Leon Troutsky

Alexander Hamilton on super majority requirements in Congress… But this is not all: what at first sight may seem a remedy, is, in reality, a poison. To give a minority a negative upon the majority (which is always the case where more than a majority is requisite to a decision), is, in its tendency, to subject the sense of the greater number to that of the lesser. Congress, from the nonattendance of a few States, have been frequently in the situation of a Polish diet, where a single VOTE has been sufficient to put a stop to all their movements. A sixtieth part of the Union, which is about

https://americansforprosperity.org/icymi-afp-az-hosts-forum-on-filibuster/ "Instead, to understand what happened in Wisconsin – and what is happening in states across the country – we need to look to the underappreciated organization that is at the center of the political network created and directed by the billionaire conservative industrialists, Charles and David Koch. David Koch speaks at a summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity in Columbus, Ohio. Photograph: Paul Vernon/AP We are a group of Columbia and Harvard-based researchers who for the past five yea

People should also ask the filibuster defenders if they support ending the reconciliation process. If the filibuster is this great tool of bipartisanship and we need minority party input to pass legislation then why have a mechanism that effectively bypasses the filibuster entirely?

Also, if people would put aside their short-term party interests and think about how the government is supposed to function, there’s a very strong conservative case in favor of eliminating the filibuster. One of the consequences of the filibuster is that it creates an incentive for growing executive power. When the minority party can block the majority’s agenda, that creates enormous pressure on the president to address the problem in ways that bypass the dysfunctional Senate and an entrenched, polarized minority party that blocks everything. So that increases pressure to use things l

It’s amazing the level of delusion people can have. I understand where Manchin is coming from — he represents a Trump state and has to win lots of Republican voters. I don’t like it and on the filibuster I think he’s making a dangerous calculation, but at least I understand it. I don’t get Sinema’s position whatsoever and I’m starting to give more credence to @Downvote Don’s idea that it’s not in good faith, though I have no idea what benefits she gets taking a position that’s so unpopular in her own state. And if the GOP takes control of the Senate in 2022 (which looks unlikely at thi

She’s not up for reelection until 2024, I believe, so it’s too early for a formal primary challenge. We’ll probably know something more definitive by late 2023 or early 2024.

Her approval ratings, especially among Democrats, aren’t very high. I’m not sure she’s doing herself a lot of favors with these delusional and obviously flawed arguments regarding the filibuster.

Republicans are certainly trying to manipulate the elections to their favor at the state level, but I am a little dubious about what kind of impact it’ll actually have. It’ll have some effect, but I think a lot of people are overstating how much of an effect it’ll have in practice. I think gerrymandering will probably have a bigger impact in the next cycle in the House, at least. The much bigger concern for me is what’s happening at the state level regarding election administration officials, people like Raffensburger having his authority taken away and given to the legislature and al

^^^Perhaps the best summary of her argument in that op-ed. And the idea that the majority party doesn’t get to govern or enact its agenda when it wins an election is the opposite of democracy. So Sinema’s argument that she’s saving democracy by supporting the filibuster is completely backwards. As to her “what if the Republicans do this, this, or that when they win back the majority” stuff, yes that’s exactly what I want to happen. The GOP should be able to enact its agenda if the voters choose them to govern and the voters can hold them accountable in the next election if they don’t

Tucker Carlson was behind a lot of negative Trump stories. The answer is one of Washington’s open secrets. Mr. Carlson, a proud traitor to the elite political class, spends his time when he’s not denouncing the liberal media trading gossip with them. He’s the go-to guy for sometimes-unflattering stories about Donald J. Trump and for coverage of the internal politics of Fox News (not to mention stories about Mr. Carlson himself). I won’t talk here about any off-the-record conversations I may have had with him. But 16 other journalists (none from The Times; it would put my colleagues in a

Wait, Jewish Space Lasers are a real thing????

That last line about GOP gas tax increases was brutal.

And still the Republican Party clings to the piece of ****… An unofficial bipartisan election analysis conducted respectively to the Senate-led recount of 2.1 million ballots in Arizona's Maricopa County concluded that Republicans disenchanted with then-President Donald Trump were responsible for his loss in the 2020 election. Benny White, a Republican election researcher who previously ran for Pima County recorder, joined with Democrat Larry Moore and independent Tim Halvorsen, two retired executives from election company Clear Ballot, performed an analysis of the cast vote record i

JFC… In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as White House officials debated whether to bring infected Americans home for care, President Donald Trump suggested his own plan for where to send them, eager to suppress the numbers on U.S. soil. “Don’t we have an island that we own?” the president reportedly asked those assembled in the Situation Room in February 2020, before the U.S. outbreak would explode. “What about Guantánamo?” “We import goods,” Trump specified, lecturing his staff. “We are not going to import a virus.” Aides were stunned, and when Trump brought i

Why da fawk would you ever want to see the mid-west?