US Politics, September 2024 -- “I’m Not Going to Apologize For Posting a Joke”

Let’s check in on another one.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-rudy-giuliani-new-york-bankruptcy-court-financial-investigation-1956821

Sportscaster and former MSNBC star Keith Olbermann admitted he also dated Olivia Nuzzi—the New York magazine political columnist currently on leave due to an undisclosed relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.https://t.co/yKDu4X2eS9

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 24, 2024

someone please make the vince mcmahon meme: keith olbermann…Ryan Lizza…ROBERT F KENNEDY JR

In the future, we will all date Olivia Nuzzi for 15 minutes

that article notes that Olbermann also dated Kyrsten Sinema??

Laura Ingraham too

i thought olbermann was with katy tur?

This guy gets around.

Katy Tur was a long time ago. They don’t speak any more. He’s enemies with all of his exes.

Gigololbermann

Opinion | No, I don't like Trump's call to suspend the Constitution. But Harris's budget numbers don't add up.

— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) September 23, 2024

Harris backs ending filibuster for abortion rights legislation

Kamala Harris is calling for changes to Senate procedure to pass federal legislation protecting abortion rights.

Harris voiced support for ending the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation in the Senate, commonly known as the filibuster, during an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that aired Tuesday.

“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” Harris said.

well alright

good

Good tactic

Shrewd timing too.

Tomorrow we should get Jonathan Chait and Brett Stephens lamenting this latest blow to constitutional norms.

We not only need filibuster carve outs, we need Judiciary chair Democrat Dick Durbin to drop district court blue checks custom that allows Republican senators to block judicial nominees at that level.

Durbin & Shumer are leaving almost 90 unfilled judicial vacancies for the next president, bc they won't eliminate blue slips (a racist etiquette rule granting Senators the right to veto judicial nominations in their state). Current vacancies are in red states. We need them filled

— ProtectFreedom (@sanddia33) April 25, 2024

We not only need filibuster carve outs, we need Judiciary chair Democrat Dick Durbin to drop district court blue checks custom that allows Republican senators to block judicial nominees at that level.

This seems also emblematic of the phenomenon of “They Don’t Believe Their Own Rhetoric”. The overwhelming amount of scaremongering doesn’t actually inform these schmucks or the media covering that maybe some actions should be actually done first. I know that some of them deliberately want the precarity built in because they can run on it, get a personal thrill from the raised stakes of it all, and, most importantly, soak all the panicked well-funded liberal donors

This is all wishful thinking, since the GOP will likely have the Senate next year.

The slim hope for a Democrat-controlled Senate would top out at another 50-50 tie with Walz taking Harris' place as the VP tie-breaker. The few GOP seats that are contested this election aren't showing many signs of offsetting the loss of Senator Joe 'Clean Coal' Manchin (D-WV).

Maybe the good timing Alfred’s referring to announcing the intention to remove the filibuster before the election, in order to give voters a very good reason to vote for democrats and win the senate.

I think it would work, if they keep repeating it and own it. If they pretend like Harris never said it, for the next month, it’ll get ugly

The slim hope for a Democrat-controlled Senate would top out at another 50-50 tie with Walz taking Harris' place as the VP tie-breaker. The few GOP seats that are contested this election aren't showing many signs of offsetting the loss of Senator Joe 'Clean Coal' Manchin (D-WV).

Serious Q: Does anybody here think Colin Allred has a chance of knocking out Ted Cruz in a Warnock-like squeaker? I'm not confident about it, but I feel like it's a possibility, especially if the election turns out to be a post-Dobbs tidal wave (which is very much a possibility).

People here who hate Cruz really hate him, but that's strongly offset by indifferent voters who only care about the (R) next to names.

Cruz is running a pretty weaksauce campaign centering entirely on immigration violence and being against trans participation in Girl's Sports.

Maybe the good timing Alfred’s referring to announcing the intention to remove the filibuster before the election, in order to give voters a very good reason to vote for democrats and win the senate.

You win a Negroni.

People here who hate Cruz really hate him, but that's strongly offset by indifferent voters who only care about the (R) next to names.

Yup, same dynamic with Marco Rubio here. If he weren't a Republican, he'd be even more openly loathed.

I've also been seeing ads indicating that Rick Scott's challenger is very close behind him. Any genuine possibility of a pickup there?

trump's rallies now include crowds chanting "send them back", which he heavily encourages. i don't know how anyone ever speaks to any person who is even barely associated with support of him, but here we are, the election is going to be close

I know I've said this before, but I remain highly skeptical that any Democratic Senate majority can scrape together enough votes to end the filibuster, blue slips, or any other legacy BS like this. They essentially need every last senator to approve this kind of change, and there will always be one or two who suddenly realize they have "concerns" about doing it.

I actually think Dobbs doesn't help this situation, in fact, I think it makes it more difficult. Democrats see how Republicans caught the car on that one (even though they didn't even have to vote on anything), and they are scared the same thing will happen to them if they ever have to take any kind of mildly controversial vote.

You're right on in the first graf, Moodles, but, with respect, you're overthinking things in the second.

I like how one of Allred's ads is basically about how well he & his wife get along. Imagine Cruz trying <that>...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLtsPrEnTdg

xp

Maybe I am, but I can easily imagine purple/red state Senators looking at the prospect of having to vote on abortion rights or any other mildly divisive issue and fearing for their political careers. It would be nice to think they are braver than that, but I haven't seen a lot to prove that to be the case.

I know I've said this before, but I remain highly skeptical that any Democratic Senate majority can scrape together enough votes to end the filibuster, blue slips, or any other legacy BS like this. They essentially need every last senator to approve this kind of change, and there will always be one or two who suddenly realize they have "concerns" about doing it.

The Senate Democrats are always at a disadvantage in that there are only about 38 seats available from reliably blue states, so to even get to the slim majority they have now they've had to win seats in purple states like AZ and GA and even in red states. That usually means that even when you have one of two Senators with vocal "concerns" (like Manchin or Sinema) they are playing cover for about ten more with quiet concerns about progressive legislation.

one OR two

That makes more sense to me, thanks.

But consider! It's occurred to me that having a female president in a slightly more liberal climate than 2008 may exert pressure from below on reluctant purple senators. Maybe I'm the daydreamer.

Tomorrow we should get Jonathan Chait and Brett Stephens lamenting this latest blow to constitutional norms.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 24 September 2024 15:50 (two hours ago) link

Chait’s been calling for the democrats to get rid of the filibuster entirely (not just for important votes) for years.

Stephens, though, sure.

I dont know how good a candidate Allred is but Beto got within 2 points so who knows if it's a wave election it's possible

The Senate Democrats are always at a disadvantage in that there are only about 38 seats available from reliably blue states, so to even get to the slim majority they have now they've had to win seats in purple states like AZ and GA and even in red states. That usually means that even when you have one of two Senators with vocal "concerns" (like Manchin or Sinema) they are playing cover for about ten more with quiet concerns about progressive legislation.

I don't know if it is as many as 10, but yes, this is exactly what I'm getting at

trump's rallies now include crowds chanting "send them back", which he heavily encourages. i don't know how anyone ever speaks to any person who is even barely associated with support of him, but here we are, the election is going to be close

― z_tbd, Tuesday, September 24, 2024 12:50 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

as abhorrent as this stuff is I'm at least convinced that it's bad politics. the line you'd always hear from Trump and his supporters is that it's not about immigrants, it's about *illegal* immigrants, undocumented folks where we don't know who they are, so we just assume they're criminals and rapists and lunatics, much like Trump himself. but going after people who are legally here I think ups the stakes dramatically and drops the pretense that this is about anything but white supremacy.

also, on a similar note, it really bothers me to see these Nazis say shit like "if you import the third world you become a third world country". not just because it's extremely racist but because it's extremely stupid as well. America became as rich as it is because we were really good at exploiting immigrants. which obviously is its own problem, but still. these people have no concept of what would actually happen to this place if we somehow *could* kick all the undocumented folks out. to say nothing of those who are legally here.

Vance saying that he's going to keep calling the Haitian immigrants "illegal" because he doesn't like the law that allows them to be here legally is super Jim Crow sheriff type rhetoric.

and really good at exploiting the third world xp

these people have no concept of what would actually happen to this place if we somehow *could* kick all the undocumented folks out

eager kids fresh out of college could finally get those coveted graveyard shifts at Tyson chicken plants in Arkansas

It would open up a lot of "Black jobs" apparently.

fwiw

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 47% to 40% in the race to win the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, as she appeared to blunt Trump's edge on the economy and jobs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found.

Harris had a lead of six percentage points based on unrounded figures - which showed her with support from 46.61% of registered voters while Trump was backed by 40.48%, according to the three-day poll that closed on Monday. The Democrat's lead was slightly higher than her five-point advantage over Trump in a Sept 11-12 Reuters/Ipsos poll.

he latest poll had a margin of error of about four percentage points.

While national surveys including Reuters/Ipsos polls give important signals on the views of the electorate, the state-by-state results of the Electoral College determine the winner, with seven battleground states likely to be decisive.

Polls have shown Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in those battleground states, with many results within the polls' margins of error. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed Trump with marginal leads in three of these states - Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

*raises imaginary Negroni for a toast*

https://apnews.com/article/arizona-democratic-campaign-office-gunshots-tempe-4bfcf15768b3717eb5b965d776c7ba32

if only the electoral college didn't exist. one of these days we're going to tackle that one, but until then, only that last paragraph (about the neck-and-neck battleground states) matters

xp

you don't run for president of the entire united states, just a handful of 'em

"A handful, that is!"

https://i.imgur.com/YKDH4dP.jpg

go polish your nose ring
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4896899-manchin-sinema-harris-filibuster/

if only the electoral college didn't exist. one of these days we're going to tackle that one

One can hope and pray, but it would require a constitutional amendment and that would require a bunch of over-privileged small states to renounce their privilege by ratifying it. Won't happen. We seem to be stuck with that particular piece of slavery era nastiness.

Manchin, who is retiring at year’s end, told CNN. “She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy.

a wholly appropriate comment, because the Holy Grail is imaginary