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

[numberthirty]

Past that...

Someone is going to have to break down, in considerable detail, how Sinema/Manchin bear the responsibility for this. -

[Mister Mets]

It's kinda like a civil war in a sense, the progressives want to make the party better while the moderates and centrists want to push them out of the party

The moderates and centrists think they're making the party better as well. There are major policy disagreements.

Moderates and centrists think the progressives are too idealistic, and inconsiderate of potential consequences.

Crowley needed to be challenged. And she won by getting out the vote in a traditionally low turnout primary, in which Crowley did not show up. I don't think Gillibrand is seen as not liberal enough. Also, winning in her district and in all of NY State are vastly different. I highly doubt she would run against Gillibrand.

My impression is that while a primary against Schumer would be political suicide, Gillibrand was weakened by a mediocre presidential campaign.

I don't know if AOC can beat her. So far no member of the squad has won a statewide primary.

I suspect AOC thinks she could win, as she has argued that a progressive approach will do better in elections than the alternative. If she believes this is a strategy that can work in national elections, it can surely work in a statewide primary in New York. And Gillibrand does have a reputation for shamelessness that means there wouldn't be any moral objection to a primary.

There's a reason for that. The GOP are just carbon copies of each other, you meet one, you've met them all. The dems have somewhat different goals and personalities from each other.

There are major policy and procedural differences between Republicans

In last election cycle, Democrats had about 20 candidates at this point if I remember correctly. Surely Biden is not going to run again? I am sure they are talking about it behind close doors, but isn't it about the time to make some announcements or is it too early? Are there any suitable candidates? Stacey Abrams comes to mind, but she is probably going to focus on Georgia now.

Typically announcements are made shortly after the midterms.

Now is what would be considered the invisible primary stage, when potential candidates test the waters.

But it does seem that 2024 will have a heavy favorite for the Democratic nomination. Either the President will run for another term, or an African American female Vice President will be the heavy favorite to be the first woman elected to the White House.

Stacey Abrams would need to win election in a slightly right-leaning state against a popular incumbent in what looks to be a bad year for her party.

[Kirby101]

Past that...

Someone is going to have to break down, in considerable detail, how Sinema/Manchin bear the responsibility for this. -

You mean when she made the assessment before Russia invaded Ukraine, causing oil prices to skyrocket and kicking inflation into high gear? Bad on her for not be psychic. And let's knock the Administration for being honest now. Anything to bash Biden, huh 30?

[numberthirty]

You mean when she made the assessment before Russia invaded Ukraine, causing oil prices to skyrocket and kicking inflation into high gear? Bad on her for not be psychic. And let's knock the Administration for being honest now. Anything to bash Biden, huh 30?

Actually a lot more like...

Let's just actually be honest about that these people called it all wrong, and do not have anything like a plan for the here and now even though they ran on being the "Professional..." option last time out.

You don't get to run on that, and then just say "Boy, who coulda had a plan for any of this?..."

In the same way that Trump had to take a punch in the nose for things beyond his control?

Biden does.

That goes double when Biden's plan for when things got "Knee Deep..." doesn't seem to be any better than Trump's for when Covid when worldwide.

If you get caught slipping?

That has consequences, and you can't just blame two folks from Congress for the plans that you do not have.

[Jack Dracula]

Who are both literally members of the party...

If Democrats went after either of them with half of the venom that they were slinging at Sanders?

Then, maybe, there would be something worth discussing.

Out in the real world?

Everyone and their pet turtle saw Democrats not even lift so much as a finger to deal with either one of them.

The two of them stop being "Responsible..." right around the time that the party allowed them to decide that the rest of the party would be having Flamin' Hot Cheetos for dinner.

Right around then?

It is absolutely the responsibility of a party that watched them do it, and just shrugged it's collective shoulders...

Yes, Democrats hate Sanders so much they gave him an important position on the cabinet.

And your speculation about how much pressure was brought to bear on Manchin and Sinema has been noted.

[Scott Taylor]

The moderates and centrists think they're making the party better as well. There are major policy disagreements.

Moderates and centrists think the progressives are too idealistic, and inconsiderate of potential consequences.

I'm not so sure that the moderates and centrists aren't just being practical, even if only temporarily. And they know that as long as they wear the Democrat label they will still get the Democratic Party constituent vote when up against a Republican. So what do they have to lose?

[worstblogever]

In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, a former pastor who has referred to same sex marriage as “an attack upon the family” while campaigning for office, thinks being gay is a choice, refers to climate change a myth, spoke at length about his frustration of endangered birds receiving more protection from the government than fetuses, blamed the Sandy Hook Massacre on “welfare moms overmedicating their kids to get more benefits” and in June of 2016 against a measure that would have made it illegal for firearms transfers to people who were suspected terrorists on the “no fly list”. His Christian principles lead him to believe migrant children should be thrown out of the country because in the Bible, being kind to strangers doesn’t specify that they should be citizens of the country you live in. Seriously, this guy is such a fanatic when he was asked about the national debt, his solution was to pray that it gets better. He currently is pushing for “religious freedom” legislation because he defines no being allowed to discriminate against gay people as “being targeted for his faith”, claiming they are the real victims in a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” situation. Lankford’s also prolifically absent in Congress when it comes time to vote, as he missed almost 10% of them from his final term serving in the House. Near the end of our 2015 entry about Lankford, we noted he had found himself amongst the #47Traitors, for writing a letter to the leaders of Iran trying to undermine the peace treaty that the Obama administration had arranged with them, and was campaigning to push for national “religious freedom” laws to allow for the discrimination of LGBTQ citizens and prevent them from having equal rights based on the supposed faith of who was discriminating against them. He has also voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted to maintain the gun rights of people on the no-fly list so they could procure firearms for mass shootings, voted to try and block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the United States, and refused to consider Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court because “he isn’t conservative enough”, waiting a year to vote for Neil Gorsuch.

Since we last updated our annual look at James Lankford, he has made several troubling votes, including continuing to vote for every Trump administration nominee, no matter how unqualified or utterly appalling (including torture maven Gina Haspel to be the head of the CIA), he voted against disaster relief funding for victims of Hurricane Harvey back in October of 2017, and in December of 2017, he voted for the big GOP Tax Plan Scam.

For all that party line bulls***, does Sen. Lankford get any love from the White House. HA! No. Trump doesn’t even know his name, he calls him “Tom”. And yet… he still blindly supports him, by doing things like vote for Donald Trump’s supposed “national emergency” on the U.S./Mexico border.

Or in other key votes:

• February 14th, 2019: Lankford votes to approve the nomination of William Barr to be the country’s Attorney General, even though he was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s. (SPOILER ALERT: He’s still crooked as a snake with scoliosis).
• January 31st, 2020: Sen. Lankford votes against witnesses being allowed in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, effectively making it a “trial”.
• February 5th, 2020: James Lankford votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of the mountain of evidence showing that he solicited foreign assistance in the 2020 elections.
• February 25th, 2020: Lankford co-sponsors and votes for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, an insane piece of anti-choice legislation that would ask abortion providers to try to admit aborted fetuses to a hospital if they were “alive” after the procedure, which is medically impossible given the age that abortions can be performed at.
• February 13th, 2021: Sen. Lankford votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because accountability for inciting a violent coup attempt is somehow anathema to the majority of the Republican Party.
• March 6th, 2021: Lankford votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he can’t be bothered to care if people need financial assistance during a pandemic.
• May 28th, 2021: Sen. Lankford votes against creating an independent commission to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol, because he knows members of his own caucus are up to their eyeballs in seditious activities, and he’ll cover for Donald Trump’s coup crew any time.
• March 30th, 2022: Lankford votes against putting the extremely qualified nominee, Judge Kentanji Brown-Jackson, onto the Supreme Court.

James Lankford spent most of the Covid-19 pandemic fretting about the fact that people received any of their stimulus money, opining that they were being given a “disincentivize” from going back to work, and that a $1200 payment was “too generous”.

Because we know a pastor must have read the Bible and learned all the important lessons where Jesus thumbed his nose at the poor and sick. BUT SPEAKING OF PASTORS… Lankford has a 2022 GOP Primary challenger for his Senate seat, and it’s… another pastor! But before you go thinking there’s a Republican with a conscience to actually tout the hypocrisy Lankford has shown as a Christian… Jackson Lahmeyer, his 29 year old challenger, is endorsed by the pardoned Trump-aligned felon, former General Michael Flynn, and will be attacking Lankford for not being loyal ENOUGH to Donald Trump. Lankford is refusing to debate Lahmeyer going into the primary, a move we kind of hope doesn’t backfire for him.

Don’t get us wrong, we would love for the Senate to be rid of James Lankford but… not like that. Please, not like that.

[Tami]

Sometimes the good news doesn't come fast enough......Former Trump aide Navarro indicted for defying Jan. 6 panel

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Sometimes the good news doesn't come fast enough......Former Trump aide Navarro indicted for defying Jan. 6 panel

It’s about time someone was called to task for that.

[4saken1]

Who are both literally members of the party...

If Democrats went after either of them with half of the venom that they were slinging at Sanders?

Seems to me that most of the Sanders vitriol was aimed at that 20% or so of his supporters who were so butthurt that they would rather have Trump as President. You know, the ones who were screaming "**** BERNIE!!!" when he endorsed the Democratic nominee (twice)? If you didn't hear the level of venom against Sinema and Manchin as louder than that against Sanders himself, it's because you didn't want to. What, exactly, do you propose Democrats do against these two? Whatever you can come up with I'm sure would have done ****-all to change the outcome!

[numberthirty]

Past all of that...

You've got a baby formula shortage that is literally happening because the current administration apparently is incapable of getting a facility inspected/squared away/back up and running when said facility is one of what is apparently only a handful in America...

Again, I take it there is a way to pin that on a member of Congress or Putin?

[numberthirty]

Seems to me that most of the Sanders vitriol was aimed at that 20% or so of his supporters who were so butthurt that they would rather have Trump as President. You know, the ones who were screaming "**** BERNIE!!!" when he endorsed the Democratic nominee (twice)? If you didn't hear the level of venom against Sinema and Manchin as louder than that against Sanders himself, it's because you didn't want to. What, exactly, do you propose Democrats do against these two? Whatever you can come up with I'm sure would have done ****-all to change the outcome!

How about anything except...

Do right around "Nothing..."/Shrug shoulders/Throw towel in.

To start with.

[numberthirty]

Seems to me that most of the Sanders vitriol was aimed at that 20% or so of his supporters who were so butthurt that they would rather have Trump as President. You know, the ones who were screaming "**** BERNIE!!!" when he endorsed the Democratic nominee (twice)? If you didn't hear the level of venom against Sinema and Manchin as louder than that against Sanders himself, it's because you didn't want to. What, exactly, do you propose Democrats do against these two? Whatever you can come up with I'm sure would have done ****-all to change the outcome!

As for this?

Seriously, cite some examples of other Democratic members of Congress or in the current administration doing anything like that.

[Reviresco]

Sometimes the good news doesn't come fast enough......Former Trump aide Navarro indicted for defying Jan. 6 panel

I was dancing in my chair when I heard this news. LOL!


Republican response to Navarro's indictment and arrest:

https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/s...Extir4hyyi5jMw

"If you're a Republican, you can't even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they're coming after you"

[babyblob]

Sometimes the good news doesn't come fast enough......Former Trump aide Navarro indicted for defying Jan. 6 panel

I loved when he said the line. “I was a distinguished public servant for four years!” at his anger at being out in handcuffs. Yet he is a member of the party whose cult members called for public executions of Hilary Clinton, Chanted "Hang Mike Pence." while storming the capital, and want federal agents to storm the White House and haul Biden away in chains.