US Politics, December 2023: "I love this place. For me, it’s like a fever dream."

By 5:30 p.m., Santos had returned to his office. His chief of staff walked down the hallway, pulling a giant dolly carrying three jugs of water, giving the scene a real bunker vibe. His neighbor Beyer walked by.
“Tomorrow’s finally the big day, huh?” he said.
The letters thanking Santos for supporting Israel had started to peel and slip off the wall.
Without much else left to do, Santos granted a brief interview.
Would he miss it here?
“I love this place,” he said. “For me, it’s like a fever dream.”
He recounted a true fact about this upbringing: That he was a poor kid born in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood in Queens. “I never even thought it was possible until AOC did it.”

'he recounted a true fact'

lol

what's next for him? I'm thinking The Masked Singer

he's dancing

he just missed season 32 but he's already in talks for season 33

still reading through the karl/kristol interview thing posted in the last thread (https://conversationswithbillkristol.org/transcript/jonathan-karl-what-would-a-second-trump-term-look-like/)

I mean, he was in some ways comically inept in the White House, especially in those first few days. Remember the ill thought through travel ban that seemed like it was crafted on the back of a napkin that created chaos in airports all around the world but was quickly thrown out because it just couldn’t pass muster. To the very end where it was McEntee, I describe in the book, who had issued this executive order, McEntee, executive order calling for the immediate withdrawal actually by January 15th, 2021 of all US troops in Afghanistan, the withdrawal of all troops out of Iraq and Syria, the withdrawal of all American troops out of Germany, and then they added a fourth provision of US troops out of Somalia. This was all done.

somehow i think i completely that mcentee executive order??

sorry, ^completely missed^

jfc the following paragraph

And I go through in detail how McEntee literally got on Google to see how a executive order could be drafted. He had Colonel Douglas Macgregor, best known for various Fox appearances during the non-prime time hours for the most part, telling him to go to the cabinet and get out an old executive order and follow the template. And he got Trump to sign it, sent it to the Pentagon, but it didn’t go through the staff secretary, it didn’t go through legal review. And the whole thing ended up going nowhere, causing a little bit of chaos, but going nowhere. So they were incompetent.

Scamming the moms of your GOP colleagues is like unlocking the next level of Balls

Was so close to starting this thread with the title "Neither my Mother nor I approved these charges"

ohhh, would have been a good one

The chosen one is nice...big end of the year energy

these thread titles are so often old news by the second week of the month

let's have weekly politics threads! (jk)

was Newsom able to make a quip about the weird cowboy boots?

xps I don’t think enough writing concentrated on that first few months of the Trump presidency and how they had absolutely nobody appointed, knew nothing about how anything works, and were just making stuff up and then seeing what stuck

the only reason anyone vaguely normal got appointed was they actually knew who to call and what forms to fill out

Karl/Kristol interview was good. Worrying yes but its not like the breathless "Trump will win and end America as we know it" articles that have been making the rounds lately. I think when it comes down to it staffing the government with 4000 Trump loyalists and still actually trying to get stuff done will be a lot harder than he thinks. Even if he wins I it's gonna be difficult to find people willing to ignore Jan 6 and what happened to basically every other Trump loyalist and he's gonna wind up with a lot of George Santos types. It maybe doesn't get said enough how little the GOP has actually been able to get done since the Obama years. Trump's accomplishments during the first term basically boil down to a tax cut for corporations and the 3 SC justices he lucked into. It's not nothing but still virtually none of his signature issues have really come to pass. So I'm kinda doubtful all these ambitious plans for overthrowing the entire American state are gonna come to fruition, especially as he starts firing people and creating new, previously unconsidered crises. Maybe it'll look like Elon Musk's Twitter, he can kill the site but he can't kill the internet

If it scares libs into voting for Biden, I'm all for the tactic; but, yeah, I tend to think, "Um, y'all, we saw him the first time -- what makes you think he has the concentration to destroy the Deep State, even with this cadre of lickspittles, when he can't even concentrate on a tweet"

By Deep State he means his chronic indigestion, and he doesn't know how to handle that, either.

Yeah, let’s get complacent again- what’s the worst that could happen under a Trump presidency?

who the fuck advocated for complacency?

I’m just being a shit.

lol

<3

the Biden campaign has been jumping on mostly overlooked Trumples (a word I just coined) including another recent call to dismantle the ACA ("Obamacare sucks!") and broadcasting them loudly... a good idea imo

Yeah it’s not just that Trump’s terrible, the entire agenda is deranged and full of dumb and unpopular ideas. Which people should hear about!

ultimately that's why I'm not too worried yet. I think the reason why we're not taking the Trump 2024 threat seriously is because it hasn't even really begun yet. as that interview says, no primary votes have been cast yet. its conceivable that it won't quite be the cakewalk everyone says it's gonna be. once he actually becomes the nominee I think all the fascist shit is gonna be bigger news. if he's gonna run on Jan 6, the 2020 election, and "witch hunt", he's gonna get destroyed

Frogbs I hope you are right. Most of us have lots of shit to deal with. And where the boxes of ballots were, when the absentee ballots were counted, and precisely when in some rando Georgian building they "paused" and, ugh, źźzzzzz.

We can retain the fervent hope that more people will be more interested in the future, including the prospect of having a future.

It's somewhat encouraging that they kicked out Santos. I realize that tons of Republicans voted to keep him in, but it feels like this is the first time in forever when a big enough number of the GOP collectively put their foot down and decided they'd had enough of a fellow Republican's actions and behavior.

Sadly I have a feeling that him being gay made it easier for a bunch of them.

if you read the comments on X/Twitter, yes -- lots of references to "the queen."

xp I think a lot of them were mad about santos committing credit card/campaign finance fraud on Mike Pence’s wife

And the fraud came up too.

The fun is only just beginning: He's now filing ethics complaints about other Republicans, including Nicole Malliotakis, who's a real piece of shit.

I won't bother linking to the full piece, because who cares, but I'll share the opening line because it's funny:

"The rise of Nikki Haley has energized the kind of Republicans who at one time thrilled to the sight of Jeb Bush and had begun to despair that they would ever see his like again."

Unintentional humor is the best kind.

That Florida GOP/Moms for Liberty scandal is several shades of oof. Same vibes as the Falwell Jr. scandal, but uglier.

eh he's cute

sounds like the other woman was actually into his wife.

BREAKING: DOUG BURGUM SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Longshot Republican presidential candidate and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum suspended his campaign Monday, after failing to gain momentum with voters in a crowded primary field.

In a statement, Burgum announced: “While this primary process has shaken my trust in many media organizations and political party institutions, it has only strengthened my trust in America," and criticized the Republican National Committee’s debate requirements as “arbitrary criteria.”

https://hips.hearstapps.com/vidthumb/images/jon-hamm-fargo-season-5-trailer-653a180008ea5.jpg?crop=0.793xw:0.793xh;0.0926xw,0.207xh

RIP, Doug Burgum.

i have a question for doug, who i know nothing about. it's about the first part of the first sentence i've ever heard from him:

"While this primary process has shaken my trust in many media organizations and political party institutions, it has only strengthened my trust in America,"

how has his trust in america been strengthened by getting his ass kicked by a fascist

oh man and it felt like burgumentum was just starting to build

how has his trust in america been strengthened by getting his ass kicked by a fascist

"i trust the sound judgment of the american people, demonstrated by their refusal to support me, doug burgum, for president"

"Please Burg"

A real Bob Loblaw vibe from Doug Burgum.

we love the sound judgment of americans!

*audio fades in barely perceptible sounds of humans chewing cardboard on accident, then on purpose*

Please Doug don't Burg'um

Burgum? I don't even know'm.

Bergumeister Meisterbergum

The Upennghazi hearings are going to restore smarts to our colleges

President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation to pardon certain marijuana offenses Friday, building on broader action he took last year for thousands of people convicted of possession under federal law, the White House said.

The new pardons target “additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law,” Biden said in a statement. Further details have not been announced; a White House official said in a statement that the proclamation includes offenses related to “use and possession on certain Federal lands,” provisions that weren’t covered by the 2022 proclamation.

“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said in the statement. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”

cool now make it federally legal

Why the fuck is the House looking into these plagiarism allegations against Gay @ Harvard? How does this even remotely fall into their purview? If they care so much about plagarism why don't they look into the data sets AI systems are being trained on and the massive amounts of violations against artists and writers there?

it’s not a mystery when the people pushing the plagiarism line explicitly explain why

https://open.substack.com/pub/donmoynihan/p/the-campaign-to-remove-the-president

Yeah, I mean I know why they are doing it. I'm curious what their public justification is in doing it though.

Also what happened to these subsequent Title VI investigations about campus harassment that focus on islamaphobia they assured us were also going to happen?

Since the last midterms the Republican-controlled House has passed exactly zero legislation of national importance. Unless you count the two bills that allowed the government to pay its obligations, two meager accomplishments the GOP caucus found so repugnant that it resulted in McCarthy getting booted out. So, what else can they do but posture and waste time? They have nothing better to do.

this is a good piece that uses missouri as a case study on how an evil org called Cicero punishing homeless people and attacking the organizations who are trying to help them.

i hadn't heard much about Cicero before, but they are similar to ALEC (american legislative exchange council), which essentially just writes laws and hands them to republicans to pass verbatim. i have a 'gift link' here with the full article, and pulled a few excerpts below:

https://wapo.st/475Rp4h

The right’s war on ‘housing first’ lands in Middle America

...The model legislation outlawed “unauthorized sleeping, camping, or long-term shelters,” punishable with a fine up to $5,000 and up to a month in jail. The proposal also funnels funding away from the construction of permanent supportive housing and punishes cities that don’t enforce the bill. Glock said the law enforcement portion of the legislation was meant to be a “mechanism to encourage people to go to shelter alternatives.”

Those alternatives, according to Cicero, would include sanctioned campsites run by the state or a “designated operator,” the legislation said. Those sites will provide “access to basic utilities” including “water and electricity outlets” as well as bathrooms. Individuals at these camps must “complete mental health and substance use evaluations,” the legislation said.

...A tracker established by the National Homelessness Law Center notes that Cicero has been active in nine states in recent years: Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, Georgia and Missouri. In some cases, legislators introduced full versions of the Cicero bill; others borrowed language or ideas. The law center has identified 12 states where legislators have passed or proposed anti-homelessness legislation. In a New York Post opinion piece this month, Lonsdale wrote that Cicero had scored legislative victories in five states with “many more in the pipeline.

“To activists that make a living managing — but never solving — the homeless crisis, our reforms are a nightmare,” Lonsdale wrote. “We’ve tied their funding to metrics, putting dollars for ineffective, ideologically-driven groups on the chopping block.”

Outside of Texas, only Missouri has so far passed a full version of the Cicero legislation. Legislators introduced stand-alone versions of the measure in the state senate and house in early 2022. Both bills failed to clear committee hearings after stiff opposition from homeless advocates and nonprofits. The Missouri house bill received 12 public comments in opposition to the bill compared with two in favor.

In April, late in Missouri’s legislative session, state Sen. Holly Rehder (R-Scott City), the bill’s main sponsor, offered it as an amendment to an unrelated measure about county government financial statements. Before many homeless advocates knew what was happening, the amendment passed and was signed into law. Rehder did not respond to an email for comment.

“They grafted onto a separate bill, which had nothing to do with homelessness, this bill that could not pass on its own,” said Joel Ferber, an attorney with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri who led a legal challenge against the Cicero law. The lawsuit alleged that the method used to pass the camping ban violates state law. While the state supreme court considered the lawsuit, Missouri’s homeless had to live inside its constraints.”

The strategy seems pretty obvious to me. It's not like the rich see the homeless as some kind of direct threat to them. It's that addressing the unmet social needs of the homeless costs money and that means either higher taxes or money spent on the homeless that could be spent on giveaways to business. By flooding legislatures with bills like that they can at the very least redirect the activist community from lobbying for positive change to desperately fighting against an artificially created disaster. That strategy has its own chapter in the corporate lobbyist playbook.

Plus, a lot of conservatives think the homeless and the poor are homeless and poor because of moral failing. So, fuck 'em.

Also CoreCivic gets a contract to run homeless camps.

the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the state’s legislative maps Friday, creating a seismic change in the political landscape ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

The verdict will mean redrawn district lines for the state Assembly and state Senate seats. Depending on the eventual outcome of the maps, this could potentially give Democrats a path to clawing back power in the Legislature.

https://captimes.com/news/government/redistricting-bombshell-supreme-court-orders-new-legislative-maps/article_256b2eb2-a10c-11ee-bf3d-7f2583ca9c89.html

luv 2 see it

Thank fucking god

more of this, plz

wow, some actual democracy in action here

We'll see what the legislature's next move is.

No idea if this works:

https://www.threads.net/@jimswiftdc/post/C1PU2L-i_MB

"Casey" has waxed pubes for eyebrows.

Ron’s ‘almost’ crossed the uncanny valley.

It reminds me of this scene from A Mighty Wind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI0lsk0EjfE

lol

“What does he know about my life?”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/opinion/editorials/georgia-election-biden-democrats.html

biden to georgia: “i feel your pain.”

Biden to Georgia: “Come on, man.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/boebert-switches-congressional-districts-avoiding-013621002.html

Not afraid of anything apart from the electorate

"What do you want me to say about slavery?" should be the end of Nikki Haley's political career. pic.twitter.com/m29l7GTGMt

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) December 28, 2023

It won't be. Losing to Trump might.

We need to have capitalism, so that we can own other human beings.

Her unflappable blandness has badly misfired here.

That questioner shamed every political journalist in America.

“It was definitely a Democrat plant,” said Haley. “That’s why I said, what does it mean to you? And if you notice, he didn’t answer anything. The same reason he didn’t tell the reporters what his name was.”

Good strategy here.

Democrats don't have plants, they have snowflakes.

“I’m not running for president.”

^^January Thread Title?

It was about slavery. https://t.co/q9bTDvtPne

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 28, 2023

If nothing else, Joe Biden’s social media team should be re-elected

Love this guy:

Does anyone truly believe that the child of Indian immigrants to the United States, who took down the Confederate flag flying over her state capital, is a pro-slavery racist? I say this fully knowing it was a dreadful answer and that dreadful answers sometimes tank campaigns.

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) December 28, 2023

it's almost as if he forgot Bobby Jindal

Lol it doesn’t matter what she believes. What matters is that she thought mentioning slavery would hurt her with the racist voters she’s trying to attract.

Look, there were good slaves on both sides.

i see that haley herself has accused the questioner of being a democratic plant. maybe he was, who cares. that's a pretty elaborate operation just to ask a political candidate a question that has a simple answer.

yeah acting like this is some 'gotcha' question is a peculiar move that isn't going to do her any favors.

"He asked me a difficult question"

"Ergo he must be a Democrat plant"

Podhoretz clearly needs to meet some children of indian immigrants in the US. or maybe he could just familiarize himself with Modi? It's not like the southeast asian/indian diaspora is some massive woke demographic.

jPod def not an improvement on the iPod

"You're calling Nikkki a racist sympathiser, I thought you liked immigrants?!"

why IS haley running for the GOP nomination? she served proudly under trump, and i don't think she's had the courage to criticize him in any meaningful way.

it's not exactly the kind of conspiracy where the actors need to talk about it with one another, but i imagine trump is very happy to have haley emerge as his ~competition~ for the nomination. she won't damage him or even try to damage him, and she'll probably gladly accept another cabinet position if trump wins.

i suppose she's there in case trump dies?

Podhoretz's idiotic opinion is the logical conclusion of "liberal" corporate identity politics— "why this person can't possibly be racist because they are not white!" just painfully stupid and reductive.

All the other Republicans are there either to be Plan B if Trump dies or goes to jail or are running to be gauleiters.