Enough With The Cutesy Titles, People Are Dead: US Politics January 2021 pt 2

to be fair he also has a show on WABC

The cop in Tacoma accelerated through and ran over pedestrians (a crowd of randos watching dickheads do donuts) at 18:45.

A spontaneous protest was taking place by 8pm.

In August, Pierce County diverted COVID response funds to a cop project to monitor specific organisers who had been coordinating protest against, and calling for the arrest of, the individual cops who murdered Manuel Ellis in March.

Two of those organisers arrived at the protest between 8 and 8:30, sat peacefully in place, and were searched without consent and arrested without Miranda reading before 9. They were held overnight until hat-passing raised their bail.

A co-organiser of one of the arrested ppl has clarified that the immediate response was a candelight vigil, as opposed to the protest convened for 24 hours later.

the woke administration has logged on

The Biden administration is "exploring ways to speed up" release of $20 bills featuring Harriet Tubman after the Trump administration delayed the movehttps://t.co/BIIfpJByi6

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 25, 2021

It's symbolism, but it costs nothing and doesn't have to wait for Congress to act. Do you have a problem with it?

no but i have a problem with you trying to engage me after i've made it clear countless times i have no desire to interact with you!

unless you want to give me 100 harriet tubmans in which case i can offer you an image of someone stroking his chin in every response

pffft

xp@me wait I misread that: it was a sit-in, vs the march last night.

attemptedmurdercop is six months away from retirement. guess they hadn't found time to do the "de-escalation vs plow pedestrians down with your SUV" training yet! or the "open the door and speak to citizens" training. he's probably been too busy investigating and prosecuting corruption and corporate crime for the last 29.5 years.

(you'd think "how to reverse" and "turn the steering wheel to drive away" was covered in driving lessons, but I'm not familiar with the process here)

Biden up here talking about being open on negotiating the $2000 Stimulus check? did these fuckers not campaign on sending out a check or did i dream that?

This is depressing.

I erred in our weekend Senate story suggesting that @SenatorSinema might be entertaining a shift on the filibuster.
Not so, says spox: "Kyrsten ... is not open to changing her mind about eliminating the filibuster."
It's not just @Sen_JoeManchin, folks!https://t.co/IMRltbvMWW

— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) January 25, 2021

and Mitch playing Jedi mind tricks on the weak minded dems is no surprise

Supposedly he's saying (so far) that he's open to negotiating the income threshold for the $1400 checks.

I wonder if any betting sites have set over/unders on GOP House seats after the midterms...

Supposedly he's saying (so far) that he's open to negotiating the income threshold for the $1400 checks.

well fuck that bullshit!! when they base it off of tax previous years tax returns that don't mean a damn thing to a lot of people at this point.

i think the current idea is just to increase your 2021 tax bill by $1400 if you're over the income threshold.

Easy

33 EOs so far

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/25/politics/biden-executive-orders-day-six/index.html

it's cool how the US is back to being a monarchy!

(and yes I probably approve of all 33, but what a broken system)

TBF a few of those are just reversals of Trump's own unilateral executive orders

i mean the Executive branch has way too much power, don't disagree there, and would love to see that addressed and curtailed to a ridiculous degree. but with a split Congress it's the only way to do anything now as a President due to the tribalism present - with a Dem Congress right now, it should slow down once he's done reversing Trump's racism.

but I do miss the days when people uttered the old chestnut "the President's powers are limited" and it was actually somewhat closer to true. kind of scary how much it's expanded in just the 21st century.

from npr (in a piece that leads w Leahy not Roberts presiding and why):
So, Democrats are stuck now with an impeachment trial that likely will not succeed. And some Senate Democrats are exploring alternative ways to permanently remove Trump from office.

The best option would appear to be Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, enacted in the aftermath of the Civil War, which allows Congress to bar any officer, civil or military, from holding future office if he is found to have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the Constitution of the United States.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/960389715/sen-patrick-leahy-to-preside-over-trumps-senate-impeachment-trial
The Constitution does not specify how many votes it would take for such a bar on holding future office. Senate rules say it will take 60 votes, as opposed to 67 needed for conviction on impeachment action.

Sorry, that's all in the same piece; I meant to stick the link at end of post.

xp
totally agree with both of you, and lord knows I looked forward to this exact sweeping away for four years (and lord *really* knows I'm not sad trump didn't get to pass more legislation)

just feeling a twinge of despair imagining this pendulum governance thing persisting into the foreseeable future. I think the transgender military ban being lifted for the second time hit me hard; there's something so cruel and despotic about the way these orders magic-wand massive changes to people's lives but with no sense of permanence

xpost 60 votes is prob still too high, but maybe not, for those charges.

A compromise that does not convict him but does restrict him from running again seems like it could at least be remotely possible. Which is to say, not 100% impossible, however unlikely.

I dunno, if they're not going to convict him then the Republicans deserve to have him fucking up their presidential prospects in 2024

Might fuck up America's presidential prospects! Even if he doesn't win, and I suspect it will still be a possibility.

Also: he Justice Department's inspector general announced Monday that his office is investigating whether any former or current department officials "engaged in an improper attempt" to have the department "seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election."

"The investigation will encompass all relevant allegations that may arise that are within the scope of the [Office of the Inspector General's] jurisdiction," inspector general Michael Horowitz said in a statement. "The OIG has jurisdiction to investigate allegations concerning the conduct of former and current DOJ employees. The OIG's jurisdiction does not extend to allegations against other government officials."

Horowitz's office said it won't comment further on the probe until it is finished.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-inspector-general-investigation-election-results/

Here's my exchange with Sen. Manchin. He says he won't support ending the filibuster even on organizing resolutions.

I asked him about the fact that McConnell isn't letting Dems take over the majority. His answer is Schumer/McConnell have to work it out:https://t.co/coyVTcRLhc pic.twitter.com/RyxOdUqx10

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 25, 2021

pretty pathetic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V8jbA1x-Cs

These people...

maybe it would be easier to convince manchin to vote to remove his non-cooperative colleagues from the senate

Expel Manchin

don’t really understand what is going on, but it sounds is mcconnel is refusing to give up senate control and won’t agree to a committee rules resolution or any further senate business until the democrats include language in the rules that they will not get rid of the filibuster

Okay, here we go... delivering the Article.

Not looking forward to another trump 'zoneration

At least he can't easily gloat!

It's too bad that Marjorie Q wasn't able to get Biden's impeachment up & running so they could happen concurrently

like I've been saying, the US Congress is never going to pass a law ever again

seriously fuck manchin and fuck any dem who doesn't openly pressure him to stop being a stupid fuck, god dammit

btw, has anyone noticed that mcconnell is pure evil?

Government by executive order and agency administration sucks, but what, really, is the alternative now? If we enshrine as a bedrock principle of democracy the (actually very new) idea that you have to have 60 Senators agree to pass a law, you are not going to pass any laws. What's the pathway for either party to get 60 seats in the Senate? It's not impossible, but it's pretty damn unlikely (and the electorate, seeing laws actually getting passed, would probably panic and vote some of those Senators out after two years.)

the democrats in the senate don’t seem to want to capitulate completely on the filibuster ahead of time, so - gridlock

aimless fuck off

i mean the Executive branch has way too much power, don't disagree there, and would love to see that addressed and curtailed to a ridiculous degree. but with a split Congress it's the only way to do anything now as a President due to the tribalism present - with a Dem Congress right now, it should slow down once he's done reversing Trump's racism.

but I do miss the days when people uttered the old chestnut "the President's powers are limited" and it was actually somewhat closer to true. kind of scary how much it's expanded in just the 21st century

Government by executive order and agency administration sucks, but what, really, is the alternative now? If we enshrine as a bedrock principle of democracy the (actually very new) idea that you have to have 60 Senators agree to pass a law, you are not going to pass any laws.

This problem has a name, and its name is Mitch.

Like, seriously, do NOT fucking try to #bothsides it.

McConnell's one trick is obstruction, and he is good at it.

maybe this will give us senator AOC

McConnell isn’t forcing Sinema and Manchin to betray the party.