Rise and whine

He's tripling down.

I WISH they were destroying the Democratic Party, or moving it substantially left.  That would be a hell of an accomplishment.

They don't think America was wicked in its origins.  They think there were wicked things being done at its origin, and those things are still wicked and need to be changed.  If you disagree, then you ARE racist.

Also, even if destroying the Democratic Party were a bad thing, it's certainly preferable to destroying the country, which is what Trump and his enablers are doing.



And that's just laughable (as is so much of what the Asshole in Chief says).  The Republican Party was less unified on this vote than it's ever been since he took office.  Four Republicans voted with the Democrats.  Has that happened in Trump's term before?   John McCain may have been the last one to do it.  Or Justin Amash, but he wasn't a Republican on this vote.



"Wow!" indeed.  Unlike the AIC, the Speaker was totally exonerated.

“Every single member of this institution should join us in condemning the president’s racist tweets,” Pelosi said.

[...]

Republicans called for Pelosi’s words to be removed from the official record, arguing the speaker broke a House parliamentary rule that states lawmakers cannot malign the character of the president.

What ensued was hours of tumult that pushed Democrats and Republicans into their respective corners, caused the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus to “abandon” his duties presiding over the House floor, and that left Pelosi — the House speaker — temporarily banned from speaking on the floor for the rest of the day.

[...]

The mayhem comes down to House Republicans’ refusal to censure Trump, no matter the extremity of his rhetoric. Since his weekend tweets, Trump has not backed down on his comments about Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, saying they “hate” the United States. Republicans have been steadfast in defending him.

[...]

In the middle of a vote, civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) told reporters outside the floor of the House, “The president is a racist. We cannot deny that.”

[...]

Pelosi said the parliamentarian (the official who advises representatives on the House’s rules) had already signed off on her speech, and refused to withdraw her words. Then came the chaos.

[...]

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), the former leader of the Congressional Black Caucus who was presiding over the House floor during Pelosi’s speech, decided to “abandon the chair” out of frustration.

“We don’t ever, ever want to pass up, it seems, an opportunity to escalate,” Cleaver said, chastising the lawmakers on the floor. “I dare anyone to look at any of the footage and see if there was any unfairness. But unfairness is not enough because we just want to fight. I abandon the chair.”

  Vox

Would he also abandon the country?  Dems need to replace him for abandoning his chair.

In Cleaver’s absence, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) took the chair and brought with him a decision — one that surprised his own party. He ruled that Pelosi’s remarks were not in order. In other words, he ruled that lawmakers, including Pelosi, could not say Trump or his tweets were racist.

The truth must never be spoken in the halls of Congress.

Instead, they would go on to say the rhetoric coming out of the White House was. (That’s how closely House members were parsing their words.)

Technically speaking, it's coming out of Trump's Twitter.

The crux of this fight is a line in House parliamentary procedure that “personal abuse, innuendo, or ridicule of the President is not permitted.”

Is that in the spirit of the Constitution handed down from the founders?

As Josh Chafetz, a law professor at Cornell Law School, pointed out in a Twitter thread, this is not actually a standing rule of the House. Instead, it’s a “precedential ruling of the chair” of the House, which is laid out in the Thomas Jefferson Manual of Parliamentary Practice.

I did not know that. So old Tom wasn't one hundred percent in favor of abolishing royalty.

The part of Jefferson’s parliamentary manual that applies to the current situation with Pelosi was adopted from the British Parliament; members of Parliament could not “speak irreverently or seditiously against the King.” Basically, they couldn’t insult the monarch on the floor of Parliament.

[...]

“This manual Thomas Jefferson created for himself when he was vice president,” Chafetz told Vox in an interview. “It was a manual of precedence he thought would be useful from British parliamentary practice.”

Looking forward to becoming president.

Though Jefferson’s parliamentary manual was first used and then later discarded by the US Senate, the House adopted also it in 1837 — and they’ve continued to use it.

[...]

[Hoyer's] ruling [against Pelosi] pushed the House floor to a vote: The body as a whole would have to decide whether Pelosi’s comments calling Trump’s tweet’s racist would be removed from the official record. Democrats stood in lockstep: The motion to strike them failed 190-232. Independent Rep. Justin Amash (MI), who recently left the Republican Party, voted with Democrats.

[...]

Because Hoyer ruled that Pelosi’s words had violated decorum, Pelosi got the punishment House members receive for speaking out of turn: not being allowed to speak on the floor for the rest of the day. That punishment was overturned by a vote, too.

[...]

“The speaker engaged in a small-but-necessary act of legislative civil disobedience,” Rep. Raskin said. “She needed to tell the truth about the president’s remarks.”

[...]

“There is a logic for parliamentary rules to prevent us from engaging in ad hominem attacks, where we attack the personality or character of the president. But Speaker Pelosi didn’t do that. She criticized his remarks. And members of the House have to have the right to do that. To criticize policy and remarks of the president. That’s a necessary implication of the separation of powers.”

Pelosi should be sidelined for refusing to hold Trump accountable for his many actions that render him unfit for office, not for calling him what he is.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Bow down or get shot down

Trump has already been angry about what he sees as a weak defense [of his racist tweets] by Republican members of Congress and has informed at least two lawmakers of his dissatisfaction, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

That reaction explains the ginger response to Trump by Republicans up for reelection in difficult races, who are caught between condemning the president’s words and facing his wrath.

“I wouldn’t have done it. That’s not what we ought to focus on in this country,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) of Trump’s tweets. Gardner is up for reelection in an increasingly blue state. And while he’s endorsed Trump in 2020, he says he disagrees with Trump’s rhetoric: “We should focus on ways to bring people together.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has not endorsed Trump, has called on the president to withdraw his “way out of bounds and offensive” tweet.

But Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), who hails from a diverse state and is also vulnerable in 2020, declined to discuss the matter. Others who did take on Trump’s comments have made clear that their distaste for the president’s style of attack does not affect their support for him.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said Monday that Trump’s tweets are racist because the four congresswomen under attack are “American citizens.” But she made clear that otherwise there is no daylight between her and the president.

“I’d love for you to make that clear. While I don’t appreciate the tweets, but I still support the president,” Ernst said on Tuesday. Their political alliance is unharmed “because if you just look at his policies and what he’s been able to do. Our economy is booming, and we’re really doing quite well as Americans.”

  Politico

So he can do whatever he wants. He's a star. Grab 'em by the pussy.

These people are pathetic, and just as responsible for the destruction of decency and the rise of authoritarianism as the asshole at the top. They make it possible.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

White supremacist administration

"What the president is doing is, we are tired — sick and tired — of many people in this country," she said.

  The Hill

And many people in this country are sick and tired of this unholy bitch and the demon she works for.

"Forget these four. They represent a dark underbelly of people in this country of people who are not respecting our troops, are not giving them the resources and the respect that they deserve."

"Dark underbelly." No dog whistle there. That's a shout.

She told reporters that the congresswomen represent a "dark element," but did not respond to a question about whether that phrase carried racial undertones.

Undertones?

Conway disputed that the comments and tweets were racist, suggesting that they were about criticizing the lawmakers' policy positions. She argued that attacks on "socialism" and "communism" have "nothing to do with gender," and said she's "had it with people denigrating the American flag."

"When you throw the word racism around long enough, people get desensitized and that's a shame," she said.

Trump did not mention socialism or communism in his original tweets. Instead, he wrote the progressive congresswomen should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." All four women are American citizens, and three of the four were born in the U.S.

But, this is a surprise to me...

Scaramucci in a tweet called out Trump after the president suggested on Sunday that the group of lawmakers "go back" where they came from.

"Would @realDonaldTrump ever tell a white immigrant — whether 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th+ generation — to 'go back to your country'? No. That's why the comments were racist and unacceptable," Scaramucci tweeted. "America is a nation of immigrants founded on the ideals of free thought and free speech."

  

No wonder he didn't last at the White House.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



UPDATE 7/18:

Double-down Don

Grab 'em by the pussy, Don.  You're a star.  You can do what you want.

UPDATE:

Send Lindsey packing

I haven't come across that Graham tirade yet, but I'm sure I will.  He's really not a well man.  He was never great, but since Trump's "election", he's come unhinged like so many Republicans.

Take 'em all on, and take 'em all down.

Jaime Harrison

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Nancy Pelosi, get off your ass!

Start impeachment proceedings now.







If we are not happy here, we can change it, you asshole.  We don't have to leave.  This is our country, and it's our responsibility to make it live up to its promise.



I might not have put it that way, but the point is taken.



And whoever is saddled with this asshole, get out the vote for somebody else!



Pelosi is not doing her job, and thereby enabling this to happen.

UPDATE:

This from the new White House press secretary - you know, the one who defended Melania for wearing that coat.*

*  "I really don't care, do U?"

Indeed, it's coming

About those concentration camps...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Draining the swamp

Ayanna Pressley [...] a Boston City councilor, [...] beat incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) [in a Democratic primary for a Massachusetts House seat].

[...]

Capuano is now the fourth incumbent to fall in a primary election this year, joining Republican Reps. Robert Pittenger(N.C.) and Mark Sanford (S.C.) and Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley (N.Y.).

Pressley will vie for a seat in the House of Representatives after a career in Boston's City Council. She became the first woman of color ever to serve in the city's council in 2010.

She will likely become the first African-American from Massachusetts elected to Congress this November, as there are no GOP lawmakers running in her district.

  The Hill