US Politics: Ballot Mainetenance

[mormont]

1 hour ago, Martell Spy said:

I don't know the why, but it seems like they are doing the same thing they did with Trump's taxes. They know they are going to to rule against Trump because the argument is so laughably bad. They knew it with the taxes and now they know it with his "Presidents get to crime all they want with full immunity" argument. So they're letting it play out in courts all the way. And courts are naturally slow unless the SC intervenes to speed things up.

The why? I don't know, but possibly being partisans as that's how they usually roll. They're not willing to completely destroy their reputations to help Trump, but they can help him delay everything. That's just my guess.

Look, all it would take is for Biden to jaywalk or maybe throw some litter or something. The SC will vote on this tomorrow. Even though it's Christmas. :p

44 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Debating Trump is like mud wrestling a pig. You get dirty and he loves it.

He doesn't, though. He hates it. And as I've said before, that renders the whole question of whether Biden should debate Trump moot, because there will not be a debate.

[kissdbyfire]

Creep alert:

 

[Kalbear]

Biden should absolutely say he will debate Trump because that is his brand - normal politics and traditions. Breaking away from that is bad for Biden and against the character of Biden, as @TrackerNeil said.

Trump then has two options- look weak and cowardly or do a debate that he will in all likelihood show another mess with. Not showing up is the better option for him.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

Not related to any specific news, but still relevant for US politics: I recently finished Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson. I read it on the strength of an interview I saw with Tom Nichols. Nichols held Richardson in high regard, and she was basically like, “Yup. This is why you bring in historians to tell our history.”

But I must say, I was rather disappointed with the book. It seemed less like a story or argument and more like a brief run-through of the past 200 or so years. She merely summarizes various historical events or movements that contributed to her topic (the ongoing battle between hierarchical limited democracy in the US and more honorable pursuits that expand on the notion of inalienable rights to liberty). It's up to readers to infer her connections and guiding logic. And the end result can't help but feel simplistic, and thus not very helpful for understanding how we got where we are.

A better read was George Packer's Last Best Hope. It's not so much concerned with history as with competing political/moral narratives of the past few decades. He at least presents our culture war dynamics as more complex than "they hate our freedom." It still glosses over plenty, but it offers readers plenty more to chew on--and has stronger prose to boot.

My two cents.

[Martell Spy]

House GOP traps itself in impeachment box
Republicans are barreling toward an impeachment vote, still short of a majority. But if they skip one altogether, it might look like failure to the base.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/24/house-gop-biden-impeachment-00132916

Quote

 

A GOP failure to follow suit this time would likely mean severe backlash from the right flank, former President Donald Trump and an increasingly restless base who, some Republicans acknowledge, treat impeachment as a fait accompli.

“I think there’s an expectation in the base now: ‘You voted for impeachment.’ … They look at this as an impeachment vote,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said of the inquiry, which he ultimately voted to formalize despite criticizing it just days before. He said he hadn’t changed his thinking on impeachment itself.

Leadership has a short window to find an off-ramp that would please both the impeachment skeptics and supporters within their own ranks. Investigators want to decide as early as late January on drafting impeachment articles, but whether the conference has the votes to recommend booting the president will likely factor into leaders’ decision to go further down that path.

 

 

[kissdbyfire]

Meanwhile, xmas in magaland...

 

 

[TrackerNeil]

15 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

House GOP traps itself in impeachment box
Republicans are barreling toward an impeachment vote, still short of a majority. But if they skip one altogether, it might look like failure to the base.

Seems to me that the biggest threat to many relatively sane Republicans comes not in the general election but in the primary. Nobody on the right can be seen to be out-crazied, right? So it's possible Johnson could slow-walk the process until the primaries are over, or at least late enough that the damaging effect of a "no" vote would be minimized. Then each House Republican can vote the way that best fits their general election needs.

Or maybe Johnson has no fucking idea how to get off this tiger the Republican caucus is on, and their majority will pay the price.

[LongRider]

1 hour ago, TrackerNeil said:

Or maybe Johnson has no fucking idea how to get off this tiger the Republican caucus is on, and their majority will pay the price.

This, hopefully he can't see past his own hubris. 

[Wilbur]

4 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

Meanwhile, xmas in magaland...

 

 

These dip$hits live untethered to the real world.

My grandfathers and grand-uncles, hard core Republicans all, spent three years traipsing around Africa and Europe killing Germans who carried that around, wasting a huge chunk of their lives and health to put them away.  They would be ashamed to see the Republican party associated in any way with a swastika, but no, Trump is basically cribbing Hitler these days.

Nazis are losers.  Fascists are losers.  The whole ideal of authoritarianism is against the ideals that Ike and the Republican party have always stood for.  It is insanity to embrace that garbage.

Now I am going to have to turn on the festive music to get back in the mood before everyone else wakes up for Christmas morning.  Ugh.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

6 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

Meanwhile, xmas in magaland...

 

 

Dear Muricans,

Putting aside all the kitsch associated with it, I kinda liked your old flag better. The one with stripes and the stars and stuff. Altho, I find this German nostalgia kinda interesting.

[Durckad]

11 hours ago, TrackerNeil said:

Or maybe Johnson has no fucking idea how to get off this tiger the Republican caucus is on, and their majority will pay the price.

Pretty sure Johnson is willingly putting his entire head in the tiger's mouth. Dude is a weirdo true believer.

[TrackerNeil]

2 hours ago, Durckad said:

Pretty sure Johnson is willingly putting his entire head in the tiger's mouth. Dude is a weirdo true believer.

Maybe, although if that is so I imagine it's from miscalcluation. Anyone who can be elected Speaker is smart enough at the least to understand that imperiling one's own majority is a bad political move. I suppose it's possible Johnson is indifferent to that prospect, but in general I like to assume my opponents are reasonably competent. Keeps me from underestimating them.

[ThinkerX]

Not going to bother with a link, but it seems Trump came out with a Christmas message that is deranged even by Trump standards - 'electric car owners need to rot in hell,' plus what amounts to a hate list.

 

 

[The Anti-Targ]

7 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

Not going to bother with a link, but it seems Trump came out with a Christmas message that is deranged even by Trump standards - 'electric car owners need to rot in hell,' plus what amounts to a hate list.

 

 

It's so hard to know which clip is most appropriate.

 

[Zorral]

I will not link to this because the info comes via Josh Marshall's (Talking Points Memo is his website) xitter feed, from tRump's own website: "rump will endow the American Academy with the billions we will collect by taxing the large endowments of private universities plagued by antisemitism."

But the gist is among his stupendous bigly agenda starting Day 1 is to heavily tax the endowments of all the private institutions to build his own university he will call The American Academy, which will be 'free of any political agenda, free for all, and no wokeness or woke students or faculty.'

Hand it to 'em.  They don't hide at all their plans to plunder absolutely everything, including private property.

[kissdbyfire]

7 minutes ago, Zorral said:

I will not link to this because the info comes via Josh Marshall's (Talking Points Memo is his website) xitter feed, from tRump's own website: "rump will endow the American Academy with the billions we will collect by taxing the large endowments of private universities plagued by antisemitism."

But the gist is among his stupendous bigly agenda starting Day 1 is to heavily tax the endowments of all the private institutions to build his own university he will call The American Academy, which will be 'free of any political agenda, free for all, and no wokeness or woke students or faculty.'

Hand it to 'em.  They don't hide at all their plans to plunder absolutely everything, including private property.

Yeah, I linked to this insane grifty idea of his in a previous iteration. It’s fab b/c it’s a grift, it’s indoctrination, and it helps achieve something fascists all over the world want: destroy the education system. 

[Zorral]

I missed that then, @kissdbyfire .

Now, I do believe by now when private educational institutions own as much real estate as do NYU and Columbia, Harvard and Yale, etc., with endowments that allow them to purchase all this real estate -- at knocked down price too, let us add -- they should be taxed at a fair rate.  They exist via enormous public money and services, otherwise they'd be in limbo -- not to mention the cushy deals they get.  I understand how back when religious and educational systems in the 18th C might not be taxed, in order ensure religious tolerance/equality and separation of church and state.  But conditions have mightily changed since then, when the educational systems tended almost entirely to BE religious institutions or so affiliated.

But we all know that's not what These Guys are talking about or care about -- it's about taking All the Money from everybody not Us.  Taking private property though is the number one crime, sin, obscenity, etc. in this country.  So much easier to do it to public institutions which is why DeSantis is doing that in FL.

 

[kissdbyfire]

More Xmas spirit from MAGA World!

Second link has the pic.

https://www.salon.com/2023/12/26/candidate-faces-backlash-after-sharing-christmas-ornaments-of-democrats-in-nooses/

https://themessenger.com/politics/derrick-evans-christmas-tree-nooses-biden-trump

[Zorral]

My, my, my that people like this Jan 6er just can't help blasting the world with what They want and They plan!   Yet run away when other people notice.  Funny, o so funny Christmas spirit.  Not.

 

[kissdbyfire]

24 minutes ago, Zorral said:

My, my, my that people like this Jan 6er just can't help blasting the world with what They want and They plan!   Yet run away when other people notice.  Funny, o so funny Christmas spirit.  Not.

 

Well, one of many traits the traitors (wink wink) have in common is they’re all spineless cowards, innit?