All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Jack Dracula]

I imagine enough of them voted for him because he was the GOP's candidate, and I bet plenty of them are disgusted by what he did.

I'm certain Trump has his cult and sadly, always will, but that won't matter if enough sane Republicans leave the party or flip

So disgusted that they're speaking out against Trump, McConnell and the GOP and are willing to vote for a Democrat?
They may not like Trump as much now but they still love their guns and hate immigrants and homosexuals.

Edit: I honestly want to be wrong here, but the odds the GOP is going to do what's right for the country and Democracy are slim.

[Wildling]

A good chunk of the people who voted for Trump voted for SCOTUS judges and Republican causes, not because they liked Trump.

This is key. Even SCOTUS rejected Trump's election fantasies. You'd think Republican causes would include not sabotaging Georgia elections for the GOP (general and runoff). Trump is at the loser end for both, and there is still so much pandemic time for all eyes to digest that even before 01/06 and ensuing investigations run their course.

Even if Trump wasn't convicted in the Senate, he's already at the double impeached wrong side of history of losing.

[DrNewGod]

... If he can keep Trump somewhat in line he will keep the crazies engaged and the moderates will follow because they still vote for the hope of a sane GOP over any Democratic candidate. He has Trump right where he wants him and nothing to lose.

That's what worries me. We've had a four solid year lesson in how nobody can keep Trump in line. Wild And Crazy is his patella reflex. Squeezing him into desperation just feels dangerous.

[Gray Lensman]

So disgusted that they're speaking out against Trump, McConnell and the GOP and are willing to vote for a Democrat?
They may not like Trump as much now but they still love their guns and hate immigrants and homosexuals.

Most of them? Of course not. But losing a few hundred thousand, or even worse, a couple million in addition to keeping the Democrats motivated enough to keep turning out is enough of a nightmare scenario for the GoP - they are looking at the possibility of the coming demographic shift effectively happening NOW rather then in another decade or two, and risking them becoming a permanent opposition party.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

This is key. Even SCOTUS rejected Trump's election fantasies.

The Senate judges were people on the Republican list of recommendees, not Trump loyalists. They are GOP judges and not Magats, which I think Trump is probably regretting about now. Bet he wishes he sent say, Michael Flynn or Giuliani there.

The entire issue with Barrett's confirmation radicalized the base because they needed to turn out in enough numbers to keep the Dems from packing the courts, and in that sense, they've succeeded for the time being. Court packing has been kicked down the road temporarily. Eventually it will happen, but not in the current administration and not until 2022 or 2024.

[DrNewGod]

The Senate judges were people on the Republican list of recommendees, not Trump loyalists. They are GOP judges and not Magats, which I think Trump is probably regretting about now. Bet he wishes he sent say, Michael Flynn or Giuliani there.

The entire issue with Barrett's confirmation radicalized the base because they needed to turn out in enough numbers to keep the Dems from packing the courts, and in that sense, they've succeeded for the time being. Court packing has been kicked down the road temporarily. Eventually it will happen, but not in the current administration and not until 2022 or 2024.

Federalist Society curated the list IIRC. This has been a project of theirs for decades.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

By the way, today at Capitol, we had Representative Boebert, the one who tweeted out Speaker Pelosi's whereabouts after being ordered not to by the Sergeant at Arms, walking in to work today past the metal detector and setting it off. She refused to co-operated and open her stuff and basically bullied the security.
https://www.cpr.org/2021/01/12/boebe...tal-detectors/

Federalist Society curated the list IIRC. This has been a project of theirs for decades.

Federalist Society types like to go the extra mile of making their abhorrent judicial philosophy seem natural and consolidated and immovable, they operate with a larger sense of time than Trump does. So that's why on confirmation, Kavanagh, Gorsuch and Barrett are all "new number? who dis?" on Trump's election lawsuits.

Trump is old and getting older, he is limited at most to 2 full terms and he's a gambler and chancer who basically doesn't care enough for himself. So that makes him different from McConnell who has a longer sense of time, and the SCOTUS.

[Amadeus Arkham]

Scoop: McConnell leans toward convicting Trump

There's a better than 50-50 chance that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would vote to convict President Trump in an impeachment trial, sources tell Axios.

What they're saying: "The Senate institutional loyalists are fomenting a counterrevolution" to Trump, said a top Republican close to McConnell.

Why it matters: This would represent one of the most shocking and damning votes in the history of American politics, by the most powerful Republican in Congress.

McConnell's vote would open the door to the possibility that Trump could be convicted and prohibited from running for president again.
An anti-Trump infection is spreading among Hill Republicans:

House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming — the third-ranking House GOP leader, and a top establishment voice — announced that she will vote to impeach Trump.
Cheney said of the Capitol mob: "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."
The New York Times reported that McConnell "has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him."

Axios is told McConnell sees this fight as his legacy — defending the Senate and the institution against the verbal attack of the president and the literal attack of his followers.

[Tami]

Mikie Sherrill claims Congress members gave 'reconnaissance' tours day before Capitol raid

In a live webcast Tuesday evening, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11, made a startling claim that some members of Congress led groups of people through the Capitol Building on a "reconnaissance" tour one day before the riot that laid a deadly siege on the government's legislative branch.

During the Facebook Live, Sherrill, a Montclair resident, addressed her constituents to explain why she voted for a resolution to implore Vice President Mike Pence to remove President Donald Trump from office by invoking the 25th Amendment, and, after that measures foreseen failure, why she intends to support an article of impeachment against Trump for "incitement of insurrection."

"I'm going to see they are held accountable, and if necessary, ensure that they don't serve in Congress," she said, speaking sedately, but severely.

Sherrill did not specify whether the "groups" were visibly staunch adherents of President Trump's, nor did she detail what she described as "a reconnaissance," a term that hearkens back to Sherrill's prior military service and refers to an exploratory mission for the purpose of gaining enemy information.

[Tendrin]

Most of the big GOP donors also donate to the Dems. So that's not too much of a concern. The donors who leave today will come back if the GOP makes a show of reform and brings forth a more agreeable candidate.

Absolutely. And if these GOP members who are seeing a loss of corporate donor support manage to cling to office through personal wealth or other avenues, those donors will come back.[/quote]

That's assuming that Mitch McConnell is some mastermind genius rather than an obnoxious ******* with a hall monitor's prissiness. McConnell looks a bit like Mr. Burns but he's really Martin Prince and Trump is Nelson or the Three Bullies.

Mitch never had it in him to keep Trump in line or in control. There was never a moment where McConnell and not Trump was calling the shots in the party. McConnell has a say in the Senate but not a total one. In the past many candidates McConnell backed got primaried and usurped by either Tea Party types or Magats. McConnell appealed to Trump's vanity and ego by making his legislative agenda into his, by selling it as "owning the libs" and getting one over Obama which was a theme he followed in his historic obstruction in Obama's final years.

McConnell cost himself his own Senate majority. He insisted and supported the AZ governor to have Martha McSally take McCain's seat despite her losing an election to Sinema. That action irritated AZ voters who felt that a candidate they rejected was given a position she wasn't elected for. That made McSally vulnerable to Mark Kelly. McConnell lost Arizona and also Georgia (the stimulus bill nonetheless). The GOP would have had an even worse election in 2020 and lost more seats had RBG not died and McConnellh hadn't rushed to seat Barrett. The big thing that helped the GOP down-ballot on election night, that was luck, not McConnell's doing.

Much of this is true but I think you're underestimating McConnel a little bit.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Much of this is true but I think you're underestimating McConnel a little bit.

That might be because so many people overestimated him. People call him "the Grim Reaper" and so on and make him out to be some kind of scheming Machiavellian genius. But he's not. He's an opportunist out for personal power and party power but not someone with a considerable vision of what to do with that power beyond reaffirming his and his party's position.

McConnell is smart and cunning certainly, but if we think about the stuff that gave GOP its big position he didn't have much or anything to do with say, the gerrymandering operation that led to the ratf--king, he didn't have anything to do with the GOP Presidential candidates, and he certainly didn't do anything substantial to prevent his party from being taken over by Tea Party or Magats.

McConnell didn't create or help to inspire a mainstream version of conservatism that opposed the Tea Party and Magat currents. So in that sense he's not a party leader or someone with a real vision. He's a political mediocrity. He oversaw the GOP party's drift away from its oligarchical leadership and either did nothing to stop or anticipate it, nothing to counter it, or was unable to do anything with it. Either way, this guy was incapable of saving his party from its worst elements.

Lyndon B. Johnson...now that was a guy who knew what to do with Senate power and that's why he's "Master of the Senate" while McConnell is just palaver.

[Tendrin]

That might be because so many people overestimated him. People call him "the Grim Reaper" and so on and make him out to be some kind of scheming Machiavellian genius. But he's not. He's an opportunist out for personal power and party power but not someone with a considerable vision of what to do with that power beyond reaffirming his and his party's position.

McConnell is smart and cunning certainly, but if we think about the stuff that gave GOP its big position he didn't have much or anything to do with say, the gerrymandering operation that led to the ratf--king, he didn't have anything to do with the GOP Presidential candidates, and he certainly didn't do anything substantial to prevent his party from being taken over by Tea Party or Magats.

McConnell didn't create or help to inspire a mainstream version of conservatism that opposed the Tea Party and Magat currents. So in that sense he's not a party leader or someone with a real vision. He's a political mediocrity. He oversaw the GOP party's drift away from its oligarchical leadership and either did nothing to stop or anticipate it, nothing to counter it, or was unable to do anything with it. Either way, this guy was incapable of saving his party from its worst elements.

Lyndon B. Johnson...now that was a guy who knew what to do with Senate power and that's why he's "Master of the Senate" while McConnell is just palaver.

I mean, he called *himself* the grim reaper, and it was accurate. More bills died on his desk than any other. And he's absolutely a schemer. Whether or not he's a genius depends on your view of the longer term implications of his actions, and whether or not they hold true. His vision involved locking in permanent minority control, and I'd say his actions went a long ways to doing so, since it was judges, judges, judges, and enabling the operations of the people in question. A lot of his gambles have paid off in the short term. The longer term implications of them remain to be seen.

In many ways, I would say that McConnel has been even more destructive to the country than Trump, simply by acting as his chief enabler. That he now, at long last, *may* be willing to throw Trump from the train will mean nothing to his larger, more viciously destructive legacy.

Now LBJ? Yeah, LBJ was his superior in every way, and man oh man, if they were up against each other? LBJ would annihilate MCConnel. He'd withdraw so far into his shell we wouldn't find him for days, but that's mostly on account of the fact that McConnel basically aped some of LBJ's methods in the first place, but I'd absolutely call MCConnel the most effective Senator *since* LBJ, if one considers his actual goals and aims.

[DrNewGod]

I think we're gonna have give historians and political scientists about 15 years to write this script of Deadliest Warrior

That might be because so many people overestimated him. People call him "the Grim Reaper" and so on and make him out to be some kind of scheming Machiavellian genius. But he's not. He's an opportunist out for personal power and party power but not someone with a considerable vision of what to do with that power beyond reaffirming his and his party's position.

McConnell is smart and cunning certainly, but if we think about the stuff that gave GOP its big position he didn't have much or anything to do with say, the gerrymandering operation that led to the ratf--king, he didn't have anything to do with the GOP Presidential candidates, and he certainly didn't do anything substantial to prevent his party from being taken over by Tea Party or Magats.

McConnell didn't create or help to inspire a mainstream version of conservatism that opposed the Tea Party and Magat currents. So in that sense he's not a party leader or someone with a real vision. He's a political mediocrity. He oversaw the GOP party's drift away from its oligarchical leadership and either did nothing to stop or anticipate it, nothing to counter it, or was unable to do anything with it. Either way, this guy was incapable of saving his party from its worst elements.

Lyndon B. Johnson...now that was a guy who knew what to do with Senate power and that's why he's "Master of the Senate" while McConnell is just palaver.

I mean, he called *himself* the grim reaper, and it was accurate. More bills died on his desk than any other. And he's absolutely a schemer. Whether or not he's a genius depends on your view of the longer term implications of his actions, and whether or not they hold true. His vision involved locking in permanent minority control, and I'd say his actions went a long ways to doing so, since it was judges, judges, judges, and enabling the operations of the people in question. A lot of his gambles have paid off in the short term. The longer term implications of them remain to be seen.

In many ways, I would say that McConnel has been even more destructive to the country than Trump, simply by acting as his chief enabler. That he now, at long last, *may* be willing to throw Trump from the train will mean nothing to his larger, more viciously destructive legacy.

Now LBJ? Yeah, LBJ was his superior in every way, and man oh man, if they were up against each other? LBJ would annihilate MCConnel. He'd withdraw so far into his shell we wouldn't find him for days, but that's mostly on account of the fact that McConnel basically aped some of LBJ's methods in the first place, but I'd absolutely call MCConnel the most effective Senator *since* LBJ, if one considers his actual goals and aims.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Cori Bush is a treasure. She addresses Lauren Boebert and other Congressmen who want to open carry after Wednesday's insurrection:

[Wildling]

Scoop: McConnell leans toward convicting Trump

Do it Mitch! Sniff all of the cocaine!