In some ways migrant successes and not failures are bigger fuel for nativist paranoia. Decline of living standards for locals, malaise, substance abuse, opiod crisis etc. are all policy failures, and nativists are terrified that instead of fixing those issues so they can live well in their own nation, the government is happy to let foreigners with more drive and less baggage move in - after all, deindustrialized Ohio is infinitely better than Haiti currently is.

Of course the racial superiority and bigotry play a huge role (in my view the primary role) and economic precarity is a very poor excuse for the insane racism they’ve subjected these migrants to. They aren’t responsible for the policies.

“We have a concrete plan to help you! For example, higher federal minimum wage!”

"Okay, take my vote!

Four years later

“You’ve been in office for four years. Where is the minimum wage hike?”

“Turns out we can’t actually do it unless we have a supermajority of government. And then it’s still questionable if we will. Vote for us some more in your state and presidency. Hope that others in other states do too. Also stop bitching, we are moral and the other people are fascists, do not fail us, you must defend women and minorities by keeping us in power etc etc.”

“I had more money under Trump, fuck off.”

Democrats: Let Israel literally get away with the worst crime humanity is capable of, genocide. Refuse to even sanction one minister who makes Hitler-like statements and was livestreamed a prison rape.

A portion of Americans: We refuse to vote for you if you do not stop supporting this.

Smug liberals: Heh, Trump is going to give them a blank cheque to do as they please!

It was illegal for vendors to charge a fee for card purchases, so if that was the case then they maybe just raised their prices.

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

No, we had a flat annual fee for usage. There was a fee for withdrawing cash but no making purchases.

Yes, we had a flat annual fee for use.

Might be my background - lived half my life in a country where credit cards are interest-free for religious purposes - but 10% still seems insane.

2016: “We don’t need to change! Look at our opponent, Trump!”

2020: “We’ll pretend to be M4A. But the main thing is beating Trump! Worry about change later!”

2024: “We lost, but we did everything right. Americans are the problem. Anyways, Trump is in his last term, so why change?”

Remember when they picked Tom Perez, the croaking geezer, over Kieth Ellison. Your voice won’t be heard because that’s not who they’re listening for.

deleted by creator

No one in the Middle East conducts an aistrike without American or Russian help, except maybe Turkey. This is the last time I’ll ask you to stop weighing the corpses of Gaza’s children murdered by the Biden-Bibi alliance against “imagine this” and “imagine that.” You are not going to excuse Biden, Harris or for that matter Obama.

Not just a genocide, but a SuperGenocide! Wow!

One that began under Obama-Biden. The US played a similar but far limited role in the starvation of Yemen. It did not veto any UN resolutions, threaten the ICC or the ICJ, invite Bin Salman for unprecedented, record-breaking applause and ovations at Congress.

A nation-wide civil war that has raged for nearly ten years and where numerous sides are responsible for the death count. I should know, because I spent many nights in 2018-2019 with my Hadhrami friends discussing this war, joined their call-ins with Yemeni politicians and civil activists. I heard them complain about who they know died and who killed them.

And yet you sit here and tell me “buckle up, if you didn’t like Biden working overtime to slaughter 100,000 children within a year”, followed by hypotheticals. Stop telling me what may happen just because you cannot defend what has happened.

What happens then is that I will be responding to a moral argument based in facts, and not a fucking hypothetical that may as well be an excuse for genocide. If in 13 months the Trump administration has aided Israel in the slaughter of another 100,000 children, we can start talking about how voting Democrats as “damage mitigation” is a duty to humanity. Until then I will try my best to assume you’re making the argument in good faith and that you truly believe that ending genocide is a moral priority.

It’ll he more honest than the intricate and prrvasive way criticism of Israel is shut down at every level of government, media, education institutions and private industry today. Just putting into law what is already practiced.

The only people who voted for the genocidaire I would consider to be engaging in serious harm mitigation are those who also use every other means afforded to them to stop the genocide. As for the people who have little to say about the fact that they have been presented two genocidaires as presidents - and even less to do - you’re even more grotesque when you invoke human rights.

Likening to an abstract hypothetical moral problem is very appropriate to the way you people think. At the end of the day politics for you is a lever you pull every few years and the catharsis or disappointment involved.

By the way, kindly save your “I told you so” and “trolley problem” bullshit for after Trump has allowed Israel to slaughter a larger number of children than Biden did for the past 13 months.

You may be surprised to learn that Bibi wasn’t on any ballots anywhere in the US.

Record breaking ovations and applause for him in Congress, so why should I care?

Harris who wants to pressure Israel into a cease fire

So you’re either a liar or a moron, huh.

Your argument is insane. For example, I would never, ever, ever expect a Jewish person to vote for a politician who is exterminating Jewish children, even if I could make a rational argument that their opponent is worse for Jewish people.

You need to contend with fundamental human nature and you need to recognize that the Democratic Party for the past 13 months has acted beyond the moral pale. They have violated the red moral lines drawn by the world since 1945 and have done so with pride and sometimes caprice.

Being petulant towards people who could not bring themselves to vote for a genocidaire, and treating their very human revulsion and horror as petulance, marks you as an untrustworthy person who is unserious about human rights or liberal values.