Elections 2023 and 2024 (Part 1)

Remember this? Let’s keep in mind that no matter what the President proposes, the corporate-controlled folks in Congress will continue screwing us over. Media outlets made it clear they have little interest in calling them out over it, probably because they’re controlled in a similar way.

The public has to act to remove reps who won’t put our interests over profit. It’s hard, and a lot of them are gaming the system as much as possible to hang onto power as long as possible. Hopefully, enough of them will be ousted in the next two election cycles to push a more progressive agenda supported by the Legislative and Executive branches. We can’t just limp along with one branch, because SCOTUS is another mess that needs to be cleaned up (and cleared out).

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I may have spoken too soon; even though lots of prominent Democrats have been calling for Menendez’s resignation it’s still been mostly crickets from his colleagues in the Senate. Pathetic cowards.

ETA: He’s dismissing calls for his resignation, which is disappointing but also to be expected. In his position he can use the prospect of his voluntary resignation as a bargaining chip to cut a better deal with prosecutors so he’s not going to give it up easily. The rest of the Senate should be working toward his expulsion though.

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Remember when Britney Spears’ popularity was the great sign of social decline and then Republican-Presidential-candidate-turned-Viagra-spokesman Bob Dole starred in a Pepsi commercial implying that she gave him a boner?

Conservative culture warriors are fucking weird.

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Apparently they are all pissy she’s dating Travis Kelce. Like, weirdly upset about it

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Sorry for the Xitter link but @ 0:40 :laughing:

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The vast majority of Republican primary voters (92 percent) were white in 2020, the last presidential election year, compared to 69 percent of the general electorate, according to our analysis of the CES data. (Republican primary voters were those verified as active registered voters who voted in the Republican primary, while the general electorate refers to all respondents who were at least 18 years old. For more information on methodology, see the italicized section below.) They’re also older: Eighty-three percent was age 45 and older in 2020. That year, 45 percent of the general electorate was under 45 and 55 percent was 45 and over. There was a similarly sized difference between the Republican and general electorate in 2022.

It’s not exactly news or anything, but old white evangelical male idiots have had their day. Time to move on, boys. A whole new generation is moving in.

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Voters say they want to hear plans for the economy and the epidemic of gun violence. Right-wing media has other plans.

While past presidential campaigns have traditionally included corn dogs and straw polls at the Iowa State Fair and politics and eggs in New Hampshire, the 2024 trail has added a new mandatory pilgrimage for GOP candidates eager for a shot at the nomination: an appearance on Fox News to bash trans people.

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“With no vision to offer the Commonwealth in this election and nothing to inspire Virginians to vote for their extreme candidates, Virginia Democrats are reverting to their tired tactics of overt falsehoods and flagrant fearmongering,” Youngkin’s political action committee said in a news release Tuesday.

Well, the usual “overt falsehoods” of repeating what the Republicans have said

Note: His referring to this as a “consensus” position is a tell, as he has been reported as desiring to end all abortion options in VA, but will settle for this as a starter.

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Anti abortion fanatics with their signs and swag are already showing up around polling places in Alexandria. It’s pretty efffing clear what’s going to happen if trumpkinyoungkin gets his way.

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I moved from Virginia earlier this year, and Youngkin figured into that calculation. Keeping my fingers crossed for my former rep, Dan Helmer, and especially for Danica Roem.

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Beau watched it so we don’t have to. But i post this mostly for the excellent Dark Brandon ad at the beginning!

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Interesting changes happening in California.

For a majority of my life the three most powerful Californians in the United States legislature were a trio of wealthy straight white women (two of them very wealthy) who all lived within walking distance of each other in San Francisco. So for all their accomplishments they didn’t exactly embody the kind of diversity one might expect from the most populous and most diverse state in the Union. That started changing in 2017 when Barbara Boxer retired and it looks like it’s continuing with Newsom’s new pick to replace Feinstein. She’s an LGBTQ person of color and an accomplished strategist, organizer and fundraiser for the Democratic party.

Unfortunately she also worked in one of the top jobs at Airbnb, but nobody’s perfect.

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While Newsom made good on his pledge of appointing a Black woman by selecting Butler, he said in September he wouldn’t nominate someone who’s seeking to hold the seat permanently.

:thinking:

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That he did, and Butler isn’t one of the Democrats who had already declared an intention to run for the seat. Barbara Lee was clearly hoping he’d appoint her, which would give her election campaign a huge advantage.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Butler won’t decide to run to keep the seat now that she has it…

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Bankman-Fried explored legality of paying Trump not to run for reelection: book

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4233811-bankman-fried-explored-legality-of-paying-trump-not-to-run-for-reelection-book/

The excerpt describes a conversation between Lewis and Bankman-Fried as he was on his way to 2022 dinner between McConnell and the FTX founder, who was planning to give $15 million to $30 million to the longtime GOP leader “to defeat the Trumpier candidates in the Senate races.”

“[I]n McConnell, Sam had found someone as interested as he was in another existential threat to humanity: Donald Trump,” the excerpt reads. “Trump’s assault on the government, and on the integrity of U.S. elections, belonged, to Sam’s way of thinking, on the same list as pandemics and artificial intelligence and climate change.”

The conversation took place on a plane headed to Washington, D.C., where Bankman-Fried was scheduled to meet with McConnell. He also revealed to Lewis he was considering paying Trump to not run for reelection and suggested the price for doing so was $5 billion.

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You (ETA: Fried) think giving the money would stop him? Wow, he’s a bigger idiot than I though.

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Everything I’ve seen suggests he really is stupid. Either he was an idiot all along, or, as some have suggested, he fried his brain with drugs.

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Unfortunately, Trump has a 50% chance of winning 2024. Empty promises of cheap gas has many overlooking the fact that Trump has promised to turn the presidency into an authoritarian nightmare that has not been seen in America.

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