American Politics Thread

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

President Biden has officially repealed Trump's discriminatory ban on transgendered people serving in the military.


View: https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1353740496770887681?s=19

 

[Rantaro]

SCOTUS refused to hear the anti-corruption lawsuits around Trump being president and maintaining an impressionable business.

With Trump gone, U.S. Supreme Court pulls plug on anti-corruption cases

Five days after the end of Donald Trump's presidency, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday halted lawsuits accusing him of violating the U.S. Constitution's anti-corruption provisions by maintaining ownership of his business empire including a hotel near the White House while in office.

t.co

 

[Rantaro]

Trump has officially been impeached (again) - article of impeachment has just been given to the Senate.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

The White House finally has dogs again! Champ and Major have finally been brought to the White House. They could actually be heard barking in the background when President Biden was repealing Trumps discriminatory ban on transgendered serving people in the military. Its so nice to have dogs back in the White House.

 

[RileyXY1]

The White House finally has dogs again! Champ and Major have finally been brought to the White House. They could actually be heard barking in the background when President Biden was repealing Trumps discriminatory ban on transgendered serving people in the military. Its so nice to have dogs back in the White House.

Major is actually the first rescue dog to ever live at the White House.

 

[zoroarctic]

In down ballot news, the field is now set for the special election in Louisiana's 6th district to replace Cedric Richmond. I moved out of the District in late 2016, but I'm hoping Karen Carter Peterson wins for totally selfish reasons.

Spoiler

Democrats are centre-left at most.

To clarify, I'm not arguing otherwise. Being economically centrist and left on social policy makes them center-left overall. However, I suppose one could make the case Democrats are firmly left-wing since social issues are what dominate here.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman is not running for re-election.

Can Sherrod Brown occupy both seats? Because that's probably the only way Democrats can flip it.

 

[RileyXY1]

Here's a full list of every Republican Senator that has voted in favor of all of Biden's cabinet nominees so far:

Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Todd Young (Indiana)
Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)
Susan Collins (Maine)
Roger Wicker (Mississippi)
Roy Blunt (Missouri)
Deb Fischer (Nebraska)
Ben Sasse (Nebraska)
Rob Portman (Ohio)
Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma)
Lindsey Graham (South Carolina)
John Thune (South Dakota)
Mike Rounds (South Dakota)
John Cornyn (Texas)
Mitt Romney (Utah)
Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia)
Ron Johnson (Wisconsin)

 

[Rantaro]

To the surprise of nobody, ND senators are being dumbasses.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Like I said back during the elections I tend to avoid talking about politics. However, I just read a new story on my email provider that made me very angry and very disappointed in the GOP: they voted to not have the impeachment trial. Are they really THAT stupid? Or does Trump still have that much of a death grip on them that they're too cowardly to stand up to him? I mean, really. I hope this destroys the credibility and trust in the GOP, as they are just spineless jack@$$es who only care about what they want and not what is just and right for the country.

 

[Rantaro]

Like I said back during the elections I tend to avoid talking about politics. However, I just read a new story on my email provider that made me very angry and very disappointed in the GOP: they voted to not have the impeachment trial. Are they really THAT stupid? Or does Trump still have that much of a death grip on them that they're too cowardly to stand up to him? I mean, really. I hope this destroys the credibility and trust in the GOP, as they are just spineless jack@$$es who only care about what they want and not what is just and right for the country.

I think they know that they might have to vote to convict if they go to a trial and they want to avoid pissing off the cult as much as they can.

 

[CynthiaLover]

I think they know that they might have to vote to convict if they go to a trial and they want to avoid pissing off the cult as much as they can.

Still doesn't justify the issue. The "cult" is being dealt with by the FBI due to the fact they're flat-out advertising their roles in the riot, so they shouldn't be part of the equation. As a result, it only further makes the GOP more spineless if that's what's restraining them from delivering justice and helping the country heal from the four years of almost irreversible damage that man did.

 

[Rantaro]

Still doesn't justify the issue. The "cult" is being dealt with by the FBI due to the fact they're flat-out advertising their roles in the riot, so they shouldn't be part of the equation. As a result, it only further makes the GOP more spineless if that's what's restraining them from delivering justice and helping the country heal from the four years of almost irreversible damage that man did.

I never said it was justified, I was just saying what they were likely doing.

 

[CynthiaLover]

I never said it was justified, I was just saying what they were likely doing.

I know you never said that. I'm just saying that, regardless of reasons, not holding the trial because of something so stupid like cultish rioters is only going to make things worse for both the GOP's rep and the country. If pissing off a bunch of loons is what they're afraid of instead of doing what's right and what will help the country then they don't deserve to be in power. I know the riot was scary, I was quite alarmed at how far those nutjobs would go to keep an extremely dangerous man in power, but if the GOP think that "appeasing" the Trump-worshiping lunatics will help the country they've got another thing coming. That's pretty much treason to give into the cults and not help the country as a whole. The cult is getting picked off one by one and if the GOP thinks that letting those loons walk all over them will benefit the country then they don't deserve any sort of credibility, respect or power.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

And to the surprise of nobody only 5 GOP senators voted to not dismiss the impeachment trial. Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey all voted to proceed with the trial. If they supported this, its likely they'd vote to convict Trump and ban him from ever running again. Only problem is you still need 12 more Republicans to say yes.

 

[RileyXY1]

And to the surprise of nobody only 5 GOP senators voted to not dismiss the impeachment trial. Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey all voted to proceed with the trial. If they supported this, its likely they'd vote to convict Trump and ban him from ever running again. Only problem is you still need 12 more Republicans to say yes.

They might be able to get Richard Burr and Rob Portman as they are not running, and they have nothing to lose from bucking the President.

 

[zoroarctic]

They might be able to get Richard Burr and Rob Portman as they are not running, and they have nothing to lose from bucking the President.

I'm not getting my hopes up. They'll definitely Flake.

 

[RileyXY1]

I'm not getting my hopes up. They'll definitely Flake.

Portman did vote to kill the filibuster on Mayorkas (joined by Shelley Moore Capito and Dan Sullivan, two other no voters on impeachment constitutionality, along with all of the Republicans who did vote yes on the impeachment constitutionality vote with the sole exception of Ben Sasse).

 

[zoroarctic]

View: https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1355180703122649088?s=20

 

[Volphied]

View: https://twitter.com/brianefallon/status/1355534637485993986


In addition to forming a new commission to study structural changes to the judiciary, the Biden White House has asked senators to recruit civil rights attorneys and defense lawyers for judgeships. Officials who work on the issue say they’ve seen an outpouring of interest and have begun holding sessions to offer information and advice on navigating the confirmation gauntlet.

“We’ll see the proof of this in President Biden’s first set of nominees. I expect they’re going to look very different than the kind of judges that Democratic presidents have put forward in the past,” said Chris Kang, co-founder of the progressive group Demand Justice and former deputy counsel in the Obama White House. “Their backgrounds will be radically different, overall, and that will make a huge difference in our courts.”

“I call it repair the courts,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. “We have to make sure that we are filling vacancies with credible, neutral, fair-minded judges, rather than the political operatives that we saw so many of in the Trump years.”

“The prospect that we won’t always have a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in the Senate should motivate us to move with real dispatch this time,” Whitehouse said, calling it “a very prudent goal” to fill every judicial vacancy by the end of 2022.

He urged Democratic colleagues to ignore “Republican procedural caterwauling” on matters like blue slips after the tactics they used to tilt the courts to the right.

Even though the Senate is split 50-50, under the power sharing agreement leaders are likely to approve, if all the Democrats stick together, they can approve judges without any Republican support.

“With respect to U.S. District Court positions, we are particularly focused on nominating individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench, including those who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys, and those who represent Americans in every walk of life,” Remus wrote in the letter, which was obtained by NBC News.

That means fewer prosecutors and “big corporate lawyers,” who Whitehouse said tend to have a “high-speed lane” to the judiciary. He said plaintiff’s lawyers will get pushback from groups like the Chamber of Commerce, but praised Biden for seeking “professional diversity” along with demographic diversity.

The Remus letter "really did light a fire" under the Senate, the Democratic aide said, adding that regular conversations are occurring between senators and the White House

 

[RileyXY1]

There will be a vote on Thursday to strip Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of all her committee assignments. There was massive backlash to her being on the Education Committee over her derogatory comments aimed at Parkland Shooting survivor David Hogg and her beliefs that various school shootings were faked.