4 ms·

At what point is congress gonna grow a spine and retake their power? Every day the goalposts just get moved a little farther.

varispeed 7mo ago
If everyone is somewhat implicated in Epstein files, then everyone is afraid of Putin / Netanyahu who might pull up the files. It's funny how they are so scared to face justice, but also interesting how American law enforcement became so corrupt. Protecting pedos on such a scale?
- pfannkuchen 7mo ago
  There's a very strange problem with this whole thing where, of course, whatever these powerful people have done behind closed doors that is illegal and exploitative and harmful is terrible and they should be put to justice. However, if the direction of the country is being seriously altered via blackmail, IMO that is many orders of magnitude worse than anything they could have done. Like we are currently bombing yet another middle eastern country for no clear reason. I would personally be open to some kind of Epstein jubilee where we absolve everyone involved in order to nullify the blackmail. Like it's not great, it's terrible for the victims and for justice, but at the moment we are getting terrible from both ends, could we at least reduce it to one end?
  - pjc50 7mo ago
    That creates a far worse problem down the line because they will just do it again, more publicly. Really the rot set in with the pardons of Nixon and Oliver North.
    - pfannkuchen 7mo ago
      Can you justify that assertion? How would they do it again, more publicly? It's not like a blackmail ring is that easy to set up, it seems to have taken a lot of heavy lifting to get this one going.
      - paulryanrogers 7mo ago
        When people see what others have gotten away with, they become emboldened themselves.
  - bdbdbdb 7mo ago
    We always talk about what these powerful people "have done", as if it's all over. Surely Epstein's death did not bring about the end of billionaire sex trafficking? Someone stepped in. These guys are still raping people on private planes and private islands
    - pfannkuchen 7mo ago
      But why are we focusing on the raping, and not on what the American government is doing that has no clear rational motive without “Israel has captured the government” and a very clear rational motive with “Israel has captured the government”? If the American government continues to perform actions that are blatantly against the interests of America and Americans, the impact of that on Americans is going to be (and may be already) massively massively worse than the person to person level crimes we are focusing on. Does it just feel so bad thinking about it that a lot of people have a hard time even going there mentally? I really don’t get it.
      - BLKNSLVR 7mo ago
        I can't shake the feeling that Trump's continual needling of Europe is intended the destroy NATO. And this is a desire of Putin's. I know it's conspiratorial, and I hate that, but it's one of the only things that makes any of the actions of the US in the last year make any semblance of sense. I don't like to think that, but it remains, for me, a valid scenario.
  - BLKNSLVR 7mo ago
    If their actions have made this level of blackmail possible, then said actions are the worse thing because that's what made this scale of blackmail possible. Their actions are the foundation for everything that came after.
  - smackeyacky 7mo ago
    You don’t need a jubilee. At this point Trump could release a video of himself eating a crying baby and his supporters simply will ignore it.
watwut 7mo ago
Republicans in congress support it. It is not about congress not having abstract spine. It is about republican congressmen actively supporting all of this.
- nielsbot 7mo ago
  Plot twist: The Dem leadership (Schumer, Jeffries, et al) also supports this. That's why their main complaints have been procedural: "Why didn't you come to us first with your plans?". And why they slow-walked the vote on a war powers act.
  - rootusrootus 7mo ago
    The dems have no power against a unified GOP front, and they already look pretty weak on issues like this. They are trying to figure out how they can mollify their base while attracting enough centrist voters to retake Congress later this year. I don't care for the dem leadership but I feel a little sympathy for them. Catering to their loudest supporters is a pretty big reason they are the minority party right now.
    - hdgvhicv 7mo ago
      Where trumps Republican Party have spent the last 10 years not catering from their loudest supporters? Either the majority of Americans want this war, in which case the Dems have to be quiet, or they don’t, in which case the dems should be making it the number one issue. Sadly I suspect the answer is not in the side of the Hollywood version of post ww2 America. Now is the time to insert the “are we the bad guys” meme.
    - overfeed 7mo ago
      > Catering to their loudest supporters is a pretty big reason they are the minority party right now. By "loudest supporters" - are you referring to the donor class? Money is speech, after all. The Democratic party has an identity crisis: it's failing to balance special interests and their traditional constituents - post-Goldwater/ southern-strategy. Instead of activating their base, they seem to be courting the political center that has been hollowed out by Maga and polarization, incidentally matching the desires of their donors who abhor any kind of populist leftist politics, including anything in instituted by FDR.
rootusrootus 7mo ago
Approximately never. We are in a situation where Congress is unusually beholden to their constituents for once, because those people care deeply about Donald Trump. So this is what they want; not just the war, but everything -- they want all the power to rest with Trump.
- feb012025 7mo ago
  I think you're mistaken about who congress is beholden to at this particular point in time... The war has record low approval ratings, even among Trump's base.
  - dlev_pika 7mo ago
    I’m just hoping Schumer doesn’t advocate for merging with IDF, if the GOP loses the majority
    - overfeed 7mo ago
      Joe and Eileen Bailey[1] support the war, which is why Schumer is staying tight-lipped. 1. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/03/19/imaginary-friends https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/03/19/imaginary-frie...
      - dlev_pika 7mo ago
        I’m shocked, let me tell you The US Army becoming Israel’s strike force, at the hands of rapist, what a time to be alive
  - rootusrootus 7mo ago
    > The war has record low approval ratings, even among Trump's base. The war does, Trump does not. He maintains very strong support among the base, and that is the part keeping the GOP politicians in line. It is why some of them just resign instead of enduring the threats from his supporters.
losvedir 7mo ago
I think they have 60 days from when hostilities begin, right?
- krferriter 7mo ago
  No. This war has been illegal from day one. The 60 window without prior authorization only applies if the US is attacked. The US was not attacked.
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
dlev_pika 7mo ago
Best case scenario is when they lose the majority
delecti 7mo ago
On this subject, they won't, because they mostly want this war too. Most members of both parties have taken AIPAC money. Most of them are also glad somebody is finally attacking Iran, especially without them having to sign their name on a use of force authorization or declaration of war.
aryonoco 7mo ago
If you believe, like I do, that there are a lot of parallels between the US of today and the Rome of yesteryear, you might find the answer by reading Tacitus. It turns out, long after Rome had become an Empire and was only a Republic in name only, most Senators still thought of it as a Republic and that this extraordinary state of affairs with the Senate just being a glorified rubber stamp body would soon come to an end and that, they will very soon restore the Senate to its former rightful place, just as soon as this current very limited crises was over. As it turns out, they were never able to do that again. It’s so interesting to me that nearly all of the Founding Fathers had read Tacitus and were keenly aware of this and explicitly tried to design a system to prevent that from happening. To their credit, their system lasted a good while.
- technothrasher 7mo ago
  > To their credit, their system lasted a good while. If we accept your thesis that the US republic is over, it only lasted around half as long as the Roman republic you are saying the "Founding Fathers" were trying to improve upon.

varispeed 7mo ago

If everyone is somewhat implicated in Epstein files, then everyone is afraid of Putin / Netanyahu who might pull up the files. It's funny how they are so scared to face justice, but also interesting how American law enforcement became so corrupt. Protecting pedos on such a scale?

pfannkuchen 7mo ago
There's a very strange problem with this whole thing where, of course, whatever these powerful people have done behind closed doors that is illegal and exploitative and harmful is terrible and they should be put to justice. However, if the direction of the country is being seriously altered via blackmail, IMO that is many orders of magnitude worse than anything they could have done. Like we are currently bombing yet another middle eastern country for no clear reason. I would personally be open to some kind of Epstein jubilee where we absolve everyone involved in order to nullify the blackmail. Like it's not great, it's terrible for the victims and for justice, but at the moment we are getting terrible from both ends, could we at least reduce it to one end?
- pjc50 7mo ago
  That creates a far worse problem down the line because they will just do it again, more publicly. Really the rot set in with the pardons of Nixon and Oliver North.
  - pfannkuchen 7mo ago
    Can you justify that assertion? How would they do it again, more publicly? It's not like a blackmail ring is that easy to set up, it seems to have taken a lot of heavy lifting to get this one going.
    - paulryanrogers 7mo ago
      When people see what others have gotten away with, they become emboldened themselves.
- bdbdbdb 7mo ago
  We always talk about what these powerful people "have done", as if it's all over. Surely Epstein's death did not bring about the end of billionaire sex trafficking? Someone stepped in. These guys are still raping people on private planes and private islands
  - pfannkuchen 7mo ago
    But why are we focusing on the raping, and not on what the American government is doing that has no clear rational motive without “Israel has captured the government” and a very clear rational motive with “Israel has captured the government”? If the American government continues to perform actions that are blatantly against the interests of America and Americans, the impact of that on Americans is going to be (and may be already) massively massively worse than the person to person level crimes we are focusing on. Does it just feel so bad thinking about it that a lot of people have a hard time even going there mentally? I really don’t get it.
    - BLKNSLVR 7mo ago
      I can't shake the feeling that Trump's continual needling of Europe is intended the destroy NATO. And this is a desire of Putin's. I know it's conspiratorial, and I hate that, but it's one of the only things that makes any of the actions of the US in the last year make any semblance of sense. I don't like to think that, but it remains, for me, a valid scenario.
- BLKNSLVR 7mo ago
  If their actions have made this level of blackmail possible, then said actions are the worse thing because that's what made this scale of blackmail possible. Their actions are the foundation for everything that came after.
- smackeyacky 7mo ago
  You don’t need a jubilee. At this point Trump could release a video of himself eating a crying baby and his supporters simply will ignore it.

watwut 7mo ago

Republicans in congress support it. It is not about congress not having abstract spine. It is about republican congressmen actively supporting all of this.

nielsbot 7mo ago
Plot twist: The Dem leadership (Schumer, Jeffries, et al) also supports this. That's why their main complaints have been procedural: "Why didn't you come to us first with your plans?". And why they slow-walked the vote on a war powers act.
- rootusrootus 7mo ago
  The dems have no power against a unified GOP front, and they already look pretty weak on issues like this. They are trying to figure out how they can mollify their base while attracting enough centrist voters to retake Congress later this year. I don't care for the dem leadership but I feel a little sympathy for them. Catering to their loudest supporters is a pretty big reason they are the minority party right now.
  - hdgvhicv 7mo ago
    Where trumps Republican Party have spent the last 10 years not catering from their loudest supporters? Either the majority of Americans want this war, in which case the Dems have to be quiet, or they don’t, in which case the dems should be making it the number one issue. Sadly I suspect the answer is not in the side of the Hollywood version of post ww2 America. Now is the time to insert the “are we the bad guys” meme.
  - overfeed 7mo ago
    > Catering to their loudest supporters is a pretty big reason they are the minority party right now. By "loudest supporters" - are you referring to the donor class? Money is speech, after all. The Democratic party has an identity crisis: it's failing to balance special interests and their traditional constituents - post-Goldwater/ southern-strategy. Instead of activating their base, they seem to be courting the political center that has been hollowed out by Maga and polarization, incidentally matching the desires of their donors who abhor any kind of populist leftist politics, including anything in instituted by FDR.

rootusrootus 7mo ago

Approximately never. We are in a situation where Congress is unusually beholden to their constituents for once, because those people care deeply about Donald Trump. So this is what they want; not just the war, but everything -- they want all the power to rest with Trump.

feb012025 7mo ago
I think you're mistaken about who congress is beholden to at this particular point in time... The war has record low approval ratings, even among Trump's base.
- dlev_pika 7mo ago
  I’m just hoping Schumer doesn’t advocate for merging with IDF, if the GOP loses the majority
  - overfeed 7mo ago
    Joe and Eileen Bailey[1] support the war, which is why Schumer is staying tight-lipped. 1. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/03/19/imaginary-friends https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/03/19/imaginary-frie...
    - dlev_pika 7mo ago
      I’m shocked, let me tell you The US Army becoming Israel’s strike force, at the hands of rapist, what a time to be alive
- rootusrootus 7mo ago
  > The war has record low approval ratings, even among Trump's base. The war does, Trump does not. He maintains very strong support among the base, and that is the part keeping the GOP politicians in line. It is why some of them just resign instead of enduring the threats from his supporters.

losvedir 7mo ago

I think they have 60 days from when hostilities begin, right?

krferriter 7mo ago
No. This war has been illegal from day one. The 60 window without prior authorization only applies if the US is attacked. The US was not attacked.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]

dlev_pika 7mo ago

Best case scenario is when they lose the majority

delecti 7mo ago

On this subject, they won't, because they mostly want this war too. Most members of both parties have taken AIPAC money. Most of them are also glad somebody is finally attacking Iran, especially without them having to sign their name on a use of force authorization or declaration of war.

aryonoco 7mo ago

If you believe, like I do, that there are a lot of parallels between the US of today and the Rome of yesteryear, you might find the answer by reading Tacitus. It turns out, long after Rome had become an Empire and was only a Republic in name only, most Senators still thought of it as a Republic and that this extraordinary state of affairs with the Senate just being a glorified rubber stamp body would soon come to an end and that, they will very soon restore the Senate to its former rightful place, just as soon as this current very limited crises was over. As it turns out, they were never able to do that again. It’s so interesting to me that nearly all of the Founding Fathers had read Tacitus and were keenly aware of this and explicitly tried to design a system to prevent that from happening. To their credit, their system lasted a good while.

technothrasher 7mo ago
> To their credit, their system lasted a good while. If we accept your thesis that the US republic is over, it only lasted around half as long as the Roman republic you are saying the "Founding Fathers" were trying to improve upon.