US Politics May 2021: Joe Manchin's Choose-Your-Adventure Book

No one else stepped up, so I stepped in.

Update on Schumer’s imaginary friends

The key part of this conversation with Chuck Schumer, to me, is the way his thinking on the median voter has changed. https://t.co/27UpHiVFQ8

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) April 30, 2021

Now he thinks these voters, "Joe and Eileen Bailey," just want government to help them, and they don't care who else it helps. And so the political path for Democrats is to do anything and everything so these voters feeling helped by the government, right now.

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) April 30, 2021

They've got footage:https://www.npr.org/2021/05/01/992713857/oregon-lawmaker-who-opened-state-capitol-to-far-right-protesters-faces-charges
A few highlights:
Shortly after that breach, demonstrators scuffled with state troopers and Salem police. One man is accused of spraying officers with bear mace, allowing the crowd to make their way further into the building. Several people were arrested before the Capitol was cleared, and members of the crowd went on to shatter glass doors and assault journalists outside the building. Nearman, meanwhile, promptly walked around the building and entered on the opposite side.

At least three people who participated in the Salem protest went on to participate in the attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
...Nearman suggested in the statement he was the victim of a political attack, and that he was being subjected to "mob justice."
...In 2017, his then-legislative aide gave a gun to a convicted felon, who then brought it to a pro-Trump demonstration at the Capitol, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Court records show the aide, Angela Roman, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in the incident.

...On Saturday, he's slated to appear at a Salem rally in support of gun rights alongside former congressional candidate and QAnon conspiracy theory supporter Jo Rae Perkins, according to a flyer for the event.

Newman is slated to appear, not the aide (although maybe the aide will be there too).

“The era of big government is over,” POTUS Bill Clinton famously declared in his 1996 State of the Union address.

versus:

Biden has consciously cloaked himself in the legacy of FDR, to hark back to an earlier age of liberalism when government pulled the country out of despair.

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) May 1, 2021

Waiting for the “shit, I didn’t mean to say New Deal liberalism worked!” retraction.

Coming from Sen. Cornyn that is one weird tweet.

Twice in the last month John Cornyn has posted tweets that are directly copied and pasted from published articles (in Politico and the NYT respectively) without any attribution whatsoever. A really strange look for a US Senator. pic.twitter.com/jqlOYD1AhQ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 1, 2021

That makes sense, he was probably trying to send a link to someone and can’t figure out how it works.

Cornyn has never given the impression of being intelligent.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/02/mitt-romney-booed-and-called-traitor-at-utah-republican-convention

please don't make me like romney

here you go:

In his first 100 days, the President has proposed $6 trillion in new spending—about 4x our total federal budget! That amount of spending jeopardizes our kids' future and saddles them with decades of interest costs. pic.twitter.com/Ta5OYgUKfi

— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) April 29, 2021

there's also tweet after tweet about cHiNa

whew, thanks

Give this man a rubber ball nose and giant red shoes

Quote from Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) on his opposition to vaccine waiver: pic.twitter.com/j0AVqGNCip

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) May 2, 2021

American exceptional ism, folks

Q-Trump vanguarder crashing party leadership in South Carolina:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/02/lin-wood-south-carolina-race-485189

“Brain worms” is usually a joke but Lin Wood might actually actually have some heretofore undiscovered neurological disease.

My own diagnosis of Lin Wood is 'utterly shameless power-hungry publicity-chaser' with a large dash of sociopathy to help it go down more easily.

i like how Trump endorsed the incumbent but it doesn't matter - Wood is banking on Trumpiness as a concept overriding Trump as a person.

he may be right! some (mostly old white) people just like the idea of an old white guy who maintains the status quo and sorts us into good and bad. like jesus. or santa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBAh6o4Ak9M

Zuri got so big!! lol <3

right?!?

Presidential fact-checker David Dale on the first hundred days of this administration:

"Biden is averaging about 1 false claim every 3.5 days.

In the last year I counted Trump before I had to quit the tally because it was too much to handle, Aug. 2019-July 2020, Trump averaged about 8 false claims every 1 day."

into this

The bottom 95% of earners will not see a tax increase under Biden's proposal. Almost all of the changes would affect the top .7% of earners. https://t.co/L4Gwgelgza

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) May 4, 2021

"caught"

Scoop from @kadiagoba: Kevin McCarthy caught on hot mic bad-mouthing Liz Cheney https://t.co/vpFxZ9qVX5

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) May 4, 2021

Politicians don't say anything into a microphone they don't expect people to hear.

whom will this surprise, though? He's said that shit aloud.

I mean also, Liz Cheney is not our friend. Liz Cheney still sucks.

they rehabbed W I’m sure Luz will be a shoo in

Lulz

Lol Chaney was a monster too

Politicians don't say anything into a microphone they don't expect people to hear.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/that-awkward-moment-when-peter-dutton-realised-the-mic-was-on-29499733.html

Lol Chaney: Underrated Cure Member

Saw Lol Chaney Jr. walking with the queen.

Pretty much being a d1ck is a 'must have' when buying your own conservative politician world wide.

Trump’s new social media platform is just a feed on his website to approximate him tweeting.

I love the image of him ranting at Mar-a-Lago wedding guests about the 'verrry interesting' recount happening in AZ... magic memories for the happy couple

Trump’s new social media platform is just a feed on his website to approximate him tweeting.

― Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, May 4, 2021 4:45 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's incredible

gotta admire the commitment to shitposting

honestly good for him. every time I see an online “libertarian” or strict cOnStItuTiOnLisT whining about corporations like Twitter or FB finally kind of enforcing their TOS my first thought is why the fuck don’t you Pull Yourself Up by Your Own Bootstraps and make your own platform, dipshit. and by george this soup-brained asshole did it.

(obv Twitter & FB are terrible and deserve to be broken up at the very least, if not outright nationalized)

Trump’s new social media platform is just a feed on his website to approximate him tweeting.

― Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, May 4, 2021 4:45 PM (one hour ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e5td7-Bpvc

Are you talking about the "news" section on 45office.com? Or something else? I kind of want to gaze in horror at whatever it is, at least for a minute.

this thing is amazing - it has permalinks that don't work, "hearts" that don't do anything, and "share" buttons that copy only the first 55 characters into a tweet for you, or on video posts, don't work.

rong thread though, unless this useless sack of fermented meat juice does anything to do with politics, let's keep him to his own C/D isothread

unperson: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/desk

christ what an asshole

nope not clicking

Paid for by Save America JFC

More like "Save America, KFC."

He's railing against Facebook and yet there's a little Facebook 'share' logo on the right of the post

CNN has been going on--on TV, and on their site--about Liz Cheney and Kevin McCarthy for 48 hours now, like the fate of the world hinges on this. (MSNBC too, I'd bet.)

I want to not care about this but it’s still disturbing, in that it’s further confirmation that the GOP platform is still Trump and nothing else. I like to think that this means the GOP is willingly allowing Trump to be an anchor tied around their necks, but time will tell.

Well, it definitely would not be a good thing if all the remaining normal assholes in the GOP were forced out and replaced with outright lunatics, esp. if the GOP got the house back. Which is not outside of the realm of possibility, either of those things

I don't care.

ha I would like to see the vote count on that if it happened literally right now

At very least return it to the talking filibuster

god I wish they had the stones

xp otm

as josh marshall often points out, under the current setup the minority party doesn't even have to show up or exert any effort in order to filibuster. the final vote was 54-35 - they didn't even have to put up 40 votes today!

in fact, these days they barely even have to say they'll filibuster in the first place! it's just assumed that they will.

but i guess there's nothing that can be done

*flies home early to support the troops*

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/takeaways-from-the-jan-6-filibuster/sharetoken/DZnuesyHTI22

marshall - takeaways from the jan 6 filibuster

oops posted that link twice, sorry

don't sic me, that sharetoken+alphanumeros is important because that article is for PRIME members only, so i need to give you all my exclusive SHARE token so you can see it too

*beams like a granddad at a t-ball game*

I would like to think that some savvy progressive is lining up to primary Sinema, but then I think about the full court press of Democrats and their cable news mouthpieces spending months telling us how this “actually helps Trump and Putin” and it’s just like *sigh* wgaf

wouldn't happen til 2024 anyway

I'll most likely vote for any Dem who challenges her, but being that my US Rep is Paul fucking Gosar I find it a bit difficult to spare any loathing for Sinema.

At very least return it to the talking filibuster

I am so out of the loop on some things that I didn't realize it wasn't still a talking filibuster until last fall. what the ever living fuck is the point of this thing if you don't have to force them to actually stand there until they drop?

hasn't been for maaaaaaaaaaany years

so fucking dumb that they can't even manage to bring THAT back. it's clearly only to the GOP advantage that you don't have to show up. there are certain democrats capable of showing up and speaking AT LENGTH, ad lib, in a passionate and convincing way, without lying constantly. There are currently ZERO GOP politicians that can do that

It boggles my mind that there’s a 60 vote threshold to defeat a filibuster rather than a 40 vote threshold to maintain one

and not only that, but the GOP is demonstrably lazy and brittle. they don't want to stay in DC and talk all night. all they'll do is "accidentally" say something that offends 1/3 of the world. it's better to go home and golf. after a month and a half of talking filibusters they'd just say fuck it to the whole idea

That was one of the reforms Manchin nixed IIRC

wouldn't happen til 2024 anyway

I know I know bold of me to assume we’re even allowed to vote in 40 years

I know I know bold of me to assume we’re even allowed to vote in 40 years

Bold of you to think this not scrimulation

We have the Senate, the House and the Presidency.

Stop negotiating with a losing insurrectionist party who are trying to sabotage our democracy, pass the infrastructure package through reconciliation and abolish the filibuster.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 28, 2021

sorry that’s just not Who We Are

can you imagine being the dipshit on Manchin’s staff who has to type this garbage out. what’s your life look like bud

Choosing to put politics and political elections above the health of our Democracy is unconscionable. And the betrayal of the oath we each take is something they will have to live with. My statement on the January 6th Commission vote: pic.twitter.com/tlPme9LMIo

— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) May 28, 2021

Putting politics above the country, interesting

what exactly has he done for the health of the democracy?

he held the line! when push came to shove, he held the line!!

?!!? fuckin dipshit manchin, asshole senator

A new poll released by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core shows that these dangerous and conspiratorial beliefs are not confined to the country’s dank backwaters.

Fully 20 percent of more than 5,500 adults questioned in all 50 states — and 28 percent of Republicans among them — said they agreed with the statement that “there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders.”

Even more worrisome were the 15 percent overall — and, again, 28 percent of Republicans — who were of the opinion that because “things have gotten so off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”

28% of Republicans are ready for the civil war/apocalypse, whatever it ends up being called.

74 million votes for trump. 28% of that is 21 million people.

People will just say whatever on a phone survey

the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core

that is a interesting set of words to string together and may have some deeper meaning than what it appears to say.

28% SAY they're ready for civil warpocalypse. 72% say they can dunk on LeBron.

People will just say whatever on a phone survey

And I'd particularly since they saw the hammer come down on the 1/6 douchenozzles and realized that, oh shit, there might actually be unpleasant consequences that follow from behaving like a lawless knob.

I'd

i have to admit, that was on the response i expected from ilx

i've over here, postin, lookin

that was not, rather, heh

postin

That number and the 52% of Republicans don’t think Biden is President sound scary but I wonder how far out of the historical norm they are. The threat of reactionary political violence is more American than apple pie. Conservatives have considered every Democratic win since JFK stolen.

It doesn't cost a thing to talk tuff. Like my laptop isn't working right, say, and I just start bellowing YOU'D BETTER START WORKING RIGHT NOW OR I'M GONNA SMASH YOU INTO POWDER, LITTLE MAN! But I'm not gonna actually do that because I need a working laptop so I just swallow my frustration and impotently grumble. Even though there are way too many unhinged wingnuts, the majority of huff 'n' puff wannabe insurrectionists are just going to impotently grumble and then go watch a Last Man Standing marathon.

I'm on the scuzball GOP house guys mail list around here and I got pissed off when I got some email for Memorial day of him supposedly honoring all these vets service. I emailed him and told him that he definitely did not honor one vet - Brian Sicknick.

I don't know what the fuck happened to Mitch McConnell to so embitter him, but he is just a parasite Renfeld to some of the worst bloodsucking vampires on the face of humanity. The man's legacy is pretty much legalizing bribery. The man is a walking cancer. No point emailing him about anything. Only time my family ever emailed this choad was my dad's Medicare would not pay for him to go for a year to a dialysis at a new center about 2 miles from our house and he had to go to one 18 miles away, even though they were owned by the same fucking company. Of course that was the one winter we got 2 blizzards... "Not my job was his reply...no shit."

As for Rand Paul, there is not enough room in his mirror for anyone but himself and swindling these dolts is a family business.

I thought I heard that investigation into the turtle couple that had been quash3d last year had reappeared a couple of months back. Did it go anywhere?
I mean is there any use for optimism that he might get a more personal scandal wash him away.
Thought Chao had a few other things coming to light that were also being looked into
Turtle must have a powerful shell.
Would be so good to get him gone. If we all wished hard enough couldn't he get some majorly fitting ailment.

I don’t see this Gosar gem itt yet, so:

They took her life. They could not take her pride. #onemoreinthenameoflove https://t.co/i4u5HTNzSi

— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) May 28, 2021

#wednesdaybloodywednesday more like

Jesus

Where the Tweets Have No Shame

bitter lol

Proud of Texas House Dems.

They fought voter suppression with everything they had & kept the hope of free & fair elections alive for another day.

There will be a special session with another voter suppression bill. But they bought Texas some time.

Let’s make the most of it. https://t.co/nFbQ7LTCuL

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) May 31, 2021

are there any actual ways for them to stop this?

After it is passed, the US Supreme Court (lol, yeah right).

isn't having a revolution every 100 years or so healthy for electoral systems or something.
Probably even more frequently.
Gosh can't wait for a return to American leadership after the last fiasco, or not as the case may be.

Can everybody who has to deal with US interference point to the US and what a mess it is for the next while. & of course how its all their fault anyway.

Meanwhile if you're wondering what Rev. Moon Jr. is up to.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3dp8j/gun-church-that-worships-with-ar-15s-bought-a-40-acre-compound-in-texas-for-its-patriots

Missed this from the weekend, but a buncha folks on Twitter had fun spamming Crenshaw & Cotton's "Whistleblow The Woke" snitch site.

Good evening Dan Crenshaw. My name is Brady Bulldozer (pseudonym) and I am in SEAL Team 6. Last night, when Biden ordered our unit to infiltrate and eliminate Kim Jong-un, he demanded that we first list our pronouns. That’s when I knew the wokes had won. https://t.co/iFQQSricbL

— Berny Belvedere (@bernybelvedere) May 29, 2021