Procedural votes on every little thing that comes up for the next 120 days. The Senate operates on “unanimous consent” for business. Schumer and Dems can object to every piece of routine business each and every day, requiring full hearings on everything, as well as votes on the most minute piece of business. McConnell can get 51 Republicans to override this, perhaps, but doing this for every little thing will bring the Senate to a halt, bottling up the process.
it wouldn’t be pretty, but this is either important, or it’s not.
There’s just no will to effectively oppose the republicans. Just talk. There are countless tactics they could use to beat Rs at their own game. But there’s a growing disconnect between both the major parties and the will of the US populace. All 3 branches of government getting de-legitimized in such a short period can’t end well.
I feel like there is a case for impeachment against Kavanaugh and Thomas. It seems to me that the Merick Garland seat could be filled without “packing” the court.
I also think that Biden should announce his pick to fill the seat right now. He should announce that he is nominating Barack Obama. I think that is just good politics.
i won’t say that until i get a chance to see what democrats will do if they get a majority in the senate without losing the majority in the house (unlikely but barely possible). that will tell me what i need to know. if they play it as tough as the jeffersonian democrats did when the federalists left office forever with a lot of parting “gifts” to fuck with the jeffersonians who tossed the federalists into the ashcan of history, then i will feel they have their fighting spirit back. if they move along as if nothing has happened i’ll know they probably never will.
under the current rules of the senate there are no ways to prevent a trump nominee from being approved before a new congress. at most, democrats might have enough arrows in their quiver to prevent a vote before the election but if no other republicans vote against it than murkowski and collins, even the results of the arizona special election won’t make a difference. i wouldn’t mind a fight anyway but it has to be done with the knowledge that it won’t do any good unless you can get another republican on board. and even then, collins isn’t a lock. unfortunately, she folds on most of these cases.
that is no reason to give up. at this point it is more important to prepare the ground for what comes after the election, especially getting more democrats into the senate and making sure we don’t lose the majority in the house. we have to take and hold a hard line just like the jeffersonians did.
No matter what happens in November, this (whole boinging thing) isn’t going to get better. Be kind to your neighbors, and forgive your enemies who are repentant, but stand up and vote every time for morality, what’er that may be in 2024.
If they can delay until after the election and the Dems flip the AZ seat, Mark Kelly would be seated by 11/30. Still leaves a magic number of 3, and if Romney is going “ending abortion (which it will not do) is more important than not ending democracy (which it will)” then we are screwed. Still, delay and hope is all we got right now. Vote like our lives depend on it and apply as much pressure to our elected officials as possible.
If you’re gonna die, die with your boots on
If you’re gonna try, well stick around
Gonna cry, just move along
If you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die
that depends very much on whether the supreme court which sits for the next major abortion hearing has 9 justices or 11. i had been afraid the forced-birth crowd were going to turn it into this.
Even without the precedent, it’s not justifiable. There are literally hundreds of bills passed through the House awaiting consideration by the Senate, including emergency bills to deal with COVID, both epidemiologically and economically, natural disasters from hurricanes, floods, and fires, and even bills that are priorities for Republicans. Mitch can’t be bothered with those. But a SCOTUS seat opens up? Clear the decks, everybody!
Buckle up Buttercup (not directed specifically at you),
we no longer have to wonder if there will be a civil war.
We are in one.
It’s a hot culture war.
Look at the number of casualties.
Edited because it is no longer politics at all. It is a full-on, no-holds-barred culture war by any and all means available, in which politics is the first casualty. Ultimately they would like to destroy all of the institutions of US politics entirely.
Most of those are good ideas, and allowing them to be used as bargaining chips would be a real shame. If trump’s nominee is withdrawn, and DC (and Puerto Rico, assuming they want it) is blocked from statehood, that would be a tactical victory, but not neccesarily a moral one.
