From my earlier post, these are the Democrats who voted for cloture (ending debate) on the Noem nomination:
John Fetterman (D-PA) Maggie Hassan (D-NH) Tim Kaine (D-VA) Andy Kim (D-NJ) Gary Peters (D-MI) Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) Raphael Warnock (D-GA)
Here are the ones who voted for the nomination:
Six Democrats voted with Republicans to confirm Noem: Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Andy Kim (N.J.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.).
So, 6/8 who voted for cloture voted for the nomination of Cricket’s killer. I don’t understand Andy Kim or Tim Kaine. The rest are swing staters who’ve apparently bought into some fantabulous theory of how their vote will insulate them from Republicans hating them. If anyone has insight into why their Senator voted that way, I’d be interested in hearing it. These votes are corrosive to morale as well as to the future of the Democratic Party, as far as I’m concerned.
Given that a good number of Senators who vote for cloture also vote for the nomination, but some don’t, calling your Senator after they make that (bad) vote is probably an excellent use of your time, if you’re so inclined. The Senate has a pretty good system for showing which nominations are next. This link goes to the executive calendar. Next to each date is a link showing all actions taken on the nomination. Clicking on the link shows all the actions taken so far. If you look at Noem’s, you can see the votes (except for the last one) and actions taken, which are atypical — her nomination was bum rushed through the Senate, and the cloture vote greased the skids.
Anyway, someone, I’m sorry I don’t remember who (please tell us in the comments) posted a link to a story about the vice-chair of the Missouri Democratic Party, Yvonne Reeves-Chong. It had this graphic:
She needs to run a seminar for a few Senators, I think.
Finally, unrelated but helpful, is Cheryl Rofer’s roundup of all the Trump action (and pushback) this week. Glad she’s doing it, because it’s a lot of work.
Leto
From Cheryl’s post:
What was the website, again, that showed each states funding from the NIH, along with the top 5 recipients? It was linked in the comments on a post from Tuesday, I believe. If someone still has that link and could reshare it, thank you!
Rusty
For the senators from New Hampshire, up to this election, De.ocrats had been gaining in the Republicans in the state house, senate and executive council. Due to extreme gerrymandering, Democrats would get more votes statewide but didn’t control any of the three. This year was a reversal, the Republicans got more votes and increased their hold on the house and senate. There was some hope that after Sununu, the Democrats could win the governorship, unfortunately that turned into a decisive loss on matters that should have been liberal strengths, education and access to abortion. Thankfully at the federal level we held onto both house seats (but it helped the Republicans chose in the primaries very conservative candidates, where for governor they chose Ayotte, who came across as more moderate (her first few weeks in office are calling her moderation into question). So, our senators have felt a political shift and want to keep their moderate mantles to remain competitive. I can’t say I love it, but I understand it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Noem? I guess if a pack of dogs runs wild, she’ll know how to stop them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Leto:
Not sure if this what you had in mind, but it was included in comments a few days ago:
https://www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-state/
Miss Bianca
@Leto: Tra-la-la, I saved a link to Colorado’s, I am sure you can navigate back to your state from there:
https://www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-state/colorado
@SiubhanDuinne: Ha, jinx!
Ryan
Re: Fetterman. Sometimes, people’s politics are, shall we say, heterodox. But honestly, WTF?
Leto
@SiubhanDuinne: @Miss Bianca: that’s it! Ty both 😀
Phylllis
$256 million and 3818 jobs in South Carolina alone, with the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston the top recipient. I’m sure North Charleston native Sen. Tim Scott is fine with it.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I am hearing a fear from my wife that I have never heard in our whole long life together. She says the Hegseth vote, which she saw while doomscrolling at 1:30 am, was what finally broke her. We are seriously investigating the feasibility of retiring overseas. I was investigating real estate prices (and getting sticker shock) on one of our favorite cities this morning.
NaijaGal
@Leto: Another useful link is from the NIH Reporter, but it doesn’t have the nice graphics of the link already shared:
https://report.nih.gov/award/index.cfm?ot=&fy=2023&state=&ic=&fm=&orgid=&distr=&rfa=&om=n&pid=#tab1
Scroll down to see awards by state and all the institutions in the state that received grant funding.
mali muso
I am spitting mad at my Senator, Tim Kaine. Just filled out the “contact” form on his website and will follow up with calls when the week starts. And to think, I literally just got an email from his office with the title “Pete Hegseth, Russell Vought, Kristi Noem, RFK Jr.” and talking about how these unqualified nominees were being pushed through and how he and others were standing up to ask difficult questions.
Starfish (she/her)
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Someone pointed out that even if Hegseth was not a completely trash human, he would still be completely unqualified for the job. And these Senators are here to rubber stamp some completely unqualified folks into office.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Michael Bersin posted about her earlier in the week. It’s from his Show Me Progress blog that’s he’s been steadfastly running since forever.
This is the specific post:
https://showmeprogress.com/2025/01/22/the-times-are-dark/
That last part is what differentiates black folks in the Democratic Party from many white folks:
Michael Bersin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Yvonne Reeves Chong (D) a great person, an awesome communicator, and a down to earth campaigner. Missouri Democrats love her.
Lobo
Here is my perspective on Leaders and voting, for better or worse:
For many marginalized and vulnerable populations, we don’t have the luxury of complaining about that one disliked action and withholding our vote. We don’t view the candidate in absolute terms but in comparison to the other person. For years and sometimes today, it really is about great harm versus less harm. It is a sh#$ choice, but the choice we have. So while X candidate may fail in certain areas, the candidate is still preferable to the other and won’t kill us. The Gaza situation pained me, but at the end of the day having Trump in office was still worse than Harris. It is a sh#$ sandwich sometimes, but so is life. You sometimes have to do the best with some bad choices and minimize the harm. So yes, I support AOC because she is at least doing something and is out there in front. Is she perfect, no, But who is. I acknowledge her past, but she is doing things now in comparison to the others.
Fetterman and Peters what gives? But I would still prefer them now, than the alternative.
Matt
They should either be voting “no” or resigning. Trying to make a separate peace with the fash indicates that they’re either totally unqualified for the moment or happy to be complicit.
Miss Bianca
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yeah, every time I’m inclined to whine about how our current state of social/political/economic regression marks the Worst Era in American History Ever, I think about how much shit Black Americans have had to deal with over our hundreds of years and that makes it really easy to think about STFU.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
@Michael Bersin:
Thanks!
Steve LaBonne
@Miss Bianca: Remember how drugs suddenly became a public health rather than a criminal problem when hordes of white people started ODing? It’s like that with fascism, too. It was fine as long as white people weren’t the ones on the receiving end.
Lobo
@Steve LaBonne:
Your comment:
is how I interpreted this:
Steve LaBonne
@Lobo: Yes, I see the connection there.
trollhattan
Of course he did.
FAA chairman declares “Birds not real.” NASA: “Moon landing—fake.” By Monday, promise.
Miss Bianca
@Steve LaBonne: Ooh, yes, I do. And how gun control suddenly, for the first and maybe only time I can remember, became a big deal for Republicans when the Black Panthers started showing up with long rifles? Good times, good times…
TBone
@Steve LaBonne: you reminded me of this Jim Wright post from November:
https://www.stonekettle.com/2024/11/the-war-on-tomatoes.html?m=1
Betty Cracker
I think I understand the rationale behind Democratic votes for nominees like Rubio and arguably Noem too — the thinking is those two are conventional (if MAGAfied) politicians who’ve held government jobs with real responsibilities. But that way of thinking is a species of “norm,” and thus extinct as the dodo.
trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
Gov and soon to be St Ronaldus Rex declared the end to California’s open carry status. Good times, indeed.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
I contacted both Oregon Senators after they voted UC for Rubio and let them know that was unacceptable. The fascists have enough votes to confirm these morons and monsters on their own – let them take full responsibility. I told them that if they voted for any of the subsequent nominees, that they’d lose my vote. Maybe that’ll help them do the right thing.
cmorenc
I don’t understand the tactical purpose for the Trump Admin to freeze all especially biomedical but also other scientific research. If they have the goal of stopping any research based in part on human embryonic tissue, they easily could have more selectively focused on that – eg GWB re stem cell research – and created at least a somewhat defensible, if debatable, position. But the blunderbuss all-encompassing freeze halts research into curing MAGA family members’ cancer, as well as eg timely development of the COVID therapies that literally saved Trump’s life – otherwise he would have quickly devolved into a fatal case.
Elizabelle
@Leto: Here it is, although someone else may have beat me to putting it up.
NIH in Your State. https://www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-state/
Steve LaBonne
@cmorenc: I have seen speculation that they’re holding NIH hostage until Brainworm is confirmed. I have no idea whether that’s well founded. It seems just as likely to me that they don’t understand the harm of the funding pause because they don’t know how anything works.
Eolirin
@cmorenc: They’re not thinking that far ahead, and they don’t care about consequences.
They’re going to torch the entire executive branch out of hate for government. Except for the parts that they can use to benefit themselves directly.
And they’re absolutely disconnected from reality. They’re all operating from conspiracy thinking driven worldviews. They can’t even do that kind of evaluation.
Steve LaBonne
@Eolirin: Gee, putting people who hate the government in charge of the government seemed like such a great idea. – dumbass low-info voters
Elizabelle
Anyway, good day to stay off the internets. Ciao, jackals.
HeleninEire
This stoppage of NIH and NCI funding is going to affect so may people I know. I have worked in grants management for more than 35 years. I looked at NY funding. 2.9 billion. The multiplier is over 7 billion. 30,000 jobs. Funnily, not, but of the top 10 research institutions in NY in terms of federal research dollars, I have worked for 4. Columbia University, NYU, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Mount Sinai. Yeah I am old. I know so many people who do and support research.
Luckily I am now working for a local law enforcement agency so I can’t imagine he will cut us off but…lots of our grant money is for domestic violence prevention and intervention so…who knows. He hates women.
MazeDancer
Thank you for that quote from Yvonne Reeves-Chong. Make me feel less alone and have a hint of hope.
Just tweeted it to Chuck Schumer saying this is what Dems need now. And if you can’t lead like this, get out of the way.
Interestingly, I was born in MO. Left at 6 months old, so no real connection. Except on my passport.
And am, currently, a constituent of Senator Schumer’s.
Feeling proud of one of those today.
Ella in New Mexico
@Betty Cracker: My thinking from my post in an earlier thread:
I also like what Lobo said above at #15:
Granted, Kristi Noem is only “qualified” in a defacto way as a now former Governor and I’d walk on a bed of razors before I’d ever vote for her, but this is likely what these Dems were thinking–she is likely just going to be a figurehead who mouths all of Stephen Miller and 2025’s Commandments anyway, why not let her be the face of evil and kill any future she has by letting her do it?
Ksmiami
There can be no cooperation, only steel and resolve
Michael Bersin
@Lobo:
Some American Jews in denial:
1. “Steven Miller is Jewish, he would never…” – never bothering to understand what a Kapo is.
2. “Donald Trump’s daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren are Jewish…” – forgetting how Trump treats parts of his family.
3. “They support Israel…” – conveniently ignoring their eschatology fever dreams.
4. “It can’t happen here…” – If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done had you lived in Germany in 1932, you’re doing it now.
Marc
I’ll just mention I’m reminded of the fine job the Democrats did defeating Harriet Miers’ nomination to the Supreme Court and who we got instead. I’m not sure how much any of this matters, they’re all going to be bad. My attitude is let them have the most incompetent, the competent ones will do far more damage.
different-church-lady
It’s making me crazy that there are still people who think Reeves-Chong is being hysterical.
different-church-lady
@Michael Bersin:
C’mon now, nobody in 1932 Germany was spending all their time helplessly fretting on the internet.
Miss Bianca
@Steve LaBonne: I sometimes imagine putting it to such people like this: “Imagine you are on the Board of Directors for a major corporation and you are interviewing candidates for CEO. Are you going to look at the guy who says, ‘I hate big business and if you hire me I’m going to do my best to destroy this company,’ and think, ‘I’m voting for HIM!’?”
ETA: And then in my dreams they look at me and go, “What? That’s crazy talk!”
different-church-lady
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Problem is rising fascism is a world-wide phenomenon.
Michael Bersin
@different-church-lady:
Back in the day it was hand wringing, visible from across the street.
different-church-lady
@Miss Bianca: “What if I told you I’m going to fire all the blacks and gays?”
Dangerman
I’m done with the POS. It hasn’t been a week. This is a problem.
Gotta be some rich person that can say “here’s a Billion, just go the fuck away. Oh, and fucking zip it or the money returns.”
Dimrod fuck. Most ignorant President ever.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: I notice WG pulled her post about the zoom with Worker Power. It’s depressing, and I really should be working, but I also have no energy to even listen to what people are planning to do to fight back.
different-church-lady
@Dangerman:
People want a president they can identify with.
zhena gogolia
@Dangerman: If I had a billion, that’s exactly what I’d do with it.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: I feel guilty that I’m spending time commenting here and not sitting in on the Zoom. But I’m working on articles at the same time and that’s all the juice I got. :(
Michael Bersin
@different-church-lady:
Cute winter boots.
trollhattan
@different-church-lady: The GWB “Miss me yet?” billboard does spring to mind.
How we managed to go from “worst” to “worstest” in a scant eight years, followed by “let’s do that again!” is a puzzle I’ll never untangle.
NaijaGal
Musk’s gesture is emboldening anti-Semites:
I expect to see more Republicans test the waters with Nazi salutes.
different-church-lady
We probably need to retire “Tick tock, motherfuckers” from the rotating tag lines.
different-church-lady
@NaijaGal: Once again the little people suffer more punishment than the powerful shitheads who train them.
Miss Bianca
@NaijaGal: Adam Silverman has made the argument – which I personally find compelling – that what Musk was saying was not, “My heart goes out to you”, but rather, “the future belongs to you” – a reference to a song in Cabaret called, “The Future Belongs to Us” – notoriously sung by a Hitler Jugend-type character.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca: I’m the same way — I work and then pop in here, work and pop in here. It’s weird but it keeps me going.
Betty Cracker
@Ella in New Mexico: I think opposing everything and everyone the fuckheads propose or nominate is a better tactic that sends a stronger message about who Democrats are, but I’m not known for my political strategy chops. It’s demoralizing to watch this. It won’t change how I’ll vote, but I think it sucks.
Michael Bersin
@different-church-lady:
Masha Gessen – Autocracy: Rules for Survival
(November 10, 2016):
“…But in the face of the impulse to normalize, it is essential to maintain one’s capacity for shock. This will lead people to call you unreasonable and hysterical, and to accuse you of overreacting. It is no fun to be the only hysterical person in the room. Prepare yourself…”
different-church-lady
@Michael Bersin: I’m prepared. In fact, I’m resolute.
zhena gogolia
@Michael Bersin: Well, I certainly had that experience before the election when urging people not to dump on our own candidates.
Michael Bersin
@Miss Bianca:
Ironically, the song was composed by John Kander, a gay Jew, the granduncle of Jason Kander (D).
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Same here.
Valued commenter suzzane linked to a poll yesterday that said that Fetterman’s numbers in Pennsylvania have been on the upswing. Only one data point, but it sounds like he was smart not listening to the Internet.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Okay, so good that someone worse doesn’t replace him, but bad that he has to move towards worse to keep his seat.
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia: Come bang your head on the desk next to me.
Citizen Alan
@Marc: maybe I am misremembering, but I don’t recall.Democrats doing anything to stop harriet miers. In fact, i recall a lot of democrats being quietly thrilled at her nomination, because she was so much better issue-wise than we were expecting, despite the fact that she had no qualifications to be on the supreme court. It was the federalist society wing of the gop that killed her nomination because they wanted one of their own in that spot.
Soprano2
@Steve LaBonne: I’m concerned that they’re going to link grant acceptance to some kind of “anti-woke” pledge, or force any institution that accepts these grants to discontinue DEI programs. I don’t think it has anything to do with RFK Jr.
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne: And once Brainworm is confirmed, they’ll kill the hostage.
Miss Bianca
@Michael Bersin: Yeah, well, that’s one of those little ironies you or I might savor but would likely be lost on the likes of Musk and Co.
different-church-lady
@Eolirin:
Martin
Reminder that back in 2020, when Covid was starting to really ramp up, we were trying to get information of the CDC and US Dept of Ed for how universities should be responding to Covid and I was told by colleagues I’d worked with for years that they were prohibited from telling us anything.
This isn’t new. A lot of the failure to respond to covid well was that the states that had relied on the federal goverment to research these things and provide guidance hadn’t built out their own capabilities (which is a non-scaling cost – small states are going to need to spend as much as big states on this sort of thing) and when the feds refused to provide that guidance, we had relatively little to work from. State depts of ag better be on top of what to do about avian flu, because they’re going to get fuckall out of the feds.
Princess
@Betty Cracker: I can imagine rationales such as this one and others — there could be procedural reasons of various kinds. But I do think the Democrats would be well served to explain those reasons to us. We need that.
Steve LaBonne
@Soprano2: My Northwestern professor sister is already busy changing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” to “community and engagement” on public-facing websites.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
That’s something everyone can get behind!
trollhattan
@Citizen Alan:
Too long ago personally for many recalled details, but what I do retain is her in not so many words declaring GWB to be “so very dreamy” or some embarrassing nonsense. It was like finding your junior high librarian up for the top judicial spot in the land.
Another Scott
Would it have been better if he nominated Benjamine C. Huffman?
Who you ask?
He’s the current Acting head of DHS. You know, the agency that just sent the Secret Service to a grade school in Chicago to investigate an 11 year old for posting a video.
The real problem isn’t Noem, the real problem is Donnie. Noem isn’t insane. Of all the horrible people Donnie could have nominated (Cooch, anyone?) Noem is way down the list. He’s going to appoint someone to head DHS, and our desires don’t matter much at all. Nobody is going to care about this vote in 2 weeks. How many people are still talking about Biden pardoning his son?
A bit of ancient history – How many Democrats voted against the horrible James Watt for Interior under Reagan? 12. He was confirmed 83-12. And he was out the door on October 9, 1983.
If this Warning – TheHill story is accurate, she will have a tough time negotiating managing FEMA (which is in DHS) and satisfying Donnie’s demands for retribution and vengeance:
The problem isn’t Democrats. Beating up on Democrats isn’t going to help. The problem is Donnie and the GQP leadership in the House and Senate. The minority always has to pick its battles.
Eyes on the prizes.
FWIW.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: I dunno, wingnuts hate the whole idea of community.
Steve LaBonne
@Another Scott: Thank you.
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne: Not if it’s a gated community.
different-church-lady
@Another Scott:
YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!
Steve LaBonne
@different-church-lady: 🤣
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Well, their community has a bunch of wing nuts in it, so who can blame them?
trollhattan
Digby: hang those billionaires from Trump’s orange turkey neck. Yugely unpopular.
https://digbysblog.net/2025/01/25/trump-has-handed-the-democrats-a-huge-gift/
She’s (and Josh Marshall) not wrong.
trollhattan
@Steve LaBonne:
“It all started with our HOA board….”
bjacques
@different-church-lady: rotating tag
Ksmiami
@Betty Cracker: I’m Rt there with you- forge an opposition with steel and iron, not unicorn tears
Michael Bersin
@Miss Bianca:
If I recall correctly, some neo-Nazi made the mistake of quoting a meme of the song at Jason Kander (D) on the billionaire owned social media site before the billionaire owned it. Jason Kander immediately clapped back with the fact that it was written for a musical by his granduncle, a gay Jew. It wasn’t an anthem to Nazis, it was a warning about them. And, an effective point in the plot.
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: What happened In cabinet appointments 45 years ago is irrelevant. We’re not in the Ronnie & Tip days. Republicans have all the power. Let them take sole responsibility for standing up this gallery of unqualified ghouls to enact Trump’s unpopular agenda.
Steve LaBonne
@trollhattan: Yeah, abortion restrictions are unpopular too. People vote against them when they can- and then go right on voting for forced-birth Republicans. Issue polls just don’t mean a whole lot. Which is not to say Marshall is wrong to suggest making billionaires an issue, just don’t get your hopes too high about its effectiveness.
Marc
@Citizen Alan: I was the one misremembering, it was a complicated situation. A few Democrats changing their vote would have got her in, instead we got Alito.
Miss Bianca
@Marc: Is that when we got Alito? Ugh, you *had* to remind me about that particular fiasco.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: My attempted point about Watt was that nobody remembers the vote even though he was a notoriously bad Cabinet secretary.
Democrats in the Senate, who do elected politics as a profession and most of them have for a long time, have not decided to go all-in on opposing every nomination. Maybe they’re seeing something that many of here are not. Maybe they know what they’re doing. Maybe they’re befuddled oldsters who don’t understand the world of today. Maybe they’re trying to find a way to win reelection in states that aren’t favorable to them and regain the majority to be able to undo the bad things that are likely coming. Maybe all of the above. Maybe none of the above. Maybe something different.
Whatever the case may be, Senate Democrats are not doing the all-in on opposition to every nominee. That much is clear. Wishing it were so, at this point, seems to me to be a waste of energy. They have a strategy that they are executing. Time will tell if that strategy is an optimum one given all the constraints.
(I’m not trying to shout others down here, and I apologize if it comes across that way. I’m just giving my opinion.)
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
thruppence
I remember drinking myself stupid when Bush II was reelected. Now this. I feel like the dinosaur when all my neighbors are looking at the incoming meteor going ooooh pretty. I’ll try to get it together because we have to, but really, what the everloving fuck
Is this original or helpful? No. Is it honest? Hell yeah.
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: My opinion is that it sucks and is worth pushing back on because lots of solid Dem voters are demoralized by the attempts at comity, norm-preservation and triangulation. But I realize that’s not a unanimously held opinion, which is fine.
@thruppence: Well expressed. Right there with you.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
Virginia is weirdly swingy. Look at Governor Wolf-in-Fleece-Vest. And Kaine is unpredictable sometimes – prone to reach across the aisle, not always when it’s a good idea. His votes here are disappointing, but not especially surprising, though it’s unlikely they’ll help him much with die-hard Red Virginia.
hitchhiker
The whole concept of preserving norms as a goal in these circumstances feels crazy. It feels even crazier than the circumstances themselves in some ways.
Thieves are in the house, ransacking the closets and helping themselves to whatever’s in the fridge. Some of them believe they were invited in, like contractors hired to make improvements. Some of them are thugs who know they’ll have to leave soon and just want to smash and grab as fast as possible. Just outside the door are rich men in limos, laughing.
When Ds vote for the contractor types — who will be in office anyway — they’re giving the nod to this entire farce. I wish they wouldn’t do it. I wish they’d act like the hostages they are, and let everyone see that there are chains around their ankles and duct tape across their mouths, then come outside and find microphones to describe the destruction.
Ella in New Mexico
@Betty Cracker: Opposing everything is definitely what I would prefer, and it is absolutely demoralizing watching all of this and feeling so helpless to do anything to make it stop.
I guess in a way, when a Senator I actually admire and feel is solidly in our camp decides to vote for some bullshit appointee, its better for my mental health to see it as a strategic play. A tactic in a long game. A way to keep the enemy from being able to understand us completly enough they just run us over.
Gives me some hope.