Democrats have committed seppuku (harikiri)

A classic Stone ratfucking caused the Democratic Party to commit self suicide due to their shame at not being morally perfect.

Some would call it sanctimonial suicide.

Import of this?

And how is this important?

Was it used to swing the election?

Not getting how this had any impact on anything.

Dream on

You I agree with...

See my reply to Hopeagain.

You I agree with.

There is a strain of idealistic moral absolutism within the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that in its worst form produces a French Revolution Madame LaFarge urge to condemn any imperfections. Off with our heads!

Trump and Roger Stone and Hannity et all know this and have weaponized it.

I’m sure they are howling with laughter as they watch us turn on each other.

While we outdo ourselves trying to prove our moral purity by demanding the impure leave our presence the ratfuckers are free to grab all the reins of power and rewrite all rules so they can rule in perpetuity.

Schumer, Pelosi, Gillibrand are playing a dangerous game when everything is at stake.

This is stupid

I really am having trouble believing this is happening.

This unilateral disarmament by the Democratic Party teaches the Republicans that all they have to do to win is to trot out some vaguely substantiated accusations and our own party will fall on itself like a pack of rabid dogs.

So, while a tax bill that has the potential to fully rollback the last vestiges of the New Deal is in play, and our only hope is to be a united front and maintain absolute message discipline— the senior female leadership of the Democratic Party demands the resignation of Al Franken.

So, I guess this tax cut extravaganza isn’t that important then.

It is dwarfed in importance by some anonymous women saying Senator Franken grabbed a body part or tried to kiss them. And somehow this didn’t come out during two different senate campaigns—one of which was the nastiest in Minnesota history.

I suppose it would be churlish of me to remark on the timing and how this so effectively distracts from all sorts of things that currently seem kind of important.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

I didnt include my prescription(s) for a solution

I was pressed for time—had to go to work even though I’m sick.

I do think we can dig out of this.

What needs to happen?

Universal voter registration when you turn 18
Voter registration integrated with the USPS address change system
Complete elimination of electronic voting (I was in IT for 20 years and have worked with the Diebold system here in Texas...insecure doesn’t adequately describe those systems)
Time limited campaigns
Publicly financed campaigns
Explicit support for unionism-until labor has a seat at the table how can anything change?

The truth is that this will take time and effort. The problem is time. Subsistence workers have little time to do anything other than survive. Those that need to be at the ramparts can’t be there when they are focused on paying their rent and providing for their children.

My post was a reaction to the almost giddy posts about the Flynn guilty plea juxtaposed with this obscene tax bill passing the Senate.

Forgive me for my haste and for my pessimism.

A piece that reflects what I think is really going on....

Read this piece (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/the-gop-doesnt-care-if-you-like-their-tax-bill-and-heres-why/) before you celebrate our latest defeat.

The Tax Cut Travesty is a huge loss for the country, for the U.S., for the middle class, and for the Democrats. It cannot be viewed in any other way. This is what happens when all the levers of power are in the Republican's hands. In spite of the demographic trends that tell us that the Republicans should become the minority party any day now--the Republicans continue to work on all fronts to make sure that they don't lose power even if they don't actually have the majority of the votes. By and large they continue to be successful.

A couple of predictions. Mueller is not going to save the day. There will be a lot of fallout from Flynn's guilty plea but Trump will not resign and he won't be impeached. Given the incredible job of gerrymandering the Republicans have performed there is little chance that they'll lose the House in 2018...or the Senate. Pence won't resign (someone posted that yesterday but I can't imagine what it was based on).

The truth is that we have an illegitimate President (again). Gerrymandering and voter suppression have made Democratic victories in key states very unlikely. Just look at Texas where the demographic knife should be cutting the sharpest. There are very few Democratic victories to be had no matter how bad the Republican candidates. Roy Moore will win.

Cheating works. Until it stops working those other guys won't stop cheating.

Even the sexual harrassment/assault issue is going against us. While Roy Moore seems to be surviving the flood of formerly pubescent females coming out with their stories you have Franken, Louis CK, Conyers etc. falling on their swords and profusely apologizing while the other guys are obfuscating, denying, and dissembling--but never admitting. While some have called for Moore to drop out of the race those who matter have not. Whereas the Democratic leadership have predictably assembled the circular firing squad and demanded Conyers' resignation and the resignation of a couple of others.

On the other side, Blake Farenthold, who has clearly always been a complete demented perv is denying, denying, denying even though there is a $84000 payment to one of his accusers that worked for him. See the difference?

Sarah Sanders put her finger right on it when challenged about the accusations against Trump vs. the accusations against Franken. Trump has never admitted anything while Franken has. And there you have it.

I don't know what the answer is. If we as Democrats throw our obviously superior morals to the wind we might start winning, but we would also become those we fight against.

Right now we are on the ropes and I don't think we'll be coming out of it any time soon. We cannot even agree on what we are for and articulate that to the American people.

There is a big opportunity here. What Trump is delivering is very different from what many of his voters thought they were signing up for. But until we (the Democrats) define, describe, and promote an alternative what is there to bring these idiots over to our side?

We are against what is going on but what are we telling the voters we are for?

Much of what is going on stems from what are becoming obvious weaknesses of our constitutional republic. There is nothing that can be done about a questionable election at any level once the results are certified. Our remedies to malfeasance in office are too much in control of whoever has the majorities in the legislative branch. Our lifetime appointments to powerful judicial posts means that the most ruthless players of the confirmation game are the ultimate winners--thus the minority party was able to keep a Supreme Court justice from being seated by the duly elected President at that time. The list goes on.

We are losing at the Game of Thrones.

Pretty subdued

I just bounced over to Free Republic and there isn’t a whole lot. Some are posting Rubio’s comments about Social Security and Medicare being next for cuts coupled with some half hearted replies saying that that will never happen.

We want this to be true

I think he’s getting the results he (or Putin) wants.

Yes, he knows nothing about policy but he knows that putting people hostile to the missions of the Department in charge of that department will effectively neuter that organization. He knows that by putting blatantly political hacks into key judgeships that he can demand and get the rulings he wants (we just saw that with the ruling allowing Mulvaney to take over the CFPB).

He has effectively shattered our key alliances and made overtures to strongmen (Putin the most notable). He has the Justice Department entertaining the idea of launching witch hunts against his political opponents. He has Mitch McConnell so cowed that he is pushing through a politically suicidal tax bill that just happens to have everything in it that will directly benefit him and his heirs.

Trump may be correct when he says that he has accomplished more than any other President in the same span of time. His accomplishments just haven’t been legislative to date.

Crazy? Doesn’t really look like it from here.

I’ve got a really bad feeling about this and I think you do too. While we’re waiting for Mueller to ride up over the horizon to save the day the war may have already been lost.

Stop calling it tax reform

Everyone needs to stop using the term “reform”.
There is no reform in this. It is a straight up transfer of wealth from the poorest to the wealthiest individuals and corporations.

There are no loopholes closed rather new ones are created.

Never lose sight of the basic game being played here.

Pass a bill that will please the donor class and cause a deficit crisis. Since the defense budget is untouchable the deficit crisis that this tax give away creates will allow them to go after Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

This is not reform in any sense of the word.