Where Are We Runnin’? - American Politics Thread, May 2022

Slap in the face in more than one way, to entirely different groups of people, some of whom overlap.

ffs

My mom is one of those 5% of people over 65 who have NOT gotten vaccinated. She knows she’s on a death sentence and I guess I’ve made my peace with that, since I did scream at her several thousand times and she may have listened to a small fraction of what I said.

But fuck, can we just use the money that was allocated to covid to help prevent covid, not just for the sake of people who aren’t fools but also, more importantly, for the fools who aren’t taking precautions?

And if we do give that money away for other purposes, maybe it could go to literally any other group than cops?

He thinks that will help in the midterms? He’s doing well on unions and he seems to understand the situation with Ukraine/Putin (ie, that crushing Russia is not a viable victory condition), good for him on that.

However, I hope he goes to catholic hell for trying to give covid relief money to cops (who, from the first day, did NOT wear masks around BLM protesters. They took pride in being as being as antagonistic as possible in every way, including allying with proud boys)

No money for schools, public and accessible health care, public and accessible mental health care, anti-poverty initiatives, anti-displacement initiatives, free universal preK, nothing.

And acting as if Covid is over and still not a major threat to many lives.

I mean at least they’re not pretending to actually care about anything except ruling over the vast majority of people with the iron fist of a fascist mercenary army, but yknow, it really makes me question why anyone should ever pay attention to the “vote blue no matter who” crowd ever again.

And despite that, if there were even a small chance that doing so would help the democrats to avoid a landslide defeat in the midterms (and in 2024 - they won’t have to do the steal stuff because they’re on the way to just winning) I would say well fuck, go for it. When the odds are stacked against you and the leadership is so clearly clueless and wrong, you support anything that actually might help.

But no — there is ZERO chance that asking red states to take the covid money and using it on cops helps, anywhere. slap in the face

xp

Mr Choppy then launch the basket of heads into the sun

I live in Missouri and now I’m not voting for Biden

Nice job you cruel old man

what's wrong with condensed milk? that's what I grew up on and I'm 14 feet tall

NEW POLL: Madison Cawthorn's approval has hit a key bump in the road.

We find Republican voters nationwide disapprove of Cawthorn by a -41-point margin. 69% of voters agree he should resign from Congress.https://t.co/B5Iw1skbcx

— Data for Progress (@DataProgress) May 12, 2022

Nice

Doesn't really matter what 'nationwide' republicans think... it's about his district

man I was really hoping they’d ride with this one.

Kevin McCarthy after the coke orgy interview

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

This guy is blocking press from entering the Mastriano/Barnette rally in Philly. He won’t answer any questions or make eye contact. pic.twitter.com/LTWuHlDMSg

— Colby Itkowitz (@ColbyItkowitz) May 14, 2022

Lol I just drove past this place

wait, so if he won't eye contact, but he's the main guard for the event...

i admit i played a little too much metal gear solid when i was a kid, but i'm pretty sure his "cone of vision" is "very narrow"

ok, these are the heavy hitters they bring in when needed

A few of you have wondered why we didn’t just walk around the guy telling us we couldn’t get into the Mastriano/Barnette rally. When we tried they brought out all these guys to stop us. pic.twitter.com/sz2e52E10X

— Colby Itkowitz (@ColbyItkowitz) May 14, 2022

I had no idea Warminster was now Philly

Like sorry, to say that this event took place “in Philly” is nonsensical.

All of them ghouls...

https://www.businessinsider.com/buffalo-shooting-gop-lawmaker-says-shooter-was-fed-false-flag-2022-5

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/MealyDishonestBadger-size_restricted.gif

"Fed boy summer has started in Buffalo," Rogers tweeted

The fuck? Does she think she's Pusha T?

well fuck

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/15/politics/fetterman-health-pennsylvania-senate-campaign/index.html

By "fed boy" maybe she was thinking of well-fed white teenagers.

is this real life

Oz: When you go to bed at night, put your head on that soft pillow, you’ll know Oz will be doing exactly what you want him to do if you were there next to him pic.twitter.com/M1lkJgqzmU

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 17, 2022

Soft pillow, hard pass

good morning!

Take the blue pill(ow) with Dr Oz!

absolute nightmare, with completely grim implications for the country at large

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/far-right-idaho_n_628277e2e4b0c84db7282bd6

Ehh, Idaho has kinda always been like this (Ruby Ridge, anyone?). I guess the normalizing of extremist views is something we're all dealing with, but Idaho is a place unto itself

Interesting angle buried in there on how the influx of California conservatives' cash is changing the socioeconomic context.

That Vanity Fair story published last month was something.

idk...Ruby Ridge = one family's armed standoff with the US Marshals; this piece = a range of explicitly white nationalist figures taking over the state GOP. Seems pretty different to me, even if, sure, there are precedents in Idaho that are discussed in the piece

Eric otm plus another interesting fact was that Idaho is the fastest growing state, obviously it's low-population but still

The article details how the coup is taking place in the most minor and formerly non-partisan of government positions. Systematic and awful.

The far right has studied in depth the means and methods of the post-Reconstruction south in establishing and defending Jim Crow and they are determined to follow that blueprint.

One thing's clear, the American remake of Years & Years will be a western.

on the one hand, yeah, he'll lie his face off. but on the other hand, why not let him?

Jan. 6 committee chairman Bennie Thompson says its “not our expectation” to call Donald Trump as a witness. He said it’s not clear Trump would enhance investigators’ understanding of the evidence they’ve already unearthed.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) May 17, 2022

Spokane is also a Christofascist shithole, has become whiter and whiter as white supremacists and assorted shitheads move there from Seattle and other parts of the state.

My husband was put in a coma by Nazi skinheads there when he was a teenager because he is mixed-race, and that was more than 20 years ago.

Talking with his mother, who is white, it is pretty certain that she and all of his white relatives are completely in thrall to these monsters. Really sad shit, to lose one’s mom in such a way.

it is so far beyond idaho, and it is not a good idea to ignore it to reduce it to ruby ridge 2.0. if only it were just that

a repeat of ruby ridge as one of the main news events of the year would be an ASTONISHING and unexpected return to form, the kind where even the detractors have to admit that they didn't see that one coming

Also Rob, it is difficult to take seriously the downplaying of Ruby Ridge as a turning point in the state— that and the Aryan Nation HQ being there did a lot of PR for the white nationalist movement. That is, it wasn’t simply one family’s stand-off with the US govt— they were part of a connected, worldwide movement to advance the interests of Aryan people, and the events there did not happen in a vacuum.

the people who have, earlier, said that it won't be a coup, because it will be legal by that point, were correct. this is happening across the country - the replacement of "moderate" GOP people with the full-on christian nationalist fascist kind. i have not heard a story about it being effectively combated.

also, i do think trump will legitimately win the vote in 2024, or come very close again, just because of who the people are in this country. so they might not even need to rely on their local GOP mutant troll army to do anything too illegal

I didn't mean to reduce it a redux of Ruby Ridge - I was just using that historical example to draw inference about the political identity of a big part of Idaho: i.e., this didn't start yesterday, it's been around for quite awhile in one form or another. But yeah, the idea that wealthy assholes from CA are moving up there, even being actively recruited to move up there, is very disturbing... as is the takeover of the GOP.

sorry Andy, i'm not sure why i said it that way, i know you weren't trying to say it was on the same thing or anything like that. i put you in strawman land a little too quickly there, sorry!

i think for halloween this year i might go as a strawman and just let people have at me

there's a straawwwmaaaan
waiting in the sty

xp to table

True and point very much taken. tbf I was responding to what I thought Andy was saying: [inaccurate paraphrase deleted after reading his clarification], which I thought off-base after reading about such an alarming accumulation of legitimate state power. But you're right, it's wrong to dismiss RR as the work of loners.

xposts: sorry for bad posting blargh

apologies if this was already noted, I only saw it today

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/us/politics/biden-military-somalia.html

WASHINGTON — President Biden has signed an order authorizing the military to once again deploy hundreds of Special Operations forces inside Somalia — largely reversing the decision by President Donald J. Trump to withdraw nearly all 700 ground troops who had been stationed there, according to four officials familiar with the matter.

In addition, Mr. Biden has approved a Pentagon request for standing authority to target about a dozen suspected leaders of Al Shabab, the Somali terrorist group that is affiliated with Al Qaeda, three of the officials said. Since Mr. Biden took office, airstrikes have largely been limited to those meant to defend partner forces facing an immediate threat.

Together, the decisions by Mr. Biden, described by the officials on the condition of anonymity, will revive an open-ended American counterterrorism operation that has amounted to a slow-burn war through three administrations. The move stands in contrast to his decision last year to pull American forces from Afghanistan, saying that “it is time to end the forever war.”

he probably forgot