#nuking the filibuster

[beardedmrbean]

She's showing her stupidity again boss.

Submitted anonymously ________________________-

Getting real tired of people trying to turn our government into a game of Calvinball.

The roles will reverse at some point and you're going to be calling the people suggesting what you are now suggesting all kinds of nasty names, just like we saw people doing with the filibuster when the senate switched hands.

Tom Cotton Reads Schumer Speech Verbatim Against Nuking Filibuster.

All these things you're proposing will bite you square in the ass some day, Schumer wanted to kill the filibuster because his party was in charge, but it was a different story when they weren't as you can see here.

alex needs a lot more seasoning, probably won't do much good though she is a idiot after all

[antiquery]

writing this down for later so I don't forget but here is a good faith, fact-based criticism of Biden: not going all in on defending Roe when outrage was highest was a disastrous mistake and set the feminist movement back a literal generation. he should have abandoned IRA negotiations as soon as the draft decision leaked in May, given Sinema/Manchin absolutely anything they wanted that wasn't literally illegal, and done one of the following:

bet the house on nuking the filibuster and packing the court. even if he pulls it off it probably kills him dead in 2024 with significant downballot effects, but on the plus side the great GOP project of the last half century is no more

get some purple state Republicans on board and try for a 15 week national abortion ban: no more, but no less either. this has the benefit of containing the worst outrage to the subset of the Dem base who 1) don't really understand political realities and 2) actually care about sexism. hey, turns out there are some benefits to the modern left completely forgetting that women are also an oppressed class!

(note that I don't necessarily agree with this— I think prioritizing the IRA was probably the correct call given the urgency of climate/infrastructure/economic problems. but this is an argument you could make that isn't just "why doesn't Biden simply make good things happen with his magic president powers"

[automatismoateo]

Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) won't endorse Kamala Harris because she supports nuclear option to codify Roe v. Wade via /r/atheism

Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) won't endorse Kamala Harris, because she supports nuclear option to codify Roe v. Wade Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/24/politics/joe-manchin-not-endorse-harris-filibuster/index.html (the title summarizes the article) Manchin's decision is sad but not surprising. He's a coward. I support nuking the filibuster so that the Senate can codify Roe v. Wade (unfortunately, however, the Republicans are probably gonna take control of the Senate in November, which would make that a moot point). This presidential election is highly important. If Donald Trump wins, then Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito might retire, allowing Trump to replace them with younger Republican Justices, allowing the Republicans to continue to control the Supreme Court for much longer. So I really hope that Harris wins. Submitted September 25, 2024 at 01:15AM by WisconsinAgnostic (From Reddit https://ift.tt/O5Aqrc7)

[deblala]

Exclusive: Daines Warns of Senate Democrats' Plan for ‘Radical’ Power Grab

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/05/exclusive-daines-warns-senate-democrats-plan-radical-power-grab-nuking-filibuster-packing-scotus-making-dc-puerto-rico-states/

[tiktotees]

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The problem once again is that Democrats are deploying traditional tools to fight a Republican Party which has abandoned all democratic norms and is merely just trying to consolidate power by any means necessary. Democrats are once again bringing a spoon to a knife fight. As Gandy puts it: “Democrats’ time would be better spent trying to either nuke or reform the Mom Jeans logo shirt Additionally,I will love this filibuster so that they can move forward with expanding the courts.” Democrats need to change the makeup of the Court by adding justices, they need to right the wrongs Mitch McConnell committed by stealing at least two of the nine seats on the Court. In short, Democrats need to act like Republicans. The American people need a Democratic party which will protect their rights with the same zeal that Republicans are focused on taking them away.

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[usadailyshirt]

Quatinashirt.com - Lyon County Athletics 2nd Region Back 2 Back Champions 2023 5th District Peat Champions shirt

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I don’t want to criticize Democrats for trying to pass this legislation. The situation is dire. As the Lyon County Athletics 2nd Region Back 2 Back Champions 2023 5th District Peat Champions shirt moreover I love this head of Planned Parenthood, Alexis McGill Johnson put it to me: “The right to make decisions about our bodies and our lives is hanging by a thread, and we need action from our leaders. The Women’s Health Protection Act would help protect abortion access and guard against bans and medically unnecessary restrictions imposed by state politicians in Texas and across the country” We elected these leaders to at least try to protect our rights and interests, after all. But ultimately the Supreme Court is the last word on everything—every piece of legislation. So even if they could get the House bill through the Senate, the Supreme Court could just overturn it, as Rewire news’ senior law editor Imani Gandy told me. “Democrats’ efforts to codify Roe, while commendable, are dead in the water with this Supreme Court. There’s not a chance in hell that the group of 6 Federalist Society-captured conservative justices on the Supreme Court won’t find some reason that any statute cementing abortion rights is unconstitutional.”

The problem once again is that Democrats are deploying traditional tools to fight a Republican Party which has abandoned all democratic norms and is merely just trying to consolidate power by any means necessary. Democrats are once again bringing a spoon to a knife fight. As Gandy puts it: “Democrats’ time would be better spent trying to either nuke or reform the Lyon County Athletics 2nd Region Back 2 Back Champions 2023 5th District Peat Champions shirt moreover I love this filibuster so that they can move forward with expanding the courts.” Democrats need to change the makeup of the Court by adding justices, they need to right the wrongs Mitch McConnell committed by stealing at least two of the nine seats on the Court. In short, Democrats need to act like Republicans. The American people need a Democratic party which will protect their rights with the same zeal that Republicans are focused on taking them away.

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[kp777]

JUST IN: Joe Manchin Obliterates Democrats' Hopes Of Nuking Filibuster To Pass Voting Bills

Forbes Breaking News

Jan 19, 2022

[marisatomay]

i wasnt really alive during obama but is it just me or does biden feel more progressive...something i was not expecting

[scentedluminarysoul]

This is nothing new!

Ted Cruz filibustered against Obamacare by reading Green Eggs and Ham! (Timestamp 11:18)

[resistbot]

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

If the Democrats had one spine between them, this is what they should do

Nuke the filibuster, then immediately propose an amendment to bring it back for legislation and judicial appointments

For executive appointments, I don’t really care; the president can fire a secretary at any time for any reason, so it doesn’t matter how many senators voted to confirm them. We need a government, so it doesn’t make sense for congress to be able to block department heads when the president can just name acting secretaries until the actual secretaries get confirmed.

Next, push through legislation to expand the Supreme Court, but do not immediately fill the seats; let the Republicans know that if they don’t agree to play fair, then all bets are off. They want to keep the filibuster just as much as we do because everybody likes to threaten to get rid of it; if we actually get rid of it, then nobody gets to use the threat anymore, and we have carte blanche until it is restored through bipartisan amendment.

The SCOTUS seats become the next threat; either pass the amendment and send it to the states, or we start packing the court with all these wonderfully qualified, young, liberal PEOPLE OF COLOR. Republicans would never negotiate like this, they would just do it, just pull the trigger and get what they want. They’d get shit for it from the other side, but their constituents would love it and their approval ratings would skyrocket. Democrats need to be more diplomatic, and by showing restraint they can have plausible deniability (though the media would tear them a new asshole either way, so damned if you do, damned if you don’t). They’re not cheating, they actively want to limit their own power and restore bipartisan cooperation; that’s the biggest olive branch we could offer the Republicans, and if they don’t like it then they can go fuck themselves.

If Democrats got rid of the filibuster, there’s nothing the Republicans could legally do to stop them. Their best bet would be litigation with the 6-3 conservative SCOTUS, but then the Dems could just pack the court to get favorable rulings; does this sound familiar?

“I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!”

So, the Republicans can either pass the amendment and enshrine the filibuster into the constitution, OR they can let the Democrats run wild and hope for civil unrest and eventual war, because that’s the only thing that could conceivably stop a party with unlimited power.

Now, of course, this could immediately backfire on the Democrats. They could do it, and the Republicans could just pretend they don’t care and bide their time until the next election. They take back power and they’ll have the Democrats to thank for handing them a post-filibuster senate; the point of changing the rules is to stop the other side from gaining power ever again (2020 - 2022, Republicans are passing anti-voting laws because they hope that will make them win in 2024; Democrats need to balance this by doing the same thing in their own favor). But this back-and-forth is why the Supreme Court is so important. Liberal justices could regulate conservative laws, but once the Democrats show their hand and signal that they’re willing to change the rules, Republicans will use that to their advantage; we expand the Supreme Court now, they’ll expand the Supreme Court twofold (or perhaps something worse) the next chance they get. The idea is not to give them that next chance. It’s what they do to us, but our party is just too stupid or too unwilling to do it back to them.

Republicans change the rules to win, while Democrats never change the rules because they see the rules as sacred. Politics is a game; most people think it’s something intelligent like chess, when really it’s mindless like Mouse Trap. Sure, Mouse Trap has rules, you can sit down and play it as it was intended, but if the object of the game is to Trap a Mouse, then you’re more likely to do it by setting up the trap and playing with it by itself like a toy. Democrats play by the rules, rolling their dice and moving their mice, collecting cheese wedges, setting up the trap one piece at a time, whereas Republicans immediately set it up and let it go, winning on turn one. That’s against the rules, but there’s no higher authority holding them to the rules anyway! The Supreme Court used to be like parents, enforcing the rules and telling the siblings to play nice together, but now the parents have been replaced by the cheater’s best friends who let them get away with anything they want. It’s a total conflict of interest, but they don’t care because they get to win!

Nuke the filibuster, amend the constitution to bring it back, threaten to go full liberal if they don’t, then actually follow through on their threats when they don’t. That’s the only language they know, these are the only compromises they’ll listen to; force their hand, or they’ll shit all over you. They’re willing to change laws and steal elections to stay in power, then turn around and project their own crimes onto the other side, “we’re not cheating, YOU’RE cheating!” And this is all done while the filibuster is still in place; Democrats need to acknowledge that they can’t win by following the rules if the other party is cheating. The other party has said the rules don’t matter anymore, so it’s not cheating for the Democrats to stoop to their level, fair’s fair, it’s just business.

[the-big-sue]

Just cast my vote for Elizabeth Warren ☺️

[libralita]

Me: Wow, I really like this author! I should follow them on Twitter!

Me: *reads their timeline*

Author: Dumb political opinion.

Me: *sighs*

[qqueenofhades]

Do you really hate this county? Or were you just ranting?

Sigh. I debated whether or not to answer this, since I usually keep the real-life/politics/depressing current events to a relative minimum on this blog, except when I really can't avoid ranting about it. But I have some things to get off my chest, it seems, and you did ask. So.

The thing is, any American with a single modicum of genuine historical consciousness knows that despite all the triumphalist mythology about Pulling Up By Our Bootstraps and the American Dream and etc, this country was founded and built on the massive and systematic exploitation and extermination of Black and Indigenous people. And now, when we are barely (400 years later!!!) getting to a point of acknowledging that in a widespread way, oh my god the screaming. I'm so sick of the American right wing I could spit for so many reasons, not least of which is the increasingly reductive and reactive attempts to put the genie back in the bottle and set up hysterical boogeymen about how Teaching Your Children Critical Race Theory is the end of all things. They have forfeited all pretense of being a real governing party; remember how their only platform at the 2020 RNC was "support whatever Trump says?" They have devolved to the point where the cruelty IS the point, to everyone who doesn't fit the nakedly white supremacist mold. They don't have anything to do aside from attempt to usher in actual, literal, dictionary-definition-of-fascism and sponsor armed revolts against the peaceful transfer of power.

That is fucking exhausting to be aware of all the time, especially with the knowledge that if we miss a single election cycle -- which is exceptionally easy to do with the way the Democratic electorate needs to be wooed and courted and herded like cats every single time, rather than just getting their asses to the polls and voting to keep Nazis out of office -- they will be right back in power again. If Manchin and Sinema don't get over their poseur pearl-clutching and either nuke the filibuster or carve out an exception for voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is never going to get passed, no matter how many boilerplate appeals the Democratic leadership makes on Twitter. In which case, the 2022 midterms are going to give us Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that) and right back to the Mitch McConnell Obstruction Power Hour in the Senate. The Online Left (TM) will then blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop them. These are, of course, the same people who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton out of precious moral purity reasons in 2016, handed the election to Trump, and now like to complain when the Trump-stacked Supreme Court reliably churns out terrible decisions. Gee, it's almost like elections have consequences!!

Aside from my exasperation with the death-cult right-wing fascists and the Online Left (TM), I am sick and tired of how forty years of "trickle-down" Reaganomics has created a world where billionaires can just fly to space for the fun of it, while the rest of America (and the world) is even more sick, poor, overheated, economically deprived, and unable to survive the biggest public health crisis in a century, even if half the elected leadership wasn't actively trying to sabotage it. Did you know that half of American workers can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment? Plus the obvious scandal that is race relations, health care, paid leave, the education system (or lack thereof), etc etc. I'm so tired of this America Is The Greatest Country in the World mindless jingoistic catchphrasing. We are an empire in the late stages of collapse and it's not going to be pretty for anyone. We have been poisoned on sociopathic-libertarian-selfishness-disguised-as-Freedom ideology for so long that that's all there is left. We have become a country of idiots who believe everything their idiot friends post on social media, but in a very real sense, it's not directly those individuals' fault. How could they, when they have been very deliberately cultivated into that mindset and stripped of critical thinking skills, to serve a noxious combination of money, power, and ideology?

I am tired of the fact that I have become so drained of empathy that when I see news about more people who refused to get the vaccine predictably dying of COVID, my reaction is "eh, whatever, they kind of deserved it." I KNOW that is not a good mindset to have, and I am doing my best to maintain my personal attempts to be kind to those I meet and to do my small part to make the world better. I know these are human beings who believed what they were told by people that they (for whatever reason) thought knew better than them, and that they are part of someone's family, they had loved ones, etc. But I just can't summon up the will to give a single damn about them (I'm keeping a bingo card of right-wing anti-vax radio hosts who die of COVID and every time it's like, "Alexa, play Another One Bites The Dust.") The course that the pandemic took in 21st-century America was not preordained or inevitable. It was (and continues to be) drastically mismanaged for cynical political reasons, and the legacy of the Former Guy continues to poison any attempts to bring it under control or convince people to get a goddamn vaccine. We now have over 100,000 patients hospitalized with COVID across the country -- more than last summer, when the vaccines weren't available.

I have been open about my fury about the devaluation of the humanities and other critical thinking skills, about the fact that as an academic in this field, my chances of getting a full-time job for which I have trained extensively and acquired a specialist PhD are... very low. I am tired of the fact that Americans have been encouraged to believe whatever bullshit they fucking please, regardless of whether it is remotely true, and told that any attempt to correct them is "anti-freedom." I am tired of how little the education system functions in a useful way at all -- not necessarily due to the fault of teachers, who have to work with what they're given, and who are basically heroes struggling stubbornly along in a profession that actively hates them, but because of relentless under-funding, political interference, and furious attempts, as discussed above, to keep white America safely in the dark about its actual history. I am tired of the fact that grade school education basically relies on passing the right standardized tests, the end. I am tired of the implication that the truth is too scary or "un-American" to handle. I am tired. Tired.

I know as well that "America" is not synonymous in all cases with "capitalist imperialist white-supremacist corporate death cult." This is still the most diverse country in the world. "America" is not just rich white middle-aged Republicans. "America" involves a ton of people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians of good will (I have a whole other rant on how American Christianity as a whole has yielded all pretense of being any sort of a principled moral opposition), white allies, etc etc. all trying to make a better world. The blue, highly vaccinated, Biden-winning states and counties are leading the economic recovery and enacting all kinds of progressive-wishlist dream policies. We DID get rid of the Orange One via the electoral process and avert fascism at the ballot box, which is almost unheard-of, historically speaking. But because, as also discussed above, certain elements of the Democratic electorate need to fall in love with a candidate every single time or threaten to withhold their vote to punish the rest of the country for not being Progressive Enough, these gains are constantly fragile and at risk of being undone in the next electoral cycle. Yes, the existing system is a crock of shit. But it's what we've got right now, and the other alternative is open fascism, which we all got a terrifying taste of over the last four years. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go back.

So... I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up to hate. I do hate almost everything about what this country currently is, structurally speaking, but I recognize that is not identical with the many people who still live here and are trying to do their best, including my friends, family, and myself. I am exhausted by the fact that as an older millennial, I am expected to survive multiple cataclysmic economic crashes, a planet that is literally boiling alive, a barely functional political system run on black cash, lies, and xenophobia, a total lack of critical thinking skills, renewed assaults on women/queer people/POC/etc, and somehow feel like I'm confident or prepared for the future. Not all these problems are only America's fault alone. The West as a whole bears huge responsibility for the current clusterfuck that the world is in, for many reasons, and so do some non-Western countries. But there is no denying that many of these problems have ultimate American roots. See how the ongoing fad for right-wing authoritarian strongmen around the world has them modeling themselves openly on Trump (like Brazil's lunatic president, Jair Bolsonaro, who talks all the time about how Trump is his political role model). See what's going on in Afghanistan right now. Etc. etc.

Anyway. I am very, very tired. There you have it.

[freeindependentnews]

By any measure, President Biden had a bad Thursday. Democrat Sens. Sinema and Manchin said they’re not going to support efforts to nuke the filibuster so a “voting rights bill” and other spending initiatives can be passed, and the Supreme Court put a halt to much of this administration’s OSHA vaccine mandate. And then there was more inflation news:

[triviallytrue]

what if the democrats proposed a law codifying right to abortion only in specific citcumstances in which almost everyone supports the right to abortion? would that pass?

Hmm, so my understanding is that you need 60 votes to get through the Senate unless you're doing budget reconciliation shenanigans, and it just seems very hard to get 10 republicans to support any law on abortion. The way around this would probably be to pick up a few more senate seats, nuke the filibuster, and then pass with 50 votes.