We. Would. CRY.: US Politics, July 2022

Fucking hell. This guy stands a decent chance of being the next Senator from my poor state.

In a way I feel bad for him, I think he's being used. But also I don't feel bad for him because he shouldn't be running for Senate and he'll be very damaging if he wins.

One thing I feel like you could never make a white Republican understand is how deeply cynical and racist it is for the party put him forth as their response to Warnock. "He's Black, isn't he? How can that be racist?"

oh it's totally based on white Reoublicans' unshakeable belief that "black people always vote for the black person", so they think running Walker ("and they love the football too!") will peel votes away from Warnock. It's also the same idea that had the Republicans running Kanye in 2020.

Not surprisingly, it betrays a deep ignorance on the part of white Republicans as to the views of most of their black fellow Georgians. It also underestimates the esteem in which Walker is held, not only as a Senator but as the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist.

On the other hand, it's not totally off-base to run a star of Herschel's magnitude in SEC country, and especially this star in this state, even despite his many, many flaws. There are too many voters who are willing to overlook all the gigantic red flags around this guy because they think of him as the guy who won the national championship in 1980. The Trump endorsement probably helps on the margins, but only on the margins.

Sorry, the esteem in which Warnock is held, not Walker.

Mayor Pete has been consistently good in this respect. I don't think he's going to be the next president, he needs more experience, but compare his ability to talk with Harris' mealy mouthed weak shit.

Walker is brain damaged AND mentally ill, it's unfathomable to me that this person could hold any elected office. But I think he's polling significantly behind at this point, every week it's revealed he has another kid he has ignored.

There was one poll that showed Warnock up by 10, but that seems to have been an outlier. He's up by less than 5 in most.

Obama was probably the most impressive US politician I've ever seen in my life - not saying he was a particularly great president but he was such a good speaker and easy guy to rally around. I can see Pete getting to that level.

I'd have to give the nod to Bill Clinton for that. He has a "reality distortion field" like no other.

Walker is brain damaged AND mentally ill

I'd venture that 99% of Walker's voters aren't voting for Walker. They're voting against Warnock and for Republican ascendancy.

Republicans did run a candidate in 2018 who was so horrible that they lost a Senate seat in Alabama, so maybe it does matter

you can't go fully Jerry Lee Lewis

Meanwhile, the beating Bannon's legal team took today was something.

Steve Bannon's attorney David Schoen: "We have to make a decision... what's the point in going to trial here if there's no defenses?"

Judge Nichols: "Agreed."

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) July 11, 2022

I would love to see Warnock win by a landslide (he should) but who knows what the future holds

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/11/us/politics/biden-approval-polling-2024.html

President Biden is facing an alarming level of doubt from inside his own party, with 64 percent of Democratic voters saying they would prefer a new standard-bearer in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, as voters nationwide have soured on his leadership, giving him a meager 33 percent job-approval rating.

The backlash against Mr. Biden and desire to move in a new direction were particularly acute among younger voters. In the survey, 94 percent of Democrats under the age of 30 said they would prefer a different presidential nominee.

Recent poll I saw showed walker up by 2

94 percent of Democrats under the age of 30 said they would prefer a different presidential nominee.

And we'll probably get Hillary again.

Bernie Sanders punches through the top of straw boater campaign hat.

Hi, it me, #youthvote observer for 15+ years. Two truths:

1) @JoeBiden is unpopular with young people, and he should do more on climate, abortion, economy, debt to help fix.

2) @JoeBiden was just as unpopular in Feb 2020 w/ youth as he is today. NYT poll is not new info. https://t.co/shD4iRfiRt pic.twitter.com/FURU1FFswy

— Ben Wessel (@BenWessel) July 11, 2022

The 45% approval for the first six months when he was actually President might be a more useful reference point than when he was losing in Iowa, though.

eh, depends on whether you're going into an election or not.

"He should do more on climate, abortion, economy, debt"

Like what? He's been neutered by his own party.

Idk seems like he could do more to steer his party in the right direction, Trump seemed to have no problem doing so

except when it came to repealing Obamacare

Idk seems like he could do more to steer his party in the right direction, Trump seemed to have no problem doing so

― frogbs, Monday, July 11, 2022

selectively lowering taxes for the rich and fucking everyone else, energizing a game show-level concept of politics, consistently working to undermine democracy, and deliberately exacerbating political conflict is not steering the party in the right direction, though

well depends what you mean by right

A Fulton County judge ordered U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to testify before a special grand jury in Fulton County next month.

Graham is one of eight people jury members subpoenaed last week. Graham said he would fight the subpoena.

On Monday, the judge declared Graham a “necessary witness” to the investigation.

This is another step in a long legal process of getting Graham down from Washington to testify.

That new order says the grand jury needs to hear about Graham’s two alleged phone calls to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.

In the order, Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney said the “court finds that Lindsey Graham is a necessary and material witness” in the special grand jury’s investigation into potential criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.

The new order also requires Graham to come testify in August.

The grand jury subpoenaed Graham at the same time it also subpoenaed former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and others who were at a December 2020 state Senate subcommittee hearing.

“Excuse me, Mr. Mayor. Can you talk about what you’re going to testify about today?” Channel 2 political reporter Richard Elliot asked Giuliani at the time.

“Not right now,” Giuliani said.

Good thread on the limitations of Pete Buttigieg (or anyone else) going on Fox.

1/ So, I just want to point something out about Sec. Buttigieg's answer on Fox News Sunday yesterday. The good one that is making the rounds today.

Yes, it was a good answer. But, I think what most people don't realize is what happens after an answer like that...

— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) July 12, 2022

What is Lindsey's argument against testifying? Is it literally just "But I would drop myself in it because I did big crimes"?

i'm pretty sure his excuse is whatever the republican word for the phrase "cosa nostra" would be these days

Yeah, got me. He can't even cite executive privilege (I mean, he *did*, but ...) because he reportedly said around the time that he was working in his capacity as a senator! So who knows. As always, until any of these subpoenas are actually enforced he can probably just run out the clock. Personally, if I had known subpoenas were actually optional I would have gotten a lot more crimes done in my lifetime.

I think he' trying to hang his hat (or his whatever) on the Speech and Debate Clause of Article I of the Constitution.

*he's

America needs more Japanese style political engagement.

Well, Liz Cheney does come from a line of politicians prone to popping people in the face ...

Some of these lunatics, Flynn, Powell, Pillow guy, people like that, I don't understand how they are even able to function without, I don't know, falling into a manhole, sticking a fork in an outlet, or shooting themselves in the foot (literally) or something.

Pillow guy surrounded by pillows at all times, iirc.

Man, all these online fuckos...

the Back the Blue people, everyone pic.twitter.com/5T2JrtULar

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 12, 2022

New RATM lyrics just dropped

Lol Josh

whoops

Liz Cheney says Trump tried to call someone after the last Jan 6 hearing (she didn't name the person, but said they hadn't yet appeared publicly). This person didn't answer, but told their lawyer, who told the committee, who told the DOJ 👀

— David Mack (@davidmackau) July 12, 2022

there was a moment maybe 40-50 minutes in where Sidney Powell answers a question and goes for her Diet Dr. Pepper that was hilarious.

Biden nominates 5 new judges; does not nominate the anti-abortion judge everybody was pissed about

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated five new federal judges, but did not at this time move forward with a plan opposed by a growing number of Democrats and progressives to appoint a Republican abortion opponent to a judgeship in Kentucky.

The latest nominees include Cindy Chung, a prosecutor Biden previously picked to serve as the U.S. attorney for Pittsburgh and is now seeking to make the first Asian American ever on the Philadelphia-based the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Biden also named four nominees for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, including two state court judges in Philadelphia who previously worked as public defenders representing indigent defendants.

Those two nominees are Judges Mia Perez and Kai Scott. The other two nominees are Kelley Hodge, a partner at the law firm Fox Rothschild, and John Murphy, a partner at Baker & Hostetler.

Not on Biden's latest nominees list was Chad Meredith, a Republican former Kentucky solicitor general who the White House planned on June 24 to nominate to a judgeship despite his record defending abortion restrictions.

Latest update of this, w mention at the end of stuff already somewhere on the public record---but several striking excerpts, in hearings and this summary, nonetheless:

The hearing on Tuesday focused on the loose affiliations between Trump, his informal political advisers, and members of far-right militia groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.
The committee walked through snippets of witness depositions, court documents, previously unseen emails and other materials, to make the case that Trump coyly courted these militants and saw them as his troops on the ground, to pressure Congress to overturn the 2020 election.

Stephen Ayres looks like what happens if Joe Pera's character gets inevitably radicalized by his girlfriend.

so uh is Trump actively tampering with witnesses? fuckin hell, he's just begging to get thrown in jail, knowing it'll never happen

Maybe he just accidentally butt tampered them.

lol, the fuck?

.@jaketapper: "One doesn't have to be brilliant to attempt a coup."
John Bolton: "I disagree with that, as someone who has helped planned coups d'etat—not here, but you know, other places—it takes a lot of work." pic.twitter.com/y07V1Fo81y

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) July 12, 2022