Kirsten Gillibrand on the next SCOTUS pick:
The President just said the next Supreme Court nominee WILL come from his list of 25 judges that passed his overturning Roe v. Wade litmus test. We need to say NO hearings before the election and work our hearts out and take back the Senate. https://t.co/9HzyIhLQei
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) June 27, 2018
Do you have a problem with Gillibrand because of the Franken thing? Get the fuck over it. Squeamish about candidates who were endorsed by or worked with Sanders? Tough fucking shit.
We’ve got racist, Nazi-coddling, misogynistic, plutocratic, xenophobic, authoritarian baby cagers to defeat. If it has a D next to its name and it appears on my ballot, I’m voting for it, whether it’s a neo-liberal platypus or rose-munching banana slug.
It’s time to put all that other shit to the side and pull together because everything — and I mean everything — depends on it. If you see me doing otherwise, please knock me upside the head with a clue-by-four.
Open thread.
rikyrah
In case the Democratic Leadership doesn’t get it.
THE.TIME.FOR.CIVILITY.IS.DONE.
Grow some balls, and let’s go.
hellslittlestangel
A-fucking-men.
Southern Goth
Yes I do and go fuck yourself.
Betty Cracker
@Southern Goth: As long as you drag your ass to the polls and vote for the Democrats on your ballot, you’re aces in my book. Otherwise, go fuck yourself.
TenguPhule
Get back to us if she actually puts real effort into this rather then fundraise about it.
/Deeply Cynical
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Our Current Senate Minority Leader doesn’t believe you.
A Ghost To Most
“It was a pretty big year for predators,
The marketplace was on a roll,
And the ‘Land of Opportunity’
Spawned a whole new breed
Of men without souls”
Jerzy Russian
As if he made that list himself. Serious question: when did he ever mention a litmus test? I am kind of hoping he did promise to have a litmus test for Roe v. Wade, because that would mean there is no litmus test.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Folks in Red States better stock up on birth control. There’s way more than Roe v. Wade waiting to be overturned.
jacy
I have a simple challenge for everybody who can see this.
1) If you are not registered to vote, register. Make sure you know your polling place and all relevant information.
2) Register one other person. Hold their hand and buy them an ice cream if you have to. Make sure they know their polling place and all the relevant information and have a ride on election day.
3) Repeat #2 until you run out of time.
efgpoldman
Look at what prop 187 did to voting patterns is CA.
Something – maybe overturning Roe, maybe some other Weasel Face outrage – will do the same thing on a larger scale. Maybe with a big blue wave this is the cycle.
Nothing lasts forever, least of all RWNJ overreach and dominance.
No One of Consequence
Alllright! That was fast! Four posts in and Dems Disarray trend is going great. Already advanced to the squaring off the circular firing squad.
Fantastic.
I would suggest that we have bigger concerns at the moment.
For your consideration.
– NOoC
R-Jud
TPM’s keeping a list of D senators who are demanding we stick to the “McConnell Standard” of not filling a SCOTUS vacancy in an election year. If yours isn’t here yet, call them and ask them why not.
(And yes, Schumer’s on the list already. Color me shocked!)
HeleninEire
@rikyrah: YES MUTHERFUKERS YES.
“CIVILITY IS DEAD”
?BillinGlendaleCA
I wouldn’t be surprised if Senator Turtle doesn’t refer the nomination to committee and just has a floor vote. Probably won’t happen, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
efgoldman
Look at what prop 187 did to voting patterns is CA.
Something – maybe overturning Roe, maybe some other Weasel Face outrage – will do the same thing on a larger scale. Maybe with a big blue wave this is the cycle.
Nothing lasts forever, least of all RWNJ overreach and dominance.
Mai naem mobile
I am having a hard time being positive today. It’s like Bill Maher said we can’t even luck out with Peter Stroch (sp?), the FBI agent who was either texting shit or showing off to his mistress/gf.
Betty Cracker
@TenguPhule: I suppose she could live out one of your fantasies and go on a shooting spree, but I dunno, fundraising for the senate and voting against every single person Trump puts up for any position seems like a decent start. What else would you have her do?
The Truffle
Why is the president imposing this litmus test? I don’t get it. I’m sure he paid for at least one abortion in his time.
Just got off the phone with Schumer’s office and told him not to support any of Hair Furor’s picks.
cain
There needs to be a general strike. I’m sorry, it’s time for a full fucking war. If our Democratic leadership is squeamish, then we’ll make sure that they will be very very embarassed going forward. They can retire.
Xecky Gilchrist
I immediately emailed my Senators and will call when able. And oh hell yes I’m voting Dem.
chris
@Jerzy Russian: No, he didn’t make the list but he did tell an interviewer (Matthews?) that women who get abortions should be punished. You can imagine the list from that.
MisterForkbeard
I don’t think we CAN do it – this isn’t something we can enforce. McConnell was able to steal Gorsuch’s seat because he legally had the power to do it and the media doesn’t care.
The Dems DON’T have the legal power to stop a vote – there’s no mechanism to do so. Given Trump’s own huge issues and the upcoming Senate election, they’re totally within their rights to demand a delay. But McConnell likely won’t listen and the media won’t care.
We need to try anyway.
@No One of Consequence: One asshole is angry about it. Calm down.
Timurid
Sarah Sanders doesn’t need bodyguards. Breyer and Ginsburg do.
Betty Cracker
@efgoldman: Spoken like a man who has seen the worm turn before — thank you.
TenguPhule
@jacy:
Time’s up.
The Ancient Randonneur
@jacy:
Yep. We’ll never persuade Trumpists but there are plenty of people sympathetic to our side who just need to be worked with a bit to make a blue wave a real thing.
Jerzy Russian
@The Truffle:
I thought about that too, but then I remember he is not a big rules guy.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
I’m sorry but “in the long run we’re all dead” kinda doesn’t comfort when the shit is raining down right now.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@cain: So what happens when you have the general strike and only about 10% of the workforce participates? And then those folk get fired? Then what happens?
cain
BTW, we need to beat the drum now and get control of the senate and house. We need to really find a way to make any appointment to the court by Trump as suspect. Especially if we can show direct proof that Trump is a criminal.
I think though, we’re fucked when it comes to SCOTUS pick. McConnell is not going to give a shit, he’ll find a way to fucking seat that judge before the midterms. He doesn’t give a shit. I’d like to see how the press spins this because by this time it will be clear that there are no rules in the Senate.
jl
Kind of repeat from previous thread, but what I like about people like Ocasio-Cortez, O’Rourke and others in the races in November, and upcoming primaries, is that I think these people are willing to fight harder than folks like HRC, Feinstein, Schumer or even Saint BS. They will vote to impeach and convict corrupt officials, they will take whatever measures available in Congress to control a corrupt SCOTUS and executive branch, they will call people out into the streets, they will be willing to bring Congress to a halt and explain why to the public.
And a good sign that Ocasio-Cortez, even though supported BS, has repeatedly refused to go ‘bad Bernie’ and bash other Democrats in order to be the noble bigshot.
Gotta support anyone up for election who will fight like hell.
TenguPhule
@MisterForkbeard:
Perhaps a D Senator can take one for the team and cripple or otherwise incapacitate 3 GOP Senators?
Desperate times and all that.
A Ghost To Most
Any Democrat who votes for cloture (looking at you, Michael Bennet) should be drummed out of the party.
cain
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
If only 10% workforce participates, then I guess most of this country doesn’t give a shit about where we’re headed. Two years later, they’ll soon see that they’re going to get fucked.. by then it will be too late to make the changes. But I guess, that’s all we got right?
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
She could make herself a giant pain in the ass to McConnell and use every single Congressional power provided by the Senate’s rules to gum up things until McConnell is forced to break the rules to stop her. We need to buy time and fundraising tweets aren’t going to cut it.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Agreed.
Also, when we hear how “popular” Trump is with Republicans: think on how much the pool of self-identified Republicans is shrinking.
This may not be a year when GOP comes home. Trump and admin’s terrible policies are not hidden. Trump lost the popular vote by over 3 million votes, and that was before the jackass assumed office and started swinging the wrecking ball.
A lot can happen between now and whenever McConnell attempts to orchestrate the new USSC justice vote. I would guess we could get it delayed until after the new Senate is sworn in.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
If she manages to stop at least 3 GOP Senators from being able to vote, I’m not going to quibble over how she does it.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
If time runs short before November, they might actually do it.
Chyron HR
@TenguPhule:
Yeah, she needs to use the Powers and the Rules, whatever those may be! If the vote takes place it can only be attributed to insufficient use of Powers and/or Rules, and proof that Gillibrand’s a lazy sell-out in addition to being a terminally ambitious Lady MacBeth.
Mike in DC
Our 2nd highest priority target for 2020 must be Mitch. Get a strong candidate, give them ungodly sums of money, and GOTV for them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@A Ghost To Most:
There won’t be any cloture vote, there is no filibuster for SCOTUS nominations.
Yarrow
@cain: Some of the Trump voters are already seeing that they’re fucked, like the Harley Davidson and Carrier workers, farmers, etc. They even say it out loud. They’re not happy.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You have become a wet blanket. I declare you a GOP deep mole, waiting for decades to be activated. Out with the warlock! If we get to the point where 10 percent of the adult population, about 25 million people, to do anything near that dramatic, it will make waves. Maybe general strike should not be the first thing on the list, is all.
Now I’ll wait for BillingGlendale to chide me that it isn’t 25 million but only 23.817736453 million people.
Ruckus
@chris:
drumpf is probably still pissed because whomever got herself pregnant in the first place. Like everything else in his tiny little world, he had no responsibility for any thing, the only reason he paid her off was to protect his sterling reputation.
TenguPhule
@Chyron HR:
You do know that the Senate provides lots of formalities which can grind all business to a crawl when the Senate is forced to observe them, right? How do you think Republicans managed to gum shit up when they were the minority?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@cain: No, it’s because people are, justifiably, afraid of being fired. We don’t have strong labor protections in this country.
sukabi
@A Ghost To Most: that song has been appropriate for a long time, but especially now. It’s past time for a revival.
The Dangerman
You know those ass gaskets with knock out centers? Someone is certainly making some with Trump’s face on the knockout piece. I want him pissed and shit on like a MF (I’ve heard, and I’ve not tried in myself, but I’ve heard in dire circumstances, those knockout centers make knockout coffee filters).
TenguPhule
@Yarrow:
They’re blaming Harley Davidson the company and “greedy foreigners”, respectively.
Elizabelle
Of course he has: from the FTF Vichy Times
I dunno. Lot could happen on the way to that quick vote.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
And as of today, even less then that.
Jeffro
But Betty…who will look out for the neoliberal banana slugs then??? Hmm?
J/k I have been voting straight Dem since 1992 and ain’t about to change now. ;)
A Ghost To Most
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
There was a cloture vote for Gorsuck. Bennet voted for it. Did things change?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
such as…?
condorcet runner-up
Quite frankly, the Dems should refuse to attend any hearings and instead hold press conferences every day until the GOP agrees to nominate Garland. Of course, the GOP will never do that, but if the GOP is going to ram their picks through in any event, at least put an asterisk by these appointees’ names in the history books as the justices that got appointed to a stolen seat.
Mary G
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Since you have already slapped yourself with a wet noodle, I will take no action. I am a merciful midget.
Elizabelle
@Mike in DC: I am rather hoping that Mitch is beset with the mother of all legal troubles by then. Expensive ones, that take all his time. Might even land him in Club Fed.
jl
@Elizabelle: If McConnell rams it through, will energize Democrats. And part of Dem old guard current office holders is to do everything possible to make that motivation, mobilization and energy happen. Need to contact all of them, in your state or district or not, and explain that part of the job to them, since they seem to have forgotten some of it.
Yarrow
@TenguPhule: Not all of them. We are unlikely to change all their minds on Trump. We will pick off a few of them here and there. That’s how this will work. His base may love him but his base is shrinking.
A Ghost To Most
Gorsuck cloture vote
jacy
@TenguPhule:
You do realize that any Trump voters who are considering abandoning him will never say it out loud. No one wants to admit they were conned. And also remember that any reporting is going to pass over the first 5 disgruntled Trump voters to find the one true believer.
Besides, doesn’t matter what they think. There are more of us than there are of them. We just have to show up.
Eljai
@efgoldman: One thing that gives me hope is that, as bad as things look, good people outnumber the bad in this country. I see it in the values of my young niece and nephews and their friends. I see it in the jackals who post here – well most of you ;). The RWNJs are dinosaurs. They know they are in their death throws on the verge of extinction, so they’re desperately thrashing about now. It may look like they’re winning, for awhile. But the dinosaurs are not the future.
donnah
Just emailed a letter to my Senator, Sherrod Brown. I told him that l’ll do my part to get voters registered, and could he please do everything within his power to fight for us. This is the line in the sand we’ve been dreading. Time to buck up.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: Not really, Justice Kennedy wasn’t all that good to the working folk. Where he did make a difference was privacy rights(abortion, contraception, and gay rights).
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The boy scout is grouchy from having to hold his water until he gets north of the Tehachapis. It’ll pass next month.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: quorum calls, calls for ruling on points of order, calls to reference into committee, formal observation of Senate etiquette. Break out the rules lawyers and have at it.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I was referring to the gutting of labor unions that was just decided today. Kennedy’s bloody fingerprints are all over it too.
JPL
@Elizabelle: I’m trying to go a day without f.ks and it’s difficult during these stressful times.
Seanly
@Betty Cracker:
Word. Fuck these Republican asshats & anyone who doesn’t go ahead and vote straight D. A vote for any Republican is a clear & present danger to all of us. The Republicans don’t just want to overturn Roe v Wade, they also want to overturn Griswold v Connecticut. Griswold held that there is an unstated right to privacy in the Constitution – part of that thought went into Roe. Overturn Roe and then overturn Griswold and we’re all truly fucked.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
All on has to do is read history to know that the world does and always has moved left and right. Some call it ying and yang, but whatever you want, but it always does. That doesn’t mean it isn’t very messy a lot of the time.
Yarrow
@Elizabelle: McConnell is a traitor. It’s about time for his traitorous actions to be made public.
cain
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
So basically do nothing, because there won’t be any labor protections soon enough. So when is the time to do it? When do you fight?
Betty Cracker
@TenguPhule: Looks like Green Lanternism isn’t just for presidents anymore…
Jeffro
.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@A Ghost To Most:
From Gorsuch’s Wikipedia article.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker: The Senate is only getting any work done now because Democrats are behaving civilly there.
This needs to change. And fast.
ETA: If normal people are expected to go out and protest to be heard, I don’t see why our Democratic Congress people can’t lead the way on this and do it on live TV in Congress.
The Truffle
@Elizabelle: That would be the best option, yes. I am surprised Schumer is on board with holding off until then. Pleasantly surprised. I just want this to be a Pyrrhic victory for the GOP a la Prop. 187.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@The Truffle:
@Jerzy Russian: It’s the usual Republican “Rules for thee but not for me”. The fact that Trumpov probably paid for abortions but doesn’t want anyone else to have them is a feature, not a bug.
JPL
@Seanly: Yup.. That’s what I said don’t below. Eighteen months from now safe abortion will be gone, but the numbers will be the same. There will be more back alley quacks performing illegal abortions.
Your choice of birth control will now be limited.
The Ancient Randonneur
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m pretty sure Chuck Grassley’s sense of self importance would override any ideological desire to push through the confirmation without going through his committee. His massive ego is probably only surpassed by that of Ted Cruz. Trust me. My predictions are so spot on that President HRC is about to make it a 7-2 majority for our side.
zhena gogolia
@R-Jud:
Thanks! Chris Murphy already there!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: Well, that was my point.
Elizabelle
@Yarrow: There are going to be some records.
Ryan retiring was interesting. McConnell has looked spooked on numerous occasions. I think the GOP will be in Team Mueller’s crosshairs. Too much foreign money and foreign interference out there. Domestic money too. Quid pro quo.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@rikyrah: Not just Democratic Leadership…
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/394449-bernie-sanders-sarah-sanders-has-the-right-to-go-into-a-restaurant-and-have
jl
@TenguPhule: If GOP rams it through, need to stop everything and yell out why to the whole country. They need to do this, and we need to contact and tell them to do it, no matter whether in your state or not.
Another Scott
@Jerzy Russian: In 2016:
It was clear as a sunny day in San Diego what he was going to do if he won.
Cheers,
Scott.
Nashville_fan
Seems like the “vast right wing conspiracy” was an understatement after all . . .
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: I’m just trying to be realistic here. We should fight, but our protests should be limited to those that are effective and realistic.
BruceFromOhio
@No One of Consequence: I was thinking the same thing, your words are more articulate than mine, which had mostly a lot swearing.
I really like @jacy’s counsel.
TenguPhule
@Another Scott:
San Diego gets sunny days? Since when?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Yes, I do. She’ll never, ever get my vote in a primary.
Someone who can be played that easily is still better than a Rethug, but only just.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I do agree with you that a general strike is not the place to start. But mass demonstrations are a better place. I wanted to be constructive, not just a critic. You know, our president doesn’t like the critics!
A Ghost To Most
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Damn, I missed that. Fuckers. Thanks for relieving me of hope.
assholes
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Ancient Randonneur: Tend to agree, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Chuck agrees to take one for the team.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: My point is TARGETED demonstrations, in the last thread I gave an example of shutting down Trump’s properties.
Yarrow
@JPL: Handmaid’s Tale here we come.
MomSense
In the meantime, here’s something to help us keep our sanity.
Shakespearean Insult Generator
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, we more or less agree, in general. My apologies. I don’t think Trump properties is best place for SCOTUS issue, but the more demonstrations the better. So you go to yours and I’ll go to mine.
Platonailedit
Hillary, Obamas, Biden – they all warned and warned what was at stake in 2016. And millions of eligible voters once again decided to bury their heads in the sand. The end result is this.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Calling the health inspector for sanitation violations?
BruceFromOhio
@donnah: Senator Brown is the real deal, he’s been the focus for the FromOhio household this cycle (fundraising, mostly). Thank you for your support!
Elizabelle
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I haven’t forgiven her either, and hope I am never forced to vote for KG. Please dog.
But if she shines on obstruction to the SCOTUS, power to her.
The Ancient Randonneur
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It would take an awful big chit, but it could happen I suppose.
The Moar You Know
@MisterForkbeard: Something that most people here still do not understand. This was lawful. Appalling and one of the worst abuses of power I’ve ever seen in my entire life, but lawful. Had Hillary gotten into office that seat would still be vacant today, because McConnell can do that.
The focus on the House is laudable because that can be done. But the Senate is where the power is (or has been said many times, where legislation goes to die) and I don’t see how we get to 51.
Another Scott
@efgoldman: +1
Cheers,
Scott.
M4
Think I’ll be joining the media blackout club for a bit.
The Dangerman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Effectively and realistically, the short term is likely lost; I don’t see a clear path to a win.
Gaming this out a bit, if Roe goes down, then states like CA will have abortion rights (and a Republican may never win another Statewide election in places like Ohio and don’t even ask about a Republican presidency).
Or, Trump nominates someone like Souter (or was it Blackmun or Kennedy, or was it all 3?) who gets on the bench from a Republican and affirms Roe, in which case, RW voters go apeshit.
tobie
Never voted for a Republican in my life and don’t intend to start now. Period. But yes, I still remain indignant vis-a-vis Sanders and his most prominent supporters who helped gin up hate for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party long after the blowhard had any chance of overtaking her. Anyone who campaigned for him at that point helped elect Trump. Full stop. And that includes Ben Jealous.
ray
folks we lost the fuckin supreme court for years. maybe a democratic president and congress could add two members to the court. you have any practical suggestions?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Platonailedit: I have a pet theory that the Senate elections in WI and PA were swung by tote-bagger, white suburban type voters who assumed HRC would win and wanted to “keep her honest”. The sort of dimwitted thinking that passes for sophisticated political independence among people who think David Brooks is an intellectual and Maureen Dowd is the Jonathan Swift of our time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
but the earth and sky
sorry
+1 from me, too, as infuriating as all this is
HeleninEire
Once again opening up my offer from a few weeks ago. Bids are now open to get Irish Citizenship. Looks like my first offer was too low. Looks like it went up. Joke, not Joke. Kinda. Make a bid.
Cuz tonight was a tough night. On your application tell me why.
Jeffro
..
TenguPhule
@The Dangerman:
Federal legislation to outlaw abortion. Rightwingers have been sitting on it for decades.
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
I concur, but is it the anti-bernie crowd who needs to be told to hold their nose and vote for the lesser evil? Maybe I’m wrong, but i feel like it is more the other way around.
JPL
@HeleninEire: Is gay marriage legal?
The Dangerman
@TenguPhule:
Unless they get to 60 in the Senate, not gonna happen.
If they go Nuclear, it’s (and I won’t say what I think “it” is) on.
Quaker in a Basement
Someone please lock Heitkamp and Manchin in a room until they swear to side with the Dems this time.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
Hundreds of indictments against dozens of people, most certainly including GOP pols and RNC folks.
I think by now most of them know or at least have a good sense of what Mueller knows, and they’re pushing hard to try and lock in what they can. They won’t be able to get any further, but just locking in the current tax giveaways to big corporations/the wealthy and seating a boatload of judges (to include a SCOTUS majority) will have been worth it to them.
Heck, given how old Thomas is, it wouldn’t be surprising to me if folks are leaning on him to retire right after Kennedy is seated, just to buy another 40 years’ worth of R-time in that seat.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate): A lot of people are looking at Ocasio-Cortez with skepticism because of her ’16 work for Himself, but she seems far more pragmatic than the old crackpot.
Jeffro
…
JPL
@TenguPhule: IUD’s and some forms of the birth control pills will be illegal also.
Betty Cracker
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: As long as you’d vote for her in a general, fine. A week ago I’d have had more to say, but not today.
JPL
@Quaker in a Basement: I think we lost this one and there is little we can do. The ones that need to be targeted are Collins and Murkowski. Flake won’t vote until he has a vote on tariffs. Mitch will give Flake a vote on Tariffs, but Ryan won’t . That will be enough for Flake.
The Truffle
@JPL: How does any of this square with states’ rights? Another lie from the GOP?
Yarrow
@Elizabelle:
Paul Ryan is a traitor and his decision to resign is not just because he wants to spend more time with his kids. He’s under investigation by Mueller and it’s not going to go well for him.
McConnell is a traitor. He knew all about Russian involvement in our elections and refused to do anything about it. His connections to MEK are an even bigger problem for him. It’s not going to go well for him. You know he knows they have something on him because of how spooked he’s been at least once. I refer back to December, 2016 when he changed his mind to allow the Russia investigation to go forward.
The RNC is a criminal organization. RICO.
VeniceRiley
Wimpy Wilmer says Sarah Fuckabee Sanders should get to eat dinner in peace wherever she wants.
I guess he doesn’t want The Revolution to show up in person after all.
Great trolling by @JoshMalina: “Where does Anthony Kennedy like to eat?”
HeleninEire
@JPL: Yes. The first country to do it with vote
WOOT!
eclare
@rikyrah: Abso-fucking-lutely.
Betty Cracker
@tobie: But you’ll vote for Jealous now that he’s the nominee, as you said this morning, IIRC. That’s all that matters. Airing of the grievances, for me at least, is over.
Elizabelle
@Yarrow: Forgive me, what’s MEK again?
jl
@Betty Cracker: Everything needs to focus on big electoral wins in 2018, and if enough can still vote, in 2020. Best to be optimistic and bring together all forces willing to cooperate to defeat the greater evil that faces the country now.
So, cheer lead away, Cracker. I’m with you on that front.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: Flake is a hard rightie underneath that uncanny valley nice guy affect, He probably thinks Gorsuch is too moderate. I’ve seen little polling on NV-Sen but it seems to me Heller isn’t nearly scared enough. Yet. Still the longest of long shots.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
That’s just an example. After the election folk here were out and jamming up the freeways and streets downtown. Why piss off folk that generally agree with you? Cost Trump money, that’s much more effective.
@TenguPhule: That would work.
TenguPhule
@JPL: Yep. Women as Chattel is coming.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Another Scott: Yes, and yet ….
eclare
@jacy: I’m also a big fan of early voting whenever possible, so just in case there are any hiccups, you have a chance for an official do-over. And yes, I fully believe there will be intentional hiccups.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: State’s Rights.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
It has the benefit of also being completely true.
Their kitchens alone are the stuff of nightmares. Gods only know how bad the actual rooms must be.
LesGS
@TenguPhule: *Looks out window* Like, right now…
The Moar You Know
@The Truffle: Let me make this real easy for you: everything the GOP has ever claimed to believe in is a lie, save for making the rich richer and doing what they can to reinstitute slavery. They don’t give a shit about anything else.
Fair Economist
@TenguPhule:
You can slow the Senate to one vote every three working days. That’s about the limit you can do with formalities. There is no way to prevent one particular non-filibusterable vote for six months.
cain
@The Dangerman:
Those states will also have the worst economies. Young people will flock to the blue states. Those other states will continue to have a downward spiral. Republicans will still be in charge and it will all be about maintaining power. The market will go to the states with the best infrastructure and that can attract the best. They will lose.
jl
@The Moar You Know: “reinstitute slavery”
But this time slavery for all but the rich. A new and improved more expansive equal opportunity slavery. The GOP is the party of progress!
Yarrow
@Elizabelle: Iranian group. Formerly on Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. Here’s a Politico article on Giuliani, Bolton connections to MEK that has some info.
cain
@TenguPhule:
One interesting thing that could happen is that one issue voters will no longer flock to the Republican banner. It will alll be mission accomplished at that point and so they’ll have to find another boogieman. That will likely be immigrants. But that will suck too because this country needs the cheap migrant labor. I’m not sure how Republicans will deal with that.
Fair Economist
@Quaker in a Basement:
Unless you can flip somebody like Collins, Murkowski, or Flake, it won’t matter how they vote. They should vote however best raises their chances of getting re-elected, because winning the Senate will still make a very big difference.
Elizabelle
@Yarrow: Thanks. Just looked it up and wondered if that was what you meant. Never heard of them (yet).
jl
@Fair Economist: popular mobilization for elections should be in Dem Senate leadership’s calculations. Slow things enough to get attention in order to explain your case, not so slow as to piss off potential voters. There may well be some really nasty GOP deviltry that needs to be slowed anyway. It’s a balancing act.
McConnell is ruthless enough to ram it through, so calculations on what to do based solely on how to stop that are fruitless. You are correct that far.
The Dangerman
@TenguPhule:
Although this isn’t the “it” I was thinking about earlier, if that were to come to pass, CA would secede quickly. I don’t have the data to back it up, but there is a already a nonzero amount of support for secession (it’s minuscule, but it’s higher than it should be), Californians are way tired of paying the bill for some “things” (I think CA gets like 75 cents back on the dollar; it might be less, now I’ll have to go find it).
ETA: Looks like its 78 cents.
Cacti
@eclare:
Vote in November as if your very right to vote depended on it. Because it does.
Soon we may have SCOTUS majority that will find voting by non-Republicans unconstitutional.
Fair Economist
@The Dangerman:
They can probably get the Supreme Court to outlaw it for them. Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and whoever Trump nominates would be happy to. Roberts is a maybe, but IMO more likely than not.
Yarrow
@The Dangerman: That’ll make Putin happy. Splitting up the US to diminish our economic power is exactly what he wants.
rikyrah
Thread
Adam Jentleson ? (@AJentleson) Tweeted:
The first thing all Dems need to do is get a firm mental grip on the new rules.
McConnell annihilated every norm of the nomination process to deny Garland a hearing or vote and steal the Court for a generation.
If you play by the old rules, you’re playing a fool’s game. https://twitter.com/AJentleson/status/1012042524561690625?s=17
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: In 2014, my wife and I took a weekend trip to Vegas. We booked in at Trump Vegas because it was the cheapest hotel that didn’t look like we’d leave in a pine box.
It was the second nicest hotel I have ever been in (first is the Big Island’s Fairmont Orchid). The rooms were stunning, huge, clean, unbelievably tasteful and views for miles. I was floored. Said “no way Donald Trump had anything to do with the design of this”. And in talking to a few of the locals, seems he didn’t and had nothing to do with running the hotel.
Was wondering why the lobby was chock full of Russians (not joking, I know the language enough to recognize it). Figured it was the hideous gold and white decor (the lobby was the exception to the “amazingly tasteful” vibe of the rest of the hotel), they love that shit, but there might have been something else afoot even back then.
Didn’t eat there, the prices were lunacy. Glad about that.
ETA: their prices quadrupled since he got elected. And it’s booked solid. People fucking suck.
Fair Economist
@jl:
I agree. Stagecraft like the sit-in can certainly be useful, as long as supporters don’t expect it to actually block stuff. The Democrats are already doing everything they can – this Congress has passed less than any other in history.
FlipYrWhig
@VeniceRiley: Got a cite on that one? I’d sort of like to stick it in the faces of a number of people who pretended that “civility” was an “ESTABLISHMENT” thing that proved that something something new progressive leadership.
Steve in the STL
@The Truffle: state’s rights has always been a lie because (1) states don’t have rights,and (2) it’s an inconsistently applied standard to justify discrimination.
The Dangerman
@Fair Economist:
Not gonna happen.
I see dark days ahead but there are some things that just aren’t gonna happen. Griswold ain’t going anyplace, for example. People of color use birth control, too.
ETA: Back in the days of Operation Rescue, I did Clinic Protection briefly. White women got the treatment from OR; with POC, OR would part like the Red Sea.
schrodingers_cat
@M4: Same here.
efgoldman
@Betty Cracker:
In both directions. Conventional wisdom in 1974 was that Tricksie had screwed the RWNJs for a generation.
Steve in the STL
@Fair Economist: Roberts is every bit the whore that Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuck are.
Dabba
I do not GAF about who is next to me on the barricades, as long as we’re shooting in the same direction.
The time for even contemplating voting for anyone but a Democrat is over.
The Truffle
Just someone tell me this is the decade the GOP finally jumps the shark and ruins its electoral chances in huge swaths of the country. That they will win the battle but lose the war.
@The Dangerman: As a New York resident, I think there would be an uproar here, too. And we are also paying more in taxes than we get back. Wiki says that if New York State were a separate nation, we’d be the 12th or 13th largest economy in the world. In addition to Wall Street and various media companies, we have lots of farms of our own.
sphex
@TenguPhule: It’s sunny here right now. At least, in the sense that the sky is blue and cloudless. It’s dark as hell in my heart, but that’s not due to the weather.
JPL
@Steve in the STL: Years ago, my son’s girl friend said that she was more concerned about Roberts than Alito. She’s a local attorney, although she only practices in order to pay for her treks around the world.
jl
@Fair Economist: ” this Congress has passed less than any other in history. ”
To be fair, a lot of that is the GOP’s own doing.
Can’t hope for miracle, but the way the GOP is going, they might delay themselves a bit when the Senate reactionaries are displeased that the nominee is not batshit insane enough. But, that will just be a couple of weeks grim entertainment before McConnell rams it through.
Mnemosyne
People who know my family history with cancer will know that I do not make this curse lightly, but I am making it:
I hope that Anthony Kennedy is diagnosed with a rare cancer that would have been curable, but the Muslim doctor who knew how to do it was refused entry to the United States, and by the time they’re able to find him or her, it will be too late and Kennedy will be terminal.
I want him to die in wracking pain, knowing that it was his own racism and small-mindedness that doomed him.
That is my curse on him.
Steve in the STL
@JPL: Roberts, as CJ, has more power than Alito, a mere AJ. Plus Alito comes off as an unhinged rightwing nutjob, whereas Roberts presents as a more reasonable country club republican.
tobie
@Betty Cracker: Unenthusiastically and grudgingly, yes, but I will put my activist energies elsewhere. As for airing of grievances: you were the one who brought it up in your post. That’s what I was responding to. We’ve all gotten countless emails in the past 6 hours asking for money, and whether we give it to the DSCC, DCCC, DGA, DNC, or any other organization or particular candidate is really our choice. Everyone’s pulling on the same rope.
schrodingers_cat
I have been watching a show called Solitude. The host of the show goes to places, old forts, palaces, cities that were once bustling and how now been abandoned. Ruins, sometimes centuries old of great empires, that ruled huge parts of the subcontinent and are now a pale shadow of themselves.
Collapsing empires cling to the sword (guns in our case) and religion. While flourishing polities are welcoming and places of great intellectual and artistic ferment.
Rs have nothing positive to offer, they will collapse under the weight of their own contradictions, they are fearful of their own shadows. Their reign will be short.
gene108
@TenguPhule:
Gum up what? Republicans are not proposing any laws right now. McConnell got Reid to repeal the filibuster for judicial nominees, because Mitch filibustered everything, so no nominees were being confirmed.
All we can do is vote, organize, and call our Congress people to do the right thing.
Calouste
@Fair Economist: If the shitgibbon had 5 votes on the “Supreme” Court and 34 in the Senate, he will just rule by executive order until he is physically removed from office or dies. It’s the fascist way.
jacy
@Mnemosyne:
I want to shove them all into a giant wicker man and set it on fire. All of them.
VeniceRiley
@FlipYrWhig: Its all over the twitter machine. and IDK try media matters or just google the senator and news and the past 48 hours. I’d grab it from my tweets but I’m blocked from twitter at work on my pc. (But not my phone, yay)
gene108
@schrodingers_cat:
I doubt Republicans will collapse. Lying us into the Iraq War and the 2008 Financial collapse seems to have only made them stronger in the last 10 years.
The way the media is slanted, it will be hard to brake the Republican Party, because the media will never hold Republicans responsible for the damage they do, and will always give Republicans the benefit of the doubt.
We can and will win elections, but I do not see a major change in American politics coming up, which will cause the collapse of Republicans.
Platonailedit
@Yarrow:
Japan, Germany, Japan and UK are in the top 5 world economies list. It is not the acreage alone that determines the economic status.
I am all for a blue states america where most people live and more importantly more saner & smarter people live and where sane domestic and foreign policies can be enacted. I don’t see why the rest of the world can’t do business with such a nation.
gene108
@gene108:
Just wanted to add. Empires colllapse. Republican rule will just hasten the demise of the American empire.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Solitude. How cool. And what a great perspective.
@Steve in the STL: Yeah. Roberts is awful. He just passes for normal. But he is Mr. Corporations Rights, but none for thee. Gilded Age enabler. Umpire who calls strikes, my ass.
Mnemosyne
@jacy:
Your way is quicker, but my way teaches a lesson. ?
JoeyJoeJoe
@Elizabelle: Mujahadeen-e-Khalsa (probably misspelled that). A group in Iran that opposes the current regime but is also really corrupt, if I remember right
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
the large blue states will ignore it. What kind of enforcement mechanism is even probable? US Marshals? Federalized troops? Nope. The Traitor states that want a ban, will have it. CA, NY all the blue states around the edge, will not. Basically the way it was before Roe.
And the youngster inspired by Parkland are out there. Something like overturning Roe could be the catalyst that does what prop 187 did for California.
JoeyJoeJoe
@JoeyJoeJoe: Khalq, not Khalsa.
cain
@Jeffro:
They also get a free get of jail card with Trump pardoning them.
Betty Cracker
@tobie: Fair enough. I don’t ever intend to bring it up again, which was kinda the point.
@schrodingers_cat: I think that’s true, though the damage will be significant in the interim.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
Also, California has abortion rights written into our state constitution. Does this Supreme Court really want to start invalidating state constitutions willy-nilly?
cain
@Mnemosyne:
Yes. They will absolutely try to bring all the blue states in line. Fascists must be fascists.
Mel
@jacy: Yes, yes, yes!!! Thank you for this! If every person that reads your challenge helps even one other person to vote and get their voice heard, it will make a difference.
A few additional thoughts for anybody out there who wants to help: go door to door in your neighborhood, and ask directly if you can help out your neighbors who aren’t registered to vote or haven’t been able to vote.
Sometimes, the only obstacle is something as simple as a piece of misinformation someone was given, or the fact that they don’t have home internet access, or don’t have a ride to get a valid id or to register in person.
I live in a transitional neighborhood with crappy access to public transportation, and we are a one car family, so I get it that transportation access can be a barrier unless someone can give a hand occasionally. If you are able, offer to take a neighbor to get an id, or to get registered in person. Help people who can’t get out to get an absentee ballot. Make a commitment to get a neighbor who has mobility, time, or transportation issues to the polls on election day.
This is especially important for elderly neighbors, neighbors with health issues or disabilities, and for parents of young kids. Maybe a reliable neighborhood teen or trusted adult neighbor on your street would be agreeable to watching some of the neighborhood kids on election evening, so that exhausted parents will still be able to get to the polls without having to worry about wrangling a toddler or trying to arrange and pay for evening childcare.
One thing I didn’t realize was how many of my neighbors wanted to vote, but had been misinformed / led to believe that they could not vote. One neighbor had been told by a couple of coworkers that she wouldn’t be able to vote b/c of a misdemeanor conviction years earlier. She hadn’t voted in 10 years, because of how adamant her coworkers had been, and b/c she felt embarassed to call county government and ask how she could “fix the problem and be allowed again” to vote. When she found out that what her coworkers had told her was bullshit, she cried. 10 years lost. Then we got online, updated her voter registration, and she is ready to vote. She’s also talking to her family, making sure that anybody else who has gotten bad info or has been discouraged from having their say at the polls knows the facts. We started printing the state info and FAQ pages so that we could give copies to neighbors who don’t have a computer or reliable internet access.
Sometimes just a half hour of time or the smallest piece of correct information can make a big difference.
Steve in the STL
@Mnemosyne: preemption!
Or preëmption, if you read The New Yorker
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: But those skeptics are going to vote for her, I’m guessing.
Chris Johnson
This is being run from Russia, and they do not actually want America to be powerful and run by unchallenged Republican rule.
It’s a trick. This is accelerationism. Russia is gambling that the destruction of Republicans will also greatly weaken America. And that would be true, but that’s still what’s going to happen. It’s going to be civil war, and not everything can be ‘normalized’. The Republicans are already pushing it, already lose the popular vote, are already about as aggressive as they can reasonably be in a ‘free society’. Russia’s goal is to entice them to go way beyond that, and then watch approvingly as America burns.
That does mean Russia will not help them retain unquestioned power. Republicans are being SET UP to fall, and to ruin any scrap of legitimacy they were supposed to have.
Betty Cracker
@Mel: Great story!
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
They pretty much have already. What’s one more stare decisis added to the fire?
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
FBI? DA ordered to sue PP clinics? Coopt ICE into bullshitting there are illegals hiding out in the clinics (And PP probably is helping undocumented women living here)?
The rules of the game have changed.
Ruckus
@Platonailedit:
We all know what happened. Pretty much everyone knows what getting fucked feels like. Maybe not everyone knows what getting so obviously fucked feels like, but for those didn’t know, this is what it feels like.
Can we focus on what we can do to fix it? This going over and over and over is a waste of time.
Porky Pine
The traitorous scumbag McConnell has already declared he’ll keep the Senate in session in August, so you know he’s going to try to fast-track whatever noxious hairball Cheeto Benito horks up for the SC. I desperately wish we could have a “Jim Jeffords moment,” when the Republican senator from VT was so outraged by GWB (over the education bill, IIRC) that he quit the Rs and caucused with the Democrats as an independent. It changed the Senate leadership. If we could pick off just a couple of the profiles in courage (not!) among the Republicans who are already leaving–looking at you, Corker, and hell, why not John McCain from his death bed–aren’t we close enough to take the gavel out of McConnell’s hands now and not have to wait for November? They wouldn’t have to become Democrats, just do as Jeffords did. Maybe, just maybe, there might be a few who think another SC justice nomination from a deranged and illegitimate president* is a bridge too far.
Of course, I’d also like a unicorn that farts glitter.
Wil
Well at least the Bernie Bros and green party people kept that icky Hillary from being president, right….Right?
Unbelievable that we are even here.
At least the fucking Trumpskis know what side they’re on.
schrodingers_cat
@gene108: They seem unbeatable now but collapse they will. Roman Empire, British Empire, Marathas, Mughals. It was their hubris which got them in the end. Nothing lasts forever. They are overreaching, they have no ideas to sustain them. The Mughal Empire had amassed its largest area during Aurangzeb’s reign. That was their undoing.
Felanius Kootea
@cain: Kind of like the way pro-legalization voters in Colorado lost all interest in voting once marijuana was legalized and allowed certain Dems to be recalled from office for risky votes. In the long run, I firmly believe the GOP, aided by a media that plays to them as though they represent the will of the majority, will overplay its hand. They will splinter into different factions and end up as a regional party. Right now though, they seem to have the upper hand because they cheat but we will fight them. They do not represent the majority of Americans.
Felanius Kootea
@schrodingers_cat: Well said!
Ruckus
@jl:
What does the sky look like in your world?
Matt McIrvin
@The Dangerman:
Not if they ban abortion federally. Doing it by statute would take ending the legislative filibuster, but that may well be the thing that does it.
The possibility that really scares me is that SCOTUS will declare fetuses “persons” from conception, under the 14th Amendment. That would not only ban abortion nationally; the prisons would fill up with women who miscarried under suspicious circumstances. The resulting transformation of society would be something out of a science-fiction dystopia, especially when you consider the legal implications of the fact that 50% of embryos naturally fail to implant, and every one of those unseen microbiological events would now be the death of a citizen. Menstruation may become illegal in some cases.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat:
Possibly when the Earth becomes uninhabitable by humans, 100 or 200 years from now.
The Truffle
@Platonailedit: A poll showed that one-third of respondents believe Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo is possible.
@Felanius Kootea: I could see the GOP getting wiped out in elections within 10 years–assuming America survives that long.
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