talkpolitics | Entries tagged with congress

I thought this was an Onion article but it appears to be real; the article below has a time-tagged link to the relevant video. What are everyone's thoughts on this important question? Should we be directing funding toward the Forest Service to deal with this critical celestial mechanics problem? Is the Forest Service and BLM overstepping on what should properly be in the hands of NASA and the DoE? Is this particular member of Congress properly representing his constituents?

‘The Dumbest Guy in Congress’ Asks U.S. Forest Service If It Can Change Moon’s Orbit

Granted, there's some steep competition for 'dumbest' as there are a lot there. One was worried that the island of Guam would tip over if they added more troops to the US base there. Another asked if the Mars rover took a picture of the flag put there by our astronauts.

Can they send Louie up there on a fact finding mission? Well, just a thought.

luzribeiro

Here's a survey for y'all. Who is truly the dumbest member of the current US congress? I don't mean who you disagree with the most, but who's just plain stupid.

I have to go with several. I'd obviously go with that moron who thought Guam may capsize through overpopulation are both very stupid men. And some might argue some members of The Squad is in the running. Depends which side of the barricade you're on, I guess?

Apart from that, all the System politicians seem to be playing their roles in that corrupt syndicate fairly well, so in that regard, I frankly wouldn't necessarily say any of them are dumb. Some of them come off as going against the grain every now and then (Rand Paul, for example), but for the most part, they are controlled opposition and are very impotent when it comes to their ability to fight for the average American.

edelsont

In an interview broadcast yesterday evening, President Trump indicated that he would ... again ... be prepared to accept "dirt" on an opponent from a foreign government. As he should know by now, the "foreign government" part makes this illegal.

The Speaker of the House has criticized him for this, but has still not (last time I checked) called for beginning a formal impeachment inquiry.

Americans need to start thinking about next steps: what to do if the president is attacking our constitution, and the responsible authorities are failing to defend it. Here's one such step that could be considered:

It's too early to form a government in exile. But it's not too early to begin making contingency plans for how to proceed, if that becomes necessary.

So if y'all are willing, I'd like to pick your brains about what countries might be willing to host such a government in exile (and be otherwise suitable). Some possibilities (in alphabetical order):

- Canada?

- Germany?

- Iceland?

- South Africa?

- Switzerland?

Any others come to mind?

Mood: worried
Location: stuck

edelsont

After Robert Mueller spoke on Wednesday, I was left, like a lot of people, with more questions than answers. But unlike most folks, I have access to the Wayforward Machine. So I logged in there, and poked around, and found something that cleared it up for me.

It's a published interview with him, which will appear [redacted] years in the future. After I read it, I felt that I understood the current situation a lot better. Maybe you will, too.

It's in PDF format, and on a different site. Here's the URL:

people.well.com/user/edelsont/politics/mueller-speaks.pdf

I hope this helps. (Seriously. All kidding aside, that's why I wrote it.)

Mood: awake
Location: [redacted]

luzribeiro

These are a few that I saw on twitter today. All of them are a total crack up. :) :) :) :)

( See more... )

airiefairie

There is a reason that many Republican politicians are very reluctant about Trump using emergency powers to circumvent Congress to build his wall. They know that if this ploy is successful it will be used again by Democratic presidents. Climate change will be one of the first opportunities to use such powers. Far more Americans support stronger environmental policies than support Trump's wall. This could be a great new tool to get around the influence of lobbyists. Next stop, using emergency powers to combat another national emergency, gun violence.

This is very similar to when Harry Reid changed the rules of the Senate and it had lasting repercussions. The only difference here is that national emergencies can be removed by the next president so, if constantly used like I described, the country could be in a constant state of flux. Trump uses emergency powers to build a wall, the next president removes the national emergency and the wall goes by the wayside. The next Democrat president uses emergency powers for gun control or climate change, and then the next president removes that emergency too. And so on and so forth.

It would be a disaster.

My hope is the Dems will reduce the powers of the president, now that they have started working do undo some of the messes caused by him. After all, Congress does have the right to limit or strip the national emergency powers from the Presidency. Let's see if that happens. However, I doubt those in power are likely going to use that power to cripple themselves in the long-term.

luzribeiro

So, it all happened more or less as expected. The Blue Wave was not a tsunami, but it did give House back to the Democrats. The strong economy, however, prevented them from taking the Senate, where the Republicans even strengthened their positions. This configuration hasn't occurred since 1986.

The markets have responded calmly so far. The dollar didn't lose almost any positions in Asia and Europe (-0.4% against the Euro, and -0.3% against the Pound).

Nevertheless, this is undoubtedly a new situation for the president. So far, the GOP were able to pass all his initiatives without much hussle, and Paul Ryan proved a reliable leap-dog. Now that the Democrats will be in charge of the House again, we can expect renewed digging into the Russian meddling - probably not an impeachment initiative as that could backfire and hurt the Dems (the GOP-controlled Senate would have none of it anyway).

( Read more... )

luzribeiro

Here's a state by state illustration of Trump’s disapproval ratings.

Something tells me the 2018 midterm elections are going to be one of the most exhilarating periods in American politics. Many are rubbing their hands and saying, bring it on! Trump and his GOP congressmen will see what draining the swamp truly means. The stage is set.

Oh, and what of the congressmen who've been pushing Trump's agenda through Congress? In many cases they will be held accountable as well.

Any predictions? Major upsets? How will Congress look like after themidterms?

luzribeiro

"The U.S. special counsel investigating possible ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election is examining a broad range of transactions involving Trump’s businesses as well as those of his associates, according to a person familiar with the probe.

The president told the New York Times on Wednesday that any digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds. Trump’s businesses have involved Russians for years, making the boundaries fuzzy so Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to be taking a wide-angle approach to his two-month-old probe."

Mueller Expands Probe to Trump Business Transactions

"The roots of Mueller’s follow-the-money investigation lie in a wide-ranging money laundering probe launched by then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara last year, according to the person.

FBI agents had already been gathering information about Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, according to two people with knowledge of that probe. Prosecutors hadn’t yet begun presenting evidence to a grand jury. Trump fired Bharara in March."

( Read more... )

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

I really don't think these House Republicans understand at all the struggles and needs of most Americans. Before ACA, they never introduced any effective legislation, and preferred to pretend that health care was a non-issue. Finally, there was a bill trying to deal with pre-existing conditions, find affordable solutions for millions of uninsured people, and even started working on costs. It was nowhere close to perfect of course, it had flaws.

But, make no mistake, the Republicans have only made the issue of obtaining affordable health care worse here. As Bernie Sanders described it,

“The bill that Republicans passed today is an absolute disaster. It really has nothing to do with health care. It has everything to do with an enormous shift of wealth from working people to the richest Americans. This bill would throw 24 million people off of health insurance – including thousands of Vermonters – cut Medicaid by $880 billion, defund Planned Parenthood and substantially increase premiums on older Americans. Meanwhile, it would provide a $300 billion tax break to the top 2 percent and hundreds of billions more to the big drug and insurance companies that are ripping off the American people. Our job now is to rally millions of Americans against this cruel bill to make sure that it does not pass the Senate. Instead of throwing tens of millions of people off of health insurance, we must guarantee health care as a right to all.”

Speaking of Sanders, the Senate Republicans are already pronouncing the House version of this bill dead on arrival. It'll have to be a much more moderate version if it is to bass in the Senate. And whatever more moderate version of the bill the Senate passes, it'll certainly be rejected in the far more partisan House. So, as major a victory as Trump (and Ryan) may be willing to think this is, perhaps they shouldn't hurry to pop the champagne just yet.

Not to mention the potential political fallout for the GOP, as millions of Americans who'll be affected by Trumpcare in very nasty ways would realize very soon - and they'll be sure to think about that, come the next election.

ddstory.livejournal.com

While fences, walls and barbed wire are being raised all across Europe in response to the refugee crisis, the US is also undergoing an internal division of their own on the issue.

First, president Obama announced that the US would provide asylum for 10 thousand Syrian refugees. But then the House voted on a bill that is meant to tighten the measures for accepting refugees even beyond their current ridiculous level. The law will now require of the FBI chief, the chiefs of national security and secretary of domestic intelligence to approve every single Syrian refugee before they've come anywhere near a US-bound plane. In result, this would immensely complicate and prolong their entry process into the US, possibly beyond 2 or 3 years.

( As you may`ve expected, this is about to get a bit complicated )

airiefairie.livejournal.com

At long last. Two years after Edward Snowden's revelations about illicit wiretapping by the NSA, it would appear that Congress may have drawn a lesson or two from the whole affair. After a vigorous debate, a surprisingly large majority has voted for reforming the agency.

Granted, the changes in the law, now known as the Freedom Act, are far from appeasing all expectations of the NSA detractors, but they are putting an end to a number of spying practices - like the mass wiretapping of phone conversations. The eavesdropping will only be allowed in extraordinary cases, and with an explicit court permission. The new law also puts some controlling mechanisms in place, which is a big step towards curbing the unlimited power of NSA's omnipotent spying apparatus. Now Congress will have the opportunity to oversee NSA's activities in a real way, which was virtually impossible until now. This is also a result of Snowden's revelations.

( Read more... )

ddstory.livejournal.com

...Even if it comes from a relatively obscure mouthpiece in a semi-official situation, or if it just comes out as a genuine slip-up on their part. But still, ultimately, at least one guy is telling things as they really are:

"It’s an election year. A lot of Democrats don’t know how it would play in their party, and Republicans don’t want to change anything. We like the path we’re on now. We can denounce it if it goes bad, and praise it if it goes well and ask what took him so long." -- Rep. Jack Kingston (R) of Georgia.

Sure, perhaps we shouldn't judge the guy too harshly for speaking honestly. It's the things he said being true what is the issue here. What he's confirming is that this has been a strategy that the GOP has employed with Obama not just since day one of his tenure, but even before that. They've said it outright more than once that all they're about right now, is to block and obstruct Obama at every corner, regardless of the cost for the country. The whole bipartisan schtick is bullshit. It's just an endless dance of the right moving ever further to the right, and demanding that their "partner" follow them into the same direction for the sake of bipartisanship. Let's face it, that ain't gonna work any time soon. Because it's never been the intention in the first place.

( Now here's something I don't understand )

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

Yep, I'm speaking of a whole chunk of the political establishment, and beyond.

GOP Tells Obama to Ignore Congress One Day After Suing Him for Ignoring Congress
"On Wednesday, House Republicans sued President Obama for acting on his own without approval from Congress. On Thursday, House Republicans told President Obama he should act on his own to fix the border crisis."

Really, what better proof that Boehner and his cohorts are a heap of lying pieces of shit with no moral standards of their own? My hypocrite-meter has just exploded.

Are those guys demented, or so out of touch, or just they don't give a flying bird's dropping about how they're being perceived by the public any more? And why would they care, since they keep getting elected into Conress anyway.

( Meanwhile, some food for thought )

telemann.livejournal.com

It seems pretty likely that Rand Paul will attempt to run for the Republican nomination in 2016, but unlike other Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, he won't be able to run for his Senate seat and the Presidency at the same time, due to Kentucky state law. The law varies from state to state. "Several members of recent presidential tickets have essentially hedged their political bets by running for re-election while simultaneously pursuing higher office." (e.g Paul Ryan ran for both his House seat and as the Republican VP nominee, Joe Biden also ran for Delaware's Senate seat, and as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2008, and Joe Lieberman ran for the Connecticut senate seat and lost his bid for the Vice Presidency with Al Gore in an extremely close election in 2000. (In 2008 Barak Obama's senate seat in Illinois was not up for election that year ). The issue also came up in 1960 when Lyndon Johnson faced the same dilemma, and the Texas legislature passed a statue allowing him to run for both races. Taking a nod from history, a bill was introduced into Kentucky's state house to change the state law, and while it passed the Republican controlled Senate, the Democratic controlled House never considered it and Brian Wilkerson, a press aide for the House Speaker noted to reporters: ""In Kentucky, you ought to run for one office at a time "The speaker's thoughts haven't changed on that." The Kentucky state governor Steve Beshear (D) has no plans to reconvene the state house to reconsider the proposed bill.

And there are Republicans who agree in a self serving way, including Marco Rubio (Florida - R, which incidentally had no such limit). "I think by and large, when you choose to do something as big as that, you've really got to be focused on that and not have an exit strategy," Rubio said during an April 2 appearance on the Hugh Hewitt radio show.

Overall, I think this is a good development, because it will force Rand Paul to decide if he's really serious about his Presidential run, and commit to it) and by having a "play-run" at the party's nomination, and attempt to impact the Republican nomination process. I'm pretty sure the Republican candidates who are supporting the current law in Kentucky are do so purely in their own self interest. And yes, I think other states should have such requirements limiting elected officials to one race.

In March, 2013 Nate Silver posted some detailed analysis on the chances for Ron Paul in 2016. Mr. Silver thinks Rand Paul is sincerely interested in expanding his base for any real chance at winning the nomination. And noted "But [Senator] Paul at least seems to demonstrate the interest in expanding his support beyond libertarian conservatives, something his father rarely did, and he will have three years to experiment with how to find the right formula. That doesn’t make him as likely a nominee as a more traditional candidate like Mr. Rubio, Jeb Bush or Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. But his odds look better than the 20-to-1 numbers that some bookmakers have placed against him.

peristaltor.livejournal.com

The sheer silliness of even casting a shadow of a glimmer of a sliver of blame on the Democratic Party members in Congress regarding this shutdown thing is laughable enough. There is more than enough evidence that the Tea Party has run with this ball all the way. I won't bother recounting it here.

What I found interesting was a very conservative political person suggesting why default may be the ultimate aim, not a stated consequence. Regarding the debt:

What I don’t think [the Obama administration and those on Wall Street] understand is that there has been a movement under way for some years among right-wing economists and activists not merely to default on the debt, but even to repudiate it.

Those making this argument are largely unknown to professional economists and journalists, but their research permeates the obscure Web sites where Tea Party members get their ideas. And not all are obscure.

As with most weirdnesses in our country, much of this can be traced back ( to the Civil War. )

rick-day.livejournal.com

A new twist in the mutual bony finger( Read more... )

Or there will be Hell to pay in about a week.

yes-justice.livejournal.com

Uh, red team, wtf? You've allowed these tea party freaks drive to the car into a ditch. That's the plan?

“We’re very excited,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.”

Well, yay for hurting people IRL?

( IDGI? )

To quote Lincoln: "What is our present condition? We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us, or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum."

.livejournal.com

So, I am here to complain. (what else is new, right?)
But really, it's my congressman's fault.

Here's the backstory: back when round two of CISPA was happening, that is, NOT when the huge google/wikipedia backlack occured, but a short while after, when congress tried to pass the same bills, just with less fanfare.

Which is in itself a problem. "Oh, the public doesn't like this? Well then, let's ignore it for awhile, and when they aren't looking, let's do it then!"

Well that's a problem. But that's not the problem I am here to complain about.
( Read more... )

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Talk politics.

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Entries tagged with congress

Dumbest guy in Congress is at it again

Dumbest congressperson?

Seeking refuge for a homeless democracy

Mueller fanfic! (No, not that kind.)

Friday nonsense... Nancy FTW!

National emergencies

Shuffling the stack

The stage is set

Congress vs Trump

Trumping Obamacare

We don't want no refugees here!

Trimming NSA's wings a little bit

Gotta give'm kudos for the honesty...

What's wrong with all those people?

Kentucky legislature nixes a change in state law, impacting Rand Paul's run for 2016

When The Captors Want The Hostage Dead, Is It Kidnapping?

"Mr Speaker, Democracy has now been suspended."

You had one f-ing job.....

What's the matter with Congress?

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May 2025

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