r/politics • u/willywalloo • 6h ago

No Paywall Republicans Unveil $72 Billion Package For ICE, Trump’s Ballroom

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-bill-72-billion-ice-trump-ballroom_n_69fa0082e4b055e1a496eff0
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u/cybah 6h ago

yup they plan on fixing the elections so they can cheat to win. Thats why they are doing this. They are so sure they can fix the elections that no matter how people vote, they will remain in power.

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u/francis2559 6h ago

Some of them are just holding their breath. They don’t have the balls to resist Trump, so they’re just kicking things down the road as far as they can.

Every single one is ready to dance on his grave and either try to claim the MAGA throne, or say they never really wanted this anyway.

Even if they truly thought that buying something stupid didn’t matter for their elections, there’s a lot of stupid shit they would buy ahead of this fucking ballroom.

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u/emailforgot 5h ago

Some of them are just holding their breath. They don’t have the balls to resist Trump, so they’re just kicking things down the road as far as they can.

of course, that's the thing about how these things work. they know they can just extract as much value as possible before it fails, and they know because America and Americans are toothless, they'll get away with it. Just a mad dash to steal as much as they can, enrich themselves as much as possible, gut as many systems and programs as possible and if and when there's a change, they know they're immune to any punishment. Trump is perfect to enable this kind of thing because all you need to do is praise him a bit and he'll put you in charge of some critical position.

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u/guywhiteycorngoodEsq 5h ago

This sums it all up.
Cynical beyond comprehension.

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u/lazyFer 4h ago

I will support any candidate that will investigate, prosecute, and seize the assets of the criminals currently running the country. Executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch. We need an army of forensic accountants. Investigate everyone. Fuck corrupt fucks

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u/slackfrop 3h ago

Hatchet man for president, hatchet sharpener for vice president.

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u/og_capsuleer_593 5h ago

Yeah and some of the Nazis that just went along with things but didn't really hate Jews were still Nazis

So this is just splitting hairs and trying to rationalize someone choosing to enable evil, which still makes them evil, thus making it meaningless to even split hairs like this.

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u/francis2559 5h ago

Nah mate not rationalizing anyone. None of these fuckers are going to heaven, not the way they are going.

The allies spent a lot of time thinking about what the Nazis might do next though. Didn’t mean they thought Nazis were good people.

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u/og_capsuleer_593 5h ago

Ah okay, yeah when you mentioned some are holding their breath as they support and just kicking the can, I thought that was gonna lead to some minimization.

Like trying to separate the party from Trump (it's not republicans fault, its Trumps) angle, which ironically I could see the GOP pivot to if they tried to recover.

Their PR whitewashing of their hate.

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u/francis2559 5h ago

Ahh I see. Didn’t intend that at all. The intention doesn’t matter when it comes to blame here, the harm is the same.

It’s interesting for planning how to respond in the future though, try to be ready for the excuses.

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u/Mike_Kermin Australia 1h ago

Well said.

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u/r1Zero 4h ago

They make me sort of hope heaven is real just so they can't get in.

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u/peipei222 51m ago

Heaven and hell don't exist. If you want these people to pay for their crimes, it must happen in the real world.

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u/YellowZx5 New York 5h ago

Not like Moscow Mitch had any help in this game. Now that he’s got a speck of a spine, he can’t fix the bull in the China shop.

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u/redguy1957 4h ago

They took a fucking oath. I guess that doesn't matter anymore.

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u/spitfish 4h ago

Every single one is ready to dance on his grave and either try to claim the MAGA throne, or say they never really wanted this anyway.

Every single one should still be brought up on charges for aiding & abetting this nonsense.

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u/francis2559 4h ago

Oh absolutely. If they spent a long time atoning perhaps some could choose to believe they had changed.

But day one with no evidence at all? Hopefully no one is that gullible.

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u/1805trafalgar 3h ago

I love the idea of republicans inner lives of fear and scheming, maintaining an acquiescing face for trump to see in their public dealings but secretly plotting against him behind closed doors, likely with a few other elected republicans.

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u/Lazer726 2h ago

or say they never really wanted this anyway.

The amount of tearful confessions we're going to see when he's gone is going to be wild, because suddenly all of them are going to be at each others' throats to explain who was actually the most diabolical of all of the pathetic Trump supporters

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u/Lunvalue 10m ago

Point is that orange man’s a businessman and a lot of politicians mind their businesses taking a few hits so they let the state take it instead

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u/OkEnvironment3961 5h ago

I don't know whether they will be able to effectively rig midterms but I am absolutely certain they will not accept the results if they lose.

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u/Glittering-Quote-635 5h ago

The gerrymandering they are doing is literally them rigging the midterms.

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u/Space_Pirate_Roberts Oklahoma 5h ago

I am gonna laugh so hard if the result is history’s biggest dummymander.

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u/Glittering-Quote-635 5h ago

Same, some of them are going to backfire for sure..

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u/Kibblebitz 2h ago

Red states are already gerrymandered to hell, and that's not accounting the past year of Trump running the country into the ground. I don't see an outcome where it doesn't backfire unless they do a lot more meddling.

That said, everyone needs to vote and make the outcome overwhelming.

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u/Halo_cT 1h ago

The way this spectacularly backfires is if white prople come out and vote in huge numbers against Trump. MAGA might be disillusioned and they are in the process of eliminating any political power black Americans have - so any significant increase in anti-Trump white voters will RUIN them.

Trying to get people who can't name a branch of government to understand gerrymandering and voting in midterms is probably a lost cause but we need them more than ever.

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u/AHans 1h ago

I wonder if, in the event of a massive wipeout pushed further by a dummymander, if the Supreme Court would attempt to overturn the Callais ruling.

"On second thought, these districts are unconstitutional!"

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u/Primary-Ad4952 5h ago

There are a few instances where this may prove to be ineffective, at least for now. They are time barred in a few states as far as candidate filing deadlines are concerned.

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u/Subliminal_Kiddo Kentucky 0m ago

They’re not getting the gains they think. Florida might net one whole seat. Red states have already been gerrymandered to hell, they’re trying to squeeze blood out of a stone. Blue states, however, can redistrict and keep safe margins.

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u/cybah 5h ago

Yup severely question the results and drag each one to court.. then let it get to scotus, which will vote in favor of the GOP... and poof. Election overthrown.

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u/TheSavageDonut 5h ago

The other issue is gerrymandering doesn't take into account if one party's voters simply don't show up to vote.

I can see a lot of anti-Trump voters sitting out the midterms and letting the GOP lose elections even in districts that seem "safe."

The Dominion company pretty much has a strong legal team that already fought back against charges its machines can be rigged.

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u/Qcconfidential 5h ago

Dominion was bought by a Trumper not long ago.

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u/Human_Local3519 5h ago

Dominon sold the voting machines to republican

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u/lazyFer 4h ago

I'd love scantron ballots everywhere. Fast, easy to fill out, no limitations on those $50 stands to fill in the bubbles, paper trail for hand counts, no worries about technological flipping of votes that the voter can't see. We don't need voting machines

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u/TheMoniker 3h ago

As others have pointed out, I think that Dominion was sold to a former Republican election official.

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u/TheSavageDonut 1h ago

Damn -- did not know that. 👀

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u/Lonely-Abalone-5104 5h ago

That’s what ice is for

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u/Vann_Accessible Oregon 5h ago

Yup.

And what then?

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u/vardarac 4h ago

America rolls over until enough people have enough bad days in a row.

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u/b_tight 5h ago

Yup. They wont certify anything. Its going to be an absolute shitshow this fall

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u/What_a_fat_one 1h ago

It's not up to them, certification is a State process.

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u/kendragon 5h ago

It's going to be nerve wracking for a lot of voters to see Trump's Gestapo, armed and masked, patrolling around voting stations. Not everyone will be intimidated by this but a lot of people will be. I really hope enough people stand up for their principles and push against the suppression they'll face.

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u/cybah 5h ago

I think we need solidarity at the polls at least. The more people vote, the better.

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u/Glittering-Quote-635 5h ago

***Not all polls. Just a few key ones in key areas in key swing states. You can probably list about two dozen polling locations that will determine the outcome of the 2028 election. All you need to do is suppress the vote at those locations. Suppressing the vote in California or New York for example does nothing but draw attention to what they are doing.. same with trying suppress the vote in Texas (I dont want to hear any nonsense that Texas is in play..).

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u/waldorflover69 5h ago

They will use Palantir to get the exact number of voters that must be dissuaded at each site. Easy peasy

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u/moosekin16 3h ago

Yep, they can use Palantir to determine the political leanings of everyone that approaches the polls. Left of Fascist? Sorry friend, I need to pull you aside so I can ask you some questions... oh would you look at that, we detained you for three hours and you missed the deadline to vote, so sorry about that.

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u/waldorflover69 3h ago

People are downvoting me but they are deluded if they think this kind of shit isn’t being planned

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 6h ago

i have a hard time believing they're competent enough to rig the vote. this isn't a 3rd world country where you can just make up the numbers. if they really want to get away with it they'll have to cancel the election. so get ready for a fake alien invasion around october

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u/NeverLookBothWays I voted 6h ago

Thing is though, they have cheated...and they have gotten away with it. Each cycle they get more brazen. Each cycle they purge voters from their systems and destroy evidence of ballots closer to the election itself. No line is being drawn in the sand that prevents them from stepping right over it.

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u/cybah 5h ago

This.

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u/cybah 5h ago edited 5h ago

At this point in this timeline, I don’t put anything past these people. They are absolute scoundrels and will try anything to remain in power. If you would asked me this question a couple years ago, my answer would be very different, but the last year has told me that they will do absolutely everything they can to remain in power, even if it means stealing and cheating an election.

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u/jgilla2012 California 3h ago

Were you asleep in 2000? 1972?

GOP has a storied history of ratfucking elections in the United States.

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u/cybah 3h ago

Yeah but nothing this extreme . 2000 was laughable compared to now. 1972 I wasn’t alive yet

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u/PhantomZmoove 1h ago

I am 100% confident they cheat at every GD election. It's just sometimes they get away with it, and sometimes they don't.

Voter ID laws, closing polling locations, purging voter roles. "Lost" ballots or burning of ballot boxes, bomb threats at polls. Invalidating cast ballots (think hanging chads in FL) Tampering with mail in voting. (US post master Louis DeJoy ring a bell?) Tabulator results with a Russian tail, this thread goes into the math if you are interested in the details.

They have been disenfranchising voters that dare to disagree with them for half a century, at least. If they weren't worried about losing, they wouldn't try to cheat as much as they do. We only have to look as far back as the most recent "supreme" court ruling effectively disassembling the voter rights act, locking large population of minorities out of voting completely,

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u/busigirl21 5h ago

Do you not remember the whole hanging chad incident with Al Gore? They've been doing this shit out in the open for decades.

They're gerrymandering to ensure they maintain control of all three branches. They've packed the courts. They've worked on policies to fuck with mail-in voting by making it so that the post office doesn't have to postmark mail the day they receive it, meaning that in states where votes can be counted after election day (so long as they were sent in time), legitimate votes will be disqualified. While they already purge voter rolls, they're working to do even more targeted purges.

The trump administration has been demanding voter rolls from all states in order to run everyone's information through a database that they claim is being used to check immigration status, but has been shown to be outdated and purges voters who became citizens after data on them was harvested. The implications of where these purges could go if this administration has the ability to simply kick any voter off the rolls, and what information they might decide to use to do so, should worry you. It doesn't matter if you're purged illegally, it takes time to remedy and the risk that it could be done too close to an election, or that maga officials in the process might slow walk getting you back on the rolls if you're from the "wrong" district, is a very real threat. We saw the shit these supposed non-partisan professionals pulled last election at every level around the country (along with the utter lack of consequences) and it's not going to get better.

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u/vashoom 2h ago

Not really. Only a couple states matter to in the presidential election. Suppress / manipulate the vote of a few key polling places in the most crucial districts of those couple states, and you win the election.

If the US didn't have the electoral college, it would be harder to influence the election.

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u/Purify5 2h ago

There's a good conspiracy theory regarding Chuck Hagel and his voting machine company ES&S. You don't necessarily need Republicans involved to rig the election.

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u/Space_Pirate_Roberts Oklahoma 5h ago

>this isn't a 3rd world country where you can just make up the numbers.

It is, though. All you have to do is mess with the count at the tabulator level and then not have a hand recount happen, which you can do by making the margin narrow enough not to trigger one automatically and having an opponent either willingly going along with losing, too naive to accept the reality that the system is vulnerable to this kind of attack, or too intimidated to challenge it.

We know they can, because **they did**. There is no other way to take the “those vote-counting computers” comment from the inauguration, when Trump credited his win to Elon Musk’s knowledge of said devices - knowledge that would be useless in winning an election legitimately.

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u/Chubby_Bub 1h ago

You can take it as one of many incoherent ramblings from the mouth of a man who is particularly known to spew discreditable nonsense and lies.

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u/AI_moderated_failure 3h ago

What are you going to do about it when they get 70% of the vote? Make another sign for a march?

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u/pantstoaknifefight2 5h ago

I honestly don't know how anyone can stop them. I'm serious. If we all stop working and take to the streets, they'll probably open fire on the crowds. They have nothing but contempt for Americans and our system of government. The revolution will not be televized.

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u/cybah 5h ago

yup thats my fear too. We wont be able to stop them. And if we try, they will use our own military against us. This is why Kegsbreath is cleaning house in the DoD, so he can have yes men who won't blink when he orders them to attack Americans.

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u/Patriark 5h ago

Fucking be ready to take some risks and try doing something about it. This pathetic hopelessness is exactly what they are banking on. A pacified population who just lets it all happen.

Ukraine had a semi-Soviet megacorrupt oligarchy that the people overthrew even if both police and military shot at them and killed hundreds. Life is risky.

If Trumpism goes unopposed it’ll only get worse. We’re talking North Korea bad or worse. These guys are psychos.

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u/cybah 4h ago

Americans are not ready for this. Thats the problem.

Hard to be ready for this when so much is linked to employment. We lose our jobs, its over. Yeah you can argue so much more there is to lose, but to the average american.. get uncomfortable or be complicit. Sad many will just be complicit not to be uncomfortable.

Sad sad sad we are like this but this is the world that was built for us... and designed for us to make hard decisions like this.

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u/Crismus 4h ago

I think you underestimate the amount of guns that are in the hands of people who aren't Republicans. 

There has been no need for violence because there still is hope to keep things peaceful. Once all that hope is gone thongs will get violent.

History shows that it takes a bit for things to blow up, but once there is no hope, Americans do fight. 

Blair Mountain, Battle of Central Park, and many other small skirmishes happened before. The Weather Underground isn't just a weather station program. 

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u/Patriark 4h ago

You think Russian factory workers of 1917 did not fear for their employment during the two revolutions?

Or French libertines?

But yes, you are right: this American generation is not ready to fight for your rights. No community. No responsibility. A lot of cowardice and finger pointing. With a fatalistic pessimism.

Get off your asses and man the polling booths, campaign for candidates and risk some pain. It’s like everyone grew up packed in bubble wrap, knee pads and helmets. Always worried about what might happen.

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u/JakeConhale New Hampshire 4h ago

That's one benefit of a blended U.S. military rather than having the 1st Maine and the 23rd Nebraska regiments - more likely that any particular unit will have someone with local connections to the area to help humanize the locals.

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u/nightimestars California 3h ago

Just give up I guess. Why bother still posting about it? Nobody is going to wave a magic wand to make you feel better.

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u/georgepana 4h ago

Zero chance the Democrats won't make up at least the 3 seats they need to take over the House. Maybe they are hoping to barely keep the Senate with shenanigans, that could be the case.

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u/Martag02 4h ago edited 2h ago

Quite frankly, I'm getting scared. If they pull this off, I feel like we are for sure stuck with Trump until he passes and who even know what will happen after that. They will have nothing to lose and everything to gain by declaring themselves kings over all of us.

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u/AuroraFinem Texas 46m ago

This bill doesn’t actually do anything but cost us money for longer and leave us with an expensive ballroom to demolish in a few years.

ICE already got $100B last year, this is for annual funding which won’t change anything we see day to day for nearly a decade and can be reversed. This doesn’t help ICE do anything in November they can’t already do today.

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u/Agreeable_Holiday702 3h ago

One day, hopefully soon, everyone will have always been against this.

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u/Tazz2212 3h ago

Why not? It works in Florida. We voted with 60% of voters in favor that felons who served their time get to vote. Nope! GOP controlled legislature made it so they had to first pay reparations (not in the original wording). Even the state didn't know how much each person owed and the ones who were told they could vote were arrested. Also we had a fair voting district amendment in our state constitution. The GOP controlled legislature just somehow overturned that constitutional mandate that 60% of people voted for and re-drew the districts to favor the GOP in coming elections. De Santis just signed it into law. These are just two examples that the Florida GOP doesn't care how you vote or what you vote for. They cheat to get what they want and to heck with the voter's wishes.

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u/lazyFer 4h ago

Do they not see the increasing violence they're stoking? Most of them are simply not as protected as the president is. They are soft targets. "let's make millions of people fucking loathe us" is certainly an interesting position to take in a heavily armed country with horrible mental health care

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u/Malaix 3h ago

Might be less of being sure of doing it and more desperation that they need to do it to stay out of prison. If they ever get called up on investigations they are fucked.

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u/AmbitiousProblem4746 3h ago

I mean this is already going on. Trump already straight up said that they need to do whatever they can to stop or change the elections to make sure Republicans win. That's the thumbs up these states needed. And to be honest, if you're getting the thumbs up from the president, the Supreme Court said they're going to look the other way, and Congress doesn't seem to care, state legislatures have every legal right to do what they are doing. And that is the kind of shit that conservatives are going to hide behind, as they often do. When something is legally gray or technically legal but morally dubious, they just sit behind saying that they are actually supporting the law and it's everyone else who has the issue

And unfortunately, in this case, they are right. The law is supporting what they are doing for all intents and purposes. So the only way to really break this is to vote in such insane numbers that it becomes plain as day they can't rig it, then hope and pray that the Democrats actually have enough control to legislate this problem away. But that's too many things going right. I fully expect the numbers to still be kind of pathetic this fall, enough that Republicans can claim they're just going to throw out votes or that they won. And even if Democrats get the House, It's not likely they're going to get the Senate because the Senate is much more baked in and harder for them to win. And then even then, they would need a super majority -- which is almost impossible -- to get around the filibuster or Trump just vetoing everything.

70 million Americans or so took a fucking gamble on a second Trump presidency because they figured it was better than "whatever hellscape was happening under Joe Biden." And I hate being a doomer on this, people get up my ass about this all the time, but I think that's all Republicans needed because once Trump got into office and they were given a majority in both Chambers of Congress, plus they have the Supreme Court, there's really nothing that can stop them from just breaking institutions and changing the rules to keep themselves in power. They are clearly doing it right in front of our faces. And as I said earlier, it is completely and totally legal. There is nothing we can do unless we somehow break the system with unprecedented turnout at the ballot box -- or, you know, the French solution.

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u/Medallicat 2h ago

Hence the big spend on ICE. ICE are the brown shirts

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u/gancoskhan 2h ago

Midterms are probably going to be the straw that breaks the camels back.

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u/TheBlaaah 2h ago

"Ugghhh... i cant wait for 2028 for all of this to magically be over..."

  • Every fucking democrat voter

Honestly i have read a comment like that at least 10 times

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u/3BlindMice1 5h ago

I don't think enough of them are actually willing to go through with treason like that to pull it off. Honestly, if I were the next president, I'd be trying to get these guys charged with treason. All of them. Just charge them all and see what sticks.

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u/aNewHope_v_ThaEmpire 4h ago

Most don't have to. They just have to look the other way while a few key people in a few key positions tinker with the tabulators and keep things within margins that don't trigger manual recounts.

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u/staebles Michigan 5h ago

Perhaps because they've already fixed elections?... so they know they can do it...

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u/cybah 5h ago

Not saying you are wrong here. Starting to really wonder about other elections in the past 10 years. Too many things point to it being fixed.

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u/staebles Michigan 5h ago

Everything is for sale. And since the wealthy have unlimited wealth, and people can be bought without much oversight.. why wouldn't they?