Technically about unions, but the chorus is applicable:
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Well, that, but my generally point was more that they consider it a game, and that what they do and don’t do has real world consequences for the rest of us. They are literally playing games with our lives. Every day they aren’t working on the problems we face as a nation and as a world, is a day that many Americans and people around the world are suffering more. And on a much less problematic level, the Democratic party is playing into this too. There are probably more democrats who actually care about issues that they impacting us, but the leadership (which may care) leans into the game, because they see it as the only way to win (and maybe get shit done).
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I’d like to see the Senate get on with acquitting him already so that the House can start his next impeachment. Trump does impeachable stuff most days that end in “y”; there’s not going to be any shortage of material. Let’s impeach the motherfucker again. And again and again and again. He can go down in history as the president with the most impeachments. That ought to make him happy.
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This is what bothered me about Pelosi’s impeachment strategy. I’m pretty sure Pelosi is fantastic at the game. I want the Democrats to stop playing it.
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If you want to show that one side does it more, you can take a look at the assessment of who Twitter bots overwhelmingly support:
https://botsentinel.com/trending-topics?date=2020-1-23&hour=3
(It’s always Trump)
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I don’t actually want to even have that conversation (not with you, but in general). I want our politicians who represent us to have their eyes on the prize, and actually work on fixing problems, which is their job. If they weren’t all in constant re-election mode, they might be able to actually do their jobs. I’m frustrated with the whole argument about who is better or worse, when we’re facing huge, structural problems that we have to address NOW, or the entire planet is fucked…
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Yesterday I received an email blast from my congressman, a Dem, and it contained a long list of magical bills they are supposedly working on. My congresscritter knows full well they can make up magical bills to try and fool constituents into believing that they are “working hard” but, in reality government has basically been on hold for two years now. Nothing they do will ever see the light of day. Games are a foot indeed.
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It is a bad sign of falling into cult-like behavior.
Scientology is very big on everything being a game, even existence. (And WE have the cheat codes!) It’s useful for compartmentalizing thought so that people can be happy about their game and that their statistic is up this week, without having to think about that their job is screwing people out of their life-savings.
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Awesome…so I won’t be getting to see my father in law any time soon. Guess i’s his fault for living in a shit hole right? (/s) We cannot get this asshole out of office soon enough.
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That’s not entirely true. McConnell’s senate has been ignoring bills sent over from the house (although MConnell seems to have no problems with getting judges approved, and budget bills for expanding the pentagon sail on through):
And it was a problem even back in 2010, when the Democrats were in control of both houses, so it’s not just a partisan issue, I think:
So, some people are doing something, others are not.
You can always ask for more details from your congresscritter, too.
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Government for the people to clarify.
For the 1% it’s working perfectly.
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True, and sadly, they may be right.
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“Nigeria, Belarus, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania.”
Nice. Excepting Belarus (you have to include one non-black or brown country) there is a theme here.
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And do what? What are the alternatives?
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Not playing the game has gotten people like AOC elected. She actually talked about the issues that mattered to her constituents, both prior to election and since she’s been in office.
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That was waaaay back when the Senate operated by rules that included the need for 60 votes to get almost anything done. GOP was in full obstruction mode. When Harry Reid lost patience with it and temporarily suspended those rules to get some shit done, that gave McConnell the (BS) excuse later to ignore those rules. Which is how we got Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on SCOTUS.
But that’s talk. I’m a big fan of AOC, but what has she gotten done? It’s not her fault that the Dem-led House is doubly-impotent right now, because the GOP-led Senate won’t even bring House bills to the floor, and if they did, and against all odds passed them, they would get vetoed out of spite by Trump.
The problem remains that the GOP is playing Calvinball. Anyone and everyone can talk all they want, there’s not a whole lot they can do expect play the game. At least until we’re ready to move to general strikes and major protests. Frankly, that’s the next step if the impeachment trial goes like it looks like it will.
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I’m aware. I’m pointing out that the congress is not entirely useless, and there are people who are actively working, as we voted for them to do, but there are structural issues in the way. Even back 2010, the “game” was a reason why they had problems getting things done.
Well, she can’t do it alone. She was doing a bang up job in asking probing questions in her committee. Here are bills she’s either sponsored or co-sponsored - I don’t know if that’s typical for a freshman congressperson with no seniority, but this looks like she’s working her ass off to me:
If you take co-sponsored into account, that is a much higher number:
She has not been in the house that long.
And again, there have been HUNDREDS of bills since the last election that McConnell has SAT on.
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That makes sense. Continue pushing and passing bills to keep piling on pressure against McConnell. However, on that note, Pelosi is doing the same, no? Even if she doesn’t have the best policies, I think Pelosi is exactly the Speaker we need right now. Because she knows how to play the game.
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Local politics is where it’s at:
Doing something! 
I saw one the other day easily over a mile from it’s parent store. Laying on its side lonely, abandoned and sad.
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