Today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave a 5-minute crash course in how to defeat fascist Trumpism.
Watch her take down a Foxy who asked her if she hated Trump?
She said : “I don’t hate anyone. I pray for Trump.”
Hey, world. Follow the true Leader and grow a spine…for a change.
Please share widely!
I hate Trump. I hate injustice. It ain’t hard. Avoiding that righteous anger is not that commendable.
Can we talk about Pelosi’s other leadership?
About how she wants to pass a NAFTA update and give the President a major win in the middle of his impeachment inquiry.
It’s not quite as bad as the majority of Dems still voting to approve Trump judicial nominees every damn day, but it is close.
Do we actually have an existential threat to our Democracy on our hands or are we just playing around for some theater?
I’d like a fact check on your assertion that a majority of Dems are approving Trump judicial nominees.
Most rational people whose judgment I trust believe, as I do, that Trump represents an existential threat to democracy here and around the world.
Calling out Criminal Corrupt Trumpism is not ‘playing around for some theater’.
Calling it out and then going back to business as usual, like with Trump judges in the Senate, or pure political malpractice of giving Trump a free trade win in the middle of an impeachment is what makes it seems like theater.
If you think he is an existential threat, treat him like one. At the absolute bare minimum don’t help him reshape the courts for a generation. Make the GOP do all the lifting and pin everything on them.
2 judges approved today. 76-13 and 68-21.
5 approved yesterday. 88-4, 89-4, 64-29, 75-18, and one, who was an outright anti-abortion zealot approved 49-44 – Democrats rightly opposed her.
Sanders, Warren, Booker, and Harris were not in attendance for the votes.
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_116_1.htm
If you look through the history of the Trump judges, most are being approved by around 80-20 votes. The most consistent NOs are Gillibrand, Sanders, Warren, Merkley, and Markey.
Maybe they aren’t THAT bad?
They’re appointees from an illegitimate president filling seats left unfilled for almost a decade while McConnell prevented any progress. If we’re serious about resistance and consider him a threat, why give him an inch on anything. The favor will NEVER be returned.
He was elected the way the Constitution proscribes and is legally as legitimate as the rest of them. I think a little picking our battles might be in order. In the meantime we MUST flip the Senate since this exercise has shown more than just about anything else that elections have consequences.
They are indeed THAT bad.
There should be 45-47 votes against each and every one of these nominees.
Then why are so many Dems voting for them? I always start with the premise that if something’s getting that many Dem votes it’s within the realm of reason.
Democrats are bad and horrible at politics. This was an easy answer.
I answered that below. The claim is that Democrats fear being portrayed as obstructionist.
What Democrats seem unable or unwilling to accept is that they will be portrayed as obstructionist — or some other lie — no matter what they do.
We Democrats have been unwilling to fight for what we know is right, consistently choosing instead to pursue what we think is “more pragmatic”.
The result is that we are led by the ear wherever the despots want to take us.
Wake up Christopher. Also Garland was not only “not bad” but also “quite good” along with the hundreds of good nominees Moscow Mitch kept from office. That’s a generation of conservative justices during an ostensibly liberal era.
I get it. You want to live in a world where qualifications trump ideology. So do I. The GOP broke that world, and until it’s punished and swept out of power, it will continue to break every norm in sight. We can’t cry “this is not normal” and then approve a majority of their nominees.
So you are motivated by revenge?:( With a GOP majority they were getting confirmed anyway, so no reason to stomp our feet just to show we can.
It is REALITY, not revenge.
Were the Republicans “stomping their feet” for the ten years they relentlessly attempted to repeal and gut the ACA? The ACA today is dead. It was killed when it was made non-compulsory.
Were the Republicans “stomping their feet” for the decades that they have been attempting to repeal Roe v Wade? It is MUCH harder to get a legal, safe, and affordable abortion today than it was in 1979.
It is not “revenge” to act as though we actually ARE committed to the core values and priorities that we profess. It is hypocrisy to talk about those values and then sacrifice them at each conflict.
The forces of darkness care about and live the misguided value system they profess. We who profess the forces of light must do the same if we are to prevail.
Sadly, the assertion is absolutely true — and is disgraceful.
Conventional wisdom is that Democrats are STILL trying to appear “bi-partisan”. It’s a crock. The GOP is controlled by a hostile adversary. Each Democratic vote for a GOP nominee is a vote for a Putin nominee.
That is absolutely true – you can look at the roll calls. It’s often just about 10 Dems who consistently vote against them. Two consistently among them? Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren.
I thought this was really important — and important for her to speak off the cuff, and from the heart. People are better, clearer, more convincing when they speak from animating values like this, rather than constant tactical calculation.
Contrast to the too-clever-by-half gyrations of Buttigieg et al.
Certainly a better off-the-cuff remark than another guy calling an audience member “fat” yesterday.
He was. And an old guy hopped up on Fox News and right wing garbage online. I’ve seen it happen to close family. Don’t believe his gaslighting about being a Warren supporter either, he was spouting stuff straight out of Infowars.
Hunter Biden’s position was inappropriate, but it was not illegal. It was a lie to argue Biden pressured prosecutors and officials to help his son. If anything, the prosecutor he got fired was going too easy on that company. I am not voting for Biden and I hope he is not the nominee, but we shouldn’t spread right wing lies about each other. It only helps the other side. Biden was right to fight back. Just as Warren is right to fight back against Buttigieg’s right wing lies about her policies.
The issue is that this is clearly the smear they will run with and Biden has had plenty of time (and presumably a team to help) to come up with a good response that doesn’t have him getting flustered and insulting people in the audience. This will be 100% of the campaign against Biden. It’s the emails again, except legitimately much sketchier. He has to be able to do better on these questions. It’s basically the only question he needs to answer well.
There was no mention of prosecutors… The gentleman said Biden got his son the job, in effect selling access to the Presidency. That seems like a reasonable assumption.
@Biden got his son the job:
That is the essence of the Republican lie.
The “assumption” that Joe Biden got his son the job — or worse, “sold access to the Presidency” — is a flagrant lie. Joe Biden was never president. He had nothing to do with whatever position Hunter Biden was offered or accepted. Hunter Biden is his own person and did whatever he did on his own. While I think most of us here agree that his relatively long history of trading on his father’s name creates an unsavory appearance, that is nevertheless an issue with Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden is not a candidate for any public office.
It is Donald Trump who is selling access to the Presidency. Worse, it is Donald Trump that is extorting political favors using vital American national security interests as a mere bargaining chip.
The questioner was a troll repeating a GOP — and Russian — lie. I’m disappointed that you repeat that lie here.
Let’s back up a second. Do you at least recognize the concern? Hunter Biden gets a politically-sensitive job (in an area known for political corruption), soon after a US-backed coup, at a time when Ukraine is hoping to get military aid from the US, and when Biden’s father also happens to be Vice President
If Biden didn’t have any role in helping his son, then he should have a better response… Did he know about this at the time? What did he think about it? What actions were taken or not taken? It shouldn’t be too hard to come up with a decent response. Instead, he lashes-out at the guy, which only makes me wonder what the real story is.
The “real story” is that Hunter Biden has been taking jobs based on his last name for pretty much his entire life. It’s what he does. I don’t think anybody likes it, but that’s just the reality. Do you remember Billy Carter (Jimmy Carter’s brother)? That is Hunter Biden’s shortcoming. If you don’t like it, take it up with Hunter Biden. In particular, ask your questions of Hunter Biden when he runs for public office for the first time.
“US-backed coup”? Say what? You mean the free and fair election that caused the Russian-backed administration to be peacefully removed? Do you recall that the role of the Mr. Biden and the US was to INCREASE the prosecution of corruption in the Ukraine? Do you remember that the reason why Mr. Biden, acting on behalf of all of our European Partners, removed the corrupt prosecutor? The same corrupt prosecutor that has been feeding lies to Rudy Giuliani and the Donald Trump cabal since then?
All the questions you ask in your last paragraph were asked and answered a decade ago when they were current news.
Mr. Biden correctly called out a Republican troll for repeating GOP lies and Russian propaganda. Did you watch and listen to the link I posted?
You are repeating the same GOP and Russian lie as the troll that Mr. Biden called out. I think Mr. Biden’s response was perfectly correct and appropriate.
I have the same response to this commentary from you.
I disagree with your characterization of this as something that does not involve Joe Biden. He should have recused himself from involvement in Ukrainian policy-making. Now, maybe he did that. I don’t know, because Biden chose not to address the issue. Instead, he lashed-out and ridiculed the voter who asked the question. Even if the man were a Republican plant (which I am not convinced of), he should not have been treated that way.
This comment is unresponsive and irrelevant.
Did you watch and listen to the video? The questioner repeated a lie (1:00 – 1:27):
That “question” is an absolute lie. Mr. Biden’s response was completely appropriate and was more courteous than the vicious lie offered by the questioner.
I’ve already written several times here that I agree with you that Mr. Biden should have recused himself. He didn’t. That has nothing to do with this exchange.
Watch and listen to the video.
When you don’t recuse yourself from a conflict, some people will assume the worst, as this voter did. Biden’s awful response guarantees that even more voters will assume the worst.
Biden had an opportunity to make voters feel comfortable with him as an ethical leader. Instead he suggested that the questioner is sedentary and challenged him to a pushup contest (which was the applause line).
It still doesn’t sound like you watched or listened to the video.
This voter made explicit allegations that were entirely false, that exactly line up with GOP talking points, and that have been refuted in pretty much every media outlet except Fox.
That’s not an assumption, that’s just a lie. The “sedentary” comment came in direct response to an accusation from the questioner that Mr. Biden is “too old”. The questioner accused Mr. Biden of being too old, then repeated the false attack the questioner said he heard on TV “all the time”.
The “sedentary” line was a direct response to that attack.
Of course I watched the video. It’s only a couple of minutes (and worth watching, for anyone who missed it).
In cases like this, recusal is the only way for the public to be assured that there was not a quid pro quo. It is a simple and expected standard of ethical conduct, yet it apparently did not happen. Many people will consider this to be prima facie evidence of a quid pro quo.
Biden should have delivered a response that at least acknowledges the importance of ethical conduct in office. He instead called the guy a liar, which shows a total lack of awareness on the issue.
Charley, many thanks for Speaker Pelosi’s ‘Don’t mess with me’ video. We should all draw inspiration from her heroic fighting spirit!
Buttigieg is really partying like it’s 2004. It’s a damn shame. I met him and like him and thought he actually had some radical ideas with his “win the era” framing at the start of the race. His rise and contortions are a great example of why we need to get corporate money out of the process. Good candidates will turn themselves into Acela Corridor talking point machines and lose the very heartland they think they are going to win.
Why is Buttigieg everybody’s favorite whipping boy all of a sudden? My head still says he’s too green, but he’s one of my heart’s favorites. I especially enjoy hearing him speak.
He’s got a really good shot at winning Iowa. The field is starting to recognize that Biden has a firewall with black voters. The only way any of the non Biden candidates can beat Biden is to make sure they win IA and NH and consolidate the anti-Biden vote for Super Tuesday. Otherwise Buttigieg could be this years Ted Cruz. Beating Trump in IA and blocking an anti-Trump breakout and consolidation.
Seems like Warren would be positioned for that, especially representing the other wing of the party. Lately the Buttigieg criticism has been he’s just a younger Biden.
I think this will have shown to be “he had good polling a month and a half before Iowa.”
Since he could claim “front runner” status, it seems the experience for Pete has been quite bad (which seems right since he is not qualified and utterly valueless). I think the Pete bubble was a test to see if there was a centrist/corporate-aligned alternative to Biden, who major donors have concerns about. The timing was off. He peaked too early and the slight scratches below the surface show him to be a poor candidate with incredibly soft support. I suspect the next test will be with Klobuchar.
The discussion here about Joe Biden’s “tense” exchange exemplifies the ways that distortions, lies, and half-truths infect us even when we mean no harm.
First, it is REALLY important to watch the exchange yourself. Don’t depend on analysis or rumor, watch it yourself.
The first truly striking thing is that Mr. Biden did NOT call ANYBODY “fat”, contrary to a comment made yesterday (6-Dec-2019). What he said was quite different (1:31 in the above clip):
That is REALLY different from Mr. Biden calling his questioner “fat”.
The next distortion — from the media — is that Mr. Biden was “off the rails” or even “tense”.
He wasn’t. He responded forcefully to a right-wing lie. The lie about selling access to the presidency isn’t the only lie that questioner offered. Another whopper is at 2:15:
That’s a lie. It’s a lie that might be repeated on Fox or Rush Limbaugh (I don’t know, I don’t watch or listen to either). MSNBC has beem scrupulous about reporting the truth.
Mr. Biden correctly, in my opinion, starts to respond and then turns away.
I think Mr. Biden handled this exchange just fine.
Tom, we truly do live in deceitful times when telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
From one revolutionary to another, I just want to thank you for speaking the truth about Joe Biden and setting the record straight.