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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • I don’t understand why some in this thread are so offended when it’s noted that it’s not a Filibuster, because it’s not blocking a vote. It doesn’t matter what we call it. He’s doing this to get some attention to certain issues, and it’s working. In many ways, it’s better that he does it when no critical vote is pending, because he can’t be accused of obstructionism.

    People need to understand that, as the minority party in the Senate, all Democrats can really do is obstruct. And Republicans are counting on that obstruction, because it makes it easier to tear shit down. If Democrats simply refuse to let anything come to the floor, Republicans will just wait until the entire government defaults, and then blame it all on Democrats.

    Democrats need to pick their battles carefully, and I think Booker did a good job here. Whether or not is actually blocks votes is besides the point.



  • The Senate does not have a time limit on any speech like other bodies do. One a Senator has the floor, they can keep talking until they yield the floor.

    A traditional Filibuster is when a Senator does this to postpone a particular vote. Since there was no vote pending, technically this doesn’t count as a Filibuster. Which means Booker can get the press coverage for doing this, without really holding up anything important.














  • ICE is under extreme pressure from the White House to ramp up enforcement. Top ICE officials, including the newly installed acting director, were re-assigned within weeks of Trump taking office, allegedly over frustrations that detentions and deportations weren’t rising fast enough.

    I think this is really the main cause. Trump envisioned that once he took office, he would flush the millions of illegals who voted for Biden in 2020 like rats. (I picked that analogy on purpose, he thinks they’re sub-human).

    The problem is that those people simply don’t exist. They never tried to vote (because that is a sure ticket to getting kicked out permanently, after spending time in jail). But most immigrants that are easy to find are the legal kind.

    So, when ICE simply couldn’t find the vermin in the numbers Trump wanted, he fired them all and put in new people willing to go farther. So now, any non-citizen is suspect (as well as citizens who don’t “look like” citizens). This is going to continue to escalate. This will turn into a major diplomatic problem. Other countries will need to start denying automatic visas to US citizens. Trump won’t pay attention until his Corporate masters yell at him for making it so they can’t just jet off to Europe whenever they want.



  • Thanks for the extensive quote, but that’s not even the worst part of the article. The second half outlines how the facility she is being held in is a privately-run prison. They get paid per detainee, and when the Biden administration was not detaining many people, the prison was losing money. But now, it’s doing well. Yay for them, I guess?

    And is it just me, or are all the shenanigans lately with people being detained unnecessarily at the land borders? If any foreigners need to come to the US for any reason, they might want to buy a plane ticket. Yes, it gives immigration officers all your info ahead of time, but maybe that’s a good thing?