Mitch McConnell is scared a Kamala Harris presidency would spell disaster for the Republican party, prognosticating that a Democratic presidency would result in the demise of the filibuster and a liberal packing of the Supreme Court. “Let's assume our worst nightmare – the Democrats went to the Whit...
"By the way, on packing the Supreme Court ... you may know this already. It's unconstitutional."
It's not unconstitutional if you fucking pack the court with people who aren't fucking traitorous fascists. What are ya gonna do? Sue all the way to the supreme court???
Fuck that weird old strokey bastard. You know what you do when you lose fuck face? Get good or go home.
He knows how this works. McConnell spent decades setting up the current Supreme Court to be the monster that it is, and he doesn't want that work undone in a single Presidential Administration.
The segment of the constitution relating to the supreme court is preposterously small. It's very weird that people think that no one is capable of actually reading the damned thing.
Never mentions any number of judges. Mentions numbers in a bunch of other places, and gets so detailed as to specify how to break up the initial batch of senators to ensure rolling terms.
But no, they specifically intended for there to be a specific number of justices that they just opted not to write down: 65679107 9 justices, just like the constitution forgot to dictate.
Other fun fact: you can pass a law that says the supreme court can't hear appeals to certain types of cases. It's explicitly stated that you could just write the supreme court out of hearing any case that involved the supreme court or any Justice, an executive who appointed any member of said court, or just about anything.
you could just write the supreme court out of hearing any case that involved the supreme court or any Justice, an executive who appointed any member of said court, or just about anything.
Yes, please!
Since the constitutional amendment process is literally impossible and has been for at least 40 years, SCOTUS is the final verdict on any constitutional matter.
Even if it WASN'T fundamentally broken, it's the mother and father of all conflicts of interest to make it the final arbiter on matters pertaining to itself and the ex president/wannabe dictator that appointed a plurality of them.
Don't forget Samoa and the other island terrories. It's a bit of a tricky situation because of population size and such but there shouldn't be a single person on American territory without voting Congressional representation.
I think we should welcome any and all territories to become states or leave as they desire, but I also think that staying a territory should remain an option.
Given how lack of representation tends to kneecap funding allocation for things like infrastructure I think they would be unwise to eschew statehood, but I know that, specifically in Puerto Rico, there are groups that against statehood but also against going their own way.
Forcing statehood feels wrong, but so does cutting people off from what support they do get from us, to say nothing of them being US citizens.
I do think we should extend full citizenship to anyone from the territories though. Just because it's not a state doesn't mean it's not the US.
This fucking lich has been the root cause of the court needing to be fixed
Pretty sure the Lich is literally based on him. If I was coming up with a tabletop and wanted an "undead asshole, lord of assholes" I would certainly use his likeness.
His history is fucking wild. He graduated top of his classes and graduated college with a PoliSci, then went on to join MLKs March and speech "I have a dream" in person. Then he was appointed party whip by Frist. That time as whip is probably why he's such a hard-line ass-bag of bones now.
There is no “left” in USA, Democrats would be centre at best in Europe. Sure from the GOP pov they seem left, but that’s because republicans are extremely to the right.
It's also not possible for most democrats to be on the far left of their party (unless the remaining minority are on average even further to the right of their party). If everyone's further left than you're expecting, that's just the party's new average center position.
Literally every dem presidential candidate is the Most Furthest Leftistest candidate in history.
Biden was the most leftist politician ever the year he beat Sanders. Clinton was an extremists Marxist in 2016. Obama was literally Stalin in 2008. John Kerry was going to be to the left of the Vietcong in 2004. Al Gore was a Manchurian deep state CCP asset in 2000. Etc, etc.
So of course we just now discover the ultra-left agenda of a California AG and her friend the Minnesota hog father two months before the general election. Shame McConnell didn't think to warn us sooner.
I'd rather he stroke out and have to sit drooling all over himself in a puddle of his own shit trapped in his mind and unable to communicate with anyone for a few years. Death is too easy for this asshole.
"The Supreme Court had just ruled that paper money was unconstitutional, which would have 'wreaked havoc' with the U.S. Treasury, says Marcus. But Grant and Congress quickly confirmed two new justices who reversed the Court’s decision in the earlier case, saving the Republicans from having to undo the nation’s entire system of legal tender."
The Supreme Court had just ruled that paper money was unconstitutional
Jesus and I thought our court was making the most dumbass decisions. Wierdly gives me hope that the Harris administration can fix a whole bumcha bullshit though.
So he doesn't want DC or PR statehood, giving federal representation to millions of otherwise disenfranchised US citizens because...he thinks they'll elect Democrats. Cool.
the other downside of DC statehood is that we’d have to change the slogan on our license plates, as they currently read “taxation without representation” for this very reason. just think of how silly all the old license plates would be if all of a sudden we actually did have representation.
I see the man behind "making election day a national holiday is a power grab by the democrats"^[1] is rolling out some new hits. Never ceases to amaze that he can get away with saying this stuff out loud.
Well, of course. Consider your own reference. Mitch knows they are wildly unpopular, and making it easier for the common folk they've been fucking over for years to vote would be disastrous for them.
By the way, on packing the Supreme Court ... you may know this already. It's unconstitutional.
The only things the constitution has to say on the matter of the supreme court are: there has to be one, the supreme court judges should be paid, and the president can appoint supreme court justices with the advice and consent of the senate. It is completely silent on matters of how many supreme court justices there should be, or how long their terms should be.
For all his many, many faults, Mitch McConnell is not a profoundly stupid man, so I'm sure he knows this. Since he very likely knows this already, he probably has a reason for lying to the public on the matter. If the president does appoint several more justices, it's not like the Republicans can sue: no lower court would take the case, and the supreme court would already be packed with people who will actually be faithful to the constitution. So legal threats are a complete non-starter. That just leaves non-legal threats, which is what I think this is. I think Glitch is previewing the Republican strategy in the case of Harris getting more justices hired, which is they'll stoke up the fear and hatred of their idiotic, mouth breathing supporters. It's a thinly-veiled threat of treason.
Isn't this fucker dead yet? I have a bottle of scotch waiting for this asshole's demise. Same as Betsy DeVoss and her shitty brother; and the final Koch brother...
He is going to die. When I don't know. But I heard speculation that he has some kind of skin cancer and degenerative disorders (as exemplified by him just suddenly freezing and needing someone to tap his shoulder to get him to come around).
But even if he dies before I finish this comment he has already groomed his successor to take place. Despite being in alleged democracy these people have their shit done in a way that their own party will never really change.
This motherfucker is actually older than a Galapagos tortoise. Also, when did they unpause him? I thought his OS froze and he was shuffled off to hospice.
My dad did. Almost died from it, I mean. I assume this is just about polio being rampant at the time. But if McFuckface got it and recovered, sucks for us.
They're scared of Democrats stacking the courts? Is that what was said? He reminds me of an old timey western card game where a player is accusing everyone of cheating with cards tucked up his sleeves
McConnel is a true climber. He never thinks about how to weild power he only thinks about ways to obtain it. In his mind everyone else's is the same.
mitch mcconnel in three acts
Act I: desperado
A dastardly madman ties a damsel to the tracks. A masked hero is seen on horseback trailing a train that is rushing straight towards the tied innocent. Our hero dismounts his horse and gallantly boards the train. He fights off hoards of bad guys to get to the engine room. After fighting the conductor he runs straits to the brake lever and pulls it with all his might. In the final moments the trains comes to a screeching halt just before it cleaves the fair maid into a thousand pieces.
Act II: the dastard
A slobbernly old man stands before the city council, "if we allow such violence against innocent train workers then surely every train from here to Timbuktu will be sieged upon by ruthless bandits! This cannot be allowed, we must outlaw the masked hero!" The old man turns to face the camera and twists his dastardly mustache.
Act III: it's in the news
News paper headline; "All trains from here to timbuktu sieged."
Newpaper byline: "masked hero outlawed."
Election news: Das le Turd III elected king after amassing mysterious train cargo fortune.
You know, if the orange shithead is such a liability, maybe you should have condemned his actions leading up to J6, you melted bastard. Then maybe he wouldn't be the guy running the show.
During his speech, Spectrum reports that McConnell called the Walz-Harris ticket “the far left of the Democratic Party.”
“And by the way, that’s most Democrats today,” McConnell said, according to Spectrum.
I didn't realize the Dems were the far left party I'd been asking for. In this country, you can just say whatever and nobody checks. Apologies for multiple main-thread posts.
Oh, he's more worried about the nightmare for the GOP. Not for the country. Imagine that - he's more worried about the potential for the power of a political party to be diminished than he is about the end of the country.
His nightmare isn't imaginative enough. What if the Cancun Zodiak Killer loses to Allred? What if the Dems grow spines and fix the gerrymandering? What if they impeach bribe taking Supreme Court justices? What if they amend the Constitution to reverse Citizens United (hah, like any politician favors that)?
Man, that's the worst nightmare scenario? Fucking weaksauce. They'd still be breathing, instead of, y'know, put up against a wall and shot, like SCOTUS has ruled is perfectly legal now. As always, every word out of his mouth is self-serving bullshit.
Recently Pete Buttigieg has been saying that Trump losing would actually be a savior to the Republican party. Currently Republicans who privately abhore him choose to support him because he is their ticket to power. If he is shown to lose 2 elections in a row, he would most likely lose his grip on the GOP, and you would see more adaptability in their positions.
Losing one should've done it. But he replaced party leadership with his people, so that means he'll be at the top of the GOP ticket until he kicks the bucket.
I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it's Harris v. Trump (from prison) in 2028, and Walz/Ocasio-Cortez v. Trump (from deathbed) in 2032. By that time, the GOP will be well and truly cooked.
I heard that when the GOP lost to Obama twice. People were saying the GOP would have to change to keep up with the demographic shifts. Boy were they right 🙃
I feel like they should be a lot more scared of getting shot by a bunch of crunchy purple haired anarchists or cringelord neostalinists who basically get off to giving them the wall after they push their shit too far and do our propaganda for us.
but maybe I don't have the best understanding of fear.
I never expected to see 'cringelord neostalinists' portrayed as being heroic, but here we are, and honestly, I don't hate it. I'll take communism over fascism any day.
Flatly wrong about packing SCOTUS. It's probably a bad idea--as is ending the filibuster--but it's not unconstitutional.
As to why it's a bad idea - Republicans haven't increased the size of the court when they've held the legislature and presidency; packing the court would encourage them to do the same the next time they have power--and they will eventually, because that's the way politics have gone in this country--and we'd quickly end up with a court that's even more unwieldy than it is now.
The same principle applies to ending the filibuster; if it's ended now, then Dems can't use it when they are out of power in the Senate. Because, again, Republicans will win again at some point--possibly even this fall--and giving absolute power to a single party is a bad idea.
People think there's a sense of fair play involved here and a dislike for hypocrisy, but it isn't the case. Look at what happened for appointments to the supreme Court under Obama vs trump as an example. I understand why you might feel this way considering that the nuclear option for ending cloture wasn't used by Republicans until Harry Reid did it, but 20 years later honor and decorum are no longer foundational to government.
Anymore, I think the best thing to do is use tools available to terrible effect, then with any luck all the "honor system" stuff can be written into law.
Bring back the talking filibuster, and pack the court to fix it's rules, ethics, and enforcement (the court doesn't even respect stare decisis anymore), add states, expand the cap on the house, blow the electoral college. No more gentlemen's agreements.
I'm absolutely fine with the talking filibuster; I love it, and think we should do it. Killing it entirely? No.
Packing the court? Also no. If anything, I think that the size should be reduced. I'd be fine with term limits on judges (say, 16 years), along with a code of ethics and mandatory financial disclosures and recusals for conflicts of interest. But packing the court is not a good idea.
People think there’s a sense of fair play involved here and a dislike for hypocrisy, but it isn’t the case.
I think that if we're ever going to get back to a point where we aren't hyperpartisan, we need to operate in good faith, even if the other side isn't. Constantly escalating ends up hurting us in the long run. And, again - as soon as you create the tools to get your way, those tools will be used against you; a hammer doesn't care which ideologue is swinging it.
expand the cap on the house,
Bad idea. Getting 400+ people to stop arguing long enough to vote on a thing is already hard enough. You'd just be adding more layers of bullshit.
add states
Eh. Last I knew, PR didn't really want to be a state; I recall that under 50% of the island population wanted statehood. D.C. might, but I'm not sure that making a city a whole-ass state--particularly since most of the city is actually in Virginia and Maryland--is a good idea. That would have the effect of ensuring that voters in D.C. would be far more powerful than any other voters, since you would have a fairly small number of voters selecting two senators. (I can't find exact populatino data for D.C. alone; all population figures I can find are for metro D.C., which counts large parts of Virginia and Maryland; those voters already have representatives and senators.)
blow the electoral college
I oppose this for the same reason that I oppose getting rid of the Senate and going to a direct democracy; an electoral college balances the interests of the states as a whole against the population, because they're not always the same. An electoral system forces candidates to try and balance a message, rather than focusing solely on the most populous areas. Rather than eliminating the electoral college, I'd rather see some form of ranked-choice voting, which would tend to eliminate candidates that had the most extremely unpopular platforms. (E.g., Trump consistently won about 30% of the votes in the 2015 primaries, but a strong majority of voters would have selected him as their last choice. Some form of ranked choice in the Republican primaries likely would have resulted in a candidate like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio instead of Trump.)
All of this is a balancing game of competing interests and priorities. Steamrolling people and hammering them isn't going to make anything better. Yes, I hear what you're saying about the Overton window, but frankly, that's a messaging problem that the left has created. If the right is able to move the Overton window, it's because the left is doing a really shitty job at meeting voters where they are, while the right is doing a damn good job at outreach.