BURNPIT: U.S. Politics, August 2022

Lmao

Tough day for pell grant recipients who went through the trouble of opening a small business in disadvantaged communities thinking it’d be the only way they get their debt forgiven

— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock) August 25, 2022

My parents paid my college tuition, but I ate the $100k bill for business school.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) August 24, 2022

Is Frank Grimes running the Texas GOP Twitter account?

ohhh megan megan megan

did she add mayo to that bill she ate

pic.twitter.com/vEGZGdY3Ez

— katie spalding (@supermathskid) August 24, 2022

I pay little enough attention to pundits that I had to look up who Megan McArdle is. She seems rather unlikeable.

ok boomer

Another point: Progressives like me mocked the Trump admin for making up pretexts for policies:
E.g., putting a citizenship Q on the census "to enforce the voting rights act."
Shifting pretexts for the Muslim Ban.

We all know that COVID is a pretext for cancelling student debt.

— Jed Shugerman 🇺🇦 (@jedshug) August 24, 2022

The difference is that those policies were bad, and this one is good.

using situations as a pretext for enacting the policies you wanted to enact? that sounds like politics!

The best legislation springs from nowhere, no one having thought of it before--even better when no one can think of a reason for it

Lot of these people seem to be learning for the first time that this was in Biden’s 2020 manifesto, he told people he was going to do it if he won, and then he won the election.

But what about healing?

Laura Loomer refuses to accept her primary loss and declares "I actually am the Congresswoman in Florida’s 11th District, and everyone knows it," vowing to harass Rep. Dan Webster and "drive him into the ground every step of the way until he collapses in disgrace." pic.twitter.com/HUtyRX18EY

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) August 25, 2022

holy fuck

christ, that quote leaves out "in disgrace (or poor health)"

does she expand on that? oh boy!

she should wear a napoleon hat with her hand in her blouse when she makes these assertions

So she's not even asserting that she's the presumptive nominee, but actually an elected Congresswoman... months before the midterms

Good luck with that, ace

I love the smell of GOP infighting in the morning

"Federal RICO case against Facebook and Twitter" yeah good luck there

Holy shit, she's in my parents' district.

We say “these people are crazy” all the time but Loomer is genuinely mentally ill, and she got thousands of people to vote for her.

Fortunately she’s not violent nor does she have an army of chuds to do her bidding and everything she has done (like chaining herself to one door, she didn’t even block it, at Twitter’s New York office, everybody walking past and ignoring her) has been hilarious but ineffective.

Loomer has the vibe of someone who gets banned from a message board and then messages board members on Facebook with photos of eyeless children

does Loomer actually have a following, though? I thought she specifically moved to Florida to run because of the dumb old Trump devotee voters

Loomer has no following to speak of. Being banned from every social media platform (and even some non-social media things, like I think she's banned from Uber because she gave racist reviews to drivers she suspected of being Muslim) has substantially limited her reach.

hey, I found her people

Here is a Loomer rally in my community, The Villages. https://t.co/I4bNbGhBbQ pic.twitter.com/fGBqgWF2Eb

— Reality is a Thing (@YokweJera) August 25, 2022

But once she single-handedly brings Facebook and Twitter to their knees, folks will take notice

ok loomer

xps that's the closest I've ever seen real life get to gooble-gobble-gooble-gobble

Horseshoe theory is wanting Zuck disappeared.

After her 2018 ban from Twitter, she handcuffed herself to Twitter's headquarters in New York for two hours before police cut through the handcuffs at her request.

haha, that's commitment.. 'guys, I really have to pee'

We say “these people are crazy” all the time but Loomer is genuinely mentally ill, and she got thousands of people to vote for her.

― Mar - a - Lago, or 120 Days of Sodom (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, August 25, 2022 1:09 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah I think there's a big difference between her and people like MTG, Cawthorn, Bobert etc. who I think are essentially reality show contestants who found a grift. I actually wasn't super worried about her making it to Congress, if she won it would make Kevin McCarthy's life a living hell and I am pretty sure she would find a way to get booted from Congress within a week. but yeah the fact that she found that many voters is uh not a good sign

terrifying lol that villages video. have those people been using lead toothpaste or something?

the fact that she found that many voters is uh not a good sign

37,000 people in a district with over 820,000 people is not a lot. She literally got 4% of the population to vote for her. (And the guy that won got about 5%.)

Loomer always struck me as less crazy than just dumb and attention-seeking

i had never heard of Loomer until now. i hope she has a good term in congress, maybe does some important work developing relationships across the aisle where possible

If all it takes is a declaration of victory, why bother campaigning? I think Loomer found a loophole!

imo she peaked with the tire incident

Jesus, it's like they're actively trying to do things for people. I can't wait to find out how this, too, is Bad, Actually.

Any student who has a Pell Grant is eligible for free or discounted high-speed internet. Spread the word. https://t.co/Jk68IzsVd0.

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) August 25, 2022

Loomer voters surely include a mix of people. People who earnestly agree with her nonsense, people who are just plain nuts, and people who have reflexive contempt for the whole idea of being in civil society.

This last category is the most worrisome. I think voting for her is attractive as a way to raise a middle finger at the entire world of people who operate with good will and a shred of empathy for others.

Ditto voting for MTG, Gaetz, DeSantis, Boebert, Trump. It is, at root, primarily a rude gesture directed at anyone who doesn't have a gnarled soul full of venomous eels.

Loomer voters surely include a mix of people. People who earnestly agree with her nonsense, people who are just plain nuts, and people who have reflexive contempt for the whole idea of being in civil society.

a very small but real category: people who vote based on how funny or interesting the name is. Loomer not only rhymes with a bunch of stuff, but it was also a movie. that's gotta be worth some votes

wait, i'm thinking Looper. ok. well, then you have people like me who get mixed up, both in remembering films but also with the wrong people and the wrong situations

Example: the man i saw on my bicycle the other day that had a shirt reading

FUCK THE VACCINE
FUCK YOUR FEELINGS
FUCK BIDEN
FUCK YOU

admittedly my head did do a swivel, but mostly because i expect that kind of think in rural rest stops, but not across the street from Malcolm X park in West Philly.

xp then you've got your my bloody valentine fanatics

Table

Example: the man i saw on my bicycle the other day that had a shirt reading

FUCK THE VACCINE
FUCK YOUR FEELINGS
FUCK BIDEN
FUCK YOU

Why was he on your bicycle?

grammar pedants go to hell, YMP

they might claim to want to make america great again, but there's quite a bit of pure nihilism in all this shit.. not even welcoming the End Times, but just a general 'burn-it-all-down and replace it with nothing' sentiment

Loomer always struck me as less crazy than just dumb and attention-seeking

― mh, Thursday, August 25, 2022 1:58 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

there's elements of this of course, arguably every GOP candidate under 50 is a dumb attention-seeker, but Loomer is also legitimately mentally unwell on top of that

poor Groucho :(