I’m watching Sen. Cory Booker break the Senate for the longest speech in Senate history. I don’t know if most Americans are aware this is going on, but it’s a good effort.
I’m waiting to see the results of the special elections tonight, hoping to see a big Democratic overperformance, if not wins. Maybe wins in Florida is hoping for too much, but cutting the margin from last November would be nice. And I do hope the Republican in Wisconsin is absolutely trounced. Fingers crossed.
Do discuss the day’s events. And here are a couple of things to read from The New Republic:
Michael Tomasky, Of Course Trump Will Tank the Economy. It’s What Republicans Do.
Greg Sargent, The Lawlessness Is the Point
I remember a time in my teens when I almost got in a fight where I was almost certain to get my butt kicked by a street fighter about 80 pounds heavier. How I didn't get sent to the hospital isn't the point. The creep was at a party with his girlfriend and while she was out of the LR, he was trying to grope a girl who was my friend (not my girlfriend.)
Sometimes the right thing to do is pick a fight you will not win as a matter of principle, an attempt to draw public attention to bad behavior. Ignoring it sanctions it – confronting it can raise public disapproval.
Booker changed nothing but he confronted Trump for what he's doing in a dramatic way. It's a warning that Democrats are not going to submit. (The lawsuit filed today will have more historical weight but Democrats and Independents needed to see somebody show some spine. (Bernie and AOC have also stood up against Trump and drawn record crowds.)
Oh, I want to finish the story. I was persuaded to leave the party with a couple of friends, including the girl, But I promised I'd be back. While I was gone, three other friends took the guy aside and told him if did return and there was a fight where I got the tar kicked out of me, before the bully left the party, he'd have to face the three of them at the same time. When I got back, he didn't want to fight and I gratefully accepted.
So all the noise was for nothing, or was it? I showed that I'd stand up. I didn't know for months that my friends showed they'd stand up for me. The bully found out that in some circles, being a creep could catch up to him. So my hats off to Senator Booker for taking a courageous and difficult stand. It will inspire others that resistance is not futile.
11:45 pm Tue night.
Susan Crawford won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race (projected winner) at approximately 55% to 45%.
The two FL congressional races are called for the Repubs. Both races were around 57% – 43%; both districts went for Drumph by 30+ points (that would be about 65% – 35%). That's a swing of 8 points in two deep red districts.
NFS, a three-letter acronym that is a tranny killer if the vermin are transactional. Transactional is, at times, just a nice way of saying corrupt as I have been told. At least Wisconsin people understand this and act accordingly, restoring some faith in at least some of the electorate. By a ten-point margin the Wisconsin people refused to sell Democracy out and indicated some things are just Not For Sale.
Without that and Cory Booker's stand, the option of resisting the Oligarchy appeared futile. Two court decisions are huge mistakes. One of these is Citizens United. The other the ruling about presidential behavior and the law. Let's just call it what it is, The Nixion Nonsense, that nothing the president does can be considered as illegal. You can add the -when acting as president- nonsense if you want, but we now see that is negated with a sold-out congress. It would work if congress was NFS but that is not reality.
The courts and the electorate are finally understanding that these two errors are not corrected all of justice will become nothing but fantasy, and the United States will end up as a total Oligarchy quite quickly. Turkey is acceptable as Thanksgiving fare, but not as a model for the US government. We best model the folks of Wisconsin in every state.
Today is Tariff Day aka Liberation Day though no one can say just exactly from what oppression we are being liberated. It is not the Chicken Tax for sure.
Eduardo Porter wrote today in the WP of the chicken tax under a headline foreboding the end of the US auto industry accelerated by projected and recently imposed tariffs.
That was 65 years ago when we quit making small and efficient vehicles in the US. Tariffs helped us get there. Small and efficient vehicles were ceded to other countries and are now the world standard. Norway has gone almost entirely electric. Who now, knowing that fact, think that tariff was a good idea other than oil exporters. There is always laughable garbage rhetoric about tariffs on a given country's oil. Oil is fungible. You get to know only who is selling it not where it was produced. You are just creating a playing field for corruption, which may be the hidden goal. Oligarchs might like that, but the vast majority of US citizens get the shaft.
Porter continues with what we hope are unintended consequences of government tariff meddling. The US auto industry headed for an island status, with only a limited national market if any at all.
Magical thinking seems the only way this liberates anything, unless not having a viable auto industry in this country at all is the goal. The chicken tax got us on that path over 60 years ago. We still have some auto industry viable and surviving. With a little "liberation" that too could be gone soon.
Opinion | Trump tariffs will hurt American auto manufacturers – The Washington Post
Well happy that the WI supreme court went to the democrat. First to save WI from the pit of wing-nut magats and secondly maybe more importantly to hand that slimy sack of shit Eloon an embarrassing defeat. I read somewhere that some GOP'ers were hoping Eloon's candidate would go down so they could begin the task of kicking him to the curb. Who could have dreamed that a ketamine addicted mentally challenged freak show billionare firing tens of thousands of middle-class workers at random and trying to buy statewide elections would be unpopular!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HKNAhAxMAk