U.S. Politics January 2023: Kevin McCarthy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Life

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2884

maybe Hawley's giving the bill a name that will stop Dems from voting for it because he doesn't actually want it to pass

― symsymsym, Wednesday, January 25, 2023 4:05 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

One-dimensional chess!

Hawley could have named it the RICK act, Republicans Involved in Chicanery and Kickbacks, in honor of Rick Scott, who's way wealthier and shadier than Pelosi, but hey way to troll.

xp - that's giving Hawley far too much credit, one-dimensional connect four maybe

screw Hawley but I like this bill and can't really get too upset about it being named after Pelosi

well I guess I don't know a thing about it so for all I know it actually makes it easier to inside trade if you're Republican but yeah it's real shitty how people in Congress all seem to suddenly double their net worth every 2 years

John Ganz has thoughts about Buchanan: https://johnganz.substack.com/p/good-old-pat

I’ve long believed there’s a case to be made that Buchanan, not Buckley, not Goldwater, and not even Ronald Reagan, is the most consequential right-wing figure of the past century.

none of those dues are even 'right wing' by today's standards

NARRATOR: And yet they are.

Andy the grasshopper OTM.

Yeah lol nowadays it's Gingrich (founder of the current rightward swerve, even if he doesn't know it). Then the functionaries like Lott, McConnell, Delay, Cantor, Graham. Politicians all, but with at least some vestigial public spiritedness.

Then came the fuckitall crew and their infotainment allies: Limbaugh, Bannon, Trump, Epshteyn, Lin Wood, MyPillow guy, etc.

Here's where I disagree: Buchanan, even in the Reagan administration, was, ugh, an avuncular dude who actually got along with libs and didn't mind hanging out with them. Gingrich actually demonized them, turned them into roaches and other vermin.

Gingrich is the ground zero for where we are.

maybe, but I can't forget how virulently anti-gay Pat Buchanan was, I didn't see him as avuncular in any sense

Not my definition, dude, it's how the press greeted this brownshirt. I'm gay.

I don't disagree, your lordship. I am on record - voluminously - as saying Newt is the founder of our current predicament.

He has had many enablers. And he even got demonized from the right as a squish/melt for being open to bipartisanship and sitting on a couch with the alleged enemy.

I won't go so far as to say he invented evil (obviously, evil preexisting Newt). But in my lifetime he is the person who did the most to kick off the weaponization of palarized politics.

There were precursors, like the Confederacy and Massive Resistance and Reaganomics. Later practitioners went further into nihilistic horror territory, white male grievance, and undisguised racism.

But in modern terms the Contract with America is a clear through-line to the Tea Party and Trumpism.

Totally! I was responding to Dan S.

Gore Vidal called it the Contract On America.

Nicole Hemmer's recent book Partisans makes a case for Buchanan's influence as well.

https://www.basicbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/9781541646872-1.jpg?fit=435%2C675

John Ganz is writing a similar book, about how the early 1990s set the stage for today.

The Know Your Enemy interview with Nicole Hemmer gets into a lot of this.

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-your-enemy-1990s-partisans-nicole-hemmer

I don't listen to her own podcast, but she's a very good podcast guest.

This was the first time I'd heard her, yeah she's smart.

caveat: exclusive interview with raw story. but this tracks

In an exclusive interview with Raw Story, California’s senior senator announced she’s not not running. In fact, she has no plans to decide—let alone announce—her 2024 intentions until next year.

“I need a little bit of time, so it's not this year,” Feinstein told Raw Story at the Capitol Wednesday.

The 89-year-old incumbent says she isn’t fazed by her current—or potential—Democratic challengers.

“Oh, I don't mind it,” the senator smiled. “The more, the merrier.”

“Yeah?” I ask.

“Yes,” the former mayor of San Francisco replied.

“Do you think there’s gonna be a lot of people jumping in?”

“Oh, I have no idea,” Feinstein replied. “But however many there are, that's fine. I mean, I'm a big girl. I've run in a lot of races, so I know...”

“So you’re not worried?”

“Not particularly.”

“Are you going to be running?”

“Umm,” Feinstein thought aloud, “I don't know…”

https://i.imgur.com/odvcRwh.png

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in a crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

Closer I am to Feinstein

Manchin proposing raising the FICA cap, surprised to see this coming from him. IMO doing this is a fucking no brainer.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/manchin-proposes-easiest-social-security-182706704.html?guccounter=1

what's up with this crazy GOP talk about a 30% national sales tax?

I mean.. some kind of VAT is probably not a bad idea - those who spend more will pay more tax.. but 30%??

kiss 30% of my ass

Sales taxes are regressive. "those who spend more will pay more tax" is only true in terms of total amounts not relative to income

they want to eliminate the income tax completely and move to VAT. agree that income tax needs to be overhauled in some non bullshit way but moving to VAT is preposterous.

right, the GOP long game is replacing income taxes with sales and use taxes.

how about a VAT only on items that cost more than $100K.. I'd be down with that

consumption taxes on everyday goods are inherently regressive

it sounds good for about one second b/c it's easy to explain

https://itep.org/whopays/

these super old ppl standing for office again piss me the fuck off

nice dick cake man https://t.co/TiaAjRSMLV

— kilgore trout, death to putiner (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 27, 2023

are those hands are macaw's claws

He reverts to his natural form for rituals.

Sorry if this has already been discussed and I missed it, but curious what Alfred or others on the ground think of Schiff's senatorial run. Can he really run statewide?

Sorry, not Alfred, the California contingent.

He probably is as well known as Katie Porter or Barbara Lee. Didn't he get a lot of national coverage during Trump's reign?

Schiff was the lead representative during the first impeachment of Trump both during the House committee sessions and during the senate trial. He did the job pretty well, even if the outcome in the senate was foreordained.

He is also hated by the GOP.

yea Trump called him out a ton, he's def one of the most recognizable faces in the party right now

Well, he wants my money.

yeah i've gotten three texts from three different Schiff numbers today.

Proposed campaign slogan: "Make Schiff Happen!"

Good morning!

When not jailing gays is more problematic for you than kidnapping a Black woman and her children and enslaving them or allowing contraception worse than Japanese internment and a case about forced sterilization, you might just not be unserious thinkers but also morally depraved. https://t.co/s8oKN32kIF pic.twitter.com/CrqXskfcQq

— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) January 27, 2023

which of those is "sound, solid"

the Law & Liberty tweet is p much a solid