The Opposition Thread

Can I call other people’s Representatives and just tell them to act more like mine?

They won’t care that much.

I had to call a Kansas senator on something related to my job. They pretty much brushed me off despite my offering thanks.

My reps don’t even care when I say something, so I can’t imagine them caring if someone who can’t vote for them said anything.

They’re not all like that. The guy at my local corner market got a personal email reply to one of his calls, and the rep actually took the action that he’d promised to take that very week. Granted, it was some kind of classic car regulation or something and the rep happened to be an enthusiast himself, but hey.

Well my Rep is Steve King and my Senators are Grassley and Ernst.

I once emailed Grassley back when Death Panels was a thing and his staff straight up lied to me, literally blaming the media for the actual words he said. At that point I basically gave up on my Congressional Representation. I have 2 of the worst idiots ever and one of the most corrupt liars around as my proxies in Washington.

I see things like this CNN article:

… and I think to myself: nobody in this country wants him to ignore the intel community except for him. That’s freaking crazy. Why is it that we should be held hostage to his bad intentions? Anybody that would pay attention and at least listen to the wisdom of career diplomats and intelligence officers would be better than Trump. I used to think, “we’ll just wait this out,” but now I think we really need to impeach and get Trump out of office as soon as possible. Even the tea party republicans in congress should see that and be working towards it. You can’t sell out 350 million people because of one asshole regardless of your political party.

We really need a direct link from Trump to Putin that proves some sort of blackmail or collusion, then I don’t see anyone except his most deplorable backers could still support him.

Watch em.

Yeah @Clay, this is just fucked up on so many levels. At this point we need him to not complete his 4 year term through whatever means he can be removed. Surely there are some Republicans who care more about country than party line, and can appreciate the damage Trump does to both.

Like how they didn’t get Capone for any of the myriad gangster activities, but instead taxes. Especially since being an existentially threatening ignorant asshole isn’t, sadly, an impeachable offence.

Just as with Obama’s soon-to-be-removed international envoys, Trump has ordered Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Frank Klotz and his deputy, Madelyn Creedon—both Obama appointees—to leave their posts, even if it means no one is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons.

The source later added, “I’m more and more coming around to the idea that we’re so very very fucked.”

I’m sure the majority will vote this down in the Senate, but at least Warren and Franken are putting up a fight.

<quote=Senator Al Franken> “The president must always put the interests of the American people ahead of his own, and that certainly shouldn’t change with Donald J. Trump. President-elect Trump has failed to take the necessary steps to disclose and eliminate his many potential conflicts of interest, and that could jeopardize our national interests from the moment he takes the Oath of Office. That’s unacceptable, and it’s why my colleagues—including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren—and I have introduced a bill to require the president-elect to uphold the long tradition of past presidents and fully divest his vast financial holdings.”

http://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2017-01-09_Presidential_Conflicts_of_Interest_Act_of_2017.pdf "

The upshot of the proposed bill: if Trump doesn’t release his tax returns and divest from his assets, that would qualify as a “high crime and misdemeanor.”

You have to click through to see the letter.

That’s awesome. I hope that gets spread far and wide.

The NYT yesterday had a story about Trump voters and their reactions to the Russian hacking revelations. Though it was mostly about that specific thing, the telling bit is that these folks were completely dismissive of anything that cast aspersions on Trump, period. The mentality seems to be that all accusations against “their guy” are false political grandstanding, and that therefore accusations against Trump are just sour grapes from “crybabies” who lost the election. I suspect deep down these folks feel all criticisms of anyone in politics are equally gamey, and bogus, though they are perfectly willing to accept criticism of their foes. While there are definitely some on the other side of the fence who do the same thing, I don’t think it’s at all totally symmetrical. This is a polity that inherently cannot accept any criticism, particularly not criticism based on evidence, logic, or reason, which they IMO also reject as tools of the liberal intelligentsia to keep them down and attack “real” Americans who of course make decisions based on faith and our inherent superiority over all other people, or something.

In other words, none of this matters to the majority of people who voted for Trump, because they don’t believe that anything associated with or based on systems relying on competency, education, training, or experience can possibly be important, because all of those things are co-opted by the “system” that screws them. Ergo, the opposite must be perferrable.

RICHARD BECKER: So, actually, last Wednesday—so the day after new members were sworn in—the House Economic Development Committee held its meeting, at which they were to be discussing right-to-work and the repeal of prevailing wage. I was with several hundred union members in the halls of the Capitol Annex for the hours leading up to when the meeting was supposed to take place. And five minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, we were told that the room was full. None of us had been able to make it in. We later found out that that’s because Americans for Prosperity had reserved the committee room for a breakfast that morning, and come time for the committee to meet, they all just remained in their seats. So, when the committee meeting started, union members were shut out of the committee room, and the doors were shut, and state troopers stood in front of the doors to keep union members from attending the committee hearing.

I’m sick of this shit. These aren’t just politics. These are fucking villains. I’m going to teach my children that these people are the enemy, the bad guys. America used to be about having room for the opinions of others and talking through things and hearing from everyone but one side has taken the leverage provided by that and destroyed this country. I’m not going to pretend like it’s both sides anymore. Fuck them and the horses they rode in on.

If you’re still a Republican at this point, please learn some empathy and change.

*Edited to the nice version.

I’d probably have happily said the same 15 years ago, but if anything, it’s more true today! Conservatism is dead, and anyone left on that side of the aisle is just fucking a corpse.

Loathsome sentiments. Just listen to yourself.

The current Republican party wants to turn this country into a dictatorship. To me, that makes them the enemy of America.

Someone needs a safe space.

Tell me, how is the Trump/GOP agenda going to help Americans? I’ll wait.