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

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?

8:30 EST supposedly

Extremely low energy tonight

So he's announcing this now because the DOJ wanted to put off taking further steps with him until after the midterms, and he thinks this might stop them, right?

He probably does, and it won't.

Apparently he promised to make all drug crimes punishable by death, a la Duterte.

National Review comes out swinging https://t.co/XzYSaPovKO

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 16, 2022

tbf hes just going to ask them to receive the death penalty

Trump: "We're going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts." pic.twitter.com/ZtkiWjlyZ4

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 16, 2022

My Twitter feed has a lot of political reporters and people with political opinions on it and almost nobody is even mentioning Trump right now. Or if they are it's just in a "how boring" way. I've written the guy off so many times that I'm loathe to do it again, so we'll see how things go. But not feeling a lot of mojo.

"Every drug dealer...will kill 500 people"

what the fuck is he talking about?

Fentanyl panic is the new Build The Wall

Many people are saying they’re putting it in your grandkids lunchables folks! Your children stopped speaking to you when you joined the Q Facebook group but they’d tell you it’s true if they hadn’t.

the wall was a good bit he needs something like that, fent island

Oh god, I'd forgotten what it's like to listen to Trump. It's starting again.

lol even FOX News wound up cutting away from this

whole thing kinda feels like the Stone Roses reunion gig

My Twitter feed has a lot of political reporters and people with political opinions on it and almost nobody is even mentioning Trump right now.

I've had his name muted since January of last year.

This was the first sentence of Politico's coverage:

Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 election and left the White House under the cloud of impeachment for his role in the Jan. 6 riots on Capitol Hill, is running for president again.

This was Axios:

Trump, twice-impeached and under criminal investigation, launches 2024 campaign

Former President Trump, who continues to spread baseless lies about his 2020 defeat, began an unprecedented comeback bid by declaring his 2024 campaign for president at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday night.

Why it matters: Trump — the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice, most recently for incitement of insurrection — changed American politics with his unconventional governing style and undeniable grip on the GOP. But his third presidential run comes as Republicans are reevaluating his role as the face of the party following midterm failures and ongoing controversies.

holy shit this is bleak pic.twitter.com/MaZ3HfK3oJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 16, 2022

Tonight on social and legacy media: “It’s quiet out here … a little too quiet”

I’m gonna have remember to unfollow Aaron Rupar tomorrow

If President Trump continues this tone and delivers this message on a consistent basis, he will be hard to beat.

His speech tonight, contrasting his policies and results against the Biden Administration, charts a winning path for him in the primaries and general election.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 16, 2022

Goddamn whatever Trump has on him must be goooood, this is embarrassing even for Graham.

Anytime Graham speaks, I can vividly see someone discreetly jiggling that manilla envelope full of incriminating photographs just within the range of his peripheral vision and reminding him of what his next carefully chosen words need to be.

Graham’s utter lack of power at this point means that whoever is holding whatever incriminating evidence none of the rest of the world gives a shit about are simply bullying him for the fun of it.

Good.

Perfect setting to announce AZ Governor Elect Kari Lake as running mate

I used to think that Graham was a real Senator that did things, but now he's just a husk of a Rubio.

Husk of a Rubio? I think I saw them open for Puddle of Mudd back in '96.

National Review has been and remains a nevertrump haven; true maganauts tuned out NR/NRO/Corner long ago.

Only influential to the McMullin crowd, unless I am severely misremembering. Which is of course likely. I have never kept a comprehensive database of who's in/who's out in DonWorld.

The White House has largely given up hope of Congress raising the nation’s debt limit during the lame-duck session that runs through late December, increasing the risk of a highly partisan, market-rattling fiscal confrontation next year.

Senior administration officials see little chance of attracting any Republican votes for a bipartisan debt limit hike during the short session. And they don’t believe they have the 50 Democratic Senate votes needed to slam through a hike using the budget reconciliation process that would allow them to avoid a Republican filibuster.

The administration has determined that if it were to go the reconciliation route on the debt limit, it would face likely opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). And there could be other defectors. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants a bipartisan vote to raise the borrowing cap during the lame-duck session. But Republicans, many of whom are eager to use the limit as leverage to extract legislative concessions from Democrats in the next Congress, have shown no appetite for any such bipartisan approach.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/16/lame-duck-debt-ceiling-deal-00067123

time for Dark Brandon

The New York Post put the former president's "I'm-coming-back!" announcement on page 26:

NY Post: Florida Man Makes Announcement —> story deep inside on page 26. pic.twitter.com/rccr3OcD1P

— Christine Romans (@ChristineRomans) November 16, 2022

Full text:

Been there, Don that

With just 720 days to go before the next election, a Florida retiree made the surprise announcement Tuesday night that he was running for president.

In a move no political pundit saw coming, avid golfer Donald J. Trump kicked things off at Mar-a-Lago, his resort and classified-documents library.

Trump, famous for gold-plated lobbies and for firing people on reality television, will be 78 in 2024. If elected, Trump would tie Joe Biden as the oldest president to take office. His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup.

He has stated that his qualifications for office include being a "stable genius."

Trump also served as the 45th president.

damn does anyone believe in ol donnie anymore

NBC News: Ivanka Trump didn't attend her father's announcement and says she won't be participating in his campaign. @MSNBC

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 16, 2022

Her social life can't take it. She's probably just now getting invited to the Hamptons again.

i imagine capping her legal troubles at their current level prob has something to do with it too

With any luck, Trump will read that Post article and have a massive myocardial infarction.

More like infartion.

At the risk of adding more content about the Florida retiree, this is just a rerun of 2016. He’s the most popular figure with the base. They’ll all fall in line eventually.

“They” being GOP elites, donors, media.

this is just a rerun of 2016

Look, I don't want to tempt fate here, because who the fuck knows anymore, but I don't see this as a 2016 rerun. There are several significant factors that make this quite different. It's only going to feel like 2016 to the fewer diehards that are left, following him around the country, gleefully stomping on DeSantis signs. I have a hard time seeing the full GOP fall in line, or if they do, it's going to be too late to lead to the same result as 2016.

But maybe I'm huffing hopium again.

i'm probably just similarly naive, j/v/c, but the NYPost burying him like that gives me hope, they're reading the tea leaves of which way their readership will go

Roughly 35% of the entire electorate (translating to roughly 65% of the base) have been brainwashed into thinking of him as the one, the only winner on their side

Fox News has their work cut out for them

in 2016 he was a celebrity outsider whom most assumed was actually successful at business, and therefore could apply his Art of the Deal bullshit to the federal government

in 2022 he's a historically unpopular, twice-impeached ex-President who literally tried to force his way back to power when he lost re-election. he's also under investigation for fraud and tax evasion and nobody who isn't a sycophant believes he's actually any good at business. there are also very few people out there willing to work for him anymore.

not saying the media learned a lesson or that he can't win, but the situation is clearly much different now