US Politics, June 2023: We Refused to Let Our State Descend Into Some Kind of Faucian Dystopia

what an asshole

It's hard to imagine his war against woke will resonate nationwide. All of my friends think he is Scott Walker 2.0 but who knows

that's the one with "Jackie" on it though

I have no idea what that means at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n5FLWAjcSQ

Goethe's Fauci

As mentioned in the bonus tracks on the May thread, a federal judge last night threw out Tennessee's drag ban as an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. The judge was a Trump appointee, fwiw. On the one hand a totally predictable outcome, but these days I'm always relieved when federal judges find obviously unconstitutional things unconstitutional.

Anyway, the Republican state rep who sponsored the bill is doing a great job showing that you don't have to understand how laws, courts or the Constitution work in order to serve in the Tennessee Legislature.

The judge provided an “opinion” that the law was unconstitutional but the court ONLY enjoined the law in Shelby county. IT STILL STANDS AND APPLIES TO THE OTHER 94 COUNTIES. I’m hopeful our AG will continue to defend it and appeal the decision.

— Representative Chris Todd (@RepChrisTodd) June 3, 2023

(Narrator: The law does not still stand and is in fact unconstitutional in the other 94 counties too.)

Some real "evolution is just a THEORY, man" energy there

Yeah "opinion" in scare quotes is hilarious.

We Refused to Let Our State Descend Into Some Kind of Faucian Dystopia, after all we already live in Florida said the governor from Tallahassee.

The Blair Erskine video is funny but not her best — but the response video is amazing

Kandiss Taylor explaining how the Earth is flat pic.twitter.com/CByWpLX0ZU

— blaire erskine (@blaireerskine) May 25, 2023

Fmr. GA Gov candidate and current GOP official Kandiss Taylor is upset about the SNL skit making fun of her as a flat-earther. She explains her actual position, which has something to do with globes being NASA propaganda. I think. pic.twitter.com/1hFE5kSv5M

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 5, 2023

It's hard to tell whether she's putting us on.

Redefining "Globalists"

It's hard to tell whether she's putting us on.

She has a podcast called “Jesus, Guns, Babies,” which was also her slogan when she ran for governor. She definitely has a shtick, but she’s at least as serious as, you know, Boebert or Greene.

Jesus, Guns & Babies is one of my favorite left wing blogs.

I went home with an atlas, the way I always do
How was I to know, the flat plane gave a distorted view?

She has a podcast called “Jesus, Guns, Babies,” which was also her slogan when she ran for governor. She definitely has a shtick, but she’s at least as serious as, you know, Boebert or Greene.

Oh, I remember her candidacy--I live in Atlanta. It always seemed like a bit of a joke, but that video seems to be pure satire.

"Jesus, Guns & Babies" is my favorite Warren Zevon song.

Meanwhile Ted Cruz has spent the past few days arguing on Twitter with the pastor who gave the invocation at DeSantis' swearing in — about whether or not Uganda's death penalty for gay people is a good idea. (If it's any consolation, the one who is in the U.S. Senate is against executing gay people.)

1/x Pastor, I don’t know you, but I honor your ministry.

Your biblical analysis is in error. Jesus told us to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

We are talking the laws of man, not the Old Testament laws of God.

Do you really… https://t.co/R7pxogJwap

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 5, 2023

Under His Eye

you absolutely do not have to hand it to Ted Cruz for setting the bar at "I think genocide is bad, actually"

I am running for truth and justice as a presidential candidate for the People’s Party to reintroduce America to the best of itself - fighting to end poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, health care, education and living wages for… pic.twitter.com/u3NYGUbG1S

— Cornel West (@CornelWest) June 5, 2023

yeah ok cornell

you absolutely do not have to hand it to Ted Cruz for setting the bar at "I think genocide is bad, actually"

Especially not when it’s prefaced by “I honor your ministry”

I love how the GOP standard of compassion these days is not sentencing people to death:

well, i'm glad we can agree on that much pic.twitter.com/xzrsaio1uc

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 5, 2023

Nikki Haley on how she would prevent mass shootings: "We should make sure there's the clear bulletproof tape that we have at courthouses and airports, we should have that at our schools to protect them." (She doesn't propose new gun restrictions.) pic.twitter.com/3LoVuhqtSz

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 5, 2023

What, like the kids are going to be mummified in this tape or something?

https://unobtainium13.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/boyintheplasticbubble.jpg

If I were president I would just make kids walk around chanting "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you shoot bounces off of me and sticks to you."

Cornel West is a piece of shit.

DeSantis, he says, defends da classics:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/desantiss-revolutionary-defense-of-the-classics-florida-western-canon-galileo-caesar-great-books-275268d9

DeSantis couldn't tell DeFoe from DeMaupassant

Wait, Larry Elder's in the mix again?

Chris Christie formally announced his presidential campaign on Tuesday.

See who's running in the 2024 presidential election so far. https://t.co/fedRD6UQVz pic.twitter.com/Ptj5zqDJ27

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 6, 2023

I think Christie is just going in on a suicide mission.. just as a shit-stirrer

He should write another book that no one will buy about his campaign. Here are some titles:

"Shitting the Bed"
"I GOPd Myself"
"Cannonball!: Making a Big Splash in the Deep End of the Campaign"

Cornel West is a piece of shit.

i'm gathering that is the new consensus on him, though I feel like this is a recent development.

As DJP said on the other thread, "Cornel West is a fascinating blend of righteous seriousness and deeply laughable unseriousness." Me, I never thought about him that much, but the moment in the Bill Withers doc where West and Tavis Smiley take turns kissing his ass, and then Withers says the opposite of what they'd been saying, and they just kind of crack up and start kissing his ass again is a personal fave. That, and the way he kept playing Harvard against Princeton.

Who cares about harvard and princeton?

i saw some blowback re: an essay he published in WSJ advocating for not ditching classics which, I could not read because it was paywalled, but I don't disagree with that; I did disagree with the framing of the blowback which was that he was "siding with Desantis". Although maybe he did in the article, dunno. I mean you can still study the classics along other fucking things. this zero sum bullshit from everyone is tiring.

akm otm

There was a big attack piece on West years ago by Michael Eric Dyson—which seemed to have come about because West was critical of Obama.

I also couldn't read the paywalled article, but West has made other comments about this and he is 100% full of shit in giving DeSantis credit for supporting "classical education," which is a contemporary right-wing buzz phrase for Hillsdale College Christian nationalism. It's mostly embarrassing that West either doesn't know that or is pretending not to.

Of course you can still read Plato and study Michelangelo and Mozart or whatever, nobody serious is saying you shouldn't. (And it would be worthwhile pointing out to these fuckers that Socrates got killed for "corrupting the youth," their favorite excuse for banning books and hating LGBTQ people).

That’s the point—desantis is, if anything, the enemy of the western humanistic tradition.

West seems completely irrelevant tbh. It’s mildly interesting that all of these other marginal people are running for president - RFK Jr., Christie, Ramaswami, Elder, Hutchinson, Williamson, Scott, Burgum for fuck’s sake - and Haley, a consummate grifter. I wish CNN wouldn’t give people like Haley a platform to express hate for transgender people and not push back though

I think most of them are running to increase their profile and to raise money. Some of them are running to be Trump’s VP, but none of them have a chance. Trump is going to pick a hard line election denier, someone like Kari Lake or Kristi Noem, for his VP this time

Xpost I hear he likes gladiator movies

Socrates seemed like a right pain in the ass, tbh

A bugger when he's pissed iirc

I wish all these assholes, from across the political spectrum, would stop with the vanity presidential campaigns. I'm not worried about them siphoning off votes from "real" candidates, not really; it's just that it's all so fucking pointless and hollow and transparent. Cornel West doesn't want to be president. Cornel West wants to be on television.

A start

https://www.lawdork.com/p/florida-ruling-trans-care-ban-minors

Good. Tho I'm not completely enthusiastic about a whole bunch of these laws piling up at SCOTUS. God knows what they'll decide is constitutional.

I'm not entirely confident about that myself. Though happy for anything that might prolong care for minors a little longer. As I read this it just affects the families who filed but will likely result in a ruling basically blocking this in FL?

Two trans/non-binary friends already have set moving dates. This was always the goal of these piece of shit legislators- well, that or them dying or assimilating.

Oh it's definitely good news, and we need more like it.

Before I as a Floridian respond to comments lemme post the full column:

Gov. Ron DeSantis just gave a welcome boost to the classical-education movement. He signed legislation allowing high-school students to qualify for Bright Futures scholarships, a state fund for college education, by submitting scores from the Classic Learning Test instead of the SAT alone.

This move will likely be portrayed, wrongly, as partisan and conservative. But the greatest works of civilization have always been about spurring—not preventing—radical change. They teach us about the revolutionary ideas of the past and help us better understand the present. The richest ideas of what it means to be human are those that have stood the test of time.

Many of the seminal works of literature, history, philosophy, science and theology were revolutionary in their respective ages. Turn the pages of Galileo Galilei’s “Two New Sciences” and you’ll experience the alteration of humanity’s view of itself in relation to the heavens. By disproving the then-common belief that the planets revolved around the Earth rather than the sun, Galileo laid the foundation for modern science. Isaac Newton, swept aside what remained of the Old World’s scientific superstitions—only to find himself upstaged two centuries later by Albert Einstein’s “Relativity.”

Like revolutionary ideas today, the ideas of yesterday were provocative and, in many cases, much more consequential. Galileo was put on trial because he upset the status quo. In the 13th century, Bishop Stephen Tempier of Paris condemned key works of theologian Thomas Aquinas for being too radical. Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn and civil-rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. were imprisoned for their views. In colonial America, James Madison and his co-authors feared printing their names on the Federalist Papers, so they hid under aliases. Even the most mild-mannered of philosophers stirred trouble for thinking against the grain. Plato watched his great teacher Socrates put to death for his teachings.

Revolutionary figures of the past give us insight into the present and allow for reflection on the consequences of their choices. Julius Caesar, one of antiquity’s most recognizable leaders, teaches us the cost of revolution through his histories. By crossing into Rome with his armies, he ended the republic and created the Roman Empire, a crime for which he paid with his life. But in his firsthand descriptions of the often-brutal tactics he employed to achieve political transformation, he left behind deep insight. Caesar’s direct and simple prose conveys the reality of going to war—all without reference to contemporary conflicts.

That’s one of the virtues of the classics: They are a means of considering what is true without invoking the blind partisanship that encourages thoughtless action. There is nothing we need more today than the cultivation of reason and understanding.

That’s why Mr. DeSantis’s support of classic education has universal merit that transcends partisanship. Education based on values, logic and discipline isn’t Republican—it’s timeless.

I just hope Mr. DeSantis gets the Socrates treatment.

that classical education bit seems like a tongue in cheek criticism of desantis’s followers who lack critical thinking skills, but a really hamfisted one

apparently west appeared on russell brand’s show, which has pivoted from questioning orthodoxy to the type of questioning the status quo funded by thielbucks over the last decade. concerning!

I feel like West is trying to sort of tweak "all sides" with that column — conservatives who think the classics are intellectually safe buttresses of the status quo, leftists who want to dispense with them altogether — but as with any other "both sides" pox it's facile and phony. "Education based on values, logic and discipline isn’t Republican—it’s timeless" — the utter bullshit here is that Republicans care even one tiny little bit about "values, logic and discipline."

That conclusion fueled my original response: I couldn't fathom how Republicans care about literacy, culture, openness of spirit, etc.

I don't think he is seriously suggesting that they do

Tipsy otm there and in an earlier comment above that whether West is naive about how the Repubs use these arguments, or he isn't and is just arguing in bad faith, either way it is nagl

Alfred, can you give a brief summary of why iyo West is a piece of shit (aside from this area where his take is awful)? Opinions of him seem to be all over the map, and while I often like the things he says I am very preternaturally wary of public intellectuals, especially ones who lead with their personality like he does

would appreciate an explanation of how this editorial lauding DeSantis' signing the bill into law in Rupert Murdoch's paper is "tweaking" DeSantis. West is on the board of the Classic Learning Test and co-authored this with the CEO. they benefit financially from the legislation. and the CLT is popular with home schoolers and the school "choice" folks.

tbc I'll keep reading Cornel West when he interests me, but, yes, his financial entanglements and his support of Jill Stein in '16 made me arch an eyebrow.

bulb otm.

I think you can interpret it as a troll of conservatives like DeSantis who think that teaching their children only "the classics" will ensure their ideological conformity with contemporary conservatism. It's of a piece with pointing out all the violence and incest etc in the Bible.

But even apart from the damning context you mention, it's a bad column. E.g., giving Galileo sole credit for overturning humanity's geocentrism is exactly why the left has assailed this kind of curriculum

I don't think he's tweaking DeSantis per se -- he's explicitly lauding him — but I think in his mind he's tweaking conservatives who imagine the classics to be safe, non-radical, etc. I agree that he's full of shit, but I think that to him this is yet another way of establishing his contrarian "independent thinker" credentials.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyCJ6CZX0AI6oxw?format=jpg

lol

Meanwhile, looks like a lil oopsie on that raid of the Stop Cop City bail fund folks.

Very bad: state law enforcement apparently lied in the warrants for financial crimes that they relied upon to conduct the raid against bail fund operators last week. This, after the judge found the warrants not convincing on their face.

Illegal abuse of power by @ChrisCarr_Ga. https://t.co/YKSDYopUSe pic.twitter.com/pwGAzbNFNy

— Josh McLaurin (@JoshforGeorgia) June 7, 2023

Ok, this one made me laugh https://t.co/Dt7Vtfoqth

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) June 8, 2023

What a newly presidential sense of humor

Borowitz finally found his audience

I guess they can just run on student loan forgiveness again in 2024

NEWS: Biden admin confirms how it will implement the provision of debt ceiling deal that terminates the federal student loan payment pause:

➡️ Interest will start accruing on Sept. 1

➡️ Monthly payments will be due starting in Octoberhttps://t.co/U9sN4xw4dE

— Michael Stratford (@mstratford) June 12, 2023

So in the wake of the Trump indictment the entire GOP — not just the usual radio and TV hosts — are just going all-in on the "Biden bribery scandal." They're claiming there are "17 audio recordings" etc etc., all to do with Burisma. And these are, like, U.S. senators saying this stuff. It all feels surreal because it's pretty clear there's no there there, at least evidence-wise. It's just strange to have basically the highest reaches of the opposition party just baldly stating as fact something that, at a minimum, they clearly can't prove right now.

I know that tactically, this is all about muddying the waters, political dirty tricks, etc. But substantively, at some point the disconnect with reality gets too glaring. They're partly setting up themselves for problems because their own followers past a point are going to say "Well if you know this, why don't you DO SOMETHING?" But they can't, because for actual legal action you need actual proof.

I mean, if there are tapes of Hunter and the Big Guy talking about their big bribe, then sure, bring them on! It just feels so weird to have this whole alternative reality playing out side by side with, you know, the real reality.

But they can't, because for actual legal action you need actual proof.

well their whole thing is that the entire legal system is stacked against them and everyone who works in law enforcement or as a judge is actually a member of the Deep State, so idk it kind of checks out

outside of LARPer dorks like the insurrectionists, the majority of them and their voters don't actually WANT anything to happen, because they thrive as the 'victim' and obstructing, their whole identity is based around what they could do "if the enemy wasn't stopping us from doing it".

if they got their way, then they'd actually have to do things, which they're not good at.

hence why they missed the open net so many times when they had full control between 2017-2018

Yeah I think that's right. It's a problem with ideological governance overall — governance is complicated, and ideology is simplistic. Almost nobody in the current GOP is interested in anything even factual, let alone complex.

Durbin tells me it would be “tempting” to UC military promotions with Tuberville missing but notes that “one of the unwritten rules of the place is you don’t take advantage of a person’s absence.”

Another GOP senator could also object in his place https://t.co/GHJKDBgupI

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) June 13, 2023

Hunter Biden probe going well:

On Arizona right-wing radio this morning, Ron Johnson throws even more cold water on the alleged recordings. (He makes it clear he potentially doesn’t even think the tapes exist). https://t.co/EwZKN45wSH pic.twitter.com/NBrikYfSOp

— danny (@dabbs346) June 14, 2023

If there was any lesson from Russiagate, it was Don't Overpromise on Your Evidence.

I mean technically there was a significant amount of evidence for Russia, Muller however wanted to punted the decision of what to do to Congress and didn't believe he could indict Trump as a sitting President.

twas the sitting Attorney General that retconned it as a nothingburger

Still waiting for this stuff

When Todd pressed whether Schiff was solely relying on a "circumstantial case," Schiff replied "no," insisting the case "is more than that."

"So you have seen direct evidence of collusion?" Todd asked.

"I don't want to go into specifics, but I will say that there is evidence that is not circumstantial, and it's very much worthy of investigation," Schiff responded.

Hearing in Congress and announcement at White House but they’re not trying to break up Live Nation Ticketmaster monopoly

Great news, Ticketmaster is going to keep screwing you the exact same way... but they're going to tell you about it up front! https://t.co/7mpDBhNmxn

— David Dayen (@ddayen) June 15, 2023

Big event at the White House today

BRB, lemme see if I can score a block of tickets

s'okay, all, Marc Thiessen has a take:

Selective prosecution is not a defense in a court of law, but the court of public opinion is another matter. Millions will see Trump’s prosecution as illegitimate, and any conviction as unjust. That will further erode public confidence in our judicial system and the principle of equal justice under law.

A Trump trial would be one of the most divisive events in the history of our republic. It would set a new precedent — and create enormous pressure on the next Republican president to go after President Biden, his family and other Democrats.

And to remedy what harm? Despite Trump’s best efforts to obstruct them, federal agents recovered the documents he unlawfully possessed. And there is nothing in the indictment to indicate evidence that the intelligence in Trump’s possession was obtained by foreign governments or intelligence services.

Definitely the government of a country of 330 million people should never do anything that "millions will see" as problematic.

Oh, certainly not!

Bill Cohen is not amused

https://audioboom.com/posts/8317746-espionage-w-fmr-secdef-bill-cohen

That will further erode public confidence in our judicial system and the principle of equal justice under law.

Let this powerful rich guy off or people will no longer believe in equal justice

BRB, lemme see if I can score a block of tickets

JOE BIDEN ERAS TOUR

I used to hang a little with Thiessen (our kids played hockey together) before I realized what a fucking asshole he is. His columns are so, so dumb.

and he looks as if carved from a sweet potato

Thiessen, Hewitt, and Will serve a purpose. Which is to preserve the myth of balance. The notion that there is a middle (despite the glaring fact that there mostly isn't, at least not in the current infosphere).

Me, I have deep personal feelz about the Washington Post because it has been thudding reliably on the doorstep most of my life. I use it as a lens: I don't uncritically believe everything it says, and I try to balance it with other information sources. But still its worldview is part of how I view the world.

I am also aware (as a sometime professional journalist) that no publication exists in a vacuum. The Post has been trying to do its stodgy old thing while constantly being attacked from every direction, telling them that they're dOiNg iT WrOnG.

Lately, the wind mostly blows from the right, and hence WaPo retains these conservative columnists mainly as a counter to the accusation that they're a commie pinko socialist liberal mouthpiece.

Of course it will never be enough. They could have given Limbaugh a column and it still wouldn't have been enough.

Right now we have Hugh and Marc and Rubin and Will. Sigh. Okay, give them minimal space and let them say their specious bullshit. The world keeps spinning. Deal with it. It seems to be the price of operations. If you want Nothing But Lefties, there are other places you could go get that content.

I too am a lifelong reader and continue to subscribe to the physical paper and read it almost every day. I get that the WP need a “conservative” presence but Thiessen and Olson and Abernathy just don’t make valid points based on sound reasoning. It’s too often “lots of people believe XYZ, so it’s up to you lib readers to pay them respect,” regardless of how well-reasoned or fact-based XYZ is. And if they can’t make better points than that, it’s up to the WP to find people who can.

At least Will can sometimes make a cohesive argument, usually based on being an old stodge adhering to a particular ideology that typically has little to do with the real world.

Tobo73, isn't it better (on the whole) if the WaPo's token conservatives are mostly dumb and wrong?

That seems like the best possible scenario:

1. Yes, we publish conservative voices.

2. Yes, it is also true that they suck and their columns are full of bullshit.

Conclusion: conservatives are full of shit (but we didn't need to prove that; they did so themselves).

Win-win.

I guess so but it annoys me that incompetents get such prominent placement. Their columns are so lazy (the same is obv true of many of the liberaler writers).

Thiessen is bad - he’s obviously a hack trying to serve a partisan purpose. So he resorts to some really poor logic. But Olson and Abernathy bug me more with this “hey you coastal liberals need to respect these MAGA points of view bc millions of ppl hold them.” No we don’t. A shitty position or support of a shitty person is shitty, no matter who does it.

I’m w/ Tobo in the they annoy me with their incompetence in the Washington Post take, but I also see Mad Puffin’s view

So who, in your view, are the competent conservative columnists out there who make valid points based on sound reasoning? Like, who should have a Post column to be the "counterpoint" to blunt the charge of liberal media bias?

(Apart from George Will, who I am sure appreciates the tepid praise.)

https://i.imgur.com/5LpmYrd.gif

^the Scat Man

Matt Lewis seems at least capable of self reflection:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-was-a-big-marco-rubio-fan-i-was-so-so-wrong

So who, in your view, are the competent conservative columnists out there who make valid points based on sound reasoning? Like, who should have a Post column to be the "counterpoint" to blunt the charge of liberal media bias?

(Apart from George Will, who I am sure appreciates the tepid praise.)

I don't generally like to listen to any of the 'good' conservatives because they act like they're shocked that such monsters came out of their complete toxic and dehumanizing ethos.

"I just hated Affirmative Action and wanted homeless people removed from the street, I'm nothing like THESE monsters, where oh where did they get their inspiration?"

They still think Reagan wasn't human garbage.

^^^ exactly. If we could only get back to the good old calm, sensible, rational days of Reagan.

Yeah sorry, there are no sensible conservative minds.

I agree, which is why I don't particularly mind that the Post publishes op-ed columns by Hugh fucking Hewitt or whomsoever.

Every time I happen across a Marc Thiessen column I'm like, "this? THIS is the opposition?" And I am no longer quite as afraid.

The actually dangerous conservatives are not writing for, or reading, print newspapers. They are in a bunker polishing their rifles and reading qanon shit on the internet. The Post is so remote from them that it may as well be a PTA newsletter.

But by normalizing a certain political ideology, one without principles or humanity, WP and Times conservatives give credence to the idea of “fair debate” with the gun-toting fascists.

Hugh Fuckwit.

Tabes, there are lots of places to go if you want "nothing but left" content. Lots of places if you want "nothing but Democrats" content. Like, Mother Jones and The Nation and the New Republic are all still out there. Go subscribe, if you haven't already! Meanwhile your ideological counterparts on the right are going all in on nutbars like Pillow Guy and Q and thedonald.net.

WaPo is aiming for a different market slice. One that harbors a fantasy of a unified culture with at least a smidgen of "both sides"ing. You can hate that if you like, but that's what their management has tried to do, basically forever.

If ostensibly centrist media outlets follow your prescription - do not normalize any right-leaning voices whatsoever - we are left with a barren hellscape where nobody is even trying to be a Walter Cronkite who presents something like a consensus reality. It just pours gasoline on the culture war so you are either fer us or agin us.

It's complicated for me, because I have never embraced any of the previous hallucinated visions of unity. But I do understand that even a hallucinated vision of consensus reality is socially useful.

Conservative columnists do nothing to quiet “liberal media” whining so there’s no justification for their existence.

Media watcher version of “they’ll call Democrats socialists if they do” whatever.

they could run left-wing opinions, with a couple of Democrat opinions for balance

“Consensus reality” was only an American Cold War development, wasn’t it? It was a deliberately shutting out of points of view outside of a relatively narrow range of acceptable opinion, a range that other Anglophone media outlets elsewhere didn’t hold.

I can certainly appreciate the desire for such a voice that Cronkite was imagined as at his height, but I would suggest that the line that CBS News promoted during both the Vietnam War and Third World/Global South anti-colonial struggles was maybe a bit more fraught that depicted.

It just feels so weird to have this whole alternative reality playing out side by side with, you know, the real reality.

USA consensus reality = we are stuck in fifth grade, the richest kids going all out pretending they're the most good-looking, athletic, and smart, too

Oh yeah, I am ABSOLUTELY not endorsing a 1960s vision of consensus reality. It may have felt nice for people who were already comfortable but we now know how morally bankrupt and murderous it was.

My point is different: what the NYT and WaPo are trying to do is replicate the fantasy that there is a consensus reality, and further, that this consensus reality is center-right or center-left (depending on your perspective).

I mean, I feel y'all on how many problems there are. I just don't know what good would come of having those outlets abandoning this stance and instead embracing an actual precise ideological stance.

What is the upside to a newspaper abandoning all pretense of objectivity and actively taking sides (more than they have already done)?

As noted, Mother Jones and the New Republic are already out there. If the Post just fuckin gives up trying to appear impartial, it is basically in the same bin as the Nation, and almost no one reads the Nation who doesn't already agree with most of it.

I view these legacy media as ambassadors. No one else is trying to keep red/blue channels open even a little bit.

Well there was also the Fairness Doctrine, which was imperfect in all sorts of ways and also imo problematic from a First Amendment standpoint — but its repeal definitely opened the floodgates for talk radio in particular. (Less clear whether it would have restricted Fox News at all, since it was basically a broadcast regulation.)

But anyway, as a personally left-liberal reporter and publisher operating in the current environment, I too see a lot of problems with conventional journalistic framing and approaches. The biggest one is that more than probably at any time in U.S. history, a big chunk of the population — 25 to 35 percent? — is almost entirely unreachable. They are locked inside a right-wing information bubble that constitutes their entire experience of any part of the world that they do not directly interact with. It's not just that they don't believe what the read in the NYT or WaPo or hear on NPR, it's that they consciously avoid those and all other sources of information that are not Fox or things farther to the right. It doesn't matter how many conservative columnists you employ or how many Trump Country Diner feature you run, you will never ever reach those people, they are basically locked up from an information standpoint. They have 24/7 access to all the "news" they need, every bit of it geared to making them afraid and fueling their existing bigotries.

I don't have an answer to any of that, but I agree that running "ideologically balanced" op-ed sections is definitely not one.

I mean, I feel y'all on how many problems there are. I just don't know what good would come of having those outlets abandoning this stance and instead embracing an actual precise ideological stance.

What's the good of the current situation, though? It's good for the Times and Post's bottom line but WGAF?

It's not just that they don't believe what the read in the NYT or WaPo or hear on NPR, it's that they consciously avoid those and all other sources of information

And it's moved beyond avoidance to active conflict against, whether CRT, or pronouns, or books about having two dads.

This is a very good essay that chronicles some of the same problems discussed above, but in the context of the Democratic Party rather than Big "Centrist" Media.

That is a good essay and makes me want to read the McAlevey book. It kind of goes to what I was talking about on some thread back when the Dobbs decision came down — the current radicalization of the Republican Party came from the outside, it came from activist groups backed by big private money systematically working for decades to force their issues to the center of the party's agenda and punish people who weren't on board. Progressive groups have a funding disadvantage — fewer eccentric leftist millionaire/billionaires — but has the advantage of advocating positions that lots of people actually support, or likely would support if framed to them and hammered home in equivalent ways.

In that sense the problem is maybe less with "the Democratic Party" — which like the GOP is sort of an empty vessel for a host of competing interest groups — than with the lack of an effective strategy for taking it over. "Weaponizing" it in current parlance. That's not an easy problem to solve, but I also don't think it's an impossible one.

YMP, tho I risk repeating myself, I frankly don’t give a fuck what conservatives think, and would be happy if major newspapers in both their coverage and their editorial pages simply allowed for objective facts to rule. The reality is that the “objective” coverage of these papers is largely center-right aligned, and the editorial pages are worse.

the current radicalization of the Republican Party came from the outside

i think the call is coming from inside the house. crazy is what they're raised to believe, while sanity is communism

Progressive groups have a funding disadvantage — fewer eccentric leftist millionaire/billionaires — but has the advantage of advocating positions that lots of people actually support, or likely would support if framed to them and hammered home in equivalent ways.

Corporate donors are starting to back into the hedge like Homer Simpson rather than openly support the swivel-eyed psychos of the Republican Party, whose policies, if implemented, would actually cost them lots of money. Not unlike the way advertisers abandoned Tucker Carlson's show. The trick is going to be getting them to fund progressive efforts by showing them where the profit margins are on it. (Assuming progressives are willing to get their hands — and knees — dirty in such a morally compromised manner. I mean, take money from Big Business? What would Saint Ralph say?)

Yes, those people who oppose 85% of what "progressivism" stands for certainly wouldn't have any expectations of enacting a friendly agenda for their money. Genius stuff here.

Yeah the corporate sector is already underwriting exactly the Democratic Party they want. That's not where any kind of change comes from. The left's strategy can't be the same as the right's, they're asymmetrical. But that doesn't meant the left doesn't have at least theoretical strengths — better and more popular ideas, which if done well benefit lots of people.

Manchin, Sinema Tester holding up Biden Labor nomination

Senate Dems say it‘s time to put up or shut up on Julie Su’s embattled nomination for Labor secretary as WH struggles to lock up support.

“Look, I wish we’d have a vote so people can vote and move on, up or down, whatever it might be,” said Tester, one of three Dem holdouts. https://t.co/ejKWGDBVdZ

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) June 16, 2023

A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation.

A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution, and clashes over how much evidence was sufficient to investigate the actions of Trump and those around him all contributed to the slow pace. Garland and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, charted a cautious course aimed at restoring public trust in the department while some prosecutors below them chafed, feeling top officials were shying away from looking at evidence of potential crimes by Trump and those close to him, The Post found.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/

You know, I’m just glad they’re going there now, or that they went there a little late, or however it should be phrased. We can disagree about how much haste was warranted; we can agree that we’re all in uncharted territory here.

(Sorry if that sounded harsh.)

While right-wing Trumpies grumble about FBI and say they want to defund it, in actuality the FBI has long bent over backwards in ways that help right-wingers

The political and media right-wingers who deliberately originate and amplify those grumbles know that never being satisfied with whatever the DOJ or FBI does to appease them is the best way to push them as far into appeasement as possible.

Mike Pence has a Twitter ad out touting an endorsement/blurb/laudatory quote from Larry "Always Wrong About Everything, Mostly 'Cause He's Coked Out Of His Skull" Kudlow. It is to laugh.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyrY2ClWAAESLvd.jpg

While right-wing Trumpies grumble about FBI and say they want to defund it, in actuality the FBI has long bent over backwards in ways that help right-wingers been a fundamentally right-wing enterprise.

Not to put too fine a point on it, of course.

https://media.giphy.com/media/EIrCLqfb4z3TJiV16v/giphy.gif

There’s been talk about this for years but jfc Pence is such a closet case it’s fucking wild to me

Garland and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, charted a cautious course aimed at restoring public trust in the department

how's that working out

I could watch Pence jog across airport runways for hours.

I wanna see the bounce from the back though

Back and to the left.

cha cha real smooth

They hear me clappin'

You got the wrong ho-ho

That Kudlow quote is very Trump-esque but why would you write it out that way?

Mike Pence. conservative man of the year 2005 and I was proud to write it in human events magazine. Strongest conservative candidate.

No editors

Human Events magazine sounds like a publication founded by aliens.

lol

Hunter Biden pleading guilty to felony tax evasion and gun stuff? I guess that means the GOP has to shift the drum beat to "the president's son pleaded guilty, now lock him up" or some shit.

Or "Biden's DOJ gave his son a sweetheart deal"

"Corrupt DOJ took it easy on Hunter Biden!"

(DOJ indicts Trump some more)

"DOJ is out of control!"

To quote former Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski: "Anarchy for me, fascism for you."

Mike Pence, American Cheese on Wonder Bread dry, my favorite sandwich.

Larry Kudlow

shorty kud low low low low low low low

McCarthy: My first reaction is that it is continuing to show the two-tier system in America…

Reporter: This is a Trump appointed US Attorney that was held over, and why would you not accept that this is a thorough investigation? pic.twitter.com/B6nXHfdYip

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 20, 2023

Biden used his own Justice Department to convict his son. Conspiracy!

For any masochists that want to watch the Eastman disbarment hearing:

https://calbar.zoom.us/j/97985435232

This Durham guy is like wut

Schiff: The son of a presidential candidate gets calls all the time from a foreign government offering dirt on their opponent, is that what you are saying? pic.twitter.com/1R7nH8xfmC

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 21, 2023

As soon as the ground upon which his statements were built was challenged he instantly jumped to different grounds, over and over. basically it's a 'flood the zone with shit' tactic.

Trump: Nikki Haley hasn't caught on, everyone knows she is highly overrated…
 
Baier: That's why you put her in the position for the U.N.? pic.twitter.com/u1gOSo3IkC

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 20, 2023

whoops, meant to post this:

This is embarrassing. "I really don't read the newspapers." https://t.co/ahz1WS3Gtl

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 21, 2023

Rep. Schiff looks like he's starting to have some real fun up there because Durham is totally flummoxed and looks like a complete fool.

he's pissed that republicans are trying to censure him and going at these witnesses twice as hard

The one-minute spot shows DeSantis standing in San Francisco after a visit in which the GOP presidential candidate says he saw people using heroin, smoking “crack cocaine” and “defecating on the street.”

Does he really want to go there? Newsom could go to any truck stop or strip mall in Florida and find even crazier shit going on... remember the 'pain clinics'?

DeSantis: "There was broken glass everywhere. People pissing on the stairs. You know, they just don't care."

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs
You know, they just don't care
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Dummy with the rapture and the revered in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched

It's the end of his run, and he knows it.

I wrote about this insane candidacy of Robert F Kennedy Juniorhttps://t.co/Uuvnpxri17 pic.twitter.com/HSFAdYa8gE

— Molly Jong-fast (@MollyJongFast) June 21, 2023

ugh just stop

keep stepping on one rake after another

I have a hard time looking at Durham's beard and not getting extremely pissed off. I know there's much to get pissed off about in those clips, and I could just NOT look at them, or his beard, but I did, and I do. Get really pissed off. About that fucking beard.

as an occasional beard wearing guy i take offence to that thing on his face even being considered a beard

regular guying:

Ron DeSantis said basketball athletes are “freaks of nature” while contrasting the sport with baseball which he described as a “meritocratic game” with “different skills that are required” to be on the team. pic.twitter.com/APnbsfAOBU

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) June 21, 2023

said former college baseball player Ron DeSantis

Rong DeSantis

Is there a state in the union that cares less about baseball than Florida

I dunno, most of my remaining GOP acquaintances will post on social media about this or that Marlins game.

well, sure. It's not a baseball mecca like Iowa or New Hampshire.

xp quite a few!

and one of my closest pals (lib/left) will still attend a Marlins game or three

do not tell me that anyone can drop acid and then pitch a no hitter just through "hard work"

that must be why the two Florida MLB teams are #27 and #29 out of 30 in average game attendance

so Florida has two MLB teams, a lot of states have none

Wade Boggs drank 107 beers on a single cross-country flight and you're going to tell me he's not a freak of nature?!?

Did someone say freaks of nature?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e4/Phillie_Phanatic.jpg/1200px-Phillie_Phanatic.jpg

more managers should drop acid, we might get creative lineups

In "he's as bad as you thought and maybe worse" news, Jill Stein will be heavily involved in Cornel West's "presidential campaign".

Jill Stein should be involved in being the first visitor to Mars

This fucking guy

Gov. Greg Abbott vetoes bill that would give people with disabilities new option to vote by mail https://t.co/RQIA1Pxbmz via @TexasTribune

— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) June 22, 2023

Someone oughta demolish the wheelchair ramp at the governor's mansion for that one.

someone should give the gov a wheelchair.

Hector Salamanca's wheelchair

w/ Richard Widmark behind it

lol

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/22/politics/george-santos-bond-cosigners-family-members/index.html

Neither relative secured the bond with cash or property, according to a court order that was among the documents unsealed Thursday. But Santos’ father and aunt “agreed to be personally responsible” for the congressman’s compliance with the terms of his release, the order noted.

So wait, does that mean his relatives ... put themselves up as collateral?

https://www.indystar.com/gcdn/presto/2023/06/22/PIND/831e2d91-1f2f-4916-b173-04ce78ff562c-IMG_5543.jpeg?width=1320&height=990&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

"We condemn Adolf Hitler's actions and his dark place in human history," the statement from chapter chairwoman Paige Miller reads. "We should not have quoted him in our newsletter and express our deepest apology."

too late! you quoted Hitler

"Oops! All Hitler."

Did Hitler make "owns" and "gains" all caps?

Mein OWNS.

"It's not our fault, we picked up our copy of Bartlett’s looking for the perfect quote and it fell right open to that page."

"He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future."
--Whitney Houston

"He who SELF-OWNS loses the youth but GAINS the lols."-Hillary Clinton

He who OWNS GOWNS gains the youth

'He who BANGS GONGS gets it ON."

"We did not realize that quoting Hitler was a bad thing."

But don't you see, they were quoting Hitler a good way.

Either that, or they're trying to say that that's what the WOKES are doing.

"We wanted to show the good side of Hitler."

"So the message we're trying to convey here is that we want to create our own Hitler Youth program, but for GOOD, not EVIL, OK?"

He’s good bad, but he’s not evil. Oh wait.

The Not- Hitler Youth

When Hitler was a youth, he probably wasn't all bad. So would going back in time to kill young not-evil Hitler be bad? For centuries, the greatest of philosophers, good and bad, have debated this question.

In the Wayne’s World sense of “not!”

To tell the truth/ there was more than one Hitler Youth

The Young Adolf Hitler Chronicles is an television series that aired on ABC from March 4, 1992, to July 24, 1993.

The series explores the childhood and youth of the fictional character Adolf Hitler.

Are you suggesting Hitler was fictional?! Canceled! Just like that show.

the dogs name was hitler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQm4sBkGT3s

lol at Young Hitler struggling to grow his barely pubescent mustache.

"Adolph, when are you going to shave off that disgusting smudge!?! And you should really start wearing deodorant, too, you smell like old socks."

"It's not a smudge, Mom, it's a mustache, leave me alone!!!" (runs to room, slams door, cries in pillow)

*puts on a Wagner record at top volume*

The MOM Group • He Is BEYOND Good And Evil (We Are ALL Eva Brauns)

Motley Crue use that quote as part of the spoken intro to their Shout at the Devil album, which I've always liked. Did not know it was Hitler until today. :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDXuHRvAjl0

tbf, Motley Crue are also morons.

KISS for Dummies

KISS is KISS for dummies!

Lol

https://i.redd.it/4js7pzqiqte91.jpg

well, sure. It's not a baseball mecca like Iowa or New Hampshire.

weird including the state that’s constantly trying to play up the stupid “field of dreams” site and giving the MLB incentives to use it. plus we got the farm team one level below the chicago cubs

maybe that wasn’t sarcastic and new hampshire also really loves baseball idk

Sorry, I guess Iowa loves baseball but baseball doesn’t love it back

New Hampshire is Northern Boston when it comes to baseball.

Iowa's got cred

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/TheIowaBaseballConfederacy.jpg

if you write it

We're going to be hearing about this guy running for President sooner or later

They said it couldn’t be done.

There was a pessimism in the air — one that’s lingered over our Commonwealth for too long.

Today, we proved them wrong.

12 Days. I-95 is open. pic.twitter.com/IsqntR0hC4

— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) June 23, 2023

The kind of local shit that people will remember.

if it had been in Boston it would have taken 20 years

Biden: "I know I'm 198 years old, but all kidding aside..."

Biden: After Dobbs, I signed two executive orders to protect the access to reproductive health care. And an executive order to strengthen the affordability of high quality contraception. The idea that I had to do that. Think about it. I know I'm 198 years old… pic.twitter.com/vkImDVh1NA

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 23, 2023

Two big injunctions in FL

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/judge-strikes-floridas-ban-medicaid-funding-transgender-treatment-rcna90563

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/06/23/judge-grants-injunction-for-drag-show-restaurant-hamburger-marys-against-florida-law/

The Great Drag Wars of 2023

I wish it didn't feel so much like a war to the targets of the bigots.

Yeah, as the father of a transgender woman, me too. The fact that they choose to target an already marginalized population will, I trust, eventually come back on them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZU-RL3buc8

That's fun. Too bad the only people who heard that speech, or saw the video, are people who already agree with every word of it.

The people who need to hear it are holding their hands over their ears going LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAAAR YOUU, or simply living in the alternate-facts infobubble

this guy seems cool

Governor Pritzker holds an empty cup and gives a thumbs up after catching and drinking a Jell-O shot with one hand today at the Chicago Pride Parade. pic.twitter.com/1zG3JdZGSF

— Vashon Jordan Jr. (@vashon_photo) June 26, 2023

we haven't had a prez candidate who drinks Jell-O shots in decades

There's plenty to criticize (billionaire, for a start) but in these particular times I feel unspeakably lucky to have this dude for a governor.

every time u take a shot (even jello), Jesus comes this much closer to not coming back

good

As the basketball analogy goes, you miss 100% of the Jell-O shots you don't take.

Jell-O shots were invented by Tom Lehrer apparently. Did not know that.

wait wut?

https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/tom-lehrer-invented-jell-o-shots/

Not sure there was ever a finer American than him

He's 95--could outlive Kissinger

Wow, thanks Pres. K.

My parents (who are 80ish) had all his records, and accordingly I have them all memorized from childhood.

Even after his heyday he was doing cool shit with Sesame Street and then made his entire catalog universally available for free... mad props to the dude, he enriched our world and has basically just said fuck it, I will do what I wish.

Agreed with Eric - personally I find it hard to find fault with the dude.

We’ve been listening to him lately because my kid is memorizing the Elements song

This is gonna be ugly.

BREAKING: Jim Jordan just got TERRIBLE news. The Supreme Court let stand a decision that allows more than 230 men to sue Ohio State University over decades-old sexual abuse by a university doctor, which dates back to Jordan’s days as their OSU wrestling coach. pic.twitter.com/ZTy8tD0Q9l

— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) June 26, 2023

one of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s neighbors accidentally tried to screen cast to the wrong TV

so naturally her first thought is that this means someone is trying to assassinate her pic.twitter.com/nSj5FY03Tj

— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) June 26, 2023

MISSION: Stop the invasion

STATUS: Critical

LEAD: @RonDeSantis pic.twitter.com/Yz6c6SOirc

— Team DeSantis (@TeamDeSantis) June 26, 2023

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODRlYjc1NTUtYmM1NS00YWI1LTkwNTgtMDRmNWUzMzM2YjgwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzA0MzAzMzM@._V1_.jpg

xpost Vic Morrow vibes

First actor to lose height for a role

Good one: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/06/25/texas-governor-tweets-fake-article-about-garth-brooks-getting-booed-off-stage/?sh=3da000eb3bbe

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted an article on Sunday about Garth Brooks getting booed off stage. The story described how Brooks was performing in the Texas city of Hambriston when “patriots” booed the country music legend mercilessly before he finally left after just two minutes. But there are a couple of big problems with Abbott’s tweet: The city of Hambriston doesn’t exist, and the article is completely fake.

This just in: Texas school libraries have been removing ALL books from their shelves because "books" sounds too much like "Brooks."

Abbott & DeSantis in a neck-in-neck race to be crowned King of the Assholes

Looks like Abbott's discovered chatGPT.

I hope people are paying attention to what's happening in Missouri right now - where the state AG is holding up a pro-choice ballot measure by claiming that it would cost the state BILLIONS of dollars to restore abortion rights https://t.co/WYHaiStnwR

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) June 26, 2023

Ergh. Thought one: I was born in Missouri and many of my family members still live there. I don't recognize it anymore (and neither do my family members).

The current political climate there would have been unthinkable just 20 years ago; now it is thoroughly entrenched. Missouri went from the Carnahans to Eric Greitens to Josh Hawley in an eyeblink. I will never be able to reconcile myself to that.

I had to go to St. Louis recently for unavoidable reasons and I was deeply conflicted about even spending money there. I am sad about it but powerless to change it.

Thought two: I legit have a degree in English and philosophy. And I often have trouble parsing news about legal decisions where it's like, we're upholding a stay of a ban on banning something.

Headline: appeals court forbids enforcement of the ban on (insert fun thing here). Um, yay, I guess?

Headline: supreme court declines to hear appeal on case that would have banned the banning of (insert fun thing here). Um, yay, I guess?

Eventually the quadruple negatives will stack up so far that no one really understands what a judicial decision means. We have decided not to stay the lower court's decision to forbid the state from enforcement of its ban on not banning the banning of, um, a thing. A thing that some people like and some people don't.

As for now, the court has determined that the legal challenge against the statute banning the ban of (the thing you like) has been stayed.

Navigate backward through the previous 20 pages before you know whether to be ecstatic or outraged.

I'd like to issue a correction. It was actually a much more handsome and daring singer named Chris Gaines who was booed off the stage in two minutes

Lol

“Eventually the quadruple negatives will stack up so far that no one really understands what a judicial decision means. We have decided not to stay the lower court's decision to forbid the state from enforcement of its ban on not banning the banning of, um, a thing. A thing that some people like and some people don't.”

This shit is exhausting, isn’t it? (I say this as an English major, a Philosophy minor, a former newspaper reporter, and a current communications professional)

And I think this is why I shy away from some media coverage of legal stuff, and am drawn to reputable sources who will deliver the gist. It’s just labyrinthine.

More top notch work from the DeSantis social team pic.twitter.com/IoeSboNMg1

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) June 26, 2023

Fake I think

DeSantis for Senate

I’m warning socialists and communists not to travel to Florida. They are not welcome in the Sunshine State.pic.twitter.com/ZB4RVz6XdK

— Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) June 27, 2023

This skeleton looks like he's got some Rick Scotts in the closet.

brb gonna tell the Swedes and I just saw they gotta go

Why does a state that relies so much on tourism work so hard to make itself repellent to most of America?

Took all his strength to not say “Northern Agitators”

Though I’d like to have a Negroni with Alfred in his home state someday, yeah, with every passing week Florida becomes a place I’m less interested in visiting ever.

(I’ve *physically* been in the state before, on tarmacs and in airports; the last time was actually Sunday.)

Ugh, mangled syntax. But you get what I mean.

huh wonder what Scott thinks about FEMA in Florida, guess it's time to cut 'em off

Though I’d like to have a Negroni with Alfred in his home state someday, yeah, with every passing week Florida becomes a place I’m less interested in visiting ever.

Your state is cooler in every sense, including your presence in it. Leave us to our taint.

can't be worse than Texas and the beaches are definitely better

Don't Worse With Texas

happy to report both of my trans friends who were looking to escape FL both got out and to much better environments

I mean, I know what it's like to live in a shitty state--I was living in AZ back when the voters rejected the MLK holiday (basically because "Don't tell us what to do, East Coasters.")

Why does a state that relies so much on tourism work so hard to make itself repellent to most of Americathe rest of the world?

There really seems to be an arms race among republicans as to who can be the most repellent: viz: the cum-chugging contest between Abbot and DeSantis.

Rick Scott was a corporate healthcare crook/executive, I always thought he was a bog-standard replacement level country club republican but I guess the ante has been upped and he’s afraid of being primaried by a sentient Confederate uniform.

the Sundown State

He headed a firm responsible for the largest Medicare fraud in American history. He's a special little man.

he looks like the Dilbert guy got bit by a vampire

HCA...what a joke. HCA which basically just shipped a local actor who was in a brutal car accident and is recovering from several injuries to a long term care facility while he was still battling pneumonia

I'm really hoping my piece-of-shit governor loses reelection but I don't even know if he's got a credible opponent. He just turned down $10 million in federal funds to feed poor kids lunch and tried to play it off that it was because the paperwork was too much trouble.

Biden: There’s a guy named Tuberville, Senator from Alabama, went out and said he strongly opposed the legislation. Now he’s hailing its passage. pic.twitter.com/7kALjzyUq4

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 28, 2023

There once was a guy named Tuberville
So ugly he could stop an Uber still

After President Biden assailed the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision on Thursday, a reporter asked if he thought the high court was now "rogue." Biden took a long pause before responding. "This is not a normal court," he said. Watch his remarks. https://t.co/nG2wJVu5pa pic.twitter.com/hqausM47rW

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 29, 2023

But also this--

President Biden: "I think if we start the process of trying to expand the [Supreme] Court, we're gonna politicize it — maybe forever — in a way that's not healthy."
pic.twitter.com/hQiZz19hTF

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 29, 2023

Yeah that ship has sailed, further than any ship has ever sailed

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-radioactive-roads-phosphogypsum-potentially-cancer-causing-mining-waste-bill-signed-ron-desantis/

This is a little bit too on-the-nose I think

If a large amount of the electorate don't believe in science how can you convince them that these charlatans' actions will cause the unnecessary cancers that will kill them sooner than they needed to die?

I think Biden's tendency to characterize Republican power plays as aberrant is at least somewhat performative; he thinks it will benefit him to be seen as the reasonable, stable leader who just wants to get back to normal. And he may not be entirely wrong. But I think it's also not far from his actual views, which make him reluctant to fight fire with fire.

that's the dumbest-ass biden position i been forced to swallow for a minute. now i'm like, "does he believe that? really?"

Is it? He's been the same guy since 20212
.

This story on Kennedy is really good. Unmerciful not only to his stupid ass, but to the journalists who are lining up to slobber over him. "As a journalist who has been told for decades that my empathy for the female candidates I often cover is probably overemotional and built too strongly on personal identification, let me just tell you that you should never stand between a white male political journalist over the age of 40 and his feelings about the Kennedys."

Can't wait to see what kind of kook attracts the dumbest potential Democratic voters in 2028, are there any wellness youtubers who didn't go completely fascist?

I wouldn’t get too worried, his poll numbers keep falling as people get to know him.

What puzzles me is why the billionaire tech bro venture capitalists puppeteering this guy somehow think running a candidate for the Democratic nomination to Biden’s right will somehow damage Biden with Democratic voters—just as the whole vaccine issue has sorted into a partisan thing!

Your average Dem primary voter probably owns a Fauci bobblehead—this guy ain’t going anywhere.

remember when May 1st never happened? let's not drop the ball tomorrow.

It says something that you go from "I never inhaled" to a fully admitted ex-heroin addict running for President.

Lovely story about Miss Texas, who is not conservative and who has spent her tenure traveling through her home state and speaking out against its right wing laws and policies:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/30/averie-bishop-miss-america-texas-platform-diversity/

She's got a really healthy "changing minds one at a time" outlook.

I’m really curious about how/when Matt Taibi lost his mind. That’s really sad

sorry if this was already covered, but the kid from the college admissions supreme court case is canadian?!

Finally this shameful discrimination against Canadians will end.

Wait a sec. Isn't it July now?

No one else would bell the cat, so I've tossed this onto the floor:

U.S. Politics, July 2023: The SCOTUS Shelves Its Instruments of Torture for Some R&R