US Politics, January 2022 — a pro-God, pro-family, pro-bitcoin state

in 2008/9 it was kind of newsworthy that on inauguration night (or was it 2008 election night?) mcconnell and boehner and gang were meeting and agreeing to oppose obama 100% no matter what. by 2020, it was so obvious that it was the GOP agenda that no one even bothers to hide it, and in fact it's more like a litmus test top being in the gop

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, January 19, 2022

The president could get away with such addled twaddle if Manchin and Sinema didn't exist and he could rack up the legislative victories

Well… and the Senator who’s heading the Senate midterm election committee. I don’t know if I’d call him a pundit?

― papal hotwife (milo z),

I'd call it "sending signals," which is more legit.

I’m all for dying empire, good riddance.

we're headed for Bulgaria in 1987 with Starbucks and gastro pubs

hmmm. didn't Bulgaria in 1987 have state-run universal health care?

bulgaria 1987 was fukken legendary

Unless I missed it, President Biden walked away without answering the question about canceling $10,000 in student loans.

— Stephen Sanchez (@SSanchezTV) January 19, 2022

hmmm. didn't Bulgaria in 1987 have state-run universal health care?

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, January 19, 2022

health care worth getting?

I presume the recipients thought so.

Bulgaria 1987 had universal paid vacations as well

the bulgaria 87 bootlegs were dominated by a man named Kalin. he had the support of the bulgarian insiders on that tour and they would always ensure him a good position for his dual mic recording setup, and a soundboard channel for the Yambol jamboree

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/159/681/558.jpg

fbid=QWNjZXNzIG1haW4gcHJvZ3JhbS4gQWNjZXNzIG1haW4gc2VjdXJpdHkuIEFjY2VzcyBtYWluIHByb2dyYW0gZ3JpZC4

Henry Cuellar getting raided

Seems pleasant enough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJgLji4Uf7M
yes, I googled it.

Sofia Bulgaria, wasn't she in Modern Family?

Sen. Mitch McConnell: “African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”

I’m speechless. pic.twitter.com/5gWDxb8WGb

— Travis Akers (@travisakers) January 20, 2022

sorry, i meant REGULAR americans

I’m tired of people (note: no one here is doing this afaict) when an obvious racist says something racist

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/20/republicans-redistricting-more-ruthless-527445

i'm living in a red state for the first time since i was 21. i know i should expect this stuff, but i am just filled with rage. i will do my best to not post 10 times in a row and then flame out.

there are 8 house districts in Missouri. it's a red state - the total house vote in 2020 was 58% GOP, 39% DEM. that should be a 5 GOP / 3 DEM map. the Republican dominated legislature put forward a 6 GOP / 2 DEM, which is already unfair. And the big controversy is not from democrats in Missouri, (who appear to be....completely lifeless? dead? nonexistent?) raising a fuss, but rather from republicans in missouri who believe the map should be 7 GOP / 1 DEM. which would entail making either St Louis or Kansas City a GOP district. man, FUCK THEM, these fucking creeps, all across the country

and if you go into the deep GOP twitter where it's like county level election boards and 1 or 2 or 0 likes on everything, it's just 100% unanimous "well we gotta take our country back and we gotta make sure that rural people's voices count for more than anyone else's, that's what we have to do and we're just going to keep nodding and we'll worry about democracy later, after our christian nationalist republic is established

Guess what? It's happening in Florida too.

Until this week, the bitter partisan warfare and intraparty strife that traditionally engulfs Florida’s redistricting battles had been noticeably subdued, but then Gov. Ron DeSantis lit a match.

Days after quietly submitting his own proposal for a congressional redistricting plan that gives Republicans in Congress an eight-seat advantage in Florida, his office released an explanation to the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times that indicates he has rejected the legal guidelines adopted by Senate and House Republicans and wants to advance maps with districts that raise doubts about whether they will preserve minority representation in Congress. “This plan adheres to federal and state requirements — especially district compactness, minimizing county splits where feasible, and protects minority voting populations,’’ said DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske in an email late Tuesday. “... Additionally, the northern Florida district is an unconstitutional gerrymander that unnaturally connects communities in Jacksonville with communities hours away in Tallahassee and Gadsden counties.”

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article257482259.html#storylink=cpy

Karl, I am originally from Missouri and I can't understand it either. The state has slid redward so precipitously that my St. Louis family (lifelong Democratic activists, including two judges and an alderman) can't even coherently explain it. Things used to be rather more pendulumish. The Carnahans, Kit Bonds, Jay Nixon. It wasn't edenic but it was comprehensible. Even Ashcroft (who is deeply evil) seems quaint when faced with Greitens and the McCloskeys.

Eric Greitens studied philosophy. He went to Oxford. He was a Rhodes Scholar. And yet his most successful campaign ad was one where he just mindlessly blew shit up with an AR-15. I guess one thing he learned was how to read the room.

People like my parents and grandparents just find the era of Trumpy boat parades unrecognizable, and cannot figure out how to fight it statewide; it just seems like an inexorable red wave. They focus on local elections and get Cori Bush in there but it feels like a rear-guard action.

People used to say that it's very like the nation in microcosm - blue cities on the "coasts," rural red in between. But something more insidious and hideous has happened.

Same deal in TN. We're already at a 7-2 split in our congressional delegation — in a state that votes 37-40 percent Democratic in statewide races — but now they've chopped up Nashville among three different Republican-leaning districts. So we're going to have 11 percent Democratic representation in our delegation. It's not "representative" in any actual way, but is almost certainly legal. This is how the GOP takes back the House without even having to flip any seats in the midterms. (Which they will probably also do.)

of course the ny dems are gerrymandering in retaliation and all you hear is republican whining.

if you don’t like it, pass the fucking john lewis act

I'm slightly nervous about the possibility of Illinois seeing a Republican governor soon. While the downstate folks hating the Democratic governor is nothing new (though their Pritzker hate seems even more intense than usual), there are enough the "small business" capitalist bootlicking DINO types in Chicago that are blaming their pandemic failures on him to the point that I'm worried we might be surprised.

don't even get me started about Wisconsin right now

Take Back MO Rally

this is one of the best photos I've seen of the kind of wide-eyed christian fascism that's permeates the state:

https://i.imgur.com/x6yC11n.png

On the anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection, the “Take Back MO Rally” was held on the first floor rotunda of the Missouri State Capitol without any objection. The event was organized by Rep. Ann Kelley, a vocal advocate of the election fraud theory, who stated the date of the rally was just pure coincidence. The rally began with prayers led by a Missouri pastor, asking the lord to watch over the Jan. 6th Insurrectionists still incarcerated for storming the nation's Capitol. This was followed by various state politicians assuring the completely maskless crowd that the recent omicron surge was fabricated, argued that implementing CRT in schools would only create Marxist children, and cautioned that America’s morals were in danger of being dismantled by “them”, although there was never an explanation of who exactly “them” was. The infamous "My Pillow Guy" was originally billed to be the main speaker, however he was a no show. Instead, the pinnacle of the day was a lecture by Dr. Douglas Frank, a physics teacher from Ohio who claims he discovered an algorithm proving the 2020 election was rigged. Despite his findings being widely disproven, he told the crowd he would “summarize his discovery from a 3 hour presentation to just 20 minutes” which was met with a “hell yeah” from the crowd. As Dr. Douglas Frank showcased his findings via PowerPoint, many of the rally attendees jotted notes and took photos of his findings to add to their own research. The event ended 2 hours early with the physics teacher performing an experiment. He took out a ‘metallic singing rod’ which he rubbed to initiate a high pitched screech, which he asked “isn’t this annoying?” to the crowd. He then explained “the truth about our election being stolen…annoying isn't it? The truth is annoying”. More photos at @riverfronttimes

i will say that it is gutsy as hell to do this in public, and his triumph over the enraptured crowd must have felt exhilarating:

he event ended 2 hours early with the physics teacher performing an experiment. He took out a ‘metallic singing rod’ which he rubbed to initiate a high pitched screech, which he asked “isn’t this annoying?” to the crowd. He then explained “the truth about our election being stolen…annoying isn't it? The truth is annoying”.

looooool
these are brule's rules

US Politics, January 2022 - "Isn't this annoying?... Annoying, isn't it?"

*crowd looks at each other in astonishment*

he's right about some things, you know?!

well i dunno, there are lots of other people around here who seem to think it's right though so

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

transcription of the notes of the guy up front

evidence:
Doug Frank - doctor
    graph: registered voters
    trump victory guaranteed by algorithm
                                (99.99% probability
                                   20% chance of evolution)
    mypillow promo: PATRIOTMO
                     (40% off first pillow)
            Zionist club penis enhancement committee
      
      Doctor Doug: "I have more promo codes following my presentation"
 
 
loud annoying sound experiment
          

HAY! DOCTOR DOUG!

https://i.imgur.com/RkW2QdK.png

HAY! I wanted to start out with a general statement, which is that I also have an algorithm that proves -- without a shadow of doubt in my heart, follow the money -- that President Trump won the election. We all know he did and I think we should all be doing our own research

I'm just praying that America will pray the rosary to make all abortions go away

I'm going to be completely frank and say that the number one bit of voter and demographic analysis that is being ignored is how incredibly fucking stupid many people are in the United States, and how proud these stupid people are about their stupidity. Mix in those who've bought bootstraps ideology and Christian ethno-nationalism and you have a significant portion of the population who are, by any objective measure, slobbering, mean-spirited fools.

It is not lost on me that some of this is by design, as keeping people dumb and entranced by shiny objects, Gods, fear, and lottery-like chances at "making it" is part and parcel of US hypercapitalism and the GOP's general platform. But there's only so much of the rise in vengeful morons that can be explained by these hegemonic forces.

(Not exclusive to the US, of course).

those people look really unhealthy, not really about body size per se, they just look like they don't know how to take care of themselves

Case in point:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/opinion/biden-independent-voters.html

Read before lunch.

A huge number of white people in the U.S. lost their damn minds when a black man got elected president.

I'm still utterly baffled by the Qberts' obsession with the upcoming resurrection of JFK Jr.

Table otm. It's the stupidity, stupid. And selfishness. And racism/xenophobia.

Depressing that I can't just blame tilt towards mouthbreather dbag populism on older generation and wait for them to just die out. So many people my age are just horrible people who are made more horrible by their pervasive cynicism.

Janet: Please be moderate, like you used to be, and don’t tell me that I have to wear a mask anymore.

is that an actual quote? lmfao.

Case in point: dumb motherfuckers are everywhere, and they vote.

I wonder how much of that would translate to any given year/President/etc., so much of it's the usual media-driven pablum about crime being worse than ever:

I think they’ve taken us back to cave man time, where you would walk around with a club. “I want what you have.” You’re not even safe to walk around and go to the train station, because somebody might throw you off the train, OK? It’s a regression.

how is it that every single "independent voter" parrots the exact same talking points from Tucker Carlson

Jimbeaux OTFM

Scott: This is the problem. This is the problem.

Frank Luntz: What’s the problem?

Scott: That people think these things. That the election was rigged, that it was stolen, that Biden’s a puppet. I mean, this is the problem in the country, that people believe this stuff.

Janet: But he ran as a moderate, and he hasn’t done anything moderately. It’s been all listening to the progressives.

Scott: Well, Trump ran as the least racist person in the world, he said, and we know how that turned out. So, I mean, people say things.

Kristine: That’s irrelevant.

Out of Beckett.

Waiting for God! Out!

“So, I mean, people say things.”

They do, they do