Thursday, June 30, 2022
Fighting Inflation
Perry Speak, You Listen
Pelosi, Biden and other Democratic leaders of course don’t sit on the Supreme Court or in state legislatures. But too many of them have been major players in the party over the past two decades as it has failed to create an apparatus of media, think tanks and other institutions to rival what exists on the right. They have been deeply involved in bland Democratic campaigns and candidates who often lose key races to Republicans, even as the GOP has much less popular policy goals.
Emphasis Changes
I'm not erasing the existence of people who have spent their entire lives focused on certain causes, and have not wavered a bit with age. I'm also not saying that people don't/can't care at all!
But, look, people who become wealthy eventually shed the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck, and people who can't get pregnant aren't going to have quite the existential dread as people who are 25 now.
Great grandma and grandpa generally aren't completely in tune with the troubles facing The Kids Today even if they care about them. This shouldn't be controversial.
Yes, this applies to me, too, both as a man specifically and a man ageing out of being likely to be involved with a pregnancy.
Messaging
Dems think voters should just understand how vital it is voters elect them, even as they're out there bragging about their love of Reagan quotes, wishing loudly for a strong Republican party, and not actually pointing out who the villains are. Let alone promising action.
There is no "Ultra-Maga" party. They are not on the ballot to vote against.
Grand Bargaining
Another claim made, though by fewer, was that getting rid of Roe and sending it back to the states would also somehow reduce the salience of abortion in politics (this was the key thing, THEY JUST WANTED PEOPLE TO STOP TALKING ABOUT IT). As if it wouldn't make it be the top issue 50 times over instead of "just" federally.
The reality is, as hopefully more people are becoming aware (though many are in denial, real or pretend), without "Roe" or similar, it's going to be all "we" are talking about until the end of time. Only "crazy" people correctly pointed out that they'd be restricting travel by pregnant women (which means all women) and worse.
Alito's going to kill a lot of women, and at least some of those will make the news. About 43,000 ectopic pregnancies per year, and as I keep saying, that's only the most obvious issue. In these states, lots of medical care for women will be on hold at least until the machine that goes PING stops pinging.
Progress
A bunch of weirdos will point out that Biden can't make this happen, which is true, like *every single other thing that happens in the legislative branch*, but we all understand the value of things like "White House spending proposals."Breaking: President Biden said he supports suspending the filibuster, if necessary, to codify Roe v. Wade into law https://t.co/fHDLbs6x2z
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 30, 2022
Signaling presidential priorities counts for something.
Also yelling at them helps.
Ultra-MAGA
The endless quest find new ways to say, "THESE AREN'T YOUR PARENTS' REPUBLICANS, FOLKS," when they are, actually, the same Republicans (often literally!), is not useful.Folks, let's get one thing straight: The ultra-MAGA agenda has always been about taking away women’s rights, in every single state.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 29, 2022
Defund "Democratic consultants."
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Rooting For The Leopards
Is It Good To Wait Until Women Are Dying To Treat Them? Views Differ
Basically, wait until the inevitable "about to die" moment instead of taking care of it when it's relatively low risk.OBGYN Colleague in Missouri “We are now observing patients with ectopic pregnancy and hemoperitoneum until they have a documented falling hemoglobin or unstable vital signs”
— Jane van Dis MD (@janevandis) June 28, 2022
1:50 pregnancies is ectopic pic.twitter.com/HwYEMz67su
"Exception for the health and life of the mother" (even in states where this will exist, not all of them) is like the "means testing" for abortion. Beloved by people who are unable to see the practical consequences of their favorite policy choices. The hospital lawyer is not a doctor, and is the one making these decisions.
I do not think the people in the White House are aware of what is unfolding. This is my charitable take. I have spicier ones.
Mild Applause
Across the U.S., more than 2,500 crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) provide free services and counseling for women struggling with unplanned pregnancies. They outnumber abortion clinics three to one nationwide, and as some states shutter clinics after Roe’s reversal, that ratio will grow.They exist only to "trick" people out of getting abortions, so what they would proliferate for, aside from a handy way to siphon public money to no show jobs, is a mystery.But when two NBC News producers visited state-funded CPCs in Texas to ask for counseling, counselors told them that abortions caused mental illness and implied abortions could also cause cancer and infertility.
This Is How We Reach The Yutes
A bit silly, but better than then "fuck the young people, they don't vote anyway," which is a common attitude I see directed at anyone under about 45 quite frequently. The general view of voting habits of young people is wrong (the "young" turn out a bit better than the earlier "young" did, generally), but they don't have to turn out in record numbers to matter. A lot. Something we seem to appreciate about 7 retirees at an Ohio diner.
There was no golden age of young voter outreach, but it existed 20 years ago. Efforts I am thinking of were shuttered.
A lot of seeds were planted in the early aughts that were then plowed over. Really not just shuttered but nuked from orbit. I'm not aware of everything, so maybe I'm missing some stuff, but...
I WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOOOOOOOOUUU
But the White House is pursuing a more limited set of policy responses while urging voters and Congress to act. The White House's plans include a range of executive actions in the coming days, as well as promising to protect women who cross state lines for abortions and support for medical abortion.oh no undermining public trustBiden and officials are concerned that more radical moves would be politically polarizing ahead of November's midterm elections, undermine public trust in institutions like the Supreme Court or lack strong legal footing, sources inside and outside the White House say.
The Future Of The Democratic Party
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, on Tuesday said the Staten Island district attorney should investigate Rudy Giuliani for falsely reporting a crime while campaigning for his son.Congrats to Rudy's son, for losing.
You Know The Rules And So Do I
The former president’s supporters quickly spun an online conspiracy theory that he couldn’t have possibly lunged for his driver’s steering wheel on Jan. 6, 2021. When evidence suggested otherwise, they tried other routes to distract from the truth.What were those other routes? Not mentioned in the story is running to sympathetic journalists in mainstream outlets to let them help you kick sand over the lens behind the cloak of anonymity.
Ony Tornato says Tony Ornato denies it.Our “liberal” broadcast media, responding to today’s bombshell sworn testimony with roadblock coverage reprinting the anonymous denials of notorious liars. https://t.co/rlMdqUWHaJ
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) June 29, 2022
Anyhow, the fact that multiple, high-profile broadcast reporters (who presumably used Ornato as a Trump White House source) are now passing along his denials anonymously (perhaps through an intermediary), knowing how commonly Trump and his loyalists lie, is a sick farce.
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) June 29, 2022
Did you know that sometimes bad actors will feed flawed stories to credulous journalists in order to affect public opinion when those journalists uncritically repeat them? Now you do.
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) June 28, 2022
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Hope The Heart Shaped Box Of Chocolates Was Nice
We're All The Schiavos Now
Plenty of people disapprove of abortion in a general sense, but not as many really want the reality of a post-Roe world. Horror stories will be there daily, if anyone chooses to report on them, and one political party had better get out in front of it.
Horror Stories Every Day
“Today we saw a patient in Dayton who has cancer. Her doctors told her she would have to terminate before she received chemotherapy treatment. She will have to travel to Indiana. A mom brought her daughter in and doesn’t own a car. She will have to rent one to get her daughter to her appointment in Indianapolis later this week.”Just decades of columns about abortion from people having absolutely no idea what the reality of health care for women is/will be.
Extra Special J6 Witness Thread
Cassidy Hutchinson on what Trump said about crowds & weapons on Jan 6: "I don't F'ing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the F'ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the F'ing mags away."
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 28, 2022
Send Money And Vote
Dems don't like outside activism, but if they don't find a way to channel this, they're going to get some outside activism. And they won't like it!
Lock'Em Up
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is closely focused on phone calls and conversations among Donald Trump’s children and top aides captured by a documentary film-maker weeks before the 2020 election, say sources familiar with the matter.
I Suppose They Need To Be Convinced
This goes against 30 years of advice from consultants who have bought a lot of boats with their expertise. I give this advice for free, though if anyone wants to put a boat in the tip jar that would be okay. One impediment to people changing course is a lot of people having to admit they were, at least a little bit, wrong.
Monday, June 27, 2022
Old Time Religion
I had a couple of teachers who were very Christian and tried to sneak it in when they could, something I was surprisingly aware of given my age.
In 5th grade we had a couple day class "camping" trip and my teacher, probably thinking off school grounds made things more acceptable, had a student say grace before every meal. He told me to do it once! My memory is fuzzy here. I *think* I declined and said why and he let it go. Anyway, no real point, other than letting teachers do that is really bad and and it's very maddening coming in the name of religious freedom!
Abortion Centrism
Decades of columns in our finest periodicals trying to claim that there is a Wise Center, imbued with the wisdom of the Solomonic Compromise, written by people thinking that it was actually the compromise that was wise.
This set of guys is just remarkable in their inability to listen to anyone who actually knows what they're talking about, to listen to the reality of women's health care here or everywhere, to fail to understand that "abortion is health care" is not just a slogan, to reject out of hand the wisdom of anyone "on the Left" because of the bedrock belief in American political discourse that The Left is always wrong.
Decades of centrists offering up an abortion Grand Bargain, often based around "neeener neener is France not good enough for you???," erroneously portraying "the Left" as the intransigent obstacle to such a deal (the reality of France would be a deal happily taken, the centrist imagining of it, less so), asserting hilariously that if only The Left would agree, then the Right would cease their efforts to bring us to where we are now.
The centrist demand of The Left was not simply that they would accept these nonexistent deals, but that they would acknowledge that they were, in fact, Good, that abortion was, in fact, very very Icky.*
The true Solomonic Wisdom was that anyone who would accept - or seriously propose - such a compromise is a monster unconcerned with the lives of other people.
It's All Good
Dems have always had a two track messaging system on abortion, loud and proud to certain audiences (fundraising emails now), and much more "nuanced" and quieter to what they perceive of as general audiences.
Won't work now, if it ever did.
They Don't Care
It's Always 1994
(CNN)Top Biden administration officials will be dispatched across the country this week to reassure Americans that combating inflation remains a top priority for the White House as prices soar and economic concerns mount, a White House official tells CNN.Should we embrace the new subject which benefits us, or keep dwelling on their favorite topic? Should we play defense on their home field or offense on ours? Tough call, coach.
If you saw Dems recoil at "defund," see how much they recoil from unapologetic abortion activists, even as the cops are beating those activists.
Happy to be wrong!
8 Can't Wait
Ever since that harrowing day, Gomez says she has faced scrutiny from law enforcement, even at her own home, "the other night we were exercising and we had a cop parked at the corner like, flickering us with his headlights."Because of these incidents, Gomez said she has had to separate from her boys, "just so my sons don't feel like they have to watch cops passing by, stopping, parking."
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Saturday, June 25, 2022
8 Can't Wait
As LAPD opens fire with riot munitions at point blank range on pro-choice and pro-abortion protesters, I try and get a shot of an officer with a 40mm riot gun and another officer shoves me nearly to the ground. pic.twitter.com/P4s9VDc7PZ
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
Firing teargas right into the crowd straight from the Capitol windows https://t.co/XeZ59XVotJ pic.twitter.com/NwBtpTrSCt
— AZ Right Wing Watch (@az_rww) June 25, 2022
Bipartisany Goodness
Back in the aughts a lot of grifters made a lot of money advising Democrats on how to use moral (Jesus) language, which involved basically agreeing with the Right that gay people and abortion were bad, but more in sorrow than in anger, and here's a Bible verse. Amen.
For reasons I hope are obvious I don't think that was an especially helpful effort, but I do think pointing out, with overwhelming polls supporting you, that Republicans who do bad things are bad people, is both true and useful.
At least don't keep hugging them.
The Discourse
Wow didn't think they'd get rid of Roe, please continue giving me high 6 figures to write for your newspaper.
Friday, June 24, 2022
Atrios, WRONG
The Well Off Can't Escape All Constraints
Not Even About Abortion Anymore
I keep coming back to this because I don't see enough other people making this point. This goes far beyond "merely" criminalizing "elective abortion" or the more frequently mentioned procedures like IVF or saving women from death caused by ectopic pregnancy. All medical care and all behavior become potential crimes for the possibly pregnant. Women cease to be citizens in any meaningful sense.
Alito Body Count Begins
PR
Not a good kind of hilarious, though.
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Oh, Elon
Fun couple of months.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his electric-car factories are “losing billions of dollars” as global supply-chain disruptions and challenges in battery manufacturing constrain the company’s ability to scale up production.New factories in Berlin and Austin — where Tesla moved its headquarters in December — “are gigantic money furnaces right now,” Musk told members of a club of Silicon Valley Tesla owners in Austin on May 30, according to a video of the interview published Wednesday.
You Can't Take It With You
I once would have thought this was silly comic book supervillain stuff.
What If The Supreme Court, Tomorrow, Declares Trump Is President?
That's The Good Stuff
Clark reminder:BREAKING - Federal agents searched the Virginia home of former Trump-era Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on Wednesday morning, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the activity. Story coming from me @alex_mallin @LukeLBarr @MLevineReports
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) June 23, 2022
The plot devised by Mr. Clark and Mr. Trump would have ousted Mr. Rosen and used the Justice Department to pressure lawmakers in Georgia to overturn the state’s election results. But Mr. Trump ultimately decided against firing Mr. Rosen after top department leaders pledged to resign en masse.Mr. Clark declined to comment for this report, but he reiterated his assertion that The New York Times’s account of his conversations with Mr. Trump, first reported on Friday, and his colleagues was inaccurate. He said he could not detail those inaccuracies because of legal privilege issues. And he said all of his official communications “were consistent with law.”
GUNZZZZZZZZZZ
I suppose you can have the WaPo write endless editorials about how rude it is, and how it's the fault of Democrats, or something. I don't even know what "security" means in a world in which everyone is packing.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Reasonable Republicans
An Infinite Supply Of Wingnut Welfare
It should be part of Dem donor culture that they find a way to take care of normal people who are targeted by the Right.
Going to be a bigger qnd bigger issue, but it isn't new.
Don't Be Mildly Disrespectful of Sarah Sanders
Nobody Could Have Predicted
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
The Rent Is Too Damn High
Another example of what I keep saying, that the economist concept of "inflation" is not well-captured by the CPI, which captures other things, but the economist solutions treat it as if it is.
Bipartisanship
An excuse Manchin has been giving for wanting things to be bipartisan has been, "if we pass something without bipartisan support they'll just change the law when they get in power!" And, my guy, that's how it's supposed to work!
Don't like it, throw the bums out, get something different. Our current system is, "throw the bums out, and nothing will change." Certainly the bums in Congress.
The impediment to changing laws should be their popularity, not the rube goldberg machine that keeps the government from operating.
8 Can't Wait
Texas Public Safety Chief Says Classroom Door in Uvalde School Shooting Was Not Locked, Even as Police Waited for KeyI read this only about 10 days ago.
Only a locked classroom door stood between Pete Arredondo and a chance to bring down the gunman. It was sturdily built with a steel jamb, impossible to kick in.This was the chief basically writing his own fan fiction and the Texas Tribune weirdly publishing it.He wanted a key. One goddamn key and he could get through that door to the kids and the teachers. The killer was armed with an AR-15. Arredondo thought he could shoot the gunman himself or at least draw fire while another officer shot back. Without body armor, he assumed he might die.
Torturing Women Is Their Jam
as we await a likely Supreme Court decision overturning Roe, here is a sign of what will follow: A Heritage Foundation mediocrity touting a "thoughtful proposal" to commit women who have abortions to "mandatory psychiatric custody" pic.twitter.com/o621ovYXRr
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) June 20, 2022
8 Can't Wait
In the weeks since the tragedy in Uvalde, questions have swirled around the actions of police and whether some lives could have been saved if officers confronted the barricaded gunman sooner. Authorities have shared conflicting information about who was in charge, who confronted the shooter and when. A debate over whether the locked classroom doors could be breached gave way to the discovery that they may never have been locked at all.Revelations have trickled out in the press: The New York Times has described officers’ doubts about the decision to wait; breakdowns in communications and tactics; and the fact that officers held off from the confrontation even though they knew people were injured, and possibly dying, inside. The San Antonio Express-News reported that there is no evidence that officers tried the doors on rooms 111 and 112 — contradicting a key assertion by the Uvalde schools police chief, Pete Arredondo, who told The Texas Tribune that officers tried the doors, found them locked and had to wait for a master key to unlock them. On Monday evening, the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV revealed that the officers, in effect, had more than enough firepower, equipment and motivation to breach the classrooms.
Monday, June 20, 2022
"Culture War"
Abortion is pretty important! Racism, pretty important! Rights of women, generally, pretty important! Fundamental human rights, pretty important!
There isn't one explanation, I guess, but today I'm leaning towards "issues about which many pundits secretly agree with conservatives but don't want to admit it."
See Something, Say Something
HOWEVER, it is also the case that when Republican do something horrific/insane, Democrats can't expect the political media to do their job for them. They do, actually, take their cues from leading politicians. If Dems want "wow Texas Republicans are nuts, every Republican must answer for this" to be an issue, they actually can make it an issue.
It's cool how Democrats are somehow responsible for every utterance of a rando community college professor or BLM activist but the political press shrugs its shoulders at the public, documented extremism of the GOP's largest and most influential state affiliate. https://t.co/mJYK3bM1kE
— Dan Lavoie (@djlavoie) June 20, 2022
Remember When Sarah Sanders Was Politely Asked To Leave A Restaurant
It's less that they are on the side of "The Right" - Crenshaw is a right winger, after all - but more that they love their stories about "mean lefties."
Related: Greitens just released a 'RINO hunting permit' ad. Obviously a bit funny they are attacking each other, but, also, not so good!
The Sanders thing was a days long "scandal." They wouldn't shut up about it!
Snobbery
A lot of the culture of elite school strivers can be explained by the fact that while your elite Ivy and similar grads certainly know that not every single one of their classmates was a supergenius, they truly believe that such people are superior to everybody else. And not just about "intelligence" or whatever we want to call it, but about all facets of human greatness except maybe personal charisma .
"Harvard" grads might not be perfectly brilliant, wise, and moral, but they're certainly superior to everyone else in the country. And if my Harvard classmates were not uniformly geniuses and morally upright citizens, imagine what garbage people make up the rest of society! Barely human, really.
The Ezra stuff surprised me because it wasn't simply, "Harvard grads are more likely to be better," which is at least slightly defensible, but, basically, "how can anyone who didn't go to Harvard be any good at all???? Probably he isn't!!!"
People my age remembering their damn SAT scores. What a crew.
Novel Legal Theories
Why are two access-jonesing political desk reporters doing a legal story?
— Paul Loop, Boosted ... Twice (@ploop52) June 19, 2022
Sunday, June 19, 2022
And They Came To That Conclusion All By Themselves
60% of Americans think he should be charged for a crime. Not that it was just a mistake or an unfortunate happening or that he should have done more—but that it was a crime.
— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) June 19, 2022
Republicans are sitting in an echo chamber if they don’t think this matters. https://t.co/ewJ4CTLZ9F
8 Can't Wait
America's Greatest Man, Mike Pence
es, the vice president ultimately refused to take part in Donald Trump’s power grab. But this isn’t heroic. He did not go above and beyond his constitutional obligations. He simply chose not to break the law. He did close to the absolute minimum of what we should expect from a person in his position. To borrow a phrase from President George W. Bush, it is the soft bigotry of low expectations to act as if Pence did anything exceptional.There’s also a factual problem. Far from resolute against the president’s scheme to overturn the election, Pence was originally inclined to help. He even contacted one of his predecessors, Dan Quayle, for advice on what to do.
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Oh No My Apes
8 Can't Wait
Friday, June 17, 2022
Vote Harder And Give More Money
Nothing I haven't said many times in the past twenty years, just with the additional point that if you don't make an effort to channel it into your project, you can't get mad when it bubbles out somewhere else.
Prosecuting Important People Is Too Political
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
If losing on these things is inevitable - and it probably is! - you don't let the other guys off the hook.
Every fucking time.
I blame AOC.
CANCELED
SpaceX has fired a number of employees who wrote and shared a letter criticizing the behavior of CEO Elon Musk, reports The New York Times.(I'm sure these people expected to be fired, too, but also correctly assume they won't become FREE SPEECH MARTYRS for reasons).
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Judicial Supremacy
This sounds absurd, of course, and hopefully it is, but I raise a hopefully absurd example to point out that there must be a line somehwere? A crossed line where the response is, "haha, fuck off to the moon, assholes." People in the executive branch had better be thinking about where that line is.
That the Supremos are the unquestioned supreme authority over everything is not, as we all know, something with much (any) support in the consitutition.
Appearances
As I said, vagueblogging a bit, but I have seen quite a lot of actions by public figures (and I mean the good, or at least better, guys here) being justified recently that I can't imagine being justified and excused even 15 years ago. I'm not imagining some golden age of Standards and Purity, just saying it was... better? I think? Some behavior was actually deservedly embarrassing.
I WILL FIGHT FOR YOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU
When is the last time there was any kind of call to action other than 'vote or give money'? Such things were fairly normal in the aughts. Perhaps calling and yelling at your member of Congress is pretty pointless, perhaps it is much more pointless than it used to be, but the idea that people should do something other than vote harder and give money has completely faded.
If our great leaders want to say, "we got this," then they'd better get on it. And if they don't, they shouldn't complain when activisim bubbles up, sometimes in ways they don't like and certainly in ways they can't control.
Robotaxis
Self-driving cars and robotaxis were the ultimate realization of the promise of "mass transit for people who hate mass transit" which is basically "what if a bus, but it's a taxi." Before we got to robotaxis we had endless attempts by Silicon Valley types to give us "buses on demand," essentially buses without fixed routes but you tap your app and they pull up to your corner instead, because none of these people will talk to anyone who knows anything about anything.
Robotaxis don't work and won't work, and even if they did they wouldn't solve the congestion or cost problems. Musk promised existing Teslas would all be robotaxi-capable by the end of 2020, and journalists dutifully typed it up.
Transportation policy and investment is made by people who can't envision not traveling everywhere in cars. People who don't comprehend that their "resort town" and "European city " vacations are largely about paying a lot of money to temporarily experience just that (people in small and midsize European cities often own cars, they just don't use them for everything because they don't have to and being able to walk to buy a baguette in the morning is pleasant).
Sounds Bad
Our Fighters
Not quite a full week before “Black Monday,” when the crypto market saw its total market cap drop over $100 billion in one day, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) unveiled their bipartisan cryptocurrency bill. The Responsible Financial Innovation Act, co-authored by the junior senator from New York and the junior senator and Bitcoin HODLer from Wyoming, has been hotly anticipated by crypto industry groups, which have been lobbying Washington relentlessly for months to get a favorable bill on the table.Maybe I am too cynical sometimes, but I am not a new observer of our politics, and "can't win, don't try, I give up and so should you, please clap" is rising as the general ethos.
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Our Fighters
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is getting brutally walloped in the liberal blogosphere for refusing to endorse the Democratic challengers to three potentially vulnerable GOP incumbents in Florida.Liberal bloggers are irate that Wasserman Schultz, who co-chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Red-to-Blue program, has declined to endorse the Democrats running to unseat Cuban American Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother, Mario Diaz-Balart.
Wasserman Schultz says she doesn't want to stab GOP members of her own delegation in the back. But liberal bloggers say she's killing her own while aiding and abetting the enemy.
"Wasserman Schultz says she doesn't want to stab GOP members of her own delegation in the back" by beating them in elections when it is literally your job to beat them in elections. Campaigns ask a lot from people, both time and money. Sure most people don't provide much of either, but they rely on the people who do. And the person in charge of winning elections wouldn't campaign against her friends (this was mostly about her good friend, Ros-Lehtinen). Send out those fundraising emails and then... Christ what an asshole.
Seems Bad
Possibly not much time left to deal with these people.Surveillance footage shows a tour led by Loudermilk to areas in the House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to Capitol tunnels.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 15, 2022
Individuals on the tour photographed/recorded areas not typically of interest to tourists: hallways, staircases and security checkpoints. pic.twitter.com/Rjhf2BTdbc
So Much Evil Left To Be Done
Wealthy people and this is how they choose to spend the remainder of their lives.
So It's Zero Then
There probably was a moment when "what if I just focus on making awesome increasingly reasonably priced electric vehicles" instead of "what if I cosplay being Tony Stark" was an option. Can't say he made the wrong personal choice - it made him obscenely rich - but I don't know why he just doesn't cash out and go enjoy his life. I suppose I do know why, but all these richie riches who refuse to just fuck off and enjoy life are broken people!Elon Musk says, "Solving Full Self-Driving...is really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money and being worth basically zero." pic.twitter.com/vG5MlrhSWP
— Taylor Ogan (@TaylorOgan) June 14, 2022
Good Enough News
WASHINGTON (@CNN) — A federal judge just refused to throw out Steve Bannon's criminal prosecution on contempt of Congress charges.
— Mike Valerio (@ValerioCNN) June 15, 2022
⁰Judge Carl Nichols of the DC District Court rejected Bannon's arguments, including his assertion House select committee's subpoenas aren't legal.
"Inflation"
Supply chains bottlenecks, energy price spikes, and various monopoly power pricing are not "inflation" as imagined by economists. If it isn't essentially "too much money sloshing around" then "less money sloshing around" is not the solution.
Inflation as currently experienced by consumers is not the "inflation" that is solved by jacking up interest rates and driving people out of work, and in fact this solution is likely to exacerbate the problem in addition to creating additional economic misery.
Good job, everyone, as usual. Now you can move on to the next disastrous idea while blaming (spins wheel) trans people.
All The Greatest Minds
I suppose there is a long list of options, but perhaps no greater example of how incredibly stupid (assuming it was honesty) our (mostly male) centrist pundits are/were.
If you criminalize abortion, you criminalize pregnancy, you criminalize "pre-pregnancy," which is to say, you criminalize existing as a woman. It also becomes impossible for an medical professionals to safely treat women for anything.
Our discourse has been ruled by the stupidest fucking people on the planet for decades, and while there are the occasional positive developments, it isn't much better!
SCOTUS Day
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Why Is David Brooks
I get the attractions of doing good or even doing evil. Both are at least doing something! Building the world or blowing it up. Something happens! Exciting! Okay, I guess a lot of them did help to blow up Iraq. Maybe we shouldn't encourage them.
Don't Try To Dig What We All Say
I didn't realize how many people were going to grow up to be David Brooks. David Brooks provided a pretty good warning about the perils of becoming David Brooks!
Term Limits
Bullshit Walks
Everything's Alright
What’s missing from party leaders, an absence that is endlessly frustrating to younger liberals, is any sense of urgency and crisis — any sense that our system is on the brink. Despite mounting threats to the right to vote, the right to an abortion and the ability of the federal government to act proactively in the public interest, senior Democrats continue to act as if American politics is back to business as usual.The fundraising emails do, though!
Travel Day
Monday, June 13, 2022
The Biggest Assholes
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) got significant support from national Democrats in his campaign against primary challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner.If she wins, the rest of the Dem caucus will treat her like shit for daring to primary the guy.But after losing to McLeod-Skinner in May, Schrader isn’t doing the party any favors.
In his first interview since his defeat, Schrader told a local television station that he believes McLeod-Skinner will lose the race for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District in November.
“The red wave begins in Oregon – Oregon’s 5th district,” he told KATU on Thursday. “That’s unfortunate.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have both pledged their full support for McLeod-Skinner, but Schrader has yet to officially endorse her.
Schrader also revealed in the interview that there is a “significant chance” he will endorse pp1independent centrist Betsy Johnson’s gubernatorial campaign, rather than backing Democratic nominee Tina Kotek, the former speaker of the state’s House of Representatives.
An Armed Society
Also, if people travel in groups, with guns, that's scary! Ten people with guns walking towards, say, a synagogue, is really fucking scary! Or it might just be an afternoon stroll in Texas!
I don't know how elites think they can carve themselves out of this hellscape they're creating. What's the law against a group of armed people regularly strolling by the house of a member of Congress? This is FREEDOM I have been told, and in fact necessary to protect us from the tyranny of [checks propaganda] the members of Congress!
Sounds Bad
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows destroyed documents after a meeting about overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election, a former aide said Sunday on CNN.Alyssa Farah Griffin said a source with “first-hand knowledge” provided testimony to the House panel probing the insurrection that Meadows burned papers in his office after meeting with Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) about challenging the election.
Inside Game
The "right" way to involve activists is to harness the energy of the moment, have them screaming down the phones and making demands RIGHT NOW from politicians. And *THEN* maybe a compromise piece of shit bill appears and passes. There can even be kayfabe! Those extremists wanted this crazy stuff, but we settled for Realisitc CommonSense Solutions Of The Bipartisan Kind.
The wrong way is to go on vacation right after a mass shooting, hammer out a piece of shit compromise that probably won't even get the 10 necessary votes, and then say, uh, activists? A little help?
Maybe the best possible result either way is Realistic CommonSense Solutions Of The Bipartisan Kind. But how you get there also matters.
It wasn't always this way. In the aughts there was a lot more openness to activism, a lot more understanding of how it can work by some of the same people who, 18 years later, have forgotten. Pelosi had people around her who understood this. Reid (no longer with us) did too. Some other current senators had a bit more of a fighting spirit than they do now.
Exciting SCOTUS Day
It is vital that the American People maintain the appropriate respect for this eminent institution, and that the DC octogenarian social scene is never bothered with any kind of unpleasantness.
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Please Clap
This is not what activism is for.I am curious about the idea that outside activism is required for a bipartisan compromise among 20 senators to become fully agreed text and pass the senate. https://t.co/BsOigBxtOt
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) June 12, 2022
We Must Do Something. This Is Something. Clap.
The alternative to making a pointless deal with your very fine friends across the aisle (good people on both sides!) is to call them sick bastards every day.
Passing legislation that doesn't solve any problems makes it (unjustly) your fault, next time.
Is The Answer More Money For Useless Cops?
Other provisions could funnel billions of new federal dollars into mental health care and into school security programs, funding new campus infrastructure and armed officers.I think if a cop in full uniform plus a Nazi armband guns down an entire elementary school, senators will pass legislation to make him America's Top Cop.
Lock'em Up
Authorities have said they arrested 31 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front near an Idaho Pride event after they were found packed into the back of a U-Haul truck with riot gear.Seems like they didn't actually have guns, but in places where guns are extremely legal, it's not quite clear what difference that would even make. If guns are extremely legal, 50 guys walking around with guns is extremely legal, too, absent other evidence. There is no good way of dealing with this.
Money Well Spent
KENT, Wash. (AP) — A suburban Seattle city will pay more than $1.5 million to settle a dispute with a former assistant police chief who was disciplined for posting a Nazi rank insignia on his office door and joking about the Holocaust.Be a nazi cop, get rich.
Saturday, June 11, 2022
The Long Game
Completely exonerating him of any evildoing, of course. Weird.
A reporter deciding that a Jared beat sweetener was appropriate in 2022, and an editor signing off on it. What could that be about?
That's a scary long game!
By Design
In the majority of the 16 crashes, the Teslas issued forward collision alerts to the drivers just before impact. Automatic emergency braking intervened to at least slow the cars in about half the cases. On average, Autopilot gave up control of the Teslas less than a second before the crash, NHTSA documents said.Tesla critics have been trying to explain this for years, but nobody cared.
I LIKE BEER
Friday, June 10, 2022
Trump's Ambassador To Denmark
I’ve seen this before. In Denmark, middle class people can’t afford to drive a car. They have a bike and take the train for long trips. My embassy driver would bike an hour in the snow to get to work. That’s the future team Biden wants for Americans. Is this what you want? https://t.co/IJXnhQ0qKE
— Carla Sands (@CarlaHSands) June 10, 2022
Don't See How Ginni Thomas Wriggles Out Of This One
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona — 27 more than previously known — to set aside Joe Biden’s popular vote victory and “choose” presidential electors, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.
Coup Party
"Collecting Our Yacht Money While Blaming Others For Our Failures"
"These activists are of course wrong. We of course love our police and want them to be able to do their jobs of fighting crime without some of these other distractions, which is why we're going to put some resources into other programs to take the burden off them."I think this is a fair question! I'd say it added "shift funding from policing to other social services" as a policy option.
— Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) June 10, 2022
But rather than take it up as the reasonable position it is, centrists spent two years shouting down activists who came up with ithttps://t.co/ttYXMVG8sg
Distancing yourself from the crazy activists while still addressing the issues is the simplest political play. It's also win win! It's the basic centrist-leftist kayfabe that everyone seems to have forgotten about! You do the right thing (a bit, at least) while The Left still yells at you so you can say you're making those people mad!
Now they refuse to even do a little bit of the right thing and instead keep talking about how their party is filled with villainous traitors and scum and nobody should vote for them, but somehow that's because the villainous traitors and scum are bad at messaging.
They aren't just assholes, the are incompetent. They are going to go on teevee and talk about "defund" for the next 20 years!
Thursday, June 09, 2022
It's A Dynamo
I think this one should be obvious.
Oh, Elon
The federal government’s top auto-safety agency is significantly expanding an investigation into Tesla and its Autopilot driver-assistance system to determine if the technology poses a safety risk.The agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Thursday that it was upgrading its preliminary evaluation of Autopilot to an engineering analysis, a more intensive level of scrutiny that is required before a recall can be ordered.
The New York Times's Worst Journalist
"Campus" of course is, as always, about 10 elite schools that the weirdos in journalism obsess about.
"The transes ruined abortion rights, which I do not support anyway" is quite the take these days, and Mikey is there for it!
Polls show support for abortion rights is higher than ever, so what exactly is the mechanism here, other than "elite pundits hate trans people."
That fucking newspaper!!!
Our Sadistic Journalist/Pundit Class
According to the lawsuit, a 16-year-old transgender boy tried to kill himself the same day that Abbott issued the child abuse directive.Hating trans people is a cool kids club thing. People have told me a few names over the years, and, well, they aren't necessarily who you'd think!“[He] said that the political environment, including Abbott’s Letter, and being misgendered at school, led him to take these actions,” the lawsuit said.
He survived the attempt and was admitted to an outpatient psychiatric facility, where staff learned that he was undergoing hormone therapy. A week after he was discharged, an investigator from DFPS visited the family’s home and, according to the lawsuit, said that the psychiatric facility had reported the family for child abuse. The family remains under investigation.
Extra sad thing is that like so many things it's a lot fueled by older people's brains being sizzled by rage because young people think they're weird and out of touch. Not a new phenomenon, but until recently I didn't realize how much it would lead people to be willing to burn everything and everybody down.
Oh no, I saw prononuns in someone's email signature! Gotta admit that Mr. Abbott has a point!!!
Wednesday, June 08, 2022
It Never Tells The Whole Story
Objective Adavanced Politics Knowers
Exactly how does guy heading towards getting less than 3% of the vote in a primary get attention from a certain kind of reporter?How it started. How it's going. pic.twitter.com/F33TXPPV2t
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) June 8, 2022
Bye, Asshole
Sounds Bad
SALT LAKE CITY — If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store:The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off — scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer — threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City, a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lucrative extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the lake could stop.
Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah’s population.
Deep Something
The FBI has seized the electronic data of a retired four-star general who authorities say made false statements and withheld “incriminating” documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of the wealthy Persian Gulf nation of Qatar.How Brookings is treated in the press versus how dogooder "activist" orgs operating on 6 figures are...New federal court filings obtained Tuesday outlined a potential criminal case against former Marine Gen. John R. Allen, who led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan before being tapped in 2017 to lead the influential Brookings Institution.
Never Hear About Crime Trends in SF Again
Tuesday, June 07, 2022
The Future Of The Democratic Party
And what about Adams, who’s at the helm of the city? His job approval rating is deep underwater. Just 29% rated his performance as good or excellent, while more than twice as many (64%) said he’s doing fairly or poorly."Former cop who loves cops but can lay a tiny claim to 'cop reformer'" was perfect for the moment. One could mock pundits for having pundit brains, but of course Democrats have pundit brain too.
That top one is recent!!!
Who Could Have Seen This Coming
Get a bunch of headlines for being interested in addressing the problem, wait for anger to subside and attention to move on, let the press blame Democrats for their failures to Do Something.Cornyn seems to throw cold water on any idea of new gun restrictions. He says he wants to focus on keeping people with mental health problems or criminal records from buying guns. Cornyn then notes mental health signs ignored with the Uvalde gunman.
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) June 6, 2022
I dunno, guys, get some self-respect at least.
The Bots Are Coming From Inside Elon's House
And he knew it when he signed the deal.
Pride
Washington (CNN)The Justice Department on Monday charged the head of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, and four other leaders with seditious conspiracy in the January 6 US Capitol attack, escalating the criminal case against the far-right extremist group.A point in the "Garland knows what he's doing" column.
Monday, June 06, 2022
Good For Some Laughs
Everyone also knows who the billionaire bootlickers are. Thanks, Elon! A twofer!
Ladies
We can be there again, quickly.
Different Tactics, Same People, Same Goal
Pays better than the genuine do-gooder career paths, too!
Oh, Elon
No smart corporate law talking guy, but things like "waved due diligence" and "you owe us a billion bucks if you don't pay up" were in the agreement.TESLA CEO MUSK - TWITTER REFUSAL ON SPAM INFO IS BREACH OF MERGER PACT$TWTR -7%
— Neil Wilson (@marketsneil) June 6, 2022
Politics And Merits
Sunday, June 05, 2022
Solutions
Philly Mass Shooting
Three dead, 11 wounded in South Street mass shooting; victims identified
Messaging
Or we could go on teevee and apologize for not loving cops enough.
Saturday, June 04, 2022
Hopefully We Give These Guys All The Extra Covid Money
She received a phone call from law enforcement threatening her w/ a violation of obstruction of justice if she kept talking to the media to share her story. She’s on probation from past charges & shared her story bc the judge said she was brave & her probation would be shortened. pic.twitter.com/10raGfeB5n
— Paloma 🕊 (@palomster) June 4, 2022
Faith in the System
Friday, June 03, 2022
Don't See How Planet Earth Wriggles Out Of This One
Earth's carbon dioxide levels hit record high
Oh, Elon
DETROIT (AP) — More than 750 Tesla owners have complained to U.S. safety regulators that cars operating on the automaker’s partially automated driving systems have suddenly stopped on roadways for no apparent reason.
“Lots of luck on his trip to the moon.”
— The Recount (@therecount) June 3, 2022
— President Biden responds to Elon Musk saying he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy pic.twitter.com/RNjXcP1Szn
On The Right Side
For the first time in Gallup’s trend on the moral acceptability of abortion, originating in 2001, a majority of Americans (52%) consider abortion morally acceptable, while a record-low 38% call it morally wrong. https://t.co/U2hZ0CBmJn
— GallupNews (@GallupNews) June 3, 2022
Locked Him Up
Navarro was arrested by the FBI on Friday. He is currently in custody, according to Bill Miller, a spokesperson for the US attorney's office in DC. He is scheduled to appear in court at 2:30 p.m. ET in Washington.