US politics - Yes country for old men

[ThinkerX]

14 minutes ago, LongRider said:

Here is an article about Trump's takeover of the RNC.

Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, according to two people close to the Trump campaign and the RNC.

All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut......Trump’s campaign took over operational control of the RNC on Monday. On Friday, former North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley was elected the RNC’s new chair, and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump was elected as co-chair. Both had Trump’s endorsement. Additionally, Trump senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita was named as the RNC’s new chief of staff.

Bloodbath at RNC: Trump team slashes staff at committee - POLITICO

This is where Trump steals all the campaign money he can lay his hands on crippling Republican incumbents across the county, and possibly handing safe seats to Democrats. And his base will cheer. 

[Makk]

3 hours ago, Kalbear said:

I'm saying that running on the economy being great when your own supporters are not really agreeing with you - at least a lot of them - is a good way to alienate the people who you need to vote the most. And those are people that Biden is already losing too many of.

You can run on the idea that the economy is improving right? The entire world is pretty shitty with a lot of problems at the moment but from a foreigners perspective the US seems to be one of the most robust countries at the moment in terms of economic recovery. Assuming the economy continues to improve I think he absolutely should run on it or at least the contrasting directions between where it is now and where it was going when he inherited it.

[Gorn]

1 hour ago, ThinkerX said:

This is where Trump steals all the campaign money he can lay his hands on crippling Republican incumbents across the county, and possibly handing safe seats to Democrats. And his base will cheer. 

I wouldn't put too much hope into this. It's a presidential election year; those other races don't matter. Anyone who shows up to vote for Trump will also vote for the down-ticket Republicans.

If Trump wins, Republicans will also win Congress, Senate, and competitive state races. If Biden wins, Democrats will win Congress, state races... and still lose the Senate, although not as badly.

Putting everything they can spare in the presidential race is the smartest play for both parties.

[The Anti-Targ]

The main problem with running on an improving economy is that while taking a look from orbit it's clear the economy is doing pretty well, when you zoom in the benefits are uneven (which has been the case for decades of economic growth), but when you combine the last couple of years of inflation and the ongoing uneveness of the benefits of growth you get the temperature in the bot being used to boil the frogs suddenly turned up, so the frogs are feeling it more acutely than back when the slow erosion over the last 30 years.

Biden can run on the economy if he has clear and easily understood policies for how to translate growth and stability into more wealth for the low and middle income majority of the country. If he doesn't have that then running on the economy is going to fall on a lot of deaf ears. And you can't just say the rich will pay their fair share of tax to preserve the benefits that currently exist. People need more, not more of the same.

Edited March 12 by The Anti-Targ

[ThinkerX]

1 hour ago, Gorn said:

I wouldn't put too much hope into this. It's a presidential election year; those other races don't matter. Anyone who shows up to vote for Trump will also vote for the down-ticket Republicans.

If Trump wins, Republicans will also win Congress, Senate, and competitive state races. If Biden wins, Democrats will win Congress, state races... and still lose the Senate, although not as badly.

Putting everything they can spare in the presidential race is the smartest play for both parties.

I am not so sure of this. From where I am standing, the Republicans stand to lose control of the House and fail to take the Senate regardless of who becomes POTUS. Mostly, this will be because of Republican incumbents doubling down on horrible policies and laws - but a lack of campaign money will also play into it. 

I figure the D's will flip a number of R seats deemed 'safe' - House and Senate both.

[LongRider]

An employee who has worked at Mar-A-Lago for 20 years speaks out.  

A longtime Mar-a-Lago employee who is a central witness in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents is now speaking publicly because he believes that voters should hear the truth about his former boss and the case before the November election.

Brian Butler, who is referenced as “Trump Employee 5” in the classified documents indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith, told CNN in an exclusive interview that he doesn’t believe the criminal case against Trump is a “witch hunt,” as the former president has claimed.

Exclusive: ‘Trump Employee 5,’ who unknowingly helped move classified documents, speaks out | CNN Politics

[Phylum of Alexandria]

10 hours ago, LongRider said:

An employee who has worked at Mar-A-Lago for 20 years speaks out.  

A longtime Mar-a-Lago employee who is a central witness in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents is now speaking publicly because he believes that voters should hear the truth about his former boss and the case before the November election.

Brian Butler, who is referenced as “Trump Employee 5” in the classified documents indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith, told CNN in an exclusive interview that he doesn’t believe the criminal case against Trump is a “witch hunt,” as the former president has claimed.

Exclusive: ‘Trump Employee 5,’ who unknowingly helped move classified documents, speaks out | CNN Politics

Great, now there will be elaborate MAGA conspiracies concluding that the Butler did it...

[Kalbear]

Apparently RFK Jr. has reached out to Jesse Ventura and Aaron Rodgers to be his running mate.

Holy fuck we live in such a stupid timeline

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/us/politics/rfk-jr-aaron-rodgers-jesse-ventura.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20240312&instance_id=117442&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=62607880&segment_id=160588&te=1&user_id=22745856cc8b56416cc6c344655eb99f

[The Anti-Targ]

Couldn't a witness speaking publicly about the classified documents case possibly harm the prosecution? Maybe the prosecution doesn't think this witness adds much value to their case, so they don't care if he goes public. But it probably means they should remove him from the witness list for the trial.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

20 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Apparently RFK Jr. has reached out to Jesse Ventura and Aaron Rodgers to be his running mate.

Holy fuck we live in such a stupid timeline

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/us/politics/rfk-jr-aaron-rodgers-jesse-ventura.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20240312&instance_id=117442&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=62607880&segment_id=160588&te=1&user_id=22745856cc8b56416cc6c344655eb99f

Or maybe the funniest one we deserve. I have no shame admitting Ventura was probably the first politician I liked as a kid:

 

Little Ty got both mom and step-dad to vote for him because of these dumb ads.

And never forget, my governor can beat up yours!!! How the fuck did Predator produce two of them?!?!?!?!?

[mormont]

Next in the 'novel legal theories tried by Donald Trump':

In the New York hush money trial, Trump intends to rely on an 'advice of counsel' defence. But he won't be waiving privilege, because it's not a formal 'advice of counsel' defence, so he won't telling us what his counsel actually advised. Instead, he'll be advancing the argument, and I kid not, that he

Quote

“lacked the requisite intent to commit the conduct charged in the Indictment because of his awareness that various lawyers were involved in the underlying conduct giving rise to the charges”

So it's actually a 'general sense that counsel of some sort were involved at some point' defence. If a lawyer has been involved in any way, you naturally assume everything that follows is entirely legal, without question. Due diligence completed. What's the problem?

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-argue-t-held-responsible-223221150.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAc4lWA4wHeL5KqsGtsPxHYFeIHXrCAUyma2CoErtO0LXSEwvGXB2TmRqHKSZw_clmxJAV3MPrIlySTFtP9eyGA4EQ-ly99IYGUP0E1SMjJW263ayo-WSJtN4R1dzKLFUW-QFOcmlM2vtIg60YJreWvJITlOHQUJVMNOY0QtneaI

[IheartIheartTesla]

Both Rodgers and Ventura are vaccine skeptics to put it mildly, so its probably how they made that particular shortlist.

Anyway, I wish for elections to be a relaxed process where we can make informed choices about candidates with competing but sensible ideologies, however, since I became a citizen nearly all the ones I've voted in have been likened to existential threats. This isnt a healthy place to be for a democracy.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Too fucking funny:

Quote

Many Republicans plan to skip the House GOP retreat as they grumble about both the location and the idea of spending time with one another, with tensions still running high inside the party in the wake of their unprecedented speakership drama.

Fewer than 100 Republicans have RSVP’d to attend the retreat, which is less than half of the entire conference, according to a GOP source familiar with the attendance sheet.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/12/politics/house-gop-retreat/index.html

 

[ThinkerX]

And then there were two...

Another Republican congress critter announced his retirement before the 2024 election, dropping the Republican House majority to just two seats.

One of my predictions for this year was that the House had a 50-50 shot of changing hands through sheer attrition and Republican incompetence before the election.

Colorado Rep. Ken Buck resigning from Congress, narrowing GOP majority (msn.com)

[SpaceChampion]

On 3/11/2024 at 6:11 PM, LongRider said:

Here is an article about Trump's takeover of the RNC.

Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, according to two people close to the Trump campaign and the RNC.

All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut......Trump’s campaign took over operational control of the RNC on Monday. On Friday, former North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley was elected the RNC’s new chair, and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump was elected as co-chair. Both had Trump’s endorsement. Additionally, Trump senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita was named as the RNC’s new chief of staff.

Bloodbath at RNC: Trump team slashes staff at committee - POLITICO

This reminds me how the Trump admin conducted meetings in the dark because know one knew how to turn the lights on.  Who will be left who actually knows how to run the mechanics of the election campaign?  Hopefully no one.

[DMC]

On 3/11/2024 at 12:59 PM, Centrist Simon Steele said:

The issue with data, I'm guessing, is that we have red states where housing costs actually are extremely low, and blue states where it's extremely high and we're not seeing any relief. The blue states struggling with this should be concerning for all of us who don't want to see a repeat of Trump.

On 3/11/2024 at 1:08 PM, Kalbear said:

If the only thing I said was about gas prices this would hit a lot harder. It's real telling to me that you're focusing heavily on the gas price thing when the bigger issue is on housing and debt costs, but sure, keep fucking that chicken. 

On 3/11/2024 at 1:08 PM, Kalbear said:

Rural prices largely don't matter because these are places Biden isn't going to win anyway. Biden needs to win in urban areas and absolutely dominate in turnout, and the problems of very large housing costs, increasing debt and the increased inflation on things that people regularly see on their day to day experiences hurts enthusiasm there. 

Yeah - I didn't say "housing," I said "rent."  That a very important difference, and the latter of course do primarily live in urban areas, which is why it's important.  Moreover, there seems to be an emphasis on costs within cities in very blue states, which of course by this logic are just as irrelevant as cities/areas in very red states or rural states.  Curious how that part's left out.

On 3/11/2024 at 1:08 PM, Kalbear said:

First - why people feel like things kind of suck right now, and saying 'the economy is awesome' sounds flawed

Never said "the economy is awesome."  Indeed, tried to emphasize the caveats as much as possible.  But great to see you're still habitually mischaracterizing others' arguments!

[DMC]

On 3/11/2024 at 4:45 PM, Kalbear said:

And then you'll probably have to go a bit further and give people some hope for the future that the party and the country can be set up for success and have some vision beyond 'not Trump',

....Like, assuring the constituency that the economy is on the right track under your watch?

[BigFatCoward]

9 hours ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

How the fuck did Predator produce two of them?!?!?!?!?

I honestly think the actual predator would be better than most of your politicians. 

[DMC]

Last I checked over the last decade Jesse Ventura moved to Mexico "so the drones wouldn't get him" and had a show on RT America.  These are verifiable facts.

[BigFatCoward]

17 minutes ago, DMC said:

Last I checked over the last decade Jesse Ventura moved to Mexico "so the drones wouldn't get him" and had a show on RT America.  These are verifiable facts.

drones notoriously being unable to travel across borders.