US Politics December 2020: an uneventful month, overall

is what i'm hearing

Bless you Karl

quick question, i'm sure this may have been discussed:

do you all think we should be trying to incrementally work toward progress, or is it far past time for radical action? and those are always separate and mutually exclusive, right?

also, hillary clinton: we can all get behind her, righ?!

lol <3

nothing to report send emails receive emails order food wave at delivery driver watch netflix look at clock never change out of pajamas oh and politics are happening too

*Dr. Narcissism squeezes into the tightest possible spot between the clenching butt cheeks of the 1/3 of the USA that gives a fuck about other people*

ah yes, my home, where at least i recognize the smells

I like corn dogs

Closing my eyes and feelin' fine

oh we're still doing these?

this is now rolling brunch

yes good morning. the usual for me thanks

coffee and turds later for me, thank you

you know what - i'll have those turds to go

hot takes vs. hot carls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRYvrDdntjA

though I know the movie well and know what is happening here, that still image makes it look like Superman got drunk and fell asleep on a pinball machine, and that he now wears outdoorsman clothes with the same colors instead of his usual spandex.

how much does it cost to repair a pinball machine? $13? keep the change

the pinball machine represents, um, the government, and

Superman represents CORPORATIONS

i'd vote for superman, but he didn't do the exact perfect thing that i wanted him to do so he can burn in hell

General Zod represents corporations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiq5tnzmLBM

wait a second, didn't superman sit on a board of advisors with the guy from Qualcomm? FUCK SUPERMAN

my sardonic attitude means that i am an unthinking drone and don't understand how deeply we need radical change

AND i get high all the time because i hate the world!

*COMBO*

isn't this back to racist "intention" vs. results?

― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Tuesday, December 1, 2020 10:43 AM bookmarkflaglink

this legislation doesn't have a racist bone in its body!

― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Tuesday, December 1, 2020 10:43 AM bookmarkflaglink

This is literally the dumbest possible conclusion you could have taken from my post. Congratulations.

The climate and situation around the Crime Bill was a good bit more complicated/complex than "a racist White man wanted to proudly legislate some racism" and reducing it to that via hindsight is extremely dumb and unhelpful. It was a terrible bill with terrible consequences that need to be remembered and redressed; no one on this site would disagree with that conclusion and dealing with the actual trail of events that led to its passage is vital to keep it from happening again. That is not the same thing as saying "they didn't intend for it to be racist, therefore it wasn't racist". Pointing out that you are using Biden as the avatar and sole driver of something that was a concerted effort generated by multiple people, many of whom would plausibly be described in many if not most other contexts as anti-racist is not making excuses for the Crime Bill or saying it was a good thing; it's saying you are not arguing from a position that seems to be informed by history, context, or even a desire to grapple with systemic racism. You just want to yell about a boogeyman.

you are using Biden as the avatar and sole driver of something that was a concerted effort generated by multiple people

I'm sure there are people who are doing this, but I did not that I can recall

other people did that

other people will continue to do that

not sure about whether you did, but lots of people did and will

things are much more simple if you reduce them down to an avatar

only the pure can lead. and no one is pure. which is why it all must be burned down. by someone who is pure

I'm not convinced that Joe Biden has ever been *a* main driver of any major historical current tbh

When Karl ends up running Tulsi Gabbard's successful 2024 campagin, we'll only have ourselves to blame

I'm not convinced that Joe Biden has ever been *a* main driver of any major historical current tbh

― it bangs for thee (Simon H.),

well, in the 2000s, Making MBNA Great Again.

PURE TULSI
SHE HAS NEVER BEEN WRONG

~a friendly face that has never been wrong~

Tulsi: because if you're not 100% right, you're part of the problem

CHUCK TODD: zach_tbd, how did you learn to run a campaign so effectively? your success is...astonishing

ME: i learned it on ilx

Karl how are you today

let me check...pure. no problems at all. reading my blood levels...yes, nothing has happened there, ever. i am detecting a decision that was made 20 years ago...could have been bad, let me check. nope! i made the perfect decision then, too! still fit for office, ready to lead. i feel confident

shit, hold on, code red

yes, a tough memory is coming up. it's a homeless person. i'm taking care of them and they have an abusive boyfriend. and an ankle monitor. but it's because her boyfriend abused her and then filed charges against her, even though she was defending herself. and now she can't get into a shelter because she has an ankle bracelet. and now she's asking to go home, back to her boyfriend again. what did i do? what could i do?

i'll tell you what i did: i made the perfect decision. and that's why i'm fit to lead this country with tulsi gabbard as America's Gal

how am i? i'm fucking TERRIBLE

everyone i know is doing fucking terrible

then i turn into this station and it's constant bullshit too

that was harsh, sorry. a lot of the bullshit comes from me.

i am just so sick of enormous problems that don't have simple answers. i can handle one or two at a time, but when i can't count them any more, i start to lose it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3IxhVDf3og

Aha! Wiley Trump still has an ace up his sleeve... complete abrogation of duty by complicit GOP flunkies:

...federal law gives individual members of the House and Senate the power to challenge the results from the floor — a rarely used mechanism meant to be the last of all last resorts to safeguard an election.
But several House Republican lawmakers and aides now tell POLITICO they’re considering this option to aid Trump’s quest.

“Nothing is off the table,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

xpost Sorry, that was meant to be a light commercial respite in the midst of Channel Bullshit

I appreciate you, KM. I didn’t intend to rehash a whole argument that’s been gone over ad nauseum. Just can’t stand it when it starts to look like the ILX conventional wisdom is that the Biden presidency is going to suck. But it’s probably just that those voices are the ones that keep going, after everyone else is sick of the argument.

Also vm appreciating DJP’s perspective in these threads today.

no worries epistantophus. tbh i didn't read any of the last 50 posts from the last thread. including my own, if there were any. i'm making fun of the whole conversation because i know that i'll be part of it tomorrow

But it’s probably just that those voices are the ones that keep going, after everyone else is sick of the argument.

i think this is true, but the extreme negative voice is also powerful because it stands in sharp contrast to very tepid support of biden (which is understandable - no one likes joe biden except for the dog that almost murdered him).

at the same time, when someone splatters some red paint on something that was previously beige, i don't think they're a genius

Just can’t stand it when it starts to look like the ILX conventional wisdom is that the Biden presidency is going to suck.

Not just "going to suck," it is somehow pre-sucking. This isn't "no honeymoon," it's a negative honeymoon.

lol yes

it's probably a good time to once again bring up my theory that the modern world writes the future and then lives it

or performs it

same as appalachia i guess

I didn't know we were comparing street cred but I mean, I literally live in Southern Appalachia. The median household incomes in the two Census tracts that make up my neighborhood are $23,000 and $38,000. I'm quite literally surrounded by poverty, and we live in a nice but small house we bought for $130,000. I have spent a lot of time in both urban and rural poor Appalachian communities, I'm very familiar with our region's long history of exploitation.

So I mean, if you just want to write off anyone who disagrees with you (or maybe sees the political realm as more complex than you do) as some kind of "elites," I guess have at it. It's certainly a popular thing to do.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, December 1, 2020 3:36 AM (fourteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

just want to continue this fun conversation. for the record, your initial post in this exchange was a glib toss-off comparing right-wing with left-wing "doomsday fantasies". it was .. not complex. and neither is this defensive reaction. congrats on being able to afford a mortgage, doubt i ever will. in conclusion? lick my balls. :)

All I know is, “politics” has turned into a constant stream of bad, terrible, and worse news, punctuated only occasionally by minor victories by the good side and less-than-complete wins by the evil side. Things are lightening up a bit with the judiciary shutting down Trump’s flailings, but it’s still grim and there are more bad things in the works that we’ll see before inauguration day. I’m just looking forward to starting to see more good news, and I’m feeling like we might start digging our way out of this hole with Biden in charge instead of Trump. But at the same time I’m pretty anxious about the fact that we didn’t take the Senate (I know there is still a chance but...) and so I’m bracing myself for what may in the end be considered a failed presidency, assuming the Republicans continue their tendency to obstruct everything, point fingers at the other side, and focus on culture and class wars instead of doing anything to help anyone besides the rich.

If I didn’t want “Joe Biden sucks” to be the dominant narrative, I would take pains to point out the many ways he’s good and will do good in the world.

Absent that, it’s just tone policing because you don’t want your vibe harshed.

It’s pre-sucking because Biden is running through his Rolodex of everyone responsible for terrible Democratic policy since 1992. The least-bad nominee thus far is Janet Yellen, who still championed NAFTA and repealing Glass-Steagall.

Just interviewed the head of a major progressive group who said that the Biden transition team reached out after the Tanden nomination to say "aren't you happy, we met your demands, we brought in a movement leader"

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) December 1, 2020

it's pre-sucking because we pre-knew you'd be there

Rs have already declared that they will block any progressives from cabinet posts so

okay lol at that tweet President Keyes posted, we're all doomed

milo otm about Biden's choices so far, which range from "uninspiring at best" to "no fucking way"

(not that I expected any better, mind you)

they are fucking terrible

xxxpost

tbf the payment on a $130,000 30 year is going to be way less than rent in most places

of course you need the downpayment which is the barrier really

If it's "naive" and "petulant" and "holier-than-thou" to point out that a bill with Joe Biden's name on it, that he sponsored and pushed through the legislative process, has resulted in the state-sponsored slavery of hundreds of thousands of most poor Black and brown people, then I'm fine with whatever names you call me. The guy's record speaks volumes, and while I actually agree with the idea of waiting to see what he does before pre-judging his administration, Biden's past record as a legislator and human being is downright abhorrent.

milo, just wanna catch you real quick before you misuse the phrase again, but 'tone policing' doesn't really apply to situations where people are asking you to engage in a conversation rather than constantly talking at them.

Agreed, uninspiring at best. Still a change of pace from “chosen in order to destroy the given department and turn it into an extension of the president’s will”

Yes yes Trump is worse who cares anymore

All administrations less bad than Trump’s are now fine

one good thing i take away even from this week's clusterfuck is that one of the biggest benefits about trump being gone is we can even begin having discussions about policy.

if you looked back at the last few year's politics threads i'd bet 70% of it was just reacting to the daily trump idiocy or scandal.

it's like you need to work on your place but it's hard to repaint the kitchen when you have a dog with diarrhea that's running around barking and shitting all over 24/7

The crime bill gets top billing but it's just one in a string of bad legislation written, sponsored or cheered on by Biden - it wasn't even close to the end. He claims to have actually authored the PATRIOT Act for fuck's sake.

I actually agree with the idea of waiting to see what he does before pre-judging his administration

no need to wait - he's making decisions right now. i think almost everyone agrees that he fucking sucks

All administrations less bad than Trump’s are now fine

― is right unfortunately (silby), Tuesday, December 1, 2020 12:22 PM (fourteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

A thing literally no one even came close to saying, but cool.

I said it!

Absent that, it’s just tone policing because you don’t want your vibe harshed.

this does seem at bottom to be the main reason ppl just don't wanna hear it, and once again the policing only goes in one direction

Lol already back on this bullshit in new thread

Chuck Todd: will you give me a quick grand idea about politics that contains a kernel of truth and a shitload of uncritical speculation?

Me: sure thing, chuck. (hehe, more like fuck todd! fucker carlson...hehaha) forces of moderate/centrism have the natural advantage right now. everyone is exhausted. just fucking exhausted. everyone i know is exhausted. i'm serious - all the people i know that are NOT exhausted have left. they're off somewhere else, being nonexhausted, i guess. everyone else is fucking exhausted, chuck (fuck, haha). radical change requires incredible amounts of energy, and persistent, enduring energy, at that. and so many of us are still fighting for that, some of us because we want to, some of us because we have to do it to survive. i believe map made a very good point about that on recent internet thread, chuck (f...). but the last 4 years have been a nightmare, and the last year has been a nightmare inside of a nightmare. we are only now waking up into the outer-nightmare. we can only hope to wake up into something that isn't a dream at all. think about that, fuck

Is there a politics thread where we talk about politics? I'd like that one.

i'm not going to pretend to be dirt-poor or anything. i'm getting by, i'm white and male, i have an advanced degree, so much debt it would make you laugh, and a low but not poverty-line wage that will likely increase (but not by much) over the years. i chose to go the "community do-gooder" route after my parents boostrapped up to a decade of middle-class existence because i didn't want to hustle all the fucking time, it's not in me. i could possibly be in a small but comfortable house in 15-20 years or so if you just flat-out ignore climate change and slow systemic rot. my larger point was that making jokes about loser leftists' doomsday scenarios is extremely lame when all reports and accounts confirm the doomsday-ism and most young people i know literally can't process it and need drugs and therapy to stay alive day to day, if they can even afford that (which brings me to my other larger point, that a lot more people under 40 are poor as shit and can barely make ends meet). seriously, young people are poor! but i mean enjoy your complex thoughts and keep on thinkin em.

xp maybe a thread where we talk about policies? If nothing else, the interminable subject at hand is v much about politics

Look at our fucking Supreme Court now.

politics is much more than policies. and like it or not, there is currently a symbiotic exchange happening between politics and magical thinking

I mean politics like, stuff that is happening, stuff that can happen, the different strategies being advocated or pursued, what's going on with the Georgia races, what a realistic Biden agenda could look like, who's pushing for it, what does anyone have to say other than "everything sucks and everybody is terrible (including probably you, dear ilxor)."

tipsy does your municipality still have a police department? If so, why?

that does sound nice :)

xp

The most important stuff that's happening in the US is municipal governments responding to pressure, or not, to curtail the power of their police forces. that's what's actually interested. Biden probably doesn't have an agenda, other than not falling on live television.

*interesting

once again the policing only goes in one direction

― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 18:24 (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean I've seen a few ppl say this or to this effect now. Do you sincere believe it?

I'd rather imagine that most people feel that anything they want to discuss in these threads at all is immediately policed by one or two or three posters for the correct level of utter despair or fury. Maybe you don't count that as policing?

what a realistic Biden agenda could look like, who's pushing for it

I know you won't agree, but this is what is being "discussed"

Doubtful that anyone here has ever said "don't post nice things about Joe Biden." Disagreeing with nice things said about Joe Biden is not the same as demanding they not be said.

making jokes about loser leftists' doomsday scenarios

I have doomsday scenarios of my own, and not one of them has to do with Joe Biden declaring war on Iran, or much to do with Joe Biden at all. We have many bigger problems than Joe Biden. The joke such as it was was about the massive overreaction on the right and left to the anticipated horrors of the Biden Regime.

I just don't get how anyone can just wave away immiseration and say that it doesn't matter. That's what I read when people say they don't want to think about Biden's past policies or friendships or anything. It's infuriating.

has anybody actually said something nice about Joe Biden, actually? Or even "here's a policy position Joe Biden advanced during the campaign which I support"? I guess there was one (1) upthread in a different thread (#onethread) (from tipsy?) about ending the (unfunded) deputation of local police departments for the Deportation Force

President Trump’s political operation has raised more than $150 million since Election Day, using a blizzard of misleading appeals about the election to shatter fundraising records set during the campaign, according to people with knowledge of the contributions.

The influx of political donations is one reason Trump and some allies are inclined to continue a legal onslaught and public affairs blitz focused on baseless claims of election fraud, even as their attempts have repeatedly failed in court and as key states continue to certify wins for President-elect Joe Biden.

$150 MILLION

It's not much but it's a start, what's the story where y'all live?

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/11/seattle-spending-plan-set-for-2021-a-new-tax-on-big-businesses-a-new-approach-to-encampments-and-a-20-cut-to-400m-in-annual-police-spending/

New: Biden’s team will accept donations of up to $500,000 from individuals and up to $1 million from corporations for his inauguration, according to an official involved in the planning. W/⁦@shearm⁩ https://t.co/0at8KpB6WE

— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) December 1, 2020

Silby — yes, we have a police department. And yes, it's an interesting situation. I won't bore you with local politics, but the conversation here about the PD is as fraught and complicated as it is most places.

I am 100% willing to bet, table, that as a Black American with a college degree I have at least as nuanced an academic view on racism in America as you, a White adjunct professor, with the extra benefit of being the direct target of American racism for my entire fucking life. So yes, when I see someone being a shrill, ahistoric fool when by their own account and credentials they should fucking know better, I'm going to call them on it.

once again the policing only goes in one direction
― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 18:24 (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean I've seen a few ppl say this or to this effect now. Do you sincere believe it?

I do yeah, though there's some hyperbole there. The dogpiling on innocuous Biden Sucks posts comes quicker, heavier, and in greater numbers...again I suspect this largely comes down to people not wanting their mellows harshed

NO TELL ME ABOUT THE LOCAL POLITICS THATS THE POINT it matters so much more right now than arguing about the goals of the failed Biden administration

...federal law gives individual members of the House and Senate the power to challenge the results from the floor — a rarely used mechanism meant to be the last of all last resorts to safeguard an election.
But several House Republican lawmakers and aides now tell POLITICO they’re considering this option to aid Trump’s quest.

“Nothing is off the table,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, December 1, 2020 12:46 PM bookmarkflaglink

What Gaetz left out is that this will fail the House vote, probably also the Senate for any state they challenge, and if they manage to prevent the electoral votes from being counted by 1/20, Pelosi becomes President

I have doomsday scenarios of my own, and not one of them has to do with Joe Biden declaring war on Iran, or much to do with Joe Biden at all. We have many bigger problems than Joe Biden. The joke such as it was was about the massive overreaction on the right and left to the anticipated horrors of the Biden Regime.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, December 1, 2020 6:42 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

ok, fair enough - still don't know who these people on the left are that you're referring to but whatever.

A post I idly thought about making throughout the entire Electoral Yuga: is campaign finance reform a dead issue? There's a good chance I'm simply not looking in the right places

I thought if Republicans were good at ANYTHING it was winning elections, that said this is certainly a bold gambit:

How are things going for David Perdue after new allegations of insider trading?

His campaign’s new tagline —> pic.twitter.com/muqXu5b8EK

— Rachel Irwin (@rachelgirwin) December 1, 2020

last time i checked, the defund the police movement here (slc) got slaughtered and has pretty much been replaced by 'give more money to the police' because everyone here is a fascist. personally i would be scared for my safety if i showed up to my city council meeting advocating for defunding the police and i have lights out on my car so

WATCH: President-elect Joe Biden announces economic team, with Janet Yellen as treasury secretary #MTPDaily

"We might have to ask Lin Manuel Miranda ... to write another musical about the first woman secretary of the treasury." pic.twitter.com/bafPIPxS8i

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) December 1, 2020

ha ha Biden is trolling the fuck out of us now

Silby — yes, we have a police department. And yes, it's an interesting situation. I won't bore you with local politics, but the conversation here about the PD is as fraught and complicated as it is most places.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, December 1, 2020 12:48 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the post-george floyd debate here in minneapolis has been a lot more complex and not as easily broken down along racial and economic lines as people think

https://www.startribune.com/some-minneapolis-black-leaders-speak-out-against-city-council-s-moves-to-defund-police/571594012/

https://www.twincities.com/2020/08/10/in-north-minneapolis-distrust-of-the-police-and-the-effort-to-defund-them/

NO TELL ME ABOUT THE LOCAL POLITICS THATS THE POINT it matters so much more right now than arguing about the goals of the failed Biden administration

I agree with you on that. Our local politics on cops is this: Liberal city government, which runs the city PD; very conservative county govt., which includes the Sheriff's Office. New city mayor, essentially an NPR liberal; relatively new (and first female) police chief; PD handled our local BLM and other protests generally very gently. They didn't even show up at a lot of protests except to close streets to traffic for marchers. So no immediate flashpoints, but of course a lot of community distrust especially among BIPOC. Also, the county sheriff's 287(g) agreement means that anyone booked into the jail by either city or county cops is subject to deportation. City Council has had a series of workshops over the past 6 months looking into PD operations, budgeting, use of force, training, etc. There are two (out of 9) Council members from a local progressive coalition, who are certainly in favor of reducing police funding and increasing other services, mental health etc. A larger chunk of Council is more moderate-liberal, generally cautious about criticizing cops directly but also want to "reform the system," somehow or other. Also a few suburban Republicans on Council who are very pro-cop.

I don't know what to expect out of all of that, except that whatever it is will be incremental. This is a Southern city in a red county and state, and it is not going to be a national leader on something like defunding the police.

"We might have to ask Lin Manuel Miranda ... to write another musical about the first woman secretary of the treasury."

The Angela Merkel musical is dope tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daxHBre2a5A

xpost

(And, as a persistent overlay to all of this, our GOP supermajority Legislature has shown itself ready to intervene if they think the cities are getting too tough on cops. Last year they made it harder for local civilian review boards to investigate misconduct.)

yeah I despair for cities in states with gerrymandered GOP-dominated legislatures, I can see them just replacing home rule for cities with state-appointed executives at slightest provocation

nice find, ymp

Doubtful that anyone here has ever said "don't post nice things about Joe Biden." Disagreeing with nice things said about Joe Biden is not the same as demanding they not be said.

So many nice things said about Joe Biden it's just disgusting.

No one's stopping you, though!

Nearly no one is "saying nice things about Biden" - you're delusional - they just want you to shut up for two seconds and/or stop playing the greatest hits on repeat.

Joe Biden should stop making bad choices in political nominees if he doesn't want them to be discussed IMO.

*discussed*

I wonder if ppl just stopped objecting to "saying mean things about Joe Biden" maybe it woudln't get so repetitive?

Like...why not just let ppl post? So Milo says something accuractely critical abt the guy...so what? Why not just read and move along?

remember that scene in The Blair Witch Project where they walked by the same lake and set of trees for like the 10th time and nobody but the audience knew it

Well another person to fire

“We have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” US Attorney General Bill Barr tells @AP https://t.co/eeJ76SiMsy

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) December 1, 2020

HAHA

But just enough fraud to let Republican states requires a DNA match to vote.

Barr has watched Giuliani pour gasoline over himself and light a match and has decided that is not how he wants his own career to end.

Barr wants to die IMO

All the cool Trump admin folx want to get fired two months early, either to get a jump start on their jobhunt or to be able to claim they were part of the internal resistance all along

DJP, what's ahistoric about what I wrote? It's called the Biden Crime Bill for a reason, and there are plenty of articles about how the 2/3rds of the CBC who supported it were thrown under the bus after they compromised with their support. Of course, that isn't on them, but to claim that they supported the bill as it turned out rather than as it was originally written is also ahistorical, or whatever else you want to accuse me of.

That Biden eulogized one of the most virulent racists in US political history is not a matter for debate, and it isn't shrill to point out that such eulogizing might, in fact, make Biden a racist.

Barr at WH, per @kaitlancollins. There was no Barr-Trump meeting on the president’s public schedule for today. https://t.co/eK78zTX09b

— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) December 1, 2020

This really is the longest Downfall meme yet.

Well, so far this thread has been most edifying.

isn't Barr the type of dude who could like ruin Trump's life if Donnie doesn't just let the inevitable happen when Biden takes power.

But just enough fraud to let Republican states requires a DNA match to vote.

I tend to think that this kind of thing, plus the untold $$$ Trump is raking in from people he's snookered into thinking the outcome is actually in question, is the real motivation for keeping this alive.

Barr is the type of dude who won't eat his children because on further study they're not as tasty as a capicola sub.

is it me or lately does he just look like Bannon with a wig and glasses

bannon
barr
barron

???

i haven't seen the da vinci code, but it must resemble this feeling

Trump is gonna rehire Jeff Sessions to fight the good fight.

i know this has probably been noted a million times, but i just made the connection between tommy tuberville and that one season of veep where a football coach is running for president. college football is everything in alabama. they just literally elected their main team's football coach to be a senator!

i know i should have processed this earlier, sorry

Sen. Crimson Tide (R-Al.)

Tuberville was at Auburn , don’t let a Bama fan hear you call them the state’s main team.

they don't need me around anyhow

lol was going to post the exact same thing as milo. (for once.)

is it me or lately does he just look like Bannon with a wig and glasses

― Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), T

They've never been in the same room together. HMMM...

i guess there have been tons of sports politicians. but still, tommy fucking tuberville, lol

they loved the bad actor president, they worshipped the fake businessman president. but this holiday season, get ready to cheer for coach senator

Bannon has more of a Hobo with a Shotgun thing going...

Bill Belichek would win every GOP primary except for New York and New Jersey.

If you really want to dig into the history of the Crime Bill, it's another example of Democratic hubris and assumption that their position is the one that most Americans will default to when looking dispassionately at the issues. It was passed in the form it had as an initial step with the intention of refining the punitive pieces and enhancing the more progressive pieces around weapons bans, and then the Democrats lost the midterm election and the Republicans dug in and made all the terrible parts of it worse. Kind of like... the ACA.

This is the extreme weakness in Democratic strategy and why they are, to put it mildly, imperfect. They assume based on no evidence that most people will agree with them given a long chat over some nice hot tea and that they therefore can afford short-term legislative compromises as their long-term vision is inexorable, when in reality their opposition is very good at treating every election as a short-term must-win-then-immediately-shove-through-whatever-horribleness-we-can event. It's not an animus that is motivated by despising Black people; it's a bad strategy that CAN be fixed if their constituency can organize well enough to impose upon the establishment that their current tactics are not what we want. My big criticism and big fear of Biden is that he is not the person to do this.

xp I guarantee Coach Senator will be a sit-com someday soon. Surprised it hasn't already happened.

what this nation needs is a half-time pep talk from coach. light a fire under this nation's ass, coach!

I'm thinking of a scenario where the dude is a coach and a senator at the same time. And gets the different worlds mixed up, i.e. has aides running laps around the state house as punishment, and throws clipboards down in disgust during confirmation hearings.

djp otm

Coach Eric Taylor is a cop

what is the political equivalent of a "statue of liberty"-esque trick play? is that what mcconnell did to merrick garland?

Coaches make great politicians. The GOP once had a wrestling coach as Speaker of the House!

The gig economy but for coups

Venezuela's far-right pro-coup opposition jumps ship once the paychecks stop coming in.

"..Mr Guaidó’s envoys abroad have complained that they are effectively working for free and have not received payment they were expecting from US state sources."https://t.co/dHpWxlnvSe

— Camila (@camilateleSUR) December 1, 2020

DJP, I guess that I just tend to think that part of the reason for that milquetoast, conciliatory approach you rightly bemoan is Dems not actually caring about the concerns of a loyal and large part of their base. While outright racial animus might not be part of that calculus, the "soft" racism of benign neglect is also pretty egregious.

Desperate but not serious

Ron Johnson said the attorney general should “show everybody” his evidence about no mass fraud because “there’s enough suspicions” and “irregularities” there

Asked if he's not satisfied with Barr's conclusion, Johnson added: "I think there is still enough questions outstanding”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 1, 2020

ron johnson you go first. there are still outstanding questions about your visit to russia (who hacked our 2016 election) over the 2018 4th of july holiday

a buncha people who are unfamiliar with "burden of proof", or pretending to be...

PROVE NO FRAUD HAPPENED.

ron johnson is up for re-election in 2022, just sayin

winning these georgia runoffs are crucial for many many reasons, but one is that it will hopefully slow the roll of "delegitimizing our electoral process" being an accepted and successful campaign tactic.

good reason to steal them then

Barr has prisoners to execute, he can't be bothered with these shenanigans.

well done to this thread for achieving a de-escalated good-faith back-and-forth in 168 posts / four hours



arguing about the goals of the failed Biden administration

also gentle irl lol tbh

Stolen Dave Barry joke contemporaneous with my preschool years.

Sad, sad people:

Meanwhile over at Parler, The Bill Barr news is going over really well... pic.twitter.com/USGkXwxng4

— YS (@NYinLA2121) December 1, 2020

not sure how I feel about pointing and laughing at the people who literally want to kill us, but it's not a *bad* response I guess.

lol sic

Also yeah “I demand evidence of the lack of evidence!”

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!

Absence of hamburger helper is not hamburger helper of absence

Absence of absence is not absence of absence.

the funny thing about the 5D Chess narrative is that a) their motives always get leaked because DJT is so hated, b) even when they're not, usually people successfully surmise what they're doing and a major newspaper usually writes an article delineating what they're probably gonna do, c) they can't bear doing something that the LAMESTREAM MEDIA predicted they'd do, so they go 'NUH UH' and then abandon their plans and then just pretend they didn't anyway by saying they did at their rallies.

Ass scent of absinthe is not absence of ass scent!

well done to this thread for achieving a de-escalated good-faith back-and-forth in 168 posts / four hours

imo it is appropriate to start this thread at full escalation and try to escalate from there, to honor the spirit of the times

looool, sorry if this was already posted yesterday:

HE'LL GET BACK TO YOU Back in July, Gov. Ducey said he changed his White House ringtone to "Hail to The Chief" so he wouldn't miss a call from Trump/Pence. Guess who called while Ducey was certifying Arizona's election? (7 secs in) pic.twitter.com/bzBGpfSIDf

— Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik) November 30, 2020

Hail to the chief cause he’s the chief and he needs hailing

the chief is old news, america's new champion is coach

Apparently the big goal for the 2nd Term was to end birthright citizenship (considered too hot to mention during the campaign)... Stephen Miller is sobbing bitterly into a pillow somewhere.

On a different front, this is an interesting take on education policy post-DeVos: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/opinion/betsy-devos-education.html

More than three decades ago, conventional Republicans and centrist Democrats signed on to an unwritten treaty. Conservatives agreed to mute their push for private school vouchers, their preference for religious schools and their desire to slash spending on public school systems. In return, Democrats effectively gave up the push for school integration and embraced policies that reined in teachers unions.

Together, led by federal policy elites, Republicans and Democrats espoused the logic of markets in the public sphere, expanding school choice through publicly funded charter schools. Competition, both sides agreed, would strengthen schools. And the introduction of charters, this contingent believed, would empower parents as consumers by even further untethering school enrollment from family residence.

... Ms. DeVos, a critic of what she calls “the overreach of the federal government in education,” displayed no interest in this neoliberal compromise. Instead, she spent much of her time crusading for religious schools.

... The blowback against the Republican Party’s rightward shift on education, however, is creating an opportunity for Democrats to move in new directions. In 2018, voters in purple states like Arizona, Michigan and Texas, and in red states like Kentucky, punished Republican candidates perceived as hostile to public education. And this fall, Arizona voters approved a measure to raise taxes on wealthy residents in order to increase funding for public schools and teachers — a move antithetical to the school privatization agenda that arguably helped turn the state blue.

More like Hail to the Thief, right?

Fun times!

BREAKING from CNN:  
“The Justice Department is investigating a potential crime related to funneling money to the White House in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to a court record unsealed on Tuesday by the chief judge of the DC District Court.”

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) December 1, 2020

NEW NEW: The Justice Dept is investigating a potentially criminal scheme of bribery for a presidential pardon.

LOTS redacted/unknown ... but court records are here, released this afternoon by the DC District Court: https://t.co/4Bk6R7u41m

— Katelyn Polantz (@kpolantz) December 1, 2020

The crimes were coming from inside the house!

Grifters gonna grift.

Stolen Dave Barry joke contemporaneous with my preschool years.

repurposing the tools of the oppressor conservative comedians' jokes against the left a conservative politician is good praxis

very serious allegations in Michigan

Poll watcher in Michigan testifying that black lives matter people wore rhinestones. This was a problem for her.

— Sandwich Breathe (@TepidButterASMR) December 1, 2020

whole thread is great

https://dollyparton.com/dp-uploads/2014/09/Rhinestone-Dolly-Parton.jpg

(R-L), Working class joe faced with imposing rhinestone opposition.

LL Cool J and Brad Paisley - "Accidental Fascist"

tyvm for that thread link, UMS, good stuff

Apologies if covered elsewhere, but I missed Lin Wood calling for Trump to declare martial law today.

⚠️Lin Wood, a member of Trump’s legal team, stating we are headed for civil war and calling for martial law.⚠️ This man is a legitimate threat to our country. pic.twitter.com/Cbv3cu4Miv

— Parlertakes (@parlertakes) December 1, 2020

it was on Parler, they assumed nobody saw it

things will finally come to a head when Trump invites Kemp to the White House and there's clearly a firing squad standing on the lawn and Kemp will get back on his charter plane and fly away and Lindsey Graham will be "very troubled" at the possibility of a Presidential death squad and Ron Johnson will say "I don't think we should do that but he is the President and not me"

The crimes were coming from inside the house!

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, December 1, 2020 6:17 PM (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

or the senate

an uneventful moth into the flame

very serious allegations in Michigan

wish I knew how we could get the votes and support of people with a weak grip on reality who just want to be listened to

Same folks complaining about gov't overreach are now calling for martial law.

To his credit, that nutjob "sovereign citizen" Bundy of bird sanctuary fame was genuinely concerned about the administration wanting to send federal troops into cities to quell protests... and wondered why his anti-gov't buddies didn't feel the same.

mass distribution of an oculus-like apparatus so they can truly live in an alternate reality

xp

Same folks complaining about gov't overreach are now calling for martial law.

To his credit, that nutjob "sovereign citizen" Bundy of bird sanctuary fame was genuinely concerned about the administration wanting to send federal troops into cities to quell protests... and wondered why his anti-gov't buddies didn't feel the same.

as someone who has hated him in the past, I gotta agree. people can change and grow, who knew?!?!

I appreciate this nerdery.

It appears that the convict who wanted a Trump pardon/reprieve of sentence has a last name that ends in "s" pic.twitter.com/aGzrD6yFTE

— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) December 1, 2020

Roger Stones

The s in Manaforts is silent

monica seles

she stabbed herself, holy fuck

gotta be impressed with biden’s months long track record to say who gives a shit to all the right things https://t.co/TKYtHF41EL

— kilgore trout, tiny desk carpenter (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 2, 2020

Biden G Weingarten

This all sounds...pathetic.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/01/brad-parscale-final-days-trump-campaign-441988

Well, y'all might demur, but I want Zep quoted in headlines about Donald Trump.

"I didn't get a warning sign," Parscale said, adding that he was "hurt" by the switch-up. "No one asked me to change my plan. I don't know exactly why I was removed, and all of a sudden we had to challenge the plan."

Has this idiot even heard of Donald Trump, let alone met him? wtf did he expect?

i'm gonna give you my life
i'm gonna give you my life

way way wayyyy down inside

""Sometimes I watch them on TV and I'm like, 'Whoa,'" Parscale said. "But at the same time, I mean, the guy has done so many things in his life.""

wtf, this guy sounds like my brother in law, who is easily impressed by some incredibly dumb shit and is otherwise an idiot.

a confederacy of brothers-in-law

lmao we were so young

Can someone do an oral history of the game theory thread for the 4 year anniversary pic.twitter.com/cXmk9yrQcR

— Almaqah (@_Almaqah) December 1, 2020

tbf "we" thought that tweet was clownshoes from the jump

Eric Garland got quoted in the November thread!

and six people clowned unperson for it

So this thread is a ride.

I know I said no more threads tonight, but I can't resist:

GEORGIA KRAKEN UPDATE, Y'ALL!!!

And it's the dumbest one yet.

— Mike Dunford (@questauthority) December 2, 2020

So this thread is a ride.

I know I said no more threads tonight, but I can't resist:

GEORGIA KRAKEN UPDATE, Y'ALL!!!

And it's the dumbest one yet.

— Mike Dunford (@questauthority) December 2, 2020

*hiccup*

This is what cold, hard fury sounds like. pic.twitter.com/KfcWwCWQIg

— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) December 1, 2020

Must have missed his outraged press conference when they were doing this shit to Gretchen Whitmer.

Guys. It's time for some game theory.

American television loved to laugh at Milli Vanilli when "Girl, You Know It's True" infamously skipped over and over during their MTV performance on July 21, 1989. That record had never skipped before. It had not a scratch on it. The turntable was also perfect. Someone sabotaged the record by nicking it with their car keys.

The identity of this person was unknown for several decades. Until now. It was the then 44-year old Joseph Robinette Biden. He had attempted to mount a Presidential campaign for 1988, only to have it suspended amidst accusations of previous law school plagiarism. And on that fateful day, he decided to lay the foundation for his eventual 2020 Presidency.

This single event exposed Milli Vanilli as a lip-syncing fraud, and lead to their public disgrace. Years later, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called Donald Trump the "Milli Vanilli" of voters and urged people not to vote for him. Unbeknownst to him, this enraged Wisconsin, whom Kareem infamously spurned for the LA Lakers decades earlier, as well as much of the rest of the Rust Belt, who resented their Eastern Conference teams from being being bested by Kareem when he was a Buck, as well as a Laker.

This single pronouncement elevated Trump to the presidency. Biden made it happen. Biden knew that if Hillary won, she'd easily win re-election in 2020, and that he'd never have a chance at the Presidency.

Then, coronavirus hit. Biden knew there was a good chance of a global pandemic based on what health experts had been saying for years. He knew because of Milli Vanilli, the general public no longer trusted what they saw and heard on television. They believed everything to be phony. He knew Trump wouldn't trust the experts, and neither would his followers, who wouldn't follow pandemic protocols.

He knew this irresponsibility would lead voters to abandon Trump for the general election en masse, and that he could sleepwalk his way to the Presidency.

Joe Biden orchestrated all of this from an MTV studio in 1989. Think about that the next time you said he 'lucked into the presidency'

You misheard, I didn't say "lucked"

guess my game theory turned out to be a 'lame' theory

u played urself

Must have missed his outraged press conference when they were doing this shit to Gretchen Whitmer.

why would he have a press conference about something that didn't happen in his own state

Good morning!

I’ll have one pardon / allow me to pay you in the Rose Garden

Nice

medicare and social security for all

thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel) at 11:30 1 Dec 20

Must have missed his outraged press conference when they were doing this shit to Gretchen Whitmer

the voting systems administrator for the state of Georgia was supposed to hold a press conference about the kidnapping plot against Witmer? c'mon

Robert Mueller is the guiest for teh first episode i the 4th series of The Oath
https://open.spotify.com/episode/23daGMyhshxXNtc8AsqGw8?si=RzDcEqGTSumWZQl9zNvKhw
not listened to it yet but thought all of you would be absolutely dying to hear it. like, yup.
So here you go

I appreciate the anger and I think it’s good that people hear this, but I’d comfortably wager ol Gabe still gonna vote for Perdue & Loeffler tho so I guess fuck him and anyone else whose chickens are coming home to roost

has there been any "trump was always a democrat anyway" noise yet?

fact. trump was a life-long demmacrat before he ran for presidentn. fact.

fact. trump is a long-term associate of the clintons. fact.

fact. trump only ran to give hillayr a beatable opponent, but trump was so incompetent in that role that he actually won. fact.

fact. tyrumps policies are antithetical to conservative policies, like tariffs, which is gov't meddling in the free markets, a thing which is antithetical to conservative policies. fact.

fact. we the astute were keenly aware he were a sham but utilized his position to our advantage, then voted him out of office because his loose-cannon shenanigans were becoming a detriment to the conservative cause and we already got judges and taxlessness and regulation decreasfullness. fact.

this is a dumb thing to suggest if only because if it were to be it would have been long before now, but at some value for n of nth-degree chess machinations that's gotta be an option for the shameless and intransigent, maybe? i dunno, i just figured it wouldn't really be over for him until the base found some kind of twisted rationale to save face and cut him loose. in unrelated news, i have close friends who are drugs/ booze addicts of varying degrees and i used to believe that people never accept reality until they hit rock bottom, and then i realized that rock bottom is just another reason to double down.

I think in Normal Times this absolutely would have been the GOP playbook but it’s hard to pull off when he’s still beloved by 90% of them and what like 70% of Republicans currently think this election was stolen.

just berserk numbers.

like 70% of Republicans currently think this election was stolen

There was a (sort of) (potentially) comforting piece in the Times a few days ago, saying that Republican answers to pollsters may be less about what they actually personally believe, and more about what they think they should say. Whether as a "fuck you media" statement, or an "own the libs" gesture, or just a "I stand with my side" kind of gesture.

Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but a lot of people seem to view poll responses more as tribal signaling activities than as actual epistemological statements about where the truth lies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/upshot/republican-voters-election-doubts.html

Of course they are still garbage people, but one suspects that at least some of them will come round eventually to more or less participating in society once the whole shitshow is in the past

If the Q Massive turned on him as a pedo-traitor that would just be tragic.

when Trump abandons the White House and just gives up, how many will then turn on him and call him 'weak'

0

How many will join him if he snaps up a tract of land in Guyana? (crosses fingers)

Can he borrow greenland , like .
As l,ong as somebody cleans up after his mob. Won't use it long so don't worry about too much mess.

Or what was teh story on Christmas Ireland. is one site better tahn another for purpose.

my personal reference point re: trump is that costanza "once you get in that car we're going all the way to the hamptons" thing. i expect we're going all the way to the hamptons.

Rocky start continues for Sidney Powell's election-fraud lawsuit in Wisconsin. The judge assigned to the case says her team filed a draft motion by accident and still hasn't complied with the basic rules for seeking a temporary restraining order. pic.twitter.com/EsdAuJhkL4

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 2, 2020

This particular civil procedure screw-up in Powell's lawsuit means the defendants don't even have to respond to her request for a temporary restraining order until a week after the Electoral College meets. https://t.co/xpjDmtrIMZ pic.twitter.com/OeHtWcU5yT

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 2, 2020

One thing about all of these shenanigans is that it shows there’s a big difference between being a practicing lawyer and someone with a law degree who appears on TV.

Meantime, a little money story

https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/how-trumps-legal-challenges-of-the-election-results-turned-into-a-tax-deductible-coup/

Trump before election: Hunter, Hunter, Hunter.

Trump after election: Excuse me while I pardon my kids!

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) December 2, 2020

It's part of his inevitable 2024 bid:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/02/donald-trump-suggests-2024-presidential-bid-ill-see-you-in-four-years

Thumbs up to whoever, in that room packed full of maskless republicans, had the audible hacking cough. More of that, please.

omg please die

please die Donald
for as long as you're here, we don't wanna be

lmao very thankful for silverchair lyric jokes in these dark times neanderthal

He definitely prefers being a candidate to being the actual president, which involves tedious reading of briefs and boring meetings.
The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd and all that.

why would he have a press conference about something that didn't happen in his own state

His own state? His own party, you mean. I allow myself to wonder why he only cares about death threats when they're leveled at him and his Republican cronies, it's a lazy but satisfying exercise.

Don't wanna be too 6D CHESS MAAAAN, but there is a part of this that begins to resemble failure theater.

Every. Single. Time. - I MEAN EVERY SINGLE TIME - I think they've bottomed out the stupidity IT GETS WORSE. Bottom line - everything that was scheduled to happen this week is now **STAYED** and I think the court is unhappy with Lin and Sidney.

...

her team filed a draft motion by accident and still hasn't complied with the basic rules for seeking a temporary restraining order.

...

This particular civil procedure screw-up in Powell's lawsuit means the defendants don't even have to respond to her request for a temporary restraining order until a week after the Electoral College meets.

Of course these people are idiots and incompetent, no doubt. However, consider the possibility that they don't need to "win," or even necessarily want to. Just project the image of people who are fighting and trying and not giving up.

Audience of one, partly, but also audience of 73 million.

File suits that are clearly bullshit. Say you are losing on purpose, in the hope of a SCOTUS rescue.

SCOTUS, of course, will not take up these bullshit suits.

Voila: the narrative is that PDJT and MAGAnauts were STABBED IN THE BACK by liberal squish RINO judges.

For Trump it's win/win: he doesn't have to do any more Presidentin'. But he can still claim he WON BIGLY but was BETRAYED BY THE SWAMP.

I'm sure anyone who's been fired from their job for being a completely useless fuckup who never had any intention of attempting to learn or improve because everyone in their workplace had it in for them can relate to that narrative.

His own state? His own party, you mean. I allow myself to wonder why he only cares about death threats when they're leveled at him and his Republican cronies, it's a lazy but satisfying exercise.

I mean, sure but... wouldn't it have been kind of weird if Gabriel Sterling called a press conference to call out the plot against the Governor of Michigan? He's the voting systems implementer for the Secretary of State, the fact that he's calling press conferences at all is extraordinary.

It would be as perplexing as if the clinical trial results for the Pfizer/Moderna vaccines were being announced by Microsoft's IT manager

And while all this stuff plays out, it's back to the proverbial salt mine for Trump & Sons:

After he leaves the White House, Donald Trump is expected to do something no president before him has done: cut multimillion dollar deals with foreign governments and companies for his own private business.

Trump’s namesake company plans to resume foreign real estate projects, likely luxury hotels, as it grapples with a tarnished brand in the United States and the need to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars of debt...

I mean, sure but... wouldn't it have been kind of weird if Gabriel Sterling called a press conference to call out the plot against the Governor of Michigan?

Would it have been so weird to mention it at a press conference where he's cosplaying a concerned citizen about THINGS GOING TOO FAR because a Republican got threatened? I feel like... no, it wouldn't have been a bad thing to bring up, since people literally plotted to kidnap and murder her.

"Are you a donor to #FightBack or just trying to attack my organization as you are attempting to do so with Sidney Powell’s organization?” Wood asked Law&Crime in an email. “Send me some of your recent reporting so that I can determine if you are a propaganda arm of the third party bad actors seeking to overthrow our Constitution or a professional journalist who adheres to journalistic standards.”

A professional journalist who adheres to journalistic standards like, oh say, OANN? Seriously, fuck these alleged "attorneys."

xpost While I agree that more people should be saying something, and while I pale at the prospect of defending a republican in this day and age, I think you might be putting a little too much on this one relatively minor dude's shoulder.

How about instead we hear some words of condemnation, oh, I don't know...THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED FUCKING STATES. Or any republican elected official or appointee working at the federal level, I dunno.

Makes u think

https://i.ibb.co/xjQXWFX/Barr.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/BCnPNL4/dcfa74b67380b58965364c90856dc174.png

Sorry all I see is this guy

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/07/f2/70/07f270e92f8e1c2e73db4c59aabe020c.jpg

Lol yes!

The GA guy seemed maddest that a contractor was threatened. He even said he and the SoS signed on for more prominent public duties.

I mean, fuck him forever, but that’s on the principle of being a Republican at all.

I guess kudos for trying to make it about the contractor but until I’m proven wrong I’ll assume Gabe here is your standard “bad things are actually only bad once they happen to meeeee” Republican

So you just mean a republican, then

I guess I'm struggling to see what denouncing people who have been arrested for the actions that got them arrested gets you beyond being an actual real-life example of virtue signaling

Like, the reason people went apeshit over the reprehensibility of Dylann Roof was because cops went out of their way to buy him a burger because he was hungry after he had murdered nine people in hopes of starting a race war, in stark and vicious contrast to the countless number of Black people who had been murdered by the police for non-capital offenses or for no offenses at all. It highlighted yet another example of unequal treatment in a simple, almost primal way. In contrast, only one of the men in the Whitmer plot has been released on bail and, as far as I can tell, it's the person with the least connection to the central plot.

A thread of...about what you'd expect.

Anyway, after Georgia voting official @GabrielSterling basically implored people to tone down the rhetoric that's leading to violent threats, Trump ally L. Lin Wood says "You listen up, Gabriel. You're not going to sell our votes to China." Trumps ex-lawyer is in the background. pic.twitter.com/WvZJCpJ8d0

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 2, 2020

jfc

Is this like a performance art piece at this point? What the hell

They have chosen to ride on the back of an angry tiger and if they dismount they'll become the prey.

Here's Lin Wood telling Georgia Republicans NOT to vote for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue next month.

"They have not earned your vote. Don't you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election for god's sake! Fix it! You gotta fix it!" pic.twitter.com/Uvj1QIpqFL

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 2, 2020

Why is Powell still there? I thought she was put out to pasture.

I'm really hoping all this vote-fraud theater lowers GOP turnout for the Senate runoffs

yesterday we managed to elect a reform DA in Athens in spite of an oddly-timed runoff and a district that includes a very red neighboring county ... we're not representative of much of Georgia, but so far I'm observing zero GOP GOTV efforts while Democratic volunteers are bothering me almost daily

Powell is working as some kind of independent contractor now. Paid by whom, who knows.

Stacey Abrams in a trenchcoat

lol

Andy, you misunderstand - in magaworld, Powell wasn't sidelined - she was FREED to operate without restrictions. She's still working for Trump, just without the red tape of working with the campaign or RNC.

BElIEVE in the KRAKEN

She's being paid by donations to her organization, We the People or whatever

beyond being an actual real-life example of virtue signaling

that's what a press conference is!

Liiiiike, if they weren't obviously and completely insane people looking to fundamentally disrupt all democratic norms, I wouldn't immediately dismiss any allegations that Powell and Lin been hired by someone from the opposite party. But please, whoever's backing you, continue vociferously recommending that republicans abstain from voting in the GA runoffs. And GA republicans, please continue to listen to the maniacs as they speak in tongues.

In that video, Lin Wood is hustling like a backwoods preacher, so speaking in tongues can't be far off. Hopefully serpent handling as well.

The law firm of Sizzler & Sizzler holding a press conference rn re: voting fraud

https://64.media.tumblr.com/7140430c54a46f5a28ddd345659c19ca/tumblr_mnfg8uMWjv1r6fx8so1_250.gifv

So wait, hold up: what is this now about Trump seeking pardons for Rudy and his children? Did I miss the part where any of them had been formally accused of federal crimes (not that I have any real doubt that they have)?

they would be pre-pardons (i'm not joking on that). just in case, you know, the corrupt biden DOJ tries to prosecute his perfect family for fake crimes

Rudy needs a pardon now for the "Hunter Biden laptop caper" revelations waiting in 2021. Trump's pardons for his kids will strategically include pardon for all their future crimes, as a thoughtful part of their inheritances.

For a real estate developer with properties on Marvin Gardens & Park Place, a get-out-of-jail free card makes a great holiday gift.

i can't believe a real estate guy from new york city turned out to be a massive fraudulent asshole!!!!!!

can you pardon people for future crimes?

A prelude to standing in the middle of 5th Avenue and shooting somebody.

if i understand correctly,

...Up to now, the power of the pardon has been used very sparingly. The largest pardons were President Andrew Johnson's pardon of ex-Confederates and President Jimmy Carter's pardon of draft dodgers after Vietnam.

The most expansive was President Gerald Ford's blanket pardon of his predecessor Richard Nixon. Issued a month after Nixon's resignation, the idea was the country should move on.

Bowman notes a Supreme Court case, Ex parte Garland, involving ex-Confederates in public positions. The court referenced the nearly unlimited power to pardon: "It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment."

That phrasing -- "at any time after its commission" -- from 1866, would suggest Trump could pardon people for things they've done that have not yet been prosecuted, as Ford did for Nixon, but not for crimes that haven't yet been committed. So is it possible new crimes could come to public light? Sure. Would a Trump pardon work to stop the prosecution of them? That's less clear.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/02/politics/trump-presidential-pardon-children/index.html

this is beyond veep now, btw

Trump's lawyers will argue that the Constitution doesn't preclude pardons for future crimes, so they are perfectly legal. Future presidents will make a bundle selling them under the brand name 'Plenary Indulgences'.

I heard something about the "grant" part of pardon being interpreted as only something you can give to someone else.

i'd like to pardon myself tremendously, for everything i've ever done. some people have said it's the most beautiful pardon you can give, to pardon yourself.

I don't see how you could pardon someone for hypothetical crimes, before someone has even been accused, let alone convicted of those crimes. Because what would stop someone, like a president, from doing something super-duper illegal and then just pardoning themselves for it? Or call in DJTJ or Gummy Trump and tell them, hey, get all your crimes out of your system now, and when you're done, I'll pardon you, just in case anyone finds out. Let me know and I'll get the papers drawn up.

The Ford/Nixon thing is the example that's always held up, but it's never been tested in court, since we've never had a president who was such an asshole that the provision would even need be put to the test. But if anyone can do it, it's Asshole on his way out. He's like a hero hacker, just benevolently looking for flaws in the system for others to fix.

xpost Kinda like The Purge but inside the Beltway.

Accepting a pardon is a tacit admission of guilt, so accepting a pre-pardon is an admission of guilt for something you're probably gonna do later.

Futurecrime!

I am not looking this up on FB, but I take Kaitlin Collins' word for it.

President Trump just posted a 45-minute video on Facebook that he recorded inside the White House where he vows to continue fighting the election results and says his legal team will file more lawsuits, despite how dozens have failed so far. Charts included. pic.twitter.com/snAaToy79D

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 2, 2020

cool story bro

ad nauseam

Is he holding up a picture of his heart rate?

gonna be filing lawsuits in 2047, when Trump is basically a gelatinous globule stuffed inside a jar with a few strands of hair

https://thingsthatmadeanimpression.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/picture-blackknight_montypythongrail.jpg

NEVER GIVE UP

Question:(apols if already asked..)

Rudi, who is after a pardon for what? He says that he has done nothing wrong. But wants a preemptive pardon.

OK, so Trump grants him one.

Then Rudi shoots Trump dead.

And retires to the florida keys.

Ah yes

Ivanka Trump was deposed Tuesday by the DC attorney general's office as part of its lawsuit alleging misuse of inauguration funds, according to a new court filing.

— Kara Scannell (@KaraScannell) December 2, 2020

Because what would stop someone, like a president, from doing something super-duper illegal and then just pardoning themselves for it? Or call in DJTJ or Gummy Trump and tell them, hey, get all your crimes out of your system now, and when you're done, I'll pardon you, just in case anyone finds out.

Like hasn’t everybody just been expecting an avalanche of pardons since at least Inauguration Day 2016?

yes

Also the admission of guilt aspect is totally meaningless, they’ll only all call it a technicality necessary to foreclose phony deep-state prosecution

Seems like the problem is presidential pardons rather than the current present tbqh

*president

It’s a nice combo

True justice is one dude with the power to say 'not guilty' re: literally anyone in the country.

That should be his new catch-line on the OANN Apprentice reboot

Instead of celebrity entrepreneurs it should be elderly white collar felons.

the power to say 'not guilty' re: literally anyone in the country.

Presidential pardons are a mixed bag. They only extend to cover federal crimes, which includes a lot of white collar crimes, but doesn't include most crimes of violence.

This is like pretty much the trumpiest thing I’ve ever seen

pic.twitter.com/2NgXi3vVvB

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) December 3, 2020

xpost True but in a way it's almost worse. Rudy et al are encouraged to avoid the penny ante state-level shit and go whole hog with the federal crimes his ol' buddy is likely to make disappear with a wiggle of his fingers.

the first round draft pick seems like the key, they are both bad contacts

Are we sure that's not Megan Mullally doing a bit?

It really feels like a pre-made SNL skit.

I love when Giuliani gently tries to rein her in. To no avail at all.

You can't unfry things, Rudy.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/528446-mo-brooks-planning-to-challenge-electoral-college-votes

Wonderful! The more the merrier.

i hear he drinks pee

Well, that's three of us.

The drunk woman yelling at the bald state Senator is almost WS of shame territory tbh

That combo of slurring and vocal fry really takes me back to dating an alcoholic who managed a karaoke bar.

she sounds like she's going to get kicked out of Senor Frogs

lol

I said Goose not Stoli gaahd

Victoria Jackson got her hands on a time machine and showed up from the late 80s to save us all

she's a right wing nut job irl

lol was gonna say "no time machine needed"

between her and Rob Schneider, 90s SNL really did something to people's brains

Dennis Miller mentored them

I'm really worried about Tim Kazurinsky right now

that'd explain it

xpost

Oh phew

Total U.S. deaths due to the American Revolution, War of 1812, World War I, Korean War, Gulf War, Iraq War = 197,823.  

Total U.S. deaths due Trump’s Virus Bungle = 200,000.

Stable genius?  Horse’s ass!

— Tim Kazurinsky (@timkazurinsky) September 21, 2020

Wait, Kazurinsky was gone from SNL in *1985*, god damn I am old

'I signed something saying if I'm wrong I could go to prison'

did you

Kevin Nealon stayed woke

My painting of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.“ #ripruthbaderginsburg #nortoriousbig #feministicon #idissentandivote #equalrights #vote pic.twitter.com/usOadoHWqw

— Kevin Nealon (@kevin_nealon) September 20, 2020

my first thought was 'that lady can't be serious, this is someone doing a bit, a lady doing a Trump impersonation' because all the same speech mannerisms are there. then I realized that no, it was not someone doing a bit, there are just a bunch of people who fucking talk like Trump now because they think emulating him makes them sound powerful, aand then I wanted to kill myself.

On the other hand (sorta)

https://www.axios.com/jim-inhofe-trump-defense-bill-spending-995f425b-59ef-46b0-a615-9d6e8ab4fdc3.html

my fave pull quote:

The source could not help but overhear the conversation due to the speakerphone's volume.

Dr Rick from the Progressive commercial is very upset

Getting interesting here — earlier today I saw a lot of types start dumping on Lin Wood due to a revealed voting/donation record for Democrats, thus:

This document purports to be Lin Wood's voting record. He denies it, but today the Georgia Secretary of State's office said this is his voting record. pic.twitter.com/Nn6yZQM34m

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 2, 2020

Records: Lin Wood Has for Decades Voted for, Donated to Democrats Including Barack Obama and David Perdue’s 2014 Opponent https://t.co/Sbw5ZWnpar

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) December 3, 2020

Trump campaign puts out the burn notice on Lin Wood after he doubles down on his call for GA Republicans to potentially sit out the Senate race. At least among the online Trump grassroots, attacks on Wood don't seem to be well-received. https://t.co/vPdnR3t77V

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) December 3, 2020

who's gonna be left to eat when the smoke clears

Snap thought — Wood appearing with Powell, who has her own fundraiser thing separate from Trump...and Trump hates not getting money he thinks is his.

Meanwhile, whoops!

Holy Shit. Florida GOPer caught on tape telling fellow FL GOPers to make false voter registrations in Georgia so they could vote to save Loeffler and Perdue. He in fact DID register in Georgia and is now under investigation. https://t.co/SUEtGKGR7M

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 3, 2020

It's never useful to think about this, really, but imagine if that was a clip of a Democratic lawyer.

He'd be encouraging you to vote for the Georgia Republicans out of a sense of fairness or something.

How is joshtpm still capable of saying “holy shut” about things

yeah but Democrats

i think the drunk woman in the clip is the same one i saw in another cut from fox where she tells very uncompelling stories including one about huge vans coming to deliver food for the election workers but there wasn't enough food for everyone, therefore the vans were carrying ballots. even lou dobbs was like, "ok, anything else?"

Giving a platform to whoever bellows the most shrilly is such an excellent quality of 21st Century culture, really paying dividends.

Meanwhile scientists are keeping their mouths shut and saving humanity

Yeah I saw that clip with Lou Dobbs. In that one she seems like she's maybe stoned rather than drunk.

At her rally, Sidney Powell just said that America has been in decline for decades and that, when she grew up, in the 50s, there was no division in the nation, "at least in my life."

Nice caveat. pic.twitter.com/lrj4mAyMRx

— Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) December 2, 2020

That she would say something like that in Atlanta of all places, jfc. Maybe someone can point her to the King Center?

Like she's clearly a terrible person but continuing to give her media coverage feels a little like exploitation of the mentally ill at this point.

Constantly excavating for greater depths to fill the 24/7 news / entertainment cycle.

I thought this made a good point, and exhibit million of Trump as his own worst enemy:

The complication, which this piece and the "why Biden should pardon Trump" piece don't reckon with, is that Trump wants to run again. Pardoning/dropping lawsuits would give him a legal shield no candidate has ever had before. For what purpose? https://t.co/eEV5ZeTVOY

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 3, 2020

I partly agree it would be best for everyone to ignore the Powell/Wood spectacle, and the Giuliani/Ellis spectacle too, except that all of these people are either officially or unofficially working on behalf of the president of the United States to try to overturn an election. So looking away for too long doesn't seem wise.

That ties right in with what I just posted: if Asshole is actively trying to overturn an election, all while continuing to lie, cheat and otherwise demean the political process, why even humor ending investigations and prosecutions? The response to him doubling down on being an asshole should similarly be to loudly double down on investigations and prosecutions.

I agree. There's this tendency on both the left and right to some degree to be like, "Oh, that's just Trump being Trump" — but, like, Trump being Trump is basically a criminal con man attempting to create an authoritarian state. Not competently, granted, but not something we can exactly ignore.

yeah but if you don't ignore it we'll risk further dividing the country!

I mean, let's not set the precedent that just because you are objectively terrible at criming and create such a nuisance of yourself that we have no choice but to just give up investigating because, why, healing.

feels like congress is p much already there

Trumps should avoid criminal charges if they agree to live in a Port-a-Potty for life

Agreed, and it's dispiriting. I mean, crow all you want about his declining health, age and attention span, but this is America and there is still a greater than zero percent chance he runs and wins in 2024. Imagine the runway he'd have.

he's going to be a chaos agent until the day he dies

and then his hologram will tag in

Wait a minute, Mar-a-Lago ... Port-a-Potty ...

Remembering the vigorous debate here over whether or not to impeach...which despite the outcome somehow seems sillier in retrospect.

The only real question should have been whether to impeach on such narrow terms or to actually enumerate the crimes on record. There's just nothing to be gained by handing out passes for some imnagined political gain.

He was apparently just scaling up the death penalty from things I was hearing earlier this week.
Couldn't people just help him off thsi mortal coil, not sure he could be rehabilitated

He absolutely could and would if he just Shut the Fuck Up and left quietly. As my friend pointed out online, "Call me crazy but the fact 30% of the US population believes anything he says, plus his willingness to affiliate with any business, no matter how sketchy, might be a money-making combo!" But he's such a Turd he's compelled to flush himself.

Couldn't people just help him off thsi mortal coil

here esp. the deep state has proved to be pretty lazy/incompetent

they don't have hemlock at Justice?

this happened the other day, so a few dozen news cycles ago, but this is one of the funniest clips i've seen in a long time:

Holy smokes the sequel is even better!

Rudy Giuliani tries to shush her to calm her down and the Republican even tries to reel her in!

She treats this Republican* like he’s a Chick-fil-A employee and the milkshake machine went down.

*corrected pic.twitter.com/CK1HqGpp2d

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) December 3, 2020

i don't who ryan reilly is, so ignore whatever he says there

Yep, as pointed out many times it's the IRL version of Cecily Strong's Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation with at a Party.

Whatju guyz do, take it and do something crazy to it?

"DID YOU?"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01469/hugoChavez_1469285a.jpg

Still winning, from beyond the grave

feel like making "Republicans can get away with unlimited crime" a bipartisan policy plank is gonna be a death knell for democracy

Get ready to gag (RIP Morbs):

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/02/politics/obama-vaccine/index.html

delete that

If Bush gets Guillain-Barre, I'm going to start calling it Iraq's Revenge.

I mean, I get the gag reflex there, but if it convinces even 1% of vaccine skeptical Republicans in deep red states to get the vaccine...

It's gross, but at this point anything that helps willingness to get a vaccine is worth trying imo.

I don't actually see how it's gross

Totally applaud what they're doing.

And of course

Wisconsin Supreme Court throws out Trump's election lawsuit. Story coming shortly.

— Patrick Marley (@patrickdmarley) December 3, 2020

This is a real mismatch of tweet and photo

.⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ declines to say whether he has confidence in Attorney General Bill Barr, says to ask him that again in a number of weeks. pic.twitter.com/1opT055cKK

— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) December 3, 2020

Totally applaud what they're doing.

― clemenza, Thursday, December 3, 2020 12:21 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Agree. And Trump should join them. They can even give him all the glory and say it wouldn't have happened without him.

(lol shit I forgot I wasn't going to post on this thread)

your penance is now you can post ONLY to this thread

Man Claiming To Be Bill Barr Sneaks Into Oval Office, Skeptical POTUS Proceeds With Award Ceremony Anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3dg-vWr3n4

Huh didn't know Gosling was a cook

lmao

what is supposed to be bad about them getting vaccinated?

attorney general lou holtz is a thing that makes as much sense as any other thing in this clownshow

tuberville is already a senator, why not make lee corso ambassador to the u.n.?

just that they're insisting on doing it in nothing but hospital gowns

xp

Wisconsin Supreme Court throws out Trump's election lawsuit. Story coming shortly.

To be clear, this doesn't even have to do with the merits of the case, it's because cases of this kind are by statute supposed to go to the circuit court, not the SCOWI -- 3 conservative justices nonetheless said "let's just do it and be legends"

xpost - Ha, actually I'm not sure what's bad about it either tbh. I just saw Alfred's comment and a bunch of people groaning about it on Twitter so I was hedging my comment to acknowledge that there must be something idg about the idea. I'm glad they are doing it.

I think the appended photograph was the gag-inducing element of that story Lord Sotosyn intended to call out.

idk, def seen people moaning on twitter about this too and i can't really get objection beyond maybe rabid Obama stans mad he's slumming with Dubya?

yeah imo if he's never going to prison for doing 9/11 the least he can do is convince some honky death cultists to not spread plague

it's just unpleasant to see so many empire-mongers in one photograph

tho i guess in the year of our lord 2020 the death cult is convinced he's deepstate pedo cabal, while being beloved by the #resistance

interesting times

attorney general lou holtz is a thing that makes as much sense as any other thing in this clownshow


Holtz would fit in with Rudy in terms of preferring legal counsel from guys who down half a bottle of scotch first thing in the morning

Ha, I was going to say I've never even seen Holtz make it through a half hour pre-game show without sounding bombed as fuck.

The xanax & Grey Goose attorney lady kinda has a Catherine O'Hara vibe going on...

idk, def seen people moaning on twitter about this too and i can't really get objection beyond maybe rabid Obama stans mad he's slumming with Dubya?

No, I think it's more 1) all former US presidents are war criminals 2) including and perhaps especially these three 3) so it's nagl to ever praise them, and 4) especially nagl to applaud when they work together in a chummy collegial manner

xpost - crossed with Victoria Jackson energy

She's like Ron Swanson's (2nd) wife Tammy.

I do regret posting that comment because, yeah, if it convinces 10 people to vaccinate the ex's will have done their job. . I had the 2017 photo accompanying it in mind.

Kitty from Arrested Development to me xp

^^^ LOL yes!

i thought it was pretty obvious that the ex-presidents-taking-the-accine thing is .. they're getting it because they're vips, not "to show that it's safe." but the latter is the kind of condescending cover that does make one want to gag, considering how many thousands of people will die between now and six months from now who would gladly have a shot tomorrow.

can't wait for every other vip to get it in the next three weeks to show it's safe.. how thoughtful of them.

I’d like to show that it’s safe

they're getting it because they're vips, not "to show that it's safe"

Is it ever possible that two things are true at once?

MarathonMan.jpg

they're getting it because they're vips, not "to show that it's safe"

Is it ever possible that two things are true at once?

― clemenza, Thursday, December 3, 2020 8:01 PM (seven seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

power: good and bad, at the same time. cool stuff

really expands my brain

Much room.

(xpost) Yes, it's safe, it's very safe--so safe you wouldn't believe it.

As Secret Service protectees, I wonder if they are required to get vaccinated. Presumably the Trumps are getting vaccinated as well but wouldn’t want to make a show of it and look weak.

Your post--not "to show that it's safe"--seems to explicitly rule out that two things might be true at once. But you can explain how I misread that.

They'll get saline, the rest of us get Intel chips running Windows 10.

it's a net good that people, whoever they are, are starting to get vaccinated. but alfred is right that, you know, sometimes messaging that tries to spin power as populism is gag-worthy!

Wtf is going on?

“I think Chinese all look alike. How can you tell? If some Chow shows up, you can be anybody and you can vote.” -one of Rudy Giuliani’s witnesses yesterday insisting there must have been voter fraud in Michigan

Yes, it’s an actual quote.pic.twitter.com/nsM0Hc2LE7

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) December 3, 2020

Have we posted the video from that session with Rudy farting yet?

Well, I officially retract my post.

h8 you too boo, just agreeing with you for once

obviously not in the mood to deal with you milquetoast cummerbunds today, i'm out of here

I'm not sure why you're the most consistently dyspeptic poster.

i thought it was pretty obvious that the ex-presidents-taking-the-accine thing is .. they're getting it because they're vips, not "to show that it's safe." but the latter is the kind of condescending cover that does make one want to gag, considering how many thousands of people will die between now and six months from now who would gladly have a shot tomorrow.

So basically you didn't read the article

oh you're "gone"

Who reads articles?

Apparently "not White people"

I rely on Ilx to summarize articles for me

POC gotta save your asses again.

xpost

I resemble that remark, etc...

"the article" doesn't actually contradict map

It's not gross, it's completely 'who gives a shit' but Clinton and Bush should be denied the vaccine because anything that increases their odds of dying sooner is good.

Whoops...

Trump aide banned from Justice after trying to get case info

The official serving as President Donald Trump’s eyes and ears at the Justice Department has been banned from the building after trying to pressure staffers to give up sensitive information about election fraud and other matters she could relay to the White House, three people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press.

Heidi Stirrup, an ally of top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, was quietly installed at the Justice Department as a White House liaison a few months ago. She was told within the last two weeks to vacate the building after top Justice officials learned of her efforts to collect insider information about ongoing cases and the department’s work on election fraud, the people said.

Stirrup is accused of approaching staffers in the department demanding they give her information about investigations, including election fraud matters, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

The effort came as Trump continues to level baseless claims that he won the election and alleges without evidence that massive voting fraud was responsible for his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden.

Stirrup had also extended job offers to political allies for positions at some of the highest levels of the Justice Department without consulting any senior department officials or the White House counsel’s office and also attempted to interfere in the hiring process for career staffers, a violation of the government’s human resources policies, one of the people said.

Morbs was so much better at this than some of you.

Heidi Stirrup

Morbs was so much better at this than some of you.

Well, yeah.

Love how these people think they're the 1st ones to ever consider aspects of election security. Yet another domain where their brilliant minds have found massive faults that people who have studied and worked in for their entire career just plum couldn't see.

Kitty from Arrested Development to me xp

This x 1000.

"I have something else you all need to see right now. Take a goooooood look ..."

We can thank social media for encouraging the notion that the ability to broadcast an opinion instantly makes all opinions equally worthwhile.

Yeah, well that's YOUR opinion!

That reminds me of something I was wondering vis-a-vis Trump's latest (doomed) effort to roll back Section 230. I know his whole anti-230 thing is about having his own statements fact-checked, flagged, etc. But I'm wondering what the actual impact of repealing that section would be. It's not that online platforms would stop moderating content — if you took away Section 230, they'd actually have to moderate even more, because they'd lose their immunity for things posted by third parties. And taking away 230 certainly wouldn't forbid social media companies from moderating content, which seems like Trump's real complaint.

I mean, most likely what it would mean is that social media couldn't really function at all. But I'm just curious what the endgame of that push is supposed to be. (Apart from just bullying the companies to not be mean to conservatives, which I suppose is the real point.)

We can thank social media for encouraging the notion that the ability to broadcast an opinion instantly makes all opinions equally worthwhile.

― You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Thursday, December 3, 2020 1:15 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not in particular to anyone here, but this and also expound upon people, situations, and issues on which one has no information other than some shady source!

I notice that many Nobel prize winners have a tendency to opine on subjects far removed from their respective fields of expertise.

nobel prize winners tend to be smarter than kitty from arrested development

idk John Watson is a dumbass

Hadrian otm.

"Heidi Stirrup" is the "Chad Wolf" of the Justice Department. The writers in this last season are just plain lazy.

"Hey Marcus - what's a woman's name that we haven't used yet? Needs to be cute and reasonably feminine, but also redolent of East-Coast equestrian culture, for that extra touch of class?"

"Uh, how about 'Marci Saddle'?"

"Hmmm. Not quite, but I like where you're going. Can the first name be a little more Germanic?"

"'Gretel Bridle'?"

"Nah, too sing-songy. And let's avoid direct 'Sound of Music' references - a bit too on-the-nose."

"'Heidi Stirrup'?"

"Perfect! Run with it!"

i like the idea of offering people jobs at a place you don't even work

Same tbh.

Heidi Stirrup

They're like characters from Dick Tracy at this point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh4Zm6YRHDk

That reminds me of something I was wondering vis-a-vis Trump's latest (doomed) effort to roll back Section 230. I know his whole anti-230 thing is about having his own statements fact-checked, flagged, etc. But I'm wondering what the actual impact of repealing that section would be. It's not that online platforms would stop moderating content — if you took away Section 230, they'd actually have to moderate even more, because they'd lose their immunity for things posted by third parties. And taking away 230 certainly wouldn't forbid social media companies from moderating content, which seems like Trump's real complaint.

I mean, most likely what it would mean is that social media couldn't really function at all. But I'm just curious what the endgame of that push is supposed to be. (Apart from just bullying the companies to not be mean to conservatives, which I suppose is the real point.)

Trump wants to do it to punish disloyal social media companies, nothing more. He thinks he’s being censored anyway, might as well fuck with their money by opening them up to liability.

This is the most racist and ignorant US Senator I have seen. A lifetime bitch.

— Chen Weihua （陈卫华） (@chenweihua) December 3, 2020

a lifetime bitch

100% that lifetime bitch

A Lifetime Original Bitch