NSR: CHICAGO Political Thread ***HIGHLY TOXIC - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK***

I almost forgot Tim Kaine existed until he became the mouthpiece for the Dems who folded to the newest Republican "We Hate You, Go Die" bill.
And then I remembered that Hauptman threw a whole fundraising party for the guy when he was Hillary's running mate.

This is the only place where I feel like anyone would care about that statement. Even if one of our senators was in the group (I'd have words for Durbin, but he doesn't have a voicemail and if I talk long enough, I'm sure there'd be something about 18 U.S. Code § 871), I'm somehow more annoyed by Kaine. Why is he still around like, 8-9 years later?

 

Because she always has.

 

This is the only time I've ever heard/seen quim aside from Frank Zappa.

 

Why? Because American voters are ill-informed and at the very end of the day stupid as hell.

 

I'm a believer in the Cosmic Muffin.

 

Also Zappa.

 

********ing assholes with nothing better to do. I hope the ********ing goverment stays shut down permanently. https://mjbizdaily.com/trump-backs-hemp-thc-ban-included-in-government-reopening-deal/

 

The Dems caving almost immediately after landslide wins at the polls just shows why voter apathy has and will continue to be the biggest issue in our country’s further descent into authoritarianism. These complicit idiots break ranks, knowing none of them are up for reelection and have nothing to lose, and vote for broken legislature to reopen the government based on a promise to fix it later- a promise coming from the same shitheel republicans that will never break ranks with their leader who is celebrating the victory by issuing preemptive pardons to election deniers. It’s all so ********ed and one of the primary reasons I do not criticize anyone, no matter their reason, for not giving their vote to a complete spineless and braindead political party.

They are always waiting for some future crisis to be strong and do the right thing, while actively working to manufacture it. I mentioned it early but when I really realized they were an unserious party was the Obamacare cop out. They had a supermajority, could’ve gotten single payer, but were afraid to lose midterms that were months away. They deservedly lost their asses on that bet, and have been doing so ever since. Disgraceful.

 

Oh, come now. Don't be mean.

The Republicans promised to consider pushing the ACA subsidy cuts back another year.
What more do you w.... sorry, I cannot even complete the joke.

You are correct and this is just horrible.

I am pissed about the vote, to add to being pissed about the shutdown.

 

F*ck Dick Durbin.

And I say this as a long time fan of Dick Durbin. He WAS a very good Senator. He is now a waste of space and cannot go soon enough.

 

I came to that conclusion years ago and couldn't be happier he's belatedly shown himself the door.

 

It's not that Democrats aren't as smart as Republicans, but they are playing tiddly winks while Republicans play Call Of Duty. Obama may go down as one of our worst presidents because he could have, should have, done so much more and failed. He may have been the last, best chance to save the nation from sliding into totalitarianism, oligarchy, and serfdom.

 

Or … hear me out now… or, they are playing the same game, and most of us aren’t smart enough to realize that they’re on the same team, playing against us. I mean, like you said “it’s not that [they] aren’t as smart as [them]” so if we’re assuming similar levels of intelligence between the two parties (and I think we should) it’s not really plausible that one is somehow not smart enough to realize they’re playing an entirely different game with an entirely different objective.

With this vote, and all 8 of the dems not being up for reelection, I was reminded of something I read in the wonderful and highly recommended book Field of Schemes that talks about stadium subsidies that municipalities give away to the billionaire sports owners for no damn reason at all: before an unpopular vote, local politicians will, across party lines, essentially determine which has to vote an unpopular bill based on who has the least to lose. So if someone is in for a tightly contested race, they’ll essentially say “I can’t vote for this, but someone needs to” and similarly to what happened here, someone who is retiring, or who is running for a higher office, or has less reason to worry about losing something will vote for the unpopular thing instead. This happens a lot, all across the country, on multiple levels of government, across various schisms of party dynamics. It does not, or would not, happen in a system where the parties are fundamentally opposed to one another, where one is fighting for the people and the other isn’t. Pretty smart, huh?

Edit: wanted to track down the exact passage in the book to make sure I wasn’t misrepresenting our wonderful political process.

 

I do not think both parties are "playing the same game," but I get your point of view.

I do not think that Democrats are actively against the poor, against immigrants, against people of color, women (especially, but not exclusively, the right to choose) or against LGBTQA+. Those are absolute Republican positions, as can be seen in their actual platforms.

However, I do not think that Democrats are actively enough for the poor, immigrants, people of color, women (especially, but not exclusively, the right to choose) or LGBTQA+.

Democrats are not evil, but they are feckless.
Clearly, they are not as bad as Republicans, but in many ways, I could argue that they are worse. We all know what Republicans are for and against, as their rhetoric matches their actions (and inactions).
Democrats say many good things, but do not actually succeed in doing some of those things (and I am being generous by saying "some").

I cannot really disagree with any of this.

Lawrence O'Donnell had an interesting take on the whole shutdown and vote last night.
His position was that this was not really a cave in by the Democrats, but was actually a win for Democrats, as the "few" who changed their mind to vote for ending the shutdown forced all of the Republicans to change their minds and positions, at least as it applied to the funding of SNAP benefits.

It reopened the government, extended government funding through January (as opposed as through November), extended SNAP funding for a full year, reversed the firings that occurred as a result of the shutdown, etc.

Now, I do not necessarily agree with this position, but I also want the government open, I am sure my sister the park ranger would like to get paid for the work she has done for the past month and a half without pay.

 

A lot of times on a floor vote the party leader will allow certain reps to break the party line while not affecting the outcome. In this instance when the decision was made to cave Schumer probably asked for volunteers with little or nothing to lose with the party base to cast votes to end the shutdown. Feckless is a kind adjective to use on the Dems leadership i recent years.

 

That was part of O'Donnell's point.

All of this was in the "backrooms" where he worked in the 1990's and where reporters and the like are not allowed.

Agreed!
I was going to change the vowel and suffix,, but that would not get past BigSoccer rules.

 

This article discusses the Catholic Traditionalism movement (think Mel Gibson & J.D. Vance), "It's not just the liturgy". It reminds me once more of the Depeche Mode line "Everybody's waiting for judgement day so they can go 'Told you so'". It's less about Christianity as a world view, but a Christianist world view.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/catholic-traditionalism-after-francis

 

A "Christianist" is just a "Fundamentalist" and fundamentalism is just authoritarianism misspelled.

 

With the veneer of "godliness" tacked onto it/justifying it.

 

It was also used in "The Avengers" film by Tom Hiddleston, playing the character Loki...and for the same reason that I've since adopted it.

 

********ing hemp clause better not stick. Assholes I don't want to spend Illinois recreational prices

 

Wait a shame!
I am sad for her and her family.
Waah!