Saturday, November 30, 2024
Sounds Bad
But much of our politics can be explained by middle-aged men being stuck on MOOOOMMMM YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DOOOO so...
“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote, stating that she still loved him.
She also wrote: “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
Friday, November 29, 2024
Dems and Media
Every couple of years, some on the Dem side realize that not investing in various forms of media outlets is causing them some problems. A reason they don't is that even Pod Save America is borderline too spicy for them. Pod Tommy occasionally makes everyone very uncomfortable by bringing up Gaza.
Back in 2008, Yglesias, who was writing for Think Progress, made a post which (lost to the ages - I can't find it) was critical of the organization Third Way. This invited angry phone calls and the obligatory response from... Jennifer Palmieri, last seen trying to claim Woke Staffers ruined their Joe Rogan appearance.
Back in 2008, Yglesias, who was writing for Think Progress, made a post which (lost to the ages - I can't find it) was critical of the organization Third Way. This invited angry phone calls and the obligatory response from... Jennifer Palmieri, last seen trying to claim Woke Staffers ruined their Joe Rogan appearance.
Seems Bad
Send it back to the states, they said, Roe is what prevents us from having civil politics, they said, health exceptions are noble and practical, they said...
Garcia was fifteen weeks into her pregnancy, and, in cases of miscarriage in the second trimester, the safest treatment is a surgical removal or a medical induction of labor. Instead, she was “discharged to home self-care,” as her chart notes. All Garcia could do was wait until she had a natural miscarriage. The thought of it terrified her. What if she hemorrhaged in the middle of the street? Or in the car, picking up her children from school? Her doctor’s only departing instructions were: if you start bleeding or develop a fever, check into the hospital immediately. (The doctor did not respond to requests for comment.)"They" being centrists dipshit pundits.
A mournful silence settled in Garcia’s home. Escareño busied himself, but there were only so many times he could empty the trash or mow the lawn. Garcia spent most of her days lying in bed. In a corner of their bedroom sat purchases she had made for Vanellope: diapers, a snuggly blanket, and now a small urn.
Garcia’s situation was not unique. Across Texas, reports were surfacing of women being sent home to manage miscarriages on their own. In 2021, the state had passed a law known as S.B. 8, banning nearly all abortions after electrical activity is detected in fetal cells, which typically happens around the sixth week of gestation. The law encouraged civilians to sue violators, in exchange for the possibility of a ten-thousand-dollar reward.
The Last Year
Being as generous as I can about the Harris campaign people: the ultimate politician is someone who is extremely good at making people think they agree with them without actually lying. Bill had that. Barack had that. But you can't run that campaign around someone who doesn't have that.
Biden didn't have that and they did not run that campaign in 2020. The question is why, precisely, they jettisoned that campaign approach.
Biden didn't have that and they did not run that campaign in 2020. The question is why, precisely, they jettisoned that campaign approach.
Somehow Our Jedi Mind Tricks Didn’t Work
The stupid fucking voters saw right through our bullshit!
This is what happens when stupid people truly believe everyone else is much more stupid, like a 5-year-old trying to get one over on his parents and throwing a tantrum when they laugh at him.
Actually, I'm wrong. The toddler is throwing a tantrum at his 2-year-old younger sister. These people never punch up.
Thursday, November 28, 2024
The Turkey Discourse
Turkey's fine, it isn't hard to cook well, just rub some salt in it and take it out when it's ready. Nothing fancy required.
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
What Is This Supposed To Achieve
Amazing.
Nov 27 (Reuters) - Ukraine should consider lowering the age of military service for its soldiers to 18 from 25, a senior U.S. administration official said on Wednesday, putting pressure on Kyiv to bolster its fighting forces in the country's war with Russia.
Why Not, Kissinger And Obama Have Them
This is Tommy trying to play on Trump's vanity. Odd he didn't try it with Biden who is just as susceptible.
Holiday Week Blogging Schedule
If senators can go on vacation, then so can I, a bit. Light blogging for the next few days, unless I get angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry, though.
Tariffs
I'm not defending Trump's tariffs - they're dumb - but I think liberals are going too much in on the idea that they will destroy the economy, be instantly unpopular, and tank Trump's approval. There's a lot of econobollocks ALL SENSIBLE PEOPLE KNOW TARIFFS ARE BAD and a lot of ignoring of the Biden administration record's on tariffs. Maybe Joe should've removed some when he had the chance.
There's some revenge fantasy here along the lines of, "you were mad about inflation and now you're going to get inflation," but it isn't going to be that simple or obvious.
More generally, the lessons everyone has "learned" (because it serves their purposes, because they are bad at their jobs and they have boat payments to make) is that there's nothing you can do to convince people who are mad about inflation, so they are hoping Inflation II proves their point.
There's some revenge fantasy here along the lines of, "you were mad about inflation and now you're going to get inflation," but it isn't going to be that simple or obvious.
More generally, the lessons everyone has "learned" (because it serves their purposes, because they are bad at their jobs and they have boat payments to make) is that there's nothing you can do to convince people who are mad about inflation, so they are hoping Inflation II proves their point.
Always trying to refight the last battle to prove themselves fucking right.
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
America's Mayor
Distinguished elder statesman.
An angry Rudy Giuliani lashed out in court Tuesday at the judge presiding over the collection proceeding for the $146 million defamation judgment against him — and complained he's having a hard time making ends meet.
Speaking after U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman said the former personal lawyer to Donald Trump had not been complying with court orders to surrender his assets, Giuliani snapped: “The implications you are making against me are wrong. I have no car, no credit card, no cash, everything I have is tied up. They have put stop orders on my business accounts, and I can’t pay my bills.”
Unsparing Criticism
Says man with big platform dedicated to ruining the lives of trans people.
Fucking babies at that fucking newspaper.
"Transgender activists" 99% of the time are just trans people, who are labeled "activists" simply for existing by that fucking newspaper.
Always Grifting
You gotta respect the hustle. It never occurs to them to stop.
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s legal team found evidence that a top adviser asked for retainer fees from potential appointees in order to promote them for jobs in the new administration, five people briefed on the matter said on Monday.When national tragedy strikes, and everyone (including, often these same people!) is saying things like "we must come together" and "now is not the time for politics," they're busy figuring out how to charge the feds $500 for a bottle of water.
Mr. Trump directed his team to carry out the review of the adviser, Boris Epshteyn, who coordinated the legal defenses in Mr. Trump’s criminal cases and is a powerful figure in the transition. Several people whom Mr. Trump trusts had alerted him that Mr. Epshteyn was seeking money from people looking for appointments, three of the people briefed on the matter said.
Maybe Somebody Else Should Do Something
There was a brief moment when it seemed that the charges in New York might get him, though presumably that's not going to happen either now.
Anyway, the Democrat are unable to learn that politics requires doing politics on an ongoing sustained basis, and not just going to sleep until the day after Labor day before the election and then throwing all the money you raised at your ad buyer's new boats.
And if your leaders are in their 70s, they have additional reasons for pretending not to understand this.
Anyway, the Democrat are unable to learn that politics requires doing politics on an ongoing sustained basis, and not just going to sleep until the day after Labor day before the election and then throwing all the money you raised at your ad buyer's new boats.
And if your leaders are in their 70s, they have additional reasons for pretending not to understand this.
Monday, November 25, 2024
Troll in Chief
Generally, don't believe the bullshit coming from anybody in this administration, and don't let reporters pretend to believe it either.
Marks and Cons
It would be nice if, occasionally, journalists would admit to being played, but more likely they are just happy willing participants. The cons, not the marks.
Of course the journalists themselves won't admit to being PR agents, so it would be nice if more of their colleagues in mainstream publications would notice.
To make these nonstories seem newsier, Fuming/Deeply Concerned Biden reports are often peppered with direct or implicit claims of a just-around-the-corner “break” between Biden and Netanyahu. “Biden moving closer than ever to a breach with Netanyahu,” The Washington Post pronounced in February 2024. “After decades of building a ‘close, personal’ friendship with Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden has had it with the Israeli prime minister,” Politico’s Michael Hirsh told us in March 2024. The New York Times’ Peter Baker informs his readers that Biden “has finally had it with an Israeli leadership that he believes is not listening to him.”Which means they see "you" as the mark.
Alas, no break ever materialized. Baker even indicates that Biden’s new supposedly angry posture was delivering results. “To some degree, the Israelis have responded,” Baker told Times readers on May 11, 2024, “despite more than three months of vowing to invade Rafah, they have yet to actually do so beyond limited strikes.”
Three days after Baker’s report, the IDF entered the center of Rafah, quickly turning the city that once held 275,000 residents “into a ghost town,” as NBC News put it. And, as of August 2024, Data from the Decentralized Damage Mapping Group showed, according to Bellingcat, “that almost 44 percent of all buildings in the Rafah governorate in southern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.” Even the most pro-Biden analysts agree that Netanayu steamrolled through Biden’s supposed “Rafah red line.”
Of course the journalists themselves won't admit to being PR agents, so it would be nice if more of their colleagues in mainstream publications would notice.
Abortion Is Health Care
Hysterial (pro)abortion extremists warned about this stuff, only to be tut-tutted by dipshit centrists who truly believed "health exceptions" with judicial oversight were workable, even though they weren't even if everyone had the best intentions (which they obviously didn't!).
The 35-year-old’s death was preventable, according to more than a dozen doctors who reviewed a detailed summary of her case for ProPublica. Some said it raises serious questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to diverge from the standard of care and reach for less-effective options that could expose their patients to more risks. Doctors and patients described similar decisions they’ve witnessed across the state.This had nothing to do with "abortion" as our glorious pundits understand it, but is the obvious predictable consequence of prioritizing fetal "life" over the life of the mother.
Hello People Can Hear You
When high profile people with loud microphones say things like, "we need to distance ourselves from trans people," do they know that people can hear them? Trans people can hear them, other marginalized groups can hear how disposable they are, people who like human rights can hear them, and even people who don't like trans people can hear this being asserted as a morally bankrupt political strategy.
What swing and irregular voters love, most of all, are politicians who loudly proudly stand for nothing. Just Carville 101.
It reminds me of all the public handwringing post-2004 about how the Democrats needed to find God, and that the way to do this (aside from turning against abortion, which was the only real policy advice) was to pepper their speeches cynically with Bible allusions. Just learn to speak the language of the God Botherers! Those idiots will respond to these magic words!
Whatever the merits, some advice needs to be said behind closed doors! Your audience isn't the group chat! People can hear you!
What swing and irregular voters love, most of all, are politicians who loudly proudly stand for nothing. Just Carville 101.
It reminds me of all the public handwringing post-2004 about how the Democrats needed to find God, and that the way to do this (aside from turning against abortion, which was the only real policy advice) was to pepper their speeches cynically with Bible allusions. Just learn to speak the language of the God Botherers! Those idiots will respond to these magic words!
Whatever the merits, some advice needs to be said behind closed doors! Your audience isn't the group chat! People can hear you!
Foreign Policy Guy
Now that the election is passed, can we start addressing things on the merits, instead of everyone playing political journalist and only considering things through a made up framework about how it might impact the election?
Don't forget the names of everyone in the Biden administration.
On Friday, Biden spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron to try to solve the problem.The fake spin here is that France has made the Lebanon peace deal more difficult. Ah, yes, peace was at hand until Macron messed it up! At the level of "the Iraq war is more likely because peace protesters have emboldened Saddam."
A U.S. official said Biden told Macron that Netanyahu was right to be angry, and that it was not possible to mediate a deal while also pledging to arrest the head of state of one of the parties.
Macron told Biden he wanted to help but that his Foreign Ministry was only making clear its legal obligations towards the ICC. The French issued second statement to try to tamp down the tensions.
Don't forget the names of everyone in the Biden administration.
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Recess
Just realized things are relatively quiet because our tireless fighters in Congress are home for the holidays.
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Viper Sack
One of the few joys will be knowing that these people have to spend time with each other.
But in Trump’s freewheeling orbit, the incident was soon forgotten as his team has returned to the patterns of his first term in office — with shouting matches, expulsions from meetings and name-calling, all between the public celebrations and rocket-ship photo ops. As during Trump’s first term, competing factions have begun to run roughshod over each other, sometimes kicking up clouds of dust.
Made For TV
It'd be funnier if we didn't learn that Joe Biden spent years doing something and then looking to Morning Joseph for approval on his TV.
Um, Do It?
A broad difference between (most) conservatives and liberals is the former think "fairness" requires that for every one of their guys who gets busted, one of our guys should be busted too. While liberals more tend to think "fairness" means all the rapist pedophiles get busted.
Friday, November 22, 2024
Free Your Mind
I've seen even fairly lefty people "grudgingly" acknowledge that continuing the various Covid-era programs would have been inflationary and therefore politically damaging.
I'm not sure this is obviously true, or at least significantly true, but even if I accepted it, why do we not acknowledge other possibilities?
If aspects of fiscal policy are expansionary (inflationary), we can always offset them with some contractionary bits. Like, you know, raising some taxes!
Or we could've let Powell raise interest rates more!
People will argue that Congress would've never done the first, and that raising rates would've also been unpopular.
As for the latter, this is probably true, though people have strangely been unwilling to acknowledge that raising rates as much as they were raised has been unpopular. Generally we are very selective about when we acknowledge distributional effects of macro policy and when we pretend they don't exist.
As for the former, well, yes, but not everyone is pundit obliged to limit the possible within perceived political constraints. Also, Manchin didn't sabotage things because of inflation, he sabotaged them because poor people were (to him) spending all their free money on drugs.
I'm not sure this is obviously true, or at least significantly true, but even if I accepted it, why do we not acknowledge other possibilities?
If aspects of fiscal policy are expansionary (inflationary), we can always offset them with some contractionary bits. Like, you know, raising some taxes!
Or we could've let Powell raise interest rates more!
People will argue that Congress would've never done the first, and that raising rates would've also been unpopular.
As for the latter, this is probably true, though people have strangely been unwilling to acknowledge that raising rates as much as they were raised has been unpopular. Generally we are very selective about when we acknowledge distributional effects of macro policy and when we pretend they don't exist.
As for the former, well, yes, but not everyone is pundit obliged to limit the possible within perceived political constraints. Also, Manchin didn't sabotage things because of inflation, he sabotaged them because poor people were (to him) spending all their free money on drugs.
That things are politically impossible at the moment does not make them actually impossible. We can make the case instead of internalizing these artificial constraints. Otherwise it seems like we're saying "doing nice things for people causes inflation, which they don't like, so we can't do nice things."
Jurisdiction
Sure it's a genocide, but our focus now is on technicalities that will let the defendants go free.
The White House says it is working with Israel on a response to the ICC arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and ex-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. A spokesperson added that the US Biden administration disputes the idea that the court has jurisdiction. pic.twitter.com/8l3yg4agiW
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 21, 2024
Elder Care
Sometimes I see people express some bewilderment over why so many 80somethings want to keep their jobs in Congress until they die, especially the ones with money (most of them).
Generally I don't understand why people don't retire early if they can afford it, but I get why these people don't.
All the money in the world doesn't buy the kind of elder care, with outsourced HR management, that a bunch of loyal career climbing staffers can provide.
That shouldn't be their jobs, and rules, in theory, prevent them from doing certain kinds of tasks, but you just can't replace that even by writing extremely large checks.
Generally I don't understand why people don't retire early if they can afford it, but I get why these people don't.
All the money in the world doesn't buy the kind of elder care, with outsourced HR management, that a bunch of loyal career climbing staffers can provide.
That shouldn't be their jobs, and rules, in theory, prevent them from doing certain kinds of tasks, but you just can't replace that even by writing extremely large checks.
Imagine what the final couple of years were like for Feinstein and her staffers.
Morning
The Trump II era is going to be hell, but I look forward to never seeing another Biden spokesperson again. Small favors.
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Take Off, You Hoser
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau confirms Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant will be arrested if they step foot in Canada after the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants. pic.twitter.com/QF1bw0p0EM
— Paris Marx (@parismarx) November 21, 2024
Purification Through The Suffering Of Others
A common worldview - not limited to conservatives, sadly - but this bit is quite amazing:
People are working!
People have to get, as my father would have said, real work, real jobs. People are going to have to get jobs and they're going to be scrambling.I'm so old I remember when economists believed the natural rate of unemployment/NAIRU was 6%. That was stupid, but the actual rate has been below that since June 2021. If you think the issue is that people have dropped out of the labor force, the prime age participation rate is higher than it's been since April, 2001.
People are working!
Sure Why Not
I've seen a lot of "don't worry your silly heads, Putin won't launch a nuke" but not much "and this will achieve...".
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will give Ukraine antipersonnel mines to help it slow Russia’s battlefield advances, marking the second major shift on U.S. military support for Kyiv in days.
"Pete Hegseth Has Learned His Lesson" - Susan Collins (Probably)
I find it cute that lots of Republicans are telling their gullible client journalists that they have Concerns and then will probably push all these guys through one way or another.
A California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” a police report obtained by CNN shows.
Something
Practical effect likely not much more than being politely asked to leave restaurants, and perhaps the US bombing of Den Haag, but better than not.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyhu, accusing him of crimes against humanity war crimes over the war in GazaHopefully I am being too cynical.
The court has also issued arrest warrants for Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif. Israel said in August it had killed Deif in an air strike in Gaza earlier this year.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Not So Easy To Find A Governor That Doesn't Suck Shit
Amazing.
Rep. Ritchie Torres on Wednesday refused to rule out mounting a 2026 Democratic primary challenge to Gov. Hochul.
What Are We Doing Here
One doesn't have to fear nuclear retaliation to worry that escalation without clear goals is unlikely to achieve anything other than death and destruction. But, hey, it's Biden.
Also you can fear nuclear retaliation, even though all the serious voices have increasingly started lecturing us not to. Because they have.
Speaking Of
I have a friend (Catalan) who is a big deal in the opera world. Years ago he was flying to Chicago for work-related stuff. He was supposed to attend a show that evening, but was barely going to make it, if at all, given the timing of the flight arrival.
Being in a hurry, after getting off the plane, he and his partner stupidly started running, which especially in the post 9-11 era was a bit of a nono. It was certainly a lot of a nono before clearing immigration/customs.
A security guard quickly stopped them.
Uh, sirs, what the hell do you think you are doing?
My friend [flustered and determined, with far from perfect English]: I am going to see [Spanish accent/pronunciation] Oh-pay-rah!
The security guard sprung into action, quickly escorted them to the front of the line, and rushed them through.
His partner, also Catalan, but much more familiar with the US, had to explain:
He thought you were going to be appearing on Oprah.
Being in a hurry, after getting off the plane, he and his partner stupidly started running, which especially in the post 9-11 era was a bit of a nono. It was certainly a lot of a nono before clearing immigration/customs.
A security guard quickly stopped them.
Uh, sirs, what the hell do you think you are doing?
My friend [flustered and determined, with far from perfect English]: I am going to see [Spanish accent/pronunciation] Oh-pay-rah!
The security guard sprung into action, quickly escorted them to the front of the line, and rushed them through.
His partner, also Catalan, but much more familiar with the US, had to explain:
He thought you were going to be appearing on Oprah.
America's Worst President
Joe Biden.
The effort is serious enough that the White House has launched a pointed pushback. “Disapproving arms purchases for Israel at this moment would …put wind in the sails of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas at the worst possible moment,” the document from the Biden administration reads.Everyone who stuck with this administration until the end should be occasionally politely asked to leave restaurants (the most extreme form of elite accountability there is).
The document additionally appears to endorse continued fighting despite the administration’s public narrative that it is seeking settlements to end the deadly Israeli military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
Every Time
After the election, well-meaning people were like "let's heal, and regroup," while the ghouls with the money and the microphones set to work blaming everybody but themselves.
The irony here is that Jentleson is describing a campaign that looks a lot like the one that Harris ran, and lost. As progressives quickly pointed out in response, in 2024 Harris did indeed say no to the kinds of groups he mentioned, leaning on celebrity endorsements and vague pronouncements of “joy.” The special interests that were most influential this cycle weren’t progressives but AIPAC, cryptocurrency PACS, and Uber, whose former chief counsel Tony West (Harris’s brother-in-law) urged the candidate to moderate her message so as to better appeal to corporate interests.
As journalist Dan Denvir wrote before the election, Democrats this cycle fell back on an old playbook of trying to outflank Republicans on immigration. They championed a bill chock-full of the right’s preferred policies, like expanding ICE detention capacity and restricting asylum, then campaigned on the fact that the GOP voted it down when Trump told them to. Having previously called Trump’s border wall a “medieval vanity project,” Harris then pledged to spend hundreds of billions of dollars building it. As Denvir writes, “Given the choice to pander to reactionaries or shore up the party’s left wing, Democrats tend to prioritize the former. The result is a dangerous asymmetric polarization: Republicans radicalize on immigration, while Democratic elites chase after them. The ‘normal’ position on immigration moves ever rightward.”
What precisely might Harris have said to better convince voters that she would be adequately tough on immigration? And if her fatal flaws in Jentleson’s view mostly come down to things she said in the 2020 primary, does that mean that all candidates should ignore the realities of the race that they’re currently in—including in relatively progressive seats—so as to avoid Republican blowback if they run for something else in the future? The trouble with the “moderation” pitch isn’t just that it ignores the reality of the election that just happened. It also leaves Democrats playing catch-up in debates whose terms are perpetually set by Republicans, whatever the real-world consequences. The demand that the party embrace whatever positions happen to be popular at the moment imagines public opinion as exogenous to the work of politics. What precisely is the “moral imperative” to win elections if Democrats are merely choosing the correct position among the options that the right lays out for them?
Vive la Résistance!
Amazing shit in the New York Times.
A central pillar of American democracy is that no man is above the law. But Mr. Trump isn’t an ordinary man.There's no point in arguing with this stuff. Pointing and mocking is all it deserves.
He's A Very Generous Man
I don't see the problem.
The House Ethics Committee obtained records, including a check and records of Venmo payments, that appear to show that then-Rep. Matt Gaetz paid more than $10,000 to two women who were later witnesses in sexual misconduct probes conducted by both the House and the Justice Department, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
The Venmo records show that between July 2017 and late January 2019, Gaetz -- who was first elected in 2016 -- allegedly made 27 Venmo payments totaling $10,224.02 to the two witnesses, who were over the age of 18 at the time.
Wednesday Morning
It's taboo to trash Oprah, but I do not think her net impact on the world has been good.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
You First
No one's stopping you. Put on a hard hat. Chew some tobacco. Curse a bit more. Whatever you think this is, [checks wikipedia] you Cornell graduate.
I think she's saying Dems need to do some code switching. Or cosplaying.At a post-election DSCC briefing with winning Dem candidates.
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) November 19, 2024
Elissa Slotkin: “I personally think that identity politics needs to go the way of the dodo.” Dems should take language “not from the faculty lounge, but the assembly line.”
The Big Donors
While we are on money, it is important to note that the reason to please "big donors" isn’t simply because you want their money for your campaign. There are a lot of reasons to want to have rich people on your side - some practical, some craven - and their disproportionate influence isn’t simply because they write big checks.
The Big Money
I do wish campaigns would learn that there is some cost to sending out dozens of campaign fundraising emails every day. If you are doing so when you have so much money that you can't spend it fast enough, it is fair to ask just what the fuck you are doing?
Vive la Résistance!
Choose your fighters.
Yesterday, as outraged "Morning Joe" fans registered their objections on social media sites, Scarborough defended his outreach to Trump, telling associates that having face time with a world leader is a no-brainer. Some of his MSNBC colleagues agreed. But there was more to the Mar-a-Lago meeting.
According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Scarborough and Brzezinski were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration. Knowing that Trump has threatened retribution against his perceived political opponents, and that Trump has promoted lies about Scarborough and Brzezinski in the past, the MSNBC hosts decided to reach out to the president-elect.
Scandals
It is quite funny remembering all of the reasons people have failed to get/had to drop out from Cabinet nominations due to "scandals" that would be laughable now. Some of them were actually a bit laughable at the time, to be fair.
Florida attorney Joel Leppard said in an interview with The Washington Post that one of his clients witnessed Gaetz having sex with the minor at a drug-fueled party in July 2017 — and that Gaetz was unaware of her age at the time but subsequently was told she was underage. ABC News first reported the news.
This woman and a second woman, also represented by Leppard, testified that they were paid by Gaetz to have sex with him and other individuals who attended these “sex parties.” They were paid through Venmo or other conduits — including the PayPal of Nestor Galban, whom Gaetz has referred to as his “adopted son.”
Monday, November 18, 2024
That Guy
A regular type I've come across in The Discourse is people who spend about 80% chastizing The Left for their hysterical, rude, and inappropriate criticisms of Republicans, and then the other 20% calling conservatives/Republicans the new MegaHitler while, of course, yelling at The Left for failing to realize this!!!
Joe Scarborough, you are no longer welcome in The Resistance.
Joe Scarborough, you are no longer welcome in The Resistance.
Bad Chases Out Good
We’re told that health journalist Ed Yong, whose COVID reporting for The Atlantic won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021, shared posts on his private Instagram stories this week expressing outrage at the move, and what it suggested about the editorial direction of the magazine. Yong described Chait as a “fucking putz,” expressed frustration at The Atlantic’s skeptical coverage of trans issues and employment of the writer Helen Lewis. Yong also expressed disappointment at the publication’s occasional defense of Israel’s war in Gaza, and suggested that his friends should unsubscribe. (Yong left the magazine last summer.)
True of the Atlantic, true of all institutions.
Hangin' With The Hitlers
Things change quickly. That was about 14 months ago. Trump must have pivoted to being "not like Hitler" since then.
Acquiescence
All the self-appointed leaders of the resistance are busy surrendering - they have boat maintenance bills to pay, after all - while blaming trans people for the country's predicament.
Choose your fighters well.
Choose your fighters well.
Vive la Résistance!
Big surprise!
Joe and Mika spent 8 years on the front lines against the war on Trump - perhaps our most heroic resistance fighters - and it's time for a change.
Joe and Mika spent 8 years on the front lines against the war on Trump - perhaps our most heroic resistance fighters - and it's time for a change.
Viper Sack
Not going to get much more than some occasional amusement here.
“And he’s sure taking lots of credit for the president’s victory. Bragging about America PAC and X to anyone who will listen. He’s trying to make President Trump feel indebted to him. And the president is indebted to no one,” they added.
The second person said that Musk had been overstepping his bounds, and that Musk has an “opinion on and about everything.”
“He wants to be seen as having say in everything (even if he doesn’t),” the source told NBC.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
2020
A lot was going on in 2020, and an amazing thing about the Biden campaign (yes, I am praising it!) was that it did not go out there and start screaming about "thugs" and "freaks." To use the shorthand of the times, they pretty much embraced "wokeness" during a period of major social turmoil and then they won.
And then through 2022, the Dems mostly continued with this, and despite numerous pre-writes by pundits and journalists about how being too left wing had caused a red wave, this didn't happen. Dems kept the Senate and almost kept the House. The reason they didn't keep the House was because the incompetent New York Dems went all in on crime.
The centrist dipshit view is, basically, we must purge our coalition of the disgusting freaks.
The left wing view is, basically, if you validate the view of the other party (crime is out of control, immigration is a top priority, trans people are a threat to your children), people will vote for the other party.
They didn't quite do the third one in the parenthetical there, but they stayed entirely silent on the subject.
They ran the Liz Cheney campaign, and except for not demonizing trans people, they did everything the centrist dipshists wanted them to do.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Don't Talk About The War
Sneering centrist pundits love to point to polls about how most Americans don't care much about Gaza, as a way to suggest that nobody should, that voters who do care have no right to care, that it is somehow selfish to care.
That is not how politics works, as you have to get "stupid" voters to vote for you, and berating them for being Wrong does not help.
But more than that, even if people don't care much about Gaza, have things seemed peaceful lately? Gaza and Ukraine top the news regularly. Has Biden solved this? Do thing seem nice, okay?
Does promising peace in Gaza, as Biden did, for 10 months, and then failing, make him seem competent? Does it reflect well on the rest of this party?
I mean, even if you aren't sporting a Keffiyeh, you might get a sense that these people are incompetent liars? And would you be wrong? No.
Vive la Résistance!
Matt Gaetz shouldn’t be able to resign away an ethics investigation.
— Senate Judiciary Committee (@JudiciaryDems) November 14, 2024
RT if you agree.
No More Freaks
Many Democrats think their problem is that the mere existence of POC and LGBT and other repellent filth have ruined their beloved coalition with Sensible Republicans. When pressed, they'll mumble about "advocacy groups," but you don't control those and you can't tell them to shut the fuck up, either.
Sure "one DNC member from Florida" isn't the party, but this is the Morning Joseph line, the James Carville line. Oh but Atrios, Morning Joseph is a Newt Gingrich Republican! Yes, yes, he is, and he's Joe Biden's favorite TV host.
Or as one DNC member from Florida put it: “I don’t want to be the freak show party, like they have branded us. You know, when you’re a mom with three kids, and you live in middle America and you’re just not really into politics, and you see these ads that scare the bejesus out of you, you’re like, ‘I know Trump’s weird or whatever, but I would rather his weirdness that doesn’t affect my kids.’”
Sure "one DNC member from Florida" isn't the party, but this is the Morning Joseph line, the James Carville line. Oh but Atrios, Morning Joseph is a Newt Gingrich Republican! Yes, yes, he is, and he's Joe Biden's favorite TV host.
"Like they have branded us." Imagine if you actually had to do politics! Unfathomable, I know.
If you don't keep these disgusting freaks in the tent, they're going to be pissing on it from the outside, and you can have the daily Sister Souljah event you all dream about!
Some Funny News
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia poll workers defamed by Rudolph W. Giuliani after the 2020 election, received his watch collection, a ring and his vintage Mercedes-Benz on Friday.
The deliveries, which Mr. Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, reported to the court on Friday, were a long time coming for the women, who are mother and daughter. It was also a small down payment on what the former New York City mayor owes them.
Friday, November 15, 2024
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
Amazing.
"I defer at this moment to whatever course they decide to take. And I hope they take a course that is bipartisan," Jeffries said today about the Ethics Committee.
Suit Up, Team
It should be comically easy for team D to torch Gaetz, at least reputationally, if not the nomination itself.
Do we think people other than a bunch political junkies know anything about Gaetz at all?
The press isn't going to do your job for you.
Do we think people other than a bunch political junkies know anything about Gaetz at all?
The press isn't going to do your job for you.
A Simple Test For THE RESISTANCE
Can one staffer leak this, or can one member read it on the floor?
Breaking: Mike Johnson says he does not think the House Ethics Committee report into Matt Gaetz should be released.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 15, 2024
Which Horrors Should I Highlight
Freaking out about everything equally doesn't seem to be especially helpful.
The Wall To Keep Us In
If the antivax stuff takes off, goodbye visa wavers and hello having to have proof of vaccinations to travel.
[BRB going to buy stock in a travel medicine company]
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Gathering My Senses
I admit I am a bit lost at the moment. Posting "OMG MATT GAETZ" doesn't seem very helpful.
I Quote Myself
Remember how Time's Up was co-opted by a bunch of rich donors and their social circle who then ran a side for profit business offering consulting on how to protect powerful men from their accusers?Tina Tchen, co-founder of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, will become executive vice president and chief strategy and impact officer at the Obama Foundation.They keep showing us who they are.Congratulations to @ObamaFoundation & dear friend Tina Tchen on her new role as Chief Strategy & Impact Officer! Tina is such a brilliant lawyer but also so COMMITTED to doing good. This is excellent news. https://t.co/KcLMj47u6q
— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) July 6, 2022
It Was The Wokes Wot Did It
Jen Palmieri - Clintonworld fixture - tried to blame campaign decisions on unnamed YOUNG WOKE STAFFERS, the people who run things every time something goes wrong, was called out by other reporters, and backed down.
It's silly to imagine going on Rogan would've mattered either way, but the point is this was to blame the wokes because that's what gets you on Morning Joseph and keeps the consultant checks coming.
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Welp
This is, to be clear, Kooky shit, independent of the moment.
Clinton went on to note the history of the Jewish people and Judaism in what is now the State of Israel, saying that Jews “were there first — before their faith existed,” apparently referring to Islam and the Palestinian people.
He said that Jews had been in the land “in the time of King David, and the southernmost tribes had Judea and Samaria,” referring to the West Bank using the Biblical terminology also in use among Israelis.
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, says he has ordered preparations to annex the occupied West Bank, hoping “2025 will be, with God's help, the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.” pic.twitter.com/qhPFTI8IDt
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 11, 2024
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
I don't think you have to be a commie trot to observe that calling it that is stupid.
"The Left" Didn't Give Us Enough Credit
This has been trotted out for years, mostly about Afghanistan, and which "Left" are you talking about? There is no "Left" in the NYT (Bouie but it isn't really his beat), the Washington Post, CNN... MSNBC has Hayes and he did!
If you want credit from this unnamed Left, you'd better empower them. The Chapo guys gave you a lot of credit! Then they criticized you for other things! That's how it works!
If you want credit from this unnamed Left, you'd better empower them. The Chapo guys gave you a lot of credit! Then they criticized you for other things! That's how it works!
We Do This After Every Election (Almost)
1) Are the Democrats too Right or Too Left?
2) The Democrats Have A Media Problem
3) Being a Democrat should be a Membership With Benefits
The first is a debate, the second is inarguable even if the prescriptions differ, the third is something which is also a good idea but no one ever follows through with it.
There actually was a lot of money pumped into a media effort recently, and I don't like to dump on it because I suppose any effort should be encouraged, but that most of you have never heard of it tells the story.
So What Are You Going To Do About It
People regularly bring up the focus group organizers who said that a problem that they face is that participants refuse to believe that Republicans are planning to do the things they are planning to do. Nobody could be that evil! More than that, if they were then surely I would have heard about it before!
There are a lot of reasons Dems have a messaging problem (among other problems) but one is that even calling them "weird" is too spicy for Biden-era consultants. The press won't call them "evil plans" for you.
Monday, November 11, 2024
The Ancient Texts
In 1999, Maureen Dowd devoted her existence to ruining Monica Lewinksy's life. She was 47 then. She had just been dumped by Michael Douglas for Catherine Zeta-Jones. Dowd is 72 now.
Tiny Microphone
I know that we'd all like some come-together-in-unity rhetoric, but on Morning Joseph (Biden's favorite show!) they're reading Maureen Dowd columns about the evil transes and, you know, we're back to the bad days of the early aughts.
The Top Ranks Of The Dem Party Are Filled With Bad People
Also, they're bad at their one job (winning) and they're unwilling to take responsibility. I do agree with them that they should find this anonymous trans woman who runs the DNC and fire her, because she has been doing a bad job, too.
It isn't unreasonable to expect the "good guys" party to be led by people who aren't incompetent moral monsters.
Don't Put Lies In The Newspaper
This was nonsense at the time (2022), but more importantly you can imagine what other nonsense Jeremy Peters - and his editors - believe.
It Was The Woke Wot Did It
Every bad election - and even the pretty good ones - we have to try to remind them that being unwilling to take your own side in an argument is not actually clever politics.
If your genius centrist politics can be derailed by one viral tweet from an enby Portland barista - which is the argument of people like Reines even if they don't put it that way - then it is not actually genius politics.
Sunday, November 10, 2024
I Almost Didn't Vote
I don't think I could have voted for Biden. I held my nose and voted for Harris. I was never going to make a thing of it. I wasn't going suggest anybody shouldn't vote.
The thing is, my vote doesn't matter. I mean, yah, there's that chance the election would have come down to the state of Pennsylvania, and the state of Pennsylvania would come down to one vote - mine! - but while we like to imagine these things, they aren't very likely.
Absent mandatory voting, elections depend on lots of people deciding that it does matter if they vote, even though it really doesn't. Not individually.
Why did I almost not vote? No of course I didn't want the bad orange man to win - and ultimately that's why I voted - but also I've been watching a genocide unfold for past year and I've watched Biden's smirking ghouls at State on that subject and I've watched almost the entire Dem-industrial complex go after the people who opposed that genocide, or at best stay silent.
These people are so rotten and so horrible and many of them would be on trial in a just world. People were put on trial for less. "We" certainly supported putting people on trial for less, instead of opposing it in every way possible. We went to war - supposedly - over less!
So much for the international rules-based order.
I'm an engaged voter. I understand the issues. I understand harm reduction. I understand that the bad orange man is very bad indeed. I have no belief in accelerationism or fantasies about third party presidential runs. I am not a narcissist about this stuff; politics is never going to be centered around my personal desires.
But how dare these fucking people make me vote for this. How dare almost all of them, at best, stay silent. What did they want to be in positions of power for? Vacation homes and new boats?
It is, truly, a problem from hell, Samantha.
Exit Right
I don't agree with everything here, precisely, but it's probably the best expression of the "left critique" you'll see.
My President
Put me down for Team Big Rich Oaf for now.
Gov. JB Pritzker is combing through hundreds of pages of Project 2025, shoring up legal resources and finding ways to further expand reproductive rights and environmental protections — all while he explores his own political future.
Saturday, November 09, 2024
The Fierce Urgency Of Eventually
One personal experience (I can't know if this is universal) with age is that the perception of the passage of time has changed drastically.
In 2004 (when I was 32) the 1996 election (when I was 24) seemed like a million years ago.
2016 does not seem like a million years ago.
I suspect one problem with gerontocracy is older people don't feel the urgency they once did. Eight years isn't very long, is it.
Fish Heads
There is a piece in The Atlantic by Franklin Foer which has someone from Bidenworld arguing Biden would've campaigned as a bigger bastard to trans people, as if that would have been a good thing.
Middle Option
There is some space between "Harris had one obvious quick trick to win" and "there was nothing that could have done it."
And now I am watching the same fucking people who have been running things for decades - members of Clintonworld, Obamaworld, and Bidenworld - desperately cling to their clout, probably from their new boats.
Friday, November 08, 2024
I Didn’t Do It
As I said yesterday or the day before, people with access and microphones are going to do their best to convince friendly journalists that it was everybody else's fault.
Ties Together Some Themes Nicely
Dems can't solve their media problem because they (notalldems) believe if they are associated with someone who doesn't hate trans people and immigrants enough then they will be DOOMED.
One day they will figure out that you can't impose message discipline on the entire set of people who Republicans will tie them to. And Republicans can just make things up and manufacture associations, in part because they have solved their own media problem.
WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, MOTHERFUCKER
THE WOKE LEFT doesn’t even have a newspaper column in a prominent paper. It never appears on your favorite political TV shows. There are no prominent electeds except perhaps the fantasy version of AOC. I assume he doesn't mean the people who just spent a billion bucks or Harris herself.
(See post below for those just coming in)
Thursday, November 07, 2024
Wrong Model
The imagined "swing voter" according to DC brains doesn't exist. They think there are millions of people like Nicole Wallace and Joe Scarborough. Maybe there are, but those people were already going to vote for Harris. They got off the Trump train a long time ago.
Genuine swing voters have very odd ideas about politics (common clay types) and don't fit neatly onto some left-right continuum.
The real targets are new and irregular voters, who certainly aren’t necessarily imagined "center right" voters who are impressed by establishment validation.
Chuck Schumer's Baileys? They are full Trumper.
Warning Signs
As I said, I did my best not to pointlessly play shadow campaign manager, but the big warning signs to me were when Jen O'Malley Dillon and Anita Dunn took prominent roles. There was a clear shift when that happened.
If they won, they would be heroes and we would sing songs about them. But they didn't.
Are We Going To Do This Again
There are a lot of reasons that the Dems have a media/messaging reach problem, but a main one is that they thought Think Progress was too spicy to remain alive.
"Too spicy" here means sometimes off-message to the left of where the important Dems were.
In the current context, no media outlet which was anti-genocide would avoid being ostracized.
Wednesday, November 06, 2024
Now Is Not The Time For Politics
This is the kind of thing people say when there is a natural disaster, but as they are saying it lobbyists are figuring out how to loot the Treasury by charging $100 for a bottle of water for hurricane victims, or whatever.
A similar thing happens after losing elections, as the people who run the campaign try to preserve their careers and new boat funding sources.
Robby Mook still works.
I don't claim to know what the perfect Harris campaign would have been. I did my best not to play shadow campaign manager because there wasn't any point to that. But they made some decisions - centering Liz Cheney, for example - that did not pay off!
Maybe they should not be responsible for spending your campaign contributions next time!
A similar thing happens after losing elections, as the people who run the campaign try to preserve their careers and new boat funding sources.
Robby Mook still works.
I don't claim to know what the perfect Harris campaign would have been. I did my best not to play shadow campaign manager because there wasn't any point to that. But they made some decisions - centering Liz Cheney, for example - that did not pay off!
Maybe they should not be responsible for spending your campaign contributions next time!
Scattered To The Winds
I will say what I say every election cycle - win or lose - a lot of money was spent on a political organization that has already dissolved, with no interest in building lasting institutions.
There will be a lot of fretting about the lack of media outlets to counteract the Right's large networks, but nothing useful will be done with that biannual revelation.
Tuesday, November 05, 2024
Late
I'm probably going to bed soon, as nothing is going to be resolved soon. See you in the morning!
More Thread
I'll try to post the important state calls, but stuff like "Trump wins Alabama" isn't exactly news.
Matt Drudge Ruled Their World
I am remembering how, for several elections, being online meant monitoring what nonsense Drudge (who is good now?) was feeding to willing gullible journalists (like NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY THUGS AT PHILADELPHIA POLLING PLACES).
Who Amongst Us Doesn't Love NASCAR?
Kerry didn't win 20 years ago, but I do think "we" - the early blogosphere - made it possible for him to get close. It was a long time ago and I think you had to be very online at the time - most people weren't - to understand what was going on.
The fundamental premise that George W. Bush was the perfect embodiment of real America, and a brilliant "wartime president" who was smoking out the evildoers, was rarely questioned. You get echoes of it now, and plenty of bad coverage, but "why do good Godfearing Americans hate those nasty Democrats so much, Candy and Mara?" was the premise of almost all coverage in a way that isn't the case now.
I actually felt like I had some power and therefore (Uncle Ben voice) some responsibility. I don't feel that way anymore. Just a singer in a big chorus, not a soloist.
The fundamental premise that George W. Bush was the perfect embodiment of real America, and a brilliant "wartime president" who was smoking out the evildoers, was rarely questioned. You get echoes of it now, and plenty of bad coverage, but "why do good Godfearing Americans hate those nasty Democrats so much, Candy and Mara?" was the premise of almost all coverage in a way that isn't the case now.
I actually felt like I had some power and therefore (Uncle Ben voice) some responsibility. I don't feel that way anymore. Just a singer in a big chorus, not a soloist.
Monday, November 04, 2024
My Contrarian Moment
Nobody should be arrested for weed, but I do think that for various understandable reasons we have ignored the actual potential harms.
Criminalization is not the answer! Of course!
But I have known a nontrivial number of pot addicts in my life. Now that it is legalish many places, we should stop making the moot comparison to alcohol and address it on its own terms. It isn't a contest!
America's greatest living writer, Neal Pollack, had a good piece about his own experience.
There is a reddit sub filled with desperate people who don't have anywhere to turn because the options are "weed is harmless" and "weed is heroin" when neither are true.
JESUS IS ME
An issue with Christianity is many people take to it for the same reason kids love stories about heroes they can project themselves into. Harry Potter for the youngs, the son of God for megalomaniacal ketamine abusers.
Elon knows as much about the Bible as he does about writing code or designing rockets, but he does know it's about God's favorite boy - him.
I know it is mostly for his persona, but it does appeal!
The Beginning Of Civility In Politics
Many centrist dipshits really did believe that overturning Roe would "lower the temperature" and let politics return to important things, like which Middle Eastern country we should invade next.
Their whole concept of the issue - Extremist Activists On Both Sides While I Am Stuck In The Middle With Sensible Americans - would not allow for the inevitability of women dying, in part because they are so dumb the believed "health of mother exceptions" enforced by judges (not doctors) would be implemented and be practical.
Grifter Grifted
The cons and marks have merged.
Kari Lake:
We’re ahead of my opponent, and I feel comfortable with our polling,” she insisted. “Our polling is a little different. We take polling, but we also combine it with AI, which reads all of what’s happening on social media and across the Internet.”
We don't need to waste money on polling, Kari, we can just ask Clippy.
Sunday, November 03, 2024
Does It Matter?
20 years ago I would've said the presentation of poll results could have an impact, in various ways, on the election results.
Now? I have no idea. I actually have no idea how anybody gets any of their information anymore, or whether there is some definable "campaign narrative."
Now? I have no idea. I actually have no idea how anybody gets any of their information anymore, or whether there is some definable "campaign narrative."
I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means
I am not an expert on this stuff (though it isn't complicated), but it's pretty clear that in 2024 polling is much more modeling than polling. Is the point of a poll to make inferences based on the data collected, or is the point of a poll to make election predictions? "A bit of both" has long been the answer, but now the data is so bad that it's much more the latter than the former in the way these things are presented.
Response rates are so shitty (and I suspect most of the right wing polls are just made up for a variety of grifter reasons), that the polls are generally "unskewed," so to speak, based on some belief about the underlying population and electorate.
The results are presented as weighted, and none of the "margin of errors" reflect the margin of error of the weights, which are just guesstimates like the rest of it.
This is not a new practice, but the noise is overwhelming the data.
I'm not unskewing the polls one way or another. I'm not going to waste my beautiful mind having that argument. I'm just saying what is happening isn't really polling. I am not faulting the main pollsters or arguing they are being dishonest or anything like that, I'm just saying that I think it's a mistake to take too much from them.
Response rates are so shitty (and I suspect most of the right wing polls are just made up for a variety of grifter reasons), that the polls are generally "unskewed," so to speak, based on some belief about the underlying population and electorate.
The results are presented as weighted, and none of the "margin of errors" reflect the margin of error of the weights, which are just guesstimates like the rest of it.
This is not a new practice, but the noise is overwhelming the data.
I'm not unskewing the polls one way or another. I'm not going to waste my beautiful mind having that argument. I'm just saying what is happening isn't really polling. I am not faulting the main pollsters or arguing they are being dishonest or anything like that, I'm just saying that I think it's a mistake to take too much from them.
Scroll down to the bottom here and you can see how it's done.
Saturday, November 02, 2024
Sure Why Not
Hopefully a post-mortem.
At the end of June, in the afterglow of a debate performance that would ultimately prompt President Joe Biden to end his campaign for reelection, Donald Trump startled his aides by announcing that he’d come up with a new nickname for his opponent.
“The guy’s a retard. He’s retarded. I think that’s what I’ll start calling him,” Trump declared aboard his campaign plane, en route to a rally that evening, according to three people who heard him make the remarks: “Retarded Joe Biden.”
Hit A Homer
It's all going to come down to who gets the most votes... well.. in the right places, anyway.
"Trump Simulating Fellatio On Stage"
Was a phrase I just saw and I will not be investigating further.
So The Polls Are Just, Like, Your Opinion, Man
Some people say Cohn (NYT) added that last line after criticism, but I haven't verified that.
At the same time, the 2016 and 2020 polling misfires shattered many pollsters’ confidence in their own methods and data. When their results come in very blue, they don’t believe it. And frankly, I share that same feeling: If our final Pennsylvania poll comes in at Harris +7, why would I believe it? As a result, pollsters are more willing to take steps to produce more Republican-leaning results. (We don’t take such steps.)
Friday, November 01, 2024
And The Victims Of Nasty Policies
Centrist dipshits told me this was unpossible, that health exceptions would be real and implementable.
A
Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms
It took three ER visits and 20 hours before a hospital admitted Nevaeh Crain, 18, as her condition worsened. Doctors insisted on two ultrasounds to confirm “fetal demise.” She’s one of at least two Texas women who died under the state’s abortion ban.
It Reminds Me Of The Time Sarah Sanders Was Politely Asked To Leave A Restaurant
Good piece in Rolling Stone about some actual victims of nasty politics.
Around that same time, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an informal Trump adviser, emailed Axios to insist they cover the story, expressing hope that “Mollie Tibbetts is a household name by October,” as Democrats would be in “deep trouble,” Gingrich wrote. (Democrats ended up retaking control of the U.S. House in those midterm elections.)
Of course, not every member of Mollie’s family feels the same way about immigration, Trump, or politics in general. And when Trump uses the stories of slain Americans to call for sprawling crackdowns and revenge, some grieving families come out to embrace or endorse him.
Other heartbroken families refuse to sign onto his platform of retribution.
When Rolling Stone asks what Calderwood would say to Trump, or Vance, if either were sitting in front of her right now, she replies: “Where is your compassion? Where’s your humanity? It’s just not there, with either of them.… I don’t believe all illegal immigrants murder; there are people who aren’t illegal immigrants who murder women. That stigma of ‘illegal immigrants come here to murder,’ I think it doesn’t help anything. It divides people. And I feel pretty strongly about that. I don’t think this is a time for division.… This has got to stop.… This is a time to come together and heal.”