One thing I know by now, no one in power in the House or Senate (or SCOTUS, etc) ever willingly relinquishes that power, only leaves by death or threat of death – there are very very few cases for other reasons and those only by people who have the ability to overcome their ego and see it as the right thing to do, which is not the case here.

A lot of the old-school repubs who were driven out when MAGA took over the GOP, pretended like they chose to not run again for various reasons, but some of them later revealed they feared for their lives. This regime doesn’t fuck around, cross the Don(ald) and you’re out, try to defy that order and you’re told what will happen to you and/or your family if you do.

I still remember seeing a news clip during trump’s first term when he was at some dinner seated at a long table (don’t remember if it was Helsinki or some other event they both attended), where Putin was on the opposite side and a ways down the table from him. He kept looking at Putin trying to catch his eye and get his attention and when Putin looked his way, trump looked at him made a pumping motion with his hand in a you-know-what motion, just like he was inviting him for a hand job. No one in the media made any comment about what he was doing, but I was shocked and replayed the clip a few times to check if I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. That’s what it looked like to me.

My great grandma used to say, “I’d rather smell the smell than taste the smell!”

Now that he knows the vote is going to go against him, time for plan B. He can’t let it appear that Congress would actually defy him so he has to “call for” it to happen so they still appear to be obeying him.

I’d be surprised if his minions in charge of the DOJ haven’t already destroyed anything damaging to him as soon as they could get hold of it, but in any case we know they have a plan in place for DOJ to not release anything bad for him.

Glad to hear you have had this epiphany, no matter how you came to it. I’ll be the first to say “good for you!” if you prove your sincerity by dropping out of politics and donating the substantial monetary gains you made via your influence and insider knowledge to worthy charities, preferably those helping people you harmed by your toxic influence. Then, having proved that you’ve really changed, you may legitimately continue speaking out against political hate and violence as a penance.

Black men got the vote (1870)** long before women did (1920). The civil rights movement also preceded the women’s rights movement.

** Of course it wasn’t so easy for them to exercise that right.

Disclaimer: My comment which follows does not apply to fans and supporters of a candidate. It applies to a difference in how male and female candidates are referred to in the media.

When our society reaches the stage where TV pundits, political blog writers, etc. stop referring to women candidates by just their first name (almost every time) in the same context that they continue referring to men candidates using their last name, or title + last name, then maybe I’ll believe the US is ready to elect a woman president.

(edit: I should add to that list, also when even the opposing side will use her last name same as they do with male candidates that they are against, meaning that they may hate her but still have at least that much respect for her as a candidate)

Thanks. Did you try searching for “unlikeable” instead of “likeable”? Here’s one about that. I suspect the UK isn’t much different.

(edit to add a quote from AOC in that article:)

When you call Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris ‘unlikeable’, that’s an unsubstantial, unsubstantive, fluff, bulls**t, misogynistic word to use. Unlikeable? What is that? It’s not a policy critique.” --AOC

Definitely agree, AOC would be most effective in and have the best chance to win Schumer’s seat.

Oh, they definitely are.

Ah, so the problem is the women weren’t “likeable” enough, got it. I heard they were too bossy, too. And too aggressive. Yeah.

Probably because the US is such a religious conservative country. Christianity (especially evangelical and more conservative type), patriarchy and authoritarianism go together, and that’s who the great majority of his voters were.

Considering trump won twice against women but lost when he ran against a man, it seems the majority of voters would rather elect any man than any woman, even if that man is seriously flawed on every imaginable level. Only when both candidates were men were factors other than gender given more weight.

Could be!

After trailing by more than 10,000 votes the day after the election, Wilson, 43, chipped away at Mayor Bruce Harrell’s margin as late-counted ballots broke her way. She took a tiny lead in Monday’s count, and with Tuesday’s additions, Wilson is now ahead by 1,346 votes.

I hope this helps people realize just how important every vote is.

Whenever he tries to repeat the patient, over-simplified explanations that have been given to him and screws it up because he still didn’t understand what they were talking about, I picture the scenes that must be occurring on a regular basis:

People standing around him, some drawing pictures, others arranging things on the table, “Say this coffee mug is the nuclear enrichment facility, and this pen is the Tomahawk missile. It goes woooooooooooooooooo through the sky…”

They couldn’t stop Mamdani even with huge influx of $$ from the oligarchs. Obviously every state is different and you can’t get people to vote for a Mamdani or AOC in many of them, but you can get someone more progressive than before. They only have so much money and have to triage where to spend it.

They always choose who takes the heat for unpopular votes based on safety. The only two of the 8 Senators that voted for this whose seat is up in in 2026 are two that are retiring after this term (Durbin and Shaheen). So IL and NH people can vote in 2026 primaries for the most progressive candidate.

The rest don’t come up until '28 or '30 and they expect you to forget by then. But how about if instead, people in their state use that time to find and recruit good progressive candidates to primary them with? Don’t forget their names! Primary them! Your vote counts way more in the primaries because so few turn out for them, so if you skip them, you’re letting other people choose your candidates for you and just keep getting more of the same.

Of those eight seats, only two are up in 2026, and those two Senators (Durbin, Shaheen) are not running for reelection. The others aren’t up until 2028 or 2030. That’s how they do these things. No one up in 2026 would have voted for it.

That just means he found enough Dem Senators to take the heat so he didn’t have to also vote for it. It’s not like he said “Hold the line” and those 8 defied him. No, it was all agreed to between him and them. This is what he wanted. As minority leader the blame is on him in spite of his ‘no’ vote.

WTF. Senate Dems got rewarded in the elections for showing some spine and holding out for healthcare, then as soon as the elections were over, in spite of voters putting them in an even stronger position with the wide margins of victory, what did they do? they fucking caved like the weak little bitches they are.

All the suffering people have been going through during the shutdown has been for absolutely nothing. They didn’t even get a damn one-year extension on subsidies (which BTW are windfalls for insurance companies but until we reform healthcare it’s the best we have for now). It was suppoosed to be not just about the ACA subsidies, but also the Medicaid cuts.

Jeffries wants the House to reject the bill and most House Dems seem to be ready to do that. Keep screaming and contact your rep (politely). There are some repubs also against it, so this shit deal can still be prevented by the House, if the Dems stick together and a few repubs also vote No.