2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

"if you order a pizza i will THROW AWAY MY BIRTHDAY CAKE"

-- house dems, 2015

they should have tacked on a bill to sponsor the perverted arts

there's talk about primarying people who voted wrong, but nobody in our coalition is willing to go on record saying they'll use this as a test on, say, presidential endorsements.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver

what about House and Senate races?

maybe if we coddle big money more, labor will benefit someday?

what about House and Senate races?

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 23, 2015 8:36 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

right yeah, that's who we're talking about primarying

man I would love someone to primary Feinstein but her pockets are insanely deep

a lot of people got spooked when we went hard against like Bera in CA & Polis in CO & MoveOn is even sabre rattling about primarying Wyden--that's part of why we think we got the votes we got in the house a couple of weeks ago.

I assume primarying House members is way easier than Senators

afaict but i mean, i'm still new to this stuff

fucking BLOOMBERG amost lost his 3rd mayoral term to an empty suit w/ no money. it can be done.

mayoral politics are not state politics, smaller footprint

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/tpa-trade-bill-democrat-vote-tally-119331.html

Both of my Virginia Democratic senators voted for this. Ugh

New Yorker profile on Feinstein last week packaged her as a centrist.

Ugh:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/24/us/politics/senate-vote-on-trade-bill.html?rref=homepage&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Home%20Page&pgtype=article

The procedural vote of 60 to 37 just reached the minimum needed, but final Senate passage will require only 51 votes. The House approved trade promotion authority last week.

So I think 32 Dems voted against, 5 Republicans against; 13 Dems for; 47 Republicans for

name names

From a FB post but unable to verify more than Cantwell, Murray, Feinstein, Shaheen & Wyden

Michael Bennet (CO)
Maria Cantwell (WA)
Tom Carper (DE)
Chris Coons (DE)
Dianne Feinstein (CA)
Heidi Heitkamp (ND)
Tim Kaine (VA)
Claire McCaskill (MO)
Patty Murray (WA)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
Mark Warner (VA)
Ron Wyden (OR)

Delaware?? I find this easy to believe!

Feinstein I fuckin knew it

interesting that the west coast senators seem up for this.

and Wyden, good on national security, is a weenie on trade

"port" land innit

right. but you might also think they would listen to the unions opposed to this thing

just angers me so much that Feinstein's "liberal" credentials are on two issues (abortion and gun control) on which she's been largely ineffectual or irrelevant - and on p much every other issue she might as well be a party-line Republican.

she likes gays too

it's illegal not to in San Francisco, right?

I just feel like she rode Harvey Milk's corpse all the way to the bank

remind me which awesome pro-LGBT legislation passed the Senate I'm kinda blanking on anything

thanks for the image

Cruz surrogate Chumley (!) weighs in:

Another of Cruz's campaign co-chairs in the Palmetto State, state Rep. Bill Chumley (R), voted against opening debate on the flag. Chumley also told CNN on Tuesday night that he believed it more urgent to debate the fact that no one present at the massacre of nine black Charleston churchgoers was armed.

"We need to be focusing on the nine families that are left and see that this doesn’t happen again," Chumley said in the CNN interview. "These people sat in there, and waited their turn to be shot. That’s sad. But somebody in there with the means of self defense could have stopped this. And we’d have had less funerals than we’re having."

oops wrong thread

x-post to

right. but you might also think they would listen to the unions opposed to this thing

― wizzz! (amateurist), Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Nike is in Oregon and they don't care about unions

but i thought CA and WA were big union states, esp. in re. ports

there's def huge unions in the ports of Oakland and LA

WA also has Boeing for unions but I imagine the tech bros outspend them for influence now.

Nike is in Oregon and they don't care about unions

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, June 24, 2015 6:25 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Obama gave his big TPP pitch **at a Nike factory**, just to really hit us over the head with the symbolism

I've voted wyden for senate three times since I was 20, iirc. He's lost my vote and I'll volunteer for whoever primaries him. I hope it's Steve Novick.

guys its called the trans pacific partnership. california is on the pacific coast. do u see.

im sure theres a shitton of kickbacks and goodies in there for west coast corps that their senators would love to deliver

Supreme Court thread has discussion of 6 to 3 decision saving exchanges on health care/Obamacare.

Roberts and Kennedy's motives for voting with liberal justices might have been different, but I will take it

I wonder if any red states refusing Medicaid expansion were waiting for King and will now capitulate.

no they are making a flag to symbolize grievance for the next 150 yrs.

Who's surprised?

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/texas-gov-greg-abbott-picks-homeschooler-to-chair-state-board-of-education/

A Texas watchdog group expressed concerned this week after Gov. Greg Abbott named a new chairperson to the State Board of Education who has never sent her own children to a public school. Last week, Abbott announced that he was appointing Houston Republican Donna Bahorich, a former communications director for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, to chair the Board of Education.

So is she going to do all her work at home or what

i see from FB liberals are back in unconditional love with Obama.

I see you're out of Bellevue.

What I hated this week was packaging fast track approval as a victory because it got done.

The White House still has to release the final trade texts for 60 days before Congress votes to ratify the agreements. I am guessing despite how ugly the thing will look, the votes won't change, and the mainstream media take on it won't either.

Yeah, listing fast-track as amongst the victories for Obama this week kinda mars what was otherwise close to historic combination of achievements. Not for Obama, per se, not due to him, but still.

does anyone remember that O didn't come out for marriage til when, '13?

iirc it was 2012, election year
a few days earlier biden publicly stated he was comfortable with gay marriage
which made things kinda awkward for obama
also some wealthy gay donors threatened to withhold support
nevertheless imo better to judge politicians on their actions rather than purity of their motives
the latter is utterly futile standard in politics