TS = 448//844
LANDSLIDE = 80//8
WOW = 61//16
https://t.co/UDD7HMOyRP

So you’d think that under Trump there would’ve been more successful filibusters than ever given Democratic opposition.

Nope.

The vast majority of cloture votes passed — the Senate already nuked the filibuster for things Republicans care about



During the Trump era, there were an historic number of cloture motions filed in the Senate: 529 of them. 466 of them got votes — 93% of them passed

Compare to Obama’s first term: only 70% passed the first half, 57% in the

Why? In 2013, Senate Dems nuked the 60 vote threshold to get past a filibuster on nominees, except for SCOTUS, but left it for legislation

But when controlling Congress and the WH, the GOP didn’t move much legislation. They got what they wanted

So when Mitch McConnell says “no no, you have to keep the filibuster for legislation” it’s because he knows that it doesn’t matter when the GOP is a majority

The filibuster isn’t a useful tool for Democratic minorities — just Republicans

This essay is brought to you by several hours of combing through cloture motions for this spreadsheet, which shows a major drop in the filibuster blocking cloture after 2013 — with one exception highlighted, which I’ll explain in a second

THIS: It's a little late, but here is the final White House Coronavirus Task Force report from the Trump administration. It features some lessons learned from the federal officials on the panel, many that speak directly to the situation in

- Georgia is back to 6th in the country for new cases in the week leading up to 1.17 (not long ago we were doing better than nearly every other state)
- 5th in the country for test positivity
- 97 percent of all counties in the state in the "red zone"

2/n

It's the recommendations that are the most interesting (we know things are bad here).

"Mask mandates work," it reads. "Any indoor space where masks cannot be worn ... must be substantially curtailed or closed."

This rec has been here before, but not so bluntly.

3/n

3/n

"This virus can be mitigated and community spread can be curtailed, but action needs to be taken before an increase in hospitalizations is seen," it continues. " it needs to be more comprehensive and longer than the summer mitigation actions."

4/n

Then, finally: "Georgia is still experiencing widespread community spread and needs to accelerate mitigation to prevent ongoing fatalities."

This final one is a message that we've seen before, too, though again, not in so direct terms.

5/n