US Politics June 2021 - "Where we're going, we don't NEED bipartisanship"

Mods, feel free to rename it if someone has a more clever title.

For best results, picture Doc Brown and Joe Biden wearing aviator sunglasses and smirking in a tricked out DeLorean

In the early morning hours of Memorial Day, my home, where I’m raising my two children, was vandalized with Antifa symbols and profanity.

Although my kids and I are thankfully fine, these criminal acts are unacceptable no matter your politics. pic.twitter.com/OIN5byPp0I

— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) June 1, 2021

Nice of Antifa to only spray the concrete and not steal her bike.

ah yes the well known antifa motto "all politicians are bastards"

You know what I find interesting?

How both Nancy Mace and this “antifa” criminal both sign their i’s with dots that are a bit of an upside-down u. https://t.co/0Ux7STJufi pic.twitter.com/XV4aZNbZh8

— Pia Guerra (@PiaGuerra) June 1, 2021

Ohhhh, the circled A stands for antifa!

Biden: ...with two members of the Senate that vote more with my Republican friends pic.twitter.com/XxlQ7WdrFA

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 1, 2021

Manchin’s gonna be rootin tootin mad, Sinema will yell at Schumer again for not getting Tommy Tuberville on board.

"B-b-b-but they can't just make Manchin or Sinema do the right thing!!"

I don't know, that's a yp not a mp. Just pretend they're trying to pass a bill to nationalize our health care system or cut off military aid to Israel or Saudi Arabia, and you'll figure out what to do.

— Will 🦥 Menaker (@willmenaker) June 1, 2021

ooooh the mask almost fell off

im begging you all to watch the first 5 seconds of this video https://t.co/qjHGaCJ8g8

— There are no plans for a worldwide release. (@Lunacial) June 2, 2021

im begging you all to watch the first 5 seconds of this video

that's okay, thanks

"I'm begging you, jump in this toxic sludge for just five seconds."

Tucker says "Everyone agrees that segregation was the b...worst thing this country ever did."

lol @ people thinking that is some sort of "gotcha"

https://www.businessinsider.com/arizona-pennsylvania-lawmakers-to-receive-tour-of-gop-audit-operation-2021-6

*** After $1,400 stimulus checks:

-- 42% decline in food shortages
-- 43% decline in gauge of financial instability
-- +20% decline in anxiety & depressionhttps://t.co/Q8iN0xQ2XZ

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 2, 2021

Shocking how well “giving struggling people money” works to benefit their mental and physical health every single time.

a 50% reduction in PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY can i get an amen folks, g'damn this nanny state and keeping ppl from dying

The greatest trick in Democratic politics is being pulled by figures like Mark Warner and Chris Coons. They allow Manchin, and to a lesser extent Sinema, to take all of the heat while they aggressively undermine progressive ends under the radar. e.g., https://t.co/caonqqKF73

— Jeff Hauser (@jeffhauser) June 2, 2021

i have a lot more time for manchin and even sinema than coons and warner tbh.

My attempt to Photoshop Joe Manchin’s face over Lee Majors as The Fall Guy did not go well.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/trump-blog-page-shuts-down-for-good.html

Guess he wasn’t getting enough adoration there.

“It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on”

the new “currently in between jobs”

xxpost "payment due: June 1st"

one again, it all comes down to ratings, or lack thereof:

Former President Trump ordered his blog to be taken down after it was mocked for its low online traffic, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

The Post reports that Trump ordered his team on Tuesday to permanently shut down the 29-day-old blog "From the Desk of Donald Trump," citing its low readership and the possibility it could get in the way of a social media platform he still plans to launch later this year.

On the last day it was live online, Trump's blog was shared 1,500 times on Twitter and Facebook, according to the Post. Trump's tweets would often garner millions of retweets, comments and shares before and during his presidency.

Huh, it's almost like Twitter was populated by significant numbers of bots, trolls and bad actors, using algorithms that pushed the worst tendencies to the most visibility, to the detriment of US democracy.

insert "and Facebook" after "Twitter"

One problem with living in the liberal bubble (which in many ways is, quite frankly, great) is that there's this Schroedinger-like overlay between a reality in which D J Trump Jr is still the most formidable individual in American politics and another in which he's a washed-up old hack everybody's embarrassed still exists and there's no way for me to collapse the wave function

it could get in the way of a social media platform he still plans to launch later this year.

It'll be fun to see how he releases his missives until this 'platform' is up & running. He needs constant attention like the rest of us need oxygen, I think it's fair to say that he'll be back online by the end of the week - somewhere, somehow

StanM OTM about the timing.

... how much more do you think it costs to add one web page to your site?

meanwhile,

.@kyrstensinema on why she supports the filibuster: “The reality is that when you have a system that is not working effectively... The way to fix that is to fix your behavior, not to eliminate the rules or change the rules, but to change the behavior.”https://t.co/GhfQd7KQcX

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 2, 2021

that woman is deeply, increasingly unpleasant

Kyrsten Sinema, “lawmaker”

She makes Manchin look like John Quincy Adams.

as hoos said, that's an extremely green party way of seeing the world.

There are so many dumb people who have figured out public speaking enough to give a superficial sheeb of intelligence and logic to their dumb as fuck thoughts. Pence springs to mind as well.

Pence was also a talk show host iirc

What do you expect from these people, they are all just purchased sycophants or whores for some of the worst greedy vampires on the face of the Earth. You got to raise millions to be able to run in these races...'citizen' legislators they 'AINT. Calling them whores is not really quite fair, as whores work for a living. Being dumb as a brick is a feature, not a problem.

sometimes you just have to get it off your chest and tell the world**

**disclaimer: the world does not pay the slightest attention to ILX.

'tis true.

I heard it pointed out a few months ago that Manchin is actually a democrat in what would very easily become a republican seat so there is a semi excuse for his existence since things would automatically swing further right without his being there. & that doesn't hold true for Sinema who was in a seat more likely to go to another democrat. Also with her sexuality you might think she might recognise the danger for marginalised people in her continued behaviour along these lines. Or is that a too abstract there but for God go I or walk a mile in their shoes type inability to transpose oneself into the other position. But seems at least a tad hypocritical.

I was way past due for a new displayname, so thanks GD and your typo

netanyahu is trying to pull a 1/6/21, and i just read a npr tweet that casually mentioned this

The NFL pledged to stop "race-norming" — which assumed Black players started out with lower cognitive function — as part of a $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims. The practice made it harder for Black retirees to qualify for payouts.https://t.co/ToEtJhauGr

— NPR (@NPR) June 3, 2021

the two things aren't connected, i'm just trying to say, WTF

Well done, my foolish dude

Breaking WaPo: The FBI is investigating Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in connection with campaign fundraising activity involving his former business, according to people familiar with the matter and a spokesman for DeJoy. https://t.co/3rEhr0uRAx

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 3, 2021

FBI agents in recent weeks interviewed current and former employees of DeJoy and the business, asking questions about political contributions and company activities.

Prosecutors also issued a subpoena to DeJoy himself for information. https://t.co/s2Pxp4Cqvc

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 3, 2021

"as hoos said, that's an extremely green party way of seeing the world." explain? confused by this

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/556350-west-virginia-to-give-away-guns-as-vaccine-incentive

save a life, take a life, great!

At least they aren't handguns. That would be beyond self-parody.

Shot through the heart
And you're to blame
You give vaxx a bad name

afaict the entire western united states, democrat or republican or libertarian or green alike, share the belief that all of the problems in the world stem from individual belief and action. collectivism in any shape or form does not exist as a concept to them.

what about the costco collective

good morning!

this all explains why we elected a Senator named Rand

I'm unclear whether his daddy named Rand after Ayn or after the gold Krugerrand. Or both.

His birth name is Randal.

Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky senator and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, used to be called Randy, his wife, Kelley, told CNN.

"I remember thinking, your name just does not fit you. You don't seem like a Randy. And I started calling him Rand, and he liked it," Paul's wife, Kelley, told CNN's Dana Bash during an at-home interview.

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/238967-wife-rand-paul-used-to-go-by-randy

"You don't seem like a Randy. And I started calling him Useless Fuck-knuckle, and he liked it"

Dookie Paul

I kind of think the name "Randy Paul" sounds like something from an SNL sketch.

"Oh no, watch out, it's Randy Paul!"

Enter grown man playing college student with enormous comedy boner visible through jeans.

"Oh man, am I HORNY"

Randy Paul, you're a naughty one
Randy Paul, you're a haughty one

xp that sounds more like a madtv sketch

yes, you're right.

the SNL sketch would be jimmy fallon playing a little kid, and he says "i heard randy paul was coming to school today!". then horatio sanz enters the shot, dressed up looking like an adorable baby, and he says "Hi I'm randy paul!" and jim fallon just fucking loses it, he starts giggling and then the audience can't believe that a cast member on SNL is laughing so they start laughing, and then fallon starts to crack up some more and he looks at the camera, which makes a few audience crack up loud and clear above the rest, which finally breaks horatio sanz and he starts smiling, and then fallon just really loses his composure at that point, and everyone on set and in the crowd is just losing it, even lorne michaels. the laughter becomes more like a heaving, painful collective moment and it goes for way too long, like they need to cut to commercial at that point. then darrell hammond, a seasoned veteran, speaks out of script and says "randy paul you are expelled!"

in other words, i'll take the madtv version!!

damn idk i thought the part of that snl sketch where they were all combining cronenberg-like into a single gut shuddering with horrible laughter was pretty solid, for snl i mean

xpost with Bobby Lee as a creepy, bespectacled guy that keeps coming into the video store and asking for weird film titles that don't exist

... how much more do you think it costs to add one web page to your site?

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Thursday, June 3, 2021 8:06 AM (yesterday)

Trump's blogtweets are now archived and linked from the press releases section of his website, instead of the Desk page. Guess he'll be going bankrupt from the vast expense of having sixty 29kb html files linked from a different page, good news

Kind of a sad final message :(

Wow! I hear they have thousands and thousands of boats parading in Jupiter, despite the fact that they tried to cancel us. Everyone is having an incredible time. On this day, we especially appreciate everyone who served and fought for our great Country. I love you all!

Just wrapped an interview w/ @Sen_JoeManchin in Morgantown. He REALLY isn’t interested in doing an infrastructure bill w/ only Democratic support. Repeatedly says he thinks there will be a bipartisan deal between @POTUS & @SenCapito - and he’s not ready for reconciliation if not

— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) June 3, 2021

we should give manchin another 5 months or so to work his magic

On this day, we especially appreciate everyone the suckers who served and fought for our great Country.

fixed

_... how much more do you think it costs to add one web page to your site?

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Thursday, June 3, 2021 8:06 AM (yesterday)_

Trump's blogtweets are now archived and linked from the press releases section of his website🕸, instead of the Desk page. Guess he'll be going bankrupt from the vast expense of having sixty 29kb html files linked from a different page, good news

Brad freakin Parscale. wonder what that guy is up to

Oh come on we know he’s not going broke from a webpage but you know he’s being way overcharged for it by some other crook.

Jason Miller did not get hired on June 1st!

you know parscale is trying to get swole

What happens when Jen Psaki and internet stars get together? We'll find out tomorrow.

Join the first-ever social media briefing tomorrow. Tune in as Jen answers questions about jobs, the economy, and more. Watch here or at https://t.co/bZzjPZkF4G. pic.twitter.com/CFKRHZG5GJ

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 4, 2021

wait is that real?

is Chris Crocker gonna be there

Senators should have to do a Fortnite dance the entire time while filibustering.

I didn't realized Harry Connick Jr is an 'internet star'

Mike Lindell files absurd lawsuit re election fraud, lawyer who helped him with it is immediately fired

A Minneapolis-based Barnes & Thornburg partner representing My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell is “no longer with the firm,” the firm said Friday, a day after the partner put his name on a new federal lawsuit accusing voting machine vendors Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic of using the courts to stifle Lindell’s claims of election fraud.

The Am Law 100 firm said the partner didn’t receive “firm authorization” for the suit and the firm is immediately withdrawing as local counsel.

cancelled!

Brad freakin Parscale. wonder what that guy is up to

helping Caitlyn Jenner's floundering campaign for Governor of CA

lol his lawsuit is that Dominion and Smartmatic legally filed suit and won and that's not cool?

"i want to sue these companies for suing me because it sucked for me"

> I hear they have thousands and thousands of boats parading in Jupiter

There has NEVER been a boat parade for Joe Biden!

would you even know, though? maybe Joe is just humble about his boat parades.

good morning!

Trump has continued posting multiple blogtweets per day to his press releases webpage. Imagine the savings!

Or the expense, whichever.

this fuckin chucklefuck

Manchin: “I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act. Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster.” https://t.co/P1N79VG1Wa

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 6, 2021

“partisan legislation to curtail voting rights and partisan legislation to expand voting rights are actually the same thing because they’re both partisan”

It still amazes me the Democrats didn’t take him to the broom closet Sopranos-style and tell him to get the fuck in line or else on Inauguration Day.

count me among the folks that think Manchin, undoubtedly a huge pos, is running cover for probably some 10-15 other Dems who agree w him 100%

I heard taht idea expressed on one of the podcasts I was listening to yesterday. Major shame, could really do with the world progressing when its just come out of the shadow of regression. But, like they're politicians and while there's still money in it what do you expect.
Do wonder if there is any hope for things to be cleaned.
Drain the swamp would be a nice phrase to have some actuality to it, but it was born with stigma attached , like.

ppl will say this is doomerism, but it’s literally going to happen

GOP takes the House in 2022, refuses to certify Democratic win in 2024 https://t.co/ZLuwk62xON

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) June 6, 2021

oh no worries I believe it!

Will the GOP House impeach Biden in 2023 or drag it out closer to November 2024?

couldn't you just get together and have a revolution now rather than waiting til later.
Or is picking who's going to be first up against the wall too competitive at the moment?

I tend to think this is more relevant

During our dive on the filibuster, a Sen D aide told me: "You think all Dems are completely on board w S1 except for Manchin? F*ck no. But they don't want Stacey Abrams knocking on their door so they stay quiet." Still, Manchin is lone Dem against it. https://t.co/KxKodJm2NI https://t.co/S2YpU6hu45

— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) June 6, 2021

I’m left wondering if the The Adults just don’t believe that the GOP will do these things? or just not care?

Or are they secretly rooting for it bc hey, why govern (hard!) when you can point to the crazies on the other side and pluck the chickens

and of course Beltway reporters love their access too much to divulge the name of these brave senators

I’m left wondering if the The Adults just don’t believe that the GOP will do these things? or just not care?

Or are they secretly rooting for it bc hey, why govern (hard!) when you can point to the crazies on the other side and pluck the chickens

i do want to point out that this whole scenario - Trump claiming he won while a bunch of his supporters believe he won, and he just goes on, acting like he is the actual president (or soon to be "reinstated") - is one that was repeatedly postulated here (and by me) in a kind of humorous/half-serious way, but still, as a possible scenario that would lead to some sort of peace or something. Like, "just let him think he's president and issue some executive orders at maralago for better shrimp tacos or whatever!" and...he's doing that...and yet...there's no peace and in fact it seems like another flashpoint is approaching

It's also possible Manchin will support a one-shot filibuster nuke for the sake of the voting rights bill he supports.

i haven't had my coffee...didn't manchin just say he doesn't support the bill because he's against the filibuster?

If 10 Republicans don’t sign on to his bill he’ll just go “garsh I tried oh well.” That was obvious from the start.

At least the upside of 2024’s constitutional crisis will be that we might finally wrap up this whole America situation.

The Biden-affiliated militias will need their own Punisher skull symbol.

“I’m not ready to destroy our government,” Manchin said last month. “I think they will come together, you have to have faith that there’s 10 good people.”

patriot news hourly: BREAKING: Socialist Manchin implies that there are at least 40 evil Republican senators; not "good people"

Manchin will write another voting rights bill that lets Mitch McConnell personally draw the maps for all 435 House districts in order to forge bipartisan compromise.

Just tried to get into a Ron Desantis press event in Miami and they literally had military personnel with FL Department of Law Enforcement documents with my photo and information waiting to stop me. This how terrified Ron Desantis is of criticism. pic.twitter.com/KDBoMld484

— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) June 7, 2021

Agitators are indispensable to washing machines' ability to clean dirty laundry. No wonder Desantis want nothing to do with them.

Conservative media outlet Newsmax, a favorite of former President Donald Trump's, rejected embattled Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz's request for a job, a spokesperson for the website said on Monday.

Gaetz contacted Newsmax early this year, a source at the outlet said. That was around the time that news broke Gaetz was the subject of a federal investigation into possible sex trafficking of a minor.

Investigators are seeking to determine whether Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old, according to news reports and a law enforcement source who spoke with Reuters. He has not been charged with any crimes and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Spokespeople for Gaetz, a vocal Trump supporter, had no immediate comment about any Newsmax job rejection.

"Newsmax has had no plans to hire Rep. Gaetz," said Brian Peterson, a spokesperson for the website.

A source familiar with Newsmax's policies said: "Earlier this year, (Gaetz) reached out and said he might leave Congress early and was interested in TV work."

i would've thought hiring gaetz would be a good formula for maximum news. false advertising, newsmax.

I’m left wondering if the The Adults just don’t believe that the GOP will do these things? or just not care?

Or are they secretly rooting for it bc hey, why govern (hard!) when you can point to the crazies on the other side and pluck the chickens

Joke’ll be on them when Qcongress executes them all at Gitmo.

― Van Halen dot Senate dot flashlight (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, June 6, 2021 5:44 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm kind of blown away by by how opaque this seems to be for so many people. this is a crucial role democrats play for the interests of power, and it's a great situation for them to be in. they have excellent scapegoats and the roles are locked in. they're only going to be rewarded for it when republicans take office. i mean it will look like they lost but materially they won't have lost anything. the people executed will be poor, maybe tilted more toward one definition of "degenerate" over another.

its true and its good to harp on the Dems for this but ultimately America was just built to be taken over by a hostile minority party against the "big tent" moderates. give Manchin all the shit you want, dude certainly deserves it, but he comes from a heavily conservative state, one which any other Democrat would never win, the problem isn't necessarily him it's that this country gives all the power to those who represent the least amount of people and the GOP has gamed the system so that everything but judges & tax cuts would require 60 votes

xp

i'm honestly stunned that newsmax turned him down

My hope is that means there are enough rumblings about the validity of his investigation that he's even untouchable for them...

maybe we can manchin coked up and confident and then sell him on this crazy idea: he becomes the key person to help abolish the filibuster, he gets all the infrastructure shit he wants for WV, and in 4 years he gets to retire from the senate at age 76 to enjoy his immense wealth, and, uh, his family i guess

xxxpost It also reflects that the vast majority of Americans I suspect are, through dint of disposition or indoctrination, literally conservative, even the ones who are not Conservative. It's tied into the country's endemic contrarianism.

xp

i didn't even look up manchin to make sure that he's fabulously wealthy. he just is. i know he is. they all are, except for like 3

I have to remind myself Manchin voted to impeach Trump (twice!) and voted against confirming Barrett.

maybe we can get Manchin eaten by a shark and the resultant flesh used to make a new Manchin that we can program

people turn that noses up at uploading themselves into VR and flying like a bird for the rest of their conscious existence, but 1) it's not here, and 2) birds get to shit on everything

It also reflects that the vast majority of Americans I suspect are, through dint of disposition or indoctrination, literally conservative fucking idiots... It's tied into the country's endemic contrarianism.

The claim that no one but Manchin could win in WV is somewhat specious. It’s been less of a one party state than a lot of the country and even in the depths of Jim Crow liberal populists managed to win seats in the south.

Centrists like Clinton and Biden eat shit - Manchin’s schtick is more “populist” than “centrist,” which is the eternal argument for trying to run progressive populists in red states instead of troops and former CIA wet team guys who get slaughtered.

While I won't dispute that our country is overpopulated by idiots, I do think that gives cover to how awful a lot of these people are. The most strident and vocal conservatives I've encountered in my life are rarely stupid, just incredibly selfish. They don't give one shit about anyone else and want to empower any one who ensures them that they can keep every penny they have and that those pennies will never get shared with the less deserving.

But every time that’s an option they circle the wagon for the most conservative candidate they can find because they can avoid governing.

I do think that gives cover to how awful a lot of these people are. The most strident and vocal conservatives I've encountered in my life are rarely stupid, just incredibly selfish.

I consider emotional intelligence here, too. Anyone who can't see beyond themselves in such a way is a fucking idiot.

The temerity of some of these people to call themselves Christians is the most laughable part of the whole thing.

the really laughable part is that their vote counts just as much as yours or mine (more, probably)

Yeah, the veil of Christianity is disgusting and abhorrent on multiple levels, but I guess I just don't feel like hand-waving them off as stupid people who don't know any better is helpful at all. These aren't stupid people, they know exactly how to organize and who to pressure to make sure they get "their" politicians in power.

it's true, their organization skill is off the charts! particularly the weekly meetings. they are always meeting up and talking!

I just mean evangelicals in general are very good at making sure they get their candidates in the right place at the right time, but whatever.

billionaires, cops, and evangelicals must be the three most organized/ effective political groups in the U.S.

prob doesn’t hurt that a Venn diagram of their primary material objectives overlap big time

jvc, I guess that I just don't think we're talking about the same people.

Apropos of nothing in particular: I had one chance to interact with Joe Manchin in a private, off-the-record setting with a bunch of other reporters, back when he was governor of WV. (2010ish?) My very strong impression, which I remember to this day, is that he's a moron.

— David Roberts (@drvolts) June 7, 2021

moron labe

the vast majority of Americans I suspect are, through dint of disposition or indoctrination, literally conservative, even the ones who are not Conservative

The indoctrination is absolutely key. The official story always fails in its job of adequately explaining what people see, feel and experience, but until it fails catastrophically most people muddle along with it as the default, because replacing it requires too much thought and effort.

Even when ordinary unthinking people end up rejecting the rosy official story because it totally failed them, its replacement is often whatever opportunistic set of ready-made explanations first falls in their path. This is why we get stuff like QAnon.

An observation I had from working in government is that most people ARE conservative in their default settings in the sense that they like stability and they don't like change. Even if the status quo isn't great and they bitch about it, it is also known and comfortable. My experience was that it didn't matter if people were nominally liberal or conservative in, say, their presidential voting patterns — most of them were likely to be instantly suspicious of anything new or unfamiliar, whether that was parking meters where there didn't use to be (the horror!), food trucks, bike lanes, whatever.

It gave me an appreciation for the built-in advantages that conservatism has as a worldview. Change is harder, persuading people to try new things (like, universal health insurance) is hard, and while progressives will be in general more open to change, that is a matter of degree.

instantly suspicious of anything new or unfamiliar, whether that was parking meters where there didn't use to be (the horror!)

OH FUCK OFF! pic.twitter.com/1iM3oibI9X

— Laurence Fox ✌🏼🇬🇧✌🏼 (@LozzaFox) June 7, 2021

^ those traffic lights have been there for five years, and Fox received 1.9% of the vote for Mayor four weeks ago

putting the lol in lol fox

infinite infrastructure week ends its latest go-nowhere negotiation, just in time to start its next go-nowhere negotiation

Weeks-long discussions between the White House and GOP negotiators led by Sen. Capito are officially done as talks shift toward a bipartisan Senate grouphttps://t.co/X7FsmhWetb

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 8, 2021

🎉

Voting machines in Texas are going to default to straight ticket GOP unless you solve three riddles.

AOC on fire on Chris Hayes' show, hinting at the stories emerging in the last couple days about the Koch brothers' contributions to Joe Manchin's coffers.

Yeah, that'll really show him.

Joe’s press release is just going to say “duh.”

Maybe he’ll extend that to “what are you gonna do about it?”

In case you missed it -

The Senate tonight approved a bill w/ overwhelming bipartisan support that included $10 billion in lunar lander contracts likely to go to Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin@TonyRomm https://t.co/mHqyYf7KEa

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 9, 2021

At least we've got our priorities straight. The ironic thing is that it's never been cheaper or easier to fake the moon landing. Be funny if the real landing gets increasingly dismissed as fake, and Amazon's fake landing gets embraced as real. That seems to be the direction we're heading in.

You just know that Bezos and Musk have at least humored the idea of mounting a giant laser on the moon and making it their own Death Star, just because it would be "cool" and/or allow them to blow up the earth.

unrelated to recent events, but I'm teaching a pension class this week to students in Panama and it has unintentionally turned into a discussion on how terrible the US is economically, especially to its elderly. this wasn't even me sharing it either, this was them talking about "wow that sounds terrible".

i have no disagreed with them at any point

Yeah, my parents just got unbelievably fucked

we have been dealing with my mother in law's situation for ages now, and it's so frustrating. yes, her (deceased) husband had a business that failed (largely due to bad partners); yes, they were immigrants who didn't really understand everything financial; yes, in theory they should have 'saved'; but, they didn't, he died, and she was left with nothing. She nannied for a few years (the family kept her on way past the point where she was useful which was nice of them) until the pandemic hit; shes been ok for the past year due to the extra unemployment, but that ends in SEptember. She has spinal compression fractures and frankly can't work and is in her 70s. Her social security, which is from her husband's income, is like $1000/mo. Her rent is twice that, let alone food costs. You'd think it would be easy to get her into some kind of affordable housing, but it is impossible in california. No other benefits are coming her way. It's a massive financial drag on us (because her other two kids are pieces of shit who are not contributing a dime).

Keeping most of the populace in a state of numbed wage slavery is the whole purpose of this supposed "democracy," or so it seems.

quite honestly it's a bit ridiculous that we put so much onus on individuals to be financially 'responsible' as it's not the easiest skill to learn, and it involves forecasting things that nobody can possibly forecast in the United States due to how much shit is shouldered 100% by the individual.

Not everybody is skilled at mathematics, and of course we as a nation are poorly educated. and we tell the average individual they should have 6-9 months of monthly expenses socked away, which requires them to actually know to the penny their monthly expenses (not just the recurring, but the projected monthly expenses), and actually earn enough to fuckin' DO that. until a few years ago, I made more than enough to do that, but due to my own folks struggles and me having to help, I break even now quite often rather than add some to the savings - fortunately I was at about 6 months of savings already).

but it's like, who can forecast an unexpected $10,000 hospital bill, a totaled car that necessitates a new monthly payment you weren't expecting, a period on short term/long-term disability which results in reduced income, a cancer diagnosis that makes you have to stop working entirely and rely on disability, etc. like nobody can possibly build that into their calculations and yet all of these things will make even the most fiscally responsible person of moderate income sink like a stone.

I think this is one reason why my view towards my folks has changed since I moved in with them - it was a bitter point in my family that my parents were irresponsible and have been 'borrowing' from my brother and I for 20 years, but I've softened on this point since I've seen up close that while that was true to an extent, it was a bit unfair to put it all on them. the Great Recession fucked them just like anybody else. if they had a house that they could sell, my dad would have a part-time nurse right now, probably.

Meanwhile ... someone tell Insane Clown Posse we figured out how magnets work.

https://fox8.com/news/coronavirus/cleveland-doctor-tells-ohio-lawmakers-covid-19-vaccine-can-leave-people-magnetized-interfaced-with-5g-towers/

“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the internet of people who have had these shots and now they’re magnetized. They can put a key on their forehead. It sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can stick."

Uh no, actually I haven't, but I'm sure there are youtube videos, if only I were willing to just "do my own research."

Neanderthal OTM.

Were people this fucking stupid back in the day or was I just not paying attention?

Pres. Biden & Senate Dems should take a step back and ask themselves if playing patty-cake w GOP Senators is really worth the dismantling of people’s voting rights, setting the planet on fire, allowing massive corporations and the wealthy to not pay their fair share of taxes, etc

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 9, 2021

Were people this fucking stupid back in the day or was I just not paying attention?

Some people were, for sure, but they were isolated and easily ignored. Now they gather in FB groups and forums and empower each other.

And are invited to testify to state legislators!

xp i mean they could ask themselves i guess? but the answer would always be 'yes'

Remember when the urban myths were that Mountain Dew made you unable to cum and KFC were growing headless chickens?

Oh wait is Mountain Dew the reason why

semen doesn't stain the mountaintops

lol

Funny how conspiracy theories always come back to that.

Tenpenny wrongly says men have been advised not to have unprotected sex for at least six weeks after receiving Pfizer’s mRNA-based vaccine. She said that in her opinion, that is because the so-called “spike protein” from the virus could bind to the surface of the sperm and could change the sperm’s DNA, slow it or kill it, causing infertility or birth defects.

Free birth control, cool.

semen doesn't stain the mountaintops

― intern at pelican brief consulting (Simon H.),

try the mountainbottoms

ayooo

Were people this fucking stupid back in the day or was I just not paying attention?

The latter. But back in the day it was blessedly easier to pay them no attention, since it was harder back then to aggressively push their stupidity at you non-stop.

McConnell says ‘era of bipartisanship is over’ as talks in Congress grind to a halt

Say it ain't so! Mitch has worked so hard to forge ties across the aisle, but the dirty socialists are staging a coup

this seems fine

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/09/politics/david-vigilante-cnn-email-secret-court-battle/index.html

TIL that there is a lawyer named David Vigilante

xp As a lawyer, I can't even imagine dealing with that - just ridiculous.

LIAM NEESON IS... DAVID VIGILANTE

Louie "Moonbeam" Gohmert (TX-GOP):

“We know there’s been significant solar flare activity, and so … is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM can do to change the course of the moon’s orbit, or the Earth’s orbit around the sun?” Gohmert asked. “Obviously that would have profound effects on our climate.”

Eberlien said she would have to “follow up with you on that one, Mr Gohmert.”

“Well, if you figure out a way that you in the Forest Service can make that change, I’d like to know,” Gohmert added.

What

the fuck?

Jesus Christ. That scanned even more batshit for the brief seconds before I remembered that BLM also stands for the Bureau of Land Management.

shoulda shot the Bundys

He's making some cutesy point that nature is 100% responsible for shifting climate (like the ice age) therefore the only way to rectify a warming planet is to shift orbits... I'd almost rather that he was earnestly talking about literally changing the moon's orbit, that would at least show some kind of willingness to address the problem.

yes, the explosive growth in the orbit of the moon since the Industrial Revolution is to blame

louie gohmert
john kennedy (senator, Louisiana)
ron johnson

that's my top 3

there's something weird going on, right now. in the biden administration, i mean.

BREAKING: Police did not clear Lafayette Park area so former Pres. Trump could hold "Bible" photo op, according to a new watchdog report. https://t.co/JGdF0MhzW5

— ABC News (@ABC) June 9, 2021

i think it's a tug-of-war between institutional protectionism and prosecuting the trump administration, and lo and behold, institutional protectionism is winning

"mistakes were made"

Yes, Fred didn't pull out

Greenblatt told ABC News that even though his office did not speak to Barr, the White House, or Secret Service for this review...

Of course they didn't.

it's also the IG for the US Park Service saying they weren't at blame, while also implying that DOJ staff/police played the dominant role

wait Trump is being protected by the Deep State? I better look into this

the rehab is starting early!!

think it's a tug-of-war between institutional protectionism and prosecuting the trump administration, and lo and behold, institutional protectionism is winning

think you’ll find we did need bipartisanship after all

So yeah nice to have t heading in the same direction that tear gas was being deployed fully as coincidence. & press just happen to be there as an upside down bible fell into his hands.
Amazing thing coincidence really

"it was a goof"

Justice Department says it can ‘vigorously’ defend religious schools’ exemption from anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws
https://t.co/dsVNfLuIHj

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 9, 2021

However, in a possible sign of the pressure on the administration, the Justice Department amended the document Wednesday, taking out the word “vigorously” to describe its defense of the religious exemption and retaining multiple uses of the word “adequate.” It removed wording that said the Education Department and the Christian schools “share the same ‘ultimate objective’ … namely, to uphold the Religious Exemption as it is currently applied.”

In a Wednesday piece entitled “No, the Biden Administration Isn’t Betraying Its Support for LGBTQ Rights,” Slate legal writer Mark Joseph Stern said the Justice Department was “trying to prevent a Christian organization from … mounting extreme arguments.” Stern said the religious exemption to Title IX isn’t “blatantly, invidiously unconstitutional” and thus the administration has no choice but to defend it.

A bushel of my nose hair fell out when I saw yesterday morning's tweet, but reading Mark Joseph Stern, whom I usually trust on LGBTQ and SCOTUS matters, reassured me.

Stern:

On March 8, Biden issued an executive order directing the Department of Education to take any “additional enforcement actions” necessary to implement Title IX’s protections for LGBTQ students. The administration is racing to enshrine Bostock in federal regulations that apply to secular schools. But there is nothing the president, on his own, can do about Title IX’s exemption. Congress created it, and Congress can abolish it; in the meantime, the Justice Department must defend it—not as a policy matter, but as a duly enacted federal law. There may be instances in which the DOJ has betrayed Biden’s principles in a misguided effort to preserve its own institutional prerogatives. This is not one of them.

House Democratic leadership puts out a statement attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar, saying her remark "foments prejudice and undermines progress toward a future of peace and security for all." pic.twitter.com/PusWVzVNfL

— aída chávez (@aidachavez) June 10, 2021

Quality leadership here.

a hit dog is gonna holler

complete idiots

what was the comment?

*foghorn leghorn voice* i say, well i say, these comparisons you’re makin are embarras- embarras- uncomforta- they’re IMPRECISE, that’s what they are

"we must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity."

that is what was unacceptable and “fomenting” prejudice

xxxp -

We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity.

We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.

I asked @SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice. pic.twitter.com/tUtxW5cIow

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) June 7, 2021

how dare she compare us with those savages

It’s shameful for colleagues who call me when they need my support to now put out a statement asking for “clarification” and not just call.

The islamophobic tropes in this statement are offensive. The constant harassment & silencing from the signers of this letter is unbearable. https://t.co/37dy2UduW0

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) June 10, 2021

feel like she and AOC have both had enough of these bozos and it’s showing

Openly daring anyone younger than or to the left of Steny Hoyer to stay home in November 2022 is a good strategy IMO.

If Pelosi just had to wrangle a minority of 140 centrists into offering up token opposition it would be a less stressful way to ride out her golden years.

I hope she d*es

the one way in which biden is better than bernie: not even bernie could prompt this level of cope.

When a Democrat becomes a Republican. pic.twitter.com/ldSaxmaeep

— Rory Carroll (@rorycarroll72) June 10, 2021

new king crimson lineup looking solid pic.twitter.com/yXJAL0IYYu

— thee kendal mintcake (@MintcakeTime) June 11, 2021

In The Wake Of Joe Biden

Is Trudeau now sporting a Van Dyke beard?

Ilhan Omar, America's Greatest Centrist (in the idiotic "if both sides are mad at you, you must be doing something right" sense):

Hamas issued press release denouncing US Rep. Illhan Omar (@Ilhan) for equating the 'Palestinian resistance' to the 'crimes' of Israel & US invasion in Afghanistan. They appreciate her stance on justice, especially for Palestinians. But asks her to describe events 'accurately.' pic.twitter.com/gWO34xGQqx

— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) June 11, 2021

Thread!

1. On May 31, Texas Republicans were fully prepared to pass a sweeping voter suppression bill

But the bill failed because House Democrats walked out, denying the GOP a quorum

The GOP will take the bill up again in a special session

But something EXTRAORDINARY is happening

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 11, 2021

In other Texas news, Greg Abbott is doubling down on the Trumpyness and wants Texas to take up the construction of its part of the border wall in addition to building state-run migrant detention centers.

that is some expert trolling from Hamas there

aiui, Texas doesn't own the border strip, so he would need permission from Congress to build on it.

Most of his voters don't know that.

He's really flailing at anything that'll win him back the brownie points he lost because of the ERCOT snafu during the February freeze.

Whomp Whomp

Still, no flyover, which Lindell attempted to have happen at the end of the anthem. Here is the clip from Lindell looking around, trying to find the jets in the air. pic.twitter.com/t6ruZhyJK2

— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) June 12, 2021

I'm Dan Crenshaw and graphic design is my passion pic.twitter.com/RhzpFkjIrQ

— zeddy (@Zeddary) June 14, 2021

about time the one-eyed monster gets his adult film debut

As someone who freaked out today when I played a 40-year-old Culture Club video with some poorly chosen imagery for a group of grade 6 students (Donald Trump: Classic or Dud? immediately tried to fix the situation--I find it amusing that this woman can waltz back a month later with an "Oh, gee, sorry about that." Better late than never, I guess.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/06/14/marjorie-taylor-greene-says-shes-removing-holocaust-comparisons-from-her-past-rebukes-of-covid-measures/?sh=7bd161d6bf15

A little garbled, as usual: "--and immediately tried to fix the situation--"

I have found the cure for Impostor Syndrome.

All you need to do is watch this 87-second video. pic.twitter.com/8Dpc5h5bvA

— Anjan (@HeyAnjan) June 15, 2021

There are no words.

He seems like a bright young man who will go far.

Hopefully he gets his legal stuff worked out before he gets elected, wouldn't want that to be a distraction from his agenda.

cautiously optimistic that this recurring debate might go better this time around because republicans are totally focused on trivia/consipiracies https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/opinion/inflation-economy-infrastructure.html.

obviously the composition of congress (esp. after 2022) is a problem! but moving the terms of the debate while they're not paying attention is not nothing.

pompeo starting an overtly fascist superpac that seems to be themed around exonerating and exalting eddie gallagher, the war crimes guy trump pardoned. doesn't seem good!

(CNN)All K-12 public schools in Florida will hold a moment of silence at the start of the day starting next school year, according to a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Ron DeSantis...

Kids are free to listen to "South of Heaven" as long as it doesn't disturb fellow students

Among the key revelations:

Trump’s White House assistant sent Rosen an email on Dec. 14 that included materials purporting to document extensive election fraud in Michigan. The email included “talking points” that said there must be a “review of votes throughout Michigan.”

Just after this happened, a senior Justice Department official forwarded a similar email with these materials to U.S. attorneys in Michigan, which seems like it might have been an effort to get an investigation going.

Less than an hour after those emails were sent, Trump announced on Twitter that Barr would be stepping down, and that Rosen would be replacing him. Importantly, Trump had already sent Rosen his marching orders in terms of helping subvert the election.

On Dec. 29, Trump’s White House assistant sent a draft brief to Rosen and other top department officials that Trump wanted the department to file with the Supreme Court. It called on the court to declare that electors for Joe Biden in six states that Trump lost must not be counted. The email explicitly says Trump personally asked for the brief to be sent for those officials’ review, a direct presidential order.

According to the New York Times, that brief echoed the baseless claims made in the Texas lawsuit that also sought to invalidate Biden’s electors, which the Supreme Court had already dismissed. This shows Trump was fully devoted to subverting the election outcome now matter how fraudulent his legal claims were revealed to be.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/15/trump-recruit-justice-department/

i'm the kind of guy who gets a little stuck about 2/3 of the way through Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games. but is the bolded part above implying that Trump purposefully gave Rosen clear direction to subvert the election just an hour before Barr got canned, so that he could plausibly say "I have never directed the U.S. Attorney General to subvert any election, that is a lie" and get by on a technicality?

President Putin: The talks were very constructive. Personally, I was convinced that President Biden was an experienced person. We spoke for more than two hours. It doesn't happen with all leaders that you have such a detailed conversation.

lol at the subtle trump dig there at the end

i caught a bit of it on the WashPost website, with the captions.

the first things were:

five golf sorbets.
we have 1000 nautical miles

He also apparently wished Biden "good health."

Which I take to mean "maybe have someone else open that gift of caviar from Vladimir."

I would assume he's calling Biden old

this is the only bipartisanship worth anyone's time. AOC slumming it with the right wing of the democratic party.

High-speed rail connects people to opportunities, creates union jobs, & helps the planet.

Our infrastructure ask is simple: For every $1 the US puts into car infrastructure, let’s put $1 into rail.

Go to https://t.co/OcUUAqVEft & join me, @sethmoulton,& @Teamsters to get going. pic.twitter.com/YR8pkdT7hF

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 16, 2021

OK, so now I guess I'm a Putin stan now

Putin, through his interpreter, goes dark: "There is no happiness in life, there is only a mirage on the horizon, so cherish that."

— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) June 16, 2021

Putin otm after his one listen to Joy Divison's Closer.

More Werner Herzog than Ian Curtis

https://i.imgur.com/0WlWyrI.jpg

"Ian Curtis stole miserabilism from Dostoevsky. We're stealing it back!"

President Putin: The talks were very constructive. Personally, I was convinced that President Biden was an experienced person. We spoke for more than two hours. It doesn't happen with all leaders that you have such a detailed conversation.

Putin still giving big Einar Orn vibes in his statements

running the simulation in my head of what would happen if a sitting american president said "there is no happiness in life"

I know that Seth Moulton isn't in the DSA but in what universe is he right-wing?

right wing of the house dems?

Yup

He’s part of the “New Democrats” which afaict is the new name for the blue dog caucus.

thought it was the Neu! Democrats

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrat_Coalition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Coalition

These are not the same entities.

The New Democrat Coalition was founded in 1997 by Representatives Cal Dooley (CA), Jim Moran (VA), and Tim Roemer (IN) as a congressional affiliate of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.[12]

As of 2020, the caucus's issue priorities include addressing climate change, making college more affordable, bipartisanship on deficits and debt, lowering healthcare costs, passing comprehensive immigration reform, modernizing the nation's infrastructure, ensuring access to affordable housing, promoting innovation, and enacting tax reform for the middle class.[13]

In the 116th Congress, the New Democrat Coalition hosted eight task forces: Climate Change, Future of Work, Health Care, Housing, Infrastructure, National Security, Technology, and Trade.[14]

The Blue Dog Coalition "advocates for fiscal responsibility, a strong national defense and bipartisan consensus rather than conflict with Republicans". It acts as a check on legislation that its members perceive to be too far to the right or to the left on the political spectrum.[12]

The Blue Dog Coalition is often involved in searching for a compromise between liberal and conservative positions. Though its members have evolved on social issues over time,[30] the group has never taken a position on social issues as a caucus.[40] There is no mention of social issues in the official Blue Dog materials.[41]

It took about 5 minutes of googling to figure out the difference between the two, btw

At any rate, Ocasio-Cortez working out a deal with someone who voted the same way she did on 92% of the votes in the previous Congress and 98% of the votes in the current Congress isn't a stretch or even remarkable; it's relatively easy to work with someone who has the same goals as you.

It took about 5 minutes of googling to figure out the difference between the two, btw

Good grief.

The openly racist neoliberal caucus and the merely tacitly racist neoliberal caucus, keep them straight. Yeesh.

My congresswoman is Pressley

meanwhile a cold wind blows b/w the ears of Mr. Bipartisan.

Manchin said he's open to backing several provisions in bill, including declaring Election Day a holiday.
But in return for his support, Manchin wants to require ID to vote. Dems are engaging him. The goal, Kaine told me, is to get “50 out of 50” Dems. https://t.co/vfVGyJ9k7f

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 16, 2021

Breitbart's angle:

Geneva Summit Diaster: Biden Gets Nothing

Putin Gets Away with Everything…

Trump got prostitutes to pee on that bed

Since it looks like Juneteenth is heading towards being a national holiday, how many years will it be until some company starts doing "find your freedom away from high prices sale" for that weekend?

click the refresh button in your email box in about 30 seconds

did i miss this here the other day?

Calling all unapologetic Americans to join me and become a Pipehitter. https://t.co/KO15jutDPi

— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) June 15, 2021

i want to say that i already used the Pipehitters Local 420 joke on twitter, so it is off the table

My life was empty, forever on a down
Until you took me, showed me around
My life is free now, my life is clear
I love you sweet leaf, though you can't hear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EiUmBgljsY

The pipehitter thing is extra funny because I assume spec ops bros initially picked it up from Pulp Fiction thinking it meant badass instead of “insane crackhead.”

Prominent voting rights activist Stacey Abrams said Thursday that she could “absolutely” support compromises floated by Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), the lone Senate Democrat who is not sponsoring a sweeping elections bill in the chamber.

A three-page memo circulated by Manchin’s office this week indicates the centrist’s willingness to support key provisions of the For the People Act, the marquee Democratic bill that the House passed in March — including provisions mandating at least two weeks of early voting and measures meant to eliminate partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts. But Manchin’s memo also sketches out several provisions that have historically been opposed by most Democrats, including backing an ID requirement for voters.

During an appearance on CNN, Abrams was asked if she could support such a compromise.

“Absolutely,” she responded. “This is a first and important step to preserving our democracy.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/17/joe-biden-live-updates/#link-IPBBWPLQVJHQPBE4Q3AWC3CVHM

sure, but will 10 republicans agree?

no, i'm sure. but maybe their refusal to agree with even good ol' compromising manchin will (finally) be the final nail in (finally) the (FINALLY) COFFIN on Manchin's delusions of compromise?! FINALLY

I just wonder if the surviving historians of tomorrow will recognize or overlook Manchin's (and, sure, also the other dem senators using him as cover) instrumental role in wrecking the shit out of this country.

definitely not, because my military garrison of vigilantes will defeat both the Machines and the Pipehitter Patriots at in what will be known as the 20-Minute War, due to how bad they all exploded and how quickly it happened, and we will write the history and replace everyone with other people and pretend it never happened. We will hide those secrets deep in the pyramids, just so that whoever finds them will also be into a lot of other weird things too and they won't be fully believed

One thing I do like about the GQP in the social media days, these a$$holes have no problem with telling you what they really think now.

Rand Paul-

The "idea" of democracy and majority rule is what "goes against" American's history and values, claimed Paul. "The Jim Crow laws came out of democracy. That's what you get when a majority ignores the rights of others,"

Thomas Massey- (LIKE MOTHERFCKERS CAN'T READ A CALENDAR AND TELL THE DIFFERENCE)

"I fully support creating a day to celebrate the abolition of slavery, a dark portion of our nation's history," Massie said on the House floor Wednesday. "However, naming this day 'National Independence Day' will create confusion and push Americans to pick one of those two days as their independence day based on their racial identity."

He added: "Why can't we name this Emancipation Day, and come together as Americans, and celebrate that day together as Americans: black and white, all colors, all races, all ethnicities, and then come together on Independence Day, which celebrates the creation of our country throwing off an oppressive government."

Stephen Miller-

Stephen Miller, in a statement issued when the organization filed the lawsuit on Monday, quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and said the legal challenge was America First Legal’s effort to carry on the fight against discrimination.

“For this reason, AFL is filing a lawsuit today against the Biden Administration to prevent it from administering programs created under the American Rescue Plan Act that discriminate against American farmers and ranchers based upon the basis of race,” Miller said.

The plaintiff, Sid Miller, and the lawsuit argue that white ethnic groups such as the Irish and Jews that have experienced bias are unfairly excluded. The lawsuit also questions who would qualify as a racial minority since neither the law nor the Agriculture Department sets any thresholds for blood lineage.

I do wonder about the legality of those farm subsidies tbh. But fuck Stephen Miller. And uh Rand Paul the Jim Crow laws WERE PASSED EXPRESSLY TO RESTRICT DEMOCRACY you unbelievable dipshit.

I don't think there is any doubt that the USDA did decades of racist crap and if there are cases where Jews or Irish or Native American or Asian American farmers got screwed, then they should get their day too.

But that is not really what these scum bag lawyers are doing...

https://i.imgur.com/SL4h2Wt.png

high and low humor, i love it

I learned that about pussies long ago, especially the ones around the block

A thread:

I’m sorry, I know some folks don’t like hearing any criticism of him. But this royally sucks. I’m disgusted. A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises. This is a a real “fuck you” to us—and government ethics. https://t.co/NRuc7hpOHi

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 18, 2021

I want competent nepotism, unlike what I get in Miami-Dade County.

Walter Shaub criticized the previous administration, but didn’t go off like this with them

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/31/trump-ethics-chief-walter-shaub-kleptocracy

ok, but reading that article, this seems like really small potatoes compared to the last four years

It’s still bad.

It’s still bad.

Schaub no doubt has his own agenda, but it should be called out regardless. I hear there are lots of jobs open at restaurants, maybe they could go there instead.

Sorry, Shaub.

this guy continues to know what's up

Rep. Ronny Jackson: "We have redistricting coming up and the Republicans control most of that process in most of the states around the country. That alone should get us the majority back." pic.twitter.com/DEuIIDjDdW

— The Hill (@thehill) June 18, 2021

I support nonpartisan district drawing, but at this point I think the blue states that have adopted it should scrap it and go back to hard partisan gerrymandering. It’s just unilateral disarmament under the current conditions, and since SCOTUS has already said it’s not going to touch the issue there’s no obvious end in sight.

good morning!

Without trying to handwave, I think there's a lot of 'fighting the last battle' going on already on the GOP side in terms of mindset, per Jackson's quote. There's an overriding assumption that everyone who voted for Trump in 2020 are going to do the same equivalent in 2022 and 2024 both, and I don't really buy that -- complete abandonment, sadly obviously not, but the effect of the RW complex talking to itself convinced that everything will repeat one-to-one has been telling.

Yeah I thought it’s been shown that there are hordes who don’t show up to the polls for Rs if Trump isn’t on the bill.

There’s also a horde of Democratic voters who showed up because Trump was on the bill, of course.

Jackson's specific point is that they can gerrymander their way to a House majority in '22 regardless of anything else. Which is probably true. Anything can happen etc., but lots of things are in their favor on that. My state (which voted 60-40 for Trump) is likely to go from 2 Democrats in our 9-person legislative delegation to 1. That's going to happen in all the red states.

There’s also a horde of Democratic voters who showed up because Trump was on the bill, of course.

Because of Trump, yeah. In a normal year Doug Jones still would have lost to the child molester by 12 points.

It's the money, they need to get more transparency on who is putting this cash into the elections. At some point in the 80s, someone just realized you can just buy into any of these elections.

I had a 300 level campaign finance class in Polisci in the early 90s and the prof made us go and use this dial up on the 'internet' to log into the Gov website to download campaign finance donations and research it out. He stated 'we would understand why' in a few years...being the internet. But the thing that was wild I could remember as I had do reporting based on some of the house races in my local district, which I can remember how low the total amount of cash being spent on campaigns - it was chump change compared to now. I remember Andy Jacobs (D) in Indy spent only like 5-8k on his whole campaign, now he had been in office for a couple decades at some point and was near retirement, so people knew who he was.

But the thing that changed was that someone for the money realized this and I think it just became a race to bottom to dominate the money to the point now the GOP is often largely often not able pick their candidates (more than the Democrats that have work harder to raise same funds). There are more than a few house members and governors where pretty much their daddy or benefactor pretty much bought them into office.

McConnell and Co. with Citizens United pretty much broke the dam, and there is so much money sloshing around - pretty much the only thing that matters is raising money. And if the powers that be are putting up money for these show ponies, they better f'ing perform and they do.

I don't see anything changing or improving until this gordian knot can be untied. I think the phrase I remember being used was money in campaigns is like water, you might stop it one way but it fill find a way to flow. I sadly think it is just going to end up in America bungling further into incompetent totalitarianism. Too much rot in the foundation, house won't hold up.

so the plan is to bring up this new manchin-approved voting rights legislation, let mcconnell completely stonewall it, then manchin (and national joke sinema) won't allow the filibuster, and then it dies. and the big plan is for this to demonstrate to well-informed americans that it's the republicans and mcconnell who stand in the way of bipartisanship. this way in 2022 americans will all vote in the midterm and remember who really stood in the way of progress, leading to a strong democratic majority for 2022 on.

NICE FUCKING PLAN!!!!!!

an alternate plan would be to get rid of the filibuster and pass some shit

take it to the "so not going to happen" thread

Can't get rid of the filibuster without 50 votes + Harris. It's still the same dog chasing its own tail.

president manchin, vice president sinema

taking a stroll down memory lane this morning and reading about the 2013 Supreme Court decision to gut the Voting Rights Act (5-4 conservatives, of course). and the transparent LUDICROUS reasoning that Republicans would cooperate with Democrats to pass new Voting Rights legislation, as if the core project of conservatism wasn't suppressing the rights of anyone who isn't straight, white, and christian.

But, writing for the court’s majority, conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said that America is not the country that it was a half century ago when the Voting Rights Act was passed to end a century of attempts by former slaveholding states to block blacks from voting.

“Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions,” Roberts wrote.

But Democrats have accused Republicans at the state level in recent years of enacting a series of measures intended to suppress the vote of minority groups likely to support Democratic candidates.

Just last week, the Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law that required people registering to vote in federal elections to show proof of citizenship, a victory for activists who said it discouraged Native Americans and Latinos from voting.

Tuesday’s decision placed the burden on Congress - sharply divided along party lines to the point of virtual gridlock - to pass any new voting rights law like the one sought by Obama.

...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, on Tuesday pledged to move quickly to try to restore voting rights protections after the ruling.

“I intend to take immediate action to ensure that we will have a strong and reconstituted Voting Rights Act that protects against racial discrimination in voting,” Leahy said.

Republicans were largely silent on the court’s ruling. Neither House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner nor Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, had any immediate comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-voting/supreme-court-guts-key-part-of-landmark-voting-rights-act-idUSBRE95O0TU20130625

America is not the country that it was a half century ago

1) in some ways, nothing on earth is what it was a half century ago. nothing on earth is the same as it was 10 minutes ago. fuck you

2) in some ways, the very same walking racist pieces of shit that were alive 50 years ago are still alive and well today, only now they're old so they have a lifetime of unearned white privilege wealth which attracts conservatives like a honey pot pulls in winnie the pooh

3) maybe we should at least wait til henry fucking kissinger finally eats shit for good before even beginning to consider that we're remotely past that era

i imagine all of these people at maralago, just hardcore fucking each other and laughing, and they all fucking die at once as the earth explodes. this is the deleted footage from any star wars Death Star scene. when they show the planet exploding, you have to imagine that the planet fucking deserved it

Hopefully Zed can infiltrate Maralagoo and put and end to the charade once and for all...

https://wondersinthedark.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/zardoz09.jpg

Morgellons at Mar-a-Lago

Breaking: Sen. Manchin announces that he'll vote to break the filibuster and begin debate on voting rights legislation.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2021

kyle griffin, noted accurate reporter.

tweet deleted within minutes because it's extremely not true.

Activate the Death Star

kyle griffin, noted accurate reporter.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, June 22, 2021

noted cute reporter though

Updated: Sen. Manchin announces that he'll vote to begin debate on voting rights legislation.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2021

i.e. no change to filibuster. not even a one-off override. better than nothing but not by much.

lol @ "updated", like he thought his monstrous news cycle story-level original tweet was actually accurate

This means S1 will go down 50-50 on a procedural Senate vote today.

It needs 60 to advance.

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 22, 2021

good stuff

kyle griffin, noted accurate reporter

noted cute reporter though

noted trapezoidal hairstyle reporter though

eh I've hit on too many squares

Slate bringing the heat

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/stop-telling-breyer-to-retire.html

In fairness, Manchin might not vote to confirm anyone but his nephew.

no one should quote Noah Feldman on SCOTUS lately.

"Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation that will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints." https://t.co/Cb4SURFt4a

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) June 23, 2021

By damn, we'll prove those universities are just hotbeds of commies. Then we can shut 'em down!

The scene tonight at a raucous Loudoun County school board hearing where many came to voice opposition to critical race theory. The meeting was stopped when the crowd wouldn’t quiet down and two were arrested. pic.twitter.com/WkiZCGJ6Jm

— Evelyn Hockstein (@evelynpix) June 23, 2021

coming soon to a school board meeting near you!

I think I figured out who's teaching that woman's kids critical racist theory

gabbneb has a lot to answer for

i typed a sarcastic message, i typed a doomer message, i typed an angry message

fuck

that 1-2 with DeSantis' Orwell legislation, holy shit. they're going to test students to see if their beliefs changed...WHILE IN COLLEGE?

and no one should talk about race, or what happened and is happening in this country. ok, check....check. cool, ready to watch the football game with my boys this weekend and forget about all of it!!!!!

As was detailed in the comments somewhere, apparently nothing about teaching race or anything even remotely close to it was on the agenda, these people just... showed up.

The thing is, it'll get challenged as a constitutional affront, as he expects. This legislation is yet another plank in DeSantis' 2024 platform.

putting the squeeze on public universities doesn't seem like a strategy that would help him in the long run, have to imagine plenty of his supporters have kids in public universities or planning to go in the future

I'm ignorant to what critical race theory is but I'm assuming that no fucking way is it taught in public high schools?

I heard an interview yesterday with a Southern Baptist scholar who said he thought the CRT panic was stitched up as a distraction from all the sexual abuse cases in the SBC in 2019. Which fits the bill, it's what the Religious Right has always done.

I'm ignorant to what critical race theory is but I'm assuming that no fucking way is it taught in public high schools?

Unless they are teaching law school level legal classes in that high school, I'm going to say no.

The thing is, it'll get challenged as a constitutional affront, as he expects.

right, as soon as i read the headline i thought "will it make it to the supreme court before it gets shot down?"

but am i wrong in being so pessimistic that it seems like IF it makes to the Supreme Court, it has a decent chance of being upheld?

i'm probably wrong about how i think about things like this, but these days i imagine that when "controversial" legislation like DeSantis' 1984+ bill enters the legal system, it's like Plinko. some of the pegs are Obama judges and the 1984+ bill bounces over toward the left. some of the pegs are Bush and Trump judges, and they bounce off back toward the right. a controversial case is appealed a million times, bouncing back and forth between people who care about the law and trump's appointees, and some of them eventually arrive in the Golden Boy's lap at the supreme court while he's fucking an old beer can from college, thinking about how he never changed his beliefs at college, ever

ums you should take a minute to get familiar with critical race theory and related stuff. not only is it something that is good and helpful for everyone to know about, but the nu-Tea Party idiots are distorting it and using it as a weapon against the left. you may have to confront an old white person yelling at you about CRT soon, it's best to know what it is before they do

As was detailed in the comments somewhere, apparently nothing about teaching race or anything even remotely close to it was on the agenda, these people just... showed up.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, June 23, 2021 12:21 PM (thirteen minutes ago)

I wish the history of the Tea Party's magical emergence on the scene the second a Dem was elected was better known and understood, this feels awfully familiar

addressing cis white people reading this who, like me, have been able to insulate ourselves somewhat from the kinds of visible, highly tangible ugly ignorant stuff going on -

i know i'm a little touchy with this because my dad just committed suicide via ignorance, but i am not exaggerating when i say "they are coming for you". this stuff is getting closer and closer. and personally, i am done with just smiling and moving on. it is coming for you. the idiots are coming for you, and when i say that, i mean they expect you to join them. and understanding that in their movement, they're not looking for you to say Yes to their beliefs. they're checking that you do not say No to them. so make sure you say a big fucking FUCK NO when they close in on you

and i highly recommend reading up a little about CRT so that when rather than just saying NO, you can also fucking annihilate them intellectually

The last several posts otm

they won't understand or care that their arguments have just been annihilated, but it makes a difference. if you annihilate an idiotic white supremacist mom's argument in a forest, and no one hears it, did it really happen? yes, it did. flawless victory, fuck them, move on

sorry, i'm done. this stuff really gets to me. it sucks to see it getting closer, again and again

a decent summary: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05

Chyron of the day pic.twitter.com/gO4lbLvBTn

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 23, 2021

Yeah, I learned a lot more this weekend from a friend who actually was taught some CRT in college. It's insane to see how quickly this quickly fabricated nothingburger has warped so many minds already. While we've seen nothing like the Loudon County meeting, another friend of mine that is on our local school board said they've already fielded some truly unhinged emails about CRT - and it's not even the high school board, they only represent elementary and middle schools.

Also, KM, I'm really sorry and I totally understand your outrage.

I wish the history of the Tea Party's magical emergence on the scene the second a Dem was elected was better known and understood, this feels awfully familiar

did you mean "a Black Dem"?

i wonder if they just took the old 2009 tea party strategy binder off the shelf and just updated the year and added a new executive summary at the top or something. no one will be surprised when it turns out a bunch of nearly untraceable dark money groups funded the whole anti-CRT effort

xp jon thank you

getting caught up in debating the correct definition of CRT is a trap that too many people are falling into when the definition that all these lunatics are using is simply any accurate discussion of race, slavery, the civil war whatsoever. Trying to own them by saying "ahah you didn't define CRT correctly" is essentially conceding the point that there might be some issue with discussing race in the first place.

DeSantis has really accelerated into becoming Trump. now passing blatantly unconstitutional bills or things that while not unconstitutional, are free-speech chilling while pretending to protect free speech.

no wonder so many educators here are fucking throwing in the towel.

Trump without Twitter but no charisma either. When he's at a podium he reminds me of Scott Walker.

yeah his speaking style reminds me of a guy from the YMCA who is explaining what flag football season would look like this fall

lol omigod

see, here's what an Ivy League education will result in if you're already a cretinous vomitbag.

moodles otm. there is no point in debating anything with the people with the signs and the VERY concerned and righteous and racist grandma; they're too far gone. when i suggest learning about CRT and making sure you can annihilate their ignorance if needed, the intended audience is the people around you that you care about, especially the ones who are stilling nodding along or "yes, whatever you think" to the nu-tea party supremacists. they're the ones at risk. the ones who don't really "follow politics"

i wonder if they just took the old 2009 tea party strategy binder off the shelf and just updated the year and added a new executive summary at the top or something. no one will be surprised when it turns out a bunch of nearly untraceable dark money groups funded the whole anti-CRT effort

here's a good one: what did "the left" learn from the 2009/10 tea party experience?

here's a good one: what did "the left" learn from the 2009/10 tea party experience?

i remember a lot of "shit, i can't believe these old white people are THIS racist!", but i don't know if that was exactly learning. and right now, it's just like "holy shit, i can't believe that the people who were 60 years old and racist during the tea party days are now 70 years old and even more racist today!"

I wish the history of the Tea Party's magical emergence on the scene the second a Dem was elected was better known and understood, this feels awfully familiar

did you mean "a Black Dem"?

― an eco-conscious Music Box (DJP), Wednesday, June 23, 2021 12:48 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago)

You are absolutely right and the context of last summer's BLM protests is crucial. To a degree, "CRT" is a macguffin or more like a fetish, in the anthropological sense, though I do think history education is extremely important (as others have noted, actual CRT has very little to do with historiography/pedagogy)

You will no doubt be surprised to learn that some douche from a think tank has admitted that the goal is to shut down all talk about race in America.

Yeah, assuming you're talking about Christopher Rufo, he's been remarkably candid about how he turned CRT into a bogeyman:

"‘Critical race theory’ is the perfect villain,” Rufo wrote. He thought that the phrase was a better description of what conservatives were opposing, but it also seemed like a promising political weapon. “Its connotations are all negative to most middle-class Americans, including racial minorities, who see the world as ‘creative’ rather than ‘critical,’ ‘individual’ rather than ‘racial,’ ‘practical’ rather than ‘theoretical.’ Strung together, the phrase ‘critical race theory’ connotes hostile, academic, divisive, race-obsessed, poisonous, elitist, anti-American.” Most perfect of all, Rufo continued, critical race theory is not “an externally applied pejorative.” Instead, “it’s the label the critical race theorists chose themselves.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory

We have successfully frozen their brand—"critical race theory"—into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category.

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 15, 2021

Chris Rufo, the Koch "think" tank ghoul, on actual academic Critical Race Theory discussion "I don't give a shit about this stuff"

also admits he's "ignorant" of CRT and won't debate because he doesn't know or care pic.twitter.com/qe6DtaxXeR

— zedster (@z3dster) June 22, 2021

Yes that is indeed what is happening. You will no doubt be surprised to learn that some douche from a think tank has admitted that the goal is to shut down all talk about race in America.

They created abortion as a moral issue in order to deflect from their commitment to racism and being anti-segregation; CRT is the same playbook in order to deflect from their systemic abuse of women and children (and also still racism).

xp
yeah and adding to that: as Hoos just pointed out on twitter, Loudon County is *the* richest county in the country

i remember a lot of "shit, i can't believe these old white people are THIS racist!", but i don't know if that was exactly learning. and right now, it's just like "holy shit, i can't believe that the people who were 60 years old and racist during the tea party days are now 70 years old and even more racist today!"

The only thing I'd push back on here is that we (royal we here) reaaaallly need to stop leaning on this idea that the old white racists are dying off. This is patently untrue, as any look at the crowd on 1/6 or at pretty much any rally (or, hell, even the photos in that tweet I just posted) will reveal. I remember people during Obama's first campaign saying that we just needed to wait out the old racist people which, uh, didn't pan out at all. I just think it does a tremendous disservice to pretend that these racist shitheels are just aging out of relevance and we should put significantly more energy into worrying about the legions of 20 year old raging racist assholes.

I know that wasn't really your point KM, but it bugs me to not see the depth of the problem acknowledged.

if i had a point, that was part of it! :) it was going back to the "what has the left learned from the tea party shitshow?" question. it seems like...nothing. nothing was learned. i'm not sure that i've learned anything, either. i do think that if i hear about an angry group of White Patriots comes anywhere near my neighborhood, i'm going to counterprotest the living fuck out of them. but i live in chicago, so.

is this learning?

I would agree that nothing has been learned for sure...

look, Supernintendo Chalmers! i’m learnding critical race theory!

after the 2016 election, i did try to update my living model, so i decided that i had learned that i had to confront the ugly racism, right at the heart, my own family. i confronted a whole bunch, more than i believed i ever could. and it didn't work at all, and it made it worse, and then they died. well, my mom's still there. but when the next covid variants come around she'll die as well. i guess my case is a little extreme, but what was there to be learned?

is there a fan-fiction of lord of the rings where the fellowship tries talking to the orcs and they change their minds about what sauron and saruman have been telling them?

i can imagine one of the bigger leader Orcs saying "gee Pippin, you might be right. i guess i wasn't really thinking about where my information was coming from, and who i could trust"

"i just feel like maybe Sauron's whole _message_ is kind of ugly, you know? like, where does it lead?"

lmao

Watch: Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just now on Critical Race Theory, ‘Wokeness’ & Jan. 6. “I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding...the country which we are here to defend?” pic.twitter.com/KsRtOoWN0w

— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) June 23, 2021

Today is #NationalHydrationDay! Proper hydration is not only vital to living a healthy life, but critical for our officers and agents ensuring America’s safety as things get intense under the hot summer sun. Stay hydrated to avoid heat related illnesses. pic.twitter.com/Dx2xv6FUaB

— CBP (@CBP) June 23, 2021

This is CBP trolling right? They know the replies are going to be about their destruction of humanitarian aid and it makes them chuckle.

President Biden is expected to address a rise in gun violence in many cities, saying funding from a Covid-19 relief package could go toward hiring more law-enforcement personnel https://t.co/1cIQ4k5c1p

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 23, 2021

Defund the police you said, Mack?

this stuff is getting closer and closer. and personally, i am done with just smiling and moving on. it is coming for you.

Yeah. A friend of mine just posted about her experience today (here in Tennessee) while quietly wearing a mask and waiting to pick up food at a local restaurant. (She posted a video of a portion of the encounter, and it was just as she relates, the hatred in the guy's voice is astonishing.) She is not someone well equipped to say a loud no, and obviously no one in this situation intervened for her:

I was verbally attacked at a neighborhood Asian restaurant last Friday for wearing a face mask while waiting on my takeout order. Once I got out my phone to record he was just about finished admonishing me to hell and back.

The Hater screamed at me as he walked in the the door, maybe he noticed me from the parking lot somehow. I was called a b*tch, a lunatic, a c*nt, an idiot, a f*cking piece of sh*t and a f*cking loser, many times over. I also learned that I am emphatically going to hell, and the (unknown) tables have turned. I was told repeatedly to take the damn mask off. And wow am I doomed for hell while he is destined for heaven. This went on for a few minutes. He was quite tall, he was white. He had two low odd tiny hair buns on the back of his greasy head, black hair parted down the middle. He wore flip flops with his khakis. He looked like a hippy. He spoke politely to the woman behind the counter but would immediately turn around to scream at me. I was expecting him to smack me in the face, yank my mask off, maybe punch my head as I sat right there so close to the counter. I was scared he would scream at or hit the old Asian woman at the counter. I imagined she was someone’s mother, grandmother, sister. So tiny.

Here’s The Thing. I sat there and just accepted it. I said, “Ok” multiple times. I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t push back. I was motionless and I held my breath. And I froze, just like I do when people touch me, or corner me, or surprise me. Especially men. And there is some truth to what he said about me. So I sat with it and soaked it in. Trauma is one of my comfort zones.

Here’s Another Thing. There were only 2 other customers than me and The Hater: 1) a young maskless white guy sitting in the corner. He was wearing USA sandals and a baseball cap. He was a slob in shorts and a big tshirt who ordered crab “ragoons.” He laughed in the corner with his hat lowered. The whole time. I believe he was also recording it. My eyes returned to him time and time again. And 2), a young masked Asian guy, sitting silently nearer to me with his head down.

...Per my dad’s request I called the police the next day, to warn them that The Hater would do this again, and maybe at some point cause physical harm. The polite and seasoned 30 year officer said there are no laws against being rude and screaming at people so they couldn’t throw him in jail. But that’s not what I wanted. I asked how to handle it the next time. He suggested that I could comply and remove my mask; that I could just leave; that I never return to the restaurant because they weren’t willing to refuse service; that I could push back verbally, but wouldn’t recommend it. He also mentioned that maybe The Hater was manic one second and not the next. Of course he said this.
Lessons learned and relearned? White men have all the power, with impunity and cultural and institutional endorsements, to oppress, control, and perpetrate violence in all its forms. They have the luxury in weakness to choose ignorance and entertainment, acting as an accomplice, over compassion and intervention. They can be theatrically outraged yet do nothing in the short or long term without consequence. The silence is a remarkable feat.

I just heard a kook on the street corner tell a masked woman: "You don't have to wear that! this ain't nazi germany!"
And this in the Bay Area.

I will intimidate you into not wearing something by appealing to your freedom while making you feel like you have none

my friend showed me a pic of Trumpers with shirts and flags on the side of a major intersection, almost as if it's 2016 again.

if they're still there when I drive by (it's on my way to her house), I am going to engage

man, look out

my plan is to wait until i see one with a covid-hoax sign, and then go get my ass kicked

what the actual fuck, that makes me so angry on so many levels. i get that the police aren't going to rush out to arrest thus guy, but jfc that every single "way to handle it" gives the abuser the "win" and further incentive to keep on attacking people. fucking awful and at the risk of doomposting, this country is irredeemably fucked.

tipsy, i am sincerely sorry that happened to your friend. that's awful and must have been terrifying.

it's legal to run them over in Florida now, right?

xp to Neanderthal

fuck i looked right past that post.

most anger when I read this

He suggested that I could comply and remove my mask

Yeah, she was traumatized, her husband of was in a rage when she went home and told him and wanted to go try to find the guy or something (she talked him down from that). I know the restaurant and the small older woman who works there, I'm sure she felt helpless to order the guy out. Really awful.

also really pissed at the guy who recorded the whole thing like it was funny.

He suggested that I could comply and remove my mask

pigs gonna pig

"I have an autoimmune disorder, plus my mother is staying with me while she recuperates from cancer surgery. So mind your own fucking business"

"i have the novel coronavirus"

"i am scorpion"

"I have an autoimmune disorder, plus my mother is staying with me while she recuperates from cancer surgery. So mind your own fucking business"

Just skip to those last five words IMO. Of course, I am a 6'2" white man.

surprising absolutely no one, first capitol rioter sentenced gets a gentle slap on the wrist

Breaking News: An Indiana woman was the first to be sentenced over the Capitol riot. She won’t serve time in prison after making a deal with the government and pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. She received three years probation and agreed to pay $500. https://t.co/tcJ36UbcD1

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 23, 2021

article doesn't exactly make the case that they should have thrown the book at her

yeah really

not really arguing that she should have, still seems like a light sentence to me and not what anyone with darker skin would have walked away with in a similar situation

Dude passed me on the interstate just a few minutes ago and got off the exit here in a big black souped up pickup truck with a bumper sticker that said 'If you are wearing a mask in your car, you don't need a Biden sticker because we already know.' He also had a second bumper sticker with 'I'm pro-pipeline as this truck does not run on wishes and unicorn farts.' Oddly enough he did not have any gun stickers...which is a pretty damn normal thing around here. My favorite recent one I have been seeing is the different sized guns lined up like those cartoon ones of the mom, dad, kids and the dog -except going down from m-16 to shotgun to big hand gun to 9mm to snub-nose gun' like a family picture.

not what anyone with darker skin would have walked away with in a similar situation

see also every other sentencing

I've seen that gun family album too.

Like this?

https://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1_3anPVXXXXciXVXXq6xXFXXXB.jpg

see also every other sentencing

oh okay, "it's happened before so it's okay here too"

gotta say i didn't expect ilxors to start caping for the capitol rioters for saying i think she got a light sentence.

i mean, i know you guys aren't literally defending her, just surprised that those were the first two responses. tbr, i think all of them should get the book thrown at them to prevent this from happening again but what do i know?

I don't really care about the rioters tbh (other than the ones who actually did or threatened violence), I care about the ringleaders and propagandists who will never face a day in court

if any of the current wave of GOP fascists gets in office, they'll direct their DOJ to start arresting left activists and throw the book at them

but it's ok joe manchin, you have to save democracy we all understand

I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS MANCHIN

She got off very lightly but here's the judge's reasoning:

Judge Lamberth said Morgan-Lloyd avoided jail time because she didn't participate in the violence and condemned those who did.

"Some of these defendants are not going to do what you did. They're not going to say they did anything wrong. They, to this day, would still participate in the demonstration," Lamberth said. "... I don't want to create the impression that probation is the automatic outcome here, because it's not going to be."
Still, the judge said what happened on January 6 was "a serious crime" and a "disgrace" to the country.

XP Manchin was Esteban Buttez

Sounds like the judge is giving future defendants instructions on how to avoid harsh sentences.

I wonder how judges are being assigned in all these prosecutions?

Apologies if this has already been shared here and I missed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h535TzrcjUE

wow

Go General Milley!

I don't wanna side with a fucking general, but that's an excellent response.

Hopefully Gaetz will revisit these moments in his mind while he's being sentenced.

Apologies for backtracking, but the NYT article really made it seem like this woman didn't do a whole lot compared to many rioters who were videotaped being violent and destructive, the judge is portrayed as being very serious about the entire event, and the prosecutors argued for no jail time.

And while it's true that non-white defendants don't often get the same light treatment, harsher sentences for all is not really the solution needed to reform our broken criminal justice system.

there are sentencing guidelines in federal court and a person like her who accepts responsibility is going to get probation when the government recommends it. you can't really say "anyone with darker skin" would have done worse in this individual case anyway. you don't know that and that isn't how it works. in the aggregate/trends, yes, but for smaller offenses (this was disorderly conduct) defendants of all races/groups get probation all the time, even from conservative judges. sorry for caping for rioters, i just feel there's no reason to get mad about this one lady.

Just dropping in unrelated to anything else to note I’m very tired of America and we should wrap the whole thing up.

now we're getting somewhere

Texas should leave first

WTF?

CUT! i think we have more than enough footage, that's a wrap

The Texas Civil War would start about fifteen seconds after we seceded.

America was a joke and the comic has been getting booed for hours and he still tells it

and the name of that joke was...

THE ARISTOCRATS!

Keep it classy Gaetz, you are going to have a good time in prison mf'er.

Chris Rufo, the Koch "think" tank ghoul, on actual academic Critical Race Theory discussion "I don't give a shit about this stuff"

also admits he's "ignorant" of CRT and won't debate because he doesn't know or care

Not just the same tactics as the Tea Party but even the same think tanks? (Or at least the same backers)

In 1984, David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch of Koch Industries founded Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a conservative political group whose self-described mission was "to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation." Congressman Ron Paul was appointed as the first chairman of the organization. The CSE lobbied for policies favorable to corporations, particularly tobacco companies.[75]

In 2002, a Tea Party website was designed and published by the CSE at web address www.usteaparty.com, and stated “even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense... for the animals are coming.”

Actually the last quote was literally transcribed from a Ron Paul newsletter, my bad.

My intention is certainly not to minimize the significance of these movements as reactionary expressions of white supremacy, just to map out the connections somewhat.

Also that little rant by Mr Milley was frickin awesome, general or no.

America was a joke and the comic has been getting booed for hours and he still tells it

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31C81MR6K4L.jpg

Nancy Pelosi making some moves today on a select committee for 1/6 and on getting the reconciliation package done ahead of infrastructure. I think this is a smart direction for her, taking a more aggressive stance and recognizing the political reality that these things will only happen if she makes them happen.

Lmao

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/24/politics/rudy-giuliani-suspended-law/index.html

Oh no, how is he going to put food on the table now, poor Rooty

Pobrecito

any one of us could probably just call rudy right now and tell him we know where to find money, he is open to all leads

Probably on a nightly basis:
"Hi! Uh.. is Donald near the phone?"
"No."
"Mmmkkayy.. you see, I just need a little help to tide me over until..."
<Click>
"Hello?"

I tried calling but all I heard was muffled voices and the rustling of cloth and the occasional fart, for roughly twenty minutes before the line went dead

the democrats

As Portman mentions here, Trump proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. So the compromise bill Biden agreed to here not only includes zero of the taxes he originally proposed but is less than half the size of the proposal of the leader of the party with which he compromised https://t.co/8NV0xiprtZ

— Steve Morris (@stevemorris__) June 24, 2021

Florida Gov signs law requiring students, faculty be asked to declare their political beliefs

What the hell, is this 1953?
I don't even know what he's talking about... I follow the wrathful, spiteful god Crom, does he really care?

xpost - Fuckin' Sinema really working hard to push herself front and center for the cameras. Guess the attention for her little thumbs down flourish wore off a little.

cute blouse though

If the Dems pass a Sinema-Manchin bill and they agree to reconcile a bigger bill, I guess it's fine.

Fair, I just lost all patience with her after that little display, on top of everything else.

btw, admit to being happy to see you posting Alfred. can never remember where exactly you are and thought of you when i saw the news of that collapse in Miami this morning.

thanks! No, outsiders (no shade) tend to confuse "Miami" with "Miami Beach." I am many, many miles away.

It's fair, I'm absolutely terrible with Florida geography and fully admit to seeing "Miami" in anything and thinking it's the same general vicinity. Still, glad you are safe.

which is the one that's underwater

your mom

you're thinking of your mom beach

so I was seeing earlier today that the House wouldn't be voting on infrastructure until after reconciliation, but now I'm having a hard time confirming that

ask your sources on The Hill.

Biden doesn't trust Manchin or Sinema (or the Republicans):

! @JoeBiden says "if this (bipartisan deal) is the only thing that comes to me, I'm not signing it."

— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) June 24, 2021

no idea what the point of this is then, unless it's a shell game so manchin can say he did a deal.

Biden (and Pelosi, this morning) are signaling that unless both packages are passed in the senate - the bipartisan one and the one that will only pass with 50 dem votes via reconciliation - they won’t approve either of them.

Manchin and sinema are supposedly on board with the 50 vote reconciliation bill (I think?), but these are measures to enforce that promise on both, since they fucking suck

AFAICT

the democrats

🐦[As Portman mentions here, Trump proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. So the compromise bill Biden agreed to here not only includes zero of the taxes he originally proposed but is less than half the size of the proposal of the leader of the party with which he compromised https://t.co/8NV0xiprtZ🕸
— Steve Morris (@stevemorris__) June 24, 2021🕸]🐦

and Trump had a pliant Senate.

it's a good burn because this bill sucks.

this is good though

Yeah, good, ok pic.twitter.com/UOvxLBorZW

— Paul E Williams (@PEWilliams_) June 24, 2021

I don't get the next Williams tweet where he writes "Shouldn't have let R governors push workers off of UI during a pandemic." Who's the subject -- Biden? What could Biden have done with a Republican governor?

Maybe they're saying the bill shouldn't have given opt out power? Idk.

Bernie addressed that, there is some hypothetical mechanism to overrule the guvs

MANCHIN on Biden’s two-track approach: “It’s the only strategy we have—is two track.”

“Reconciliation is inevitable,” he says, indicating that Republicans made it inevitable by opposing tax hikes.

Manchin says he wants “adjustments” to the ‘17 Trump tax cuts.

(via @frankthorp)

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 24, 2021

so Manshit IS cool with reconciling the second bill

Trust but verify

Доверяй, но проверяй

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As6y5eI01XE

the compromise isn't just a subset of what progressives (and most of the centrist congressional democratic party) wanted. it's got a bunch of bullshit (or possibly intentional poison pills) like asset recycling.

that plus this (obviously correct!) view from the GOP side makes me suspicious that someone is getting played.

I cannot emphasize this enough: Republicans would be absolutely idiotic to agree to a infrastructure deal without an ironclad assurance that Democrats won't turn around & pass a reconciliation bill with the rest of the $trillions that the GOP just fought to remove from this deal.

— Brian Riedl 🧀 (@Brian_Riedl) June 24, 2021

the bad stuff in the compromise isn't *that* bad relative to trillions of spending. so if they pass this with ten GOP votes and do a big $$$ human infrastructure reconciliation bill and machin/sinema can add "brokered a bipartisan compromise" to their linkedin profiles then ... great! but i'm v v skeptical.

I don't necessarily agree with that tweet. I can totally see the republicans being fine showing that they can compromise and get an infrastructure deal everyone agrees on and then turning around and complaining about how democrats stabbed them in the back with a partisan reconciliation bill.

what has happened in the past 10 years that suggests republicans think it's advantageous for them to show they can compromise with democrats?

if it involves generally popular things like infrastructure and plenty of pork to spread around to their constituents, why not? I wouldn't be surprised that passing up on the first, very popular reconciliation bill ended up hurting them more than helping, and they are less thrilled about not having their names on another bill that will be generally popular. Don't forget that their choices are get their names on a popular infrastructure bill or try to block it and see it pass anyway through reconciliation thereby denying them any credit.

I don't necessarily agree with that tweet. I can totally see the republicans being fine showing that they can compromise and get an infrastructure deal everyone agrees on and then turning around and complaining about how democrats stabbed them in the back with a partisan reconciliation bill.

Sorry, I’m in an airport

Not sure if this is the right thread, but re: Afghanistan... for all this talk of "this is not the fall of Saigon," it's sure looking like the fall of Saigon.

the fall of Saigon was simply the removal of the props supplied by outsiders that had artificially kept it from falling. the outcome of the civil war within Vietnam had been decided long beforehand. Kabul is different only in the details, not the overall dynamic of the war.

Yeah, I guess it's just the cosmetics of it... rushing to get translators and their families to somewhere like Guam; the Taliban seem to be on the march towards Kabul, and their forces are at an all-time high numberically. I don't know if we'll see helicopters on rooftops but I wouldn't be that surprised.

lol

MCCONNELL: "Less than two hours after publicly commending our colleagues and endorsing the bipartisan agreement, the President took the extraordinary step of threatening to veto it... That’s not the way to show you’re serious about getting a bipartisan outcome."

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) June 24, 2021

More on Gen. Milley, coincidentally:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/24/politics/bender-book-trump-milley-protests/index.html

"That's how you're supposed to handle these people," Trump told his top law enforcement and military officials, according to Bender. "Crack their skulls!"
Trump also told his team that he wanted
the military to go in and "beat the f--k out" of the civil rights protesters, Bender writes.
"Just shoot them," Trump said on multiple occasions inside the Oval Office, according to the excerpts.
When Milley and then-Attorney General William Barr would push back, Trump toned it down, but only slightly, Bender adds.
"Well, shoot them in the leg—or maybe the foot," Trump said. "But be hard on them!"
The new details about how Milley and a handful of other senior officials were forced to confront Trump's increasingly volatile behavior during the final months of his presidency only add to an already detailed portrait of dysfunction inside the White House at that time.

Well, shoot them in the leg—or maybe the foot," Trump said.

Clasped hands meme with Trump and Biden.

B-but is Trump a fascist, y/n?

ffs OL

Well, shoot them in the leg—or maybe the foot," Trump said. "But be hard on them!"
The new details about how Milley and a handful of other senior officials were forced to confront Trump's increasingly volatile behavior

good thing they kept this quiet. if there anyone else who repeatedly publicly called for civil rights protestors to be shot in the leg, surely their political career would be ruined

dang xp

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/wall-street-sees-big-wish-granted-in-biden-s-infrastructure-deal

Selling off the TVA would be very “new FDR.”

Asset recycling -- a policy many credit as being coined in Australia

how did it go there, does anyone remember

Sounds good, don’t want to let those assets go to waste. I am an asset composted myself though

Composter

Computer poster

My programming will never allow me to truthfully refer to myself as a composted

Ok, what is asset recycling and why is it bad?

It means “infrastructure privatization.” I think the bad is self-explanatory.

Deal's in trouble already pic.twitter.com/ewRLfeclqS

— Sam Stein (@samstein) June 25, 2021

oh noes, what if they have to do it all through reconciliation?

well, if that happens the Dems can pass this bill using reconciliation while Biden, Manshit, etc can shake their heads sadly and say, well, bipartisanship, we tried, etc.

Privatizing federal property is fucking awful.

manchin already walking back from backing reconcilliation

It means “infrastructure privatization.” I think the bad is self-explanatory.

The Trump admin wanted to privatize the George Washington Parkway, IIRC, or turn it over to VDOT lol.

It's a very '90s euphemism. Xtreme Asset Recycling

Obama proposed privatizing the TVA at some point.

They may not have the votes to do anything in reconciliation. Not even clear they have the votes for that in the house, much less the senate.

“I'm not voting for reconciliation,” @RepSchrader said, confirming that applies to both the budget resolution & actual reconciliation bill. “I think the reconciliation process is completely unwarranted. I'm not going to vote for $5 trillion of spending." https://t.co/dRHjCKFbn1

— Lindsey McPherson (@lindsemcpherson) June 25, 2021

If asset recycling is like “we privatise parking enforcement on federal property in return for 6tn new spending” I’m probably fine with it in the interests of making a deal.

i knew someone was getting played when that deal was announced yesterday but if i'm honest i just assumed it would be the democrats haha, didn't think they had it in them. (although who knows what happens next.)

There’s lots of complaining coming from offices of the 11 Senate Republicans who endorsed the original infrastructure framework.

Aide to one of those senators: “Demanding that we didn't pass the bipartisan deal unless reconciliation was passed first was never part of the deal.”

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) June 25, 2021

If they back out of the bipartisan deal now there are zero consequences for them and nothing continues to get passed benefitting them in the midterms.

If the Democrats thought they were playing anyone and now Lindsey Graham would be bound by his agreement to the deal... hooo boy.

Saying "no takebacks" is not a legally binding contract, unfortunately.

oh i don't think it was smart if this is what the biden wanted/expected to happen. i'm just surprised they even tried it since it's superficial hardball.

but i dunno about zero consequences. can see some of the ConGreSSIonaL NoRmS voters in house/senate being moved toward reconciliation if this collapes.

The police almost never prevent crimes. They just arrest people after the fact. And it's not always the right people. And all too often they kill or physically harm whoever they're trying to arrest. And then they lie about it.

^ that was meant for this thread: Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

What happened is that Republicans were confident that Dems wouldn't pass a 2nd bill, then when Pelosi and Biden started making assurances, they said "no fair you're not allowed to be competent" https://t.co/9JEjQcPYAB

— David Dayen (@ddayen) June 25, 2021

And if this dissolves and we only get a reconciliation bill, maybe the privatization crap gets tossed out and it's better substantively too

— David Dayen (@ddayen) June 25, 2021

seems like hopium

lol Biden already caved

Such political genius.

if you are puzzled about who is a political genius vs being a total loser and a dolt, just ask milo. he will set you straight. if milo isn't available, just ask Trump, who is also known for his instant discernment in sorting out geniuses and losers.

Has Biden done things in the past that make you think he exhibits political genius?

Nope

together at last

Did Biden call off both the infrastructure and reconciliation bills?

whatever it was he did, we know he caved in (see above)

lol sic

BREAKING: Former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska, who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record in 1971 and decades later ran for the Democratic presidential nomination as a critic of the Iraq war, has died at age 91. https://t.co/5wqxNsR83u

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 27, 2021

lol he ran for president?

do u not remember gravelteens

🎼do you remember the teens of gravel🎼

RIP

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rZdAB4V_j8

one of the best dadaist campaign ads of our time imo

Meantime

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/06/william-barrs-trump-administration-attorney-general/619298/

Rehabilitating Wm. Barr's reputation makes you an accessory after the fact.

But when the big moment came after the election, he defied the president who expected him to do his bidding.

Feel like there were quite a few big moments before the election when he did not do this.

Did Biden call off both the infrastructure and reconciliation bills?

No, the auction off the TVA bill is still on the table, no longer tied to the reconciliation bill (that Manchin is backing away from already).

Biden statement: White House does NOT plan to veto bipartisan bill if it comes without reconciliation package. Major shift pic.twitter.com/bbLl3K7STD

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 26, 2021

Right, he wasn't going to veto the bill, it just isn't going to pass the House without a reconciliation bill.

He said he would veto it without the reconciliation bill ("If this is the only one that comes to me, I'm not signing it.") - backbone which lasted less than 24 hours and a couple of mean statements from Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham.

Why would you think Pelosi's statement of intent is any more ironclad? The House Dems may not even have the votes for the reconciliation bill.

If you think the bipartisan infrastructure compromise is good on its merits, okay cool but taking a big stand on the actual definitely good reconciliation bill being a requirement and then caving before dinner is embarrassing.

Joe Biden still around?

I don't think either bill is a lock, but I think they are more likely than not. It was dumb of Biden to make it seem like he was threatening Republicans with a veto because they really don't have much control over whether a reconciliation bill happens or not. The ultimatums needed to be clearly aimed at moderate Democrats.

A good interview with the Gravel Teens.

That is good.

So disengaged right now, not sure if this is anything or not. I seem to recall, a thousand years, this guy had a habit of dodging every breathless new this-is-the-end story. (Until he didn't, then he went away.)

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/30/politics/trump-organization-charges/index.html

"a thousand years ago"

i think people are having a hard time caring because the charges are related to not paying taxes on employee benefits/gifts like "rent-free apartments, car leases or private school tuition." it's just...who the fuck cares. after everything that has happened. trump fucking KILLED people with his ignorance! and after so many years of investigation, it's some tax shit. no one cares. people on the right will just look at it like "wow, trump gave his own people really good gifts and now they're trying to make him look bad." there will be a lawsuit for another thousand years, then a settlement where we are all amazed to learn that the trump organization admits to one thing or another, but not the other, and they will pay $400M to whatever, the biggest whatever in whatever years. then they'll appeal that. meanwhile the obvious criminal keeps burning the village down

*me being just as effective as the SDNY*

i wonder if Trump's GOLF CLUBS have tax issues!!!?!??!?! better spend 9 years investigating!!!!

oh shit, trump is dictator for life again, we can't announce charges until his head is cut off

that's the kind of stuff that has a concrete paper trail

it's gonna feel so _satisfying_ when that final appeal fails and some shell company is on the hook for millions more to the IRS! kicked yr ass, trump, how's it feel now?!

I assumed the fringe benefits charges are about getting folks to sing on bigger stuff?

i'm sure there's good reasons to think he'll finally be punished for something. but it's been 5 years like this now, with nothing damaging ever happening, and that's discounting all the stuff he was doing before the election, even.

anyway, i guess if i have a point, it's that it makes a lot of sense if no one cares at this point

after everything that has happened. trump fucking KILLED people with his ignorance! and after so many years of investigation, it's some tax shit

You're absolutely right, of course; I guess the only thing I can think to say is that taxes were how they ultimately got Al Capone. Who--just reading up on this--spent all of five years in prison, and got to play banjo in the house band. So I'm not hoping for much.

here's some rando on the internet. i have no idea if any of it is realistic - it doesn't even matter, though. it really fucking doesn't. real life is some version of this:

steviedee111

Trump pays all the legal fees in round one. If convicted it’s appealed, and Trump pays those fees. If the appeal is lost or denied keep repeating all the way to SCOTUS. If you lose there file an appeal based on an entirely new premise of innocence, and hope SCOTUS remands back to a lower court for reconsideration. IANAL, but some variation of the above.

Weisselberg dies at age 82, proceedings hung up somewhere in the courts, never serving a day in jail, never flipping on Trump.

is that right? who cares? rich people always win

i would be so much happier to just completely give up hope on any sort of real justice in my lifetime for trump, and instead if we can all just call him "IANAL" instead. maybe that's a way the non-rich people of the world can "settle" and "achieve pragmatic justice"

actually, don't do that, the DRUMPF era almost made me fucking kill myself for real

I'm not sure of too many things these days but the fact that Trump will never suffer a single consequence for any of the horrible things he's done is one of them

the speculation I hear is that Weisselberg's fear of the jail is nothing compared to his fear of organized crime

probably smart

Death, taxes and Trump shuffling away scot free from any responsibility ever.

yeah if any of these types of crimes were prosecuted effectively trump would have been put in jail a long time ago

Cosby just got out of prison. Obviously very innocent.

It just doesn’t matter. If you have money, you are above the law

i read the opinion and it sounds like the prosecutors thought they were above the law, tbh. also, bruce castor??? https://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-100-2020mo%20-%20104821740139246918.pdf?cb=1

At least he spent some time in prison for his crimes.

(Until he didn't, then he went away.)

it has been 70 hours since he held an election rally.

South Dakota governor uses private funds to send troops to Mexico border

This story is insane, because the deployment is being paid for with private funds... like mercenaries. These are National Guard troops who presumably have day jobs and families, and are being sent south for a political stunt/optics event. I'm sure they'll string some obligatory razor wire while they're not playing football, Playstation or napping in the heat.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/30/south-dakota-governor-troops-mexico-border-kristi-noem

Is that legal?

The law allowing the governor to call up the National Guard is probably written loosely enough that it permits this, based on the governor's sole judgment about its necessity. But it is crazy-stupid political pandering all the same and South Dakota voters will be the final arbiter of whether this stunt pays off.

"... a donation of an undisclosed amount was paid to the state of South Dakota by Willis and Reba Johnson’s Foundation. The Tennessee-based non-profit previously donated to Trump and the National Rifle Association."

In other words, a political organization paid for this political stunt with political funds, for political goals.

it has been 70 hours since he held an election rally

I didn't mean that literally, of course, except in a physically-left-the-White-House sense. I wouldn't even say in a media sense: CNN's obsession is still there, with occasional glimpses of waning.

But do you think about him much these days? Without giving it any thought, I probably meant that in a personal sense.

haha got em

At 83, I am close to losing hope that I will live to see a flat tax.

— Donald Rumsfeld (@RumsfeldOffice) April 18, 2016

The House passed the resolution to set up a Jan. 6 select committee Wednesday on a near party-line 222-190 vote.

Only two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), joined the Democrats.

since 5 of the 13 members are to be selected by pelosi "in consultation" with McCarthy, this guarantees that McCarthy won't even bother to consult. Cheney and Kinzinger will both be on the panel, and then I guess the other 3 will go to more democrats

Even if McCarthy doesn't bother to consult, Pelosi would be smart to offer seats to Republican representatives beyond just Cheney and Kinzinger. Whether they accept would be up to them.

no she wouldn't

at this point, that would literally be the single dumbest thing she could do beyond pre-emptively assigning Gosar and Greene to it

bipartisanship with active, knowing monsters is not a virtue

A statement from the family of Donald Rumsfeld: pic.twitter.com/AlKYxVvqgF

— Donald Rumsfeld (@RumsfeldOffice) June 30, 2021

Definitely true that a lot of lives were forever changed by Don Rumsfeld.

I know that we know that.

at this point, that would literally be the single dumbest thing she could do beyond pre-emptively assigning Gosar and Greene to it