We control the house.

[Bourbon]

Things feel better already. Trump is acting like less of a bullying asshole. Bipartisan measure on prisons and sentencing.

The more power we take back the better everything will be, until finally the Trump nightmare is totally erased.

Can you feel the goodness?

The Senate can't print Money.

So anything Trump wants to do and be starved at the dinner table.

[Callinectes]

1) The Trumpist agenda stopped dead in it's tracks.

No funding for stupid border walls, no more tax cuts for the rich, no repeal of pre-existing conditions health coverage, no cuts to Medicare, no privatization of social security, no authorization to invade Venezuela, no repeal of Obamacare, etc, etc.

2) Actual congressional oversight of the most corrupt administration in modern history.

3) A restoration of representative democracy and the will of the people to the U.S. government. Republicans generally only win by gerrymandering, thwarting the will of the people, and clinging to power despite losing the popular vote. Continuing that trend - the rule of the minority - is a poison for a representative democracy, and this election helps change that trajectory.

Why the fuck would anyone want to invade Venezuela?? Other than that, seems your plan is to do absolutely nothing but investigate Trump for 2 years. What are you going to do when he starts ruling by executive order like Obama did? Better yet, what are you going to do if those EOs are actually GOOD for the country, UNLIKE obama’s EOs?

[PoliTalker]

Hello Micawber,

Things feel better already. Trump is acting like less of a bullying asshole. Bipartisan measure on prisons and sentencing.

The more power we take back the better everything will be, until finally the Trump nightmare is totally erased.

Can you feel the goodness?

It is better. The bipartisanship is VERY encouraging. Imagine. Our government functioning as designed.

The door has been opened to diversity in government. I like the result. We need more of that.

Diversity Makes America Great

[PoliTalker]

Hello Oneuli,

For starters, there will be more flexibility when it comes to so-called mandatory sentences. In a nation like ours, with incarceration rates rivaling those of brutal autocracies, that's no small thing.

And so costly. Runs the debt up. Not just the cost of incarceration, but the loss of revenue from having people working instead. And the impact on families.

[PoliTalker]

Hello callinectes,

That’s fully what I expect, which is why you will lose the house again in 2020. The budget originates in the house, but you knew that, right? Now, you CAN keep going with CRs, but that’s gonna get old, especially with the government shutdowns. Or are you too stupid to realize that?

Dems won this time and have a strong chance to do so again in 2020, especially if a strong liberal comes forward to lead the charge with long coat tails.

Republicans would have to make drastic changes to their platform to pull in any more votes. It's too exclusionary. You can only ride hatred so far. And the middle class is not seeing huge wage gains. What they do get merely keeps up with inflation. All while the rich get richer and the nation goes deeper in debt? There is a strong sentiment to tax the rich more.

[Oneuli]

Hello Oneuli,



And so costly. Runs the debt up. Not just the cost of incarceration, but the loss of revenue from having people working instead. And the impact on families.

Yes. And we have good cause to know that a lower-incarceration system can work just fine even in the US. For example, in one of the states where I went to college, Massachusetts, there is an incarceration rate of 280 per 100k. That's shamefully high by advanced-nation standards (countries usually come in around 100), but it's amazing compared to most red-state hell holes (which are typically between 600 and 1000 per 100k). If draconian thinking about preventing crime were right, we'd expect Massachusetts to look like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with such a relatively lenient system. Instead, it's got some of the lowest crime rates in the nation. Despite being the fourth-most urban state in the nation, Massachusetts has the fifth-lowest murder rate.

New York, where I live, is similar, though not quite as drastic -- it has the eighth-lowest incarceration rate, the twelfth-most urbanization, and the seventh-lowest murder rate. That's not an ideal crime situation, but it's certainly far better than the national average, without having locked up a huge portion of the population. You don't need draconian incarceration policy to keep people safe.

[PostmodernProphet]

He'll go round insulting his colonials instead of Americans. It is not causing friendly feeling amongst us European serfs.

at least you realize you are serfs

[cawacko]

Yes. And we have good cause to know that a lower-incarceration system can work just fine even in the US. For example, in one of the states where I went to college, Massachusetts, there is an incarceration rate of 280 per 100k. That's shamefully high by advanced-nation standards (countries usually come in around 100), but it's amazing compared to most red-state hell holes (which are typically between 600 and 1000 per 100k). If draconian thinking about preventing crime were right, we'd expect Massachusetts to look like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with such a relatively lenient system. Instead, it's got some of the lowest crime rates in the nation. Despite being the fourth-most urban state in the nation, Massachusetts has the fifth-lowest murder rate.

New York, where I live, is similar, though not quite as drastic -- it has the eighth-lowest incarceration rate, the twelfth-most urbanization, and the seventh-lowest murder rate. That's not an ideal crime situation, but it's certainly far better than the national average, without having locked up a huge portion of the population. You don't need draconian incarceration policy to keep people safe.

Three states in the country are above 600 and only one is above 700

[Oneuli]

Three states in the country are above 600 and only one is above 700

I'm basing it on this:

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus16.pdf

That says 25 are above 600 and 13 are above 700. What's your source? I'm wondering whether the stat you're using only includes state incarcerations, as opposed to also including federal incarcerations within a state. Also, there could be different tabulation depending on whether you count all incarcerated people or only those serving prison sentences. A fairly significant portion of the incarcerated population is in jail awaiting trial, so you'll get a lower number if you count only those serving time in state prison than if you also count the average number locked up in a jail within the state at a given moment. Nationally, it looks like 740,700 in local jails, 1,228,800 in state prisons, and 188,300 in federal prisons.

[cawacko]

I'm basing it on this:

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus16.pdf

That says 25 are above 600 and 13 are above 700. What's your source? I'm wondering whether the stat you're using only includes state incarcerations, as opposed to also including federal incarcerations within a state. Also, there could be different tabulation depending on whether you count all incarcerated people or only those serving prison sentences. A fairly significant portion of the incarcerated population is in jail awaiting trial, so you'll get a lower number if you count only those serving time in state prison than if you also count the average number locked up in a jail within the state at a given moment. Nationally, it looks like 740,700 in local jails, 1,228,800 in state prisons, and 188,300 in federal prisons.

https://patch.com/california/gilroy/...n-state-stacks

[Getin the ring]

1) The Trumpist agenda stopped dead in it's tracks.

No funding for stupid border walls, no more tax cuts for the rich, no repeal of pre-existing conditions health coverage, no cuts to Medicare, no privatization of social security, .

where do you get your info?.. oh yea stupid question
Turn CNN off, they're making you look stupid (er)

[Oneuli]

https://patch.com/california/gilroy/...n-state-stacks

As expected:

"The Justice Department's statistics presented here, for example, do not count people kept in jails without being sentenced."

[Tkaffen]

Don’t go out alone at night.
67.8% of prisoners were rearrested within three years of release
76.6% of prisoners were rearrested within five years of release.

I know in your little world you don’t want to believe this but there are evil people that need to be locked up.

[Tranquillus in Exile]

He'll go round insulting his colonials instead of Americans. It is not causing friendly feeling amongst us European serfs.

He is reported to have given Mrs May a mouthful on the way back from his triumphant visit to France. She had phoned to congratulate him on the midterms. Maybe he thought she was being sarcastic.

[PoliTalker]

Hard to understand why Republicans won't listen to science, which says we can have low crime and low incarceration rates. Of course some people must be locked up. Science helps us determine what the optimal percentage is. That is very low. Why do Republicans want more government spending to lock up people who could otherwise be contributing to the economy? That makes no sense. Often, locking up non-violent offenders also removes a parent from a household. What caliber of kids are expected from single parent households and from foster care?

Taxpayers have to pay to keep people locked up. We are already not collecting enough taxes to keep up with government spending. Having more sensible prison policy can help reduce the government debt and the size of the coming tax hikes which will be needed when the deficit and debt skyrocket due to too much tax cutting and locking up too many people for too long.

We also need to reform our discriminatory justice system which locks up more black people than white, for longer periods of time, for equal infractions.