Gorsuch Filibuster

This is Jeff Merkley, senator from Oregon.
He had been speaking for 12 hours straight now on the senate floor, without breaks, in a last ditch effort to filibuster Niel Gorsuch's nomination.

Is this more impressive or autistic?

It's just an opportunity for nobodies to make a name for themselves. It's not impressive or autistic.

Can you just talk about anything?
That would seem like a waste of time and money towards the legislative process.

I would call it criminal behavior and have him hanged on the spot. Once he's finished of course. Haha

Probably a good thing I'm not in charge.

This.
It is.

>I'm preventing a vote in the name of democracy

Meanwhile... 5 years ago.

Welp, if you can't beat em...

Proof democrats use urine catheter bags

who oversees this?
why isnt someone just going
>youve spoken crap for the last hour. you have 30 minutes left then you are excused, now get to the point

My dad used to work at the Senate, when they would filibuster he'd go find them phone books/dictionaries etc for them to read aloud to piss on the Democratic process

You can be allotted time from other senators. The longest personal filibuster is something like 72 hours

Yes. The filibuster of the military spending bill in '92 involved Senator D'Amato reading a phone book for 23 and a half hours.

so youre allowed to just stand there for hours reading out telephone books and so on?

that's ludicrous, the rules must be changed.

again, who oversees this?
what can one person talking for 72 fucking hours accomplish that cant be gotten across in 7 hours?

That's literally what a filibuster is, champ.

it appears the rules allow them to do it to delay votes and prevent bills passing/people being appointed.

Why are the filibustering a judge?

Surely he could have made a better point with reading the names of the war dead?

Still funnier than Amy Schumer's Netflix special.

it's more proofo that the founding fathers were autismos

It wouldn't have affected the vote, regardless of what he read off it would have been split along the same lines.

They don't want him on the Supreme Court, which is an appointment for life. Currently the court has 4 left leaning judges and 4 right leaning ones. Gorsuch's appointment would tip the balance of the court in conservatives' favor for the foreseeable future, and that impacts what can be law.

Now, you onky need 51 votes to get him confirmed, and yhe republucans have 52 PLUS 3 democrats who have said they will vote for him, BUT you're supposed to let each senator speak if they want to. Once this guy is done talking, someone else will go, and on and on and on the cycle goes. You can forcibly stop the filibusters, but it requires 60 votes, and the Republicans don't have that.

Read my posts, dipshit, I was talking about the 92' filibuster.

I am fully aware how it works I took civics in college.

Strom Thurmond once did a 24 hour, 18 minute long filibuster against the civil Rights act of 1957. He discussed things like his grandmother's biscuit recipe.
Ted Cruz did about 21 hours where he read from Dr Seuss.
It's a way to get your way in the Senate. But it does seem to go against the democratic process, since one lone senator can hold up a bill in the Senate for a very long time, and no one is allowed to leave, effectively holding them hostage until they change their opinion.

I meant to reply to this brit bong

I mean, why can't they talk at length about something related to what they're stalling? The war dead in military votes, some science textbook on environmental votes, etc.At least use the time to educate everyone instead of looking like a complete asshole who's only holding up things by reading from a bloody phone book.

So it's simple, petty partisan politics? So much for the democrats being above all that.

Attention seeking behavior. Common in politicians

It's fucked. For the record filibusters were NOT part of the original US government.

Also, everyone is "above petty partisan politics" when they hold a simple -but not super- majority in the US government.

Wierd.
Another example of hipocracy in Washington

Because it's easier to read children's stories for a day straight than to talk about actual issues. Also gets them online publicity for doing something idiots will find amusing, like discussing the unified Pixar universe theory for 16 hours or something.

pottery as usual. these parasites.

The basic premise is to hand a minority party an effective veto. Its not necessarily a good thing to have a system where having 51% of a vote gives you 100% power. Tyranny of a slim majority leads to a breakdown in respect for laws passed by a minority.

Because control of the senate flips back and forth frequently it helps both sides slow and stop extreme policy ideas. Lately though its been abused for partisan political objectives. What should happen is an electorate should chastise and punish a party for frivolously using filibusters. But both sides are so extremely partisan that right and left both want to get their way and neither is willing to compromise.

Why are the republicans not going nuclear

el rato did it for a whole day

>tfw our legislative body will never be as kick Ass as the British House of Commons

Need to put laxatives in their drinks.

Or something stronger.

> Judges who make their decisions based of the constitution are right-leaning now

Because chances are democrats will have the presidency by 2024 at the latest and probably control of the senate.

Once you change the rules nobody is going to change them back. So when Elizabeth Warren appoints a wheelchair bound black tranny to the supreme court in 2025 I hope you're ready.

> Judges who make their decisions based of the constitution are right-leaning now
Nowhere in the Constitution does it state that homosexual unions are forbidden yet conservative judges rule that way constantly. Stop pretending the republicans are the "good guys" just because dems are cancer.

The constitution is inherently anti-homosex.

>Oh dude weedbro. I'm so stoned here at Starbucks right now. Did you see Gorsuch's epic last ditch fillibuster to stop drumpf from killing gays and immigrants in deathcamps? I'm gonna go score some meth and go to work at my 4j school district job. Antifa!

Fuck Oregon.

Government needs to get out marriages all together. You don't need to tell someone how to marry and separate in a fashion that ruins people's lives.

I feel bad for people in California. It seems like men there always get stuck paying a lifetime of alimony and for what reason? I though we mom can do anything. Apparently they can't be successful.

They will do it anyway you fuckward. They changed the rules before.

Women* sorry auto correct got me

Wait until Trump nominates Cruz to replace Ginsberg then we are going to see some serious shit.

This shit would be epic as fuck

Nope. If anything it was inherently anti-woman since it never mentioned them in the original text.

That's Washington.
Oregon is alright

>holding them hostage until they change their opinion.

>Blah blah blah blah blah
>42 hours later...
>Blah blah blah blah blah
>OK OK OK WE WILL VOTE NO SHUT THE FUCK UP
>Vote Yes.

What happens?

What is being filibustered is the fact that the GOP Senate put their fingers in their ears for a year after SupCourt Judge Scalia's death, shouting "NOT MY PRESIDENT NOT MY PRESIDENT" until Obama really wasn't their president. There was even this senator that said Oburger wasn't going to pick someone rational "like Merrick Garland", who then was exactly who he chose. Thats when fingers went in ears.

Now that Papa is president they want to shove through a corporatist even though the Dems have the same powers to stop it the GOP used last time.

The Dems explicitly didn't 'go nuclear' just to shove a judge through. The GOP has no such qualms.

The dems COULDN'T have "gone nuclear."

They didn't have even a simple majority.

Then 48 hours of time was wasted on pointless things.

*42

he put his fucking twitter nametag on the constitution, wtf lmao

Underrated

Dear god, please make this happen.

>Ah hayve transCENDed the delegates, Dahnald

Exactly!

I apologize. What's your point though? That they would have if they could have?

The structure of the government stopped the Dems from doing something shitty. And instead the GOP are doing it themselves now they have the chance. Its in both their benefits long-term to have the rule in play because it delegitimizes further any possible contenders from outside the two party system.

Being for this is being for malignant stupidity.

By 2024 Clarence Thomas will be the oldest member of the court, with all the older ones replaced by Trump appointees in their 40s or 50s. Whoever is elected in 2024 will be lucky to even appoint a single justice over two terms. Breaking the filibuster to gain control of the court for a generation is worth it. If the ages of the justices were more evenly spaced, it might be a problem but since they're clustered, what is done today isn't going to matter in 2024.

Also it is widely believed that Thomas wants to retire. Now that there is a Republican president and a Republican Senate, he might actually do it. This would further cement conservative control of the court as a youthful justice replaces him.

They're filibustering a judge because "wahhh wahh muh salty tears because it was her turn and merrick garland wahhh wahhh trump shouldn't get to pick cuz he's not our guy wahhhh wahhhhhhh WAAHHHHHH!!!!!" Literally. This is the govt adult version of laying in the floor pitching a fit kicking and screaming. Eventually you're gonna tote an ass whoopin and still not get your way

Absolutely go fuck yourself.

We watched a temper tantrum for over a year because a BLACK MAN/GODDAMN LIBERAL was going to appoint yet another GODDAMN LIBERAL so of course we should give the rich what they want because at least it's not letting the monkey get away with more GODDAMN LIBERAL SHIT right?

Typical of D.C. Do anything you can to not do any real work

The Dems invented the nuclear option under Obama dipshit.

based

that is not how this fillibuster works you dumb faggots its a 60 vote cchechpoint not a speech contest, if this fucktard is up somewhere talking it has nothing to do with gorsuch

Because if you drink water, eat food or breath air. Judge Gorsuch is bad for you.

Not true. At least your assumption of me. I voted for obama twice. And Kerry. Right after obama was reelected I started a family and started leaning more right. Started actually reading the constitution. Actually thought Garland would've been fine. Probably not given the person appointing him. And Gorsuch will be fine. He received the highest rating just like Garland. The biggest difference between the two is Gorsuch's literal reading interpretation of the constitution. I like that. It's obvious why the left doesn't want that. And they have no real reason to block him other than "muh partisanship"

political 'hacks' are hacks against democracy.

How does Trump get past the "Lying Ted" label he used against Cruz? Working with Senator Cruz is one thing since he's elected by the people of Texas but a court nominee is picked by the president. How can Trump appoint someone he called a liar over and over again?

The Republicans actually succeeded because they had the majority thanks to an American populace thated Obama's guts by the start of 2016 and they still have the majority because the people wanted to ensure Trump got to pick the next justice. The Dems are simply delaying the inevitable for political theater.

Muh epa

Where did all these unironic mainstream democrats come from?

Democrats will change the rule first time someone tries to stop their judge anyways. Might as well just do it now and get to use it yourself.

It's showmanship, just like it was when Rand Paul pulled the same stunt.

They put on diapers not out of necessity but to get their names in the headlines for people who don't know that the senate rules currently make a filibuster an automatic process.

If it were up to me, I would change the rules to make it a necessity but that's not the important issue here: what matters is that the DNC has a leadership vacuum and Jeff Merkley is apparently now planning a Presidential bid in 2020. That won't go anywhere, he'll be an "also ran", but he'll be able to secure himself concessions from whichever candidate he most strongly resembles in exchange for dropping out.

>This is Jeff Merkley, senator from Oregon.
A liberal, socialist demokrat.

Get over yourself you nigger loving faggot

He gonna get throat cancer

The issue at the end of the day is that originalism should be the orthodoxy on the supreme court. It shouldn't even be called originalism as it implies there are options on how to interpret fucking statutes and laws. When the 14th amendment's equal protection clause was not meant to extend voting rights to women when it was drafted, the whole of government had to pass an amendment to enshrine that right, not because the justices at the time decided they didn't like the 14th's meaning as understood and took it upon themselves to rewrite it. This is how shit is supposed to be done in a fucking constitutional republic.

When Scalia upheld anti sodomy laws it was not because he hated gays its because he was basically saying that people should agitate to their legislators to get the laws changed and not depend on unelected judges to design society for them.

Democrats want to impose their vision of society through government bypassing those that would disagree but also live in that society. They're wrong from a jurisprudential and moral level.

Guinsberg has already vowed to hold out until Trump is out of office. If Trump gets a second appointee, it sill be another conservative.

Scalia upheld anti sodomy laws because the constitution doesn't guarantee you the right to sodomy. What it does guarantee is that the states have the right, since it's not protected by the constitution, to outlaw it. Hence you are right in that it's up to the constituents of the states individually to pressure their legislatures to pass the laws they want for their state.

someone should just pull the fire alarm already

This is straight out of the Roman republic in its last days

Futures looking bright burgers

Ginsberg is leaving in a box before trumps term ends though.

It won't tip the balance. The balance will stay what it was before Scalia died. Dems are pissy because they couldn't tip the balance. The republicans were just following the Biden rule first put forth by joe Biden in the 90s in regards to not approving a new justice during an election year. Don't expect people to follow your rules when it helps you then you don't have to follow them when it hurts you

>The Republicans actually succeeded because they had the majority thanks to an American populace
No. Republican and conservative thought is now a minority in America. Even in the 2010 election when there was this supposed "backlash" against Obama, democratic senators and congressmen still got more votes, it's just that the state and district boundaries isolated most of those to a minority of congressional races.

The Republicans would have next to no power these days if we were a direct democracy. The founders were geniuses when they drafted the constitution because they realized this exact scenario could occur where one ideology becomes too mainstream and pushed opposing thought out. The problem is that the republicans are relying on the institutions of the Republic as a crutch. They can't keep relying on gerrymandering and state lines forever. They have to find a way to claim back a place in mainstream ideological thought, because currently right-leaning ideology is straight up suppressed in our society. Gen Z will help, but it won't be enough to make up for the ever shrinking white majority. Conservatives have to stop hiding and being so afraid of being labled racist.

While true, they should have at least held a vote on Garland. There is nothing in the Constitution that says "EXCEPT WHEN THE PRESIDENT IS IN HIS LAST YEAR".
It was pretty immature, party lines aside.

Look up the Biden rule you stupid faggot. Dems are the ones who started the unofficial rule of not appointing a justice during an election year. They're the ones that insulted the process

Rules for thee but not for me

People have been saying that about the queen of england for years. Women don't die easy.

it's too late for whites

but by the time whites are a minority there will almost definitely be a significant resurgence in conservative thinking. It's inevitable tbqhwyf but we may not see it for a long, long time.

>it's a "the Republicans are the ones who greatly benefit from gerrymandering" episode
I hate reruns.

>They put on diapers
For real? So when one leaves the room he is out and can't vote?

>Even in the 2010 election when there was this supposed "backlash" against Obama, democratic senators and congressmen still got more votes, it's just that the state and district boundaries isolated most of those to a minority of congressional races.
Wtf are you talking about?

>I apologize. What's your point though? That they would have if they could have?
yes

I think I agree with you... let me see if I can get at what you're saying.

On the subject of keeping whites the majority, that's a lost cause. There is no realistic initiative that we could ever push through to keep them the majority simply because there's just too many liberals that would never allow it.

But that doesn't mean we can't allow conservative culture to live on through a new generation. We are already seeing it in gen Z which is very VERY multicultural but leans right.

He probably meant the 2012 election.

Either way his point stands. Whenever there's a large turnout, dems win the popular vote rather easily. Republicans haven't won the popular vote in a presidential election since Bush ran for re-election and we have to remember that war time presidents literally always get re elected. A Republican president hasn't been initially elected with popular vote since Bush Senior in the fucking 80s.

The Republic has kept the Republican party intact, but it can't do it forever on its own. Trump won on a white vote, which is fine and I'm glad he won, but the GOP needs to convert non-whites in the future

Holy fuck McCain is fucking savage

the only thing I agree with him on

Repeak the 17th then nigger

p much

also minorities will become increasingly conservative as the "republicans are racist" meme subsides.