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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Remember that filibusters don’t actually require a filibuster currently, just threatening to speak continuously is enough to block a bill. So there is a middle path of changing the rules so that an actual honest to god spoken filibuster is required to block a bill.
Speaking of the senate, 538 have got the new numbers on senator popularity and it’s good for the Dems, Collins has joined the Turtle in having a negative in-state approval rating, making her that bit more at risk come 2020.
Edit:
Edited by Silasw on Jul 18th 2019 at 9:42:14 AM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranGo get 'em, Abby.
(Predictably, Disney touted how much it's already doing for its employees and ignored her complaints.)
Edited by Ramidel on Jul 18th 2019 at 1:54:27 AM
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/07/18/day-910/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-cohen-idUSKCN1UD18D
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/nyregion/michael-cohen-trump-investigation.html
2/ Trump continued his racist call for a congresswoman to "go back" to Somalia during a campaign rally last night while the crowd chanted "send her back." Rep. Ilhan Omar is a U.S. citizen and Somalian refugee, and is one of four congresswomen of color Trump attacked on Twitter over the weekend, telling them to "go back" to their countries. The other three were born in the United States. "If they don't love it," Trump told the crowd, "tell them to leave it." Trump paused to allow the "send her back" chant and did nothing to discourage the crowd. The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission includes "Go back to where you came from" as one of its examples of potentially unlawful harassment based on national origin. Trump spent more time during the rally attacking Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley than he did discussing his 2020 presidential campaign. (Politico / NBC News / Reuters / Buzz Feed News / New York Times)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-idUSKCN1UC2PW
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/18/ilhan-omar-trump-rally-violence-1419338
Trump claimed he was "not happy" with the "send her back" chant that broke out during his re-election rally. Trump argued that he tried to cut off the chant by "speaking very quickly," which is contradicted by video of the event. (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/us/politics/ilhan-omar-donald-trump.html
The chairman of House Republicans' campaign arm said "there's no place for that kind of talk," referring to the "send her back!" chant. Representative Tom Emmer, however, also claimed that "there's not a racist bone in the president's body." (Politico / Washington Post / New York Times)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/18/tom-emmer-send-her-back-trump-rally-1419210
3/ Iran seized a foreign oil tanker carrying 1 million liters of "smuggled fuel" near a small island in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state TV. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps ambushed the tanker, which appears to be a United Arab Emirates-based tanker that disappeared off trackers in Iranian territorial waters over the weekend. (CNN / Associated Press / CNBC)
https://apnews.com/2d94f2b673b74940b26db541e9eeb262
4/ The Navy "destroyed" an Iranian drone that came within 1,000 yards of the U.S.S. Boxer and ignored "multiple calls to stand down" hours after Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized a foreign tanker it accused of smuggling oil. Trump said the drone was "threatening the safety of the ship and the ship's crew" in the Strait of Hormuz and was "immediately destroyed."Four weeks ago, Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone flying over international airspace the same area. (New York Times / CNN / NBC News / Reuters / CNBC / The Guardian / Politico)
poll/ Two-thirds of Americans support statehood for Puerto Rico. 66% of respondents said they support adding Puerto Rico as the 51st state, which is consistent with polling dating back to the 1960s. Support is highest among Democrats, young voters, and non-white voters. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/18/puerto-rico-statehood-poll-1419203
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/18/trump-says-seriously-looking-into-amazons-pentagon-contract.html
The Pentagon authorized an additional deployment of 1,100 active-duty troops and 1,000 Texas National Guard soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border. They will join some 2,500 active-duty and 2,000 National Guard troops already there, for a force of more than 6,600 at the border. (Politico)
The House voted to block the sale of billions of dollars of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate, undoing Trump's attempt to use emergency powers to sidestep Congress and push through 22 deals worth more than $8 billion. (Washington Post / New York Times)
William Barr gave $51,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the months leading up to his Senate confirmation hearings for attorney general. Barr's contributions took place over a 5-month period from October 2018 to February 2019. In the past Barr gave occasionally: once in 2009 and 2011, twice in 2014, once in 2015, and another in 2016. (Quartz)
https://qz.com/1667918/barrs-donations-to-senate-republicans-spiked-before-confirmation/
The Agriculture Department blocked the release of a plan on how to respond to climate change that was finalized in the early days of the Trump administration. Top officials decided not to release the multiyear plan that outlined how the department should help agriculture understand, adapt to and minimize the effects of climate change. Instead, staff members were told to keep it for internal use only. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/18/usda-suppresses-climate-change-plan-1598987
The EPA announced that it would not ban a pesticide associated with developmental disabilities and other health problems in children, claiming that the science was unsettled. The Obama administration banned chlorpyrifos in 2015 after scientific studies produced by the EPA showed the pesticide had the potential to damage brain development in children. (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/climate/epa-chlorpyrifos-pesticide-ban.html
The House passed a bill to gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009. The measure is not expected to advanced in the GOP-led Senate. (CNN / NBC News / Washington Post / New York Times)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/18/politics/minimum-wage-house-vote/
Trump directed his administration to have rapper A$AP Rocky freed from custody in Sweden after Kim Kardashian West contacted Jared Kushner. Rocky turned himself into Swedish police after he was wanted for questioning about a street fight in Stockholm. (TMZ / Axios)
Second debate lineup:
- Tues, July 30: Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, O'Rourke, Klobuchar, Williamson, Delaney, Hickenlooper, Ryan, Bullock.
- Wed, July 31: Biden, Harris, Castro, Yang, Booker, Inslee, Gillibrand, Gabbard, Bennet, De Blasio
Somewhat awkwardly all the non-white candidates are on the second night, but the drawing was fair, so statistics gonna statistics.
If I'm not mistaken, four of the candidates on night 1 (Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, and O'Rourke) are already qualified for the third debate; whereas I think Biden and Harris are the only two on the second night who presently qualify.
Edited by TheAirman on Jul 18th 2019 at 7:51:21 AM
PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/TheyThey couldn't miss the ratings opportunity from giving Biden and Harris a rematch.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.It's a Twitter link because Washington Post has a paywall.
Edited by tclittle on Jul 18th 2019 at 9:55:43 AM
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."And of course the replies are mostly a split between Bernie stans claiming it's a smear and/or shrugging it off because "at least he has a union!'' and far-right fuckheads using this as evidence that any kind of socialism is inherently a nonstarter.
I don't know what I was expecting.
i'm tired, my friendThe gist of it is that while their yearly salary is technically more than $15 an hour, that's assuming they only work 40 hours a week.
The staff is claiming that they are working much more than that each week. Like 60 hours a week.
In short, they're upset about the unpaid overtime and want it to be, well, paid overtime.
The Bernie stans should also be reminded that Warren and Castro's campaigns are also unionized now. So it's not like Sanders is unique in that regard.
Edited by M84 on Jul 18th 2019 at 11:12:13 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedAh, unpaid overtime... the eternal loophole.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"If they pull this off, I wonder if the other campaign teams' organizers will follow suit. Or push for unionization if they haven't already.
I wouldn't be surprised if the other teams are working a helluva lot more than 40 hours a week too. And a good number of the other candidates' platforms include the $15 minimum wage.
Edited by M84 on Jul 18th 2019 at 11:16:12 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedThe drawing was aired live on CNN. It’s not the match up I would’ve liked, but it’s not a ratings stunt.
PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/TheyFrom Vox: While Trump is firing off his racist tirades, his administration is enacting plutocrat welfare
A sobering reminder that people do vote for reasons besides their wallets, and those reasons aren't always good.
Though we should also remember that the really poor and destitute do usually vote their wallet, since it's a matter of life and death for them.
But people who are merely "anxious" while still earning above the median salary and living in a house? Not so much. Those people are the ones who vote not to put more money in their wallets but to make sure the Hispanic family down the street doesn't have enough money to maintain their new car.
Granted, that does work the other way. Plenty of rich liberal leaning people will vote for politicians who propose higher taxes on the wealthy.
Edited by M84 on Jul 19th 2019 at 4:29:22 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised

The real problem is that the requirements for a filibuster has been weakened over time, making it much easier to use and effectively strengthening the minority party to the point where they can require a 3/5ths vote (to end the filibuster) instead of a simple majority vote (to pass the motion on the floor) on any damn thing they want.
Originally, the filibuster was different from the current set up in two important ways. One, the filibuster required the person filibustering to actually hold the floor (ie, be standing up and talking). Two, a filibuster halted all other business until it concluded one way or another. So if someone is filibustering something, then nothing can get done until they either stop or the chamber votes to shut them up.
This made the filibuster a very powerful but inherently time-limited tactic. By halting all business, the political pressure (on both sides) of a filibuster was considerably higher. But it it was also limited by the physical stamina of the person (or people) doing it. If it's just one crank, then they can stand there until they literally collapse, and as they're being taken to the hospital the Senate will be moving on to new business, and at most they've delayed things by a day or so. If it's 50 people, they can take turns talking for a half-hour each and easily delay proceedings indefinitely.
Going back to that system would prevent rank obstructionism on the part of the minority party from stopping any attempt by the majority party to accomplish anything, but would still allow for Senators to block individual bills that they felt particularly strongly about. It would return the filibuster from a de-facto "60 votes or no go" on every single thing to an extraordinary step for extraordinary circumstances.
I'm fine with that.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.