Feels good, in a way. Freeing.
If this thing gets fast tracked and passed and is as bad as it looks - honestly, there is no point to the kabuki theater of politics.
Waste of the time I have left, really.

that will leave Bernie's campaign as my last hope. If they manage to take that away from us, I'll quietly sit in the corner and wait for the end.

... Obama has been a real reality-check for me. Even when we "win", we lose. Why bother.

hopefully say fuck the white house and everyone there and not get banned. Maybe

as a liberal/Progressive - I am wasting my time being involved, that all that is wanted from me, really, is my vote for the "D" and don't look behind the curtain. And I can't do that. Why be consumed with something that I cannot affect, and have no control over, and am really just being used by? Maybe I will reincarnate my Etsy shop!

post your etsy link. I love etsy. So many clever people out there.

emailing any politicians - I have an awful choice here in Florida, the loathsome Patrick Murphy may be running for Rubio's seat, and I cannot possibly bear to think about how fucked up and Third Way the Florida Dems are right now. I don't think I can actually sincerely talk up Hillary to friends and neighbors, if she is the nominee. Stuff like that.
Of course I would not be posting or reading here, but I would just stop even keeping up with what is going on. I think "real life politics" has gotten so subverted. And I used to be funny, and now - not so much. Need to recharge.

and Florida will be 3 feet below the sea before another FDR steps in and saves us from ourselves.

This issue is the single binary question the Democratic party has to answer for me. If it's yes to TPP, there's nothing left for me to consider.

I will remain a union member and worker for the rest of my days or as long as unions are allowed here. Any political party that does not support my work will get no support from me. It really is that simple.

I understand the Republicans are my enemies on free trade and labor issues and always have been. But that doesn't make Democrats my allies by default, certainly not if I am going to be taken for granted, marginalized and ignored. To trot out an old expression, I'm not leaving the Democratic party; it's leaving me.

Union & non-union workers, environmentalists, public educators, social workers...we need representation. We need a party to represent us! Not 2 parties who will throw US under the bus for campaign contributions.

that we know he's a republican.

Monday I willl call both of my Democratic Senators, they are on the Undecided list. DiFi is probably a lost cause, Boxer might vote against it.

If 7 or 8 Democratic Senators vote for it, that may be enough for it to pass.

But that's not even close to a majority of Democratic Senators.

Does that invalidate the whole party? Or just a few putzes like DiFi and the expletive deleted person that we hoped was gonna bring us some change?

In this case, looks just too convenient that just enough will embrace the GOP and Boehner and vote for Fast Track. Sticking to Democratic principles goes both ways. If I am to be loyal to "party" than "party" should fucking right well be loyal to me. Too many DINOs in the Democratic Party for me to stick with it. And I have been a democrat all my long life. Oh well.

a whole lot of nothing from the majority of the party. I'm including both houses of congress, not just the senate, because every elected Democrat has the same opportunity to make this an issue the three I mentioned have. If it weren't close, Obama wouldn't be pushing so hard.

So yes, in my view the entire party rests on this issue. If that sounds like hyberbole instead of an ultimatum, I guess we'll just have to see how it plays out. I need to make a trip to the courthouse this month. It would be a convenient time to change my voter registration to independent.

I'm sure that seems insignificant coming from me. What, 500 posts in ten years here? I don't mean this to come across as a GBCW type post or heat of the moment fit throwing. It really does come down to this issue.

It's still a prospect to be regarded with apprehension.

He could send us into a economic depression and start WW3 in his first month in office.

my dc denizen friend.

a real waste of my time, my energy, my passion. It is actually quite calming to think of letting go. Not hair on fire, head not exploded, non of that hyperbolic bullshit that some bandy about whenever someone does not agree with them or they think others might be upset.

Many are completely overreacting to this.

If we give her $2,500,000,000 first.

There's something called the Supreme Court. Changing campaign finance now requires a constitutional amendment. No political messiah can change that. If you think Sanders has the ability to get money out of politics, you're deluding yourself. The problem with investing so much in the presidency is that you all imagine it actually matters that much. If you actually want to do something about money in politics, you can't sit back and wait for a president to do it for you, since it is simply impossible. People need to mobilize and pass a constitutional amendment for public financing. Absent that, you'll be engaged in this same self deception every presidential election, only to be disillusioned as soon as your savor proves to be bound by the same constitutional limitations the current one is. I can imagine this exact same discussion went on eight years ago, and what happened? Did keeping the evil woman from office stop the influence of money in politics? Of course not. But you keep pretending it's all about the president. That is precisely how the status quo is able to be perpetuated, and you all enable it by clubbing one another over the head about the president while ensuring no one does a thing to change the relationship between money and government. These collective delusions only serve the interests of capital. Who becomes the nominee is the least important issue before this country, but it is all many people here care about.

If Sanders is elected, I pity him. People here will turn against him in a second when he doesn't grant all your wishes. Unless of course you all don't actually care about getting money out of politics and instead just want someone to validate your emotions. I suppose that's possible too. I can't imagine why anyone would pretend a president can single handedly overturn a series of SCOTUS decisions and enact legislation over GOP opposition that would be impervious to future legal challenges.

The whole thing could ride on 1 or 2 votes.

(Cali, as you say, it is indeed watching the "Sausage Making."

.

The rest of the article showing how the game will be played. I would love to believe Harry Reid when he says he will never vote for the FTA....but, I've never trusted him. And, knowing they all want the FTA/TPP done so that they can go home and begin their election campaigning for 2016 by the end of this year--then we can expect they want this all out of the way as soon as possible by end of Summer so that the public forgets their vote when the Presidential Races are in full gear. We can then expect the "Mad Tea Party" to begin in the MS Corporate Media obscuring what they voted for. Dems will be happy to run on voting for "Free Trade Authority&quot even if it very narrowly passes) and Transportation and NSA Extensions will just be part of the mix for both parties.

I hope things go better than this....but expect the worst.)


------------
Murray breaks with Dem leaders on trade

Washington Sen. Patty Murray is breaking with the rest of the Senate Democratic leadership over trade legislation.

The bill puts Murray in a tough spot because most congressional Democrats oppose it, but trade is vital to her home state’s economic interests.
It is indeed watching the "Sausage Making," Cali, as you point out. Tying the

Murray supports granting President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She also favors moving the fast-track measure before the Senate recesses for its Memorial Day break.

But other Democratic leaders oppose fast-track, also called trade promotion authority (TPA), and say it can wait until June, which would give labor unions and other opponents a chance to bash it over the recess.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) has vowed to delay it until Republicans lay out a clear path for passing an extension of the Highway Trust Fund and the National Security Agency’s surveillance authority in the next two weeks. They both expire at the end of this month.

It’s a delicate situation for Murray, given her interest in running for Democratic whip after the 2016 elections and the fact that two-thirds of the Democratic caucus opposes fast-track.

Nearly 40 percent of Washington state’s jobs are tied to exports, according to local business leaders, and she doesn’t want to play with fire when she’s facing reelection next year.

“I support the bills that came out of the [Finance Committee],” she told The Hill Wednesday.

Murray said trade “is a huge part of our economy.”

She added, “What we grow, what we make in Washington state is sold worldwide and we have to be part of writing the rules of the road. If we leave ourselves out of that, we’ll be dictated to by other countries on how our products are going to be sold and accepted to markets.”

Eli Zupnick, Murray’s spokesman, said his boss wants to address trade along with the Highway Trust Fund and Patriot Act reauthorization in the next two and a half weeks.

“She’s having conversations with Reid and others on the best path forward to get all of these things done over the next three weeks,” he said.

Murray confirmed to The Hill that she wants to see action on all three legislative priorities before June, though she said “we need to know that we’re going to get FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] and some transportation bill done before we leave in May.”

Reid has downplayed the likelihood of that happening.

“I can’t imagine why the trade bill is so vitally important that it would trump the FISA bill, which is going to expire at the end of the month, or trump the highway bill, which [extends] authorization [that] expires at the end of this month,” he said Tuesday. “I can’t imagine what the rush is.”

Murray and Reid were referring to the National Security Agency’s authority to collect bulk phone data, which is granted by the FISA Amendments Act and the Patriot Act.

A senior Democratic leadership aide said there’s no chance of passing TPA and three accompanying trade bills before Memorial Day.