US CE First Quarter '22 Reboot: There is no Current Events, only Voting.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US CE First Quarter '22 Reboot: There is no Current Events, only Voting.

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haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

Abner Assington posted:

� Blankets?

I think he's trying to talk about the New Year's Eve celebration, which was an endless hell of crowds and freezing even before covid. Blankets and empty bottles were popular accessories

# ? Jan 19, 2022 19:59

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 23:20

Oracle: Oct 9, 2004

Abner Assington posted:

� Blankets?

Ain't like they're turning on the heat in the projects.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:02

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

haveblue posted:

I think he's trying to talk about the New Year's Eve celebration, which was an endless hell of crowds and freezing and no bathrooms even before covid

I was very confused about that too, but I think you're right and it's a reference to the Times Square New Years Eve crowds being covered in blankets and scarves. Especially since it was around NYE when it happened.

Willa Rogers posted:

I would've pegged the three as:

1. Declaring the pandemic over last spring, then having to eat poo poo about masking & social distancing once Delta hit. This goes way beyond "trying to declare victory too early" and was far more complex than "turning vaccination into a political issue." It seriously crippled entire industries as well as people's brains.

2. Reneging on his most popular campaign/legislative promises, especially the ones with transpartisan appeal, such as lowering Medicare's eligibility age; a public option; cost controls on prescription drugs; and raising the minimum wage, using rotating villains like Pres. Parliamentarian & Sine-chin. If he made national addresses promoting any of these things, or used the bully pulpit and/or political pressure to promote them, I missed it.

3. Pretending the economy's doing just swell: Didja hear that service workers got 11 percent raises, on average, and that people saved $0.14, on average, on their Independence Day barbecues? Hey, time to start kicking people out of their homes & resuming those student-loan payments that are non-dischargeable through bankruptcy! Hey, GDP is up up up, as well as the stock market; what are you complaining about? Half the country says their own finances are perfectly fine so who gives a poo poo about the other half? They're probably just disgruntled chuds who don't know what lucky duckies they are!

At least Obama pretended to be empathetic to people's economic issues; even while he was giving handjobs to Wall St. he made it seem as if he felt voters' pain.

Yeah, I mostly agree with you and think the Politico retrospective is very pundit-brained. Anyone who seriously argues that deciding to pull out of Afghanistan is what turned 55% of the country against Biden is in a bubble. I'd just argue that #3 is more bad political strategy/trying to stay positive on messaging rather than something that actually sunk his agenda. It seems like a messaging reaction to his agenda being stalled rather than something that stalled the agenda itself.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Jan 19, 2022

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:05

paranoid randroid: Mar 4, 2007

...the staypuft marshmallow man attacked NYC because someone built a locus of evil in Manhattan that allowed an elder god entry into our world, Eric. That's not exactly a selling point

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:11

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

paranoid randroid posted:

...the staypuft marshmallow man attacked NYC because someone built a locus of evil in Manhattan that allowed an elder god entry into our world, Eric. That's not exactly a selling point

Also, and most importantly, it did not attack the empire state building

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:13

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

paranoid randroid posted:

...the staypuft marshmallow man attacked NYC because someone built a locus of evil in Manhattan that allowed an elder god entry into our world, Eric. That's not exactly a selling point

King Kong, Ghosts, and Thanos all attacked New York because it is too awesome.

quote:

"Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict."

- NYC Mayor Eric Adams.

Although, Adams also says it is too boring in NYC right now. So, that seems to imply that he is pursing a policy of attracting ape, specter, and alien-related catastrophes to NYC.

Giving Colbert fake weed on TV seems like a copout too. If the purpose of giving him the blunt and fake weed was to celebrate NYC having legal weed, then give actual weed.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jan 19, 2022

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:16

paranoid randroid: Mar 4, 2007

Have to say, after 2020-21 being the years of Fuckhead Mayors between Garcetti, deBlasio, Wheeler and Lightfoot, im very much digging 2022 giving us the loving Weirdo Mayor in Adams

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:28

shimmy shimmy: Nov 13, 2020

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Politico's National White House Correspondent has penned their first year retrospective of the Biden Presidency (and one of the national politics writers for the New York Times is promoting it).

The Conclusions:

- Everything was going pretty great until June 2021.
- The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was the triggering event that started the downfall of his second 6 months.
- Biden has made three disastrous mistakes that have tanked the second half of his first year. They are:

1) Withdrawing from Afghanistan.
2) Being too aggressive with vaccinations, which turned it into a political issue and caused 30% of the U.S. to refuse to get vaccinated and then trying to declare victory too early.
3) Going too big with his spending proposals and acting like FDR when the country wanted a JFK.

https://twitter.com/peterbakernyt/status/1483855830441152523

Pundit lust for the death of Afghans remains strong.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:36

punishedkissinger: Sep 20, 2017

If Bernie won and pulled out of Afghanistan, he would have been impeached immediately right?

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:39

raverrn: Apr 5, 2005; Unidentified spacecraft inbound from delta line.

All Silpheed squadrons scramble now!

punishedkissinger posted:

If Bernie won and pulled out of Afghanistan, he would have been impeached immediately right?

Depends on who the vice president was.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:50

FlamingLiberal: Jan 18, 2009; Would you like to play a game?

Blaming Biden for people refusing to get vaccinated is some Galaxy brain poo poo

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:51

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Sinema opposes the talking filibuster because it "creates gimmicks" and opportunities to exploit loopholes instead of forcing people to come together to get something that has 60 votes.

That means instead of voting rights being very likely dead, it is definitely dead.

Politico says that the White House had a call with members of Congress after this news where they:

- Begged certain members to stop publicly trashing the party's legislative agenda, reduce the amount of public infighting, and to communicate before votes what their preferences are to avoid embarrassing last minute failures for nominees and legislation.

- Asked members to hype up the more than $3 trillion in additional spending they already passed this year and point to concrete projects funded by them.

Which sounds like they have basically thrown up their hands at getting anything new done through congress and are just trying to engage in damage control with Sinema, Manchin, and 5-6 house members and put the best face forward on existing accomplishments before the midterms.

Pretty grim.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:54

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

Abner Assington posted:

� Blankets?

Lotta homeless people in NYC.

As far as Biden and Afghanistan goes, it's difficult to county it as a win when the images people have of it are mobs of Afghans trying to get on Air Force transports at Kabul International, and literally some of the same helicopters that evacuated Saigon being used to evacuate Kabul. Especially when the deadline for the pull out was extended several months past what the previous administration had agreed to.

Was there ever going to be a happy ending to US involvement in Afghanistan? No, but politics is about optics, and given how the US is treating those Afghan refugees that did make it out, it doesn't feel like a triumph.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 20:58

eviltastic: Feb 8, 2004; Fan of Britches

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Yeah, I mostly agree with you and think the Politico retrospective is very pundit-brained. Anyone who seriously argues that deciding to pull out of Afghanistan is what turned 55% of the country against Biden is in a bubble. I'd just argue that #3 is more bad political strategy/trying to stay positive on messaging rather than something that actually sunk his agenda. It seems like a messaging reaction to his agenda being stalled rather than something that stalled the agenda itself.

Politico's had some spicy ones today. It's not worth dissecting in the news thread, but the opinion piece from Jack Shafer about how Biden's totally gonna bounce back is a doozy. And they just put out an article about messaging from the White House that includes quite the zinger regarding the infrastructure/BBB decoupling fight.

quote:

The White House is working to sell frustrated House Democrats on a simple pre-midterms pitch: Stop focusing on what hasn't gotten done yet and start touting the two big bills the party has passed so far.

Democrats have already passed a pandemic aid package and infrastructure law totaling $2.4 trillion. Many lawmakers, however, remain determined to log another legislative achievement they can champion, worried that voters will be disappointed and disenchanted � following lofty campaign promises � if they don't get more done.

As President Joe Biden nears his one-year mark in office, his administration is urging Democrats nervous about losing Congress in November to talk up the legislative accomplishments that the party has notched so far. The attempt at accentuating the positive comes amid a particularly bleak stretch of intraparty feuding over the Senate filibuster, rising Covid anxiety, economic jitters and low approval ratings for Biden.

While the Senate nears an ugly clash on election reform, key White House officials spent Tuesday on a pair of calls with rank-and-file House aides, stressing the party's victories on a bipartisan infrastructure law signed in November and a massive pandemic relief bill passed in March. Senior House Democrats picked up that focus on Wednesday, ticking off upbeat statistics on the economy and controlling the coronavirus.

"The Biden economy is a good economy," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters, citing 6.4 million jobs added during the president's first year and more than 11.7 million at-home tests per day.

It's a notable messaging blitz for a party whose left flank repeatedly pushed to delay the bipartisan infrastructure legislation in the hopes of yoking it to a $1.7 trillion party-line social spending bill that's stalled in the Senate. The Biden team's efforts are, in part, intended to reassure House Democrats who are wincing as the Senate�s voting reform push exposes bitter intra-party divisions.

Bit of the story left out there, Politico writers.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:02

StratGoatCom: Aug 6, 2019; Our security is guaranteed by being able to melt the eyeballs of any other forum's denizens at 15 minutes notice

Jarmak posted:

If you water down "part of a political family" to "liked by a political family" you're really not saying anything anymore. It's just a cute way of stating the astoundingly obvious fact that it's hard to become leader of the country without being liked by at least some of the people that currently hold political power.

'Favored functionary of a family with kingmaking power who they can expect to execute their policy agenda' doesn't roll off the tongue.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:04

PeterCat: Apr 8, 2020; Believe women.

By November of this year no one is going to remember what Biden passed in the first half of 2021.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:05

Mendrian: Jan 6, 2013

World Famous W posted:

Yep. Been working through the whole pandemic (and most my life before it) doimg food service and it's really drives home how disposable we are viewed as

Same here.

I've heard rumblings of Starbucks unionization and there are select grocery store unions here or there but it feels to me the only way service will get any respect in this country is if they work under a single service union, grocers, waiters, cooks, and retail workers, get in here.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:06

Velocity Raptor: Jul 27, 2007; I MADE A PROMISE
I'LL DO ANYTHING

haveblue posted:

https://twitter.com/AchmatX/status/1478455659054223366

This poo poo infuriates the hell out of me since I waited tables for 5 years after I graduated with my BS in Software Engineering, and I've dealt with this attitude directly. Wage and intelligence are not directly correlated.

idgaf if his full message is that these types of people need more financial assistance (honestly don't know, assuming best case). Just because you work a minimum wage job doesn't mean that you're an idiot and incapable of anything better, and he shouldn't be using that messaging even if his intention was to help (again, assuming best case).

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:11

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

PeterCat posted:

By November of this year no one is going to remember what Biden passed in the first half of 2021.

There was a poll from August that showed that two thirds of people didn't remember that stimulus checks were sent out in April. So, it is already well past that time.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:11

Bel Shazar: Sep 14, 2012

StratGoatCom posted:

'Favored functionary of a family with kingmaking power who they can expect to execute their policy agenda' doesn't roll off the tongue.

I believe the term most appropriate here is 'Manchurian candidate'.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:11

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

FlamingLiberal posted:

Blaming Biden for people refusing to get vaccinated is some Galaxy brain poo poo

Who has done this?

I scanned the last couple pages & didn't see anything; can you please link the post (or outside news) to which you're directing this remark?

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:15

CommieGIR: Aug 22, 2006; The blue glow is a feature, not a bug; Pillbug

Velocity Raptor posted:

This poo poo infuriates the hell out of me since I waited tables for 5 years after I graduated with my BS in Software Engineering, and I've dealt with this attitude directly. Wage and intelligence are not directly correlated.

idgaf if his full message is that these types of people need more financial assistance (honestly don't know, assuming best case). Just because you work a minimum wage job doesn't mean that you're an idiot and incapable of anything better, and he shouldn't be using that messaging even if his intention was to help (again, assuming best case).

From 'Essential Workers' to 'Unskilled Labor' in record time.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:20

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Velocity Raptor posted:

This poo poo infuriates the hell out of me since I waited tables for 5 years after I graduated with my BS in Software Engineering, and I've dealt with this attitude directly. Wage and intelligence are not directly correlated.

idgaf if his full message is that these types of people need more financial assistance (honestly don't know, assuming best case). Just because you work a minimum wage job doesn't mean that you're an idiot and incapable of anything better, and he shouldn't be using that messaging even if his intention was to help (again, assuming best case).

I looked up the context and it is even more baffling. He was trying to argue that businesses needed to invest in more downtown real estate and offices because the people who work at businesses that cater to those offices aren't able to work remotely and depend on the income from those sales can't just work from home.

You can see how he logically ended up there, but the outcome was like he was attempting to construct the worst possible take on a reasonable problem.

quote:

Adams urged larger businesses such as those to encourage their employees to come into their New York offices at least a few days a week in order to support those toiling at smaller operations that rely on commuters.

�I don�t know if my businesses are sharing with their employees, �You are part of the ecosystem of this city,�� Adams told those assembled. �My low-skill workers, my cooks, my dishwashers, my messengers, my shoe shine people, those that work in Dunkin� Donuts, they don�t have the academic skills to sit in the corner office. They need this.�

�That accountant � I need him to go to the cleaners. I need him to go down to Dunkin� Donuts. I need him to go to the restaurant. I need him to bring in the business traveling,� Adams maintained, per Newsweek. �And if we say that, �Well, I don�t have to go in. I�m still getting my salary,� then you are not helping those New Yorkers who need us to come in.�

"You can't call these people essential employees and then leave them abandoned when it is inconvenient," he argued.

�The goal is we need to open the city so low-wage employees are able to survive,� he asserted.

Adams said that he too had worked in a restaurant, and if people hadn�t come in, he would not have been able to do his job.

�People are going to try to take everything I say and distort it,� he contended, �but I�m focused, I�m disciplined, and I�m grinding to bring my city back.�

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:20

eviltastic: Feb 8, 2004; Fan of Britches

Willa Rogers posted:

Who has done this?

I scanned the last couple pages & didn't see anything; can you please link the post (or outside news) to which you're directing this remark?

Seems like a reaction to Leon's reference to "Being too aggressive with vaccinations, which turned it into a political issue and caused 30% of the U.S. to refuse to get vaccinated".

Which, btw, I don't see anywhere in the article in question either.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:23

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

^^^ Ah, I see; that makes sense! (Your explanation, not Leon's interpretive dance of the story.)

PeterCat posted:

By November of this year no one is going to remember what Biden passed in the first half of 2021.

It's pretty obvious by this point that this is a messaging campaign being rolled out to sympathetic media to echo, both nationally & locally.

But just lol at their touting a pandemic-relief bill that has mostly expired, and hoping to get voters excited about newly paved streets & newly repaired bridges to come--because paving streets & fixing bridges are what working governments do, or are supposed to do, not some spectacular New New Deal.

The old ceiling/floor problem, except that Democrats are intent on telling people they're walking on the ceiling & convinced it's a winning political tactic.

Willa Rogers fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Jan 19, 2022

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:26

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

eviltastic posted:

Seems like a reaction to Leon's reference to "Being too aggressive with vaccinations, which turned it into a political issue and caused 30% of the U.S. to refuse to get vaccinated".

Which, btw, I don't see anywhere in the article in question either.

The author casts Biden's agenda of uniting the country and getting everyone vaccinated as "in opposition to" President Trump and part of his effort to "go big" with his agenda in the same vein as his spending policies.

quote:

One year ago, President Joe Biden stood in front of a U.S. Capitol that still bore the wounds of an insurrectionist siege, taking the oath of office at a time when the nation faced its greatest array of crises in nearly a century.

He pledged that day to prove that the nation�s very democracy still worked, that he could restore unity to a divided country, tame a killer pandemic and steady a shaky economy. In the 12 months that have followed, unemployment has been slashed, a pair of transformative spending bills have been passed and life-saving vaccines were made available to nearly all Americans.

quote:

Winning the White House on his third try, Biden took the helm of a nation worn down by the pandemic, which had claimed hundreds of thousands of American lives and reshaped the norms of everyday life. Trump�s combative term ended with a refusal to accept the results of the election, his torrent of lies igniting a deadly riot at the nation�s Capitol.

Biden was meant to be a steadying hand, a president welcomed in part for simply not being his predecessor. But citing the pandemic and the insurrection, Biden and his aides believed they needed to go big out of the gate. The president and his team invited comparisons to Franklin D. Roosevelt�s �New Deal� and Lyndon B. Johnson�s �Great Society.�

quote:

Biden declared that America could have faith in its government again, as he sought to turn down the temperature in a Washington overheated by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

In his first six months, he successfully steered a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill to passage, surging funds to American families, schools and businesses battered by the pandemic. His administration rolled out a massive vaccine distribution program that made the protective shots available to every American just months after they were approved for use.

And then notes that those unvaccinated people drove the delta deaths (and also weirdly ties in the unvaccinated dying with Afghanistan):

quote:

Only weeks after Biden used July 4 to declare America�s independence from the Covid virus, the lethal and highly transmissible Delta variant deluged the nation, preying largely on the unvaccinated to send death totals and hospitalizations soaring. Then the world watched in horror as the United States� withdrawal from Afghanistan was filled with images of tumult and violence.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:30

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Another Politico piece; this one points out how Dems have been asleep at the wheel in reaching out to Latino voters:

quote:

According to a spreadsheet shared with POLITICO � assembled out of frustration by the super PAC, which favored more Spanish-language ads � Democratic groups combined to spend almost $5 million in English-language ads in California�s 39th Congressional District, and not a cent on Spanish-language ads.

In that district, which is more than 30 percent Latino, Democratic incumbent Gil Cisneros lost to now-GOP Rep. Young Kim by just over 4,000 votes.

In the nearby 48th District, which is about 20 percent Latino, Democrats spent just $33,000 in Spanish-language ads, compared to more than $12 million spent in English-language ads. Democratic incumbent Harley Rouda lost narrowly there to Republican Michelle Steel.

�It should be a wake-up call to Democrats. When there are no people of color at the decision-making level of a campaign, our constituency becomes an afterthought and you underperform because you�re not reaching out to them with the same priority as white suburban �persuadable� voters,� said Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders� (I-Vt.) presidential campaign.

Latino operatives say part of the problem is that there is still a contingent in the party denying there�s a �Latino problem,� despite mounting evidence that it�s no longer a certainty that Democrats will receive an overwhelming majority of the Latino vote in elections.

�Is it going to change? Well, the first step is admitting there�s a problem, and there�s a lot of people in my movement and my party that don�t,� Rocha said. �I love Democrats, and I�ve never voted for anybody that wasn�t a Democrat, and I�ll admit there�s a problem� because that�s the only way to change.�

One reason why Democrats fail to change their game plan with Latinos, Rocha said, is because campaigns don�t hire Latinos for top jobs and keep hiring the same consultants that have lost races in Latino-heavy districts. In many of the 2020 races, all the Spanish-language ads by Democrats were done in the last 30 days before the election, he said, signaling that Latinos were not a priority. The ads also came after many Latinos already had hardened opinions about the candidates, making it too late to persuade voters, he added.

Meanwhile, he said, Republicans saw success in 2020 as they �started spending real resources in bilingual communications to a broad target� and connected on Facebook, YouTube and via mail with a �whole bunch of Latinos who have never heard a compelling argument from Democrats about why they should vote for them.�

Some Latino Democratic operatives noted that the GOP is making a concerted effort to make inroads with Latinos and is already spending money to communicate with Latinos ahead of the 2022 midterms.

But another Latino strategist falls back on that old Dem standby of "We've just been too modest in promoting our achievements!"

quote:

�The irony here is Democrats have been really responsive to the economy, but nobody knows about it and that�s a problem,� Ramos said. �To the degree with which Democrats can talk about the fact that they�ve created a lot of jobs unambiguously and are helping workers and families, that�s a great message in English and Spanish.�

�Now, am I confident they will tell that story?� Ramos paused. �I hope they do. They need to.�

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/18/dems-latino-midterm-527265

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:39

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Here's a nightmare piece about a small Alabama town that is now being targeted by the Justice Department because they - just like in Ferguson - were using fines and tickets to fund 49% of the entire city budget and were sending people out to collect as much revenue as possible to horrific results.

Eventually, the town with less than 1,300 people was securing $1.2 million in fines per year and issuing over 3,000 arrests and tickets per year.

It got so bad, that even the tough on crime local DAs were begging the police and Mayor to stop because it seemed cruel and may have been increasing crime.

The Mayor sounds like a sociopath and the things the city was seizing (and using the proceeds from the things they seized) are wild.

The cherry on top is that so many people were going to court contesting their tickets that police had to direct traffic at the courthouse and some people got fined for parking on the grass.

It's pretty long, but the details are insane and this is a great example of the importance of local journalism.

quote:

Police in this tiny Alabama town suck drivers into legal �black hole�

Ramon Perez came to court last month ready to fight the tickets he�d been handed by Brookside police, including one for rolling through a stop sign and another for driving 48 mph in a 40 zone.

He swore he�d seen the cop from a distance and was careful as he braked.

�I saw him and we looked eye to eye,� the Chelsea business owner said. �There�s no way I was going to run that stop sign.�

When he got to court Dec. 2, he saw scores of people just like him lining up to stand before Judge Jim Wooten, complaining of penny-ante �crimes� and harassment by officers. He saw so many people trying to park in the grassy field outside the municipal building that police had to direct traffic.

He figured there was no point.

�I saw the same attitude in every officer and every person,� he said. �That�s why I hesitated to fight it. They were doing the same thing to every person that was there. They own the town.�

Perez, it appears, was right.

Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brookside�s finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. In a two-year period between 2018 and 2020 Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared more than 640 percent and now make up half the city�s total income.

And the police chief has called for more.

The town of 1,253 just north of Birmingham reported just 55 serious crimes to the state in the entire eight year period between 2011 and 2018 � none of them homicide or rape. But in 2018 it began building a police empire, hiring more and more officers to blanket its six miles of roads and mile-and-a-half jurisdiction on Interstate 22.

By 2020 Brookside made more misdemeanor arrests than it has residents. It went from towing 50 vehicles in 2018 to 789 in 2020 � each carrying fines. That�s a 1,478% increase, with 1.7 tows for every household in town.

The growth has come with trouble to match. Brookside officers have been accused in lawsuits of fabricating charges, using racist language and �making up laws� to stack counts on passersby. Defendants must pay thousands in fines and fees � or pay for costly appeals to state court � and poorer residents or passersby fall into patterns of debt they cannot easily escape.

�Brookside is a poster child for policing for profit,� said Carla Crowder, the director of Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, a nonprofit devoted to justice and equity. �We are not safer because of it.�

�It could be more�

Brookside now faces at least five lawsuits. Advocates for justice reform, cops in other jurisdictions, even Jefferson County�s top law enforcement officials, have begun to question the town�s tactics, and its need for an expanding force.

�It�s my understanding that a guy can go out there and I mean, he can fall into a black hole,� Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr said of drivers getting entangled financially. �You know, we�ve had a lot of issues with Brookside.�

Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway said the same.

�We get calls about Brookside quite regularly because they really go outside their jurisdiction to stop people,� Pettway said. �Most of the time people get stopped, they�re going to get a ticket. And they�re saying they were nowhere near Brookside.�

Police stops soared between 2018 and 2020. Fines and forfeitures � seizures of cars during traffic stops, among other things � doubled from 2018 to 2019. In 2020 they came to $610,000. That�s 49% of the small town�s skyrocketing revenue.

�This is shocking,� said Crowder. �No one can objectively look at this and conclude this is good government that is keeping us safer.�

Because people overwhelmed by debt have been shown to turn to crime to pay their fines �an argument can be made that this kind of policing creates crime,� Crowder said.

Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones, who spearheaded the change and grew the police department tenfold, at least, calls the town�s policing �a positive story.� Mayor Mike Bryan � a former councilman who assumed his position last year after the death of the previous mayor � sits and nods in agreement.

Jones said crime when he took over was higher than it appeared from numbers the town reported to the state. He said response times were long because Brookside often had to rely on the Jefferson County Sheriff�s department for service.

He said he�d like to see even more growth in revenue from fines and forfeitures.

�I see a 600% increase � that�s a failure. If you had more officers and more productivity you�d have more,� Jones said. �I think it could be more.�

When Jones was hired as chief in 2018, he was the only full-time police officer, he said in sworn testimony for a lawsuit filed against him and the city. By last summer, he said in a deposition, Brookside had hired eight additional full-time officers and several part-timers.

Asked in December how many officers were on staff, he refused to say, citing �security� concerns, though police staff sizes are reported regularly to the government for public consumption.

A department of nine officers in a 1,253-person town is far larger than average. Across the country, the average size of a force is one officer for every 588 residents, according to a Governing Magazine study that examined federal statistics.

Last year, based on Jones� testimony, Brookside had at least one officer for every 144 residents.

Sheriff Pettway gaped at the Brookside ratio. �I could take over the whole county with numbers like that,� he joked.

Then this month the Brookside department posted on Facebook that it had hired six more officers �in an effort to expand our dedication and commitment to provide superior community service & protection.�

A one-store town

Brookside until recently was known for its quirky Russian food festival and the state�s only onion-domed Russian Orthodox Church. It�s a former mining town, its population about the same as it was a decade ago. Fewer than 100 of its residents graduated college.

Brookside is a poor town, 70% white, 21% Black, with a small but growing Hispanic population and a median income well below the state average. The town survives on the fringes of Birmingham with tax revenue from the Dollar General, which forms the totality of its commercial district.

In 2018, when the town had one full-time police officer and a few part-timers, it reported no serious crimes to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center. Brookside Police did patrol the 1.5-mile stretch of Interstate 22 within their jurisdiction and wrote tickets that brought in $82,467 in fines. That contributed a 14% chunk of the city�s total income, a number that would be considered high in much of America.

But Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared after that, and the town�s law-enforcement goals � and its reputation � changed.

By 2020 officers in the sleepy town were undergoing SWAT training and dressing in riot gear, even as the city continued with only a volunteer fire department. It parked a riot control vehicle � townspeople call it a tank � outside the municipal complex and community center. Traffic tickets, and criminalizing those who passed through, became the city�s leading industry.

�We�ll make you famous!�

The police department�s Facebook page � it claims more than a million visitors � became a vehicle for public shaming with embarrassing mugshots and derision for those who owe fines and fees � �Turn yourself in. If we have to come get ya, we�ll make you famous!�

�When you look at their Facebook pages it�s almost like they are bullies. I�ve seen it,� DA Carr said. �I don�t condone it, but you know, I�m not the chief out there.�

And it�s not an idle threat. Arrests on Brookside warrants went from zero to 243 in the span of two years, according to statistics Chief Jones presented to the council.

Jones � again as Mayor Bryan nodded � said the goal of the department is only to help people.

�It�s not about making a dollar,� Jones said.

Yet the town with no traffic lights collected $487 in fines and forfeitures in 2020 for every man, woman and child, though many of those fined were merely passing by on I-22.

Total town income more than doubled from 2018 to 2020 � from $582,000 to more than $1.2 million � as fines and forfeitures rose 640%.

Jones and Bryan said neither the town nor the police department relies on the revenue officers bring in. In fact, they said in November they didn�t know how that money is spent.

Audits by Philip Morgan & Co., covering at least five consecutive years, pointed out as a shortcoming that the town did not have a budget or a policy of adopting one annually. The audits show, however, how the town came to depend on the ticket money.

As more tickets brought in more money, the town began to spend much more. From 2018 to 2020, spending on police rose from $79,000 to $524,000, a 560% increase. The town�s administrative expenditures rose 40% and overall spending jumped 112%, from $553,000 in 2018 to $1.2 million in 2020.

In December the mayor provided AL.com a budget document, based on previous years� audits. It did not feature a breakout of the police department.

Asked why that was the case, Bryan responded there had been an error, that the heading for the �Municipal Court Fund� was actually the police department budget. �Sorry for the typo,� the mayor wrote.

That document budgeted $646,620 to the police this year.

The town also provided a set of police stats Jones presented to the Brookside council to push for more resources and authority.

It showed that total arrests � custodial, misdemeanor and felony � rose 1,109% from 2018 to 2020. Brookside police made 4.4 arrests in 2020 for every household.

It showed police in 2020 patrolled 114,438 miles in the 6.3-mile town and issued more than 3,000 citations � a 692% increase from 2018.

�We don�t care about tickets,� Jones said. �We don�t like writing tickets.�

�99 percent of them are lying�

Yet that is hard to swallow for those who line up for court and face financial ruin because of citations. Like those on Dec. 2.

John Walker was stopped in Brookside for following too closely.

�Do you understand what you are charged with?� the judge asked on that first Thursday in December.

�No,� he said. �No.�

Walker told the judge he will fight the charge.

Mayor Bryan dismissed the complaints of those who must appear in court. �Everybody�s got a story,� he said. �And 99% of them are lying.�

Yet the Brookside stories come at an alarming rate.

Sandra Jo Harris, a 52-year-old grandmother, claims in a lawsuit she pulled off I-22 at Cherry Avenue on Jan. 8, 2020, as she often did when she went to visit her daughter. It was nearing dusk, and as she drove into the neighborhood she didn�t think much about the unmarked black SUV with tinted windows on the side of the road. She turned on her lights, according to her lawsuit, because of the approaching darkness.

But when she did, the unmarked SUV pulled into the street, crossed the center line and sped toward her car, blue lights flashing. She was not speeding, or breaking the law, she argued in the suit. She pulled to the side of the road as the SUV pulled behind her, and a wrecker simultaneously parked nearby. It frightened her, and led to more trouble.

Officers, dressed completely in dark, unmarked uniforms approached her, and one accused her of flickering her lights to warn others of their presence, her suit alleges. Unsure what was happening, Harris dialed 911. But an officer grabbed the phone and threw it to the ground, breaking it, the lawsuit says. Police put her in a patrol car and searched her vehicle for drugs.

Harris� lawyers contend she was taken to the Brookside jail, strip-searched, and told she could be jailed up to two days. She had an asthma attack and a panic attack, but when she knocked on the door to alert a guard, a jailer said if she continued to knock she would be charged with attempting to escape. Eventually she was given an inhaler and treated by paramedics.

Police charged Harris with flickering her lights � or �nuisance of casting lights from motor vehicle on real property at night,� which she argues did not happen and eventually was dropped. She was also charged with resisting arrest. A report quoted in the suit claimed she �tighten (sic) arm muscles from getting handcuff (sic).�

In addition, the police charged her with making a false 911 call, obstructing government operations by refusing to give proper papers, and disorderly conduct for yelling for others to come out of their homes. They let her out of jail at midnight, long after her family had made bond.

Her lawyers argue that the city uses �obscure possible violations� to justify stopping and searching passersby, hoping to add more offenses in a sort of highway lottery to fill the coffers.

�Brookside has operated its police and court system with the primary objective of obtaining revenue from motorists traveling on or near Interstate-22,� Harris� lawyers wrote in a suit filed last year. �It has had a continued practice of stopping and ticketing scores of vehicles daily, doing so without probable cause or reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.�

K9 Cash

Brookside has two drug-sniffing dogs � one named K9 Cash � to search the cars of stopped motorists.

Most of the vehicles Brookside Police drive are unmarked, and tinted.

Chief Jones testified under oath that just one of the 10 Brookside vehicles is painted with police striping, but nine others bear no emblems, and seven are tinted all the way around, making it impossible to see inside. Jones testified his officers wear gray uniforms with no Brookside insignias.

In another case, Brookside police last year confiscated a 2014 Honda Civic owned by a man named Sean Wattson, even though Wattson was not driving and was not in the car, according to a lawsuit he filed against the town. He lent his car to a friend, who was pulled over and arrested for drug possession.

Wattson claims he was unaware of the drugs. Still, police seized his car, and refused to return it, though they didn�t begin official forfeiture proceedings.

Both lawsuits continue.

Secret agent names

Neither the mayor nor chief would talk about pending litigation, but both said they have reviewed the cases involved, including bodycam footage, and said they found no wrongdoing on the city�s part. They would not share the footage.

Jones blamed the lawsuits on �ambulance-chasing attorneys.�

But lawyers and law enforcement officers across central Alabama have raised questions about things in Brookside they say they have never otherwise come across.

Lawyer Martin Weinberg had a client in Brookside, a young man named Thomas Hall, who was stopped for speeding and found with a small amount of marijuana.

He was charged with misdemeanor possession, but also five counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, for:

Rolling papers
The baggie that held the marijuana
Cigar wrappers
A small jar �that once may have held marijuana�
And a small tray that �might have� been used to roll a joint
The names of the officers were not listed on the tickets in secretive Brookside. Instead, the arresting officer was listed as �Agent JS,� while the assisting officer was �Agent AR.�

A judge set Hall�s fines at $6,000, and he had to post $12,000 bond while he appealed the case, an amount Weinberg considered excessive, and one that would prevent defendants without money or support from arguing their cases in state court.

Hall did appeal, and a Jefferson County judge ultimately dismissed the charges.

Bill Dawson, a lawyer who has represented several clients in Brookside, said defendants have faced possession charges for a joint, with paraphernalia charges tacked on for the paper it was rolled in.

�I�ve never seen a possession case split like that,� he said. �It�s unheard of.�

�False left-lane violation�

Dawson also represents Victoria Brumlow, a young woman who � like hundreds more � was stopped on I-22 and ticketed for driving on the left lane of the interstate. Not speeding, not swerving, just using the left lane.

A Brookside officer ticketed Brumlow under Alabama code section 32-5-77, which her lawyers contend does not contain a crime. But it�s a common charge in Brookside.

She argued that she only drove in the left lane to pass other vehicles, and her ticket � on May 26, 2019 � came five months before Alabama�s Anti-Road Rage Act, a law making it illegal to drive in the left lane of an interstate for more than a mile and a half, went into effect.

Brookside police officers in sworn depositions indicated they did not follow drivers for a full mile and a half before or after the new law was passed, and they continued to write tickets under the old law after the new road rage bill passed.

In May of 2019, the month Brumlow was stopped, Brookside officers ticketed 75 people for driving in the left lane. Between April 2018 and June 2020, they handed out 406 of those tickets, or about 15 a month, according to documents filed in the lawsuit.

�It was something that I should not have been stopped for,� Brumlow said in sworn testimony. �And while sitting in court I heard that half the court was also stopped for the same thing.�

Brumlow pleaded not guilty, and had to go to court over and over again as the case was postponed. A court worker told her she would have to plead guilty or go to driving school. She fought it instead.

Dawson argued in a lawsuit against Brookside and Chief Jones that �Brookside has continuously used the false left lane violation as a reason to stop and detain hundreds of motorists. The motive � was to generate revenue for Brookside.�

Brumlow�s uncle, Jeff Brumlow, is the longtime prosecutor and city attorney for the city of Alabaster, and a GOP candidate for Shelby County district judge. He agreed to represent his niece in her traffic case.

In a sworn deposition in the civil suit Jeff Brumlow said he went to court three times before the case was ultimately dropped, and saw many people � he�d guess 25 to 30% of all defendants � charged with the dubious left lane violation.

�What I had watched in court with the use of this particular charge, I mean, just to be quite frank, it offended me that a court would act that way and that a city would act that way toward people who really don�t have that kind of money,� he testified. �So it was a bit of a moral outrage because I had sat in court three times now and it was no longer a mistake.�

�This was an intentional policy of the city and my niece just happened to get caught up in it and happened to challenge it. And it broke her heart, it broke my heart.�

�Creating a law�

Ramon Perez felt that way as well, sitting in the courtroom and hearing defendants plead to the same charges over and over.

He�d been stopped for rolling the stop sign, which he disputes, and speeding, which he also disputes. He was also ticketed for improper signal, though he can�t even fathom how that might have occurred. He was cited for driving with a suspended license � a matter he thought he�d cleared up � but he doesn�t blame Brookside for that.

It is what happened after the stop that is most concerning to him. He feels the police saw him as prey, and treated him as such.

Perez is Hispanic, and his passenger was a Brookside resident, also Hispanic, who didn�t have her purse with her, Perez said. The officer said he would take them both to jail because she didn�t have her ID.

Which is another problem altogether, Sheriff Pettway said.

�We don�t have a law that says if you don�t have ID, you go to jail,� he said. �If you want to go out there and do something like that, you are creating a law.�

Perez said the officer �went absolutely crazy� over her lack of ID. �He was very ugly from the start.�

Ultimately another officer took Perez to his friend�s house to retrieve her ID, he said. His car was towed � with apologies from the tow-truck driver � costing him several hundred dollars.

Perez ultimately decided to pay the $1,100 fine � on top of hundreds he�d already spent to get his towed car back � and get the heck out of Brookside.

Which is exactly what the town is banking on, according to those who have watched Brookside grow into one of Alabama�s biggest, most troublesome traffic traps.

Perez is angry at his treatment. But he also worries for relatives and employees who live in Brookside. Not all of them can afford to pay their fines as he did, and some have been put on payment plans.

�I feel bad for those guys who struggle,� Perez said. He is still torn, wondering if he should have fought the town harder.

�I should have brought a lawyer, but right now my time is not there,� he said. �But my behavior was right. I know that.�

Sheriff Pettway said those who face charges in Brookside and want to ensure justice can get a bond and appeal their case.

�It may cost some money to go through that process,� he said. �But if you want real justice, I think you�ll go through the process. Fairness and real justice, I believe, is something people are looking for when it comes to law enforcement.

Pettway also said issues with Brookside could draw the attention of the federal government.

�I think it�s one of those situations � that could possibly bring in the feds with some oversight,� he said. �I wouldn�t be surprised if they opened up an investigation. You can�t do what�s going on over there.�

https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/police-in-this-tiny-alabama-town-suck-drivers-into-legal-black-hole.html

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Jan 19, 2022

# ? Jan 19, 2022 21:53

punishedkissinger: Sep 20, 2017

i think its pretty clear that those officers just need more training

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:02

eviltastic: Feb 8, 2004; Fan of Britches

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The author casts Biden's agenda of uniting the country and getting everyone vaccinated as "in opposition to" President Trump and part of his effort to "go big" with his agenda in the same vein as his spending policies.

And then notes that those unvaccinated people drove the delta deaths (and also weirdly ties in the unvaccinated dying with Afghanistan):

Yes, the article definitely finds fault with Biden for declaring victory right before Delta hit and killed lots of people, mostly unvaccinated. But it doesn't say a word about vaccination choice, and only speaks about vaccine availability when it comes to Biden's actions with respect to the shot. And the two times it does that, it's in glowing terms. It doesn't make the claim that Biden made a mistake by politicizing the vaccine, or attempt to link the administration's messaging or actions to people choosing not to get the shot.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:21

Eric Cantonese: Dec 21, 2004; You should hear my accent.

So I see that things are still the same and no one in the Democratic party is helping themselves and a lot of people are going to go down screaming (but unheard) when Reagan 3.0 comes along in 2024. Fantastic.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:30

HonorableTB: Dec 22, 2006

Just force the loving vote Chuck, if they vote it down at least you can say you did SOMETHING to try good loving God this is so unbelievably frustrating

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:31

FlamingLiberal: Jan 18, 2009; Would you like to play a game?

If Dems are seriously planning to run on that tiny infrastructure bill, they might as well just turn over Congress now and save everyone the trouble

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:32

Jarmak: Jan 24, 2005

StratGoatCom posted:

'Favored functionary of a family with kingmaking power who they can expect to execute their policy agenda' doesn't roll off the tongue.

"Kingmaker" isn't how I would describe someone who failed to run for president twice and who's "favored functionary" couldn't even win the primary.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:34

Eric Cantonese: Dec 21, 2004; You should hear my accent.

FlamingLiberal posted:

If Dems are seriously planning to run on that tiny infrastructure bill, they might as well just turn over Congress now and save everyone the trouble

My worry is whether you'd get to a 2/3 GOP majority so Congress could start overriding Biden vetoes.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:36

FlamingLiberal: Jan 18, 2009; Would you like to play a game?

Eric Cantonese posted:

My worry is whether you'd get to a 2/3 GOP majority so Congress could start overriding Biden vetoes.

Extremely unlikely

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:40

Manager Hoyden: Mar 5, 2020

Eric Cantonese posted:

My worry is whether you'd get to a 2/3 GOP majority so Congress could start overriding Biden vetoes.

Just kramering in here to say that is mathematically impossible, so no need to broach that particular fear just yet

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:41

the_steve: Nov 9, 2005; We're always hiring!

Jarmak posted:

"Kingmaker" isn't how I would describe someone who failed to run for president twice and who's "favored functionary" couldn't even win the primary.

That's because they went and loosened the leash on the proles a bit too much and now they're trying to pull back on the slack.
They want it to go back to the "smoky backroom deals" that they are absolutely legally allowed to do, but they want to make sure that it's a case of them letting us have their way, instead of just doing it outright and risking any significant backlash.

First comes the vote scolding, how refusing to vote for the "right" person as outlined by allied media outlets makes you complicit in being a nazi lover who wants to let Republicans take control for generations to come.
Add that to poo poo like Pelosi's attempt to protect centrist-approved incumbents by threatening to withhold funding from anyone who dares try to primary a chosen one (but letting it slide if you primary someone not on their Good List), and you can see the beginning of the track they're trying to get things on.

They're trying to gradually kill off the idea that some rando can work their way up from the bottom and usurp a position far above their station, and get back to where your choices in the primary are between only leadership approved candidates while telling us that they're the ones we chose.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 22:43

goethe.cx: Apr 23, 2014

Eric Cantonese posted:

My worry is whether you'd get to a 2/3 GOP majority so Congress could start overriding Biden vetoes.

Republicans would have to win Senate races in WA, OR, CA, IL, NY, CT, and MD, plus all the remotely close swing states. They'd also need to win quite a few very blue House districts. Biden could take a poo poo on the American flag on live TV and Congress would still be short of a 2/3 GOP majority.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 23:08

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 23:20

selec: Sep 6, 2003

Manchin explaining why he�ll never support getting rid of the filibuster at the same time Biden is on TV explaining that that the dang ole GOP has hornswoggled him and he didn�t see it coming. Hell of an act.

# ? Jan 19, 2022 23:08

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US CE First Quarter '22 Reboot: There is no Current Events, only Voting.

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