BURNPIT: U.S. Politics, August 2022

When Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, arrived in the U.S. this week, he bypassed the White House and President Biden to pay a visit to a more admiring U.S. president. He caught up with former President Donald Trump at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J.

That was on the way to the Conservative Political Action Conference's annual gathering in Dallas, where Orbán gave the kickoff address on Thursday afternoon — despite a speech last week widely decried as racist, even by one of his top aides. She resigned in protest.

Orbán sloughed off such criticism on Thursday.

"Don't worry, a Christian politician cannot be racist, so we should never hesitate to heavily challenge our opponents on these issues," Orbán told his Texas audience. "Be sure: Christian values protect us from going too far."

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/04/1115541985/why-hungarys-authoritative-leader-is-drawing-conservative-crowds-in-the-u-s

they should establish a texas embassy in budapest

the chaser

This is "Walk Away" founder Brandon Straka — who did not serve any prison time in his Jan. 6 case thanks to, as his attorneys described it in their sentencing memos, "substantial" cooperation with investigators. https://t.co/nnJR3CFX8x

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) August 5, 2022

Incels taking themselves literally.

ha

lol A+ xp

Pretty shitty witness protection program

excuse the interruption but what is the canonical (US?) climate change thread?

Global Warming's Terrifying New Math

??

thank you

lmao https://t.co/jNPudSf4rh pic.twitter.com/BKTh3klJhy

— alex (@genossse) August 5, 2022

lol, only in such a deranged gerontocracy would this be considered a diplomatic olive branch after senior person nearly starts ww3

Pelosi bringing that Michael Scott Energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAg2jw0uZ3I

here's a question for today: if something or someone is evil, are you justified in killing it? you probably paused for a second there. maybe at the word "evil" itself, and then, if not, hopefully at "killing", when you started to think through what that might mean. here's a variation: do you trust that other people, when told that something is evil, will think the same way that you do? will they pause at violence, if everyone around them is shouting that something is evil?

Stoking the culture wars is nothing new for CPAC. But with dark, militant speeches — and literal demonization of the MAGA movement’s political opponents — the conservative convention in Dallas this week menaced America with what seemed to be thinly veiled calls for violence, all while seeking to whitewash the political mayhem of Jan. 6, casting Capitol Hill rioters as victims of a “Democratic Gulag.”

From Hungarian authoritarian Victor Orbán to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to right-wing extremist Jack Posobiec, Conservative Political Action Committee speakers urged an us-versus-them confrontation, seeming unbound from the constraints of electoral politics.

Bannon, now the host of the “War Room” podcast, brought his bellicose message to CPAC, appearing as the headline speaker at the convention’s Friday night ball. “We are at war,” Bannon told the MAGA faithful. “We are in a political and ideological war.” Repeating the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, Bannon insisted that Joe Biden is an “illegitimate imposter.” Calling on Republicans to send “shock troops” to Washington, Bannon promised the crowd they had an opportunity to “shatter the Democratic party as a national political institution.” He alleged that the party has been overrun by “radical, cultural Marxists” and “groomers” who “want to destroy the Republic.” Bannon insisted the GOP must pursue absolute victory over “power-mad and lawless” Democrats, asserting: “There can be no half measures anymore.”

[snip] (fuck ted cruz)

[snip] (CPAC invited orban and some new alt-right fucks to replace the crew that has been banned due to saying that they liked hitler in previous years. wrong fascist. that's not the one the GOP likes out loud. so they changed it up.)

...It could be tempting to dismiss such bombast from Cruz and Posobiec as empty rhetoric. But Kari Lake, the GOP nominee for governor in Arizona, directly threatened confrontation with the federal government over immigration at the Southern border should she win office in November.

“We have an invasion at the border,” Lake insisted, referring to undocumented immigrants and refugees. Lake then vowed that, after being sworn in, she would mount a military response, even lacking approval from the Biden administration: “As soon as my hand comes off the Bible, we’re going to send the Arizona National Guard troops to the border,” Lake said. Insisting on the “sovereignty” of the states, she insisted: “We will take the fight to the federal government. We’re not going to be victims of what they’re doing to us.”

The rhetoric of revolution and frontline confrontation went hand-in-hand with other speakers and presenters who cast the American left as demonic, evil, and destructive — in other words the kind of enemies who deserve to be dealt with harshly.

In between speeches, CPAC promoted a documentary, hosted by chair Matt Schlapp, called The Culture Killers, which inveighs against a “great desecration” perpetrated by the left. ”Anything that’s good, anything that’s holy, anything that’s truthful is being attacked,” Shlapp insisted on video. The documentary describes America as “under siege from an enemy within,” with one voice insisting, over images of burning cars, “There is no end. These people will never stop, until you stop ’em.”

here's rick scott downgrading Democrats from "wrong" to "evil".

this is pre-genocide stuff pic.twitter.com/CKhGbmspaz

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2022

CPAC then held a panel called “You’re Next: The Rise of the Democratic Gulag,” which presented Jan. 6 defendants not as alleged perpetrators of riot and insurrection, but as victims of a rigged judicial system.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) was the official spokesperson for this line of idiocy. He claimed that Jan 6. defendants have been the recipients of “Soviet-style justice” — alleging without evidence that prosecutors, defense attorneys, and federal judges have been “colluding” to secure predetermined convictions. The congressman insisted that “all of the institutions in the United States have been weaponized, not unlike the former Soviet Union” to create an “American Gulag.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cpac-2022-ted-cruz-militant-rhetoric-1393449/

the most excruuuuuuuuuuciating thing, one of them, at least, is listening to people like this tell each other that the problem with the democrats is they "haven't read 1984"

Always accuse your enemies of doing what you’re doing.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled Saturday that a core piece of the party’s plan can’t pass the chamber with fewer than 60 votes, following arguments from both parties last week.

...the plan will now move forward without a provision that would have penalized drugmakers for hiking costs faster than inflation in private insurance plans as well as Medicare.
...Still, Democrats argue that the bill will move forward in the coming weeks with its most important provision intact: a repeal of the longstanding ban on the federal government directly negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
...Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the parliamentarian’s ruling “good news” in a statement Saturday.

“Medicare will finally be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices, seniors will have free vaccines and their costs capped, and much more,” he said.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a key negotiator on the House version of the bill, said the provision “would break the iron curtain Big Pharma has maintained against negotiating drug prices, and that’s game-changing. If it passes, Pharma won’t be able to continually stick it to the consumer at their will and whim. And that’s especially important with inflation hammering folks at the pump and the grocery store.”

But Welch, who is running to replace the retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), acknowledged the parliamentarian’s ruling is still a big win for the drug industry.

Long time no see, person who has no actual authority or power!

Who do you mean?

Parliamentarian.

the thing is, ignoring the parliamentarian is roughly the same as removing the filibuster, which they aren't willing to do, so I don't see any reason why they would be willing to do this either.

It's bizarre that the federal gubmint banned itself from negotiating prices with pharma companies... what was the rational for that?

What's left: Medicare can still negotiate, and there's a cap on out-of-pocket costs for Medicarees in there too, but---that's it, 'til yer old (enough).

The role of the parliamentarian could theoretically be interesting if senators were elected on the basis of their ability to write laws and their appreciation and mastery of existing constraints around writing laws and the history of what had succeeded in the past in various contexts. As it is, on the one hand, it appears that candidates in actual races are ranked by outside funding groups on the basis of their electability and on the other by the strength of their own name recognition apart from the President. Something seems wrong in this. One wants the intellectual independence of the judiciary but also those who feel and honor a commitment to accountability to and responsibility for all.

"It's bizarre that the federal gubmint banned itself from negotiating prices with pharma companies... what was the rational for that?"

Conservative ideas we should run govt like a business, which means they win and you lose. This goes back to Bush jr.

I got to wonder just with diabetics alone how many people that Bush era law killed with people not being able to afford their medicine.

GOP partially strips out insulin cap from Dems’ climate, tax and health care bill

Republicans successfully challenged Democrats’ proposed price cap on insulin for private insurers, the GOP’s only victory during the “vote-a-rama” as it hit the 12-hour mark.

The insulin battle was among the most consequential in a nearly 12-hour floor fight over Democrats’ party-line legislation, and the Senate needs to slog through at least a few more amendments before party leaders hope to finally pass the legislation. By mid-morning, it appeared some Republicans were starting to lose steam.

“I’m not sure we’re making any progress that’s significant,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), adding that, after hours of amendment votes, “it would be nice to call it.”

Some new Democratic drama as they try to move to final passage this afternoon: Kyrsten Sinema is likely to back a Thune amendment to make some exemptions for businesses affected by the new 15% corporate minimum tax -- and Dems are scrambling, per multiple sources

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 7, 2022

Find someone who loves you like Sinema loves private equity psychos.

Meanwhile, I'm probably just behind the curve on this, but apparently DeSantis fanboys have taken to calling him Heavy D? Is this real?

'Heavy D'? Wow. It's so snappy it could make us all forget about 'Jeb!'

Yo! MTV Rapublicans

warnock and ossoff also voted for the thune amendment along with sinema

Sinema and Ossoff voted for the Thune amendment

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) August 7, 2022

So did Warnock

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) August 7, 2022

A quick reminder to those ilxors with sufficient resources that if you have particular candidates, initiatives, or organizations you'd like to see succeed in the upcoming USA election cycle, the most valuable contributions you can make will be now, when they are planning their fall campaigns and need to have some idea of the resources they can plan their budgets around.

IIUC (i may not)

the dems are going to amend the thune amendment, which is why all the swing state dems are piling in for a free vote.

the dem amendment will pay for the private equity carveout for sinema's friends with different money. was a salt cap extension under thune. will now be something to do with pass through loss limitations.

i.e. they will not get rid of the carveout. they will pay for it with money from businesses nationally rather than rich individuals in democratic states.

sinema, thank you for your service. wonder if it crossed her mind to ask for something in return for her vote on thune, e.g. private insulin cap.

The only way DeSantis might be the GOP nominee is if Trump dies.

Yo! MTV Rapublicans

― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, August 7, 2022 1:42 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol

Climate bill passed

The tie breaker from Kamala Harris makes it official. The bill is passed. pic.twitter.com/TToX9m2aOt

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 7, 2022

All the climate stuff is good 'n' all, but the thing I was most worried about, and which made it through, was a three-year extension of subsidies for Obamacare. Without that, my health insurance would have gone up to like $1200 a month by the end of this year, instead of the $200 and change that it currently is.

Making some forward motion feels less bad than suffering massive retrogression under the death cult. So, lets hear a cheer for patchwork amelioration!

Quite a good thread.

So that's where we are, pending further action (which is unlikely at the federal level for the foreseeable future): We've prevented the vast amounts of harm that would result from 3°C+ of warming, while choosing to accept the still-vast amounts of harm that will result at 2–2.5°C

— Chase Woodruff (@dcwoodruff) August 7, 2022

And one more that is a tad more positive than that conclusion.

I’ve spent the last year or so largely away from the climate policy world and with my people but I’ve # been asked to weigh in on the Inflation Reduction Act, so here goes a THREAD with basically one main takeaway:

With this legislation we get to fight another day. That’s big.

— Julian Brave NoiseCat (@jnoisecat) August 5, 2022

The best deal the Dems could've wrested from Manchinema and for whomever they serve as Trojan horses, though I'm pissed about the insulin. Looks like winning two Senate seats in Jawjuh has its pluses.

And I don't know why they haven't called every bill the Inflation Reduction Act.

👍🏽

Yay!

I’m also heartened that the Dems showed some procedural guile and nous along the way.

As much as insiders get a lot of stick, you do need some pros on your team.

https://i.imgur.com/05v7IBi.jpg

"You had me at private equity funds!"

Sinemax!

McConhub!

EW! EW! EW!

The vast majority of Ohio residents clearly want legislative districts that are drawn more fairly. By 2015, the state’s gerrymandering problem had become so notorious that seventy-one per cent of Ohioans voted to pass an amendment to the state constitution demanding reforms. As a result, the Ohio constitution now requires that districts be shaped so that the makeup of the General Assembly is proportional to the political makeup of the state. In 2018, an even larger bipartisan majority—seventy-five per cent of Ohio voters—passed a similar resolution for the state’s congressional districts.

Though these reforms were democratically enacted, the voters’ will has thus far been ignored. Allison Russo, the minority leader in the House, who is one of two Democratic members of the seven-person redistricting commission, told me, “I was optimistic at the beginning.” But, she explained, the Republican members drafted a new districting map in secret, and earlier this year they presented it to her and the other Democrat just hours before a deadline. The proposed districts were nowhere near proportional to the state’s political makeup. The Democrats argued that the Republicans had flagrantly violated the reforms that had been written into the state constitution.

This past spring, an extraordinary series of legal fights were playing out. The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the map—and then struck down four more, after the Republican majority on the redistricting commission continued submitting maps that defied the spirit of the court’s orders. The chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court was herself a Republican. Russo told me, “If norms were being obeyed, we would expect that there would have been an effort to follow the first Ohio Supreme Court decision. But that simply didn’t happen.”

The Republicans’ antics lasted so long that they basically ran out the clock. Election deadlines were looming, and the makeup of Ohio’s districts still hadn’t been settled. “They contrived a crisis,” Russo told me. At that point, a group allied with the Republicans, Ohio Right to Life, urged a federal court to intervene, on the ground that the delay was imperilling the fair administration of upcoming elections. The decision was made by a panel of three federal judges—two of whom had been appointed by Trump. Over the strenuous objection of the third judge, the two Trump judges ruled in the group’s favor, allowing the 2022 elections to proceed with a map so rigged that Ohio’s top judicial body had rejected it as unconstitutional.

On Twitter, Bill Seitz, the majority leader of the Ohio House, jeered at his Democratic opponents: “Too bad so sad. We win again.” He continued, “Now I know it’s been a tough night for all you libs. Pour yourself a glass of warm milk and you will sleep better. The game is over and you lost.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/state-legislatures-are-torching-democracy