I’d be sending Seal Team Six around to visit Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh as well.

The national Democratic Party is the farthest left it’s been since before Watergate, and Biden has presided over the most progressive presidency since the Great Society. That’s due largely to the work of dedicated progressives and activists in the Democratic Party. A West run will tilt the election towards Trump and fracture the left for ten years or more. These were lessons that were all learned 23 years ago.

Looks like Indiana AG Todd Rokita is in some trouble of his own regarding comments made concerning this case. Womp, as the kids say, womp.

Some grade A irony here:

The third count alleges that Rokita violated confidentiality requirements in Indiana law by making public statements about an investigation into Bernard prior to filing a complaint with the Medical Licensing Board, which he did in November.

LOL

Rumors that her husband, Jason Boebert, exposed his penis when asked for identification are unfounded.

Trump never expected to win in 2016 and had no understanding of how the government worked, on any level. He still likely has no understanding how much of the government works, but he now understands how to warp it to protect and serve himself, and you bet against him doing so from day one at your peril.

Not that CNN has ever had the best political reporting, but this article is hot garbage. Almost entirely focusing on the tone and kayfabe of Trump’s rhetoric without really touching upon the ways in which he has openly plotted to warp our system into something quite unrecognizable.

That said, this middle section really stands alone:

Trump’s authoritarianism may make the 2024 election a profound choice

may

The former president’s increasing demagoguery also puts the spotlight on key unknowns of the 2024 election:

– Does the GOP risk nominating a candidate whose untamed behavior will alienate voters in many suburban swing districts who turned against him in the 2020 election, especially given the possibility that he could be a convicted felon by the time voters make their choice?

– And if Trump wins the nomination, will his liabilities and the prospect of four more years of chaos and recriminations mitigate concerns about Biden’s physical and mental competence and concerns about the economy, as revealed in a CNN poll last week that captured a broadly negative view of his presidency?

There are plenty of polls that already address this issue. They show that the answers to both of these look to be a resounding yes. This isn’t one of those questions that can never be answered, like the square root of a million or something.

The numbers of people who affirmatively believe that Biden was involved in Hunter’s business dealings is dispiriting, though. That, mixed with the constant media drumbeat over Biden’s age, is most likely what’s keeping things so close at this point.

i am disagreeing with your second paragraph as it was the ghoul in the senate who placed 3 fascists on the supreme court.

I bow to no one in my disdain for Mitch McConnell, but all other things being equal, if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016 Roe would still be good law.

These are all examples of the laws working as designed. The anti-abortion movement cares about precisely one thing: complete control over women’s bodies. An environment where doctors universally refuse to provide care to their patients for fear of incarceration isn’t a quirk of interpretation of an individual statute, it’s these laws working as intended.

And the man who placed the crucial three votes on the Supreme Court that brought us to this state is a toss-up to be returned as president in the next election. People need to wake the fuck up.

Do you really see a large number of gun-control-centered liberals talking about getting guns out of the “inner city” or away from “urban youth,” though? Because what I’ve observed is most of the people who are concerned about gun control are trying to get guns out of the hands of largely young white men who shoot up schools, churches, grocery stores etc. I can’t recall the last time I heard someone who identified as left of center complain about “violence in Chicago” — that beat is exclusively on the right.

MAGA has traditionally stood for “Make America Great Again,” but I suspect after this year it might change to either:

Make Attorneys Get Attorneys

or

My Ass Got Arrested

“Gravy seals” belongs right next to “Y’All Qaeda” as one of those perfectly pitched nicknames that both encapsulates and decimates the right-wing freak show.

Don’t threaten us with a good time.

Pretty sure this is never going to cross Biden’s desk.

I loathe Chris Christie with every fiber of my being but I will buy him a pair of Springsteen tickets if he files this suit.

I was going to suggest Twelfth Night, for the dirty pun embedded in Malvolio’s letter, but then I realized the FTM cross-dressing would count as WrongThink in Florida. Sigh.

What, has he run out of things to read in his bathroom since the government took away all his beautiful boxes?

I hate that we’re at this point, but I feel like reproductive rights is the wedge issue that has the best potential to break open state and federal legislatures for Democrats. The other issues you cited poll well, but haven’t historically translated into reliable votes. Reproductive rights are much more salient. It makes me hopeful for the next few cycles but I worry that if and when a Democratic Congress is able to safeguard abortion rights once again people will fall back into old patterns. Eternal vigilance is the price to pay for a truly civilized society.

the discussion should be about getting more folks covered

The discussion first needs to be substantially increasing Democratic numbers in both houses of Congress.

Obviously nothing will change for the better without a Democratic majority in the House. A nominal majority requires at least 4 more Democratic seats. There are far fewer Blue Dogs and conservative Dems than there were 15 years ago, but I would imagine a maximal ACA successor would require at least 30 new members to make sure assholes like Gottheimer don’t gum up the works.

The filibuster rules in the Senate basically mandate at least 60 senators to pass anything of consequence. Yes, it’s a Senatorial rule; yes, it can be removed with a straight majority. As it stands right now, two senators are on record as opposing filibuster repeal, and there are probably a few others who are still attached to the rules of the Senate as currently constituted. A fight over the filibuster now would fail, and time spent in the next Congress fighting to abolish the filibuster is time lost for legislating. So assume a minimum of 60 Democratic senators to be able to operate free of Republican obstruction. Again, if you want a maximal bill, you need more than 60 senators, to get around problem children like Manchin and Sinema* and other conservative Dems.

We’re obviously in the realm of LBJ after the 1964 landslide here, which helps to explain why progressive victories are so hard-fought and far between. People forget that a big reason LBJ was able to enact the Great Society is because he was backed by 288 Democrats in the House and 66 Democrats in the Senate. By comparison, Obama had 60 Democrats in the Senate for about six to nine months, which is how the ACA was able to pass but was also why the ACA wasn’t better than it was.

If we want better outcomes, we need more (and better) Democrats.

*It’s very possible that neither of them will be in the new Senate. It’s also possible that on some issues they are stalking horses for other senators who prefer to let them draw the heat.

I generally like Reich and I certainly agree with his conclusion here, but tbh I feel like this video is not great work. Some of the warning signs he calls out are generally accepted as markers of fascism, but to my mind it would have been better if he had hewed closer to the generally accepted tenets of Ur-Fascism, as outlined by Umberto Eco. It might have made for a longer video, but by fitting Trump to a framework established long before his rise, it avoids some of the just-so nature of the claims Reich lodges against him. Just my $.02.

In much the same way that cemeteries have an active population of dead people. The Venn diagram of Libertarians and right-wing assholes is largely just a circle.