The challenges ahead (Biden's America)

[N.E. Brigand]

According to the conservative organization Club for Growth, Elise Stefanik, the Republican Congresswoman from upstate New York who replaced Liz Cheney as the House GOP Conference Chair, is less conservative than Ilhan Omar, the Democratic Congresswoman from Minnesota who is a regular subject of derision by the right. According to the ratings by two other conservative groups, Heritage Action and the American Conservative Union, Stefanik at 48% conservative is less than half as conservative as Chip Roy, the Republican Congressman from Texas whom Stefanik beat in the contest to replace Cheney. Roy's conservative rating is 96%.

Either they've been doing the ratings wrong, or they don't mean anything anymore.

And even if you compare Stefanik and Cheney by how often they voted for policies pushed by Donald Trump, Cheney was more Trumpian.

It all came down to how they *talked* about Trump.

[N.E. Brigand]

It might be worth having a separate thread related to voting rights and voter suppression, but I'll put this here at least for now.

Joe Manchin (of all people) has adopted my suggestion (not that he got it from me) of restoring the Voting Rights Act preclearance provisions but applying them to all 50 states. Of course even with Manchin's support this will never pass the Senate while the filibuster is still intact, but maybe when it fails he will rethink his opposition to filibuster reform.

Joe Manchin’s surprisingly bold proposal to fix America’s voting rights problem

The following isn't voter suppression as usually understood, but it is overturning the voters' will:

On the most ridiculous technicality, Mississippi's state supreme court has struck down the state's entire ballot iniative process, by which citizens could, by collecting enough signatures on a petition, get a statewide vote to change the state's laws: in this case, the citizens of Mississippi voted to legalize marijuana, but there were also iniatives underway to allow early voting and to expand Medicare in the state.

When Mississippi's constitution was revised in the 1990s, it required that petitition signatures must be obtained from all five of the state's Congressional districts. A perfectly reasonable requirement. But since then, Mississippi's share of the national population declined, and starting in January 2003, there have been only four Congressional districts in that state.

The state supreme court ruled that this means that any iniative placed onto the ballot via signature collection since 2003 is therefore void (unless it was subsequently ratified by the state's legislature). And that all ballot iniatives currently underway are moot. Since you can't gather signatures from the no-longer existing Fifth District, you can never get your initiative on the ballot.

Oh, and the court ruled that this can only be changed by amending the state's constitution ... which it's now impossible for citizens to do. It has to be done through the state legislature, which is gerrymandered to favor Republicans.

Heads I win. Tails you lose.

[Beorhtnoth]

And this is the "world's greatest democracy"© ?

Doesn't say much for democracy globally, does it?

[N.E. Brigand]

Kevin Stitt, the governor of Oklahoma, is claiming in reelection campaign materials that President Joe Biden's "radical liberal policies" are to blame for a shortage of sauce at Chick-fil-A restaurants. Stitt says that if he's reelected, he'll make it sure it never happens again.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Does he elaborate on how the radical liberal policies have caused the sauce shortage?

[N.E. Brigand]

Does he elaborate on how the radical liberal policies have caused the sauce shortage?

Not as far as I can tell. Here's the campaign flyer.

[N.E. Brigand]

Joe Biden has publicly released his 2021 tax returns.

That's the first time a sitting U.S. president has disclosed his tax returns in five years.

[elengil]

Joe Biden has publicly released his 2021 tax returns.

That's the first time a sitting U.S. president has disclosed his tax returns in five years.

Not to-... no, wait, to be pedantic, he would have released his 2020 tax returns...

[Beorhtnoth]

How has Biden stalling UN Resolutions re Gaza affected his popularity with "Progressives"?

I understand there is somewhat of an uneasy alliance between ideologically competing wings of the Democratic Party. What do Ilan Omar and AOC have to say?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That is a good question, though one that I don't feel capable of answering. The Democratic Party is certainly split on the issue, though I am unsure of how much progressives like Omar and AOC are willing to press. I hope that they are able to influence the administration on this issue, but I am doubtful that they will be.

[N.E. Brigand]

Joe Biden has publicly released his 2021 tax returns.

That's the first time a sitting U.S. president has disclosed his tax returns in five years.

Not to-... no, wait, to be pedantic, he would have released his 2020 tax returns...

I appreciate pedantry. Thank you for that.

[N.E. Brigand]

That is a good question, though one that I don't feel capable of answering. The Democratic Party is certainly split on the issue, though I am unsure of how much progressives like Omar and AOC are willing to press. I hope that they are able to influence the administration on this issue, but I am doubtful that they will be.

Congressman Gregory Meeks, the Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, yesterday signaled that he would be asking for $735 million arms sale to Israel to be delayed, but today he backed off from that position, saying only that he wants a conversation with the White House about that sale. Rep. Omar opposes it.

[N.E. Brigand]

So this, I gather, is from some Chinese anti-Biden propaganda, but I rather like it:



(source)

[N.E. Brigand]

Amusing fact of the Biden era: at this time, the only U.S. senator with the power to unilaterally issue subpoenas also happens to be the youngest senator (in fact the only one too young to be president).

[N.E. Brigand]

In March, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said that she was opening to changing the filibuster rule, but today when asked about tha possibility, she said this is the first time she's ever heard of such an idea.

[elengil]

... Sounds like a politician, yes.

[River]

There've been some concerns about Feinstein's neurological status. It's probably time for her to retire and let some fresh blood in.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Today I heard a clip of her questioning the nominee to head the ATF, and in reporting the latest mass shooting she said that it was in San Francisco. As the former mayor of San Francisco you would think she would know the difference between San Francisco and San Jose.

[N.E. Brigand]

Remember last summer when Bill Barr had the cops and the military beat up peaceful protesters so that Donald Trump could have a photo of himself holding a Bible? Trump and Barr were sued for that.

The Dept. of Justice today asked a court to throw out those suits. Their ridiculous argument? That securing the perimeter for the president is a necessary government function. As the ACLU points out, by that argument, they could have sprayed live ammunition into the crowd in order to make room for Trump.

Joe Biden has previously criticized what Trump and Barr did, saying that Trump "deployed the U.S. military, tear gassing peaceful protesters in pursuit of a photo opportunity in the service of his reelection. Even holding the Bible upside down." (That part about the Bible being upside down, although much claimed before Biden said it, is apparently not true, though.)

So Biden must answer now for what his Attorney General is doing in defense of Trump and Barr.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The DOJ has to to defend a lawsuit like that. It doesn't mean that Garland agrees with the actions taken. Our entire system would fall apart if the DOJ failed to to defend a lawsuit like that.