Retire, Breyer: another September 2021 US Politics thread

I mean I guess it’s because leftists, including those who are religious, don’t latch themselves to the Democrats like the evangelicals do to the GOP?

then i'll take them to a catholic church, and a synagogue. then a unitarian church. then a methodist, then a baptist. a black evangelical church

FWIW, I did exactly this as a child (plus Baha'i, Hare Krishna, Greek Orthodox, and Quaker). It was standard Unitarian religious ed curriculum for 6th grade.

i mean, i don't know what i'm talking about either. so no worries.

i guess in order for anything i'm saying to make sense, you have to start with this premise:

1. evangelical conservative christians are the dominant voice of Christians today.

for better or worse, they speak for the Christians because yes, they are incredibly fucking loud, but also they are the plurality of Christians, and by FAR the most politically effective Christians.

maybe i should stop there and see if at least that parts seems true to someone that didn't have their life ruined by evangelicals. WHITE evangelicals.

FWIW, I did exactly this as a child (plus Baha'i, Hare Krishna, Greek Orthodox, and Quaker). It was standard Unitarian religious ed curriculum for 6th grade.

it's what any faith that had faith in itself would do, i think. doing otherwise is like being an abusive boyfriend that won't "let" the girlfriend go the bar with friends

also, as i understand it,

jesus : pharisees :: what i want modern NON-fundamentalists to be like : white evangelicals

or am i missing that one part in the gospels when jesus silently makes a donation to the "pharisees are misrepresenting judaism" fund, and never says a word about it out loud or draws attention to his dissatisfaction with the pharisees

jesus is cool
pharisees uncool
cool christians are disappointing on some levels
white evangelicals are extremely evil and in the least metal way possible

even though i haven't been a christian in the last 20 years, i STILL have a sense of responsibility for the things that are said in the name of christianity. it's deeply disappointing (continuing the trend) that people who still are christians don't feel the same, at least not in significant numbers. there are counterexamples, counterexamples of individuals, churches, movements in the past. but in general, at least as i see it, the cool christians don't seem to be THAT bothered by how evangelicals take ownership over christianity. that's why i get that creepy feeling that if/when real theocracy comes to the united states, "cool christians" probably won't really mind all that much

Shit, I know more Bible passages than most Christians.

Post-ABC poll finds 77% of Americans support the decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, including 88% of Democrats, 74% of Republicans and 76% of independents. But widespread support falls apart when it comes to how the departure unfolded https://t.co/8RvRDhZXDw pic.twitter.com/Ob65Xwi8RP

— Post Polls (@PostPolls) September 3, 2021

Seems like the media might have been… manufacturing dissent.

milo endorses a Biden position at last!

I have a hard time believing anyone is going to care about Afghanistan in six months.

Continued support for the actual withdrawal points that way, but when Republicans retake the House it’s going to be Benghazi times a hundred.

I have a hard time believing anyone is going to care about Afghanistan in six months weeks.

doesn't seem like they've been able to come up with a Benghazi-type narrative at this point, though

It's gonna get to a point (in a lot of ways this has already happened) where Republicans are going to be speaking exclusively in in-group code that's totally incomprehensible to anyone who's not marinating in right-wing radio, YouTube channels and Facebook memes 24/7.

Americans wanting us out of Afghanistan but disapproving of any specific withdrawal action is as unsurprising as my three-year-old niece melting down because she wants to go outside and play in the snow but refuses to put on her shoes.

"I have a hard time believing anyone is going to care about Afghanistan in six months."

Texas, hurricanes and Covid have already moved that into last weeks problems.

remember when a seated president led a riot to overturn his obviously lost election, and 147 of the 213 republicans in congress voted in support of it, and for about 2 days some of them seemed to feel bad, but then soon afterward nearly every republican recalibrated and realized that they actually are very into fascism and support it and long as they're still in power?

me neither

wait, i remember

no i forgot again

the story of how the filibuster, somehow, remained in place is already being written

Is filibuster reform dead?

Eight months into President Joe Biden’s term, the minoritarian Senate rule remains untouched. It’s not how activists thought things would unfold.

Back in January, they saw a dynamic flowing in their favor: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would block nearly everything Democrats tried to do, gradually frustrating Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) into embracing filibuster reform.

Meanwhile, they’d be launching a pressure campaign, educating people about the rule’s racist history and showing them what it means in practice: no minimum wage hike, no LGBTQ protections, no sweeping labor protection act, no gun restrictions, no expanding the Supreme Court. And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

Even if it meant letting Biden’s beloved infrastructure bills, the centerpiece of his agenda, go first in line, activists were generally hopeful — or at least they saw a path. Clear the infrastructure bills off the deck, then tackle pro-democracy reforms and bust the filibuster if you had to to make it happen.

“I’m not as optimistic as I was,” Adam Jentleson, a former Harry Reid staffer and author of a history of the filibuster, told TPM this week.

The war of attrition-style failed votes at the hands of Republican senators haven’t worked. Various reforms and tactical ideas haven’t significantly swayed Manchin or Sinema. Witnessing up close the new two-tiered Senate operating system, where certain bills can pass through reconciliation while the rest are consigned to the filibuster graveyard, hasn’t piqued their frustration.

And activists’ best argument, their battle-informed warnings that without voting protections, Republicans would try the 2020 gambit again but better, fell on deaf ears. The gerrymandering clock has started, and maps will start dropping this month. As more time elapses, it’ll become too late to put voting reforms in place before the 2022 midterms.

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

huh? we forgot that

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

what? we forgot that

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

huh?

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

oh right, right

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

wait what?

COVFEFE!!!!!!

what is that like coffee or something? did he spill some COVFEFE on his keyboard?!

Video: Alex Jones goes off on the left, takes ivermectin live on air to dispel media’s “it’s horse dewormer” talking point.
pic.twitter.com/JQeZzIyzzN

— Melissa Tate (@TheRightMelissa) September 4, 2021

hope he turns inside out

realizing that millions of people watch him on a daily basis and take him seriously explains a lot. i mean, look at that. holy shit dude. and people are looking up to him and listening to him! i'd "looooooooooool" but these guys really are like the people who spray their teeth in mad max

definitely just going to stereotype here and say that alex jones and his viewers are just really dumb. they got to biology and got stuck in the pH section and just decided they would never understand anything through that method. "the old knowledge". so they just started huffing paint thinner

their last memory was talking to the guy at the gas station who had a hookup for whippet crackers

He's still refusing to get on Gavin McInnes's level and put a butt plug in on air.

If you plug up, it helps with the horse dewormer diarrhea.

Rebuilding our crumbling physical infrastructure – roads, bridges, water systems – is important. Rebuilding our crumbling human infrastructure – health care, education, climate change – is more important. No infrastructure bill without the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 2, 2021

Some days, the only thing that gets me through is knowing that people like Alex Jones will someday die. Maybe not soon, maybe not before he does incalculable damage to the minds of his followers, but someday. Someday it'll absolutely happen. I mean, yes, some other slavering beast as bad as him or worse will probably burst out of his corpse when he goes, just sloughing him off like the remains of a cocoon of evil, because that's the world we live in now, the one where you think things can't get worse and then they somehow exceed the limits of human imagination, but then I guess at that point I can just take solace in my own impending mortality. There's always a bright side!

The realization that "people" on the whole are actually bad, untrustworthy, susceptible to misinformation to the point that it seems like they actually crave it, and so fucking selfish all the time. it may be obvious and known for a long time -- i've seen the intro to fellowship of the ring, i understand how "humans" work -- but i didn't understand the degree of it until trump, and then especially with covid. i get so angry because at one point i was very much an Idealist, and i guess i'm dumb enough to think that it's still a good thing. but when believing in "people" goes away, so does everything else. the thought of public service becomes a joke. public health becomes a joke. climate change, the possibility of every doing anything about it - lol, are you kidding, after a year and a half of covid? we have ZERO chance. everything just goes away when faith in humanity goes away. ironically, i think this is part of what probably drives people to religion

This hit me right in the feels. I'm still grappling with the philosophical position that people are bad but I would respectfully suggest that if this is anything more than a hot take, it might help to take a step back, I'm sensing a certain amount of confirmation bias at work here.

Consider that little more than a generation ago we were able to create the EPA, protect endangered species, mostly stop acid rain and the growth of the hole in the ozone layter, enact affirmative action etc etc.

I think the main trends which make our present moment seem particularly hopeless are the predominance of social media and the GOP in effect becoming the party of the Christian petrostate. Social media is a mixed bag but it's pretty clear it's mostly in the wrong hands right now. Aside from all the egregious conniving and platforming of disinformation, I think that from the positive side, social media has actually made it clear that even in America most of us are actually pretty progressive. This in turn has elicited a hysterical reaction from the right and especially the evangelicals.

I have high hopes that in terms of media we're close to the bottom now, there is significant room for improvement. Sadly though our dysfunctional political system now seems stretched to breaking, and our physical environment also is sorely ailing. (...Sorry I was trying to be hopeful again but I seem to be working on digging a little hole for myself at this point.)

If you plug up, it helps with the horse dewormer diarrhea.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, September 4, 2021 5:27 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Point of order: a butt-plugged Alex Jones would very swiftly explode like a shit-filled firework on the 4th of July.

the worms gotta come out somehow

The legislative party in Texas is dominated by White politicians, specifically White men. The Texas Tribune reported at the start of the legislative session in January that all but five of the 100 Republicans in the state House and Senate were White, while 13 of the 100 were women. In a state whose population is about 40 percent Hispanic, just two of the Republicans in the state House were Latino, two Asian and one is Black.

just a bunch of white guys banning abortion against the will of their own people

just before a congressional sphincter explodes from wild pressure

Bash (Dana, asking obvious questions years too late): Congressman, do you think that voters should trust House Republican leaders with the majority in the next election?

Kinzinger (Adam, R-IL): Yes, I mean, look, I’m a Republican. I would like to see actual Republican values in the majority.

All I can say right now is, my party has to embrace truth. We have to have a full reckoning of what happened on January 6, and we have to turn away from conspiracy. I think, if we're going to be in charge and pushing conspiracy and pushing division and pushing lies, then the Republican Party should not have the majority.

But if we're going to be the party that actually tells truth and fights for real conservative values, and doesn't masquerade conservatism as some anger future, then, certainly, we should have the majority.

But that’s up to the party right now to determine. For me, I’m going to go out and tell the truth.

https://i.imgur.com/hyGbh5e.gif

you might wonder, what is he doing in the GOP?

he's being one of the most famous people in the GOP, that's what. that's the price of his heroism. he got a huge PR boost. if he becomes a democrat he'll just be another democrat, and that's if he's lucky enough to convince the dipshits in his district that he's not a tyrannical representative of satan

and he's one of the only republicans with any courage, whatsoever

anger future

it's weird to me that we can do a survey of americans and pretty much on every single issue there's at least a 20% portion that has the completely wrong. if it's 80/20, that counts as a landslide of consensus in the united states. on anything at all. but yet when it comes to 1/6 shit, republicans couldn't even make it that far.

there are 212 republicans in the house. 35 of them voted for the 1/6 commission:

Rep. Don Bacon (NE); Rep. Cliff Bentz (OR); Rep. Stephanie Bice (OK); Rep. Liz Cheney (WY); Rep. John Curtis (UT); Rep. Rodney Davis (IL); Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA); Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE); Rep. Andrew Garbarino (NY); Rep. Carlos Gimenez (FL); Rep. Tony Gonzales (TX); Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (OH); Rep. Michael Guest (MS); Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA); Rep. French Hill (AR); Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (IN); Rep. Chris Jacobs (NY); Rep. Dusty Johnson (SD); Rep. David Joyce (OH); Rep. John Katko (NY); Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL); Rep. David McKinley (WV); Rep. Peter Meijer (MI); Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA); Rep. Blake Moore (UT); Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA); Rep. Tom Reed (NY); Rep. Tom Rice (SC); Rep. Maria Salazar (FL); Rep. Mike Simpson (ID); Rep. Chris Smith (NJ); Rep. Van Taylor (TX); Rep. Fred Upton (MI); Rep. David Valadao (CA); Rep. Steve Womack (AR).

16.5% of them. to do the bare minimum thing for accountability.

i hope this plus the TX abortion stuff will be enough to convince democrats to show up to the midterms for the first time in my fucking life

in better news, "boss of the year" amy klobuchar manages to still be in a higher tier than "post-sphincter explosion" manchin and sinema:

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on Sunday called for the elimination of the filibuster after the Supreme Court let Texas’ ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy stand, leaving the second largest state in the country with virtually no access to legal abortions.

During an interview on CNN, Klobuchar was pressed on the lack of the 60 votes needed in the 50-50 Senate to codify the right to legal abortions.

Klobuchar first expressed gratitude for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for vowing congressional action to codify Roe v. Wade into law.

After pointing out that there are some pro-choice Republicans in the Senate, such as Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Klobuchar argued that the solution to passing progressive legislation would be to nix the filibuster that has posed obstacles to Democrats’ legislative priorities.

“So, my solution to this, which is my solution for voting rights and so many other things, including climate change, where one side of the country is in flames, the other side of the country is flooded, with people dying submerged in their cars, I believe we should abolish the filibuster,” Klobuchar said.

but who will maintain the integrity of our collective national butthole? who will keep things regular? who will provide big business with the steady regulation environment that they need to make plans beyond the fiscal year? who will make the courageous stand against change? will it be joe biden? will it be a sub-manchin or sub-sinema democrat who has tacitly sued them for protection on the filibuster until now, but feels the need to take a stand for the status quo?

WILL SOMETHING BIG HAPPEN AND WE ALL JUST FORGET AGAIN?!

The battle, joined?

https://www.tpr.org/news/2021-09-06/justice-department-promises-to-protect-women-who-seek-abortions-in-texas?utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR1o1voGj-Gq19KepbnoNFbylcivcClWXBd02s17PdzVngu4_7ZYeDn9UT8

Good work. The Texas law seems specifically designed to threaten and intimidate, so the FACE Act should apply and as a federal statute it should override state law. The fact that the threats do not consist of physical violence does not make them less threatening or less intimidating.

The fact that the threats do not consist of physical violence

i'm not sure sure about that. what kind of violence is it when you tell someone "if you drive her to that abortion clinic, i'll sue you and anyone else involved for $10K"? which, once that's known, is the same as "i'm watching you. don't mess up or i'll ruin your life"?

i know you're just making that point for the FACE act (which i know very little about). but just saying, i view the new TX law as extremely physically threatening in more than one way. there's no way empowering Texans (of all people, the fucking texans) to be anti-abortion vigilantes is not physical on some level.

a million conservative chuck norris figures keeping an eagle-eye out for young pregnant people who might be breaking the law is one of the creepiest thing, especially because all of them want to succeed so badly

it's hard to tell from the article but they are talking about about preventing people from physically blocking clinics, not about overriding the law