U.S. Politics, November 2022: “I don’t know, you hear the same things I do”

Running Wooderson would be smarter than trotting out a multiple time loser.

either of the castro brothers could be decent but they are too chicken shit to lose, beto is the perfect lovable loser bc he never has to deliver on promises

If you want some scary roffles right now, Mark Finchem's Twitter feed is...interesting.

Beto blew $77 million in 2022 and he might as well have set it on fire, he didn't do any better against Abbott than Lupe Valdez did in 2018, who spent less than a tenth of what Beto did. Everyone assumed demographics would magically make Texas go blue in the next decade but surprise! The Latino population here is swinging hard to the right and voting Republican in droves.

I forget where I read it but there was a piece some years back that basically said what the Texas GOP did was take stock about how the California GOP blew itself up with Latinos following Prop 187 and essentially paid for it ever since; Ahnuld was an exception to the rule once Wilson was finally out and Dan Lungren couldn't beat Gray Davis (of all people), and after that it's been a slow descent into clown shoes for the most part.

fwiw the reason that I expect Texas to have a Dem win a statewide election again before Florida does isn’t bc of demographics per se. It’s really just vibes.

fwiw the reason that I expect Texas to have a Dem win a statewide election again before Florida does isn’t bc of demographics per se. It’s really just vibes.

Ah crap I double posted! What a boner

Stuffed ballot box, fake news etc

🚨🚨As Orange County gets into the vote center ballots, tonight's #CA47 update breaks 57.7% 42.3% for Republican Scott Baugh, who slashes Katie Porter's lead by 2,446 votes down to 2,891 and 1.28% https://t.co/oiqHnNKaBN

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) November 15, 2022

uh oh

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-03/manchin-wants-deal-on-debt-social-security-medicare-and-medicaid

What an idiot. We need Warnock to win to make his vote less important, although Sinema is still there too

Anyone who voted against Katie Porter should be disemboweled.

hear, hear

Thirded!

She’s got to run for feinstein’s seat in 24 assuming Feinstein quits/dies. That district is a nightmare.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-03/manchin-wants-deal-on-debt-social-security-medicare-and-medicaid

What an idiot. We need Warnock to win to make his vote less important, although Sinema is still there too

The bit about jobs programs - fuck yeah, let's bring back the WPA, sure... but what does that have to do with three small checks that went out with 3% unemployment

I was wondering what somebody like Katie Porter does if she loses office. Presumably that also means her place in whatever committees goes with it.
Like she's going to go and organise and things and prepare for other campaigns and like actually have some self time but like what becomes her main role. Always hope they maintain a strong sense of self and aren't defined by the office they hold.

Porter seems to have a very strong identity, I think she was an economics lecturer before office and were she to lose, I would imagine she will simply pick up and do what good she can with whatever tools she has.

Why does ms Lake call ms Cheney a warmonger?

Presumably because Cheney's Dad is a warmonger.

well, yeah

But

1: ms Cheney is not the same as her father - this is misleading?

2: what's more puzzling to me is - isn't the Republican, ms Lake, also a warmonger? Does she really resist US military adventures? Interesting if so.

Trump resisted US military adventures, was anti the war in Iraq etc.

All 4 are warmongers they just quibble over which wars and which adventures.

xp Right, that's one of the main points of divergence between Trumpism and the establishment GOP represented by the Bush administration. America First, etc.

The neo-nationalist right is at least theoretically resistant to overseas entanglements, tho I am skeptical of how deep that really runs. The appeal to patriotism has always been susceptible to the allure of war drums. And their resistance to aiding Ukraine feels colored by a latent pro-Putinism that isn’t exactly reassuring.

I mean they very obviously believe in aggressive US imperialism via all means (war, targeted killings, etc) so none of them gets to play the dove.

yeah theres a lot of republicans these day who claim to be anti war but i dont trust it

Their resistance to an Iraq-style war is only an effort to avoid personal humiliation.

I'll say that my crypto-fascist relatives feel more confident saying the Iraq War was a mistake

Trump resisted US military adventures, was anti the war in Iraq etc.

the iraq war is underrated as a major political event

Anyway, the simplest explanation for why Kari Lake called Liz Cheney a warmonger is that Trump has also called her one.

lmfuckingao pic.twitter.com/clXR8iDMGL

— andy™ (@andylevy) November 15, 2022

If Trump does indeed announce he is running again today, I've got to assume that one advantage of Biden being so old is that he won't be tempted to constantly respond to that dude's taunts and inanities. I half heard a radio story last night about, go figure, how effective it has been to kick him off social media, because he lost his megaphone.

isn't the Republican, ms Lake, also a warmonger? Does she really resist US military adventures? Interesting if so.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, November 15, 2022 8:23 AM (thirty minutes ago)

You may already know this, but as governor (state gov) Lake would have had zero input into US military policy, unlike a high-ranking House rep (federal gov) like Cheney. So if Lake has expressed resistance to US mil adventures, it was purely theoretical, making it a politically inexpensive accusation

They’re “against” many US imperial adventures because they’re undeniably for a ethnonationalist holy war here in the US. Anything distracting from their goal of imposing their idea of a white, straight, evangelical nation is suspect. Their love for Putin is inextricably tied to his own ethnonationalism and virulent homophobia.

they would just happily do a war and pretending they wouldnt is just plain old playing politics

Yes, I find it quite hard to believe that these very Right-wing Republicans are actually against war and imperialism.

I feel that they are actually keen on it and just saying otherwise when it suits.

Note that I put the “against” in quotes, the rest of what I wrote is undeniable

their words don't mean anything. they're definitely pro-violence, since violence is their only real underlying belief: do what I want or I'll hurt you. they aren't pro- or anti- anything else, except in the moment when such things align or do not align with their desires.

i think one of the problems gop had was they ran trump fans instead of trump imitators, lake as described here is to the right and to the insane of trump

.@VaughnHillyard: "Could I say something about Kari Lake, you guys?" pic.twitter.com/UvhwEtOkPD

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 15, 2022

desantis is more of a trump imitator he saw the lane trump opened up and made his way through

first time I heard of DeSantis was that gross ad he made where his kid is "building the wall" with foam blocks, iirc the whole ad was about how much he loves Donald Trump. having that guy run against him is probably gonna bother him more than anything any Democrat ever did

Hillyard's one of the few political reporters worth a damn.

I think DeSantis has peaked. Today's the worst day of his life.

i certainly wouldnt want donald trump talking shit about me all day if i were trying to become the gop pres nominee

and yeah he doesnt seem like he has it in him to live up to the hype anyway

Trump's shit talking won't be nearly as effective if the GOP and conservative media line up behind DeSantis, because they'll all stop amplifying Trump's bullshit and start attacking him.

Meanwhile I thought this was good insight. It's funny how a lot of politics still comes back to basics of campaigning.

Lots of talk about why the "red wave" hit NY and pretty much nowhere else except FL. Here's my take.

1st, the facts: Gov. @KathyHochul lost by 11 points in my senate district in Rockland, a district Biden carried by 3 points and Hillary won by 8). 🧵1/

— Elijah Reichlin-Melnick (@Elijah4Senate) November 15, 2022