Listening to David Plotz bang on about Afghanistan in a Slate podcast.
He’s framing it as a sunk-cost problem, and talks about the wasted money and American casualties.
The one thing he doesn’t mention? Dead Afghans.
The remnants of the filibuster are soon to be toast:
I’m not sure I think that’s true. McConnell has been resistant on that front. If it does happen, I think it’ll be because Republicans are convinced they’ve gerrymandered the system and suppressed the vote so severely that they won’t even be a minority party again.
Which … is approaching true, but I would be surprised if he banked on it this early.
Yeah; it’s McConnell’s last big bit of leverage. The pressure that can be brought on him is unlimited, though; the Trumpeters won’t hesitate to use “informal” tactics.
That’s the other question, I guess: to what degree do the establishment GOPers think they can survive (in any sense of the word) Trumpism? They’re arrogant shitbags, so I think they still think they can come out of this and return to normal.
Probably, but they’re deluded.
This isn’t “nice” Italian/Spanish fascism; they’re ramping up to full German mode.
BTW: the street fascists do want to kick things off as soon as they think they’re ready. The chance of a false-flag bombing or some other Reichstag fire event is very high.
I’m confused, did they get 60 votes for Gorsuch?
No. They used parliamentary procedures to cloture a fillabusture and proceeded with 54 votes.
Nope, the cloture failed and McConnel led the GOP through the “nuclear option” by removing 60 vote requirement on a SCOTUS nominee. That’s my point - McConnel is one of the (bipartisan) figures leading US politics into removing the filibuster.
I assume leverage over her husband is the reason Elaine Chao is Secretary of Transportation.
Huh, I must be remembering it wrong. I could have sworn he did file the cloture before moving to a straight majority vote, but that it failed.
Nope, they removed the filibuster. It was the moment I went from thinking partisan politics was the problem to realizing it was more one sided than I realized.
I don’t understand how removing the filibuster is different than what I said (using parliamentary procedures to procede with a straight majority vote after failing to cloture the filibuster).
Right, he failed to end the debate and had to call a majority vote to change the rule to a majority vote on the confirmation of a SCOTUS judge, and then led a majority vote for said judge. I was very upset when it was used in 2013, but the way McConnell used it in 2017 is even more dangerous - and McConnell leapt at the opportunity to install a near permanent seat of power in the US for the good of party over country.