Beware the Ides of March -- U.S. Politics March 2021

Id also be ok w him surviving the car crash but with his pretty face smashed to bits

I’ve probably said this before but the best thing you could do w “Madison” “Cawthorn” (jfc) is to roll him and Greg Abbot down a ramp and off a cliff and see who gets the most distance

^and I say this kind of thing all the time, which is why most people related to me or attended the same high school have unfollowed me on social media

Since $150K is too much for a stimulus check, and anything less than $400K is too middle class for a tax hike, let’s do SALT cap repeal but start the phase out at $150K and cap it at $400K. That way maybe 200 households can save approximately nothing and we can call it a day. pic.twitter.com/0oEWAAya7S

— Dan Riffle (@DanRiffle) March 30, 2021

another reason for electoral reform is how fucking stupid it makes an HR position. for some it seems youre just a beggar swearing to vote for your donors, esp if you're GOP. and fine, 'twas ever thus,' but it's now more thus than ever.

would be better just to make a big profile in social media and then run for senate or pres

and yeah it's not like the senatros are immune, but at least 6 yrs is some space in which to reaaaally beg big.

Biden named judges

re Gaetz: quitting Congress to OAN the libs, surely?

IIRC, Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to fill Merrick Garland's seat on the DC Circuit, is viewed as a likely SCOTUS nominee for Biden (should Breyer come to his senses).

maybe Clarence Thomas can cough on him

I don't know her but multiple friends of mine do and say she is amazing

The first year of a president's term going back to at least Reagan (with both Bushes the exception; Souter didn't replace Brennan until 1990, and Junior didn't get Roberts until 2005) has had a SCOTUS nominee step down. Let's hope Breyer doesn't break this proud tradition.

er a SCOTUS justice step down

i don't even get what that tweet re SALT cap repeal is trying to say ... there are ways around it that affluent people with greater financial literacy and resources use, so it ends up being like the PPP loans, where existing social inequities are amplified. ... On a conceptual level, the reason these deductions exist(ed) in tax code is the principle against double taxation. It is why you have "other state" tax credits, the foreign earned income exclusion, and a credit for foreign tax paid.

Gaetz is considering a new job? Gee, I wonder why...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/politics/matt-gaetz-sex-trafficking-investigation.html

“I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.”

uh?

I hope this doesn't hurt Nestor's feelings too much

Best part of the Gaetz piece is when he starts referencing crimes they weren't even asking about

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) March 30, 2021

In 2017, Mr. Gaetz was the only member of Congress to vote against a law that gave the federal government more power and money to fight human trafficking.

Ask and you shall receive

Deal. I want Gaetzgate. https://t.co/MB8sYjwJcT

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 25, 2021

I like how Elongate is a...word. but gaetz just takes it as "part of his name", so he responds with his own name+gate, without even bothering with wordplay. i'd expect this out of lesser reps but COME ON matt gaetz, you know better!

I say we change Florida’s welcome signs to this 👇 https://t.co/w1eBUvvg8F

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) August 12, 2019

lol

oh fuck

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 30, 2021

It is pure

good luck buddy pic.twitter.com/g5amFeEVLL

— sonia (@soniasaraiya) March 30, 2021

"I only know that it has to do with women," Gaetz told The Times. "I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward."

Ok.. so you're 38 and your ex girlfriend is 17? How old was she when you were a couple?
Down in a hole and he keeps digging.

When it's all going REAL great

https://www.axios.com/matt-gaetz-sexual-misconduct-investigation-2755fd4f-f72e-4283-b8ac-9233c952b914.html

..the alleged extortion scheme, which he claimed was being run by a former DOJ employee.

There's that dirty Deep State, up to their old hijinks

Just a hunch: Greenberg flipped on Matt Gaetz. https://t.co/dTSzvJupCL

— julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) March 30, 2021

Hahah ohhhh dear.

hey good solid job making shit worse on yourself here columbo https://t.co/6PiaCKbsCp

— kilgore trout, a student of martial arts (@KT_So_It_Goes) March 30, 2021

I enjoyed this photo choice

#BREAKING: Matt Gaetz under investigation for alleged sexual relations with 17-year-old: report https://t.co/3zgiNjNHxZ pic.twitter.com/gcL6kgCyJz

— The Hill (@thehill) March 30, 2021

HOW does this bitch not have a lawyer handling these requests for comment https://t.co/Ieo77q7g1k

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) March 30, 2021

this statement seems like it might a bad idea

"definitely"

As a former president notes:

Note that Gaetz is a lawyer, still licensed in Florida, apparently. The splash you heard is his own lawyer throwing himself into Biscayne Bay. https://t.co/0fI8k6U20l

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) March 30, 2021

"threatening to smear my name"

consider it smeared

I like how Elongate is a...word. but gaetz just takes it as "part of his name", so he responds with his own name+gate, without even bothering with wordplay. i'd expect this out of lesser reps but COME ON matt gaetz, you know better!

Gates-gate though, tbf to this pea-brained sex criminal.

Why hasn’t Matt Gertz legally changed his name yet?

popcorn.gif

Must vom TV

Rep. Matt Gaetz will be on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) March 30, 2021

ilxor jjjusten memorably described Gaetz as "a bag of rabid rats dumped into a human skin suit"

He's gonna go on FOX to explain why he wants a job at Newsmax - got it

Oh shit I might have to watch tucker tonight

What a night for g gordon liddy to croak

I don't doubt that Gaetz is working with a FL FBI office to try and come up with something on the victim. These local offices often are way more political than the DC leadership (cf. Giuliani using his NY FBI office connections from SDNY days to investigate Hilary, among other things).

I really don’t think Matt Gaetz committed “sex trafficking” even if he is guilty of exactly what the NYT describes. And in fact, the age of consent is 16 or 17 in the vast majority of states.

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) March 30, 2021

Yes I am in fact a libertarian thank you for pointing that out

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) March 30, 2021

Well shit if that guy is cool with it

Rep. Matt Gaetz will be on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) March 30, 2021

Looking forward to Greenwald and Taibbi becoming rabid Gaetz defenders.

Matt Gaetz's campaign didn't spend any money on legal fees in the 2020 cycle until July, shortly after his associate Joel Greenberg was indicted. His campaign spent $64K on legal consulting over the last 5 months of the year. pic.twitter.com/oTFafdUazD

— Karl Evers-Hillstrom (@KarlMEvers) March 30, 2021

Man, these people are so fucking weird

The Republican Poseurs Who Claim to Be True Texans

Earlier this week, a campaign video emerged out of Texas showing a brawny bull-rider trying to buck his way into Congress. The ad, featuring Republican candidate and former professional wrestler Dan Rodimer, checked all the Republican boxes, from complaints about “communism” to whingeing about how Democrats “hate our way of life.” “Commies in D.C. are ruining America,” railed Rodimer, claiming the time had come to “make America Texas again.” For good measure, Rodimer referred to himself in the third person as “Big Dan.”

...

“Originally from New Jersey, Rodimer attended a preparatory school in the suburbs before moving to Florida for college and law school,” the Post wrote, while noting Rodimer’s buttoned-up, mild-mannered campaign ads from just a year before, when he ran for Congress in Nevada. Trading his starched polo for a 10-gallon hat and replacing his meek voice with a half-baked impression of Doc Holliday, Rodimer had refashioned himself as a cosplay cowboy—one who’d firmly back the kinds of illiberal, authoritarian policies swiftly rising in popularity on the Texas right.

“The Justice Department regularly prosecutes such cases, and offenders often receive severe sentences.”

Good sentence.

One (admittedly minor) thing about the Rodimer story... they've been married for three? or four? years. Going off the bit where his "then-girlfriend now-wife" called 911 on him.

They have six children.