Absolutely useless

  • xain52 @lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    I called my senators in new mexico to vote no. And with senator lujan the clerk said he will be voting no. So hopefully more will follow.

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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    6 hours ago

    Trump will destroy America and blame democrats if we don’t fully back Trump destroying America, including removing congressional power to block the destruction of America while it is done.

    On blame, easy path is push for clean CR that will keep government open, or reopen, when house votes on it when they feel like coming back to work. GOP will be blamed for the shutdown.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I love how these conversations happen many times every session, but then campaign time comes and everyone calls me a Russian asset for reminding people of what the “Blue No Matter Who” mentality gets you.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      The time to have that conversation is before and during the primaries. After that, it’s not a worthwhile conversation.

      The message isn’t the issue, your timing is.

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        LOL

        What primaries? The Democrats invented superdelegates to subvert democracy in the primary process, and then argued in court in Florida that it was their right to do so when they were sued for it.

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Good point. Better to do nothing then. Give up.

          Or get more involved in the only party with a chance and change them from the inside?

          No, that sounds like work. Forget it.

          • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            It is a good point, and I’m not advocating for doing nothing, just acknowledging that change via the Democrats is impossible. Unless you’ve been asleep for 40 years, you’re well aware that real, meaningful change is impossible in this party duopoly, and nothing underscores that more than running a publicly brain-dead man and the entire “progressive” party apparatus lining up behind him in order to suit his fragile, stupid ego.

            What I advocate for is doing good with one’s own two hands, because that’s always possible. Be willing to pick up dog shit even if it’s not yours. When someone in your building asks for a favor, be generous with your time. When ICE comes knocking, and they will, find that maybe you have difficulty remembering things. (And if you really want to underscore how shitty the Democrats are, remember that Tom Homan was also Obama’s guy.)

            • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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              4 hours ago

              I agree. But my point is that the Democrats are the only tool we have at the moment within the government.

              We have plenty of tools outside of the government, and you’re 100% right that we should use those as well.

              But let’s not throw out the one tool we have inside the government. Let’s improve it so it’s useful.

              • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                That’s the thing, we don’t.

                The Democrats in Washington do not give a fuck about you, me, our families, or anyone else. They exist to do performative things and make nice speeches, then go vote in a manner that can be charitably called conservative but more often enables fascism. For example, remember when they did their nice little stunt kneeling in Congress with their African wear? Those same Democrats linked up behind Biden when he wanted to militarize the police even more.

                The only power you or I have is local unless you’re willing to commit an extraordinary act of vigilantism or you’re a billionaire. That’s it.

              • Match!!@pawb.social
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                4 hours ago

                Do we have Democrats as a tool inside the government? Are you sure they aren’t another of the oligarchs’ tools?

                • qarbone@lemmy.world
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                  1 hour ago

                  I can tell you’ve never had to sweep or shovel with something when half the haft is gone. Or tear the lid off a garbage can because the mechanism to lift the lid stopped working.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      7 hours ago

      Liberals are, for all their talk, in a Stockholm Syndrome kind of love with the DNC. BlueMAGA is some combination of a death cult and an abusive relationship.

  • Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    I normally think of politicians as day workers. No one is going to risk hiring (bribing) them in fear of Trump’s retaliation. The only work they can get is turning “traitor” to get Republican bills through.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    no one is this meek. this is collusion. they’re complicit, and it’s not by accident. they’ve always been this way.

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
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      4 hours ago

      Democratic politicians suck up Super PAC money the same as Republicans. It’s just that Republicans just do other forms of corruption out in the open because they know their voters are too stupid to notice.

      Trump scamming people with memecoin currency, MAGA doesn’t care.

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    I’ve often been a defender of Democrats being realistic, but Schumer is on some bullshit here.

    It’s unclear what, if anything, Schumer got in return for his decision to allow the House bill to proceed

    Says it all right there. The Republican bill was just a list of laughably insane things they knew Democrats would oppose so they could blame the shutdown on them. It actually cuts funding of DC’s local budget forcing them to fire teachers and even cops. Again, nothing to do with the federal government. It just grabs power from a local government and says that they can’t use their own local tax revenues to educate kids and fight crime. It’s complete rabid insanity that has no point other than to bully a blue city. And Schumer’s like “Sure, ok. whatever.”

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      The budget also cuts medicare and medicaid by some pretty substantial amounts, among many other government programs.

      • randon31415@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        This is the CR. This allows for more time to work on that budget… which only needs 51 votes because of reconciliation.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          Ah, ok. Kind of weird that they would even bother with a CR when they could just move the debt ceiling with the budget proposal? Still, a weight is lifted knowing that it isn’t coming to pass right away.

    • b1t@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      It’s because the Moderates (aka. Republicans in blue suits) control the party and it’s been this way for far too long.

      It’s the same reason Nancy Pelosi kept stepping on AOC’s toes and even worked to keep her out of key committee positions, despite her being popular with a lot of Democratic voters.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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        6 hours ago

        The DNC is a zionist first organization. Members winning is secondary to zionist rule over America.

  • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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    16 hours ago

    Call your senators, they can still block this despite Schumers push. The vote is tomorrow. If all republican vote for it, they need 7 dems. 8 with Rand Paul who has said he’ll vote no. (Republicans are not using reconciliation so it needs the the filibuster)

    Many senate dems are publicly coming out against voting for cloture (meaning they won’t vote to let it get through the filibuster). As of what I last read, around 11 10 dems are thought to potentially vote to let it pass filibuster. Most of those are still not sure. We only need a handful more of those to become noes and it will get blocked. Some yeses have flipped to noes because of public pressure. We cannot let up now

    Link to find direct numbers your senators

    https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

    Or call the capitol switch board (202) 224-3121

    House dems are publicly telling the senate not to do this (and it’s not just AOC on this - it’s quite a few of them). Earlier read that 7 Dem state AGs are saying the same. Federal worker unions are telling senate dems not do this. Keep the pressure up

    • takeda@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      One thing to keep in mind though…

      I was outraged a minute ago, but now I’m not sure.

      When the government is shut down, so are the courts, and we need them.

      How one branch is capable to shut down apparently a co-equal branch of the government?

      • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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        15 hours ago

        Not immediately

        Unlike executive branch agencies, the federal courts can continue operations for about two weeks following a government shutdown. When a shutdown loomed in September 2019, the U.S. federal courts confirmed they could use reserve or carryover funds accumulated from various revenue sources not dependent on Congress, such as case filing fees. When courts are on notice that a government shutdown may be looming, they can take steps to conserve funds by deferring non-critical expenses — for example, by curbing travel, new hires, and certain contracts.

        https://judicialstudies.duke.edu/2024/05/how-a-u-s-government-shutdown-impacts-courts-access-to-justice/

        Plus voting in favor of this CR would be codifying much of what these cases are about. Many of the illegal spending cuts would become legal until September making the cases moot.

        It would also fuck over DC local government in a way the executive branch cannot easily do. Congress can control DC budgets but very little of the DC budget comes from federal money (<1%) where Trump could mess with. The CR has a clause to cut $1 billion from their budget despite that not saving the federal government any money

        • takeda@lemm.ee
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          15 hours ago

          That’s a good point. Looks like both ways are bad, but voting yes, still looks worse.

          • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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            14 hours ago

            Indeed, there’s a reason the Federal Worker Unions are saying to vote against the CR despite the likely shutdown that would entail

            Plus it would teach senate Republicans that they can do basically whatever they want as long as they threaten a shutdown. You have to stand up strong to bullies it’s the only thing they understand

    • limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      17 hours ago

      It’s really hard to remove bought politicians when it’s the rule and not the exception

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        That’s why I am 99% certain America gets a civil war. When half the population are so mentally ill that they support Trump, and the other half so brainwashed they blame progressives for Trump — the only group that has consistently warned that conservatism and neoliberalism will result in fascism — you can’t simply “deprogram” them.

        One major reason Europe rebounded after WW2 is because the vast majority of fascist “true believers” died in the war, and fascist leadership was executed. Europe essentially had a political and sociological “reset”. Without that, America’s cancer will continue to grow and fester. If civil war does not happen, or the fascists win it, the world gets US fascist imperialism and WW3 in the 2030’s; give or take a few years.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    17 hours ago

    The US has no form of vote of no confidence. So therefore no way to have consequences for bad governing outside of the voting period, which has its own problems. Importantly here is the need for quick backlash rather than wait two or more years to choose someone else (if there is anyone else allowed to be a pick).

    A lot of the flaws in the government are inherent from the beginning because there were certain expectations assumed, and that a document of rules can’t be perfect the first, second, or even only a third time. It needs consistent revisions to keep up with the needs of the group it is designed for. This is where the biggest failure has happened, and can be attributed to lack of attention, not wanting to change what seems to work, sacred holding of what was never meant to be set in stone, or just that it often benefited not being changed at the time by those with the power to change it.

    Add to all that a very short attention spanned public, fine tuned to be ignorant and forgetful as well as easily manipulated by the simplest of sound bites.

    The rot is in the walls. Not that the American Experiment was a bad thing, it’s just that it wasn’t maintained and updated, so you get eventual decay.

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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      17 hours ago

      Kevin McCarthy would still be the house leader if that were 100% true. Congressional leadership can changed with enough intrer-party pressure. Schumer is highly unlikely to face any expulsion vote from congress, but he could more realistically be stripped of leadership position. This is a breaking point that might actually build that pressure and we can play a roll in that by calling your senators.

      Not delaying Trump’s nominees with all tools (only some of them) isn’t nearly serious as him pushing to give up the one piece of genuine dem leverage until September for basically no gain. Directed pressure - not on social media - but in places senators can see will let us do it. That means calling them, emailing them, hell even faxing, showing up in person to their office and town halls, etc.

      Also do this for the bill vote itself too before tomorrow morning. See my comment about we can still block this vote

  • Fingolfinz@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    The dnc is just controlled opposition. The Democratic Party is the only chance to push the country left but the establishment is working against it and these old fucking ghouls are the elite still and much closer to their Republican “counterparts” than they are to us.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    17 hours ago

    If someone who has been in office doing their job for decades and still hasn’t changed much … why does anyone expect them to do anything different now?

    • WHARRGARBL@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      That’s my question, too. How does a shutdown suddenly give the reavers more power to destroy? I mean, they’re already tanking everything.

      • [email protected]@sh.itjust.works
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        16 hours ago

        Reading about the funding bill, it also seems to include dismantling of some checks and balances.
        They’re probably fucked either way, I just don’t know enough to tell which is worse.
        Seeing as both Bernie, AOC and federal workers’ unions agree to vote no on that one, they’re probably on to something.
        Idk, I don’t live in a failed state

      • takeda@lemm.ee
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        15 hours ago

        I think they are gearing that shutdown will shut down the courts too (a branch that supposed to be co-equal)

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      People who can afford not to get their paychecks anymore can still show up for work, the President, the Treasury, and Military will be operating at full capacity, but federal workers will no longer receive payment and will likely be forced to quit and congress might remain in recess for a long time.