Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Yeah; House backed this bill with bipartisan support; Mc Connell is the one blocking it. So, uh... Stewart kinda missed the mark a smidge.
He’s got a broader point about democrats not pushing this issue, they shouldn’t be fucking around, every Republican Senator should be getting blasted with attacks ads about how they want to leave 9/11 firefighters to die.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran538 podcast: Politics Podcast: Is Elizabeth Warren Surging?
Fair warning, It's a little under an hour long. I unfortunately don't have time to listen to it myself right now, but I figured people invested in Warren's chances might want to listen to it.
The highlights:
Warren has seen a modest bump in her national poll, but its still a bit lower than her previous high. The 538 team don't really care though, since they give much more weight to the Iowa and New Hampshire polls right now.
The bump Biden got from him joining the race is wearing off and the media are getting annoyed at his play it safe strategy so they're looking for something new to talk about. Warren's ability to take the lead on current events gets her more press and all the other candidates have to scramble to keep up with her. She's been the second most talked about candidate on cable news for two weeks now, after Biden.
Her New Policy Every Week Strategy is probably helping. People might not exactly know what her policies are, but her coverage is cementing her in the minds of voters as Political Batman, having a plan for everything. People like Political Batman and this is erasing the ancestry scandal from her roll out as the dominate narrative in the eyes of voters.
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/06/11/day-873/
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/10/politics/jerry-nadler-mueller-report-william-barr/
2/ The House authorized committee chairs to sue the Trump administration in federal court to enforce a series of subpoenas. The House Judiciary Committee can now begin legal proceedings to enforce the panel's subpoenas for Mueller's evidence and force former White House Counsel Donald Mc Gahn to cooperate with the panels' probe into whether Trump obstructed justice. The move also empowers other committee chairmen to seek enforcement of their own subpoenas for testimony and documents, such as Trump's tax returns. The measure, however, stopped short of a criminal contempt citation for Attorney General William Barr and Mc Gahn. (Politico / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/11/house-sue-trump-subpoenas-1359850
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/11/justice-executive-privilege-census-1360582
3/ Trump Jr. will be interviewed by Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors on Wednesday. The Republican-led committee subpoenaed Trump Jr last month, angering Trump and his allies. Trump Jr. will testify for two-to-four hours on a half dozen topics, including the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and the Trump Tower Moscow project. (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/11/politics/donald-trump-jr-senate-intelligence/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-junior-surprise-idUSKCN1SF22Q
📌 Day 839: The Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Trump Jr. to answer questions about his previous testimony related to the Russia investigation. Trump Jr. testified before the committee in September 2017 that he was only "peripherally aware" of the proposed plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Michael Cohen, however, told a House committee earlier this year that he had met with both Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump "approximately 10" times to brief them about the Trump Tower plan. The Republican-led committee wants Trump Jr. to answer questions about his claim to have limited knowledge of the plan. (Axios / CNBC / New York Times)
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/08/senate-intelligence-committee-subpoenas-donald-trump-jr.html
📌 Day 680: Trump Jr.'s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee conflicts with Michael Cohen's version of events regarding negotiations of a prospective Trump Tower in Moscow. In Cohen's version, he says the discussions with at least one Russian government official continued through June 2016. Trump Jr. testified in September 2017 that talks surrounding a Trump Tower in Moscow concluded without result "at the end" of 2014 and "certainly not [20]16. There was never a definitive end to it. It just died of deal fatigue." Trump Jr. told the Senate committee that he "wasn't involved," knew "very little," and was only "peripherally aware" of the deal other than a letter of intent was signed by Trump. He also said he didn't know that Cohen had sent an email to Putin's aide, Dmitry Peskov. In Cohen's guilty plea, he said he briefed Trump's family members about the continued negotiations. (NPR / USA Today)
4/ Speaker Nancy Pelosi said impeachment is "not off the table," but that the Democratic caucus is "not even close" to moving forward with impeaching Trump. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, meanwhile, has twice urged Pelosi in private to open a formal impeachment inquiry. (CNN / Axios / Politico)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/11/politics/impeachment-democrats-pelosi/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/10/politics/justin-amash-leaves-freedom-caucus/index.html
poll/ 70% of American voters say the economy is "excellent" or "good," but only 41% of voters say Trump deserves credit for it. Another 27% said Trump does not deserve credit and 28% say the economy is "not so good" or "poor." (Quinnipiac)
The Trump campaign is considering putting resources into Oregon – a state where Hillary Clinton beat Trump by 11 percentage points in 2016. (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/11/politics/oregon-donald-trump-campaign-election-2020/index.html
Three Republican former heads of the EPA accused the agency's current leadership of taking a "catastrophic" approach to climate change by "undermining [the] science." (ABC News)
Mike Pence confirmed that American embassies were banned from flying the pride flag on their embassy flagpoles, calling it "the right decision." Pence added that "when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies and capitals around the world, one American flag flies." (Washington Post / USA Today / NBC News)
Trump's former Chief of Staff Reince Preibus joined the Navy. Preibus was sworn in as an entry-level officer by Pence during a commissioning ceremony. (Washington Post)
Trump appears to be having second thoughts about his next secretary of defense. Last week, Trump asked several confidants about alternative candidates for nominee Patrick Shanahan. (NBC News)
Trump distinguished between himself and Richard Nixon about the possibility of impeachment. "He left. I don't leave," Trump said. "A big difference." (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/10/trump-impeachment-nixon-1359209
It's typical of politicians to overpropose, so it's entirely likely that it's deliberately ambitious as a kind of Sword of Damocles so that she can scale down to the actual feasible one that she actually expects to pass and still claim a policy victory, rather than presenting it off the bat and watching it get whittled down into nothingness.
I feel like one of Hillary's issues with good faith progressives is that in being the policy wonk she undersold herself by promising feasible ones off the bat when people want to hear something more ambitious. Naturally we're not counting the leftists who are Bernie Bros, or who already hate her because of Neoliberal Shill Bill or the fact that she's a mainstream Democrat and not a card-carrying member of the CPUSA, and Warren is consciously doing so to try to get around that. Deliberately overshifting the Overton window, if you will.
Edited by AlleyOop on Jun 12th 2019 at 3:41:51 PM
Note that Warren isn't the only politician currently pushing policies
.
sounds like they need to electrify the fence to get them fencesitters off their undecided assess,they can't be undecided forever,sooner or later they'll have to make a choice and hopefully its the right one depending on which argument sways them the most
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverThe idea is that it might be more prudent to wait for public opinion to be more supportive of it before investing a lot of political capital in it. Since putting in the time and effort put into impeachment hearings means there's less time and effort to engage in other matters. Matters that the public might care more about.
Also, while the public doesn't vote directly on impeachment in the USA, a majority of GOP voters being in favor of it might put pressure on their Congress people to support impeachment.
Edited by M84 on Jun 12th 2019 at 7:37:11 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedI'm going to echo that 41% is pretty high for a case that hasn't even started yet. Remember that a lot of Americans are low-info voters. Not everyone's been following the investion.
Some people just trust Washington to deal with Washington. These folks won't care what's going on until it actually happens. To them, the existence of an impeachment case justifies impeaching while the absence of one proves impeachment unjust.
But, as noted, leaving it at that to avoid turning into a prohibited discussion on impeachment's merits.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Going back to Stewart's "Reason You Suck" Speech to the House committee - the fact remains that far too few of them were present for that hearing, which indicates that they consider it a lower priority issue than whatever they were busy with in the meantime. That fact makes it far less likely that they'll push hard enough that McConnell will actually act on it.
And in other news, Trump has officially invoked "Executive Privilege" regarding the Census documents the Oversight Committee was requesting
.
“Regrettably, you have made these assertions necessary by your insistence upon scheduling a premature contempt vote,” Boyd added.
It's nice of Boyd to straight-up say that the claim to executive privilege is meant solely as a retaliatory action against the House and not in any way a reasonably justified extension of executive privilege. He's flat-out admitting that they're only invoking Executive Privilege to punch back at the House, and not at all because of the actual contents of the documents.
That'll make the claim so much easier to combat in court. Especially since the vote to allow committees to pursue their own subpoenas without a full House vote has passed, which will accelerate the process significantly.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 12th 2019 at 11:54:36 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.For those of you worrying about Warren's chances: two very good polls for her were released today,
showing her ahead of Sanders.
As long as it is one of them getting the nomination, with the other hopefully dropping out to ensure it, I'll be ecstatic.
I still find it worrisome that national polling says Biden has the strongest head-to-head match against Trump. If Biden doesn't win the nomination, whoever does will have extra work to catch up. Regardless, all of the Democratic front-runners can beat him, so it's not a disaster, just something to watch.
Edited by Fighteer on Jun 12th 2019 at 2:17:32 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I think that Charles is the only person here with a representative able to influence what happens from here, the bill is going to pass the House, but Mc Connell won’t commit on allowing the senate to vote on it.
I guess that people with GOP Senators could write to them demanding they stop supporting Mc Connell if he blocks the bill, but that isn’t going to happen.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran