Retire, Breyer: another September 2021 US Politics thread

https://i.imgur.com/jgDa5QO.png

I like this name better.

Much better, thanks KM

good thread title, b

justice breyer's book, about how the supreme court is not political, drops next week

— Law Boy, Esq. (@The_Law_Boy) September 2, 2021

Time to retire, Breyer
It's time to leave, Steve
There must be 50 ways to leave your judgeship

no need to discuss much!

Just stick it to Gorsuch!

MANCHIN op-ed: “I, for one, won’t support a $3.5 trillion bill, or anywhere near that level of additional spending, without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects inflation and debt have on existing government programs.” https://t.co/1RAXOmCdBt

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 2, 2021

Sara Gideon, Cal Cunningham, you let us down, you let us down real bad

🐦[justice breyer’s book, about how the supreme court is not political, drops next week
— Law Boy, Esq. (@The_Law_Boy) September 2, 2021🕸]🐦

omg i love teens

pic.twitter.com/VvrVBL1VR7

— Elizabeth Pancotti (@ENPancotti) September 2, 2021

oh i meant to post that on the supreme court thread, whatever

Hurricane Ida obliterated the offices of conservative undercover operative James O'Keefe and his Project Veritas group. Even "Retracto," the stuffed alpaca O'Keefe uses as his mascot, was destroyed. pic.twitter.com/nC5M1BD3id

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 3, 2021

"someone very technical, very handsome"

lmao hire this kid immediately, A+ team member

They IP-banned him so he turned his bot into an iOS browser shortcut anyone can use

People are amazing. This guy made a bot to overwhelm that horrible tx site and when it banned his IP after 300ish entries, he made an iPhone work around that anyone can use https://t.co/4v6YQnOZ34 pic.twitter.com/aZpeyY2AT9

— Preeti Chhibber (@runwithskizzers) September 2, 2021

October 2

https://womensmarch.com/mobilize?fbclid=IwAR2tb1MCgj24bBo8HTszVw0ih2YDP8hx_VVimiB2QZL852GOYCktpp9R9_M

that kid is a gd hero

Jim Jordan’s office denied this but Lordy there are tapes. https://t.co/Nimukavt8w

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) September 3, 2021

well not hearing from him for ~8 months was pretty nice. at least he won't have twitter, at least for awhile (?). verdict is still out on if the ban is permanent, right

We all know that D.J. Trump, Sr. is a man of his word. I can't imagine that he would ever mislead Jim Jordan by blurting out whatever vagrant intentions he had wandering through his head, as if it were a settled fact.

I'm sure they'll reverse it as soon as he announces with some mush-mouthed statement about how it is "news worthy" or whatever. Fuck, I'm not ready for him to be omnipresent again.

I really don't understand why people don't think he'll run. Of course he fucking will, it's a guaranteed gravy train for milking his legions of slack-jawed enablers.

too kind

if he gets COVID again somehow, can someone stab him with a huge syringe that says REGENERON but it's really like, a liquid form of Raid roach killer

I mean, c'mon, even if he were 100%, bulletproof barred from serving as prez again he would still run, insisting it's all a big lie and he would still froth to packed arenas with folks more than happy to fork over more money.

“I have been and continue to be a strong supporter of Roe v. Wade, number one,” Biden said Friday morning."

good, good, that's #1, yes...

“And the most pernicious thing about the Texas law, it sort of creates a vigilante system where people get rewards to go out and to …”

ok, yes, say it!!

He did not finish the thought.

aaah. shoot.

He added that “it’s almost un-American, what we’re talking about"

using logic, i determine that it is therefore American, what we're talking about.

i think i'll do one of my bi-weekly depresso rageouts real quick. i'll just be honest.

on one hand, when someone commits an act of terror and it's a muslim, i do not expect the "muslim world" to condemn the attack, or for individuals to do so. i get that concept. it's not fair.

here's where i'm just a big fucking hypocrite, and one of the reasons i hate myself: when white evangelicals in america repeatedly go out of their way to ruin everyone else's lives, and they're totally full of shit, and they lie, and they try to convert young gay people to "straightness", and they fill small children's heads with real imagery of eternal damnation and screaming and burning alive, and they describe the smells and the wailing, and the agony of begging to be let out, the darkness, the heat, the ice, the cold, the flaying, the skin peeling off, the rest of the family watching sadly (but not too sadly) from heaven, that gay people have a disease, pushing their 14th century views on conception and abortion on everyone else, demanding and pushing for Christian Theocracy at every opportunity, eagerly agreeing that yes they are a one issue voter, it's abortion, and it really doesn't matter what else is happening:

i want every other Christian who is NOT like that to stand up and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, YOU FUCKING COWARDS. WHAT CHRISTIAN HEAVEN DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO? FUCK YOU

all of this stuff - "this stuff" - is being done with the approval of white evangelicals. They fucking LOVE GOP officials!!!

it's the GOP's only constituency!!

well, everything i said is 100% true and very reasonable, no holes in that one. time to go get high and pretend like i'm not on this planet

i'd like to see some statements from hypothetical "cool christian churches" that they are NOT OK with white evangelicalism and what it stands for. Or rather, i'd like to see some of them "take the lead" in fighting back against this bullshit! i guess they're worried about starting a Christian civil war, Reformation II, but maybe they need to have a fucking internal war

say what you want about john brown but he was that guy

One very big solid that my parents did for us was not dragging us into organized religion. It's made me feel weird and out of place any number of times over the years of living in the Religious States of America but it's a weird and out of place that I can handle.

xp

exactly

all the john browns that i know today aren't christian

why

if i ever have children (i won't, i don't think) i will definitely take them to church. i'll take them to a crazy ass church like i grew up in. i want them to see that. when they're old enough, and with a parent with them that actually cares about their wellbeing (me). then i'll take them to a catholic church, and a synagogue. then a unitarian church. then a methodist, then a baptist. a black evangelical church. then back to the white evangelical church, one more time. it should be obvious by then what's wrong

one of those churches will be passing out literature about zionism and trying to create the conditions for the apocalypse in israel so that they can all finally go to heaven

hello child, the one i'm not trying to fuck up, answer me one thing kid: "which one of these churches seems to HATE everyone else that's not like them?"

fuck cowardly christians, especially the ones that consume their sense of persecution like it's manna

/rageout

here's where i'm just a big fucking hypocrite

I don't think you're a hypocrite, I think it's different because it's the community you personally grew up in and you very naturally have some feeling of responsibility for it that you don't have for other groups of people. It's not a community you're part of anymore, but it's still part of you.

I don't think it really matters to the "true believers" if other believers speak out against them, for example, the Pope says people should get vaccinated but a lot of conservative Catholics still go on claiming that the vaccine has tissue from aborted fetuses in it and they say that Joe Biden shouldn't be allowed to receive communion because of his views on abortion. You would think that the freaking pope would be considered an authority on what is and isn't acceptable Catholic behavior, but no, they're convinced that the one true God is speaking to them through Russian bots on Facebook and that the pope has somehow been mislead.

I started out as a Methodist (Protestant). Their view was more pragmatic. The people there occasionally drank, smoked, didn't believe in biblical inerrancy, and acted very human. Yeah, many were pro-life, but a lot (including my own folks) weren't. There was more room for individuality - nowadays, you can find plenty of similar churches who are pro-LGBTQ, even possibly pro-gay marriage. Not everyone IN the church would be cool with it, but you're more likely to run into someone there who speaks up and says "come on, this is fucked up". They taught us that flawed folk could be forgiven and get to Heaven.

When we left and started going to a Young Earther, Fundie church in high school, the differences were stark. They did NOT believe the fun little Methodist belief that you could get to Heaven by just recanting on your deathbed. they treated it like the Good Place, you had to do good works and would like get points for it or something and that VERY FEW people would get into Heaven. Even if you begged forgiveness and tried to turn your life around - they were very much like the US penal system.

and yet, despite these odds, none of them ever thought THEY were in jeopardy of missing out on Heaven. Even though they would say out loud that few people would make it there, including Christ-fearing believers, they mostly meant, like, Catholics, or people within their church that were secretly having sex before marriage. It's not *them*. same with all the conservatives who aren't afraid of COVID cos they think the people who die from it are 'weak', and ergo, it won't be them.

but they were often pants-shittingly afraid of pissing off their bigoted, despotic God, and since they believed in some kind of mystical unknowable points-system, and they're convinced God hates abortion and gay people, they always want to be visibly seen as supporting pro-life and anti-LGBTQ causes. Almost like they have to be performatively hateful - it's not enough to just BELIEVE gays and abortion are bad.

but nobody is a monolith, not even in churches like that. unlike the Methodist church, which was more casual, with families coming and going, a lot of people in this fundie church were like, lifers. Generations that had all gone to church together for years and years, often in that same building, children who'd been indoctrinated and given no agency of their own since birth. MOST of them were home-schooled a religious-themed curriculum.

by the time any of these fuckers encountered an alternative thought, they'd already been programmed for years and years. Not common for them to start questioning their beliefs the moment they got challenged because they never really had their beliefs challenged before, because they grew up in a bubble. so they never had to think critically about it. and the shit other people say starts to make sense, particularly pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ beliefs.

that cognitive dissonance is often overwhelming, so they get rid of it by doubling down. they're afraid that even thinking it's ok to be pro-choice = eternal damnation, so saying out loud THAT WHAT'S HAPPENING IN TEXAS IS BAD doesn't even come into question. they can't. even if they think the mechanism for enforcing it is fucked up despite supporting pro-life legislation - they won't say that, because it'll hurt their point total and keep them out of Heaven.

it's like a vice grip on your behavior. I didn't really have that problem because I grew up in a more liberal Protestant church, so when I realized how crazypants everybody was there, it was easy for me to peace out. but if you grew up in a Fundie environment your entire life - these fuckers are programmed to think that even TREATING GAY PEOPLE WITH DIGNITY or quietly accepting abortion are eternal life-threatening beliefs. that's why they support stores refusing to serve gay people, even though obviously Jesus wouldn't support refusing service to people based on something like that. they think they have to outright AVOID gay people and have no transactional relationship with them, lest their point total be harmed. they can't just allow abortion to happen, they have to attend rallies, post about it 24/7, full-throated support it. even if they secretly are questioning these approaches.

this is obviously a great oversimplification but I can pretty much guarantee you if I was attending my same Young Earth church right now, in 2021, precisely ZERO people would be objecting to the Texas legislation, and we'd probably be taught how it was a major victory for our faith. and any minority opinion would get dogpiled (it was definitely a thing - I was usually that opinion).

I have a lot of Christian friends who are pro-gay, pro-transgender, pro-choice, but they tend to belong to more liberal-minded sects like the Unitarian church, or Methodist branches. But the crazypants sects (ie Southern Baptists, Fundies, etc) literally view this as an assault on their SimHeaven video game score and just won't back the fuck down. and the mechanism doesn't matter. they won't even speak up about murders of abortion clinics. like, they'll give lip service to "thou shalt not kill", but they'll mention abortion is murder and that while the people who murdered them were wrong, the abortion providers were equally wrong.

so glad I left that life behind.

(btw don't think I'm letting Protestant sects off the hook, I realize the KKK emerged from Protestantism)

i'd like to see some statements from hypothetical "cool christian churches" that they are NOT OK with white evangelicalism and what it stands for.

You would think that the freaking pope would be considered an authority on what is and isn't acceptable Catholic behavior

PINO

i determine that it is therefore American, what we're talking about.

oh, it's absolutely American. violent oppression has always been acceptable to a large swath of Americans. "American" is not a synonym for "admirable".

it’s almost un-admirable, what we’re talking about

actually, maybe this is a more focused question for Christians who are not fundamentalists:

would you support a Christian theocracy in America?

(by the way, you may get an opportunity to put this question to the literal test, depending on how the next few years go)

The church I was baptized in, the United Church of Christ, explicitly supports pretty much everything white right-wing churches are against.

see also: Unitarian Universalists

i guess i just see the "cool churches" (unitarians, churches with pride flags) and the "cool christians" (bill mckibben) as exceptions. of course they're there. there are 205 MILLION christians in the USA, somehow. it doesn't surprise me that there are millions of cool christians, including a handful that take that coolness and extend it to action, or to speaking up, or taking a stand against fundamentalists (this is the part which never happens - it almost always takes the form of an expression of what the cool christians believe IN, rather than a rebuke of what other Christians are actually doing in real life that harms so many people every single day). it would be absurd if there were 205 Christians and every single one of them fucking sucked. Instead, there over 100 million that DO fucking suck, and they dominate the religion in this country

*fundamentalists work for centuries to convert earth's lower atmosphere into mustard gas*

*cool christians* : we believe in oxygen!

sorry. i'm just so, so disappointed in "people", which i suspect is just a sub-form of being disappointed in myself

I don't remember who the comedian was, but I remember years ago seeing some standup say, "I was raised Catholic, which means I'm an atheist now." That's kinda true for me, except it wasn't even really an act of conscious rejection. I was raised Catholic - baptism, First Communion, confirmation, Sunday school, CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) retreats, three or four years as an altar boy (did you know people tip the altar boys at their weddings? I got $100 one time), two years in a Catholic all-boys' high school, but somehow when I turned 18 it all slid right off me. I stopped going to church, and my mom just...accepted it. She'd given it a shot, it hadn't taken, done. To this day she's super active in the church where she lives, doing readings and helping out with charity work (she's a Meals On Wheels driver, does United Way gift drives, does people's taxes for free a few months out of the year, blah blah blah), but she never asks me if I go, and the reactionary side of Catholic politics has completely passed her by. She's never said the word "abortion" to me in her life.

(FTR, I served as an altar boy on several occasions under Theodore McCarrick, the former cardinal who's been defrocked and is currently on trial for bad sex stuff, back when he was the bishop in Newark. Another priest I knew, who served in my local parish, left the priesthood and moved to Las Vegas at some point — and a few years ago, someone he had molested showed up at his house and shot him. Neither of these dudes ever did anything to me. I guess I wasn't their type.)

the realization that "people" on the whole are actually bad, untrustworthy, susceptible to misinformation to the point that it seems like they actually crave it, and so fucking selfish all the time. it may be obvious and known for a long time -- i've seen the intro to fellowship of the ring, i understand how "humans" work -- but i didn't understand the degree of it until trump, and then especially with covid. i get so angry because at one point i was very much an Idealist, and i guess i'm dumb enough to think that it's still a good thing. but when believing in "people" goes away, so does everything else. the thought of public service becomes a joke. public health becomes a joke. climate change, the possibility of every doing anything about it - lol, are you kidding, after a year and a half of covid? we have ZERO chance. everything just goes away when faith in humanity goes away. ironically, i think this is part of what probably drives people to religion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2ppyMUlXfM

omg, the last 30 seconds of that clip just legit put me in a good mood lol

i mean, i had this in my clipboard for real:

]i send this thought-prayer out to whatever deity or deities can handle my arrogant, selfish request:

when i die, i want to be OBLITERATED. just fucking END IT. show some mercy. your earthly experiment was a spectacular failure.

but the sunset and will smith, combined with that music...maybe there is something worth living for :P

re: liberal or at least non insane churches/christians, Sojourners was a thing for a while and I followed them on FB, I have no idea how much clout the organization has or whether it has any media presence, it doesn't seem to.

I like Fr. James Martin a lot (Jesuit priest and author), who is as liberal as a priest can get. He gets a shit ton of flack but he always speaks out against nonsense.

I guess I just try to keep in mind that the terrible people seem more pervasive because they are a very LOUD minority. If I thought the scales had tipped in the other direction I'd probably just be pretty much done with everything.

xp
if any of non-fundamentalist churches have any real national clout, it is news to me. fundies are the harlem globetrotters, the others are the washington generals

terrible people seem more pervasive because they are a very LOUD minority

it's always been true and never more so than now that loudest voices win out every time

evangelicals make up the plurality of christians in the United States. none of the denominations are a strict "50%+ majority"

i would guess that in the next 20 years, fundamentalists will be the GOP, and the rest of the denominations will be the Democrats, or the United Christian Party, or whatever. people like me who are deeply disappointed and resentful of the christian god will probably be dead at that point

that's the thing about tacit, silent Christians - i know that when push comes to shove, they'll side with god and the GOP

i cannot defend anything i am saying, but i am guided by a voice from within. must be satan

“the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm has signaled it will use abortion rights as a cudgel against Republicans running in states like Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada and North Carolina.” https://t.co/PwzbVBy46v

— David Bergstein (@DavidABergstein) September 3, 2021

Well that’s the important part, really.

i don't know if i like this trend or not

I guess Jason Miller didn’t like being reported to the Texas authorities, and having a $10,000 bounty placed on him. Imagine that. pic.twitter.com/V4WiyT7Aha

— Hamish Mitchell (@H_MitchellPhoto) September 3, 2021

There are plenty of liberal Christians and ones that do things too—my partner arranged anti-Death Penalty vigils with he Catholic social justice groups outside Virginia’s Death Row. Other Catholic Churches have given sanctuary to undocumented immigrants on the run from ICE. Many churches sponsor refugee resettlement. My Lutheran Church in Minneapolis growing up sponsored and housed Hmong refugees and then Somali refugees. Liberal/Leftist Christians are everywhere but they are quiet, not loud. Christ endorsed this in his a parable of the widow’s mite. The louder you are about how religious and generous you are, the less likely you are either.

The beast who shot up the Tree of Life synagogue was mad about their refugee resettlement activities.

but christ also endorsed loud, direct political action, like overturning the tables in the temple while calling them a "den of thieves"

Faith Christ the revolutionary still inspires many of us, we just do t trumpet that fact I guess.

And hey plenty of priests and nuns led draft card burning ceremonies during the Vietnam era if you want something more dramatic.

i do actually want something more dramatic, right now, in this life and this moment

is Faith Christ a christian country singer

i would have to be the biggest 100% fool in the universe if i thought there were zero christian activists

it's such a strawman

Faith in Christ..

oh shoot, bill mckibben exists? well then, i guess the fundamentalists are no longer by far the dominant voice of christianity in america

bill is an example, to me, of someone who is humble, quiet, and yet very LOUDLY political

i would have to be the biggest 100% fool in the universe if i thought there were zero christian activists

it's such a strawman

I mean I guess it’s because leftists, including those who are religious, don’t latch themselves to the Democrats like the evangelicals do to the GOP?

then i'll take them to a catholic church, and a synagogue. then a unitarian church. then a methodist, then a baptist. a black evangelical church

FWIW, I did exactly this as a child (plus Baha'i, Hare Krishna, Greek Orthodox, and Quaker). It was standard Unitarian religious ed curriculum for 6th grade.

i mean, i don't know what i'm talking about either. so no worries.

i guess in order for anything i'm saying to make sense, you have to start with this premise:

1. evangelical conservative christians are the dominant voice of Christians today.

for better or worse, they speak for the Christians because yes, they are incredibly fucking loud, but also they are the plurality of Christians, and by FAR the most politically effective Christians.

maybe i should stop there and see if at least that parts seems true to someone that didn't have their life ruined by evangelicals. WHITE evangelicals.

FWIW, I did exactly this as a child (plus Baha'i, Hare Krishna, Greek Orthodox, and Quaker). It was standard Unitarian religious ed curriculum for 6th grade.

it's what any faith that had faith in itself would do, i think. doing otherwise is like being an abusive boyfriend that won't "let" the girlfriend go the bar with friends

also, as i understand it,

jesus : pharisees :: what i want modern NON-fundamentalists to be like : white evangelicals

or am i missing that one part in the gospels when jesus silently makes a donation to the "pharisees are misrepresenting judaism" fund, and never says a word about it out loud or draws attention to his dissatisfaction with the pharisees

jesus is cool
pharisees uncool
cool christians are disappointing on some levels
white evangelicals are extremely evil and in the least metal way possible

even though i haven't been a christian in the last 20 years, i STILL have a sense of responsibility for the things that are said in the name of christianity. it's deeply disappointing (continuing the trend) that people who still are christians don't feel the same, at least not in significant numbers. there are counterexamples, counterexamples of individuals, churches, movements in the past. but in general, at least as i see it, the cool christians don't seem to be THAT bothered by how evangelicals take ownership over christianity. that's why i get that creepy feeling that if/when real theocracy comes to the united states, "cool christians" probably won't really mind all that much

Shit, I know more Bible passages than most Christians.

Post-ABC poll finds 77% of Americans support the decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, including 88% of Democrats, 74% of Republicans and 76% of independents. But widespread support falls apart when it comes to how the departure unfolded https://t.co/8RvRDhZXDw pic.twitter.com/Ob65Xwi8RP

— Post Polls (@PostPolls) September 3, 2021

Seems like the media might have been… manufacturing dissent.

milo endorses a Biden position at last!

I have a hard time believing anyone is going to care about Afghanistan in six months.

Continued support for the actual withdrawal points that way, but when Republicans retake the House it’s going to be Benghazi times a hundred.

I have a hard time believing anyone is going to care about Afghanistan in six months weeks.

doesn't seem like they've been able to come up with a Benghazi-type narrative at this point, though

It's gonna get to a point (in a lot of ways this has already happened) where Republicans are going to be speaking exclusively in in-group code that's totally incomprehensible to anyone who's not marinating in right-wing radio, YouTube channels and Facebook memes 24/7.

Americans wanting us out of Afghanistan but disapproving of any specific withdrawal action is as unsurprising as my three-year-old niece melting down because she wants to go outside and play in the snow but refuses to put on her shoes.

"I have a hard time believing anyone is going to care about Afghanistan in six months."

Texas, hurricanes and Covid have already moved that into last weeks problems.

remember when a seated president led a riot to overturn his obviously lost election, and 147 of the 213 republicans in congress voted in support of it, and for about 2 days some of them seemed to feel bad, but then soon afterward nearly every republican recalibrated and realized that they actually are very into fascism and support it and long as they're still in power?

me neither

wait, i remember

no i forgot again

the story of how the filibuster, somehow, remained in place is already being written

Is filibuster reform dead?

Eight months into President Joe Biden’s term, the minoritarian Senate rule remains untouched. It’s not how activists thought things would unfold.

Back in January, they saw a dynamic flowing in their favor: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would block nearly everything Democrats tried to do, gradually frustrating Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) into embracing filibuster reform.

Meanwhile, they’d be launching a pressure campaign, educating people about the rule’s racist history and showing them what it means in practice: no minimum wage hike, no LGBTQ protections, no sweeping labor protection act, no gun restrictions, no expanding the Supreme Court. And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

Even if it meant letting Biden’s beloved infrastructure bills, the centerpiece of his agenda, go first in line, activists were generally hopeful — or at least they saw a path. Clear the infrastructure bills off the deck, then tackle pro-democracy reforms and bust the filibuster if you had to to make it happen.

“I’m not as optimistic as I was,” Adam Jentleson, a former Harry Reid staffer and author of a history of the filibuster, told TPM this week.

The war of attrition-style failed votes at the hands of Republican senators haven’t worked. Various reforms and tactical ideas haven’t significantly swayed Manchin or Sinema. Witnessing up close the new two-tiered Senate operating system, where certain bills can pass through reconciliation while the rest are consigned to the filibuster graveyard, hasn’t piqued their frustration.

And activists’ best argument, their battle-informed warnings that without voting protections, Republicans would try the 2020 gambit again but better, fell on deaf ears. The gerrymandering clock has started, and maps will start dropping this month. As more time elapses, it’ll become too late to put voting reforms in place before the 2022 midterms.

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

huh? we forgot that

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

what? we forgot that

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

huh?

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

oh right, right

And most importantly, for the psychologically battered and bruised Democratic politicians and constituents alike who just witnessed a president come close to stealing an election while letting loose a violent mob on the Capitol — no voting rights, gerrymandering reform, or election protections.

wait what?

COVFEFE!!!!!!

what is that like coffee or something? did he spill some COVFEFE on his keyboard?!

Video: Alex Jones goes off on the left, takes ivermectin live on air to dispel media’s “it’s horse dewormer” talking point.
pic.twitter.com/JQeZzIyzzN

— Melissa Tate (@TheRightMelissa) September 4, 2021

hope he turns inside out

realizing that millions of people watch him on a daily basis and take him seriously explains a lot. i mean, look at that. holy shit dude. and people are looking up to him and listening to him! i'd "looooooooooool" but these guys really are like the people who spray their teeth in mad max

definitely just going to stereotype here and say that alex jones and his viewers are just really dumb. they got to biology and got stuck in the pH section and just decided they would never understand anything through that method. "the old knowledge". so they just started huffing paint thinner

their last memory was talking to the guy at the gas station who had a hookup for whippet crackers

He's still refusing to get on Gavin McInnes's level and put a butt plug in on air.

If you plug up, it helps with the horse dewormer diarrhea.

Rebuilding our crumbling physical infrastructure – roads, bridges, water systems – is important. Rebuilding our crumbling human infrastructure – health care, education, climate change – is more important. No infrastructure bill without the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 2, 2021

Some days, the only thing that gets me through is knowing that people like Alex Jones will someday die. Maybe not soon, maybe not before he does incalculable damage to the minds of his followers, but someday. Someday it'll absolutely happen. I mean, yes, some other slavering beast as bad as him or worse will probably burst out of his corpse when he goes, just sloughing him off like the remains of a cocoon of evil, because that's the world we live in now, the one where you think things can't get worse and then they somehow exceed the limits of human imagination, but then I guess at that point I can just take solace in my own impending mortality. There's always a bright side!

The realization that "people" on the whole are actually bad, untrustworthy, susceptible to misinformation to the point that it seems like they actually crave it, and so fucking selfish all the time. it may be obvious and known for a long time -- i've seen the intro to fellowship of the ring, i understand how "humans" work -- but i didn't understand the degree of it until trump, and then especially with covid. i get so angry because at one point i was very much an Idealist, and i guess i'm dumb enough to think that it's still a good thing. but when believing in "people" goes away, so does everything else. the thought of public service becomes a joke. public health becomes a joke. climate change, the possibility of every doing anything about it - lol, are you kidding, after a year and a half of covid? we have ZERO chance. everything just goes away when faith in humanity goes away. ironically, i think this is part of what probably drives people to religion

This hit me right in the feels. I'm still grappling with the philosophical position that people are bad but I would respectfully suggest that if this is anything more than a hot take, it might help to take a step back, I'm sensing a certain amount of confirmation bias at work here.

Consider that little more than a generation ago we were able to create the EPA, protect endangered species, mostly stop acid rain and the growth of the hole in the ozone layter, enact affirmative action etc etc.

I think the main trends which make our present moment seem particularly hopeless are the predominance of social media and the GOP in effect becoming the party of the Christian petrostate. Social media is a mixed bag but it's pretty clear it's mostly in the wrong hands right now. Aside from all the egregious conniving and platforming of disinformation, I think that from the positive side, social media has actually made it clear that even in America most of us are actually pretty progressive. This in turn has elicited a hysterical reaction from the right and especially the evangelicals.

I have high hopes that in terms of media we're close to the bottom now, there is significant room for improvement. Sadly though our dysfunctional political system now seems stretched to breaking, and our physical environment also is sorely ailing. (...Sorry I was trying to be hopeful again but I seem to be working on digging a little hole for myself at this point.)

If you plug up, it helps with the horse dewormer diarrhea.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, September 4, 2021 5:27 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Point of order: a butt-plugged Alex Jones would very swiftly explode like a shit-filled firework on the 4th of July.

the worms gotta come out somehow

The legislative party in Texas is dominated by White politicians, specifically White men. The Texas Tribune reported at the start of the legislative session in January that all but five of the 100 Republicans in the state House and Senate were White, while 13 of the 100 were women. In a state whose population is about 40 percent Hispanic, just two of the Republicans in the state House were Latino, two Asian and one is Black.

just a bunch of white guys banning abortion against the will of their own people

just before a congressional sphincter explodes from wild pressure

Bash (Dana, asking obvious questions years too late): Congressman, do you think that voters should trust House Republican leaders with the majority in the next election?

Kinzinger (Adam, R-IL): Yes, I mean, look, I’m a Republican. I would like to see actual Republican values in the majority.

All I can say right now is, my party has to embrace truth. We have to have a full reckoning of what happened on January 6, and we have to turn away from conspiracy. I think, if we're going to be in charge and pushing conspiracy and pushing division and pushing lies, then the Republican Party should not have the majority.

But if we're going to be the party that actually tells truth and fights for real conservative values, and doesn't masquerade conservatism as some anger future, then, certainly, we should have the majority.

But that’s up to the party right now to determine. For me, I’m going to go out and tell the truth.

https://i.imgur.com/hyGbh5e.gif

you might wonder, what is he doing in the GOP?

he's being one of the most famous people in the GOP, that's what. that's the price of his heroism. he got a huge PR boost. if he becomes a democrat he'll just be another democrat, and that's if he's lucky enough to convince the dipshits in his district that he's not a tyrannical representative of satan

and he's one of the only republicans with any courage, whatsoever

anger future

it's weird to me that we can do a survey of americans and pretty much on every single issue there's at least a 20% portion that has the completely wrong. if it's 80/20, that counts as a landslide of consensus in the united states. on anything at all. but yet when it comes to 1/6 shit, republicans couldn't even make it that far.

there are 212 republicans in the house. 35 of them voted for the 1/6 commission:

Rep. Don Bacon (NE); Rep. Cliff Bentz (OR); Rep. Stephanie Bice (OK); Rep. Liz Cheney (WY); Rep. John Curtis (UT); Rep. Rodney Davis (IL); Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA); Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE); Rep. Andrew Garbarino (NY); Rep. Carlos Gimenez (FL); Rep. Tony Gonzales (TX); Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (OH); Rep. Michael Guest (MS); Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA); Rep. French Hill (AR); Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (IN); Rep. Chris Jacobs (NY); Rep. Dusty Johnson (SD); Rep. David Joyce (OH); Rep. John Katko (NY); Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL); Rep. David McKinley (WV); Rep. Peter Meijer (MI); Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA); Rep. Blake Moore (UT); Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA); Rep. Tom Reed (NY); Rep. Tom Rice (SC); Rep. Maria Salazar (FL); Rep. Mike Simpson (ID); Rep. Chris Smith (NJ); Rep. Van Taylor (TX); Rep. Fred Upton (MI); Rep. David Valadao (CA); Rep. Steve Womack (AR).

16.5% of them. to do the bare minimum thing for accountability.

i hope this plus the TX abortion stuff will be enough to convince democrats to show up to the midterms for the first time in my fucking life

in better news, "boss of the year" amy klobuchar manages to still be in a higher tier than "post-sphincter explosion" manchin and sinema:

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on Sunday called for the elimination of the filibuster after the Supreme Court let Texas’ ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy stand, leaving the second largest state in the country with virtually no access to legal abortions.

During an interview on CNN, Klobuchar was pressed on the lack of the 60 votes needed in the 50-50 Senate to codify the right to legal abortions.

Klobuchar first expressed gratitude for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for vowing congressional action to codify Roe v. Wade into law.

After pointing out that there are some pro-choice Republicans in the Senate, such as Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Klobuchar argued that the solution to passing progressive legislation would be to nix the filibuster that has posed obstacles to Democrats’ legislative priorities.

“So, my solution to this, which is my solution for voting rights and so many other things, including climate change, where one side of the country is in flames, the other side of the country is flooded, with people dying submerged in their cars, I believe we should abolish the filibuster,” Klobuchar said.

but who will maintain the integrity of our collective national butthole? who will keep things regular? who will provide big business with the steady regulation environment that they need to make plans beyond the fiscal year? who will make the courageous stand against change? will it be joe biden? will it be a sub-manchin or sub-sinema democrat who has tacitly sued them for protection on the filibuster until now, but feels the need to take a stand for the status quo?

WILL SOMETHING BIG HAPPEN AND WE ALL JUST FORGET AGAIN?!

The battle, joined?

https://www.tpr.org/news/2021-09-06/justice-department-promises-to-protect-women-who-seek-abortions-in-texas?utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR1o1voGj-Gq19KepbnoNFbylcivcClWXBd02s17PdzVngu4_7ZYeDn9UT8

Good work. The Texas law seems specifically designed to threaten and intimidate, so the FACE Act should apply and as a federal statute it should override state law. The fact that the threats do not consist of physical violence does not make them less threatening or less intimidating.

The fact that the threats do not consist of physical violence

i'm not sure sure about that. what kind of violence is it when you tell someone "if you drive her to that abortion clinic, i'll sue you and anyone else involved for $10K"? which, once that's known, is the same as "i'm watching you. don't mess up or i'll ruin your life"?

i know you're just making that point for the FACE act (which i know very little about). but just saying, i view the new TX law as extremely physically threatening in more than one way. there's no way empowering Texans (of all people, the fucking texans) to be anti-abortion vigilantes is not physical on some level.

a million conservative chuck norris figures keeping an eagle-eye out for young pregnant people who might be breaking the law is one of the creepiest thing, especially because all of them want to succeed so badly

it's hard to tell from the article but they are talking about about preventing people from physically blocking clinics, not about overriding the law

Maybe in that case the young pregnant couple can use 'stand your ground' laws and even up things a bit.

Kinzinger has integrity, and I admire him for that, but he's not going to not be a Republican. He could maybe be some kind of non-Republican Conservative with Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney and maybe Sasse.

how do i keep falling for these pump and dump schemes pic.twitter.com/iRjdgSIoyL

— Richie Deals (@allahliker) September 7, 2021

I was at the county fair yesterday, you'd think there was a political event going on. one couple was literally carrying a Trump yard sign around with them. there was also a teenager wearing a Trump flag as a shirt. another was carrying a sign that said "NO CRT IN OUR SCHOOLS!". plenty of Trump shirts and a few anti-Biden ones (BLM = Biden Likes Minors! Clever!!) also saw four people wearing shirts that said something like "That's a terrible idea!" and then on the bottom "What time?". What was interesting is that they were all different designs!

County fairs are always political events, iirc

"NO CRT IN OUR SCHOOLS!"

damn straight! anything old enough to have a CRT screen is so outdated that it needs to be replaced. that's like showing a film strip accompanied by a 45 rpm record that dings when you should advance the strip to the next frame.*

*these existed

so here's something kind of interesting that i haven't seen talked about: Chik-fiI-A, official face-stuffing of the culture warring MAGA dipshit, is STILL not doing in-store dining. that's some pretty libcuck shit right?

also, got some inside intel from a friend who works for small company does some internal comms for them. apparently CFA inc has been putting as much pro-vax stuff out as possible, and there's going to be a big company-wide webinar about it this week. also also D@n C@thy, CEO and son of the late Tru3tt, is apparently cutting a video begging employees to get vaxxed while standing in front of a casket of an erstwhile employee who's recently dead due to Covid-19!?! this is probably not for public consumption (yet) but oh well. any lurkers who might be CFA corporate pls ignore.

said friend has also long been convinced that D@n is a secret on the DL lib

Based on the drive-thru lines, I think CFA might have figured out it's more profitable to not have indoor dining (as long as you don't mind making a dozen 17-year olds risk heatstroke for eight hours). Since the start of the pandemic I've wondered if we'll see a shift to little/no indoor dining space for fast food in car country.

Dropping Medicare eligibility age to 60 isn’t part of draft text from @RepRichardNeal.

Focus among D’s is on expanding Medicare to provide dental/vision/hearing benefits in varying years (correcting past tweet)

Vision: 2022
Hearing: 2023
Dental: 2028 https://t.co/nLIYiXlvhd

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) September 7, 2021

xp

uh, think you meant to post that here:

Q is Joe Biden, another non-US Politics thread (Q Anon, Qanon, Q_anon, Joe Biden is Q)

any republican still talking about CRT in september is still fighting the last culture war (the one from march), but it's pretty hard to keep up.

I heard some talking head re: the texas abortion law (paraphrase): 'Eh, abortion is not so hot anymore, it's all about the vaccines, CRT and non-gender bathrooms.'

The Beltway consensus about the Texas abortion law: non-Texan GOP acting awfully quiet about it, secretly worried, thinking about 2018.

(NB: the Beltway sucks and is wrong)

"That said, however, let's make something very clear," Abbott continued, his voice gaining emphasis. "Rape is a crime, and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets."

Since all rapes obviously happen out on the streets, Texans can finally breathe a sigh of relief

A trump get out the vote special

Trump, on Newsmax, claims the recall election in California is "probably rigged" (as if Democrats can't win elections there fair and square) pic.twitter.com/gPbSq0XHGN

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 8, 2021

Gov. Abbott in response to questions of rape & incest says that he will "eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets." I guess that takes care of that then. They're finally going to go out and arrest all those pesky street rapists, like the ones Trump said were coming in from Mexico. Then we'll know that every pregnancy is truly a gift from God.

Honestly I wrote a post but it was too bleak. Which is laughable under these truly bleak circumstances.

so they had the means to stop all rapes in their state this whole time but are now just deciding to do it? xp

Hey when a man rapes someone in the privacy of his own home, car, workplace, classroom, or anywhere really, he's just asserting his God-given right to control the bodies of all other lesser people, like the Good Lord intended. To stop it would be going against the will of God.

or anywhere really

To be fair, Abbott has vocally opposed the presence of rapists on streets. He's been clear about that.

Forcing them to stick to boulevards, lanes, courts, highways, footpaths, etc. seems like a common-sense compromise measure. Take the win, libs.

I think people are missing the far more sinister undertone to Abbot's comment about "eliminating" it. He's not going to stop it, he's just going to eliminate it as being a crime.

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/d6a/dc7/4a5001b7beea096457f480c8808572428b-09-roll-safe.rhorizontal.w700.jpg

Right, the emphasis on "getting them off the streets" is promoting the idea that rapists are an easily identifiable group that they can just round up and arrest, like illegal immigrants. He's also implying that rape doesn't occur in homes or workplaces, just out on the streets. So basically, if you were impregnated by someone you know, it couldn't have been rape, you must've wanted that baby.

I'm pretty sure he was speaking specifically about the "rapist" from Mexico

xp It doesn't matter what the injured party wanted or didn't want. A man forcibly implanted some cells that reacted to other cells and now are holy in the eyes of God. The person whose body it happened to is irrelevant.

Didn't some Republican elected person just go on camera calling women vessels?

may the lord open

In perfect seriousness I am taking these walking abominations 100% at their word and their words show who they are and what they really want.

Maybe it was old, but no less indicative: “However, once a child does exist in your womb, I’m not going to assume a right to kill it just because the child’s host (some refer to them as mothers) doesn’t want it.”

"child". fuck, it's not even a fetus at 6 weeks, it's an embryo.

we should also stop leading with the "but there are many good reasons for abortion, such as rape, incest, or the mother's health" argument in defense of abortion because it doesn't matter what fucking reason someone wants an abortion. they're legal, and the reason doesn't matter, and if we engage on that field alone we insinuate lack of support for other reasons, or suggest that if we made this exceptions in the law, an abortion ban would be a-ok.

just say it - women should be able to get them for whatever reason, it's their damn body. I'll leave the "when does life begin" argument to philosophers.

Unfortunately, because our Beltway press consists of cowardly prisses, there's no reason to get an abortion unless your brother rapes you.

philosopher kings say life begins the moment the chosen sperm wins the race. all other sperm and "the forgotten trillions of masturbation" were not sanctified by the holy spirit, therefore not a child.

we should also stop leading with the "but there are many good reasons for abortion, such as rape, incest, or the mother's health" argument in defense of abortion because it doesn't matter what fucking reason someone wants an abortion. they're legal, and the reason doesn't matter, and if we engage on that field alone we insinuate lack of support for other reasons, or suggest that if we made this exceptions in the law, an abortion ban would be a-ok.

yes, i saw Tim Faust and others mention this yesterday. let me see, here:

This is well-intentioned but it’s all Bill Clinton-ass bullshit. Abortion is boring. It’s a simple medical procedure. Sure, it’s for people in extreme situations, but abortion is also for people who like to fuck and simply don’t want to get pregnant pic.twitter.com/jFvGpUnx74

— kill 🇵🇸 tim 🇵🇸 faust (@crulge) September 7, 2021

it was a nice reminder. i think "abortion is boring. it's a simple medical procedure" isn't a great thing for a man to say, but what do i know

i'm in favor of people not calling it a "painful decision" when they don't know whether the person's decision was actually painful. maybe it would be less painful if people didn't act like it's more justified in the two dramatic circumstances listed above. also "assailant planted his seed"? barf emoji

notes app screenshot definitely a man, maybe marc loi

Yeah, "the infant", "planted his seed" just shut the fuck up Mr Pro-Choice

Marc Loi. wow.

takes me back

wait if you click the image there are 2 more poorly written nightmare scenarios

i'm pro-little Cathy one is THE WORST

https://msmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Cathy-Comic1.jpg

there are a non-zero number of people who call themselves "pro-choice" who I'd really call "pro life with caveats"

hold on, i need to make this pro-choice argument even better - you wanna know something REALLY FUCKED UP?

there are a non-zero number of people who call themselves "pro-choice" who I'd really call "pro life with caveats"

I would guess this is true of many of the people who polls identify as pro-choice

I mean that could be said about any number of non-sociopaths whose frame of mind is basically 'I would personally never do x bit I don't feel the need to legislatively impose my preferences upon every other person who isn't me'.

Millions lose unemployment benefits this weekend, in one of the largest and most abrupt ends to government assistance in American history. W/ @yjtorbati and @andrewvandam. https://t.co/gLwzcAmjYJ pic.twitter.com/W6uJDLRWdS

— Alyssa Fowers (@alyssafowers) September 5, 2021

House Dem @WhipClyburn tells Jim @Acosta the $3.5 T figure for budget reconciliation is just a "celling" and not a "floor". Clyburn says there is $2T worth of negotiating room. Worth noting that progressives like @BernieSanders & @AOC have said $3.5 T is already a compromise. pic.twitter.com/JXZiVB73iA

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) September 8, 2021

so the “whip” is negotiating with himself on national tv? this is what makes the democratic party so unique

he's trying to reach across that aisle, see what kinds of hands may be over to shake. you know what they say about political compromise - "you have to put a blindfold on, turn the movie theater lights out, and just start walking over on the other side, even if you hear them screaming and hissing you and feel like it may get violent soon. it doesn't matter - you just have to start it off yourself even if you don't think anyone is there at all. to show the people"

the classic move

what did wee willie keeler say?

go ahead, think about it. what did wee willie keeler say?

he said "hit 'em where they ain't!"

that means hit them where they ain't looking, and THAT means negotiating when they weren't even thinking they were going to get to negotiate at all. no one's looking there, then you just SOCK 'EM!

“We believe we have compromised significantly, and we're prepared to compromise further"

- wee willie keeler

in addition to getting a bunch of their voters killed, now the GOP has to worry about this

A new study by researchers at three universities have concluded that ivermectin causes sterility in 85% of men. https://t.co/7v8bbZj91g

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 9, 2021

So-called "tort reform" has been near the top of the GOP agenda now for a couple of decades in preparation for just such eventualities.

Dr Rasmussen suggested people are greatly misunderstanding that study so I'd take witha grain of salt

yeah that headline is pretty misleading but its still pretty funny

Clyburn has been nothing but a fucking pain in the ass lately. Has he always been this annoying

Clyburn has probably always had a high level of annoyance potential, but there must be some formula that calculates effective annoyance as a ratio of potential annoyance to Congressional seniority that increases from one term in office to the next.

Whatever the science determines on Ivermectin, seems like most of the men taking it would be in their 50s+, and thus past their prime babymakin' years?

Perhaps it's an outdated assumption but my mind tends to conjure up grumpy Fox-watchin' olds in MAGA hats who already have adult children. They're not threatened by a chance of sterility.

This should not be surprising as the drug industry pretty much helped create the opioid crisis issues in the US. It's not like the Purdue Pharma people had to give back "THEIR" money. The business is gone but they have their money.

Being Ivermectin is a horse drug, I would not doubt at all that some of the fools pushing this shit for fun and profit probably donate money to clowns like curly haired Randy Paul.

Building boom in hell to house all of them...

Want a government job? There might be openings soon for positions formerly filled by anti-vax chuds.

that ivermectin story had a sample size of 37 so I'm not sure why people are claiming it's credible

hmm my fed office had to delay reopening by a month (required to be there at least 1x/week) because we had too many unvaxed and needed to establish a testing program. hoping this will delay it another month to give them a chance to get their shots.

The biggest side effect of ivermectin is schadenfreude among the vaccinated left -- the thought of these rugged, conservative individualists all taking the same horse drug, shitting their pants and turning sterile is just too great to be contained by a scientific study.

In the journalism biz we call that "too good to check."

about fuckin' time, imo:

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday plans to announce sweeping new vaccine mandates designed to ramp up pressure on the unvaccinated, putting in place additional requirements for federal employees, large employers, and health care providers that the administration said would affect around 100 million workers, more than two-thirds of the U.S. workforce.

Biden will ask the Department of Labor to issue a rule requiring all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or produce a negative Covid test at least once a week, said a senior administration official. The requirement could carry a $14,000 fine per violation and would affect two-thirds of the country's workforce, the official said.

Biden will also order that the vast majority of health care facilities require their staff be fully vaccinated as a condition of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, a move that would affect 17 million workers at 50,000 health care providers, the official said. As of July, 27 percent ofthe country's health care workers were unvaccinated, according to a study by the Covid States Project.

gonna be some epic Fox personality meltdowns tonight

get ready to learn about Freedom and God, for real.

Tucker will wear the striped tunic of a Dachau survivor

rip usa

I guess we'll soon see if the USA has become ungovernable.

#BREAKING: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer tells NPR he will retire on his own terms.

"When exactly I should retire, or will retire, has many complex parts to it. I think I'm aware of most of them, and I am, and will consider them," he said. https://t.co/8WqyYV0k6l

— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) September 9, 2021

Time to get out the heart attack gun.

get ready for the "is 7-2 really that much worse than 6-3?" takes

If we’re this close to rock bottom, shouldn’t we just go ahead and hit it really hard?

Just goes to show that my attitude toward judges— narcissistic dick-swinging assholes— is otm

lucky guess

Name one “complex part”.

He loses the free SCOTUS lunch buffet

Which of his houses would he live in? Who would read him his mail and help him answer it? What would he do after breakfast? It complicated stuff.

This vaccination speech is not very good but the meltdowns are going to be marvelous.

this is a good line tbf

“Some of the biggest companies are already requiring this,” President Biden says of mandatory vaccines and testing.

“Even Fox News."

— Matt Viser (@mviser) September 9, 2021

Just goes to show that my attitude toward judges— narcissistic dick-swinging assholes— is otm

Judges start life as lawyers, so...yeah.

Breyer's creepy grin creepier

South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom. @JoeBiden see you in court.

— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) September 9, 2021

What does that even mean? She has no authority over Federal employees

It means she's fund raising.

(And furthermore, it's highly unlikely she'll see Joe Biden in court.)

if this is Breyer’s 12th dimensional chess to delegitimize SCOTUS I’d say that’s a little risky bruh but to tip of the hat to the fuck it let’s just be legends attitude

Playing the hits!

This speech smells like something Barack Hussein Obama would deliver.

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) September 9, 2021

That dude's Twitter feed reads like parody.

now that you mention it…

Biden says even @FoxNews has a mandatory vaccine policy. Is that true? That can't be true. Have Hannity and Tucker and the others gotten the vaccine? That just can't be true.

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) September 9, 2021

Listening to Biden dehumanizing "the unvaccinated" just like another world leader did many, many years ago. Will he make the "unvaccinated" wear some sort of a badge? Will they be granted access into stores or schools?

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) September 9, 2021

Auditioning for Radiohead spouse job

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/09/1035467999/justice-department-sues-texas-over-new-abortion-ban

I absolutely believe that Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity are vaccinated. As I'm sure are 90% of the biggest anti-vaxxer mouthpieces. Being sociopaths almost guarantees that they look out for number one.

the top food chain guys are all vaxxed I mean my god let’s get real. that these weirdo low level dudes don’t get that (or pretend not to) is wild af.

rip Phil Valentine lol

(piss, btw)

OIC, we are clowning on a twitter clown, never mind me

He's a small-time Limbaugh wannabe, which gives him a 50% chance of dying on a ventilator in the next three months.

the line between True Believers and which ones just have a preternatural knack for plucking chickens is so blurry in 2021

maybe it’s always been lol

FOX absolutely has a vac policy.

Rupert's not getting any younger

Despite being married to jerry hall

From the NPR story re: JD suing Texas:

Experts said the Texas law is among the most strict in the nation...

I feel sorry for the two women journalists who felt it was necessary to be that mealy-mouthed in the story they filed.

lmao

Sasse calls Biden’s vaccine mandate “a cynical attempt to pick a fight and distract from the President's morally disgraceful decision to leave Americans behind Taliban lines on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.” pic.twitter.com/fQBVix4zPh

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) September 9, 2021

“reasonable”

fwiw i hope it is a cyncial attempt to pick a fight. almost 100% of democrats agree with him, and half of republicans. in that sense it's literally the best possible fight to pick!

ben's ass is at it again

Ben desperately tries to distract the media from focusing on Biden's vaccine mandate.

Ben Sasse is the idol of the Never Trumpers who think he is “principled” and "intelligent".

Everyone I know who knew him in undergrad hated him

wow that Sasse quote. What a cynical asshole

I prefer the full-on apocalyptic GOP responses.

Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.

— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) September 9, 2021

This country is beyond repair. We just don't "bounce back" from 35% of the country being willing to die and let their children die rather than admit they backed the wrong horse, fell for a charlatan and based their entire worldview around it.

Tho seems to be some disagreement over whether vaccine requirements are more like Hitler or Satan. Could be both I guess.

And yeah, as sort of hilarious as the rhetoric is, it does all seem like a precursor to real armed violence in this country. Given the massive number of guns out there and the relentless escalation in how people on the right are talking, at this point it might be more surprising if we don’t end up with massive bloodshed than if we do.

I prefer the full-on apocalyptic GOP responses.

🐦[Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.
— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) September 9, 2021🕸]🐦

starnes trying to play that tweet off as 'sarcasm' which belies the truth that he doesn't know what sarcasm is

Not only do leftists not have a sense of humor, they also don't understand sarcasm. Hilarious and sad.

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) September 9, 2021

how can I get citizenship for Starnes Country

Ah, I see, the 'I was obviously joking, gah!' defense employed by every obviously non-joking douche in history.

Oh yeah, leftists don’t understand sarcasm. Suuuuuuure they don’t, sounds like someone who spends a lot of time hanging out with the left, real smart statement there. “Good one”.

Dude this entire life is a sarcastic joke

When did the memo go out about calling liberals/Dems "leftists"?

circa 1990 from Rush Limbaugh's fax machine.

I have no idea who Todd Starnes is, had to research his bio. Where in the hell do all these "award winning conservative commentators" come from? Fired from the Baptist Press, fired by Fox News Radio, purchased a radio station in Memphis to be his flagship mouthpiece, where he ll no doubt hawk his books such as "Dispatches From Bitter America" and grift for Trump.

Covid bug seems to find conservative commentators as good eatin'. Probably from all that sausage gravy seasoning, I suppose.

so that was a 'joke', todd starnes? when should we start laughing??

Auditioning for Radiohead spouse job

I don't understand this

Jonny Greenwood's wife was tweeting out some pretty dire anti-vaxx, pro-Clapton talking points

both sides!

Faced with dropping poll numbers on COVID-19, President Biden has responded exactly as President Trump did last April: by pretending that he is a King without responsibility. https://t.co/t8xdkRCd2f

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) September 10, 2021

imagine following jonny greenwood's wife on twitter, wtf

sorry - maybe she's a cool novelist or something, i have no idea.

the situation in the united states is a bit too much for me to take today

lol i was only made aware of the tweets via the covidiots in music thread

Is there any chance that even the smallest percentage of the drama queens currently spinning out over vaccine mandates will recognize that they sound pretty much exactly like a kid who calls his parents fascists because they won't let him get a moped

YOU'RE NOT THE QUEEN, MOM!

No, they won't because the loudest and most obnoxious drama queens about this are governors and senators and representatives.

Guess we still need that strong GOP for, uh, something.

Speaker Pelosi: "I say to my Republican friends, take back your party. The country needs a big, strong Republican Party. And I say that as a leader in the Democratic Party... Don't have it be a cult of personality on the extreme, extreme, extreme right." pic.twitter.com/dpfDI6xy9U

— The Hill (@thehill) September 10, 2021

need to have someone to blame for their ineptness?

the loudest and most obnoxious drama queens about this are governors and senators and representatives.

they feel like they must match the worst, most ignorant and heated rhetoric out there in order to keep their cred as leaders, not cucks followers.

Which is impossible, because the kneejerk reaction is "nuh uh, YOU'RE on the extreme, extreme, extreme LEFT!"

part of me is annoyed because she obviously sincerely believes that, along with the rest of her generation.

but on the other hand, coming from someone younger that would be pretty good trolling, so it seems fine.

I also assume mealy mouthed poll questions show these dem leadership fossils that bipartisanship is super popular so they put all their trust in them rather than using their fuckin brains

I also assume mealy mouthed poll questions show these dem leadership fossils that bipartisanship is super popular so they put all their trust in them rather than using their fuckin brains

of all the brain worms that generation of leadership has, this feels like the most harmful (and is perhaps related to how they think about polling)

There is a very specific loser tendency among liberals which posits that Democrats using power is only legitimate if it *doesn't* help them politically, such that a clear political winner like vaccine mandates gets spun as a brave but unpopular choice. pic.twitter.com/AEg1MW6Ql3

— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw) September 9, 2021

I would roundly welcome a bipartisanship where Pelosi marked the acceptable conservative end of the political spectrum and jackbooted fascists didn't have a seat at the table at all.

I have no idea who Todd Starnes is, had to research his bio… Fired from the Baptist Press, fired by Fox News Radio, purchased a radio station in Memphis to be his flagship mouthpiece...

more like Turd Stains, amirite

which is extra funny bc they both have that gop hallmark of somehow looking simultaneously 12 years old and middle age

shamefully i have known about todd starnes for a long time because my brother and i are devoted AM radio hate listeners (until i stopped commuting that is). he used to have a little 2 minute spot on fox news radio in the morning where he whined about different innocuous things with his little tiny baby voice. there is some meme the origin of which i never cared about regarding his drinking of pee.

I can't even stand listening to left-wing talk radio, you have some constitution.

(I truly do believe that my mom ruined me for life by raising me listening to NPR in the car— I can't listen to podcasts or audiobooks, they instantly annoy me)

Mark Proksch-ass looking motherfuckers

Tony Tinderholt is the ultimate giant baby looking Republican IMO

https://tonytinderholt.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/homepage_about-1.jpg

xp sometimes NPR makes me even madder but yeah it's actually bad for my mental health and i'm happy to never be in the car anymore

i get excited every time i see JD Vance, he's a really rare type of build genetically. guys like this were almost completely killed off by bugs bunny in the 1940s. almost went completely extinct. pic.twitter.com/T8LCj4sxCN

— jack wagner (@jackdwagner) June 25, 2021

Republicans have a hard choice between doing a bunch of steroids and Crossfit to be a ripped SpecOps hardman like their voters worship or an unnaturally smooth adult baby who actually resembles their voters.

Who was the 'formerly gay' guy with the cowboy hat? I can't find him now, he was definitely in the adult baby category

Briscoe County or something like that

Didn’t he write the Texas election law?

manchin on cnn talking about how we need “means testing”

manchin really is a man of the people. he understands that in the current moment, everyone really really wants means testing

We should test on a scale of Dickens characters

Did not see this twist coming….

Larry Elder presser with Rose McGowan kicking off now pic.twitter.com/Hae9zUeogH

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 12, 2021

the new Matrix movie looks terrible

NEW: GOP frontrunner Larry Elder would not commit to accepting the results of tomorrow's California recall election when I asked him this morning. pic.twitter.com/374TFyS3Ja

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) September 13, 2021

elder is nuts, but he wasn't this nuts at the start of the campaign. he's been radicalized by his own media. i.e.

Remember, Elder’s first reaction to a question about 2020 was to say that Biden won fairly. Friendly conservative media pulling him right, or asking him to emphasize his most conservative views, has been very helpful to Newsom. https://t.co/hVZLnd8PWu

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 13, 2021

it's worked out in this case but this is not a good sign obviously.

is larry elder over 5' tall?

guy with 17% of vote claims he was robbed

I was just in Fresno (well, Clovis) visiting my GF's mother, and from that narrow vantage point you'd think Elders was a shoo-in.

Professionally printed "Recall Newsom" flags flying from pickup trucks, not just hand-lettered signs. I mean, there have been four recall attempts since his inauguration so I guess there's actually a pretty steady market for them.

The valley is a cesspool, I lived in Tehama County and Butte County during the 2016 election and its aftermath and it was really unpleasant.

seems important, but the more in tune with living in 2021 you are, the more you're supposed to just shrug at this and not let it dominate your thoughts.

Twice in the final months of the Trump administration, the country’s top military officer was so fearful that the president’s actions might spark a war with China that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict.

In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa.

One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that unseated President Trump, and the other on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol siege carried out by his supporters in a quest to cancel the vote.

The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China.

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”

In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”

Li took the chairman at his word, the authors write in the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week.

In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn’t as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”

Li remained rattled, and Milley, who did not relay the conversation to Trump, according to the book, understood why. The chairman, 62 at the time and chosen by Trump in 2018, believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election, the authors write, a view he communicated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a phone call on Jan. 8. He agreed with her evaluation that Trump was unstable, according to a call transcript obtained by the authors.

Believing that China could lash out if it felt at risk from an unpredictable and vengeful American president, Milley took action. The same day, he called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied.

Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order — but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an “oath.”

The chairman knew that he was “pulling a Schlesinger,” the authors write, resorting to measures resembling the ones taken in August 1974 by James R. Schlesinger, the secretary of defense at the time. Schlesinger told military officials to check with him and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs before carrying out orders from President Richard M. Nixon, who was facing impeachment at the time.

You missed the part about Dan Quayle as Voice of Reason.

or this:

Trump’s posture, not just to China but also to Iran, tested that promise. In discussions about Iran’s nuclear program, Trump declined to rule out striking the country, at times even displaying curiosity about the prospect, according to the book. Haspel was so alarmed after a meeting in November that she called Milley to say, “This is a highly dangerous situation. We are going to lash out for his ego?”

Trump’s fragile ego drove many decisions by the nation’s leaders, from lawmakers to the vice president, according to the book. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was so worried that a call from President-elect Biden would send Trump into a fury that the then-Majority Leader used a backchannel to fend off Biden. He asked Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, formerly the No. 2 Senate Republican, to ask Sen. Christopher A. Coons, the Democrat of Delaware and close Biden ally, to tell Biden not to call him.

So intent was Pence on being Trump’s loyal second-in-command — and potential successor — that he asked confidants if there were ways he could accede to Trump’s demands and avoid certifying the results of the election on Jan. 6. In late December, the authors reveal, Pence called Dan Quayle, a former vice president and fellow Indiana Republican, for advice.

Quayle was adamant, according to the authors. “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,” he said.

But Pence pressed him, the authors write, asking if there were any grounds to pause the certification because of ongoing legal challenges. Quayle was unmoved, and Pence ultimately agreed, according to the book.

The chairman, 62 at the time and chosen by Trump in 2018, believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election

Right. After the election. Some keen powers of observation you have, there, Milley.

Excuse me, General, sir,
with all due respect to you,
but what the fuck is going on?

- You changed the coordinates, didn't you, General?
- That's affirmative, Captain.

So, now they think we're
gutless, the Feds? They think we won't actually do it.
They're gonna come at us with everything
they've got. Air and sea.
- They're gonna bomb our ass back to the Stone Age.
- They don't know we missed on purpose.

Great. We're not gutless,
we're incompetent. That right?

I don't think I like your tone, Captain.
We planned for this contingency.
The consequences of our actions, I’ll face alone.

Excuse me, General,
but what about the fucking money?

There is no fucking money.
Mission's over.

Bullshit it's over.

-You're talking to a General, soldier.
Maintain discipline.

I'm not a soldier, Major.

The day we took hostages we became mercenaries. And mercenaries get paid!
I want my fucking money!

- This mission was based on the threat of force.

I'm not about to kill innocent people. Do you think I'm out of my fucking mind?

We bluffed. They called it.
The mission's over.

Whoever said anything about bluffing, General?

Stand down, Captain.
Stand down, Captain!

Major, I'm ordering you to take these men to the choppers and evacuate.

- That's a simple order, Major!

- It's not so simple, Frank.

Major Baxter, you're either with us or against us.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve with you, General.
But like he said...

it's over.

excuse me, i just need to use the restroom and wash my face

But I was assured by many smart people that Trump was a peacenik!

no you weren't

anyone who said that was de facto not smart, or at least not smart about taking the measure of Trump, who is one of the most easily-read human beings on the planet

House Dems' tax plan does not get rid of the $35 billion in domestic subsidies for fossil fuel producers, which Biden's plan called for getting rid of, @clemente_frank says

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) September 14, 2021

I do think Trump was a little squeamish about actual war, but had no problem lobbing cruise missiles or chemical weapons

'war' involves sending people overseas to 'shithole countries', better to just drop bombs real fast and leave, which was what Trump was into

Well that's settled then

Asked how he plans to get Dems’ new elections bill passed given that he (and others) won’t change filibuster rules, Manchin said his plan is this: “It’s to get 10 Republicans.” Told us he’s talking to “reasonable Republicans and friends of mine who understand we need guardrails”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 14, 2021

they're all just out of frame, being reasonable too

My Republican who lives in Canada, you haven't met him.

anyone who said that was de facto not smart, or at least not smart about taking the measure of Trump, who is one of the most easily-read human beings on the planet

Or do I think Maureen Dowd is very smart…?

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/fifth-conservative-anti-vax-radio-host-dies-of-covid-within-six-weeks

Enyart had a segment in his old TV program dedicated to mocking AIDs victims by reading their obituaries while playing Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” Westword reports.

hope hell is warming up for this guy

Trump's one core trait was that he was profoundly lazy; war requires a lot of work. like can you see him doing any Situation Room type bullshit that wasn't massively staged and made-for-TV

yeah. every time this happens, i read, because i'm always curious if the family or friends, or the dead asshole themselves, ever apologized or realized they were wrong. this guy, definitely not. he was one of the worst people in the country, and he wasn't even good enough at hatred to be as big as rush limbaugh.

the final lines from the washpo version of his "fuck off for life, you're dead" article are

Williams, who wrote that he has been the radio program’s co-host for 15 years and done more than 750 shows, described Enyart as “exceedingly kind and humble, and always, always willing to listen and discuss anything you wanted.” When he was asked by KUSA for some thoughts on his best friend and mentor, Williams indicated that Enyart wouldn’t have changed course from his beliefs.

even though these were his beliefs

Enyart, a self-described “right-wing religious fanatic” who began broadcasting around 1991, built up an audience on talk radio’s extremist fringe, airing more than 6,000 radio and TV shows across 80 cities, according to his website. His appeal was built, in part, through debatable, crude and sometimes hateful acts toward the LGBTQ community. He once accused an openly gay radio veteran of endangering fellow employees by inviting his hepatitis-stricken partner to a staff picnic, according to a 1999 profile in Westword.

On his defunct TV show, Enyart “used to gleefully read obituaries of AIDS sufferers while cranking ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ by Queen,” Westword reported. Freddie Mercury, the band’s lead singer, died of AIDS in 1991 at the age of 45.

“Listen to the words of that song, and you’ll understand why I did it,” Enyart told the outlet at the time.

The longtime opponent of abortion picketed the homes of doctors who performed the treatment and repeatedly called for women who received an abortion to be sentenced to the death penalty. He was once arrested in New Zealand in 1999 for having a banner that read, “Clinton is a Rapist,” the Denver Post reported.

War can make you a loser, cruise missiles can't. If the Joint Chiefs had ever proposed a turkey shoot like invading Grenada again Trump would have been on board.

we shouldn't celebrate the fact that Covid took him; rather, we should lament the fact that Covid made us read about him in the first place

Trump's one core trait was that he was profoundly lazy; war requires a lot of work. like can you see him doing any Situation Room type bullshit that wasn't massively staged and made-for-TV

Even when they did it, it was slapdash and lazy. Never Forget

Ah hell---this is so opposite of Enyart and his ilk, so refreshing, gotta repost it from ILM:
Non-covidiot in music: exemplary, and points out some things I hadn't thought of in this context---https://www.al.com/life/2021/09/jason-isbell-on-the-road-hummingbirds-fan-requests-and-the-need-for-critical-thinking-in-america.html

How many "right-wing talk show hosts" are there?? Is there a farm growing them?

it's infinite

BREAKING: 3 centrist Democrats just tanked the party's signature drug price negotiation bill after a marathon 3-day markup, complicating efforts to pass the whole 3.5T social spending bill. While Dems say they can still include the policy, it's a blow to D efforts to stay united.

— Alice Miranda Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) September 15, 2021

3 centrist corrupt Democrats

Starting to think a third party might be a good idea.

The most likely viable third party would be a centrist party that looks a lot like the Clinton years.

Fuck that shit. Just take all the Democratic voters to a party that isn't full of useless corrupt stooges. Low-dollar donations only.

I understand I'm being naive. Leave me alone.

" 3 centrist Democrats just tanked the party's signature drug price negotiation bill after a marathon 3-day markup..."

Can't remember what standup said the line, but I do think they should make a rule that the politicians have to have patches on their coat like a NASCAR driver showing who donated money to their campaign.

I'm guessing these 3 are drug industry pets.

Your guess is correct.

https://www.dailyposter.com/follow-the-pharma-money/

Can we stop calling them "centrist Democrats" and call them pharma tools instead?

Last December, House Democrats’ steering committee voted to put Rice on the Energy and Commerce panel instead of progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
On Tuesday, Rice explained that she opposes the drug pricing measure because “I do not support advancing policies that are not fiscally responsible and jeopardize the bill’s final passage.”

I know we're still 'living' in the T___p era, but could people in positions of power at least try to be less transparently debased? If you're so intent upon fucking over your constituents, at least have the decency to maintain some plausible deniability about the fact.

We're honestly probably like half a decade from seeing political ads that are nakedly like 'I despise you all personally, elect me so that I can get rich while actively subverting your interests' (which naturally lead to those fuckers winning in a landslide).

the prob is that they *are* Democrats tho. And any attempt to unseat them in a primary would be heavily criticized and completely undermined by leadership

What is consistently sad and shocking is what a good return on their investments their corporate daddies make. Spend $1.6M on Congressmen, get hundreds of millions in profits guaranteed.

They have so little of an opinion of us peons that they can say with a straight face that paying lower prices for drugs is "not fiscally responsible".

It’s disgusting.

Primary these fuckheads

With who's money? Where do think the 'primary' money comes? This is why it takes millions instead of thousands to run for a house seat. Campaign money is like water, you dam it up one place, it finds another place to go. With those 501 groups, they got the ultimate invisible hand to ad bury anyone on a grass roots level.

It's kinda why the GOP has gone totally batshit crazy, as they don't even really need the PARTY at all to do what they want. The money made it pretty much irrelevant. Democrats have been pretty much GOP light since the late 70s...same game just like the Billy Beane's Oakland A's trying to live a "Burt Reynolds lifestyle on a Mac Davis budget".

It's as f'n dirty now as it has ever been ever and that is truly saying something. Scary thing is that this money buy is just going lower and lower into the US political system...it's getting rotten to the core.

This thing continues to blow my mind and I am sure is much more rampant than just this event. And I think many people don't even know it even happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_scandal

Ten months after Senate election loss, Sara Gideon still has $10 million in unused campaign funds https://t.co/uGii5Ct5zk by Nathan Bernard

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) September 16, 2021

Well don't I feel stupid.

it's her mad money for a rainy day

a million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money

things the Supreme Court and their Justices are not, according to Thomas, Barrett, and Breyer:

"like a politician"
"junior league politicians"
"a bunch of partisan hacks"

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Justice Clarence Thomas defended the independence of the Supreme Court on Thursday and warned against "destroying our institutions because they don't give us what we want, when we want it."

Thomas, the longest serving justice, acknowledged that the high court has its flaws, comparing it to a “car with three wheels” that somehow still works. But he said the justices are not ruling based on “personal preferences” and suggested that the nation’s leaders should not “allow others to manipulate our institutions when we don’t get the outcome that we like.”

The justice’s remarks came during a lecture at the University of Notre Dame in which he talked about traveling by RV in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee with his wife, Ginni. Thomas reflected on his childhood in the segregated South and his religious faith. He also alluded several times to the political polarization in the United States.

“We’ve gotten to the point where we’re really good at finding something that separates us,” Thomas told the crowd of more than 800 students and faculty gathered at the school’s performing arts center.

Thomas is the latest justice to add his voice to the mix and publicly come to the court’s defense in the face of growing criticism that the nine justices are merely politicians in robes.

“I think the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference. So if they think you are antiabortion or something personally, they think that’s the way you always will come out. They think you’re for this or for that. They think you become like a politician,” Thomas said in response to a question about public misconceptions of the court.

“That’s a problem. You’re going to jeopardize any faith in the legal institutions.”

In recent weeks, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, during a book tour, has emphasized that he and his colleagues are not “junior league” politicians. Last week, the court’s newest member, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, told a crowd in Kentucky that justices are not a “bunch of partisan hacks” and that their divisions are based on competing judicial philosophies, not partisanship.

-

Thomas was warmly received by hundreds of students and faculty. At the end of his talk, a group of three protesters erupted into chants of “I still believe Anita Hill,” a reference to his contentious 1991 confirmation hearings that included Hill’s allegations that he verbally harassed her.

The protesters were swiftly escorted out of the auditorium, prompting another standing ovation for Thomas.

Rep. Kurt Schrader defends pharmaceutical donations he's received: "They just want to have access to at least plead their case."https://t.co/FKfq9vdaI6 via @KGWNews

— Faiz (@fshakir) September 17, 2021

Rep. Kurt Schrader is my rep and I apologize to the entire country for this obscene fact.

Meanwhile, from the endless cringe that is sure to be Nick Kristof's gubernatorial run:

this is deeply embarrassing https://t.co/pZpMCvM7hE pic.twitter.com/z5yfnj9J5m

— libby watson (@libbycwatson) September 16, 2021

* This article has been updated.

Nick Kristof is an absolute piece of shit. Hope he crashes and burns.

for those without a mental database of why particular opinion writers are bad & hated, is there a Cliffs Notes version of why he is bad & hated?

He's an anti-sex crusader, or at the bare minimum a credulous mouthpiece for right-wing anti-sex crusaders.

Despite what seems like truly valid concern for the way that many rural white people have been left behind by a global economy to rot in Oxycontin and meth-addled hellholes, Kristof is one of the main visible supporters of laws like FOSTA and SESTA, ostensibly because he is opposed to child trafficking and child pornography, which...who isn't? But his very vocal support of such initiatives (and similar) has essentially gone on to further criminalize sex work in the US, driving the most vulnerable of sex workers to the streets...where they're more likely to be jailed, killed, harassed, or trafficked.

xpost

anti-sex trafficking crusader I'd say, which sometimes co-incides with right wing anti-sex work agendas.

It's his savior complex that many have a problem with, and the self-righteousness. In response to a reader's letter asking him to write more about domestic issues rather than Darfur: “So, Marguerite,” Kristof writes, “look Halima in the eye [a photo of her sits atop the column], and decide if you’re willing to turn away as she is slaughtered, or how many more times you’re willing to allow her to be raped.”

Looks like a nerd

This is why "sanctity of the child" discourse always makes me suspicious, in that it often ends with some asshole with an agenda that says I can't buy a satanic metal record or watch completely banal twink porn.

His hobbyhorse before being anti-SW was being pro-sweatshop.

Yeah, didn't he argue that sweatshops lifted up local economies so they were good? What a fucking joke.

now he's the one covered in flopsweat

what the hell is a 'communitarian' anyway? (ILX spellcheck just told me that's not even a word)

Yeah, didn't he argue that sweatshops lifted up local economies so they were good? What a fucking joke.

I thought that was Yglesias. Or were they both on that kick at the same time? Some researcher should find out who was cutting checks back then.

Kristof's been on that since Matty was still collecting Pokemon cards.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/24/magazine/two-cheers-for-sweatshops.html

xp to aimless' apology. As a constituent as well, Schrader is an embarrassment. He lost his way from being a good (but moderate) state legislator to this.

And sorry about Kristof, too. At least he has no chance of winning.

Lol at first I thought Bill Kristol was running for governor.

BTW a Washington Post ad for one of their awful digital panel discussions labeled his head shot as "Billy Kristol."

righteousmaelstrom, may I suggest you email him and tell him what an embarrassment he's become? I did immediately after posting my apology here. It felt good.

surprised he hasn't named his column Kristolnacht.

Tweets really are the only thing the powerless have left.

I can’t believe this has to be said, but a teacher shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than a hedge fund manager.

— President Biden (@POTUS) September 16, 2021

LOL the "Justice for J6" protest is a bust (so far).

Also, hopping steaming mad, just screaming, that the US won't buy diesel submarines (lol) from...France???!!!

it's not about that, it's about selling them to Australia. france used to sell their shitty subs to australia. now the US is going to sell their nuclear subs to australia. that way, people in southeast asia will be more frightened that we're going to try to murder all of them again. meanwhile, france is mad because they used to be an empire and be a cultural capital of the world, and now everyone is just like "wow, france sucks"

Call that a sub, more like a baguette. Suck it Frenchy. USA USA.

Can't wait for these nuclear subs to sort of sit around for a while and drive around a bit for a few decades before being scraped when they're obsolete.

— Greg "ABC News" Larsen (@gregmlarsen) September 16, 2021

i think there's a conspiracy. i think there are COMPANIES - MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES THAT ARE VERY COMPLEX - who may be making money off these nuclear subs. and then, when they're obsolete, i believe there are secret companies that may financially benefit from scraping them off of the cold, shitty, ocean floor. then, I think there are companies that will be very happy to build new subs to replace them. it's almost like this entire life is an exercise to make money for other people

if only dwight eisenhower would have clearly warned the world about this

He hangs by a political thread, and knows it. https://t.co/8RW45MJewq

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 18, 2021

it’s not a pivot, he’s been gaullist from the beginning and hanging by a thread from the beginning

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/sinema-internship-wine/

Kyrsten Sinema: America's Wine Aunt

she is
fabulous

I guess the only sort of good news is that no one can stand her, except the wealthiest slice of Democratic donors (which is sadly more than enough way too often)

It will be interesting to see how they tank any kind of credible primary threat. perhaps fund a stunt ‘progressive’ candidate to take the dive. that’s what I’d do

Marge Greene says in 2022 she is going to “blow away the Democrats’ socialist agenda,” then blows up a car with “socialism” on it with a 50-caliber rifle she is auctioning off for contributions. pic.twitter.com/b10wGwVVW2

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 18, 2021

There are plenty of GOP reps in Congress who'll happily borrow that idea.

There was a thing going around FB from a gun guy when still from that shoot came out about how no rational* citizen needs a gun like that, and besides she had the scope on backwards.

*Yeah, I know.

Found It (originally posted by activist Joohn Choe):

Let me explain what is going on here.

That is a Barrett M82A1. Given it's Taylor-Greene, it's probably in .50 BMG.

That's $9.5k or so; it looks like she (or whoever's gun she's borrowing) went with a cheapo Leupold (a VX-6? So, comparatively cheap) in a backwards scope mount, which is a bad idea.

You see, more commonly, with people who can afford $10,000 guns, that they'll at least spend $3,000 on a scope (Schmidt & Bender PM II, Nightforce ATACR 7-35 or even Leupold Mark Vs are common choices) and another $500 on a heavy-duty scope mount (Spuhr, Aadland, Badger Ordnance).

What she's got on there is probably going to break at some point - right at the cantilever point, most likely - and ruin that scope and injure someone. .50 BMG guns are legendary for breaking scopes.

In terms of ammo, at a minimum, that's $2.50 per round; if you shoot commercial ammo, closer to $4.00, even more for specialized rounds like armor-piercing .50 BMG - which, of course you can buy as a civilian, it's America, duh.

So, one, .50 BMG is stupidly expensive to own and to shoot. This is a bougie gun, if such a thing could be said to exist, but it looks like it was put together by some kind of nimrod who didn't know how to set up a rifle.

Two, there's nowhere to shoot it. It's extremely impractical to own.

There are four commonly accepted rules of firearms; if there's any one rule that everyone forgets, it's #4. Those rules go:

1. Every firearm is always loaded
2. Never point the firearm at anything you do not wish to shoot
3. Finger straight and off the trigger until the sights are on target and you are ready to shoot
4. Always be aware of what is behind your target

The thing about Rule #4 and .50 BMG projectiles is that each one is around 700 grains, or 1.6 ounces, and they move very, very fast, 2,800 to 3,000 fps.

By comparison, for a commonly used civilian cartridge like the venerable .308 Winchester, you're loading 150-175 grain projectiles (if you're making ammunition to load from a magazine with a limited box length), maybe specialized 175-220 grain very-low-drag projectiles (if you're a competitive shooter in, say, F-class, who loads individually into a single-shot rifle and you're not worried about magazine length). And those bullets are poking along at 2,300 to 2,700 fps.

Even with .308 Winchester, you get problems with shooting through things. With .50 BMG, that's a given.

As a result, there is literally nowhere safe to shoot this thing.

If you let this off in your backyard, you are going to put a 700 grain projectile through the target, through your fence, and into your neighbor's house at about 2,900 fps.

Some shooting ranges won't even let you shoot it. The concussion and blast that comes out of the ports on the muzzle brake - that thing on the very tip of the muzzle, where you can see open ports - is extremely severe, and it's angled to the sides and back somewhat, right at the people next to you on a firing line.

I've been next to a police sniper team (at a public range for some reason) a few years back with a .416 Barrett. Every time they shot that thing, they'd say "FIRING FIRING FIRING", and you'd wonder why ("wow dude that's really hardcore is that necessary?") and when it went off, everyone's spotting scopes and some rifles would get knocked over from the concussion from the muzzle brake on just that... up to two lanes over. And then you'd realize why they made such a big deal about it.

A weapon like that, much more so than guns period, is actually where, if you're holding it, 99% of the universe at any given moment is something you don't want to point that at.

Shoot it upwards and there is a good risk that you will shoot the next county over, or, entertainingly, potentially yourself, like some kind of idiot artillery piece or lawn dart. Shoot it downwards and you will not only make a giant crater and feel like an idiot, you will run a very real risk of severe bodily injury from massive, high-speed fragments of shrapnel.

There is only a limited area of targets that you even want to point this thing at, limited to things you either *really don't like* or don't care about (or are not legally liable for), keeping Rules #2 and #4 in mind, and that makes it absurd to own.

It's a statement piece, at best, that no one cares about. It's not even a status symbol so much as it is a red flag for dating. Really, if you look at the history of the development on the M82 "light fifty" and the kind of businessman that Ronnie Barrett was - "iconoclastic" is putting it charitably - and it's a statement more than a proper weapon all the way back to its inception; it's just fortuitous that it ended up actually being moderately useful for trained personnel shooting vehicles.

Three, it's not even an accurate rifle; the M82 was designed to serve as a human-portable (somewhat, it's a 30 lb. weapon) anti-materiel weapon that a human being could fire. The spring-loaded recoil-absorbing mechanism in it actually makes it less accurate because the "lock-up" when the weapon goes into battery is minutely different each time; it is arguably intrinsically inaccurate.

Early versions of the M82 platform - some of them still in service today - are 2 minute-of-angle (MOA) guns, optimistically.

That means, if you shoot them, let's say, 100 times, in a controlled condition, with the shot breaking the same way every time, pointed at exactly the same place, you're going to get 100 little bullet holes making a spray area roughly 2 MOA, or about 2 inches (2.070", for what it's worth) at 100 yards, in diameter. In practice, you're looking at 3-4 MOA with imperfect people operating it and varying weather conditions.

Again, as a comparison, if someone is making or shooting common .308 Winchester rounds - they're used a lot in hunting - and they're getting 3-4 MOA, something is wrong. With my friend's Sig 716 Patrol - just an unimpressive weapon, really, I was not wowed by it in any way - and a 5-20 scope, I can routinely keep it under 1 MOA, 3/4th MOA with quality handloads or match rounds, and that's not even a precision weapon. If you're shooting a bolt-action rifle, 1 MOA is a starting point; you're aiming for half a minute of angle, less.

As Townsend Whelen said, "only accurate rifles are interesting".

This... impractical machine that Taylor-Greene is operating, useful for literally nothing else but shooting, like, old appliances in the desert at $5 a round, is not even an interesting rifle.

This is a pattern.

Trashy weapon, threatening posture, and always, a thin veneer of Instagram "gun-bunny" posturing overlaying stark ignorance and rank mediocrity: that is Taylor-Greene's other gun pic, that's Boebert's "guns to books ratio" pic from earlier this year, that's Cawthorn, that's Gaetz, that's pretty much the entire Q caucus if you look back at them.

Read "threat" and "scary" into this behavior and you are, to some degree, falling into the trap they want you to; and it's not even an accurate reading, because the truth of this behavior is even less flattering than being a threat.

It's just crass, unoriginal posturing; it's all show and no go.

That's why you don't see Taylor-Greene shooting a Precision Rifle Series stage, or a United States Practical Shooting Association match, or even an International Defensive Pistol Association match.

That's why Boebert wears a Comp-tac competition holster inside her own restaurant with no retention or any provision for having her gun snatched from her, or even falling out of the holster... yet you never see her shooting any competitive matches.

That's why you never see any of them training, or running drills, or practicing with dry-fire, or, like, doing twenty pushups then trying to operate a carbine. That's why Madison Cawthorn punches trees (lol) and takes pictures of himself with a revolver in a chest holster, but never talks about practicing or actually training how to use the damn thing.

They aren't shooters. They are poseurs.

It's easier to see than it is to explain.

My dad wanted to get a .50BMG single shot (that was still about $2k) but the only place I could find for him to shoot it was a range two hours away that had ~three miles of backstop beyond the ~2500 yard range. Even he recognized how dumb that would have been.

if there's any one rule that everyone forgets, it's #4.
4. Always be aware of what is behind your target

Too true. And as someone who spends time in places where I might be near a lout shooting guns at 'targets' I've had to yell CEASE FIRING!! at idiots who thought it didn't matter if they missed or shot entirely through their target, because all that was out there were trees.

great bit of commentary

When I saw the recoil on that thing I hoped that it left a massive deep bone bruise that incapacitated her shoulder for at least several days afterward. Would serve her right.

I was hoping it malfunctioned and blew her to smithereens, same as I wish that Cawthorn kid would have died in that car accident. Fuck them.

they undoubtedly suck but the universe would have produced someone like them anyway

that's ok they can keep dying

This seems like something we should talk about

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k78vdm/us-border-agents-are-removing-haitian-migrants-using-horses-and-whips

Awful. And sending people back to Haiti right now is just unconscionable.

The US immigration enforcement arms are currently filled with and run by fascist goons. It would be much simpler to abolish them and start over than to weed out the white supremacists.

^ ^ ^

American government is currently filled with and run by fascist goons. It would be much simpler to abolish them and start over than to weed out the white supremacists.

am i doing trenchant properly here?

The formalism is correct, but the substance isn't. DC is the government's company town, filled with government workers, and it is hardly known for being a fascist stronghold.

👀 Spotted walking out of Senate side just now: Krysten Sinema and Josh Gottheimer, per source.

— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) September 21, 2021

Hot Topic X Men’s Wearhouse collab

Capitol defendant nabbed by Snapchat Maps. pic.twitter.com/hwgKUjFdaz

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) September 20, 2021

More scenes from the Texas Haiti camp. pic.twitter.com/5FeNbFCyBL

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) September 21, 2021

This is good stuff

One of the most devastating campaign ads and hits on a Republican I have ever seen pic.twitter.com/PcMoU5h2RE

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) September 22, 2021

makes sense to me, which i 100% believe (with 99% confidence) means that it will have absolutely no effect on anyone who might change their vote

It’s mark meadows old district. There aren’t enough non-republicans for the persuadable people to matter.

is it weird to me that a "devastating hit" sounds more like just recounting what actually happened? that didn't even hit that hard, madison cawthorn is much more of a conniving cynical asshole than the ad makes him out to be

"devastating hit" isn't what the ad is about, that's Adam Parkhomenko trolling for retweets

shame on you Adam Parkhomenko @AdamParkhomenko!

sincerely, though, i do wonder who it convinces. i mean, seems great to me, it really does. and as i've argued in the past, even if it doesn't convince anyone new, it's good to occasionally send out signals of real life and actual facts and things that happened, just to remind others that see it that others see it too.

Jasmine Beech-Ferrara: "Violent extremism has no place in western North Carolina. It isn't who we are."

People who have studied history: "Um, hate to break it to you, but..."

I wonder why the ad showed MC talking about bloodshed and then cut to a tv anchor reporting what we just heard him say

probably doesn't mean anything for his district but it's encouraging to see dem house candidates not shy away from the fact that many (most) (all but like 4) republican congresspeople are dangerous extremists

BREAKING: Biden admin seeks contractor to run migrant detention facility at Gitmo, guards who speak Creole.

With @KenDilanianNBC. https://t.co/LKiIHL6xm3

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) September 22, 2021

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) tells it like it is. “We always do this fucking dance,” Tester told Politico. “I don’t know if people are going to put their sane minds on and do what needs to be done, or shut it down. This is just a ridiculous exercise. I can’t even compare it to anything I do on the farm that’s this stupid.”

that man has clearly never fucked a chicken

I won't tell.

Allegedly...
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/letterkenny/images/0/06/BootsandtheGinger1x6.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20190108051444

In an interview after the White House meeting, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said she urged the officials to halt deportations of Haitian migrants.

“We know the administration heard us and, in fact, they understand these issues very well,” she said.

In addition to protests, Bastien and other activists say the level of anger within the Haitian American community is so intense that some residents have been marching into county offices to sever their affiliation with the Democratic Party and registering as independents. Bastien said her own brother, who also lives in Miami, told her Tuesday that he plans to leave the Democratic Party this week.

“The betrayal is deep, and this week has shown that the Democratic Party, and its leader Joe Biden, does not care about Black people,” said Leonie Hermantin, an activist who works with the Haitian Neighborhood Center in Miami, where many refugees initially go for services when they arrive in South Florida. “Black lives do matter, even at the border.”

fuck the democrats

fuck them because they know they can take this "hit" from their own voters, and because they're doing it to try to impress conservatives with how tough they can be on children

at least one decent person. sadly, sometimes the best you can do is loudly quit

The U.S. special envoy for Haiti has quit his job in a blistering resignation letter saying he could not be associated with the Biden administration’s decision to deport thousands of Haitian migrants to their home country, a move he called “inhumane” given the deteriorating security situation in the country.

“Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed,” Daniel Foote said in the letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday.

“I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the dangers posed by armed gangs in control of daily life,” he said.

Foote was named special envoy in July just weeks after the assassination of Haiti’s president plunged the country into political turmoil.

i understand why they're not getting anything done legislatively. they have no margins to work, and they have some all-time motherfuckers on their "side" (manchin, sinema).

and i understand why many elected democrats don't give a fuck about haiti or immigration and aren't willing to say anything about it now - a democrat is in office, and they're already worried about how they haven't been able to do jack-shit legislatively and are going to get wiped out in 2022.

it's a cynical, calculated indifference, and all it does is make their their last year or so in office a little smoother for themselves

the idiots are winning in america. it was a battle before, but they are winning now

it’s really depressing

it's depressing because we went through HELL and we got joe fucking biden at the end, even though absolutely everyone under the age of 35 (not even including me) fucking hated joe biden and really wanted bernie sanders

and because of that, this administration won't be a failure because it went too far or tried to hard or pushed too hard for justice or anything like that; it's a failure because they're still stuck in the 90s

We in the local Miami-Dade Dem chapter, which, as you can imagine, has many Haitian or Haitian-descent members, are uh not happy with the statewide party, which still consists of Bill Nelson types from the Panhandle and northern Florida.

maybe if had some sort of representation in congress that isn't 75+ years old? i cannot imagine a 35-year-old being such a cowardly piece of shit

a 35-year-old REAL PERSON, i mean, like the millions of really cool young people i know who would never, ever, give the false pre-internet politician smile at the camera while defending the worst things

The thing is, I expected '90s-era policies from Biden. COVID and Trump and living in MDC have made me way more transactional. Should the Dems in Congress pass the two bills and Biden sign them, I'd weigh the Biden presidency more coldly in the way we do FDR + the internment camps. "You signed these big bills, now you must lose control of Congress for betraying a crucial constituency like the Haitians and fellow human beings."

Should the Dems in Congress pass the two bills and Biden sign them, I'd weigh the Biden presidency more coldly in the way we do FDR + the internment camps. "You signed these big bills, now you must lose control of Congress for betraying a crucial constituency like the Haitians and fellow human beings."

i would too, sadly. they pass those bills, they will get "punished", because americans are the fucking worst.

and now, those 2 bills are very much in doubt. just a fucking debacle.

he doesn't get those 2 big bills (or if manchin brings it down to a mediocre bill so that he might get re-elected in WV again), then what has he done? he's partly reversed a bunch of Trump policy/executive order stuff, he's got the agencies starting the rulemaking process for revising trump-era revised regulations (PUKE, just typing that). all of that stuff is either EO and quickly overturned, or takes years and years in the slow-motion federal system and will just be reaching "Final Rule" status just as president fascist returns to kill us all again.

the only incentive to vote is against Trump, still. vote against the guy who tries to kill us, so that we can put in a temporary ancient man to twiddle his fingers for a few years and compromise with republican "moderates" who are actually rich assholes who spend their lives in country clubs

then we all get to be excited about voting for the first female cop in 2024, if biden dies or gets pushed into a quiet room.

guess we'll all just bide our time until AOC is ready, at which point in time it'll be appropriate to raise the whole Tax the Rich dress episode, which will be another useful way to determine who is absolutely full of shit yet again

Karl, you're talking yourself into a corner again.

it's true. i'm eating a bagel and getting ready to buy a gigantic box from home depot. it's going to be ok.

ooh Home Depot on a Thursday afternoon

i'm going to buy a giant telescoping box, put a giant painting in there, then take it to fedex and send it to the big apple

#supportsmallbusinesses

i normally spam the immigration thread with this stuff but w/e, some words from my friend who is an immigration lawyer
-----
Newsletter #14- Del Rio
Before starting I am going to leave the donation page for my friends at Haitian Bridge Alliance right here. Follow them @haitianbridge on Twitter, Insta, or FB. They are a collective of activists and advocates that support Haitian immigrants in our borderlands and a voice that must be heard right now.

I wasn’t planning on writing a newsletter this week. Then on Sunday night when I was going to bed and scrolling through the apps on my phone, I started to see photos of border patrol agents on horseback in Del Rio charging and whipping at black migrants with horse reins, pushing them back into the Rio Grande. I knew there was a growing number of Haitians arriving at the US border this month and that trouble would be brewing, especially after I read DHS’ “Strategy to Address Increase in Migrants in Del Rio”. But I was still alarmed, as anyone would be, by the violence of those images and went to bed feeling shook. (If you haven't seen the pictures just google it. I can't bear to look even one more time)

My anxiety only increased the next day until it reached the point of panic. My heart wouldn’t stop racing and I started crying in Zoom meeting with colleagues. I couldn’t quite figure out what was causing the panic attack. Certainly I have witnessed violence against migrants before and I wasn’t even witnessing this, I was just refreshing Twitter in disbelief and feeling sicker and sicker.

It was only after I was able to have a drink and then sleep that I woke up and realized that I freaked out because we have been yelling about how unjust Title 42 is for months and not only is it still happening but the government is escalating their strategy. And I was freaking out because of how nakedly the government is lying about what they are doing in Del Rio and my deep worry that the public will believe them.
Here are some quick facts about the situation: over the last few weeks around 12 to 14 thousand people, some individuals and some families, have arrived at the US at the border at Del Rio Texas. A lot of these people are Haitian but not all. There are Central and South Americans too. Where the Haitians are concerned, news sources are rightly pointing out that a lot of them are not actually coming directly from Haiti but rather from other points in South America where they migrated and were working until economic issues pushed them to migrate again, this time to the US. The situation is apparently growing grave as there is no food or water or health services. There is a desperate need for a humanitarian intervention yet, the Biden administration’s response, now standard, has been to say “now is not the time to come” and promise that nearly everyone will be routinely expelled under Title 42 and to ramp up deportation flights to Haiti at an appalling speed.

To control your outrage and keep your vote , here is what our government needs you to believe:
1. The people camped in Del Rio did something illegal. They did not. Entering a country seeking humanitarian protection, regardless of whether you end up qualifying for it in the long run, is legal. There isn’t an exception. Previously, when the border wasn’t shut down due to the pandemic, there was the option to turn yourself in directly at the port of entry. This was often seen as the more legal way to do it but crossing between the ports is a completely sanctioned way to seek protection under US law, which is exactly what these Haitians are doing.
2. We do not have the resources to process them humanely. We do. In a matter of weeks, 60,000 Afghan refugees were brought into the US in a peaceful and orderly manner for processing. They are being held at military installments and processed humanely. There is no reason we cannot do this with arriving Haitians. Even if we wanted to use detention centers to hold Haitians (which we absolutely should not), we are currently paying private prison corporations nightly for around 20,000 unused beds.
3. It is safe to send people on flights to Haiti. It is not. Haiti is struggling right now. There was recent presidential assassination and an earthquake and hurricanes. The conditions in Haiti right now are so devastating that 5 weeks ago the Biden administration re-extended rarely used Temporary Protective Status to Haitians stopping all deportations to the country. In doing so they cited, “Haiti is grappling with a deteriorating political crisis, violence, and a staggering increase in human rights abuses”. Yet now that there is political pressure in the borderlands they are quick to abandon their own plans. It is appalling.
4. It is legal to expel people to Haiti. It is not. The government’s strategy of expulsion is not legal. Title 42, the public health order that has kept the border closed since March 2020, does not authorize the government to deport refugees to their country of origin without due process. The whole concept of mass expulsions was invented during the pandemic as a vicious tool of border control. Just last week a Federal judge enjoined the practice of expelling families under Title 42. The order was to go into effect in two weeks. The Biden administration will appeal it but they have been told the practice of mass expulsion is illegal and are squeezing dozens of flights in under the wire before they have to stop.
5. Deterrent strategies work. They do not. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I have seen the government do to people in an effort to deter them from exercising their international right to seek humanitarian protection in the United States: make them cross deadly deserts in 110 degree heat; take their children from them; put them in detention centers; send them to live in the streets of Mexico while awaiting a hearing; detaining them in disgusting congregate settings during a deadly pandemic; detaining them with their children; and flying them to the Guatemalan border and telling them to start over again. Telling people not to come and hurting them fails as a policy when people are desperate enough to move no matter what. It is how we find ourselves staring at photos of border patrol whipping Haitian migrants on the banks of the Rio Grande.

The problem with these lies is that most media incorporates them into their reporting and makes room for them in their analyses. And we repeat them to each other and we build a framework to understand this situation on misinformation. And if we believe these things, then we accept that the Biden Administration is simply making “tough choices” and not actively violating international laws.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about how the world faced our moral duty to help Afghan refugees as the only choice no matter how inconvenient to our governments. We need the same response to Haitians as well. Here is what that looks like: stop deportation flights to Haiti immediately; send in humanitarian workers to ensure that people have food and water and health services; actually process people by leading with the fact that they need protection and give them credible fear interviews with the asylum office but only after they have had time to rest and care for their health and secure counsel and interpreters provided by our tax dollars.

None of this is easy. Doing the right thing rarely is easy. And there will be political fallout from the right. But there will always be political fallout from the right. I mistakenly voted for a President last year believing “anything was better than Trump” and not realizing that if that were my standard then I wouldn’t get much better. In the borderlands that is playing out perfectly and this president might be worse than Trump if he doesn’t immediately course correct and do the right thing.

1) hi gbx!!!

2) what is the immigration thread? i couldn’t find an updated one so i started this one - Abolish ICE

Fucking fuming at this situation, though am not surprised that an absolute asshole white supremacist like Biden would sign off on these conditions.

hi tracer! there's a rolling immigration thread from, like, 2013 i think, i would post periodic updates there from my lawyer pal

rolling US immigration reform thread for 2013 and beyond

thanks gbx and aimless

suggestion to use the abolish ice thread for USA stuff now? so that we see the words “abolish ICE” all the time but hey who am i to tame the wild internet winds

Gbx, is that newsletter available online somewhere, cuz if it is I’d like to make it available on FB.

i'll have a look -- i c&p'd that from my friend's FB, but i'm not sure where she's publishing the newsletter

https://preview.mailerlite.com/k9d8v0?fbclid=IwAR3c2og7SiLCrtprpvsXYx92H_xNq7xjdFQK0VNlPhbulaL-HjrXuhzpFOc

Thanks

Final count on Iron Dome: 420 yes, 9 no, 2 present.
No's: Tlaib, Carson, Omar, Massie, Newman, Pressley, Garcia, Grijalva, Bush
Present: Hank Johnson and Ocasio-Cortez

— Marc Rod (@marcrod97) September 23, 2021

Ocasio-Cortez in giving a pass to an apartheid state shocker.

she's preparing a scarf about it

I'm guessing it won't be a khaffiyeh

Free Palestine scarf made by an Israeli settler

maybe Israel could pay for it themselves instead of providing universal healthcare to their citizens like suckers

But then Raytheon won't get paid.

And we all know who our secretary of defense serves.

Being completely transparent about my feelings here, but: I've never felt more hopeless about the political situation in this country than I do right now.

I thought that the low-level depression and dive into drug and alcohol abuse during the W. years was bad— it has nothing on this. Every day, I read something that makes me want to cry, rip my hair out, and bring out Mr. Choppy at the same time.

why the hell is AOC crying on the house floor over her "present" vote?

Being completely transparent about my feelings here, but: I've never felt more hopeless about the political situation in this country than I do right now.

― I'm a sovereign jazz citizen (the table is the table), Thursday, September 23, 2021 4:20 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I thought that the low-level depression and dive into drug and alcohol abuse during the W. years was bad— it has nothing on this. Every day, I read something that makes me want to cry, rip my hair out, and bring out Mr. Choppy at the same time.

― I'm a sovereign jazz citizen (the table is the table), Thursday, September 23, 2021

I've never not lived without simmering nervousness about politics; I can't even envy people who don't. Where I live and the people among whom I live inspire me to press on

Oh, I'm not despairing of anything going on in my own life— just everything else.

the heel turn, she really bout to do it

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/nancy-pelosi-says-australia-is-leading-the-way-on-climate-20210924-p58ude.html

WTF? Australia's a fucking mess on climate policy. this is a wildly irresponsible contribution to our dipshit domestic climate wars.

.@PressSec on Haitian migrants being sent back: "First of all, they're not deportations. People are not coming into the country through legal methods." https://t.co/1EIiTWxxkq pic.twitter.com/AsUWg1ANG7

— The Hill (@thehill) September 23, 2021

don't make me tap the sign, psaki

she's awful

no one reply that she's just doing her job, she could have gotten a different one

Israel is the 51st are. They have better representation than the District of Columbia.

51st state

Not prompted by this Israel vote but I agree with table that I have never been more pessimistic about the future of this country. A few years ago I thought the first Coup attempt would happen when I was old. I give it less than a decade for a successful one.

Or future of the world for that matter.

And I don’t think I’ll want to stick around past age 60.

fuck yes -- I want senior citizen discounts and to be driven around