Most of the time, Senators are not on the Senate floor. But technically, the Senate is not allowed to conduct official business unless a majority of senators (51 if all seats are filled) are present. That’s called a quorum, and it’s the foundation of Senate procedure. If a quorum isn’t present, the Senate grinds to a halt. The friendly thing to do is to NOT ask if there is a quorum - that’s how MOST business moves forward in the Senate. But Senate Democrats can use their power in the minority to call for a quorum and cause massive disruptions by constantly demanding quorum calls and even walking out to deny Republicans the ability to govern.

Unanimous consent is the grease that keeps the Senate moving. Normally, the Senate runs on handshake deals—routine matters like scheduling votes, moving bills forward, or skipping over procedural steps all happen only if no senator objects. That’s called unanimous consent (UC)—and if even one Democrat objects, it forces the Senate to go through long, time-consuming processes to get anything done.

Force roll call votes on everything—Republicans must go on record for every bad decision.
Use motions to recommit to force Republicans to take difficult votes.
File privileged resolutions to demand immediate consideration of issues Republicans want to avoid.
Leverage parliamentary inquiries and points of order to disrupt floor proceedings and expose GOP dysfunction.

Put Republicans on the record about their harmful policies.
Force votes when GOP members are absent to either force something through or force every Republican member to be in their seats the entire time.
Make motions to subpoena officials and demand transparency.
Expose MAGA extremism in real-time.

Demand hearings on Trump’s and Vought’s plans to override federal spending. If Republicans refuse to hold real oversight hearings, Democrats must take matters into their own hands. That means holding shadow hearings—bringing in experts, impacted communities, and whistleblowers to expose how MAGA elites are trying to loot the government and rig the system for billionaires. These hearings should be public, media-driven, and designed to put pressure on Republicans to defend their corruption in the light of day.
Publicize findings to show voters exactly how MAGA elites are trying to loot the government, and while Republicans are covering for the Trump-Musk coup, Democrats are fighting to stop it.

Host Town Halls: Update voters on how Democrats are fighting back.
Adopt GOP Districts: Hold town halls in Republican-held areas to expose GOP sabotage and talk directly to their constituents.
Engage Online: Mobilize voters with digital content that names names and pulls no punches.

Israel justifies the settlements and military bases in the West Bank in the name of Security. However, the reality of the settlements on-the-ground has been the cause of violent resistance and a significant obstacle to peace, as it has been for decades.

This type of settlement, where the native population gets ‘Transferred’ to make room for the settlers, is a long standing practice.

• The Transfer Committee, and the JNF Ethnic Cleansing, which led to Forced Displacement of 100,000 Palestinians throughout the mandate before the Nakba

The mass ethnic cleansing campaign of 1948:

• Plan Dalet
• Declassified Massacres of 1948
• Details of Plan C (May 1946) and Plan D (March 1948) .

Further, declassified Israeli documents show that the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip were deliberately planned before being executed in 1967:

• Haaretz, Forward

While the peace process was exploited to continue de-facto annexation of the West Bank via Settlements

• (Oslo Accord Sources: MEE, NYT, Haaretz, AJ).

The settlements are maintained through a violent apartheid that routinely employs violence towards Palestinians and denies human rights like water access, civil rights, etc. This kind of control gives rise to violent resistance to the Apartheid occupation, jeopardizing the safety of Israeli civilians.

The apartheid regime is based on organized, systemic violence against Palestinians, which is carried out by numerous agents: the government, the military, the Civil Administration, the Supreme Court, the Israel Police, the Israel Security Agency, the Israel Prison Service, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and others. Settlers are another item on this list, and the state incorporates their violence into its own official acts of violence. Settler violence sometimes precedes instances of official violence by Israeli authorities, and at other times is incorporated into them. Like state violence, settler violence is organized, institutionalized, well-equipped and implemented in order to achieve a defined strategic goal.

• https://m.btselem.org/settler_violence

Amnesty Report

Human Rights Watch Report

B’TSelem Report with quick Explainer

Zionism’s aims in Palestine, its deeply-held conviction that the Land of Israel belonged exclusively to the Jewish people as a whole, and the idea of Palestine’s “civilizational barrenness" or “emptiness” against the background of European imperialist ideologies all converged in the logical conclusion that the native population should make way for thenewcomers.

The idea that the Palestinian Arabs must find a place for themselves elsewhere was articulated early on. Indeed, the founder of the movement, Theodor Herzl, provided an early reference to transfer even before he formally outlined his theory of Zionist rebirth in his Judenstat.

An 1895 entry in his diary provides in embryonic form many of the elements that were to be demonstrated repeatedly in the Zionist quest for solutions to the “Arab problem ”-the idea of dealing with state governments over the heads of the indigenous population, Jewish acquisition of property that would be inalienable, “Hebrew Land" and “Hebrew Labor,” and the removal of the native population.

• Page 8, The Concept of Transfer 1882-1948

The Zionists were tireless in their efforts to shape the Commission’s proposals, meeting not only with the Com­ mission members themselves, but with statesmen, cabinet ministers, members of parliament, and senior officials at the Foreign and Colonial Office with whom the Commission members were likely to consult before formulating their recommendations.15 At these meetings the idea of a popu­lation transfer was promoted in conjunction with the parti­tion of the country, the partition idea apparently was first suggested by a member of the Commission itself. Professor Reginald Coupland, during a private meeting with Weizmann in Palestine. The prospect of official British recognition- hitherto steadfastly denied-of Jewish sovereignty and state­ hood, even in only part of Palestine, represented a tremen­ dous, and at that stage unhoped for, advance for the Zionist movement. Given the demographic realities at the time, whatever boundaries might be devised for partition would inevitably result in large numbers of Arabs and even greater expanses of Arab-owned land becoming part of whatever Jewish state would be carved out. Thus, the notion of transfer was a natural concommitant to the partition idea. Evidence sug­ gests that the proposal of Arab transfer that was ultimately made by the Royal Commission originated from, and had been secretly conveyed by, top Jewish Agency leaders, including Ben-Gurion, Shertok, and weizmann. As early as the Jewish Agency Executive meeting in October, Ben- Gurion had indicated his intention to raise the issue: “if the Peel Commission and the London government accept [the idea of transfer to Transjordan], we will remove the land problem from the agenda.’

• Page 55, The Concept of Transfer 1882-1948

• Simha Flapan - The Birth of Israel Myths and Realities

Morris asserted that the onset of the fighting between Israel and the Arab armies that entered the country on the day the British Mandate ended, May 15, 1948, was the main reason for what he called the “Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem.” I have argued that it was not the war itself, since half of those who became refugees—hundreds of thousands of Palestinians—had been expelled before it had even commenced. Moreover, I claimed that the war was initiated by Israel in order to secure the historical opportunity to expel the Palestinians.19 The idea that the Palestinians left voluntarily is not the only false assumption associated with the 1948 war. There are three others that are often aired to explain away the events of that year. The first is that the Palestinians are to be blamed for what happened to them since they rejected the UN partition plan of November 1947. This allegation ignores the colonialist nature of the Zionist movement. What is clear is that the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians can in no way be justified as a “punishment” for their rejecting a UN peace plan that was devised without any consultation with the Palestinians themselves.

• Ilan Pappe - Ten Myths About Israel - Ch 5

Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid.

Hamas 1988 Charter and Revised 2017 Charter

The 1988 Charter, which is certainly unreasonable in its fundamentalism with Sharia Law and is antisemitic, does not call for the extermination of all Jewish People. Hamas wants an end to Israel as an Apartheid State, not an extermination of all Israelis. Under Ahmed Yassin in the 1990’s, truces were offered in exchange for Israeli to withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank to the 1967 borders. The 2017 Revised charter explicitly accepts a Two-State Solution of the 1967 Borders. Check Article 7 and 13 of the 1988 Charter to see yourself, compare it to Article 20 and 24-26 in the revised charter.

The slogan From the River to the Sea is about Palestinian liberation that started in the 60s by the PLO for a democratic secular state, not Genocide. The Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad in 1966 maybe, but he’s not Palestinian.

History of Hamas supported by Netanyahu since 2012