Democrats failing

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

UPDATE 12/20/2024:

Good riddance

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

UPDATE 12/20/2024:

Unsurprising info on Kyrsten Sinema

In a Twitter thread [...] , David Schapira—a former candidate for Congress and one-time minority leader of the Arizona State Senate—described his time working closely with Sinema in the statehouse, and her eventual decision to run against him in an open race for the newly-created 9th Congressional District in 2012.

[...]

While he praised Sinema's values and her intelligence, he said the Democratic Senator's decision to leave the party—and potentially sabotaging opportunities for progressives to win the seat—was nothing more than a reflection of who she was then: a person willing to win at all costs.

[...]

"As she leaves the political party and the voters who gave her political life, people will say she is crazy or stupid, but those people don't know her," he added. "She is level-headed and brilliant, but she will stop at nothing and step on anyone to get what she wants."

  Newsweek

He wrote [...] that both he and Sinema were running for office in Arizona and the two promised each other they wouldn’t go “negative” or run attack campaigns out of respect for their friendship. Spoiler alert: She did anyway, Schapira tells New Abnormal co-host, Danielle Moodie.

[...]

[H]e believes his former pal cares more about “notoriety” than her role as a servant of the public.

  Yahoo

Talk about a grasp of the obvious.

Schapira also said that when Sinema and he started out running together, she asked him to hold off for 4 years so she could win the seat they were both wanting, after which she'd support him for it.  When he asked her why she'd do that, she told him it was because, if the highest achievement of her life was that seat, she'd be very disappointed in herself.

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

Removing the mask

She never really was a Democrat, but maybe she should have done this before the midterms, just to let everyone know what's up. She's up for reelection in 2024, so it will be interesting to see what Arizonans do. And will she run as an Independent or a Republican? Or at all. Maybe she's going to Fox News.

Sinema declined to say whether she will caucus with Democrats, like Independent Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Angus King (Maine) currently do, but the Arizona senator said she plans to continue in her committee assignments.

  The Hill

Pretty sure she won't say because she won't caucus with the Dems. What she WILL do is leverage her position for publicity.

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

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

That's because SHE doesn't get to decide if she keeps her committee assignments. They are "assignments".

“She asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed,” [Senate leader Chuck] Schumer said. “Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective Senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate.”

Schumer also outlined how he did not expect Sinema’s decision to impact Democrats’ plans for next year, saying in his statement, “We will maintain our new majority on committees, exercise our subpoena power, and be able to clear nominees without discharge votes.”

[...]

Sinema’s decision to become a political independent makes official what’s long been an independent streak for the Arizona senator, who began her political career as a member of the Green Party before being elected as a Democrat to the US House in 2012 and US Senate in 2018. Sinema has prided herself on being a thorn in the side of Democratic leaders, and her new nonpartisan affiliation will further free her to embrace an against-the-grain status in the Senate, though it raises new questions about how she – and Senate Democrats – will approach her reelection in 2024 with liberals already mulling a challenge.

[...]

iberals in Arizona are already floating potential challengers, including Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, who said earlier this year that some Democratic senators have urged him to run against Sinema [in 2024].

  CNN

UPDATE:

Well, neutralize a primary challenge and split the Democratic vote in the general.  

UPDATE:  Tales from Sinema's early days.

Defintely not surprising

Also...

Sinema got her time in front of the cameras

She felt Manchin-like power.  So now she can strike a deal in which she has protected the hedge fund managers and business interests who support her.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) announced Thursday evening that she has reached a deal with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) that could pave the way for Democrats to pass their budget reconciliation package.

The deal would remove a provision closing the so-called carried interest loophole from the package announced last week by Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

[...]

Democratic senators said Sinema wasn’t happy about being left out of the secret negotiations Schumer and Manchin held last month to add sweeping tax reform and climate provisions to the budget package.

[...]

Sinema said she and Schumer have also reached agreement on protecting manufacturing from the impact of a proposed 15 percent corporate minimum tax, which business leaders in Arizona warned would dampen economic growth.

The announcement paves the way for Sinema to vote Saturday for a motion to proceed to a budget reconciliation package that would reform the tax code, tackle climate change, reduce the cost of prescription drugs and shrink the federal deficit.

  The Hill

While still allowing corporations their huge profits.

A Democratic source familiar with the agreement said it would include a new excise tax on stock buybacks that would bring in more than enough revenue to cover the removal of the carried interest provision.

The Democrat said the bill will still reduce the deficit by $300 billion, citing a number that Schumer and Manchin have touted over the past week.

[...]

With Sinema’s vote, Democrats now have the support of all 50 members of their caucus to pass what would become President Biden’s biggest domestic legislative achievement. It would reduce the federal deficit by between $100 billion to $300 billion, according to various estimates, an accomplishment Democrats can pitch to voters at a time of 40-year-high inflation.

[...]

“The final version of the reconciliation bill, to be introduced on Saturday, will reflect this work and put us one step closer to enacting this historic legislation into law,” Schumer said.

[...]

“The entire country knows that I am opposed to raising the corporate income tax. That was true yesterday and it is true today,” Sinema told the Arizona Chamber of Commerce earlier this year.

To even a mere 15% that Manchin and Schumer agreed to. But wait - it's worse: 15% minimum to corporations making over $1 billion in annual profit!

Democrats expect to vote to begin debate on the more-than-700-page bill sometime Saturday afternoon.

Which I expect to be a mere formality since all 50 Republicans are likely to vote against it for the mere principle of obstructing Democratic policies. And it's not even certain it can garner all 50 Democratic votes. Especially when you consider Sinema is demanding a drought resistance security for Arizona, which would likely involve water in the Colorado River that would come at the expense of water acces in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.

That reconciliation bill - or the Inflation Reduction Act, as they've cleverly named it - isn't a sure thing by any means.

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

Fucking GOP

Who were the other Senators who scuttled the bill?

They don't care about people.  They only care about power.  

A surprise deal on health care and environmental policies announced by Senate Democratic leaders Wednesday afternoon produced an unexpected casualty: the comprehensive toxic exposure legislation veterans advocates expected to pass this week.

The Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — better known as the PACT Act — had been up for a procedural vote in the chamber with an expectation of final passage before the end of the week.

The measure is the culmination of years of work by advocates to improve health care and benefits for veterans suffering injuries from burn pit smoke, Agent Orange spraying and other military contaminant exposure.

[...]

The measure passed the Senate by a comfortable 84-14 vote in early June, and by a 342-88 vote in the House two weeks ago with significant Republican support.

But on Wednesday, after technical corrections sent the measure back to the Senate for another procedural vote, 41 Senate Republicans blocked the measure, leaving its future uncertain.

[...]

Eight Senate Republicans — including Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kansas — voted for moving ahead with the bill.

  Military Times

And why did those SOBs block the bill?

The legislation, known as the Honoring Our PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act), would expand treatment eligibility, and it has plenty of champions on Capitol Hill. Indeed, it cleared the House yesterday — though it did not pass unanimously.

The final tally was 256 to 174, with 34 Republicans voting with all House Democrats in support of the bill. That means, of course, that 174 GOP lawmakers voted against the legislation — roughly 82 percent of the House Republican conference. That includes every member of the House GOP leadership team, each of whom knew the bill would pass, but opposed it anyway.

[...]

The Washington Post reported:

Republicans who voted in opposition argued that the measure, which has a $300 billion price tag over 10 years, would add too much to the country’s deficit and exacerbate backlogs at VA.

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, who’s both a physician and a military veteran, argued, “We are not doing right by our veterans by being fiscally irresponsible in their name.”

In other words, the House GOP minority believes Democrats wrote a bill that’s too generous when it comes to veterans’ care.

  MSNBC

Three of the region’s four U.S. senators decided Wednesday to hold sick veterans hostage to their own anger. It’s appalling and childish. The senators — Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Roger Marshall of Kansas — voted against blocking a filibuster of the PACT Act, a measure designed to provide funding to treat veterans exposed to toxins and burn pits.

[...]

The three senators voted for a virtually identical bill in June, which passed overwhelmingly. Blunt even bragged about it.

[...]

Senate Republicans were furious at a budget deal, announced just moments earlier, between Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Manchin agreed to support a budget bill raising corporate taxes to pay for deficit reduction and climate change mitigation. The tax and budget bill would need a simple majority to pass, not 60 votes. That made Republicans mad.

[...]

The vote to end the filibuster was 55 yes to 42 no (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote to “no” in order to bring the measure back later.) In the Senate, of course, it takes 60 votes to open a can of bean soup, so the bill remains unpassed, while veterans suffer and die.

[...]

In a fit of pique over an unrelated compromise, Senate Republicans punished veterans struggling to breathe.

[...]

Comedian and activist Jon Stewart, who came to Kansas City this summer to urge progress on the PACT proposal, was equally furious. “Not one of these stab vets in the back senators should get to leave for the Summer til this s*** is fixed,” he tweeted. “Not one.”

[...]

Sens. Blunt and Marshall should be disinvited from any Veterans Day service or Memorial Day observance until the PACT Act is signed into law.

Josh Hawley? No need to worry. If he sees an upset veteran approaching, he’ll run the other way.

  Kansas City Star

And it's not just the veterans they're dumping on. They're talking about scuttling other progress.

“I just think the timing could not have been worse and it came totally out of the blue,” [Republican Susan Collins] the Maine senator told HuffPost Thursday about Senate Democrats’ unveiling of their bill to raise taxes on some companies, boost IRS enforcement and spend the resulting money to fund anti-climate change efforts.

[...]

Collins [also] warned that the manner in which that victory was secured, where it appeared Democrats kept Manchin and Schumer’s negotiations under wraps until a separate bipartisan computer chip production incentive bill was passed by the Senate, hurt the effort to gather support among Republicans to bring the gay marriage bill to the floor.

“After we just had worked together successfully on gun safety legislation, on the CHIPs bill, it was a very unfortunate move that destroys the many bipartisan efforts that are under way,” she said.

[...]

The news that West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) had arrived at an agreement broke like a thunderclap over official Washington early Wednesday night. The bill still faces hurdles, including ensuring all Senate Democrats are on board and will be available to vote on it when it comes to the floor. But if Democrats pull it off, it could be a big political victory for the party and the White House.

  HuffPo

We're looking at you, Kyrsten Sinema. I think she's taking the opportunity to steal Manchin's position as the most powerful Senator in Congress. 

Republicans are so mad Mitch McConnell got played.

The key point, Lemire stressed, [...] is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) got tricked into giving up all his leverage.

[...]

"It doesn't happen often, but Mitch McConnell appears to publicly have been played," said Lemire. "A couple weeks ago Senator Manchin suggested there's no deal for reconciliation, so McConnell gave the okay for the CHIPS bill. House Republicans said they'd support it, too. The White House has given its blessing, now we see McConnell and other Senate Republicans going across to their colleagues in the House, you have to oppose something you previously just a few days ago were for and also have to explain that vote if this bill goes down, seem to be beneficial to China. It's a spiteful action."

  Raw Story

Get rid of the filibuster.  And get rid of the Republicans in Congress.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:  Freely admitted.

UPDATE 8/3:

Congress is well and truly broken

Senate Republicans all voted against even starting debate on the voting rights bill. Debate is underway. It's expected to fail any way, as Manchin and Sinema will rob the Democrats of the 50 votes they need to pass the bill.

Senator Sinema needs help with her tweets

Lucky for her, I'm here.

Tomorrow we block voting rights in the Senate.

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

UPDATE:

I think I know the answer

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

The bill

[O]ne sign of progress came late Thursday afternoon. [Arizona senator Kyrsten] Sinema has now agreed to a package of tax changes that would meet the president's goal of fully paying for the social spending package, according to a source familiar with Sinema's thinking. These changes would not impact the corporate rate, according to this source.

  NPR

By all means, don't raise taxes on corporations. I wonder why Kyrsten Sinema insisted on that.

Citizens United (aided and abetted by the Supreme Court) is destroying America.

The president had touted the Clean Energy Performance Program (CEPP), which provides incentives for utility companies to switch to greener technologies and fines those who don't, as the centerpiece of his climate agenda. He saw it as a tool that could achieve his goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. But the program has been dropped because Manchin, who represents a state heavily reliant on coal production, doesn't support it.

For a mere 14,000 people in West Virginia's coal industry, the planet will die as far as Manchin is concerned.

Biden, Pelosi and other congressional Democrats, are scheduled to travel to the COP26 climate change conference in Scotland at the end of the month, so negotiators are sorting through various other proposals that Manchin can back — a mix of tax credits and other programs — and that can show world leaders the U.S. is making good on its climate goals.

Sure.

The expanded child tax credit that was enacted as part of this spring's coronavirus relief package has been credited with dropping child poverty rates. Democrats view it as a key policy achievement. Biden had hoped to extend it for four more years. Democrats say now the plan is to extend the tax credit for just one year.

[...]

Paid family leave has also been scaled back in this smaller bill. During a CNN Town Hall in Baltimore Thursday evening, Biden said "it is down to four weeks." He had originally proposed 12 weeks.

[...]

Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., proposed to expand Medicare to cover vision, hearing and dental procedures. The costs for all three could prove too expensive in this smaller package. Biden said it would be a "reach" to get all three, but progressives say the president is committed to including something in the final bill. They also say Medicaid coverage is also expected to be expanded, but gave few details.

[...]

The Democrats' original bill included a plan for two years of free community college, but it is one item that both progressives and moderates said was not going to make it in a final deal.

Doesn't sound encouraging.

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

Kyrsten not getting any love

Five veterans tapped to advise Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat, resigned from their posts on Thursday, publicly accusing her of “hanging your constituents out to dry” in the latest sign of growing hostility toward a centrist who has emerged as a key holdout on President Biden’s agenda.

[...]

“You have become one of the principal obstacles to progress, answering to big donors rather than your own people,” the veterans wrote in a letter that is to be featured in a new advertisement by Common Defense, a progressive veterans’ activist group that has targeted Ms. Sinema.

[...]

The resignations add to a crescendo of anger and pressure that Ms. Sinema is facing from erstwhile allies who say they are perplexed by her recent tactics.

[...]

Ms. Sinema’s stances have earned her a backlash from onetime supporters in a politically competitive state that is roughly split among Republicans, Democrats and independents.

The veterans who are making a public divorce from her on Thursday have sat on Ms. Sinema’s advisory council since 2019, as part of a group of 20 she selected as her office’s liaison to the Arizona service member community.

[...]

“While it is unfortunate that apparent disagreement on separate policy issues has led to this decision,” she said, “I thank them for their service and will continue working every day to deliver for Arizona’s veterans who have sacrificed so much to keep us safe and secure.”

  NYT

Unfazed.

Sinema seems to go by the old saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

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

Wow Kyrsten

Sinema does not seem to be serious about governance.  Also, it looks like she's trying to be the Democratic Marjorie Taylor Green, even down to out-trashy-dressing her.

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

Filibuster reform

President Joe Biden and his advisers have said in recent weeks that Biden will pressure wavering Democrats to support reforming the filibuster if necessary to pass the voting bill.

  Rolling Stone

I wonder what Joe Manchin will require in return for a favorable vote.

During a late-July meeting in the Oval Office, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressed Biden to do more on voting rights; Democrats needed action from him, according to a person briefed on the meeting.

In that Oval Office meeting, the source says, Biden made a pledge: If Pelosi and Schumer tried every option they had to pass a voting-rights bill with Republican votes and got nowhere, Biden would get involved himself and lobby the handful of moderate Democrats to convince them to weaken the filibuster so that the For the People Act could pass without any Republican votes.

[...]

Biden’s pressure would aim to help Schumer convince moderate Democrats to support a carveout to the filibuster, a must for the party if it’s going to pass new voting protections without Republican votes. According to a source briefed on the White House’s position, Biden told Schumer: “Chuck, you tell me when you need me to start making phone calls.”

Now.

A group of senators will soon release a compromise version of the For the People Act intended to satisfy Manchin’s concerns about earlier versions of the bill. Sources familiar with the compromise bill say it will focus on shoring up voting rights against GOP suppression laws, crack down on dark money and partisan gerrymandering, and create new policies to stop attempts at election subversion like what happened after the 2020 presidential election.

But even if the revised bill earns the support of all Democrats, it won’t be enough to overcome the filibuster. Schumer will not only need to prevent a single defection on the bill itself but also convince — with Biden’s help — all 50 Democrats to create a carveout in the filibuster for voting-rights-related legislation.

[...]

Since Donald Trump’s defeat, Republican-led state legislatures have used the former president’s delusional claims about a “stolen” election as a pretext to enact a nationwide crackdown on voting rights. Eighteen states have passed more than 30 laws that restrict the right to vote. The most recent — and arguably most draconian — example was Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott just signed a law that bans 24-hour voting and drive-through voting, which helped people vote safely during a pandemic, while also giving new powers to outside poll watchers and partisan election officials.

This is insane. Voting is an American's fundamental right, and all other rights depend on it.

Winning over the two Democrats who’ve declared their opposition to filibuster reform, Sens. Manchin and Sinema, won’t be easy. In April, Manchin wrote in an op-ed that he would not support tweaking or abolishing the filibuster, which he described as a “critical tool” to protect the interests of small and rural states like his.

"Small and rural states" are already covered in the Constitution. The founders thought of that. Their perfectly adequate remedy is called the Senate.

Sinema, for her part, likes to point out how often Democrats used the filibuster when they were in the minority during Donald Trump’s presidency. The filibuster, she wrote in June, “compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings between opposing policy poles.”

Wild swings between the party exist anyway, and they should be allowed to stand. The People can then decide when a party has gone so far off the rails that they no longer want it to influence government. The Republicans know that and are setting up voter suppression acts to prevent The People from voting the GOP to the dustbin of history.

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

How long before Sinema changes her tune?

The first-term Arizona Democrat [Kirsten Sinema] has often defended the Senate’s 60-vote supermajority requirement as a necessary check on partisan whiplash, arguing that it forces the chamber to put together “durable” coalitions. But according to a new survey shared with Mother Jones from the progressive polling and policy firm Data for Progress, her stance has left her far less popular in Arizona than either President Joe Biden or her recently elected Senate colleague, Mark Kelly—and perhaps even vulnerable to a primary challenge.

[...]

Sinema is viewed favorably by 38 percent of voters, compared to 47 percent for Kelly and 51 percent for Biden [...] .

[...]

Democratic voters overwhelmingly support a $15 minimum wage according the survey; Sinema drew the ire of activists this spring for casting a largely symbolic vote against adding such a minimum-wage hike to the coronavirus stimulus package. They support getting rid of the legislative filibuster and overwhelmingly back the PRO Act, which would expand rights and protections for labor unions, but which Sinema has not signed onto.

[...]

Although she was once a progressive state legislator who condemned the “false pressure to get to 60” votes for major legislation in DC, Sinema has cultivated a reputation in the Capitol as Republicans’ best Democratic friend—someone who is averse to public expressions of partisanship, and who has called the late Republican Sen. John McCain a political idol. She started a bipartisan spin class while serving in the House, and her ability to win the votes of people who have voted Republican in the past is part of the reason she’s in office now.

[...]

Sinema won’t be up for reelection for another three years

  Mother Jones

Now do Joe Manchin.

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

Bust the filibuster

After months of dancing around the issue, the Senate had its first filibuster of the year last week when Republicans blocked a bipartisan House-passed measure to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by forces supportive of Donald J. Trump. Thirty-five Republicans voted against the commission and another eight skipped the vote altogether, underscoring how little effort it takes to block legislation under the current rules, which puts the onus on proponents of a bill to produce the 60 votes needed to move it forward.

At the same time, Republicans tied up a bipartisan measure intended to improve American competitiveness with China, even after they had had substantial input into the legislation, which is expected to pass easily. That move made clear to many Democrats that Republicans will not cooperate even on bills they helped write, preferring instead to make life difficult for the majority.

[...]

Some Senate Democrats remain dug in against any change in filibuster rules, even though Republicans are threatening to block many of their party’s most cherished priorities. Now Democrats are about to embark on a strategy to try to demonstrate to those reluctant colleagues — and to the public at large — that the filibuster is being abused by Senate Republicans intent on depriving them and President Biden of crucial legislation.

“If we want to protect the right to vote, we have to repeal the filibuster,” said Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. “If we want gun safety legislation, we have to repeal the filibuster. If we want to save the planet from climate change, we have to repeal the filibuster.”

[...]

[Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader,] said he intended to bring the filibuster showdown to a head beginning next week, by forcing votes on a series of measures that Republicans oppose, including one that was blocked by a Republican filibuster in 2014 that seeks to ensure that women and men receive the same pay for equal work. Mr. Schumer hinted that he could also bring forward legislation on gay rights and gun safety. Most immediately, he promised a vote before the end of June on a sweeping voting rights bill that Democrats say is needed to counter new Republican-led voting restrictions being enacted in states around the nation.

[...]

It is replicating a strategy that Harry Reid, then the Senate majority leader, employed in 2013 to persuade fellow Democrats to blow up the filibuster for judicial and executive branch nominees. He purposefully lined up a series of votes on highly regarded nominees to the influential United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. When Republicans repeatedly blocked them, Mr. Reid gathered enough Democratic support to change the rules by a majority vote.

  NYT

Gathering "enough" and gathering all Democratic votes - which is what they have to do in the 50/50 Senate that exists now - are two distinctly different things.

[A]mong those he failed to convince was Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a prominent Democratic opponent of weakening the filibuster and one of three Democrats who balked at the changes in 2013.

And Manchin is still unconvinced.

He is not the only holdout. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, doubled down on her opposition to changing the filibuster during an appearance back home this week as she stood beside Senator John Cornyn of Texas, one of the Republicans who had just blocked the Jan. 6 commission.

[...]

“To those who say that we must make a choice between the filibuster and ‘X,’ I say, this is a false choice,” she told reporters during a tour of the southwestern border.

“The reality is that when you have a system that is not working effectively — and I would think that most would agree that the Senate is not a particularly well-oiled machine, right? — the way to fix that is to change the behavior,” she said. “Not to eliminate the rules or change the rules, but to change the behavior.”

Sure, Kyrsten. We'll wait right here while you get that done.

“It is all building toward a showdown on voting rights, and voting rights are the precondition to every other issue being considered fairly in our country,” Mr. Markey said. “I do believe a historical moment is about to arrive by the end of June on the Senate floor.”

And I'm not feeling good about it being positive.  And I guarantee you that if the GOP retakes the House and/or Senate, THEY will do away with the filibuster and leave the Democrats powerless.

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

The SOTU shitspiel

I've wanted Nancy Pelosi to step aside for a long time, but I have to admit, I'm enjoying her presidential rebukes.

Go Nancy.

An emboldened Donald Trump bragged about the “great American comeback” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, in a speech resembling an 81-minute re-election rally that prompted the most powerful woman in Congress to rip up her copy of the speech on national television.

[...]

As Trump came up to the podium, Pelosi reached out to shake his hand. In a striking moment, the president declined to return the gesture. She had the last laugh, though: the moment he finished speaking she calmly tore in half her copy of his script.

[...]

[She] said she tore up the address, which he delivered on the eve of the verdict in his impeachment trial, because she couldn’t find “one page with truth on it”.

[...]

The president delivered a speech rippling with jingoism, xenophobia and untruths just feet away from the Democratic leaders who inflicted on him the impeachment trial that he has tried so hard to dismiss as a “witch-hunt”.

Several Democrats, including Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, walked out during the speech. One senator, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, compared it to a “2020 campaign rally”.

“It was a total mistake for Democrats to be there. That was a 2020 campaign rally; that was not a State of the Union,” he said. “I regret stepping one foot inside.”

  Guardian

You could have walked out with the ladies, and the others: Tim Ryan (Ohio) and Bill Pascrell (NJ) .

Several Congress critters boycotted the speech altogether:  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Al Green (Texas), Steve Cohen (Tenn.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Hank Johnson (Ga.), and Frederica Wilson (Fla.)

Republicans quickly seized on the moment, with former speaker Newt Gingrich accusing Pelosi of “childishness”.

[...]

Trump’s advisers and senior Republicans had been pleading with him to take the high ground and focus on positives rather than unloading on his Democratic rivals in the joint chamber of Congress before him. As the White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway, put it: “Success is the best revenge.”

Hewing to that advice, Trump devoted a lengthy part of his speech to what he called the “roaring” US economy, boasting that it was “the best it has ever been”.

[...]

But in common with his three previous State of the Union addresses, Tuesday night’s was packed with misleading statements, exaggerations and blatant untruths. In one of the most memorable passages, Trump claimed that he was increasing social mobility in America.

“The vision I will lay out this evening demonstrates how we are building the world’s most prosperous and inclusive society – one where every citizen can join in America’s unparalleled success, and where every community can take part in America’s extraordinary rise.”

In fact, income inequality has reached its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking the data 50 years ago.

Not to mention the plight of immigrants and people of color under Trump's term of office.

Trump also repeated several of his favorite falsehoods in other areas. “We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions,” he said, when in truth he has encouraged numerous Republican attempts to overturn President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and abolish protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Without naming his presidential rivals, Trump unleashed a ruthless attack on several of them. In particular, he tore into the healthcare plans of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who narrowly came second to Pete Buttigieg in the early results out of the Iowa caucus on Monday.

Switching from State of the Union to political rally. All Democrats should have left the room at that point.

The “radical left”, he said, wanted to “take away your healthcare, take away your doctor and abolish private insurance entirely”. To ecstatic cheers from his Republican enablers, Trump addressed “those watching at home”, telling them: “Tonight I want you to know we will never let socialism destroy American healthcare.”

We'll do that ourselves.

He hailed a “man beloved of millions of Americans” – the controversial rightwing radio talkshow host Rush Limbaugh who has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer – awarding him the presidential medal of freedom.

Among other treats for the ranks of Trump supporters was his pledge to protect second amendment gun rights, backing of the right to pray in public schools, and his name-check for Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the two conservatives he appointed to the supreme court. Most significantly, he returned to the toxic issue with which he initiated his presidential bid in 2015 – his attack on “criminal illegal aliens”.

On foreign policy, Trump was no less contentious. He was self-congratulatory about his “peace plan” for the Middle East, no matter that it has been universally rejected by Palestinians.

Nancy Pelosi was right to tear up the speech.

He did some more bragging about the assassination last month of Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s top military leader, without referencing the Iranian counter-attack on US troops in an Iraqi base that it provoked.

Among the exceptionally rare moments of concord within the chamber was when Republicans and Democrats stood together to applaud the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó who attended as a guest of the White House.

Democrats can still be counted on the support foreign interference and the spread of capitalism.

Here's Nancy's reply to Trump's rally speech:

"Manifesto of mistruths."

Surprisingly, Trump has not yet tweeted anything about Nancy's performance.  (7:45 am Eastern)*

He gave a shout-out to Melania in the middle of his rally speech.

He had a big show of a military homecoming.

He also held a ceremony awarding Rush Limbaugh (who recently announced he's dying of cancer) the Medal of Freedom, an honor that has become meaningless in any form but to provide pets of presidents with baubles to show off at parties.

This is definitely not a State of the Union speech.

The elevator pitch for the 2020 SOTU was Fantasy Island meets Make-A-Wish meets Oprah.

[...]

All of it was so jarring that, as Pelosi manically flipped her speech script papers back and forth in desperation, you almost wondered if something would suddenly be revealed from behind Curtain Number 3.

[...]

Trump’s speech also included some perfunctory presidential stuff about freedom and aspirations and terrorists killed. There were the standard mistruths—12,000 new factories no one can locate, a boast about “restoring our nation’s manufacturing might,” despite the fact that experts claim manufacturing is officially in recession.

There was breaking news that Trump is building an inclusive America “where every community can take part in America’s extraordinary rise.” Not mentioned in the fine print was that there will be a few exceptions—like those communities riven by anti-Semitic violence, or those that welcome refugees, or those that never got their healthcare repealed and replaced, weren’t helped by the tax cut, and never saw a new factory—either real or imagined—come back to town.

[...]

Though, of course, tucked in between the traditional passages we expected on late-term abortion and economic growth and trade, there was some creepy stuff Stephen Miller wrote.

[...]

The highlights of the show were the red-carpet guests, and the parts about ICE agents, and the dangers of socialism, and then the section he delivered with gusto about how much he has protected coverage for pre-existing conditions, which is bull. But whatever. Remember: This isn’t reality. It’s reality TV.

[...]

Meanwhile Senate GOP sources have spent the last few days insisting to reporters that Republican senators did not want the president to talk about impeachment during the SOTU, even though we all know that they don’t care what he does anymore.

[...]

On Wednesday, Trump will be lauded for his address for as many hours as he is willing to sustain praise for it—and then, as surely as the sun sets in the west, he will blow everything up in his usual cycle of self-destruction that always follows his good days.

  The Bulwark

And, speaking of parties, Senator Krysten Sinema (D-Arizona) came dressed for one.

 She may know what she's doing considering her constituency, but I wouldn't bet on it.  And check out the two senators flanking her - Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris when she does it.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed during a 2018 school shooting, was removed from House chamber on Tuesday night after yelling at President Trump during the State of the Union.

[...]

Guttenberg's comments were partially drowned out by GOP lawmakers who were applauding Trump's line. But some reporters in the gallery characterized him as speaking about "victims of gun violence."

Guttenberg was at the State of the Union as a guest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

  The Hill

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), in delivering the Working Families Party response to President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, referenced an article arguing “the cruelty is the point” for Trump and his administration.

“For Donald J. Trump, the cruelty is the point,” Pressley said, quoting a 2018 essay written by The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer. “Over the past year, I’ve seen the bigotry and hatred from this administration firsthand. I visited a detention center on the border and sat with immigrant mothers separated from their children and denied the basic necessities of life.”

[...]

“Every day … we see the impact of an administration that emboldened white nationalists and promotes bigotry,” Pressley added. “Tonight, I want to remind Donald J. Trump that I see right through him, the American people see right through him.”

  The Hill

Aside from the many factual inaccurcies, aka lies, Trump showed his increasing difficulty speaking at all:

Remember when Bill Clinton talked to Loretta Lynch on the tarmac and Republicans lost their shit?

Freedom unifies the soul? What does that mean?

*  8:30am   He's on it now.  But instead of actually tweeting anything himself, he has retweeted twenty-four separate accounts that express some variation of the last one:

Come on President Asshat, you can do better than that.

UPDATE:  In response to the GOP talking point that is saying Nancy Pelosi broke the law by tearing up an official document...

Pretty sure that was Nancy's personal copy to do with as she pleased.  Mike Pence got one at the same time.  There's an official copy that will be preserved.

and...

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

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

Let's think about this

While I appreciate the gesture, why not dispense with all the holy books and just use the Constitution (why are there two?)?  If they're swearing to uphold the Constitution, holy books aren't relevant.  Law books would be.  Maybe the lives of their families.  But not holy books.  Any specific religious artifact hints at the religion itself being more important than the Constitution.

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

UPDATE 1/4:



Ditto.

Arizona has counted

The fire just got stoked higher under His Nibs.

The first Democrat since 1994.  How's he gonna pretend that wasn't his fault?  Never mind, I know: the losing contender, Republican Representative Martha McSally, gave him no love.

If Abrams and Gillum should pull out their races, his lone reason for claiming victory - that the Republicans gained Senate seats (almost complete victory, he ridiculously called it) - will look pretty sad, indeed.  In fact, it already does, since there were three seats that flipped to Republicans (Indiana, North Dakota - where there was serious voter suppression of Native Americans - and Missouri), and now with Sinema's win, two seats have flipped to Democrats. (Jacky Rosen over Dean Heller in Nevada is the other.)  That leaves him only one pick up to brag about, and about 40 losses in the House.  Republican pundits must be feeling a bit pressured what with all their "there was no blue wave" talk.




Thank goodness no one has to explain anything to Hatch any more. Hopefully there's room for the Democrat January celebration to include the riddance of Orrin Hatch to the Senate chambers.  But if not, I'll be celebrating it for them.  Sadly, he did stick in there long enough to get Kavanaugh on the bench, but I suspect, with the exception of Lisa Murkowski, any other Republican would have done that as well.

UPDATE: