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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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President Joe Biden on Thursday pardoned thousands of individuals convicted of possessing marijuana, saying the current system "makes no sense" and sending pot stocks soaring on the news.

The pardons apply only to federal offenders convicted of "simple marijuana possession" as well as those charged in the District of Columbia, but Biden called on Governors across the country to follow suit.

"Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either," Biden said in a statement.

More than 6,500 individuals with prior convictions for simple marijuana possession were impacted by the pardons, a White House official said, and thousands more through pardons under D.C. law. The pardons will not be extended to those who weren't U.S. citizens and were illegally in the country at the time of their arrest.

Cannabis companies Tilray Brands and Canopy Growth both spiked on the news, gaining 30% and 22%, respectively, in afternoon trading. As of Thursday's close, however, each stock still traded for less than $4 per share.

In addition to the pardons, Biden announced that he has instructed Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick Garland to begin reviewing how marijuana is classified under federal drug laws.

Biden noted that marijuana is currently a schedule one substance under federal drug sentencing guidelines, "the same as heroin and LSD – and more serious than fentanyl," he said. "It makes no sense."

The Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney will take the lead on administering Biden's proclamation, an agency spokeswoman said.

In the coming days, the office will implement a formal process to provide pardoned individuals with a certificate of pardon, she added.

The proclamation also formally restored to these individuals all the political, civil, and other rights that were denied to them as felons.

"There are thousands of people who were convicted for marijuana possession who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result," Biden said. "My pardon will remove this burden on them."

The relatively small number of people who were actually pardoned on Thursday obscures the massive role that marijuana plays in the American criminal justice system.

Every year, arrests for marijuana possession typically account for between 40% to 50% of all drug arrests nationwide.

According to research compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union, between 2010 and 2018, there were 6.1 million arrests in the United States for marijuana possession. In 2018 alone, police made more arrests for marijuana, "than for all violent crimes combined."

The ACLU data also shows that these arrests disproportionately impacted people of color and low-income communities, serving to deepen existing structural inequalities.

"Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana," Biden said. "It's time that we right these wrongs."

Beyond Washington, Thursday's news represents a major victory for the country's nascent marijuana industry, which has struggled to gain access to major financial markets due to disparities within the patchwork of state laws that govern marijuana possession.

"Today represents action from the Administration that we have been waiting for – an acknowledgement that cannabis prohibition has failed and that too many lives have been significantly impacted as a result," said David Culver, vice president of government relations for Canopy Growth.

Biden's proclamation "has set into motion the actions needed to heal the harms of the past and chart a course for responsible, legal cannabis markets in the future," he said.

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apollos-boyfriend · 1 year

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my fucking family is insane they’re talking about how brasil is gonna become a dictatorship and they’re gonna be executing people who don’t agree with the president’s beliefs 😭 all because the new president is slightly leftist. get me outtttt of here

#icarus speaks #politics #<- just in case #i say slightly leftist but like. it’s the same brand as biden #leftist enough to anger conservatives but in the scale of leftism it’s nothing at all

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roboe1 · 1 year

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In The News Feed: Daily Update. News and Headlines.4/6/2023.

US News, World News, Politics, Commentary. US News: New video captures frantic moment rookie NYPD cop is shot during violent altercation in Queens The surveillance footage, obtained by The Post on Thursday, captures an unknown gunman wrestling with Officer Brett Boller on 161st Street in Jamaica around 3:20 p.m. before the 22-year-old cop with only three months on the job collapses onto the…

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#Canada #China #Commentary #Economy #Hunter Biden #Israel #Jason Whitlock #Louder with Crowder #Politics #Russell Brand #US News #World News

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whoxohm · 2 months

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Make it Happen and Stance.

#The Happy Happenstance Dance.ly clubbing night ovation.

#Nvision

#Who does

#The BLUTOPIA POWER PAC

# The Passenger Pigeon Party. (Now inc)

www.WHOXOHM.com

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carolinemillerbooks · 2 months

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New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/happy-90th-gloria/

Happy 90th Gloria!

A writer near my age admitted on Facebook that though she loved the feel of paper between her fingers and the smell of a new book, she’d shifted to an e-reader. No longer comfortable with small print, she needed an electronic device to adjust for size. Much in life is a tradeoff. The earth has a polar wobble, which is natural, but growing more pronounced because humans are pulling quantities of water from the aquifer. Global construction is at an all-time high. That makes sand, a key ingredient in cement, a valuable commodity. The scarcer it becomes, the more illegal mining grows. Today, quarrying sand is a $200 billion to $300 billion industry, making it more valuable than gold, logging, and fishing combined. Developments in technology may ameliorate some of these challenges. Reading devices that adjust print size is an example. Sometimes, though, the remedy poses new problems. Think of all those passwords we need to maintain our internet accounts. A woman In my late 80s, I’d like to see the world slow down. Is there technology for that? In his book, Successful Aging, Daniel J. Levitin warns that clinging to the past isn’t good for human health. Old folks should keep looking forward. That’s easy for him to say. He’s not at the end of the line trying to keep up. On the plus side, Levitin writes that old folks have an edge over the young. Wisdom enables them to make good decisions. They’ve lived long enough to discern patterns in nature and human behavior. A newborn may cry, terrified by its first glimpse of the sun, but adults head for the beach hoping for enough sand to throw down a towel. Lacking experience, young people’s judgments are prone to err. Many, for example, criticize Joe Biden’s slow response to the tragedy unfolding in Gaza. As the head of a powerful country, they presume he has levers to pull to affect change. Yet not since Teddy Roosevelt’s interventions in Latin America during the 1900s has an American President imagined he could interfere with another nation’s sovereignty and escape paying a political price–the incursions being short-lived or ending in failure. The heady era of being a dominant player among weaker countries is history. Today, democratic nations exercise diplomacy rather than brute force. Biden has an edge on that score. He knows the world players, the genesis of foreign quarrels, and the cards each country’s leader is likely to hold. True, he hasn’t sold Benjamin Netanyahu on a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. But Netanyahu isn’t thinking about the future. An unpopular figure in his country, he clings to power because of the war, holding fast to it the way a man lost at sea clings to an ice float even though it’s melting. Youth may see Biden’s politics in the current conflict as uncaring, but their viewpoint may be too simple. The suffering in Gaza is unconscionable, agreed. But, so far, Biden has kept our alliances intact in the Middle East; held Iran at bay; secured world trade by monitoring the Suez Canal, and made talks about a two-state solution credible. Not bad for a man forced to dance with wolves. In a bad world, only a fool looks for rainbows. Hal Brands in an edition of Foreign Affairs argues that given the current morality, “…the only way to protect a world fit for freedom is to court impure partners and engage in impure acts.” (“The Age of Amorality,” by Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs March/April, pg. 106.) Brands’ advice may be repugnant to young minds and old ones as well, but the difference between youth and age is that the latter is more pragmatic. Older people know that facing reality doesn’t mean giving up ideals. It means they may see taking a step backward as a prelude to moving forward. Nothing I’ve written diminishes the contributions young people make in the world. Innovation flows from their plastic brains the way stars burst from a supernova. I doubt an 80-something could have invented Bitcoin. Because our complex problems require complex responses, neither youth nor age should be banished from the stage. We achieve more when we make room for each other. Gloria Steinem turns 90 this month. After the loss of Roe v. Wade, she hasn’t given up on women’s rights. When a fan asked if she was planning to toss her torch to someone else, her reply was unequivocal. “I’m holding on to my torch. I’ll let other people light theirs from mine.” (Successful Aging, by Daniel J. Levitin, Random House, 2020, (large print edition by Penguin) pg. 662.) Happy Birthday, Gloria!

#Successful Aging #The Age of Immorality #Benjamin Netanyahu #Daniel J. Levitin #e-readers v books #earth's polar wobble #Gloria Steinem #Hal Brands #illegal sand mining #Joe Biden #politics in Middle East #Teddy Roosevelt #youth criticises Biden's Gaza response

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designworldsposts · 7 months

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#usa election #Election Campaigns #branding #promotional clothing ideas #presidential election #usa politics #joe biden party #trump 2024 #trump party #custom clothing #political branding #us election 24

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worldspotlightnews · 1 year

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'Part of my soul': 4 takeaways from Biden's trip to Ireland | CNN Politics

Dublin, Ireland CNN — Like so many Americans do each year, President Joe Biden returned to Ireland this week in search of his roots, seeking some connection and some answers in the land his people left so many years ago. He found it in pubs, priests and Parliament, which he said (in the Irish language) felt like home: “Tá mé sa bhaile.” The reception was more rapturous than anything he could…

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reportwire · 1 year

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Senate votes to block controversial DC crime bill | CNN Politics

CNN — The Senate passed a Republican-led resolution on Wednesday to block a controversial Washington, DC, crime bill that opponents have criticized as weak on crime. The measure will next go to President Joe Biden, who has said he won’t veto it. The effort to block the crime bill divided Democrats and highlighted the difficult balance the party is attempting to strike as Republicans accuse…

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masr356 · 1 year

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House Oversight chairman seeks Biden family financial transaction data | MASR356

Rep. James Comer, in one of his first strikes as Home Oversight Chairman, is looking for info from the Treasury Division concerning the Biden household’s monetary transactions and calling on a handful of former Twitter executives to testify at a public listening to. The brand new spherical of letters from the committee comes as Home Republicans wish to flex their investigative would possibly and…

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robertreich · 1 month

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youtube

The Case Against RFK Jr.

RFK Junior is not who you think he is.

It pains me to say it, but he is a dangerous nutcase.

He claims to want to heal America, but his vision for our future is tainted by his endorsements of hateful conspiracy theories – and the fact that he is being funded in large part by donors aligned with Donald Trump.

It’s time to lift the curtain on a campaign based on false, irresponsible, and self-contradictory claims.

RFK Junior repeatedly promoted a right-wing conspiracy theory that chemicals in the water are turning people gay or transgender.

He suggested COVID-19 was a bioweapon, mysteriously designed to spare Jewish people.

[RFK Jr.: “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”]

He’s spent years spreading anti-vaxx lies.

And in his 2021 book, RFK Junior alleged, with no plausible evidence, that Dr. Fauci performed genocidal experiments, sabotaged treatments for AIDS, and conspired with Bill Gates to suppress information about COVID-19.

These are not the words of someone who is serious about leading – let alone healing – this country.

As someone who once worked for his father, RFK, and admired his uncle, JFK, I’m disturbed to see RFK Junior speak this way.

RFK Senior would never have suggested that a deadly virus was targeted at certain races. And as president, JFK signed the Vaccination Assistance Act in order to, “achieve as quickly as possible the protection of the population, especially of all preschool children.”

If not for his illustrious name – and role as a potential spoiler – RFK Junior would be just another crackpot in the growing pool of fringe politicians.

It’s no coincidence that he shares top backers with the likes of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene — or that Trump allies Roger Stone and Steve Bannon encouraged him to run in the first place.

But the Kennedy brand is political gold, and it could pull away just enough sympathetic voters to tip the race toward Trump.

Democracy won by a whisker in 2020. Just 44,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin decided the outcome. If RFK Junior — or any third-party candidate — peels off just a fraction of the vote from Biden, while Trump’s base stays with him, they will deliver a victory to Trump.

If Junior had any respect for the principles his father fought and ultimately died for, he would withdraw his candidacy. Immediately.

#youtube #Elections #RFK #Trump #politics #video #videos

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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President Biden railed against Trump-allied Republicans Rockville, Maryland, on Thursday night in his first political rally speech in the leadup to November's midterm elections.

Why It Matters: Biden's comments that "MAGA Republicans" are a "threat" to democracy and other criticisms of former President Trump and his "Make America Great Again" movement are some of his most pointed yet.

Of Note: Biden's comments at a donor event for Democrats earlier in the evening that "it's not just Trump, it's the entire philosophy that underpins the — I'm going to say something — it's like semi-fascism" raised the ire of some Republicans.

• Republican National Committee spokesperson Nathan Brand in a statement to news outlets called Biden's comments "despicable."

What He's Saying: "The MAGA Republicans don't just threaten our personal rights and economic security," Biden said. "They're a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace ... political violence. They don't believe in democracy."

• "This is why in this moment, those of you who love this country — Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans — we must be stronger," he added.

• Biden also told the cheering crowd that in 2020, "you and 81 million Americans voted to save our democracy" — and "that's why Donald Trump isn't just a former president, he is a defeated former president."

The Big Picture: During his speech, Biden seized on key differences between Republicans and Democrats ahead of the midterms.

• "I want to be crystal-clear about what's on the ballot this year," Biden said.

• "Your right to choose is on the ballot this year. The Social Security you paid for from the time you had a job is on the ballot. The safety of our kids from gun violence is on the ballot."

• Addressing a push by some conservatives for a national abortion ban, Biden said: "MAGA Republicans don't have a clue about the power of women. Let me tell you something: They are about to find out."

Meanwhile, Biden made the case for Democrats' policies to tackle climate change, saying: "It's not hyperbole — the very survival of our planet is on the ballot."

Between The Lines: Biden's comments come as a Fox News poll out this week shows Democrats are equally as motivated about the midterms as Republicans, in a shift from previous polling.

• Democratic strategists credit the decision by the Supreme Court's conservative majority to overturn Roe v Wade as a motivating force for otherwise-disillusioned Democrats to show up for the midterms — though the overall picture looks bleak, Axios' Josh Kraushaar writes.

The Other Side: "Biden forced Americans out of their jobs, transferred money from working families to Harvard lawyers, and sent our country into a recession while families can't afford gas and groceries," Brand said in his statement.

• "Democrats don't care about suffering Americans — they never did."

• Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Go Deeper: Rise of ultra-MAGA right could play into Dems' hands

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odinsblog · 4 months

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Remember this grinning racist asshole, Stuart Seldowitz?

Apparently he got off with a slap on the wrist for repeatedly stalking, threatening and harassing a Muslim, but God forbid - if anyone utters the words, “From the river to the sea” they can be accused of committing a “hate crime” 🙄 or fired from their job, or kicked out of their homes, or lose high profile positions in media, or be suspended from college, ….

Please watch the video below (t/w: Islamophobia; racism)

Take a look at that video (which is only one of many) and tell me again how white neoliberals, our supposed “allies,” aren’t every bit as racist as their Republican counterparts. Seldowitz is the poster child for the, “politely-smiles-at-you-while-being-blatantly-racist” brand of, “but I’m not racist” white supremacy

Look, antisemitism is real, and yes, the Holocaust really did happen. So let’s not belittle those facts, capisce? But Islamophobia is also a very real thing™ and there absolutely positively is ethnic cleansing + genocide happening against Palestinians RIGHT NOW IN GAZA

Antisemitism and Islamophobia are two sides of the same white supremacist coin, and neither side is okay, and we shouldn’t be giving passes on either one—they should be treated as equally deplorable and indefensible, but unfortunately that isn’t what’s happening

We need to be asking ourselves why is there such a blatant double standard, and how do we end it?

👉🏿 https://www.vice.com/en/article/epv7nn/stuart-seldowitz-stalking-harassment-hate-crime-charges-dropped-anti-bias-training

👉🏿 https://www.salon.com/2023/12/03/israel-gaza-double-standard-celebrity-cable-news/

And just for clarity, because tumblr: this isn’t me saying don’t vote, and it’s DEFINITELY not me saying don’t vote for Joe Biden - discussing this topic requires a little nuance (just a tiny tiny lil bit), so please don’t be an asshole and flip this into something else

#politics #hate crimes #palestine #islamophobia #double standards #white privilege #stuart seldowitz #gaza #isreal #white supremacy #neoliberalism #antisemitism

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captainjonnitkessler · 7 months

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I think being on the internet has given a lot of leftists a drastically skewed view of how popular our beliefs are.

Most politicians support Israel because most Americans support Israel - only 8% of the population thinks the US should publicly criticize Israel.

Bernie didn't lose the primaries because the Democrats were just too scared of having a real progressive in office so they rigged the election, he lost because socialists are the least-electable people in America and because fewer people voted for him. That's how elections work. ( In b4 'but everyone else dropped out in a coordinated effort to concentrate votes behind biden!' - yeah, if your candidate can only win when the vote is split eight ways that's not a viable candidate. And I voted for Bernie!)

As of 2021 only about 15% of Americans support defunding the police, 47% would like to see increased police funding, and the number of people who think violent crime is a "very big" problem jumped 20 percentage points up to 61% in one year.

And it's just really frustrating to see internet leftists being super condescending as though everybody should already know everything and be on board with this stuff or else they're a Bad Person, driving people away from leftist ideology or making people too afraid to ask questions lest they be branded as a Centrist or worse, a Liberal, or refusing to engage in politics until they're being specifically catered to even though that would be political suicide (and would therefore not accomplish anything anyway.)

And like. It's fine to think that people who support Israel or more police funding are bad people, frankly I think a lot of them are. But I think even more are just misinformed or not really informed about alternatives at all. And not everyone is in the headspace to do education or outreach, but when you're only 10% of the population I think you need to make a choice about whether you want to feel good about being right on the internet or whether you want to be effective. It's frustrating to have to walk someone step-by-step through why genocide is bad, but it's a lot more likely to change minds than shouting at someone that they're obviously just a genocide-loving racist is.

#feel free to call me a neoliberal bootlicker if it'll make you feel better #i just think that effective action and harm reduction are more important than Being Right On The Internet #and I also don't think the Grand Revolution is going to happen. I think we need to work with what we have. sorry.#also i was having trouble finding recent stats about the i-p conflict #in general sympathy for palestine was hovering around 30% earlier this year #but i don't know if that actually translates to supporting palestine in the conflict or how that might have changed after the Oct. 7 attack #that npr poll was the most recent but it was less than a week after the attack when misinformation and sympathy for israel was at a height #so hopefully that number is higher now #us politics

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hussyknee · 7 months

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Fellas, is it an act of war against a Western European country to hold their citizens prisoner in the open air prison they're carpet bombing?

Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis have been launching attacks on US military bases in Syria and Iraq and firing missiles at Israel in tandem with Hamas's attacks. All three are funded by Iran.

(I am HEAVING with laughter at Vox and every single one of these propagandist chucklefucks calling them "militias" and "terrorist organisations" and trying to frame this as justification for continuing to fund Israel like. MOTHERFUCKER WHOSE REGION ARE YOU IN EXACTLY?? WHO IS GENOCIDING PEOPLE ON THEIR OWN SOIL??)

"But they're fundie theocratic military states!!!"

*looks at Israel*

*looks at you*

*looks at current state of US*

Oh, ARE they?

US officials have met with the Lebanese caretaker government in an effort to try and prevent the conflict from spreading into Lebanon.

Um. Was this before or after Israel poured white phosphorus on Lebanon? Do y'all even have any control over your dog?

(Btw if you MCU brainrotted Western leftists don't stop trying to pick a Good Guy out of this mess instead of understanding basic geo-politics and the horrific ground realities of the countries the US and its allies have left in tatters, you're frankly just as much of an enemy to the people in those countries as your leaders are. Every one of these people are fascist cunts.)

For those of you who have been BLEATING about Ukraine non-stop, like it's NOT an expendable non-NATO country they're only interested in defending in case Putin gets any bright ideas about Poland, here's an opinion that makes sense to me:

Tell me it wouldn't be perfectly on brand if the US government announced, "Our great democracy bows to the will of the people. We hear you, we see you. We will divest...from Ukraine."

The West has never given one singular shit about protecting ANYONE from genocide. Vulnerability is liability. The only difference between them and Putin is that Putin is greedy megalomaniacal fascist surrounded by self-interested yes-men and the US is run by a committee of greedy egomaniacal fascists surrounded by self-interested yes-men whose end goal is keeping the death machine spinning money rather than even "winning" territories. All they have to do to turn this around is divest from Israel and focus on Ukraine. And no, Israel can't throw in with Putin because it'll be too busy trying to fight off three countries at once without the sugar from its Daddy.

Putin will not stop at Ukraine, for the same reason the US didn't stop at Afghanistan. Empires are built on their military power and militaries need to be fed and kept active and kept active to be fed. The minute you stop, it tries to eat itself. If Putin makes a move on Poland, NATO has to respond, and if the West is also embroiled in an all-out war with the Middle East, well. It looks kinda like a global conflict.

Oh and btw, if this does escalate into another regional war in the Middle East, we're going to be plunged into an oil crisis. Which might actually be the last straw for the UK economy, but it very DEFINITELY will be for the rest of the Global South.

(Also Biden's already auctioned off the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska for oil companies for such an intensive scale of fracking that it's projected to tip the world over the edge of climate collapse. In the event of a war in the ME, the US is going to need that oil soooooo. Good luck stopping it.)

#gaza genocide #free palestine #war in ukraine #death to america #death to israel #geopolitics #us politics #middle east #iran #hezbollah #lebanon #world news #current events #knee of huss

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mariacallous · 3 months

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history who maintained his power in the face of dramatic convulsions in the Republican Party for almost two decades, will step down from that position in November.

McConnell, who turned 82 last week, was set to announce his decision Wednesday in the well of the Senate, a place where he looked in awe from its back benches in 1985 when he arrived and where he grew increasingly comfortable in the front row seat afforded the party leaders.

“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “So I stand before you today ... to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”

His decision punctuates a powerful ideological transition underway in the Republican Party, from Ronald Reagan’s brand of traditional conservatism and strong international alliances, to the fiery, often isolationist populism of former President Donald Trump.

McConnell said he plans to serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.” Aides said McConnell’s announcement about the leadership post was unrelated to his health. The Kentucky senator had a concussion from a fall last year and two public episodes where his face briefly froze while he was speaking.

“As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,” McConnell said in his prepared remarks. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.”

The senator had been under increasing pressure from the restive, and at times hostile wing of his party that has aligned firmly with Trump. The two have been estranged since December 2020, when McConnell refused to abide Trump’s lie that the election of Democrat Joe Biden as president was the product of fraud.

But while McConnell’s critics within the GOP conference had grown louder, their numbers had not grown appreciably larger, a marker of McConnell’s strategic and tactical skill and his ability to understand the needs of his fellow Republican senators.

McConnell gave no specific reason for the timing of his decision, which he has been contemplating for months, but he cited the recent death of his wife’s youngest sister as a moment that prompted introspection. “The end of my contributions are closer than I’d prefer,” McConnell said.

But his remarks were also light at times as he talked about the arc of his Senate career.

He noted that when he arrived in the Senate, “I was just happy if anybody remembered my name.” During his campaign in 1984, when Reagan was visiting Kentucky, the president called him “Mitch O’Donnell.”

McConnell endorsed Reagan’s view of America’s role in the world and the senator has persisted in face of opposition, including from Trump, that Congress should include a foreign assistance package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine.

“I am unconflicted about the good within our country and the irreplaceable role we play as the leader of the free world,” McConnell said.

Against long odds he managed to secure 22 Republican votes for the package now being considered by the House.

“Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them,” McConnell said. “That said, I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan discussed. For as long as I am drawing breath on this earth I will defend American exceptionalism.”

Trump has pulled the party hard to the ideological right, questioning longtime military alliances such as NATO, international trade agreements and pushing for a severe crackdown on immigration, all the while clinging to the falsehood that the election was stolen from him in 2020.

McConnell and Trump had worked together in Trump’s first term, remaking the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary in a far more conservative image, and on tax legislation. But there was also friction from the start, with Trump frequently sniping at the senator.

Their relationship has essentially been over since Trump refused to accept the results of the Electoral College. But the rupture deepened dramatically after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. McConnell assigned blame and responsibility to Trump and said that he should be held to account through the criminal justice system for his actions.

McConnell’s critics insist he could have done more, including voting to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial. McConnell did not, arguing that since Trump was no longer in office, he could not be subject to impeachment.

Rather than fade from prominence after the Capitol riot, Trump continued to assert his control over the party, and finds himself on a clear glidepath to the Republican nomination. Other members of the Republican Senate leadership have endorsed Trump. McConnell has not, and that has drawn criticism from other Republican senators.

McConnell’s path to power was hardly linear, but from the day he walked onto the Senate floor in 1985 and took his seat as the most junior Republican senator, he set his sights on being the party leader. What set him apart was that so many other Senate leaders wanted to run for president. McConnell wanted to run the Senate. He lost races for lower party positions before steadily ascending, and finally became party leader in 2006 and has won nine straight elections.

He most recently beat back a challenge led by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida last November.

McConnell built his power base by a combination of care and nurturing of his members, including understanding their political imperatives. After seeing the potential peril of a rising Tea Party, he also established a super political action committee, The Senate Leadership Fund, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support of Republican candidates.

Despite the concerns about his health, colleagues have said in recent months that they believe he has recovered. McConnell was not impaired cognitively, but did have some additional physical limitations.

“I love the Senate,” he said in his prepared remarks. “It has been my life. There may be more distinguished members of this body throughout our history, but I doubt there are any with more admiration for it.”

But, he added, “Father Time remains undefeated. I am no longer the young man sitting in the back, hoping colleagues would remember my name. It is time for the next generation of leadership.”

There would be a time to reminisce, he said, but not today.

“I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed.”

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lizardsfromspace · 1 month

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I saw a popular post on another blue hellsite doing the "Biden is exactly the same as Trump!" thing & they included that Biden would hurt trans people, bc they copy/pasted all the flags in a anti-Republican meme, and when asked to justify it they said "a record number of anti-trans bills have been passed under Biden" and called anyone who objected a moron and like

Idk. I feel like if you don't understand that the President has no authority over state and local legislatures & judges appointed by Trump, you shouldn't brand yourself as a Politics Understander. But if your message is "the Republicans are targeting trans people, and the only way to save them is to let the guy who would veto anti-trans bills be replaced by someone who actively craves them" that's okay I guess

#politics #uspol

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