2025 Political Thread

[andyhb]

Straight up Nazi rhetoric re: those who have autism from RFK Jr.

 

[TH2002]

Straight up Nazi rhetoric re: those who have autism from RFK Jr.

I have autism, so here’s my take FWIW:

Nazi rhetoric? No.

A man who has a very poor understanding of autism, how it affects people, and just generally shouldn’t be the Secretary of Health and Human Services? Yes.

 

[andyhb]

I have autism, so here’s my take FWIW:

Nazi rhetoric? No.

A man who has a very poor understanding of autism, how it affects people, and just generally shouldn’t be the Secretary of Health and Human Services? Yes.

He's very thinly veiling his support for eugenics.

 

[UpperLevelLOL]

Eugenics were absolutely a key part of Nazi rhetoric and the state went after and killed the mentally impaired just as they did the Jews, upwards of 250,000 people total. Kennedy's dehumanizing comments would fit right in there.

 

[andyhb]

This seems a massive deal. Straight up admitting they are paying to illegally keep someone in a foreign prison camp is unreal.

 

[TH2002]

He's very thinly veiling his support for eugenics.

Eugenics were absolutely a key part of Nazi rhetoric and the state went after and killed the mentally impaired just as they did the Jews, upwards of 250,000 people total. Kennedy's dehumanizing comments would fit right in there.

RFK is not a Nazi. He’s not calling for the forced institutionalization or euthanization of autistic people or anyone else with mental disabilities. Saying otherwise reminds me of that quote from SpongeBob:

“He poisoned our water supply, burned our crops and delivered a plague unto our houses!”

“He did?”

“No, but are we just gonna wait around until he does?”

I think you two are confusing stupidity with malice.

 

[andyhb]

RFK is not a Nazi. He’s not calling for the forced institutionalization or euthanization of autistic people or anyone else with mental disabilities. Saying otherwise reminds me of that quote from SpongeBob:

“He poisoned our water supply, burned our crops and delivered a plague unto our houses!”

“He did?”

“No, but are we just gonna wait around until he does?”

I think you two are confusing stupidity with malice.

What the hell is even the difference in this administration? It's all for the same cause.

 

[UpperLevelLOL]

RFK is not a Nazi. He’s not calling for the forced institutionalization or euthanization of autistic people or anyone else with mental disabilities. Saying otherwise reminds me of that quote from SpongeBob:

“He poisoned our water supply, burned our crops and delivered a plague unto our houses!”

“He did?”

“No, but are we just gonna wait around until he does?”

I think you two are confusing stupidity with malice.

You can be a Nazi without calling for those things. Also, RFK very much does want to send folks with alcohol and drug disorders to "wellness farms" where they can get better by growing tomatoes or something: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/health/rfk-addiction-farms.html

 

[NewFoundWeatherNerd]

Call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever, but this realization just hit me like a brick: the federal government has had a major power trip going ever since 9/11, and it continues regardless of which major party is in power:

the unconstitutional Patriot Act and spying on US citizens - "it's to keep you safe"
the unconstitutional REAL ID act - "it's to keep you safe"
unconstitutional gun laws in many states like California and Illinois - "it's to keep you safe"
unconstitutional lockdowns and vaccine mandates during Covid - "it's to keep you safe"
unconstitutional arrests and deportations of legal residents for having the "wrong" opinions about Israel and proposed unconstitutional deportations of US citizens - "it's to keep you safe"

Hmmm...

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -Benjamin Franklin

Im surprised this hasn't been brought up further; I never knew a world of pre-9/11, I never got to see that time. But, my parents and close associates certainly did; it's left me rather sad, knowing that things didnt used to be like this.
But the Patriot act was just the beginning of a long attempted run of government trying to peak into far more personal civilian matters; it was not the first try, but certainly the most successful. I my eyes, it was just another case of using tragedy for gain, and then normalization of these actions which should not be right, nor usual.
I wish I couldve seen that pre-9/11 time, but I didnt; now the youth are stuck with the most surveillance based US-gov in history, outside of cold war activities.

 

[TH2002]

You can be a Nazi without calling for those things. Also, RFK very much does want to send folks with alcohol and drug disorders to "wellness farms" where they can get better by growing tomatoes or something: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/health/rfk-addiction-farms.html

I can’t read the article because (go figure) it’s paywalled, but it admittedly peaked my interest. Does RFK support sending people to those farms with or without the patient’s consent?

What the hell is even the difference in this administration? It's all for the same cause.

Just curious - how do you and UpperLevelLOL define the term “Nazi”?

(Not asking to be a smarta**, genuinely curious what your criteria is)

 

[andyhb]

I can’t read the article because (go figure) it’s paywalled, but it admittedly peaked my interest. Does RFK support sending people to those farms with or without the patient’s consent?


Just curious - how do you and UpperLevelLOL define the term “Nazi”?

(Not asking to be a smarta**, genuinely curious what your criteria is)

People who align with Stephen Miller and this administration nowadays, because they are behaving like Nazis.

 

[bjdeming]

This time, there is no such violence. The only reason it is being invoked is to make it easier to use the military against immigrants and (eventually) the greater civilian population. It is not a martial law declaration...

All too true, though Marjorie T. Greene seems to be doing fine with mere tasers.

But after reading about this -- have heard about the radio station from other sources, too, back in the halcyon days when it just seemed like a Cold War relic -- I remembered that there can be other reasons for a military deployment:



I remember how horrifying it was when Trump 1.0 briefly cleared the airspace over *ME* when North Korea was rattling its nuclear sabers.

It was an unpleasant reminder that the West Coast is on the front line, if and when the balloon ever goes up.

The southern border is more iffy, but it's also less secure than the Lower 48 northern one, unless the military is predeployed.

Just a reminder that a bigger picture exists; war can happen suddenly; and all of us civilians can just as suddenly turn into helpless passengers on a hijacked airliner (imagery intentional: that's kind of what it feels like, since inauguration day, to be a centrist American, and I can't be 100% sure this administration wouldn't get into a war with Russia, possibly on the same side, to divvy up the world -- with predictably explosive and disastrous results all around...and no winners at all, just survivors here and there of a lost civilization).

 

[bjdeming]

On the judicial front, more backbone (applause emoji):

A US judge has said he could hold the Trump administration in contempt of court for "wilful disregard" of an order to halt the departure of deportation flights carrying more than 200 people to El Salvador last month.

The administration had invoked a 227-year-old law meant to protect the US during wartime to carry out the mass deportation.

"The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory," federal judge James Boasberg wrote...

-- Source

From the AP analysis:

...
Stanford Law School professor Robert Weisberg, who teaches criminal procedure, said Boasberg’s claim that the government flagrantly violated his order is “very convincing.”

“This looks so sound to me that I think it will be difficult to win a reversal, which means we may have a standoff,” he said.

Weisberg said he is concerned that the showdown between the judge and administration could move the government even closer to a constitutional crisis.


“I’m supposed to say, because everybody else does, that we have to be careful about using the term ‘constitutional crisis.’ It means too many things, it’s overused,” he said. “That aside, what the country has been waiting for ... some with happy anticipation, is for a flat-out refusal to obey a legal court order. This is pretty close.”

 

[bjdeming]

As for tariffs...

...
The lawsuit challenges Trump evoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to enact the tariffs, arguing the act had never been used for such levies and such powers rest with the US Congress.

The lawsuit cites multiple times from rulings by the US Supreme Court against the Biden administration in its quest to forgive student debt, noting the high court called Biden's manoeuvres a "transformative expansion" of presidential authority.

Newsom said if the Supreme Court is "consistent, then this lawsuit is a lock" for the state.

The act has never been used to issue tariffs by any president, congressional research shows.

While California is the first state to file legal action against the Trump administration over the levies, several other lawsuits filed by small businesses and a civil rights group have similarly challenged Trump's authority on the matter....

-- Source

These days, life is a real-time civics lesson.

 

[UpperLevelLOL]

Well this is terrifying. Apparently criticizing the administration is now aiding terrorism. I’d call that fascist pretty easily

 

[gangstonc]

The Global Engagement Center was shut down today. Its main job was to target Russian disinformation.

Trump denied the sale of $50 billion worth of Patriot missiles (a defensive weapon) to Ukraine.

How can you say Trump and his cronies are not Russian assets? The senate admitted as much in their report on 2016 election interference.

 

[andyhb]

My time here in this country is literally over if this gets passed as is.

 

[UpperLevelLOL]

And yet, so many “weather enthusiasts” voted for this nightmare despite the fact that this outcome was obvious from the get-go.

 

[bjdeming]

More backbone on the executuve/judicial branch front:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s claim that it can’t do anything to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison and return him to the U.S. “should be shocking,” a federal appeals court said Thursday in a blistering order that ratchets up the escalating conflict between the government’s executive and judicial branches.

A three-judge panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously refused to suspend a judge’s decision to order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her instruction to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.

-- Source

 

[bjdeming]

Yet more backbone -- he persisted after they wouldn't let him in, and he got in. As he says in another tweet, "We won't stop fighting."

King Donald doesn't have a trademark on that American attitude.



What King Donald needs is a heart.

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice...

-- Willy the Shake, "Merchant of Venice"​