US Politics, April 2024: "Are You Better Off Today Than You Were <Checks Notes> Four Years Ago?"

Sheehy seems like a real asshole, above and beyond the baseline level of assholism required to be a Republican Senate candidate.

kennedy: "I have not examined the evidence in detail..."

they had fucking live hearings on television, dipshit. you can read the report online!

i hate these assholes with names that allow them to spew crap that people actually hear and believe. so dangerous. trump is more than enough when it comes to batshit stupid. this guy needs to go far far away. when is cheryl hines gonna divorce this creep?

I’m cool with Kennedy trying to peel away Trump votes.

Kennedy's not consciously trying to peel away Trump votes, or Biden votes, any more than when a dog makes a noise that resembles "I love you" he's actually telling you he loves you. Kennedy is totally insane, and attempting to put anything he says or does into a conventional political framework makes you, the sane person, the sucker at the table. He's going to self-immolate in a completely and permanently humiliating manner, and a year from now people are going to care what he thinks exactly as much as they care what Dennis Kucinich or Vermin Supreme thinks. He's going to be the answer to a particularly uninteresting trivia question.

^ha ha, agree!

I laughed when RFK said we shouldn’t write off somebody just because they say an election was stolen because I believe the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen.

xxpost I think this “self-immolation” stuff is wishful thinking. People have thought RFK was a crack for a long time. When his support collapses it will just be people running back to Trump.

People have thought RFK was a crack for a long time. When his support collapses it will just be people running back to Trump.

Before he started running for president people would take his phone calls. When this campaign ends, no one of any influence will ever be seen with him in public again, because there will be nothing to gain from it.

Good afternoon!

wow, two whole days!

https://i.imgflip.com/23ja0p.jpg

*snort*

I feel like this exchange from the DJT thread should go here, plus I have a postscript/chaser

abortion is a huge election winner for dems right now, not hard to see how it could hand trump a loss, which is nice for national dems who did nothing to protect it talked about safe legal and rare and in fact wouldnt even say the word, sometimes its good to be the lesser of two evils

― lag∞n, Monday, April 8, 2024 1:08 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've already gotten two fundraising emails/texts since the Trump "news."

― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, April 8, 2024 1:09 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

and it should be noted are still doing nothing, state level people passing constitutional amendments thats whats up xp self

― lag∞n, Monday, April 8, 2024 1:10 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

betting markets and polls shifting slightly to Biden in the last week.

― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Monday, April 8, 2024 1:15 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

An Emerson College poll of 1,438 registered voters, conducted from April 2 to 3, put Trump at 43 percent against 42 percent for Biden and 8 percent for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a straight head-to-head with all other candidates and undecided voters removed, the Republican challenger had 51 percent of the vote against 49 percent for the Democratic incumbent. However, among very likely voters, Biden is ahead 51 to 49, said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling.

A YouGov survey, conducted for The Economist, had Trump and Biden tied at 43 percent each with Kennedy Jr. third at 2 percent. This survey of 1,601 registered voters took place between March 30 and April 2.

still way too close

― President Keyes, Monday, April 8, 2024 1:17 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

if theres any bright side to the whole fucked situation of roe getting axed its that it might teach dems to talk about abortion as healthcare instead of choice, and maybe healthcare as a right idk

― lag∞n, Monday, April 8, 2024 1:19 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

likely as opposed to very likely

― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, April 8, 2024 1:20 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I remember this 2021 bill

(1) Abortion services are essential to health care and access to those services is central to people’s ability to participate equally in the economic and social life of the United States. Abortion access allows people who are pregnant to make their own decisions about their pregnancies, their families, and their lives.

― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, April 8, 2024 1:23 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a weird cycle its a rematch with no meaningful primaries, feels like it hasnt started yet when usually wed be deep in "election season"

― lag∞n, Monday, April 8, 2024 1:24 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

and I just saw this posted by the ACLU:

"Every single abortion rights initiative that has been on the ballot since Roe was overturned has passed."

https://i.imgur.com/MEjNbJt.jpg

Trump betrayed his deeply held personal principle of being staunchly pro-life?

wtf is the word "principles" doing in a headline of a story about Trump, that just seems politically illiterate.

I loved it, got hard just staring at the headline

quiddities and hard-ons of the NYT

how many abortions do we think Trump has paid for

well, how many did he say he would pay for but never did?

five hundred twenty five thousands six hundred 'bortions

...and yet Eric & DJTJ made it through.

Yep first of many “Trump is really a moderate on abortion” articles written by people who just fell off the turnip truck.

xpost so maybe it didn't take?

lol, was gonna say. They both have a decided air of non-viable fetus about them.

Will the nyt crack new analyzers put the "states decide" position in real perspective?

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/09/1243679136/arizona-abortion-court-decision-ban

outside of the general awfulness of that ruling, it's gonna light a political fire in the suburbs that the GOP won't be able to extinguish

yeah that ruling plus https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/arizona-abortion-rights-amendment-backers-says-gathered-signatures-nee-rcna145922

Looks similar to what happened in Florida.

since the SCOTUS ruling, every time that restoring reproductive rights have been put to the voters, they've won

Apparently Arizonans need 400k signatures by July to get it on the ballot, but already have over 500k, and it just needs a simple majority to pass.

I won’t let Kari Lake distort the record.

She called this law a “great law” - even though it will ban nearly all abortions, including in cases of rape or incest. pic.twitter.com/lXmtShrtSG

— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) April 9, 2024

they are continuing to run up the score on signatures to drive turnout iiuc, which seems smart.

I like to see the Dems immediately tying the GOP to this law

As in, literally yesterday Trump endorsed leaving these decisions up to the states. Well, there you go.

they should start calling Kari Lake 'pro-incest'

Ol' Incest Lake

Lake Voters

https://media.gq.com/photos/5df3df184545e00008b8c3a1/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/An-Oral-History-of-the-Folgers-Incest-Ad-01.jpg

The Arizona AG has announced that she will not enforce the ban.

Lake 2024: You're My Present This Year

Incest, Lake & Trumper

lol

Pictures At An Atrocity Exhibition

A lot of online right-wingers think the inbred-as-fuck Habsburgs and Romanovs were the peak of Aryan genetic purity.

Their blood was so pure it did not clot!

seems like pure aryans should be out singing Wagner on an icy crag, not hanging out in a chatroom idk

Jamelle Bouie on Trump's abortion speech (gift link)

The Man Who Snuffed Out Abortion Rights Is Here to Tell You He Is a Moderate

Donald Trump does not speak from conviction. He does not speak from belief or at least any belief other than self-obsession. He certainly does not speak from anything we might recognize as reason; when he’s holding forth from a podium, even the most careful students of Trump the rhetorician will struggle to find the light of complex thought.

You should think of Trump instead as a purely instrumental speaker. It does not matter to him whether a statement is true or false. It does not matter if one statement contradicts another, in the same speech or in the same paragraph or in the same sentence. What matters to Trump is whether the words serve the purpose at hand. He will say anything if it’s what he feels an audience wants to hear or if it moves him one step closer to a personal or political goal.

Trump’s fundamental disinterest in the truth value of his words is the only context that matters for his comments on abortion Monday morning. In a direct-to-camera statement on Truth Social, the former president told his audience that he does not support a national ban on abortion. “My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,” Trump said. “The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state.”

...

If you’re not inclined to put Trump’s abortion comments in the context of his habitual disregard for the truth, then you should at least put them in the context of his political coalition, which is dominated by forces and constituencies that want nothing less than the criminalization of abortion, the constitutional protection of fetal life and state regulation of bodily autonomy for the sake of patriarchal gender norms.

Trump embraced this movement and its demands as president, and there’s every reason to believe he’ll do the same with another four years in office. Put another way, when has Trump ever bucked anyone who defends him, supports him and showers him with praise?

We do not have to speculate about Trump’s relationship to abortion and reproductive rights as leader of the Republican Party. He is, after all, a former president of the United States. We already know what he wants, what he’ll do and what he’ll sign. Trump landed a major blow against legal abortion during his first term. If given a second, he will land another.

Arizona Republican Reps. Juan Ciscomani and David Schweikert react to the Arizona Supreme Court ruling reviving an abortion ban that traces back to the 1800s. Both represent swing districts up for grabs this fall. pic.twitter.com/0G5Ry5oxws

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 9, 2024

yeah, this is a big 'dog catches bus' moment and it's fun to watch them squirm