Are you under the impression that I’m not aware of the shortcomings of the DNC? Or that those shortcomings are somehow worse than the modern GOP, which is now a full-on fascist party, hellbent on ensuring that I (and other women here, and the LGBQT+ community, and non-white people, and non-Christians) are second class citizens? I am unsure what you believe telling the choir (that has a gun to it’s head) what it already knows will accomplish here? Making us feel worse?
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I don’t know, are you?
Right. Leaving comments on the bbs is definitely more likely to move the needle. 
How else will they know the will of their voters if we don’t tell them?
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Nope.
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This is disingenuous, at best. The majority of the house and 48 D members of the senate have been trying like hell to make things better. The fact that they haven’t been able to achieve more is a symbol of our broken electorate system and how skewed the Senate as a body is, not that Dems are ineffective or don’t care.
Trump had the trifecta for years with a wider majority, yet still couldn’t (I mean wouldn’t) pass infrastructure bills, something he campaigned on. 
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Never have, never will.
I learned the lesson inherent in Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey a long time ago.
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Yeah, but let’s just blame the democrats, not the actual fascists seeking to destroy democracy. I mean… come on… her EMAILLLLLSSSS…/s
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Ahhhhhhhh! 
So the CDC can’t legally mandate masks to reduce transmission of a deadly virus that’s killed over a million USians, but they can legally track our movements, and private companies can track and sell our menstrual data? Our laws are so messed up.
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So it’s going to a vote and everyone will at least be on the record now. Those that are voting in favor of the bill but still opposing filibuster reforms will have to answer to their constituents.
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John Oliver just had a show on private data being sold and it is shockingly bad. They are going to have to out some Senators for their internet activity before any sort of privacy law hopes to be passed. 
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No one says anything about resting on one’s laurels. But when it comes to right-wing influence in politics, the difference between the US and Germany is huge – and while I agree that right-wing violence is an issue in Germany too, it still happens way less than in the US. (The fact that a much smaller percentage of the population owns firearms probably contributes to that.)
The actual political influence of far-right parties in Germany is very limited because even though they (mostly the AfD or “Alternative für Deutschland”) have seats in the federal parliament and various state parliaments, they are not part of any governing coalitions and generally no other party wants to cooperate with them in any way, shape, or form. There are areas in Germany where the AfD gets comparatively large numbers of votes, but on the whole their share of the vote has recently been declining (definitely so at the federal level). The other thing about AfD in particular – which originally started out as a party of academics who were opposed to the Euro currency – is that it can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be a mostly-respectable arch-conservative party or a rabid bunch of neo-Nazis. This divide goes right through the middle of the party’s most prominent cadre, and the resulting in-fighting hurts their messaging, tends to drive away the more moderate and respectable faces, and costs them votes especially with people with very conservative views who still want nothing to do with neo-Nazism, i.e., people who would otherwise traditionally vote CDU or CSU but feel that these parties have perhaps moved too far towards the centre. Research has shown that out of the 10% or so of the electorate who voted AfD at the federal level, only 5% actively agree with AfD’s far-right policies; the other 5% are “protest voters” who voted AfD mainly because they didn’t like the other parties. This is something that should not be – and isn’t – taken lightly but it is certainly not “fascism on the rise”.
In fact, a certain number of thugs and kooks notwithstanding, there is a broad consensus throughout German society that in retrospect, fascism was an unmitigated disaster and must not be repeated. Unfortunately we can’t seem to get rid of those neo-Nazis completely but so far we have managed to not let them get anywhere near the reins of he country, either. This stands in stark contrast to what is going on in the USA these days, where even if the fascists, for the time being, don’t actively run all of the country, they’re certainly making life hard for the non-fascists in actual charge, or for that matter the people at large in places that they do run. As Halford E. Luccock wrote in 1938 (!), “when and if fascism comes to America it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism’” – and right now the country is way too far down that road for comfort.
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From the comment thread:
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Her short reply thread is full of brutal truths too.
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In case you needed any further proof that the modern anti-abortion movement is an outgrowth of many centuries of virulent misogyny and violence against women, Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked opinion draft striking down Roe v. Wade relies heavily on a 17th century English jurist who had two women executed for “witchcraft,” wrote in defense of marital rape, and believed capital punishment should extend to kids as young as 14.
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Reminds me of the quote on “Yes, Prime Minister”:
“The ship of state is the only ship that leaks from the top.”
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For years, the country’s view of abortion has stood relatively still. A majority of voters favor abortion being legal in some circumstances, and a small minority favor criminalizing it in all circumstances. We shall see whether politicians find the middle or go off the deep end and pay for it.
In the meantime, though, don’t delude yourself. Yes, the leak was unprecedented. But so, too, is what the Supreme Court is doing. Power means that rules and norms and conventions of trust within the court have become immaterial, just as the lives and health of more than half the population have been rendered immaterial. The Emperor of Law has had no clothing on for a good, long time. With the leak, this reality is increasingly apparent to us all.
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Great way to put it. Anyone who thinks the legal system in general is impartial, fair and just has blinkers on big enough to make a horse stumble.
And the SCOTUS rot of corruption at the top smells as bad or worse than everything law-related below it.
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