All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[Raiders]

Joe Manchin is a pu**y

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Kavanaugh's liver doesn't have another 30 years.

Unfortunately, Kavanaugh won't need even three years to keep Trump and his cronies out of prison and kill Roe. v. Wade. Anything beyond that is gravy for the GOP.

[4saken1]

People keep acting like there was something they could have done but the bottom line was that when voters delivered electoral majorities in the Senate and House to the GOP and then elected Trump, this was the result. I mean, that along with voter suppression, gerrymandering, Citizens United, Russian meddling, etc, anyway. Still, /enough/ people voted for this. We punked ourselves at a critical time we couldn't afford to do so and now a chain of events is set in motion that will take a triumphant effort to stop

Yep. Too many people buried their heads in their own asses and convinced themselves that Democrats and Republicans are just the same. I doubt Hillary would have withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, or banned transgendered people from serving in the military, or ended DACA, or turned away refugees, or locked children in cages, or gotten into a tariff war, or supported rapists, racists, and pedophiles, or have half of her administration quit or be indicted, etc. Sad part is, most of them will probably be just as easily convinced next time.

[PaulBullion]

Susan Collins trying to out-Lindsey Lindsey Graham and to out-Lindsay Lindsay Lohan.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Whelp unless a huge swerve is coming Collins is going all in on defending a vote for Kavanaugh. I can’t see any way she did this without consulting Blake and Manchin. Tomorrow he’ll be confirmed.

[Tazirai]

Chumped? How did they get chumped? What were you expecting to happen? What do you think they can do? They've wounded Kavanaugh, which damages the legitimacy of his appointment. The republicans look awful pushing him through. Just /awful/.

The only thing we can do to stop any of this is vote in 2018, and every election thereafter.

My post has nothing to do with the right now. It has to do with how Democrats have played Politics in the last 10 years.
Democrats SUCK at actual Politics. In the interest of being seen as BI-PARTISAN, and able to work with the other side, Democrats lead from a position of weakness.
They give up before the fight, and then when the tides change, they want to do #McResistance.
Kavanaugh is a part of it, but it's the same **** I've been bitching about for years, you should know how I feel abotu Democrats and the way we do politics.

We **** on Progressives, whether or not they have a D or an I next to their name when we say, "HEY! Try leading with some backbone, even when the GOP wasn't in power, they acted like they had power, can we play their game?"

McConnel is a long-term thinker and *******. Democrats think 1-2 years from now. McConnel thinks, "Hmm, I'll be dead, but in Hell I still want Liberal Tears to eas my pain."

We gotta do better! Period. We can't excite our base by telling them to vote for The Joe Manchins of the world when they vote with the GOP 65% of the time, then say, Welp, that's what his constituents voted for.
Then When a Blue state Republican toes the party line say, "Welp those liberal Dems voted for him."

We can't keep playing on an uneven field.

Then have MORONS like the head of the DNC say "Yes! We'll support Democrats that vote for Kavanaugh! Make sure you guys Vote Blue in November!"

We're supposed to be excited by that?
We're supposed to keep that seat Blue when 65-75% of the Blue seats-votes go red?

[PaulBullion]

Democrats SUCK at actual Politics.

I guess it depends on what you consider politics.

The Republicans are great at destroying things, and slowing things down.

The Democrats passed the ACA, a game changer in American history, saving thousands of lives and making the lives of many Americans better. And they crafted it in a way that, even in 16 months of controlling congress AND the White House, the GOP has not been able to destroy it completely.

What kind of "Politics" have the Republicans accomplished in the past 20 years that was even a fraction as well done?

[Tazirai]

I guess it depends on what you consider politics.

The Republicans are great at destroying things, and slowing things down.

The Democrats passed the ACA, a game changer in American history, saving thousands of lives and making the lives of many Americans better. And they crafted it in a way that, even in 16 months of controlling congress AND the White House, the GOP has not been able to destroy it completely.

What kind of "Politics" have the Republicans accomplished in the past 20 years that was even a fraction as well done?

The worst kind. They've stripped rights, Given more money to the wealthy, Harmed international relations, Harmed the environment, Made sure Government DOESN'T work for the average person. Then they ran on the Government not working, and got voted in anyway. The ran on Politics of Identity, and anger, and resentment. They've lost thousands of kids. They've vilified Americans. They increased for profit prisons, etc.

I mean I could literally go on.
The GOP is TERRIBLE at Governing for US. They are amazing at Politics. Especially the politics of fear.

[aja_christopher]

We're supposed to be excited by that?

No -- you're supposed to vote for the candidate who will protect your rights (voting, reproductive, marriage equality, etc) and who won't cut the budgets for things like education, health care, and the environment.

Blame the voters -- only children should have to get "excited" to carry out a basic responsibility like voting.

Many Americans are just lazy and apathetic -- it has nothing to do with "Democrats" who would probably be doing everything you want and then some if people would just vote to keep them in power.

Legislation to make voting easier would be a good thing all around but many people won't even vote for the party that wants to protect our voting process, so place the responsibility firmly where it lies: on the voter.

[Tami]

Susan Collins trying to out-Lindsey Lindsey Graham and to out-Lindsay Lindsay Lohan.

She has me totally confused.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Collins is dumb as ****. She literally should have just said “I find him to be qualified as a judge and nothing in the FBI report or anything reported on corroborated Ford’s testimony so I’m forced to give him the benefit of the doubt”.

Instead she’s spending over an hour pissing everyone off and chastising the Democrats for how they handled it and trying to tell people their criticisms are wrong.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, David Schweikert, a former real estate vulture capitalist arch-conservative who consistently votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, defund Planned Parenthood, fails to understand how the debt ceiling works, referred to the 2013 Government Shutdown as "my idea of fun", and was once recorded on video high-fiving Rep. Ben Quayle on the floor of the house after denying a pay increase to active duty soldiers fighting the War on Terror. If that isn't tacky enough, he also showed a lack of character when he then turned around after redistricting and ran against Quayle in the 2012 GOP Primary in Arizona's 6th District, instead of the 5th, because he preferred how gerrymandered it was compared to where he started. Schweikert managed to defeat Quayle in part by running campaign ads that insinuated he was bisexual, and as a result, the rest of the Congresssional delegation from Arizona has turned their backs on him, and John Boehner removed him from all his committee assignments because, as one GOP staffer said of Schweikert, he's "one of the most egregious ***holes in the party". This is what his OWN party thinks of him. Democrats don't disagree, and certainly unions don't either, with Schweikert having compared them to Nazis, saying, "Goebbels would be proud of them."

Rep. Schweikert has returned to Washington, D.C., where he suddenly would like to avoid government shutdowns, apparently now convinced they're not so fun. Oh, but he's still a terrible legislator:

• February 16th, 2017: Schweikert votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping.
• March 16th, 2017: David Schweikert votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order.
• March 28th, 2017: Rep. Schweikert votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers' internet usage to businesses. Well, so much for privacy.
• May 4th, 2017: Schweikert votes for the House GOP's healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), postpartum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Schweikert would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: David Schweikert votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• September 8th, 2017: Rep. Schweikert chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
• October 3rd, 2017: Schweikert votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: David Schweikert votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
• February 18th, 2018: Schweikert and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
  

As stated, Schweikert's Arizona district is one of the more conservative in the state, and he won re-election in 2016 with 62% of the vote. His relationship with those constituents has soured, however, as he has dodged town halls and seen constituents host ones with him in absentia, and his home office in his district has responded to those who brought cookies and hoped to set up meetings with him... by calling the police and trying to have them arrested. For sharing baked goods, apparently.

He's also currently fund-raising by claiming Democratic organizations in his district who want to flip his seat are "inciting violence" and "setting cars on fire". Big surprise, that's not based in reality, unless maybe you get your news from Alex Jones, in which case you aren't based in reality anyway.

Then again, we are talking about a guy whose own colleagues refer to as "one of the most egregious ***holes" in Congress, so there's that. He debated his opponent, Scottsdale businesswoman and political newcomer Anita Malik, about a week ago, and showed his a-hole credentials, at one point talking down to Malik and telling her that “87 is more than 84”, leading her to snap back, “Yes, I know 87 is larger than 84, so thank you for that condescension.” Maybe the math that Schweikert should be focused on is that his own Chief of Staff was dismissed and that he’s currently the target of a House Ethics investigation over using funds from his Congressional budget (i.e. taxpayer dollars) for improper purposes.

We would like to think that scandal, as well as Schweikert’s overall d***ishness would be enough to be the end of his career… but Arizona is red, Arizona’s 6th is one of the reddest parts with it having affluent Scottsdale in it, and it went for 10 points in favor of Trump in 2016, whom Schweikert is pathologically drawn to support (because Trump is also an ***hole.) We’re afraid that he’ll survive the Blue Wave and remain in Congress for at least another two years.

[PaulBullion]

************.

[worstblogever]

Collins is dumb as ****. She literally should have just said “I find him to be qualified as a judge and nothing in the FBI report or anything reported on corroborated Ford’s testimony so I’m forced to give him the benefit of the doubt”.

Instead she’s spending over an hour pissing everyone off and chastising the Democrats for how they handled it and trying to tell people their criticisms are wrong.

"Sensible" Republicans are going "ride or die" on Kavanaugh, and by 2020, people like Susan Collins are going to have lost any hope of holding a majority in the House, Senate, or White House for decades. And the judges they're fighting so hard to appoint... there could be a movement towards getting enough of a majority in the Senate to toss out Trump judges.

2016 is going to be remembered as the beginning of "Grand Theft America" with the help of the Russians in the history books. And no one should forget it. It's going to be a day to remember like an attack on our nation, because that's what it was.

[PaulBullion]

**** Manchin.