Worse. Trump could endorse Marco in 2028.
What’s the likelihood Trump simply demands that Vance resign on his own?
Maybe Stephen Miller is looking for a promotion.
JD’s been in that barrel for a long time already. He’s not even allowed out to shave.
This alone tells me you’ve never spoken to someone living near one.
They are not “benign” neighbors. There is constant noise, usually described in terms akin to describing a jet engine at take off. The noise starts at 90 decibels and goes up from there. There is constant light. If they’re using local ground water they can consume so much for cooling purposes other local wells may start to go dry.
So… my friend moved out to a rural area for the quiet, the views, and the dark nights because he likes to do a little star-gazing. The place is far enough out that it has a well and septic system.
About five years later the data center starts going up.
Instead of a rolling rural landscape in all directions there’s now a massive industrial park. Never mind the temporary dust and commotion of construction and the heavy trucks destroying rural roads never intended for that sort of traffic, the silence is gone, replaced by a constant din. The noise will never go away. It is never true dark anymore, it’s like trying to star gaze from a neon lit city street. He can’t find out if his well is in danger because he can’t get information about the data center because it’s a private land owner.
He can’t sell - no one wants to live next to one of these things. So essentially his property no longer has any value.
He’s pissed… but he voted for landowners having absolute rights and no “interference” from others. He’s having the day he voted for. He spent a lifetime bitching about how rules, regulations, and laws hindered him and cost him money, he never learned how they also protected him.
Naw… I mean, I still talk to the guy (he’s not my neighbor anymore - I live in the more urban part of this area) and once in awhile I visit. I don’t want to smell hog farm. Don’t really want the noise and light of a data center, either, but for visiting it’s better than hog farm fumes.
Does the irony of his situation ever come up in your conversations?
To me? Yes, but since I have no reason to provoke the man I don’t mention it. There is nothing positive to be gained there and I try not to be vindictive. Yes, he voted for this situation but rubbing salt in the wound doesn’t make me a better person.
Fair enough. You’re not obligated to nudge him towards introspection.
That’s kind of the crux of it, isn’t it?
“The leopards weren’t supposed to eat MY face!”
They won’t learn until somebody makes the effort to teach them individually. The very few news articles about “foxhole conversions” of MAGAs to “Oh, now I get it!” indicate the vast majority of MAGAs, even wounded ones, have not put 2 and 2 together. We have to teach them it adds to 4.
Whether any given one of us wants to tackle any given one of them is of course a personal decision. But like everything else in politics, it’s lots of small individual efforts that add up to a large collective result.
I think you are overestimating the ability of a casual friend with established political differences to teach. Nobody likes being told “I told you so,” and most people tend to get their backs up and dig in harder if this sort of thing is given an explicitly political framing, whereas if it’s just a local thing that annoys them and the local politician they would ordinarily vote for supports it, they might actually get disgusted and not vote at all, which is a win.
I don’t talk about it but I have engaged in quite a bit of action to combat the ills of my society and nation.
But I can’t turn every interaction into a battle. I live in a heavily Red state and saying “I won’t associate or socialize with anyone MAGA” would leave me an ostracized, isolated hermit. That would not be good for me.
“critical to the economy and the Department of War”
So if that is in the actual filing to the court, if I’m the judge I’m asking (in appropriate judge language) “what the fuck is the Department of War, and why should this Court take notice of it?”
There are too many of them for us to collectively ignore. Practically speaking, we’re going to have to live with them one way or the other.
They where always there. When Trump is gone hopefully they will crawl back under their rocks and stop spreading hate.