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[sluissa]

Should just use a teleporter to fuse every dude but biden and yang together, maybe castro too.   The rest are indistinguishable, I'm not convinced they werent generated with an algorithm.  Maybe biden too honestly.

Putting all my money on marianne/JEB! 2020

(probably sarcasm)
I think there was an Alex Jones show about this, but a lizard crawled in as well and that's how we got Hillary.
(/probably sarcasm)

Yang isn't all that notable other than he simply doesn't have the political skills the others have, and that makes him stand out in the crowd. Even what he's saying is just a mix of different talking points from across the democratic spectrum while putting the absurdly risky UBI topic way out front. I would say there's probably more space between say... Harris and Warren than between Warren and Yang.

But yeah, at this point they're all so far from Trump that they all kinda seem the same.

[Max™]

If Harris doesn't end up on top of the heap, I hope she at least takes out Biden, goddammit we don't need an octagenerian going for a second term.

Also the hand thing is probably from juggling/learning numerous other weird little hand tricks which has lately been applied to brace/align/shear/shave/scrape/sever/connect/finish type of woodworking/metalworking/toolwright tasks.

[smjjames]

Eric Swalwell is dropping out of the race.

[Kagus]

Eric Swalwell is dropping out of the race.

I guess you could say that he bit off more than he could Swalwell.

[wierd]

So, Pelosi is being a raging old twat, and AOC calls her on it.
Such is politics I guess.

[SalmonGod]

In response to that vote, Pelosi told Dowd, "All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world," adding, "But they didn't have any following. They're four people and that's how many votes they got."

In other words, "I don't give a shit what the public thinks.  We've got the process captured, so we'll do what we want and there's nothing they can do about it."

The Democrat old guard keeps getting caught expressing this sentiment this over and over again.  Whyyyy the fuck does anybody still think that they actually stand for anything they're supposed to.  Whyyy does anybody still think that voting for them is a meaningful avenue of resistance to Republican fascism when they refuse to use the powers available to them to actually fight when they have the opportunity.

[wierd]

Because calling them on it gets a chorus of "FALSE EQUIVALENCE!" ??

(because you know, mentioning that they are just as bad (at not representing their demographic, QED) as the GOP, means that somehow they are just as slimy in all the other ways. Somehow.)

[sluissa]

From Pelosi's point of view though, the border crisis was getting dangerously close to landing in her lap if the money didn't go through. They would have preferred to have more control over exactly how the money was used, but the border patrol keeps saying "Look, we're doing what we can with the money we've got." and to be fair, they are very much under funded for what they're having to deal with, thanks to Trump's policies. But if it became a simple case of "We need more money, and unless we get more money we can't do shit about giving out toothbrushes and beds." That would have landed in Democrats laps.

Now, if they provide the money, it gets misused. Kids are still packed in cages and people are still dying in rivers. Then it's Trump's fault again.

It's politics. It's disgusting. But it also makes some amount of sense. Holding back those few votes was nothing but publicity for them. Maybe it'll help them in the long run, but if it had come down to 4 votes actually mattering... that would be a different story.

Just to note, this really does seem like the exact same shit that Rand Paul pulls on the republican side. Talk shit about the party and the votes, and even vote against them if the vote doesn't matter, but for every vote that actually DOES matter, he falls in line. Now, that group doesn't have the record to go back and really judge if they'd ACTUALLY fall in line on controversial votes, but they haven't seemed to cause any issues thus far.

I don't like Pelosi. I was really hoping someone else would have taken over as speaker at the beginning of the year. But I'm starting to dislike Ocasio-Cortez even more. She went from a very intelligent person in interviews a year or two ago before she was elected to a politician that just spouts whatever she thinks will get her attention. That happened very quickly, and I'm not going to go so far as to say she got dumber overnight. I'm sure this is all planned by someone. But it is costing her in respect and support from... at least me personally. But that's how you play the game. You can't depend on the people who listen to politics podcasts to be a big enough base to get you elected. I respect that on some level, but it still pisses me off.

[Frumple]

Because calling them on it gets a chorus of "FALSE EQUIVALENCE!" ??

(because you know, mentioning that they are just as bad (at not representing their demographic, QED) as the GOP, means that somehow they are just as slimy in all the other ways. Somehow.)

They're not just as bad at representing their demographic as the GOP, though. At all. They're not perfect and they cater to more than one demographic, but once a-fucking-gain they're not nearly as bad as the GOP that regularly goes out of its way to fuck over regions they have political control over, along with everything else they can get their hands on.

Framing sidelining four votes out of 240-ish as ignoring public sentiment is pretty bullshit, too, though. That's not the democrat old guard capturing the process, that's the majority of the bloody party deciding something was the best option they had at the time.

E: In any case, for some actual news, it seems the lawyers working the census citizenship question are being replaced. To all appearances because they were basically stick-a-fork-in-them done, and now the shitgibbon's administration is flailing about in response.

[Reelya]

Also, that articles says Pelosi should keep any criticism of other Democrats such as AOC behind closed doors because of 'unity'.

However ... is AOC's faction playing by those rules? They've publicly targeted other Democrats already, including Pelosi, as googling Green New Deal shows in a number of articles. People were writing about how AOC was attacking her own side 6 months ago, at least
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/11/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-democrats-establisment-1093728

Incumbent Democrats are most annoyed by Ocasio-Cortez’s threat to back primary opponents against members of their ranks she deems too moderate.

If you come in overtly saying you're going to destroy the careers of other people in your party, then you can't really cry foul when other's in your party don't find your presence helpful.

Pelosi saying that 4 votes isn't a majority voice is soft-ball compared to AOC's threats to use mob justice to get those she disagrees with turfed out of Congress. AOC and co were basically threatening to destroy careers with that stuff, not using a few quips to "sideline" people. When Pelosi actually threatens to get AOC ganked, let me know.

[SalmonGod]

Pelosi's quote specifically frames their lack of following in the congressional process in contrast to "their public whatever".

Similarly, I can understand people being pissed off about their careers being threatened because of AOC backing more progressive challengers.  But.... again.... that's not mob justice.  That's the voting process.  That's democracy.  If a Democrat loses their seat because a high profile progressive icon helps the public choose another candidate that's more like her, then maybe that incumbent Democrat shouldn't be pissed off at AOC.  They should be blaming themselves for being out of touch with public interest.  And when you throw comments like Pelosi's in the mix, it's pretty clear that they resent being pressured to care.

[Frumple]

Of course, outside the opinion smear piece, the source it drew that comment from also has commentary about Pelosi having cared about stuff like single payer for literal decades. I'm pretty sure it's less an issue of being pressured to care, and more about being pressured towards specific solutions, to the extent there's anything as strong as resentment to begin with.

As far as I'm aware there aren't many democrats particularly pissed off at AOC (or most of the further left wing of the party, for that matter) at all. Occasionally irritated over specific issues, but generally they're on the same side and same page.

[EnigmaticHat]

To be fair to Pelosi, I believe the 4 votes quote was in regards to vote where 4 democrats including AOC broke with the party (well, all of congress I believe).  So AOC literally did only have 4 votes.

I've seen no evidence that Pelosi is *bad* for the democratic party per se.  Her cautious approach might be what we need; if democrats had tried to impeach Trump our polls for 2020 could look very different.  In a way her and AOC form a good cop bad cop kinda duo, AOC rallies the base against Trump while Pelosi convinces Trump supporters impeachment won't happen.  My problem with Pelosi (and a problem I had with Obama) is that in addition to acting as if bipartisanship is possible in the post-Bush era, she seems to actually believe it.

[Frumple]

... since when? Far as I've noticed pelosi is entirely aware substantiative bipartisanship is dead and buried. She'll get GOP folks on board if possible (particularly on minor stuff) but is pretty damn cognizant of how possible that is without indulging in heinous shit probably directly aimed at major democratic constituent blocs.

You might be confusing her with biden, somehow?

[Dunamisdeos]

It's not like either side actually wants full control. For all their bluster they have a system where their power is assured in perpetuity. If they owned the whole shebang they'd have the responsibility that comes with it, and as it is now they can just shunt blame about in a circle until the citizenry forgets a problem ever existed.

Tried and true. Why change what works for them.