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[PTTG??]

The Onion remains an effective source of political news.

[SalmonGod]

Both democrats and republicans agreeing on something is regular? Or is indication of the situation being really dire.

It’s nearly unheard of nowadays. There’s often splits within the parties but near unanimous approval of both parties is very rare. Israel is the only issue that comes to mind on which both parties mostly agree upon.

It's... not that rare... the stuff they agree on is just rarely discussed, because it makes everyone uncomfortable.  Stuff like war for profit.

[Frumple]

Or all sorts of day to day/simple domestic/generic feel good stuff. Congress's voting record is, y'know. Public. If you want to see what gets agreed on, just go look at all the shit that  passes either unanimously or without opposition. Iirc it comprises the majority of what goes through Congress.

[Folly]

Just read your lower chamber of representants or however you call it approved unanimously 2 laws concerning or applicable to Venezuela. Couldn't find anything on the internet clear enough beyond some tweets. Somebody could please throw some enlightenment on my general direction?

Both democrats and republicans agreeing on something is regular? Or is indication of the situation being really dire.

A simple majority is required for most anything to get done, and for that reason compromise has been the norm for decades. It's only recently that partisanship has upset that balance and begun to impede the general order of things.

And things move from a simple majority to unanimous agreement pretty quickly, simply because nobody wants to go against a motion that will pass anyway and risk looking uncool.

[Baffler]

This may be more politics adjacent than politics proper, but the charges against Jussie Smollett for his fake hate crime have been suddenly and inexplicably dropped. The county prosecutor who apparently made the decision did not explain her reasoning to the press. Any idea why they would just let him off for nothing more than keeping the $10,000 he paid as bail?

Incidentally, this happened a day after one of his lawyers, Mike Geragos, was named a co-conspirator with Michael Avenatti in a whole bunch of stuff.

[smjjames]

This may be more politics adjacent than politics proper, but the charges against Jussie Smollett for his fake hate crime have been suddenly and inexplicably dropped. The county prosecutor who apparently made the decision did not explain her reasoning to the press. Any idea why they would just let him off for nothing more than keeping the $10,000 he paid as bail?

Incidentally, this happened a day after one of his lawyers, Mike Geragos, was named a co-conspirator with Michael Avenatti in a whole bunch of stuff.

Huh, I didn't know that one of his lawyers was that guy. That very well could have had something to do with it.

[Folly]

This may be more politics adjacent than politics proper, but the charges against Jussie Smollett for his fake hate crime have been suddenly and inexplicably dropped. The county prosecutor who apparently made the decision did not explain her reasoning to the press. Any idea why they would just let him off for nothing more than keeping the $10,000 he paid as bail?

Still no official response from anyone in the know, but the media are trying to spin it as an example of rich famous people getting away with crimes because of a biased judicial system.

[smjjames]

The whole thing is an odd clusterfrack anyways, and everything surrounding it with the responses etc have become a strange microcosm of American politics.

[wierd]

I just see it as late stage identity politics, and how the trend has dominated discussion and press time/relevance. 

This guy was having a career low; He needed to be relevant.  SO-- He invented a hate crime performed against him, to gain the podium of public interest.  But it backfired.

The real story is not how some entertainer on the rocks did this, but why.  Sadly, that's not a discussion America wants to have right now

[Frumple]

This may be more politics adjacent than politics proper, but the charges against Jussie Smollett for his fake hate crime have been suddenly and inexplicably dropped. The county prosecutor who apparently made the decision did not explain her reasoning to the press. Any idea why they would just let him off for nothing more than keeping the $10,000 he paid as bail?

Best conjecture I've seen is that the CPD fucked up somewhere, probably massively and with a racist and/or corrupt bent, as the police department that used black sites to torture suspects is inclined to do. The CPD has traditionally been a massive ball of corrupt bigoted fuckwit, which occasionally bites their various works in the ass. One of the worst large scale police departments in the country screwing up almost doesn't qualify as news, heh.

The bail thing is actually kinda' interesting, as the law for that area seems to say that more or less literally the only way you can lose your bail is if you violate your bail conditions somehow or another. You can't volunteer to give it up, about the closest you can come to it is not fighting back when a judge decides to keep it. It's fairly likely the bail being forfeited is orthogonal to the charges being dropped (or dismissed, or whatever), in other words. Smollett may have talked to someone or went somewhere they shouldn't have but the charges got stuffed for some other reason.

[sluissa]

So, Senator Mike Lee from Utah went full on meme tactics on the senate floor against the Green New Deal.

I'm going to intentionally omit the link to the video as I think he's being typical biased scum about it, but it's fairly easy to find with the right search terms.

Of note though, he pulled out pictures of Reagan riding a dinosaur as an example of... lying about the cold war? Tauntauns from Star Wars as an example of how Alaskans will get around without planes, as well as Aquaman on a giant seahorse as ways for Hawaiians to get to and from their state in similar circumstances. As well as a chart that showed cows before and after the GND, implying that the GND would kill all cows to prevent methane releases.

I'll admit, I laughed, but god damn was it frustrating to watch.

[Folly]

There you have it folks, incontrovertible scientific proof that global warming is all a hoax.

[smjjames]

Yea, I saw an article on it and couldn't decide if he was being sarcastic or serious. Turns out he said that he was treating it with the ridiculousness that he thinks the Green Deal is, so, I'm taking it as sarcasm.

Would be nice if Republicans like him would actually submit their own proposals. Can't have a debate on it without the other side giving their own ideas and the fact that they haven't is the reason why the New Green Deal is a thing in the first place. I know Sen. Lamar Alexander has his ideas, but that's been out there for over 10 years now.

[RedKing]

There you have it folks, incontrovertible scientific proof that global warming is all a hoax.

This is what has finally killed any hope I had in fixing the country through the established process. Congress has become a goddamn 4chan thread. Burn it all down, then shoot the ashes into the sun.

I swear, if I could Thanos-snap Republicans out of existence, I not only would do so, but would then reconstitute them three times a day just so I could extinguish them again.

[Trekkin]

Can't have a debate on it without the other side giving their own ideas

This is, in some sense, the point. Republicans don't want a debate on climate change. This particular performance is ample evidence of that, filtered through good old-fashioned Republican spitefulness.

If climate change ceases to be ridiculous, it will doom them politically. Cartoons and preposterousness are about the only tools they still have.