From a Twitter friend :
” SCOTUS rules 5/4 for employers against class action arbitration cases. In a victory for employers and the Trump administration, the Supreme Court on Monday said that employers could block employees from banding together as a class to fight legal disputes in employment arbitration agreements.”
” Fugelsang on Gorsuch and SC vote : Gorsuch votes to let workers get ripped off. From his Supreme Court seat. Which was ripped off.”
JOHN FUGELSANG
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Please share widely!
There’s going to be 100s of decisions just like this for a generation, and many more that will reach final resolution at lower courts with awful Trump appointees. Trump has already got 21 circuit judges in, and the pace is not slowing. Obama got 55 in 8 years.
Senator Leahy’s strong commitment to stick with the “blue slip” tradition when Judiciary Chair and prevent Obama nominees from getting a vote looks worse and worse everyday (and let’s be clear – Obama did not appoint a single judge who might be considered “radical” under any reasonable meaning of the word while almost every Trump nominee meets that test). I worry that Dems may return to that norm if they ever take the Senate again, and I think that is wrong.
It’s all broken, stop acting like it ain’t.
Who’s acting like the system isn’t broken ?
I’ll simply answer that with a quote from a wise statesman, our friend, Barney Frank : ” Democrats aren’t perfect, but they’re crazy.”
Indeed, elections have consequences.
Each and every American who chose not to vote in 2016 is responsible for this. Every man or woman who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and did not vote in 2016 is responsible for this.
Each and every American who chose to vote for Donald Trump is responsible for this.
I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for any of these Red-state sob-stories and pity-parties about how these voters “had no idea” that all this was going to happen. Donald Trump and the GOP are behaving EXACTLY the way they said they would behave.
My stance towards Red America (including, by the way, the “grief-stricken” adults in places like Santa Fe, Texas) is:
You asked for it, you got it.
Elections do, indeed, have consequences.
“Elections matter” — yes.
But remember that Trump was “elected” by a minority
… as was George W. Bush.
… The GOP resorted to gerrymandering …
… and vote suppression,
… and foreign interference via break-ins and bots …
All to great effect.
… They used the filibuster — an undemocratic method of partisan combat …
… in an already wildly-undemocratic legislative body;
… and then stole a Supreme Court seat.
… As previously the justices appointed by a minority-elected President decided to allow infinite oligarch money into our political system.
*None of this* is fair-and-square. They have absolutely broken the rules of the game. We have been cheated.
The notion that this is “fair and square” has been used to further certain critiques of the Democratic Party: “The Democratic Party is broken”: Huh, who broke it? Some of those critiques have a lot of merit — but the context that *we have all been cheated* out of victories of which we should be enjoying the fruits, is really important.
I’d say, the more things change, the quicker we return to 1925:
Racism
Big business running amok
Wealth disparities that are grim
Blatant corruption in the White House
Cynical public
Ordinary worker virtues ridiculed
Might makes right
Minorities scape-goated
Tacky wealth admired by mass culture
All in all, things are going great.
But the youth are awakening…
H. L. Mencken weighs in : “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
Just got this new Mencken saying for a lifelong work in progress — favorite quotes — from my friend, Ted. Made me laugh out loud. 🙂
Indeed, elections have consequences. But the DNC continues to admit no faults and make no changes. I hope we’re lucky, because we ain’t getting smart.
I’ll make my own thread about it, but Diane Hessen in the Globe has great data on seinf state swing voters and to a person all they care about is the economy. I really think messaging about courts, identity politics, and even the Russia investigation are all talking points that fire up our existing base rather than win any converts. We obviously need to do that and it worked great for Phil Murphy and Ralph Northam in their races, but Lamb and Jones focused on the shitty tax cut, defending healthcare and defending American jobs. Those three issues are the ones we need to hammer home.
A PROPHESY FULFILLED : “As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” H. L. Mencken
“I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.” – Dr. Benjamin Franklin, closing address to the Constitutional Convention
Given the way the DNC is acting, Democrats must be severely corrupted. Or the DNC is simply awful, every which way.
TRUMP THE DEMAGOGUE : ” The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.” H.L. Mencken
I’m having trouble understanding your logic here.
The GOP holds all three branches of government. We see compelling evidence of flagrant corruption, incompetence, and outright deceit in all three branches.
I don’t understand how this is the fault of the Democratic Party or even the DNC (which is, by the way, just one player in national scene).
I’ll make my own thread about it, but Diane Hessen in the Globe has great data on swing state swing voters and to a person all they care about is the economy. I really think messaging about courts, identity politics, and even the Russia investigation are all talking points that fire up our existing base rather than win any converts. We obviously need to do that and it worked great for Phil Murphy and Ralph Northam in their races, but Lamb and Jones focused on the bad tax cut, defending healthcare and defending American jobs.
Those three issues are the ones we need to hammer home. I think we can run the table on Red districts in solidly blue states like NJ, PA (thanks to court ordered redistricting), CA, and NY while playing the bread and butter ‘sick of corruption’ angle for the genuinely purple places.
I think it depends on whom you ask. For every study I see that suggests it’s just economics I see one that says no, it really is the ugliest aspects of identity politics.
At one level, I understand and agree with you.
At a more primal level, I think this analysis completely misses the point.
Let’s stipulate that “Irma”, a “swing-state swing voter” cares ONLY about the economy.
If Irma can’t or wont figure out that a court system that makes it impossible for her to get a fair wage is problem for her, then I think the most appropriate response is to walk away from her.
The GOP Supreme Court just ruled that employers can bar employees from filing class action suits. That is a HUGE loss that hits Irma directly in her pocketbook.
Ok, I get that perhaps we have to more clearly connect the dots between the GOP and this abysmal decision. Still, I call that “messaging about courts” — and it is more relevant to “the economy” than any healthcare question.
Similarly, I’m not sure what you mean by “identity politics”. The blatant and flagrant racism of Donald Trump and GOP is on full display, including the frequent pandering to crude stereotypes and insults. The plain fact is that a significant number of men and women like Irma LIKE that. They voted for Donald Trump BECAUSE OF, not in spite of, his blatant and flagrant bigotry, racism, and prejudice.
For a huge number of men and women like Irma, “defending American jobs” will get their vote only if it actually means “keep the foreigners, Hispanics and Blacks away.”
Yes, we hammer on the bad tax cut. Yes, we hammer on healthcare. I’m much more dubious about “defending American jobs”.
It seems to me that you’ve missed the most obvious item though — I think we hammer on the obscene wealth of men like Dan Blankenship. I think we hammer his criminal conviction for killing 29 workers in the deadliest mine explosion in US history.
I think we hammer on how the corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent officials so beloved by the GOP and Donald Trump take money out of Irma’s pocket and kill and maim Irma’s children, friends and loved ones.
The bottom line is that so long as the wealth concentration stays as it is — or gets even more intense — NOTHING is going to change Irma’s life.
Nothing.
I don’t think he’s faulting the DNC so much for national public policy as what he sees as inertia on the politics side and trying to remedy the matter of not controlling any of the branches. I downrated that comment, though, because there has in fact been lots of discussion and action toward internal reforms (not all of which I agree with FWIW), and he clearly is either not paying attention or has already decided nothing will satisfy him.
From Superdelegates mass-endorsing Clinton before primaries had begun, to setting debates on the worst-possible nights, the DNC worked actively to shove Clinton – a terrible candidate – down our throats. Such a terrible candidate that she lost to the most-disliked presidential candidate ever recorded.
The Rightist DNC has admitted no regrets, it is resisting reform, and it continues to aggressively ignore or attack FDR Democrats.
Same actions usually beget same results.
You have clearly not been paying attention! There has been a Unity Reform Commission which has put forward proposals to among other things limit the influence of superdelegates. She WON the Dem nomination fair and square (even if you discount superdelegates) and got almost 3 million more popular votes than the constitutional “winner” – hardly a horrible candidate. Calling the DNC rightist destroys your credibility.
Ya ya ya.
I’ll tell you what will not work — then or now. What will not work is ignoring the reality of what America is in 2018 and is likely to be in 2020.
I doubt that more than a few percent of the people who voted in 2016 and and will vote in 2020 even know what a super-delegate is. The outcome of the 2016 primary was never in doubt and had nothing to do with super-delegates, debate scheduling or any of the other chaff that has been tossed around.
The DNC did not determine the outcome of the 2016 primary season and will not determine the outcome of the 2020 primary season.
The candidates who come forward in 2020 are far more important than anything that happened in 2016 and far more important than the DNC.
The DNC didn’t determine the 2016 nominee? And you know this… how?
I think we’ll never know. But we do know that the DNC was worried enough that they repeatedly cheated and lied. Do you deny that they cheated and lied?
Why cheat and lie if there’s no threat?
They did whatever they could to nominate Clinton, and even to see to it that Trump was the Republican nominee… and here we are. Yet they take zero responsibility for their actions.
I absolutely deny that the DNC, whether by that you mean the elected committee or the permanent staff cheated and lied. You were aware we had a primary, I assume? I also assume you voted in said primary and are not alleging that you could not vote for your candidate. Are you alleging the votes were miscounted? When you make an accusation that serious you need to put up or shut up. Don’t forget the DNC actually has very little to do with managing primaries and caucuses, which are mostly subject to state parties and state law.
Sigh. Ok, you win. The DNC bears no responsibility for Trump, was fair and truthful, and should indeed battle those dangerous FDR Democrats. I am defeated. Badly.
Let’s work together to convince others, shall we?
Asked if DNC system was rigged in Clinton’s favor, Warren says ‘yes’
HILLARY CLINTON ROBBED BERNIE SANDERS OF THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION, ACCORDING TO DONNA BRAZILE
Here are the latest, most damaging things in the DNC’s leaked emails
I believe those comments were walked back. The agreement was on the up and up and Bernie was offered similar terms. The emails just prove staffers had their preferences, not that anything was actually done. The contests themselves were conducted fairly. Anyone giving any credence to the hacked emails is doing exactly what Russia wanted – congratulations!:(
So those emails were fake?
@ “so those emails were fake?”
You sound like the climate change deniers who claimed that emails stolen from research “proved” that the researchers were lying.
Some emails were stolen. Some of the content was unsavory. It was years ago and had virtually no impact on the outcome of the election.
“And you know this… how?”
The polling. The election results. The margins by which the Ms. Clinton won and Mr. Sanders lost.
I’m not sure the DNC did anything worse in 2016 than any other national committee has done in any other campaign. I’m quite sure that the primary campaign wasn’t even close.
“They did whatever they could to see to it that Trump was the Republican nominee”
I think that comment comes from the heart of la-la-land. And even if you were correct, which you are not, Donald Trump was a weaker candidate than several of the other GOP alternatives. Had the GOP nominee been somebody else, I think the GOP might well have won and might well have done so by a much larger margin.
I think you’ve forgotten (or never understood in the first place) the point of the thread-starter — America thought they wanted Donald Trump and his Collaborators. Red-state voters chose Mr. Trump over Ms. Clinton.
All of us are now paying the price. That’s the point. The DNC is a sideshow and footnote.
The process arguments from the Bernie wing re the supers were always pretty transparently opportunistic. So nah.
Make a better case if you want us on board.
I’m a little confused… what did you just prove?
He proved that Bernie also went after superdelegates when he felt he needed them. There is absolutely no shame in that, however, as those were the rules which everyone knew ahead of time. A party nomination process was intended to be strictly a one-person, one-vote exercise.
A party nomination process was NOT intended to be a strictly one-person, one-vote exercise.
He proved that “the super-delegates” meme was opportunistic rubbish from the start. The super-delegates did not change the nominee. They were not a factor in the outcome.