The Fall of Roe v Wade: US Politics, June 2022

xxxxxpost Aimless add re Trump wanting to further inflame the troops on 1/6:

: He may have hoped that with a bit of luck the whole election could be thrown into the House of Representatives

Mo "IT"S TIME FOR KICKIN ASS AND TAKIN NAMES" on 1/6 Brooks and other Reps requested pardons in advance---Mo also made smirking reference to things getting settled in the House when a reporter mentioned the failure of Trump's 69 lawsuits and call to the Supreme Court re fraud. Maybe thinking of the Hayes vs. Tilden "Compromise," which was pretty much the Ted Cruz proposal.

gotta say it is frustrating to see the vast majority of media attention being given to Trump reaching for the steering wheel and throwing dinner plates when it was also revealed that he actually made an attempt to get heavily armed people into Capitol grounds, presumably to murder the people they straight up said they wanted to kill. if they wanted to write about that shit they should just go work for Jimmy Fallon

^^^^

every. fucking. time. the media on all sides latches on to the stupidest fucking detail that can be easily dismissed and allows too many people to just shrug off the whole thing.

We need a meme of the Founding Fathers crying over ketchup oozing down a wall

the steering wheel is of importance because it shows how important being there in person was to him (and casts his sulking afternoon in the white house in a different light).

the ketchup thing (and the stupid headlines) are dumb because it's already well known that he does shit like that

Not to minimize the very serious stuff that came out of yesterday’s hearing, but the steering wheel thing also links back to the prior Trump steering wheel thing (the fire truck, right?), which made him seem to some like a lovable idiot, an overgrown child pretending to drive a parked vehicle - in marked contrast to what we learned about Tuesday.

But yeah the larger point stands

I think it’s also getting a lot of attention because it’s a profound and immediate expression of utter and total desperation. It’s small and isolated but it underscores how addled and far gone he is.

And of course Trump's surrogates are already pushing back on that story in the media. It's the weakest point of her testimony, being nothing but pure hearsay (and it was presented as such, she didn't claim to have personal knowledge of the incident).

For his supporters though, being fought off by secret service while he was trying to join them like he said he would is essentially a heroic act.

I'm not arguing that these aren't important details to have on the record, I'm expressing disappoint in the outlets that seem to be fixated on those two details in isolation.

I’ll stop talking about this, one last steering wheel point though -

It speaks to the laziness of media and the attention span of media consumers, because it’s so sensationalist and easy. It’s easy!

If someone didn’t bother with this hearing at all, and asked you what happened, and you just wanted to be done with it in 30 seconds, the most simple, direct thing to say is “Trump found out he wasn’t being driven to the protest, freaked out, and attacked his driver, shit was crazy AF.”

Everything else is more significant but everything else demands more context and explanation, maybe even “look, you have to just watch this yourself or search professor Richardson’s summary.”

But also, what happens if he once again lunges for the wheel of the country in a metaphorical sense...

Jackass take the wheel

exactly, they're trying to Zapruder the whole thing and use that to argue all the testimony is invalid, which I think kinda works for them because that's the part that's getting covered extensively in the media right now. its got shades of the whole piss tape thing, "look at the desperate lies the left is trying to push", etc.

not saying it's unimportant or necessarily false (no doubt something like this actually did happen), but

the President of the United States literally tried to get metal detectors removed so armed supporters could ambush the Capitol and kill people, including the Vice President! a former general took the fifth when asked if he supported a peaceful transition of power! numerous members of Congress directly asked for pardons, knowing they were committing crimes against the country they took an oath to serve!! I grew up learning that Watergate was the biggest political scandal in history and this seems 5,000 times worse!!!

The steering wheel anecdote resonates because it's kind of comical and so specific, but I'm not sure it's a superficial or trivial detail. An image like that resonates metaphorically far beyond its literal reality. Other testimony was more damning in terms of the broader circumstances of Jan. 6, but the steering wheel and plate-throwing are such visceral illustrations of both who he is and the MAGA movement at large. I don't think they're insubstantial things.

some good news from GA (https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3851)

warnick is up 10 points on herschel walke

it's the 4th quarter and your team's down, it's 4th and long, and the QB looks at you and says "sir, I'm too tired, you're gonna have to 'carry the ball the rest of the way', it's been the honor of my lifetime to play football with you and get to know you on a personal level as well. the play clock is running low so i have to cut this short, but...maybe you should run for senator some day". i believe running back herschel walker can meet up with coach tuberville and throw a hail mary for american patriots and american football fans across the world

sorry no Google translator

I would be surprised if Stacey Abrams won. Warnock, not so much. He is very well regarded here in Georgia, especially among African-Americans, who will be a crucial demographic in a statewide race like this. I don't think the Republican strategy of putting up their own black dude will carry the day, even if that black dude is Herschel Walker.

Herschel Walker may well be the line in the sand of too brain damaged for even 2022 Republicans.

What an awful candidate. The GOP should be embarrassed, but they’re way beyond embarrassment at this point.

I don't think the Republican strategy of putting up their own black dude will carry the day, even if that black dude is Herschel Walker.

Should have gone with Killer Mike. (Yeah, yeah, he was a Bernie guy — you can't fool me, that dude is a Tulsi waiting for the right offer.)

Brain wormed delusions of grandeur, fine, he's one of us.

CTE-derived delusions of grandeur...

Most of my Republican friends here are quite upset that he is in the race. They've been predicting an implosion all along.

gonna burn one of those wacky celeb prayer candle feat the visage Paul “Bear” Bryant for this lead to hold

Should have gone with Killer Mike.

Georgia Republicans are not gonna vote for a rapper.

hoping the Fetterman/Oz race goes the same way, Fetterman is a legitimately good candidate and Oz is some idiot celebrity

he's not literally brain damaged like Herschel is but he does have that same Trumpy thing going on where his concern is his celebrity and not necessarily any political issues and we all know how much damage those guys can do

I think with both Oz and Walker, Trump et al maybe underestimate the racism of their own base (even as they feed it, of course).

warnick is up 10 points on herschel walker

biden's approval in the same poll is 33!

I'm rooting for Fetterman, we need more Carhartt dems

Oz is really getting hurt by not actually being from PA.

Probably can't name two guys from the Steel Curtain D

How about Duluth Trading Company Dems?

https://www.duluthtrading.com/mens-duluthflex-fire-hose-11-cargo-shorts-36333.html?dwvar_36333_color=BRN&cgid=mens-pants

Fetterman isn't perfect obviously, but he does seem like an ideal PA candidate to me. I went to Penn State and have spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania, its blue-collar identity is a very real thing across the political/cultural spectrum. (With obvious exceptions in the Philly suburbs etc.)

July 9th.

https://www.womensmarch.com/

The whole business of Dems supporting far-right candidates...sure hope this doesn't backfire.

Oof, the far-right GOP nominee Darren Bailey is crushing the field so far in the Illinois governor's race. Democrats spent millions to boost him, under the theory he'd be far weaker against Governor J.B. Pritzker in November.

— Taniel (@Taniel) June 29, 2022

that they’re doing this after 2016 is enough reason to never donate to them ever again

Let's try something different. pic.twitter.com/uPqCPsPAl2

— Jort-Michel Connard 🐘 (@torriangray) June 29, 2022

^^Not real, BTW.

🤔

eh, pritzker is going to destroy him.

NEW from me and @adwolfson: President Biden is poised to nominate an anti-abortion Republican attorney for federal judgeship in Kentucky, in apparent deal with Mitch McConnell: https://t.co/nfheQeLVbl via @courierjournal

— Joe Sonka 😐 (@joesonka) June 29, 2022

headbangdesk.gif

paywall bypassing link

https://archive.ph/mZLpn

Listen, we could just change the rules of the Senate so that Cocaine Mitch isn't the most powerful politician in the country despite having a minority OR we could give a far-right toddler a lifetime appointment and plan on Mitch keeping his word.

Pritzker will win, but he isn’t going to “destroy” him. It’s going to be close enough to make JB sweat until the end, my guess is one of the suburban ring counties is going tip Bailey’s way to make it way closer than it should be and, hopefully, a major fucking wake up call about how close some of the suburban areas are to becoming decidedly purple.

Even in my super liberal suburban enclave, the “reopen schools” dipshits have moved on to “too much crime” and “something must be done” whistleblowing about the predominantly black and brown schools in the district. It’s gross as fuck and I’ve heard it coming out of the mouths of people who will swear up and down that they are otherwise democrats and progressive. And nearly every one of these dipshits I’ve had to cross paths with (my punishment for volunteering for youth sports I guess) also likes to sprinkle their rants with, “fuck Pritzker”.

JB is going to win, but I think lots of people are going to be surprised by how much closer it gets.

they are otherwise democrats and progressive

"Ten degrees to the left of center in good times. Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally." IIRC

Thanks to the Overton shift since 1966 it's now 2/20 though.

The whole business of Dems supporting far-right candidates...sure hope this doesn't backfire.

fuck, i'm not shocked that it happens, but how widespread is this bullshit this year? it happened in colorado, too:

Colorado’s returns were even more encouraging for the party [GOP]. Businessman Joe O’Dea defeated state Rep. Ron Hanks by nine points in the race to take on Democratic Sen. Michael F. Bennet. Democratic-aligned groups spent big to back Hanks, who they viewed as too extreme for the left-leaning state owing to his attendance at the pro-Trump rally in D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, and his belief in Trump’s election lies. O’Dea, who is pro-choice, decisively carried the Denver metropolitan area, a sign that suburban Republicans and independents want to take a different course from Trump’s.

what a horrible, horrible idea that is. first, 2016, donald trump. our collective amnesia is always surprising in the way that it...wait, what's going on? anyway, secondly, when democratic groups do this, the best case scenario is that their preferred republican fascist wins the primary and hundreds of thousands of people in the state get the thrill of supporting a fascist that is so legit that they won the primary. and spending millions to do that which could have gone to ANYTHING else. or, instead, they can end up spending millions to support the loser, which then boosts the "moderate" republican's standing in that they triumphed over a democrat-aligned cynical campaign bullshit effort, which obviously shows that the democrats don't think their own candidate is good enough to stand on their own

spending a ton of money to fund the craziest opponent is symptomatic of people who spend their ways thinking about how to make money on disasters

spending millions of dollars to elevate the profile of far-right candidates is fucking immoral