“It’s a little too quiet” - US Politics February 2021

Gaetz is a character from a Zappa song that willed himself into existence, right?

🐦[Matt Gaetz on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s press conference: "That was so good I almost had to smoke a cigarette afterwards." pic.twitter.com/btVwLFf4eJ🕸
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 5, 2021🕸]🐦

I know y'all hate Zappa, but c'mon

The zones would permit companies with large areas of land to form governments carrying the same authority as counties, including the ability to impose taxes, form school districts and courts and provide government services.

I can envision it now. Inhabitants of these zones live in company-owned housing, built to company-dictated building codes, are paid in "Company Bucks" which can only be spent in company-owned shops, and send their kids to schools teaching company-approved curricula, but they must pay their taxes in US dollars.

I'm hoping Local area currencies don't get usurped into being like that elsewhere too.
Sounded like a useful model when i first heard aboutthe system, kept money in the local area and kept the l;ocal economny alive because it wasn't being siphoned off.
That's the new Jim Crow though means none of the benefit of the money gets to reach the individual worker involved.

Gaetz is a character from a Zappa song that willed himself into existence, right?

― "what are you DOING to fleetwood mac??" (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, February 5, 2021 12:28 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have yet to see convincing evidence that Gaetz is not Unknown Hinson.

The zones would permit companies with large areas of land to form governments carrying the same authority as counties, including the ability to impose taxes, form school districts and courts and provide government services.

Haven't we, um...done this before?

Sure. Reagan called them "enterprise zones.

I mean....am I crazy or is this just a company town?

So-called enterprise zones confined themselves mostly to big tax breaks as the means of luring investment. They didn't allow corporations to run them as quasi-governments.

Reagan's imagination clearly was incommensurate with his followers' Randian antasies.

what's not all that old is new again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SugMvGn2wQQ

The Zappos guy died too soon, Startup Company Towns would have made him jizz in his pants.

No need to rebuild downtown Vegas with shipping containers when you can just buy desert for $10 an acre.

Walt Disney World has multiple local governments set up by and for Disney.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a15155208/disney-world-government/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/05/why-thedonald-moderator-left/

TheDonald’s owner speaks out on why he finally pulled plug on hate-filled site
The Army veteran, a site moderator who owned its domain, watched with growing alarm as racism, threats and QAnon references flourished on the pro-Trump site. His former co-moderators called him a ‘sellout’ who went ‘rogue’ after internal schism.

Needless to say, this guy is a total turd, too, just minimally less stinky a turd than his horrible cohort.

WHO KNEW etc

Trump Shifted Campaign-Donor Money Into His Private Business After Losing The Election via https://t.co/mbpFPgudy8

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) February 5, 2021

https://i.imgflip.com/15f4en.jpg

In addition, one of the campaign’s joint-fundraising committees, which collects money in partnership with the Republican Party, shifted about $4.3 million of donor money into Trump’s business from January 20, 2017, to December 31, 2020—at least $331,000 of which came after the election.

Grifters gotta grift

It's because he's smart.

As the Bannon arrest showed, MAGA people are genuinely happy to be grifted by their heroes.

(Of course, the Lincoln Project has a top-5 podcast now so that's not really limited to the MAGA world.)

I like to give all of my money to con men, it gives me a profound sense of belonging!

so Rick PErlstein is going to be on the LP pod soon. i would give that a listen. i'd really like it if he would politely explain to them how they would come across if he were to do another book covering the B. Clinton/ W Bush/ Obama years.

he's probably too nice though

This is rich: On November 19, the campaign paid $31,000 for air travel to a company named DT Endeavor LLC. Five days later, the joint-fundraising committee paid the same entity $39,000. Forbes did not include those payments in its overall total of money moving into Trump’s empire, since it’s not 100% clear that the former president owns DT Endeavor LLC. There are strong indications that he does, though. The federal filings list the address for the DT Endeavor LLC as Trump Tower in one spot and Mar-a-Lago in another...

And of course, the name includes the initials "DT" as well, so there's a clue.

Glad we got that cleared up

“McCarthy claims he has received private assurances from Greene that she no longer wishes death on Pelosi.“ -Washington Post

— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) February 5, 2021

wow RINO

_In addition, one of the campaign’s joint-fundraising committees, which collects money in partnership with the Republican Party, shifted about $4.3 million of donor money into Trump’s business from January 20, 2017, to December 31, 2020—at least $331,000 of which came after the election. _

Grifters gotta grift

Private assurances so as not to jeopardize her brand.

xpost Yes, probably. Much of what he does is illegal. It's why he's being impeached. Again. And will finally be appropriately punished for his wrongdoing, at long last.

Lol remembering people in rage mode in here about a headline from The Hill quoted Biden saying “we need a strong Republican Party...”

Who?

y'know...people

We're hearing it more and more.

Pelosi is praying for the GOP, every day

Jesus Christ looks like me

Biden makes very clear that Dems going alone on $1.9T relief plan. “I'd like to be doing it with the support of Republicans. I've met with Republicans, there’s some really fine people want to get something done. But they're just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 5, 2021

“I've told both Republicans and Democrats, that's my preference to work together, but if I had to choose between getting help right now to Americans who are hurting so badly and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation, or compromising on a bill ... it’s an easy choice.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 5, 2021

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will deploy more than 1,100 troops to five vaccination centers in what will be the first wave of increased military support for the White House campaign to get more Americans inoculated against COVID-19...

yeah right.. they're coming after our AR-15s, warned you this was coming when the commies came to power

The troops can help persuade vaccine skeptics that it's really in their best interest to get the chip implanted

I would think that at one point at least the idea of a biparty state relied n each of tehm pulling equally in different directions but acknowledging the balance of the other. But once you start going down some looney anti representative path or at least not viewing everybody regarded asa citizen as being represented you lose the balance.
BUt then those people regarded as citizens were exclusive for a great deal fo taht time.

So is the idea of a strong counterbalancing opposition party a defunct idea now taht they've shown how little they care.
Maybe they just need a strong opposition party which would never be the GOP again.
& maybe it needs grassroots opposition to its worst tendencies to try to keep things on an even keel just as long as it isn't mindless thuggery passing itself off as grassroots opposition

let's get those empty Wal Mart FEMA camps fired up baybee

And will finally be appropriately punished for his wrongdoing, at long last.

Thanks, I needed that laugh this afternoon!

Some (somewhat less conspiracy-minded) Trumpalo FB friends were wetting themselves over this article today. Started reading, but peaced out after a few paragraphs.

https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/

it's good reporting that is framed really weirdly and irresponsibly

That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.

perfect for conspiracymongers to freak out about

I'm not going to click on that, but here's what I think it's about: the government intentionally allowed covid to spread as a distraction, and when people weren't paying attention they put the calendar on hold, so that it's actually 2020 *right now* but everyone *thinks* it's 2021, and while Biden is complacent in the White House convinced he's in charge, Trump is not only still president but currently running unopposed for reelection.

Was I close?

That's the vibe I was getting. "This isn't what [they] think it is"

XPS

Meanwhile, Always Be Closing:

Parler Wanted Donald Trump On Its Site. Trump’s Company Wanted A Stake. https://t.co/qsdgXrhGbj via @RMac18 & @RosieGray

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) February 5, 2021

I don't know why but the stupid spelling of Parler irks me

Question: could a Democrat-controlled Senate nix the filibuster for a year, and then reinstate it at some later date?