Lord Liaden Posted February 1 Report Share Posted February 1 2 hours ago, DShomshak said: Now, what would be some good new shiny outrages...? Hm. Maybe have the Press Secretary mention Joe Biden's favorite vegetable. But really, they just need to throw out lots of random information and let MAGA invent its own connections. George H.W. Bush and broccoli. Need I say more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted February 1 Report Share Posted February 1 Jed Bartlet and green beans. Need I say more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted February 2 Report Share Posted February 2 https://www.meidastouch.com/news/biden-issues-executive-order-to-sanction-israeli-settlers-who-attack-palestinians https://www.meidastouch.com/news/republicans-lose-their-first-impeachment-vote-ken-buck-is-a-no Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 2 Report Share Posted February 2 A bit about the loony Taylor Swift/Superbowl conspiracy theories. The key point, I think: The Masters of MAGA monetize the outrage. Outrage gets attention, and attention is the coin of the Internet. Especially when you can then hit up the faithful for donations or sell them merch. As we have noted here before: A grift. https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228373511/heres-why-conspiracy-theories-about-taylor-swift-and-the-super-bowl-are-spreadin Dean Shomshak Lord Liaden 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 2 Report Share Posted February 2 Did Donald Trump's policies really produce a great economy? And if he got back in the White House, would he do it again? Answer to the first? Well... sorta...? For some people? Answer to the second: Many CEOs think, Dear God no, this would be a disaster. But they are currently afraid to say so in public. From today's Today, Explained: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RvZGF5LWV4cGxhaW5lZA/episode/NzRmOTVhYmMtNTZmNy0xMWVlLWEwMTktNGYyNDMyZTUwOTIw?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjwjeHMz4uEAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ Quote As president, Donald Trump presided over a good — sometimes great — economy. But his proposals are unnerving business leaders this time around. The Washington Post’s Heather Long and Economist columnist Henry Tricks on the Tariff Man’s Tariff Plans. (I also read the Economist articles on the subject. Another sizeable cohort of CEOs, however, not only think Trump's administration was hunky-dory, they want another one. Hey, they got tax cuts, deregulation, and a booming stock market, what else matters? The Economist editorial position is: A very great deal more, such as predictable policy, the rule of law, and all the things the US does to maintain global order. While they admit they overestimated the disruption of Trump's term, they still think a second term would be much worse for the US and the world.) Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 2 Report Share Posted February 2 The irony of some CEO's attitude is that by most metrics, the American economy is doing better under Biden than it ever did under Trump. Stocks are at record highs, unemployment has dropped dramatically, inflation is curbing, consumer spending is up. Biden projects an air of stability, of steady leadership, of measured reasonable policies. That reassures producers, sellers, and buyers alike. Trump threatens chaos, more so now than ever before, and free market economies don't respond well to uncertainty. We in the rest of the world also fear that a returned President Trump will continue to break agreements with America's trading partners and allies, in order to play to his base of support, or just out of pure spite. He already burned up a lot of international trust and good will his first time around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted February 2 Report Share Posted February 2 https://www.meidastouch.com/news/carville-right-wing-conspiracy-theories-about-taylor-swift-are-driven-by-sexual-inadequacy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 3 Report Share Posted February 3 On 2/1/2024 at 11:27 AM, unclevlad said: Have any of them forgotten how crazy he is? Or the degree of irrationality his core supporters show so often? Apparently so, or they didn't pay attention the first time around. Today's episode of "The Daily" says the NYT polls show Trump's approval among Black voters has risen from 8& in 2020 to 22% today. And at least some of them base this approval on the economy, then and now. As one interviewee says, Trump's a business man so he should know how to bring down inflation. Huh? Pardon, but business people are the ones who decide to raise prices. Saying a business person knows how to curb inflation is like saying a pimp would know how to curb out-of-wedlock pregnancy. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/podcasts/the-daily/south-carolina-primary.html?action=click&module=audio-series-bar®ion=header&pgtype=Article This is deeply disturbing, given the election will, most probably, be decided once again by tiny margins in a small number of battleground states. Trump can rely on his base; Biden must fear even small percentages of Democrats and independents defecting or just not voting, no matter how clueless the reasons. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted February 4 Report Share Posted February 4 New Mexico: Failed Election Candidate Paid Me To Shoot Officials, Gunman Says Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted February 4 Report Share Posted February 4 1 hour ago, wcw43921 said: New Mexico: Failed Election Candidate Paid Me To Shoot Officials, Gunman Says That's actually old news. It goes back to the '22 elections. The Republicans ran a candidate for the state house, Solomon Pena, that was...problematic at best. It was in a district they figured they had not shot to win...and the Democratic, long-term incumbent won 3/4 of the votes. Pena claimed fraud...and he and some helpers tried to shoot several Democratic officials. Pena was arrested and charged in both state and federal court, but his trial hasn't started. The man here now makes the 2nd to plead guilty. The first was his son. I'll just leave that one alone.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 Border Patrol Union Endorses Bipartisal Border Bill Old Man 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 From an NYT Politics email just arrived: Quote John Bolton has a warning about what a second Donald Trump presidency might look like. “Trump really cares only about retribution for himself, and it will consume much of a second term,” Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser, writes in a new edition of his White House memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 https://www.npr.org/2024/02/06/1223904739/trump-immunity-ruling This is at the Court of Appeals level, so there's still the Supreme Court before anything decisive. And the BBC headline makes the big point: Donald Trump's immunity appeal failed, but delaying may be the goal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 A bit of big-picture analysis of the state of the world and likely future. Necessarily superficial, of course, but I may look for that RAND Corporation paper that's cited. Welcome to the “neomedieval era” (msn.com) Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 Oh my. House does NOT vote to impeach Mayorkas. The whole thing is yet another act in the center ring of the circus that is this House...because they brought it to the floor, AND because they couldn't pass it. And from NYT: Quote o recap what has happened on Capitol Hill today: Republicans torpedoed a bipartisan border deal they demanded, leaving the fate of aid to Ukraine and Israel in peril. House Republicans tried to pre-empt that deal by proposing a standalone aid bill to Israel but were unable to pass it, with opposition from Democrats and their hard-right flank. And, finally, they failed to impeach the homeland security secretary after promising to do so for months. I am soooo hoping the 'pubs lose about 30 seats in the House...not expecting, mind... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 I know I'd say "good, thank you jury" here...but...yeah, I think actually being on such a jury would be extremely stressful. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/us/jennifer-crumbley-michigan-shooting-verdict.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Tk0.CWLm.Z348lEAcbIzt&bgrp=a&smid=url-share Cygnia 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 Iuz the Evil, Ranxerox, Ternaugh and 3 others 2 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 Missouri Republican Candidate Torches LGBTQ-Inclusive Books In Viral Video Dr. MID-Nite 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 8 hours ago, wcw43921 said: Missouri Republican Candidate Torches LGBTQ-Inclusive Books In Viral Video One wonders how she'd react if an atheist decided to torch a couple Bibles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 (edited) Explosive outrage would be my guess. But it's important to remember -- this would not be hypocritical, given the axioms of conservatism. As political scientist Corey Robin says on the video that Pattern Ghost posted, one of the fundamental assumptions of conservatism is inequality. People are *not* morally equal, and those of greater worth should rule over those of lesser worth. For an Evangelical, burning LGBTQ-inclusive books defends the righteous order ordained by God; burning Bibles defies that order. And suggesting equivalence between the two cases also constitutes such defiance. It's pointless arguing with people about axioms. ADDENDUM: Reading the article, I also noticed that Ms Gomez appears to have no freaking clue what job she's running for. Unless the office of Secretary of State is *very* different in Missouri than in Washington, I'm pretty sure they don't decide what goes in school libraries. Dean Shomshak Edited February 8 by DShomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 So I hear the clown show in the House of Representatives has spread into the Senate, with a cadre of Republican senators kowtowing to their Prince of Orange's demand not to pass the bipartisan border-strengthening bill. If Mitch McConnell hasn't already suffered a stroke, he'll probably have one now. This is particularly bad for the support to Ukraine which was also in the bill, which is urgently needed. But I admit to perverse satisfaction in watching the GOP cannibalize itself. What I wonder is, will the media that so many Republican voters exclusively consume cover this at all, or if they do, with anything approaching the truth? If that happened it would almost certainly sink the GOP in the next general election. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 17 Republicans Vote for Bill Aiding Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan FCC Declares AI Generated Robocalls Illegal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 Ted Cruz Proposes Legislation That Would Make It Harder to Photograph Lawmakers Jetting Off to Cancún While Their Constituents Freeze to Death Quote Remember, back in 2021, when Ted Cruz’s response to a Texas state of emergency—wherein millions of people had no heat or power and hundreds died—was to hop a plane to Cancún? Obviously, Cruz hadn’t issued a press release about his trip, which he’d clearly hoped would fly under the radar, and the only reason it came out was thanks to the work of the citizen journalists who spotted him in the airport and on the Mexico-bound plane and thought to whip out their cameras. Anyway, the whole thing made the Texas senator look really, really bad—and in the future, he’d like Congress to help make sure it never happens again. Politico reports that three years after Cancúngate, Cruz has proposed a legislation that “would offer lawmakers a dedicated security escort at airports, along with expedited screening outside of public view.” As the outlet notes, such measure “could make it much less likely that the politicians’ comings and goings would become fodder for embarrassing news reports and late-night comedy mockery.” The special treatment would also extend to Cabinet members, federal judges, and a small number of family and staff. Cruz is trying to include the legislation as an amendment to S. 1939, an aviation policy bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 (edited) Cruz's opinion of the intelligence of his voters must be very low. I guess we'll find out if he's right. 1 hour ago, tkdguy said: 17 Republicans Vote for Bill Aiding Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan The GOP is not entirely devoid of spine. But too little, too late. Edited February 9 by Lord Liaden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 (edited) This man practically convicts himself, I can't believe he's evaded prison for so long: https://www.meidastouch.com/news/trump-briefly-admits-january-6th-was-an-insurrection Edited February 9 by Pattern Ghost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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