#Democrats control Senate

[captainjonnitkessler]

Guys I'm starting to think that the "not voting will increase our political influence" crowd doesn't know shit about American politics

[angy-grrr]

yeah, im sure Trump as president is going to make things soooo much better for all the people in Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, and the US as a whole. So good that some people were able to keep their great morals for themselves/s

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Senate Democrats sought to pass legislation Tuesday banning bump stocks for firearms after the Supreme Court overruled a previous ban, but a single Republican objected on behalf of his party, effectively stalling the bill.

Backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., sought “unanimous consent” to pass his BUMP Act that would prohibit the devices, which modify semi-automatic weapons to fire bullets more quickly.

The New Mexico senator said he’s a firearm owner who sees no purpose for bump stocks other than to facilitate mass shootings, as in Las Vegas in 2017, when a gunman killed dozens of people at a music festival and more than 500 people were injured.

“The Las Vegas gunman was able to murder and injure so many so quickly because he used a deadly device known as a bump stock,” Heinrich said on the Senate floor. “There’s no legitimate use for a bump stock. Not for self-defense, not in a law enforcement context, not even in military applications as they’re less accurate than a standard fully automatic military platform. But what they are tailor-made for is a mass shooting.”

But the bill was met with an objection from Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., blocking it from moving forward. The objection was backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and many other Republican senators, marking a turnaround after many of them championed a bump stock ban imposed by the Trump administration after the Las Vegas massacre.

Ricketts labeled the bill “a gun-grabbing overreach," saying it is written vaguely and could give the Biden administration power to target “common firearm accessories, not just bump stocks.”

“That’s really, really scary,” Ricketts said, calling the measure an infringement on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. He labeled it “another day in the Democrat summer of show votes,” following recent votes on protections for IVF and contraception which were also blocked by Republicans.

The clash comes in the heat of an election year, when Republicans are running as staunch supporters of gun rights while President Joe Biden and Democrats call for stricter firearm laws.

The move Tuesday followed a Supreme Court decision last week saying the executive branch may not use existing law to ban bump stocks, although the 6-3 ruling along ideological lines kept the door open for Congress to regulate the accessories with a new law.

Unanimous consent is one mechanism for the Senate to pass legislation speedily, often used for non-controversial measures. Schumer can also bring the bump stock bill or other legislation up through the regular process, which takes more time and requires 60 votes to break a filibuster. That means at least 9 Republicans would have to support it if Democrats and independents stick together.

Before the unanimous consent request, Schumer didn’t say whether he’d bring up the bill through regular channels if it stalled, imploring Republicans to “see the light” and not block it.

“Many of them were extremely supportive of this when President Trump did it as a regulation,” Schumer said. “Donald Trump is hardly a friend to gun safety. But I’m just shocked that the Supreme Court will be even to the right of him.”

Heinrich warned that if Congress doesn’t prohibit bump stocks, “street gangs and cartels and mass shooters” may be able to access these devices “and turn them against our communities.”

He added: “This will not be the last time you hear about these devices on the floor of the Senate.”

[anotherpapercut]

I'm never ever ever gonna get over the way white feminists act(ed) about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I was listening to a podcast about a supreme court case involving Native land rights and the podcast host felt the need to do a whole "as a woman I'm grateful for the many things she did to advance women's rights" speech before she could talk about her terrible record when it comes to the rights of Native Americans. you still can't talk about her ridiculously selfish decision not to retire without people making up reasons to absolve her of wrong doing

[screechingsandwichhologram]

aughhhhhh hamilton and jefferson i will never forgive you for starting the two party system in america. never forgive you. also henry knox and edmund randolph why couldn't you have made it a three or four party system cmon guys.

[more-flotsam-and-jetsam]

[wearechecking]

.

[justahumblememefarmer]

Putting some positivity out there about the election

Harris has raised a record amount of money from small donors after Biden dropped out, in addition to being able to access all the funds from their campaign they already had

Trump is deeply unpopular and people have already seen the chaos that 4 years of his presidency would bring. A lot of people have been energized to vote against him, even if they're not fond of Dems

Polling showed a red wave for Republicans in the 2022 midterms, and yet they only barely had control of the House, and couldn't even agree on a Speaker for a historic amount of time. Dems also increased their lead in the Senate. Historically, midterms favor the opposition party and have lower turnout, so this is a good sign for the House in 2024

Dems are fighting back in swing states. PA and GA both put in Democratic senators in the midterms

In my home state of PA, I am from Bucks County, which is a swing county for the state. Moms for Libery took over the school board and used it to attack queer students, enact book bans, and funnel money to themselves and the superintendent. At the most recent election, Dems turned out and took back every single open seat, ousting the board and superintendent. Worry about similar takeovers in surrounding school boards also increased turnout

Abortion rights are on the ballot in many states, which has been a winning issue for Dems and increased turnout

Republicans were prepared to attack a feeble old Biden who isn't the strongest speaker. I don't think they expected him to actually drop out, and they now have to put an 78 year old convicted felon up against a prosecutor

Awareness of Project 2025 and it's contents has entered the public sphere and is being much more openly discussed on the news. While Trump has insisted he has nothing to do with it, most of the authors worked in his administration and Trump has worked closely with the Heritage foundation

Feel free to add more things on this thread, but the most important thing is to get out there and VOTE

Vote for President

Vote for Senators

Vote for Congresspeople

Vote in your local elections

Vote Blue down ballot

[trendynewsnow]

Gloria Johnson's Senate Campaign: A Push for Change in Tennessee

Gloria Johnson’s Long-Shot Senate Bid in Tennessee As Gloria Johnson, the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Tennessee, traverses the state from diner to coffee shop to restaurant, she is often greeted with a blend of enthusiasm and resignation. Enthusiastic patrons are delighted that a Democrat has taken the time to show up, yet many express skepticism about the impact her candidacy will…

[abigailspinach]

For Democrats to maintain Senate control, Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) needs to win reelection in a state Donald Trump won by 16.4 percentage points in 2020. 

That brutal reality is reflective of the vicious Senate map Democrats were handed this year in a chamber already tilted against them. After Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) retirement, Republicans can confidently add that seat to their roster, bringing them to 50 senators, assuming they return their incumbents (whose losses would be major upsets). Tester’s loss would give them the majority.

If Tester wins, and Democrats win the White House and flip the House, that means a 2020-like environment with the possibility of major legislation and the certainty of judicial confirmations. If he does not, Congress would return to 2022’s legislative graveyard, now with a Republican Senate that would likely block many judicial confirmations and move to stop a President Kamala Harris from filling any Supreme Court vacancies that arise. If Republicans win the presidency and keep the House, of course, Democrats’ losing the Senate opens the door to a no-holds-barred, full-scale Trump agenda.   

The perennial survivor, the last statewide Democrat in an increasingly MAGAfied Montana, has to turn in the political performance of a lifetime, and do something he’s never done before — overcome those headwinds in an election where Trump is on the ballot.

“Oh yes,” Mike Dennison, currently a political analyst and the former longtime chief political reporter at the Montana Television Network, said when TPM asked if Tester could win in these conditions. “Although it’ll probably be the most difficult test in his career.”

Tester is now a singular breed in the Senate, the last stronghold in a state that has, particularly in the past four years, completely repudiated his party. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) — also in the fight of his life — and Susan Collins (R-ME) have historically pulled off a similar feat, but still operate in more hospitable environments than Tester. In 2018, the other Tester-like incumbents in the Senate — Democrats Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota — got wiped out, presaging the death of ticket-splitting among an increasingly polarized electorate. Tester hung on by 3.6 points. 

Now, Tester finds himself in a curious moment. President Joe Biden, whose drag Tester felt acutely enough to publicly beseech him to leave the race, has done so. Democrats have a new nominee in Vice President Kamala Harris, bringing with her an exuberant and newly generous voting base.

Experts have told TPM that an energized Democratic base can only help Tester and Brown, that a rising tide lifts all boats, that any factor lessening the number of Trump voters they have to win over is a boon. But Tester hasn’t exactly been acting like it. He declined to endorse a candidate for president and thus far, per experts in the state, has maintained his strategy of keeping his party at arm’s length. 

“If he continues here with the anti-Biden perspective, which tangentially impacts Harris as well, that would hurt him longterm,” said Paul Pope, a political scientist at Montana State University Billings.

“I don’t understand why Tester isn’t saying, ‘look, here are things Democrats have done that are good for Montana: the COVID relief bill, the infrastructure bill, advancing green energy,’” Dennison said, framing the hypothetical argument as “hey, maybe you don’t like Democrats, but here’s some things they’ve done that I’ve voted for that are good for the state.”

When he posed that question to the politically keyed-in in the state, some have offered that the Democratic brand is “so damaged” in Montana that it’s best for Tester to abandon it altogether.

Instead, Tester has tried to keep the race hyper-local, focusing on issues like public land rights and downplaying that his victory would likely seal Democratic control of the upper chamber. 

Polling in the state has been scarce, and much of what has been released comes from partisan pollsters. A recent poll paid for by KULR-TV in Billings had Republican Tim Sheehy up six points; an Emerson poll put into the field a few days before had him up two. Dennison told TPM he’s seen a private poll of 6,000 people from the last couple weeks that had Tester up one.

It’s a testament to Tester’s talent that election projectors including the Cook Political Report and the University of Virginia’s Sabato’s Crystal ball have his race in the “tossup” category. 

“Recent historical trends suggest both of them to lose,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, told TPM of Tester and Brown in a recent interview. “That’s not a prediction — it’s just what history tells us. Just because ticket-splitting has been on the decline for a while doesn’t mean it has to continue to.”  

Some onus will fall to Harris to stem the bleeding. There’s no question that she’ll lose Montana, but she needs to keep the margins low enough that Tester can overcome the delta. The recent KULR-TV poll showed her down 14 points, improving on Biden’s 2020 margin; Dennison estimated that if she can keep her loss in the neighborhood of 12-14 points, it would give Tester a fighting chance. 

Harris’ entry isn’t the only factor that could shake up Tester’s race. Last Tuesday, the Montana secretary of state’s office certified a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, which will appear on the ballot in November. Abortion rights are popular in Montana, which currently protects the procedure until viability. 

“Everything looks like the abortion ballot measure to protect reproductive rights is most likely to pass,” Pope said.

The presence of the amendment also won’t guarantee Tester’s path to victory; in other red states, voters have consistently demonstrated their comfort with the cognitive dissonance of voting for abortion rights and Republican lawmakers who oppose them on the same ballot. 

Tester’s opponent, political newcomer Sheehy called abortion “sinful,” saying last December at a Fulton County Republican Women open house, “I think it’s terrible. I think it’s a repulsive thing to do,” per the Heartland Signal, the newsroom for progressive, Illinois-based radio station WCPT820. He also said that he wants it “all to end tomorrow.” 

Still, to the extent that the initiative — like Harris’ candidacy — energizes Tester-friendly voters and motivates them to turn out, it can’t hurt. 

“It can only help Tester — I don’t know how much, but I think it’s to his benefit,” Dennison said. “It’s going to draw more Democratic-leaning voters to the polls and more women to the polls, who are more supportive of Tester.”

[in-sightjournal]

Ask A Genius 993: Project 2025

Rick Rosner: It’s a disaster for America because of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Are you aware of Project 2025? Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Yes, I am aware of Project 2025. Rosner: For those who aren’t, it’s a conservative wish list, more than 900 pages long, detailing what they intend to do if Trump becomes president again. Now, they won’t be able to implement all of it, or perhaps even…

[tanoraqui]

shoutout to my dash and the Democratic Party as a whole right now for being like

Some good policy reasons to get excited about Harris. Gun control! Heathcare! LGBT rights!

Fighting for the fate of the world: has said she’ll make climate change a top national security priority; was one of the original Senate sponsors of the Green New Deal (others: Ocasio-Cortez, Markey), much of which became Biden’s stealthily VERY green Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act

Yes, she was a prosecuting attorney; no, it’s NOT an ACAB situation—highlights of her time as District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California include enabling a re-entry/anti-recidivism program for young drug users which is now used as a template around the country, pointedly not prosecuting people for marijuana possession (distinctly before it was legal), defending Californians against foreclosures, got the “gay/trans panic” defense BANNED in CA courts, and being the first statewide agency to require all police offers to wear body cams.

As VP she’s spearheaded abortion rights, developed and nearly passed a landmark voting rights bill (stymied by Senate Republicans + 2 Democrats unwilling to change filibuster rules), and quietly built a solid foreign policy portfolio, including firm support of Palastine.

Find out if you’re registered to vote in any state!

Register to vote in any state!

Other voting resources—and DON’T FORGET to vote down-ballot, too! See how much Harris did as County District Attorney and State Attorney General? Those are elected offices!

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Dianne Feinstein, the woman who represented California in the US Senate and was the longest-serving female senator in history, “blazed trails for women in politics and found a life’s calling in public service”, Hillary Clinton said.

The former New York Senator and Secretary of State, who in 2016 was the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major US party, paid tribute to her fellow Democrat shortly after the announcement of her death. At the time of her death, Feinstein was 90 and still in office.

Clinton added: “I’ll miss her greatly as a friend and colleague.”

From the White House, Joe Biden saluted “a pioneering American.”

The President added: “Serving in the Senate together for more than 15 years, I had a front-row seat to what Dianne was able to accomplish. It’s why I recruited her to serve on the Judiciary Committee when I was chairman – I knew what she was made of.”

“… Often the only woman in the room, Dianne was a role model for so many Americans … she had an immense impact on younger female leaders for whom she generously opened doors. Dianne was tough, sharp, always prepared, and never pulled a punch, but she was also a kind and loyal friend.”

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic Governor of California, will select Feinstein’s replacement. Calling Feinstein “a political giant”, he said she “was many things – a powerful, trailblazing US Senator; an early voice for gun control; a leader in times of tragedy and chaos.”

“But to me, she was a dear friend, a lifelong mentor, and a role model not only for me, but to my wife and daughters for what a powerful, effective leader looks like.”

Feinstein’s “tenacity”, Newsom said, “was matched by her grace. She broke down barriers and glass ceilings, but never lost her belief in the spirit of political cooperation. And she was a fighter - for the city [San Francisco, where she was the first woman to be mayor], the state and the country she loved.”

There was some discord among the praise. David Axelrod, formerly a senior adviser to Barack Obama, pointed to recent controversy over whether, given her evidently failing health and absences which affected Democratic Senate business, Feinstein should have retired.

“How sad that the final, painful years will eclipse in the memories of some a long and distinguished career,” Axelrod said⁩. “RIP, Senator Feinstein.”

Many users cited a recent piece in New York magazine by the writer Rebecca Traister, about Feinstein’s declining years, which asked: “She fought for gun control, civil rights and abortion access for half a century. Where did it all go wrong?”

John Flannery, a former federal prosecutor turned commentator, was among those who had a rejoinder: “I hope some of those who hounded her in her dying days will remember her contributions.”

Many tributes highlighted Feinstein’s contributions to attempts to combat the problem of gun violence.

Though Feinstein “made her mark on everything from national security to the environment to protecting civil liberties”, Biden said, “there’s no better example of her skillful legislating and sheer force of will than when she turned passion into purpose, and led the fight to ban assault weapons.”

Chris Murphy, a Democratic Senator from Connecticut and a leading voice for gun control reform, said Feinstein would “go down as a heroic, historic American leader … an early and fearless champion of the gun safety movement as author of the monumental Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.”

“For a long time, between 1994 and the tragedy in Newtown in 2012 [in which 20 young children and six adults were killed], Dianne was often a lonely but unwavering voice on the issue of gun violence.”

“The modern anti-gun violence movement – now more powerful than the gun lobby – simply would not exist without Dianne’s moral leadership.”

From the US House, Maxwell Frost of Florida, one of the youngest congressional progressives, called Feinstein “a champion for gun violence prevention that broke barriers at all levels of government.”

“We wouldn’t have had an assault weapons ban if it wasn’t for Senator Feinstein and due to her tireless work, we will win it back. May her memory be a blessing.”

From outside Congress, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a pro-gun control group, pointed out that Feinstein was “one of the first among her colleagues to support gun safety – including Democrats”.

Inside Congress, as a government shutdown loomed, Feinstein’s desk in the Senate was draped in black cloth, a vase of white roses placed to mark her death.

From the other side of the political aisle, the Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins called Feinstein “a strong and effective leader, and a good friend.”

Newsom has pledged to pick a Black woman to replace Feinstein until the midterm elections next year.

On Friday, Barbara Lee, a Black Democratic congresswoman running for the seat, said: “This is a sad day for California and the nation. Senator Feinstein was a champion for our state, and served as the voice of a political revolution for women.”

Among commentators, the MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan highlighted what will to many prove a complicated political legacy.

“The high point and low point of … Feinstein’s long and storied career as a US senator both relate to the ‘War On Terror’,” Hasan said. “Low point: voting for the Iraq invasion. High point: going against the CIA to expose their torture programme.”

In his statement, Newsom said: “Every race [Feinstein] won, she made history, but her story wasn’t just about being the first woman in a particular political office, it was what she did for California, and for America, with that power once she earned it. That’s what she should be remembered for.”

“There is simply nobody who possessed the poise, gravitas, and fierceness of Dianne Feinstein.”

Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of political rhetoric at Texas A&M University, put the case for Feinstein perhaps most simply of all.

“Dianne Feinstein was on the right side of history,” she said.

[truth4ourfreedom]

THINGS NOT IN THE NEWS ANYMORE. VERSION 6.0

Things not in the news anymore….

(Version 6)

-Maui wildfires. -East Palestine, Ohio -Joe Biden classified documents as a Senator. -Fauci working with China to create a bioweapon. -Pete Buttigieg’s best friend in prison for child porn. -Cocaine in the White House. (TWICE NOW) -The BLM and Antifa riots during 2020 causing BILLIONS of dollars of damage. -The data collected from the Chinese spy balloons. -Ukraine intelligence documents released that showed they were suffering massive losses and the American taxpayer was being lied to. -Nancy Pelosi’s “documentary” film crew on J6. -Veterans being kicked out of shelters to make room for illegals. -Pizzagate “debunker” jailed for possession of child pornography. -Gay porn film in Senate hearing room. -Veterans Affairs prioritizing healthcare of illegals over Veterans. -THE SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS. -Afghanistan drawdown and 13 service members killed in an attack on Kabul International Airport, that they hid the severity of it. -Obama droning an American citizen in the Middle East. -George Bush’s false WMDs. -3 service members killed in Jordan. -Hunter Biden making over $1M for “paintings”. -J6 political prisoners that are still in jail. -85,000 missing children at the southern border. -Epstein’s clients. -Obama coordinating with John Brennan and 4 other countries (5 eyes) to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign. -Mail-in ballots were the cause of the stolen 2020 election. -Jeffrey Epstein mentioning that Bill Clinton liked his girls “really young”. -The (NOW TWO) airline whistleblowers that mysteriously died. -Benghazi (I won’t mention anything more about this because I care about my life.) -Nancy Pelosi’s daughter stating that January 6th wasn’t an insurrection. -The January 6th committee destroying encrypted evidence before the GOP took over the House. -Nancy Pelosi admitting that J6 was “her responsibility”. -House Speaker Mike Johnson claiming there wouldn’t be foreign aid without border security in the bill, which was a lie. -The recent riots from illegal criminal aliens at the southern border and the border in general. -Hunter Biden not complying with a Congressional subpoena and deemed untouchable. Democrat privilege. -Vaccine side effects. -“Lab leak” out of China -The Secret Service having to basically guide Joe Biden everywhere he goes. -Who leaked (Sotomayor) the SCOTUS Alito decision. -Federal instigators inside the Capitol including pipe bomb evidence against them. -Obama’s chef “passing away”. -HRC’s chef “passing away”. -The Sheriff that happened to be in Las Vegas (during the mass shooting) AND the wildfires in Hawaii. -P Diddy sex-trafficking allegations. Where’s Diddy? -Gonzalo Lira (an American journalist) that was killed in Ukraine -Congress approving warrantless spying violating American’s 4th amendment rights while they are exempt. -Americans that were left in foreign countries (Haiti, Palestine, Afghanistan). -The billions of dollars of weaponry left in Afghanistan and the Taliban receiving $40M a week in “humanitarian assistance”. -Biolabs found in California. -Joe Biden’s impeachment. -The scum in the UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES waving the Ukrainian flag. -The over 300k ballot images that could not be found in Fulton County, Georgia; the same county Donald Trump on trial for “election interference”. -Democrats defunding the police causing massive rises in crime. -Kamala Harris’s record as DA in California. -The Transifesto from the school shooting. -Many U.S. Representatives and Congress receiving FTX funds. -They’re already working hard to bury Donald Trump’s àssassination attempt but we won’t let them bury that story. July 13th is never going away.

The distractions are out of control.

Share to show that legacy media is dead and that WE are the media now.

Please like,share and reblog to keep people aware!

[thebreakfastgenie]

It is extremely disturbing how many posts I see claiming that Roe v. Wade was overturned on Biden's watch and blaming him and the Democratic Party for it. It's disturbing on a number of levels.

First, it was Trump and Bush-appointed justices who handed down the Dobbs decision. This is a flagrant example of blaming Democrats for things Republicans did, and not coincidentally is one of the the most widely felt differences between the two parties. As a result, it's usually the first example Democrats and their allies point to; this misappropriation suggests a deliberate attempt to undercut that fact.

Secondly, and related to the first point, it obfuscates who the real enemy is, and I am comfortable using word "enemy" to describe the Republican Party because of the policies they advocate and enact. The truth is that states controlled by the Republican Party were where the effects of Dobbs are most severely felt, while states controlled by the Democratic Party are passing laws to protect abortion. It is important to know which party opposes abortion and which party supports it. If the Republicans gain control of the House, Senate, and White House, they will pass a national abortion ban, as they have done at the state level in several places.

Thirdly, blaming Biden for Dobbs demonstrates a very concerning lack of understanding of how the government functions. The judiciary is its own branch of government; judges are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. It doesn't matter who is president when a decision is handed down, it matters who was president when the justices were appointed. People sometimes react to this by moving the goalposts and claiming the real issue was a failure by Democrats to "codify" Roe v. Wade. I am not sure what "codify" means in this context, and I'm not sure they are either. One thing it does not mean is that congress can pass a law saying "abortion is legal forever." Republicans could easily repeal such a law and it the federal government cannot necessarily prevent states from restricting abortion at the state level. Roe v. Wade was a ruling stating that the constitution guaranteed a right to privacy, which included the right to have an abortion. This prevented abortion restrictions in a way federal law cannot. That doesn't mean passing federal law protecting abortion is a bad idea, but it isn't a foolproof protection. It's fair to argue that the Democratic Party and the left of center generally were complacent about abortion. The form of this complacency was not taking the courts seriously, while the right spent fifty years openly filling the courts with anti-abortion judges.

The last thing that worries me is that this is popping up phrased almost the exact same way all over the place. I am afraid that it is not merely incompetence, but intentional misinformation, that is then repeated by the incompetent who believe it.

I know some will probably dismiss this post as being from a "vote harder" liberal Biden supporter, but whatever your feelings about Biden, the Democratic Party, or the democratic process in the U.S., you should care about the truth. The truth is that Roe v. Wade was overturned by Republican-appointed judges and abortion bans are being enacted by Republican elected officials, and Joe Biden opposes these things. You can do with that information whatever you wish, but you denying it is dishonest.