Friday Talking Points -- The Death Of Joe Biden's Presidential Legacy
We're not quite sure exactly what to call what we witnessed this week in Washington. We know it's not "regicide," since we don't have kings here. So what, exactly? Execucide? Presidenticide? Legicide? Particide? Whatever neologism you prefer, however (and feel free to suggest your own in the comments...), what we saw this week was the strangulation of Joe Biden's presidency and the Democratic Party's political agenda. It happened mostly in public, as two supposedly-Democratic senators killed all hope of anything important getting done for the entire rest of the year (if not for the rest of Biden's term). This will likely doom Democrats' chances in the midterms and will likely also cement the legacy (whether justified or not) of Biden's term in office as a president who was weak, ineffective, and a massive disappointment to most of the Democratic Party.
Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema personally strangled Biden's hopes for accomplishing much of anything more than he already has, and by doing so they did more political damage to Biden's presidency and their own party than Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Kevin McCarthy could have managed combined. That's how disappointing the entire tragedy truly was, for millions of Democratic voters.
Midterm congressional elections depend on turnout of the base. But why should any Black southern voter even bother to brave the hours-long lines when their own party and their own preferred presidential candidate have proven to be so ineffective in delivering for them? Why should any parent get excited about voting for a Democrat when the party couldn't even manage to continue the Child Tax Credit payments for another year? Why should anyone who cares about justice and democracy make the effort to vote when their elected officials quite obviously care about arcane parliamentary procedure far more than securing their right to vote?
It's been that kind of week, sadly.
Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Kyrsten. We sincerely hope all the money the big donors give you (and future lobbying opportunities, for Sinema) prove to be worth it. Because you have richly (pun intended) earned the wrath of Democrats all across the country, from sea to shining sea. History called, and you let it roll over to voice mail. And we won't forget -- you can count on that much.
We've even heard the suggestion that perhaps the way to convince these two is to get a bunch of progressive activist money together and just buy them off -- offer them more in campaign goodies than the other side already has. As the old joke goes (usually referencing cops), are Sinema and Manchin honest politicians? You know -- the kind that stays bought -- and doesn't sell out to someone else?
Sigh. It's been that kind of week.
It started early -- last weekend, Manchin let it be known that he wasn't even supporting his own offer on the Build Back Better bill. He had made this offer to the White House just before Christmas, but now apparently he's so miffed that they didn't praise his obstructionism to the skies that he's reneging on this offer, too. And that he wasn't even in discussions with the White House anymore on how to move forward.
So that killed off the entire remainder of Biden's economic agenda. And it was only Saturday. Things went downhill from there.
Tuesday was a good day, but it turned out to be too little, too late. President Joe Biden went down to Georgia to give a speech on voting rights. The speech itself was excellent -- even better than the barnburner he delivered the previous week to mark the January 6th anniversary. However, it was nothing more than a last-ditch effort -- an effort that now seems to have driven straight into the ditch.
The speech was well-received, but what was more telling than the audience's reaction was who wasn't there to hear it. Many Black activists stayed away, the most prominent being Stacey Abrams (an absolute lion of the right-to-vote movement). Abrams said she had "a scheduling conflict," but while her team wouldn't say what she was doing, she had no public events scheduled that day. Black Georgians felt grateful for Biden giving such a strong speech, but also more than a little disillusioned because it took so long for him to give such a speech. From their viewpoint, Biden has squandered his first year, always relegating voting rights to the back burner and (until now) never championing the issue personally.
This has meant the clock has already run out on several of the reforms that could have been possible if the two voting rights bills in Congress had actually passed last year. Redistricting has already happened (although some of the worst gerrymandered maps, such as Ohio's, are already getting rejected by the courts, thankfully). Primaries are about to begin. This is just about the last chance Democrats will have to pass any legislation that will impact the general election in November, and although Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden tried to orchestrate a full-court press on the issue, none of it changed the minds of Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema.
Now, to be fair, the people upset with Biden for not making voting rights a focus earlier on don't really have an answer as to why that would have been any different, when it comes to convincing Manchin and Sinema to reform the filibuster rules in the Senate (which would be necessary for either one of the voting rights bills to pass). Biden and Schumer could have done all of this last June or July, and the outcome likely would have been exactly the same. With not a single vote to spare in the Senate, Biden simply can't deliver the way L.B.J. could (with 67 Democrats in his Senate). It all comes down to the weakest link, and both Sinema and Manchin seem to revel in the contest to see which one of them is weaker.
Manchin played his usual "be the worst kind of tease" game all week, suggesting he might be open to some changes in the filibuster, but probably not enough to guarantee passage of the two voting rights bills. Sinema, as usual, refused to say anything and then gave a vomit-inducing grandstanding speech in the Senate right before Joe Biden personally arrived at the Capitol to talk to all the Senate Democrats. To quote the philosopher Jar Jar Binks: "How wude!" She managed some crocodile tears as she stood up for a fantastical bipartisanship which simply does not exist right now and will never exist as long as the filibuster rules remain unchanged. She is, to be blunt, living in her own reality. Manchin may be too, since he began the week by falsely stating that the filibuster had been in place for "232 years," which isn't even remotely true. The filibuster is not and has never been part of the Constitution, and you'd think a senator who supposedly reveres the filibuster would know that by now.
Of course, Biden wasn't alone in his push to convince the two holdouts. Barack Obama wrote an editorial in USA Today where he made his own case:
The filibuster has no basis in the Constitution. Historically, the parliamentary tactic was used sparingly -- most notably by Southern senators to block civil rights legislation and prop up Jim Crow. In recent years, the filibuster became a routine way for the Senate minority to to block important progress on issues supported by the majority of voters. But we can't allow it to be used to block efforts to protect our democracy. That's why I fully support President Joe Biden's call to modify Senate rules as necessary to make sure pending voting rights legislation gets called for a vote. And every American who cares about the survival of our most cherished institutions should support the president's call as well.
The pundits chimed in as well, in an attempt to teach Manchin and Sinema the correct history:
The 14th and the 15th Amendments -- which along with the 13th were the constitutional foundations for civil and voting rights in America -- were not passed on a bipartisan basis. The 14th Amendment passed on an almost total party-line vote in Congress, with Republicans standing against a Democratic Party that opposed federal intervention in the South. When legislatures in the states of the former Confederacy refused to ratify it, that same party-line majority passed the Reconstruction Acts in 1867 and 1868, which imposed military government on most of the South and made ratification of the amendment a precondition of readmission to the union.
The 15th Amendment was likewise partisan, passed on a party-line vote in both chambers of Congress.
Saying you believe in bipartisanship in today's Senate is like saying you believe unicorns are not only real but also are saving the planet from climate change. It's just ludicrous for an adult to believe such things, in other words.
Democrats didn't pick this fight, it would do well to remember. But Manchin and Sinema are unilaterally disarming the Democratic Party, dooming it to lose the battle:
What Manchin opposes is achieving those monumentally important things [the voting rights bills] on a partisan basis. But here's the rub: Either Republicans will keep restricting voting on a partisan basis, or Democrats will protect and expand voting access on a partisan basis. Partisanship will prevail either way. The only question is which partisanship prevails.
None of it did any good. Manchin is still playing his usual coy game, but hasn't budged an inch. Sinema added insult to injury with her grandstanding speech, which brought joy and cheer to the heart of every Republican in the chamber. She has already gotten some strong condemnation from one very powerful voice, after Biden's speech provided the imagery:
"History will remember Sen. Sinema unkindly," [Martin Luther] King III said in a statement shortly after Sinema's speech on the Senate floor ended. "While Sen. Sinema remains stubborn in her 'optimism,' Black and Brown Americans are losing their right to vote.
"She's siding with the legacy of Bull Connor and George Wallace instead of the legacy of my father and all those who fought to make real our democracy," King added.
That's her legacy, plain and simple, from this point on.
America's legacy is still an open question, but this was certainly depressing to hear. Pollsters are now asking people a new question -- one they hadn't ever bothered to before: "Do you think the nation's democracy is in danger of collapse?" The results? A full 58 percent say they are indeed worried, while only 37 percent disagree. That's the reality of the situation that Sinema and Manchin are ignoring.
So as we said, it's been a pretty depressing week all around. Unless something drastically changes, what we all have witnessed has been the absolute death of the entire rest of President Biden's agenda -- at least for the next year. Bipartisanship is simply not going to spontaneously break out... sorry, Kyrsten. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether the events of this week doom Democrats to becoming the minority party in both houses of Congress in the midterms. It really was that bad a week.
We have to hand out this award in a very qualified fashion this week. In fact, we considered handing both our weekly awards to the same man, because it has been a rollercoaster of a week for President Joe Biden.
But on balance, we found that Tuesday's speech was indeed impressive and should be recognized. Biden has now given two major speeches in January, and both of them were stunning and amazing, if just for the passion Biden displayed in them.
The first point this passion really appeared in this week's speech was in the following passage, as Biden was talking about his efforts to move voting rights bills forward: "I've been having these quiet conversations with the members of Congress for the last two months. I'm tired of being quiet!" But in reality, there has been nothing stopping Biden -- he could have been as loud on the subject as he wished, ever since he got sworn in. We sincerely hope that his first two speeches of the year are a harbinger of what is to come -- that Biden stays "tired of being quiet," and makes as strong (and as loud) a case as he can for his entire agenda, leading up to the midterms.
We briefly wrote about Biden's speech earlier this week, or you can read some other reviews of it if you missed seeing or hearing it on Tuesday. Biden was unequivocal in his call for Democrats to not only support voting rights but also to reform the filibuster to pass the bills and put them on his desk. And we've got the three most memorable passages (in our opinion) down in the talking points as well.
But the speech didn't happen in a vacuum. In fact, it happened in the midst of a pretty terrible week for Biden all around. Inflation went up again in December, Biden's testing mandate (with a vaccine opt-out) for private employers was tossed out by the Supreme Court (although they did uphold the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers), and tomorrow would have been the day for the monthly Child Tax Credit checks to go out again -- but they won't, because Build Back Better didn't pass. So millions upon millions of parents who have gotten used to these monthly tax credits will suddenly be left in the lurch, all thanks to Joe Manchin. And the week ended with Kyrsten Sinema rudely torpedoing filibuster reform right before Biden made his personal case to the Democrats in the Senate.
As we said, a pretty terrible week all around.
But, as we said, we still have to admit that was indeed an impressive speech. So even though it does come with some qualifiers, Joe Biden still was the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week.
[Congratulate President Joe Biden on his White House contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]
Sadly, it's getting to the point where we could do this section in the length of a tweet.
The Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award this week goes to both Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, for the usual reasons. As well as (for Manchin) for torpedoing Build Back Better just to kick the week off and (for Sinema) disrespecting her party's leader by giving a crocodile-tears speech right before Joe Biden was due to make his case to Senate Democrats.
With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?
[Contact Senator Joe Manchin on his Senate contact page, and Senator Kyrsten Sinema on her Senate contact page, to let them know what you think of their actions.]
Volume 646 (1/14/22)
Democrats now face a very steep hill, heading into an election year. Not only do they have the "midterm curse" dynamic working against them, but now they have a whole lot of very disappointed voters in their base.
An article written examining the aftermath of the apparent death of Build Back Better put it rather succinctly:
It's far from the ideal position. And party leaders and campaign strategists are holding out hope that the White House may still be able to revive nascent talks around the [Build Back Better] initiative to at least salvage some popular elements. But in interviews with nearly two dozen Democrats involved in the upcoming election, there is an increasing sense that political inertia may well win out and that their party will be forced to radically adapt its core pitch to voters.
"I don't think any of us are expecting anything else to pass," said Colin Strother, a Democratic operative and veteran of House campaigns in Texas. Strother said the party in Washington has "underwhelmed, underachieved and undersold" it's successes so far. "It has left our opponents emboldened, or supporters dejected and our prospects for 2022 dim if not dark. So we have a lot of work to do to dig out of this... We better have some golden fuckin' shovels."
As we said, a very steep hill to climb.
So we're doing what we can to launch this election year, even though it was rather dispiriting to do so. But Democrats are going to have to run on something, and they'd better start figuring out now what that's going to be.
We could only come up with four positive ones, for the time being. The last three of these are from Joe Biden's voting rights speech, where he lays out what is at stake not only for Democrats in the Senate but for the entire country. These are likely to be the bits of this speech which are remembered and quoted in the future.
Tout the good economic news
The following is from an article written by two people from Third Way, which is not an organization we usually look to for advice (to put it mildly). But the article was actually pretty good, laying out a 5-point plan for Democrats to fight back rhetorically in their midterm campaigns. One of the items was "Be like Reagan on the economy," and while we could have redesigned this as a Democratic talking point from a politician, it's easy enough to do so and we wanted to give credit for the idea where it was due:
Imagine what a Republican president would call an economy with the highest gross domestic product growth since 1984, the biggest jobs increase in U.S. history, booming wages and a stock market up 25 percent year-over-year. Donald Trump called far less "the greatest economy in the history of the world."
There is a 24-point gap between how positive voters feel about their own finances and how negatively they view the U.S. economy. One reason is inflation. The other is that Republicans denigrate the economy for political reasons, and Democrats live in fear of celebrating if a single voter is unhappy with their economic circumstances.
In 1984, Ronald Reagan had a sprinting economy like today's (including inflation in excess of 4 percent). He proclaimed it "Morning in America" and romped to a 49-state landslide.
Make Sinema and Manchin irrelevant!
This is admittedly a weak argument to make to most voters, except the ones in the Senate battleground states (such as Pennsylvania or Wisconsin). But it could indeed be a motivating factor there, and indeed several Democratic candidates are already explicitly making this argument.
"Are you disgusted with so-called Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema doing the Republicans' dirty work for them in the Senate? Well, there's one good way to make them completely irrelevant. Do you never want to see Manchin's face in a television interview again? The way to do that is to elect more real Democrats to the Senate! If I am elected, I promise to immediately reform the filibuster and support President Joe Biden's agenda for America -- all of the Build Back Better plan, voting rights, raising the minimum wage, making the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes -- all of it! Send me and one other new Democrat to the Senate and tell Manchin and Sinema they can go pound sand for all you care!"
We could be getting so much done
This is related to the last one, obviously.
"If Democrats -- real Democrats -- had control of the Senate and keep control of the House, then we have a very positive agenda for making life better for all working Americans in almost too many ways to count. Go read what was in the Build Back Better bill that two supposedly Democratic senators killed! We will do all of this without raising taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year, too, and it will all be paid for. We will then move on the rest of the Biden agenda which has been bottled up by the Republican Party's insistence on blocking all good ideas to move this country forward. And most important of all we will pass a voting rights act for the 21st century, to ensure that state politicians can never tear down what so many have fought for throughout our history. Think of what we can get done, and then take a look at the Republican Party. They have no ideas whatsoever on any plan to improve life for anyone -- except maybe the wealthy, they'll probably manage to pass another giant tax giveaway to the millionaires and billionaires. Compare what Democrats want to get done with the total absence of any ideas -- good, bad, or indifferent -- on the other side. It's a pretty easy choice to make, America."
Show them how determined you are!
Whip up Democrats everywhere on the importance of turning out to the polls this particular year.
"Are we going to let Republicans get away with their voter suppression laws? No! I don't know about you, but them trying to make it harder and harder to vote just makes me angry. I swear, I will not allow them to break my determination! I am going to vote, come Hell or high water, and I hope that you all feel the same. Jump through all their hoops. Help others navigate all their nonsense. Make sure your family and your friends all know what they have to do before Election Day. No matter what, do not let them intimidate you into just giving up and not voting. It is the only way we can beat their antidemocratic efforts!"
Let the majority prevail
As mentioned, these last three come from Biden's recent speech on voting rights. They are in the order given, and they build up to a rather dramatic conclusion.
Sadly, the United States Senate -- designed to be the world's greatest deliberative body -- has been rendered a shell of its former self. It gives me no satisfaction in saying that, as an institutionalist, as a man who was honored to serve in the Senate. But as an institutionalist, I believe that the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote. Let the majority prevail. And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this.
Weaponized and abused
The only thing to add to this one might be: "...as the authors of the Constitution meant it to be" -- always hammer home that the filibuster is not in the Constitution at all.
The filibuster has been weaponized and abused. While the state legislatures' assault on voting rights is simple -- all you need in your House and Senate is a pure majority -- in the United States Senate, it takes a supermajority: 60 votes, even to get a vote -- instead of 50 -- to protect the right to vote. State legislatures can pass anti-voting laws with simple majorities. If they can do that, then the United States Senate should be able to protect voting rights by a simple majority. Today I'm making it clear: To protect our democracy, I support changing the Senate rules, whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights. When it comes to protecting majority rule in America, the majority should rule in the United States Senate.
Where will you stand?
Biden got some grief for this passage, but it will easily be the most-remembered passage of the whole speech. And he's right. It is indeed time to choose sides, and the choice should be pretty obvious.
And the question is: Where will the institution of the United States Senate stand? Every senator -- Democrat, Republican, and independent -- will have to declare where they stand, not just for the moment, but for the ages. Will you stand against voter suppression? Yes or no? That's the question they'll answer. Will you stand against election subversion? Yes or no? Will you stand for democracy? Yes or no? And here's one thing every senator and every American should remember: History has never been kind to those who have sided with voter suppression over voters' rights. And it will be even less kind for those who side with election subversion. So, I ask every elected official in America: How do you want to be remembered? At consequential moments in history, they present a choice: Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis? This is the moment to decide to defend our elections, to defend our democracy.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground
Chris,
Midterm congressional elections depend on turnout of the base. But why should any Black southern voter even bother to brave the hours-long lines when their own party and their own preferred presidential candidate have proven to be so ineffective in delivering for them?
I'd like to answer that!
Because, they understand, as well as you do, why progress on delivering on these issues has been so hard and so slow. And, because they aren't people who give up when it gets hard. They are tough people and when the going gets tough, the tough get going!
Chris,
Why should anyone who cares about justice and democracy make the effort to vote when their elected officials quite obviously care about arcane parliamentary procedure far more than securing their right to vote?
Are you going to bother to vote? Why sell your fellow Americans so short? I just don't understand it.
Chris,
Many Black activists stayed away, the most prominent being Stacey Abrams (an absolute lion of the right-to-vote movement). Abrams said she had "a scheduling conflict," but while her team wouldn't say what she was doing, she had no public events scheduled that day.
Shocking. Positively shocking.
Okay, so Conventional Wisdom says that the Dems will lose at least the House this November. But what do Repugs have to offer voters besides, "Trump was great, and by the way he won," along with another tax cut for the rich? Don't forget that 80 million people would have voted for a tunafish sandwich.
So what, exactly? Execucide? Presidenticide? Legicide? Particide?
Rubiconicide... the die is cast.
Chris,
I know you were as impressed as I was with Gabe Sterling, the Georgia election official, after his enough is enough speech.
Do you share his concern about all of the efforts underway, some for many years now, regarding voting rights and claims of vote fraud and election subversion by Republicans and Democrats and how they are collectively calling into question with the American people the integrity of US elections, despite the fact that the last presidential election was one one of the most secure with the highest voter turnout in history?
Chris,
TP#4
Now, THAT'S more like it! :-)
Chris,
I don't have the time (or, to be honest, the inclination) to look up the most grievous of the voter suppression laws in the states.
If you have time in a future column, I would really appreciate a full accounting of these laws and how the negative impacts on voting can be mitigated, as implied in this week's Talking Point #4 ...
Well, well... poor dear Mr. Strother. Lucky for him, I got some of them "golden fuckin' shovels," and I'm in the neighborhood. Dig dig.
No, no, no ... I mean, STOP digging! For God's sake! :)
MtnCaddy
4
Okay, so Conventional Wisdom says that the Dems will lose at least the House this November.
The pendulum always swings back... only question is how far.
But what do Repugs have to offer voters besides, "Trump was great, and by the way he won," along with another tax cut for the rich?
You could not be more correct, witness the congressional special election Tuesday in FL-20 to replace the late Rep. Hastings who passed away last April. This is a heavily Democratic district, mind you, where the outcome of the race wasn't in question at all. Joe Biden won FL-20 in 2020 with 77% support. Fast forward to Tuesday where the Democratic candidate, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, won the special election with 79% support.
Her Republican challenger's response?
In one of the most Democratic districts in Florida here on Earth 1, the Republican got trounced; meanwhile over on Earth 2? Typical dumbass Republican claiming "it does not mean that we lost."
Spoiler alert: You lost. Trump lost.
Don't forget that 80 million people would have voted for a tunafish sandwich.
The majority definitely voted Trump out in 2020 in the same manner the majority never voted him in circa 2016; however, this is quite obviously notwithstanding the outcome in the Electoral College. Trump's own pollster's "autopsy" shows that Trump lost in 2020 because of his response to the pandemic and his downplaying of COVID-19 risks and resisting precautions advocated by his own administration's health experts.
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000177-6046-de2d-a57f-7a6e8c950000
Trump is now busily backpedaling on the issue and singing the praises of "his" vaccine and busily whining that he is not getting credit for saving "millions and millions" (his words, not mine). Pay no attention to the lies and downplaying of the disease still going on by the right-wing useful idiots; the perpetually grieving Poor Donald wants credit for COVID. It's comical to watch.
Elizabeth Miller
10
No, no, no ... I mean, STOP digging! For God's sake! :)
Heh.
Well, technically we and our golden f*****' shovels will be digging out... which naturally does require one to dig... dig?
Donald probably deserves some of the credit for the rapid development of the vaccine. What's silly is how long it took him.
I mean seriously, how is it that the guy who takes credit for everything regardless of whether or not he had anything to do with it, and who did almost everything wrong on COVID, abjectly refuses to take credit for the one thing he indisputably did right???
MC-
Okay, so Conventional Wisdom says that the Dems will lose at least the House this November.
The problem here is that you are using the term conventional, when in fact the Dems will lose not on the ideological front but rather on the redistricting/voter integrity front.
I would say that decennial wisdom indicates that we will lose both the house and senate, especially when one takes into account the current GOP view on non-GOP people voting.
At this point cue Michale and his wall to wall free use abuse on another persons blog to claim I am wrong.
Hopefully, Michale, doesn't take the above as a personal attack...HA...
K-
Glad to see you popping your head up...
Well, technically we and our golden f*****' shovels will be digging out... which naturally does require one to dig... dig?
I have to ask are we really digging out? or is it or is it more like a push and transfer thing?
Joshua,
That is a mystery.
But, the WHO had a lot to do with the rapid development of vaccines for COVID-19, too ...
JL
13|14
In retrospect, with the benefit of hindsight, we can thank our "lucky stars" that COVID presented in the midst of a presidential election cycle circa the 2020 election. Trump therefore became fixated on delivering a vaccine before election day... for his benefit... so I shudder to imagine what happens if SARS-CoV-2 presents in 2017 with no presidential election.
I mean, all things being equal without Trump facing an election in months... who knows, but it was Fauci who tuned out politics and championed the mRNA technology (years of research in the making, predating Trump by decades). Meanwhile, Trump continuously fumed that the FDA was moving too slowly because of safety steps in place to ensure public trust in the vaccines. Trump repeatedly accused the FDA "medical deep state" (his words) of deliberately conspiring to sabotage his reelection. Pathetic, really.
So I don't give Trump a whole lot of credit for the vaccines. Fauci for backing the right technology and loads of scientists like Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó who'd worked on the messenger RNA vaccines for decades, The World Health Organization for their tireless international efforts, and the taxpayers' money. :)
goode trickle
16
Glad to see you popping your head up...
You too, picture man, but I am never not here. What optics have you for us today?
I have to ask are we really digging out? or is it or is it more like a push and transfer thing?
Oh... poo.
Holy... shit.
Thank you for that visual representation; you saw the recent commentaries and just couldn't help yourself, I'm guessing. Heh. :)
GT,
I don't have to "prove" anything.. By Democrats' own admission and by Basement Biden's entire Presidency..
The FACTS prove you wrong..
Don't hate on the messenger just because you don't like the facts.. :D
It's your own fault for backing such a Luser of a Political Party and POTUS...
Well, what can I tell ya'all..
Ya'all have been warned time and time again that your Democrat Party was anti-America and anti-freedom and anti-intelligent..
The facts on the ground simply prove that I have been completely factually accurate all along..
:D
The Democrat Party is dying.. After the mid-terms, Democrats are going to be relegated to minority Party status for at LEAST a decade..
After 2024, Democrats will be barred from the White House for at least that long... :D
Mind you, these aren't MY predictions.. These are the predictions of high profile Democrats themselves...
Life is, indeed, very good.. :D
Liz,
Shocking. Positively shocking.
You have to ask yourself.. *WHY* did those black activists stay away??
And the answer is simple.. President Trump had done more for black Americans in his first 2 years of office than Democrats have done since they fought tooth and nail against the civil rights laws of the 50s and 60s..
Today's black activists are realizing that the Democrat Party is still the Racist Party... And Joe Biden is toxic to black Americans and their freedoms..
Liz,
Because, they understand, as well as you do, why progress on delivering on these issues has been so hard and so slow. And, because they aren't people who give up when it gets hard. They are tough people and when the going gets tough, the tough get going!
You have to ask yourself one question..
WHY would ANY black American sit in hours-long lines to vote... When they can simply take advantage of early-voting and be in and out of the polling place in 5 mins??
This is ECXACTLY the problem with Progressive group-think.. They think that black Americans are stoopid and must be kept for their own protection..
EVERY state has WEEKS of early voting... ANY moron (black OR white) that has to stand in an hours long line to vote is simply a moron or lazy...
There is simply NO EXCUSE for whining about "hours long lines"... They don't exist except for those who were too lazy to get off their arses and take advantage of early voting...
Liz,
I don't have the time (or, to be honest, the inclination) to look up the most grievous of the voter suppression laws in the states.
It would be a complete waste of time for you to attempt to do so..
There ARE no voter suppression laws in ANY of the US 50 states or territories...
This is fact...
Liz,
If you have time in a future column, I would really appreciate a full accounting of these laws and how the negative impacts on voting can be mitigated, as implied in this week's Talking Point #4 ...
Don't hold yer breath.. Voter Suppression is a myth... There has not been a factually documented case of voter suppression in the last 20 years..
On the other hand, as we have seen the last election, there are TONS of well documented facts that prove that Election Fraud, especially PRE-Election fraud is rampant amongst the Democrat Party..
So, we're seeing a plethora of Vote Integrity laws being implemented...
Of course this is why the Democrats are so hysterical about these new laws that the vast majority of Americans support..
It will make it so much harder for Democrats to cheat, both before and after elections..
Liz,
You never answered me before...
What are your thoughts on photo ID for voting??
Well, there ya go Liz.. :D
A more than a half a dozen ON TOPIC comments that we can discuss...
Show me the virtues of on-topic postings.. Show me how it works and I'll follow you anywhere.. :D
I don't have to "prove" anything.. By Democrats' own admission and by Basement Biden's entire Presidency..
The FACTS prove you wrong..
Don't hate on the messenger just because you don't like the facts.. :D
One quick correction, GT...
The facts prove you right on ONE claim...
You are dead on ballz accurate that Democrats will lose the House AND the Senate in Nov..
So, we can add GT to the list of people who see the facts and see the writing on the wall and KNOW that Democrats are going to get their arses handed to them in Nov...
Much has been said about Odumbo's speeches and op-eds in support of killing the filibuster....
What's so hilarious is that 10-15 years ago, Odumbo said THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what he is saying today.. Odumbo spoke on the need to PROTECT the filibuster..
And Democrats swoon'ed back then just like they are swoon'ing today...
Democrats were FOR the filibuster before they were against it.. :eyeroll:
Which proves ONE FACT completely and equivocally...
Hypocrisy.. It's not a bug in Democrat programming. It's a feature.
"But we can't allow it to be used to block efforts to protect our democracy. That's why I fully support President Joe Biden's call to modify Senate rules as necessary to make sure pending voting rights legislation gets called for a vote."
Barack Odumbo, 2022
"If the majority chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to Democratic debate, then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse."
-Barack Odumbo, 2005
I mean, honestly...
How can ya'all support such BLATANT hypocrisy??? Not only SUPPORT but actively and enthusiastically ENCOURAGE such blatant hypocrisy.. Actively ADMIRE people who are such blatant hypocrites.. It's mind-boggling...
I mean, com'on!! *I* would think one would have a little more self-respect, but I guess that's just me..
Hypocrisy.. It's not a bug in Democrat programming. It's a feature.
Now, to be fair, the GOP has it's fair share of hypocrisy...
McConnell and his hypocritical SCOTUS moves comes to mind..
President Trump and his GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER/PROTECT THE FILIBUSTER stance is another example..
So, the GOP is far from innocent in that regard.. I acknowledge that freely and without reservation..
I tried to call ahead, but couldn't get one..
Baa daa, diiishh :D
But, my gods, people!!
Democrats LIVE in their hypocrisy.. Democrats WALLOW in their hypocrisy.. Like above, Democrats treat blatant hypocrisy as the nectar of the gods...
For Democrats, hypocrisy is an integral part of what makes a Democrat a Democrat...
Despite what ya'all believe, being a hypocrite *IS* a character flaw... Not a virtue..
For people who have self respect, hypocrisy is a BUG in the programming. NOT a desirable feature...
If we want to look at the moral and ethical angles....
I'm just saying...
Also in the IT'S FRAKIN' HILARIOUS department is how, with notable exceptions, everyone in Weigantia(™michale) is swooning over Basement Biden's YOU'RE GOING TO HELL speech..
And yet, the speech has been UNIVERSALLY panned as a divisive and anti-American speech by both Republicans AND Democrats...
It's a crock o crap speech SOLELY designed to divide Americans and mobilize the bigots and haters of the Democrat Party..
I guess which explains why the majority of Weigantians(™michale) liked it so much.. :eyeroll:
If THAT is the best that Basement Biden can offer, the the Democrat Party is well and truly in deep kaa-kaa..
Biden Is Dividing the Country He Promised to Unite
Over years of following American politics, I’d come to regard Joe Biden as harmless — a back-slapper without strong conviction, given to exaggeration and the occasional outright lie, but no worse than average for a career politician and no threat to the Republic. Lately I’ve been wondering if I overestimated him.
His remarks on Tuesday settle the matter. His speech on election law was Trump-level demagoguery, the opposite of what the country needs and should expect of its president. Biden is pressing for passage of two voting-reform laws.
The first — the Freedom to Vote Act — is a compendium of measures to make voting easier. The other — the John Lewis Act — seeks among other things to restore requirement on some states to get federal permission for changes in their voting rules. Together, they constitute a strong exertion of federal authority over states’ ability to conduct elections. Set aside what the Constitution may or may not require in that regard: Since the elections in question are federal, I see no principled objection.
Voting should be as easy as possible, and to the naïve observer, it isn’t obvious why the rules should vary state by state.
Yet there’s a vast difference between advocating for these bills and equating opposition to them as support for “Jim Crow 2.0” and “the end of democracy.” That is exactly what Biden did. It was hyperbole verging on hysteria.
https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/voting-rights-biden-is-dividing-the-country-he-promised-to-unite
Copyright © BloombergQuint
Democrats like to scream and yell about President Trump's "lies"...
Yet here is a blatant lie by Basement Biden and Headboard Harris..
Of course, Democrats give them a pass because lies from Democrats are perfectly acceptable..
Hypocrisy.. It's not a bug in Democrat programming. It's a feature.
If the reform bills fail to pass — as seems all but certain, since the Democrats lack a sufficient majority in the Senate and two of their senators are opposed to suspending the filibuster — Biden’s rhetoric will have laid the groundwork for a truly chilling scenario: When Democrats next lose an election, they will view the result as illegitimate. In a country as closely and bitterly divided as the U.S., it’s hard to think of a more toxic intervention.
Dood, that ship has sailed.. Democrats spent the entire President Trump years (Not to mention over 30 MILLION dollars) denying that President Trump's 2016 win was legitimate..
I also don't even have to mention how Democrats whined and cried that President Bush's 2000 and 2004 wins were "not legitimate"..
Today's Democrats whine and cry about the "Big Lie" when they have had their OWN "Big Lie"s on EVERY election that they lost...
Once again:
Hypocrisy.. It's not a bug in Democrat programming. It's a feature.
Even so, Biden’s account of the new laws was misleading. He singled out Georgia’s new rules, for instance, though they’re more permissive than those of some firmly Democratic states. And he ignored the most important fact of all: A substantial share of the electorate doesn’t trust the 2020 results.
Facts that Democrats simply REFUSE to accept..
Democrat run states have MORE restrictive voting laws than most, if not all, Republican run states..
So, this begs the question.. Why doesn't Basement Biden tend to his OWN house first, then worry about Republican run states??
Answer: Because the goal is not to make voting less restrictive.. The goal is to whip up hate and bigotry and use that to call into question the coming Democrat Uber Nuclear Shellacking...
Biden campaigned as the return-to-normal candidate. He seemed suited to the role, and it’s why he won: His most vital job was going to be to show that elections can be trusted, that people with deep disagreements can still engage constructively and that, once in a while, something can get done. Until this week, he could have been fairly accused of making no great effort to do as he promised. The new charge is that, for political advantage, he’s choosing to deepen the country’s divisions.
This... Exactly ^^^^ this....
And for those Weigantians who accept this kind of demagoguery (fortunately there are a couple here who don't) I have to ask...
Why do you hate this country so much??? ????
And, once again, let us turn to the ONLY OFFICIAL Weigantian(™michale) objective News Source..
Democrats Mislead Americans on Election Reform
Amid plummeting poll numbers, rising inflation and a Supreme Court smackdown, President Biden traveled to the Peach State earlier this week not to celebrate the University of Georgia’s national championship the night before, but to foretell the doom of Americans’ right to vote. According to Biden and leading Democrats Chuck Schumer and Stacey Abrams, the only way to save America is to pass their party's sweeping election reform legislation, the so-called Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? What American could oppose bills with names like that?
As usual, upon closer inspection we find that Democrats are far out of touch with Americans. Biden and fellow Democrats have spent his first year in office drumming up asinine fears that huge swaths of Americans are losing the right to vote. In reality, Democrats are doing this to distract from the fact that their election reforms instead do the opposite of what Americans support. Democrats’ election reforms would do away with photo ID requirements, prevent the cleaning of voter rolls, and facilitate ballot trafficking.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/01/15/democrats_mislead_americans_on_election_reform_147033.html
Democrats need to be honest with the American people and call these votings acts exactly what the are.
The Federal Takeover Of State Run Elections Act and the Freedom To Cheat Act...
These acts make voting LESS safe and totally demolishes ANY semblance of vote integrity...
Recent polling conducted by Scott Rasmussen shows that more Americans are concerned with making it harder to cheat at the polls than making it easier to vote. Less than half of voters, 43%, actually support Democrats’ legislation to reform voting laws.
Americans OVERWHELMINGLY support photo voter ID...
It is simply IMPOSSIBLE to go thru life in today's society without a photo ID..
Americans so overwhelmingly support voter ID that, for a brief moment, DEMOCRATS themselves claimed that they were on the side of Voter ID..
But they were laughed, mocked and ridiculed so incessantly (and rightly so) that they let that kind of support just fade...
But what do voters actually think of photo ID laws? An overwhelming four in five Americans support showing an ID before casting a ballot. A similar number, 71%, say that they would vote for a candidate who supports requiring ID before casting a ballot as opposed to one who votes against it. If that’s not a litmus test for your generic ballot, what is? Americans are clearly behind identification requirements. However, Democrats’ election reform legislation does nothing to strengthen such requirements; instead, it does the opposite.
Most Democrats seem to have stayed away from publicly commenting on their lack of support for safeguards like photo ID. Those that do engage do so via a racial lens, despite the fact that minority voters support photo ID laws by a wide margin.
The facts are clear.. Americans OVERWHELMINGLY support Photo ID for voting..
If one DOESN'T support photo ID, then the ONLY logical and rational conclusion is that said someone wants to cheat..
No other conclusion fits the facts..
To cover their weak point, Democrats, with the help of left-wing media outlets, have crafted an alternate reality in which Americans’ right to vote is under constant threat from Republican state legislatures. How could it be, then, that the laws these legislatures have put on the books — such as requiring photo ID, cleaning ballot rolls and obligating that all ballots be received by Election Day — receive widespread public support?
Furthermore, if there really was such a widespread assault on the right to vote, how did Democrats secure unified government in 2020? How did they flip the House in 2018? How was Barack Obama elected twice in an electorate that has long supported showing your driver's license at the polls?
By creating a “crisis” surrounding the right to vote in America, Democrats are intentionally misleading the nation about what their version of election reform entails. In truth, their agenda is widely unpopular, and the more voters understand it, the less they support it. Biden and Democrats know this, which is why they continue to betray the nation’s trust in their quest for political gain at the expense of election integrity.
The simple fact is, voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement are myths.. Boogeymen that Democrats use to scare people..
Fear-mongering.. It's the ONLY way Democrats can do things..
And once again... From Real Clear Politics..
7 Things We've Learned About the 2020 Elections
The United States Agency for International Development, which monitors foreign elections to ensure fairness and accuracy, asserts that proper elections require “transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability.”
The 2020 election in the United States, however, remains one of the least transparent, inclusive, and accountable contests in our nation’s history. And unfortunately, due to prevailing political headwinds, it will likely remain so because election officials are refusing to be held accountable and answer basic, reasonable questions.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/01/15/7_things_weve_learned_about_the_2020_elections_147022.html
Basement Biden's win was illegitimate..
No 2 ways about it...
It was a mistake that will be rectified in 2024...
The Amistad Project is doing its part and has engaged in litigation in several states to bring transparency to unprecedented practices in our last national election. The following are some of our initial findings:
Many key government election offices received more private money than taxpayer money to manage the election.
A majority of that money was spent in a sophisticated effort to turn out the vote of a specific profile of voter in order to benefit one candidate.
These expenditures greatly exceeded campaign finance limits and violated laws and systems designed to keep government neutral in managing elections.
These private interests dictated the manner in which the election would be managed.
Amistad litigation and investigation have revealed that a handful of partisan billionaires funneled funds through a collection of left-leaning nonprofits directly into the counting centers of the urban core of swing states.
Ballots and voters were treated differently based on access to these funds.
A series of lawsuits by the left — and executive branch use of “emergency police powers” due to COVID-19 — radically changed the management of the 2020 election, resulting in different treatment of ballots and voters within several states.
Anyone who claims that there was no election fraud in 2020 is either willfully ignorant or pushing a biased partisan agenda or just doesn't want to face the fact that Biden's win was not legitimate...
The way to make Manchin, Sinema, the Parlimentarian, bipartisanship or whatever other excuse irrelevant is to make both the Deathocrats and Republikillers irrelevant by demanding small donor candidates and enforcing that demand with our votes.
So, basically, you want to revamp the United States' entire political system...
And then, on the 7th day, you'll rest?? :D
Hate to break in to Michale's manic posting revenge fantasy thing...but
Any one see the Tonga volcano eruption? Some of the satellite video is crazy with how big the explosion is compared to Australia or the curvature of the earth...
Hate to break in to Michale's
Liar.... :D
Any one see the Tonga volcano eruption? Some of the satellite video is crazy with how big the explosion is compared to Australia or the curvature of the earth...
I saw that!!
Wasn't that CRAZY!!!???
The entire West Coast is under a Tsunami Watch...
It's amazing to think that there are actually humans who believe that we can control the awesome power that is Mother Nature...
And for Democrats all over....
Republican Glenn Youngkin sworn in as governor of Virginia
Glenn Youngkin turned Virginia from blue to red
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/youngkin-inauguration-virginia-republican-sworn-in-governor
The hits just keep on coming.. :D
So... Let's recap...
Rising anger among Black activists: Members of some civil-rights group refused to appear with Biden for his voting speech in Atlanta. New York Times columnist Charles Blow piled on: "Biden has been dillydallying on getting rid of the filibuster to protect voting rights for essentially his whole administration, until this week."
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, distanced himself from some of Biden's rhetoric in Atlanta, where he invoked the Confederacy and Bull Connor. "Perhaps the President went a little too far," Durbin told CNN.
Most polls put Biden around 42-43% approval, with over 50% disapproval. In a Quinnipiac poll this week, Biden had a 33% approval. The White House calls that an "outlier."
The Supreme Court yesterday blocked Biden's vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers.
The Afghanistan pullout played out about as poorly as it could have.
Russia is messing with him: Biden's warnings haven't deterred Vladimir Putin from continuing to build toward a Ukraine invasion.
Inflation is soaring: It's the worst in 39 years.
Empty grocery shelves get network-news coverage. It's partly the weather, partly COVID, partly the supply chain — but makes a handy visual shorthand for national pessimism.
The bottom line: Build Back Better was supposed to be Biden's FDR moment. Voting rights could have been his LBJ moment. Instead, he's likely to end Year 1 with neither. https://www.axios.com/biden-agenda-failure-democrats-47947ce1-91b8-45e0-952f-4598fbda1789.html
Democrats might be tempted to claim that Biden has hit bottom and things could only get better from here..
I am sure they thought the same thing after Progressives got rolled on the BIF.. And then probably thought the same after the demise of Build Back Broke..
But it's clear that Biden being spanked AGAIN by the SCOTUS *AND* the demise of Democrats ELECTION CHEAT laws, that Basement Biden STILL hasn't found the bottom yet.. :D
Any one see the Tonga volcano eruption? Some of the satellite video is crazy with how big the explosion is compared to Australia or the curvature of the earth...
Heh Anyone see THE ETERNALS yet???
Art imitating life... :D
I kinda get the feeling that ya'all would be a LOT happier, not to mention a LOT more animated, if President Trump had won the election as it SHOULD have happened, eh???
Definitely comes under the heading of Be Careful What You Wish For... You May Get It.. :D
[45]
Yikes, that's a lot of volcano there, especially the curve of the earth view.
Gillibrand vows to 'do better' after restaurant says she ignored mask mandate
Gillibrand appeared in a video in a restaurant without a mask
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gillibrand-vows-restaurant-ignored-mask-mandate
Rules are for THEE and not for ME!!
Hypocrisy.. It's not a bug in Democrat programming. It's a feature.
CW- This column generated a total of 52 comments and Michale generated 58% of them. Not only is that not fair but it diminishes the readability of the comments for your entire readership. How about a new policy for the new year limiting the number of comments any one person can make to a single column. Not at all sure what that number should be but it sure as hell ought to be less than 30 out of 52. I was enjoying reading these comments until I was inundated by the Michale Tsunami. It is your column and you really should do something to keep it from being hijacked like this.
SF Bear..
You actually raise a good point.. I was going to bring this up myself today, but you gave me the perfect lead in..
How is it, EXACTLY, that my comments prevent YOU from commenting??
Is ANYONE prevented from commenting based on the number of comments I (or ANYONE for that matter) makes.
I mean, honestly.. Do I have some magical power that my comments actually saps the your will to comment??
Is ANYONE here saying to themselves, "Oh wow.. Looks like Michale has said it all, so why should I bother commenting??"
Is that really how things are??
Or are you, like Cad, on a REALLY slow computer that takes him 5 minutes to scroll down past 80 comments??
What IS it about someone's number of comments that you feel prevents you from commenting??
Or is it the fact that Democrats are royally screwing things up so badly that you and Cad et al are DESPERATE for someone to blame?? So, you blame the guy who is rubbing all that failure in ya'all's face??
"I CAN'T COMMENT BECAUSE MICHALE IS COMMENTING TOO MANY TIMES!!!"
Does that make ANY sort of adult and mature sense to you???
I don't mean to pick on you personally.. I actually was going to bring this up today as today is my day off and I have all day to devote to the care and maintenance of Weigantia.. :D
But you bringing up exactly what I was thinking was an opportune moment..
This column generated a total of 52 comments and Michale generated 58% of them.
Only 58%?? Damn, I must be slacking.. :D
I'll have more to say on this subject as I get the requisite Diet Cokes in me.. :D
I was enjoying reading these comments until I was inundated by the Michale Tsunami.
Now, let's examine that statement..
What's different about the comments you enjoyed before my return and the comments that you don't enjoy AFTER my return..
Surely, the NUMBER of comments is different.. But is that the difference that makes ALL the difference for you??
Unlikely...
No, I think the relevant difference here is the comments made BEFORE my return were all comments that you AGREED with.. Comments that you WANTED to read... Comments that confirmed your own biases and bigotries*..
*NOTE: I use 'bigotry', not in the pejorative way, but in it's actual definition.. We all have our bigotries.. One of my bigotries is lazy self-absorbed elitist America-hating Democrats.. And terrorists.. And child molesters. We all have our bigotries and having them can actually be a sign of good character
So, basically, the comments you read were conformist to your ideals and they said exactly what you wanted to hear, so you enjoyed reading those comments..
And now all that has changed, right?? Now you are confronted with comments that actually reflect REAL life.... REALITY... FACTS....
And now yer perturbed.. Your bastion of political thought, political correctness and political fantasy life has been violated..
And it's especially maddening for you (and others.. I am sure you are not the only one here in Weigantia(™michale) that feels this way) because my comments DO show the facts.. The reality...
And you don't like that reality.. So, you try and come up with ways that you can have your illusion back..
Limiting the person that is posting all the facts and all the reality seems to be the choice de jour around here...
It's funny that you use the word *FAIR* when describing a process that is blatantly UNFAIR is laughable.. That's what Democrats considers to be "fair"...
Now.. If you REALLY want "fair", then FAIR would be that everyone here is limited to 2 comments, regardless of their political persuasion..
Now, tell.. Honestly... How would YOU like that??
You weren't around back when Weigantia first got started, back in 2006 (or 2005??).. It was a LONG time ago...
Things were quite a bit different back then.. But one thing has remained constant..
EVERYONE has been free to have their say.. Whether you have something to say over 200 comments or you just have something to say over 2 comments, EVERYONE has the opportunity to say what they wish to say...
And, if I recall correctly, not a SINGLE SOLITARY PERSON here in Weigantia has been banned. EVER...
Over 15 16 years, NO ONE has ever been banned.. That's quite an accomplishment.. And, if I am being honest (and I try to be... always) despite my differences with the current Weigantian Administration I have to give credit where it is due.. That attitude of Free Speech that has been a STAPLE of Weigantian society is still being maintained..
And you want CENSORSHIP??? You're begging for someone to step in and curtails someone's right to Free Speech???
And you call that..... FAIR!!????
Don't take this the wrong way, but... Are you crazy!!!?????
No one is preventing you from commenting.. If you need to comment to bring attention to your previous comment because it's been mixed with other comments, you are free to do so...
Whether I comment twice or comment 200 times.. NONE of that prevents YOU or anyone else from commenting twice or commenting 200 times..
Don't blame me, just because you can't keep up.. :D
Sadly, Bear's comments are quite representative of elitist Democrat policies these days..
They don't like the message so they try to cancel the messenger..
Democrats can't fight the facts and the reality with facts and reality of their own.. So they simply try to spin with equivocation and mitigation and outright BS..
And, when that doesn't work, when all the spin and mitigation and BS is exposed for what it is, then Democrats try and censor or cancel the messenger..
That's the state of Democrat polices in the here and now.. Patently and unequivocally UNFAIR...
Now I know how Dave Chappelle feels.. :D heh
A bit ago, JL said something that has stuck with me.. As an aside to JL, I am posting this from memory, so please feel free to correct any mis-quote..
"Michale is not toxic. He simply brings out the toxic in other people."
It struck me and stayed with me because, although I wouldn't put it in such terms, it's a factually accurate claim..
What I do is I read people's words and comments and then I hold up a mirror and point out, "See?? This is what you look like."
And people don't like what they see and, as is per the norm, they lash out at the messenger because they don't like the message..
And seeing themselves in the reflection of their own creation, people who ARE toxic let that toxic loose...
So, yea... Yours was an astute, enlightened and accurate assessment as to what I am all about here in Weigantia...
SF Bear [53],
Bad idea.
OK Enough self reflection.. I am sure, as more pearls of wisdom come to me :D we'll revisit this discussion..
But for now, let's get on with some hard political commentary.. :D
Our first stop is with the Democrat Water Carrier, the NY Grime..
Oh, the tribulations of Job Biden! Kyrsten Sinema humiliated him. Mitch McConnell disrespected him. The Supreme Court blocked him. Vladimir Putin scorned him. Inflation defied him. Covid stalked him. Even Stacey Abrams stiffed him.
There are any number of sentiments to feel about what the president is enduring right now, and we should feel all of them. Pity, anger, disappointment, embarrassment — and hope that he can get it going, because the alternative is really bad.
As hapless as Biden and his coterie are, we can’t give up on the president because he’s all that stands between us and the apocalypse at the hands of Trump, DeSantis, Pence, Kristi Noem and future Chief Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
President Biden fancied himself another Master of the Senate. Unfortunately, he was thinking about the Senate of 1984. He was supposed to be Mitch McConnell’s equal in senatorial cunning. But, so far, McConnell — the Einstein of obstruction — has been astonishingly successful in ruining Biden’s agenda.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/15/opinion/biden-senate-mcconnell-sinema.html
Here we have an example of the FACTS and REALITY that cause Weigantians so much consternation and saps their will to comment..
While the calendar says that the President has 3 years left in his term, his Presidency is over now..
Joe Biden (I feel so sorry for him that calling him Basement Biden seems un-necessarily cruel) is getting slapped down from so many disparate inroads, it's hard to say which slap down is the kill shot..
Surely, the catastrophic Afghanistan started the ball rolling.. The last few months of 2021 was disaster upon disaster upon disaster for the Biden Administration..
But it's the first month of 2022 that is heralding the demise of this administration..
Virtually ALL of the wounds on Biden and Headboard Harris are self-inflicted..
So, we've set the stage for the disastrous Georgia speech, a speech that even Democrats panned as hysterical and senseless attacks on Americans and their beliefs..
The only thing left out of Biden's hate-filled rancor of a missive was saying that all Americans who disagree with Biden are Nazis....
THAT is how bad Biden's speech was...
It was a speech designed SOLELY to rally the troops with hate, rancor and bigotry..
And the people who ARE filled with hate, rancor and bigotry LOVED it...
Let me repeat that because it's important..
The people who ARE filled with hate, rancor and bigotry LOVED Biden's YOU'RE GOING TO HELL speech...
But the speech was clearly one of the final nails in the coffin of the Biden Administration..
It's what people do when they are going down and they know they are going down and they want to drag down with them as many as they can...
Michale [57],
That would make more sense if there weren't such a problem with all the mirrors you are using. Ahem.
Aww right, Liz..
Since you are up and about, I'll yield the floor for any new content for a bit to give you a chance to get a word in edge-wise.. :D
But we got a long day ahead of us and a LOT of ground to cover... :D
That would make more sense if there weren't such a problem with all the mirrors you are using. Ahem.
Touche'... :D
But, I am constrained to point out (Where has STIG been anyways???) that the number of mirrors aren't really they problem.
It's the toxicity of the mirrors that are the problem..
And, of course, the solution to THAT is for people to be less toxic...
n'est' pas???
You could do your part and tone it down a bit, ya know.
Quality over quantity, in other words.
Gotta run ... be back much later tonight!
You could do your part and tone it down a bit, ya know.
I *HAVE* done my part.. I have knocked down my comments by 150%!! What more do ya want??
"What do I have to do to PROVE to you I am mortal!!???"
"Die..."
-STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION
:D
Quality over quantity, in other words.
That's what's so great about the collective genius of ME.. Ya'all get quantity AND quality.. :D
Gotta run ... be back much later tonight!
Aawwwwww... :(
The problem has been the same from the start. It’s not the Senate, country or world that Biden longingly remembers. Republicans aren’t open to persuasion. Their goal, as it was with Barack Obama, is to make Biden’s presidency a failure.
Here is Dowd's biggest problem..
She implies that Republicans wanting to make Odumbo & Biden a ONE-TERM President is an unusual thing or a BAD thing...
Democrats strove to make Bush and President Trump a "one term" President..
OF COURSE the opposition Party strives to make the President in the White House a one-term President.
I mean.... DUH!!
"DOI...."
-Vanillope Von Schweetz, WRECK IT RALPH
Once again, Democrats PROVE beyond ANY doubt that they are EXACTLY what they accuse Republicans of being...
Joe Biden is dud man walking...
According to the election calendar, Joe Biden has three years remaining in his term. According to political reality, his presidency is over, kaput, finished.
It ended last week because of an accumulation of serious wounds, most of them self-inflicted. The final blow came from a boomerang after the president who campaigned as a decent man and uniter declared his opponents traitors and racists.
Included in that category were Democrats as well as Republicans, leading even members of his own party to concede Biden had gone too far.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/15/bidens-a-dud-man-walking/
Like I said, the ONLY ones who liked Joe Biden's hate-filled bigoted speech are those who are ALSO hate-filled and bigoted..
Everyone else KNOWS that Biden's speech was un-American and un-worthy of a US President...
As an aside to SF Bear...
You may (or may not) have noticed that there are Michale Free Times in Weigantia(™michale)..
If by some quirk of cosmic quirk of fate, my comments somehow prevent you from commenting...
Usually, I am absent from Weigantia(™michale) between 1800hrs and 0300hrs EST seven days a week..
Every once in a while I may be up later or earlier and might pop in..
But for the most part, you can comment Michale free during those hours..
Of course, the downside is, you might be giving me fodder for the next days comments, but.. Hay..
Life.... Even life in Weigantia... doesn't happen in a vacuum, don'tcha know... :D
On its surface, the back-and-forth resembles Washington-as-usual. But this incident was anything but normal in that Biden angered both progressives and moderates in his own party while further alienating independents and Republicans. Good thing he has a dog, because it will be his only friend.
Despite burning so many bridges in spectacular fashion, Biden failed to advance his agenda an inch. In fact, his bizarre behavior rang the death knell.
Just two days after his repellant speech, he was forced to concede defeat at the Capitol when Dem Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia repeated that they would not break the filibuster.
As if to humiliate Biden, Sinema did so in a speech on the Senate floor just before the president entered the building to try to rally Dems.
I mean, what a shot across the bow, eh?? Sinema basically grabbed Biden by the scruff of his neck and shook him madly and screamed, "ARE YOU FRAKING INSANE!!!"
And did so WHILE Biden was waiting on the steps of the Senate to speak!! :D WOW!!!
Now THAT's chutzpah... :D Score one for Sinema...
WOW...
THAT was really weird...
Right in the middle of posting that comment above, all of the sudden my eyes just went schizo... Totally cross-eyed for like 2-3 minutes and now I got this killer headache...
I hope I haven't angered the Weigantia gods, eh?? :D
SF Bear, yer no practicing voodoo on me, eh?? :D
Gonna go lie down for a bit...
" 'I'll be back..' Ha!! You didn't expect me to say that, did you!!??"
"Whaa??? You ALWAYS say that!!!"
-THE LAST ACTION HERO
:D
Trump Fails to Get It Up in Arizona ** Stormy is a No Show
Saturday -- I watched Trump's first rally of 2022 last night and it just wasn't the same. Trump appeared wan and low energy and his crowd matched that energy.
TRUMP DID his standard "stream of consciousness" schtick and said absolutely nothing new or newsworthy. None of his Big Lie greatest hits got much more than a collective "meh" response.
He spent about half the time extolling his administration's "accomplishments" and the rest portraying Biden's first year as an unmitigated disaster for America. The crowd didn't get excited over the former and didn't really respond to the latter -- were they supposed to cheer America's demise? At any rate Trump needs fresh material, and whoever Mike Lamb is, he must be a helluva local Sheriff because he got the loudest cheers of the night.
At this point I wonder if Repug voters in 2024 will face the same choice that Dem voters did in 2020? About either voting for the guy that they really prefer (Trump) versus voting for someone who can beat the Dems...just as many Dems (such as myself) preferred Bernie but were happy to vote for Joe to get rid of Trump.
I also wonder, does Trump pay himself for these rallies?
[53][58]
Exactly why, Elizabeth? Are you actually enjoying things around here lately? It doesn't break my back to scroll scroll scroll but why should I have to?
Whine much? I mean, seriously.
Hope you'll be coming to our little shindig this evening ...
It’s funny to see Republicans so gung-ho over the same laws meant to protect against voter fraud that they adamantly oppose when it comes to gun control! A voter photo ID does provide more assurance that the person voting is who they claim to be — yet, it won’t stop a single person intent and determined to commit voter fraud. If no gun control law has ever prevented a mass shooting, then it stands to reason that no voter integrity law will prevent voter fraud from occurring.
Of course there are a few differences between the two that are obvious — voter fraud is a victimless crime; and there are no reports of people committing mass voter fraud; while, sadly, mass shootings occur on an almost daily basis. Gun control laws are meant to address an actual problem our society faces every day — voter integrity laws are meant to address the imaginary problems the GOP’s fear-mongering have tricked their base into believing in.
Very well said.
Welcome, fellow music lovers, to the return of the CW Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party and the first of our little shindigs in 2022!
Let's give a listen to what everyone has been spinning on the turntable or popping in the cd player these days - play your favourites here tonight ...
Hello!
The Rolling Stones' phenomenal exhibition, UNZIPPED opened right here in Kitchener on November 30, 2021 and will be here through February 27, 2022, the only Canadian stop!!!
It might be extended a while as it is currently shut down due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Anyway, been listening to my Stones cd collection of late ...
Sympathy for the Devil
The Rolling Stones - Live in Rio (1995)
I'd really love to know what y'all are listening to these days ... I know you all love music as much as I do ... and, we all need a break from politics, now and again, don't we?
@ Cad
It doesn't break my back to scroll scroll scroll but why should I have to?
You don't "HAVE TO"... You CHOOSE to.. By your own admission, you don't like to read the facts that are not compatible with your ideology, so you "ignore" them..
That's the difference that makes ALL the difference..
Russ,
We have already been over this.. And you ignored the facts before..
It’s funny to see Republicans so gung-ho over the same laws meant to protect against voter fraud that they adamantly oppose when it comes to gun control! A voter photo ID does provide more assurance that the person voting is who they claim to be — yet, it won’t stop a single person intent and determined to commit voter fraud.
And making murder against the law won't stop a single person intent and determined to commit murder..
Does that mean we should make murder legal?? :eyeroll:
You also still have yet to explain the FACT that you DO have to show a photo ID to purchase a weapon...
So, this irrational and illogical kick of yours to somehow tie voter fraud and the 2nd amendment is ridiculous..
— voter fraud is a victimless crime;
Voter fraud is voter disenfranchisement..
You people used to be BIGLY against voter disenfranchisement.. NOW ya'all are all for it???
Mind-boggling..
Gun control laws are meant to address an actual problem our society faces every day —
Yea?? Like what?? Name me ONE Gun Control law that the anti-gun nuts are pushing in the here and now that will actually address a gun related problem.
Go ahead.. I'll be around.. :D
But we BOTH know you'll never come up with anything. That's because your claim is utter kaa-kaa...
voter integrity laws are meant to address the imaginary problems the GOP’s fear-mongering have tricked their base into believing in.
Liz believes that Americans are losing faith in the integrity of their elections..
I agree..
Voter Integrity laws will restore that faith...
What Democrats want are laws that PREVENT Americans from having faith in their elections..
That is why what Democrats want is anti-American..
@ Cad
Saturday -- I watched Trump's first rally of 2022 last night and it just wasn't the same.
So, you admit that you regularly watch President Trump rallies... :D
Ladies & Gentlemen of Weigantia... We have a closet'ed President Trump admirer!!! :D
It's OK to come out of the closet, Cad... :D
OK, let's pick up where we left off yesterday..
We have a lot of ground to cover..
Kyrsten Sinema's courage, Washington hypocrisy and the politics of rage
In Shakespeare's "Othello," the character Iago famously declared that "men in rage strike those that wish them best." It was a warning that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) now understands all too well. Both Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have refused to be bullied into changing the filibuster rule — a rule that forces the parties into dialogue and compromise.
Sinema supports the voting rights legislation but sees this move as endangering any chance of national healing and resolution. She stated on the Senate floor that "we have but one democracy. We can only survive, we can only keep her, if we do so together." That deeply felt speech was met with vile, threatening attacks. It appears that, in a nation addicted to rage, even those seeking an intervention can become the casualties of our political distemper.
Sinema offered the same arguments long used to support the filibuster — indeed, the same arguments made by President Biden until this week. Biden once called earlier efforts to change the filibuster “disastrous” for democracy and proclaimed, “God save us from that fate. ... [It] would change this fundamental understanding and unbroken practice of what the Senate is all about.” Others joined him then in demanding that Senate Republicans preserve the rule in the name of democracy itself, including then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who insisted that abandoning the rule would be “doomsday for Democracy” and reduce the United States to a “banana Republic.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/589888-kyrsten-sinemas-courage-washington-hypocrisy-and-the-politics-of-rage?rl=1
This is what's so hysterically funny about ya'all's support of killing the filibuster..
It's a full 180 degree opposite response of ya'all's complete and utter SUPPORT of the filibuster back when it was the GOP in control of Congress...
And, when the GOP takes total control of Congress again in 2023 ya'all will, once again, be completely and 1000% BACK to supporting keeping the filibuster..
And ya'all don't find such blatant hypocrisy disconcerting in the least???
Yet that is the liberating quality of rage: It is pure and absolute without the burden of reason or recognition. Liberal commentators this week went after Sinema with sputtering, blind fury, many mocking that she became emotional as she described the anger and divisions in the country.
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell wrote, "Sinema delivers the Senate’s stupidest speech by a Democrat in an edge-of-tears voice to give childish words a melodramatic effect." Onetime MSNBC host Keith Olbermann tweeted that Sinema “needs to resign or be removed from office immediately. ... [She] has become a menace to the continuation of American democracy." MSNBC's Malcolm Nance went further and said Sinema's staff should "resign at the shame of being handmaidens to the death of Democracy.”
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who previously called for burning down the Republican Party, tweeted, "Sinema is effectively asking the authors of Jim Crow and vote-rigging to give their permission for her to stop it. This is worse than incoherent or cowardice. It's a moral disgrace. Ask the segregationists for permission to vote for Civil Rights Act?"
So, senators voicing the same position recently held by Democrats such as Biden, Obama and Schumer are now "segregationists"?
Again, I have to point out the HILARITY of the Democrats who are screaming hysterically to gut the filibuster now..
Because it was not so long ago that they were screaming JUST as hysterically in SUPPORT of the filibuster..
Democrats... Here are your mirrors.. Do you like what you see???
It's funny...
When Republicans stand against their own Party, they are profiles in courage...
Edmund Ross, who stood against Republicans in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson..
John McCain, who stood against Republicans in the Train Wreck Care debacle..
Mitt Romney, who stood against Republicans in the President Trump impeachments debacle..
ALL of those "mavericks" were heralded by Democrats as "courageous" and "principled"...
But when ONE OF THEIR own displays REAL principled courage, Democrats pilloried them and denigrated them and attacked them with a blind hate and rage..
This is ya'all's Democrat Party today, people..
Hypocrisy.. It's not a bug in Democrat programming. It's a feature.
Sinema’s speech was denounced by those who insist that bipartisanship is a "myth" in the age of rage. She is, according to MSNBC's Nina Turner, a "soulless coward" for seeking common ground and compromise. She is hated precisely because she did not hate enough. She did not hate Republicans so blindly as to declare them modern Bull Connors like Biden did or to call the filibuster "a relic of Jim Crow."
In the age of rage, civility is repulsive and intolerable. Sinema made herself a reference point that exposed how unhinged many of her fellow Democrats have become. Remove that reference point, and only rage remains.
That is a point that needs to be pounded home again and again and again...
IN THE AGE OF RAGE, CIVILITY IS REPULSIVE AND INTOLERABLE
No where do we see that more than here in Weigantia since 2015...
The age of rage is upon us...
"This will spin out of control!! This will spin out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!!"
-Admiral Painter, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
And now from the in-dominatable Glenn Greenwald, comes a very embarrassing question that Democrats want to ignore..
If the filibuster is Jim Crow 2.0 and racist....
WHY are Democrats using it to protect Putin's cash cow???
Senate Democrats Use the Jim Crow Filibuster to Protect the Kremlin
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has 55 Senators in support of his bill to sanction a Russian pipeline company. Why are the pro-democracy Democrats blocking its enactment?
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/senate-democrats-use-the-jim-crow
{{{cccchhhiiirrrrrrpppppp}}} {{{cccchhhhiirrrrrppppp}}}
Yea... That's what I figured... :eyeroll:
Hypocrisy.. It's not a bug in Democrat programming. It's a feature.
So, why is it that ya'all decried and attacked President Trump as a puppet of Putin, when it was President Trump who did everything he could to make sure Russia did not get their European pipeline???
And why is it that, in the here and now, it's BIDEN and Democrats who are working to serve Putin's ends??
Facts and questions that are simply too inconvenient to be addressed... :D
It always pleases me when I am on the Pro-America side of these facts and reality..
Just like it always pleases me when many here go on an on ad nauseum about how the "ignore" me...
It simply proves beyond any doubt that I am on the side of the angels... :D
But the bald fact is that Biden and the radicals are in the minority. The country doesn’t like their malignant proposals. Fewer than half of senators back him. The president’s own Democratic colleagues, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, won’t get on board with his constitutional vandalism. He must right now be sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office muttering, “I will have such revenges on you both, that all the world shall — I will do such things — what they are, yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the Earth!” All that is left for him is to rage impotently, like King Lear, a “feeble, fond old man” (except that Shakespeare’s monarch was not always so unimpressive).
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/slurs-damned-slurs-and-bidens-rhetoric
I just gotta ask...
How is all the Democrat Party's woes the fault of Republicans, when it's DEMOCRATS that are thwarting the Party agenda??
I mean, if Democrats can't even convince THEIR OWN PEOPLE that their agenda is the proper one, how is this the fault of the Republicans??
Has it occurred to ANY of ya'all that MAYBE.... just MAYBE.... the problem is the Democrat Party agenda???
That MAYBE it's how Democrats are going about things that are turning off almost 70% of Americans???
Huh?? Has that occurred to any of ya'all???
"Anyone?? Anyone??? Buehler???"
Biden's legislative agenda going nowhere 1 year into presidency
Biden, a former senator, couldn't convince all Senate Democrats to bend filibuster rules to pass voting rights reform
President Biden, who ran on his deep relationships in Senate and ability to build bridges, will cap off his first year in office with his legislative agenda at a standstill – unable to get his Democratic Party fully united and facing steep opposition from Republicans.
Biden's major legislative priorities are in limbo after Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona didn't cave to Biden's pressure and refused to roll back the filibuster to pass legislation without GOP support.
Biden will mark the one-year anniversary of his Jan. 20 inauguration with no clear path forward on passing high-priority voting rights legislation and his Build Back Better social spending plan. He candidly acknowledged his struggles Thursday after a meeting with Senate Democrats at the Capitol.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bidens-legislative-agenda-going-nowhere-one-year-into-presidency
Is there any doubt in ANY Weigantians'(™michale) mind that the Democrat Party agenda is DEAD and that Democrats have NO HOPE to retain their majorities in Congress come Nov 2022???
Any doubt at all??
Who Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise Between Trump and a Former Acolyte
https://dnyuz.com/2022/01/16/who-is-king-of-florida-tensions-rise-between-trump-and-a-former-acolyte/
Governor DeSantis is the undisputed king of Florida...
President Trump is the undisputed king of the USA...
DeSantis' best course of action is to support President Trump to the hilt and then be in the BEST position to succeed President Trump in the 2028 Presidential Election...
Martin Luther King's dream is alive but liberal policies are destroying Black communities
What has happened to the American Black family is not the dream King had and is nothing short of cultural genocide
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/american-black-family-dream-martin-luther-king-kendall-qualls
This is so factually accurate it's scary..
Look at today's Democrats...
Democrats want to bring back segregation..
Democrats want the color of one's skin to be the SOLE determiner of value and worth...
Democrats claim that hard work, dedication, capability and perseverance are RACIST...
They claim the MATH is racist...
Today's Democrat Party is as racist as it was when it gave this country the KKK and Jim Crow...
Democrats have simply traded the physical slavery plantation for the socio-economic slavery plantation..
When you think about racial equality and civil rights, which political party comes to mind? The
Republicans? Or, the Democrats? Most people would probably say the Democrats.
But this answer is incorrect.
Since its founding in 1829, the Democratic Party has fought against every major civil rights initiative, and has a long history of discrimination.
The Democratic Party defended slavery, started the Civil War, opposed Reconstruction, founded the Ku Klux Klan, imposed segregation, perpetrated lynchings, and fought against the civil rights acts of the 1950s and 1960s.
In contrast, the Republican Party was founded in 1854 as an anti-slavery party. Its mission was to stop the spread of slavery into the new western territories with the aim of abolishing it entirely. This effort, however, was dealt a major blow by the Supreme Court.
In the 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford, the court ruled that slaves aren’t citizens; they’re property. The seven justices who voted in favor of slavery? All Democrats. The two justices who dissented? Both Republicans
https://assets.ctfassets.net/qnesrjodfi80/6bQdKPLDjyo2s0I8c60gA2/aec7a4feb53cdd469d9c59bc3dd5cc64/swain-the_inconvenient_truth_about_the_democratic_party-transcript.pdf
These are the facts of the Democrat Party...
What??
Those Democrats who created the KKK and Jim Crow are now Republicans??
Not factually accurate..
The idea that racist Democrats became Republicans is a myth..
Let's start with policies. Like many others, Carter and the Black brothers argue that the GOP appealed to Southern racism not explicitly but through "coded" racial appeals. Carter is representative of many when he says that Wallace's racialism can be seen, varying in style but not substance, in "Goldwater's vote against the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, in Richard Nixon's subtle manipulation of the busing issue, in Ronald Reagan's genial demolition of affirmative action, in George Bush's use of the Willie Horton ads, and in Newt Gingrich's demonization of welfare mothers."
The problem here is that Wallace's segregationism was obviously racist, but these other positions are not obviously racist. This creates an analytic challenge that these authors do not meet. If an illegitimate viewpoint (racism) is hidden inside another viewpoint, that second view—to be a useful hiding place—must be one that can be held for entirely legitimate (non-racist) reasons. Conservative intellectuals might not always linger long enough on the fact that opposition to busing and affirmative action can be disguised racism. On the other hand, these are also positions that principled non-racists can hold. To be persuasive, claims of coding must establish how to tell which is which. Racial coding is often said to occur when voters are highly prone to understanding a non-racist message as a proxy for something else that is racist. This may have happened in 1964, when Goldwater, who neither supported segregation nor called for it, employed the term "states' rights," which to many whites in the Deep South implied the continuation of Jim Crow.
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-myth-of-the-racist-republicans/
The basis for the Democrat BS claim that racist Democrats became racist Republicans SOLELY revolves around "dog whistles" and "code words"...
But as has been demonstrably proven as FACT, "dog whistles" and "code words" are solely in the minds of the beholder..
Because they are of an ethereal or subjective nature, they can "mean" what ever the agenda-driven person WANTS them to mean..
The simple FACT is Democrats have ALWAYS been racist..
Many MANY of the racist Democrats *REMAINED* Democrats until their dying day.. And they were honored and deified by many modern Democrats who are still alive and ALSO still Democrats.. Most notably Robert Byrd, the exalted Cyclops of the KKK was honored by current political leaders such as Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden..
Many other racist Democrats remained Democrats....
So, the claim that racist Democrats became Republicans is a myth... Perpetrated by those same racist Democrats who are still today, pushing race based polices..
Now let's turn our attention to 6 Jan and the Democrat & Trump/America haters RIDICULOUS claim of sedition..
Dems are using the Capitol riot to hunt political foes, not real threats: Devine
The Texas synagogue siege Saturday highlights the risk to Americans of the Biden administration’s singular obsession with targeting Trump supporters as domestic terrorists.
Thankfully, the FBI hostage rescue team did a stellar job rescuing the hostages, with the only fatality being the hostage-taker, a recently arrived Pakistani-born British Muslim demanding the release of a jailed anti-Semitic terrorist, dubbed “Lady al Qaeda.”
It is a shame that their great work was immediately overshadowed by the absurd, PC pronouncement of senior FBI officials and President Biden that no one knew the motive of the terrorist, Malik Faisal Akram.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/16/dems-are-using-the-capitol-riot-to-hunt-political-foes/
And THIS is what happens when Democrats worry about POLITICAL considerations above all else...
They develop tunnel-vision... They become hammers and everything they see is a nail...
Kelly has uncovered a “shocking dual system of justice based on political differences and a thirst for power.”
As an example of the dual system of justice, the DOJ has charged more than 725 people for their alleged roles in the Jan. 6 riot. But last week the DOJ said the FBI had arrested just 250 people for the seven months of BLM-Antifa riots that convulsed American cities in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
After a year of research, Kelly has concluded, that as appalling as it was, the Capitol riot was neither an insurrection nor an armed insurrection. “Those who brought weapons .?.?. took steps ahead of time to make sure they would not violate D.C.’s strict gun control laws.?.?.
There have been MORE arrests for a SINGLE violent riot in a SINGLE building at a SINGLE location over the span of a few hours than there has been arrests for TWENTY TWO YEARS (collectively) of Democrat BLM and AntiFa riots..
Let that fact sink in...
3 hours of rioting vs 22 years of rioting..
MORE arrests for the 3 hours than for the 22 years..
Mind-bobbling..
“Nor did the protesters intend or seek to overthrow the US government; to the contrary, Trump supporters later expressed sincere disappointment that the pockets of violence halted attempts to pursue an audit of the election.”
But “the ongoing investigation into the Capitol breach will continue to wreak revenge on Trump supporters [while] Pelosi’s January 6 select committee will create an ongoing political drama aimed at vilifying anyone in Trump’s orbit who can be tied to the purported ‘insurrection.’”
This is how the Democrats plan to win the midterms, by demonizing and intimidating their political opponents with government power while attempting to mess with voting rules.
The polls suggest their plan is falling flat.
The Democrat Party's plan IS falling flat...
The 6 Jan committee will be remembered along with the Russia Collusion delusion as proof positive on how desperate and hysterical Democrats and Trump/America haters were about taking down President Trump..
And a testament to what utter failures the Party and their allies are..
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears: 'Too many of our political leaders' use race 'to divide us'
Winsome Sears was sworn in as the first Black woman to hold her position, just days before Martin Luther King Jr. Day
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/virginia-lt-gov-winsome-sears-too-many-of-our-political-leaders-use-race-to-divide-us
You can see what good positive patriotic Americans can accomplish when their entire soul and perspective is NOT governed by the color of people's skin...
Democrats would do well to learn this valuable lesson..
Outside of socio-political circles there are very few successful black Americans that are Democrats...
Sears even seemed to take issue with being asked about being the first Black woman to be Virginia lieutenant governor, noting how mentioning her race ignores the larger picture of being the first woman of any race to hold the job.
"And I think that’s part of the problem. We, for lack of a better word, segregate ourselves in divisive ways," she said. "That’s not conducive to healthy relationships."
EXACTLY..
If we truly lived in the society that Democrats CLAIM they want to bring about, the collective response to "THE FIRST WOMAN" this or "THE FIRST BLACK" that, or "THE FIRST GAY" the other thing would be a collective, "So??"
But Democrats just LOVE to create labels and lanes and do their damndest to make sure people stay in their lanes...
Oh what the hell... Let's make it an even 100... :D
Yunno, ya'all (sans notable exceptions) are a interesting study in contrasts..
Ya'all applaud and appreciate Biden's recent combative style as opposed to the Sleepy Joe style that preceded.....
While at the same time, ya'all schluff off to the dark dank recesses of Weigantia, afraid to address the myriad of facts laid out before ya'all.. :D
"Spock. Do me a favor. Please don't say it's 'Fascinating'..."
"No Doctor. But it is.... interesting.."
STAR TREK
:D
https://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/lgcee9uipekjsow90933fa.png
And it's only going to get worser and worser for Democrats...
EM #58 Just why is it a 'bad idea"? Michale successfully monopolized the comments section after your defense of his strategy. Actually he outdid himself with 22 comments in a row crowding out everyone else. If we oppose monopoly in the economic sphere why do we tolerate the totalitarian monopoly of Michale on these pages?
SF,
You have yet to explain exactly HOW I am "monopolizing" the comments section??
Are there a limited amount of comments?? Is only one person allowed to comment at a time???
Just because YOU don't want to comment, or Cad doesn't want to comment or whoever, does that mean *I* am bound by YOUR commenting decision??
Help me understand exactly what the problem here is..
Maybe we can work together and find a mutually beneficial arrangement..
Shirley, that sounds reasonable, eh??
And making murder against the law won't stop a single person intent and determined to commit murder..
Does that mean we should make murder legal?? :eyeroll:
Well, you are going to be thrilled to learn that “voter fraud” is already against the law. So problem solved.
You also still have yet to explain the FACT that you DO have to show a photo ID to purchase a weapon...
For private sales? Sales over the Internet? You also have to show ID to purchase alcohol in this country. I doubt there is a single high school in this country that doesn’t have at least one student that has a fake ID to purchase alcohol with.
Voter fraud is voter disenfranchisement..
You people used to be BIGLY against voter disenfranchisement.. NOW ya'all are all for it???
Yes, voter fraud is voter disenfranchisement. But there has never been wide spread cases of voter fraud anywhere in this country. So if voter fraud is not causing the voter disenfranchisement you speak of, what is? Maybe it’s the lies and fear-mongering about “voter fraud” that the GOP and their base constantly prattle on about but never provide any evidence to show it has occurred.
Liz believes that Americans are losing faith in the integrity of their elections
And I am sure Liz agrees that it’s the dishonesty your Republicans peddle that is the cause of that loss of faith.
If Republicans are so concerned with the “integrity of their elections”, then why did all investigations into voter fraud that they demanded only look at the presidential election portion of the ballots and not all of the races on the ballots? And how many of those investigations found wide spread fraud? It’s also odd that the GOP is only concerned with voter fraud in states where Trump lost. So you only care about voter integrity if you lose it seems.
How many states was it that Trump demanded that they “Count ALL the votes!” when he was behind and then switched his demand to “Stop the Steal!” when he pulled ahead in the votes?
Well, you are going to be thrilled to learn that “voter fraud” is already against the law. So problem solved.
Making it "against the law" and actually PREVENTING it are two very different things..
Are you saying that, just because murder is against the law already that no one has to take any steps to PREVENT murder??
For private sales? Sales over the Internet?
And how many sales of those kinds have resulted in crowd based mass shootings??
And I am sure Liz agrees that it’s the dishonesty your Republicans peddle that is the cause of that loss of faith.
No.. It's the documented FACTS of PROVEN fraud on the part of the Democrats..
How many states was it that Trump demanded that they “Count ALL the votes!” when he was behind and then switched his demand to “Stop the Steal!” when he pulled ahead in the votes?
You tell me.. Provide FACTS to support your claims..
Did you miss my comment about the Rittenhouse trial??
The simple fact is, Americans OVERWHELMINGLY (upwards of 80%) support Voter Photo ID..
The ONLY reason *NOT* to support Voter Photo ID is because it makes it harder to cheat...
Arizonans sound off on Kyrsten Sinema, opposition to filibuster reform
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema gets support from constituents despite liberal attacks
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/arizonans-sound-off-on-krysten-sinema-opposition-to-filibuster-reform
As with Joe Manchin, Arizonians (Sinema's constituents) are fully supportive of Sinema's stance on stopping the Democrats and their un-American agenda...
The devil is and always has been in the details.
Some Dixiecrats such as Strom Thurmond did become republican, others didn't. Many people in Dixiecrat states continued to vote for Democrats locally but not nationally.
Voter ID is fine if all picture ID is equally valid and easy to obtain, but not if it isn't. party leaders don't want to talk about the details, because that is where they hide their shenanigans.
The devil is and always has been in the details.
And yet, no one here (N.E.N) is willing to provide any facts to support any devil'esque details.... :D
Why is that??
Some Dixiecrats such as Strom Thurmond did become republican, others didn't.
So, you would agree that the alleged wholesale transformation of racist Democrats to Republicans is a myth... Not factually accurate...
Voter ID is fine if all picture ID is equally valid and easy to obtain, but not if it isn't.
Are there any facts to support the claim that all Photo IDs are NOT equally valid or NOT easy to obtain??
No, there are not..
Having a photo ID to vote is a no-brainer..
NO ELECTION can be trusted that doesn't have photo ID...
What really cracked me up is Democrats having large meetings to discuss how to prevent Photo ID from being required for voting..
Attendees were required to show photo ID to attend.. :D
I mean, com'on!!! :D The jokes just write themselves.. :D
Are there any facts to support the claim that all Photo IDs are NOT equally valid
OK, ya got me here...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2Y2187CcAAmsRk.jpg
This "Photo ID" would NOT be considered "valid".... :D
Are there any facts to support the claim that all Photo IDs are NOT equally valid or NOT easy to obtain??
indisputably.
indisputably.
I'll be the judge of that!! :D
Tomorrow...
It's 1883 or Mayor Of Kingstown Night! :D Possibly both... :D
Michale wrote[81]:
Liz believes that Americans are losing faith in the integrity of their elections..
Actually, what Liz believes is that there is great concern on the part of many election administration officials, like Gabe Sterling in Georgia, who believe that both Republicans and Democrats are responsible for undermining the American peoples' confidence in US elections, despite the fact that the last round of elections in 2020 were the most secure ever and that Americans should indeed have confidence in the election process.
exhibit a:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/north-carolina-voter-id-law.html
north carolina passed an ID law that was ruled by a state court to be racially discriminatory. and that law is significantly more benign than those of a number of other states, whose state constitutions are more lenient about allowing such measures.
federal courts, especially with a conservative supermajority on the SCOTUS, have recently gutted the voting rights act, with the justification that the US Constitution leaves most voting regulation up to the states. note that they haven't really disputed any of the claims against said laws, they just don't believe it's the federal government's place to do anything about it.
JL
In Canada, as far as I am aware, we don't have any photo ID requirements to vote.
Any citizen who fills out an income tax return is automatically added to the voter list for provincial and federal elections.
Then you get in the mail before an election a voter card with your info on it and when you go to vote you take this card, one piece of ID and proof of address like a credit card bill or utility bill.
In other words, we don't have to "register" to vote.
JL,
A dissenting judge argued that the court majority had relied on “mostly uncredible and incompetent evidence to find discriminatory intent.”
Without being able to see the evidence, I cannot attest to the factual nature of the claim..
Further, the point you made was that Photo IDs were not equally acceptable.
The North Carolina photo ID requirement was among the more lenient identification laws passed in recent years, and scholarly studies are divided over how much ID laws discourage people from casting ballots.
Finally, one has to consider the source..
Me accepting the NY TIMES as factual at face value would be like you accepting a Brietbart report at face value..
So, you see my dilemma... :D
federal courts, especially with a conservative supermajority on the SCOTUS, have recently gutted the voting rights act,
What you call "gutted the voting rights act" is simply a return to the status quo where states handle their own elections..
Since there is no evidence that the states in question are still committing the offenses that caused them to be on a "watch list" (so to speak), the SCOTUS' actions of giving the states back their unfettered election handling process was simply returning to the letter of the US Constitution.
Think of it like a consent decree for local LEO agencies..
Once the agencies correct the errors that led to the consent decree, the DOJ would have no more authority over the specified agencies..
Liz,
Federal elections
In Canada, the Federal government mails an Elections Canada registration confirmation card, which the voter takes to the polling station. The card tells the individual where and when to vote. Voters must prove their identity and address with one of three options:[12]
Show one original government-issued piece of identification with photo, name and address, like a driver's license or a health card.
Show two original pieces of authorized identification. Both pieces must have a name and one must also have an address. Examples: student ID card, birth certificate, public transportation card, utility bill, bank/credit card statement, etc.
Take an oath and have an elector who knows the voter vouch for them (both of whom must make a sworn statement). This person must have authorized identification and their name must appear on the list of electors in the same polling division as the voter. This person can only vouch for one person and the person who is vouched for cannot vouch for another elector.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_identification_laws
My point is simple..
Requiring a valid photo ID is not an undue burden on anyone...
If the right to vote is so sacrosanct and important, then requiring some sort of effort on the part of the voter is not unreasonable..
Especially if it restores faith in the election process...
Given the Democrat propensity to foster illegal immigration, requiring Photo ID is a logical response..
photo ID as a concept is fine. the trouble, as i said, is when one photo ID (firearm license) is accepted while another (state university ID) is rejected. if you have an ID that proves you are who you say you are, one ID should not be more equal than others.
a blatantly partisan (and in effect racial, regardless of intention) restriction on some people voting but not others may not be unconstitutional, or in some cases not even illegal, but it's sure as hell unjust.
JL
A dissenting judge argued that the court majority had relied on “mostly uncredible and incompetent evidence to find discriminatory intent.”
that judge was mistaken, in that "intent" was ruled irrelevant by the majority judges, because the "effect" was discriminatory.
photo ID as a concept is fine. the trouble, as i said, is when one photo ID (firearm license) is accepted while another (state university ID) is rejected. if you have an ID that proves you are who you say you are, one ID should not be more equal than others.
As far as I know, the standard is universal for all 50 states..
GOVERNMENT Photo IDs... Why are these the only IDs acceptable??
Because the Government has a vested interest in making sure the ID is valid.. A library card or a university ID doesn't not have the force of the law behind it..
a blatantly partisan (and in effect racial, regardless of intention) restriction on some people voting but not others may not be unconstitutional, or in some cases not even illegal, but it's sure as hell unjust.
How can it be unjust if it's applied to ALL people equally???
If one says that ONLY hispanic Americans need to show a photo ID or ONLY Red Heads need to show a photo ID then you have a case for UNJUST...
But since the requirement that ALL Americans who want to vote must show ID, then you have no cause to claim 'unjust'...
that judge was mistaken, in that "intent" was ruled irrelevant by the majority judges, because the "effect" was discriminatory.
To which the SCOTUS made clear that just because the result was discriminatory, the laws are valid because the apply to all equally and therefore there can be no basis for a discrimination claim..