US Politics March 2019: “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled”

true!

2015/16 is better example given relevant events. But yeah people say it all the time

The survival of the GOP at this point depends largely on a life support system of cheatery and flim-flammery that is, admittedly, still pretty robust. The more power the dems gain and the more dems in power focus their attention on eg redistricting and voter rights legislation and campaign finance legislation, the less viable that life support system is going to become. Having a criminal for a president and a slew of GOP-ers who've hitched their wagon to him certainly doesn't hurt.

unless they just go full autocracy which they are clearly working toward

speaking of focusing att'n on eg voter rights legislation: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/6/1839953/-House-Oversight-Democrats-announce-investigation-into-Georgia-s-war-on-voting

evergreen

At one point, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a close Pelosi ally, pleaded with Democrats: “Everyone stop tweeting!” https://t.co/268pnsXAkm

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 6, 2019

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/ay6he2/my_failed_selfie_attempt_with_the_president_of/

I cant find it now but there was an article (not sure if recent or old), re demographic change and saying that with increasing urbanization by some point in the future (2030? 2040? 2050?), 70% of the population will live in 15 states (and only 30 senators between them). I hadn't actually though about how internal migration would effect that quite so much before (not sure what the figures are now)

I've been hearing the Repugs are dying for 20 years

I will keep on saying it because it seems increasingly likely: party's gonna split at some point in the not-too-distant future, probably once it slowly dawns on us that the wheezy rasp in the GOP's hate-filled respiration has developed into an unmistakable death rattle.

The GOP is more uniform today than ever and old white people aren't going to die off en masse.
Even the 'demographics are destiny' stuff only matters to national races - a uniform GOP can control the state governments and Senate seats of half the country for decades to come unless people start building communes in the Dakotas and shit.

If 30% of the pop can have 70% of the senators, GOP death seems a long way off

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer, and later, when she tried to talk about it to military officials, she “felt like the system was raping me all over again.”

The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military veteran who retired as a colonel, made the disclosure at a Senate hearing on the military’s efforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they occur. Lawmakers also heard from other service members who spoke of being sexually assaulted and humiliated while serving their country.

i can only assume that her colleagues, like susan collins, believed that she had in fact been assaulted by someone but did not believe that it was by a superior officer

old white people aren't going to die off en masse.

Fentanyl's pretty cheap; the DSA could make some real progress toward this goal if they'd just get their heads in the game.

good morning!

when did the u go missing

The midterms i think. Fixed everything iirc

wheres those tax retuurns

Whither the qualmsey in the eye of our American tempest, whither

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer, and later, when she tried to talk about it to military officials, she “felt like the system was raping me all over again.”

McSally in Oct 2018: “But let’s make sure that people are not susceptible to false allegations, that just because someone says something doesn’t make it true.”

It’s grim. She wasn’t seated yet for the kavanaugh vote, but I’m assuming she would have voted for him. Every single senator must personally know many people who have sexually assaulted, if they weren’t assaulted themselves. I’m a complete nobody and I know of many, inside and outside the family. I cannot understand how nearly every single one is so completely hypocritical on an issue that is so intensely personal and direct and emotional.

I've heard that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

NEW: House Democrats are wary of targeting Trump’s adult children, fearing that it could backfire.

Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings is among those who is wary of zeroing in too hard on them.

Story w/ @BresPoliticohttps://t.co/r6kXWq6hN3

— Andrew Desiderio (@desiderioDC) March 6, 2019

xp She SAID she would have voted for him, unless you take that as, "I have to say this for my base but luckily I don't have a vote so it's immaterial," which is possible.

Everything, literally everything, they do makes sense when you remember that 90% of what animates Dem leadership is fear of white suburban petite bourgeoisie backlash. They think they lost the Kavanaugh hearings because America loves its boys so much. https://t.co/BPpdJDIQun

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) March 7, 2019

lol

Louie Gohmert says he’s voting against the anti-hate resolution.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 7, 2019

you laugh now but the pro-hate wing of the GOP will clean up in the 2022 midterms

BREAKING: Paul Manafort has been sentenced to less than four years in federal prison. The guideline range was 19 to 24 years. https://t.co/MFlViwSU84

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 8, 2019

a preview of future sentencing downgrades

Well, the nation needs to heal . . .

NEW: Judge Ellis says that the sentencing guidelines are "excessive" and he says that Paul Manafort was involved in "lots of good things" he says Manafort is "a generous person." He says Manafort, "has lived an otherwise blameless life.”@GaryGrumbach reporting. https://t.co/XrNx4nNIMU

— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) March 7, 2019

hope he gets extraordinarily renditioned

Some fucking bullshit right there ! justice for rich white dudes fuck this place

wonder how much roger stones' buttcheeks will get

Send Roger Stone to prison for felony fashion crime pic.twitter.com/aa27zhXbEC

— Max Burns (@themaxburns) March 7, 2019

Holy shit Manafort has lived the worst possible life and he gets less than a black dude selling weed

I can't believe I'm still naive enough to have thought he'd get a proper sentence. What a joke.

What a joke. Manafort was and has always been a fucking soulless demon, finding the evilest people to support and bringing misery to millions.

Apparently he has sentencing for other stuff next week along with any outstanding SDNY stuff that’s floating out there

there's still a second sentencing hearing for manafort this week, but yeah, the first one was bullshit. (it's also possible that his second sentence will be allowed to serve concurrently with the first, rather than consecutively).

also, gotta love this tidbit:

Manafort’s allocution was notably light on expressions of remorse. He alluded only to the “conduct” that had gotten him into his situation and the “questionable circumstances” he will avoid in the future.

“I was surprised that I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct,” Ellis told Manafort at one point.

xp

Holy shit Manafort has lived the worst possible life and he gets less than a black dude selling weed
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/us/texas-woman-voter-fraud.html

Fucking infuriating

He's going to jail, faces sentencing in front of a DC judge next week -- that's enough for me.

please note how much time the Watergate conspirators served.

notable that the judge (TS Ellis), ronald reagan appointee, was also the one who recently made waves for being a complete dick to the team prosecuting manafort.

Manafort, "has lived an otherwise blameless life.”

What a crock of shit. Does this judge really have the brass to say he unaware of any crimes Manafort committed, apart from the eight counts for which he was indicted and found guilty by a jury, so therefore he's practically innocent? Gee, if you eliminate all his premeditated crimes from consideration, he's a heck of a nice guy!

"Forty-seven months is nothing to sneeze at," said the judge. "That's a very heavy sentence. You have to remember we're talking about a white guy here. He's not some fucking-" [bailiff dives across, knocking microphone away]

— Splitcoil (@Splitcoil) March 8, 2019

ALL the best blameless people

My God, Martha Stewart got a year for trading on a golf course stock tip ...

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) March 8, 2019

Without knowing anything else about Judge Ellis, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be a shame if he found out tomorrow that he has long-undiagnosed testicular cancer.

Also, so far Reality Winner is doing more time for trying to warn us about Russian meddling than anybody is for participating in it.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 8, 2019

No one with the last name of Trump is going to spend even five minutes in jail.

While light sentences aren't going to be surprising in the slightest, I had thought that there would be one fall guy that would receive a heavy sentence for the sake of appearances. But then I'd also thought Manafort might be that guy!