U.S. Politics January 2023: Kevin McCarthy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Life

I wish they’d sort out immigration reform for legal immigrants, because the current quota by country system is ridiculous and a few of my coworkers have been here for over a decade and likely still have decades to wait until they have a chance at being permanent residents.

The government wants to give them as much time as possible to change their minds. Given the trend lines it seems nice of them tbh.

I know it shouldn't but seeing stuff like this from Minnesota makes me feel slightly less bad about Tennessee. (If worse about the U.S. of A. overall.)

Newly elected Minnesota State Sen. Nathan Wesenberg (R) suggests jailing Gov. Tim Walz (D) over COVID-19 mandates and refers to the vaccine as "a death shot" in one of his first public speeches since his election. pic.twitter.com/ShD50aBz0W

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) January 9, 2023

where's the mandate over beards like that

i'm not anti-vaccine, i'm just anti-some vaccines, also no one needs vaccines

Who cares Dems are in charge of Minnesota

This might be the most hilarious book blurb I've ever seen.

Really embarrassing @mikepompeo couldn't find ANYONE else to praise his book. pic.twitter.com/1qPBOsG5ck

— Ammar Moussa (@ammarmufasa) January 9, 2023

"This is America, the government doesn't get to tell you to do with your bodies."

Try the veal, tip your waitress.

⚡️ JUST NOW: @RepMarkGreen, who voted to throw out the election results after the insurrection, helped fuel it with lies, and WENT TO BRAZIL to coach them up before their insurrection… elected chair of the Homeland security Committee. 😳👇🏽 https://t.co/8XXhSlmGZa

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 9, 2023

Details are few but Army CID definitely rolled up a dozen-plus Special Forces soldiers last week in connection with a major narcotics investigation at Fort Bragg

Here are official statements from SOCOM and USASOC pic.twitter.com/KIanGg7rqS

— Seth Harp (@sethharpesq) January 9, 2023

If it weren't for the mythic nonsense around US special forces this would just be another typical story to spin out of the War on Some Drugs. I wouldn't be much surprised if the soldiers they rounded up are simultaneously both dealers and users.

*shocked claude rains face*

I can't believe there are drugs in this military.

The War, on Drugs.

Fayettenam

porter makes her 2024 senate bid official.

already saw rumors about her last week being horrible to her staff

she'll fit right in in the senate!

Does she eat salad with a comb y/n

eats hot dogs with a thesaurus

solid letter imo

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been locked out of her Twitter account and her new video has been removed after Dr. Dre took legal action against her for using his music without permission.

His letter is amazing. pic.twitter.com/Vk12JSRByK

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) January 9, 2023

lol wow

served

pic.twitter.com/qNsaltItZb

— Dear White Staffers (@DWS________) December 30, 2022

you best check yourself

Cause when you diss Dre you diss yourself

seems like a good idea

i mean... yeah?

Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz resigns https://t.co/Bi5EpNmp3a

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) January 10, 2023

xposts yes that's what I started seeing re: porter. I'm taking it with a grain of salt myself. seems like astroturfed oppo shit

you best check yourself

Cause when you diss Dre you diss yourself

― I got two Clark Gables and a slide trombone (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, January 10, 2023 11:57 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I immediately thought of the Nate Dogg lines "I heard you wanna fuck with Dre / you picked the wrong motherfuckin' day"

i wont get specific but the porter stuff is legit, truly hair-raising stuff going on in that office, been a long time wondering when it would start coming out

i'd love it if people got specific about porter--the only thing I could find was some b.s. about letting a staffer/intern go when the staffer violated covid protocols

also alleged that she told a staffer to "grow up" when she reported sexual harrassment

The main point I've seen so far is that she's a frequent screamer. That usually goes along with abusive language, too, but I haven't seen anyone quoting any abusive language.

Politicians are assholes. You don't want to work for an asshole, don't get a job in politics.

"its just locker room talk"

Manny Diaz should set him on fire, then hang himself.

seems pretty standard for a number of political campaign offices tbh

very bad but not uncommon

imagine working for someone like that who gets bonus points from liberals for fake-reading a book called 'the subtle art of not giving a fuck'

as always with this kind of stuff it'll depend on how many young ppl at the bottom of the totem pole will want to attach their names to public allegations, but it def runs deeper than "mean high-functioning politics boss" shit

allegedly

on the one hand, I get the real fear that it might be astro-turfed Jacob Wohl nonsense, on the other, it seems this has been whispered amongst colleagues for a while. but I also get wanting something more substantive than the REO speedwagoning of "heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend".

that said, I wouldn't be surprised if something more concrete does come out later, and that there is definitely fire here. and while it's not uncommon for a politician to be this way on either side, I would really love it if we no longer normalized this (not that I think anybody is saying it's ok itt). abusive employers are bad no matter who they are and I know some people say derisively (again, not ITT) say "it's just work, w/e", but a huge part of my mental collapse nine years ago began with hostile work conditions, which were only about .005% as bad as what the anonymous sources are reporting here. it's yet another type of abuse you often can't walk away from because most people can't afford to just up and quit their job these days. I was fortunate that I could just switch departments.

Given how non-seriously the Kolbuchar stuff was taken, I doubt any of these staffers are going to be willing to put their names to these stories

yeah, and I think a large part of why that died out is that her Presidential campaign flamed out fairly quickly. Klob used to kind of wear "I'm a hard person to work for" as a badge of honor, which, tbh, fuck that

"you're fired!"

nobody likes having an asshole boss, but some people really like having an asshole at the very top.

people who enjoy firing people should never be in charge of anything

otm

Having a shitty boss sucks. I've had several. I've never viewed it as a badge of honor, and I've always gotten out as quickly as possible, often doing something to get myself fired so I could collect unemployment. And on the very few occasions where I've been someone's boss, I've tried really hard to be nice and never yell at anybody. But politicians in particular are sociopaths and monsters, because only sociopaths and monsters run for elective office, so this is to be expected.

I wouldn't be surprised if something more concrete does come out later, and that there is definitely fire here.

agree. but I also agree with waterface:

i'd love it if people got specific about porter

just dropping vague hints that "she's really bad" amount to what used to be called 'a whispering campaign'.

i guess we'll see what comes out

"Basically told the individual to grow up," Georgiades said regarding the case of a staffer who had reported sexual harassment in Porter’s office.

Georgiades noted that the staffer, who worked with her during her two-year period in Porter’s office, left the office shortly "after the sexual harassment conversation" with the congresswoman.

She also noted the individual "hasn’t filed anything with ethics committee but spoke about it with Porter personally, and that was her response."

"Basically" means "this is how I interpret what she said."

Does stuff like this regularly come out about male politicians? I can't think of any, other than Trump, and as KM said above, for his supporters that was a feature rather than a bug.

Franken

Franken had a reputation for being horrible to his staff? I honestly don't remember. He resigned over utter bullshit.