The Senate Democrats should not participate in this mockery, and not vote on Kavanaugh

[still_one]

There was no gathering of the facts, it was all a smoke screen. The abuse of power is extraordinary

Trump and his criminal empire are have been spewing that China is interefering in our midterm elections, which makes me questioni if they are somehow trying to invalildate the midterms if the Democrats win

I am not sure how this will end, but I would like to think that the American people will open their eyes and see what this administration and the republican party is doing to destroy America

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

1. Good idea... would make a strong statement.

[still_one]

7. I think so too, but I doubt they will do it. It should be evident that we are in a fig for the very

survival of our democracy, and it would serve all Democrats, progressives, liberals, and moderates, to unite against what I see as the biggest threat to our democracy since the Civil War


There will be plenty of time for all the factions within the Democratic party to fight among themselves, but unless we can first stop what is essentially coup against are country, I think we will be lost.


I have never felt our countries existence being more at risk than now. Even during the Cuban Missisle Crisis

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

12. I agree completely... if KKKavanaugh gets confirmed, this country will be screwed

for decades, regardless of who's president. As they say, elections really do matter... 2016 sure drove home that point.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Uh no.

That will guarantee that he gets in.

[still_one]

9. I understand your point, but the fact is from everything that has been reported, and

granted, some is speculation, it is expected that every republican will be voting for confirmation

McConnell will not hold a vote unless he is assurred he is confirmed, and by all indications it is a done deal

[BumRushDaShow]

13. We thought the same thing a week ago

Yet here we are today.

The "vote" talk you keep hearing about is the CLOTURE vote - i.e., "a motion to proceed". In contentious things like this, the GOPers may go ahead with "letting it go to the floor" upon THAT "vote", which then moves it to the NEXT PHASE which is for final debate and a vote for confirmation... and THAT is often when votes change at the final vote stage.

I.e., they will move it forward to "air it all out" on the Senate floor, usually with the standard debate time frames (30 hours) unless agreed otherwise, but that doesn't mean that final decision will match the cloture vote numbers.

[world wide wally]

20. When you say "agreed to", is that whatever McConnell says?

[BumRushDaShow]

26. Under normal circumstances

the leadership will discuss ways to streamline - notably for things that are not controversial. For example, yesterday the Senate voted to pass the final version of Opioid Epidemic legislation 98 - 1. Since it was going to pass so overwhelmingly, I expect Turtle and Schumer probably agreed that 30 hours of debate before a final vote was not needed and whoever needed to speak would speak and the end.

So if that is what you are asking, then the above is an example of "negotiation" between the leaders of either side.

[still_one]

24. If the republicans have the votes, they can cut off the debate

[BumRushDaShow]

27. We are talking about 2 different "debate" periods.

I.e., a "filibuster' is talking about all sorts of things DURING NORMAL BUSINESS TIME.

That is different from "debate on the actual legislation or a nomination" itself. Filibuster means you can't even get to the thing you are supposed to vote on until it is "cut off" via "cloture"!!!!

[brooklynite]

32. Flake, Collins and Murkowski have all effectively said the FBI report doesn't raise any questions..

...no reason to expect a different vote on eventual confirmation

[BumRushDaShow]

36. I didn't hear anything from Murkowski reported yet

nor Sasse after his ditty last night but we shall see.

They really have no equivalent to a "McCain" in there to "go rogue", but the bottom line of my post was that everyone, including me, assumed it was a done deal LAST WEEK and it wasn't. THAT is a fact. It became kabuki theater after that, but then there were predictions that the vote was going to happen this past Tuesday too.

[oberliner]

3. I think they should vote no

The record must show that this nominee was opposed by almost half the Senate, which is fairly unprecedented.

[still_one]

10. Understood, but the whole thing is a shame. Even the way the report needs to be reviewed and

very limited time to review it.

It is a white wash.

[oberliner]

17. A shame and a sham!

I totally agree.

[still_one]

21. I guess the way I am looking at it, unless it can be shown that they don't have the votes, this will

simply be written off as a vote along party lines, and nothing but partisan politics, which no doubt some is, but but the cover-up, lies, and deceit will soon be forgotten, along with the reality that women are still views as second class citizens in this country

[FreepFryer]

4. What would that accomplish?

"Don't vote" is never an effective strategy, neither for us or our Senators.

[DeminPennswoods]

5. Agree, they should vote no, but wait until all the Rs

have voted first.

McConnell wants the power, so he and his caucus can have the spotlight to go with it during the vote.

[INdemo]

6. I think all the new polls showing Democrats are slipping in the polls

is just a scheme to scare the hell out of Red State Dems. For the last 1/2 hour interviews and polls (on MSNBC) show Republicans have a 78% chance of holding the Senate. That's up 27% in less than 48 hours.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. THIS

There appears to be only 1 red state Democratic Senator in peril and that is Heitkamp - but then she can go out voting "no". But there are polls showing TN going to Bresden, who could be her replacement and it would be sweet if O'Rourke and Sinema can somehow prevail.

[INdemo]

19. With all this lates news on the polls though

are we being set up for another theft by the Russians...

I agree with you about Heitkamp but I'm thinking back to 2014 and it was just too damn easy for Republicans to take the Senate because polls were favoring many Democrats a couple days before that election.

We have to remember even though we favor MSNBC its still NBC and its still owned by a Corporation that favors the Right. So Hosts are given scripts by their producers and the Producers have their instructions ,,Comcast

[BumRushDaShow]

23. The 2014 election

was the "exhaustion" still being felt with the massive push to beat RMoney in 2012.

This is what tends to happen. People who are liberals and progressives aren't sustained on a constant 24/7 diet of mass anger and outrage. They will rise up and then once they sortof get what they want, they will resume their regular activities of life.

The model would hopefully be the 2006 election - recall that the GOP controlled all branches like you see today and at the time, the House had been controlled by the GOP since their 1994 takeover. The environment of today is much much worse than 2006 in terms of huge shifts towards draconian policies (it was pre-recession too, where the actual collapse of the economy help to bring about Obama and a complete takeover by Democrats in 2008).

[INdemo]

29. Back then tough we didnt have the voter supression as bad

we didn't have 65% of the State Houses controlled by the Republicans.
We didn't have Citizens United, nor did we have the Russians stealing our votes.

I keep thinking about what I have read about the mid 30's in Germany and I'll tell ya..Its scary as hell.
Our Democracy is being challenged and our freedoms are on life support. If we get a Right Wing Court who knows what will happen. They could overturn the 22nd Amendment to the Constitutionl and we may have Trump for life.Thats what he wants..a dictator status

There is a cycle happening right now that's unbelievable
Never did I ever think I would see this percentage of Union Worker support Republicans and Support Trump like they do...I think many of them just could not support a Black man as President and that's sad.
This day and age its not enough to have great well funded Democratic Candidates..Its the funding for Republicans propaganda that we are up against and there is no contribution limits for Right Wingers supporting that cause.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. Oh you most certainly did have voter suppresion

You know why?

Section IV of the Voting Rights Act was thrown out by the SCOTUS (which in turn made Section V irrelevant) - and this happened at the end of the SCOTUS session in June of 2013, perfect timing before the 2014 mid-terms.

That meant the end of "pre-clearance" by DOJ for a list of states and municipalities who previously HAD to request DOJ review before making changes to their voting processes and maps. Once that limitation went away, those states went hog wild.

What is heartening today though is that very quietly, under the radar, there are literally hundreds of Democrats running for positions at the local/state/federal levels, where no Democrat had run before. The odds are good that many of them will actually be elected because before, many of those positions had no one else willing to run for the seat, so it just kept going to the same people (notably GOPers) over and over.

[INdemo]

33. I meant 2006..sure we did have but not as bad as now

[BumRushDaShow]

35. In some states, they had massive voter purges

where it was estimated that some 13 million names were removed from the rolls nationwide in 2005 - 2006.

And then come 2014, another round happened, and they are trying for yet another round again this year.

[still_one]

11. both houses were a long shot, but especially the Senate.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

28. per 538

How Republican chances in the Senate have changed since initial Kavanaugh hearings
According to FiveThirtyEight’s 2018 Senate forecast

CHANCE OF GOP SENATE CONTROL
DATE EVENT
Sept. 3 Day before initial confirmation hearings 72%
Sept. 15 Day before Ford’s name released 72
Sept. 26 Day before new confirmation hearings 69
Oct. 4 Today 76
Republicans have been favored to keep the Senate all along. But their position has improved quite a bit over the last week in all three versions of our model. In our Classic Senate forecast, for example, Republicans are now 77 percent favorites to hold the chamber, up from 68 percent before last week’s hearings.

A lot of this comes down to Heitkamp and North Dakota, where Republican Kevin Cramer is now a 2-to-1 favorite despite the traditionally strong performance of opposition-party incumbents in potential wave elections. Heitkamp’s problems might well be Kavanaugh related — she hasn’t yet been clear about how she’ll vote, but polls show a clear majority of North Dakotans favoring Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

At the same time, Manchin’s numbers have held up well in West Virginia despite his having taken a similarly ambiguous stance on Kavanaugh, and some Democrats who have said they’d vote against Kavanaugh, such as Missouri’s Claire McCaskill and Indiana’s Joe Donnelly, have had decent polling numbers lately. I’m inclined toward the obvious-seeming conclusion that Kavanaugh has hurt Heitkamp, but it isn’t totally cut-and-dried.

lot's more
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-kavanaugh-helping-republicans-midterm-chances/

[BumRushDaShow]

34. I mentioned this elsewhere but I think ND's problem

is that there is a huge "non-native North Dakotan" contingent of people who moved there for the oil industry -literally thousands upon thousands. So their views are quite a bit more skeptical about things given the boom/bust industry they are working in... So I don't think Heitkamp's issue is so much Kavanaugh as it is these "newer" residents and their "economy".

Interesting article here - https://www.businessinsider.com/oil-north-dakota-towns-2018-6

[Merlot]

14. Makes no sense. If no dems voted "No" and 3 repubs voted "No" he'd be confirmed.

We need all the "No" votes we can get.

[MagickMuffin]

15. THIS √

Never sit out a VOTE!

[still_one]

16. If that was the case I would agree with you, except from all the reports I am hearing that isn't

going to be the case.

Granted, that may be pure speculation, but if McConnell holds the votes, you can bet he has all the republicans on board

[world wide wally]

18. All abstain until all Republicans have voted, then all vote no.

This would be the closest thing to an all out mutiny that we could muster. Otherwise, it just gives legitimacy to what the GOP will call a "fair" vote.

[still_one]

25. That actually would serve a purpose, and make a point

[Laura PourMeADrink]

22. Susan Collins says "it looks very thorough" WTF

[Bayard]

30. They must vote

Otherwise, the Pugs will show clips next month of Dems throwing a temper tantrum.

[libdem4life]

37. Let this travesty instruct ALL Democrats in 2020.

History is useful to instruct for the future.