Lady G Shook the Covid Tree - August 2021 US Politics Thread

fuck the world

world pregnant

world kid sad

Be a real tragedy if people followed Sinema around on vacation and bullied her.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie

i was so hoping jane mayer was the author of that before clicking :)

Dark Money is now too out of date to be a huge recommendation (though still worthwhile - i read it a few years after it came out), but i am glad that someone who writes well is paying attention

Is it? The Koch bros chapter is pathetic and chilling.

This new article is fascinating but (to me) incredibly depressing because of what it reveals about the depth and determination of the effort. And its deep pockets, obviously. It's telling that the foundation the article starts out talking about has connections from way back to the John Birch Society. The Birchers have essentially taken over, and there's almost no one left in the party to stop them.

Kurt is heard addressing Johnson at the end of the four-minute recording: “I just want to let you know there truly is a surge in Georgia. I work in hospice. So I just want to make sure you’re encouraging people to get the vaccine.”

“I’m not going to do that,” Johnson responded as his supporters jeered Kurt. “I don’t encourage or discourage.”

Before leaving the room, Kurt said: “But you’re saying things that are counterproductive and not scientific. So I just wanted you to know.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ron-johnson-fbi/2021/08/02/5791b4aa-f25f-11eb-81d2-ffae0f931b8f_story.html

Mad props to Kurt for not erupting in violence

They've made it hard to get around the paywall— what is that article even about?

It's telling that the foundation the article starts out talking about has connections from way back to the John Birch Society. The Birchers have essentially taken over, and there's almost no one left in the party to stop them.

They've made it hard to get around the paywall— what is that article even about?

― heyy nineteen, that's john belushi (the table is the table)

Ron Johnson, asshole.

Well, I got that much— it's about Covid restrictions?

no, it was just a story about Ron Johnson telling people after a public appearance that he thinks the FBI knows more about the January 6th stuff then they are letting on, just the usual conspiracy bullshit. someone from Atlanta overheard and went to talk to him and brought up issues of covid in Georgia.

I see Hungary is the hot thing over at Fox News. A lot of people's older relatives are going to be singing Viktor Orban's praises at Thanksgiving this year, which should be great.

They've made it hard to get around the paywall

I have found that disabling javascript in a browser allows access to WAPO (and NYT) articles.

are there a lot of regular Republicans outside the pundit and political class that are super pumped about Hungary? It's hard for me to imagine this having a lot of appeal to your average conservative American.

Tucker Carlson is broadcasting from Hungary pic.twitter.com/mljlWccI5P

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 3, 2021

yeah, I'm aware this is happening, but do average people actually care about it at all?

"Insider reports, citing investigative researcher Anna Massoglia, that the Orbán government paid $265,000 to a DC lobbying firm in 2019 to arrange an interview on Tucker Carlson Tonight."

"And just how do they smoke paprika here in Budapest? What are they trying to hide?"

some of the richest cryptoturds might have to pay taxes (...yeah right. they'll get out of it)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/08/03/crypto-bitcoin-infrastructure-portman/

Two leading Republican senators are at odds over a proposal to step up tax-reporting requirements on cryptocurrency transactions, a measure designed to help pay for the $1 trillion infrastructure proposal moving through Congress.

Searching for new funds to pay for their infrastructure package, the White House and moderate Senate Republicans led by Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) agreed to increase requirements for what brokerages have to report to the Internal Revenue Service. The measure emerged as a late potential compromise after months of disagreements over how to pay for the package.

The new provision is aimed at improving voluntary compliance and helping the IRS track evasion of large cryptocurrency sales, which often go unreported. But industry groups and some lawmakers, including Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), are warning that the language as drafted is too broad and could give the Biden administration the opportunity to crack down on not just cryptocurrency brokers but also bitcoin “miners” who are crucial for validating transactions on the decentralized network.

most likely, they won't come to an agreement, the cryptoturd regulation will be stripped out of the package, and then republicanturds will use that as an excuse to not support the infrastructure bill because it won't be fully "paid for"

also, shocking news here, very surprising

According to @swin24, people around Trump have raised the idea of him using his platform to urge diehard fans to get the vaccine, but “he doesn’t want to do it, he doesn’t want to do Joe Biden any favors, and he doesn’t think his fans really want it.” https://t.co/a9BgxwuuKX

— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) August 3, 2021

just the blood of hundreds of thousands on your hands, that's all

even if he was somehow compelled to "urge diehard fans to get the vaccine", they would instantly know it was an act. it's like when he finally is forced to say "ok, i don't like white supremacists, ok? is that enough?", it somehow doesn't seem very convincing

Yeah, that article on Lake of the Ozarks stated that the hardcore anti-vaxxers won't even listen to Lord Trump; their minds are made up and they're gonna own the libs even if it kills them en masse

Anyone think Cuomo will resign?

I went kayaking in the ozarks a couple weeks ago. that was a mistake, not from the standpoint of covid (it was all outside, i stayed away from the people on the river as much as i could), but just hearing hundreds of people all be terrible, for hours straight. i heard many things about libs and "the progressives" and lots of really dumb, sub-ben garrison jokes. also lots of arguments bordering on violence. when i set off, someone my age was screaming at at an old lady (i think her mother) because she was using her life-jacket as a buttpad. "you can't sit on that, you fucking idiot! you fucking idiot!" said the daughter. the old lady apologized, even though she had done nothing wrong. (i was sitting on my life-jacket as i witnessed this, in fact). as my kayak drifter out toward the center of the water, the fight escalated and i heard a loud slap on skin and then "OW! don't fucking hit me! don't you fucking hit me!!" and so on. this kind of scene happened another handful of times throughout the journey, these arguments escalating and based on...nothing. just nothing. when "the public" wasn't doing that, they were talking about libs and making threatening remarks to me and my friends as we passed by, i guess because we had weird hair and were obviously on drugs that weren't shitty beer.

in other words, i agree, they are beyond redemption and now their sole pleasure in life is to see how low they can go

xp

nope! he'll stay and fight

I went kayaking in the ozarks a couple weeks ago. that was a mistake, not from the standpoint of covid (it was all outside, i stayed away from the people on the river as much as i could), but just hearing hundreds of people all be terrible, for hours straight. i heard many things about libs and "the progressives" and lots of really dumb, sub-ben garrison jokes. also lots of arguments bordering on violence. when i set off, someone my age was screaming at at an old lady (i think her mother) because she was using her life-jacket as a buttpad. "you can't sit on that, you fucking idiot! you fucking idiot!" said the daughter. the old lady apologized, even though she had done nothing wrong. (i was sitting on my life-jacket as i witnessed this, in fact). as my kayak drifter out toward the center of the water, the fight escalated and i heard a loud slap on skin and then "OW! don't fucking hit me! don't you fucking hit me!!" and so on. this kind of scene happened another handful of times throughout the journey, these arguments escalating and based on...nothing. just nothing. when "the public" wasn't doing that, they were talking about libs and making threatening remarks to me and my friends as we passed by, i guess because we had weird hair and were obviously on drugs that weren't shitty beer.

in other words, i agree, they are beyond redemption and now their sole pleasure in life is to see how low they can go

― Z_TBD (Karl Malone

This is...jaw-dropping, like, a circle of hell. Chronic rudeness toward the old?

followed by chronic slapping from the old, which is kind of lol

Who slapped whom? I assumed the screamer was the slapper.

it was unclear to me who slapped who, but i think it was the daughter. she was a very loud, ignorant asshole

just off a different river, NW Illinois, last weekend, i helped some other friends set up a giant balloon sculpture with a hyper-detailed rendering of my friend's face on it. he just turned 40, and was the reason we were there. the face was clearly visible even from about 1500-2000 feet away, it was amazing. anyway, while we were setting it up, canoes and rafts would occasionally float by. inevitably, they yelled out "is it a gender reveal?!!", to which one of my friends (accurately) said "no, it's public art!", and they said "nothing", then another friend said "it's an age reveal!", and that seemed to make them mad, and then a third friend said "it's a giant balloon with our friend's face on it. you can't see the face because it's drawn on the other side of the balloon. it's his birthday", and they said "oh". they were floating so slowly that about 10 minutes later, i walked down the trail to piss, downriver a bit, and found myself within listening distance of them again. one woman in the group said the guy with the purple hair kinda looked like brad pitt - i do not, at all, but it made me feel good! - but was quickly answered by someone who said "if you're into fags", and then the whole group (dozen or so) laughed heartily.

goddammit Maven, pass me my goddamn shitty beer and give me my sunblock back you fucking asshole daughter!!!

if i made a zine called "I heard it on the river" and sold it for $15 and it went toward my studio TBD/life/donation bullshit, would anyone buy it? i'm tempted to go back and bring my zoom recorder, set up camp right on the riverbank again

if you're into fags

It's Mourning Again in the Midwest!

I used to labor under the impression that the vast majority of Americans are decent, hardworking, salt-of-the-earth types, but now I just don't know

then I guess that I jut don't know

I lived in my share of rural backwaters in my yoot, and while they were stifling and unpleasant places at times, I think the people living in those places (like the place where my mom lives and I lived my last two years of high school, which was conservative and ol' fayshun for sure but mostly just quietly ignorable but is now apparently filled to the brim with rabid Trumpists) have gradually gone completely insane since those days.

I'm sure drugs are a factor, but certainly not the only factor.

to be clear, a lot of these rural backwaters were also insane back in the day

Oh for sure. It could be, as much as anything, just a matter of people who've always been insane but tamped down by the rapidly-eroding mores of polite society now feeling free to let their insane flag fly outside of the confines of their own broken homes.

I was up visiting family in Humboldt County CA last week, and now there's a weird fusion of gun-toting yet weed growing Trumpy-types living in the hills.. I guess ' rural counterculture libertarian' would be an apt description? It's an odd combo but maybe not that weird anymore

conservative stoners are the worst

i had to split an apartment with one for a summer in Boulder (i think i posted about this at length on 77 when it happened, way back when).

all they did was smoke spliffs and watch south park, talk about how good south park was, and played beer pong

Always bogarting the j n shit

he also scored a philosophical victory over me one evening when he confronted me about my reasons for being a vegetarian, which were basically just that meat consumption typically requires much more energy than a vegetarian diet. he pointed to the Morning Star package i had pulled out of the freezer. "you do know that it takes energy to make that fake burger too, right?", he said. yes, i did. he walked off

i did inspire one of them, though, in the group. he always seemed like a decent enough guy, and near the end of my time there he told me that he was reading a book! like, he was really excited about that! i don't remember what the book was. hope it wasn't History of South Park or something, but still it seemed to be a positive development in his life

.@VP Harris lays flowers at Hanoi memorial where John McCain’s plane was shot down.

"He was an extraordinary American. A hero...he loved our country. He was so courageous and really lived the life of a hero...always fought for the best of who we are." pic.twitter.com/9KgZJ9GWCm

— CSPAN (@cspan) August 25, 2021

Haha holy shit, yeah I found a translation of the inscription on ithttps://t.co/qTWPoAwojF pic.twitter.com/UrnYYVNFAw

— Climate Apocalypse Now (@DanFmTo) August 25, 2021

milo seems unfamiliar with the strict social conventions associated with delivering a eulogy to a public figure, while laying a wreath on their memorial.

their memorial.

...

hegemony works in mysterious ways

Their was a rider on one of the stimmy bills that outlawed badmouthing McCain.

once again reality outdoes Veep

We Got New Benghazi

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/afghanistan-news-taliban-refugees-08-26-21-intl/index.html

See, this just wouldn't have happened had the US stayed there forever.

“It’s time for accountability, starting with those whose failed planning allowed these attacks to occur. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, and Mark Milley should all resign or face impeachment and removal from office,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said in a statement referring to the president, vice president, two Cabinet officials and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Under Blackburn’s scenario, Pelosi would be next in line to become president.

In his remarks to reporters, Biden rejected critics who said the United States should not be cooperating with the Taliban on the defense of the airport perimeter.

“No one trusts them,” Biden said. “It’s a matter of mutual-self interest. . . .They’re not good guys, the Taliban. But they have keen interests,” he added.

"i'm 114 years old,", he added.

the top tiers of U.S. leadership are crusty old farts. it's a reflection of the military, the DOD - dozens and dozens of layers between the very top and the very bottom. the very bottom layers are the high schoolers. the very top are these ancient fucks.

so many of the problems of the US would be ameliorated by old people (including myself here at the ripe age of 38) getting the fuck out of the way

all of the best people i know are younger than me. all the worst people i know are ancient and should have died a long time ago

The best lack all blue checks, while the worst
Are full of cholesterol medication.

It sickens me that this officer is in hiding.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officer-who-shot-ashli-babbitt-during-capitol-riot-breaks-silence-n1277736?fbclid=IwAR1uCg3YIfFjSpow_CPTv8w5F3Z94NRJta3jp_YqNr39Q1SCWezgroBunoc

I didn’t realize he’d gone public. I didn’t look at all the maga-leak stuff so I didn’t know who it was.

He is in a lonely position. On the right is a bunch of people who support Donald Trump, still. So, a bunch of white supremacists. On his left, people who hate cops and want to ban guns.

Is there a consensus on Havana Syndrome? I've seen some chatter from people on Twitter that indicates a lot of people don't seem to believe this even exists but they won't say what they actually think; do they think this is some made-up syndrome from burned out State Dept employees?

That was the Chapo take I believe

It's amazing how much of it is unknown, and what is publicly known the powers that be have been weirdly shady about. The default off the record claim seems to be blaming Russian microwave technology, iirc. But on the record stuff, there's been everything from hints it's psychological to some sort of mystery weapon. Here's the most recent deep dive in the New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/vienna-is-the-new-havana-syndrome-hotspot

Fabulous horseshit

It sickens me that this officer is in hiding.

we can trace him by his badge number, IwAR1uCg3YIfFjSpow_CPTv8w5F3Z94NRJta3jp_YqNr39Q1SCWezgroBunoc

From the Minds what brought you everything from the Red Scare to WMDs in Iraq

I don’t think the State Department career employees were huge cheerleaders for Iraq IIRC.

_It sickens me that this officer is in hiding._

we can trace him by his badge number, IwAR1uCg3YIfFjSpow_CPTv8w5F3Z94NRJta3jp_YqNr39Q1SCWezgroBunoc

If the Russians had this technology, you’d think they’d go bigger than giving Dartmouth grads migraines.

A local bar set up a table with beers for all the soldiers who died in the Kabul attack, but they put out bottles of Bud Light and are getting roasted by local beer nerds for it.

That was the Chapo take I believe

blech, I resent that Chapo is a thing anyone is expected to give a fuck about

what can one do? what is the opposition to this if they can't be held accountable for just lying constantly? there's no drawback for it, it's all reward for them now.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) mused about busting Jan. 6 “political hostages” out of government custody at a raucous Macon County Republican Party meeting Sunday.

Responding to a question about how he would support the people who were “captured” on Jan. 6, Cawthorn began by calling them “political hostages” then said that one problem was that he wasn’t sure exactly where they were being held pending trial.

“The big problem is, we don’t actually know where all the political prisoners are, and so if we were to actually be able to go and try and bust them out–”

Cawthorn abruptly stopped and changed course.

“And let me tell you, the reason why they have taken these political prisoners is because they’re trying to make an example, because they don’t want to see the mass protests go on in Washington.”

Then, someone in the crowd interrupted: “When are you going to call us to Washington again?”

“We are actively working on that one,” Cawthorne grinned, before adding that he didn’t have a specific answer for the man but that “we have a few plans in motion that I can’t make public right now.”

He then falsely claimed that “we’ve 536 people who are being held in solitary confinement.” For one thing, closer to 600 people face charges related to Jan. 6. More to the point, hundreds are not in federal detention at all. According to a Guardian analysis in May, well more than half of roughly 400 Jan. 6 defendants at that time had been released from custody pending trial.

The Jan. 6 defendants were just one in a slew of topics Cawthorn discussed Sunday.

He referred to the 2020 election as “stolen” and said it was “wrong” to say that 2020 Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Forest lost his race (North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) beat him by around 250,000 votes).

Cawthorn falsely said that racial justice protests in 2020 had left “dozens of cops dead” and “cities completely destroyed and burned.” He said he would be willing to “prosecute Anthony Fauci for lying.” He said he supported pursuing the removal of Joe Biden from the presidency under the 25th Amendment. And after Biden is removed, Cawthorn added, “when Kamala Harris inevitably screws up, we will take them down one at a time.”

As the event wrapped up, Cawthorne signed a shotgun that the Macon County GOP is raffling off, and was asked about the government “pushing” the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Defend your children,” he told the inquiring mother, adding later: “It’s not worth it to put an experimental jab into your son’s arm.”

Gripping the shotgun, he closed by discussing gun rights.

“The Second Amendment was not written so that we can go hunting or we can shoot sporting clays,” he said. “The Second Amendment was written so that we can fight against tyranny.”

there's no point in "correcting" any of that, it's just one after the other. everyone there knows he's is lying and is ok with it

I think they believe it

Let me know when he’s gripping prison bars.

he never will! never will MTG or trump or any of these people. he obviously doesn't care what anyone left of the john birch society thinks, so that's out. so for accountability, only mccarthy or other party leaders can make him stfu, i guess? and obviously mccarthy's not going to do that. so...you can just win a congressional seat, lie your ass off constantly and openly try to organize a new coup, and then no one even bothers saying anything but what's the point.

if we're all so used to it that we don't even notice it any more - and i would argue yes, we are - then we are fucked

it's up to chuck todd to ask the tough questions now

will it have a positive effect on the midterms, Karl, y/no

will what, will cawthorn's fascist tours help the democrats? or help the republicans? i have no fucking clue. honestly i think it helps the republicans. it's working for them.

cawthorn is straight out of 20s/30s, just with the straight-up fascist way he operates and the way that he just continues and gains power

Saw a weird one this past weekend on the right wing flag waver front...I was cutting through Bardstown this week heading to the 'Ville way knee deep in the Muddytrump and saw your typical dualy pickup with two flags waving posted in the back BUT this time for some reason they had a French national flag and some red flag with a Griffin on it.

Got me...

lol, similarly, my wife and I came home a month ago from several days with family and after 5 hours drive pull into our dead end street to see a pickup truck with a giant flag on it we couldn't read and tons of people milling about. My wife started freaking out that it was Trumpers (we are in a relatively blue area).

It ended up that it was the young millennials next door throwing a party and the pickup truck was full of water and had been turned into a pool.

pickup truck *bed* was full of water

Cawthorne wants a cushy right-wing media gig, not actual power, I think. But, if it is The People's Will that he be crowned Imperial Praetor Maximus, he wouldn't say no.

still wish he'd died in that car accident

I can't think of him without remembering the foot-tapping scene in Bob Roberts.

yeah i don't agree that he has much if any power

New thread anyone?

We should. I can’t think of a good title though. Maybe “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH”?

FUCK AMERICA, YEAH?

That works too

"AMERICA! FUCK NO!" ?

5-4, Bitch: US Politics September 2021