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

Alternate Title: "America's getting much dirtier, there are, like, dollar stores everywhere..."

lmao pic.twitter.com/Tsrt8j1ik9

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 1, 2022

Good morning!

lol I'm gonna have an aneurysm thinking about the quote in the thread title for too long

the right literally cannot form a take on any issue that does not involve wokeness, cancel culture, or Lets Go Brandon

like if aliens tried to enslave us the Charlie Kirks of the world would be like "now are you happy you cancelled Dave Chappelle??"

Woke sky at night, millennial Twitter's delight

'there are dollar stores everywhere!'

And in many places, Tucker, there are only dollar stores

Baby, it's woke out there

Cool

Bexar Co. early vote DEM

CD28: Cisneros 72%, Cuellar 23%
CD35: Casar 46%, Viagran 30%, Rodriguez 14%
HD124: Garcia 69%, Garza 39%

— Texas Election Source (@TXElects) March 2, 2022

Didn't know that Louie Gohmert was among Ken Paxton's primary challengers for Texas AG.

xpost Is that a serious cool or a sarcastic cool? I don't know any of those candidates, so I don't know if that's good or bad.

Cisneros is a progressive, Cuellar is very conservative and very corrupt

Casar is Squad/Bernie-endorsed, and his district is a safe seat

Cisneros is up by 6, looks like outstanding votes are split evenly between counties she's winning 2:1 and counties Cuellar is winning 2:1.

McMullen County, pop. 600, had eight votes cast in the Democratic Primary. One Democrat for every 150 square miles.

Where are the State Of The Union hot takes? Do I dare check the Ukraine thread?

Biden said Putin will never win the hearts and minds of the Iranian people.

Was that before or after he said we need to “fund, fund, fund” the police?

Fund fund fund until vladdy nukes us all anyway

Sadly, there appears to be no pictures of Mike Love & Joe Biden together.

My own take, it sucked on the progressive front, but watching the Republicans squirm over Brandon & the cdc yanking their mask grievances was fun to watch.

Lip reading boebert "what the fuck is this?"

it was fine, his statements on Ukraine were about what you'd expect and want at this point and that was the best part of the speech. i honestly tune out on these things when they just start rattling off lists of what they did and what they want.

Dems are going to be proudly denouncing “defund the police” in 2056 long after anyone remembers what it originally meant or who said it or what happened in the summer of 2020

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) March 2, 2022

.@HayesBrown: Rep. Carolyn Maloney opted to wear traditional Ukrainian dress to tonight's #SOTU. I can’t help but be reminded of a previous time Maloney donned national garb for effect.

Evelyn Hockstein / AFPhttps://t.co/sqFy0NXj93 pic.twitter.com/AfVpbeizpo

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 2, 2022

it looks like she bought it at the halloween store

https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/lauren-boebert-marjorie-taylor-greene.jpg?resize=1800,1200&w=1200

The guy in the middle contemplating that he'll have the misfortune of showing up in this photo tomorrow.

In case this meme hasn't shown up elsewhere:

https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274896274_10227850765324710_5331725779773673938_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=XrOn7Zr5cdwAX9XgHsC&_nc_ht=scontent.ffcm1-2.fna&oh=00_AT_OBByQwhGohaBSCBU6rnNI3DiQYYBwhfKuij1G3_DY1g&oe=62259B45

The Spartan Cheerleaders are back with a new message for 2021!

...or '22!

lmao

#Breaking: Texas congressman Van Taylor apologizes for affair with ‘ISIS bride,’ abruptly drops reelection bid https://t.co/exNTrbch3U

— Lauren McGaughy 🌟 (@lmcgaughy) March 2, 2022

wut

we've all been there

"Taylor's got an ISIS Bride, children of thalidomide"

...the affair involved a payoff to a Plano woman, Tania Joya, a former jihadist previously married to an Islamic State commander.

huh

love knows no boundaries

I married an ISIS bride on the 5th day of May . . . .

'This is ridiculous': @GovRonDeSantis scolds students for wearing face masks during his @USouthFlorida visit https://t.co/v9XLjueCYi pic.twitter.com/TFeC6t6wL9

— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) March 2, 2022

Charming guy.

Wow:

He'll plead to seditious conspiracy (!!!!!!) and obstruction.

WOW.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 2, 2022

Whole thread, in real time, starts here:

Now listening to the Joshua James plea. He's an Oath Keeper who was checking in with news from the Willard Hotel on Jan 6, and then talked w/Stewart Rhodes about sedition afterwards.

Judge Amit Mehta clearly already noted details from earlier plea docs he saw.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 2, 2022

And related:

Hearing the Jan. 6 committee will reference in filing tonight Trump lawyer John Eastman was involved in a potential crime — in order to argue he cannot cite attorney-client privilege to withhold some docs from inquiry

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) March 2, 2022

NEWS: A lawsuit against the city by a former Park District attorney alleges that Mayor Lori Lightfoot berated staff in obscene terms over Columbus statue, told them “My dick is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest dick in Chicago.” https://t.co/I542wZrbPF pic.twitter.com/7wPdhpto09

— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) March 3, 2022

By many accounts she certainly *is* one of the biggest dicks in Chicago ...

Anti-trans Texas House candidate Jeff Younger came to the University of North Texas and this is how students responded. pic.twitter.com/vmsH2aV0xf

— Dallas (@59dallas) March 3, 2022

A+

Law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have been carrying out a secretive, long-running surveillance program targeting civil rights activists and journalists in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. https://t.co/aRuyyCGf7Q

— Haymarket Books (@haymarketbooks) March 3, 2022

FUND, FUND, FUND THE POLICE

POLITICO finally deigns to write a long story about rural Dem voters:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/04/pennsylvania-rural-democrats-trump-neighbors-00008915

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbwtuF-XsAA1Cel?format=jpg&name=medium

Can't resist sharing this ...

I will not be running for reelection due to a recent, exciting change to my personal life, and I look forward to spending more time with my family. pic.twitter.com/IL2CpKOCFS

— Brian Kelsey (@BrianKelsey) March 4, 2022

... He was indicted on federal campaign violations in October.

(He's a Tennessee state senator)

JiC, I know you're from PA, but you also know better than that meme.

Yeah, sorry, low hanging fruit.

How about that truck convoy heading to DC. What's up with that? What are they even protesting?

Apparently now there's a Q angle, of course.

I assume they are pro.

From what has been said, they believe that Biden, Ukraine, and Fauci have a new bioweapon and that Trump and Putin are targeting locations in Ukraine where it is manufactured.

I'd say you can't make this shit up, but you definitely can because it's completely unhinged fascist fantasy

yikes

Oh nohttps://t.co/83mtWEgRsI

— A Shady Dame From Seville (@SorayaMcDonald) March 5, 2022

just checking in on the convoy by heading straight to the best thinker i know, hugh hewitt

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/04/what-the-peoples-convoy-is-all-about/

Opinion: A cross-country convoy with a purpose

What is the "People’s Convoy,” headed for Maryland and Virginia this weekend? The movement’s website, which tells the whole story from its beginning last month in Adelanto, Calif., boasts a slogan that is telling enough: “End Mandates Everywhere.” But the succinct, if off-point, description provided by one of the organizers is: “The largest convoy in global history.”

The caravan was about eight miles long as it moved from Indiana into Ohio, and it's sure to grow as it nears the Capital Beltway. The convoy is expected to arrive outside of Washington on Saturday; organizers announced Thursday that the convoy would stop short of D.C. rather than proceed into the city as originally planned.

The rolling protest comes roughly five weeks after a similar convoy made its way from the western provinces of Canada to the capital city of Ottawa in Ontario. That convoy began as a movable expression of popular objections to continued covid restrictions in Canada. But it quickly turned into a general protest against that nation’s political elites that nearly shut down Ottawa’s urban core.

I suspect a far less confrontational form of that twin protest will unfold this weekend. Milder in part because of events: Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, rising prices and President Biden’s lackluster State of the Union address have all diverted attention away from the convoy’s steady progress eastward.

Coverage of the People’s Convoy hasn’t been robust because this isn’t a repeat of Ottawa, much less Jan. 6; these truckers aren’t storming or blockading anything.

All they are doing is trying to send a message that it’s time to end covid-era restrictions on personal freedom. The convoy’s organizers stress in every communication that it is a “peaceful and unified transcontinental movement,” spokesperson Lynne Kristensen emailed me, from somewhere near Columbus, Ohio.

When I asked, “What’s this all about, anyway?,” she replied: “From the beginning, the core principles of the People’s Convoy have been restoring the freedoms and liberty that overreaching government mandates have taken away over the past two years.”p

“While mask mandates start to end and people believe they are regaining their freedoms, the People’s Convoy knows these are overdue back steps [and] should not be considered a win,” she continued. “The request from the People’s Convoy is not only to end the National State of Emergency, which led to these unscientific and illogical mandates, but is also demanding government accountability through full and transparent congressional hearings. This situation and gross abuse of power should never be allowed to happen again.”

Indiana and Ohio police officials reported that the convoy is a colorful mix of tractor-trailer trucks, passenger vehicles, campers and RVs — numbering, according to officials in Ohio, around 550 vehicles in all. That is still quite a parade. Not since the "Tractorcade” snarled Jimmy Carter’s Washington in the late 1970s over farm policy has the capital been set to see so many big rigs.

“It’s time to remind the government, not just here in the U.S. but across the world, that they work for us.” Brian Brase, one of the organizers, said. “This convoy, and these truckers, believe in freedom and your right to do, to think, to act and say what you feel. At this point, it is the civic duty of the American people to stand up. Freedom takes sacrifice, and since it’s been lost, it is this convoy that will begin to stand up and take it back.”

One of those heading this way is a friend of mine from church named Jeff Hanson, who has had a remarkable career in commercial real estate before helping to organize this convoy. Jeff never struck me as political; that he is now a grass-roots activist is a signal among all the noise about the sea change underway in U.S. politics. I’ve also been struck by the thousands of people who gathered on highway overpasses to cheer on those who made the trip. “The People’s Convoy is a grass-roots movement that has the power to effect change for tens of millions of Americans,” Jeff explained. He told me that the nation’s poor and marginalized populations "are suffering the most as a result as the most abusive government overreach in the history of our nation.”

Even if they won’t head towards downtown D.C., these rolling demonstrators will be heard; congressional representatives are now expected to travel beyond the Beltway to meet and huddle with them. One thing is certain: The convoy has made the silent American voter easy to find and hear. Reporters should seek them out; they are friendly and talkative. And they will be heard again in November, because they are the future of U.S. politics.

sorry, was dumb to post that whole thing! i really don't know why i click on a hugh hewitt link, it's just asking for it.

That's what it says on Hugh's business card.

These fucking morons

This morning, Zelenskyy gave updates to U.S. Senators on a Zoom chat. The Ukrainian ambassador requested that nobody share anything on social media during the meeting. Sens. Rubio and Daines posted screenshots from the Zoom anyway, putting Zelenskyy’s life at risk.

— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) March 5, 2022

Griner got arrested because they found weed cartridges in her luggage.

as in, I don't think the war has anything to do with it. however, I do question why anyone from the US is flying to Russia now (she plays basketball for them, yes, but I would think perhaps no one should be flying to russia to play basketball at the current moment)

i think it was like three weeks ago before this was going on

I’m in Arlington this weekend and admittedly I am well within the beltway but has anybody seen this “convoy”?

i just saw that she was arrested three weeks ago. that is weird, why is it only public now?

Oh they are camping out again tonight in Hagerstown. For those of you from Maryland, having a warm welcome in Hagerstown is not surprising.

*not* from Maryland, I meant.

however, I do question why anyone from the US is flying to Russia now

She was trying to leave, presumably.

kind of an odd thought since i don’t know these people but i hope candace parker’s wife is alright

https://t.co/4LwovqsmZa pic.twitter.com/hNm7lqFDr8

— Just Hanging Out (@InternetHippo) March 6, 2022

One big problem with remote work for management is that if you want to berate, belittle or humiliate someone you're more likely to have to do it over email or text, which creates a record that can easily be used against you in future legal proceedings. Verbal beatdowns CAN be recorded, but it's less likely.

Love to see Biden flushing votes down the toilet this far out.

I mean tbf they're probably just collecting behind some illegally shredded documents from the Trump administration, he probably thinks a master plumber can get them out.

This is such a bizarre story. These Republicans are all weirdos.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-did-mark-meadows-register-to-vote-at-an-address-where-he-did-not-reside

Mark Meadows’ “residence” as listed on his voter registration. pic.twitter.com/AUNVGGm92N

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 6, 2022

There's an old pickup truck, and Republicans are nothing without their old pickup trucks.

Yes, that's why I mentioned it? But also the Conventions were written for another time, when POWs would have only been put before/had access to cameras in completely staged ways. This is a war of mostly reliable info against brutal state propaganda and censorship.

— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) March 7, 2022

is there a name for this sort of attitude, not just specific to this issue but like when people acknowledge that, yes, the CIA did indefensible things in the past, but things are very different know and it's immature and alarmist to be anti-CIA or whatever? it feels like some kind of end of history type complacency about how we all know better now

On the one hand her argument is bad, but on the other hand I don't really care v much in this case. Stealing a loaf of bread and murder are both "crimes," this and shelling civilians are both "war crimes." Call the Geneva Convention police, long response times ime.

If you think what Mark Meadows did with voter registration is bad, wait until you hear about Dick Cheney claiming he didn't live in Texas in 2000

Running for office in a district and claiming residence on a technicality is kind of a running thread. Even my city has a councilmember who pretty clearly is claiming to live in an empty house in the district he represents

Don't forget the hilarious hijinks of now-NYC mayor Eric Adams trying to claim he was showing people his apartment when it was clear it was his son's (?)!

is there a name for this sort of attitude, not just specific to this issue but like when people acknowledge that, yes, the CIA did indefensible things in the past, but things are very different know and it's immature and alarmist to be anti-CIA or whatever? it feels like some kind of end of history type complacency about how we all know better now

― soref, Monday, March 7, 2022 4:21 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Tbh it's easy to spot this attitude happening right now, with people being like, "Well this time when we fund and train an ultranationalist, violent military offshoot, it will go extremely well for us in the end." I mean, I'm very much against Putin and for Ukraine, but given countless examples from the past 50 years, one has to wonder whether the US just really loves arming groups who might not be the most reliable of bedfellows.

It's a feigned innocence that is endemic to many in the US, particularly blue-checks in the chattering class.

Meanwhile in the State of DeSantis:

.@FLSurgeonGen: "The Florida Department of Health is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID 19 vaccines for healthy children." https://t.co/Nt2XYKtTd5 pic.twitter.com/Nmc6ntCM5c

— The Hill (@thehill) March 7, 2022

Gets better: https://www.advocate.com/politics/2022/3/06/desantis-press-secretary-spews-unbridled-hatred-lgbtq-community

The UK still hasn't authorised COVID vaccines for under-12s.

Are you sure? We got a letter last month saying our daughter will soon be able to get a vaccine.

Huh!

Kids with underlying issues or vulnerable family members I think can get it, but otherwise no? But yeah maybe I'm behind the curve

Hmm - she was born in distress, but has no ongoing health issues from that, but maybe that's it?

This page makes it sound like it's imminent for all kids over 5

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-resources-for-children-aged-5-to-11-years/a-guide-for-parents-of-children-aged-5-to-11-years

But the NHS page is holding firm on just "some" 5-11 year olds
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/how-to-get-a-coronavirus-vaccine/how-to-get-a-1st-and-2nd-dose/

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm guessing that must be it, though they have a pretty generous definition of who is "at risk" enough to get it early - I got my jabs v early, despite only having a congenital heart murmur that pretty much solved itself by the time I was 10.

response to josh's message on the ukraine thread:

Not that they'll do it, but this would be a good opportunity to push/accelerate/fund alternative energy sources. Infrastructure!

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, March 8, 2022 9:37 AM

if you use term "alternative energy" rather than "clean energy", you'll probably be right here. it's going to lead to even more fracking and drilling and permitting for fossil fuels in the U.S., and that's been Biden's energy plan since he took office.

Biden outpaces Trump in issuing drilling permits on public lands
The widening gulf between the president’s policies on oil, gas and coal extraction and his initial promises has raised questions about his climate goals

After years of federal lease sales to oil, gas and coal companies, environmentalists had hopes that President Biden would end the fossil fuel bonanza.

But one year after announcing a halt to any new federal oil and gas leasing, Biden has outpaced Donald Trump in issuing drilling permits on public lands. After setting a record for the largest offshore lease sale last year in the Gulf of Mexico, the Interior Department plans to auction off oil and gas drilling rights on more than 200,000 acres across Western states by the end of March, followed by 1 million acres in the Cook Inlet, off the coast of Alaska.

The administration’s actions reveal an uncomfortable truth: Although Biden supports a shift to cleaner sources of energy, he has failed to curb fossil fuel development in the United States. His push to suspend federal oil and gas auctions has run headlong into political and legal challenges, and his administration has offered no plan to address the climate impact of mining in Wyoming’s coal-rich Powder River Basin. Collectively, these activities account for nearly a quarter of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

This month, Interior’s Bureau of Land Management indicated it would reverse the Trump administration’s decision to expand oil and gas production on the largest swath of federal land, the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska — but would allow drilling on half of the reserve.

Four days later, lawyers for the federal government declined to defend the Obama administration’s 2016 coal moratorium, which Trump lifted two months after taking office. Instead, they argued that environmentalists’ lawsuit to restore it should be dismissed on technical grounds.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/27/oil-gas-leasing-biden-climate/

etc, etc. there is a lot of blame to go around. it's not 100% biden's fault, not close. it's not 100% trump's. etc, etc. you know how the rest of my too long paragraph goes, i'll spare you

BREAKING: Guy Reffitt, the first Jan. 6 defendant to stand trial, has been found guilty of all counts, including that he brought a handgun to the Capitol, obstructed Congress, and threatened his children not to turn him in.

Story, more to come: https://t.co/cjTUMEKYPS

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) March 8, 2022

The Jan 6 riot and invasion of the US Capitol Building was soooo (checks watch) 14 months ago.

I kinda wonder if that DeSantis moment where he berates the mask-wearing high school kids was a total setup: "Make sure they're all wearing masks, so I can tell them to take them off!"

Apparently he's been fundraising off that clip

I saw an interview with one of the kids, and he claimed an aide had requested he take off the mask before the gov even showed up if he wanted to be on TV.

My Florida legislature's been busy today. Good afternoon!

Re: the 'don't say gay' bill... it's just for kids grades K-3rd? How much are they talking about this stuff anyway at that age?

Ironically, I think if it’s used by kids of that age it is as a pejorative (“that’s so gay”) and they often don’t even know what that means. I started hearing “gay” around third grade, I think.

I know it's a new world, but I don't remember any talk like that until about 6th grade and it was awkward as hell

(I was told a joke: 'what do you call a herd of cows masturbating? Beef Strokin'off!!' I laughed heartily but didn't get it at all)

I just laughed heartily.

Re: the 'don't say gay' bill... it's just for kids grades K-3rd? How much are they talking about this stuff anyway at that age?

― Andy the Grasshopper,

The language is vague enough for the fervid imaginations of GOP parents.

Alright Elmo, we've got the studio surrounded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4BS8BXEB_k

After hours of denying his bill singled out gays, Senator @dennisbaxley admitted the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill was drafted because he was personally concerned so many kids today identify as gay and see themselves as “celebrities.” @CBSMiami pic.twitter.com/VI9cGiBNiN

— Jim DeFede (@DeFede) March 8, 2022

I kinda wonder if that DeSantis moment where he berates the mask-wearing high school kids was a total setup: "Make sure they're all wearing masks, so I can tell them to take them off!"

Apparently he's been fundraising off that clip

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, March 8, 2022 2:50 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i doubt it was a setup, but the clip was immediately shared by his campaign manager, and they got exactly what they wanted from it.

McConnell has branded the GOP as the new 'pro-family, pro-parent' party, which of course means that Democrats hate families and parents

To be fair, I too am concerned so many children identify as celebrities.

Today it's Celebrities, Tommorow it'll be Chevy Celebrities!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/%2787-%2789_Chevrolet_Celebrity_Eurosport_Sedan.jpg/428px-%2787-%2789_Chevrolet_Celebrity_Eurosport_Sedan.jpg

I think waiting until 4th grade to teach Critical Gay Celebrity Studies makes some sense in this narrow context

The Republican state of Sweden also does not recommend the COVID vaccine for kids under 12:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sweden-decides-against-recommending-covid-vaccines-kids-aged-5-12-2022-01-27/

*nb both my under 12 kids are fully vaccinated.

I mean, when they're that young it's easy enough to just make another one, right?

another vaccine too

surprised to learn that the benefit/risk trade off might be different in a country with universal healthcare

Re: the 'don't say gay' bill... it's just for kids grades K-3rd? How much are they talking about this stuff anyway at that age?

Well, if they have gay parents, probably a fair amount! Fuck all these cynical/hateful GOP ghouls.

What DJI said. It is an issue in kids' lives today in every single school in America and it's outrageous to place any limits on discussing it.

it's not as if kids aren't smothered with heterosexuality -- holidays, photos, offhand remarks -- from the moment they enter kindergarten.

it isn't just K-3 because it says it has to be "age appropriate" in other grades and parents can sue if they think a school violated it

Is this another one of those laws where they're trying to avoid the constitutional challenge via private right of action?

I mean this seems like first amendment violation, equal protection clause, void for vagueness, etc.

Yeah, I'm not sure how this 'civil enforcement' is going to play out... and while the California thing about suing gun owners might be somewhat facetious, the worm can has effectively been opened

Now I want to move to Florida just to adopt a child and have them go to school wearing a shirt that says "MY DADS ARE WEIRD FAGS" on it.

Alfred otm.

___ and ___ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.

Oh look at them playing together, perhaps they'll be married some day.

People saturated in compulsory heterosexuality are very quick to decry the "shoving it in our face" stuff about embracing more expansive views of sexuality and gender.

Personally I knew quite a lot about how cis and straight I was at an early age. Why should it not be so for others?

It's probably a safe bet that, if not in every single K-3 class, then at least once between K-3 every single child will have a classmate with same gender parents, so it's pretty absurd to suggest you would somehow be able to make it that far without discussing it. Like what happens on father's day when a kid asks if he can make a card for both his dads, the teacher is just going to pretend that didn't happen?

my goddaughter has same sex parents. she had to put up with some shit in elementary school but was able to deal with it

I remember my best friend asking me to show my asshole to him when we were six

also remember learning from him when we were seven about how adults fuck, and was shocked

and then realized I was probably different when I was eight because I had an big crush on my high school sister’s Swedish exchange student friend Per Anders Algert

that was all just in the 1st through 3rd grades

You have the right to raise your kids the way you want, but not to demand public schools pretend that stuff doesn't exist when it actually does.

you would think so, but having the right doesn't mean that's how it happens. outrage over critical race theory, all over the place. banning books, all over the place. no evolution, the scopes trial, the way the south before, during and after the civil is portrayed in american books, all of that is about pretending stuff doesn't exist when it actually does

as far as i can tell, the actual legal argument matters less and less every year. the point (for conservatives) is to ban what they don't want to hear about and if it comes to it, maybe it'll go to a bush or trump judge who doesn't have any problem with changing the law

idk I would argue that 1st grade is too young for that, kids that young just have a fundamental misunderstanding of things sometimes. after MLK day he came home saying that "anyone brown has to sit at the back of the bus", he doesn't get at all why that would be, he thinks it's just a rule along the lines of "SPEED LIMIT 35" and "DO NOT ENTER"

I think grade schoolers experience sexuality in their own way, it is primitive but it starts very early

"some kids have two moms/dads" seems pretty easy to understand (as is "some boys like boys/girls like girls"). My daughter knew that when she was three, because her classmate had two moms. And as a result I don't think she bats an eye when her babysitter talks about her two dads.

yeah, obviously I'm not against any of this but idk at what age kids actually understand the whole "how babies are made" thing on any level. they tend to just think they always existed.

experiencing it in the family is different - we have a friend with 3 boys (7, 5, & 2) and the middle one is almost certainly a trans girl? like, he (she?) prefers to be called a female name, only watches shows with female characters, asks to be put in dresses, loves everything pink...luckily the parents are very understanding and accepting of this, but how to send the kid to school...sure glad I don't have to puzzle that one out

We have also seen a couple of kids in our kids' classes who are almost certainly trans. TBH while I'm not in the school, it doesn't seem like it has been much of an issue, kids are just ok with it, albeit we're in a v liberal area. My six year old has a stuffed lion that she says is gender non-binary.

"Some kids have two moms or two dads" often works and cuts off further questions; kids are smart and can figure shit out.

Kids should have the legal right to divorce parents or even sentence them to death.

John Waters had it right that you could be convicted of assholism.

I know three trans kids at this point, one that knew in elementary school and started transitioning soon after, one that knew in middle school and is in the process now, and one that knew after they went to college and just came out as such last week. My wife told me just the other day that she has a co-worker whose daughter announced she identifies as bisexual and asexual. The mom asked how that works, and she said it's because she "likes boys *and* girls but doesn't want to have sex with either of them!' And iirc the mom replied "that's because you're 10."

Kids are acutely aware of this stuff, no doubt *because* it is talked about, or they hear people talking about it. The Florida thing is just (as usual) idiot adults sticking their heads in the sand and pretending something doesn't exist, but the kids know what's up and, as always, don't give a shit what the grown ups think.

lol

The second part of this thread is a real doozy https://t.co/15ALpbZapC

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) March 8, 2022

Hi, I'm the Parliamentarian for the Utah Democratic Party.

You aren't running for Senate, or any other office, in Utah.

I know this because the candidate deadline was last Fri and you didn't file. You must have forgotten to do that while you were busy grifting donations. #UTpol https://t.co/Que65iKlHn

— Brad Townley (@brad_townley) March 8, 2022

ha ha

that's probably the funniest and happiest thing that has happened in Utah Democratic Party in the last 50 years

Except maybe when Harry Reid had the accident with the resistance band

Kids should have the legal right to divorce parents or even sentence them to death.

xpost oh sorry that's Nevada

My wife stumbled upon a Facebook group where parents were plotting to check this book out of the school library and destroy it:

https://www.akpress.org/media/catalog/product/cache/1ec012b46cbfe4262fc94f3e95ab2d9c/n/o/notmyidea_72.jpg

My wife stumbled upon a Facebook group where parents were plotting to check this book out of the school library and destroy it:

🖼

yes, but part of their plan was to keep checking them out so no kid would be able to read them

the ringleader is running for the schoolboard

*librarian checks computer* damn this book is insanely popular, we need 40 more copies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o_HbyIZXY0

"Album sales skyrocketed: People were buying them just to burn them."

Remember when we thought we were done with “increasingly isolated” as a favorite media phrase regarding politics

This story is depressing and infuriating, but also kind of blackly hilarious.

Running for political office is an inherently humiliating endeavor. Among other indignities, candidates are forced to grovel for money, both in high-dollar denominations from country-club assholes who think they’re masters of the universe and for peanuts from strangers on the internet. They have to get pictures taken wearing goggles. Maintain their cool as they get shouted down by political opponents. And be publicly judged on their carriage and verbal miscues.

There’s really no getting out of a campaign with your dignity fully intact. But every once in a while there appears a candidate who manages to abase himself in such a spectacularly extravagant manner that it merits special recognition.

Lately that person has tended to be Ted Cruz.

But this week Cruz’s golden ball gag was claimed in breathtaking fashion by a young upstart: Joe Kent, the MAGA primary challenger to Washington Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler.

Kent has positioned himself as a darling of the self-described “America First” wing of the GOP, contrasting his slavish devotion to Donald Trump with Herrera-Beutler’s support for Trump’s second impeachment. In doing so, Kent has touched all the MAGA campaign bases. Holding fundraisers with the pro-insurrection glitterati. Being feted by Trump at the Winter White (Power) House. Tweeting about how Ukraine should surrender to Russia. Becoming one of a select group of virile men chosen to earn Peter Thiel’s largesse. Ranting about the tyranny of life-saving vaccine mandates on Tucker Carlson’s show.

But then Ol’ Joe made a miscalculation. Apparently, he’s been getting strategy advice from the virgin white-nationalist leader Nick Fuentes. This relationship was revealed when Fuentes released the recording of a call he had with Kent during which the candidate praised the Groyper’s attempts at trolling his way to a white majority telling him “I love what you are doing.” It was also reported that Kent’s top campaign consultant set up a booth at Fuentes’s America First PAC conference, the same one Rep. Paul Gosar spoke at last year.

After getting caught in bed with the Keyboard Hitler Youth, Kent got some backlash in the district. So last week on Twitter, Kent tried to get some distance from the group, condemning “Fuentes’s politics, especially in regards to our ally Israel.”

And that’s when things went off the rails.

We’ve all seen these scandals before. We know their cadence: Candidate gets caught with his hand in the extremist cookie jar, backs off, condemns the group, and moves forward by using more socially acceptable dog whistles to appeal to the fringe elements.

But Joe Kent realized that he couldn’t really move on. Because what got him crosswise with Republican primary voters wasn’t being phone pals with Fuentes, but trying to break with him. So he decided to get on his knees and beg for another cookie. Like a dog.

So weird: Someone named Erin Perry changed her name to Ashley Gott in January, and then she filed for office against her county's Treasurer, who is named Ashley Gott. So this Illinois county ballot will have two Ashley Gotts facing off. https://t.co/iiHrTz4BVw

— Taniel (@Taniel) March 10, 2022

Don’t judges usually have to approve a name change and ensure that it is not for nefarious purposes?

Ashley Gott Gott

considering a name change

Gott Got Gotcha'd by Gott in Gott-off

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhQmh5KWWJk

stone cold jamz

These effin’ people

That Cawthorn choad, he just called Zeleneskyy a "thug," called the Ukrainian government "corrupt" and "evil" and then, coup de grace, accused the Ukrainian government of spreading "woke ideologies." These lunatics, how do they manage to keep it together well enough to even spread outright incoherent garbage? People like him, Boehbert, Greene ... it must be exhausting just to be them, but they have whole teams working for them! Or someone like Gosar, he's clearly dealing with some sort of degenerative illness, but afaict refuses to acknowledge it. It's all such a cynical enterprise, buncha of nutcases taking up space apparently just for the sake of being disruptive crazy dickheads.

It’s definitely been hitting me how Trumpy the whole Russian “special military operation” has been - poorly planned and poorly executed, with very few of the details worked out, heavily reliant on propaganda, viciously cruel but hilariously inept, and at the end of the day they wound up making heroes of their enemies - god, remember Michael Avenatti?? Kindred souls indeed.

xp this guy … https://thehill.com/homenews/house/597577-cawthorn-charged-with-driving-with-revoked-license-for-second-time

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Signature_of_Madison_Cawthorn.png

Dude misspells his own name, whaddya expect?

well, he drove with a revoked license, he had other things on his mind.

his mind (sic)

why is his license revoked? that detail has been left out of these reports.

like, I've never had my license revoked. you usually have to do some pretty fucking stupid shit for that to happen.

Gotta admit, looks like he was going pretty fast

https://c.tenor.com/K3J0h1YjU-IAAAAd/mac-and-me-wheelchair.gif

why is his license revoked? that detail has been left out of these reports.

― akm, Thursday, March 10, 2022 1:23 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

like, I've never had my license revoked. you usually have to do some pretty fucking stupid shit for that to happen.

― akm, Thursday, March 10, 2022 1:23 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Patrol spokesman Chris Knox told local reporters that he cannot comment on why Cawthorn's license was suspended because the information is protected under the Driver's Privacy Protection Act.

https://www.salon.com/2022/03/10/why-has-madison-cawthorn-been-repeatedly-charged-for-driving-with-a-revoked-license/

Which is nuts, because in my state (MD), you could look me up by name on a website and see that I got a speeding ticket last month.

but if you see that a person was charge with driving suspended it doesn't tell you why the person is suspended. you can't request other people's full driving records in MD either.

Yeah, that's a good point. I just thought it might be easily discerned by looking at things he had been charged with.

if i were to guess i would say he got too many points from speeding tickets

Seems like he has a driving problem

Some former students said in interviews that they were advised by classmates not to go on a drive with Cawthorn. But a student named Caitlin Coulter said in an interview that she was not aware of those concerns when Cawthorn asked her to ride with him in that fall semester of 2016. She accepted. Cawthorn took Coulter to “somewhere very rural,” she said.

“There was a specific point in which he grew frustrated and I shut him down, basically — by not responding to some of the advances he was making. And he got upset and he turned the car around and drove very, like, violently is the best way I can think of to describe it. Violently back to campus. It was very scary. … It seemed it was very clearly because he was upset that I had turned him down or refused his advances.”

After hurtling down back roads at speeds she said reached 70 or 80 miles an hour, they returned to campus and she never heard from him again.

That Cawthorn choad, he just called Zeleneskyy a "thug," .

xp I do love a story with a happy ending

My guess is that there’s no massive Russiagate plot involved here but I would like to know the actual story as it has to be extremely weird and stupid: https://www.salon.com/2021/12/30/madison-cawthorns-bizarre-tale-should-we-be-concerned-or-is-it-just-a-conspiracy-theory_partner/

even beyond the sex pest and MAGA nazi-adjacent shit, just a profoundly weird guy to the core

xp I'm guessing he's a drunk.

one thing the Russian invasion has taught me is that there was probably not a well-thought out conspiracy to install Donald Trump as president. probably did not go much further than "we will use our troll farms for you in exchange for some mean words about NATO". still should be enough to bar him and all his accomplices from public life for good but alas that is not the country we live in

I'm going to guess that if Trump runs again the question of what he said to Putin in his secret meetings is going to be a bigger deal

one thing the Russian invasion has taught me is that there was probably not a well-thought out conspiracy to install Donald Trump as president.

I feel like this was kind of the conclusion of the Mueller report. It's not so much that there wasn't the intent or the will to conspire, there just wasn't really a lot of useful stuff that either of them could provide to the other.

I think there was ad hoc interference but no grand master plan to create a manchurian candidate.

I don't think Russia ever thought they could achieve the latter or even tried to.

yeah even Jonathan Demme couldn't do it

Still don't understand how "Russia, if you're listening…" wasn't soliciting foreign interference in an election, or how that itself wasn't a crime. Guess I have TDS.

I don't understand why that would be a crime tbh. It's unsavory, but even assuming he was serious, IDG why asking a foreigner or a foreign country for some dirt on your opponent should be a crime.

well that was the grand joke of the 2016, the guy who was elected the most powerful man on the planet was someone who you'd be a fool to ever take seriously

I don't understand why that would be a crime tbh. It's unsavory, but even assuming he was serious, IDG why asking a foreigner or a foreign country for some dirt on your opponent should be a crime.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, March 10, 2022 3:10 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

imagine if, say, you asked a leader of a foreign country for dirt and when they refuse you threaten to withhold military funding from them. and then that country gets invaded by the one that actually helped you the first time

Worthless party

Cutting the deficit is an applause line during Biden's remarks to the DNC.

— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) March 11, 2022

A lot of people freaking out about this WSJ poll:

Poll: Republicans Beat Democrats among Hispanics, at 27 Percent among Black Voters
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/poll-republicans-beat-democrats-among-hispanics-at-27-among-black-voters/

SCOOP: The Biden administration has been briefing dozens of TikTok stars about the war in Ukraine, I obtained audio of yesterday’s big briefing which shines light on how the administration is promoting their messaging w/ creators https://t.co/nTfFVlDYzI

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) March 11, 2022

xp

god, you could see this coming the day everyone dropped out of the 2020 primary and consolidated around biden. who knows what would have happened with bernie in charge, but it wouldn't have ended with such a pathetic whimper

If the Senate had split 50-50, with manchin and sinema in office, bernie would have run up against the same fuckiong obstacles as biden, but bernie would have been hammering away every day about the benefits of the plans he was unable to pass. At least he would have given everyone a crystal clear picture of the plan and what was at stake and made it seem worth fighting for.

I'm not sure how familiar people are with Chris Arnade. He achieved some notoriety for a book of photographs of "back-row America". His shtick these days seems to mostly consist of walking around the forgotten neighborhoods and small-towns of America. Anyway he has been banging the drum for a long time about how out of touch Democratic party leadership has become. This is a good recent example of his work:

https://intellectualinting.substack.com/p/walking-america-washington-dc-anacostia

shitty thing about this is that Biden's actually been pretty good on the shit Republicans claim to care about - he's posted record jobs numbers, cut the deficit massively, pulled out of Afghanistan, passed the biggest infrastructure bill in US history...if a Republican president did all that he'd be considered the greatest since Lincoln

What we Americans most care about are gas prices.

the national deficit is what's the most important to me. we have to get it under control and drain the swamp

i'm grover norquist, and in 2012 almost every single republican approved of my message, along with Ben Nelson and a couple of other assholes

I'm not to worried about that WSJ poll. The big difference between American voters is the urban vs. rural/suburban divide... are there any major urban areas that lean republican? Maybe Oklahoma City, but I can't think of any others

Jacksonville FL I think

and Duval County was one of Florida's few bright spots in 2020.

I thought Salt Lake City might be one, but they actually went Dem by 10 points in 2020.

SLC has had solely Dem mayors since 1976. The previous one was openly gay.

Oh wow, all I know about SLC is the few people in my life who've lived or visited there and they're all LDS folks. Didn't realize it was such a dark blue dot.

Places like SLC are full of people who don't want to leave their state / region but don't want to stay in whatever tiny backwards shithole town they grew up in.

They came for the hardcore scene and stayed for the good schools.

SLC is surprisingly diverse, too.

Meanwhile:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/11/toby-price-principal-fired-childrens-book/

The events leading to Price’s firing began March 2, when he organized a Zoom event for second-graders at the Byram, Miss., elementary school. The gathering was to celebrate Read Across America Day, which is Dr. Seuss’s birthday and a day dedicated to encouraging children to read. The plan was to have a special guest read a book to them.

When the guest did not arrive, Price’s boss asked him to read to the students. Price said the second-graders loved the book, which is about a boy who thinks he needs a new butt after noticing his has a large crack.

Fifteen minutes after the event, Price said, the principal at his school called him into her office. According to Price, she told him that he shouldn’t have chosen that book and that parents might complain. Soon after the meeting, he said, he was told the superintendent wanted to see him at the district office immediately.

“They kind of just let me have it,” Price said. “She said, ‘Is this the kind of thing you find funny and silly? Fart and butt and bulletproof butts?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I did until I walked in.’ ”

probably off base, but I am curious if/ when Joe Brogan/ Elon edgelord millenial & gen Zers start to replace boomer GOP voters if cities like Nashville and Austin don’t start trending red or close to it. Nashville def has that feel to me.

Hyundais are the Antifa Toyota Hilux

NEW: A trucker in the convoy says he’s taking a day off from driving in laps around DC because “3 young girls in a blue Hyundai” flipped him off. He says he’s now fearful: “It wasn’t just a normal middle finger that was relaxed... It messed me up.” (per 1st Responders Media)

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) March 10, 2022

ah! So there's the weakness.

snowflake

They’re also scared of our horrifying drivers

People are upset about that poll, but what do they expect? The mainstream Dem economic message is garbage, and the Republicans are animating culture wars in a way that hasn't happened since the 1980s because they don't have any fucking ideas and they love inflicting death and pain on others, and know that other people love that shit too.

Democrats seem pretty useless, it's true. Both parties are kind of melting down, but Republicans are at least really really angry, which people can connect to viscerally.

When the first 400k people died you got checks from the government with a Republican President, when the next 400k died you got "well listen, Mack"

two democrats seem utterly useless, but I won't subscribe to the 'both sides suck and are equally bad' mantra.. the last couple years have clearly demonstrated that's not the case

that mantra that no one has said

Two* Democrats are actively evil, many more are utterly useless.

FUND FUND FUND THE POLICE

When the first 400k people died you got checks from the government with a Republican President, when the next 400k died you got "well listen, Mack"

― papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, March 11, 2022 3:59 PM

excusing republicans and demonizing democrats does seem like your mantra tbh

reducin the deficit and fun fun funding the police is sure fire way to get republicans to vote for democrats in the midterms everyone just chill

republicans aren’t going to vote for democrats in the midterms, and funding the police isn’t a concept that’s going to turn off mainstream democrats

When the first 400k people died you got checks from the government with a Republican President, when the next 400k died you got "well listen, Mack"

― papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, March 11, 2022 6:59 PM bookmarkflaglink

fwiw this isn't what happened

no matter how many more months you will go on insisting on repeating it

milo you are so goddamn fucking stupid

you are a genuine embarrassment to all leftists everywhere, I'd be surprised if you even knew ten IRL

that being said, the Democratic part is even stupider than milo, which takes some doing

"party"

Oh right, you got the one check for $600 less than they promised, a year ago.

Trying to gotcha jokes about Democratic ineptitude doesn't change the reality that the return to normalcy hasn't been normal and hasn't seen an actual improvement in day to day life for most voters and has been in many ways a worsening. The CTC will have been long forgotten by November, the highway bill was garbage and won't be felt, weed is still illegal, the minimum wage is still $7.25, student debt hasn't been relieved and Nancy Pelosi and Schumer kneeling has become 'fund the police.' Of course polls look like dogshit for Democrats - when things are getting worse and you don't arrest that, you're going to get creamed. The whys - "well, see, there are two bad Democrats..." - don't matter.

a bipartisan voting block gave people $1200, after which Republicans torpedoed any attempt to even bring up bills for a vote that would issue stimulus checks to civilians until 9 months later, despite the fact that additional waves of COVID had put people out of work or had their hours reduced multiple times during that time frame. and that $600 was only offered because Pelosi and Schumer lobbied for it in negotiations, and attempts to increase the amount were rebuffed by Ron Johnson and McConnell deliberately let the clock run out on the CASH Act.

the $1400 passed due to ARPA was the biggest individual payment, though obviously a huge disappointment in that it was reduced from $2,000, and then half the dumb world began declaring COVID over last year and state Governors began removing mask mandates and all COVID measures, some never to return, and people, whether they wanted to or not, wound up going back to work, and being that it couldn't be done via Budget Resolution again, now needed 60 votes to pass the Senate to pass another one. and zero REpublicans voted for ARPA in the Senate.

that isn't me fellating the Democrats, ffs, but if you want to come up with Republican sloganeering for them, be my guest.

also, a large part of the reason voters hate Biden right now is because they're tired of COVID, they want COVID declared "over", they want all restrictions, masks, everything related to COVID to go bye-bye, and they don't like gas prices being so high and they think it's his fault.

there are a lot of legitimate reasons to hate Biden, but don't fool yourself into thinking that's why the average voter fucking hates him atm. Dems still have an uphill battle even when that's no longer an issue anymore, but even moderate to lefty voters are tired of COVID this, COVID that, and taking it out on the current administration

(really, the complaint should be that he hasn't done enough to fight COVID, which yes, there are plenty of us that are angry at him for that, but that isn't what's driving his approval rating underwater. it's the people that want to 'let er rip')

guyz please stop fighting the deficit is reduced

Pointing at Republicans is even less effective than pointing at Manchin and Sinema. If you'd like to frame it as Democrats got more done holding 1/3 instead of 3/3, okay, but I don't think that's going to work.

there are a lot of legitimate reasons to hate Biden, but don't fool yourself into thinking that's why the average voter fucking hates him atm.

They're unhappy with Biden because they're not better off today than they were 18 months ago, often worse, and with a constant feeling that worse is coming. You and I know the President isn't responsible for gas prices - but Biden and the Democrats failed well before gas hit $4 a gallon to take steps to improve the material circumstances of the people they need voting for them. Politics is vibes, the vibes are bad, and the Democrats aren't doing anything to improve them while Republicans are powerless to stop them in Congress or the White House.

to biden's credit, build back better would have helped millions of american families. it was excactly the kind of social spending he spent his career resisting, and the only kind of legislation that could stop this social unraveling we are seeing, this culture of paranoia and mistrust.

however, this stuff didn't become law.

biden's biggest achievement, and it is an important one, is severely reducing drone warfare. withdrawing from afghanistan is kind of undermined by the fact that we are currently economically torturing that country.

Biden's biggest achievement is stacking the judiciary with Democratic judges.

i mean, he isn't able to do that on the supreme court though.

He will now.

There's like 8 ppl who are going to vote for Dems because Biden reduced drone warfare

well i'm one of them.

That's what swayed you??

it's a big deal. stopping needless killing seems important.

I’d say they’re unhappy with Biden because he promised a return to normal, and instead we got Delta and Omicron and a hodgepodge of restrictions and openings and even though you can basically do anything you want to things don’t feel normal and Republican culture war mania has kept everyone just as angry as under Trump. That and inflation/gas prices.

I don’t think the fund the police messaging matters at all in terms of his approval, it’s not like the people that it pisses off were expecting anything else.

Pointing at Republicans is even less effective than pointing at Manchin and Sinema...the Democrats aren't doing anything to improve them while Republicans are powerless to stop them

This is the political equivalent of the "assume a can opener" joke about economists. You are not a serious person whose opinions need to be taken seriously.

do you think the democrats have an effective political message right now? does anyone in this thread?

They don't have an effective message, and they also don't have an effective leader. And not to be all Gen X ageist, but they're too old. No matter what you think of Biden's mental faculties, he's not any kind of forceful or reassuring presence. There's no way to paint him as a steady hand on the tiller. Bernie is Bernie, and he's 80, Pelosi is 81, Steny Hoyer is 82, Schumer is practically a baby at 71. There are obviously some better younger voices, but they're still mostly shut out of real power. At the federal level at least, the party is necrotic.

And god knows the Biden administration isn't giving birth to any wunderkinds.

^^^ I think this is the biggest issue with the party's messaging. they have a lot of great politicians, but the party just doesn't follow them. hell, even Beto becoming the torchbearer would be 10 times better than what they've got now

AOC mentions this a lot in interviews - the issue with the older Dems is they have spent the vast majority of their career in the pre-Trump era and simply do not understand how politics work now

it's true - just hand all the top jobs to people 40 years younger, and they'd be doing much better. WEIRD how much people relate to politician that are within 20 years of they age range!!!!!!!!

I personally have pledged not to run for federal office past the age of 70. Change starts at home.

Man, Schumer looks old as hell for 71, always thought he was pushing 80

https://intellectualinting.substack.com/p/dems-are-probably-toast-in-22?s=r

this article from the substack link that was posted above is well-stated I think

the Republicans are animating culture wars in a way that hasn't happened since the 1980s because they don't have any fucking ideas and they love inflicting death and pain on others

Yeah but I quibble with your "since the 1980s" timing. It's both recent and eternal.

In 1994 they called it the "Contract for America," a Gingrich production.

In 2009 they called it the Tea Party.

In 1954 they called it massive resistance.

In 1865 they called it the Confederacy.

In 2016 they called it MAGA.

It's all the same thing: an anti-federal, anti-government, anti-tax politics that is a thinly veiled cover story for racism and contempt for the downtrodden.

It is all the same energy and it mostly comes from the same people. This is not exactly a mystery.

And yet everything is Democrats' fault.

You perhaps missed the "since the 80s" part, which is absolutely correct. We weren't getting bills that ban teaching objective historical fact in 2009, not were we getting as many bills putting targets on sexual and gender minorities' backs, nor were citizens being deputized by their governments to hound and sue people accessing health care.

Try to wave it away as "just part of an ongoing cycle" sure, but it has ramped up significantly and saying any different is just wrong.

Unperson, tell me what Dems have done to push back against the nonsense that these Christian fascist fucks are shoving down out throats. Forcefully tweeting doesn't count, and the efforts to get the trans kids bill in Texas halted have come from non-profits and other orgs.

There is no meaningful pushback or outrage about anything, it seems to me, and that Dems haven't delivered for a majority of people is easily demonstrated.

As much as some on this board want to believe it, the problem of Republican obstruction is big, but Democrats also have made their own bed, and it's full of shit. Anyone with any sense can see that.

The legislators with the most social media awareness and best ideas (the AOCs, etc) are the faces the gerontocratic leadership does not want to identify with the Democratic party as midterms approach, afraid of socialist accusations. It's a problem at the local and state level too. I see it as a dues-paying member of a club called Cuban Dems (our meeting's in an hour).

The infrastructure bill has good things the administration should be shouting about from now till November; it doesn't matter how minor they look to us, that's not how politics works. Treat them as major achievements. I have no idea why Biden didn't bow to his ego and slap his face on the home testing kits -- call them Biden Kits or Biden Tests or whatever. Let voters know who's responsible.

COVID is trickier. Should Biden try a line like, "The pandemic may be ending, but we're still dealing with supply problems and high prices at the pump and grocery store," the next variant will appear; they're terrified of what happened last June and July. But if he says, "As the pandemic rages on, despite falling hospitalizations and death rates...," people will say, "But, wait, the CDC said we can take our masks off if my county's at a low or medium risk."

The Jan. 6 committee handles some of the pushback and outrage, though whether even the average Dem cares about indictments now is another question. Local Dems are pretty loud, though. I was proud of students, activists, and colleagues who shouted themselves hoarse and got themselves arrested protesting Florida's abhorrent anti-gay and anti-women bills. The latter earned a lot of local press.

Thanks for that, Alfred.

I think that a lot of my despair comes from not seeing the sort of pushback I'd like at a national level, but as you mention, much of that lack has to do with fear. The problem is that the Dems have a winning agenda in the abstract, but they are so afraid to push it, fight for it, and crow about it that a lot of people feel totally betrayed because they see little of what's been promised, even the victories.

At the local level, things are a lot easier to understand, and I find a lot of what's going on in my fair city to be really wonderful, in many ways.

Tbf, I'd be afraid, too, if every time I stuck my head out (like AOC does) I needed to add another layer of security to protect me from right wing lunatics that literally believe Fauci and Biden and Soros are brewing bioweapons in Ukraine, and that Trump and Putin are working together to destroy them, and also global child sex trafficking rings, so that Trump can return to power with JFK Jr. as his running mate. And sure you can always say that's only a small minority, but anything that can be counted as a whole number percentage is too many for me. Hell, Jews comprise 2% of the population, and these nuts think they're running the world. I can only imagine the courage of AOC, given how many threats she must get on a daily basis *and* that a couple of the most prominent lunatics are also her co-workers.

Locally I agree things are or can be (selectively) better than nationally, because it's a lot easier to vilify DC politicians or Muslims or Mexicans or Jews or whatever than it is to put a crosshair over a picture of your actual neighbor and hang it in your window. But given the literally backwards shit going on in Florida or Texas or Mississippi or many/most of the usual suspects, I'm honestly not sure just how much better things are going. Thanks to a book Alfred recommended years ago, I understand why, post Civil War, the confederacy was re-integrated into the government, but among America's many original sins, we're really paying the cost for not trying let alone convicting their leaders for treason, something we're watching play out all over again.

couple xp I guess I’m just angrier at Democrats in part because they’re the only politicians who might actually give half a shit that I’m mad? Because they claim to be on my side?

Yeah, I could get mad at, say, Josh Hawley, he certainly deserves it, but I’m unalterably his enemy. He *likes* my anger. He’s proud that he makes my life worse. A clip of him running his truck over me at a protest could be one of his campaign ads. What’s the point in getting angry at him? From my perspective, he’s basically a predatory animal with instincts as old as time.

Sure, if I’m passing objective moral judgment, he’s all sorts of evil, certainly moreso than eg Nancy Pelosi, but this isn’t ancient Greece and I’m not a high priestess. My tedious moral rankings, no matter how correct, have zero meaning or impact.

Strategically, both in terms of getting what I want and just getting through the day, there’s no point in assigning agency or blame to him. He’s just a thing out there that wants to kill me, an angry Grizzly bear.

Democrats, however, are rich assholes camping with us in bear country who, despite repeated warnings from the rest of us, keep leaving their food out at night and insist that the mosquito netting they so graciously brought, you’re WELCOME, will be sufficient to repel any hostile wildlife. I can’t convince the bears to find flesh any less delicious, but I might be able to shame and annoy these jerks enough that they’ll take some steps to better protect us.

When they don’t, and I’m getting mauled, okay, yeah, fuck this bear, but the people yelling “you might have West Nile too if it weren’t for the netting! a thanks would be nice!” from inside of their locked luxury RV as I bleed out are the ones who really enrage me.

^otmfm

hell yes, booming post

Yes the White House needs to do more to make people aware of the good stuff they do. But when they try to make everyone happy I still am disappointed a bit like the below (while acknowledging I understand there's not a clear Dem Senate majority for everything)

The Biden administration announced late Friday it is ending a Trump-era border deportation policy as it pertains to unaccompanied migrant children in response to a court ruling that could've forced officials to expel those minors without an asylum screening.... U.S. border officials can still use the policy, known as Title 42, to expel single adult migrants and families traveling with children to Mexico or their home countries.

Despite criticism from Democratic allies and advocates, the Biden administration has defended Title 42 as a key tool to stop the spread of the coronavirus inside border facilities, but it exempted unaccompanied minors from the policy early last year.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-administration-says-it-will-not-expel-migrant-children-following-court-order/

A partial victory announced late on a Friday night so as not to provoke Republicans screaming about "illegals" and "protecting the border. But that they're gonna still kick out some without allowing them to apply for asylum is terrible. They could give all coming vaccines and boosters and so the Covid argument they have been making for continuing a Trump policy is weak.

I think this administration has done a lot of good things if you look, but unfortunately, there's a huge gulf in the way Republicans and Democrats get treated by the media which has widened tenfold since Trump took office. Remember when the media slobbered all over him for getting through a SOTU speech?

nicole very otm. democrats make me angry. republicans are just like bad weather. people who are made very angry by republicans instead of democrats.. i don't trust those people because i don't think they actually have anything substantial to lose if republicans take more power.

The level of rage expended on people who posture as my friends is real, but the comparison ends there. I can -- I have -- cut friends from my life because they no longer deserve the crunching of conscience such a relationship requires. I can't cut the Dems because once I do the GOP will say, "Hi!" and shoot me in the head.

There is a political utility to being the opposition; the House GOP learned it during its 42 years in the wilderness -- unthinkable by today's standards -- and McConnell is a wiz at serving a negative agenda. But the party whose interest is nullification has it easier.

I mean I get it, yes Manchin and Sinema are super fucking obnoxious and some of the worst people in power but it seems odd to let the other 50 Senators skate when it comes to things their constituents overwhelmingly want and need. having half the country just silently accept that they're evil is exactly what the GOP wants!!

I know the chatter about Sinemanchin as Trojan horse for other undeclared mollycoddles, and we'll never know whip counts, but I'm fairly confident most of Biden's agenda would've passed had Manchinema gone along.

No one's letting them skate, though, everyone wants them defeated at every turn (except for Democrats like Biden and Pelosi who tell us about the need for a strong GOP) - but their opposition to progress is to be expected. Getting mad at gravity seems pretty pointless.

I guess so, it's just frustrating that the GOP never seems to face the same issue. Their voters don't give a fuck. And we've already seen numerous GOP politicians take credit for the infrastructure bill they voted against!!

If as a voter all you believe in is owning the libs, why should anything else matter?

were it only the other 50 senators i'd agree. but you're not going to convince me that Coons Durbin Feinstein the Klobs or even that feckless dork Schumer (regardless of his sweaty appeals to progressivism as of late) and likely 2 dozen others actually want good things, but they're sadly just being stymied by the GOP and two "bad" democrats.

i mean, just look at their donors.

you're not going to convince me

Fair enough.

you can remove *me* from the equation. despite my pissing and moaning on these threads let's be real i'm going to show up and reliably vote D every two years, because like, where tf else am i going to go? and now that i'm in a swing state i feel like i'm morally obligated to do so.

but if i was leadership i'd be pretty concerned about the folks who have/ will basically drop out of the process though.

Some "why vote for Dems?" arguments are making the rounds, so let me say that, while I think there are many positive reasons to vote for Dems, the fact that the GOP is passing bills placing bounties on women's heads & others ensuring women will die from pregnancy should be enough

— Magdi Semrau (@magi_jay) March 12, 2022

The people making that argument are still generally going to show up every two years, as Will said - it's a rhetorical question. While Republicans pass bills placing bounties on women's heads, things like the Freedom of Choice Act have not been "high legislative priorities" when Democrats hold Congress and the White House - so, you know, what's the fucking point?

What is the alternative?

because in one case, the republicans win and there are more laws placing bounties on people and proactively hurting people, cruelly, intentionally, whereas if the democrats win they disappointingly fail to prevent any number of bad things from happening. putting out a kitchen fire is more important than repairing a broken window. they're both important, but one of them is about to kill you (or already did. i am one of those annoying people who literally means "GOP death cult")

xp

it doesn't mean that they're not both horrible, but there is very much a difference between the two. although this conversation has happened several million times already, so what do i know about priorities

Perhaps there's not one, which explains why we're in such good shape as a society?

I dunno, but being mad at people for asking the question strikes me as more nihilistic than the most blackpilled leftist doomer - at least they're asking why you shouldn't have expectations of good things happening instead of just accepting it as fait accompli.

because in one case, the republicans win

Do you think people asking that are actually saying "I hope people stay home so Republicans win" rather than expressing frustration at the lack of action on the part of Democrats?

so, you know, what's the fucking point?

i was replying to this

feel like there’s some conflation of “expressing/feeling my anger” and “doing politics” that I don’t really agree with. I have reliably voted for a Democrat in the general and for the leftmost candidate in the primary every election cycle for almost 20 years, and have at times participated in direct action and canvassing for various candidates. I’m not a fatalist.

I’m not talking about throwing my hands up and giving the Republicans a pass, I’m talking about recognizing that, as a broke, leftist, extremely un-respectable transsexual in a very blue city in a pretty blue state, there is no more point to me engaging emotionally or politically with Republican senators than going out and fighting the weather with my fists.

Posting to a tiny audience is not political action. It does nothing but provide catharsis, and I just don’t need any about Republicans. They are immovably committed to erasing my existence. I have no choice but to resist this. The terms of this contract will never change. Like the inevitability of death itself, it’s truly horrible, but it’s not particularly fruitful to rage against it at a dinner party.

The only way my actions are going to in any way counteract Republicans’ actions is by annoying, pressuring, guilting, or humiliating middle-of-the-road liberal politicians and apparatchiks into either fighting more effectively against them, or stepping aside for those who will, then supporting the latter. (Whether or not I post about it will not matter.)

There are many, ostensibly on my side, who are in different places, societally, economically, and geographically, and thus have different perspectives and strategies. Good! Unfortunate as it is, the two party system is baked into our politics and a collation of many experiences and tactics is necessary for any political action.

I’m just tired of reading lectures about how I’m not focusing my anger enough on the Republicans, as though my anger is somehow useful, precious, and universally effective.

love your posts itt nicole.

I thought your grizzly analogy was a perfect encapsulation of a particular kind of anger and frustration. I did not take it as a well-thought out and penetrating allegory of the realities of US politics.

Yeah, booming posts nicole.

aimless you need to reflect on yourself man

read what you just wrote

fuck’s sake

geez, nicole basically said the same about her own post as what I said. she didn't intend it as analysis, but catharsis. fuck's sake.

i didn’t say defend yourself

reflect on your post

'go to the corner and think about what you've done'. yeah. that's a good approach.

ok don’t! lol

love your posts itt nicole.

^^

Beto O'Rourke becomes the first prominent Democrat to flip against critical race theory.

"I don't think [CRT] should be taught in our schools."pic.twitter.com/uzlj6uERmw

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 12, 2022

please don't put chris rufo in here

I also believe that schools should stop teaching Esperanto. It's just a waste of time, folks.

nicole posts vv good btw, a constructive reminder of how and why to refocus

Killing it, nicole. Thank you.

I also believe that schools should stop teaching Esperanto.

Good luck getting all the kids to stop singing that "Bruno" song.

please don't put chris rufo in here

ooooof, sorry. someone retweeted it, that's how i saw it. his pinned tweet, holy shit

This will ensure that Beto loses by 20 points instead of 24.

or by 27 instead of 24...

Marvelous post, nicole

I am, still, involved in a hyper-local political project that's attempting to democratize the Democratic party, much to the dismay of a massive party structure that's nothing if not ethically bankrupt. So at least it feels like I'm doing something.

same

I got elected an officer today, so we should share notes off-board sometime.

Congrats Alfred!

nice!

hm well thanks -- I'll learn about Quixote and windmills by and by

Ooooh, nice one! Is it largely ceremonial? There's a group that wants to do more grassroots policy-informing from within my district instead of just letting the higher-ups appoint people who pay them, and I want to be involved but the rules are very old-fashioned and annoying.

And, like, the rules never stopped anyone from just un-convening all the committees so they didn't have to talk to or listen to people anyway.

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/legislative_session/wv-leaders-prioritize-oil-and-gas-production-over-renewables-after-russian-oil-ban-risking-long/article_2a4686f8-4271-54ec-9076-ee0ea41f3418.html

200 groups call on Biden White House to use Defense Production Act to scale up renewable and green energy tech that could be used at home and sold abroad. They make the argument that oil is priced internationally, so just trying to push already number 1 US oil production higher won't lower gas prices or reduce climate change.

Yes, he def should. The SCOTUS would probably knock the pins out from under it, but he should do it anyway to demonstrate the will to do what's right. Who knows, it might even work.

Prez seems hesitant to do that though, just like canceling student debt. Not clear what the corporate centrist Dems want him to do instead.

House Dems just had a retreat meeting thing in Philly.

Manchin blocks White House again. Is against nominee Raskin for Fed because she acknowledges climate change

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/598098-manchin-to-oppose-biden-fed-pick-over-climate-stances

I was furious at that story and then read a little further and tbh there's a bit more to it than just Manchin.

Ted Cruz, fuck off...

.@SenTedCruz: "Let Kyrie Irving play. If Brooklyn won't let Kyrie play, I'm going to make a pitch to you directly. Kyrie, come to Houston, play for the Rockets. We'll let you play. He's a hell of a player. Uncle Drew's being benched by asinine Democratic theater. This is stupid." pic.twitter.com/3MsmSZNnXj

— The Hill (@thehill) March 15, 2022

I'd be okay with Kyrie going to Houston

the trade deadline passed weeks ago and the rockets have the worst record in the league so uh good work puttin the ball through the basketball ring there senator

does abolishing daylight savings make the sky more or less woke?

It makes the farmers less woke

Daylight savings time ending def makes me less woke when it feels like 5:30am at 6:30am

The phrase "non-binary fuss" keeps ricocheting in my head

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086653838/the-white-house-says-its-running-out-of-money-to-cover-covid-tests-and-vaccines?utm_campaign=politics&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=twitter.com

read the full thread, but still

Of all the graphs & charts I've done over the past couple of years, this one includes the single eeriest coincidental data point. pic.twitter.com/BjBJ15KBS3

— Charles Gaba 🇺🇦 (@charles_gaba) March 16, 2022

what the hell is happening here

The entire Plano city council is in shock pic.twitter.com/oIpwyHSReV

— Dallas Texas TV (@DallasTexasTV) March 16, 2022

Poor Brian Wellington.

Had I been in the room for this, I would have been screaming, I can’t believe anyone kept their composure at the sanitizer/Pfizer line

does this guy have a recording contract yet?

Somebody call Channel 5

I’m half-convinced it’s Lil Dicky

This guy does this shit all the time I guess:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uedAvnnxo9I

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/03/the-republican-anti-vaxx-campaign-has-been-incredibly-successful-at-getting-republican-voters-killed

I was just boggling this morning at Tennessee's overtaking New York in deaths per capita, and closing in on New Jersey. Those two states were hit so hard so quickly that I wouldn't have believed anyone would surpass them. But the deep-red states are, one at a time.

Powell: Labor markets are "tight to an unhealthy level."

— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) March 16, 2022

Layoffs are labor market stretches

A number of friends have been laid off recently, which I found really surprising since they were all working in relatively safe industries. Weird things are happening.

pissbaby capital strike

PELOSI says she will read a poem by Bono about Ukraine at the lunch today.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 17, 2022

Fuck the revolution!

Incredible. milo, you couldn't have crafted something that on the nose if you tried.

Speaker Pelosi reads #StPatricksDay poem by Bono, which reads in part:

"Ireland's sorrow and pain
Is now the Ukraine
And Saint Patrick's name now Zelenskyy."

She then introduces Riverdance. pic.twitter.com/NzPY1VP2bN

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 17, 2022

Some C-SPAN shade

also

"Bono has been a very Irish part of our lives"

Speaker Pelosi reads #StPatricksDay poem by Bono, which reads in part:

"Ireland's sorrow and pain
Is now the Ukraine
And Saint Patrick's name now Zelenskyy."

She then introduces Riverdance. pic.twitter.com/NzPY1VP2bN

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 17, 2022

oops didn’t reload

There once was a man from Odessa

who introduced Bono to Lech Walesa

i get that this is cringe/funny, but it's also really worrying.

No more worrying than the preexisting knowledge that Nancy Pelosi is still in office

at least she didn't read something from Van Morrison

idk i can see that being so much better

Heaney would have been more aprops

will someone please link "ilx pre-covers Bono's Ukraine poem"?

Oh Saint Patrick he drove out the snakes
With his prayers, but that’s not all it takes
For the snake symbolizes
An evil that rises
And hides in your heart as it breaks

And the evil has risen my friends
From the darkness that lives in some men
But in sorrow and fear
That’s when saints can appear
To drive out those old snakes once again

And they struggle for us to be free
From the psycho in this human family
Ireland’s sorrow and pain
Is now the Ukraine
And Saint Patrick’s name now Zelenskyy

so cool that the worst poem of all time is going to start wwIII xp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOE1VxmVQAAJ4JD?format=png&name=medium

--Bob Marley

map's version hides the fact that this is in limerick form.

personally I would prefer a blood-dimmed tide to reading that poem

idk reciting that poem once a day keeps COVID and Van Morrison away iirc

Van would have thrown in a backdoor jelly roll

As a great Irish poet wrote, "They control the media."

Why are you on Facebook?
Why do you need second-hand friends?
Why do you really care who's trending?
Or is there something you're defending?
Get a life, is it that empty and sad?
Or are you after something you can't have?
You kiss the girls and run away
Now you won't come out to play
- Van Morrison

Zero fucks given
Energetic
Loses to no one
Eager to be brave
Nice man
Super heroic
Knows the truth
Youthful
Years of gratitude to him

Under A Blood Woke Sky

With or Without Ukraine Asking for It

It's like their album on your iTunes.

Right now, a copy of that poem is being spammed out to every email address in the world.

KGB agent comes up to me
His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colours of a royal flush
And he's peelin' off those ruble bills
(Slappin' 'em down)
One hundred million, two hundred million

Hope I didn’t bug ya

Hope I didn’t bug ya

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1450000/images/_1451528_putin_bono_150.jpg
"If I ever get my hands on this so-called Bono I'll ..."

Goddamit
https://www.wonderwall.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/shutterstock_editorial_7736287a.jpg?w=700

L-R Tony Blair, Vladimir Putin, Jesus Jones

I can't Lviv

The blob is really feeling it these days.

“It's tempting to infantilize the Russian public... The chilling truth is that tens of millions of Russians readily accept the Orwellian lies ... & share the sentiments expressed by the country’s pro-war cheerleaders,” #NotJustPutin #StopRussianAgression https://t.co/bt7EqVvML5

— Not Just Putin (@NotJustPutin) March 18, 2022

TBH I felt that way about my countrymen in the run up to the Iraq war

The federal government is doing its part to get ready for potential Russian cyberattacks.

We are prepared to help private sector companies with tools and expertise, but it is your decision as to the steps you’ll take and your responsibility to take them.

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 22, 2022

Well that’s a disconcerting tweet.

"Hey whatever man, I'm not the boss of this county"

Soul Dead In O-Hi-O: Repub Senatorial candidates with tangled ties to Russia clog primary (correspondent notes many Ukrainian Americans in state, but will it matter? Hope so)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/russia-business-deals-muddy-gop-us-senate-primary-83466039

Meanwhile, my own Sen. Marsha Blackburn indicated the other day that Griswold v. Connecticut should be revisited, and now Mike Braun wants to scrap Loving v. Virginia too. Can't accuse them of hiding the agenda.

REPORTER: "You would be okay with the Supreme Court leaving the issue of interracial marriage to the states?"

SEN. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): "Yes. If you are not wanting the Supreme Court to weigh in on issues like that, you are not going to be able to have your cake and eat it too." pic.twitter.com/jiVTMOpC01

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) March 22, 2022

This goes without saying but: what absolute monsters these people are.

Yeah they are not going to be happy with merely banning abortion.

They're not going to be happy until they can have sundown towns again, let's be honest.

Sundown nation

best Janet Jackson song

already a sundowning nation

I guess take yr rays of sunshine where you can get them. The Utah gov's letter in particular is unusually heartfelt for a politician, let alone a Republican governor.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/politics/indiana-transgender-sports-ban-veto-governor-holcomb/index.html

Also the Utah veto will be overridden, and the Indiana one may be. But, it's something. Get so starved for shreds of decency in red states.

Have we talked about the EARN It Act yet

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/02/11/tech/earn-it-act-senate/index.html

In these shitty times this counts as good news:

Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox, as he vetoes a ban on trans athletes passed by the state legislature, notes 75,000 high school athletes and only four are transgender. "Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few." pic.twitter.com/nB5vkl2NNl

— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) March 22, 2022

He should’ve also mentioned “so much hate,” but close enough.

Sadly I’m out of articles, but perhaps one of you fine posters might, ahem, etc

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/nyregion/mark-pomerantz-resignation-letter.html

Wow. Full text:

The following is the full text of the resignation letter by Mark Pomerantz, who had investigated former President Donald J. Trump, but left after the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, halted an effort to seek an indictment.

Dear Alvin,

I write to tender my resignation as a Special Assistant District Attorney and to explain my reasons for resigning.

As you know from our recent conversations and presentations, I believe that Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the Penal Law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual Statements of Financial Condition. His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people. The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did.

In late 2021, then-District Attorney Cyrus Vance directed a thorough review of the facts and law relating to Mr. Trump’s financial statements. Mr. Vance had been intimately involved in our investigation, attending grand jury presentations, sitting in on certain witness interviews, and receiving regular reports about the progress of the investigation. He concluded that the facts warranted prosecution, and he directed the team to present evidence to a grand jury and to seek an indictment of Mr. Trump and other defendants as soon as reasonably possible.

This work was underway when you took office as District Attorney. You have devoted significant time and energy to understanding the evidence we have accumulated with respect to the Trump financial statements, as well as the applicable law. You have reached the decision not to go forward with the grand jury presentation and not to seek criminal charges at the present time. The investigation has been suspended indefinitely. Of course, that is your decision to make. I do not question your authority to make it, and I accept that you have made it sincerely. However, a decision made in good faith may nevertheless be wrong. I believe that your decision not to prosecute Donald Trump now, and on the existing record, is misguided and completely contrary to the public interest. I therefore cannot continue in my current position.

In my view, the public interest warrants the criminal prosecution of Mr. Trump, and such a prosecution should be brought without any further delay. Because of the complexity of the facts, the refusal of Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization to cooperate with our investigation, and their affirmative steps to frustrate our ability to follow the facts, this investigation has already consumed a great deal of time. As to Mr. Trump, the great bulk of the evidence relates to his management of the Trump Organization before he became President of the United States. These facts are already dated, and our ability to establish what happened may erode with the further passage of time. Many of the salient facts have been made public in proceedings brought by the Office of the Attorney General, and the public has rightly inquired about the pace of our investigation. Most importantly, the further passage of time will raise additional questions about the failure to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his criminal conduct.

To the extent you have raised issues as to the legal and factual sufficiency of our case and the likelihood that a prosecution would succeed, I and others have advised you that we have evidence sufficient to establish Mr. Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and we believe that the prosecution would prevail if charges were brought and the matter were tried to an impartial jury. No case is perfect. Whatever the risks of bringing the case may be, I am convinced that a failure to prosecute will pose much greater risks in terms of public confidence in the fair administration of justice. As I have suggested to you, respect for the rule of law, and the need to reinforce the bedrock proposition that “no man is above the law,” require that this prosecution be brought even if a conviction is not certain.

I also do not believe that suspending the investigation pending future developments will lead to a stronger case or dispel your reluctance to bring charges. No events are likely to occur that will alter the nature of the case or dramatically change the quality or quantity of the evidence available to the prosecution. There are always additional facts to be pursued. But the investigative team that has been working on this matter for many months does not believe that it makes law enforcement sense to postpone a prosecution in the hope that additional evidence will somehow emerge. On the contrary, I and others believe that your decision not to authorize prosecution now will doom any future prospects that Mr. Trump will be prosecuted for the criminal conduct we have been investigating.

I fear that your decision means that Mr. Trump will not be held fully accountable for his crimes. I have worked too hard as a lawyer, and for too long, now to become a passive participant in what I believe to be a grave failure of justice. I therefore resign from my position as a Special Assistant District Attorney, effective immediately.

Sincerely,

Mark F. Pomerantz

Thanks unperson

Wow--sure looked like this guy was a frontrunner for a while, although he's been spending 0 bucks in the primary ad wars, and always was a bit spectral--but he used to blow snot on the idea that Trump didn't win:

CNN)Former President Donald Trump has yanked his endorsement from Alabama Senate hopeful Mo Brooks, promising to make a new endorsement in the race before the May 24 primary.

"Mo Brooks of Alabama made a horrible mistake recently when he went 'woke' and stated, referring to the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, 'Put that behind you, put that behind you,'" Trump said in a statement on Wednesday.
Trump's stunning decision to untether himself from a candidate who became the first Republican congressman to vote against certifying the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021, comes amid several dismissive comments that Brooks recently made about the election. Brooks was booed at a rally last August upon telling the crowd they should look beyond the last presidential contest. And in the last two weeks, he has publicly accused Trump of asking him to break the law by exploring ways to reinstall him as commander in chief.
"President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency. As a lawyer, I've repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period," Brooks continued.
Brooks later Wednesday told CNN that the former President had asked him to be a part of an effort to rescind the 2020 election in conversations that happened after September 1, 2021, "and multiple times."
When asked if he would be willing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol he responded, "Have given it no thought."

Asked about #TX28 runoff, @SpeakerPelosi says she is continuing to support incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar.

“I support my incumbents. I support every one of them.”

Asked abt FBI raid of his home, she says: “I haven’t seen anything, have you? Do you know what it’s about?”

— Madlin Mekelburg (@madlinbmek) March 23, 2022

still sharp as a tack

thank god the adults are in charge

eh, she knows about it. It’s the same answer republicans gave when asked about a trump tweet.

yeah, "You and I both know I'm lying" is a power move

so when is Trump taking over the White House now Biden is in Europe?

"Mo Brooks of Alabama made a horrible mistake recently when he went 'woke' and stated, referring to the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, 'Put that behind you, put that behind you,'" Trump said in a statement on Wednesday.

kind of back to its original def of just meaning "aware of what's really up"

Such a pile-on:

Cornyn then lectured Jackson about the alleged evils of Obergefell. “When the court overrules the decisions made by the people,” he told her, “as they did in 32 of the 35 states that decided to recognize only traditional marriage between a man and a woman, that is an act of judicial policymaking.” The senator went on to claim that “Dred Scott, which treated slaves as chattel property, was a product of substantive due process.” (That’s not actually true, but it marks an obvious effort to sully decisions like Obergefell with the taint of racist origins.) Cornyn also dismissed Obergefell as “court-made law that we’re all supposed to salute smartly and follow because nine people who are unelected, who have lifetime tenure, whose salary cannot be reduced while they serve in office—five of them decide that this is the way the world should be.”

“court-made law that we’re all supposed to salute smartly and follow because nine people who are unelected, who have lifetime tenure, whose salary cannot be reduced while they serve in office—five of them decide that this is the way the world should be.”

Wow, that almost sounds like an argument for reforming the structure of the court. Interesting.

Welcome the the #resistance, Cornyn.

So if I'm reading him correctly, Cornyn wants everyone to reject the SCOTUS decisions they don't agree with on the grounds they are "nine people who are unelected, who have lifetime tenure, whose salary cannot be reduced while they serve in office"?

(looks at the current nine sitting justices)

Are you sure about this, senator? Cuz, uh...

(looks at the current nine sitting justices again and wonders wtf he's on)

Were so many Republicans openly race-baiting fascists the last couple of decades or is it just that, post-Trump, we can see them more clearly?

I think we went through a period as famously described by Lee Atwater where it wasn’t considered good politics to be quite so open about it. One of the things people loved about Trump for sure was this great relief and release to be able to just be nakedly racist again. Like putting on an old, comfortable jacket. Or hood.

They used to use dog whistles and plausible deniability, now the dog whistle is a fog horn.

1994: we need to reform welfare to end a culture of dependency in our inner cities

2022: Black people smell bad, you know I’m right folks

"A fog horn, that is!"

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/foghorn-promo_1-380x210.jpg

Trump did also drive out some of the less insane voices in the party.

Yeah I keep saying that people should stop saying “where did all the moderate Republicans go?” They became Democrats and that’s also part of why the Dems suck bad now too.

I have personal experience in my family of Bush to Obama voter.

well that's settled then

People telling themselves Trump can’t win again nationally may be wrong. But they also might not be.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 24, 2022

I think if he were granted the honorary title of King of Florida, that might satisfy him and all of us

Were so many Republicans openly race-baiting fascists the last couple of decades or is it just that, post-Trump, we can see them more clearly?

This has already been answered but yes, most of these Republicans have been openly race-baiting fascists since the Southern Strategy

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7GLJsclRi8

i live in St Louis, MO, home to several million people who proudly vote for nationalist fascists. i received a free newspaper this morning, called FRONT LINE. at first i was excited about the PBS newsletter, but then i saw an Bald Eagle and an American flag across the banner and a quote from Hosea (4:6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge), and i briefly conflated it with Stormfront. i glanced at the cars parked in my neighborhood to make sure that none of them were nazis or FBI agents trying to frame me for being a nazi, but all i saw was a squirrel carrying a full pita up the side of the tree across the street, followed by a second squirrel carrying a second full piece of pita bread up a second trunk. so i picked it up.

they cover all the stuff you'd think they would. i'll post a couple images below, but it's the usual - covid disinformation, 1619 projects, school boards, eminent Biden despotism. there's a pull-quote in the middle from winston churchill where he's saying that experts are bad and that really normal common people should be making the decisions rather than people who claim to know things. yes. there's a really funny chart in the middle featuring an anti-covid precautions statement ("The Great Barrington Declaration", lol) supposedly signed by some scientist and doctors and then definitely signed by hundreds of thousands of total idiots on an email chain. those last two - the dumb chart and the churchill quote - are on the same page. i'll post that one, yes.

but also, you can see why republicans win here. only half of the issue is dedicated to total lying nonsense. the other half if all about information about local elections, local school boardings, who is running, when and where to vote, sample questions to ask school council candidates, etc, etc, etc. they put out their idiotic editorials, complete with dozens of references to make it look like any due diligence was done (40+ references on one of them!), but the real focus is on getting out all of their idiots to the events and giving them scripts to read, other people to read the script with.

https://i.imgur.com/GNxtnFW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/j0WNPqI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/edcNGQB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kz5yfRx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/33xCHRm.jpg

(MO is the home of several million wannabe fascists, not StL. And when I say “Republicans wins here” I mean MO, not StL. I see their encroachment into the few blue spots in the state (along with the absence of a clear opposition) as a bad sign. Sorry for any confusion)

I think a lot (when I bother to think about politics) about how the GOP seems to have more systematic party discipline in that regard, and then I usually wonder (a) is that really true, (b) is that partly a feature of the personality types more likely to be conservative, such that the same probably couldn't be imitated by the left, and (c) is that a function of there just being a shit-ton of money behind these efforts. I mean I don't get the sense the democratic party has a well-thought-out, long-term strategy to take over school boards around the country, complete with newspapers designed to GOTV

The Comic Sans for the bible quote on the cover is 'chefs kiss'.

is that partly a feature of the personality types more likely to be conservative

People who happily embrace strict hierarchical structures of authority and obedience are pretty uniformly conservative, with the possible exception of certain tankies.

GOP seems to have more systematic party discipline in that regard

Yeah, but they eat their parents as well... it's a race to the right, and anyone who doesn't swear eternal fidelity to the Mango Mussolini is now a RINO

when you're the party representing everyone not a fascist, it's harder to herd'em.

police handouts don't herd'em

that was the best mc hammer pun i could come up with, i'm sorry

hi Karl

The Funky Handout Herd'em

Can't find the quote from a Congressional Repub source, to the effect that, while his comrades at arms are plenty anti-Democrat, they're actually get more angry at each other, and I think that xp fear of being out-righted is a big part of it, like those primary opponents in Ohio who almost got into a slappy match before the cameras recently---or at least trying to prove who loves Trump more, in many a Red State's primary TV ad battles.

I am originally from St. Louis and still have family there and I am baffled by Missouri's rightward lurch. Until not that long ago the state was competitive, and there were several pretty solid Democrats in office.

With dark money and xp playbooks galore,
ore than a dozen states are considering proposals that would penalize health care providers who provide what’s known as gender-affirming care to children and teenagers. Top Republican leaders in Texas, including Paxton, have said this type of care — which can refer to everything from counseling to surgery — amounts to “child abuse,” even as major medical organizations endorse it. Arkansas is fighting in federal court to preserve its ban on such treatments. “We cannot allow minors or their parents to make life-altering decisions,” Jonathan Covey, director of policy for the advocacy group Texas Values, told The New York Times.

But what is gender-affirming care, and why do some children receive it? Nightly reached out to three transgender health experts to talk through some of the biggest questions around it: Jason Rafferty, who helped write gender-affirming care guidelines for the American Academy of Pediatrics and practices at the Gender and Sexuality Program at Rhode Island’s Hasbro Children’s Hospital; Laura Taylor, medical director of the Keck Medicine of USC Gender-Affirming Care Program; and Stephen Rosenthal, medical director of the University of California, San Francisco’s Child and Adolescent Gender Center. All oppose recent state efforts to criminalize gender-affirming care. Rosenthal co-wrote an op-ed article in the San Francisco Chronicle that condemned the bills that are passing in statehouses across the country. Succinctly in depth:
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/03/25/the-transgender-care-that-states-are-banning-explained-00020580?nname=politico-nightly&nid=00000170-c000-da87-af78-e185fa700000&nrid=00000172-4d9a-d3ba-a9f3-6f9e04a20000&nlid=2670445

An example of how headspinning these crusades can get, even for Redheadz:

Utah enacts anti-trans sports ban after Republican lawmakers override GOP governor's veto
...vetoing the bill on Tuesday, Cox said the legislation around the issue that he had previously expressed support for underwent "major overhauls proposed at the last minute" that created the "complete ban" now on the books.
"It is important to note that a complete ban was never discussed, never contemplated, never debated, and never received any public input prior to the Legislature passing the bill on the 45th and final night of the session," he said.
Following the override, Cox said he was "heartened that the Legislature

agreed to indemnify school districts and the Utah High School Athletics Association from the enormous financial burden that inevitable litigation will have on them. I remain hopeful that we will continue to work toward a more inclusive, fair and compassionate policy during the interim."
HB 11 stipulates that if a court ever strikes down the ban, the ruling would trigger the creation of a commission that would "establish a baseline range of physical characteristics for students participating in a specific gender-designated activity at a specific age to provide the context for the evaluation of an individual student's eligibility for a given gender-designated interscholastic activity."
The commission would look at cases on an individual basis

Sorry, that's from this: https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/25/politics/utah-trans-sports-ban-cox/index.html

Unfortunate chosen words in that url.

@hutchinson
· Mar 23
The Republican governor of Utah vetoed a trans sports ban yesterday. Here is part of a letter that he wrote explaining his decision.

75,000 high school kids participating in high school sports in Utah.

4 transgender kids playing high school sports in Utah.

86% of trans youth report suicidality.

56% of trans youth having attempted suicide.
...Four kids who aren't dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are part of something. Four kids who are just trying to get through the day...Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few...

The Republican governor of Utah vetoed a trans sports ban yesterday. Here is part of a letter that he wrote explaining his decision. pic.twitter.com/mS5O8vuduu

— Hutch 💙💛 (@hutchinson) March 23, 2022

1 transgender student playing girls sports.

Hah, I never tried that before!

It's pretty crazy how much trans issues come up in the "national discussion" nowadays given that they are 0.25% of the population (not saying their concerns and well-being aren't important, I'm of course in their corner).

it's just another "marrying a turtle" issue for the GOP

Elaine Chao married a turtle.

Reactionaries lost the battle on cultural acceptance of hetero sexual freedom, then 'women's lib' and then gay rights, trans rights were the next logical target in that section of the culture war.

This has already been answered but yes, most of these Republicans have been openly race-baiting fascists since the Southern Strategy

Thanks for all these responses, guys. While I've read all the Perlstein tomes, etc, from a distance (the UK), the Trump-era seems to have emboldened these shitstains, but I'm guessing that's more a wrinkle of how it's been reported over here pre-Trump than anything else.

Reagan, Poppy, and especially George W. Bush were just as evil but still felt a patrician's duty to smile.

I guess one idea is you can exploit division between TERFs and progressives, also general public's likely lack of personal familiarity with trans, and trans being such a minority you don't have to worry so much about offending trans voters.

It’s been less than 48 hours since the explosive text messages from GINNI THOMAS, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice CLARENCE THOMAS, to then-White House chief of staff MARK MEADOWS were published, and the story is really beginning to snowball. Here’s the latest:

1. Thomas’ post-election, pro-Trump efforts didn’t stop with Meadows.

In a Friday evening scoop, NBC’s Scott Wong reported that Thomas pressed Republican members of Congress to protest the election results.

In a November 2020 email, “Thomas told an aide to incoming Republican Study Committee Chairman JIM BANKS (R-Ind.) .… that Freedom Caucus members were tougher than RSC members, were in the fight and had then-President DONALD TRUMP’s back, according to the source familiar with the email contents. Until she saw RSC members ‘out in the streets’ and in the fight, she said, she would not help the RSC, the largest caucus of conservatives on Capitol Hill. …

“The email exchange suggests Thomas was pressuring Republicans in Congress to get more aggressive in fighting for Trump at a key moment when the lame-duck president and his inner circle were devising a strategy to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep him in power.”

2. Legal experts say Thomas’ texts present a real problem for the Supreme Court.

One thing worth noting: This isn’t just coming from liberal scholars. ADAM WHITE, a prominent conservative legal fellow at AEI, “said that, in general, previous criticisms of Ginni Thomas’s political work, as well as calls for the justice to recuse himself from participating in cases, were overstated and unfair,” write WaPo’s Robert Barnes and Ann Marimow. “But, he said, the recent disclosures are ‘somewhat different because they pertain to a specific course of events that did give rise to Supreme Court litigation. This does raise real questions about the need for Justice Thomas to recuse from future cases related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.’”

STEPHEN GILLERS, a longtime professor of legal ethics at NYU, spoke to NYT’s Adam Liptak about whether Clarence Thomas violated federal recusal law by participating in cases related to Jan. 6 or the 2020 election.

— What the law states: “any justice, judge or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

“A more specific provision concerning relatives, including spouses, might also apply to his situation,” writes Liptak. “Judges should not participate, the law says, in proceedings in which their spouse has ‘an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.’”

— Gillers said the word “interest” was the key: “By writing to Meadows, who was chief of staff and active in the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, she joined the team resisting the results of the election,” he said. “She made herself part of the team and so she has an interest in the decisions of the court that could affect Trump’s goal of reversing the results.”

3. Will the Jan. 6 committee call Ginni Thomas to testify?

That question, and the many others related to it, are the subject of considerable debate playing out in private on the committee, per NYT’s Luke Broadwater, Jo Becker, Maggie Haberman and Alan Feuer.

— The internal dynamics: “The panel’s Republican vice chairwoman, Rep. LIZ CHENEY of Wyoming, has led the charge in holding Mr. Trump to account for his efforts to overturn the election, but has wanted to avoid any aggressive effort that, in her view, could unfairly target Justice Thomas.”

— The double-standard concerns: “If the committee does not summon Ms. Thomas, some legal analysts said, it runs the risk of appearing to have a double standard. The panel has taken an aggressive posture toward many other potential witnesses, issuing subpoenas for bank and phone records of both high-ranking allies of the former president and low-level aides with only a tangential connection to the events of Jan. 6.”

— Where things get really dicey: “Investigators could ask her the name of the friend she was referring to when she wrote back to thank Mr. Meadows, saying: ’Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now…I will try to keep holding on.’ (Ms. Thomas and her husband have publicly referred to each other as their best friends.) Ultimately, they could ask her whether she had discussed Mr. Trump’s fight to overturn the election with her husband.”

Until she saw RSC members ‘out in the streets’ and in the fight, she said,

Impeach Clarence Thomas

this King of Kings dude has some explaining to do as well imho

from the NYT:

So although a debate has broken out inside the committee about summoning Ms. Thomas to testify, the panel at this point has no plans to do so, leaving some Democrats frustrated. That could change, however: On Friday, despite the potential for political backlash, Ms. Cheney indicated she has no objection to the panel asking Ms. Thomas for a voluntary interview.

Failed state, part 4835

This is not going to end well.

“Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest testing companies in the country, told ABC News that patients who are not on Medicare, Medicaid or a private health plan will now be charged $125 when using one of its…PCR tests.” https://t.co/A4C4dnX05H

— Oni Blackstock MD MHS (@oni_blackstock) March 26, 2022

Corporations going to be corporate, nothing new to see here.

You know how that shit will work, if you got work insurance - they will write off $85 bucks, you will pay $25 and the insurance company like $12 bucks. F'n mafiosos, everyone gets their beak wet.

i did not realize rick scott has a 11-point "plan", and i also did not realize that one of his points is

"All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again."

he does has eleven points though

he done does have 11 points,

I guess one idea is you can exploit division between TERFs and progressives, also general public's likely lack of personal familiarity with trans, and trans being such a minority you don't have to worry so much about offending trans voters.

― dow, Saturday, March 26, 2022 12:17 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Just want to point out that many people in the general public don't KNOW that they have interactions with trans people, but they probably do. Trans people are everywhere.

Also, not trying to be language cop, but please don't refer to trans people as "trans" in the way that you do above, I know it's not your intention but it veers toward some icky and dehumanizing language.

agree w that

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/supreme-court-clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas-texts-1327064/

COHEN: Is there any precedent for such an episode in the history of the Court? How does this compare to prior scandals at the Court?

SHESOL: Well, my first reaction is that if you pitched this storyline as a scripted series on Netflix, you’d be told it’s too over-the-top to be credible. Yet here we are.

Second, on the grounds that it’s more useful than anything I might say at present, here is a piece I wrote for the NYT back in 2011 on the “extrajudicial” activities of Thomas, Alito, and others. They’re even more brazen today, if only because they have never faced any consequences (other than the opprobrium of the left and the mainstream media, opprobrium they welcome) for making political statements to politically minded crowds. You and I can write as many mean articles about them as we’d like, but short of impeachment, they’re untouchable and they revel in it.

Third, no, I can’t think of a single precedent for this sort of episode. Until Ginni Thomas, the spouses of Supreme Court justices (past and present) have understood that they should avoid activities that might reflect poorly, by association, on the reputation of the justice or might call into question the impartiality of the justice. But as recent reporting has made clear, Ginni Thomas is not merely indifferent to such expectations or unmindful of the old guardrails; she is a zealot, an ideological warrior, and sees herself as waging the same fight to the same ends that her husband is waging from the bench. There is no precedent for any of this.

Neither is there any real answer to it. In a very real sense, Clarence and Ginni Thomas are answerable only to Clarence and Ginni Thomas. The Trump Administration gave us all a hard lesson in how few actual rules bind the behavior of our national leaders, and how much depends on their good judgment and self-restraint.

Column: Stop hounding Dianne Feinstein and let her finish her time in the Senate https://t.co/fNRHTmLeRd

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 28, 2022

Me: No

Stop hounding Dianne Feinstein and let her die in peace

Release the hounds

i will never log off stop hounding dianne feinstein

LEAVE BRITNEY FEINSTEIN ALONE!

In seriousness though, rather than stop hounding dianne feinstein, how about start hounding every single politician over 75.

In seriousness though, since Bernie Sanders doesn't seem that bad, how about just hound every corporate centrist and right-wing politician no matter their age

good job madison

Multiple sources tell me Leader Kevin McCarthy says he plans to talk to freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn over his orgy remarks

Told several House Rs stood up who were upset. They said it wasn’t ok, they don’t believe it, etc

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) March 29, 2022

I know there are shades of grey, but this is one case that seems 100% certifiably mentally ill (and mentally vacant).

Still not convinced he isn't Bruce McCulloch doing a bit

I don't blame the republicans for being mad that Cawthorn narced on their orgies

he made these remarks while on a podcast called "Warrior Poet Society"

haaha

I mean, are there not orgies and cocaine in DC? Maybe not more than in any other big city professional scene, but I would assume they happen.

i believe there are orgies and cocaine on every block

I really don't get why congressional republicans would be ashamed for the world to know they have massive cocaine-fueled fuck parties, they're living their best lives! Maybe they're worried their constituents will be jealous.

obviously there ARE cocaine fuck parties in DC, but is Madison Cawthorn getting invited to them? that dude is like a carbon-based buzzkill

"Madison Cawthorn" sounds like the fellow in a Wodehouse novel not invited to orgies.

Haven't there been suggestions Cawthorn was rapey in college?

If I could do some Bataillean things to his eyeballs, I'd invite Cawthorn to an orgy.

Pity the poor man
pity the sad man
pity the Madison who couldn't afford to orgy.

I know we are not supposed to psychoanalyze people we don’t know but MC gives me Tim Heidecker of On Cinema crossed with Bob Roberts ~vibes~

If I could do some Bataillean things to his eyeballs, I'd invite Cawthorn to an orgy.

idk what's worse, the implication that the GOP is hosting coke orgies or the idea that Cawthorn would just make that up

I know we are not supposed to psychoanalyze people we don’t know but MC gives me Tim Heidecker of On Cinema crossed with Bob Roberts ~vibes~

He's more like the Jack Black character in Bob Roberts imo

I like the idea they have coke orgies bit pointedly don’t invite him

This is exactly how I see it, he's left out so he's spilling the beans, now they have to close ranks to keep the fun going

The guy is in Congress with Matt Gaetz so this is not that hard to believe

it's dianne feinstein's doing

hugging lindsey graham automatically gets you on the invite list

Congressional orgies would be a nightmare, so much papery skin tearing, they’d need a 1:1 medic to orgy attendee ratio.

Memorial for Rep. Don Young:

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: "They lie to you in freshman orientation. They tell you nobody in the chamber has an assigned seat. I made that mistake of sitting down in the right side in that chair. The lesson I learned that day, it's true he does have a knife."

Kev's just practicing his stand-up chops for the Washington Correspondents dinner.

Did Kev use the knife to do bumps off before the orgy?

AOC otm:

“As a younger member of Congress, the first vote I ever cast was for Barack Obama, who was called a socialist and all of this stuff. All of this rhetoric that we see today has been the political reality my entire life. And so I never felt a nostalgia for something that never existed in my lifetime,” she told me. “I feel like our politics has fundamentally changed — whether it’s for better or for worse is for people’s determination — but I was never under the illusion that we can bring Manchin along.”

Ocasio-Cortez was one one of only six Democrats (including Representative Jamaal Bowman of the Bronx) — to vote against Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill last November. She reasoned — correctly, it turned out — that severing the infrastructure spending from Biden’s much larger Build Back Better proposal would allow the bigger bill to be killed, in the closely divided Senate, by the defection of two conservative Democratic senators, Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

“I have the utmost respect and confidence in the president, but I just felt like we called two different plays on this one,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I think that there is a sense among more senior members of Congress, who have been around in different political times, that we can get back to this time of buddy-buddy and backslapping and we’ll cut a deal and go into a room with some bourbon and some smoke and you’ll come out and work something out. I think there’s a real nostalgia and belief that that time still exists or that we can get back to that.”

But those days, she says, have been over for a long time. And the fact that Biden and others don’t realize it, she says, could spell disaster in the fall’s elections. With Biden’s low approval numbers and the historic tendency of the president’s party to lose, on average, 26 House seats in the midterms, the Democrats face an uphill battle to keep control of Congress — a situation that requires firing up the party’s progressive base, Ocasio-Cortez said.

“We need to acknowledge that this isn’t just about middle of the road, an increasingly narrow band of independent voters. This is really about the collapse of support among young people, among the Democratic base, who are feeling that they worked overtime to get this president elected and aren’t necessarily being seen,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez and the other 97 members of the House Progressive Caucus are calling on Biden to issue executive orders to enact environmental protections, lower health-care costs, cancel federal student-loan debts, and expand protections for immigrants.

“If the president does pursue and start to govern decisively using executive action and other tools at his disposal, I think we’re in the game,” she said. “But if we decide to just kind of sit back for the rest of the year and not change people’s lives — yeah, I do think we’re in trouble. So I don’t think that it’s set in stone. I think that we can determine our destiny here.”

Feels like every voter out there is demanding immediate, decisive changes to society, but almost half of them are demanding some backward-looking return to a white-supremacist, triumphalist, endlessly oil-fueled paradise they believe they have lost and can recapture if they scream loudly enough.

And those are the half that are being heard.

Imagine being an elected official who goes on the record like “you know what, no, fuck a federal anti-legislation bill”

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/22995013/anti-lynching-act-emmett-till?fbclid=IwAR2aU6eKisvAdS7s3mqi77pdw5rdD5M1bv6F7JOrDWwI35HLVs_Hmun2ik0

Anti-LYNCHING bill

I was gonna say, I can 100% imagine that

Still can, unfortunately

That one neighbor who don’t play about watching the news pic.twitter.com/pnyNWXWEId

— Mikalis (@RealStimpOnline) March 29, 2022

in this house we have a cable subscription

Meanwhile on Russian state TV:

Host Evgeny Popov says it's time for the Russian people to call on Americans to change "the regime in the U.S." before its term expires "and to again help our partner Trump to become President."https://t.co/orPMoKoxwG pic.twitter.com/sPVDhVWm6Q

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) March 29, 2022

So that's where my question mark went.

Russian state tv host idly throwing stuff at the wall, as Russian tv hosts are often known to do for fun and amusement.

Kinda like that they're calling Trump 'our partner'...

That's what we've been saying all along

Imagine being an elected official who goes on the record like “you know what, no, fuck a federal anti-legislation bill”

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/22995013/anti-lynching-act-emmett-till?fbclid=IwAR2aU6eKisvAdS7s3mqi77pdw5rdD5M1bv6F7JOrDWwI35HLVs_Hmun2ik0

― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 30 March 2022 11:04 (six hours ago) link

Anti-LYNCHING bill

― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 30 March 2022 11:04 (six hours ago) link

There is a justice argument against laws that create harsher mandatory sentences for crimes that already carry significant sentences. I haven't looked at this closely so I'm not expressing a firm opinion, but it does concern me that lynching is described as "—If 2 or more persons willfully cause bodily injury to any other person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person" and then carries a mandatory 10 year sentence if any bodily harm is caused. So, for example, two 18 year old high school seniors are walking down the street, and they make a spur of the moment decision to hit a hassidic jewish guy on the street and shout "f-in Jew." They hit him once in the stomach and slap him in the face and run off, and the Jewish guy has a bruise. If prosecuted under federal law, they now get a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, pretty much ruining a good part of their lives. Not sure I like that.

I mean obviously "anti-lynching bill" sounds like something no one could possibly be against, obviously lynching is bad. But lynching also is already covered under existing laws, and creating a new extra-harsh law doesn't do anything to make up for failure to adequately prosecute lynchings in the past.

Well, doesn't it at least take it out of the hands of local prosecutors and/or juries that might take a "Aww, you know, jess boys being boys" kinda thing?

I'd probably be ok with it if it didn't have the huge mandatory minimum for any bodily harm.

If prosecuted under federal law, they now get a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years

Your hypothesized scenario of the bruised jew fitting the anti-lynching statute may cause you concern, but in real life I don't think federal prosecutors are into wasting their time on shit like that. They see themselves as operating far above that level.

I'm generally against any mandatory minimum... but in the hypothetical case you outlined, it would up to the federal prosecutor to decide whether to pursue lynching charges, and I don't know if that case would qualify. (It might still be charged as a hate crime.)

xpost yeah, exactly

i think it says the maximum penalty for hate crimes is increased from 10 years to 30

bruising scenario is also not serious bodily injury

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/55/text

Also worth noting that cops have used anti-lynching statutes against protestors trying to de-arrest people or protect themselves from police violence. I know because I was charged with lynching for resisting arrest once (BART protests in 2011) and the case was thrown out and expunged.

cops misuse all kinds of statutes to justify arrests that are later thrown out. the cops don't care about a conviction because they already proved their point which was: I can arrest you and throw you in jail. why? because deeznuts, that's why.

the shock and anger with which they’ve come down on Cawthorn for this vs. every other breach of decorum leads me to conclude, with a very heavy heart, that the orgies are real https://t.co/MEUoUPu1E9

— Christopher Hooks (@cd_hooks) March 30, 2022

Every visual that ran through your head of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul high fiving during an Eiffel Tower moment was real.

The only thing that would surprise me about the Republican coke orgies would be to learn that there were women present.

"exaggerated/untrue" hmmmm

same thing!!

it really happened big-time, or it never happened (and of course it happened, big-time), same thing!

i think it says the maximum penalty for hate crimes is increased from 10 years to 30

― towards fungal computer (harbl), Wednesday, 30 March 2022 18:35 (yesterday) link

bruising scenario is also not serious bodily injury

― towards fungal computer (harbl), Wednesday, 30 March 2022 18:36 (yesterday) link

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/55/text

― towards fungal computer (harbl), Wednesday, 30 March 2022 18:37 (yesterday) link

Ok this is weird, but I think that the Vox article initially linked the wrong text, because what I saw before was totally different from this.

the shock and anger with which they’ve come down on Cawthorn for this vs. every other breach of decorum leads me to conclude, with a very heavy heart, that the orgies are real https://t.co/MEUoUPu1E9

— Christopher Hooks (@cd_hooks) March 30, 2022

You can kind of ignore everything I said then. I don't really have a problem with an increased max. xp

"the orgies are real" for April Thread Title.

in regards to the modern GOP I think often about that Quincy Jones quote on the Nazis - "they acted like that because they were coked out all the time"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ACW0HYe7Q

bold strategy let’s see if it pays off for em

Biden's budget proposal: 10% increase in military; 11% increase in federal law enforcement; 13% increase for ICE. Biden wants $8.1 billion for ICE, which is higher than the highest amount Trump ever spent on ICE. https://t.co/6cWJNMGinH

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) March 29, 2022

I think they want to lose

Interesting piece on how Democrats actually managed to do a better job gerrymandering this year, although the kind of buried bit at the end is that this is partly because Republicans backed away from it a bit, focusing on a longer term strategy of protecting red districts in purpling areas.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/podcasts/the-daily/midterms-elections-redistricting.html

Legalize weed and give us checks this ain’t difficult people

They don't care about winning or losing because this is just a game of power to them, and they see that they can line their pockets easier by sucking the long dong of settler empire's militarism than actually giving a fuck about their constituents or any of the problems that are actually facing the citizens they represent.

otm. they also probably don't like being in power so much because not being on the sidelines gives them more cover and plausible deniability.

minor quibble, empire doesn't have a dong itself it's a dong vampire

err.. being on the sidelines

ok but have you considered that being out of power creates dozens of make-work consulting jobs for the failkids of rich liberals

so who can really say what’s “good” or “bad”

being in power does that too, to be fair

good morning!

xpost mmm yes but the fundraising. the sweet sweet fundraising.

How can this not be the April thread title: "We’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes."

http://i.imgur.com/lwY8uFH.jpg?1

Nice edit by Chuck Tingle.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/senate-turns-back-david-weil-as-labors-top-wage-hour-enforcer

Mark Kelly slipping in to complete the craven trifecta.

Do you remember that point last year where it was suggested that the feed on these US politics threads would slow to a trickle once t was gone?

the 't' party has never left us

What a thread:

In his decision blocking most of Florida's new voter suppression bill, Judge Mark Walker explicitly calls out other courts—including SCOTUS—for putting the right to vote "under siege" by "gutting" the Voting Rights Act. https://t.co/k3FKwDBY4F pic.twitter.com/w9t19Js9NZ

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) March 31, 2022

From Stern's thread:

Will Walker's 288-page decision by halted and eventually overturned by the Trump-stacked 11th Circuit—or, if not, SCOTUS? Probably. But he made it as difficult as possible for any fair-minded judge to find a flaw.

The problem is that we're pretty short on fair-minded judges.

otm x1000

Struck again in @maristpoll how low Biden's approval stands w/the young (34% for Millennials/Z). Likely biggest fall-off from his 2020 vote share among any large group. Will compound fears of youth organizers re Nov unless he shows progress on their issueshttps://t.co/vZT8SZqo90

— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) March 31, 2022

just got a fundraising text from Mark Kelly looool fuck all the way off man

If anyone cares to chip in a couple of bucks to primary Kurt Schrader, my district's blue dog disgrace of a Democrat, Jamie McLeod-Skinner is running a very competitive race against him and she's up against Schrader's big corporate $$$. I've contributed $135 to her so far.

yes i've been phone banking for JMS, please help me achieve my lifelong goal of booting scumbag kurt schrader out of office

APRIL THREAD TITLE UNLOCKED

Ingraham: Why not just name the roller coaster Sex Mountain? pic.twitter.com/BZuYrC4N6Q

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 31, 2022

GLENN GREENWALD
MOMENTS AWAY

^^^ our real April titlte

Glenn's edging

GOP voters are such a bunch of serfs. Give 'em enough rope and they will hang themselves. And this is from one of the 'moderates'...what a FU.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/31/mitt-romney-cut-back-retirement-benefits-younger-americans?fr=operanews

They're welcome to grab on to that third rail with all their might.

anything mitt says or does has almost no relevance outside of utah

achieving the uppermost echelons of power & influence just to get sucked off next to Rep. Cawthorn in a room that looks like a hotel lobby

— wint (@dril) April 1, 2022

real american politics is from the pulpit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKeE72bkxGk

they all have guns

Back underneath the big tent, the exorcising of evil spirits continued with a Kentucky teen who had been brought to the service by his grandfather, Nightingale, a church attendee. The boy, Bronson, had been writhing on the ground, beset, when he suddenly got up and sprinted for the door.

Volunteers from the church, in black hoodies, tackled the teen in the back of the room. They held him down, rubbed his back with Bibles, prayed in tongues and exclaimed, “Out, out, out!” One blew a shofar, the ram’s horn normally used in Jewish religious ceremonies that some Christians also use.

The two had watched Locke together online, but it was Bronson’s first time at a service, Nightingale said. The boy, who had never sworn before, according to his grandmother, was now cussing at the volunteers and growling.

“This is what happens at a deliverance service,” Locke said from the pulpit. “Cry it out, shout it out, weep it out, snot it out. We’re going to set people free tonight.”

Suddenly Bronson’s tight body went limp. The volunteers huddled over him. When they helped him to his feet, he was smiling and calm, ready to be baptized. “Amen, I never had to chase nobody before,” one of the volunteers told the teen.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Bronson said. They went up to the front of the room, where a livestock watering tank painted sky blue inside awaited and the Praise band began softly playing the worship song “No Longer Slaves.”

“I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God,” they sang. Locke came down from the stage all smiles. Bronson stepped gingerly into the tank.

“Upon your confession of faith in Jesus Christ, the power and glory of the Gospel and this beautiful deliverance we have seen tonight, I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” Locke said, dunking Bronson into the water as the music swelled.

Bronson came up, water sluicing from his jeans and shirt, smiling radiantly. His grandfather wrapped his arms around his neck from behind and crooned into his ear along with the music, “You are a child of God.”

“Hallelujah,” everybody said.

good to bury something like that at an end, anyway

This is what happens at a deliverance service: US Politics April 2022

source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP8kmZvf4b8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz0LY0I5bLA