US Politics: “How did we come to this...”

[OnionAhaiReborn]

You could also just amend the Constitution to strip the Senate of all meaningful power while preserving equal suffrage of the states. Allow it to only force the House to revote on bills it rejects or something trivial like that.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, OnionAhaiReborn said:

You could also just amend the Constitution to strip the Senate of all meaningful power while preserving equal suffrage of the states. Allow it to only force the House to revote on bills it rejects or something trivial like that.

You could also just dunk a basketball from half court.

Which is more likely? 

[TrueMetis]

Russia's put out bounties on coalition troops in Afghanistan, the white house has known for months and has done nothing about it and is just now letting other coalition forces know about it.

https://nypost.com/2020/06/26/russia-secretly-offered-bounties-on-us-troops-to-taliban-report-says/

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

38 minutes ago, OnionAhaiReborn said:

You could also just amend the Constitution to strip the Senate of all meaningful power while preserving equal suffrage of the states. Allow it to only force the House to revote on bills it rejects or something trivial like that.

Actually, that would work.

[Martell Spy]

“It’s ideologue meets grifter”: How Bill Barr made Trumpism possible
Bill Barr is the most powerful law enforcement officer in the country. What does he want?

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/6/24/21281485/bill-barr-donald-trump-berman-doj-david-rohde

Quote

 

David Rohde
Barr has held these views consistently throughout his life. But he was seen as a traditionalist when Trump nominated him to be attorney general. In hindsight, it looks like the extremism of Barr’s views didn’t emerge during his first tenure as attorney general because the president he served then, George H. W. Bush, was a traditionalist. Bush had witnessed Nixon’s abuses and resignation. Bush accepted that the three branches were co-equal.

Working as attorney general for Donald Trump, obviously, is completely different. Trump is contemptuous of post-Watergate norms and of congressional and judicial oversight. Trump has enabled Barr to pursue his decades-long goal of increasing the power of the presidency. And Barr has enabled Trump to stonewall congressional investigations to an extent not seen since Nixon. It’s an ideologue meets grifter.

Sean Illing
But the idea of “checks and balances” is literally the basis of our constitutional system. Why does he find it so inadequate?

David Rohde
He believes that if you look at American history, it’s been the presidency that has been able to intervene when we’ve faced war or economic calamity or natural disaster. And Congress has dithered and the courts simply don’t have the mechanisms to respond. He really believes this in his bones.

In fact, I just spoke to someone who knows him well, who works closely with him, and he told me that Barr is fully committed, that he stands by every action he’s taken in this administration, from clearing Lafayette Park with tear gas to trying to fire the US attorney in Manhattan this weekend. And this person said that Barr is doing these actions because he himself believes in empowering the presidency. It is not because he’s being pressured or bullied by Trump.

Sean Illing
So he’s a real ideological warrior?

David Rohde
Yes, he’s fully committed. And if you pay attention to what he’s been saying for decades, nothing he’s doing now is all that surprising. He’s been calling for tough law-and-order policies for a long time. His reaction to the demonstrations in Washington was nothing new.

 

 

[DMC]

3 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

“It’s ideologue meets grifter”: How Bill Barr made Trumpism possible
Bill Barr is the most powerful law enforcement officer in the country. What does he want?

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/6/24/21281485/bill-barr-donald-trump-berman-doj-david-rohde

Rohde citing!!!  Great to know he's healthy.

Anyway, on amending the constitution to change the nature of the Senate, you could conceivably to whatever you want.  Abolish it, make them sing Heat of the Moment at the beginning and end of each session, force them to participate in Eurovision each year.  The possibilities are endless.  You're amending the constitution, there's no right or wrong.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

48 minutes ago, DMC said:

Rohde citing!!!  Great to know he's healthy.

Anyway, on amending the constitution to change the nature of the Senate, you could conceivably to whatever you want.  Abolish it, make them sing Heat of the Moment at the beginning and end of each session, force them to participate in Eurovision each year.  The possibilities are endless.  You're amending the constitution, there's no right or wrong.

I think we could all agree that it would be unethical to require someone to throw an ax 41 feet to be able to hold office, you Bendor like monster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Zorral]

Pence canceled “Great American Comeback Tour”to FL, due to covid-19 infection fear; safety prevention measures all around deathcultchief ramped up due to covid-19 infection fear.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/27/us-reopening-plans-reverse-quickly-amid-alarming-increase-coronavirus-cases

New York City really should not do the next phase of reopening on the 6th; in fact it should also close the bars again, like Austin and other cities are doing.

Quote

On Saturday, the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, called on state investigators to investigate a coronavirus cluster in the New York City suburb of Westchester, believed to have been caused by a student who returned from Florida.

NYers who ran from covid-19 to Florida are coming back, bringing it with them.  Yesterday I was in the Gourmet Garage here to buy essentials such as milk.  Masks are mandatory if one wishes to enter GG.  Yes! Otherwise I wouldn't enter.  However, the check out person with whom I've gotten very friendly over the years informed me that yesterday a couple waltzed in w/o masks and no one noticed until they go to check out.  When called out on not wearing a mask, they said, "We don't need to wear masks.  We just came in from Florida."

Today, across the street, about 60 people were gathered by noon at one of the restaurant bars, packed together, cheek and jowl, already drunk and howling.  They are the Young, white, prosperous, and believe they are fine, and even if they get it, it won't matter (not true, as the Young's rapidly increasing numbers of infected and hospitalized show -- not to mention even the mildest cases can take up to 2 months, with relapse to recover from).  They are the super spreaders.  Not immigrants in a meat packing plant but clueless, selfish and stupid white people.

 

[Martell Spy]

17 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Pence canceled “Great American Comeback Tour”to FL, due to covid-19 infection fear; safety prevention measures all around deathcultchief ramped up due to covid-19 infection fear.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/27/us-reopening-plans-reverse-quickly-amid-alarming-increase-coronavirus-cases

New York City really should not do the next phase of reopening on the 6th; in fact it should also close the bars again, like Austin and other cities are doing.

NYers who ran from covid-19 to Florida are coming back, bringing it with them.  Yesterday I was in the Gourmet Garage here to buy essentials such as milk.  Masks are mandatory if one wishes to enter GG.  Yes! Otherwise I wouldn't enter.  However, the check out person with whom I've gotten very friendly over the years informed me that yesterday a couple waltzed in w/o masks and no one noticed until they go to check out.  When called out on not wearing a mask, they said, "We don't need to wear masks.  We just came in from Florida."

Today, across the street, about 60 people were gathered by noon at one of the restaurant bars, packed together, cheek and jowl, already drunk and howling.  They are the Young, white, prosperous, and believe they are fine, and even if they get it, it won't matter (not true, as the Young's rapidly increasing numbers of infected and hospitalized show -- not to mention even the mildest cases can take up to 2 months, with relapse to recover from).  They are the super spreaders.  Not immigrants in a meat packing plant but clueless, selfish and stupid white people.

 

What a coward. First he dares to wear a mask on camera on now this. Yeah, it's happening here in Washington state, too. I swear, I was at the store yesterday and it was the first day of the state-wide mask order. There seemed to be even more without masks than the week before. Many of them white and young people. And it's now a misdemeanor. Either they don't know or they are relying on lack of enforcement.

[Zorral]

8 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

What a coward. First he dares to wear a mask on camera on now this. Yeah, it's happening here in Washington state, too. I swear, I was at the store yesterday and it was the first day of the state-wide mask order. There seemed to be even more without masks than the week before. Many of them white and young people. And it's now a misdemeanor. Either they don't know or they are relying on lack of enforcement.

The leadership we admire:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/27/trump-visits-private-golf-course-us-battles-rapid-surge-coronavirus-cases

First he ostentatiously announces due to the crisis he wouldn't go golfing. Then he sneaks off, on the plane we pay for, to his own golf course, with a platoon of health and protective service people that we also pay for.

 

[JGP]

1 hour ago, Triskele said:

So, uh, Russia has been paying Afghans to kill American soldiers and the White House has known for months?

Confirmed, I read, as UK soldiers were targeted as well.

Took 24 hours for the Trump admin to deny, he and Pence claim they weren't briefed.

That's like, capital T treason isn't it?

[Rippounet]

Just so you know the Trump account on Facebook is posting "Attempts to identify" pictures from police departments, i.e. pictures of protesters for the trumpists to find. This has been going on for a few days now.

[Zorral]

So one would normally think, that this would be capital T Treason.

We all must shout continuously REMOVE HIM NOW!  HOW MANY OF US WILL WE ALLOW HIM TO MURDER?

WHILE HE GOLFS (and cheats at it into the bargain).

[Rippounet]

2 minutes ago, Triskele said:

As in to find for...whatever extracurricular actions are appropriate?

Officially it's to help police departments identify "individuals suspected of degradation(s)."

I think everyone here knows it's a bit more than that. Not all "suspects" are wearing masks on the pictures, most of them (almost all of them) are PoC, and the last picture I saw was of a guy wearing a BLM t-shirt.
It's bit chilling tbh.

[Zorral]

25 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

Officially it's to help police departments identify "individuals suspected of degradation(s)."

I think everyone here knows it's a bit more than that. Not all "suspects" are wearing masks on the pictures, most of them (almost all of them) are PoC, and the last picture I saw was of a guy wearing a BLM t-shirt.
It's bit chilling tbh.

A book Rip might find of interest in his work:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trumps-gop-a-post-policy-party/2020/06/25/a935b6c6-af3f-11ea-856d-5054296735e5_story.html

The Impostors

Quote

 

How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics
By Steve Benen

[....]The modern conservative movement emerged in opposition to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal but split, merged and expanded in the decades since. Cold War geopolitics and the civil rights movement, and more recently the neoliberal turn and the rise of working-class populism, have all created opportunities and challenges for organized conservatives. And in the past two generations, as the ideological sorting of American politics reached its culmination, conservatism found a firm institutional home in the Republican Party.

For generations, historians and political scientists have argued over how to explain conservatism and the modern GOP. Important debates surround conservatives’ intellectual roots, their most effective mobilizing strategies, and the respective roles of ideology, class, racial status and material self-interest within conservative politics.

All these scholarly discussions, however contentious, start from one key assumption: that a clear set of traditions, values or priorities sits at the core of Republican politics. While scholars may disagree about the relative importance of the populists, the plutocrats, the racists and the moralists, they assume that the party’s actions can be explained by the interplay among them. This is precisely the presumption Benen challenges. Searching for an internal coherence, grand strategy or intellectual project is a fool’s errand, he concludes. When it comes to a post-policy party, there is no there there.

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

On 6/26/2020 at 2:53 PM, Freshwater Spartan said:

An early favorite to be the National Anthem was My Country Tis of Thee. Southerners objected to the "Land of the Pilgim's pride" line and others didn t like that it was set to the tune God Save the Queen. The Star Spangled Banner was chosen instead.

I have no issue with The SSB  except that it is nearly impossible to sing well.

Whitney says hold my fucking beer!

 

[Larry of the Lawn]

4 hours ago, Triskele said:

So, uh, Russia has been paying Afghans to kill American soldiers and the White House has known for months?

Hey, Trump has been really busy keeping the epidemic at bay.

[A True Kaniggit]

4 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Hey, Trump has been really busy keeping the epidemic at bay.

Yep! He saved millions of lives!

But don't forget, it's a hoax.

[A True Kaniggit]

12 minutes ago, Triskele said:

 

And also we do too much testing, but also nobody has better testing than we do.

Frank Bruni makes a case for Tammy Duckworth as VP here (NYT, limited clicks).  

ETA:  I have Fox News on in the background, a very rare thing for me.  Right now they're saying that Bill Clinton was having a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend and co-conspirator.  

Blah. I don't watch the channel, but I check the website every now and then to see what they're putting out.

It's so friggin sad.

Not a day goes by that some democrat isn't getting 'blasted'.

You'd think they'd mix it up.

[GrimTuesday]

Welp, clearly the Democratic deep state was in high gear here in Olympia Washington because some good ol' boys from the 3 Percenters were just having an innocent event to protest Jay Inslee's tyranny and were infiltrated by that left wing radical provocateur Sasha Baron Cohen, here is some video.

Also video of one of the organizers talking about what happened, Very normal that he's referring to Sasha Baron Cohen simply as Sasha Cohen. I'm sure that isn't an attempt to emphasis the fact that he is Jewish at all.