U.S. Politics, November 2024: GARBAGE DAY!!

she's like Rebekah Jones, someone with an outsized sense of self importance who only got attention due to twitter. nice to see that twitter engagement is so bad now she only got a few hundred likes on those posts.

why is anyone listening to let alone reposting bitecofer

We like drama?

https://theonion.com/comey-what-can-i-say-i-m-just-a-catty-bitch-from-new-1825295514/

Good morning!

Where’s the time machine back to 1993?

Talk about problematic attorney general nominees: Zoe Baird and Lani Guinier, amirite???

Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for Education secretary, resigned from a state education board shortly after a newspaper asked her about her false claim that she had an education degree. pic.twitter.com/kqKgdZQxYE

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 20, 2024

https://abcnews.go.com/US/gaetz-10k-venmo-payments-2-women-testified-house/story?id=116019367

Venmo records show Gaetz paid over $10k to two women who were later witnesses in sexual misconduct probes against him

Very generous man

I’m imagining an alternate past where Gary Hart became president in 1988

Maybe we're too much like the French these days

Tom Daschle had to withdraw his nomination as HHS secretary in 2009 because of unpaid back taxes.

Neera Tanden had to withdraw because of shitposting

Garu G had to withdraw because of

Bobby Ray Inman had to withdraw because he needed to go assassinate someone

I knew that, amidst this bullshit trolling spree he's on, Trump's nominee for education secretary was going to piss me off the most but I guess I underestimated exactly how much it was going to piss me off the most.

Picking a Road Rules cast member for Transportation Secretary is very on-brand for Trump

I always had a bad feeling about reality TV but I underestimated its eventual impact.

just watching the USA in reruns from now on, first-run programming has jumped the shark

There were a couple of decent seasons, but tbh it had never quite lived up to the hype.

Not bingeworthy imo

To be honest if youre gonna:

“The Justice Department spent years probing sexual misconduct allegations against Gaetz, as well as allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges.”

then maybe you deserve to this guy to be your boss who will fire you, or who locks you up for laughs.

"Thanks for dropping the charges, Nerd!"

how is Biden spending his birthday today?

naked

poor delusional Bernie

A vote to block arms sales to Israel will be held on Wednesday in the US Senate.

The joint resolutions of disapproval (JRDs), introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders in September, would prevent the Pentagon from sending another $20bn to Israel as it continues its assault on Gaza – which has killed at least 43,000 people.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas – it has waged war against Palestinians,” Sanders said a press conference held on Tuesday ahead of the vote.

I don't think Bernie has any delusions about the resolution passing, or whether passing it would deter Netanyahu from continuing his present genocidal policies. He is willing to expend some political capital simply to make a statement rejecting Israel's war crimes. At a minimum he'll be called anti-semitic by the ADL.

It's not just Bernie and, indeed, the goal is to set a precedent not to win the vote. But I suppose it is delusional to think the amoral Biden administration would move an inch from their kill all Palestinians stance.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-weapons-israel-senate_n_673df15be4b0f17b35e0860a?cd

The Biden administration is aggressively pushing senators to bless continued U.S. weapons shipments for Israel ahead of a first-of-its-kind vote in Congress on the policy, HuffPost has learned ― and administration officials are suggesting lawmakers who vote against the arms are empowering American and Israeli foes from Iran to the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, which the U.S. treats as terror organizations.

HuffPost obtained a copy of talking points the administration is circulating on Capitol Hill ahead of a Wednesday vote on several tranches of military equipment that President Joe Biden wants to send Israel. The White House sent the document to multiple Democratic Senate offices on Tuesday, two Senate aides who requested anonymity to speak frankly told HuffPost.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is also privately pressing senators to endorse the ongoing flow of military equipment to Israel, according to one of the aides.

Several influential senators ― among them Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) ― are urging colleagues to vote for legislation that disapproves of Biden’s arms deals. They cite Israel’s use of American support to cause massive civilian casualties and its severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, which they say violate U.S. and international law.

yeah, I guess the point is just to get everybody on record

ugh this Sarah McBride bathroom thing is v depressing

and I am not enjoying being exposed to nauseating fascist Nancy Mace's brand of sociopathy

I feel for trans people who feel immediately let down by how fast McBride appears to have folded on this issue.

yeah I'm cis so don't feel right criticizing her too strongly, but I am seeing a lot of trans posters on bluesky who are worried about the precedent this sets

honestly none of this is anyone’s business, it shouldn’t even be an issue, and her statement didn’t seem like it was “folding” at all— it seemed like a carefully worded “go ahead and be dumb about it, i am here to govern and yall are too worried about my gender so who is the fucking weird one”

otm

Being the sole trans person in Congress while the majority party ramp up a genocidal campaign against your community must be incredibly challenging. I can't fathom the pressure she's under or the emotional effects of being so directly targeted by fascist psychos you also have to work with. Approaching her decision with compassion is absolutely the right thing to do. But I also have compassion for trans people who are alarmed by McBride framing a blunt and very ugly attack on her rights and her womanhood as a "distract[ion] from the real issues facing this country."

i suspect most trans people are pretty tired of every conversation they have being about their gender. in any case i’m just in awe at her strength

As a queer guy who buckles against the terministic screens through which the right and often well-meaning left view me, I understand McBride's dilemma.

It’s terrible but I understand her not wanting it to be the issue that defines her right off the bat. She’s going to be the first trans person a lot of members of Congress have ever interacted with, can only hope some of them learn something from it.

yeah fair points, and like I said I'm not comfortable criticizing McBride. I was echoing others' views tbc, but I can also see how that would be annoying.

if you missed it though, Mace is doubling down with a new bill that bans trans women from women's facilities in all federal properties (govt, parks, museums)

yeah it's about more than just McBride now.

Good on Fetterman, I guess.

There’s no job I’m afraid to lose if it requires me to degrade anyone.

If that’s a defining issue for a voter, there will be a different candidate.

We have a bathroom in my office that anybody is welcome to use, including Representative-elect Sarah McBride. pic.twitter.com/Y8ZZbzFVq6

— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) November 20, 2024

One way or another I feel like we're likely to get SCOTUS rulings on trans access in the next few terms. I'm not optimistic about how that turns out.

this stuff is going to look so insane several years from now. take a look at mcbride. this is who you want using a men’s room at a national park? and you’re concerned about people’s SAFETY?

to be clear it already looks insane, but i mean like, even to the brainwormed

I'm afraid the issue is that it *doesn't* look insane to the brainwashed. Hateful bathroom bullshit like this is 80% of what my Trumper uncle spouts off about. The "there is kitty litter in classrooms!" crowd eats this shit up, unfortunately.

Also so telling that it's only about trans women, they never even mention trans men — who all these rules force into women's bathrooms.

otm

Gaetz has withdrawn himself from consideration as AG

So he’s resigned his position and doesn’t have a new one — is he gonna start a podcast?