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

xpost This probably explains that image:

And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
--Matthew 15:27

"Jesus Fed My Designer Dog"

Up the Irish:

The foreperson who was just selected — that’s juror one, the de facto leader of the group who will likely help steer deliberations — works in sales and enjoys the outdoors. He is originally from Ireland, but will help decide the former American president’s fate.

there's enough detail about that guy that his name will be published before end of day

My first thought was 'AI-generated comedy image'. But then I looked at the hands and must conclude that it was lovingly painted by a true believer.

yeah why are they publishing so much info

treating it like a game show

"Works in sales and enjoys the outdoors"
Swipes right

I read that New York law is not like other states in terms of juror privacy, so it can vary.

I was listening to a former AUSA who basically said all these jurors will be known to the public (if you look for it) within the next few days.

Quite a media diet:

The first six jurors have been selected for Trump's hush money trial.

The foreperson is a man originally from Ireland who now lives in West Harlem and works in sales. He gets his news from The New York Times, the Daily Mail, Fox News and MSNBC.

— Zach Schonfeld (@ZachASchonfeld) April 16, 2024

That sounds suspiciously like someone who wants to be on that jury.

"Good information on both sides ..."

Mr. Bothsides

Now I’m falling asleep
And I’m going to trial

Looks like they’ve got Matt Drudge on the jury

The amount of info provided re: each juror just to goose the engagement that poster gets is a great way to set up invalidating the entire trial to those in the losing side to bang on about

wtf kind of irish gets his news from the daily mail

kingfish otm, this is gonna be a mistrial and the fascist takeover will continue as intended

trump will be made speaker of the house and mike johnson's head will be put on the end of a stick and trump will declare all trials officially phony and very bad. end of movie.

If the Tarzan Yell Freedom!!!! Caucus bozos keep up their hijinks all through this election year they might manage to get themselves so widely hated by the nation at large that the Republicans lose control of the House.

it only takes, what, three seats lost? we can do it!

Thomas Massie is such a total ding dong. Between him and James Comer, they must have to use a bunch of sippy cups at House Ky GOP meetings.

Dems massively outraising Republicans. even in Texas (!) it's close. is this because a bunch of R donations are getting gobbled up by the Trump campaign or are they just not getting donors?

https://i.imgur.com/QE7Ovf8.jpeg

whoa @ Sherrod Brown's figures

Rick Perlstein was interviewed for a new PBS documentary on William F. Buckley, and he's not happy with the final product. (Surprising footnote: he's apparently a Henry Rollins fan!)

Great piece.

Made me want to know more about Willis Carto, who is only familiar to me as a reference (William Gibson named a character in Neuromancer after him).

Re: donations: you can’t get blood from a stone. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/01/trump-republican-small-donations-problems/

That Rick Perlstein post is nice, and matches up with Danny Bessner says in this conversation on “Time to Say Goodbye” last week, that American liberalism from the post-war onwards has to continually prop up respective reactionary types because it can’t function without some position or some cohort to be _against_.

"We need a functioning Republican Party."

we need a Republican Party and its convention needs to be held on NY Subway train tracks

all kinds of hilarity in the House Oversight committee today

Wow Raskin and Comer are going at it pic.twitter.com/JalLGlLiF4

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 17, 2024

Comer is like smooth(er) brained Newt

there's a bunch of other clips out there that are equally entertaining

it's wild, they're acting like 4th graders. but Raskin is right! they have nothing!

I recall a time when even the biggest fools in Congress knew enough not to act like three-year-olds throwing mashed potatoes at the dinner table.

re: fundraising...are actblue and the DNC doing a good job raising out of state funds for these contests? I've removed myself from every single dem mailing list so now I don't know how much they are pestering people.

Joe Biden emailed me this morning to tell me that he respects me

lol

I will say that I get at least 5-10 donation request texts per day

Easily 25 begging emails daily.

Instead of emails I get begging letters in my mailbox from the DNC and candidates in out-of-state races. After decades of thinking strategically about this stuff, we concentrate our donations on in-state candidates and measures, plus we give a bit to the Democratic party for our local county, which is chronically cash-starved, just to encourage the unpaid officers not to quit. We also regularly give small amounts to a wide variety of progressive/environmental organizations that do lobbying on the theory that swelling the ranks of their membership gives them better visibility and more clout.

But the biggest amounts we give go toward electing politicians who will be sympathetic to and cooperative with those organizations when they come around to lobby them, because it's they who will be sponsoring the necessary legislation and voting on public policy, which is the most critical step in the whole process.

I went through a phase where I was throwing very modest amounts of money around at smaller races. I started to get kind of cynical about the whole thing though, feeling like I was just tilting at windmills and giving money to consultants. I haven't given a dime for at least several years and my inbox is absolutely overflowing with emails that start out like "Man Alive, my son Bobby needs your help." And "Bobby" turns out to be running for Idaho state house or w/e

I gave some dough and wrote some postcards for swing seat candidates in Virginia last fall. Felt good when my adopted guy won.

The one out-of-state recipient I've indulged in repeatedly is throwing a sawbuck to Fair Fight in Georgia so they can battle on and GOTV. Every crack in the solid South must be prised. (<< a bit of a treat for the word mavens)

re: fundraising...are actblue and the DNC doing a good job raising out of state funds for these contests? I've removed myself from every single dem mailing list so now I don't know how much they are pestering people.

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm),

Quite easily about five texts a day and countless emails. I've never seen anything like it.

I think I (somehow) managed to slay most of the email mailing list demons over the last couple years, but the texts seem to be multiplying

ok, well, it sounds like fundraising is working, despite it being annoying!

and it's hyperlocal too

Just got one!