Betsy DeVos confirmed as Education Secretary thanks to 'historic tiebreaking vote' from VP Mike Pence

Only if they (try to) punch you first, I’m afraid.

@anon85905360

He has! The toxic waste had to go somewhere, you see.

@Melizmatic

Not really. Once she’s confirmed the only person that can get rid of her is the President. And, crucially, even if God Almighty reached down from Heaven and poofed her into a slice of apple crumble, they’d just find someone just like her. It’s not like some weird extreme circumstance got her into position. Hell, someone with less baggage and sheer nuttery might even do better and be as much as a neoliberal scumbucket.

She’s going to be the education secretary and that’s that.

Still. How much damage can she do? Aside from the intelligent design, climate denial, history-rewriting, defunding and charterifying, I mean.

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Note

Those two token R no votes were awfully conditional. Jesus is more important than basic competency at your job.

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Fucking hell.

I’m going to go for a long nap under my desk and, well, who fucking cares?

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he’s number two, obviously

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Jimmy Stewart = Parents with children
John Wayne = DeVos or pick any republican I don’t really care

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Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

The worst part is that when push comes to shove all that’s going to happen to my kids is that they’ll be in the upper end of things, great local public schools and a community that is willing to pay extra taxes to keep them. It just means they’re going to surrounded by dummies when they get to college and beyond.

I just cannot comprehend why people called and wrote and told their senators that they didn’t want her and they voted for her anyway. Hopefully they remember this.

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There are 8 Republican senators up for reelection in 2018. And at this point, I suspect people thinking of challenging the incumbent in the primaries are salivating. I can’t see this helping the Democrat directly – only in that they won’t be facing an incumbent (which can make things harder).

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Tennessee, Mississippi, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Wyoming? No chance. Maybe Nevada or Arizona, but even then I wouldn’t hold my breath.

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If anyone responsible for this debacle can get voted out, it’s Heller and Flake. The others (including Bob Corker and Orrin fucking Hatch) desperately need to be voted out, but their seats are as good as safe.

Is there any Democratic group going to put up candidates so we can Vote The Bums Out? Asking seriously.

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Please just stop talking now.

Thanks.

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Jill Stein weighs in with this thoughtful, well informed message:

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I can scoot over if you want to join me under my desk.

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I used to respect John McCain. I didn’t always agree with him. But I respected him. Now. No. Fuck you. You are the same as every other spineless miserable shit bag politician who will sell out your word and honor for a vote or favor.

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Jill Stein tires me on an existential level.

@SteampunkBanana can you make room for 3 and a 100 proof?

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Or rather, they grandstanded this whole thing so that Pence could appear heroic running to the capital to cast the “historic” vote.

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Get back in your den, grizzly. We’ll have no more attacks on these kids from the likes of you!

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Jesus has always been more important than education in the USA…

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If anyone would have gone against the Republicans, it would have been Susan Collins.

Lisa Murkowski wouldn’t have surprised me either, but I’m not familiar enough with Alaska politics to draw a bead on the Murkowskis’ views on anything. All I know is that they have the tendency to go against the grain of the Republican party.

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Imagine if our most respected current and retired military leaders had spent the last several weeks publicly protesting the nomination of a new Secretary of Defense as someone who was grossly unqualified for the job, and the Senate confirmed them anyway.

Everybody loves America’s teachers when they are using their bodies to shield the nation’s children from some psycho with an AK-47, but the rest of the time they get treated with open contempt.

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