Look, if we’re going to “fight,” then the Gaetz nomination is a place to start. Here’s what a fight would look like if the tables were turned:
- The Ethics Committee report would be leaked, like today.
- No fucking recess appointments. The Senate would stay in session (if necessary by filibuster) and no monkey business with the House (again, if necessary, through parliamentary moves).
- 24/7/365 focus on Gaetz from the media ecosystem. This includes independent investigation, talking to people spouting rumors, etc.
- Only relent on Gaetz to put him in context with all the other shitbirds that Trump is nominating. They’re similar if not the same.
Is it hard? Not for Republicans. Is it hard for us? Of course, because we lack the media ecosystem, and we lack Senators and Representatives willing to get their hands dirty. I sure don’t expect a filibuster by Dick Durbin, who would be leading the fight as ranking member of Judiciary.
Open Thread: Alex Jones Further Humiliation
Steve LaBonne
The first test is releasing the Gaetz ethics report either by committee vote or by leaking it. If we don’t even have one Democrat who will do the latter, then forget about any kind of Congressional “resistance”. I can’t say I’m optimistic.
Baud
Maybe we don’t fight then. Just relax for four years and let the people come to us. Ok by me.
Layer8Problem
“You can’t fight in here, this is a Balloon Juice comment thread!”
Another Scott
Presumably Qevin McQarthy knows all about it – he’s been dropping hints for years. Maybe someone from FTFNYT can ask to see copies of his notes, etc.
Ha!
I slay me sometimes.
Grr…,
Scott.
Jinchi
I was thinking the same thing. It’s definitely worth going after Gaetz, the guy was trolling for high school girls to have sex with while he was a sitting Congressman.
It also helps that there’s public pushback from Republicans. I’m sure they know he’ll be just as happy to use his power to go after their own. They should oppose him for self defense reasons alone.
Baud
This doesn’t even make sense. There’s no filibuster for appointments. We got rid of that when the Republicans were blocking Obama’s appointments. Libs urged Dems to do it.
trollhattan
Republican senatorial spines are flexy like a new silicone kitchen spatula. They don’t have the nerve to face down Donny & Co.
suzanne
@Another Scott:
I’m sorry, I will refer to him as “my Kevin” for all of his days.
I hope someone carves that on his tombstone.
Constance Reader
The “fight” would also be a waste of time and energy because Trump will use his recess appointment power if the senate doesn’t give him what he wants.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Baud: I’m aware.
The issue is that Trump believes he should be able to simply appoint people and bypass the Senate. The way to do that is for the Senate to recess and act surprised when Trump confirms everyone. Durbin would be leading the fight against doing this (I can hardly type “Durbin” and “fight” in the same sentence without laughing at myself). He could filibuster the motion to recess.
Similarly, there’s talk that if the House were to recess and the Senate doesn’t, there’s some side-eye squint and you’ll see it reading of the constitution that gives Trump the power to recess both.
The challenge is to get institutionalists who are so steeped in the “norms” to (a) recognize the Republicans might do this and (b) do something about it.
hrprogressive
Elected Democrats Do Anything But Send Fundraising Emails and Sit on Their Asses, Impossible Challenge.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Another Scott: If we had a vibrant media ecosystem, there would be plenty of places for Kev to leak it besides the Times.
RaflW
@Baud: I think we can nudge things along so that in just two years, the GOP suffers stinging defeats in the House (Senate, maybe, but our founders + demographic sorting have f*ked us there).
Trump, Johnson, Thune, (and freaks like Vivek) and all the rest of the GOP need to be the 24/7/365 faces of “You broke it, you bought it.
And that doesn’t happen by just waiting. The info environment is still broken and very very tilted. Starting to overcome that is crucial.
JML
from a strategy perspective, do you leak the Gaetz ethics report now, or do you wait until he’s official been announced as the nominee and his name submitted? Part of me thinks you wait to drop that bomb, especially because he’s already resigned from Congress. let’s make sure that scumbag twat is gone from there and can’t unwind it before taking his new job away too…
TBone
@JML: timing is everything.
Old School
My understanding is that the Ethics Committee is not forbidden from still releasing their report tomorrow. I’m not sure that a leak is required.
No One of Consequence
Consider the merits of allowing the Trumpinistas to receive the benevolence of their GodKing in its fullest measure.
Surely the remnants of America would then be much more easily gathered in a dustpan and succinctly deposited into the Historical Bin.
Work smarter, not harder.
-NOoC
JerseyBeard
I would leak the report AFTER he is in the AG’s office. We cannot stop shitbirds from running this administration. Might as well put in a shitbird we know how to undermine and then undermine. A loss for the GOP is worth more to us next year than this.
kindness
Durbin has hurt Democrats as leader of the Judiciary Committee. Democratic Senators have this romanticized view of seniority and how history will regard them. I would say the joke is on them, but really the joke is on all of us. Victors write the history and Republicans won’t allow anything nice to be said about any Democrat, let alone a useless prideful toad like Durbin. Karma kinda sucks some times.
Elizabelle
@hrprogressive: Is that snark?
Thor Heyerdahl
If it’s not leaked domestically then foreign bad actors will do it – ones who want to damage America’s image/power globally (Trump or not).
It will get leaked from somewhere to:
Show there’s more of this to come for everyone
Continue eroding trust in American institutions
TBone
After the ballots delivery SNAFU performed by the PA Post office, today’s very woke USPS mailer (depicting a guy and little girl, both of color, wrapping gifts in their Xmas sweaters in front of a Menorah prominently displayed) is a little tough to take when it assures me “our employees are working in sync to ensure the happiest of holidays.” Where were you during mail ballots delivery season?
How much is their advertising budget, again?
RaflW
@JerseyBeard: I’m at the midpoint, where the report is leaked after his name is formally submitted.
Ridnik Chrome
I dunno, man. If we sink Gaetz, we might end up with someone who’s both evil and competent.
hrprogressive
@Elizabelle:
Not even a little bit.
RaflW
@Thor Heyerdahl: I think this correctly speaks to the broad arc of Trump II, the Shittening.
Putin’s main goal is to substantially weaken the US in the global power struggle. I’m already seeing foreign policy folks saying that our allies will roll up most if not all nat. sec. info sharing, Macron is among those reportedly thinking thru what a post-US NATO looks like, and so on.
Foreign leaking of lots of things damaging to US hegemony fits well with Vlad’s goals.
RaflW
@Ridnik Chrome: That’s the trojan horse theory of Matt’s naming going around, yes (besides the shutting of the House investigation).
Geminid
@Baud: Why let facts get in the way of trashing Democrats?
Baud
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Ok. But that fight doesn’t even happen until January when the new Congress takes over. There’s nothing to fight right now.
narya
If I thought TCFG had come up with this all by himself, I might think differently; however, I suspect that the Gaetz nom, while horrendous in and of itself, is a shield for Gabbard, who’s possibly worse. Gaetz is compromised, and that will eventually come out; Gabbard likely isn’t compromised the same way, but can do much more damage. Thus, the question becomes who benefits from having Gabbard in that role.
Alex
isn’t it that Gaetz will get tanked and Ken Paxton would then sail through confirmation? Isn’t it the point of this ratfuck nomination?
TBone
I might take up day drinking for the first time in my life.
https://www.foodandwine.com/eggo-brunch-in-a-jar-sipping-cream-7644360
TBone
@Alex: mebbe so, I saw rumors and whisperings elsewhere…
Served
I have to assume the intel community is going to have some ‘off the record’ things to say about Tulsi becoming DNI. Trump’s burning of sources, intel leaks and theft(!) have to be a sore spot for them, and handing they keys to a known Putin stooge should push them into action.
RaflW
@narya: “the question becomes who benefits from having Gabbard in that role.”
Politico (I know, but Tiger Beat on the Potomac has their noses up every Republican ass like no one else) talked about her Russia love just before the mid-terms in 2022
eta: My g-d, Don Bacon of Nebraska is an idiot.
Ridnik Chrome
@RaflW: FWIW, I don’t think there’s any kind of 3D chess going on here. I think it’s just a matter of a fourth-rate boss hiring twelfth-rate people.
Steve LaBonne
@narya: Gabbard is an astonishingly awful pick but I don’t know how anything can be more damaging than simply having known Russian asset Trump in the White House. That’s already more than enough for our (from now on, nominal) allies to take care not to share any sensitive information with us.
Baud
As I suggested in the early morning thread, Bernie should lead the fight against Gabbard. They were allies 8 years ago. His voice exposing her would be a powerful one.
Jackie
@Steve LaBonne:
We shall see… 🤷🏼♀️
Geminid
@narya: Gabbard may be more compromised than Gaetz. One difference between the two nominees is Gaetz has been under the spotlight for years now, while Gabbard has not. She’s also been in the news, but she has has never drawn the intense scrutiny and attention she will in the next few weeks.
RaflW
@Ridnik Chrome: Agree. I think there’s a mix of Trump having his usual narcissistic needs drive decisions, and the very publicly shitty way he treated nearly everyone who worked for his WH the first time means that I’d bet his transition team gets a lot of politely ignored invitations to apply for jobs.
Elizabelle
@hrprogressive: Ok. Fair enough. Fuck you.
Jackie
@Thor Heyerdahl:
Oooh! Please BEFORE Gabbard is confirmed!
DFH
@Baud:
Doing nothing is a recurring thought. Take a hands-off (and minds off) stance, pay far less attention, put down the hopium and… what, after that. I am exhausted from keeping a hope that someone somewhere will succeed at enlighening the rabble. I do not see that happening. Intead, things that were eye-popping will be boring in a week, swept away by another wave of insanity speeding us down Jacob’s ladder into a dark future.
I’ll read B-J of course, and TPM. We readers can all observe the passage of events in stories written by non-liars and longtime friends.
Ain’t fun to think about.
ArchTeryx
@Elizabelle: Easiest thing in the world to be cynical and nihilistic in the face of fascism, isn’t it? In a small sense, hrprogressive is right: Our institutionalist leaders aren’t going to do shit but get run over.
But our younger, future leaders? Us activists? Party folks on the ground? None of them are going to stand still and watch tens of millions of people get carted off to concentration camps. There will be blood.
The fight ain’t over yet. It’s just begun.
John S.
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
If my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle.
Geminid
@Steve LaBonne: The post of Director of National Intelligence can be a very powerful one. The DNI can shape intelligence “findings” so as to influence diplomatic and military policies in profound ways, domestic security policy as well.
Jackie
@Alex:
I share that fear.
Elizabelle
@Jackie: Yeah. I would hold fire for a while to see what shakes out.
This is the least of times it’s safe to go all “hair on fire.”
ArchTeryx
@Baud: I only half-agree. Trying to convince the public of anything seems to be a completely lost cause when everyone’s political opinion is both calcified, and completely driven by thermostasis and negative partisanship. Add a completely hostile media and zero media infrastructure on our side, and IMHO, large scale campaigning is hopeless.
But I think it’s worth protecting my family. My LBGTQ+ friends are scared shitless and with good reason. I’m working on ways to protect them, and if necessary, get them out of the country. For obvious reasons, I will not go into those methods here.
Baud
@ArchTeryx:
Of course. Take care of you and yours first.
Elizabelle
@ArchTeryx:
Yes, kind of. But: “Our institutionalist leaders aren’t going to do shit but get run over.”
I am really not in the mood to shit on Democrats. Really, really not.
It’s rather hard to believe that a set of people who have devoted their lives to political office — on our side, you can call most of them “public servants” — are just sitting around saying “oh well, game over. What’s for lunch?”
Cheap cynicism is cheap and fake.
Another Scott
@Ridnik Chrome: +1
DJT is going to try to do what he wants. It is almost irrelevant who he says he’s going to appoint. He’s made it clear that his people will do what he wants or they’re gone.
There are plenty of institutional roadblocks that can be put up – recess appointments have to be Senate confirmed eventually or they’re out. Acting secretaries have to have had some sort of Senate confirmation to serve. Acting secretaries have limited power in their agencies. Senators can vote no. Underlings can say “no, I won’t do that, and if you try to make me I’ll raise a stink, etc.”. The federal government actually does require competent people to make things happen.
The press and the pundits are mostly going nuts on the worst case things that these bad nominees are going to do, while mostly ignoring the fact that it’s DJT that’s doing it. He’s the worst actor here.
Getting caught up in how bad Gaetz or Gabbard is going to be is taking our eyes off the ball. If DJT were instead the target, he would (eventually) have less support, and less support means less power, and that means fewer people are going to be willing to set their careers on fire for him.
All that said, it’s going to be a slog. Pace yourselves and hang in there, everyone. Eyes on the prizes.
Best wishes,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I don’t know who to trust and who my allies are anymore. I need to figure that out before I commit to anything.
Aziz, light!
So Trump is already smearing his feces on the walls of government power. Film at 11.
I think if we keep fixing their mistakes, we will never end this timeline. The exception would be where national security is involved, i.e. Kremlin stooges.
Omnes Omnibus
But it is common because it is an easy response to what happened. It’s not a helpful response. Its prevalence here and other places online are making me think more carefully about where I spend my time.
hrprogressive
@Elizabelle: Bye.
WereBear
@Layer8Problem: 🤣
RevRick
@Baud: The solution is Schrödinger’s filibuster which appears and disappears depending on whether we need it or not. The fact is when his nomination comes up for a vote the Democrats will only have 47 Senators
I think with the Gaetz nomination we’d be better served by pot stirring, getting the Republicans to fight each other and letting his stench rub off on them. It’s obvious why Trump wants him, but it’s not clear that he’s in the interest of Senators.
Aziz, light!
If Trump appoints people to jobs that are so far over their heads that they need telescopes to see them, that’s better than if he appoints people with brains in their heads. Let the chips fall.
PIGL
@Baud: Do you think that “the people coming to us” is the most likely outcome? Or are you being facetious?
Baud
@PIGL:
Where else are they going to go?
MazeDancer
It is possible the Gaetz nom is going to tank itself.
But the Tulsi Gabbard nomination will not. Because the GOP won’t block two.
Russia calls Tulsi “our girlfriend” and “Russian agent” on TV. Tulsi will give Putin every secret he doesn’t already have.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: “Moar fascism!!! We weren’t fascist enough and the ladyboys sabotaged everything. Go get ’em, boys!”
ArchTeryx
@Elizabelle: Our Senate leaders especially, Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, have never shown themselves able to so much as fight a tissue paper if their institutional norms have to be put aside to do it. Harry Reid was far, far better at using the Senate rules to maximum effect, even if it meant ditching institutional norms. Until those two are replaced, I don’t trust the Ds in the Senate to lead any kind of resistance.
But Hakeem Jeffries in the House is an example of a younger, much more activist leader that will do everything in his extremely limited power to gum up the works. Considering the Repubs will keep the House by a seat or two, that will become far easier than the first time around.
Durbin and Schumer need to either lead or retire. Period. Both come from indigo blue states. Both are replacement-level Senators. Let folks like Hakeem Jeffries lead the resistance.
Eural Joiner
@MazeDancer: I agree…but I can’t imagine that the world’s most advanced intelligence agency, staffed by thousands of people many of whom are not Trump supporters and almost all of whom see the United States’ national security as paramount, can’t do something about this. I mean, it’s practically their reason d’etre!
Aziz, light!
@ArchTeryx: Name a senator who retired at retirement age.
Omnes Omnibus
@ArchTeryx: I remember when everyone talk about how weak Reid was. Then it turned out that he was a really good legislative knife fighter.
japa21
@Aziz, light!: In theory, you could be right. But these nominations are all about presentation and deflection. All of these departments are going to be staffed by true believers in Project 2025. They have had 4 years to develop who they are going to put in place, and these folks are going to be competent. These are not Trump loyalists. These are people loyal to the ideology of Christian Nationalism, authoritarianism, anti-LGBTQ+, racism, etc.
Served
@ArchTeryx: Durbin’s term is up in 2026 and it’s time for him to hang it up. Illinois has a deep bench waiting for that seat to open. It will be a bloated, messy, and annoying primary that I’ve been dreading personally, but the seat will remain blue.
ArchTeryx
@Aziz, light!: My point exactly.
eemom
@Baud:
You want Bernie to do something useful? What a concept.
(I’m allowed to say meanie things about him, right? He’s not a Dem.)
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: A lot of the problem with Reid wasn’t him, it was his caucus. He could count votes as good as any Majority Leader, and he was hobbled by not one or two but a dozen Manchinemas at any given time. However, when McConnell started breaking shit in earnest and many of the Blue Dogs were voted out, his caucus started coming around, and that gave him the freedom to act. The problem has always been: We seem to have the choice of better Democrats, or more Democrats. “More and Better” seems an impossible goal in the Senate.
japa21
On a positive note:
Casey is slowly chipping away at his deficit in PA. He’s now down less than 26,000, with an estimated 129,000 ballots still to be counted.
Kirk
One of the committee’s Democratic members could, I suppose, read the report into the record. Same deal as happened with the Pentagon papers back in the day.
Thor Heyerdahl
@RaflW: with so many tech bros in his circle, it’s not a surprise that the enshittification of America will happen under Trump
Omnes Omnibus
@ArchTeryx: I think you may be missing my point.
Eural Joiner
The Matt Gaetz nomination is Trump’s version of “Boar on the Floor” for those of you into “Succession” references :)
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: Before the January, 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs, Charles Schumer was regarded by many as a worthless bum, a hapless Charlie Brown figure. Then Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff transformed Schumer into Clever Chuck.
Now I guess he’ll be hapless Charlie Brown again. Some Democrats need villains like they need heros. Personally, I think what they really need is to get over themselves.
WereBear
@Eural Joiner: I watched one episode and decided I’d met my sadism requirement for the year.
And mind you, I read a lot of true crime.
RaflW
@DFH: “Take a hands-off (and minds off) stance, pay far less attention, put down the hopium and… what, after that.”
The recommendations I see that make the most sense to me, YMMV:
1. Local or maybe state politics. We did a bunch of stuff to help a friend get elected to the WI Assembly. This was a flip, but she also ran two years ago before redistricting so she had infrastructure and name rec when the WI Supremes made the path more realistic this time. Things like this will absolutely need to happen all across the country. VA, for example, has legislative elections in 2025. Could easily be framed as a “referendum on Republicans.” LFG.
2. Repair and expand social relationships that may have weakened due to Covid and all the sorts of atomizing that our end state capitalist society engenders. IOW: Parties! Nights out with friends. Volunteer at a library or other social good org. Socially connected communities will be more resilient. While also hopefully enjoying some aspects of life. Not being miserable is one way to send a small, personal FU to authoritarians.
Hilbertsubspace
@MazeDancer: Russians love the double bluff.
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: Your point being that Schumer and Durbin will rise to the occasion? I current live in New York. Schumer’s been worthless here for a long time, outside of one very narrow constituency that keeps getting him re-elected: New York City Jews. Gillibrand is a far better Senator from New York. I also am a Chicago native, and they’ve never been impressed with Durbin even before he became a Senator.
RaflW
@Jackie: I think Paxton is enjoying making Texas a miserable place. And I think he’ll wait to see if he can report to a less mercurial and back-stabbing boss when TFG either strokes out or we maybe enforce term limits.
None of the above makes me happy. But I think we’d probably be looking to some horror like John Yoo of torture memo fame.
Trivia Man
@Another Scott: It also appears that Qvin takes his ouster as a personal attack by Gaetz. Losing speaker and slinking away defeated is a big motivator. If he doesn’t have the ability (connections) to get the report and leak it, then he truly was an ineffective speaker.
If he has a copy and doesn’t release it then he is all aboard the trump train to hell.
Jackie
Welp, I guess asking nicely won’t work. Back to hoping for leaks:
Omnes Omnibus
@ArchTeryx: No, my point is that we don’t know that they won’t.
ETA: Also we don’t know who the Dem leadership in the Senate is going to be.
RaflW
@Thor Heyerdahl: Yeah. I think the average MAGA has no idea how shitty unregulated crony capitalism + tech surveillance is gonna be.
Think you hate Comcast or your credit card bank or Spirit Airlines now? Just wait till the Commerce Dept., FTC etc are ghost towns.
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: Their entire Senatorial careers seem to suggest otherwise, but yeah, like with most things coming up, nobody has a crystal ball.
With the Legion of Doom running things from here on out, not a lot is predictable any more. Other than, once again, we get rid of our most troublesome Blue Dogs, only to get shoved into a Senate minority. Again.
Ksmiami
@Omnes Omnibus: spoiler. They won’t put up any fight. Worthless in this moment.
RaflW
@Kirk: I don’t imagine it happening, but Glenn Ivey in MD is in a D+40 district. He’d take a lot of heat, but I can’t imagine his district would bounce him in two years for taking such a stand.
(I know nothing about MD politics, for all I know he’s may not one to buck the system, since he’s a former State’s Atty.)
tobie
@Elizabelle: Agree 100%. The idea that Dems have done shit is ignorance (or cynicism) trying to pass itself off as some kind of profound insight. A party that does nothing would not have passed the American Rescue Plan (which included a Child Tax Credit), the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, protected union pensions, stood for railworkers; dockworkers; autoworkers and teamsters; cut student debt (WH aimed for more, SCOTUS blocked quite a bit); negotiated Medicare Rx Prices; raised SNAP benefits by 43%; increased ACA subsidies; protected national parks …oh, and managed to spearhead mega GDP growth, job creation, and wage increases.
I’m sick and tired of the idea that nothing was delivered for the American people in the last four years. Populist progressives are ecstatic because every time they see a Dem candidate lose, they think their star is ascendent. Nothing could be further from the truth.
JMG
@Jackie: Any of the Democratic members of the Ethics Committee can make the report publci perfectly legally by entering it into the Congressional Record, where it is protected by the speech and debate clause of the Constitution. Will any of ’em do it? Beats me, but they can if they really want to.
Bupalos
I keep banging away on this, but I guess I’m hoping it sinks in: what country do people think they can run to if the authoritarian tide comes in higher than the United States? I hear ICE is going to be offering free flights to some places where Trump can’t get at you anymore.
I think we should get used to the idea that it is fundamentally American hegemony and the Western alliance backstopping human rights and international order that created the illusion of the globe as a place you can run away to.
Marmot
@Omnes Omnibus: Me too.
Ridnik Chrome
@Another Scott: If I had to pick a nominee to sink, I’d pick Gabbard before Gaetz. Putting her in charge of Intelligence would be like having Guy Burgess running the MI6.
narya
@Omnes Omnibus: Not that it matters, perhaps, but I often look to your responses/takes on things. And did you go with ramen or chili the other night? ;-)
Ridnik Chrome
@ArchTeryx: You and I are basically the same person. I grew up in Logan Square and currently live in Queens.
Steve LaBonne
@tobie: The tragedy of this election is that it was a perfectly normal thermostatic election and as we’re discovering as the returns fill out, not even a very wide swing. But this year that kind of typical voter behavior was equivalent to playing with matches in an ammo dump, only voters are too ignorant to understand that (until it’s too late).
TBone
@Jackie: I’m kinda surprised some MAGA participant didn’t revise the Gaetz ethics report and stick it to a Dem somehow for immediate release. They must be busy elsewhere.
Jackie
I couldn’t copy/paste the list of senators up for re-election in 2026 as they’re individually hyperlinked, but this site lists them:
https://www.senate.gov/senators/Class_II.htm
I was looking to see if there was anyone brave enough to defy TCFG. Edited to add: Maybe retiring so TCFG can’t go after them?
The link also has a link for class III senators up for re-election in 2028. Maybe some of them will defy TCFG..
Elizabelle
@tobie: The whole thing is such a tragedy.
And this place is getting way too sour.
Marmot
@tobie: Thanks for this. I’ve reorganized it in bullet points, and I’ll memorize it and reuse it often.
I also liked Oliver Willis’s time-stamped grocery prices, gas prices, etc. I need to get the same for illegal immigration, crime (violent and otherwise, urban and rural, etc.), inflation, GDP, unemployment, median wage … and what else?
sab
@Ridnik Chrome: If we get someone evil but competent at least the entire Justice Department won’t quit in the next few months.
Hoodie
The Gaetz thing might be a smokescreen to draw attention from other travesties. Trump wouldn’t want to have an AG who could be blackmailed by someone other than himself or embarrassed by a leak of the ethics report. Might be a cover for forcing Gaetz out of Congress before the report and making it look better than just resigning. The nom could be then be pulled sometime in January for nebulous reasons and forgotten. Could also be cover for the Gabbard nom, which looks like client service for Vlad.
Princess
Maybe this has been posted, above, but I see Durbin just said this;
”
My thoughts on the House Ethics Committee report concerning allegations against former Rep. Matt Gaetz:
In light of Donald Trump’s selection of former Congressman Matt Gaetz to be his Attorney General, I am calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve and share their report and all relevant documentation on Mr. Gaetz with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report. We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.
Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next Attorney General of the United States and our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent.”
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes. And you have a lot of company there.
Omnes Omnibus
@narya: Chili.
tobie
@Marmot: You’re very welcome. If you succeed in getting grocery and gas prices in a graph, please let us know. My work sent me abroad for 7 months, so I was able to compare grocery prices to when I left in Dec 2023 and returned in Aug 2024. They went down in that period. A lot. But I’ve never seen it laid out on a table.
Geminid
@RaflW: Next year Virginia Democrats will have Abigail Spanberger running at the top of the ticket. She’s a strong candidate and may well help expand the slim House of Delegates majority we regained in 2023.
Donald Trump was a potent GOTV force for Democrats here during his first term, and I think his second term will be no different.
This election will likely draw a lot of interest nationally.
ArchTeryx
@Bupalos: Yes, right wing parties are on the rise worldwide, but not every place is fascist. Canada has some good places that can act as jumping off points or safe houses. Even if the Conservatives have a landslide election, how far right Canada is likely to go is far less so than how far right WE are willing to go. They won’t be in imminent danger of being rounded up and tortured to death by John Yoo’s goons there.
It’s time for a new Underground Railroad, and that’s what I am working with certain people to set up. Even saying that much on this platform is now a security risk, so that’s all I am going to say. Get it?
Marmot
@tobie: That wasn’t exactly my idea, but it’s not a bad idea!
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Baud: They’ll throw up their hands and stay home. We aren’t the only alternative
Trivia Man
@Constance Reader: do not pre-surrender
MAKE THEM DO IT
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
Plus, when looking at this purely the an intel officer’s lens of “sources & methods”, Gabbard is massively compromised and as I’ve said before, the national security implications are dire.
With each pick, it looks more and more like Hair Furor is simply nominating sock puppets…and massively trolling the entire institution of the federal government.
sentient ai from the future
okay, look.
we don’t hold back from opposing a nitwit bigot being placed in a position of serious power just because the next one might be worse/better.
taking a scalp shows that the spell can be broken, and as long as we dont for whatever reason, gambler’s fallacy-like, think we need to approve the next knuckle dragging chud being nominated too, because we’ve somehow spent our political capital *puke* then we can put up a decent fight, even in the minority.
sentient ai from the future
hey, anyone old enough to remember when the spouse of a candidate and the head of the DOJ having a brief hello on the tarmac of an airport was somehow a scandal?
lol
Trivia Man
@Omnes Omnibus:
Harry Reid: I apologize for calling George W a “loser”
Reporter: you also called him an idiot
Harry: I apologize for calling him a loser. His Dad is nice.
oldgold
I have a question about the Gaetz resignation.
Did Gaetz resign the position he was elected to in 2022, but still would be eligible to accept in January 2025 the position he was elected to this November?
eemom
@sentient ai from the future:
I’m even older than that. Back before the dawn of time, it was a scandal when a republican (GWB) WH flunky said something in an email about DOJ hires being “loyal Bushies”.
Her little blonde ass was forced to testify before Congress as the entire nation collectively gasped in horror at the very suggestion of DOJ being politicized.
Old times.
Old School
@oldgold:
Both. Although the next term portion seems to leave wiggle room.
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
gene108
Democrats should not fight the Gaetz nomination.
They should remind Republicans that there’s everything Gaetz has been accused of, outside of binge drinking, Trump has also been accused of and more.
If R’s are behind Donald Rump, why are they objecting to Gaetz?
Also, get the FBI to releases everything they found out about Epstein, including pictures. God knows the number of public powerful figures that are escaping accountability because most of salacious stuff is with the FBI.
Gravenstone
@Jackie: Ah, saw reporting that “Senators” were demanding the release of the report. I figured it would be the Dems but hoped for at least bipartisan. Yeah, this’ll go nowhere unfortunately.
Chris Johnson
@narya: This is not a hard question.
Putin runs the lot of them, and I really do feel that Gaetz, Gabbard etc. are raising hackles among Republicans not because they are awful: Republicans don’t mind awful, and their heavily siloed realities don’t play by our rules!
The problem for Republicans, and it will not go away no matter who tries, is this: Trump’s intentions for appointments are not his. I’ll believe they’re his when he shitcans Musk for getting as much applause at him, when he shitcans RFK for lecturing him about his diet. It is ASTONISHING that they can do such things and not be banished.
But he is not the ruler. Putin and Russia have publically reminded him via TASS just in case it wasn’t already obvious to all, that he has responsibilities and he WILL fulfill those responsibilities to Russia. They’re not even worried about it. They’re sure.
Because it’s their people who got us here, and they’re in a position to bust us out. Musk is there to seize control of our tech grid and have it run out of Russia. Don’t forget they have Thiel, so they have some brains even if they’re wildly unethical dark enlightenment brains. Gabbard is there to seize all intel and deliver it directly to Russia, That Fox guy is there to get at least part of the military to attack California or the other part of the military, for maximum collateral damage, and maybe get Russia some of our nukes so they have real ones. And RFK is absolutely there to ban masks, vaccines, pasteurization and anything else they can get him to ban, so whether or not they have bioweapons they can kill way more of us next pandemic.
That’s intentions. Everybody has dreams, and some people are content with nice dreams rather than fucking THIS but that would be the plan. And it will not sit well with Republicans, because they want to WIN, and rule their shit, not just have it all smashed and broken. But Trump’s plans for appointments lay it pretty bare that the plan is to just wreck everything as fast as possible.
Weird-ass timeline. This is us literally doing worse than if we had the actual Republicans stage a coup. The actual Republicans are awful but at least they’re Americans, and they want to be rich IN America and they want cheap migrant labor and to be comfortable. This promise to them is being drastically broken, and there will be some kind of reckoning. They won’t give up their wealth and comfort to please Putin’s lust for vengeance.
oldgold
@Old School: Thank you.
My reading of it is that Gaetz has not precluded himself from being sworn in as a Rep in January.
narya
@Chris Johnson: yes; this is what I kinda thought, but you’ve thought it through better than I would be able to do.
Chris Johnson
@Elizabelle: If they have a plan they can’t possibly tell us, nor are they in the habit of doing so.
Republicans are REAL prone to secret militia crap, they live for that and lots of them endorsed Harris, which shows how desperate they got to avoid what Trump is. Just because they’re not admitting the extent of it, doesn’t mean they don’t know.
Democrats as far back as Hillary in 2016 knew what Trump is: Hillary called him Putin’s puppet in a debate. They in turn didn’t want to get explicit about what all this meant because they didn’t trust us with it. Again, Hillary said all this in 2016 (2015?) and I know I was fool enough to think she was kinda hawkish… how little I knew.
Everybody KNOWS. And you can’t go by whether people seem feckless and not engaging in a huge battle. They can’t do that without being targeted. I don’t appreciate this stuff being played so coy in 2016 but they were up against active disinfo campaigns and didn’t want to be painted as hysterical.
Now? Moscow Rules. They BEST be secret about it, because the enemy’s inside the gates fixing to burn it all down. I’ll take any help I can get, and I’ll be real sympathetic to the Cheneys of the world if they say ‘this is why we’re hawks, now do you understand?’
Chris Johnson
@narya: Yeah, and it doesn’t mean we’re all doomed. A lot of people in different places stand to lose everything if Putin’s desire for revenge gets to play out. I mean come on, Harris won the rich-people vote. WHAT. And they have resources. The Republicans all signing on for Harris but not actually so extreme that they had to become fugitives the instant the election finished, the Republicans still looking to us like horrible Republicans, those guys are just as much at risk as we are. Or more, if Trump’s people target disloyals before they target scapegoats (they will target disloyals before they target scapegoats, guaranteed).
The outcome is not certain. All I know is I’m no warrior, and in no position to help, so I’m in the scapegoat camp. Those righty militias who’ve been betrayed do not need me to warn them, believe me. I’m just here trying to make sense of it all, while doing my non-political work and trying to be good.
catclub
@eemom:
And I think it was Alberto Gonzales covering up all that. I would be surprised if he is not fully in the Trump camp.
Sasha
I would rather concentrate on the DoD/DNI abominations.
Anonymous At Work
FOCUS on the DOJ not having enough quality evidence/testimony to be 100% there on a conviction. That’s where the DOJ stopped. They had sufficient to get an arrest warrant for a sitting member of Congress, they had enough to go to trial and SEE trial. They just didn’t want to risk it on “women of questionable integrity” and Gaetz’s BFF who was already convicted of similar crimes or criminal acts he did with an unproven blessing from Gaetz in his pre-Congressional days.
Dorothy A. Winsor
BREAKING: Senate Republicans want to see the House Ethics Report concerning Matt Gaetz’s sex trafficking allegations.
sab
@narya: LOL. I was reading comments from the bottom up and thought Omnes had told you to chill.
Jackie
@catclub: Gonzales endorsed Harris.
JaySinWA
@Jackie: Cntl-Shift-V on WIndows (I can’t remember the Mac version) is your friend for pasting text without formatting or embedded links.
Class II – Senators Whose Terms of Service Expire in 2027
Class II terms run from the beginning of the 117th Congress on January 3, 2021, to the end of the 119th Congress on January 3, 2027. Senators in Class II were elected to office in the November 2020 general election, unless they took their seat through appointment or special election.
Democrats
Booker, Cory A. (D-NJ)
Coons, Christopher A. (D-DE)
Durbin, Richard J. (D-IL)
Hickenlooper, John W. (D-CO)
Luján, Ben Ray (D-NM)
Markey, Edward J. (D-MA)
Merkley, Jeff (D-OR)
Ossoff, Jon (D-GA)
Peters, Gary C. (D-MI)
Reed, Jack (D-RI)
Shaheen, Jeanne (D-NH)
Smith, Tina (D-MN)
Warner, Mark R. (D-VA)
Republicans
Capito, Shelley Moore (R-WV)
Cassidy, Bill (R-LA)
Collins, Susan M. (R-ME)
Cornyn, John (R-TX)
Cotton, Tom (R-AR)
Daines, Steve (R-MT)
Ernst, Joni (R-IA)
Graham, Lindsey (R-SC)
Hagerty, Bill (R-TN)
Hyde-Smith, Cindy (R-MS)
Lummis, Cynthia M. (R-WY)
Marshall, Roger (R-KS)
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY)
Mullin, Markwayne (R-OK)
Ricketts, Pete (R-NE)
Risch, James E. (R-ID)
Rounds, Mike (R-SD)
Sullivan, Dan (R-AK)
Tillis, Thom (R-NC)
Tuberville, Tommy (R-AL)
Betty
@kindness: It is even worse with Durbin. He was given approval by Schumer to chair two committees contrary to the usual practice. Durbin was refusing to give up the Judiciary.
sab
@JaySinWA: And of course Ohio will have an appointed Republican for the rest of JD Vance’s term. Ohio is in the middle of a Republican civil war and some serious corruption issues, so this should get really interesting.
prostratedragon
tobie:
FRED, the data site for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, aggregates much economic data. Each series is presented as a graph that can be customized, with downloadable data. A free account allows one to save graphs and data.
The commodities price category page has separate price series for many consumer goods such as Gas price series. Common grocery items have their own series — bread, eggs, ground beef, olive oil, etc. , and there are grocery basket consumer and producer price indices.
Harry
They are quite literally creating the blue wave with this.
tam1MI
I’m so old I remember when posters on blogs like this used to rage about how ineffective and useless Reid was, with “strongly written letter” being a sarcastic punchline.
Harry
this is a bit of a hot take
but I kinda wish all appointments were sort of recess appointments. for many appointments of middle of the road candidates, we can’t tell how bad they are (either evil or ineffective) until they’ve been on the job it a year. this is in no way an endorsement of Gaetz.