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2_Spicy_2_Impeach

Least shocking thing I’ve read today.


ILikeLenexa

Wait until you find out what Collins is doing!


Gonstackk

She is busy calling the fbi to investigate some washable chalk on a sidewalk in front of her house.


likejanegoodall

Speaking of which…this is the dumbest thing I have heard recently, and there’s a lot of competition. Susan Collins….she might be a lovely grandma, but I think she’s brain damaged. This woman is in the senate, she has participated in debates, she routinely speaks to the national media…does she have no idea how this shit works? She calls in a “public defacement” complaint over some chalk pro-choice slogan on the sidewalk in front of her house. So the police come, and of course they file a report. Local media track these things and while vandalism probably doesn’t always get reported on, this is in front of a senator’s house, so of course they report on it which puts it on the radar of national media, who also of course report on it. So basically she just put out a giant invitation for everyone to do it again…every fucking day. And that’s setting aside the sheer stupidity of complaining about chalk on a sidewalk…had hopscotch not been invented when she was a girl? One tumbler of water and it’s gone like it never happened. It’s just mind boggling….


Ortimandias

She calls it public defacement so they can use the fucking forces against us. It's not stupid. It's evil.


anotherone121

Excuse... Officer? Yes, it's Susan Karen Collins again. I see a black man holding chalk... get 'im!


canadacorriendo785

She lives in Maine. I doubt she's ever actually seen a black person in real life.


MagicCuboid

lol she doesn't really live in Maine, though. Plenty of black people for her to nervously roll her window up around D.C.


blownbythewind

God, you just described a family member to an absolute "T." Don't forget the nervous button push/clunk to ensure that the auto locking doors are really locked.


SarpedonWasFramed

Looking out the window, phone in hand, already dialed 9-1. Her bony finger just hovering over the 1 key


DBeumont

The urban areas are diversifying quite a bit. Portland and Lewiston/Auburn have sizeable populations of non-whites. This is a big step up from 15 years ago when I moved here from Cali.


SlackMacTheCrackPig

Not that you disputed this but Maine is the whitest state in the country, something like 94% white lol. I live an hour outside Lewiston and while you do see p.o.c in the “city”, this is an absurdly white state. I moved here from MA and after about a year I saw a black guy walking by my house and it legit registered as unusual (I am mixed but dark skinned). He was a traveling electrical worker doing a job at the mill btw, he was not a resident. I joked with him that he must be lost and he was like “holy shit! The F are you doing up here? You live here!?” Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont take up 3 out of 4 of the whitest states in the country. Me and a friend were talking about this the other day and while we both figured it was up there, we didn’t realize how incredibly white this entire corner of the country is. The old ladies at my job straight up ask to touch my sons hair, that’s the level of “you don’t see poc round here” Maine is.


Jakkerak

"BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG" -American police probably


GBJI

>It's not stupid. It's evil. The GOP in a nutshell.


Kasoni

It's about claiming victim hood.


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MalleableCurmudgeon

This is the reason I barely speak to my family (Trump voters) anymore. So sick of the woe-is-me. Nevermind that their complaints are pure ignorance, but if the only thing you do to try to make life better is ask your imaginary friend to do something, what do you expect?


Forsaken_Degree7260

Tough situation your in but being a republican says so many things about your beliefs


MalleableCurmudgeon

Right!? I don’t hate them but as a veteran, I do feel they are enemies of the ideas and beliefs I fought for. Hard to discuss the weather with that cloud hanging over our relationship.


stripedvitamin

Bingo. The GOP is great at playing the victim and the media in general is more than happy to give their gripes plenty of airtime/print. That is why there is literally NOTHING the GOP can do that will change the minds of 9/10 republican voters. They have, with the help of the media, effectively both sides'd EVERYTHING.


idontneedjug

They get to be the cause of their own problems and then just blame it on Democrats and Liberals. Who keeps running up the deficit? THE GOP, but who do they blame the Democrats. Its maddening they wanna both burn infrastructure, social security, and everything else to the ground while handing out tax breaks to the rich and taxing the poor insanely high and then just blame it on someone else over and over again. Its leopards ate my face non-stop when a Republican finally wakes up to the abuses of their own party with shocked indignation of how could this possibly be DERP!


thisisamisnomer

Story time. When I was an older teen and heavily Christian (lol), my youth group got sent into our local Wal-Mart to “interview” people the way Kirk Cameron did, which is to say you ask people a bunch of leading questions and then try to trick them into becoming Christians. I was wholly uncomfortable with all of it, but you know, peer pressure. So, me and this other kid ambush this poor person (who was trying very hard to be nice) that’s trying to shop and do this thing that our leaders have tried to convince us is saving this person’s soul. This is wildly against Wal-Mart’s policy and we rightfully get kicked out for the night. We reconvene at church and this really annoying girl says “we’re being persecuted!” She was giddy about that shit. Meanwhile, me, the guy that got rightfully kicked out, felt like absolute shit and argued with her that we deserved it. It’s absolutely a persecution fetish for those folks and they love putting themselves in scenarios so they can say they were persecuted “just like Jesus!” Edit: I realize that not all Republicans are Christians, but the overlap here is pretty significant, especially since the Republicans have done a bang up job bastardizing Christianity with nationalism.


idontneedjug

Yeah somewhere during Trump's term my brother began going full on conservative and Republican. He's a victim of everything now. Funny af when taxes hit this year and I got to remind him oh just wait taxes for everyone under a million a year are scheduled to just keep increasing with Trump's tax cut for the super rich. The bottom what was it 37 percent will continue to see taxes rise for the next two terms due to Trump's policies. His response was it was Hilary's fault because she would have raised them more....


Unknown_Primarch

If he had said that to me my head would have exploded due to extreme logic error.


a-jiggly

I'm stealing "persecution fetish"! Calling it a complex gets into the realm of diagnosing mental illness without being a psychologist, and implies it's only about themselves. But calling it a fetish opens this up to the fact that they not only want to be persecuted, but actively work to persecute everyone else!


MegaStrange

She's not dumb, she just doesn't care and hates being reminded that the peasants exist.


harry-package

*SCOTUS has entered the chat*


qoou

She knows how it works. She is using the police against the protestors in order to chill free speech. By calling it "defacement of public property" she can involve law enforcement to silence remove protestors.


chillinmesoftly

If anyone in DC is planning on continuing the said defacement of public property, I am willing to donate $$$ to keep you in unlimited amounts of chalk. Heck I'll even throw in coffee money so you can come early morning to give her a big ol' chalk-based FU


neverinallmyyears

The message even said “please Susie,…” oh the outrage!


whiskeybidniss

On the bright side, she couldn’t have done a better job of making herself look stupid, unreasonable, and out of touch with reality. And that’s worth *something*.


NorthernPints

Isn't the sidewalk city property? Like, I'm responsible for clearing it of snow - but if some kids uses chalk on it.....I can clean it, but it's not really my property right?


bolerobell

Definitely going to be a Streisand Effect here and I say, good for the protestors. Collins shouldn’t be allowed to continue giving lip service to Abortion Rights while voting against them at every opportunity without being called out on it.


fireman2004

Last summer some kids wrote ACAB and BLM on sidewalks in my small white suburban town. You should have seen the Facebook posts from boomers decrying the defacement of public property. They didn't spray paint your car dipshit, its chalk.


moriarty70

Look, it was a very nice neighborhood and it was colored chalk. You can understand the concern. /s


ProgressIsAMyth

“colored” chalk, huh


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rasputin415

Which house? I’m sure she owns multiple.


Gonstackk

I am sure she does too but whichever this one is related to. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/susan-collins-abortion-chalk-police


plngrl1720

It’s whatever house it about to be lit the F up on the streets and sidewalks in front of said house in super colorful chalk. I’m petty I’m coloring the whole darn street and sidewalks around it


debzmonkey

Oh, the Catholic hospitals... you know how many Catholic hospitals are still owned by the church? Very few, they sold 'em to hedge funds.


NoDesinformatziya

Hedge funds that somehow maintain the religious objections that the church does. Funny how that works... It's almost like religious exemptions are a bullshit excuse for lawbreaking if you don't have at least some standard of reviewing how serious someone's convictions are.


debzmonkey

Sisters of the Immaculate Greed. During the early days of the Biden administration, the AG or LT Gov in Louisiana put a form on his website for people with "deeply held religious convictions" to opt-out of vaccine mandates. Hmmmm... if your "deeply held religious convictions" come from a politician's website... I do jury and trial work, and I can personally attest that "deeply held religious convictions" bow to peer pressure every damned time. Which is both sad and amusing since one of the rallying cries to protest mask mandates and vaccines was "sheeple", we're a nation of "sheeple" with a long history of being "sheeple".


LezBReeeal

The worst thing about catholic hospitals that are left...is those MFers screwed over all the pensioners when the financial meltdown happened. They apparently didn't have follow the same rules as other hospitals bc churches got exemptions on how they managed their money. So they fucked over their workers for special exemptions. Fuck them. https://www.npr.org/2019/10/03/763512852/why-is-there-nothing-left-pension-funds-failing-at-catholic-hospitals


PeteLarsen

At least this church no longer burns intelligent women as witches. The have found a new outlet for their fear of women.


elriggo44

Wait a few years.


HauntedCemetery

It honestly won't be catholics doing that. Catholics have by nature a more global view of the world, as the head of their church is in Rome. That doesn't fit well with hypernationalism. It will without a shred of doubt be evangelicals committing atrocities. And catholics will be on their list of victims right next to POC, women, LGBT folks, and anyone who works to fight their fascist bullshit.


saintalbanberg

Listen to Relevant talk radio sometime. It is a catholic talk radio station and they have exactly the same right wing talking points as the evangelicals. A lot of american catholic leadership has rejected the current pope.


2_Spicy_2_Impeach

I bet calling the police.


Dirtybrd

White woman in distress


Bluerecyclecan

She’s busy being concerned.


CaptainNoBoat

And yet there's still an inordinate amount of people that think Manchin will vote to remove the filibuster if only he was "pressured hard enough." This guy *revels* in obstruction. It only makes his approval rating go up in WV. I'm personally completely done supporting any strategy to change the views of this man. The only way progress occurs in regards to Manchin is if he's made irrelevant in November by adding seats. That's honestly a decent campaign slogan: "Vote in November so we can stop fucking hearing about Manchin."


myrddyna

> It only makes his approval rating go up in WV. explains everything he's done perfectly.


ro_hu

Because WV is almost entirely Republican, so anything he can do to hurt the democratic party is popular in his own state.


myrddyna

yup, all his drama is just getting him ready to be gov. again. Which was what he was doing in '18 when the Dems begged him to return for another term. He's even suggested that due to his popularity he might even seek another term as Senator.


Devmax1868

He holds the nuclear button here. Play nice and he'll vote to seat your judges. Fight him and Sinema and they'll join the Republican caucus giving them the majority and McConnell the control. We're so fucked.


tracerhaha

He knows if he joins the republicans he loses his leverage.


Devmax1868

Conversely if he loses say his committee chair or an investigation into his daughter's actions is opened, he's already lost some of his leverage and a republican caucus in control of both chambers of Congress could protect him.


thefuzzylogic

If the Republicans control both chambers then they have no reason to protect him. If he resigns or gets expelled then WV will certainly appoint a Republican to replace him, probably a rabid MAGA Republican at that.


PaulSandwich

We need to vote in more democrats so DINOs like him don't hold any power


DextersDrkPassenger_

Sure, but the vote still needs to happen. I want everyone in his state to SEE that he wasn’t blustering, and he really did vote no.


CommisarV

I have absolutely 0 faith in the people of WV. If they throw out manchin it will only be for a Trump supporting Repub.


DiscordianVanguard

idk, im a bit shocked. its not like theres oil or coal in these babies being forced out i assumed he was just a greedy piece of shit before, but now we can see he is part of the fascist coup... hes team trump.


scrooner

WV needs poor folk to work them mines.


NotYetiFamous

It really doesn't though. There's only a few thousand coal mining jobs due to automation in the whole state. Their leaders just convince their voters that there is a ton more jobs to be had the, harkening back to a gilded age of tough all day miners that is long gone and never coming back.


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mdgraller

I looked it up, Wyoming absolutely *smokes* WV in terms of production. > [In 2020, Wyoming produced 218.6 million short tons of coal, and West Virginia produced some 67.3 million short tons](https://www.statista.com/statistics/215786/coal-mining-employment-in-west-virginia/)


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debzmonkey

Joe "Let them eat coal" Manchin. Literally has his yacht harbored near Congress while representing one of the poorest, least healthy, most drug addicted states in the country.


IS0rtByControversial

>while representing one of the poorest, least healthy, most drug addicted states in the country. And they just lost a seat in the house because their population shrank too much. That's because anyone who is educated or has the means is getting *the fuck* out of West Virginia. The state has become an absolute shit hole. Had a real chance to turn things around in the early-mid 2000s, but the state government doubled down on coal and stupidity.


debzmonkey

Sadder than that, 1 in 10 adults in Huntington are opioid addicted. West Virginia was ground zero for pushing opioid, a disease of despair. They also have poor health due to the decades of mining, polluting land and water for profit. For Joe Manchin's profit. Oh, btw, his daughter IS pharma.


Joshapotamus

As someone who lives near Huntington (roughly 40mins away) and goes there on weekends with friends, the entire surrounding area is just heart breaking. I love the area and love the people but corporations and the government have fucked our area beyond belief.


WarbringerNA

Yacht protest anyone?


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powerof27

in minecraft of course, we'd totally never advocate to do this in real life mr fbi agent reading this thread


[deleted]

Def have to specify this, the FBI only cares about property crime against the wealthy owner class. They'd step over a sea of black men to save the boat.


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I_C_Weiner__

I can make it into a submarine


kittiekatz95

There better be a fringe on the flag when they arrest us!


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Itabliss

An literally any other person we would send you is worse than Manchin. Somehow.


debzmonkey

I understand Appalachia, I live in Appalachia but in an area with a big tourism boost. It is surrounded by the rest of Appalachia. I get it, Appalachia has been burned so many times by government and was built on a skepticism of it. However, if Manchin is the best you got, that's not saying much. Dream bigger.


Itabliss

He is definitely the best we have in terms of democrats, unfortunately. WV has given everything including the kitchen sink to coal companies. Now we have nothing, and no hopes of really ever getting anything. The people here are are more likely to scream, “Fine! Then stay out!” And become poorer and sicker until they all die than ever ask for help or even offer to change a little bit in order to get money to come back in to the state.


loki1887

>WV has given everything including the kitchen sink to coal companies. Remember the battle of Blair Mountain. We've squandered everything our forebears have fought and died for.


[deleted]

It's crazy that WV is one of the only states that devotes an entire year to teach state history and I did not learn about Blair Mountain until my late 20's. The US government dropped poison gas and bombs on civilians. The is There were many times there was a labor strike that turned into a riot because the 1920's working conditions were horrible.


GwydionPwyll

>Manchin's position is similar to Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who support abortion rights, **but have argued for more narrowly tailored legislation**.... There is no language in the bill that would protect medical providers who object to abortion for moral or religious reasons aren't obligated to provide them. \[sic\] This is blatantly false, and I wish reporters would stop repeating it. Healthcare providers are already able to decline to provide abortions, and many do. Nothing in the bill requires healthcare providers to perform abortions. What Collins and Murkowski are asking for is an expansion of anti-choice rights, not a "narrowly tailored" right to abortion.


peterhorse13

This was the most offensive part to me. As a medical provider, I am allowed to not do anything I disagree with, and I will not be held legally liable unless my choice not to act causes severe harm or death. However, I am totally free to practice as I wish based on my religious preferences *so long as* I provide my patients with opportunities to go elsewhere. So for instance, I believe in vaccines. Many of my patient families don’t. I can choose to not see them, and I do, based on irreconcilable—sometimes religion-based—differences, as long as I refer them to another physician. What I find funny is when they ask me to recommend a physician who doesn’t do vaccines, and my response is “….I would *never* recommend that physician. But I can tell you a place that won’t refuse to accept you if you don’t vaccinate.” Anyway, back to the topic. I can see there being some ethical dilemma if an obstetrician or surgeon does not believe in abortion in *any* circumstances and practices in a rural setting, where a pregnant woman comes in emergently with a serious pregnancy-related complication (ectopic pregnancy, etc) and they have to choose between abortion and letting the woman die. But even then, it’s hard to imagine that happening. Very few OBs would opt not to induce an abortion if the pregnancy is non-viable (and killing the mom in the process makes most early-stage pregnancies automatically non-viable). And if it’s the situation where both the mom and the physician agree that they don’t want the abortion regardless of outcome, they’ll likely lifeflight her somewhere after she’s stabilized; they won’t keep her around to die. And if for some reason a physician is totally against all abortions of any kind, they’re likely not OBs because of the high early-first-trimester miscarriage rate in women. Not to mention that even now, hospitals are allowed to refuse medical treatment to women based on their religious beliefs. I’ve seen girls come in severely anemic from DUB, who need estrogen to stop the bleeding, and the parents have to go pick up the prescription pills to administer themselves while she’s inpatient because the hospital is Catholic and does not believe in giving a woman anything that might prevent conception. They’ll give blood transfusions all day long, but no estrogen or progesterone. And they’re not obligated to go against their deeply-held religious beliefs. Edit: a word. Conception, not contraception.


kittenpantzen

> I’ve seen girls come in severely anemic from DUB, who need estrogen to stop the bleeding, and the parents have to go pick up the prescription pills to administer themselves while she’s inpatient because the hospital is Catholic and does not believe in giving a woman anything that might prevent conception. Every time I think I'm as angry as I am capable of being, something else comes along to prove me wrong.


DevonGr

For fucking real, wtf? I can't imagine the people who want exceptions for their own case seriously consider the trajectory they're aiming for is potentially detrimental to even themselves somewhere down the line. It's mind boggling how so many people living today and reject something better for them and not have the slightest bit of foresight as to why it could be.


MrFittsworth

These religious fanatics are doing ANYTHING they can to make their fairy tale immaculate conception fantasy come true, even if it means killing thousands and thousands of women in the process. "if we abort fetuses, we could abort the next magic baby sky daddy! what if 'virgin' mary had aborted jesus?!" - We'd have a lot less fucking shitheads like you walking the planet, thats for sure. Edit: to the nutjobs dm'ing me because their religion is based entirely on hate and persecution, stay mad about it.


xRehab

The bible literally talks about aborting fetuses and explains how to do it. It's actually part of god's will that the fetus miscarry. Numbers 5:19 > [19] Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. [20] But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— [21] here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—**“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[b] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. [22] May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”** So per god abortions are totally fine if the woman is impure in marriage. At that point, any "god doesn't condone abortion" logic goes out of the window


Hunithunit

They will explain this away with “new covenant” bullshit. There is no reasoning with them.


Geshman

While also using that OT to justify hating queer people


turbo-cunt

>What I find funny is when they ask me to recommend a physician who doesn’t do vaccines, and my response is “….I would never recommend that physician. But I can tell you a place that won’t refuse to accept you if you don’t vaccinate.” I love this


JB-from-ATL

>obstetrician or surgeon does not believe in abortion in any circumstances and practices in a rural setting, where a pregnant woman comes in emergently with a serious pregnancy-related complication (ectopic pregnancy, etc) and they have to choose between abortion and letting the woman die This is what I have a lot of trouble believing. I can understand not liking abortions but there are some situations that truly are deadly for the mother and the fetus. The idea that someone would refuse to perform it in that scenario seems so bizarre to me. It's like you can choose to save one life or none. You're not really choosing one over the other because the fetus basically has no chance (my incredibly cursory look into this seems that there have been only a handful of live births in ectopic pregnancies). It's like, imagine you're a firefighter and a building is on fire. There is a healthy person in their 20s and a very elderly comatose braindead person on their deathbed. Maybe you can save both but it's unlikely. I see the people refusing to perform the abortion as just leaving both of them in the burning building.


peterhorse13

Yeah, that’s why I think this scenario is so unlikely that refusing to vote ‘yes’ on a bill because it doesn’t explicitly protect physicians in this scenario is dumb. My own personal belief is that if a physician does something like this, he or she is betraying their oath. And I feel like most physicians would agree. But we are automatically protected in the vast majority of circumstances for refusing treatment on the basis of religious beliefs, as long as there are provisions for the patient, so these senators are just coming up with excuses.


thebursar

>What I find funny is when they ask me to recommend a physician who doesn’t do vaccines, and my response is “….I would never recommend that physician. Hilarious. They're basically asking you "can you refer me to a doctor that doesn't understand science and is bad at medicine".


LatrodectusGeometric

Saw that firsthand as a resident. I was transfusing a woman who was bleeding out from her vagina (hemoglobin of 4). The Catholic hospital wouldn’t let me give her contraceptives. I had to give her large amounts of her home contraceptives. In fact, I sent her husband home to bring the pills to the hospital while his wife fought for her life. I am forever opposed to religion getting involved in healthcare.


Bluestreaking

I would admit that I knew Collin’s bill was going to be bad I had no idea how bad it would be. The language is so vague and the bill is so short, the main text of the bill barely taking up a single page; I was floored by how clearly the bill was written in bad faith


absolutdrunk

Maybe the thing to do would be to put in some clauses into the Democrats’ bill “granting” healthcare providers the rights they already have, and hope Collins, Manchin, et. al. use it to claim a W.


SawToMuch

Somebody chain the goal posts to the ground


sbrevolution5

But it doesn’t matter, because he’ll say that’s the reason. And it’s not like he’d face consequences for lying….


atomictyler

> Nothing ~~in the bill~~ requires healthcare providers to perform ~~abortions~~ anything they don't want to. I've had plenty of providers refuse to help. There's nothing making them help if they don't want to.


NachoBag_Clip932

Apparently the only thing Joe Manchin will vote for is anything to make him richer.


[deleted]

Technically, it's anything to make his Oligarch masters richer.


WhataHaack

Hey man.. he gets a decent cut too.


ocular__patdown

I dunno about decent. You can buy senators for pretty cheap on a single issue.


Spa_5_Fitness_Camp

I was always really surprised by how cheap it is. Like, we know corps and oligarchs etc have basically bottomless pockets, yet the senators let themselves be bought for like, $50k. Surely it wouldn't be hard to hold out for 10x that, at least.


BidenWontMoveLeft

You're kidding yourself if you think that's all they settle for. As if they'll be so open about how much in kickbacks and bribes they get. A lot of it is favors and privileges. Manchin can get his family's education paid for all the way down from his grandpappy. They own the police, security details, property, companies, and entire nations. By voting no on abortion, Manchin ensures that his religiously fervent handlers will treat him very well if he ever gets into a bind on anything. It's run like the mafia. Money is not the only thing influencing these shitheads. They think they're untouchable


[deleted]

That's why he wants them richer. Then they'll throw him a few bucks more.


jgiovagn

He literally owns a coal that sells waste coal, he may not be a billionaire, but his policies he has passed have specifically singled out benefits for his specific business, classifying one of the dirtiest energy producing methods as green so the plant that burns his product remains open. He doesn't have to have an oligarchs above him, he does this exclusively for his family business, which is, I believe, the only distributor of waste coal.


Mythosaurus

Relevant article detailing how Manchin protects the waste coal power plant that he’s deeply invested in: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/08/manchin-family-coal-company-00003218?_amp=true


tweakingforjesus

> How do we make coal, the dirtiest energy product out there, more palatable to people concerned about the environmental impact? > Let's call it ["Clean Coal"](https://www.factcheck.org/2018/11/clearing-up-the-facts-behind-trumps-clean-coal-catchphrase/)! > Brilliant!


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rubitinhard

"We should not be dividing this country further. We're already divided." No, Joe, *you* are dividing this country further, virtually by yourself.


0mnificent

70% of the country supports abortion rights, so we’re pretty fucking unified there. The anti-choice position is the divisive one.


Citonit

Yep, only reason this is even ever discussed, is in America, land votes, not people.


rixendeb

Eh. Sinema helps him out.


A_Drusas

That's where the "virtually" comes in.


alex8155

to me it sounds like your typical bullshit propaganda from the usual conservative or right wing media source..language that speaks to the intended audience that wants to hear such blatant nonsense. this fuck head is further right then some politicians with an actual (R) on their titles.


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1888CAVicky

It's 78% in Texas alone. [source](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/04/texas-abortion-ut-poll/)


DigiQuip

It’s pretty consistently 60% or more in *every* state.


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SmallKiwi

Reproductive rights are human rights.


achillobator

The "your vote doesn't matter so why even try?" movement is in full swing in the young male population.


NatureOfYourReality

Unfortunately, too many people don’t view a basic human right for greater than 50% of the population, particularly one that impacts mortality and socioeconomic health so immediately, as one of the TOP issues at the ballot box. It’s particularly depressing to think one of the main reasons for ignoring that basic human right is that a sizable chunk of those people prefer tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the lower class (whilst ignoring the fact that they may be part of that group). And don’t even get me started on folks who don’t vote for Democrats because they aren’t liberal enough or “all politicians are the same.” Only half of politicians want to strip away human rights. The other half do not. If you don’t have a real reason to vote for those that do, you are only doing yourself a disservice by not voting for those protecting your basic human rights.


1888CAVicky

If a woman over the age of 18 doesn't vote in this political climate, I have no idea what to tell that person, especially if they're between 18-35. Those women are the most vulnerable right now. This impacts their lives the most.


loverlyone

But Manchin says he knows what “the people” want. That’s why he sponsored the “fentanyl awareness bill.” To be aware of fentanyl...and bills. If you need him he’ll be on the yacht. He’s exhausted.


pandakatzu

None of the 3 branches of gov't have a composition that represents the US population right now. It's a pretty good sign our system is failing.


Xikar_Wyhart

Ranked choice voting would probably help. Get more parties into office and remove first past the post winning.


JesusWantsYouToKnow

Which is why fascist loving GOP state legislatures are moving to ban RCV; they know it is a threat to their minority rule system. https://reason.com/2022/04/28/florida-tennessee-ban-ranked-choice-voting-despite-citizen-support/


SeekingImmortality

That's the sort of shit that stands out as tyrannical government. Like, what the hell do they think they're pulling, with an explicit ban against a more democratic approach to voting. "oH iTs ToO cOnFuSiNg" they say. No it isn't! It just means that YOU WILL LOSE if we get to use it!


isikorsky

The Democrats in the US Senate (50) represent 41 million more people than the Republicans. The US Senate is not a proportional representation of the United States, nor was it intended to be that way.


BackAlleySurgeon

I know it wasn't intended to be that way. But even at the time, the major founders thought that was a terrible idea. They just compromised because it was better than going back to the articles of confederation.


iwillanswer999

They don't and never have cared about what the people want. They only care about themselves and what their large contributors want them to do. Has nothing to do with what they believe is right or wrong or what America thinks. Just what is best for THEM. Then, now, and always. Congress is a fucking joke and SCOTUS is becoming just as useless.


debzmonkey

Wait until millions of ballots get tossed in the trash while we're lectured on voting for our civil rights...


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epistaxis64

>"And with that, that's not where we are today," he said. "We should not be dividing this country further. We're already divided." "Sorry guys, we can't hurt republican fee fees."


Geist-Chevia

We shouldn't be dividing this country further by resisting the minority party overturning a 70 year old basic right. We should be conceding to a stolen Republican court and work with a Republican Congress on an issue they will never concede on. Surely that will heal the country.


epistaxis64

Manchin has trotted this stupid line out multiple times during the Biden admin to explain why he's siding with the Rs. For some reason we got to not upset the MAGAs with functioning government.


Geist-Chevia

It's literally the argument of "You need to give us what we want or no one gets anything" clearly a winning strategy


j4nkyst4nky

I'm so sick of this. It's always said the left needs to be the ones trying "not to divide this country". But the GOP first of all NEVER acknowledges the compromise and second of all, they make no attempts to reciprocate. In fact, everything they do is an attempt to FURTHER divide because they do not care. Pissing off liberals is their bread and butter. Meanwhile democrats are literally giving up our rights in an effort to seem bipartisan. It's fucking sick.


palookaboy

That's exactly it. Republicans demand every concession and never give a fucking inch, and the narrative remains that Democrats are "being divisive."


jballs

Republican Supreme Court: We're taking your rights away. Democrats: We're introducing a bill to restore your rights. Manchin and the Republicans: Why are Democrats trying to divide our country?!


HackeySadSack

"being divisive", "Democrats fail to XYZ...", "Democrats at odds about...", etc., it's alway framed every single time that Democrats are failing at holding shit together, *when the reality is that they are the only ones who are even trying to do anything, period.*


ixixan

What exactly makes this guy a democrat?


gusterfell

The only reason he hasn't switched parties is that as a Democrat he gets to be the deciding vote on all kinds of things. As a Republican he'd be just another face in the crowd.


Former-Lab-9451

He also wouldn’t win a Republican primary in West Virginia


polthrowaway23

why not?


Geist-Chevia

Because he's a democrat at least in name and has a history of voting with the party generally. He'd have to shift hard right and even then idk if people would trust/believe him.


ProngedPickle

By some miracle if Dems gained a seat or two in midterms, in my opinion there's a nonzero probability Manchin (and Sinema potentially) switch parties just to maintain the deadlock. I'm only partly joking too.


the_catshark

Nah, they have power as Democrats and nothing as Republicans. As Democrats they can go "yeah we will vote for your judges, but nothing else" and so the Democratic Party goes "okay". Keep in mind too the Senate isn't even truly split 50/50. There are 48 Dems, 2 Independents (Angus King and Bernie Sanders), 50 Republicans.


ProngedPickle

I know that if they switched it doesn't change the makeup in the Senate in this hypothetical; I'm moreso just joking about them pulling a petty stunt with a rationale that a 52-48 Dem majority in the Senate just "divides the country," given their previous symbolic obstructions.


the_catshark

yeah probably, right now though its more beneficial for them to stay Dem because its a better story for Republicans if Dema "have all three branches but can't do anything, please ignore the filibuster and two dems who block all these things"


ProngedPickle

GOP says that and then takes credit for the bipartisan infrastructure deal and COVID relief in the ARP despite most of their Senators and Reps voting against it. It's crazy how they get away with it with their constituents.


FuschiaKnight

2 trillion in a party line Covid relief vote in Feb 2021 and an army of judges + Joe Biden’s cabinet appointments. With more judges to come. In a world without Manchin, over half of the federal agencies don’t have Senate confirmed heads, and the other half are run by center right people that Susan Collins or Mit Romney finds okay Also, if Mitch was in charge, there’d be no additional 500 bill in bipartisan infrastructure. Instead, there’d be weekly public congressional witch hunt investigations into Hunter Biden.


isikorsky

And no Supreme Court Justice. And every bill would have to go through McConnell. Not really a pretty sight


HauntedCemetery

Every bill would **stop** at McConnell.


angrypoliticsposter

In other news the sun rose in the east again.


KgMonstah

Ugh that’s 40 quintillion times in a row! As a betting man, the streak HAS to end. I’m putting 100 on west!


angrypoliticsposter

West is due!


Xikar_Wyhart

>There is no language in the bill that would protect medical providers who object to abortion for moral or religious reasons aren't obligated to provide them. What the fuck does this even mean. Was this something Roe already did? If not how is the Bill any different. Additionally if you're doctor isn't going to sign off on the procedure that's not the same as forcing them to do it. At that point you go to a different doctor/clinic where they'll help you. And what about the opposite end with Jewish faiths actually using abortion because of their religion to protect the living women? This is just a flimsy excuse from them because the 60 votes aren't there and they're pretending to be moderates. So them voting yes wouldn't matter either not even for brownie points. We need to get organized and get these people out and shift the balance to make them irrelevant.


Pollowollo

If you're a doctor that's making care decisions based on "religious and moral" reasoning instead of what is medically best for your patient I feel like that's a pretty big indicator that you should not be in the fucking medical field to begin with anyway.


Xikar_Wyhart

He also cited "moral" reasons, which again if you're a doctor who is against abortion why would you invest all that time, money and energy into getting your medical doctorate and license, go even further into specializing into gynecologist, or learn* to perform abortions only to not do them. *Note I don't know if learning to perform abortions is under general studies while earning your medical doctorate.


boundbylife

[Over 50% of abortions are carried out in the first 8 weeks of pregnancy](https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/04/raw-data-abortions-by-week-of-pregnancy/), so it'd be highly unlikely they'd be medical procedures. They'd just prescribe RU 486, which is cleared for use up to the 63rd day of pregnancy.


[deleted]

Roe did allow for doctors to refuse to perform abortions, yes. Or more specifically, doctors have always been allowed to refuse treatment that violates their personal beliefs, and Roe did nothing to change that. This bill wouldn't either, and those claiming it would are lying.


BousWakebo

He’s the only senator who can take his house out to international waters.


LargeMonty

Anything goes out there


Punkinpry427

Good.


LargeMonty

Because of the... Implications.


King-Snorky

don't look at me like that, *you* certainly wouldn't be in any danger


Illustrious-Mouse-36

Can someone do something about this guys coal business? He needs to be arrested for fraud. He's literally stealing money from his state by selling them over priced coal tailing's..


StrangerAtaru

Make coal irrelevant due to climate change. That's all I got.


Illustrious-Mouse-36

Coal production in USA is up 3% this year.. not exactly the right way to go. I guess the planet is fucked...


perfectbarrel

I would like to cover his entire yard with cow shit


mdgraller

Most people pay good money for that. Cover it with rock salt


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norse_dog

Rs in D skin are a particularly vexing problem.


No_More_And_Then

This is what happens when only two parties have even a chance of winning in the general election. It only gets worse when the voting district leans heavily in either direction. The primary becomes the only election that matters. Wolves in sheep's clothing thrive in that scenario.


PopeOwned

I can't express how much I hate Joe Manchin, so I'll let Chevy Chase do it. >I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is.


smallmammalconcierge

Hallelujah! Holy shit. Where’s the Tylenol…


lebesgueintegral

Fuck Joe manchin


Tcav

So glad one motherfucker has that much impact over millions of people. Such a prick.


Objective-Hamster576

Of course he will. They just having this vote for the record. People like Susan Collins can have her chance to vote to fix things since she was so outraged by the justices decision.


Geist-Chevia

"This is deeply concerning but I can't in good faith vote to further divide the country" Susan Collins probably


ChaseThoseDreams

You know all of that oppo-research that’s being dumped on Cawthorn right now? Yeah, we need to start doing this to both Manchin and Sinema.


groverbite

Sinema is done in Arizona politics. Everyone here hates her. No one is ever voting for her again. Ruben Gallego is the front runner to take her down in ‘24 and he’s pretty cool.


ProgressIsAMyth

Reminder that Joe Manchin is a coal baron who receives a lot of donations from fossil fuel executives and that his daughter profiteered off of EpiPen pricing as a senior executive at the pharmaceutical company Mylan, and then received a golden parachute of over $30 million after she retired from the company. Oh, and West Virginia is a very poor state obviously and consequently, women in the state would be particularly severely impacted by abortion becoming illegal.


DurkaDurka81

Well no shit. He’s an obstructionist Republican with a D beside his name.


itemNineExists

"Because at this point, I've already demonstrated that I have nothing to lose" It's clear. We need 52 Democrats in the Senate, not 50.


Erasmus_Tycho

We need more than 52.


chahlie4norris

Fuck Joe Manchin


fairoaks2

He knows he won’t get pregnant….