The General 'Murican Politics Thread

[SSF1991]

It's fucking happening.

 

 

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Good luck trying to get that past the Republican Senate...

[SSF1991]

5 hours ago, Ellipsis-Ultima said:

Good luck trying to get that past the Republican Senate...

I don't think anyone's expecting this to get past the Senate. But Trump's corrupt shit will dominate the news cycle for potentially months as the inquiry progresses, further hurting his already low approval rating. We'll get more insight on his actions from the Russia collusion scandal as well as the Ukraine collusion attempt. it puts Dems on the offensive and keeps Trump from having control of the narrative like usual. As for Senate Republicans, a public spotlight of immense pressure will be put on them. If they do shockingly vote to impeach him, hell yeah! If they don't, then the public will not let them live that shame down and Democrats have even more ammunition that they can use against them in the coming election. And, considering that holding Trump accountable is part of the reason why Dems got the House back in the first place, the Dem base will be very energized by this.

[Heckboy]

Nothing will happen. 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Still telling how it took 10 accounts of obstruction of justice and a possible international scandal to get this far when Clinton was done in by getting blown.

But I suppose this is to make an example of the republicans that support him by putting them more in the spotlight: simply put, announce to every American that either you support the president breaking the law or you don’t. Because no way would they have tolerated Obama even doing one of the things that’s gotten Trump into hot water.

 

[Wittymations]

Adding my two cents. Two and a half.

I'm not entirely sure how the Impeachment stuff is done, I was waaay too young to care about the Clinton blowjob thing, but I do have worries that the majority controlled Senate get to dictate what happens. Like, sure they'll let the Democrats have a "say" but they'll still control the narrative, how evidence is presented, and how much goes through.

Basically, worried about McConnell will turn this around and make it look, at best, "Trump did minor stuff, no big deal. Coffee level bad deeds," to at worst "DEMS ARE OUT TO HURT THE PRESIDENT."

If both sides are at least able to present all their points to the public, I can at least take solace in that. Obviously, no way Republican senators are gonna support impeachment when their seats are up for grabs next year -- even  though, let's be honest, most of them are safe. McConnel's been there forever, not like Kentucky's gonna elect a Democratic senator.

I dunno. Certainly a helluva time to start this stuff. Kinda wondering how this will trinkle down to the coming governor races, like Bevin vs Beshear.

[Kevin]

When history books are being written about this whole ordeal, the thing that will truly stand out is how the actions of one person brought down an entire administration in one week vs an investigation that took place over 2 years!

[Johnny Boy]

On 9/30/2019 at 11:05 PM, lulzers said:

Something tells me that after Trump is impeached, he'll linger on like Ken Penders: causing trouble despite no longer being President.

Assuming he won’t be in a prison cell by then.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

And the White House isn't co operating.

[Patticus]

On 9/25/2019 at 3:20 AM, Pumpkin Spice Ultima said:

Good luck trying to get that past the Republican Senate...

It would be no bad thing at all to force every Republican politician to publicly vote against impeachment after all of the evidence gathering, the hearings, the damning testimony from the apparently ever increasing number of whistleblowers.

That way, five years down the line, when the whole GOP is decrying Trumpism, when they're all claiming to have been against him from the beginning (as they inevitably will), we can point to the impeachment votes and say, "No, you definitely supported and enabled the kleptocratic, kakistocratic, stochastic terrorist fascism of the would-be King Trump, you sickening fucks."

Then we curb stomp their worthless careers and replace them with more AOCs.

[Tailikku]

And of course, the crowds at the World Series were shouting "LOCK HIM UP" since Trump was visiting, along with hisses and boos at him and his entourage.

Naturally, Trump took this as people wanting him to be locked up because he's doing too good of a job as President. *facepalm*

[Patticus]

1 hour ago, Tailikku said:

Naturally, Trump took this as people wanting him to be locked up because he's doing too good of a job as President. *facepalm*

Are you sure?

 

[Indigo Rush]

On 9/11/2019 at 7:38 PM, SenEDDtor Missile said:

Of course the GOP fucking take advantage of a national tragedy for their own gain, because why the fuck not:

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/a-new-low-nc-republicans-override-governors-veto-while-dems-attended-9-11-ceremony/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

For those interested, (such as myself, as NC is my state of residence) the Senate is going to vote on the veto override today. They've been dragging their feet on this for weeks, and whenever there are enough Democrats present to prevent an override, they delay it to the next day. The President pro tempore (Berger) has said that even if they can't secure the override, they'll adjourn normal session today and just rely on some 'mini' budgets they passed to get the non-Medicaid stuff taken care of. 

It's been a wild ride.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50246324

Now they voted to proceed with the impeachment inquiry. 232 in favour and 196 against.

[Patticus]

22 hours ago, Whispering Ultima said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50246324

Now they voted to proceed with the impeachment inquiry. 232 in favour and 196 against.

232 patriots, 196 career criminals.

Un-fucking-believable.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

These Republicans do realize they don’t have to go down with Trump, do they?

They’re part of a co-equal branch—if he does something they know is wrong, they can reel him in, Twitter Tantrum be damned.

Shit’s already looking bad in the area that are likely going purple.

[Bowbowis]

If Republicans want to lash themselves to the mast I say let them. The harder they fight impeachment now the more ammunition they give Democrats in the future. It's going to be hard for the Republicans to pull the "holier than thou" antics they relied on during the Obama years now that they've been in bed with Trump.

 

In other news: Pete Buttigieg has surged in Iowa and is now basically tied with Biden and Sanders.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/us/politics/iowa-poll-warren-biden.html

[Tani Coyote]

Democrats took the Kentucky Governorship and both legislative chambers in Virginia on Tuesday.

Kentucky is likely one of those fluke elections where the Republican is so bad the red state picks a Democrat (see also, the Dems taking Kansas in 2018 and Missouri in 2012), but Virginia's trifecta is huge. This puts Democrats in a position to revenge gerrymander (making a House majority in 2020 a little more likely), but they can also now repeal the work requirements for Medicaid that the GOP forced through in the previous session (the only way to expand Medicaid in the state was to compromise on work requirements).

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/politics/jeff-sessions-senate-run-alabama/index.html

The 2020 Senate race is about to get interesting. Jeff Sessions will be running for his old Senate seat in Alabama. This will put him against the other establishment GOP candidate and far right Roy Moore.

Unless the establishment vote comes out hard, there's a serious possibility that it will be split between Sessions and his establishment rival, Roy Moore will secure the nomination, and then he runs against Jones in the general.

Now, last election, Jones had the benefit that it was a special election without Trump at the top of the ticket. But Roy Moore getting the nomination again would greatly increase Democrats' chances of keeping that seat.

On 11/3/2019 at 6:17 AM, Conquering Storm’s Servant said:

These Republicans do realize they don’t have to go down with Trump, do they?

They’re part of a co-equal branch—if he does something they know is wrong, they can reel him in, Twitter Tantrum be damned.

That's the interesting thing. We know from sources within the Party that large numbers of Republicans would be happy to impeach and remove him... if the votes were secret.

Under the current circumstances, however, going against Trump is a good way to ensure one is thrown out of power in the next primary election. Republicans can probably survive a general challenge, but primaries are a whole other ball game, where they need to win the support of the conservative diehards to stay in. Consider: there used to be many Republicans who would sit down with Democrats on gun control. Lobbyists like the NRA ensured they were all kicked out in primaries. And that's why the GOP's rank and file tread carefully with working with Democrats now.

Really, there has never been a stronger case for term limits than politicking like this. Go figure, that was one of Trump's few proposals that was actually pretty cool. Of course it was the one he stopped caring about once he was in.

Failing that, making impeachment and removal votes secret would also be a path to take. Now some fear this would make Congress supreme but... honestly? I'm all for it. The historical record for Presidentialism is not that good, so I don't mind weakening the executive in this country.

[Heckboy]

Buttigieg is such a loser lmao.

[Dark Qiviut]

Speaking of Buttigieg…ooh, boy, did this campaign screw up so badly recently!

A few days ago, Ryan Grim posted this explosive piece on The Intercept. If you don't want to read it, he explained it all on Rising:

To get the gist of it, in order to connect better with Black voters, he touted a plan that would court prominent Black South Carolinian politicians and claimed to have had 400 Black SCarolinians, highlighting three of the biggest: Tameika Devine, Ivory Thigpen, and Johnnie Cordero. Ryan Grim found some giant problems.

1. None of the three support Buttigieg. Thigpen and Cordero plainly and clearly stated they don't endorse him or his plan.
2. Cordero (SC Dem Black Caucus chair) was actually taken off the endorsement list.
3. Thigpen not only won't endorse Buttigieg. She already endorses another candidate: Bernie Sanders, and is directly part of his state-primary campaign. Sanders surrogate Dr. Victoria Dooley provided the receipt:
4. In an email exchange with Grim, the Buttigieg campaign claimed that they sent a mass email saying they had to opt out of endorsing him by 4pm before it's released.
5. Grim looked up the race of the 400 "Black" people who supposedly endorsed Buttigieg's plan (SC law mandates filling out your race to vote). Of the 400-plus people, half of them are white! Some don't live in the state! The Buttigieg campaign's excuse this time? They wanted a multi-racial coalition. *scoff* Please!
6. Scroll to the bottom, and you'll see a picture of what's supposed to be an African-American mom and son. Here's the image:
   Spoiler

   

   
   What's the problem?
   
   Neither of these people are African-Americans. Nor are they from any of the Americas! And he used a stock photo taken from Africa to prop up a plan for African-Americans.

So after getting caught in gentrification and police scandals that has rocked Buttigieg into having less Black support than Donald Trump, he deceived prominent South Carolina Democrats and published the biggest, boldest, most racist lie of the entire Democratic primary to date! With this fraudulent scheme, flip-flopping on Medicare for All, taking tons of dough from billionaires, holding a fundraiser with the man responsible for covering up Laquan MacDonald's murder (and almost had another), pulling the "Black-people-are-homophobic" stereotype, trying to out-Republican the Democratic Party lately, and his apathy towards the black community back home, this slimeball proved he's a Republican under the "Democratic" label. If the MSM didn't like him so much right now, this would've ended his campaign right there!

[Dark Qiviut]

A little hopeful news to go along, but it needs some backstory.

Last month, Major League Baseball proposed cutting up to forty-two Minor League teams to "downsize" it, causing uproar in the baseball communities. It got little attention from virtually every presidential candidate.

Except one.

Bernie grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, so he knows firsthand how it feels to lose a baseball team very close to the community. When Bernie was the Burlington mayor, he successfully brought Minor League baseball into the state. While the Vermont Reds and Mariners didn't last long, they gathered a lot of attendance.

Whether you agree or disagree with him, Senator Sanders isn't afraid to use the bully pulpit on any corporation that tries to take advantage of their communities and the players, most of whom are legally paid below minimum wage. When there's corporate greed, he calls it out and uses his abilities as an activist within Washington's walls to bring it attention. The fact that he's running a grassroots movement within a presidential campaign brings extra attention to the sticky support within.

Today, Sanders met with Commissioner Rob Manfred to discuss the proposal.

In short, corporations, don't be greedy. Thank you, Senator, for bringing attention to this.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

 

Yes this is a thing. Note that they used the scene where Thanos fails the snap.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

1 hour ago, Winter Spirit Ultima said:

 

Yes this is a thing. Note that they used the scene where Thanos fails the snap.

If this isn't a blatant "we want to exterminate anyone remotely to the left of us and force our hateful oligarchy on everyone for our own sadistic satisfaction", I don't know what is.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Well the impeachment vote is happening today. If it goes through, a trial will be set up in the Senate.

Also Trump tries to disrupt things with a 6 page letter to Nancy Pelosi.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

So how are things looking for Kentucky right now? I think that’s one of the more important places to keep an eye on more than impeachment itself.