Home » The Democrats’ plan wasn’t that hard to see even back in March of 2019

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The Democrats’ plan wasn’t that hard to see even back in March of 2019 — 61 Comments

  1. Mitt Romney doesn’t need to be split. Never has it seems. Can a Trojan Horse actually have been an ass the entire time?

    On a local Eastern WA level, the county Republican Parties which Dan Newhouse (WA District 4) represents have asked for his resignation by letter sent 1/16/21.

  2. The Democrats are determined to entrench changes that will make it impossible for the right to ever take power again.

    I’m not sure most Republicans in Congress want to take power again themselves, quite aside from allowing “the right” to do so. It’s a bit like saying that King Corbin really wanted to win Wrestlemania 2020.

    The illusion of opposition is what gets these guys paid.

    …The people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
    “Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
    “I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
    “So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?”
    “It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
    “You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
    “Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
    “But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
    “Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”

  3. I am old enough to have lived through several versions of how the US is going to be Democrat forever. Then Republican forever. Then Democrat. Then Republican. It doesn’t work that way because the issues move, people change, the parties adapt.

    Let us not forget that Trump was able to put in considerably more conservative judges to the Supreme Court than he would have been able to before the Democrats idiotically broke the old method, which more or less ensured more moderate judges. Their clever plans have a habit of unfolding on them.

    Because California and New York give all their electoral college votes reliably Democrat, the idiotic Dems think that all the voters in them are Democrat. Well, they ain’t.

    If the electoral college goes, then the Republicans need to pick a candidate that appeals to Californians and New Yorkers, and then actively campaign in those two states. Such a person could win yugely.

    For a start, those that never vote in those states because their votes don’t make any difference are going to be much more energised to vote. And those people are overwhelmingly ones who live in Democrat states.

  4. Chester Draws:

    This is NOT about the abolition of the Electoral College anymore, although the Democrats would also like to do that. This is about a plan to (a) abolish the filibuster (b) pack SCOTUS to render the conservatives on it ineffective (c) add completely Democratic states such as DC; and (d) change voting laws for the entire country in order to enable fraud in swing states and blue cities. That way the Democrats will be able to pass their agenda and will remain in power indefinitely. If they do all those things, it will happen – this group, unlike Democrats in the past, are dominated by the far left. Thus, I think analogies to the past in the US are not appropriate.

    Will the Democrats actually achieve these goals? I don’t know. But that is the plan. I intend to write several posts on each of these subjects in more depth.

  5. “If the electoral college goes, then the Republicans need to pick a candidate that appeals to Californians and New Yorkers, and then actively campaign in those two states. Such a person could win yugely.”

    The Democrats have made very big and very public efforts to win in places like Texas and Georgia. When is the last time the GOP has done anything similar?

    Kurt Schlichter on Twitter is shooting down suggestions of a “Patriot Party” to replace the GOP and he’s right that, under the American system, taking over a party is better than trying to start from scratch. But he seems to underestimate the challenge of replacing virtually the entire current GOP leadership/intellectual class, which is what needs to happen.

    A third party effort that hands a few election cycles to the Democrats may be the only thing that makes the current Republican establishment understand that the status quo is no longer acceptable.

    Mike

  6. “this group, unlike Democrats in the past, are dominated by the far left.”

    The three most important Democrats in the country right now are Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer.

    Mike

  7. “A third party effort that hands a few election cycles to the Democrats may be the only thing that makes the current Republican establishment understand that the status quo is no longer acceptable.”

    That would Shirely strike fear into the hearts (no souls involved) of the left (sarc).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM2K7sV-K74

    What could conceivable go wrong with this approach? Sort of the “burn it all down” approach? Careful what you wish for.

  8. The three most important Democrats in the country right now are Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer.

    But how are they behaving? It certainly looks to me as if these soi-disant “moderates” are moving ever leftward – perhaps in a bid to maintain their relevancy in the days of the Squad and Antifa? Or just because they were always wanting to go this way but didn’t feel they could until now?

    I’d like to believe that these events don’t mark the beginning of a terrible new era, but what keeps coming to mind is “It’s A Good Life.”

  9. om:

    Agreed. That approach is suicide. And yet I see a lot of people on discussion boards advocating it. Some of them, I am convinced, are on the left and pretending to be on the right. The rest are really on the right, and they’ve been part of the “burn it all down” crowd for years.

  10. MBunge:

    And your point is? Surely you don’t think that Pelosi, Schumer, and Biden (to whatever extent he is functioning) are not now on the far left? If you don’t think so, you haven’t been paying attention to what they’ve been doing. What they seemed to be like 20 or 30 (or even 5) years ago is utterly irrelevant.

    Also see this.

  11. Was thinking they might cool off with the electoral college end knowing they have other ways to run the table on elections.
    This HR 1 which sure will become law might tip the scales enough .

  12. The simple fact of the matter is that our differences are irreconcilable. Actual compromise is impossible because nothing less than surrender is acceptable for the Left. The continuance of individual liberties are seen by the Left as fundamental obstacles to their agenda. They would substitute revocable privileges for rights and regulate the conditions of those privileges ever tighter.

    The facts of the matter are clear, we already have the beginnings of a one party state, it simply varies in its dominance according to the issue. And there are less and less issues where the GOPe is willing to draw a line and say no more.

    Now that the left can ‘manufacture’ as many votes as needed to ‘win’ and with no reasonable prospect for electoral reform, it’s now a permanent case of “heads we win, tails you lose”.

    Blatantly fraudulent elections without consequence by a Marxist/progressive Left is the issue upon which all else hangs. They render the Constitution a dead letter.

    Clinging to the illusion that the rule of law still exists is to effectively agree that the Constitution is a suicide pact. They shall strive to do to anyone who objects, the same thing they did to Gen. Flynn. While the Comeys and McCabe’s sing, “Guilty as hell, free as a bird!”

    The democrat leadership is perfectly happy with 51% dictating without limitation to the other 49%. While working to increase the ratio, through indoctrination of the young and unlimited immigration from socialist societies. Until they achieve an unassailable majority with a miniscule minority that dare not object.

    Apparently, rather than accept that rebellion may in fact be the only remaining remedy, more than a few on the right have resigned themselves to a reluctant acceptance of political, cultural and economic enslavement.

    “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace.

    We ask not your counsels or arms.

    Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” Samuel Adams

  13. RE: “I wrote that passage in March of 2019, not long after a bill known as HR 1 or the ‘For the People Act’ had been passed in the newly-elected Democrat House.”
    And for 2020, HR 1 appears to be the same bill. I haven’t compared them word-for-word, but the plan appears to be to pass it again, and get it to the Senate. This time they may be able to get it through the Senate and Biden will sign it.

    Fair and free elections will be gone.

    RE: “This is NOT about the abolition of the Electoral College anymore, although the Democrats would also like to do that. This is about a plan to (a) abolish the filibuster (b) pack SCOTUS to render the conservatives on it ineffective (c) add completely Democratic states such as DC; and (d) change voting laws for the entire country in order to enable fraud in swing states and blue cities.”
    A couple of nits:
    (1) I’m not sure the DNC cares to remove the EC. As you correctly state, they’ve found a way to make it work for them. They now have a “firewall” based on fraud that gives them a huge advantage in the EC. Additionally, they may add multiple tiny DNC states. Each will add three EC votes.
    (2) The goal of “justice reform” will be more than making conservatives ineffective. I believe that the goals will also include: (1) re-writing the Constitution by “re-interpreting” the document in new ways; (2) supporting the new laws (e.g. Federal voting rules) that would otherwise get blocked; and (3) allowing Federal regulators, DOJ/FBI officials, and the intelligence community almost limitless powers.

  14. Just like the leftist that say “real socialism (communalism) has never been implemented” the “burn it all down” crowd are equally assured of their wisdom and ask that we trust them with matches and gasoline (or napalm or white phosphorus).

    What could conceivably gang aft a-gley?

  15. “Surely you don’t think that Pelosi, Schumer, and Biden (to whatever extent he is functioning) are not now on the far left?”

    Ask people actually on the far Left if they think Pelosi, Schumer, and Biden are their bosom buddies. There was just a big fight on the Left about forcing a vote on expanding Medicare to cover everybody. The pro-expansion crowd lost.

    I doubt Biden knows what he’s doing any longer but while Pelosi and Schumer are happy to indulge certain far Left elements, it’s largely to distract from their pro-corporate, pro-deep state, and pro-Military Industrial Complex agenda. Pelosi and Schumer have more in common with Mitch McConnell than they do with the far Left.

    Mike

  16. “Pelosi and Schumer have more in common with Mitch McConnell than they do with the far Left.” From a “Burn it all Downer” LOL.

    Mitch McConnel is special in his own way but not that way bro. LOL

  17. “Mitch McConnel is special in his own way but not that way bro.”

    Yeah, you clearly don’t understand the point I’m making. You’re also way too sensitive when your intellectual shortcomings are pointed out, so I’ll just let it go.

    Mike

  18. Mr Bunge doesn’t recognize his own limitations or the foolishness of some of his words. It’s a feature. Sad.

  19. Neo calls a new, coherent, post-billionaire corporate globalist paymaster political party “suicide.” I say they hate us and sell us and country out every time because they hate us and our nations structure and value’s (pace McConnell, Graham, etc).

    We MUST have this fight or else there is nothing to save. The Ruling Class War is manifest and once seen cannot be unseen.

    Early Sunday evening weekly radio talk show host Dr Mike Dunn, a dentist, gave a ringing defense of this view in his second hour, the 24th, Backbone Radio” on KNUS, 760-AM. (The podcast version can be accessed by merely registering with your email address at the station’s web site.)

    THIS is not an intramural exercise but a matter which determines whether or not there is anything left to conserve!

    If they betray us so easily and give up their only fighter, can these moronic traitors ever be trusted again? I say no, HELL NO! Never!

    Never again any vote for the near enemy so foul they’d sell out their Gand ma. NEVER!

    Rasmussen, via Just The News.com has got some polling numbers.
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/shock-poll-trump-patriot-party-would-win-almost-quarter-voters-drop-gop

    Since Trump polled high in the primaries, at 94%, I think Rasmussen’s numbers are on the low end. The initial beginning.

    As China Joe’s DementiDent bites harder and alienates more with greater failures, the upside of a Pat’s Party Trumpist alternative grows ever more attractive, as buyers remorse swells.

    I guess Bidet did a live streamed speech, and slurred in his talk to 3,500 online.

    RECORD SETTING VOTE GETTER my f-ing ass.

    RepubliCRATS MUST BE NAMED SHAMED, EXPELLED, THEN REPELLED FROM ALL RESPECT BECAUSE REPUGNANT FOR THEIR TREASON AND ALLERGY TO WINNING!

    So goes my quick case for the Pat’s Party Vehicle.

    Remember, Trump brought over many non voters and many disaffected Democrat voters. Romney, Bush, McCain Again Graham won’t appeal to them — they are losers, not winners, not fighters like Trump!

    Trump has our back. RepubloCRATS define the Uniparty as real, untrustworthy, and deeply, cynically treasonous.

    There is zero energy for the rotting sell out tripe they sell. That ain’t gonna change.

  20. So, with 4 GOPe Senators retiring in 2022, all of them un-supportive of Trump (Burr, Thompson, Toomey, and now Portman), it appears increasingly likely that that the GOPe will fail to recover control of the Senate in 2022, and maybe even in 2024.

    How does this affect the likelihood that a newly-formed third party with Trump advocate-candidates could win these seats? And more importantly (from my point of view at least), how would the introduction of a meaningful third party change the Senate and House rules? In other words, what power would coalition-building bring to the game, and how would this have to be structured within the existing Parliamentary rule book for it to make sense as a strategy? How would the voting power of a coalition be able to manipulate activities, when the Majority power sits with the third party, that doesn’t have the votes to over-ride the coalition? I can see obvious problems with not having the authority to bring proposed legislation to the floor, for instance.

  21. MORE DATA – “Poll: Majority of Republican voters think Trump will be ‘major political force’ in the future: Sixty percent of Democrats think Trump will not maintain a strong political presence”
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/poll-majority-republican-voters-believe-trump-will-be-major-political-force

    The GOPe is incapable of redressing the vast levels of corruption everywhere in DCs Federal employment and apparatus.

    Only a Great New Reform party can make that case and enact radical reforms to completely overhaul it.

    The Wheel does need reinvention, not more greasing or “broken” spoke replacements.

  22. TJ:

    Which is easier, taking over the GOP and weeding out the GOPextinct or starting a new party? Which do you think the left fears more? Or just burn it all down, works for you? Loose the all caps.

  23. MBunge,

    Re:”Ask people actually on the far Left if they think Pelosi, Schumer, and Biden are their bosom buddies. There was just a big fight on the Left about forcing a vote on expanding Medicare to cover everybody. The pro-expansion crowd lost.”

    “Pelosi and Schumer are happy to indulge certain far Left elements, it’s largely to distract from their pro-corporate, pro-deep state, and pro-Military Industrial Complex agenda.”

    That’s true but incomplete. The Pelosi and Schumer wing are indeed protective of their funders. The Sanders, Squad wing are indeed committed to a radically Marxist agenda. The former act to appease the latter, needing that faction’s base. They draw the line at what threatens their funders and what is in their view practically achievable. As the left gains increasing control, the Pelosi-Schumer wing will gradually give ground and appease until they’ve given the Marxist wing enough power with which to hang them.

  24. He’s right except in the details; having to write more to correct it than was present in the original comment.

    “Other than that, how did you like the play Mrs. Lincoln?”

  25. I agree with Aggie. I see no practical way for a third party to attain the dominance needed to enact political reforms. At least not as long as the democrats control how the votes are counted.

    om,

    How do you propose that we take over the GOP and weed out the GOPextinct?

    Do you imagine that the democrats will allow the collaborating RINO’s to lose reelection by refraining from ‘adjusting’ the vote where needed?

    Do you imagine that the left is not aware of how crucial retaining how the votes are counted is to preventing their loss of control?

    But if we did manage to vote the RINO b*st*rds out, by what means would we overcome enough Dominion software adjustments to regain control of the Presidency, Senate and House? As that combination is essential to implementing real reform?

    I reiterate because I view it as foundational, as long as the democrats control who counts the votes and how the votes are counted… neither a third party nor a cleansed and revitalized GOP will be politically sufficient to right our ship of State.

  26. Geoffrey Britain:

    Primary the bastards. Ever heard of that? So the Democrats control the Republican party too? Convenient. Getting your talking points from Yammer?
    Do you suppose that Republicans don’t trust the Democrats (no one is as wise as you?)

    Discovery will show if Dominion software was as corrupt as alleged, it may be, or it may not be. We don’t know that yet, so thanks for your opinion.

    As to your final opinion, consider North Carolina. Consider what “I am Sparticus” has posted or just stay stuck in the “all is lost.” That is of no use to anyone (not a fact, my opinion).

  27. om,

    How many candidates who claim to be constitutional conservatives turn out to be a RINO? The current and past makeup of republican congressional representatives demonstrates it to be the majority, yes?

    But on the somewhat dubious assumption that a primary gets us actual conservative candidates for Congress, as long as Dominion software is used to count the votes, the democrats control the outcome. So for plausible deniability, a few will get to Congress.

    But even if no use of fraud is attempted, as long as the democrats retain their majority, they will continue to pass what they please. This past election demonstrated that they can easily achieve their needed majority. What basis is there for assuming that they will not resort to whatever degree of fraud is needed to retain their majority, so as to prevent reform?

    “So the Democrats control the Republican party too? Convenient. Getting your talking points from Yammer?”

    Collaboration doesn’t equate to control but since Reagan’s exit it has proven sufficient. I include Trump’s tenure, as the GOP did nothing in support of Trump’s policies beyond what was beneficial for them.

    Ymar and I rarely agree and I have contested with him as much as any here. So that’s a bit of a low blow.

    Neither side trusts the other in that pit of snakes. But thieves cooperate when it is in their interest to do so.

    Snidely characterizing my point of view as arrogantly expressed and contemptuous of other points of view is dishonest, especially as I’ve clearly stated the rationale used to reach my point of view and asked others here to show me where I’m mistaken. That’s not the action of someone contemptuous of what others think.

    “Discovery will show if Dominion software was as corrupt as alleged, it may be, or it may not be. We don’t know that yet, so thanks for your opinion.”

    Discovery is only as revealing as the other party is willing to be forthcoming. It’s interesting that you’re being so neutral, given the mathematical impossibilities that occured using that software. I suspect that you fully realize that if the democrats continue to manage to employ that software, that your hopes of valid elections will drop off a cliff.

    North Carolina did not use the Dominion software, so that state’s electoral results while welcome do not address my point regarding Dominion.

    As for I am Sparticus’ post, I find his optimism a bit unrealistic. While sincerely hoping he and you are in the right and I in the wrong. How’s that for my thinking I’m the wisest?

  28. MBunge:

    Of course they’re not going to call them their bosom buddies. The left is not unitary, and Pelosi et al. are not fulfilling every single item on the leftist wish list. That does not mean they’re not on the left. They are – in their methods, their rhetoric, and the bills they are promoting.

  29. Geoffrey:

    You tactic is to state the “question” with a negative; prove to me that you do not still beat your wife.” I find “I am Sparticus” more than just optimistic, it appears that he has been actively involved not just a pessimistic commenter. Talk is cheap, deeds matter more than despairing words.

    Regarding Dominion, facts matter, if you persist with the assumption that we can never learn the facts, well you are in Yammer-land IMO.

    I find your dismissal of the NC example self serving, not fitting the woe-filled outlook.

  30. Mark Steyn just suggested that the third party be named the Paper Ballot Party. I like it.

  31. Conservative or populist third party strikes fear into the hearts of the Democrats (sarc)? Funny that Trump is not behind it. Trump is interested in actually winning. Dan Bongino suggests on todays show that grifters are all in favor of the third party con.

    Funny that the leftists didn’t form a third party, they worked and took over the Democrat party from the liberals (useful idiots now) and can now focus on annihilation of the “other” (conservatives first, Republicans at their leisure). But go ahead play into the leftist plan.

    Emotion of the moment versus long term work and focus. You light your hair on fire. Tell me how that works out. I won’t watch you do it.

  32. Striking fear into the Democrats? Maybe that’s what the Green Party, with Ralph Nader at the helm, did in 2000. After the 2000 election the Dems swung hard left. Lefties embraced the power of and. 3rd Party lefties to threaten the Dem power structure from without. Lefties inside the Dem party energized to grab power from within.

  33. So your willing to give the
    Dem leftists another 4 years (third party to fracture the Republican party) to send a message (“I’m a prideful looser!”) or something?

    I’ll pass on that con.

  34. “These things were certainly not hidden, and if some people who voted for Biden or a Democrat in 2020 professes not to have known this, they are either woefully ignorant or lying. They should have known.” – Neo

    You are getting into Isaiah / Jeremiah territory here.

    The leadership of the Democrat Party knew then, and knows now (obviously).
    The leadership of the Republican Party knew then — and still made no pre-emptive effort to permanently block the Democrat agenda (inertia and hope is not a plan).
    The CINO, GOPe, RINO, or what-you-will Republicans will not fight against the Democrats, then or now, apparently.

    They all know what is at stake, and have seen it in operation then and now — but don’t dare admit it because they could have stopped it and didn’t.
    I except the Honorable Senators Hawley and Cruz, and perhaps a few more, from the general indictment, but I would like to find out what, if anything, they were doing in the interim to block the D agenda.

    The LIVs, in both parties, didn’t have a clue in 2019, don’t have much more of one now. The MAGA Party might not have known what was going on in Congress in 2019, but they sure do now.

    The Donald may not run for President again – I don’t think he needs to in order to “win” future elections with a suitable successor – but he has obviously observed Obama’s precedent and will head whatever third party or GOP faction moves forward with his agenda and base.

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/trumps-office-former-president-officially-opened-florida

    The nation’s 45th commander-in-chief, Donald Trump, officially “opened the Office of the Former President” on Monday, according to a statement from the office which is located in Florida.

    “The Office will be responsible for managing President Trump’s correspondence, public statements, appearances, and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda of the Trump Administration through advocacy, organizing, and public activism,” the statement noted. “President Trump will always and forever be a champion for the American People,” the statement also said.

    #AlwaysMyPresident
    #MissHimYet?

  35. “So your willing to give the
    Dem leftists another 4 years (third party to fracture the Republican party) to send a message (“I’m a prideful looser!”) or something?”

    As opposed to rewarding the GOP for their consistent pattern of lying to and betraying their voters? What exactly is that going to accomplish?

    Is strategic thinking really that far beyond some people? Or is it just a masochistic desire to be treated like worthless garbage?

    The argument against a third party push is that the opportunity remains to reform/transform/take over the GOP. If your argument is that people have to allow Republicans to kick them in the balls wearing tennis shoes because it’s better than getting kicked in the balls by Democrats wearing steel-toed boots, people will eventually chose to follow someone else who promises not to kick them in the balls at all. Delaying that moment helps no one but those trying to make money off continual discontent.

    Mike

  36. Om: they do have 4 years and if the Republicans put up another McCain or Romney as their candidate, they will have many more.

  37. Mr Bunge:

    Here is a tip, primary the bastards. Remove them from their elected offices. Clear enough for you to follow?

    Dan Newhouse (GOPextinct) WA District 4, in my case. You doing anything in your part of the world?

    Talk is cheap, it’s the do that matters (hat tip Bongino, not Bunge).

    The Bunge Party for the Future! “We Won’t Kick You In the Balls!” lol

  38. First candidate in the MAGA Party-within-GOP
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/sarah-huckabee-sanders-expected-announce-arkansas-gubernatorial-bid

    Cruz takes a step in the right direction (again) – at least we should make the snake den churn a bit and reduce personal grips on power. It won’t end the general corruption and grift; however, it will make it easier to toss people after they reach a lesser rung than on the current ladder of longevity.

    https://justthenews.com/government/congress/ted-cruz-proposes-term-limit-amendment

    “Today my colleagues and I reintroduced a constitutional amendment to impose #TermLimits on Members of Congress,” the Texas lawmaker tweeted. “The amendment would limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three two-year terms.”

    Cruz gained the support of fellow Republican Sens. Mike Braun and Todd Young of Indiana, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania for the proposed constitutional amendment.

    This marks the third time Cruz has introduced legislation to impose term limits on Congress, having also done so in 2017 and 2019. His previous attempts never made it to the Senate floor.

    “Every year, Congress spends billions of dollars on giveaways for the well-connected: Washington insiders get taxpayer money and members of Congress get re-elected, all while the system fails the American people,” Cruz said in a statement. “The rise of political careerism in today’s Congress is a sharp departure from what the Founders intended for our federal governing bodies. I have long called for this solution for the brokenness of Washington, D.C., and I will continue fighting to hold career politicians accountable.”

    Adding Rand Paul to my Honorable list.
    https://justthenews.com/government/congress/sen-paul-vows-force-vote-constitutionality-trumps-upcoming-senate-trial

    The Senate on Tuesday derailed an effort by GOP Sen. Rand Paul to force the chamber to vote on the constitutionality of holding an impeachment trial for former President Trump. But the 55-45 vote tally that stopped the effort was a clear indicator that Senate Republicans support Paul’s constitutional argument and won’t supply enough votes for chamber Democrats to convict Trump.

    “I want to put the Senate on the record,” Paul wrote in an op-ed on Tuesday in The Washington Examiner. “I will insist on holding a vote that makes every last senator vote on whether they believe this proceeding, the impeachment trial of a private citizen, is unconstitutional, illegal, and essentially a bill of attainder; on whether there is any fairness or due process in having a partisan Democrat already on record as favoring impeachment presiding over this trial; and on whether this is how our politics should be.”

    “This trial is a sham, a travesty, and a dark blot on the history of our country. I urge my colleagues to reconsider this kangaroo court and move forward to debate the great issues of our day,” he wrote.

    In his piece, Paul blasted Democrats, saying, “they claim to want to unify the country, but impeaching a former president, a private citizen, is the antithesis of unity. This impeachment is nothing more than a partisan exercise designed to divide the country further.”

    “They have brazenly appointed an openly pro-impeachment Democrat to preside over the trial. This is not fair or impartial, and it hardly encourages any kind of unity for the country. If we are about to try to impeach a president, then where is the chief justice? If the accused is no longer president, then where is the constitutional power to impeach him?” he wrote.

    “Democrats insist on applying a test of incitement to a Republican that they refuse to apply to themselves. Shame on these angry, unhinged partisans, deranged by their hatred of the former president. Shame on those who seek blame and revenge, and who choose to pervert a constitutional process while doing so,” the Kentucky Republican wrote.

    Added to the unmasked RINO faction (but we knew that).

    The five Republicans senators who joined Democrats were Susan Collins, of Maine; Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska; Mitt Romney, of Utah; Ben Sasse, of Nebraska; and Pat Toomey, of Pennsylvania

  39. MBunge:

    You don’t have to agree with the argument to understand it. But you don’t seem to understand it.

    It’s the same reason the left has more or less abandoned the Green Party, because it split their vote and diluted their power. They instead patiently took over the Democratic Party. It’s a practical argument.

  40. AesopFan:

    How do you think they could have stopped it? What could they have done and didn’t do?

    Sorry, I just don’t see it. Unless you mean back in 2016, when they held both houses of Congress and the presidency. Back then, whatever they tried was blocked by just a few RINOs (McCain, for example), not the whole GOP by any means. And the takeover of the Democratic Party by leftists wasn’t yet complete either. That takeover became clear in 2018, but at that point the Democrats were in charge of the House.

    Republicans mounted many legal challenges to the rules changes in this election, but they lost in court. However, they tried (I wrote a post about that a while back).

    So what is this pre-emptive thing they could have done to stop Democrats and didn’t do?

  41. “As opposed to rewarding the GOP for their consistent pattern of lying to and betraying their voters? What exactly is that going to accomplish?” – MBunge

    The GOP is not monolithic, as amply demonstrated over the last few years.
    We can reward the Republicans who are supporting our agenda (see lots of new members and some of the old ones), and target the ones who are not.
    Never contribute to the general party coffers, only to individuals — and tell the RNC why by returning their interminable begging letters with a gentle (or forceful) note.

    The Democrats didn’t work through the Green Party (although they floated it for awhile to build a base they could later enfold), and they certainly didn’t work through the Communist Party USA (which, one might argue, has enfolded the Democrats).

    Keep building the MAGA-TeaParty wing of the GOP until the others give up or go away.

  42. Eva:

    Romney is, politically, a dead man walking IMO. Give the Dems two parties that split the Republicans and it won’t matter at all. There are solid conservative Republican governors and a few senators who aren’t GOPextinct if you think a bit. Trump may after all choose not to run in 2024, it is the future after all.

  43. Some of the judge picks paid off. The country would be in much better condition if the GOP had gotten fully behind Trump’s agenda (gee, I wonder why some of them didn’t?), but we need to look at glass-halfway-to-being-half-full.

    https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/judge-blocks-enforcement-100-day-deportation-moratorium

    A federal judge has blocked enforcement of a 100-day deportation moratorium, issuing a temporary restraining order after the state of Texas lodged a lawsuit last week regarding a Department of Homeland Security memo that called for pausing most removals.

    Acting Secretary of Homeland Security David Pekoske signed a memo instructing immigration authorities to direct attention towards national security and public safety risks and individuals caught coming into the nation unlawfully after Nov. 1, according to the Associated Press, which noted this represented a significant shift from the Trump-era policy that anybody in the nation unlawfully represented a removal priority.

    The moratorium became active on Friday and encompassed almost all people who came to America without authorization prior to last November, according to the outlet.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared victory on Twitter: “Within 6 days of Biden’s inauguration, Texas has HALTED his illegal deportation freeze. *This* was a seditious left-wing insurrection. And my team and I stopped it,” the Lone Star State official wrote.

    Actually, that doesn’t tell who appointed the judge, but we’ll take it.
    This ruling is following the precedent that a single judge can stop a national presidential order…maybe the Democrats shouldn’t have played that game so flagrantly.

  44. OT:

    I suspect Mr Bunge has never actually worn steel toed boots or worked in them. But maybe the composite toed versions? They were supposed to be warmer, but not that I could tell in North Dakota.

    Just an unfounded hunch. 🙂

  45. Was the Green Party abandoned? I thought every Dem candidate endorsed the Green New Deal. Wouldn’t that mean that the GP succeeded pushing the Dems left?

  46. The MAGA Party has to pick up a lot more disaffected Democrats, which is one drawback to housing it in the GOP or heading it with Trump.
    However, the Honorable Opposition can still be of use in returning the Republic to its rightful course.
    She certainly is not getting invited back to the Democrat soirees after this.

    https://justthenews.com/nation/extremism/gabbard

    Former Democratic presidential candidate and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday called on President Biden and all members of Congress to “denounce” the new administration’s efforts to root out domestic terrorism, which she argues will take away Americans’ civil liberties and “turn our country into a police state.”

    “If you don’t stand up to them now, then our country will be in great peril,” Gabbard said in a series of tweets. “Trying to undermine our constitutionally-protected rights and turn our country into a police state with KGB-style “surveillance” are also domestic enemies—and much more powerful, and therefore dangerous, than the mob which stormed the capitol. …”

    Gabbard spoke following the Biden administration saying Friday, two days after taking office, that it was launching a federal agency-wide effort to uncover domestic terrorism in the U.S.

    Gabbard, of Hawaii, in her tweets Tuesday and in interview Friday on “Fox News Primetime” also raised concerns about the comments of former CIA Director John Brennan on the scope and breadth of the administration’s effort.

    Brennan said earlier on MSNBC: “I know looking forward that the members of the Biden team, who have been nominated or have been appointed, are now moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about what looks very similar to insurgency movements that we’ve seen overseas. Where they germinate in different parts of the country, and they gain strength, and it brings together an unholy alliance, frequently, of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists – even libertarians.”

    Gabbard in her tweets Tuesday called on Americans to “denounce efforts by Brennan & others to take away our civil liberties endowed to us by our Creator & guaranteed in our Constitution.”

  47. Making good on other things that observant readers of the news have predicted.

    https://justthenews.com/government/congress/schumer-says-biden-should-declare-climate-emergency-circumvent-congress-certain

    “I think it might be a good idea for President Biden to call a climate emergency,” he said Monday night on MSNBC. “Then he can do many, many things under the emergency powers of the president that wouldn’t have to go through – that he could do without legislation.

    The New York senator said that when Donald Trump was president he used such powers to build a “stupid” southern U.S. border wall.

    “Which wasn’t an emergency,” Schumer said. “But if there ever was an emergency, climate is one. So I would suggest that they explore looking at climate as an emergency which would give them more flexibility. After all, it’s a crisis.”

    Host Rachel Maddow asked Schumer whether he’s “talking about passing major climate legislation through the reconciliation process” and he replied, “Yes.”

    He was also asked whether he supports eliminating the legislative filibuster.

    “The caucus is united with a belief that I have: We must get big, strong, bold things done,” Schumer said. “That’s a bottom line. If we don’t, I worry about the future of this democracy. If people continue to be disillusioned that this government can’t do a thing to make their lives better at a time when so many are angry, so many are sour, so many think they don’t have a chance to get ahead, I worry about the future, so we have to get things done.”

    “Point two: We will not let (Republican Senate leader) Mitch McConnell dictate to us what we will do and not do. Period. And these first five days have shown that. And as I said, my caucus is totally united, from one end to the other, that we’re not letting him go forward. Our hope is, now, we have tools that we can use; reconciliation. We can get a lot of the COVID bill done with reconciliation and that’s something we certainly will use if they try to block this immediate COVID bill,” he continued.

    Schumer said Democrats “can even use reconciliation for a much broader proposal” related to COVID-19 economic stimulus and Biden’s “Build Back Better” initiatives.

    “We have some tools we can use right now and will not hesitate to use them if Republicans continue to just block. As for other issues, what we’re going to do is – we are united in the view we need to bring change,” he said. “We are united in the view McConnell is not going to dictate what this Senate does. And we will come together as a caucus and figure it out but I can assure you we will bring real change here; real dramatic change. We have no choice.”

    I couldn’t stop excerpting because I wanted all of his statements up front — unity is only within his party; Republicans are a threat to democracy because they want to use established Congressional procedures; hordes of people coming over the border illegally in real-time wasn’t an emergency, but a minuscule rise in temperature over decades (if it happens at all) really is by golly (using Trump as his precedent example after the Obama phone-and-pen administration is a twist on whataboutism that makes it into a Mobius strip); I’m not quite sure how the Minority Leader does any dictating in a 50-50 split Senate.

  48. Check out what Spartacus noted on the Viva Frei post about the immigration EO & the block of Biden’s reversal.

    https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/01/25/viva-frei-and-nate-the-lawyer-where-do-we-go-from-here/#comment-2537058

    I am now a subscriber to the locals board for Viva Frei and Barnes. Sunday’s episode that discussed the various types of executive order was very informative. Example, Trump’s Executive Order written early in his administration was structured such that it could be overturned by another president. This was written by the “corporate” types that Barnes has great distain. The people of Keystone have no recourse.

    But the immigration executive order was written by smart people at the end of his administration with Texas. Texas has recourse against Biden lifting it. Very illuminating. Also Barnes has great respect on how Biden’s initial Executive Orders were drafted to have minimal legal challenges to them. This podcast is worth listening to as well as this one.

    It covers the Executive Orders, Immigration, Impeachment follies (this is after I watch the farce of the House marching across the Capital to the Senate. Karl Marx was right. History repeats first as tragedy then a farce). Upcoming Second Amendment and COVID Lawsuits. But be of good cheer, the Populist Patriots are organizing and getting prepared. Politics is not static. The counter offensive is starting. I intend to be in the first wave.

    At some point, Trump found a few of the right people and drained enough of the swamp to get his (our) head above water.
    It’s just too deep for one person to finish the job.

    BTW – just draining this current patch doesn’t mean the waters won’t rise again, but maybe we can have a respite long enough to raise more kids to stand against the tide.

  49. Graham screaming at MAGA supporters when he knew nothing and yelling, “We could have been killed!!!!!” when all summer long law abiding citizens “could have been killed” during the summer of riots – that was it – that was it for me. We, the Republican rank and file, have to constantly prove to our Republican elected officials that we are worthy of them.

  50. Eva Marie:

    I think it’s time to save our ire for the left and those like Romney who are really stabbing us in the back. Graham’s emotional outburst right after an incident that frightened him doesn’t make his stock rise in my book, but it doesn’t surprise me and he’s gotten better since – on record calling the Senate trial unconstitutional, for example. This article says:

    Graham, a close ally of Trump, briefly broke with the president after the January 6 insurrection but has since returned to defending him…

    In the letter to Schumer, however, he argued that it would be “unconstitutional” to hold an impeachment trial for Trump after he’s left office…

    But now, in your first act as Majority Leader, rather than begin the national healing that the country so desperately yearns for, you seek vengeance and political retaliation instead,” he wrote.

    Graham used to be 100% RINO. Now he’s only half-RINO. The perfect is the enemy of the good-enough.

  51. Eva Marie:

    The Green PARTY was abandoned, for the most part. The PARTY. That’s my point – not the policies, the party. That was tactical. For the past year, the Democrats were engaged in fighting to get the Green Party candidates removed from the ballot in 2020. They succeeded in many states. The idea was to make split tickets much less common and therefore strengthen the Democratic vote. It worked.

  52. Suppose they gave a war and nobody came….
    https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2021/01/26/democrats-move-ban-trump-supporters-federal-jobs-joining-military/

    This level of attempted government repression is breathtaking in its scope. As a rule, anyone who is convicted (and that’s a key word) of having breached the Capitol building on January 6th and committing acts of vandalism or attacks on law enforcement officers will likely disqualify themselves from obtaining a security clearance. (And hence, a federal job in most cases.) The same is true for all serious offenses, though you can generally receive a waiver for misdemeanors and minor violations. No new legislation would be needed to make that happen.

    But this bill is something entirely different. It would effectively criminalize every person who showed up for the rally and remained out in the streets protesting. The same would go for the hundreds of other rallies held across the nation in the preceding months. Further, depending on how the legislation is interpreted, if you ever engaged with Q-anon believers on social media or other discussion groups, you could be similarly canceled from working in the public sphere.

    What Murphy is proposing here is nothing less than a huge raft of thought crimes that Americans could be punished for without ever having broken the law. This would be no different than a law seeking to restrict the employment opportunities of anyone who ever participated in a Black Lives Matter protest that devolved into rioting and looting even if the person in question did not participate in the criminal activity that followed.

    No matter whether you agreed with the proponents of the “stop the steal” activity or not, protesting is still legal and constitutionally protected. That’s something that the media reminds us of constantly when they refer to the BLM riot participants as “mostly peaceful protesters.” In a way, I almost want to see Murphy’s bill passed and signed by Joe Biden just so we could break out the popcorn and watch it be blown up in the courts. If that failed to happen and this sort of law was allowed to stand, you might as well pack up and move to another country because the United States Constitution would be effectively dead.

  53. “Republicans mounted many legal challenges to the rules changes in this election, but they lost in court. However, they tried (I wrote a post about that a while back).

    So what is this pre-emptive thing they could have done to stop Democrats and didn’t do?” – Neo

    You answered my question – I honestly don’t know if there is any more they could have done, but didn’t remember reading at the time if they were doing anything at all.
    It simply wasn’t on the radar – or I just don’t remember.

  54. Definitely some good points made in that November post, Neo.
    I did read it at the time.
    But most or all of those fighting-back attempts you listed were directed at the Covid-inspired end-runs last year.
    So they were putting out fires now, instead of fire-proofing the system then.

    Democrats have been cheating for many decades, which was always known, and most of the things we saw in 2020 were business-as-usual on steroids — the ‘Rona changes (most of them likely illegal) made last year were icing on the cake — and there apparently haven’t been any successful attempts to put barriers up against the systems we know they have been using .

    Why wasn’t anything ever done to follow-up on all the studies outlining the known problems, which were published even before Trump was elected, while the Republicans had three Houses (Reps, Senate, White House)?

    The GOP simply was not ready on Day 1 of Trump’s tenure with a stack of legislation ready to go, and executive orders ready to sign, that would enact their alleged priorities while they had the chance (election integrity, the wall, Obamacare, pro-life, etc.).

    The Democrats made sure they had their wish-list printed and ready to sign this time.
    https://notthebee.com/article/guess-who-already-set-the-record-for-most-executive-orders-signed-in-his-first-week-as-president
    As of yesterday, Joey Hancock had already signed 21 executive orders.
    Trump signed 4 in his first week in 2017
    Obama signed 5 in his first week 2009
    W. signed 0 in his first week in 2001
    Clinton signed 1 in his first week in 1993

    (rant over – it’s just maddening to see what the Democrats did with the tools they had already been using and which Republicans have never made a priority of dismantling – no, we don’t want the Federales to dictate how each state handles its elections, but there ought to be some bumper-guards on the track)

  55. Prescience in other matters should also be honored.

    https://babylonbee.com/news/all-seeing-eye-of-sauron-unveiled-at-facebook-headquarters

    March 20th, 2018
    MENLO PARK, CA—In the midst of a scandal involving the unauthorized transfer of its users’ data for political purposes, Facebook proudly unveiled a brand new, giant Lidless Eye of Sauron atop the company’s Menlo Park headquarters.

    The Eye of Sauron will be used to examine Facebook users’ every action, online and off.

    The fiery Great Eye reportedly cost over seven trillion dollars and came with all the latest surveillance technology, including the ability to detect evil thoughts and motives as well as any negative emotions about Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg.

    “Reading everyone’s profiles and harvesting all their private data is great, but the Lidless Eye will help us be much more efficient in our shady use of people’s personal lives,” Zuckerberg said at the press conference as he showed off the features of his new surveillance tool.

    https://babylonbee.com/news/swarm-of-locusts-in-book-of-revelation-revealed-to-be-twitter

    November 29th, 2018
    U.S.—Bible scholars revealed Thursday they’ve discovered the true identity of the swarm of locusts in the book of Revelation: Twitter.

    The panel of experts confirmed that through rigorous contextual study, they’ve come to the conclusion that the apocalyptic symbol actually represents people viciously attacking each other on the toxic social network.

    “A violent, bloodthirsty swarm descending on the earth to devour and destroy? Yup, definitely describes a Twitter mob pretty accurately,” said Dr. James L. Marcus of The Master’s Seminary. “We were always pretty sure the locusts represented helicopters, but now it’s clear that it’s actually Twitter.” Marcus added that all dispensational end times charts would have to be updated to reflect the official change.

    Revelation chapter 9 reads in part, “And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.” Experts believe the reference to scorpions is definitely talking about people blasting others they disagree with on Twitter. The passage continues, “They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.”

    “Being tortured for what seems like forever? Preferring death to the agony of the sting? Yeah, that’s Twitter alright,” Dr. Marcus added.

    At publishing time, the team of Bible interpreters had confirmed the painful sores poured out upon the earth are a symbol of Facebook.

  56. This is encouraging anyway, but they had to lose a very important election to get around to it.
    https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/01/26/led-by-rand-paul-republicans-say-the-senate-trial-of-citizen-trump-is-unconstitutional-also-leahy-in-hospital-for-observation/#comment-2537206
    “I have written posts that say that in many important states the GOP plans to tighten the voting rules. If that happens and is successful – that’s several “if’s,” of course – then the 2022 election could be more fair than the 2020 election was.”

  57. AesopFan:

    Until now, the voting rules have always been left to the states, and red states mostly do have decent rules in effect. In blue states, the GOP has no power to change anything because that’s ordinarily the legislature’s job and the Democrats are in control. In states like PA, which is purplish, I believe they had decent rules in place until COVID. So what were they supposed to be changing prior to COVID, if the rules were okay? They couldn’t foresee what would be happening. In addition, I am going to assume that there may have been some pre-COVID efforts to tighten things up, efforts that courts ruled against. Many courts have a bias for expanding voting and making it easier and a bias against what they see as limiting it and making it harder.

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