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

Murkowski was either going to vote no or lose an important part of her base.

Collins is either going to lose any last vestige of credibility or pull a McCain moment. Though I thought that was what flake was doing so isn't it a bit late. Would be nice to see kavanaugh's face as she realised she actually had a conscience though.
One likes to dream.

& haven't heard what Flake's up to.

Using a dictionary to look up the difference between threadbare and thorough?

Like, okay, it was a foregone conclusion after Kennedy's retirement that the GOP was going to get another conservative justice on the court. It sucks hard but they have all the power to make it happen and this is what happens.. And he (and it was always going to be a he) was almost certain to be terrible. But every step of this process has been super fucking gross, and the person they picked has been super fucking gross, and their reaction to everyone opposed has been super fucking gross. And they won't just take the win. It won't be enough to just get their bag of shit on the bench. They're going to gloat and rub it in everyone's faces and just be as thoroughly fucking gross about it as is humanly possible. I wistfully remember the dejection of, say, W winning his second election because I don't have a recollection of the GOP establishment celebrating the win by golden showering their opponents. I mean, yes, the gloaters have always been around but it didn't seem so much to be a goddamn central tenet of the party.

it's hard to get into the heads of people like susan collins and jeff flake who feel like temporary maybe good guys since at the end of the day they really are republicans and have willingly participated in a lot of cynical stuff for decades. but just looking at incentives, it's hard to understand why collins doesn't actually use her leverage as a swing voter more often. she's in a blue-ish state. it makes her more popular, not less. it makes her arguably the most powerful person in the senate. she was celebrated as a hero after the health care vote. it seems like there are just so many good reasons for her to actually break with the party on these votes, and yet she doesn't. so again it's probably because she's...just a true-believing republican? I don't see many other reasons.

it's in the GOP DNA to overturn Roe. It's been on fundraising lit since the Carter years.

yeah, my read on her is that she is a right wing republican but not a total cynic like mcconnell et al. so the opportunistic stuff like repealing obamacare without any plausible plan to replace it she rejects. if there was any kind of halfway plausible conservative plan for healthcare she would have supported that.

flake is stranger because he literally came up through the tea party. he is a hard right guy. but, again, the current GOP are opportunists propping up a criminal regime, basically, and at some level flake doesn't want to be a part of that.

She IS a cynic because she plays with the sympathies of her constituents.

flake is stranger because he literally came up through the tea part

No, he didn't. He was a congressman in the 2000s. He's well known in Florida because he didn't support the Cuba embargo.

have a very hard time believing that flake, collins, and manchin are going to vote against him now, after that cloture vote

yeah flake's also mormon, and I think mormons have a slightly harder time cognitive dissonancing trump as a person.

Yeah, I'm increasingly certain that I will live to see people stop being polite and start getting real with some of these douchnozzles. You can only push people so far before they start pushing back.

i hope so

he predates the tea party but i always associated him with them, and slashing spending was always his jam

xp

I'll be kind of glad when Soros dies TBH but I"m sure someone will conjure up some other boogeyman

― akm, Friday, 5 October 2018 13:28 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(hint: the boogeyman will be the Clintons)

― akm, Friday, 5 October 2018 13:31 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(and then the Obamas)

― akm, Friday, 5 October 2018 13:31 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not Jewish enough.

Manchin going yes pretty much puts this in the bag huh

xpost But Muslim!

Looking at Twitler's Tweets from today, and "These are not signs made in the basement from love!" just too late for a thread title (perhaps shortened to "made in the basement from love!").

#bastaman is 100% otm on this

What just transpired is the clearest example yet of why the old approach of the Dem party is not working. If we continue on this path, the values, principles and rights that matter most will be lost forever. We must fight fire with fire. And when they go low, we must hit harder!

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) October 5, 2018

Manchin going yes pretty much puts this in the bag huh

― frogbs, Friday, October 5, 2018 10:14 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's voting with collins, and so maybe he doesn't even know how he's voting yet

would anyone be interested in voting in a silly ballot poll on Most Punchable Member of Congress? it seems like something that demands a ballot, because there are so many good options. it would be wonderful to deliver a punch to lindsey graham or jeff flake right now, for example, but mitch mcconnell has been asking for it for years. we could also have Kavanaugh and others as options, too, of course.

what does 'hit harder' even mean? join them in constant bald faced lying?

pretty sure mcconnell would sweep that poll except for the one completely mysterious poster who voted for schumer

Paul Ryan's still there for now - but McConnell would only escape this if punching was the only damage you could do.

I think everyone already decided on Ted Cruz

what does 'hit harder' even mean? join them in constant bald faced lying?

― iatee, Friday, October 5, 2018 10:25 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you don't need to lie about a damn thing to make these guys look like craven monsters

i feel like schumer and feinstein laid out why this was all fucked up pretty well

there are only so many ways to say it

okay sure, but what do you do when the other side genuinely doesn't care? they elected one of the worst human beings in america to the highest office.

anyway I just think 'we should play hard ball' is mostly empty rhetoric.

so is this thread continuing like this all day or

i think the democrats need to rally around a few easily understood but widely appealing policy goals and just repeat them over and over. (Single Payer. Fight for 15. Police reform.) That's how trump won -- people knew what his narrative was.

that's better than playing hard ball. they'll never beat trump at the insult game anyway.

where's the tax returns?

that's a good one

"they go low, we hit harder" lmao ok sure let's become the party of mangled clichés

You'll Have a Job and a Doctor

so is this thread continuing like this all day or

would you prefer we went back to arguing over whether or not emigration is an acceptable political strategy or which nicknames are acceptable

I don't see what Collins thinks she is gaining by still playing coy at this point. Unless she really is planning a McCain moment (he voted for cloture on the ACA repeal too, before voting against the final bill)... but idk that seems really unlikely

actually pretending to give a shit about their voting bloc would be a nice change

there is such a tangible, almost unprecedented sense of pure anger over the Kavanaugh thing. and the Dems response is...voicing procedural complaints

imagine for a moment "democrats" / "liberals" had the convictions of our TEA*party friends and showed up at town halls and flooded phones lines of asshole republicans demanding to see the manchurian candidate's birth certificate. it's impossible. it's too ridiculous :)

it would be wonderful to deliver a punch to lindsey graham

would love to but afaict his skull contains mostly congealed fat and dead fragments of brain matter so he would probably feel nothing

*tax returns ;)

You'll Have a Job and a Doctor

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, October 5, 2018 11:43 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like this

where's the tax returns?

― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, October 5, 2018 10:42 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's a good one

― Trϵϵship, Friday, October 5, 2018 10:42 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it worked out great for us

morbs 2020 no what am i saying

"he promised during the campaign, asshole republican candidate x! let's see already. why not?"

"Destroy them."

there is such a tangible, almost unprecedented sense of pure anger over the Kavanaugh thing. and the Dems response is...voicing procedural complaints

― frogbs, Friday, October 5, 2018 8:44 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk man this feels like really selective hearing to me

i know gillebrand isn't on the committee and is obv vying for a presidential aura but her speech on the senate floor the other week was a motherfucker

She seems to be the only pres hopeful with a working compass

(some of the time)