American politics 2016: Lawyers, Guns, and D-Money

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/07/gov-paul-lepage-of-maine-a-christie-supporter-makes-racially-charged-remarks/?ref=politics

&c &c

lol @ "racially charged" instead of "racist", come on now

Planet Debbie to get primaried

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com.br/2016/01/controversial-dnc-chair-debbie_8.html

excellent

and again hooray for that fuck Steve Israel exiting

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-republicans-may-mourn-loss-but.html

yeah fuck that guy

When we rooted her out of the DCCC "Red to Blue" program in 2008-- after she sabotaged 3 south Florida Democratic candidates to help her right-wing Republican amigos, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart-- she wormed her way back into power, with a big assist from Emanuel, and wound up as head of the DNC, a catastrophe for the Democratic Party, Getting her out of that position would be an absolute mitzvah... but getting her out of Congress would mean a lot more.

wtf is wrong w u

not very pc huh

maybe you and lepage can commiserate together

Mordy, always with the substance

after she sabotaged 3 south Florida Democratic candidates to help her right-wing Republican amigos, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart

wonder what the story is here

paging sotosyn

Down with tyranny!

Mr. Cruz, responding to the question of a boy with an interest in politics, began discussing the example of healthcare policy. “Take Obamacare,” he said, pausing before the punch-line. “Please, take Obamacare.” Modest laughter followed.

“Sorry, a little Benny Youngman,” Mr. Cruz said. (He seemed to mean Henny Youngman of “take my wife…please!” fame.) The boy looked back at him.

“Ask your grandfather,” Mr. Cruz said.

benny youngman, the king of swing states

NO MOTHERFUCKER you ASK your GRANDFATHER

there's been chatter in South Florida for years about the collusion b/w Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, and Wasserman-Schultz, in part cemented by their penchant for hyphenates.

lol

Benny Youngman was huge in Cuba iirc

we clearly live under the tyranny of corpo-hogs and whores, nuthin wrong with sayin so, iab.

apparently Hillary faked an answer the other night about that new true-crime Greatest TV Show Ever, dont you guys feel like roasting her over that?

There's this narrative around GOP ppl that things are "really bad" right now in this country (make America great again etc) which I find offensive as hell bcz things have been bad for the disenfranchised etc FOREVER, and middle class white dudes are doing pretty good right now, afaict. Even David brooks has the brains to call this shit out as untrue (with respect to middle-upper class white men, etc). It's strictly a xenophobic white male phenomena but no one in the media would ever even hint at that. This has been your quarterly trenchant political bowel movement by brimstead.

Probably true about white middle class dudes but the real story is that middle class is quickly shrinking, dudes and women who were middle class 20 years ago may well have been demoted to the working class by now, especially in big urban areas with out of control gentrification.

Not saying this to downplay issues of racism, sexism, and homophobia.

i wonder what it means to be working class in the usa

i have no problem with people wanting to make something great. it's the 'again' part that is always so dumb. things have probably always been pretty shitty that's why we're in this mess to begin with. the forefathers seemed like a bunch of jerks tbh

*founding fathers

trying to make anything great is a terrible idea imo. greatness just kind of happens and is coexistent with not-greatness.

idk if someone wants to make a great 'train' or something

although i'm perfectly comfortable with greatness just being around and existing

fewer people are middle class plus even people under the current definition of middle class are struggling compared to relatively recent memory -- maybe not compared to 2009, but probably compared to 2005, or 1995. Of course, people of color are feeling the decline even worse. But "the other guy has it even worse" is never much of a campaign pitch.

The Koch network also provided funding to fine-tune budget proposals from Representative Paul D. Ryan, such as cuts to Social Security, so they would be more palatable to voters, according to the book. The Kochs were so influential among conservative lawmakers, Ms. Mayer reports, that in 2011, Representative John A. Boehner, then the House speaker, visited David Koch to ask for his help in resolving a debt ceiling stalemate.

“Dark Money” also contains revelations from a private history of the Kochs commissioned by David’s twin brother, William, during a lengthy legal battle with Charles and David over control of Koch Industries.

Ms. Mayer describes a sealed 1982 deposition in which William Koch recalled participating in an attempt by Charles and David to blackmail their fourth and eldest brother, Frederick, into relinquishing any claim to the family business by threatening to tell their father that he was gay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/us/politics/father-of-koch-brothers-helped-build-nazi-oil-refinery-book-says.html?ribbon-ad-idx=13&rref=homepage&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Home%20Page&pgtype=article

Some empty-chair ideas that will go unused tonight:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/01/12/other-chairs-empty-obama-speech-deaths-domestic-foreign-column/78631644/

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/01/12/mark-my-words-glenn-beck-predicts-tonight-will-not-be-obamas-final-state-of-the-union-address/

When I saw the headline, I assumed he was warning of a third-term coup. No--just arrogance. ("Arrogance.")

(Excuse the source. A Facebook friend argues with these folks in the comments section, so their posts show up on my wall.)

According to Beck "the last big, huge progressive president we had was Jimmy Carter." Uh.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/12/white-privilege-just-made-an-appearance-in-the-presidential-race-its-about-time/?tid=sm_fb

why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments why did i read the comments

And there were questions about whether the country is making more rapid progress on sexism or racism poll

uh, did anyone else watch the SOTU on amazon or the white house website? i mean i guess it's their right to make it a powerpoint presentation but i found it creepy and weird and a bad precedent

Noticed that, too. Seemed kind of lame.

the fuck is kim davis doing there

i mean imagine this with president ted cruz or trump or rubio or bush with stats and issues you don't agree with

http://i.imgur.com/6qraIzU.png
http://i.imgur.com/fPPARey.png
http://i.imgur.com/hO7Fxp1.png
http://i.imgur.com/gFMF16H.png

http://i.imgur.com/6iiscVq.png
http://i.imgur.com/HiKqf03.png

They didn't have any of that stuff on PBS

damn this nikki haley speech is brutal

Kinda creepy, like a dispatch from our new alien overlords

blaming Obama for "unrest in our cities"? fuck's sake...

This is awful - ending her national career before it starts.

Her smiles read as grimly gritted teeth

the Sputnik line was good.

definitely

also major jindal vibes, he did one of these a while back, right

I mean I'm not saying *it can't happen here*, but we are pretty far away from having a system that looks like this:

Governors in Russia are formally elected by the residents of each region, but the complex nominating process and the election commissions, which are controlled by the Kremlin, allow the president to make anyone he wants a governor,

I'll come right out and say that can't happen here

Or whatever's going to happen here will look a lot dumber.

since it involves our electorate, probably

I mean it can happen here if they, like, figure out how to dissolve and remake our system of government. But otherwise no.

so Red Dawn scenario basically

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/ItCantHappenHere.jpg/220px-ItCantHappenHere.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/68/It_Happened_Here.png/440px-It_Happened_Here.png

our republic will last 3000 years

Yeah, I didn't mean there could be any kind of direct federal takeover of noncompliant state governments. But with all the federal levers and so many state levers in the same hands, I'm sure there will be various kinds of pressure brought to bear on unfriendly states and cities.

Vonnegut predicted that when America has a dictator, we won't call him The Leader, but instead we'll call him Coach. Probably wrong on that detail.

Yeah, I didn't mean there could be any kind of direct federal takeover of noncompliant state governments. But with all the federal levers and so many state levers in the same hands, I'm sure there will be various kinds of pressure brought to bear on unfriendly states and cities.

― birthday party, cheesecake, jelly beans, boom (tipsy mothra), Thursday, December 15, 2016 4:51 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, again, I'm not sure there are so many different levers. The main one is probably federal funding that goes to states and municipalities, and conservative justices have been very circumspect about allowing this to be used in anything other than a narrow way. I could see the GOP coming up with some excuse and holding up funding anyway until it goes through the courts. But the worst case scenario there is that the states and municipalities lose the federal funding and have to make it up with state and municipal tax increases or program cuts.

TBF there's probably something more devious they could come up with. But I think a lot of republicans legit want a country where your blue state is allowed to have gay marriage and my red state is allowed to have racism and that's it. I don't really think it's the GOP agenda to have total control over the states, I think most of them legit want a country where the liberals can have their gay marriage states and the conservatives can have their racism states.

sry accidentally stated the last part twice

journalist friend from NC posted this a couple of minutes ago:

The ledge cut the mics in the chambers. Since they've kicked everyone out of the gallery, including the media, is this a violation of the Open Meetings law? Or maybe if there are still press members on the floor, the ledge has sidestepped the violation. We need a press lawyer, stat.

I don't really think it's the GOP agenda to have total control over the states, I think most of them legit want a country where the liberals can have their gay marriage states and the conservatives can have their racism states.

what is leading you to draw this conclusion

more from NC:

In other news, my colleague at NCPW Joe Killian was just led out of the House gallery in handcuffs.

I don't really think it's the GOP agenda to have total control over the states, I think most of them legit want a country where the liberals can have their gay marriage states and the conservatives can have their racism states.

The fact that GOP governors and legislatures all over this country are busily passing laws forbidding the cities in their states from raising the minimum wage, building bike lanes, banning plastic bags (!), etc. suggests this is not the case.

yup

yeah i don't think the paradigm here is "peaceful coexistence". it's pretty clearly total, unquestioned domination.

you just get the feeling these people wake up burning with rage that people around the country are living in a "liberal" way and are happy and successful.

what's going on here in NC is bonkers, but it's not the first bonkers throw-out-the-press do-everything-in-secret GOP action of the past four years. this is kind of SOP here right now.

you just get the feeling these people wake up burning with rage that people around the country are living in a "liberal" way and are happy and successful.

Kinda like these guys are the best example of ressentiment you're gunna get outside of a 19th-C Continental philosophy class.

you just get the feeling these people wake up burning with rage that people around the country are living in a "liberal" way and are happy and successful.

That's not a feeling. They don't wake up feeling that way, per se, but usually after a couple of coffees or maybe some hair of the dog, oh, they absolutely do.

reading and listening to white hot resentment on fox news and whatever online sources they read doesn't help ones sense of general well-being either.

If you're interested in the NC situation I strongly recommend following Rep. Graig (yes Graig, not a typo) Meyer on Facebook, who is one of the people spearheading efforts to strategize against the GOP in NC (and hopefully providing some ideas for other states).

I had never previously heard of Meyer. Senator Jeff Jackson, whom I linked to earlier, is (I think) the future of the NC Democratic Party and a generally good person to follow. Except he's from Charlotte which is always the kiss of death with regard to statewide politics here.

This isn't unprecedented. In fact a Democratic legislature attempted to pass nearly identical legislation against a Republican governor in the 90's. Figures it took a Republican majority to actually be successful at it.

I'd say that anything can happen here but it's predicated on a large enough disaster to completely undermine civil society - a nuclear/dirty bomb attack that kills tens or hundreds of thousands, a Great Depression 2.0 that leads to open rioting across the country.

For now the institutions remain healthy enough that Trump and the GOP can't have their way and in some ways there are still enough Republicans cognizant that anything they do now can be done to them down the road.

oh shit

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/311506-reid-dnc-was-worthless-under-wasserman-schultz

a few months too late but hey

‏@mtaibbi
Alan Dershowitz Threatens to Leave Democratic Party: Dems Cross Fingers In Hopes He Means It

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/312243-harvard-law-professor-i-will-leave-democratic-party-if-they

NC GOP law stripping gov of power has been temporarily blocked by the courts

are the various last minute actions the NC congress took actually illegal or just very sleezy?

That line is what we have judges for

If they're determined to be discriminatory = illegal

New worries about Chuck Schumer:

But the job that Reid had in mind for Schumer when he anointed him as his successor isn’t the one Schumer will actually be doing. “Schumer would be a very good majority leader under President Hillary Clinton, and that’s what he thought he was signing up for,” says one prominent Democratic strategist, noting how aggressively Schumer waded into several Democratic Senate primaries in 2016. “He made the calculation that he wanted to win the Senate with people who were easily tamable and then he could be a majority leader like LBJ, just ramming things through.” As a minority leader with a Republican in the White House, however, Schumer will have a very different task — and there’s concern among some Democrats that he might not be cut out for it. “Chuck will go to the ramparts on an issue when it’s polling at 60 percent, but as soon as it gets hairy, he’s gone,” says one senior Democratic Senate aide. “Chuck wants issues to have no negatives, but it’s the Trump era. He’s looking at polls ­showing 60 percent for the Carrier deal” — in which Trump persuaded the company to keep a furnace plant in the U.S. in exchange for $7 million in tax breaks — “and thinking to himself, Maybe we should support that."

count on it

Interesting that DT has rebuked the House GOP for gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics.

Very mildly, though.

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 37m37 minutes ago
........may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS
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Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 41m41 minutes ago
With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it
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I thought he had given up Drain The Swamp?

I think he tried to, but big dumb Gingrich opened his big dumb mouth.

unfair as it ............may be

Any chance any Republicans will bolt and vote against that when the full House votes on it today?

why would they do that

It looks even more sneaky and underhanded than usual, and Lord God Trump criticized it. I don't really think it'll happen, I was just wondering what ILX's other political tacticians thought.

Except he didn't, and there's no reason to believe Republican politicians care about what Trump says.

why would they do that

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, January 3, 2017 10:14 AM (one hour ago)

You knew the answer to this question before you asked it, right?

time for a new thread buddies

What a charmer Jeff Sessions is/was.