Linky Friday: Those Folks on the Hill
[LF1] The historic new Congress, in 17 pictures
[LF2] The New Congress: Fewer Christians But Still Religious
[LF3] A look inside the most diverse Congress in history
[LF4] ‘Si, se puede’: With inauguration, Latina legislators make history in Congress
[LF5] Muslim and Jewish holy books among many used to swear-in Congress
[LF6] ‘There’s so many different things!’: How technology baffled an elderly Congress in 2018
[LF7] A Nuclear Battle Is Ahead in Congress: Democrats seem intent on killing the main elements of the Pentagon’s plan to modernize the arsenal.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFroMQlKiag&w=560&h=315]
[LF8] FCC’s Ajit Pai says Congress was right not to restore net neutrality
[LF9] Congress in 2019: What are the alternatives to impeachment?
[LF10] Dysfunction junction: Why we have a ‘do nothing’ Congress
[LF11] McConnell Faces Pressure From Republicans to Stop Avoiding Shutdown Fight
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc8GF7hGUSo&w=560&h=315]
[LF13] Kyrsten Sinema Makes History As First Openly Bisexual Person Sworn In To Senate
[LF14] Big shakeup coming to Senate Armed Services
[LF15] Senate Sets Mid-January Confirmation Hearings For Attorney General Nominee
[LF16] Grassley sworn in as Senate President Pro Tempore
[LF17] The Path to Give California 12 Senators, and Vermont Just One
[LF18] Orrin Hatch ends 4-decade Senate run as unique GOP voice
[LF19] Those 44 former senators are demanding a Senate that no longer exists
[LF20] The Senate Is Where Peril Awaits Trump
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDc_5zpBj7s&w=560&h=315]
LF17: That seems like shaky legal ground no matter which way it’s sliced. At the very least, the attempt is likely to initiate a Constitutional Convention.Report
LF17 – I am constantly saddened by the complete lack of understanding of how our gov’t is supposed to function, and why.Report
LF17 The argument that this proposal would get around the Article V prohibition on depriving states of equal representation without their consent seems to be that the Supreme Court has accepted stupid arguments before, so why not this one? True, but weak. But there is a work-around. Let each state keep its two Senators and add about 100 at-large seats, 25 of which would be elected each two years. (Initial terms would have to be staggered to do this.) Since they wouldn’t represent states at all, they wouldn’t deprive states of their equal representation. Since they would be elected at-large, they would, in effect, be national popular vote winners, and the voters in large states would have a more nearly proportionate say, even if the two Dakotas or MontanaHo vote as overwhelmingly one way as they often do.Report
LF11: Anyone interested in a pool for the shutdown ending? I’ve got Jan 18.Report
LF13: I wonder what the reactions are going to be when a certain industry decides to monetize this fact like they did with Palin in 2008. You know it is going to happen.
Meanwhile, former OT-er Jason K posted this from Liberal Currents on Facebook. The argument of the article that the best way to role back the populism is for everybody to take things less seriously and treat politics more as a game. I’m not sure this is possible though. Politics works as a game when your dealing with a limited electorate and an even smaller political class or when there is a big consensus and anybody who breaks it is treated as a persona non-grata. For the former, imagine the United Kingdom during the era between the Glorious Revolution and the Great Reform. For the latter, the first thirty or so years after World War II.
When you enlarge the body politic to include nearly everybody and have no rules on things that must not be talked about, you are going to get politics as conflict. Every side will fight to impose its’ vision of the world. I also find it telling that the people most invested in rolling back politics are those that really don’t believe in government.Report