The XYZelensky Affair and the Whole Impeachment Shebang

[Montmorency]

Given the ongoing relevance,here is a delightful opportunity to highlight the stakes in the Oregon walkout earlier this year.

In 2018, Oregon Democrats won a supermajority (18-12) in the Oregon State Senate, as well as in the House. Republican senators walked out first in May to block a school funding tax. They returned only after Democrats scrapped bills on gun control and vaccines. The legislature advanced a cap & trade bill that would have easily passed under normal circumstances. Then, the Republican senators walked out to deny the Democrats quorum. The governor authorized state police to detain the senators, most of whom then fled beyond state lines. One of them (Brian Boquist) threatened violent resistance against agents of the state, and he was backed up by militia groups. One day during the walkout loggers held a peaceful protest outside the capitol building that the Oregon GOP twitter account captioned with "Heavily armed militia lays siege to Oregon's Capitol as Senate Democrats cower in fear", and indeed the capitol building was closed out of fears that actual armed militia groups would arrive.

After a few days, a conservative Democrat took the opportunity to withdraw her support from the bill, breaking the supermajority (needed for tax-related legislation in Oregon). The Democratic leadership announced the cap & trade bill was dead and the Republicans soon returned. Brian Boquist, due to his violent rhetoric, has been restricted from entering the capitol building, but I believe he is still technically sitting in office. For their part at least the other Republican Senators disavowed militia support (though only after Democrats withdrew the bill).

A chilling usurpation of the legitimate government, especially in light of the long history of political violence and even local coups in the name of white supremacy and other far-right shibboleths in the United States.

For comparison, let's take a look at the other walkouts.

March 8, 2007: Senate Republicans staged a brief walkout over a tax deal. Gov. Ted Kulongoski asked the Oregon State Police to fetch two Republican senators from Corvallis for a vote. The senators returned voluntarily without being arrested.

June 25, 2001: House Democrats staged a five-day walkout to prevent a Republican maneuver to redraw state legislative districts without the governor’s signature. The walkout strategy was supported by then-Senate Minority Leader Kate Brown, who now is Governor.

April 14, 1995: Ten Senate Democrats walked out, holing up in a Salem restaurant and denying Republicans a quorum, after Republicans decided to kill an award named after the late Sen. Frank Roberts, a Democrat.

1971: Both House and Senate Democrats staged walkouts during the session, but neither lasted more than a day. Senate Democrats walked out to protest Republican leadership’s refusal to consider ratification of a federal constitutional amendment lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. State Police rounded up missing lawmakers, who were at a Salem legislator’s house. House Democrats also walked out, although the reason is unclear. Oregon State Police were unable to locate the missing legislators, who were hiding in the Senate Majority Leader’s office.


Obviously this 2019 walkout was a watershed moment.

Overheated rhetoric is never justified. You just didn't like what I said and responded emotionally.

You should consider that I had very good reason for not liking what you said, and that you should internalize it.

If you had merely offered that you thought she had showed poor judgement in handling the controversy, and your opinion of her political abilities was diminished, it would have been a valid opinion. I would have disagreed on the grounds of her demonstrated campaigning skill and adaptiveness in 2019, but the disagreement would have been so banal as to not warrant arguing over.

Instead, you said that Warren even maintaining this identity was shameless pandering and part of a race to the bottom, which is the rhetorical and logical equivalent of throwing a flaming sack of excrement. Of course that's shameful, what's wrong with you?

You thankfully seem to have withdrawn this line, but it's one of the worst I've seen you post.

White Guilt is certainly present in other parts of the world, if there is no white guilt in the US at all then that suggests a complete lack of self-awareness as a nation. There's a difference in claiming ancestry and asking others to identify you with that ancestry.

Well, yes?

She was middle class - and that statement by her was completely wrong-headed. What does "people like her" mean in this context? Other Native Americans, or other middle class white people who claim Native American heritage? Again, what she wrote in that directory was "Native American" and not "white-Native American".

So?

I think if I self-reported as Hong-Kong Chinese I'd get a similar reaction - just because one of my ancestors was posted there and I have dark har and slightly slanted eyes does not mean I should consider myself Hong-Kong Chinese. There's probably nothing to it.

Yes, if you excise events from all context and substitute a different arrangement anything is possible.

Sorry, what? A little while back she had a section on her web site about her DNA test. If she's been embraced by the Cherokee Nation it would presumably still be there.

So if she hadn't been criticized for something she wouldn't have adjusted her behavior? That's not shocking.

The whole sorry mess speaks to her poor judgement.

I fear your overall perspective on Warren is an unreasonable and prejudicial one, leading to your fixation to the exclusion of facts.

Referring to the above, this doesn't even bear debating because the facts will develop in the short-term, over the next year. Either she doesn't win nomination and it's irrelevant, or she does and her judgement will be on full exercise for review.

Movement Conservatism Thought Leaders:

I think he was asking more after present-day figures though.