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Activist Tuesday: Open Thread
Posted on: May 14, 2019
Happy Tuesday, Widdershins!
We can talk about any of these things….
Or we can talk about #DemThrones, this epic takedown of Lady Lindsey, the 2020 election, the disastrous, ridiculous tariffs with China, or cute fluffy animals.
This is an open thread.
Activist Tuesday: Mueller Time
Posted on: May 7, 2019
At long last, Widdershins, it’s #MuellerTime. The Man Himself is tentatively scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15, 2019 (which is only 9 days away, holy shite!).
What will you be doing when Mueller comes on TeeVee (and he will, Drumpf has literally not a single weapon in his arsenal to stop it)? Will you be working, or glued to MSNBC, or ignoring it all, or marching in support?
All I know is, Mueller is dying to share what he knows outside the Justice Department. What a tragic statement that is, because in a rational world, he wouldn’t have to stray from the fold to tell the truth.
This is an open thread.
Activist Tuesday: SuperMajority!!!
Posted on: April 30, 2019
- In: 2016 Election | 2018 Election | 2020 Election | Current Events | Donald Trump | Feminism | Hillary Clinton | Obama | Open Thread | Patriarchy | Women | Womens' Rights
- 87 Comments
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Something really inspiring happened yesterday, Widdershins. It answered a question for me: Why did Cecile Richards, one of the most effective leaders Planned Parenthood has ever had, resign from the organization?
She had to partner with Alicia Garza and Ai-jen Poo to form an exciting new women’s organization, called SuperMajority!!! (Okay, the exclamation points are mine. I am just so excited!) Yes, anyone can join, regardless of gender. You just have to believe in the mission.
In an apparent reference to the #MeToo movement, the organization, which describes itself as multiracial and intergenerational, said that “in the past two years, we’ve seen what happens when women mobilize. But while “women are on the cusp of becoming the most powerful force in America,” Supermajority’s co-founders say that to “fundamentally transform this country” women must work together.
To help further that goal, the group’s leaders say their organization will provide on-the-ground training to help women advocates “get and stay informed on issues that affect their lives,” in addition to creating a “women’s agenda” that will put women’s issues first, “from economic equity and opportunity, to dignity and safety on the job, to keeping families and communities safe.”
While Supermajority’s aim is to push politicians to adopt a “women’s new deal,” as Richards told The Associated Press in a recent interview, the group is not expected to endorse individual candidates.
A “women’s new deal!” Oh, yes, PLEASE!!!
I remember way, way back in our PUMA days, when I suggested that a new Women’s Party should be formed. I wrote:
So let’s review. The Democrats make appropriate noises about women, but don’t follow through when push comes to shove. The Republicans are so backwards as to be laughable.
Isn’t it time we had our own Party, ladies?
I am tired of hearing that the interests of 51% of the population are not important enough to focus on. I am tired of hearing that we should shut up and vote Democrat because they are the lesser of two evils. I am tired of seeing *ssh0les like Obama get away with breaking his promise to pass FOCA first thing and sell out our reproductive rights to pass a bill the Supreme Court will most likely overturn. I am tired of seeing mindless monsters like Jesse Lee Peterson being given airtime by Defenders of the Hateful, Faux News. I am tired of the religiously insane trying to pass laws that will humiliate and kill our sisters.
It will f*cking kill me to vote D on Election Day, even though I won’t be voting for Obama at the top of the ticket. I am frankly weary of the crapulence of the PFKAD. I want a Party that represents women and puts our equality FIRST, that won’t be distracted by the latest shiny object. One Party, one goal: Pass the ERA! Fight for women’s equality in every aspect of our lives. That is what we women need now.
I’m not sure why it’s taken so long for women to wake up. Maybe women got too complacent with Obama at the helm, naively believing their rights would never be threatened again. Maybe we all “knew” that Hillary would win in 2016, so we thought we didn’t need to mobilize separately. But once the giant pile of orange slime slithered his way into the White House, maybe that was the catalyst we needed. The Resistance, MeToo, OnwardTogether…and now this amazing new organization!
After the horrors of the past few years, it seems unbelievable that anything good could come out of our long national nightmare. The latest attack on a temple in San Diego, killing one heroic woman and wounding others, is just one of the many hate crimes inspired by Der Drumpfenfuhrer and his Nazi minions. But maybe if we women (and all genders who support us!) do band together, we can finally turn this country in the direction it so desperately needs to go.
This is an open thread.
Oh, yeah. Impeachment is on the table, folks. And there are lots of top Democrats who are changing their tunes, now that they’ve seen the Mueller Report.
Jerry Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee (where impeachment would start) has subpoenaed Don McGahn, cited 157 times in the Mueller Report, to testify before Congress and provide him with documents.
While Mueller opted not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice, he laid out efforts by the president to tamper with witnesses and affect the investigation. The report said, for example, that Trump ordered McGahn to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that “Mueller has to go.”
“McGahn spoke with the President twice and understood the directive the same way both times, making it unlikely that he misheard or misinterpreted the President’s request. In response to that request, McGahn decided to quit,” the report said. “He called his lawyer, drove to the White House, packed up his office, prepared to submit a resignation letter with his chief of staff, (and) told (then-White House Chief of Staff Reince) Priebus that the President had asked him to ‘do crazy shit.’
Nadler also said yesterday on Chuck Todd’s show (will NEVER watch it, but I saw the video) that he believed the President’s conduct, if proven, was impeachable.
And Speaker Pelosi herself said yesterday,
“We have to save our democracy. This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. It’s about saving our democracy,” Pelosi said in a call with her colleagues, according to a source on the call. But Pelosi also urged Democrats to first focus on following the facts.
“Whether it’s articles of impeachment or investigations, it’s the same obtaining of facts. We don’t have to go to articles of impeachment to obtain the facts, the presentation of facts,” she said.
Does Nancy have the votes to impeach now? I don’t think so, and because of that, she is doing things exactly the right way. Go forward with the investigations, drag Trump’s nasty, orange-stained laundry out in the public eye, and let the American people see what a corrupt, treasonous, swollen tick we have as a President. Once people really know what’s going on, support for impeachment will rise exponentially, and Senate Republicans will be hard pressed to keep lending their support to the most unpopular President ever.
This is an open thread.
Activist Tuesday: GOT or TMR?
Posted on: April 16, 2019
- In: Donald Trump | Russia
- 84 Comments
Happy Tuesday, Widdershins. I hope Tax Day was not too hard on you all. Had we not sold our house this year and moved to California, we would have been screwed by the Republican middle-class tax increases. Next year we will have to watch our step!
Like most of you, I watched Game of Thrones (GOT) on Sunday. I thought it was terrific. I waited for it with a great deal of anticipation, and it did not disappoint. But it’s nothing compared to the anticipation I feel, waiting for The Mueller Report (TMR) this Thursday.
But MadamaB, I hear you saying, The Mueller Report is going to be edited by that slimy piece of elephant dung, William Barr. (I do not use the word “redacted,” as there is no legitimate reason to change a single letter of that report.) He’s going to make that report as meaningless as possible. Nothing actionable will come of it.
Well, if that’s true, then why are the Republicans preparing a 140-page “counter-report” (which is, by the way, NOT A THING)?
That’s a huge about-face from when Barr first released his summary of the Mueller memo.
When it was released last month, Trump administration officials and conservative backers celebrated the president’s exoneration and attacked reporters, Democrats, and members of the public who were vocal about the evidence suggesting the president colluded with Russia.
(snip)
But just days away from the redacted release of the actual report, White House officials are bracing for its findings and the president has once again renewed his attacks on the legitimacy of the investigation.
Drumpf has been tweeting like a lunatic. Sarah Sanders just called Democrats dumb on TeeVee. Kellyanne Conjob has been saying something, I have no idea what (she just sounds like a droning, whining baby to me). Ghouliani has been looking like this whenever the report is mentioned:
So, yeah. I think there is going to be enough in the report to make the Mango Moron look really, really, REALLY guilty. And I am also quite sure that sooner or later (my money’s on “sooner”), the entire report will come out, either through Democratic subpoenas, or through Mueller’s testimony to Congress, or through leaks.
This is the beginning of the end of the disgusting sham of the Trump government and the Republican Reign of Error.
This is an open thread.
- In: Congress | Current Events | Democratic Values | Donald Trump | Government | Human Rights | Immigration | Open Thread | Republicans | Resistance
- 39 Comments
Good Tuesday, Widdershins! Today is a bellwether day because last night, Rachel Maddow finally stopped using the word “inexplicably” and used Occam’s Razor instead.
In her opening segment, Rachel was highlighting the fact that Drumpf has a very large number of weak, “acting” cabinet secretaries and vacant deputy positions that haven’t been filled. She then noted that this framework for governing concentrates power in the hands of the President. “There’s a particular type of government that works this way,” she said. “It starts with an ‘a.'”
Indeed! Welcome to the autocracy party, Rachel. It’s quite scary to admit what the end goal of Putin’s Puppet is; kudos for starting to wrap your head around it.
The autocratic end game, however, cannot be won merely by eviscerating critical government agencies like the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, the EPA and so many others. What will really set the tone for declaring Trump King Forever is a determination that he is above the law. And from where I sit, he’s trying his best to make that determination happen. Let me count just a few ways:
- The tax returns. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal, has demanded Drumpf’s tax returns. The Mango Moron has refused, which is illegal. The deadline for turning them over to the Ways and Means Committee is Wednesday, April 10. If this goes to court, will he get a favorable ruling?
- The family separation policy. One of the most Nazi-like policies this evil Administration has ever set in place, family separation was ruled illegal last year. But now, Drumpf is clearing house at DHS, firing Kirstjen Nielsen and others, and to try and find people who will impose the policy despite its illegality. He may have found at least one.
Though he may not be installed immediately, the Trump administration is likely to find a way to make sure [Kevin] McAleenan will step in for Nielsen on an acting basis, even if it means firing Grady. NBC News reports that McAleenan “has not ruled out” family separation as an option, and that he would consider allowing parents to bring their children with them into long-term detention as an alternative.
What happens if McAleenan does try to go ahead with family separation despite the judge’s orders? Who will tell him he can’t?
- The Fake National Emergency. When Der Drumpfenfuhrer declared a fake national emergency at the border and started appropriating funds for his ridiculous wall, the Democrats sued him.
Trump declared a national emergency in February to shift federal funds toward construction of the border wall after Congress refused to provide him with the amount he requested.The initial standoff resulted in a 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.
The complaint was filed one day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that the House would sue the president to block Trump’s national emergency declaration to build a wall along the southern border.
“The Congress has a solemn responsibility to defend its exclusive constitutional responsibilities, and protect our system of checks and balances,” Pelosi said of the lawsuit in a statement Friday. “The very integrity of our democratic institutions are at stake. We will not let the President trample over the Constitution.”
These are just three examples. Bottom line is, a Constitutional crisis could result from any of these. If the pResident decides to just brazen it out and declare he is above the law, will the Senate stand up to him? Or will they continue to demonstrate their moral decrepitude and lack of interest in our core democratic principles, and help him establish an autocracy in America?
I think we’d all better start stretching our leg muscles and ensuring we’ve got comfortable shoes. While I hope we won’t need to, we must prepare to march to prevent Orange Caligula from consolidating enough power to destroy our country for the foreseeable future. Our activism may be the only thing standing between us and the “a” word.
This is an open thread.
Activist Tuesday: WSDD?
Posted on: March 26, 2019
Well, it looks like Barr is doing the job Drumpf hired him to do. He is whitewashing and weaseling and trying like hell to protect the criminal and his cabal currently sh*tting all over American democracy. His four-page summary left much to be desired, and quoted not a single full sentence from the Mueller Report. And the Democrats are determined to get the full story.
The Democratic chairmen of the House Judiciary, Oversight, Intelligence, Financial Services, Ways and Means, and Foreign Affairs committees have written a letter to Attorney General William Barr requesting that he submit the full Mueller report to Congress by April 2.
What they’re saying:Â “Your four page summary of the Special Counsel’s review is not sufficient for Congress, as a co-equal branch of government, to perform [our oversight activities]. The release of the full report and the underlying evidence and documents is urgently needed by our committees to perform their duties under the Constitution … To the extent that you believe applicable law limits your ability to comply, we urge you to begin the process of consultation with us immediately in order to establish shared parameters for resolving those issues without delay.”
So that’s one thing the Democrats are doing. But it’s clearly not enough, so I would like to pose this question to all of you Widdershins out there:
What [Else] Should Democrats Do?
I think there are a number of avenues they can pursue.
- Subpoena Robert Mueller. The DOJ might block it, but “what are they trying to hide” is a powerful question.
- Turn their focus to other matters. There’s an interesting argument at the link…and, I just read that now that Barr is in charge of the DOJ, all of a sudden they’re cool to overturn the entire ACA. Seriously! This is truly horrendous, and it’s happening right now, when no one is paying attention.
The Trump administration wants the federal courts to overturn the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, an escalation of its legal assault against the health care law.
The Justice Department said in a brief filed on Monday that the administration supports a recent district court decision that invalidated all of Obamacare. So it is now the official position of President Trump’s administration that all of the ACA — the private insurance markets that cover 15 million Americans, the Medicaid expansion that covers another 15 million, and the protections for people with preexisting conditions and other regulations — should be nullified.
When combined with Trump’s endorsement of the various Republican legislative plans to repeal and replace Obamacare and other regulatory actions pursued by his subordinates, the Trump administration’s clear, consistent and unequivocal position is that millions of people should lose their health insurance and that people should not be protected from discrimination based on their medical history.
- Continue to investigate. In the absence of any real insight into what Mueller found, the Democrats seem to be committed to continuing to probe the most corrupt administration in history.
- Something else. Any other options you can all think of!
What do you think, Widdershins?
This is an open thread.
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