US politics - have you no sense of decency, sir?

[DMC]

Just now, Fez said:

It's really not.

It really isn't, at all.  After Powell, Congress passed the Federal Contested Elections Act, but how that would be adjudicated in such a whackjob case we're talking about is entirely unclear. 

In terms of the Hart case, there certainly would have been "questions" - and court challenges - if Hart hadn't withdrawn her challenge and/or Pelosi hadn't withdrawn her provisional seating.  Pelosi was criticized for even the provisional seating in the meantime by many Democrats - including myself on this board.

[ThinkerX]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

It really isn't, at all.  After Powell, Congress passed the Federal Contested Elections Act, but how that would be adjudicated in such a whackjob case we're talking about is entirely unclear. 

In terms of the Hart case, there certainly would have been "questions" - and court challenges - if Hart hadn't withdrawn her challenge and/or Pelosi hadn't withdrawn her provisional seating.  Pelosi was criticized for even the provisional seating in the meantime by many Democrats - including myself on this board.

It will be interesting to see if the whackjobs in question are stubbornly stupid enough to push matters that far.

[DMC]

If you want to know why Florida Republicans are electorally dominating, take a look at these reactions to the rail workers issue:

Quote

Sen. Rick Scott tweeted out Tuesday in direct criticism of Biden:

“@JoeBiden failed to get a deal done with rail workers & now he wants Congressional intervention. Only in Washington is more government the answer. Asking Congress to meddle in this & turn its back on workers is insane. I won’t support it.”

As to Sen. Marco Rubio, “The railways & workers should go back & negotiate a deal that the workers, not just the union bosses, will accept But if Congress is forced to do it, I will not vote to impose a deal that doesn’t have the support of the rail workers,” Rubio tweeted Tuesday.

It may be remarkably cynical, but they have the gall to attack Biden from the left and subsequently derive excuses for - almost certainly - voting against the paid sick leave measure.

[Maithanet]

Does anyone have a good person to follow WRT GA early voting and what it means?  I feel like I'm seeing a ton of "this is really good for Warnock" but not a lot of explanation for why. 

[Fez]

10 hours ago, DMC said:

It really isn't, at all.  After Powell, Congress passed the Federal Contested Elections Act, but how that would be adjudicated in such a whackjob case we're talking about is entirely unclear. 

In terms of the Hart case, there certainly would have been "questions" - and court challenges - if Hart hadn't withdrawn her challenge and/or Pelosi hadn't withdrawn her provisional seating.  Pelosi was criticized for even the provisional seating in the meantime by many Democrats - including myself on this board.

Okay, so how do you explain Frank McCloskey getting seated over Rick McIntyre in 1984? That was pure power politics by Democrats.

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

Okay, so how do you explain Frank McCloskey getting seated over Rick McIntyre in 1984? That was pure power politics by Democrats.

McIntyre didn't challenge it.  Moreover, as you mentioned, they did commission their own recount - conducted by GAO auditors - which gave them a much better case.

Anyway, your repeated assertion there is "no question" the House has final say over who it seats simply isn't true.  It is wrong historically, legally, constitutionally, and most importantly normatively.  Especially in the current climate, we should not be claiming the House - by which we effectively mean the House majority - has unilateral authority over election results.  That's dangerous shit these days.

[LongRider]

Well now, a good timed leak would be nice.   

 

[DMC]

Sounds like there's a good chance that ECA reform will be bootstrapped to the omnibus bill later this month:

Quote

Speaking at a National Council on Election Integrity event, Manchin said the Electoral Count Reform Act was “ready.”

“I would think the omnibus bill is the appropriate place to put it,” the West Virginia Democrat said.

Speaking later, Klobuchar, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee, said the National Defense Authorization Act was another option, but “the omnibus is looking more and more promising.”

“That’s coming out of the meeting at the White House,” the Minnesota Democrat added. She said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer is “hopeful.”

If they can get both that and the SSM bill - along with obviously the budget and NDAA - that'd already be quite the lame duck.  Getting greedy, there's also the war powers rollback and the tech antitrust bill.  The former could rather intuitively be tied to the NDAA, but I haven't heard much on the latter since this two weeks ago.  We'll see.

[Martell Spy]

Surprise, surprise. We already knew Herschel Walker was dtf, but it turns out also doles out physical abuse. And he thinks he's the most qualified to make healthcare decisions for women. It seems like if he wants to improve women's healthcare he should a. Stop hitting them and b. wear a condom.

[LongRider]

Not tired of all his losing. 
 

 

[A True Kaniggit]

29 minutes ago, LongRider said:

Not tired of all his losing. 

But are you tired of all the winning?

That was the the question. 

[LongRider]

6 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

But are you tired of all the winning?

That was the the question. 

Not any more. 

[Jaxom 1974]

This seems like it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand...

 

 

[Mindwalker]

16 hours ago, DMC said:

It may be remarkably cynical, but they have the gall to attack Biden from the left and subsequently derive excuses for - almost certainly - voting against the paid sick leave measure.

Well, ofc it's cynical, but otoh, somebody has to - the so-called progressive Dems certainly won't.

[DMC]

4 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

Well, ofc it's cynical, but otoh, somebody has to - the so-called progressive Dems certainly won't.

....it's cynical because they have no interest in passing the 7 day measure.  In other words, they're full of shit.  OTOH, most Dems, progressive or otherwise, would publicly vote for such a measure.

[Mindwalker]

Yes, I know what you meant w cynical and that the Republicans are not really pro workers, but thx for explaining it to me.

On another note, this Herschel "fan" is hysterical:

 

[LongRider]

41 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

This seems like it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand...

 

 

Pablo Eskobear, don’t dismiss him just because he died of an overdose of cocaine he found in the forest.   Many, perhaps even some in the House might do the same.   

[Maithanet]

On 12/1/2022 at 9:09 AM, Maithanet said:

Does anyone have a good person to follow WRT GA early voting and what it means?  I feel like I'm seeing a ton of "this is really good for Warnock" but not a lot of explanation for why. 

No one responded to this, but I think I found what I was looking for.  This guy is comparing early voting for the runoff with early voting on Nov 6 (thus this is an apples to apples comparison, it isn't giving a biased picture because Democrats like early voting more).  The counties you see below are the largest counties in Georgia (you will notice that Dems won most of the largest counties because the Republicans dominate most of rural Georgia and Georgia has almost 200 counties for some reason). 

Anyways, going into the final day of early voting, Democrats have hit between 47% and 75% of November early voting totals in the 13 big counties that Dems won in November.  Median is 61%.  In the 9 counties Republicans won, they have hit between 34% and 61% of their November early vote total.  Median is 55% (and the 3 lowest counties are all Republican). 

This is a really strong picture for Warnock.  It is pretty clear that Democrats are more motivated/enthusiastic to vote in this runoff than Republicans.  Unless you can make an argument for why Georgia Republicans have soured on early voting since November (and thus election day will be even more favorable for Republicans than it was last month), then it looks very much like Warnock will win by more than he did Nov 6. 

 

[Maithanet]

And here's looking at it from a different angle, % of black vote.  Considering Warnock won when the early vote was 29% black, if it ends up being 31%, that feels like a very good place to be. 

 

[Martell Spy]

Alex Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/business/alex-jones-bankruptcy/index.html

Quote

 

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones filed for personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Texas court on Friday, according to court documents.

In the documents, Jones estimates his assets to be worth between $1 to 10 million, and his liabilities to be between $1 to $10 billion. The Infowars host’s primary company, Free Speech Systems, also filed for bankruptcy protection in July.

Jones’ personal filing comes after he lost a bid in Texas to reduce the nearly $50 million damages award handed down by a jury earlier this year over his false claims about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.