BURNPIT: U.S. Politics, August 2022

Here we go...

More like bum pit

Good afternoon!

oh shit, i forgot it was a new month.

we did it!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWf1tMa5Ia8

let's see if Biden still has the 'rona on Sept 1st

^^^ should've been thread title

Trump-backed Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon another one for the 'Politicos With Pynchon-esque Names' list.

How/why is this guy re-electable?

NEW: On the The Regular Joe Show, Sen. Ron. Johnson (R-WI) argues for eliminating entitlements: "Social Security and Medicare, if you qualify, you just get it no matter what the cost... We ought to turn everything into discretionary spending so it's all evaluated." pic.twitter.com/bE1KUb6uJ5

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) August 2, 2022

Pretty wild for a Senator to not know that you pay into Medicare and Social Security and that the latter is reverse means-tested based on what you paid in.

wau

I've seen enough: in a huge victory for the pro-choice side, the Kansas constitutional amendment to remove protections of abortion rights fails.

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) August 3, 2022

what, i thought I just saw the opposite reported

Turnout exceeding expectations.

From secretary of state's 7 p.m. press conference — a plausible 50% turnout in the election today. That considerably exceeds the 36% turnout previously predicted. #ksleg

— Clay Wirestone (@ClayWires) August 3, 2022

Extremely good to see.

Nice!

MSNBC makes the official call: No wins.

Yup, AP as well. Nice to see it.

Looks like a blowout too

That is good to see.

It'll be a while until we get voter file data on this election, but I think there's a chance this was the largest partisan turnout advantage in a high turnout election that Democrats have enjoyed as long as I've followed election data

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) August 3, 2022

That’s re Kansas abortion referendum

jfc, missouri democrats went for the one with Busch in her name rather than the marine who actually sounds like he cared

In other news let’s create a “phone wiper” meme and find them all and ask them why they needed that. “Congressperson, are you a phone-wiper?” “What do you think about Jan 6 phone-wipers?” “Are phone-wipers trustable?” “Tell me about your wiping.”

Trump would want it this way. “People are talking about wiping, it’s gross”

https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article263838597.html

Ha, remember when that asshole was one of Greenwald's pet causes?

No, but I'm afraid to check.

Yeah, scroll back in the GG thread and you'll find it. I can't remember whether he managed to rope Taibbi into defending the scumbag with him, but he was all in for a little while.

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2022/08/02/US-approves-sale-of-Patriot-missiles-to-Saudi-Arabia-THAAD-system-missiles-for-UAE

Business as usual. Tell me again how Biden is too tough on Saudi Arabia

get rid of all the gerrymandering and we've got ourselves an election folks!

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/generic-ballot/

don't know what thread to put this but it's quite good

Wow. Sandy Hook parents' lawyer is revealing that Alex Jones' lawyers sent him the contents of Jones' phone BY MISTAKE.

"12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me a digital copy of every text" Jones has sent for years.

"You know what perjury is?" the lawyer asks.

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 3, 2022

There's a dedicated Alex Jones thread trending, it's already there. Alex yelling "there's your Perry Mason moment," evidently unaware that it actually was one, was epic.

New — As Sinema stays mum, business groups and Rs lobby her to sink or change reconciliation bill. She asked a business group yesterday about whether the 15% tax provision was “written in a way that’s bad.” “It gave me hope,” official says. w/@arogDC https://t.co/fFNCGoKk40

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 3, 2022

"Is this written in a way that's bad?"

A question a child might ask, but not a childish question.

For fucks sake if she tanks this

Narrator: She did indeed tank the bill, but wore a fabulous dress while doing so.

seems like the main thing she wants is to drop the carried interest fix, which sucks but isn't outside the realm of possiblity

“I haven’t seen that,” @SenFeinstein replies when I ask about Kansas voters overwhelmingly endorsing abortion rights.

I then explained.

“Oh, I did see that,” Feinstein said. “It didn’t surprise me.”

— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) August 3, 2022

jeez. so she was the only one who wasn’t surprised by the magnitude of the margin and turnout in Kansas, while also not hearing about the result, while also being 168 years old

No wonder she’s a senator, that’s outstanding and hard to pull off all at once

She was with John Brown in Bleeding Kansas

McConnell Reclaims Senate Majority After Convincing Dianne Feinstein She’s Always Been Republican https://t.co/pxQFnYFZbp pic.twitter.com/ngN4NfalO4

— The Onion (@TheOnion) August 1, 2022

yeah but

fwiw, in the Meijer/Gibbs primary with the DCCC ads "criticizing" Gibbs for being way too conservative and too aligned with Trump, Gibbs ended up winning, 52% to 48%. close one

let's see if the Dem's gamble pays off

I think the following propositions are true:

1. Dems should absolutely not be spending money to boost fascists.

2. The Republican voters would have selected these people anyway.

RNC links up with ‘Stop the Steal’ advocates to train poll workers
Recordings of recruitment “summits” show party officials working with Cleta Mitchell and other leaders of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election

"2. The Republican voters would have selected these people anyway."

it's unclear if that was the case. I think those ads boosted turnout for Gibbs, he was polling behind Meijer until recently.

Every time I see Cleta Mitchell’s name I think of the Seinfeld episode with Mulva.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/will-3-pro-impeachment-house-republicans-survive-tuesdays-primaries/

Meijer, the scion of the eponymous Midwestern grocery chain family, is hoping his sizable financial advantage can save him. As of July 13, Meijer had raised $2.8 million, dwarfing the $484,000 Gibbs had brought in, and Meijer has used that money to both criticize President Biden and attack Gibbs. Meijer has lambasted Gibbs for recently moving to western Michigan from California (although Gibbs is originally from Lansing), and he’s also portrayed Gibbs as the Democrats’ “handpicked candidate” in light of the DCCC’s recent ads. Meijer has also benefited from about $3 million in outside spending, according to OpenSecrets. But with no recent polling to go on, Meijer’s fate in this race is unclear.

vs. the Dems 450k of ads that just "threw the election to Gibbs"

Meijer's district was just redistricted and he voted against the Voting Rights Act

And further, Meijer voted against the voting rights bill. This new district connects really important communities here in Grand Rapids and along the lakeshore, especially communities of color that have historically been disenfranchised from voting, even here up until recent times, and then gerrymandered out of districts where their voice can really matter. So that was another really impactful vote. To see him vote against the Voting Rights Act bill I think was really disappointing to a lot of people.

https://michiganadvance.com/2022/02/01/breaking-scholten-seeks-2nd-challenge-against-meijer-in-new-3rd-congressional-district/

Kind of sick of this bs that he's "the right kind of Republican" and we shouldn't have encouraged the psycho. . . they're all psychos

Every time I see Cleta Mitchell’s name I think of the Seinfeld episode with Mulva.

Every time I hear the name "Pat Cipollone" I get "Mista Dobalina" by Del tha Funkee Homosapien stuck in my head... glory hallestupid! Mr. Cipollone, Mr. Pat Cipollone... I don't mind it really.

Kind of sick of this bs that he's "the right kind of Republican" and we shouldn't have encouraged the psycho. . . they're all psychos

― a (waterface), Thursday, August 4, 2022

otm

The DCCC should have spent the reverse fake attacks ads on Meijer instead

Just like the mainstream press has called the late Jackie Walorski a moderate.

Seriously. Voted to repeal the ACA, anti immigrant, challenged the 2020 election, and so on.

well, seems like we all agree this was a baffling & futile waste of $450k

speaking of MI, glad to see Tlaib won

The Kansas earthquake and the possibility of a big climate bill show how Dems can galvanize young voters who are dispirited and disengaged. As the head of the Harvard Youth Poll tells us, abortion and climate are of disproportionate importance to them.https://t.co/bR8wK3E0G7

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) August 4, 2022

"disproportionate" to what, exactly

body autonomy and burning to death in a fire take up a disproportionate amount of my brane space relative to, idk home ownership or buying diamond rings

what about Cure reissues

sorry. that "disproportionate" is a jarringly false note in an otherwise tepid hot take.

oh i know it's just like, people at WAPO doing the weebay face while looking at data makes me lol

is there a better explanation for pelosi choosing to go to taiwan, right now other than that she's doing it for her own prestige, given the strong possibility that she won't be speaker* after the mid-term? is there a diplomatic objective, greater business cooperation in southeast asia, trade, whatever, that's really pressing? is there some other reason? or does she just want a legacy international capstone project or something?

*side issue: if the GOP takes the house, of course she's out, but what are the chances of her being forced to step down if the Democrats hold the house?

and yes, i know china fucking blows, i know i know

She's been a China hawk her entire career.

chinese dissident communities also have no idea why she is doing this fwiw

I strongly doubt it was a decision made independent of the white house

pretty much the only support i've seen is from senate republicans. everyone else is just kind of like "??". her op-ed in the washpost explaining why she's going doesn't really shed much light, either. here's a "gift" link that should work: https://wapo.st/3cVzrLu

Maybe she's heavily invested in the Taiwan semiconductor sector.

Emotionally I mean, definitely not with her $180 million personal fortune.

xp moodles

i'm not sure about that! i haven't seen anyone in the white house offer much support. if anything they've just been offering apologies to China, since before it happened:

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The White House worked urgently to de-escalate tensions with China as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met Wednesday with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials during a high-profile visit to the self-governing island against the administration’s wishes, hoping to head off a geopolitical crisis amid threats and military maneuvers by Beijing.

White House officials warned that China is preparing itself for possible aggressive actions in response to Pelosi’s visit beyond this week, and they reiterated forcefully that the Chinese Communist Party should not use the visit as a pretext to increase military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait.

...
Virtually all the senior members of President Biden’s national security team have privately expressed deep reservations about the trip and its timing, said a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They are especially concerned because U.S.-China tensions are already high, and Washington is seeking China’s cooperation on the war in Ukraine and other matters.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, spoke with his Chinese counterpart to defend Pelosi’s right to visit — as did other high-ranking officials — but even so did not think the trip was a good idea, the White House official said. Sullivan expressed concerns about Pelosi’s trip to multiple administration officials and asked for suggestions on how to dissuade her from traveling to Taiwan.

That statement could be part of their pantomime. If the White House didn't want her to go, it could've stopped her.

i feel like reality and politics is rapidly approaching a tipping point where the politician walks up to the podium and says "Good evening", and everyone in the crowd is like "wait what's THAT supposed to mean?"

Trump grounded her a couple of years ago, didn't he?

I'd never seen that clip of Pelosi unfurling a flag in protest in Tiananmen Square some years back before:

28 years ago, we traveled to Tiananmen Square to honor the courage & sacrifice of the students, workers & ordinary citizens who stood for the dignity & human rights that all people deserve. To this day, we remain committed to sharing their story with the world. #Tiananmen30 pic.twitter.com/7UqiJVRS3t

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) June 4, 2019

Clearly this has been a passion of hers for a while, and for this and other reasons clearly China is no fan of her, specifically. As to why now? Who knows.

as milo pointed out, she has looooong been a China hawk.

My eyes bled: https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/pelosis-courageous-trip-to-taiwan/

Oh fer fun!

In an ad for his daughter's campaign, Dick Cheney says that in our nation's history there has never been an individual that's been a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.

"He is a coward. A real man wouldn't lie to his supporters." pic.twitter.com/ZB5cfYy86z

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 4, 2022

WHY WON'T HE DIE

Never! Cheneys don't die.

as milo pointed out, she has looooong been a China hawk.

She represents San Francisco & Chinatown.. I've seen more than a couple nationalist flags flying in Chinatown

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday suspended Tampa's elected prosecutor, Andrew Warren, for pledging not to use his office to go after people who seek and provide abortions or on doctors that provide gender affirming care to transgender people.

Fox keeping it Fair and Balanced, after checking w Gov. Orban:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspends 'Soros-backed' state attorney who refused to enforce abortion ban

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/florida-gov-ron-desantis-suspends-liberal-state-attorney-andrew-warren

doctors that provide gender affirming care to transgender people.

Tell me again how Peter Meijer was a moderate who cared about democracy... https://t.co/KL9YXfE7Rl

— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) August 4, 2022

That is aggressively missing the point about why Democrats shouldn't pour money into backing the Even Greater Evil.

Yeah, I agree with you, they're all assholes, which I thought was the point of that tweet.

Yes. Full agreement on that. This kind of politicking is a dumb person's idea of smart politicking.

Raising Arizona

Republican ‘doomsday ticket’ ready for November

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/08/03/republican-doomsday-ticket-ready-for-november-00049722?nname=politico-nightly&nid=00000170-c000-da87-af78-e185fa700000&nrid=00000172-4d9a-d3ba-a9f3-6f9e04a20000&nlid=2670445

Instead of inflation or education any of the other “traditional campaign issues that candidates normally discuss,” Barnes said, Democrats in Arizona this fall “get to talk about the Trump candidates. They get to talk about running against Donald Trump.”

It might be enough to keep Trump’s class of Arizona Republicans from ever taking office. On the other hand, the environment is so good for the GOP nationally this year that some or all of them may win.

Citation needed. There are no positive signs for the Republicans that I can see beyond "the out party always wins in midterm elections," with less than a century's worth of evidentiary support for "always." Things "always" happen until they stop happening, and the Republicans are doing as good a job of tying their own shoelaces together as possible between these insane candidates, the anti-abortion shit, and on and on. It might be close, but I would not bet against the Democrats barely holding the House, and gaining in the Senate.

Economic uncertainty, 9% inflation and sub-40% Presidential approval are very much a 'good environment' for the non-governing party.

It often is.

Feel like normal factors don’t really apply anymore especially given the outcome of that Kansas abortion referendum

Rs will almost certainly take the House but they could actually lose Senate seats thanks to the morons they’re running out there

Breaking: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema will support the Democrats’ economic bill, she said in a statement tonight. This is the clearest sign yet that Democrats will have 50 votes and be able to pass it by the end of the weekend.

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 5, 2022

Feel like normal factors don’t really apply anymore especially given the outcome of that Kansas abortion referendum

This is what I'm saying. January 6, the abortion decision, and even more localized shit like right-wing maniacs shutting down libraries because there are books about gay people in them...there are a lot of factors causing people to not trust the Republican party the way they might have in the past.

Yeah, remember "I'm not a witch," "legitimate rape," and so on: sometimes they blow it, even in an advantageous year.

IN state Rep. Davisson (R) argues for requiring forced birth of non-viable fetuses.

Asked what he would tell children of a mother going through pregnancy resulting in stillbirth: "[None] of us are guaranteed tomorrow. We must accept death as a consequence of life." pic.twitter.com/cAUEDEOZ8n

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) August 4, 2022

deeeeeeeeath cult

Fort Wayne seemed like a nice little city when I had to stay there for a week - an actual downtown of sorts, with a baseball stadium even, some good looking early 20th century houses that were still cheap... too bad about Indiana in general.

Good Burmese food, from what I hear.

Sinema got them to take out carried interest. Tbh I think they put it in so she could take it out.

Good Burmese food, from what I hear.

― jaymc, Thursday, August 4, 2022 10:14 PM (n

lol

lots of links:

Detroit Primary Likely Means No Black Representation For First Time Since 1955

...Many people are pointing to a redistricting decision that blended Detroit’s 80% Black population with the suburbs surrounding the city. The Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission paved the way for new House and legislative maps, which will remain intact for ten years.

In January, an ensemble of former and current Black Detroit lawmakers filed suit over the redrawn districts, claiming they lessen the voting power of African Americans in the state. However, the concern is not limited to congressional representation. Given the results of state legislative races, the Detroit Press notes Black representation will fall below the 20 currently serving.

https://www.theroot.com/detroit-primary-likely-means-no-black-representation-fo-1849371062

Hello I would like to share with you the most astonishing thing I have ever seen

At this CPAC booth you receive a silent disco headset that plays harrowing testimony from people arrested for participating in J6

Instead of dancing, you stand around and watch this guy cry pic.twitter.com/cin6F5zDhz

— Laura Jedeed (@LauraJedeed) August 5, 2022

Oh yeah that's actually one of the convicted. The judge sentenced him to Life at CPAC.

— Wendle™ (@AstroDog19) August 5, 2022

Talk about a crisis actor.

tbf, the American justice system is overly cruel

Is there another cage with immigrant children crying inside to cheer the c-packers up again after they experience this bummer of a booth?

It is! They're really indicting most of the wrong things, here.

Turns out if you're planning to protest, you should understand exactly what you're protesting, where you are going to go (and not go), what you might be arrested for and charged with -- correctly or incorrectly, given the laws -- and what you're going to do to make bail or retain counsel. Or just be a dipshit and do a half-assed coup which means no bail or very high bail, I guess.

sorry, that was a xp

I mean, if jailing insurrectionists leads to a bipartisan push for across-the-board sentencing reductions, I'm all for it

spoiler: it will not

Orange jumpsuit made me think of the many falsely accused men locked up for decades at Gitmo - but then I saw the MAGA hat! he's actually a patriot

dude looks like he was thrown in the slammer for fighting for his right to party

I would like to be paid to sit in a cage and cry for days on end

So CPAC is like a halloween haunted house? What other scary scenes?

Matt Gaetz's House of Notties

How many CPACs are there?? There used to be just the one annual one plaguing deep blue Arlington, Virginia for a weekend.

Matt Gaetz's House of Notties

I would like to be paid to sit in a cage and cry for days on end

that's just called having a corporate job

When Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, arrived in the U.S. this week, he bypassed the White House and President Biden to pay a visit to a more admiring U.S. president. He caught up with former President Donald Trump at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J.

That was on the way to the Conservative Political Action Conference's annual gathering in Dallas, where Orbán gave the kickoff address on Thursday afternoon — despite a speech last week widely decried as racist, even by one of his top aides. She resigned in protest.

Orbán sloughed off such criticism on Thursday.

"Don't worry, a Christian politician cannot be racist, so we should never hesitate to heavily challenge our opponents on these issues," Orbán told his Texas audience. "Be sure: Christian values protect us from going too far."

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/04/1115541985/why-hungarys-authoritative-leader-is-drawing-conservative-crowds-in-the-u-s

they should establish a texas embassy in budapest

the chaser

This is "Walk Away" founder Brandon Straka — who did not serve any prison time in his Jan. 6 case thanks to, as his attorneys described it in their sentencing memos, "substantial" cooperation with investigators. https://t.co/nnJR3CFX8x

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) August 5, 2022

Incels taking themselves literally.

ha

lol A+ xp

Pretty shitty witness protection program

excuse the interruption but what is the canonical (US?) climate change thread?

Global Warming's Terrifying New Math

??

thank you

lmao https://t.co/jNPudSf4rh pic.twitter.com/BKTh3klJhy

— alex (@genossse) August 5, 2022

lol, only in such a deranged gerontocracy would this be considered a diplomatic olive branch after senior person nearly starts ww3

Pelosi bringing that Michael Scott Energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAg2jw0uZ3I

here's a question for today: if something or someone is evil, are you justified in killing it? you probably paused for a second there. maybe at the word "evil" itself, and then, if not, hopefully at "killing", when you started to think through what that might mean. here's a variation: do you trust that other people, when told that something is evil, will think the same way that you do? will they pause at violence, if everyone around them is shouting that something is evil?

Stoking the culture wars is nothing new for CPAC. But with dark, militant speeches — and literal demonization of the MAGA movement’s political opponents — the conservative convention in Dallas this week menaced America with what seemed to be thinly veiled calls for violence, all while seeking to whitewash the political mayhem of Jan. 6, casting Capitol Hill rioters as victims of a “Democratic Gulag.”

From Hungarian authoritarian Victor Orbán to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to right-wing extremist Jack Posobiec, Conservative Political Action Committee speakers urged an us-versus-them confrontation, seeming unbound from the constraints of electoral politics.

Bannon, now the host of the “War Room” podcast, brought his bellicose message to CPAC, appearing as the headline speaker at the convention’s Friday night ball. “We are at war,” Bannon told the MAGA faithful. “We are in a political and ideological war.” Repeating the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, Bannon insisted that Joe Biden is an “illegitimate imposter.” Calling on Republicans to send “shock troops” to Washington, Bannon promised the crowd they had an opportunity to “shatter the Democratic party as a national political institution.” He alleged that the party has been overrun by “radical, cultural Marxists” and “groomers” who “want to destroy the Republic.” Bannon insisted the GOP must pursue absolute victory over “power-mad and lawless” Democrats, asserting: “There can be no half measures anymore.”

[snip] (fuck ted cruz)

[snip] (CPAC invited orban and some new alt-right fucks to replace the crew that has been banned due to saying that they liked hitler in previous years. wrong fascist. that's not the one the GOP likes out loud. so they changed it up.)

...It could be tempting to dismiss such bombast from Cruz and Posobiec as empty rhetoric. But Kari Lake, the GOP nominee for governor in Arizona, directly threatened confrontation with the federal government over immigration at the Southern border should she win office in November.

“We have an invasion at the border,” Lake insisted, referring to undocumented immigrants and refugees. Lake then vowed that, after being sworn in, she would mount a military response, even lacking approval from the Biden administration: “As soon as my hand comes off the Bible, we’re going to send the Arizona National Guard troops to the border,” Lake said. Insisting on the “sovereignty” of the states, she insisted: “We will take the fight to the federal government. We’re not going to be victims of what they’re doing to us.”

The rhetoric of revolution and frontline confrontation went hand-in-hand with other speakers and presenters who cast the American left as demonic, evil, and destructive — in other words the kind of enemies who deserve to be dealt with harshly.

In between speeches, CPAC promoted a documentary, hosted by chair Matt Schlapp, called The Culture Killers, which inveighs against a “great desecration” perpetrated by the left. ”Anything that’s good, anything that’s holy, anything that’s truthful is being attacked,” Shlapp insisted on video. The documentary describes America as “under siege from an enemy within,” with one voice insisting, over images of burning cars, “There is no end. These people will never stop, until you stop ’em.”

here's rick scott downgrading Democrats from "wrong" to "evil".

this is pre-genocide stuff pic.twitter.com/CKhGbmspaz

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2022

CPAC then held a panel called “You’re Next: The Rise of the Democratic Gulag,” which presented Jan. 6 defendants not as alleged perpetrators of riot and insurrection, but as victims of a rigged judicial system.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) was the official spokesperson for this line of idiocy. He claimed that Jan 6. defendants have been the recipients of “Soviet-style justice” — alleging without evidence that prosecutors, defense attorneys, and federal judges have been “colluding” to secure predetermined convictions. The congressman insisted that “all of the institutions in the United States have been weaponized, not unlike the former Soviet Union” to create an “American Gulag.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cpac-2022-ted-cruz-militant-rhetoric-1393449/

the most excruuuuuuuuuuciating thing, one of them, at least, is listening to people like this tell each other that the problem with the democrats is they "haven't read 1984"

Always accuse your enemies of doing what you’re doing.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled Saturday that a core piece of the party’s plan can’t pass the chamber with fewer than 60 votes, following arguments from both parties last week.

...the plan will now move forward without a provision that would have penalized drugmakers for hiking costs faster than inflation in private insurance plans as well as Medicare.
...Still, Democrats argue that the bill will move forward in the coming weeks with its most important provision intact: a repeal of the longstanding ban on the federal government directly negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
...Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the parliamentarian’s ruling “good news” in a statement Saturday.

“Medicare will finally be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices, seniors will have free vaccines and their costs capped, and much more,” he said.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a key negotiator on the House version of the bill, said the provision “would break the iron curtain Big Pharma has maintained against negotiating drug prices, and that’s game-changing. If it passes, Pharma won’t be able to continually stick it to the consumer at their will and whim. And that’s especially important with inflation hammering folks at the pump and the grocery store.”

But Welch, who is running to replace the retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), acknowledged the parliamentarian’s ruling is still a big win for the drug industry.

Long time no see, person who has no actual authority or power!

Who do you mean?

Parliamentarian.

the thing is, ignoring the parliamentarian is roughly the same as removing the filibuster, which they aren't willing to do, so I don't see any reason why they would be willing to do this either.

It's bizarre that the federal gubmint banned itself from negotiating prices with pharma companies... what was the rational for that?

What's left: Medicare can still negotiate, and there's a cap on out-of-pocket costs for Medicarees in there too, but---that's it, 'til yer old (enough).

The role of the parliamentarian could theoretically be interesting if senators were elected on the basis of their ability to write laws and their appreciation and mastery of existing constraints around writing laws and the history of what had succeeded in the past in various contexts. As it is, on the one hand, it appears that candidates in actual races are ranked by outside funding groups on the basis of their electability and on the other by the strength of their own name recognition apart from the President. Something seems wrong in this. One wants the intellectual independence of the judiciary but also those who feel and honor a commitment to accountability to and responsibility for all.

"It's bizarre that the federal gubmint banned itself from negotiating prices with pharma companies... what was the rational for that?"

Conservative ideas we should run govt like a business, which means they win and you lose. This goes back to Bush jr.

I got to wonder just with diabetics alone how many people that Bush era law killed with people not being able to afford their medicine.

GOP partially strips out insulin cap from Dems’ climate, tax and health care bill

Republicans successfully challenged Democrats’ proposed price cap on insulin for private insurers, the GOP’s only victory during the “vote-a-rama” as it hit the 12-hour mark.

The insulin battle was among the most consequential in a nearly 12-hour floor fight over Democrats’ party-line legislation, and the Senate needs to slog through at least a few more amendments before party leaders hope to finally pass the legislation. By mid-morning, it appeared some Republicans were starting to lose steam.

“I’m not sure we’re making any progress that’s significant,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), adding that, after hours of amendment votes, “it would be nice to call it.”

Some new Democratic drama as they try to move to final passage this afternoon: Kyrsten Sinema is likely to back a Thune amendment to make some exemptions for businesses affected by the new 15% corporate minimum tax -- and Dems are scrambling, per multiple sources

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 7, 2022

Find someone who loves you like Sinema loves private equity psychos.

Meanwhile, I'm probably just behind the curve on this, but apparently DeSantis fanboys have taken to calling him Heavy D? Is this real?

'Heavy D'? Wow. It's so snappy it could make us all forget about 'Jeb!'

Yo! MTV Rapublicans

warnock and ossoff also voted for the thune amendment along with sinema

Sinema and Ossoff voted for the Thune amendment

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) August 7, 2022

So did Warnock

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) August 7, 2022

A quick reminder to those ilxors with sufficient resources that if you have particular candidates, initiatives, or organizations you'd like to see succeed in the upcoming USA election cycle, the most valuable contributions you can make will be now, when they are planning their fall campaigns and need to have some idea of the resources they can plan their budgets around.

IIUC (i may not)

the dems are going to amend the thune amendment, which is why all the swing state dems are piling in for a free vote.

the dem amendment will pay for the private equity carveout for sinema's friends with different money. was a salt cap extension under thune. will now be something to do with pass through loss limitations.

i.e. they will not get rid of the carveout. they will pay for it with money from businesses nationally rather than rich individuals in democratic states.

sinema, thank you for your service. wonder if it crossed her mind to ask for something in return for her vote on thune, e.g. private insulin cap.

The only way DeSantis might be the GOP nominee is if Trump dies.

Yo! MTV Rapublicans

― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, August 7, 2022 1:42 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol

Climate bill passed

The tie breaker from Kamala Harris makes it official. The bill is passed. pic.twitter.com/TToX9m2aOt

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 7, 2022

All the climate stuff is good 'n' all, but the thing I was most worried about, and which made it through, was a three-year extension of subsidies for Obamacare. Without that, my health insurance would have gone up to like $1200 a month by the end of this year, instead of the $200 and change that it currently is.

Making some forward motion feels less bad than suffering massive retrogression under the death cult. So, lets hear a cheer for patchwork amelioration!

Quite a good thread.

So that's where we are, pending further action (which is unlikely at the federal level for the foreseeable future): We've prevented the vast amounts of harm that would result from 3°C+ of warming, while choosing to accept the still-vast amounts of harm that will result at 2–2.5°C

— Chase Woodruff (@dcwoodruff) August 7, 2022

And one more that is a tad more positive than that conclusion.

I’ve spent the last year or so largely away from the climate policy world and with my people but I’ve # been asked to weigh in on the Inflation Reduction Act, so here goes a THREAD with basically one main takeaway:

With this legislation we get to fight another day. That’s big.

— Julian Brave NoiseCat (@jnoisecat) August 5, 2022

The best deal the Dems could've wrested from Manchinema and for whomever they serve as Trojan horses, though I'm pissed about the insulin. Looks like winning two Senate seats in Jawjuh has its pluses.

And I don't know why they haven't called every bill the Inflation Reduction Act.

👍🏽

Yay!

I’m also heartened that the Dems showed some procedural guile and nous along the way.

As much as insiders get a lot of stick, you do need some pros on your team.

https://i.imgur.com/05v7IBi.jpg

"You had me at private equity funds!"

Sinemax!

McConhub!

EW! EW! EW!

The vast majority of Ohio residents clearly want legislative districts that are drawn more fairly. By 2015, the state’s gerrymandering problem had become so notorious that seventy-one per cent of Ohioans voted to pass an amendment to the state constitution demanding reforms. As a result, the Ohio constitution now requires that districts be shaped so that the makeup of the General Assembly is proportional to the political makeup of the state. In 2018, an even larger bipartisan majority—seventy-five per cent of Ohio voters—passed a similar resolution for the state’s congressional districts.

Though these reforms were democratically enacted, the voters’ will has thus far been ignored. Allison Russo, the minority leader in the House, who is one of two Democratic members of the seven-person redistricting commission, told me, “I was optimistic at the beginning.” But, she explained, the Republican members drafted a new districting map in secret, and earlier this year they presented it to her and the other Democrat just hours before a deadline. The proposed districts were nowhere near proportional to the state’s political makeup. The Democrats argued that the Republicans had flagrantly violated the reforms that had been written into the state constitution.

This past spring, an extraordinary series of legal fights were playing out. The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the map—and then struck down four more, after the Republican majority on the redistricting commission continued submitting maps that defied the spirit of the court’s orders. The chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court was herself a Republican. Russo told me, “If norms were being obeyed, we would expect that there would have been an effort to follow the first Ohio Supreme Court decision. But that simply didn’t happen.”

The Republicans’ antics lasted so long that they basically ran out the clock. Election deadlines were looming, and the makeup of Ohio’s districts still hadn’t been settled. “They contrived a crisis,” Russo told me. At that point, a group allied with the Republicans, Ohio Right to Life, urged a federal court to intervene, on the ground that the delay was imperilling the fair administration of upcoming elections. The decision was made by a panel of three federal judges—two of whom had been appointed by Trump. Over the strenuous objection of the third judge, the two Trump judges ruled in the group’s favor, allowing the 2022 elections to proceed with a map so rigged that Ohio’s top judicial body had rejected it as unconstitutional.

On Twitter, Bill Seitz, the majority leader of the Ohio House, jeered at his Democratic opponents: “Too bad so sad. We win again.” He continued, “Now I know it’s been a tough night for all you libs. Pour yourself a glass of warm milk and you will sleep better. The game is over and you lost.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/state-legislatures-are-torching-democracy

A fantastic read.

Wow.

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The Republican nominee for Michigan attorney general led a team that gained unauthorized access to voting equipment while hunting for evidence to support former President Donald Trump’s false election-fraud claims, according to a Reuters analysis of court filings and public records.

The analysis shows that people working with Matthew DePerno - the Trump-endorsed nominee for the state’s top law-enforcement post - examined a vote tabulator from Richfield Township, a conservative stronghold of 3,600 people in northern Michigan’s Roscommon County.

The Richfield security breach is one of four similar incidents being investigated by Michigan's current attorney general, Democrat Dana Nessel. Under state law, it is a felony to seek or provide unauthorized access to voting equipment.

both sides do it

i have no idea what's going on with the FBI raid but if they don't come up with something really good, they fucked up big time

something REALLY GOOD, because it has already been shown in thousands of different ways how corrupt he is. we don't need the 1001th piece of evidence, so if it this isn't something that puts him away, or makes that more likely, than fuck off

i feel like a NPC in FF7 remake

BREAKING: Trump currently in a white Bronco slowly headed south on a Los Angles freeway...

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) August 8, 2022

Donald Trump: If I Did It...

Saw some tweet that emphasized what a fucked up situation it is that when the FBI raids a former president's home we're left wondering not if he committed a crime but which crime they are investigating.

Going based on nothing but past performance, my guess is that the raid turns up or confirms other evidence of illicit activity or behavior, but not bodies-in-the-basement smoking guns sufficient to persuade his defenders. So it will join the actually-quite-damning Mueller investigation as another example of his victimhood and saintliness.

Good morning!

xp

this is where I'm at right now

the republican faux outrage could turn out to be a canny move if there is anything short of an actual perp walk

The judge was a Rick Scott appointee, of course:

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2018/03/15/west-palm-beach-attorney-bruce/7506025007/

their faux outrage is a fixed point you can steer around or stupidly crash into, guess what the Democrats tend to do

I dunno, you'd think it has to be pretty serious to get a court order allowing the raid of a former president, let alone this particular Asshole. They already talked to him and his people this summer about (as far as has been reported) not returning but securing his shit, so this must be something else, or something more specific, based on something someone told the FBI. Like, it's not just pictures of posing with dictators but stuff that reveals (intentional or no) missile sites or whatever. I could imagine Asshole keeping trophies of people he's secretly had bombed or killed, for example. And I can for sure imagine him showing them off.

Well they had to meet legal requirements to get permission to surveil his campaign too, and that's still used as evidence of "deep state corruption" etc etc. No amount of following-the-rules matters to people who couldn't care less about the rules. Every single thing is either for them or against them, there's no outside structure of law and order or social contracts or anything else that matters at all.

Someone noted that Asshole *has a copy of the warrant*, which means he knows what they were looking for, what statutes they think were violated, what the judge signed off on, etc., and could just make that public. (Assuming he even read it, which is a big reach.) The fact that he apparently hasn't (yet) speaks volumes.

the republican faux outrage could turn out to be a canny move if there is anything short of an actual perp walk

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Tuesday, August 9, 2022 9:27 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

if there is an actual perp walk then it'll just make them even more ready for civil war, remember the default Republican position is that laws don't apply to them

if this boils down to "there were important documents we needed to secure and this was the only way to make it happen" then the FBI needs to hold a press conference and explain that very clearly

xp

I don't give a shit if it makes them upset, I care more about giving them talking points that this is the new "no Russian collusion"

I’m no Trump fan. I want him as far away from the White House as possible. But a fundamental part of his appeal has been that it’s him against a corrupt government establishment. This raid strengthens that case for millions of Americans who will see this as unjust persecution.

— Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) August 9, 2022

go away dude, please

fw:

lol

Perhaps I speak for other Never Trump types who were never supporters of Andrew Cuomo and don't support Andrew Yang: Both of them are embarrassments.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 9, 2022

sure but wasn't it well known that he took documents when he left the White House a year and a half ago? whatever this is has to be something they just found out about recently, maybe related to evidence recently uncovered in another trial, and I am guessing whatever it is is a pretty big deal. as we found out in 2016 the FBI is a fairly partisan entity who is very aware of appearances, they're not doing this unless there's a slam dunk

also would like to offer a hearty 'fuck off' to everyone in the media whining about how this only makes Republicans madder and more willing to retaliate, like why don't you think of what it means when you brazenly declare that this one particular guy is allowed to commit unlimited federal crime up to and including attempting a coup. why does every fucking thing in this country have to be about coddling Republicans.

I think you know the answer to that question.

especially since so many of those Republicans are unindicted co-conspirators.

xpost

there was talk recently that Trump was going to announce his run before the midterms, so maybe the FBI decided they had to move now

what if he kept a copy of the JFK investigation that's complete and unredacted and has just been showing it to friends at mar a lago as a treat

https://www.jfk-online.com/bacon3.jpg

"Fuck yeah!"

the investigation is going to go all the way up to the 2024 election. progress will slow to a grinding halt as all the serious people agree that it's time to let the american people decide the fate of donald trump through our well known free and fair elections.

before that, if the republicans take the house, there will be 2 years of investigations into the evil DOJ, who were so evil that they whenever they notice donald trump committing crimes on television, they spend 900 years doing jack shit before moving the lever from "grinding halt" to "fuck all"

Things I have read here and there:

• There was at least one previous "picking up documents he wasn't supposed to take with him" mission to Mar-A-Lago earlier this year, under the auspices of the National Archives or something; it's entirely possible that at that time he lied about what he had, making it necessary to send in the FBI this time
• Worth remembering that just having these documents in his possession at all is a crime all by itself
• They had to do it more than 90 days before the next election (the midterms) because of The Rules (maybe just The Rules of Washington Comity, not clear on this)
• They wouldn't have done this if they weren't 99.9 percent sure they were gonna find what they were after, so somebody probably told them this stuff was there; combine that with the idea that if they had asked him in the past, he probably lied (see first point), and there's your grounds for a warrant

i do think that if trump makes it back into the white house, the DOJ is done. trump and the GOP will dismantle it at all costs. that was likely before, and now as close to certain as the future can get, i think.

my man try and take a W here and there

lol

it's probably good advice, haha. sigh.

(i just hope this isn't like when the Washington Generals get a W)

I realize they'd only do it to curry favor with the God-Emperor, and they'd probably be replaced with Blackwater mercenaries or something, but can we honestly argue that the Republicans abolishing the FBI wouldn't be a net positive?

that would be pretty sweet

I dunno, I read the outrage in his 'Truth' yesterday, and it seemed somewhat tempered by a little wariness, like "man I really wish they hadn't looked in that safe"

I have great things in the safe! People are always asking me, "What's in the safe?"

god, life moves too fast right now. didn't this just happen, last night? imagine being a normal person and not hearing about it then, because you were, i don't know, reading or spending time with the family or some bullshit. then you wake up, and this is how the entire thing is presented:

https://i.imgur.com/N8xNUyS.png

"son, wake up, get ready. fast. donald trump is under attack"

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/what-the-fbis-raid-of-mar-a-lago-could-mean-for-trump

And what about in terms of recency? If Trump took documents from the White House to Florida twenty months ago, would a judge want some reason to think that the documents are still there?

Yes. One of the requirements for the search warrant is evidence that the information will be there during the two-week period that the F.B.I. is authorized to do a search—the information is not “stale.” And that’s the term of art that people talk about. Is the information being presented by the F.B.I. to the court stale? What you are looking for is some evidence of recency. Why would (the material) still be in that location? Even if something happened eighteen months ago, that’s fine. But a judge might say, “What makes you think it is still in that location?” This is speculation, but you would think that there has to be at least one source who gave the F.B.I. information about what was there fairly recently, and that whatever they were looking for was in that location.

...

In the past six or seven years, we have learned that the government sometimes cares a lot about the handling of classified material. But, if that’s all it was, it seems possibly extreme to have that concern lead to the search of a former President’s home. When you heard that this might be the cause of the search, were you surprised?

That’s where I am trying to not get into what is really just speculation about what they are actually searching for. It could be sufficiently serious if there were classified documents that were taken, particularly depending on their nature. You could imagine them being quite sensitive. But let me just say: I didn’t have the reaction that this was tenuous or thin.

"So far, McConnell notably silent'.. huh, that says something

"son, wake up, get ready. fast. donald trump is under attack"

It was 2022. I was wonderin' what to do.
The closer they got, the more those feelings grew.

Lol

first they came for roger stone, and i said “great.” next, they came for alex jones and i said “good news.” then they came for donald trump and i said “this is also excellent”

— soul nate (@MNateShyamalan) August 9, 2022

Yeah I feel about this kind of like I feel about big pharma producing the COVID vaccines — if we're going to have these problematic institutions with long track records of demonstrably bad behavior and abuses, the least they can do is sometimes serve their nominal purposes.

Meanwhile:

The Affordable Care Act has survived many challenges in court, but the case of Kelley v. Becerra – now before a federal judge in Texas – threatens to undermine one of the most popular provisions in the law, which requires most health plans to provide coverage for preventive care with no copays.

If the judge rules in favor of the plaintiffs, access to free birth control, cancer screenings, vaccines, PrEP (HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis), counseling for alcohol misuse, diet counseling for people at higher risk of chronic disease, and many more preventive services would be in jeopardy, according to the nation's leading doctors' groups, which have sounded the alarm.
...Plaintiffs in the Texas case argue that the preventive care mandates violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Some object to paying for health insurance plans that cover contraceptives, PrEP drugs, or other preventive care services that may violate their religious beliefs. Plaintiffs also object for economic reasons, arguing that the mandate to cover preventive services raises the price of insurance coverage.

Plaintiff John Kelley, an orthodontist who lives in Tarrant County, Texas, "has no desire to purchase health insurance that includes contraceptive coverage because his wife is past her child-bearing years," according to the complaint. "He does not want or need health insurance that covers Truvada or PrEP drugs because neither he nor any of his family members is engaged in behavior that transmits HIV," the complaint continues. "Mr. Kelley is also a Christian," and is unwilling to purchase health insurance plans that subsidize certain types of contraception or PrEP drugs "that encourage homosexual behavior and intravenous drug use."

The plaintiffs are represented by attorney Jonathan Mitchell, who is known as a key strategist behind the Texas abortion law passed in 2021 that bans abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy.

That is such a flimsy bullshit claim of harm it's hard to believe that any judge would rule in its favor, but there are a lot of judges out there just itching to cause trouble for 'the libs', so it's odds on that this will get a favorable ruling in the lower court.

so not really hard to believe then since we've seen endless cases built on bullshit claims get the seal of approval from the SC

Where’s the tax returns -

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/08/09/politics/appeals-court-house-trump-taxes-opinion/index.html

i'm keeping my eye on maricopa and all of you are going to be feel really bad when you realize that's where it's all happening

xxxpost Yeah, reminded me of this, re Little Sisters of the Poor: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/18/whats-next-after-supreme-courts-birth-control-ruling/

it feels like the world is moving at 20x speed while the legal system continues to move at 1x speed

But Trump still could appeal, making the litigation unlikely to end at this time. The court said the judgment would not issued for seven days, giving Trump time to appeal. This litigation is separate from the House select committee's investigation into the January 6 riot.

and the lawsuit started in 2019. it's been 3 years!

it makes total sense, i understand why the legal system moves so slowly. i'm just noting that the two things - the entire judicial system, and real life - are completely out of step with each other at this point.

xp that's regarding the tax returns, which i expect to see after trump is dead. maybe

I mean justice moves slow unless ur poor, brown or marginalized but no one here needs me of all people to repeat that xp

they should get this judge on the case! she rattles these things off in a weekend https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-in-twitter-elon-musk-case-known-for-quick-work-11659791075

bad news for Democrats!

A few more months of Trump being targeted by law enforcement and he'll win the Black vote in 2024.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) August 9, 2022

ho ho that Dilbert, what a card

Chotiner: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/what-the-fbis-raid-of-mar-a-lago-could-mean-for-trump

Weissmann calls out an intriguing distinction in that article between 5th amendment protections against producing self-incriminating documents vs the FBI just taking them

BREAKING: Trump retains Rudy Giuliani to challenge FBI raid all the way up to the Supreme Courtyard by Marriott

— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) August 9, 2022

ride or die

bad boys 4 life

This seems to clarify a bit more:

New: The @FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in part because agents believed there was still more classified info there after @USNatArchives earlier retrieved 15 boxes of WH documents from the home.

Agents hauled away ~ 10 more boxes. W/ @learyreports @aviswanatha https://t.co/vX8H2aQOt5

— Sadie Gurman (@sgurman) August 9, 2022

So those 15 boxes were removed already, but they reportedly took 10 *more* boxes this time.

Makes sense based on previous speculation, though that "in part" leaves a lot of room for more questions.

Ten more boxes and the pee tape.

meanwhile, in innovation news

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2022/08/08/facebook-abortion-teen-dms/?sh=6f5deffe579c

That story is somehow even worse than I thought it would be. Local cops got a warrant for a 17 year old's Facebook messages to her mom in order to prosecute both of them. I'm not so surprised that Meta rolled over & gave up her data, more that the cops would pursue it so doggedly.

Breaking on Fox News: House Republican Scott Perry says FBI agents seized his cell phone earlier today — a day after federal investigators raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 9, 2022

god bless the Deep State

scott perry was one of the people who requested a Jan 6 pardon (for some mysterious reason...)

the mar-a-lago raid isn't supposed to have anything to do with the Jan 6 stuff. perry is also the leader of the house freedom caucus, which is just this really awesome group of people trying to make things better

Good lord, this better all be leading somewhere

one raid and they're all antifa lol https://t.co/nriQ0qTXAy

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) August 9, 2022

Trump broke the law. Should he face consequences?

— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) August 10, 2022

petard, meet hoist https://t.co/b7A15XHurh

— kilgore trout, death to putiner (@KT_So_It_Goes) August 10, 2022

fucking lmaoooo

anyway I don't wanna wildly speculate but fuck it, hear me out: what if he's feeding secret info to Russia? isn't it already widely accepted that he's already leaked military secrets to them? isn't the fact that he literally called Putin a genius when he started a war with Ukraine really fucking weird? could it be they found something on Alex Joneses phone prompting the feds to step in right away?

Maybe they found something in the first ten boxes.

after the fbi went through the first 15 boxes, they soon found that they needed 10 more "loot boxes"

before long, they were willing to pay a steep premium for each additional box

Wait, I meant the first 15 boxes, can't keep up!
You think you got problems:

The Furry Community Is Struggling to Snuff Out Far-Right Agitators
After a furry was arrested for allegedly making terroristic threats, a new conversation was sparked about extremist views within the community

This link might work better: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/furry-far-right-arrest-podcast-1394565/

But already, in 2017: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/does-the-furry-community-have-a-nazi-problem-194282/

could it be they found something on Alex Joneses phone prompting the feds to step in right away?

― frogbs, Tuesday, August 9, 2022 8:20 PM

so my timeline of the last week re: all of this goes—>

—>alex jones trial says they have the entire contents of his phone—>everyonelol for a few days—>odd headline about there now being photographic evidence that trump flushed documents, but oddly no photos—>

—>LATER THAT DAY—>

and well, that was just yesterday, so yeah. idk what the turnaround time is on stuff like that, but the conspiracy theorist part of my brain is having a field day. be pretty funny if "the alex jones smartphone gaffe" becomes known as the thing that finally trumped trump.

During yesterday's vote-a-rama I overheard @ewarren telling @SenFeinstein: “Puppies have a nap, now it’s time for you to have one” https://t.co/bK7aUUxpAc

— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) August 8, 2022

Plain and simple clickbait. They were talking about Feinstein's puppy and Warren made a joke. Probably not the kindest statement, but not nearly as bad as Matt is trying to make it sound. https://t.co/U2VcrDV8PZ pic.twitter.com/deIRuFdkUz

— Jacob Stands With Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@jkcohen626) August 10, 2022

I... don't know that the context really improves this?

Ya I mean everything I’m reading about this suggests that the FBI raid was highly unusual and clearly based on something time sensitive we don’t know yet so who knows, I think this is gonna go well beyond “he had some valuable papers”

I hope the real story is that those who work at the National Archives including its lawyers had to do their jobs, and Garland and those who work at the Justice Department had to do theirs, and he kept things as quiet as possible until he was forced to show as much of his hand as necessary to get DOJ's job done. (He might be a quiet hero.)

The biggest point of confusion for me right now (well, I mean, there are lots) is that previous June FBI visit. Did they take back the (known) boxes of classified documents or did they tell Trump to (er) lock them up? I've seen it reported both ways. Anyway, it sounds like the FBI had reason to believe there were more undisclosed boxes of at least potentially classified information lying around that place, plus stuff in the (not very) safe, and from what I've read (based on the relative expediency and risk of the raid) the classified info was likely super-duper double-classified. What warrants such a classification, dunno. Why he would have them at all, dunno. Again, could be pictures of him with Kim, and I could totally imagine him keeping souvenirs of targeted bombings or something. Regardless, recall that foreign nationals have been caught sniffing around Club Asshole before, and just having the stuff on site put whatever national security the classified stamp was meant to protect at risk.

And that's the best case scenario. Worst case (for Asshole) is he showed the stuff to people, gave the stuff to people, sold the stuff to people, or is covering up or hiding info related to other crimes (Jan. 6, NY AG case, etc.). Again, given this guy's track record pretty much the sky is the limit both in terms of stupidity and criminality. One big takeaway of this is that no matter what is going on, somebody most certainly ratted him out.

I guess there is also the possibility that Asshole *didn't* take this shit but was knowingly or unknowingly housing it there. A list was making the rounds of the people reportedly assigned to his national archiving (or whatever the position is called) and woof, talk about the usual suspects.

Not that I care about the GOP, but boy would they have solved so many of their problems if they had just removed him from office.

You know what phrase came to mind yesterday when I was pondering how some of the more mundane, but required to be returned thing like Obama's letter to his successor, would be of use in Florida?

"Donald Trump Presidential Library"

hopefully they left enough material to stock this hallowed institution, when it's built

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iuNpn17pfM

"Donald Trump Presidential Library"

hopefully they left enough material to stock this hallowed institution, when it's built

Whatever came of the stuff the FBI took from Rudy's apartment and office last April?

Look, all I know is that surely there's no way ol' Donnie Trump can wiggle his way out of this one

I mean, surely this time we've got 'im, right guys?

Guys?

*wriggle

ah! well. nevertheless,

He can wiggle AND wriggle. He can also rattle and shake, like a big fat snake.

On the charge of being in this, trump is not guilty on account of his having wriggled instead of wiggled out of it

The preliminary appeal to the primary appeal is hereby scheduled for the year 2029

wriggle it just a little bit

^^ beat me to it

so it seems obvious they're gonna go with the "planted evidence" the whole way, right?

everything about Trumpism from the very beginning has felt like an abusive relationship, or maybe those murder documentaries where a family member or spouse STILL don't believe they actually did it, because doing so would admit that a major portion of their life has been a lie, or realizing that even the people you love can pull the wool over your eyes

I know the Republican party has always been cult-like but Trump has taken it to a whole new direction, b/c now being a conservative means totally buying into this cult of personality even if it comes at the expense of your friends, your family, and your sanity. obviously we talked a lot about this on ILX over the last several years, family members who you just can't bear to see anymore and all that, but it's almost kind of WORSE from their end because they've put themselves in this position of having to play defense on everything every single day of their lives. first it's over half the country, which you can handwave away by saying they're all brainwashed by CNN or whatever. but then it's actual government officials, including the guys Trump handpicked for their loyalty, and every single staffer who immediately went on record the day they left that Trump was a sack of shit who lies about everything. now it's the FBI director, the one he picked because the last one expressed some remorse about singlehandedly throwing the election to Trump, and the FBI as a whole, laying all that "just comply and you have nothing to worry about" shit bare.

idk if the dam will ever break. not to go all Andrew Yang on this but if something actually does happen to Trump it's gonna unleash a real world of shit so we might as well prepare ourselves now. not saying they should go easy or work a deal or whatever. him and his cronies deserve life in prison for the shit they've done to this country. but holy fuck if something substantial actually comes idk how this country is gonna handle it

This made me curious to revisit the famous tweet/meme; found this mostly pointless article about the phenomenon from January:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/19/eternally-unfulfilled-dream-trumps-opponents-this-time-theyve-got-him/

However it does sum up why I have 0% energy to get whipped up and involved in discussions about any new "thing". I'll casually track these discussions and news, but it's hard for me personally to even raise my eyebrows anymore.

xp

i'm sure everyone will be like "ok, let's take a deep breath. let's get some food. let's get outside for a bit. then let's home and let bygones be bygones and start builidng. back. better!!"

The GOP is a perpetual grievance machine which will act out whether The Libs take active strides to stymie their bullshit or impotently sit in stony silence. Fuck them, fuck their big fat phony crocodile tears, fuck their tacit threats of what'll happen if you mess with the bull, fuck every last one of them until they've either fixed their hearts or died. Bring it on, you little SOBs.

^^^

Booming posts, OL and frogbs. I've been in the fuck-every-last-one-of-them mode for two years and it's felt liberating

There are real cult-like behaviors, for sure, but I also think the cult shrinks a bit the farther it goes into total detachment from reality. There is a level where yoking yourself to fundamentally unpopular ideas starts to take a toll. We are maybe seeing that on abortion to some degree. In Tennessee we're seeing it on vouchers and charter schools, which have never been demonstrably popular but our Hillsdale-besotted governor has officially embraced as core GOP priorities — without doing any particular groundwork to sway public opinion. I think it was a factor in Republicans losing a key seat last week on our local (and newly partisan) school board. You can use structural advantages to force through unpopular things up to a point, but past a point you start to lose legitimacy.

I don't know that that's necessarily a cause for optimism, because obviously what it reinforces is the drive to minimize actual public power — democracy — in whatever way you can. But I also don't take as a given that the future is nothing but a relentless drive to the right that ends in white evangelical authoritarianism, because there just aren't enough of them. Most Americans don't really want to live in the country that that would be. That's a fundamental challenge for minority rule.

*wriggle

*ooze

I worry about Hispanic authoritarianism, evangelical or otherwise.

CNN reported this morning that Trump's lawyers (one of whom was present during latest boxtaking, btw) are now saying that all documents were declassified before leaving DC---although prev reports mention them still being marked Classified, with no strike-through, which apparently (see that link I posted upthread about laws involved here) a President could use to de-classify, but this one didn't bother.
(CNN also reported this morning that Iranian plot to whack Bolton foiled by FBI; Trump and Trumpers won't be thrilled by that either)

documents were declassified, also we don't have them, also they were planted

Trump Boys Thrilled FBI Seized Documents, Leaving Dozens Of Empty Boxes To Play In https://t.co/tsKtFGjcPP pic.twitter.com/QSnnqUtsjr

— The Onion (@TheOnion) August 9, 2022

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/27/doj-georgia-new-york-trump-00048313

So many legal actions

If I had a nickle for every 'the noose is tightening!' headline over the last five years

(I saw an interview with Bill Clinton years ago, where he said he was annoyed by the Slick Willie nickname, because everything seemed to stick)

"Tricky Dick" would have suited him better.

I lobbied heavily for "Mango Mussolini" but it failed to catch

'Round these parts in spring '08 I christened him The Screaming Lobster of Hope.

My friends and I regularly use "Mango Mussolini." Also "Cheetolini."

I always liked Patrick Monahan’s “President Deals”

xpost glad to hear it's gained some traction

Related note, but when did "TFG" become such a big thing when referring to him? I'm assuming it's short for "the former guy" without having to use his name, but I've been surprised by how frequently I'm seeing it on social media these days.

Pretty good op-ed about Fetterman's campaign tactics, and how other Dems should follow his lead:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/09/john-fetterman-tries-to-lure-rural-voters-00050352

xp lol at "former"

maybe it's 'Total Failure Geezer'

God bless our first openly gay President

“Big, huge, strapping bear came up to me at the Continental Baths wearing only a towel and he said—he had tears streaming down his face—he said, “Sir,

xp lol at "former"

lol at me just now grokking the other options for that initial

Jon, I think “the Former Guy” was Biden’s way of referring to The Worst Man In America upon taking office, around that time.

Big, huge, strapping bear came up to me at the Continental Baths wearing only a towel and he said—he had tears streaming down his face—he said, “Sir,

― Mar - a - Lago, or 120 Days of Sodom (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, August 10, 2022 3:56 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have no idea what this is about but am dying and kind of don’t want any context for it, it’s so fantastically weird on its own

(I’m imagining an ACTUAL bear, for whatever it’s worth, like a Grizzly)

what the hell do you think the continental baths is, a zoo?

a truly inclusive bathhouse would welcome actual grizzly bears

Bear say 'sir' to me

They just don't come no better than a bear.

Bear say 'sir' to me

okay, I can't stop giggling at this one

Bear say 'sir' to me

For once I’m happy I peeked at the politics thread instead of being depressed

what the hell do you think the continental baths is, a zoo?

if they don’t use “tfg” to refer to “that fucking guy” around the white house then color me surprised

https://www.eerdmans.com/Mobile/Products/5447/i-am-a-bear.aspx

feel like the surprisingly low inflation report today might give him the stones to do something (rather than nothing) here https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/10/white-house-solicits-ideas-on-student-debt-relief-as-bidens-decision-looms-00050836

Recommendation for September thread title: “we got your secret spy shit”

fuck me I'm starting to like him again

“It may be funny to you mother f*cker, but it’s not funny to me.”@BetoORourke did not hold back when a supporter of Greg Abbott laughed loudly as Beto discussed the mass shooting in Uvalde. pic.twitter.com/ETJssUFZxS

— Travis Akers (@travisakers) August 11, 2022

NEW: Two law enforcement officials have confirmed to NBC News that Ricky Walter Shiffer, the suspect in the attack on the FBI field office in Cincinnati, is dead.

Shiffer was present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Reporting with @jonathan4ny.

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 11, 2022

And this is why they should maybe lock some of them up.

Now for the final act that awaits every single person who falls for this shit enough to Do Something: being posthumously disavowed as a hologram/crisis actor/fed by all the clammy sociopaths they admired and trusted. https://t.co/OOxBdkLmu3

— David Roth (@david_j_roth) August 11, 2022

Imagine dying for Donald Fucking Trump.

This is without question the decade of “fuck around and find out.”

let's hope so

“ Well, I thought I had a way through bullet proof glass, and I didn’t.”

These people are so unbelievably stupid.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/11/merrick-garland-trump-bluff-00051297

Florida bans Medicaid from covering gender-affirming treatments

...A coalition of LGBTQ and health rights groups, including Lambda Legal, Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Health Justice Project, and National Health Law Program, said the rule will leave thousands of transgender Floridians without critical care when they need it most.

“Ignoring thousands of public comments and expert testimony, Florida’s AHCA has finalized a rule that will deny Medicaid coverage for all medically necessary gender-affirming care for both youth and adults,” the coalition statement said. “This discriminatory and medically unsound rule will take effect on August 21, 2022, putting transgender people in jeopardy of losing access to critical gender-affirming health care services.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/11/florida-finalizes-ban-medicaid-transgender-treatments-00051259

this is real life:

Brian Kilmeade, filling in for Tucker Carlson tonight, shared a clearly fake, photoshopped image of the judge involved in approving the Mar-a-Lago warrant pic.twitter.com/W3cxHdy6id

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 12, 2022

amazing

do you think kilmeade stutters at the end for natural reasons, or because he noticed the watermark of the meme factory of the photoshop his news network just broadcast to millions of dolts?

it even says "WHAT.I.MEME.TO.SAY" in the corner!

sorry, this is a very minor incident in the grand scheme. there are nuclear plans in safes as well. very Brazil-like

He totally looks like he realized it was a joke and didn't know what to do. But also he's an idiot, so maybe he was just overtaxing his two brain cells.

That's the face of "oh shit if I worked anywhere else I'd be in big trouble right now."

LOL

Voters like to see a sense of authenticity in candidates, especially in Texas. But cursing and vulgar language in front of children and the elderly more often than not crosses the line. https://t.co/wq2QvEF0mL

— NPR (@NPR) August 12, 2022

Won’t somebody think of the children

and the elderly

look, i can tolerate a roomful of schoolchildren being slaughtered while armed police officers stand around playing candy crush

but cursing? this, sir, this is going too far

"Why, in my day, we simply lined up facing our enemy and volleyed rounds at each other."

"Sir, if you find that funny, well then bless your heart."

feel kind of bad for the NPR intern they had call people to get quotes for and write that story

Chip Roy says Republicans should shut down government on day 1 of the new Congress next January to force Democrats to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act pic.twitter.com/0DvOSjGe2B

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 12, 2022

xp the elderly are as innocent as children is a weird take

LBJ is spinning in his grave!

A review of the Shiffer account’s Truth Social activity showed he had posted dozens of times a day to the site, replying to pro-Trump influencers, attacking the government and suggesting violence was the most important way true Trump believers could defend the former president.

Similar messages are common on the site, including from Trump himself. In May, Trump reposted — or, in Truth Social terminology, “ReTruthed” — a message from another user that read, “Civil war.”

But Shiffer’s Truth Social account, which had 23 followers, showed him not just voicing anger but calling for direct action to bring on armed conflict, urging Trump followers to stock up on bullets and to “have your heart, mind, and body ready to jump into civil war.”

On Aug. 5, he posted, “This country has never had a worse enemy. 1776 was for far less, even World War II was for less.” That day, he also wrote, “Save ammunition and be ready and willing to hit the road as soon as you hear it has started. Someone who wanted to be a hero could not have lived in a better time period.” The post was ‘liked’ 24 times.

it's easy to make assumptions about how a lot of these guys are desperate to be special or chosen in some way (chosen by god for a violent mission seems to be a popular variety), but it's rare for them to come out and say it so plainly. but hey, that's his Truth

Who, in this guy's mind, was "the enemy"? Everyone who was not all in for Trump?

Pelosi

23 followers on Truth Social makes him a Super Influencer

https://www.discogs.com/release/8057345-Manic-Street-Preachers-This-Is-My-Truth-Tell-Me-Yours/image/SW1hZ2U6MjU5MzQxNDQ=

Only 24 people liked his Truth but they all went out and got themselves shot

House passes Democrats’ health care and climate bill, clearing measure for Biden’s signature

Hell yeah

Pelosi kept that caucus under control.

forcing republicans to vote against affordable insulin is one of the high points

The White House unveils a 70-page plan to make childbirth safer in the U.S., especially for women of color. The plan lists five distinct goals, ranging from high-quality universal care to greater diversity among health care workers.

👇🏿Read Morehttps://t.co/0i3z9DDzuJ

— theGrio.com (@theGrio) August 13, 2022

goal #1: live in a state where if you run into life-threatening issues with your pregnancy you can terminate it safely without going on a secret mission to another state

Or kill the mothers. That'll stop them!

I know it’s easy to dunk on this guy but lol

https://t.co/GiorcP7a4a pic.twitter.com/wdQVdmUNJG

— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) August 14, 2022

“The reason he’s going to Erie is cause it’s Erie — as off Broadway as you can get in Pa.,” said Christopher Nicholas, a Pennsylvania-based GOP consultant, before the event. “So if he flops it’ll be in the state’s smallest media market.”

In Nevada moments ago, Ted Cruz joked to applause and laughter that Elizabeth Warren might have a penis: “In today’s Democrat Party, how do we know she doesn’t?”#TheUndercurrent pic.twitter.com/9SRZJql9i2

— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) August 13, 2022

Ironically, Warren's metaphorical penis is larger than Cruz's actual one.

I was going to say, Liz seems like the kind of person to have an "accidental" hot mic talking about how much bigger she is than Teddy.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Americans on Medicare – no matter how many prescriptions they have – will pay no more than $2,000 a year on their medication.

That makes a big difference for families.

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 14, 2022

this is an embarrassing thing to brag about

an exceedingly minor curb on the metastasizing extraction of capital from sick people is absolutely a big deal from the pov of the dem-brained, thank you joe for pointing that out

Party Time at The Boebert's

Here is the 911 call involving Jason Boebert, husband of @laurenboebert, and one of her sons.

It’s disheartening to know how unstable this family is. pic.twitter.com/gkGc38nVDU

— Ryan Shead (@RyanShead) August 13, 2022

what was the max out of pocket before? (ans by google- none but after catastrophic coverage hit at 6500-ish, generics were $4 and namebrand were $10). xp

I downloaded Truth Social just to see how crazy it was and these are just some of the ads I saw on it. pic.twitter.com/uVVKX3tJAw

— Keaton Patti (@KeatonPatti) August 14, 2022

I hope everyone here knows that this is satire. None of these things actually exist on TS or anywhere else. But go ahead and keep fanning the flames of the team sports political show dumpster fire. The RNC and DNC want you to post/share this stuff so we keep hating each other.

— harrison sapir 🧢🦉🐈‍⬛🐈 (@harrisonsapir) August 14, 2022

admittedly the MyPillow one almost got me but "made with 50% more plastic" lmao

xp was listening to some conservative radio station earlier today and the advertisements aren’t that insane but did make me wonder if I need to invent some scam patriotic product asap.

I hope everyone here knows that this is satire. None of these things actually exist on TS or anywhere else. But go ahead and keep fanning the flames of the team sports political show dumpster fire. The RNC and DNC want you to post/share this stuff so we keep hating each other.
— harrison sapir 🧢🦉🐈‍⬛🐈 (@harrisonsapir) August 14, 2022

Dunno why but I find this so condescending. This take. "None of these things actually exist" ok cool they don't seem that farfetched. I seriously doubt the DNC wants me to hate anyone, RNC I'm sure they're cool with hatred.

also the guy that wrote that is into crypto and drives a Tesla

^^new borad description?

feel bad for the Boeberts’ neighbors but “he’s running over my mailbox” really gave me “oh shit, here we go again” vibes

Who thought this was a good idea pic.twitter.com/dj5nz7vB1W

— umichvoter 🏳️‍🌈 (@umichvoter) August 15, 2022

Lol, very tell me you've never gone grocery shopping without telling me you've never gone grocery shopping.

he's going to lose, isn't he

Connecting with the everyday man via the universal language of CRUDITES, amirite?

I bet he doesn't even know what guacamole and salsa are made of.

For a guy who got famous from TV he sure is bad at it.

As far as authenticity goes, I'm reminded of Norm Macdonald as Dr. John Gray on "SNL": "we like to go into our garage and saw our 2x4's, and make a big...moosehead...before we watch our Monday Evening Football...that's what us men like to do!"

And I guess carrying a basket to put your items in is "sissy."

“We’ve got Joe Biden to thank for this!” is such a Tim Heidecker line

I bet he doesn't even know what guacamole and salsa are made of.

he knows they're somehow related to tequila

...which isn't even included with your salsa and guacamole purchase! Can you believe it?

Also I can buy a tub of salsa for half that price at my sorta pricey local grocery.

The Boeberts seem to be angling for the slot formerly occupied by the Palins.

Oz really can't do anything without looking like a fool at this point.

wait til he starts wearing ben davis shirts

raw asparagus in salsa… the food of the gods

Oil prices tumbled Monday after China’s central bank unexpectedly cut rates after data showed economic activity slowed broadly in July, including consumer spending and factory output, reigniting concerns of a global downturn.

Signs of further cooling in the world’s second-largest economy, already under strain from China’s zero-covid policy and a real estate crisis, alarmed energy markets. The prospect of lower demand sent oil prices sliding 3.2 percent — pushing West Texas Intermediate crude to $89 a barrel.

we've got joe biden to thank for this

Dr. Oz is such a remarkably awful candidate, I get those same vibes as when Trump first ran where you get the sense that it was a publicity stunt and he never really had a plan for what he would do should he actually win the nomination, but he doesn't have the pure venom to keep people interested nor does he really seem to want to go all-out for a statewide race. if he continues to poll this poorly I can see him just checking out entirely.

strong "dog chasing a car what happens if he catches it" vibes

Rudy has been informed he is a target of the Georgia investigation.

Yeah, no shit.

I posted this on the Trump thread, but I guess at this point news of Sidney Powell and team getting hacked voting data in multiple states is NBD.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/15/sidney-powell-coffee-county-sullivan-strickler/

It’s the 50-state strategy. Try to cheat in every single state

The last two times Democrats suffered catastrophic midterm losses, an early warning of the coming earthquake came out of the Pacific Northwest.

This year, the indication from Washington state suggests something very different: a more middle-of-the-road outcome in the general election, instead of the red wave Republicans have been hoping to build.

Poor Democratic results in Washington’s August all-party primaries reflected the broader malaise that hit the party statewide and nationally in 2010 and 2014, and Republicans’ troubles in November 2018 were obvious in the August primary returns that year. Now, the 2022 primary vote out of Washington is the latest new data point — along with a number of promising Senate polls and a slight lead for Democrats in the average generic House ballot polling — suggesting Democrats’ performance in November may not be as catastrophic as previous midterm elections when their party held the White House.

This year, the aggregate Democratic vote across the state’s House primaries was more than 5 percentage points worse than Democrats’ performance in the 2018 “blue wave” year. But it was also more than 5 percentage points better than Democrats performed in either 2010 or 2014, two Republican wave years.

The party vote shares in Washington primaries have been a reliable indicator of general election outcomes there over the past decade — and while Washington leans more toward Democrats than the U.S. as a whole, swings in the states’ margins over the past decade have largely mirrored the rest of the country, according to a POLITICO analysis of the results.

“Nationally, we expected the low approval rating of Joe Biden to create a Republican wave,” said Alex Hays, a Washington-based Republican consultant. “In Washington state, the election results were closer to neutral.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/16/democrats-midterms-hopes-washington-00052049

Strikes me as whistling past the graveyard, as much as I hope it's not.

between the dismantling of Roe v Wade, Trump's many federal crimes, and the GOP's explicit promise to never let Dems win again once they regain control I'm thinking Biden's approval rating may not figure into the midterms too much

besides you do have gas prices declining and the Dems did, somehow, pass a massive climate bill, so it might start ticking up

My guess at this point is that they win the senate and lose the house, but with a very small gop majority and because the gop house caucus is ungovernable and insane the effectiveness with which they work is reduced. They’ll still impeach biden though.

This is an outlier so far but would be very nice

#NEW Florida Senate General Election Poll:

Demings (D) 48% (+4)
Rubio (R-inc) 44%

University of North Florida (8/8-8/12)

— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) August 16, 2022

So is this: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/08/16/nikki-fried-up-against-charlie-crist-unf-poll-florida-governor-race-democratic-primary/10306971002/

more analysis of the washington primary results, a little less positive than the politico piece: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/08/16/what_washington_states_primaries_predict_for_the_midterms.html

neanderthal and alfred (and other floridians) what do you think about the senate race? i don't know anything at all about Demings, so my opinions are only about Rubio. he seems like a continuing national embarrassment to me, but does he actually still have a strong base of support in FL?

Didn’t he basically run his last re-election campaign promising to be a check on Trump?

I still think Rubio has a chance b/c Cuban conservatives will swallow their considerable contempt (and it's there -- they think he's a coward and a fool) to avoid voting for a Black woman socialist; but that outlier UNF poll shows Demings catching up.

She has thankfully stopped running this ad:

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

And how beatable is DeSantis? He barely won election in the first place, but all of his psychotic bullshit has made him genuinely popular, right?

With the Dems' Senate chances improving weekly, who knows? The usual midterm patterns may not manifest. xpost

And how beatable is DeSantis? He barely won election in the first place, but all of his psychotic bullshit has made him genuinely popular, right?

― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, August 16, 2022

idk -- Don't Say Gay's effects we're seeing this week already as kids return to school.

Did y'all know we professors have to send our syllabi to Tallahassee now?

Didn’t he basically run his last re-election campaign promising to be a check on Trump?

― Western® with Bacon Flavor

yeah, exactly! that's why i have no idea what he has going for him. i don't understand what accomplishments he's pointing to. he's had 12 years to do something!

He shares responsibility for re-introducing "widdle" into the popular lexicon.

16% of Black renters have either been evicted or threatened with eviction in the past year

A majority of Black renters do not have enough saved to cover one month of expenses

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/09/1112895439/eviction-affordable-housing

xpost knows exactly what he's doing

Be sure to tell everyone that this is a law now, because of Democrats, since a lot of people don’t pay attention.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/16/biden-signs-inflation-reduction-act-00052233

This pics shows him definitely NOT wearing a mask during the signing... which they WH said he'd be doing for ten days after his wife's positive diagnosis

https://www.axios.com/2022/08/16/biden-reconciliation-inflation-reduction-act

It would surprise me if he's still contagious.

I noticed he took his mask off before his address. But we're the only ones noticing this shit anymore. I thought he'd get zinged for the omicron surges in spring and summer, but, yeah, nope. Apparently no one cares enough.

Thanks, Obama https://t.co/5KZfiXIGgd

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 16, 2022

Theory: Fetterman social media strategy is taking over the Democratic Party like the Venom virus

— Populism Updates (@PopulismUpdates) August 16, 2022

Cheney: Two years ago. I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear. But it would've required that I go along with president trump's lie about the 2020 election.. That was a path I could not and
would not take. pic.twitter.com/vRq0Fdz4x1

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 17, 2022

https://media.makeameme.org/created/if-you-strike-turht6.jpg

She's going to raise so much money from stupid people to get 348 votes in the 2024 primary.

Would make more sense to run as a 3rd party wrecker in the general

make more sense for who?

Theoretically a third-party Cheney candidacy would deliver a few thousand never-trumper GOP votes, and perhaps a few dozen conservadems (Manchinites?).

Because all normal humans understand that there is no hope at all for any third-party candidate, these would be people who feel that casting a "principled" protest vote is more important than affecting the result.

If this tiny number of votes happened to be correctly distributed, it could make a difference, probably in favor of Democrats. But it's not likely. Most voters are partisan, even if they have to hold their nose.

I don't know, in 2020 Joe Biden needed every single anti-Trump vote to win. I think Liz Cheney running as an independent in 2024 would benefit the GOP.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/08/cheney-2024-all-mimsey-were-the-borogroves

I guess the spoiler question comes down to (a) whether you think the hypothetical third party is likely to peel more votes away from Biden or from Trump, and (b) how many votes you think each is getting to begin with. If the spoiler is mostly picking up anti-Trump Republicans who just can't bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, that's great for Biden. If they're peeling off anti-Trump Republicans who actually did make the jump last time, that's bad for Biden. But how many any of any of those people actually exist?

(To be clear, I don't think Cheney gets more than 348 votes as a third-party candidate either.)

xpost Ha.. I love the comments section on that, riffing that it was DeSantis who tipped off the DOJ on the Mar-a-Lago docs

y'all are assuming she doesn't just switch parties and make the 35-40 of the most obnoxious columnists/ pundits alive wet their pants

Friedman for one

so Dick's daughter would jump parties in this scenario to help elect Trump?

Too bad Yang already started his new party, he could throw something together with Cheney and Evan McMullin.

(i'm mostly joking but hey stranger things have happened. obviously can't see her doing this unless Biden doesn't/ can't run and the primary becomes a free for all)

xpost

y'all are assuming she doesn't just switch parties and make the 35-40 of the most obnoxious columnists/ pundits alive wet their pants

This will never, ever happen. Cheney is one of the most hard-line Rs in the country. Being anti-Trump is literally the only thing separating her from the rest of the slavering horde.

being anti-Trump makes her virtually unelectable as a Republican. if she wants to be in elected office again she’ll have to move to the Acela corridor and/or become a Democrat

Ten years from now, assuming we haven't descended into some form of white supremacy/Christo-fascism by then, Republicans will be all, "Donald who?"

This is very, very good news, not just because it'll help solidify the Democrats' Senate majority, but because Ron Johnson is a rancid, melting turd:

In new Marquette Law School Poll, 51% of registered WI voters support Democrat Mandela Barnes, 44% support Republican Ron Johnson in US Senate race. In June @mulawpoll, it was Barnes 46% and Johnson 44%. #mulawpoll

— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) August 17, 2022

Ten years from now, assuming we haven't descended into some form of white supremacy/Christo-fascism by then, Republicans will be all, "Donald who?"

No way, they’re going to deify him like Reagan.

My money is on a Bush-like disavowal.

Republicans will be all, "Donald who?"

hope you're right but i just can't currently get there from here

anyway, i'd be shocked if Liz isn't already taking meetings with Dem strategerists at the very least

I don't think historical precedent is much of a guide for how Trump will be viewed in future

Cheney seems like she's gonna have a nice career giving speeches to companies which lean Republican for tax/regulatory reasons but hire mostly college grads who, last I checked, don't much like Trump either

Because we'll be dead. xpost

Dobbs + inflation moderating/gas prices coming down looking to be pretty significant tide turn for Ds

passing the climate bill too, since it **finally** gives the Dems something significant that they can point to and say it never would've happened had they not won those 2 Senate seats in GA

Cheney = Instant MSNBC contributor

The Cheney & Psaki Show

Republicans lost their opportunity for “Donald who?” years ago. The great mistake for many of us was imagining there would be enough of them who wanted an off ramp.

Well, he's gonna die some day. With any luck, some day soon.

Trump dying would be the best thing for everyone, absolutely everyone

I think Mittens sorta pulled it off, but there's no less popular position in US politics than the anti-Trump Republican. And Mitt is almost certainly the last of that breed for a long time. If Cheney wants to get serious about continuing in Congress she should become one of those Manchin/Sinema type Democrats. idk if that could win in Wyoming but if Manchin can win in WV who knows. and as we've seen getting someone in 'enemy' territory is kinda the only way Dems can make the math work sometimes, given how badly the deck is stacked against them.

She might get some traction in Wyoming as an independent. Can't see her winning there as a Democrat.

all these people are ghouls

If she tried to switch parties her father would shoot her in the face.

wyoming will never ever vote for a democrat, not within 3 generations after bill clinton

The last Dem presidential nominee to win Wyoming: LBJ.

Lol unperson

Somebody’s running for President

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/17/pence-jan-6-committee-testify-00052381

He'll get 3480 votes.

maybe he'll run on hanging himself

“If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it,” Pence told a packed room at the New England Council and Saint Anselm College’s “Politics & Eggs” event on Wednesday morning.

idgi is he a politic or an egg?

“ In fact, the former vice president, who is typically reticent to talk about his experience on Jan. 6, 2021 — when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the counting of Electoral Votes and chanted “hang Mike Pence” — seemed uncharacteristically open to talking about it down the line, perhaps in the memoir he referenced that is scheduled to be released just after November’s midterm elections.”

That “perhaps” is the writer winking

James Carville: “The problem the Republican Party has is, they got really stupid people that vote in their primaries. And … really stupid people demand to have really stupid leaders. That’s where the Republican Party is now,” he said.

that's it in a nutshell

fascist != stupid. Carville is a waste

Carville's a relic
his wife Mary Matalin changed her party registration to libertarian in 2016 lol

Anyone who proposes interviewing James Carville about politics in 2022 should be fired on the spot. That said, he's not wrong. Republican primary voters are stupid. They're fascists too, of course, but they're stupid first. And it's okay to admit it, to call them stupid to their faces, and laugh at them when they talk.

And the leaders aren't necessarily stupid, they're just willing to pander to the stupid masses.

Not defending Carville, on principle. But there is a base-level ignorance — or a level of ignorance in the base — that's pretty significant. It's a dimness about the world in general coupled with evangelical suspicion of education and knowledge as corrupting influences. And of course a tremendous amount of entitlement. Proudly stupid, defiantly stupid. Smuggling-ivermectin-into-the-ICU stupid.

Republicans are stupid.

But also, shhhhhh don't tell D leaning voters about certain compromises in a just passed bill ---

The two biggest benefits for seniors in the IRA are the Medicare negotiation of certain high-cost prescription drugs, and the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap. But while price negotiations technically start next year, no consumer will see the benefit until the new prices begin in 2026, and even then on only 10 drugs (another 15 are added in 2027 and 2028, rising to 20 by 2029 and subsequent years).

You could squint and maybe understand the need for a little delay in setting up a negotiation regime. There are some parameters to set up, like the benchmarks for prices and the penalties if drug companies refuse to deal. Maybe you have to train negotiators. But none of that can possibly explain the three-year delay between the beginning of negotiation and the realization of price discounts for seniors. To be crass, it means that substantial numbers of seniors living now will not be alive when the reduction in certain prescription drug prices is realized.

https://prospect.org/health/prescription-drug-price-reforms-wont-happen-for-years/

well it gives the pharma industry time to elect a different president

i also wouldn’t be surprised if that short list of drugs includes a handful whose exclusivity is going to run out shortly after the negotiation period opens

It also means that if and when the law actually leads to lower Rx prices for normal people, no voter except for Ezra Klein’s third cousin will connect it to the IRA.

It could also be one of those fun situations where in 6 years, the cost of a certain Rx has gone up 75%, due to the unavoidable conditions of life sucking so badly and things always getting worse. But without the IRA, the cost would have gone up 125%. Triumph

good morning!

lol these people will lie about every single thing, whether it matters or not