As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to hold a vote on Impeachment this Thursday, and as the so-called President is taunted while watching the Washington Nationals play baseball with chants of "Lock Him Up" from the crowd,as well as by protestors when he visited Chicago today. Have we reached our patriotic turn of the tide at last in this country? Dare we hope that this is the beginning of the end of Trump's reign of insanity?
Is this like the moment in Casablanca when Lazslo tells the band to play Le Marseillaise?
NEW: Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls for full House vote on impeachment inquiry. https://t.co/APqSfoO0B1
NEW — Here is Pelosi’s Dear Colleague letter announcing vote on continuing impeachment proceedings and moving them to the public phase pic.twitter.com/OJVWUqR3tQ
High-ranking Army officer will testify in the House impeachment inquiry that he twice raised concerns over the Trump administration's interest in having Ukraine investigate Joe Biden. https://t.co/YXHnBX7pDL
President Trump was booed loudly by the fans at Nats Park when he was shown on the big screen. Then came a loud chant: “Lock him up.” @wusa9pic.twitter.com/LBbgSAHd6k
- Goes to World Series game - Crowd loudly chants "LOCK HIM UP!" when Trump appears on video screen - #LockHimUp is trending - Americans want this assclown behind bars - That's where he's going - Trump is going to prison - It's still only 10:15pm
Two consecutive days of resounding anti-Trump protest. Yesterday, boos & jeers at the World Series. Today, a mass #ChicagoTrumpProtest. Thank you, Chicago, for representing the majority of the American people. Traitor Trump is NOT welcome! #TrumpChicagopic.twitter.com/uvhA48NP6v
Bernie Sanders has a legion of followers who are sometimes stereotyped as young white males with a certain know-it-all attitude. They are known as the "Berniebots" or more commonly the "Berniebros."
The archetype is simple: a young, male supporter of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who questions Clinton supporters on a spectrum that ranges from simply tone-deaf to outright misogynistic.
He’s the smug-seeming young Sanders supporter who asked Clinton at a CNN town hall why young voters aren’t enthusiastic about her candidacy, then suggested it was because she’s dishonest. He’s the guy who floods Internet comment boards accusing Clinton supporters of voting with their “vaginas.” He’s the idealistic young liberal who replies to any critique of Sanders on social media with a flood of crass terms and vitriol.
The Iowa Caucus was a close race for the Democrats. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton split the vote right down the middle with Hillary winning by just a few points. Democrats should have been thrilled to have two strong candidates who excited voters - we are all on the same side, after all. But some of Bernie's supporters - male and female - chose to go negative about Hillary's victory, taking it out on other Dems, trolling their Twitter and Facebook accounts, while insinuating that Hillary had somehow cheated them out of an "easy" win.
The Bernie-Bros-and-Gals were helped along by the media, namely MSNBC who had a hyper Steve Kornackie's talking about how crazy the Iowa Caucus process is without fully understanding it. Kornacki made it sound as if the election was being decided by "coin tosses" because that is the way ties were broken in some precincts, and that has probably been done for 100 years in Iowa. But the Bernie-bro meme quickly became that "Hillary stole the election with lucky coin tosses," diminishing the achievement of being the first woman to ever win the Iowa Caucus, and setting off purity troll-mania among the Bernie supporters.
Accusing Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party of election fraud is a mistake.
My Facebook feed is rapidly filling up with Sanders supporters who are accusing various precinct officials as well as both the Clinton campaign and the Iowa Democratic Party of rigging the vote against Bernie. With the 30-to-21 delegate split clearly showing a Clinton victory, it was pretty damn close to a tie, and Sanders supporters should be proud of achieving second place with a wafer-thin margin. Scouring Iowa precincts for fraud just looks like sour grapes. Plus, attacking the Democratic Party itself won’t help Sanders with acquiring the necessary party endorsements to win the nomination — superdelegates matter, and Sanders lags far behind on this front with a margin of 465 party endorsements for Clinton and just two for Bernie. By the way, the C-SPAN video being circulated with the headline “Clinton Voter Fraud in Polk County, Iowa Caucus” was user-generated, and likely comes from a Sanders supporter — not C-SPAN itself.
You know nothing about how a caucus works because you didn’t take the time to educate yourselves and you treat our good Democratic Party caucus chairs who have been working elections honorably since before you were born with disrespect and suspicion as if they are there to “rig” the caucus.
Then when it’s all over, you take to the web and start making accusations of voter fraud and demanding recounts. You pretend that flipping a coin to decide something at the caucus is some nefarious Clinton scheme to rob Bernie Sanders because again you never took the time to educate yourselves so you would know that the coin toss is nothing new or nefarious. Then you are silent when it turns out that the real beneficiary of the evil coin toss was Bernie Sanders.
The coin flip rule has been part of the Democratic Iowa caucus process for years. The only thing about it that’s changed is our ability to document it.
As we’ve reported before, the last Democratic caucus that was actually contested was back in 2008, when smartphone use was much less widespread and Twitter had barely hit the mainstream. Before this year’s caucus, we predicted that the existence of this technology would give Americans a window into the process they’ve rarely seen before. If the coin flip mini-drama is any indication, we were right.
. . . each delegate awarded last night, while still important, still represents a fraction of one state delegate—the people who actually choose the nominee at the Democratic Convention. County delegates, in other words, don’t carry as much weight. That’s why when the results come in, they’re reported not as county delegates, but as state delegate equivalents. Last night, Clinton beat Sanders by nearly four state delegate equivalents. And what that means is the outcome of the race wouldn’t have changed if the coins flips had flopped in Sanders’ favor.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been struggling at the last minute to win election in his country. The way our Rightwing Nutjobs have been supporting him, you would think he was running for President of the U.S. Some might say our Congress is to blame for his last-minute dip in the election polls - after all, John Boehner and the Tea Party encouraged his warmongering Speech in the House of Representatives, and right after that we had "Tehran" Tom Cotton's Letter to Iran by 47 Senators (hashtag #47Traitors).
And now Israel's Election Day is here, and a few GOP crazies have come out of the woodwork to support their friend Bibi, who after all, will be in charge of Armageddon someday, which is why the Republican Right supports Israel in the first place. Just ignore the Biblical Prophecy that it is Israel that will fail so Jesus can return. Or something like that. Anyway, until the Onward Christian Soldiers crowd takes over Israel after the apocalypse, they are fine with a nice warmonger like Bibi running the place.
UPDATE: Netanyahu has WON the election, but it was a close call. However, Bibi wasted no time in declaring himself a clear winner, just as our GOP calls it a "mandate" when someone squeaks by.
And Israel still has to figure out how to create a governing body in the aftermath with their various parties and complicated Knesset. So good luck with that.
Netanyahu's Likud party has at least 29 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, Haaretz reported. It said main rival Zionist Union has 24 seats.
Millions of Israelis cast ballots to determine their party's next leader and the make up of parliament. The incumbent claimed victory ahead of a final count. "Against all odds, we achieved this huge victory," Netanyahu told cheering supporters. "Now we should form a strong and stable government that will be able to take care of the security, safety and welfare of each and every citizen of Israel." The Zionist Union hit back, accusing the Likud party of misleading.
"The rightist bloc has shrunk. Everything is possible until the real results are in, when we can know which parties passed the electoral threshold and which government we can form," it said in a statement. "All the spins and statements are premature."
Official results are not expected until next week, and the process of building coalitions could take much longer.
And now Bibi is talking Unity! Hooray!
This is a great victory for our nation. I'm proud of people of Israel who in the moment of truth knew what was important.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pre-Election Stories and Comments Below:
When Netanyahu started sinking in the polls last week, first he freaked out, then he started blaming everybody in the world. Yeah, because we all vote in the Israeli elections, right? Was anyone you know polled about their vote in Israel's elections? But still - it's a Left Wing Plot!
As election day on March 17 draws near the term “Bibi fatigue” is increasingly appearing in the media.
Critics accuse him of being power hungry, lacking vision and failing to address the economic concerns of young Israelis who have long been critical of his tunnel vision focusing on security that has led to thousands being spent on wars while they find themselves unable to find jobs or buy houses.
On March 7, around 40,000 demonstrators gathered to protest Netanyahu.
Netanyahu himself has publicly blamed a global leftist conspiracy.
"There is a huge international effort, with major money, that is partnering up with leftist organizations here and also with media figures in order to bring down the Likud government that I head," Netanyahu said on Channel 2 television on Saturday.
Flailing #Netanyahu now accuses Scandinavia (!!) of wanting to topple him in Israeli elections next Tues Mar 17th http://t.co/lgnm1AwUoQ
— TeaBaggersNightmare (@BlueVA_Hound) March 14, 2015
Then on election eve, Bibi vowed that he would never recognize the Palestinian State! It's so good to appeal to the worst haters in your country to get them to vote. Our Republicans do that all the time. Nice dog whistle there, Mr. Bibi.
Ultra-conservative actor Jon Voight thinks it will help Netanyahu to say that President Obama hates Israel and just wants to control it. Gee, I wish the President could control his own Congress before taking on Israel, too. But never mind - don't expect this stuff to make sense! Blame Obama!
Then another actor, Chuck Norris, Mr. Tough Guy himself, made a heartfelt plea - with a plug for one of his movies made in Israel! Never miss an opportunity to kick some self-promotional ass, Mr. Norris!
Are there Israeli citizens who didn’t support Netanyahu but do now because Chuck Norris and Jon Voight cut ads for him?
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) March 16, 2015
Wow, that's desperation
Has Bibi always been this paranoid?
And who is Bibi of Washington to complain about foreign leaders interfering in another country's affairs?
~ Jack Rabbit on Democratic Underground
Now that (Jon Voight's) face has gotten all puffy and he has no career anymore, I guess there's nothing for him but to be a troll.
~ Krusher on Talking Points Memo
Oh Yeah?
I heard that Jeb Bush doesn't love Liechtenstein, Rand Paul has no use for Haiti and Scott Walker hates a lot of Cheeseheads and is secretly a Bears fan.
~ Blue_Grit on Talking Points Memo
Riiiiiiight. Netanyahu makes a side deal with the Rs, comes here and makes a complete fool of himself--oh, and just like every wingnut head-of-state on the planet in living memory, effs up his country's economy right down to the ground . . . and it's President Obama's fault.
~ MollyNYC on Talking Points Memo
The only thing missing is Clint Eastwood talking to a matzoh ball.
~ Tasherbean on Salon
Christian conservatives have gone from being plucky weirdos about Israel to full-blown creepy obsessives. They'd sooner put Israel's interests ahead of American interests, which is absolutely breathtaking...and rather offensive.
~ indyotto on Salon
I liked Chuck Norris in the early and mid-1990s. He was into Zen Buddhism and dated cool women like Beverly Johnson.
Then Chuck married a fanatical Christian and he jumped onto HER bandwagon. Suddenly, Chuck and his new wife were on TV, preaching that the Bible should be taught in public schools, along with prayer. More recently, he and the wife did a video pathetically claiming we would have "2000 years of darkness" if Obama was re-elected President.
Really, Chuck-----you were cool once (long ago) but now you're just another Huckabee-loving nut job.
There's nothing more obnoxious than a "reformed sinner."
I wonder what Chuck's first wife---and grown children---think of his bizarre "Godliness" and hypocrisy.
~ Los Angeles girl on Salon
In the final tally, Boehner received the votes of 216 House members, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) received 164 votes. A number of discontented Republicans, however, voted for other candidates, including Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who, with 12 votes, got the most opposition votes from the GOP.
Tweets During the Voting Today:
Speaker election to start soon as anti-Boehner rebellion grows. 15 GOP now on record against giving him 3rd term http://t.co/fbNNIyZsml
The Mississippi Republican Senate Race is getting weirder by the day. Chris McDaniel lost on the vote count of the run-off, but he won't concede to Thad Cochran. There was a conference call the other day which included members of both campaigns along with national and local reporters, but McDaniel supporters turned it into a circus by equating black votes with bales of cotton. No, really, that happened. And McDaniel keeps saying the black votes are somehow not legal even though it was an open primary, meaning anyone from either party could vote. But the actual laws don't seem to matter much to the Mississippi Tea Party!
A conference call set up by the campaign for U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran devolved into a shouting match and then ended, after which time supporters of GOP primary challenger Chris McDaniel chatted for a bit.
California-based blogger Charles C. Johnson posted the call-in number on Twitter and encouraged people to call in and crash the call. He succeeded.
. . . an unidentified male started asking about harvesting cotton and black votes.
. . . (Austin) Barbour (Cochran advisor) tried to continue on, but he was repeatedly cut off by the man. Eventually Barbour and Cochran spokesman Jordan Russell told media that they could be reached by email or cell phone and then hung up.
. . . As word of the debacle spread on Twitter, it quickly became journalists dialing in to see what the commotion was about, only to sit and laugh about the fact that it was over.
The conference call line did not give the Cochran campaign the ability to mute callers’ lines, so there was no way to force the caller to stop speaking.
“I’m happy to address any question, no matter the lunacy of it,” he said.
But the man on the line, who did not identify himself, could not be placated. Finally, Barbour apologized and announced he was ending the call, telling national press that they had the contact information for the campaign if they had any questions.
. . . Thirty minutes after the call ended, the call line was still open. Someone was using a soundboard of President Barack Obama’s voice saying “Hey! What’s up?” Someone else was playing the audio from the movie “Animal House.”
More drama in the #MSsen race. Cochran campaign conference call derailed by man asking about "harvesting black votes."
Chris McDaniel was given time on CNN to denounce the conference call, and instead got all huffy about Cochran's ability to get out the black vote in Mississippi. The problem is, every time he defends his challenge to the vote count he sounds like a racist who thinks black votes aren't valid. There are theories about why McDaniel thinks this is a good idea - he lives in a conservative bubble, all his friends are racist, or he just has a tin ear for politics. Perhaps all of the above?
The point is, McDaniel never seems to understand that Cochran's appeal to black voters worked so well because the Tea Party is inherently racist, and they are all about cutting funding for minority programs. That is the platform on which McDaniel was running, but now he denies that he ever intended to cut anything - a complete lie!
BOLDUAN: Do you regret that this has gotten so ugly for any part that you've played in this whole race that it's gotten so ugly?
MCDANIEL: Let me tell you what I regret. Here's what I regret. The last two and a half weeks of that campaign, they went out to Democratic communities, predominantly African-American in our state. They called me a racist. They race-baited.
They said if I was elected, I would suppress their right to vote or do away with it. They said if I was elected that welfare would be cut off. They said if I was elected that funding to historically black colleges and universities would be cut off.
I regret any campaign of divisiveness that deals with race in the manner they dealt with it. That was unfair. It's improper, and in so doing, they ran a scare tactic campaign that pushed 42,000 at least Democrats into the Republican primary.
Do I think that's a problem? Absolutely. Because I don't think divisiveness and that type of race-baiting belongs in the Republican Party.
BOLDUAN: You definitely don't like how they run their campaign. That is absolutely clear, Mr. McDaniel.
But for the part that you've played, this is two people running in this race, any regrets you have in how ugly this has gotten?
MCDANIEL: Which examples do you have where we've been ugly?
BOLDUAN: I'm just saying there are two people running in this race. Do you think you've run a completely fair campaign?
MCDANIEL: Help me understand which examples do you have that show I haven't run a clean campaign?
BOLDUAN: I'm asking if there are any regrets now that you're part in one of the ugliest primaries we've seen in a long time.
MCDANIEL: I can't control the Cochran's race baiter, name calling. If you can find an example where we did something like that you let me know and we'll talk about it.
Harry Reid is giving them hell in the Senate! But Honey Badger Don't Care!
The change we propose today would ensure executive and judicial nominees get an up-or-down vote on confirmation – yes or no. This rule change will make cloture for all nominations other than Supreme Court nominees a majority threshold vote – yes or no.
The Senate is a living thing. And to survive, it must change. To the average American, adapting the rules to make Congress work again is just common sense. This is not about Democrats versus Republicans. This is about making Washington work – regardless of who’s in the White House or who controls the Senate. To remain relevant and effective as an institution, The Senate must evolve to meet the challenges of a modern era.
~ Senator Harry Reid, D-Nevada, Asking for Filibuster Reform on Floor of the Senate, 11-21-13
Reid gets a standing O as he arrives at filibuster rally/meeting for progressives pic.twitter.com/pAkaWbsI7m
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the trigger Thursday, deploying a parliamentary procedure dubbed the "nuclear option" to change Senate rules to pass most executive and judicial nominees by a simple majority vote.
The Senate voted 52 to 48 for the move, with just three Democrats declining to go along with the rarely used maneuver.
From now until the Senate passes a new rule, executive branch nominees and judges nominated for all courts except the Supreme Court will be able to pass off the floor and take their seats on the bench with the approval of a simple majority of senators. They will no longer have to jump the traditional hurdle of 60 votes, which has increasingly proven a barrier to confirmation during the Obama administration.
I realize that neither party has been blameless for these tactics. They developed over the years. But today’s pattern of obstruction, it just isn’t normal. It’s not what our founders envisioned. A deliberate and determined effort to obstruct everything, no matter what the merits, just to refight the results of an election is not normal, and for the sake of future generations we can’t let it become normal.
~ President Obama in remarks after the Filibuster Change
Pres. Obama on GOP filibuster: "In just under five years that I took office, 39 nominees have been treated this way." #nuclearoption
Neither a Democratic president or a Republican president should face this level of obstructionism in exercising their Constitutional responsibility. They have a right to get an up or down vote on staffing the administration and on judges. Now a Republican president of the future will not face this unacceptable obstacle, either.
. . . The filibuster has been used to wage continuous warfare on the presidency. The Senate said today that’s not acceptable. A huge thank you to the leadership team.
~ Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, to Greg Sargent on The Plum Line, WaPo
. . . Reid never would have used the “nuclear option” without the lemming-like behavior of Senate Republicans. Less ideological GOP members could have voted more frequently to break cloture and force an up-or-down vote, as members of both parties have done, even as filibuster use has increased. They could have stopped the unprecedented number of filibusters of presidential nominations, given that the president has a clearly defined constitutional responsibility to appoint people. They could have stopped blocking duly passed laws. But they didn’t.
So Republicans decrying filibuster reform as “dictatorial” or “a day to be sad” or other hyperbolic claims should look in the mirror. No one forced them to turn filibusters from a rarity to an oft-used tool for nullification and unprecedented obstruction. They have only themselves to blame.
~ James Downe on Washington Post
Intentions of the founders died today. This is now a government tyranny that cannot be resisted. Filibuster was to put brakes on tyrants.
Eric Cantor:we don't have time to debate and vote on the matter in Syria. We have to repeal ObamaCare or else millions will have health care
— SportsGirl101 (@Arianna8927) August 31, 2013
Uh no. MT @conor64: if Congress votes against intervention in Syria and Obama does it anyway it will be clear grounds for impeachment.
In order to get the Syria proposal to pass the House, may I suggest re-naming it Syrghazi, Syriabortion, IRSyria, or Fast and Syrius?
— Grand Old Parody (@GrandOldParody1) September 1, 2013
Obama to ask congress for OK on Syria. How about new regulations? Obamacare?
— Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) August 31, 2013
Um, have you ever actually read the U.S. Constitution? MT @GroverNorquist: Obama to ask congress for OK on Syria. How about new regulations?
— Adam Goldenberg (@adamgoldenberg) August 31, 2013
Wow. Stupidest tweet of the month RT @GroverNorquist: Obama to ask congress for OK on Syria. How about Obamacare?
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) August 31, 2013
The Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Chuck Hagel to become the next Secretary of Defense, just hours after the upper chamber of Congress broke the Republican-led filibuster of Hagel’s nomination.
The final vote was 58-41. Four Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for Hagel: Sens. Mike Johanns (NE), Thad Cochran (MS), Richard Shelby (AL), and in a surprise move, Rand Paul (KY), who voted against cloture earlier today. Eighteen Republicans supported the cloture motion to bring about the up-or-down vote this afternoon.
