US Politics, May 2024: They Shoot Puppies, Don't They?

Like no, tons of money isn’t a cure-all for clinical depression, but life is a lot less stressful when you never have to worry about being able to feed your family and keep them out of the rain. It’s a facile and obvious point but sometimes it’s worth repeating.

if all of my debt was gone my heart palpitations would probably not be here

life is a lot less stressful when you never have to worry about being able to feed your family and keep them out of the rain.

I think everyone here is in violent agreement with DJP's point.

yes, I worry about Campari supplies running low too

not on my watch

(I can't afford real Campari, that's why I buy the Trader Joe's knockoff PRONTO!)

Honestly I want to hear more about Alfred’s lizard …

Lots of good, well-intentioned points here. Tough to generalize but i think we can all agree that there are those who would benefit big-time, spiritually, from financial security and there are those who are fucked up by too much money.

I have an acquaintance with fuck you money. She’s currently shopping for a jet. She behaves in ways that can only be described as evil, including towards family members who she’d claim to love. In her private life, she has behaved in ways eerily similar to Trump. I hate her guts but hers is the first face that pops into my head during loving kindness meditation. The vibes I try to send her don’t appear to be working.

the kind of money Trump commands provides very little additional benefit compared to anyone who could reasonably be called middle class.

I have an acquaintance with fuck you money. She’s currently shopping for a jet

I misread this as acupuncturist and nodded along in acknowledgement even though I've never met one

I know an acupuncturist but she drives a prius and lives in a not-great neighborhood and definitely doesn’t have fuck you money

She has a really cute yard tho

I’d rather have an acupuncturist than this acquaintance in my life for sure. Even if they dont have a jet.

Honestly I want to hear more about Alfred’s lizard …

― sarahell, Wednesday

only in the TMI thread

Did it kill the worm in rfk jr’s brain?

no that was sirhan sirhann jr.

Guilty lols

If you think that having a mountain of "fuck you" money would make you a very happy person, then I guess you are welcome to your priorities.

"You only think that working fewer than 72 hours a week would make you more relaxed because your priorities are below me." good point, I feel way happier now.

Do not, my fellow ilx0rs, become addicted to water! It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence.

You require hundreds of millions of dollars in order to work less than 72 hours a week? You may be spending too much on candles!

MTG is doing an MTV after all

Biden gave an interview to Erin Burnett at CNN that will be airing in a couple of hours. It's starting to seem like "fuck the New York Times" is official White House policy.

As if CNN were better?

they're just gonna talk about how it's great that Cillizza is gone and nobody reads his substack

As if CNN were better?

I can't remember the last time I watched CNN. Maybe when I had to fly to Boise back in September? I just think Biden's absolute refusal to give the Times the interview their publisher craves (and views as his due) is funny.

The stunt is punted

The House easily quashed Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resolution to oust the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, on Wednesday, as members of both parties came together in a rare moment of bipartisanship to keep the chamber open for business.

The motion to table Greene’s resolution was 359 to 43, with 196 Republicans and 163 Democrats voting to kill the proposal.

they're just gonna talk about how it's great that Cillizza is gone and nobody reads his substack

You require hundreds of millions of dollars in order to work less than 72 hours a week? You may be spending too much on candles!

….in your head, without looking anything up, what do you think of as a “middle-class” income

Dolores O'Riordan's worst lyrics

iiiin-come
iiin-come
Innnnn-come-come-come

With their stocks and their bonds

….in your head

during this exchange you've consistently reduced whatever I've actually said to a caricature that allows you to pretend you've scored points on me, so I've simply returned the favor

fwiw, any number I named would be wrong, because a 'middle class income' supplies a minimum level of financial security and the required income is whatever delivers that reality. we both know the ascendance of the 1% has taken a fuckton of people with middle class expections and aspirations, loaded them with debt, and destroyed those expectations. it doesn't matter how much you make if it all goes to line the pockets of the rentier class.

These cartoon versions of economic classes are actually making me wish we can return to arguing about the value of voting for Biden in November

i read this! i was bored. it was kinda interesting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/magazine/401k-retirement-crisis.html

it made me wish i had a pension.

In lieu of presidential debates, I move that Biden and Trump just release competing diss tracks all summer

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/us/politics/barron-trump-gop-national-convention.html

South Dakota local news's take on the governor's book tour. they're not into it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcU0PF-6J8k

Santos Redux

You know what might be a good slogan for Democratic voters?

“I’m not voting to keep Joe Biden in the White House, I’m voting to send Donald Trump to jail.”

"WILL HE WIN OR GO TO JAIL?!" is one of the dramas that i am surprised hasn't been played up more, really. trial needs to end with some kind of game show finale in the spirit of _running man_. his rollcage would get ejected thru tubes to either rikers or the oval office, so exciting. who is the today's-richard-dawson to play the host

Steve Harvey, duh.

Steve Harvey for Jail 2024

Heather Cox Richardson:

"Three high-level Republicans this week told media they would not vote for Trump, helping to pave an off-ramp for other Republicans. Former House speaker Paul Ryan told Yahoo Finance that he would write in another Republican rather than vote for Trump. “Character is too important to me,” he said.

Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, also cited character when she said she would not vote for Trump. “I’ve never voted for a Democrat in my life, but I would absolutely consider voting for Joe Biden this upcoming November because he will not seek to destroy our nation [or] our Constitution, and he has the statesman character that we need in an elected official.”

Georgia’s former lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan went further on Monday night, endorsing Biden, whom he had called in an op-ed a “decent person I disagree with on policy,” over Trump, whom he described as “a criminal defendant without a moral compass.” “Sometimes the best way to learn your lesson is to get beat, and Donald Trump needs to get beat. We need to move on as a party. We need to move on as a country,” he said."

Geoff Duncan OTM

Narrator: They did not learn their lesson.

Duncan's been a pretty outspoken Trump critic for awhile now, and he's also not in office

LOL! It can't get any worse for that piece of shit

Abigail Disney evokes Old Yeller in plea to reject Republicans after Kristi Noem kills dog

“My great-uncle Walt Disney knew the magic place animals have in the hearts of families everywhere,” Disney wrote in an email released by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and obtained exclusively by the Guardian.

“When he released Old Yeller, the heart wrenching story stayed with people because no one takes the killing of a family pet lightly.

“At least that’s what I thought until I read about potential Trump VP Kristi Noem shooting her family’s puppy – a story that has shocked so many of us.”

An interesting interview with Charlamagne Tha God (gift link).

But what I found interesting about all the comments is this thing that happens with you a lot, which is people wondering, as they have for a while, what is Charlamagne Tha God all about? Where does he stand politically? That’s so funny you say that. I promise you as I was walking in here, this white guy stops me on the street. He had on glasses, some khakis, a sweater, and he goes, “You’re Charlamagne, right?” And I go, “Yeah.” And he goes: “Man, I like when you talk politics. I think there’s going to be a civil war in this country. That’s what you need to talk about.” He said: “I don’t care who wins. I don’t care if it’s Trump. I don’t care if it’s Biden. I feel like it’s going to be a civil war in this country.” And he goes, “You know, which side are you on?” And I’m like, “I’m not on any side!” And I think that’s the problem with American politics, or just America, period. People think if, as a Black man, I criticize Democrats, then I’m supporting MAGA. But if I criticize Donald Trump and Republicans, then I’m a Democratic shill. Why can’t I just be a person who deals in nuance? What happened to just being objective and seeing things on both sides? ’Cause nothing is all right, and nothing is all wrong either.

Well, I think what people would probably answer is that the rise of Trump has really polarized people. And so to say, “Oh, I don’t take a side” — some people, especially on the left, would say, “Well, that’s not right either.” Why? I think we do ourselves a grave disservice by thinking I can’t criticize Democrats and I can’t criticize Republicans and still know who I want to vote for in November in order to preserve democracy. There’s not a show I’ve been on — when they ask me about Donald Trump, I say the same thing: He’s a threat to democracy. He literally said, Let’s suspend the Constitution to overthrow the results of an election. You saw his lawyers in the court saying, Well, he never agreed to support the Constitution. He led an insurrection of this country on Jan. 6, and people just act like, you know, it was a bunch of kids wilding out at spring break in Miami. I say these things over and over and over, but if [ABC News reporter] Jon Karl says to me: “Well, President Biden says these things too about Donald Trump. Why don’t you think it resonates?” And I say, “Because he’s an uninspiring candidate who doesn’t have any main-character energy.” The right will take that one clip and say, “Charlamagne says Joe Biden is an uninspiring candidate who has no main-character energy.” And once again, everybody on the left attacks that narrative instead of going to watch the interview and taking the narrative they should be using, which is Charlamagne says Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. We are insane right now. I blame the media so much for what’s happening.