US Politics, October 2018: next week will be even longer

It’s no wonder there was only one copy. Printers jam up if you stick fig leaves in them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/us/politics/mcconnell-senate-judiciary-supreme-court.html

i find this to be INCREDIBLY CREEPY

― Karl Malone, Thursday, October 4, 2018 11:49 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Obviously the premise is that any accusations are just made up desperate attempts to swoop in last minute and ruin something for the republicans. Opportunistic and effective due to the height #metoo. That's what they believe. So it isn't him tuning out people with legitimate concerns, it's him ignoring desperate enemies that are ramping it up last minute.

the next incoming Dem administration will simply refuse to recognize partisan decisions from the Supreme Court in the future

this is not how the Constitution works fyi

I seriously thought McConnell was smart enough to withdraw him, but I think I overestimated the idiot - but the sense of shell shock is over, and there's enough material to prepare impeachment proceedings and to argue that since he has wrecked any credibility as a non-partisan, he either recuses himself from every political case, or the next incoming Dem administration will simply refuse to recognize partisan decisions from the Supreme Court in the future. That's the path forward imdo.

this is a fun idea but it's not going to happen at all. he won't choose to recuse himself from any case, he'll have to be forced to, and since virtually any issue is this country is political, he'll dig in early against all calls of recusal. and an administration can't simply refuse to recognize decisions from the supreme court. for the vast majority of this country's history, that was a feature, not a bug. if that goes down, the entire civic system goes down

lol xpost

do we really think flake changed his mind because of the people in the elevator

The mf'ing constitution can eat every white man's ass in the country; that's who it was written for. I am going to go outside and yell at some people now.

godspeed

Do we really think Flake changed his mind?

the producers of the Trump reality show just told him to make it more dramatic

yeah! i feel ya . i'm really at my wits end when it comes to all this . Like sure i will go vote for my corrupt dem senator in November but overall just feeling helpless and shit xxp

https://perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/tony-the-tiger-twitter-sexual-harassment.jpg

I suppose you can say that Marbury v Madison and the idea of judicial review isn't in the Constitution, and that John Marshall should've recused himself from the case because he was John Adams' secretary of state when the conflict arose, but who cares at this point.

Whyever should we feel helpless when intransigent senators are making harmful, long-term decisions on our behalf while intoning that they will not be 'intimidated' by the objections of those they theoretically represent?

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a key swing vote Republicans need to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, indicated to CNN after leaving a briefing on the FBI report that was turned over to the Senate overnight that she thought the report was “thorough.”

“It appears to be a very thorough investigation,” she told CNN, but she did not say how she planned to vote on the confirmation of Kavanaugh, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to happen by the end of the week.

the predictability is so enraging

i 90% think that the bullshit "investigation" is an excuse for republicans to confirm him while citing that the a investigation (which they will undoubtedly call "thorough") failed to find evidence of kavanaugh's wrongdoing.

This is just as absurd as trump getting elected

"while we were trouble by etc etc we also feel that Judge Kavanaugh is etc etc" is about as far off the GOP script they'll go

Manchin already suggested he doesn't wanna be the 51st vote but may become one of the 50.

fuck him

ew!

lol i was waiting for that

He should be kicked out of the party

i wish there was an escape from all this, personally and nationally. clearly the system is broken. i don't know how an impartial observer of all this (which i've heard once existed) could believe this was an acceptable, durable governmental system. it lasted a little over 200 years, it had a good run, but this shit is over. the tragic part is that i'm not sure how this gets fixed without tearing it all down. things are so ugly right now.

What process would things have to go through to limit the duration of a SCOTUS tenure? Is that something that can happen with less tahn a 2/3s vote. I'm just wondering if it is any easier tahn impeaching a problematic judge.

if it benefits anybody human the GOP would probably vote against it anyway.

But I'm seeing comment that 16 years at maximum would be a good limit.

if the infection was just corruption in the government it would be easy, but it's spread to the brains of millions of voters

Would these problems be fixed by a different constitution/division of powers, like some kind of parlimentary system? Seems like the problem is the republican party

Xp

the constitution was brilliant because of its safeguards against corruption. those checks and balances held up well against stress over the years, but they need to be updated. what's happening now would make the founding fathers barf

and that's saying a lot because i believe they subsisted on a diet of mud with expired grapes mixed in back then

I'm looking at the bright side here and keeping in mind that every single person who ultimately votes to confirm Kavanaugh spends a fair amount of their time in public space, and I would hope that the citizens who disagree with their decision will fill every second of that time and every inch of that space politely expressing their discontent. While you or I might find it uncomfortable and overwhelming to be overrun by swarms of unhappy people during our every waking moment, I'm sure these elected representatives will welcome it as an expression of our storied democratic process.

It's great we are saving all these imaginary, unborn fetuses that are just a current wobble in the ballsac but fucking over lots and lots of sentient, autonomous life forms.

capital no longer needs american labor, and rather than transforming capital, americans are just trying to save their old standards of living. this is politics in a deeper sense than parties, and I see no reason to think americans will change their political ways.

i think it's more likely that political figures will just retreat further into the interior of kafka's Castle

xp

Vote in November, people.

xpost Yesterday one of the fathers in charlottesville was indicted for "assaulting an officer" during an anti-racism protest at a schoolboard meeting. Schoolboard that was equating BLM with confederate props.

I'm looking at the bright side here and keeping in mind that every single person who ultimately votes to confirm Kavanaugh spends a fair amount of their time in public space, and I would hope that the citizens who disagree with their decision will fill every second of that time and every inch of that space politely expressing their discontent.

they will forget in about a month.

Chris Coons, who helped hatch a deal for the FBI investigation is clearly insatisfied: “I think I’ve made my case as best I could, the materials are what they are, and it’s now left to senators to reach their conclusions.”

— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) October 4, 2018

this is the first time I've encountered "insatisfied"

JUst hoping that every pronounced step back catalyses a step forward.
BUt I think that creep stains what he touches so shouldn't be able to sit.

Insatisfied is a perfectly cromulent word.

Manchin already suggested he doesn't wanna be the 51st vote but may become one of the 50.

I think he's said the opposite?

one thing I've always found a bit bizarre was how unquestioned the idea of 'red state dems need to make specific vote x or y in order to help their re-election' is. like I buy the idea that manchin shouldn't be a bernie sanders figure, but I find it hard to imagine there are really moderate voters who swing their votes on exactly one vote these guys cast. voting for kavanaugh costs him something too, in that the wv dem base gets a bit disillusioned. idk, people just act like these things are directly transactional in a way that I'm not sure has ever been proven. he does need to portray himself as a moderate and not a radical, but that's an image that gets built up over time and isn't dependent on one vote. similarly I don't think the difference between 0 dems voting for something and 3 dems voting for something is actually that meaningful - if we lose the 'true count' then who cares what manchin does. I don't think any amount of symbolism here is worth more than improving our shot at taking back congress. but as I said I don't really know if these symbolic '52nd voter' votes translate the way that people act like they do.

look me in my eyes then tell me insatisfied

yes otm. I read an LGM article published this summer questioning what Manchin and Donnelly, to name two, get for voting for a conservative nominee. Manchin is popular enough to count many Republicans in his base, but the ones he lose he may compensate for by getting more Dem/left support.

*the ones he loses

I can't get no insatisfaction

wpost:

THE BIG IDEA: As senators today review the findings of the FBI’s investigation into sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) looks increasingly poised to score a hat trick.

Not only are he and President Trump growing more confident that they will be able to wrangle the votes to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court — starting with a key procedural vote on Friday — handicappers also believe Republicans are more likely to maintain control of the Senate than they were a week ago because the party’s base has been so galvanized by the battle. And, even more importantly over the long-term, a Justice Kavanaugh — at just 53 years old — would help McConnell realize his long-term vision of tipping the balance of the nation’s jurisprudence to the right for a generation.

GOP pollster Chris Wilson said he’s seeing “similar trends” in local data from six states with competitive Senate races: Montana, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, North Dakota and Missouri. “Any Dem enthusiasm gap has been erased and even surpassed by GOP due to Kavanaugh hearings,” he tweeted this morning.

OK so the WaPost publishes claims by GOP pollsters who link to FOX News? OK.

'I remain unconvinced that Kavanaugh is a worthy nominee for the supreme court. I think an investigation is in order.'
(FBI agent grabs a crayon and spends three days carefully scrawling 'KAVONAW = OK' on the back of a Denny's placemat and passes it to the wavering senator in question)
'I am now convinced that Kavanaugh is a worthy nominee for the supreme court.'

nice hat trick: 2 of the 3 are about the same thing (kavanaugh getting confirmed), and the third (senate retaining control) is something that was likely anyway, with fivethirtyeight giving republicans a 2 out of 3 chance to retain control even at their lowest ebb of the election season so far

xp