This is of course bigger than just AI but this kind of thing is one of the things that really bothers me about it. AI is useful for a handful of things, I’ve mainly just found it useful to help debug code. But the industry puffs it up so much as this revolutionizing force which leads to people doing things like this. Take a tool that is useful in less than a handful of circumstances and have it do EVERYTHING. Because the industry says it can and they wouldn’t lie right?

Of course all this will do is revoked visas of brown immigrant students.

Fuck dude, I hope that all the calls that his office is getting shows him he fucked up. The right will never like him, they view him as a globalist who believes in science and shit.

Maybe, maybe, he will have a trans advocate on his podcast who will give the information about how BS this shit was. But even if he does, the damage has been done.

This is another moment that shows why we need to remake the democratic party during the primaries next year. We need to go out and vote for progressive candidates so people like Newsom see that progressive is the right way to go, not this shit he’s doing.

Some stuff from your link

Republicans can’t pass a spending bill without Democrats but they’re trying to ram through a MAGA budget disaster that slashes essential programs, attacks basic rights, and enables the Trump-Musk coup.

They can pass that budget without Democrats. They’re going to use Reconciliation like the Democrats did under Biden. So this one is moot. Also in this point they talk about how the Democrats just have to refuse to vote for a bill that cuts the social programs. Which they have. So both moot and already done.

Deny a quorum to completely freeze Senate business. If Republicans don’t have 51 votes on the floor, Democrats can walk out, preventing the Senate from doing anything at all.

What? The Republicans have 53 senators. As long as each one is there they can still do whatever they want. This one just doesn’t make sense.

Refuse to give an inch. Block every unanimous consent request and force the GOP to waste precious time on every single step of the process.

This one is actually dead on and something that should happen.

So basically the article you linked has 3 ways the Democrats can fight back. The first way is something they’re already doing, refusing to vote for a budget that cuts programs. But also the point is moot because it says they need Democrats to pass the MAGA budget but they don’t. So that point doesn’t work. The second is also moot because the Republicans have 53 senators and will be able to do stuff if the Democrats are there or not. And the third is actually an option they can do.

So your article has 1 possible action while acting as if the Democrats aren’t already doing another one of these. The article is saying they will gladly vote for a budget that cuts the programs despite the Democrats saying they won’t.

Thanks The Guardian for not mentioning how he also talked about a trans woman that set a new record on a race by 5 hours. Turns out 2 things, the race is over 800 miles and takes 8 days so 5 hours is next to nothing, and also that it was a Co-Ed race. So the trans woman set a record in a race that takes 8 days and I would bet she set that record because she traveled just a little bit faster than her competition.

He portrayed it as the trans woman setting the record in woman’s sports but if he said it was a Co-Ed race then his point would be moot. But the Guardian can’t talk about that because they are on his side there.

Two of these guys are much more complicated. Most people have already pointed out Lincoln but Teddy is more complicated than how he viewed Native Americans. He was out first Trust Buster as President. The robber barons thought they had bought him but once he was in office, after the death of McKinley, he went after them. He broke up Standard Oil. He went after those fuckers with his big stick and helped a lot of people because of it. He also created National Parks, which is complicated but still more positive than the destruction of the land that was happening.

Of course he was also racist, but there are presidents who are complicated and manage to do both terrible and actually very positive things at the same time. Teddy wasn’t perfect and he was often an asshole, but he did good things too.

They’ve increased taxes in 2009 in response to the crash, they’ve done investment in infrastructure. They’ve passed the first climate change legislation ever in this country. They increased the minimum wage in 2009 and tried to again. They did actual shit for the 4 years of the last 2 decades they’ve had full power to do anything. But then voters vote them out because they don’t do everything they intended to.

They need do more, but they need full power to do that. Whenever they get that they do shit. But it’s impossible to do shit when Republicans control one house of Congress kneecapping everything they want to do.

Also they are incredibly different. One of them wants to increase the minimum wage, the other wants to get rid of it. One of them wants to make sure queer folk are allowed to exist in public and have rights, the other wants to put us in prison and take away our right to exist at all. One of them wants to bust monopolies and the other wants more monopolies. One of them wants to increase social safety net benefits, the other wants to get rid of it. One of them wants to tax the rich, the other wants no federal income tax at all. One of them believes that voting should be easy and the other wants to make voting impossible.

They’ve passed plenty of bills that end up dying because of Republicans, you’re blaming Democrats for Republicans being the problem and saying they’re the same. You’re being reductive because they happen to both be capitalist parties, which sucks ass but there’s a lot of space in the capitalist spectrum.

Listen, there’s nothing wrong with wanting Democrats to do better. But it’s BS to say they haven’t done anything positive in the last 20 years. 20 years where they only actually had full power for 4 of those years and 2 of those years only barely had a majority in the Senate.

Edit: also most of what I said Harris campaigned on has not been promised for 2 decades. She campaigned on policies that the party hadn’t supported on the presidential level before. The only democratic presidential nominee to campaign on legalizing weed was Harris. The only one to campaign on a unrealized gains tax was Harris. The only one to campaign on the down payment assistance was Harris. Biden talked about increasing the minimum wage too but that was 4 years ago so not over the last 20 years.

Yes. The vast majority of the party supports us and fights for us. A handful of Democrats have come out and said they think the party is “too far left” on the trans sports stuff but the majority of the party? They support us. The article should at at the end of the headline that they passed this first test because they blocked the fucking bill.

Right? All they had to do was promise to Legalize weed, increase the minimum wage, put caps on rent increases, go after shrinkflation, make it easier to vote, say that healthcare is a human right, fight for unions, promise to help support people who currently can’t afford to buy homes to be able to buy homes, and tax the rich and corporations more.

Oh wait, Harris did all of those things. Democrats have had progressive policy, but voters keep voting against it. Because Democrats have to be perfect and cant also happen to have a couple shit policies. The moment they have a couple shitty policies, or don’t have all the progressive policies people want. those are all that matter and that means Democrats are just the same as Republicans.

Theres a massive problem with propaganda in this country to the point where Unions, public school Educators, Farmers, Poor folk just barely managing to survive until their next paycheck would all rather vote for the guy who wants to make unionizing Illegal, who wants to dismantle the Department of Education and public schools, who wants to take away farmer subsidies so that small time farmers collapse in on themselves, and who wants to take away the very federal programs that help poor Americans survive. As opposed to a candidate who wanted to support more unionization across the country and support workers right to strike, who wanted the department of Education to remain in existence and had a teacher as her VP who talked about how teachers needed raises, who talked about going after big time corporations who also happen to be massive farmers and force the small time farmers to sell to them so that the small timers now make no or actually lose money while the corporation gets their subsidy, and who talked about raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour “at least” and supported legislation that would allow for said poor folk to get more benefits and be lifted out of poverty.

Democrats are and were pro worker, even if not perfect. But the workers abandoned them because at least the Republicans say they’ll fix everything right away. And hey if they don’t, these things take time. But if a Democrat is elected and says they’ll fix everything right away, that they’ll change the country and they don’t do it immediately, well that’s just because Democrats are incompetent.

Many many workers are voting for Republicans knowing it’s against their interests because of hatred and bigotry. The Democrats need to do better, the need to be reshaped into a more progressive party, and they need better messaging and marketing, but to say they aren’t already the pro worker party is fucking disingenuous at best and outright spreading far right propaganda at worst.

The Republicans weren’t in the minority during Obama’s term except for the first 2 years when he got a shit ton done. But in 2010 they got elected to the majority in the House. They weren’t a minority party except in the senate until 2014 when they managed to take it.

The reason the Republicans were able to Kneecap Obama wasn’t because they were the minority party and the minority party can just do that, it was because they had power. Because the voters elected them in the midterm election with the lowest turn out in decades and that shaped the rest of his presidency.

Democrats right now don’t have any power besides the Filibuster and that is definitely going to be used for legislation. But Republicans are also going to use Reconciliation to do some of their most influential legislation because that way the Democrats can’t do shit.

And they’re planning on passing it in the Senate with Budget Reconciliation so the Filibuster won’t stop it.

SF is incredibly liberal, I could absolutely see Nancy losing and finally being forced to retire. Just gotta get people out to vote during the Primary.

Pelosi was elected when she was 41-42. Saikat Chakrabarti is 39, so only a couple years younger than when Pelosi was put into Congress. This is the perfect time for her to be forced to retire.

This is stupid. Bernie is great but if you want a progressive candidate like him it should be AOC. Bernie will be 86 in 2028. That’s nuts. It’s crazy how many people who harp on how we shouldn’t have old people in charge are suddenly okay with it when it’s the one they like.

Bernie is too old. It. Should. Not. Be. Him. Under any circumstances.

30 years ago he was also in his 50s and a 3 term congressman in Vermont about to be reelected in the 1996 election for his 4th term. Basically the same place AOC is now, he also wasn’t nearly the powerhouse he is now. The only reason he is the person he is now is because of everything after.

Are they unprepared though? Because every time they get full power they get shit done. Not as much as would be ideal but they still do stuff. And they also would have passed multiple more things in 21-22 if they had been given more seats in the Senate, having a 50-50 Senate made it only possible to get some things done not everything, they could have played dirty and gotten more done. For instance they weren’t able to pass their Voting reform bill that had passed the House and would drastically have changed and improved how we vote. But it’s still BS to say they don’t get anything done. That’s literally far right propaganda that has become so pervasive it convinces people on both sides that the Democrats are useless and never do anything.

That said, about Project 2025. It was put together by the Heritage Foundation. A think tank that does its work and puts it out for free. They’re backed by right wing billionaires. So the Republican party didn’t make it, despite it being their platform. Also wouldn’t it be Project 2029 for theirs since 2027 is a midterm and the whole point for that is to obstruct and do oversight on trump and his administration by having any power again. That said again. They don’t have the massive far right billionaires driving the equivalent of a Project 2025 and democratic voters also frequently argue against Billionaires driving something like that. Project 2025 is successful because all the work was done by Heritage.

Also also, I 100% agree that it’s insane they keep playing nice. They have to play dirty and that means breaking some rules which they seem unwilling to do.

But they are put into power by the Voters and then punished by the Voters despite doing significant legislation and improving the country when they get full power. So them not being able to take power for as much time as republicans has to do with the voters and the Republicans cheating with gerrymandering and voter suppression. And general Republican propaganda destroying the system.

But even this last Election Harris wanted to increase the minimum wage, wanted to put caps on rent increases, wanted to give first time home buyers 25,000 down payment assistance, wanted to legalize weed, wanted to introduce an Unrealized gains tax on people who have stock portfolios bigger than 100 million, increasing the corporate tax rate, talking about actually trying to punish companies who engage in shrinkflation. She had progressive policies on her platform, but instead of Democrats going out and voting and the progressive legislation driving people to the polls, everyone summarized her as only ever being not-Tump and them being the same and some saying she even had no policies. Democrats have things they campaign on, but the Voters say no. Mainly because the left doesn’t vote, or split their vote, and the right ALWAYS votes.

Personally, I’m not saying the Democrats can’t or shouldn’t be better, I think the party needs to be drastically reformed and we need to primary and kick out the older generation and we need more progressives who can talk more like real people. But I’m also trying to be fair about how things actually happen when they are in power.

Well a major influence on that is because people keep voting for Republicans even when Democrats have progressive policies on their platforms. Republicans winning the House in 2010 kneecapped every single thing the Democrats had been striving for. 2010 had the lowest turn out for a midterm in decades. Often because of people on the left blaming Obama for not fixing everything right away, or because there is a depressingly large population of the country that don’t even know midterms exist.

Republicans fuck everything over, and people keep voting for them. Democrats don’t fix everything right away, and people refuse to vote for them. Such is the stupidity of the American public.

Oh and the Dodd-Frank act regulating Wallstreet. And saving the economy from the massive financial crash with the Recovery Act. And an act that extended how long after being fired someone can file for unemployment. And new tax legislation that had tax increases to help pay for the investment in the economy with the recovery act. And around 50 other pieces of legislation.

Plus the “shitty health care” you mentioned mandated insurance companies have to cover people with pre-existing conditions giving insurance to tens of millions of people. And extended Medicaid to tens of millions of people providing relatively cheap medical care by comparison to before. Free? No. But many went from having bills of multiple hundreds a month to just 50. Again, perfect? No. But a massive fucking improvement.

All that in the 2 years he had both houses. Not his entire first term. Much of it was incredibly influential even if not perfect. To say we got nothing out of it is misrepresenting both what we got and what we had before.

Edit: and increasing the minimum wage.

Didn’t know that, I’ll edit the comment, thanks for the info!

Edit that I hope I made in time for you to see: does that mean that the parties that are under 5% are waisted votes? So does the percentage of vote total show that the country is majority left leaning but because so many voters voted for parties that didn’t break 5 those voters won’t be represented and the seats that would have gone to leftist parties if they had broken 5 will go to the center left party who did? Basically, is voting for parties who don’t break 5 like Americans voting for Third parties, completely pointless?

Edit at the top: turns out, any party that is below 5% doesn’t make it into the Bundestag, so the multiple leftist parties that fell below that 5% were waisted when it comes to getting seats. The country though still has the majority left leaning vote percentage wise. I’m only keeping the original comment for posterity, some of it is wrong as has been pointed out by the Germans in the thread.

Interestingly, if all the center-left and the leftists parties all added up their percentages of the vote, they get roughly 51.2% of the vote. Now I’m not super knowledgeable on how that affects their Bundestag, but if that means that said 51.2 percent have a majority of seats, they could join together to make a coalition government and keep the far right out of power.

Course that won’t happen because us leftists love infighting and refusing to compromise with our fellow leftists for the greater good while the right easily falls in line.

Also interestingly, this could mean that the far right/conservative party is going to be put into power in Germany winning the minority of the vote overall for the second time that I know of. And we all know what happened last time.

Edit: And again, this is all preliminary so it could change and as another commenter mentioned the AfD is a pariah and is still unlikely to be a part of the government due to the conservatives saying they won’t be. But who knows, people lie.

Thanks for pointing that out! Fixed it.