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

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A senior U.S. intelligence official says Russian missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people.

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 15, 2022

ah doesnt seem great

can anyone make a punny reference to Biggs running for speaker and getting support from Bob Good? all i can do is

Biggs news regarding mccarthy's bid to be speaker, and its Bob Good

Oh shit

hmmm

Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of the very few GOP lawmakers who had planned to go down to Mar-a-Lago tonight for Trump’s announcement, says the weather is not looking good for his flight down from D.C. to Florida. But he will be there “in spirit.”

— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) November 15, 2022

lol

I just scrapped a joke that might’ve been in poor taste

Anyway, since when has weather stopped authoritarianism

Mar-a-La-NOTgo, amirite?

xps... Karl, I assure you I am working on it, but am struggling. Words like "good" and "big" seem like they should be a slam-dunk, but they are so obvious and so vague that it impairs the required baseline precision level for a decent name pun. McCarthy at least has potential - REM references ought to help here but again, you run into the problem of excessive obviousness.

Is it weird that so many districts in CA and NY no longer seem to be liberal bastions? Is this a result of gerrymandering or in the popular vote and if the latter does anyone have an explanation? Or is the perception of change a misconception?

i think this was expected but i guess it's becoming official

NEWS: Sen. Rick Scott just announced a challenge to McConnell in closed-door GOP lunch https://t.co/EVs2IP0tQb

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) November 15, 2022

Mmm lunch

of all the senators to challenge mcconnell, rick scott is just cartoonishly ill-suited and i can't believe, even in the land of GOP politicians, takes him seriously

Rick Scott is the dumb guy, right?

oh yeah

i think his main claim to fame is resembling skeletor, though

https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/scottrick_mcconnellmitch_091322gn_w.jpg?strip=1

Is it weird that so many districts in CA and NY no longer seem to be liberal bastions?

Not so much in CA - there have always been GOP-leaning areas, but some (Shasta County) are turning into bonkers-extremist bastions

NEW: I asked Feinstein if she’ll seek to be third in line to the presidency.

She said she hasn’t thought about it.

An aide interjected, telling her she already issued a statement saying she won’t seek it.

“Okay, well then, I guess it's out,” she said.https://t.co/tBk1cPj52a

— bryan metzger (@metzgov) November 15, 2022

Strom Thurmond served in that role, may as well let Feinstein.

Hell, see if Frank Lautenberg wants to do it.

Rick Scott's claim to fame, besides preparing Florida for Ron DeSantis (a man he loathes), was as the CEO to the company indicted for the biggest Medicare scam in history; he pleaded the Fifth about 5903 times.

HCA, which was one of my clients at the time he got elected.

Probably why their execs were such pricks

I think Scott looks more like Fire Marshall Bill from In Living Color.

Lol otm

"I think we can improve the profitability of our caucus by emphasizing our core grifting competencies," said Senator Scott.

grifting was a typo for gifting or actually spoken?

Parody (Official)

grifting was a typo for gifting or actually spoken?

― youn,

would it have surprised you

I’d somehow managed to black out the tidal waves of Trump White House typos

While all this is going on, fun times over at the Oath Keepers trial

Thomas Caldwell during direct was largely in a good mood, talking lovingly about his wife and fondly about his family farm and time in the Navy.

On cross-examination, he's clearly been agitated by and contemptuous of the prosecutor's questions about his own statements on Jan. 6.

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) November 15, 2022

After a convo on the husher, Manzo pulls up a message from Caldwell to someone named "Jonathan" about killing people in a crowd with a sniper rifle.

Caldwell responds: "Call of Duty."

Manzo says Jonathan wasn't talking about Call of Duty and wants to admit preceding messages.

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) November 15, 2022

Here was the exchange with Jonathan.

Caldwell says he was providing "Call of Duty tips."

Manzo: "What's your favorite Call of Duty title?

Caldwell... can't name one. pic.twitter.com/z98tTrIm0K

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) November 15, 2022

Indeed, who are we to kid

Manzo asks Caldwell about whether he was trained to hurt people, plan ops and construct false identities (Caldwell says no). Cross-examination ends w/ a 12/26/20 message Caldwell sent to Adrien Grimes about getting new IDs.

Caldwell: "I am not kidding about another identity."

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) November 15, 2022

The Trump Org civil trial has some hilarities too

Manhattan DA's office now probing why it got 2 different versions of Trump Org's books.

One from the company, the other from its outside accountants at Mazars.

Both list payments to an expensive NYC prep school for the CFO's grandkids.

But only Mazars' says "per Allen."

— Jose Pagliery (@Jose_Pagliery) November 15, 2022

Ladies & gents, we now know why Tarasoff is testifying.

Prosecutor: Do you know why the Trump Org's version is missing that?

Tarasoff: "Somebody went in and deleted the name."

Prosecutor: "Who?"

Tarasoff: "Me."

— Jose Pagliery (@Jose_Pagliery) November 15, 2022

And of note (they're done for the day, next up on Thursday)

Hoffinger is starting to set traps.

Hoffinger: Who authorized executive compensation?
Weisselberg: Donald Trump.

H: Did you authorize compensation for [COO] Matthew Calamari?
W: No.

H: [General counsel] Jason Greenblatt?
W: No.

— Jose Pagliery (@Jose_Pagliery) November 15, 2022

Christ, busy day all around

BREAKING: Florida judge orders Michael Flynn to testify before the Fulton County, Georgia grand jury investigating 2020 election interference in the state.

— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) November 15, 2022

This seems awfully straightforward, doesn’t it?

Is it weird that so many districts in CA and NY no longer seem to be liberal bastions? Is this a result of gerrymandering or in the popular vote and if the latter does anyone have an explanation? Or is the perception of change a misconception?

― youn, Tuesday, November 15, 2022 2:18 PM (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Are there specific districts you're thinking of? I feel like both states have had a sizeable minority of Republican districts (like 25-40%) for the last few decades. In the case of New York, I know that recent redistricting ended up working out to the Democrats' disadvantage, which helped Republicans pick up a few seats. But there have always been Republicans upstate and on Long Island.

Upstate NY has always been a hellhole. FDR's congressional opposition came from up there.

I am surprised by central CA and old Didion territory, which I should have known about from high school student council camps but seem disproportionately allocated based on population unless everyone has moved inland on account of housing costs.

Or is the perception of change a misconception?

yes.

https://apps.npr.org/dailygraphics/graphics/map-orange-county-20181119/assets/map-2016.pnghttps://apps.npr.org/dailygraphics/graphics/map-orange-county-20181119/assets/map-2018.png

I bet dude's favorite Call of Duty mission was "No Russian".

Rick Scott is the dumb guy, right?

― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby)

the dumb is organizing and multiplying!

NEW: @RonJohnsonWI tells me he is nominating Rick Scott to unseat Mitch McConnell. https://t.co/CRHsGg70XO

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) November 15, 2022

I lived in Siskiyou, Butte, and Tehama counties at various points in and around 2016, and I can assure everyone that those counties and Shasta county are unbelievably beautiful and also filled with the worst bootlicking conservative assholes you will ever encounter

Marge's district in northwest Georgia is the same.

Now, with Scott formally challenging McConnell for the leadership post, a top McConnell adviser is making the case to reelect the current leader.

The McConnell adviser, Josh Holmes, told The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey: “If you liked Republicans losing Senate campaigns, while saddling the party with tax increases and Medicare cuts, then you’re going to love Rick Scott’s campaign for leader. It does have a constituency, but unfortunately for him, it’s entirely within the confines of the Democratic conference.”

i feel like this debate about which republican senators sucks more should be louder and go on for weeks, at a minimum

convo on the husher

I know, I know, it's serious

morrissey had another tantrum in LA last night

The more you rick scott me the closer I get

Trump-endorsed candidates performed much worse than other Republican candidates in swing raceshttps://t.co/fGWv9mJFz1 pic.twitter.com/bdpmsp1uSs

— Matt Grossmann (@MattGrossmann) November 15, 2022

has he made his special announcement yet?