We. Would. CRY.: US Politics, July 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRQF8oGumaE

xp Um, the article mentions THC gummies, not CBD gummies.

From a certain point of view, we legalized marijuana

NY Gov signs new gun law:

Democratic leaders have said they expect pro-gun advocates to challenge the legislation in court -- but they believe the bill language will hold up.
New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said during a news conference Friday that lawmakers crafted the language carefully following the Supreme Court decision.
"We wanted to make sure that our permitting process would be able to stand up to scrutiny, and the technical aspects took a long time. But we are confident that we are providing New York, again, an opportunity not only to be able to have their concealed carry, but also to make New Yorkers safe," Stewart-Cousins said.
...Last month, Hochul signed a legislative package to tighten state gun laws, including a law that raised the minimum age to buy a semiautomatic rifle to 21.

i know this is a minor gotcha-type-thing and i'm piling dumb on top of dumb, but if the talking point that trump actually requested 10k or 20k national guard troops for jan 6 and pelosi and not-at-all-at-the-time-senate-majority-leader shumer nixed the request, so therefore they're responsible for the lax defense against the capitol attack, wouldn't that just implicate trump?

i mean, the reality is when he suggested that he just wanted to protect his supporters from antifa and blm and people with green hair and nose rings but the way it's presented on righty talk radio that i allegedly listen to sometimes is that this totally and irrevocably forever and ever amen contradicts the accusation that he was ok fine with his supporters breaching the capitol and perpetuating various wildings therein, because he actually tried to provide security for the capitol but was rebuffed.

wouldn't then the inference be that he assumed congress needed protection against his own supporters? it's not like antifa was going to try to stop the certification of let's go brandon frasier.

i see articles that refute the trump defense by saying that didn't happen, trump never formally requested troops and pelosi didn't have the power to reject, and i assume it's the case, but since the apparent upshot of the jan 6 panel is to triangulate trump's frame of mind and intent, why wouldn't it matter either way? either he's lying about being the guy who actually wanted to protect the capitol or elsewise he foresaw that the mob he riled up and directed capitolwards was gonna do some heinous stuff and he felt the need to provide security against what he set in motion.

i am not trained in formal logic processes and i spend most of my life like butters out in the outfield singing i see a ladybug, hello little ladybug while there's a game going on, but imo there are only two possibilities,

a) trmpu suggested nat'l guard security for his supporters only, and in the aftermath tried to game that into the assertion that he was the one who tried to protect the capitol and all his fox and friends were knowingly in bad faith with that's the fact, jack, and boo wendy pelosi, boo wendy, boo, in which case they're lying liars or

b) it's true, he requested the guardians because protecting the capitol and democracy against whom? himself and his supporters?

perhaps this is a small thing and not the silver bullet that's the final nail in the coffin but this is is kind of thinking that keeps me in the state of mind that this guy and all his friends are cheats and weasels and why are we having to deal with this still. why ado we have to prove he knew he was doing the wrong thing, if all we have to prove is he did the wrong thing?

Does Biden get stigma from having abortion criminalised under his Presidency however it's looked at. Is it going to be something taht is permanently attached to his name.
Like even allowing it to happen when he's in a position of supposed power.
& shouldn't that mean he does whatever he can to prevent it to stop it attaching to him or for more egalitarian less centred on him reasons.

He’s against abortion, he doesn’t give a shit

Like the guy is quite literally on the record as being against abortion

Yet if he had the senatorial support he'd sign a carve-out to the filibuster. Because he's been an obstreperous hack since 1974 who'll say anything to stay in power.

you see the problem here is you need a revolution or a 3rd party that was interested in doing things proactively and not in reaction to a negative other.
Should just ground SCOTUS until they learn how to behave. Would be so good if there was a way of keeping a body like that in tune with contemporary mores. If Thomas gets his way will he be tolerated by the ruling party anyway.
I mean, what is happening.
Quite enjoyed having a world that seemed like it might possibly improve. Do they need to keep running worst case scenario until things look better in comparison.

In one way it's a bummer that more off the record secret service sources have already refuted the off the record refutations of Trump's steering wheel lunge, especially the claim that his sheer size prevented such a move, because I woke up in the middle of the night with the phrase "too big to flail" stuck in my head and found it really amusing.

Imagine being Liz Cheney and being the only semi-competent human being on stage and having to pretend to take all those other people remotely seriously and knowing that you're going to lose to them.

BTW, I saw an interesting comment re: the anti-abortion judge Biden is allegedly going to nominate. Someone with more knowledge than me can unpack it:

Ok, some clarification may be in order here regarding the context.

First of all, the only thing Biden can promise is a nomination. He can’t promise any votes from the Democratic caucus, and he can’t promise that no Democratic Senator won’t filibuster the nomination (and under existing rules any Democratic Senator can do so anonymously). Unless the GOP can attract at least one vote from the Democratic caucus and ensure that not one Democratic Senator filibusters the nomination and ensure that if filibustered at least 10 members of the Democratic caucus vote with the GOP to overcome the filibuster, that guy wouldn’t be confirmed.

Second, based on the wording in this article (I’m not paying for an account with the Courier Journal to confirm), if the judgeship is “in Kentucky” it’s a District Court judgeship. That’s a lifetime appointment, but it’s a trial level judgeship in a State that falls under the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (which the Federalist Society hates) and U.S. Supreme Court. According to uscourts.gov, there are currently 75 Federal judicial vacancies and pending nominations for 20 of those vacancies, including 2 for Circuit Court of Appeals positions. The only federal judicial nominations that can proceed to be confirmed without potentially being blocked by a filibuster are Supreme Court Justices (see Ketanji Brown Jackson). 50 votes plus Kamala is enough to get a Supreme Court Justice nominee confirmed. It’s not enough to get any other Federal judgeship confirmed. Assuming the article is accurate, it is a trade of 1 trial level judge nomination (and presumably only a nomination because Biden can’t promise that no Democratic Senator will filibuster or that 10 Democratic Senators will vote to override the veto) that would be bound by decisions and subject to appeal to the Sixth Circuit (which the Federalist Society hates) and eventual appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has no vacancies at the moment, in exchange for 19 Federal judgeships, including 2 Circuit Courts of Appeal Judges. If the agreement was more far ranging than just existing nominations, it could potentially be as much as a trade of 1 Kentucky trial court judgeship in exchange for 74 Federal judgeships, including 7 Circuit Court of Appeals judgeships.

This doesn’t speak to whether McConnell will live up to his end of the bargain, but I suspect McConnell and Biden have probably made analogous deals in the past that McConnell honored.

Who wrote that?

Gore Vidal

Kinja user "Tropicana"

Imagine being Liz Cheney and being the only semi-competent human being on stage and... knowing that you're going to lose to them.

I imagine her essential self-confidence and sense of self-worth will not be damaged by the loss, nor will her financial situation, but the only shield I can imagine that would be powerful enough to deflect the sheer frustration of being thrown out by those yahoos and nincompoops would be an invincible arrogance - and hers just may be equal to that task.

Yeah I mean also fuck her obviously.

It's a great indication of where we are, that a Cheney is the one we look to in the Republican party as doing the right and honorable thing.

I have to say, like Kamala Harris, she would make a great prosecutor--or, better, a defense lawyer. Her skills would be put to much better use in that context.

Wyoming is an open primary state, no?

From Ballotpedia:

Wyoming law stipulates that parties conduct open primaries for congressional and state-level offices. While a voter must be affiliated with a political party in order to participate in its primary election, any voter, regardless of previous partisan affiliation, may change his or her affiliation on the day of the primary.

Yeah, fuck Cheney obviously, but also fuck all those other clowns on stage more. What a country. xxp

Arizona to Wyoming: "Hold our beer."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-trump-backed-frontrunner-in-arizona-s-gubernatorial-race-said-the-gop-primary-debate-felt-like-a-spoof/ar-AAZ6ppM?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=77a1722ebe704ea0f75beb04de624991

This doesn’t speak to whether McConnell will live up to his end of the bargain

if only we knew something about his track record in this regard

o if only

fwiw I was recently talking to my sister, who knows (but does not like) Liz Cheney, and is pretty sure she's playing a longer game. Wyoming is not the world, after all.

Sounds right. also

an invincible arrogance - and hers just may be equal to that task.

No one in politics can hate like a Cheney, and no one in politics can hate without losing focus like a Cheney.

More so than Trump?! We'll see.

Although he does sometimes lose focus in his longer speeches, and on some of his cronies.

Dick Cheney is more of a menace than Trump, which is saying a lot. Expanded executive powers to alarming levels, helped curb civil liberties, ruthless warmonger. he helped lay the welcome mat for Trump basically.

Yeah--Trump is not interested in military adventures, so far. He doesn't trust the military, at home or abroad.

Yeah--Trump is not interested in military adventures, so far. He doesn't trust the military, at home or abroad.

He loves displays of military might, and worships "da troops." But he's not interested in war per se because there's no way for his companies to profit from it. He's not in defense contracting, he's in real estate. So unless he can get a couple of billion to turn one of his golf courses into an air force base...

Also all those generals he surrounded himself with bailed, and he even ditched Flynn for a while.

Trump v. Papa Cheney on the "greater evil" scale is complex but also they're both Extremely Evil so the differences are sort of academic. Liz Cheney is not someone I would ever vote for for anything but she's massively overperforming expectations for Republican members of Congress in 2022, so I'm not going to carp about her right now.

I’d rather be shot in the face by dick chaney because at least when he does it it’s over in two seconds. when his daughter does it it goes on for months

— kilgore trout, death to putiner (@KT_So_It_Goes) June 28, 2022

I’d rather be bitten by Lon Chaney

I saw Liz Cheney walkin with the queen

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/06/america-new-civil-war-crisis-industrial-complex

great piece by nikhil pal singh - should be the last word on "impending civil war" but won't be obviously.

fwiw I was recently talking to my sister, who knows (but does not like) Liz Cheney, and is pretty sure she's playing a longer game. Wyoming is not the world, after all.

Good encapsulation of the past 50 years by this dude:

1/ Dear Republicans: We Tried Your Way and It Does Not Work (a thread):

— Thom Hartmann (@Thom_Hartmann) July 3, 2022

will otm. The first election I voted in and of course my state fucked it up

(I voted Nader. Ugh.)

Yeah, 2000 was when it clicked for the GOP that bullying and arrogant postering was enough to get the Dems to fold. Conveniently more or less right between the Contract with America and the Tea Party.

i may have said this before and it’s incredibly embarrassing and indefensible, but I didn’t even vote in 2000. It was TN so it didn’t really matter (wild thing to say about a nominee’s home state feels like a v modern development. Clintons really changed the game). 2002 midterms was when I was like holy fuck we gotta do something! 20 full years later I’m like holy fuck we gotta do something!

home state, it feels like*

(Obv Bill won AR both times but it feels like that was the last time someone like him could win in a place like that, local boy be damned)

Most of this is paywalled, but starts:

Key Points
Former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified Trump tried to steer the limo to the Capitol Jan. 6.

Secret Service official Tony Ornato disputed her claim that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel.

Former Trump aides Olivia Troye and Alyssa Farah Griffin say Ornato has a history of lying for Trump.

On the record, yeah.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/03/two-former-white-house-aides-say-top-secret-service-official-may-lying-protect-trump/7796127001/?gnt-cfr=1

Voted for Nader, would do it again in a heartbeat.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem avoided answering whether or not she would change the state's law to allow a 10-year-old rape victim to get an abortion.

"The Indianapolis Star" is reporting that a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who was six weeks and three days pregnant now has to travel across state lines to Indiana to receive an abortion," CNN's Dana Bash asked Noem on Sunday. "So I just -- because this is a trigger law that was passed before you became governor, I wanted you to be clear. Will the state of South Dakota going forward force a 10-year-old in that very same situation to have a baby?"

South Dakota bans abortions except in cases where the life of the mother is at risk. The trigger law went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified Trump tried to steer the limo to the Capitol Jan. 6.

This badly distorts what Hutchinson really testified.

WATCH: Health and Human Services Sec. Xavier Becerra says there’s not a lot the Biden administration can do for abortion rights. @SecBecerra: “Unless we’re all going to say the word of the Supreme Court will no longer have value, we have to heed the word of the Supreme Court.” pic.twitter.com/yfbp6j7JIO

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 3, 2022

Yeah, imagine if we did that

appropriately chastened

Gimme a C
Gimme an I
Gimme an A

Pete was assigned to 'intelligence' when he served in the US army, so he's a member of the club.

Would be funny if the DOT had its own spooks looking for, I dunno, foreign subversion of air traffic control or something.

I just remembered that the buildings for the Federal Highway Administration and the CIA are adjacent to each other in Virginia.

BURNPIT: U.S. Politics, August 2022

Boring: sorry, nope, the FHWA facility adjacent to CIA HQ is just a test track. Their headquarters is in SE.