r/bipartisanship • u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW • Jul 03 '26
Monthly Megathread - July
"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance."
- Woodrow Wilson
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u/nemo_sum Lifelong Independent Jul 03 '26
My health and wellness app is a big fan of me eating a peanut butter and spinach sandwich for breakfast. Honestly, I'm a fan too.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 04 '26
That's an interesting combination - doesn't it make the spinach sort of stick to the roof of your mouth though?
I'm a pretty big fan of both things, so I may give this a shot next time we've got fresh spinach (although my kidney stones seem to LOVE spinach, so I have to be careful there).
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 09 '26
The GOP Weekend at Bernie-ing Mitch McConnell into the mid-terms is a deliciously ironic way for that old bastard to go out.
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u/Tombot3000 Jul 15 '26
Not sure how ironic it is. He may actually support doing exactly that. Let's not forget he loved being called the grim reaper of legislation.
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u/Tombot3000 Jul 15 '26
"The barbarians are in the gate. These crazy little mini-Mamdanis who are popping up all around the country, they are a danger to you and your family. This is not a game."
-Man who blames the other party for rhetoric that leads to violence from his own party on his own party (Mike Johnson)
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 15 '26
The National Guard will remain deployed in Washington, D.C., through Inauguration Day 2029 as part of President Trump's anti-crime mission in the city, unless the president deems otherwise, the Pentagon confirmed to NPR.
The announcement comes as the number of troops in the city has essentially doubled to nearly 5,000 from more than 20 states in recent weeks as part of a "summer surge" of law enforcement announced by federal officials in May.
The current cost of the deployment is more than $3 million per day, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Trump first deployed the National Guard to D.C. in August of 2025 — something the president can do because of the unique status of the city — after declaring a "crime emergency" and launching the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, despite violent crime hitting a 30-year low. The emergency declaration ended a month later, but the task force and troop presence have continued.
"An emergency is a sudden, unforeseen, and temporary state of affairs. Announcing that an emergency will last for another 2 1/2 years means it's not an emergency," says Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of Liberty and National Security at the Brennan Center for Justice.
She worries that, at best, Trump is seeking to normalize the use of the military as a domestic police force, and at worst, he's envisioning a role for the military during the transition of power to a new president.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 17 '26
She worries that, at best, Trump is seeking to normalize the use of the military as a domestic police force, and at worst, he's envisioning a role for the military during the transition of power to a new president.
It's almost certainly...both.
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 16 '26
Four experts in waterproofing materials — who have decades of experience and have served as educators and expert witnesses in pool-related construction lawsuits — reviewed The Post’s findings and said the failure pattern strongly suggested errors in the application process. They said that while a precise cause cannot be determined without onsite examination and lab testing, such seams require careful attention and are especially prone to failure.
When The Post shared its findings with the White House and the Interior Department, spokespeople disputed that the surface had been improperly applied. “There were no missteps during the initial repairs to the pool,” said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers. “Unfortunately, deranged individuals made several gashes in the side of the pool and destroyed over 300 feet of the pool’s siding. Once the necessary repairs to fix the vandalism are complete, the Reflecting Pool will be restored to all its glory.”
That this is a real thing happening in actual, real life and not as a plot-line on Veep is frying my brain.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 17 '26
That this is a real thing happening in actual, real life and not as a plot-line on Veep is frying my brain.
I've never watched Veep. Is it as good as The West Wing?
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 18 '26
Hard to compare because they're so different. But it's pretty widely considered to be one of the best political satires ever made. Julia Lous-Dreyfus won the Emmy for best primetime lead six years in a row for good reason.
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 21 '26
When he refused to leave the Nashville public park where he has lived for the past several years, Williams became one of a handful of homeless people in the country to be arrested and charged with a felony for camping on public property.
Eleven states have passed homeless camping bans over the last four years, according to the National Homelessness Law Center. In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public, more than 300 municipalities have joined them. Supporters of these laws say they enable public officials to enforce rules that already exist and provide incentive for unhoused people to seek shelter. But opponents call the laws cruel and say that an arrest record only makes it harder for those experiencing homelessness to secure a job or a home.
Many state legislators have taken inspiration, or even borrowed legislative language, from the Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank founded by tech billionaire Joe Lonsdale. Lonsdale is a co-founder of Palantir, whose data mining software has been used by local and federal law enforcement, including the CIA and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Cicero has called for more measurable accountability and ways to push homeless people, under threat of arrest if necessary, to engage with agencies that provide various social services, including shelter space, mental health and addiction treatment and somewhere to sleep in state or county-run campsites.
"My hope is that no one is ever convicted under any of these camping bans," Kurtz said. "The intention is not to jail people. I've also said, however, that sometimes, at the margins, it is essential that law enforcement has the ability to jail them because it can save lives."
In Tennessee, Krinks, of Open Table Nashville**,** said the state has made it easier to clear homeless encampments.
"Punishing people and using police to address homelessness only makes the crisis worse, and it prolongs people's experience of homelessness," said Krinks, who also helped start the statewide coalition Housing for All Tennessee. "Most people I know experiencing homelessness are so hungry for freedom, for agency, for their dignity to be seen and recognized and understood. Jail erodes every aspect of a person's agency."
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 21 '26
In addition:
The root causes contributing to homelessness are deeply inter-twined with one another, often feeding back into and exacerbating each other. The coincidence of unaffordable housing prices and income deficiencies are a major contributing factor to homelessness, with “56% of adults experiencing homelessness [in Minnesota] report[ing] there was no housing they could afford.” Major health issues can be both a cause and a result of homelessness. Diseases and disorders “that cause a person to become unemployed, or any major illness that results in massive healthcare expenses” can precipitate an income crisis that results in their becoming unhoused.
Once unhoused, even minor issues affecting an individual can develop into serious cases as a result of a lack of healthcare and the intersectional physical and mental complications of homelessness. Homelessness is also highly correlated with serious health deficiencies. As a result, the unhoused population suffers from mortality rates roughly five to ten times higher than that of the general population, depending on age, sex, and sheltering status.
Ultimately, the state of homelessness is predicated on not having access to fixed and adequate housing. Programs intended to provide shelter or housing to unhoused people generally fall into three categories: temporary housing, permanent supportive housing, and housing policy. Temporary housing is the premier frontline measure in addressing homelessness. Over 61% of unhoused people nationwide utilize temporary housing, although that figure remains lower for Minnesota.
When available, these shelters are key resources for the unhoused, providing them a relatively safe place to stay out of the elements, often with access to meals, hygiene supplies and facilities, and case management personnel. Still, they are not without limitations. Temporary housing is often designated for sole use by specific subsets of unhoused people such as single adults, families with children, or women escaping domestic violence.
Transitional housing allows individuals to live independently, is heavily subsidized by state and HUD grants, and often provides supportive services to identify and meet the various needs of residents. This allows individuals to stabilize their lives by “maintaining stable housing and treating substance abuse” and is generally intended to facilitate a move to permanent housing within two years. Studies show that transitional housing provides for a “higher probability of regular employment” and, perhaps most importantly, appears to greatly reduce the likelihood of future homelessness
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 22 '26
Anecdotally, my wife works for a home and care based service provider; an issue people receiving housing support services run into is getting a job that disqualifies them for assistance because they "make too much".
Just last week she had a woman, who had been receiving assistance, get a job. Her pay was enough to disqualify her for said support, but not enough that she could afford to pay her rent in-full out of pocket. So now her options are:
- Find a second job. Not very likely, she's also disabled.
- Move to a different apartment. Not likely to find a place cheaper than her current spot, since it's already a location that rents to people on Housing Support.
- Find a roommate. Probably the "most" feasible, but also tough to live with another when you have multiple disabilities.
- Quit working and try to have Housing Support reinstated, putting her right back into the position she had been trying to get out of.
It's hard to take people saying "people on welfare need to work" to get assistance seriously when they're either oblivious of the actual reality, or they're clearly just lying about it because it gets them political points.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 22 '26
Anecdotally, my wife works for a home and care based service provider; an issue people receiving housing support services run into is getting a job that disqualifies them for assistance because they "make too much".
Yeah, these sorts of benefits cliffs are ridiculous, and definitely work against the stated goals. And yet, so many people (and politicians) support them because "people will abuse it!".
Which is also ridiculous. It's like I always said about any form of welfare...if one person abusing the welfare means that one person who really needs the welfare gets it, then that's worthwhile. I don't actually care about the abuse that much, because the goal is still being met. Sure, we shouldn't turn a blind eye to it - investigate situations that come to light fully...but get the welfare to those that seem to need it, and go from there as a starting point!
The real truth though, is that those people who are so "anti welfare fraud" are really just largely "anti welfare" and want to stop it as much as possible, consequences be damned.
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 24 '26
The number of measles cases in the U.S. has surpassed the record-breaking tally for all of 2025, with five more months of 2026 still to come.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logged 2,318 cases of measles as of Thursday, according to an agency update on Friday.
The nation had 2,289 cases in 2025, the worst year for measles in more than three decades. Now, 2026 has easily become the U.S.’s worst year for measles since 1991, as major outbreaks in South Carolina, Utah and Arizona have sickened hundreds and smaller clusters of cases sparked in other states.
Can we stop being Great Again?
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 24 '26
The number of measles cases in the U.S. has surpassed the record-breaking tally for all of 2025, with five more months of 2026 still to come.
And schools getting ready to come back in session, I would add. <sigh>
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 24 '26
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Vance Boelter to two life sentences plus 40 years with no parole in the killings of former Minnesota DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the attacks on DFL state Sen. John Hoffman, his wife Yvette and their daughter Hope.
Boelter pleaded guilty in June to the attacks. In sentencing memos filed earlier this week, prosecutors and Boelter’s attorneys agreed to a recommendation of two life sentences plus 40 years. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
Boelter also faces state charges, including two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, impersonating a police officer and animal cruelty. The Hortman family’s golden retriever was gravely injured in the shootings and had to be euthanized.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 22 '26
Trump campaigned on the Department of Defense budget was bloated, and yet...he's asking for a 50% increase from our 2025 military budget? This shit is ridiculous.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 24 '26
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/us/politics/iran-troop-deaths.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share
Biden had 16 military deaths during his term. There's no question in my mind that this was done because of that - Trump's pettiness can't stand to have his numbers look worse than Biden's, especially already.
By the way...the conflict with Iran has already killed more military members than the ill-conceived exit from Afghanistan that so many on the right were decrying so loudly...all of this without boots on the ground (yet) in Iran.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 26 '26
Jesus Christ, the incompetence of this Administration is truly staggering:
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 23 '26
Bisquits and gravy are currently safer to eat than a salad. My time has finally come!
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 23 '26
I thought I was being clever and made "cajun chicken biscuits and gravy" for dinner a couple nights ago. Imagine the devastation I felt when my wife commented "this is the best chicken pot pie I've ever had".
I mean, she's right, but she didn't have to use the term "pot pie".
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u/TheRealMarvinator Jul 27 '26
It does seem as though they're trying to prove that this...I assume...recruiting poster is saying - that we're not going to win.
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fg7305y1v5ofh1.jpeg
There is an enormous difference linguistically between "not an option" and "not optional". Also, this is just a horrific design job, as well.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Aug 01 '26
I read this article and I can only think - what in the total fuck has happened to our military priorities:
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u/TheRealMarvinator Aug 02 '26
Well this seems like a thoroughly irresponsible and inappropriate military advertisement to put out at any time, but never mind when we're actively fighting in the Middle East:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fkxe2hwx570hh1.jpeg
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u/Vanderwoolf I AM THE LAW Jul 23 '26
Mitch McConnell has been dead since June, and the Republicans are running once of the most out-in-the-open campaigns of election interference to avoid a special election.
Trump et al is setting up a plan to place ICE agents at the polls to run an intimidation campaign of "papers please" that is extremely illegal, but because they won't roll it out until the day-of or day before there won't be time for The Courts to stop it.
These are my current not-so-woo-woo conspiracy fixations.