volkris @volkris@qoto.org

The latest in #USPolitics for the many on this platform that never seem to have any exposure to #Republicans is that different factions of that side have contradictory claims about what's in the text of the immigration bill introduced to the #Senate.

One side says that the bill is awful because it does x, y, and z, while the other side says those things are emphatically not in the bill.

One side calls out the other for having supported the bill without reading it even as they themselves vociferously reject the bill... without reading it.

It's a really sad thing to watch, but in order to understand this moment in domestic politics one has to know that this intra party dispute over matters of fact is looming large.

And my impression is that it's really not about #Trump, at least not directly, even though he seems to be trying to claim credit for the tides that were moving already, as he often does.

From what I see it's more about conservatives who have no idea how the US government actually works and so had no ability to properly judge legislation, and so threw a giant hissy fit when they didn't get their uninformed way.

#GOP #border #politics

My experience with #Musk is more interesting than just he's a liar or he's a capitalist or most of the other stuff being thrown at him, and in a really important way:

Over years I watched interview after interview where some reporter or fan would press him to answer questions outside of his level of expertise, and he would tell them they'd need to ask an engineer, but they'd demand an answer from him until he sheepishly gave in and told them what they wanted to hear.

I think over time Musk largely decided it wasn't worth trying to resist and started playing along a lot more.

But this is something we see with many public figures. They become caricatures over time, becoming the thing the public wants them to be.

This isn't at all to let Musk off the hook for anything. But since I personally really don't care about Musk, the larger picture is more interesting.

I think this really captures the state of things with Republicans shooting themselves in the foot because even though these numbers will be staring them in the face, they're going to miss the critical lesson about independants.

#USPolitics #Trump

Tagging for people interested in #ActivityPub and #Mastodon development

#Biden's strike on the #Houthis shows once again that he screws things up coming and going.

The complete lack of response was probably not great, but apparently he was worried about escalation.

But then he overcorrected, with a strike of magnitude that won't bend incentives but will grant the escalation that was exactly what he was supposedly looking to avoid.

It's really the story of his whole administration, incompetent administrators lurching left and right as they find themselves in way over their heads.

Nobody's better off from that, and it's tragic to see so much death and destruction coming out of that utter failure to engage rationally with the world.

#USPolitics #war

It's the kind of #Trump moment that I love to laugh at.

The quote as best I care to remember it from his town hall:
Retribution? I won't have time for retribution. I'm going to be making America successful. That success is retribution.

Ah, so no time to make America successful?

I always say the way to undermine Trump's chances in the election is to focus on pointing out to his potential voters that he fails at the things those potential voters think he's good at. Too often people attack Trump in ways that actually make him look good to those voters.

Believe it or not, a lot of Trump supporters think Trump can talk good. Amazingly enough. So I would think making fun of his rhetorical gaffs would be a minor path of criticism, pointing out that he actually can't put sentences together as well as his supporters think.

But ah well, at least I'll laugh privately about these occasions.

#uspolitics