US Politics, June 2018: This is a total goat rodeo.

yeah they wont be doing any of that shit

we must insist

w/ extreme prejudice

I think city people should really start using their economic impact to change things.

― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, June 27, 2018 12:19 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm all for annexing and bulldozing as many unincorporated single-family areas as possible but there's tons of single-family zoning inside city limits that needs to be bulldozed first

Oh, when I advocated upthread about relentlessly hounding all elected GOP officials every waking minute of every day? I should've specified that this continues even after they're out of office, until the day they finally kick the bucket. These motherfuckers don't get to just ride off into the sunset and enjoy a peaceful retirement. Hell no. Demonize and marginalize every single goddamn one of them.

so single-family homes are your scapegoat for US problems huh. Cool.

city-states or bust

I was thinking more about strikes and blocking key infrastructure and financial infrastructure and show the american public that the GOP's entire notion that they represent order is entirely false.

I mean also close down rural schools, ban private high school, ban homeschooling, re-educate the youth in the cities. Mandate robot farming.

Dem. Senator BLUMENTHAL: “The Senate should do nothing to artificially delay” consideration of next justice, but POTUS should take his time & make a centrist choice.

— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) June 27, 2018

lol

For the sake of clarity, I would never propose escalation because the powerful usually wins escalations but at this point I would say it's self defence, the roll back on human rights is bound to be pretty nasty.

xpost

Might be time for some more ballgames

SEN. HARRIS on SCOTUS vacancy pic.twitter.com/tr8d8H5d0f

— Lily Adams (@adamslily) June 27, 2018

If the SC justice selection somehow gets miraculously dragged out until the Dems have the power to block any and all nominations and they subsequently fail/refuse to do so, fuck the Democratic Party forever imo.

xpost. Three cheers for Harris, at least.

Kamala Harris still wants to be president and she knows where her bread is buttered right now

Collins is a dumb asshole.

I have no illusions that Harris is anything but a pragmatic former prosecutor who is maybe a scoche to the left of the latter DLC consensus but if she thinks the left Dem platform is a winner and can sell it I’m happy to have her running on it

Jesus fucking christ, Blumenthal is committing political malpractice with that statement.

if she thinks the left Dem platform is a winner and can sell it

former is clearly the case, I am hopeful about the latter

These motherfuckers don't get to just ride off into the sunset and enjoy a peaceful retirement.

hey I have an idea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF5NW94K51A

Do you have a newsletter, and if so how do I subscribe?

Also yeah, if the GOP does well in November I'm losing all hope.

(note: yes I'm still hopeful)

Might be time for some more ballgames

swing for the fences, sports fans

xpost Don't worry, if the GOP maintains their majority, they'll behave so awfully that people will TOTALLY wake up and defect in droves. That will ABSOLUTELY happen, for sure.

Kennedy retiring is bad for Dems in the midterms right? seems like the sort of thing that would drive GOP turnout up

apparently turnout jumped way more dramatically in dem primaries than republican primaries yesterday so that's some hope. We need a crushing victory here, then total obstruction of Trump, then in 2020 we pack the court and or strip jurisdiction. Scorched earth.

Kennedy retiring is bad for Dems in the midterms right? seems like the sort of thing that would drive GOP turnout up

― frogbs, Wednesday, June 27, 2018 2:59 PM (twelve seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Actually I don't think so, unless he can't get his pick through before January.

Real devil's bargain at work there

Was actually able to reach a staffer in Blumenthal’s office for whatever that’s worth.

feel like Dems not only need to hammer on the Garland thing but also the whole "a POTUS who was elected by a foreign power and is under investigation for actively colluding with them should not get to nominate justices"

There is a laundry list of things they can hammer, they need to do their homework and check what resonates with who and target well.

Set fire to the suburbs

― devops mom (silby), Wednesday, June 27, 2018 7:17 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388377440l/52493.jpg

feel like Dems not only need to hammer on the Garland thing but also the whole "a POTUS who was elected by a foreign power and is under investigation for actively colluding with them should not get to nominate justices"

― frogbs, Wednesday, June 27, 2018 3:04 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There is a laundry list of things they can hammer, they need to do their homework and check what resonates with who and target well.

― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, June 27, 2018 3:06 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree, and the goal should be to lay the groundwork for either court-packing or jurisdiction stripping when we (hopefully) retake the senate and the white house. No more indignance for its own sake.

wow this is amazingly bad

had to look up jurisdiction stripping (been a few years since I last re-read the Federalist Papers), seems like a more easily wielded tool than court-packing

not comfortable with the terrorism hyperbole itt - this is a public forum guys

Then leave.

Nah don't leave, it's a legitimate concern.

eh, calm down ppl are just (understandably) venting

Murphy, Duckworth, Durbin, Schumer all already saying no nominee should get a vote, per Mitch's own tortured logic. I'm sure Mitch doesn't care but they're staking out their territory.

McConnell told reporters that the nominee will be confirmed before this fall; Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has said that historically it takes about two months on average from the time a president nominates a new justice to the time a Judiciary Committee hearing is held. What that means practically is the Senate is likely to have installed a firm conservative majority on the high court by the time voters go to the polls in November.

“The goal will be to get a conservative confirmed before the election,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the No. 4 GOP leader. “I’m delighted to see President Trump have another opportunity to appoint another Supreme Court justice. And I’m sure he’s going to appoint somebody just like Antonin Scalia and Neil Gorsuch.”

Whether Republicans can jam through another Scalia or Gorsuch remains to be seen. GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are moderate on social issues and will have heavy sway in what’s sure to be a narrow vote. Murkowski declined requests for comment in a brief interview.

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) faces a difficult reelection in a swing state. And Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who is retiring, said that he and other senators won’t “rubber stamp” a judge just because it’s a Republican nomination.

But Flake, like most in the GOP, expects the president to nominate someone far more conservative than Kennedy, a long-standing swing vote.

can't the nominee just lie their faces off to appease collins and murkowski anyway

well yeah, that's the deal

Today I'm thinking a lot of this quote from Andreas Malm in The Progress of This Storm, his book on climate & capital:

“Some on the left maintain that progressives should not stoke panic — they ought to be less ‘catastrophist’ and ‘apocalyptic’ — but if we accept the principles of climate realism and stay up to date with the science, the boot is entirely on the other foot. … Dare to feel the panic. Then choose between the two main options: commit to the most militant and unwavering opposition to this system, or sit watching as it all goes down the drain.”

for 'the principles of climate realism' perhaps substitute 'the history of ascendant fascism'

*sits*

Kennedy was an unprincipled simpleton and it was poisonous in its own way that everyone had to spend years and years inventing ways to discuss fundamental issues so as not to set him off, like the Twilight Zone kid

— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) June 27, 2018

Are we supposed to take comfort in that or some gtfo

not comfortable with the terrorism hyperbole itt - this is a public forum guys

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Thursday, June 28, 2018 6:37 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Then leave.

― ian, Thursday, June 28, 2018 6:39 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was really unnecessary, cmon guys. I know people are pissy but ILX is better than "if you dont like it leave" ffs.

I agree with Matthew. Speaking in what does come across as serious manner about terrorism and assassinations is NAGL. We've seen people have the feds on their doorstep for less on FB and such, just sayin.

Are we supposed to take comfort in that or some gtfo

calling someone stupid + pop culture reference = political insight

also great idea to burn down the suburbs, not like any voters live there