Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The words do not have to be perfect.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Venality / Open Thread: Maybe President Biden Can Trade Rohrabacher Back to Putin?

Open Thread: Maybe President Biden Can Trade Rohrabacher Back to Putin?

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He’s not worth much, of course, but it would be a little treat for those of us who don’t love treason…

Reader Interactions

33Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    Stephen King should find DR and kick his ass back to Orange County.  The nerve of moving to Maine!

  2. 2.

    Mike in NC

    I once was walking on the National Mall in DC when the infamous “B-1 Bob Dornan” from California was addressing a small crowd. He was quite the asshole back in the day. Probably considered a libtard in today’s GQP.

  3. 3.

    Alison Rose

    Damn, I’d hate to find out what Rohrabacher considers “unacceptable” then. Is that just his way of saying he didn’t fling his poop around like some of the others?

  4. 4.

    Bonnie

    There ONE thing that can be done to counteract all these voter suppression laws.  GET RID OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE!  NOW!!!!!!!!

  6. 6.

    TheOtherHank

    Getting rid of the Electoral College isn’t going to happen; constitutional amendment being required and all that. What I’d like to see is expanding the House. Dilute the power of the low population states by returning to the idea that 1 Representative represents some number N people in their state. We could, say, define N as half the population of the least populous state, so every state gets at least 2 Representatives. Swamp the 2 electoral votes per state with a huge number of representatives.

  12. 12.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    Rohrabacher didn’t have to enter the Capital.  Being an ex-Congressman, he could provide inside information re the building layout to his fellow seditionists.

  15. 15.

    Achrachno

    Trade?  What does Putin have we want?  Let’s just donate Rohrbacher as a straight gift.  No returns permitted.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    Joshua Benton
    @jbenton
    There are two approved Louisiana history textbooks for the state’s 8th graders.
    This is how one of them introduces the Civil War: as tough times for a poor young white woman whose family owned 120 slaves.

    There’s a lot of this happening and it’s all great. Turns out when you look at actual textbooks you find we HAVE been indoctrinating children, just not in the direction that Republicans say we are.

    We’re learning all kinds of things! Not “critical race theory”, but some other stuff!

    I suppose the assumption was no one would ever know or find out the “race theory” that is currently presented in public schools. I mean, who reads 8th grade textbooks? 8th graders. No one gives them a substack :)

  18. 18.

    Bonnie

    @Omnes Omnibus:  You do it however you can!  I am 76 years old and told friends I was out of any action on any thing.  I was in the fights for civil rights and the women’s movement.  I marched and burned my bra and did any thing asked of me.  It time for the young and middle age to do the work; I would, however, work hard if there was a sincere effort to get rid of the electoral college.  Right now, every one says trump lost by 42,000 votes.  By my count he lost by 7 million votes!  I tired of living and voting in a state that doesn’t matter in Presidential politics because of the electoral college.  I really have no reason to bother voting because of the electoral college.  And, if you live in a state (like mine), your vote doesn’t count.  I believe that every one at this site knows and understands that.  Every vote DOES NOT COUNT as long as this system exists.  It should make every American angry, too.  I suppose a Constitutional Amendment is the best way.  And, if every one worked their butt off to make some real change towards becoming a true Democracy, it could be done.  But, if you just sit and whine and say it can’t be done; well, it can’t be done.  I do not have longevity in my genes; but, this is about the last way to get a real Democracy; and, I will be happy to help. But, the youth and middle-aged need to do the bulk of the work.  It is for them and their children and grandchildren.  P.S. I have no children; thus, no grandchildren.  But, it is something that needs to be done because we almost lost our Democracy in January.

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    It looks like someone else has been reading Silverman. Ed Zitron on Substack:

    Newsrooms Need To Treat Coordinated Online Attacks On Reporters Like Propaganda – And Act Like They’re At War
    Ed Z 7 hr ago

    The latest in the near-endless flow of bad faith attacks on the media erupted last week in a coordinated attack on New York Times reporter Mara Gay. Gay made comments on MSNBC around the growth of white nationalism, specifically mentioning the American flag:

    […]

    By treating these outlets as if they are operating to journalistic standards, as full participants in the free press, the Times is simply continuing to give them power. And it’s time to take these attacks far more seriously than they are. Reporters are continually being attacked in an organized, structured manner, with massive media outlets and influencers leading the charge, coordinating them several steps above what should be considered “online harassment.” This is not a case of people being mean to other people, it’s coordinated, anti-democratic, anti-free press propaganda, ironically weaponizing the language and methods of the free press. It is a form of warfare, except it’s not engineered by countries to attack other countries – it’s private enterprises and individuals bringing war to the doorsteps of reporters.

    It is a form of war in which reporters are treated as if the problem is being attacked online. Something is said – usually cherry-picked to be particularly upsetting to right wing types – and then a large outlet, be it the Glenn Greenwalds of the world or Fox News, picks it up and has a vacuous discussion about how either the reporter is being racist against white people or is “too soft.” This becomes a shitstorm for the reporter, who now basically can’t read their mentions (if I were a right wing guy I’d choose this part and say “liberals are soft, who cares if you can’t read your mentions?” but also I’d get really mad if I got banned on Twitter or couldn’t read my mentions), who receives death threats, who fears for their safety – and then they are told perhaps to take a few days off, they are offered counseling (this is good, they should get this), and basically other measures that oftentimes are treating symptoms rather than problems.

    And yes, this is a war, and it is a war being fought by the New York Post, by Fox News, and by many solo writers that have found a successful career in joining these campaigns, because outrage breeds clicks. When I say “coordinated” I do not believe that everybody is getting together in an email thread and saying “let’s all get mad at this,” but there seems to be a unity around the things that they get outraged at – coordinated interests, executed asynchronously but efficiently. There is a unity around those that are attacked within their sect, with swarms of angry online people who are ready to argue that “their freedoms are under attack” because of the suggestion that, say, white people have it easier than other races, and a united ideology around reading things in whatever way is most convenient to your argument.

    […]

    Worth a click over.

    (via darth)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    How did I miss Putin’s favorite Congressional asset, Dana Rohrabacher “touring” the capitol with the rest of the insurrectionists on 1/6? Merrick Garland should subpoena his phone records.

    Garland should also bitchslap his R-Moscow ass into a jail cell.

    ETA – Make Sucking Russki Ass Jailable Again

  21. 21.

    JoyceH

    It’s true that abolishing the Electoral College would take a constitutional amendment, which will probably never happen. But there is a potential work-around that makes the Electoral College obsolete. It’s called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

    “The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome.[2][3] As of June 2021, it has been adopted by fifteen states and the District of Columbia. These states have 195 electoral votes, which is 36% of the Electoral College and 72% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force. “

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    seems to me the simplest, if by no means easy, way to protect democracy is to win the mid-terms, and the first step to doing that is looking at what worked and what didn’t– however much we think it should have or would have liked it to–in pretty much every election since 2016

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JoyceH:

    But there is a potential work-around that makes the Electoral College obsolete. It’s called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. 

    Yes.  Exactly.

    A Constitutional amendment is the heaviest of lifts.

    If your state isn’t on board with National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, then contact your state rep and state senators.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @JoyceH

    That also raises a thicket of Constitutional questions, as compacts entered into between or among states may be deemed subject to Congressional approval. Until determination of such approval as a requirement (or not) for this case, operation of the compact would for all intents and purposes almost surely be stayed by courts.

    Although the US Constitution contains an express requirement for approval by Congress of compacts between states, the US Supreme Court has held that some agreements between states do not require such congressional consent. Article I, section 10 of the Constitution, provides that “[n]o State shall, without the Consent of Congress, . . . enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State.” The Court in 1893, however, stated in Virginia v. Tennessee that congressional consent is required only for a compact if it is “directed to the formation of any combination tending to the increase of political power in the States, which may encroach upon or interfere with the just supremacy of the United States.”

    The Constitution does not specify the timing or form of congressional consent to interstate compacts. Although Congress typically consents to compacts before they are executed by the states party to them, Congress may also consent after the fact, when the subject of the agreement could not be fully considered until then. In addition, while congressional consent is usually express, it may also be inferred based on the circumstances. Congress may condition its consent subject to the compact containing suitable terms that do not violate limitations set forth in the Constitution. Further, when Congress does consent to a compact, Congress does not thereby give up or reduce any of its constitutional powers. Source

    By some lights, it could also be viewed as overturning the result of the popular vote in an individual state, if its majority winner did not receive a majority of the popular vote nationwide. Other possible challenges include when no one wins a majority of the popular vote, rather the vote leader nationally wins a plurality (Clinton in ’92, for example).

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @memoshpotato

    Ideally, a plain text amendment.

    A participatory electorate being necessary to the formation of a democratic government, the right to vote for citizens of eligible age shall not be infringed.

  27. 27.

    Bonnie

    @Alison Rose: Actually, I am not technically a boomer.  They are the ones born in 1946.  I was born in 1945 one week after V-J Day, which is when Japan surrendered to the U.S.  i have a twin sister, too.

  28. 28.

    piratedan

    not gonna be happy until we start seeing Congress expel these traitors and the DOJ arrest them.

     

    Fuck this different POV bullshit.  Seems to me that the sooner we lance this fucking boil the better.

  29. 29.

    Bonnie

    Also, if Constitutional Amendments are so difficult, why do we have 27? Agree with piratedan.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    @Bonnie

    Look at it another way. The first ten came packed in the original shipping carton. In the about 230 years since there have only been 17 updates to the initial operating system. One of which was canceled by another, namely Prohibition repeal.

    27th Amendment took more than 200 years from Congressional passage (1789) to ratification by enough states (1992) to be added to the document.

  32. 32.

    trnc

    @Bonnie: ​
     

    There ONE thing that can be done to counteract all these voter suppression laws. GET RID OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE! NOW!!!!!!!!

    I’m all for getting rid of the EC, but that only helps with the presidential election. Voter suppression laws affect elections at every level.

  33. 33.

    trnc

    @NotMax: That’s a good analogy.

    I’m sure there were fights over every amendment, but 20-27 don’t seem particularly controversial to me so I might argue that the 19th (women’s right to vote) was the last really big fight.

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