Why is that city under attack from an orbital space laser?

In most states, if a Senator leaves office for any reason, the state’s governor would be empowered to appoint a replacement until a special election can be held. Kentucky, however, has two powerful Republican Senators, and a Democratic Governor. So after some back and forth, the legislature passed a bill (over the Governor’s veto) that said the Governor could not appoint anyone, but could only schedule the special election, letting the seat remain vacant.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/05/how-are-us-senate-vacancies-filled-in-kentucky/78253161007/

However, it is possible the governor might ignore the law and appoint someone anyway, and let the Senate deal with accepting the appointment.

Lol, no. I’m just old enough to realize why the “tear it all down” approach can only ever work for the side that wants to abandon Democracy, no matter who uses it.

“Fascists want to destroy the country. Quick, let’s do it first! That’ll show 'em!”

No, it’s that Republicans don’t give a shit about the Federal Government and want to drown it in the bathtub. So a shutdown actually plays into their long term plan.

On the other hand, Democrats find value in the Federal Government, and are acutely aware of how damaging a shutdown in, both due to the temporary interruption in services and the damage to morale of Federal workers. All stuff Republicans don’t care about either. They view Federal workers as the enemy. They want them to all quit, and probably wish much less charitable things on them in private.

What’s the context here? Are these the Democrats who voted for the funding package? If so your premise is wrong. They voted to extend DHS funding at current levels until the end of next week. That is hardly “no restrictions”.

ICE already has its money, so voting “no” on this would not have affected its operations at all.

(Also not a link to an article, this ought to get removed.)

Um Ackshually, gerrymandering has nothing to do with this one. As a Senator, he represents his entire state, and the borders of his “district” don’t change.

However, “ignorant populace” may be spot on.

He looks (and acts) like a grown up Caillou

“It just looks on its face to be fraudulent.”

“Can I prove that? No, because it happened so far upstream,” Johnson added.

What a little shit

A lot will depend on the new President / former VP. One would think they would be eager to start their new gig. But what if the VP is complicit? What if he says “Yeah, I know you all impeached him, but I need him for stuff. He gets to keep his security clearance and will be my special advisor” Who’s gonna stop that?

Presumably, none of this happens unless Democrats retake at least the House. And if the office of the VP is ever vacant, the position can only get filled through a vote in both houses. So, Democrats will likely invoke the “McConnell Rule” to never bring it for a vote. Which means that no Republican will vote to impeach President Vance, when that will lead to President Jeffries.

The problem is that while the Courts can still rule on the legality of a President’s actions, that takes time. And Republicans have set up a system where a President can keep taking illegal actions, with impunity. The only check on this is impeachment. So if “your guy” is in office, you can just simply not impeach and then he can do all sorts of shit.

So, the Constitution doesn’t really constrain him, at least over the short term. The elections will happen on schedule, since States administer them. But there is nothing preventing him from mobilizing troops to “monitor” polling places for people voting “illegally”, using the same app they use to determine if a person has legal authority to be here. And his troops will be ordered to believe the app over that person’s documentation. States will file immediate injunctions and judges will rule quickly, but not quickly enough.

He won’t be able to do this everywhere, just like he is not able to storm every city with ICE all at once. But his fixation on voter data means that his AI bros think they can tell him where to go for the maximum effect on the House races.

I read that he directly stated he just needs “about 15 places”. That’s no accident. I bet Elon told him that if he ratfucks just a few thousand votes in 15 districts, he can stem off the impending Blue wave.

Donald Trump thinks “offshore wind” is when he sharts on a boat

“Trump Goons”? I bet he does.

They all know it’s a grift. She wanted the grift. What she figured out is that she will never really be part of the boys’ club. When consequences are forced onto them, they will land disproportionally on the ones without penises.

I am convinced that the #1 problem in this country right now is the notion that having a primary challenger is somehow a sign of weakness. Yes, even more important than the creeping fascism, because it directly enables it. Even the opposition may be inclined to keep the creeping fascism creeping along if it guarantees they can keep their job.

The House, in particular, is meant to be the body that is most responsive to the people, because they are theoretically accountable to them every two years. But if you are in a heavily gerrymandered district, and can ensure that you never see a Primary challenge, then it is essentially a lifetime appointment.

I don’t particularly mind if there folks keep their jobs into their 70’s, as long as they really are the best person for that district. But if they never get any meaningful primary challenge how would we know?

Give Marjorie credit for at least figuring it out. Although a very tiny, tiny proportion of MAGAts ever see consequences, women seem to be overrepresented:

• Marjorie’s experience recently getting shut out of running for Senate or Governor by the MAGA establishment is at the top of her mind, of course.

• Elsie Stefanik drew the short stick too, she was nominated to be UN Ambassador, and a bunch of other Republicans in the House were also nominated for positions in the administration. All those other men got their promotions, but when it was time to affirm Elsie’s they told her the House majority was now too thin. Then she launched her own campaign for NY governor, only to find that once a male Republican announced his campaign, all her support evaporated.

• And with all the problems recently with ICE, from Trump to Stephen Miller and all down the chain, I bet Kristi Noem will be the first to face any consequences. She might be offered up as a sacrifice to keep the rest of it going.

I’m sure he thinks all of Jeffrey’s girls “asked” for it, too.

Ok, then, here’s what I think: those outside actions you mention do make a difference – everywhere but in Congress. Votes count there, and when you don’t have the votes there’s not much else you can do.

In fact, I would argue that it’s precisely the actions outside of Congress that made this tiny bit of progress possible. If the people of Minnesota either rolled over to ICE or got overly violent against ICE, Democrats would t even have had the leverage to do what they did in Congress.

Stop expecting politicians (particularly those in the minority) to save us. We need to save ourselves. Making a stand outside of Congress, among the people, is much more important than yet another long speech.

None of those actions actually do anything, though. All shutting the government down does is ensure government services don’t happen and government employees don’t get paid. Keep the government closed for long enough, and they all quit, and states end up taking over the functions the Federal government should have done.

That is the end goal of the current Conservative movement: to make the Federal Government so small you could drown it in the bathtub.. They would absolutely love for it to happen, but get Democrats to take the blame for it.

As I understand it, ICE and CBP wouldn’t have shut down regardless of what happened, because Republicans have already given them a shitload of money, much more that they could have ever spent in that period of time. So, while other parts of DHS would stop operating due to lack of funds, ICE and CBP would still operate.