What does a BIDEN Presidency look like?

[Admiral Yi]

Some of the founders were kind of scummy and the whole thing smelled of a grift, hence the "unsurprisingly"

I don't get how you think it was a grift.  They said donate money to us and we will make ads that attack Trump and the current GOP.  People gave them money, and they made ads that attacked Trump and the current GOP.  Did they fraudulently promise to make the ads for free?

Can't say anything about the other members, but I like Steve Schmidt.  He gave heartfelt, honest interviews in the aftermath of the McCain/Palin loss.  He and the others had a great interview on 60 Minutes.

[DGuller]

Some of the founders were kind of scummy and the whole thing smelled of a grift, hence the "unsurprisingly"

I don't get how you think it was a grift.  They said donate money to us and we will make ads that attack Trump and the current GOP.  People gave them money, and they made ads that attacked Trump and the current GOP.  Did they fraudulently promise to make the ads for free?

Can't say anything about the other members, but I like Steve Schmidt.  He gave heartfelt, honest interviews in the aftermath of the McCain/Palin loss.  He and the others had a great interview on 60 Minutes.

I'm guessing that the money taken in by the founders and their companies is not commensurate with the services provided by them.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm guessing that the money taken in by the founders and their companies is not commensurate with the services provided by them.

Why do you guess that?  You're starting with the conclusion and working backwards.

[Jacob]

I'm guessing that the money taken in by the founders and their companies is not commensurate with the services provided by them.

Isn't that how PACs work? Like isn't the bulk of the GOP funding and grifting apparatus centred on taking donors' money, providing some service for it but mostly pocketing the cash or hiring friends and associates for cushy consulting positions? I thought that was how the whole system worked...?

I guess you're more idealistic than I am on this. Weird.

[FunkMonk]

I mean, institutionalized grifting is still, uh, grifting.

I don't blame them for making a quick buck taking people's money to make dumb internet memes. Easy money, sure, I'd probably do the same if I were them. Still makes me a grifter.

I would just save myself the pain and leave out all the sexual harassment and cover-up.

[Admiral Yi]

That doesn't make you a grifter any more than a little girl running a lemonade stand is a grifter.

[grumbler]

I'm not understanding how one gets from the fact that the donors voluntarily donated money and seemed to be satisfied with what their money bought to the claim that this was all just a grift.

I think that Yi is right; people are starting with the conclusion that this was a grift and working back to claim that all of the evidence just magically provides evidence that it was a grift, because reasons.

It seems to me that the whole organization was so ad hoc that pretty much any of the founders could claim that "their understanding" of the deal wasn't what the deal looked like in the end.  You often see that in cases of unexpected success in a loosely-organized endeaver.

[The Larch]

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine joins Democrat Joe Manchin, saying she also will vote against Neera Tanden as Biden's budget director. Says Tanden showed "animosity" on Twitter, and deleting her past offensive tweets "raises concerns about her commitment to transparency."

Cancel culture! 

[alfred russel]

Imagine a counterfactual. Mitch McConnell has a majority and sets a pace for approving nominees. He says, "We'll approve 7 in the first 3 weeks of Biden's term, take a week or so off, and then take up others. Seven in month one seems like a good number. I don't see much benefit in going faster than that." Democrats would be losing their shit that he was obstructing the Biden administration.

It is also suspicious that the covid relief package is destined to come back from the house only after the senate trial is expected to end. It isn't a stretch to wonder if holding the trial now is slowing down that package.

Trump isn't going into the rear view mirror. He is destined to be acquitted and is probably the most likely person to be the GOP nominee in 2024. My hunch is that some of the procedural issues -- like witnesses -- are being decided based on Democratic senators seeing the same pressures I'm pointing out and just wanting the trial to end as fast as possible. If you put this off a few months, you could be much more thorough. Or--even better--you could piggy back off of a criminal trial.

The impeachment trial is just an excuse; the Senate can walk and chew gum at the same time if it wants to.  If Zombie Scalia came to life, McConnell would get a vote to have him reinstated to the Court through committee and on the floor in nano-seconds, even if was December 24 and a Martian-Jewish alliance was assaulting DC with orbital space lasers..

Here we are three weeks later, with only 7 cabinet positions confirmed, and a bullshit senate trial at a historically breakneck pace without witnesses.

It turns out the Senate could not walk and chew gum at the same time. You willing to admit I was right on this?

[crazy canuck]

Are there any studies measuring the IQ of Trumpists vs the general population?

[garbon]

Are there any studies measuring the IQ of Trumpists vs the general population?

To what end?

[Berkut]

Imagine a counterfactual. Mitch McConnell has a majority and sets a pace for approving nominees. He says, "We'll approve 7 in the first 3 weeks of Biden's term, take a week or so off, and then take up others. Seven in month one seems like a good number. I don't see much benefit in going faster than that." Democrats would be losing their shit that he was obstructing the Biden administration.

It is also suspicious that the covid relief package is destined to come back from the house only after the senate trial is expected to end. It isn't a stretch to wonder if holding the trial now is slowing down that package.

Trump isn't going into the rear view mirror. He is destined to be acquitted and is probably the most likely person to be the GOP nominee in 2024. My hunch is that some of the procedural issues -- like witnesses -- are being decided based on Democratic senators seeing the same pressures I'm pointing out and just wanting the trial to end as fast as possible. If you put this off a few months, you could be much more thorough. Or--even better--you could piggy back off of a criminal trial.

The impeachment trial is just an excuse; the Senate can walk and chew gum at the same time if it wants to.  If Zombie Scalia came to life, McConnell would get a vote to have him reinstated to the Court through committee and on the floor in nano-seconds, even if was December 24 and a Martian-Jewish alliance was assaulting DC with orbital space lasers..

Here we are three weeks later, with only 7 cabinet positions confirmed, and a bullshit senate trial at a historically breakneck pace without witnesses.

It turns out the Senate could not walk and chew gum at the same time. You willing to admit I was right on this?

No, the claim is that the Senate can do something, the reality is that the Senate is not doing something.

I am 100% certain that absent a trial, McConnel would be doing the exact same thing in regards to holding up nominations.

McConnell is a lying, deceitful piece of shit. He has shown that he will say he will do something, and then turn around and immediately do the opposite the moment whoever he "convinced" agrees.

So if McConnel CAN hold up nominations, he will do so. It matters not whether there is a trial going on or not.

[Eddie Teach]

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine joins Democrat Joe Manchin, saying she also will vote against Neera Tanden as Biden's budget director. Says Tanden showed "animosity" on Twitter, and deleting her past offensive tweets "raises concerns about her commitment to transparency."

Cancel culture! 

Much as I hate Twitter, this is such a Boomer thing to do.   

[alfred russel]

No, the claim is that the Senate can do something, the reality is that the Senate is not doing something.

I am 100% certain that absent a trial, McConnel would be doing the exact same thing in regards to holding up nominations.

McConnell is a lying, deceitful piece of shit. He has shown that he will say he will do something, and then turn around and immediately do the opposite the moment whoever he "convinced" agrees.

So if McConnel CAN hold up nominations, he will do so. It matters not whether there is a trial going on or not.

My claim was it was stupid to have the trial when they did because the result would be that we would get to this point with only 7 cabinet members approved and with a rushed trial (because the trial would table everything else requiring senate floor time, including future cabinet approvals and covid relief). That is exactly what happened.

I've been following this extremely closely and the republicans have not been obstructionist on the nominees so far. Seven have been approved and half the republican senators have either voted against no nominees or only one. Only Mayorkas has been contested and I think the lowest vote total besides him was Blinken with 78 votes. McConnell himself has only voted against Mayorkas.

This is an epically slow pace and is due to:

-Republicans weren't holding many hearings while Trump was still president because Trump was claiming he won,
-A significant amount of floor time was devoted to impeachment and matters around impeachment, which the republicans did not cooperate regarding,
-Time was spent around covid relief, which republicans fought (and continue to fight) tooth and nail,
-The senate decided to take a week's vacation last week.

Due to the way senate rules are structured, it would be very difficult to conduct contested floor business with a Senate trial of the president ongoing. When the Senate voted to approve witnesses, some knowledgeable republicans were absolutely gleeful that this was going to stall covid relief and the approval of any new cabinet positions for weeks and maybe longer. It is why it is very believable that some senate democrats lobbied the house prosecutors not to call witnesses: if they had it really would have delayed a lot of business further than it already has been.

[Berkut]

So you agree with me that they could in fact do both, they simply chose not to - thanks.

And no, the Senate rules do not make it difficult, GOP obstruction makes it difficult. Absent a trial, they would be doing the exact same thing, and I don't buy for a second your "just so" story about how their ability to obstruct and delay is ONLY based on their being a trial.