Retire, Breyer: another September 2021 US Politics thread

BREAKING: 3 centrist Democrats just tanked the party's signature drug price negotiation bill after a marathon 3-day markup, complicating efforts to pass the whole 3.5T social spending bill. While Dems say they can still include the policy, it's a blow to D efforts to stay united.

— Alice Miranda Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) September 15, 2021

3 centrist corrupt Democrats

Starting to think a third party might be a good idea.

The most likely viable third party would be a centrist party that looks a lot like the Clinton years.

Fuck that shit. Just take all the Democratic voters to a party that isn't full of useless corrupt stooges. Low-dollar donations only.

I understand I'm being naive. Leave me alone.

" 3 centrist Democrats just tanked the party's signature drug price negotiation bill after a marathon 3-day markup..."

Can't remember what standup said the line, but I do think they should make a rule that the politicians have to have patches on their coat like a NASCAR driver showing who donated money to their campaign.

I'm guessing these 3 are drug industry pets.

Your guess is correct.

https://www.dailyposter.com/follow-the-pharma-money/

Can we stop calling them "centrist Democrats" and call them pharma tools instead?

Last December, House Democrats’ steering committee voted to put Rice on the Energy and Commerce panel instead of progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
On Tuesday, Rice explained that she opposes the drug pricing measure because “I do not support advancing policies that are not fiscally responsible and jeopardize the bill’s final passage.”

I know we're still 'living' in the T___p era, but could people in positions of power at least try to be less transparently debased? If you're so intent upon fucking over your constituents, at least have the decency to maintain some plausible deniability about the fact.

We're honestly probably like half a decade from seeing political ads that are nakedly like 'I despise you all personally, elect me so that I can get rich while actively subverting your interests' (which naturally lead to those fuckers winning in a landslide).

the prob is that they *are* Democrats tho. And any attempt to unseat them in a primary would be heavily criticized and completely undermined by leadership

What is consistently sad and shocking is what a good return on their investments their corporate daddies make. Spend $1.6M on Congressmen, get hundreds of millions in profits guaranteed.

They have so little of an opinion of us peons that they can say with a straight face that paying lower prices for drugs is "not fiscally responsible".

It’s disgusting.

Primary these fuckheads

With who's money? Where do think the 'primary' money comes? This is why it takes millions instead of thousands to run for a house seat. Campaign money is like water, you dam it up one place, it finds another place to go. With those 501 groups, they got the ultimate invisible hand to ad bury anyone on a grass roots level.

It's kinda why the GOP has gone totally batshit crazy, as they don't even really need the PARTY at all to do what they want. The money made it pretty much irrelevant. Democrats have been pretty much GOP light since the late 70s...same game just like the Billy Beane's Oakland A's trying to live a "Burt Reynolds lifestyle on a Mac Davis budget".

It's as f'n dirty now as it has ever been ever and that is truly saying something. Scary thing is that this money buy is just going lower and lower into the US political system...it's getting rotten to the core.

This thing continues to blow my mind and I am sure is much more rampant than just this event. And I think many people don't even know it even happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_scandal

Ten months after Senate election loss, Sara Gideon still has $10 million in unused campaign funds https://t.co/uGii5Ct5zk by Nathan Bernard

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) September 16, 2021

Well don't I feel stupid.

it's her mad money for a rainy day

a million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money

things the Supreme Court and their Justices are not, according to Thomas, Barrett, and Breyer:

"like a politician"
"junior league politicians"
"a bunch of partisan hacks"

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Justice Clarence Thomas defended the independence of the Supreme Court on Thursday and warned against "destroying our institutions because they don't give us what we want, when we want it."

Thomas, the longest serving justice, acknowledged that the high court has its flaws, comparing it to a “car with three wheels” that somehow still works. But he said the justices are not ruling based on “personal preferences” and suggested that the nation’s leaders should not “allow others to manipulate our institutions when we don’t get the outcome that we like.”

The justice’s remarks came during a lecture at the University of Notre Dame in which he talked about traveling by RV in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee with his wife, Ginni. Thomas reflected on his childhood in the segregated South and his religious faith. He also alluded several times to the political polarization in the United States.

“We’ve gotten to the point where we’re really good at finding something that separates us,” Thomas told the crowd of more than 800 students and faculty gathered at the school’s performing arts center.

Thomas is the latest justice to add his voice to the mix and publicly come to the court’s defense in the face of growing criticism that the nine justices are merely politicians in robes.

“I think the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference. So if they think you are antiabortion or something personally, they think that’s the way you always will come out. They think you’re for this or for that. They think you become like a politician,” Thomas said in response to a question about public misconceptions of the court.

“That’s a problem. You’re going to jeopardize any faith in the legal institutions.”

In recent weeks, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, during a book tour, has emphasized that he and his colleagues are not “junior league” politicians. Last week, the court’s newest member, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, told a crowd in Kentucky that justices are not a “bunch of partisan hacks” and that their divisions are based on competing judicial philosophies, not partisanship.

-

Thomas was warmly received by hundreds of students and faculty. At the end of his talk, a group of three protesters erupted into chants of “I still believe Anita Hill,” a reference to his contentious 1991 confirmation hearings that included Hill’s allegations that he verbally harassed her.

The protesters were swiftly escorted out of the auditorium, prompting another standing ovation for Thomas.

Rep. Kurt Schrader defends pharmaceutical donations he's received: "They just want to have access to at least plead their case."https://t.co/FKfq9vdaI6 via @KGWNews

— Faiz (@fshakir) September 17, 2021

Rep. Kurt Schrader is my rep and I apologize to the entire country for this obscene fact.

Meanwhile, from the endless cringe that is sure to be Nick Kristof's gubernatorial run:

this is deeply embarrassing https://t.co/pZpMCvM7hE pic.twitter.com/z5yfnj9J5m

— libby watson (@libbycwatson) September 16, 2021

* This article has been updated.

Nick Kristof is an absolute piece of shit. Hope he crashes and burns.

for those without a mental database of why particular opinion writers are bad & hated, is there a Cliffs Notes version of why he is bad & hated?

He's an anti-sex crusader, or at the bare minimum a credulous mouthpiece for right-wing anti-sex crusaders.

Despite what seems like truly valid concern for the way that many rural white people have been left behind by a global economy to rot in Oxycontin and meth-addled hellholes, Kristof is one of the main visible supporters of laws like FOSTA and SESTA, ostensibly because he is opposed to child trafficking and child pornography, which...who isn't? But his very vocal support of such initiatives (and similar) has essentially gone on to further criminalize sex work in the US, driving the most vulnerable of sex workers to the streets...where they're more likely to be jailed, killed, harassed, or trafficked.

xpost

anti-sex trafficking crusader I'd say, which sometimes co-incides with right wing anti-sex work agendas.

It's his savior complex that many have a problem with, and the self-righteousness. In response to a reader's letter asking him to write more about domestic issues rather than Darfur: “So, Marguerite,” Kristof writes, “look Halima in the eye [a photo of her sits atop the column], and decide if you’re willing to turn away as she is slaughtered, or how many more times you’re willing to allow her to be raped.”

Looks like a nerd

This is why "sanctity of the child" discourse always makes me suspicious, in that it often ends with some asshole with an agenda that says I can't buy a satanic metal record or watch completely banal twink porn.

His hobbyhorse before being anti-SW was being pro-sweatshop.

Yeah, didn't he argue that sweatshops lifted up local economies so they were good? What a fucking joke.

now he's the one covered in flopsweat

what the hell is a 'communitarian' anyway? (ILX spellcheck just told me that's not even a word)

Yeah, didn't he argue that sweatshops lifted up local economies so they were good? What a fucking joke.

I thought that was Yglesias. Or were they both on that kick at the same time? Some researcher should find out who was cutting checks back then.

Kristof's been on that since Matty was still collecting Pokemon cards.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/24/magazine/two-cheers-for-sweatshops.html

xp to aimless' apology. As a constituent as well, Schrader is an embarrassment. He lost his way from being a good (but moderate) state legislator to this.

And sorry about Kristof, too. At least he has no chance of winning.

Lol at first I thought Bill Kristol was running for governor.

BTW a Washington Post ad for one of their awful digital panel discussions labeled his head shot as "Billy Kristol."

righteousmaelstrom, may I suggest you email him and tell him what an embarrassment he's become? I did immediately after posting my apology here. It felt good.

surprised he hasn't named his column Kristolnacht.

Tweets really are the only thing the powerless have left.

I can’t believe this has to be said, but a teacher shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than a hedge fund manager.

— President Biden (@POTUS) September 16, 2021

LOL the "Justice for J6" protest is a bust (so far).

Also, hopping steaming mad, just screaming, that the US won't buy diesel submarines (lol) from...France???!!!

it's not about that, it's about selling them to Australia. france used to sell their shitty subs to australia. now the US is going to sell their nuclear subs to australia. that way, people in southeast asia will be more frightened that we're going to try to murder all of them again. meanwhile, france is mad because they used to be an empire and be a cultural capital of the world, and now everyone is just like "wow, france sucks"

Call that a sub, more like a baguette. Suck it Frenchy. USA USA.