StrangeSox

yikes

He wouldn't be "fucked for life." He would not be 1 of 9 people in a country of over 350,000,000 to hold the highest court seat in the country. He would still hold one of the most important federal court seats on the DC appellate court for the rest of his life.

Stephen Miller and John Kelly are both still central members of this administration

some interesting choice of words here from McConnell

The classmate was one of Kavanaugh's character witnesses to the Senate. So they're tarring a guy who's supposed to be evidence of how good Kavanaugh is as an attempted rapist via a Pizzagate level "investigation." You have to ask what the real motivation for ramming through Kavanaugh despite his questionable past beyond these serious allegations really is. It's not like a Justice Pryor or some other conservative appellate judge wouldn't rule 95%+ the same way. Could they really not find anyone cleaner than him? Is this a pushback against the idea that someone with Kavanaugh's upperclass connected background ever facing consequences?

https://secure.randybryceforcongress.com/page/s/volunteer Beto was in a band with Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and that's good enough to get my vote!

They are both extremely wealthy men who were able to buy their spot in the ballot.

I'm not a fan of Reddy's approach but I can't agree that that's what is happening here. He's not trying to convince anyone of some false reality, and he did list some actual progressive candidates, and AOC tally doesn't need outside help when closer races at all levels could use it.

Just came across this article https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-government-loan-forgiveness-program-has-rejected-99-of-borrowers-so-far-2018-09-20 So far, roughly 99% of processed applications for forgiveness under a government program aimed at helping public servants manage their federal student-loan debt had their applications rejected. As of June 30 of this year, about 28,000 borrowers submitted 33,300 applications to have their loans discharged under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, an initiative launched in 2007 that allows borrowers who work in certain types of public service to have their federal student loans wiped away after 10 years of payments. Of the roughly 29,000 applications processed so far, 96 borrowers have had about $5.52 million in debt discharged under the program, according to a government report released Wednesday. [...] “It’s obvious that a huge number of people that couldn’t meet the requirements did not understand that they weren’t meeting the requirements,” said Clare McCann, the deputy director for higher education policy in the think tank New America’s education policy program. “The complexities in the program’s design mean that there are going to be a lot of people who think they’re eligible for PSLF and they’re not.”

Check out his yearbook quotes, it's right up his alley. The biggest conservative minds, possibly including the Kavanaugh team and the White House, have been hinting at 100% exculpatory evidence all week. Several top Senate staffers hyped it. Tonight they finally released it, and.... it was basically some Zillow searches, crawling through the yearbook, and then blaming someone else entirely. Absolutely disgusting and pathetic top to bottom, and if Kavanaugh himself was involved, he should not only withdraw but resign.

this is why the left finds it hard to take calls for unity from centrist dems seriously and

more for @Reddy

drain the swamp

Bredesen's a former governor there that was term-limited out and left fairly popular while Marsha Blackburn is not particularly well liked even in a pretty Republican state. I thought online polls have improved in quality quite a bit since the dark days of Zogby? The Reuters/Ipsos poll is a legitimate scientific survey, not some garbage online "opinion poll," at least. It's getting harder and harder to get usable response rates from phone polls. That said, I still don't buy Beto being ahead and think Cruz will win by a couple of points.

@Reddy

It doesn't end up better but the GOP is also making it very clear that it doesn't actually matter. So why put herself through it and give their sham hearing any legitimacy? It's gonna be cool to have a court where at least 4 of 9 justices were appointed by Presidents who couldn't win the popular vote and came in under a cloud of controversy and illegitimacy (Bush being appointed by the conservatives on the court in 2000, Trump and possible collusion with Russia and definite campaign crimes to influence the election in 2016).

Florida Gov race getting real bad. Love that this is called a "racial controversy," still can't just say what it is.

Nobody has a real plan for the pension problem from what I've seen. Gov. Quinn and the state Congress did pass a bill that basically said "lol sorry we're not going to ever pay what we promised," but the Illinois Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. The Illinois constitution has iron-clad protections for pension benefits. They can and have changed the system for pensioners going forward (TRS Tier 2 started in 2011 I think?), but there's a gigantic funding hole because both the state Congress and various Governors didn't come close to properly funding for decades. Pritzker wants to find a way to pay for the pension obligations but doesn't really say how, and Rauner wants a constitutional amendment to allow the state to renege on the promised and earned pension benefits. Rauner's single driving goal as Governor seems to be "break unions." It's a big part of why he refused to sign a budget for years, which cost the state billions and caused unnecessary harm to thousands. Republicans eventually had to work with Democrats to override Rauner's vetoes, and they did it under the threat that Rauner would spend millions funding challengers to any Republican who didn't follow his line. As for the 403(b), check out the options and their expenses/fees in it. My wife is also a teacher, and the options available to her in her 403(b) plan were a bunch of garbage high-cost annuities, and her district doesn't offer any sort of contribution match (I don't know that any public school district does). She pays into an IRA account instead where she can still get the tax benefits but can also choose low-cost index funds.

The FBI's investigation and report of the Anita Hill allegations took 2 or 3 days. There's zero legitimate reason not to have that done first and not to call other named witnesses to testify. It's a kangaroo court so Republicans can superficially look like they took the allegations seriously before forcing Kavanaugh on an unwilling country (least popular SC nominee ever at this point). They want this done quickly so it's out of the news and they lock down the Supreme Court for a generation. e: here's a crystal-clear example of why an independent investigation is both warranted and necessary: The Committee's "investigation" is run by people fully committed and determined to confirm Kavanaugh at all costs.

Oh wait I got trolled by her Nice one, senator

Just awful. This will get zero Republicans to vote for her, and I'm sure it'll do wonders for any progressive support