Why is everyone so mean?? US Politics: September 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erg2vyJ2UOk

And yet, I would not be at all surprised if the election were close, or indeed if Oz won.

I'm a Democrat who's donated https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Street%2C+Scott&contributor_employer=JW+HOWARD&min_date=01%2F01%2F2010&max_date=12%2F31%2F2022,000 to Tim Scott.

(oops, that should've read "$1,000")

Funny thing is he donated all that money back in April, long before he says he became disenchanted with Biden's rhetoric about Trump and MAGA election deniers.

xxxp

As I understand it, Fetterman has a near insurmountable polling advantage.

Politico still seems okay to me---the reporting, and comments by reporters; I don't look at any full-time pundits or guest thoughts on there.
Still need to watch Biden's whole speech, but I hope that he found a way not to lump absolutely all MAGA Repubs together, since some of them, incl. Georgia's Governor and Secretary of State, stopped short of "finding votes" for Trump etc, refusing to be intimidated.

And yet, I would not be at all surprised if the election were close, or indeed if Oz won.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, September 6, 2022 6:51 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Republicans are running some of the worst candidates I've ever seen in my life and some of them may indeed win their races but I am pretty damn sure Dr. Oz will not be one of them

Since I don't have Post sub, I'll just add this quickie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut1MiTqbPnM

politico is relatively center rabble gabble, terminally DC brained stuff but stuff stills hinges on that

I have more confidence Herschel Walker will win than Oz.

Well, yeah...

As do I, despite the fact that Herschel Walker is a fucking idiot carrying a dozen red flags.

Here in Georgia, fewtbawl is more popular than Jesus.

I don't know, you can't discount some number of white Republican voters staying home because something about Walker just don't feel right, hard to put a finger on it ...

Can't rightly say

i don't like how he's always eating paint

it was a real bummer to look at the last few polls in GA, post-walker making an ass out of himself every time he tries to talk about anything, and realize that he's gained ground.

we might have thought he would need a "hail mary" in order to win this "game", but it's look more like it's "2nd and 7" on the "25-yard line" and he's about to "take the team into the red zone" as the "two-minute warning approaches"

*violentlybarfingatthebeach.png*

the GOP team is looking strong this year with Coach playing coach and Walker looking set to open the congress as a starting Running Back. Defense is a concern with Tom Cotton being such a massive, fucking asshole that everyone hates and who may die this year of just sucking so badly, but as they say, the best defense is a strong offense, and this batch of newcomers is the most offensive group of .....etc etc

the TV ads against Walker are pretty brutal, including clips of him lying to audiences about his various imaginary law enforcement jobs and of his ex-wife describing his putting a gun to her head ... it's hard to know how those ads will influence voters, but since the substance of these attacks is not disputed by Walker's campaign, they're going to get a lot of repetition

I'm hoping Walker wins because he may make a speech on the Senate floor about being a Viking when he sleeps.

One thing's for sure, there won't be TWO former Vikings elected in November...

PERFECT!
Turning it up to 11. https://t.co/FiL2Dwz8Ja

— Matt Birk (@BirkMatt) September 6, 2022

the TV ads

thing is, those are mostly older people watching, right? and those same people fondly remember those classic herschel walker touchdowns, which were also on tv

I just saw the recent polling on the GA Senate race and it's a dead heat

guy watching tv: god. remember when tv was good
other guy watching tv: yeeeeeep

There is almost nothing that could change the minds of people who are going to vote for Herschel Walker.

I just saw the recent polling on the GA Senate race and it's a dead heat

i saw that too and had a negative reaction, comparing it to Warnock's defeat of Loeffler in the run-off. i don't remember much about Loeffler's candidacy, and whether she had any obvious gaffes or scandals that were too much in a statewide election. compared to that, running neck-to-neck with Walker seems like a disappointment because he is so clearly not a good person to be in charge of anything at all.

But I forgot that it wasn't a normal election, it was a special election run-off:

https://i.imgur.com/UBm8yBY.png

another Republican, Doug Collins (lol) got nearly 20% of the votes. Loeffler received 26%. Warnock won with a plurality of 33%. i don't know, it's tempting to think "Combine Collins and Loeffler and you get 46% republicans to only 33% for warnock", and it would suggest that the inherent GOP-advantage is stronger that it might appear, so Warnock in a dead heat with football man herschel walker is a good sign.

but then...you can also add up all those other democratic/gop candidates who grabbed small percentages of the overall vote, and it becomes 48.39% democratic to 49.37% gop (i left out the libertarian/green/independents), which is pretty much a wash as well.

in summary, i don't know what the heck is going on here, but it's deep into the fourth quarter and "i'm not sure if i'm comfortable with this going into overtime"

To mix sports metaphors, it is, and always has been, a jump ball. Turnout is everything.

i know i've made this dumb joke before, but if herschel walker does win, i hope he tries to pull some tricky legislation maneuver and it's called the Statue of Liberty play because absolutely no one saw it coming

the margin between Perdue and Ossoff was also very close.

the only thing i remember about the XFL was that, instead of a kickoff, the ball was placed in the middle and players from each side would race to the middle of the field.

On Warnock's side, you have to take into account that he is now an incumbent Senator, and very well-regarded. Also, there will not be the host of Democratic niblings that there were in 2020-21.

national attention is on Warnock/Walker but the Abrams/Kemp rematch will be the main driver of turnout in Georgia

Whatever else, Ossoff is the only cute male member of the Senate.

another Republican, Doug Collins (lol) got nearly 20% of the votes. Loeffler received 26%. Warnock won with a plurality of 33%.

These were the special election results, not the run-off results though. Run-off was just Warnock v. Loeffler iirc.

aw man, i get an F in civics for today, but that's ok!

yep, the run-off 51-49% Warnock/Loeffler

Meanwhile ffs ... "Religious liberty" is now an all-purpose "freedom to discriminate" blanket

BREAKING: US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas rules that requiring employers to provide coverage for PrEP drugs (preventing the transmission of HIV) violates the religious rights of employers under federal law (RFRA). pic.twitter.com/d85C3izqSF

— Chris “Subscribe to Law Dork!” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) September 7, 2022

More on that ruling

There are so many bombs sewn into this ruling.

1. O'Connor says members of the Preventive Services Task Force—which requires insurers to provide preventive coverage, including vaccines and cancer screenings—are appointed illegally. Which may render their mandates unlawful. https://t.co/LZCZhZSgS1

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) September 7, 2022

'cause there's that one little part in the Old Testament, really the only part of the bible that matters

What religion is against treating disease?

If you're gay, you're the disease.

the only question left at this point is whether a Democratic congress and executive will ever be bold enough to simply ignore all of these utterly batshit rulings

Ah, yes, here it is:

O'Connor accepts that it "encourages homosexual behavior, drug use, and sexual activity"—a contested claim backed by no empirical evidence.

But he says that if the plaintiffs believe it, the courts must accept it—they can't question its "correctness."

That is just wrong on so many levels. Morally, ethically, legally. Fuck these Federalist Society drones.

it's just weird that health insurance policies can be cherry-picked like this

It's the employees' insurance, not the bosses'

Almost like it's a bad idea for health insurance coverage to be totally at the whim of employers ...

"Religious liberty" is now an all-purpose "freedom to discriminate" blanket

Not trying to be that guy here, but was it ever not this? Has the concept ever *not* been tied to doing a legal end run around anti-discrimination laws? I don't think we needed a new concept to describe not discriminating against people b/c of their religion, that's simple 1A

Well, there was Employment Division v. Smith, in which Antonin Scalia (the inspiration for the current crop of fanatics on the Court) happily decided that Native religious beliefs did not protect one from being discriminated against and/or prosecuted for using peyote.

well, we mean Real religions

good point! it's not even "all-purpose," it's explicitly christian

I don't know enough about the history of the judicial application of the Establishment Clause to have a sense of its evolution, but certainly my perception is that high-profile cases have shifted from the public sphere — is X display or demonstration of faith permissible in school/a courthouse/etc — to the private sphere, with the question mostly being "Can government tell me I can't discriminate against these people if my religion tells me too?" Not that there haven't always been both questions, but the balance seems to have shifted.

Tells me to, I mean.

Is there a religion that tells you to discriminate?