BURNPIT: U.S. Politics, August 2022

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/the-nikki-haley-alleged-blogger-affair-story/57186/

question on loan forgiveness: is this a one time thing, or will all people going forward get 10-20k of their balance forgiven?

The news media routinely portray Democrats as snobbish elites looking down their noses at working people.

You won't read this quote in the New York Times or The Atlantic. https://t.co/RmmdcE65or

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) August 26, 2022

try to imagine how many outraged columns the New York Times would publish if Hillary Clinton ridiculed working class conservatives as druggie slackers whose economic struggles are their own fault

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) August 26, 2022

Loose Cruz & Tight Hawley

Reutersplaining and all, this is a li'l trip (must.not.spoil.Jenna Ellis punchline...)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-pennsylvania-candidate-mastriano-posed-confederate-uniform-army-war-2022-08-26/

This was a nice touch:

Mastriano's district, Pennsylvania's 33rd, includes Gettysburg.

question on loan forgiveness: is this a one time thing, or will all people going forward get 10-20k of their balance forgiven?


c’mon man

I'd never read that Haley affair story. I love how the blogger made this big show of wanting to get ahead of the story and — very reluctantly! — fessed up to having tapped that.

the more I think about that Ted Cruz clip the more I fucking hate him

this is supposed to be the land of opportunity! where you're supposed to be able to pursue your passion and take your talents to market! this slimy fucker not only ridiculed anyone trying to educate themselves in a non-STEM degree but also everyone who works in the service industry AND he throws in a dig at pot smokers as well! THESE ARE YOUR VOTERS TOO you dumbass!

I think Republicans have proven that they have complete contempt for their voters and yet they still win cause their voters want to stick it to people they hate.

This is true I think (not uniquely American, but particularly prevalent on the American right)

"service workers are your societal lessers and surely must've fucked up their life if they're forced into the type of job where they are mistreated and disrespected by people like me" is a very widespread attitude in America, especially on the right https://t.co/1dei8ThUam

— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw) August 28, 2022

They have mentally skipped ahead to the part where they've already permanently seized power due to gerrymandering and election fraud and their rhetoric reflects that.

xp yeah that's a truth bomb. I've probably posted this before, but Covid showed how much people cherish the opportunity to mistreat and disrespect them too, like it's a civil right that govt restrictions took away from them

but the right never misses an opportunity to ventriloquize the working class as if they give a shit

https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/ventriloquizing-the-working-man-classic

Ted Cruz: ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag.

It's always good to include "PhD in Gender Studies" in your tweet to further clarify whom you perceive the enemy to be. xp

Best political headline of the day:

Please Shut Up About Liz Cheney or Larry Hogan in 2024

Oh hell, if Liz Cheney wants to run around giving Trump hell on the regular in 2024, what can it hurt? if nothing else, it'll just seal her coffin politically speaking. And if she suckers a bunch of big donors into bankrolling her, then at least it will waste their money on her instead of electing other death cultists.

i think the 'shut up' was directed at people saying the Dems should run Cheney or Hogan. Could be wrong but it's been a consistent dumb thing proposed by idiots on twitter.

She won't run as a democrat, c'mon. If she runs as a republican against Trump in 2024, fine

But if she runs as an independent she could draw more votes from democrats than republicans, and fuck that

if there really are people saying the Democrats should run Liz Cheney at the top of their ticket, they are numbskulls, devoid of sense, whose opinions merely disturb the air and vanish without further effect.

So…Washington pundits basically

Not even "Morning" Joe has endorsed this position.

September thread title nom: “I can’t seem to find anything but positive stuff on the Bidens”

Alternative title: "I wanna know everything on that laptop that can ruin my erection."

NEW w/@YahooNews: If Liz Cheney were to run as an independent in 2024, she would take more support from Biden than from Trump.

2024 three-way matchup:
Biden: 32%
Cheney: 11%
Trump: 40%https://t.co/Ozwx8Us3cv pic.twitter.com/s5Vebp8kGg

— YouGov America (@YouGovAmerica) August 23, 2022

is anyone talking about her as a 3rd party candidate?

she would be 100000000000x more useful as a primary opponent of trump (and will get slaughtered)

man, i just love that liz cheney! can't wait to hear some more bullshit!

I am skeptical that it would take very long for those supposedly Cheney-friendly dems to drop her once they learn how she has voted on non-Trump issues.

But I also don’t see any reason for her to run. This notion will disappear in like a week, right?

she has stated that she will do everything she can to help stop trump. i assume that means being entering the primaries and being the main (only?) voice of dissent against Trump

In the news business August is often called 'the silly season'. Other than natural disasters there's hardly any news to report. For political pundits the well runs pretty dry.

That respected news division Yahoo News.

"Too many people are studying history! Shut it down." — a conservative

There is a massive oversupply of history PhDs and the obvious solution is for at least the bottom quarter of programs to shut down, maybe the bottom half or bottom two-thirds. Question for academic tweeps: Is this happening? Is anyone discussing it? https://t.co/OhDSNvQmfC

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) August 29, 2022

I dunno, seems like you could still employ history Ph.Ds in the private sector--ghostwriting Bill O'Reilly's "Killing" books and whatnot.

gee Megan I wonder if there are any economic or ideological reasons universities have embraced a system that creates a pool of extremely cheap labor plus some extra tuition money on top, regardless of the long-term outcomes?

those who can’t earn from history are doomed to retweet it

McArdle is a ~spooooooky ghooooooooooooooost~

I'm sure she haunts some of her former professors, at any rate.

“tweeps”?

Tracer

tweeps = twitter peeps, which shows you what a 00s blogosphere relic she is

anyway, I retract my earlier post, of course Mcardle knows that neoliberalizing unis culminates in selective austerity for anything that doesn't aid capital; that is the point

Sounds like Gender Studies majors are this year's Welfare Mothers. I keep hearing how they're bankrupting America by running up student debt and cashing in on government handouts to buy drugs. You'd think as professional grifters, Republicans could come up with more plausible schemes than people having multiple babies or getting advanced degrees in order to fund their drug habits, but I guess they're afraid of shitting to close to where they eat.

gender studies majors
make better gaugers

Gender studies majors
Throw better ragers
Hey birth person,
Hey birth person!
I'm thirsty!

News possibly of interest only to me and Alfred:

NBC's Meet The Press Shakeup Puts Chuck Todd In Jeopardy

The executive producer of Meet the Press, who NBC announced last week is ”shifting” over to the streaming side, was pushed out amid the Sunday politics show’s ratings woes, two people familiar with the matter told Confider.

John Reiss, who had been EP for the last eight years, was officially punted over to the NBC News Now streaming service, and David P. Gelles, a long-time CNN producer who helped develop the now-defunct CNN+ streamer, was parachuted in to help fix the sinking show, which is down 21 percent in total viewership and 24 percent in the key advertising demographic compared to last year—more than any of the other Sunday politics shows.

Gelles’ first order of business, multiple sources said, is deciding what to do about Chuck Todd, who despite recently signing a two-year extension, as Confider has learned, has baffled many at NBC with how long he’s remained atop the struggling show.

NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker is being groomed to replace Todd, multiple insiders with knowledge of the matter said, and is expected to take on more hosting duties as the midterm elections approach.

Todd was already demoted once this year when his Meet the Press Daily broadcast on MSNBC was relegated to NBC’s streaming service. And earlier this year, with NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell in attendance, Todd was brutally roasted by Trevor Noah at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “How are you doing?” the Daily Show host asked Todd. “I’d ask a follow-up, but I know you don’t know what those are.”

According to 30 Rock insiders, these incidents have all demonstrated how Todd remains unpopular with viewers and critics and that the Meet the Press franchise has been overexposed.

“At what point does anyone have the balls to say ‘Maybe the problem is the face of it’?” one Meet the Press source wondered. The show has thus far been unable to replace its booking producer, who recently left for Meta, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The lingering questions about Todd’s future atop the Sunday show have garnered comparisons to the long, drawn-out, messy saga of former Meet the Press host David Gregory, who was ultimately pushed out in 2014 and replaced with Todd.

“After being the EP of the Sunday broadcast for eight years, at the end of his contract, John Reiss was looking for a different opportunity within the MTP franchise,” a NBC News spokesperson emailed Confider. “Kristen Welker is the co-host of Meet the Press NOW on NBC News NOW and has been since the show launched. And she and Chuck have been leading NBC News NOW’s election specials all year long.”

those who can’t earn from history are doomed to retweet it

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Underrated post!

I’d love to be a fly in the room while Chuck Todd skims this story on his phone

Maybe the problem is the fucking existence of shows like MTP.

A few times Todd has said something like, "Well, I can't ask hard questions or people wouldn't come on my show."

Those shows were designed to cheaply fill up 'dead' Sunday morning time slots and to bulk out the 'public service' licensing requirements for broadcasters. They've always sucked.