• @[email protected]
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    101 month ago

    I called my representative and I was polite. “Hello, I just want to say that as a WA state resident, I am very disappointed by my representative licking Donald Trump’s boots by voting to censure Al Green. Thank you and goodbye.”

  • Greg Clarke
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    361 month ago

    This post has about as much context as a map drawn by a blindfolded pirate. What is this all about?

    • Lad
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      71 month ago

      An American military officer who first served on the side of the revolutionaries during the American revolutionary war. Part way through the war, he defected to the British side and fought against his former allies.

      His name has become synonymous with “traitor” in the USA. A bit like Vidkun Quisling in Norway who collaborated with the Nazis after Germany’s occupation of Norway in WW2.

      • @[email protected]
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        91 month ago

        Fun bit of additional trivia about him, he was injured, shot in the leg while serving on the American side. After his defection, there is a likely apocryphal tale where he captured some Americans and asked what would happen if the situation were reversed. He was told his leg would get full burial honors and the rest of him would be hanged for treason. Funny enough there is a memorial of a leg at Saratoga for the injury he sustained and his importance at the battles in Saratoga but has nothing mentioning his name or the rest of his body. Which honestly is a level of pettiness to aspire to.

        • @[email protected]
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          31 month ago

          Also, the British treated him like shit because he wasn’t nobly born and because they also don’t like traitors.

  • @[email protected]
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    121 month ago

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but censures mean fuckall, right? It’s basically saying “you were naughty and I’m doing nothing about it”?

    • @[email protected]
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      1 month ago

      It’s mostly symbolic. But the last thing we need is democrats scoring own goals, and stopping actual action against tyranny

      • @[email protected]
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        41 month ago

        I agree. Just making sure it was just some weird optics things and not an actual way to quiet him.

        • @[email protected]
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          41 month ago

          If he was given extra responsibilities like being in some committee he could lose those, but in this case i don’t think that’s a concern.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 month ago

    There is a case to be made for not joining the race to the bottom. But likely these people constituents would be in favor of them voting this way. And in the end, that is who they are supposed to represent.

    • YonderEpochs
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      81 month ago

      We’re pretty damn near the bottom, bud. We need active resistance not polite words.

        • YonderEpochs
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          01 month ago

          Attempting to grow a fascist dictatorship, with some success and even support, sure feels near the bottom of government dysfunction to me. But part of what makes all this so maddening is the difficulty in accurately assessing the situation. I acknowledge that in 4 years I may feel that my worries today were overblown, and I sure hope so!

          • @[email protected]
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            01 month ago

            I know it feels like it. But you could be in North Korea. That’s pretty close to rock bottom with very little hope of ever improving.

            • YonderEpochs
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              01 month ago

              I guess I’m not sure what argument you’re making. My argument is that asking Congress to uphold decorum is a mistake when you have bad faith actors (fascists) taking advantage of their good will. And you seem to be saying that no, they should still behave politely because we aren’t among the absolute worst governments? If that’s how you feel, where is your line? What government posture merits abandoning the traditions and norms that your opponents have long since jettisoned and which they now use cynically to thwart your own high-minded efforts?

              I hope I’m not being uncharitable towards you. Maybe it’s more like “we both got bogged down in defining details and we lost the thread”, that’s a thing that happens all too often lol.

              • @[email protected]
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                01 month ago

                Well a big part of it all is that the interruption doesn’t really make a difference. It’s a show, likely done to get attention on himself. If it were to be something very effective, that would be another story. But it will start us down a path where the chamber will resemble a WWE production. The original point though was that if the constituency of the dems that voted yes, support that vote, then they did thier job in representing thier voters. So that’s okay. If every vote follows strict party lines our government will be even more of a pendulum than it currently is. Swinging wildly to which ever side currently has the power.

                • YonderEpochs
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                  01 month ago

                  Ah okay. Well I’m with you on part of it, if the people who voted them in agree / would have wanted that, then yes it is appropriate for them to have taken that vote. I do not want politicians deciding for us what we really want / need, full stop. With you there.

                  Not really with you that it’s the job of Dems at all to keep the Congress from becoming a circus. I’m trying to be pragmatic and realistic, I’m aware that Al Green’s performance doesn’t directly translate to the federal government being suddenly less effective at its crimes and abuses.

                  But please, remember that whatever your own life circumstances and status, there are very vulnerable people who are being hurt now, and these people want to hurt them worse and more. The people attacking and abusing our countrymen do not respect morality or the rule of law, in any capacity - WE DO NOT OWE THEM CIVILITY and I posit that we have nothing to gain from being civil with them. We need everyone with a microphone to be screeching that they are abusive monsters, daily, disrupting any and everything they attempt to do. They did it to the ACA which tried to be the most compassionate legislation we’ve seen in a generation, they’ve done it to every damn thing else that had a hope of helping Americans, we owe them nothing more than the basic human rights we owe anyone.

                  But we can agree to disagree too, I don’t pretend to have all the answers and have been wrong many times in my life. Cheers friend.