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

presumed reply “well, yeah.”

A little worm inside my head, you mean

The most important takeaway from the RFK brainworm story, imo, is that the brainworm died after feasting on RFK's brain

it starved

Next press conference some intrepid journalist needs to ask Biden if his administration will support the Ape retail rebellion...

“You did it. You cut up his brain, you bloody baboon!”

Seriously would have advised that brainworm against choosing the head of a Kennedy as a good hiding spot

RFK's brain would feed families (of worms)

The Worm Dynasty

I saw a lawn sign for RFK.

― A So-Called Pulitzer price winner (President Keyes), Tuesday, May 21, 2024 2:54 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

There's one at the end of the driveway of the first home of a very sprawly McMansion subdivision near my work. It seems entirely perfect for the place.

brain worm fever CATCH IT!

Not the first kennedy to have worms in his brain. They crawl in and out aiui

Joe the patriarch had this Nazi worm iirc.

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

Trump must be visiting

The Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., was under lockdown Wednesday morning after someone sent vials of blood to the building, three sources familiar with the situation told NBC News.

A hazardous materials team from the U.S. Capitol Police is on site.

The suspicious package was cleared, the Capitol Police told NBC News. But one of the sources familiar with the situation said the building was still on lockdown and the blood was being tested.

It is unclear if a suspect is in custody.

it was probably Louie Gohmert trying to prove to everyone he had no vaccine in his system

there's a typo, they meant tasted not tested, new kid in the mailroom hasn't been turned yet

Biden Administration Cancels Another $7.7 Billion in Student Loans

President Biden announced on Wednesday the cancellation of $7.7 billion in student loans held by 160,000 borrowers, building on his strategy of chipping away at college debt by tweaking existing programs as his administration pursues a larger forgiveness plan.

Many borrowers in this round — who qualified through public service loan forgiveness, the president’s SAVE plan or another income-driven repayment plan — have already begun receiving emails notifying them of their approvals, the Education Department said in a statement.

The steady drumbeat of loan forgiveness announcements from the White House this year has become a centerpiece of Mr. Biden’s re-election pitch, in which he has consistently described overcoming the cost of education as a primary hurdle for working families.

Of course, it's the Times, so here come the caveats!

The announcement marks another small step forward on an issue that has long bedeviled the president. Even as he has canceled more student debt than has any of his predecessors, he has fallen far short of the mass debt forgiveness he promised, disappointing many of the younger voters who overwhelmingly supported him in 2020 but have shown signs of drifting away.

The Biden administration has now canceled about $167 billion in loans for 4.75 million borrowers, or roughly one in 10 federal loan holders, wiping away $35,000 in debt on average. The president has set forward a much larger goal: forgiving debt for nearly 30 million borrowers as soon as this fall. But the broader program is still being finalized and could fall victim to legal challenges, as Mr. Biden’s first attempt at mass debt cancellation did.

far short of the mass debt forgiveness he promised

eff you NYT. that is a false framing. he promised to pursue this as one of his highest priority policy goals and he has done that in the face of an obstructionist Congress and a federal judiciary that still skews conservative.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/22/newsmax-delete-evidence-2020-election-lies

xp You and I know that, but voters do blame him personally for a lack of follow-through. Thinking of a woman in a recent NYT focus group:

Leaders are like, “Oh, I’m going to do X, Y, Z for you.” And then they don’t do X, Y, Z for you. That’s a long list for our current president. The first one is removing student loans. That’s a major one for me. If you’re going to say it, then do it. I do make a livable wage, but that can soon change because of the inflation.

If Smartmatic gets that adverse inference instruction, I would say that case is just about over.

I don't see why Biden has to work to appease voters that hold him responsible for not following through on student debt relief. It's not like Trump's voters hold him responsible for not building the wall, not having Mexico pay for the minuscule amount that was built, not replacing Obamacare with something better, etc.

i hear it's still infrastructure week

Trump's voters either think he did build the wall or that the Deep State/Demoncrats kept him from following through on any given issue.

Democrats, often by choice, fail to properly demonize their opponents - instead you get Biden and Pelosi talking about the need for a strong Republican Party because muh norms.

Democrats' commitment to rationality forbids jugular attacks, but Biden's proven he can do it

I think when Biden and Pelosi talk about how "we need a strong Republican Party", in their minds this is code for "we just wish they'd stop electing loons because otherwise this ship is going down fast". They'd be better served by staying silent than openly indulging in this fantasy.

Alito flew another flag at another house last year: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/justice-alito-flag-appeal-to-heaven.html

My question is why is all of this just getting noticed now? obviously his neighbors knew about it at the time. Did they just like, not mention it to anyone?

Too rich to snitch?

He's probably stopped paying his HOA fees because of Liberty and his neighbors are now pisses

Holy christ

ain't no fun at the top

Mike Johnson’s woes continue after exodus of staff in run-up to elections

Latest staff departures include communications director Raj Shah as House speaker struggles to retain leadership position

The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, is reeling from a sudden staff exodus as he struggles to keep his position and the GOP’s tiny majority in the run-up to November’s elections.

In the latest in a spate of resignations, Johnson’s well-connected communications director, Raj Shah, a former White House deputy press secretary under Donald Trump, has confirmed he is leaving, Axios reported. He is expected to depart by the end of the summer.

News of his impending departure comes a day after it was announced that three top policy staff members, Brittan Specht, Jason Yaworske and Preston Hill, had quit and would leave by the end of May.

Speaking of Mike Johnson, apparently he also had that appeal to heaven flag hanging outside his congressional office.

Also, Joe Biden didn't cancel all student debt.

cancel student debt culture is out of control

https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1793270876550398329

I wonder how this happened?

meanwhile, yesterday's headline in the FT was, not a joke: "Biggest US retailers cut prices as inflation hits shoppers"

New Harris-Guardian poll:

- 56% say US is in recession (reality: 7 straight quarters of positive GDP growth)
- 49% say stocks are down YTD (reality: S&P500 up 12%)
- 49% say unemployment at a 50-year high (reality: U3 has been under 4% longer than any period since the 1960s) pic.twitter.com/Hsnpq5IBy8

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) May 22, 2024

Good mornning!

vibes are off

indictment of the fourth estate but what will anyone do about it, nothing

every article gets the community note: Actually this is good news for Biden.

lol more middle to upper class ILXors poking fun at people who are struggling and aren’t seeing the benefits they are

full employment? sure, 30 hr/week near poverty wage jobs with no benefits, hardly anyone owns stock who isn’t already wealthy, etc. yall continue to trip over yourselves to dismiss the lived realities of a lot of people

People feeling like the economy is doing poorly because of their personal financial situation is different than believing the economy is in a recession when it it isn't

not defending the record just having a go at the media which has totally failed to inform its audiences - agree wholeheartedly that those measures do not capture life as it’s lived

There has never been a time, certainly not in the fabled post-WWII boom era, when everyone was personally seeing the benefits of the economy.

it's almost like capitalism is inherently unfair or something

lol more middle to upper class ILXors poking fun at people who are struggling and aren’t seeing the benefits they are

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table)

I could only dream of being middle class atm where I am but I still understand like numbers and stuff unlike those in that poll

the media definitely needs to do better, it's wild they haven't learned a single thing since 2016, that said half the country watches news sources that are designed from the ground up to lie to them

they did learn from 2016, they learned they can shape the narrative how they choose to get the result they want

expecting people to care about and change their minds about the state of the world thanks to aggregate statistical data--or, worse, numerological nonsense like stock indexes--is bizarre