US Politics February 2022: no one in this country knew the name of the last leader of ISIS

and we won't know the name of the next one either, unless it's catchy and the women/children death count for their assassination crosses into the triple-digits. we are no longer taken aback by civilian death counts that do no exceed 20

one take:

Biden will address the nation later this morning from the White House about the U.S. raid in Syria that killed the leader of the Islamic State group.
In a statement Thursday morning, Biden announced the counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria “to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place.”

“Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation,” Biden added.

that's number one, here's two:

Residents in the area of the raid described a thunderous, early morning assault involving multiple helicopters and heavy machine gun fire.
The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group that works in areas of Syria not under government control, said they recovered 13 bodies, including those of six children and four women, from a house that appeared to be the target of the operation.

They also said they treated a nearby resident and a young girl who lived in the house, whose entire family they said was killed. UNICEF, in a statement, confirmed that six children were killed.

Two U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation said the civilian casualties were caused by a “terrorist” in the targeted compound who detonated explosives. One of the officials said the explosion killed the man “and members of his own family, including women and children.”

An American helicopter experienced a mechanical malfunction, prompting U.S. troops to blow it up in place before they flew away on other aircraft, one of the officials said. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

good morning!

Every day reveals new frontiers of endless possibilities!

it’s been made abundantly clear that a peace dividend is absolutely out of the question, but I do wonder if maybe we’d get a little karmic reprieve if we weren’t out there just stepping out full weight on rake after rake

This is pretty funny; Flynn inching toward the exit...

Humble patriot Gen. Mike Flynn has changed his QAnon grift company “Digital Soldiers Media” to “Manasota Shores Real Estate LLC” pic.twitter.com/T1pd9ZfmYt

— Roger Sollenberger found true love, suckers (@SollenbergerRC) February 3, 2022

Ah'm just an 'umble grifter, sir.

"taken off the battlefield" is one of those dystopian turns of phrase

good to see the senate democratic caucus firing on all cylinders as the midterms approach

For too long, Americans affected by directed energy attacks have struggled and fought to access the care they need and deserve to get well. Their experiences drove my effort to establish this coordinator and reform our government response to provide equitable access to care. https://t.co/hRX06G1Xnb

— Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (@SenatorShaheen) February 1, 2022

relatable

that tweet was already posted in the Havana Syndrome thread, where all things Havanasyndromish find a welcome home.

Flynn doing the ol’ Jeff Galooly to Jeff Stone

I’m imagining a Glengarry Glen Ross type boiler room operation for Flynn.

President Biden thanks Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “for being my friend” during National Prayer Breakfast.

“You’ve always done exactly what you’ve said. You’re a man of your word. And you’re a man of honor.” pic.twitter.com/10wWgXzBl5

— The Recount (@therecount) February 3, 2022

"you've always done exactly what you've said. You're a man of your word"

“I was shocked that former President Obama left so many vacancies and didn’t try to fill those positions,” Fox News host Sean Hannity said to McConnell.

“I’ll tell you why,” he said. “I was in charge of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration.”

Bipartisanship is Joe Biden's cocaine

The man walks the walk on bipartisanship.

JUST IN — Citing Omicron, the Biden administration has decided, after a new review, to maintain the Trump-era Title 42 border policy that authorizes the rapid expulsion of migrants and asylum-seekers, a CDC spokesperson tells @cbsnews tonight.https://t.co/UGmLUMiOfm

— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) February 4, 2022

look let’s be realistic, what if they brought the omicron variant here

when i see this prayer breakfast shit I reflexively want to say Biden is just the fattest juiciest Christmas goose ever served but tbh that designation belongs to non-wealthy Democratic voters

lol boris johnson's "partygate", in which the scandal is that top leadership has been having parties and not following covid guidelines.

meanwhile, remember the amy coney barrett supreme court announcement in the rose garden? the one that turned out to be a superspreader event? i watched it, as it happened, on c-span. they were all packed together, senators, aides, fascists like steve bannon and miller, everyone. after the conclusion of the speech the c-span cameras stayed on and i watched them all, without masks, breathing hot air in each other's faces for 10 minutes before shuffling off.

what a fucking joke this world is

also, since it is a rare fucking day when i see anyone mention the obvious thing, i will repost most of a post on excess covid deaths, from lawyers guns and money and highlight the part that i like

This gives us a total of 1,138,000 excess deaths in the USA from February 3, 2020 through February 3, 2022. Now this number might be off by one or two percent in either direction for various reasons, but it’s really close.

In other words, there are more than 1.1 million Americans who have died in the past two years, who would be alive today if not for the pandemic. (An interesting side question is what this total would be without the vaccines. I would imagine it would be at least doubled at this point).

Now what I find really interesting in a grim way is that the Republican party, at the national, state, and local level, has become almost completely indifferent to this situation. For them, any serious ongoing attempts to ameliorate the pandemic are unwarranted, because it’s just another seasonal infectious disease, like the flu. (If not for the COVID pandemic it’s likely that the flu would have caused something along the lines of 65,000 total excess deaths in the USA over the past two years. 65,000 is a smaller number than 1,138,000).

What will happen going forward? It’s practically certain that other variants of the virus will continue to arise, although they will have a constantly shrinking immunologically naive base to infect, as ever larger percentages of the population are either vaccinated or previously infected or both.

But will Republicans be OK with 560,000 excess deaths in the USA in 2022, assuming that the forthcoming waves end up having the same average effect as those over the previous two years? The answer is obviously yes, they will be OK with that, and they will continue to be OK with that even when it’s no longer to their political advantage to prolong the pandemic.

That’s because the pandemic has been so politicized at this point that it’s an article of faith in the Republican cult that it’s No Big Deal, and that vaccinations are either No Big Deal or a (((Plot))) of some sort, and that masks and any other mitigation measures are unnecessary, because this is just like the flu, basically. (A lot of this is tied up with the kind of deep fatalism found in the cruder versions of evangelical Christianity; i.e., people die because it’s God’s will/it’s “their time” etc. In addition, these versions of Christianity are fundamental hurdles to any understanding of or belief in statistics, which is why a big item on the agenda of revenant Christo-fascism is to just get rid of government collation of statistics altogether).

In fact we’ll be lucky if all that happens is that all vaccine mandates, not just for COVID, are rolled back in various states, as opposed to the national level. The worst-case scenario is that the COVID vaccine will be made illegal by President Greene’s executive order, which will be carried out by CDC chairman Berenson (kidding/not kidding).

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/02/the-covid-future-in-america

the deck is so stacked in favor of Republicans that I suspect this won't matter but in a more uh "hopeful" time I might argue that the GOP getting their voters killed in disproportionate numbers might actually have some consequences given how razor-thin the margins are for this whole minority rule thing

Maybe 'The Rapture' is finally here, to call home the blessed unvaccinated and leave the rest of us poor sad-sacks down here

lol boris johnson's "partygate", in which the scandal is that top leadership has been having parties and not following covid guidelines.

TS: having no shame (US) vs. pretending to have shame (UK)

i really do appreciate even the gesture of pretending to have shame

I mean the rolling back of vaccine mandates in states is already happening in Virginia under Governor Youngkin. Any hope that he would be only as shitty as Hogan is now gone. He’s worse.

Maryland Governor Hogan that is, a Republican in a blue state. He’s awful of course, but isn’t interfering with local mask and vaccination requirements.

speaking of not having shame, the GOP is censuring Cheney and Kinzinger for siding against the outburst of "legitimate political discourse" known as Jan. 6

Would that be the House GOP caucus doing the censuring, or some other party organ? Is that official and signed off by party leadership, or just a proposal?

I don't even really know what "censure" means, as far as punishment goes. Like, does it make it harder to get a table at a steak house? Why would anyone gaf?

My understanding was always that it has the exact same consequences as when your third grade teacher wrote your name on the blackboard and told you it would go on your "permanent record" or, in other words, fuck all.

Except that in this case it also means that the party will be supporting whatever primary challenger to Cheney emerges. This is full "fuck you, you don't love Daddy enough - you're out of the family!"

They become ronin.

no real consequences, but it's almost like a test vote. it's a signal -- nearly every republican controlled state legislature has passed some sort of official rebuke or censure of anyone that did anything remotely resembling "the right thing to do" in the lead-up and wake of january 6. the consequences aren't for cheney, it's more about making all the other GOP members sign on the dotted line that they support the insurrection and the stolen election myth

Wait til Dick Cheney appears on the Masked Singer

Maybe 'The Rapture' is finally here, to call home the blessed unvaccinated and leave the rest of us poor sad-sacks down here

― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, February 4, 2022 11:34 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This may be my favorite post of the day

One of our shop's Trump maroons is wearing a John Carpenter "Obey" t-shirt today. I both want that shirt and want to laugh at the irony. At least it's better than his other usual hats and shirts for "44", "Trump in 2044", "Let's Go Brandon", etc.

2024, that is. Unless he becomes a disembodied head.

Has They Live been folded into the red pill Matix Mythos? i.e. "you people are blind, blind, can't you see what's going on??"

Because that's a serious bummer if it has

xp A decapitated body would be better tbh

Pence Says Trump Is ‘Wrong' in Claiming 2020 Election Could Be Overturned

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/pence-says-trump-is-wrong-in-claiming-2020-election-could-be-overturned/3535633/

I guess Mother let him use his balls for the day.

Meek Mike just lost his VP spot... Nikki, time for your close-ip

i think mother handed him his old pair of useless, shriveled up balls

Pence dismissed Trump’s statement during a keynote speech Friday at a conference hosted by the Federalist Society, an organization for conservative and libertarian lawyers, in Florida this weekend.

“There are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject electoral college votes,” Pence said. “Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election.”

“And Kamala Harris,” he added, “will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”

“And Kamala Harris,” he added, “will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”

maybe i'm so traumatized by the trump years that i automatically read that as a "it's the democrats who are trying to steal the election!", when actually he's trying to just explain it, i don't know

Kamala haunts his dreams.

fwiw this could have been worse

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/03/politics/arizona-bill-reject-election-results-effectively-blocked/index.html

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, quietly doomed House Bill 2596 on Tuesday with an unusual parliamentary maneuver.
The speaker assigns all new bills to a committee for consideration before they can have full House votes, a choice that often has a great effect on a measure's chance of success. But on Tuesday, Bowers took the unprecedented step of ordering all 12 House committees to consider the elections bill, virtually ensuring it will never reach the floor.

So is this good news?

The White House released a detailed blueprint Monday for how the federal government can work to increase union participation and strengthen workers’ right to organize in the absence of legislative actions, another sign of the Biden administration’s historic support for organized labor.

The 43-page report, produced by the White House’s Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, is a strikingly pro-union document, seeking to connect the history of union organizing in the United States to its importance for the country’s economic well-being.

“The Biden-Harris Administration believes that increasing worker organizing and empowerment is critical to growing the middle class, building an economy that puts workers first, and strengthening our democracy,” it begins.

The report comes at a time when union organizing in the United States is near a historic low, with just 10.3 percent of wage and salary workers belonging to a union in 2021, down threefold from a high in the 1950s. Just 6.1 percent of private-sector workers were members of unions.

But the public favorability of labor unions is its highest in more than 50 years, and at least 48 percent of nonunion workers have said on surveys that they would join a union if given the option.

“This gap between the percentage of workers who want a union and the percentage of workers who have a union is part of the reason for this Task Force and this report,” the report notes.

The labor movement faces some key tests. Workers plan to vote soon on whether to unionize at an Amazon facility in Alabama. And employees at a handful of Starbucks shops have also recently voted to unionize, sparking interest in whether this could lead to a national push.

The White House report lays out dozens of recommendations for the federal government to undertake to encourage worker organizing, rights protected by 1935′s National Labor Relations Act, without going through Congress.

These recommendations include facilitating union growth in the federal government, where union membership rates are already higher than other industries. They also include having federal employers give more information about unions to new hires, informing employees about their collective bargaining rights and representation, and increasing the ability of unions to communicate with employees, such as by providing unions with work email addresses and access to physical and electronic bulletin boards.

I haven't read the "dozens" of recommendations but the ones listed there don't...seem very helpful? And would only apply to federal workers, "where union membership rates are already higher than other industries." What does it do to help the 48% of people who aren't in a union but would like to be?

Sorry, Alfred, my question isn't really directed at you, it just makes me tired.

I'm on the skeptical side too. I'm not sure what this does to spur enrollment or to change a generation's thinking about unions.

afaics, the only union heavily committed to organizing on a large scale among non-unionized workers is the SEIU.

I have a buddy who's a metal shop worker - he says the union officials go golfing with the company owners, they never rock the boat and they're not in an adversarial position at all.. I'm afraid this might be the case all over the place, SEIU excepted

Forget about unions, what is up with all these right wing lunatics claiming that Trudeau has defected to the US, or that 50% of the Ottawa police force has resigned?

I'll think about that, but I don't want to forget about unions.

xpost the real news is that gavin newsom has been executed at guantanamo bay

As governor, Joe Manchin supported an unusual detail in a clean energy bill that was moving through the West Virginia Legislature in 2009.

The provision classified waste coal as an alternative energy.
The muddy mix of discarded coal and rocks is one of the most carbon-intensive fuels in America. And Manchin’s family business stood to benefit financially when it was reclassified as something akin to solar, wind and hydropower.

Selling the scrap coal has earned Manchin millions of dollars over three decades, and he has used his political positions to protect the fuel — and a single power plant in West Virginia that burns it — from laws and regulations that also threatened his family business.

It continues today.

Only now Manchin has enormous influence over federal climate policy. He is using his chair role of the energy committee — and role as maverick Democrat – to shape environmental policy across the states.
from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/08/manchin-family-coal-company-00003218

i think we have already been shown that u.s. presidents are above the law, and that applies to joe manchin the same as anyone else

yeah I believe that's what Rule of Law means

The xxxp union vote at Amazon's Bessemer AL facility is a re-do, after a ruling that the company exerted undue pressure etc. in first campaign---wonder if Amazon is appealing, given that, for instance: Feb 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let Alabama use a Republican-backed map of the state's U.S. congressional districts that a lower court found likely discriminates against Black voters, handing an important victory to Republicans as they seek to regain control of Congress in the Nov. 8 elections. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-lets-alabama-use-electoral-map-faulted-racial-bias-2022-02-07/ (once again, Chief "Justice" sides w libs, g-r-r!_

I still don't trust him farther than I can throw his shell, but genuinely surprised that Mitch would break ranks at this point. He must know something is coming.

Yeah. He's gonna die.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_hands_of_Orlac_1960_poster.jpg

otm.

“Listen, whatever you think about the RNC vote, it reflects the view of most Republican voters,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday. “So, I’m just telling you, in my state, it’s not helpful to have a bunch of D.C. Republicans commenting on what the RNC — and frankly, probably most Missouri Republicans — support. Super unhelpful, and super great way to get themselves inserted into that race, which I don’t want.”

i can't believe this asshole is my senator. first time living in a red state for 16 years. fuck.

sorry, that's regarding the recent RNC censure / jan 6 / "legitimate political discourse" thing

just a us senator servicing his constituents

Whatever you think about crazy assholes, crazy assholes are my voters. I’m here to represent crazy assholes. So some DC guy saying he thinks crazy assholes are crazy and assholes, that just makes my crazy assholes mad. And you don’t want to get them mad — they’re crazy assholes.

last year, in the immediate wake of Jan. 6, about half of U.S. adults (52%) said Donald Trump bore a lot of responsibility for the violence and destruction committed by some of his supporters that day. Today, 43% say this. The share of adults who say Trump bears some responsibility has changed little since then, but more Americans now say Trump bears no responsibility for the mayhem caused by his supporters that day (32% today vs. 24% then). The new survey was conducted Jan. 10-17, prior to several developments involving the Jan. 6 investigation and Trump’s actions following the 2020 election

https://i.imgur.com/Gs9N6hT.png

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia

Where we are as a country https://t.co/zg58gNnIfj

— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) February 9, 2022

our country has always been where we are are as a country

The drop in Trump’s responsibility doesn’t seem that significant? He hasn’t been President for a year, large parts of the populace haven’t really thought about him at all.

Cool, definitely looking forward to this particular Canadian export:

https://www.insider.com/telegram-groups-discussing-trucker-convoys-to-protest-vaccine-mandates-2022-2

Dozens of right-wing groups are using Telegram to discuss organizing trucker convoys to protest vaccine mandates in Washington DC, following in the footsteps of ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Canada.

Since late January, thousands of Canadian truckers have been protesting COVID-19 lockdown measures and cross-border vaccination requirements as part of the "Freedom Convoy."

Right-wing Canadians who oppose pandemic measures and their government's response to the crisis have clogged the streets of Ottawa in protest, leading the mayor to declare a state of emergency on Sunday.

Insider has identified a handful of groups that are debating how to set up similar convoy protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, inspired by the Canada protests. The discussions have been scattered; some users want to protest in Washington DC, while others suggest targeting the Super Bowl.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if the Canadian one was a planned test run before the main event here.

We exported that shit to Canada

https://postercollector.co.uk/site/posters/2017/07/convoy-uk-one-sheet.jpg

The drop in Trump’s responsibility doesn’t seem that significant? He hasn’t been President for a year, large parts of the populace haven’t really thought about him at all.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, February 9, 2022 12:38 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yea I'm not sure how to parse this, the way Trump dominated every single news cycle for five consecutive years and then suddenly just...seemed to disappear the day he got banned from Twitter was such a huge shift in how every political issue got discussed. what we call "Trumpism" is something that has little to do with Trump himself; it's not like the man has any consistent positions on anything that doesn't directly involve him

I shouldn’t be and yet remain amazed me that everything we discuss in this thread might as well be happening in a bizarre alternate reality for most of the country

Hell, people in other countries probably keep up better than most Americans

i on purpose do not understand and know very little about the canadian long haul trucker situation, it cannot possibly benefit me to know more

our country has always been where we are are as a country

― snarl self own (Karl Malone), Wednesday, February 9, 2022 1:16 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ha i thought this was a sincere aimless post when i skimmed it

We exported that shit to Canada

Oh, definitely, but that doesn't mean we need to bring their tactics back over.

Before the election I got stuck in traffic a few times because of parades of huge pick-ups waving Trump flags. From a distance it looked like a fascist army was taking over the city, but when I got closer up it was a bunch of gray haired couples smiling and waving.

Hell, people in other countries probably keep up better than most Americans

haha, they do, on average, and that has been true since at least the first time i left the country on my own (2006), probably for decades before that.

ha i thought this was a sincere aimless post when i skimmed it

aimless would not have typo'd

i on purpose do not understand and know very little about the canadian long haul trucker situation, it cannot possibly benefit me to know more

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Wednesday, February 9, 2022 3:53 PM (sixteen minutes ago)

This is wise. My sister just tried to tell me about some Florida law making it illegal to mention racism to a white person and I made her stop

If some American truckers try to pull this shit, there are plenty of other truckers who'll gladly haul their trailers and make all the money

hm. ok I take it back, maybe you should learn about the Canada situation so you don't expect ^that to work

This is wise. My sister just tried to tell me about some Florida law making it illegal to mention racism to a white person and I made her stop

― rob, Wednesday, February 9, 2022 4:14 PM (two minutes ago)

Good afternoon!

Hi Alfred :)

If some American truckers try to pull this shit, there are plenty of other truckers who'll gladly haul their trailers and make all the money

We just have to lower CDL ages to 14 or 15 first.

If some American truckers try to pull this shit, there are plenty of other truckers who'll gladly haul their trailers and make all the money

― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, February 9, 2022 4:16 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

are there? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/business/truck-driver-shortage.html

not usually worth the attention, but holy shit

Just to clear things up, @RepMTG

Gazpacho: a vegetable-based Spanish cold soup
Gestapo: Nazi Germany's secret police pic.twitter.com/T9q76r706G

— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) February 9, 2022

What's up with those fuckers and soup?

the gazpacho will take you to the goulash

christ what an asshole

YES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6iSRU9486I

I don't know anything about Gary Chambers and maybe he's not actually a good candidate, but his viral campaign video game is strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj_FD25oREY

was hoping there'd be some convo re: gary chambers here. seems like a rad guy, but lol holy shit.

his website is much more pg.

i can't imagine he has any sort of chance??? hope i'm wrong though.

Taking credit for the latest variant starting to burn out is going to get funnier every time.

Democrats' plan to fight COVID is working - cases are down & vaccines are widely available. Now, it's time to give people their lives back.

With science as our guide, we're ready to start getting back to normal. https://t.co/ws1VCIIEy2

— Sean Patrick Maloney (@RepSeanMaloney) February 9, 2022

^ dog bites man headline

This 'Don't Say Gay' bill is repulsive, but tbh is also a sign that these ass-wipes are grasping at straws. Hateful and terrible straws.

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/09/1079541236/florida-dont-say-gay-bill

With the Gazpacho Police, every crime is a cold case

— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) February 9, 2022

Tomato, tomahto ...

Ford, Toyota halt some output as U.S., Canada warn on trucker protests
By Carlos Osorio, Blair Gable and Jarrett Renshaw

U.S.-Canada border crossings closed
U.S. and Canada working to reroute traffic
Copycat protests in Australia, New Zealand and France
Headway in one area, another protest elsewhere -minister
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadian-authorities-scramble-end-anti-vaccine-mandate-protests-2022-02-09/

Swastikas, confrontations with mask-wearers, desecration of First Nation areas etc.: from earlier news

it's about economic anxiety

https://www.grid.news/story/misinformation/2022/02/08/the-hacked-account-and-suspicious-donations-behind-the-canadian-trucker-protests/

Interesting investigation behind the trucker organizing

can't believe they've been reduced to using antifa tactics

Following outrage on the political right, the Biden administration said a grant program to help prevent additional harm to people who use illicit drugs will not pay for safer pipes to smoke crack or meth. https://t.co/66OOM3g80D

— The Associated Press (@AP) February 9, 2022

A spine made of gummy worms.

Laugh all you want. We're losing to these people. https://t.co/rjTOCqXGjP

— Brent S. Sirota (@BrentSirota) February 9, 2022

She's just 'smart' enough to have done this on purpose.

I really don't think she is

I don't know and don't care, but Sirota is correct.

Conservatives love to say that wear the scorn of coastal liberal media elites as a badge of honor; that's been true for a long time. The current information climate is just really hosed.

There was a recent story about a school system having to publicly state that they were NOT (repeat: NOT) providing litter boxes for students who identify as cats.

Classic case of "I know it's not true but I just want to see the bastard deny it." Which would be pretty high-level trolling if it were not being used in bad faith by bad people for bad purposes.

lotta links in here, incl. to paywalled, but this is the gist:
National Archives reportedly believes Trump took classified information to Mar-a-Lago, wants federal inquiry
PETER WEBER
2:04 AM
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) asked the Justice Department to look into former President Donald Trump's handling of classified information after discovering what it believes to classified documents among the 15 boxes of records it retrieved from Mar-a-Lago last month, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported Wednesday evening. The Justice Department told the National Archives to have its inspector general examine the matter, the Times adds.

The inspector general would be required to alert the Justice Department if any classified material was discovered in the records and mementos Trump took home from the White House, in pretty clear violation of the Presidential Records Act, the Times reports.

Prosecuting Trump for mishandling classified information would be politically and perhaps legally difficult. But if Trump did take classified documents back to his club in an insecure cardboard box, that's "much more serious" than violating the Presidential Records Act, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told CNN Wednesday night, and "the Justice Department, in my view, will have to investigate,"

"It would be, I think, intolerable for the department to have investigated Hillary Clinton over handling of classified emails and ignore allegations that Donald Trump may have brought classified documents" to Mar-a-Lago, Schiff argued. He called Trump's alleged actions actions "jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, grab-you-by-the-throat hypocrisy" after years of calling for Clinton to be locked up.
https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1010004/national-archives-reportedly-believes-trump-took-classified-information-to-mar

He called Trump's alleged actions actions "jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, grab-you-by-the-throat hypocrisy"

Someone's been reading Stephen King's blurbs

Intolerable!

it seems like some of the people on capitol hill are hypocrites?

soooooooooooo, just to save us all some time, let me guess:

respected professionals will voice their concerns in strongly worded op-eds

a congressional committee will hold investigations

there will be some sternly! worded! subpoenas!

trump enablers will say it's a political witch hunt and wHaTaBouT it into oblivion

republican legislators will stonewall, running out the clock until after they regain the majority

everyone else will yawn and go watch the football thing

Sweet merciful jeebus how many times have we already gone through this drill, with the same result every fucking time

yeah i'm sorry but i'm not excited for a new news cycle about a guy bringing paper to the wrong place

the one thing that intrigues me is that apparently he brought his "love letters" to kim jong un to mar-a-lago.

but yeah, i expect that if anything ever happens of consequence out of this, it will be the year 2065 and i'll be eating leather if i'm alive at all

grab-you-by-the-throat hypocrisy

There is no more 'gotcha' with the GOP - they willfully acknowledge the hypocrisy, it's not a bug but a feature

yes because wHaTaBouT

...o the committee is being blocked in several turns by some of these witnesses, but what they'll do is then they'll go down the ladder at the White House or the Trump campaign and find a lower-level person who may be willing to come in. And if that person isn't willing to come in, they'll go and find an even lower-level person. And eventually they will find somebody who was in the office or in the room and knows what happened and can talk about it even if his or her boss will not.

GROSS: And then they could keep going up the ladder?

BROADWATER: Absolutely. Yeah. The - some examples of this - Jeffrey Clark, who was a Department of Justice attorney who plead the fifth repeatedly in his interview with the committee, this was the man who was advising Donald Trump to take some very extreme actions, fire the head of the Justice Department, install him, declare that the election was fraudulent, really stuff that was undemocratic. And a bunch of other Justice Department lawyers stood up in that room and said they would all resign if Donald Trump went forward with Jeffrey Clark's plans. So Jeffrey Clark wouldn't testify, but some of the other lawyers in that room would. And then Jeffrey Clark's chief of staff has now testified.
Another example is Mark Meadows, his - he's the former chief of staff to the president. He initially cooperated with the committee. He turned over something like 9,000 pages of documents, including lots of text messages with, you know, Donald Trump's family and Fox News hosts and the like. And he stopped cooperating, refused to come in for an interview. But his - one of his former top aides sat for several hours of testimony before the committee. And they've had several other people inside the White House who were privy to some of the conversations between Mark Meadows and Donald Trump testify about what they saw and heard. So yes, they may not get full cooperation from many of the high-profile witnesses, but they will be able to piece together a pretty complete report about what happened even without some of them. Also prosecutors sending paper and stuff to Justice Dept---all of this to do with plans before Jan. 6, which seems like a last gasp Hail Mary frenzy of frustration in context: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/10/1079835695/how-trump-sought-to-use-fake-electors-conspiracy-theories-to-remain-in-power
From

From that same interview: One congressional Republican told me that the biggest fear of a Republican voter is not that the Democrats are out of control, it's that they will be betrayed by another Republican. And even/especially when they win again---aieeee

it's that they will be betrayed by another Republican

And these 'another Republicans' are straight-up RINOs, which now means anybody who's been a loyal party member since 1971 instead of 2016

where "betrayed" translates as "doesn't facilitate a white supremacist coup d'etat"

Unethical, untenable, as a sure-fire solution anyway: so you get the military, regulars or National Guard to seize voting materials, have a do-over election, as Flynn reccomends: how do you know the results will be any better? They might be worse, if enough people are more pissed at Trump and not too scared to vote.
But is it illegal? Interviewee says there's something in the electoral code about if twp sets of electoral votes are presented, one for each side, also this is part of the thing about finding legal justification:
GROSS: What about conspiracy to overturn the results of an election? Is that a crime?

BROADWATER: You know, I'm not sure. The count that I think is most likely is to obstruct an official proceeding of Congress. The other thing that they're looking at is whether there was any fraud in terms of the fundraising when spreading the so-called big lie that the election had been stolen. Various entities, including Sidney Powell's nonprofit, including the Trump campaign, raised millions and millions of dollars off of that. And could there be a case where they knew that this was a lie, and they defrauded many voters out of their hard-earned money? And so that's another - I do know that that is another avenue the committee is exploring.

One of the problems for prosecuting the attempt to overturn the election is that, by and large, Trump and his allies tried to exploit existing law. So now, maybe they went too far in some places. Maybe they did commit a crime. But they did, you know, closely read the Electoral Count Act. They did come up with some theories. I think most constitutional scholars would say they're incorrect theories, but that there was a way to change the outcome using Congress and not the ballot box. And while that - it's up to the Justice Department to see whether that was a crime. That - I think there's a lot of debate there. aieeeee

but that there was a way to change the outcome using Congress *if* you had evidence of fraud, right? And no Repub majority to just say there was. Fraud that therefore would have to be determined by the states, and courts, re those 60 suits that got shut down, and even the Trump-boosted Supremes betrayed Him.

I dunno, Mo Brooks told an interviewer that the House could have saved Trump, but didn't say how. I guess he thinks if Jan. 6 had necessitated another shot at certification, with surviving members of Congress including him? But that's ceremonial; the states had already certified. Which is why, for instance, Pence couldn't have saved the day for Trump (and if he did, Trump would be the saved one, the damsel in distress, Pence would be the saviour...)

putting the empire back in crumbling empire:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/us/politics/taliban-afghanistan-911-families-frozen-funds.html

WASHINGTON — President Biden will start to clear a legal path for certain relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to pursue $3.5 billion from assets that Afghanistan’s central bank had deposited in New York before the Taliban takeover, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations.

At the same time, Mr. Biden will issue an executive order invoking emergency powers to consolidate and freeze all $7 billion of the total assets the Afghan central bank kept in New York and ask a judge for permission to move the other $3.5 billion to a trust fund to pay for immediate humanitarian relief efforts and other needs in Afghanistan, the officials said.

The highly unusual set of moves, expected to be announced on Friday, is meant to address a tangled knot of legal, political, foreign policy and humanitarian problems stemming from the attacks and the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

When the Afghan government dissolved in August — with top officials, including its president and the acting governor of its central bank, fleeing the country — it left behind slightly more than $7 billion in central bank assets on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Because it was no longer clear who — if anyone — had legal authority to gain access to that account, the Fed made the funds unavailable for withdrawal.

The Taliban, now in control of Afghanistan, immediately claimed a right to the money. But a group of relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, one of several sets who had won default judgments against the group in once seemingly quixotic lawsuits years ago, sought to seize it to pay off that debt.

Meanwhile, the economy in Afghanistan has been collapsing, leading to a mass starvation that is in turn creating an enormous and destabilizing new wave of refugees — and raising a clear need for extensive spending on humanitarian relief.

Trump-like cruelty.

pure fucking fascist evil.

So the money is going to the relatives of 9/11 victims and humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan, and not the Taliban? Am I missing something here?

Lots of ways to respond to that, but principally: why does the US get to decide what happens to this money?

Why is the sovereignty of Afghanistan abrogated whenever the US decides it should be?

Like, yes, good PR move by Biden: you're gonna look like an asshole questioning why "certain relatives of victims" should get this money, even though there's no logical reason for it afaict and people are literally starving in Afghanistan, a country we have ruthlessly immiserated for 20 years with no one seizing our $$ and spending it on better things than bombs

I can understand that, it just seems pretty far removed from "Trump-like cruelty" and "pure fucking fascist evil" to me

Alas, most Americans don't give a fuck; all they'll hear is "9-11 victims" and "money."

It's evil, but not fascist -- it's bog-standard cruel American exceptionalism.

Good morning!

xp
ah ok gotcha, and I agree: this is normal American imperialism, nothing especially Trump-like about it (and I suspect xyzzzz agrees with me on that)

But a group of relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, one of several sets who had won default judgments against the group in once seemingly quixotic lawsuits years ago, sought to seize it to pay off that debt.

Biden would probably be fucked if he didn't do this

I guess we'll never know if his approval rating would have dropped from 41% to 37% if he hadn't taken billions of dollars from a country we've been trying to destroy for decades

This basically

“I can’t think of a worse betrayal of the people of Afghanistan than to freeze their assets and give it to 9/11 families,” Mr. Amundson said. “While 9/11 families are seeking justice for their loss through these suits, I fear that the end result of seizing this money will be to cause further harm to innocent Afghans who have already suffered greatly.”

Half the country is starving right now

ah ok gotcha, and I agree: this is normal American imperialism, nothing especially Trump-like about it (and I suspect xyzzzz agrees with me on that)

― rob, Friday, 11 February 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Piling this on top of sanctions is the kind of move Trump would be pulling.

I don't disagree, but so would Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan... I'm not persuaded Biden is somehow more bloodthirsty or cruel than his predecessors

there will be street parties all over the globe when than that yellowstone caldera goes pop. Coldly doing some right-wing populist stuff with one eye on the the polls, that results in more Afghan people starving to death is fascism in my book. A country where the police are a like armed expeditionary forces shooting poor black and brown skinned people for fun is also a fascist state in my book. Oh some of the money is going to US international aid foundations as well, what a fucking win!

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia approves of this forfeiture

the other $3.5 billion to a trust fund to pay for immediate humanitarian relief efforts and other needs in Afghanistan, which is not nothin', and hopefully will make a big difference, assuming its via responsible agencies etc---not clear to me that the other other $3.5 bill will all go to relatives, of which there can't be all that many--maybe more later for Afghanistan residents, refugees too---?

pipe dream yeah prob

We laugh, but Ted Cruz _really knows_ his pRon.

Ted Cruz is on porn patrol, reports @ngaudiano of @BusinessInsider. https://t.co/ynZoqIifUl

— Dave Levinthal (@davelevinthal) February 11, 2022

The Stuck Stepmother Berenstein Bears was a bridge too far.

Mike Pence, upon reading the news: “I sleep with mother, some nights!!”

The indignity of not being able to use your own money to buy food - there's plenty of food; there's just no money to pay for it - means that people are forced to line up just to get bread. What the World Food Program has been doing is handing out food from its own stockpile, so a lot of it is rotten and inedible. And they're also establishing food banks, where they dump food and people come and get it.

So there is no monitoring of who is getting access to food that is being handed out by the UN agencies. People stand in line for hours on end for a piece of bread. It's undignified, and I think that what is happening now with the money that really does belong to Afghan people being co-opted by the U.S. government in order to distribute half of it - $3 1/2 billion, as you said - to the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago, is really just going to exacerbate that misery.

SIMON: That will have to be litigated, won't it?
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/12/1080354189/biden-to-give-afghanistans-frozen-assets-to-humanitarian-aid-then-9-11-victims

This is how it's going to go for the rest of our lives. Every time a Democratic president tries to do something, some Trump judge will scream "major question doctrine! non-delegation doctrine!" and issue an injunction to stop it. As @StrictScrutiny_ puts it: No law, just vibes.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) February 11, 2022

That’s about a Trump appointed Federalist society member US District Judge in Louisiana barring implementation of a Biden executive order re carbon and climate

The polling from Global Strategy Group finds that among registered voters, Republicans hold an advantage over President Biden and Democrats on numerous economic metrics:

Republicans are more trusted to handle economic growth by 47 percent to 41 percent.
Republicans are more trusted on getting everyday rising costs under control by 45 percent to 40 percent.
Republicans are more trusted to handle inflation by 44 percent to 40 percent.
Republicans are more trusted to handle rebuilding the economy by 46 percent to 42 percent.

What’s brutal about this for Democrats is that early in 2021, they passed the covid-19 recovery act, which helped drive an economic recovery that, by many measures, has been surprisingly robust. Not a single Republican voted for it.

Divorce is messy.

Polls have been so fucked up and wrong and inaccurate the last several years that I generally discount any margin within, like, 5 points.

on one hand, the "robust" economic recovery doesn't feel that way too many people.
on the other, fuck, what do i know, i don't work, i don't have children, no one's counting on my paycheck
on the third hand, americans never have an idea of what the fuck is going on. you can ask them literally anything, even when their own birthday is; no fucking clue. "do what now?"

lol

The White House and top Democratic lawmakers are beginning to weigh a new push for a federal gas tax holiday, potentially pausing fees at the pump as part of a broader campaign to combat rising prices.

The early deliberations come days after a group of vulnerable Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would suspend the gas tax of roughly 18 cents per gallon for the rest of the year, which party lawmakers are expected to discuss at a lunch Tuesday. Asked about the proposal, the White House signaled that “all options are on the table,” as the administration tries to ease the growing financial burdens facing Americans during a period of high inflation.

on one hand, this sounds like a way to spend a MASSIVE amount of federal money while obtaining almost ZERO political benefit from it because americans are too dumb to know what happened.
on the other, fuck, the world is burning down and senate democrats are coming up with new ways to incentivize driving more
on the third hand, wow imagine if the build back better barf bill had passed and instead they were spending all this money on things that people want and need for the future. someone needs to reach deep up joe manchin's disgusting asshole, insert a tiny 600 pound mutant material from space and then push him off the boat near the mariania trench. he completely fucked everyone over

waaaaaaail i was gonna vote for trump again in 2024, especially since he executed some people live on tv last night, again, but then i remembered that the democrats, back in 2022, why they, they uh, the gasoline. it was so high back then. and then the democrats. or i think it was them. it's tough to think straight with all of the televised executions on the tucker carlson show these days

the "robust" economic recovery doesn't feel that way to many people.

The fact that amazingly large numbers of people have recently quit their jobs is a measure of how restless and dissatisfied people in the USA are feeling in general. It's a moment when making massive changes to how society operates fits the mood of the voters. They want to tear it down and start over.

It's tragic that the progressives among congressional Democrats understood this from the start, but weren't strong enough to get their agenda through. The Republicans are eager to deliver on that mood for big change and throwing stuff overboard, but their version is to swerve fast and hard toward fascism and laissez-faire capitalism. Looks like the Rs gonna get their way unless more hell breaks loose in ways that are hard to foresee.

on the other, fuck, the world is burning down

I missed the first comma and misread this as "on the other fuck," which I'm now going to make my new catch-phrase.

It's tragic that the progressives among congressional Democrats understood this from the start, but weren't strong enough to get their agenda through.

I know you don't mean to do this, but this places entirely too much blame on progressives, and not enough blame on corporatist centrist Dem shills who will kneecap anything progressive to keep their campaign and personal wallets bursting at the seam.

I understood Aimless to mean "weren't strong enough" against corporatist Dem shills.

I mean, we're literally watching a situation where people who are supposedly Democrats are siding with literal fascists because they love their mansions so much and can't see from their lofty view that normal people who would usually give them the benefit of the doubt are fucking furious.

Oh, I guess I didn't read it that way, but I wasn't trying to start a fight with Aimless— his general point was right!

Alfred is right. My own local US Representative is one of the ten worst corporatist Dem shills and I regularly email him to shovel the blame onto him as high and deep as I can. If there was ever a time to throw politics-as-usual aside and move boldly and swiftly to avert disaster, this session was it. Next session will be too late. Right now may be too late. Fucking asshole.

At the Senate Banking Committee markup for the 5 Fed governors, Republicans, targeting Sarah Bloom Raskin, have boycotted the vote. If they do they can block the nominees from getting to the Senate floor. @SherrodBrown blasted them in an opening statement. pic.twitter.com/WabBGaqJRO

— David Dayen (@ddayen) February 15, 2022

Republicans and corporate Dems running out the clock on current Congress session is terrible

that stuff upthread i said about trump executing people on live tv, that was satirical or at least not based on a true story. but then i just read about durham stuff and that his reaction was “In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death", and thought about how big of a tv event that would be and how many conservatives would want to watch that, as well as a lot of other people

we really haven't advanced or progressed any more than romans at the colosseum, on the whole

Live look at #VoterSuppression in Alabama.

Big arrow telling me to fill out the card.

What’s the card? Oh, just a form to take me off the voter rolls. 🙃 pic.twitter.com/LwGiuz4ZP0

— Jane Adams (@janeadamsid) February 15, 2022

Wow... that is repugnant as hell

Lol at the Secretary of State dipshitting up the replies

They have to know they’re toast, right?

Overlooked: VP Harris now is well underwater with her approval in her home state CALIFORNIA.

New Berkeley poll finds Harris approval at 38/46. Very hard to get that low for any California Democrat.https://t.co/hmNID8MILn

— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) February 16, 2022

Lol, Harris's approval for *what*?

yeah idk what that means, very few people have an actual opinion on Kamala, everyone's just exhausted and unhappy and therefore disapprove of everything

Trump was the most unpopular president in history and still got the most votes ever for a Republican in 2020, approval ratings maybe don't mean that much right now

AL Sec of State posted his cell phone # in the replies.

Just sayin’

Opinions are like kittens.

they have paws

Approval ratings are like listening to the murmurs of a crowd, gauging their volume, and detecting if they're angry murmurs or happy ones. They reflect the prevalent mood, but don't give much guidance on what to do to improve the public mood.

Right now the public mood is increasingly angry. It would probably help the administration's numbers if they sounded angry, too. The Republicans understand this very well and do everything they can to sound as angry as possible. The Democrats really, really want to tamp down the nation's anger, but that's not going to happen unless they address the cause of the anger. Their lame attempts to soothe the public will fail. At present they are a crippled party, incapable of providing the sorts of change the times demand, and purging the party of corporatist shills will just hand the country over directly to the crypto-fascists and Trump.

This sucks.

yeah idk what that means, very few people have an actual opinion on Kamala

this is a poll in the state of california.

Well, a Democratic presidential ticket that included Kamala Harris (in either slot) would still carry California. Seems likely that any Democratic ticket would. Blagojevich / Weiner '24! Woot!

The issue is not about California specifically as much as "if you've lost ___, you've lost the country." A candidate with low ratings in California will suffer more elsewhere.

sorry for posting obvs

yes.

they're asking people: do you approve of someone from your state, who is (for 70% of you) a member of your party and opposes the people you oppose, and getting "no" from most people. doesn't bode well.

I understand, but approve for what? what do they disapprove of?

her existence?

yes!

i agree it's not an accurate performance review based on deep understanding of her accomplishments. "approval" is however a historically very accurate predictor of electoral outcomes, even when there are no accomplishments.

i'm not expecting 80% given polarization but "historically bad and falling" seems bad.

she's basically a proxy for 'Biden and the Democrats'. she is in a powerless position, so there's nothing to approve or disapprove in her actions. the only reason to look at her numbers instead of Biden's is because she might be a presidential candidate in 2024 if Biden steps away.

I understand, but approve for what? what do they disapprove of?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, February 16, 2022 1:46 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

her existence?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, February 16, 2022 1:46 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

imagine someone in a voting booth, asking themselves the same questions

biden's numbers are also bad btw.

I feel like any poll like this in CA is going to lean artificially..
Q: What do you think of Kamala Harris?

Dem: I don't know, I guess she's alright?
GOP: SHE'S AWFUL I HATE HER SHE'S RUINED EVERYTHING!!!

i agree it's not an accurate performance review based on deep understanding of her accomplishments. "approval" is however a historically very accurate predictor of electoral outcomes, even when there are no accomplishments.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, February 16, 2022 1:48 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah historically but Trump seems to have ushered in an era where no candidate is liked by the majority. it makes the undecideds/independents very hard to gauge, as we found out in 2016. the pandemic has made everyone unhappy about everything. Republicans have stonewalled everything Biden has tried to do. idk we aren't really in normal times.

I don't really "approve" of Biden either. if polled I would say fuck no. I would still vote for him over literally any Republican.

trump didn't change anything wrt whether "approval" is useful. trump had approval ratings like these and his party lost 41 seats in the midterms, and the presidency and the senate in 2020.

I feel like any poll like this in CA is going to lean artificially..
Q: What do you think of Kamala Harris?

Dem: I don't know, I guess she's alright?
GOP: SHE'S AWFUL I HATE HER SHE'S RUINED EVERYTHING!!!

― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, February 16, 2022 3:06 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

you would hope! and yet.

otm, I'm unclear what people are arguing with caek about? Approval polls have been around for ages, so getting philosophical about what approval *really* means is kind of odd. The fact that Harris has done literally nothing of which to approve is a legit good reason to disapprove of her. Approval polls also have a "no opinion" option.

Anyway, if you clicked through to the article, the Feinstein numbers are even more remarkable. And if you clicked through to the thread, you got to read this genius insight:

Surveying these numbers in her home state, and thinking...

wouldn't it have made a lot of sense for both the Biden WH (and Harris, in her backyard) to speak out against the education extremism in her backyard? Would have spoken volumes they reject all the left-wing crazy.

— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) February 16, 2022

gee, that makes great political sense, because people hate "education extremism", and they hate "left-wing crazy" even more! what's not to like?

i assume that's an (extremely reductive) reference to the SFUSD recall.

US vice presidents are generally expected to speak up about local school board elections, aren't they?

ah ok, I don't even know what that recall is, but a subsequent retweet of Bill Krist0l indicates you are correct, caek

former u.s. vice presidents used to speak up about local school buses

i haven't read this piece, and my general impression with that situation is that it's a ink blot test rather than A Sign Of The Times, but here's one of the people who got recalled yesterday (by a margin of 3 to 1) https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-san-francisco-renamed-its-schools

Vice Presidents should stick to attacking fictional characters and shooting people

Biden should've asked Sister Soulja to be his veep.

that piece is also a year old, and apparently they screwed up reopening and testing very badly (relative to other CA school districts) in the meantime.

Also, millions of dollars in dark money flowed into the recall effort. Pretty sad that teachers seem to be bearing the brunt of everyone's frustrations with the pandemic.

It's also insane that the big "issues" in this next election appear to be a bunch of cockamamie CRT panic bullshit on the GOP side while the Dems try to gin up a new war in Eastern Europe and tar everyone with treachery if they don't get on board.

well surely a good war can bump these numbers up!

President Joe Biden is expected to ask Congress for a U.S. defense budget exceeding $770 billion for the next fiscal year as the Pentagon seeks to modernize the military, according to three sources familiar with the negotiations. @MichaelStone https://t.co/PoTE2vNyfE

— Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) February 16, 2022

The biggest cross-party complaint I read re: SF was the board's decision "to rename 44 schools they said honored public figures linked to racism, sexism and other injustices. On the list were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and California’s senior senator, Dianne Feinstein." At the least that stuff started the ball rolling. So did (as we discussed on the, um, Marvel movie thread) changing the nature of Lowell high school. Anyway, it's all in here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/16/san-francisco-school-board-recall

Which underscores that, yes, a school board can apparently be too far left, even for San Francisco, and especially when these actions and decisions were seen as distractions in the midst of a pandemic and various other crises faced by schools. If I understand correctly, even the Mayor (who chooses the replacements) supported the recall effort.

Which ... yeah, some of that was in the New Yorker piece caek posted. But Alison Collins was apparently also problematic. From the Guardian piece:

Collins came under fire for tweets she wrote in 2016 that said Asian Americans used “white supremacist” thinking to get ahead. Collins said the tweets were taken out of context and posted before she held her school board position.

But she refused to take them down or apologize for the wording and ignored calls to resign from parents, Breed and other public officials. She sued the district and her colleagues for $87m, fueling yet another pandemic sideshow. The lawsuit was later dismissed.

^that was the detail where I reached "ok yeah this person should maybe not be in charge of anything."

But I fully support stripping the names of real people from basically everything—especially the three people in that list—though I couldn't tell from what I read if they were coming up with new people's names or, much more wisely, picking trees or birds or something

The New Yorker interview posted above revealed a totally incoherent justification for renaming. But I do think naming schools after plants and animals would be awesome, though we'd probably get just as many "Eagle Elementary" names as we have Washington and Lincoln.

Collins' lawsuit was stupid and wrong, but she's right about what she said. So much of this is about not letting the "wrong" type of students into precious Lowell, rather than actually caring about improving the rest of the school system.

Harris keeps getting made point-woman on failures and unpopular policies, you might even suspect people in Biden's orbit are undermining her lest she get antsy about 2024...

Did y'all read about the recall in Shasta? absolutely fucked story

To be fair, most San Francisco political battles in the last 25 years have been the far left pitted against the far-far left, or vice versa

Did y'all read about the recall in Shasta? absolutely fucked story

― rob, Wednesday, February 16, 2022 1:39 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I just did, but I have to say that given my time spent living in every single county adjoining Shasta county, no amount of right-wing nuttery in that part of the country surprises me.

I mean, in Siskiyou, the sheriff quite literally sent militia to Hmong households with machine guns, telling them that they couldn't vote in upcoming elections. When I voted in the 2016 primary, there were two Hmong dudes with sidearms outside the polling place— no joke.

And I don't blame them, I should add. Far northern California is certainly among the more racist places I've ever lived. It's a shame, too, it's so beautiful.

Wow that machine guns story is insane. My partner's parents lived in Eureka for a while and I heard some wild stories, though luckily it was a brief stay.

Eureka/Humboldt sill has the vestiges of the old back-to-the-landers, and a pretty hippish college.. yes there are trumpers but also surfers and retired professors etc.

I don't think Shasta County (and the nearby counties) has much of that kinda influence anymore

But even in Humboldt/Mendocino, it's not a far jump from peaceful rural hippie to armed rural hippie who hates paying taxes and deeply mistrusts the gov't

the SF school board being stupid is the only thing most people in SF, across the political spectrum, agree on (most. not everyone, but most).

If sure London Breed packing the board with a bunch of cronies will fix everything.

If I'm

London Breed sounds like an alias Stephen King used for Randall Flagg in some mid-90s novel I never read.

Marcus H. Johnson@marcushjohnson·3h
So much doom and gloom. Idk why. Biden’s Presidency is the best the Dem coalition could have hoped for. Likely only 2020 class candidate who could defeat Trump. Economy booming. We collectively chose some inflation vs multi years recession. Great market for labor. No US wars.

He fails to realize that politics is about vibes and the vibes are off.

Perhaps because when you have Democrats saying this like “the economy is booming” and “a little inflation” and “strong market for labor” it ignores that inflation outpaced wages and rents are up 10%+.

For whom does it feel like the economy is booming?

lol
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-696650

The formation of the State of Israel is "the greatest political achievement of the 20th century," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told reporters at the Knesset on Wednesday.

Breed is also terrible which is the only other thing people in SF agree on.

https://theintercept.com/2022/02/15/saudi-arabia-gas-price-oil/

“My read of the difference is basically that what happened is that the White House pressed for OPEC/OPEC+ and/or Saudi Arabia to increase oil production,” Ellen Wald, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told The Intercept in an email. “Saudi Arabia’s response was that it is operating within the confines of its commitments to OPEC+. … I also don’t see Saudi Arabia pushing to renegotiate the deal to allow for greater production increases.” As a result, high gas prices could persist into the midterm elections, where they have historically had an acute influence on voter behavior.

...If the refusal to increase oil exports is politically motivated, it’s unclear what the solution might be, short of quitting our fossil fuel habit. “The answer ultimately is, ultimately meaning the next three or four years, is investing in renewable energy,” Biden said at the October CNN town hall.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, said that the conflict underscores the importance of lifting sanctions on Iran — another major oil producer that Biden could work with to elide Riyadh’s refusal to boost oil exports.

“A major benefit of the JCPOA [Iran nuclear deal] is that it can help reduce American dependence on and vulnerability against Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” Parsi said. “Saudi Arabia will have less ability to hurt the U.S. with its oil weapon if Iranian oil is back in the markets.”

no not investing in renewable energy, anything but that

not until Joe Manchin says it's OK

What should Biden be doing about inflation?

I remember when Nixon imposed nationwide wage and price restrictions. it never really worked and the whole effort crumbled in about five months. but he looked like he was trying.

What should Biden be doing about inflation?

This is irrelevant, really, to the doom and gloom the tweet you posted is decrying. Biden can’t magic away rent increases either. But they’re the reality and no amount of cheerleading changes that.

Looking you’re trying to do something would probably be more effective than rattling sabers with Russia, though.

“This is the best you were ever gonna get” is probably not a good choice for the midterm slogan.

Perhaps because when you have Democrats saying this like “the economy is booming” and “a little inflation” and “strong market for labor” it ignores that inflation outpaced wages and rents are up 10%+.

For whom does it feel like the economy is booming?

I would guess for workers with wages in the bottom quartile, who are the ones for whom wages are outpacing inflation. People with lots of debt too, since it shrinks in real terms. People who have left crappy jobs for better jobs because the labor market is so tight that they have options.

For wealthy people with lots of savings, inflation has no upside (then again, for wealthy people with lots of savings, nothing that happens economically has real downsides either, they're fine.)

xp - They could dust off Happy Days Are Here Again, but I wouldn't recommend it

I would guess for workers with wages in the bottom quartile, who are the ones for whom wages are outpacing inflation

Perhaps! This doesn’t seem to show up in public opinion, though - and wages in those sectors have managed to outpace inflation by a point or two, while they’re the category most impacted by those 10-15% rent increases.

If you’re doing 1% better than you were in 2019, I’m not sure you’re likely to pick “booming” when the opinion pollster corners you. The best economy ever lines sounded like bullshit when Trump was spewing them in 2018-19 too.

I thought this was good re: SF:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/02/san-francisco-school-board-recall/?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

I haven’t read the piece. It’s probably fine. But worth noting that Jefferys lives in SF and has been posting about this (basically advocating for recall) for several months.

As someone not a resident, I found the article's thoroughness educational.

Lawsuit reveals that lawyers for the 9/11 victims promised lobbyists a cut of the $$$ they win from foreign assets. New filings show lawyers are already scrambling to grab a slice of the $3.5 billion seized from the Afghan people - while millions starve. https://t.co/g30mhsonfv

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) February 17, 2022

https://theintercept.com/2022/02/16/afghanistan-funds-biden-september-11-lawyers-lobbyists/

Whatever the Talibans' faults are - and they are legion - absconding with the Afghan people's money to pay 9/11 victims is just wrong. If anything, Saudi Arabia should be coughing up the dough

On another note. For your daily dose of schadenfreude:

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/02/nick-kristof-cant-run-for-oregon-governor-supreme-court-rules.html

This is where we're at:

This is the candidate for those who asked pic.twitter.com/CciXULK4s2

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) February 17, 2022

A fool and her money

(Or someone's money)

Send Jesus, guns, and babies, dad, get me out of this.

LOL

Jesus, I renounce my sinning ways and put my life entirely in Your wise and loving hands, as long as you keep Your gun-grabbing hands off my arsenal of semi-automatic weapons.

Jesus guns babies

New phone, KANDISS?

Will that be the plot for the third season of The Righteous Gemstones?

https://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Mandarin-Iron-Man-Marvel-Comics-Milestone-h.jpg

Apparently it's Dr. Kandiss Taylor, though it's not immediately clear what sort of doctor she is

The Mandarin keeps a list.

I suspect Soto is posting an ideologically recoloured version there

do not start reading this tale if you are in a hurry!

Scoop - WH aides divided over how much to blame corporate power for inflation, w/ 1 senior official's prepared remarks recently altered to omit the argument

CEA seen as most wary of blaming corporate power

Dem pollsters say doing so is hugely popularhttps://t.co/8ePwSCm2NK

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 17, 2022

God I hope they choose the right thing between what their donors want and what's "popular."

Just blame evil corporations like hobby lobby and chick-fil-a

Blame the consumers. They like it.

Raise your hand if you didn't see this coming.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMIDu6iX0AA-iNc.jpg

Trump's next running mate

I mean, she's a hustler. She'll figure out where she can make the most money.

I think we got em this time!

Led by Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson, the GOP’s Trump wing appears to be throwing its weight behind Putin. If Putin opts to wage war on our ally, Ukraine, such “aid and comfort” to an “enemy” would appear to become “treason” as defined by Article III of the U.S. Constitution

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) February 21, 2022

For a law prof at Harvard, he's remarkably stupid.

That kind of rhetoric is so dumb, both on its face and also because it just feeds this whole idea of locking up your political opponents. Not a fan of that being part of the discourse.

Fucking Mike Pence ended up being too centrist for Trump. I'm guessing Tucker will be his running mate. Only they will be able to contain Putin.

lol that tweet is already deleted

Somehow I neglected until just not to come to terms with Trump’s inevitable 2024 run involving an entirely new VP candidate, and wondering how it ends up being anyone other than Mike Lindell

VeePillow

In case there was any doubt, Nixon has been fully brought in from the cold.

Happy Presidents’ Day! pic.twitter.com/8lanpKXO10

— GOP (@GOP) February 21, 2022

Interesting they left Teddy off of there.

Silent Cal got his gold star, but they deep-sixed Harding, Hoover, Hayes, Grant, & Andy Johnson.

When I am elected as Governor of Georgia, I will invite Blaire Erskine to sit with me and talk about all the issues the corrupt establishment has left behind https://t.co/R8UoK35UC7

— Kandiss Taylor (@KandissTaylor) February 22, 2022

this is the Jesus Guns Babies lady so maybe not the sharpest crayon in the drawer but still lmao

Does she really not get the joke? Or is she somehow trying to be clever?

I think she does not get the joke and is trying to be clever. Or maybe she does not get the joke but her evil millennial socials team are trying to be clever.

TBH I just wish she was dead. (not Blaire, she's funny, generally)

Yeah I ❤️ Blaire. Just seems like a weird set of tweets. But obv Kandiss Taylor is a kook so anything’s possible.

"Your fetus could be a Jesus."

Anyone else following the smart campaign from Philly progressive Rep candidate Alexandra Hunt? I'm tempted to get one of her awesome shirts:

https://store.alexandramhunt.com/apparel/

Your fetus could be a Jesus, sure, but why stop there.

Your ova could give rise to the next Anna Pavlova.

Your zygote could find the antidote.

Your gamete could retweet, or be in The English Beat.

Your placenta could hold the next Oscar de la Renta.

Your wombs could accommodate the next Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.

Your spermatazoa could help produce a documentary as powerful as Shoah.

Your semen could help produce a writer as prolific as Douglas Southall Freeman.

fp

Your fetus could be a Jesus, sure, but why stop there.

Your ova could give rise to the next Anna Pavlova.

Your zygote could find the antidote.

Your gamete could retweet, or be in The English Beat.

Your placenta could hold the next Oscar de la Renta.

Your wombs could accommodate the next Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.

Your spermatazoa could help produce a documentary as powerful as Shoah.

Your semen could help produce a writer as prolific as Douglas Southall Freeman.

― un chien boogaloo (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, February 22, 2022

see this is why Ginsberg's poetry leaves me cold

I denounce myself

your fertilized egg could produce a song as proficient as Steely Dan's "Peg"

Who would be playing the guitar solo, tho?

your mom

It's not going to be very good then

That's not what I heard.

Only oil and gas, who cares?

“Russia is incredibly unimportant in the global economy except for oil and gas,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard economist who was an adviser to President Barack Obama. “It’s basically a big gas station.” https://t.co/b5EU8PPcnN

— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) February 21, 2022

Re: Alexandra Hunt, I like her policy positions but feel more than a little side-eye because I'm not really sure a white woman, even one who has struggled, should be representing areas that are majority Black, and tbh, I don't think she has much of chance.

I mean, it also just strikes me a little strange that the bio section of her website is...empty...yet her store has lots of t-shirts and designs.

I don't want my representatives to be wasting their fucking time on Twitter, I want them to actually be doing substantive work in their communities, and I'm not totally sure I can see much evidence of that.

Her site has a bio:

https://www.alexandramhunt.com/about/

That is SO WEIRD, it was showing up as blank for me like 20 minutes ago.

she hears her (prospective) constituents

Okay, I mean I still get a white woman savior vibe which icks me out, but I'd certainly support her over our current rep, who is an establishment Dem who hasn't done much for his constituency since he was elected in 2019. Doesn't help that he lives in a small neighborhood that is part of his district, whereas the biggest chunk of the district is where I live— a 40 minute drive between the two on a good day.

Your embryo could write Alexandra Hunt's bio.

His office also might as well be in the suburbs, it's so far away from everything.

"In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a https://t.co/6xShhIn0ZM analysis of properties with two or fewer bedrooms."https://t.co/yp2GwgfjB2

— Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (@OlufemiOTaiwo) February 22, 2022

seems like this might be bad

As the old saying goes, "Landlords! You can't live with them, so let's kill them all."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8PI0zauruk

Miami's awful. Home of crypto bros buying property on Brickell and driving up rent everywhere.

Rents in Jersey are fuuuuucked. I'm seeing $2500+ for apartments now.

Weird to compare to December 2020, when rental prices were super low, due to everyone fleeing from cities during the height of the pandemic. Or am I wrong about that?

the COVID dip wasn't that large (and didn't effect most cities AFAIK)

https://www.realtor.com/research/december-2021-rent/

how is all of this is related to US politics

How does the ability of working people to afford to live relate to US politics?

Hmmmmmmm

Here's a question for all you politics/tech people. I don't know how social media algorithms and whatnot work, but how come when some GOP jackass like Marsha Blackburn or Ronny Jackson or whoever says some stupid shit on Twitter, when I go to see the comments it's nothing but people dunking on them? I assume they have fans, shouldn't they be posting "yeah!" or whatever? Do they just not post on Twitter, or is Twitter keeping the responses from me? Like, I go to Taylor Green's Twitter, her official account, and she posts some sort of anti Biden BS, but I go to the comments looking for people giving her a high five or something and it's nothing but people making fun of her.

xps to Dan -- It's very related to the way most voters perceive of politics, which is that 'the people running the country are screwing up because everything is getting worse, not better'. it's simple. it's direct. it swings elections. and it tends to misidentify who is really running the country.

Josh dont the likers retweet and comment there or something. The haters just hate in situ

"how come when some GOP jackass like Marsha Blackburn or Ronny Jackson or whoever says some stupid shit on Twitter, when I go to see the comments it's nothing but people dunking on them?"

that's my experience too, they are clearly jackasses and are spouting stupid shit, but I'm wondering if I'm not seeing all of the responses. why would they post if they're just going to be mocked

It adds to their martyr complexes.

Aren’t half the conservatives over on truth social or whatever

Is Parler still a thing?

I think there are a half dozen conservative social media sites or grifter upstarts. Doesn't the Pillow guy have one? And isn't Devin Nunes running one? Then there's Parler (right?), but also something like Getter or something? I dunno, I like the idea of these morons having premium accounts on all of them and just talking to each other and/or FBI plants.

why would they post if they're just going to be mocked

guessing here, but if you have tens of thousands of followers, most of them are there to hear what you have to say, not what your mockers respond. the presumption that the first 50 mocking replies would represent the typical twitter follower of anyone at all on twitter makes no sense to me. you don't swarm in and shout down people to whom no one listens.

why would they post if they're just going to be mocked

you're asking this on ILX

they don't look at the replies

getting mass dunked on (which I def cop to participating in sometimes even though I know better) is fucking great for your engagement, which brings up your algorithm ranking, which gives you a larger reach and makes it more likely that Twitter or whichever will put yr tweets in someone’s timeline who isn’t looking for them

they don’t care what you’re saying to them, simply that you’re saying anything is a win

I sure hope no one nominates a racist reality TV show host, has an ethnic conflict, fails to contain a pandemic, or invades a country while these algorithms control most of what we read!

US conservatism is mostly an echo chamber, it’s not like they really have that much to discuss. But the point about retweets was probably otm.

This shit.

Greg Abbot has officially directed Family and Protective Services to begin investigating all trans children in Texas and prosecuting their parents as child abusers.

He has also instructed all teachers, doctors, and caregivers to begin reporting any trans students they see. pic.twitter.com/AO4FdYNuym

— Erin, Trail Mom (@ErinInTheMorn) February 23, 2022

Is Parler still a thing?

Apparently Melania signed some kind of deal with Parler at the exact time they were launching "Truther" or whatever it's called

What is the opposite of virtue signaling? Performative cruelty?

That Greg Abbot shit is horrifying and breathtakingly cynical.

Florida Man:

WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Rick Scott wants to rescue the nation by declaring men and women biologically different, raising taxes on low-income earners and spurring children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

“I’ll warn you; this plan is not for the faint of heart. It will be ridiculed by the ‘woke’ left, mocked by Washington insiders, and strike fear in the heart of some Republicans,” Scott says. “At least I hope so.”

The first plank in the former Florida’s governor’s plan involves children saying the Pledge of Allegiance, something which already happens daily in schools across Florida and the nation.

READ MY LIPS: NO NEW TAXES except on low-income earners

well, they blinked:

POLITICO contacted 27 Republican Senate campaigns asking whether their candidate agreed with the income tax proposal outlined in Scott’s new plan — just a single Senate candidate provided an official position on the details: Rep. Billy Long, a Missouri Republican seeking to replace retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt. The income tax point was out of the question, he said.

“I agree with former Missourian Sen. Rick Scott that we need a plan before we take back the Senate, and while I agree with 95% of it, this suggested income tax hike is ill advised,” Long said in a statement, referring to Scott’s time living in Missouri as a college student and young adult. “Inflation is a huge tax increase on all Americans already, so Joe Biden already beat Rick to the punch on raising taxes.”

Long then described a recent trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods for ammunition, when he walked out empty-handed after noticing the price had nearly doubled.

“Every time folks purchase anything the sales tax meter is spinning,” Long said. “I vote no to any income tax increase.”

Three other Republican Senate campaigns — for Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama, Chuck Morse in New Hampshire and Adam Laxalt in Nevada — replied with general comments that their candidates oppose raising taxes.

“His entire career, Mo Brooks has fought tax increases because he believes money belongs in the hands of the people who earned it, not the government,” said Brooks’ campaign spokesperson Will Hampson, before proceeding to attack Brooks’ opponent Katie Britt, who supported a 2019 Republican-led gas tax increase as head of the Business Council of Alabama.

That's what I need to do: stalk senators at Dick's.

A nice change of pace from stalking dick at senators'.

and while I agree with 95% of it, this suggested income tax hike is ill advised

one thing missourians do 99% more than most americans is make up statistics on the spot. they're always like 9 out of 10 or so

95% is hilarious because it commits us all to the idea that there are at least 20 things and that he agrees with at least 19 of them. someone should press billy long on the other 19+ points that he does agree with

about 85% of reporters wouldn't think to ask in the first place

in happier news:

https://rollcall.com/2022/02/23/courts-adopt-new-house-maps-that-favor-democrats-in-pa-nc/

Long then described a recent trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods for ammunition, when he walked out empty-handed after noticing the price had nearly doubled.

gun control at last

read the url as democrats in pa-nic

Apparently Melania signed some kind of deal with Parler at the exact time they were launching "Truther" or whatever it's called

REAlly? I hope that is true.

yeah, she's going rogue:

Parler announced on Wednesday that it is engaging in a social media "special arrangement" with former first lady Melania Trump where she will share “exclusive communications” on the social media network.

Parler said that Trump would share "exclusive communications on Parler," noting it is already powering her blockchain technology and nonfungible token platform, MelaniaTrump.com.

LOL

She's as big a grifter as her husband. I wonder how long they'll stay married.

man, this is like Beyonce signing exclusively to Pono

Long then described a recent trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods for ammunition, when he walked out empty-handed after noticing the price had nearly doubled.

gun control at last

Wasn't this Chris Rock's idea? Sell guns to anybody who wants one, but bullets cost $5000 each?

Diane Feinstein was exploring that approach at one point... the 2nd Amendment makes no mention of ammunition, so why not require a thumbprint or something for all purchases

because the 2nd amendment not mentioning things has not historically made much of a difference to the conservatives on the SC

I'm expecting a ruling soon that inflation infringes upon the right to bear arms and thus govt spending is unconstitutional

Hell, even the mention of things doesn't make much difference . . . the dangling participial clause at the front of the Amendment is pretty much waved off.

fun to remember that as recently as 2016, ted cruz was still calling trump a pathological liar

Had a fantastic time visiting today with the great ⁦@HerschelWalker⁩ and then interviewing him in front of hundreds of supporters & patriots at Mar-A-Lago.

A red wave is coming! pic.twitter.com/KZQnyMISf7

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 23, 2022

oh yes, great funn

Yeah, and Trump accused Cruz's father of killing JFK, and made rude comments on his wife's appearance, but now they're besties

the harder part is imagining experiencing the thrill of being the very best athlete on a field of incredible athletes, with entire stadiums of 80,000+ people screaming their guts out cheering you on as you do this thing that's uniquely human and physical...

and then flash forward 30 years and ted cruz is owning you

I'm totally getting civil war vibes these days :/

the civil war never ended

but yeah, different than the 1861-1865 one

i have to say, i deeply understand the parent against child, sibling vs sibling etc dynamic that happened then, just the total conflict of how to conduct life and what is acceptable

lads

what the fuck is happening in the ukraine

Good evening!

FFS don't post about Ukraine in the American Politics thread, take it to the Ukraine thread! We must respect the borders between our threads!

omg why am i being attacked by beasts itt!

i caNT TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!121

Sorry, forgot the sarcasm tags

My ILX career is a sarcasm tag

Asked mods for permanent sarcasm tag, absolutely no response

I'm totally getting civil war vibes these days :/

the last civil war was about slavery, this one will be about bathroom access

and about slavery

i have to say, i deeply understand the parent against child, sibling vs sibling etc dynamic that happened then, just the total conflict of how to conduct life and what is acceptable
― dig your way out of the shit with a gold magic shovel! (Karl Malone), Wednesday, February 23, 2022 4:57 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm watching the sopranos right now for the first time and it's oddly relevant although i may be projecting

I'm totally getting civil war vibes these days :/

The other day, over dinner, my Trump worshiping mil said there needs to be “a cleansing” which apparently would wipe out “half the country” (presumably the hated libs). Because… in part at least, there is no “respect”?? She was a little fuzzy on the why.

Many people were saying

said there needs to be “a cleansing”

Where does she get this shit? Also the libs invented social security

It's really ramping up everywhere. I'm sure other red state legislatures are going as bonkers as ours is this year, they're talking about "anti-CRT" bills aimed at higher ed that are almost certainly all 1st Amendment violations, wholesale dismantling of the public schools, crackdowns on libraries ... a lot of it either won't pass or will get blocked by courts (for now), but it feels like the lid has kind of come off. And it's almost all disconnected from reality, it's based on imaginary things they've heard about via Fox or ALEC or CPAC or Claremont or whatever, none of it is real, but they're making real legislation based on total fictions.

What's crazy is that FOX and the even-further right media think they can in any way control or steer the craziness they've unleashed in North America or that they would not suffer huge damage from the sort of violent unrest they are actively propagating. Since the sowing-reaping dichotomy is overdone lately, I'll invoke the person riding on the back of a tiger from which they cannot get down without being eaten.

It is a little breathtaking. Like if the SC does invalidate civil rights laws, do you think Clarence Thomas is going to be able to get served in restaurants in certain parts of the country? Can Gorsuch imagine being turned away from a place of business because he's a Christian nightmare, and who wants to serve perfectly good food to a bucket of trash in a skin suit?

But the fact that they might not care and just go ahead and do it is why I wrote what I wrote earlier.

Yeah, I don't think you're wrong. I also agree that we've been fighting the same war more or less at least since 1865, this is all the same fight, or same fights. I just don't know what form it takes. There are lots of possibilities of violence, state and non-state. Also a lot of grinding legalistic harassment as legislatures find various ways to criminalize "radical" ideologies — and who knows what our new SCOTUS will decide the First Amendment says about that.

It is a little breathtaking. Like if the SC does invalidate civil rights laws, do you think Clarence Thomas is going to be able to get served in restaurants in certain parts of the country? Can Gorsuch imagine being turned away from a place of business because he's a Christian nightmare, and who wants to serve perfectly good food to a bucket of trash in a skin suit?

They're also comfortably assuming that libs refusing service to Gorsuch (or to white Christians or etc.) would be destroyed where the caterer who refuses to bake a 'gay wedding cake' would be inundated with orders from likeminded troglodytes.

Oh yeah I mean look at what happened at that restaurant in Virginia when the owner asked one of the Trump gang (forget who) to leave.

this shit is kinda eerie

Russian state broadcaster RT just published Tucker Carlson’s rant to defend Putin with Russian subtitles pic.twitter.com/atmHt4TlmS

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) February 23, 2022

This is incredible, in the worst way possible. Laura Ingraham is blaming the Russia investigation for Russia’s decision to declare war on Ukraine.

I am speechless. pic.twitter.com/wgEgFIefAv

— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) February 24, 2022

On Fox, Donald Trump shares his thoughts on the invasion of the Ukraine: "It all happened because of a rigged election."

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 24, 2022

Laura Ingraham calls Zelensky plea for Russia not to invade his country earlier today a "pathetic" display, as Ukraine is under attack.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 24, 2022

More stupidity

This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border

— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) February 24, 2022

Why do I think that all this weird obeisance to Vladimir Putin somehow spilled naturally out of the fact that when Donald J. Trump, super-ambitious real estate developer and inept businessman went bankrupt for the Nth time, Russian bankers decided to loan him large sums of money anyway?

ALSO: Russian hookers were filmed peeing on a mattress.

Did you guys discuss the Texas trans kids reporting thing? Seems bad.

With reference specially to what’s happening in the US: I’ve said it before and don’t enjoy saying it, but it feels like we’re (as a country) shadowboxing around and leaning hard into full on “Charlottesville” everywhere.

It’s like living in a Texas tinderbox during a spectacularly dry and hot August.

My hearts go out to those of you in red states. I’m in Maryland so the insanity is slightly remote to me, but, y’know the world has me thinking about “Children of Men” a lot lately.

Lol military action.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is indefensible. The U.S. is right to impose targeted sanctions on Putin & his oligarchs. We also must work with our allies to prepare for a refugee crisis on a massive scale. Finally, any military action must take place with Congressional approval. https://t.co/XpQqwEKlN0

— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) February 23, 2022

not sure what is lol about that, please elucidate

is it not our duty to defend them

i don't think you guys can read because that isn't what she said.

ah yeah good catch

like all of you I fear the US is going to make things worse but I still think we kinda have to do something, no?

That's a good thread title for March but too many characters, I fear

I think it was wrongly worded because it should be no war whether there is approval for it or not xp

We’ll make sure AOC has heard your opinion.

You couldn't make sure your arse was wiped properly, nevermind anything else.

Did you guys discuss the Texas trans kids reporting thing? Seems bad.

You couldn't make sure your arse was wiped properly, nevermind anything else.

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, February 24, 2022 9:29 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The Marxist missed his anger management session.

Nobody is angry. Don't worry yourself.

my only hope about the Texas law is that it turns out to be totally unenforceable

What's crazy is that FOX and the even-further right media think they can in any way control or steer the craziness they've unleashed in North America or that they would not suffer huge damage from the sort of violent unrest they are actively propagating. Since the sowing-reaping dichotomy is overdone lately, I'll invoke the person riding on the back of a tiger from which they cannot get down without being eaten.

These impulses are something Monbiot has been harping on a bit lately. His thesis is basically that the actual motivation for much of the political action on the right these days comes from industries that can only continue to reap massive profits by completely dismantling the regulatory state. I try not to be too cynical but let’s be real — after the fall of Rome, the patrician slaveowners were the ones who came out on top sadly. I don’t know that Fox will directly benefit from civil strife, but if it significantly weakens public oversight of industry then ExxonMobil sure as hell will, for the short term at least.

my only hope about the Texas law is that it turns out to be totally unenforceable

― frogbs, Thursday, February 24, 2022 8:10 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i don't know anything but it immediately struck me as unenforceable

disgusting inhuman grandstanding to own the libs still bad

It's almost as bad as enforcing me. Imagine the scotch-sozzled conversations in which these fuckwits titter about how to own the libs.

me = it

But won't someone think of the children?

Texas bill is so deeply depressing. not surprising truly, but depressing.

tbh my take on the state of the world and its future is pretty dim these days. somewhere in the tail end of the Trump administration and COVID i think i lost a lot of unquestioned assumptions about possible positive aspects of the future. maybe it's partly being much more cut off from the buoying influence of human content, idk. probably why my posting here is even more focused on light and entertaining things than usual.

It's almost as bad as enforcing me. Imagine the scotch-sozzled conversations in which these fuckwits titter about how to own the libs.

like all of you I fear the US is going to make things worse but I still think we kinda have to do something, no?

Maybe the realization in this moment should be that there is no "doing something" and it would be better for the US to not immediately leap to that assumption. It's obvious that there's no will in the US to go to war for Ukraine (or, say, Taiwan), leaving sanctions as the only tool - but sanctions are usually harmful to the innocent populace and ineffective. The one good idea floated is taking on oligarchs' money flowing around the world, but our oligarchs are never going to stand for that because they use the same bankers.

it'll be interesting to see if trump even attempts to recalibrate his anti-nato stance as this unfolds, or if (as i suspect, because it's worse) he'll just full-throat go Russia, this is Biden's fault, as he did when Crimea occurred (obama's fault, not putin's), and as the fox heads are crowing now

tbh i'm genuinely surprised at how fox news is handling this news, given they are self-interested cynics not actual people who believe in anything, and this

.@EconUS/@YouGovAmerica:

Opinion of Vladimir Putin

% Fav/Unfav
Voters 9/78
Biden voters 5/88
Trump voters 9/76
Dem 7/82
GOP 10/74
Ind 9/72
Men 12/74
Women 6/74
Lib 3/89
Mod 11/73
Con 12/71
18-29: 12/63
30-44: 13/64
45-64: 6/80
65+: 5/85

Jan. 29 - Feb. 1https://t.co/bnKivOLcgs pic.twitter.com/2SgWRqupvg

— Aron Goldman (@ArgoJournal) February 12, 2022

i honestly think that hardcore conservative leaders, including many on fox, do admire, if not putin himself, the kind of autocratic society he oversees and the kind of power that he holds. i think they (rightly) see themselves as the autocrats who come out on top, in that kind of world, and also recognize that they can change public perception over time.

i dunno, could be wrong

I have seen people in all seriousness defend Russia as the last bastion of Christianity in the West.

i think racism has a lot to do with it too

also, the fox news strategy works on their own viewers, because they can just change direction and they know everyone will just nod along to it. it's in the script instructions: "some strange things will happen in this improvised play. your core instruction: whatever the person on your network says is accurate and you believe in it, no matter how different it is from what it was the previous appearance."

[w]Many top hosts for Fox News and other conservative media voices are blaming the White House for supposedly enabling Russia’s attack on Ukraine — even some of the same personalities who previously ridiculed President Biden’s warnings that an invasion was imminent.

“It’s just extraordinary what this president has allowed our adversaries to do,” Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo told viewers Thursday morning, as reports of Russian incursions across Ukraine poured in. She argued that Biden “has not been tough enough on Russia” and, “so far, anything that this administration has said has been weak.”

But days earlier, Bartiromo had sounded confident the Biden administration was inflating the threat of Russian aggression to distract from bad political news at home — particularly, a motion filed by special counsel John Durham that was described by many Fox News hosts as a massive scandal.

“Was this a ruse?” she asked her audience Wednesday last week. “Was this whole thing an effort to take everybody’s attention away from what Hillary Clinton did and what we know to be a complete hoax over this Russia investigation?

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld also said late last week that “there is something going on here that feels very, very manufactured.”

On Thursday, after U.S. warnings about Russia’s military designs proved accurate, Fox contributor Charles Hurt argued that it was still unclear why Americans should care. And that, he said, was the president’s fault, too. Biden “has failed to make the case that this is a vital U.S. interest,” he said. “The president is entirely out of bluffs.”

“You’re right,” host Pete Hegseth responded. “He has not made a case for the national security implications.”

Hurt also offered a line of argument that has been popular on conservative media outlets: “There’s a reason that this did not happen under a Trump administration.”

In fact, Fox News host Laura Ingraham had interviewed the former president during her 10 p.m. show on Wednesday, on the brink of Russian strikes. She told Trump that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put on “a pathetic display” when he pleaded with Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade his country.

“How would you have avoided this conflict?” Ingraham asked Trump. The 45th president talked up his close relationship with Putin and decried the Biden administration’s “weakness.”

Across the right-wing media spectrum, the crisis in Europe proved an opportunity for talking heads to compare leaders — sometimes concluding that Putin is the more impressive.

“They have a president, and we don’t,” former Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani said on the conservative network Newsmax Wednesday night. “Putin is prepared for this. Our incompetent [president] isn’t prepared for it.”

“Biden presidency has made the U.S. look weaker to Putin,” Kyle Smith argued in a column published by the New York Post on Wednesday night.

Clay Travis, a conservative radio host, said on Thursday that “America has spent decades fetishizing soft, cuddly, emotional power,” which Putin doesn’t respect. “This is the result,” he said, adding that “a lack of strength will be exploited by those who respect only strength.”

“Of course we should be rooting for Ukraine,” conservative pundit Ben Shapiro said on Twitter. “Ukraine is a democracy looking to ally itself with the West. Putin is a thug dictator seeking to rebuild an empire on the back of pure aggression while simultaneously allying with China and Iran.”

But readers of the influential online news website Shapiro founded, the Daily Wire, got a different take: An article published on Thursday morning trumpeted a call by Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician turned Republican congressman for Texas, for Biden to take a cognitive exam during the invasion.

“This whole thing is a scam. It’s a total and complete scam,” Former Trump White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon said on his podcast before the Russian strikes, defending Putin as “anti-woke.”

Other conservative outlets elected to ignore or play down the crisis. One America News spent most of Thursday morning airing extended live coverage of the Conservative Political Action Conference, with only brief mentions of Ukraine.

Fox’s news division took a more conventional journalistic approach. The network’s reporters and news anchors have largely acknowledged the severity of Russia’s incursion, which anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday night called: “the darkest hour for Europe since World War II.” National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has consistently backed up the Biden administration’s warnings about Russia’s intention, going so far as to chide the dismissive commentary of some colleagues.

Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine escalated late last night, and some of Fox’s biggest personalities have not yet had a chance to weigh in on their evening shows.

Tucker Carlson, the network’s most-watched host, has used his prime time show in recent days to suggest that Putin is being unfairly victimized and has argued from the beginning of the conflict that Americans shouldn’t worry about what’s happening in Ukraine, guided by his anti-interventionist leanings.

As chance had it, it fell to Fox News’s prime-time opinion host Sean Hannity to break news of Russia’s planned military assault to the network’s audience on Wednesday night.

His guest, former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer, placed blame on Russia. “Make no mistake, the biggest problem here is Vladimir Putin. Despite Joe Biden’s weakness and the mistakes Joe Biden made that encouraged Vladimir Putin, the first person all Americans need to blame is Putin.”

Hannity, seemingly caught off-guard, responded: “Well, I think, obviously, it does have to go with him.”[/q]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/02/24/media-fox-biden-blame/

i honestly think that hardcore conservative leaders, including many on fox, do admire, if not putin himself, the kind of autocratic society he oversees and the kind of power that he holds.

Also the foundation for much of Trump's Cuban-American suppot.

whoops, fucked up the quote there. the vast majority is just the washpost story, the top paragraph is my key commentary that really sets it up

xp

in the least petty way i can possibly bring this up, promise, i harp on the far right fox news switcharoo because it's barely distinguishable from a lot of people on the far left recently. i don't think it's intentional by any means but it does lend credence to my hairbraned theory that politics is a möbius loop where the far right and far left meet in strange ways

aka, crypto, drugs, and libertarianism

jesus is the answer, don't do drugs and keep your job, trust the lord and obey your parents

I found this thread illuminating on the intl far-right reaction:

Take note: Reactionaries and far-right movements across the “West” are siding with Putin. They see him as an ally in the struggle to uphold white Christian patriarchal rule – the kind of authoritarian strongman that can turn the tide against the forces of “woke” pluralism.

— Thomas Zimmer (@tzimmer_history) February 24, 2022

OTOH

.@SenTuberville claims Putin is invading Ukraine because Russia is a communist country that needs more land.

“He can’t feed his people,” said Tuberville. “It’s a communist country, so he can’t feed his people, so they need more farmland.”https://t.co/Emaj9fcr8O

— bryan metzger (@metzgov) February 24, 2022

There's a really good chance he's the stupidest Senator ever.

It's kind of impressive.

coach says if you want to win the game you have to control the field

jesus christ

I'd like to see a televised stupid-off between Tuberville and Ron Johnson. Just ask each of them 50 or 100 questions and whichever one gets the most wrong "wins."

Just have them pull up their pants and see which one wears velcro shoes.

Imagine Walker Herschel and Tuberville in a SE GOP Senator alliance

basically, in this situation, Herschel would kind of be the "running back"? as in, you'd count on him to control a decent amount of the "team's possessions" and "gain some solid yardage" and staying "durable", with the occasional chance of a "end run" "around the defense" leading to many "first downs". tubervile, in this imagining, i think he would have to be Coach, providing the wisdom hard earned from "many long days on the gridiron", soaring to victory when "many so-called RINO fans left at half-time", the kind of coach who "counts on the running game" but isn't "afraid to call a hail mary". god i love football, vote GOP

sorry, Herschel Walker.

is it weird that when i was a child, 5-8 or so, i knew absolutely nothing about football (loved baseball and basketball) and that my dad never mentioned it, ever, but also that herschel walker was a name brand person in our household, even in the late 80s. was herschel walker always a fucking asshole and that was one of those thing known in the underground evangelical scene?

i dunno but i when i watched walker and his magnificent thighs win the 100-meter dash in knoxville in the early 1980s if you’d have told me that as an adult i’d be sending messages to people on a computer about his political beliefs i’d have probably have fainted.

it's barely distinguishable from a lot of people on the far left recently.

what’s this in reference to?

In reference to the left, not even the far left really. I might be wrong, but to me the feeling last week was that of cautioning about how overblown the Russian threat was. That view made sense at the time because we can all easily imagine how the media + dc k street military contractors of the world easily come to a conclusion that demands a strong military buildup and increases tensions, ratings, spending all that.

It is outrageous, if unsurprising, that Trump would praise Putin’s murderous invasion of Ukraine as an act of “genius.” It should concern us all that Putin is exactly the kind of leader Trump would like to be, and that so few Republicans have the courage to say this out loud.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 24, 2022

In regard to the sentiment that the USA should be 'doing something' about Putin's invasion, while the press scorns sanctions as a weak-ass response to the invasion and appears to be eager to start beating the drum for military escalation, my attitude is that you don't go into a war unless you are willing to pursue that war as if your nation's survival is at stake. There are no "splendid little wars".

Sanctions are far from a perfect tool, but high explosives are a notoriously crude solution to any international crisis. Making Ukraine into a major killing field between Russia and NATO would not exactly be doing Ukrainians a favor.

yeah, exactly. and, far from weakening NATO and the whole NATO alignment, i think i actually agree with biden that it strengthens it, for better or worse. all of this seems to be a signal that you're either aligned with Russia or you're aligned with NATO. if you're caught inbetween, you get run over.

I can’t imagine watching cable news - any cable news - for a few months. The manipulation is excruciating, even when watching the side I mostly agree with.

(Last time I watched was maybe 2-3 weeks ago.)

^^^ this. I don't watch cable news much at all, but just considered flipping it on to "get the latest" on Ukraine. Then my immediate second thought was "what the fuck are you thinking?"

Unless Chris Matthews is crying there’s never a reason to watch cable news.

Chris Hayes is the only one with perspective but he's white.

This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border

— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) February 24, 2022

Galaxy brain right here

Most 2022 headline:
The Weeknd Didn't Know Russia Was Invading Ukraine When He Tweeted: 'Let's GOOOOOOO'

"I would like to apologize for my cover of Outkast's "Bombs Over Baghdad," "Bombs Over Kyiv," parallels with international events were entirely unintentional."

he can't feel his face?

Good news.

WASHINGTON — A North Carolina court rejected a Republican-drawn map of the state’s 14 congressional districts on Wednesday and substituted its own version, the second time in less than two weeks that a court in the state has invalidated a Republican House map as unconstitutionally partisan.

The new map, drawn by a nonpartisan panel of four redistricting experts, appeared to split North Carolina’s congressional districts roughly equally between Republicans and Democrats, in a state where voters are divided evenly along partisan lines. It gives each party six relatively safe House seats and makes the remaining two winnable by either side.

The Republican-drawn map that was rejected would have awarded the G.O.P. six safe seats and Democrats four, leaving the remaining four as tossups.

Voting-rights advocacy groups and Democrats had argued to block the latest Republican map, saying it unlawfully favored Republicans. A three-judge panel of the state Superior Court in Raleigh agreed. It ruled Wednesday that the latest map failed to meet the standards for fairness set out by the State Supreme Court on Feb. 4, when that court invalidated the original map drawn by the Republican-controlled State Legislature.

I hope those NC judges are braced for the death threats that have become so knit into the fabric of our politics.

just... amazing. pic.twitter.com/wl2Dg0pQ5h

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) February 26, 2022

I know the masks have been off for a while but uh what the fuck

Shortly before bringing up MTG, the camera showed a sizeable and raucous crowd. Fuentes praised "our secret sauce...young white men." Fuentes then solicited a round of applause for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, and the groyper crowd chanted "Putin, Putin." pic.twitter.com/I8BGH1TYGm

— Ben Lorber (@BenLorber8) February 26, 2022

i didn't realize it when i was growing up, but the most political people in that shit town were the ones with confederate flags hanging over the gate of their fence

Fuentes praised "our secret sauce...young white men."

Arby’s marketing has gone too far this time.

"I do not know Nick Fuentes. I never heard him speak."

GTFO with this nonsense! You're going to speak at his event and embrace him on stage, but now you're gonna pretend you have no idea who he is and what he espouses?! https://t.co/3mDwZcG9vE

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 26, 2022

our secret sauce...young white supremacists

fixed

Meanwhile, even (especially?) the biggest blowhards and cowards of the GOP seem to have recognized that praising Putin might have been a bad call.

i'd have to think that a significant chunk of the GOP will still, regardless, support Russia in this

Yeah seems like one of the many horrible positions the GOP will just slowly ease themselves into

"Do I still support Putin? Sure, because think of the alternative? I'd rather Putin than an authoritarian monster like Joe Biden."

You millennial leftists who never lived one day under nuclear threat can now reflect upon your woke sky.
You made quite a non-binary fuss to save the world from intercontinental ballistic tweets.

— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) February 27, 2022

Tubberville/Higgins ‘28

Those are all real words, but that Tweet makes no sense.

Feel like those are all emo/punk bands:

Millenial Leftists
Nuclear Threat
Your Woke Sky
Non-Binary Fuss
Save the World
Intercontinental Ballistic Tweets

“Russia attacked Ukraine because there are ‘woke’ people in the US. If only we had been more racist, Russia wouldn’t have dared.”

blowhards and cowards of the GOP seem to have recognized that praising Putin might have been a bad call

doesn't matter. unless they double down it all will be forgotten two days from now. if they do double down, it might take a couple of weeks for their followers to completely forget it. their ability to move on quickly is among the wonders of the world.

I’ve sat on a committee with this guy for years. He talks like this every day. 🙃 https://t.co/YlPEdLR1rl

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 27, 2022

We’re not entirely sure what this tweet is supposed to mean, and we’re literally the dictionary.

— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) February 27, 2022

Millenial Leftists - sprechgesang post-punk
Nuclear Threat - hardcore
Your Woke Sky - post-rock
Non-Binary Fuss - riot grrl
Save the World - midwest emo
Intercontinental Ballistic Tweets - EDM

Never Lived One Day - prog-rock concept album about the mayfly

Woke Sky was a vaguely racy Tom Cruise sci-fi film I think?

Millenial Leftists - sprechgesang post-punk

I think you're confusing them with You Millennial Leftists, who I saw on a bill with One Day Under and Nuclear Threat Can.

scuse me while I woke the sky

Lol

I’ve sat on a committee with this guy for years. He talks like this every day.

The sad thing about this observation is that Clay Higgins must make some kind of sense to the people who voted for him. Dictionary.com may know this is literal non-sense, but his voters don't.

well it's basically constructed out of the last 5 years of facebook memes so it's instantly recognizable as their language.

watching conservatives react to the Ukraine stuff has been fun, their response to literally everything is whining about pronouns and "Lets Go Brandon"

I have gotten some questions about the painting in Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s campaign office so here it is, including close ups (seated portrait is by NYT photog Annie Mulligan) https://t.co/TaUq2rPy0Y pic.twitter.com/rsTDVHKBpv

— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) February 28, 2022

Really perverse retelling of the Texas Revolution, what with all them Yankees from NEW YORK CITY.

Get a rope.

According to the article, it's one of many pieces of "Unsolicited Fan Art" that adorn his campaign office.

Expecting Trump to pivot from "Brilliant Putin got to take over the Ukraine for $2 in sanctions" to "Biden's outrageous sanctions are tanking the world economy and are a transparent attack on me personally" any minute now.

I nominate "Now reflect upon your woke sky" as the tagline for the March thread.

is that warren harding between crenshaw and junior? or jeffrey epstein?

with all these years to desensitize myself to the cult of personality surrounding the orange one, it still blows my mind that anyone would choose to go to work every day under a painting that valorizes his pathetic kids. even a piece of shit as big as crenshaw

yeah, it is extremely dear leader as well

pic.twitter.com/zN9VYXv8Em

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 27, 2022

US Politics March 2022: "Now reflect upon your woke sky..."