I guess we were all overdue for another round of Republican Swiftboating, only I suppose this time around no one anticipated it would be led and orchestrated by Russia and taken up by GOP leaders in the House of Representatives and their acolytes.
Are the Capitol Police dispatched to deal with these threats or does that need to go through GOP leadership too? I hope that’s not the case. Under whose purview does that fall I wonder.
I beg to differ. On a local level, all over the country, there have been some very persistent folk, like those in New Jersey who appear to have resisted and persisted and won against the recently appointed Chair of the House Appropriations committee.
The showed up every Friday at his office for a year in growing numbers, demanding a town hall, and he has just decided not to run again.
What you write is very sadly true. However, times have changed. If people were protesting, would we see it on the news? Would it matter (the women’s march did not)? Worse, they’d be arrested and spun as “anti-American” and “communists,” and most people would believe it. We need new tools, new ways of protesting, new ways of making news - and making people care. So far, it hasn’t happened.
As far as we know, none of the callers has said “bullshit”.
Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) office has received crude phone calls and death threats …
Between the deplorables, the Russian trolls, and Fux, the Repubs have quite the army.
It may be that the ‘Ace in the Hole’ for Republicans at least for district level federal and state election is the still potent 2010 US Census gerrymander. There has been some recent court intervention on the side of voting rights faced with rigged outcomes. But will there be anything judicially definitive before the elections of 2018 or even 2020? And if the US Supreme Court weighs in, the make up of the court is not encouraging (we are relying on Anthony Kennedy for a 5-4 outcome, are we?).
And who wants to guarantee that the electoral counting process won;t be compromised by hacking that mainstream media will not begin to know how to report? Maybe, all this can be ‘trumped’ (if you will) by turnout. But if there is one thing that Republicans have shown themselves to be really good at, it is the subversion of the electoral process when necessity beckons.
Those making death threats are as brave as Trump was during Viet Nam.
“That memo, however, was not approved for release Monday evening.”
So. Fucking. What? Release it anyway. Playing by the rules while the other side pretends there are none is just going to allow them to destroy everything. Fuck 'em. Fuck it ALL. THIS. IS. WAR.
NO. QUARTER.
One weekend in January. Then everyone goes home.
I also beg to differ. We’ve got an unprecedented number of first-time candidates, an unprecedented number of women running, an unprecedented amount of money flowing in. We’ve got an unprecedented number of GOPers, including some powerful ones, who are retiring.* That one weekend in January is a convention of people who are energized. Re-examine Virginia, Georgia, the off-year elections in Pennsylvania and I think you’ll see a predictor of November.
*Rubio hated the probable GOP candidate and saw a chance at a twofer. He didn’t run because he cared about the job. We already knew he didn’t. He ran to keep other people out of it.
Until we have a media who sees this for the real threat it is, rather than the lead of the moment, I fear we are in big trouble. Pelosi was so frustrated with Chris Cuomo yesterday (and he ain’t as bad as most). He was playing devil’s advocate with the Nunes memo and she kept saying something to the effect of “you aren’t getting it, Chris”, and “let me stop you, Chris, you are not understanding what is at stake”. It was pretty heartbreaking, because he thought he was being a proper newsman. False equivalency is a practice that took deep root during the election, and it is still happening.
… and the kompromat. Don’t forget the kompromat.
Funny, I was just about to ask the question, “Why would Pelosi tell her membership not to read it?” without even catching the speaker thing… I think my mind was trying to convince itself it was already January 2019.
Death threats against Schiff remind me of the death threats against Clinton during the Pizzagate conspiracy. The story was pushed by Trump’s good friend Alex Jones and amplified by the Trump campaign.
The problem is, Trump HAS no “decency” so he does not care what you think about him, and neither do his Republican Supporters.
Thanks to “Citizens United” there is NO LONGER any connection between campaigns and the public. The public are just easily propagandized sheep who have easily exploited pavlovian responses to slick ad campaigns entirely paid for by the Wealthy Oligarchy that are the TRUE constituents of the “ruling class”.
Welcome to the Kakistocracy.
Interesting bit from David Frum’s new book: he writes that conservatives will never abandon conservatism. If there comes a day when they can’t win democratic elections, they will reject democracy. I think that day has come, and/or, that ship has sailed. My question is, how do we function in a democratic republic with one of the major political parties ready and willing to smash all norms and rules to stay in power?
Maybe it’s just an Inside Baseball kind of thing, but what is stopping the Democratic members of the Committee from writing a memo and/or holding a Press Conference together outside of the Committtee debunking the false statements the Republicans are making?
You can hardly be accused of revealing classified information if someone else has already made some kind of disclosure and you simply say that it’s not true and you have evidence that it’s not.
The court has NOT intervened in most cases because, well, it CAN’T.
The Constitution clearly grants absolute power to “run elections as they see fit” to the states. It takes an egregious violation of Constitutional protections for the Federal Courts to step in, and those are rare and difficult to prove.
The State Courts are pretty much stacked with Republican Partisans now (thanks to Mitch McConnell’s obstruction of hundreds of Federal judgeships) so it will be very hard to fix anything now.
When the Republicans pretty much swept the State Legislatures in 2010, they were then in power to use the 2010 Census as a club against their political enemies and they did, with a vengeance.
The apathy of Democratic Voters in 2010 is why we are in this mess and there is no easy way out of it.
The Republican legislatures can do all kinds of nefarious things to surpress the vote in 2018 and ARE DOING IT.
Reducing early voting, closing polling places in heavily Democratic districts, pushing terrible old crap voting machines on the Democratic Districts only, while simultaneously making it EASIER for their supporters to vote.
Only a MASSIVE turnout in 2018 will overcome these measures, and I just don’t see it happening.
The core of the party is energized, but go out and talk to any average person and they JUST DON’T CARE.
Their noses are so firmly pressed against their personal grindstone that they don’t see any reason to look up.
Just think what Henry II could have done with Twitter. Think how many meddlesome priests he could have spurred his sycophants to murder.
Glad to see NO QUARTER return.
