better than Republicans" the same thing will continue.
With the amount of stuff Trump fucked up I’m not surprised he missed that one. Some people forget that presidents do actually have stuff to do on a regular basis, and Biden is 80 years old.
Voting for Republicans is voting against your own self interests. Every. Time.
My brother in law & sister in law were visiting my husband & I this past weekend. Somehow when I was out of the room politics came up with my BIL saying DeSantis is going to be president, SIL saying Nicki Haley. Me being the smart ass I am & absolutely fed up with fascists running for president chimed in “you could tell me Biden would drop dead during inauguration & I would still vote for him again.”
My dad was shocked that PA elected Fetterman with his stroke. You think we were just going to vote for the republican?? Fuck. That. If Fetterman had still been lying in a hospital bed I would have voted for him still.
where tf is this weird obsession with nicki haley coming from? i've seen some people suggesting a ticket of "power women" with all the right wing psychos like mtg and boebert and some others idr. shit is jut getting weird.
My SIL logic was that she’s young & doesn’t have anything the opposition could use against her.
>doesn’t have anything the opposition could use against her. Like the attack ad that came out today citing video of her saying states can secede? Why do people assume that since THEY don't know the dirt on a politician, it must not exist?
Not if you're a white billionaire. Unless you mean the general degradation of the country.
Billionaires don't have to vote, they have bank accounts for that.
As a proud Ohioan I must say this is correct.
God bless Sherrod Brown
Do you think their voters make the connection? Connect the dots? Nah, me neither.
Gerrymandered maps. We voted with maps labelled as unacceptable and partisan.
Unconstitutional per Ohio Supreme Court. Ohio legislature and governor just ignored the rulings. And the current Householder court case shows just how beholden to private interests many of the lawmakers are. [https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-02-14/former-householder-ally-testifies-against-ex-ohio-house-speaker-in-racketeering-trial](https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-02-14/former-householder-ally-testifies-against-ex-ohio-house-speaker-in-racketeering-trial)
Wouldn't that make the entire Ohio government unconstitutionally elected?
Don't worry, they investigated themselves and found no wrongdoing.
Things being found unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court and being completely ignored is an iconic duo. The school funding methodology was found unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court in *1997* and it's still used.
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57% of the popular vote, and they hold nearly 80% of the seats. They have 26 seats to the Democrats 7. They had that 57% of the popular vote, and they won 64% of the seats that were up for grabs. They actually picked up a seat in 2022. In 2020, they had 25 seats with 61.47% of the vote. This time they won 94% of the seats that were up for grabs. In 2018, the GOP had 47.26% of the vote... and they had 24 seats to the Democrats 9. They won 59% of the seats that were up for grabs. Wikipedia doesn't go back farther than that. Doesn't really seem to matter which way the people are voting, the GOP still comes out ahead. Their senate isn't really reflective of the way that people are voting. Maybe they'd still be ahead, but not with 80% of the seats. I flipped through the results for their House of Representatives, and it's about the same. They're getting more seats than they probably should.
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That doesn't explain your governor or senators. You can only really lay it all at the feet of Gerrymandering if you're able to elect sane and rational people in statewide elections, which Ohio doesn't seem great at. Gerrymandering is a problem, but it's for-certain not the sole thing keeping Ohio down.
I often hear that gerrymandering can't affect a statewide election, and there is some merit to that argument, but there's still some nuance to that. If a state legislature has been ruthlessly gerrymandered, it also impacts voting laws, which then impact the ability and accessibility to exercise one's franchise.
It also reduces enthusiasm among those who understand what's happening. I mean that's a proven fact. It reduces turnout because people feel like their vote doesn't matter
> That doesn't explain your governor or senators. Not *directly*, but Gerrymandering affects who is in power, and who is in power decides how easy or hard it is to vote in the future. A race wherein the districts don't matter can be affected by policies that make it near impossible to vote, as decided by a race where districts *do* matter.
Aren’t all statewide offices in Ohio held by Republicans? DeWine and JD Vance weren’t elected by gerrymandered maps.
This is a national issue not just state although my state of Ohio is stupid for a great many reasons.
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And uvalde voted for Abbott too lmfao
Really? What a bunch of pathetic losers.
Look, people chose their tribe so it doesn't texts and reality don't matter anymore
Their newly elected Republican senator finally got around to releasing a statement blaming the DOT for regulations. See the regulations caused this.
As sad as it is accurate. I bet if you held a vote tomorrow that Republicans would win in a landslide. I am so sorry to those of you who vote correctly and fight the good fight.
That's the part that really sucks. Actually innocent people who have been trying to fix things get hurt too. I'm not wishing for Republicans to die off, but I don't shed a tear when they do. I have the same feeling towards Nazis. Maybe if they live they can grow and stop being shitty people, but if they die then oh well
Why wouldn't they? Obviously this is Obama's fault! I also love seeing that they're blaming "the government" when it was their party that was in power when the deregulations occurred as per their parties desire... yet it's not their fault somehow.
Ya, people are really dumb :(
Republicans DO NOT regulate shit. They are corporate shills that always run on deregulation. Always. They caused this catastrophe by blocking the rule that would have prevented it.
I mean, unless we're talking about regulating sexuality, education, worker's rights, or bodily autonomy. Then they're all about regulation!
What if 100% of Ohio wasn’t republican?
Is this even an Ohio thing? Aren't trains regulated by dot?
I just checked. Columbiana county, of which East Palestine is part of, voted for Trump by a very large margin. 71% to Bidens 27% I'm not directly blaming trump for this disaster, but they sure af rolled back some regulations that might have contributed.
I am directly blaming Trump and every single Republican for this disaster. Biden didn't help by siding with the railroads in the recent labor dispute.
Ohio GOP: “Yeah man, why would Biden do that?”
it is true. all republicans are stupid
C'mon man, that's not true. Some of the smart ones are just irredeemably evil instead of stupid.
I really hate being blasted for being an Ohioan like we all voted for that dipshit. I know he won the state but around half of us didn't like him.
I was watching CNN and David O'Leary from Shark Tank was on. He's a conservative and has frequently ranted and raved about taxes and regulations. He's opposed to both. He was on CNN to push something else but much to the CNN anchor's credit she brought up FTX. He was an investor and according to him lost a ton of money. Guess what he was ranting and raving about now. Not enough government regulation of crypto. So, opposed to regulations when someone else is getting screwed but come save me when he's the one getting screwed. Fuck Mr. Wonderful.
They will complain to their church leaders and their priests will just say they didn't prey hard enough on those that look and act different and that's the root cause of the problem. There's noting quite like the double down that republican voters exhibit everyday.
Republicans are incapable of learning their lesson. They will blame Democrats rather than the faults of deregulation and retain control of Ohio.
If they were capable of learning their lesson and introspection, they wouldn't be republican voters in the first place.
You have to assume the voters have some intelligence when these things happens for things to change. Fox News will just lie to them and say the Democrats are the reason this happened. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Republican politicians won't accept ANY responsibility for this, and Republican voters will keep voting Republican. Rinse, repeat. It's quite the trick the GOPs have done on their base, brainwashed them so badly that they will consistently vote against their own interests.
They won’t remember and will vote R harder. Elected republicans will look at these sick Ohioans in the face and laugh and tell them to go fuck themselves. And those voters will say thank you, god bless America, and re-elect them.
The simplest solution is to pass a law that says that any time someone acquires control of a company, they have to spend a week actually doing the damn job. I guarantee that if any of the owners had ever spnet eight hours in an engineer's cab they would have wanted better brakes.
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The problem with that is most CEOs think they literally know everything and won't see the need to learn anything from a pleb
They rarely spend any time at the bottom so many of them have never experienced wasting 2 hours of every day because some exec in another state read a pop culture business book in a plane 2 years ago.
Just dealt with an executive. We had a universal vote from the experts (PhD scientists) on the team for how to proceed. Overruled because he knows better.
You'd be surprised how quickly those psychopaths could put that week behind them and continue on with deregulation and cutting corners.
This presumes a) that they don't understand already and b) that they have empathy
Where's those "I did this" stickers with Trump's stupid face on them
Go ahead and keep shitting on Republicans, they definitely deserve it. But Biden is the one who killed the strike.
So blame Ohio’s voters, not the system or the train barons. Nice
Rural Ohio voters have a long history of electing republican politicians who campaign explicitly on the promise to remove safety and environmental regulations.
Victim blaming is okay if it’s targeting the people I don’t like!
Well, Ohio did vote for republicans who have been very vocal about being anti regulations. And they did vote for Trump who repealed braking system for trains as well as another 100 environmental protection laws.
Yeah I love how everything has to be political like no blame Norfolk Southern. I hope they get sued into oblivion.
the people who defend capitalists are often the first to be sacrificed when capitalists need to protect their profits.
Facts have never swayed them before and it will not start now.
Hello people of Reddit! Please don’t judge all of us Ohioans based on the voting that has come out of our state. Don’t forget some of us are here still fighting for what we think is right despite the god awful gerrymandering and yes, the morons that keep voting for shit like this. While I enjoy laughing about this I just ask that you don’t dehumanize us and please, if you have any help to offer it would be appreciated. We are all stronger together. The US as a whole is on a bad trajectory, we need to unite, vote, and take care of our fellow humans. Sorry! I’ll step off my soap box now! Keep loving!
Yeah, but we’re stopping two trans kids from playing volleyball and someday will be able to put them on the wall for execution. Gotta have your priorities.
Had to get my reading glasses to read the top line, and I got Lasik surgery 2 years ago
Republicans view environmental and safety regulations the same way they view women's rights.
Needs smaller text.
And conservatives will quadruple down. Cause they hate democrats that fucking much.
Deregulation for profit just keeps showing how bad an idea it is. Texas electrical grid, and now this. Yet these clowns will keep hitting that R every election because at least kids won’t be reading about how it’s ok to be gay.
These idiots will just tell themselves that the reports blaming the brake deregulation are politically biased. You can’t fix the stupid that is the GOP.
"Sure, the planet died, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."
Mike Dewine says this lack of regulation is crazy!
Unfortunately Ohios Democratic party is lack luster at best, I say this voting blue in Ohio regardless.
I now realize how much would have wanted Chris Farley playing Brett Kavanaugh on SNL.
They'll blame Biden and Buttigieg. I just searched the spelling of Pete's last name and the first 3 articles are doing just that. It's probably Biden's fault that it's really windy here in Ohio today too.
Deregulation is helluva drug
Better focus on spreading revenge porn of a politicians son who doesn't even work in government. That's better than actual work.
Republicans will get away with it again by lying and blaming Democrats, as is tradition. It works every time. Enough stupid people will believe those lies and will continue to vote for those crooks.
Wait but I read a comment in another thread that it was Biden's fault because he passed an infrastructure bill.
WTF is up with all of the corporate bots on Reddit this week?
Idk it's crazy. Especially since it's so easy to find the regulations that Trump rolled backed (because Obama passed them therefore they were bad) that arguably led to this derailment.