Unagi wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 4:36 pm
Biden failed to remove the filibuster? How was that his failure?
Failure of leadership.
The buck stops there!
Please explain how Biden's leadership could possibly remove the filibuster.
Include the senate math.
If he were a Johnson, or a Roosevelt or anything but a centrist appeasenik we would be rid of it. Legally or not. Johnson especially. Johnson would corner Manchkin, wag his dick at him and blackmail, threaten or cajole (possibly all three) and use the full power of the presidency to get what he wanted. We need a Johnson.
Unagi wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 4:36 pm
Biden failed to remove the filibuster? How was that his failure?
Failure of leadership.
The buck stops there!
Please explain how Biden's leadership could possibly remove the filibuster.
Include the senate math.
If he were a Johnson, or a Roosevelt or anything but a centrist appeasenik we would be rid of it. Legally or not. Johnson especially. Johnson would corner Manchkin, wag his dick at him and blackmail, threaten or cajole (possibly all three) and use the full power of the presidency to get what he wanted. We need a Johnson.
So Joe Biden should unzip his pants and waggle his penis at Joe Manchin? I'm just trying to understand what you want to see.
Seriously, what power does Biden have to *force* Manchin and Sinema to change their positions? Explain.
Unagi wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 4:36 pm
Biden failed to remove the filibuster? How was that his failure?
Failure of leadership.
The buck stops there!
Please explain how Biden's leadership could possibly remove the filibuster.
Include the senate math.
If he were a Johnson, or a Roosevelt or anything but a centrist appeasenik we would be rid of it. Legally or not. Johnson especially. Johnson would corner Manchkin, wag his dick at him and blackmail, threaten or cajole (possibly all three) and use the full power of the presidency to get what he wanted. We need a Johnson.
So Joe Biden should unzip his pants and waggle his penis at Joe Manchin? I'm just trying to understand what you want to see.
Seriously, what power does Biden have to *force* Manchin and Sinema to change their positions? Explain.
Abuse of power or not we drift on back to the investigations issue. Find some way to use the power of the presidency to blackmail Manchin and Sinema to dance to his tune
Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.
Drazzil wrote: ↑Sat Sep 11, 2021 9:04 pm
West virginia has a shit load of prisons. Threaten to pardon every single last prisoner held in WV. That'd do it. Might even work for Arizona too.
You really think any former federal prisoners are going to want to stay in WVa?
Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. – G.K. Chesterton
If we're going full Bond villain, why not just threaten to 'accidentally' nuke WV? Either he'd have the leverage to bring about change, or he would get to eliminate a bunch of red voters. Win-win!
Hell, he could deliver the threat with his pinky in his mouth ("3.5 millionTRILLION dollars!") while laughing and dick-waggling like mad.
I still think this will get done but Manchin is telegraphing he is applying the brakes to try to force the Infrastructure Bill to a vote in the House. And that WILL NOT WORK. The Progressive caucus there don't trust the moderates (rightly at this point). I don't know what his game is but he is playing chicken with the entire effort when the country is on the edge of something very dark. If he scuttles this, he'll earn himself serious villain points for whatever happens next.
Edit: Accurate summation of this. Manchin can't really defend it with anything but bad economics mumbo jumbo.
I mean, it's not throwing dissidents in jail or threatening to release prison populations for an entire state, but it's something.
NEW: President Biden has told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer he's prepared to push moderate Democrats to change the filibuster in order to pass critical voting-rights legislation,
“Chuck, you tell me when you need me to start making phone calls.”
Holman wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:39 am
The joke here is that Manchin and Sinema are far more able to threaten Biden than he is able to threaten them.
They don't even have to break the law to do it. Either one could switch parties with a simple announcement, giving McConnell back the senate.
Yep, this. Everyone playing knows this, and they have to (unfortunately) treat Manchinema/Sinemachin with kid gloves as a result.
I'm not sure that has not been their end game all along honestly (at least Manchin). Maybe they decided to switch parties long ago, but their particular position currently gives them 10x more power than they would have had had they already switched. It could just be "let me play this game for as long as it works, and then when it stops working, or the math doesn't work, then switch".
Unagi wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:57 am
Empty the prisons? But gosh Drazzil. You aren’t even thinking like a proper villain... Manchin has children and grandchildren.
Perhaps real leadership here depends on Biden’s ability to threaten the families of congress?
/eye roll... if that wasn’t apparent.
Yeah and I promised not to talk about wanting violence in R&P. So. I wont.
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:47 am
If we're going full Bond villain, why not just threaten to 'accidentally' nuke WV? Either he'd have the leverage to bring about change, or he would get to eliminate a bunch of red voters. Win-win!
Hell, he could deliver the threat with his pinky in his mouth ("3.5 millionTRILLION dollars!") while laughing and dick-waggling like mad.
I wish you wouldn't joke about me recommending that after I promised you and everyone here I wouldn't recommend violence anymore in R&P.
Having the idiots investigated and blackmailing them with prosecution is on the table though. It wouldn't even be hard. Its like low lying fruit Manchkin and Scienma are dirty as coal.
No, no it’s not. If you investigate someone and find they did something wrong, the option available to the kind of country America aspires to be isn’t “use that to blackmail them”.
Christ, I really do think you’d feel more at home in a dictatorship. You seem to want it so badly.
Do ya'll really thing Biden has a failed presidency nine months in?
It is true he had a tough time with the Afghan withdrawal but was that really all his fault? And the rest of his presidency is really all that bad?
dbt1949 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 5:12 pm
Do ya'll really thing Biden has a failed presidency nine months in?
It is true he had a tough time with the Afghan withdrawal but was that really all his fault? And the rest of his presidency is really all that bad?
No. I think he's been pretty successful, especially given the headwinds of Trump's leftovers, COVID, and right-wing detachment from reality.
Afghanistan was ALWAYS going to end this way. We went in to catch Bin Laden and somehow decided that this required democratic nation-building in a region with no tradition of democracy or even national unity. And it turned out that Bin Laden was in an entirely different country.
hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 5:06 pm
No, no it’s not. If you investigate someone and find they did something wrong, the option available to the kind of country America aspires to be isn’t “use that to blackmail them”.
Christ, I really do think you’d feel more at home in a dictatorship. You seem to want it so badly.
Do you really think Johnson or FDR or Lincoln didn't engage in blackmail? I'm just wanting the president to play hardball.
hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 5:06 pm
No, no it’s not. If you investigate someone and find they did something wrong, the option available to the kind of country America aspires to be isn’t “use that to blackmail them”.
Christ, I really do think you’d feel more at home in a dictatorship. You seem to want it so badly.
1. We don't have a "democracy".
2. Depends on the color of the dictatorship. As long as the dictator does a federal jobs guarantee and M4A and a green new jobs program, and taxes the rich and redirects it to infrastructure and social programs? I'd definitely be for that.
3. At this point in our development as a country our "republic" is dead. I just hope whoever snatches up the power that the republic has thrown down is a good person.
Draz, you sound like you're trying to radicalize yourself for extreme action. Or maybe you're trying to psych yourself up to encourage and support others trying to do so.
I hope that's not the case, but if it is, I hope you know that the people who'll get most hurt are never the ones who deserve it.
This would be true even if you somehow threw a bomb into Trump's (or whoever's) motorcade. History shows that the suffering radiates out to to those who are most vulnerable.
hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 5:06 pm
No, no it’s not. If you investigate someone and find they did something wrong, the option available to the kind of country America aspires to be isn’t “use that to blackmail them”.
Christ, I really do think you’d feel more at home in a dictatorship. You seem to want it so badly.
1. We don't have a "democracy".
2. Depends on the color of the dictatorship. As long as the dictator does a federal jobs guarantee and M4A and a green new jobs program, and taxes the rich and redirects it to infrastructure and social programs? I'd definitely be for that.
3. At this point in our development as a country our "republic" is dead. I just hope whoever snatches up the power that the republic has thrown down is a good person.
Holman wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 6:37 pm
Draz, you sound like you're trying to radicalize yourself for extreme action. Or maybe you're trying to psych yourself up to encourage and support others trying to do so.
I hope that's not the case, but if it is, I hope you know that the people who'll get most hurt are never the ones who deserve it.
This would be true even if you somehow threw a bomb into Trump's (or whoever's) motorcade. History shows that the suffering radiates out to to those who are most vulnerable.
Woowwwww. First off. I'm shit at violence remember? Second off. I promised I would not encourage, nor call for, violence on these forums. Thirdly. I'm flattered that you think I have friends, alas I do not. My only friends are my cats, and the only way my cats would be likely to do violence is if I threw them at someone. Which I would not. I wouldn't trade either of my cats for anything in the world.
Unagi wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:57 am
Empty the prisons? But gosh Drazzil. You aren’t even thinking like a proper villain... Manchin has children and grandchildren.
Perhaps real leadership here depends on Biden’s ability to threaten the families of congress?
/eye roll... if that wasn’t apparent.
Yeah and I promised not to talk about wanting violence in R&P. So. I wont.
That's like promising to stop talking about fishing, but then still talking about how much you really really want to catch a fish.
dbt1949 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 5:12 pm
Do ya'll really thing Biden has a failed presidency nine months in?
It is true he had a tough time with the Afghan withdrawal but was that really all his fault? And the rest of his presidency is really all that bad?
No, we don't. But, I think we recognize the hit to his image over it... but I don't think it's an 'iceberg, straight ahead!' moment.